Cow Head Protest saga

I only have 2 videos courtesy from http://www.Malaysiakini.com.



The first video is about a group of protesters against the building of a Hindu temple near their residents, although all requirement has been satisfied. They desecraded a cow head to humiliate Hinduism.



When the Chief Minister from Selangor intended to meet them to resolve the issue they have resorted to threat of killing the men and women who stepped into Section 23. One guy with pony tail is even seen pulling a chair away when an Indian wanted to sit down, causing the Indian to fall.



Here the Home Minister met the group and claimed that they are innocence of the act. Malaysia Boleh!

Note: The videos has been requested by MCMC of Malaysia to be withdrawn because it is deemed offensive by the authority. They are killing the messenger will letting go of the culprit.



This is what happen if none Barisan Nasional hold a peaceful candlelight virgil for peace and harmony.

What is the priority?

I was reading the recent news about the demolision of Kampung Puah Pala in Penang, Malaysia. while I continued to follow up with the event unfold. Memories of my younger age continues to flow back into my mind.

During my younger age of 5 to 6, my father used to bring me to this house situated in a Chinese village at Sungai Besi. The narrow road into the village is pure earth and very often turned into mud when it rained. Travelling by car you can feel the bumpiness as it rocked left, right front and back. All the houses were built randomly near the narrow roads and some in worse shpe than others. There are also many stray dogs that barked at passerbys and some time gave chase to those less couragous children.

The house was once owned by my grandfather and my father lived there when he was young. As the children grew up the family moved further into the city and this house was left vacant. Eventually my father and one of my uncle converted this house into a cottage factory. My father produced formical glue while my uncle made rubber products.

I enjoyed my childhood there exploring the quiet and ghostly part of the house while irritated by the mass numbers of hungry mosquitos preying on my blood. My father worked very hard to earn a living. My father was a one man show and at times he would have to travel out of the village to make deliveries. That left me alone with my uncle workers, the stray cat and at one point the rabbits and Guinea Pigs.

Next to the house were 2 families, one Indian while the other Chinese (used to be the un-official head of the village). I have frequent interaction with both houses but quite shy away from the Chinese family because of the presence of the dogs. I often played with the children from the Indian family because we were of similar age. Although we have very limited verbal communication since I do not speak Tamil while they not Cantonese.

As I grew older (12 years old), I was made to help my father in the operation during my school holidays to expose me to a life of working adults. I often dread going to "work" because of the boredom and inaccessibility to my toys.
Nevertheless, life were pretty relax at the factory as I over see the spinning of the stirer to melt the glue ingredients. At times, I even enjoy the rambutans when seasons set in. On Saturday, my father's friends would gather at the house and then I would enjoy a sumptious meal. To think back, life is still good.

My romance with this house ended when I was about 19 during which a developer came to the village and requested for the "chief". They have bought over the land to develop into a Condominium estate and they would want to negotiate compensation to the villagers. After a few rounds of talks, the compensation package was settled base on the size of each residential units and the amount was a few hundreds to a few thousands. Eventually the village was dispersed and some moved into the new Sri Petaling residential estate near by.

The village was there since my Grandfatrher's time, he came from China when he was 16 and the village I guess would be more than 100 years old by now if it was not demolished.

While it was sad to see the despersion of villages, one must keep in mind the most important aspect of the whole event, which is the welfare of the residents. In the case of my childhood village, the people recognised that no matter what, they are on the losing end of the law.

To start with they are by law squatters even though they made payment to the authorities for the land use and electricity (There was no need to pay for the water bill because the residents used well water). By law, the developer has every right to shoo away the residents. If the developer is willing to negotiate for a deal to vacate the village(for whatever reason), it would be wiser to have the issue settle amicably, because there is absolutely no gain in going against notion.

The residents in Kg Buah Pala can blame the Gerakan for selling away their land, they can blame Lim Guan Eng for breaking his promise and not able to reverse the situation. Bare in mind that all these will not help to bring back their home because even the state government has to respect the law and the court already ruled in favour of the developer.

The event also brought along politicians trying to take advantage of the situation. They voiced out strongly with criticism to the present, past state government as well as the ruling party. They are the "voice of the people". Yet throughout all these criticisms, the "voice of the people" remains a voice and will not help in bringing back the houses. More over, such move only divert peoples attention away from the real issue.

Eventually people move on, the developer get his piece of land legally, the state government focus its effort on the economy, the Federal Government did not even response, the "voice" of the people voice else where, the media redirected into something new and juicy. What's left would be 20 families without a house. This would be the reality, the 20 families have outlived their usefulness, they no longer able to capture more attention and slowly they will be faded away. Their situation would not even put a dent on the next election result.

In my life, I was taught that no one owe me a living, I cannot depend on anyone to feed me. I give the same advice to the villagers, they should be the one to decide for their own fate, if they don't others will decide for them, and it won't be pleasant.

I eat salt more than you eat rice...

I was on the ChannelNewsAsia forum the other day when I came across this thread starter trying to link Japan's stock market performance to the recent Japan election.

Another forumer counter argued on his ideology and he responded with the phrase" I eat salt more than you eat rice..". This made me think about the meaning of the phrase since I am interested in throwing in a prank.

The phrase was originated from the Chinese who are rice eater. The Chinese phrase is actually "我食盐多过你食米”. Literally it means "I eat salt more than you eat rice", it is used to belittle someone who is younger or less experience. Of course for the Chinese where rice is a stapple food, a lot is consumed in a person's life time. So if someone can eat more salt than he eats rice, that person has indicated a vast difference in age and experience.

The problem with this is that one can never eat more salt than another eating rice, unless he is comparing himself to an infant. The catch of this phrase in Chinese is however the word "米", which tells that it is rice in raw form. The cooked rice is known as "饭“. The raw form is hard and difficult to chew, and the taste is definitely not pleasing. So naturally very few people eat more than a few grains in their lives. Thus making it logical.

However, when the whole phrase is translated into English, the chinese word is replaced by a single "rice" which does not specify if it is cooked or raw. So if a person uses this phrase in English, he has to justify by eating more and a single bowl of salt per meal throughout his life. Now, it become rediculous to do so.

So as a response, I replied "take care of your health, and you need to check with your doctor about your Hypertension".