hello cikgu, can you please write on whether it's safe to have a violent organisation, like hamas, as the ruling party of a neighbouring country?? I think I'm missing on a few details. Because I feel Israel is right to bring the war onto the strip after all that is happening with the muslim-branded rockets being fired randomly into their zionist land. If Hamas cared about their people, they wouldn't even think about throwing a rock over the wall anymore.
Friday, 9 January 2009
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Re- do of extract of Yahoo news
Dear All,
I seem to have a problem with the reproduction of the article on Sir Alan 'target for extremists'.
So I'm typing it out because of failed technology.
Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar has been said to be among a list of top British Jews thought to be targeted by extremists over Israel's Gaza onslaught.
According to a newspaper, the multi-millionaire businessman was named on an Islamic website along with pop producer Mark Ronson, Foreign Secretary David Milliband and Labour peer Lord Levy.
One strand on the site asks for help compiling a list of "those who support Israel", the paper said , while another asks "Have we got a list of top Jews we can target?"
A link to the Power 100 list of top British Jews is also provided.
The Community Security Trust, which advises safety advice to UK's Jewish Community, has said it expects the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain to rise as a result of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The organisation said: "We are advising prominent Jewish individuals to be conscious of potential threats."
This was taken from The Press Association on Yahoo News, Wednesday, January 7 o3:41 am
I seem to have a problem with the reproduction of the article on Sir Alan 'target for extremists'.
So I'm typing it out because of failed technology.
Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar has been said to be among a list of top British Jews thought to be targeted by extremists over Israel's Gaza onslaught.
According to a newspaper, the multi-millionaire businessman was named on an Islamic website along with pop producer Mark Ronson, Foreign Secretary David Milliband and Labour peer Lord Levy.
One strand on the site asks for help compiling a list of "those who support Israel", the paper said , while another asks "Have we got a list of top Jews we can target?"
A link to the Power 100 list of top British Jews is also provided.
The Community Security Trust, which advises safety advice to UK's Jewish Community, has said it expects the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain to rise as a result of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
The organisation said: "We are advising prominent Jewish individuals to be conscious of potential threats."
This was taken from The Press Association on Yahoo News, Wednesday, January 7 o3:41 am
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Little Great Britain
Remember how Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned? Now observe how the Western media 'tunes' the news as Gaza is awash with the blood of the innocents . 
This is a convenient piece of news to put across while the terrorist state of Israel is pounding the Palestinians back to the Stone Age. Even though these academics are really trying hard to justify their salary by reporting on the positive face of suicide bombs ??? which in itself defies comprehension and relevance - the inclusion of this research as news is to remind the great British public that there's danger and threat out there from the Muslims. Remember July the 7th? Just like remember, remember the 4th of November when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament.
And now lo and behold, whose precious lives are now under threat? Rich and prominent British Jews have to be protected from nasty Muslims as a result of the Israeli - Gaza conflict. Conflict ?? Isn't that rich? Do you call the massacre of a barely armed tiny section of Palestine by a terrorist nation armed to the teeth merely a conflict?? What a tame word to use when this is a bloody war, of Goliath attacking David !
Dear, dear I hope the rich and prominent Jews in Britain and all over the world, barring Israel of course, will take precautions for their safety and lie low until the blood in Gaza has dried up and they can look forward to new settlements on what used to be Gaza and the Christian and Muslim Palestinians can go to hell.
Shalom
P.S. There's a problem with viewing the second Yahoo News. Please look at the next posting to read the full text. Thanks
This is a convenient piece of news to put across while the terrorist state of Israel is pounding the Palestinians back to the Stone Age. Even though these academics are really trying hard to justify their salary by reporting on the positive face of suicide bombs ??? which in itself defies comprehension and relevance - the inclusion of this research as news is to remind the great British public that there's danger and threat out there from the Muslims. Remember July the 7th? Just like remember, remember the 4th of November when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament.
And now lo and behold, whose precious lives are now under threat? Rich and prominent British Jews have to be protected from nasty Muslims as a result of the Israeli - Gaza conflict. Conflict ?? Isn't that rich? Do you call the massacre of a barely armed tiny section of Palestine by a terrorist nation armed to the teeth merely a conflict?? What a tame word to use when this is a bloody war, of Goliath attacking David !
