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It has been quite a while since pretty pictures graced this blog. Too many things have been happening around us that required some literary blood-letting. So much so, I forgot the simple yet increasingly elusive pleasure afforded by communing with nature…and its inhabitants.

Kampung girl that I am at heart, living in Kuala Lumpur sometimes gets to be too much. It is a view shared by many friends, including Tony who once said he ends up in the jungle pretty often. Me? I am greedy for bird sightings. It’s not easy to see exotic birds these days, so I headed to KL Bird Park.

Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it. This Cattle Egret perched on a tree branch, one-legged. I suppose if you have wings to fly, it doesn’t really hurt to push your luck, gravity-wise.

This is a hawk….ostensibly. I know its not a buzzard. Eagles are bigger. It could be a kite too. I’m no bird expert. HELP! Identify this lovely raptor for me. This one got tired of the shutterbugs’ lenses and flew away to hide among some plants.

This is one hell of a portrait shot of the White Crowned Hornbill. Man…check out the eyelashes. I met this guy at the Malacca Zoo.

A tranquil, ethereally lovely shot of two Greater Flamingoes in the pond…cooling off the effects of the sweltering sun. This pic was captured at the KL Bird Park. These birds are the most widespread members in the flamingo family.

Australian White Ibis  feeling right at home on this leafy tree. Found this at Zoo Negara. As its name suggests, this long-beaked birdie is indigenous to south western Australia. One of the classier looking members of the Ibis family.

And this biggie mouthie is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa White Pelican. Big fella, can weigh up to 10 kg and is found from Europe to Asia, and Africa. Can cause a racket.

That’s all folks, for now at least. Keep on drooling : )

Yeah! So said Bernama today.

IGP Tan Sri Musa Hassan must mean business if these people are caught so fast. Here are excerpts.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 (Bernama) — Police arrested five people, one of them a woman, in separate raids in Shah Alam last night to assist them in their probe into the murder of an eight-year-old girl, Nurin Jazlin Jazimin.

Besides the arrests of the five, aged between 27 and 33 years, the police also seized two cars and five mobile phones, Bukit Aman CID Director Datuk Christopher Wan Soo Kee said in a statement.

He said the arrests were made following a public tip-off.

At about noon today, the Petaling Jaya Magistrate’s Court issued an order to remand the four men for a week from today to help in the police investigation.

The woman was released by the police.

Meanwhile, from information obtained by Bernama, the arrests were the first made since “Ops Sunti” was launched to hunt down Nurin Jazlin’s murderer after her body was found stuffed in a sports bag at a shoplot in Jalan PJS 1/48, Taman Petaling Utama, Petaling Jaya, on Sept 17.- Bernama

If only those people are named, I don’t think they (the 5 suspects) can walk the streets anymore. There will be a lynch mob waiting everywhere they go. Who knows, I might join them.

But then again, I’d like to say that I’m a law-abiding citizen (generally anyway : ) ), so instead of punishing the perps after they have done the deed, I think what you, readers, and I should do is to find a way to ensure such a horrific crime does not happen again to our young children.

Tembam has some suggestions. And I for one agree with her. Let’s work towards prevention of crime via networking. She suggested Amber Alert that is used in the US in response to the many people who go missing in that country.

Hey, many people especially women and children, are going missing in Malaysia. So why not work towards reducing the incidence of crime against our young and defenceless?

Read more about Amber Alert here, here and here

Also, I have this suggestion to the legislators of this country. I think it’s about time we consider capital punishment for child rape. I think it is a heinous crime. I’d like to suggest capital punishment for rape in general, but police investigations being the way they are, it might give rise to miscarriage of justice.

But go on, you can argue that it can happen in the case of child rape as well, but that’s the fault of the law enforcement people. I think the Malaysian society in general and those dumb asses (some) we elected to Parliament, should realise that Rape is as unforgivable a crime as Murder, if not worse, since the victim bears scars for the rest of his/her life.
 

It took place today. The march I spoke of in the last posting. I couldn’t make it to Putrajaya. Things came up at the last minute.

But here are updates from Reuters via Yahoo.

Pix from AP

The lawyers are up in arms in Malaysia, and frankly, you, you, yes you reading this, and I should be too.

Why? Remember what I said many posts before about how graft and abuse of power and authority had existed in Malaysia for a long time, and what the difference is today.

Well today, they flaunt it, in your face.  Wanna know more? Jeff Ooi has details.

