You know, sometimes, I want to go back to the times where I didn't have to give-a-damn about difficult issues like race, religion, cultures, idealogies. Back to a time when Philosophy could be labelled as just 'the most bloody difficult core subject' for Literature minors. Pushed into a reality where people would kill and fight (not necessarily with physical weapons) just over differences of opinion towards an idea, we all have to consider this, 'What's the reason we're here on earth?'

Don't worry, I'm not about to preach religion here.But I've been thinking, you know how everyone says that we're all on Earth for something, or how the universal truth goes by, 'You can't choose your parents,' or 'there are somethings you just cannot choose?' I've been thinking about the things that, you know, they can't say you can't choose, the things that you need to accept and carry out no matter what. I wanted to list them down, because I think, it's relevent, in this time. I know, I know this, I can't choose the following, Earth-concepts:

1. parents, siblings, family members
2. the country in which I was born
3. the religion in which I was born to
4. the primary school that my parents first decided to send me to
5. this Earth, this planet I'm born to

I know I cannot choose most of the things above, they'll stick with me till my dying days. Unless of course, I choose to

1. Denounce every single member of my family, maybe due to a break-up of catastrophic proportions?
2. Leave this place and migrate to 'greener pastures'? Just in case I get fed-up, y'know?
3. Convert! It's pretty simple for me, but not so simple for others.
4. Can't do much about this except go about pretending I never went to that school, or make up a fictional tale about some school I never went to in order to erase my past.
5. Erm. Fall in love with an Alien and migrate overspace?

I'm looking at the lists above, and I just realized this. Have you notice how for items (1)-(4), even though technically we cannot 'choose' their origins, there's always another option alternative to the original? Even for item (1) the fact that we can't choose our original families; some people have denounce family bloodlines before and started completely new ones! It's not a new thought. The fact is, this Earth has ample of choices for almost everything in every category. It's what you choose that makes you what you are.

Except the last item. The fact that we cannot choose the planet we're born in. Alamak now that's a dilemma right? Say I hate Malaysia because its laws are somewhat draconian, I can always try to move out of it, let's say I move to Singapore. Then maybe I hate it because it's too sanitized, so I'll move to maybe Thailand. I can keep on moving from country to country until I find a nice place to settle down in.

But if I don't like Planet Earth, I can't very well fly out of the planet and settle down on the Moon, for example. It's just physically and logically not possible. Now, unless I choose to commit suicide and see where that takes me, I suppose I'm just stuck on earth. With all it's inadequacies and injustice, and the stupid people that seem to be multiplying like bunnies by the way. Even with the wars and the idiocy and the increasing number of fundies that annoy me to death. So I'm stuck here, and I have to tolerate these people no matter what.

I can do that. I know a lot of people can do that. The question is, why is it that FUNDAMENTALISTS cannot seem to get it into their brains that they have to move along just like the rest of us?

Strange place, this world.