Since Sita and Najla were with us for the long weekend and Fahrul had to go back to Kerteh alone as he has to work during the Christmas holidays, Ram and I decided to alter our plans a little. We have a series of weddings to attend in and around KL as well as in JB and had planned to attend the one in KL on the 25th after which drive to JB and attend the wedding of my cousin on the 26th afternoon and of another relative on the 27th evening. We changed the plan and went to Port Dickson on Saturday 24th. and spent Christmas eve in our condo apartment in PD. Today, Sunday, we returned to KL and attended the wedding and we plan to leave for JB in the early morning tomorrow, 26th.
It had been a long time since Sita had gone to PD and also a while that Ram and I had been there. We were sure that the condo apartment needs more than a little bit of cleaning. We left a little after 5pm on Saturday, and soon discovered that our timing was a little awry. The three lane highway south was jam packed with cars. And true to the Malaysian driving style and practice, the three lanes became four with many cars squeezing left and right, with some not even bothering to signal that they want to change lanes. Why they change lanes, I wonder as they would not go any faster whichever lane they take. We finally arrived in PD at close to 8pm, a very slow journey really compared to the normal one hour or so.
As its dinner time Ram suggested that we go for dinner first and then go to the apartment, a good idea really as Najla was already restless and quite ‘crappy’. She was sleeping the first two hours in the car but then woke up crappy. We had dinner at our regular eating spot, an open food court by the beach called ‘Coconut Grove’ not too far away from our condo. They always have a very wide selection of food, quite tasty, with good service too. The place was quite crowded when we arrived but there were still a few empty tables available. As it was Christmas Eve, they had all sorts of ‘specials’ on offer including a buffet spread which does not attract us at all. Ram and I settled for Japanese food while Sita had Western grilled dish. Dinner took quite a while too perhaps because of the unusually big crowd. No hassle though as we were in no hurry and Najla seems to enjoy the place. She had freedom of movement going around the place, in between tables and at the beach, attracting attention of the diners.
The main street of PD was also jammed with cars on our way to the condo apartment. Perhaps, it being the eve of Christmas, the crowd were going somewhere, although I could not imagine where as there are not much choice of places to go for entertainment in PD especially at night, other than the beach. Our condo complex was colourfully lighted up and very bright. Najla was excited seeing the lights.
We only stayed in PD overnight. Sita took Najla to the swimming pool in the morning and that gave Ram and I the opportunity to do a thorough cleaning of the apartment. We left at just after the afternoon prayers and headed straight for the wedding in KL. We were home in PJ by 5.00pm.
After dusk prayers we were out again and this time to the Mega Mall as Sita wanted to do some shopping. It’s Christmas and the mall was crowded with people. I spent most of the time looking after Najla, pushing her stroller either with her seated on it or with her pushing it. Most of the time she was on her feet going around and touching anything and everything that are close by!! I kept carrying her away and she kept wriggling to get down and go back to where she was playing when I carried her. There was this mannequin that she played with and she had twisted its arm. I took her away from the mannequin and I think she was annoyed with me for that because she pushed the stroller from the front while I was holding its handle at the back. I had to walk backwards out of the shop at the same time guiding the stroller as she was pushing it really hard. She kept pushing until we were really out of the shop. She stopped, turned around but turned back and pushed some more further away from the shop. Then she smiled, turned around and ran to the shop and played with the mannequin again. Phew! A 15 month old child trying to trick her grandfather. Later we had dinner at one of the restaurants in the mall and of course throughout the dinner we were either chasing Najla around or controlling her from throwing and pushing away stuff on the dinner table. Najla was asleep as soon as we got into the car and moving, even before we got out of the car park. As I am writing this blog she is fast asleep. Sita cleaned and changed her and she is fast asleep. She is usually a light sleeper, waking up when she is moved or when there are noises but tonight, she was as though sedated!! How nice if she is always like that when asleep. Ah well……. every child has different behaviours and characteristics.
