too sensitive or not sensitive enough?

This piece of news appear on FB today.



Dear all, please be aware when you are at outside, no matter where you are, especially at the parking inside the mall.
This incident happened on 16/7/2012 which is yesterday night around 10pm at 1 Utama Shopping Center, old wing LG floor car park. An old man got punch by a malay guy, and he got robbed. There is no security guard around at all, and we cant even find a security guard that time. After reaching of the security guard, they want us to stop taking photo and keep chasing us leave, they are trying to cover up the issue.
And the best thing is, when I call 999, I got scolded by the police =.= "eh! cakap melayu, cakap melayu..." Excuse me sir, I know malay, I'm just kinda panic at the moment because I'm used to speak english most of the time. And it take almost half an hour for them to come over. There is a police station at Taman Tun right? Why took so long? What if people dying? This is seriously unacceptable.

Please share this to all of your friends, love one, family, strangers.. Nowadays no matter shopping complex, or wherever are no longer safe, we gotta take extra care to our self, must be extreme alert when we are at outside. Share! Share! Share!

I thought this was a kind gesture to warn the general public since the newspapers have not reported it. Like the woman who wrote on FB of how she was abducted from the carpark of The Curve.

So, imagine my horror and disgust when this whole thing spiralled into a racial issue. All because the author said the uncle was robbed by a Malay guy and the policeman chided her when she spoke in English. Ugh. Granted the uncle could be mistaken. Malay guy, Indonesian guy, Myanmar guy, a very tanned Chinese guy, all same colour. So what if it's a Chinese or Indian who robbed the uncle instead? Would it alter the crime in any way?

Even if it's really a Malay guy, she's merely stating a fact. Have we become so close minded to the point where we cannot or should not talk about race openly? We can't take things at face value anymore. It seems everything has a racial or political undertone. You cannot call an Indian keling (a colloquial word used to describe people originating from India, now considered a derogatory reference) anymore because that's racist. Calling a Chinese mata sepet (squinty eyes) is equally racist too, even though it's not entirely off the mark. And Malays, well, apparently you cannot even use them in the same sentence with "punched by a".

You should do a google search and see what certain bloggers (especially one that goes by the nick headbomb) and their commentators are writing about cina sial (fucking Chinese?) because of the FB post above. So totally taken out of context.

Let's stop turning everything into a race issue, ok? This was a crime. Someone got hurt. The author just wants people to be wary and stay safe. End of story.

project 33A: reading nook

Pinterest is really a source of inspiration for me at the moment. I'm so in love with these right now.



We have a small balcony that's pretty useless (it overlook only the pond, which we intend to have covered up) and we know it will only end up abandoned and someone will have to eventually wash it sometimes. Thanks to Pinterest, we're now thinking of turning it into a cozy reading nook.



I also want a giant girly lamp to go with it, like the above. It'll look super good and arsty fartsy in daytime but by night, sexy shadows! Both look like projects I could so totally do. The doily lamp is all the rage at the moment but people have also wrote about how it failed spectacularly. The origami chandelier is probably harder to fail but I wonder how many birds I'll have to fold to get the desired effect.

However, it matters not, coz I've decided to make both, in good time *grins.

This is so exciting!

of moral decay

I am angry that snatch thefts has yet again caused the senseless death of a woman.

I am sad for humanity as it was reported that several passers-by did not stop to help the injured woman or at the very least call the police or for an ambulance. It took the 8th person to finally do something about it. How have we, as a society, become so apathetic? I wonder if things would be any different if the first person had helped.

This reminds me of the 2-year old girl who was ran over twice and ignored by 18 passers-by in Foshan, China. A scrap-picker aunty eventually pulled her to the side of the road but it was too little too late by then.

We are Malaysians. We care a lot. We are one of the most generous people when it comes to charity and helping the needy. And yet, this happens. How many times have we seen something bad happening, and decided to not get involved? Even if a thief try to rob someone, if everyone gets involved, surely we will prevail. Sometimes I can't help thinking that it's general apathy that has led to criminals being more daring nowadays.

We are more educated than our parents, but our social values are way inferior. Education is supposed to make us better people, not more selfish. Where have we gone wrong?

building a mystery

The other day, I sent out an invite to The BF for a mystery date. We've been kinda bogged down with work lately and so I thought I'd do a little something to mix things up a bit.



Then, he started asking funny questions. Where's the place? They look like coordinates. Well, you're supposed to use a GPS to find the location. Do I have to go on time, or can it be earlier or later? Well, preferably on time. Do you know where it is? Yes, sort of, but I've not been there. What time you'll be there? Are we going together? o_O

See, he thought it was an invite to some sort of corporate event, because the invite looks professionally done *ahem ahem*. Actually it's just a stock template from powerpoint, but I appreciate the compliment all the same :D

After the Oh-I-See moment, he then tried to suss out the name of the restaurant from me. Multiple times; so much so I almost regretted setting up a mystery date. What if I parked at the wrong spot? It's OK. What if I can't find you? You will. What if I got the wrong street? You won't. In short, he's the sort of person who likes surprises but can't stand the anticipation. Try and try as he might, he got nada, muahahaha.

Anyway, dinner was at Vintry Ampang. We shared a lovely cereal prawns, special sausage platter, tom yum spaghetti and knocked back a glass of wine each. It was mid-week after all.

what's in a name?

In the news today is famous plastic surgeon from Singapore, Woffles Wu Tze Liang, being fined S$1,000 for getting an elderly employee to take the rap for him for two speeding offences.

Woffles?



Seriously? No offence, but that sounds like something a five year old would name her teddy bear. Mr Woffles.

I really don't know what it is with Asians and strange English first names. There's this once quite popular singer/songwriter based in Taiwan (?) who goes by the name of Panda Xiong. Well, we all know what a panda is, but his surname, Xiong, actually means bear in chinese. Like you know, brown bear, Pooh bear, that kind of bear. So... I guess he's panda bear? It seemed too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence so maybe it's intentional? I'm a little perplexed by that thought too.



However, when it comes to creative English names, nothing beats them good people from Hong Kong: Fruit Chan, Kingdom Yuen, Tats Lau, Sonija Kwok, Yummy Wong, Evergreen Mak, Yoyo Mung, Myolie Wu. These are very real people, mind you, and famous too. I'm just wondering whether they actually use those English names on a daily basis, coz the Hong Kong tabloids/paparazzi calls them by their Chinese name more often than not. I'm also wondering whether Chan Kuo will know it's him when beckoned "Wei, ah Fruit ar". Imagine the endless fun I'll have if my friend calls him or herself Fruit...

But what's the motivation for these unusual sounding monikers? To stand out from the general masses? Unfortunate birth certificate filling accident?