'We're Just Doing Our Job'

these past few days, i open the door and i'm greeted by this wondrous sight first thing when the sun rises. Like Ilhan says, "Look Mum, it's a wainbow!" two parallel rainbows, at that. for about 3 days in a row. beautiful, isn't it? it finally feels like autumn, with the wather a balmy 20-23degrees in the day with rain every other day.
and, i just realised that the tree in our garden is starting to flower. i did not quite realise when this happened, but suddenly there they were, fresh bursts of bright yellow flowers. sweet.

now, about the title. Kak N called me the other. she got a call from singapore at 1am about her nephew passing away. she scrambled to get on the first available flight back to sg.

a quick intro to Kak N - she's married to an Aussie (who became a Muslim 3 years before meeting her), has 3 kids, and wears the tudung labuh (big hint here). she's been living in Perth for 10 years and naturally is a PR.

as usual she cruised through Perth Airport and reached singapore soil. now that's where the issues began. she was detained at the passport counter and brought to a room where she was asked ridiculous questions for about an hour.

"Are you married?
"How many kids do you have?"
"What does your husband work as?"

i would say these were the more sedate questions asked. she told me there were more ridiculously probing ones. and when she demanded to know why she was questioned like that, she was told it was because she has a common name. i know.....like "HUH?"

Kak N was getting really mad cos she had a funeral to go to, and there they were wasting her time for over an hour. the only answer they had for her was "We're just doing our job." standard civil service reply. the lady officer questioning her kept going in and out of the room, operating from some order from some higher being somewhere.

when they finally let her go, she asked if this will happen again the next time she comes to Singapore (her birthplace, she still holds the red passport and IC), they said they can't promise that.

and get this - this is not the first time it's happened to Kak N. the last time she came to singapore about 3 years ago with her whole family and her Aussie mother-in-law (a sweet old lady) to get them acquainted with her side of the family, they all got detained and subjected to about an hour of questioning - why were they there blah blah blah. her kids (Muhammad and Aiman were 6 and 3 that time) were tired and cranky and she was told to keep them quiet. that did it, of course, she went ballistic and kicked up a huge fuss. she felt so bad for her mother-in-law.

why eh? the 'common name' is a bodoh excuse. is it the tudung labuh? atau sebab dia kahwin mat salleh? but then again i don't think a chinese SPG kahwin mat salleh gets subjected to all these nonsense, right?

why eh?