Blogging on the Bus ( or BotB for short)

Why is it that I didn't find out about the joys of blogging via email
earlier?? This is so convenient! Would have saved me from that one
year no update thing .....

I am currently stuck in a clusterfuck known as KL traffic, which
is so bad that I'm not even out from the town yet and I'm in it. Uh huh, no
kidding. We are moving at a slow, snail pace, which basically means
that the bus driver hits the brakes every 2 seconds. Have you ever
felt that super nauseaus feeling you get when you're in a car and
someone else is driving and they keep accelerating and braking? Yeah,
I'm developing one of those right now. The whole physics of "a body in
motion tends to stay in motion" is knocked into my brain everytime I
get these vehicle-induced migraines.

I already miss driving. At least when I was traffic, I was mad but i wasn't
nauseaus. Good thing I'm dieting; nothing to puke out. On the other
hand, bussing means I get to blog while we're stuck in traffc, which
is pretty cool :)

I'm going to start assigning words to my day that reflects how my day
was. Today's word is "sardines". Why sardines? Well, I need a couple
of the canned ones, for one. And for another, I feel like a sardine
packed in a can based on how closely seated beside friend of mine 

Note to other people: my ass is big. I am a big guy. If you are
similarly big, please sit next to one of of the skinny people. I don't
need to simulataneously be in a sauna while I'm on a bus. It is not
cute for me to get out of the bus and the whole side of one leg looks
sweaty because it has been in constant contact with yours for the past
hour.

Suddenly I'm thinking need one of those Mini Coopers. Now if I can
just scrape the money for it .....

The art of history.....

I read this last week when I was waiting at the doctor's office, it's a little snippet from old issue of Newsweek:

In translation to English, it sounds like... the word... you know... sometimes language is not so convenient and sometimes I'm embarrassed."
Fuk King Kwok, a Chinese immigrant, on his decision to change his name to Andy Kwok after people repeatedly mispronounced his name. 

The poor guy, of course his name was supposed to be pronounced differently, but as usual the Americans mess up everyone's name. Sorry to those who feel insulted, but you do!! Some of the people I've known  can't pronounce my name right, and mine isn't that hard to begin with. Other people who have made the same decision to change their names are Monica Pinas and April Showers.

Another person who's name was.. ermm.. made fun of is Jack Abramoff. The perpetrator: George Clooney. Here's what debonair George has to say about Abramoff:

"Who would name their kid Jack with the last words 'off' at the end of your last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up."
Actor George Clooney, thanking lobbyist Jack Abramoff "just because" in an acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. Frank Abramoff, the lobbyist's father, called the speech a "glib and ridiculous attack" and Clooney "an idiot."

Ouch. Looks like not everyone is a fan of Clooney. To be fair, while Abramoff is an embezzling scumbag who pretty much stole money from native Americans and helped raise a lot of money for the Bush campaign, y'know what, I don't feel like being fair. Yes, it was a low blow by George , but considering the hatred a lot of people must be feeling for Mr. Jack-Off, whatever that is thrown to him is pretty much well deserved. here's the bit that I read from Wikipedia that I was really shocked about:

Government of Malaysia

Abramoff's team also represented the government of Malaysia, and worked toward improving Malaysian relations with the United States, particularly with trade relations. Because Grover Norquist worked with a lobbying firm that represented Anwar Ibrahim, some have alleged a connection between the two, and theorized that Abramoff and Norquist were running a scam in which Norquist's firm would create issues that Abramoff's firm would then take care of. Abramoff also reportedly wanted to spread his influence deep into the Muslim world through a front group called the Lexington Group.

What a low life. What an asshole. Five years and 10 months in jail isn't long enough for Abramoff. I wish the US doesn't have the plea bargain policy so that he would get what he deserves. I'm just mad right now because for the past few days, I've just been reading articles that just tugs on my heart strings. Some things in life are just not fair. Take for example, the marine shooting incident in Haditha. Here's an excerpt from the artical in Time magazine.

Eman says she "heard a lot of shooting, so none of us went outside. Besides, it was very early, and we were all wearing our nightclothes." When the Marines entered the house, they were shouting in English. "First, they went into my father's room, where he was reading the Koran," she claims, "and we heard shots." According to Eman, the Marines then entered the living room. "I couldn't see their faces very well—only their guns sticking into the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny." She claims the troops started firing toward the corner of the room where she and her younger brother Abdul Rahman, 8, were hiding; the other adults shielded the children from the bullets but died in the process.

