Rabu, 27 Februari 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views

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The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views

A Minute With: Gabriel Byrne’s TV Viking chieftain

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 08:05 AM PST

February 28, 2013

NEW YORK, Feb 27 — Irish actor Gabriel Byrne is going into battle as an 8th century Viking chieftain in History Channel's new nine-part scripted TV series "Vikings", starting on Sunday.

Irish actor Gabriel Byrne is going into battle as an 8th century Viking chieftain in History Channel's new nine-part scripted TV series "Vikings". — Reuters picByrne's elder statesman Earl Haraldson is also locked in a power struggle with the adventurous young Ragnar Lothbrook,(Travis Fimmel) who is looking for new worlds to conquer in the Irish/Canadian historical co-production that explores the world of the mighty Norse warriors.

Byrne, best known as the sympathetic therapist Paul Weston in HBO's series "In Treatment" and movie "The Usual Suspects," spoke with Reuters about the importance of storytelling and why we're more similar to the Viking culture than we may realize.

Q: What do you think will draw viewers to "Vikings"?

A: It is a tremendously exciting story, and because it's the History Channel, there will be many facts, rituals, battles and costumes that people will be intrigued to learn about. I also think people will begin to see the connection between ancient history and modern politics. And you recognize that maybe technology has changed, and maybe the way we live our lives has changed, but essentially human beings are not that different. We still make love and we make war, and we still have the need to conquer. We just do it with more effective weapons now.

Q: Women seem to have a prominent role in the series. What can you tell us about women's roles in the Viking culture?

A: Generally speaking, I don't think people know a great deal about the Viking culture, apart from the label that is usually attached to them, either pillagers or deviants who came and brought back loot to Norway. It was an incredibly sophisticated, complex and layered culture. They had their own laws, many of which protected women. Viking women were able to rule kingdoms, divorce husbands, own land, and Vikings were very progressive in terms of the rights of women.

Q: Why is storytelling important?

A: Going back to ancient cultures again, there was always a man in every village, they're usually called shamans. And these men, sometimes women, took on the hopes, ambitions, fears, and the dreams of the tribe, so that the tribe could look at where they have come from and where they were going. And these shamans were the first actors. I think that when we look at something that's well acted and a story that's well told, it allows us to be a mirror of who we are as human beings and as a culture, and offers a glimpse of where we're headed.

Q: Your 1997 autobiography, "Pictures in My Head" received rave reviews. Any plans for another book?

A: Yes. When I finish my current project, I intend to go back to writing. I've been working on bits and pieces here and there, and now I am going to seriously sit down and write this book. I really admire anybody who writes for a living. It requires such discipline, and I think you could only really do it if you loved it.

Q: You're often described as "brooding." What does that mean exactly?

A: I really don't know. Maybe people think I'm very serious or something. I suppose I tend to play intense kinds of roles, and I think people are always looking for labels.

Q: So what do you want to be when you grow up? No seriously, if you weren't an actor, you'd be...?

A: I used to be a teacher, so maybe I would go back to teaching. If not, I would love to be a film critic or an investigative journalist. There was a long time when I didn't enjoy acting so much. When I look back at my early days, when I was just entering the theatre, I was happy, carefree. And then I reached a stage when I got sort of tired, and I lost my enthusiasm for doing it, and I think that happens to quite a few people. But for some reason that I quite can't even explain, I feel like I've gotten my appetite back for it now, and I approach it with a different kind of excitement...I feel like I'm in a very good space in my life.

Q: What would people be surprised to learn about you?

A: That I'm not really a brooding, intense person, actually almost the opposite. — Reuters

Batman to lose son Robin

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:48 AM PST

February 27, 2013

DC Comics' Batman Incorporated: RIP Robin, April 2013. – DC ComicsNEW YORK, Feb 27 – Batman may be able to save the world, but he'll lose his sidekick Robin – who in his current incarnation is his son – in the upcoming Batman Incorporated comic book series.

DC Comics said the caped crusader's acrobatic young assistant, Batman alter ego Bruce Wayne's son Damian, will die in issue number eight.

"This master theme of damaged and ruined families was nowhere more in evidence than in the creation of Damian, the first 'Son of Batman' to be acknowledged in the canon," series writer Grant Morrison said in a statement.

"In many ways this has been Damian's story as much as it has been the story of Bruce Wayne and it's a story that had its end planned a long time ago – for what son could ever hope to replace a father like Batman, who never dies?"

The good news for those who might miss Robin is that this is the comics universe and characters who are killed can easily return. Even a previous incarnation of Robin was killed and resurrected before.

"You can never say never in a comic book," Morrison told the New York Post. "Batman will ultimately always have a partner." – AFP/Relaxnews

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

A Minute With: Gabriel Byrne’s TV Viking chieftain

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 08:05 AM PST

February 28, 2013

NEW YORK, Feb 27 — Irish actor Gabriel Byrne is going into battle as an 8th century Viking chieftain in History Channel's new nine-part scripted TV series "Vikings", starting on Sunday.

