Real power in orang asli village

Last week (Friday/Saturday) I was in Royal Belum in Temenggor lake in Hulu Perak, visiting some orang asli villages.

In one village, my team and I came across this young boy, wearing a Real Madrid jersey.

The boy had no idea what Real Madrid was for he has no Astro or tv or even electricity supply for that matter.

He lives some two-and-half-hours speed boat ride away from civilisation and no one in his village has a speedboat.

His plays football but spends most of his time catching fish, collecting roots and rattan from the jungle. There is no school close by for him to attend.

Could he be our next football superstar? No one knows and will never know as his community (the Jahai tribe) is so isolated from the world we know.

Toddy for toast in school

Makkal Osai had an interesting item in its front page today.

Apparently a group of Form Four boys were caught drinking toddy in their school - during school hours - in Kapar last week.

A school teacher caught them drinking the alcoholic brew in a 100-Plus bottle, refrigerated no less!

Of course these boys first said it was the tonic drink but the teacher didn’t buy that. I guess the smell gave them away.

Anyways, upon investigations, it was found that these boys got the toddy from a shop nearby - they had help from a passerby who offered to buy them the toddy.

Now the school is contemplating to suspend them for two weeks. Well they should, if you ask me. And they should also find that idiot passerby and give him a rotan.

There is a god for transsexuals too

I didn’t know how to react for a moment when I read an article in the Star this morning regarding a Hindu religious festival for transsexuals which took place over a five-day period in Pandamaran, Selangor.

According to the report some 400 people participated in the ceremony which ended yesterday.

Apparently the ceremony was dedicated to goddess Bahuchara Mataji, the Hindu presiding deity for transsexuals.

Wow! A goddess for transsexuals. I knew there were thousands of gods, goddesses and demigods in the Hindu mythology but one specifically for the transgender community, and with their own dedicated temple too? Phew!!

Anyways, I did some digging in the net and this is what I discovered, including a picture of her:

• Bahuchara Mataji is seated on a rooster which symbolises innocence. She teaches that killing of all animals and creatures is a sin and that there should be nonviolence.
  


• She carries a sword on her top right, a text of scriptures on her top left. She shows the abhay hasta mudra on her bottom right (showering of blessings) and carries a trident on her bottom left.

And what’s her origin like? There are two versions.

• The first states that the goddess was once a princess who castrated her husband because he preferred going to forest and 'behaving as a woman' instead of coming to her bridal bed.


• The second says the man who attempted to molest Bahuchara cursed with impotency. He was forgiven only after he gave up his masculinity, dressed as a woman and worshipped the goddess.

Don’t ask me how these turned her into being the protector of transsexuals.

And one final bid of information - her dedicated temple is located in Shankhalpoor (Gujrat in India ). This holy place is today known as Bahucharaji.

So there we go. All that you wanted to know about the holy guardian of the transgenders.
Somehow I am still loss for words.

Which Third World could this be?

Food and drinking water shortages.
Panic buying.
The threat of looting.
No sleeping bags and flood parcels.
Misery to thousands of people.
Worst flooding in 60 years.

Is this is in a dictator-ruled Africa? Or some poverty-stricken Asian nation? Perhaps in a poor Latin American country?

Nope....it’s actually in the civilised England. (Read here and here)

A penchant for fake

Is this story for real? I smell rat, scam and fake in it. This is a story of a Japanese man who thinks plastic dolls are better than real girls.

He goes to the extend of ‘bathing them, powdering them so that their skin feels more human, dressing them in lingerie and then taking them to bed.’

And of course he has sex with them too - saying that he prefers these life-sized and anatomically correct plastic dolls to women.

Is this for real? The man is not named, but is said to be an engineer. He claims to have ‘a row of dolls lined up neatly on his sofa’, waiting just for him.

More worryingly, the report says that this man is a member of a secret group of Japanese men who have given up on women.

And a manufacturer is also quoted, saying that it makes 80 dolls a month in an eastern Tokyo factory to nine designs that sell for between $850 and $5,500 each. The more expensive models are made of silicon and have 35 movable joints.

Nearly all of the people who buy these dolls are single men and about 60 percent of them are over the age of 40, a company official said.

I have heard of these dolls but to read that men actually preferred living with the fakes truly sounds fake to me. It’s just like the cardboard-in-bun story from China.

Rain...

Sometimes, under the wiltering heat, you just wish you had rain to cool things down.

