Christmas...kiasu style

Was in Singapore over the Christmas weekend. Singapore has somehow made a name for itself as a happening place over Christmas in this part of the world. never spent the Christmas weekend at this island city so with the family off we go and try to indulge ourselves in the spirit of festivities promised by all the gung ho publicity.Did we enjoy ourselves? Cant say much except that this to me is just an excuse for the young Singaporeans to fill up the streets(read..orchard road) and taking photos at all nooks and corners like a tourist. How boring that can be? The famous lighting did not enthrall me much not after you have seen Dubai in lights.But Singapore has also its positives..it offers you clean fun and and no mindless "Mat Rempits" scouring the motorways and the simple fun they had must be their highlight of the year in a country that fines anyone that breaks its strict laws(no chewing gums in the MRT please!!!). Somehow my Singapore trip was never complete without a visit to my favourite second hand bookstore at Far East Plaza, cant help again buying a few more books, one that seems interesting is the one on punctuations "Eat,shoots and leaves" ha ha i do need to read this book to see the funny side of the English language or rather its misuse.The other half though will normally have Geylang as part of the must visit itinerary.Geylang is the place for the Malays way way back in the 70's and 80's for its cheap textiles but no longer now for obvious exchange rate reasons. How do you spend your time at midnight if you are a shopaholic in Singapore? Visit Moustapha outlet near Little India ,it is a 24 hour shopping "paradise" but honestly the hype i heard from well meaning friends regarding this place turns out to be a downer..it is just a crammy "with everything you can buy is here" kind of place and unusual for me i didn't buy a single thing and that's at past midnight!!! Hold on, did i say we were in Singapore for the Christmas? Obviously like most trips it"s just going from shopping place to another. The only image that i can hold for Christmas Singaporean kiasu style is an old man wheeling away a string of big beads and i said to my little boy." hey, there's Santa Clause"... possibly the right way to view this Orchard Road Christmas, a real farce.

Simanggang....a town like Alice?

Just came back from Simanggang(or rather its now appropriate name Sri Aman) attending the Maal hijrah function. While all recognise the place now as Sri Aman i still fondly referred it as Simanggang,reminiscent of the great local football catchphrase 'main Simanggang" meaning robust play which Simanggang football team was famous or notorious for!!! It was a short brief visit with just a night stay at its "pristine" hotel, Mega Hotel. i asked a friend where he was staying, the reply,Theatre Inn, what the heck makes one come with such a name at such a place where i cant see much cultural presence. Simanggang though used to be a happening place in Sarawak, for sure during the Brooke Rajahs era ,this place was regarded as a major strategic and buzzing place and history books reflected Sir Charles Brooke great fondness for this "dangerous" outpost. He spent many years there as an officer before taking the helm from his uncle, Sir James. Simanggang those days must even be bigger than Miri,Bintulu or even Sibu and maybe just fractionally smaller than Kuching in terms of importance as well besides the size. What ails you,Simanggang? The only stop i made besides attending the function was to have a cursory look at that great Brooke era outpost, Fort Alice. Bit of a shame to see such an important historic place or rather outpost in such derelict state for Fort Alice can tell us a lot of stories of our past, a past that can be learnt from, a past that can be a source of local pride,i wont say more. Thankfully now the tourism authority is now trying to publicise the unique phenomena , the benak (or tidal bore..) that happens annually at Sri Aman and hopefully you never know it can be a world wide attraction and "cult' event like our another great success,the Rain forest festival. something to ponder on, but at present i can only view this sentimental place as a place in decline, bypassed by the progress of the times in Sarawak ,why even Serian town is more lively!!
Incidentally i was there in Simanggang to attend the Maal Hijrah for my daughter Diyana was given the Maal hijrah award for best student SPM(she got 12 A1 during the recent SPM) and as a proud father the visit to Simanggang was indeed a happy one plus or minus the scant melancholy observations i had of a place that used to be famous for its great warriors and football culture(oops sorry)...Live it up Alice and i know soon you will be restored as a Simanggang landmark.

