The pungent Chilli

In English the real taste of chilly is not properly described; mere hot or pungent is not appropriate but in Malay the word Pedas really describe the taste of the small chilli of Negeri Sembilan known as the lada burung. That what has happened to me when reading the news or watching news from the TV. I feel the pedas of the political events being portrayed now. I could not be ignorant about things happening around me. The world is a sphere and we lived within another sphere equally manifested by such antagonistic schisms as social, economic and political intuitions. I ‘ve been following some of the blogs and reading the news online. However I have my reservation on the political issues at large. I would not indulge so much on the political rife now but I have my preferences and gave my vote to the party that I think worth voting last March. Most of these contemporary political blog sites are writing about the government move to curb the opposition parties from forming a new government. Of course the government feels threatened by the takeover plan. According to Pak Lah, PM Ahmad Badawi he did not want to negotiate and refused even to see the opposition leader DSAI and dismissed the whole thing as rubbish. Strange as it is; for instance as a person who do not believe the existence of a ghost but still feel scared when walking in the dark. That’s what happened when Pak Lah suddenly changed ministry with Najib. If the ghost is really there he can now use the new weapon from the ministry. As for DSAI, I’ ve been following his move too. He likes to give dates and he is actually like a poker player a good one too; he is able to make his opponent feels skeptical, afraid and intimidated. But this time he is really in a limbo though. DSAI is still delaying his decision or ‘moves’ amidst the fury of his supporters. Thinking about those been taken to Kamunting under the prosecution of the ISA at this time of the month I followed the similar thinking of others such as by Dr. Bakri Musa’s article Pak Lah Desecrating Ramadan: http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/13035/84/ in the Malaysia-today blog. Pak Lah should at least be considerate to RPK not incarcerating him at this time. Even to those (some court cases) the judge could delay prosecution until a few more months. A few more days would be the Idul Fitr day or the end of fasting for the Muslims all over the world. This is a once of a life time celebration for some. Allah has given His blessings to those who have successfully abstained from the otherwise lawful things yet forbidden by Allah during the day in the month of Ramadan. Think and think hard what is the significance of this month to all Muslims!

Ramadan

I need to mention about the month of Ramadan since it coincidently fell on the 1st September. Today is the 23rd day of fasting or in the section of being pardon by Allah from the Hell fire and very soon the Idul fitri will surface.

Ramadan comes and go but good anticipation for it that matters most. It is in the month where good deeds that we do will be rewarded handsomely by Allah and there is one night within the month called the Laillatulqadar, the night where it is much better than one thousand months of good deeds. The word here is ‘better than’ one thousand months of good deeds being rewarded by Allah.

So in actuality Allah will be bestowing the ummah good deeds much more than one thousand months’ worth.

Allah mention in the Qur’an from verse 183:2 concerning the month. “O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it was prescribed for those before you, that ye may ward off evil” And in verse185:2, “The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Qur’an a guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, (let him fast the same) number of other days. Allah desireth for you ease; He desireth not hardship for you; and (He desireth ) that ye should complete the period, and that ye should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that peradventure ye may be thankful”

Humane Killing

I went to inspect the lizard the Malay called it 'biawak or griang' (look similar to the baby crocodile but much smaller) trap that I set the other day near the fish pond. Bingo! The poor creature was caught strapped to the rope.

Deep inside me I have the conscience that I did not mean to kill the creature but… Okay I will let my mind ran loose awhile until it sooth out by itself. The lizard is still alive trying very much to free itself from the rope. ‘Serve you right!’ That’s what transpired in my thought. But animals never know what’s forbidden for them and cannot differentiate good from bad and they keep coming back to the spot if they find the food is available there. That's what actually had happen.

I have killed a few lizards, and trap a few predators but until now they- a new generation - keep coming back. There exist a matter of humanitarian and conscience bogging the human mind under those circumstances but not ‘animalitarian’ ever persisted for the animals. Animalitarian, wow! How animal could ever understand this without animalization? How humane are human dealing with animals?

