This morning I received a call from my step-mother. She will be going to Lahad Datu to visit my sister, Audrey, for the Hari Raya holidays. As usual, she would call me up for some travelling pocket-money. And she wanted it immediately! She said tommorow is already Hari Raya, because she's convinced that the new moon could be sighted this evening. I said to her that no new moon would be sighted this evening.
Then I raised the question of moon sighting in my office; and it became quite a commotion! We have quite a number of self-proclaimed astrologers in the office, really. Some said that we will certainly be able to sight the new moon this evening; and some said otherwise.
Of course some tried to be funny, asking me to be more specific—did I mean sighting of the moon in Malaysia or Makkah? That question probably had a lot to do with my asking too many trick questions to my staff. They sort of have this automatic defensive mechanism against my questions, you see. An example of such questions would be something like this:
There are 5 durians in a basket. You take away 2. How many durians would you have then?
Anyway, after all the explanations and justifications, I think I am satisfied that Hari Raya will be on 01 October, i.e. no new moon will be sighted this evening.
I have long been convinced of the accuracy of the Chinese calendar when it comes to things like this. According to the Chinese calendar, today is the first of a new month. Usually, the new moon would be sighted on the first day of a new month. However, because the previous month had only 29 days, it is unlikely that the new moon would be sighted on the first day of the following month. If the previous month had 30 days, then it is possible to sight the new moon on the first day of the following month. Interesting what you can learn from all these self-proclaimed astrologers!
If the above is correct—and I think it is—then no new moon will be sighted this evening; and our Muslim friends will have to fast for one more day!
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim friends:
Selamat Hari Raya
Maaf zahir dan batin
Dan kalau pun tak dapat maafkan, pura-pura maaf pun jadi lah!
3 comments:
How interesting!
I showed that question about the durians in the above post to 4 ladies in the office just shortly ago. 3 of them are universtiy graduates (1 economic; 2 valuation majors).
And I am sad to report that they all fall within the group of "people answering questions based on reflex". It's not that I wasn't expecting that anyway. The majority of the human race are from within that group--answering questions without really thinking first. Just that I had hoped that at least some of my staff would at least think for a change.
if u ask me tat question like 3-4 years ago, my answer is the std reflex ones. now, getting older, i will take time to think 1st.
maybe ur colleagues were youngsters.
haha.... tak jadi maaf, buat-buatlah macam dah maaf kan?
CK,
Let me tell you that it's all about attitude; it has very little to do with age. If a person is lazy to use his mind to think, he will probably stay that way until his old age.
The ladies I was referring to are about 30 yrs old. If I were to ask them a similar question 10 yrs from now, I bet they will still answer based on reflex.
As I have commented in Mike's blog recently, there are 3 groups of people:
1) Those who try very hard not to use their brains to think if they can help it. They will think only if it's absolutely necessary for them to do so;
2) Those who would take the trouble to think, but very, very briefly and arrive at the answer practically on reflex;
3) Those who would actually take the trouble to think, reason out and apply some common sense and logic to arrive at the answer.
In terms of treasure hunt, there are some people from Group 1. If they really don't have anything to do on a weekend, they might join some friends to hunt.
Those in Group 2 would join hunts, and then arrive at their respective answers and outwitted by the CoCs over and over again. Two of my own team members are within this group, I keep tricking them (several times with the same tricks) and they never learn. They are the chasing pack. They may hunt for years and years and never really progress very far; and they don't really know what's hitting them. I am convinced that the majority of the human race comprises those within this group.
Those in Group 3 would analyse and think deeply. They try to find out how the winners did it (and keep doing it). With any luck, they will eventually beat those winners once in a while.
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