Heroine from Bersih 2.0

In my opinion, this is the most haunting image to emerge from the Bersih 2.0 walk in Kuala Lumpur on 9 July 2011.

[An update: Before you read further, this is an email from my friend, Kee Thuan Chye, in which he commented This is a great picture. It shows the desolation of a war zone, which was what KL became on July 9, and the figure of a steadfast symbol of defiance. And she's bearing a flower, an emblem of peace. Juxtapose that with the formidable line of brute force behind her, and you see ...]

Photo: Hugo Teng

The lady has been identified as Annie Ooi Siew Lan. There's some information about her here. She was just one of countless aunties and uncles who participated in Bersih 2.0. But the world's eyes may be now on her just because of this iconic picture.

Originally from Kedah and Penang, this retired teacher now lives in the Setapak area and is aged 65 years old. A firm believer of the ideals of Bersih 2.0, she put on a yellow T-shirt and took a bus ride to the city centre by herself. Along the way, the Police stopped her several times to check her identification card. When questioned about her attire, her answer was always the same: "Why can't I wear yellow?"

She walked with the other supporters of Bersih 2.0. And then she was sprayed with chemical-laced water or fired upon with tear gas or both. Violence was the furthest from her mind; she came unprepared for it. And all she carried with her were a water bottle and a stalk of flowers. A stalk of flowers. A symbol of peace.

"It's so sad," she lamented. "It's so sad that the Police are treating our rakyat like this. When you come to rallies, there's a spirit of unity, something I cannot describe, when everyone is united for a cause. Why do we have to feel so scared in our own homeland. And by our own countrymen too?"

Yes, why indeed?

Bersih 2.0, you have my respect

I am astounded by the depths which the federal government has plunged into by trying to prevent the Bersih 2.0 rally from taking place at the Stadium Merdeka. I am upset by the way that the police force has been used to harm the people of this country. I am sickened by the constant denials spewed by Najib and company. I laugh with derision at the Home Alone "tin kosong" who chose to hide behind his wife's sarong while urging his goons to go for a stroll by the lake. However, I am deeply proud of the 50,000 fearless participants that were out on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

This is the rally that will change people's perception of what a stupid and power-corrupted federal government will do to retain power. They may have tried to cover wool over our eyes but they cannot silence the anger that's all within us. We have seen and heard what actually happened n Kuala Lumpur yesterday. We have seen how our fellow Malaysians in faraway countries have supported Bersih 2.0's cause by holding events of their own. We have heard how the callous police force fired their tear gas cannisters into the Tong Shin Maternity Hospital grounds. What if the patients, expectant mothers and newborn babies were endangered? Yes, najib and company have a lot to answer with their suppression of people's right to be heard.

To my Malaysian brothers and sisters who participated in the Bersih 2.0 rally in Kuala Lumpur on this eventful date, 9 July 2011, I deeply salute you!

Our support for Bersih 2.0's Yellow cause

Though we are too far away from Kuala Lumpur, there is a need for us to show our support for the men and women who shall be facing the might of the federal government's machinery this afternoon. Here is Long Kin and I, togged in yellow, before we ventured out to the Taman Bukit food court in Bukit Mertajam for our breakfast.

Nasi kunyit

I finally had my fill of nasi kunyit today. Saw it on sale at the market. What is important about this speciality dish is that the glutinous rice must be of consistent quality: soft yet sticky. This one was acceptable, but I didn't see any pepper corn in the rice. Should be there. As for the chicken curry and potato, well, my family cooks it better. But what to do? When you are craving for nasi kunyit and the family's not cooking it, you have to accept what's available from the shops or the market.

Anyway, this superbly coloured dish of yellow rice is dedicated to all true supporters of free and fair elections throughout the country. Either you believe in free and fair elections or you don't. There are no two ways about this.

Where are Penang's old record shops?

The mention of Wing Hing Records in yesterday's blog post set me thinking deeper. Where have all those old vinyl record shops in Penang gone to?

I know for sure that Wing Hing was located in Campbell Street, George Town, because this place was the most familiar to me. The proprietor was my father's good friend and we bought most of our stuff there. When the owner died, the business was taken over by his son, Jimmy. But alas, the shop is no more. Eventually, the growng popularity of the compact disc meant that fewer people were buying records and this forced him to fold up the business. I've completely lost touch with Jimmy but today, the shoplot is part of a tour agency's office.

