H1N1 in Malaysia
Reported infected cases as at 01.07.2009 = 196
Reported recovered cases as at 01.07.2009 = 110
Hindraf vs Pakatan Rakyat
(Sounds too good to be true – problems solved with a stroke of the pen. Image source: http://www.progressivereform.org)
The Malaysian Insider reported:-
The campaign to save Kampung Buah Pala in Penang from demolition is shaping into a big “do or die” battle for Hindraf, the banned movement whose fortunes have been on the decline in recent months for want of a rallying cause
And if one reads further:-
Waythamoorthy repeated Hindraf’s point of view that the state government was not without measures to avoid paying a large compensation to the developers but that the chief minister was empowered under the Land Acquisition Act to acquire the land at a reasonable rate subject to a court review.
He also scoffed at Lim’s attempt to shift the blame to the previous Barisan Nasional administration, insisting that Lim should “remember that the actual transfer of the said land had occurred during his tenure as chief minister. If the previous government had made a fraudulent deal then he is part of the fraudulent transaction for having sanctioned the transfer.”
If you ask me, it is getting out of hand and given the facts of the case, Waythamoorthy may have chosen the wrong target to shoot at – read Khoo Kay Peng’s take on this issue, Waythamoorthy may have some answering to do himself.
Some issues cannot be resolved with “a stroke of the pen”, especially if the issues was created by the past state administration and there is a high cost involved and legal complications is looming. Why is deafening silence from the previous Chief Minister and administration? Even the current administration have not made serious effort to purchase the land from the developer by invoking the law, the question that remains to be answered – is the Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng doing the right thing?
Certainly spending millions of ringgit to save the village would be unfair to the rest of the people in Penang.
The Case against Anwar Ibrahim
(Plenty of headaches for Anwar due to the on-going sodomy allegations. Image source: http://www.itsmylifeclub.com)
The Opposition Leader, Anwar Ibrahim have busy in the courts lately. His sodomy case is coming up soon and Anwar have been busy filing the motion to get the necessary police report and transfer of the case from one court to another.
Is Anwar really guilty of a crime? Blogger, Pink Turtle outlined 10 misgivings in Anwar’s case and one of the best is this:-
Timbul isu terbaru bahawa laporan rasmi HKL turut bocor dan laporan tersebut menyatakan bahawa Saiful memang tiada tanda-tanda diliwat dan mustahil Saiful diliwat. Ini menunjukkan Saiful tidak ikhlas membantu BN.
Sekiranya Saiful komited membantu BN, Saiful sepatutnya pergi ke Lorong Haji Taib dan menyuruh pondan-pondan di situ meliwatnya beberapa kali agar kesan liwat ketara. Ini menunjukkan perancangan lemah BN dan ketidak ikhlasan Saiful dalam membantu BN.
Translated in English, it will mean something like this:-
Latest revelation is that HKL official report has been leaked out as well and the report states that Saiful did not have any signs of been sodomised and it was impossible that he was sodomised. This shows that Saiful was not sincere in helping BN.
If Saiful was really committed in helping BN, he should have gone to Lorong Haji Taib and ask the transvestites there to sodomise him several times so that the sign of sodomy is evident (during medical check up). This shows the weak planning by BN and insincerity of Saiful in helping BN
Read the rest of the misgivings here, it is very interesting indeed
Read Also
Tamil Movie Review: Nenjirukkum Varai
(The story of 2 lovers and the ultimate sacrifice. All images source: www.indiaglitz.com)
Nenjirukkum Varai had all the right ingredients to become a blockbuster if not for a sloppy directorship.
This movie was directed by Tamil actor, Vijay’s father, SA Chandrasekhar. Narain who shined in Mysskin’s Chithram Pesuthadi and later in Anjathey does it again – fine acting with plenty of realism. Being the ordinary guy with unshaven face and tense look, Narain worked wonders at those crucial scenes. I like the part when he confronts the policeman in charge after the screw-up to kill Ganesh. Another part that he excelled was when at the last few moments before he commits suicide for the girl that he loves.
The Plot
Ganesh (Narain) is a slum boy who drives an auto to support his family. Bhuvana (Deepa) is the neglected daughter of a rich man and is in search of true love. Bhuvana is drawn to Ganesh’s honesty and good heart. As expected, both fell in love and Bhuvana leaves her rich family to be with Ganesh in the slum. Bhuvana’s father tries to buy over Ganesh but is turned down. He then disowns Bhuvana and leaves her to be with Ganesh.
One day, whilst at the beach, Bhuvana would be hit by a lorry and rushed to the hospital. There the doctors inform Ganesh that Bhuvana need to undergo a heart transplant and the cost of the operation is Rs10 million. Ganesh manages to salvage some part of the money but is still short. He then tries to ask the hospital’s MD for some lenience on the payment but instead gets arrested by the police and in rage, the MD orders the discharge of Bhuvana without the operation.
Ganesh, having no other choice, locks the hospital’s emergency room and take a senior doctor (played by Nasser) and others in the emergency room as hostage. The police gets involves and tries several ideas (including sending a policeman to kill Ganesh) to resolve the hostage situation. Over the time, the people in the emergency room understand the reason behind Ganesh’s act and support him. The hospital agrees for the operation but despite sending a “S.O.S” to other hospitals, no heart for transplant is available and Bhuvana’s lifeline slips away. Ganesh in the end decides to take his own life and donates his heart to Bhuvana.
The holes in the plot
Despite setting the right premise, the director basically screwed up the storyline and much of it was way too glaring during the second part of the movie when Ganesh locks up and takes the people in the emergency ward hostage. Whilst Narain started to excel from here onwards with his fine acting, the director on the other hand continued with basic mistakes.
