Penang -multilingual road signs.....

I was at Beach street yesterday...and just opposite the Police Station, there was this road sign that got a federal Minister issuing stern warnings about the Pg Govt diminishing the importance of Bahasa Melayu as the national language...

Looking at it, I do not know what was the big deal....first and foremost it did not replace existing road signs...the new ones were just a small plague measuring 18 inches by 10 inches the most...it is so inconspicuous...you can hardly say that it is replacing any signs...

The additional signs provide interesting information about how the various communities name the streets....and Beach Street got so many names....along the different sections...it is insteresting and part of Pg's heritage...

Surely UMNO politicians are so bankrupt of ideas.....that they took this as their rallying cry...seriously, compared to the multi-lingual roads signs in the BN run state of sarawak....the signs in Pg are nothing....even the tourism road signs in KL are much bigger & more dominating...and they are in various languages and not only in Bahasa Melayu...and nobody make a fuss...

All this and many more give rise to the perception that if it is done by UMNO members or supporters it is alright.....

How else can you explain the defeaning silence when Mahathir suddenly decide to change the medium of instruction for Science & Mathematics from Malay to English.....and not even a whimper from the so-called guardians of the language.....

Appointment of Low as Acting GM of PKNS

Shame on you, PAS......if there is only a Colin Powell equivalent in your party... you would even win more votes..... This is what Colin Powell, a Republican Party member & former Secretary of State has to say about the negative campaign against Sen Obama...suggesting that he is a Muslim (& therefore by implication an unfit person to be a President).....

“I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

Prices of goods go up fast but inches its way downwards

Bought a MAS ticket to KL and found the prices still remained the same as before even though the price of oil had plummeted from USD 140 to below USD70 per barrel.....yet the surcharge has not gone down...

I suppose all's the same including yr roti chanai...exception is the Hokkien mee in Pulau Tikus (one of the best in Pg) still RM2.50 for a bowl of the best Hokkien Mee in Pg.

Yeah it's always the same....prices are slow to come down...still got old stock lah

Walking the streets of Ole Georgetown

What a delight to walk casually along the old part of Georgetown...in particular along the roads near the banks ...the beach street-church street bishop street area....

Along Church street...the newly spruced up and restored Perankan museum is a sight to behold...I think it looks better than the cheong Fatt Tze house....

Rain in Penang exposes our stupidity

They say too much of a good thing can ruin it.....well rain has always been good for Penang...it flushes away all the filth in the streets and the sudden gush of torrential rain de-clogs all the drains and pushes all the sampah to the sea....and the great sea absorbs all the dirt and neutralizes it.

Thats' the theory anyway...but with the increase in population and the increased use of hydrocarbon based non-degradable material.......they all just float in the seas or sink down but don't disintegrate for a zillion years....piling up the garbage bin of last resort...no wonder our oceans are dying....

It is sad, how our newly acquired habits will finally ruin us. We used to wrap our stuff with old newspaper or brown paper but now we do it in plastic...we used to carry rattan baskets to the market but now we go there empty handed but come back with at least half a dozen or so plastic bags....

Slowly but surely we are choking ourselves to death....with plastic and more plastics...

Financial Melt down ---& will Pg be affected ?

If u hear what our BN pollies have to say...u would be forgiven to think that we Malaysiana are martians and we live light years awya from this planet earth..."we won't be affected."

Come on....even if our banks do not have with sub-prime loans in their portfolio, their clients business will be affected...the American consumers are already curtailing their purchases...consumers' confidence through out the world is at an all-time low....and this will translate to lower demand...& less orders for the manufacturers.... already the Chinese factories are feeling the adverse impact with many factories closing down and workers thrown out of jobs....

We will be affected and for places like Pg...the impact will even be worse....

The birds had flown away.....

Growing up in Penang in the 60's & 70's, one can still savour the sights and sounds of birds in the leafy suburbs of Penang. I used to stay with a relative at the Government Quarters located at the end of Macalister Road...and as a 7 year old boy could remember the many different birds that visited the big compounds there....

