AIM? Alahai...

I've been receiving a couple of reminders from my friends on what they claimed as my long overdue prediction of Anugerah Industri Muzik 15. Actually, there is a reason behind my ignorance of one of the biggest events in the Malaysian music scene, which is scheduled on this coming Saturday.

Let me put the record straight, I'm boycotting this year's AIM.

I don't deny that there were a few questionable nominations in the past, but this year's nomination is the all time worst! Almost all categories have nominees which had raised our, or at least my, eyebrows.

I understand that Anuar Zain's latest album was not a Malaysian production and therefore, disqualified for most of the categories. But, how about the Best Male Vocal Performance in an Album category? Well, they might say that the vocal arrangement and direction in the said album were done but non-Malaysian. Therefore, not qualified!


How about Aliff Aziz? Is he not a Singaporean? Oh... don't tell me he has a PR status.

If people make so much noise about Mila's name missing from at least two categories, namely, the Most Promising Artiste and the Best New Artiste, I'm more sadden to find out that AIM repeated that same mistake that they did to Nikki. This time, it's another talented artiste - Farah Asyikin.


And the funny thing is both Nikki and Farah Asyikin won the Best Artiste awards in the Anugerah Planet Muzik, which the panel of judges consists of big names in the music industry from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. In fact, Anuar Zain had just won his first Best Male Artiste in this year's APM.

While they think they're smart by dropping the category for Best Duo/Group Vocal Performance in an Album, the decision to split the Best Musical Arrangement category into two categories based on language shows how weird their interpretation of music are. All this while, I've always thought that music is the universal language! Hmmm...

And poor Meet Uncle Hussein, because they lost the chance to repeat their winning as the Best New Group in the recent APM.

Some of you might say that I'm biased, but I really think that one of the tracks in Mawi's Satu Dalam Seribu deserves to be in the Best Song category. Or how about Bila Naik Saksi by Spider? In fact, Tam Spider's vocal is more deserving to be in the top 5 Male Vocal category than Aliff Aziz or Kaer, although I'm a big fan of Kaer.


Actually, I can go on and on for days on this, but I think I better stop now. It will only give more publicity to AIM, which I'm not in the mood to do so. Sorry, guys... NO prediction from this time and thank God I'm not in Malaysia right now. It makes more easier for me to continue with my boycott.

Me and sex robot?!

Don't worry, my blog will never be the likes of LeeUK1972, although I'm fully aware that sex sells. This is because of two obvious reasons.

Firstly, I've low sex drive (don't get me wrong because I'm not suggesting that LeeUK1972 on the other hand, has high sex drive) since selling friends on Facebook or watching Brothers and Sisters or Graham Norton Show online or planning for my Europe Tour or blogging (and of course, studying!) is currently (I reiterate, currently) 1000000 times more important than looking for otak-kuning (or is it otak-blue?) clips on youtube or youporn.

And the second reason is, I'm a shyguy, for God sake! A shy guy is too shy to think about sex, isn't it? Hehehe, I can "see" Rina and Azzril are making one kind of face!

I first saw the above picture in the METRO newspaper a week or two ago. Yesterday, I saw it one more time in the email sent by a friend of mine with a special note, reads as follows:
"I know this won't be available until 40 years plus from now, I guess it's good idea to start saving from now!"

And this is my spontanous reaction, "&%^$#@*)!!!" (Yes, Azzril... I do swear, like 1 in every 5 years!)

Oh, my God! What's happening to this world. Not enough with the shock that we got on pregnant MAN (thank God, he used to be a she. Wait a minute, if he still have female reproductive system why on earth we call him, he?), here comes another attack on marriage institution.

According to the article, David Levy, who is an artificial intelligence expert, claims that the sex robots will be uninhibited, free of sex transmitted disease and probably much better in bed! 'One of the downsides of prostitution is the spread of sexual diseases; with robots you can just take out the artificial genitals and wash tem or dispose of them.'

Okay... at least, there's some economic sense here.

And according to Dr Glyn Hudson-Allez, a psychosexual therapist, these sex robots are aimed at men with low self-esteem or men who want to objectify and control.

Hmmm... I wonder which category my friend who sent me this email thinks I fall into. Siap kau, if you think of the former!!!

Although some men might feel a bit threaten if their partners or spouses start to compare them with the likes of David Beckham or even worse, some pornstars, but I still find the idea of having sex with robots as absurb as having sex with animals. Instead of horny or steamy, it's definitely a scary one, man!

By the way, don't you think that David Beckham's balls in the latest Armani ad has been doctored? Not that I feel insecured of his balls, but should we have some sort of standardised ethics here. Because the consequences of this or similar act such as doctoring a supermodel's boobs might fuel the teens' obssession towards unrealness beauty.

