Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

Life as It Is

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 51 views

Life is a roller coaster. Life is a box of chocolates.  Life is full of surprises. You never know what you’re gonna get.

What a rainbow of emotions I was having for the past 2 days. On Monday, a good friend from Johor called me. Her father just passed away, 2 weeks ago. I used to work for her father, doing part time when I was studying in UTM Skudai. Early of this month, she lost her unborn baby in pregnancy. She was at her 34th week of pregnancy, it was just a matter of 1-2 weeks or days more for her to expect her newborn baby. I was lost for words trying to comfort her. Anything that I wanted to say would seem so insufficient and insignificant.

Then shortly after I put down my phone, another friend just relayed a not so happy news. Her son’s good friend  was playing badminton in front of his house on Saturday evening when suddenly fell over unconscious. The parents then rushed him to the hospital where they did a scan and discovered that one of the arteries in his right lobe of the brain had burst. The doctor said that this is probably a birth defect as the artery wall was unusually thin. They removed a portion of the skull because of swelling.

On Monday morning even though he was unconscious, he seemed to be responsive to voices around him. Then around 12.10pm, he started getting worse. The brain had swelled some more and was pressing against the skull. So they went in for a 2nd operation that evening. The doctor’s prognosis is not good. He told them that chances of survival are pretty slim and if he survived by some miracle, he would have severe n permanent brain damage.

A ruptured artery is caused by an enlargement of the artery wall in a specific area due to blood flow. Its called an aneurysm. Why this happens? Till today, there is no medical explanation for it, yet.

Listening to such news never fails to make me question if life is fair after all. I share the same sentiment with my friend, especially when she said that what she has always struggled with is finding an explanation for these kind of sudden tragedies. God is all about love, isn’t it? So why then does he cause this kind of suffering and pain to innocent little children? So we appreciate life more? What kind of BS is that?

Nope, the theory that God has a plan for everyone of us just does not work for me, I am afraid. I look around me and I see so much suffering in our world and I wonder where is God? I am sorry if I offend anyone here by my thoughts, but for me God is like a super parent and should care and protect us at all times, if he exists.

Then came yesterday, Tuesday. An important day for Malaysians, a big day for Permatang Pauh voters. Voting process started at 8am and I received sms-es, emails and chat messages from friends throughout the day and the topic of the day, of course - Permatang Pauh by-election.

In the afternoon, a friend told us (me and other friends) his wife was already in the hospital, ready to deliver his little man. He was still at Dubai at this time, while his wife is here in Malaysia expecting their baby, supposedly early September. My friend arranged his flight to Malaysia end of this month, on the 30th but his little man could wait no more, it seems like. Well, we congratulated him for the good news and the last I heard around 8pm, he managed to get on the flight to Malaysia and his wife just delivered a healthy 3.7kg baby. I guess he is now with his wife and busy cuddling his little baby. Congrats buddy!!

Of course, the next wonderful news (this depends on which side you are standing), Anwar Ibrahim won a landslide victory in the Permatang Pauh by-election. A thumping victory for the man that has promised and ready to change political landscape of Malaysia. Let’s hope he will deliver his words and stay true to the cause he made us believe and support. I am crossing my fingers and my hope if for achange and a new dawn for Malaysia! Congrats Saudara Anwar for your victory in Permatang Pauh!!

All things come in three it seems, both good and bad things. This morning, my friend informed us, after the 2nd surgery on Monday evening, the poor boy’s condition seems to have stabilized. The doctors were able to remove the blood clots from his brain. He is on antibiotics to treat a brain infection and fever, so he is heavily sedated. On Thursday, the doctors will stop the sedatives if his condition remains stable. They will then assess him further as part of his damaged brain cells were removed which may affect his speech, memory or motor skills. His condition is stable for now, and that is a relief to hear. Things can only get better since he is stable now. Let’s hope for the best yeah?

Life is fragile. Life is unpredictable.

Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we’re all of us looking for the key.

Life is like an onion - you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.

Carpe scrotum diem!

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China obsessed with having ‘face’, resorted to fakes for Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. What next?

Thursday, August 14th, 2008 175 views

I am sure by now many of you already read in the news or around the blogs on the issues surrounding Beijing Olympics spectacular opening ceremony footage. I was browsing Negaraku.net and I saw some blogs wrote about it, namely my life 4 hire and teddY-risatioN.

It is true, China even admitted shamelessly and see nothing wrong with to have parts of the spectacular, over the top Beijing Olympics opening ceremony faked to put on a flawless, impressive show to the world. If this is not hypocrisy, I do not know what it is.