There were other well-known record shops around the city then. The other one that I frequently went to was Hinson Records on Penang Road, very near to the junction with Hutton Lane. I knew the owner. Mr Yeoh, who should be well over 90 years old now if he is still around, was a member of the Old Frees' Association. The last I met him was in 2009 or 2010. Still strong and hearty then. Anyway, Hinson Records has also disappeared.

In fact, there is no big-name record shop left in Penang. Ngee Fah Records in Penang Road, a stone's throw from the Penang Road/Gladstone Road/Magazine Street/Brick Kiln Road/Dato Kramat Road intersection, which the locals called Goh Pah Teng, closed down after the Penang Development Corporation acquired the land to build the Phase 1A of the present KOMTAR podium block. I do remember that business was once so good that Ngee Fah Records extended to two shoplots but they used to stock a large selection of locally pirated records.

Then at Burmah Road, there used to be Rio Records. Although this shop was run by the father of an old class mate, I had never bought anything from there. It's rather too late for regret, actually, because it converted later into a music shop selling music instruments. Nowadays whenever I whizzed by Burmah Road, I hardly noticed this shop, not knowing whether it still exists or not, possibly because I'd be concentrating more on the traffic. This stretch of the road is too busy to risk diverting your attention.

There also used to be a record shop at the junction of Penang Road and Bertam Lane but I've forgotten its name. It survived the closures of Wing Hing, Hinsons, Ngee Fah and Rio by many years but inevitably in the 1990s, the business folded as well.

The years after the Komtar podium block was built, records were still a very popular music medium then. There were at least two or three record shops that opened here until the early 1970s. But Infinity Record Shop has closed while DB Music Centre still survived until today. After records, DB Music Centre went on to selling cassette tapes and compact discs. And these two shops had a thriving side business by selling customised cassette tapes. For a fee that included the cost of a blank cassette tape, people could just walk into the shops and requested them to tape up some music from their stock of records.

Wembley Park (known to the locals as Choon Man Hnooi) used to be located across from the Traders Hotel. It was previously the last surviving amusement centre in the city (the others being the Great World Park and the New World Park) that showcased entertainment like bangsawan performances and ronggeng parties. There were also dance halls, gambling stalls, food stalls and of course, the Wembley Cinema. There were lots of traders here and I do remember seeing two or three record shops. Unfortunately, these shops, like the Dragon Gate Record Store, were selling exclusively records by Chinese singers. I had no interest in them and so, I did little to visit them. Today, the Wembley Park is no more although I hear that the cinema will be converted into a hawker centre. The land was bought over by a developer in 2007.

Possibly the last surviving old-fashioned record shop in Penang is Angel Records in Hutton Lane. But there's no point wasting good time to search for music there as the shop stocks only old Hindi and Tamil records. There's hardly any customer anyway, and the shop's opening hours are very erratic.

What's left for people searching for first-hand records in Penang nowadays are the modern music outlets in the shopping malls. However, they don't carry records like in the old days. Invariably, they stock only a few pieces of the modern re-issues or releases that come on 180g or 200g vinyls. Meant only for the specialist market or the curious hifi enthusiasts that want to dabble in analog sound. And of course, you'd have to pay through your nose in order to own a modern-day record. Hardly cheap any more.

A lesson from Woodstock

It took me quite some months to finish this compendium volume of P.G. Wodehouse's stories but yes, I'm finally done with it. As of last Wednesday, I turned Page 682 over and put aside the book.

You know, I never expected to take this long to finish a book but beside its thickness, the only other reason was because I read it as a bedside novel. Hilarious though it was, I could only manage perhaps three or four pages before the sandman came a-calling.

Initially, I thought the whole book was all about Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves, but it turned out that there were only two Jeeves stories among the five in this volume. A bit of disappointment. Nonetheless, the other three stories were equally absorbing, all written in the inimitable Wodehouse style.

So what's my next reading adventure now that all my Wodehouse books have been read and reread?

It's this: Back To The Garden, a book by Pete Fornatale, published in 2009 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Fornatale is an award-winning American broadcaster and his book celebrates the spirit of this music festival in the words of those who played or participated there.

I had not intended to read this book but my trip to the island last Friday also took me to the Penang Botanic Garden. Much inspired by the greenery and flowers there, I had posted in facebook that I felt like a flower child that was back in the garden. It was just a wishful feeling but Jeffrey said it sounded like I was at Woodstock.

