the meesh experience

Moving Time

2007-04-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

When I started blogging in 1999, it was on a black background with red text. People complained all the time to me about how awful it was on their eyes, but I was goth and goth people had to have some black and red somewhere.

To me, it was tasteful and appropriate, a shabbily put together homemade HTML website. It was my pride and joy. It was filled with angsty drawings, poems and pictures of myself with black lipstick and minimal clothing. And let's not forget all the depressing quotes, from equally depressing artistes.

Obviously, a lot has changed since then.

I first joined blogger in 2000, and have stayed with blogger since then. I think, I was one of the first few hundred people on blogger, only joining because my American chat friends had introduced blogging to Winnie and I at the time. It actually had an interface, and I didn't have to concern myself with much of the HTML. It was awesome.

I later moved on to meesh.net, still in use, it redirects you to this page but that used Moveable Type. After the demise of that familiar, white and orange page, I came back to blogger using my first URL, a very coveted meesh.blogspot.com, which has since been taken by another Michelle in a split second decision to update the settings.

Since then, I have made this URL my home in my sporadic, but timely return to blogging. I've since gotten into wordpress.com lately and I think I will be moving there. I'm no tech genius and I still don't think it's easy so I will no be importing my blogspot archives there, but these two blogs will remain on cyberspace to remind me of who I am, who I used to be and what I shouldn't be.

I welcome you to my new place on the Internet:

the meesh experience

Atlantis, Underwater No More!

2007-04-17T00:09:00.000-07:00

That's our cover for May's issue. The layout and design has significantly improved, in my opinion and I guess it will continue improving, a fledgling magazine we have to... it's natural progression.

In terms of writing, I'm hoping to keep improving myself. It's a constant struggle, because sometimes other's can think it reads alright, but you know, just know within you, that it needs something extra.

I''m working on polishing my skills, refining it, if you will. It's a long time coming for that though. Despite writing for the past 6 years, I still am not where I would like to be. But being self-aware is the first step I suppose.

Interesting reads this month:

Interview with Datuk Simon Foong, Kampung Berembang pictorial, the Business of Death- A Ching Ming story, and many more.

Hope you enjoy it, it comes out next week at all major bookstores and local retailers, RM 8.90.

Kurt Vonneguy, dies at 84

2007-04-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

Sad day, sad day.

April 12, 2007

Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead at 84

By DINITIA SMITH

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.

Mr. Vonnegut suffered irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago, according to his wife, Jill Krementz.

Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.

Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?

He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.”

Not all Mr. Vonnegut’s themes were metaphysical. With a blend of vernacular writing, science fiction, jokes and philosophy, he also wrote about the banalities of consumer culture, for example, or the destruction of the environment.

His novels — 14 in all — were alternate universes, filled with topsy-turvy images and populated by races of his own creation, like the Tralfamadorians and the Mercurian Harmoniums. He invented phenomena like chrono-synclastic infundibula (places in the universe where all truths fit neatly together) as well as religions, like the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent and Bokononism (based on the books of a black British Episcopalian from Tobago “filled with bittersweet lies,” a narrator says).

The defining moment of Mr. Vonnegut’s life was the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, by Allied forces in 1945, an event he witnessed firsthand as a young prisoner of war. Thousands of civilians were killed in the raids, many of them burned to death or asphyxiated. “The firebombing of Dresden,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote, “was a work of art.” It was, he added, “a tower of smoke and flame to commemorate the rage and heartbreak of so many who had had their lives warped or ruined by the indescribable greed and vanity and cruelty of Germany.”

His experience in Dresden was the basis of “Slaughterhouse-Five,” which was published in 1969 against the backdrop of war in Vietnam, racial unrest and cultural and social upheaval. The novel, wrote the critic Jerome Klinkowitz, “so perfectly caught America’s transformative mood that its story and structure became best-selling metaphors for the new age.”

To Mr. Vonnegut, the only possible redemption for the madness and apparent meaninglessness of existence was human kindness. The title character in his 1965 novel, “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” summed up his philosophy:

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

Mr. Vonnegut eschewed traditional structure and punctuation. His books were a mixture of fiction and autobiography, prone to one-sentence paragraphs, exclamation points and italics. Graham Greene called him “one of the most able of living American writers.” Some critics said he had invented a new literary type, infusing the science-fiction form with humor and moral relevance and elevating it to serious literature.

He was also accused of repeating himself, of recycling themes and characters. Some readers found his work incoherent. His harshest critics called him no more than a comic book philosopher, a purveyor of empty aphorisms.

With his curly hair askew, deep pouches under his eyes and rumpled clothes, he often looked like an out-of-work philosophy professor, typically chain smoking, his conversation punctuated with coughs and wheezes. But he also maintained a certain celebrity, as a regular on panels and at literary parties in Manhattan and on the East End of Long Island, where he lived near his friend and fellow war veteran Joseph Heller, another darkly comic literary hero of the age.

Mr. Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922, the youngest of three children. His father, Kurt Sr., was an architect. His mother, Edith, came from a wealthy brewery family. Mr. Vonnegut’s brother, Bernard, who died in 1997, was a physicist and an expert on thunderstorms.

During the Depression, the elder Vonnegut went for long stretches without work, and Mrs. Vonnegut suffered from episodes of mental illness. “When my mother went off her rocker late at night, the hatred and contempt she sprayed on my father, as gentle and innocent a man as ever lived, was without limit and pure, untainted by ideas or information,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote. She committed suicide, an act that haunted her son for the rest of his life.

He had, he said, a lifelong difficulty with women. He remembered an aunt once telling him, “All Vonnegut men are scared to death of women.”

“My theory is that all women have hydrofluoric acid bottled up inside,” he wrote.

Mr. Vonnegut went east to attend Cornell University, but he enlisted in the Army before he could get a degree. The Army initially sent him to the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh and the University of Tennessee to study mechanical engineering.

In 1944 he was shipped to Europe with the 106th Infantry Division and shortly saw combat in the Battle of the Bulge. With his unit nearly destroyed, he wandered behind enemy lines for several days until he was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp near Dresden, the architectural jewel of Germany.

Assigned by his captors to make vitamin supplements, he was working with other prisoners in an underground meat locker when British and American warplanes started carpet bombing the city, creating a firestorm above him. The work detail saved his life.

Afterward, he and his fellow prisoners were assigned to remove the dead.

“The corpses, most of them in ordinary cellars, were so numerous and represented such a health hazard that they were cremated on huge funeral pyres, or by flamethrowers whose nozzles were thrust into the cellars, without being counted or identified,” he wrote in “Fates Worse Than Death.” When the war ended, Mr. Vonnegut returned to the United States and married his high school sweetheart, Jane Marie Cox. They settled in Chicago in 1945. The couple had three children, Mark, Edith and Nanette. In 1958, Mr. Vonnegut’s sister, Alice, and her husband died within a day of each other, she of cancer and he in a train crash. The Vonneguts took custody of their children, Tiger, Jim and Steven.

In Chicago, Mr. Vonnegut worked as a police reporter for the City News Bureau. He also studied for a master’s degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago, writing a thesis on “The Fluctuations Between Good and Evil in Simple Tales.” It was rejected unanimously by the faculty. (The university finally awarded him a degree almost a quarter of a century later, allowing him to use his novel “Cat’s Cradle” as his thesis.)

