Anwar Ibrahim arrested
Jul 16, 2008 News Breaks
It was an arrest waiting to happen I suppose.
And I’m sure everyone will be talking about it. Just thought I’d break the news here.
At 1:21pm, I received a Star SMS News Alert which read:
Anwar Ibrahim picked up by police near his home after ACA interview in Putrajaya, taken to city police HQ at 1.15pm.
He was earlier at the ACA office to give his statement on his allegations in a report he had lodged against the Inspector-General of Police and Attorney General. He was quoted as saying that the interview went well but was cut short due to the fact that he had a 2pm deadline to meet the cops to answer allegations on sodomy.
45 minutes before the deadline, he was arrested.
I hope it is not 1998 all over again although many people, CNN included, are already talking about it.
2.24pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Pop Culture: A name called Beckham
Jul 15, 2008 Sounds Like Pop
So I am sitting in the training room at work learning how to use a new system the office is implementing and I am, ahem, a bit faster than the rest main ‘cos I’ve been experimenting with the software from last week. Okay, action moment over.
Anyway, we are at the moment learning how to look for wire stories (as in wire news from agencies such as Reuters, AP, AFP and Bernama to name a few) and the new system has an amazing new search option (either that or I never knew how to do it using the old system).
So, the trainer decided to use the word “MALAYSIA” as a search criteria but since I am bosan with Malaysia news already, and don’t want to read anything more about Malaysia if I can help it, I decided to improvise.
I went with “Beckham”.
Only four stories came out but interestingly, one one was David or his former-Spice Girl wife Victoria. Sure, there were references to the football, sorry, soccer player but most are popular culture references and not about him personally, per se.
For example:
1. A Washington Post review of the movie Wanted makes a reference to him by saying “bending bullets like Beckham”.
2. A Los Angeles Times story talks about Bulgarian sumo wrestler Kotooshu and how he is referred to as the “David Beckham of sumo”.
3. One more LA Times story makes a reference to the movie Bend It Like A Beckham, which although named after him, had little to do with him, really.
The only story that was about David, also from Washington Post, is one about how little impact he is making in Washington. Boring stuff really.
Incidentally, all these stories were published in June, the first on June 12 and the last on June 27. Two weeks of silence? Gasp.
This post was not about Beckham, but maybe now it is … Might as well, since apparently no one else is writing about him (although I have to establish here that The Star only subscribes to selected sort of stories from selected agencies so it’s not an exhaustive list of all stories in the world).
:(
3.09pm Malaysian times (+8 GMT)
Tags: David Beckham, football, lat-wp, los angeles times, soccer, victoria, victoria beckham, washington post
Aku dah bosan dengan Malaysia
Jul 14, 2008 Rantings
I love my country … but seriously, this is ridiculous.
I was flipping through the papers today and felt … bosan. Bored. And all the StarNews SMS alerts… The thing is that not everything is bad but there has been so much politicking of everything, and it’s repeat, repeat, repeat that I’m bored, bored, bored.
I am bosan with our police force (The Star Page 1).
I am bosan with traffic jams (Page 3).
I am bosan with ACA’s sudden spurts of arrest every few years (Page 4).
I am bosan with UMNO (Page 6).
I am bosan with pathetic attempts to enter the Malaysian Book of Records (P8).
I am bosan with “public gatherings” (P10).
I am bosan with Pakatan Rakyat (P10).
I am bosan with has-been politicans trying to suck up (P10).
I am bosan with rising prices (P14).
I am bosan with local councils (P16).
I am bosan with mindless crimes (P18).
I am bosan with Ezam (P20).
I am bosan with Anwar (P20).
I am bosan with HINDRAF (P22).
I am bosan with the emphasis on scoring excellent academic results (P23).
I am also bosan of:
… how politics has become a joke.
… Opposition MPs who keep walking out of Parliament.
… all the freebies our PM is giving out.
Aku dah bosan, aku dah bosan, aku dah bosan.
Are you bosan-ing too?
3.57pm Malaysian time (+8 GMT)
Tags: Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia, Pak Lah, Pakatan Rakyat, politics, Umno
Cheer for Shirtliff!
