shahnon.com : Books and Coffee

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

How to Buy and Ship Books from Amazon to Malaysia

Today is kind of a happy day for me because I have finally figured out how to purchase books and stuff from Amazon.com! I know I'm a bit late on this. I always prefer to buy books "offline" but sometimes there are certain books, especially old and used ones, that you can't find it in any of the local bookstores. I've been meaning to buy cheap second hand books from Amazon.com for years but the problem is that Amazon doesn't ship books to Malaysia! But thanks to VpostAsia.com and comGateway.com for providing the solution!

How it works is that the moment you register with any of the two websites above, you'd automatically be given a US address (e.g. Portland, Oregon). So whatever books or stuff you buy from Amazon or any US-based online shopping site, it will be shipped to your US address first before Vpost or comGateway ships it off to your local address. Basically that's the theory.

I haven't tried making any purchase yet. But I have read a number of positive feedbacks from online users explaining the methods and how it works.

Labels: Books, personal

posted by Shahnon # 12:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Let's talk about music

When I signed up to Last.fm 6 years ago I never thought that one day I would find it useful or at least something that I can blog about. So, thanks to Last.fm for keeping my music statistics for the past 6 years. Today's blog post is about my kind of music. I'm not so good in explaining about the kind of music that I listen to for the past decade or so. Some of my uni friends find it a bit odd that I can listen to songs from Siti Nurhaliza to punk rock. In attempting to answer myself, I think the reason lies in the fact that I'm not a fanatic of any genre, though I admit that while growing up, especially in my early 20s, I was heavily influenced by punk rock, emo (eg Dashboard Confessional, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, The Early November etc), indie rock (The Strokes, The Hives, The Postal Service and most other "The" bands), post-rock and a little bit of melodic hardcore (e.g. Alexisonfire and Atreyu).

Punk rock bands like Mxpx, Nofx, The Ataris, New Found Glory, Lagwagon and No Use for a Name were some of my early influences in the late 90s and early 2000s before Anti Flag came into becoming one of my favourite bands in later years. Somehow later, I was exposed to bands like Sigur Ros, Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. And Explosions in the Sky continue to be my all time favourite band today.

Coming back to the chart above, one of the most interesting part is that the top three artists in the list have performed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And guess what, the best part is, I've been to all three of their shows in KL! Explosions in the Sky in 2008. Mxpx in 2009, and the latest, Anti Flag in 2012! Talking about great coincidence eh?

Labels: Explosions in the Sky, Music, Punk Rock

posted by Shahnon # 7:25 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Friday, December 9, 2011

The Never Ending Fixation on the 13th General Election and TMI

Malaysia is probably the most politicised nation state in South East Asia today. I dare say that we are even more politicised that our fiery neighbour, Indonesia. They probably beat us only in having more street rallies, bombings of religious sites and (Malaysian) flag burning demonstrations. And by virtue of that statement, Malaysians are probably the most politicised people in South East Asia.

In other words, we are becoming more Machiavellian than we ever thought! If you don't believe me, just read through the political tweets in TwitterJaya or Facebook postings by the Barisan or Pakatan activist/cyber troopers. By saying that, I am not accusing people who hold a Machiavellian political view are all bad and wrong.

The issue here is that sometimes people tend to accuse their political opponents as practicing Machiavellian politics without them realising that they too are "guilty" of adopting the same Machiavellian tactics. For example, we have become more partisan than ever before to the extent that even facts and truth has taken a back seat in favour of political partisanship. Attack, Misinformation and Damage control are the name of the game.

But, how and when did it all started? Simple. One, the new political landscape in Malaysia post-March 8 General Elections. What kind of landscape change you may ask? Five states fell to the Opposition parties (Perak was taken back by Barisan in 2009). Two, the growing influence of the alternative media, particularly Malaysiakini and TheMalaysianInsider and the increasing popularity of the social media, namely Facebook and Twitter.

Election Date
If there is one thing that is unique about Malaysian politics, it must be our fixation on election date. Glancing through the newspaper editorials, postings in the social media and blogosphere, one should be able to notice that the most talked about question today is; "when is the 13th General Election will be held?"

