Veronika Decides to Die
读了Paulo Coelho的Veronika Decides to Die，觉得是一本很有意思的书。以下就quote书中的某些段落，还有很多好料，各位可以去买来读读。
Madness is the inability to communicate your ideas. It’s as you were in a foreign country, able to see and understand everything that’s going on around you, but incapable of explaining what you need to know or of being helped, because you don’t understand the language they speak there.
这书的主要主题就是”Mad”。如果一个人和周围的人有着不同想法做法时，那人是异类。就如我在《神或兽》quote Aristotle讲过的话一样，这异类有两种结果，他不是被万人敬仰的话，就是被众人唾弃。
The Indians believe the murderer to be guilty, not society, not his parents, not his ancestors. Do the Japanese commit suicide because a son of theirs decides to take drugs and go out and shoot people? The reply is the same: no! And, as we all know, the Japanese will commit suicide at the drop of a hat. The other day, I read that a young Japanese man killed himslef because he had failed his university entrance exams.
什么是文化？文化就是一个社群里的某些行为、信仰、思维。文化不是一天两天就有的。在英文里，文化叫做‘Culture’。而Culture的另外一个意思就是培育/耕种。文化是慢慢养成的，如果用英文来解释的话，我会说文化是‘man among men’。
Everyone had their own theory about everything, and they believed that their truth was the only one that mattered. They spent days, nights, weeks and years talking, never accepting the fact that, good or bad, an idea only exists when someone tried to put it into practice.
没有自己想法一味跟着众人去做，我觉得可怜。有自己的想法可是什么都不做，我觉得可悲。有自己的想法而且也会去做，我觉得敬佩，就算理念不同。有自己的想法，做了后很成功，我欣赏你。
在这里看到一个印尼人写的文章。
When Malaysia air their famous tourism promotion on TV all over this earth and boldly illustrate a strong statement as the “Truly Asia”, I just stood in awe and even half-admiring the beautiful beach of Langkawi while thinking, “How I wish Indonesia’s Tourism Board has enough money to create such a inviting ad”. However I was a bit displease with “Truly Asia” tagline. So the other country is not really Asia? It seemed Malaysia challenge the rest of South East Asia to stand up.
知不知道马来人其实也不是马来西亚的原住民呢？马来人的定义是什么呢？建议读者篇：《谁才是马来人》。
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