English Premier League 2007-2008

Heh heh heh!!

Landmarks:
10th Premiership title
17th piece of Silverware under Fergie
30 games without conceding a goal
41st Ronaldo goal of the season
80 goals scored this season
758th appearance by Ryan Giggs

Enough said
(for the moment)!

One world, one dream

It is indeed One World, One Dream at the top of Mt Everest on 8 May 2008, local time 6.17am. The Chinese government calls it Mt Qomolangma in deference to the mountain's name in the local Tibetan language but it doesn't matter, really.

Sunday morning coming down

I've just tidied myself up after coming down from BM Hill and I thought of sharing these three pictures. First two are of fungi found along the hill trail. The fungi growing on the tree trunk make a very impressive sight, don't you think so?



The last time I saw a millipede this big was at Tiger Hill. I never expected to come across a similar one at BM Hill so you can imagine my surprise when this one came crawling towards me on the tar road as I was walking down. Nope, it isn't dead. It just stayed very still after I kept agitating it. I had hoped to make it curl up into a ball but it refused. It continued thrashing about until suddenly, it became very still. Long enough for me to take this photo before I removed it to the side of the road.

National Service: too many deaths already

When the National Service was launched several years ago, as a parent, I supported the initiative. After all, I had always believed that the kids of today lacked the toughness in their character. A bit of National Service where they were be put through some physical, motivational and leadership training couldn't do them any worse. When my daughter missed the chance to be called up for National Service about four years ago, I was disappointed.

Today, I'm not too sure. As a parent, I'm not so eager to support National Service anymore. We've been hearing of horror stories emerging from the camps. Of bullying, trainees falling sick with delays in medical treatment and, of course, unexplained deaths.

In Friday's newspapers, for instance, prominence was given to the latest unexplained death of a National Service trainee. How can this girl end up dead? Constipation seems hardly the reason; symptom of something, maybe, but hardly the cause. Why was medical treatment not given immediately? And on the same page, news of a mysterious fever that landed 80 trainees in hospital. Why, why, why?

I'll be a very concerned parent indeed. And I'll support any call for the National Service to be suspended immediately. There have been too many bad press and both the government and the National Service Training Department must be sensitive to them.

If not, it speaks of arrogance and being out of tune with the people's concern. Don't insist that the programme will not even be suspended "just because of one or two deaths (this year)" (NewStraitsTimes, 10 May 2008). It is a bloody fool who thinks he can still play with people's lives. Has he shown any concern? Does he even care? He should be suspended immediately from this position for making this uncalled for outburst.

Good move rejected by Federal Government

I read in the newspapers on Monday that the Penang state education department is stopping Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P Ramasamy - who heads the present State Exco's education portfolio - from distributing free spectacles to 223 children in Tamil schools during school hours.

It looks like another petty move by the Federal Government to disallow elected representatives from non-Barisan parties in Pakatan-controlled states from discharging their duties to the people.

According to Ramasamy, there wasn't a political agenda involved. “This is a social activity for poor pupils and we felt that good programmes should continue."

The latest person to wade into this controversy was former Barisan state executive councillor Dr Toh Kin Woon who expressed disappointment at the attitude of the the Penang education department. Dr Toh retired from active politics when Parliament and the State Asemblies were dissolved in February for the General Elections.

"Why is it that it was okay for me to go to the schools when I was executive councillor but not for the executive councillor of a different party? It is also not fair that the education minister at the federal level can go to schools, but not the state executive councillor for education. I am disappointed with the attitude of the department. Although the programme was initiated by me, it was very kind of Ramasamy to continue it. He sees the social value in it.

"Many students did not even know they had vision problems. We conducted medical assessments camps in several areas, particularly where there are Tamil schools, and found as many as 100 to 200 children needing spectacles to correct their vision. We managed to get the state to intervene and pay for the spectacles."

Bridge jam at 6.40am??

What the hell? I was caught in a traffic snarl on the Penang Bridge this morning. At about 6.40am, traffic came to a near standstill at about the 4.5km mark and cars were all slowly inching forward towards the midspan.


