Spunkeymonkey from the Kampung: May 2008

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

strange penalty kick from you tube

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Portishead have a self-ingeniously titled album out: Third.
Okay, that's not nice but i do like them a lot:)

They've been on another fav show Later with Jools Holland and Beth Gibbons sounds as fragile and lovely as ever. She sings Rip.

Let's talk about Rostam Manglij. why?
he's a got a funny name
he's really pale
he's from a band that sounds brown yet he's obviously not...wait that's a gimmick right?

Yes, he's a Farang, but hey,don't let the lack of a tan stop ya.
http://www.myspace.com/rostambatmanglij

he's from this band: Vampire Weekend;

The Cure has released a new single out but it's not yet available on iTunes. i adore them.

Death Cab For Cutie have a song title that's perfect for Morissey fans...

Pssssstttttt Check out Animated Videos for RADIOHEAD..here on fav music site:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/forkcast/50649-radiohead-iin-rainbowsi-animated-music-videos-contest

Plus, odd couple Cee-Lo and Paul Oakenfold ...can't believe i missed it before:

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Snatch theft & Random crimes

I was at the Titiwangsa LRT when i bumped into one of the outpatient clinic nurses. She said hi, and looked a bit shaky. Then, she told me quite calmly, with great disbelief in her voice "I've just had my things snatched".

D: how?. where did it happen?
S: "Just now. I had..some envelopes with charity tickets for Dr S, i wanted to deliver them..and then some man on a motorcycle snatched out of my hand."
D: That's horrible, you mean just right here?.
S: "Yes, i was close to Bandaraya and the Bandaraya people quickly got into their cars and chased the motorcyclist..they couldn't catch him, he was too fast...
It happened so fast..he forced my hand away from my body and just ripped it out of my hand.."

The nurse shows me her left hand, the thumb looks a bit swollen but there are no cuts.

She goes on :" I was really lucky!..i was so afraid i would fall"..

D: I agree, thank goodness you weren't hurt badly.
S: Well, he didn't get anything much..just the tickets..but i'm on my way to make the police report...i'll be much careful now..i'll walk further away from the kerb now.

At this point i had reached my destination PWTC station and had to say goodbye.

2. Personally, i know one other person who's been mugged. My sister was a snatch theft victim. She was walking home, along Jalan Setiawangsa. A Malay boy on a motorbike (just like in the nurses case), came from behind and grabbed her purse.

Now, if you know me and my sister Hani, you know we are BIG girls. We are wider and taller and have more muscles than most Malay men or even Chinese men. In fact, it's sort of like if you compare French girls with the former East German girls...

So Hani, yanks it right back, gets dragged a few meters and manages to make the guy fall off his bike.

The thief lets go off the handbag, and while Hani is trying to get up , he gets on his bike and runs away.

My sister's stomach looks like a road map after that, all the skin torn off.

3. I met a friend, Ain; at an ECG Seminar. One of those random things. We got to talking, and we started talking about how sorry we feel for Foreign Workers.
As doctors, we see how badly they are mistreated by MALAYSIAN EMPLOYERS. The inhumane and cruel manner, the long working hours, no breaks and low wages keep our country's economy moving but causes health problems for these workers.

Ain related how a friend of her's was mugged on Asian Heritage Row at Jalan Doraisamy. He was err, answering the call of nature beside his car. (It was one of those nights and you know men have small bladders).

Suddenly, this Malay boy on a motorbike pulls up beside him, kicks him in the leg and then coolly steals his handphone and wallet.

Ain's friend lies there dazed. He gets up and asks for help. He goes to the nearest police station (Dang Wangi) to lodge a report but they say it's not under their jurisdiction.

The policeman asks: "Indon ke yg buat?".
Ain's friend says "No, Malay lah".

Then, he goes to another police station. He sits down and makes the report. The police officer reads it and says " Indon ke?" (was it an Indonesian guy?".

Snatch theft victim: "No, it was a Malay guy who did it, on the bike"
Police officer:" Betul?. Indon ke?" (Are you sure it wasn't an Indonesian?"
Snatch theft victim, now quite fed up:" Bukan, dia MELAYU, Macam Encik jugak" (NO, He's MALAY, JUST LIKE YOU".

