Chopsticks represent family, friendship and hope.
FACEBOOK celebrated its 10th birthday on Feb 4 and presented a gift to its 1.9 billion users in the form of a personalised video, highlighting the top contents of users over the years.
I was teary-eyed on Wednesday morning while following a link from a friend’s film to my Facebook-personalised video. And right there before my eyes was my first moment on Facebook – a picture of chopsticks which I collected over the years. Some I brought during my travels and some were gifts of friendship.
The chopsticks are not mere chopsticks but symbols of friendship as I wrote back then – a point accentuated by Jon Berkeley in a narative about a mouse named after this traditional eating utensil of the Orient: Chopsticks is a lovely little story in a charming book. It is about a friendship between a tiny mouse and a huge dragon. Chopsticks, the tiny mouse, lives in a floating restaurant in Hong Kong with the entrance, flanked by two magnificent wooden dragons.
One night, one of the dragons spoke to Chopsticks, relating to the minuscule rodent his longing desire to be able to fly. But he is only a wooden dragon! However, the dragon said the man who carved him knew how to bring him to life.
Chopsticks set out to find Old Fu, the man who carved the dragon. He found Old Fu who gave him the secret of awakening the dragon. It was a musical tune and should be played during full moon. In return, Old Fu wanted Chopsticks to return and tell him about the adventures of a flying wooden dragon.
And when the magical full moon arrived, the dragon soared on the wings of his great friend, Chopsticks, the mouse.
What a wonderful example of friendship that was!
Chopsticks, to me, represent family, friendship and hope. Beyond that are nostalgia and memories.
Back to my personalised video. It continued with my most liked postings, including my son saying a prayer on his birthday and the ‘now and then’ picture of my two children.
From there, the video moved to my shared photos. Catching my eyes were one of my late father and mother, and another – a prized snapshot, I might add – of my father’s handwritten letter to my eldest sister.
I was amazed – totally awed at how Facebook was able to pick those moments I treasured most – of friendship, family and memories of those who had passed on.
Facebook spent several weeks putting together the Look Back feature. Nick Kwiatek, Facebook’s engineering lead on the project, has reportedly said: “One of the things that motivated us was that there’s really only a handful of companies that could take on something like this – that could render videos for as many people as we can.”
My friend Nina in America asked: “They’re a small glimpse into our lives for others to see as much as for us to enjoy, aren’t they?”
Yes, how I wished Seputeh MP Teresa Kok had produced a similar Look Back video for her constituents to celebrate Chinese New Year – with a small glimpse into her life for others to see as much as for us to enjoy! It would have been so heart-warming and so pleasantly in consonance with the spirit of the festive season.
The MP is now in hot soup because of her video titled ONEderful Malaysia. In it, she played a fengshui host to a panel of three “fengshui experts” making predictions on the country’s future in the Year of the Horse that were laced with political sarcasms and innuendos.
I have respected Teresa Kok as a fellow Christian and as such, her portrayal of a fengshui host is, in the first place, a shock, not to mention how she mindlessly mocked the country’s education, security and economic situations in a video that should instead have brought goodwill on an auspicious occasion.
My understanding of Cantonese may be limited but my knowledge of Mandarin is more than sufficient to rate the video as “tasteless, soulless” and completely inhuman.
Teresa Kok, as a Christian or even a responsible MP, should have asked this question before releasing her video: “Does this edify? Does this build up society with love? Will it be a stumbling block to other Christians?”
It is a complete disappointment.
Teresa Kok has echoed her boss Lim Kit Siang’s call to the PKR rep to apologise for the kangkung stunt which he has framed as ‘excessive, offensive and insensitive’, to prevent the possible outbreak of violence. In all good conscience, Teresa Kok should also apologise to the people of Malaysia for her video to defuse the racial and religious tensions that could have been aroused as a result of her flippant satire.
Best selling author and writer and preacher Max Lucado said “disappointment is cured by revamped expectations.”
To illustrate his point, he told this story: There was a man who went to the pet store in search of a singing parakeet. The store owner had just the right bird for him. The man bought it.
The next day the man came home from work to a house full of music. He went to the cage to feed the bird and noticed for the first time the parakeet had only one leg. He felt cheated to have been sold a one-legged bird, so he called and complained.
“What do you want,” the store owner responded.
“A bird that can sing or a bird that can dance?”
According to Max Lucado, this is a good question for a time of disappointment.
Yes, a one-legged bird can sing just as beautifully – no doubt about it – and I would happily accept a one-legged singing bird as perfect.
But should we revamp our expectations of our leaders?
Max Lucado is one of my favourite authors but I beg to differ here. For me, there is no compromise – the kind of leaders we all want should be caring, passionate, courageous, sincere and sensitive. We want to experience their leadership and know they care about us and work for the common good.
We want to feel and see their openness, trust and honesty – and also to know they will always speak up and be committed to do the necessary to get the job done for us.
This I know is not too high an expectation for any calibre leaders to fulfill. For I have had the benefit of the experience to share such virtues with many good friends. And, mind you, they are all common people!
If Mark Zukerberg can make billions of Facebook users experience his singing and dancing, Teresa Kok (and the other leaders) should also have the sense to allow the people to sing and dance with them, especially in fostering goodwill and sharing the joy of the festive season, instead of producing a crass video.
This, I know, is the longing of many disillusioned souls in Malaysia, a place we call home.