And the jam only cleared after we reached the 6.6km mark at about 7.10am. That's about half-an-hour to travel a two-kilometre distance. The cause of the jam? This stupid lorry. It's back doors must have flung open and the ice-packs fell off. When I passed by, workers were still fiddling with the packs of ice.


I was lucky that the jam only cost me about a 30-minute delay. My colleague who crossed the bridge half-an-hour after me was stuck for almost two hours with the queue starting way before the Penang Bridge toll plaza.

What now for the Burmese people after Cyclone Nargis?

One of the most inhumane regimes on earth must be the military junta of Burma. Last weekend, Cyclone Nargis slammed directly into the Irrawaddy delta, causing widespread devastation and loss of lives.


Yet, the Burmese junta has done little to allow international aid into the country to help its own citizens. How inhumane and callous can they be? Conservative estimates put it as 22,000 dead with fears of this number reaching 100,000. The destruction could have left as many as one million homeless and risking famine and diseases.

Though aid is pouring into Burma, it is not fast enough. With each passing moment, the Burmese military junta is quickly losing whatever remains of its little credibility. My heart goes out to the people in Burma. How much more do they have to suffer?

The media has been reporting that the Burmese communities in Malaysia are anxious to know the fate of their families in Burma. I know for sure that the small Burmese community around Lunas are equally concerned. The Burmese here have been such great people. Selflessly, they have been helping the Buddhist Hermitage Lunas in constructing the archway into the Hermitage since last August or so, possibly even earlier. They are rushing to complete the archway in time for the Wesak celebrations. The natural disaster in Burma will certainly cast a cloud over the celebrations.

I had hoped that these pictures of the archway would commemorate happier times but unfortunately, it will not be. Nevertheless, I'm dedicating them to the people of Burma, both over there and here around Lunas.

Awesome: Olympic torch tops Everest

For once, will all those pesky pro-Tibetian independence activists and lobbyists just shut up and savour this proud moment, this feat of human endurance? Are they big enough for that?

The Olympic torch has reached the summit of Mount Everest. A 19-member team comprising ethnic Tibetans and Han Chinese, broke camp at 8,300 metres before dawn on 8 May 2008 and reached the top of the 8,850-metre mountain about six hours later, around 9.20am local time. The final torchbearer was a Tibetan woman named Cering Wangmo who stood silently on the peak with the torch while her team members unfurled Chinese and Olympic flags.

During the ascent, the Olympic flame was housed in a special metal canister. As the team neared the top, a wand was used to pass the flame, housed in a special canister, to the torch which was designed to withstand the frigid, oxygen-thin air. When the team reached the summit, five torchbearers could be heard struggling for breath as they passed the torch among themselves, each inching a few feet before passing the flame to the next person. "We have lit the torch on top of the world," one climber proclaimed. "We made it," they cheered.

Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK)

Brave? Foolhardy?
Reckless? Calculated?
Man of principle? Martyr?
Responsible? Irresponsible?
Standing his ground?
A point to prove?
Do you agree with him? Disagree with him?
Whatever...
Royal blogger goes to jail!

Raja Petra Kamaruddin,
editor of Malaysia-Today

LINKS TO REPORTS WORLDWIDE
Reuters: Malaysia blogger in jail over sedition charges
The Associated Press: Malaysian blogger charged with sedition
p2pnet.net: Blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin jailed
Inquirer.net: Malaysian blogger charged with sedition
International Herald Tribune: Malaysian blogger jailed over article
adn kronos international (AKI): Malaysia: Blogger charged with sedition
monstersandcritics.com: Malaysian blogger jailed on sedition charges over online article
PR-inside.com: Malaysian blogger faces sedition charge over article accusing deputy PM of hand in killing

We'll pay you to fly?

A fare war is erupting between Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia for the umpteenth time.

You may have read in yesterday's mainstream media that MAS has launched a "zero fare" promotion on limited seats for flights within the country and this is likely to be extended to flights within the ASEAN region within the next fortnight or so.

All that an air traveller needs to pay will be the fuel surcharges and airport taxes. Ahh...that's the catch. You'll still need to pay something for the flights. But then, even if you fly on Air Asia, you'll still be subjected to the surcharge and tax. So it's not completely free.

