Ninja cat

About 2 weeks ago I went to KT, not for voting but rather for visiting family. Too bad I didn't register. On my way there, the bus I was on stopped at Putra Bus Station as they usually would. There, PAS youth were waiting for us & other travelers. We received a bag filled with some reading materials, an orange & a drinking water. It was a cunning move IMO, as BN gave some of these travelers $$ for their travel. Before we reached Kemaman at the Terengganu, the bus was stopped for a check-up by the horde of police that was already converging in KT since the start of the by-election. Nothing much happened during this check-up & also for the rest of my travel. The roads leading up to the center of KT were lined by police buses & trucks. At every corner in KT there was police stationed. They were there mainly observing really as KT people were reasonable people & no messy quarrel ever erupted. Nevertheless, opinions differed on the presence of the mass number of police. Some felt safer while others felt threatened. I didn't care. I always think that being cautious is always good but also wondered why so much police + FRUs were needed (reported to be 6000). The roads were also covered with posters, where BN's poster outnumber PKR's by 10:1 as expected. These posters were even guarded day & night. On Friday, the day prior to voting, the Friday sermon was on how to choose your leader. Choose the one who is pious, god-fearing & responsible said the imam. Of course, the mosque I was in is located at an area known to be PAS stronghold. Otherwise, the sermon would be about being thankful of the continued development of country/state. I think. After all this, I didn't even went out to see the actual voting day. What I heard there was mockings for  wearing a particular colour & people queing for $$$ after declaring to have voted for a particular party. 

Click on the poster

Note: I'm only helping to promote these two activities. I'm not involved in any settings for both activities, in fact I won't even be around KL or N9 during those times as insyaAllah, i'll be in Kuching & Terengganu.

Berita

Sudah 3 hari berturutan Israel membedil Gaza strip dan meragut nyawa hampir 300 rakyat Palestin. Kenapa kita kisah? Hadith: Dari Nu'man ibn Bashir (radiALlahu anhu), Rasulullah pernah bersabda: "Umat Islam adalah ibarat anggota badan seseorang, jika matanya sakit maka seluruh badan akan rasa kesakitannya dan jika kepalanya sakit, maka seluruh badan akan merasai kesakitannya." 

Berita lanjut mengenai bedilan Israel: NZHerald, The Star.

Jika anda berada di sekitar Kuala Lumpur pada 10-11 Januari 2009 (masa: 0800 - 2300), silalah luangkan masa menghadiri program "Untukmu Palestin" berlokasi di Taman Tasik Titiwangsa anjuran UKM dan KTSN. Antara program yang diaturkan adalah paintball, futsal, forum, gerai jualan dan gerai klinikal.

Artikel ringkas mengenai Muntazer Al-Zaidi (klik pada gambar):

Carnival

If you happen to be in Shah Alam this weekend, drop by at this carnival:

On another note, if you want to rip streaming videos from embedded players (ie YouTube, Veoh) you can go here & they list all known methods available.

Jantung

Sudah genap 3 minggu sejak ku pulang ke tanah air tercinta. Aku hanya hari ini kembali menulis untuk menggerakkan otak menulisku sebelum ia berkarat. Lagipun, aku ingin berkongsi pendapatku mengenai penswastaan IJN. Penswastaan ini secara prinsipnya dipersetujui oleh kerajaan dimana Sime Darby telah menawar untuk membeli 51% share IJN dari kerajaan. Aku tidak tahu kenapa kerajaan ingin menswastakan badan tersebut. Secara umumnya, penswastaan diharapkan dapat meningkatkan mutu servis dan kecekapan badan korporat tersebut. Namun, sejarah menunjukkan penswastaan dinegara kita tidaklah berhasil begitu baik seperti yang dinyatakan pada blog Anwar Ibrahim. Tambahan pula, menurut Dr Mahathir, IJN tidaklah mengalami masalah dalam mengendalikan servisnya dengan cekap. Beliau juga menyoal apakah keuntungannya pada dua-dua pihak (kerajaan & Sime Darby) jika penswastaan ini diteruskan. Malah ada yang membuat spekulasi bahawa penswastaan ini diutarakan kerana ada yang akan mendapat $$$ daripada proses ini. Wallahua'alam. Apa yang aku risaukan, jika penswastaan ini diteruskan, dan jika Sime Darby dibenarkan, mereka tentu akan meningkatkan kos rawatan untuk menebus kembali laburan mereka. Jadi disarankan agar kepada perokok-perokok, berhentilah. Kurangkan makanan banyak lemak, gula ringkas, dan garam. Bersenam selalu. 

Random reverie

Its interesting to note that when you're outside your country, you get to feel like an outsider observing what's going on. You get new perspective from the change of background. You get to select what to take in, instead of being immersed in the happenings itself. Additionally, you get inputs from true outsiders and how they see the events pan out. Perhaps, one of the perks doing an OE is you get to stand back, observe from a neutral point of view and piece the pictures together how you see it fit. For years, I have been following Malaysia's progress through The Star newspaper. Out of all the mainstream Malaysian newspaper, The Star was the one which I perceived less biased toward government (or to be frank BN). It is a known fact the Malaysian mainstream media are BN's organ of propaganda. Hence, on occasions, Harakah, Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today would have to be referred to in order see the point of view from the other side when suspicions arise. I do have reservation of some of the reporting of these 'alternative media' as they can be overly negative of the government (when the negativity is inappropriate) and sometime, emotionally charged. However, since the recent election, some articles from The Star where ambiguous in its reporting with apparent concealment of facts and very selective presentation. Hence, these alternative media have been resorted more often. All I'm saying is, check out alternative point of view as well if you haven't done so. This shouldn't be news to most people, just thought I ramble on this thing just in case some people missing out...

