Why Communism doesn't work

I know this is way too late. The world found that out 25 years ago. However it is a indicator of why anything "commune" doesn't work unless you know the people well. Honestly, living with 8 other complete strangers doesn't help.

In my previous postings, I said much about Indians. Last year I went on at great length about my experiences living with a Mainland Chinese. But now that I think about it, at least the MC left me alone to sleep in peace, for all his maddening stunts. The Indians drive you insane day and night.

Music and sound
For some strange reason, Indians think the optimum time (I do calculus) to play their wailing and moaning Bollywood music is 1 am. I'm not joking. Then you have the Muslims with their equally ear-drum shattering music. Honestly, sometimes it takes all my self-restraint to crank up Nami Tamaki's "Reason" to full on my Altec Lansing speakers to drown them out. The only thing stopping me is my fathers advise: "Two wrongs do not make a right".

People who say "Just tell them to Shut the Fuck up turn down the volume" have never lived with Indians. Honestly, some dogs can process requests better than them. I bang on the door and tell them to tone it down. Yes, the volume does go down, but their voice accompanying it goes up. At this stage, the original song is the lesser of the other evil called "The voice of somebody who can't sing".

Why do you think I never do karaoke?

It just reinforces my perception that Asian's can't be educated. I'll give you more proof. here in Brisbane, some of the bus stops in the city (heading out) have been moved recently, due to the construction of the Inner Busway. So they put up signs, notices both in the papers and the place, saying "This bus stop will be closed. The new one is this way". On the day of the switch, the old bus stop was empty. Down the road, the people were waiting for the bus in the new bus stop. Just like that.
Back home, they've made Gambier St into a one way road. Well known. The change was well announced in the papers. But you still get the no-so occasional Ah Beng going down the wrong way down Gambier St. Why? WHY?! Why are Asian's so hard to educate? (keep in mind I'm also one.........)


What is your's is mine. What is mine is mine
The internet was knocked out for a 3 weeks not too long ago, after we hit the limit. Close friends will know how I almost died. The problem with Australia and New Zealand is all their broadband is capped. You only can download a certain limit of data per month. Unlimited plans don't really exist. But Telstra is worst. BOTH your upload and download data is counted to our 30GB/month cap. And when you hit the limit, your connection is cut off for the rest of the month unless you pay $20/GB for the data over your limit. Yes, I hate telstra.

Now 30GB/month might seem a lot. It is, if you are one person using it and paying $200/month. But over 10 people? Each person should get 3GB/month, or we all average about 1GB/day.

I will be honest. I have been keeping that 120MB/day (3GB / 30 days) limit well. I know, because I have a meter which tracks my usage. But the owner came in yesterday, at 9am, and we looked at the meeter, and we had used 1.2GB already! From 12am to 9am, some selfish sod had used up more than one days of our quota!

Now the problem is, no one wants to own up. When you ask if they've been downloading anything, they all claim it wasn't them. Short of employing torture that violates the Geneva convention, I don't think we'd get a answer either. So morale get's low. People start thinking "There is no point me keeping to my limit, when someone will just drain the quota. Might as well go full blast and download all the Nagaserete Airantou ep's I've missed." Instead of working together, people sub-consciously just slack back, trying to get as much as they can out of the communal pool. Downloading as much as we can. Then we get our internet cut off. Which then the Indians crack from the lack of internet. Which they then play their heartbroken Bollywood songs. Which keep me awake..........


Washing at the kitchen (oh oh, yeah yeah)
Now, doing a roster to deal with the (literary) dirty task of washing up sounds nice. But you're making the assumption that people will follow it. Oh yes, when I first moved in, there was a roster. I was on a Friday shift.

But then the Indians started slacking off. Remember my KCCNNB moment? The Indians started shifting the burden to other people, under the excuse of A)work (one of the guys here has 3 jobs.Bastard) B)exams C)Assignments. So they would come up to whoever has unfortunate enough to be in the kitchen, tell them it was (apparently) their turn this week, to wash the 5 day old cups with petri-dish milk. Eventually we got the hang of what they were doing, so we just didnt bother. And this is I'm scared to go to the kitchen. I will never walk into there barefoot. The floor is dirty and sticky. The smell of 5 day old milk, 3 day old curry, 7 day old dhal is overpowering. Try telling them to clean up? They will claim it wasn't theirs. Now I know where the we-send-you-in-circles public service staff came from.

AND DONT ASK ME TO WASH UP. If I do, 4 days later the sink will be back with 3 day old plates, utensils and cups. I AM NOT A SERVANT! I did consider asking them to pay me to clean up, but obviously they'd rather eat dinner with flies and 6 day old fermenting rice in the kitchen than to pay me $10 a day.

I came from the multi-cultural country. I'm well aware of many cultures. I am not racist, unlike Hisham. But if you act like this, how else can I conclude about you?

