wonderful life.....eh?

raya...eh?

2010-09-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

Realities of life do suck sometimes. And they tend to suck you under as well.
But am not complaining. It could have been worse.
And for that I'm always thankful to Allah.

A month of sacrifice should not be enjoyed in a day.
Spread them days. Spread them love with all.
Enjoy them holidays, enjoy them dishes and enjoy them driving.
Safely.

Life shouldn't be a chore.

happy teacher's day...eh?

2010-05-15T05:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Teacher's Day to all teachers, formal and informal. Especially those who had contributed in shaping me life.

But are teachers happy?

Well, save that for another day. Am in me writer's block mode.
Stay safe y'all teech. For better or worse, your contributions are priceless.

limit my butt...eh?

2010-01-17T02:55:00.000-08:00

Reckon the country is so entrenched with subsidies that the very thought of going without scare even them ministers senseless.

I can imagine the frantic discussions being held regarding the fuel shit. And these are high level meetings attended by VVIPs. Imagine the amount of claims made by them attendees. Just to discuss whether:
To use MYKAD or permits or fuel coupons.
For one car or more cars.
To use special lanes or calibrated pumps.
For Malaysians only or permanent residents or permit holders or their non Malaysian spouses.
In other words, to segregate people.

Not unlike South Africa during apartheid.

Wouldn't it be easier to sell at market prices? If you really want to help Malaysians, use that extra to built better schools, better universities or better public infrastructures. And yes, a few cronies or hundreds could get a share of the pie. And maybe the suffering Rakyat would finally be able to enjoy First World amenities here in their own backyard. Not just when they are in Bangsar. Wouldn't that be good and wholesome.

And if the minister still insist on giving subsidies back to the Rakyat, reimburse them fairly. Not with car registration numbers as was formulated by the previous minister that led to his downfall but use that piece of plastic that identify Malaysians, the MYKAD. One claim per MYKAD holder with a car regardless how many Ferraris they have. Subsidy is a direct pecuniary aid, and AID is the keyword. Aid should be given to those who needs it and not for those who wants it. For those without cars, well, better and cheaper public transportation would be nice.

Reckon Malaysians ministers just love to complicate matters while enriching themselves, their cronies and proxies in the process. And we the majority, peace loving Rakyat must go along for the ride. Knowing that we've been had but who are we to complain. And knowing complains would do us more harm than good.

Not unlike Iraq during Saddam Hussin.

sleeping on the job...eh?

2010-01-17T02:43:00.000-08:00

Don't ask what the Company have done for you?
Ask what you have done for the Company?
I can live with that.
But I don't see you walking the talk Mister Management.
Are you not employees too?
Albeit with much fatter wages.
Duh...

And don't you dare disturb me beauty sleep!

rat race...eh?

2009-12-05T04:05:00.000-08:00

oh it's a disgrace to see the...
human-race in a rat race, rat race...
you got the horse race...
you got the dog race...
you got the human-race...
but this is a rat race, rat race...

bob marley

And sadly I'm a part of that race. Sigh.
Am resigned to the hard fact that early retirement is not for the meek.

well...eh?

2009-09-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

Life, most often than not, does not work according to plan.
We can only plan, but He's the One.
And whether we like it or not, concurrence is sometime the better option.

Drive safe.
Eat safe.
Remember those who had gone before us.
Say a little prayer for them now.
Families and friends.

what's in it for us...eh?

2009-06-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

Datuk Abdul Halim Suleiman (BN-Puteri Wangsa) claimed that Iskandar Investment Bhd and Iskandar Regional Development Authority were mostly seen as only carrying out projects that did not provide much direct benefit to Johoreans.

"They carry out multi-million ringgit housing projects and elevated highways on roads that are not suffering from traffic jams.

"The people are likely to see such projects as have nothing to do with them. Is Iskandar Malaysia only for the rich? Where is the improved transport system?

"Where are the projects for houses that can be owned by the low-income groups?"

Yeah...where indeed. I dunno but reckon most government would have their citizens' interest as a priority. Hey ministers! You dumbasses! What's in it for us? Why should everything being built here must have Singapore and Singaporeans in the equation? By the look of it, they too are not doing too good now. And they know that they don't have that many alternatives. But hey, what did those dumbasses we vote into power do? They sell us cheap and gave them a lifeline. Before long, there'll be signs that read, No Dogs and Malaysians Allowed! That would be the day.

School children are becoming statistics while crossing roads in front of their schools. Roads that should have an overhead bridge. The government would say that it could not afford to built an overhead bridge for every school in the country. Reckon the monthly remuneration they pay all those IRDA execs could build three or ten overhead bridges for school crossings. Are the IRDA execs contributing to the well being of the nation? Or are they in fact the agents for national disaster, despite being paid handsomely by the taxpayers? And with the amount they pay to foreign advertising & marketing agents, do you see FDI coming to Iskandar in droves?

But take heart. At least, the good old Gelang Patah durian can now be called Durian Iskandar. Rotflmao...

err...err...eh?

2009-06-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

(this is definitely a stolen item...)

heartless...eh?

2009-06-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

Image nicked here.

Had a teh tarik session with 2 buddies from old on Wednesday.

The three of us are like siblings. Despite being from different backgrounds. She's 35, a Chinese. He's 36, a brute of a dude. Both are still single. Both had their hearts broken more than a decade ago. Both are still reeling from the pain after all these years. Wanted to suggest that they love each other instead but being like brother and sister all their adult lives, I already know what their answer would be.

I dunno. First love could be a testing ground for some. Juvenile fun for them naughty few. Something to cherish for a few others. But for some, it is the one and only love they want and they work hard to keep it. Unfortunately love takes two to tango. No matter how hard one party worked it would be to no avail if the other decided to call it quits. And to make it worse, her heartbreaker was a very close friend of mine, part of the old gang. Maybe some are just not ready to cross the racial lines even in matters of the heart. What a pity. That was indeed one bitter pill to swallow for all of us back then.

Fortunately the both of them are never bitter. Life must go on even if she's a bitch. They just don't have the will to pursue any meaningful relationship. Imagine carrying a pain for 13 or so years. Damn!

And we're just glad that we can still have these occasional lepak sessions. To sooth old wounds if nothing much else.

To the both of you, live life and just be happy. It'd be a waste to carry regrets to the grave.

don't be cruel...eh?

2009-05-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

Maybe...cruelty is the answer.

Maybe MARA could think along this line on what to do to its thousands of defaulters. And also to encourage more to repay their dues not only to MARA, but to all them other agencies that use money from the public purse.

Imagine being a Muslim. And not paying your dues when you're more than capable of doing so. And in neglecting to do that, is also depriving others who really need the assistance. Rezeki halal? That's for you to find out. And don't go blaming others when your offspring walk on the wild side. When you're feeding them with what you reckon is not haram?

Be glad to urinate on your grave should I know which one. Maybe it'll help cool you some.

still got them blues...eh?

2009-05-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

To them band of brothers who were together then...

...and who are still in this together, this one is for you.

air piano...eh?

2009-05-25T08:11:00.000-07:00

Image nicked here, without any permission whatsoever.

elephantiasis...eh?

2009-05-22T23:19:00.000-07:00

Kuman di seberang lautan tampak, gajah di pelupuk mata tiada tampak. The saying goes and had nothing to do with the title above. And this can only happen elsewhere.

Record fine for restaurant that hired illegals from Malaysia

The Temptations Chinese Restaurant in Colchester has been slapped with a £96,000 (RM526,000) fine – the biggest ever handed down by a court in Britain – for employing illegal workers from Malaysia, China and Indonesia.

The Harwich magistrates court had last week found Bo & Sum Ltd directors Phing Woon Pun and Anthony Lam guilty of six offences contrary to Section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996, said a press statement by the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.

The UK Border Agency Immigration officers had raided the restaurant on Nov 29, 2007, and detained the illegal workers. According to the statement, at least 10 Malaysians were deported following the raid.

Pun was also charged with conspiracy to facilitate breaches of Britain’s immigration laws, an offence that carried a maximum 14-year imprisonment. The charges would be heard separately.

Gail Adams, the UK Border Agency regional director for the Midlands and East of England, said the record fine sent a clear message that both the agency and the court would not tolerate hiring of illegal workers.

All foreigners, foreign workers and expatriates, are all legit here. All our employers, be they mega multinationals or those fly by night metal recyclers, have legally obtain all the necessary legal papers for all their legally acquired expats and workers. No qualms about that. Irregularities can only happen in the first world, where everything and anything gets reported. Nothing bad can happen in Malaysia. Our government will ensure to that.

And all those foreigners are well treated here. Especially them expats. Especially caucasian expats. You would bash a Bangladeshi or a Myanmarese to death sometimes even though they're legal aliens. But nobody will even try being disrespectful to caucasian expats even though they're here illegally. Being colonised all those centuries ago can do that to your collective psyché. And being further misled and misinformed by the government of the day and its media(whose investigative reporting expertise is either on the opposition stupidities or sports. Else they'll be concentrating on them tabloid pieces or which foreign news to include to further distract the already distracted masses) don't help either.

But we don't need help. We're cool with it.

noose jaya...eh?

2009-05-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

Major security risk at Nusajaya
By NELSON BENJAMIN and MEERA VIJAYAN

Kota Iskandar, the sprawling new state administrative capital in Nusajaya, faces a major security risk as it is located near a Singapore firing range.

The range, inside the Sarimbun Camp, is operated by the Singapore Armed Forces and involves the use of live ammunition from tanks and aircraft including helicopter gunships.

Sarimbun is located about 1km away from Lim Chu Kang Road in Singapore where Japanese soldiers crossed the Johor Straits in a fleet of small boats and successfully landed on the island around midnight on Feb 8, 1942.

There have been instances when the explosions at the range have caused vibrations on the Malaysian side less than 2km away.

Too close for comfort: An aerial view of Nusajaya showing the close proximity of Kota Iskandar(foreground) to the Sarimbun firing range,marked X.

Government servants, who have been moving into buildings at Kota Iskandar in recent weeks, have also expressed worries about stray bullets or shells.

Nusajaya assemblyman Datuk Aziz Sapian said he was aware of the risks posed by the firing range and had raised the security issue at the Johor State Assembly even before the area was developed.

He hoped the Government would discuss the matter with Singapore and set up a military base on Pulau Merabong to beef up security around Kota Iskandar.

“The situation has gotten worse as over the past two days, the Singapore planes have been flying too low, and this is a nuisance to the people,” he said, adding that he had received many complaints from residents.

A check at the site showed an area surrounded by perimeter fencing with a guard post overlooking the Straits of Johor. There is also a large board with a picture of a skull at the site.

It is learnt that sirens go off to warn boats to stay away when they venture too close to the camp.

A security source said it was not a good idea to have state leaders all in one spot next to a military camp or firing range.

A diplomatic source said there have been no formal discussions between Malaysia and Singapore to relocate the firing range but it might be discussed in future.

“We must realise that the camp was there even before Nusajaya was developed,” he said, adding that it would not be easy to persuade Singapore to relocate the firing range.

Money can definitely make your world go round. Or it can make you stupid.

I don't know what were these monkeys high on when they conceived to conceit with all these mega stupidities of theirs. Yeah...them monkeys would be calling them mega developments. Worthy of an hour slot in that yellow rectangle. And reckon each monkey that had a hand in coming up with these grandiose scams, from them initial concepts to them drawings to them displacements of the poor to them constructions, would be loaded with more than bananas till the day they drop dead. Which hopefully will either be from a very tall tree or something high.

And them state politicians? It's their fucking backyard for crying out loud. And knowing that the matter was raised even before the first stone was turned. Make your blood kinda boil some ain't it. Mebbe them confetti of kickbacks coming their way temporary blinded them then. But now when the reality of stray shells could actually rip their anuses apart, they are beginning to see some light. If only God grants a wish when enough people wish for it....

Well...at least Singapore can now commit murder by misadventure.

our own enemy...eh?

2009-05-13T23:15:00.000-07:00

Malaysian chef underpaid, restaurant owner fined

MELBOURNE, THURSDAY: A restaurant owner who brought a Malaysian to Melbourne to work as a chef and paid him less than A$10,000 over 18 months has been fined A$180,000.
Businessman Hong Poh Meng and his company, Penang Kayu Nasi Kander Ltd, which traded as Kayu@Boxhill, admitted breaching 11 workplace laws, including underpaying a full-time cook $76,000, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reports.

Two 19-year-old casual waitresses were underpaid A$4,876 and A$899 respectively.

Hong was fined A$25,000 and the company was penalised A$158,400 in the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday for the breaches, which occurred between 2005 and 2007.

Workplace Ombudsman executive director Michael Campbell said Hong admitted bringing the Malaysian national to Melbourne and then paying him just A$9,650 for 18 months'' work in his restaurant.
"This was less than 12 per cent of the minimum amount the man was entitled to receive," Campbell said in a statement.

"This sort of blatant exploitation is completely unacceptable."

AAP said the company repaid the cook A$10,600 and the two waitresses a combined amount of A$805 after the Workplace Ombudsman began investigating the case in 2007.

But Magistrate Kate Hawkins ordered the company to pay the chef A$65,341 in outstanding wages and another A$4,128 and A$841 to the waitresses.

She said the cook was subjected to a "pattern of exploitation" and was particularly vulnerable because of his immigration status.

The underpayments were "staggering" and "defied belief", Hawkins said.

______________________________________________________________________

Kayu @ Boxhill? Ya bluming bafoon! Talk about being a kayu!

Well...what can I say. The first to discriminate us. The first to exploit us. The first to enslave us for profit will always be one of our own.

Fortunately there's the Workplace Ombudsman on the prowl there. And I believe their personnel are not too tempted with that thick envelopes the way their minimum pay is structured over there. We have our own Jabatan Buruh. But will our protectors of workers' rights be able to resist them temptations dangle by unscrupulous employers here? What with their lousy pay. I bet there are more than a few takers.

At least that chef or cook can now look forward towards maybe opening his own nasi kandar joint with that A$65k. Good on you mate.

déjà vu...eh?

2009-05-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

Guess some peeps are born just to be spat at...

happy mama...eh?

2009-05-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

Cliché? Maybe. Especially when this is the only day in the year some people shower their mothers with love and gifts and forget about them the very next day.

So to all Mothers, this is your day. As all them other days too. Wishing y'all the best of health, happiness and most important of all, caring and loving children that shower you love and affection all year round.

To Mothers who had preceded us, al-Fatihah and may your souls be among His beloved.

time after time...eh?

2009-05-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...how time flies. And what time can do to you. The first tomboy that stirred something within me before Nasha and then Melissa. Seems like a million years ago though me buds and me feel that we are cursed to be eternally seventeen. We stop aging the year we left Sikamat. Guess we never grow up. Hahaha.

Will Sinead feel the same way? Is the rebel still lurking inside? Will she tear iconic photos? Guess it's for her to know and for us to find out eh.

Have a happy life, Sinead dear.
Thanks for all them nice songs, nice memories.

idiots but stupid...eh?

2009-05-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

Robbery suspect beaten to death

KLANG: A robbery suspect was handcuffed and left at the mercy of his would be victims while police went looking for his accomplice in a case of misplaced priorities on Friday.
I'm with the police on this. What priorities? You got one bagged and cuffed. The priority is to get the other shithead, stupid. If the police let the accomplice escaped, and that shithead in turn robbed and raped your wife, would you be talking priorities Mr V. Shankar Ganesh?
Mohd Azrul Ishak was found lying on the road in a semi-conscious state by the arresting officers when they returned minutes later with the second robbery suspect.
Guess he got what he deserved.

The injured man was rushed to Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital here but died a day later without regaining consciousness.

A post-mortem revealed he died of head injuries.

Azrul's elder brother Mohd Hazar Ishak, 39, is now crying for justice, claiming his brother was defenseless as he was beaten to death by a mob when he should have been protected by the policemen who had handcuffed him.
You should be protecting him. Scums like him are taxing our society. We don't want our tax ringgits go to protecting scums. We are the ones who need protection. Too bad Mohd Hazar dude. You should've known.
The incident occurred last Friday at Tanjung Harapan in Port Klang, when Azrul was arrested by four policemen about 1am after an attempted robbery report.

Two men allegedly tried to rob a group of motorcyclists at knifepoint but failed. The suspects fled the scene but the policemen, who were on patrol in the area, nabbed Azrul and handcuffed him.

While interrogating him, the policemen received word that the second suspect was spotted nearby.

The four then left Azrul by the roadside and went looking for the second suspect.
This part I'm not too proud off. All four left? Damn! Wanna ensure the loot if any is equally divided? Damn!

Hazar said when the policemen returned with the second suspect, they found his brother barely alive. He was rushed to hospital and was admitted to the intensive care unit.

"I rushed there and saw that he was in a coma. He died the next day without regaining consciousness."

He said his brother only had a small cut above the left eyebrow but doctors told him that he died of head injuries.

Hazar believed his brother was beaten up by a group of motorcyclists.

Hazar met the district police chief and other police officers on Monday.

"They admitted that the policemen were negligent to have left him alone. The police chief also promised that disciplinary action would be taken against those responsible."
Hazar said this Hazar said that. Where the hell did he got the information? And the police readily admitted to being negligent? I don't know about NST reporters but reckon interviewing someone who was not at the scene and in this case the brother of the victim, could be misinterpreted as bias reporting. And to think that the editor let the news through. But what do I know. I don't have a UiTM mass comm shit.

He said Azrul was a problematic person who was always in trouble with the law.
There, he's not such a bad loss. Your family would not even remember his name in a few months time. Especially if the police or the government, in this case us, is made to pay compensation. Got rid of a problematic family member and cash reimbursement to boot. That's a bloody good deal no?

"I had handed him to the police before, hoping he would be reformed.
Thick skulled Azrul? You should have done what them mob did. Bashed him with helmets. And his skull ain't that thick. Or this would not make it into them papers.

"All that now seems to have been in vain.
Not when the goverment hand out compensation. Or bribe money.

"I can't imagine what he went through. He was handcuffed and was bashed up.
Don't tell me that was his first attempt at robbery. He must have been doing it for a while. Can you imagine what his victims went through? He's dead and only needs to deal with his Maker. But his victims? Maybe they're one of those snatched victims who are now disfigured or paralysed for life. Or maybe even dead.

"He couldn't even defend himself.
So if he still had his knife, and was able to defend himself and escape, what then? He'd still be terrorising society. You don't want that do you?

"Nobody deserves to die like this. He was my younger brother and I wanted the best for him."
True. Nobody deserves to die like that. But God is fair don't you agree? Maybe that's the best for him. And us.

Hazar said his mother was devastated to learn that her son suffered such a cruel death.
I thought she was devastated to learn that her son was a robber and had been cruel to others. Damn! My mistake.

He urged an independent body to investigate the case.
You wanna pay for that Hazar?

Hazar lodged a police report on Monday in Shah Alam and would be lodging another report at the district police headquarters here today.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Police pick up nine over Azrul's death

Assistant Commissioner Mohamad Mat Yusop, Klang Police chief

KLANG: Nine suspects have been detained in connection with the death of Mohd Azrul Ishak.
District police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohamad Mat Yusop said they were from a group of motorcyclists.
Kill all them rempits.

The suspects, aged between 18 and 23, were rounded up on Saturday and were being investigated for murder.

"We believe the victim was beaten up with helmets," he said.
You believe? No need to go forensic? Damn! Way to go PDRM. That will save a bundle.

On why he was handcuffed and left alone, Mohamad said an inquiry would be held into the matter.
Why bother. Them policemen did not trust each other to divide any loot equally.
Satu untuk engkau satu untuk aku. Dua untuk engkau dua untuk aku...
He also agreed with the chronology of events as reported by the victim's elder brother Mohd Hazar Ishak.
So who's the police now? No need for investigation? Bloody hell! Way to go PDRM. That will also save a bundle.

He said disciplinary action would be taken against the policemen if they were found to be negligent as a suspect could not be left alone under such circumstances.
So they get to do desk jobs eh? No more untuk engkau, no more untuk aku...

Mohamad also said Azrul was released from prison six months ago for a drug offence while his accomplice had a record for several burglaries.