Eman says her leg was hit by a piece of metal and Abdul Rahman was shot near his shoulder. "We were lying there, bleeding, and it hurt so much. Afterward, some Iraqi soldiers came. They carried us in their arms. I was crying, shouting 'Why did you do this to our family?' And one Iraqi soldier tells me, 'We didn't do it. The Americans did.'" Time was unable to speak with the only other survivor of the raid, Eman's younger brother, who relatives say is traumatized by the experience. U.S. military officials familiar with the investigation say that after entering the house, the Marines walked into a corridor with closed doors on either side. They thought they heard the clack-clack sound of an AK-47 being racked and readied for fire. (Eman and relatives who were not in the house insist that no guns were there.) Believing they were about to be ambushed, the Marines broke down the two doors simultaneously and fired their weapons. The officials say the military has confirmed that seven people were killed inside the house--including two women and a child. The Marines also reported seeing a man and a woman run out of the house; they gave chase and shot and killed the man. Relatives say the woman, Hiba Abdullah, escaped with her baby.

It hurts to even think about grown military men shooting towards a 9-year-old girl and her younger brother. while the whole artcile is heart wrenching, here's the portion that shocked me:

The U.S. has paid relatives of the victims $2,500 for each of the 15 dead civilians, plus smaller payments for the injured. But nothing can bring back all that was taken from 9-year-old Eman Waleed on that fateful day last November. She still does not comprehend how, when her father went in to pray with the Koran for the family's safety, his prayers were not answered, as they had been so many times in the past. "He always prayed before, and the Americans left us alone," she says. Leaving, she grabs a handful of candy. "It's for my little brother," she says. "I have to take care of my brother. Nobody else is left."

You can barely live 6 months on $2,500 dollars. Some would argue that due to the exchange rate, it might be more to the Iraqis. Really? Unless USD$2,500 translates to, oh say 20 million in Iraqi currency, I still think it's an unfair trade. A US Court awarded 2.7 million to a woman for simply spilling McDonald's coffee on her lap. When did the chilhood trauma of seeing your family killed weigh less than the trauma of being burned by coffee?

Life isn't supposed to be fair, yes, but it's not suppose to suck like this either.

The Malay...

The reservations some quarters have against the notion of Malay male is some kind of retribution to the paradox of ultra-conservatism, of backwardness, of sexual fetishism and of oppression that engulf these group which many for years have learnt to both love and loathe with the latter now taking center stage in light of current events involving the upholding of moral values and stability of family ties.

Despite these, I for one have not stopped to confess on every road traveled that I'm a Malay through and through, that I am unashamed of being labeled as a serial rapist and incestuous and a wife-beater, for i am very well aware that all these demonizing are retributions of part jealousy part envy by the same quarters for their lacking of their own self identity they thought ought to do them any proud.

Once a good species is now no longer, pronounced some Western-educated, Oprah-motivated feminists of the fairer skin who actually failed to garner the attention of the best of the jewels this near extinct group has to offer (:)). Yet harping on the prejudices and some loophole faults mongered by luck-ridden individuals are ways to mend their broken hearts while the efforts are far from noble, it is destructive for that not all men in this world are born free of shortcomings;and when they claim that they are, one ought to doubt the genuineness of their man-ness.

A threat to human survival is when men can no longer act the way men are supposed to act, when decisions in life are finalized by emotions rather than thoughtful rationals, and when balls are handed over on a silver platter. A greater threat to human existence is when governing is by ideals, not by realism and practicality, which have governed us all for millenniums, and which have ensured us all our survivals from generations to generations.

I am proud to have been born and grown up as a Malay male, for in that I have been warned and taught of the dangers of "dayus" (male subservience) that many men of other descendants have to live with everyday, and the complexities they have to face handling this new age of human extinction unheard of by our forebears in the golden years of human civilizations.

I fear that with the demonizing now raucous and infectious , a species which follows the good old ways of living this life albeit all its discrepancies will vanish from the face of Earth, leaving those with tamed hearts and leashed balls ruling this world with their offspring of the same tamed hearts and leashed balls, unable to pay its due to the once great Shahs of the world, who happened to have tied their balls closely in their crotch (otherwise you and I would not have seen the light of day).

This is maybe a bit chauvinistic, but being a Malay male...this is exactly what we are...and for that, one ought to be grateful...