NDD PRESS STATEMENT

宁华世界动漫社会的人民反对哈卢意深教 (NDD)
Official anti-Haruhiism movement

Ninghua, 25 June - The independent and sovereign government of Ninghua today wishes to express their concern of the confirmed screening of the cult plague-in-disguise Suzumiya Har..., anyway, let's just call it Haruhiism, by Malaysian television NTV7.

In a posting on the offical website of the station and widely circulated, it showed the proposal and final screening of the plague Haruhiism by Media Prima backed and owned Nat Seven Snd Bhd. It would be subbed in the Malay language with the original Japanese language audio track and broadcast at 12.15am, under the "Midnight Anime" banner. Screening is scheduled to take place as often as three times a week.

The NDD movement expresses it's genuine concern and anger over the screening of Haruhiism. Haruhiism is designated by the Ninghua State Department as a plague entity, and that everyone has a moral and legal obligation to destroy it. While we at NDD acknowledge it would be screened at anti-social times to prevent the masses being infected by it, we at NDD view that the fact that Haruhiism was allowed to be shown on national TV is nothing short of outrageous!

We at NDD acting of behalf of the world urge NTV7 and Media Prima to reconsider their controversial and potentially damaging decision to screen Haruhiism in Malaysia. While we recognise the (keris waving) soverignty of the Malayan (har har) government, the actions of the Malaysian government to intervene and stop this are called for.

We at NDD stand by our policy of opposing all Haruhiism overtures.

Author:maybe i should do creative arts..........

Rain and more Rain

I know this is almost blasphemy saying this, considering that we are in Level 5 water restirctions, but......

STOP RAINING DAMMIT!

Poor Brisbane is in a drought. And it's not just Queensland. The whole of Australia. NSW. VIC. WA. SA. I think only NT is the only one left without water restrictions, through rivers of gorg flow freely there..

Anyway, some pic's of the rare rain in this place:


From a bus.


At the Greenslopes busway station


At the Mater Hill Busway station

While this will no doubt be a nice welcome for the farmers...



I'm not that well off. All my clothes are wet. And I have no place to dry it. So if you see me in weird clothes for the next few days, you know why.

Coming soon....

(Click for high res, 845KB picture)


Someone has to help out with the bandwidth costs through.......

And that's one semester

It's only the first semester!

Why you should not share the same server with a government website

Ever since The Borneo Post came into the 21st century, with the launch of their online edition, it has been a boon for overseas Sarawakians like me, to get news from home. The Star and NST have zilch news on Sarawak.

Then it's shadow counterpart, Eastern Times, came into existance after they shut down the Sarawak Tribune. But anyway, that's another story for another day.

The problem with The Borneo Post online through, is that I can never access it before 11am. The server seems to live a 9 to 5 working day. And what time is it in M'sia when it's 11am here? You guessed it!


Which is a shame, as I always have problem accessing it. The page simply will not load for hours, then this comes up. However, I noticed that this error message looked familar.....



Well guess what, it's the same error message when I try to access the Sarawak State government website!
Different websites.Same IP address. >.<

And I don't think it's Jaring's fault either. Yes, the 202.184 IP range belongs to Jaring. I can access Lowyat and NST (both hosted on Jaring), no problem.

Come on man, dedicated hosting isn't that expensive! You get cheaper and more reliable deals outside Malaysia! Even a 1st year Swinburne Sarawak student can get a nice hosting for his clubs website!

There is something wrong with the Malaysian internet infrastructure all-right.....

Edit 1.09pm AEST: I can now access The state government's website and Eastern Times, through Borneo Post online is still down. What, does the internet only start work at 11am in Malaysia?

When the real world comes into a niche world

Saw this while reading The Age. No, it's not Michael Backman on Malaysia again. I thought it was an interesting insight. Reposted blow:

Japanese nerd fantasies may turn to geek tragedies

Socially dysfunctional Japanese "otaku" youths are fighting back, writes Justin Norrie in Tokyo.

THE Japanese have dubbed it the real-life revenge of the nerds.

In Akihabara's "Electric Town", near the centre of Tokyo, "otaku" youths, widely disparaged as socially dysfunctional geeks, have started arming themselves to confront tormentors.

The quiet, fashion-challenged loners, known around the world for fetishising anime cartoons, manga comics and electronics, are packing more than just colourful reading and hand-held games into rucksacks for their infrequent trips out of doors. In many cases, they are packing knives.

Tokyo police were initially baffled at the surge in the number of arrests they made

in the past two years around Akihabara's "otaku heaven", an area crowded with manga and anime stores, costume shops and maid cafes.

In 2005, they detained almost 90 otaku for carrying knives, usually strapped to belts or backpacks. The following year, they confiscated almost as many again, a huge increase on 2002 when there were just three such cases.

