What can you -- CITIZEN ONE MORE -- do about it?
To me, Citizen 1 + Citizen 1 more maketh TWO more enpowered/powerful citizens.
Sdr Raja Petra Kamarudinis the nation's ONLY FOLK HERO. To Desi he's Citizen 1.
I hope YOU will become Citizen 2 by making copies of the following update from RPK at malaysia-today.net and circulate this "frightening" story as wide as possible, yes beyong Malaysian shores! Then jopin Desi in a prayer:
God save us all from the "devils" in disguise!
I:
S:
A: men
******************************************
What the case is really all about
The ‘mistake’ Ramli made was that he engaged a solicitor to draft the official reply to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA). The ACA then pounced on the solicitor and asked him to declare his assets as well. The solicitor wrote back seeking further clarification but the ACA did not respond to the query. Instead, they arrested him.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
On Monday, lawyer Rosli Dahlan will be in court to face a charge of not responding to an ACA (now MACC) letter. They have made it look like Rosli has violated the law by not declaring his assets when asked to do so. The question is: why should Rosli declare his assets when he is merely the lawyer acting for former Commercial Crimes Investigation Department Director Datuk Ramli Yusuff?
This was never explained. The MACC went for Rosli without explaining why they are doing so. They just sent him a letter asking him to declare his assets without any explanation as to why he needs to declare his assets. When Rosli responded to their letter by asking for further clarification, instead of replying, they came to arrest him on the eve of Hari Raya. And they arrested him in his office in front of his staff. And they roughed him up when they handcuffed him resulting in injury.
Okay, they did not throw him out of the window like they did Teoh Beng Hock. But was all this necessary?
This is what The Star reported:
Lawyer charged with hiding information on his assets
Lawyer Rosli Dahlan was charged at a Sessions Court here with not disclosing all information on his assets in his sworn statement last month.
Rosli, 46, a partner in Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill, was alleged to have not complied with the terms of a notice dated July 17, 2007, issued by the Prosecutor under Section 32(1)(b) of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997, to give full information relating to his assets.
Under the notice, the date of which had been extended to Aug 16, he was required to disclose all information, written under oath.
(Read more here: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/13/courts/19161639&sec=courts)
Of course, the real issue is they wanted to get Ramli Yusuff. And why do they want to get Ramli Yusuff? Because they want to eliminate any possible successor to the IGP.
You see, the IGP was supposed to retire in August 2007. So that would make Ramli his possible successor. But if they can get rid of Ramli then there would no longer be any ‘suitable successor’. And this would mean the IGP could get an extension of service for an indefinite period of time.
The issue is simple. Musa Hassan must stay. And for him to stay then Ramli has to go. But there is a small problem getting rid of Ramli. They had already fixed him up with allegations of not declaring RM27 million in assets (not for acquiring those assets but for not declaring them). But along came Rosli who presented a brilliant defence that threatened to thwart their plan to get rid of Ramli.
They therefore had to come out with a new game plan. To get rid of Ramli and make sure he goes to jail they must first bring down Rosli.
And that was the beginning of Rosli’s problems, added to the irritation Rosli and Ramli posed by digging up the losses of RM8 billion suffered by MAS that we talked about earlier.
And as follows was what was written about the matter two years ago:
*************************************************
The land of Walt Disney
Today, after many months of ‘rumours’, Datuk Ramli Yusuff, the Director of the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID), is finally being charged. And he is facing four ‘Mickey Mouse’ charges that would make even Walt Disney proud.
Initially, it was ‘leaked’ that Ramli is being investigated for accumulating RM27 million in assets which he did not declare. He was then given a month to submit his full statement of income and expenditure over 37 years since 1970. Understandably, it is humanly impossible for anyone to account for his or her last 37 months income and expenditure, let alone the last 37 years. Nevertheless, Ramli managed to submit his full statement of accounts prepared by no less than a qualified accountant.
The ‘mistake’ Ramli made was that he engaged a solicitor to draft the official reply to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA). Being a man learned in law, Ramli decided not to do what Raja Petra Kamarudin had done, and that is to represent himself -- as the court would normally say, “a man who represents himself has a fool for a client”. He decided instead to engage a solicitor to handle what appeared to be the beginning of a very messy legal tangle.
The ACA then pounced on the solicitor and asked him to declare his assets as well. The solicitor wrote back seeking further clarification but the ACA did not respond to the query. When the deadline expired, the ACA came to the solicitor’s office two days before Hari Raya and arrested him for non-compliance to the order that he declare his assets. The solicitor was roughed up and handcuffed in full view of the entire office as one would to a child rapist-killer. The ACA retorted that they are not obliged to reply to any query but those ordered to declare their assets are obligated to do so. It was a beautiful trap and the solicitor walked right into it and got snared. Let this be a lesson to the rest of us. When the ACA keeps quiet then that is bad news, as this solicitor found out the hard way.
The solicitor tried to talk to the ACA officers to allow him time to volunteer his presence at the ACA office but he was told that he needed to be arrested there and then and be brought in immediately. The matter just cannot wait, Hari Raya or no Hari Raya. On reaching the ACA office, the matter suddenly lost all urgency and the solicitor was locked up overnight in the lockup only to be attended to the following day. It appears like all they wanted to do was to lock him up for the night and not allow him to go home. The next day, they charged him for non-compliance to the order to declare his assets. So it was not really that urgent after all and his arrest could have waited until the next day.
Was the solicitor a government servant? Was he involved in corrupt practices? Had he received bribes for dishing out lucrative government contracts to Chinese businessmen? Was he on the payroll of the organised crime syndicates and had received millions as an inducement to turn a blind eye to the prostitution, loan sharking, drugs and illegal gambling rackets? No, this particular solicitor made the mistake of acting on behalf of the Director of the CCID.
Okay, the Federal Constitution of Malaysia says that every citizen is entitled to legal representation. And Ramli, being a citizen of Malaysia, is also entitled to legal representation. But any solicitor who represents him runs the risk of arrest. And this did happen to Rosli Dahlan who was stupid enough to think that it is the right of all Malaysians to defend themselves against criminal charges and who was stupid enough to actually act on behalf of Ramli.
Anyway, Rosli has since made a police report alleging that he was injured during his arrest. He has also launched a civil suit against the ACA. The ACA responded by making a counter police report alleging that Rosli was abusive during his arrest and therefore the reason to rough him up and injure him. This was the same reason given by one-time IGP Rahim Noor in explaining why he needed to beat Anwar Ibrahim to a pulp and leave him unconscious on the floor of the police lockup with no medical attention until the following day. And to add icing to the cake, Rosli’s case has been transferred to Bukit Aman where for sure this time they are going to nail his balls to the wall, side-by-side with Ramli’s balls.
Malaysia Today has been saying for a long time now that there are serious problems in the judiciary. The response from the government was that Malaysia Today spreads lies. Today, that ‘lie’ is a proven fact, which will be recorded in the history books. Since June this year, Malaysia Today has been saying that there are also serious problems in the police force. A series of 12 articles were published with Affidavits, letters, and other documents to support this allegation. Again, this was denied by the Deputy Minister of Internal Security and the IGP. And today, one of the more senior officers in the police force slotted to become the next IGP if the present one retires is facing four criminal charges.
But is he really guilty? Is he really a criminal as they say? One ex-IGP said, going just by their lifestyles alone, it can be assumed that 40% of the police force is corrupted. One ex-Deputy IGP, in turn, said that if they want to clean up the police force then at least 90% of the police officers will have to be sacked. And he is being kind, he said, if not then the figure would be close to 100%. That is what the ex-IGP and ex-Deputy IGP said and they should know.
Is this matter really about whether Ramli is a crook? Time will of course tell whether he is and we shall all soon enough know once the trial gets underway. But will it be in the form of the Altantuya murder trail or in the form of the Anwar Ibrahim corruption-sodomy trial? -- if you know what I mean, and if you don’t then I will not waste any time explaining as this would mean you are living the life of a frog under a coconut shell. Unfortunately, in Malaysia, a trial is not the correct reflection of guilt or innocence. The innocent can be sent to jail while the guilty walks free, even in cases such as murder. And this is why we need massive judicial reforms and this is also why the people profusely oppose the extension of the tenure of the Chief Justice -- who according to the Rulers’ wishes should have retired yesterday.
Ramli was initially investigated for not declaring RM27 million in assets. The four charges that he faces, however, make no mention of the RM27 million. Instead, he is alleged to have failed to declare small change. What was all this RM27 million about then? Why was this figure bandied about these last many months? And who leaked this figure? Somehow the press got wind of this figure so someone must have leaked it to the press. And it was certainly not Ramli because he had no inkling how this figure came about. We must therefore assume that it was the ‘other side’ that leaked it.
This one fact alone gives an impression that there is more than meets the eye here. This is not about a corrupted police officer. If it was, then Parliament would have to set up a special court like they did for the Rulers and about 50 new judges would have to be employed so that all the cases can be settled before all the judges, the accused, the AG and all witnesses die of old age. Yes, that would be how many police officers who will be put on trial.
Anyway, as I said earlier, this is not about whether Ramli is innocent or guilty. We will allow the court to decide that, as I am sure they will dispense justice now that they will be having a new boss (at least I am crossing my fingers and hoping that pigs can fly). What we want to know is whether this is a simple and cut-and-dry case of corruption or failure to declare assets or is this actually fallout from a turf war in the police force with two sides fighting for control of the very lucrative drugs, prostitution, illegal gambling and loan sharking business?
I am prepared to bet ten jugs of beer that this is not about cleaning out the police force or about eradicating corruption but is in actual fact a turf war to control the very lucrative drugs, prostitution, illegal gambling and loan sharking business. And I further bet that no one will dare take my bet. Yes, there is more than meets the eye. There is a sleight of hand, which even the great David Copperfield would find awesome. Malaysia Today is not about reporting the news. Malaysia Today is about telling the untold story. Malaysia Today is about exposing the shenanigans, excesses, transgressions and abuses perpetuated by those who walk in the corridors of power. Malaysia Today speaks without fear or favour. And Malaysia Today is going to get to the bottom of this charade and spill the beans for whatever it is worth. So stay tuned as there is more, much more, to come.
Until we next ‘talk’, adios muchachos!
(The ex-Victorians Community Blog Forum, 1 November 2007)
*************************************************
Ex-CCID chief Ramli acquitted of abuse of power
Former Bukit Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Datuk Ramli Yusuff was acquitted by the Sessions Court here of abusing his public office two years ago.
He was accused of ordering and using a Royal Malaysia Police Cessna Caravan aircraft to take him on an aerial surveillance of two lots in Ulu Tungku, Lahad Datu, in which his real estate company Kinsajaya Sdn Bhd had a personal interest, on June 2007.
Judge Supang Lian in her ruling Monday held that Ramli had no case to answer as the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.
“The accused thus deserves to be acquitted,” she said and ordered the RM20,000 bail and all evidence to be returned.
The 56-year-old Ramli was charged under Section 15(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act for abusing his public office through the unauthorised use of a police Cessna Caravan aircraft for pecuniary gain.
The charge provides for imprisonment not exceeding 20 years and a minimum fine of RM10,000 upon conviction.
The offence was allegedly committed at 7.50am on June 15, 2007, at the Sabah Police Air Unit in Tanjung Aru, here.
At Monday’s hearing, Ramli was represented by counsels Datuk Mohd Shafie Abdullah and James Tsai while the prosecution team was headed by Deputy Public Prosecutor Kevin Morais.
Among those who had testified during the trial was Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan. – The Star, 27 July 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Oral Roberts --Spearheaded Money Trail in Religion
???????
I put the question marks -- se7en! -- so that maybe sevenUPpers or DOWNners from my esteemed readership would care to comment? - Desi
PS: I hold my tongue because my "religious" cells have been fighting unresolved battles that maketh me quite confused, and I don wanna mislead any flock...YL
______________________________________________
Evangelist Oral Roberts dies in Calif. at age 91
AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091216/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_oral_roberts
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writer Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 8 mins ago
TULSA, Okla. – Oral Roberts, who helped pioneer TV evangelism in the 1950s and used the power of the new medium — and his message of God's healing power — to build a multimillion-dollar ministry and a university that bears his name, died Tuesday. He was 91.
Roberts died of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross. The evangelist was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday.
Roberts rose from humble tent revivals to become one of the nation's most famous and influential preachers. Along with Billy Graham, he pioneered religious TV, and he played a major role in bringing American Pentecostalism into the mainstream.
He also laid the foundation for the "prosperity gospel," the doctrine that has come to dominate televangelism. It holds that God rewards the faithful with material success. Its critics say it is used by preachers to enrich themselves at the expense of their followers.
"In conservative Protestant culture, he's second only to Billy Graham," said Grant Wacker, a professor at Duke University's divinity school. "Jerry Falwell is important, too, but I think in the long run we'll see that Oral Roberts had more impact."
Roberts overcame tuberculosis at age 17, when his brother carried him to a revival meeting where a evangelist was praying for the sick. Roberts said he was healed of the illness and his stuttering.
He said that it was then that he heard God tell him he should build a university based on the Lord's authority — a promise fulfilled in 1963, with the founding of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.
He gave up a pastorate in Enid in 1947 to pursue a strain of evangelism in which he called for prayer to heal the whole person — body, mind and spirit. The philosophy led many to call him a "faith healer," a label he rejected with the comment: "God heals — I don't."
By the 1960s and '70s, he was reaching millions around the world through radio, television, publications and personal appearances. He remained on TV into the new century, co-hosting the program "Miracles Now" with his son, Richard. He published dozens of books and conducted hundreds of crusades.
He credited his oratorical skills to his faith, saying: "I become anointed with God's word, and the spirit of the Lord builds up in me like a coiled spring. By the time I'm ready to go on, my mind is razor-sharp. I know exactly what I'm going to say and I'm feeling like a lion."
While many of colleagues in healing evangelism were flamboyant in their preaching, Roberts was subdued in his delivery. His long sermons were filled with stories and anecdotes, and at the end of a service, the faithful would form a long healing line. Roberts would clasp his hands on each person's head, shutting his eyes while he prayed.
David Edwin Harrell, a Roberts biographer and retired Auburn University history professor, said Roberts played a significant role in the rapid growth of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity — an exuberant faith that exploded globally during the 20th century.
"Oral was a pioneer in opening this whole message up to the mainstream churches and leading a generation of Pentecostals into easier connection with the evangelical world," Harrell said. "They had been completely estranged prior to that."
Roberts also espoused his "Seed-Faith" theology, which held that those who give to God will get things in return.
The generation of "prosperity preachers" who followed Roberts point to their own luxury homes and private jets as evidence of God's favor. In 2007, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa launched an investigation of six prosperity preachers, including three who sat on the Oral Roberts University board of regents at the time. The inquiry is still under way.
The campus of Oral Roberts University is a Tulsa landmark, with its 200-foot prayer tower and a 60-foot bronze sculpture of praying hands, modeled on Roberts' hands.
Roberts' ministry hit rocky times in the 1980s. There was controversy over his City of Faith medical center, a $250 million investment that eventually folded. And Roberts was widely ridiculed when he retreated to his prayer tower and proclaimed that God would "call me home" if he failed to meet a fundraising goal of $8 million.
"This conviction that God speaks to me, and that I have no choice but to obey when He does, has led me into a life of controversy," Roberts wrote in his 1995 autobiography. "But had I not had this conviction, I don't believe I could have ever scaled the mountain of my calling."
His organization also suffered from the effects of sex-and-money scandals involving other televangelists including Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980s.
Roberts was semiretired in recent years and living in California when scandal roiled Oral Roberts University.
His son, who succeeded him as president, resigned in 2007 after being accused of spending university money on shopping sprees and other luxuries at a time the institution was more than $50 million in debt. It was the first time in the university's history that a member of the family was not in charge.
The rocky period was eased when billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green donated $70 million and helped run the school. Earlier this fall, things were looking up, with officials saying tens of millions in debt had been paid off and enrollment was up slightly.
"He was not only my earthly father; he was my spiritual father and mentor," Richard Roberts said in a statement.
Graham said: "Oral Roberts was a man of God and a great friend in ministry. I loved him as a brother."
___
AP Religion writers Eric Gorski in Denver and Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.
Related Searches:
* billy graham
I put the question marks -- se7en! -- so that maybe sevenUPpers or DOWNners from my esteemed readership would care to comment? - Desi
PS: I hold my tongue because my "religious" cells have been fighting unresolved battles that maketh me quite confused, and I don wanna mislead any flock...YL
______________________________________________
Evangelist Oral Roberts dies in Calif. at age 91
AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091216/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_oral_roberts
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writer Justin Juozapavicius, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 8 mins ago
TULSA, Okla. – Oral Roberts, who helped pioneer TV evangelism in the 1950s and used the power of the new medium — and his message of God's healing power — to build a multimillion-dollar ministry and a university that bears his name, died Tuesday. He was 91.
Roberts died of complications from pneumonia in Newport Beach, Calif., according to his spokesman, A. Larry Ross. The evangelist was hospitalized after a fall on Saturday.
Roberts rose from humble tent revivals to become one of the nation's most famous and influential preachers. Along with Billy Graham, he pioneered religious TV, and he played a major role in bringing American Pentecostalism into the mainstream.
He also laid the foundation for the "prosperity gospel," the doctrine that has come to dominate televangelism. It holds that God rewards the faithful with material success. Its critics say it is used by preachers to enrich themselves at the expense of their followers.
"In conservative Protestant culture, he's second only to Billy Graham," said Grant Wacker, a professor at Duke University's divinity school. "Jerry Falwell is important, too, but I think in the long run we'll see that Oral Roberts had more impact."
Roberts overcame tuberculosis at age 17, when his brother carried him to a revival meeting where a evangelist was praying for the sick. Roberts said he was healed of the illness and his stuttering.
He said that it was then that he heard God tell him he should build a university based on the Lord's authority — a promise fulfilled in 1963, with the founding of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.
He gave up a pastorate in Enid in 1947 to pursue a strain of evangelism in which he called for prayer to heal the whole person — body, mind and spirit. The philosophy led many to call him a "faith healer," a label he rejected with the comment: "God heals — I don't."
By the 1960s and '70s, he was reaching millions around the world through radio, television, publications and personal appearances. He remained on TV into the new century, co-hosting the program "Miracles Now" with his son, Richard. He published dozens of books and conducted hundreds of crusades.