Q: What do you think will draw viewers to "Vikings"?

Q: Women seem to have a prominent role in the series. What can you tell us about women's roles in the Viking culture?

Q: Why is storytelling important?

Q: Your 1997 autobiography, "Pictures in My Head" received rave reviews. Any plans for another book?

Q: You're often described as "brooding." What does that mean exactly?

A: I really don't know. Maybe people think I'm very serious or something. I suppose I tend to play intense kinds of roles, and I think people are always looking for labels.

Q: So what do you want to be when you grow up? No seriously, if you weren't an actor, you'd be...?

Q: What would people be surprised to learn about you?

A: That I'm not really a brooding, intense person, actually almost the opposite. — Reuters

Film reopens old, long-buried wounds in Indonesia

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:46 AM PST

February 27, 2013

JAKARTA, Feb 27 — Bejo Untung was a 17-year-old Indonesian schoolboy when armed soldiers came to his village in 1965, forcing him on the run for years until he was caught, tortured and jailed.

The opening of "The Act of Killing", a documentary made by Texan-born director Joshua Oppenheimer, is pictured during an underground screening at a theatre in Jakarta February 6, 2013. — Reuters picA communist-led coup attempt had just failed, triggering a wave of arrests and killings that ushered in more than three decades of rigid anticommunist education and propaganda. The subject is still so sensitive it is rarely broached in public.

But now a documentary, "The Act of Killing," made by Texan-born director Joshua Oppenheimer, shines a light on that dark era, focusing on the death squads and torture that seem like a myth to the majority of the Indonesian population.

Oppenheimer came up with the idea for the film while working on a different project in North Sumatra and found many relatives of the Indonesians he was talking to had been killed or imprisoned between 1965 and 1966 for trying to form a union.

Most were too afraid to appear on camera to speak with him and suggested he talk to the killers. He took their advice and was horrified by his findings.

"I ... encountered the boastful and shocking way that the killers were talking about what they did," said Oppenheimer in a telephone interview from Denmark.

"That was for me the beginning of the journey. I realized, my goodness, how is it possible that the perpetrators of mass murder should talk loudly and boastfully and with smiles and laughter."

The film, which runs for nearly two hours and won two prizes at this month's Berlin International Film Festival, re-enacts several murders and features a member of a death squad.

DEATH SQUADS

These death squads were operating systematically across Indonesia mostly in the late 1960s. Estimates put as many as one million people dead in a wave of violence after the aborted coup and purge of communists and alleged sympathisers.

The main character in the film, Anwar Congo, was the one of the most feared death squad leaders in the area around the city of Medan in Sumatra.

"I choke them to death, with steel wire around the neck," Congo says in the film, demonstrating in front of the camera how it was done. "And then pull it, sometimes with a pole. It's easier that way and less blood to clean."

Premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in October 2012, "The Act of Killing" took the Panorama Audience Award and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the recent 2013 Berlin International Film Festival but there have been no official screenings in the country where it took place.

It has been shown in about 265 underground screenings, with secret invitations among small groups, but there is the fear that police might try to block the screenings. Still, some 10,000 have been to see it.

The national police spokesman did not respond to questions asking whether the police would have tried to stop showings of the film.

Young Indonesian had long been taught that communism was sadistic and evil and given no alternative view to that era.

Until 1998 and the end of the iron rule of Suharto, the leader who took power shortly after the coup, viewing of a violent movie about how six generals and an officer were killed in the coup attempt was compulsory for schoolchildren.

Even last year an attempt by Indonesia's human rights commission to look into the events surrounding the slaughter were effectively blocked by the government.

"BABY RAT WAS MY FAVOURITE"

Bejo Untung said the movie reflected accurately what happened to him and many others.

Caught and imprisoned in 1970, Untung survived a year of torture — beating and electrocution — in prison and then a camp of several hundred men located in Central Jakarta. Three killed themselves while he was there, while others disappeared and were feared to have been killed. He spent eight years in jail without trial, including a stint of brutal forced farm labour.

"Ten of us were forced to stay in a room which can only fit two," he said of his time in one prison. "We slept like layered cake, my head facing another inmate's toes so we could breathe while we slept."

Most of the protein in his diet came from "anything that moved" in the fields, including frogs, rats, snakes and snails.

"My favourite was the baby rat, it's easy to swallow it alive," said Untung.

He learned to play guitar and piano and made his own instrument during breaks. To learn English, he copied a dictionary word for word onto cigarette papers.

It wasn't until 1979 that political prisoners were released, in order to open the way for Indonesia to receive financial grants from the United States and European nations.

Untung was a private music tutor until retiring and now heads YPKP 65, an organisation for victims of the brutality. For nearly six years, he marched in front of the State Palace, the seat of Indonesian government, every Thursday together with other human rights victims, demanding resolution.

Now he and others want Indonesian history to be revised to reflect the truth of that period.

