WHY YOU SHOULDN'T BE LIKE BILL - OR CIKKU OR CIKKA
Barely a month ago, a birth was celebrated all around the world. A birth upon which men and women, the young and the old, celebrated with mirth. A birth from which we were shown common sense, given an example to follow, and were provided the path to a peaceful and loving society, if we were ready to follow it.
I’m not talking about the birth of Jesus, but rather, the birth of Bill.
Bill was born on the Internet. Helpful, informative, and nearly always relevant, Bill led by example on modern etiquette; showing us real person what to do in every day situations that many of us actually do get wrong.
Rather than telling us what to do, Bill did it himself, and one was urged to be more like Bill. As his passive-aggressive message was shared all over social media, with people connecting with the idea of knowing what other people should or should not do, Bill quickly travelled to other countries, and did his best to blend in.
This is Rashid. Rashid is Malay. Rashid has an Indian friend named Saravanan. Rashid has a Chinese friend named Ah Lim. Rashid has never told Saravanan to go back to India, or Ah Lim to go back to China. Rashid knows we are all Malay. Rashid is smart. Be like Rashid.
In Spain, he became Jose. In Israel, Yosef. In the Arab world, he is known as Bilal; in India he is known as Billu, and Rashid in Malaysia. His female equivalent, Emily, soon joined as the latest teacher of etiquette in this new, digital world; a world where repeated contraventions and faux-pas had forced Bill, and his various incarnations, to show us how best to act towards each other.
Commenting on all types of issues, such as how to react to offensive things on the internet, what to post on the internet, how to take photos for the internet, and other serious contemporary issues, Bill and his brethren invaded our social media, leading by example, whether we liked it or not.
And then, the Great Earthquake of January 13th happened in Malta; an event so shocking Emily quickly learnt Maltese, and became Ċikka. Ċikka reminded us all that there was no need to post about the earthquake on social media, as she herself was shared repeatedly all over social media.
Ċikku soon followed, the Maltese male version of Bill. True to his legacy, Ċikku mainly swore a lot, talked about blue films, and tried to get with Ċikka.
People took well to this format of telling people what to do subtly, and quickly started sharing messages with themselves replacing Bill, seemingly unaware that other people were sharing the exact same 'unique’ message that they were sharing proudly.
The last I looked, some social media users had totally foregone Bill, and we were just sharing pictures of themselves, with the accompanying hashtag #BeLikeMe. Soon enough, it will just be back to selfies, an inspirational quote, and the hashtag #Me.
Bill may have started off as a novel way of telling people how to better act in society, but, as with all things in our day and age, it quickly degraded into a game of one-upmanship and any positive message Bill might have had has been lost in the mess of snide online side-eyes and self-congratulatory posts everyone happily created.
So this is why you shouldn’t be like Bill, especially if you are Maltese, because you will either be like Ċikku - and noone likes Ċikku - or you will be just like everyone else, continuing obliviously in your faux-pas, which is exactly what Bill set out to change in the first place.
That said, I did learn a bit of Malay in the process, so maybe it does make sense to #BeLikeBill - or Rashid - every now and then.
WAS STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS WORTH THE WAIT ?