He credited his oratorical skills to his faith, saying: "I become anointed with God's word, and the spirit of the Lord builds up in me like a coiled spring. By the time I'm ready to go on, my mind is razor-sharp. I know exactly what I'm going to say and I'm feeling like a lion."
While many of colleagues in healing evangelism were flamboyant in their preaching, Roberts was subdued in his delivery. His long sermons were filled with stories and anecdotes, and at the end of a service, the faithful would form a long healing line. Roberts would clasp his hands on each person's head, shutting his eyes while he prayed.
David Edwin Harrell, a Roberts biographer and retired Auburn University history professor, said Roberts played a significant role in the rapid growth of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity — an exuberant faith that exploded globally during the 20th century.
"Oral was a pioneer in opening this whole message up to the mainstream churches and leading a generation of Pentecostals into easier connection with the evangelical world," Harrell said. "They had been completely estranged prior to that."
Roberts also espoused his "Seed-Faith" theology, which held that those who give to God will get things in return.
The generation of "prosperity preachers" who followed Roberts point to their own luxury homes and private jets as evidence of God's favor. In 2007, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa launched an investigation of six prosperity preachers, including three who sat on the Oral Roberts University board of regents at the time. The inquiry is still under way.
The campus of Oral Roberts University is a Tulsa landmark, with its 200-foot prayer tower and a 60-foot bronze sculpture of praying hands, modeled on Roberts' hands.
Roberts' ministry hit rocky times in the 1980s. There was controversy over his City of Faith medical center, a $250 million investment that eventually folded. And Roberts was widely ridiculed when he retreated to his prayer tower and proclaimed that God would "call me home" if he failed to meet a fundraising goal of $8 million.
"This conviction that God speaks to me, and that I have no choice but to obey when He does, has led me into a life of controversy," Roberts wrote in his 1995 autobiography. "But had I not had this conviction, I don't believe I could have ever scaled the mountain of my calling."
His organization also suffered from the effects of sex-and-money scandals involving other televangelists including Jim and Tammy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980s.
Roberts was semiretired in recent years and living in California when scandal roiled Oral Roberts University.
His son, who succeeded him as president, resigned in 2007 after being accused of spending university money on shopping sprees and other luxuries at a time the institution was more than $50 million in debt. It was the first time in the university's history that a member of the family was not in charge.
The rocky period was eased when billionaire Oklahoma City businessman Mart Green donated $70 million and helped run the school. Earlier this fall, things were looking up, with officials saying tens of millions in debt had been paid off and enrollment was up slightly.
"He was not only my earthly father; he was my spiritual father and mentor," Richard Roberts said in a statement.
Graham said: "Oral Roberts was a man of God and a great friend in ministry. I loved him as a brother."
___
AP Religion writers Eric Gorski in Denver and Rachel Zoll in New York contributed to this report.
Related Searches:
* billy graham
Stemming the Internet tide...
A FUTILE EXERCISE.
Energies best focused on EDUCATING the people/consumers, especially the young that Democracy is also about CHOICE.
First the Chinoserie government tried to replicate Great Wall of China in cyber-space.
The esteemed Honourable "I've burnt my bridges with UMNO" Dr Rais Yatim suggested too do a similar stunt of wall-building; gave up soon after.
Now mGf sweets' Government Down Under is gifting it a go. Hey matey, what maketh you think you will succeed where Chinoserie and Malaysianaries have failed?
GOoD luck, Mr Communications Minister Stephen Conroy -- GDae, GBless for your undertaker's role:( -- Oops, your brave undertaking:)
Australia to use controversial Internet filter
Tue, Dec 15, 2009
Lifestyle
SYDNEY: Australia said Tuesday it would push ahead with a mandatory China-style plan to filter the Internet, despite widespread criticism that it will strangle free speech and is doomed to fail.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said new laws would be introduced to ban access to “refused classification” (RC) sites featuring criminal content such as child sex abuse, bestiality, rape and detailed drug use.
Blacklisted sites would be determined by an independent classification body via a “public complaint” process, said Conroy, admitting there was “no silver bullet solution to cyber-safety”.
Internet user groups, the pornography industry and others have strongly opposed the plan, saying any such measure would be impractical to enforce, block access to some legitimate websites and slow down Internet speeds.
But Conroy said a seven-month trial had concluded that blocking could be done with 100 percent accuracy and negligible impact to connection speeds.
Internet service providers (ISPs) would be offered grants to offer additional filters of, for example, X-rated content and gambling sites, but Conroy said that would not be compulsory.
“Through a combination of additional resources for education and awareness, mandatory Internet filtering of RC-rated content, and optional ISP-level filtering, we have a package that balances safety for families and the benefits of the digital revolution,” he said.
Online rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia said there were grave censorship questions about what would be blocked, and who would decide.
“What we’re talking about is a filter that can only intercept accidental access to prohibited material,” said spokesman Colin Jacobs.
“Any motivated user will be able to get around it, it will be quite easy, so who is this being targeted at?”
Conroy said the laws would be introduced to parliament in August 2010, and take 12 months to implement.
In July Beijing abruptly postponed a plan to install Internet filtering software on all computers sold in China after a storm of protest.
But the communist government maintains broad Internet censorship under a system of controls dubbed the “Great Firewall of China”. — AFP
Energies best focused on EDUCATING the people/consumers, especially the young that Democracy is also about CHOICE.
First the Chinoserie government tried to replicate Great Wall of China in cyber-space.
The esteemed Honourable "I've burnt my bridges with UMNO" Dr Rais Yatim suggested too do a similar stunt of wall-building; gave up soon after.
Now mGf sweets' Government Down Under is gifting it a go. Hey matey, what maketh you think you will succeed where Chinoserie and Malaysianaries have failed?
GOoD luck, Mr Communications Minister Stephen Conroy -- GDae, GBless for your undertaker's role:( -- Oops, your brave undertaking:)
Australia to use controversial Internet filter
Tue, Dec 15, 2009
Lifestyle
SYDNEY: Australia said Tuesday it would push ahead with a mandatory China-style plan to filter the Internet, despite widespread criticism that it will strangle free speech and is doomed to fail.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said new laws would be introduced to ban access to “refused classification” (RC) sites featuring criminal content such as child sex abuse, bestiality, rape and detailed drug use.
Blacklisted sites would be determined by an independent classification body via a “public complaint” process, said Conroy, admitting there was “no silver bullet solution to cyber-safety”.
Internet user groups, the pornography industry and others have strongly opposed the plan, saying any such measure would be impractical to enforce, block access to some legitimate websites and slow down Internet speeds.
But Conroy said a seven-month trial had concluded that blocking could be done with 100 percent accuracy and negligible impact to connection speeds.
Internet service providers (ISPs) would be offered grants to offer additional filters of, for example, X-rated content and gambling sites, but Conroy said that would not be compulsory.
“Through a combination of additional resources for education and awareness, mandatory Internet filtering of RC-rated content, and optional ISP-level filtering, we have a package that balances safety for families and the benefits of the digital revolution,” he said.
Online rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia said there were grave censorship questions about what would be blocked, and who would decide.
“What we’re talking about is a filter that can only intercept accidental access to prohibited material,” said spokesman Colin Jacobs.
“Any motivated user will be able to get around it, it will be quite easy, so who is this being targeted at?”
Conroy said the laws would be introduced to parliament in August 2010, and take 12 months to implement.
In July Beijing abruptly postponed a plan to install Internet filtering software on all computers sold in China after a storm of protest.
But the communist government maintains broad Internet censorship under a system of controls dubbed the “Great Firewall of China”. — AFP
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
'An Inconveniet Truth' Reminded...:( or :)
That scowl or smile is FOR YOU to DEsIDE as this bl..dy writer is foolly democratic to the extent he/she/it gets bullied by many b...shitters:( recently. Definitely a scowl on my face. Luckily I have a friend named Coww to dryclean deSi. That S" in caps is to emphasize this writer can still have a GOoD $en$ of humour in him/her/it.
I dunno if Asociated Press would bill me for using their world-reminder story...
But wellA, I'm drive by GoOD intentions, so I win some brownie=scout points for my wayword deed.:)
Gore: Polar ice may vanish in 5-7 years
AP
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore gestures as he joins cabinet ministers
from AP
– Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore gestures as he joins cabinet ministers from Nordic countries for discussion …
* Scientist doubts Copenhagen accord Play Video Video:Scientist doubts Copenhagen accord Reuters
* Hundreds detained at mass climate rally Play Video Video:Hundreds detained at mass climate rally AP
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent 16 mins ago
COPENHAGEN – New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference. This new projection, following several years of dramatic retreat by polar sea ice, suggests that the ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner than the year 2030, as was forecast by a U.S. government agency eight months ago.
One U.S. government scientist Monday questioned the new prediction as too severe, but other researchers previously have projected a quicker end than 2030 to the Arctic summer ice cap.
"It is hard to capture the astonishment that the experts in the science of ice felt when they saw this," said former U.S. Vice President Gore, who joined Scandinavian officials and scientists to brief journalists and delegates. It was Gore's first appearance at the two-week conference.
The group presented two new reports updating fast-moving developments in Antarctica, the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, and the rest of the Arctic.
"The time for collective and immediate action on climate change is now," said Denmark's foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller.
But delegates from 192 nations were bogged down in disputes over key issues. This further dimmed hopes for immediate action to cut more deeply into global emissions of greenhouse gases.
Gore and Danish ice scientist Dorthe Dahl Jensen clicked through two slide shows for a standing-room-only crowd of hundreds in a side event at the Bella Center conference site.
One report, on the Greenland ice sheet, was issued by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, an expert group formed by eight Arctic governments, including the United States. The other, commissioned by Gore and Norway's government, was compiled by the Norwegian Polar Institute on the status of ice melt worldwide.
Average global temperatures have increased 0.74 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) in the past century, but the mercury has risen at least twice as quickly in the Arctic. Scientists say the makeup of the frozen north polar sea has shifted significantly in recent years as much of the thick multiyear ice has given way to thin seasonal ice.
In the summer of 2007, the Arctic ice cap dwindled to a record-low minimum extent of 4.3 million square kilometers (1.7 million square miles) in September. The melting in 2008 and 2009 was not as extensive, but still ranked as the second- and third-greatest decreases on record.
Last April, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that Arctic summers could be almost ice-free within 30 years, not at the 21st century's end as earlier predicted.
Gore cited new scientific work at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, whose Arctic ice research is important for planning polar voyages by Navy submarines. The computer modeling there stresses the "volumetric," looking not just at the surface extent of ice but its thickness as well.
"Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months will be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years," Gore said. His office later said he meant nearly ice-free, because ice would be expected to survive in island channels and other locations.
Asked for comment, one U.S. government scientist questioned what he called this "aggressive" projection.
"It's possible but not likely," said Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. "We're sticking with 2030."
On the other hand, a leading NASA ice scientist, Jay Zwally, said last year that the Arctic could be essentially ice-free within "five to less than 10 years."
Meanwhile, what's happening to Greenland's titanic ice sheet "has really surprised us," said Jensen of the University of Copenhagen.
She cited one huge glacier in west Greenland, at Jakobshavn, that in recent years has doubled its rate of dumping ice into the sea. Between melted land ice and heat expansion of ocean waters, the sea-level rise has increased from 1.8 millimeters a year to 3.4 millimeters (.07 inch a year to .13 inch) in the past 10 years.
Jensen said the biggest ice sheets — Greenland and West Antarctica — were already contributing 1 millimeter (.04 inch) a year to those rising sea levels. She said this could double within the next decade.
"With global warming, we have woken giants," she said.
I dunno if Asociated Press would bill me for using their world-reminder story...
But wellA, I'm drive by GoOD intentions, so I win some brownie=scout points for my wayword deed.:)
Gore: Polar ice may vanish in 5-7 years
AP
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore gestures as he joins cabinet ministers
from AP
– Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore gestures as he joins cabinet ministers from Nordic countries for discussion …
* Scientist doubts Copenhagen accord Play Video Video:Scientist doubts Copenhagen accord Reuters
* Hundreds detained at mass climate rally Play Video Video:Hundreds detained at mass climate rally AP
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent 16 mins ago
COPENHAGEN – New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference. This new projection, following several years of dramatic retreat by polar sea ice, suggests that the ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner than the year 2030, as was forecast by a U.S. government agency eight months ago.
One U.S. government scientist Monday questioned the new prediction as too severe, but other researchers previously have projected a quicker end than 2030 to the Arctic summer ice cap.
"It is hard to capture the astonishment that the experts in the science of ice felt when they saw this," said former U.S. Vice President Gore, who joined Scandinavian officials and scientists to brief journalists and delegates. It was Gore's first appearance at the two-week conference.
The group presented two new reports updating fast-moving developments in Antarctica, the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland, and the rest of the Arctic.
"The time for collective and immediate action on climate change is now," said Denmark's foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller.
But delegates from 192 nations were bogged down in disputes over key issues. This further dimmed hopes for immediate action to cut more deeply into global emissions of greenhouse gases.
Gore and Danish ice scientist Dorthe Dahl Jensen clicked through two slide shows for a standing-room-only crowd of hundreds in a side event at the Bella Center conference site.
One report, on the Greenland ice sheet, was issued by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, an expert group formed by eight Arctic governments, including the United States. The other, commissioned by Gore and Norway's government, was compiled by the Norwegian Polar Institute on the status of ice melt worldwide.
Average global temperatures have increased 0.74 degrees C (1.3 degrees F) in the past century, but the mercury has risen at least twice as quickly in the Arctic. Scientists say the makeup of the frozen north polar sea has shifted significantly in recent years as much of the thick multiyear ice has given way to thin seasonal ice.
In the summer of 2007, the Arctic ice cap dwindled to a record-low minimum extent of 4.3 million square kilometers (1.7 million square miles) in September. The melting in 2008 and 2009 was not as extensive, but still ranked as the second- and third-greatest decreases on record.
Last April, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that Arctic summers could be almost ice-free within 30 years, not at the 21st century's end as earlier predicted.
Gore cited new scientific work at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, whose Arctic ice research is important for planning polar voyages by Navy submarines. The computer modeling there stresses the "volumetric," looking not just at the surface extent of ice but its thickness as well.
"Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months will be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years," Gore said. His office later said he meant nearly ice-free, because ice would be expected to survive in island channels and other locations.
Asked for comment, one U.S. government scientist questioned what he called this "aggressive" projection.
"It's possible but not likely," said Mark Serreze of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. "We're sticking with 2030."
On the other hand, a leading NASA ice scientist, Jay Zwally, said last year that the Arctic could be essentially ice-free within "five to less than 10 years."
Meanwhile, what's happening to Greenland's titanic ice sheet "has really surprised us," said Jensen of the University of Copenhagen.
She cited one huge glacier in west Greenland, at Jakobshavn, that in recent years has doubled its rate of dumping ice into the sea. Between melted land ice and heat expansion of ocean waters, the sea-level rise has increased from 1.8 millimeters a year to 3.4 millimeters (.07 inch a year to .13 inch) in the past 10 years.
Jensen said the biggest ice sheets — Greenland and West Antarctica — were already contributing 1 millimeter (.04 inch) a year to those rising sea levels. She said this could double within the next decade.
"With global warming, we have woken giants," she said.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Racism given new lease of life -- ala Malaysia
ala the United States of America.
Certain Malaysians have indeed resounding reverberations at heart from certain Americans.
You desi-pher what I have imp[lied in the following two news reports:(:(
UMNO TO LAUNCH 'PEOPLE'S CHAMPION' CAMPAIGN - MUHYIDDIN
OUT OF MELAKA, Dec 13 (Bernama) -- Umno will launch a mammoth "Umno the People's
Champion" campaign next month to win the hearts of Malay voters, said Deputy
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said the programme would entail economics, social and educational
activities.
The campaign is a transformation programme for Umno to get closer to the
people especially at the grassroots' level, he said when opening the third Umno
Veteran Council general assembly at Ayer Keroh here tonight.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is expected to launch the
campaign, which would continue till the 13th general election.
Muhyiddin, who is also Umno deputy president, urged Umno veterans to join
hands in the programme as their undying fighting spirit was still needed.
Meanwhile, he said the preponderance of the opposition in challenging the
Malay rights was not only against the spirit of the Federal Constitution but was
also sensitive to the Malays.
Present were Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and Umno
Veteran Council chairman Zahid Sirat. -- BERNAMA
Al Sharpton blasts Tiger Woods
Monday, 14 December 2009 02:43
OUT OF AMERICA The Rev Al Sharpton held a press conference yesterday to blast Tiger Woods for the lack of diversity among his mistresses.
Sharpton claims that the lack of African-American women among Woods’ harem will have a negative affect on the black community, specifically young black girls.
rev sharpton.jpg“Why is it that a man who calls himself black can’t bring himself to cheat on his wife with a black woman?” said Sharpton, speaking to a group of supporters in Harlem. “What does it say to young black girls everywhere when you pass them over? Shame on you, Tiger Woods. What would your daddy say?”
Sharpton, who has long championed taking black women as mistresses, said that today’s black athletes need to stop neglecting black women when it comes to extramarital affairs, and should follow the examples of positive black role models such as Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., both of whom cheated on their wives with black women. Sharpton also stressed that cheating with African-American women would help the black community financially by giving black girls the chance to sell their stories to tabloids and gossip magazines.
Added Sharpton, “I’m not asking you to not cheat on your wives, I’m just asking you to give back to your own community."
Certain Malaysians have indeed resounding reverberations at heart from certain Americans.
You desi-pher what I have imp[lied in the following two news reports:(:(
UMNO TO LAUNCH 'PEOPLE'S CHAMPION' CAMPAIGN - MUHYIDDIN
OUT OF MELAKA, Dec 13 (Bernama) -- Umno will launch a mammoth "Umno the People's
Champion" campaign next month to win the hearts of Malay voters, said Deputy
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He said the programme would entail economics, social and educational
activities.
The campaign is a transformation programme for Umno to get closer to the
people especially at the grassroots' level, he said when opening the third Umno
Veteran Council general assembly at Ayer Keroh here tonight.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is expected to launch the
campaign, which would continue till the 13th general election.
Muhyiddin, who is also Umno deputy president, urged Umno veterans to join
hands in the programme as their undying fighting spirit was still needed.