Hilmar Farid, a Jakarta-based historian at the University of Indonesia, said this was a lesson — not to allow absolute power to take hold.

"I doubt that the perpetrators will watch the movie and apologise ... Political interest plays a big part. There is a need to have mass consciousness, mass repentance if necessary."

Oppenheimer said his film, which cost US$1 million (RM3.1 million) to make over five years, gave young Indonesians a different chapter to their nation's history.

"From the history lessons in school, I only remember that they (the communists) killed and oppressed people, that's it." said 23 year-old graduate student Frederika Dapamanis after watching the movie. "I was sad and ashamed."

There were also lessons for those older as well.

"For Indonesians old enough to remember the genocide, the film makes it impossible to continue denying what everybody in that generation already knew. They are closer to the perpetrators than they like to believe," Oppenheimer said.

"It's not because they're communist or Indonesian, but they are human beings," he said. "The movie, that's a hurtful truth. Indonesia has to speak out about this. The government has to apologise and the truth has to come out." — Reuters

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

Local warming: US cities in front line as sea levels rise

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:34 AM PST

February 27, 2013

File of beachgoers along the oceanfront getting soaked by an incoming wave as Hurricane Sandy begins to arrive in Virginia Beach. — Reuters picNORFOLK (Virginia), Feb 27 — The signs of rising water are everywhere in this seaport city: yellow "Streets May Flood" notices are common at highway underpasses, in low-lying neighborhoods and along the sprawling waterfront.

Built at sea level on reclaimed wetland, Norfolk has faced floods throughout its 400-year history. But as the Atlantic Ocean warms and expands, and parts of the city subside, higher tides and fiercer storms seem to hit harder than they used to.

Dealing with this increased threat has put Norfolk at the forefront of American cities taking the lead on coping with intense weather, from floods to droughts to killer heat, without waiting for the federal government to take the lead.

In Norfolk, home to the largest US Naval base and the second biggest commercial port on the US Atlantic coast, floods are a perennial problem that has worsened in recent decades, Assistant City Manager Ron Williams Jr told Reuters.

The relative sea level around Norfolk has risen 14.5 inches (.37 metre) since 1930, when the low-lying downtown area routinely flooded. The floods are worse now, because the water doesn't have to rise as high to send the river above its banks and into the streets, Williams said.

At the same time, severe storms are more frequent.

"We've had more major storms in the past decade than we've had in the previous four decades," he said.

Extreme rainfall events have increased too.

Williams does not call what's happening in Norfolk a symptom of climate change.

"The debate about causality we're not going to get into," he said.

Still, many scientists see the frequent flooding as consistent with projected consequences of rising global temperatures, spurred by increased emissions of greenhouse gases.

Infrastructure projects pay off

No matter what city leaders call it, some of their actions speak louder than words.

Williams said Norfolk, a city of 243,000, needs a total investment of US$1 billion (RM3.1 billion) in the coming decades, including US$600 million to replace current infrastructure, to keep the water in its place and help make homes and businesses more resilient.

Paying for it will be a burden, Williams said. The city is working with the state legislature and the US Army Corps of Engineers, and hoping federal block grants will help too.

One proposed project, a flood wall to protect the historic Ghent neighborhood and others, would cost an estimated US$20 million to US$40 million.

Williams said a similar barrier completed in 1970 banished perennial floods from what is now the high-rise downtown. That provided a great return on a US$5 million investment, Williams said, with US$500 million in assessed real estate value in the area that used to flood but now doesn't.

These measures have made Norfolk a leader for other coastal cities on how to adapt to climate change, said Cynthia Rosensweig, a NASA climate scientist who advises New York City on its response. Rosensweig, Williams and others note that building resilience into infrastructure before disasters hit is far less expensive than rebuilding afterwards.

Henry Conde, a retired US Navy captain who lives in Ghent, said he and his neighbors feel the flood threat viscerally: "There's a low-grade fever, so to speak, or an awareness throughout the year. People are always on edge."

Armpit-high waders, stand-alone generators and sump pumps are standard equipment for when the floods come and the power goes out, Conde said in an interview at his 115-year-old home. Winter nor'easters can be just as bad as summer hurricanes and preparing for the worst beforehand instead of mopping up later is simply an economic reality, he said.

Superstorm Sandy's strike on New Jersey and New York in late October heightened awareness of the need to prepare for incoming water. Sea levels are rising along almost every part of the U.S. coastline, except in Alaska, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends.shtml ).

Nearly three-quarters of US cities see environmental shifts that can be linked to climate change, but they lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to planning how to adapt to these changes and assessing how vulnerable they are, according to a survey by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the non-profit International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives, or ICLEI.

US cities have traditionally focused more on mitigating climate change than adapting to it, the opposite of most cities in the developing world, where vulnerability to climate-fueled natural disasters is already high, said ICLEI's US program director Brian Holland.

More than 1,000 city leaders have signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (http://www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/agreement.htm), in which they promise to try to beat global targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions in their communities and urge Congress to pass carbon-cutting laws.