However there are times when you just don't want it to rain. Like this weekend. Constant downpour has just made it difficult for all to enjoy the break, especially when you have kids who want to go out and have a good time.

However luckily the rain in KL is not as bad as it is in the UK.

The picture shows torrential rain across the south of England, dampening the spirits of many.

I would't mind if it rains like this while I am at work!

The king is back

Nope, I am not talking about Elvis Presley being sighted in an R&R somewhere along the North-South Highway. Neither am I talking about our royal head.

I am actually talking about the king of our fruits - the durian. Some like ‘em, some just hate even the sight of them.

Me, well, I fall in the first category, and for the current durian season, I managed to taste this heavenly fruit just before they flooded the market (which is happening right now).

Some weeks ago, the company I was travelling with spotted a durian seller along the Kuantan - Kuala Terengganu route. The seller had some freshly picked durians and they simply tasted superb.

I have since then tasted more durians but none as tasty as those found in this stall. Just looks at the fruits he had on display and you can see that they were different (photo)!

Cleavage distracts bus driver

I found this Reuters story from Germany really funny.

There is this bus driver who couldn’t concentrate on driving because he was distracted by a sexy passenger.

So he gave her an ultimatum - get out of my sights or be prepared to be thrown out.

Or in his own words:

"Your cleavage is distracting me every time I look into my mirror and I can't concentrate on the traffic. If you don't sit somewhere else, I'm going to have to throw you off the bus."

So the 20-year-old young thing moved away and sat elsewhere but she is complaining over the humiliation.

The bus company, however, defended the driver.

So was he being cheeky? Or was he just being bluntly honest?

Going cold on vitamin C

What a con job. We have all been fleeced all these years.

If you, like me, were raised on the belief that you should take vitamin C (oranges in any form) to protect yourself from common colds, then I am talking about you.

A recent study shows that vitamin C does not stop common colds for most of us. I feel cheated!

The most ‘hurting’ part of this new discovery is that apparently "the benefits of taking vitamin C daily were so slight that they were not worth the effort or expense".

Tell this to the fellows who sell you really expensive vitamin C supplements.

Read the truth about this quack treatment here.

Arrgh Argies

Just when you thought the Argentinians would actually convert their excellent display of matches into winning the Copa America hands down, they just do the direct opposite and lose lamely to an under-strength Brazil. (Brazil won 3-0 early this morning)

When the Copa America started earlier this month, Argentina was obviously the team to beat with their dazzling display of football from some really excellent players with individual skills to kill.

They controlled all their matches (before the final), had a superb playmaker in Riquelme, an excellent world beater in Lionel Messi and the phenomenon called Tevez.

On the other hand, Brazil struggled through their early matches, were without their world-class stars Ronaldinho and Kaka and looked as though had put too much of weight on the shoulders of young Robinho.

But at the final stage, it was Brazil who triumphed quite convincingly. Looks like Brazil still has that big-match ‘kill’ attitude in them where they seem to do well when it comes to the cruncher game.

Argentina, on the other hand, is quite the opposite - they lack that big-match nuance. Thus they fail at the last hurdle, just like what happened at the World Cup last summer.

Player-wise, I think Argentina had the better lot at the Copa but collectively they all failed to live up to their tags as favourites.

I hope they stop short-selling their fans and finally in one of these tournaments do actually attain and achieve their true status as a team that plays the best football in the world right now.

How to term this marriage?

She is 51, a grandmother who has married five times before this. She has three sons and five grandchildren.

He, on the other hand, is just 27, with another wife and two-year-old child.

She is a respected parish councillor from Chesire. He works as a scrap metal dealer in Jeddah.

They met while she was riding a horse near the Great Pyramid and got married last September.

Her name is Jane Felix-Browne, or by her Muslim name known as Zaina Mohamad.

He is Omar Ossama bin Laden, one of at least 17 children fathered by terror chief Osama bin Laden.

Now she hopes to get permission from the UK authorities to allow him to stay with her there.

And she has some ideals of using their position to help to heal the wounds caused by her father-in-law.

"All we want is peace in this world and I will do all I can to promote it." (Read here)

How do I see this? Pure bull shit! I agree she doesn’t look 51 but still after going through five failed marriages, I simple don’t see this one working out as well. Things in this marriage just don’t add up.

For her, it could be the sex and the publicity/fame garnered for being Osama’s daughter-in-law, and the money from book deals, newspapers/tv interviews and photo shoots. For him, she might just be the ticket to enter Britain, and then Europe.

