What's TRUTH got to do with it*

Many a time all of us may have been caught in a betwixt and between situation where we are in the middle of two warring factions. Most of the time, we are at a lost as both factions seem to have some justification in the way they behaved and the way the other did what they did!
The truth of the matter must lie somewhere in the middle as I have come to understand that things in life are neither black nor white. It is usually in shades of grey. I was caught in a similar situation not too long ago.
A was happily employed with B for many years with both parties respecting each other, enjoying each other's company and the relationship was more than just a employer-employee one but rather to that of close friends' one. B was single handedly running and taking care of the company as if it were his own. It was during this time I came to know A and B. I got along well with both parties. Over the years, things soured up between A and B. By B's standards, A was becoming laggard and slip shot in his work and taking corners. According to A, on the other hand, B was easily irritable and petty, made worse when as his business hit a rough patch with things generally moving slowly and income was dwindling. From A's point of view, B was becoming a fussy old man with an unpredictable predicament. After many ugly incidences, both decided to go different ways. A quit and another employee took over A's post. Towards the tail end of the employment, I was caught in the middle with each party trying to tell their side of the story and try to get me to see their side of the story in the hope of condoning their respective actions. I managed with occasional non-committed "Oh!"s, "Is it?"s and half hearted "Yeah"s. It managed to have worked as I am still friends with parties, one year down the line.
Misunderstandings are bound to happen in any relationships, to err is human; to forgive but divine! Innocent by-standers should not take sides. We should enjoy the side show but rather just savour the good moments. The last thing that you want is both the warring factions teaming up and pointing their arsenal at your direction! Sometimes it is better to be like the weeds (lallang) in the meadows that sway and play to the tune of the direction of the winds. Do not take sides, just enjoy the good moments and stock up in the huge memory bank and savour it later. What has truth got to do with it at all. That's all!
*What's Love Got To Do With It - Tina Turner

National disintegration?

Let us watch this video. Yet another video with its message which had appeared in many forms.
http://www.malaysiakini.tv/video/20667/shot-4-times-and-dont-know-why.html

Merdeka!!!

The point I want to bring up is why, after 53 years of Independence, 40 years of National Education Policy, probably 2 or 3 generations of living in Malaysia, eating nasi lemak, thosai, burger and all those delicious delicacies that the nation can offer, the victim and his wife still finds it more comfortable to converse in Cantonese (a dialect native to a place thousands of kilometres) for a Malaysian web TV interview for a Malaysian audience. This is happening in a country with supposedly high literacy rate with a robust education system and is aspiring to be an educational hub of sorts. It is just like some who look up to the Middle East for fashion and way of living when there are abundance of cultures and styles to go around in this region. It does not speak much of our success in national integration. And the space in between seems to be getting wider. It goes beyond acquiring wealth and power in the country.

Memories of RRF: Lingering culinary thoughts!

Masala Vadai

Most treasured memories in life are usually associated with food - whether at a wedding, a family reunion, or even when smoking the peace pipe between nations! Anyway, which soul can be at peace on an empty stomach? Even a funeral ceremony dedicated to resting the soul of the departed involves eating. Supporters of penance may disagree, believing that a little suffering helps in appreciating God's greatness. This is why we see the practice of self-inflicted pain during Thaipusam and hunger pangs during the holy month of Ramadan. If you ask me (though you probably won't), kavadi bearers enjoy the brief attention they receive — which they rarely get on an average day — and the festive spirit and binge that follow the fasting period.

In response to an enthusiastic follower (self-praise, sic) who asked me to write about foods available around RRF and Penang during my earlier days, I racked my brain, and this is what I came up with.....(Grey, crimson, and oily...)

How ironic life can be - when you have the appetite for food as a child, you lack the means; as an adult, if you have the means, you lack the stomach (i.e., health-wise, if you bother)!

RRF (outside the home) had much to offer to us as growing children in developing our culinary tongues, even though it had been ingrained in us from a young age that we only eat to live and not vice versa.
Let us look at all the mouth-watering hawker's food available outside the home while we were being cooped up and trying to be a bookworm to turn our fate around. To be fair, we had our occasional indulgences every now and then, especially around the time Appa draws his salary packet.
RRF was a big source of potential customers due to the large number of inhabitants who reside there. Hence, it drew many food vendors.

