Is Rafidah Doing a Zam?

So, our Trade Minister is trying to duplicate the successes of the Mis-Information Minister by spewing cow-dung comments against bloggers.

According to this report, she apparently said:

There will always be people who use blogs on the Internet to criticise the rapid economic growth achieved by the Government [...]

That is stupid. Most bloggers I know crticise their government because their policies have slowed the country down - NOT increase it. If only our politicians in the Cabinet were wise enough to put the country AND its citizens ahead of their own pockets and cronies, we would have been far, far better by now. She thinks we are growing rapidly? We could have been a first world country already if their lot had stopped playing racial games with one another for the last 50 years.

And she had the nerve to say:

Most of these bloggers belonged to or were associated with the Opposition, she said.

“In the past they do it in ceremahs [sic] and now they do it through the blogs. Their criticisms without properly backed facts are pure rubbish [...]

I'm not associated with nor belong to any party, and her comments sounded so lame that it's no longer funny. If she deemed that bloggers crticise "without properly backed facts" then I must say that her lot are the Kings of Rubbish - she being the Queen of course - since they spew the smelliest, dirtiest and shittiest comments ever. And she has just proven my point by making sweeping statements without checking out the facts. I wonder if any of these so-called Ministers surf the web. At the very least, a responsible representative should read and understand where these bloggers are coming from - before seeing fit to make lame excuses just to cover their own backsides - I mean to cover the stench of their own rubbish.

And the last bit:

“Given a new mandate by the people in the next general election, it will continue to ensure the country keep tabs on the growth track and that the benefits of that growth are reaped by the people regardless of race and religion.”

Yeah right...Really...they do think that people are stupid. "Regardless of race and religion". Truly laughable. If they had done things fairly, there would not have been so many complains.

Every country has opposition parties. But they don't go to the streets in their thousands just to ask for a free and fair election - which is supposed to be the foundation of any country running on a democratic system. You just don't declare being a democracy out of convenience sake. There is a responsibility to be uphold. And clearly, the present government has failed time and time again. There is no integrity. There is no honesty. And there is certainly no honour.

Of Losses...Of Different Sorts

I'm wide awake in the middle of the night - or should I say morning, reading the news on the web. Several pieces of news made Wednesday's headlines (for me anyway) and one of them is the death of actor Heath Ledger. I'm sure by now, most of his fans who are bloggers would have already blogged about this.

A death of an actor...
The news did came as a shock and my condolences goes out to his family - and may he rest in peace. I clearly remember watching '10 Things I Hate About You'. I was studying in the UK at that time and while it was supposed to be a chick flick, I enjoyed it nonetheless. I enjoyed his movies, including the comedy (or supposed to be), 'A Knight's Tale'.

I wouldn't say that I'm a fan, but I do admit that it seems a loss for one so talented to depart this world at such an early age. So for those who has not watch his acting in the famous 'Brokeback Mountain' - do go and get the DVD and watch it. It was a great movie and I enjoyed both the story and the acting very much.

The New York Times has a piece on his unexpected death: An Actor Whose Work Will Outlast the Frenzy. Indeed.


US Biggest cell phone maker...more losses...
The other piece of news that caught my attention was that Motorola's share price has slumped after reporting a loss in the last quarter - quite unexpectedly. It is said that their profit has slumped by 84% - they made a net profit of only $100m as compared to $623m for the same fourth quarter period a year earlier.

While analysts have been hopeful that Motorola would make a recovery in the year 2007, it seems that turning around the slump - that was experienced since the fourth quarter of 2006 - is not going to be easy. And not to be soon either. Greg Brown - the new CEO - said that there will be further cost cutting - by $500m - which probably means further job cuts. Would it help? Got to wait and see I guess. Motorola share price is hovering around $10 and it certainly isn't helped by the looming recession in the US.

So are you owning a Motorola cell phone? If not, why not? Cause it sux, huh? ;p Though I do think the new Z10 and E8 looks pretty alright, even cool. But again, I need to pick up the actual thing before I can really say that I would invest money on it.