Now, if you've read through this; rightly or wrongly you can identify a few recurring themes:

Snatch thiefs do it fast and on motorbikes.
They target people alone and on foot.
they are mostly of a certain ethnic race and NOT usually foreigners like the media like to claim.. Heck, even my own gran keeps saying rising crime is because of foreigners.

However, i'd like people to question and REALLY think?. Ask your friends who've been mugged, was it a local or was it foreigner? Even if it was either, how come we aren't safe walking our own streets anymore?.

What i think is...Should i get a TASER and set it to Fry-Thief-Fry?.

Champions of Europe again!

Rather unsportingly and childishly, i'd just like to say: We did the Double!. In your face Chelsea!

Ahhhhh. I feel much better now. Especially after waking up bloody early and the having chest pains and palpitations watching the lads miss goalscoring opportunities and Ronaldo flubbing the penalty. It was well worth it to see John Terry falling on his ass. Never have i despised someone that much...wait i have. Many times over. I lied.

Anyhow for better football writing, check out John Doyle's :
Well before the end it was clear that whoever won this match would be worthy champions. When sporting competitions are conceived, the ideal is that a team will be crowned after deservedly conquering valiant and talented rivals in a tense, exhilarating drama that showcases both contenders' qualities, as well, perhaps, as some controversial vices (thanks for that, Didier). Frequently the final falls short, but tonight the teams truly delivered.

Reaching the final seemed to have liberated Sir Alex Ferguson as he removed the shackles he'd fitted to his players against Roma and Barcelona in previous rounds. His bold formation and attacking intent showed that he trusted his team's invention and precision to nullify Chelsea's power. And his judgement was quickly justified as the nimbleness and crispness of Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick was in perfect contrast to Chelsea's nervy stodginess. When Cristiano Ronaldo embellished Paul Scholes and Wes Brown's fine work on the left by steering a splendid header into the net, United's lead was richly deserved.

Chelsea's equaliser was fluky but, it revived them and in the second half they showed they had as much finesse as United - and it seemed their greater force would be decisive. By obligation rather than volition, United gradually reverted to the counter-attacking disposition of previous rounds. The main reason Chelsea didn't convert their pressure into goals in normal time was because United's defence, particularly Brown, remained as resolute as ever, though Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic did lapse in the 78th minute when they allowed Didier Drogba to casually turn and curl a fine shot against the post.

read more:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/05/21/the_teams_delivered_a_match_wo.html

However, for fairness sake, i've also included a few that lambasted my team's win..I can afford to since we are Champions!

Richard Williams The Guardian
May 22, 2008 12:30 AM

They did their best but it was still only a Premier League game with extra-time and trimmings. A battle between two adversaries who know each other's strengths and weaknesses inside out, the European Cup final of 2008 was a match totally devoid of the sort of exotic contrasts and unpredictable internal contests that once marked this most glamorous of club contests.

Until the scuffle that saw Didier Drogba sent off five minutes from the end of extra- time, it was not a particularly bad match. Chelsea and Manchester United seemed to have got the worst out of their systems when they reduced last year's final of the FA Cup to a wasteland. But last night was a further demonstration of economic power distorting the essential nature of a tournament that once pitted Di Stefano's Real Madrid against Kopa's Reims and Rivera's Milan against Cruyff's Ajax.

read more: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/05/22/all_too_english_and_not_enough.html

Manchester United are once more engulfed in the delirious joy of Champions League melodrama. They were on the verge of defeat in the shoot-out as the Chelsea captain John Terry came up to take the penalty that would have brought the Champions League trophy to Stamford Bridge. His standing foot slipped as he struck the ball and the effort flew wide. A failure by Cristiano Ronaldo had been cancelled out.

The momentum was irreversibly United's and, in the end, Edwin van der Sar ensured that the trophy would come to Old Trafford for the third time by saving the spot kick from the substitute Niciolas Anelka. This is a club that cannot come by glory in this tournament until it has scared itself senseless. The Luzhniki Stadium witnessed a spectacle to compare with the comeback in 1999 when Bayern Munich were overtaken at the close of the final.

The memorability of such a moment depends, as well, on the images of the losers' unforgettable pain. Terry had been magnificent and, 11 minutes into extra-time, had somehow twisted his neck to head away a shot by the substitute Ryan Giggs that was bound for the net. It seemed inconceivable then that such a character could be brought low.