In order to put on a a perfect Olympics, Beijing has swept its streets of fake designer handbags, pirated DVDs and phoney corporate logos. That dedication to authenticity apparently does not extend to Olympics ceremonies.I f you watched the opening ceremony in front of the television, you were duped into believing it was filmed live.

Olympic Fireworks Faked For TV

The global television audience of more than three billion people watched in amazement as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks proceeded through the night sky from Tiananmen Square to the Bird’s Nest stadium - except they were watching a computer animation.

Even the giant television screens within the stadium itself broadcast the fake images.

Stunned viewers thought they were watching the string of fireworks filmed from above by a helicopter.

But in reality they were watching a 3D graphics sequence that took almost a year to produce.

It even included a ‘camera shake’ to mimic the effect of filming from a helicopter.

The dupe was revealed by China’s Beijing Times. Speaking to the paper, the man responsible for the animation said he was pleased with the result.

“Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks,” Gao Xiaolong told the newspaper.

“But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished.”

The designers even added some haziness to simulate the polluted Beijing skyline.

(Source: Sky News)

The organiser has this to say:

Organiser said that the footprint fireworks were there for real, but thought it unsafe to try to film them - so they recreated them instead

Here is my take:

1. If you could not get the real footage, forget about broadcasting it. Forget about saving face, I think Chinese are preoccupied with this ’saving face’ culture and will shamelessly resort to anything to maintain a ‘good, pretty, presentable face’. Image over substance, the end justifies the mean. It is really sad to hear what I saw on television and went gaga over it was nothing but a make-believe effect. Where is the pride of the Chinese people ? Down in the drain.

2. Some of the commentators at the blogs I visited equated criticism against this issue as ‘China bashing and another attempt to degrade China, especially by Western press’. It was China’s Beijing Times that first reported this ‘dupe’.

Furthermore, with this kind of revelation, you cannot help but to feel angry no? Anyone being deceived would feel the same way. Wait, I hear you. One by one please.

- We watch $200 million even more fake spectacular movies like Batman, Independence Day.. and we still enjoy it very much.

That is because we KNOW and we are willingly spend our hard earned money to watch the FAKE movies! See the difference? Unless China put a disclaimer before they put up the footage, then it’s another story. The organisers made billions of people thinking they were watching the real thing when they were not! After billions of people singing praises and glory about the stunning remarkable opening ceremony, then we know it was not real.

- Oh it is better then, they put up CGI effects instead of real fireworks, so it is even better! Less air pollution! Less fire hazards esp during the HOT summer now.

Huh?? Ehem, the firework WERE FIRED OFF! The fake fireworks were not replacement for the real ones. China feed the ‘perfect footage which took them almost 1 year to produce’ to international broadcasters after firing the real fireworks.

We I just do not see the need for them to recreate the whole fireworks display for the sake of grandeur and perfection. Utter crap.

That is not all, apparently the very cute girl singing to the song ‘Ode to the Motherland’ was merely lip syncing to the song. Not so bad right? Considering many singers nowadays cannot even sing live and always do miming, but what is more outrageous was, the girl is not the original singer at all!! She was lip syncing to the song originally sang by another not-so-cute girl!! The organisers kept mum about the issue, never even bothered to give ANY CREDIT  giving any credit  until it was leaked out yesterday and now China enforced a media blackout on the fake song issue. Typical of China.

Left: Original singer, the less cute girl - Yang Peiyi, Right: Lin Miaoke - the cute girl

(Image source: teddY-risatioN)

Chinese media blackout on faked Olympic ceremony saga

BEIJING (AFP) - China enforced a media blackout on the saga of the faked Olympic opening ceremony song on Wednesday and all references to the story were removed from Chinese Internet sites.

Beijing’s Olympic organisers admitted on Tuesday that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, who was seen by millions around the world singing during the ceremony, was actually miming a song that was pre-recorded by another girl.

The show’s musical director revealed the real singer, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi who has uneven teeth and a chubby face, was replaced by government order because she did not present the right image of China.

(Source: AFP)

Ridiculous! What ‘right image of China’? So this is the right image of China? Resorting to lies and deceptions in order to have that ‘right image?’ Hilarious! It is disheartening and sad, they ruined an otherwise pretty awesome ceremony with those fakes. Little that we expect, for a big country like China to display symptoms uncannily resembles those countries suffering from inferiority complex syndrome.

The issue here is honesty. If China has been honest about all this before first hand, I do not see any problem for people to accept the facts, especially on the ‘fake fireworks’, as it involves safety issue and requires great planning, efforts to film the real fireworks. I have problem with China ’sidelined the less cute girl and presented a cute girl miming to a song, without giving due credit to the original singer - the less cute girl.’

