When we look at them all in the same way

They say that in order to truly understand something, you must feel it for yourself.

It has already been 2 years since I left my country. And let me tell you, it is really an eye-opener. Do you know how it feels when the whole world actually thinks you'll catch pictures of everything everywhere and everytime? Or you being a deadly kungfu master who yowls like a cat for every strike you hit?

I am utterly disgusted as these cheese-eating, accordion-playing, big-nosed frogs under a coconut shell portray us with these comical stereotypes.

This phenomenon of generalisation/discrimination/racism is nothing new to me but I never really thought about it before.

Our country boasts its multiethnicity and our Pendidikan Moral textbook gives us every reason to be proud of it as everyone of each race lives together in peace and harmony holding hands wearing their traditional costumes and a happy face. It would be true if we look way back to P. Ramlee's era. I'm talking as if I have lived 50 years before I was born but I'm still glad that I grew up in the 90's, where TV1, TV2 and TV3 were worth watching and patriotic songs will be played before the end of transmission on TV2. My favourite is "Sejahtera Malaysia", which I still listen to right now.

But if you have a country of at least 3 different races living together, you can expect them to have something to say about each other. "This kind of people are (dirty/cheap/lazy/selfish...)" and so on.

People say that one man doesn't represent the whole community but the thing with humans is that they choose to believe what they want to believe, despite some things being true and others not. For example, nobody talks about Europeans being camera-freaks because it always has to be the Asians. Nobody cares about kind, gentle and good Muslims but when we hear about Al-Qaeda, Osama, Saddam and their terrorism, they will say "See! I told you so!".

The Bermuda Triangle is famous for many disapperances of ships and aircrafts BUT the number is not very significant if we compare it to the number of disappearances elsewhere in the ocean. But it still remains famous today because people WANT to believe that something strange is going on in this particular area.

The more I talk about it, the more I believe that I have just described the word "Ignorance". All it takes for a stereotype to stay alive is just 1 person to prove it right because people will just ignore everyone else who does not fit the stereotype. That's how narrow humans can be. And thus generalisation, discrimination, racism.

And that is why I am convinced that world peace will never be achieved. Because people just don't RESPECT each other anymore.