Jul 13, 2008 Events
Well, what a weekend!
Cheer 2008, “the nation’s premier inter-school cheerleading competition”, had come (and now gone) but what a blast. I know it’s work related (it’s organised by Youth2, which is part of StarYouth), and I seriously would have preferred the weekend to rest and catch up on some me-time, but I always enjoy myself.
For one, the passion of the kids is amazing. From the participants, to their supporters, the energy levels are like nothing I’ve seen before.
This year’s winner was Shirtliff, from SM Sri Bintang Utara. I missed their performance yesterday (they were the first to perform) but caught them today and I was just blown away. What a finale (first team yesterday performs last today)!
Of course, I wasn’t supporting any particular team (well, I was but I’ll story you on that in a bit) but Shirtliff also has sentimental meaning to me - it all began for them back when the school was still Bukit Bintang Girl’s School (BBGS), situated where the shopping haven that is Pavilion KL currently sits.
For me, it also began there as both my sisters were from that school and I would watch these cheerleaders perform during their sports day. My second sister was an athlete, so I would often go and watch her compete.
Second place went to Dynamitez (can’t recall which school) and third place went to Stunners All Boys (from Sri KDU). I was happy with Stunner’s making it, as it’s nice to see an all-boys team make it to the top ranks.
But I was rooting for Mantin All Boys. They weren’t a title contender but they improved so much from last year when they debuted. I’d recommend a costume change but that is only secondary. I was also supporting the Pirates today, another all-boys team. Their performance today was spirited, and I was glad to discover that they won Best Newcomer.
I know, I know, it’s starting to sound like I’m so sexist - rooting for the boys’ teams only - but I assure you that my intentions are more motivated from rooting for the underdog.
Last year was the first time an all-boys team made it to the top three, and another record was broken this year. Shirtliff became the first team to win three categories (no team has won even two before) - the other two being the Merit Award and the Best Showmanship Award.
It was quite a sight. When they were announced Best Showmanship, they were subdued. They probably thought that since they had won this award, they weren’t even in the Top 5 (it would have been a big blow if they didn’t, considering their superior performance). And even though Jien, who returned to co-host the event again!, explicitly mentioned that history has been broken as no team has won more than one award, they started crying while accepting the Merit Award.
Which was interesting, cos Jien kept mentioning - that the team got the award because they had zero infractions (meaning there were no flaws in the stunts they executed) - as if trying to hint to them. So imagine their reaction when they were announced champions!
I was thrilled too :)
Oh, and a big shout-out to Sam, Sarah and Michael who performed with the Charm All-Stars for the special performance, and to Santwon, who showed what a brilliant cheerleader he is! All four, together with Ann Marie Gorman had flown in from the US to judge the competition.
Look out for coverage in tomorrow’s papers as well as massive reports in Youth2 (which sits in StarTwo) on Wednesday!
Tags: Charm All-Stars, Cheer 2008, Dynamitez, Shirtliff, SM Sri Bintang Utara, SM Sri KDU, Sri Bintang Utara, Sri KDU, Stunners All Boys, The Star, Youth2
Look Up More
Jul 12, 2008 Events
A few weeks ago, I spoke about RWP - Zain HD’s Read While Waiting Project.
It was launched while I was in Laos so I didn’t blog about it much. Also, it won’t happen until August 23, so I didn’t want to overkill on RandomActs :) I did blog on Rob! though, of which my pictures are up on the RandomAlphabets website.
Anywayssss … tonight, at an unidentified location in KL, LOOK UP MORE will be happening. This is not just another random (forgive the pun) flash mob project by Zain and gang. This is happening to help push the RWP cause.
The meeting location has already been identified - it’s at a “carpark on Jalan Ampang. Opposite Dang Wangi Putra LRT Entrance Near Concorde Hotel/Hard Rock Cafe. Across Wisma Denmark/Safuan Building”.
I’ll definitely be there if I can rush off from Cheer 2008 early enough.
See you there.
Tags: Flashmob, Look Up More, randomacts, RandomAlphabets, Read While Waiting, RWP, zain hd