He is no culprit. The single person meriting blame is Didier Droga, sent off four minutes from the close of extra-time for aiming a slap at the United centre-half Nemanja Vidic following a melee after Chelsea had expected the ball to be returned to them at a throw-in. That folly by the Ivorian did not mar one of the most engrossing Champions League finals of modern times.

There is always a craving to consecrate winners as deserving of their prize. It is tempting to do that because, in the first-half particularly, they scored, wasted openings and were thwarted by the goalkeeper Petr Cech. That was an outstanding spell, but Chelsea's self-belief was also imposing. At times they appeared ready to overpower Sir Alex Ferguson's team.

The Scot declared this to be the first major shoot-out to have gone his way. Ignoring the fact that the bauble of the Community Shield came United's way in just such a fashion, against Chelsea, at the start of this season. Ferguson's memory has a great deal to contain and he has now conquered in all four of his European finals since the days with Aberdeen.

It might all have been different in Moscow and Drogba had struck the post during extra-time. Nothing, it appears, goes in favour of the Chelsea manager Avram Grant for long. The Israeli could well have imagined that his luck was turning when his team came through an initial bombardment. Now there will be more uncertainty and disquiet.

Terry's failure from the spot brought a gesture of wry exasperation from Roman Abramovich. The owner will ask himself if he is employing an unlucky manager or one who falls a little short of what is needed. Either way, the Russian, deliberating in Moscow last night, cannot ignore the fact that Chelsea have failed to take trophy for the first time in four seasons. Nor would he have liked the way in which United initially took his side by surprise.

To Chelsea's regret it turned out that it is possible for one of these teams to surprise the other. United did more still, disconcerting the opposition with tactics that helped Ronaldo score against these adversaries for the first time in his career. United had been sent out in a 4-4-2 formation that some might have supposed had been stashed in the Old Trafford museum. The purpose of it was to exploit the narrowness of Chelsea's 4-3-3 system and bedevil the full-backs. Michael Essien was the principal target. Accustomed as the Ghanaian midfielder is to operating on the right of the defence on occasions such as this, he has no experience of the suffering to which Ronaldo subjected him.The winger had left him utterly stranded in one incident and then embarrassed him more severely with the opener in the 27th minute. Paul Scholes exchanged passes with Wes Brown on the right and the latter stroked an unexpectedly good inswinging cross with his left foot. Ronaldo skipped in front of a static Essien to glide a perfect header low into the net.

It was a bruising encounter, with Scholes, for instance, requiring attention to a bloodied nose after a crash between himself and Claude Makelele that led to a yellow card for each of them. All the same, United were not diverted from performing with freedom. Owen Hargreaves brought his running power to bear from right midfield, the position in which got his earlier Champions League winners' medal with Bayern Munich in 2001.

Ten minutes before half-time, United should have been in a virtually unassailable position, but Petr Cech parried Carlos Tevez's header and then reached Michael Carrick's shot from that rebound. There was a further opportunity nine minutes later when Ronaldo could not quite get to the low ball by Wayne Rooney that had eluded Makelele. Nonetheless, United by then had been given a clue as to Chelsea's powers of recovery. When Drogba headed a deep cross into the centre after 34 minutes Rio Ferdinand, under pressure from Michael Ballack, knocked it towards his own net, only for Van der Sar to tip the ball onto the bar.

Chelsea had their fortune when pulling level. Essien's 25-yarder cannoned of Nemanja Vidic and then Ferdinand to set up Lampard for a coolly taken goal. Though Chelsea had been rallying, their feelings much have contained a measure of relief. It invigorated the team thereafter. Each side took the other to its limits.

Guardian sports news

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

FRom Farish Noor's other Malaysia

Thailand’s Costly Little Insurgency War
Written by Farish A. Noor
Tuesday, 20 May 2008

As we sit by the roadside café sipping thick, milky tea, the ustaz (religious teacher) nods in my direction and looks away. His eyes turn to the armoured Humvee that rolls past us ever so slowly, the open roof mounting a large and rather nasty-looking machine gun. The soldier who mans the turrets looks to be no older than 18, his head dwarfed by the large helmet and his framed rendered diminutive by the bullet-proof vest he wears. The soldiers are all clad in body armour and their eyes are hidden behind black ray-bans that reflect the searing light of day back at us. The armoured car passes by at a menacing pace, like a predator about to pounce. The men in the café stare back, returning malicious glances. In a minute it is over and the soldiers have passed. Smiles re-appear and we continue with the business of sipping tea and talking politics.

