“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 I had never heard of in a land I knew next to nothing about could have been overwhelming, but the book is so well-written and […]
Author Archives: bingregory
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…
Pearl of Faith
Original English translation of Raihan’s 1997 hit Iman Mutiara from the Puji-pujian album.
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.
Raihan’s Sesungguhnya, in English
A translation of the classic nasheed Sesungguhnya by Raihan into English. [two_first] In truth this heart longs for You In truth this being longs for You Yet I cannot understand Why love still has not appeared Yet I cannot understand Why longing has not yet blossomed [/two_first][two_second] Sebenarnya hati ini cinta kepada Mu Sebenarnya diri […]
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 beach or Sultan Tengah’s tomb, but I’d never made it to the top. Not for lack of trying. Two years ago, my son, my father […]
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 GET USED Fred Small, 1976 Found on Home-Style Stone Soup: The Streetwax Recording Collective When I was a kid takin’ biology, I learned about man’s […]
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 to wider competitions from there. Inattentive father that I am, I didn’t realize this was the big day, the State Finals, when I dropped Kak Yang […]