In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl’ and Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ I am musing.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Friends online for the Eidul Fitri greetings; friends from many faiths, many cultures, many differences wishing well of each other; meanwhile the politicians from those great divides and the filthy towers of power try to wish each other unwell-ness; in Malaysia they are fighting over the money stolen and who to blame with the IS-claimed bombing; in America as I sat at the mass prayer of the end of Ramadan, the speakers are warning against the man called ‘Trump’ who may become president and build wall for the Mexicans and force Muslims to wear batches, as in Hitler’s Germany, upon the Jews killed in the millions, in the ovens and in their community; this is today’s America, girls and boys, this is today’s Malaysia as families celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri whilst worried what the Malay-Muslim-radicalised jihadists will do next to claim Malaysia and Indonesia as an Islamic State of South-East Asia.

No, no, no. Malaysians, don’t just blame the government for the creation of IS in Malaysia; not as easy as claimed; I may not agree with the regime but not all blame in this never-ending blaming game; No-no-no, IS is a creation of the second Bush invasion of Iraq; of al-Qaeda captured, imprisoned; of the second in command regrouped; of the rise of Abu Bakar Al Baghdadi with a PhD in Islamic Studies, in control and in need of a creation of a force more potent, more violent, more beheading, more rapes, more promises of 72 virgins and white raisins, more in need of the word ‘ISLAM’ as a powerful magnet of attraction of the almost 2 billion Muslims; of the use of the concept of al-Mahdi in Al-Baghdadi, and to promise a new world of Islam, in the Daesh and the Islamic State; of the IS creation of the United States, as how Bin Laden was cleverly-made by the CIA and the Pentagon and the United States, of the war of the Chechnyans against the Russians and the role of the American Empire; No. no. no - these are not mere figments of imagination of IS and Bin Laden and the future of global terrorism - but all about all-in-one: religion, political-economy, geopolitics, nation-state boundaries, the weapons industry, super-powers game with such complexity, all these and more; more will come as IS in Syria is bombed by Russia and who knows who behind the game of the super powers; as IS will never attack Israel; as IS bombed hard these days, the cities of the world will face the threat of cells activated; of local, home-grown, the-self-blown-to-pieces as shown. of these random bombings go unlike the firecrackers show of the American Fourth of July and the Islamic Eidul Fitri light and sound shows. No. No. No. This is the world we like in girls and boys. You must understand this. Understand that. Even if you can’t.

Too long a wait for Godot

No. No. no. There will be no end to this new violence of global proportions; of the bombings of cafes, bakeries, clubs, restaurants - of places we congregate to meet and greet and talk about peace and how to make this world a better place; No hope. Or maybe I have become a cynic and a pessimist. Too long a wait for Godot; No end to mayhem a la Orlando, Istanbul, Baghdad, Kuala Lumpur, Solo, Dhaka, and god-knows-where-else-next, who knows, we care, we are afraid, we live our lives as usual, pretending all will be peaceful as usual, amidst chaos - an absurd life; of men playing devil, of Satan unchained as a melody of madness, of suicide bombers playing the role of the Angel of Death, of Mungkar-Nangkir and Israfil-Izrail, of the children of Oppenheimer, of the invocation of Vishnu, of the cult members of the American Rifle Association gone mad; I don’t know, do you?

SHALL I STILL CELEBRATE THIS EIDUL FITRI? With cynicism and greetings of peace and prosperity: when the world is in a new war and in mass production of the new poverty

Thank you, Jamaica Kincaid. Thank you Allen Ginsberg. Thank you well-wishers of Eidul Fitri. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I shall now go to sleep peacefully - whilst waiting for another news of a bombing; of a world of the media profiting from human gullibility; as I await tomorrow for more gangsta chicken curry, rending, ketupat, laksa Johor, nasi briyani, satay Jawa, and all the kuih raya and life’s niceties in a world we only live once, unsure any more what is wrong what is right and if Might is Right; of a time when God seems to have left the world created - to let Reason and passion fight as Fate and Free Will be the Judge.

DR AZLY RAHMAN grew up in Johor Baru, Malaysia and holds a Columbia University (New York City) doctorate in International Education Development and Masters degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He will be pursuing his fifth Masters in Fine Arts, specialising in Fiction and Poetry Writing. He has taught more than 50 courses in six different departments and has written more than 350 analyses/essays on Malaysia. His 25 years of teaching experience in Malaysia and the United States spans over a wide range of subjects, from elementary to graduate education. He has edited and authored six books; Multiethnic Malaysia: Past, Present, Future (2009), Thesis on Cyberjaya: Hegemony and Utopianism in a Southeast Asian State (2012), The Allah Controversy and Other Essays on Malaysian Hypermodernity (2013), Dark Spring: Essays on the Ideological Roots of Malaysia's General Elections-13 (2013), a first Malay publication Kalimah Allah Milik Siapa?: Renungan dan Nukilan Tentang Malaysia di Era Pancaroba (2014), and Controlled Chaos: Essays on Mahathirism, Multimedia Super Corridor and Malaysia’s ‘New Politics’ (2014). He currently resides in the United States where he teaches courses in Education, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Political Science, and American Studies. His forthcoming book, One Malaysia, under God, Bipolar, a joint project between Gerakbudaya and World Wise Books of New Jersey, USA, is his seventh compilation of essays on Malaysian Cultural, Creative, and Critical Studies. He is currently working on his eighth book, on Gifted and Talented Education in Malaysia, honouring a prominent educator. Twitter, blog