He said the public should not take the law into their own hands as it could result in incidents such as this
Yeah, we should have faith in our men in blue. Right! But where were you when we need you? The IGP said the police could not afford to be everywhere. And he needed the public to assist. Of course we would. We would be mighty glad to assist our men in blue. So that they would have more time to pursue other more pressing matters. Just give us the Heckler & Koch G11 Rifle that could fire some 2000 rounds per minute. We'll know what to do to assist.

facebook...eh?

2009-05-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

change...eh?

2009-05-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

Law change to curb 'Mat Rempit' welcomed

The Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) today welcomed the proposal by the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) for amendments be made to the Road Transport Act to curb the "Mat Rempit" (illegal motorcycle racers) menace.
Its chairman, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, said the reason being that under the current law, an illegal racer would only face action for dangerous driving, which penalty was not effective to deter the offender from committing the same offence again.

"The police had proposed that the act be amended so that a heavier sentence could be meted against these speed-crazy drivers/motorcyclists, like the "Mat Rempit".

"The MCPF welcomes the proposal to amend the law and introduce a special section for illegal motorcycle racers, which penalty includes seizure of their motorcycles," he said in a statement here today.

Lee suggested that youths caught taking part in illegal motorcycle racing to also be sentenced to perform up to 100 hours of community service.
He said that since most of the "Mat Rempit" involved youths below the age of 19 and school drop-outs, they should be detained at the Henry Gurney School for a certain period.

He believes that by imposing heavier sentence it would deter youths from getting involved in such a menace, adding that parents should also play their role to avoid their children from getting involved with "Mat Rempit".

_____________________________________________________________________________

You call that change Tan Sri Lee? If you really wanna change, if you really want deterrents, lemme give you some hints.

Should them rempits ram through road-blocks, just shoot to kill. The more bullets you pumped into their heads the better. Make sure those reporter wannabes from TV3 are there with an army of camera persons to capture that glorious moment. Should the parents make any noise, shoot them in the heads as well. They are them assholes who brought those shitheads into this world anyways. Lemme rephrase that, God's grace brought them into this world but the parents are the loonies who brought up those otherwise potentially productive young Malaysians to be moronic maniacs anyways. Should the parents try to be wise and go legal, kill them lawyers who are that desperate for clients. There are too many lawyers anyways. They charge too much too. And they say if you're involved in an accident with a lawyer, make sure the lawyer is dead. If you're not, that is. Should any deputy minister from the prime minister department want to gain some political mileage out of the brouhaha, killed him as well. Politicians are a dime a dozen these days. They are of no great significance. Their demise are no loss.

Should them rempits stage illegal races, shoot to kill. Get them latest machine guns as shown on the Discovery Channel, that can fire 2000 rounds per minute. A rookie police officer could not miss with that kinda fire power. And don't forget them fans. Kill them too. If it's no trouble with that third most jaded TV station, go live. Show them rempits wannabe they can always go with a bang. Use CCTV or TV footage to identify the racers and their fan base. And hound them like dogs. Shoot to kill. Mercy killings are not necessarily reserved for stray canines. Should their dismayed parents try to...see last paragraph.

Should you find dumb girlfriends with them rempits, tudung clad or otherwise, and with their jeans cut so low that their cracks are revealed even standing up, kill them too. There are too many stray files of them doing the naughty sent to me mobile. I don't have the time even to delete them, let alone watch. And life's too short to watch blurred images on the tiny screen of the mobile. When you have big screen football matches to go to with your buds. At least we can get rid of the problems of teenage pregnancies, illegal abortions, neglected or abandon babies eaten by strays or more would be rempits with that spurt of bullets. Nip the problem at the bud. So they say.

Should you find out where they pimp their rides, kill them mechanics and shop owners. Making money out of pain and misery of others is the mother of all evil. Let alone getting rich. And yes, do ensure all killings be televised.

We don't need fines. We don't need their services in our communities. We don't want to spend billions for building new infrastructures or refurbishing existing ones in order to give second chances to moronic maniacal killers. We need to see smooth traffic flow. We need to see blood flow.

We want the government and authorities to give us law abiding citizens a break. And we need more than Kit Kats.

finally...eh?

2009-05-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

What can I say.

Mebbe TM is a lousy monopoly. But that's just stating the obvious. Monopolies monopolise all manner of inefficiencies. But I got to give it to some of their peeps. They do strive to be better.

After two weeks of trying the 100 number, I finally got somebody on the other line. A real person. Not some cold, mechanised voice telling you that all human staff are too busy to even bother. Yana's her name. Answered me call at 7.58am Thursday. Told her about all me misadventures and that am no IT nerd. Guided me through all them checks again and confirmed that the problem was with the modem. Told me that me problem would be solve within 3 working days. I could live with that. After living offline for nearly a month.

To me amazement, at 10am a guy from TM called. Amy's his name. Am at your front gate, he told me on the telephone. Looked like an AF wannabe but worked like a robot. Replaced the modem but still them blinks persisted. Gotta check them cabinets, he said. Me kitchen cabinets? I tried to be funny. I wish, was the reply. So he drove off and an hour later came back and them blinks were gone. And it's still half an hour shy of noon. So it's a combo, said Amy. Me modem and some damaged wirings at the cabinet. Whatever and wherever that was. Drinks? Nah, am working. And he left.

And at 3pm another guy from TM called and asked if everything was to me satisfaction. I didn't get his name as I was startled by this sudden bouts of efficiency. Said yes and fortunately remembered to thank him and hung up. Me Ma would be crossed if I had forgotten to say me thanks.

Got to eat me words some. Guess most peeps from operations and service are swell. And all sales persons are lousy assholes. Especially when they just sit there and expect support from operations, eh Mr G?

So here's to you Yana, Amy and the guy who called back to check on me. Kudos.

And to think that their ex-CEO is now me CEO. Well, it's a small world after all.

joker...eh?

2009-04-18T05:46:00.000-07:00

Went to the Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia 2009 earlier today. Strolled from the ENTER to the EXIT. From aisle to aisle. From stall to stall. Nothing excited me much. Jaded products being repackaged and rebranded. Some enthusiastic salespersons but many more whom looked like they were threatened at gun point to be there or else. The face is a media.

Just murdering some more boring minutes before me thang at 3pm when I noticed the Telekom Malaysia stall. And me feet began heading there before receiving them instructions from me brain. Ahhh...lovely salespersons. Before they started shoving them packages to me face that is.

You want to update to a broadband package sir?

I got me a Streamyx package thank you. A 512mb.

Would you like to upgrade it to the 1g. Just RM110.

Me speed is cool, thank you. I only do emails. And pretend to blog. Am not too into watching videos online. RM5 will get me a pretty decent DVD.

But think of the speed. You could respond to emails faster. And maybe update your blog regularly.

Huh? Since you're kinda too into this broadband packages, can I make an inquiry regarding me connectivity?

Sure.

See, I'm having a problem with them blings. Some days were good. Most were bleeding am-gonna-hack-and-slash-some-tm-personnel kinda days. Me ADSL that is. Any advice?

Your connections, your telephones?

Checked. They're cool with it.

Your wiring?

Checked.

You can call 100. And press 2.

Did that. But it seems not too many agents willing to listen to me problem.

Press 1 then.

Fuck you.

high speed...eh?

2009-04-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

Selamat datang ke TM.
Untuk Bahasa Malaysia, tekan 1.
For English, press 2.

For telephony and data services, press 1.
For internet services, press 2.

We're sorry, all our agents are busy. We got our lives to lead and we don't have time for you. Who the fuck do you think you are calling us at this ungodly hour, you moron. Even though we operate 24-7. Try changing to another provider if you dare.

Toot. Toot. Toot.

Yups. Malaysian service. Exaggerated the last bit but don't you think them sentences passed through their minds. If you managed to get through to them that is. Tried getting them since Thursday. Felt like smashing the modem with them dumbbells. They have to replace it of course. Part of the deal. And as if the friggin' modem sensed it's days are numbered, that mothafuckin' ADSL light finally decided to stop them blings.

And there are 537 unread mails. How do you reply stale mails? How do you even begin to get into stale discussions? High speed me arse.

Might as well spend me time at the Dewan Bahasa shop. They got a sale going on. Mebbe I could get me an Usman Awang classic or two. On the cheap. And doesn't bling.

a new dawn...eh?

2009-04-08T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ahh...a new Prime Minister. Welcome the new and goodbye to the old. And old is very subjective. Thank you for them good deeds. For them bad that should not have been done and them good that should have been done, history will judge.

And we'll all be judged. Was born when the first PM was still the PM. Remember the radio got nothing on but rendition of them verses from the Quran when the second met his Maker. Don't know much about the third. Or what he did for the country. Nor his son, except for changing education policies maybe. The forth came to office as I left me state for another, to pursue puberty. And oh boy, he did stayed some, that doctor.

Maybe the fifth came to office in the wrong era. He could be a swank PM in them swinging sixties. The country was poor, where there were little chance of money politics, where illiteracy and family togetherness was fairly common, where awareness anything except for them psychedelic drugs were unheard of and where his love for them arts would make him swing some. And most important of all, there wouldn't be that monkey on his back. In the realm of the internet and information superhighways, and with advisers so out of touch with reality, and stupid media like TV3, he's just asking for trouble. Despite all his promises, despite all them things he wanted to do all those, which seems like many thousands moons ago, when he came into office on a silver platter. It's too late now.

Lessons are meant to be learnt but life and of course politics is one motherfucking son of a bitching whore. Maybe The Most Powerful is just stating the obvious, and maybe laughing at our faces even. We can plan all we like, we can lobby for eternity, we can bargain for votes, we can set up a new party, we can try to change our race, or sexual preferences if possible and we can bitch till kingdom come but if He Says we're doomed to be jerks, we'll be just that. A nation of jerks.

Hopefully the new Prime Minister can prove them doomsayers wrong. For him and for the memory of his father. And for us all.

junk country...eh?

2009-03-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Why are them junks so popular especially among our youths? Why are they so popular despite having little or no nutritional value? Despite having ingredients considered unhealthy and even downright dangerous when regularly consumed? Despite them warnings given by them medical geeks? Despite them studies that were made public by medical journals?

Is it due to them being more convenient and easy to obtain and ready to be eaten? Is it because they taste good and our youths have developed the taste for them? Or have they been indoctrinated since they left them cribs, or maybe they are unfortunate victims of alien implants? Or is is just fashionable to follow the majority, and dumb down? Or is simply smart marketing and strategies by them producers of junks?

Guess them majority of our youths are ever ready to be duped. Sadomasochists. Deriving pleasures and gratification from physical and emotional abuses. Despite them warning signs everywhere.

Not unlike those yobbos in Pemuda Umno.

Duh...

country's crazy...eh?

2009-03-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

Since everybody's going crazy over nothing and those who are supposed to assist their children doing them Maths and Science homework in English prefer to have a free shower on the streets instead, reckon I'll soothe me own turmoil by going to the night market. I just love the sights and sounds. People watching is another.

There's this one stall. Always noticed that his stall had this darker shade of green, thinner variant of long beans. Apart from the normal variant being sold everywhere. Having tasted both, the former is good for stir fry, especially with chilli paste and prawns or bilis. The latter is good as part of a stir fry combo with other vegies or them masak lemak dishes.

I know it'd be a tall order to expect answers about the difference of vegies from that young chap but what the heck. So I asked him whether the darker green variant is a separate variety, a new cultivar or just the same variety but sourced from two different areas. And why is it more expensive than the common ones.

'Tak tau pulak saya tapi yang ni Cina tanam, yang tu Melayu tanam' was his reply.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

journey in the sky...eh?

2009-03-04T08:40:00.000-08:00

Sometimes.
The only things we are left with are just memories.
That too will be robbed from us sooner or later.
And we are left grasping at nothingness.
Gasping as everybody gawked.
Imagine the pain.
The lonesome.
Sigh.

caravan - kitaro & robert page

once a long long time ago
setting out to find our dreams
lost in memories of golden days
sometime rising in the spring
glowing shining came the sun
golden day beams come through to me now
those who know the fire burn
try to find forever the dream
try to find forever the way
my way...

caravan journey in the sky
as the sun comes out from the day
caravan we know who we are
we discover where we went
ooh ohh caravan
there we find the love
love shimmering
and soon our love
is through...

come with me and take my hand
memories of past unfold
and with you i live them once again
from my fading heart my hand
feel my walk in love within
and i wander when the spring will come
do we ever really know for sure
will we travel on and on
someday we'll be standing up
from today...

caravan journey in the sky
as the sun comes out from the day
caravan we know who we are
we discover where we went
yeah caravan
there we find the love
love shimmering
and soon our love
is through...

duh...eh?

2009-03-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

Be patient, PSD tells govt servants

PUTRAJAYA: Public Service Department director-general Tan Sri Ismail Adam yesterday hit out at Cuepacs for encouraging civil servants not to work overtime if the PSD fails to promote them.

He said Cuepacs should, instead, encourage civil servants to work harder to help the government to pull through the economic crisis.

Cuepacs president Omar Osman had said on Monday that some 50,000 of the lower level civil servants were threatening not to work over-time and would find a part-time job instead if PSD did not approve their promotions before May.

Ismail said civil servants should be grateful for their jobs as most of the people being laid off were in the private sector.
"We have their (civil servants) interest at heart but they need to be patient."
_______________________________________________________________________________

Encik Omar Osman must be a very popular man. Among his cohorts, that is. To be seen fighting for a noble cause. To be seen fighting for the rights of 'lowly' paid servants. To be seen as brave and confident, giving the ultimatum to their master, promote or else.

Yeah. Them government servants definitely deserve to be recognised. They have been working their asses off serving us, the public. As our servants, they definitely need a lucky break once in awhile. What being harassed by us from 8.30am right till the damn door closed at 4.00pm. Oopsss...how can I forget them morning, lunch and tea breaks? And those breaks between breaks? And those komputer offline la and pegawai tiada la arini? Or sila datang besok?

My bad.

Err...wait a bloody fuckin' minute. You were saying? Fifty mothafuckin' thousand bleeding lower level sonafuckin' bitchin' civil servants wanna fuckin' moonlight if they are not promoted? The whole bleeding herd need to be promoted before May? To a higher level civil servants? And then do what? The usual?

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Fifty thousand vacancies for those who were retrenched during these trying times. No?

Err...wait another fuckin' minute. So these new herd gonna replace whose places at that higher level of government civility? Those terminated because of lousy performance indexes? Those retired? No? Just to be absorbed into the already bloated whatchafuckincallit?

And why didn't this Tan Sri Ismail Adam just raise that finger and give the salute? Instead of trying to pacify? Is he the numero uno or not? What? He may harbour some political aspirations and may need grassroots support later? No? He's not the number one man and there are others pulling them strings? Duh!

May God spare some change for the future of our children.

err...eh?

2009-02-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

Ms Aliya asked me these...

Tarings, my only fear in this life is am I ready to face Allah swt when He calls me? Have my years as a Muslim gather enough amal to compensate for my dosa in those same years? Have I done enough in my obedience to His instructions, have my ego and self-righteousness been humbled by my submission to His will?How will the scales be like? What about you?

Err...err...

I used to think of meself as a moderate. Believe the Six. Fulfill the 5 Commandments. Read the Quran, trying to understand them translations. Sometimes. Do as much good. Avoid as many sins as possible. I know that's not enough. Not by a long shot.

The more I read, the more it seems that what I've been doing thus far is way, way down the scales. Nowhere near even the threshold. That is if they are worthy to be measured in the first place. What if all that had been done were just a waste of time? Not only were they worthless deeds but considered sinful. And intentions. Were me intentions solely as a submission to Him? Or like Aliya put it, to glorify me own ego and self-righteousness?

I don't know, Aliya dear. But I definitely am not ready to meet me Maker. Not with me current scorecard. All them deeds may come to naught. And them sins that I've done, echo in the background. Then there are them obligations to me parents, to me wife, to me daughters, to fellow humans. Have I fulfilled them appropriately? Will they redha if Allah were to call me tonight? Or will they dump all the blame on me?

Am gonna have one of them sleepless nights...

what a beaut...eh?

2009-02-26T07:07:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile.

Economically gloom. Politically dumbfounded.
The economy is going down the drain. The country is imploding.
Economists are morons. Politicians are retards.

Fortunately we have botanists and farmers. And like artists, their handiwork are bleeding awesome. They came up with gems like these.

What a beaut. And scientists claimed they are better than the originals. I dunno. Purple caulies in tom yams anyone?

What about the Romanesco Broccoli?

Or them carrots?

Or potatoes?

Or them peppers?

Am drooling.
If only they are available and on the cheap at Pasar Borong Pandan...sigh...

hyperventilate...eh?

2009-02-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

Kinda lazy today but this is one interesting write-up regarding the Ugly Malaysians. So chop chop...cut cut...paste paste...

Hypermarket tension

By PATSY KAM

You can find ugly Malaysians aplenty at hypermarkets.

MOST of us have done our fair share of shopping at hypermarkets. They’re popular because they house everything under one roof, prices are more competitive and heck, it’s a day out for the whole family come the weekends.

But there are certain things you’re just not supposed to do – well, at least not if you’re educated and civic-minded – at the expense of other shoppers. Nobody likes a queue jumper, or shoppers who push and shove their way to get what they want. And it’s certainly never acceptable to hijack another shopper’s trolley!

There have been instances when people tried to take my empty trolley when they thought no one was looking, especially a few years ago when you had to put in a RM1 coin to get one at a certain hypermarket.

Recently, I went to the one near my home to pick up some groceries. In fact, I was feeling quite good about the way things were going as I found most of the items on my shopping list and the staff were helpful.

Then, just about 20 steps from the cashier, I stopped to take a better look at the prices of some items. I left my trolley unattended at the beginning of one of the aisles because I figured it would be more troublesome to push it through the narrow aisle full of people.

When I returned, my trolley was missing! At first I thought I had absent-mindedly gone to the wrong aisle. But after hunting around a good 15 minutes, I concluded the staff must have thought I didn’t want the groceries any more and put back the trolley. What was worse, there were things that I had bought and paid for from outside the hypermarket in the trolley.

Furious, I complained to the manager and the staff on roller skates went around on a trolley hunting mission. The manager explained that the staff do not normally return the items to the shelves so soon. Perhaps some mischievous child had pushed away the trolley for fun, he suggested.

After another fruitless search, I gave up, and took a basket and grabbed a few essential items. I was tired and had already wasted an hour of my life. I was already mapping out the complaint letter in my head.

Then miraculously, the manager told me he’d located my stuff minus the trolley. True enough, there was my packet of fish, detergent, shoe polish and some 20 other items, unceremoniously dumped behind some boxes in an inconspicuous corner.

Either the irresponsible shopper was too lazy to get his own trolley or didn’t want to part with 20 sen to get his own. Of all the inconsiderate things that happen in hypermarkets, this takes the cake!

And surely you’ve seen those flyers promoting specials for one day only? Only to arrive to find the shelves empty ... You wonder how it is possible for a fresh supply of chicken, garlic, Milo or even chilli sauce to disappear so fast when surely the hypermarket would have made sure they had enough stock before advertising.

More often than not, it’s the small grocery shops or food vendors who will fill their carts and sweep the shelves clean.

Once, I asked, no, almost begged this guy who, judging from the conversation with his family, obviously ran a coffeeshop, to spare me a bag of Milo. I didn’t want to go home empty-handed and after all, he had like 20 bags in his trolley. He promptly refused, saying he didn’t have enough for himself.

No wonder hypermarkets sometimes have to limit shoppers to two packets per family. Even then, Malaysians find a way to beat the system as father, mother, uncle, grandmother and three kids, all queue and pay separately at the same counter to take advantage of the discount.

Speaking of separate bills, it is not good manners to split a RM150 shopping bill into five parts (although you have every right to), just because for every RM30 spent you get a lucky draw!

And the situation is made worse when you have a whole line of customers behind you, just waiting for you to get lucky.

And don’t get me started on shoppers who ignore the “10 items only” signboard and insist on paying at the express counter when their shopping cart is filled to the brim!

In the face of the hypermarket wars, the ugly side of shoppers surface to reveal the survival instinct of the typical kiasu (afraid to lose) Malaysian.

During the recent festive season, some shoppers were seen lugging around boxes of arrowroot (nga ku in Cantonese). Shoppers were supposed to either pick and choose from the trays, which offered smaller bulbs, or take their chances with the unopened boxes which apparently contained bigger ones.

