When I was your age, Pluto was a planet.

You can bet i'll be telling my nephew that.

Meanwhile, i have found a new favourite webcomic about a geeky couple and their wacky friends. I think it's the parallels. I can understand them. =)

Acoustic Attack

i Love Last.fm.

I know i've plugged it before but i can't NOT share free music by not-necessarily-well-known-artists (and the famous ones too) that are recommended by a system that recognises what sort of music taste you have? Do yourself a favour and check it out.

It's helping me fill the auditory absences at the office while discovering just how talented the world is.

Damn, i don't think i can be a big superstar singer anytime soon. Got to work on the other options for becoming famous now....

Priscilla Ahn - Lullaby (live version) i think it's amazing how it sounds gorgeous on poor recording quality and live! Check out the original for a more polished version. [the beautiful strings are killing me...]

Secret Heart by Feist. You may know her from 1234 fame (yes, the ipod nano song. Plus in this older blog post. Oops. Found another different but also great version - cos it has Mushaboom tagged on the end =D). Well, she's just awesome and this live version a bit rockier than normal but still yummy.

The beautiful thing about sharing good music is you get it back. Kenny recommended this by a Malaysian who records in her room. =) Just 'cos it's a beautiful song. Smile as sung by KokoKaina

Well, and why not round it up with a popular favourite? So i didn't find this on Last. fm, but Jason Mraz's I'm Yours is such a great song. And sounds better live! (wheee!! less than a week to SingFest '08! ^excited jumping^)

Yay for the internet!

Take me home country road.....

A long time ago, our forefathers toiled in the fields.
'You eat what you grow', they said. And we had rice, fruits and vegetables, and we were content.

Much later, we had rice but we heard that there was more.
'There is bread and grains and fish and spice, and all from the lands afar.'
Why, that sounds enticing. And we were interested, and we tried them all.

Now everyday you walk around the covered streets.
'What to eat? Rice from Thailand? Burgers from America? Pastries from France? Fish from Japan?'
What's the difference? We're getting it ALL from somewhere else.
So much richer, but at what cost?

Well, story-time over, it seems the trend is reversing. People are realising that 'You eat what you grow' is the only way 'You know what you eat'. This article tells of how people are hiring others to work in their gardens so they get homegrown produce without the bother of growing.
You can even pool money to share parts of a cow (imagine the initial bidding - i want the right hind leg, please)

Somehow i can't help thinking that's just missing the point.
Regression or progression of the times?

All about the world's oldest profession

So today i feel like addressing one of the big issues. The circus that is Malaysian politics can get you really caught up in what feels like a reality show or maybe something more akin to 'Meerkat Manor'.

Amidst talk of promiscuity propagated and in fact instigated by thin (not revealing in the conventional sense - just thin) school uniforms, [i still haven't let this one go. Refer to this blog entry if you want to read it] perhaps we are missing what is truly important.

Okay, this is just to lighten the mood a bit. Thanks to Seemikedraw. Found him on Google. i think i'm a fan now.

This headline grabbed my attention today.
Afghanistan: Food prices fuelling sex work in North?

While we can talk about school girls being corrupted into prostitution unworthy of our sympathy, does anybody question why (apart from that genius Malaysian who does it for the money and lifestyle), why do some people get involved in sex work?

What's your idea of prostitution? Google thinks its something like this.

Why do they let men (let's face it - the bulk of sex workers are women) invade their most intimate places and spaces?
How do they face complete strangers who have little if any respect for them and whom, you can almost guarantee, have only sex on their mind?
Why do they put themselves at risk of disease, pregnancy or - in the case of hardline Muslim countries such as Afghanistan - death?
How do they put up with the constant stigma that follows them and their families - they will truly be 'sons of bitches' and 'bastard childs'; 'whores', 'skanks' and 'harlots'?

No, sex isn't all about fun and games.

Quotes like this bring so much more insight into prostitution:

'I have no way of feeding my children other than by doing this disgusting job,’

'I am a widow and I have to feed my five children. I am illiterate and no one will give me a job. I hate to be a prostitute but if I stop doing this job my children will starve to death,’

~ both unnamed sex workers in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, most sex workers are illiterate widows who have nothing else to offer employers but themselves. The recent rise in food prices has meant that leaner times have fallen and, despite the self-loathing and the harm they potentially put themselves in the way of (who cares if a prositute is hurt, or beaten or even murdered? One less social ill in the world), there is no other way to support their families. However, in uber-conservative Afghanistan, this means that your neighbours shun you, women's affairs officers encourage security officers to arrest and punish you and that means the death penalty or imprisonment.

