Robert Mugabe Has Business in Malaysia??

I came across this article in BBC News/Africa entitled "Zimbabwe bloggers react to delays" and towards the end of the article it mentioned the following paragraphs:-

This much criticised Zimbabwean President has HUGE business interests in Malaysia????????? Can the Malaysian government explain on this report? Or the Malaysian government will tell us this again - we don't know!

Hopefully I can dig more about this issue.

Reading: Mugabe on the run in Malaysia after Zimbabwe polls? - Shagadelica
Reading: Gift to Mugabe - DAP Malaysia
Tags: Zimbabwean President, Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwean Bloggers

Wanting to hear the real or actual news in Zimbabwe? Looks like the scenario is the same in Zimbabwe as in Malaysia. Mainstream media is controlled by the ruling party and oppositions have no say and no way of getting their message across to the nation generally. So, Malaysia = Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe held its latest so-called democratic general election on Sunday and after six days, the Election Commission couldn't release the full results. It's so tense in Zimbabwe now. Can you imagine that after inserting your ballot paper into the ballot box, you don't even know the results after six full days!!!!!

Read the following Zimbabwean related blogs to learn more about the Zimbabwean internal issues. You only hear the truth in such blogs (wonder why):-

This is Zimbabwe - Sokwanele - Zvakwana is a peoples' movement, embracing supporters of all pro-democratic political parties, civic organizations and institutions in Zimbabwe

Kubatana Blogs - an online community of Zimbabwean activists

Zimbabwean Pundit - the world as seen from the eyes of a Zimbabwean

Cry Beloved Zimbabwe - a Zimbabwean born writer, entrepreneur and political activist

The Bearded Man - a former Zimbabwean policeman but residing in England now. Convicted that the more people that hear about the devastating rule in Zimbabwe and the real problems therein, the better!

Enough is Enough - Seeing Zimbabwe from a different angle

Mugabe Makaipa - Retired doc, living a life of leisure in the rural Philippines

David Coltart - MDC Senator, has been a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe since his return to the country in 1983. He was first elected to represent the Bulawayo South House of Assembly constituency in June 2000, and was rel-elected in March 2005. In March 2008 he was elected as a Senator to represent the Khumalo Senatorial constituency in Bulawayo

Related posts:-
* Nigerian Bloggers
* Kenyan Bloggers
Tags: Nigerian Bloggers, Kenyan Bloggers, Zimbabwean Bloggers, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean, Africa

The Kite Runner

Entered a competition and won myself four cinema tickets to watch an interesting movie called The Kite Runner which relates to two young boys who were good friends, separated due to the war in Afghanistan.
Screening for my cinema tickets would be on 11 April 2008 at One Utama's Golden Screen Cinemas.

Tags: The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, Afghanistan, One Utama, Golden Screen Cinemas

How to Resuscitate with Your Hands Only?

I have been taught the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation method or the norm is known as CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) when I took up my lifeguard badge and thus far, haven't got the chance to practise my skills ............ haha. Yeah, if I had wished so it's like I was hoping for someone to drown when I'm around....... no no no I have a good heart.

The American heart experts have now said that the mouth-to-mouth method is not the only way to save someone. Merely pressing repeatedly at the middle of a person's chest will do now. How? I don't get to use my mouth-to-mouth anymore? What a waste!

The alternative method - "hands-only CPR — rapid, deep presses on the victim's chest until help arrives — works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults."

The experts said that this method was easier and people would be more willing to help if compared to the mouth-to-mouth method.

Its method - "calls for uninterrupted chest presses — 100 a minute — until paramedics take over or an automated external defibrillator is available to restore a normal heart rhythm."

But then it did qualify the hands only CPR method as such action would be applicable for adults who unexpectedly collapse, stop breathing and are unresponsive.

The mouth-to-mouth method would still have to be used for:-
* a child who collapses is more likely to primarily have breathing problems — and in that case, mouth-to-mouth breathing should be used.
* adults who suffer lack of oxygen from a near-drowning, drug overdose, or carbon monoxide poisoning to get air into their lungs and bloodstream.

I want to give my 2 cents viewpoint - training is still required. Just press the chest? Which part of the chest? Middle is where? If one has not seen / heard, that person surely won't know the how-to and could cause more complications.

Secondly, if that person was a CPR-trained fella, it would be inhuman not to jump in to help out if a person was dying just because the thought of catching a disease or infection came to mind. Train for what then if there was so much concern. There is a method to mitigate that issue.

