Yes, Shahnon.com is back with a new hosting and lots of new plans ahead! So, hopefully all's gonna be well, insyaAllah.

Bobby Sands was an Irish volunteer for the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike while in HM Prison Maze (Wikipedia) Read all the Western media headlines below. Not a single Western media outlet has mentioned the religion of the perpetrators. But imagine if similar event were to happen in the Middle East. For sure the media would mention the religion of the perpetrators and label them with names such as "Muslim terrorist" or "Islamic terrorist". It is never my intention to see the media headlines mentioning the religion of the people behind the latest bombing in Northern Ireland, but only to show how blatantly bias the Western media is, in their reporting. Insurgency Rises in Northern Ireland - Wall Street Journal A bomb that was just a blast from the past - Independent Clinton condemns 'cowardly' N.Ireland car bombing British PM condemns N. Ireland bombing - CNN Northern Ireland car bomb bla...

Nick Clegg, Gordon Brown and David Cameron ( The Telegraph ) The latest poll conducted by ICM for The Guardian puts the Conservatives down three per cent on 37 per cent, with Labour climbing one per cent to 30 per cent. The Lib Dems are down one at 20 per cent . Read more For years, I have always been interested with opinion polls and my interest grew a bit when I took Research Methodology for my MA course. It always baffled me when I come to think that Malaysia does not have its own established independent polling company. I have always asked myself why there was not a single credible opinion poll to gauge popular public opinion especially in the run-up periods before elections? But of course that was all until our very own independent opinion research, Merdeka Centre came into the picture. It's good that we have Merdeka Centre, but I do hope we have a couple more independent polling companies. I believe by having more opinion polls - not just during elections though - is a posit...

It is often said that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. Being a former student of communication, I have also learnt another important element of propaganda that, " if you can't convince them, confuse them " . And in the context of modern political communication, perhaps the more proper and widely used terms are "damage control" and "spin". Now let's bring that into the context of political reality. Let's not even talk about our democratic integrity yet, but about the quality of our elected representatives. Where do our politicians stand in terms of integrity and credibility? Look around us; surely we can recall the many shameful incidents in the past few years. The Perak frogs' fiasco, the resignation of former Penang Deputy Chief Minister I, Fairus Khairuddin, and more recently the resignation of Bayan Baru MP, Datuk Zahrain Hashim, just to name a few. If the performance of a salesperson is judged by his or her number of sales, li...

Below is an excellent article by renowned International Relations scholar, Joseph Nye (left), which I reproduce in full from his column in the New Straits Times . I first came across Joseph Nye, albeit through a textbook; 'World Politics (Kegley Jr)', when I was studying 'International Politics' as part of my MA degree program. One of his famous political quotes which to some extent has influenced my pragmatic approach and thinking on politics and political philosophy is this; " When I was working in Washington and helping formulate American foreign policies, I found myself borrowing from all three types of thinking; realism, liberalism, and constructivism. I found them all helpful, though in different ways and in different circumstances. " - Joseph Nye (World Politics, Kegler). It should be noted, however, that what I intend to share here is his views and thoughts, and not so much about the man himself. Joseph Nye was the former Assistant Secretary of Defenc...

I am now officially 'demanding' one of my favourite bands, Coldplay, via Eventful.com, to come and perform live in Kuala Lumpur! Whether it was by sheer luck or an act of fate, way back in 2008 I demanded for Mxpx to come to KL - via Eventful - and 18 months later, they finally came! Now, let's see how long should I wait this time around, for Coldplay . :p View all Kuala Lumpur events on Eventful Explosions in the Sky live in Kuala Lumpur at The Ruums. (February 2008) Mxpx at Number One Cafe, KL (December 2009)

So, what is up?? Good news and bad news! Good news first. Finally I am back, blogging! Yay!!! Sorry, am a little bit excited. Can't help it. If I were to describe my blogging life, it must have been like a roller coaster ride. One of the reasons why this blog was down for such a long time was partly because of the bloody Malware that has infected my server! I've wasted so many hours trying to figure out the error. And thanks to Taqiyuddin from MYCERT who has patiently helped me out going through the long list of Apache logs and detected the errors. I wonder who was the culprit attempting to attack my harmless and humble blog? I have since temporarily shut down the domain. And shahnons.blogspot.com will be my temporary blogging space. Though not for long, I hope. Now for the bad news. I just got an email from Blogger which reads "Important: Changes to Blogger FTP Service" . Curious enough, I clicked on it and there goes the bad news. (damnit!) Blogger is shutting down...