And at the end of the day, your children will still be hungry.

I wish this had a Hallmark card ending where social security, improved human rights' and adult education systems were in place to help these women out of their troubles.*

Unfortunately, Hallmark is only in cards and movies. Real life makes you wonder why some people were born with silver spoons in their mouths while others are forced into corners with only very narrow ways out.

Ye of the silver spoon, i hope you appreciate enough to make a difference.

*There's only a little consolation that the National HIV/AIDS council is going to educate women about the disease and hand out free condoms.

Endangered Species: MEN

So this article states that men may become an extinct species in the future.

Recent studies have shown that men can be redundant in the reproductive process (did you know the penis is just an oversized clitoris?) and, if we really wanted to, we could do away with them once the technology to alter skin cells and other bodily cells into sperm (eeewww...) is perfected.

Picture kindly commandeered from the page containing the article. Thanks to The Age!

So if you're gonna have a kid, try and aim for a female. Why? Because boys may become obsolete! With our capacity to breastfeed and shoot whole humans out of our nether regions, women just seem to be better equipped for this going-it-out-on-our-own thing!

Well, that's all well and good. (a little like the movie Children of Men, which one must watch as a fan of the extremely hunky Clive Owen. Maybe i should start a Clive Owen for James Bond petition)

Personally though, i see more than a few incentives to keeping the men around. Gawd, who would change the lightbulbs and tune up the car motors?
Hahaha.. Oh. And sex. ;)

To the women, love your man but don't worry if he leaves you because biologically he's useless. (soon)

To the men, i hope you appreciate that we still love you although you're redundant. =)

And it's our God-forsaken right to be love, loved, love, loved, love.

~Jason Mraz, I'm Yours

Tea Talk

Just thought it was worth mentioning after reading this article on reuters.
A Japanese woman who was threatened for money at knife-point managed to calm her assailant down by making him tea and having a 20-minute chat.
She gave him close to 100 USD and he ran away as she called the police, but she and her 6-month old daughter escaped unharmed.
Now isn't that a much more civil way to handle things?

Viva La Espanol!

Okay, this is really quite late... but i don't know why i wasn't in the blogging mood earlier.

However, they definitely warrant praise and jubilation! (unless you're a Germany or Federer fan - in which case, sucks to be you!)

Yay Spain national team for Euro 2008! First win in 44 years!

Of course special mention to my golden boy, Torres. *smooches for you*

And poser Nadal. He's only 22? Gosh. Most of my friends are 22. They neither look that hot nor have that much money. *sigh* (except Kee Win.. he's good looking)

Okay, i couldn't help myself. 6-pack and a gorgeous tan!! I think he'd be great to make babies with.

But look, i think Federer's awesome too. And they're both friends in the end so it's all okay...

Hahaha. So, can i be called shallow because my sporting support was given on the basis of who was hotter? *dush* Sorry, Federer, Nadal's bum looked yummier and Torres + Villa? The Germans didn't stand a chance.

Viva La Espanol! I think it's cool that Spanish royalty goes to attend the games. Yay! Be proud of your country! If i was Spanish royalty and i got to sit in the royal box. Hell yeah i'd go! And make sure i got a private audience with the hunks... i mean, the winners too!

Yay for hotness and for making me watch sport!

New life plan: Travel to Spain and find hot, rich men. Yay for beautifying the gene pool!

That's what i go to school for....

"I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.

Mmmm... insightful.
I promise you not all political scientists say things like that. Anyway, he was just talking in relation to the World Values Survey that ranks the happiest countries in the world.

Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.

In other news,

The number of children living in poverty has risen for a second year, a UK government report says.

By the way, the survey ranked Denmark as the happiest country in the world.
Whoopdee-friggin'-doo.


If you're in a mood like mine, perhaps you could use some cheering up, like from here.
*Be warned, clicking will lead to a possibly eye-searing picture. Its funny though*


Have a happy day.

What Irks Me... in a rare bout of patriotic questioning

Alright,

Someday i was bound to blog about it. I suppose what better time than when there are allegations rife of the foremost opposition candidate engaging in sexual activities of a posterial nature.

The whole country is in furore! (again)

Did he? Didn't he?

Was his victim paid? Was he planted there?

Is this just a way to divert attention from the potential swinging of power into the opposition's hands?