Some not-so-well-to-do kids (otherwise known as enterprising) used to sell traditional cakes (probably made by their mothers, just like in the old Malay movies) in their baskets, yelling out their products during school holidays.

• One Indian boy went on screaming.... Masala Vadai kueh!!! He sold uluttam vadai (a deep-fried, spicy black lentil paste South Indian doughnut) and masala vadai (savoury, deep-fried gram dal flat fritters). Talking about doughnuts, did you know that vadai is the original doughnut, glazed with loads of sugar. That is, if you believe what The Comedy Court duo of Allan Pereira and Indy Nadarajah said in one of their gigs. They said all foods are of Indian origin: crusted masala dosa is pizza; spring rolls are spaghetti; rasam is soup; fried chicken - where did the spice come from? India, of course! And the list goes on....   

• 

  Tok Tok Hard Candy

  
  

  An old Chinese man with his trademark Pagoda brand white T-shirt used to walk with a flat, large aluminium tray balanced on his head and a foldable wooden frame over his shoulder whilst knocking on a metal gizmo producing an irritatingly loud decibel noise of 'tok tok'. Hence, we used to call him 'tok tok man' and his merchandise 'tok tok' . What he was selling in his aluminium tray was hard, sweet candy, and his loud gizmo was nothing more than a small hammer and a curved metal tool that he would use to chisel out his hard candy into shreds before filling it up with tracing paper to serve it to his customers.
• Occasionally, we had young boys selling 'Malay traditional cakes' (kueh) in their baskets during school holidays.
• A Chinese lady (Ah Soh) used to do the same almost every day, but she sold only kueh kosui. I think kueh kosui is a Nyonya delicacy enjoyed by all.
  

• Then there was a boy who used to sell Chinese crispy deep-fried phallic-shaped fritters and their complementary round counterpart, yelling 'Ham Chim Peng'-'Eu Char Koay'.

If you are sitting at home and you are exposed to all of the above gluttons galore, it is not at all mind-boggling to imagine the varieties available out there outside the confines of my flats. Only affordability is the limiting factor! All around RRF food stalls could be found. The noteworthy ones include...

Bengkang (my fave)

• Again worth mentioning is the Block A Char Kway Teow, the ever-delicious, tasty, lard-filled, succulent, fresh prawn and cockle-filled dish, sprinkled with Chinese chives, individually prepared by Ah Long. (mentioned in previous post).
• The simple bee-hoon (thin rice noodles) or mee (plain noodles) sold by a push cart hawker between Blocks D and E, sold in the mornings and late at night after 8pm. Even though it was plain, with no additional ingredients (besides soy sauce, chilli paste, and small lard-fried cracker strips), it tasted heavenly! I realised that some people called them 'mee bodoh' (stupid noodles in Malay) as it contained nothing to talk about except for its taste - something like a dumb blonde!
• The morning market was a fertile playground for food lovers. Cheap noodles were sold at unbelievably dirt-cheap prices (25 to 50 sen, believe it or not?). I remember they used to sell curry mee with a brownish curdy stuff covering the noodles. Only much later did I realise that the brownish shiny stuff was actually cooked pork blood! The curry mee sold in Penang is actually different from what is sold as curry mee in Peninsular Malaysia, which is actually named Hockkein Mee in Penang!
• The Penang Laksa is also is in a different league altogether. One can smell the pungent smell of Penang Laksa miles away. Steamed round rice noodles are mixed with shredded pineapple, cucumber, and fish pulp, and immersed in a special gravy, with a twist of prawn or fish paste (otak-otak) and lime. Even though it may churn the inside of a vegetarian upside, it is sure to clear your sinuses.



Laksa Penang




• Even though Mamak Mee is freely available in bistros and hotels these days, nothing beats the ones found at the simple, no-frills hawkers, probably run by a single operator whose hygiene is much to be desired. You should probably not look at his multitasking rag that he used for cleaning the chopping board and the customers' table! He would probably wrap his cooking in old banana leaves and newspaper. It still beats the most hygienically prepared Mamak Mee any day.

If you venture further out into town, you would probably not come back home...