In 1947, he moved to Schenectady, N.Y., and took a job in public relations for the General Electric Company. Three years later he sold his first short story, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect,” to Collier’s magazine and decided to move his family to Cape Cod, Mass., where he wrote fiction for magazines like Argosy and The Saturday Evening Post. To bolster his income, he taught emotionally disturbed children, worked at an advertising agency and at one point started a Saab auto dealership.

His first novel was “Player Piano,” published in 1952. A satire on corporate life — the meetings, the pep talks, the cultivation of bosses — it also carries echoes of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” It concerns an engineer, Paul Proteus, who is employed by the Ilium Works, a company similar to General Electric. Proteus becomes the leader of a band of revolutionaries who destroy machines that they think are taking over the world.

“Player Piano” was followed in 1959 by “The Sirens of Titan,” a science-fiction novel featuring the Church of God of the Utterly Indifferent. In 1961 he published “Mother Night,” involving an American writer awaiting trial in Israel on charges of war crimes in Nazi Germany. Like Mr. Vonnegut’s other early novels, they were published as paperback originals. And like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” in 1972, and a number of other Vonnegut novels, “Mother Night” was adapted for film, in 1996, starring Nick Nolte.

In 1963, Mr. Vonnegut published “Cat’s Cradle.” Though it initially sold only about 500 copies, it is widely read today in high school English classes. The novel, which takes its title from an Eskimo game in which children try to snare the sun with string, is an autobiographical work about a family named Hoenikker. The narrator, an adherent of the religion Bokononism, is writing a book about the bombing of Hiroshima and comes to witness the destruction of the world by something called Ice-Nine, which, on contact, causes all water to freeze at room temperature.

Mr. Vonnegut shed the label of science-fiction writer with “Slaughterhouse-Five.” It tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, an infantry scout (as Mr. Vonnegut was), who discovers the horror of war. “You know — we’ve had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves,” an English colonel says in the book. “We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. My God, my God — I said to myself, ‘It’s the Children’s Crusade.’ ”

As Mr. Vonnegut was, Billy is captured and assigned to manufacture vitamin supplements in an underground meat locker, where the prisoners take refuge from Allied bombing.

In “Slaughterhouse-Five,” Mr. Vonnegut introduced the recurring character of Kilgore Trout, his fictional alter ego. The novel also featured a signature Vonnegut phrase.

“Robert Kennedy, whose summer home is eight miles from the home I live in all year round,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote at the end of the book, “was shot two nights ago. He died last night. So it goes.

“Martin Luther King was shot a month ago. He died, too. So it goes. And every day my Government gives me a count of corpses created by military science in Vietnam. So it goes.”

One of many Zenlike words and phrases that run through Mr. Vonnegut’s books, “so it goes” became a catchphrase for opponents of the Vietnam war.

“Slaughterhouse-Five” reached No.1 on best-seller lists, making Mr. Vonnegut a cult hero. Some schools and libraries have banned it because of its sexual content, rough language and scenes of violence.

After the book was published, Mr. Vonnegut went into a severe depression and vowed never to write another novel. Suicide was always a temptation, he wrote. In 1984, he tried to take his life with sleeping pills and alcohol.

“The child of a suicide will naturally think of death, the big one, as a logical solution to any problem,” he wrote. His son Mark also suffered a breakdown, in the 1970s, from which he recovered, writing about it in a book, “The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity.”

Forsaking novels, Mr. Vonnegut decided to become a playwright. His first effort, “Happy Birthday, Wanda June,” opened Off Broadway in 1970 to mixed reviews. Around this time he separated from his wife and moved to New York. (She remarried and died in 1986.)

In 1970, Mr. Vonnegut moved in with the author and photographer Jill Krementz, whom he married in 1979. They had a daughter, Lily. They survive him, as do all his other children.

Mr. Vonnegut returned to novels with “Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday” (1973), calling it a “tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast.” This time his alter ego is Philboyd Sludge, who is writing a book about Dwayne Hoover, a wealthy auto dealer. Hoover has a breakdown after reading a novel written by Kilgore Trout, who reappears in this book, and begins to believe that everyone around him is a robot.

In 1997, Mr. Vonnegut published “Timequake,” a tale of the millennium in which a wrinkle in space-time compels the world to relive the 1990s. The book, based on an earlier failed novel of his, was, in his own words, “a stew” of plot summaries and autobiographical writings. Once again, Kilgore Trout is a character. “If I’d wasted my time creating characters,” Mr. Vonnegut said in defense of his “recycling,” “I would never have gotten around to calling attention to things that really matter.”

Though it was a best seller, it also met with mixed reviews. “Having a novelist’s free hand to write what you will does not mean you are entitled to a free ride,” R. Z. Sheppard wrote in Time. But the novelist Valerie Sayers, in The New York Times Book Review, wrote: “The real pleasure lies in Vonnegut’s transforming his continuing interest in the highly suspicious relationship between fact and fiction into the neatest trick yet played on a publishing world consumed with the furor over novel versus memoir.”

Mr. Vonnegut said in the prologue to “Timequake” that it would be his last novel. And so it was.

His last book, in 2005, was a collection of biographical essays, “A Man Without a Country.” It, too, was a best seller.

In concludes with a poem written by Mr. Vonnegut called “Requiem,” which has these closing lines:

When the last living thing

has died on account of us,

how poetical it would be

if Earth could say,

in a voice floating up

perhaps

from the floor

of the Grand Canyon,

“It is done.”

People did not like it here.

My Kiddies!

2007-04-11T02:52:00.000-07:00

If you're in Penang, do go catch the show! Lifted off Lains.

Today's Lesson

2007-04-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

This reminds me of recent events, thanks to Najah for the refresher on Kahlil Gibran, the beautiful being.

Seven times have I despised my soul:

The first time when I saw her being meek that she might attain height.
The second time when I saw her limping before the crippled.
The third time when she was given to choose between the hard and the easy, and she chose the easy.
The fourth time when she committed a wrong, and comforted herself that others also commit wrong.
The fifth time when she forbore for weakness, and attributed her patience to strength.
The sixth time when she despised the ugliness of a face, and knew not that it was one of her own masks.
And the seventh time when she sang a song of praise, and deemed it a virtue.

Containment

2007-04-10T21:52:00.001-07:00

It appears the the recent post has offended some sensibilities and has since been taken off. My sincere apologies.

m

On Assignment

2007-04-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy lately, and the Internet at the office is down, so much for telling myself that I will update more. That's gone down the drain.

We just moved office, so for now if you have our TELL MEDIA address, we are no longer at number 12, we're across the street, at number 5. I guess we didn't get to inform everyone that this would be happening, so we're all still available on our cellphones though.

I know PY, you tagged me for the Weird Things About Myself. Will do it soon, I promise! Am going on assignment to Gua Musang to take pictures and possibly do a story on the orang asli in that area. More news when I get back.

See you then!

Blogging In America

2007-03-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

I was trawling through my daily reads, and saw something on Jennifer Tai's blog. Annonymous blogger, Violent Acres (although Jen doesn't name her, I'm sure this is who she is talking about after some Google-fu-ing) posted this about another blogger Dooce's baby. I have no words for the cowardice and maliciousness behind this, and even posting it up makes me sick because the Violet Acres author uses annonymity to hide behind the 'tough-as-nails-everyone-else-sucks-but-me' posts.

