NST Leader : My favourite cuppa Teh Tarik

 I have more or less given up reading The Guardian and The Independent on the internet.  Instead I now turn ( to the spouse's consternation!) to the Daily Mail where I can find snippets of common-sense material from writers like Peter Hitchens, Martin Robinson and Sarah Vine.  Now and then I click the  Leicester Mercury just to catch up on what's going on in the other half of our neck-of-the-woods.

 It's the same old stuff mostly.    During the winter of 2021/2022, news about Boris Johnson's Partygate and the political and hypocritical shenanigans of the ruling Conservative Party and the Labour Opposition recalled the odour of the political cesspit that had existed in Malaysia since 2018, and even before.  

I abandoned Malaysian newspapers like The Star and the Malay Mail years ago.    Their coy and self-righteous agenda stuck in the craw.    Now, sometimes, I look up Bebas News, Malaysia Now, and the New Straits Times.   And I have cause to be grateful for doing so.

Recently, I discovered the NST Leader page.    It perked up my interest and since then, more and more often I turned to this page for a dose of articulate, thoughtful and intelligent piece of writing - a rarity in the papers and portals of both local and overseas media.

But the piece today in the NST Leader : Nato  was a real breath of fresh air, coming in the wake of the wall-to-wall images of the victims and gory destruction of Ukraine's infrastructure.  In the past few days, the handwringing and heartache of the war in Ukraine has spread all over the globe, accompanied by heart-wrenching scenes of bravery and donations from the rich and the poor - from little girls (usually blonde and blue-eyed) to super-rich celebrities like Posh and Becks!    Well ......

IT ALL SMACKS OF HYPOCRISY!

WHO CRIED FOR THESE DARK-EYED, DARK-SKINNED AND DARK-HAIRED VICTIMS?

"Any death diminishes me."

What a shame.  She has the wrong hair and skin colour, and is too old.

Right age.  But not doe-eyed blondes.  Not heart-wrenching enough.

No!  A bunch of towelheads will not attract any funding and sympathy from the great and good in the Judaeo-Christian world.

What about this?  No pictures to deter the great and good.  Just a piece of graphics to highlight the real victims of the invasion of Afghanistan.

Okay, I get your message.  Can I persuade you with this image instead - made by a Western NGO?

"Sorry, mate.  The names are too foreign."

There are other victims too - who have been breathing, living and dying from invasions since 1948 to the present.  

"Now, don't press your luck too far."

Sorry Sir,  sorry Boss,  sorry Guv.

Top up this section of my posting with :

1.  Binoy Kampmark : Read https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2203/S00009/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-outing-the-iraq-war-white-washers.htm

2.  Vijay Prashad : Read https://theleaflet.in/ukraine-conflict-soaked-contradictions-new-patterns-war-and-media/

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BUT  HERE'S THE CLINCHER!

During the Iraq War, the US and the Western "Coalition" smashed an entire country, killed a million people, and destroyed an ancient heritage.    Apart from the US, the Coalition forces were mostly UK and other NATO forces.     And the third largest contingent in this coalition?      You guessed it.     It was the Ukrainians.      

Serving in the war on  Iraq - 5,000 troops and 5 years of service.

The Ukrainian flag of blue and yellow is located just above the town An Nasiriyah. (From Wiki)

Ukraine contributed 1650 troops.  Look for 3 Southeast Asian participating countries. (From Wiki)

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Conclusion

Read  https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/leaders/2022/03/778173/nst-leader-nato

What the NST Leader has done is to draw out the context of the War in Ukraine.  That context is located in the actions and policies of Nato.  Nato is not a defensive alliance.  Nato  smashed the Arab nations in the Middle East.  And now Nato is and has been manipulating the politics of the former communist states of Eastern Europe, along  Russia's borders. 

NST Leader - " Liberal imperialists dressed as humanitarians must be kept at a safe distance."

Remember the visit to Malaysia in 2014 by that much admired (young and attractive) President of the United States of America" and his pontifications about what is wrong with Malaysia (he means Malay-Muslims)?

Read : https://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2014/04/pekong-di-dada-dan-kuman-di-seberang.html

Now that brings us to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a creation of the CIA and quite well ensconced in Malaysia.  The good President's advice is very much in line with the objectives of this child of the CIA .  If Nato represents  the "armed missionaries" of western neo-liberalism (read that as neo-imperialism) then the NED is the "ideological guru".

In Malaysia ....

"Funding the Opposition".

.... and  contributing grants ...... 

.... to combat corruption ...

..... to empower youth and political parties to spread freedom, human rights and democracy - a most neo-evangelistic mission.

As for their project in Ukraine.....

'Nuff said.  For more revelations and connections, read Jeremy Kuzmarov's  https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/07/national-endowment-for-democracy-deletes-records-of-funding-projects-in-ukraine/

But beyond Nato and the NED - we see the outing of the inherent bias and racism in the Western press and media - just like their prejudice and propaganda against Islam and the Middle East during western incursions into Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and of course in 😭.   

Read Scott Ritter's account of how "fact based arguments  ...... the case for war against Iraq were effectively silenced."      https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/07/pity-the-nation/

Putinism or Nato?