• 

  Pasembor

  Penang has a few varieties of food which are only found there. Pasembor is an Indian Muslim spicy snack, made with a combination of a spread of cut tofu, fried batter, fried prawns, turnip, cuttlefish, cucumber, and others, with a liberal spread of groundnut gravy over it. Taukwa rendang is another variety of the same, using mostly cut flat Chinese tofu. (See how national integration had fallen into place)
• In the 1960s all the way to the mid-80s, the corner shop at the Penang Rd-Magazine Rd-Brick Kiln Rd-Macalister Rd- Datuk Keramat Rd- Gladstone Rd (Simpang Enam) was held in high esteem by Penangites for its one-of-a-kind tasty Mamak food. Nobody actually remembers it original name. Based on the 'Craven A' cigarettes advertised on the signboard, the restaurant eventually became known as the 'Craven A Restaurant'. It was famous for its Mee Singapura (probably even Singaporeans would not have tasted such an indulging mee) and its Nasi Kandar. The Mee Singapura was usually prepared at night after 9 pm, and people would hang around the place to wait for the cook to start cooking so they could place their orders. Their nasi kandar used to be such a hit that customers just couldn't have enough of their food! The urban legend has it that their original cook used to spike the gravy with ganja (hashish) to encourage customers to make return purchases. The cook was apparently caught for his misdeeds by the Health authorities! Of course, the 'kas kas' used in its gravy is a kind of poppy seed of low potency! Craven A was also a hit with us, USM medical students. Convoys of motorcycles used to frequent this joint past midnight to make mass purchases to feed the souls of the midnight-oil-burning future doctors!

  

  Kuih Talam. 

  Interestingly, the best of this

  Nyonya delicacies in Penang are 

  prepared by Indian Muslim peddlers!

• After the cooks in Craven changed hands as the Indian cooks became richer, the quality of the food suffered. Apparently, now, a stall in Tamil Street holds the crown for the best nasi kandar in town! (According to our local expert that we appointed, Appa)

Bee Hoon Singapura

During the Hungry Ghost Festival, besides the noise that one had to endure to scare the ghosts away, there was also food, not to feed the hungry visitors of the underworld, but those walking of the walking kind from earth! One particular dish which I found extremely satisfying is the cuttlefish-kangkung preparation with spicy gravy...Mmm... 

Somehow, everyone thinks that foods of yesteryears fare much better in terms of taste and richness. We can put all the blame on the loads of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and the genetic modifications that we have done over the years. The real reason for its superiority is not caused by the above, but rather because of its lingering aftertastes that are laced with loads of memorable, heart-wrenching, cooling, zephyr-like thoughts of fond childhood memories, spiced up and seasoned with its carefree attitude to life. It is nothing to do with wealth and money!

Kuih Lapis

Nasi kandar

Mee Rebus Mamak Penang

Kuih Kosui

Hum Chin Peng

Eu Char Koay

Spare us the godswallop (Malaysiakini)

Dean Johns

Dec 1, 10 11:24am

Judging by what I've heard of her, PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan   Ismail is as good and godly a human being as Allah ever put breath into. But I wish she'd spare us the kind of codswallop she sincerely but I think unwisely spouted in her speech to the PKR party when she praised her husband Anwar Ibrahim as a “great man who has been awarded by God to all of us to be our leader”.

For a start, it's a bit presumptuous to speak on God's behalf when you couldn't possible have the slightest idea of the Almighty's thoughts, intentions, ideas or ideals.

Like clerics and their flocks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and similar earthly paradises who imagine that God demands the death penalty for those accused of adultery, blasphemy, apostasy or whatever else they deem terminally sinful.

Or potentates like the Pope (right), who claims to be God's earthly mouthpiece in making such preposterous pronouncements as his recent one that the use of condoms is now okay for male prostitutes to use to protect their clients against HIV infection, but still against divine law for the prevention of unwanted conception.

And a second and even more compelling reason for never presuming to invoke the name of God in a political or any other profane context is that so many others do it, often in support or justification of immoral, malicious and vicious activities.

For example, for centuries in Europe, generations of monarchs ruled by so-called “divine right”, claiming with the collusion of “aristocratic” cronies and Christian clerics to be destined, appointed and anointed by God to lord it over their populations of hapless peasants and serfs.

“Nobiscum deus”, Latin for “God with us”, was the claim of both the Byzantine and late Roman empires, neither of them paragons of virtue. And in more recent times, “Gott mit uns”, or in obvious English translation “God with us”, was the motto of both the German Kaiser's army in World War 1, and Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht in World War 2.