Meanwhile, he said the preponderance of the opposition in challenging the
Malay rights was not only against the spirit of the Federal Constitution but was
also sensitive to the Malays.
Present were Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and Umno
Veteran Council chairman Zahid Sirat. -- BERNAMA
Al Sharpton blasts Tiger Woods
Monday, 14 December 2009 02:43
OUT OF AMERICA The Rev Al Sharpton held a press conference yesterday to blast Tiger Woods for the lack of diversity among his mistresses.
Sharpton claims that the lack of African-American women among Woods’ harem will have a negative affect on the black community, specifically young black girls.
rev sharpton.jpg“Why is it that a man who calls himself black can’t bring himself to cheat on his wife with a black woman?” said Sharpton, speaking to a group of supporters in Harlem. “What does it say to young black girls everywhere when you pass them over? Shame on you, Tiger Woods. What would your daddy say?”
Sharpton, who has long championed taking black women as mistresses, said that today’s black athletes need to stop neglecting black women when it comes to extramarital affairs, and should follow the examples of positive black role models such as Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., both of whom cheated on their wives with black women. Sharpton also stressed that cheating with African-American women would help the black community financially by giving black girls the chance to sell their stories to tabloids and gossip magazines.
Added Sharpton, “I’m not asking you to not cheat on your wives, I’m just asking you to give back to your own community."
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Copy&Pastrying from the fond cpiasia.net...
I missed some old heart beats at cpiasia.net, so here's one deja-wooing:
Civil Society Award: Ordinary people, extraordinary feats
Non Governmental Organisations
Written by NGOs
Thursday, 10 December 2009 12:06
Who in civil society, over the past year, played the most important role in defending freedom of political participation and opening a greater space for social freedom and democracy?
We shall find out tonight at the 2nd Civil Society Award ceremony at the Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH).
No, the honoree is not necessarily someone or some high-profile body that is noisiest in demanding for human rights. That the civil liberty movement comprises a bunch of contentious malcontents is certainly a deliberate, mischievous misrepresentation by the powers that be.
In fact, among the winners of last year’s inaugural award was “a humble association of ordinary people living in a small kampung”.
Their story: In 2005, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and the Gombak land office had instructed the villagers to vacate their houses so that the existing 33-kv transmission lines could be replaced with 275-kv high tension transmission lines. The 5,000 residents feared that radiation from the power lines proposed to be installed near two schools, SRJK (C) San Yuk Rawang and SMK Rawang, would harm the children’s health.
The village association of Sungai Terentang, Rawang then proposed alternative alignments for the cables that would run across vacant agricultural land as well as not require resettlement of the residents.
Their proposal was rejected without any acceptable reason given. As so often happens, TNB sought to evict the residents forcibly with the assistance of TNB auxiliary police, Selayang municipal council enforcement officers and Rawang police.
When the villagers including children demonstrated, several of them were arrested. The Sg Terentang association was next compelled to take its case to the High Court where a judicial review has been approved.
Many members of the public might not have heard of the Sg. Terentang village association before. But average men and women standing up against bullying by big business in cahoots with the establishment serves to remind us all that justice has to be fought for every step of the way, inch by inch – by Pakciks and Makciks, Uncles and Aunties, and every stakeholder in this country.
Other winners last year
Co-winner of the Civil Society Award presented by the KLSCAH on Aug 28, 2008 was Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA.
The multiethnic and non-partisan GMI deservedly earned this recognition for having successfully “exposed the cynical political motives behind the ISA detentions, exposed the physical and mental torture of the detainees, and brought pressure upon the Malaysian government to release all the detainees”.
“GMI’s initial priorities were to stand in solidarity with the detainees and their families, to provide the detainees’ families with moral and material support, and to assist them in obtaining information on the whereabouts, conditions and treatment of their loved ones,’ said Aliran president P. Ramakrishnan, speaking on behalf of award’s selection committee.
One of the most vocal GMI activists is Norlaila Othman whose husband Mat Shah Satray was among the longest held ISA detainees. A schoolteacher, Laila’s involvement in activism is telling of how common folks can be unexpectedly thrown into such a role when a government wages war on its own people – or “the use and abuse of ISA continues each time the government chooses repression as its preferred way to managing dissent”, according to the judges’ citation.
The third co-winner of the award was the Kedah state quit rent review special taskforce. In January 2006, the Kedah state government had wanted to increase the quit rent imposed on the Chinese Recreational Club Stadium from RM250 per annum to a whopping RM25,142 p.a.!
The taskforce, although accused of behaving like an Opposition party and being anti-government, still managed to collect 12,000 signatures in support of their campaign. And two weeks before the March 8 general election, Kedah capitulated and announced that it would review the quit rent.
However, the fresh proposal was to have differential rates for bumiputera and non-bumiputera landowners. The recalcitrance of the then Barisan Kedah state government only goes to show that seeking justice is an ever continuing struggle demanding the utmost stamina and resilience.
Among last year’s nominees also were Suaram, R. Nadeswaran, better known as Citizen Nades of theSun newspaper, David Lim Yong Chew (in his personal capacity) of the Kedah quit rent review special taskforce and Centre for Policy Initiatives director Dr Lim Teck Ghee.
Nominees for 2009
This year, two individuals have been nominated – news portal Malaysia Today founder Raja Petra Kamarudin and activist Wong Chin Huat.
Meanwhile the nominees from organizations are:
* Sarawak Penan community
* Bersih
* Hindraf
* Committee defending Damansara school
* Jerit (Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas)
* Sisters in Islam
* Committee against the use of cyanide in gold mining in Bukit Koman, Raub.
They will be judged for actively promoting the co-operation of civil groups from different background and areas; initiating and pioneering social reforms; and promoting communication and interaction among different ethnic groups.
This year’s judges are KLSCAH vice president of Ser Choon Ing, Empower chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, Aliran president P. Ramakrishnan, Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan, columnist and art worker Hishammudin Rais, Tamil Foundation’s K. Arumugam and JIM president Zaid Kamaruddin.
KLSCAH’s acknowledgment of civil society participants and organizations is an indirect evaluation of the overall performance of a nascent civil society that Malaysians are depending on to help move the country towards a greater progressiveness. – cpiasia.net
_________________
Civil Society Award: Ordinary people, extraordinary feats
Non Governmental Organisations
Written by NGOs
Thursday, 10 December 2009 12:06
Who in civil society, over the past year, played the most important role in defending freedom of political participation and opening a greater space for social freedom and democracy?
We shall find out tonight at the 2nd Civil Society Award ceremony at the Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH).
No, the honoree is not necessarily someone or some high-profile body that is noisiest in demanding for human rights. That the civil liberty movement comprises a bunch of contentious malcontents is certainly a deliberate, mischievous misrepresentation by the powers that be.
In fact, among the winners of last year’s inaugural award was “a humble association of ordinary people living in a small kampung”.
Their story: In 2005, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and the Gombak land office had instructed the villagers to vacate their houses so that the existing 33-kv transmission lines could be replaced with 275-kv high tension transmission lines. The 5,000 residents feared that radiation from the power lines proposed to be installed near two schools, SRJK (C) San Yuk Rawang and SMK Rawang, would harm the children’s health.
The village association of Sungai Terentang, Rawang then proposed alternative alignments for the cables that would run across vacant agricultural land as well as not require resettlement of the residents.
Their proposal was rejected without any acceptable reason given. As so often happens, TNB sought to evict the residents forcibly with the assistance of TNB auxiliary police, Selayang municipal council enforcement officers and Rawang police.
When the villagers including children demonstrated, several of them were arrested. The Sg Terentang association was next compelled to take its case to the High Court where a judicial review has been approved.
Many members of the public might not have heard of the Sg. Terentang village association before. But average men and women standing up against bullying by big business in cahoots with the establishment serves to remind us all that justice has to be fought for every step of the way, inch by inch – by Pakciks and Makciks, Uncles and Aunties, and every stakeholder in this country.
Other winners last year
Co-winner of the Civil Society Award presented by the KLSCAH on Aug 28, 2008 was Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA.
The multiethnic and non-partisan GMI deservedly earned this recognition for having successfully “exposed the cynical political motives behind the ISA detentions, exposed the physical and mental torture of the detainees, and brought pressure upon the Malaysian government to release all the detainees”.
“GMI’s initial priorities were to stand in solidarity with the detainees and their families, to provide the detainees’ families with moral and material support, and to assist them in obtaining information on the whereabouts, conditions and treatment of their loved ones,’ said Aliran president P. Ramakrishnan, speaking on behalf of award’s selection committee.
One of the most vocal GMI activists is Norlaila Othman whose husband Mat Shah Satray was among the longest held ISA detainees. A schoolteacher, Laila’s involvement in activism is telling of how common folks can be unexpectedly thrown into such a role when a government wages war on its own people – or “the use and abuse of ISA continues each time the government chooses repression as its preferred way to managing dissent”, according to the judges’ citation.
The third co-winner of the award was the Kedah state quit rent review special taskforce. In January 2006, the Kedah state government had wanted to increase the quit rent imposed on the Chinese Recreational Club Stadium from RM250 per annum to a whopping RM25,142 p.a.!
The taskforce, although accused of behaving like an Opposition party and being anti-government, still managed to collect 12,000 signatures in support of their campaign. And two weeks before the March 8 general election, Kedah capitulated and announced that it would review the quit rent.
However, the fresh proposal was to have differential rates for bumiputera and non-bumiputera landowners. The recalcitrance of the then Barisan Kedah state government only goes to show that seeking justice is an ever continuing struggle demanding the utmost stamina and resilience.
Among last year’s nominees also were Suaram, R. Nadeswaran, better known as Citizen Nades of theSun newspaper, David Lim Yong Chew (in his personal capacity) of the Kedah quit rent review special taskforce and Centre for Policy Initiatives director Dr Lim Teck Ghee.
Nominees for 2009
This year, two individuals have been nominated – news portal Malaysia Today founder Raja Petra Kamarudin and activist Wong Chin Huat.
Meanwhile the nominees from organizations are:
* Sarawak Penan community
* Bersih
* Hindraf
* Committee defending Damansara school
* Jerit (Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas)
* Sisters in Islam
* Committee against the use of cyanide in gold mining in Bukit Koman, Raub.
They will be judged for actively promoting the co-operation of civil groups from different background and areas; initiating and pioneering social reforms; and promoting communication and interaction among different ethnic groups.
This year’s judges are KLSCAH vice president of Ser Choon Ing, Empower chairman Maria Chin Abdullah, Aliran president P. Ramakrishnan, Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan, columnist and art worker Hishammudin Rais, Tamil Foundation’s K. Arumugam and JIM president Zaid Kamaruddin.
KLSCAH’s acknowledgment of civil society participants and organizations is an indirect evaluation of the overall performance of a nascent civil society that Malaysians are depending on to help move the country towards a greater progressiveness. – cpiasia.net
_________________
Thursday, December 10, 2009
which way does the wind blow?
it really has no direction
so you don't ask the question
as fanciful as a human heart
ever changing
the tides of the ocean
the heights of the waves
are indeterminate every second
the constant of Nature and the human heart
is CHANGE
and even as the wind blows
hot and cold
the heart beats a high and low
until the next Constant in life hits
the human heart
it stops beating
Yet the wind still blows
no direction as the human knows
so you don't ask the question
as fanciful as a human heart
ever changing
the tides of the ocean
the heights of the waves
are indeterminate every second
the constant of Nature and the human heart
is CHANGE
and even as the wind blows
hot and cold
the heart beats a high and low
until the next Constant in life hits
the human heart
it stops beating
Yet the wind still blows
no direction as the human knows
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Collaboration is the key to surviving modern times...
And times-they're-a-CHANGING!:)
FROM freemalaysiatoday.com cometh a sign, that indeed, the media world is fast-changing. New players, new rivals, nu'e alliances...
Google teams up with NY Times, Wash Post on 'Living Stories'
WASHINGTON: Google, The Washington Post
and The New York Times unveiled an experiment in online presentation of news on Tuesday called "Living Stories," described as a more dynamic way of reading news on the Web.
"The idea behind Living Stories is to experiment with a different format for presenting news coverage online," Neha Singh, a Google software engineer, and Josh Cohen, Google senior business product manager, said in a blog post.
"We're excited to learn from this experiment, and hope to eventually make these tools available to any publisher that wants to use them," they said.
Living Stories groups coverage of a particular topic from a news organization under a single URL, or Web address.
The New York Times' coverage of the war in Afghanistan, for example, is presented on a single Web page with links to news articles, opinion columns, photos, video, graphics and other material.
The page includes a summary of important developments with links to Times stories, a timeline of significant events, profiles of important players and links to archived stories such as coverage of the recent Afghan elections.
Users can choose how they want to view the articles on the page -- by "most important," "newest first" or "oldest first" -- and scroll up or down through a list of stories.
Conveniently, clicking on a link on a "Living Stories" page does not navigate a user away from the page.
The unveiling of "Living Stories" comes amid attacks on Google by some US newspaper publishers, particularly News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, who has accused the company of profiting from his content without sharing advertising revenue.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt responded to the charges in an opinion piece in Murdoch's Wall Street Journal last week saying "frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame."
Rejecting charges Google was responsible for their woes, Schmidt said Google wants to "work with publishers to help them build bigger audiences, better engage readers and make more money."
The "Living Stories" pages are currently hosted by Google but will eventually reside on the websites of the Times and the Post. -- AFP
FROM freemalaysiatoday.com cometh a sign, that indeed, the media world is fast-changing. New players, new rivals, nu'e alliances...
Google teams up with NY Times, Wash Post on 'Living Stories'
WASHINGTON: Google, The Washington Post
and The New York Times unveiled an experiment in online presentation of news on Tuesday called "Living Stories," described as a more dynamic way of reading news on the Web.
"The idea behind Living Stories is to experiment with a different format for presenting news coverage online," Neha Singh, a Google software engineer, and Josh Cohen, Google senior business product manager, said in a blog post.
"We're excited to learn from this experiment, and hope to eventually make these tools available to any publisher that wants to use them," they said.
Living Stories groups coverage of a particular topic from a news organization under a single URL, or Web address.
The New York Times' coverage of the war in Afghanistan, for example, is presented on a single Web page with links to news articles, opinion columns, photos, video, graphics and other material.
The page includes a summary of important developments with links to Times stories, a timeline of significant events, profiles of important players and links to archived stories such as coverage of the recent Afghan elections.
Users can choose how they want to view the articles on the page -- by "most important," "newest first" or "oldest first" -- and scroll up or down through a list of stories.
Conveniently, clicking on a link on a "Living Stories" page does not navigate a user away from the page.
The unveiling of "Living Stories" comes amid attacks on Google by some US newspaper publishers, particularly News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, who has accused the company of profiting from his content without sharing advertising revenue.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt responded to the charges in an opinion piece in Murdoch's Wall Street Journal last week saying "frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame."
Rejecting charges Google was responsible for their woes, Schmidt said Google wants to "work with publishers to help them build bigger audiences, better engage readers and make more money."
The "Living Stories" pages are currently hosted by Google but will eventually reside on the websites of the Times and the Post. -- AFP
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Desi has a sense of bawdry humour to die...
So if yours is limited to the Victoprian age, my advice is that,m dear esteAmedReader, cease&desists. Read no further, lest Desi intrudes into thy GOoD 2sen worth of proprietry.
An oft faultily quoted Boible extract is "Money is the root of all eveil". The correct one, I'm told -- and this does not come from lawyer Lingam:( -- is that "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil".
Me -- am I important enough to theorise? -- suspects it has got sumthin' to do with that first lady -- hey,knot Rosmah OK! my world is wholly wider than dat! -- in the Garden of Eden being named Eve. WHY Eve, and not Morn? or Noon?
The moral of the story is guessed/GUESS'd from 10 or 11 epicsodes in the following, and if thou art still lost in the woods, go join Li'l Led Liding Hood:( -- Desi, on a paperless Tuesday and Morrrrie has gone to the golf course for aMore intercourse on how to write a driving novel scoring two holes in wan:):)
From freemalaysiatoday.com, and not Cos I'm 100% holily altruistic, oh No!
It's been a Heart Day's Night lust night when I walked in driving rain to
do some Editing work when I paid for RM5 two-hour at the PC butt I used up only 71 minutes and the cashier REFUSED/rubbished my request, so politely forwarded I almost bowed three times ala-Jepun airlines hostess stylo!, for partial re-funD. So I advanced from the nearby ATM to have my bestA h=tehtarik in Subang Jaya where I
hang out lots nowadays in the line of duty, and to "top" my three-lkayered roti with peanut butter wit' another layer of "kaya". SE7EN layers is my ultimate heavenly joyyyyyyy, o' boyyyyyyy!
Golf: Tiger linked to 10 women as questions mount over crash
08-12-09 08:46 AM
NEW YORK, December 8, 2009 (AFP) – Tiger Woods is now on the inward nine when it comes to women claiming to have had affairs with the golf superstar in the wake of his apology for "personal sins" and "transgressions" that hurt his family.
News reports pushed the total to 10 women linking themselves to Woods in the wake of his one-car crash, which took yet another turn Monday with a new report that Woods had been drinking before the accident and was taking medications.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that a failed police request for a subpoena to obtain Woods’s hospital blood test results says a witness, thought to be Elin Woods, told police Woods had been drinking and was taking Ambien and Vicodin.
The document says the person who pulled Woods from his vehicle — his wife Elin according to earlier her earlier statements to police — also said Woods had been drinking before the crash, opening the door to possible impairment.
Woods hit a hydrant and a tree in the early morning hours of November 27 and was taken to a hospital. The accident came two days after a tabloid reported Woods had been having an affair with New York club hostess Rachel Uchitel.
Police had wanted Woods’s medical information to check the possibility he was "driving under the influence with property damage," the request said.
"A witness stated that the driver had consumed alcohol earlier in the day and the same witness removed the driver from the vehicle after the collision. Also, the same witness stated that the driver was prescribed medication (Ambien and Vicatin) (sic). Impairment of the driver is also suspected."
Police were denied a subpoena for medical records and in the end police only cited Woods for reckless driving before closing the case that touched off a gossip firestorm.
Web site Radaronline reported that Elin has moved out of the US$2.6 million mansion she shared with the 14-time major golf champion and is living in a nearby house. Woods owns another home near his main residence.