If ever animals could talk and human would possibly hear in a scenario such as “Son!” A mother cow was talking to her young calf one day at the farm. “Don’t be too friendly with the human, did you know what happen to your father?” “What has happened to my father the bull?” The young calf asked in eagerness. “The human strapped your father to the post and slaughtered him and oh!.. It was terrible… I cannot bear to look at it.” “Then they skinned your father and disemboweled him and chop him to small pieces until you cannot recognize him anymore!” The mother cow said with tears running in her eyes. “Wow that was cruel and inhumane!!” The calf said. Well that would be a common scenario at the abattoirs.

Lucky enough God Almighty, Allah has not made human to hear this conversations. M.A. Haleem Eliasi mentioned in the introduction of the second edition (1981) of the The Holy Qur’an Transliteration in Roman script… “The whole Universe is endowed with life, Knowledge and expression. ‘There is not a thing but hymns its praises (of Him) but you understand not their praise.’ 44:17, 41:24. Solomon said. “We have been taught the language of birds…” 16: 27. The whole Universe adores Allah by instinct, but man adores Him by options, being gifted by the will of origin and hence responsible or his conduct. 18:22. At any rate there is Life, Knowledge and Expression in all the objects of nature, so much so that they have their own pairs and live a common life. vide 49:51. 3:13. 36:36. 38.6.

Every object of Nature has got its own significance, none, not even a gnat, is unworthy of attention. It is quite sufficient to reveal truth to those who care to gain knowledge. 26:2

The Qur’an thus invites man to study Nature, and to cultivate a living interest and sympathy with his natural surroundings- all living a life of aim and purpose. So we have much to think and ponders.

Before I made the pond the area was an unused swamp left neglected for a number of years. Of course lizards, snakes and other wildlife formed its inhabitant let alone mosquitoes rodents and other pests as well.

I had spawned the pond with about 1500 catfish seedlings and thrown in a few bags of fish feeds for the duration of about eight months and have some survived fish reached up to 15 inches long. With so many predators around the pond no fish would survived. The kingfisher picked up the baby fish from day one by the numbers every day and from within the pond there were those lizards.

Eventually one day, after I pumped the pond dried not many catfish were left. People say that catfish could dig tunnels in the earth and escape or migrate to other part of the pond.

Conscience in question, so after the second day or so, I let go the lizard free, and hopefully it will survive and become more wiser next time.

A Fishing trip that never was

Three of us Ab, Ml ( not their real names) and myself had decided to make a fishing trip to Gua Musang ( a town in West Coast Malaysia) without anticipation that it would ended at Kuala Lipis (another town in West Coast, Malaysia ) instead!

Kuala Pah is a beautiful, un-spoilt jungle area along its riverside. It is situated between Gua Musang and Kuala Lipis. Kuala Pah at one time was famous for her Kelah (breams).

It all began when someone told us that the fishing spot at Kuala Pah in Gua Musang was very good. Well, we fishing-mongers need not be difficult to convince. Most of the time we never question about the place albeit we may ended without any catch at all.

We managed to hire an old fiber glass boat which we strapped it on top of our car! It was my car an old Volvo 244 DL. When we arrived at Kuala Pah, we looked around for a place to land the boat but couldn't find any suitable spot along the river.

It was clear then the information that we received about the place were not enough. After a while of looking up and down, we got fed up and planned quitting the whole thing when Ab suddenly snapped an idea and convinced us that a fishing spot in Kuala Lipis would be fine and was really good. Ab said, "You can see the fish swimming in the water, lot of them!"

Obviously we didn't need any further confirmation to that statement. Even rumors would have also turned us on. What more Ab has been staying with his father- in-laws there before.

So off we went after a brief preparation and brushing our fishing gears.

It was noon already but our car were still trotting along the hilly road and negotiating corners toward Kuala Lipis. The scenery's along the highway were fantastic. The forests were well preserved and we enjoyed driving the meandering road up and down the highway.

We were not lucky at all that day. The same situation as in Kuala Pah happened as we reached Kuala Lipis. We had difficulties finding 'the spot' to land our boat. Ab who said he knew about the place was rather defensive. "Last time it was right here!" he said, pointing to a spot already overgrown with thick brushes.

At last we decided to call it a day and headed back to Gua Musang because night was approaching. Ab was at the wheel then and we were laughing all the way lamenting at the incident we had gone through that day. Suddenly the car stopped at a top of a hill. “Why are we stopping?” “Don’t know..!” Ab's voice was choking.