Acting 'for the glory of God'

Then there's the contemporary fact that Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and many other murderous organisations of similar ilk claim to be acting for the glory of God, and imagine that if their members die in action they're assured of berths in heaven.

And ranged against them are the massive forces of the US, which confidently considers itself to be 'God's own country', and whose former President, George W Bush (left), is on record as declaring that God advised him to invade Iraq.

God apparently has great faith in the US currency, too, as it bears the legend “In God we trust”, thus explaining perhaps why it's often referred to as 'the almighty dollar'. Though whether God had any hand in the sub-prime mortgage scandals and ensuing financial meltdown is a question that hasn't apparently yet occurred to America's fundamentalist true-believers.

Admittedly the North Korean regime doesn't attempt to pin its paranoid persecution of its own people or its poisonous posturing towards its neighbours on God, but that's only because successive members of the Kim dynasty appear to believe that they are God.

Unlike the supreme rulers of Iran and other theocracies, who apparently realise they're not actually divine, but presume to play God by threatening to finish the job that the “Gott mit uns” Nazis tried but finally failed to do on the Jews.

But we don't have to go global to find examples of the dubious company Wan Azizah puts herself in by publicly politicising God's name.

In Malaysia, as everybody knows, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was moved to swear to God on the Quran that he never met or had any dealings with the Mongolian 'model', Altantuya Shaariibuu, who was gruesomely murdered following her alleged involvement with the Scorpene submarine purchase by the Defence Ministry for which Najib was responsible at the time.

Which has me wondering, how could the self-same God who Wan Azizah assures us “awarded” Malaysians Anwar Ibrahim to be their leader believe a word that Najib tells him, let alone tolerate half a century of corrupt and criminal rule by Umno/Barisan Nasional?

Despite its sanctimonious claims to be the champions of Malays and thus Muslims, this gang of crooks would be a disgrace to any race or religion.

Systematically stealing untold billions in cash, land, timber, shares and whatever else it can get its claws on, and covering up its crimes by corrupting the country's judiciary, co-opting the nation's media and civil services, and condoning the criminalisation of the police to the point that countless killings in custody and fake 'shoot-outs' continue to occur and go unpunished.

Ungodly idols of power and profit

As I've mentioned before, however many times a day Malaysia's Umnoputras claim to pray, they seem to have no qualms whatever about preying on the populace. And whatever lengths they go to in their efforts to make it appear that they respect the Prophet, all they really worship are the ungodly idols of power and profit.

In fact they appear to have interpreted the old saying “God helps those who help themselves,” not as a proverbial encouragement to honest enterprise, but as a sign from above that they should help themselves to whatever they can get away with.

In a situation as profane as this, it seems highly counter-productive for Wan Azizah to drag God into the conversation. Especially in support of her husband right at the very moment that a parade of witnesses are busy perjuring themselves in front of the self-same God to frame him on a second trumped-up sodomy charge.

Of course Wan Azizah has a God-given right to think and say whatever she likes. But with so many people out there taking God's name in vain for their own nefarious purposes, it would be a pity if she risked looking like one of them.

Not that it's very likely, I grant you, that she'd ever be mistaken for those like Perkasa, who are walloping her for calling for an end to ketuanan Melayu, when in truth all the cods they talk about race and religion is just a cover for the fact that they're all about ketuanan money and that, as with their Umno sponsors, their only God is gold.

P.S. Malaysians will remember a certain someone who was the country's Works Minister in the 1980s when he conveniently blamed all the mishaps in the country to 'Act of God'! Er.. for those clueless on the identity of this glorified thug, it is Samy Vello (duh). FG

The blurred margins of real and reel life!