An earlier police report revealed that two iron clubs were found at the scene, likely the ones said to have shattered the rear windows of Woods’s vehicle, and 235 dollars was found in the vehicle.
A poll by CNN and USA Today reported that approval ratings for Woods have plunged since June in the wake of his admission of mistakes, which came after an audiotape purportedly of Woods linked him to an alleged mistress.
Already there was talk of Woods facing the "Twelve Days of Mistress" during the holiday season.
Jokes about Woods swinging more than his clubs have followed as near-daily claims of intimate relationships with the 14-time major champion reached 10, Fox News reported, including a former porn star, Holly Sampson.
The New York Daily News reported that a new name on the growing list is Cori Rist, a 31-year-old divorced mother who says she met Woods at a New York club.
Woods, who turns 34 on December 30, was first linked to Uchitel, who has denied the affair despite a TMZ report that a friend of Woods arranged her flight to Australia and hotel room when Woods was there for a tournament.
Cocktail waitress Jamiee Grubbs, 24, played a Woods voicemail to support her claims of a 31-month relationship with Woods.
Also on the Fox list were Sampson, 36; Kalika Moquin, 27, a Las Vegas club manager; model Jamie Jungers, 26; Mindy Lawton, a 33-year-old waitress from Orlando; and three unidentified women, two from British reports and another waitress from Orlando.
US talk show host Oprah Winfrey is seeking an interview with Woods but show spokesman Don Halcombe told USA Today she has not personally called him to try and land what would be a dramatic conversation.
The only comments by Woods since the crash have come in statements released on his website.
A police report said the officer who responded to the emergency call when Woods had his accident saw two iron clubs were seen on the ground near a golf cart at the scene of the crash.
The officer, whose name who not revealed in the report, saw Woods lying with bloodied lips on a road with his head on a pillow and covered by a blanket, at one point stopping him as he tried to rise.
Woods denied speculation that a domestic dispute prompted him to climb into the vehicle, saying Elin acted with courage and support after the accident.
While apologizing in a statement, Woods did not give details on what wrongdoing he had actually committed, leaving open the chance for speculation that has fueled the tawdry reports and claims of affairs that have followed. — AFP
Golf: Tiger linked to 10 women as questions mount over crash
08-12-09 08:46 AM
0 Comments
NEW YORK, December 8, 2009 (AFP) – Tiger Woods is now on the inward nine when it comes to women claiming to have had affairs with the golf superstar in the wake of his apology for "personal sins" and "transgressions" that hurt his family.
News reports pushed the total to 10 women linking themselves to Woods in the wake of his one-car crash, which took yet another turn Monday with a new report that Woods had been drinking before the accident and was taking medications.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that a failed police request for a subpoena to obtain Woods’s hospital blood test results says a witness, thought to be Elin Woods, told police Woods had been drinking and was taking Ambien and Vicodin.
The document says the person who pulled Woods from his vehicle — his wife Elin according to earlier her earlier statements to police — also said Woods had been drinking before the crash, opening the door to possible impairment.
Woods hit a hydrant and a tree in the early morning hours of November 27 and was taken to a hospital. The accident came two days after a tabloid reported Woods had been having an affair with New York club hostess Rachel Uchitel.
Police had wanted Woods’s medical information to check the possibility he was "driving under the influence with property damage," the request said.
"A witness stated that the driver had consumed alcohol earlier in the day and the same witness removed the driver from the vehicle after the collision. Also, the same witness stated that the driver was prescribed medication (Ambien and Vicatin) (sic). Impairment of the driver is also suspected."
Police were denied a subpoena for medical records and in the end police only cited Woods for reckless driving before closing the case that touched off a gossip firestorm.
Web site Radaronline reported that Elin has moved out of the US$2.6 million mansion she shared with the 14-time major golf champion and is living in a nearby house. Woods owns another home near his main residence.
An earlier police report revealed that two iron clubs were found at the scene, likely the ones said to have shattered the rear windows of Woods’s vehicle, and 235 dollars was found in the vehicle.
A poll by CNN and USA Today reported that approval ratings for Woods have plunged since June in the wake of his admission of mistakes, which came after an audiotape purportedly of Woods linked him to an alleged mistress.
Already there was talk of Woods facing the "Twelve Days of Mistress" during the holiday season.
Jokes about Woods swinging more than his clubs have followed as near-daily claims of intimate relationships with the 14-time major champion reached 10, Fox News reported, including a former porn star, Holly Sampson.
The New York Daily News reported that a new name on the growing list is Cori Rist, a 31-year-old divorced mother who says she met Woods at a New York club.
Woods, who turns 34 on December 30, was first linked to Uchitel, who has denied the affair despite a TMZ report that a friend of Woods arranged her flight to Australia and hotel room when Woods was there for a tournament.
Cocktail waitress Jamiee Grubbs, 24, played a Woods voicemail to support her claims of a 31-month relationship with Woods.
Also on the Fox list were Sampson, 36; Kalika Moquin, 27, a Las Vegas club manager; model Jamie Jungers, 26; Mindy Lawton, a 33-year-old waitress from Orlando; and three unidentified women, two from British reports and another waitress from Orlando.
US talk show host Oprah Winfrey is seeking an interview with Woods but show spokesman Don Halcombe told USA Today she has not personally called him to try and land what would be a dramatic conversation.
The only comments by Woods since the crash have come in statements released on his website.
A police report said the officer who responded to the emergency call when Woods had his accident saw two iron clubs were seen on the ground near a golf cart at the scene of the crash.
The officer, whose name who not revealed in the report, saw Woods lying with bloodied lips on a road with his head on a pillow and covered by a blanket, at one point stopping him as he tried to rise.
Woods denied speculation that a domestic dispute prompted him to climb into the vehicle, saying Elin acted with courage and support after the accident.
While apologizing in a statement, Woods did not give details on what wrongdoing he had actually committed, leaving open the chance for speculation that has fueled the tawdry reports and claims of affairs that have followed. — AFP
DESIDERATA: being in a generous mood, I serve ye an AFTERthot:
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Entry #84
Wine Sublime, Truth Divine
by YL Chong
CONFESSION1:
Naomi: Father, it's not good. The last time I did it with you, I felt guilty. Now I feel bad coming back ...
Pastor Parissh: Now, now, my child. That's perfectly normal. Eve after succumbing to temptation, she first felt shame. Adam too, but soon they began to enjoy the excitement of discovery. After all, we are all human...
Naomi: But I wronged my boyfriend...
Parissh: Let me fill you in. Garrett sleeps around too. He does it with the boys too...it gives him a different high.
Naomi: Father, you mean Garrett's has been confessing too?
Parissh: Oh yes!
Naomi: Oh, I see! No wonder he says he's not free on Friday nights...playing poker.
Parissh: You don't join him at the pub?
Naomi: No, I hate the taste of beer! But I enjoy our Communion wine. And last week, it was so ecstatic!
Parissh: Oh yes, we finished one whole bottle.
Naomi: The "blesssed" liquid, you said. Christ's sacrifice. Our bonding--'twas so divine!
CONFESSION2:
Garrett: Father, I feel so ashamed. I think I'm paying a price for my wandering ways.
Parissh: I worry for you, my son. It's been twelve months ...
Garrett: Father, My playing around...it has finally caught up with me...
(A pause)
I went for my annual medical last week--you know, Company's policy--and the results just came back...
(Another pause)
I have contracted AIDS. And I've been having such great sex with Naomi! Poor Naomi, she...
Posted by jason evans at 11:24 PM
An oft faultily quoted Boible extract is "Money is the root of all eveil". The correct one, I'm told -- and this does not come from lawyer Lingam:( -- is that "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil".
Me -- am I important enough to theorise? -- suspects it has got sumthin' to do with that first lady -- hey,knot Rosmah OK! my world is wholly wider than dat! -- in the Garden of Eden being named Eve. WHY Eve, and not Morn? or Noon?
The moral of the story is guessed/GUESS'd from 10 or 11 epicsodes in the following, and if thou art still lost in the woods, go join Li'l Led Liding Hood:( -- Desi, on a paperless Tuesday and Morrrrie has gone to the golf course for aMore intercourse on how to write a driving novel scoring two holes in wan:):)
From freemalaysiatoday.com, and not Cos I'm 100% holily altruistic, oh No!
It's been a Heart Day's Night lust night when I walked in driving rain to
do some Editing work when I paid for RM5 two-hour at the PC butt I used up only 71 minutes and the cashier REFUSED/rubbished my request, so politely forwarded I almost bowed three times ala-Jepun airlines hostess stylo!, for partial re-funD. So I advanced from the nearby ATM to have my bestA h=tehtarik in Subang Jaya where I
hang out lots nowadays in the line of duty, and to "top" my three-lkayered roti with peanut butter wit' another layer of "kaya". SE7EN layers is my ultimate heavenly joyyyyyyy, o' boyyyyyyy!
Golf: Tiger linked to 10 women as questions mount over crash
08-12-09 08:46 AM
NEW YORK, December 8, 2009 (AFP) – Tiger Woods is now on the inward nine when it comes to women claiming to have had affairs with the golf superstar in the wake of his apology for "personal sins" and "transgressions" that hurt his family.
News reports pushed the total to 10 women linking themselves to Woods in the wake of his one-car crash, which took yet another turn Monday with a new report that Woods had been drinking before the accident and was taking medications.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that a failed police request for a subpoena to obtain Woods’s hospital blood test results says a witness, thought to be Elin Woods, told police Woods had been drinking and was taking Ambien and Vicodin.
The document says the person who pulled Woods from his vehicle — his wife Elin according to earlier her earlier statements to police — also said Woods had been drinking before the crash, opening the door to possible impairment.
Woods hit a hydrant and a tree in the early morning hours of November 27 and was taken to a hospital. The accident came two days after a tabloid reported Woods had been having an affair with New York club hostess Rachel Uchitel.
Police had wanted Woods’s medical information to check the possibility he was "driving under the influence with property damage," the request said.
"A witness stated that the driver had consumed alcohol earlier in the day and the same witness removed the driver from the vehicle after the collision. Also, the same witness stated that the driver was prescribed medication (Ambien and Vicatin) (sic). Impairment of the driver is also suspected."
Police were denied a subpoena for medical records and in the end police only cited Woods for reckless driving before closing the case that touched off a gossip firestorm.
Web site Radaronline reported that Elin has moved out of the US$2.6 million mansion she shared with the 14-time major golf champion and is living in a nearby house. Woods owns another home near his main residence.
An earlier police report revealed that two iron clubs were found at the scene, likely the ones said to have shattered the rear windows of Woods’s vehicle, and 235 dollars was found in the vehicle.
A poll by CNN and USA Today reported that approval ratings for Woods have plunged since June in the wake of his admission of mistakes, which came after an audiotape purportedly of Woods linked him to an alleged mistress.
Already there was talk of Woods facing the "Twelve Days of Mistress" during the holiday season.
Jokes about Woods swinging more than his clubs have followed as near-daily claims of intimate relationships with the 14-time major champion reached 10, Fox News reported, including a former porn star, Holly Sampson.
The New York Daily News reported that a new name on the growing list is Cori Rist, a 31-year-old divorced mother who says she met Woods at a New York club.
Woods, who turns 34 on December 30, was first linked to Uchitel, who has denied the affair despite a TMZ report that a friend of Woods arranged her flight to Australia and hotel room when Woods was there for a tournament.
Cocktail waitress Jamiee Grubbs, 24, played a Woods voicemail to support her claims of a 31-month relationship with Woods.
Also on the Fox list were Sampson, 36; Kalika Moquin, 27, a Las Vegas club manager; model Jamie Jungers, 26; Mindy Lawton, a 33-year-old waitress from Orlando; and three unidentified women, two from British reports and another waitress from Orlando.
US talk show host Oprah Winfrey is seeking an interview with Woods but show spokesman Don Halcombe told USA Today she has not personally called him to try and land what would be a dramatic conversation.
The only comments by Woods since the crash have come in statements released on his website.
A police report said the officer who responded to the emergency call when Woods had his accident saw two iron clubs were seen on the ground near a golf cart at the scene of the crash.
The officer, whose name who not revealed in the report, saw Woods lying with bloodied lips on a road with his head on a pillow and covered by a blanket, at one point stopping him as he tried to rise.
Woods denied speculation that a domestic dispute prompted him to climb into the vehicle, saying Elin acted with courage and support after the accident.
While apologizing in a statement, Woods did not give details on what wrongdoing he had actually committed, leaving open the chance for speculation that has fueled the tawdry reports and claims of affairs that have followed. — AFP
Golf: Tiger linked to 10 women as questions mount over crash
08-12-09 08:46 AM
0 Comments
NEW YORK, December 8, 2009 (AFP) – Tiger Woods is now on the inward nine when it comes to women claiming to have had affairs with the golf superstar in the wake of his apology for "personal sins" and "transgressions" that hurt his family.
News reports pushed the total to 10 women linking themselves to Woods in the wake of his one-car crash, which took yet another turn Monday with a new report that Woods had been drinking before the accident and was taking medications.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that a failed police request for a subpoena to obtain Woods’s hospital blood test results says a witness, thought to be Elin Woods, told police Woods had been drinking and was taking Ambien and Vicodin.
The document says the person who pulled Woods from his vehicle — his wife Elin according to earlier her earlier statements to police — also said Woods had been drinking before the crash, opening the door to possible impairment.
Woods hit a hydrant and a tree in the early morning hours of November 27 and was taken to a hospital. The accident came two days after a tabloid reported Woods had been having an affair with New York club hostess Rachel Uchitel.
Police had wanted Woods’s medical information to check the possibility he was "driving under the influence with property damage," the request said.
"A witness stated that the driver had consumed alcohol earlier in the day and the same witness removed the driver from the vehicle after the collision. Also, the same witness stated that the driver was prescribed medication (Ambien and Vicatin) (sic). Impairment of the driver is also suspected."
Police were denied a subpoena for medical records and in the end police only cited Woods for reckless driving before closing the case that touched off a gossip firestorm.
Web site Radaronline reported that Elin has moved out of the US$2.6 million mansion she shared with the 14-time major golf champion and is living in a nearby house. Woods owns another home near his main residence.
An earlier police report revealed that two iron clubs were found at the scene, likely the ones said to have shattered the rear windows of Woods’s vehicle, and 235 dollars was found in the vehicle.
A poll by CNN and USA Today reported that approval ratings for Woods have plunged since June in the wake of his admission of mistakes, which came after an audiotape purportedly of Woods linked him to an alleged mistress.
Already there was talk of Woods facing the "Twelve Days of Mistress" during the holiday season.
Jokes about Woods swinging more than his clubs have followed as near-daily claims of intimate relationships with the 14-time major champion reached 10, Fox News reported, including a former porn star, Holly Sampson.
The New York Daily News reported that a new name on the growing list is Cori Rist, a 31-year-old divorced mother who says she met Woods at a New York club.
Woods, who turns 34 on December 30, was first linked to Uchitel, who has denied the affair despite a TMZ report that a friend of Woods arranged her flight to Australia and hotel room when Woods was there for a tournament.
Cocktail waitress Jamiee Grubbs, 24, played a Woods voicemail to support her claims of a 31-month relationship with Woods.
Also on the Fox list were Sampson, 36; Kalika Moquin, 27, a Las Vegas club manager; model Jamie Jungers, 26; Mindy Lawton, a 33-year-old waitress from Orlando; and three unidentified women, two from British reports and another waitress from Orlando.
US talk show host Oprah Winfrey is seeking an interview with Woods but show spokesman Don Halcombe told USA Today she has not personally called him to try and land what would be a dramatic conversation.
The only comments by Woods since the crash have come in statements released on his website.
A police report said the officer who responded to the emergency call when Woods had his accident saw two iron clubs were seen on the ground near a golf cart at the scene of the crash.
The officer, whose name who not revealed in the report, saw Woods lying with bloodied lips on a road with his head on a pillow and covered by a blanket, at one point stopping him as he tried to rise.
Woods denied speculation that a domestic dispute prompted him to climb into the vehicle, saying Elin acted with courage and support after the accident.
While apologizing in a statement, Woods did not give details on what wrongdoing he had actually committed, leaving open the chance for speculation that has fueled the tawdry reports and claims of affairs that have followed. — AFP
DESIDERATA: being in a generous mood, I serve ye an AFTERthot:
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Entry #84
Wine Sublime, Truth Divine
by YL Chong
CONFESSION1:
Naomi: Father, it's not good. The last time I did it with you, I felt guilty. Now I feel bad coming back ...
Pastor Parissh: Now, now, my child. That's perfectly normal. Eve after succumbing to temptation, she first felt shame. Adam too, but soon they began to enjoy the excitement of discovery. After all, we are all human...
Naomi: But I wronged my boyfriend...
Parissh: Let me fill you in. Garrett sleeps around too. He does it with the boys too...it gives him a different high.
Naomi: Father, you mean Garrett's has been confessing too?
Parissh: Oh yes!
Naomi: Oh, I see! No wonder he says he's not free on Friday nights...playing poker.
Parissh: You don't join him at the pub?
Naomi: No, I hate the taste of beer! But I enjoy our Communion wine. And last week, it was so ecstatic!
Parissh: Oh yes, we finished one whole bottle.
Naomi: The "blesssed" liquid, you said. Christ's sacrifice. Our bonding--'twas so divine!
CONFESSION2:
Garrett: Father, I feel so ashamed. I think I'm paying a price for my wandering ways.
Parissh: I worry for you, my son. It's been twelve months ...
Garrett: Father, My playing around...it has finally caught up with me...
(A pause)
I went for my annual medical last week--you know, Company's policy--and the results just came back...
(Another pause)
I have contracted AIDS. And I've been having such great sex with Naomi! Poor Naomi, she...
Posted by jason evans at 11:24 PM
Thursday, December 03, 2009
This is serious stuff...from RPK!
May the GOoD Lord watch over us ordinary Malaysians.
I
S
A: men.
I am taking a
one-week break from Rumination until I see some blardy/bloody action from at least ONE AUTHORITY against Utusan Malaysia. NOTE THAT: The BOLDED and itialicised (thus) parts are all by Desi, not RPK< not Utusan Malaysia. -- DESIDERATA-ylchong
_________________________________________________
Utusan Malaysia has spoken: stand by for another May 13
NO HOLDS BARRED
Wednesday, 02 December 2009 Super Admin
Bayangkan apa akan berlaku jika orang Melayu bangkit dan bertindak memijak pula gambar atau poster pemimpin-pemimpin Cina di negara ini. Tidak mustahil peristiwa berdarah 13 Mei yang menjadi sejarah hitam negara akan berulang (Utusan Malaysia).
