Holy Smoke!

Pau-wau

or

Pow-wow?

You may have read the recent Star news report that a certain group is calling for a Pow-wow over a weekend. They call it Pow-wow instead of a ‘retreat for the purpose of retreat’ or ‘party gun slinging finger pointing jamboree’ or even ‘withdrawal’. This worries me. I think pow-wow is weird, dangerous stuff with the head-dos that involves killing more birds for feathers. It is true that our newspaper’s editor grasp of English vocabulary has fallen sharply as do politician finding the right word for the right occasion? Or, it is just because our flag looks more USA from a distance? I wouldn’t care if some parties ended up losing their hair but I sincerely hope it doesn't involved killing the birds for feathers !!!!

The weird thing was that the organiser, as well as the newspaper, thought this so called Pow-wow is introduced as if it was dramatically different. Yeah…..without the Red Indians but lots of cowboys, I might agree it may be dramatically different! At this stage, I can begin to think of a thousand names to replace Pow-wow if the names don't bear any resemblance to the meeting. I can call it:

a) The Last Tango
b) The Long March
c) The Titanic
d) The Slightly Longer March
e) The Last Supper

I mean, what’s the deal with this? What is the urgency? Afterall, it took them a few good months to agree on the disagreements, weeks to avoid the real issues and days to remind themselves something went really really wrong. Can you imagine the sort of progress? I can’t but I can imagine the mud-slinging, rabbit punches, backstabbing and kick punches. Whoever is going to survive will have a face no better than this!

I am also not sure if anyone of them ever read Sun-Tzu and the art of war. In case they hadn’t, I urge them to read it now. Or have I missed something??? They could have read it, and start practising it by now. The Pow-Wow is perhaps one of the 36 stratagems, I can think of:

a. Startle the snake by hitting the grass around it
Do something unaimed, but spectacular ("hitting the grass") to provoke a response of the enemy ("startle the snake"), thereby giving away his plans or position, or just taunt him. Do something unusual, strange, and unexpected as this will arouse the enemy's suspicion and disrupt his thinking.

Or

b. Create something from nothing

A plain lie. Make somebody believe there was something when there is in fact nothing.

I am not about to pre-empt, and I dare not judge their level of thinking afterall wise politicians are notorious for changing their mind in a spade of a second. Likewise, they are also very forgetful or poor in memory. It is in their credibility to change their mind and hope the rest of the world are just poor in memory. Except for one unearthly fallacy, ever heard of politicians with credibility?

I really cannot imagine what sort of discussions is meant to be discussed for what was purportedly a weekend away. I would guess "An island lost and two stones gained", no? "A department closed down as a give away, and another coming soon, yes? Or luring more grasshoppers onto your net in anticipation of a mass exodus? Or could it be, it was just a weekend of sing and dance and to master the song “Don't Stand So Close to Me”, hang on…….”don't stand too close to us”.

Why not sing “Yesterday”.

Yesterday

All our troubles seemed so far away

Now it looks as though they're here to stay

Oh, we believeIn yesterday

Suddenly

We’re not half the party we used to be

There's a shadow hanging over us

Oh, Anwar

Came suddenly

Why they had to go we wouldnt know

They wouldn't say

We said

Something wrong now we long

For yesterday