But labeling it global warming can be dicey, given that there is still controversy, particularly among politicians, over whether human activity is contributing markedly to increasing temperatures.

"Given the politicized view of climate change in this country, it seems that some cities are emphasising risk management - that way they can get on with the important tasks of reducing risk and safeguarding local residents and municipal assets," said MIT's JoAnn Carmin, author of the 2012 survey of 468 cities worldwide, including 298 in the United States.

Still, city leaders can often reach consensus and act more easily than some members of Congress can, said Jim Brainard, the Republican mayor of Carmel, Indiana, and head of the Energy Independence Task Force for the US Conference of Mayors. One reason for this is that lobbyists opposed to climate measures rarely target mayors or other community leaders, he added. — Reuters

Christians grow anxious in ‘100 per cent’ Islamic Sudan

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:12 AM PST

UPDATED @ 11:19:51 PM 27-02-2013

February 27, 2013

Pastors help South Sudanese worshippers after attending Sunday prayers in Baraka Parish church at Hajj Yusuf — Reuters picKHARTOUM, Feb 27 — When Pastor Kamis went to visit his small church in the Sudanese capital just before Christmas last year, he found a pile of rubble and the remains of a single blue wall.

Hours earlier, authorities had sent in a bulldozer and workers backed by police to demolish the Africa Inland church, which used to lie in a slum suburb of Khartoum.

The structure was one of several small churches that the government has knocked down over the past few months, shocking Christians who worry they will not be able to practice their faith in majority-Muslim Sudan now that the country's south - where most follow Christianity or traditional animist beliefs - has seceded.

"The government says the land was owned by some businessman, but I think they destroyed our church because they want to target Christians," said Kamis, a native of South Sudan, which split away in July 2011.

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has said he wants to adopt a "100 per cent" Islamic constitution now that the South has split off.

The government says the new constitution will guarantee religious freedom, but many Christians are wary. They say authorities started a crackdown in December and it has been getting worse.

Last week, security agents raided the library of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, founded by missionaries in central Khartoum more than a hundred years ago, seizing all books to check on their content, church sources told Reuters.

"They took hundreds of books and the entire archive, not just religious literature," said a church source, who like most others interviewed for this article asked for anonymity or to be identified by only their first and last name for fear of arrest.

Several church-affiliated institutions such as orphanages or schools have also been closed and a number of foreigners working for them have been deported, according to the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, a global ecumenical church body.

"Christians in the north are compromised because they are no longer respected. They cannot even celebrate Christmas anymore," said Daniel Deng Bul, the Juba-based archbishop and primate of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, which covers both Sudans and is part of the Anglican community.

Most southerners have moved south since the birth of their country but some 350,000 are estimated to remain in Khartoum. Some Christians also live in the Nuba Mountains, a region bordering South Sudan.

Although Muslims have dominated Sudan for centuries, Christian roots go back to the 5th century. Missionaries were active in the 1800s, mainly from the Anglican, Presbyterian, Catholic, Africa Inland and Coptic churches. Without accurate census information, it is not yet clear what the current breakdown is. Some tribes also practise animist beliefs.

Hardline Islamists

Officials strongly deny any discrimination against Christians. "All religions can practise their faith in total freedom," said Rabie Abdelati, a senior official in Bashir's National Congress Party. "There are no restrictions at all."

Authorities say Kamis' church was bulldozed only after it lost a legal case against a businessman who claimed the land.

"The church was erected on land owned by a citizen who filed a complaint," said an official at the government land protection unit, which removes illegal buildings. He asked not to be named.

"In November 2011 we took the decision to remove the church which has no permit to use the land. We gave the church several warnings."

But church officials ask why only the church, built around 2000, was demolished and not the buildings right next to it in the densely inhabited district. Less than one km away in the same area lie the remnants of the St. John church of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, which authorities also tore down. Officials pointed to a missing license in that case, too.

Christians concede that some churches were built without formal paperwork but say that was because permits or licences to build proved so difficult to obtain, and authorities signalled they would tolerate them.

The situation was exacerbated after secession when South Sudanese became foreigners, requiring them to get new building permits for existing churches which authorities didn't grant.

For archbishop Bul, the license argument is just an excuse to clamp down.

"You cannot get a license and then they ask you where is the license? So how do I get the license - from God?," Bul said.

Bashir has been facing pressure from religious hardliners who feel his government has given up the values of his 1989 Islamist coup. He has been also facing small street protests in Khartoum and other cities against galloping inflation.

Mobs stormed several churches in Khartoum last year, in one case burning Bibles in public. Activists say the government did little to prevent the attacks.

"Authorities did not investigate properly or prosecute those responsible," said Jehanne Henry, a Sudan researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch. "We have seen clear signs of rising intolerance for religious and ethnic diversity since the separation of South Sudan."

In September, a crowd attacked the U.S., British and German embassies to protest against a film which mocked Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

The peaceful demonstration permitted by the government was hijacked by Islamists who first attacked the embassies and then turned the march into an anti-government protest after two people were killed in clashes with riot police.