OK. It's 3.37 am and I think I need to hit the sack. But I'm still wide awake...darn...must be because it's so darn hot these days...

Of Burger King and Those non Fast Food Thoughts

I remembered having a conversation with a friend during lunch last week about why there is no Burger King (BK) in Penang.

He said that there should be ample opportunities for a BK to thrive in Penang since its burgers are much better than the usual McDonald's. Not to mention the former seems a rarity up here in the northern region.

And the typical me tried to tell him that the burgers from these two fast-food chains - prepare their burgers differently...BK has theirs flame-grilled and therefore, in my opinion tastes better. While the burgers by McDonalds are different...don't how to explain it, but the method is just not the same. It's like KFC sells better fried chicken than McDonalds...(some might disagree though ;p).

Anyway, it came to the point when my friend said that he would go for a burger at BK every time he goes down to KL for a visit. And that ended any arguments from me - it's hard convincing a fan. Plus his question - more like incredulity - on why there were no BK outlets in Penang.

Well, perhaps now his hope of tasting these flame-grilled burgers could be fulfilled. According to this piece of news, Burger King is set to open up another 50 new outlets in Malaysia. Might be that one would end up in Penang.

Hm...Penang really doesn't have one? Strange...
Looking at how Asians like their fast food, I would have thought Burger King to cash in on the money opportunity far sooner. Anyway, the news report as follows:

Cosmo Restaurants Sdn Bhd, a franchisee of fast food Burger King restaurants in Malaysia, will spend 27 million ringgit (8 million U.S. dollars) to open 50 outlets throughout Malaysia in the next five years, local media reported on Monday.

Its director of operations Khaled Hammam made the announcement after opening the third Burger King outlet in Malaysian southern Johor state, which features a 24-hour drive-through on Saturday.

The restaurant is its 22nd outlet in Malaysia.

There are now five round-the-clock Burger King restaurants in the country, and six are in petrol kiosks.

"We are keeping an open mind and may open outlets in shopping malls if the terms and location are feasible," the New Straits Times quoted Khaled as saying.

Although drive-throughs generate attractive returns, not all of the 50 new outlets which the company is planning to open will have the service, Khaled said.

"It is not easy to find a good location and we also need a big area to set up a drive-through," Khaled said.

Burger King ranks the fourth by number of outlets in Malaysia's fast food market, after KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut. - Xinhuanet.com

The non-fast food thoughts...

But here's the thing. In my opinion, these so-called fast foods in Malaysia are clearly overpriced. It might not be overrated, since I do like a burger or two and pieces of fried chicken occasionally, but it is nonetheless overpriced.

I would have thought that because things in Asia are relatively cheaper than say, the more advanced countries, the prices should be set according to the cost and standard of living of the local area. And while it's definitely considered "fast food" in places like the UK, but in Asia, food from McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. rank under the luxury food item. How did less than healthy food stuff become a luxury when there are far better and tastier food around the local corner.

But from a Malaysian perspective, I had to reconsider...is it overpricing OR is it just that we have low buying power. As an example, I was buying coffee at Starbucks with a friend the other day and the conversation came up on how expensive a cup of coffee can be from Starbucks, where else a cup of white coffee from Old Town next door costs far less. OK, one is local and the other is a "branded" product from the US - but the contents and even the taste are not so different. So of course, we would ask why the "branded" one needs to be so much more expensive.

Another thought came to me then. What if I was earning about twice my monthly income? Wouldn't that make a cup of RM10 Starbucks coffee seem affordable - even cheap? Then the flow of thought went down to...why are we earning less than our counterparts in more developed countries?

A whole host of other theories flooded through my mind then...on how the stupid inflation rate numbers the government is showing; how private companies will use these numbers when they decide on increments for their employees; and on how the hell the did the government not do more to raise our competitiveness and economic levels - so that we can buy more with a single RM.

Sigh...too many problems that is not my domain to talk about. And a lot of people say that this country sux...I cannot disagree. But then I still think that if it sux, surely it needs fixing, right? And who else but the people living in it? I know, I know...I'm being naive again. Haha...someone has to be naive when so many are thinking of leaving the country, no?