The march is open to public and it is necessary that the authorities be made to know that Malaysians in general, not just its legal fraternity, are pissed with the state of affairs regarding the judiciary.

I mean, something must be seriously wrong with our system if some prick with a semblance of clout could have a say in the appointment of judges. Says a lot about the nation itself.

True, the emasculation of the Malaysia’s judiciary started during the Mahathir era itself, with the de-registeration of Umno and the subsequent witch-hunt (can’t find another term for that fiasco) that resulted in Tun Salleh Abbas and 5 rather brave judges being shown the proverbial exit.

Well, things have gone downhill ever since. The Shock-a-Lingam guy…well, this is not the first time he’s done it, has he?

But let’s not let these people get away with this. Here’s a chance, fellow blog readers, to show that Malaysians care about something more than just Mawi, Tongkat Ali, whether M.Rajoli kahwin dua (or tiga), Pak Lah’s Jamnapari goats, KJ’s I-phone, Samy Vellu’s son’s love triangle of if Chan Kong Choy was really gonna exit from MCA, (but wait a minute, no one cared really about that, anyway).

So, the march is Wednesday, Sept 26, 2007. Visit Rocky’s site for an updated brew

See you there.

UPDATE!

Here’s a report from Bernama that sent a spike through my heart. I hope its not Nurin whom they found. But its hard to refute DNA evidence.

Naked Body Stuffed In Sports Bag Is Nurin Jazlin - Police

 

PETALING JAYA, Sept 20 (Bernama) — Police confirmed the DNA test on the body of a girl found stuffed in a sports bag at a shophouse in Petaling Jaya Utama on Monday is that of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin who was missing since a month ago.

Petaling Jaya OCPD ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed said blood tests on the body and Nurin’s parents confirmed their blood ties.

He said Nurin’s parents were informed of the DNA finding this affernoon.

Nurin Jazlin, 8, a Standard Two pupil of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Desa Setapak, was reported missing on Aug 20 after going alone to a night market near her house at Section 1 in Wangsa Maju.

The body of a naked girl, believed to have been sexually abused, was found by a shophouse owner at Jalan PJS 1 on Monday morning.

Rest in Peace, dear child. Your soul is with God now.

ok, I need to go and cry. This is just so bloody senseless.

———————————————————-

While Europe is abuzz with Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, we in Malaysia have our own missing girl in Nurin Jazimin. Nurin’s missing person poster greets me at the petrol kiosks, at toll plazas, at malls.

It was impossible to ignore the plight of the family. And Seeing Nurin’s father’s pensive face today in The Star’s front page made me blog about this.I hope this post goes out to somebody who can shed a light into little Nurin’s disappearance.

This little girl had gone to a night market near her house in Kuala Lumpur on Aug 20, 2007 and that was the last the family heard or saw of her.

It is unthinkable why people would abduct, let alone do violence to children, but it has been happening again and again around the world. From our own Ang May Hong in the 80s to the high-profile case of JonBenet Ramsey and Madeleine Mc Cann and now little Nurin, we are treated to rather sick evidence of how evil people can be.

I pray she is found unharmed, and soon. Her dad has started a blog that I found thanks to Rocky. Visit http://www.nurinjazlin.blogspot.com/ More information there.

I’ve included all these pics I can find online of Nurin for easier identification. Anyone with information on this poor child can contact 019-366 7607, 013-248 6651 or IPD Sentul at 03-4042 2222.

This must the conversational version of St Vitus’ Dance. Or is it a politician’s? Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was char-grilled by BBC’s Sarah Montague on Hardtalk. I’m kinda late in tuning in, since I didn’t watch the programme, but I managed to catch this online

You wanna listen, go here . Thanks to Wahlau, I get part of the transcript. Thank you…man. Having heard it all, I do have some questions.

 ”The economic growth of the non-malays is faster after the New Economy Policy than before. The share of the economy cake is bigger deeper wider than before. …. Even the Indians have got better household income than the Malays.”

Really, Mr Syed Hamid? The growth of all racial groups were better after the NEP because there was more economic activity, not because of the prescriptions of the NEP. Same goes with the cake. And btw, where did he get the statistics to boldly say that the Indians have got better household income than the Malays. I really would be interested in that information.