Economics and the price of roti canai

Economics is like politics, real big word and everyone claims to be an expert. For the most part of my work life one did try to savour the intricate grappling of the so called economic fundamentals and read numerous books on this subject that is understandable at least to a layman like me. Two names spring to mind when we spoke of economics ideas and philosophies..Maynard Keynes and Adam Smith.incidentally both are British(Mr Smith of course as all Scotsmen will say, a proud son of Edinburgh). Keynes theory is made famous by his deep foresight in understanding the great depression and postulate a theory of abundance of money supply within the system by" pump priming the economy",this generally means huge government expenditure to ensure sufficient liquidity within the system.This theory is generally popular with most developing countries or nations that is very obsessed with GDP growth as a main(as sometimes wrongly viewed as the only) barometer of country"s well being. This is made easy for countries that have huge export surplus from commodities trading (oil for one) and the excess monies from such "windfall' can be used for the government to splash and spend to keep the economies rolling as one says even if "white elephants" will be its final outcome from sch extravagance splash.However Keynes theory is more than just mindless pouring of monies to the system but was underpinned by a very fundamental view that money is only its worth if it is spent,and of course spending wisely must be the epitome of a responsible government agenda.Malaysia to a large extent has been propped up by its Keynesian approach towards its economic planning with the ritual 5 year Malaysia plan spelling out to an eager populace on how the Government will spend its treasury monies via mainly infrastructure development and improving of services. This was helped to a great extent by the surplus of our commodities export earnings of oil,palm oil to be more precise. A general antidote to a recession as most economists will agree is to follow to some extent the Keynesian approach IE by pump priming.The challenge for the Government now is that the earnings from our commodities export has dwindled due to low prices...hmmmm we await for the think thank to outline to all laymen like us what will be the plan for 2009.
Adam smith? he believes in the "invisible hand"..IE let the free market dictate the performance of the nation's economy. Competitive edge and an equilibrium on supply and demand will dictate the prosperity of the individual and hence the nation.Adam Smith 's theory spawned the modern day policies as the Thatcherite doctrine( named after Margaret Thatcher) or Reaganomics(Ronald Reagan the actor being accredited to such a policy).This model has somehow driven the world to a higher level of prosperity and well being that was never imagined after the second world war. Emerging countries all try to embrace this policy of free market and generally succeed(read China and India as examples) but the recent sub prime crisis though has also exposed serious flaws on a dictum that is primarily driven by human greed (Greed is good according to Smith) and selfishness. Even USA under Obama later on planned to pick a leaf out of Keynes teachings by promising some massive infrastructure spending to revive the ailing US economy. So? which one is right? Both are right and wrong, the onus in my view is the cultural aspects, these theories are just guiding beacons as leaders attempt to navigate their respective nations towards a prosperous society but any society that is not built and respect hard work,meritocracy, inventiveness and the enquiring mind will never able to leap itself to Mount Everest..the only think i know for sure inflation is the biggest enemy of the ordinary man, I still remembered 30 years ago i can have a meal of roti canai for 20 cents in KL but now it will cost you at least RM1.00 ie a massive 500% increase, has the wages of a worker has the same kind of scale of increase? I doubt it and it never will because it doesn't make economic sense(as experts will say)..Ha , the irony!!!

Are u watching Liverpool?

Nothing i say NOTHING can evoke a greater emotion in football for a Man U fan than to put one up over its Lancashire rivals, Liverpool.So when Rooney "placed' the ball with the most sublime skill into the South American team's net, the smirk i had was spontaneous,"Are you watching Liverpool?" This catchphrase was even coined into a book by Jim White when the Red devils won its first premier league in the early 90s after a long hiatus of more than 20 years . For a United fan that has followed the team since early 70s that win reminiscent of a more wondrous winning goal by Norman Whiteside in its 10 men win against Everton in the FA cup i think in 1984.Hey the plot is similar the world championship win was by the new hero Rooney with a 10 men team as well.
Men(or rather boys,we still are) of my age grew up knowing English football when Liverpool was the all dominant and marauding force, winning everything in their sights with great players like Keegan, Dalglish,Sounness, Rush until the players start to behave as pin up boys (Jammie Redknapp,thank you very much!!!) .For a United fan in that era it has been a real low period,the only spark when they signed the best player in that generation,Robbo(Bryan Robson). So when United do win a trophy,normally limited to FA and league cup wins only and that was only on rare occasions then as long suffering rivals(to Liverpool) the fans cant help coming with various catchphrases and the best and the one that i loved most is of course "are you watching Liverpool?" and now i will normally sms to a very good friend who always tormented me since those early 70s days when we were studying in England together, and until even now whenever United won a big one or put over one over his team Liverpool. Ha ha , admittedly in recent times with the Fergie's re surging team always dominant, it was always my turn and PLEASURE to sms him with non other than a simple text," ARE U WATCHING LIVERPOOL?"