Then looking through her blog, I come across this entirely insane incident happening in the American blogosphere. I am trying to tell a very complicated story, so the links I may give you may be a bit too much to handle at one go.

Okay, here goes.

1. MeanKids.org and UncleBobism (which have since been taken down) were responsible for death threat posts against Kathy Sierra, prominent blogger and game developer. She has taken these death threats very seriously. She is supposed to speak at a convention but has since decided not to, out of fear. Read her thoughts on this.

Reading through her post, and regardless of what I think of her writing (boring, and not really creating a passionate user out of me!), I still think what was done to her was horrible. And the way it has escalated is traumatising even to me. If I woke up one day to find pictures of myself with a noose and all sorts of other crap, people wanting to beat the shit out of me. I'd be pissed and afraid too.

Some of the sites (not the aforementioned posts) authors/owners have responded:

RageBoy - ONE BIG FAT COP OUT
Frank Paynter on PURPOSEFUL ANARCHY

I think it's weak as shit, but you can go there and form your own opinions on what they've said.

But, I think Don Park's reply said it the best:

It makes no sense to expect moderation to work in purposeful anarchy. What was he trying to accomplish? Pan the river of nastyness for nuggets of brilliance? Based on what Frank wrote above, he suggested Kathy Sierra as one of the people Mean Kids should pick on. Did Kathy ask for a gang of intellectual anarchist to pick on her? All I read form Frank's post of clarity is pointing fingers at others and admitting his inability to control an intentionally uncontrollable situation when, IMHO, he is directly responsible for letting his naivety and vain pursuit of brilliant conversations hurt others.

To get more information: Read Doc Searls Weblog, where blogger Maryam Scoble was also targeted for, really, not much reason at all, beyond the fact that she got pregnant? Don Park once again lets you see the maliciousness behind the whole thing:

http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/2007/03/27/how-awful

Read also:

The Computerworld Interview with Kathy Sierra

Another Computerworld summary report on what's happening

The BBC Report: Blog Death Threats Spark Debate

With the emergence of the Internet and blogs as the new media, it's inevitable that this should happen. The Internet is still considered as the big Wild, Wild, West whether we like it or not. There are laws but most of which are easily manipulated, or never enforced. Manipulation in the form of the NST suing Rocky and Jeff, which I believe is the stupidest blogger lawsuit to ever come about, but that's just my humble opinion.

Then you have the Guna and Jeff issue, where I do believe that blog owners to have to moderate comments and avoid annonymous posters who say things that could be implied as death threats. THAT, is not censorship, that is intelligent covering your ass, because I certainly will can someone's ass if I am taken to court for their dumb, imbecillic comments.

And I have see the kind of comments Malaysians (even Americans) leave on blogs... they are ignorant and stupid. It seems that the layer of annonymity out there simply encourages stupidity more than it does intelligent discourse (sometimes). Even on an arts portal like kakiseni.com, you have idiots posting things that have nothing to do with a theatre, book, or event review, no death threats, but rude personal comments are almost often the path taken by these cowardly commenters. Like I said, I'd be damned if I let an idiot commenter's comments send me to court.

If I'm going to be sued/locked in the slammer, I'd like it to be on my own terms and beliefs.

It is my hope that we can increase the value of the content in the blogosphere, both locally and internationally, and let this incident with Kathy Sierra stop us from fostering a climate of fear, of disrespect to women and men alike, and most importantly, ignorance and stupidity, under the banner of "free speech."

Death to Trolls:

Doc Searls has received this email from Alan Herrell, who with Chris Locke, was immediately assumed to have authored some of the posts involving Sierra. Apparently, the posts that implied Herrell was behind all this, was in fact posted by trolls who have hacked his passwords. Information remains incomplete as to who is really behind all this. I'm reading Doc Searls religiously for the next few days and so should you.

Lastly, a very, very important and helpful post for all those of you people living in the 'real world' and doing this in your 'spare time' or 'when you should be sleeping.'

Kathy Sierra's post put blog responsibility charges front and center by Denise Howell, blogger and lawyer.

Fuelled By Confusion

2007-03-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

Dina Zaman's new book is out, I Am Muslim for the uninitiated. Stories from her column of the same name on malaysiakini.com, the alternative news website. Do buy it, it's great... explains a long of different things that are important for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. In fact, a book that is wholly Malaysian by nature, witty, humourous and unassuming.

I am sure that Dina and/or Sharon Bakar will have the details and pictures from last night's launch out soon. I also did a small review piece on the book in TELL's book review page for April, interviewing Dina for it, check it out next month along with other interesting highlights. More on that later...

*

Listening to: Lloyd, I'm Waiting To Be Heartbroken by Camera Obscura.

Come Off It, Seriously.

2007-03-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

In researching and going to Kampung Berembang earlier this month, I've realized many things. I've been following the story for some time now, and have done some extensive research into this issue. Meeting with the villagers, having long drawn out emotional phone conversations with them and standing in the hot sun for hours with other activists, writers, media people... to simply get quotes and explain the situation to those out there, some of which really could not give a damn about the injustice being perpetuated here and in other urban pioneer villages (that are being forcibly removed).

One 'interview' in particular, scared the shit out of me. The kids in Berembang have watched all this horror unveil in front of their eyes, not unlike the children of Palestinians who've seen the Israeli soldiers commit injustices to their friends and family. These children then grow up in a culture of violence and perpetuated the fight and the terror between the two nations.

The kids in Berembang were aware of what was going on, some of them have been roughed up by authorities, watched their uncles and aunts, moms and dads get beaten up, slapped, arrested. They've done a wayang kulit, out of anger, out of strong emotions they've felt to see their homes torn down all in the pursuit of unfair development.

Don't get them wrong, they (the villagers) want development, but they do not want to be sidelined in this quest for modernity. The people involved in this development have so much to gain, but at what cost?

The children of this nation are scarred enough, they just don't know it yet. I'm so afraid that seeing this, seeing that a majority of the developers were of a certain race, that knowing this is a profit making exercise- they will perpetuate the color-codedness that Malaysians have. I am afraid they will never recover from having lost their homes and I am afraid they will never be happy.

Here's to hoping that they are resilient and forgiving enough to us, to everyone, as we try (very hard) to make their plight known and give them a future that they deserve, not one they will hate us for.

Read Below, forwarded to me in email:

MEDIA STATEMENT ,20 March 2007

Malaysia's Schools Failing Those Without the Luxury of Choice

The centrepiece of any nation's development must include its education policy. Therefore it is worrying that on the verge of our 50^th Merdeka, our schools are still stuck in third world curriculum while many still do not have our 'first class infrastructure'.

While the government has talked about Smart Schools for over a decade, the Education Development Masterplan has revealed that nearly 20% of our primary schools do not have clean water supply; nearly 35% lack a computer lab; more than one fifth lack science labs and one tenth do not have uninterrupted electricity supply. Overall, over two thirds of our primary schools do not have complete infrastructure. This is in addition to the revelation by YB Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in her open letter to the Minister of Education on 13 December 2006 that our the percentage of spending on education lags behind Senegal, Malawi and and Kenya while we are among 24 nations including Palestine and Maldives that suffered a drop in primary school enrolment between 1999 to 2004.

The regions stuck with the worst-equipped schools tend to be those in the rural areas, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, serving poor and marginalised communities. This exacerbates the social inequality and diminshes the ability of education to provide sustainable social mobility. All this talk on human capital is moot if these communities continue to be left behind. The majority of the marginalised are the Bumiputeras, yet the Minister of Education is more concerned about brandishing the keris than solving this problem.