The otaku (the word derives from a very formal greeting and is an ironic reference to the awkward way the hermits acknowledge each other) explain that a number of vicious attacks and muggings by self-described "otaku hunters" — generally gangs of thuggish teens — have forced them to carry weapons in self-defence.

Now, it seems, they might enact the violent deeds often portrayed in their favourite manga and anime tales.

Among the 101 Tokyo police patrol areas, Akihabara's otaku heaven now ranks only second on a tally of weapons violations to Shinjuku, where yakuza crime syndicates patrol the notorious Kabukicho red-light district.

"Some people think we are easy targets because of the way we look. They think we won't resist and that because we dress up, the police won't be interested to help us," said 20-year-old Yuri, dressed in a skimpy black-and-white French maid's outfit, a popular accoutrement in otaku culture. Although she did not admit to carrying a knife, she said she had started wearing an electronic alarm around her neck in case of attack.

"Some people I know were threatened, but they did not back down."

It is an unusual development for one of Japan's more unusual subcultures, which has provided the catalyst for a boom in manga and anime appreciation throughout the Western word, especially in countries such as Australia and the US.

The otaku movement began in the 1970s when disillusioned youth started to retreat from society into a fantasy world of sexually and violently explicit stories. It has since splintered into several strains of obsessive behaviour, such as cosplay, where fans dress up in the costumes of their favourite characters — sometimes maids and butlers — and imouto role play, where waitresses play the role of the customer's fantasy younger sister.

Last November, on the day the PlayStation 3 computer game console was released in Akihabara, a gang of youths savagely bashed a 20-year-old university student and stole 45,000 yen ($A440) plus a cash card that they used to swipe another 106,000 yen. The victim required three months of treatment for serious head injuries.

Police say there were 30 attacks by "otaku hunters" throughout the year. In September, they arrested eight male teens who had been roaming the district in three groups. Until the end of May, there had already been 29 bag-snatchings and assaults in otaku shops.

Last week, police met the owners of 40 maid cafes — where assistants dress in frilly uniforms — and asked them to install security cameras.

One offender caught by told police reportedly admitted: "Otaku are weak and they've got money, so we went after them."

A senior police officer with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department told The Asahi Shimbun: "In Shinjuku, many of those caught carrying knives were gangsters or juvenile delinquents. But those caught in Akihabara are usually young people who look serious and gentle."

Interesting insight, no? Click on the link. The original article has a very nice picture.

More "western" ignorance

I could have told you this in 2006:

From the Borneo Post (14 June 2007):

Borneo airline proposed

SAPP says FAX has failed and Sabah should operate own aviation service like Brunei and Singapore

KOTA KINABALU: The unreliable domestic aviation service provided by Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) in Sabah and Sarawak has prompted Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) to call for the setting up a Borneo airline.

“It is time for Sabah, with or without Sarawak, to study the possibility of operating our own airline. With professional and expert management sourced internationally, the Borneo Airline can be profitable and later expand service to regional destinations,” SAPP president Datuk Yong Teck Lee said in a statement yesterday.

“It has been said that a city or country needs a big population to operate a viable airline. But Brunei and Singapore have proven that small economies also can make a success out of its own airlines with vast international networks.

“If need be, Sabah can tap the international aviation industry, work out an alliance with regional airlines like Silk Air and Royal Brunei Airways and fly our own Borneo airline to Singapore, Brunei, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Manila, Bangkok, London and other international destinations,” he added.

Yong, who is a former Sabah chief minister, also suggested that Visit Malaysia Year 2007 should be re-named Visit Peninsular Malaysia Year 2007 because many parts of Sabah and Sarawak have become inaccessible to tourists, both foreign and domestic alike due to the unreliable FAX service.

He called on the Federal government, particularly the Ministry of Transport, to get its act together and give the people of Sabah and Sarawak this basic mode of transportation that is badly needed to get to the vast areas of Sabah and Sarawak.

“This ‘trial and error’ approach by the top officials of the Ministry is doing a gross injustice to the people of Sabah and Sarawak. There have been too many cases of desperation, frustration and tears of stranded passengers at the KK and Lahad Datu airports.

“Having achieved so much development after 44 years in Malaysia, it is shameful to see that our aviation service has gone from bad to worse… even worse than the days of MSA (then known as Malaysia Singapore Airlines) in the 1960s,” he said.

According to Yong, FAX’s poor service is more than just delays and cancellations.

He said there were many cases that warrant investigation on grounds of criminal and civil neglect like flight cancellations with little or no notice; flight delays with no update on the expected time of departure; arbitrarily putting passengers on other unscheduled flights; completely misleading SMS and phone calls like asking passengers to rush to the airport to catch an earlier flight when the flight was delayed for two hours instead; payments being received by FAX via the Internet for flights which were later found to be non-existent when passengers tried to check in at the airport; the Kota Kinabalu FAX office blaming the Miri FAX office; the ground staff blaming the office staff; and in the case of Lahad Datu, airline flights had been replaced by a lousy 10-hour bus ride from Lahad Datu airport to Kota Kinabalu.

“Even the elected representatives and the assistant minister from Lahad Datu now travel two hours by car to Tawau or Sandakan to catch the MAS flight out of Lahad Datu. The loss of time, money and fuel, energy and hardship caused to ordinary people and consequential loss to the economy is incalculable.

“I call on the Minister of Transport and senior officials to try this FAX service. Only then will they understand the sense of betrayal felt by the people in Sabah and Sarawak,” said Yong

*Sigh*
When in 2006 I heard that AirAsia, through it's FAX arm, was taking over the rual air services, I knew there would be nothing but trouble.

Best quotes of the day:
"a gross injustice to the people of Sabah and Sarawak"
"Visit Malaysia Year 2007 should be re-named Visit Peninsular Malaysia Year 2007"

There are some things people are good at. There are thing that work. Then there are things that don't work. Putting a low cost model to the rual air service is something that even I, a normal human, doing Computing in Uni, can tell you doesn't work. And I'm not even doing economics. Or business. What do they teach in LSE? (LSE is Tony's alma mater)

As a Sarawakian, and proud of it, i can tell you many of my country (state?) men do not like the idea of Malaysia. Honestly, KL has to be thankful that we are Sarawakians. If this was the balklands or the middle east we'd be declaring independence right now. And judging from the experience of these two flashpoints, neither side wins.

That is the problem with having "westerners' managing our policies. What these Semenanjung bastards don't know is that air transport is the lifeline of Sarawak. We don't have highways like the "west". Without air transport, literary, many people are cut off from the world.

The rual air service of MAS is not a commercial venture. If MAS ever broke even, let alone made a profit in the operation of the Rual air servce (RAS), it'd be a miracle. It is a service to the people, like schools, public libararies. Not something you try to make money off. It is the lifeline for supplies such as diesel for the generators, cooking oil etc, for rual communities. The next town is a few days' boat ride away. There are no roads to these places. If it wasn't the terrain, it's because all our oil money has been siphoned off to build Putrajaya, instead of our roads.

Even I, with my limited Business knowledge, know that the whole idea of a RAS is 100% directly in conflict with AirAsia's values: low cost, no food, don't expect service, 20 min turnaround time, planes have to be used to their maximum potential, and don't fly when there is not enough load.

The low cost formula (AirAsia, RyanAir, TigerAirways etc) works well when you are linking big cities. And flying planes with jet engines. Where people have a choice. I can choose to fly AA or MAS from KL to Kuching. The former is cheaper, and if there is a delay, I can't do much. The latter is a bit more, but if I was running for a business meeting, I don't care too much about cost. I just want to be there on time. In other words, consumers have a choice, to balance cost with time and reliability.

The RAS is nothing like that. If the plane is empty, they fly. If it's half empty, they fly. For goodness sake, they weigh you before you enter the plane! I don't think they like the idea of a full plane much! But this runs directly against AA's system. They refuse to fly if there is less than haldf a plane. Makes economic sense, but guys in the pendalaman don't give no damn about economics. He just want's to get home dammit!!!

AirAsia's slogan is (was?) "Now everyone can fly". Not if you're on a RAS flight run by FAX. If it's the low season, they put you on another, later or earlier flight, telling you that there is not enough passangers. If its the high season, you can't get a ticket. So, no matter when, you can't fly! (If this was in NZ the consumer tribunal would have fined AA years ago for false advertising). My critics will point out that FAX's slogan is "Affordable accessibility". Affordable? Well, it's probably RM5 cheaper than when MAS ran it, but it's hardly affordable to those who barely survive in the rual areas. "Accessibility"? People in wheelchairs here have an easier time getting into a public toilet than those wanting to get (fly) to Long Banga.

The fact it took us so long to voice out shows how tolerant we Sarawakains and Sabahans are. If it was the "west", people would have run crying to UMNO/MCA/MIC after their first RAS flight under FAX was delayed by 2 hrs. And don't forget, last year, while the other side of Malaysia was in Merdeka Mode, the Sarawak state government had to airlift energency supplies to Bario before they all died.

And what do we get? Some "western" pomp who calls us Sarawakians "focused on maintaining an identity separate from that of the rest of the federation" and "you used to need a passport to enter Sabah and Sarawak [doesn't help intergration]" We are relatively insulated from the other side, and the "west" wrecks so much havoc here. Small wonder why we don't want to open up and let in a flood of Mat Rempits.

Two-thrids there

Yo.

Its been a while.

No?

Its great to be back online. I have a backlog of things I want/have/need to do.