For the record, I'm saying NO to sex robots and NO NO NO to cosmetic or plastic surgeries. Sorry... so NOT me!

Busy ke?

Now, comes again the period of time where I move, talk, eat and sleep less.

I've just submitted my second assignment this afternoon and it's one of my three assessed assignments for econometric (which means lots and losts of statistical stuff!). So, I've done two, another five to go. Three essays, one take home exam and one sit exam.

Hannah, Shamel, (not in the picture were Muhammed and I) were filing up the submission form

And now it's also a 'peak' season for me too. Besides studying (yes, my friends... I do study and I don't travel all the time), I've been receiving a lot of invitations for birthday parties, get together events or requests from a couple of friends who wanted to come to Manchester and would like to engage me as their guide cum host.

And one of them is the the birthday party of my classmate from Poland i.e. Karina Jedrzejowska, which was held at the KRO Bar. In case you don't notice, Karina was also one of my travel buddies in our trip to Belfast in last January.

However, I didn't stay long because I need to prepare for my presentation the next day. It's a subject that is very close to my heart i.e. capital control and coincidentally, I was given Malaysia as my subject. Therefore, need to be 110% ready with my facts and figures. Oh yeah, I left the party at about 10.30 pm with Gill and another fellow Malaysian, Joyce.

I just realised that I've not been meeting my adik-adik for quite some time due to our study commitments. And in order to remain sane, I've invited them for a nice dinner at a restaurant in the Curry Mile, which specialises in Indian and Chinese cuisines.

Fendy and Ayap decided to share a plate of aromatic grilled duck and a plate of noodles, which to me looked like fried bihun. I can't remember what Dini had, but I ordered a plate of king prawn fried rice.

How was the food? It was not-too-bad, but I've tasted much better friend rice in my beloved country, Malaysia. In fact, food in Malaysia is second to none. If you don't believe me, please come to Malaysia and I would be more than happy to buy you a nice lunch or dinner.

And a few days after that, I came to Pink Garlic again but this time with my cousin Nurul and her husband, Wan. They came to visit me or should I say to show Wan, who has just arrived here, around. According to Wan, besides the Old Trafford stadium, there is nothing that interesting in Manchester. How about the Eye Manchester? Well, they have much more bigger one in London. Retail therapy? Oh, please... who shops in Manchester?!

True enough, comes Saturday evening, we've nothing else on our itinerary. Thank God, Nurul got this brilliant idea of going to Liverpool for a day trip. We took a coach at about 9.45 am to Liverpool and returned to Manchester with the 5.45pm coach.

I've uploaded most of the pictures (about 40) on my facebook, so I don't think I'm in the mood to spend a considerate amount of time to upload the same pictures on this blog too. Nevertheless, I would like to share with you some pictures that I've snapped inside the Liverpool Cathedral.

The cathedral is not as old as the one in York, Oxford or Belfast, but I find the last two pictures are a bit interesting. Don't you think so? Aren't those two paintings a bit daring for a place like a cathedral? Anyhow, I like the paintings very much. And you might say, who doesn't? Hehehe...

Oh yeah... I read a lot about the controversy surrounding the torch-running events organised by China and the Olympic committee. Here, in Manchester, there was a demonstration staged by a group of Chinese students. According to BBC News, around 1000 plus students held a silent demonstration (they just held placards and banners without chanting a single word) to protest the biased coverage on the current political scenario in Tibet.

Although I don't buy their argument, but I was amazed to see that the policemen have given considerate cooperation and assistance to these students to stage their protest peacefully and smoothly. I wonder if the police in Malaysia could adopt a similar approach in handling peaceful demonstration in Malaysia in general and in Kuala Lumpur in particular.

Tun Dr. Mahathir: I admit I'm wrong

I don't know what motivates me to say YES to Fendy when he invited me to join him and his friends to attend a talk by the former Prime Minister, organised by Kumpulan Prihatin Malaysia, in Manchester. And what puzzling me is, when it was free back then in 1999 I refused to attend it but this time, when it's not free, I decided to pay 8 pound sterling to listen to what Tun Dr. Mahathir wanted to talk. This is what I call 'pelik bin ajaib'!



Before I proceed with my take on Tun Dr. Mahathir's speech last Saturday afternoon, allow me to put forward my stance on budaya mengampu or what some people call as apple polishing. I have nothing against the act of giving out compliment, but I personally think the full title of this event is a little bit too much. Why can't they call it "Sejenak Bersama Tun Mahathir". Full stop. Why must add, "Jasamu Dikenang"? This reminds me of all those corny so-called patriotic songs on RTM. I still wonder until today, why must we thank Malaysia, instead of the Almighty God, for the prosperity and peace all this while? Hmmm...

It was a full house. As always, Tun Dr. Mahathir and Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah look very healthy and in the case of Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah, bubbly!


