Category: Conflict & disaster

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Conflict & disaster Environment Politics & government

[1018] Of New Orleans of Malaysia

What had happened in New Orleans during the aftermath of Katrina is happening in Johor. Looting has been reported:

SEGAMAT: The ugly side of human nature has started to emerge from the floods that have hit several states — there are reports of looting and people are claiming that certain parties, including uniformed personnel, have asked for money before rescuing victims.

This is a major disaster, make no mistake of that. But where is the Prime Minister?

Just like in New Orleans, this is becoming a failure in leadership.

Borrowing Bakri Musa’s phrase: Undurlah Pak Lah!

p/s – Ego amid disaster:

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (Bernama) — Malaysia does not need foreign help to tackle the severe flood situation in the country, which so far has claimed six lives, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.

Najib, who is also Defence Minister and chairman of the National Disaster Management and Relief Committee, said Malaysia was capable of handling the situation and that flood relief efforts were put in motion the moment floods struck in the states of Johor, Pahang, Kelantan, Negri Sembilan and Melaka.

“We will handle it ourselves. The situation has stabilised… no need (for foreign help),” he said at a press conference at the Defence Ministry here today when asked if Malaysia would accept foreign help in tackling the disaster.

If I were the top executive person in the government, I’d accept any sincere help from anybody.

pp/s – the PM is finally back in Malaysia, more than five days after tragedy struck:

During his visit Saturday, Abdullah took a helicopter ride for an aerial view of the extent of the floods in several districts of Johor, such as Muar, Batu Pahat and Kota Tinggi.

The prime minister also saw the extent of the floods in Melaka.

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Conflict & disaster Sports

[988] Of who’s up against Ohio State now?

The Trojans lost to the Bruins. I didn’t expect that:

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Southern California’s dejected players trudged off the Rose Bowl field, oblivious to the celebration going on around them.

Their national championship hopes had just ended with the biggest upset of the season.

UCLA knocked No. 2 USC out of the Bowl Championship Series title game with a stunning 13-9 victory over its crosstown rival Saturday. The Bruins did it with a vastly improved defense and a quarterback starting on three days’ notice.

With the Trojans completely out of the picture as far as national championship is concerned, we have only two teams to pick and match against Ohio State: Florida and Michigan.

I obviously prefer Michigan but let Michigan and Florida duke ’em out! Let’s have a playoff just to determine who should be up against the Fuckeyes.

And at the NYT:

The Bruins won despite just 235 yards of total offense and not completing a pass of more than 21 yards.

“I’m not going to sleep tonight,” Markey [Bruins tailback] said, smiling. “I’m not going to sleep for days.”

Much like folks in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Gainesville, Fla., but for very different reasons.

Word.

p/s – this is tragic:

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza (Reuters) – Hussein Kafarneh is a muezzin without a mosque.

For nearly 30 years he led the traditional call to prayer at Beit Hanoun’s al-Nasser shrine, one of the oldest mosques in Gaza, climbing the twisting steps to the top of the white stone minaret five times a day.

His father did the same for 40 years before him.

Then, on November 3 this year, as Israeli forces pursued an offensive in Gaza, they clashed with Palestinian militants holed up inside and nearby the mosque, using it as cover.

A dramatic stand-off ensued, with Israeli tanks aiming their barrels toward the shrine and around 60 well-armed militants firing rounds back toward the Israelis.

I blame both sides.

Categories
Conflict & disaster History & heritage Liberty

[894] Of Lex Gabinia

An extremely interesting article at the New York Times. Pirates of the Mediterranean (via):

IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But history is mutable. An event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.

At the Economist’s View, the blogger says “Can we avoid making the same mistakes, or is it too late already?“

Categories
Conflict & disaster Liberty Politics & government

[892] Of a three-state Iraqi federation is just another Yugoslavia

Iraq might be moving towards a weak three-state federation divided by religion and ethnicity :

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraq’s fractious ethnic and religious parliamentary groups agreed Sunday to open debate on a contentious Shiite-proposed draft legislation that will allow the creation of federal regions in Iraq, politicians said.

The agreement came after a compromise was reached with Sunni Arabs on setting up a parliamentary committee to amend Iraq’s constitution, a key demand by the minority.

The committee will be set up Monday and the federalism bill will be read to the body a day later, Sunni and Shiite politicians said.

The deal opens the way for Iraq’s Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds to move ahead politically and break a two-week political deadlock that threatened to further sour relations between the communities. If left unresolved, the deadlock could have further shaken Iraq’s fragile democracy and led to more sectarian violence.

The federalism bill calls for setting up a system to allow the creation of autonomous regions in the predominantly Shiite south, much like the self-ruling Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Sunni Arabs have said they fear the legislation will split Iraq apart and fuel sectarian bloodshed.

The Kurdish north and Shiite south hold Iraq’s oil fields, while the predominantly Sunni Arab areas are mostly desert.

Somehow, I don’t think the creation of that kind of federation suits the condition Iraq is currently in. I fear the act of craving Iraq into three regions might mean a permanent strike on unitary state of Iraq. While the three-state solution does have its merit, who could guarantee Iraq won’t be another Yugoslavia?

Categories
Conflict & disaster Politics & government

[863] Of protest against pushing a stroller with a baby in it on an escalator

It’s amazing how irresponsible and negligent some people – possibly parents – can be. It’s not too rare at Suria KLCC to find a person with a baby in a stroller to use the escalator to move from one floor to the next. Hear this: using the escalator while pushing a stroller with a baby in it is dangerous. It might not be dangerous to you but to the baby, it is absolutely.

I’ve observed so many times a person struggling to balance a stroller with a baby in it while they’re on an escalator. It doesn’t take much for the person handling the stroller on an escalator to accidentally let go of the stoller and hence, jepordizing the safety of the baby.

Parents sometimes prefer to save time by riding on the escalator at the expense of the baby’s safety. I do feel that this is an unacceptable trade-off between time and safety.

A safer alternative would be the elevator. I urge everybody to ulitize an elevator in place of the escalator whenever you need to move between floors with a baby in a stroller. At the very least, please carry the baby on your person if you insist on using the escalator. You may fold the stroller and hold it with one hand though it will better if you hold the baby with both hands.

So far thankfully, I haven’t witnessed any accident that involved a baby in a stroller falling off the escalator. I’ve no desire to watch one.

Please think of the baby people.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – leader of the opposition Lim Kit Siang, laments the exclusion of Universiti Malaya from Newsweek’s top 100 global universities. For me, I consider rankings as overrated and inaccurate – this includes the US News’ list. While rankings may differentiate the top tier from the other tiers, it does nothing to differentiate schools within that top tier. For instance, in the Newsweek’s list, is #1 Harvard really better than #10 Columbia? Is #11 Michigan (Go Blue!) better than #34 London School of Economics?

Is #34 National University of Singapore better than #66 Vanderbilt, #52 Universiteit Utrecht or #56 Brown? C’mon.

Trivia: could you find Ohio State University in the ranking?

I know. I’m a cruel person. Related, do read Time’s Who needs Harvard?