Today, I read the malaysiakini report (belatedly) on the hugging saint from India, Mata Amirtanandamayi ('Amma'). I also saw on cable TV the BBC news report on April 30 on the Gao Brothers from China who are using hugging as an art form and are currently touring the English cities, standing on the streets and inviting strangers to hug them.

The irony of these reports did not escape me, fresh from hearing, even now, the ridicule about the 'indecent hugging' case. These sentiments are already making the rounds in the Global Village. We Malaysians are being made the butt of many jokes overseas.

Amma, the hugging saint, hugs everyone to give spiritual comfort and apparently also to heal. BBC reported the Gao Brothers as going round the cities in England hugging strangers as a performance art form. Even the London bobbies (top hat policemen) did not hesitate to reciprocate when invited.

When the English pedestrians who had responded by hugging in return were questioned by the BBC reporter on whether they thought it was an English thing to do, they said, 'No'. The English thing to do, they said, when responding to strangers is to shake their hands, but they thought it was a nice gesture to respond to a friendly stranger. Another Englishman who had hugged Gao in the street said he did it because he thought more people should be doing this, presumably to promote peace and understanding among all peoples.

If anyone sees the Gao Brothers in Malaysia on their rounds, please, please, please can he or she warn them that they can be charged by the municipal authorities with indecent or immoral behaviour? I don't want another BBC report further ridiculing us in the Global Village!