Rest in Peace, Michael Joseph Jackson 1958-2009

I woke up yesterday and did my usual routine, breakfast and coffee, reading news Utusan Malaysia, Yomiuri Shimbun and Reuters online. But before I managed to type the URL and press enter, Najib buzzed me through IM.

'Michael Jackson has gone'

I was numb as usual. No feeling. I know he is like the King of Pop and the most phenomenal thing this music industry can offer. But I just woke up from sleep and didn't have the mood to feel lost.

But, it would be a lie if I don't feel moved at all. Being 80's baby, I grew up listening to his songs. I agree I ain't really a die hard fan, but some of his songs somehow blends in me.

I personally love him back in The Jackson 5 days. The era where he is still young, naive kids who hasn't done any weird changes to his face yet. It reminds me much about my childhood years. Listening to 'I'll be There' brings a lot of glowing memories inside me.

It was very unfortunate for him to not able to make the comeback before he passed away. The bankruptcy issue and many other lawsuit against him did make me sad. And when he said he wants to embrace Islam and live in Middle East, I can feel the joy felt by his Muslim fan.

So long MJ. Rest in peace.

"Even though the pain and heartache
Seems to follow me wherever I go
Though I try and try to hide my feelings
They always seem to show
Then you try to say you're leaving me
And I always have to say no..."
-Never Can Say Goodbye, The Jackson 5, 1971.

The Sunao MInd

I had read 'The Art and Wisdom of Management: His Life and Management Philosophy' by Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic and Matsushita Corporation. And it is not just my other normal reading, which I do just to fill my empty pastimes and to kill the time, this one is more like a homework. I need to submit a report, sort of a blurb and comment regarding the management style of Matsushita-san and a bit about the history of his life.

One of the Matsushita management style is 'Sunao' mind. Sunao, as described by Matsushita-san himself that there is no direct translation for the word in English, is actually the level of human mind where it becomes free, transparent and able to decide and think without any prejudice. The sunao mind, he said, is the main factor for Matsushita successful business and management style all this while. He claimed that by having sunao mind, it had give him the opportunity to decide the best decision for his company and business, no matter how hard the economic and political situation that affect the business.

I found Matsushita-san philosophy has many similarities with the Islamic philosophy of life. By having unbiased and no prejudice mentality and state of mind. By having the attitude that everyone has their own responsibilities to the society. And to know that everyone has their own limitation and thus, don't go overboard.

It saddened me to realize that some Muslim doesn't even practice this philosophy in their life, let alone in their business. It frightened me even more to realize that some Muslim do the total opposite things than one's should follow in Islamic way, but then claimed their wrong act to be Islamic. What a shame.

I was at first thought that this one will just end up as other normal assignments and normal report writings. Man, was I wrong. I finished the last page with new perspective of life, a fresh thoughts on my mission, and of course, seed of a sunao mind just started growing inside of me.

p/s-
1. On a more personal note, I'm still busy revising my math for the entrance exam this August. がんばれ，がんばれ，もっとがんばれ！
2. Done with Murakami Haruki's Kafka on The Shore. Awesome, my big applause. Really wanna read his latest 1Q84. Really.

I Come With The Rain

It is almost impossible for me to skip this. I am a big fan of Takuya Kimura, Josh Hartnett and Shawn Yue and all of them is in this movie. Finally something to anticipate to drag my lazy bones to Japan's cinema.