Hello folks

Maaf for updating this blog at my whims and fancy. I shall spare you the excuses and get straight into my new post……exactly a month after the last post. 

Something has been on my mind of late. My identity.

Growing up, I never had issues about my mixed parentage or for being a Sabahan.

No one made fun of me for being a “Lain-lain”. I was never asked how I could be a Bumiputera yet be a non-Muslim at the same time.  Rarely, did people hassle me about what race I was.

Perhaps being separated by a huge chunk of water called the South China Sea has shielded Sabahans and Sarawakians from the very divisive attitudes of the West Malaysians.

I say divisive because it is.

When I first came to KL six years ago, I was something of a ‘star’ in college because I was different. Because I was neither Malay, Chinese or Indian. Because I was a Lain-lain.

There was always a barrage of questions from giggling and oogling strangers or people whom I just met on what I was.

“Ooohh.. you’re from Sabah is it…. No wonder you look different…”

“Wahh.. Sino-Kadazan ahh… patutlah muka lain.”

Lain-lain. The ‘Others’.  I cannot fathom why the powers-to-be need such a label. For to do so is to actively promote a culture of ‘us vs. them’- the process of othering.

The results? Stigmatisation and antagonism.

I’ve been told that Sabah and Sarawak suffer from the ‘wee man syndrome’.  “A bit like Scotland and England, eh,” a friend chuckles much to my dismay.

I was and still get mightily offended when people say “Malaysia dan Sabah and Sarawak”. And for forgetting when Malaysia was formed.

“Sabah, Sarawak AND Malaya formed Malaysia on 16 September 1963,” was my indignant reply.

It’s sad that the date is now etched on most West Malaysian’s memories only because of Anwar Ibrahim’s unfulfilled promise for a spectacular takeover of the government.

I realise that by talking about this, I am guilty of contributing to this widening rift. But, I write this piece hoping that something good would come out of it.

I hope that race wouldn't be the trump card for politicians. I hope that I would never have to tick the 'Lain-lain' box when I'm filling in forms.

I wish that people would stop teasing me and others of mixed parentage... for well being mixed race.And hope fervently that all jokes for being Sabahan will stop.

I hope the leaders realise that race relations cannot be enforced. It must be nurtured with a lot of understanding generously peppered with respect. And this process of othering is not at all helpful.

I want a better Malaysia lah...

A fellow journalist was detained under the Internal Security Act yesterday.

Federal police picked up Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng from her home at Bukit Mertajam, Penang at 8.30pm last night.

She was among the three who were detained under the ISA on the same day. The other two were Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra and Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok.

Refer to nst.com.my for full story.

Tan has since been released.

BUT, does it make it alright?

We're upset. We're angry. We're disappointed.

I hate running.

Or at least I used to.

Inspired by the people I met at the Gobi March, I've quietly taken up running. I started out in the relative comforts of the office gym.

Before you pooh-paah my efforts, I've stepped up to the challenge and signed up for the Penang International Bridge Marathon, which will be held on 16 November.

Frankly, I don't know what I'm gotten myself into! I can hardly run an hour without feeling like I'll collapse! And this is only the half marathon.....

I'm doing this because I want to push myself to the limits. I expect it to be exhilarating, liberating but painful at the same time.

I have 77 days to train...HARD.

Any tips for a new runner, anyone?

THE feisty Malaysia Today editor and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin must be laughing with glee.

Just a few hours after the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) ordered access to Malaysia Today blocked, a mirror website was up and running.

The MCMC had moved in stealthily and quickly, like Special Branch officers on covert missions. The decision to cut off access to the website was made on Wednesday and by late afternoon, orders had been issued to all local Internet service providers (ISP).

But how could the MCMC have overlooked such an obvious loophole?

The blocking of the controversial Malaysia Today site, or any other website for that matter, is almost impossible as there are many ways to circumvent the ban.
"It's like trying to contain water using a sieve. It's plain stupid," said Juvita Wan, a producer with an advertising agency.

Any IT expert or tech-savvy blogger friend will tell you that the MCMC's move is not its wisest. The easiest way to circumvent the ban is to create a mirror website -- which was what Raja Petra did.

It's hassle-free and quick; just a few clicks of the mouse. By 7pm on Wednesay, traffic to Malaysia Today had resumed.

