Earthquake shakes Klang Valley, Malacca
May 20, 2008 News Breaks
Barely a couple of hours ago, I suddenly felt nauseous. At first, I thought that it was just a reaction from the bad tummy I’ve had all afternoon. But then, I noticed a couple of my friends’ status on Facebook which made reference to feeling the earth move and I thought, Oh oh, not again.
The last time I felt like nauseous like this out of the blue was in 2003 when the tsunami happened. Even then, I wasn’t sure what happened. I was in the office with a colleague when suddenly we heard sound of crackling all around us. We thought it was ghosts, so we said, we’ll just leave only to get the SMS messages and all alerting us to the news.
My mobile phone was on silent, so I didn’t get hear The Star News Alerts come in.
“Tremors felt in the Klang Valley and Malacca when an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale occured at 10.26pm in Sumatra, 336km SW of Klang.”
Checking online, there were blogs and posts all mentioning different measures of the earthquake. The Malaysian Life quoted two different measurements, one from Jabatan Meterologi Malaysia website (5.1 on the Richter scale), and another from the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program (5.9).
So many different numbers! Maybe it’s like what Delta’s Dark Den of Destruction mentioned, that there were in fact, two earthquakes in the same area in the same hour.
Checked The Star and NST online sites, no updates as yet. Hope no one’s injured or worse, dead.
Why so many tragedies at the same time?
Tags: earthquake, Jabatan Meterologi Malaysia, tsunami, U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program
Tun M quits UMNO
May 19, 2008 News Breaks
Update:
Also from The Star News Alert:
“Umno veteran and former Kedah Menteri Besar Sanusi Junid also said he has quit Umno, will release official statement later”
Oh, oh. A new political tsunami? I think all it will take is one current MP or even more significant, Cabinet member, to resign and all hell might just break loose.
I received this SMS at 12.52pm via The Star News Alerts:
“Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that he has quit Umno at 12.35pm today.”
I was waiting for an updarte from his website, but there was none.
Maybe he’s too busy wading off a crying Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz fielding phone calls. I have to admit that while I have wondered if this would happen, I never saw it coming. Hmm …
Just some quick facts about THE Tun:
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad joined Umno in 1946, when the party was first incepted. He was 21 years old then.
He was “relieved of his party membership” in September 1969, following his removal from the Umno Supreme Council a couple of months earlier, mainly due to his infamous letter to Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Dr Mahathir rejoined UMNO in 1972 and later became President of UMNO in 1981.
He retired from as President of UMNO (and Prime Minister of Malaysia) in October 2003.
Source: Wikipedia. Click here for Tun M’s full Wikipedia page.
Tags: Mahathir bin Mohamad, Malaysia, Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Umno
Good People
May 18, 2008 Performing Arts
Just a quick one. I had just returned from watching a play staging at KLpac called Good People (okay, so I had a drink after the show, sue me). It is a Singaporean production by The Necessary Stage, a company run by my friends Alvin and Haresh (so I hope they don’t mind me stealing this picture below from their web site).
Anyway, if you get the chance, try to head over tomorrow (well, Sunday so today lah) to catch it. The 3pm show will be the last show.
Haresh wrote a great script, about how a medical-something (the boss) of a hospice and a nurse deals with issues arising from the fact that one of their new patients smoke marijuana (yup, grass) to help ease the pain from cancer. It’s a sombre, heart-wrenching show with the occasional injection of humour.
The three actors - Suki (from Malaysia), Rody Vera (from Philippines) and Siti Khalijah (from Singapore) - were brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I don’t want to comment too much for fear of giving anything away but I was in awe with what they did in some of the scenes from the show.
Kudos to Alvin for bringing out the best in the actors, and the fantastic directing (and I loved the set and lighting - yay Mac! - too!).
Okay, so I’m gushing but really, it was a really enjoyable piece of theatre. Unfortunately, not many people went to watch it and I think it’s quite a waste. I know that I only have an average of 30-40 readers a day here, but I’m hoping that one or two of you at least would attend it cos it’s really worth it.
Tags: Alvin Tan, Good People, Haresh Sharma, klpac, Rody Vera, Siti Khalijah, Sukania Venugopal, The Necessary Stage, theatre
The Bangsar Boy: The Sound of Music
May 17, 2008 The Bangsar Boy
On Wednesday, me, Elaine and a couple of friends drove over to 1-Utama to catch Marie Digby in person. I have to admit that I wasn’t a fan, and the only song I know from her is her cover of Rihanna’s Umbrella. Still, Hansen thought she smelt nice when they interviewed her on the NTV7 Breakfast show, so we all went. It was okay, but I was more amused by the crowd than the performance. One really funny part was when she started singing Umbrella, and some guy opened one up and started waving it around.