But some decided to have the best of both worlds by opening the boxes, taking their pick and discarding the rest in the common pile. What’s even more annoying than trolley hijacking: one shopper had her bag of carefully hand-picked bulbs from the tray stolen from under her nose when she turned away to talk to someone for a short while. Now that’s what you call daylight robbery!

But the epitome of bad hypermarket manners is when the shopper parks herself and her children at the fruit station. While picking the fruits (like grapes, kumquat or longan, for example) for weighing, some people eat their fill while they’re at it.

Then again, one may argue there’s a fine line between testing a fruit and having a picnic. Makes sense why in Europe, they have a “see no touch” policy and items are all prepacked.

No choosing, squeezing or any suspicious behaviour allowed, least of all, tasting the goods before paying!

Shopping at the hypermarket has become a way of life for urban folks. Instead of sabotaging your fellow shopper, won’t it be nicer if we help each other out to make it a pleasant experience?

wednesday blast...eh?

2009-02-18T06:24:00.000-08:00

A blast from the past. And it's another 2 more days to the weekend. Sigh...

shoeing...eh?

2009-02-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

Shoe Thrower: Keep the rostrum area safe
By : DATUK TUNKU YUSUF JEWA, Kota Baru

IT was reported that China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao experienced the same fate as former US president George W. Bush at a gathering at Cambridge University on Feb 4, when a protester threw a shoe at him.
While it missed, I am worried that this behaviour is getting popular.

Thanks and no thanks to Muntazer al-Zaidi, the journalist who "introduced" shoe-throwing as a sign of contempt for unpopular heads of state. If it could happen to others, it could also happen to us.

Therefore, I suggest that should Malaysia invite any head of state to address a gathering, a net be erected in front of the rostrum. It may sound silly but one can never tell what kind of a crowd we could face.
______________________________________________________________

Hmm... That would be a blast. Giving a speech from inside a netted rostrum. Not unlike a chicken coop. If one is desperate enough, no layers of net will stop them. They won't be stopping at shoes. Reckon our politicians and heads of states are lucky that Malaysians are a tad subdued when expressing themselves. And what with written laws that could make you stay in detention without trial and unwritten laws that could make you just disappear altogether, I don't think our rulers, elected leaders or foreign dignitaries, regardless of how unpopular they are should be overly concerned with shoes flying their way. Not in this near future anyways.

But we'll never know. With the influx of foreigners who are not shy of fighting for their rights and ideologies, we'll never know. They could catch on with our sopan santun ways or their straightforwardness could rub off on us.

Some of us could prefer the 'unseen' missiles launched by witch doctors or bomoh. Mumbo jumbo, yes but when enough people believe as seen by the ever popular ghost serials and movies on the idiot box, it could probably be as painful as being hit by a size 12 shoe. Or worse.

off the line...eh?

2009-02-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

Finally I'm online again, thanks to Bojan who donated an old PC. It's a P3 but with a DDR instead of me old SDR. 256k but it's better than nothing.

PC is cheap but the salary comes with strings and dues attached. And the economy as it is, prudence is gold. I know, yapping of a cheap sod. Hahaha...

tainted formula...eh?

2009-01-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

Old formula no longer works

CERITALAH
By KARIM RASLAN

The by-election in Kuala Terengganu further emphasises that voters don’t want politics-as-usual. They want respect and service.
Hear...hear...

STANDING on the terrace of Pulau Duyung’s gleaming white Marina Exhibition centre, I can see Kuala Terengganu’s main landmarks ranged across the open water: the Sultan Mahmud bridge, the distant Bukit Besar emblazoned with the words “Allah Peliharakan Terengganu”, the police barracks, Chinatown’s shophouses, the centuries-old Masjid Puteh alongside the Istana Maziah, and the Grand Continental Hotel.

I must confess that I’ve never liked this town – give me Kota Baru any day.
Yups...gimme Kota Baru any day too.

Furthermore, I loathe the brand of puritanical politics preached by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and his faction in PAS. For better or worse, this had come to dominate the Terengganu political landscape.
A few would remember those ceramah tapes by the Haji from the eighties. Inspirations to more than a few. But for some of them inspired dudes, when in Australia, do what them Aussies do. Fosters and meat pies. Inspirations down them drains.

Nonetheless, the view before me is panoramic – almost heroic, made all the more so by the hulking presence of the white, sarcophagus-like exhibition centre behind me.

Moreover, at this time of the year the strong South China Sea monsoon winds buffet you aggressively as you walk back to the equally dramatic, if darker-hued, Riy-az Heritage Resort and Spa with its spectacular 10m-high verandah.

The two buildings are silent sentinels at the Terengganu rivermouth. Exquisitely built, but rarely visited and ghost-like, they remind you of the countless bizarre projects across the country – projects that may have seemed like a good idea at the time, only to languish and fade over the years as the initial enthusiasm for their construction and usage dimmed and then, in certain cases, just disappeared.

Someone should someday make a record of all these ill-conceived, under-utilised ventures; and with a recession fast approaching we certainly need to be reminded of all that’s been frittered away over the past decades.
Malaysian Book of Records?

But consider for a moment just how tactlessly placed the two buildings at the heart of the infamous Monsoon Cup truly are for Kuala Terengganu’s residents, reminding the townspeople time and again of the lavishness with which others – principally outsiders – have spent Terengganu’s highly prized Uang Ehsan or oil revenues.

All politics is local and last weekend’s by-election in Kuala Tereng–ganu (or KT as its better known) was principally about KT, its inhabitants and their politics and politicians.

Indeed, it was a very personal contest between two well-known local figures. And in this small, tightly-knit community nothing escapes notice.

The scrutiny was (and is) intense and unforgiving, leaving the Barisan Nasional flag-bearer, Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid of Umno, very much the weaker candidate which meant that his defeat was not unexpected.

However, the story does not end there. While the Umno candidate had his problems, the strategy employed to win over KT’s voters was vintage Barisan, and therefore hopelessly flawed and outdated. It was, as always, “money, money, money, veiled threats and more money”.
Me foot is beginning to move to that beat from yesteryear. Money, money, money. Always sunny, in the rich man's world. Aha-ahaaa...

Once again, Barisan has failed to read the mood of the Malaysian people. Its inability to do so is deeply worrying especially given the superior resources at its disposal. You have to ask yourself, how can a bunch of activists, former lecturers and Umno refuseniks out-strategise and out-manoeuvre Malaysia’s grand old party?

Well, I’m not a pollster but it’s clear enough to me that the people of Malaysia want more than contracts and money. In essence they want respect and service. Since March 2008, politics-as-usual is no longer acceptable. The old formula is dead.

The rakyat will no longer stand there patiently, receiving the benefits of development (which as citizens is theirs by right anyway) and trading their meek submissiveness for goodies.

Still, they’re not stupid. Of course, they’ll accept the cash and pocket the rewards, but that doesn’t mean they’ll vote accordingly.

The people want their representatives in Parliament (or any state assembly) to be humble, prompt to act, committed to good governance and straight-dealing.

In short, they are after a total reversal of the traditional Malaysian political equation – and something that Umno reps in Johor, for example, are more than used to doing. They want politicians to be their servants and not their masters. Barisan and Umno have yet to realise this fundamental change.

Added to this is the growing fearlessness among the people of all races – many of whom are confident enough to challenge elected representatives and ministers head on.

Unfortunately, Umno is in a forlorn state. The noble party of Merdeka is full of carpet-baggers and ne’er-do-wells. This is accentuated by the long drawn out party campaign period.

At the same time the impending accession of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as party president has dazzled the members.
But is he for real? Will he be there just as a door stopper?

They feel that he – and he alone – can, and will, rescue the party from its present “funk”. They feel that he has the secret ingredient which will allow them to continue as before – lobbying for contracts and hanging out in hotel lobbies smoking expensive cigars.
Gimme mariwana jawa anytime. It ain't Cuban but hey, I ain't no Guantanamo dude. Jamikan, dude. Jamikan...

Unfortunately, this is no longer true. Firstly, no one man can single-handedly transform a party of over two million members.
But if that two million are just sheepish sheep and stupid cows?

The party president will need a team alongside him to lead, and then bring about root and branch reform; and I’m still waiting to see the emergence of this ground-breaking “team” that will restore the semangat and passion to the political machine.

Umno needs an overhaul, not a cosmetic leadership change.

Secondly, and at the risk of repeating myself, there needs to be a wholesale change in the way politics – and especially the politics of development – is conducted.

These changes will in turn force the carpet-baggers out of the hotel lobbies and ministerial ante-rooms into the kampungs and urban slums to do real community work.
How can those who are born into money, projects and jobs on silver platters, despite being lazy and intellectually challenged change?

Finally, I must conclude by saying Pakatan Rakyat did not win the Kuala Terengganu by-election. It was savvy, but in essence Barisan lost it.
Unfortunately for us, we had to choose from those two idiotic groups. Lesser of two evils?

With the possibility of a by-election in Sabah (Pensiangan) fast approaching and the Sarawak state polls looming, the momentum has switched back to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan despite their many missteps.

Given this fact, it is no longer just a question of asking whether Umno is relevant to modern Malaysia because it so clearly isn’t.

The more crucial issue now is will the party ever regain its relevance?
Reckon some people will never learn. Even if reality gives them a tight backhand. Even if they are on the verge of being doomed forever.

err...eh?

2009-01-21T05:29:00.000-08:00

Who is this Garry Cook?

Executive Chairman of what? Manchester City Football Club?

Oh...

Well, what do you expect. They are owned by them Arabs. Them dudes with too much money but not much else.

It was reported that Cook met with Kaka’s father and chief adviser, Bosco Leite on Monday, and presented a vision that City thought would appeal to Kaka’s deeply religious side.

Damn! How religious is £100 million?

The proposal fell through Monday night with Milan and the Brazilian announcing that he was staying in Italy.

“If we don’t get Kaka it is not the end of the world, we got Craig Bellamy,” Cook said.

That goon who collects football jerseys?

Blimey!

nip and tuck...eh?

2009-01-19T05:48:00.000-08:00

Next step, BN image change

KUANTAN: Barisan Nasional must change its approach while continuing to serve the people after losing the Kuala Terengganu by-election, deputy Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said yesterday.

He said it was important for BN to improve its image and election machinery as its main task now is to win the next general election.

"This should be a good lesson for us and we must use it to win big in the next general election," he said after visiting the family of Zahari Baharom, who died of a heart attack last October.

Baharom, 34, was the Balok Pine Umno branch chief. He leaves a wife, Normala Fauzi, 27, and daugther, Puteri Izean Qistina, 4.

Khairy said it was wrong to point fingers after BN's defeat as various factors had contributed to this.

"If, as the people claim, the candidate is the main reason, then it will be quite easy to solve the problem.

"But the fact is there are various factors involved and we must shoulder the responsibility together and improve our performance," he said, adding that the lower voter turnout may have also contributed to the defeat.

Khairy said BN must also win the support of the younger generation as the coalition's future depended on it.

At the same time, he said Umno members must continue serving the people, especially the underprivileged.

"Our candidate (Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh) still secured more than 30,000 votes during this trying moment in Malaysian politics.

"It proves that we still have support at the grassroots level."

Khairy gave a cash donation to Normala and her father-in-law to help them start a small business.
_________________________________________________________________________

I dunno. I just couldn't laugh no more. Couldn't cry either.

Some people are blessed with thick skin. And some are blessed with good fortune as well. Whether their fortune are blessed, well your guess is as good as mine.

Will we see some minor nips and tucks or will we get to watch creepy Jackos in the making? Will these moves be of any use? To the ruling front? Or anyone for that matter? Will they be in vain? And another moronic front taking over? Hmmm...

juice...eh?

2009-01-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

Jews against Zionism

By BUNN NAGARA

Some religious Jews also reject an immoral, outlaw Israel in the name of their religion.

AMONG the many religious Jewish groups that reject today’s Israel and its Zionist basis are Satmar, Dushinski and Neturei Karta (NK, or “Guardians of the City/Faith”).

Present as communities in Israel, the United States and parts of Europe, they hold demonstrations to protest against Israeli atrocities and the creation of today’s Israel, saying that the Torah specifically forbids a Jewish state established by force and before the coming of the Messiah.
Cohen: ‘Any form of unjust violence is terrorism, whether state-sponsored or otherwise, and must be stopped.’

As a result, they are often sidelined by the Western mainstream media or attacked by pro-Zionist mobs, sometimes both at the same time. And yet among senior orthodox rabbis, religious Zionists form only a minority.

The three Talmudic oaths hold that Jews as a group must not forcibly create Israel, that they should not fight the will of the international community, and that the world would not unduly penalise Israel. Anti-Zionist Jewish groups find the very establishment of Israel to be a negation of these oaths.

NK is one of the most outspoken and controversial of these anti-Zionist groups because of its high-profile activism. Mainly resident in Jerusalem, New York, London and elsewhere in Britain, this has also led to misunderstanding from other groups.

In 2004, NK was censured by some Jewish groups when some of its rabbis held a prayer vigil for dying PLO leader Yasser Arafat. But NK said it shared some views with Fatah, such as a secular Palestinian state.

Two years later, some NK rabbis attended an international meeting in Teheran that Zionists labelled a “Holocaust denial” conference. Participants like NK were duly tagged as denying the Holocaust ever happened.

NK leaders replied that they went to affirm that the Holocaust did happen, while insisting that it should not be exploited by Israel today against other people like the Palestinians. They also said they needed to explain the difference between Judaism as religion and Zionism as politics.

One of these NK leaders is British-born Rabbi Ahron Cohen, whose grandparents emigrated to Britain about 100 years ago around the time that today’s Israel was conceived.

A religious family man, Rabbi Cohen is part of the Orthodox Jewish community in which he and his family “endeavour to live their lives entirely in accordance with the Jewish religion”.

He also describes himself as “one of many Orthodox Jews who completely sympathise with the cause of the Palestinians in their struggle against the Zionist state (Israel)”.

Cohen is one of the Jewish leaders I have discussed the Israel-Palestine problem with in recent years.

Here are some of his views expressed to me last week on Israel’s actions in Gaza today:

“The flawed illegitimate concept of the sectarian state of ‘Israel’ is not a ‘Jewish’ religious concept, but a secular nationalistic colonialist concept. It is the underlying cause of the 100-year-old confrontation and strife in Palestine.

“The immediate reason for Israel’s actions is therefore irrelevant. The nations of the world should begin to look at a peaceful dissolution of the Zionist state and concept, to be replaced by a single just regime acceptable to all. Only then can peace reign.”

On Israel snubbing world opinion: “The nature of Zionism is a selfish and forceful nationalism and is not concerned morally with world opinion. I presume that they are banking on the atrocities being forgotten by the world as other atrocities in history have been largely forgotten.”

On the consequences: “The medium consequences are difficult to predict. However, the long-term consequences must lead to an eventual dismantling of the rogue state, Israel.

“We cannot predict the sequence of events which will lead to this, but our prayer is that it should take place peacefully and speedily. The state of ‘Israel’ is a concept completely foreign to authentic Judaism.

“Judaism is a godly, ethical way of life which goes back thousands of years, whereas Zionism is a secular nationalistic amoral concept, barely 100 years old.

“Sadly, this fact is not immediately apparent to the world at large due to the popularity that Zionism has managed to achieve among people who are not prepared to approach the matter with an open mind, honestly and objectively.”

Terrorism: “Any form of unjust violence is terrorism whether state-sponsored or otherwise, and must be stopped. Of course great wisdom, national humility and the discarding of self-interests are required in order to establish what is ‘unjust violence’.”

US support for Israel: “Totally lacking in appreciation of the underlying problem and solution.”

US vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden calling himself a Zionist: “This is yet another example of the amazing but immoral success that Zionist propaganda has had in justifying and impressing its cause.”

President-elect Barack Obama: “Impossible to predict at this stage, but hopefully less bigoted and one-sided in favour of Israel than most of his predecessors.”

Anti-Zionist Jews: “Sadly, they are a minority but a significant one. They are not widely heard of mainly because of the tremendous Zionist or pro-Zionist effect on the media, and social pressures imposed upon anti-Zionists by Zionists or Zionist supporters.”

And the best solution for the Israel-Palestine problem? “A single state for all its citizens.”

Melawan secara lebih berkesan

Konflik yang semakin meruncing di Asia Barat mengundang pelbagai reaksi masyarakat dunia yang rata-ratanya mengutuk pencerobohan tentera Israel di Gaza serta tindakan kejam rejim Tel Aviv membunuh penduduk Palestin termasuk wanita dan kanak-kanak.

Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Perkhidmatan Masyarakat Persatuan Bulan Sabit Merah Malaysia (PBSMM), Tunku Raja Zarith Sofiah Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah cukup prihatin dengan konflik yang berlaku dan simpati terhadap nasib rakyat Palestin yang terus menjadi sasaran taktik buli rejim Israel. Dalam pertemuan dengan wartawan Mingguan Malaysia MARHAINI KAMARUDDIN, LUQMAN HAZIQ ABDULLAH dan MAZNAH ARSAD serta jurugambar RAJA JAAFAR ALI di The Zone, Johor Bahru, beliau memberikan pandangannya tentang konflik yang telah menyebabkan rakyat Palestin yang mengalami penderaan psikologi di bawah rejim Zionis. Isteri Tengku Mahkota Johor ini turut menasihati rakyat Malaysia supaya membaca sejarah konflik Israel-Palestin dan memahami bahawa ia bukan peperangan di antara Yahudi dan umat Islam.

Sementara itu Timbalan Pengarah Institusi Antarabangsa Polisi Awam dan Pengurusan Universiti Malaya, Prof Madya Dr Shakila Yacob berkata bakal Presiden AS, Barack Obama sukar untuk melawan arus penyokong Yahudi dalam kabinetnya. Dr. Shakila yang juga pensyarah dalam bidang Sejarah Awal dan Moden AS berpendapat, Obama tidak akan menjadi pemimpin yang pro Palestin seperti sentimen di Eropah ketika ini.

Dalam wawancara dengan wartawan Mingguan Malaysia, RABIATUL ADAWIYAH KOH ABDULLAH, beliau berkata, “Obama sedar beliau memerlukan kerjasama dunia untuk membebaskan ekonomi AS dari belenggu.”

Mingguan: Tunku memberi penekanan yang konflik Israel-Palestin bukan perang antara agama Yahudi dan Islam. Boleh Tunku jelaskan?

RAJA ZARITH: Apabila Pertubuhan Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu (PBB) memutuskan untuk mewujudkan sebuah negara Israel dan memilih menempatkannya di bumi Palestin, dari situlah bermulanya konflik Asia Barat. Saya mahu menjelaskan bahawa konflik Israel-Palestin ialah pertikaian mengenai wilayah, kesan pencerobohan pentadbiran rejim Tel Aviv ke atas wilayah negara lain. Ia bukannya peperangan di antara orang Yahudi dan Islam tetapi pertikaian tentang wilayah antara Israel dengan Palestin.

Penting bagi rakyat Malaysia memahami isu ini dalam konteks yang betul.

Sarankan rakyat Malaysia supaya merujuk kepada pautan web http://www.passia.org/ untuk lebih memahami aspek geopolitik krisis di Asia Barat ini. Mereka perlu merujuk kepada Peta Palestin 1878, sebagai sumber kronologi masalah Palestin sejak dua kurun lalu.

Kenapa Tunku merasakan perlu berhati-hati membicarakan konflik di Gaza terutama kepada golongan muda?

RAJA ZARITH: Ramai yang melihat konflik Israel-Palestin ialah peperangan antara Yahudi dan Islam, seolah-olah penindasan dilakukan oleh tentera Israel hanya ke atas penduduk Islam sedangkan Palestin juga didiami oleh orang Kristian. Jadi nasihat saya kepada orang muda Malaysia, kalau rasa hendak berjuang membantu penduduk Palestin di Gaza, sewajarnya mereka mencari maklumat di Internet terlebih dahulu, buat penyelidikan dan jangan bercakap membabi buta tanpa tahu latar belakang dan kedudukan sebenar konflik yang berlaku.

