Categories
Environment Politics & government Society

[667] Of gobble, gobble, gobble and gobble

Aww. But Google doesn’t have a doodle for today. =(

And no turkey. =(

Bah. Who needs turkey when you have nasi lemak and roti canai

p/s – whoa. Just saw on local TV that Indonesia is planning a military exercise near Ambalat . Reuters has more:

Jakarta plans exercise near sea disputed by Malaysia
24 Nov 2005 04:08:44 GMT
Source: Reuters

JAKARTA, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s navy will hold its biggest ever exercise next month, involving landing amphibious tanks near potentially oil-rich waters disputed with Malaysia, a navy spokesman said on Thursday.

This news breaks a day after the US lifts military embargo against the country, as I’d mentioned earlier.

Is Indonesia trying to tell Malaysia something? Hinting too hard maybe?

pp/s – should be interesting to know what the local media has to say tomorrow about this. Right now, Malaysian administration has no moral right to criticize the US on Abu Ghraib incident.

Anyway, a good by-election ammo for PAS. Might even be a silver bullet.

ppp/s – Ha. Ha. Ha! (via)

Categories
Humor Politics & government Society

[665] Of so much hate

A few days ago, I noticed one of sixthseal.com’s posts, which is full of extremely disturbing comments. It’s awfully hard to maintain my composure after passing through it even at fastest possible speed. What started out as a complaint against the author of the blog ends up with racists people scouring all over for a chance to abuse free speech.

I don’t really quite comprehend on how the issue is being turned into racist’s capital. Why couldn’t people just say fuck you instead of fuck Malay or any other race for that matter. Why must race come into the convoluted and irrational equation in the first place?

Perhaps, it’s merely trolls. Or perhaps, there really are people out there that prefer a racist to a liberal society – looking for every chance to undo so much that has been done.

I guess, so much for a Malaysian dream.

p/s – BN Kelantan dug its own grave. After much demand of dissolution, offer of resignation, counter-demand and counter-offer between BN and PAS on Kelantan state assembly, deputy chairman of the Election Commission speaks out in Utusan today that if anybody resigns, such person will be barred from running for office for the next five years, as stated in EC rules. The Prime Minister, from BN himself, echoes the EC deputy chairman’s words.

This is sure to embarrass BN and particularly UMNO Kelantan while putting a stop to all these silly demands.

pp/s – does this mean Flying Spaghetti Monster is to be taught as a mythology too?

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Creationism and intelligent design are going to be studied at the University of Kansas, but not in the way advocated by opponents of the theory of evolution.

A course being offered next semester by the university religious studies department is titled “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies.”

Ouch.

Categories
Conflict & disaster Economics Environment Politics & government

[664] Of Karam Singh Walia for president!

Mr. Karam Singh Walia, by all standards, is definitely Malaysia’s most well-known environmental journalist. Almost every week, it seems almost everyday to me, a less-than-popular Malay idiom will come out of his mouth with his hands flying in the air relentlessly, comically.

For at least five years now, he has been highlighting all the little local environmental issues on Malaysian air. By little, by no way do I mean insignificant. In fact, he’s the one that is doing more to green’s cause than anybody else that I could think of at the moment. More importantly, he is perhaps one of the few that are fostering green grassroots in the country.

According to World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia, two of his notable works are:

Of particular note, in October 2000, Karam’s coverage of Cameron Highlands placed highland forest conservation issues firmly in the public eye. His efforts in Cameron Highlands resulted in the Federal Cabinet’s freeze on development in the highlands. Subsequently, a special Cabinet Committee on Co-ordination of Highlands and Islands was formed to help plan and manage developments of highlands and islands in the country.

In 2002, Karam took up the issue on the threats to the Bukit Gasing green belt in Petaling Jaya. There was an immediate response from the government and within 24 hours of the first newscast, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur had promised to gazette its part of the hill as a protected area.

A net search reveals that he has won several awards. Last year according to WWF-Malaysia further, the Sultan of Perak, which is the organization patron, conferred Mr. Karam Singh Walia with Patron’s Award last year.

So, yeah, if there is to be a green party in Malaysia, I’ll nominate Karam Singh Walia as the party’s president!

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

Yeah! And the __earthinc welcomes Mr. Annan back from his prolonged vacation over the Pacific. He’ll be visiting Pengkalan Pasir soon to investigate current influx of aliens into the area. Rumors have it that these aliens have more than doubled human population there. Worse and to many’s horror, these aliens, allegedly, are stealing people’s genital in the open!

p/s – damn. should end this entry with a pantun?

pp/s – whoa! Zarqawi, that alleged Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, might be dead! (via Iraq The Model via Pito’s Salas via Technorati).

If the leak is confirmed, what an achievement it is – it hasn’t been too long since Southeast Asian bomber was killed in Indonesia. This might demoralize all those terrorists. Osama Bin Laden, the real wanted man, is still somewhere out there, however.

Then again, which GM workers care about Zarqawi and all the hocus-pocus when GM plans to cut 30,000 jobs, eh?