This is further exacerbated by the haphazard decision to switch the teaching of Science and Mathematics to English. This has led to a lowering of standards as the Ministry is intent on proving that the change of medium has not affected students performance. We do not dispute the need to improve the command of English, but this should be done through improving teaching standards and allocating more time towards the subject, not by sacrificing our struggle of establishing our national language as a common bond between all Malaysians.

At the same time, our curriculum remains highly exam oriented. All emphasis is on rote learning and performing well in examinations. Rather than providing for a holistic approach to education, the new open system in SPM has led to an obsession of scoring as many A's as possible without any question of its relevance. More worryingly, this starts from an early age as our children are already burdened with a heavy workload in addition to their heavy school bags. This is only worsened when the parents enroll young children in tuition centres.

The government's utter lack of faith in the national education system is illustrated by the announcement by the Ministry of Education to allow more Malaysians to go to International Schools. While it is a shame that our national schools are no longer the school of choice for those who can afford to choose, the bigger tragedy is that they are failing those who do not have the luxury of choice. Furthermore, the national language must be reinstated as the medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics, while constructive measures are introduced to improve proficiency in English. We have no choice but to prepare our citizens for globalisation, and that can only be done by getting back to basics: creating an accessible and holistic education system for all starting with our primary schools.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Shock, Horror, Shock, Shock

2007-03-20T19:32:00.000-07:00

Work is piling up and we just launched the first issue. It seems that life in the publishing industry is never ending, there is no two ways about it. You close one issue, and you're plunged into the next. The magazine is doing pretty well, been getting good reviews from many people... and in terms of the design, well.... I guess we have to continue striving to do better. I'm becoming a perfectionist at heart now. I've rewritten my story willingly, much to the surprise of my editor, twice. Entirely different angles, because the story I'm writing involves some pretty big names in Malaysia, and I have to be really really careful as not to rock the boat... frighten advertisers and such.

Lordy.

Anyway, the magazine is out at all major newsstands and the local mamak near you... TELL, Datin Seri Rosmah on the cover, and retailing at RM 8.90. None of my stuff is in the inaugural issue if you're curious, save a tiny picture in the back... there's not much of me in there because I wasn't around yet. But it's an enjoyable and informative read nonetheless.

Have a good mid-week all!

Listening to- Andrew Bird and Pete Bjorn and John!

Book MEME

2007-03-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be writing my Kg. Berembang story, but I'm procastinating. It's so hot and the fan is whirring too slowly and I am dressed in a kebaya top. I FEEL LIKE DYING.

Anyways. for something to do, I took this from Pick Yin's blog, and since my postings are sporadic and no one ever tags me for anything and I am damn sibuk, I'm just going to do this, nener nener nener!

Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. +The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. +The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. +The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. +The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. +Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. + A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11.+ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. +Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. *A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. * Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. +The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. + The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. + Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. + The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. + The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. +East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. +Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. +The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. * The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. * The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. + I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. + The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. + The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. * The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. * The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
~~43. + Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)~~
~~44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)~~
45. +Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48.+ Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. +The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. +She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. + The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. +A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. * Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. +Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. +The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. * The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. *The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. +The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. * The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. +War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. +Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. * Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. +One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
~~67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)~~
68. +Catch–22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. +The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint–Exupery)
71. +Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. * The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. * A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. * The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. * Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. * Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. * Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. * Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. * The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. * Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of a Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
~~95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)~~
96. * The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. +White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
~~98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)~~
99. * The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

I have a lot of books man! Fu-yoh. Need to get more. Trade anyone?

New Beginnings

2007-03-07T20:53:00.000-08:00

A person's first innocence comes of naivete' and ignorance, with trust in life and optimist ic hope based on inexperience with disappointment and no world-wisdom . Next comes the loss of innocence , in which he or she turns dis trust ful, defensive or insecure, and cynic al. Eventually, with long personal struggle and luck, a person may develop a second innocence, when full awareness of disappointment and human pettiness and fallibility can't stop his or her trust in life and hope.

Just wanted to share that with all of you.

My magazine is has been launched. We had a party yesterday, it was good to see the support from people we've been working with. And it's all in hopes that we're getting somewhere.

Bless you.

I'm Back, Sort Of...

2007-02-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

It's been ages! Blogger has a new look etc.

I have a job! It's at a new news magazine called TELL, we're in Damansara Heights. It's lovely. The team is pretty cool so far. We'll be launching our inaugural issue in March, hopefully. We're looking for designers now, so if you know anyone please email me meeshlet AT gmail DOT com.

I can't update much, I've got thousands of things to do... more news soon.

Have a good Chinese New year folks!

m

One More for Malaysians

2006-12-14T23:47:00.000-08:00

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/?p=873

I am furious!!!! Actually I'm so much more than that, that I cannot find the words. What the hell is wrong with us? One person, against the odds. The comments are informative, some are in the right place and some are just misguided, racist crap or ignorant typical comments like, "It's Malaysia what do you expect?"

ARGH.

SO FREAKING PISSED. I really don't want to get into an accident in this country la. Let's pray no one close to us ever does. Or that, we too have a Ms. Zara somewhere. Otherwise....

What's In A Job?

2006-11-24T00:09:00.000-08:00

So after sending out 40 resumes to prospective employers I got two replies. One from a direct sales company which I googled and found being bashed on this forum about how misleading their job advertisements are... so scratch that.

Number 2 was with a high society mag. I really liked the Editor, she seemed pretty down to earth and passionate, and seemed to understand where I was coming from when I said interviewing, let alone greeting the upper crust intimidated me to no end. I mean, I might actually have to learn this whole protocol thing. Die.

I think she liked me, I'm not really sure. But I wasn't very enthusiastic during the interview, I had the face of constipation on. I must say a high society magazine is not where I ever visualized myself, but nevertheless, it's all a learning experience and you're only better for it when you try new things, right? There are contacts to be made, and interesting story ideas to pitch. So we'll just wait till she calls me back.

I've sort of left the whole Shell thing alone for now, they're definitely not having interviews this year and I have to wait until 2007 for an appointment, so I'm going to need a job by January. Freelance or no freelance.

If you know of anyone who wants to hire a writer, both in Malaysia or overseas :) email me: meeshlet AT gmail DOT com. The advantages of being single abound! No one else to think of at this point besides me, and for the first time ever, that's really great.

Something to stop the job blues, and a very serious issue I believe and makes you really think:

Indian Scavengers

They stood in the black treacle of shit, piss and other assorted matter, using bamboo sticks as oars to move the sewage around, and then buckets to pass it out to be deposited on the street. A little later, they left the holes to wash their feet and hands with water from a white plastic container. One man gave me a big smile and said, “dirty,” in English.

Who's Behind Kampung Berembang?

2006-11-23T21:53:00.000-08:00

Was clicking links all morning, so I don't remember how I got here, but it's very interesting information, and he did this all by himself! Way to go Nathaniel! Will definitely be keeping my eye on this blog and you should too.

Naming Names: Seeing whose money is behind the Kampung Berembang demolition.

Crash

2006-11-23T02:10:00.000-08:00

Shelter, it's included in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and somehow the MPAJ doesn't seem to understand that. There are some people out there Malays and non-Malays alike that are playing the whole race saga right now, more so than before and I think personally, this is an instance where you need to look into what is really going on in the country.

