MSN nutters

Sometimes a conversation via MSN can go like this:

Z : hi
X : hey! what's up?
Z : nothing much
X : oh, so what are you doing now then?
Z : nothing la

10 mins later.

Z : hey, why you not tokking?

What I don't get is, why do people bother dropping me a line when they have nothing to say? I don't like being the one asking all the questions and getting the same more or less mono-syllabic responses when I wasn't the one who initiated conversation in the first place.

You know the world is screwed up when...

Picture snitched from The Purse Blog

This ludicrous effigy of a Chanel handbag costs $950.

Worthwhile to Visit Malaysia?

Since its launch this year, VM has been to India, Brunei, China, and now, the UK. It started when Adrian told me that Tesco was selling Maggi Mee for 5p a packet. So I popped over about 2 hours later and there were three display racks with the "Taste of Malaysia, in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2007" labels at the top and they were stocked semi-full (cos most of the stuff were gone) of Malaysian sauces and snacks... even strange confectionary that I am usually not privy to, like chocolates with a banana center (?!), and starfruit jam.

Since all the Maggi Mee had been grabbed up already, I tried to get a better look at the sauces but was blocked by a huge Middle Eastern family who were standing in the aisle with two full trolleys, bickering about what sauces to buy. They couldn't make up their minds so they kept picking up a couple of packets and putting them in their trolleys then taking them out again and putting them back on the shelves. MAHA IRRITATING. There was another person apart from myself who was desperately trying to move closer to the shelves and this family couldn't give ten rats asses. I'm pretty sure they saw us cos one of the women looked in my direction. And their kids!!!!! Ohmygoodness. Kids are really cute when they're just blobs of gurgly matter, but once they start developing the use of their mouths and legs I cannot tell you how much I ABHOR, DETEST, DESPISE, LOATHE, HATE (!!!!!!) them. Not too long ago when roller shoes were the 'in' thing, kids used to bump into me all the time in shopping malls. $@^#£$%^!!!!!! See, tall people can be forgiven for not noticing my presence but these kids who are a good two heads shorter than me have no excuse. And they don't even know how to apologize! If I were ever given the chance to start my own country, I would ban roller shoes and kids between the ages of 5-10.

I also cannot understand why our government spends so much on promoting Malaysia as a hotspot when there is still much work to be done about the country's internal affairs (huhuhu, I wrote 'inFernal affairs' first, then deleted it). An efficient transportation system is as paramount as any support system should be in adding to the tourist appeal of a country - but ours is abominable. The LRT network lacks common sense, buses are insufferably slow, unpunctual and dirty, and cabbies charge unscrupulous fares as soon as they realise you're not Malaysian. Political Corruption is notoriously well-known, Uncleanliness is a hazard, Queueing is unheard of and Rudeness is a disease. Ironically, this is only spurring me on to study harder, empower myself with knowledge and utilise it to the fullest. I can't wait to return home and get my hands sticky with all this mud. In this case, it's gonna take too many cooks to create a great broth!

Non-Muslims required to seek redress in Syariah courts

Letter to Malaysia-Today.net by Tricia Yeoh, Centre for Public Policy Studies

The Centre for Public Policy Studies views with concern the recent majority decision of the Court of Appeal in Subashini v Saravanan where the Courts effectively required a non-Muslim to submit to the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court to have the theological laws of Islam applied to her in order to remedy unconstitutional orders from the Syariah courts in respect of their non Muslim marriage. In this ruling, the majority of the Court of Appeal also seem to have upheld the notion that one parent could convert an infant child to Islam without obtaining the consent of the other parent, and then go to the Syariah courts to get custody orders in respect of those infant children without the participation or consent of the non-Muslim spouse.

It is the Centre's view that requiring a non-Muslim to seek remedies in the Syariah courts is unconstitutional and unfair. The Federal Constitution of Malaysia clearly states that the Syariah courts have jurisdiction only over persons professing the religion of Islam. To subject a non-Muslim to the laws of Islam would be unfair as a non-Muslim does not profess that religion so as to require the non Muslim to be governed by theological rules of that religion. The Centre is also of the view that true parental equality requires that both parents consent to any change in religion of an infant child.

It is important to note that we live in a plural society where adherents of different faiths interact freely with one another. What maintains this balance of mutual respect is a system that recognizes and ensures equal justice for all citizens alike. The Constitution as supreme law of the land has provided such a system that affirms justice for Muslims and non-Muslims respectively.

The recent ruling by the majority of the Court of Appeal sets a worrying precedent for future cases. Referring a non-Muslim to the Syariah courts for judicial reliefs is tantamount to impeding the constitutional rights of non-Muslims to profess and practise their faiths in peace and harmony. Access to justice is denied. This is contrary to the spirit and constitutional context of the system that all Malaysians have hitherto enjoyed.