Spent the last 2 weeks studying flat out. Thankgoodness my last paper is spaced out a week apart. I have one nice week to prepare for Systems Architecture. My last paper.

Damn tired. Will only post more when exams are over.

oh, and the anti-haruhiism post? That was floating around in my head for weeks. i just took some dowtime to forget about my exams and rant out against the plague.

9 reasons why Haruhiism is nothing more than a plague

(Foreword: I know this is no "50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi PM", but bear with me on this one)

1) The whole title itself.

First, read it carefully. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱) ( 凉宫春日的忧郁) (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya). For those who have trouble with English here's a definition of Melancholy:

Definition of Melancholy:

• a feeling of thoughtful sadness

• characterized by or causing or expressing sadness; "growing more melancholy every hour"; "her melancholic smile"; "we acquainted him with the melancholy truth"


• a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed


• black bile: a humour that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy


• somber: grave or even gloomy in character; "solemn and mournful music"; "a suit of somber black"; "a somber mood"

The last time I felt melancholic, the world beat me up, slapped my in the face and said the equivalent of "Get out of you pit, you idle bugger!". Suzumiya haruhi stays passive and "meh kwang woung" (ask a Fuchow for this one) and she gets a story written in her name. Someone tell and assure me that the worlds hasn't gone mad?

2) The whole SOS-dan thing

Let's start of with the name in the first place: Sekai wo Ooini moriagerutame no Suzumiya Haruhi no dan (世界を大いに盛り上げるための涼宮ハルヒの団). And you thought having Datuk names for our road names was bad enough. Then there's the whole "Our-aim-of-this-club-is-to-find-aliens-and-espers" purpose of the club. If I did that in life, I'd be banished from school, locked up in a mental instituation and isolated from the world. Honestly, what can a Sekai wo....... club do? Back in my high school days, we had a photography club. I was in it, and I can tell you nothing much happened. Heck, it eventually died a slow and painful death. But that's another story for another day. What is it about alien's that make some people obsessed? I have trouble understanding some of the life forms on this planet, around me, never mind what's beyond the stratosphere.

3) The whole goth thing. And more goth.

My motto has been the same, and always will be the same: never trust a girl in goth. First, they destroy the true meaning of the word gothic (design). Then all they do is look deperssing and moody. My life is a)depressing enough already without anyone making it worst B)I have family members who are passive and moody all the time. i don't need a refelction and a reminder of my life in anime dammit! I use anime to ESCAPE from my life, not to see my life! (I know this section can be applied to other anime (Rozen Maiden comes to mind), but stick with the topic man.......................)

4) The whole ranking thing

If you look at the 2005 "top 100 anime in Japan" list, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu was nowhere to be seen. Less than a year later, in 2006, it's in the top 5! No one wakes up one day and says "Oh good! I'm in the top 5!". For some of us, waking up alive and being in the top 3 billion in the world is enough to keep us happy. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYTHING NORMAL TO BE IN THE TOP 5 OUT OF NOWHERE! The only way this could have happened is by manipulation (think Neon Hanamura), which can only be described as brainwashing, which neatly shows that haruhiism nothing more than a plague............

5) Hirano Aya

I know I'm asking for trouble writing this when there are legions of fanboys, who worship the ground Hirano Aya walks on, are going to kill me for writing this, but I'm prepared to take the risk.

a) She's gone goth. Read point no 3. Never trust a girl, no, ANYONE in goth. Nothing good ever came out of this subculture called goth. First they destroy the original meaning of gothic. The they fill Queen St mall with their ciggratte smoke. They they can't find a job and wonder why. They then live on gov handouts. I mean, not everyone is Hirano Aya. Then they are blamed for sucides. So tell me, whats so great about goth?

b)Thanks to Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, she's gone from "who?" to having a ton of rabid fanboys who spend $100 shipping a disc coated with silicon polycarbonate coated with aluminium and containing her amplitude and frequency Sine waves modulated. (Wonder how many peope will get this bit) And who wants to bet that she has plenty of (wannabe) stalkers?

c)Timeline:

-Hirano Aya is nobody

-Hirano Aya is somebody

-Hirano Aya is is in the credits

-Hirano Aya becomes a goddess

-Hirano Aya goes goth

-Hirano Aya is worshiped by legions of fanboys

Why does this sound so familar? Think: when was the last time you heard this story? A voice actor. A nobody. Just represented by a few words in the credits. Probably no job satisfaction. The seemingly out of nowhere, she becomes a goddess, people worship her, and she goes goth.

People who know me will testify that I'm easily surprised and jumpy. But if it is ever revealed what she has a "Worship Note" on her, I wouldn't bat an eyelid.

6) The whole unknown-to-hero thing

The last time someone went from relative obscurity to being known by the whole world, a couple of planes rammed into some buildings in new york. No, really. If on 9 Sept 2001 I wanted to talk to you about Osama bin Laden, you'd go "bin what?". Today even my grandmother knows THE name and what he did.