Now it is time for us adults to sleep as we have to get up early tomorrow morning and travel again……. hmmmm ……. the thought of the long drive to JB…… We can’t take the bus this time as we have a lot of stuff to bring along to JB and not convenient to go by bus ……..
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
Monday, December 26, 2005
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Tsunami Remembered
It is now almost a year since the massive tsunami wreaked havoc in Sri Lanka, Aceh, North West coast of Malaysia and Southern Thailand. Sunday December 26th. 2004 and the following days, weeks and months, will be a period remembered by people in these areas for yet a long time to come. The pain, sadness, trauma and loss felt cannot be described in mere words. There is nothing in the vocabulary to describe the phenomenon. Even the word tsunami then draws blank bewilderment amongst people. They understand earthquakes but they do not understand tsunami. The days following December 26th. 2004 left many of us confused and bewildered. The magnitude of the catastrophe just could not ‘sink in’ in our minds. It was unbelievable.
Ram and I were in the Tun Hussein Onn Hospital when the tsunami happened. She was admitted on Friday 24th after having a bad infection of her newly grafted right cornea. She had to be given intensive and intrusive care with three different types of eyedrops to the eye every 15 minutes on Friday and Saturday. The frequency was reduced to hourly on Sunday and two hourly on Monday. So we were in hospital when the tsunami happened. We watched it all on TV.
It is now almost a year, two more days to the day. A few days ago Tessa brought home a book titled “A Time To Heal” a reflection of Mercy Malaysia’s response to the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It was recently launched by Mercy Malaysia. Vivid accounts of what happened, what the volunteers experienced, and page after page of pictures of the devastations brought back memories of what we repeatedly saw on tv during the 2004 year end week. Reading through the articles, interviews and records given in the book brought endless lumps in my throat. The volunteers do not have enough medical supplies to help the victims. There were just too many of them and there were just too few supplies available. One oxygen tank and one face mask had to be shared between a number of patients. “I did not try to remember their names. Perhaps it was my defence mechanism so that they did not become people I would remember forever”, said Dr Jelillah, President of Mercy Malaysia, who was in the thick of things, providing help and assistance to the victims in Aceh. “But it was difficult”, she continued. “How can I not remember Fitra Munandar, the plump 11 year old who was found after being buried in water and mud for four days.” “I watched him dying that night, his lungs filled with mud, all the time crying out for his mother and none of us could tell him that she had died before him, like the rest of the family except for an elder sister sobbing quietly by his side. His body burned with fever and there was nothing any of us could do. I was helpless and felt hopeless.” The same sentiments we echoed by others in the book and I remember reading similar helpless and hopelessness in the papers and articles written soon after the incident in other places like Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Many NGOs and voluntary organization, including the press organized collection of donations and aid poured in from all corners of the world. Various funds were set up to help the victims. Governments, voluntary organizations, the United Nations, and many others took the lead to campaign and call for assistance. The general public the world over responded instantaneously. Millions upon millions were collected. I would have thought that the funds collected would really help the victims to pick up the pieces and begin a new life with some ease. But it was not to be so. There is wonder in the minds of people in the streets of what happened to their donations, their contributions to the fund. There was no owning up to what had been done to the funds. There was no audit. I hear first accounts of people who have visited the devastated areas saying that nothing much had been done to help rebuild given the magnitude of funds and aids pouring in during the collection period. What they see does not add up to what was collected. My thoughts brought back memories of how funds were collected for victims, prepared for distribution by one private organization, only to be thwarted by bureaucracy, by demands of certain powers that be that aid must go through the proper authorities. In the end the victims continue to suffer, living in makeshift centers with the less than minimal facilities, denied of the aids due to them. Its humiliating and degrading to see them in that condition whiles those power that be continue in their luxuries. What gives them the authority to decide when and where to give aid, aid of which in fact were not from them but provided for by others and the general public?