Raja Petra Kamarudin
This is the gist of what Utusan Malaysia wrote today:
The action of some DAP leaders of stepping on the photographs of the three Perak turncoats tantamount to Chinese stepping on Malays.
Two of the three PKR state assemblypersons are Malays -- so this means the Chinese stepped on Malay photographs.
Imagine if the Malays also step on the photographs of Chinese leaders. It would not be impossible for another ‘May 13’ to be triggered.
PAS and PKR are tools of the Chinese. DAP is very clever at using others, in particular Malays. DAP has been stepping on the Malays for far too long.
And so on and so forth. The full article can be read below. (You can also read 'Stepping on the DAP' by The Nut Graph here: http://www.thenutgraph.com/stepping-on-dap).
According to Utusan Malaysia, this is about Chinese versus Malays. This is about the Chinese insulting the Malays. This is about the Chinese stepping on the Malays. This is about the Chinese pushing the Malays too far. This is about if the Chinese continue testing the patience of the Malays do not be surprised if another race riot the likes of May 13 erupts.
That, basically, according to Utusan Malaysia, is what it is all about -- the Chinese spoiling for a fight which if they are not careful they will get.
But that is not what tickles me here. Do you know what tickles me? What tickles me is the Chinese telling me that Najib is saying all the right things and that Barisan Nasional will probably gain back its two-thirds majority in Parliament plus all the states it lost in the March 2008 general election.
What more can I say other than the Chinese deserve this and I hope Utusan Malaysia continues fanning the sentiments of the Malays with talk about another race riot a la May 13. Maybe this is the only thing that can knock some sense into the Chinese when a race riot really erupts and a couple of thousand of Chinese dead bodies are bulldozed into mass graves like once upon a time.
Sheesh! I really don’t want to talk more in case I begin to say something I might regret later.
*****************************************
DAP pamer sikap sebenar
Oleh SITI MARIAM MD. ZAIN
APAKAH yang dapat disimpulkan oleh kebanyakan kita apabila melihat sikap 'kurang ajar' pemimpin-pemimpin DAP yang sengaja memijak gambar atau poster tiga Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Perak Bebas seperti yang berlaku pada konvensyen parti peringkat negeri yang diadakan di Ipoh, Ahad lalu?
Bagi yang faham tentang erti ketamadunan dan kesopanan, tentunya tidak akan sanggup melakukan apa yang telah dilakukan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin terbabit.
Memijak gambar atau poster tiga ADUN yang dahulunya merupakan sahabat mereka di dalam pakatan pembangkang tetapi kini memilih menjadi wakil rakyat bebas, memperlihatkan DAP bukanlah jenis rakan yang baik.
Tetapi inilah sikap pemimpin-pemimpin DAP. Tanpa wujud perasaan bersalah, mereka melakukan tindakan di luar kematangan seorang ahli politik.
Merestui gambar atau poster ketiga-tiga wakil rakyat terbabit diletakkan di ruang masuk dewan untuk dipijak, jelas menunjukkan tahap pemikiran mereka.
Mungkin benar, DAP tidak dapat menerima hakikat kehilangan kuasa apabila Perak yang pernah jatuh ke tangan pembangkang, diserahkan kembali kepada Barisan Nasional (BN) berikutan sokongan tiga wakil rakyat itu kepada BN.
Sokongan itu menyebabkan kedudukan pembangkang yang sebelum ini mempunyai 31 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) dan BN (28 kerusi) berubah sebaliknya.
Namun, ini bukan alasan untuk mereka bebas melakukan apa sahaja. Pemimpin yang mahu dihormati rakyat, mereka perlu terlebih dahulu tahu adap-adap menghormati orang lain, walaupun orang itu bukan daripada partinya sendiri.
Timbul juga persoalan, mengapa DAP sanggup menghina ADUN Jelapang, Hee Yit Foong, Jamaluddin Mohd. Radzi (Behrang) dan Kapten (B) Mohd. Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) sebegitu rupa, sedangkan selama ini mereka mendakwa sebagai pejuang demokrasi yang menuntut keadilan bagi setiap rakyat?
"Nampak jelas yang paling terasa (kehilangan kuasa) bukan Pas tetapi DAP. Mereka kecewa dengan apa yang berlaku kerana mereka melihat kerajaan itu adalah kerajaan mereka (DAP) bukan kerajaan Pas atau kerajaan pakatan pembangkang.
"Sebab itu mereka paling beremosi," kata Profesor Politik dan Pengajian Antarabangsa Universiti Utara Malaysia, Prof. Dr. Mohamed Mustafa Ishak.
Dalam sistem demokrasi, seseorang individu berhak menentukan arah perjuangan politik mereka selagi wujud kepercayaan mereka terhadap sesuatu parti itu dan melakukan sebaliknya jika kepercayaan tersebut hilang.
"Mereka sudah lama pijak kami, tiada demokrasi dalam budaya mereka. Sebab itu kami memilih keluar daripada pakatan pembangkang," ujar Jamaluddin.
Secara tersiratnya, sukar untuk meneka apa yang sedang dirancang oleh parti pimpinan Lim Kit Siang ini. Mereka tentu sedar melakukan perkara seumpama itu pasti akan mengundang kontroversi.
Di saat-saat pakatan pembangkang dilihat semakin hilang keyakinan rakyat terutama di kalangan orang Melayu, adakah 'drama' itu sengaja ditonjolkan untuk mengalihkan isu tertentu?
Atau mungkinkah juga ini adalah realiti DAP. Kerana kerakusan untuk memiliki kuasa, menjadikan mereka alpa untuk terus melakukan kesilapan?
"Saya percaya tindakan mereka (DAP) adalah untuk memastikan tiada ahli-ahli mereka terus melompat parti. Ini menunjukkan kemarahan amat sangat.
"Mereka sedar di Selangor dan Pulau Pinang, perkara ini (lompat parti) mungkin boleh berlaku menyebabkan mereka bimbang," ujar Mohamed Mustafa lagi.
Secara mudah, kata profesor politik ini, tindakan itu adalah satu perang psikologi DAP untuk menghantar mesej dan menakut-nakutkan ahli-ahli lain biar pun menyedari langkah yang diambil adalah kebudak-budakkan.
Jika ini adalah realiti DAP, bermakna rakyat terutama orang Melayu harus sedar akan kedudukan mereka kelak sekiranya membenarkan parti itu kembali berkuasa.
Tempoh 11 bulan pembangkang sebagai kerajaan negeri, sewajarnya menjadi pengajaran paling berharga kepada orang Melayu tentang erti kuasa.
Orang Melayu terutama di Perak tidak boleh mengharapkan Pas atau Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) kerana kedua-dua parti ini adalah tunggangan DAP.
Menjawab persoalan ini, Mohamed Mustafa berkata, sesuatu yang pasti tentang DAP ialah mereka bijak 'bermain wayang'.
"DAP pandai menggunakan orang lain. Mereka menggunakan Nizar (Datuk Seri Ir. Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin) dan penyokong Pas untuk mengganggu-gugat kerajaan baru (BN).
"Kalau dilihat, mengapa mereka terlalu marah sedangkan dua daripada ADUN yang keluar parti bukan pun DAP. Mengapa DAP yang marah, bukan Pas atau PKR?
"Ini adalah satu percaturan politik murahan dan merupakan pertunjukkan 'drama' kelas ketiga sekali gus mengiktiraf Nizar sebagai boneka," katanya.
Demi mencapai agenda politik peribadi, mereka sanggup bertindak tidak populis dan dalam masa sama, membelakangkan soal sahabat bagi memastikan perjuangan yang dirintis sejak kepimpinan terdahulu tercapai.
Sikap tidak dapat menerima hakikat, memperlihatkan parti yang mewakili kaum Cina itu sukar bekerjasama dengan parti-parti politik lain lebih-lebih lagi Pas terutama usaha ke arah membina sebuah kerajaan yang adil untuk rakyat.
Malangnya pemimpin Pas lebih rela menjadikan diri mereka sebagai 'pak sanggup' yang sanggup memikul setiap kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh DAP biar pun ada di kalangan orang Melayu sendiri mengharapkan Pas bertindak lebih berani apabila menyentuh soal maruah agama, bangsa dan tanah air.
Ketika Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak berusaha keras menerapkan semangat dan gagasan 1Malaysia, DAP pula seolah-olah berusaha menjarakkan jurang perpaduan di antara kaum menerusi tindakan begitu.
ADUN Behrang, Jamaluddin dan ADUN Changkat Jering, Mohd. Osman adalah orang Melayu. Mereka 'dipijak' oleh orang Cina yang hadir pada konvensyen itu.
Bayangkan apa akan berlaku jika orang Melayu bangkit dan bertindak memijak pula gambar atau poster pemimpin-pemimpin Cina di negara ini. Tidak mustahil peristiwa berdarah 13 Mei yang menjadi sejarah hitam negara akan berulang.
I
S
A: men.
I am taking a
one-week break from Rumination until I see some blardy/bloody action from at least ONE AUTHORITY against Utusan Malaysia. NOTE THAT: The BOLDED and itialicised (thus) parts are all by Desi, not RPK< not Utusan Malaysia. -- DESIDERATA-ylchong
_________________________________________________
Utusan Malaysia has spoken: stand by for another May 13
NO HOLDS BARRED
Wednesday, 02 December 2009 Super Admin
Bayangkan apa akan berlaku jika orang Melayu bangkit dan bertindak memijak pula gambar atau poster pemimpin-pemimpin Cina di negara ini. Tidak mustahil peristiwa berdarah 13 Mei yang menjadi sejarah hitam negara akan berulang (Utusan Malaysia).
Raja Petra Kamarudin
This is the gist of what Utusan Malaysia wrote today:
The action of some DAP leaders of stepping on the photographs of the three Perak turncoats tantamount to Chinese stepping on Malays.
Two of the three PKR state assemblypersons are Malays -- so this means the Chinese stepped on Malay photographs.
Imagine if the Malays also step on the photographs of Chinese leaders. It would not be impossible for another ‘May 13’ to be triggered.
PAS and PKR are tools of the Chinese. DAP is very clever at using others, in particular Malays. DAP has been stepping on the Malays for far too long.
And so on and so forth. The full article can be read below. (You can also read 'Stepping on the DAP' by The Nut Graph here: http://www.thenutgraph.com/stepping-on-dap).
According to Utusan Malaysia, this is about Chinese versus Malays. This is about the Chinese insulting the Malays. This is about the Chinese stepping on the Malays. This is about the Chinese pushing the Malays too far. This is about if the Chinese continue testing the patience of the Malays do not be surprised if another race riot the likes of May 13 erupts.
That, basically, according to Utusan Malaysia, is what it is all about -- the Chinese spoiling for a fight which if they are not careful they will get.
But that is not what tickles me here. Do you know what tickles me? What tickles me is the Chinese telling me that Najib is saying all the right things and that Barisan Nasional will probably gain back its two-thirds majority in Parliament plus all the states it lost in the March 2008 general election.
What more can I say other than the Chinese deserve this and I hope Utusan Malaysia continues fanning the sentiments of the Malays with talk about another race riot a la May 13. Maybe this is the only thing that can knock some sense into the Chinese when a race riot really erupts and a couple of thousand of Chinese dead bodies are bulldozed into mass graves like once upon a time.
Sheesh! I really don’t want to talk more in case I begin to say something I might regret later.
*****************************************
DAP pamer sikap sebenar
Oleh SITI MARIAM MD. ZAIN
APAKAH yang dapat disimpulkan oleh kebanyakan kita apabila melihat sikap 'kurang ajar' pemimpin-pemimpin DAP yang sengaja memijak gambar atau poster tiga Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Perak Bebas seperti yang berlaku pada konvensyen parti peringkat negeri yang diadakan di Ipoh, Ahad lalu?
Bagi yang faham tentang erti ketamadunan dan kesopanan, tentunya tidak akan sanggup melakukan apa yang telah dilakukan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin terbabit.
Memijak gambar atau poster tiga ADUN yang dahulunya merupakan sahabat mereka di dalam pakatan pembangkang tetapi kini memilih menjadi wakil rakyat bebas, memperlihatkan DAP bukanlah jenis rakan yang baik.
Tetapi inilah sikap pemimpin-pemimpin DAP. Tanpa wujud perasaan bersalah, mereka melakukan tindakan di luar kematangan seorang ahli politik.
Merestui gambar atau poster ketiga-tiga wakil rakyat terbabit diletakkan di ruang masuk dewan untuk dipijak, jelas menunjukkan tahap pemikiran mereka.
Mungkin benar, DAP tidak dapat menerima hakikat kehilangan kuasa apabila Perak yang pernah jatuh ke tangan pembangkang, diserahkan kembali kepada Barisan Nasional (BN) berikutan sokongan tiga wakil rakyat itu kepada BN.
Sokongan itu menyebabkan kedudukan pembangkang yang sebelum ini mempunyai 31 kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) dan BN (28 kerusi) berubah sebaliknya.
Namun, ini bukan alasan untuk mereka bebas melakukan apa sahaja. Pemimpin yang mahu dihormati rakyat, mereka perlu terlebih dahulu tahu adap-adap menghormati orang lain, walaupun orang itu bukan daripada partinya sendiri.
Timbul juga persoalan, mengapa DAP sanggup menghina ADUN Jelapang, Hee Yit Foong, Jamaluddin Mohd. Radzi (Behrang) dan Kapten (B) Mohd. Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) sebegitu rupa, sedangkan selama ini mereka mendakwa sebagai pejuang demokrasi yang menuntut keadilan bagi setiap rakyat?
"Nampak jelas yang paling terasa (kehilangan kuasa) bukan Pas tetapi DAP. Mereka kecewa dengan apa yang berlaku kerana mereka melihat kerajaan itu adalah kerajaan mereka (DAP) bukan kerajaan Pas atau kerajaan pakatan pembangkang.
"Sebab itu mereka paling beremosi," kata Profesor Politik dan Pengajian Antarabangsa Universiti Utara Malaysia, Prof. Dr. Mohamed Mustafa Ishak.
Dalam sistem demokrasi, seseorang individu berhak menentukan arah perjuangan politik mereka selagi wujud kepercayaan mereka terhadap sesuatu parti itu dan melakukan sebaliknya jika kepercayaan tersebut hilang.
"Mereka sudah lama pijak kami, tiada demokrasi dalam budaya mereka. Sebab itu kami memilih keluar daripada pakatan pembangkang," ujar Jamaluddin.
Secara tersiratnya, sukar untuk meneka apa yang sedang dirancang oleh parti pimpinan Lim Kit Siang ini. Mereka tentu sedar melakukan perkara seumpama itu pasti akan mengundang kontroversi.
Di saat-saat pakatan pembangkang dilihat semakin hilang keyakinan rakyat terutama di kalangan orang Melayu, adakah 'drama' itu sengaja ditonjolkan untuk mengalihkan isu tertentu?
Atau mungkinkah juga ini adalah realiti DAP. Kerana kerakusan untuk memiliki kuasa, menjadikan mereka alpa untuk terus melakukan kesilapan?
"Saya percaya tindakan mereka (DAP) adalah untuk memastikan tiada ahli-ahli mereka terus melompat parti. Ini menunjukkan kemarahan amat sangat.
"Mereka sedar di Selangor dan Pulau Pinang, perkara ini (lompat parti) mungkin boleh berlaku menyebabkan mereka bimbang," ujar Mohamed Mustafa lagi.
Secara mudah, kata profesor politik ini, tindakan itu adalah satu perang psikologi DAP untuk menghantar mesej dan menakut-nakutkan ahli-ahli lain biar pun menyedari langkah yang diambil adalah kebudak-budakkan.
Jika ini adalah realiti DAP, bermakna rakyat terutama orang Melayu harus sedar akan kedudukan mereka kelak sekiranya membenarkan parti itu kembali berkuasa.
Tempoh 11 bulan pembangkang sebagai kerajaan negeri, sewajarnya menjadi pengajaran paling berharga kepada orang Melayu tentang erti kuasa.
Orang Melayu terutama di Perak tidak boleh mengharapkan Pas atau Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) kerana kedua-dua parti ini adalah tunggangan DAP.
Menjawab persoalan ini, Mohamed Mustafa berkata, sesuatu yang pasti tentang DAP ialah mereka bijak 'bermain wayang'.
"DAP pandai menggunakan orang lain. Mereka menggunakan Nizar (Datuk Seri Ir. Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin) dan penyokong Pas untuk mengganggu-gugat kerajaan baru (BN).
"Kalau dilihat, mengapa mereka terlalu marah sedangkan dua daripada ADUN yang keluar parti bukan pun DAP. Mengapa DAP yang marah, bukan Pas atau PKR?
"Ini adalah satu percaturan politik murahan dan merupakan pertunjukkan 'drama' kelas ketiga sekali gus mengiktiraf Nizar sebagai boneka," katanya.
Demi mencapai agenda politik peribadi, mereka sanggup bertindak tidak populis dan dalam masa sama, membelakangkan soal sahabat bagi memastikan perjuangan yang dirintis sejak kepimpinan terdahulu tercapai.
Sikap tidak dapat menerima hakikat, memperlihatkan parti yang mewakili kaum Cina itu sukar bekerjasama dengan parti-parti politik lain lebih-lebih lagi Pas terutama usaha ke arah membina sebuah kerajaan yang adil untuk rakyat.
Malangnya pemimpin Pas lebih rela menjadikan diri mereka sebagai 'pak sanggup' yang sanggup memikul setiap kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh DAP biar pun ada di kalangan orang Melayu sendiri mengharapkan Pas bertindak lebih berani apabila menyentuh soal maruah agama, bangsa dan tanah air.
Ketika Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak berusaha keras menerapkan semangat dan gagasan 1Malaysia, DAP pula seolah-olah berusaha menjarakkan jurang perpaduan di antara kaum menerusi tindakan begitu.
ADUN Behrang, Jamaluddin dan ADUN Changkat Jering, Mohd. Osman adalah orang Melayu. Mereka 'dipijak' oleh orang Cina yang hadir pada konvensyen itu.