If the law as it stands means the civil courts are unable to grant remedies to the non Muslim spouse (something the Centre doubts), then it is high time legislative intervention makes it clear that any court applying a religious law can only exercise jurisdiction over persons professing that religion.

* * * *

Is this what is happening in my country? First, I can't leave my house gates open for fear of my dogs getting beat up. Now, I have to be subject to the law of a religion that I don't profess to in the event that my (future) husband converts to Islam? In the UK this would make for highly litigious fodder. I can only think of the number of ECHR (or European Convention on Human Rights, which has been given statutory foundation as the Human Rights Act 1998) human rights that have been infringed -

Article 6 - the right to a fair trial
Article 13 - the right to an effective remedy
Article 14 - prohibition of discrimination

Given the impact of human rights in the West, it is not surprising that many overseas-trained lawyers cannot be arsed to return to Malaysia and encumber themselves with this bullshit.

Lately

I think I slept so much over the past week that these few days I am sleeping in short bursts. I was feeling kinda flu/fever-ish at the time as well, and I had a horrible sore throat that felt like a large chunk of wood, complete with rough splinters and jagged edges had lodged itself in my throat. But today I feel much better, and it's all thanks to sucking on loads of strawberry flavoured Strepsils.

Not much has happened of late. Zhi Hui, Cahyadi and I were goofing around with Flora's camera the other day and we decided to leave her a surprise -


MF directed me to this link concerning foreign workers in Malaysia who beat up a little dog in December last year -

CLICK HERE

The article is overwhelming. You MUST read it. You will be struck with a profound silence, as I was. I'll leave you to your thoughts.

Missed

Oh My Goodness. I deserve to be shot because I totally forgot Dian's birthday. I hope you are reading this post my friend. Because as much as I might have missed out on the celebrations, you are still a Very Important Person to me :D

For those of you who don't know, Dian is Someone I have known since sec school. She was one of the few people I met on my first day at school. Everyone else didn't notice I had come in 2 weeks into the academic calendar and was sitting at a rickety junk of a desk at the back of the class. Can you believe no one noticed this big mouthed shorty? Maybe they couldn't differentiate between me and June, another big mouthed shorty. Anyway. We weren't fantastically tight, although we were in the same gang from Form 1-3. It's probably cos we were too busy printing out pictures and cutting out newspaper articles of our Italian husbands, Simone Inzaghi and Alessandro Nesta. Then in Form 4 we split ways. She decided to go Artsy and I decided to go Fartsy. Huhuhu. I mean Sciency. It wasn't till I left for the UK that we starting developing a closer friendship. Strangely enough, it was her I always saw during the holidays. Fastforward to today. Dian is my mamak partner (as Ming Foong is my duck rice partner, and Teresa is my driver). She is my SMS-at-random-hours buddy. We rarely talk football these days, but instead have moved on to shopping, food, her numerous car accidents and her MAS pilot, and other random girly things. Dian seems to think she's this muddled up clumsy goon of a person with a split personality; in fact she is nothing but a fuzzy lovable old woman who is trying to find her real place in this world, just like the rest of us :) So stop thinking you're the only idiot around ok!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLDIE.

The little ewok

Who grew into a bigger ewok

And is still an ewok

Just check out that ewok in the middle

Some things just never change

P/S >> Teresa, please don't complain that I only ever do things for Dian and not you e.g. this nice long birthday dedication. I didn't miss your birthday right?!

Aye Scotland

The highlight of our trip to Glasgow? Mich, Zuhi and I standing on the pavement
1) screaming and laughing in some sort of bewildered frenzy,
2) hanging on for dear life to our flapping upturned brollies,
3) clothes and hair flying everwhere,
4) rain and wind flying everwhere, and
5) Michelle's super loud laughter. MATCHLESS!

Our camera shy host

Junk food! Can you tell what the pakoras are made of?

We also made sure to take a day trip to Edinburgh, which everyone says is a beautiful city...

In the second picture you can see Zhi Hui standing on the steps of a bridge that connects the main station to the town centre. The view is really pretty there. At one end is the Edinburgh Castle, the government offices and the train station. At the other end is the Edinburgh Gallery and the town centre. Also, the bridge is built over the railway station so you'll be looking down onto in and outbound trains. Add lots of trees, flowers and other forms of fauna into the picture and you will not believe how awesome it feels taking in the sights as you stroll along the bridge. The view was just too overpowering for my little Nikon.

On our last night, after days of living on cheap take away dinners, we celebrated by dining at a posh eatery called The Ubiquitous Chip. The decor was chic du jour - stone walls and creeper plants, and a mezzanine level for the brasserie. The ground floor was for formal dining, and everyone was dressed to the nines except for us.

Zuhi and her vegetarian haggis

And THIS is the reason we missed our train back to London!


We caught a bus the very next day. The journey was NINE bum stiffing hours long.

Finally, here's a video that I shot in Mich's flat...