I believe that there is more than hope for those of us who chose to stay...because without it...what else is there to ensure survival? Why else do we complain so hard? Why else do we even care?

Maybe because we chose to be a part of it.

Adam Sandler is Zohan

Imagine an Israeli counter terrorist...becoming a hairstylist in New York city. Hard to frame the picture?

Well, imagine then that this has something to do with a movie that Adam Sandler has co-written and acted in...and now you should get the picture. I'm not sure why they picked an Israeli Commando as their main character...but it looks funny enough that this is going to be another movie by Sandler that I'm looking forward to catch in the summer. Wait...in Malaysia, it's always summer...around June-July time frame then ;p

Watch the trailer to You Don't Mess With the Zohan here:

Accidents in Taiwan...as it happened

A friend sent me of this clip, which recorded an accident in Taiwan. A terrible accident...one that had my mouth hanging after watching it. Did the truck driver not see the motorcyclist?!



I found another accident recording in YouTube...also happened in Taiwan:

At least the guy on the motor was still moving after flying from the impact...

Free Running

Know anyone who can do this? ;p

New Banner For the New Year

Finally, done with the new banner! Simple enough, but took me some time to mix and match the background. And the star is of course the little fella who will sit here to welcome in the Year of the Earth Rat :D

Musings

The year 2008 seems to be moving along quickly enough. It's already mid-month and Chinese New Year rounding the corner in three weeks time.

One of the things that I need to remind myself to do later tonight is to re-design the banner for this blog. Haha...I don't think I should have the Merry X'Mas wishes well into February. I kind of have some ideas on how it should look like...but probably spend the better part of the night drafting it out...and then the tweaks and readjustments...

Blogging has been sporadic these few weeks. We can put that down to
1) Not having any mood to blog
2) Writer's block
3) Occupied
Though I believe it's more down to being lazy - which I readily admit.

Musings...
I have been reading a lot books lately - actually they are soft copies of books, which I have downloaded using torrent. The first thing that comes to mind when people read this (or at least it should) are the words "intellectual property" or in short, IP. At first glance, it can be said that by downloading these materials off the web, without the appropriate license, means that I'm violating the writer's IP rights. And I am.

I used to buy most, if not all, of my books. I like collecting them, though I can only afford the small paperback version. So why the change? The simple reason: Price. A book that used to cost only about RM30 (perhaps less) is now closer to RM40 for newly published books. I can understand the rise of living standards and cost of living, and the inflation that comes with it, and the price increases of materials, etc. etc.

But has our buying power increased accordingly with our cost of living?

In Malaysia, where the government tells us that the inflation rate is only at 1.9% - and we all know that the numbers are biased - there is certainly no surprise at the low pay increments that employees in the private sector receive every year. That is if they are even given one.

With the amount of books that I read - or rather the amount I would like to read - the rising cost of books is making it harder and harder to maintain the habit. Because it's not only the cost of books I need to take into account of...and I think I can safely assume that most people feels the pinch in the rising cost of everything from petrol for transport to food stuff like noodles and roti canai.

Anyway, enough of that, less I be thought of as justifying my actions of downloading unlicensed stuff. I'm down to the third book of a collection of four. Can't wait to get home tonight and continue where I left off last night. Oh wait...the banner...hahaha...after that then ;p

Enough musing for one day I suppose. Though I'm interested to know, do you guys also download reading materials or do you still prefer to buy the original version from the bookstores?

Vedic Astrology

I was reading The Star when I came across this article about the 2008 horoscope base on moon signs. It says that 2008 will be a better year than the previous. Let us hope so.

Now most of us would know what a sun signs are - the usual Aries, Taurus, Gemini,...etc. which are common in Western horoscope. But I was curious about what moon signs were all about since the article said that our moon signs might not be the same as our sun signs.

For example, my sun sign is Cancer, but my moon sign is Leo. This is calculated based on the time and location of my birth, couple with the position of the moon at that time.