I'm not saying that Hirano Aya hijacked the worlds communcation channels to show nothing but her and her songs, but the only way for someone to become so famous overnight without any sex scandals is by brainwashing. What other explanation is there? Just look at the number of Hirano Aya fanboys after mid-2006

Even all that math I'm doing can't describe this graph.

7) Playboy bunnies

I hate them. End of story.

8) Their cockyness

Just look at the "advertisment" for the US release.

They are so confident that their plague will be accepted unopposed, it says "The invasion is here!" If Al-Qaeda took out full page ad's saying "The invasion is here!", people would be running around waving their hands in the air! If this doens't tell you its a plague, what will?

9) The Japanese porn Industry

(Disclaimer: Ninghua does not condone or support any of the links in this section. Nor do I support porn. Read at your own risk. Links in this section are strictly NSFW and NSAW.)

Even the Japanese porn industry is affected. While I know Suzumiya Hahiru Haruhi is not the first (don't get me started on this.........), the fact that Suzumiya Haruhi manged to brainwash a couple of dirty old men says volumes on the whole plague.

Final conclusion: What other explanation, other than being nothing but a brainwashing plague, can explain what Suzumiya haruhi has done to the (anime) world? Nothing! The whole thing screams of "plague!". Only thing is that most people are seudced my Hirano Aya's voice, thus not listening to the warning signs.

Still going strong in Batu Lintang

Small talk: today is the first day if Swot vac. Yet here I am, at 11am, in the library, and finding a computer is impossible in this place. Where are these people coming from?!


Today officially marks the day I have left Batu Lintang for 1.5 years. it wouldn't be too long that I'd have left it for 2 years. *sigh*

The thing is, some of the best memories I have are in Batu Lintang. Usually I'd do and ode to the class of form 5, 2005, but I'm afraid if I do it I'll loose some friends I have made over the years. So I'll pass.

Still, its nice to know that I am still part of the Batu Lintang Blogging Fraternity.

Batu Lintang what?

Well, according to pal Jonathan Teo, who has so kindly complied a list of BL (and ex-BL) bloggers, on his "personal interesting read scale", the top 5 are:

1. Daniel Chong (www.danielchong.blogspot.com)
~ Stop squealing. I know I said that you are BL's current celebrity blogger, and that is the whole truth. The boy with the crooked teeth has a wicked sense of humour which is kinda kenny sia-ish, but got his own flavour to it. Unlike me, he seems to bring his camera everywhere and relies on visuals rather than words to keep ppl interested. Personally I love looking at photos over reading, but I am very malas
~ Did I mention he's from OTS??? woohoo!!!!!

2. Sophia Ngiaw (www.sophiangiaw.blogspot.com)
~ Sophia. I remember this girl as the story teller in primary school. Extremely talented in Public Speaking. Love her coy sense of humour and I find myself involuntarily smili8ng everytime I read her posts
~ Another fine product of OTS

3. Kelvin Chiong (www.thekelssandvinss.blogspot.com)
~ Last year was the school's best athlete or some other hick ass award. I don't really know him but one day I stumbled over his blog and has been a rather frequent visitor since. He's currently in the U.S. bedding any girl he sees I think...kidding
~ His mom is Wong Mi Ing, our school's former winner of Tokoh Guru

4. Timothy Lim (www.ninghua.blogpot.com)
~ My friend here is currntly freezing his ass off in New Zealand. Lucky dude. Computer whiz

5. Awang Emir Naim (http://dingisrich.blogs.friendster.com/arrogance/)
~ Haha. This clasmate of mine, when you read his blog, please dont take what he says too seriously. It's just his brand of humour which I love very much
~ Bio expert...how the hell can anyone like bio??? Sheesh. I already know how to reproduce enough already thank you very much

6. Jane Hii (www.jane-hii.blogspot.com)
~ Don't know her at all. She's Jeremiah's sister...and we all know Jeremiah. Love him or hate him, his sis is hot...and a talented blogger too I guess...

Its nice to know that the in the top 6, there are 2 ex-BL'ers. me and Jane Hii. And how does one come to the conclusion that one is hot if he doesn't know her?

Anyway, I digress. It's just nice to know that i didn't leave BL as just another person. I'm still remembered! And man, if spending 6 hours on SQL in the labs doesn't make me competent in computers, what will?

It's just that......I'm not in New Zealand! (anymore.......at least)

Happy Gawai to all

I'd like to take this time to point out an article written by Sim Kwang Yang 2 years ago.

'Gayu Guru, Gerai Nyamai!' – The forgotten voice
Sim Kwang Yang

SIM KWANG YANG was DAP MP for Bandar Kuching in Sarawak 1982-1995. Since retiring in 1995, he has become a freelance writer in the
Chinese-language press.

