Malaysian dream

This is a bit late as Merdeka was a while back..but I had attended a Malaysian independent film event a few months back and at the end of the event a group of Malaysians asked the attendees what their vision of Malaysia would be..
I'm not very good in front of the camera...but the guys filmed me anyway..here was a short clip.....
maybe my first and last claim to fame on youtube

Perjuangan

Last month , Omar and I attended the Freedom Film Festival organised by KOMAS.
There was an insightful movie called " Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka " and I would encourage everyone to watch it with an alternative perspective on what Malaysia could have been and may still be able to be...

This song Burhanuddin Helmy by Black is exceptionally touching with its lyrics...

kuciptakan lagu untukmu
kunyanyikan syair buatmu
tentang perjuangan
tentang pengorbanan

kau yang bertubuh kecil
tetapi berjiwa besar
tegas pendirian
dan berhati mulia

dari utara hingga selatan
lantang suaramu
menentang penjajahan

melawan penindasan

demi untuk negara
demi untuk merdeka
kau sering terpenjara
kebebasanmu dirampas
tapi, jiwamu... tetap merdeka

di atas robohan kota melaka
kita dirikan jiwa merdeka
kata2 azimat darimu
tak pernah kami lupa

walaupun kini jasadmu telah tiada
namun semangatmu membakar jiwa
rakyat malaysia yang tak pernah melupakan
perngorbananmu

It is my song of the week...

The Media vs the Truth?

The media has a strong influence on how we perceive what is happening all around the world. A recent example of this would be the Gaza crisis.

During the three week attack on the Gaza strip, Western journalists were not allowed into Gaza by the Israelis. Israeli's official reasons: it was too dangerous for foreign Western journalists to enter Gaza and Israelis were concerned that if foreign journalists were in Gaza, they won't be able to have an objective view on what was happening since Hamas militants may threaten people to report to the journalists in Pro-Hamas favour.

Pictures and reports of the conflict were coming through by Arab journalists and aid workers who were already in Gaza at the time of the conflict.
A picture can say a thousand words...however if it isn't shown in the right context-the message can be misconstrued and thus misleading the rest of the World.

The Arab channels such as Al-Jazeera were more graphic in their reporting of the devastation compared to Western channels such as the BBC. Does this mean the Arab channels like Al Jazeera was portraying a truer and honest picture compared to the Western channels? I'm not sure whether my opinion of the conflict would change if I saw more gore on the television. I think just seeing the faces of people who had lost their loved ones and home had made me feel very sad of the innocent lives who are caught in this conflict.

The way the conflict is portrayed will affect its audience. Young Muslims watching the devastation may form a feeling of hate and despise towards the Israelis as fellow Muslim brothers and sisters continue to be killed.
This can promote radicalism and extremism amongst these young people if they are influenced into the wrong groups.

I think the UN has the responsibility to try and pursue investigation of possible war crimes which may have been committed to the Palestinian people during this period.
We may never know exactly what really happened during the three week conflict-it will take years to build the Gaza strip from the rubble and destruction.

The media must also take responsibility to be as truthful and factual as possible -government spokesman from Hamas and Israelis have their own propaganda and will pursue their version of events.

As per John Pilger's quote : "It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agenda of the message and myths that surrounds it"

As Gaza tries to rebuild itself there is a huge humanitarian crisis in the city. BBC's refusal not to broadcast the DEC appeal is disappointing- there is no question that what occurred to the Palestinian people is truly devastating.They need our help-the innocent Palestinian people didn't ask for their homes to be bombed.
It is not a matter of choosing sides i.e.pro Israelis or pro Palestinians but it is about reporting a humanitarian crisis. I wonder if there were more people being killed in Israel would the BBC act any differently?

Change the World

Let's all make a difference in whatever way we can...Stop the Massacre!

Everyone has a role

Recently in the news, we've had election fever from America with the Obama vs Clinton campaign, from UK with the local elections mayoral campaign and closer to home the shocking results with the recent elections in Malaysia. It seems all these campaigns have a common theme: people want change.

So do we just vote for change because we are bored/unhappy of the current administration or are we voting with the opposition because we actually believe the opposition are really offering a better future?

I am not here to preach: everyone is entitled to their own opinion and have their own reasons for voting the people they decide to vote.

Last week, I attended a talk by Tun Mahathir Mohamad. No matter what people's opinions are of his policies and actions during his 22 yr old reign as Malaysian's prime minister:I think he is still one of the most influential and well respected people we should be proud of with the level of change he helped to form in what is Malaysia today.

The topic was on the Roles and Challenges of Youth for 2020. His main message from the talk was in order for our country to progress we need to ensure we have a clean government. It was inevitable there would be politically sensitive issues voiced by many people but the ex-PM handled the questions very well and took it in his stride. Policies which are aimed at improving the wellbeing of those less fortunate cannot be improved if it is abused. Rather than the policies being wrong it is often the implementation of these policies which are at fault.
His message to the youth today was take action in what you think is morally right no matter what your political views are. If we all do not act and play our role:Malaysia will have a bleak future.