Now, instead of being honest and apologetic over the issue, China made some ridiculous statements and this only add oil to the burning criticism against China, especially after the Tibet and Taiwan issue. Opportunists and China detractors will pounce on this issue, that is for sure.

I sarcastically remarked in my previous post:

It is not uncommon to hear remarks praising Chinese people as ruthless, conniving, greedy and materialistic bastards

This ‘fakes’ issue certainly does not help to change people’s perceptions about Chinese people. Lastly, (ehem, to save my sorry arse I need to have some sort of disclaimer, seeing so many off topic comments at other blogs writing on this issue) before you blast me for highlighting only the negative things about the opening ceremony and brand me as an anti China bastard, think again.

I acknowledged the great, spectacular and stunning feats by many performers during the opening ceremony especially the part where Li Ning ‘running’ across the CGI scroll to light the Olympic flame. I was stunned, totally impressed when they showed suspended performers ‘running across the continents on the globe’ and of course, the beautifully choreographed dances.

But, this post is specially done to highlight China’s hypocrisy on the ‘fakes issue’ and not to write a summary on positive and negative things about China, or to present a balanced view on China. Neither that I am writing to impress you.

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Saiful Bukhari: Demi Allah, Agama, Bangsa dan Negara? My Foot!

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 891 views

Mohd Saiful Bukhari has a blog.

His blog is at blogspot - ‘Demi Allah, Agama, Bangsa dan Negara‘. Allow me to puke for a while. I am utterly disgusted reading his blog title. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Please don’t drag your God, religion, race and country in this anal affair of yours. He has 3 posts so far, first entry on July 7th, then July 20th and last entry on August 1st.

Hmm, for someone under police protection and a ‘victim’ of sodomy, he sure has a lot of free time, logging on to his Friendster account sending threats and blogging.  His antics are far cry from what we normally expect from a butt-rape victim. Look at him, smiling and smirking when his photo was taken by photographers, he acts more like  a celebrity than a victim. Body language tells you a lot of things.

Well, no matter how you look at this anal affair, one thing is sure. This Saiful bugger is sure cheap. Why?

1. IF he is part of a conspiracy what so ever, it means he has been bought off - cheap enough to sell his ass dignity for a price.

2. IF he is truly was sodomised by Anwar, he must have done it willingly for many times as he claimed. How it was possible to be sodomised for 7-8 times? He could have fight for his ass (literally), how hard it takes for a strong 23 years old guy to kick a 61 years old man’s balls? Poke his eyes, bite his ears or nipples of in the midst of ‘passion’? Sit on his ’stick’ and twist it into mashed up piece of meat? Come on, this is his ass we are talking about. Would you have given up your ass to be poked without giving a good fight? 7-8 times? Or probably Anwar ’sweet-talked’ his way through, promised him moon and stars?

SAIFUL BUKHARI IS CHEAP, NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT!

‘Demi Allah, Agama, Bangsa dan Negara?’ Oh, he is making it sounds like he is  making a big sacrifice for this country.  What he is thinking, starting a blog to gain support? To defend himself? Hillarious. If he is truly wronged and if it is really for Allah, religion, race and nation he should keep a low profile, only voice and needed and beg for his God’s support and sympathy.

Ask for justice but please do not act holy, using God’s name and religion in your pursue for ‘justice’. It is puke-inducing coming from a person that allowed himself to be forcibly or voluntarily sodomised so many times. Yet he acted so ‘jantan’, threatened to smash this one guy’s head for posting a photo of his sister.

Hey, Saiful, why you never run to any nearest police station before and ask for police protection when you were sodomised for the 1st time? 2nd time? 3rd time? 4th time? So now you daring Anwar to swear on holy book and God’s name? In my understanding, your religion is unsure on this muqabalah thing but it is pretty sure if you stick to your accusation of sodomy, you must provide 4 witnesses to support your claim, but I doubt you understand your own religion very much. Even the much respected Mufti Perak said,  it is clear in Islam for the accuser to produce 4 witnesses in the in the case like this and swearing on Quran and God’s name according to him is a suggestion by people that are ‘too smart’.

Crap, anyone can swear as many times as he likes if the person is not a God-fearing person. I can do that, how many times, how many God-s and how many holy books you want me to swear on that Saiful is selling his ass for a cheap price? Invoking God’s name in vain a tell sign that the person is God-fearing? Far from it. I am extremely cautious and skeptic when one’s keep mentioning God’s name in vain. How simplistic to think that by swearing, performing some religious rituals the person is believable to tell nothing but the utmost honest truth. Human can be so dumb sometimes.

ps: In no time I am writing this post to insult anyone’s beliefs, religion or God. Please do not get offended :)

pss: Er Saiful, is it true Mumtaz Jaafar is your godmother?

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