Sunday, December 30, 2007

Honestly?

What is honesty?
A faint concept of truth. Truth interpreted through ones mind in a fashion so vivid, it becomes seething, icy pain.

Honesty is a curse. It pains us to hold it all in. Completely subservient to the needs of the conscience. Honesty, nay! TRUTH! That's what I meant!

The truth is what pains us. TRUTH is the curse. It lies beneath our skin, seeking release. Yet we hold it in, despite the pain. Because we believe that greater pain will come if TRUTH is released from its living cage.

The conduit of TRUTH, is HONESTY.

Honesty invites greater pain. But does that matter if the soul is cleansed of pain?

Then, and only then, we ask... Why should we fear pain?

Good people. Another arbitrary orbit around the yellow star that we know as the Life-Giver will soon pass. It is a wonder our entire lives are planned by it.

Even the thundering wildebeests heed the waning light for the countless orbits around the Life-Giver.

Without knowing. Without questioning.

And so we mark the end of the year as the end of another chapter of our short lives.

This is a time of reflection. Though time for reflection may be found throughout the year. This is a special moment of reflection.

For some, it marks the beginning of a new chapter. For others, it means another year to waste. For the courageous, new battles await.

For the honourable, it means more time to resume the Noble Purpose.

A force that drives us from within. Unnameable. Unfathomable. Unexplainable (but many enigmatic souls have tried).

Burst into torrid cynicism if you want about this post. I know I am not a smart man.

I don't want to be smart.

I am only smart enough, to aspire to be wise.

And here is proof I am an idiot.
Sixteen (16) roti canais in one go with four friends. The fourth guy didn't want to be remembered in this fashion by his grandchildren.

He still ate with us.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

To Fill the Banks

New words: Subedit, Teasel, Repine, Bumptious, Plaice, Slake,Verisimilitude, Stucco, Asinine, Liszt.

I respectfully bequest thy forgiveness, for thou hast been betrayed. Tardiness is inexcusable and I seek the most severest of punishment thou may dream of.

Seriously, I have been quite busy. With the affairs at my tech company at full steam (after a hibernation period long enough to remove Harith Iskandar's barrel of oil), and the inevitable cleanup of my room which has become a top rated 5 star hotel for rats and roaches after the disaster known as the STPM, I find myself starved of time to read my 60 or so e-mails... Let alone blog.

But you aren't here to hear my wimpers about my life... You are here because you are bored out of your mind and someone pushed you with a hot rod up your arse to this site.

I sincerely thank you.

Now, onwards Brother.

Flooding Everywhere as Planned
Last week, A Stray World sent a bunch of my new minions into the new Inbound-Oceans of Malaysia (trademark pending).

Of the six, one was killed by drinking too much bottled water.

The second was killed by irate villagers when he used up the flooded towns only source of energy while charging his laptop to play Warcraft.

The third was dismissed after he began eating the two dead journalists with mayonnaise. The company simply cannot afford to subsidise unhealthy condiments.

The fourth quit to protest the dismissal.

The fifth killed the sixth to claim the cash bounty I offered.

Finally, I had to terminate her because she still watches Survivor.

So of I went alone. Trudging through mudflats and rivers to some flooded village in East Malaysia.

The sight, as usual, was depressing. No open mamak stalls! What a travesty. A few villagers offered me their services for cash, but I declined as the authorities have advised about talking frankly and truthfully with the public.

Not more than six hundred kilometres away, I was warmly greeted by the grossly overpaid nephew of the local state assemblyman at his dry and cosy villa. "This way tuan," ushered the tuxedo toting youth.

With a genuine smile, the assemblyman, Mr Lam Bhat Dah, shook my hands and drew out a wooden chair adorned with ancestral carvings. "So, have you done it?"

"Yeah. I have visited the villagers."

"And?"

"And they pointed me this way."

"Don't joke around. What did you get?"

"I got athlete's foot from trudging though all that water. But don't worry, I don't think you are at any risk."

"Look here!" One finger on my chest, Mr Lam breathing heavily. "Have you delivered the posters?"

"Yes, I can see there is a leech attached to my chest! But what does that have to do with delivering posters for you."

"The general election of course! This is the only real chance I get to show people I actually give a damn!"

""What about actually preventing these floods from occurring in the first place? Wouldn't that show people you care?"

"Of course not. Who the hell remembers which minister forbidding hillside development, illegal logging, and restrictions on riverside developments? The rakyat only remembers the ministers who visit flood victims, fire victims, and heart-transplant patients."

"Are you saying these floods were preventable?"

"Of course they were. Let me tell you something. There are no such things as natural disasters. Only environmental hazards. What we are doing has everything to do with deliberate manipulation of environmental hazards so they may become what we call 'natural disasters'. After that, we can make sweeping proclamations that we are the only people capable of preventing natural disasters."

"Very smart. Thank you Mr Lam. I have delivered your posters, but I think the post office won't deliver the parcels unless you pay them extra. You know, floods and all. Bye"

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Now playing: Yui Horie - LIFE (PV Rip)
via FoxyTunes unhealthy condiments.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Rallying or Railing?