Categories
Conflict & disaster Economics Liberty Politics & government

[679:448] Of negative real interest rate?

Apart from Bucking the Fuckeyes, something odd came across my mind earlier.

If Malaysian nominal interest rate currently hovers around 2.7% according to Bank Negara (Interbank interest rate), as it has been for many months now while inflation for October is around 3.2% according to Business Times, then wouldn’t that mean, according to Fisher equation, Malaysia had a negative real interest rate a few weeks ago?

Something is wrong here. Am I taking the right interest rate?

Base lending rate (BLR) however is 6%, according to Maybank while ABN Amro Malaysia offers 5.5%. If BLR is the benchmark, then it’s my mistake.

Nonetheless, if indeed Malaysia had a negative real rate just a month ago, then our current capital outflow might not entirely due to the current huge rate differential between the US dollar and the Malaysian ringgit.

p/s – dirty Republicans at work. But nothing less than an ingenious political maneuvering:

House GOP Seeks Quick Veto of Iraq Pullout

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – House Republicans maneuvered for swift rejection Friday of any notion of immediately pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, sparking a nasty, sometimes personal debate over the war following a Democratic lawmaker’s own call for withdrawal.

Just a day after Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., stoked a surging political fire over President Bush’s Iraq policies by proposing that troops return home now, Republicans brought a measure to the House floor urging that a pullout begin immediately.

The symbolic vote was intended to fail, and furious Democrats accused the GOP of orchestrating a political stunt.

Republicans’ call for vote for an immediate withdrawal of US troop from Iraq forces Democrats into a corner with no safe way to go.

Categories
Humor Politics & government Society

[657] Of 10 ways for PAS to secure Pengkalan Pasir

As mentioned before, I’m placing my money on UMNO to win the December 6 Pengkalan Pasir by-election. However, here’s a list of 10 ways to force odd to favor PAS. In the list:

#10. Bribe UMNO candidate. Doubt it will work? Hey, Isa Samad hasn’t been dragged to court of law yet despite his proven corruption. Instead, he’s been merely admonished by UMNO disciplinary board and suspended for a few years. Proof that most people in UMNO, even those in the high up, doesn’t mind corruption. What about Badawi’s anti-corruption drive you say? Hell, we have – given the situation, had – a tak nak rokok campaign but the Dewan Rakyat mocks it by promising players in the cigarette industry greater reward. What? Bribery is sinful you PAS people say? I somehow remember a logging concession in Kelantan. Or was it Terengganu?

#9. Send in thugs to convince voters to pick PAS. Tell all those people, tick the moon or we’ll break your bones. Of course, no bone will break and snap. It’s all merely intimidation. Macam tak biasa pulak.

#8. Declare, or rather re-declare a fatwa that implores that a vote for PAS is a ticket to heaven and a vote for UMNO is a ticket to somewhere too hot to handle. I still sometimes wonder how the hell does this work but hey, you’ll never know what makes a rightist nut ticks.

#7. Assert that Nik Aziz is more religious than Badawi and assert that Islam PAS is Islam while Islam Hadhari is bs. (caveat emptor – if the word u-turn sounds familiar, don’t attempt this. I repeat, do not attempt this.)

#6. Invite Ibrahim Ali into PAS and let him run as PAS candidate. Ibrahim Ali dreams of a chance to screw UMNO. So, given that PAS hardcores will be voting for whoever that sucks up on PAS, Ibrahim Ali’s vote will at least bring in extra precious numbers, particularly some of former UMNO’s votes. UMNO would be furious if this happen, I tell you.

#5. Or better yet, invite Mawi into PAS and let him run as PAS candidate. With Mawi, I’m sure PAS will secure all female voters’ vote. People has been talking about the Mawi factor as an asset. Hell, a good political entity would internalize that asset. Add that with PAS wackos, UMNO will be caught with defeat and disbelief.

#4. Say Buck the Fuckeyes! Well, they might not get enough votes but if I could vote in Pengkalan Pasir, I’d goddamn vote for them if they say out loud Buck the Fuckeyes. Anybody that wanna kick Buckeyes’ nut is my friend.

#3. Actually do something with the state economy and maybe even clean up that state capital of trash a bit. Declaring the state capital as an Islamic city won’t do a jack. Given how Kota Bahru looks (I haven’t been to KB for perhaps 11 years but doubt there is any change, except the name for Pantai Cinta Berahi…), it makes people smirk at the hilarity and indirectly insult Islam.

#2. Pray to god and do nothing.

And number one is, drumroll please….

#1. Pack up and leave for Pattani. PAS won’t get Pengkalan Pasir but at least they’ll win in Pattani.

Frankly however, my skepticism for PAS and my previous statement of I-don’t-care-who-will-win notwithstanding, I hope PAS will win. A PAS win may indicate that there’s some hope for a stronger opposition in the next general election. Malaysia desperately needs more dissenting voices in the Dewan Rakyat to undo the rubberstamping trend in the Parliament.

p/s – Wow. I didn’t know a Malaysian was nominated for Nobel Prize for literature. (via)