“We need to overcome the problem of sensitivities. We wanted to establish the integrated school, where everyone study the language, study the medium of instruction under one school. But here in the particular case, the Chinese does not want. They want a separate school of their own. So now what we have done, in the national school, we have brought in, you can study Chinese, you can study Tamil, you can study other ethnic (languages), you can’t get that in other places. I think we recognize their problems and it is not a problem that we cannot overcome.”

Yes. There is a certain degree of freedom when it comes to learning the major ethnic group’s own languages, in Malaysia. I have to concede that. Malaysia allows that freedom to embrace one’s own culture to an extent that is not enjoyed by some other countries. America tried to “Americanise” all its migrant communities to have a single national identity. Malaysia never tried to homogenise its people, thank God.

Sarah: “Lina Joy, she tried to convert to Christianity but was not allowed to”)

Syed Hamid: ”no no no… I think you have made the whole thing turn into something that is negative. Lina Joy wanted to change her name. She was never not allowed to convert to Christianity, or what ever religion she has chosen. But, the person is born with the identity card. That is a system that we have in Malaysia, the ID. And that ID she wants to change, that creates the problem. It has nothing to do with the fact, that no body has arrested her, and forced her to become a Muslim. To come back to convert back to as Muslim. But the court decided on the basis that you cannot change your name in the ID. But she has got her own choice, she has made her own choice, in wanting to be what she has chosen. I don’t think we stop that. ”

Syed Hamid does St Vitus Dance on this again…rather more jerkily. What do you mean she just wants to change her name? That is just the legal reminder that she is Muslim on paper. You know Mr Syed Hamid that what you answered was rhetoric, and you are lucky to get away with someone rather unfamiliar with most of her questions’ context in Sarah Montague.

If Lina Joy/Azlina Jailani had gone the smae way as Revathi, then think I guess she would have gone through the same “rehabilitation” process. Of course she soesn’t want that.

Now I wonder, what if each time some person professing a certain religion in Malaysia, be it Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or a philosophical way of life a la Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism Bahai teachings etc…want to convert out of it, they are to be given a chance at “rehabilitation” by the religious authorities of his/her existing faith. That would be fair? No. I don’t think so either. Because that kind of a ruling undermines a very fundamental right; an individual’s right to profess and practice his/her religion is between him/her and God.

Now I have always admired the structure and beauty of Islam as a religion. But the way it is politicised and used as a tool for division by short-sighted and bigoted people is not only alarming, but hateful.

We in Malaysia could have (still could if ask me) served as a model nation for racial and religious harmony. I’m not talking tolerance, but harmony. More than a week ago, Bloghouse in Damansara hosted a group of religious figures from different faiths (Taoist monk, Buddhist monks, A Muslim cleric, Christian priest, Hindu priest, a Bahai preacher)to a session of prayers for the health of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was also there.

It was beautiful being part of that occasion where mutual respect and love was so evident. There is no talk of TOLERANCE…only respect and undertanding.

Tolerance, in the words of Nuraina Samad, smacks of tolerating, like…ok laa I wil let you do this or that…cos I can take it. She doesn’t tolerate, she EMBRACES her fellow Malaysians, whatever faith, race, colour…

That kind of coming together can happen on a national scale, if there is no fear-mongering among us the Malaysian public and if there are more people like Nuraina out there.

I was outside running errands most of the afternoon. When I came home, a neighbour said there were tremors shaking the condo.

Didn’t realise it was this bad though. AFP said via International Herald Tribune nearly an hour ago….

JAKARTA: A massive earthquake shook Indonesia on Wednesday, killing seven people, injuring 100 and triggering a small tsunami that hit one city on the island of Sumatra, the authorities said. Tsunami warnings were issued for much of the Indian Ocean region.

The 8.2-magnitude quake off Sumatra badly damaged buildings along the coast and could be felt in at least four countries, with tall buildings swaying as far as 2,000 kilometers away, or 1,200 miles.

It was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, the strongest of which registered at a magnitude of 6.6 and triggered a second tsunami alert for Indonesia, the meteorological agency reported.

Indonesians die by the thousands every year due to strife, earthquake, volcano eruption, floods and in 2004, a huge tsunami. This proud nation has known a lot of suffering. Yet life goes on for its brave, resilient people.

Aaaargh…another Tag! I’m to tell you readers five things about me…like you’d be interested. Anyway, in the interest of friendship (I adore Nuraina) I have to do this.

Tantantaraaaaaaa!!

