Published in The Malaysian Insider The Malaysian Insider had to take down a story a week and a half ago on Malaysian religious authorities spreading hatred…
Official blog of Zurairi AR: Journo, researcher, humanist, father.
Published in The Malaysian Insider The Malaysian Insider had to take down a story a week and a half ago on Malaysian religious authorities spreading hatred…
Published in The Malaysian Insider Text of an original TEDxKL speech “Why is the sky blue?” “Where do people go when they die?” “Where…
Published in The Malaysian Insider I had the bad fortune of getting a fever right on the first night of my honeymoon. For a moment,…
Published in The Malaysian Insider
By the time you read this, I’ll be away from the city enjoying my honeymoon, probably reading Greg Epstein’s Good Without God and pondering on a Nietzschean thought or two. If that makes me a pseudo-intellectual, I guess you can call me one.
Recently, lawyer Syahredzan Johan wrote in The Star and called on everyone to stand up against pesudo-intellectualism: Down with it, and long live honesty.
A response by feminist writer Alicia Izharuddin, published in the blog LoyarBurok, had his defenders and supporters claiming that the article was just a poke against the pretenders, not the “real” intellectuals.
My opinion is that they are both related, and an attack on one means an attack against the other.
Marriage is a compromise. It is more than a master-servant relationship.
Published in The Malaysian Insider
Homosexual behaviour can be seen universally in nearly all species, but homophobia is seen in only one — humans. We are the only species capable of thinking that homosexuality is not only unnatural, but is the root cause of all evil and destruction.
Various species like bottlenose dolphins, black swans, penguins, fruit flies, and bonobo apes display bisexuality and homosexuality. Homo sapiens like some conservative Malay NGOs and a number of our politicians want their government to throw homosexuals in a rehab centre and eradicate the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) from the face of our country.
BN MP Baharum Mohamad claimed in Dewan Rakyat that homosexuality is as dangerous as alcohol, cigarettes, and drug addiction. Much like an alcoholic turning sober, Baharum thinks that gays have a secret switch, which, when turned off in a rehab centre, will magically render them straight.
Wondering how easy it is to present “citation needed” figures dressed as facts in Dewan Rakyat? Baharum only had to pluck “scary” statistics out of thin air, claiming that (gasp) THREE out of 10 men in Malaysia are gay. No peer-reviewed papers, no double-checked numbers, no certified facts needed.