How to feel like flying...

Doing very quick shuffles and dashes in a complicated piece...

Malaysia's Grub Street and Book Reviewers

I am almost a veteran of the field, despite my still relatively young years, at a time when you can live to more than 80, if you are neither accident prone nor disease-ridden. Almost. Maybe a young veteran, if such an oxymoron is acceptable. The field I refer to is book reviewing. Started when I was in my last year of my undergraduate days, which was sometime near the beginning of this century. Had been inconsistent in recent years. But I've attempted to earn a living as a freelance journalist/writer/reviewer (if such a vocation is possible). Basically, a freelance hack. Not to any great success, seeing the number of times I've crawled back to the parental fold, begging for some cash to tie me over for the next month, before I finally buckled down to a proper job 2 years back (plus a series of freelance/part-time work, not to mention that MA which I had so impulsively signed up for). Or perhaps the naive, infantile-like dependency that characterise my early twenties had been the cause of my failure in earning anything that is remotely a living?

Enough of intimate details.

I was reading the "New Grub Street" by George Gissing, which I finally completed (though I cheated a little in doing so, but will not reveal how here) at past 2 am on a Sat night, when other people are out socialising or getting pissed drunk. Maybe I am a masochistic, but I got myself through a really depressive read. Gissing isn't really a happy guy, in his novels at least. Try his "odd Women" if you don't believe me. In some ways, he reminds me of Orwell, in his "Clergymen's Daughter". I guess you know now that I haven't really been reading much in terms of modern fiction (Orwell is modern enough though), though I did start on Kerouac's "Desolation Angels". I am trying to squeeze in as much fiction reading as I can before my university library access expires come this Dec 30th. Would then take on a subscription with the BC Library I suppose. I've unpaid fines of over RM60 due to having returned two books pretty late, one of which was the remarked upon as the one by Orwell. And their collection has not tempted me enough to pay the fine and to resume my access. Another friend borrowed a book from them and I daresay, he's still keeping that book, not having bothered to return it, though it's been a year. And since KL Memorial Library has taken on some of BC's old books (and I love old books more than contemporary ones, where fiction is concerned, though I do read modern fiction and enjoy them), I'll also get myself a subscription there. But I better not forget that I will also have to start reading books which are neither in English, Malaysian Malay or Indonesian, beginning at the latest, Jan 2006. (:

Here, for your perusal, is an article by Orwell about his book reviewing days and his tips for young-wannabes (might be outdated, since newspapers and magazines have changed remarkably since his day. I know because I, a young-wannabe of unknown quantity, applied to review books for English and American pubs, and had failed miserably in that endeavour, save for one American webzine). But worth a read, as anything by Orwell is (call it blind worship by yours truly) and here is a more general article on the Grub Street. Read this if you have ever been a hack, or are now attempting to be a hack. Try Malaysian publications first. It's a lot easier and you don't need as much an impeccable command of the language (whatever the language you want to write in, except maybe French, German, Spanish, etc).

I didn't go out much this weekend, except to run errands and attend tap class. Meant to go for Yoga, but was too squeezed for time during the period when the classes are on, so did not in the end.

And my current addiction to novels are not help in my regaining any form of a healthy social life. But then, I've never been much of a socialiate. Not posh enough, it seems. (:

Public Service Announcements

This is a public service announcement. Keep this hotline number in your mobiles or filodex and if you come across any open burning, or lots of smoke coming out from nowhere for more than a few minutes (would be good if you can ascertain where it is coming from to help the enforcers), call this number at 03 88891972. It is the DOE. I called on a Sat evening after seeing suspicious white smoke floating through the air in a mearby housing estate, from my vantage point of 9 storeys high, and there really is someone at the phone. I can't confirm if anyone did come over to check (and the smoke seems to be slowly dissipating -I left it too long when I called :() since I am not that near enough to see.

On a different note, Singapore has a unit in charge of catching smoking vehicles. Too bad we do not have such a said operation in Malaysia, from the fact that so many heavy vehicles and motorbikes spouting generous amounts of black smoke ARE STILL on the roads.

Check out the News Updates next weekend as I launch the Freedom of Information principles on my website, with a view towards fighting for the right to know.

I've been reallly bad at the way I've been disposing batteries. We need more collection centres.

Dilema of the transgendered

I feel sorry for Jessie Chung and her husband. The implication of their non-legal marriage status prohibits them from enjoying the benefits that married couples have. I daresay they would not even be able to adopt children legally, should they wish to do so. See the rest of the story here

On a different note, here is a letter published on the problem faced by a transgendered person. Published in Malay, in Utusan Melayu. I am sure the mostly Malay readers of the transgendered community would be heartened to take note. I would be most interested to know what furore might arise from the other segments of the community, who might not be so opened to the idea. Especially the very conservative Islamic groups. I know that it would be a controversy with the religious group I came from.

Whenever I want to do something that the 'elders' of any religious group prohibits (though in this case, I am referring to the one I was from), I am always given this non-choice, "You should put God first above all else". So would that mean, in the eyes of pious, that what Jessie Chung did (and she's a Christian at that) mean that she has given in to the temptation of the flesh would now be damned eternally? We have read what the Old Testament says in the Pentateuch (Leviticus especially) and it has been held as Gospel truth. So let me take the conservative approach and therefore says that Jessie (and others like her) are damned unless they repent of their sin. But, if you are a blue-blooded Christian, you would read the New Testament too, which is the one that did away with many of the out-moded and cumbersome traditions of the Old Testament, when Jesus asked the first person without sin to cast the first stone at the adulterous woman. So, if Jesus would not judge, who are you, o professors of the faith, to do so? You might not agree with what they do. I too am faced with a moral dilemma whenever I come across this question. My religious learnings have leaned me more towards conservatism than liberalism (and I am still at the stage of much thinking, soul-searching and reading). But these people are grownup and know the implication of what they are doing. As the often asked question, why should they subject themselves to unnecessary social sanctions and the glare of an unfriendly society unless they feel strongly of what they do. This is the same for anyone who stands up for any unpopular belief.

In a populist culture, there is always a tendency to reinforce the dominant call of the day. In some parts of community, it is even considered embarassing to still be a virgin by your mid-twenties, nevermind that you are single or unmarried. All these 'old' virgins are either labelled as uptight, social outcasts or 'pig-ugly'.

So at the end of the day, it's all about peer pressure, isn't it? To keep up the appearances, regardless of how unhappy you might be for not being true to yourself. Or maybe because of our fall from Eden, we are doomed to a lifetime of unhappiness?

Women women everywhere

Angelina Jolie is seen with Brad Pitt visiting the disaster area at Pakistan. Click here for more news and a video

On a different note, I stumbled upon a Kyto review issue where Rose Ismail discusses about Women and Islam in Malaysia. Worthy read for those new to the issue.

Creativity - my musings

I am reading an interesting article called "The Play Imperative" by DK Holland which is published in the Sept/Oct 2001 issue of Communications Art. The feature interesting play 'institutions', ranging from recycled decrepit buildings to cutting-edge museums.
My favourite is the City Musuem in St Louis, and I like the closing para of the article, an excerpt of which I will quote here "America, the land of the individual, the land where we are all free to pursue our happiness, was built on a dream. And play is the pathway we take to get to dreaming. So it's no exaggeration to say that play is an imperative in our lives: Our happiness - our children's happiness - and the future of America depends on it."

I wish Malaysian and Singaporean parents (and many more developed Asian country parents as a whole) would see the importance of this statement. Just replace "America" with the name of your chosen country. Singapore is trying to make itself a creative entrepot in Asia by introducing many govt funded programmes on creativity. But all these is in vain until the people's mindset undergo a major shift. Why waste money trying to bring back the very natural instinct and aptitude you have worked so hard to get rid of in schools?

I do enjoy my rather idyllic primary school days. Though I didn't learn much by way of academic lessons (having a homeroom teacher for the first five years of my life who was a shirker and not much of a nurturer), I learnt a lot from play, as did my classmates. I didn't like my sixth year in secondary school because I was put in, together with the so-called creme-la-creme of my primary school, into a room where we are put on endless drills (I ended up copying most of my homework, which were as numerous at that of Chinese vernacular primary school students)to make us A students in Languages, Composition and Arithmetic. And also the drilling for an IQ test (I don't see the point of the latter)that we all have to sit for (which is not even a proper IQ test, based on my current understanding of that). We are all made rigid and had to conform to a particular style. Maybe it is little wonder that none of my classmates from there ever broke the mould. The same happened in secondary school. Many aspiring artists and musicians, and even writers, I wonder what happened to them, because I don't see them anywhere doing any of these things, anymore.

I remember some schoolmates during my form four days. I was trying to stage a play. Some classmates promised to be in it. I finished the play, some other artistic classmates finished in designing the costumes and props for the set. And these classmates who promised to be part of the play, pulled out at the eleventh hour, citing schoolwork and exams as an excuse. Most of these very same girls ended up as saleswomen, selling stuff from insurance to scientific equipments.

So, there, creativity for you.

