Friday, May 11, 2007

Somalia Soldiers Burn Face Veils

In the last few days, Somalia's soldiers took it in their own hands to remove face veils worn by ladies and burn it in public. This latest move was due to the recent upheaval caused by the ousted Islamists force. By removing the veils, the soldiers would be able to identify any Islamists forces, mainly guys, hiding behind those veils. (source: BBC News). Unfortunately, the soldiers caused more retaliation from unknown parties where grenades have been thrown into the capital city's busy market injuring innocent bystanders.

Tunisia and Morocco have implemented similar rulings on headscarves.

With those recent disturbances caused by so called Islamists parties, it has somehow created fears amongst the soldiers too.
Tags: Somalia, Veil, Islamist, Africa

Thursday, May 10, 2007

African Night

Lots of Nigerians are attending my church, Praise City Church, lately. Quite a number actually till my Malaysian church members said that I would feel at home at church (owing to me being in Sudan for last 2 years) ...... hahaha. The Nigerians are actually just students from the nearby UCSI and we have also arranged for transport from Nilai College (a number of Nigerians as well). They have been given permission to hold this African Night praise and worship session and a chance for the Nigerians to minister to their other Nigerian friends in Kuala Lumpur. Of course, Malaysians are welcome to attend too. I'll be there. Photos will be posted later.

If you want to attend and see how Nigerians worship God with their vibrant moves and music, please do come.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Maybank's Change of Heart

Watching the TV3's midnite news and heard the first news - Malayan Banking Berhad will revise its latest requirement (Bernama News) prior to be selected into Maybank's panel of lawyers. The new ruling was announced few days back where it required 50% of the partnership interest of each legal firm be held by bumiputra lawyers. New legal firms intending to be selected were required to have this ruling in place while existing legal firms in their panel were given 1 year's reprieve.

In a change of mind NOW, Maybank said that performance/capability will be the main criteria/measurement in selecting legal firms to be in their panel of lawyers. News floated around that this issue was even brought up to the cabinet. What a waste of public funds/time.

In the first, where was the Board of Directors' brains when this new ruling was pondered upon before it was decided. After getting hammering from all walks of life, the Bar Council, practising lawyers, political parties (BN or opposition) and plenty of bloggers, sense came back into their mind. It's just plain racial discrimination. Racists!!

I agreed with one scenario; what if Public Bank Berhad or Hong Leong Bank Berhad starts to implement a ruling requiring all legal firms in their panel or those intending to be selected to have a minimum number of chinese lawyers and/or majority of partnership interests must be held by non-malays. I would also protest in this case as it's not fair for those who did their works well. Imagine that legal firms were forced to accept mediocre lawyers as partners just to meet the banks' requirements.

Wondering if there would be any other companies in other industries that would implement such ridiculous racial rulings in a supposedly multi-racial nation.
Tags: Malayan Banking Berhad, MBB, Maybank, Lawyer, Legal Firm, Racial Discrimination, Racist, Bumiputra, Malaysia, Bar Council

Status Symbol

MP3 players and mobile phones are fast becoming status symbols. Some people will go to the extent of owning a gadget with unique add-ons so that it will stand out amongst others' gadgets even though it's the same model.

YP-Z5F: All that bling
TrekStor i.Beat: The ultimate MP3 bling
Musical hit and run
When iPods and diamonds are a gal's best bud
Diamonds are forever
Sleek gold of phone
100-million-yen mobile phone strap
Vertu: Constellation of sparkles
Tags: MP3, Mobile Phone, Status Symbol, Gadget, Music

Dead Blogger

A Singaporean blogger by the name of May Leong has passed away on 23 Apr 2007, just 2 days after her last posting in her blog (or her 1st blog posting for this year) - Pink May Flower's Secrets.

From her last posting, it was noted that she was going through tremendous pressure. She was running her work for HP, Singapore even at home (non-office hours and weekends). She did mention that she got no choice but to work hard just to sustain her income.

