The masterpiece in my mind

Picture this, you and me
walking along the bank of Thames

We're holding hands, the cool breeze blow
We're on top of the world

All these dreams are more than fantasies
They're so real, a soon to be reality

Lelaki Komunis Terakhir

The government becomes the latest censorship board for Lelaki Komunis Terakhir.

It is the government that decides, said Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim.

Two days ago, Umno secretary-general Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, who is the Home Affairs Minister, was quoted as saying the fate of Lelaki Komunis Terakhir will now be decided by the Umno supreme council in its meeting next month (June 2006). I was quite disappointed with the decision as it puts UMNO before the whole Cabinet.

So now it seems that the Cabinet will decide. What a publicity for Amir Muhammad and his movie, described as amateurish by Datuk Seri Rais Yatim himself. While it won't generate as much attention as Da Vinci Code, it certainly is Malaysian's equivalent of Da Vinci Code.

Sigh. When is our Cabinet going to stop wasting time on petty issues like this? If the government thinks that our Film Censorship Board can't do its work then do not appoint them.

Grow up Malaysians. Life goes on. Bygones are bygones!

I miss you greatly!

It has been exactly 3 years and 10 months since I left you. And all this while I never stop thinking of you, hoping for the day when we will be reunited again. It has been bleak for the last 3 years. Nevertheless I was never ready to throw in the towel. The 3 years we spent together meant a lot to me. It has been the best times in my life.

And then things took a 180 degree turn. Suddenly I am faced with the fact that I'll be back with you! Even though it will be only for 12 months, I'll surely cherish every moment...

Can't wait to see you again...

Experiencing nature

[ http://jihying.com/photos/frim/ ]

Ozzy was interested to test his DSLR out at FRIM in Kepong. Hence, together with Johanna we made our trip there last Saturday morning.

I have always wanted to bring Johanna. But alas, it's one of those "one day, we'll go to..." kind of plan.

Bringing our cameras along, we went to pick up Ozzy from his home first before proceeding to FRIM in Kepong.

After parking the car, we started our journey to the canopy walk. Along the way, we looked out for interesting subjects to shoot. I was expecting some flowers, but sigh, none in sight throughout the first half of the journey. I love shooting flowers ever since the trip to Orchid Garden in KL.

We reached the canopy walk around noon time. There was a group of students lining up for it. Hence we took the opportunity to rest for a while and took more photos.

From the canopy walk we were able to see KL city from afar, something to cherish after two hours of ascend.

On our way down, we chanced upon a waterfall. I was too lazy to set up tripod to take some shots of smooth flowing water. By that time all three of us were very thirsty. None of us brought water with us. Hence we trekked our way back quickly. On the way both Ozzy and me managed to shoot a dragonfly, a spider, some butterflies, and finally, some flowers.

Seeing the food court was like discovering the oasis in the middle of the desert. We quickly pamper ourselves with cans of drinks, all the fatigue from the 4-hour trekking quickly forgotten.

The sad part of the trip is: I found out at night that half of the photos were taken in 640 x 480 resolution! I must have accidentally changed the resolution while trying to shoot a big rock from ground level. Sigh. What a disappoinment especially for the dragonfly shots.

Gender Selection Program 生男生女自己作主

According to this report, parents can now choose the gender of their babies at a certainty of up to 99% through PGD Sex Selection Program.

来自全球各地的父母不惜付出约1 万9 千美元（6 万8 千813 令吉）的代价，接受一个选择性别疗程。

法新社报道，这个创新的疗法只有美国几家专科医院提供，而大部分国家则禁止这么做。

“植入前基因诊断”（PGD ）的鼓吹者宣称，它能让父母产下自己选择性别的婴儿，可靠性达到99％。

加拿大人梅莉莎·瓦特金加入数以千计涌到美国的夫妇行列，为的是希望能够自己决定下一个孩子的性别，运用人类基因图谱破解之后才发明的科技。

专家在女性接受治疗之后把她的卵子取走，将它们繁殖并且在实验室里使之与父亲的精子结合受精。

疗法引发道德争议

这种解决“你喜欢男儿还是女儿”的古老问题的高科技方法带来了道德方面的关注。

也有人担心它可能会令到已经受到性别不平衡问题困扰的国家——例如中国和印度──的问题恶化。

瓦特金说：“这种疗法让我们的梦想得以实现。”她最近产下她的第四个孩子，是个她想要的女儿。

现年36岁的瓦特金说：“我们非常渴望再生一个女孩，而我们的女儿也很希望有一个妹妹。”

瓦特金已有一个6 岁女儿和两名年龄分别4 岁和2 岁的儿子，她的丈夫肖恩是一名石油公司东主。

Malaysians with first class mentality?

A brief LRT ride to work this morning has enlightened me how far we are from achieving first class mentality. Not that I really believe we are anywhere near first class, but since Pak Lah has been constantly telling Malaysians to be first class or world class...

Back to the LRT ride. The train was very late today, not as what the management has promised - train will arrive every 3 minutes.

A pleasant looking old couple boarded at one of the stops. To my surprise, no one who were seated actually stood up to give up their seats. Coincidentally, all four young passengers nearest to the couple were dozing off in their seats. My attempts to 'wake' these people by knocking lightly on the glass panel next to the seats failed. Looked like these people were in deep slumber.
Another old lady came on board at the next stop. She started chatting with the old couple. They were talking about how they need to get use to the new trend of competing with the younger generation to get seats and there is no more special treatment for senior citizens. They consoled themselve by saying that luckily they are still in good shapes due to frequent exercise. They moved on to how the younger generation today are not treating the elderly the same way as they used to anymore. They even blame this on the West. Since I stood just in front of them I quickly clarified that during my 3-year stay in London, the society there are highly civic minded and show no such behaviour in general. Deep inside I felt quite embarassed for the young passengers seated near me as I felt I belong to the same generation. Then one of the old ladies tried to console herself by saying that perhaps young people nowadays are too tired and they need a lot of rest.

