bingregoryZayn Gregory
Official organ of an American Muslim in Malaysian Borneo, featuring plants, pantuns and pictures from the Malay archipelago. Oversharing since 2002.
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Raja Ali Haji’s Gurindam 12 | Episode 20
Gurindam Dua Belas is a Malay poem written in rhyming couplets with free meter. It has 12 parts, each dealing with a different pasal, or issue. It was composed by
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Mitos Malas Zaman Sekarang |Episode 19
Kenapa mitos melayu malas masih bernyawa? Malas dulu dan malas sekarang sama tak? Tengok pandangan Syed Hussein Al-Atas dalam video ke5 dan terakhir Siri Mitos Melayu Malas.
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Malas as Passive Resistance | Episode 18
Video ke4 dalam siri Mitos Melayu Malas. Malas boleh ditafsirkan sebagai penentangan pasif dalam konteks penjajahan, dan sifat itu ada sejarahnya tersendiri di kepulauan Melayu.
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Mitos Malas No.3 | Episode 17
Baru pada zaman penjajahan akhir termuncul tulisan penjajah tentang sifat malas melayu di kalangan raja dan orang awam. Apakah maksudnya sebenar?
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Bila Mitos Malas Bermula | Episod 16
Apakah dinyatakan oleh penjajah dalam rekod sejarah tentang Melayu malas? Bilakah mitos bermula? Apakah keadaan masyarakat Melayu pada peringkat awal penjajahan? Dengarlah jawapan Syed Hussein Alatas.
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Mitos Melayu Malas, Intro | Episod 15
Dari mana datang persepsi bahawa Melayu satu bangsa yang malas? Bolehkah sesuatu yang kerap diulang lama-lama menjadi haqiqat? Teman anda yang setia ini mencuba jawab soalan ini dan lain lagi
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Mullah Nasruddin | Episod 14
Memperkenalkan Mullah Nasruddin: Seorang yang bijaksana dalam kebodohan, seorang badut serius, dengan teman sejati Sang Keldai beliau jejak hampir seluruh dunia Islam. Nusantara sahaja tak pernah … sebelum ini!
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Jalan Retak
It is with inordinate pride I announce the completion of my first novel in Bahasa Melayu, Jalan Retak by A. Samad Said. Written for middle-school students, Jalan Retak is a
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Permata Untuk Isteri | Episod 13
Menjadi antara lagu Kopratasa paling femes, di sini saya baca puisi Permata Untuk Istera karya Abdul Aziz H.M. bersama terjemahan saya dalam Bahasa Inggeris.
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Episod 12: Siapa Yang Maha Mulia
Orang yang datang dari negara barat susah nak faham cara memuji sultan. Kita disuruh sembah raja ke macamana?
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Keturunan Bela Saka | Episode 11
Cerita seram: Saka dalam keturunan dan cara belanya. Budak? kecik tak digalakkan tengok.
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Iman Mutiara
Jom kita berkembara dari Syria ke Jamaica, dari Ibn Arabi ke Raihan, sambil mengupas tiram kebosanan dalam pencarian Mutiara Iman.
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Episode 9: Kurang Ajar
Tengok ke tak tengok ada aku kesah. Episode ini kurang ajar sikit sebab kita kecek pasal puisi “Kurang Ajar” karya Usman Awang.
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Episod 8: Anak Anak Kita
Sempena Hari Merdeka, mari kita baca – bukan nyanyi ye – lagu M. Nasir serta terjemahan yang sentuh hal-hal kemerdekaan dan kebebasan secara halus dan puitis. Anak Anak Kita by
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Episod 7: Gelaran dan Pangkat
Episod 7 ini berdarjat tinggi kerana topiknya Gelaran dan Pangkat. Moga para pendengar boleh naik ke status yang lebih mulia seterusnya.
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Episode 6: Puisi dalam Terjemahan
Kawan-kawan, mari berjalan ke arah Ithaca bersama saya dengan puisi C.P. Cavafy dan A. Samad Said. Anda rasa ada karya-karya lain yang patut dikenali luar malaysia? Sila tinggal
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Episod 4: Landscape of Dreams
Salam alaykum guys! Episod ini penuh pembayangan dan bayang-bayang yang tak terbayang sebab kali ini topiknya the landscape of our dreams. Harap enjoy.
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Episode 3: Jalan depan Rumah
Salam alaykum everybody! Episod hari ini kita seberang laut untuk bersembang pasal jalan depan rumah saya di New Delhi, India pada zaman 70an. Gajah, unta, beruang, dan banyak lagi. Iboh
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Episode 2: Beras Perang
Hey Guys! Episod pada hari ini penuh serat, zat-zat dan karbohidrat sambil kita berbahas hal-hal beras! Beras putih, beras perang dan macam-macam lagi. Ingat, Rice is Life.