Since that incident, officials have tried to appease Islamists, worried about their ability to mobilise the crowds.

In December, Sudan's tightly-controlled press began printing accusations that foreign missionaries were planning to convert Muslims, a crime punishable by death in Sudan.

A group of foreigners - some church sources say more than 100 people - were deported when newspapers reported a Muslim girl had been baptised.

Some of the deported were only loosely affiliated with churches, such as expatriates giving English lessons to children in their free time.

In limbo

Many churches and affiliated schools have transferred their ownership from South Sudanese pastors, who have been in legal limbo since they become foreigners after secession, to people from the Nuba Mountains, who are citizens.

Sudan and South Sudan agreed in September to give citizens in both countries the right to live, work and own property wherever they chose to settle, but the pact has not been implemented because border and resource disputes have soured relations.

Transferring ownership has not necessarily resolved the issue. Security agents closed a community centre operating on church land which included a Nuba language school and an English school run by a Nuba teacher.

The Nuba are already viewed with suspicion by officials in Sudan because many sided with the South during decades of civil war and have now joined a rebellion in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states on the border with South Sudan. Khartoum says its arch foe South Sudan is supporting the insurgency.

"We are supposed to be citizens with equal rights but in the eyes of the government we are a foreign entity which seeks to destroy Sudan," said one Christian of an evangelical church from the Nuba mountains.

Despair and anxiety is palpable in many of Khartoum's churches, most of which date back to the British colonial era which ended in 1955.

Church leaders say they plan to fight any repressive steps. A delegation submitted a letter to the government addressed to Bashir on Monday asking for the confiscated books, many of which are not available in state libraries, to be returned, a church source said.

In a Sunday service in a tiny mud brick building now used as church next to the bulldozed building, one preacher, who asked to be identified only by his family name Said, tried to convey a message of strength to the few worshippers who have continued coming out since the demolition.

"The government destroyed our church but we don't have to be afraid," he said, addressing a crowd of just 11 adults and four children seated on plastic chairs.

"God will always protect us," Said said, chanting "Hallelujah" while flies flew around in the stuffy room. — Reuters

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The Malaysian Insider :: Books

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The Malaysian Insider :: Books

Batman to lose son Robin

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 07:48 AM PST

February 27, 2013

DC Comics said the caped crusader's acrobatic young assistant, Batman alter ego Bruce Wayne's son Damian, will die in issue number eight.

"You can never say never in a comic book," Morrison told the New York Post. "Batman will ultimately always have a partner." – AFP/Relaxnews

Best-selling French author Stephane Hessel dies at 95

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 01:51 AM PST

February 27, 2013

Stephane Hessel, a former French resistance fighter, diplomat and author of the bestselling 'Time For Outrage!' – AFP picPARIS, Feb 27 – Best-selling French writer, veteran diplomat and concentration camp survivor Stephane Hessel has died at the age of 95, his wife announced today.

Hessel, whose 2010 work "Time for Outrage" inspired the "Occupy Wall Street" movement which began in New York's financial district and spread worldwide, died overnight, Christiane Hessel-Chabry said.

The German-born Hessel, who became a naturalised French citizen in 1939, was a prominent Resistance figure during World War II. He was arrested by the Gestapo and later moved to the Buchenwald and Dora concentration camps.

After the end of the war, Hessel was involved in editing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He also took up the cause of illegal immigrants and championed the rights of the downtrodden.

"Time for Outrage" sold more than 4.5 million copies in 35 countries.

His best-selling work argues that the French need to again become outraged like those who participated in the Resistance under General Charles De Gaulle during World War II.

His reasons for personal outrage included the growing chasm between the haves and have-nots, France's treatment of its illegal immigrants and the abuse of the environment. – AFP/Relaxnews

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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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Talking about sex, baby, and the economy

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 04:01 PM PST

February 27, 2013

Dina Zaman writes to find answers. Sometimes she doesn't. If she's not spending too much money on books, it's household items. She would like everyone to be happy.

FEB 27 ― We were hungry that weekend, and wanted to have Thai food in Kampung Baru. The restaurant we wanted was closed, Chinese New Year. Every other decent place was closed too. But we wanted to eat, and drove around we did.

My friend pointed at the many warongs, and restaurants dotting the roadside of Kampung Baru and Chow Kit. What did the number tell us, she asked.

Malaysians are hungry all the time. Malaysians love a variety of foods. The food business is good.

But why were many of these restaurants empty?

It's Chinese New Year. Even the Malays want to cuti.

"Wrong. It means this: Our economy is tanking. Having a second business nowadays is not a guarantee to a personal pension plan. Entrepreneurship in Malaysia is stagnant."

The fact that Malaysians pretty much vacuum food into their bodies and are obsessed with it, and yet these voracious appetites cannot support mom-and-pop warongs and restaurants, is an ominous sign.

But this is Kampung Baru. And Chow Kit. These two places teem with life 24 hours a day. How can there be an increasing number of abandoned warongs and cafes?