A couple of months ago, some have expressed confidently that the Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak will dissolve the parliament on 11th November (11.11.11). Their argument - number 11 is Najib's favourite number. But to their disappoinment, nothing happened. 11.11.11 came and went peacefully. More recently, I saw a Facebook posting from someone claiming to have gotten source from the "SB" saying that the next elections will be held in February 2012. While one mainstream newspaper journalist predicted that elections could be held either in March or July 2012.

But the real truth is, I believe, only god knows. I don't think even Najib (to some extent Rosmah) is firm enough about when to hold for an election.

The question now is, why are we so fixated with speculating the election date? Well, the answer probably lies in the fact that traditionally since the era of the Tunku, it is the Prime Minister's prerogative to call for elections. Hence, the speculations and predictions from soothsayers and "Oracles" comes naturally, with many claiming to have gotten their so-called reliable information from their respective sources or perhaps through their own fantasy.

13th General Election
If there is one thing that is almost certain, it's got to be that the 13th General Election is around the corner. The tone of the rhetorics at the recently concluded UMNO General Assembly is evident enough. And secondly, it will be Barisan's toughest election contest ever.

If the previous elections were all about Barisan aiming to defend their two thirds majority in parliament, that ain't the case anymore. Today, it is all about defending Putrajaya - the seat of the federal power. March 8 has somewhat given a new hope for the opposition parties and the people in the sense that the Barisan government is not invincible. They too can be defeated as proven in Penang, Kedah and Selangor.

But if you've been reading too much political news from The Malaysian Insider, then you'd probably be brainwashed into believing that for every new government initiatives, reform policies or political announcements by PM Najib, they were all planned with the forthcoming elections at the back of Najib's mind.

Check out the following headlines and see for yourself TheMalaysianInsider (TMI)'s news report and their never ending "as polls loom". It makes me wonder, what actually "as polls loom" means? Technically it should mean something that is about to happen, isn't it? But in the case of TMI, anything goes.

TMI - Snap polls loom as GST put off again (Oct 13,2010)
TMI - As polls loom, Umno repairs ties with Gerakan (Nov 10,2010)
TMI - Umno postpones polls as snap polls loom (Dec 1,2010)
TMI - Najib pays Felda settlers RM100m as polls loom (Dec 25,2010)
TMI - As polls loom, Gerakan quells dissent in Penang (Dec 29,2010)
TMI - MCA reaches out to young voters as polls loom (Jan 8,2011)
TMI - Putrajaya doles out RM2.5b to schools as polls loom (Feb 10,2011)
TMI - As polls loom, Pakatan moves to repair battered image (July 23,2011)
TMI - As polls loom, Najib warns women against empty promises (Aug 25,2011)
TMI - Gerakan to name new Penang boss today as polls loom (Nov 17,2011)
TMI - As polls loom, Umno delegates swear loyalty to party (Dec 3,2011)

So perhaps by now you should be able to figure out why is it that most Malaysians are so fixated with linking everything that the government does with the next General Elections. To some extent it is due to the alternative media (or rather the new mainstream media) that feeds us with the "polls looming" news headlines!

Labels: Barisan Nasional, Malaysia, Najib Razak, UMNO

posted by Shahnon # 12:09 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Friday, October 7, 2011

Sultan Mahmud Shah vs Afonso de Albuquerque

"There's always two sides to a coin", or so said a popular English proverb. Like everything else in the world, the same goes for history. But sometimes, there are not just two, but dozens of differences and interpretations of history.

No this is about Mat Sabu, Bukit Kepong or Mat Indera or the Communist Party of Malaya, no. That's old news. I've debated and argued (or rather tweeted) about it long enough already on Twitter.

So to those not in the know, this year marks the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Sultanate of Melaka (I prefer the Malay spelling for Melaka), and the beginning of Portuguese colonial rule in Tanah Melayu. What caught my interest to blog about this is partly due to an article in The Star (see image), the Melaka Chief Minister Ali Rustam was reportedly to have remarked that "Melaka had prospered as a nautical haven since the arrival of Alfonso d' Albuquerque" on August 24 1511.