Konflik Israel-Palestin ini sudah lama berlaku cuma baru sekarang ini, Israel membuat keputusan untuk bertindak lebih ganas. Jadi saya rasa tak sedap hati sebab ramai yang keliru tentang status Gaza sebagai wilayah yang ditakluki Israel, asalnya tempat pelarian Palestin dari Tebing Barat.

Apa yang berlaku, Israel mengikis sedikit demi sedikit wilayah yang diduduki oleh rakyat Palestin sehinggakan ruang penempatan untuk rakyat Palestin di Genting Gaza semakin kecil, menjadikannya tempat paling padat penduduk di dunia.

Apakah pandangan Tunku terhadap inisiatif rakyat Malaysia melancarkan kempen memboikot produk Israel dan Amerika Syarikat (AS) sebagai menyokong perjuangan rakyat Palestin?

RAJA ZARITH: Itu terpulang atas pilihan masing-masing. Dengan memboikot produk AS, bukan kesemuanya tetapi produk tertentu, apa yang boleh kita capai? Kita hanyalah sebuah negara yang kecil. Katakan kita boikot Coca-Cola, adakah tindakan itu akan menjejaskan syarikat induknya? Ia mempunyai cawangan di India, Eropah dan seluruh dunia, jadi tak ada kesan jika hanya rakyat Malaysia yang memboikot Coca-Cola. Saya rasa jika kita betul-betul hendak menunjukkan simpati dengan rakyat Palestin, adalah lebih baik jika dikumpulkan sumbangan wang dan keperluan termasuk lampin pakai buang.

Bukankah tindakan memboikot itu adalah sebagai bantahan kepada sokongan berterusan AS terhadap kekejaman Israel?

RAJA ZARITH: Syarikat induk di AS tidak terjejas sebaliknya syarikat tempatan dan rakyat tempatan yang akan menerima kesannya. Kalau benar-benar mahu mengambil tindakan boikot, hentikan francais syarikat-syarikat yang mempunyai hubungan langsung dengan Israel dan AS. Tetapi kalau kita tutup francais sekarang, orang tempatan yang bekerja di cawangan McDonalds atau kilang Coca-Cola dalam negara akan kehilangan pekerjaan. Jadi untuk mengambil tindakan sedemikian, kita perlu menyediakan pekerjaan kepada mereka yang akan kehilangan punca pendapatan di seluruh negara. Senang untuk bercakap tentang boikot tetapi kena fikirkan mereka yang akan terjejas akibat tindakan itu. Sebagai negara demokratik, kita boleh mengambil pendirian untuk tidak membeli produk AS tetapi kesannya tidak nampak dan tidak secara langsung kepada ekonomi AS.

Jadi pada pandangan Tunku, gerakan boikot itu perlu dilakukan di peringkat antarabangsa?

RAJA ZARITH: Itu pun ramai orang tempatan di negara lain yang akan terjejas punca pencarian mereka dan kehilangan pekerjaan. Jadi perlu ada penyelesaian alternatif kepada pekerja syarikat atau francais AS. Dalam hal ini, saya masih ambil pendirian tindakan memboikot itu terpulang kepada kehendak masing-masing. Bagaimanapun daripada membuat sesuatu yang sangat minor, lebih elok kita lakukan cara lain.

Maknanya Tunku lebih cenderung menyokong langkah mengumpul dana untuk membantu rakyat Palestin?

RAJA ZARITH: Ya, lakukan secara hands on. Kita buat kutipan melalui kawan-kawan, keluarga dan orang ramai serta salurkan hasil kutipan itu kepada pihak berkaitan Palestin di Kuala Lumpur atau PBSMM yang ada kaitan langsung dengan Persekutuan Palang Merah dan Bulan Sabit Merah Antarabangsa (IFRC). Macam PBSMM kita salurkan kepada Persatuan Bulan Sabit Merah Palestin dan Mesir.

PBSMM sendiri menghantar pasukan doktor ke Kaherah, Mesir sebab ada Hospital Persatuan Bulan Sabit Merah Palestin di sana. Jika keadaan membahayakan, mereka akan serahkan bantuan perubatan kepada pasukan Bulan Sabit Merah Palestin di sempadan. Yang penting, segala bantuan itu akan sampai kepada penduduk Palestin di Gaza.

Sumbangan kita dari sini sama ada RM10 atau RM100 akan sampai kepada penduduk Gaza. Apa yang kita perlukan sekarang ialah sumbangan daripada rakyat Malaysia.

Adakah demonstrasi di Malaysia dan seluruh dunia memberi kesan kepada penyelesaian konflik Palestin-Israel di Gaza?

RAJA ZARITH: Memang ada kesan. Demonstrasi di seluruh dunia termasuk Eropah, Asia malah Amerika pun. Mungkin ada sedikit tekanan. Tetapi kalau kita lihat apa yang berlaku semasa Amerika hendak menceroboh Iraq, terdapat demonstrasi besar-besaran di London sehingga sejuta orang, lebih 700,000 orang di bandar-bandar besar di Amerika begitu juga Eropah - namun apa yang berlaku? Amerika teruskan juga pencerobohan dan penaklukan ke atas Iraq.

Dengan hanya menyalur sumbangan dana tanpa protes melalui demonstrasi dan boikot, tidakkah dunia akan dilihat seolah-olah bersetuju dengan tindakan Israel dan AS?

RAJA ZARITH: Betul. Maksud saya, kita boleh membuat protes untuk menyuarakan bantahan dan sokongan tetapi kalau sejuta orang di London dan sejuta orang lagi di Amerika, tidak memberi kesan pun kepada kerajaan AS, apa sangatlah dengan bantahan beberapa ribu orang di negara ini. Bagaimanapun kita tidak boleh juga berdiam diri. Tanpa protes daripada seluruh dunia termasuk Malaysia, mungkin PBB tidak merasa tekanan untuk menghentikan konflik yang berlaku. Kalau berdiam diri pun akan memberi bayangan seolah-olah kita tidak kisah dengan apa yang berlaku. Maksud saya kita perlu teruskan protes, tetapi hakikatnya tindakan itu tidak akan mengubah apa-apa.

Apa perlunya protes jika Israel tidak peduli apa pun tindakan dunia terhadapnya?

RAJA ZARITH: Rakyat Israel bukan semua bersetuju dengan tindakan rejim. Kawan saya di England memaklumkan, televisyen Israel melaporkan tentera rejim sendiri enggan masuk ke Gaza kerana tidak bersetuju dengan tindakan Israel.

Jadi saya kurang senang apabila ada pihak menggesa supaya jangan bercampur atau berkawan dengan Yahudi sedangkan bukan semua Yahudi jahat.

Apa komen Tunku apabila IFRC turut menjadi sasaran serangan Israel ?

RAJA ZARITH: IFRC bersikap neutral dan tidak menyebelahi mana-mana pihak. Persatuan Palang Merah atau Bulan Sabit Merah sesebuah negara termasuk PBSMM bukan pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO), ia pasukan bantuan tambahan kepada kerajaan. Hanya ada sebuah persatuan Palang Merah atau Bulan Sabit Merah dalam setiap negara. Sukarelawan Palang Merah dan Bulan Sabit Merah bekerja tanpa mengira kaum, bangsa atau agama. Disebabkan itu, IFRC cukup marah apabila dibom oleh Israel sewaktu hendak membawa keluar rakyat Palestin dari Genting Gaza sehingga menyebabkan seorang pemandu ambulans terbunuh.

Jadi apakah pandangan Tunku mengenai desakan dunia termasuk dari Malaysia supaya Israel dan AS diheret ke mahkamah antarabangsa sebagai penjenayah perang?

RAJA ZARITH: Secara jujurnya saya tidak cukup pengalaman dan pengetahuan sama ada mereka ini perlu dibicarakan sebagai penjenayah perang dan sebagainya. Terserah kepada pemimpin negara untuk menggerakkan usaha ini kerana mereka lebih arif tentang undang-undang negara dan antarabangsa. Sungguhpun begitu, kita boleh bersuara sebagai rakyat yang bersimpati dengan penderitaan rakyat Palestin dan mengutuk keganasan Israel yang sudah keterlaluan dan dibiarkan bermaharajalela terlalu lama. Bayangkan berapa lama rakyat Palestin hidup tertekan.

______________________________________________________________

Yups. There are Jews and there are Jews. Good Jews, bad Jews, hardworking Jews, lazy Jews, clever Jews, moronic Jews, kosher Jews and then there are the McJews.

Then again, there are Malays and there are Malays. You know the drill.

gets to your head...eh?

2009-01-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

In your head, in your head,
Mawi, Mawi, Mawi.
What's in your head, in your head?
Mawi, Mawi, Mawi.

Hahahaha huhuhuhu hehehehe...

MAWI'S WEDDING: Not the way to display wealth

I HAVE always been disgusted reading about celebrities/politicians/corporate figures spending huge amounts of money to celebrate personal events like marriages, awards, key achievements, etc. Being the role models and public figures that they are, I feel it is not appropriate to demonstrate such blatant extravagance, which I think is really a form of insensitivity to public opinion.
Die-hard fans or followers of celebrities would obviously want to partake in the happy occasions without realising that their participation is just a form of escape from the realities of their own lives.

Thus, it was with disappointment and disgust that I read about Mawi’s never-ending wedding activities. On Monday, there was yet another expensive reception, this time at one of the top hotels in the capital. If I am not mistaken, this was the third reception of his wedding and as extravagant as the first two. It doesn’t matter where the money came from — his pocket, his record company, sponsors, etc. This is just not the way to spend money.

It just pains me to imagine how much the money could have meant to thousands of less fortunate children living in shelters, the poor, the terminally ill, the homeless and the displaced.

Mawi’s ostentatious extravagance is all the more to be criticised because it was not so long ago that he was just an unknown person from a Felda settlement. He got his lucky break and, now, in just a few years, he seems to have forgotten his roots.
His fan base, one suspects, would demographically be constituted of those from the lower-income group, so is he now telling all his fans and admirers that one should not be prudent with one’s accumulated wealth?

______________________________________________________________________

You said it mate.

But hey, not everyday a rempit from Felda get to do extravagance mate. And not even princes or princesses get to have their pre-fucking ceremonies televised. Umpteenth times. Hopefully the pussy was worth the effort.

I remember one such weddings. Not that too long ago. Held at the place where them UMNO shitheads do their backstabbing and some. Heard that it cost a cool RM1m. And for what? A year worth of copulation? Fortunately the motorcyclist chick's next one wasn't so ostentatious. Hopefully this one will last a lot longer.

And talking about opulence, why don't we asked him how much he had contributed to them Palestinians? Datuk Siti contributed RM2,000 and got media coverage. Maybe if that ex-rempit guy were to donate RM5,000, reckon there'll be another 2 weeks worth of Mawi TV.

campaign coffee...eh?

2009-01-16T18:30:00.000-08:00

Some coffee do leave a bad taste in your mouth. Especially when that cuppa is political. Especially when everybody's airing each others' dirty laundry for all to see. Forgetting that they are the ones who gonna wake up Monday morning in KT and continue breathing. Especially when the opposition won.

Saw Najib on TV last night. Damn! I know he has white hair.

But last night his hair looked all white and some. Maybe he's morphing into this?

God save us.

arable...eh?

2009-01-11T01:47:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's the fate of them Arabs. To be a race highly regarded by Allah. To have the Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) hailed from amongst them. To kill each other. To be rich beyond their own dreams and flaunt their wealth for the world to see and enrich the enemies of Islam in the process. To make asses of themselves. To be poor and living in dilapidated shacks in their own homeland. To be slaughtered by Jews. Arable land indeed. But are Arabs able? Are they too into their tribal or nationalistic shit not to care? Should we care? Allah will definitely care. But He also mentioned something about not helping a race or a group of people until they start helping themselves. Will our effort sufficient? We really hope so.

So what's this about boycotting American and/or Jewish products? Will it help? Will it make a dent in their profit? A few of them products don't even reach our shores, let alone us purchasing them. So what if this campaign manages to close a few outlets or factories here, reckon who'll be the victims? Those factories will sooner move to Vietnam or further east. Reckon those young Malay kids who man the cash register, take orders and mop the floor at McDonalds or arranging goods at Carrefour be able to get a better job in these trying times with only their SPM to show? Those doing shifts in the Permanis's Coca Cola and Maggi/Nestle factories be able to move to Vietnam or further east?

Is being an Arab a curse? Is being a Muslim a curse? Is being a Malay a curse for that matter? Or are these just tests of faith? Maybe if that stretch of arid godforsaken land is just that, arid and godforsaken, could them Arabs live peacefully among them camels and goats. But they have been cursed with black gold and not being equipped with the faculties to match. Despite all them great Islamic scholars of old came from there. Were they not Arabs? Were they Muslims with Arabic sounding names from faraway lands?

Of course we sympathise with them poor innocent Palestinians. We feel for them. Blown to bits, barricaded and no aid coming their way. But do their Arab brothers even care? The last I heard Dubai is still flaunting like crazy. Saudi Arabia is still counting the money they raked in after the just completed Haj season. Apart from the income generated by that cursed black gold. Are other Muslims making it easier for them Palestinians by their interpretations of Islam? Are the Palestinians making it easier for themselves? That arid and godforsaken stretch of no man's land, with those wretched children and toddlers and widows living in dilapidated shanty towns has two factions. Not counting tribal and other allegiances. In the whole Arab world? In the whole of the Muslim world? OIC? Who's the Secretary General of OIC? Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu? Oh...

Hmm...fortunately there's Ramly burger. Got to check whether they do the Prosperity...

single and not looking...eh?

2009-01-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

Single and sure.

A letter written by Bibi Sabariah of Rembau.

As a mother of a 29-year-old daughter who is single (and lethal, as she likes to put it), I read That dreaded ‘M’ word (Weekender, Jan 3) with a chuckle.

I think all parents, especially mothers wish the best for their children, particularly their daughters, as they are the ones who get bombarded with the “M word”.

Indeed, while I would like to see my only daughter settle down with her own knight-in-shining-armour (not that she is in need of any rescuing, mind you), I think it’s much more important for her to be content and fulfilled with her own life, albeit being single, in a relationship or married.

I object to the writer’s mother who is “not proud of having an unmarried daughter living with her”, as I feel mothers should support their daughters.

My daughter has actually asked me several times whether I am ashamed or embarrassed that she hasn’t tied the knot yet, especially since her younger brother recently got married. And inevitably, friends, relatives and guests at the wedding kept asking me when her turn was coming.

My reply to my daughter would always be point-blank “Never”, and my response to all the prying minds would be: “When she’s ready.”

I really wonder why people assume the roles of being nosy-parkers and busy-bodies when it comes to other people’s children?

Although I am worried about my daughter living on her own in the city, I trust that she knows what is best for her. I like to believe that I have raised her well and that she’s more than capable of taking care of herself.

As my daughter’s perspective of life is similar to the writer’s friend: “To be single and happy, and not married and miserable” — I wish all mothers understand their daughters’ feelings more. It’s crucial for them to know that we’ll back them no matter what.

____________________________________________________________

It used to be simple when filling in online forms. Married or Single.

Now. Well, what can I say. Married. Married but available. Married and looking. Single. Single but not available. Single but not looking. In a relationship. In a relationship but available. In a relationship but looking. Hmm...

Being a non traditionalist, I have to agree with Ms Sabariah's stand. It's no longer what we as parents want. It's not important what the relatives want. And what society wants is a non-issue. It's always what them daughters want. And being non traditionalists themselves, well, I could almost see what's coming.

This period of them girls being teenagers, easily impressed and experimenting, is the one where we as parents should be playing our parts correctly. As a friend, partner, motivator, counsellor and of course when the need arises, a disciplinarian.

It always troubled me when reading news in them papers about juvenile delinquents and delinquencies. Will them girls sway to the dark side? Will they one day get mixed up with the wrong crowd?

And how on earth did that crowd became bad? And I'm talking about bad and destructive crowd of young adults whom are bordering on the criminal here. Not the post modern, non traditionalist crowds who are having fun and not disturbing anyone. Maybe irritating some of them more conservative and religious section of our society. Total parental neglect? Education? Too much time on their hands? And nothing much to do. Too much or too little money? Class distinction? Social rejection? Them kids and young adults are way forward in their thinking for the majority of our conservative Asian society? Clash of cultures? Foreign influences? But them Americans and British complain about their destructive young too. Are them westerners that bad or are we just pointing fingers? Methinks a large majority of them westerners are way polite and cultured than us supposedly charming Asians. So what is wrong with them youths? What or who is poisoning them minds? Or is it just a phase of life that we should not be too overly concerned? We were young and rebellious once. But the line between what is bad and what is just a phase of life and being rebellious is a tad gray if you asked me.

Parenting is always a gamble. This is no exact science that can be tested in a lab with predictable results. It could to a point but there is too much external factors, too many what ifs, too many unpredictability. And then there is of course for us Muslims, Qada' and Qadar.

Guess I just have to read and reread all them How To Be A Good Parent books, Islamic and conventional and just give them girls unconditional love and support, with lots of Doa in between. And hope to live to see them be their independent selves.

Hopefully no and/or nor buts. Just happily married. Or happily single.

Image nicked from Piraro's

sole to soul...eh?

2009-01-06T05:38:00.000-08:00

Regardless of plans, preparations and such, end of December and the beginning of January never fail to amaze me. Eh...never fail to overwhelm me I meant to say. And what with Ma's condition wrecking havoc in me brains and some.

Fortunately the girls had turned out to be cool dudettes. And they took it upon themselves to manage things. Not too bad I would say. And fortunately, unlike them Simply Red geeks, money is not too tight to mention.

Guess some red, gold and green soles will cheer up the mood some. So let see what we got here. Reckon Ms Imelda Marcos would recoil in horror. Hehehe...

A few models by Adidas.

A few more by Nike...

Cool soles by other cool brands...

Maybe a few for the girls. Reckon they'll love them colours too.

Life is too colourful to lay it to waste.
If only I can spare a few souls for them soles...

civil...eh?

2008-12-27T22:36:00.000-08:00

Are our civil servants less than civil?

Malaysia’s public delivery system has seen some degree of improvement, over the past few years, thanks to the efforts of the Abdullah administration. However, the Public Complaints Bureau has in recent months seen complaints against government frontliners piling up. once again. NURRIS ISHAK finds out where are civil servants going wrong

THOSE who grew up in the 1980s would remember an advertisement by Filem Negara Malaysia on government department frontliners.

The advertisement featured a man waiting in line early in the morning to buy stamps at the post office. The problem was he had no small change and ended up being berated by the clerk behind the counter.

Have things changed since?
Will things ever change?

Over the years, there have been many directives from ministers and chief secretaries to the government directing civil servants to be more courteous and efficient.

Admittedly, some things are much easier. Renewing your passport, for example, is only a matter of hours instead of days.

And gone are the days when getting your identity card would mean waiting for a few months. Now you can get it between 10 and 14 days.

These changes are the result of the push by the administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to improve the public delivery system in the country.
Yeah, right. Look what his changes did to him.

Recently, though, frontline officers in government agencies have come under fire again.

Statistics from the Public Complaints Bureau (PCB) shows that the number of complaints against government departments and agencies has more than doubled in the past three years.

The complaints range from delays or failure to take action, unsatisfactory quality of service, failure of enforcement, unfair action and failure to adhere to procedures to abuse of power and misconduct.

For the past three years, police recorded the highest number of public complaints received by the bureau, followed by the Public Works Department and government-linked Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

When it comes to states, the most number of complaints in 2006 and last year were against the Selangor government, followed by Johor.

However, Johor tops the list of complaints for the period from January to October this year.
Hmmm...should I emigrate, say to KL? Blueks...I rather endure. But I don't do much government agencies anyways. Just them hospitals and land office to pay their yearly homage. Them hospitals peeps are cool. Them land office counters are fast. No complaints there. But why on earth the government, having the MSC, with a ministry to take care of it and shit doesn't heavily promote the online way? It could easily cut government servants who manned them counters by half. They are the rude and lousy ones anyways. If you're bad, you don't deserve shit. Unfortunately in this real world, those suckers are probably going to be the ones staying. Because they're the better ass-lickers. Hmm...it'd be a pity if the good and polite ones are being unfairly terminated. Maybe we're doomed to pay for incompetencies in this country of ours. Hard luck...