Top public intellectuals of the world

Unfortunately, mostly those from the developed worlds, and the big USA. But then, these days, you need plenty of resources (where you don't have to hunt high and low for a book, or figure out how to afford that book) and a leisured environment to make it that big.
But it is heartening to see public intellectuals nominated from Asia. And the most famous one in the Malay Archipelago is Pramoedya, placed at 95. But then, Indonesia has always been a thriving place for the literary intelligentsia, though they have suffered more privations than us in Malaysia. Compared to them, we are Phillistines.
I see some of my favourite thinkers on the list. (:

Here are the details from Prospect Magazine, published in the UK. The list of public intellectual celebrities are as follows:

Position Name Total votes
1 Noam Chomsky 4827
2 Umberto Eco 2464
3 Richard Dawkins 2188
4 Václav Havel 1990
5 Christopher Hitchens 1844
6 Paul Krugman 1746
7 Jürgen Habermas 1639
8 Amartya Sen 1590
9 Jared Diamond 1499
10 Salman Rushdie 1468
11 Naomi Klein 1378
12 Shirin Ebadi 1309
13 Hernando De Soto 1202
14 Bjørn Lomborg 1141
15 Abdolkarim Soroush 1114
16 Thomas Friedman 1049
17 Pope Benedict XVI 1046
18 Eric Hobsbawm 1037
19 Paul Wolfowitz 1028
20 Camille Paglia 1013
21 Francis Fukuyama 883
22 Jean Baudrillard 858
23 Slavoj Zizek 840
24 Daniel Dennett 832
25 Freeman Dyson 823
26 Steven Pinker 812
27 Jeffrey Sachs 810
28 Samuel Huntington 805
29 Mario Vargas Llosa 771
30 Ali al-Sistani 768
31 EO Wilson 742
32 Richard Posner 740
33 Peter Singer 703
34 Bernard Lewis 660
35 Fareed Zakaria 634
36 Gary Becker 630
37 Michael Ignatieff 610
38 Chinua Achebe 585
39 Anthony Giddens 582
40 Lawrence Lessig 565
41 Richard Rorty 562
42 Jagdish Bhagwati 561
43 Fernando Cardoso 556
44= JM Coetzee 548
44= Niall Ferguson 548
46 Ayaan Hirsi Ali 546
47 Steven Weinberg 507
48 Julia Kristeva 487
49 Germaine Greer 471
50 Antonio Negri 452
51 Rem Koolhaas 429
52 Timothy Garton Ash 428
53 Martha Nussbaum 422
54 Orhan Pamuk 393
55 Clifford Geertz 388
56 Yusuf al-Qaradawi 382
57 Henry Louis Gates Jr. 379
58 Tariq Ramadan 372
59 Amos Oz 358
60 Larry Summers 351
61 Hans Küng 344
62 Robert Kagan 339
63 Paul Kennedy 334
64 Daniel Kahnemann 312
65 Sari Nusseibeh 297
66 Wole Soyinka 296
67 Kemal Dervis 295
68 Michael Walzer 279
69 Gao Xingjian 277
70 Howard Gardner 273
71 James Lovelock 268
72 Robert Hughes 259
73 Ali Mazrui 251
74 Craig Venter 244
75 Martin Rees 242
76 James Q Wilson 229
77 Robert Putnam 221
78 Peter Sloterdijk 217
79 Sergei Karaganov 194
80 Sunita Narain 186
81 Alain Finkielkraut 185
82 Fan Gang 180
83 Florence Wambugu 159
84 Gilles Kepel 156
85 Enrique Krauze 144
86 Ha Jin 129
87 Neil Gershenfeld 120
88 Paul Ekman 118
89 Jaron Lanier 117
90 Gordon Conway 90
91 Pavol Demes 88
92 Elaine Scarry 87
93 Robert Cooper 86
94 Harold Varmus 85
95 Pramoedya Ananta Toer 84
96 Zheng Bijian 76
97 Kenichi Ohmae 68
98= Wang Jisi 59
98= Kishore Mahbubani 59
100 Shintaro Ishihara 57

Taken from http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/intellectuals/results

KL Asia Fashion Week 2005

It's late and I have a job to go back to tomorrow. Altogether, it's been a pretty hectic 5 days, rushing either from work on Thurs and Fri for gala runway shows, and on Sat, I had to pick up my sorry ass and rush for the last day show at Avenue K before the gala event at night, featuring 6 most prominent Malaysian designers on the runway. I'll talk more about these in days to come. What I can say about the night events are, most of the celebrities are just like any person, most probably forgettable if not for their haute couture and stylish dressing, and professionally done make-up, and for the models, their very long legs (I actually have friends and relations with long legs, just that they don't tend to flaunt them as much :P). At least to me. They might be memorable to the next person dying to be part of the crowd. I have to say that point and shoot digital cameras are real social equalisers. You see celebrities and fashionistas acting just like anyone else, excitedly taking pictures of themselves and with each other. Lots of smooching and air-kissing. With my 5-minute make-up, and newly bobbed hair, I do feel under-dressed though not particularly disturbed by that.

The shows for the MIFA night were interesting, as they feature up and coming designers though my favourite show was still the one on Sat night. That's because I feel that most of the clothes featured on the MIFA night, with the exception of a few, lack charisma. They are interesting, but not fantasy-evoking. Anyhow, I am a t-shirt and shorts, and pret-a-porter person (I like the eclectic mix and match), so unless absolutely required (or if someone wants to sponsor it), I won't be wearing haute couture, or evening gowns. Besides, these kind of clothes are only tenable if you have a huge chauffeured car that does not require you to step on the muddy and wet roads (especially during this monsoon season in Malaysia), or walking further than the entrance of some posh building.

As with most industries in Malaysia, fashion is pretty incestuous since we only have a small cache of players. Of course, the patrons tend to be the women-who-lunch and their coterie. You see a number of them, though not all (since only those intimately connected are allowed the honour of attending MIFA 2005 due to the limitation of seats), at industry awards, especially that related to something as glamarous as fashion. You will see them, I suppose you can call them the Tatler set, at launches for jewelry, timepieces, wines and all things that speak of fine living. They can afford all the time and money.

I was privileged to attend a workshop aimed at professional designers and I learnt a thing of two on the history and culture of fashion, trends and the business of fashion designing. Will be writing about this later for publication. If you are interested, just pop me a comment here.

P.S. Need I mention about a particular runway show on Saturday where a designer specialising on men's wear had some hot and sexy male models on the runway. You can practically see some of them well-dressed middle-aged women seating in front (them VIPs) salivating. No matter that these men are young enough to be their sons. :D

Masa Depan Bahasa Malaysia (Melayu)

Ini komen saya mengenai kegagalan polisi bahasa kebangsaan yang telah dilaksanakan di Malaysia.

1. Walaupun pada tahun-tahun 80an dan 90an, waktu kebanyakan kita di sini membesar, kerajaan telah menguatkuasa penggunaan BM untuk semua urusan, termasuk pendidkan kebangsaan, ramai juga yang keluar dari sistem pendidikan yang tidak mempunyai sebarang rasa cinta mahupun kebanggaan kepada bahasa malaysia/melayu ini. Tambahan, ramai yang gembira tidak perlu menggunakannya lagi selepas SPM, terutamanya yang tidak berterusan dalam sistem pendidikan negara lebih lanjut lagi. Mereka merasakan bahasa itu sungguh membosankan.

Dari masa saya mula membaca Berita Harian dan Utusan Melayu pada masa remaja, dan apa yang saya lihat dalam kandungan kedua-dua akhbar sekarang, telah lebih memandang ke dalam dan menekan kepada kalangan pembaca yang dikatakan mempunyai bahasa dan budaya yang hampir serupa, iaitu kumpulan pembaca yang bergelar Melayu. Pembaca yang mungkin bukan Melayu diabaikan dalam cara penampilan akhbar-akhbar tersebut. Mungkin juga disebabkan pengaruh UMNO yang kuat. I nak kuatkan lagi penggunaan BM, tapi itu bukan bahasa diri dan jiwa saya lagi. Dan tiada banyak tulisan dalam BM yang saya amat minat baca.



2. Walaupun polisi itu dikuatkuasakan, BM hampir tidak berkembang dan hampir mati-mati katak dalam penggunaan rasmi dan nasional disebabkan ketiadaan imaginasi untuk mengembangkan bahasa itu. Kesusasteraan Melayu yang wujud pada masa akhir 80an dan 90an menepikan langsung kewujudan kaum-kaum negara ini yang juga merupakan sebahagian bangsa. Mereka dipaparkan secara stereotipikal, kalaupun mereka wujud di dalam sastera. Atau mereka telah mengalami satu proses 'pemelayuan'. Sememangnya ada kaum-kaum lain yang sifat sangat Melayu, seperti juga ada orang Melayu yang bersifat kecinaan atau keindiaan. Tetapi kekompleksan ini tidak pernah ditunjukkan. Ketiadaan pendirian atau azam kuat untuk memajukan BM dalam bidang ilmu dan sebagainya telah menjadikannya terlalu 'cacat' untuk menghadapi cabaran zaman. Sekarang, ia mula dipandang rendah, dan ketidakbolehan seseorang bertutur Inggeris dengan baik, akan diperli. Tidakkah antara ramai graduan-graduan yang mengganggur itu ramainya ialah kaum Melayu (dan segelintir kaum-kaum lain) yang dikatakan tidak boleh berbahasa Inggeris?

Summary: Bahasa Melayu tidak mempunyai penghormatan yang sebenarnya di negara yang telah menekan penggunaannya dalam kehidupan sehari. Generasi sekarang telah dituduh tidak dapat menguasai bahasa Inggeris sebaik generasi-generasi sebelum ini dan dilihat sebagai tidak dapat maju ke depan. Kenapa ini berlaku di sini? Pada masa sekarang, masyarakat di Malaysia begitu dihantui dengan pemasalahan pemelajaran bahasa Inggeris.

Hope for your comments. I think this issue is good to write about if someone here would. (:

How Islam works in Malaysia

In the course of my research for my commissioned pieces, I have to visit many websites. Here is one if you are interested to see how Islam works in Malaysia in comparison to other countries. There is an online fatwa repository so you can see all the different directives enacted by the council of ulamaks in different states.