It's really not about race anymore, and some people understand that and have capitalized on the usage to get what they can out of affirmative action policies like the NEP. If the NEP had been properly used instances like this would hardly be occurring and certain Klang local council people wouldn't be allowed to profit from building gigantic mansions on land meant for the lower income bracket.

It's a case of the poor still being poor, or God forbid, poorer... and the rich getting richer. I'm tired of the buffoons that spout this racial crap and sit in Parliament and debate ridiculous things and spend money on ridiculous things when the poor should be properly housed and educated, and not! driven off their land after 34 years of living there, with the bullsh*t excuse of offering to relocate them almost 20-30 kilometers from where they used to live, and quite possibly work!

If you can help, please do and tell your friends.

Email from malaysian-cinema Yahoo! group:

Date: November 22, 2006 2:51:57 PM GMT+08:00
To: "Joe Kidd"
Subject: SOLIDARITY FOR KAMPUNG BEREMBANG

SOLIDARITY FOR KAMPUNG BEREMBANG

The Kampung Berembang villagers really need our helps - tents,
food, clothing, pillows, blankets and so on.

Some of you may heard of the Kampung Berembang, Ampang incident
on the news. For whom haven't please read the article from
Bernama News attached below.

We're now organizing to gather canned foods, clothing, pillows,
blankets etc for the Kampung Berembang victims.

Any kinda help would be appreciated.

You could reach us at: propamedia@gmail.com or 013-2497199 (Kid)

From Bernama News:

MPAJ DEMOLISHES 51 HOMES, HOMELESS LEFT IN RAIN

Nov 20 (Bernama) -- The residents of Kampung Berembang, Ampang
could only stand in the rain with their crying children and watch
in despair as their homes of forty years were torn down by five
bulldozers on the order of the Selangor government. Their worldly
belongings were scattered in piles outside their wrecked homes,
drenched in the rain. Around them, hundreds of Ampang Jaya
Municipal Council (MPAJ) enforcement officers stood and watched.

Earlier in the afternoon, two of the houses were mysteriously
razed in a fire. It is learned that 21 residents and activists
have been detained so far for hampering demolition efforts. This
was a surprising turn of events considering that earlier this
morning, the Prime Minister's Department had issued a letter
addressed to Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir
Toyo asking to defer the demolition of the houses to April 30,
next year.

Along with representatives from some non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), the residents had assembled in front of a
half-completed structure which was to be the management office
of a project to be undertaken there, located beside their
village, as early as 8am. They had also formed a barricade of
cars and wooden planks in front of their houses to prevent the
bulldozers from ripping into their homes, which they claimed
were built since the 1960s, when the place was still a mining
area and a mini-jungle.

However, things got ugly when several of the MPAJ officers tried
to force their way through and performed citizen's arrest on
eight people, including two women. "We're afraid they might pull
another "guerilla" tactic on us" said a resident, Norhayati Aini
Mohd Yusof, 49. She said that on Friday, bulldozers unexpectedly
turned up and tore down four houses in the village while
everyone was away at work.

By noon, the NGOs and resident representatives had managed to get
a letter from the Prime Minister's Department to stop the
demolition, but the residents said they would not be placated
until the bulldozers and MPAJ officers left. It seemed that they
were right in being suspicious because barely an hour after the
letter was issued, a melee broke out and truckloads of Federal
Reserve Unit Police had to be deployed to the site.

A fire broke out in one of the houses soon after and the
bulldozers made their way into the village, flattening down
houses. According to a NGO representative Y. Kohila, the houses,
totalling 51 in all, were to be demolished to make way for a
mega development project by the Acmar Group of Companies, to be
completed by 2010.

"I, like many others, have lived here since 1964. Now that we
have made the place livable and valuable, they (the state
government) want to take it away from us," a resident Noralizan
Ali, 43, told Bernama. "We have seen the title deed to this
land. It belongs to several individuals, not the state
government," he added, but refused to name the owners. MPAJ,
however, maintained that it was a squatter area and that the
government had a right to evict the squatters there.

There were initially 1,085 squatter homes in the Ampang district,
and the council had managed to relocate all but the 51 homes in
Kampung Berembang, said the MPAJ Town Planning Director Awang
Mustapha Md Yunus. The residents had filed for an injunction
against MPAJ on March 6 this year to prevent it from taking any
action against them, but another court ruling later overruled it.

When asked why MPAJ went ahead with the demolition despite the
letter from the Prime Minister's Department, Awang Mustapha said
that they had referred back to the state government who gave them
the green light. On the fate of the families from the 51 homes,
he said: "We have given them ample notice, and offered to
rehouse them in Kampung Muhibbah, Puchong, but they refused.
"And when they filed the injunction against us, they
automatically absolved their right towards any kind of
compensation. We are no longer obliged to rehouse or compensate
them."
(Bernama News)

More informations on Kampung Berembang incident:

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/59798 or

http://www.malaysiakini.tv/?p=104

What YOU can do about it:

Those who would like to show their solidarity with these
villagers who were forced into homelessnes by man-made tsunamis
may provide material support - especially tents, food and
clothing - by contacting coordinator Encik Hamzah at 019 249 2065.

Singapura, Oh Singapura!

2006-11-16T11:13:00.000-08:00

Singapore was bloody hot. Much hotter than here. The ride down on the Aeroline would have been pleasant if it wasn't for the constant ringing of phones, loud Cantonese, highly accented Bahasa Melayu, and immense heat.

My cabbie was a Chinese uncle. Always lovingly hostile to Singapore they are. I kid you not, this has happened so many times. They always bitch about Singapore to me ("Here ah, everything also got saman one.."). Told me to get married, while chomping on his siew pau, said girls should get married. Told me anything after 27 was too old. Help my mother. Stay in skool!

Najah's place amazes me. It's pink, and I hear Jikon has already commented, so I saved it. Idris is so freaking active. Now I know why moms are tired. He's like a wiggly ulat, and he does a lovely helicopter whirl... and he laughs. A lot. Among other things :)

Najah and Abang fed me 'til I had food coming out of every orifice. Okay, I exaggerate. But seriously.

Ayam penyet (don't ask), lontong, sambal goreng, rendang, sayur lemak, PRAWNS THE SIZE OF YOUR HEAD, gigantic crab with man tou bread, tagliatelle (sp?) with beef bacon and mushrooms in cream sauce, juicy steak with mashed potatoes and sauteed asparagus and mushrooms, a divine lunch at Michaelangelo's in Holland Village, sinful chocs from Sins, ikan bakar at Addams Road (where Huzir Sulaiman sat with his two-toned beard and ate satay, very politely), sup lidah/tongue (I know, but it tasted dead good!)

The shopping, don't get me started... but god, yes, yes, yes! I couldn't buy anything, 'cos I'm unemployed, hehe.

To conclude, it's looking like a good place to stay for awhile. I haven't decided, but if any of you know of a place that needs a writer, media person, whatever... I'm in! I haven't made up my mind about the place... there was a lot of discussion this past week about Malaysia and how we compare to our Southern neighbours... there are some obvious differences, like how Malays are so the minority it's not even funny... how polished everything and everyone is... I asked if there were poor people there, 'cos I saw none (there are, but they're called 'lower income'). I've always likened the place to Sim City, where everything looked great and amazing, and it still does, but this time around.... Singapore had soul.