Sexy actress, the kiss and unpaid boob job

This is an interesting item if you are a hindi movie fan. More so if you like sex-bomb Bipasha Basu.

News are leaking that she was caught in a compromising position with Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo at a function in Lisbon over the weekend.

In fact a photo of her smooching the footballer has been widely published in India since then.

The actress is said to be in an intimate relationship with a fellow Indian actor. (click here to see her with her partner)

Of course she denies any hanky-panky with Cristiano, stating that the photo was "taken at an opportune moment and taken out of context". (read more here, including the photo and a video)

And then comes the second controversy. Apparently this sexy actress had undergone a boob job some years ago (to increase three inches of her assets) and now her doctor is claiming that she has not paid him for the silicon job.

This sultry actress is known for showing more than ample cleavage in reel, perhaps that was what that attracted Cristiano in the first place, and to think that she got that out of a con job! (read about her unpaid implant surgery here)

I am sure all these will do no harm to her acting career in Bollywood. Maybe Hollywood beckons now?

Bloodshed in parliament...

There was a bloody bloodshed in parliament today, all in the name of the prime minister and his new wife.

Apparently the back benchers’ club is organising a reception for the newly-weds tonight and for that these backbenchers have commissioned some outsiders to slaughter six cows and 10 goats in the parliament compound.

This slaughter business has irked several other MPs, notably from the opposition and non-Muslims, due to the insensitiveness of the matter.

They are asking if the BBC was ignorant that in some religions, eating beef is a taboo, let alone slaughtering cows.

One opposition MP was overheard saying that she would like to slaughter a pig in the parliament compound and wondered how would the muslims MPs react to that.

In defence, the BBC chief said it was done with good intentions to celebrate the premier’s historic wedding.

Neither he nor the house speaker apologised to anyone over this insensitive slaughtering.

I hope someone actually has the guts to just take in a non-halal food item into the house for a function, let alone slaughtering a pig.

Then we will see the fun flying from all corners.

A black jumbo jet going for cheap

A Boeing 747 jumbo is just worth Rs1,600 (RM160)? But cycle is valued Rs91,000 (RM9,100)?

Wow! If that’s the case, I too would like to have this jumbo jet, said to be black in colour.

However in reality, these are just some of the goof ups committed by the Tamil Nadu police in their records, as discovered in the 2006 annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

There are more such rather interesting cock-ups as reported here in this article.

But I leave you with something any police force would be proud of - there were 115 FIRs filed even before crimes were committed in Tamil Nadu!

For clarification, the Boeing was said to have been lost in Madurai.

Is this too sexy?

This is the sleeveless top worn by pub singer Siti Noor Idayu Abd Moin, 24, which the religious authorities in Perak claim to be too revealing.

She was accused of promoting vice by wearing this blouse.

Have men in this country become that prurient that any dress that shows a little bit of skin is enough to arouse lust?

The Perak state religious authorities surely think so.

Maybe this is how they react to a slight show of aurat?

The tale of two Siti

Two disturbing trends happened today which cause concern to me personally as a non-Muslim in this country.

In the first case, a Muslim-born woman who was held at the Islamic rehabilitation centre for six months for having married a Hindu man was released from the detention yesterday.

The bad news is that she is prohibited from living with her husband. She must stay with her Muslim-parents and is refused a chance to renounce Islam.

In other words, she is being forced to stay in a religion which she doesn’t want to be in.

This is what the woman - named Revathi by her husband and Siti Fatimah by her parents - told reporters today:

Revathi, 29, claimed officials at the centre tried to make her pray as a Muslim, wear a head scarf and eat beef, but she refused.

"Because of their behaviour, I loathe Islam even more now," she told reporters. "They say it's a school, but it's actually a prison."

For more on her case, read here.

And then comes the second incident, which was widely reported in the English dailies today.

This is regarding the Muslim pub singer in Perak who was harassed and charged by state religious authorities for "revealing her body" and "promoting vice".

The singer, 24-year-old Siti Noor Idayu Abd Moin, was dressed in sleeveless top which showed some of her back.

According to the religious authorities, action was taken against her because:

"A Muslim woman is not allowed to serve or entertain a man who is not her husband in a place where immoral activities usually take place."

Siti is fuming, and said:

"I was surprised when the officers told me this top was too revealing...Sometimes I wear something similar when I go out in the day. This is sexy? I don’t think so."