Just go to the sidebar called e-JAKIM of http://www.islam.gov.my/portal/. There is supposedly an English version but even then, you will still get a number of documents that retain the Malay language in the "English" site. Unfortunately for non-readers of Malay, the fatwas are all in Malay as well. So, sorry if you can't read that language.

Education and Self

One of the few idioms which can be used so often in Malaysia that it becomes a cliche is " Empty pot makes the most noise" (I can't remember the exact idiom so this is merely my paraphrase). This applies to the local university, especially the that particular university I have been studying. See this and this

That said, in an indirectly related event, I have to say that many world universities too have taken a dive in quality, because of the corporatisation of higher learnings in countries like UK and the US. But, at least they still have the culture of blowing the whistle and having their voices heard, something which unfortunately is yet to happen in Malaysia.

And in a university like UM (I suppose the same applies to other Malaysian public universities, though from what I heard, many others seem to have slighly more enlightened powers-that-be) the way they treat research agendas and giving of grants is as if a fashion/visual arts magazine is dictating their choices. And the very same authories go on to complain about the lack of expertise in many fields that get little to almost no encouragement, let alone funding. Yet, the authorities have little inkling as to their direction. They merely parrot the politicus who have even less understanding on the way education/learning works. They are trying to parrot the style and workings of other industries without even understanding the mechanics that drive these industries, or their motivation. I am sad to say that I get more education from work and self-learning (and from various mentors) than I did throughout my 7 years in a local university. And never had I been so relief to finally leave.


Why does one need ISO for a university? There are other ways of cleaning up your act, and from that I see, based on the latest mishaps with regard to some problems missing forms and bad follow-up between university departments after the submission of my dissertation that woke me up bleary eyed after having slept late and nearly threw my newly acquired peace out of the window, this is merely whitewashing over a decaying structure. The fundamental issues remain unsolved, and infact, is now complicated. Think of the story of a gigantic statue made of precious metals but with a feet of clay. It is in the Bible.

Also, it is interesting that Malaysian companies and universities are commissioning overseas consultancies to provide recommendations to the problems they are facing,but none of these recommendations are made easily accessible to local researchers. And more comically, if you look at this in a roundabout way, here we are having difficulties getting grants for many basic research, and on the other end, we have to apply to overseas consultancies or research institutions to look into problems, and there is likelihood that among their staff are some able Malaysians who are disillusion with the stifling of their talents in their own country and have seeked employment abroad. Isn't it possible that we are forcing ourselves into a deficit...all the many graduates who cost so much to educate but are either too choosy or too 'useless' to be employed in the current market. Is it because they are completely skill-less and that their knowledge have become obsolete (and having no jobs, they have no money for continuous learning), or is their knowledge so cutting-edge and esoteric that it completely went over the head of most Malaysian employers? While I do not doubt that there is a chance of the latter happening (I know people who are unemployable because employers do not understand their fields or there is no job market for what they want to do locally. After all, we are still living in a country where to be a investment broker, you have to have studied banking, finance, accountancy, and stretching it a bit, economics. Apparently, mathematics and physics don't count for much in this country, though I believe the latter two have real advantage over the former), it is also likely that a majority of the unemployed graduates are too 'dumb', or have been made too dumb, to be employed. I do believe in being choosy and standing firm over your principles, because otherwise, you are merely sitting duck for your employer, especially if you have a bad employer. Unfortunately, a majority do not really understand the meaning of being "fussy" when negotiating an employment, and tend to do it in a 'dumb blond' kind of way (pardon the cliche), which could also be caused by their misguided and inflated egos (that can stagnate their lives and careers, even if they do not yet realise that). Just because you think you have the makings of a broadcast journalist fresh out of school, it does not mean that a possible employer would think of you in this manner, and a good employer who really know his or her work will be able to tell you immediately.


Yet, in my current field in advertising and communication arts, it is not unheard of for big corporations and institutions in developed countries to commission our services, from Malaysia. Go figure.

Ok, this is getting too long-winded. No more postings for the next two days. Cheers! (:

Banning of books

Govts ban book for different reasons. Before I elaborate further, I suggest checking out this and this.

The latter event happened like almost a decade ago. I suppose Malaysia is always a bit lagging behind when it comes to catching up with the latest knowledge. Which is why certain subjects that have been topics of debate since the dawn of the Internet in the developed countries (and even as recently as ten years back, in the last century) only reached the Asian soils, like, in this century? However, one must remember that the motivation, however flimsy or contradictory, is different. Malaysia has always been afraid of 'contentious' religious discourse (this perception is of course subjective, as those opposing the ban will remind us) which they fear will rile the majority of the mostly unthinking followers, or worse, make them start thinking and challenge the authorities of the ecclessiastes/ulamaks.

If you do a google on banned books, you will realise that there are loads of links that show US to be the biggest perpetrator when it comes to banning books. But, if you can find news with justifications as to why the Malaysian govt decides to ban certain books (or even its closest neighbour, Singapore, for that matter), the reasons given are entirely unrelated. But the core of reasoning is this: throughout the history of media, many self-appointed society vanguards have an inner need to shape society according to their personal utopia, however oxymoronic or contradictory their utopias may be.

IF you find any more links to stories like this, especially with regard to SEA, please post them in the comment box. Thanks!

Back from the break

I am back and feeling really good. Not only was the trip a good change of air (even if the air and climate is about the same as Malaysia), attending the forum and meeting world class leaders and experts in their fields had given me an idea as to which direction I want to go, and how to go about doing it. I think part of my depression stemmed from feeling lost and undirected. Realising that,a big part of the black feeling fell away. Plus I have better get busy, because my demotivation in the last two weeks had kinda made me fall behind in various work. I'll talk more about the forum I attended in Singapore in the next post because I really have to put my nose on the grindstone and make up for lost days.

Advertising

As I had once said, I would start talking a little more about the work I am now doing, which is my day job and one that pays the bills, once my dissertation is done with.

I will now. I recently got myself a job in the advertising and brand design industry. This is my third month into the work. I must say that it has been an exhilarating and frustrating experience.

The good thing about this job is that it is training me to be a better writer, to be better at conceptualising ideas and putting them across in the most succint manner. Which is not easy. Any art form, done well, whether for commercial, experimental or epistemological purpose, is never easy. This is especially true when it comes to commercial art. Your audience is no longer a bunch of connoisuers and fans who already have a bit of notion as to what you are doing, even if it was merely a superficial notion. In commercial art, you are reaching out to a new audience that might be blind to the subtleties of your art work or the poetry of your writing. Yet, catching their attention in this crazy age of information saturation is a feat in itself, and if you have done that, perhaps by a catchy or pyschologically engineered headline, enticing them enough to read the copy, you know that you have hit the jackpot. After all, advertising is just another way of dressing marketing in a more seductive manner. Advertising people and marketing people have different creative profiles. Not all marketing people are of the creative type, especially since some forms of marketing merely involve following pre-defined rules that has been set out (maybe memorising instructions from the company's brand manual). Yet, it doesn't mean that good marketing has no need for creative sparks, and such are the sparks that keep the business from stalemating or stagnancy.

For advertising people (and I mean those in the creative department), their creative economy is the main reason why they are hired. As I work in brand design, everyday, I am learning about how visuals can do well to complement writing. I work across different mediums, doing mostly smaller projects, from conceptualising pitches (with the other team members) to regular copywriting.

I realise I have a long road ahead as a copywriter, and I have yet to claim the voice that would allow me, in the long run, to be an excellent copywriter. But I hope to one day claim it. My journey in life has been such that I never thought I would now end up a copywriter, professionally. It has been a long, winding, path, with many heartaches and headaches. And I am still finding my way. I wonder where will I be a year from now.

Fragile race relations

I suppose they all have their Biblical roots. This article in Guardian is not even the penultimate event, and we are only 5 years into this century. So will problematic race relations be the stumbling block for this century? On the other hand, they might actually herald better things to come in the second half of this century, which most of us today might not be alive to see. But the legacy we leave behind will be our gift/curse to the next/yet-to-be-born generation. It is time we remove the blinkers from our eyes and stare at racism straight at its ugly face.
What seems to be the continuous contention is that problems are never dealt with. Instead, the temporary measure of finding a scapegoat to bear the brunt has always been the lazy/easy/irresponsible way out.

Mind control?

This is highly interesting, for certain, because of the many people who believe in the conspiracy theory about the Jews seeking world-dominion. All because some of the wealthiest people in this world have Jewish blood or roots. However, wouldn't it make you question what they have done right?. After all, having been historical scapegoats in many societies tend to make you less risk averse. There are a lot of wealthy people in Asia too, but when you think of it, closely, you will realise that they seldom have the edge that many of these monied 'Jews' have, which is the control over intellectual and creative powers and property of the world.

A power to exert influence and change mindsets (or shape them)
And not all these people are evil, mendacious bastards/bitches. Btw, did you realise that Virago is a name of a Feminist press (which is mentioned in this online document) that has published quite a number of famous feminist treatises and writings? Just do search. One of them was a book I used quite a bit in my dissertation, The Haunting of Sylvia Plath.


Here is the site. Perhaps its tone borders on the hysterical, its more factual statements are worthy of note, like the names people mentioned as the who's who in the media/publishing industry. I realise how easy it is to criticise others when we ourselves are afraid to go where they have gone, whatever their original intentions might be. While a critic is useful as a check and sounding board, one must also remember that it is always easier to tear down the efforts of another, find faults with them than to build something from scratch. When one criticise others, appreciate also the difficulties that they might have to go through. However, if a criticism is sincere rather than merely vituperative/vicious, it itself provides an informative take on the subject it tackles, and even exposes the slovenliness of the work's originator/creator. And good criticism is an accomplished art form. Not very many people are great critics of the world, remembered long after their bylines have ceased or their voices mere echoes.

