Pushers and junkies !

A man lost 2 of his fingers and prayed in silence asking, "Why, God, why ? Why did this happen to me ? And now I've lost 2 fingers"... and after some time a voice silently screamed in his puny head..... "because it was not meant to be there in the first place, you moron !!" 

In my younger days (now its like half a century ago !) we too had many fancy friends who offered "magic" pills to stay awake and alert during the run-up  days that led up to the LCE and MCE examinations. Pills like roche' and  mx (mandrax) kept you awake with a "high" yes, but never helped you grow extra brains all of a sudden. There were others who turned to marijuana, and strange as it may sound, turned out to be even better today after all. But we were warned from our young and foolish days ( we were about 15 years old !) to never resort to short-cuts. That any thing that went against the order of reality was false. Enhancing  and empowering drugs are against the laws of nature .....hmmm.... unless it was a natural plant in itself. Ok !

Today all you parents too will surely be drumming the same advice to your kids to never go popping unprescribed pills and more so, if its from strangers. Today we also know that stupid is as stupid is ! That is why hundreds of ringgits are spent yearly on extra revision materials and tuition fees. That was then.

Just wtf is going on in our primary schools today ?? Just what was our education ministry thinking, when they decided  a short-cut to passing exams is by allowing little 12 year old (Standard 6 students) kids to pop pills ? And that too endorsed by the Malaysian Federation of the Council of Headmasters and approved by the Health and Education ministries !! Our education ministries are making junkies of our children at age 12 ! And at 17 they give them a gun in national service. Nice ! And that is okay with you ? 

What happened to our "smart schools" then ? Can't find  enough smart kids to fill the schools, eh ? I have said this before and I will say it again. We have a FAILED education system and we have been  living in DENIAL for a very long time now. The sooner we wake up, the better you buggers ! Read the disgraceful blooping story here 

Maybe they should recommend this "magic" pill to parliamentarians in our august house to help them utter some intelligence then the usual garbage that's coming out of their mouths everyday. Or alternatively allow them to smoke ganja in hookahs at the parliament lobby. I'm very sure more will prefer the latter.    

Let me tell you this folks and take it from someone who hardly studied school text books. There is no short-cut to excellence, but sheer hard work. No two ways about it. Kapish ? 

Breaking News-Who killed Cock Robin ?

Living in 1denial...

Yet again we are NEWS in BBC News. And all for the wrong reasons too ! 

How to woo tourists here ? Hmmmmm.....I know, get special assistance in the form of your kin ! Well it works for the Tourism minister and the Cow-gate minister, so why not ? 

Cheers and goodnight Malaysia......wherever you are ! 

If you did not vote BN..........Allah/God help you !

It has to be the disgraceful and dubious BN's FT and Urban Well-being minister Tengku Adnan, who is supposedly responsible for ALL constituents irrespective to their political leanings to utter such a claim that the federal government, as in this case, will not help homeless victims who have lost everything in a fire recently. Read here !

That too,  by being geographically, in an Opposition held area, and some who may or may not have voted against the ruling government in the last election. So what who they voted for. Is that not their right to vote who they so desire ? And how would one know who one voted for, unless.........

And these are the types of person Najib has in his cabinet ? We send ships load of aid worth millions of tax-payers ringgits to faraway places in the Middle East from food to medicine and ignore our own people right here at our backyard. Why ? 

The poor victims who were housed in a community hall (dewan) were also told to vacate the  "dewan"  yesterday. It is cruel to throw them out in the streets as they have nowhere else to go. They are families and children just like you and me. What kind of minister will come up with such a cruel decision ? 

Hey Tengku Adnan, can these people also be exempted from paying all forms of taxes and  income-tax henceforth ?

Humane and unity government, you say Mr. Prime Minister ? What a sorry joke !

My 1st. and only guest blogger- Bernard Khoo

I'm not one who's good at curry-flavouring or giving public speeches. Today I'm writing a special post about someone I came to care about a lot. Someone who's close to my families ( in both the 2 parts of my life....hmmm.) in the short time we've engaged and interacted in and out of the blogging world. 

Friend to many, foe to some, brother to more then a select few, buddy to a lot, father to 2 and husband to one and slave to none !

