Belacan, Politicians and 'Otak Udang'

 

 

I was quite upset when I read the above headline yesterday.  It's not fair and it's tantamount to being racist.  In the first place,  using otak belacan  to denigrate the brain of PAP's P Ramasamy is not applicable.  After all,  he is a Malaysian Indian and certainly belacan is not his staple food seasoning.  It certainly can be applied to  a Malay like the author of this article,  unless he is of the elite Jawi Peranakan extraction, but now registered as Malay.

Secondly it is an insult to a staple Malay condiment like belacan.

In Indonesia the equivalent is trasi , mentioned in the ancient Sundanese scriptures.

 So as not to confuse the origin of trasi/belacan :

Zheng He (or Cheng Ho)  (1371 - 1433), diplomat-admiral from the Ming Dynasty even brought back this condiment to his homeland!   Although today, most of the producers and distributors of belacan in Malaysia are Chinese and the popularity of Chinese Peranakan Cuisine has elevated the status and glamour surrounding the humble belacan.  Growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s, I recall how people turn up their noses (in more ways than one) at the taste, odour and purchase of belacan.  

In the early books on Malay/Indonesian/Southeast Asian cooking, there seemed to be a bit of 'shyness' in using the word belacan, instead it was described as shrimp paste.

As for the udang geragau, (Singapore Malays called it geragur), my Emak loved to make fritters, a mixture of the shrimps, flour, egg, onions and chillies.  It was not only tasty, but it was cheap and muai, which means just a little bit or expenditure goes a long way.

Nowadays you can't buy geragur for love or money.  But this Melayu belacan (Maznoor Hamid that is) stores a good stock of belacan in her larder to titillate the appetite of both herself and her Anglo-Scottish spouse who cannot get enough of sambal blacan and sambal pedas petai/ikan bilis.  

Ash's stock of belacan

It all started with my Emak's feeding of her skinny Mat Salleh son-in-law because she thinks her daughter is not cooking enough for him, like a typical loving and dutiful wife should.

The source of the addiction to chillie and belacan - my mother!

That is my paean to belacan, a traditional ingredient for traditional Malay cooking and should never ever be used to describe the cerebral failings of anyone, especially politicians - whatever shade of ethnicity - in Malaysia.  There are many other words to choose from, words like  dull, doltish, dim, idiotic, ignorant, asinine etc etc.

Whenever as children, we acted and said something stupid to Emak, she would just exclaim "Bodoh! Kepala Otak Udang!" (Stupid. Prawn-head brains!).  That is because the prawn's excreta is in the head.  That is the only asinine connection to belacan which is made from fermented prawns .  Still the Malays do have a refined alternative to the obscene use of the word "shit-head"!!!!!  

Here is the author of that article in Malaysia Today.

What is PEJUANG?

 May Allah keep our Tanah Air in excellent physical and spiritual health this Ramadan.

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".

 .

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.