On a more personal note, after the exhaustion, slump and post-dissertation depression (that set in for a few days last week) which made everything seemed so very bleak, I have finally regained my energy (thanks to yoga) and can now march forward in planning my new purpose in life. (:

A breather

The Eid has just passed. I've finally completed my thesis. That happened on the eve of Eid. Then I went back to my parents' place for a little rest and retreat from as much cares of the world as I could possibly. Read nothing except that which excites my little brain and do not require much thought (I tried reading a biology textbook for fun, as a way of revisiting my past and failed in the effort). Watched nothing except that which can entertain me. I got the thesis photocopied and today, after all the running around, found a place that I could leave for binding. For the time being, meaning, for the rest of the week, I am freed from its looming presence. Yet, I am not freed from having to go to university a few times next week (at least twice) to sort out some stuff. Bureaucracy as usual.

Surprisingly, I am still feeling brain dead, despite not having used it for the last two days. Maybe a little nap will fix it. Better not sleep too much or I might just not sleep tonight.


I'll try to plan my life after this.

A new crossroad

After 1 1/2 years, with many false starts, missed deadlines (I've missed deadlines like 4 times) wrong turns and dead ends (not to mention misguided directions!), I have finally reach near the end of my journey where the dissertation/thesis is concern. Now is just some proof corrections and minor revisions (unless my supervisor decides that she still needs me to send her one more revision - I hope not), I might be able to finally format it nicely, have it printed out and sent to the binders all by next week (since I am going out of town til Sat and most places are't opened for long/ or opened at all on weekends).

Next week will see me highly busy as I have to content with much work before going out station the week after. Maybe it is the end of the month before I can actually see down and think about what I am going to do after all this. It is like deciding what to do with your life after breaking off from a long term relationship (not too long this one, only slightly longer than 1 1/2 years but a rather intense, love-hate relationship at that which is always nagging at me even when I am away from it). This relationship has sucked out most of my enjoyment for simpler pleasures in life. I take a month to read magazines that could be read completely in 2 hours. I haven't even had the chance to savour a foreign magazine I have bought recently, on an impulse, because my mind was not at it (even though I had time since I was awaiting a verdict on my work from the other people who were reading it).

However, I did manage to read two rather interesting stuff. Actually more than two, but I am singling out these two. One is the decades old "Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan and the other is a paper on the book "Emily Climbs" by Lucy Maude Montgomery (my favourite childhood author) and F.W.H Myers on parapyschology and Lucy (I refuse the convention of calling her by her last name) had used his ideas in her writing of the Emily trilogy (could there be fans of her work out there reading this post?). I would like to write more about the latter but I will begin first by writing more on the former. On Betty's seminal work. Why? Because event though she was talking about conditions almost half a century ago, I see the revival of what she had discussed about in this part of the world (and maybe even in the western side of the world). Why do I say that? Because I can easily identify with what she said, even though she was talking more about my grandmother's time. But then, Malaysia in the 1950s and 1960s is very different from the US in which Betty was talking about. Some might say that Malaysia is still trap in the modernist age of 1950s and 60s US, but I beg to differ. It seems to me that Malaysia is living a very schizophrenic condition that is part 1950s America, some of the 1960s and part in today's world. How much of each is in each...well I might do an actual piece on that since this is quite interesting research. Maybe some sociologist here might already have done something of that nature. Nonetheless, what is more important for me is to critique on women's condition here.

But, after this thesis is sent up, I am gonna give my brain a rest and read a lot of fiction and indulge in other hobbies I have put on hold for almost a year. And exercise more!

It seems that this is a pretty bad year. Some call is bad feng shui. Bombings everywhere. Disasters. No wonder I haven't felt particularly happy since after New Year...

Book news from the frankfurt book fair and something brewing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/24/books/24note.html

Some of the books mentioned in there have made their way to Malaysian shores. And some, despite being bestsellers, aren't exactly airhead reads. (:

A slow day at work. Meaning, a slow day for my brain, not coz there is no work.

I need to get my brains up to speed. Wonder if I can get that damn thesis finished by this Deepavali-Raya hols. Waiting to meet my supervisor and am wondering when she will have the time for me. Anyhow, will spend this entire week editing the thesis from chap 1 to 5 while I wait. Still got quite a bit of polishing, especially for chap 1, the MOST important chapter. Hopefully, can send to the binders before the Raya hols start so that I can
1. Have a nice mini celebration of my own
2. Move on with my life and plan new projects.

Have a splendid day.

Creative Commons License?

Just a short post to document this before I forget. More later :)
http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/features/MDcyOA.html

Saturday Night Live...

...from the cyberhome of Clarissa Lee



I am back to my habit of irregular postings. I am sorry. It is just that so many things have been on my mind lately, that when I write, I prefer to do so offline, save for a few emails I send out, or messages I leave for friends. I have much and also none to write about my rather boring condition at this point. I said that I would talk more about my current job. I have put in some hints here and there but there has been nothing substantial. I promise I will get right to it sometime next week, once I delivered my final drafts to my supervisor, and cajole her into seeing me for one of the drafts that is still with her (due to some fluke).

Even as I am typing this, I am taking a break from editing my Chapter 4. Seeing how my months and free time had mostly been taken up with correcting proofs after proofs of my dissertation. I am gonna be at a lost once the damn thing is delivered, nicely bound, to my faculty. I know that there are lots of things waiting for me. Just that, I have no idea how to start, having procrastinated them for so long. I guess I'll take a week or two of break (depending on how quickly I can plan for my new life) to strategise. It is just that I have been a perpetual student for so long (despite the few months break in between undergrad and my masters, and another one I took in between semesters two years ago, when I went abroad for the first time for the entire month), even while I have been working at a number of different jobs for some income, and to be financially independent (I paid for my semester's fees on my own for the first time this semester, and it is the last semester to boot).I will soon be paying for my examination fees the next semester so that they will get some external examiner to look at my piece of work. I hope! Them bloody politicos at the university, with their timidity and fear of looking below standard, has been my bane for years. I would be glad to be rid of them once this ordeal is over. Only supportive person so far within the system, other than a few lecturers I have had, is my supervisor. Even then, there isn't too much she can do. what with those power hungry goons around. Or should I quote my thesis, them bloody phallocrats!

Will I go on to the PhD? Highly likely. But I want to take my time to choose an area I would not lose interest in after one year. And also choose a supportive system to work under. I deserve that after all these years of sufferance. And I most probably wouldn't do a Phd until I am close to thirty. Why? Because there are other things I want to do first, and I also want to achieve something else first that perpetual studenthood has limited me from achieving. No, I don't mean getting married. (:

Anyway. Enough of a break so back to more proofing. To those who are still reading me, thanks for the support. I have more or less let my website gathered dust coz I've been too busy and lazy to update the new wings. Plus I need to revamp the damn thing to make it even more user friendly (to my visitors). And that needs money, which I don't have too much of at this moment :(

Oops, just remembered that I have to do a report for the committee that has kindly given me some funds to "alleviate" my expenses.

Take care ya all

Love
Clarissa

Some Wise Sayings- On Books

Among the things I had to do at work today is to look for all possible permutations a Chinese proverb can take to come up with a hard-working sentence for my copy (your creative writing teacher would tell you about the importance of using verbs and nouns in preference to too many abjectives. In other words, make your writing lean, not flabby).


So, here are some that would cater to the bookworm in me and you :D

After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

A book holds a house of gold.

A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.


Back to work.

What really happened in Kurdistan?

Most of what took place happened when I was a mere kid, so I had no recollection of it. Yet, a chance look at a press Ad produced for the AI sometime in the 1990s (yes, I write copies for a living now so am always look at ads for inspiration), brought this piece of history to the fore, almost 17 years since it happened. There is much conflicting views as to what is actual history, and I am including here a list of sites with conflicting views on what actually happened in Northern Iraq during the Saddam Hussein regime.


What happened in Kurdish Halabja?

A War Crime or an Act of War?


The Human Rights Watch report in 1991 that blame Iraq for genocide of the Kurds and for the conditions they were living in at refugee camps.


And here are more sites...
http://www.knn.u-net.com/halabja.htm
http://www.puk.org/web/htm/news/nws/howar050317.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/02/08_gassing.html

I am sure you will find more if you google. All I can say now is (since I am supposed to be writing copies, not blogs), the sufferings of the Kurds have become fodder for political manoeuverings, bickerings and finger pointings. Would this in effect improve their lives? NO...not when the living conditions of the majority of the people still borders on the abject

Thesis is about to come to an end (soon) so hopefully will have more time to do general reading instead of always them theories.

It has been awhile since you came knocking at my door...

Good afternoon everyone,
I know that it has been awhile since I last posted, especially ever since I left my previous job and am now in a totally different working environment. Prior to starting on my new job, I was either busy finishing up my dissertation drafts, or was back at my parents' place for a holiday and to get a few things done. After that, a flurry of events took place, including adjusting to a very different work scope and environment, getting my bearings and feel for the place. So far so good. I would talk more about my new job later. Right now, my mind is occupied thinking about completing my thesis by October (fingers crossed). Have a good weekend!

Of Malaysia's National Day and Hurricane Katrina

It is always interesting to stop and think as to what our priorities are. Do we celebrate something close to home when a catastrophe is going on in another part of the world? Lets just say that Malaysia's National Day celebration coincides with a major war going on in another part of the world to fight for sovereignty, do we still continue with our celebration or do we tone it down in respect of the other sufferers? How you answer this question would depend on your ethical and philosophical framework.

