joker statement (1)

dear friends,

i have been missing in the blogosphere as well as instant messaging rooms these days. dont worry, i am not yet a fugitive, nor does my disappearance has anything to do with the over-rated by-election.

i got screwed up. big time. my course choice for Sheffield was denied by my sponsor, JPA. Apparently my course is unacceptable due to its double major characteristic. It was my mistake nonetheless, for not making sure what my sponsor's policy is.

Anyway, i havent been sleeping and eating well for the past few days. i have to start my applications all over again which means i am pulling myself and my family into a really big hassle. and the waiting is just killing me.

time is running up. options arent that much, and i deserved it for my foolishness. i guess i will be disappearing for a longer time. take care my friends, and do wish me luck.


yours
pc

TARcollege convo

Being invited to Tunku Abdul Rahman College’s Convocation recently, spent the morning being my friends’ photographer.

And for once, I felt the pressure of taking down one of the most precious moment in someone’s life. It can never be easy as all the pictures taken must be as flawless as possible. Chances seldom come twice, and those folks usually lose their natural candid smile after the first shot. And it was tiring standing under the sun in the midst of such a big crowd of graduates.

Hundreds of graduates with their thousands of personal photographers.

But the rewarding part of holding a camera that day loitering that day, is when everyone gives you their best smile ever.

No matter how slow I make my metering adjustment (which is seriously slow), they neither shout nor show their impatience to me, and those poor folks didn’t even for one moment relax their widely stretched lips.


girls smile sweeter towards SLRs than towards my kind of compact cameras

It was those beautiful glimmering smile, it was those candid element, and it was their rushing adrenaline of joy and pride, which just kept me going under the hot glaring sun.

Though the lightings that day aren’t anywhere perfect, I have nothing to complain, the willing models and the eventual great pics are simply satisfying.

Congratulations to Hoe Yee, Kar Bing and Ah Sang. A bright future awaits you guys...


(and not this big mouth guy who haven’t even started his first year degree)

Cheers!

One Malaysia One Dream

It was 1996. I was in Singapore staying in an apartment, and I was wondering why my father was shouting in front of the 14” TV set. In fact, the whole apartment, which residents are mostly Malaysian government servants, was shouting.

As I see on the screen, four persons are holding some kind of mosquito bat, two of them, one tall one bald, are wearing white shirts bearing the word MALAYSIA at the back. I knew that time I came from Malaysia. Still, the word seems unfamiliar to me.

But anyway, some kind of a child’s instinct urged me to shout along.

I did.

***

12 years later, we are in an Olympics final again. And today, after a fascinating Battle of the LEEs in the semi final, we are back, stronger than ever. This time around, our chances may not be high, our opponent has his home ground superiority, and frankly, we may not win.

Yet our one Dream remains apparent and lucid, we want our first gold medal, more than anything else!

A decade ago, we all sighed when Soon Kit missed a net curled shuttle, and we all cheered for every cross court killer smack the Sideks made. Every apartment, every ‘taman’, every household. Yes, we all did! And so, there is no reason why we couldn’t this time around.

Lets make these clear.

Chong Wei is never a Chinese. He is never a Malay, nor an Indian. Chong Wei is never a Penangite nor is he a johorean. Chong Wei was born in Malaysia, raised in Malaysia, fed by Malaysia, studied in Malaysia, trained in Malaysia and he spent most part of his life in Malaysia. He never sees other country as his homeland, he is never an IMMIGRANT, he is never a foreigner and he is never a ‘Bangsa Lain’, he never is and he never will !

HE IS A MALAYSIAN!

Oh fellow Malaysians, can we please put all the differences we have aside. Can we please cut the pauh-pauh crap, lets stop the lawyers’ fiasco, lets put an end at that university madness and lets halt the muzakarah and jump ship nonsense.




Lets rally TOGETHER behind this man, Lee Chong Wei,
and for once please, let us all be Malaysians, proud Malaysians, same and equal, for once.



The stage is set. Chong Wei is ready, so should we!

One Malaysia, One Dream. Go Malaysia go!