Frankly speaking, almost everything that came out from his mouth in that Saturday afternoon was not something that I haven't heard before, such as why he made so much noise about Pak Lah's administration and his unfavourable remarks on Anwar Ibrahim.

Nevertheless, the following revelations worth to be highlighted:

1. Tun Dr Mahathir admited that he was wrong to proceed with the teach-Mathematics-and-Science-in-English policy. However, he explained that his intention is to improve the state of English among the Malaysian students as well as to spearhead the pursuit of knowledge which is vastly available in English.
2. He didn't believe his people, including the police, when he was informed by them about Anwar Ibrahim's sex scandal until he met the victims/accussers (he said Azizan and the women) himself. One of them, even came with ibunya.
3. "I don't read her (Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir) blog. Isteri saya sahaja yang baca".

And this is my response to the above:

1. No one denies the importance of learning English in today's world, but the said policy is not the only remedy available at this stage. Why don't we start with capacity and capability building measures such as increase the number of teachers to teach English at school, especially in the rural and continuously enhancing the curriculum/module for English subject. Or at least, add more hours for English subject. Just to share my experience as a student tutor at the St. Wilfrid RC Primary School, here in Manchester, students are given the option to learn Mathematics in other languages such as Urdu and Polish. Anyhow, it is good to hear that Tun Dr. Mahathir has admitted his mistake. So, to present governments, be it kerajaan Barisan Nasional or kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat, please have the courage to admit your wrongs if you did any mistakes.
2. This confirms my curiousity that Tun Dr. Mahathir belief of Anwar Ibrahim's homosexuality is based on allegation made by Azizan. Interestingly enough, Azizan had confessed when he was under the oath during the court trial that Anwar Ibrahim has never sodomised him. Jadi, macam mana sekarang ni?
3. Since Tun Dr. Mahathir claimed that Pak Lah's administration has denied his right to meet and talk to rakyat by putting pressure on organisers to withdraw any invitation to him, I guess blog would be a better alternative for our ex-PM to put forward his constructive views/critics so that more people could read/listen to what he want to write/say. In addition, more rakyat could have the opportunity to post any comments or questions, and not constraint by time as compared to the Q&A sessions after his talks. Nowadays, more and more Barisan Nasional politicians have joined their counterparts from the Pakatan Rakyat in blogging. And thanks to Allah (instead of thanking Malaysia), our national security has yet to be compromised by any bloggers.

I still remember when the people asked Dr. Mahathir to step down in 1999, he said that he doesn't want to leave a weak UMNO to his successor but will do so at a stipulated time frame once UMNO and Barisan Nasional has successfully been rejuvenated. Similarly, Tun Dr. Mahathir should allow Pak Lah does the same thing, if Tun Dr. Mahathir is really a person who follows a tradition as he claimed he was.

"Zaman Tunku pun tiada perbahasan politik yang bebas. Zaman Tun Razak tak ada, zaman Hussein Onn pun tiada. Saya cuma ikut tradisi saja."

Mahathir, will always be Mahathir. He expressed his disappointment towards ungrateful politicians who he has appointed and groomed during his 22-years in power, but ended-up had 'maki'ed him after he retired.

I guess Tun Dr. Mahathir has also been affected by this so-called mudah-lupa syndrome, because even though PAS had given him the platform to continue his political career after he was sacked from UMNO, that doesn't stop him from attacking PAS. And as much as he reiterates that he didn't do any injustice to the person who he picked and groomed to be his successor, Tun Mahathir, based on his ranting last Saturday, seems to forget that he too has benefited from his association with Anwar Ibrahim especially in shielding his government from deadly attacks from PAS, especially on Islamic state and hudud. Or his second worst nightmare i.e. Team A versus Team B?

Wahai Tun... ada Melayu yang TIDAK MUDAH LUPA.

Europe Tour Part II

Insya-Allah, I will be going for the second part of my Europe Tour next month after my final exams.

This time around I will start my journey from the cultural city of Europe, Liverpool and fly to Madrid on 17 May 2008. I plan to stay 2 nights in Madrid before going to one of the World Heritage sites in Spain i.e. Toledo. From Toledo, I will visit the remains of Islamic civilisation in Cordoba and Granada before flying to Barcelona for 2 more nights on the Spanish soil.






After spending a week and a day in Spain, insya-Allah, I will fly to Brussels on 24 May 2008 and stay there for 2 nights. Hopefully, I could treat myself with some nice Belgian chocolates while visiting the headquarters of influential organisations such as European Union and NATO.



From Brussels, I will fly to Glasgow on 26 May 2008 and stay there for a night before proceeding to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. From Edinburgh, I will take train to go home to Manchester.



And once again, I will do this travel on my own. But, in case anyone out there who's interested to join me in this tour, feel free to contact me so that I could assist you to buy flight tickets and book the accommodation. Otherwise, spare me some good luck wishes.