When a developed nation like US (though its distribution of wealth is highly irregular as well) faces a major natural disaster akin to the tsunami that hit other mostly third world nations on Boxing Day of 2004, should we extend help to them in terms of financial? Or should we let the country that hosts some of the world richest people to handle the problem themselves? Of course they would have a better organised rescue operation in comparison to the poorer countries, but does this mean that just because the Big Brother is a superpower, therefore, we should not be too bothered that millions of its citizens might have just been made homeless? It is a lonely position on top.

Talking about the National Day celebration in Malaysia, with its Blogging in the Malay Language campaign (I speak and write in the language pretty regularly so did not feel the special need to engage in it just for a particular day), I did not actually participate in it actively as a celebrant, other than when I walked the streets of an entertainment hotspot in Kuala Lumpur in the wee hours of the morning, coming out from somewhere where I had some business to attend to, and seeing the revellers gathering about coffee shops and cafes having their early morning meal before heading home. All dressed in their party clothings (casual or otherwise). To a majority of those celebrating, it is merely another occasion to party bigtime. I am not too sure if the actual significance of this particular day, with all its political implication, is looming much in their mind as they shout "Merdeka" and wish each other on the streets and clubs.

And today, I begin the celebration of a new chapter in my life. (:

Tap performance on video and newspaper

Hi everyone,
Remember my last last posting where I spoke about being involved in a tap performance? Well, here is the newspaper article on it (you won't see me in it as the picture only focused on the centre-side dancers but you get to see some of the dancers and the kind of costumes we were wearing) and also a link to the video if you are interested. Cheers!

Talk about the power of the press, even though this is, IMHO, not a review proper. :P
This is the video-site
-------------------------Begins here--------------------------------

The Star Online > Central

Thursday August 25, 2005

Dance expression best conveyed with passion, pride

Story and photos by CHIN MUI YOON



NOTHING quite quickens the heart and captures the imagination the way dancing does!

There are many expressions of dance and the Federal Academy of Ballet (FAB) believes that the best way is to convey it with passion and pride.

Its recent annual Dance Extravaganza 2005 was staged to full crowds over the recent weekend at the Civic Centre in Petaling Jaya.


The girls are seductive and naughty in Outrageous wearing sheer black veils and sexy outfits.


Some 600 members from FAB’s five dance centres treated parents and guests to a graceful spectacle of performances.

They represented the full spectrum of dances offered by the centre – ballet, modern, tap, jazz and hip-hop.

The youngest dancers kicked off the show with their graceful flights into realms of springtime splendour, of swans, fairies and flowers.

Lovely ballerinas in Voices of Spring.


Wearing turquoise tutus, the little dancers performing Horn Concerto were absolutely adorable while Colours in the Wind had the older girls painting the stage in swirls of brilliant orange and green.

Flowers and ballerinas blended beautifully as seen in the Flower Girls presented by 13 children and Waltz of Flowers with arches of colourful blooms. A glitter and a shimmer shone in Fairies, as the dancers lit up the stage with their starry tiaras and fairy wands.

A memorable presentation came before the interval during the Rhythm of the Tambourines choreographed by Sandra Christian.







A vibrant tap dance performance in My Prerogative.

Oozing confidence, the girls gave a bold, delightful show with smart claps and clicks of their shoes. [Bloggernote: they are talking about us, the tap dancers. Though it was not clear at first. I remembered the the tambourine dancers did not clap with bare hands]

The excitement went up a notch after the break when the older and more seasoned dancers took to the stage.

Naughty and bold were the words for Outrageous while Party was a colourful burst of fun with tunes from the 60’s in which the girls were saucy, naughty but nice.

It wasn’t all about female dan-cers, as little Ronald Tan was a charming little fellow in his dance Le Piccadilly.

Jason Lim’s dedication to fathers, Gone But Not Forgotten, was on a higher level with its melancholic expression.

Johann Strauss’s beautiful tunes accompanied Voices of Spring, where the lavender-clad dancers flitted like butterflies across the stage in this classical ballet.

“We have always worked with themes especially when presenting a show to raise awareness but this year, it’s all about happiness and just a pure expression of dance,” said FAB’s veteran principal of 38 years Lee Lee Lan.

“We love sharing our joy of dancing across borders where our dancers have performed in Europe and Asia. Proceeds from the Dance Extra-vaganza this year will go toward the Kiwanis Club of Bukit Bandaraya for their aid towards various educational needs of urban poor children.

A picture of grace and beauty in Waltz of Flowers in which the dancers twirled around with flower-entwined hoops.

“Through the years, we have witnessed FAB’s evolution from offering pure classical ballet to modern dance, hip-hop and even dancing for senior citizens.

“Dance is a timeless expression of the self. There is nothing like dancing that balances and brings out the best of both the left and the right sides of our brains. Hence, our dancers range from just two and a half to 80 years old!”


© 1995-2005 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)

When a father have sex with a daughter (or vice-versa according to the sharia rulings on incest)

I first heard this story when attending the Sharia workshop that I had blogged about previously. I know that this happens some time ago and most probably many have heard of it. For a few months earlier this year, I stuck my head under the sand in order to concentrate on the first drafts of my thesis and only started catching up on things sometime in June. So here is the link to it
http://www.muslimaccess.com/articles/Women/rape_zina_in_islam.asp

Hearing about it incensed me. Firstly, do you think that rape always have to be brutal? Do you think that one might not actually feel physical pleasure even when one is psychologically scarred during the incident, if it IS the aim of the perpetrator to make you FEEL pleasure? How do you think that two perfect strangers, with no love or attachment to one another, can actually still have sex and enjoy it?!? When one discusses, forget about talking about it MERELy as a violent crime. yes, some rape ARE perpetrated as a means to degrade women (and even men). Some are committed by psychotic men with a hang-up but by means not all. But I doubt paedophiles sexually abuse minors for that reason. In cases of incest, it is not necessarily that the father who rapes the daughter would go around raping all other girls of her age group in the village. Perhaps, we should see that rape can be perpetrated because of obsession with an illicit desire. A desire to break taboos, screw the consequence. Perhaps, other than merely throwing these perpetrators to jail, since they are already jailed under tax-payers money (not to mention us financing the people who canes them), why not have psychologists and anthropologists study more of what motivates them to do what they do? There have been much studies done in the west on this, and from my observation (though this is not necessarily concrete as I have not researched this in greater detail), incests happen relatively often in small, closed (and perhaps repressive) communities. Not that it doesn't happen in big cities. Of course not. But, when one has less options, what does one do? Especially in rural areas. Freud and a few other psychoanalysts have discussed incest obssession. One wonders about men who decide to take wives around the age of their daughers. Is that not merely a vicarious enactment of an incest fantasy?

By saying that a girl enjoys sex with her father(especially a village teenaged girl who is most probably not very exposed to the idea of sex itself), even if her body SEEMS to say that she does (when she mentally DOES NOT), is similar to justifying an industry of pornography that feeds the fantasy of incest/incest-rape.

Perhaps I'll write an article on this later, once I have the time to do better and more concrete research. Rather than it being totally my personal opinions. (:

On a slightly different vein, read this ht

Why do we let a few ignorant and most probably misogynistic group of men dominate the way laws are enacted and therefore make Islam an ugly religion to people who are nots its adherents? Oh, btw, apparently, who is IN or OUTSIDE Islam is apparently disputable. But more on this later. (:

Sharia and Tapping

It was an exceedingly full weekend on Saturday, and a partially-filled one on Sunday, leaving me with little time for relaxation (Taken in snatches on Friday night and Sunday morning-afternoon). However, it was a great weekend. Here's why

1. I attended a workshop on Sharia law and gender, and learnt properly for the first time how Sharia laws are formulated in this country, how fatwa happens and all the details that had been rather hazy all these while. Will perhaps write a bit more on this in time. Not suitable to do so now since I am suppose to be at work (:

2. Finally did the concert for my tap dance, and I hope, well enough to convince my tap teacher to let me join the next level class.

3. Went for notthatbalai exhibition on Sunday evening. Missed the best part of it due to my not having check out the website earlier for details of their various interesting events. As usual, I assumed that it was going to be an ordinary visual art exhibition. My bad.

4. Went to some friends' birthday party that lasted all the way til midnight (and hence suffered a little of its effect by being late for work on Monday morning)

And oh, the British Council in Malaysia is having their Celebrate Scotland festival now so check out their website for more details. Maybe some might say that this is another cultural invasion by those damn Brits, though the Scottish, having been historically disenfranchised by the Anglo Saxons, cannot be blame for neo-colonialism (if they've never had the chance to colonise in the first place). Correct me if I am wrong.


A nobel laureate is coming to town but not sure what's gonna happen when he is around. Still waiting for news.

Will write more about that Sharia thing and maybe write more bout my tap dancing experience once I've successfully advance a level. (:

The danger of publishing your website in a different language

Hi again,
A follow-up to my last post. Read this
http://www.wintranslation.com/articles/art01_0001_dangers.html

I never knew that there are translation memory tools until I went to this website so looks like it is time to check that out.

Lack of South East Asia Language translator?

I personally believe, and I will later use facts and figures (such 'objective' measurements!), that the number of its users and its hegemony within the information-cyber network determines the availability/probability of the language being included in the list of web language translation tools. It is definitely difficult to find any that allows you to translate Malay to English, and the only website listed as being able to do so is not available. Let me know if any of you out there could enter because I sure can't from home. Reason for doing this is because I am curious to see how my Malay articles will look like once subjected to the machinations and polishing of natural language computational tools. Being highly interested in how intuitive language can translate itself into language AIs, I hope to later pursue my studies in this area.