“You see what its like here in Patani?”, the Ustaz asks me. “Its like living in Baghdad. This place is like Iraq now. The Thai soldiers are everywhere, they stop us all the time, we cannot even drink tea in peace without having a gun pointed at our faces. And the government says this is for our own good, for our ‘protection’. Protection from what? From whom? We are Patanis, this is our land, our people. We don’t need to be protected from each other. So is this what they call good governance?”

One week in Patani and the other Southern Thai provinces of Jala and Narathiwat was all that was needed to convince me that this is indeed an insurgency war with a high human cost. Since 2004 the four southern Thai provinces have been up in arms and the relationship between the Thai government and the Malay-Muslims of the south has deteriorated to such an extent that road blocks, mass arrests, curfews and violence have become routine. During the course of my short stay there I encountered 34 road blocks and we were stopped four times. During the daylight hours the landscape of Patani is dotted by sandbags, outposts, guard towers, surveillance cameras and the sight of armoured cars and trucks darting back and forth across the region.

In the evenings however it is another picture altogether. Since Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared martial law in the region more and more troops have been send down to reinforce the Thai Fourth Army that is stationed there to police and defend the deep south. Yet despite the efforts that have been made – ranging from direct counter-insurgency assaults to mass arrests, from soft efforts to woo the Malays to funding of local development projects – nothing substantial has been achieved.

What is worse is the rise in the number of attacks on civilians by the underground army of insurgents who may number anything from the hundreds to the thousands. Over the past four years those targeted have included religious teachers – both Muslim and Buddhists, schools and school teachers, post offices, public markets, shops and malls, and of course police stations and army camps. Til today no single group has come out with a set of specific demands. The Thai National Reconciliation Council has attempted to assuage the anger and frustration of the Malay Muslims by recommending that the central government in Bangkok accept and recognize that the southern provinces of Patani, Jala, Narathiwat and Satun were and remain Malay-Muslim provinces that were once independent Malay kingdoms before they were incorporated by Thailand, and that the identity and culture of the Malays should be respected at least, but to no avail.

Instead, the powers-that-be in Bangkok have maintained that Thailand is a single unitary state with one definitive dominant culture, that of the Thai-Buddhists, and that all communities have to abide by the standards that have been set. Since the time of General Phibun Songkram in the 1940s, the assimilationist policies of the Thais has been imposed on all the communities, though it is here in the deep south that resentment is the deepest and strongest.

The net result has been the deepening of resentment and feelings of marginalization and discrimination among the Malays who feel that their religion and culture are not respected. One of the consequences has been the rise in the number of vernacular Malay religious schools (pondoks) that have popped up everywhere in the south, and as one travels from one district to another one is struck by the number of pondoks and madrasas that one sees by the roads.

The other result has been the reluctant acceptance of the Thai mainstream educational system, which forces all citizens to speak and learn the Thai language – though the Malays insist that their language (Yawi) is not something they are willing to forget. Amidst the tension and anger of the locals, native insurgents have come to the fore to give voice to the anger of the community. On our third night in the region a national primary school was set to the torch and burned down, just three kilometers from where we were. The army and police responded immediately, but at the last minute even the fire engines and rescue teams would not brave the countryside roads in the dead of night for fear of landmines and snipers: as they approached the scene their sirens were turned off and they turned back.

This then is the impasse that prevails in the south of Thailand at the moment: During the daylight hours the presence of the army and police is everywhere, but once dusk arrives and the light is dimmed, the roadblocks in the country roads are emptied and unmanned. During the dark hours of the night the countryside returns to the hands of the insurgents who continue their low-level insurgency with minimum manpower and resources, but at great cost to the state’s coffers. All the high-tech weapons technology that Thailand has bought from its Western allies could not prevent a bunch of local insurgents from burning down a primary school smack in the middle of the village in full view of the locals.