Well, I've never been to Woodstock or for that matter, haven't stepped foot onto any American soil in my life. In late 1969, I had already heard about this music festival from a pen friend in Australia. It opened my eyes to the world at large. I was beginning to understand some of the issues going on in the world around me. Then one day, I entered Wing Hing Records, a record shop in Campbell Street, George Town and saw this triple album record set. The music was a revelation and it created a deep impression but more importantly, there was this unmistakable message that half a million people can come together and co-exist together with little incident.

Rock and roll culture is often maligned with violence but Woodstock showed that when people were not provoked and they showed respect towards one another, public gatherings need not descend into chaos and violence. That, to me, was the lesson from the festival.

George Town festival, 2011

It's better late than never to post up this banner for the George Town Festival 2011, the month-long third anniversary celebration of George Town's attainment of the UNESCO world cultural heritage status. I'll be down to wander around the city this Thursday (7 July 2011) to take in the cultural displays. Hope to bump into some of my old friends there!

Everbright madman

Now I know how it is like when people take shortcuts and depend on Google Translate to get words or sentences translated. I picked up the Mandarin text from a Kwong Wah Yit Poh report about last Friday's boorish demonstrations in George Town and pasted it into Google Translate, as I don't know Mandarin but I wanted to know what was written. To my surprise, Google Translate mucked it all up properly:

It dawns on me now how many people felt outraged to know our super-efficient government translator depended on this service to translate Teoh Beng Hock's purported "suicide note". It was so ridiculous. In the meantime, here's the full translation below of the Kwong Wah Yit Poh article, courtesy of Google Translate. If you can make head and tail out of it, please let me know because I can't!

(News Penang 1) 500 reputation as "anti-tyranny violent Lim Guan Eng" and "righteous" to "anti-Lim Guan Eng" and "anti-Net League 2.0 'to start the name of demonstrations, they marched to the Everbright Bank of Malaya When the police because they have to insist forcing the defense, the results of six people arrested by the police, those arrested included "Everbright madman," Abdul Ghani.

"Everbright Madman" Abdul Ghani to "Voice of Malaysian children" in the name of the organization, to lead about 500 people after prayers on Friday, gathering in the coconut foot street procession started about 3 km to the Everbright Bank of Malaya to memorandum was head of Penang Lim Guan Eng. They started in the coconut foot street parade, the police tried to stop their march, but the presence of a large number of police officers have been pushing the demonstrators to ignore the police to prevent any further forward towards progress.

In the procession on the road, they chanted "anti-violent Lim Guan Eng arbitrary" and distributed tomorrow at 9 am in Sungai Lai of a "violent anti-tyranny Lim Guan Eng" rally leaflets. Parade is also the portrait printed on Lim Guan Eng's "anti-tyranny violent Lim Guan Eng" posters onto the floor trampled, torn, burned; parade has 50 motorcycles before "escorting" campaign, which hit the motorcycle then jerk forward car flute pathfinder attention.

Procession started from the Sou foot street, through cow dry winter street, into the betel nut Road, then reverse walk name is Wang's (Bee Cheng Hiang meat shop front) arrived at the junction of Everbright Bank of Malaya. When they walk in reverse, also led to traffic chaos. With much attention to the procession, some passers-by questioned why the police do not take action?

When the procession arrived at Maybank, the police riot team has been stationed there, and warned them to disband and not across the room before the post office is located in the Everbright next line of defense. However, Abdul Ghani is still leading his men continue to move forward, to start immediately arrests the police arrested six people arrested included "Everbright madman," Abdul Ghani, "Voice of Malaysian children," Secretary Mo Xin et al. Confusion, there are protesters clash with reporters, someone tries to attack reporters.

With the police after the arrests started, the parade is to dissolve itself, coconut foot walk back street. To the deadline date, the police spokesman not to say something.

I will survive

Who will win the finals of this year's Wimbledon tennis: Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic? I know it's going to be a red-hot match but nothing, I suppose, will be hotter than this youtube video of The Djoker's singing!

Hijacked by hooligans

I had good reason for wanting to drive out to the island on Friday morning. First, it was to meet a friend from Singapore for lunch and second, I had an appointment at one of the local private hospitals. I was rather thankful that my appointment with the doctor had finished at about 4.30pm, so that there would be enough time for me to drive back across the Penang Bridge before the dreaded Friday rush hour traffic jam began.

Friday is always a very bad day to use the bridge, especially from about 5pm or 5.30pm onwards. Only the week before, I was crawling all the way towards the Butterworth end. The only positive aspect from last week was that I wasn't the one driving!

