Fishing KK 2011

After more than 1 year of waiting, we will depart KLIA for KKIA this Thursday morning for a 3D/2N fishing on the 7 Star vessel. this time round, there will only be 7 of us since there were 2 rather last minute pull out due to unavoidable circumstances.

We are hopefully better prepared this time round and the wish and aim is to do battle with the monsters of the deep, although there are more who secretly harbor desires of table sizes more than the monsters.

As usual, we are armed to the teeth; this time round we have pooled our rods inside a rod holder to lessen check in weights so that we can carry more fish back to KL.

We shall see....

RIP

My mother in law passed away on the 20th April 2011, after a long and courageous battle against cancer.

She first encountered cancer in 1988/89, and has a masectomy and chemotherapy. She recovered and went on for another 20+ productive years.

She may have lost the physical battle against cancer, but I believed she has won her spiritual battle.

May she rest in peace.

Unique copra drying house/barn in Kudat

According to a book 'The Hakkas of Sabah', there was constant reference to the innovative spirit of the early settlers who came from China to eke out a living from the rough tropical jungle.

One of the more unique creation of these hardy people was the structure built to dry their copra/coconuts. The structure was a 'long house', with roofs that can be completely opened. In hakka, it is known as a 'sai pang', literal translation simply means 'sunning/drying floor'. The roof can be immediately closed back if rain should comes suddenly, as it often did (or does) in Kudat. The lower ground floor was used for rearing pigs, chickens, or the ever useful, faithful and trusted water buffalo. (Maybe one day 1 will blog about a water buffalo that my grandfather used to have.)

These structures were apparently unique to the Hakkas of Kudat and have never been found in any other place or society in the world.

Unfortunately, there are not so many of such structures left since copra is no longer an industry that is sustainable. The rising importance of 'oil palm' has replaced most of the coconut plantations. Small scale coconut farms have all be sold to large companies that manage/own huge acreages of oil palm.

In a recent trip back to Kudat, I took pictures of one of these structures that is still in use.

Have a look.





In the olden days, the roofs that open up was thatched with attap material and not zinc sheets.

I remember a very long 'sai pang' in my maternal grandparents house in a coconut estate. There always seemed to be copra drying out in the sun on the upper deck. unfortunately, like most other 'sai pangs', it is no longer there...

Fuel Consumption

On a recent trip, after fueling up to full tank, the on board fuel consumption displayed an incredible range of 1000+km with the full tank. The car was cruising on auto cruise at slightly above 110kmph, and for the first time, showed this range.

Of course, the distance of 1000+ km was not achieved, but, is this something possible?

Land Rover LR4 "Pathological Liar" | Land Rover USA

In the 70s', the only type of vehicles that would be able to ferry passengers between Kudat and Kota Kinabalu during the monsoon season were the Land Rovers. In those days, these Landies were aluminum clad, ladder frame chassis, incredibly hard suspensions, and as basic as possible with very little hint of luxury.

These Landies would be required to ford swollen rivers, traverse slippery slopes and hopefully complete the journey in one go, without breakdown somewhere and all within 5-6 hours.

The new Land Rovers are as luxurious as theye could possibly be. And judging from the following commercial, safe to be in....

It's quite funny.... Have a laugh..

Mercedes-Benz.tv: ‚Drive&Seek' - The Movie

This Mercedes Benz commercial was obviously shot in Malaysia.

Question is why is it that in real life we do not have the following:

- traffic free roads on a banking day?
- such efficient police force?

See for yourself...

Tsunami ravaging Kesennuma port

The initial trickle somewhat like a passing wave turned into a deadly torrent of unstoppable proportion within the span of less than 5 minutes. Whole building including innards swept by the water.

My heart goes out to the resilient spirit and detrmination of the Japanese people.

How To deStress

A friend sent this... perhaps should try out a few of the recommended actions one of these days... I love the last one!!!

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

2. On all your cheque stubs, write ' For Marijuana'

3. Skip down the street rather than walk and see how many looks you get.

4. Order a diet-water! whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

5. Sing along at the opera.

6. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream “I Won! I Won!”

7. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the car park, yelling “Run For your lives! They're loose!”

8. Tell your children over dinner, “Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.”

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity

9. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WHERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

Prof. Lim Chee Seng

Prof. Lim Chee Seng was a person of few yet many words. By few words since in the years that he sang as a bass with the Sanctuary Choir of Trinity Methodist Church Petaling Jaya,he seldom poked fun at others, or the conductor, unlike the rest of the back row recalcitrant basses who are/were always up to mischief.

Professori Lim, as he was known to us, will always be the steady one; calm and smiling no matter how hard the rest of the basses struggled with the music score.

And, i guess that will be how most of us basses will remember the Professori.

BUT, there was a much bigger and encompassing sphere of the Professori that we did not know. He was absolutely passionate that Malaysia as a country should go beyond race and that perhaps one day, all ethnic groups in Malaysia will be called 'Bangsa Malaysia'

I remember reading the article below in The Sun newspaper, and during choir practice how Professori Lim wanted to say more than this.

Listen to what he said..


As the nation celebrates 50 years of independence, it is not out of place to ask whether we are, in fact, one whole or several parts. Are we one nation or several "inter-nations" living under one roof?

