I am not patriotic at all

Small talk…
Recently, Kickdefella (one of those big-shot bloggers lah) have urged us — ‘unpatriotic’ Malaysians to raise the flag upside down as a sign of distress in the nation. Good call, but too bad no one is ‘berani kerana benar’ anymore. Links here & there & here & there.

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Seeing that Hari Kebangsaan is near… well, errrr… just over, why not I write something related to it, aye?
I’ll start off by quoting a friend who wrote this in his Facebook profile in conjunction with National Day…

Xxx* is not patriotic at all.
[name censored to protect the not-so-innocent. X^D]

KL Freeze

Heard of New York Grand Central Station Freeze by the Improv Everywhere people? Here you go…

Now, I never expect to see this kind of mass prank in KL. Until someone sent me a notice in Facebook. I would’ve gone and participated, or at least snap some cool shots… if only I remembered the event. I totally forgot about it until I read a blog post about it. So here’s one of the videos…

Notice that when it ended, they didn’t just walk off or continue with whatever sh!te they were doing. Instead, they stood around and cheered and clapped and hugged each other as if celebrating Arsenal beat MU 6-nil. Alamak… so potong stim! This is so Malaysian… the typical Malaysian Boleh act — anything worth the action, is worth action lebih **! We certainly-absolutely-totally have no clue of what subtlety means.

It was in Pavillion KL. I think it is not so nice lah… considering that Pavillion is a private property. Unless the joke is on them – Pavillion KL – like the No Shirts in Abercrombie & Fitch video. Maybe Bintang Walk or somewhere public would have been more appropriate.

Anyway, well done. I’m sure you guys had your fun. I’ll try to join in next time. And I’m quite sure Pavillion would be prepared next time. Prepare to get thrown out! X^D

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** action lebih – lebih means more; despite the use of the English word action in this phrase, it absolutely have no such meaning in the Malaysian context. What it actually means is being proud and making a loud statement out of something microscopic… when in fact, there really is no reason to be proud.

Angkasawan

Hooray! A Malaysian in space!

Have you ever wondered why our TV and gahmen never calls our dear ‘angkasawan’ in anything in English? Why not just call him an astronaut or cosmonaut, since these are the common terms for someone that goes on a mission to space. Why insist on using ‘angkasawan’ in English?

Because the good-looking doc (envy…jealous…) is NOT a bloody astronaut.

He’s a…. tadda…..

I just don’t see what is there to be so proud of to being a spaceflight participant. There’s no technology transfer – which means we learn nothing from it. It takes years to train an astronaut. The doc only had one year of training — that is just a crash course so that you don’t be a hindrance to the real cosmonauts. I seriously doubt the knowledge he acquired from spaceflight participant training is of any good use except to train another angkasawan.

I would be so much more proud if there is a small Malaysian team in the ground support, or a Malaysian scientist working with the Russians in planning the flight, or a Malaysian engineer being part of the team that designed the rocket.

And spending RM80 million to be part of the expedition is a bit of a waste… no?

Well, at least I’d appreciate it if the 80 million Ringgit can be spent to improve the transportation infrastucture and system in KL & throughout Malaysia.

Cakap Tak Serupa Bikin has a few suggestions on how to make Malaysia a safer place with RM80 million.

Anti Toll Protest

I bet some of you didn’t know about the toll hike protest/demostration held in Sunway. I knew about the protest through Jeff Ooi’s blog — Screenshots and others politically-aware and issue driven blogs (links are on the right, under ‘Blogs That Matter’). It’s good to see Malaysians exercising OUR RIGHTS as citizens, regardless of RACE.

I had wanted to go. Then I totally forgot about it when the new semester in UKM started. I got caught up with all the mumbo-jumbo that comes with a new sem… and got depressed.

You’ve got to check out this photo by Alan Cheah…

The photo was in Screenshots. When I saw it, I couldn’t help but re-post it here. You can look at more photos here in Lensa Malaysia.

Most of my friends and I are in the middle class. Perhaps most of us are in the middle-upper class. What this means is that we hate the toll hike and we feel cheated. However, it is more or less of an inconvenience to us. We can afford the toll, just buy less Nike and Vincci. To the couple and many others, the toll hike is not just an inconvenience, it is a threat to their livelihood… a threat to their survival.

BTW, you didn’t read anything about the street protest in the mainstream newspaper, right? Stupid gahmen owned paper! Biased like sh*t! That why I have to put this up here, so you guys know about these issues that those stupid-dumb-dumb papers don’t report! Go read The Sun. Forget about NST, the Star, Berita Harian, Sin Chew, Nan Yang and worst of all, Metro. The Sun is the only paper that is fair and has the guts to criticise the gahmen.

Time to make a difference… Rock The Vote! Register to VOTE!

Yours Sincerely,
the DRiver.

P.S. If you go look at the photos… The police in red helmets are riot police. This time, I read from other bloggers that they did not whack anyone up. They were very professional. In fact, some reported that they kam-ching with the protesters after the protest. I guess they feel the pinch of toll hike too. Hah hah!