Anyway, that's digression. As I entered the bridge on Friday, I was relieved that although traffic was heavy, I was at least moving forward at a reasonable speed. Until I hit the 6.6km mark. Traffic grounded to a halt. Then repeatedly, a hesitating lurch forward of a few feet before stopping again. All the way to the mid-span.

Then suddenly, it was all clear. But wait, why were there two or three traffic policemen on both sides of the bridge? What the fuck, I was thinking to myself. Are the policemen there to do spot checks on motorists? On the middle of the bridge? If so, they must have been out of thier minds. Then the thought left my mind as I picked up speed again. The rest of the way on the bridge was normal. Busy but normal.

I didn't give this incident any more thought until I came across this story in yesterday's papers. There really was an incident on the Penang Bridge, right at about the same time that I was crossing it. Seemed that a group of rowdy hooligans, wearing red headbands, had demonstrated at the midspan. These irresponsible idiots had taken it upon themselves to park their cars on two lanes of the bridge and reduced flow to a single lane.

But even before this disturbance on the bridge, I heard that about 500 other hooligans, mostly with red headbands again, had marched earlier in the afternoon with impunity from Pitt Street to Penang Road, passing by the Police Headquarters building, no less, with little immediate reaction from the Police within. I mean, why allow them to march until Komtar before trying to disperse them? Why not nix them in the bud as they passed by the Police headquarters itself? Needless to say, the longer they were allowed to march, the more mayhem created. Jammed up the roads in the city. Rowdy, noisy, irresponsible, abusive, aggressive, intimidating. What other words to describe them? 

One thing that puzzled me was the common red headband. If there were so many of the bastards wearing these headbands, it can only mean that the disturbances on the streets of George Town and on the Penang Bridge were deliberate actions that had been planned way in advance. They weren't spontaneous. so there must be a culprit or several culprits behind them. It became clear later that the heavy hand of a political party, one that claimed to be leading the federal government, was behind the demos. All I can say to the goons is, shame on you for your desperate attempt to disrupt the peace. They discredit no one but themselves

As a postscript, the Police went around later to pick up about seven or eight of the fiery ringleaders but they were released within 24 hours. What a contrast to the fate of the 30-odd people, about half of whom were elderly people, who were picked up by the Police near Kepala Batas about a week ago and were only just released yesterday.

It's yellow within

Still dreaming about the durian season in Penang. The season's not ending soon. There's still about three weeks to go but I understand the season may peak next Saturday. If you are like me, you'll love the durian. According to my durian friend in Balik Pulau, the ones with the yellow coloured pulp are the most prized among visitors to his farm. Their eyes, he said, always light up when the fruit is slowly opened to reveal this tantalising colour. It doesn't matter to them what's the colour of the skin. What's more relevant is the quality inside and if yellow means good quality, so be it. Me too, when I look at the durian, what's important to me is the quality of the fruit inside. Hope you have the same opinion too.

Delicious curry mee

I've long complained about the lack of good Curry Mee on the Penang mainland. However, here is one that I can definitely give the "two thumbs up" sign.

This Curry Mee hawker stall is located at the morning food court in Jalan Bukit Kecil and costs only RM2.50 per bowl. Apart from the pieces of long beans and the fried tau pok, there are also generous helpings of cockles and cubes of curdled pig's blood. But do ask for their extra chilli paste. That's where the whole delicious secret comes from....

If you are using a GPS to locate the stall, the coordinates are 5.354851,100.459255

Tranquillity

I'm not asking for much from this picture but just to share its colour and tranquillity with everyone.

What's wrong with bersih?

The events of the past few weeks have left me rather confused. I've been hearing so much about the coming Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur on 9 July 2011 and how it is being opposed by certain segments of our society, mainly the federal government and certain extremist non-governmental organisations.

Now this is the part that is confusing me. Why is the federal government opposing Bersih? Don't Najib & Co believe in the ideals being promoted by Bersih?

According to what I know, Bersih's objectives are eight-fold but the primary one is to demand for a clean and fair election. Obviously, for Bersih to demand this means that this organisation has no confidence in the Election Commission to ever do a good job. So, Bersih says our electoral system has weaknesses and thus, is open to abuse. Why is the fedral government against closing up the weaknesses? This, I don't understand.