One review concluded:-
Had the sequences fallen logically in place in the second half, the film would have struck a vibrant chord in the viewers hearts. They fall so pat in place sometimes. Despite this, there is no denying that when you leave the theatre, you leave with a heavy heart and a different perception of love
Here are some of the more glaring ones:-
- Why heart transplant when Bhuvana is seriously injured in a motor accident and not in an heart attack (Bhuvana was shown with a large bandage to the head)?
- Even before a suitable heart is found, Bhuvana is rushed to the operating theatre – shouldn’t they wait before they do these things?
- In hostage situation, one expects the police’s presence to be very heavy and sharpshooters on the rooftop. In this movie, sharpshooters were missing – giving plenty of time for Ganesh to be standing uncovered, challenging the hospital MD and the police.
- The decision to send one policeman through the ventilation to kill Ganesh – looks smart on paper but in the movie, one don’t understand why the policeman aims the gun at Ganesh but takes a long to pull the trigger (eventually Ganesh was saved when a small girl saw the policeman and alerts Ganesh, duh!)
- Ganesh destroys all phones and mobile phones right at the beginning of the hostage situation (the discovery of a walkie talkie was just a coincidence) – then how he expects to communicate with the “outside world” on his demands?
- At the beginning of the hostage situation, Ganesh places himself at the middle whilst being surrounded by the hostage. In real sense, the hostage taker would have placed the hostages on a place where he can see them but the hostage are not near enough to do something stupid
- I did not see the hostage given food and drink during the ordeal (but let’s assume, this has been covered somewhere)
- There has to be one ‘feel happy” song during the tense moments – talk about wrong timing here
I dare say that the movie would have turned better if it was given to other better directors to direct it (like Mysskin). If those illogical scenes were taken out, Nenjirukkum Varai would not been as bad as it was directed to be. SA Chandrasekhar should stick to do what he knows best – being a producer.
Final say
The plus points: Narain, background music and storyline
The negative points: Bad directorship, unnecessary songs sequences
Missed Information on H1N1
On 26th June 2009, RPK wrote:-
That is how Malaysia will solve the H1N1 problem. We shall give it a new name that is easier for Malay newsreaders to pronounce.
So, instead of calling it H1N1, we shall call it selsema babi. H1N1 is a mouthful to pronounce in Malay. H-one-N-one is four syllables in English. But if in Malay, which would be H-satu-N-satu, it would be six syllables. Selsema babi is only five syllables.
And this was echoed by Patrick Teoh in his blog:-
And our honourable (and I use this word rather loosely) ministers instead treat us to a debate on what to call the damned bug that causes the damned disease!!! The world calls it Influenza A (H1N1) And the Malaysian Minister of Health says that we should follow suit.
And then…I suppose also because Malaysian politics recently has become a tad boring for the YB’s…our Minister of Information jumps in and says, Cannot! That would confuse people. We call it Swine Flu! The original name ma.
The above 2 comments came of course after the Information Minister decided to call the H1N1 virus, “Swine Flu”.
The Minister deciding that he is one notch up against all the geniuses at WHO, started the call by naming the virus with something other than what the rest of the world is using. And why the difference between Health Ministry who is calling the virus H1N1 and the Information Minister who is calling the Swine Flu.
In any case, the Health Ministry takes lead and the rest should just follow suit. What happens if other Ministries start calling other names to suit their own itchiness – say “Truly Asia” virus by the Tourism Ministry, perhaps or the “National Security” virus by the Home Ministry? Who is confusing who?
Yes, it looks like there is already some confusion on what to call the virus – H1N1? Or Swine Flu? WHO have decided to use H1N1 as the call sign but the local politicians having nothing much to do, decided to call other names and is creating unnecessary confusion.
Anyway, let’s leave this aside for a moment – who cares what the virus is called in Bolehland, we have a general idea what we are facing at the moment.
As at todate, about 158 cases of H1N1 have been detected. Source of this record comes from the Ministry of Health who in turn picked up by the newspaper and other mainstream media.
But what about checking the current status at Ministry of Health’s website itself? I am sure that the concerned Malaysians would be interested to know the current number of detected cases, number of patients who been released, how many dead (if any), the breakdown of detection of cases by state and district, latest updates & detections in countries sourrounding Malaysia, etc.
The Health Ministry have updated their website with a H1N1 portal with a link for “Situasi Semasa” (current situation).
It is also interesting to note that Singapore despite being much smaller than Malaysia, has triple number of cases reported.
Next Change: Second Car
(Perodua Viva – still better than the pesky Kancil. Image source: Paul Tan)
After months of planning, saving up for the downpayment and going through the features of available models, my wife has finally decided and booked a Perodua Viva 1.0 (A) as her first car, bringing an option of having 2nd car for the house.
The reason for her choice is obvious – small car means easier to park and drive. We expect to get the car in the next 2 – 3 weeks and my wife already started to observe me even more closely when I am driving. She is excited and nervous at the same time.
As for me, I am looking forward for my wife having her own car for several reasons
- She does not need to wait for me to take her on errands.
- She can drive up and buy breakfast (or in most cases, dinner) herself.
- She can stop complaining of how I drive.
- She can drive to her workplace instead of walking now.
- She can now understand why I need to spend so much for car accessories.
- I have an alternative transportation in case my car breaks down or at the workshop.
- And the best reason for my wife to have her own car, I can finally take a nap on long drive to relatives’ house.
Just like my wife, I too can’t wait for the new car to arrive…he he
Read Also