Bayangkan apa akan berlaku jika orang Melayu bangkit dan bertindak memijak pula gambar atau poster pemimpin-pemimpin Cina di negara ini. Tidak mustahil peristiwa berdarah 13 Mei yang menjadi sejarah hitam negara akan berulang.
Is there a lesson here/hear for our Minister/s of science & technology & manpower?
Obama meets with Nobelists
President emphasizes science's role as part of national policy
By Ed O'Keefe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
President Obama met briefly Tuesday with the other Americans accepting Nobel prizes next week, continuing an Oval Office tradition even though he happens to be among this year's winners.
Americans account for 11 of this year's 13 recipients. Obama will accept his Peace Prize in Norway on Dec. 10, the day the others receive their prizes in Sweden.
Obama impressed his fellow winners with his grasp of scientific issues, said Elizabeth H. Blackburn, one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
"He communicated to us that he's very serious that science is a very important part of national policy and that's where the future lies," Blackburn said. Obama also noted that his daughters have shown excitement about science, she said.
At least eight of this year's Nobel winners received tens of millions of dollars in federal research and development funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Energy Department, according to the White House.
Blackburn will share the physiology and medicine prize with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak. The trio has received more than $22 million in research grants over the years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the NIH. Each has also received separate grants from the NIH and the National Science Foundation.
Two Americans, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz, who are sharing the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Israeli Ada E. Yonath, have been granted about $14 million by the general medical sciences institute since 1971. Total NIH support for the researchers has exceeded $17 million. Economics prize winner Elinor Ostrom has been granted $27.2 million over the course of her studies. She will share the prize with Oliver Williamson, who has received $235,900 for two projects.
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"Without federal support, there would be no support for this kind of research, because the federal government is the only one that provides basic science support," said Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
DESIDERATA: A few years ago, the Malaysian ministry oversighting science and technology launched with some fanfare a programme to attract "talented" Malaysians resident overseas, especially those sceintists and ICT specialists, to RETURN HOME TO NEGARAKU. My regular mediawatch as both Journalist and Blogger recalls that one batch of 100-plus Malaysians answered this call of "national service", came back hopeful and optimistic, but within ONE YEAR, all butt one/wan "Last man still standing" the respondents departed again from Malaysia, despondent and defeated. Between form and substance, I believe the Ministry and his cohorts in the workplaces where the Malaysians relocated to from abroad felt their "talents" were hardly appreciated.
Now the current minister is singing, joined in chorus by other fellow colleagues -- plus our Ambassador to the United States in his early days of assumption of a key office, JJ -- are singuing the same or similar tune of "WELCOME BACK MALAYSIANS" to serve thy country...?
I put a question mark there/dare for all involved to ponder deep and wide -- is the BN government serious and sincere in such programmes.
You need to go to the problems besetting our country's manpower and human resource development -- like implementing MERITOCRACY and EXCELLENCE as core values, just one quick take from Desi? -- before they shoot off their gaps where the sun still shineth before more Malaysians, resident here and overseas, remark with some justification, their brains are located at the orifice where the sun *don't shine.
PS: *Stickers of English purity will point out that this is a grammar howler -- Single nounc/subject followed by a plural verb; but as they say, cowboys like to yodel: I dont find my lover loving me no more. I gonna kick the bucket if she dont turn up within the hour -- then he go off to down three barrels/buckets of beer, scotch and tonic for the sext three hours. Remains kicking and alive -- can still pick up a fight with the next guy sitting at the bar minding his own and others' business like all good cowboys don't do:(!
President emphasizes science's role as part of national policy
By Ed O'Keefe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
President Obama met briefly Tuesday with the other Americans accepting Nobel prizes next week, continuing an Oval Office tradition even though he happens to be among this year's winners.
Americans account for 11 of this year's 13 recipients. Obama will accept his Peace Prize in Norway on Dec. 10, the day the others receive their prizes in Sweden.
Obama impressed his fellow winners with his grasp of scientific issues, said Elizabeth H. Blackburn, one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
"He communicated to us that he's very serious that science is a very important part of national policy and that's where the future lies," Blackburn said. Obama also noted that his daughters have shown excitement about science, she said.
At least eight of this year's Nobel winners received tens of millions of dollars in federal research and development funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Energy Department, according to the White House.
Blackburn will share the physiology and medicine prize with Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak. The trio has received more than $22 million in research grants over the years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the NIH. Each has also received separate grants from the NIH and the National Science Foundation.
Two Americans, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz, who are sharing the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Israeli Ada E. Yonath, have been granted about $14 million by the general medical sciences institute since 1971. Total NIH support for the researchers has exceeded $17 million. Economics prize winner Elinor Ostrom has been granted $27.2 million over the course of her studies. She will share the prize with Oliver Williamson, who has received $235,900 for two projects.
ad_icon
"Without federal support, there would be no support for this kind of research, because the federal government is the only one that provides basic science support," said Alan I. Leshner, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
DESIDERATA: A few years ago, the Malaysian ministry oversighting science and technology launched with some fanfare a programme to attract "talented" Malaysians resident overseas, especially those sceintists and ICT specialists, to RETURN HOME TO NEGARAKU. My regular mediawatch as both Journalist and Blogger recalls that one batch of 100-plus Malaysians answered this call of "national service", came back hopeful and optimistic, but within ONE YEAR, all butt one/wan "Last man still standing" the respondents departed again from Malaysia, despondent and defeated. Between form and substance, I believe the Ministry and his cohorts in the workplaces where the Malaysians relocated to from abroad felt their "talents" were hardly appreciated.
Now the current minister is singing, joined in chorus by other fellow colleagues -- plus our Ambassador to the United States in his early days of assumption of a key office, JJ -- are singuing the same or similar tune of "WELCOME BACK MALAYSIANS" to serve thy country...?
I put a question mark there/dare for all involved to ponder deep and wide -- is the BN government serious and sincere in such programmes.
You need to go to the problems besetting our country's manpower and human resource development -- like implementing MERITOCRACY and EXCELLENCE as core values, just one quick take from Desi? -- before they shoot off their gaps where the sun still shineth before more Malaysians, resident here and overseas, remark with some justification, their brains are located at the orifice where the sun *don't shine.
PS: *Stickers of English purity will point out that this is a grammar howler -- Single nounc/subject followed by a plural verb; but as they say, cowboys like to yodel: I dont find my lover loving me no more. I gonna kick the bucket if she dont turn up within the hour -- then he go off to down three barrels/buckets of beer, scotch and tonic for the sext three hours. Remains kicking and alive -- can still pick up a fight with the next guy sitting at the bar minding his own and others' business like all good cowboys don't do:(!
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
wedNURSEday
I have been pressed for time since deja-vuing at a new news portal three weeks ago -- launch date 9 November, short is 911 or 119 depending whether you're American-ised or British-ied? -- hence "no posting" for last two days. Also, many postings lately consisted of Cut&Pastes, and for newbies here/hear, I wrote Cut&Pastries.
Less educated readers to this Blog started on de Ides of March 2005 will find some of my language WEIRD.
But actually it's a licence I abuse via what the host at allofhelen.blogspot.com bestowed Desi - DDC or Da Desi Code.
Let me admit that oftentimes, for a writer to demonstrate the traits -- it it to say DESIDERATA? -- of being weird, strange or queer or/and idiosyncratic is just expected NORMALCY. Who indeed would want to read writes from a normal mind? People who make fortunes writing schoolgals' romances follow a certain FORMULA that is so predictable...BUT you want to get to that realm of Albert Einstein, Henry David Thoreau or Oscar Wilde, and you don't have have some behavioural traits that border on wild and strange? Then forget it!
After such a long and windy -- or is it winding? my Beatkes fans? -- road of an Intro, let me get to the BODY parts.
If you go back to my archives, I've occasionally lambasted some broadcasters -- pretty looking though!:) -- who pronounced this third day -- or is it fourth? -- of the week "wednesday" with a very loud NURSE sound. I have explained that the nurse is away and hence the "ne" syllabus is SILENT. So also with similar words like medicine, when one "i" is away, and of course, with f**k in sober and Victorian age company. Is Desi Victoria(n) or a victor? Yours is to find out by buying him/her/it the bestA tehtari' in Seremban and the bestA kambing in Furong. Coming? Rendezvous without a sound "ass"? -- tsk, tsk!
Less educated readers to this Blog started on de Ides of March 2005 will find some of my language WEIRD.
But actually it's a licence I abuse via what the host at allofhelen.blogspot.com bestowed Desi - DDC or Da Desi Code.
Let me admit that oftentimes, for a writer to demonstrate the traits -- it it to say DESIDERATA? -- of being weird, strange or queer or/and idiosyncratic is just expected NORMALCY. Who indeed would want to read writes from a normal mind? People who make fortunes writing schoolgals' romances follow a certain FORMULA that is so predictable...BUT you want to get to that realm of Albert Einstein, Henry David Thoreau or Oscar Wilde, and you don't have have some behavioural traits that border on wild and strange? Then forget it!
After such a long and windy -- or is it winding? my Beatkes fans? -- road of an Intro, let me get to the BODY parts.
If you go back to my archives, I've occasionally lambasted some broadcasters -- pretty looking though!:) -- who pronounced this third day -- or is it fourth? -- of the week "wednesday" with a very loud NURSE sound. I have explained that the nurse is away and hence the "ne" syllabus is SILENT. So also with similar words like medicine, when one "i" is away, and of course, with f**k in sober and Victorian age company. Is Desi Victoria(n) or a victor? Yours is to find out by buying him/her/it the bestA tehtari' in Seremban and the bestA kambing in Furong. Coming? Rendezvous without a sound "ass"? -- tsk, tsk!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Are Most Americans Almost Near that Edge?
Of the cliff...into bankruptsy?
Desi's no economist, but here comes a frightening scenario via Daily Wealth which arriveth almost everyday without fresh milk on my desk. ASh, I still have my tehtarik -- with condensed milk, and the direst of warnings has recently been issued by an health expert that too much teh tarik" is BAD for thy health (not Desi's....oh no, this buddy didn't know me that wellA!:(
November 28, 2009
Print Edition | Whitelist Us | Having trouble viewing images?
Steve's note: Today's essay is by my friend Porter Stansberry. It's one of the direst financial predictions I've ever read. While I consider the chances of the sort of disaster Porter predicts to be small, the implications are so important, I think you should know about them. In case you haven't seen Porter's latest bombshell, here it is...
A Run on the Dollar Starts Soon
By Porter Stansberry
It's one of those numbers that's so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while...
Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion.
Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from?
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How did we end up with so much short-term debt? Like most entities that have far too much debt – whether subprime borrowers, GM, Fannie, or GE – the U.S. Treasury has tried to minimize its interest burden by borrowing for short durations and then "rolling over" the loans when they come due. As they say on Wall Street, "a rolling debt collects no moss."
What they mean is, as long as you can extend the debt, you have no problem. Unfortunately, that leads folks to take on ever greater amounts of debt... at ever shorter durations... at ever lower interest rates. Sooner or later, the creditors wake up and ask themselves: What are the chances I will ever actually be repaid? And that's when the trouble starts. Interest rates go up dramatically. Funding costs soar. The party is over. Bankruptcy is next.
When governments go bankrupt, it's called a "default." Currency speculators figured out how to accurately predict when a country would default. Two well-known economists – Alan Greenspan and Pablo Guidotti – published the secret formula in a 1999 academic paper. The formula is called the Greenspan-Guidotti rule.
The rule states: To avoid a default, countries should maintain hard currency reserves equal to at least 100% of their short-term foreign debt maturities. The world's largest money-management firm, PIMCO, explains the rule this way: "The minimum benchmark of reserves equal to at least 100% of short-term external debt is known as the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. Greenspan-Guidotti is perhaps the single concept of reserve adequacy that has the most adherents and empirical support."
The principle behind the rule is simple. If you can't pay off all of your foreign debts in the next 12 months, you're a terrible credit risk. Speculators are going to target your bonds and your currency, making it impossible to refinance your debts. A default is assured.
So how does America rank on the Greenspan-Guidotti scale? It's a guaranteed default.
The U.S. holds gold, oil, and foreign currency in reserve. It has 8,133.5 metric tonnes of gold (it is the world's largest holder). At current dollar values, it's worth around $300 billion. The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve shows a current total position of 725 million barrels. At current dollar prices, that's roughly $58 billion worth of oil. And according to the IMF, the U.S. has $136 billion in foreign currency reserves. So altogether... that's around $500 billion of reserves. Our short-term foreign debts are far bigger.
According to the U.S. Treasury, $2 trillion worth of debt will mature in the next 12 months. So looking only at short-term debt, we know the Treasury will have to finance at least $2 trillion worth of maturing debt in the next 12 months. That might not cause a crisis if we were still funding our national debt internally. But since 1985, we've been a net debtor to the world. Today, foreigners own 44% of all our debts, which means we owe foreign creditors at least $880 billion in the next 12 months – an amount far larger than our reserves.
Keep in mind, this only covers our existing debts. The Office of Management and Budget is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next year. That puts our total funding requirements on the order of $3.5 trillion over the next 12 months.
So... where will the money come from? Total domestic savings in the U.S. are only around $600 billion annually. Even if we all put every penny of our savings into U.S. Treasury debt, we're still going to come up nearly $3 trillion short. That's an annual funding requirement equal to roughly 40% of GDP.
Where is the money going to come from? From our foreign creditors? Not according to Greenspan-Guidotti. And not according to the Indian or Russian central banks, which have stopped buying Treasury bills and begun to buy enormous amounts of gold. The Indians bought 200 metric tonnes this month. Sources in Russia say the central bank there will double its gold reserves.
So where will the money come from? The printing press. The Federal Reserve has already monetized nearly $2 trillion worth of Treasury debt and mortgage debt. This weakens the value of the dollar and devalues our existing Treasury bonds. Sooner or later, our creditors will face a stark choice: Hold our bonds and continue to see the value diminish slowly, or try to escape to gold and see the value of their U.S. bonds plummet.
One thing they're not going to do is buy more of our debt. Which central banks will abandon the dollar next? Brazil, Korea, and Chile. These are the three largest central banks that own the least amount of gold. None owns even 1% of its total reserves in gold.
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All of this is going to lead to a severe devaluation of the U.S. dollar... Which I expect to happen within 18 months. I examined these issues in much greater detail in the most recent issue of my newsletter, Porter Stansberry's Investment Advisory, which was published last week. Coincidentally, America's paper of record – the New York Times – repeated our warnings (nearly word for word) last weekend. Word is getting out.
If you haven't taken steps to protect yourself from the coming devaluation – like owning gold and silver bullion, foreign real estate, and farmland – make sure you do it soon. The dollar rout is coming.
Good investing,
Porter Stansberry.
DESIDERATA's Disclaimer:
Thou art not to act irrationally after reading the above articlee. Don't take any investment steps OR d-investment measures in reaction of the contents above thereof. Any wealth loss or accumulation flowing from irrational action -- proactive or reactive -- is thine alone, Yes, yours and yours alone. A mousey purr writHer like Desi cannot vouch for any contents or discontent of any article sighted/sited at Desiderata2000. Although the nick for my blog is My Blue H'aven, remember it's not aweways heavenly content as sometimes the skies can turn from blue to nasty BLACK!
Man does not control the Mother Nature, the only constant as my Mum told me when I suckled her milk "Sunny, the two constants in Life are Change, and Departure."
So now I depart, your most esteemed Highnurse:) Have a blessed Sundae on Desi:)
Desi's no economist, but here comes a frightening scenario via Daily Wealth which arriveth almost everyday without fresh milk on my desk. ASh, I still have my tehtarik -- with condensed milk, and the direst of warnings has recently been issued by an health expert that too much teh tarik" is BAD for thy health (not Desi's....oh no, this buddy didn't know me that wellA!:(
November 28, 2009
Print Edition | Whitelist Us | Having trouble viewing images?
Steve's note: Today's essay is by my friend Porter Stansberry. It's one of the direst financial predictions I've ever read. While I consider the chances of the sort of disaster Porter predicts to be small, the implications are so important, I think you should know about them. In case you haven't seen Porter's latest bombshell, here it is...
A Run on the Dollar Starts Soon
By Porter Stansberry
It's one of those numbers that's so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while...
Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion.
Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from?
---------- Advertisement ----------
The dirty money-making secret of America's most "obnoxious" millionaire
This guy will probably piss you off, and will DEFINITELY offend you...
but he could also help you make a heck of a lot of money over the next year.
See my full report here...
-----------------------------------
How did we end up with so much short-term debt? Like most entities that have far too much debt – whether subprime borrowers, GM, Fannie, or GE – the U.S. Treasury has tried to minimize its interest burden by borrowing for short durations and then "rolling over" the loans when they come due. As they say on Wall Street, "a rolling debt collects no moss."
What they mean is, as long as you can extend the debt, you have no problem. Unfortunately, that leads folks to take on ever greater amounts of debt... at ever shorter durations... at ever lower interest rates. Sooner or later, the creditors wake up and ask themselves: What are the chances I will ever actually be repaid? And that's when the trouble starts. Interest rates go up dramatically. Funding costs soar. The party is over. Bankruptcy is next.
When governments go bankrupt, it's called a "default." Currency speculators figured out how to accurately predict when a country would default. Two well-known economists – Alan Greenspan and Pablo Guidotti – published the secret formula in a 1999 academic paper. The formula is called the Greenspan-Guidotti rule.
The rule states: To avoid a default, countries should maintain hard currency reserves equal to at least 100% of their short-term foreign debt maturities. The world's largest money-management firm, PIMCO, explains the rule this way: "The minimum benchmark of reserves equal to at least 100% of short-term external debt is known as the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. Greenspan-Guidotti is perhaps the single concept of reserve adequacy that has the most adherents and empirical support."
The principle behind the rule is simple. If you can't pay off all of your foreign debts in the next 12 months, you're a terrible credit risk. Speculators are going to target your bonds and your currency, making it impossible to refinance your debts. A default is assured.
So how does America rank on the Greenspan-Guidotti scale? It's a guaranteed default.
The U.S. holds gold, oil, and foreign currency in reserve. It has 8,133.5 metric tonnes of gold (it is the world's largest holder). At current dollar values, it's worth around $300 billion. The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve shows a current total position of 725 million barrels. At current dollar prices, that's roughly $58 billion worth of oil. And according to the IMF, the U.S. has $136 billion in foreign currency reserves. So altogether... that's around $500 billion of reserves. Our short-term foreign debts are far bigger.