And perhaps the most difficult thing of all would be to get the two communities, the Thais and the Malay minority, to finally understand and accept each other’s rights to exist. In the words of another religious school teacher: “We don’t hate the Thai people, we never have. They have their ways, their culture, their God, their religion. But why do they have to come here and bring their culture to us when we have never imposed our culture on them? Patani was a Malay kingdom even before Ratanakosin (Bangkok) existed. We were a kingdom when Ayuthaya was around. But why don’t they accept this? Why cant they leave us in peace and accept that we are different?” Like many autonomy movements, the insurgency in Southern Thailand is fuelled by a combination of nostalgia for the past, anger over the present and the deep-rooted desire for recognition and respect. But how do you show respect to a villager when you stare at his face through the scope of a machine gun on top of an armoured car? And that, in a nutshell, is the problem.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 May 2008 )

Malaysian Artistes for Unity

hey, being the eternal optimist that i am,it's hard for me to be cynical about this project:

Public health talks coming up

Public Health Talks 19/5/2008-25/5/2008

Topic: Management of Menopause
Date: Saturday 24/5/2008
time:2-4 p.m
location: Tung Shin Hospital
Admission is free.
contact: 03 2072 1655

Topic: Diabetes Management & Diet
Date: 25/5/2008
time: 3-5p.m
location: SJMC, North Tower conference room
contact: register at 03-5639 1556 between 10a.m to 5p.m

Topic: Management of Menopause
Date: Saturday 24/5/2008
time:2-4 p.m
location: Tung Shin Hospital
Admission is free.
contact: 03 2072 1655

Topic: Diabetes Management & Diet
Date: 25/5/2008
time: 3-5p.m
location: SJMC, North Tower conference room
contact: register at 03-5639 1556 between 10a.m to 5p.m

Wellness Medical Qigong
organized by KL-Petaling Jaya Alzheimer Caregivers Support Group
Date: Wednesday 24 May 2008
place: Alzheimer's Day Care centre at 9, Lorong Bukit Raja, Taman Seputeh
location: SJMC, North Tower conference room
contact: register at 03-5639 1556 between 10a.m to 5p.m

Heart Chocolate Indulgence at the Kuala Lumpur Heart Centre.
location: 1B-G-2, Ground Floor, Plaza Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral, KL Sentral
Date: Wednesday 21/5/2008
Time: 12p.m onwards
get your passes at www.heart.com.my

http://www.heart.com.my/images/heart_choc.gif
http://www.heart.com.my/heart_choc.asp

www.faces.com.my
www.advertlets.com

Monday, May 19, 2008

Myanmar Disaster Relief Efforts

Hey all, this is a little bit outside of my kampung, but let's lend a hand:
(courtesy of Michael Fredericks AMBP editor's note)
1) Donate: Cheques must be made payable to Mercy Malaysia. Write Myanmar Relief Fund on the back of the cheques as well as your name and address so that receipts can be issued.

Because of the urgency of the matter, the collection exercise will only run for two weeks - so you have until May 21. You could come personally to our office at Menara Star (address below) to drop off your cheques at the collection box situated at the lobby.

Or you could send your cheques to:

Myanmar Relief Fund
Star Publications (M) Bhd
Menara Star
15, Jalan 16/11
Petaling Jaya 46350
Selangor.

For inquiries, call: 03-79671388 ext 1121.

Alternatively, you can forward your donations to the Foreign Ministry as it has activated the Tabung Bencana Kementerian Luar Negeri. Send your cheques to:

Mohammed Zamberi Othman
Ketua Akauntan
Kementerian Luar Negeri
No.1 Jalan Wisma Putra
62602 Putrajaya

A good website to check on updates of regarding the disaster:
1. http://www.foundationburma.org/
2.http://www.mercy.org.my/main/index.php
MAYBANK
Account's name: MERCY Humanitarian Fund
Account no. : 5621 - 7950 - 4126

ABA Swift Code: MBB EMY KLA
Address: MAYBANK BERHAD, 20G-28G, Jalan Wawasan 4/5, Bandar Baru Ampang, 68000 Ampang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

3. http://www.asiaobserver.com/burma/
4. http://www.burmanet.org/news/
5.http://www.burmanet.org/news/

Also, since the Myanmarese government refuses to allow other non-Asean aid workers in, i hope any Myanmarese doctors out there can get in touch with MERCY Malaysia.