One time, a friend and I were at the Central Market LRT station, when he pointed out a hotel. That's one of the biggest whorehouses in KL, he said. I squinted over the tracks.

Do you see those people by the hotel windows?

I think so, I said.

Those are the sex workers, he said. Business is so bad that they now solicit in daylight, and in the open.

"And those are cheap hookers, you know." He shook his head.

You may disagree with these examples of the country's economy. "What, how can you equate the sex trade to our GNP! Those warongs? The food is horrible, supply stripped demand, wrong location, the owners tak laku," you say.

I am not an economist, but those two nuggets piqued my curiosity.

Let's talk about sex first. These sex workers service a clientele of migrant workers and working-class men. The hotel they operated from was right smack near Central Market, a hub of people coming, going.

The sex trade in Malaysia is not open (like most everywhere else, but in Muslim Malaysia it's even more hidden). And now the sex workers are brandishing their wares openly in daylight.

If the migrant workers et al aren't going to them, that means they are not being paid, or paid enough. Now this could be due to two things: employers not paying them at all, or pay has been cut. The fact that they can't pay for cheap sex is a sign.

The food? It could be a whole host of things.

What I do know is that the feedback I get from friends who are qualified to work in economics, and understand it very well, is that our economy is political, and that it is also a "created" one.

According to a friend, the Malaysian economy in reality does not follow the global financial ups and downs. Look at our property market ― is an apartment in Mont Kiara really worth that much when the workmanship is so-so, even mediocre?

"Good workmanship is those old, steady apartments, like those Selangor Properties apartments in Jalan Bukit Tunku. Have you see the apartments in Damansara Perdana? Terrible!"

High street brands like Zara, Gap for example, are cheaper in their home countries. In Malaysia, a less than stellar cotton shirt from these brands cost about RM200. Yes, yes, exchange rate is high, there're overheads to think about…

I was also told that we import 70 per cent of our food. If that is true, what is happening to our agricultural industries? Why are we importing food when we have an abundance of land, and also skilled workers? Can someone help clarify?

That night, when we finally had our dinner, we agreed that we would have to create our own pension plans, and that the truth was that Malaysia was not going to support our enterprises. There were more opportunities in the region: Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam. They are robust. We have been mollycoddled for so long that we are complacent.

"So. If the Opposition has greater presence, or takes over Putrajaya, will our economy flourish?" I asked.

"Good question. Different, you know, running a state and at federal level. And remember, our economy is political. But I suppose, one must hope."

I suppose.

And when everything fails, there's always Maggi Mee.

The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa

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The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa

Aliran keluar pelaburan tinggi tidak bermakna pelabur hilang keyakinan, kata Mustapha

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 02:46 AM PST

Oleh Md Izwan
February 27, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, 27 Feb — Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri Malaysia Datuk Seri Mustapha Mohamed (gambar) hari ini menegaskan langkah syarikat tempatan yang banyak melabur di luar negara tidak bermakna mereka hilang keyakinan terhadap pasaran dalam negara.

Mustapha mengakui terdapat corak peningkatan aliran pelaburan keluar sepanjang tempoh empat hingga lima tahun kebelakangan ini dengan memberikan contoh agensi pelaburan negara seperti Khazanah Nasional Bhd, institusi kewangan seperti Maybank dan syarikat perladangan sebagai contoh syarikat yang telah melabur di luar negara.

"Ia tidak bermakna Khazanah hilang keyakinan ke atas Malaysia," kata beliau merujuk kepada pegangan syarikat tersebut dalam penyenaraian IHH Healthcare Bhd, kumpulan yang juga menguruskan hospital di Turki.

Disamping itu, Mustapha menyifatkan langkah syarikat tempatan yang melabur di luar negara adalah suatu perkara positif memandangkan ia memperlihatkan perkembangan dan kemajuan syarikat tempatan yang berkemampuan untuk menjalankan perniagaan di luar negara.

"Dalam kata lain, ia mencerminkan pertumbuhan syarikat-syarikat Malaysia...," kata Mustapa pada majlis pembentangan Prestasi Pelaburan 2013 di ibu kota.

MENYUSUL LAGI

Penceroboh tentera Sulu enggan berganjak dengan tuntutan

Posted: 27 Feb 2013 12:52 AM PST

Oleh Md Izwan
February 27, 2013

Kapal Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia sedang membuat rondaan di Tanjung Labian, berhampiran tempat di mana lebih 100 orang lelaki bersenjata sedang berkampung di Lahad Datu, Sabah. — Gambar ReutersKUALA LUMPUR, 27 Feb — Ketua kumpulan penceroboh Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram yang telah berkampung di Lahad Datu, Sabah selama dua minggu lebih enggan berganjak dengan pendirian mereka untuk kekal berada di perkampungan tersebut mereka dan sedia berkorban sekiranya tuntutan mereka tidak dipenuhi.