It had soul in Mak Besah, it had soul in Tekka market, in Arab Street at Zam Zam and all the little shops, it had soul on the PIE, in Holland Village (like Bangsar minus the hip-hoppin Klang macha wannabes), but most of all, it had soul in Naj, Abang and Idris.

So here's hoping for things to work out. Somehow.

Sakitnya Hati

2006-11-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

Siape makan cili, die la pedas kan?

Never been truer. Oh, veritas is paralysing! When I first read it, I kid you not, I was met with searing pain... 'cos it's just so true and I hated the fact that he was right. And he called us bodoh. Bloody hell, Aussie telling us how stupid we are :P

Read it. NOW. OH and I'm pretty sure the guy is going to kena flame like mad, he's got his email and all there already. I agree with him though, all the way.

While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry

MALAYSIA'S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of the economy each of its two main races — the Malays and the Chinese — owns. It's an argument that's been running for 40 years. That wealth and race are not synonymous is important for national cohesion, but really it's time Malaysia grew up.

It's a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy for a country that prefers to argue about how to divide wealth rather than get on with the job of creating it.

The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.

Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese.

"Malaysia boleh!" is Malaysia's national catch cry. It translates to "Malaysia can!" and Malaysia certainly can. Few countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed with natural resources and the national obsession seems to be to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the proceeds up against the wall.

This all happens in the context of Malaysia's grossly inflated sense of its place in the world.

Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on their country and that their leaders are world figures. This is thanks to Malaysia's tame media and the bravado of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a map much less name its prime minister or capital city.

As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons features a newsreader trying to announce that a tidal wave had hit some place called Kuala Lumpur. He couldn't pronounce the city's name and so made up one, as if no-one cared anyway. But the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is inland.

Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly when compared to the disaster that passes for a national oil company in neighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this is Malaysia's problem. The very success of Petronas means that it is used to underwrite all manner of excess.

The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. It includes the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world when they were built, which was their point.

It certainly wasn't that there was an office shortage in Kuala Lumpur — there wasn't.

Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. They had little to do with them. The money for them came out of the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South Korean companies.

They don't even run the shopping centre that's beneath them. That's handled by Australia's Westfield.

Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russian rocket — the first Malay in space. And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3 million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science and Technology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight. There's no indication of what the Americans will charge for this, assuming there's even a chance that they will consider it. But what is Malaysia getting by using the space programs of others as a taxi service? There are no obvious technical benefits, but no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that they are "boleh". The trouble is, they're not. It's not their space program.

Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend $RM490 million on a sports complex near the London Olympics site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and "get used to cold weather".

But the summer Olympics are held in the summer.

So what is the complex's real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the centre's construction and then on the athletes while they train might provide a clue.

Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new capital city — Petronas has paid for them all. It's been an orgy of nonsense that Malaysia can ill afford.

Why? Because Malaysia's oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is, Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that's just five years

away.

So it's in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad.

It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space when Malaysia's inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics.

That's not Malaysia "boleh", that's Malaysia "bodoh" (stupid).

email: michaelbackman@yahoo.com

http://www.michaelbackman.com

Back and Antsy As Hell

2006-11-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

Yeah, one bit of travel and that's it, it's all you wanna do, forever.

Nepal was great as expected. Yeah, I was really afraid, I'm not gonna lie. But everyone has their own coping mechanisms, and being afraid and expecting the worst is mine, I guess.

I will post up some pictures, once I've edited them and stuff. They aren't that great I must warn you, my fellow travel companions got better, definitely. Danny Lim wasn't called intrepid by Amir for no reason. Despite being tired and achy, he was the man, snapping everywhere.

My camera kept dying, if it wasn't for him volunteering his batteries, I wouldn't even have these pictures! The CF card has also gone missing, temporarily... I will find it and edit it, I promise. Other than that, I've been trying to get better, got a weird bout of food poisoning while I was there. I don't know where I got it from, but I suspect it was the mountain water. It sucked 'cos I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted, and I lost out on a whole lotta sleep when I was there 'cos I kept running to the bathroom, but it was still all worth it.

I guess it taught me a lot. I stayed back in the village on my own for a night while everyone went trekking to another village, Chomrong... but I had a great time on my own. I talked to people, hung out with the village women and picked rice with them, bonded with the kids, went on walks and took great pictures of the mountains and chronicled most of what I felt in my journal (very handy tip See Ming). I recorded prices and different things I saw, so that next year.... when I got back (!) I will have some knowledge of how things are done.

Oh, and I did everything. It was painful, but I did it all. Not on my own, but everyone I travelled with, Erik, Medaline, Josh and Danny, the porters and even the guides were great cheerleaders. I got taken care of very well. I was never alone on the trekking trails, even when we were trekking at night under the moonlit sky (so romantik). Nepal was inspiring in so many ways as to what the human spirit is capable of once you have the right frame of mind.

Updates soon, but I have a whole lotta crap I have to do right now and get better before I head down to Singapore to be with my surrogate family! See you soon Naj, Abang and Idris!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

2006-10-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

Trust me, there probably are mountains high enough... like in Nepal.

So, last week I was getting my hair done and planning to go down to Melaka for that rave this weekend, when Sharanya sent me a message explaining that there was a free trip to Nepal, all expenses paid, organised by their tourism board and did anyone want to go?

Not thinking, I immediately contacted Ashok, who wouldn't be making it and sent him my passport number and my name etc. Minutes later, I'm plaguing Ashok with my calls and asking him if it's really okay that I go, and he was really nice and comforting, and I talked it over with my mom, and I decided to go!

I guess my stories will appear in a few mags, I'm not sure. The writing of the story is the least of my worries right now. The itenary, which I failed to look at when I happily said Yes, is pretty insane.

White water rafting, trekking in the Annapurna circuit for a few days, tandem paragliding, ultra light flights, and visiting UNESCO World Heritage sites. I want to do everything, it all sounds dead exciting and how often does one get a chance like this, right?

But I'm kinda scared. Everyone else has known for a month, and have been told to climb stairs...So immediately, the day I found out I've been training morning and evening, brisk walking and going up and down stairs. I've got myself at 25 flights, but in Malaysian weather. Don't ask me how I'm going to be when it's freezing, the air is thin, and I'm jonesing for a cancer stick.

Oh, and upon doing research I have discovered that some of these places are connected by suspension bridges! in addition to the crazy 3 hours of 'steep ascent' and then more 'steep descent.' All disturbing words to find in a guidebook :)

Tandem paragliding man, that looks so awesome. Flying with giant vultures in thermal air thingies. But, I hate heights and jumping off a cliff, ('cos I'm freeeeeeee, freeeeeee fallinnnnn) seems so humanly unnatural, doesn't it?

But, I will get over it. Damnit, I will. This is a trip of a lifetime and I'm so blessed to be going. Thank you.

See you all after the 5th. Hopefully my shitty Nikon works! I will be camwhoring for you in Nepal! Woo hoo. Have a good one folks and keep me in your thoughts.

Who Do You Look Like?

2006-10-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

I've been told that I look like Penelope Cruz more than once (how that's possible, I don't know, she's effing hawt, acting skills aside), but Rachel McAdams? And Alizee? The best is Pamela! That was a shocker!

You try it!

Link wh0r3d from Jenn.