As I write, here in Kuala Lumpur, on the eve of the harvest festival in
Sarawak and Sabah, I am flooded by a consuming sense of painful
nostalgia.

I close my eyes and imagine the frenzies that ferment well-hidden
beneath the national narrative as told in our so-called national media.

Hoards of young men and women would be boarding MAS and AirAsia flights on their homeward bound journey back to their kampongs in the Land of the Hornbill and the Land Below the Wind. Like the legendary salmons, they will unerringly find their way home, no matter how far they have scattered.

For the rest of the long year, they have toiled in the factories of Johore Bahru, Klang Valley and Penang, contributing their coarse labour to the bludgeoning industries in harsh jobs often shunned by other, more pampered and more complacent, Malaysian youths.

Here, they are treated by their employers and the local communities
with roughly the same level of regard reserved for Myanmar, Indonesian and Bangladeshi workers. They are useful and affordable, not always
satisfactory, and always alien.

The sense of alienation is probably mutual.

For these legal economic refugees from East Malaysia, the low level of
industrial development and lack of jobs back home have driven them
westward, to the land they refer to as "Malaya". For many first time arrivals, the cluttered geography, the furious pace of life, the strange and
intimidating faces make them feel like entering a different country.

Biggest day in the year

Back home in Sabah and Sarawak, the term "Orang Malaya" is often
uttered with an undertone of contempt and distrust. Here, in the peninsular side of the nation, they have to live and work for and with Orang Malaya. They are strangers in their own country.

Except for the few who have joined the middle class here, most of these
young men and women who have toiled all years in low paying jobs would
want to go back to their homeland for the harvest festival. It is simply the
biggest day in the year for them.

That the harvest tops their annual calendar events is itself symbolic
of the unique identity of the natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

All of the 70 ethnic communities in Sabah and Sarawak - defined by the
outside world as "indigenous people" - live by their land. The Penans
who still roam through the jungle by hunting and gathering are the only
exception.

They have survived in the jungle for centuries on their own through
different governments by what economists and state planners would
classify as "subsistence farming". By the standards of modern economic theories, the term "subsistence agriculture" carries with it a certain derogatory sneer.

In truth however, the "tribal people" of Sabah and Sarawak engage in
"self-sufficient farming." As long as they have their land, they will never perish. Their precious and bountiful land will always yield rice, their
staple diet, and all else is furnished by the jungle, through hunting,
gathering, and fishing.

With their forest and their land, they have not needed the outside
world much in past countless generations.

In their worldview, farming is never the kind of economic activity
envisaged by Adam Smith, Menard Keynes, and Milton Friedman. Farming is a whole way of life, from which you do not retire.

An old Iban man in his 70s once told me: "We Iban must grow rice." He
still grows and harvests his rice, and every now and then, presents me with a few kilo of his surplus as a gift. I have yet to meet a fat person in those traditional farming communities!

The farmers of Sarawak and Sabah are natural bio-geneticists. Like all
farmers throughout Asia, they have learned to mix numerous strains of
rice through the centuries, to give the best quality and yield. I dare
declare that the reddish Iban rice is a far superior stock to your expensive
Thai fragrant rice. (The economists would probably want to advise them about intellectual property rights.)

Long before the laws of the new nation-state was born, the indigenous
communities in Sarawak and Sabah already had their own complex systems of communal customary rules called adat, dealing with all aspects of their socio-economic activities. Land matters feature prominently in these customary laws.

Fascinating Iban myths

In the case of the Ibans, land rights as defined by their adat are
based on the custody and usage of the land, rather than the proprietary
ownership of land. There is an assumption that nobody can really own the mountains.

Anybody can lay claim to a piece of land after he has cleared away the
primary jungle for planting purposes. This whole system of claiming
native customary land rights was terminated in 1957.

A whole legion of folk lore and myths were born from their natural
universe. I have found Iban myths particularly fascinating. They have a myth of creation, and legends of heroes and titans which bear some resemblance to the ancient Greek myths.

Since the Ibans have no written language, their myths and legends are
handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. The telling and retelling of stories, sometimes through the lyrical form of the Sampi
recitals that go on for hours at a time, make the Ibans great orators.

Just like the ancient Greeks who worshipped the gods of Homeric epics,
the Ibans also worship the gods of their myths. To call them animists
merely is a little unfair. They certainly have a sort of pantheistic idea, in
which the jungle and the land are alive with spirits.

The performance of religious rites is particularly crucial on the
occasion of the harvest festival, especially the thanks-giving ritual of miring, in which offerings are made to the earth god Pulang Gana.

Dramatic changes

The harvest festival that falls on the first day of June every year is
called the Hari Gawai.