Notable amongst them are the noisy murais, a bird with a black and white plummage, that would zip up and down trees busy making a marvellous call....

The many types of Kingfishers would also call at the garden. There are the distinctively yellow ones, and a multicoloured one with blue and red feathers...

Occasionally, a pair of eagles would appear...they sometimes make a distinct call.....and at night the owls would come out and scare the 'daylights' out of me...

One thing for sure, i could not remember any black crows...they were in Butterworth near the Mitchell Pier....

But where have all the birds gone....

Blessed Penang

Came back from Laos today after a gruelling one week trip that involved trains, planes and taxis and a four hour traffic jam in Bangkok horrendous traffic......

Firstly, Penang is blessed with so many doctors, clinics, and hospitals, where any sick person can easily accessed. It does not matter whether they are rich or poor. The rich can go to the private clinics and the poor can go to Government hospitals and clinics.....

The quality of the Government hospitals and clinics here are excellent.....

Compare to the people of Laos...in my three visits to Vienchang & Savannakhet...clinics and hospitals are a rare sight...

Yes in so many ways we are so blessed... and we hardly know it!

When our leaders fail us.....what can we do

Sadly and very sadly our leaders had failed us....their sandiwara had been exposed....they were not interested in Malaysia...they are traitors to this land...

But as individuals, we, who are of Chinese descent should more than ever show love and kindness to our fellow citizens who are Malays and Indians and others......in a way that demonstrates our goodwill and our shared history and more importantly our shared futures....

Let us rise above our leaders, let us ordinary folks show our leaders that we are united in common decency towards one and another....

Disappointed in our leaders

One of the most noble political statement I heard is from John Macain, the republican nominee.....he said "I rather lose an election then let America lose the war"...he said it sinceriely....when faced with a very popular choice of calling the troops back from Iraq and then win the support of millions...he did the opposite...he supported the surge...even though he knew it was very unpopular and would cause him votes and even the nomination, nevertheless he voted and supported what he believed was right even though it was hugely unpopular and proved to be a costly decision.....

He put his nation first and his own interests, second.

Compare him with our PM......our man is but a puny weak person...fiddling while the whole nation spins off the tangent...

Many times when facing with a choice of doing the right but unpopular thing or the wrong but popular thing...he chose the popular one.....leaving the country to suffer the consequences of the bad choices he made....

Always putting himself first and the country second....thats' the perception he gave us...

Rain --what a blessing

Although it has been raining and the sun had been covered with clouds the last five days, it has been good.....the cool weather for a change is refreshing not only to the body but to the soul....hope it will cool down the inflamed passions stirred up by silly comments made by equally silly people...

Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never do...that's my policy. Move on we must be bigger than the person hurling insults at us.....we go out to the world and achieve great things in world....

Not bad for "penumpangs' of Pg.....there is "Jimmy Choo", Prof Quah of LSE, Prof Woo etc etc..... and let the Leaders of Malaysia salivate and think what might have been.....

Sum of all our fears...malaysian fears

For years ... politicians of all ilk had been playing the race and religion card.... can they restrain themselves now? ...before the country spins out of control into a downward spiral .... like lebanon or sri lanka....

Better to cool it now....MCA...you ought to do it long ago..but you did not...now you want "show" you can defend your 'race"... forget it...we know you are doing it with an eye to the coming party elections...

Malaysians are flocking to the PKR_PAS_DAP pakatan....PAS for all....It is time to give PAS a chance...

Heavy rains do have its benefits

Heavy rains in Penang is not always a bad thing. Of course in the low lying areas, it cause floods and disruption in people' s daily lives.....for that we must always have the rescue boats ready....we must also ensure that clogged drains and rivers be unclogged everytime.....

Yet a heavy downpour like what occured yesterday do bring benefits to this place....first it clears the smog and the haze that hangs in Penang like a bad smell...the heavy rain sure flushes this awya and in the morning the air is fresh and crisp.....

Second the filth gets cleared away, it is almost like getting a clean bath...washing all the dirt away from the city...it refreshes the city and brings a sense of sweeping the old rubbish and bringing forth new life...

