Tadau Tagazo Kaamatan 2009

Kotobian Tadau Tagazo Kaamatan, toun 2009. Wow! I took this picture as I was waiting for the traffic to move so I can drive to the Hongkod Koisaan (Center of Unity). What a paradox! Center of Unity, more to the outsiders, a center of disunity! You know, the Kadazan Headgear, Siga, constructed of steel and concrete at the Donggongon roundabout, reminds us of the Huguan Siou, the Kadazan Paramount Chief, is located where it used to be a "padi field" but as one looks around, the landscape has changed. There are buildings, shoplots and concrete houses springing up every where. Many of the padi lots have been purchased by Chinese Developers and converted into residential or commercial lots. Who are the new owners?

Except for the smart ones, many of the original owners who are padi farmers, and or their children, have retreated into the interior or became squatters occupying the reverine reserves along the highways; those who managed to cling on to their land are sadly getting older and their empty padi land are growing back into swamps, wasteland. So another irony, when they wish each other "happy harvest festival", where is the harvest?

The ralling cry of the interior Kadazans, who prefer to be known as Dusuns, is still the "Aramai Iti Dusun Sabah" or in short, "A.I.D.S.", which successfully 'infected' the KCA - Kadazan Cultural Association - and transformed itself into a kadazan 'diabolical' cultural association (KDCA), who knowingly or unknowingly, faithfully organized the annual harvest festivals, the highlight of which is the selection of a beauty queens as a 'symbolic' sacrificial victims to the demon goddess of the pagan kadazan dusun known as "Bambaazon/Bambarayon" or "the spirit of padi"! Again what a parodox and what a deception when many of the organizers of these festivals are 'born again, evangelical, bible believing Christians!

For those of us who remain faithful to the Word of the God, let us be reminded what the Bible says in Exodus 20:2-5 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. “Never have any other god. Never make your own carved idols or statues that represent any creature in the sky, on the earth, or in the water. Never worship them or serve them, because I, the Lord your God, am a God who does not tolerate rivals. I punish children for their parents' sins to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me."