Censorship and freedom of information.

I shall leave with Vijay Prashad's ( a writer I admire - in the same box as my other favourite writers like Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Edward Said )  view of the much-vaunted freedom of the press and the media.

In today's media culture,  feel free to spout your bigotry and prejudice.  When caught, make an apology of sorts and claim you 'misspoke' or were 'misquoted' or "it was taken out of context".  Whatever the shape of the apology, the deed (evil) and the damage is done!

Finally, the NST Leader may not be as wide ranging and deep in his/her analysis ( limited of course by the space allocated to an editorial).  But in that crisp article, he/she has managed to provoke the readers (including AsH) to view the Ukraine War not as a simplistic battle between good and  evil.  It has a longer and larger genesis than Putin and Saddam Hussain and Gaddafi put together.  

It has all the markings and making of Imperialism dressed in new clothes.  

What lesson can Malaysia learn from this War?  Beware of the Greek bearing gifts - of the Trojan Horse within our compound and the " musuh dalam selimut".

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COLIN and his PENAPHERNALIA.

 The most memorable part of coming back to KL was not :

1.  The Home Quarantine e-bracelet and the Covid 19 Lateral Flow Test.  From 2 days before we departed from Heathrow and the end of the Quarantine we had altogether 7 Covid tests to prove we were negative (of Covid, not attitude) and hence acceptable to be let loose - despite getting all three vaccinations.

Our e-bracelet and negative tests.

2.  The surprises awaiting when we got home.

Fermented pasta in the kitchen cupboard (left) and exploding tiles in the study (right).

3.  Leaking roof in the bedroom which saturated the base of boxes of gramophone records and books, suitcases of my precious batik collection and embroidery, Iain's drawings and black and white photographs from the 1960s  This we knew a few days before we left when our lovely neighbour Zarina and son Haiqal went upstairs to supervise the cleaners.

The sodden, sodding floor after 2 weeks of drying and airing (left) and dear Haiqal laying out the gramophone records made up mostly of Malay songs from the 1950s and early 1960s (right).

4.  Operation touch-and-go repair.

                        1 - Drying out the record cases.

                        2 - Record sleeves - after Iain's repair.

                        3 - Some of the salvaged records.

                        4 - Some of the stuff transferred to the dry bedroom including Iain's drawings for 

                             "Fatimah's Kampung" and the record player.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words (and sodden belongings) can never hurt me.

Leaving Leicester can be heart-rending because we have to leave behind dear old friends.  Friends who are kind, generous and gracious;  friends like Jack, Jackie and Julia, Jagdish and his wife Poonam, friends in Leicester Animal Rescue Charity Shop and last but not least, Colin.

2021/2022 had been a "long, hard winter" for us but good old Colin brought out the sun.  He is a Jack of all trades (or in modern parlance a "Renaissance Man") but above all he is a master photographer.  As a photographer, Colin brings with him the light and the colours of the most generous sun.  

But for silly ole Ash, Colin is (and has always been) a dear friend, the world's greatest boyfriend - and one of her two bestest idiots.

 

In fact, Colin has his own mug, strictly reserved for him when he turns up at our house for tea or lunch or dinner!

To add to his credentials, he is also responsible for causing a domestic fracas in our household.   Let me explain.

This Christmas, Colin gave us a precious gift he made with his own hands.   Here is a picture (with copyright notice added):

Pen 1 : For Iain or Maznoor.

Pen 2 : for Maznoor or Iain.

We can only choose one but we are still fighting over which one.  In fact each one of us would love to have both!!

What is the pedigree of these two ironwood pens?

It started with this piece of ironwood from Quoin Hill, near Tawau in Sabah, given to Iain when we visited the Cocoa Research Centre.

.

It was from a gigantic ironwood tree that looked like the one below.

AsH (not the tree) and the ironwood tree (1983) behind her.

Iain gave his good mate Colin this piece of ironwood when he learned of Colin's new hobby, making pens from wood.  To enliven these times of Covid pandemic, Colin spends hours and hours in his garage, making pens out of specially selected woods.  

Iain is also in love with wood.   He has a collection of wood pieces ranging from a bit of plank from Iceland, a piece picked up from a tree felled near P Ramlee's house in Kuala Lumpur, pohutukawa from the volcano of Rangitoto Island, Australian Jarra from an old railway sleeper in NZ, a 30,000 year old length of swampwood from NZ, rosewood from an old rosebush growing in our front garden at Oxford Avenue Leicester, hawthorn from a hedge near a pig farm on the A1 in England, oak from a fence post in Wales, the rewa rewa from his Mum's old hand mirror, all kinds of driftwood from Paekakariki beach (his home village in NZ), swamp myrtle from Norfolk from his late friend Dave, a belian roof tile from Sumatra given to him by an old Malay lady in Muar, olive wood from Bethlehem bought from an antique shop, and his piece de resistance, a 200 million year old fossilized tree trunk from South Africa which was given to his father Keith when he was teaching in South Africa during the late 1940s.   