I think the recent elections in Malaysia has indicated that Malaysian people are unhappy with the current administration. Malaysians should have the right to voice out these opinions and it appears that the majority have voiced out their dissatisfaction. We hope that this is the step in the right direction for a much fairer government.

So watch this space.........

Make Poverty History-Is it really possible?

Many of you may remember the slogan " Make Poverty History " wear everyone was encouraged to wear the white bands, Live 8 concert and attending the march in Edinburgh during the same week as when the G8 summit was held in Gleneagles in Scotland. There are some of you who may wear the white band as a fashion accessory but I hope that most people wore it because of what the white band stands for.

So...Make Poverty History..is it really possible?? I went to a talk by the Director of Oxfam in UK (Barbara Stocking) earlier this week who is one of many people that believe it is possible.

Make Poverty History has been a long campaign but 2005 is a special year as many charities, NGOs and various organisations came together to make the world leaders listen and actually start taking action in eradicating poverty.

Ok, we know that we will never be able to eradicate poverty altogether but there are many children dying of hunger because of extreme poverty and we all need to do something about it before it's too late.

What is Make Poverty History campaigning for?

It's fighting for three main things: More aid, Fair Trade and eradicate debt of third world countries.

Currently, we need GBP 50billion a year of aid money. It may seem a lot but if we put it in perspective GBP1 trilion is being spent on arms a year. I'm not against the armed forces (my dad is in the navy) equipping themselves with arms and security equipment in order to protect the interests of the people of the country. But if we can spend a significant amount of money on arms..surely we can spare some cash for aid too.

So how successful has the campaign been?

Debt relief: world leaders have accepted that multilateral debt should be written off but no action has yet been finalised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Aid Money: by 2010 it was decided that GBP48 billion aid will be given. It isn't the best outcome as 2010 is five years away...how many more innocent people will die by that time???

Trade justice: this is the most difficult part of the deal. We shouldn't get confused with free trade and trade justice. Trade justice stands for:

• ending export subsidies
• opening trade borders
• enforcing laws to stop big multinational companies profiting at the expense of local people and the environment

Even before the G8 summit took place, world leaders had decided to get rid of export subsidies and this was reaffirmed again in 2005. Unfortunately, no set timetable was set. This isn't an easy thing to solve because eradicating export subsidies would mean farmers and similar people working in agricultural industries may suffer. e.g. agriculture industry in Scotland, cotton farm industry in America.

The WTO 2005 summit will start on 13 December in Hong Kong and we hope that these issues will be discussed and we can make progress and move forward.

What difference can we make?

Well, eradicating extreme poverty won't be something that can be solved overnight. I do agree that Making Poverty History is possible. It will not be easy but it we put enough pressure and keep the public engaged and interested in the campaign we may have a chance in making a difference.

2005: Year of Natural Disasters

The year 2005 will be remembered as the "Year of Natural Disasters".

The year started with the Boxing day tsunami which affected the SE regions. The worst affected areas were Sri Lanka, Thailand and Bandar Aceh.
I can still remember seeing the aerial views of Bandar Aceh before and after the disaster.
It was heartbreaking to see how these people lost everything and had to start and build their lives again.


Then, we had Hurricane Katrina which affected New Orleans and the Gulf coast.
It is ironic that during the G8 summit ( before Hurricane Katrina happened) President Bush did not put global warming as its No 1 priority. We can only hope that recent events may change his way of thinking ( well...we can only hope right??!
At the present time, Hurricane Wilma is sweeping across Florida. ( have u guys ever wondered why all these hurricanes are named after woman's names??? )
Could all this be a result of global warming??

We also had the South Asian Earthquake..which had devastating effects on Kashmiri and nearby rural, mountainous regions. Relief aid is still trying to reach these people. Winter is approaching and because of difficulties in distributing aid some of these people may die of cold and hunger.

There have been many discussions on global warming and what we can do about it. World leaders and normal people like you and me should try to understand why these disasters are occuring more often than ever. I think only through understanding the causes of these disasters will we able to tackle and find ways to prevent it. And possibly save lives.

Let us all try to do our bit to save our planet in any small way we can.

Let's make a change

Selected Excerpts from 2pac's (Tupac Shakur ) song- " Changes "

We gotta start makin' changes learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers
and that's how it's supposed to be
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids but things changed,
and that's the way it is

That's just the way it is
Things'll never be the same
That's just the way it is

I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under I wonder what it takes to make this one better place, let's erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right'
cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight
and only time we chill is when we kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other

We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat,
let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.

You see the old way wasn't working so
it's on us to dowhat we gotta do, to survive.