New words: Plainspoken, Erne, Lea, Cuckold, Busker, Spackle, Esparto, Mendacious, Frisson, Perchance, Sloop.

Foreword: As promised, here is the last of this weeks articles. Due to time constraints (I have been attending band practices so I may enter the annual Battle of the Bands competition... For the very last time), I will combine the two Bersih and Hindraf protests and others of the same ilk into a single article.

March of the Lawyers
A few months ago, lawyers took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur to demand justice. Consequently, hell froze over (but a quick injection of American-bought Saudi-fossil-fuel kick-started the soul torturing furnace once more).

This all boiled down to a very simple issue of judicial impartiality, or rather, lack of.

I don't need to state the seriousness of this issue. Without impartiality in the Judiciary, we are at the mercy of an unchecked and unbridled Executive. Until 1988, the Judiciary was among the most respectable institutions of its kind in the region.

Now, it is not only vulnerable, it is corruptible.

However, our good friend in Parliament, MP Nazri Aziz has saw fit to not only condemn the actions of the Bar, but to obfuscate its true purpose by claiming Opposition aping.

The true purpose of any rally is to show a united face, especially when facing an enemy whose position in power would prevent any other (legal) means of meaningful protest.

Bersih
Not all marches are altruistic in nature.

And so, we have the Opposition linked Bersih, which is calling for free and fair elections.

So they gather all these people to demand:
  • Use of indelible ink in future elections;
  • Clean-up of Registered Voters Roll;
  • Abolition of postal votes;
  • Access to the Government controlled print and broadcast media for Opposition Parties.
The first of their demands has been met. In truth, indelible ink as an issue was already non-existent (2nd June 2007) by the time the fine folks marched for it (10th November 2007).

The second demand, quite reasonable. But evidence of such acts have amounted to nothing more than rumours, wild claims, and speculation. Unless the Opposition acquires solid evidence (like the now infamous lawyer video), they won't be doing much except perhaps embarrassing themselves.

The third demand is ridiculous, plain and simple. If, as they claimed, the bosses of civil servants overseas would browbeat their subordinates to vote in a certain fashion, the Opposition should be making a claim of infringement of the Constitution.

They should be demanding a permanent solution to this problem that won't allow any government-paid civil servant to force his subordinates to essentially, vote to keep him in power.

Under Article 5 of the Malaysian Constitution,
No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law.
Voting for the political party of your choice is a form of liberty. It can thus be argued, that a loss of free will in voting would amount to gross infringement of this clause in the Constitution.

And Article 6:
No person shall be held in slavery.
I admit, I may be pushing the clauses of the Constitution to the limit here, but as I recall, slaves weren't allowed to vote.

Every citizen deserves a right to vote. It should never be rescinded in such fashion. And because of the way the Opposition has put forth such argument, their motives are suspect to say the least.

Hindraf
Now we descend to the ludicrous. But ludicrous with a caveat.

So we got this group of ethnic Indians, see? Demanding in a nutshell, for the Queen of England and Great Britain, to appoint a Queen's Counsel, to sue Her Royal Highness, the Queen of England, for bringing indentured Indians into Malaysia.

Now, anyone would be quick to dismiss this as pure naivety. Who the hell would pay anyone to sue themselves? Particularly with the added claims of ethnic cleansing.

But who is reporting the news? The Malaysian media. And they aren't being very impartial about it.
  • Three policemen wounded.
  • Demonstrations turn violent.
  • Temples damaged.
Okay. Firstly, you can never ever claim widespread violence if only THREE people have been hurt. What about the figures for the protesters?

The government even claims the violence began on the protesters side, forcing them to disperse the crowd with tear gas and water cannons. This may be true, however, the circumstances of the report on TV3 news would suggest government forces acted first, when they reported police forces were "forced" into using water cannons and tear gas to "disperse" the intransigent crowd.

Read between the lines, brothers and sisters.

And the temples in Batu Caves were not damaged.

Until I researched this story myself online, I did not even realise the amount of obfuscation employed by the government to gag the media and pull a fast one over the public.

However, my opinion still stands: Hindraf as an institution for justice in ludicrous.

It is borderline terrorist in its claims. Ethnic cleansing? Do they even know its definition?

What happened was simply a happy confluence of greed (Hindraf promised RM1mil settlements to every individual who signed up), ignorance, and frustration.

The two latter factors though, are the result of one man:
Sami Vellu.

He is the old man of politics, and therefore, has loss touch with the new generation of Indian voters.

Indians are like any people, they have diverse views on a myriad of subjects. Unfortunately, their views cannot be expressed as long as that man remains in power in the MIC.

Which is why we now see a general mushrooming of Indian based parties.

Racial politics is negative politics. It dilutes the strength of a community.

Racial politics coupled with differing ideologies further divides. Eventually, any form of power accumulated amounts to a teacup of salt collected from a jug of seawater.

This is the caveat. Frustration, not reason, brought the majority of Indians to march with Hindraf.

