cookie-cutter comments

LKS has a post about the perils of speaking SMS’d English, but starts off with a wild foray into the inner mechanics of editorials on the NST. You can check out LKS’s opinion of the offending piece here.

Personally, I absolutely love that editorial to bits. I didn’t catch it today in my print copy of the NST, foregoing it in the rush of things, so I’ll have to thank LKS for saying something about it. I’ve been watching local blogs one by one say something about LKS’s call for an emergency meeting to discuss the separation of powers. On the one hand I wondered if it was just sensationalist politics, but apparently LKS feels deeply about it — and so we all should because, nominally speaking, a separation of powers is the best bet against Big Brother’s encroaching influence.

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What I said to him must have been like an incurable itch.

He frowned at me, his face creasing up like his skin was paper-thin and ready to tear. I remember his shock of white hair above a commanding brow. At the time, he was still leading the Malacca-Johor diocese.

Anyway, this was years and years ago. When I was barely a teenager, barely a boy, barely the pubescent pervert I was to become. I had, at the instigation of my Sunday school teacher, taken goodly advice to heart, and went ahead and read the Bible like it was some old, gaffy storybook. You’ve got to understand: I was goofy in that way.

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And should we thank him? I don’t know. On the one hand there’s the fact that Rafidah Aziz hasn’t answered all the outstanding questions with respect to the AP issue. On the other hand, I’m mildy bemused by Tun M’s stamina: he just keeps going on and on and on, doesn’t he? If only ministers had the same stamina and persistence in fighting corruption at all levels, instead of restricting it to flogging the AP horse.

But’s that’s either too much to wish for, or too soon yet. It’s never too late, ya? Mahathir fires off a classic foot-in-mouth comment here :

“The Government must not cover up and lie to the public, it’s wrong. The Government knows that it was Miti that approved it, not me,” he said, adding that “any attempt to cover-up is very bad.”

“This is especially (important) as we now believe in transparency,” he told reporters.

Again, I’m sure the ensuing hypocrisy is unintended, but the implicit admission is just so telling; is the old man facing up to the truth in his twilight years? There’s a lot to be said about the idea that “I can be absolved of wrong-doing if you were benefiting under the auspices of my rule”.

I can almost see it now: you call me out, I’ll tar your name.

Bastards.

I’ve got to admit: I’ve been a fan of things post-apocalyptic since I played Fallout 2, a geek-ish staple of mine each year. Ok, I’m not that much of a fan: I don’t chant mantras to the dead Black Isle Studios, I don’t foam at the mouth over Madmax and I’m pretty dismissive about future-present realities.

But fast forward to September this year and take a look at the situtation in New Orleans. I can almost hear undergrad political science students musing “war of all against all” like some profound take on such a william golding-esque situation (or not; we shouldn’t deny them the right to make such spurious comparisons).

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You start to get wary of people in the throes of arty-farty bullshit in my line of work; when they start waxing lyrical about, say, the “eternity between the falling dewdrop and the earth” you should squint, twiddle your eyebrows if you’re capable, brandish your cruxifix or perform any other outrageous, melodramatized gesture of abhorrence.

I recently met up with a friend from Singapore — ye gods, sometimes I miss that place so much it’s a palpable pain in my chest — and we talked and talked and talked for two straight hours. I wish I had more time, and I wish he did, but he wasn’t there for just idle chit-chat. We exchanged goings-on in our lives with each other, but in a very butch and touching way, if you know what I mean.

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It’s like devolution. Opinions have an interesting way of degenerating into so much idle chatter on the airwaves. For those unaware, bloggers in Singapore have been brought on charges and sentenced. An overview can be read here. The most interesting comment would not be easy to pick out:
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You couldn’t pick a more melodramatic setting: by the light of a single table lamp, listening to Depeche Mode’s “Precious” on constant repeat, mulling over the events of the day and thinking of the allegorical implications of building construction.