Last week, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan said the rise in the number of complaints should be translated as "the public's response" on how to improve it.

He said the more complaints received, the better it was, because it would help the civil service to see where it was going wrong.

Public Service Department director-general Tan Sri Ismail Adam thrust the much-maligned service into the limelight recently when he said the quality of service among civil servants was on the decline.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator T. Murugiah said the Public Service Department should hire quality people to work for the government.

"They should not be taking in their friends or family friends or family members into the service. They must look for quality, not quantity, when recruiting those who want to join the government sector.

"They have to look for those who are academically qualified and disciplined."
About time too. We're a country with too many bureaucratic shit and quotas if you asked me. And this is the result.

Those in the public service sector should also be proactive in dealing with the public and not wait around for the people to call on them before taking action, he said.

"Even then, one of the most common complaints is that the officers in government departments don't answer phone calls. As public servants, they should be serving the public.

"They should go to the ground and meet with people. Most importantly, they should like their jobs.
Hahaha. This is a good one. If you don't land a fat paying job. Or any job at all. Look for one in the public service. Put your legs on the table, spread them wide so that they won't cramp your balls, open the pc and maybe browse for porn, maybe take a nap and wait for your monthly paycheck. If the suffering public dare to even disturb your quality time, it's your bloody right to spew out them nasties and maybe humiliate them for good measure.

"They should realise that they are collecting their salary from the government so they have to perform their duties well, they are obliged to serve the public."

The problem does not lie with the leaders, said Murugiah. Most times, the department or agency leaders are good, but their subordinates fail to follow instructions for whatever reason.
You sure on this Mister Minister? Care to tell the number one or two?

"This is where the problem lies. The order would come from the upper levels, but either it is ignored or executed halfheartedly.

"Some ministries have complained about me, saying that I am interfering in their affairs but I'm only trying to assist them in rectifying the matters."

He said many people had complained that despite having written formal letters, making calls and having spoken with the officers in charge, no action was taken on their complaints. Thus they have no choice but to go to the Public Complaints Bureau.

"The problem is when a ministry or a department has to be represented during the mediation process, they would send officers who don't have the authority to make the decisions. These officers will excuse themselves by saying they have to refer the matter to their higher-ups as they are not the decision makers.

"The problem would then remain unresolved or matters have to be postponed for them to get the approval from their bosses.

"I've tried to explain to all the ministries that when there is a meeting with the PCB, they should send someone who can make decisions.

"It's hard to do my duty. We give the instructions but they don't follow. The leaders want to do their job well. But when the instruction is given, the officers don't want to follow, so the files move very slowly."

The PCB has 270 officers specialising in different areas, and all are well-trained to assist complainants.

"My office is open to the public every Tuesday, from 10am till late at night so that they can come in and lodge their complaints directly to me.

"I have engaged three other officers to assist me, as sometimes we would get between 200 and 300 people coming to lodge complaints."

The director-general of PCB, Dr Tam Weng Wah, said the government had been trying to ensure that the public delivery system was working well, finding out what was lacking and resolving problems.

"The PCB monitors all departments and agencies, and some may be more difficult to deal with than others, sometimes because of the bureaucracies.

"But if we were to compare the number of complaints against the size of the population, it is quite low.
You want to wait until the number of complaints is comparatively big? Most don't bother complaining, stoopid. They just vent their frustrations by voting the government out the next time around.

"The delivery system has improved by leaps and bounds in certain cases. As the technology changes, we can still improve it further."

maybe...
yeah...maybe...

lemon republic...eh?

2008-12-27T07:58:00.000-08:00

ROBERT SKIDELSKY: This is a crisis of deviant economics

ECONOMICS, it seems, has very little to tell us about the current economic crisis. Indeed, no less a figure than former United States Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan recently confessed that his entire "intellectual edifice" had been "demolished" by recent events.
Scratch around the rubble, however, and one can come up with useful fragments. One of them is called "asymmetric information".

This means that some people know more about some things than other people. Not a very startling insight, perhaps. But apply it to buyers and sellers. Suppose the seller of a product knows more about its quality than the buyer does, or vice-versa. Interesting things happen -- so interesting that the inventors of this idea received Nobel Prizes in economics.

In 1970, George Akerlof published a famous paper called The Market for Lemons. His main example was a used-car market. The buyer doesn't know whether what is being offered is a good car or a "lemon". His best guess is that it is a car of average quality, for which he will pay only the average price.

Because the owner won't be able to get a good price for a good car, he won't place good cars on the market. So the average quality of used cars offered for sale will go down. The lemons squeeze out the oranges.

Another well-known example concerns insurance. This time it is the buyer who knows more than the seller, since the buyer knows his risk behaviour, physical health and so on.

The insurer faces "adverse selection", because he cannot distinguish between good and bad risks. He, therefore, sets an average premium too high for healthy contributors and too low for unhealthy ones. This will drive out the healthy contributors, saddling the insurer with a portfolio of bad risks -- the quick road to bankruptcy.

There are various ways to equalise the information available -- for example, warranties for used cars and medical certificates for insurance. But, since these devices cost money, asymmetric information always leads to worse results than would otherwise occur.

All of this is relevant to financial markets because the "efficient market hypothesis" -- the dominant paradigm in finance -- assumes that everyone has perfect information and, therefore, that all prices express the real value of goods for sale.

But any finance professional will tell you that some know more than others, and they earn more, too. Information is king. But just as in used-car and insurance markets, asymmetric information in finance leads to trouble.

A typical "adverse selection" problem arises when banks can't tell the difference between a good and bad investment -- a situation analogous to the insurance market.

The borrower knows the risk is high, but tells the lender it is low. The lender who can't judge the risk goes for investments that promise higher yields. This particular model predicts that banks will over-invest in high-risk, high-yield projects, i.e. asymmetric information lets toxic loans onto the credit market.

Other models use principal/agent behaviour to explain "momentum" (herd behaviour) in financial markets.

Although designed before the current crisis, these models seem to fit current observations rather well: banks lending to entrepreneurs who could never repay, and asset prices changing even if there were no changes in conditions.

But a moment's thought will show why these models cannot explain today's general crisis. They rely on someone getting the better of someone else: the better informed gain, at least in the short-term, at the expense of the worse informed. In fact, they are in the nature of swindles. So these models cannot explain a situation in which everyone, or almost everyone, is losing -- or, for that matter, winning -- at the same time.

The theorists of asymmetric information occupy a deviant branch of mainstream economics. They agree with the mainstream that there is perfect information available somewhere out there, including perfect knowledge about how the different parts of the economy fit together.

They differ only in believing that not everyone possesses it. In Akerlof's example, the problem with selling a used car at an efficient price is not that no one knows how likely it is to break down, but rather that the seller knows well how likely it is to break down, and the buyer does not.

And yet the true problem is that, in the real world, no one is perfectly informed. Those who have better information try to deceive those who have worse; but they are deceiving themselves that they know more than they do.

If only one person were perfectly informed, there could never be a crisis -- someone would always make the right calls at the right time.

But only God is perfectly informed, and He does not play the stock market.

"The outstanding fact," John Maynard Keynes wrote in his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, "is the extreme precariousness of the basis of knowledge on which our estimates of prospective yield have to be made."

There is no perfect knowledge "out there" about the correct value of assets, because there is no way we can tell what the future will be like.

Rather than dealing with asymmetric information, we are dealing with different degrees of no information. Herd behaviour arises, Keynes thought, not from attempts to deceive, but from the fact that, in the face of the unknown, we seek safety in numbers. Economics, in other words, must start from the premise of imperfect rather than perfect knowledge. It may then get nearer to explaining why we are where we are today.

The writer, a member of the British House of Lords, is professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University, author of a prize-winning biography of economist John Maynard Keynes and a board member of the Moscow School of Political Studies

____________________________________________________________________________

Deviant indeed. And to compound it, the herd mentality. We are in for some zingy shit here mates.

Image nicked as always from Bizarro.

maybe...eh?

2008-12-26T07:03:00.000-08:00

Operative Note.

Perioperative Procedures

Perioperative Findings

Intussusception noted at rectal area.
Easily reducible intra operative.
Cauliflower ulcerated rectal tumour noted which was not circumferential.
No ascites fluid noted in the peritonal cavity. Liver palpated, no nodule felt.

Operative Procedures.

i) Access:
- Lower midline

ii) Procedure:

- Pt on supine position and under GA.
- Area clean and draped.
- Lower midline incision.
- Peritoneal cavity entered in layer.
- Findings noted as above.
- The small intestines are walled off and a self-retaining retractor
is inserted into the wound.
- The peritoneum is divided anterior to the rectum at the level of
the base of the cervix.
- After the peritoneal attachments have all been divided, and the
rectum is freed both posteriorly and anteriorly.
- The inferior mesenteric artery is ligated as it arises from the aorta.
- Inferior mesenteric vein is divided.
- Demartel clamped at proximal part and divided between the clamps.
- Distal segment is mobilised and cut using linear cutter size 60.
- Rectal wash done from elow using Povidone iodine.
Hemostasis secured and end to end anastomosis done using circular stapler size 29.
- Proximal and distal doughnut checked.
- Anastomosis site reinforced as its serosal layer with safil 3/0.
- Insufflation test done with negative finding.
- Passive drain inserted at the pelvic region.
- Rectus closed with loop dafilon 1/0.
- Skin closed with stapler.

iii) Specimens sent:
1. Low anterior resection specimen
2. Apical lymph node
3. Mesenteric and mesorectal lymph node (>11 nodes)
4. Proximal doughnut
5. Distal doughnut

NBM

IVD 2.5l/24 hour
Monitor BP/PR/RR hourly then 4 hourly if stable
O2 3l/min with Spo2 monitoring 4 hourly
IV augmentin 1.2g tds
Analgesic - PCA morphine
Flatus tube and abdominal drain chart
Chest physio and deep breathing exercise
Wi D3
Stapler removal D7
To get gastrograffin enema at POD5 - POD7
___________________________________________

I can't decipher any of these medical geeks wordplay. But reckon it's a good sign. Gotta have Doctor Rocky decipher them for me. Yeah, his straightforwardness is a tad brutal but at least he's not one to give false hope.

The important thing is Ma is recuperating and responding well post operation. And her nervous smiles pre-operation was replaced by more radiant ones. She's always been a strong lady and reckon this is not the time she's gonna go soft. She's always been a fighter. And this is a fight she intends to win.

Thank you O God, The Merciful and The Compassionate. We'll always accept what is planned for us. The good with gladness and some. The bad with redha and open heart. For this life is always for You O God, The Merciful and The Compassionate.

ma...eh?

2008-12-21T06:19:00.000-08:00

Radiology Report.

Patient: Female 61 years 2 months

Radiology report: Abdomen/Pelvic CECT
CT 7 mm slice thickness with 1.5 pitch from the dome of diaphragm till the symphysis pubis.

Findings:
There is short segment luminal narrowing with a mass seen arising from the wall of rectosigmoid colon.
There is loss of normal clear margin of the serosa.
There is streakiness of the pericolonic fat.
There is still a plane between the rectosigmoid lesion and the bladder.
There is no enlarge pelvic nodes.
No fluid or air seen within the uterus.
No loculated fluid collection in the pelvis.
Hypodense liver lesion in segment 6.
No dilated intrahepatic duct. No gall bladder stone.
CBD not dilated.
No focal lesion in the pancreas and spleen.
There is staghorn calculus on the right side.
Small cortical renal cyst on the left kidney. No hydronephrosis.
No enlarge pareaaortic paracaval node.
No lung nodules in the lung bases.
No pneumoperitoneum.

IMP: Rectosigmoid mass with liver lesion.
This represent cancer rectosigmoid colon stage D
Right staghorn calculus.

Gribbles Pathology Report.

Clinical History

Ca sigmoid colon.

MACRO

Specimen designated --- Sigmoid colon.

Four fragments of irregular greyish brown tissue measuring 1.8cm in aggregate diameter. Sectioned and entirely submitted in one block.

MICRO

Section shows fragments of tissue composed of malignant epithelial cells forming closely packed glands and nfiltrating the stroma. The tumour cells are pleomorphic, columnar in shape, have vesicular nuclei with prominent nucleoli and eosinophilic cytoplasm. There is increased mitotic activity. Histologic grade - moderately differentiated. Areas of ulceration and necrosis are seen. Tumour necrosis is seen in the lumen of some of the glands.

Sigmoid colon biopsy: Adenocarcinoma, moderately differentiated, infiltrating.
______________________________________________________________

Wished Biology interest me when I was in Form 4. And I got on to do medicine. Guessed I chickened out when I took the easier Social Science class instead. But what's the point, out of 110 or so of us from back then, only 2 got to be doctors. Looking back, there are a million and one things I wished I could have done differently. But what's the point, apart from unnecessary heartaches and that bitter feeling of being stupid.

And it won't helped Ma a bit now. We had done and will be doing all we can to ensure her full recovery and make her as comfortable as possible. All she need right now is the gift from Allah The Merciful, The Compassionate. He is the One Who Determines.

Oh Allah, The Merciful and The Compassionate.
Please take care of me Ma as she had taken care of us from birth.
Please protect her from harm as she had protected us from birth.
Please rid her of all her ailments, rid her of her pains and sufferings.
Please give her courage and strength to face these tests of Yours.
Please protect her from evil, by things seen and unseen.
Please pave the way for us her children to be able to assist.
To offer financial assistance.
To offer our energy.
To offer our time and help Ma be better again.
Please Oh Allah, The Merciful, The Compassionate.

sports illustrated...eh?

2008-12-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is one of the sports that get me a tad delusional. Yeah, they are all talented girls alright. If you think that being able to swim around in circles in unison with one another or in a group is actually a talent. Maybe I'm putting me foot in me mouth. But what do I know, as a guy who's into contact sports.

Foot in me mouth?

Hmmm...maybe it's a sport after all, especially when they have twins Bia and Branca Feres in their sport. Am getting delusional.

morons...eh?

2008-12-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

I dunno. Reckon that dude from those many years ago in the American automobile heartland had had enough of using his hands to indicate where he's going. And so he created the turn signal lights. Them lights did all the signaling right or left since, and his right hand could then get busy with that sheila next to him. Unfortunately some drivers don't only fail to use their brains but the turn signals as well because they expect everyone else to know where they're going. Turn signals are definitely the most underutilised device on a car, thanks to them assholes. Yet signaling is one of the most important actions you can take as a driver, warning other drivers of your impending moves to minimise nasty surprises. There's only one Nostradamus, stupid! Failing to signal may be the cause of quite a few accidents, and is probably a big source of road rage as well. Not to mention traffic gridlocks.

We seem to be getting more and more of them moronic drivers. And some drive flashy cars that could cost few hundred thousand ringgits, with stylish indicators and all. But the lever is never utilised. Don't let me start on them souped up Kancils zigzagging between lanes without signaling because the drivers thought they were still mat rempits on motorcycles. You can only shake your head in disbelief sometimes. You almost run into them some other times. Hopefully you don't run into them. If I were to run into one of them morons, I'll make sure they die. And should I know where their parents and siblings live, I'll hound them down and if the chance present itself, I'll run them over as well and make sure the whole litter get buried in the same hole. Never let inferior genes evolve. Darwin couldn't agree more.

I dunno. Maybe for every pack of diapers purchased, they got them stickers. And since each household purchased 2 packs a week, the neighbourhood is littered with them stickers. And soon the whole fucking postcode is sticking them stickers on their cars. So the stickers tell us to be mindful and watchful because they got babies on board. I can certainly live with that. Babies are cute anyways and I can tolerate them anytime. But when the cars they're in are driven by moronic parents, here I draw the line. Don't give me an excuse to run you over because I'll make sure you're dead. And if those precious cargo of yours, the ones your stickers keep telling me to be mindful and watchful of, didn't follow your footsteps, I'll place it in the middle of the road so that some crazy express bus driver high on amphetamine could run it over. And bad genes won't go about evolving unnecessarily.

unkindest price cut...eh?

2008-12-17T03:25:00.000-08:00

It was the unkindest cut

VALLEY VIEW
By Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad

I refer to the Valley View comment by Tommy Lee entitled Can’t stomach high food prices – Traders and hawkers getting away with it due to lack of clear guidelines in StarMetro on Dec 15.

First, I acknowledge Lee’s right to lament the higher cost of cooked food in Kuala Lumpur compared with his hometown Penang.

I am happy to note that he will no longer patronise the nasi kandar shop because he “nearly choked when the bill came to RM10.10.”

Since nasi kandar originates from Penang, Lee will certainly be a more authoritative commentator on the taste and price of nasi kandar than a Klang Valley-bred resident.

However, I have to respond to his assertion that “the government is hardly doing anything to get food prices down other than getting the big merchants like Giant and Tesco hypermarkets to lower their prices.”

For the record, it is true that both Giant and Tesco were the earliest of hypermarkets and supermarkets to participate in the Price Reduction Campaign organised by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry.

I officiated at the Giant campaign on Oct 20 and at that of Tesco two days later.

Since then, Carrefour and Jusco, local hypermart Mydin, other local supermarket chains such as The Store, Econsave, UO Superstore, Tunas Manja and Sunshine, and the smaller retail chains like 99 Speedmart and Terus Maju have joined in the Price Reduction Campaign.

Even D’mart, a chain of retail stores operated by the Felda Cooperative in several Felda schemes all over peninsular Malaysia, has participated in the Price Reduction Campaign.

Consequently, Lee’s assertion is only true from the perspective of someone who lives and works (and eats!) in the Klang Valley.

Participants of the campaign located at the margins of the Klang Valley, and what more of those smaller local enterprises located in Pahang or the Felda schemes, will not be appreciated by Lee.

It is not that The Star reporters were not invited to each launching of the campaign. They were. But I can understand the fact that since the campaign was launched in the last week of October and is now almost two months old, it has since become less newsworthy.

Thus, what has happened following the involvement in the campaign of Giant and Tesco may well have escaped Lee’s attention. But it is no excuse for him to claim that the government is “hardly doing anything”!

Lee further asserts that my reply is “most amusing”. This is in connection with my explanation that the full impact of declining raw material prices will be felt in the first quarter of next year.

Lee claims that I had the “audacity to ask consumers to be patient with the current high cost of goods” and adds an emotional twist by asking: “How can one be patient when your baby is crying because she is hungry?”

This is a paragraph which is the unkindest cut of all.

Does Lee really want the reader to believe that the ministry’s Price Reduction Campaign has not gone beyond Giant and Tesco when he should know that what he asserts is patently false.

In fact, just the day before Lee’s article appeared in StarMetro, I was in Penang, his hometown, to launch the Sunshine supermarket group’s participation in the campaign.

What pleased me was that the prices set by the supermarket group were very competitive with those set by the earlier participants of the campaign.

The ministry will eventually publish the prices of selected food items of all participating retailers in its website and the price information will be on a district-by-district basis.

It is hoped that such information will not only allow a consumer to be better informed but may well encourage competition among the participating retailers for the consumer’s benefit.

I read Lee’s article right down to his parting shot: “Mr Minister, spare us the excuses and get the whip cracking.”

Lee has adroitly complained of my inaction over prices but the examples he gave of high prices were mostly of cooked food although he did include that of the trousers pressing service.

He argued that “the government should seriously consider some price control initiative if it has the welfare of people at heart. You can never, never find shopkeepers or hawkers who would voluntarily lower the prices of goods unless there is pressure from the government.”

I worry that Lee wants me to crack the whip, i.e. use force or the threat of force, against shopkeepers and hawkers.

At almost every press conference after launching the Price Reduction Campaign at a participating retailer, I will explain that the ministry has no legal power to get retailers to reduce their prices and all the participating retailers are doing so purely on a voluntary basis to cut their own margins and supported by their suppliers.

Thus, it has been voluntary all this while, rebutting Lee’s claim that they will “never, never” do so!

However, I agree with Lee that the problem is with the prices of cooked food. All the examples cited by him are cooked food (char koey teow, chicken rice, wantan noodles, nasi kandar, cup of tea) rather than of fresh and manufactured food items.

His decision not to ever again patronise the nasi kandar restaurant is one way to protest against the high price of nasi kandar.

To expect the federal government to “crack the whip” against the hawkers is unrealistic since it means government intervention right down the supply chain beyond retailing.

