On the rare occasions that I get home earlier than 6.30 pm, I sometimes indulge in watching the sitcoms. My favourite channel will be the Hallmark channel 10 on Astro. So yesterday I found myself stuck in front of the TV watching from the start to the finish Strong Medicene. I was struck at the messages behind the episodes and was left wondering who was behind the messages..but not for long..the direcor of the show is Whoopi Goldberg.
There is usually more than one story line and the first one was about a test tube baby delivery where the mum delivered twins, a boy and a girl except that one twin was white while both parents were African Americans.It turns out that the white baby was from an embryo not belonging to the parents and it was a mix up by the Lab. At this point I was wondering what if it was a Malay baby delivered by a Chinese mother..phew....! all the religious departments and half of Malaysians would get involved in the case for sure!
The other story line was just too interesting not to comment on.The wife of a Rabbi ..who looks very much like a *Salafi* imam brought his wife for shoulder pain.The wife was wearing a headscarf , long skirt , looking very much like the wife of the *Salafi* imam..and believe it or not the Rabi does not shake hands with women...( ring a bell somewhere?) The wife is a model Hasidic Jewish lady, she conducts classes, has a lot of her own children gets involved with all of her clan ( jamaah) ..and it turns out that ...she has become addicted to painkiller drugs, courtesy of the local GP a good family friend. She started taking them when recovering from a C section of her last delivery ...she believes she had to undergo a painful delivery because of some sins she was paying for..and found herself hooked because the good doctor kept supplying her with more. When confronted by Dr Delgado about her addiction and advised to go for detox both she and her Rabbi husband felt it would not go down well with the congregation since it would smear her image of the good mother , wife and upright righteous member of the Chosen people.The last scene showed her feeling very humiliated, in the treatment ward after finally giving in to Dr Delgado's convincing persuasions ..( Are you fit to be mother to your children while being a drug addict ...yes drug addict admit it..)..and her Rabbi husband finally giving in to the fact that his wife is only human , not some strong never wrong , never sinning paragon of virtue ..and he brought along her friends whom contrary to the couple's fears, came and gave their full support by placing their gentle comforting hands on her . And the look of sheer relief from her as well as the look of compassion on her friend's faces set me crying ..(aaaaargh .....those silly tears ...)
So , anything to be learnt from all this? I have some jewish friends from overseas and they tell me about how similar many of our customs are. Next, the part about denying weaknesses and trying to appear strong is something I frequently meet among * religious people*.
So what do you think...do you want paragons of virtue as role models ?
I think the present day role model is the one who will start a class by telling people of a mistake he/she made and how he/she saw the mistake for what it was..it is people who like Whoopi Goldberg have experienced the depth of despair of being sunk in a self destructive mode and managed to climb out of it to save others....
6 comments:
I often wonder if a safe and secured life is a good thing, or is it a bad thing that it won't make you any stronger inside to face something that may not go your way later in life.
You see this among Malaysian jema'ah haji who got easily annoyed over little things like food delivered a little late, or a dish a little bland, or the aircond isn't cold enough.
Bergen, going with the flow is called surrender and it requires redha acceptance and the least of acceptance is acepting the small inconveniences..if one is not ready to face the small ones , how is one to face the big ones.A protected life is unfair to the protected one because the protector will not be there forever and the protected one will have to fend for himself /herself in the big bad world all by himself/herself and won t know how.
Do you realise Nurelhuda, usually those who lead protected lives, will find themselves good-and-all-so-willing 'protectors' to continue protecting them. There's a whole BIG clan of them and they will usually marry one another.
While we, who grew up having to fend for ourselves, will usually find someone who has all along been fending for herself too, in all her growing-up years. And yes, I agree that we are so much more stronger, and usually poorer, too...no? Or "richer"???
I would like to think that we are ALL richer!!!!
I was teling ikelah regarding your first story (the bungled IVF) and he was perplexed on how they could have done that. They would have spesific flasks for each patient from the very beginning. After the egg retrieving, fertilization, the embryo will be placed in specific flask. I presume the mixed up occured from the very beginning i.e. either the egg or the sperm
Why do you equate the Rabbi with a 'salafi' imam? And I know the W/s prefer to call themselves the Salafussolleh! Are you refering to them?
Pycno: I don t think all protected kids end up being protected forever..some leave home go to uni and find the big bad world there , and can t make it...
DITH. look at the guy, imagine baju melayu, ketayap and the janggut scraggly and all ...and you will see the rabbi again...I just used the world salafi cos they take things very literally and believe one has to keep the sunnah and that this form of dressing is sunnah...there is an article on this in website , maybe I will point to the URL soon
DITH about the mix up, it is just a story. It was interesting about the legal as well as moral issues..things like, how will you explain why he is white while you are black? Yeah , big deal...last week I met a Chindian lady who is dark and her husband is dark too. But she has 3 daughters, one dark and two look like Chinese.They are all Muslims...Well for us it is no big deal to have dark and fair kids in the same family hohoho....
Post a Comment