..Lat & Easy: US Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama in Malaysia?

In previous blog entry, I missed out another one of the most important feature in the NST; Lat's cartoons. Picture above is one of Lat's weekly cartoon in the NST. It features Democrat presidential candidate, Barack Obama, paying a visit to Malaysia (?)

Unlike Lat's other caricatures, this one really took me a while to understand the underlying message behind it. It looks pretty straight forward - Obama entering a Malaysian house with all his supporters holding banners and placards standing outside the door, the Atuk turning on the tv news, one Indian lady shouting, "Eh, Obama..!" and the surprise face from the rest of the people in the house. One character slightly missing here is the Secret Service agent on the far right, wearing sun glasses. Whatever it means, one thing's for sure, it shows that Obama's popularity has reached our shores. He is definitely the more popular candidate comp…

..Bright Eyes - Cassadaga


..Conor Oberst (c) and the Bright Eyes on stage (image source: isolation.tv)

Darn it. I'm 14 months late. This album was released on April 2007. Well, it's definitely not easy to keep track every single updates when you have close to 500 bands in collection. Out of curiosity, I googled the term 'Cassadaga' and found out that it is actually a native American word meaning "Water beneath the rocks". Anyways, I've read the review of the album from Absolutepunk.net, and it looks really good. Can't wait to finish downloading it. Yay, another good music to my ears. Hoping that it could be better than their previous album "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning". But I doubt it'll be as sucky as New Found Glory's.(all following albums after "Sticks and Stones")

"Journalist Azlan Ghanie wants to make Malaysia the martial arts center of the world. In order to achieve this, he produces a martial arts magazine and teaches his own brand of silat."


Seni Beladiri Editor and the Guru of Seni Silat Melayu Keris Lok 9, Azlan Ghanie was featured in The Star Online today.

I had the chance of meeting him four years ago in KL when I participated in one of the many seminars organized by the Silat Melayu Keris Lok 9, the "Seminar Pahlawan Melayu Pahang, Adat & Adab Keris", which was then officiated by the Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan Pahang, Dato' Hj. Abdul Wahid. I've been meaning to resume my silat practise/training since I graduated from uni three years ago, but sadly due to other commitments and er procrastinations perhaps, it didn't happen til now. :p


..Click to watch the video

On another note, for those Astro History Channel lovers out there like myself, you must've probably watch or at least saw the ads of hit show…

..Goalscorers Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder celebrate (©Getty Images)

It is not that often that I blog about football, but today was something extraordinary. The Netherlands played one of the best game in Euro 2008 so far, trashing World Cup 2006 finalist, France 4-1. They started out pretty slow in the first half even though they control most of the game.

The Dutch only began to built up their momentum in the second half, when Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie was brought in. Their counter attack was simply superb. The fourth goal by Sneijder could be one of the best in the tournament. It was unbelievable how he rammed the ball into the net within such an acute angle. With this second win, The Netherlands booked a place in the quarterfinals.

It is interesting to see two World Cup finalist, Italy and France battle among themselves to book the second spot for the quarterfinals. But should Romania beat The Netherlands in their final group match, both Italy and France …

The time has finally come for me to say goodbye to New Straits Time (NST). Mom has decided to stop buying NST and has told the newspaper vendor to replace it with The Star. A bit of mixed feelings actually cos this is the paper that I grew up with. Lazarus Rokk, Khalid Redza and few other Sports editors are some of the names which I can still recall since my primary school days in the early 90s.

NST today is no longer the same as during Dato' A. Kadir Jasin's era or the previous Group Editor in Chiefs before him. NST used to have a lot of good columns and articles to read, but not anymore. Save for Johan Jaafar's weekly Saturday column, I don't find any other column worth reading by the rest of the NST columnist, including the writings by the so-called Singaporean agent, Mr. Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan.

The next main factor, is obviously due to their endless attack toward former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir. Never before in the history of NST, for as long as I can r…

Bernama: Nation State Concept Will Never Threaten Malay Rights
By Soraya Jamal

KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 (Bernama) -- The nation state concept will never water down or dispute the Malay supremacy as the rights of the Malays is well entrenched in the Constitution.

Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM)s senior fellow for the Centre for Media and Information Warfare Studies (CMIWS), Prof Madya Munis Paran told this to Bernama, here, recently.