According to the U.S. Treasury, $2 trillion worth of debt will mature in the next 12 months. So looking only at short-term debt, we know the Treasury will have to finance at least $2 trillion worth of maturing debt in the next 12 months. That might not cause a crisis if we were still funding our national debt internally. But since 1985, we've been a net debtor to the world. Today, foreigners own 44% of all our debts, which means we owe foreign creditors at least $880 billion in the next 12 months – an amount far larger than our reserves.
Keep in mind, this only covers our existing debts. The Office of Management and Budget is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next year. That puts our total funding requirements on the order of $3.5 trillion over the next 12 months.
So... where will the money come from? Total domestic savings in the U.S. are only around $600 billion annually. Even if we all put every penny of our savings into U.S. Treasury debt, we're still going to come up nearly $3 trillion short. That's an annual funding requirement equal to roughly 40% of GDP.
Where is the money going to come from? From our foreign creditors? Not according to Greenspan-Guidotti. And not according to the Indian or Russian central banks, which have stopped buying Treasury bills and begun to buy enormous amounts of gold. The Indians bought 200 metric tonnes this month. Sources in Russia say the central bank there will double its gold reserves.
So where will the money come from? The printing press. The Federal Reserve has already monetized nearly $2 trillion worth of Treasury debt and mortgage debt. This weakens the value of the dollar and devalues our existing Treasury bonds. Sooner or later, our creditors will face a stark choice: Hold our bonds and continue to see the value diminish slowly, or try to escape to gold and see the value of their U.S. bonds plummet.
One thing they're not going to do is buy more of our debt. Which central banks will abandon the dollar next? Brazil, Korea, and Chile. These are the three largest central banks that own the least amount of gold. None owns even 1% of its total reserves in gold.
Related Articles
Don't Fool Yourself: America Is "Now a Communist Nation"
The Federal Reserve Is Openly Telling You to Buy Gold and Silver
All of this is going to lead to a severe devaluation of the U.S. dollar... Which I expect to happen within 18 months. I examined these issues in much greater detail in the most recent issue of my newsletter, Porter Stansberry's Investment Advisory, which was published last week. Coincidentally, America's paper of record – the New York Times – repeated our warnings (nearly word for word) last weekend. Word is getting out.
If you haven't taken steps to protect yourself from the coming devaluation – like owning gold and silver bullion, foreign real estate, and farmland – make sure you do it soon. The dollar rout is coming.
Good investing,
Porter Stansberry.
DESIDERATA's Disclaimer:
Thou art not to act irrationally after reading the above articlee. Don't take any investment steps OR d-investment measures in reaction of the contents above thereof. Any wealth loss or accumulation flowing from irrational action -- proactive or reactive -- is thine alone, Yes, yours and yours alone. A mousey purr writHer like Desi cannot vouch for any contents or discontent of any article sighted/sited at Desiderata2000. Although the nick for my blog is My Blue H'aven, remember it's not aweways heavenly content as sometimes the skies can turn from blue to nasty BLACK!
Man does not control the Mother Nature, the only constant as my Mum told me when I suckled her milk "Sunny, the two constants in Life are Change, and Departure."
So now I depart, your most esteemed Highnurse:) Have a blessed Sundae on Desi:)
Saturday, November 28, 2009
PKR member pokes his nose into MCA impasse
Many will know I'm reluctant to write about partisan politics in my wickedend as I feel Malaysian politics is a sport for the less than principled, and often follows the parth well crafted by the main component in the ruling Barisan Nasional, UMNO. And UMNO's distinctive hallmark is its MONEY POLITICS. And even a tainted politician ex-MB of my state of nine states/negeri sembilan could win a by-election recently -- so what gives?
So the MCA imbroglio can be analysed by an outsider like YL from an examination of what it has mainly learned from BIG brother UMNO, especially its top guns, or is it goons, because that's how many Bloggers and their fans have described them, and who's Desi to go against the tide?
And to understand the present MCA CRISIS, I plan to use Agatha Christie's fomula in solving a crime: check the clues, and the most probable "culprit" is always the last suspect as so many others are what one would call RED HERRINGS, though in Malaysia they are as BLACK AS HELL! IMHO-lah, if you beg to disagree, who art thou? I am the host here/hear! You think I care a dam/damned/damp? Unless you write Desi a check as big as that for one TanSiTingAling for Bakun Dam ---- RMxxxxBILION?:(
To be continued...Have I wetted your AP? Then come back for more after my belated lunch, for aMore!:)
small NOTE from Desi on Sunday, Nov 29, 2009, 32 days before a new year begins, so cultivate a most loving human trait implied hear! I don't know meself -- why am Desi dishing out free advice on Life when he's most times +++quite LOST:), and I didn't even audition for the live TV series.:(
Miss Patience I heard oft said here/hear is also Ms/Mr/inbetween VIRTUOUS.
Come back for more when Desi's done with his aMore:) Never on Sunday you say!?
So the MCA imbroglio can be analysed by an outsider like YL from an examination of what it has mainly learned from BIG brother UMNO, especially its top guns, or is it goons, because that's how many Bloggers and their fans have described them, and who's Desi to go against the tide?
And to understand the present MCA CRISIS, I plan to use Agatha Christie's fomula in solving a crime: check the clues, and the most probable "culprit" is always the last suspect as so many others are what one would call RED HERRINGS, though in Malaysia they are as BLACK AS HELL! IMHO-lah, if you beg to disagree, who art thou? I am the host here/hear! You think I care a dam/damned/damp? Unless you write Desi a check as big as that for one TanSiTingAling for Bakun Dam ---- RMxxxxBILION?:(
To be continued...Have I wetted your AP? Then come back for more after my belated lunch, for aMore!:)
small NOTE from Desi on Sunday, Nov 29, 2009, 32 days before a new year begins, so cultivate a most loving human trait implied hear! I don't know meself -- why am Desi dishing out free advice on Life when he's most times +++quite LOST:), and I didn't even audition for the live TV series.:(
Miss Patience I heard oft said here/hear is also Ms/Mr/inbetween VIRTUOUS.
Come back for more when Desi's done with his aMore:) Never on Sunday you say!?
Friday, November 27, 2009
THREE C&Pastries -- and it's not compleatly altruistically...
MOTIVATED>>>
from freemalaysiatoday.com where I park myself most days since THREE WEEKS BACK.
___________________________________________
Want a date with “Unsung heroes” book launch tomorrow?
Fri, Nov 27, 2009
National
by Suganya Lingan
KUALA LUMPUR: An event tomorrow at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall from 3.00 pm till 6.00 pm. will examine the “The Fajar Generation” in which the The University Socialist Club and the politics of Postwar Malaya and Singapore players will recall stories about the “unsung heroes”.
A synopsis put forth by the publisher Gerakbudaya says that “The initial stage of building a new thing is perhaps the hardest part of the whole process. This held true in the case of the building of multi-racial Malaysia. The years between 1945 and 1965 was faced with one of the most extraordinary political turmoil in the history of Malaysia and Singapore, or Malaya as it was known then.
“Among the many political parties and groups that were fighting against British’s attempts to manage the decolonisation process, smaller groups that nevertheless played an important part were neglected from being mentioned in our history books. One such group is the University Socialist Club (USC), a group of men and women who advanced a radical agenda of anti-colonialism, democracy, multi-culturalism and social justice.”
The event is open to the public. For further details, please contact Chong Ton Sin at 016-3797231, Clare at 019-227 4473 or visit http://www.gerakbudaya.com/
________________________________________
Journalists union unhappy over ‘Chasing Away Reporter’ incident
Fri, Nov 27, 2009
National
KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia (NUJM) Thursday expressed regret over the action of Selangor Pakatan Rakyat Elected Representatives Officers Association (Selproa) secretary Ng Yap Hwa chasing away Utusan Malaysia reporter Yazid Alias from a news conference on Wednesday.
NUJM president Norila Daud said Ng’s claim that Yazid was from a government propaganda tool was improper and only showed a narrow-minded view of the democratic system which the opposition Pakatan Rakyat claimed to uphold.
“As a reporter, Yazid should have been allowed to attend the news conference as it was related to a government matter and not something confidential which had to be kept away from local reporters,” she said in a statement.
Norila said news of the 85 members of Selproa urging the Attorney-General to withdraw an application against the Selangor Menteri Besar’s circular preventing civil servants from being questioned outside of their office and only during office hours by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Comm-ission (MACC) officers was something which had to be disseminated to the people via the media.
Norila said the NUJM hoped that all quarters in Pakatan Rakyat would be more sensitive, adopt a professional attitude and understand the job of journalists who conveyed news to the people who had voted them into power.
“NUJM once again stresses that no one can stop journalists from covering government matters which are linked to the welfare of the people,” she said.
She said Malaysia was a democratic country and the media had a role to report whatever the government did for the people. — BERNAMA
*********************************
Note to *PR: Don’t Shoot the Messenger!
Fri, Nov 27, 2009
Opinion
BLOGORHYTHMS
By YL Chong aka Desiderata
Two fellow Bloggers — Ahirudin Attan and Nuraina Samad, who are now back at the MSM for some months now — highlighted an event which should not have taken place if only those well involved know the fundamentals in *PR as in Public Relations101, or in Pakatan Rakyat in a state like Selangor where it is The Government, or in Penang too. The golden rule for PR practitioners should be to treat the Media/Press with respect, and they will accord you the same respect in return. I remember this fundamental rule of “survival” of both human and animal Life in general dwells on the scientific principle of “Mutualism” for co-existence to thrive.
So I was aghast — just as Rockybru was, I believe — to hear of one from a group of PR political or press aides at an official press conference last Wednesday chasing out a reporter Yazid Alias from Utusan Malaysia because Ng Yap Hwa claimed the newspaper Yazid represented was a “federal government agent,” according to Rockybru’s post titled Anti-journalist Selproa.
Ng is not a nobody — he is the secretary of the newly-formed Selangor Pakatan Rakyat Elected Representatives Officers Association (Selproa), and a potential government leader. But this newness doesn’t excuse such undiplomatic behaviour because Yazid went there to cover an assignment in his capacity as Journalist, and I’m sure young boy Ng has heard of the exhortation of people with a little or much power: DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER! The saving grace for the association is that its president Abdul Razak Ismail later told Ng to allow Yazid in, (and) the latter was heard saying: “We can’t allow government propaganda machines into the press conference.”
If Ng and his “likes” (I was tempted to say “ilks”, but I refrain because I have never met Saudara Ng, so I give him the benefit of the doubt he’s overly enthusiastic on carrying out his job — never mind a misguided mind — the fact that the most developed State in the country fell into loosely-aligned PKR, DAP and PAS out of the blue, clear skies on March 8, 2008. Such unexpected heady tsunamic days could act like wine — or is it beer? — it sometimes makes PR people, and some bloggers too, go crazy and write, or orally command, crazy contnets. Or intent, I also feel confused when I take endless rounds of journo’s brew – “TehTarik, anywan?”
I reprised here quoting mainly from Rockybru’s, (so if anything regarding the event is factually wrong, go shoot the original hunter!) without his permit because I have interacted a bit with him while organising the annual World Press Day event since its inaugural BUM2007, where BUM stands for Bloggers United Malaysia, latter amended by the organising chair to Bloggers Universe Malaysia, without consultation. No, when one organises certain functions, you can’t be totally democratic or you don’t get through Phase 5 of 10. This is based on my experience, and if you beg to disagree, let’s just be agreeable, okay? And the foregoing is a rhetorical question.
Before I close, I’m going to ruffle some feathers at the Penang Chief Minister’s Office where my good friend MP Jeff Ooi sits as Chief of Staff — I call him Taiko of Malaysian blogosphere, for his screenshots.com indeed was the budding nursery for many Johnny-comes-lately, including Desiderata. Dear Jeff — who never fails to take part at BUM events as a speaker because he gets an automatic invite as he was among the founders of the yet-to-be-registered National Alliance of Bloggers – your Office sets a very bad precedent by barring reporters from the the New Straits Times from covering your boss’ official events, is this “ban” still on?
The problem with the mainstream media (MSM) is that of an existence of a bosomy nexus binding the CEOs, top editors to the ruling regime’s top leaders, from UMNO, MCA, MIC chiefly, so the newspapers’ coverage of political developments is blatantly one-sided in favour of those who walk the corridors of power in Putrajaya. But PR component parties should know better than to punish the reporters or photographers, who just earn a monthly salary doing a professional assignment just like any other field, as directed by the bosses. Of course there are bad apples in every profession; only the “bodekking” reporters deserve your disdain — these win a junk trip thrown at them occasionally if they butter up to their editors! — and except for one listed media company, most journalists’ starting salaries are below the poverty line since someone determined that line at below RM3,000 per month (I guess this “someone” had big cities like Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown in mind? Being a weekday socialist, Desi kind of like his kind – some rare ones are found even in the Estalishment! – for his big-hearted inclination).
But whatever, my little message to the likes of Ng Yap Hwa, please grow up and know thy real enemies. Most journalists that I know — and I have had more than two decades of newsroom labour — work hard for a living, with an initial idealistic commitment to the good journalism ethics and practice. They, which include my two charges at the moment just three weeks old, deserve a certain degree of respect as they strive to embrace and practise good journalism. Don’t extend your “ban” because YL decides to write about this memorable event that is expected to raise many bloggers’, and MSM editors’, ire. But just as one swallow does not a summer make, a misstep won’t kill youngster Ng’s career. He must just eat humble pie and tender the tenderest of apologies to someone, I presume?
from freemalaysiatoday.com where I park myself most days since THREE WEEKS BACK.
___________________________________________
Want a date with “Unsung heroes” book launch tomorrow?
Fri, Nov 27, 2009
National
by Suganya Lingan
KUALA LUMPUR: An event tomorrow at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall from 3.00 pm till 6.00 pm. will examine the “The Fajar Generation” in which the The University Socialist Club and the politics of Postwar Malaya and Singapore players will recall stories about the “unsung heroes”.
A synopsis put forth by the publisher Gerakbudaya says that “The initial stage of building a new thing is perhaps the hardest part of the whole process. This held true in the case of the building of multi-racial Malaysia. The years between 1945 and 1965 was faced with one of the most extraordinary political turmoil in the history of Malaysia and Singapore, or Malaya as it was known then.
“Among the many political parties and groups that were fighting against British’s attempts to manage the decolonisation process, smaller groups that nevertheless played an important part were neglected from being mentioned in our history books. One such group is the University Socialist Club (USC), a group of men and women who advanced a radical agenda of anti-colonialism, democracy, multi-culturalism and social justice.”
The event is open to the public. For further details, please contact Chong Ton Sin at 016-3797231, Clare at 019-227 4473 or visit http://www.gerakbudaya.com/
________________________________________
Journalists union unhappy over ‘Chasing Away Reporter’ incident
Fri, Nov 27, 2009
National
KUALA LUMPUR: The National Union of Journalists Peninsular Malaysia (NUJM) Thursday expressed regret over the action of Selangor Pakatan Rakyat Elected Representatives Officers Association (Selproa) secretary Ng Yap Hwa chasing away Utusan Malaysia reporter Yazid Alias from a news conference on Wednesday.
NUJM president Norila Daud said Ng’s claim that Yazid was from a government propaganda tool was improper and only showed a narrow-minded view of the democratic system which the opposition Pakatan Rakyat claimed to uphold.
“As a reporter, Yazid should have been allowed to attend the news conference as it was related to a government matter and not something confidential which had to be kept away from local reporters,” she said in a statement.
Norila said news of the 85 members of Selproa urging the Attorney-General to withdraw an application against the Selangor Menteri Besar’s circular preventing civil servants from being questioned outside of their office and only during office hours by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Comm-ission (MACC) officers was something which had to be disseminated to the people via the media.
Norila said the NUJM hoped that all quarters in Pakatan Rakyat would be more sensitive, adopt a professional attitude and understand the job of journalists who conveyed news to the people who had voted them into power.
“NUJM once again stresses that no one can stop journalists from covering government matters which are linked to the welfare of the people,” she said.
She said Malaysia was a democratic country and the media had a role to report whatever the government did for the people. — BERNAMA
*********************************
Note to *PR: Don’t Shoot the Messenger!
Fri, Nov 27, 2009
Opinion
BLOGORHYTHMS
By YL Chong aka Desiderata
Two fellow Bloggers — Ahirudin Attan and Nuraina Samad, who are now back at the MSM for some months now — highlighted an event which should not have taken place if only those well involved know the fundamentals in *PR as in Public Relations101, or in Pakatan Rakyat in a state like Selangor where it is The Government, or in Penang too. The golden rule for PR practitioners should be to treat the Media/Press with respect, and they will accord you the same respect in return. I remember this fundamental rule of “survival” of both human and animal Life in general dwells on the scientific principle of “Mutualism” for co-existence to thrive.
So I was aghast — just as Rockybru was, I believe — to hear of one from a group of PR political or press aides at an official press conference last Wednesday chasing out a reporter Yazid Alias from Utusan Malaysia because Ng Yap Hwa claimed the newspaper Yazid represented was a “federal government agent,” according to Rockybru’s post titled Anti-journalist Selproa.
Ng is not a nobody — he is the secretary of the newly-formed Selangor Pakatan Rakyat Elected Representatives Officers Association (Selproa), and a potential government leader. But this newness doesn’t excuse such undiplomatic behaviour because Yazid went there to cover an assignment in his capacity as Journalist, and I’m sure young boy Ng has heard of the exhortation of people with a little or much power: DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER! The saving grace for the association is that its president Abdul Razak Ismail later told Ng to allow Yazid in, (and) the latter was heard saying: “We can’t allow government propaganda machines into the press conference.”
If Ng and his “likes” (I was tempted to say “ilks”, but I refrain because I have never met Saudara Ng, so I give him the benefit of the doubt he’s overly enthusiastic on carrying out his job — never mind a misguided mind — the fact that the most developed State in the country fell into loosely-aligned PKR, DAP and PAS out of the blue, clear skies on March 8, 2008. Such unexpected heady tsunamic days could act like wine — or is it beer? — it sometimes makes PR people, and some bloggers too, go crazy and write, or orally command, crazy contnets. Or intent, I also feel confused when I take endless rounds of journo’s brew – “TehTarik, anywan?”