The Greeting Debacle

2006-10-16T21:06:00.001-07:00

It seems to me that things always get pretty silly around these parts whenever festivals comes around. Last year it was that the phrase 'Deeparaya' was sinful, and this year you're not to wish anyone either. Never mind that the two celebrations, Durga Pooja and Lakshmi Pooja are small scale celebrations that Malaysians generally don't wish their Hindu brethren, some people have used the festival's deity worship to actually bulk up the argument as to why Muslims should not wish Hindu's Happy Divali. There it goes once again, psycho xenophobic sentiments in the heartland of Malaysia, the country I call home.

The thing about this whole debacle is that, the Muslims at home are becoming extremely sensitive and so are the non-Muslims, I guess the lid is actively moving open from the bubbling pot? But, it would be nice if you read the papers everyday with a much more open mind, and explore how the news is written and the things that happen which people don't take notice of. Najah tells me of the Datuk that buys up all the permits behind Masjid India and blocks the entrance to their stalls, last year I read in the papers about some big wig's son buying the permits then selling them, overpriced of course, to the traders.

It's all simple economics. It's not the clash of civilizations as the fire and brimstone extremists (of all religions) would like to believe, it's the powers that be, manufacturing a climate of fear and suspicion to further their own economic interests. I refuse to get into religious debates these days, or racial debates because there is no point. The purists believe that it's racism, or xenophobia, but these are all simply symptoms of a country rife with corruption and the upward trajectory of the elite in getting what they want. The sad thing is the ASLI report was probably right, but that large 40 percent number probably can't be attributed to the pakcik's and makcik's in the kampung slaving to make ends meet.

So here's the damning email, just for you to digest:

Tuan/puan warga kerja Takaful Malaysia yang dihormati,

Marhaban Ramadhan, semoga kita semua mendapat manfaat dan keberkatan
daripada bulan yang mulia ini.

Sebagaimana yang tuan/puan sedia maklum bahawa selain dari perayaan
Aidil Fitri yang akan disambut oleh umat Islam pada bulan ini, penganut
agama indu juga merayakan 3 perayaan mereka seperti yang disebut dalam
subjek di atas.

Sukacita saya ingin maklumkan bahawa kakitangan Takaful Malaysia
perlu berhati-hati dengan ungkapan ucap selamat sempena perayaan tertentu
yang selain daripada perayaan yang terdapat dalam Islam. Ucap selamat
tersebut mestilah diteliti impilikasinya terutama yang melibatkan hukum dan
akidah.

Antaranya ialah ucap selamat Happy Durga Pooja atau Durga Pooja
Greetings. Ia bermakna selamat menyambut hari kebesaran Dewi Durga. Sambutan ini
adalah festival yang paling penting bagi orang-orang Hindu. Ia menandakan
ketaatan dan kepatuhan kepada Dewi Durga yang dianggap sebagai Mother
of the Universe. Ia disambut oleh oleh penganut agama Hindu pada
hari-hari berikut:

29 Sept 2006 - Durga Pooja - Saptami
30 Sept 2006 - Durga Pooja - Mahastami
01 Okt 2006 - Durga Pooja - Navami
02 Okt 2006 - Dussehra - Vijaya Dasami

Untuk makluman tuan/puan, Durga Pooja mengikut kepercayaan penganut
agama hindu adalah tuhan dewi yang mempunyai tangan yang banyak dan
bersilang yang biasanya kelihatan di kuil-kuil hindu.

Antaranya lagi ialah ucap selamat Happy Deepavali atau lebih dikenali
di Benua Kecil India dengan nama Happy Diwali. Deepavali atau Diwali
menandakan kemenangan kebaikan mengatasi kejahatan. Ia berkaitan
dengan agama hindu juga di mana mitosnya bagi penganut agama hindu di
Malaysia ialah tuhan agama hindu yang bernama Krishna telah membunuh
Narakasura.

Lalu penganut agama hindu merayakan kemenangan ini dengan menyalakan
lampu serta berpesta. Manakala mitos di Benua Kecil India pula ialah
kemenangan Ramayana membunuh Ravana.

Mengikut kepercayaan hindu, sempena perayaan deepavali mereka akan
menerangi rumah mereka dengan cahaya kerana dewi Lakshmi iaitu dewi
kekayaan akan berkunjung ke rumah yang diterangi cahaya dan akan
memberkati keluarga terbabit. Oleh itu perayaan Lakshmi Pooja akan diadakan 2
hari sebelum deepavali untuk mendapatkan rezeki dan berkat yang berganda.

Setelah meneliti ketiga-tiga perayaan tadi maka jelaslah ianya ada
kaitan secara langsung dengan kepercayaan agama hindu. Seluruh kakitangan
Malaysia adalah dilarang untuk mengucapkan ucap selamat kepada ketiga perayaan
di atas dan lain-lain lagi yang sepertinya kerana ianya boleh
menyebabkan berlakunya syirik. Budaya korporat Takaful Malaysia yang bersendikan
Syariat tidak mengizinkan ianya berlaku sekalipun untuk pelanggan yang beragama hindu atau agama lain yang mana ucap selamat tadi membabitkan tuhan mereka. Ucapan Happy Durga Pooja, Happy Lakshmi Pooja dan Happy Deepavali seolah-olah mengucap selamat buat tuhan hindu yang bernama Durga, Laksmi dan Krishna. Dan ianya jelas bertentangan dengan akidah Islam.

Allah berfirman dalam surah ali-'Imran ayat 18 yang bermaksud: "Allah
telah bersaksi bahawa tiada tuhan selain Dia". Dalam surah Muhammad ayat 1
Allah berfirman yang bermaksud: "Maka ketahuilah bahawa tiada tuhan selain
Allah".

Bagi mereka yang telah terlanjur mengucap selamat kepada penganut
hindu seperti ketiga-tiga greetings di atas maka hendaklah segera bertaubat
dan tidak mengulanginya lagi pada masa-masa akan datang.

Semoga usaha kita untuk mengamalkan Syariat sebagai budaya korporat
Takaful Malaysia diberkati Allah dan mencapai kejayaan yang kita harapkan.

Sekian untuk makluman. Terima kasih.

م?سلاو

i-CARE (integrity – Customer Focus, Accountability, Respect,
Entrepreneurship)
Strengthening the Organization Culture towards a World Class
Organization -
The TAKAFUL MALAYSIA Way

MOHD FAUZI MUSTAFFA
Shariah Dept
CEO's Office

Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Berhad (TAKAFUL MALAYSIA)
Level 10, Main Block
Dataran Kewangan Darul Takaful
No.4, Jalan Sultan Sulaiman
50000 Kuala Lumpur

As of Monday, from their website:

Takaful Malaysia would like to stress that the contents and views of the email regarding the Deepavali Greetings do not in any way represent the views of Takaful Malaysia.

As per Takaful Malaysia’s previous statement on the issue, we would like to apologise for any confusion and ill-feelings that may have arose from the email. Takaful Malaysia wishes that this issue has been clarified and solved following the views attributed to Sahibul Samahah Perak State Mufti and Selangor Darul Ehsan State Mufti as reported by The New Straits Times on 15th October 2006 (It’s no sin to say Happy Deepavali).

Last but not least, Takaful Malaysia would also like to take this opportunity to wish all Malaysians of Hindu faith a very Happy Deepavali.

Thank you.

My correspondence with Najah, who is Muslim and manages to explain a lot of what is going on to me most of the time, without judgement or compulsion:

Najah gets to be green and I'm plain ol' black.