"The position of the Malay rulers, Bahasa Melayu as the national language, Islam as the official religion and the special rights of the Bumiputera is well enshrined in the Constitution. The concept of the nation state integration can never dispute whatever is written in the Constitution", he said.

Munis Paran said in the nation state concept, the 'state' is an organisation created by the people and should exhibit four features - the sovereignty, territory, population and the government.

As for the 'nation', it refers to a group of people …

I've finally finished reading Jimmy Carter's book (left). It is definitely worth reading I would say. The book is written in an autobiography style based on Carter's experience in propagating peace in the Middle East as President of USA in late 70s to date.

As a short review of the book, it is clear that it is the Zionist Israeli government (I shall mention Zionist Israelis here as there are a few minority group of peace loving Israeli citizen and Jewish rabbis who are against the Israel's imperialism policy in Occupied Palestine) who does not want to establish peace in the Holy land, because peace means; withdrawal of Israeli armed forces in the occupied Palestinian territories and the dismantling of the illegal settlement in Arab lands in occupied Palestinian territories. If this were to happen, it would halt the Zionist goal of creating a 'Greater Israel' comprising the current state of Israel plus the West Bank, including the whole of Jerusalem (Baitulmaqdi…

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..Coldplay used the Liberty Leading the People (French: La Liberté guidant le peuple) painting by Eugène Delacroix in commemorating the French Revolution, as their cover album.

Here's another much awaited new release by one of UK's best band, Coldplay! According to Wikipedia, the new album is due to be released worldwide on 16th June. But as usual, you can always find it on Torrent sites first. (Viva la Vida.mp3 download link below)

Some interesting trivia of Viva La Vida according to Shahnon.com;
1. A lot of death related song titles, i.e. 'Death and All His Friends', 'Cemeteries of London' and '42'.

2. The intro of 'Viva la Vida' (my favorite song) sounds very much similar to Alizee's song, 'J'en Ai Marre' and apparently the song, 'Viva la Vida' is about the French Revolution (see chorus below) while Alizee (pronounced: "ah-lee-zay" ) is a hot French singer. (seriously:)) So there seems to be a link there? But the…

Congratulations to the bride and groom! I reached there bit late and missed out the 'tol kahwin' wedding culture of Johorean Malays(see link below). I don't have any relatives from Johor, so don't really know how it's done. :p

Related article
Forum Utusan Malaysia: Adat minta 'tol' kahwin hanya sebagai meriahkan majlis

Weezer.com
Track listing

01. Troublemaker 02:45
02. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived 05:52
(Variations On A Shaker Hymn)
03. Pork & Beans 03:09
04. Heart Songs 04:06
05. Everybody Get Dangerous 04:03
06. Dreamin' 05:12
07. Thought I Knew 03:02
08. Cold Dark World 03:51
09. Automatic 03:08
10. The Angel And The One 06:46
Previous blog entry --> Weezer - Red Album

..the petrol price news dominated some of my friends' Yahoo status on the day Pak Lah announced the sharp petrol increase

Many have commented, blogged and analysed this issue and my first reaction was - unbelievable. I was expecting the increase to be in August and was so shocked when I first read the news online and saw the 'RM2.70' on the headline. I sat in disbelief, thinking hard how could Pak Lah made such an unpopular decision? Especially after the humiliating election results for Barisan Nasional. It's like a political suicide. Dear Mr. Prime Minister, please remember that 'angry' and 'hungry' citizens are able to overthrow the government. I'm not an economist, but I think the government now has got no choice but to be more transparent in this issue by providing details of the subsidy money; i.e. where it goes to, how it is being spend, etc etc, as it would be meaningless to the rakyat if the so-called subsidy money which is suppose to subsid…

Anybody know how to do it?

Brace yourself for yet another petrol hike this coming August. If you read the latest report in NST, it looks like a cleverly devised news headline. Make sure you read til the end. And there seems to be conflicting views by Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi and Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad. Pak Lah said, "might be", while Shahrir Samad said that petrol price will go up, beginning August. Read the following report;

NST: New fuel subsidy announcement on Wednesday
We need to look into it (fuel subsidy) again to make sure it will the best that we can do for our people,” Abdullah said.

He said this when asked to comment on Domestic Trade and Consumer Affiars Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad’s statement that fuel price will go up this August.

"He said might be. Anything to do with (fuel) subsidy, the final decision will be this Wednesday,” Abdullah said.

..Meanwhile, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad…