Leave them kids alone...

Technorati tags: Protest, Child Exploitation, Gaza, Hypocrisy, Double Standards

Walski came across a scary picture earlier today (hat-tip: Shar101, via the comments). It's not scary in a gory way, but it does make Walski worry, somewhat.

photo credit: Abdul Rahman Roslan (via Flickr)

Future equal-opportunity jihadi? Sure, Walski had a lot of ambitions of what to be when he grew up, too. But "statistic" was never one of them. And just out of curiosity, if the male martyrs are promised 72 virgins in the next life, what do the female martyrs get, Walski wonders...

What on earth were the parents of this child thinking? And exactly WHAT are the parents of this child trying to teach the poor kid? Heck, and it's not even Halloween (not that the parents would approve of such a "pagan" observance).

But hey... can we really blame the parents? After all, they are the product of the Malaysian Education System - the last word used somewhat loosely. The same "system" whose minister is planning to do a mass child exploitation exercise (hat-tip: I Am Malaysian).

(a PDF version of the article can be downloaded here, which also includes readers' comments, most of whom are dead against the idea)

Isn't being Education Minister such thrilling fun? The ability to use so many students to further your own political ambition must be a high that Walski can only imagine. And he's gotten high on enough diverse things to know... 
(keep the young 'uns out of it, and more, in the full post)

No wonder the portfolio of Education Minister is one of those must-hold for any PM aspirant, as history tells us. For some reason, this exercise, to Walski, is less about really caring about what's happening in Gaza, and more about another battlefield - Kuala Terengganu.

And what hypocrisy, too. Remember the outcry by the police when underage individuals participated in the Jerit bike-the-nation initiative (with their parents approval, no less)? That they were arrested for their own protection? Is the police going to protest the Minister of Education's plan?

Walski doubts it - it's usually one set of rules for BN-friendly initiatives, and another set of rules for everyone else. When Khairy Jamaluddin is involved in an a protest against the Gaza war, everything's hunky dory. But when it's a group not aligned with the BN doing it, the police are out in full force to stop it, even when it's pretty much for the same reason.

Walski also thinks that this exercise will be forced upon the students, who won't be given a choice in whether to participate or not. Nor will there be a need to seek parent's approval, is his guess. Same with the teachers, who won't be given a choice. Such is the power that the Minister of Education wields. It's no wonder the state of our education system is the way it has become - politics becomes the key consideration, not education.

It's times like these that a particular (and very commercially successful) Pink Floyd ditty comes to mind.

Hey morons... leave them kids alone! Parents of the future jihadi wannabe included.

Walski's 72-word disclaimer footnote: The promise of virgins (or houri) in heaven, as far as Walski knows, is not made in the Quran. And depending on who you talk to, the number varies, but “72” seems to be the most popular one. It’s one of those extra-Quranic elements that have crept into the faith, and inadvertently become synonymous with Islam. The promise of 72 virgins (among other things) is allegedly a worldly enticement for would-be martyrs.