8.8.2008

Dear China,

It is an auspicious day today, 8 August 2008, a day we shall witness the majestic opening of the 2008 Beijing Games. And thus it is hereby my humble intention also to start my new weblog on this promising day, attached with a sincere wish of love and peace here and beyond.

One world, One dream. What a beautiful slogan.

But that’s should be just it. Wake up from your dreams, China!

Look at what hell of a mess you have done.



No, it is not my intention to politicize the Olympics on this blog. Certainly, the Olympics is not a UN general assembly, and I am not calling anyone to boycott anything.

Yet, stop being ignorant China !

Olympic is not merely a sporting event, nor that the five rings merely as a decorative motive on Coca Cola cans. Nor is it about mascots for you to counterfeit. Nor is it a rally torch for your violent guards to protect.

No China, the Olympics is far more than that.

Its about equality, competing fairly and losing proudly…
It aims to bring out the best of men and women, both physically and mentally.
It bonds friendship, it transcends religion, skin colours and nations…

China, you were given the mandate to uphold the spirit

And as cliché as it might sound, ‘with great powers come great responsibilities.’

However, you simply ignored your responsibilities.

You were given chances after chances, to help save, or at least alleviate the sufferings, of the people of Sudan and Burma, you could have become a savior, but no, you choose to be a weapon supplier. You could have used the Olympics as a platform to build conversations with the Tibetans, but no, you decide to demonize Dalai Lama. When the Olympics brought in opportunities to upgrade Beijing into a world class metropolitan, you took it up as an excuse to throw thousands of families out of their homes to make way for hotels and stadiums. When asked to clean up your air, you simply tell your factories to take a summer vacation and come back after the Olympics.

Of course, it’s your country, you do whatever you like, and you answer to no one.
But wait, you cannot ask the world to shut up! You cannot expect everyone who buys your product to listen to your crap and kiss your Olympic ass. And you cannot stop people from extinguishing the Olympic flame, because in its true sense, you don’t even deserve to bear the torch.

China, there is no conspiracy against you. Believe me, no one is jealous of your economic success, especially when it comes at such a huge cost on the lives of millions of your poor peasants who work 120 hours a week in McDonald’s toy factories for $5.

things are way too cheap it China, f**k !

Rest assured this is nothing personal. If British is the organizer this year, I would have condemn her as harshly as ever. But one thing, at least she won’t ask people to shut up. She listens (and dumbly ignores)

Of course, with your economic power, you simply hear nothing. You couldn’t care less for labor laws, human rights and environment conservation, and your poor countrymen are either deaf or blind thanks to five decades of Mao worshipping.

I am not asking you China to undo your mistakes of your ugly past, let bygones be bygones. But at least, recognise the mistakes, rectify it, and show that you learned, you became civilized, and you are mature enough to put down all that big fat ego and get things done, in the right way!

Dear China, don’t get me wrong, you have certainly worked hard over the years…bravo to that!

you have filled your cities with skyscrapers, you have filled your wallet with cash, you have filled your villages with fragile school buildings, and you have filled your mines with dead bodies…

now it’s your time to fill your empty brain with some wisdom....

* * *

Nevertheless, I shall dedicate my first ‘bloggersRjokers.blogspot.com’ post, to the millions of Chinese who act as human shields during the Korean War, purged during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, to the hundreds slaughtered on TianAnMen Square, to the countless protestors, Falungong practitioners, journalists, bloggers, jokers, Tibetans, Muslims, Christians, ordinary folks who were arrested, jailed or simply gone missing over the years.

Dalai Lama himself urged everyone NOT to boycott the Olympics, so do I.
But as Malaysia-born-Chinese, as a so-called 'descendent of the Dragon', tonight, I shall witness the fireworks flashing out gloriously from the smoggy Bird Nest ...

with disgust and shame..

‘Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.’
Khalil Gibran, The Garden of the Prophet (1934)

Wake up China!

p/s: Oops..I am afraid i kicked off this blog with a rather grim, offensive and seriously unfunny post. Your forgiveness please..