Mt Cook

Nothing much going on here, me with my school work and NZ is pretty much mundane at the moment. But my dear Malaysia, what is happening there? Sodomy allegation on a certain person (again...), road blocks, motion-of-no confidence, retirement plan. Since the recent election result that ended the years of homogeneous power of a certain political party in the Malaysian government, unprecedented events have took place. Given my lack of knowledge on these kind of stuff, I'm just gonna sit on the fence and see how it pans out. I do think the roadblock was an outrageous move and totally upper handed. Some people will point out avoidance of the 13 Mei 1969 tragedy and they might have a point there..Anyway, continuing my winter holiday story: So, after Queenstown, we head on to Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. We didn't actually hike/drove all the way to the peak, but only stayed overnight at Mt Cook Village that is situated at the foot of the mountain (I guess). YHA hostel was the cheapest accommodation available at the village but it was also the most expensive among the accommodations we stayed throughout our holiday trip (rated at NZD29/night). The village was threadbare as it only had couple of houses there, a resort, a school and no shops whatsoever. At the time of visit, winter hasn't really set in and so, no snow and no skiing and less tourist. It wasn't warm enough to permit tramping as well, so the village was pretty much empty. We only did some walking and enjoy some spectacular scenery, such as the one I captured at the start of this entry. They are glaciers here too but they are mainly for viewing and not as beautiful as Fox or Franz Josef. The road to Mt Village has specatular view as well as evident by the photo below. This is Lake Pukaki.

Supersize me

A fortnight ago, I watched this Academy Award-nominated documentary, SuperSize Me, in which a healthy 32-year old man went on a 30-day McDonald binge to see if such diet would be detrimental to health. The documentary was largely inspired by a lawsuit from 2 obese teenage girls against McDonald for causing their obesity problem. More info at IMDB and wikipedia. The movie got me wondering about the prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular (CVS) disease in Malaysia. Here is what I found:

1. In 2005, CVS disease is the 4th (7.07%, 130,965 cases) most common reason for hospitalisation. It is 2nd (14.31%, 5668 cases) most common cause of death in hospitals. [1]
2. An observational study published in 2007 found that overall national prevalence of obesity among Malaysians aged 15 years old and above was 11.7% (95% CI = 11.1 - 12.4%). The prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in females (13.8%) as compared to 9.6% in males (p<>= 18 years old has markedly increased by 280% since the last National Health and Morbidity Survey in 1996. [2]
3. A review in 2002 found that the prevalence of obesity was clearly greater in women than in men. In women, obesity rates were higher in Indian and Malay women than in Chinese women, while in men the Chinese recorded the highest obesity prevalence followed by the Malay and Indians. Studies on normal healthy subjects indicated that the energy intake of Indians was significantly lower than that of other ethnic groups. In women, Malays recorded a significantly higher energy intake than the other groups. Urban male subjects consumed significantly more energy than their rural counterparts, but this was not the case in women. In both men and women, fat intakes (%) were significantly higher in Chinese and urban subjects. Men were moderately active with the exception of the Dayaks. Chinese women were considerably less active than Chinese men. Chinese and Dayak women were less active than Malay and Indian women. The escalation of obesity, once thought to be an urban phenomenon, has now spread to the rural population at an alarming rate. [3]

There's more papers out there but I couldn't be bothered reading more. Conclusion: Obesity and CVS is a problem in Malaysia. Duh.

---------
[1] MOH (2006) Health Facts 2005 pamphlet
[2]Rampal L, Rampal S, Khor GL et al (2007) A national study on the prevalence of obesity among 16,127 Malaysians Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2007;16(3):561-3
[3] Ismail MN, Chee SS, Nawawi H, Yusoff K, Lim TO, James WP (2002) Obesity in Malaysia Obes Rev 2002 Aug ;3(3):203-8

Blunders?

Paying through the nose for tools

So on the news today was the revelation of how the Ministry of Youth and Sports paid RM 8.39mil more than the market price for equipments. One of the items were screwdrivers, which retailed at RM 40 was brought for RM 225! Other mishaps identified:
1. There was no evidence that any effort in reducing the prices were made.
2. Unauthorised person managed to approve funding
3. A supplier managed to get an extra RM 1.25mil compared to another supplier for supplying identical equipments.

More news:

Spend, Spend and Overspend

Ahh, so Ministry of Youth and Sports weren't alone in this. In fact, I could safely say this sort of corruptions blunders have happened in the past. Yet it continue to be perpetrated. Why? Some say attitudes/immorality - that some government officials up there were not at all concerned that this money belong the taxpayers. Its not their money, so what eh. Just spend it. We can make our friends rich while we are at it.
Others may point out to lack of accountability. Will there be any repercussions, ie someone get the sack or better jail. Past experience teach me there won't but then again the time is close to election so I hope the government get cracking and clean up their acts like they usually do once every 4-5 years. :D