5 things in my handbag/bag :

cellphone, flash card reader, house keys, hairbrush, lipstick

5 things in my purse :

cash, ID, driver’s licence, ATM cards, pictures

5 favourite things in my favourite room (my bedroom):

Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories

 my 11 year old teddy bear called Abubear

my camera

a bottle of Hadrien’s Nights by Annick Goutal,

my box of grooming stuff.

5 things I would like/love to do :

Buy Mom and Dad a new house Visit 5 places; Tierra Del Fuego, St Basil’s Cathedral, Jerusalem, Ngoro Ngoro National Park, Galapagos.

To learn song mixing and sound engineering. Learn French.

Get onboard an aircraft carrier. Woooo Hoooooooo!
5 things I’m currently doing :

blogging more regularly

networking with ad types

racking my brains for portfolio-worthy ideas

eating my way into Miss Michelin status

trying to get over a heartbreak.

Now I have to find 5 other vics. *Sigh* Here goes.
I hereby do solemnly tag these chicks, drum roll please….

Jellywelly, Avalon, Aishah, Acciacatura and Daphne.

 Heheh! sorry ladies.

Rejoice, fellow Malaysians! Taxpayers are being screwed with some really expensive screwdrivers. In this country of blatant abuse of authority and power, in-your-face corruption and up-close-and-personal intimidation, here’s another dollop of icing on the graft cake.

The Star, which have been plagued by worries about its dwindling weekend circulation since upping the weekend newspaper price by 30 sen, has to give some juicy reading and so it did with The Great Malaysian Screw today.

Here are snippets that makes for riveting reading from the Auditor General’s report.

Among these were technical books consisting 10 titles that had a price tag of RM10,700 and a 3.1 megapixel digital camera that was bought for RM8,254. 

Nice. Here’s more shit where that came from.

According to the report, consultants for the Youth and Sports Ministry had reached an estimated price tag of RM399.67mil for the equipment for the IKBN project which later ballooned to RM767.98mil after two appeals by the ministry for additional allocations. 

“The ministry said more money was needed in anticipation of a bigger student population and that getting equipment from the same supplier meant prices would remain the same. 

“But there was no proof that market research was done to identify the prices of the items and equipment because minutes for the negotiation meetings were not prepared,” the report said. 

It said without the minutes, the auditing team was unable to find out if efforts were made to reduce prices. 

Interesting reading isn’t it? And then I have to see the NST frontpage today where that guy allegedly managed to make RM4billion disappear overnight in a speculative free-for-all in the ’90s (remember?) tell us that this is THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET…..

….and that WE have RM10billion in our pockets. Dei macha! Someone must have forgotten to tell Nor Muhammad Yakcop that EPF is the employee’s money to begin with.

The tenor with a voice that mesmerised millions, is no more. Luciano Pavarotti met his maker today at the age of 71 after months of fighting pancreatic cancer.

What a voice, what a loss. Enuff said for today. You guys want updates? Go read more here. Rest In Peace, old guy.

The New Straits Times quotes once-upon-a-time Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Musa Hitam as saying the government is open and the people are mature enough to discuss racial issues.

 Here’s some excerpts.

KUALA LUMPUR: The discussion of racial issues today reflects the openness of the government and the people’s maturity and does not indicate a breaking down of ties.

Former deputy prime minister Tun Musa Hitam said voices of concern warning that the country was facing a racial crisis were, therefore, baseless.

He was saddened that there were such alarmist views amid the celebration of 50 years of independence.

Musa said these views gave the impression that the historical bond between the races was being tested.

“It appears to give the impression that this country is facing a racial split. There are also indications that politics of fear like that before May 13, 1969 are starting to make their presence felt,” he said in his speech after receiving a honorary Doctor of Political Science degree from Universiti Malaya yesterday.

The discussions are taking place because people are more aware. By people here I mean the general Malaysian public, NOT politicians. The pols are the biggest fear-mongers around.

The government isn’t actually allowing all these discussions, Tan Sri.  This administration is running on autopilot. The head is not governing. Those-who-must-not-named of the Fourth Floor runs the country by proxy, or so they’d like to believe.

Maturity? Whose maturity are you talking about? We already had tolerance and harmony for a long time before you bloody politicians ruined it for us. You want maturity? Start with the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional.

You politicians divided Malaysia along racial lines with the formation of race-based parties long time ago.

By the way, what racial discussions is actually allowed here in Malaysia, Tan Sri? The moment some blogger highlights something in Malaysia, the hordes of imbeciles from Muhamad Muhamad Taib to Zainuddin Maidin starts to shoot off their mouths.