Agbimuddin yang dipetik berkata kepada radio Filipina, Radio Inquirer jam 9 pagi tadi berkata setuju untuk berunding secara damai tetapi hak mereka perlu dipastikan terbela.

"Ya, kami mahu berdamai.

"Tapi ia hanya selagi hak kami tidak diambil daripada kami," kata Agbimuddin.

Pemimpin tersebu yang mengaku sebagai Askar Kesultanan Sulu juga tidak menolak akan berlaku pertumpahan darah sekiranya mereka diserang oleh pihak berkuasa Malaysia.

"Tiada jalan lain selain mempertahankan diri.

"Terus berjuang atau mati," kata Agbimuddin lagi.

Dalam pada itu, Agbimuddin juga membidas kenyataan oleh Presiden Filipina Benigno Aquino kepada Kesultanan Sulu bahawa mereka akan berdepan tindakan undang-undang sekiranya tidak menamatkan pencerobohan di Sabah tersebut.

"Kami hanya lakukan apa yang kami rasakan betul. Saya rasa tiada undang-undang yang menghalang kamu daripada menuntut perkara yang betul," ujar beliau lagi.

Ketua penceroboh juga menegaskan bahawa tujuan mereka mendarat di perkampungan tersebut bukan untuk mencari persengketaan, memandangkan kedua-dua negara menganut agama sama iaitu Islam.

Pada 13 Februari lepas, pasukan keselamatan Malaysia menahan sekumpulan warga asing bersenjata yang berpakaian tentera kerana menceroboh perairan Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Jumaat lalu, Manila menggesa sekumpulan 100 warga negara itu yang bersenjata dan kini dikepung pasukan keselamatan Malaysia di pesisir pantai berhampiran Lahad Datu, Sabah pulang ke pangkuan keluarga masing-masing di tanah air mereka.

Setiausaha Ketiga dan Naib Konsul Kedutaan Besar Filipina di Kuala Lumpur Johann Veronica M. Andal berkata pasukan tentera dan polis negara itu kini memantau serta bertukar maklumat dengan rakan sejawatan mereka di Malaysia dalam usaha mencari penyelesaian segera insiden itu.

Sabah merupakan sebahagian dari Kesultanan Sulu sehingga Syarikat Berpiagam Borneo Utara British (British North Borneo Chartered Company) pada 1881 dan menjadi sebuah negeri naungan Empayar British pada 1888.

Walaubagaimanapun, hal ehwal dalam negeri masih diselaraskan oleh Syarikat. Pemerintahan Syarikat tamat pada 1946 dan Sabah kemudiannya menjadi tanah jajahan Borneo Utara sehingga penyertaanya dalam Persekutuan Malaysia beserta Sarawak dan Singapura pada 16 September 1963.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Selasa, 26 Februari 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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The Malaysian Insider :: Food

World Chefs: The world on a plate from David Laris

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 09:00 PM PST

February 27, 2013

David Laris at home in Laris Contemporary Dining in Hong Kong. — Reuters handout picsHONG KONG, Feb 27 — David Laris, who made a name for himself at the iconic Mezzo in London, is now bent on making his mark in Hong Kong by convincing the city's discerning diners that they can do fine cuisine without pretensions and a stiff upper lip.

The Australian-born Laris, who has opened restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai, is best known for Laris at Three on the Bund, which has picked up top ratings in local food guides such as the Miele Guide.

Reuters spoke with Laris on how his ethnic influences shaped his cooking style, and why he thinks Hong Kong is fertile ground for nurturing his culinary philosophy with his new restaurant, Laris Contemporary Dining in Hong Kong.

Q: You've spent much of your childhood in Greece and took on a classic French apprenticeship in Sydney. How did these early influences shape your life as a chef?

A: I lived in a small village in Greece from the age of six till 10 so it was an age when a boy is taking in a lot of the world around him. It definitely gave me a love of adventure. I liken it to a Greek version of Huckleberry Finn, I joke to myself; running around the country village, and spending summers by the sea with my extended Greek family ... Being part of the olive harvest, fishing with my grandfather, uncle and father in the Mediterranean with our little boat, growing watermelons, seeing the tomatoes drying on the side of the road that would be later turned into tomato paste, seeing all the ladies in the family gather for full days of cooking, the killing of the lamb for Easter in the farmhouse courtyard, stomping grapes for wine, tenderising giant octopus on the side of the road with a stick and water and whole days that seemed to be surrounded by eating, drinking and family are memories that will stay with me and become part of my life's story.

Perhaps with such strong imagery, taste and smell connecting me to these early years, it was destined that I would develop a long love affair with food and cooking. I believe everything we do and see in life somehow influences and shapes our perception of the world. Then stumbling into a French apprenticeship began to further shape and define all those influences into a solid approach to cooking.

Q: How did you come up with the concept of Laris in Hong Kong, cuisine described as "modern dining with an Australian flair and global approach"?