Looks like, for now, I have to personally translate my Malay articles into English since I cannot afford to pay a good translator to do the dirty work for me. (:

The plight of the comfort women

Taking a break from the state of emergency that is Malaysia and to look further afield :


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4749467.stm

In recent years, whole monographs have been written about the plight of these women, and I see it as another form of Holocaust of East Asian women (and also a few non-Asians who were trapped within the gulag). As quoted in the news, when you know you are going to die anyway, you have nothing to lose.

Will write more on this issue when I have the time. Might upload more materials on this in the wing dedicated to women's issues

Some interesting links and food for thought

For any would-be historian interested in the May 13, 1969 incident in Malaysia (there is more that could be said about it), and who would like to add their two cents, Wikipeadie offers such an option
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_13th_Incident


I've read this interesting article in Malaysiakini about Cyberjaya and what its semiotical implication. I am working in Cyberjaya now and can see it for what it really is, and this article will definitely enlighten the drones working/not working in this 'pastoral' techie 'haven'. Not wanting to divest Malaysiakini of its earnings, I suggest that you pay a few ringgit of subscription (for one month/day) and go read it.After all, you can afford to spend ringgits on a cup of cappuccino.


For readers from other countries, Cyberjaya is a satellite township created by the Malaysian government in their impatience to promote a township governed by high-end technology and multi-media facilities. It has now become a wasteland of 'high-tech' factories and building grounds for cost-cutting multinationals who want to take advantage of its 'flexible' offerings, usually to the detriment of the poor employees, with a mortgage and car to pay off

Worsening conditions in Malaysia

No. 1 We're gonna be shrouded in haze for the rest of the next two months. Is there a way of escaping? I might try leaving the Klang Valley for 1 1/2 weeks in Sept that I am off and hopefully things will be better when I come back. And it is not likely that they will release the API readings. You think tourists will come to a country where their health is likely to be jeopardised? Maybe the foolhardy and the ignorant would.
And if they are not declaring an emergency, I soon will go to the clinic and get MCs for the next 1 week. I am allergic to bad air.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/8/10/nation/11727033&sec=nation



No.2 The state of Perlis in Malaysia has made it easier for Muslim men to get second wives without their first wives' consent and they are making no apologies about it.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/8/10/nation/11728443&sec=nation

An academic crisis or multiply-layered hyprocrisy? -and an aside

Food for thought from the blog of late journalist, Steven Vincent.

In what particular description on how women are forced to abide to the rule of wearing abiyas, it has always been the norm in many places in Malaysia, including universities, to regulate the dressing of their students. Perhaps those who had studied abroad and never had to use the libraries or any of the facilities here might never had encountered this issue. Basically, clothes that I can wear to work (in an environment that is not strictly corporate) are not allowed in the hallowed grounds of the universities in this country. Or else, you will be accused of wearing clothes that are "menjolok mata" (I believe an apt translation would be "intoxicating" though that is not a direct translation. Basically, you might not even be wearing anything sexy, but show too much of a flesh (like forgetting to include sleeves to your garb) will have the moral vanguards go into an apoplexy. I've been told off a few times within the grounds of a local university just because I failed to look "decent" by their standards. Perhaps I'll buy a head-scarf and wear it TO university just to make a political statement. Though I am sure that will go over their heads and they will accuse me of insulting their religion.

It's not the religion that's very problematic here. It's the practitioners.

I am currently reading up on masculinities and femininities in preparation of writing the fourth chapter of my thesis. THe first two chapters came back from my supervisor with much comments which I will have to focus closely on as I restructure and fine tune my arguments. Reading up some basic tenets on critical writing posted by my friend here.

Pretty elementary for those already practising them but reading through the links there provided very necessary reminders to myself. Theoretical knowledge is one thing, but when one puts these into practice, one still encounter the pitfalls one is warned against unless one consciously bears these rules in mind as one writes. A poorly formulated argument can basically destroy whatever great theories you have thought out, as I have encountered again and again. There is a tendency to be sloppy and I have to always force myself, again and again, to be highly critical and meticulous in whatever I write, especially when it comes to more scholarly pieces.

Much ado over

I should have blogged about this earlier but events that happened soon after wedged it momentarily out of my mind. It was about May 13, 1969. Few weeks ago, I was having dinner with some family members, including a grandaunt. Taking that opportunity, I askd her about what she knew about May 13 1969. She told me that there was much conspiracy theory surrounding it. But it was all about politics, nevertheless. Politics of people vying for power and will stop at nothing in order to do it, even if it means settting their own country backwards by 50 to 100 years.

Why did I bring this up? Well, it was in relation to the latest UMNO General Assembly, where the power-play of brown-skinned hegemony is again the trump card. I am not trying to be racist here. I am as brown as the next person in my country. We just come in different shades. It so happen that there is a particular sub-sub-sub group within the various brownies in Malaysia who want to bring the country back to a past where they reign supreme. Even if it means screwing their own brethren. When they speak in a language that is a mere euphemism for Malay supremacy and their stake in this country, they are not speaking for the Malay community. They are speaking for themselves, their personal supremacy.

Read this inteview with John Perkins, the author of "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". I might even go out and buy the book. Crass materialism is the fuel that powers the need for an economic crutch. They want the money but do not want to use their brains to get it. They will come up with rules and goal posts that shifts as long as it serves them while making themselves look righteous. Perhaps, there isn't a great deal of different between the American neo-imperialist rhetoric (or of those in opposition) to the attitudes of even the Liliputians (of which Malaysia's power-hungry group should wear a badge of honour).

On a different note, we need to do a transparency check on people from both sides of the divide, the 'bleeding-heart' leftists and the 'greedy' rightist (I think nobody ever it in this context, no?). This is an interesting post on charity scams, written from an individual's point of view.

A haphazhard weekend

Two things happened over the course of two days.

On Friday, I attended a friend's farewell as she will be leaving for Down Under in a few days time. Despite the incessant rain and a kind of traffic that could put a damper on anyone's mood, it was nice to speak to her and a few people (though the number of people there made it impossible to have a proper conversation with anyone one person at a time, plus I had to rush off not long after to do an emergency errand). I hope that when slower days are here, I will be able to take my time about things instead of rushing here and there.

Speaking of rushing, I spent the first part of the day yesterday working on my dissertation Chap 3. I am reading Plath's letters (I have yet to finish them as she is such a prolific letter writer). I realise that I will not finish at least 40% of them by the time I complete my dissertation. It is difficult seeing that I still have a full-time job to go to until at least next month. I have until the end of the month to see how things will turn out for me in a month or two to come.

In the evening, I did as quick a grooming as I can but was still late for my dear friends' wedding. It is surreal to have a friend travel halfway across the world to his bride's home country and still have a remarkably big wedding. Not grand by Malaysian standards but grand enough seeing the limited time there is to prepare for it. If it had been me, I would have just hired a wedding planner and let him or her do all the dirty work for me. My hats off to these two great people and I pray that their lives together will be wonderful, and I hope to visit them in the country they have decided to make their home, at least for now.


Dance rehearsals are going on fine. We are pacing ourselves well. Many might not know that I am into a particular dance form since I hardly blog about the more personal aspect of my life except when it has already become public. (: I will publicise more about it the next month so for those of you reading this, come back in by the second week of August to check. I am not performing anything humungous since I am a relative beginner and already have a schedule that is rather tight. I do WANT to have a breather between things. Unlike many of my other super-duper friends, I do not relish a very hectic lifestyle. Been there and done that in my younger years. No wish to repeat it except when absolutely necessary.

Cheers all!

Muslim communities living at the edge

They have identified the young men involved with the bombings in London. We have hope that they might not be muslims again, but yet again, they have proven themselves dependable in this area. Sigh. Looks like interfaith dialogues are now going to go on in a midst of suspicion and mistrust. The fact that more young people are drawn to extremism (from neo-Nazism to extremist cults) in this age is really scary. Even many countries, including the one I am living in, it is the young ones we should start fearing, not the older folks who are already on their way out.

Guardian featured a section with photos and captions on the dead and missing from the bombings.

Here is an interesting article by Madeleine Bunting on the failure of multiculturalism in Britain. I am sure in weeks to come, there would be more articles on this.

AS it is, should one look at any academic fellowships in offer now, especially by the First world countries, they are HIGHLY interested in funding anyone involved in interfaith (which usually reads Islamic faith) and Islamic studies.

I for one got highly interested in Islam after 2001, though I have had my curiosities about the religion prior to that. But, I was never actively reading up on it until post 9/11. I'll blame it on the late Edward Said (poor guy be turning in his grave). (:

smoking us out -SOS

Travelling to work everyday, close to 30kms everyday (one way), to the south of Selangor, near the borders of Negeri Sembilan, acquaints me with the various vehicles that follow the same route. Sometimes, you will meet with the same motorcycles cars commuting between KL and Negeri Sembilan should you be travelling within the same hour.

One of the most disturbing sight for me up to now, would be old fashion lorries which are still using exremely hazardous gas inducing engines and pipes. Should you be unfortunate enough to travel behind a lorry in a two-wheeler, or three-wheeler, you will be choked by the amount of concentrated carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide produced, slowly poisoned and left to die a slow and painful death before old age. It is time that the country allows individuals to sue lorry companies that repeatedly refuse to update their lorries into engines that consume fuel more efficiently and give off less poisonous products to the hapless trees and biosphere it happens to inhabit.