The more and more we look into the mass murder of Dato Susilawati Lawiya and gang, more and more we discover that it has the making of a mini-series that is ever so popular with the public. My liaison with these serials ended long ago with Radaan's production of 'Annamalai' when I discovered that it was one craving that I should give a miss. This series were so popular when it was around that even an academician like Prof Khoo Kay Kim could not resist but gave cold shoulder treatment to his guests when they visited him during its screening time!
If one were to browse the channels on TV (be it terrestrial, cable or satellite), especially during 'non-peak' times when everyone was at work, you would  be lost for choices on the number of tele-dramas to choose from. Tele-dramas, tele-novelas, tele-serials, mini-series, soap operas, the names are varied and have evolved over time but they all refer to the same melodramatic stories filled with romance (sometimes illicit, sometimes with ulterior motives), revenge, anger, jealousy, and all the negative traits that our mothers taught us not to have!
The name soap operas came about when soap companies like Proctor & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive first used to sponsor dramatic sequential suspense-filled radio dramas in the US. This name got stuck on the TV dramas of this similar themes. The initial soaps targeted bored housewives who were cooped in their homes. As its popularity soared, it made its way into the prime time slot and these dramas never looked back since. This winning formula was copied in other countries and by producers in other languages.
I think Peyton Place was one of the earliest soaps that we, Malaysian, were exposed to. Teenagers in the mid 70s (mostly girls) used to get all excited over Ryan O'Neal and stayed up late to catch the show and discussed all about it the next day in school in secrecy as if they have had just tasted the forbidden fruit. Of course, it (the series) raised many eyebrows then and was cursed by the puritans for it dwelled on taboo topics like adultery and extramarital affairs! How times have changed since then? The new serials they produce now make Peyton Place look like an episode from Sesame Street!

DALLAS: One of the earlier soaps in M'sia

The 80s saw blockbuster series like Bold & Beautiful, Dallas, Dynasty and Knots' Landing. Malaysian viewers, by then ecstatically drawn into the trap of make believe world could not ask for more when plethora of shows in various languages (Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish) hit our shores in the mid 90s and TV has never been the same. The dangerous overload happened when India liberalized their economy and made it easier for Indians to get a satellite dish than clean drinking water. Being the masala-licking melodramatic society they are, it further dashed open the flood gates of Indian TV serials. Whatever language or part of the world these shows may be produced, the common theme in all them are revenge, lying, fornication, cheating, backstabbing, blackmail, kidnapping, plotting downfall of others and all the satanic virtues deplored by man for generations.

Annamalai: The mother of
all Tamil serials

If one were to observe the general behaviour of  human beings over the years, we will find that we are basically copy cats. Fashion buffs copy latest trends set by pencil thin anorexic model; in the pre-telecommunication era, citizens used their leaders as role model to emulate (like how the Germans condoned what Hitler did in WW2 and how a group of Malaysians agree with PERKASA's ideology); in the golden era of Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy were trend setters; Indian fashion sense is derived from their silver screen demi-gods where latest Diwali wear is based on what the Bollywood or Kollywood stars wore in their latest record smashing blockbuster. If this analogy is followed, are people going to follow what their admired actors in the serials and our world will be all filled with negativity? God forbid...

Sad, but is it true?

From Penang to Edinburgh and back!

Enough have been said about how great a leader he has been and how the nation is losing a pragmatic leader who led a state after a turmoil (May 13 racial riots and losing free port status) and help to put Penang on the semi-conductor map of the world . For heaven's sake this guy has been out of the limelight of politics for the past 20 years. I guess the citizens of the state of Penang, at least, are not sorely losing him. As usual people will say niceties, pay last respects, carry on with life and past leaders where they deserve to be - in the History books and let the future generation be judge on the past leaders' good and bad!

The Man in the middle

At least I can boldly say that I share two things in common with Dr Lim Chong Eu, i.e. Penang Free School is our alma mater and we spent some time in Edinburgh (of course at different times). Chong Eu studied in PFS in the late 1930s. He must have been an exemplary student who must have excelled both academically as well as extra curricular activities and the extra charisma to have obtained the much coveted Queen's scholarship offered by the British Empire to study medicine in Edinburgh University, the same place his father had studied.
Besides these brilliant traits, we must also respect his quality of standing on what he believes is the right way to go. Leading the biggest Chinese party in Malaya, he left the party after some disagreement on certain policies of the ruling Government at that time to form a splinter party which eventually rocked the boat of the Alliance party and its own way contributed to the racial riots.
He acquired Penang in a dismal condition after losing its free port status and high unemployment rate. Having the foresight to develop Penang, he brought FDI in droves.
After losing the elections in 1990, as a gentleman who knows when he is not welcome any more, he bowed gracefully from the lime light and let a private life. (Another quality current leaders can learn!) Hence, reading the press statements by various leader never failed to tickle a few funny bones. Most of them mentioned that Chong Eu's passing is a great loss to the politics to the country. How can it be a loss when he had refused comments or interviews on current events (unlike some past leaders that we know)? The only coaxing and diplomacy in his life the days before he was incapacitated by stroke was in horse breeding.