Saturday 19 November 2016

Trumpomania

Got back to our Leicester abode  a week ago and landed smack-dab in the middle of the countdown of the election for the 45th President of the United States.  So we stayed up (also because of jet lag) for the nail biting results and was quite pleased that the uneducated "basket of deplorables"  (Clinton's description of Trump supporters) gave the self-righteous hypocrites and educated liberals of Clinton's ilk a good kick of reality.

Above all, it is so satisfying to see how the election has exposed all the bigotry and extremism around issues of race, religion (Islam in this case), and immigration in this font of the Free World.

I applaud the victory, because now those non-white, non-Christian, non-liberal nations who have been accused of various malfeasances can heave a sigh of relief to know that they are not the only  'basket of deplorables' on this earth.   My word!  "Deplorables" also exist in the Free World and they are claiming and winning their ground.    And true to form (just like the well tutored 'liberals' in the non-western countries) the Clintonistas (and Brexit Remainders) are very sore losers: they take to the streets to denounce the results, and they claim the electoral system which is enshrined in their Constitution is flawed and needed to be revamped.  Does that sound familiar?  Are we witnessing an American Spring? , a Squeaky Clean Demonstration?

It's just another scenario of saucy geese and ganders -"What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander")



 On getting back to Leicester I snapped this photo when I was on my way to the Co-op.
The image indicates a parking lot for the disabled owners of the car.
But it's so tempting to put another interpretation. Is it the car/driver that is disabled or the potholes, that symbolize the damaged and unrepaired surrounds of where the car is parked.  Or maybe both!  I suppose we could apply the same obfuscation to hurrah-words like 'democracy', 'freedom' and 'equality'.  

To me it's so symbolic of the state of the richest countries in the world.  The election of Trump as the president of the most powerful country on this planet should teach Malaysians several lessons.

1. Debunk the myth that western liberal  democracies - their lifestyle, and their culture - are worthy of imitation, to be transplanted into all nations.  Western democracies have shown again and again that they will not spare the rod to turn other economies and culture to get tied up to their apron strings. Note most recently the fate of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria!

If they are capable of setting the dogs of globalisation and neoliberalism on their own working class (whites) and their poor, why should they lose sleep over the emaciated economies and societies of the rest of the non-white, non-Judaeo-Christian world?

George Monbiot has this to say about American democracy in general and Trump specifically.

...... the US ...... now suffers the worst of both worlds: a large electorate dominated by a tiny faction. Instead of republics being governed, as Madison (America's fourth president) feared, by "the secret wishes of an unjust and interested majority", they are now beholden to the not-so-secret wishes of an unjust and interested minority.  What Madison could not have foreseen was the extent to which unconstrained campaign finance and a sophisticated lobbying industry would come to dominate an entire nation, regardless of its size.

For every representative, Republican or Democrat, who retains a trace element of independence, there are three sitting in the breast pocket of corporate capital.  Since the supreme court decided that there should be no effective limits on campaign finance, and, to a lesser extent, long before, candidates have been reduced to tongue-tied automata, incapable of responding to those in need of help, incapable of regulating those in need of restraint, for fear of upsetting their funders.

Read more in  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/26/donald-trump-outsider-system-elections

(Wannabe political fashionistas in Malaysia should beware of dipping their hands into donations boxes from abroad - they could turn into the 'tongue-tied automata ' of the American empire .... or is that what they actually desire?)

2.   For many reasons, Trump has been demonised as a monster, succumbing to the lowest common denominator of all that American (and Western) civilisation holds dear.  Trump, in the liberal perception, is a racist, a misogynist, a demagogue and an islamophobe.

But Donald J Trump did not invent Islamophobia, and neither is he its only purveyor and practitioner.  In denouncing Trump's Islamophobic klaxon-call, 'educated' Muslims are losing the context of  the theory and practice of  Islamophobia.



Whether the ruling elites are Republicans or Democrats, antipathy to Islam - and by association, the Palestinians and Gazans - holds them together.

Ash has, in the past, wrote several postings on this issue and here are several extracts to support my conviction.  As I said earlier, anti-Islam sentiments did not begin with Trump or in the United States.


Extract 1


In the beginning - from the pre-Christian era : Arabs = Islam.  Therefore Islam lies and deceives.


Extract 2

From Roget's Thesaurus :





Extract 3

From some time ago ......







Extract 4

From not too long ago ......






3.  Trump's Wall.

Two thousand years ago, Emperor Shih Huangti constructed The Great Wall of China to protect the people and territory of  China from invasions.

In 122 AD Hadrian's Wall was constructed to keep out the native (and barbaric) Picts and Scots from invading the Roman province of Britannia.

Remember the Berlin Wall?


More of the above from  http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/why-the-berlinwall-was-built.htm

And here's the Mother of all Walls in the 20th/21st century!

 : 
West Bank - Getty

More from Ash's posting:  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/cull-of-2012-part-3c-finale.html








The Israeli Apartheid Wall is different from all other Walls.  The Israeli Wall is a prison corralling people in the West Bank in the world's largest prison.

We don't hear any bleatings of anger and protests from the Republicans or Democrats or from the global Human Rights Industry over this wall.

So,what's so special about the wall to be built by the United States 45th President?  As he also intends to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he might as well pick up tips for his Wall from Israel.  But just make sure it's cost- effective.  Don't employ labour from Israel or the US - get the Mexicans to do it quick and cheap.

