Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Liberty Society

[648] Of annoying explosions and brats that cause the explosions

One thing that I hate about Eid in Malaysia is excessive noise due to firecrackers. Don’t get me wrong. I love firecrackers. I really do, especially roman candles. Noise is an inescapable part of enjoying firecrackers. Still, if people want to play it, especially the ones that go kaboom, I strongly suggest those people to exercise their right of having fun somewhere out of any residential area.

I cringe every time an explosion blared during a relatively calm night. Unsuspected explosions always step up my heart tempo. I minor heart attack if you will. And I think Kuala Lumpur this time around has more explosions than Baghdad, albeit less deadly.

And there you go. Another one had just gone off, along with a couple seconds of my life.

Seriously, a lot of people that are playing firecrackers are inconsiderate buggers. Since these people being blithely discourteous, from now on, I promise myself that I am going to treat myself with a bar of chocolate each time a brat loses his or her finger, eye or dick.

Yes, I hope you damned buggers lose your dick with a spectacular show of rainbow and some decibels to match it.

Hear me, if you’re in Kuala Lumpur, go to the lake garden or somewhere secluded for your activity. Or better yet, join the Al-Qaeda or American foreign legionnaires in Iraq or Hamas’ and Israeli in Israel – I don’t care which side, any will get you dead, pronto, almost; that’s good enough for me – and make all the booms you want.

And what the hell the police is doing? It’s supposed to be illegal to sell firecrackers out in the public, much less playing contrabands in the public.

Categories
Environment History & heritage Photography Society

[647] Of traditional Malay lamp

With Eid coming up, many Muslim Malays are taking the initiative to lighten up their home compound. My family is no exception – they’re placing traditional Malay lamps at the edges of our compound. Pretty but I rather not have them. To me, it’s a waste of energy and serves no practical purpose.

Not to mention, unnecessary release of carbon dioxide too. And climate change and the sky is falling. Run!

Still, I can only object but its my parents’ money and they may choose however they want to spend it.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

I like the blurring of the background but I somewhat had hoped that the whole lamp would have been sharper.p/s – pyramid in Bosnia? (via)

pp/s – Greenpeace fined for reef damage. Oh, the irony.

p3/s – by spaghetti monster in the sky’s name, this DDOI’s is indescribable. No word can do justice to this picture. Any word uttered to even praise this photo will be an understatement. Even more remarkable, the photo was taken from a moving platform. Impressed? I know I am.

This kind of photo is why DDOI is my favorite – numero uno – right since the beginning of the photoblog.

Categories
Politics & government

[646] Of the devil PAS or the devil UMNO?

The 666th post for an entry on PAS. It truly couldn’t be any more appropriate than this.

Earlier today, Pengkalan Pasir Assemblyman Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Jaafar passed away, leaving a state assembly seat in Kelantan up for grab. This death should remind PAS what they had found out in the last Malaysian general election – PAS is in trouble. How big a trouble:

Wan Abdul Aziz contested on a PAS ticket in the last general election and beat the Barisan Nasional’s candidate, Hanafi Mamat, by a slim 55-vote majority.

He polled 7,168 against Hanafi’s 7,113.

And the bigger picture:

“The present situation is really interesting. If prior to this PAS held 24 seats and Barisan Nasional (BN) 21, now PAS has only 23 seats…Can’t say much, but its an interesting development,” he said this when met by reporters after paying his last respects to Wan Abdul Aziz at the latter’s home in Kubang Bemban, Pasir Mas.

This is also a sneak peak at PAS u-turn in trying to look more moderate. In my opinion however, this u-turn might backfire.

PAS is not alone in this u-turn and certainly no the first. While PAS is slowly trying to relabel itself as moderate Islamist party, UMNO has been doing a more-Islamic-than-PAS ever since Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became UMNO President with his Islam Hadhari. I personally think Islam Hadhari is balderdash but what’s important is, UMNO’s u-turn has been tested and it works. That’s all the matters.

PAS u-turn however is a little bit risky. By becoming more moderate, PAS may stand a chance nationally but not on state level. PAS doesn’t need to move leftward in the political spectrum in Kelantan. Reason is, the population there is already stuck in the right. Too much shifting to the left will see PAS risking disfranchising its base. Already, when PAS invited Mawi to perform in Kelantan, crack was showing within PAS ranks.

But then, I have the impression that Mawi’s concert was a sellout. This so-called Mawi-factor might be an asset instead of a liability. You’ll never know but given what I know right now, I’ll put my money on UMNO this time.

As for me, I don’t really care who will win. Whether it will be PAS or UMNO, I don’t see how it changes the dynamic in Kelantan state assembly. PAS still won’t control two thirds of the state assembly and UMNO or BN, still won’t get half of total seat. This upcoming by-election, which needs to be held within the next 60 days, is more about psychology.

Nevertheless, the next 60 days will be important for battleground Kelantan. Pengkalan Pasir by-election will serve as a signal of things to come in 2008. Or 2009.

erratum – there was an error in post numbering. This post was numbered 666 before the error was discovered. 

p/s – oh yeah, joining the bandwagon, Happy Halloween to those that celebrate it. Er, I mean, Deepavali.

Categories
Conflict & disaster Politics & government

[645] Of 20 years for drugs, 20 months for killing 200 people

Indonesia, while mocking justice, is fast becoming a nation that runs on farcical judiciary.

Australian Schapelle Corby is sentenced to 20 years behind bars for attempting to smuggle marijuana into the country while another Australian Michelle Leslie faces the possibility of maximum 15 years in jail for ecstasy. Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric who has been found guilty of conspiring in the 2002 Bali attack which killed more than 200 people on the other hand received merely three years of jail time – that penalty has been reduced to mere 20 months.

Doing drugs is bad and I at least am willing to agree to that. It however is certainly no worse than murder. But no, no – the Indonesian authority has differing view.

Indonesian Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin is reported of saying that the psychopath fundamentalist and murderer Abu Bakar Bashir is eligible for further lessening in conjunction of the upcoming Eid. This is absolutely absurd and distastefully dishonors victims of the Bali bombing.

If the Indonesian authority decides to shorten the killer cleric’s sentence soon, they might as well release him and supply all the explosives he needs for future ops.

Or maybe, this is Indonesia’s idea of Halloween.

Categories
Environment Photography

[664] Of erosion

I was a little bit bored yesterday. So, I wandered around with a camera by my side.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

This one was taken somewhere near my home. It’s an old stone staircase and some part of it suffers minor erosion while moss covers the stair’s cracks.

I’m not sure whether this is a good photo – maybe I should have lowered the lense by a few degrees more – but I personally like it due to the photo’s noticeable depth of field.

p/s – This person deserves a harsh punishment for what he has done to the cats. Unfortunately, due to our pathetic law and partly to inflation, I have a feeling that the accused will get away with a mere RM200 fine. If he is unlucky, maybe a few days in lockup, no more than that. If you feel such act deserves severer punishment, please sign SPCA sponsored petition.