Dear, dear I hope the rich and prominent Jews in Britain and all over the world, barring Israel of course, will take precautions for their safety and lie low until the blood in Gaza has dried up and they can look forward to new settlements on what used to be Gaza and the Christian and Muslim Palestinians can go to hell.
Shalom
P.S. There's a problem with viewing the second Yahoo News. Please look at the next posting to read the full text. Thanks
For Ben
Land of Heart's DesireWhere beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,
But joy is wisdom. Time an endless song.
W.B. Yeats
You remember Macik in very special ways. I will always remember you for allowing me to put my head on your lap and cry my heart out on 21 Sept 1982 - the day my beloved brother departed.
Don't worry about yesterday's accounts - we still have many (?), several (?) tomorrows.
Welcome back to our Universe. This time, don't stay away too long.
P.S. Help Lely, how did I get 2 videos?
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
KAMISAH - the Heart of Hamid and the Family (CsH)
This posting is specially for Hisham, Mahzan, Maria, Hidayah, Shaharuddin, Mariam and Hana - the grandchildren of Hamid and Kamisah. I ask for indulgence from readers other than the family because today I realised how I have committed a grave oversight for not putting my mother in the picture.
As children, we do take mothers for granted because they are always there, quietly getting on with the day to day tasks of keeping the home and hearth together. Father was the bigger picture because we were always reminded by mother that he puts the food on the table. So should it be but that should not diminish her devotion.
We had lunch with a book reviewer today and she talked about how as a child, her mother would always read her a book before she goes to bed. My mind then clicked and I exclaimed suddenly that as a child I was the one who read to my mum! It was because my mum was illiterate I explained. But that is a wrong word to describe a bright intelligent woman with a fantastic memory and who could inform you about the latest world and local news. Besides that she also looked after the family's finances without jotting down a single number. I could think of other words like unschooled, untutored, uninstructed, unlettered, uneducated, unread and so on. I think my dear ole mum is unfathomed and unrecognized. As a mother she resorted to her basic instincts and natural good sense. She was brought up by a stepmother who she loved immensely and it was difficult for her in her later years to be reconciled with her natural mother.
Most afternoons when I was about 8/9, my sister and I would take turns to have our lice, or nits picked from our hair. It was a laborious task for my mum. But it brought her a bit of joy because I had to read her a story from Cherita Jenaka while she got on with the job. Here are two pages from that book.
This is the inside cover of the book. The front is a mess because it has been in my keeping for years. It has travelled from Singapore to UK and back to KL .
You can see it is well read and well loved. Sometimes I would have to keep on reading even after her 'nit picking' was done. Those were the days sans TV !!
Righto kids, here are some pictures of your Atok 'Mok.
That's Atok 'Mok on the right with her elder sister Salmah taken in would you believe it, Geylang ! She was 17 in 1940.
On the back of this photo was written Mr and Mrs Hamid, Royal Air Force, Kuantan, 1941.
Kamisah was expecting her first child, Maznah - her expectation i
s barely visible.
My favourite picture of her - taken when she was 45/46 ?
And Finally
All I can say to a wonderful lady:
O, Bulan ! Mana bintang ?
Atas puchok kayu ara ;
O, Emak ! Mana hilang ?
Kita orang rindu senantiasa.
As children, we do take mothers for granted because they are always there, quietly getting on with the day to day tasks of keeping the home and hearth together. Father was the bigger picture because we were always reminded by mother that he puts the food on the table. So should it be but that should not diminish her devotion.
We had lunch with a book reviewer today and she talked about how as a child, her mother would always read her a book before she goes to bed. My mind then clicked and I exclaimed suddenly that as a child I was the one who read to my mum! It was because my mum was illiterate I explained. But that is a wrong word to describe a bright intelligent woman with a fantastic memory and who could inform you about the latest world and local news. Besides that she also looked after the family's finances without jotting down a single number. I could think of other words like unschooled, untutored, uninstructed, unlettered, uneducated, unread and so on. I think my dear ole mum is unfathomed and unrecognized. As a mother she resorted to her basic instincts and natural good sense. She was brought up by a stepmother who she loved immensely and it was difficult for her in her later years to be reconciled with her natural mother.