After some ice-cream, we headed over to Laundry Bar at The Curve, where a few local acts were performing at a Motorola event. We were late so we only managed to catch Karen Nunis Blackstone and well, Estranged. I have heard of the band naturally (and that one song - Itu Kamu) but I have never watched them live.
All I can say is I’m glad I did (I am so going to be an Estranged groupie from now). So for The Bangsar Boy, my fortnightly column in The Star which was published today, I gush about them and recall about a particular incident as a kid in primary school when my friends, most of whom lived in Kampung Kerinchi, labelled me a rocker.
Yes, it’s laughable … but it happened. Click here to check the article out. Feel free to come back here to log your comments, aye?
Tags: Elaine Daly, Estranged, Hansen Lee, Laundry Bar, Marie Digby, The Bangsar Boy, The Star
All for unity: Malaysian Artiste for Unity
May 16, 2008 Sounds Like Pop
So, a bunch of Malaysian artistes called Malaysian Artistes for Unity came together to create a music video on unity. The song is called Here In My Home. At their website, they asked people to spread the video around. So I’m doing my part.
Not that my opinion counts for alot, but if it does, then I’m going to prove rather unpopular following this post. You see, I just really don’t get the video.
It’s a nice song and all, but really, what is the purpose of coming out with it? The video for Here In My Home invokes memories of such efforts like USA for Africa’s We Are The World in 1985 and Band Aid’s 1984 Do They Know It’s Christmas?
But the difference is, I feel, that both the efforts were addressing something direct, namely the famine in Ethiopia during the drought period in 1984/85. With Malaysian Artiste For Unity, I’m not quite sure what they are trying to get yet. My thoughts may be naive, but are we Malaysians that racist? Okay, so we have racial politics, and maybe some covert racism … I don’t know. I just don’t see it.
I don’t see the such racism in the country that requires an “anti-racism” video, to quote the Malaysian Artistes for Unity website here.
And just watching the video, I don’t even feel a sense of unity to be honest. Sure, every race was represented (including a couple of artistes from Sabah and Sarawak) but I didn’t feel it. In fact, I thought the group of performers at the Ikhlas concert a long, long time ago - which included Sheila Majid, Amir Yusoff, Afdlin Shauki, Azman Warren among others - singing the bi-lingual version of Ikhlas Tapi Jauh evoked more emotion than this one did. I don’t know if a Bahasa Malaysia version that Afdlin is supposedly working on will come across better.
The only part I really enjoyed, and feel was the best part of the song, was the bridge (is that what it’s called?) when there was rapping in Chinese, BM, Tamil (I think) and English.
The video on YouTube also had comments questioning the concept of “multi artistes” (I wonder if the person is addressing multi-background artiste). At the moment, the video appears very urban and very “English-speaking”. This was even addressed at the press conference yesterday, which my colleague attended, when a reporter point-blank asked somethign like: “Why are there no Chinese artistes?” (as in Chinese-music industry, I think) only to be given a some vague answer (or so I’ve been told).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for unity. And yes, I do believe there is some work to be done. But perhaps this ’cause’ needs a bit more direction, or explain better what it’s intentions are. Or maybe talk about what they hope to achieve with this video (other than spreading the word that artistes are concerned about racial unity in this country, and they are trying to do something about it, and that yes, there is a need for a more united Malaysia).
Incidentally, a colleague of mine actually commented: Everyone in the video looks like they are with PKR (Two points to note here: The website does that that the group is politically neutral, and yes, some members of the arts fraternity were quite vocal during the recent general elections behind Subang MP R. Sivarasa).
Many of my friends are featured in the video, so I do feel kind of bad. But really, I think that songs like Sejahtera Malaysia and the likes invoke more sense of unity (whether you want to call it propoganda, or like Pete Teo, who wrote Here In My Home, said at the press conference: “cheesy and stereotypical”.
Or maybe it’s just me. What do you think?
Tags: Band Aid, Do They Know It's Christmas?, Here In My Home, Ikhlas Tapi Jauh, Malaysia, Malaysian Artiste For Unity, Pete Teo, Unity, USA For Africa, We Are The World