But of course they sound like they’re suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome every time they open their gaps.

 If you must know, Tan Sri, the majority of alarmists come from the ranks of UMNO, especially the fat cats who don’t want any change in the status quo, lest they lose their comfortable girth.

But then you can’t call yourself an alumnus of Malaysia’s oldest university if you don’t already have the intelligence to see the truth of what I’ve said.

Is this some kinda sick irony or what? Read this in the news today. Reminds me of the Depeche Mode song Blasphemous Rumours.  Here goes the chorus

I don’t want to start any Blasphemous Rumours but I think that God’s got a sick sense of humour and when I die, I expect to find him laughing.

Innocuous name for a hurricane that may be hitting the Central American state of Belize by Wednesday, after skirting Honduras, says an AP report.

This is a US Naval Research Laboratory satellite image of the superstorm, already a Category 5.

This is the second hurricane in the Atlantic this season after Hurricane Dean last month. On the Pacific theatre, there was Typhoon Sepat/Egay  that claimed lives in China.

Now, there has been a highly visible surge in the number of hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons in the last few years that makes me quite alarmed.

Al Gore and gang says it may be related to global warming, and the science people support this theory. Read more about global warming’s byproducts here.

What we as a people can do? Change our ways, and pressure our authorities to do so. Changing mindsets is akin to a long march, but we have to start somewhere.

Stephen Leahy has some compelling details that beg you to reconsider the tag “natural disaster” when it comes to storms like this. It could very well be a man-made one.

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.” So says that grandmaster of horror, HP Lovecraft, who gave us the elder god Cthulhu. A writer who understood fear enough to plant in us that insidious idea that mankind is nothing more than a speck of dust, in the greater scheme of things. Humbling, isn’t it?
Fear…that innate response to change, to loss, to deprivation, hurt, threat and God knows what else. Fear, perhaps as important as love but less recognised because of its negative connotations, has been there through the ages and has been as crucial a marker of civilisations, I believe.

If there was no fear, the Great Wall of China would never have been built. Imagine all those peasants and soldiers who were involved in building the behemoth that was the only man made structure visible from the moon. If they did not fear, the wall would not exist. Neither would the Berlin Wall actually.

Without fear, I believe Man wouldn’t have landed on the moon. Imagine the fear of the Americans when the “Red” USSR launched their space programme. Oh…”they conquered space”. That fear in the collective American psyche led to the Space Race that eventually led to Neil Armstrong and gang’s moonwalk. This is the great American Kiasu-ness. (Fear of losing face).

Without Fear, these people would not have been assasinated. Indira Gandhi, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, John F.Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Benigno Aquino and Rajiv Gandhi. All these murders have a common denominator, if you look deeply enough. It’s the fear of losing status quo.

Fear has also made the fortunes of numerous horror mongers from the likes of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, James Herbert, Clive Barker and Anne Rice (though I must say the last two spice their books with sex as well, to be a safe bet for NYT Bestseller List).

These are the bestseller types of course. I can’t however, write of fear and not mention some of these masters who have preyed into head, found my imagination and played merry hell with it.

Montague Rhodes James. (MR James) Any self respecting horror litetrature fan should have read him, or not call himself a horror fan. I had trouble sleeping after reading Canon Alberic’s Scrap Book.  

Henry James. Primarily for Turn of The Screw. It is a debilitatingly helpless feeling you know, the way how unease first creeps in, then it changes to to trepidation and a growing nameless dread, building momentum with every page until you are stuck at that impossible choice of moving on and confronting that terror that has so far reduced you to a sweaty wreck, or just shutting the book. I always moved on, and paid for it. Until today, the creak of an opening door brings me back to Salem’s Lot

Movies like Dark Water  is an excellent example of fear of losing status quo. Yoshimi and Ikuko Matsubara had this unspeakable horror come into their very sanctum santorum, the home.  Think of the humdrum, safe, boring, comfortable place that is home. Think of something lurking there. Something vaguely menacing….is that dripping I hear?

Fear is also, IMHO, a very necessary reaction and natural emotion to threat. But consider this, without FEAR, I’m afraid there is no COURAGE. For courage is not about being fearless. It is about rising above that fear. Just ask Frodo Baggins

This article will be continued…..with some spicy Malaysian examples of fear. Heh Heh Heh!