Bersih is also asking for voting rights for all overseas Malaysian citizens who are registered voters to cast their postal votes during the general elections. Presently, I believe this privilege is only available to the Police and armed forces as well as the Malaysian missions (correct me if I'm wrong) but if countries like Singapore and the United States can allow their citizens to vote while posted overseas, why can't this be implemented here too? Why is the federal government refusing to allow overseas Malaysian registered voters their right to cast their votes? this, I don't understand.

Bersih wants indelible ink to be used during the election process. Presumably, this will eliminate election fraud, such as, preventing any one person to vote several times in different constituencies. The Election Commission came so close to using indelible ink during the 2008 General Election but chose to withdraw its use at practically the last minute. Why did the Election Commission choose to foresake a practice that is accepted in democratic countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines? This, I don't understand.

Bersih's fourth point is they want the Election Commission to extend the campaign period to no less than 21 days in order that the candidates have more time to disseminate information and reach out to the voters in the rural areas. Granted that many of our constituencies are large and it may take days to reach their interiors, and the people living there are basically ignorant of their national rights, this seems to be a reasonable request. So why won't the Election Commission do this? This, I don't understand.

Then there is this issue of free and fair access to the media for all political parties. Seems to me that the parties in the ruling government have all sorts of unfair advantage when they get access to the mass media: the television stations, the radio stations and the newspapers. They highlight favourably everything that the ruling parties say. And everything that the opposition parties say are blanked out or given only a token mention. Anyone reading the mainstream media would think that everything is hunky dory with the world. There is little room for alternative viewpoints in the mass media, even when the opposition viewpoints may be balanced and are in the public interest. Why is the mass media's coverage so lob-sided? This, I don't understand.

Bersih asks for the public institutions to be independent. By public institutions, they mean the Judiciary, Attorney-General's Chambers, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC), Police and of course, the Election Commission. The public perception is that these institutions are not independent. Every decision they make are purposely skewed in the interests of the ruling federal government. Our civil law system is based on English legal system where the independence of the judicial system is jealously guarded. But it does not seem like that any more. Why has the third arm of government - the Judiciary - seems to have become less independent? This, I don't understand.

Bersih wants corruption to be arrested at all levels of society. Don't we all want to see that? Corruption is the cause of the unabated outflow of billions of ringgit from our shores. Corruption is turning the country into a laughing stock. According to Bersih, current efforts to eradicate corruption are mere tokens to appease public grouses. I agree. I'm already predicting that the ex-dentist with the palatial RM5 million house will get off lightly when his court case is through. Yes, I'm sure he will be found guilty but the fine will be a mere tuppence, not enough to even see him suspended from the Selangor state assembly. Mark my words, it will come to that. Why is the federal government so reluctant to weed out corruption from among its people? This, I don't understand.

And finally, Bersih is against dirty politics. I think we are all rather tired about the gutter politics that has the unspoken support of the federal government. The federal thinks that by dragging the opposition figures through the mud, they can humiliate them in the public eyes. But I believe that is wrong and very dishonourable. As a citizen and voter, I want to see a level playing field between any ruling party and opposition. Why is the federal government refusing to allow this? This, I don't understand.

So you see, these are the eight demands that Bersih is making, which are all rather simple and straightforward as far as I'm concerned. But why is the federal government so afraid of meeting Bersih squarely on these terms, if these are the demands any right-minded democratic society would make? Not unless there is really something to hide or fear.

They claim that the Bersih rally is supported by the opposition parties. So what? The federal government have had their chance to support Bersih when the rally was first mooted and they blew it. So don't complain when the opposition parties take up the cudgels instead. Why blame the opposition for what the federal government has failed to do?

Before I go, there is this opinion piece whch everyone should read. It's from a man I admire, a man with guts, a man with conscience.

I missed it, and it missed me

Darn. I missed it. It seems that while I was in the midst of writing my chess article for The Star earlier this week, I was blissfully unaware that a small bus-sized space rock called the Asteroid 2011MD had whistled very close to the Earth, passing over the southern Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Antartica, at 1.01am (GMT 17:01 hours) on Tuesday morning.

The asteriod was so close that it was nearer to us than the moon. It was so close that sky-viewers called it one of those frequent, pesky Near-Earth Objects that could bore, irritate, excite, alarm or panic us. At its closest approach, 2011MD was within 12,000km from the Earth. By comparison, the moon is about 380,000km away.