I agree that there were humanitarian aids provided for the victims. There were various teams, like Mercy Malaysia, the Red Cross, aid organization of various individual countries of the North, West, South and East, all there complementing each other at the scene of the devastations, working and helping to provide some relieve to the victims, morally and physically. But what happened to all the money collected? It is a question many are asking but are also wondering whether there will be any answers. I wonder and I continue to ponder…….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
Ram and I were in the Tun Hussein Onn Hospital when the tsunami happened. She was admitted on Friday 24th after having a bad infection of her newly grafted right cornea. She had to be given intensive and intrusive care with three different types of eyedrops to the eye every 15 minutes on Friday and Saturday. The frequency was reduced to hourly on Sunday and two hourly on Monday. So we were in hospital when the tsunami happened. We watched it all on TV.
It is now almost a year, two more days to the day. A few days ago Tessa brought home a book titled “A Time To Heal” a reflection of Mercy Malaysia’s response to the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. It was recently launched by Mercy Malaysia. Vivid accounts of what happened, what the volunteers experienced, and page after page of pictures of the devastations brought back memories of what we repeatedly saw on tv during the 2004 year end week. Reading through the articles, interviews and records given in the book brought endless lumps in my throat. The volunteers do not have enough medical supplies to help the victims. There were just too many of them and there were just too few supplies available. One oxygen tank and one face mask had to be shared between a number of patients. “I did not try to remember their names. Perhaps it was my defence mechanism so that they did not become people I would remember forever”, said Dr Jelillah, President of Mercy Malaysia, who was in the thick of things, providing help and assistance to the victims in Aceh. “But it was difficult”, she continued. “How can I not remember Fitra Munandar, the plump 11 year old who was found after being buried in water and mud for four days.” “I watched him dying that night, his lungs filled with mud, all the time crying out for his mother and none of us could tell him that she had died before him, like the rest of the family except for an elder sister sobbing quietly by his side. His body burned with fever and there was nothing any of us could do. I was helpless and felt hopeless.” The same sentiments we echoed by others in the book and I remember reading similar helpless and hopelessness in the papers and articles written soon after the incident in other places like Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Many NGOs and voluntary organization, including the press organized collection of donations and aid poured in from all corners of the world. Various funds were set up to help the victims. Governments, voluntary organizations, the United Nations, and many others took the lead to campaign and call for assistance. The general public the world over responded instantaneously. Millions upon millions were collected. I would have thought that the funds collected would really help the victims to pick up the pieces and begin a new life with some ease. But it was not to be so. There is wonder in the minds of people in the streets of what happened to their donations, their contributions to the fund. There was no owning up to what had been done to the funds. There was no audit. I hear first accounts of people who have visited the devastated areas saying that nothing much had been done to help rebuild given the magnitude of funds and aids pouring in during the collection period. What they see does not add up to what was collected. My thoughts brought back memories of how funds were collected for victims, prepared for distribution by one private organization, only to be thwarted by bureaucracy, by demands of certain powers that be that aid must go through the proper authorities. In the end the victims continue to suffer, living in makeshift centers with the less than minimal facilities, denied of the aids due to them. Its humiliating and degrading to see them in that condition whiles those power that be continue in their luxuries. What gives them the authority to decide when and where to give aid, aid of which in fact were not from them but provided for by others and the general public?
I agree that there were humanitarian aids provided for the victims. There were various teams, like Mercy Malaysia, the Red Cross, aid organization of various individual countries of the North, West, South and East, all there complementing each other at the scene of the devastations, working and helping to provide some relieve to the victims, morally and physically. But what happened to all the money collected? It is a question many are asking but are also wondering whether there will be any answers. I wonder and I continue to ponder…….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
A Diva Testing The Limelight?
