Brief Interlude

I came home sick today--some sort of stomach cramps. Perhaps something I ate, perhaps from the mosquitoes that seem to find their way into my room at night; most likely, I will never know.

I watched "Inside Islam," a short documentary about a survey conducted by the Gallup poll. Slightly interesting, but I was most taken aback by a comment by one of the narrators, a Muslim woman who works for Gallup. This woman, wither her color-coordinated outfit and face full of make up, is talking about how wearing the hijab allows women to feel like people are focusing on their inside appearance instead of what they look like on the outside.

Please, if you can actually argue for her, I would really like to understand.

1) I can still see your face, all that I don't see is your hair.

2) If this is true, wear a burka or a dull-colored hijab.

3) From what I have seen in Indonesia, 90% of the time the women has make up on her face and or pins/jewelery/patterns on her headscarf that are clearly about appearance and even demonstrating her wealth!

A source that shall remained unamed, unless he/she wishes to reveal his/her identity, added: I think they are so fearful to admit that they and all their female ancestors have been fulled and tricked into this stupid argument that they are eager to "rationalize" in any way possible. I always wonder how an individual can be so smart and educated about one thing and at the same time, be completely oblivious and irrational about another thing, especially when it concerns them directly?!

I remain baffled.

Anyways, I had tomato soup for lunch, whole wheat pasta and tomato sauce for dinner, and a few Oreos to round it out. Hopefully I will wake up fine tomorrow! I also finished the first Hunger Games, and as I suspected, the plot really drew me in, but neither the writing itself nor the characters really enthralled me. I supposed I will read the next two, to fill the gaping void the end of the Harry Potter books left in my fantasy reading life in 2007, but I'm still looking--suggestions welcome! Perhaps a Game of Thrones after that?

On the agenda for the weekend is a return to the underground steak house; Saturday we hope to maybe visit some markets and/or see a wayang puppet show or two. I have not forgotten to blog about Sabah, don't worry!