Actually the people of Sarawak - and probably Sabah also - celebrate
harvests on different days. Right after independence through the
formation of Malaysia in 1963, the new governments of these two states fixed June 1 as the Harvest Festival Day, in recognition of the prominence of those unique indigenous people found nowhere else in Malaysia.

Independence has brought dramatic changes to the indigenous people of
Sabah and Sarawak. By and large, the physical development that has been undertaken by the federal and state governments has improved their lot. Many have joined the rank of the urban middle and professional class.

Nevertheless, 41 years after independence, these real Sons of the Soil
in Sabah and Sarawak are finding themselves increasingly trapped in a
living contradiction.

People discussing national politics tend to forget that the brand of
Malay ethnic nationalism practised by Umno is only applicable to the
peninsular states of Malaysia. In Sabah and Sarawak, the Malays form a small minority of the population there.

Failure of political parties

By the logic of ethnic nationalism, political power in Sabah and
Sarawak should be in the hands of the non-Muslim natives. In the last four decades, through successive prime ministers, the effort of the federal government has been such as to ensure that this logic is subverted by various machinations.

In the last twenty years or so, there have been sporadic attempts to
re-assert the logic of dominance by the majority race. PBS in Sabah
represented the rise of ethnic nationalism among the Kadazandusun
people.

The PBDS in Sarawak was the vehicle of what they called "Dayakism",
seeking to reassert the prominence of political power for the Dayak people. Obviously, both movements have failed in their original objectives, despite their early success stories. Today, they have succumbed to prevailing political realities, and have rejoined the BN stable. Both have since been plagued by internal party strife.

Sadly, their failure is very much reflected on the ground. Many
educated Dayak people I know refer to themselves as second class natives. Some see themselves as third class citizens, after the Malays and the Chinese. Although they form the majority of the racial numbers in Sabah and Sarawak, they have been relegated to the fringes of political power.

Their customary land rights have been eroded and steamrolled by new
legislatures. The supply of good farm land is getting scarce. In many
places, the encroachment of logging, plantation schemes and public
development projects has sparked off prolonged and acrimonious
conflicts. Land remains as the most volatile political issue in Sabah and Sarawak.

Modernisation has also brought to bear much pressure on the native
traditional way of life. Farming in the traditional sense, is no longer
seen as a viable alternative for those young people educated in Bahasa
Malaysia, often in boarding schools away from the bosom of their villages.

A quiet but massive exodus has taken place in the last few decades in
Sabah and Sarawak. Numerous young men and women have been swarming to the cities and towns, first in Sabah and Sarawak, and now in the peninsular growth centres in search of better paying jobs.

In many Iban longhouses that I have visited, I found only old people
and young children. I got this eerie feeling that the whole community had
been reduced to an exhausted past, and an uncertain future.

Naturally, without the younger generations to inherit their rich
cultural legacies, traditions are dying. The ancient crafts of making boats,
building longhouses, weaving, dancing, tattooing, and native art are now dying fast. Even the whole oral tradition of telling tales and myths is
disappearing.

Welcome home, children

But some traditions do persist.

As I write, in numerous villages scattered throughout the vast
landscape of Sabah and Sarawak, the joyous sound of rice wine brewing accompanies the sense of happy anticipation. The thought of loved ones coming home for the harvest celebration - from the distant land called "Malaya" - is cause for killing the fattened pig and pouring out the best brew.

That is partly why the pull of the land is so strong for those young men and women who have scattered to far-flung corners in search of the mighty Ringgit. When they go home to the sumptuous spread awaiting heir arrival, they would once again be treated like princes and princesses of the soil.

Then the Ibans will happily greet each other, "Gayu Guru, Gerai Nyamai!" It does not matter that the Malaysian nation and the rest of the world ave forgotten their voice, as long as they still have it.

"Agi idup, agi ngelaban!" (While you still live, you fight on.)'Gayu Guru, Gerai Nyamai!' – The forgotten voice
Sim Kwang Yang

SIM KWANG YANG was DAP MP for Bandar Kuching in Sarawak 1982-1995. Since retiring in 1995, he has become a freelance writer in the
Chinese-language press.

The "west" is at is again. We've just traded one colonial power for another. But let's face it, the Brooke's and British weren't perfect. Charles Vyner Brooke spent more time in London than Kuching, living off the wealth of Sarawak. But at least they left behind:
a)mission schools
b)christianity
c)sensible road names
d)reservior park

Then the "west" came in and:
a)destoryed the original structure of mission under the flimsy excuse of "national intergration"
b)Everything is Islam-Islam
c)You thought that Kereta Api Road and Penrissen road was good enough. But no! Its now Jalan Tun-something-very long and Jalan Something-awi-sli-what-makes-you-think-I-can-remember.
d)kereta potongs and Ah Longs everywhere. not to mention the triads controlling Travillion.

And by the way, what happened to the state level Gawai open house?