Bernard Khoo Teng Siew and I hail from the same town, Taiping. Of course, him being a decade older then me, we never knew each other there or then. But we share the same love for our alma mater and hometown. I met Bernard around 2006 in Kuala Lumpur, the year Malaysia was going through a political "Renaissance" of sorts under the Pak Lah administration, with the emergence of a then tightly knitted band of political irritants/misfits called bloggers ! (The then home minister Syed Albar even defined bloggers as jobless housewives (burp) who tell a great many lies and had nothing better to do !)

It is not important how we became good friends or even brothers, but there certainly was a special bonding amongst the elder bloggers of that time. Bernard who before then didn't even own a blog but used to frequently comment as zorro on many blogs, was encouraged to start his own blog by someone close in the blogging fraternity. The rest as you all know is history. 

Bernard is a kind gentleman, a generous teacher, a passionate friend and a Malaysian. Politics and politicians who screw-up hurt him most but many a politician seek him out for supper or drinks in faraway places that he had covered during by-elections. He's mad about all sports from cricket to hockey  but I still wonder why he supports soccer losers like MU ! (guess he's susceptible to bad judgement !)

Taken into custody for attending an illegal gathering in Ipoh during the "Perak-power-grab" debacle once, always in the fore-front covering almost all of the by-elections since 2008, numerous candle-light vigils for ISA, RPK or championing any protests to elevate the less fortunate and attending all protests marches.Bernard is hated by some and admired by many for his tireless feed of postings you'd want to think when this old man is going to stop and go play with his 3 grandsons in Bahamas.  

We've shared rooms before when covering by-elections with what little donations we got from well-wishes and agents of change and if you had room-mates in the likes Bernard or Haris you'd never get any sleep at all. These 2 can actually orchestrate a symphony with their snoring. We've shared more then just rooms. We knocked chilled ones on far too many occasions. We shared stories and and gossips and even agreed to  disagree on opinions but most of all we shared unconditionally, respect for each other. Bernard's trade-mark pipe and an occasional ciggy with his single malt with one cube of ice constituted his water intake for the day. And its been quite awhile since we clinked glasses too, my friend.

Bernard, today I hear you had a face-off with Mr. big C at the hospital ! 

I'm frightened with that piece of news, bro. I don't know what to do or how to help you. Is there anything I can do for you Bernard ? I don't know how to be brave for you.

So I'll tell  to your face only once Bernard. I love you  my brother. 

And Cheers to all the happy memories you and I shared in these short beautiful years of friendship and will continue to do so.  I dedicate the pictures below to you.   

Below I share some pictures, in no particular order, of Bernard Khoo with people close to his heart from my private collection. 

You, my readers may add captions where ever you deem fit.

 In Tenang by-election....the morning after...guess nobody saw Bernard this early huh ?

A young and cute 'Unker" Zorro follower ......

Always a kind word to these guys who are doing their job.

 Now this certainly is the Rogue's Gallery !

 

 With Jarod and yours truly !

 

 KLCC yellow take-over with Johnny Ong and Mary McGuire in the background !

Ahhhh......The Special Bunch !

  Anteras with 2 thumbs-up after Bersih2 !

             Me 2 mateys

  (l-r) Raman Kukerji,Tony Gee,Bernard, Darren, Errol, GAB Host Francis Yew and Bala Lawrence at the Tavern.

 Bernard, Rodi behind the lens and Boom nursing his wound from the last street fight.....civil disobedience !

 Bernard's favorite Bhai'a friends from the NPC (l-r) Kesh, Ajitpal,Vivinder, NaSTy Bob, Aftar and Raman, who then taught him his favorite swear word...."Pudhi Dia"

Hmmmm........

With Colin Fernandez the cool guitarman at Jerry's farm in Tangkak

 there's Azmi Sharom and Haris and...

(l-r) Alex Loh, Yusri,Shirley,SB Loy, Bernard and Jason Yew

 With Mama Madagascar Penny.

 

 (l-r) Patrick Teoh, yours truly, Bernard, Rocky and "whathismamacallhim" friend.

Bernard with Estrellita or Lita ( with a halo ?) 

 in Tenang with a young PAS supporter

Bernard's other favorite room-mate Arif Jon.

..... with that Special Bunch again in Taiping- Bukit Gantang by-election

and finally but not least, I surprised him with a visit at UH....tired, drugged and asleep but hand still on the mouse.........sleeping on the job !