In the end, due to hitting the journey too hard, she succumbed to reason yet to be known but suspected to be pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis. This is a condition that can strike when someone has been inactive for a long period of time, like sitting in one position. In her last blog, she also stated that her health was getting bad and guessed that she was pushing herself through in her tight work schedule.

Her last few words in her blog "I don't wanna end up dead for the sake of dough. The moral of the story is don't ever fall in love with your company or your job". Unfortunately, it did happen to her just 2 days later.

Been sharing with people that you MUST be happy with your current work because that's where you want to be. Not as a NO CHOICE situation. Next thing is majority of the working folks neglect their health. No one thinks that a simple exercise will help and therefore, might as well skip it altogether.

Reading: Dead after 8 hours on laptop - AsiaOne Digital
Tags: May Leong, Singaporean, Blog, HP, Hewlett Packard, Pulmonary Embolism, Deep Vein Thrombosis

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

45 Days in Jail

A 26 years old showbiz star has been sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating a drunk driving sentence that was imposed on her earlier.

Paris Hilton, the Hilton hotels' heiress, just couldn't care less with the earlier sentence and still went around driving on a suspended driving licence. Paris claimed she was not informed of the suspension. She even described that her punishment as cruel and unwarranted.



Paris was supposed to enter a suburban Los Angeles jail (like the picture shown left) on 5 June and starts her 45 days jail term. Having such a posh and luxury life since birth, she will die just by staying in the jail even if spared on those labour works in jail.



Which jail would that be? Received news that it will be the Century Regional Detention Facility located at Lynwood.

Tags: Paris Hilton, Hilton, Entertainment, Jail, Drunk Driving, Los Angeles, Century Regional Detention Facility, Lynwood

Monday, May 07, 2007

Spiderman 3 - movie review

Spiderman 3 - starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst & Thomas Haden Church. Have blog about the Spiderman 3's trailer way back in July 2006. Watched this movie last Wednesday at Imax Theatre located 10th Floor, Berjaya Times Square. Extremely giant screen (a movie screen towering 5-storeys high, surrounded by 12,000 watts of digital surround sound) and it cost RM15 per person (around US$4.40). Intended to watch it on Tuesday but was fully sold out on first day of screening. Bought the ticket for the following day i.e. Wednesday.

Here goes - Peter Parker still his usual self, falliing head over heels for his girl, Mary Jane. His nemesis or his good old friend, still blames him for killing his dad. He took over his dad's Goblin equipments and hunted Peter down. During a chase, he was knocked out cold and forgotten about his anger towards Peter and old friendship began again.

Meanwhile M.J. lost her job as a theatre show's main singer and somehow lost interest in Peter as he was not around when she needed someone to care for her. As for Peter, a creepy crawling from outer space somehow got stucked with his spidey outfit and turned Peter into a power crazy superhero. His whole suit turned into black colour.

Meantime, a man running away from the law was caught in a scientific research and got contaminated. His body was able to ................... (go watch the movie to find out) and in his mindset to cure his daughter's sickness, he took advantage of his situation and grabbed monies. Spiderman has to appear to stop his notorious acts.

A newbie photographer who wanted a staff job in Peter's office was somehow thrown out of his work as his dirty scheme in capturing a spidey photo was found to be a fake. Who exposed him? It was Peter in his black suit. This guy found it to be so humiliating and a vengeance for Peter developed. Remember about that creepy crawly thingy...... Peter managed to discard it from his body and of all places, it dropped onto the newbie photographer. With the new found strength and anger against Peter, he became Spiderman's foe too.

In the end, it's almost like the Sodom & Gomorrah cities cited in the Bible. All out confrontation and you may not like the ending. An unexpected reaction from Goblin as well.

It seems that the latest Spiderman 3 has broken many records in worldwide screenings. A US$250 million production, it has recouped its initial capital outlay and has sold US$375 million worth of tickets worldwide (US$125 million - North America & US$227 million in other 107 markets).
Tags: Movie, Cinema, Review, Spiderman 3, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Goblin, Sandman, Venom

Pattaya International Fireworks Festival

Pattaya is definitely firing up its presence internationally. Covid19 has hit many nations really hard and Pattaya wasn't exempted from ...