Furthermore, the hawkers know that there will always be customers even if they raise their prices.

The local authorities may have more influence than my federal ministry over the food hawkers in state-owned hawker complexes.

Currently, licences are issued for the purpose of health control. Perhaps, the privilege of location can include the additional and voluntary adhering to reasonable prices.

As a journalist, Lee is expected to be better informed than his readers of events and even of the country’s laws and governmental structure. This is because it is expected that what he writes is well-informed, fair and accurate.

He has no excuse not to know that the Price Reduction Campaign has been voluntary and in spite of the ministry not having the necessary legal powers to “crack the whip” beyond the limited range of price-control items, the campaign has been successful in bringing down prices of manufactured food items.

He has also has no excuse not to know that the campaign has gone beyond the “big merchants” and has reached not only the margins of the Klang Valley (to Banting and Kapar, for example) but also to the rural Felda schemes.

He absolutely has no excuse to take my remarks out of context and then use them arbitrarily to justify his unhappiness with the price and taste of Klang Valley’s cooked food.

I can appreciate his longing for the taste and price of Penang food. However, since he writes for StarMetro through the Valley View column, which presumably has to be helpful and useful for readers in the Klang Valley, Lee should refrain from half-truths and distortions.

Being snide also does not help in Lee’s battle against his homesickness while he is expected to explore and highlight life and its highs and lows in the Klang Valley.

Note: Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad is the Minister of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affair
______________________________________________________

Hmmm...I thought this piece is about Lorena 'the unkindest cut' Bobbit. Wishful thinking.

Political speak is too predictable. Always a long-winded nothingness. Did I detect ample hints of sarcasm there too, Datuk? Is that the way to make us believe the government is actually doing something? A few widely publicised events? That we already bloody aware of, thank you. We want to know them steps and measures that are to be undertaken so that our confidence in you do not dip. So your Ministry don't have the necessary power to go against blatant profiteering? Why bother having Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna when all that is needed is for us to boycott shops and hope things can get really rosy? You peeps make them rounds during them festivities and check on chicken and chillies and long beans and then do what? Rally for increase pay?

With all the supermarkets and wet markets Price Redundant Campaigns you had to officiate, who's writing this piece of shit? You got your own 4th floor lackeys?

How people changed. Where's that guy who left the Backbenchers' Club for something he believed in? How belief changed.

I don't have a craving for some Penang exotic food spreads or Kelantan or French. I don't have the time nor money to travel more than 50 metres on a weekday just to satisfy me palate. I just need some basic food that can fill me guts and give me the strength to survive another day. I just need to have access to a price list of some basic food items. A list of errant shopkeepers will help. If you can list all them good guys, why not them bad ones as well. If I'm a bad paymaster, me name will be splashed all over the financial system. Why can't an errant shopkeeper be shamed as well.

I can't shake off this feeling that this government which is elected by the people doesn't have the people as their priority. To reduce the price of fuel, they think about the losses that could be faced by the kiosk operators. True, they are people too but what about them gains when price increases. Why are contractors compensated when time is bad? Business is always a calculated risk. That is why you either do well or go bust. It all depends on how you manage your capital, manage the prevailing economic situation and how well you predict future trends and costs. Not everybody can do that well or at all. The better ones survive and evolve into bigger entities. Good on them, pats on their backs. But when them failures came running to the government and being compensated, where's the element of hard work and good management? It's like telling me to get me butt involve in a government project and if my cut fell below my expectation, it's me prerogative to ask for compensation. And I'll be well compensated. In the process the government and all its MLCs are being taken hostage by business peeps and cronies in lopsided deals and the money that is meant for improving our lives is being channeled into a few pockets. Is everybody in the government machinery that gullible, do not read law? Or do they have some other vested interests? Government peeps, especially those of the praying kind, you must've heard and read the oft quote, you're what you eat. And your children are what they eat. Can you ensure that they are eating food that is meant for them? And can you yorself too for that matter? Halal is not good enough. It must also not from sources that deprive others of their rights.

So can I have a government project or two, Datuk Minister? No? Meant for cronies? Oh, I thought so.

Datuk Minister, spare us some change and get us them whipped cream crackers.

jom bodoh...eh?

2008-12-15T06:32:00.000-08:00

I dunno. Reckon that's why God created us differently and then spread us as far as possible from each other so that nobody could easily get on each others' nerves. But being humans, we wanna prove to the Almighty that we're a tad cleverer than His other beings, His plans. We got out of our caves, we created things, we explored the world and we started to get on each others' nerves.

I dunno. Reckon some peeps are born just to go to them Jom Heboh carnivals. Then they die. And if they behaved themselves at them carnivals and didn't miss their Asar and Maghrib, they'd go to heaven. But if they leered at too many cleavages, thought about grasping the many butts on offer, with them g-strings showing 3 inches above the belt, and took home too many freebies, reckon they got to open the door to the red hot room without a view.

So imagine if 17 of these peeps who were born to Jom Bodoh for eternity came to visit one of their clansperson in a 30 bed ward at the Hospital Sultanah Aminah, whose bed unfortunately was next to me mother's. Taking turns being photographed with the sick girl as though she just won the Juara Lagu. Was expecting them to do the naughty on the bed and on the floor at any moment and have their acts recorded on their mobiles and later bluetooth to the whole fucking world but by then everybody from the other beds were looking at them with annoyed sympathy. I haven't seen so much grapes and so many apples since that summer of '86 at that German sounding farm in Adelaide. And the poor girl was to have her vermiform appendix removed the next day. Reckon another half of the clan would be coming over to collect them freebies later.

Reckon that's why God created that many levels of heaven and hell. He knew humans just love to get on each others' nerves, even there.

crisis...eh?

2008-12-13T20:58:00.001-08:00

Financial crisis explained.

Now you know your bank sucks. And you'll die dry.

pretty in pink...eh?

2008-12-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

All me life playing rugby, the jerseys I had ever wore were black shorts with yellowish orange top and white shorts with reddish maroon top. And them were proud moments those many many moons ago. Especially when worn against fave opponents King George V. Ah...those were them days, when we just live life.

Been following the French Top 14 awhile now. And the team that never cease to amaze me is the Stade Francais, the only team from the north. A very stylish team at that. Just look at them kits and you know what I meant. Imagine a group of 15 men, almost all 6 footer with an average weight of 90kgs charging down at you, in pink kits.

Hey, you're hard! Damn!

sultans of swing...eh?

2008-11-26T07:55:00.000-08:00

Royal immunity should be reinstated

The Regent of Negri Sembilan, Tunku Naquiyuddin ibni Tuanku Ja’afar has called for the royal immunity to be reinstated so that the constitutional monarchy can be restored to its full sovereignty.

He said if the Ruler were to exercise his duties in a fair, just and impartial manner in protecting the Federal Constitution, his sovereignty needed to be duly protected as well.

“This full immunity from civil and criminal proceedings should be reconsidered so that he is on par with other constitutional monarchs around the world,” he said in his royal luncheon address on “The Role of the Constitutional Monarchy in 21st Century Malaysia” in here on Wednesday.

He said it was ironic that judges were immune in the performance of their judicial functions but Rulers were not.

“Royal immunity has been lost for 15 years. It needs to be reclaimed and reinstated so that the constitutional monarchy can be restored its full sovereignty so as to play a more fitting role in the 21st century as the guardian of the Federal Constitution so that the endeavour to safeguard the interests of all communities, to promote peace, prosperity, economic security and good governance can surely be fulfilled.

“Immunity is quite essential. Take the situation where we have a hung Parliament, the Ruler comes in to decide on a Prime Minister from one side of a political party and imagine if the other side of the political party opposes it and takes the Ruler to court,” he said.

Tunku Naquiyuddin said the loss of immunity was perhaps the single biggest setback to the institution of the Rulers.

______________________________________________________

Hmm...oh? Hmm...eh? Hmm...so?

On par with other constitutional monarchs of the world?
Hmm...Tonga? Swaziland? Liechtenstein?
Hmm...Daulat Tuanku.
Tunku...eh?

Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing

You get a shiver in the dark
It's rainin' in the park but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing Dixie double four time
You feel alright when you hear the music ring

And now you step inside but you don't see too many faces
Comin' in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places
But the horns, they're blowing that sound
Way on down south, way on down south in London town

You check out Guitar George he knows all the chords
But it's strictly rhythm he doesn't wanna make it cry or sing
A standard note guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene
He's got a daytime job, he's doin' alright
He can play the honky tonk like anything
Savin' it up for Friday night
With the Sultans... with the Sultans of Swing

And a crowd of young boys, they're foolin' around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
They don't give a damn about any trumpet playin' band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
And the Sultans... yeah the Sultans played Creole... creole

And then the man, he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
"Goodnight, now it's time to go home"
And he makes it fast with one more thing
"We are the Sultans... We are the Sultans of Swing"

once bitten...eh?

2008-11-23T06:08:00.000-08:00

Once bitten, is more than fucking enough. And dengue sucks big time.

11 pints of them drips, more than a few panadols, almost a pint of me blood being sucked for them platelet analysis. 15 litres of 100plus. And RM1,650.00 for the 4 days and 3 nights I spent at Puteri Specialist. And them student nurses! They could get to you sometimes. Was cool. They are just that, students. You wouldn't want them after surgery though. Gimme them mama misi anytime.

To that blood sucking bitch of an aedes mozzie, I hope you rot before you get preggie. Bitch!

tuan tanah kedaung...eh?

2008-11-03T06:51:00.000-08:00

Zaid not going to apologise for Ketuanan Melayu statement
By IAN McINTYRE

Former de facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has hit back at three Umno supreme council members for asking him to apologise over remarks that he made about Ketuanan Melayu(Malay supremacy).

Stressing that he would never apologise, Zaid said it was because he loved his Malay race that he recommended open competition be allowed to ensure the race could compete with others in a globalised age.

“I am not surprised by the reaction of some Umno leaders especially since they have an ongoing party election,” he said in a statement on Monday.

“I am a village boy from a poor family, not an aristocrat or royalty. I want to see the Malays succeed in economy and education.”

Zaid said he was not questioning the special rights of Malays as enshrined in the Constitution.

He said the new model that he recommended was based on openness to ensure young Malays closed ranks and cooperated not only with other races in the country but also foreigners.

He named Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Syed Albar, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassin and Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib as the three supreme council members.

Zaid had pointed out recently that the Malay supremacy concept had failed and distracted from the real issues confronting the country.

He said on Monday that he hoped Malays could differentiate between leaders who thought of their interests from those who only used the name of Malays for political mileage.

He said the concept of Malay supremacy had a negative element that was racist and implied that they only wanted to become masters without knowing how to struggle or be responsible.

He added it was not a clear reflection of the race and such an image weakened them.
_________________________________________________________

I could blame him for saying he didn't want anything to do with the ketuanan mantra because he had made it. He had arrived. He's a tuan now.

Unfortunately it's really THE bitter pill to swollow, regardless of what or who made Zaid said what he said.

How we had supported that mantra.
How the ordinary and poor Malays had actually benefitted from that mantra.
How our so-called leaders and cronies had actually benefitted from their mantra.
How we had alienated ourselves from reality, from other Malaysians.
How we had been the butt of jokes. How we had been ridiculed.
How we had been taken for a ride.

Ketuanan?

Tuan Tanah Kedaung.

Image plagiarised from Bizarro.

yesterday...eh?

2008-11-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

It bleeds me heart reading some of them mails these past few days. Though a few are having a time of their life, clubbing the clubs and greens, some are having a torrid time at their workplace. Well, life is no bed of roses, mates. I asked an Italian cab driver I was fortunate enough to meet years ago in Preston(a suburb of Melbourne, that is), on why he left Italy, a developed country in Europe with a history that go back to them Romans to a new country that may not promise anything. He said and I quote: 'Life is a one way street without u-turns. We had our chances, our choices and once we had taken that chances and made that choices, just drive on and hope for the best.' I took mine when I came back from Melbourne. I just had to plough on, regardless. Luckily I had you guys. That is always a comforting thought.

Talking about this bitch of a life, I happened to come across two seemingly unrelated articles a few days after our boys night out(BNO). One article discussed about the politics in the UK and the other about the so-called midlife crisis. It dawn upon me that some of the points discussed are quite relevant to some, if not all of us, regardless of the fact that a few are eternally seventeen, at heart. Hahaha

I had once rambled about being nostalgic of the better past (and rightfully told the bitter truth by Chill). Fortunately, or unfortunately for that matter, I am not alone in having these feelings. In fact, almost all humans have been struck by sudden bouts of nostalgia, a repeated harking back to a better time in some indistinct, mythical past. The majority felt that yesterday will always be better than today. Things, it seems, can only get worse.

Nostalgia is as ancient as civilisation. From the very moment man had time to take a break from hunting mammoths to reflect on life, he concluded that the hunting used to be better in the good old days. Them Greeks at their heights were lamenting the demise of a golden era, when men were heroes and the world was more hospitable. Even them Beatles at their prime sang Yesterday.

In his book, The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook observes that although man’s lot has improves over time, he feels consistently worse. He is healthier, wealthier and happier, but convinced that he used to be healthier, wealthier and happier in the past. A sort of romantic primitivism with the belief that a Hang Tuah-like life – killing them Majapahit geeks for fun, screwing all the dayangs he could muster the energy, living off the land – was happier without the Blackberry and golf or Tesco and Pizza Hut.

As modern life becomes more uncertain and confusing, we will always yearn for a secure, imagined past. It is almost as if we looked backward with nostalgia because we could not look forward with much hope.

One dude at the recent BNO was quite worried about the impending midlife crisis as we are entering the forties, the decade often associated with worries about mortality, failed ambitions and sagging midriffs. Or affairs of the heart, for that particular dude, anyways. He, due to karma beyond him, was unwittingly thrown into the so-called midlife crisis, way beyond his time. Heehaw.

Despair do not, Yoda dudes. Scientists claimed this forties thang can be fun, a time for happiness. They have identified an emotional ‘growth spurt’ (not the one on Chill’s mind, though) that makes people more relaxed and easier for others to spend time with (This explains the infatuation that particular female had with that particular BNO dude). Them science geeks are calling this quality ‘agreeableness’ which grows dramatically between the late thirties and early fifties. These findings challenge the notions of a midlife crisis. Arguments persist though between suggestions that one being more in control at work and at ease in family and social lives and suggestions that it is a matter of declining testosterone levels in us. Some also suggest that humans are programmed by evolution to turn inward and protect material and emotional gains after their youthful exertions.

Stephen Joseph, a health psychologist at University of Nottingham(he was at Warwick University then) said that as people come through adversity in their lives, they can become more agreeable, more appreciative of friends and family and are more willing to take part in their community. Life used to be about the next step up the ladder, and getting there quicker than the next person, which caused stress and pressure. As one gets older, the maturity and experience of life enable him to cope better.

Kim Wilde, once an energetic singer of the 80’s, now a garden designer, said recently: ‘I don’t take myself seriously any more. Sometimes I just garden in my knickers just for the fun of it.’ How I wished I was there when she did that. In the 80’s, that is. Heehaw.

So dudes, while immersing in nostalgia might be fun and the forties could be not, at least for those who had not made it big like most of us, take heart. There is a vital distinction between memory and nostalgia. Memory is the link between past and present but nostalgia, by definition, disparages the present; it evokes a time no longer attainable, an idealised, romanticised past that was better, and now irretrievably gone. Nostalgia therefore comes freighted with disappointment, a look back in anger. A seductive and sentimental fib. A deliberate, self-comforting distortion of memory. So as long as our memories and faculties are intact, we should be fine.

Those facts aside, what would a BNO be without some nostalgic reminiscences, eh? It is an emotional comfort blanket to keep buddies warm together though most likely is just an illusion. It should be fun once a while as long as we do not succumb to the self-inflicted sadness caused by revisiting a bright imagined past that makes the present seem all the duller. Or we can just huddle together for warmth other during those chilly pre-dawn sessions at the Bayu beach.

And Chill, we may be sure of this: in years to come, grey and cranky, muttering wistfully over our Nescafe tariks, we will declare of this forties and midlife crisis thang: ‘We never had it so good.’

Image by Dave Nestler.

what have you done for me lately...eh?

2008-10-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

MCA’s Ong: Have all Malays benefited from the NEP?

Advocates of the New Economic Policy (NEP) should spend time responding and addressing the concerns of the Malay masses considering it is a common question now on how the policy has benefited them.

MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said there were concerns that the NEP advocates should identify the factors that led to the failure, if at all it was true, in achieving the 30% quota.

“Nonetheless, much to our dismay and chagrin, they have merely been parroting what they or their predecessors have said in the past three decades,” Ong said in his blog.

Ong said the advocates should take a closer look at the prevailing hardship of their own brethren at the lower rung of society.

“The pertinent question to be asked now is: have these people ever benefited from the NEP in the past three decades?

____________________________________________________

Yups. Have them hardcore poor Malays ever benefitted from the NEP in the past three decades? Apart from the token RM100 or so per month from the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat? Is there any concerted effort to yank them from their generations of hopelessness? Or at least break that notorious cycle of poverty and crime?

So, not unlike Ms Jackson, I want to ask them NEP advocates. What have you done for me lately? That without NEP I could not even own a PC to blog me thoughts? That I could not have electricity and running water? Don't even start with the quality of the water that need to be filtered or be reversed osmosis with expensive add-ons to be safe enough to drink. That I could not get a place in uni? That I could not get a job in the private sector?

Is NEP that cool? So that the majority of the Malay folks can gawk at a few of their owns driving filthy expensive marques, having palatial homes and chasing sweet young thangs with pubic hair barely grown? While still begging for work with those who're non-beneficiaries of the NEP? While being eyed with disdain and suspicion by those who're supposed to be the victims of the NEP? Is it really worth it, this Non Erect Penis?

What's up dude?

Umno stood me up again.

Again?

Um hmmm.

Well what's up with Umno? You really like Umno that much?

Yes, honey, I love Umno. Umno is fine, it does a lot of nice things for me.

I know Umno used to do nice stuff for you, but what has Umno done for you lately?

Used to be a time when you would pamper me.
Used to brag about it all the time.
Other parties seem to think that you're so peachy keen.
But my brothers say neglect is on your mind...

Who's right?

What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah...
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah...

Used to go to the mosque almost every night.
Prayed until I thought I'd lose my breath.
Now it seems your praying feet are always on the bar.
Good thing I pray or else we'd burn in Hell...

Ain't that a shame?

I never ask for more than I deserve.
You know it's the truth.
You seem to think you're Gods gift to the Malays.
I'm tellin you... no way.

You ought to be thankful for the little things.
But little things are all you seem to give.
You're always puttin off what we could do today.
Soap opera says you've got one life to live.

Who's right who's wrong?

This is wild... I swear.

If you wanna help, help those really in need. Not those who say they need. It'll avoid malaise dilemmas. And hatred. And vengeful.

the pain...eh?

2008-10-26T21:11:00.000-07:00

The Pain

His face was calm, almost serene but carved with deep lines. He just sat there ignoring the world. It was almost a full three minutes since he last inhaled from that funny looking, foul smelling cigarette held between his fingers. The rain that began at midafternoon had been reduced to a fine drizzle. Somewhere along the horizon there should be a rainbow, still drawing amazement from children even with Sony PS3 consoles glued to their hands.

There were something about his eyes. Haunting, with some melancholic sorrow thrown in for some perverted measures. Those who had inadvertently glanced into them would quickly turned their face away as if embarrassed. Life is full of unwarranted tuggings of the heart. To the brim. That was nothing to Aiman. He never once tried to solicit sympathy. And he was not about to begin.

He inhaled that foul smelling smoke from the cigarette and three minutes' worth of ash fell into the Tesco shopping bag he had between his legs. He did not even notice. The drizzle had stopped. The wind had died down and amplified the discomforting emptiness. Those children gawking at the rainbow would have returned to their PS3 by now.

Aiman stood up and shifted the cigarette butt between his thumb and middle fingure and flicked it into a bin some metres away. It landed perfectly. It was an old habit since those Seremban days. Practice really worked, he mused.

The elderly Chinese lady at the counter gave him his key after he paid for the room. His climb up the stairs was slow and laboured. He had been living this life for the past few years and had formulated a few basic rules to ensure his continuous freedom. Never stay long. Cash will always be king. Act your surroundings.