There are many sites on the net, which you can use to determine your moon sign. I started off from here. And following the moon chart for the year of my birth, my moon sign is Leo and this is what it says:

MOON IN LEO

The Moon in Leo makes you strong, proud and courageous. You enjoy responsibility, and often take on too much of it. You have a natural attraction authority, and enjoy appearing the public eye.

You would rather lead than follow any day. Your inherent pride makes you very susceptible to love affairs. The opposite sex takes a strong interest in you because of the frequency and sincerity of these affairs.

Your actions at work attract the attention, and respect of your superiors. This can only mean good things for you as far as your career is concerned. As far as money is concerned you are very generous, a little too generous (much the same with your affections!).

The Moon in Leo makes for a strong intellect and a strong love of the arts. Don't be surprised if your occupation involves the theatre, music, painting or literature. You also have a love for luxuries. You like to drink the finest wine life has to offer. You are lively in spirit, have a high intelligence and have good prioritizing skills.

I knew I was in the wrong line of work! I should have been an actor or something... ;p

OK...usually I would go to more than one site to view my horoscope...shouldn't just trust one side, right? While I'm not really into horoscope nor truly believe in it's readings, I find it interesting to read if I fit into the described characteristics.

So the next site I found was Indastro. This site provides more detailed description and various other charts...which I'm not knowing how to read. Anyway, after keying my particulars - time of birth, year, location, gender...here is what it says about my personality in general:

GENERAL RESULTS OF BEING BORN IN MAGHA NAKSHATRA

Male Natives

1. Physical features: He has a prominent neck and a hairy body. There is a mole in the hands and also beneath the shoulder. Medium size height. Innocent looking countenance.
Ivan: Hairy...a bit la...and quite right about the other stuff...I like the "innocent looking countenance" part ;)

2. Character and general events: He is very enterprising. He will respect elders. He will be God fearing. He enjoys his life. He is expert in various sciences and soft spoken. He likes to lead a noiseless life. The native will be receiving honor and recognition from the learned persons. He has good knowledge about various arts.
Ivan: Hm...I'm currently a freethinker... but who knows... might receive a calling when I'm at an older stage in life...
And arts again... maybe I can fulfill my wish of being a writer? ;p

He will devote his valuable time for the expansion of his culture and actively involves in various cultural activities.

His dealing with others will be with a well thought planning and he doesn't want to hurt the feelings of others. In case any of his action is responsible for hurting the feeling of others, he is immediately tries to rectify such action. He also does not like any person who makes hindrance or causes troubles to others. That is why there may be several hidden enemies in the native's life. He is hot-tempered. He cannot tolerate any action or activity which is not within the purview of truth. But this mental feeling leads him into a state of failures. Selfishness is a remote question for him. He does several things for the community or society not with the intention of getting anything in return but for mental satisfaction. This is the reason why the native is able to catch the eyes of the public.
Ivan: What can I say? Pretty accurate except the last part about doing things for the public - can't say that I have done much, if at all. Again...could this be my future I'm seeing?

3. Education, sources of earning/profession: He will have many servants and great wealth. In the professional field he cannot attain much success in the material field as he is not business minded and mainly due to his straightforwardness. However, he will be a fitting example of sincerity and hard work. this inherent quality of sincerity and hard work do sometimes pay him some lift but not to the extent when we see the balance. He is bound to change his field of earning business. Once he takes a decision, he will stick to that decision. His dealings with his superiors and subordinates are very cordial and most technical. Hence he is able to be a link between his boss and subordinates.
Ivan: Haha...I don't really feel rich nor anything close... hopefully 2008 would be a much better indication ;p

4. Family life : Most of the Magha born male natives will enjoy a happy and harmonious married life. He has to shoulder several responsibilities, to be more specific, burden of his co-borns.
Ivan: Hm...co-borns...as in brothers and sisters? I have an elder brother...but I don't think he'll be a burden nor need much help for that matter... I wonder in what sense the reading is talking about...