We need to take action and bombard the Ministry of Entrepreneurial and Cooperation Development with our complains so that they will stop issuing permits to companies that steadfastly REFUSE to do anything about their poisonous moving trucks.

Can any enlighten reader point me to a website that contains the latest information on smoke emissions and its impact on the environment? I would like to write a letter to this Ministry and put forward my complaint. Is anyone doing it already?

Start today and take down all the LKPK numbers of lorries that you see emitting horrible amount of smoke and submit them to the LKPK complaints bureau. Website is give in the link above.

London bombings

I am sadden by this. Not because it is happening in a developed country, but by its premonition. Could it be that what has been written in the book of Revelations in the bible is about to pass?

More later...

Reading to an audience at the Doppelganger open mic

It was a great feeling, though I was extremely nervous when I was called to come forward. That was not helped by a rather glowy introduction that forces the onus on me to perform well.

Thank the Lord that is was painless.

Amen

G8 summit and the L8 concert

There is much excitement about two events that are going on tandem, the first being an extremely important one in world history and would be watched with bated breath by pundits and lay people alike (that is laypeople who are interested), and the second would be joined by those with or without much clue as to its aim. Even on the twenty-first century, we still find that the most powerful people in the world tend to be men. Many feminists argued that it has to do with the political and social structure, and the socialisation of the two different sexes. But I think it has to do with the fact that through history, there are very few women who could provide the sort of role models in the way that men have, and many an ambitious woman find it difficult to emulate the existing examples available to them without sacrificing too much of themselves. Perhaps the men who do are actually sacrificing that which the women are afraid to do?

Anyway, back to the L8 concert, which you can read all about in the major newspapers, most probably in the newspapers of the G8 countries, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US. Perhaps a few decades later, we will have more Asian countries (like China and India, but they have to revamp their infrastructural and social weaknessses) who will expand this to G(n) where n = positive integers. Some would argue that it is a a great way of enlisting popular culture to tap into the psyche of the people, hyping it up and making them excited enough to want to travel just to be part of it. Some felt that its glittering affair is a far cry from the abject lives of the Africans they are trying to portray (with the exception of African bandits who amassed their riches through plaguing their people). I hope that the G8 leaders,as many other critics have said, would address the political weakness of many of these African countries. Parts of Africa used to be part of some glorious civilization in the past, but that seems to have disappeared into history. They have the best people whom they can work with to look for better solutions.

And the problem of climate change and environment, I fervently hope that something can be done about it. But just looking to the leaders to act tough on it, while we complacently add to the climate problems is like the cliche pot calling the kettle black. There are many countries in Asia whose citizens are living abject lives, but perhaps no longer to the starvation extent of still so many Africans. I think it is important for the media, and for any public education propagandist, to actually show the REAL reason why African nations are left so far behind. Yet within their nations have produced world-class and world-famous artists, musicians, writers and even scientists, something which many South East Asian countries have yet to achieve.

Perhaps the best way to assess the current way the world works is to look at who are the powerful people who inhabit it. Are they paragon of our values?
I end this post by attaching this leader from Guardian which spells out much of these two events
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,6903,1520122,00.html. And whatever the G8 meet and L8 tries to do will be rendered pyrrhic if this continues without accountability

We need more articles like this...

http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/reviews/MDY4OA.html

as most of our discussion of the art scenes in Malaysia tend to be rather bland...

What is to become of us?

And no more sexy clothes for women across the board. So, forget about making Kelantan a target for fashionable clothes (according to fashion magazines) and concentrate on clothes that are in fashion according to the new rules.

I wonder what will the muslim women say to this...looks like their hands are tied now.
And teenagers won't get to wear miniskirts, unlike their mothers. Here is the full post. Sorry, no time to translate to English so try using a web translator if you can't read Malay. (:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/37309
Denda maksima jika tidak pakai tudung di Kelantan

Jun 24, 05 4:28pm


Terjemahan Kerajaan PAS di Kelantan akan mengenakan denda maksium ke atas wanita Islam di negeri itu yang tidak memakai tudung.

Majlis Perbandaran Kota Bharu – ibu negeri Kelantan – akan denda maksima RM50 ke atas mereka yang melakukan kesalahan itu.

“Sudah sampai masanya untuk mengenakan kompaun (denda) maksima. Kami berharap ia akan meningkatkan lagi kesedaran (mengenainya),” kata jurucakap majlis tersebut, Azman Mohamad Daham seperti yang dilaporkan oleh akhbar New Straits Times.

Akhbar itu berkata, 80 wanita, sebahagian besarnya pembantu kedai, telahpun dikenakan denda RM30 sepanjang lima bulan pertama tahun ini.

"Ramai Wanita didapati tidak memakai tudung pada waktu malam dan pada hujung minggu kerana mereka menjangka tidak ada pegawai penguatkuasa bertugas pada waktu itu,” katanya.

Menurutnya, penguatkuasaan akan diteruskan bagi memastikan peraturan memakai tudung itu dipatuhi.

PAS, yang memerintah Kelantan sejak 15 tahun lalu, memperkenalkan peraturan pakaian pada 1995 yang mewajidkan wanita Islam yang bekerja di tempat awam, memakai pakaian yang menutup badan mereka, kecuali tapak tangan dan muka.

Mini skirt dilarang

Pekerja di kalangan wanita bukan Islam pula dilarang memakai mini skirt atau pakaian yang mendedahkan badan mereka.

Sejak itu, majlis perbandaran yang menguatkuasakan peraturan itu, telah mendenda wanita yang tidak memakai tudung dan memberi amaran tidak akan membaharui lesen perniagaan majikan yang pekerja mereka tidak mematuhinya.

PAS, yang mahu menubuhkan negara Islam di Malaysia, telah memperkenalkan banyak peraturan di Kelantan.

Ini termasuklah larangan membuka salon uniseks, tempat urut dan majlis menyanyi dan menari di tempat terbuka. PAS juga menggalakkan wanita Islam supaya tidak memakai gincu.

Bagaimanapun, parti itu kehilangan Terengganu kepada Barisan Nasional (BN) dalam pilihanraya umum tahun lalu, selepas berkuasa selama satu penggal.

Dalam pilihanraya umum itu juga, BN hampir merampas Kelantan daripada PAS apabila parti itu hanya mampu mengekalkan kuasanya dengan majoriti tiga kerusi sahaja.

- AFP
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And as this guy rightly says, we do have more pressing concerns, though I disagree with his inability to see that some small things DO MATTER. http://www.geocities.com/ummahonline/suratpembaca/050625shatibi-hampas.htm.. Like whether one has the space to interact to learn the art of respecting each other. Over repression of freedom lead to much ugly undercurrents, as Victorian history, and extremist Muslim countries (and Christian countries, though the latter don't really exist in a big scale today),clearly show.

However, if we should be concerned with more pressing matters of the country, why is everyone more interested in petty matters like whether women would or would not cover themselves?? Couldn't they decide that for themselves or do we need to hark back to the age when women are considered, inspite of all their education, too stupid to think for themselves (sounds very Nietzschean)?

A thorn to one's flesh...

I remember once when an acquaintance mentioned that once you have achieved the ultimate goal in one life, you can just slide into complacency and no longer worry about achieving excellence. Meaning, as long as the status quo is maintained, there is no need to worry your head about looking for new and greater challenges.

Well, this seems to haunt Malaysia nowadays, in all fields, and especially in academia, where the ethos has always been to strive to be better and better in your field and your job, whatever post you hold. But here, it is a matter of buttering up just to maintain your position. So, all talks of excellence are rattlings of empty vessels, made worse by a fawning media who seemed to take over the roles of spin doctors.

So, has the fact that system make it so easy for one to stay in one position without continuously proving oneself been a source of many flowering talents that just disappear, or has the system actually been the source of the creation such "flowers" who wouldn't had been there in the first place? This seems to range from excelling in public school exams all the way to the top positions in the country.

Even for those with grit and determination, it seems to now require a more extraordinary sort to actually go beyond complacency and delusion of self-grandeur...

What's the difference between an A1 and an A2 in Malaysian School Leaving Certificate Exam? The ever *yawn* debate continues

Well, in some ways, I really like the Spectator. They do get some good old-fashion ideas right:-

http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php?id=6255

Little musings on a slow day

Today is a slow day, and the Internet kept going up and down. I just lost a big chunk of what I had written here when I hit the back button. Drat.

I spent most of the time indoor, with the exception of dinner time, when I went out to have a meal of banana leaf rice. In between falling asleep and reading up theoretical works for my thesis, I was catching up on some short stories by a group of American writers. I suggest to everyone who have not, to get a copy of The Oxford Book of American Short Stories edited by Joyce Carol Oates. There, you get to see the various styles of the best of American writers for the last two hundred years. What made them all fantastic were the gripping, beautiful, evocative and imaginative use of words. The most banal becomes sublime.

For a long time, I live half my life imaginatively, within the land of fantasy. Should reality threaten to upheave, the fertility of my thoughts would go into hibernation mode. I remembered, a few years ago, when attempting to study for my Calculus III finales, I found myself building an entire novel in my mind, using conversations and descriptions and vivid images, so much so that I hardly new what of the squiggles on the white sheets had entered into my subconscious. What was worse, I have not even studied much in way of Calculus III prior to that night, and finals was tomorrow. Maybe something did get into my mind, as I managed a C+. That was when I realised that I was not meant to be a mathematician.