Twenty minutes later, the three senior citizens got off at KL Sentral station. The four seated passengers were still sleeping. I find it hard to believe that they were totally not aware of the presence of these old folks for the last twenty minutes!

My stop came next. On my way out of the train, I realised that there were two other old ladies who were squeezed in between the crowd in the LRT. Sigh.

It is a sad day for me. Finally I have seen this frequently reported situation with my own eyes. Can we be a first class nation when we are going backwards in social development?

Finally I've let out all my anger and disappointment...

Close one eyelah

It was reported in Sin Chew Jit Poh that Jasin MP Mohd Said bin Yusof might also be involved in smuggling pirated VCDs to Indonesia, which includes pornographic ones. This is on top of his admission that the company in the close one eyelah incident is his own.

The worst thing is up to now Mohd Said has not felt that what he had done is wrong. And all the focus in the past week seems to be on Datuk Shahrir's resignation as the president of the Back Benchers Club.

To make things worse, our Prime Minister has further issued a directive to all Barisan MPs to toe the line. It is a sad thing for the country as the PM himself openly endorsed Barisan MPs to put the party's interest before the rakyat's. Is this the world class mentality we want?

A Letter from Ahmadinejad to Bush

The world deserves to read this letter and the Bush administration should not reject it, unless only WAR is on their mind.

If the traslation of this document is accurate, and if he truly stand on what he wrote, then I have newfound respect for this new President of Iran. But I'm still doubtful.

Trip to Haadyai

My parents' 30th anniversary falls on 1st May 2006. Hence I took the opportunity to go back to hometown on that weekend to celebrate with them. We planned to go to Haadyai for one night.

Finally, after years of trying, I've agreed for a trip to Haadyai (or Hat Yai). I've always imagined Haadyai as an ulu place with nothing to entice me.

After sending off my sister at Penang Airport, we headed off to the border town of Bukit Kayu Hitam on Saturday morning. From there we took a taxi to Haadyai. My first impression after crossing the border - seems like a deja vu of my Phuket trip. The buildings, the power cables, the type of vehicles on the roads and the rubber plantations are exactly the same as in Phuket.

We arrived at my uncle's hotel - King's Hotel around 3 (2 local time) in the afternoon. I've always tried to imagine what my uncle's hotel looks like. Unfortunately, the real thing was not as great as what I've imagined.

We checked in to rooms 702 and 704. The rooms are decent for a 40-year old hotel. After taking some rest, we had lunch in a small shop nearby. The price of food is certainly cheap. I managed to snap a few shots of a nice looking lily outside the shop.



One thing I noticed about this place - it's very hot, just like Phuket. Shopping seems to be the main activity for tourists in this city. We walked from shop to shop looking for clothes. Johanna was looking for some office clothes. But there weren't much choices in these shops. They were full of Ah Lian's clothes. Finally we ended up in a department store. What a relief - air conditioner and better choice of clothes. Johanna finally managed to buy few blouses and a suit. I saw quite a number of nice shirts but unfortunately they were all too big for me.

My parents brought us to the busiest part of the city after that. There were many traders along side the roads selling all range of things ranging from local delicacies to imitation handbags and clothes.

We arrived back at the hotel to join my uncle for dinner at a restaurant nearby. I was missing the EPL match between Manchester United and Chelsea. Towards the end of the dinner, I managed to see the score on a TV, 3 - 0 to Chelsea, with minutes left. What a disappointment.

After dinner, my uncle left and we went back to the busy part of the town again. After some exploration, we settled down at a restaurant for some birds nest and ginko soup before calling it a day.


The next morning, we took a tuk tuk to the market area after a disappointing breakfast in a shop near the hotel. The market is huge with a lot of goods on sale. We managed to buy some stuff including some fruits to be given to relatives. We headed off to Carrefour after dropping off the goods we bought at the market.




The Carrefour in Haadyai is very similar to the ones in KL. The price is slightly cheaper though. We managed to buy quite a number of stuff. After walking through the whole store we ate at the food court within the same building before going back to the hotel.

Upon arrival at the hotel, I noticed a signage on top of the elevator - stating that the elevator is the first in Haadyai. Hmm... this hotel has had its glory days in the past.

After packing up, we took a taxi back to the border, the end of our short trip to Haadyai.

This trip has not changed my opinion on Haadyai like the trip to Phuket did. I find the city uninteresting. Other than two tired legs resulted from long shopping trips, there's nothing much I could remember from the trip. And shopping is definitely not something I look forward to in any trips. Looking forward to more exciting trips soon...

Our parliament

"Yang mana lebih sikit, pejam matalah. Biasalah itu."

I'm really confused... Is our parliament an institution to debate issues affecting the rakyat, regardless of who initiated the motion, or is it merely a government department where every MP must support the government?

Anyway, why even bother when most issues raised are petty issues?

We should have more MPs like Shahrir Abdul Samad who truly understand the meaning of integrity and the principles of a MP.

Still waiting for the day when parliament proceedings will be aired live to the Malaysian public. On the otherhand, can we Malaysians withstand the humiliation of showing the world what a circus or zoo our parliament is?