A missing opportunity... Part II

Last time, they used to have both dinner and the play in the same location i.e. the Whitworth Hall. But I was informed by Dini, the Malaysian Student Society (MSS) has been banned from using the hall for future actitivities, except for dinner because there was one time, the organiser (read: MSS) left the hall without cleaning up. Aiyo... bikin malu saja! [Note: Please read comment by miketitus, which according him I got my fact wrong with regard to MSS banning issue. Thanks, miketitus for your comment.]

Lets get down to business, my review on Full Circle, which was staged at the DanceHouse, opposite the BBC Manchester.

From the picture above, you can see how excited I was to watch the buah tangan of Bash and Jannah. The script was written by Joyce Ju and the played was produced by Adrian.

The show started with a dikir barat. It was an uninspiring performance because of two reasons, namely, monotonous Tukang Karut and corny lyrics. Nevertheless, I like the idea of awok-awok changing places to make some kind of formation. That was the first time I saw it and I liked it very much.



Full Circle is a love story of two generations. Coincidentally, a mother and daughter (for the other side is a father and son) shared a similar fate in their love relationships. The mother who is a Chinese, fell in love with a Malay guy from a Bangsawan family. However, war and circumstances had separated them apart. Fast forward to the next generation, the daughter, again coincidentally, fell in love with a Malay boy, who later we know is the son of the Malay guy who was in love with the girl's mother. And due to circumstances, they were denied the typical fairy tale - live-happily-ever-after kind of ending. These two cinta terhalang were connected by a diary belonged to the mother and a pair of necklaces.

I have no issue with the storyline, in fact I like the premise very much. In case you don't know, I'm a big fan of cerekarama kind of storyline. And to give you some light about this "genre", such dramas include typical Opera Klasik telemovies with Fauziah Nawi, Wan Maimunah and Rosyam Nor in it and my all time favourite, Tiga Duri Di Hati Bonda.

Even though I think Full Circle hasn't got solid plots, Joyce Ju managed to create a clear continuity in this play. And the flashback technique, although being safely used in this play, was smooth and effective. However, there were some points where a couple of scenes feel a bit dragging and pointless. For instance, the scene when Ashraff brought Isabel home.

Acting-wise, I prefer two characters in this play. The first one is the guy who played the messenger for Tuan Imran. Although he briefly appeared in three scenes, his presence brought out the sense of enigma and suspense. And he cleverly (read: effortless) ended his appearance with humour. Another character is the Japanese army chief. He showed that he has a rare talent which is to quickly digest the audience responses in order to decide whether or not to give more or less of his character. In the case of the four main characters, they all have potential but what was lacking is the ability to continuosly remain in characters and to control their energy. That's why there were a few instances where Isabel or her mother "exploded" without properly develop the intensity. In other words, the characters ejaculated without reaching the climax. As for Ashraff and Tuan Imran, their conviction were weak and most of the time their voice projection were out and unconvincing.

If this is the first work of Bash and Jannah, I guess both have lots of potential. I like their art direction, because it was simple and linear. However, their main weakness is the inability to control the momentum of this play. That is why some scenes were very stimulating and some were flat and dull. If they were careful enough, some scenes which have one or two actors could have the same weight as the scenes with more actors. And there were instances whereby Isabel and her mother were left unchecked, which ended up like under-acting.

Having said of all the above, the major disappointment of Full Circle is the fact that it lacks of Malaysian characteristics. It was two hours of nothing but a play with a couple of Malay words. It could take place in anyway, in Singapore or Brunei and not necessarily in Malaysia.

The most glaring question is where is the Malaysian costumes or props with Malaysian elements? Malaysians don't dress like those in the dance acts (be it Malay dance or Chinese or Indian).

With such a good premise, Full Circle has the opportunity to highlight our perspective of Islam, beauty, culture, inter-racial marriage and so on. Bash and Jannah missed the opportunity to showcase the richness of Malaysian culture and adabs to at least 40 to 50 white people in the DanceHouse. Sayang sangat!

This will differentiate between a play by university students and a sketsa by murid-murid sekolah menengah. Unfortunately, a play (Adat Usang Pusaka Zaman by Usman Awang) which I directed when I was at the MARA College Banting has more tersirat messages than Full Circle. Even the play by my friends from Budiman House (from Sekolah Menengah Sains Muar) contained more Malaysian substance than the one that I watched last weekend.

Technically, Full Circle is a not-too-bad production. However, it lacks the Malaysian flavour. It didn't "dress" like Malaysians, it didn't "talk" (need not to speak Bahasa Melayu in order to sound Malaysians) like Malaysians, it didn't "think" like Malaysians and it didn't live like Malaysians. Once again, sayang sangat!