More Spin on Toll Hike

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Click here for map and info of “The Most Awesome Maw-some Christmas Party… Ever!”
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Did you notice that the news papers did not carry any news with regards to the toll hike in KL? Instead, there’s a huge photo (about 2/3 of the front page) showing people trying to rescue a Bryde’s whale in Pulau Gaya. Thanks to Najib.

From The Star (16 Dec)…

Abdullah said the people must be able to use other approaches to reduce expenses and take measures to control inflation.

Ah… how predictable, Pak Lah. You basically mean “change lifestyle” lah.
BTW, I can’t help but wonder… how are we, normal citizens with limited resources, able to “take measures to control inflation”? I thought it is Bank Negara(which is gahmen)’s job to control inflation?

“If we don’t have to use cars. we can use buses. We have to balance all these for the benefit of the people,” [Pak Lah] said.

I have no idea what on earth Pak Lah is talking about the “balance all these for the benefit of the people”. Is he referring to the RM600 million that he promised for UMNO members had to be balanced by reducing toll subsidy? Read more here and here for an column by Kim Quek.

BTW, those highway companies are owned by UMNO or UMNO members, some ways or another through the many privatisation projects (as observed by Ronnie Liu). Do you know what the UMNO is up to now?! I’m sure you guys are smart enough to come up with the conclusions.

Yours Sincerely,
the DRiver.

20-60% Toll Hike

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Click here for map and info of “The Most Awesome Maw-some Christmas Party… Ever!”
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Check this out, fellas.

It’s toll hike for Kay Ell-ians! Nik Nazmi couldn’t believe it with election being so near.

From Reuters (13 Dec)……

“The new rates take effect on Jan. 1,” the source, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. “That’s our New Year present.”

New Year present from the gahmen we so happily voted for! Are you happy?

Works Minister S. Samy Vellu said recently the government would have to fork out 2 billion ringgit ($565 million) in compensation to five highway operators if toll rates were not revised.

And

“The real toll is 2.10 ringgit, so the government is still subsidising 50 sen for each user,” the source said.

Yeah, whatever.
I’ve learned not to believe any figure our gahmen provide. What 2.10 Ringgit and 2 billion!? It’s probably another twisted figure calculated using obscure formulas (remember the percentage of Malay equity drama involving Dr Lim from ASLI? In fact, gahmen still has not disclosed the formula it used to calculate their figure!).

Government officials told the briefing that one reason for the shortfall in toll collection was due to motorists switching to alternative non-toll roads, the source said.

Look, gahmen. The last few times petrol naik, you told us to change life style. So, we change lifestyle lah! When we drive, we take the road without toll. This is one of the many ways to change lifestyle, no? Now, you tell us this!
People, please learn from your mistakes. When the gahmen says change lifestyle, don’t change your driving habit also. If you want lower toll rates, please use the heavily tolled highways more to increase their toll collection. (Sarcasm added)

Then our ‘gaan1 chan2′ (evil/sinister character in Cantonese) Deputy PM did this (from MalaysiaKini)……

The editors of all newspapers and television stations have been told not to play up the impending increase in toll hike on five highways, at a hush-hush briefing chaired by deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak yesterday.

Dude, WTF?!
The gahmen is trying to hide things from us.

And here’s what good ol’ Samy Vellu has to say in an interview(check it out here)……

Malaysia’s Plus highway (RM0.136 per km),
Philippines (RM0.355), Thailand (RM0.227), China (RM0.276) and Indonesia (RM0.148).

Here’s a reply from a guy from Thailand……

SAC, a Thailand-based Screenshots reader wrote [to Jeff Ooi] this:

I’ve been staying in Thailand for 9 years and there are NO tolls on Thai HIGHWAYS. The tolls are only in Bangkok metropolitan areas and there-abouts. You can drive from Bukit Kayu Hitam to Bangkok without paying one Baht, so Samy Vellu making a comparison with Thailand is telling only half the story.

NO TOLL ON THAI HIGHWAYS! Can you f*cking believe this? Samy Vellu is lying (seperti biasa)! And our gahmen is ripping us off, man. Who ask us to be so stupid and vote for them?! Now we suffer lor. After that, our children suffer some more lor. Then we probably wouldn’t have any grand children, since every smart people would have gone extinct (pupus 绝种) in Malaysia. (Can you here the sinister/’gaan1 chan2′ laughter of Najib and Hishammudin?)

Yours Sincerely,
the DRiver.

The Dead Mongolian Lady

Atlantuya. How sad, that she was murdered. Brutally.

However, my concern here is the explosive and people involved in the crime.

C4 and police. What the h*ll is going on in our country?! Explosive and guns are not easy to obtain in Malaysia, what more with C4. And 3 police personnels are involved in this brutal murder.

So this shows that if you are some what affiliated with the top, you could have people got rid off… by the police. That means we, the normal citizens can just be as easily wipe off the face of earth by the people we entrust our safety with.

So, when are Malaysians going to wake up and realise that the current government is as corrupted as it can be.