Coming to the Reception?

Hey, child, where are you going? There’s a wedding reception on! Don’t miss it, it’s at Hasan Abang’s place, 400B. You can’t miss it. Down the lane, make a right, and keep going….

…until you reach the coconut-frond archway over the driveway!

Step inside and jaw a while with the neighbors.

Everyone’s just getting caught up, making small talk…

… while they wait for the food to be served.

In the meantime, there’s plenty of entertainment…

… from the boys playing kompang and singing nasheed.

The men inside recite Mawlid Barzanji…

… when the kompang boys are ready to take a break.

You can lean back and relax after you’ve had your meal…

… and may even catch a glimpse of the bride! Leaving so soon? All right, salam alaykum until next time.

About this entry

You’re currently reading “Coming to the Reception?,” an entry on Bin Gregory Productions

Published:: 06.11.08 / 7pm

Category:: Malaysia

Briefly

Anwar Ibrahim and the Opposition: Malaysian Seeks End to Decades of Firm Rule - a pretty decent roundup of political developments in Malaysia, from the New York Times.

The Spiritual Aspirant: Sidi Khalil Moore will be in Singapore conducting a workshop for The Spiritual Aspirant, to be held 27 June to 5 July. I had the pleasure to hear Sidi Khalil speak in Detroit back in 2002 in conjunction with the US tour of Habib Ali Al-Jifri. I regret I won't be able to make the short trip across the South China Sea to attend, but I recommend it to anyone in the area. The workshop is being sponsored by Simply Islam, under the capable hands of some of the fine people who put on the Journey to Ihsan event a couple years ago, which I did attend and enjoyed immensely.

Collapse Preparedness: The transition from the USSR to the republic of Russia was a catastrophic event for the people who lived through it. The eventual (imminent?) collapse of the US will be much much worse, warns Dmitry Orlov. The USA has a Collapse Gap. Orlov realizes

that some people will react rather badly to having their country compared to the USSR. I would like to assure you that the Soviet people would have reacted similarly, had the United States collapsed first. Feelings aside, here are two 20th century superpowers, who wanted more or less the same things – things like technological progress, economic growth, full employment, and world domination – but they disagreed about the methods. And they obtained similar results – each had a good run, intimidated the whole planet, and kept the other scared. Each eventually went bankrupt.

Valuable lessons on what to expect and how to prepare follow. Read it yourself, but the condensed advice is this: Live on the margins of society. One encouraging sign that Americans are picking up the skills they will need to survive: haggling at the mall.