Another method, which is "hot among the bloggers", is the openDNS system (DNS stands for domain name service).

This user-friendly system, which was started only two years ago, allows consumers to use alternative servers to the ones provided by local ISPs.

So even if the local ISPs such as Streamyx and Time.com blocked Raja Petra's website, his supporters and any curious Tom, Dick and Harry could access his materials by doing a search with the highly efficient openDNS system.

The third way is to do a search of Malaysia Today using proxy servers.

"It's completely pointless to block his website. It's cyberspace. How can you control it?," said an exasperated IT manager, who commented under the cloak of anonymity.

MCMC's move, whether politically-motivated or not, is backfiring.

The ban raises questions of censorship and whether it was the right way to curb Raja Petra's "insensitive, bordering incitement" articles.

"We have specific laws against racial incitement. Why wasn't that invoked?" asked the IT manager.

And, of course, bloggers and watchdogs are screaming blue murder over "the impediment of freedom of speech and information".

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar defended MCMC's actions, saying that it was just exercising its powers as provided under the Communications and Multimedia Act.

"Everyone is subject to the law, even websites and blogs," he told reporters at Parliament yesterday.

He added that the government did not have any intention to curtail freedom of expression.

"But when you publish defamatory contents, it is only natural for action to be taken."

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor, under whose purview MCMC lies, may hold a press conference today.

He was away in Bali when the orders were issued two days ago.

His deputy, Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum, was caught embarrassingly unaware about the debacle.

"MCMC did not brief me, but they might have briefed the minister," he told reporters.

Whatever the reasons, the ministry and MCMC should perhaps look into the matter more thoroughly before hastily banning any more websites.

It not only leaves a bad image and taste among the people but puts the spotlight on the country for all the wrong reasons.

*Published on 29 August 2008

The God of Hell gives me the shivers

It's always exciting when the Gates of Hell are opened and its ghostly inhabitants are let loose for a month-long 'holiday' on earth.

Growing up, my elders would forbid my cousins and I to venture out of the house after dark. Ghosts were lurking everywhere waiting to pounce on little boys and girls, we were told.


A Taoist priest opening the Gates of Hell in the 'Por Tay Yuk" ceremony


Part of the ceremony includes jumping through fire

We were also banned from doing anything remotely dangerous. That meant no swimming, no climbing trees, no playing hide-and-seek.--- no to almost everything!

We were told not to heed any calls of our name unless the calls came on repeatedly.

"Itu antu panggil sama kau itu. Jaga kau," warned my grandma and grandaunts.

I don't know if I believe about antus roaming the earth but the only eerie encounter during the Hungry Ghost Festival was three years ago.

My best buddy Vig and I had gone to a Por Tor celebration at Jalan Pahang. The football field was covered with endless rows of table laden with offerings.

 There were one-metre high candy pyramids, life-sized pink turtle-shaped pau, whole roast pigs, goats, ducks and chickens and colourful Barbie jellies. It was Epicurean heaven!



But what caught our attention were the freshly slaughtered pigs and goats which were propped up on a wooden bench-like thing. The devotees had stuck joss sticks into the snouts/mouths of these carcasses.

Stupidly, I made a casual remark about how it was a 'Smoking pig'... Get it?

Anyway, it was bad luck for a whole week. I fell and cut my knee quite badly while trying to catch a train. To make it worse, I also ripped my brand new trousers. A planned holiday didn't happen.

I didn't think much of it until a friend came up to me and asked me where my sister was.... I do not have a sister!

She had been dreaming about me continuously for 7 days and in every one of them, there was a little girl- a younger twin- who would follow me around!


The child-god

I freaked out and went to the nearest temple and church and mumbled some prayer even though I'm a self-confessed atheist.


Towards the end of the night, devotees divide and give out the food offerings

Now, I just keep my mouth shut whenever I visit these Por Tor celebrations.

No more Mini-me!

Help!

This blog is in dire need of a revamp. Unfortunately, no brilliant ideas have crossed my mind yet.

'Run with Eve" stays because it's part of the URL but everything else can go. Ideas, anyone?

The blog is about my innermost thoughts on issues/events which I experienced in my line of work as a journalist.

Err...help?