Most afternoons when I was about 8/9, my sister and I would take turns to have our lice, or nits picked from our hair. It was a laborious task for my mum. But it brought her a bit of joy because I had to read her a story from Cherita Jenaka while she got on with the job. Here are two pages from that book.
This is the inside cover of the book. The front is a mess because it has been in my keeping for years. It has travelled from Singapore to UK and back to KL .
You can see it is well read and well loved. Sometimes I would have to keep on reading even after her 'nit picking' was done. Those were the days sans TV !!Righto kids, here are some pictures of your Atok 'Mok.
That's Atok 'Mok on the right with her elder sister Salmah taken in would you believe it, Geylang ! She was 17 in 1940.
On the back of this photo was written Mr and Mrs Hamid, Royal Air Force, Kuantan, 1941.
Kamisah was expecting her first child, Maznah - her expectation i
s barely visible.My favourite picture of her - taken when she was 45/46 ?
And Finally
All I can say to a wonderful lady:
O, Bulan ! Mana bintang ?
Atas puchok kayu ara ;
O, Emak ! Mana hilang ?
Kita orang rindu senantiasa.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
The Ramblings of a Malay Malcontent - Part 2
We Malays were told by by Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (Sir Vidia) in his book Among the Believers (1981) that "Malays dressed as Arabs but formal Malay clothing of tunic and trousers were copied from the Chinese. The velvet cap is Indian." This book is also littered with umpteen derogatory and insulting statements about Malays, Muslims and Malaysia. The above quotation is in fact very mild and very tame.
Sir Vidhia is bravely carrying the torch of the imperious literary tradition of mocking and making fun of others of darker hues. However it is difficult to comprehend why a descendant of indentured Indian coolies, born in Trinidad should write such condescending and snide remarks about a people whose colour is no darker than his. Or could it be because of his pathological dislike of Muslims - a hangover from his pukka education in England? Still we have to acknowledge his skills as a story teller, a travel writer and a wordsmith.
Following are some old postcards to illustrate why we are what we have become, whether we are Chinese, Indians or Malays. Especially in the case of the bumiputeras the perception of Westerners has not changed. Even non-westerners are now joining the game of bashing up
the Malays in Malaysia be it in non-fiction or fiction.
Here we are dancing our time away in our sarong and songkok and haji hat, nothing original according to Sir Vidia.
The message behind the card says " These are Malays dancing. It looks as if they were doing the Highland fling. " So we're a chip off the old Scottish block eh!
These little Malay women need civilizing and emancipation. Can you see how miserable they look? A good dose of literature from the stables of Sir Vidia would really light up their life and they'll be sharing their angst with the rest of the world about how they resent and loathe being Malays, especially the female variety.
This is a postcard of Ceylon showing how the masters of the Empire keep the natives occupied besides sending them to the sticks like Malaysia and Trinidad as coolies.
These victims of the Raj have every right to sue the Great White Mother and perhaps Sir Vidia could lend a helping hand.
This postcard was published by Yee Wo Shing, Dealer in Postcards, Stamps and Novels, 7 Canton Road, Kowloon.
This is a rare picture of the Chinese enjoying himself because we are always told that we should emulate them in their work ethics and work habit and contribute to the wealth of our country.
Now that we can see some errors of our ways, here are a couple of Christmas and New Year Greeting Cards circa late 50s or early 60s. I bought them from a bookshop in Muar about 22 years ago.
This is lovely idyllic Malaysia where you can see the Malay fisherman pulling in his boat. They live in cute little kampung houses where life is peaceful and easy.
The Malays prefer to grow padi instead of working in the rubber estates and tin mines.
They do not participate in the cash-crop economy because they do not like to work far from their home and they are contented with the ethos of kais pagi makan pagi kais petang makan petang , a subsistence kind of existence which of course makes no contribution to the GNP.
Well, these greeting cards tell us what kind of economic activities are suitable for us. But then, after Independence we wanted better and became doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and bankers although we do have our share of crooks and charlatans. What upstarts ! This achievement has nothing to do with them working hard and using their brains and making sacrifices like all parents do. It's because of the NEP and in the process they discriminate against and impoverish the other 40% (?) of the population.
The Beatles put it very nicely : You're thinking of me the same old way. You were above me, but not today.
That's all folks. And I apologize for the messy layout.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
WHY ?