But back to Colin.    I wanted to know from Colin how he constructed these beautiful writing tools.  As I was too dense (like the ironwood) to fully understand the process from Colin's verbal description, he gave this illustrated account for his pen-pal idiot.

THE STORY OF COLIN'S PENS

The first step

Colin,  although you have no wish to share your garage space with spiders, at least you are gentle with them.     Because of that, you can be assured - the next time we get back to England - of your supply of spicy roast chicken, yellow rice, tomato chutney, bread and butter pudding, lemon layer pudding, onion bhajis, rice noodle soup, roti jala and Malay chicken curry and your top favourite from my kitchen, lemon cheesecake!  I shall of course ensure that the spouse keeps you well supplied with mugs and mugs of tea.

"Ta raa me duck!"   Keep safe and well while we're away.

Postscript.

More examples of CGB's work.

A Hard Landing

                                            

"In the gloaming by the fireside, with you I'll be content.

In the glowing by the fireside, every hour will be well spent." 

22 months on ...........  Mr and Mrs Flotsam and Jetsam (debris from Covid 19 since January 2020) .........

10.30 pm  26 November 2021

.........   departed Kuala Lumpur for the spouse's kampung in Leicester.

Our luggage and ourselves arrived safely .......... 

In KL (top) and almost 24 hours later in Leicester (bottom)

.
 

...........  despite a hairy landing at Heathrow.  Kudos  to the Captain and crew of MAS flight MH 04 .  We were quite "shaken but not stirred" by the landing experience.  

This awaited us when we opened the door to the sitting room.

Our mail (and junk mail) after 22 months, though Colin had set aside about 4 times of the above into another box.

Two weeks on since our arrival .......... we have just about got over the jet lag,

but ..........

1. ....... still have not entered the City Centre to deal with various administrative matters because the locals are not keen on wearing masks and maintaining the social distancing rules.  Our maskless computer man has blithely refused to be vaccinated.  He claims as he had Covid 19 (though I do not think he had got to the stage of being at death's door) in 2020, he had developed a natural immunity like most of his relatives in Bangla Desh.

2.  As luck would have it,  Omicron arrived in UK at the same time as our arrival.  As the country is super-charged with the spirit of Xmas festivities,  people are desperate to get their booster jabs.  They were willing (or had) to queue for as long as 5 hours at walk-in centres - in the cold, standing on pavements and by roadsides to make sure they are protected!   Our concern is this: will Malaysia allow us to get back home?

3.  However, we had to expend almost all our fortitude and energy in dealing with our Romanian neighbours.

It was quite sad to to listen to the woes of the Gujarati barber who lived just across the road from us. 

"We voted for Brexit to get them out.  Instead the good, hardworking ones left and the rubbish have remained."

They have been fly tipping in front of his shop (which included a dead cat) many a time.  When he complained they dumped paint on the front door of his shop!!!

And Gohil added, " We have to suffer this - all in the name of Human Rights!!"

Last week we attended a meeting of the Evington |Road Neighbourhood Association where we heard more gory details of how the neighbourhood had suffered since the immigration of East Europeans since 2007 when the former Communist states of Eastern Europe were incorporated into the EU and  when UK was still a member of the Union.  This mass migration into UK (about 3 million) suited the agenda of the gaffers and the business community who were looking for cheap labour.  Does this ring a familiar note in my part of the world about over 100 years ago?

It seems that the criminal and anti-social activities of our EC citizens (now fully fledged British) in our neighbourhood is sourced from the "tribal" conflicts of the various nations of Eastern Europe,  from Romania, Serbia, Albania and the states of old Czechoslovakia. 

Perhaps we have our own in Malaysia .........

July 2021

.......  but not like this as in Leicester.  One of those thugs is our neighbour.

As for these two geriatrics who were (especially for Iain) looking forward to "going home", to visit our old friends and  settling down for a wee while in our "armchair by the fireside", we had to deal with harassment by our neighbours' children as soon as we shut our door behind us.  We had to set up a camera at the front window, make a report to the Police and the spouse decided to summarise our plight at the hands of our East European immigrant-neighbours and hand it over to the authorities.

Whither our Human Rights???

For a detailed picture of our saga with our "new immigrant" neighbours, read this episode from 2019.

https://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-lefty-liberals-lament.html

And when our Muslim computer man - an immigrant from Bangla Desh who came to UK 42 years ago - was told of our experience along this road and our age, he commented, "Well, you had your life!!!"

In Malaysia, the young and not-so-young often said to us, "Syukur Alhamdulillah!" when they were informed of our age.

I am so glad I did not discard  my Citizenship and abandoned the land of my birth to be a British Citizen.  But I was almost in tears when one morning a few weeks ago, Iain said this in utter despair;    "This is not my home any more."

Just a cuppa tea and mince pie, but it's not my home any more.

I understand how you feel love.  Some of the time, in fact most of the time, I also feel my Tanah Air has left me.

  

I shall conclude in traditional British style : a sort of two-fingers defiance.

from upstairs ..

   

......  from downstairs.

       

After all, though I am 77 and the spouse is 79,  we still have our work (writing ) to do and a life to live.

Syukur Alhamdulillah - for giving us this gift.