The writer who wrote this article should have furnish the whole CPR steps instead of halfway through. I knew how to write an article too just like this blog entry but where does it lead people to.
Tags: CPR, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Mouth To Mouth, Hands Only CPR, Heart Experts, Heart, Chest

Google Buying Up Facebook

Wow, what a revelation! And you still do not know what Facebook is all about (nope, I don't get anything in return for asking this question)?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have got together to thrash the details to put the transaction through. Google is buying up 98.4% of the equities in Facebook at a consideration of US$25 billion (market value is only around US$15 billion).

Microsoft who bought 1.6% earlier is now out of contention in taking up Facebook. Meaning to say, Li Ka Shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, who bought into Facebook just last week would be selling too. Insider trading tip-off?

Facebook is highly regarded in the eyes of both Google and Microsoft. Microsoft would be baffled with this takeover that didn't come to their notice and I'm sure some top executives would be held accountable for missing out a good buy. Microsoft's plans are of no use anymore.

But I think that the person or persons that would sulk most in this transaction would be the Facebook staff. Reason is because, lots of Facebook's executives were Google's ex-staff. One big round to get out of Google and now they ended up being in the Google group of companies again. What a small small world indeed. When you resign and join a competitor, join a bigger one to avoid such things from happening to you. Too bad.

From this big transaction, Google is adopting the following:-

* New corporate mantra - 'Don't be evil'

* New motto - 'Google: Just because we can'

Interesting reading? FYI, all the above is just one of those April Fool's Day joke. When I read it in InfoWorld, I fell for it too. In my mind I was thinking that "Not bad, at least I have a blogspot account and a Facebook account much earlier. It seems that my view is of the same with Google top management."
Tags: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Blogspot, Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg, InfoWorld, April Fool's Day Joke

Email From Astro on Tracking Codes

Astro, Malaysia's company that monopolised the cable TV service, has sent an email to a cable TV customer in response on the irritating tracking codes, BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3, that kept appearing on the TV screen on every show that is shown.
--------------------------------------------

On Behalf Of Uncle Yap
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 8:51 AM
Cc: bpmalaysia@yahoogroups.com; bpmalaysia@yahoogroups. com
Subject: E-mail from Astro

You might be interested to read what I have just received from Astro.

To: xxxxx@streamyx. com
Subject: Re: BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3
From: We Care
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2008 16:00:36 +0800

Dear Encik Yap,

We refer to your email below and would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused. We wish to advise that we have noted your comments on the irritation suffered by you on the regular appearance of the letters BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3 on your screen whenever you and your family watch Astro programmes. Please be advised that the appearance of a 4-digit code on your television screen is part of an on-going audit and tracking procedures undertaken by Astro to improve the safety and security of the smart card.

Alamak, why am I bull-shitting you?

If you really want to know, when we started the Astro service in this country in 1996 following the launch of the MEASAT-1 satellite, our turn-key contractor and consultant was Brainbox Integrated Production plc, a British hi-tech firm located in Virginia Waters, Surrey in the United Kingdom.

In the early days, we needed to incorporate certain codes to monitor our programmes and for that purpose, three sets of alpha-numeric characters were devised by the then-senior engineer, Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley.

We do not have records of how or why he chose BIP 1 but we strongly believe this was the initials of the consultant company, Brainbox Integrated Production plc.

The second code is obviously the initials of Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley himself, a bit like the personal appearance of the late Alfred Hitchcock in one of his films.

As for the third set of codes, we have reasons to believe they were his favourite swear words, "Oh, mother f*****" which he would shout aloud in the laboratory whenever he met with a problem. However, we are also led to think that they may well represent the initials of the missionary group of his parents.

You may be interested to know that at a young age, Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley was sent to Eton (and then later to read physics at Hertford College, Oxford) when his parents, Oliver and Rachel Kingsley volunteered for the China Inland Mission (CIM).

However, due to the turmoil in China occasioned by the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party following the end of WWII, many CIM missionaries were unable to go to China to spread the Christian gospel. Many of the volunteer-missionaries were diverted to other Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaya and Indonesia.

To reflect the change, CIM was renamed OMF for Overseas Missionary Fellowship. We are fairly certain that the above narrative adequately described the origins of the three codes that you have complained about.