Without a genuine outlet to voice their concerns, which include education, religion, human rights, and such, people, not only Indians will gladly accept any opportunity to stick it to the man.

March To the Streets!
To resolve these so called "un-Malaysian" behaviour, one must first realise demonstrations are in our blood. The pre-independence marches for one brought about change in government.

Like it or not, the British colonial masters were legitimate leaders of then Malaya. Ah, the power of treaties...

So one could argue without pro-independence marches, and by going through the slow bureaucratic Colonial masters, we would still be working under the Union Jack today.

These are the permanent ways to resolve the issue of "illegal" gatherings as I see it:
  • Education on the rights of citizens to march, how to march, and why people march;
  • ACCEPTANCE by the government that democracy means Freedom of Expression;
  • Maturity on the part of the citizens regarding the state of affairs of their respective communities. Do these people who claim to have been subjected to immense bias have ulterior motives to their actions?
  • Maturity on the part of the people that at the end of the day, globalization will eventually bring racial politics to an end. We should not focus on differences in genealogy and skin tone. But in opinion.
Until then, enjoy your roti canais before they too become a source of political controversy.
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Now playing: Delgados - The Light Before We Land
via FoxyTunes

Monday, December 10, 2007

LIVE FROM somewhere, ITS A STRAY WORLD

New Words: Lisle, Gratis, Curacao, Errata, Comport, Cheapjacks, Corrigenda.

Returning to our weekly schedule, your very own unknown reporter lost in a sandstorm of blogs, A Stray World.

Because of my now relatively free weekday evenings, I shall divide the blog posts of the week into three separate postings.

So, a quick recap of the most prominent events (of the real variety) which decided to happen while I was spending less time blogging.
  • Cosmonaut from Malaysia;
  • BERSIH parade;
  • HINDRAF march.
The Angkasawan (technically cosmonaut)

A long, long time ago, Malaysians would gaze into space and wonder...

How much money would they need to fork out to purchase sky-torching fireworks from the black market?

Then they would wonder: "How many rockets would meet their spectacular demise in the heavens before the local neighbour calls the police?"

Now, Malaysians can finally look into the sky and wonder: "How many inferior Russian jets must we buy before we get another free ride into space?"

Then after hearing our wise leaders praise the cosmonaut we have sent into space as the greatest achievement since we sent a delegation to London to demand independence - Malaysians wonder: "Who the hell are they kidding?"

First of all, I wish to point out I am a great supporter of this "Malaysian" space programme. There is only so much newspapers, magazines, television, the Internet, word-of-mouth, radio, teachers and scientists can do to promote the study of cosmic science to the Akademi Fantasia/American Idol/Amazing Race/One in a Million/Love Perhaps?/Deal or no Deal crazed lunatics who make up the majority of our nation's youth.

Spend a few billion ringgit on Russian jets we can't even pronounce without thinking of Stalin, then launching a Malaysian into space for a once in a subprime mortgage crisis lifetime, and suddenly, the whole of Malaysia is abuzz with talks on solar storms and Soyuz.

Too bad that was only confined to the people who could look beyond the religious/racial/nationalistic political bigotry connotations of the entire fiasco.

Firstly, the event itself was heavily promoted.

"A Malaysian First!"

"Congratulations!"

"We have reached the stars!"

There is a (officially unrecognised) term known as overhyping. Hyping the benefits of the space programme alone in a non-descript purely scientific method of nation building would have been enough. But the government, wanting to justify the huge expenditure in taxpayer money, decided to turn this into a full blown Malaysian campaign for galactic presidency.

As a result, this turned the entire noble endeavour into nothing less than a political farce. Everything is always clearer in hindsight, which is to say the government has played its cards right, though it was oh so wrong.

By calling this a national project, they are saying it's a Malaysian project = Malay project.

Anyone who would dare speak out would be called a traitor. An unpatriotic turd who should move to America. Someone who doesn't understand the social contract laid down by our forefathers. That should shut the flap of the moderates who only want fair debate.

Unfortunately, the debate works in a God/Agnostic fashion.

Agnostic: I don't believe there is a god, because I don't see the evidence.
Priest: God is present everywhere. But you must believe in Him to see Him.
Agnostic: That's a Catch-22 situation mate.

Eventually, we reach this period of complete apathy, where the beloved people have forgotten the entire issue.

Come on! You should have seen this coming!

Do you still recall the High Performance Centre fiasco. Thank goodness those Londeners know better than to let Malaysians build something on their land.

They would probably attempt to bribe the local officials to fast-track the Environmental Impact Assessment, which would result in an elaborate cover-up, which will eventually stick out like rotten fish among cream cheese when the Thames becomes the largest sewage dump in Great Britain, and bring about a long and unnecessary diplomatic row between Malaysia and Great Britain.

So while I still support the Malaysian cosmonaut, let's take a step back, analyse the issue, cease this perfectly embarrassing "angkasawan" branding blitz, and start our real pursuit to reach the heavens.


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Now playing: Hirano Aya - Lost My Music
via FoxyTunes