Aiman was half the man he used to be and a smoker's noisy respiration to boot. He lingered in front of his room a moment longer, letting his ears shifted into overdrive. Everything's cool, he thought. Only sounds one would hear in cheap rented rooms above obsecure coffeeshops.

He knew the layout; it was the room in his dreams. The walls were once white. A poster of the Marlboro Man on one wall. He suspected it was there to conceal something unbecoming. Even for cheap rented rooms above obsecure coffeeshops. A single bed and a plastic chair the only furnishings here. At least the sheets looked clean, he spoked his thoughts.

Aiman took of his shirts and jeans. He never wear briefs when wearing jeans since he was introduced to his buddies at the school in Seremban and even during those years as a chief executive officer at a successful engineering firm. That seemed like a lifetime away. He badly needed a shower. His last one was three days ago at a Plus rest area near Tanjung Malim. He never took public transport now. He had studied people long enough to know that casual conversations and offerings of his strange cigarettes would go a long way. That was always his mode of travel between cities now. Hitching rides with lorry drivers who ploughed the highways of the country from Johor Bahru to Bukit Kayu Hitam, from Kelang to Kota Baru. He was a genial person and people rarely feared him though the sometime haggard look and the secrets it tried to conceal might be disconcerting at times.

There was a familiar smell in the common bathroom, the mingling of some harsh cleaning detergent and the chlorine stains on the wall. Aiman knew them all. He showered and was thankful for the mini Lux soap bar provided by the proprietor. He used his own towel, bought at Tesco earlier. He would just dump it somewhere later, when he had wiped everything he had touched clean. Never leave anything behind. He knew Malaysian forensics would never be anywhere near those CSI gigs on television but it would be prudent to be safe. Rather than sorry.

The new shirt and shorts from Tesco smelled fresh. He opened his sling bag, thumbed through his meagre belongings and finally found the gun. It was a Smith and Wesson revolver, .38 caliber. He put it under the pillow at the head of the bed and lit a cigarette. That was when he remembered his notebook. He had not read nor write anything in it for a few weeks now. He reached into the side pocket of his sling bag and pulled it out. It was given to him by his daughter as a Father's Day gift a long time ago. The cover was creased and completely innocent of any printing it once borne. Some of the pages had pulled partially free from the binding; but all the pages were still there.

He read through a couple of familiar pages from the notebook. As if in a sacred ritual, salt water began to create puddles behind his eyelids. Then the floodgates burst opened and a steady stream flow down his cheeks and dripped onto his shirt. Never a sob nor crazy wailing. Just silent tears. He slept clutching the notebook close to his chest.

Aiman just sat there, staring intently at the guy sitting in front of him. His body tensed. The guy had just checked his Queen and he had nowhere to run. The guy's expressionless face stared back at him. Got you, the guy might have said but he did not noticed. He sighed and extended his hand while his body relaxed to a slump. The guy, who he later learned was a national champion, shooked his hand but his face still betray no emotion.

He stood up and walked towards the dormitory. He still got an hour or so to spend at the game room but his mind was restless today and he had learned quickly that a restless mind was a trait best not shown to the orderlies. Lest he loved being strapped to his bed and later injected with a cocktail of God knows what.

That was when he noticed that the treatment room's door was slightly ajar. He had previously heard screams from this room, not of pain but of sorrow and hopelessness that invoked nasty nightmares in his restless nights. And he could not ascertain whether the realm of nightmares or this was the worst. He stopped in front of the door and slowly peeked through the gap.

It was the Chinese guy from the bed next to his. He was struggling and kicking violently while two burly orderlies tried to snap on the restraints. They finally succeeded and that was when he saw the doctor took a pair of what seemed like a pair of oversized headphones and put them at the guy's forehead. Suddenly the guy seemed to explode and his body was lifted almost a foot from the bed. Restraints and all. When he crashed back onto the bed, he crumpled into a heap and laid motionless.

Aiman's heart began pounding violently at his chest and his muscles went limp. He slumped to the floor and hit his head on the door, felt excruciating pain, still aware of his surroundings but unable to move a limb. The door was thrown wide open by the impact and the orderlies and the doctor turned their attention towards him. They rushed towards him and one carried him to his bed. Then he passed out.

It was six weeks before he managed to escape from the asylum and had been on the move since. He had checked out of the rented room earlier. The day was slightly overcast. Nice day for a walk, he thought to himself and walked towards Bayu beach.

The beach was deserted this time of the week. He reckoned the cars parked at the resort were either the employees' or some government officials', on a mission to empty the nation coffers on their never ending seminars and workshops to promote mediocrity. A shame but he was not about to give a monkey's ass just the same. He got problems of his own.

It would be dusk soon. Like those dusks many years ago when he and his Seremban buddies had their boys' nights out on the very same beach. Their faces appeared one by one in his thoughts. No laughing, gigling faces now. All seemed to be full of sadness and sorrow, almost apologetic. As if they were saying their final goodbyes. How he missed all of them. Maybe it would be better for them to remember me the way I was, he comforted himself.

The sun had finally set and darkness was a welcome relief. The beach was still deserted. A few infatuated lovers would soon be having their after dinner romantic stroll later, with the hopes of having each others' company until breakfast. Aiman stood up and took off his shirt and jeans, folded them neatly before setting them alight. Never leave anything behind. He still had the shorts from yesterday on. He had earlier burned his notebook in the bathroom and flushed the ashes in the toilet. The sling bag and it's contents were disposed off in one of the municipal bins.

Aiman slowly walked towards the surf and was relieved that the water was quite warm. He waded further until the water reached his chest. Then he closed his eyes and began to swim.

the quest...eh?

2008-10-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

It's been two months now since me PC kick the bucket. Am reduced to secretly using the office PC. Looking over me shoulder every so often. It's politically incorrect but hey, am no angel. Can't afford to get it fixed. Let alone buy me a new one. Them leaders had told us every second day to change our lifestyles. And am trying to do just that. Reckon in a month or so, all the lawns in the neighbourhood would be converted to herb gardens. Or rows of eggplants or tomatoes. Those fortunate enough to afford a corner lot could even start rearing chickens or maybe goats. Goat milk is definitely better than the melamine laden Chinese imports.

But why do I suddenly see a surge in the latest BMWs and other European marques on our roads? Why do I still see people with trolleys full of goodies at Jusco checkout counters? Don't they read the news? Don't they know that they should change their lifestyles? Don't they feel the need to curb their conspicuous spending and extravagance if only to emphatise with us little people? And why do Astro still show those lifestyles of the filthy rich and the famous? Just to irritate us poor sods? To rub salt onto our wounds? To spite us some?

Life is definitely no fun when you're broke. And it's definitely no fun when your corrupt leaders go around telling you to change your lifestyle and brace for the uncertainties ahead while they enrich themselves and their cronies at our expense.

Mebbe this song can sooth me aching heart some...

Bryn Christopher - The Quest
(courtesy of http://www.warmhits.com/ )

I’m leaving tonight
Going somewhere deep inside my mind
I close my eyes slowly
Flowin’ away slowly
But I know I’ll be alright
It’s coming stronger to me
And I know someone is out there
Lead the way
Lead the way
Show me the answers I need to know

What I’m gonna live for
What I’m gonna die for
Who you gonna fight for
I can’t answer that

All my life/love it is
It is all my love
All my life/love it is
I know it is a life to live lately
From above I hear
I hear the sound of them sinkin’
I feel numb, I’m alive
I know I’m getting closer

What I’m gonna live for
What I’m gonna die for
Who you gonna fight for
I can’t answer that

My life has had it’s share of troubles
And now I found a place to go
I’ve said goodbye to all my troubles
’cause now I’ve find my place to go

What I’m gonna live for
What I’m gonna die for
Who you gonna fight for
I can’t answer that

polite ticians...eh?

2008-09-22T03:12:00.000-07:00

When you're idling away, them naughty thoughts tend to get into your head some. Especially when you're watching the Polite Dance Song by The Bird and the Bee. Imagine all those not too young and not too shapely politicians doing them not so politically correct things behind our backs. Be it partying, gambling, money laundering or just doing them naughty with them young thangs. Yeah, everybody've heard about them dirty politicians. And their wayward ways. And their over the top indulgence. Emptying the nation's coffer along the way. Imagine those bastards doing the dance. If not for the fact that the country is going to the dogs because of them, reckon it would be fun.

Title: Polite Dance Song
Artist: The Bird And The Bee
Album: Please Clap Your Hands (2007)

Give it up for me please, put your hands in the air
If you know what's good for you, you wanna shake it like you just don't care
Would you please clap your hands, now get up on your feet
I beg of you to get up and dance, it's such a crazy kick-ass beat

Pardon me, the music is moving, moving from left to right
Apologies for losing my cooling, losing the day to night

Since I'm asking so nice, would you just entertain
There's nothing left to hide you away just show a little bit of brain
Yes that is what I mean, that's the nail that I hit
I try to be as coy as I can but I wanna see your naughty bit

Would you please, would you please
Would you, would you please
(apologies)
(x3)
Would you please clap your hands

Pardon me, the music is moving, moving from left to right
Apologies for losing my cooling, losing the day to night

Would you be nasty with me
Do you like dancing with me
I think we have a very special quality
I want to show it to you
I want to grow it with you
Would you please clap your hands

Pardon me, the music is moving, moving from left to right
Apologies for losing my cooling, losing the day to night

mercy...eh?

2008-09-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

The ruthless and the stoopids are in defensive mode. Insecure politicians are like that. It's in-built. And more will be taken under the blanket of night into ISA camps or shoved into the slammers at Bukit Aman. And even many more will be bullied into submission.

And so this is for them ruthless and stoopids.

Duffy - Mercy

Yeah Yeah Yeah

I love you
but I gotta stay true
my morals got me on my knees
I'm begging please stop playing games

I don't know what this is
cos you got me good
just like you knew you would

I don't know what you do
but you do it well
I’m under your spell

Chorus
You got me begging you for mercy
why won't you release me
you got me begging you for mercy
why won't you release me
I said release me

Now you think that I
will be something on the side
but you got to understand
that I need a man
who can take my hand yes I do

I don't know what this is
but you got me good
just like you knew you would

I don't know what you do
but you do it well
I’m under your spell

You got me begging you for mercy
why won't you release me
You got me begging you for mercy
why won't you release me
I said you’d better release yeah yeah yeah

I'm begging you for mercy
yes why won't you release me
im begging you for mercy

you got me begging
you got me begging
you got me begging

Mercy, why won't you release me
I'm begging you for mercy
why won't you release me

You got me begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy
I'm begging you for mercy

Why won't you release me yeah yeah
break it down

yeah mister...have mercy and release them...

think...eh?

2008-09-15T02:55:00.000-07:00

Life without a PC definitely regresses the mind some! And since the opening ceremony of the Olympics I've been gradually turned into an idiot. By the idiot box. And I had the misfortune to watch them news, by the rabid TV3. The bile some people could come up with. Them idiotic pied pipers and those even moronic blind mice. And suddenly everybody's into agriculture. And suddenly everybody's a national threat. Soon the Prime Minister will preside over Bangladeshis and Nepalese. As Malaysians are deemed as threats unto themselves.

Fortunately there's channel 705 in between 703 and 707, the only channels that manage to preoccupy me interest apart from them Learning and Sports Channels. And there's where I saw this video by The Ting Tings.

The Taring Rings - They're All The Same

Four letter word just to get me along
It's a difficulty and I'm biting on my tongue and I
I keep stalling, keeping me together
People around gotta find something to say now

Holding back, everyday the same
Don't wanna be a loser
Listen to me, oh no
I never say anything at all
But with nothing to consider they forget the game
(ame, ame, ame)

They call him 'Nuar'
They call him 'Khairy'
They call him 'Lah'
They call him 'Najib'
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same

They call him 'Quiet Guy'
But he's a riot
Yo Muhyiddin
Always the same
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same

I miss the catch if they throw me the ball
I'm the last dick standing up against the wall
Keep up, falling, these heels they keep me boring
Getting clamped up and sitting on the fence now

So alone all the time and I
Lock myself away
Listen to me, Oh No!
Although I'm dressed up, out and all with
Everything considered they forget the game
(ame, ame, ame)

They call him 'Bung'
They call him 'Hadi'
They call him 'Kit'
They call him 'Samy'
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same

They call him 'Quiet Guy'
But he's a riot
Yo Razaleigh
Always the same
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same
They're all the same

Are you calling them morons?
Are you calling them stupid?
Are you calling them morons?
Are you calling them stupid?

cover up...eh?

2008-08-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

What's wrong with these pictures?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And these two worth two thousand. I dunno but Maybank had always managed to piss me off. Tehsin too has an issue with Maybank.

So what's wrong with these pictures? One is an ad for a Takaful product. The other is for the conventional alternative. I have nothing against them products on offer. What irked me is using the same model for both brochures. Cover up and put on a tudung and you automatically associate yourself with something Islamic. Halal. Open up and say ahhh, and you're not kosher. Oh yes, I have nothing against the model. Sweet girl alright. But belittling the tudung is definitely nothing sweet. Couldn't the same tudung clad shot be used on the conventional brochure? Or the one without the tudung be used on the Takaful brochure? Is Islam being stereotyped here? Will the tudung help sell the Takaful product? Will the tudung put off people from buying the conventional product? Is Maybank running out of ideas? Is Maybank's promotional budget been drastically reduced that it could not afford another model? A Chinese or an Indian girl?

Or maybe they had spent too much on the Angkasawan?

This may not be an issue to most but covering oneself for the fun of it and on alternate days is definitely not on. You wanna cover yourself, cool. Learn the whys, the dos and them don'ts. Do it properly, feel good about it and get on with your life. If you feel more presentable without a tudung, that is your choice. Get on with your life too. But you shouldn't give the impression that it is not a religious obligation to cover your aurat(parts of the body which Islam rules as not fit for public viewing) or make fun of the aurat by making the tudung a fashion statement. And don't blow your boyfriends in public places while wearing the tudung or your mother could be watching your acts on YouTube. And the tudung will not make you look kosher when you make your appearance at the mahkamah syariah for being caught by them religious police the previous weekend in some bar or doing the naughty in some cheap hotel.

Personal choices is one thing. A well known government linked company and supposedly the biggest bank in the land messing up is another. But if they have no qualms losing half a billion Ringgit for being stupid, why should they care about the tudung.

banana republic...eh?

2008-08-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

Development plans for Pulau Pisang

PUTRAJAYA: The Foreign Ministry will assist the Johor government to draw up a master plan for the future development of Pulau Pisang, the 178.4ha island 8km off the Pontian coast.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said he had been approached by the Johor government to re-examine the island for development.

"This is something that cannot be done unilaterally. We will recommend that the island must not be left to itself, as it has been in the past. We must be pro-active in terms of development."

Rais said the master plan for the island must be drawn up for the sake of future generations.

"In this regard, we will have to work closely with the government. Ideally, Johor should prepare the master plan as the island belongs to the state. The ministry will have no problem assisting Johor in developing the island."

Rais said the joint Malaysia-Singapore technical committee had been instructed to look into allegations that Singapore, which now manages the lighthouse there, had expanded the area surrounding the facility.

_____________________________________________________

It just tickles me senseless when these banana republicans opened their mouths.

"We will recommend that the island must not be left to itself, as it has been in the past. We must be pro-active in terms of development."

Wow! Certainly all those late nights and weekends spent studying law during the post Semangat 46 days are worth the country's while, eh? Imagine the awesome effort needed to come up with that two sentences. Let's not talk about coming up with fair bilateral agreements for Malaysia yet. That could be paralysing for some of these banana republicans. Doctorate notwithstanding. That too after being constantly prodded by the Johor government, who would rather give away the whole of southern Johor rather than lose another rocky islet, island whatever. Once bitten.

And the foreign ministry is now into island development. I could understand if it's the home ministry as the island is Malaysia's and is in Malaysian waters. The home minister could instruct the guys in blue to do something useful for a change, like safeguarding Malaysia's interests. I could understand if it's the works ministry. They are the experts in development. Or at least experts in inflating the costs of those developments. Look at all their JASA KEPADA RAKYATs. I could understand if it's the tourism ministry. Islands should be for tourists. To make billions for the country. We really need that extra ringgits for all those repairs to the MRR2 and all its cousins and nephews. Who said there is no inter-ministry cooperations?

But I could not begin to fathom why the foreign ministry is roped in instead. Any legalities that we don't know? Is the island still ours in the first place? Or some lowly government servant managed to sell it to Singapore too, to buy himself a red sports car and impress a minah salleh or two? Are them banana republicans just putting up a show until we eventually move on to something more interesting, like Ella finally getting married?

So what if Pulau Pisang is to be Singapore's? I'm no military strategist but reckon they don't need that island to be well informed about us. At the rate it's going, reckon SGD40 is sufficient to get them what they want to know. Secrets protected by the OSA you asked? Well, methinks most of the secrets covered by the Act is not even sensitive to the state. They are only sensitive to some of them banana republicans. As in unfair deals between the state and some of them puppet masters' companies and proxies. As in why government contracts are bloody expensive and the results are bloody fucked-up. Military secrets you asked? What military secrets? All those felled Nuris, the sell-out of Majidee Camp, them submarines, them fighter jets you read in the paper. Reckon the number of commandos is still a secret. Only to be used during elections in say Rembau or Kepala Batas.

Malaysia would not fall because of that island. People outside Pontian don't even know about it. Just look after what we've got, both here in the Peninsular and in Sabah and Sarawak. Check on foreign ownership. Reckon it's quite substantial and growing. Do we call that foreign investment, development or menang sorak kampung tergadai? Learn to look after your own mister foreign minister sir. Learn to look after us Malaysians, y'all banana republicans. It's definitely better than giving milk to them monkeys or menyusukan kera di hutan.

speak now...eh?

2008-08-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

...or forever hold your peace...huh?

Don’t contest, says another Umno leader

KOTA BARU: A second Umno leader has come out to suggest the Barisan Nasional not contest in the Permatang Pauh by-election.

The first to do so was Kelantan Umno liaison committee chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa. Now, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad is saying it's pointless to contest since, on paper, PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim could win handsomely.

“If the leadership insists on contesting as what Pak Lah (Prime Minister and Barisan chairman Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) said earlier, I suggest we put an accounts supervisor or a local divisional committee member.

“There is support for Barisan but not enough. Anwar is a good orator. He sways the audience.”

Anwar would use the by-election campaign to defend the allegations of sexual misconduct, Dr Abdul Latiff claimed.

Dr Abdul Latiff, however, asserted he was presenting his personal viewpoint and that the final decision rested with the top leadership.

“If we give a walkover, the Election Commission would save a lot. There would not be any slander and more importantly, we will not fall into Anwar’s scheming ways.

“For me, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s move to resign from the seat is more of a surrender of power from wife to husband. Nothing great.

“He chose to contest in his stronghold at the expense of his wife,” Dr Abdul Latiff said yesterday at the launch of the state-level health carnival.

On the increase in tuberculosis cases, he said the rise, was connected to the flood of foreign workers.
__________________________________________________

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Yes, we need to speak out. Reckon that is why more and more people are speaking now rather than letting their grudges simmer to a boil within. Rather than begrudgingly holding their peace, whatever that means. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody is against or for something. And they do not shy away from voicing out their arguments. Pro-government bloggers had voiced out their arguments. Pro-opposition bloggers had had theirs. Those in between also jumped on the bandwagon. Politicians from both divides scrambled to be heard. So the question is, are we truly becoming an opinionated society or are we speaking just for the sake of speaking? As some of the things that came out of our mouths are truly amazing that they are beyond comprehension or belief. Some people are just not using their gray matter prior to using their vocal cords.

So what do you make of them comments by the good doctor? That Anwar will win Permatang Pauh regardless? That the oh-so-efficient-machinery of the Barisan Nasional government would rather do an ostrich than put up a decent fight? Would that impress those foreign investors the government is trying hard to woo in this very trying period?

Accounts supervisor? So what if he or she won? Will the good doctor vacate his ministerial position as an appreciation for the back from the dead win? At least when that future deputy health minister speaks, we won't be expecting that much.