AS a physics major, I had to spend a lot of time reading about every aspects of physics. But, I spent even more time reading every aspect of other things, from feminist theories to literature. It seems that I spent most of my hols reading everything, including Literature, except physics. And I love Literature to death, so much so that I did electives in it. I read politics, psychology and other humanity fields, but Literature was always an area that excited me most. Perhaps, I unconsciously realised that I was never going to be a professional physicist. Nor did I think my grades would make me a good one anyway. Maybe that's why I am doing Literature now. Now and then, I still wistfully think about physics.

This is like choosing between two persons, two that you love. You are in love forever and a day with the first person, feeling secure and whole in him or her. Suddenly, someone comes a long and you find your life going into turmoil. Passion ignited and your heart ache. A feeling is kindled that you have not felt before, or have not felt in a long time, or had not felt as strongly. What do you do then? But, you aren't sure if this is a passing fancy, a probably infatuation, or lasting love.

You are not certain...

Petty affairs that preoccupy a petty country

I try to be proud of Malaysia. I am proud of Malaysia as a land but the ongoing drama of pettiness that has become so ingrained in its culture made me want to stick my head in the sand. Oh (blasphemous phrase), looks like we are still very much coolie mentality. The British never left us, they just went and hide and snigger while we all make a fool of ourselves. Wanna know what I mean? Just go look at the country's media (but then, who wants to bother with the pettiness that is Malaysia, right?). Maybe best if you read could check out the letters section of http://www.malaysiakini.com since it's free and you can more or less figure out what's going on from reading the many responses. In a country that likes to believe that it lives by the maxim, "Kepimpinan Melalu Teladan" (Leadership by Example) has turned into a nightmare of "Turutan melalui Paksaan" (Do it or else...)

In a way, I have to feel sorry for the majority of people living in this coconut shell country. They have no idea...

Read this and this and the whole saga on academia (you will find them easily in the letters section).

That said, I've better buckle down and try my best to complete my dissertation as soon as possible to get out of the local ivory tower...arrrgggh


Why should I bother about human rights in this country when a big percentage of the population aren't even humans...

Note from a postcard 3

Lights were lowered, such that one is not distracted by the squashed bodies littering the room, drapping chairs, sofas and floors. Some were quite bohemian, while some are steeped in high-street fashion that is such a rage in Malaysia. This definitely no place to see anyone in folksy garb. Perhaps, when it comes to enjoyment, one will not see a much more multiracial crowd, though mostly speaking the same language. The language of culture, language of communication and language of the body. Curvaceous bodies of wood and plastic, with metal strings, are the stars of the evening, together with their human apparachiks.

Bodies swayed and heads nodded to the rhythm vibrating from the bodaceous neutered creatures, lovingly strummed by men and women, boys and girls. At times, the amplifier threatens to drown out its sometimes mellow and sometimes intense melodies and riffs. Neither whispering heads nor clinking glasses could divert the attention from the performers sitting on the highstool, at the far corner of the room.

The room obeyed the principles of Brownian motion. Bodily vibrations were mostly confined to the occasional jerk when bodies were jammed against each other. The writer wonders about erotic activities that could have been inspired by the penetration of intimate space. Yet, while PV = nRT did not take time into consideration, yet it is probable to plot a graph against the latter, and one would most probably see an exponential decrease between zero and t (where t = time), before plateauing at around 2330.

With the room mostly emptied out, the organisers packed whilst the writer and friends adjourned for supper.


(A review of the first KL Singsong performance launch at La Bodega, Tengkat Tong Shin, KL, on 5th June 2005)

Cliches of life

We have this oft repeated statement that your birth, wedding and death are the three most important events in your life.

For the first, we tend to have very little conscious memory, though by digging through the recesses of our cerebral storage, we might find incidents both pleaasant and unpleasant. I have never cease to marvel at the imprints that incidents can make in your mind, and how a trigger can help you recall a smell, a touch, a taste, a sound.

In our early adulthood and for the rest of our lives, we will be getting invites from friends, acquaintances and strangers. From your twenties onwards, especially between mid twenties to mid thirties, you get an influx of wedding invitations from your peers,sometimes in such abundance that you can choose between going to a church wedding, a wedding dinner, a Malay kenduri and Indian temple ceremony within the space of one day. This of course is also the age when everyone will start asking as to when your turn will be. Perhaps it is great to be married, perhaps it is not. As with every part of life, there are ups and downs, boredom and exhilaration.

Then, you get invited to parties celebrating the various stages of their offsprings' infancy.

As your temple starts greying and you are assailed with various minor ailments that often get blown out. When you start worrying about your cholesterol and blood pressure. When you wish your kids would quickly become independent so that you need not be the tree where money grows on. You start reading about your peers in orbituaries. You begin to get an ever increasing amount of funerals to attend just as the wedding invites peter off, with occasional invites from those a decade or more younger than yourself.


You still get invited to parties celebrating the various stages of their offsprings' infancy. Perhaps you do the same with your children and grandchildren, after you capitulated to the conventions of marriage and popped out kids who go on to have kids of their own. Or you might just eschew the entire institution of marriage and adopt your children (or have them out of wedlock), but then, the flexibility of such arrangements depend on your social and economic circumstance. Or you might choose to lead a life of solitude, spouseless and childless.

The circle of life continues as you grow wrinkled and frail. If you are lucky, the Grim Reaper might decide to come before your earthly body fails you completely.

And then, what?

Malaysians against moral policing

Sign here!
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/mamp

Cheers
Clarissa

Freedom of Ideas/Information? Forget it!

I received a post not too long ago regarding the banning of the movie "Sweet Sixteen" by Ken Loach (I have yet to seen it but this incident made me want to watch it more!) because it was construed as highly immoral (though one of the lame excuse given was that the heavily accented Scottish language would not be understood by the Malaysian audience. Yeah right. You think we are all frogs living under the coconut hus, is it?) because of its used of explicit expletives (I love pairing words like these!). This coming from a well known academic (well, at least within Malaysia). They, are supposedly our last bastion of enlightenment. We are living in a dark age indeed.

Also, being a minority member of a Muslim society that is becoming succeedingly rigid (it stupefies and worry me that the people who might one day change a progressive thinking society into the bastion of Jumud . Best way to explain this is that it means ignorance and regression into the dark age and has its origin in Arabic) regressivity and probable repression are actually of my own age, some younger, some slightly older. I have actually met some of them, and they personally seemed rather nice. I am sure most people are rather nice, until you attack their ideologies.

Many of the discussions happening tend to happen in the Malay language, so an outsider exploring might not be aware of all that is going on. It seems that many equate liberal interpretation of Islam with hedonism. While I would shy with overly extreme interpretation of any religion, regardless of which end of the spectrum their veer towards, one must realise that there is no way that one can actually no the actual intention of the founder to the dot. We can only approach as close as possible. And as the religion travels through time, there would have been certain amount of additions and deletions to the knowledge, though I know that I would be crucified for saying this by the religion I belong to.

Yet religion shapes the very core of a person's being, so when that gets challenged, they will rise and close ranks to protect themselves from the infidels and the polluters. I wish I have something more substantial to contribute now, but being in the throes of much confusion and needing time to sort it out, I could only offer such generalised views. Perhaps I might be able to say something more cogent a few months from now. One hopes.

In the meantime, keep adding to my comment box. I feel really lonely, you know (:
And ongoing debate that never wanes is that of moral policing. Somehow, this has to do with the need for power. Perhaps it is high time I should read The Prince properly. But I have got another controversial religious scholar to read now. And yes, my ever-unfinished thesis to do :(

More links on POD

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/printondemand.html
http://www.booksandtales.com/podframeo.htm

Haven't gotten around to looking through them all yet, but will do so later.


Cheers!

Best-selling books.

This is for those who make it their business to know the provenance for future best-sellers. Surfers and lurkers are welcome to browse.

http://bookpagebuzz.blogspot.com/

And a newspaper article about a Cambridge student who wrote her first novel while still doing A-levels (The Icarus Girl).

I actually read about it last year but forgot to blog it down, so here is a rather late entry.

AS I have discussed in my earlier postings, I think there are many interesting tales to be told at a local level that could excite an international audience. One needs to know one's audience, the right publisher and most importantly, maybe the right agent?
I've surfed to many sites belong to publishing houses and I can assure you that no big publishing house worth its salt would take on an unrepresented author, unless if you are planning on academic monographs or you are a close kin of the publisher?

And something more recent. I have seen many articles in Malaysian newspapers (I apologise to my international readers who might not care) touting the latest fad in POD (Print on Demand) publishing. Before that, was E-book publishing as a cost-cutting measure for people desperate to get books out (though some established authors have had their books reprinted as an e-book. I know because I'd be asked if I wanted to review e-books published by a big publishing house. Apparently, most book reviewers didn't like that idea). Somehow, I was rather skeptical as to the whole process. With so many books needing my attention, would I want to buy a book promoted by an unknown author when I am inundated with not-so-good books published by major publishing houses (this is my take as a book reviewer). Somehow, I am old-fashion in the sense that by not going through the editorial process, one might somehow end up with an inferior ware. Not every author is born a Virginia Woolf, and even she has her misses.

Anyhow, two articles on E-Publishing and POD might be of interest in light of the above discussion. Somehow, in some ways, POD books just a stone throw away from vanity publishing (or perhaps adjacent to?). However, the concept of printing books on demand might work for more academic or avant garde works that might not find a ready receptive audience. However, I believe it needs to go hand-in-hand with old fashion reviewing and editing. Meaning, find probable subscribers (or reviewers) for the first print run (wasn't that what they used to do in bygone days?), with some extras for just-in-case, then gauge from there and print more in the next runs. But, working in the production line of publishing, I do realise that it can be more cost-effective to sometimes print in bulk, especially paperbacks.


Any takes on this?