Several crucial issues of constitutional significance have cropped up recently to focus the minds of all Malaysians on the subject of what it means to be a Malaysian.

The timing could not be better, when we are all looking back to that August day in 1957 and looking forward to the future to assess the state of our federation and nationhood. We are all actively thinking about the meaning of being fellow citizens in a modern nation state.

Some experiences, as the great Samuel Johnson said so memorably, can concentrate the mind wonderfully. As our nation turns 50, will it, if the world does not end before that, turn 100 or 500? We pray and hope that the country may long continue but as the ruins of some failed states and nations should tell us, nothing can be assumed or taken for granted.

I recall a dialogue session on a proposed national TV policy in October 2005 at the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry. There, someone who used to be very high up in the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) declared that there was no such thing as a Bangsa Malaysia. Indeed, how can there ever be one when dominant and prevailing structures endlessly reinforce our separate-ness and racial identities and insist that "bangsa" must always mean "race" and not "nation"?

The very word for "nation" in Bahasa Malaysia is problematic. "Bangsa" is at once the word for "race" and "nation".That is how the term is glossed in the Kamus Dewan (DBP Dictionary).

As a term, it provokes the lexical confusion that similarly plagues the Chinese translation of the word "sin" - "cheway" in Hokkien, meaning at once "sin" and "crime". No wonder many people cannot admit to any sin because they see themselves as truly never been guilty of any crime as spelled out in the Penal Code.

The lexical confusion is not just in Bahasa Malaysia but also in Malaysian English. Some of this confusion is institutionalised in the names of some major political parties in the country. Why is MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) not CMA and MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) not IMC? If one must refer to race then, members of MCA should be Chinese Malaysians and not Malaysian Chinese.

I remember a conversation in Calcutta when this question first hit me like a thunderbolt.

I was Visiting Professor at the Centre for Advanced Studies in English in 1995. Some colleagues were talking about the exchange of academic staff represented by my presence in Calcutta and someone remarked that there were no Indians teaching English at the universities in Malaysia at the time, though some were to be found in Singapore.

Without hesitation, I mentioned K.S. Maniam in my own department only to realise instantly that we were talking at cross-purposes. By long habituation, I had automatically referred to a fellow Malaysian as "Indian" whereas my interlocutor was talking about fellow Indians from India. I have had to learn to speak of all Malaysians as Malaysians, pure and simple, and to drop all reference to race.

K.S. Maniam himself explores this situation in his excellent novel, The Return, which is read in upper secondary schools in the country as part of the English Language syllabus. Ravi's father, Naina, desperately searches for his place in post-Independence Malaya. It is a search that ultimately ends in despair and madness. Unhinged, he imagines being praised by Mahatma Gandhi for having done well. However, he is told by Nehru to go away - to cut loose from India. He then imagines playing golf with the Tunku and being reassured about his place in the new country: "He told me not to worry. Everything would be all right."

But everything isn't all right for Naina. As he slips even more deeply into madness, he still struggles for a synthesis that prompts him to "recite a rhythm mounted on Tamil, Malay and even Chinese words".

The search for a Malaysian identity and consciousness also underlies both of Lloyd Fernando's novels, Scorpion Orchid and Green is the Colour. Although ultimately the quest remains unfinished (there are race riots in both books), the end is pursued with seriousness and tenacity. The message clearly is that we need to seek the elusive Malaysian-ness through every avenue open to us, in big ways and small gestures.The cabinet's decision to refer to Bahasa Melayu as Bahasa Malaysia is one such small gesture.

I have always thought that the pedantic insistence of linguists on calling the language Bahasa Melayu was mistaken.

One can be correct without being right. Would the Indonesians call their language Bahasa Riau? Bahasa Indonesia is, infinitely, more inclusively national. If linguists choose to be pedantic in insisting on Bahasa Melayu, one can only say that it marks the National Language as the language spoken by a section of the population, albeit a large section, and misses the inclusion of the whole population of Malaysia.

In the 21st century, should not less be made of the racial labels and more of the nation as a whole, less of component parties in the government and more of the Barisan Nasional?

Similarly, in the Opposition, shouldn't less be made of different parties along racial and religious lines and more of the truly Malaysian parties involving all Malaysians?

Are we overdue for a structural change and a paradigm shift in our mindset? Should we not all think of ourselves as belonging to one nation, first and foremost? When will the dream of the great and true visionary of Malaysia, Datuk Onn Jaafar, become a reality?
(Written by Prof. Lim Chee Seng as published in TheSun in 2007)


(Professori Lim passed away on the 7th February 2011)

PM's wife OFFICIAL visit

Malaysia must be one of the very few, if not the only country in the world where the wife of the Prime Minister can visit another country on an 'Official' capacity even though she is not in any 'official' office apart from being the wife of the Prime Minister.

The last time time I am aware of, the wife is not a minister, or an ambassador, elected officer, office bearer of any department, head of any government department. Last i know, she is the wife of the PM.

So, how can she represents Malaysia for official visit to another country???

See here.

The news report seems to equate her with the Yang Di Pertuan Agong!!

Someone wants to explain this??