And tuberculosis was connected to the huge influx of foreign workers? So what is FOMEMA doing? Why are these sickly foreigners being hired in the first place? Are we that desperate for workers that we just let all and sundry into our country? Let the Barisan Nasional politicians use their scheming ways on the people, rather than let us fall for Anwar's scheming ways. It's easy to point the blame elsewhere but it's definitely very difficult to own up.

So how much would the Election Commission save from a 'walkover'? Enough to fully subsidise petrol and diesel again? I remember that St Paul Institution rugby team in 1982. They would rather be trashed 0-84 than humiliate their school by giving us a walkover. But we were just schoolboys then. What do we know about politics? We were just doing what our teachers and coaches told us to do. Train hard and play our hearts out. For the school's honour. We did that. Them Saint Paul dudes did just that. Personal injuries notwithstanding.

And that the good doctor is also a product of the same school made me heart bled. At least the information minister managed to face the music and danced his dance. And not forgetting that other guy, God bless his soul, who came out the worse against Mona Fandey. Wonder if these are the best the school has to offer UMNO. But then again, maybe UMNO deserves them.

Reckon I should hold my peace.

quiet riot...eh?

2008-07-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

Sub-standard equipment that was a waste of taxpayers’ money
By LOURDES CHARLES

KUALA LUMPUR: The RM100mil police logistics scandal not only saw the delivery of sub-standard equipment, but would also have put the lives of police personnel at risk and wasted taxpayers' money.

Sources told The Star that it was “a case of greed, corruption and malpractice” involving senior government servants and police officers.

The Anti-Corruption Agency is collecting vital documents pertaining to the matter and is expected to interview a senior civil servant.

Among the shocking finds were:

- Machetes (parang) ordered for General Operations Force personnel were smaller than specified, and would rust and break easily;

- Bullet-proof vests not according to specifications and anti-riot helmets not subjected to safety tests;

- Boots supplied to traffic policemen were not waterproof, drill boot heels fell off easily, and boots used by Federal Reserve Unit personnel and UN duty officers were not nail proof;

- Single iron beds, mattresses and pillows used by recruits were not up to specifications, with the pillows being fire hazards.

A senior police officer said bulletproof vests and other equipment like anti-riot gear, including helmets, purchased through direct negotiations had been put on hold, as they had not been fully tested for safety features.

_________________________________________________

Pity them guys in blue. On Hari Pahlawan. On our Remembrance Day and this. Will they be as brave against unarmed citizens knowing that their gear are just low quality house brands? Their machetes are slightly better than those purchased from them RM2 shops? That their bullet proof vests are not of kevlar but poplar? I just cannot imagine should one or seventy of those heels fell off during those march past on Merdeka Day in front of all those foreign dignitaries. Even the representative of President Mugabe would laugh his rocks off. Reckon those military uniforms purchased from 'kedai bundle' donned by them young punks are of hardier materials.

Selamat Hari Pahlawan.

Am having that feeling again which you can only say what in French. déjà vu. Unfortunately this is not something pleasant. It's not about reliving the scene of your first necking. It's about something more morbid.

It's not unlike being thrown into Hell. But instead of those superheated flames and molten lead, in this Hell you're being subjected to ghastly repetitions. You got to endure the results of them moronic decisions made by imbecile and greedy little napoleons who got bold because their political masters and ministers were no better, over and over again for eternity. With each scene unfolding, your blood curdled and as it coagulated you felt your veins throbbing, thickening. Thud! Thud! Thud! Soon more than a few would start bursting as your heart pumped even faster but instead of pumping out blood, it spewed a blackish maroon tofu-like substance. Finally that substance managed to inch its way throughout your body and into your brains and you exploded. All the while feeling the pain, in stereo.

Then you're wholesome again. Sitting there in front of the idiot box waiting for the next moronic scene. As it starts, your blood starts to curdle again. Over and over again for eternity.

That would be one hell even Hades, brother of Zeus and husband of Persephone, would cringe.

What did we do to deserve this? We let the people we elected get away with murder. We let them off once. We let them off twice. We let them off for half a frigging century. And we deserved every bit of Hell that came with that.

Until we seek redemption. Are we ready to redeem ourselves? Only the Creator of Hell knows.

all that glitters ain't gold...eh?

2008-07-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

Glittering affair at birthday do

Over 700 guests came to wish the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan Tuanku Jaa’far Tuanku Abdul Rahman, a happy 86th birthday on Saturday. The blacktie dinner was held in the glittering Banquet Hall at Istana Besar Seri Menanti, which can accommodate over a thousand guests.

Members of the House of Negri Sembilan were in their glittering best and VIPs wore their sashes, medals or full uniform.

Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor who wore his DK and other Selangor medals crafted entirely of diamonds made by Spink of London.

Tengku Dara and Tengku Imran wore their Tan Sri medals and other dignitaries included Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, top cop Tan Sri Musa Hassan and the Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Utama Mohamad Hassan.

Guests dined on smoked prawn, wagyu beef and tiramisu under massive chandeliers as music was played by a 16-piece orchestra from the Malay Regiment with famous songbird Misha Omar crooning away.

A 3m tall cake was pushed with great difficulty onto the stage.

Tunku Laksamana Tunku Naquiyuddin and consort Tunku Nurul Hayati invited the Yam Tuan to cut the cake.

After blowing the cake, Tuanku Jaa’far did a little jig to much applause and cheering. Tuanku Jaa’far later danced with Tunku Ampuan Negeri Sembilan.
____________________________________________________

Hmm...entirely of diamonds. Smoked prawns, wagyu beef and tiramisu. The only Diamond I had encountered was the water system at me sister's. And Giant brand smoked sausages (RM2.37), Indian buffalo meat (used to be RM6.50 per pack but now it's RM10) and Nestle ice-cream(RM7 for a 2 litre tub) for me. That too on a good day. Tempeh fill the rest. Prawns? Well, prawn paste maybe.

I'll always blame me great great great great great great grandmother for failing to find herself a Bugis warrior as a husband. She took a Javanese farmer instead. And then the Dutch came. If she waited another fifty seven days, she could even try her luck with one of them flying Dutchmen. And I could be one of them pan-Asian heartthrobs doing the sinetrons in Bandung or accompanying Inul doing her 'ngebor' in Jakarta or a reputable marijuana pusher with blond dreadlocks in Amsterdam. Either way I'll still be eating the tempeh. Fifty seven bleeding days!

If she had married a Bugis warrior then, I could be doing the Kembara. If you catch me drift. I could have them glittering birthdays. Or even a diamond studded condoms from Antwerp. But unfortunately, in Borobodur country, there are no Bugis to be found. If they were, there'll be war. And so she dutifully married a Javanese farmer. And tended to her husband and rice terraces and tempeh. And I had been stopped three times by the Malaysian police during those dark days of me life because I looked different. And me accent always managed to give me 'tempeh'ness away. Even when I speak English! Damn! So I shaved me dreads long before Mawi reached puberty and talked only when the only option was sign language. And the only sign language I know is the one universally unacceptable.

But I know deep in her heart my great great great great great great grandmother's only wish was to be a filial daughter, a good wife, and mother to filial children. And that life won't be too hard on her. For that I won't mind all the tempeh and all me 'tempeh'ness. For that I won't mind being stopped by the Malaysian police everyday even though we were here since 1876. And also for that I would give away all that glitters because that stairway to heaven can't be bought. I love you Grams.

And all those of you who are fortunate enough to have glittering condoms and dildos because of fortunate ancestries, what can I say. God works in strange ways. And in Him we trust.

my bank...eh?

2008-07-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Setback for Maybank’s acquisition of Indonesian bank

KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd’s plan to acquire PT Bank Internasional Indonesia TBK suffered a setback due to new take-over rules imposed by Indonesia’s regulators.

Maybank said Tuesday that it had received a letter from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) that due to recent changes of take-over rule enacted by the Indonesian Government on June 30, that its take over of the bank might result in losses for Maybank.

“The proposal may result in Maybank potentially incurring material losses from selling down of the shares and write-down of investment upon the implementation of the New Take-Over Rule,” it said.

“In this regard, BNM informed that its approval given under Section 29 of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 for the proposed acquisition via its letter dated March 25 has been revoked,” it said.

Under the New Take-Over Rule, a new controlling shareholder is obliged to divest to public shareholders, a minimum of 20% and at least 300 parties within two years after the tender offer is undertaken.

Maybank had earlier met with Badan Pengawas Pasar Modal and Lembaga Keuangan (Bapepam), Department Keuangan of Indonesia for a waiver from complying with the abovementioned ruling.

However, Maybank said Bapepam had informed it that the waiver would not be considered.

_____________________________________________________

When banks succumbed to politics, they lost. When there's a loser, there must be a winner. So who won? Amirsham Abd Aziz could be one of them. He got to be a senator. He was then named as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of the Economic Planning Unit. He was awarded the Tan Sri. He had people wiki his name. Though at a price. But hey, you can humiliate me everyday if I get to be Amirsham Abd Aziz.

Any other winners? Well you know the drill. You read them blogs. You know them allegations. You know there won't be any investigations. Because you know they won't be any police report. You know it'll be swept under the carpet sooner rather than later.

So should we care?

We should because there are other losers as well. The Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB)? It holds more than half of Maybank shares. Who invested in PNB through their ASB, ASN, ASW and the rest of its unit trusts? Us Malaysians. And why do them Public Mutual dudes are able to give better returns than the PNB? Or maybe them PNB is not unlike Petronas, always bailing out them Puppet Master's companies at our expense when we're not looking? Them bank employees? They could have gotten handsome bonuses in these trying times. Or they could be laid off should the new CEO wanna take the easy way out to recover them losses in the guise of reducing costs and increasing productivity.

So should our politicians care? Our Government?

Guess not. We are just collateral damages.

Image borrowed without permission from Giovanna Casotto's Bitch in Heat series.

mad moment...eh?

2008-07-25T22:54:00.000-07:00

Terengganu MB: Probe Monsoon Cup, Islamic Park

KUALA TERENGGANU: The authorities should investigate if there was graft in other high-profile projects in Terengganu and not just the issue of high cost of maintaining official cars, said Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said.

He said the Anti-Corruption Agency should not be selective and should also conduct investigations into projects like the prestigious Monsoon Cup sailing event and the Islamic Civilisation Park.

In an immediate response, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said this was up to the ACA.

“If the ACA finds reasons to initiate investigations into them because there is suspicion of elements of corruption, it is up to the ACA to decide,” he told reporters after the National Academic Awards 2007 in Kuala Lumpur.

Ahmad Said, in a press conference here yesterday, said the two projects he named were “only the tip of the iceberg”.

“I am a controversial figure, I will expose more, but the ACA should be transparent by also going after the ‘big’ cases.

“Don’t only go after Mad (Ahmad Said). Investigate the Monsoon Cup and Islamic Civilisation Park, too,” he said.

___________________________________________________________

Let the game begins!

Damn! I thought the Olympic will only begin next month. But hey, in Bolehland we were given the honour of competing before the opening ceremony. How cool is that? Not unlike those pirated DVDs we got the opportunity to buy long before them movies reach our shores.

Unfortunately, not unlike them DVDs, this fight is gonna be a disappointment. We knew the result of the game way before the final whistle. Before it even began. We do have bookies tampering not only in those moronic Liga Malaysia or Super League or whatever those leagues are called now but in the country's political satires too.

But I have to give it to the Mad MB for even trying. Or his backer whomever he or she is. Test power bebs. I am always of the belief that a PM of a small country like Malaysia is a PM of a PM. A Premier Mannequin of a Puppet Master. Huh? In Malaysia there are 5.8 million households in 2007. Of that, 8.6% have an monthly income below RM1,000, 29.4% had between RM1,000 and RM2,000, while 19.8% earned between RM2,001 and RM3,000; 12.9% of the households earned between RM3,001 and RM4,000 and 8.6% between RM4,001 and RM5,000. Finally, around 15.8% of the households have an income of between RM5,001 and RM10,000 and 4.9% have an income of more than RM10,000, which is around USD3,000. We are basically a nation of slaves. Apart from those within the circle of the Puppet Master. And the Puppet Master will do whatever it takes to ensure all the slaves behave and know their position in the schemes of things. The Puppet Master did well with the previous Premier Mannequin, who showed zest, intelligent, eloquence and has quite a charismatic persona. Though some finesse would do him a world of good. Unfortunately the latest Premier Mannequin was a total disaster. Not very bright. Far from being eloquent. And have a tendency of shooting his own foot. But if you think you can take your fight to him you are wrong. Very wrong. He is but the Premier Mannequin. He won't be saying much because he is not that bright. Far from being eloquent. And have a tendency of shooting his own foot. But his Puppet Master would ensure that you'll be running back to your kennel with your tails between your legs without so much of a yelp. Or how do you explain why every slaves is afraid of the bumbling, not so bright, far from being eloquent dumb ass sleepy head? And the Mad MB would be running to his kennel too. That you can go to your bookie with.

Unless you got other Puppet Masters doing your reckoning. Then you can go on enjoying your carnal delights. Oppsss!! Turkish Delights I meant to say.

blond moment...eh?

2008-07-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

After enduring all them blond moments shoved down me throat by them powers that be these past few months, reckon I'll be surprised if I don't turn into a blondie one of these days. Maybe I had without me realising it. Got to pay more attention to that guy in the mirror. And Deborah Harry is another favourite blond. It was Debbie then but she wised up after her 40th.

The Tide Is High
Artist: Blondie
Album: Autoamerican (1980)
(Originally sung by The Paragons and written by John Holt)

Never give up
yeah
Never give up
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
I'm not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no

It's not the things you do
That tease and hurt me bad
But it's the way you do
The things you do to me
I'm not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no

The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
Number one,
My number one
Number one

Every girl wants you to be her man
But I'll wait right here 'till it's my turn
I'm not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no

The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
Number one,
My number one
Number one

Every time that I get the feeling
You give me something to believe in
Every time that I got you near me
I know the way that I want it to be
But you know I'm gonna take chance now
I'm gonna make it happen somehow
And you know I can take the pressure
A moment to pay for a lifetime pleasure

Every girl wants you to be her man
But I'll wait right here 'til it's my turn
I'm not the kind of girl
Who gives up just like that
Oh, no

The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
The tide is high, but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one

Every time that I get the feeling
You give me something to believe in
Every time that I got you near me
I know the way that I want it to be
But you know I'm gonna take chance now
I'm gonna make it happen somehow
And you know I can take the pressure
A moment to pay for a lifetime pleasure

The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one
The tide is high but I'm holding on
I'm gonna be your number one

thy love be done...eh?

2008-07-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

Yups, am surviving on love. And love is all that I can afford right now. Hopefully it can last me some. Damn, I hate stupid and greedy politicians. Hope they all die nasty. And painful. Throw in shameful for good measure. Damn.

Fortunately Martika managed to be here on short notice. And she's definitely a sight for sore hearts. Will try to do Blondie tomorrow.

Love... Thy Will Be Done Lyrics
Artist: Martika
Album: Martika's Kitchen (1991)

Love, thy will be done
I can no longer hide
I can no longer run
No longer can I resist the guiding light
It gives me the power to keep up the fight
Love, thy will be done
Since I have found you my life has just begun
And I see all of your creations as one
Perfect, complex
No one less beautiful or more special than the next
We are all blessed and so wise to accept
Thy will, Love, be done

Love, thy will be mine
And make me strive for the glorious and divine
I could not be more, more satisfied (satisfied)
Even when there's no peace outside my window
There's peace inside
And that's why I no longer run (I no longer run)
Love, thy will be done

Love, thy will be done
I can no longer hide
I can no longer run (no, no, no)
Love, thy will be done
Thy will, Love, be done

No longer can I resist (no) the guiding light (guiding light)
The light that gives me power to keep up the fight
I couldn’t be more satisfied (no,no)
Even when there's no peace outside my window
There is peace inside
And that's why I can no longer run
Love, thy will be done (thy will be done, done, done)

Love, thy will be done
I can no longer hide
I can no longer run
Love, thy will be done
Thy will, Love, be done

Love, thy will be done
I can no longer hide
I can no longer run (no, no, no)
Love, thy will be done
Thy will, Love, be done…
Thy will, Love, be done…
Thy will, Love, be done…

twisted...eh?

2008-07-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

Am getting a tad twisted. And moronic. Not unlike them politicians in the news. All the salary credited on the 22nd was but all gone. Forgot about all them bills I had future paid with me maybank2u. Duh! Definitely not a very clever move that. Yes, them bills are paid. But how the hell am I gonna survive until the next payday? And the world’s largest chain of specialty ice-cream stores has opened its third signature dessert café in Johor Bahru.

Fortunately there's Tanita. And maybe Martika tomorrow. Sigh...

Twist In My Sobriety
Artist: Tanita Tikaram
Album: Ancient Heart (1988)

All God's children need travelling shoes
Drive your problems from here
All good people read good books
Now your conscience is clear
I hear you talk girl
Now your conscience is clear

In the morning when I wipe my brow
Wipe the miles away
I like to think I can be so willed
And never do what you say
I'll never hear you
And never do what you say

Look my eyes are just holograms
Look your love has drawn red from my hands
From my hands you know you'll never be
More than twist in my sobriety
More than twist in my sobriety
More than twist in my sobriety

We've just poked a little empty pie
For the fun that people had at night
Late at night don't need hostility
The timid smile and pause to free

I don't care about their different thoughts
Different thoughts are good for me
Up in arms and chaste and whole
All God's children took their toll

Look my eyes are just holograms
Look your love has drawn red from my hands
From my hands you know you'll never be
More than twist in my sobriety
More than twist in my sobriety
More than twist in my sobriety

Cup of tea, takes time to think, yeah
Time to risk a life, a life, a life
Sweet and handsome
Soft and porky
You pig out 'til you've seen the light
Pig out 'til you've seen the light

Half the people read the papers
Read them good and well
Pretty people, nervous people
People have got to sell
News you have to sell

Look my eyes are just holograms
Look your love has drawn red from my hands
From my hands you know you'll never be
More than twist in my sobriety
More than twist in my sobriety
More than twist in my sobriety

hampeh...eh?

2008-07-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

PM says he met top Pas leaders over unity talks

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has admitted to having held three meetings, to date, with top Pas leaders on Islam and Malay unity.

The prime minister, who is also Umno president, declined to name who he had met, except to say that Pas spiritual leader Datuk Seri Nik Aziz Nik Mat was not part of the talks.

Abdullah would not say when the meetings took place.

Speaking on the subject last week, he only said Umno "welcomed" Pas' willingness to hold such talks.

"I have actually held meetings, three times, if you want to know.
"They were with high-level party leaders, individuals who have the power to make decisions.

"But I can say that Nik Aziz was not present," Abdullah said yesterday...
______________________________________________

Hmm...tying the knot are we. So what are you gonna call this new consummation? Pasumno? Pasno? Umnopas? Menopas? Umpas?

Reckon Umpas should be cool. Pronounce as Hampas. Well, for a bunch of discards from both parties, it would be quite apt, don't you think? Back when I was in school in Seremban, them Somban dudes would pronounce it as Hampeh. And that would be the most appropriate word to describe this stupidity.

Morons.

coming around...eh?

2008-07-20T05:03:00.000-07:00

What goes around comes around.

No, it's not the Justin Timberlake's number. It's about this report in The Star. I always thought we Malaysians are a generous lot. All those donations for them Palestinians, them Myanmarese, them Achehnese and even them Sudanese. Apart from the outflow of RM via them foreign workers, legal and illegal, and them SMS scams, Malaysians donated a tidy sum too. Maybe that was then. Before the fuel hike and some. This is now.

Reckon that's why when something happened to one of our own, we did almost nothing. We let some Australian tourists foot the bill instead. And why not? Australia is one of the obvious destinations for those pursuing a tertiary education. And vacations. Imagine the outflow of RM. Imagine the contribution to Australia, especially when those studying there chose to stay. What is RM350 per month for 18 years? You can't even buy a Proton Perdana. Yeah right.

Anyways, me heartiest congratulations to Woo Kwee Fatt and his wife Ely Woo for the three new additions to the family. May life treat your family well.

Just hope there won't be any Malaysian begging on the streets in neighbouring countries anytime soon. But by the look of them stupid moves by morons who claimed to be championing and serving the people, don't bet your life savings on it.