The engine had died and the car with it's heavy load was rolling backward. "Brake! Brake!!" We all screamed. Somehow Ab had done the craziest thing by restarting the car and simultaneously shifting to the first gear without initially braking the car.

The car's shaft snapped due to the heavy load and the sudden engagement of the gear. It then came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the road. We were lucky that there were no other cars coming our way during the incident.

We started blaming each other, just like the Three Stooges over what had happened. Well, I will stop here because the story has reached its climax, and cutting it short...

A stranger a good Samaritan he was, helped us out. Using a small Van the car was towed to a garage in Gua Musang and all of us had to put up a night at the stranger's house. He was good enough to give us food and shelter and whose later became our friend... the fishing trip was the most expensive venture we had to pay and ironically it was not a fishing trip at all!!

My Obssessions

The question of responsibility to one’s family would matter most for any individual. As a father the mere presence at home would be enough to stimulate a harmonious family situations. I realized that at certain stage of my life I have not fulfilled the family responsibility that I was supposed to do. My craze for the fishing activity had really upset my rational thinking. I was obsessed about fishing, without doubt cherishing my past times and indulgences. Although a family man I have spend my time more with my friends at sea or at the beaches than with my family at home. I had a daughter and twin girls during those times but they have somehow found leisure time of their own with mommy I supposed. Often a friend of mine would wait for me at the gate of my house just after office hours and off we went to fish at the estuary or at the beach with other friends joining at the fishing rendezvous. The catch didn’t matter though. Most of the time there weren’t any catch at all. Sometimes we ended at coffee shops and continue the frolics until quite late in the night. I realized now that I have been very irresponsible father and neglect my children during those ‘fishing madness’. My hobby really had done injustice to my family. Fishing is a sport but to me and friends it had become a crooked and distorted obsession. However, the past times I had spent fishing had still become a memorable incidents worth mentioning as part of the story along my life. I would spend hours of my time just selecting suitable fishing tackles and discussing about baits and fishing sites with friends. Then, of a sudden the fishing lull came into my life. It lasted for sometimes though. I was required to work away to another state and I have to bring my family along at the new workplace. However a new era of fishing enthusiasts had entered into my life. Some acquaintances at the new place like fishing too, and I have found a new avenue in fishing which had become more sophisticated sport then before.

Painting the Balcony

I will indulge with something different to do today. I know after watching the evening news that the situation of our politics are in a bit of chaos but at this time I will refrain to write anything of my own standing until a time suitable to do so . However I could not run away from the political innuendos now. I hope things will resolve by itself without any intervention from the layman like me though. We have politicians that we support and of course we cannot be neutral in this situation. Well, the porch and the back yard balcony of my house need urgent attention to be painted. The painters that my wife hired had just left and it seemed that those areas left unpainted were not in the original deal. We had consulted the paint shop about the suitable color for the balcony. We haven’t enough money now. Actually I have spent a substantial amount of money already for the renovation. My wife has put up extension for the kitchen which had caused an enormous bill for us to pay. However there remained other parts of the house still needing touch up jobs. Before I start the painting job that morning, I went to inspect my fish pond. I like to be in the pond's vicinity and love the serene environment and view. Yesterday at dusk I was strolling near the pond, to my surprise I found a big lizard wriggling in the water. My abrupt present had caused the lizard to dive into the bottom of the pond. ‘Well you have asked for it’ my thought directed to the creature. I will intensify the annihilation of this provocative pest. Back to the house jobs, what color is suitable for the balcony and the porch. Well we have chosen the contemporary ‘Sandstone’ color which has a slight brownish tinge to complete the paint job. Subsequently this endeavor had caused me about 4 hours of hard labor resulted with stiff necks and backache. About my auxiliary landscape pond around the porch area, It is still unfinished since the house was build about fifteen years ago. My wife has many time asked me to hire a proper landscaping agency to design the pond but I have some other reservation about designing it, but it has toiled for too long!

Fish ponds and fishing again

My Fish Pond

I have many interests among other things I like natures, traveling, reading, as well as some heavy stuff like religion and philosophy, you name it. Rather weird eh… but right now I will write about fishing.