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VLogging at Bin Gregory Productions
Bin Gregory Productions has been adding value to the public internet with free and original content since 2002! But I can’t deny the need to keep up with the times. So
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Hari Raya 2017
After several years of balik kampung, we’re celebrating Hari Raya in Kuching. Opah spent Ramadan with us. Hopefully it will be our last Raya before the house is torn down
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Exit West by Mohsin Hamid: Review
A meditation on migration of every sort. As a muslim migrant who has chosen life outside The West I feel like Hamid is chronicling the particular world I inhabit more
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Shah Alam Botanical Garden
Not ten minutes drive from downtown Shah Alam is the Shah Alam Botanical Garden. An enormous green space gazetted on Bukit Cerakah, the gardens range from open lawns to jungle
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Inggeris Pantun for Princess Santubong
Stuck in traffic day by day /
Clouds wrap ’round Mount Santubong /
Try’s I might, try as I may /
English pantuns come out wrong /
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Kitty Caught in Tree: Tropical Edition
A kitten adopted us this Ramadan. I wasn’t eager to take in another cat but one should feed a hungry guest, what more during the fasting month.
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Datuk Hj Ibrahim and the Isle of Lakei
An old friend dropped by for Raya. After the usual pleasantries he disclosed his purpose: a side quest to Pulau Lakei, the final resting place of the fabled Datuk Hajji
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Three Roods Farm for sale
Dear muslim friends in the USA, After 20 years of organic farming, my parents are retiring. Their Michigan homestead Three Roods Farm (www.threeroodsfarm.com) is up for sale and it is
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Biawak Hunting
Four days after moving into my home in Kuching, I met my first biawak, lounging on my front porch. Over the last 12 years, they have been a constant presence, stalking kittens and slaughtering chickens
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Kuching Modern: A Windshield Survey
over the last ten years, there have been dramatic changes in the style and appearance of the new housing stock toward a more Modern look, all the more noticeable since the city is booming
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Beras Perang
A twitter-essay on Beras Perang, unpolished, unbleached, lightly milled local long grain rice.
Beras perang tampi di nyiru,
Tumpah melukut merata-rata.
Haiwan yang garang lagi diburu,
Siapa takut semut melata?
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Review: Islam and the Destiny of Man
The sensitivity and respect he shows the Christian outlook is a great example to other converts in how to come to grips with their origins. Who we were is part of who we are, and being comfortable in yourself means coming to terms with that.
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Tanah Air
America has the Homeland, Germans the Fatherland, Russia the Motherland. Only the Malays have a Waterland.
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Review: Salonica, City of Ghosts
“They all claimed the city for themselves in God’s name. But is it not said: Where God is, there is everything?” Nearly five hundred years of history for a city
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Susu and You: Milk in Malaysia
Milk and Honey. Symbols of purity and goodness from Biblical times. But Filled Milk? Susu cair? Recombination? What is this stuff? A brief guide…
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Pearl of Faith
Original English translation of Raihan’s 1997 hit Iman Mutiara from the Puji-pujian album.
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Me and Damon Gupton
Sam Raimi. Megan Fox. These are but a few of the Hollywood names I have a distant, tenuous, nearly imaginary, and at this point fairly pathetic connection to from my time as a child actor. Here’s another.
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Raihan’s Sesungguhnya, in English
A translation of the classic nasheed Sesungguhnya by Raihan into English. Hard to believe it has been nearly 18 years since this first came out. It is merely old now,
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Climbing Mount Santubong
Mount Santubong looms ahead of my morning commute every morning, as it has for a dozen years. I’ve skirted the base of the mountain countless times, on the way to Damai
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You can get used to anything
The hazy weather Kuching had the last few days made me think of an old song from my childhood. It’s by Fred Small, and it goes like this: YOU CAN
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Spelling Champions of Sarawak
The biggest annual national spelling tournament in Malaysia is Spell-It-Right. Starting early in the year, several of my daughters had participated in rounds starting within the school itself and moving
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Mengapa rebung adiknya buluh
Bamboo thrusts dramatically out of the soil, clean, symmetrical, very sharp. The shoots grow fast, shooting over my head within a matter of days. Only once they have reached their final height, long
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The Years of Rice and Salt
An alternative history where all the Europeans die in the Black Death and the great civilizations of the world are Islam and China. Such an exciting premise. We follow three
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Menjelang 1 Mei
A rousing poem in Bahasa Malaysia from student of agriculture Chairil Aswad, on twitter as @schwarzenmann. First published in E-Sastera Sajak Facebook group, 30 April 2015. Translation into Inggeris mine.
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Hari Raya 2015
Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Dan Batin Eid Mubarak from Sarawak. May your fasting and ours be received by the Most High in His Mercy rather than by our merits, amin.
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MRE: Botok and Pulut Udang
As Ramadan winds down, I race to give credit to local foods that got me through the month. These MREs, Malaysia Ramadan Essentials, are practically complete meals in one package.
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36 hours in KL
Time for my semi-annual ritual humiliation at the Immigration Department. After 12 years here married to a Malaysian, I ought to be well on my way to Permanent Resident status.
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MRE: Ikan Masin
Sweets and savoury dishes of every sort fill the special neighbourhood markets set up for Ramadan. While our kids binge on the colorful kuih and sugary drinks that they rarely get
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America Bombs Indonesia over Drug Deal Gone Bad … in 1832
American troops bombed and invaded Aceh in 1832, becoming the USA’s first military intervention in Asia. The affair began with the Friendship, a trading vessel flying American colors, coming to port
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On Children
One of my mother’s favorite poems, from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran
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Bonsai four years on
I started messing around with bonsais four years ago. At the time, I guessed it would take me four or five years to have something decent to show. Four years
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