As to why they still remain to plague you is yet another story which I have to seek among the old-timers to get at the truth. Apparently, the Senior Engineer, Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley, in the course of his work on Astro, met and fell in love with the Secretary to Mr Ananda Krishnan, the CEO of Astro and Measat. This lady by name of Cik Zaleha Omar was a most comely lady who was reputed to speak three languages, Malay, English and Tamil. When the question of marriage cropped up, there was great anguish and anxiety in the Astro organisation that a Christian foreigner would dare cohabit with and marry a local Malay lady of the Islamic faith.

The matters was not resolved until Mr Merde-Hereford Kingsley was given a 24-hour order by the Immigration Department, Ministry of Home Affairs, to leave the country, which he did around midnight 24 October 2002.

We are unable to tell more as Cik Zaleha Omar left the services of Astro shortly after. We are also unable to tell you whether she emigrated to the United Kingdom. However, we are able to tell you that nobody in Astro know how to switch the codes off.

So today and everyday since October 2002, we have to live with the irritating codes of BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3 on yourscreen.

We trust the above clarifications are in order. Should you need further assistance, kindly contact our Call Centre at 1300-82-3838 which is operational from 8.00 am to 12.00 midnight daily or email to wecare@astro.com.my.

It is our pleasure to be of service to you.

Yours sincerely,
Muhammad Jan Rawi
Correspondence Officer
Customer Service

From: xxxxx@streamyx. com
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 10:13 AM>
To: We Care>Subject: BIP1, MHK2 & OMF3>
Remote Address : 60.46.202.35>Remote Host : 60.46.202.35>HTTP User Agent : Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB;>

--------------------------------------------

Interesting story, isn't it? Apparently, it was just a April Fool's Day joke of the century. There was someone who was so free to write such an article. Somebody must have pissed this fella off while working Astro, I presumed so.

Maybe the writer was a guy who didn't get to court the secretary as it was taken by an expat senior engineer ...... LOL!
Tags: Astro, Measat-1 Satellite, Merde-Hereford Kingsley, Brainbox Integrated Production plc, Chinese Communist Party, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, China Inland Mission, April Fool Joke

Laud Mydin Stores for Their Protest

A Malaysian set-up company, Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd, that has hypermarkets and emporiums nationwide in their trading business has started a protest note over the release of a film called Fitna by a Dutch MP, Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom.

If you have not known, the Fitna movie was deemed a blasphemy against the Quran teachings by both radical and non-radical Muslim brotherhood. They have called for a worldwide boycott on Dutch products / services since the movie was done by a Dutch politician.

Mydin stores, in support of the boycott, didn't discard the Dutch products in their hypermarkets or emporiums but have labelled those particular products with red label or placed A4 size papers near those products informing the customers to steer clear of it. They left the deciding factor on the customers on whether to purchase those products or not.

Maybe every muslim cashier has been advised to stare sternly at any customer who placed such red-labelled product on the payment counter ......... hehehe.

But I want to laud Mydin for this move. Their way of putting the decision back to the consumers was excellent and doesn't draw any criticsm at all for denying the customers on their rights to buy whatever they want.

Perplexed to see a Dutch MP doing such a thing. Did give my 2 cents to another Indonesian muslim blogger who was upset by the movie. Told him that out of 6.5 billion in this world, surely there would be such people on this face of the earth. From young, I have always been taught to analyse on why things have happened or see what I could learn from such an event. There are many people of such kind and are we going to waste our time / efforts on such uncalled for situation. Might as well live our life to the fullest doing the things that would benefit human mankind.

I also urge our Malaysian government to follow Mydin's good example in allowing the two Israelis in Chelsea's payroll, namely Avram Grant and Tal Ben Haim, to be issued the special entry permit for Chelsea's forthcoming summer tour in Malaysia. Let Malaysians decide for themselves on whether they should go for the match or should they sit out of it having nothing to do with any Israel linked products / services / events.

I'm sure Malaysians are matured enough to decide on such things since they knew how to vote recently.

Malaysia is a civilised country. Such protest initiated by Mydin is definitely a good example to follow, peaceful but powerful indeed. Alternatively, if such protest is deemed insufficient, should Malaysians follow the Afghanistan Taliban's footsteps? The Talibans purposely inflict heavy attacks on Dutch armies in Afghanistan in retaliation for the release of the Fitna movie. The armies were innocent as they were there because their government sent them and they had no part in the making of the Fitna movie.

Reading: Mydin stores mark protest against anti-Islam film - Star
Reading: Afghan Taliban say attack Dutch over anti-Islam film - Reuters
Tags: Mydin, Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd, Fitna, Anti-Islam, Geert Wilders, Dutch MP, Party for Freedom, Afghanistan Taliban, Quran