Below Empyrean

'The state of a human being is analogous to the state of a nation.' - Bruce Herschensohn – author of Above Empyrean.

There are issues - corruption, economy, health-care, traffic jams, gas prices and the yearly haze. On the home front - unpaid bills, mortgages, taxes, garbage disposal and clogged drains. Naturally, the order of importance begins on the home front, but when a debilitating health issue comes to the fore, the fight to regain ones health immediately dwarfs the lengthy list. Regaining personal health then becomes the main issue and a corrupt government for instance, is the least of concerns. In essence, everything and everyone becomes a non-issue when ones health is threatened. 

Hypothetically, let us say you know 'of' cancer but not 'about' the killer disease, in that, you know it exists but you are unaware it kills prematurely and painfully and if you are diagnosed with the disease, how would you react? Just knowing 'of it' and not 'about it' is not useful knowledge because not being aware that it kills prematurely and even painfully, you will not take the crucial diagnosis seriously. Your ignorance enables you to ignore the diagnosis and attend to the more 'pressing matters', which would otherwise be dwarfed if you were aware 'about' the nature of the disease. 

In 1969, with much pomp and splendor, a nation, composed of a vibrant people, was surreptitiously injected with a cancerous cell, but due to ignorance of this particular strain and the havoc it could wreck, it attended to what it thought were more pressing matters then, such as race riots and a possible turnover of the government. In 1988, it was reminded of the disease and that the cell had multiplied considerably, but due to its continued ignorance of this particular strain, the debilitating health issue was again set-aside for other pressing matters such as corruption and possible turnover of the judiciary. For more than two decades since, several reminders were offered, that the strain was incubating to its logical conclusion, but other pressing matters such as inflation, gas prices and even a possible change of government, took precedence.

Not unlike the ignorant human being, the danger to the nation is grave, in that, although it is the aware 'of' the strain, it is oblivious 'about' the nature of the disease. It knows of its existence, but is unaware the disease would eventually implode upon it. For its survival, an independent read of the disease is in order because knowing its evolution is the key to surviving it - the key to reaching the 'empyrean'

Words, Videography, Action - Tommy Peters. On YouTube 

Afterword: The writer first published the above review on August 10th 2008. He made the video yesterday from a bumper-cam on his cabriolet while driving in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and time-lapsed its duration to sync with Sakar's lovely Abi-l Beka. He is a fan of Arabian fusion. 

(Advanced appreciation is rendered for materials used without the express permission of copyright owners and for incidental occurrences where vehicles, occupied by wonderful Malaysians, are inadvertently identified in the video)