So Trump intends to expel 2-3 million illegals from Mexico.  In this case he is simply continuing President Obama's legacy.



Readhttp://www.alternet.org/election-2016/mexican-wall-already-here



4. Tags for Trump and Gender : Women, misogyny, glass ceilings, Muslim women.

Nafs nafs.  I shan't assault my readers with more renditions of the same song.  But here's my favourite.  A cartoon is worth a thousand articles.

This is taken from a brilliant book , The True and Barbaric History of the Benighted States of America by Jim Hughes - Quartet Books Limited, 1973. Great Britain.  I bought it from a car boot sale at Saddington, Leicester sometime in the early 1990s.

Liberation theology for Hawaiian and all women.


Liberation is available not only to Hawaiian women but to all who seeketh the golden chalice of choice.

My grave oversight - I forgot to record the source of this image.  All I can recall is, it came from a serious article on the internet.


Finally, we  (have to) look forward to the reign of the 45th President of the United States.  The  so-so 44th will move to greener pastures.

Long live Mr. President Donald J Trump - " the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States and of the Militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States."

Hold on. I hear a little voice.  Words referring to a sacred text that you know so well.

Please Mr President, could you find a way to correct a historical calumny - against the First People of this nation.  If you can make laws to protect the dignity and human rights of Semites (of Judaic origin) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transexual citizens, perhaps you could erase the reference to us as  "the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."



From the American Declaration of Independence -  indicting the king of England for trampling Americans' rights and liberties.

When you can grant us this dignity, we can truly and heartily roar your clarion call  'Glory Hallelujah' and Make America Great!

















Monday 7 November 2016

Tapestry before Departure.






I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places
Socks, Comot, Rusty - love them to pieces.


That this heart of mine embraces all day through
Lely & Irene - so long ago, but it's just like yesterday.


In that small cafe, the park across the way
Jai - a stalwart friend.



The children's carousel, the chestnut trees, the wishing well



I'll be seeing you in every lovely summer's day
Dear hearts and gentle people - Zarina, Kenny, Haiqal and Daniel.



In everything that's light and gay
The loopy Clan


I'll always think of you that way
Irene, this will have to do until uncle can visit you in Singapore.



I'll find you in the morning sun
More dear hearts and gentle people



And when the night is new



I'll be looking at the moon
Moon from my Leicester bedroom.


But I'll be seeing you.
Mus, I'm seeing Abah in you.


Good night all - take care of each other.







Tuesday 1 November 2016

NINJA AH BENG - introducing P. TJTEE juicy PORK/BAK BURGER

They say you cannot make a silk purse out of sow's ear.

Still, some people - belonging to groups like Agape Community Church - do make it their mission to turn  pork burgers into a very profitable swine enterprise.  TJ and Janice Tee, the parents of Ninja Joe were so successful in their porcine venture that they managed to get their capital back within a year.

How can you lose when a catchy name like Ninja Joe .....

or perhaps Ninja Ah Beng?!?

becomes the carrier to transform the pig ....



into ..



Though , according to the website below - while "pork is becoming a bigger deal in the U.S., its popularity is positively exploding in nations where per capita incomes have surged in recent years,  In both China and Mexico, for instance, pork consumption has grown more than 140 per cent since 1990."

See   https://www.qsrmagazine.com/marc-halperin/more-pork-fork

So, the Tees have cottoned on to a win-win market , " to a brilliant idea to sell non-halal burgers in Malaysia!' - although it's nothing like as daring as selling beef burgers in Hindu India!

You have to admire their cheek and guts.  But when you can deploy the name of such a popular halal outlet like



 ... and appropriate the name of Malaysia's much-loved cultural icon as the Malay-Muslim  P. Ramlee (just a slight change of spelling but we know who you are referring to) you cannot go wrong.  What a brilliant marketing tactic - to use Malay-Muslim packaging to sell pork products..

But above all else, the Tees have a much bigger agenda, one inspired and aided by ...

Throughout this whole time, we were blanketed with overwhelming calmness that could only be described as supernatural.  Looking back, it was clear that the peace of God was with us on our journey.

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7, NIV)

Running a business of this scale didn't come naturally, and every step we took brought us further into uncharted territory.  We didn't have any friends in the industry whom we could call on for advice, but we felt assured knowing that God would lead us according to His Will.

What was God's Will I wonder -  for the food outlet Ninja Joe and its P. Ramly pork burger??

But, listen to this :  Through a series of miraculous events, we were introduced to a Singaporean partner in July this year, and 3 months later opened our first restaurant in Singapore!  Early reception from customers and local media has been positive and we trust that God will pave the way for greater things because he is faithful just as we are faithful to him.

In closing, my favourite Bible verse:

"for I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you,plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV)

God is good indeed.

Extracted from TJ Tee and family, AGAPELINE 16.  (Issue 4, December 2014)

https://archive.org/stream/agapeline/AGAPELINE2014DEC_djvu.txt


Do I think Soros, the Gates, Robert Kuok, and all the other Financial High Flyers  have a line to the same Connections as the Tees?

I'll be telling porkies if I said "yes".

By the way, the Ninja, according to Wiki, is a spy, a covert agent, sabotage infiltrator, assassin in guerilla warfare.

Aww shucks ... must not over react.  We're all Malaysians aren't we?




We do not play such nefarious games with our fellow citizens.