I guess there could be a better way to deal with this. Actually, this whole idea of being careful about religious holiday greetings is not new - and it's not confined to Muslims. When I was in the states, we were told by our imams that when in doubt, just wish happy holidays - you don't have to be specific and by wishing someone to have a happy holiday, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah or whatever, conveys our good wishes for them. I knew Jewish people who observed the same practice.

Personally, I think the various sides of the religious 'divide' in Malaysia have become overly paranoid and sensitive. Granted that there are on-going inter-religious debacles that continues to fuel this paranoia, but what I think will help with dealing with the big issues in the long run is how we deal with the little ones. Like this.

A good compromise, to me, is a Happy Holiday wish. Tak payah la drag the issue every year, at every occasion.

Then I got all amped up (see what this stuff does to you!) and replied:

Why should there be a compromise? Do you think Hindus believe in syirik? That their whole religion is syirik? Who died and made these people be able to condemn the religions of others? Why is my religion better than yours, vice versa? Don't tell me you're not going to wish someone Happy Divali this year Naj? Because you think their religion and what it stands for is syirik?

It's about not even wishing them a happy holiday, because their holiday is crap. That's the tone of this message. And also, NO ONE wished any Hindu friends I know Happy Doorga or Lakshmi, it's not one of the bigger celebrations, and most Hindus don't wish each other. It was used to justify wishing Happy Divali, which is simply a celebration of the triumph of good over evil.

Muslims all over the world got upset over the Pope's comments about the prophet (pbuh), Malaysian Muslims included, also Article 11 you name it. This is similar. It's about incitement... and if the same memo went around this time, saying something about Muslims, you can be sure the situation would be worse.

I just don't understand why if the Hindus get hit like this it's not that big a deal. But if it were to happen to the Muslims, there would be an uproar. It's just not fair that we continue to malign other religions, at the sake of protecting our own. It's becoming ridiculous. Hindu temples getting destroyed with a complete and total media blackout. It's really getting bad here and this email is an example, and the guy still having his job after saying something like this is unacceptable. And Malaysians, Muslims included that stand by this dissapoint me. We're all too bloody compliant.

I'm going to send him a hari raya card, the holier than thou nincompoop! We call it turning the other cheek in Christianity.

Then Najah replied, much more coherently than I:

First and foremost, the whole concept of syirik encompasses guarding one's faith, and it's more than just believing in Allah (or rather saying that you do) but also toeing the line when it comes to the rules. I wouldn't wish someone Happy Divali in those words because that is not what I believe, but the past, I have wished my Hindu friends in some form or other.

Going back to syirik, we all believe what we believe, and there's a reason for that. Why do you believe in Christianity and not Islam? Because one is more relevant to you than the other. And you live your life by it.

I don't agree with the approach the Muslims in Malaysia take on the greeting bit, as much as I don't agree with anyone who insists that ppl of other faiths should wish us well in the way we want them to wish us well. e.g. I'm happy if ppl want me to have a Happy Eid, I won't be too fussed over whether they wish me Eid Mubarak or Selamat Hari Raya (the latter actually being the more 'secular' greeting). Because at the end of the day, living with people of other faiths/races/nationalities is about compromise and understanding. That's what I do with my neighbour with the 2 dogs and 2 cats. I won't personally embrace the dog and cats, but I won't rat on them and deprive them of their right to own the dogs and cats.

Sorry to simplify this, I know that the experience of non-Muslims in Malaysia can't be reduced to one of pets, but how we live with each other can be related to neighbourliness. My comment about how there are sensitivities applies to both sides, Malays being sensitive about any comment about our religion - I think more out of a fear of losing the sacred Malay special rights than protecting Islam itself, and the non-Malays being sensitive because of the way they're increasingly feeling marginalised in their own homeland.

The solution to this is not to jump into the foray and get angry. Sending a card to the guy in the spirit you want to do it isn't turning the other cheek, not after that tit for tat comment. The way I see race relations in Malaysia, it will continue to escalate if all sides take a defensive position, though I do understand the need for non-Malays to do so. I remember talking to you abt this before, about how extremists on all sides are bred. The more you push, the more extreme the position someone who would otherwise be a moderate take.

To me (I can only say this personally), this isn't a big deal, because the Pope thing to me wasn't a big deal. The Danish cartoon thing was slightly more of a deal, but still something I attribute to a clash of civilisations (after all, these are the same people who have a political party to reduce the age of consent to 14 or something - pedophilia). I guess I'm a centrist at heart.

The bone I'd have to pick about this guy's email, which is after all the topic of this email, is the spirit in which he's written it. Guard our faiths. Period. Nothing about how one would join in the festivities without overstepping religious lines. That's the problem with Muslims in Malaysia, we're always told what we can't do, and not what we can do to the point that those who are 'careful' with their religion ends up staying on the side of caution. And I'm not talking about so-called liberal Muslimsl. I'm talking about people like me, who want to care more about the food I eat, or whether I can get in my 5 times a day prayers today, or whether my fast is more than just not eating and when I'm going to get my ass to Mekah for my Hajj.

I agree with you on how the uproars occur in Malaysia. It's small-minded and xenophobic. It's unfortunate our government (where do you think this guy got his material from?) orchestrates such perceptions, because the Malay on the street has better things to do, and more things to worry about than holiday greetings. Like whether we'll have water and electricity come Raya (my grandma's house).

End Note:

I guess to me, it boils down to the ownership and control of the press, the racialisation of politics in this country and the corruption of the so called government servants. People that we put into power, I certainly know who I won't be voting for in the next elections, but the question then remains, who do you vote for?

There are some small steps that we can take. Frowning upon bigoted statements like this and taking some sort of action is imperative. Indulging in debates with you middle-class friends and going to forums where everyone has the same opinion as you, is not, in my opinion, our best bet. Reading the newspapers, however convoluted and leaning to the status quo they may be, must always be an exercise in discretion, I guess. I see far too many people being infuriated by the wrong things. Even me, sometimes. I sit here and type up blog posts that are basically rants, and talk about serving the people outside my class... but where is it all going?

However, I still think of ways to go out there and do something for the larger population, because as time as shown us, it has never really been about our race, or our religion, but simply who has the most money, gets the most power. If ever there was a better time to start caring, it would be now.

The news reports:

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=15807

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/10/11/nation/15678321&sec=nation

Interesting read:

http://www.e-ulama.org/Artikel/Default.asp?mode=0&ID=160

Of Razorblades and Bandaids

2006-10-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

I am having such a horrible throbbing headache right now, it's not even funny. I have 5 bucks to my name, and I will be a graduate with a Bachelors in Communication (Hons) Journalism in less than a week. I have 3 job interviews lined up, only one of which I really want. It is with that Oil and Gas company btw. I made it past the first interview, and am awaiting the call for the second. I only want it because I'll get tons of money, and in the worthless state that I am in, that is all that matters.

Nothing else matters, but financial independence. With that, you can do anything in the world. I love writing, it will always be my passion, but it will never be rewarding in the monetary way. If it was just for me, I wouldn't mind. I can live like this. But it's not.

It's such a pity that the people I am doing this for seem to never be appreciative, or even respectful of me at all. Today, I got yelled at about razors in the bathroom. Dramatic yelling, crazy incoherent outbursts, and a whole lot of yelling.

I am so tired of this. I really am, and the best part is no one is talking to me. Oh, freaking well. Life goes on tra la la la la.