But those folks at NASA assured that the asteroid posed no real threat to me. Even if it had come hurtling down into the atmosphere, it would have disintegrated and only put up an impressive sky show, considering that it is now winter in the southern hemiphere where there is barely any daylight, if at all, over the Antartic continent.

When the asteroid was approaching Earth, there were many amateur astronomy enthusiasts that tried to capture snapshots of the flyby. For example, this picture above which I copied from the Internet. From what I know, this was a 10-second camera exposure and a lot of background noise was picked up in the process. Still, it's exciting to see the streak of light against the relatively stationery position of the stars in the background.

Columbo no more

I've just learnt that one of my favourite television detectives - no, make it my all-time favourite television detective - has passed away.

Peter Falk, who had been playing the shabbily dressed Columbo - trench coat wearing, cigar-welding, seemingly absent-minded, pesky and persistent fictional television detective since 1968 - died two days ago on 23 Jun 2011, aged 83.

In the last years of his life, Falk suffered from Alzheimer's disease and in 2009, his memory had been affected so much that he could no longer remember playing the television role that he was most famously associated with.

Falk's portrayal of Columbo, won him the Emmy Award four times. I had written my tribute to this TV show about four years ago. Click here to read it.

Self-centred old farts

Recently, I was moved enough to comment on my facebook that I don't like self-centred old farts. An old friend, Jimmy, then asked what was bugging me! Well, a lot bugs me nowadays. But the instance that I was referring to on facebook referred to the old farters on the OFA Penang mailing list.

Yes, the Old Frees' Association in Penang has a mailing list which was set up not so long ago. I've got well meaning friends who prefer to call us the Old Fuckers Association and now they would also probably call us the Old Farters Association. Doesn't matter to me that they are so jealous of our wonderful acronyms.

However, all these are only mentioned in passing as a "by the way." My original grouse was with the old farters who populate themselves in ANY mailing list (for short, I'm going to refer to this as a mailist from now on).

During my time with JobStreet.com, I was one of the administrators of the HR Forum mailists that the company had set up for the human resource communities in Malaysia and the Philippines. These two forums were separately administered and had proven quite popular with the members and participants. And before that, I had already been running mailists mainly for the public chess-malaysia and the private oldfrees7072 groups.

But there were always inherent problems with mailists - all practical problems faced by mailist administrators anywhere - and I'd like to share some of them.

1) People joining mailists for no other reason than to spam the members. My only solution is to ban such people from the mailist. Or, right from the very start, keep the new member's mailist account moderated until he can prove to be a responsible member. The drawback is that when membership increases a lot, it becomes almost impossible to keep track of who's new and who's not. Moreover, I would prefer to take a hands-off approach and not moderate anyone's message. Being responsible for my own actions is bad enough, I shouldn't be responsible for other people's actions too.

2) People talking off the subject, often touching on sensitive issues and provoking flame wars. This needs a deft hand from the administrator to douse the flames as soon as they appear. The problem is that no administrator can afford to spend all his time observing his mailists for wrongdoings. There's life outside the mailists, okay?

3) Members attaching confidential or copyrighted material with their email message. This is also a sticky problem for the administrator. First of all, how would the administrator know that the attachment is confidential or copyright? Second, once the message is sent, it remains sent. There's no feasible way to recall any message. Third, I've long suspected that a mailist host can be held responsible for the wrongdoing as the material has passed through the host server.

4) A well-meaning member who offers to send material directly to other people who could contact him privately but sooner or later, it just takes a kiasu member (he must want everything, see?) who, instead of writing directly to the original member, posts his "please send me a copy" follow-up to the entire mailist. His stupid action is then repeated by other kiasu members and eventually, everyone on the mailist gets inundated with thier "me, too" requests. Seems that there are many people who simply cannot follow simple instructions.

5) And the last big danger is a nightmare to any administrator. When you go on leave, do you set an "out of office" message to reply to in-coming emails? Many people do. However, such messages can be set erroneously to reply automatically to every in-coming email instead of stopping once it's detected that the next in-coming email is from the same source. Because of this mistake, the "out of office" message gets into a never-ending loop and every member's mailbox soon gets flooded with hundreds of messages from this one person before the administrator can ever be alerted to this happening. When I was with JobStreet.com, I had to have my friend and co-administrator, Ted, go into the system and kill off the member's idiocy.