Is this really a case of him just liking little boys? (Ah, but as we know, the fathers of democracy back in Grecian day were all into little boys)

Anyway, not for me to say, seeing as we will probably never hear the end of this debacle. (or find the truth in it)

What you may have missed amongst all this hype though, was a tiny column tucked in the papers about how a forum questioning the 'social contract' that exists in the Constitution is tantamount to a seditious act (so someone went far enough to say). But the discussion was held anyway.

A panellist on the Bar Council forum, Tommy Thomas, said:

“To me, it(the social contract) exists; it was the quid pro quo bargain reached by the three communities before independence.
“All that was required of the non-Malays was an undivided loyalty to the new nation. In effect, Malaysia would remain a plural society where racial differences were recognised and diversity encouraged.
“My understanding of it is a formula by which race relations are arranged, a charter for the minority and a bill of rights for the majority,” he said, adding that the key social arrangements were found in the Federal Constitution.

Closer to my heart though, are the views of Dr. Puthucheary:

“Calls simply to uphold the 'social contract' as binding, rather than making a serious effort to understand its evolving meaning and use in Malaysian history and politics, have impeded effective nation-building,”

An article on the panellists' views can be found here

Alright, first of all, as a layperson born into my country, I have always known that

1) I am of the middle classes (therefore not much exposure to race politics. when you're a kid noone cares how your dad got the money to build that nice house - as long as i can come over and play)

2) Since i can remember, Chinese adults say that the quota is unfair and Bumis get lots of privileges. In this country, you make what you can because the government doesn't help you much.

3) I don't personally experience this lack of benefits myself but i DO notice that the Sultans, Datuks and most ministers are Malay.

4) I have never fought with anyone because they are Indian or Malay but I will notice that they are Indian or Malay, not Malaysian.

5) People who say enough times that this country is dominated by only one race and it's really unfair eventually end up moving out of the country.

And that is my cake and i will eat it. Noone questions. There's racial tension yeah. It's not like exploding-in-your-face-i-will-bash-the-next-race-up tension but there's always been undercurrents of dissatisfaction.

“There is no need to discuss these issues because it gives rise to various reactions from the Malays, including creating animosity and racial tension.
“I do not understand where the loss is if these issues are not discussed. No need to discuss,”

so i quote our Prime Minister.

Now that is just irresponsible behaviour.

I cannot believe that living in this country all your life, one can still be completely ignorant to the dissatisfaction that exists. In fact, in the recent elections there were calls from all three races to abolish the racial privilige system to make way for one that was more focused on need rather than race. (but there were also ugly reprisals, so it works both ways)

Look. I am a third-generation Chinese immigrant. Try as you might, only orang Asli can claim to be truly Malaysian. We are all from somewhere else. Do we remember our sejarah lessons about Parameswara? He was from Jawa.

I have absolutely no claim to China. If you left me there alone I would be as lost as if i was in South America. And can my Indian friends truly lay claim to India?

We are Malaysian. There's no two ways about it. This is my home country and there's nowhere else to go. So what's the difference? I have as much right as anyone else born here. What social contract is this? I think the powers-that-be agreed at independence that the 'locals' are given more benefits because they were here first and we seem to have taken up their jobs

.... 50 years ago.

Fair enough, though. If there was a sudden influx of migrants, i'd want to protect local interest too.

But can i just say it's been a little while since then?

Somehow I can't help thinking that all this racialised politics is stopping us from progressing as a country. As Malaysians.

So i might be accused of being seditious but I think that if there are to be benefits for anyone, it should be to those who need it. So away with benefits based on colour or birthright and why not benefits for the poor? Equally?

It may be wishful thinking but my point is that I think 50 years down the line, when we are trying to propagate equality and fairness and one bangsa Malaysia, it is healthy to discuss about how things may or may not be evolving in the country.

To just avoid discussion of something that noone wants to address - are we obliged to accept ketuanan Melayu or is it something written in stone and indeed deserved? Why, it's like the old adage of sweeping things under the carpet.

Thanks to jonnybaker @ Flicker for catching this excellent piece by Bansky (if you've not heard of his street art, definitely worth checking out!)

I mean, not addressing things when we could is why we ended up getting the Middle Rocks after all, isn't it? But Isaac can tell you that story.

[ An aside, while googling stuff to include, it seems i'm not the only disgruntled one. ]

The point of it all is, i'm not really asking or expecting all out change. Malaysia is pretty sweet the way it is - minus some needless developments and scary crime rates - but i think not everyone can feel contented. And i'd be much more willing to defend my country if i knew it was much more willing to address its citizens.

And i shall conclude like the true arts student that i am - Talk it out, people. Bottling up your feelings never did anyone good.