A mite more pathetic than that character in Nick Hornby’s ‘About a boy’. That Hugh Grant whats-it vehicle. More like a moped on go-kart wheels.

Quite a bit happened in the morning which made me furious at the time, which only makes me feel sad and resigned. I’ll spare myself the details here, simply because there are none. I sat by my desk in utter incredulity. I’ve had it happen before, seen it happen before, but I couldn’t have imagined being a victim in my office.

So much the better, at least that peculiar illusion is now shattered.

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I was under the assumption that it would be war. I was assigned to a case for client I had previously dealt with, an assignment that ended up sour because the client wanted to keep more money to himself that was fair. (Fairness and money: disconnects?) I hunted down a probable saint and conned a car off of him, and I was soon on my way up north.

I had no lunch, no breakfast, and in a bad mood: I didn’t particularly like the client, and I didn’t particularly enjoy being part of a trussed up deal. Within minutes of our second meeting in 12 months I realized that was how this was going to play out. I couldn’t back out this time, and decided to wing it.
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Mr Edrei over at kamigoroshi.net has an interesting post on the current state of blogging in Malaysia. Change is an issue, and the kind of change is starting to become clearer with each passing month.

I feel that it’s become an issue of labels. If you want to have a ‘mackzul/jeffooi’ blog, you must satisfy certain requirements. If you wanna be a ‘boingboing’ type blog, you apparently need to satisfy certain requirements. This wasn’t how it was like about 4-5 years ago, as far as I remember.

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The NST characterization is telling: “The Rafidah Show “, it’s proclaimed. Well, I suppose it wasn’t an unfounded fear, as the wayang kulit gets underway. The first few pages are dedicated to parliament goings-on today, with the promise of an interview with Rafidah Aziz in tomorrow’s NST. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to it, and I wonder how long it will take before everything blows over.
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Just a personal observation: I found it somewhat gratifying that LKS eats and sleeps like the rest of us; more, that he has a new found addiction, if his recent post is anything to go by:

I had never gone without a wink in previous parliamentary debates whether on the budget or other major issues. Blogging is the reason, for it really eats into one’s time.

Oh god, it’d be so easy to get cynical with that statement above: my itch tells me LKS is trying to portray a more humane side to his public profile, but really, the situation above is just the sort of thing I guess bloggers face everyday.
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For those of you who’d want to follow the parliamentary session today to catch Rafidah Aziz in the docks, there’s always Bernama; I doubt hansard will have the transcripts of the parliamentary session so soon, but you can look here. I definitely want to, and I’ll be checking in later today.

UPDATE: Maxis/SMS alert 11.07am — Rafidah strongly defended her integrity when asked in Parliament about the AP issue saying she did not have any ties with any AP holders.
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don’t you just love labels? Little bits of stereotyping nonsense that just magically develops when a group of people reach critical mass — kinda like the one about intelligence, monkeys and a whole boatload of time. the worst are stakeholders who, like astronauts out on the moon, plant flags all over the place. let’s all deplore the fact that complete, utter, unmitigated nonsense is no longer allowed.

it’s so bizarre, it’s like a scene out of the first few sections of the PI: a baby in nappies pointing at a block saying, “That. That. That.” over and over again while other babies in nappies huddle around with sober expressions on infantile faces, repeating “This. This. This.”

bloody hallucinating.
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A quick reply to LKS’s recent post on the efficacy of online polls, here. My comment is reproduced here and I will be checking back for other comments on LKS’s post to update this post should it be required, just to keep the conversation going.

A short note on online-polls. I had said something about this earlier, here. I really do think that polling is a small concern, but an important one nonetheless depending on the uses to which the said poll may be put to. Garnering opinions is a tricky business, and there are so many ways to cast information in a negative or favourable light, depending on your party political affiliation, or even depending on your beliefs: it’s always a matter of interpretation, and the “opinion on the ground” such as it is, can become a political tool.
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