5. Health: He may suffer from night blindness, cancer if Saturn and Mars jointly aspects Moon in this Nakshatra or conjoin in this Nakshatra, asthma or epilepsy.
Ivan: Ouch...cancer? OK...time to cut down on the drinks... and cigs. Is having one cig a day considered a lot? Pathetic, some might say ;)

It was certainly an interesting, if not enlightening, read. Which moon sign are you? Is it accurate or perhaps you do not believe in such stuff?

It's Friday again and it looks like a favourable day for me today...my horoscope says:

Happy Friday! And have a good weekend ahead :)

Paralympics 2008 - Everyone is No 1

Just want to share with those who has not seen this MV by Andy Lau, which was filmed for the upcoming Paralymics 2008. It was nicely done, very touching.

Thanks Kitty for forwarding this to me.



The Making of Everyone is No 1 MV:

The VKC Led Propaganda

Last Friday, our local boot-licking columnist, V. K. Chin, decided that more propaganda is needed to please his political masters. The HINDRAF rally is yet again his focus for storytelling and it's a tale that is convincingly misleading (can this two words go together?). Perhaps he's hoping that one day he will land on the Minister of Misinformation job if he's seen as the most prominent boot-licker of his time.

When talking about spin-doctors, the Malaysian government surely has a lot of volunteers. But government boot-licker far outnumber these spin-doctors. At least we know spin-doctors are politically motivated, perhaps even understandable for the government to have such people. But for boot-licker...let's just say it irritates me to no end.

Okay...back to this wonderful tale, which I think the writer should be praised for the effort - must certainly have put in a lot of hard work on it seeing how far it now resembles from reality. Not to belittle his effort, I think that Mr. Chin should reassess his analysis on which group is actually manipulating Malaysian when he said the following:

Their pro-active stance is to counter the negativity generated by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which was responsible for several illegal demonstrations in the Klang Valley recently.

Unless the majority stands up and be counted, the constructive contributions of other NGOs could be negated and the Indian agenda would then be manipulated by a very small noisy group prepared to break the law to achieve their objective.

And the writer continued to say, quite adamantly I must add, that these people - all 30,000 of them were duped into a making a protest. Duped into making a protest out of nothing apparently. Duped into thinking that the government has marginalized them with their racist policies. Duped into thinking that those Hindu temples that were bulldozed over were mere illusions conjured up by some minority group. Duped into thinking that they are all stupid. Well, actually it's just that the writer believe these people who got "duped" are stupid people. For how else would Mr. Chin justify that a person can be duped on so many things?

So, let me summarize what Mr. Chin is trying to say - he thinks and believes, without a doubt, that all 30,000 of his fellow Malaysians are dumb and don't really know how to think for themselves. If not why else would he make comments such as these?

"Those responsible for such unlicensed gatherings are good at using the gullible to support them by making all sorts of promises, financial or otherwise, they can never hope to keep.

"In response to such temptations, some of them had been misled into participating in illegal gatherings and processions, resulting in their arrest.

"The dropping of the attempted murder charge is sensible since many of them were duped into committing the offence because they were being made use of.

Putting the talk of tales aside, the HINDRAF rally was a huge success if we look at how the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) President is now saying that he'll reform his party; that a council will be formed to address so-called "Indian problems" (they are Malaysian problems by the way); and that there will be more help for the Indian community in the future, e.g. in raising the level of education.

At least the rally - regardless of it being held without the ever-elusive permit - managed to raised the amount of attention and awareness needed by the community. It really boggles the mind that the government were not aware of the problems faced by the rakyat. Or perhaps our government knew, but just didn't care enough to do much. That says a lot about MIC's performance in its supposed role in championing the "Indian needs" in the country - bad, very bad.

All that V. K. Chin knows how to do is tow the line - even if it meant issues are swept under the carpet. To him, adhering to proper channels are more important than raising awareness. He cares nothing about what happens to the community, but he certainly feel irked when people started rocking the boat. How dare they! And to stop this uncalled for "rocking of the boat", he will continue to condemn - however untruthfully - the very people who has managed to pushed the government into making the changes, which we are now seeing the government scrambling to put in place before the coming election.

