Landscape and Environment in Islam

The Islamic Information Center of Kuching hosts the radio show IIC Speaks every Friday mornings on RedFM 91.9 at 11.30am. I was honored to appear on the show last month to speak about “Landscape and Environment in Islam.” Thanks very much to DJ Syerifah Farah who interviewed me in the studios of RTM Kuching, as […]

Man Papaya

“As large as papaya, as small as keranji,
Break a branch and the fruit falls down
A face so lovely with manners so ugly
Is like rain falling murky and brown”
Growing papaya, or betik, from seed is easy enough – sow them on loose soil straight from the fruit and they’ll come up without trouble. The tough part is figuring out if your tree is a boy or a girl…

Gurindam 12 Fasal 5

by Raja Ali Haji (1808-1873) [two_first] This is the gurindam of the fifth issue: If you wish to know the people of high birth, in manners and speech are shown their worth. To know the people of happiness, avoid involvement in the meaningless. To know the man of high distinction, look upon his deeds and […]

Duit Pisang

[dropcap background=”yes”]A [/dropcap]house needs people to live.  Empty, a house slowly decays.  In the humid tropics, it decays with a startling quickness.  Mak moved out of my wife’s childhood home, temporarily, to start a child-care business at [tooltip text=”Simpang Empat” trigger=”hover”]Four Corners[/tooltip], the small town connecting Bagan Datoh with the rest of the world.  Nothing […]