A: It is an evolution of a lifetime of cooking and styling plates in fashion and approach that is my own. Many of the dishes are from the original Laris or new dishes I have been working on over the last year or so. What I constantly do is evaluate and evolve them to be relevant in today's approach to cooking or at least as I see it. This is a simple way of saying let's not box in or define what can and can't be used in the Laris kitchen. I like to keep my menu vibrant and fresh. I like to surprise and delight, have moments of playfulness while still being grounded in solid cooking techniques and I also like to use the most up to date approaches that are out there while continually creating new ideas.

A Laris favourite: Foie gras with hazelnut praline, Muscat jelly and freshly baked brioche.Q: You've mentioned a "long love affair" with "elegant unpretentious dining". How does that all come together at Laris?

A: It is about the way I hope you feel when dining in Laris, I want the food to feel elegant, the service to feel elegant and set the diner at ease so we can be there to create an experience for them, it should always be about the guest and not about our ego. I hope people get that there is refinement without the need to be arrogant or pretentious.

Q: What have you learned about the Chinese palate for fine cuisine from Laris at Three on the Bund in Shanghai? And how are you seeing their taste evolve with Laris in Hong Kong?

A: I really don't look at it that way, so it is a hard question to answer. To be honest, perhaps if apart from what I have already have said I can add the following, I think mainland customers have become increasingly adventurous in their desire to try new global as well as innovative cuisine. I have never written my Laris menu for one market or another; otherwise it would not be possible to be honest in the creative process. You have to be first true to the food and the nature of the food in the concept and if you are truly honest then this will come through to the palate.

Q: You've travelled extensively, such as Macau, Hong Kong and Hanoi. How did these travels influence your way of cooking?

A: Very much so. Everywhere I have been, travelled, eaten and seen influences my own evolution as a chef, how could it not? Asia is such a vibrant, rich and diverse set of cultures and flavours, once you have opened the door to the flavours in this part of the world it is impossible to go back, and who would want to? ... We are the sum of our parts after all and a big part of me is my time in Asia with the food, the culture and the people playing into everything I do, as with my earlier influences, these are important and continue to shape me. I still discover new dishes and ingredients all the time and think of how I can interpret or use them in my own style.

A Laris favourite: Foie gras with hazelnut praline, Muscat jelly and freshly baked brioche.Ocean Trout Tataki

400 g ocean trout filet, skin off
10 g (2 t) sake
30 g (2 t) Japanese vinegar
5 g (1 t) sea salt
2 eggs
40 g (2.7 t) XO sauce
40 g (1.4 oz) Keta (Russian) caviar

1. Boil the eggs for eight minutes to get a soft-boiled yolk.
2. Peel and separate the yolks from the whites. Discard the whites and mix the yolks together and reserve.
3. Marinate the trout in sake, Japanese vinegar and sea salt for 20 minutes.
4. Cut the trout into four portions and lightly season with sea salt.
5. With a blow torch, sear the outside of the fish until you have a nice crust and the centre is raw but still warm. (If you don't have access to a blow torch, the fish can be seared very quickly on all sides in a very hot pan with some cooking oil.)
6. Cut each portion into 4 pieces and place on the plate. Garnish with XO sauce and the caviar. Pipe the egg around the fish. — Reuters

Website names most powerful people in food

Posted: 26 Feb 2013 06:48 PM PST

February 27, 2013

The most powerful people in America's food industry? They're at Google. — AFP picNEW YORK, Feb 27 — Popular food site The Daily Meal has come out with its version of the most influential people in America's food industry, a list based on one simple criterion: Is this person capable of changing the way Americans eat?

The ranking is peppered with names that are both familiar and star-powered — chefs Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Mario Batali — as well as the lesser known names behind food behemoths such as The Monsanto Company, the world's largest producer of genetically modified seeds, as well as CEOs and editors-in-chief.

According to the editors, the most influential people in the American food landscape aren't household names: they're Jack Menzel, product managing director and Bernardo Hernandez, director of product management and management director for Zagat at Google (Google acquired the crowd-sourced dining guide in 2011).

The Daily Meal's reasoning? "We're singling out Menzel and Hernández for their considerable contributions in these areas, but also as representatives of a hydra-headed entity that increasingly informs us about food (along with everything else) and offers us pretty much instant access to an endless pool of recipes, cooking tips, restaurant recommendations, chef profiles, foodstuff definitions, and a menu full of other delicious stuff."

Other notable names that made their list include Mike Duke, president and CEO of Walmart, The New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, First Lady Michelle Obama and Ben Silbermann, founder and CEO, Pinterest.

The top five influential people:

1. Jack Menzel, product managing director, and Bernardo Hernandez, director of product management and managing director for Zagat, and their teams, Google
2. Hugh Grant, chairman, president, and CEO, The Monsanto Company
3. Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Food, Federal Drug Administration
4. Patricia Woertz, chairman, president, and CEO, Archer Daniels Midland (one of the largest agricultural processors in the world)
5. Mike Duke, president and CEO, Walmart

— AFP/Relaxnews

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Rabu, 27 Februari 2013