Categories
Politics & government

[616] Of campus election foolishness

This week, college students throughout Malaysia are polling to elect Student Representative Council members. Pro-opposition student groups allege that there are several irregularities going on however. They also claim unjust policies are being implemented by universities’ administrators to make it harder for them to participate in the election. As an act of protest, pro-opposition groups have decided to boycott the election.

A boycott could have a myriad of effects on many players. Unfortunately, the boycott is affecting the pro-opposition badly while their rivals are free and unscathed. Reason is, the boycott effectively hands over sufficient number of seats to pro-government student groups while the pro-opposition gains practically nothing.

As such, future ruling by the Student Representative Council will ignore pro-opposition’s dissenting views simply because pro-opposition won’t have noticeable voting power in the council.

If the pro-opposition groups hadn’t boycott the election, they could have a number of seats in the council. With their representatives, they could vote for an enquiry over the alleged irregularities and unfair policies. Thanks to the pro-opposition bright leadership however, such notion is harder to realize. Moreoever, their groups will become irrelevant this time around.

For the pro-opposition student groups’ leaders, c’mon, think for a sec. Do you think your opponents are losing sleep because of your boycott? Hell no! They are probably jumping joyfully while trying to lick their free fat, fat candy. Only a group of fools would disfranchise themselves and the pro-opposition groups are that fools.

As for now, I simply hope that none of the pro-opposition student groups’ leaders will lead any opposition political parties in Malaysia. If they are, then the opposition parties will have a lot of problems.

p/s – Ajax is up against Arsenal in a few hours. I hope Arsenal will get a good beating though I myself are unsure of Ajax’s recent performance.

Categories
Kitchen sink Science & technology Solar car

[615] Of happy 7th birthday, Google?

Seven pieces of cake with chocolate coating and seven strawberries on top are seen today on Google’s front pape. Can’t click on the image but the image is located at http://www.google.com/logos/7th_birthday.gif (sorry but I will not hotlink it. I hate hotlinking and I wish you do too. To see it, copy and paste the URL manually into your address bar).

Also, personalized Google finally gets to the front page?

p/s – Michigan’s currently second in the World Solar Challenge in Australia. w00t!

Categories
Sports

[614] Of poor injured Wolverine

Something that’s unheard of during my four years at Michigan – Michigan is unranked.

The winningest team in the history of college football team is unranked for the first time in more than seven years.

Michigan fell out of The Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday, ending a streak of 114 straight weeks in the rankings, which was the longest in the nation. The last poll that didn’t include the Wolverines was Oct. 18, 1998.

Michigan is 2-2. I’m 2-2, too and there goes the national championship.

Categories
Conflict & disaster

[613] Of Malaysian porous border

Have you ever wondered why there are so many illegal foreign workers here in Malaysia? I’d imagine the most common answer is porous border. Now, how porous our borders are?

Well, the Malaysian-Singaporean border is very, very porous. Technically, you need to present some kind of identification to enter Malaysia – most of the times, it’s passport. In reality, there, you really don’t need any ID. Just cross the border at the immigration center; Malaysian immigration officers won’t mind.

At least, that was what I experienced. I’m not sure how widespread it is but I certainly hope that this is an isolated issue. My friend however told me that this happens all the time.

At the border, I spent approximately an hour negotiating red tapes – not too bad considering the amount of people there.

The Singaporean half was kind of easy. Choose which counter(s) is (are) for Malaysians, line up, go to an immigration officer, make sure to get your passport stamped and then you’re on your way to Johor, of which, the last time I checked, was still part of Malaysia. Johor’s restroom state convinces me that Johor is in fact a Malaysian state.

On the Malaysian half, it was, surprisingly, much more, goddamned, easier. Notice the number of superlative adjectives. Look out for counter with the longest line, cut through some non-existence lines, rumble through pass an opening of what seems to be a set of five electronic counters – four were closed by the way while three immigration officers were having a chat that concerned something apparently more important than national security – and then you are free to chew your bubble gum. Nope. No need to stamp or scan your passport.

Given that, I can’t help but wonder why all those aliens are trying very hard to get pass Malaysian navy in order to be in Malaysia illegally. There are, maybe, two ways of trying; trying hard or trying smart.

Here’s a tip to all that plan to enter Malaysia easily and illegally. Get a tourist visa from Singapore, cross the causeway, slip pass the Malaysian immigration officers while they are busy talking about nonsense and – voila! – Welcome to Malaysia.

Seriously though, our security down there is lagging badly. Wait. Lagging is the wrong word. Lacking should be very descriptive. The people in the immigration are being paid for doing practically nothing.

Categories
Photography Travels

[612] Of Singapore’s pretty much…

Hah. Continuing a short entry naming tradition initiated by a person stuck on an island down south and taken up by another person that originates from another island in the west. But I love Singapore.

In many superficial ways, Singapore doesn’t look or feel very different from Kuala Lumpur. Both cities have similar old shophouses that date well before pre-Independence period, filled with food stalls selling nothing too alien to Malaysians with modern highrises threatening to dominate the blue sky above while steel lions roaming the streets below.

I mean, c’mon, take a look at this photo.

If somebody else had taken this one, I wouldn’t be able to tell whether this shot was taken in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. But of course, a visit to a restroom gave me a sudden pang in the head and quickly reminded me that I wasn’t in Malaysia anymore.

I took the photo at Chinatown, Singapore.

The one thing that I regret about this trip is the fact that most of my shots are either spoilt or I don’t like it. The ones that are decent need to be edited. So, I definitely need to pay Singapore a second visit in the near future and concentrate on shooting better pictures.

I also have decided that I need better camera for night shots. Most of the times when there is a lack of lighting, my current camera’s shutter speed is simply not suffice.

And then there were these two veggies.

Passersby were heard of saying an equivalence of ZOMG!!!!!1one, that’s huge in Chinese. By the way, I don’t know these guys. It just so happened that I shared the same table with them.

When I got home, my mom asked, “does Singapore still have trees?“

Dumbfounded by the question, I took a couple seconds to recuperate. I’m not sure why she asked that but maybe she meant green spaces. With regained composure, I replied, “no but they do have plastic trees though.”

My mom, being a loving mother, let it passed.

p/s – World Solar Challenge is on. A remark by world renown team Aurora, winner of 1999 WSC.

The action was really on today at the Hidden Valley racetrack as another five international teams arrived: Two teams from Taiwan of the three entered, the mighty University of Michigan fresh from their win in the North American Solar Challenge, AGU Agilia from Japan, and finally the new team from Calgary, Alberta.

GO BLUE!