She has been released from a night’s detention on a bond of RM1,000 and will have to appear in a syariah court on Aug 6. Read more of her ordeal here.

Seen together, both these incidents just go on to prove how badly Islam Hadhari, or any form of Islam, is being interpreted in this secular country.

At times, it is as though the religious authorities are blind to the fact that at least 40 percent of the Malaysian population are not Muslims.

So it’s no longer defamatory to call him that?

There was a High Court ruling today which said that the former deputy prime minister was not defamed by his former boss who called him a "sodomiser".

The ruling, albeit without a full trial, stated that the term as used was justified and uttered in the interest of the public.

This defamation suit, to the amount of RM100 million, is the second such suit by the former deputy premier against the former premier.

The judge today pointed this out and said the words uttered were identical to the words complained of in the 1999 defamation action.

She then said the findings of the High Court in 1999 to dismiss the suit was applicable now as well.

But more damaging, she said that there was a judicial finding that the former deputy prime minister had indeed taken part in homosexual acts.

She was referring to the finding made by the High Court when the politician was convicted on the charge of sodomosing his former family driver. This conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeal and although a further appeal was allowed by the Federal Court by a majority decision.

But this part of the original ruling was never in dispute:

"... we find evidence to confirm that the appellants were involved in homosexual activities and we are more inclined to believe that the alleged incident at Tivoli Villa did happen, sometime..."

Now, my question is this.

With the standing High Court decision and the civil court ruling today, would it mean that we can use the alleged defamatory term against the former deputy premier without defaming him!

Of course, we shall await his appeal to the Court of Appeal against the defamation suit for better clarification.

EU’s sex-rated video promo

European Union has put up a 44-second video online to promote films made in Europe.

However the video clip has attracted unwanted attention from various quarters including the media and European MPs for its raunchiness.

The Sun from London calls the video clip sex-rated, and accused the EU of using porn to promote European films.

The promo-video - titled Let’s Come Together - features a host of couples in sex scenes cut together from films made in Europe.

As I blog this, the clip has been seen more than 283,000 times.

Watch the video clip below and judge it for yourself:

Presidential candidate’s holy vision

Pratibha Patil is the ruling Congress-led government’s choice to be the next Indian president.

She will be replacing the popular bachelor APJ Abdul Kalam, whose term ends as India's 12th president on July 24. Man-of-science Abdul Kalam has sought to improve education, rural communities and scientific developments during his presidency.

Many Indians whom I know speak very highly of Kalam’s ground-breaking speech when he was first elected as president as it chartered the path for India’s future.

Pratibha, 72, is a politician and had already garnered enough controversies as she tries to be the constitutional head of the largest democracy in the world.

Consider these:

Just as soon as her nomination was made known, she opened her mouth to come under fire from the Indian Muslim community and historians for uttering that purdah/veil was a Mughal invaders invention and was not needed in secular India.

This was soon followed by two allegations of abuse of power by the former governor of Rajasthan - protecting a murderer (who happens to be her brother) and the sugar factory scandal. In the latter, Pratibha is alleged to owe money to a bank.

And most damaging of all is her revelation that she heard voices of a dead holy man who told her about her destiny.

The presidential election is on July 19 and we await for further revelations. In the meantime, the woman herself dismisses all charges made against her. Read about it here and here.

Sex for food in Zimbabwe

The situation in Zimbabwe is truly sad. The people there are suffering due to the economic mismanagement of President Robert Mugabe.

It has been speculated that inflation now stands at a whopping 15,000 percent. That means everything - from salaries to goods - come in millions!

The Times of London says people in Zimbabwe are trying to survive with less than 1 British Pound per week (that’s RM7 per week).

The daily also mentioned in its report dated July 1 on how teachers were being forced to turn into prostitution to buy food.

Here is an excerpt:

"Instead of standing in front of her class in Kwekwe teaching history and geography, Sithole takes the bus 146 miles north to Harare. There, she sits at the bar in clubs such as Chez Ntemba, Chez Mambo and the Stars Studio at Rainbow Towers hotel, waiting for a proposition.

At 32, Sithole is pretty and refined, though there is a far-away sadness in her eyes and clients complain that there is not enough of her bottom ("What do you expect on one meal a day?" she asks).

On a pulsating Friday night at the Stars Studio, there is no shortage of takers..."

Read more of the report here.