Perhaps the writer should stand in the coming election under BN instead of pretending to be a journalist.

Teaching Mother Tongue

A friend forwarded the following YouTube to me just now and I felt that it's darn funny. So I just want to share it. Some people might find it offensive because it's a talk about foul language - and how to use it correctly. It's being presented in a very "polite" manner. Haha...it's almost ridiculous to think that foul language can be presented in a polite way. I must say that it was that and was also witty and partially educative ;p

However, the clip is in Cantonese since it's on Cantonese foul words. For those who understands Cantonese - at least the foul words part - hope you find it as funny as I did. Have a good weekend ahead!

What Is Religion To A Deceased?

Looks like there is to be yet another case on fighting over the body of a deceased - only a few days past the 1st of January mark.

In this piece of news,

"Ngiam Tee Kong, 53, filed the ex-parte application, which also named the director of Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) as the first defendant."

Apparently, when Mr. Ngiam went to claim the body of Wong Sau Lan - his wife - the hospital informed him that,

"...it would only be released to him if he confirmed that she was a Muslim at the time of her death.
He was also told that the body would be released to him only for having Christian rites to be performed, after which it was to be returned to the hospital for it to be buried according to Muslim rites."

By filing the application, he is seeking a declaration that:

- Wong was a Christian at the time of her death;
- she did not fully embrace Islam before she died;
- she was not a Muslim at the time of her death.

These days, there are more and more cases of non-Muslims being left in a quandary because their loved ones have apparently converted to Islam before their unfortunate death. And always, there are Malaysians who feel that holding on to these bodies are of utmost important, even if the act causes more pain and grief to husbands and wives of the deceased.

Religion, it seems, is being a problem that causes contention rather than something that brings harmony. In Malaysia, people makes use of religion as a reason to divide rather than to unite. In Malaysia, the profession of one's faith is much more important than the practicing of good values. In Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion, non-Muslims has to kow-tow to Islamic jurisdiction so long as a Muslim is involved in the dispute. No offense to Muslims on the last statement, but any rational being can see the rising number of disputes we have seen so far in recent years - under similar situations. And the outcome of most, if not all, of these cases hardly gives non-Muslims a boost in confidence in the way they were dealt with in the Boleh-land.

Talk About A New Year Gift from Our Politicians

Update:
To avoid posting another Chua-Soi-Lek-Sexual-Scandal-post on this affair, I've decided to just update this entry. Looks like the Dr. has now resigned - perhaps after being "advised" to do so by his taikos in the Cabinet.

A lot of mainstream articles wrote him as accountable and has courage because he admitted to his affair. But they failed to realise that the biggest courage is to take up the responsibility of his actions and should have resigned straightaway. Then again, the mainstream media had to be nice since they needed to kiss their political master's buttocks for fear that they get screwed in a very bad way if they ever wrote truthfully.

I'm certainly not judging him on his sexual misdeeds - it's a private matter after all - but looking at it from a political angle, I cannot see how he can continue to lead nor can I see how he can inspire others. In short, he has lost all credibility.

Resigning is the only way to go. I'm sure his supporters will now be singing his praises of how brave he is because he resigned. Unfortunately, it came a bit too late and has lost even more credibility in my opinion since he has to be told to step down.

Good riddance, I say.

***********************
Well, well, well...so it's now revealed that one Dr. Chua Soi Lek is the main actor in the sex DVD that has been sold/circulated in Johor.

Although our so-called Health Minister admitted this to the police and apologized to the public, he has refused to resign. While he may not have made the tape himself - as he has said it - I would have thought that the embarrassment would have been enough reason for a politician - any politician, who is also a member of the Cabinet - to resign his position from the government.

Perhaps having power is too much so important for politicians these days that they will face much - even when such scandal is about - just to stay in power. Not trying to be overly harsh on a man whose sexual experience with a "personal friend" has been recorded AND circulated, but honestly speaking, how can anyone in the public now take him seriously when this is around?