Last week there was a piece of news given prominence by the local newspapers, almost all of them on the front page, of a spat between a singing ‘diva’ and a newspaper reporter and feature writer. The reporter had questioned why the singer spat in front of her and the singer responded that she spat on the ground and not at her so what’s her problem, she asked. All these happened at the courthouse canteen where a case involving the ‘diva’ defending a case of forwarding ‘hate’ eMails of another popular singer, had just been postponed. The reporter is a prosecution witness and the case was postponed for some technical reason or clarification and hence pending. I found it quite intriguing.
The diva, who comes from my hometown, has been in and out of the limelight throughout her singing career not just on her singing popularity but also of various news and reviews, court proceedings involving magazine publishers, individuals and others including one of her very close relative. People have also accused her of being ungrateful. I guess being a popular artist, she just cannot get away from the scrutiny of the press and the public. Nevertheless the way the scrutiny on her was presented and the incidents that happened leading to the scrutiny showed what she was made of. She has had limelights in her heydays, both positive and negative, and that was many years ago, and now she appears to yearn for repeats of the limelight.
In our culture, spitting in a public place is frowned upon. I consider it bad practice. Most parents would reprimand their children if they are seen to do so. When a ‘public’ figure do so, in public, close to an eating place, tells upon the character. More so if spitting was seen to be directed to a certain person or party, indicating contempt.
This singer has received various awards, including from the state. I believe she still has a good following, albeit small now as there are more and more singing sensations that are popular amongst the younger generation. But to me this singer is a ‘has been’, and what she does in recent years only hurts her reputation. I used to praise her, listen to her singing, watched her programmes on TV and followed news about her, proud that she comes from my hometown, but ……. she had recently proved her personal integrity to be questioned, her reputation to be degraded and her public display of recognition a shame. She has failed to maintain dignity of the awards given to her. Even if she wins the case in court, her public display of contempt and her recent behaviour may not salvage nor redeem her downward slide in popularity. Apart from singing popular songs, she is also good in Quran reading, in religious hymns, and verses praising the Almighty and his Prophets. My humble opinion is that she should concentrate in these, spend her remaining days in the ways of the religion (I will not doubt it if she already does so), repent, and perhaps then she can regain her integrity and redeem her reputation…… I ponder and I continue to wonder……….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
The diva, who comes from my hometown, has been in and out of the limelight throughout her singing career not just on her singing popularity but also of various news and reviews, court proceedings involving magazine publishers, individuals and others including one of her very close relative. People have also accused her of being ungrateful. I guess being a popular artist, she just cannot get away from the scrutiny of the press and the public. Nevertheless the way the scrutiny on her was presented and the incidents that happened leading to the scrutiny showed what she was made of. She has had limelights in her heydays, both positive and negative, and that was many years ago, and now she appears to yearn for repeats of the limelight.
In our culture, spitting in a public place is frowned upon. I consider it bad practice. Most parents would reprimand their children if they are seen to do so. When a ‘public’ figure do so, in public, close to an eating place, tells upon the character. More so if spitting was seen to be directed to a certain person or party, indicating contempt.
This singer has received various awards, including from the state. I believe she still has a good following, albeit small now as there are more and more singing sensations that are popular amongst the younger generation. But to me this singer is a ‘has been’, and what she does in recent years only hurts her reputation. I used to praise her, listen to her singing, watched her programmes on TV and followed news about her, proud that she comes from my hometown, but ……. she had recently proved her personal integrity to be questioned, her reputation to be degraded and her public display of recognition a shame. She has failed to maintain dignity of the awards given to her. Even if she wins the case in court, her public display of contempt and her recent behaviour may not salvage nor redeem her downward slide in popularity. Apart from singing popular songs, she is also good in Quran reading, in religious hymns, and verses praising the Almighty and his Prophets. My humble opinion is that she should concentrate in these, spend her remaining days in the ways of the religion (I will not doubt it if she already does so), repent, and perhaps then she can regain her integrity and redeem her reputation…… I ponder and I continue to wonder……….
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya
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