The main consequence of all these mailist problems is that there are self-centred old farters who are so full of their own self importance that they'll take any opportunity to scream "take me off the mailing list" directly through the mailist itself and, yes, the message gets distributed again to everyone. So, the rest gets the same idea to scream "unsubscribe me, unsubscribe me" and pretty soon, the administrator is up to his neck trying to overcome the looming threat of a soon-to-be empty mailist. It's not pretty, I tell you!

And recently, this started to happen to the OFA Penang mailist. Someone had erroneously looped his "out of office" reply and two or three old farters demanded to be removed from the mailist. Now, as an old retired mailist administrator myself, even though I was not involved with the OFA Penang mailist administration and will never want to be, thank goodness, I couldn't afford to see this happen and I immediately sent a message imploring some tolerance for the first-time offender and besides, nobody would lose more than the old farts themselves who would be left out of further useful exchanges through the mailist. I believe common sense eventually prevailed.

So you see, Jimmy, that was what's bugging me the other day. I do admit that I'm an Old Fucker and now an Old Fart but never will I be a self-centred one.

Durian season 2011

The 2011 durian season is in full swing. At the spur of the moment last Saturday, I decided to make an unplanned call on my old friend Chang Teik Seng (aka Durian Seng) and his wife, Yen Kim, at the Bao Sheng Durian Farm in Sungai Pinang. That's on the "other" side of the island, about 12 kilometers from Balik Pulau town. Long drive, but since I was already in George Town, I realised that it wouldn't be as bad as making a specific trip from Bukit Mertajam just to go there!

When I say the durian season is in full swing, I mean it. All the way from Teluk Bahang until his home, there must have been at least seven or eight orchards and roadside stalls selling the king of fruits. So tempted to stop at the larger ones but I knew that I would be spoiling my appetite.

As I expected, Durian Seng's home was swarming with people. All had arrived to savour the fruit from his farm. Full house, eh, I asked to him. Yah, he replied, but there was a bigger group that had just left. Obviously, the fame of his durian farm has spread far and wide. He wants me to help him create an advertisement on facebook but in my opinion, he doesn't need any more publicity for his durian. He already has his hands full by my reckoning.

I brought home three varieties that day. First one was the Green Skin Ang Bak. One of his helpers had just arrived at his home with a basketful of freshly dropped durians. He looked through the fruits and picked out one (the one he's holding in his right hand). This, he said, is specially for you. And yes, when he opened it, the fragrance and flavour were something really unforgetable. I had to help myself to some before packing the rest away.

But the weakness in me wanted more durians. So into the container went a D11 variety. Ah, another special one for you, he said, and without even opening the fruit he guaranteed me that the seeds of this fruit would be very small and there'd be lots of pulp. And true enough, when I was enjoying the fruit with my family later, we found that the shrivelled seeds were indeed covered wih thick, delicious golden pulp.

And finally, the last variety I enjoyed was the Bak Eu. According to him, this variety would normally drop later so what I had was an early dropper. The Bak Eu, by the way, has a paler yellow pulp, very unlike the other two varieties which were bright orange. But don't let the colour deceive anyone. This variety is equally fabulous though it tasted a bit milder than the other two.

So how much longer will this year's season last, I wondered? At least one more month until the second half of July, he answered. So there you have it. This year's durian season has just started and it looks like a very fruitful year for him.

Click here for the Bao Sheng Durian Farm website.

Australian music nostalgia

Growing up in Penang during the late 60s and early 70s meant that I was constantly exposed to music from the Radio RAAF Butterworth which was run by the Royal Australian Air Force from their base in northern Butterworth. While the local radio station, broadcasting on the 1445KHz medium-wave band, was meant primarily as the source of entertainment for the Aussie troops and their families who were stationed here, it also had a very sizeable local audience.

At first, the station broadcast over very powerful transmitters and I heard that it could even be received as far south as the Pangkor island but later, the station was asked to reduce its transmitting power so that only its coverage was basically in Butterworth and across the northern Channel to Tanjong Bungah. But the radio signals were still strong enough to be received in George Town. By the time I moved to Ayer Itam, it became almost impossible to hear anything from the station at all.

So for those six or seven years that I could tune in to the station, they were the best musical years of my youth. Until then, the music over the Radio Malaysia's English Service and Redifusion were typical pop music. RAAF Radio brought a new dimension to my listening pleasure because the station also broadcast classical music, rock music and Australian pop music. The station also brought cricket into my living room and I spent countless hours listening in to the test matches between England and Australia. And that's how I got to learn about The Ashes.