Hang on a second there, YAB. Are you serious? I read it more than twice just to make sure that I got it right. And I marked the keyword in the article- "prospered". So is the Chief Minister trying to reinterpret the history of Melaka by saying that Albuquerque had prospered Melaka? I wouldn't give a hoot if it was just an average Abu or Mat who said it, but this is the Chief Minister of Melaka speaking.

Albuquerque caused the downfall of the most influential trading port in Southeast Asia. His only interest in Melaka was purely to monopolise the natural resources and to spread Christianity.

Chief Minister Ali could have at least shown his appreciation towards the Portuguese heritage and culture without erroneously glorifying (or perceived to be glorifying) Albuquerque, whom with the help from an influential Javanese community leader and Tamil traders, had successfully defeated the Sultan of Melaka's army and subsequently conquered Melaka. Where is his sensitivities?

Let me stress that I have no prejudices whatsoever against the local Portuguese community in Melaka (fact: I have Portuguese blood running in my veins) and I can understand that it is about remembering the Portuguese heritage and culture in Melaka.

The Portuguese community in Melaka have the right to celebrate. But what saddens me more is that knowing the state government has not done anything (please correct me if I am wrong) to commemorate the FALL of the sultanate of Melaka, which to my opinion have had greater historical impact and significance. We should instead be focusing more on the glory and the achievements of Melaka as the most influential trading port in Southeast Asia which hosted international traders from China, India and the Arab lands. Melaka was also the epicenter for the growth of Islam in the Malay peninsular before the Portuguese came and conquered Melaka.

Personally, it begs the simple question; was Albuquerque a coloniser who fought against the last Sultan of Melaka, Sultan Mahmud Shah, or was he now a reformer, in the eyes of Ali Rustam? I think the answer is pretty obvious. He can't be both. I feel that CM Ali could have been more careful in his choice of words.

Labels: colonialism, Melaka, Portuguese, Sultan Mahmud Shah

posted by Shahnon # 11:29 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Tweet to blog

I hate to admit this all the time but the reality is that I've been spending so much time on "free" Twitter and Facebook and leaving this "paid" blog almost unattended. So what I would like to do today is to post some of my selected tweets here.

The issue of Palestine has always been close to my heart. So when the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas decided to go to the UN to seek for the UN's support for statehood or independence, I naturally became excited. Excited at the prospect of finally seeing freedom and justice for the Palestinians who are suffering from the Israeli occupation for almost three generations.And tweeted my thoughts and shared quite a number of articles on Twitter and Facebook, except here. While the majority of the international community are solidly behind the establishment for the state of Palestine, Hamas has been rather disappointing to say the least. Instead of showing solidarity with their fellow Palestinians, they questioned Mahmoud Abbas's intention of bringing the matter to the UN.

Here are some of my random tweets.

i-See..how to negotiate when the coloniser is building mo settlements within your territory. Freedom is fought. Never on a silver platter.
ii- How do you expect peace when you steal your neighbor's house, after a few years only willing to let go maid's room, and without keys. Doesn't make sense.
iii- Dear Tony (Blair), when Israel was formed (carved out of Palestinian lands) there wasn't any negotiation with the Palestinian leadership.
iv- The state of Israel was born in the UN. Why can't Palestine have the same right?
v- The American logic (referring to an op-ed in the Washington Post) that says that Palestinian independence would bring more hardship is just stupid. It is the Israeli colonialism and illegal settlements on Palestinian lands that's causing them hardship

Labels: Hamas, Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestine

posted by Shahnon # 6:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Mobile upload

This is a test
Sent by DiGi from my BlackBerry® Smartphone

posted by Shahnon # 10:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Monday, August 15, 2011

Blogger for Blackberry

So this is my first blog post via Blackberry. I know there's nothing much to shout about. And no, if you happen to reach here searching for a Blogger for Blackberry app, this is not the place. I've no idea why Google hasn't come up with Blogger for Blackberry app yet.

Hoping to post more blog entries soon.

Salam Ramadhan 1432.

posted by Shahnon # 8:40 AM 0 Comments Links to this post