pray more. talk less.

This morning on the news, “Jika kita serius untuk memboikot McDonalds, kita perlu lakukannya dengan segera dan komprehensif. Mula dari hari ini dan jangan makan McDonalds.”

What’s “comprehensive boycott” supposed to mean? Boleh makan fries tapi tak boleh makan burger? Itu kah, comprehensive? Come on, get real.

In the past 16 days or so since the “War” between Israel-Palestine, I have received numerous emails, smses and pamphlets from people of all kinds telling me to boycott Israeli and American goods. Though I’ve not taken heed of their advice, I’m not ignorant, impassionate and hard-hearted either.

It’s really easy to say things without thinking sometimes. “Boycott this, boycott that.”

I’ll tell you what boycotting will do.

There are several goods which are made here right here in Malaysia though they might be brands of other countries. Examples being, Nestle, Coca-Cola, etc. etc., which we have been told to boycott. Sure, I’ve no doubt that these brands are actually brands of our “enemies” but their factories are manned by Malaysians, mostly. The salespeople of our malls and shops and mostly manned by Malaysians too. And we are Malaysians. And just because we don’t work there, we don’t know how all this is impacting them.

If we boycott goods, we leave our people jobless, we leave our economy crippled.

If the impact of our boycott ever reaches Israel, we would cripple their economy, leaving their children hungry and their troops will still keep on attacking. Trust me; they have been planning this for a long time. They have their resources planned out well and so long as there is no resolution passed against them, they will keep on attacking. Well, even if there were such resolution, they would ignore it.

So, trust me when I say we are no better if we cripple them in that way. For all we know, their own people are also condemning their troops. The same way the Americans have condemned their President for all the crimes against humanity he has committed. We don’t know what their people feel about this because we have never cared to know what they have to say.

And trust me; more of them are ashamed of their actions, more than proud. Those at fault are their troops. Their children have got nothing to do with this.

It’s not that I’m not interested in upholding world peace. It’s not that I’m not passionate about the whole matter. No, it would be wrong of you to judge me. It’s just that some people have this really “ideal” view of how things should be on the international level. Things are not as easy as they seem.

So, my conclusions would be: “pray more, talk less, give more, go there, help out”

Don’t just say things you don’t know the impact of. And I know alot of people are going to be sooo upset with me for this post. So be it.