Nullah...stole the Australian thunder

"Mrs Boss! We gotta get those fat cheeky bulls into that bloody metal ship." Remembered this phrase so well because i must admit that i was totally mesmerised by the performance of that little Aboriginal boy Nullah in the latest Nicole Kidman movie, "Australia".When i agreed to come along with the family to watch the movie i was more expecting to see a film to be dominated by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman performances,well Nicolle got my attention and rapture in her astonishing earlier movie as a demented suffering mother in "The Others" and Jackman,well he is Mr Van Helsing!!
As i settled down to watch the movie "Australia" and being so tired after a very hectic week i was resigned initially to a 3 hours of dreary boredom of a movie.I was wrong and not because of Kidman"s performance(too one dimensional in my view) as she tried to portray herself as an English aristocrat turned cattle breeder ( with not a spot of dirt on her Laura Ashley design dresses i presume) and Jackman tired efforts to look like an Australian macho(to me he seems more European,if you want an Aussie don't go further than crocodile Dundee) BUT i was alerted to attention and began to absorb myself in the movie because of this young boy character ,NULLAH. Not since Bat Latif's smart rendition in that old Malay classic "Nujum pak belalang" had i ever felt astounded by a young talent's performance(not even Mcaulkin home alone performance i wish to consider). His natural portrayal of a brownie eats into you and you have no problem to understand why Kidman's character Lady Ashley was so taken by him and loved him so much that it becomes so infectious.
"Mrs Boss, am no magic "....Nullah roll it.

football in the mud

Publish Post

Was at the football field today to watch the demak league.Actually the idea of organising the demak league was mooted by few of us noting the glaring lack of organised grassroots football in Kuching.We tried to come with a theme "every Saturday is a football day". The league has now entered its second weekend with a total of 16 games already being played.Teams come generally within the vicinity of demak with the likes of the kampongs sejingkat,bako,muara tebas,goebil and sungai bako all participating.Has it been a spectacle so far? Indeed it has been,there has been goals galore, disputed decisions,good vibes from the crowd and the best of all in this rainy weather,FOOTBALL IN THE MUD. I have only seen a few matches but as i observed the standards and crowd pull not that bad either.Demak Rangers is a clear favourite with the likes of Hussein Razak,Safri Amit and Erwan in the team(all former state players). Brooke FC seems to be acquainting themselves well too ,with their thrashing of 9-0 on sg Bako ,maybe the semi final will awaits them.. Well i like to believe that the Saturday is a football day dream will be a reality and hopefully the authorities responsible for the well being of football will put their acts together and organise more Saturday and Sunday grassroots football.

Hindustan.....Gul Panag anyone knows who she is?

One particular craze that i am unable to rationalise to anyone is my obsession with Hndustani movies...creepy isn't it? Maybe it started with the 70's hits that the malays seem to drool on...Andaz,Haathi mere saathi(the crying elephants,remember that?). Growing up in the early 70's was great in my view. TV was just coming in to everyone's households, movie scene has brought out mega hits and mega craze,Bruce LEE,Wang Yu and on the hindustani side Rajesh Khanna and his crying elephants, Rishi Kapoor's Bobby. Hindustani movies though can really be enjoyable to watch because it is like the nescafe packet,3 in 1 that is, you have comedy, action and drama and dont forget the running around the trees with their saris sparkly clean and shining(how did they do that?)Those days my particular favourite actor was Jeetendra but honestly now i cant remember any of his movies.In Kuching the theatre to be for hindustani movies was REX theatre.Somehow in the 80's and 90's i practically ignored the hindustani scene and have not seen another hindustani for ages since the great hit Bobby. Why then this love affair comes back? Blame it on Sharukh Khan and Kajol,yup the kush kush hit brought back that Hindustani bug. The recent Sharukh movie Om Shakti Om was a really enjoyable epic and i loved the choreography of some of the scenes .Actually my real favourite Indian actor is Om Puri but more of his portrayal in the English movies, City of Joy (the Patrick Swayze melodrama) and the salford based movie "East is East".So what does one buy when one in Dubai? Presumably gold at its famous souk,suits that can fit a king but for me? I cherished the dvd that i found at the global village, a hindustani "unknown" but great movie called Dor,it was shown on TV2 a year back and i was always looking for a dvd of that movie and behold my joy when i found it at the Indian Pavillion in Dubai global village. The actress Gul Panag efforts in this movie was worth the full attention, brilliant acting that can be assured.