The sight of fishes swimming and playing in the water always entailed me. I have a small fish pond at the back of my house where I keep some catfish and few local species. To dig this 40 feet by 80 feet pond I hired a ‘back hoe’ and with luck water came naturally from below filling the pond with clear and clean water at the height of about 3 feet or so.

Fishes have many predators and often I’ve been struggling to keep these fish porches away from the pond. From the sky above, usually the kingfisher and stokes frequented the pond and from land the big lizards. The real menace was the lizards. Although I managed to kill few of the lizards they keep coming back.

I had improvised some techniques to catch these lizards. The simplest one was using a rope with loosely knotted nose. I placed several of these ropes with one end tied to a stake or simply fastened to the fence at some strategic places where the lizards would pass by before entering the fish pond.

I had managed to catch a few of these lizards alive this way but a few of them just died before I got to them the next day. As I have said other lizards kept coming back to the pond. With the birds I have no problem keeping them at bay. I managed to catch a few kingfishers just by setting trap gum on the stakes near the pond. However I would set the birds free again after mending their gummed feathers.

Back to Japan. I noticed that not many kids fish in Japan at least in the vicinity of Yoshinokawa in Tokushima. Everyday when I passed by this Yoshino river on my way to the University of Tokushima, I could see few anglers mostly adults fishing on the river side.

A particular angler I encountered over the bridge of the Yoshino bridge was an old man. Some anglers in the boat on the water below the bridge were also old folks. Hardly any kids were around.

Many years back I had the opportunity fishing in the suburb of Chicago where I studied at a University there, and I noticed that the kids there took up fishing seriously. In fact they attended fishing clinics at various locations.

I support any kind of fishing enthusiasts and any legal authorities on them or the like. The one called the Urban Fishing Program introduced by the state of Illinois had objectives which include, teaching individuals of all ages to fish, to provide better local fishing opportunities, and to give participants an understanding of and a greater appreciation for natural resources.

The Program main attraction consisted of free summer fishing clinics that included fishing at a nearby stocked pond. The only difference in Illinois you still need license to fish albeit later a new funding package known as “Fish Illinois” was created and that was supported by a fishing license fee increase too.

Many tackle shops sell live baits as well as lures of various kinds in Chicago. For baits, the live wrigglers and the night crawlers were among the popular hook up there. One for sure you need to buy fishing license with issuance date endorsed by the authorities obtainable at any tackle shops in Illinois. Not so in Japan as I fish for free even at the piers and at the beach. See http://www.ifishillinois.org.

Fish on!

St.Joseph River

I recalled the fishing scenario at the St. Joseph river in Michigan. The river known locally as St. Jo ends up at a dam. During the salmon migration up river many of the fish would be stuck at the dam. The fish cannot swim acrossed the dam and you'll see many people lined up along the bank throwing their lines (fishing lines) into the dam.

The fish came in hundreds flying all over the water to cross over the dam. I joined the crowed but was cautioned by the anglers "we cut line crossin when hookin" However I manage to howl a salmon, a silver without getting my line cut.

It became mandatory to roll in your line as fast as possible whenever you hear the cry "fish on" or "lines up" from the crowd indicating a strike by the anglers. That showed the crowded situation where every anglers compete for the common spot of fishing.

Well the catch was good, almost everyone got a silver or a brown ( salmon species), myself included.

We used special bait for catching this salmons. I have never used sponge bits for bait before but at St. Jo these were common. It was easy though, you need just to hook a bit of sponge- I used yellow sponge bit, and you're on for the throw.

Around September till December many salmon swims up river from the Great Lakes and some ended in small creeks and tributaries. Some did ended in my frying pans too!

Fishing at Yoshinokawa

It has caught my attention every time I passed the bridge on my motorbike. Then one day I stopped and observe one of the guy fishing at the bridge. I noticed that he was not using any bait on his hook but some kind of jig, a peculiar looking jig that was. At closer look I found that the jig was a hand made and the fish hooks - 3 of them were hidden in the ramification of various colour of plastic ribbons. Furthermore there were no back spike at he hooks. I wonder how any fish would get hooked if the hooks have no spikes. How to fish using this strange gadgets. Not difficult though, I saw the man lowering the line into the water from atop the bridge with the jig and pulling it up and down rather slowly but in consistent motion. Any strike ?