Penang - and its flash floods

Five hours rain and the whole city drowns in the floods that ensued.....problems ...clogged drains....indiscriminate throwing of rubbish down......

The dirt and filth comes back to haunt you...

Saving Gurney Drive?

Read in the Star, that the pollies visited the mud flats that appear when the tide is low. Like politicians that they are (no matter what shape or size) there is a pathological need to open their mouths and make pronouncements of what they want to do...i.e. to solve the "problem"...

They pronounce that they want to save Gurney Drive...(may I ask save Gurney drive from what?) That's when I think...it becomes dangerous...good intentions and muddled thinking or no thinking at all...just knee jerk reactions...

First of all, mr. exco, find out what cause the building up of the mud-flats in the first place...is it (as most people suspect) due to the massive reclaimed land in Tanjung Tokong.....years ago when most the excos and the CM was still residents in other states....there was a Mangrove swamp in Tanjong Tokong....probably the water currents were bringing the mud all the way from parts of South Kedah and north Seberang Perai or even parts of the Batu Ferringgi shore and depositing it in Tanjong Tokong.....but now there is a huge abutment...maybe that may have upset the current flow...and caused all this new land to be created at the Bagan Jermal end of Gurney Drive... who knows...

So do not create another problem by your trying to save Gurney Drive....u may end up creating more problems...find out first ...and for heavens sake...don't start 'reclaiming it" because you may cause the problem to shift to the Northam road end of GDrive.

Please, in all things environment err on the side of caution......

Permatang Pauh, Revisited...

Anwar won ....so ? but did Malaysia win? Did the community come together as one or was the election campaign so divisive that the schism so great that it cannot mend? In the heat of the elections the Chinese community again became an easy target..."pendatang asing" ... "orang tumpangan" ...epithets so easily tossed at the Chinese and the gall of it to the Chinese of Penang.... where their houses are sometimes older than some of the sultanates.......

Well, AAB says that person who said it did not mean it...wow...he can even read the mind of people now....great...but let the person who said it speak for himself.....

Penang.....the home of reformasi....where we are all anak malaysia......

Penang and its durians

It seems that everywhere in Malaysia local people will claim that their place of state or district produces the best durians.....In Perak, you have many such claims and places where durians are supposed to be the best in Malaysia, these areas are Batu Kurau, Padang Rengas and Tapah....In Selangor, it is Semenyih or even Ulu Langat....In Negeri Sembilan...you have Bahau and in Johore, Muar, Batu Pahat and Segamat....

I have to admit that i had tried durians in these places and they are good....excellent and very good indeed......but being a Penangite (prejudiced) I still think nothing beats the durians in Penang...if not for anything for the sheer variety of the wierd names of the clones.....Red Prawn.....Ku Leng Hoo, Hor Lor.....etc....etc etc.

Penang and its durians

Permatang Pauh, Province Wellesly

I remember Permatang Pauh as a place of pontoon bridges....which you have to pass on your way to BM and Nibong Tebal in the late fifties and early sixties....As the bridges only allow a single file of traffic to cross it, most of the time you have to wait for your turn. During the peak season (Fridays or Saturdays & Public holidays), the queue can be quite long and the wait always take ages before you can cross the the river.

During those long waits, I remember looking around the surroundings along the river. The nipah palms and mangroves would often conjure up images of crocodiles half-submerged in the river ready to pounce on any straying mischevous boy like myself.

I would also fantasize going along the river like Tom Sawyer on a raft..what an adventure catching fish and looking for treasure...

But today, Permatang Pauh means something all together different...it is D PLACE.....the beginning of the END for BN, or any pause, a comma, and then a discreet turn for the nation...who knows?

Olympic Opening Ceremony & me

Indeed the opening ceremony of the Beijing is truly spectacular and amazing and awesome...it exceeds superlatives...

Amidst the story telling and enacting of China's 5,000 year old history...the story of Zheng He and the brave seamen of Fujian for me epitomises my history...my ancestors...opening the south seas and coming to south east china....to malaya...