-e-

 

Times are tough: The God of Hell and his dominion are going hungry too

KUALA LUMPUR: The bulging red eyes of the one-storey high effigy of the God of Hell glowers over the spread of roast pork, fluffy pink pau and bottles of beer offered by devotees.

The offerings are the same every year as Taoists and Buddhists celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival. This year, however, the offerings are noticeably less generous.

Across the country, believers are downsizing their Hungry Ghost Festival celebrations in response to the spike in global prices. It is not that they are spending less than before. It is just that they are getting less for the same amount of money spent.

"The change is obvious. We are burning and offering less. Even the number of devotees has gone down," Bangsar Yee Lan Festival Society committee member Chew Wooi Foo said.

The society spent RM70,000 on a three-day celebration recently, the same as last year, but the prices of joss sticks, candles, paper effigies and hell bank notes have gone up.
The volume of offerings, Chew said, had dwindled by as much as a fifth.

"We get less in joss sticks and paper offerings for the same amount of money."

In the past, he said, the offering table, almost double the length of a badminton court, would be weighed down with food.

This year, food only covered three-quarters of the table's surface.

"Prices are going up everywhere. We are feeling the pinch," lamented Chew.

So the spirits of the departed, who are believed to roam freely in the world of the living during the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, will have to make do with less.

Believers offer food to departed relatives and "orphan" spirits who lack family members to take care of their needs.

They burn paper offerings shaped as gold ingots, servants, houses and other basic necessities in the belief that the dead will bless them if they live well in the underworld.

Businesswoman Lai Yut Goh, a traditionalist, is hoping that her deceased relatives would bless her and turn her fortunes around so that her business would survive despite the weak economy.

"I'm burning more gold ingots and servants for my dead relatives. Maybe they will be happy and bless me."

The Malaysia Worship Item Trade Association said its members, who imported 80 per cent of the offering items from China and Vietnam, were badly hit by rising transport costs.

"When oil prices go up, transport costs and the price of the wax used to make candles also go up," its secretary Lim Thing Ke told the New Straits Times.

He is confident the celebrations would go on despite the increased costs because "you can't stop celebrating just like that".

Sinologist Dr Lai Kuan Fook said this was actually rather symbolic.

"The Chinese are pragmatic people. They want progress, to get better year by year. So, a celebration which gets bigger means you're improving."

*Article was published on 15 August 2008

I was going through some of my China photos and found these. I took them during the stopover in Beijing after the March.


Forbidden City


Entrance to the Forbidden City. I thought the doors were fascinating.

I found Beijing overwhelming. It's big, noisy and dirty. It's a burgeoning metropolis, one which is struggling to bridge the gap between modernity and its past.

The first few days in Beijing were tough. But I learned that the less I resisted, the easier it was to accept the people, culture and life in Beijing.


Tiananmen Square


One of the monuments at Tiananmen Square


More of the Square

 A senior colleague told me that "one shouldn't judge a country by its capital city" and I agree. My fondest memories of China are of my time spent at the Gobi Desert.

I intend to return to Beijing someday. I wonder what surprises await me then...

Happy birthday NST!

NST turned 163 years old yesterday. I am ashamed to admit that if not for the two grand cakes on the table, I would not have known this.

There was no celebration, no joyous atmosphere, no circular, no emails from the bosses...nothing to indicate that NST was another year older.

It was, sadly, just another day.

Hello folks.

I must apologise for the long silence. I was contemplating whether to continue this blog.

I had mixed views about this blog. Most of my colleagues and friends were impressed. But I didn't fare too well with my editor and mum who felt that I could have done so much better.
 "very good photos but too little writing la..." they said.
 
I agree with them on that.   I'm not much of a blogger. I'm a journalist. My job is to tell your stories.

Blogging is, for me, a personal affair. In retrospect, I didn't do much writing because I was wary of exposing myself.

I was content on letting Run With Eve die a natural death. But I enjoyed myself during my short blogging stint at the Gobi and wanted to give this a try (again).

Once I had nursed my bruised ego, I wanted to prove to my ed and mum that I could do better this time around...

So here it is. Ramblings by a rookie journalist about coffee, love, refugees, the Sun, camels, life and everything in between.

For starters, I'll share with you one of my favourite photo of a sunset in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I took this from my mum's office.


It's my little piece of heaven.

Enjoy!

-e-