Today, I read in the media that Air Asia is going to counter the MAS promotion with a campaign of its own which will be announced very, very shortly.

I don't know how much lower the prices can go beyond zero. But we'll know soon enough. Perhaps, will Air Asia introduce this temporary tagline during this fare war: "We'll pay you to fly with us"?

Bye bye, common cold!

Normally, by about this time every year, I would have succumbed to at least two bouts of the common cold or influenza. But for this year, touch wood, I haven't yet. I attribute this not to my good luck but to the anti-influenza jab that I had resolved last year to take.

More than six weeks have passed since I had the jab. I've been to the cold of Laban Rata; I've been out in the rain climbing the BM Hill. Thankfully, I'm still alright.

So, if you are like me, always susceptible to the common cold and influenza, I would readily recommend you to see your doctor and take the anti-influenza jab. You may feel a little under the weather the day after the jab but it should not alarm you. It'll just be your body's immune system reacting slightly to the 'flu culture.

Paying peanuts

I'm uncertain whether the six hours I spent yesterday at an ultra-small association on Penang island was well worth my time. It's a very small, traditional, conservative association with only 24 members. You may call it exclusively exclusive.

I received a distress call from the treasurer about a week ago to ask for help in finalising the association's account. "It doesn't add up," he said while twiddling his thumbs first counter-clockwise, then clockwise. It's not everyday that I'm called to fight such fires so I had to go and help him.

You know what? The account was in a mess but it was due more to miscommunication between the treasurer and the clerk responsible for posting the accounting entries. I was horrified. No proper reconciliation. No proper accounting procedures. Both cash and non-cash entries were mixed up together in a glorious mess.

"How can you both tell which are cash entries and which are not?" I asked the treasurer and the clerk. They looked at me and then at one another. "Well, we know," they replied. Yes, sure. Of course. Then I asked them: "But how would any other person know? I'm here to help you unravel the mess but how would I know?"

My wife would tell me, if you pay peanuts, this is what you'll get.

As another example, there was this monthly expense item attributed to ancestral worship. Very small item, only RM36. But I didn't know that RM26 would go to the treasurer to buy some of the paraphernalia but RM10 would go to a caretaker to buy something else! The problem was that it was the clerk's job to pass the RM10 to the caretaker (with her own money) and she would then claim it back from the association through some convoluted contra methods. Now, why couldn't the treasurer himself pass the RM10 to the caretaker or give the RM10 to the clerk to pass over to the caretaker? Why allow the account to be messed up. Mmm....

Small things like these can eventually accumulate to become bigger problems and they did! And I had to clean it up for them. The job's not finished yet but after six hours staring at the accounts and bank statements, I was all blurred up. Let's all go home. "I've given you enough pointers on what to do. Please clean up the remaining mess by yourselves as soon as possible."

You know what's the more chilling stuff? When the clerk was recommended to the association initially, the recommender had confidently informed the members that she was also doing the account for some other similar-sized associations and there was no problem. So she was hired to do the same job here.

Unfortunately, the association was not prepared to pay more than peanuts. Well, this is what you get when you pay peanuts.

The King and our Parliamentary system

I was very interested in this post by Liew Chin Tong who is the Member of Parliament for Bukit Bendera in Penang. He was commenting on the King's address during the opening of Parliament on 29 Apr 2008.

It's interesting because he made comparisons between the opening of the parliamentary sessions in Malaysia and Britain, from which we had inherited our system. More than that, Liew's article gave some intriguing historical background which I never knew about. This is the excerpt from Liew's blog, which you can read in full here:

Malaysia's Parliament is an adaptation of the Westminster system. Since the 1920s, the British monarch has opened Parliament to mark the start of its annual session in November, except in an election year which disrupts the cycle. Whereas the Governor-General of Australia opens the Parliament once only at the start of its three-year parliamentary term. In Malaysia, the annual session usually begins in March.

But there is a stark difference between the opening of the Malaysian and British Parliaments. The British monarch addresses the members of the Commons and Lords in the House of Lords Chamber. There is an interesting history behind the choice of Upper House as the site of opening.