I remember RAAF Radio best for their rock music and Aussie pop music. If not for this radio station, I wouldn't have been exposed to the likes of rock bands like Cream or Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin from an early age. But these bands were internationally renowned. Nowadays, it's still very easy to pick up their music from any CD shop in town.

Hunting for old Aussie pop music is, however, a big challenge because there's hardly a market outside Australia. When I was in Perth two years ago, never did I come across any music store that stocked up on Australian pop music of the 1960s or 1970s. Yes, the stores did carry stuff from the 1980s onwards but nothing earlier. I suppose it will take a lot of patience to track down such music.

I would consider myself lucky then to own some compilation compact discs of Australian oldies pop music, sent to me previously by some friends who used to live there but not anymore. For instance, I've CDs of Johnny Farnham, Russell Morris and Kamahl. I've also a vinyl record of Russell Morris that I picked up second-hand from a shop selling recycled goods. And that's about all.

So it was with much anticipation that this compact disc arrived at my doorstep last week. A compilation double compact disc called Australian Legends. Okay, so not all the music there were from the 1960s or 1970s, but it did contain music that I could remember: songs like Spicks And Specks (1968) by the Bee Gees before they became world famous, The Real Thing (1969) by Russell Morris, Turn Up Your Radio (1970) by Masters Apprentices, Howzat (1976) by Sherbet, A Little Ray Of Sunshine (1970) by Axiom and Jump In My Car (1974) by the Ted Mulry Gang. (But unfortunately, no Eagle Rock by Daddy Cool).

Not too many songs from my youth, actually, but still a completely enjoyable CD set because there were also Help Is On Its Way (1977) by the Little River Band, Are You Old Enough (1978) by Dragon which was basically a New Zealand outfit, Beds Are Burning (1987) by Midnight Oil, Don't Dream It's Over (1986) by Crowded House,To The Moon And Back (1997) by Savage Garden, Jessie's Girl (1981) by Rick Springfield after leaving his Zoot days behind, Live It Up (1984) by Mental As Anything, Down Under (1981) by Men At Work, You're The Voice (1986) by Johnny Farnham, Six Months In A Leaky Boat (1982) by Split Enz and Come Said The Boy (1983) by Mondo Rock. All totally recognisable tunes.

A bit pricey this CD set, costing me USD35 from Amazon, but well worth it for the nostalgia.

Sex and the eclipsed moon

Did you miss the lunar eclipse on Thursday morning? There had been so much publicity worldwide about this astronomical event that you would have been totally caged indoors not to have noticed it. Well, I've got news for you: I missed it. Yes, and in a funny sort of way, I was caged indoors.

You see, it would have been impossible for me to leave the house on Thursday morning. Or last Monday morning. Or Tuesday moring. In fact, Wednesday and Friday mornings too. My immediate neighbour was in mourning. Their grand old patriarch had passed away, so the road was completely blocked up with their visitors' cars, tables and whatever else. Yes, it would have been impossible for me to creep out of my house in the dead of  night (pardon the pun) just for a spot of moon spotting.

So yes, I missed the lunar eclipse. And as a punishment, I can only enjoy it by looking at this series of photographs from people who were lucky enough to have watched the whole 100 minutes of it. Darn, right?

Anyway, it's important for any would-be moon watcher to know that there are many very important advices connected with the lunar eclipse. They are advice that must be observed. They are so important that you should also understand that there may be dire consequences if you break them. They are so simple but important. And they are so important that they must be simple enough so that you don't break them. Too bad if you have; just don't break them again. Understand???

Of all the very important advices, one that could prove to be the most important is, during a lunar eclipse, DON'T HAVE SEX. That's right, an astrologer from Mumbai, Dr Soniyaa Bhagiyaa, said that in the Hindu scriptures, a lunar eclipse is considered to be an extremely inauspicious omen. He never did say what sort of bad luck would befall disbelievers but this Very Important Advice is in this list of dos and don'ts that he issued:

* Do not sleep, eat or drink in the entire duration between 12.53 am to 3.33 am.
* Do not indulge in any kind of togetherness, including sexual intimacy
* Do not make use of scissors, knives, and needles
* Do not touch images and idols of deities
* Take bath at the start and end of the eclipse
* Do not subject yourself to any kind of entertainment
* Pregnant women are advised to not even watch the eclipse
* Chanting mantras or prayers will guarantee success because of the positive aura at the time of the eclipse
* Deeds of charity will bear fruits

Good God, come to think of it, I had broken most of them!