Prologue
A : Taiwan has three nuclear power plants and now building the fourth.
Three of them are located in Taipei and one is located in Kenting.
B : Hmmm...I see.
A : Nuclear power plants supported only 5 % of Taiwan's energy supply.
Mainly, Taiwan relies on water power plants to produce the energy to run the
country. I'd say that Taiwan must build more the gas-fired power plant to
increase the energy supply.
B : Why is that?
-and the discussion continues to Kuomintang, PRC-Chinese Taipei relations,
Hongkong-UK-PRC alliances, until illegal logging, fasting, praying, directing
and filming- (*such a random things to talk about =p)
Started from filming the dunno-which-part-of-footage for our
project, me and my new acquaintance, Albert, ended up talking
about fluky topics. The filming was only an hour and the conversation was two
hours-or so, btw :)). I don't remember how long I've been missing those kind of
"serious" subjects to be discussed with local people (read :
Taiwanese), but I'm beyond-happy having Albert as
a knowledgeable acquaintance. Simply speaking, I can see clearly
that this 23-year-old boy loves to read :D. Let's just forget that his
English sucks and he makes me frowning deeper to get his point of
talking.
Honestly, aside from Albert, I barely met an au fait Taiwanese. Most of them are
"boring" =p. "Boring" here means they don't really care
about things happened outside, hence they are unaware about the world's
recent issues. That's why every time I talk about the happening things,
most of them will answer "ohh..." or "how did you know
that?" or "hmm...I don't really watch TV". Gaahhh %$#@! OK,
basically, they are just ignorant. For Albert, he admitted that
the youngsters are now more likely attracted to pop culture than the
global issues. Forgive me if my conclusion is wrong. Probably, I
befriended with the wrong people :)). But well, yeah...that's what I
experienced.
OK, let's get back to the track. Even Albert, the one who said "I
love how your God has "arranged" everything", is still Albert. A
Taiwanese who doesn't own a religion. He, - like most of people here-, simply
thinks life circles in four things : studying, working, earning money and having
a vacation abroad. Sad. Thinking deeply about it, I believe that Allah sent
me here for a bunch of reasons. One of them is to open this Albert-like
people's eyes regarding to the metaphysics matters, things couldn't be reached
by merely a human logic.
My father used to say "Well, Nak, there are times you can't use
Qur'an's verses to explain the beauty of Islam to the commoners. It won't get
to them". Yes, Dad...I understand. I will also add my father's basic
advice : "action speaks louder than word". As for my story, Mr. Lee,
Laskar Chiayi's acquaintance, used to say, "I'm very touched seeing
all of you doing this kind of activity (*in Musholla Al-Iman)". "Your
religion is beautiful", he added. *let's
hope Allah will open this kind of people's heart and give him His hidayah :)*.
Epilogue
It takes more than a creativity to wrap the information so that it can get
directly to the person we're aiming for. It takes more than a willingness to
explain the beauty of Islam to the commoners. It takes more than a kindness to
do things for others, unconditionally.
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