The British monarch is by convention ‘disallowed’ to enter the Commons since 1642 when King Charles I attempted to arrest five leading members of the Commons for treason.

The British speaker, therefore, voices his allegiance to Parliament rather than to the monarch and hence established the independence of Parliament.

Although the our King’s Royal Address is made by the monarch, the content of the speech is entirely drafted by the Malaysian government and approved by the cabinet and details the government's policies and possibly the Bills it will introduce in the next session. This is explicitly manifested in the ceremony of submission of the text by the prime minister to the monarch.

In short, the Royal Address is our version of the American president’s State of the Union address, but read by the monarch.

P.S. When I was browsing Liew's blog, I also noticed this little comment that had slipped in almost unnoticed: "... Singapore is a country in name only. The reality is that the Singapore Government is a glorified city council." Ha ha ha ha ha ...

Nani loses the plot

Unbelievable. Unexplainable. Whatever prompted Nani to lose his cool and head butt Lucas Neill in tonight's game with West Ham??

Here's how The Times newspaper described the incident:

Just inside West Ham’s area, Nani attempted to emulate Ashton’s goal but failed and ended on his backside. Neill, mockingly, bent down and pinched his inner thigh. In a fury, the young Portuguese jumped to his feet, and as he squared up to the visiting captain, Neill reacted by giving him a gentle slap on the chops. A Nani should be good at diffusing tantrums, but this one succumbed to a temper storm and head butted his tormentor. Mike Riley had been unsighted, but he consulted his assistant and, with some further help form the fourth official, the referee got to the bottom of matters: Nani was dismissed.

It was a totally uncalled for reaction from Nani and this was made worse by him falling to the ground. Definitely play acting. Darn downright foolish. I wonder what Alex Ferguson would be telling him after the match. I know for sure, the manager totally ignored Nani when he walked off the pitch.

The referee had no qualms about sending him off. I wouldn't disagree with that. Nobody who had watched this incident would've disagreed with Nani's sending off.

For a while, I was concerned that West Ham could be staging a comeback against a 10-man Manchester United team. But the visitors played so terribly that even with 10 men on the field, a fourth goal was still forthcoming from Michael Carrick.

Oh, by the way, I'm very glad that Ryan Giggs is inching ever so closely to breaking Bobby Charlton's record of 758 games for Manchester United. He'll go one better than Charlton if he plays against Wigan next Saturday and in the Champions League final on 21 May 2008.

Club historians have been saying all along that Charlton's record stood at 759 games for Manchester United but it was reported in today's The Independent newspaper that Charlton had actually missed one of the matches credited to him: a third round FA Cup tie against Bolton on 6 Jan 1962. He had been laid low because of 'flu and someone had played instead of him; yet he was still credited with the appearance.

Durian season

It's that time of the year again when I can't stop myself from enjoying the King Of Fruits! Bought these three durians at the BM Hill.

Just look at the marvelous golden pulp....

What could be more heavenly than durians with hot black glutinous rice porridge, coconut milk and a pinch of salt? Strongly recommended by my wife.

Two geodesic domes in Kuala Lumpur

I know there are three geodesic domes in Penang but are there more in the country? I saw at least one when I went to Kuala Lumpur recently.

You can hardly miss noticing the National Science Centre when you travel along the Kerinchi link from the Jalan Duta toll plaza down to the Federal Highway. The NSC is a huge complex that sports a gigantic, green geodesic dome.


I dropped by the NSC and took a good look around the place. The exhibits were interesting enough but in my opinion, they were never meant to interest me. School children perhaps, but not old cocks like me.

Strange that none of the literature at the NSC actually gave credit to the man behind the dome. So there was no appreciation at all of the late R. Buckminster Fuller. No mention of his name, no mention of his work, no mention of his contributions. Did the NSC hijack Bucky's dome and call it its own? I find this sad and an injustice to his memory.

Even sadder was the discovery that the geodesic dome may also have been incorporated into the design of the nearby Securities Commission building without anyone acknowledging it. The Securities Commission is actually right next to the NSC and you can see that the roof-top resembles a small segment of the dome. I don't believe you can build a circular-shaped roof-top that strong enough otherwise. As I said, nothing mentioned at all of the origin of this roof. Ah well, that's Malaysia for you.