My nephew asked me to write on Gaza, because right now they're being brutally savaged by superior Israeli firepower while the rest of the freedom-loving, free nations of the world look on and meekly request for 'restraints' from the terrorist state of Israel.
I have been a spectator to this decimation of a people and a nation by fellow-followers of the Book, by a very old, very talented, and very cultured people who make up 0.002 % of the world's population, but whose " political influence in the US ranges from the Anti-Defamation League to the United Jewish Appeal, to the New York Times, to the .......Jewish caucus in the House of Representatives " (J. J. Goldberg 'Jewish Power', 1996).
I have witnessed this carnage of a sovereign people on the British print and electronic media since 1984 and it has got me so incensed that I cannot bear to watch or listen to anymore. This anger and frustration is like a dagger that cuts you from within and I do realise that anger is self -defeating.
But I have 3 posters here from the Leicester-based Friends of Al Aqsa and they remind and help me to remember who are the other victims of the HOLOCAUST.
This map speaks volumes as to how much has been taken from the Palestinians while the rest of the world looks askance.
Israel's founding - the last colonial power on earth - is a testament to the historical transformation of the passive persecuted Jew to the most powerful political nation on earth. A nation that silences and intimidates through the stick of American power, its own military and intelligence might, Jewish money, media manipulation, movies, and above all its own myths and lies. No nation has successfully withstood international laws and condemnation and told the world to go to hell.
Mohamed Khodr, contributor to Media Monitors Network
Alexander Cockburn wrote in Counterpunch 2006, The years roll by and Israel does its successful best to destroy all possibility of a viable two-state solution. It builds illegal settlements. It chops up Palestine with Jews-only roads. It collars all the water. It cordons off Jerusalem. It steals even more land bisecting Palestinian territory with its "fence". That is The Wall.
The tragedy is not the brutality of evil but the silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King Jr. Make what you will of the connection between the List above and this quotation.
Years ago after another brutal attack on Gaza, I watched on the British TV screen a Palestinian mother mourning the death of her son at the hands of Israel's cowardly military forces defiantly crying out " I have 5 more sons".
That picture is permanently etched into my psyche -always reminding me of my shame and culpability, of our shame and culpability especially the Muslim Umma.
Gaza bleeds and so should we.
I have been a spectator to this decimation of a people and a nation by fellow-followers of the Book, by a very old, very talented, and very cultured people who make up 0.002 % of the world's population, but whose " political influence in the US ranges from the Anti-Defamation League to the United Jewish Appeal, to the New York Times, to the .......Jewish caucus in the House of Representatives " (J. J. Goldberg 'Jewish Power', 1996).
I have witnessed this carnage of a sovereign people on the British print and electronic media since 1984 and it has got me so incensed that I cannot bear to watch or listen to anymore. This anger and frustration is like a dagger that cuts you from within and I do realise that anger is self -defeating.
But I have 3 posters here from the Leicester-based Friends of Al Aqsa and they remind and help me to remember who are the other victims of the HOLOCAUST.
This map speaks volumes as to how much has been taken from the Palestinians while the rest of the world looks askance.
Israel's founding - the last colonial power on earth - is a testament to the historical transformation of the passive persecuted Jew to the most powerful political nation on earth. A nation that silences and intimidates through the stick of American power, its own military and intelligence might, Jewish money, media manipulation, movies, and above all its own myths and lies. No nation has successfully withstood international laws and condemnation and told the world to go to hell.
Mohamed Khodr, contributor to Media Monitors Network
Alexander Cockburn wrote in Counterpunch 2006, The years roll by and Israel does its successful best to destroy all possibility of a viable two-state solution. It builds illegal settlements. It chops up Palestine with Jews-only roads. It collars all the water. It cordons off Jerusalem. It steals even more land bisecting Palestinian territory with its "fence". That is The Wall.
The tragedy is not the brutality of evil but the silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King Jr. Make what you will of the connection between the List above and this quotation.
Years ago after another brutal attack on Gaza, I watched on the British TV screen a Palestinian mother mourning the death of her son at the hands of Israel's cowardly military forces defiantly crying out " I have 5 more sons".
That picture is permanently etched into my psyche -always reminding me of my shame and culpability, of our shame and culpability especially the Muslim Umma.
Gaza bleeds and so should we.
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