I reprised here quoting mainly from Rockybru’s, (so if anything regarding the event is factually wrong, go shoot the original hunter!) without his permit because I have interacted a bit with him while organising the annual World Press Day event since its inaugural BUM2007, where BUM stands for Bloggers United Malaysia, latter amended by the organising chair to Bloggers Universe Malaysia, without consultation. No, when one organises certain functions, you can’t be totally democratic or you don’t get through Phase 5 of 10. This is based on my experience, and if you beg to disagree, let’s just be agreeable, okay? And the foregoing is a rhetorical question.
Before I close, I’m going to ruffle some feathers at the Penang Chief Minister’s Office where my good friend MP Jeff Ooi sits as Chief of Staff — I call him Taiko of Malaysian blogosphere, for his screenshots.com indeed was the budding nursery for many Johnny-comes-lately, including Desiderata. Dear Jeff — who never fails to take part at BUM events as a speaker because he gets an automatic invite as he was among the founders of the yet-to-be-registered National Alliance of Bloggers – your Office sets a very bad precedent by barring reporters from the the New Straits Times from covering your boss’ official events, is this “ban” still on?
The problem with the mainstream media (MSM) is that of an existence of a bosomy nexus binding the CEOs, top editors to the ruling regime’s top leaders, from UMNO, MCA, MIC chiefly, so the newspapers’ coverage of political developments is blatantly one-sided in favour of those who walk the corridors of power in Putrajaya. But PR component parties should know better than to punish the reporters or photographers, who just earn a monthly salary doing a professional assignment just like any other field, as directed by the bosses. Of course there are bad apples in every profession; only the “bodekking” reporters deserve your disdain — these win a junk trip thrown at them occasionally if they butter up to their editors! — and except for one listed media company, most journalists’ starting salaries are below the poverty line since someone determined that line at below RM3,000 per month (I guess this “someone” had big cities like Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown in mind? Being a weekday socialist, Desi kind of like his kind – some rare ones are found even in the Estalishment! – for his big-hearted inclination).
But whatever, my little message to the likes of Ng Yap Hwa, please grow up and know thy real enemies. Most journalists that I know — and I have had more than two decades of newsroom labour — work hard for a living, with an initial idealistic commitment to the good journalism ethics and practice. They, which include my two charges at the moment just three weeks old, deserve a certain degree of respect as they strive to embrace and practise good journalism. Don’t extend your “ban” because YL decides to write about this memorable event that is expected to raise many bloggers’, and MSM editors’, ire. But just as one swallow does not a summer make, a misstep won’t kill youngster Ng’s career. He must just eat humble pie and tender the tenderest of apologies to someone, I presume?
Thursday, November 26, 2009
If you miss me,
Yesterday
Drop me a line
If time permits maybe two
If I miss ye
I will drop you at least line three
I'll avoid four
For in Chinese it's a taboo number
If you know not why
Ask myGoOD friend Helen
If you dont find her listed anywhere
Give a Yellar near the Ipoh PD
And it's not nigh Port Dickson
That's where I leave my footprints
In the sand
As one mGf sweets does
At Redhead Beach eh!
I miss ye
I'll pen line 3 so-ON:):):)
Drop me a line
If time permits maybe two
If I miss ye
I will drop you at least line three
I'll avoid four
For in Chinese it's a taboo number
If you know not why
Ask myGoOD friend Helen
If you dont find her listed anywhere
Give a Yellar near the Ipoh PD
And it's not nigh Port Dickson
That's where I leave my footprints
In the sand
As one mGf sweets does
At Redhead Beach eh!
I miss ye
I'll pen line 3 so-ON:):):)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Corporate Social Responsibility
or CSR has been a much touted business goal among companies that "have arrived".
But believe me, many listed companies only sing their chorus of COMMITMENT to good CSR as a rah-rah-rah ANNUAL DINNER where the press is present, and the CEO gets his 15minutes worth of media fame under the glare of TV spotlights handing a few cheques to chairity buddies. Any Malaysian successor to Singapore Kidney Foundation, anywan for gold bathtaps? -- Desi
We have the potentially-costing-the-public RM12.5billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal still making news headlines, and here cometh a s potential clone...? I think I will try to get my church pastor friend appl for a donation from the forever-riding-high NAZA group.
PS:I don't do it from a hi-sense of altruism! Oh no, methinking of that 30% as Desiderata2000 still has not got any 20million offer at eBoy! Sdr Moo_t, where art thou and my 70%?
Via the
The Malaysian Insider:)
Wednesday November 25 2009
A public policy re-think in KL on the cards?
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 — A growing controversy over a RM628 million project awarded to the Naza Group without open tender could put pressure on the government to rethink public policy, given previous failed developments such as the Port Klang Free Zone.
Naza clinched the deal last week to build a RM628 million convention centre for the Malaysian External Development Corporation, an agency under the Ministry of International Trade, in exchange for 2.8 million square feet of prime land owned by the government in Kuala Lumpur.
Analysts have estimated the gross development value of the land at RM15 billion. The award has raised disquiet with at least one business paper asking searching questions in an editorial over the weekend and with the Opposition up in arms.
On Monday, DAP lawmaker Tony Pua asked for the minutes of the privatisation to be tabled in Parliament. He said that the whole exercise should be re-tendered.
“Failing which, we demand that all ministerial papers relating to the project be declassified and tabled in Parliament to prove that all necessary due diligence has been conducted with no inflated cost to the government and no inflated profits to the concessionaire,” he told reporters.
Such scrutiny — especially from the local media — would have been unthinkable during, say, the tenure of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. But the results of the general election last year have seen a resurgent Opposition.
In addition, the revelation of the Port Klang Free Zone fiasco, where a development budgeted for RM2.5 billion escalated to over RM10 billion, has left the public angry over the sheer waste of the project.
More to the point, some analysts actually question the viability of the convention centre project, pointing out that the site does not have the critical mass — hotels, restaurants, etc — to sustain such a development.
The convention centre in Putrajaya, for example, has proved to be a colossal failure. Oppositionists have estimated that the project, built for close to RM700 million, would take 300 years, assuming zero maintenance cost, for the project to break even.
The most successful convention centre is the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre which was built by Petronas near the site of the twin towers. It is booked solid for the next nine years but, even so, it took Petronas 10 years to go ahead because it felt that it would be difficult to get back its investment. — Business Times Singapore smaller c
*************************************
Here's CAPitalism at its showingOFFbestA, and DEsi was NOT invited all because he's an avowed "socialist" -- I should have missBELT it as sociaLITE!:(
Obamas welcome guests with curry at state dinner
AP
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville, Associated Press Writer – 3 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The first state dinner of the Obama White House had it all: Oscar-winning entertainers, Hollywood moguls, a knockout guest chef and even a wardrobe malfunction.
Traditional evening gowns vied with saris of vibrant colors Tuesday night at the high-glitz dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There were turbans and bindis as well as diamonds and brocades.
"Everyone looks great; we're feeling great," White House social secretary Desiree Rogers told a phalanx of cameras as she arrived, betraying no hint of nerves at the biggest social event of the Obama presidency.
First lady Michelle Obama had been a little more forthcoming earlier in the day when she described the trick to pulling off the event as sort of like being a swan: calm and serene above the water but "paddling like mad, going crazy underneath."
The 338-person guest list was a mix of wonky Washington, Hollywood A-listers, prominent figures from the Indian community in the U.S., and Obama friends, family and campaign donors.
Attorney General Eric Holder patted his pocket as he arrived and said his kids had prepped him with all sorts of questions for tablemate Steven Spielberg. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, asked who she was most looking forward to chatting with, ventured, "I'd have to name four." Then didn't.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania had to scramble when his ensemble went rogue at just the wrong moment: His cummerbund dropped to the floor just as he and his wife stopped to pose before a scrum of about 40 reporters and photographers.
Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood provided the celebrity quotient, but neither could come up with a connection to India. Underwood said he was there because of Woodard. She said she was there because she's on the president's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Dinner guests were treated to an eye-catching scheme of green and purple, from the green curry surrounding the prawns to the purple floral arrangements paying homage to the peacock, India's national bird.
Pumpkin was on the menu, too, with Tuesday's dinner coming just two days before Thanksgiving.
Hours before guests arrived and in keeping with tradition, Mrs. Obama previewed the glamorous table settings in the State Dining Room. That's often the venue for such dinners, but not this time.
Instead, in an effort to show Singh how much the U.S. values relations with his country, the Obamas decided to serve dinner in a huge white tent on the South Lawn, with views of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial through clear panels.
It wasn't your everyday tent: This one had chandeliers suspended from the ceiling and beige carpet on the floor.
President Barack Obama, in his dinner toast, said the setting conjured images of India, where special events are "often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent." Singh, in turn, told the president he was overwhelmed by the Obamas' hospitality and said the president's election last year had been an inspiration to millions of Indians.
Magnolia branches native to both India and the U.S. adorned the tent's inside walls, along with ivy and nandina foliage.
Guests were seated 10 apiece at round tables draped in green apple-colored cloths and napkins, offset by the sparkle of gold-colored flatware and china, including service and dinner plates from the Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush settings.
Floral arrangements of hydrangeas, roses and sweet peas in plum, purple and fuschia evoked India's state bird.
Mrs. Obama brought in award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit, a Scandinavian restaurant in New York City, to help White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford and her staff prepare the largely vegetarian meal. Singh is a vegetarian.
Samuelsson said being chosen to help whip up dinner was both "overwhelming and humbling."
The culinary offerings included potato and eggplant salad, arugula from the White House garden, red lentil soup and roasted potato dumplings or green curry prawns. Pumpkin pie tart and pear tatin were for dessert; the pears were poached in honey from the White House beehive.
The entertainment lineup was stellar.
Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson and jazz vocalist and composer Kurt Elling, both Grammy Award winners from the Obamas' hometown of Chicago, were performing. Hudson also won an Academy Award for her role in "Dreamgirls." Indian musician and singer A.R. Rahman, who won two Academy Awards for the music in "Slumdog Millionaire," also was in the lineup.
Among the other guests: Hollywood moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Guests with ties to India included spiritual adviser Deepak Chopra, director M. Night Shyamalan and PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. Katie Couric of CBS News, Brian Williams of NBC News, Robin Roberts of ABC News and CNN Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta were among the media representatives invited. Oprah Winfrey was not on the list, but her best friend, Gayle King, was among the guests. Also there Obama friends Eric Whitaker and Martin Nesbitt, along with Obama's half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad; and Marian Robinson, the first lady's mother.
Every aspect of Tuesday's events was fraught with meaning and symbolism, from the flower colors to Mrs. Obama's clothing designers.
For the dinner, Mrs. Obama wore a sleeveless, gold and cream colored sheath dress with an overlay of silver and matching shawl by Indian-born designer Naeem Khan. At the State Dining Room event earlier in the day, the first lady wore a skirt by Rachel Roy, who is Indian.
The dinner also was a debut of sorts for florist Laura Dowling, who's been on the job less than a month.
But believe me, many listed companies only sing their chorus of COMMITMENT to good CSR as a rah-rah-rah ANNUAL DINNER where the press is present, and the CEO gets his 15minutes worth of media fame under the glare of TV spotlights handing a few cheques to chairity buddies. Any Malaysian successor to Singapore Kidney Foundation, anywan for gold bathtaps? -- Desi
We have the potentially-costing-the-public RM12.5billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal still making news headlines, and here cometh a s potential clone...? I think I will try to get my church pastor friend appl for a donation from the forever-riding-high NAZA group.
PS:I don't do it from a hi-sense of altruism! Oh no, methinking of that 30% as Desiderata2000 still has not got any 20million offer at eBoy! Sdr Moo_t, where art thou and my 70%?
Via the
The Malaysian Insider:)
Wednesday November 25 2009
A public policy re-think in KL on the cards?
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 — A growing controversy over a RM628 million project awarded to the Naza Group without open tender could put pressure on the government to rethink public policy, given previous failed developments such as the Port Klang Free Zone.
Naza clinched the deal last week to build a RM628 million convention centre for the Malaysian External Development Corporation, an agency under the Ministry of International Trade, in exchange for 2.8 million square feet of prime land owned by the government in Kuala Lumpur.
Analysts have estimated the gross development value of the land at RM15 billion. The award has raised disquiet with at least one business paper asking searching questions in an editorial over the weekend and with the Opposition up in arms.
On Monday, DAP lawmaker Tony Pua asked for the minutes of the privatisation to be tabled in Parliament. He said that the whole exercise should be re-tendered.
“Failing which, we demand that all ministerial papers relating to the project be declassified and tabled in Parliament to prove that all necessary due diligence has been conducted with no inflated cost to the government and no inflated profits to the concessionaire,” he told reporters.
Such scrutiny — especially from the local media — would have been unthinkable during, say, the tenure of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. But the results of the general election last year have seen a resurgent Opposition.
In addition, the revelation of the Port Klang Free Zone fiasco, where a development budgeted for RM2.5 billion escalated to over RM10 billion, has left the public angry over the sheer waste of the project.
More to the point, some analysts actually question the viability of the convention centre project, pointing out that the site does not have the critical mass — hotels, restaurants, etc — to sustain such a development.
The convention centre in Putrajaya, for example, has proved to be a colossal failure. Oppositionists have estimated that the project, built for close to RM700 million, would take 300 years, assuming zero maintenance cost, for the project to break even.
The most successful convention centre is the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre which was built by Petronas near the site of the twin towers. It is booked solid for the next nine years but, even so, it took Petronas 10 years to go ahead because it felt that it would be difficult to get back its investment. — Business Times Singapore smaller c
*************************************
Here's CAPitalism at its showingOFFbestA, and DEsi was NOT invited all because he's an avowed "socialist" -- I should have missBELT it as sociaLITE!:(
Obamas welcome guests with curry at state dinner
AP
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer Darlene Superville, Associated Press Writer – 3 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The first state dinner of the Obama White House had it all: Oscar-winning entertainers, Hollywood moguls, a knockout guest chef and even a wardrobe malfunction.
Traditional evening gowns vied with saris of vibrant colors Tuesday night at the high-glitz dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There were turbans and bindis as well as diamonds and brocades.
"Everyone looks great; we're feeling great," White House social secretary Desiree Rogers told a phalanx of cameras as she arrived, betraying no hint of nerves at the biggest social event of the Obama presidency.
First lady Michelle Obama had been a little more forthcoming earlier in the day when she described the trick to pulling off the event as sort of like being a swan: calm and serene above the water but "paddling like mad, going crazy underneath."
The 338-person guest list was a mix of wonky Washington, Hollywood A-listers, prominent figures from the Indian community in the U.S., and Obama friends, family and campaign donors.
Attorney General Eric Holder patted his pocket as he arrived and said his kids had prepped him with all sorts of questions for tablemate Steven Spielberg. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, asked who she was most looking forward to chatting with, ventured, "I'd have to name four." Then didn't.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania had to scramble when his ensemble went rogue at just the wrong moment: His cummerbund dropped to the floor just as he and his wife stopped to pose before a scrum of about 40 reporters and photographers.
Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood provided the celebrity quotient, but neither could come up with a connection to India. Underwood said he was there because of Woodard. She said she was there because she's on the president's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Dinner guests were treated to an eye-catching scheme of green and purple, from the green curry surrounding the prawns to the purple floral arrangements paying homage to the peacock, India's national bird.
Pumpkin was on the menu, too, with Tuesday's dinner coming just two days before Thanksgiving.
Hours before guests arrived and in keeping with tradition, Mrs. Obama previewed the glamorous table settings in the State Dining Room. That's often the venue for such dinners, but not this time.
Instead, in an effort to show Singh how much the U.S. values relations with his country, the Obamas decided to serve dinner in a huge white tent on the South Lawn, with views of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial through clear panels.
It wasn't your everyday tent: This one had chandeliers suspended from the ceiling and beige carpet on the floor.
President Barack Obama, in his dinner toast, said the setting conjured images of India, where special events are "often celebrated under the cover of a beautiful tent." Singh, in turn, told the president he was overwhelmed by the Obamas' hospitality and said the president's election last year had been an inspiration to millions of Indians.
Magnolia branches native to both India and the U.S. adorned the tent's inside walls, along with ivy and nandina foliage.
Guests were seated 10 apiece at round tables draped in green apple-colored cloths and napkins, offset by the sparkle of gold-colored flatware and china, including service and dinner plates from the Eisenhower, Clinton and George W. Bush settings.
Floral arrangements of hydrangeas, roses and sweet peas in plum, purple and fuschia evoked India's state bird.
Mrs. Obama brought in award-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit, a Scandinavian restaurant in New York City, to help White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford and her staff prepare the largely vegetarian meal. Singh is a vegetarian.
Samuelsson said being chosen to help whip up dinner was both "overwhelming and humbling."
The culinary offerings included potato and eggplant salad, arugula from the White House garden, red lentil soup and roasted potato dumplings or green curry prawns. Pumpkin pie tart and pear tatin were for dessert; the pears were poached in honey from the White House beehive.
The entertainment lineup was stellar.
Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson and jazz vocalist and composer Kurt Elling, both Grammy Award winners from the Obamas' hometown of Chicago, were performing. Hudson also won an Academy Award for her role in "Dreamgirls." Indian musician and singer A.R. Rahman, who won two Academy Awards for the music in "Slumdog Millionaire," also was in the lineup.
Among the other guests: Hollywood moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Guests with ties to India included spiritual adviser Deepak Chopra, director M. Night Shyamalan and PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. Katie Couric of CBS News, Brian Williams of NBC News, Robin Roberts of ABC News and CNN Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta were among the media representatives invited. Oprah Winfrey was not on the list, but her best friend, Gayle King, was among the guests. Also there Obama friends Eric Whitaker and Martin Nesbitt, along with Obama's half sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad; and Marian Robinson, the first lady's mother.
Every aspect of Tuesday's events was fraught with meaning and symbolism, from the flower colors to Mrs. Obama's clothing designers.
For the dinner, Mrs. Obama wore a sleeveless, gold and cream colored sheath dress with an overlay of silver and matching shawl by Indian-born designer Naeem Khan. At the State Dining Room event earlier in the day, the first lady wore a skirt by Rachel Roy, who is Indian.
The dinner also was a debut of sorts for florist Laura Dowling, who's been on the job less than a month.
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