Note: While googling the Securities Commission on the Internet, I came across this photo of the SC building. It's a view from the air, so you can see the roof much more clearly.

I also managed to see a publicity brochure on the Securities Commission. It talked about the building, how it was constructed, how intelligent it was, etc etc etc, and still nothing mentioned about the roof except that it was made of glass. I'm extracting a small part from this brochure to show you the roof from the interior. Again, you'll be able to see its structure. Is it a geodesic dome or is it not??

Morning inspiration

Wonderful sunrise as seen from the Hotel Equatorial, Penang yesterday morning.

Of big foot and big monkeys

What's all the fuss about? Just because our honourable Members of Parliament didn't look good on television on the first full day of debate in the august House, the government wants to pull the plug on the live telecast?

Yes, there were lots of disgraceful shouting, lots of childish insults and impassioned name-calling and I believe it is too soon to deny Malaysians the opportunity to see how our MPs perform.

Let us continue to see our MPs and judge for ourselves whether they are worthy of the votes we have given them. what a cheek the government has to deny us that after they promised a new openness to parliamentary debates, even for only 30 minutes a day!

Willie Dixon, Small Faces, Led Zeppelin

I'm sure you should be familiar with Led Zeppelin that started out in the late 1960s. Many people will say that their biggest hit was Stairway To Heaven from their fourth album. I disagree. It was Whole Lotta Love, from Led Zeppelin II. I've so many of their vinyl records and compact discs, not to mention on MP3s as well, that I've lost count of them all.

Anyway, Led Zeppelin was a blues-tinged heavy rock group. For their early albums, they borrowed a lot from the early blues masters, notably Willie Dixon. Only since maybe 10 years ago or more, they started acknowledging Dixon in their compositions.

Coming back to Whole Lotta Love, there have been a lot of discussion lately that this song had been ripped off from an early hit by the Small Faces. Small Faces was a British group of the late 1960s that was fronted by Steve Marriott. One of the songs in their repertoire was You Need Love. You can listen to it here from YouTube:



So many parts of this song are reminiscence of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love, don't they? Of course, Marriot didin't have the lung power of Robert Plant but you can sure tell where Plant had developed his primal screams from.

But here too, I want you to take a look at another YouTube movie. This time, the song is from the composer of You Need Love himself, Willie Dixon. It's history here that you are looking at. Enjoy...

BOLD, the Bureau On Learning Difficulties

I first came to know of this body known as the Pertubuhan Bunga Tanjung (PBT) only last year. I was visiting the Bureau On Learning Difficulties (BOLD) branch office in Seberang Jaya when it was being opened officially by the wife of former Penang Chief Minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

According to some BOLD office bearers, the PBT had donated money to BOLD to enable the latter's activities. I found it a most honourable deed for the PBT because there are so many children in the state that are silently suffering and can truly benefit from BOLD's programmes.

What is BOLD? It's a non-profit body that's running programmes to help children with learning difficulties. Mainly, this refers to dyslexic and hyper-active children who have short attention spans. BOLD organises courses, seminars and workshops to advise their parents on how best to cope with such children. There are early intervention programmes and therapy sessions for the children themselves.

In the news since a few days ago, I've read that the PBT has voluntarily folded. The first thing that came to my mind was, oh no, what becomes of BOLD's Seberang Jaya office which is basically funded by the PBT? Then, today, I read that the PBT had donated RM220,000 to BOLD so that their branch office's activities can continue for the next three years.

But I was also wondering whether the PBT could have done more by donating a bigger share to BOLD, instead of passing RM350,000 to Bakti in Kuala Lumpur? If the PBT was a Penang-based organisation, wouldn't it have been better to utilise their excess funds to benefit the people in Penang instead of elsewhere? If the PBT was concerned that perhaps the money could have been misused by any of the recipients of the donations, it could have placed the money into a trust fund and allow the trustees to disburse the money accordingly. That, to me, would have been a wiser move. As it stands right now, BOLD may possibly have to seek new avenues for funds to continue their worthwhile activities three years from now.