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International board to review hijab law for women players Posted: 17 Dec 2011 07:13 AM PST Fifa President Sepp Blatter speaks during a news conference following their executive committee meeting in Tokyo. — Reuters pic Tokyo, Dec 17 — Fifa is considering changing their laws to allow women to wear a hijab, or headscarf when they play in official matches.  Prince Ali Bin Hussein of Jordan, 35, the youngest member of Fifa's executive committee and the Asian vice-president, made a presentation to members at their meeting in Tokyo today and was given the go-ahead to present the case when the law-making International Board meets in Bagshot, England, next March.  In a statement, Prince Ali said he wanted the International Football Association Board (Ifab) to sanction a safe, velcro-opening headscarf for players and officials and asked them to re-consider the law when they meet on March 3.  "I look forward to presenting the case at the Ifab meeting," he said.  "This issue impacts on millions of women worldwide and it is crucial to address, in the best possible way, the issue that ensures the safety of the players, respects culture and promotes football for all women without discrimination."  He added: "This is a crucial step forward. Our goal at the end of the day is to ensure that all women are able to play football at all levels without any barriers."  Fifa's Law 4 regarding kit states that a player must not use equipment or wear anything that is dangerous to himself or another player, including any kind of jewellery.  It lists the "basic equipment" as a jersey, shorts, socks, shin-guards and footwear.  Ifab, formed in 1886, is soccer's ultimate law-making body comprising four members from Fifa and four from the British associations.  Any recommendation needs a three-quarters majority to be passed. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

Shakib, Nafees defy Pakistan with record stand Posted: 17 Dec 2011 04:29 AM PST Bangladesh's Shahriar Nafees (front) leaves the field as Pakistan's fielders celebrate his dismissal during the first day of their second test cricket match in Dhaka. — Reuters pic DHAKA, Dec 17 — Shakib Al Hasan and Shahriar Nafees shared a record 180-run stand to take Bangladesh to a respectable 234-5 against Pakistan before bad light ended the opening day's play of the second test today.  The pair surpassed Bangladesh's previous highest fifth-wicket stand of 144, set by Mehrab Hossain jnr and Mushfiqur Rahim against New Zealand in 2008, to steer the team away from early trouble after a strong opening spell from Pakistan's Aizaz Cheemer  The stand was also Bangladesh's highest against Pakistan besting the 167 of Javed Omar and Habibul Bashar in 2003.  Shakib was unbeaten on 108, for his second test century while Nafees fell to an awkward bouncer off Umar Gul on 97.  Wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal took a simple catch after the ball hit Nafees on the glove, ending his solid 177-ball innings that featured 12 boundaries.  Seamer Cheema had taken advantage of the bowler friendly conditions to claim three wickets and help reduce Bangladesh to 43-4 after play had been delayed by more than an hour because of dense fog  The 32-year-old medium-pacer claimed had opener Nazimuddin (0) out leg before wicket with only his sixth delivery.  Gul then removed the under-performing Tamim Iqbal (14) when the Bangladesh opener's attempted hook shot was caught by Cheema at backward fine leg.  Cheema returned to bowl out Mahmudullah for a first-ball duck to leave the home side, who need to win the match to level the series after an innings defeat in the first test, struggling on 21-3.  Nasir Hossain (7) was next to go in the 14th over when he edged a simple catch to wicketkeeper Adnan Akmal off the bowling of Cheema. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Beach Boys reuniting for new album, tour in 2012 Posted: 16 Dec 2011 09:37 PM PST NEW YORK, Dec 17 — Iconic California surf band The Beach Boys will reunite in 2012 to release a new album and embark on a 50-date worldwide tour celebrating their 50th anniversary, the band said yesterday. File photo of Jardine (left) and Love looking at their medals after being inducted during the 2011 California Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Sacramento, California on December 8, 2011. — Reuters pic Members Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks, who were all involved in early versions of The Beach Boys band in the 1960s, when their fame rose due to the popularity of songs such as "Surfin' USA," "California Girls" and "Good Vibrations," are producing a new record after a 15-year studio album hiatus. "This anniversary is special to me because I miss the boys, and it will be a thrill for me to make a new record and be on stage with them again," Wilson, 69, said in a statement. Singer Love, 70, added "It was a thrill to be around a piano again with Brian, Alan and Bruce and experience firsthand the brilliance of Cousin Brian's gift for vocal arrangements." The still untitled new album will be released in April, and be tied to a 50-date tour starting at Jazz Fest in New Orleans that is part of their 50th anniversary campaign spotlighting the band's career, music catalogue with commemorative releases. The Beach Boys struck their first chords in Hawthorne, California in 1961, with brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, their cousin Love and school friend Al Jardin. Johnston and Marks joined later versions of the Beach Boys to fill in for departing members. The band became known for their upbeat songs about California's carefree beach lifestyle, pioneering the sound for surf-rock. Their albums included "Pet Sounds" and "Smile." The Beach Boys hold the title for America's top-selling band according to Nielsen SoundScan figures, and also hold the record for the most Billboard Top 40 chart hits with 36 songs. Despite the deaths of Dennis and Carl Wilson in 1983 and 1998, respectively, the band has continued to tour successfully over the years. They have received numerous accolades including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

Liz Taylor’s ‘National Velvet’ script sells for US$170,500 Posted: 16 Dec 2011 06:19 PM PST Christie's auctioneer Andrea Fiuczynski conducts an auction of Taylor's jewellery, clothing, art and memorabilia, near an image of the late actress at Christie's auction house in New York on December 14, 2011. — Reuters pic NEW YORK, Dec 17 — Elizabeth Taylor's script for the movie "National Velvet" — which made her a star at age 12 — sold for more than 50 times its estimate yesterday as the New York auction of the actress's jewels, clothes, art and memorabilia neared its close. Christie's auctioneers said the 1944 "National Velvet" script, bound in lilac leather, was sold to a private US buyer for US$170,500 (RM530,000) yesterday. It's pre-sale estimate was US$2,000-US$3,000. A drawing of lips inscribed to Taylor by Andy Warhol sold for US$242,500, and was among the priciest items bought on the fourth day of the auction. Yesterday's total sales were US$4.4 million, including commission, taking the auction sales so far this week to US$154.2 million. An online-only sale of some 1,000 lower-priced items from Taylor's estate continues through today. Christie's chairman Marc Porter said the response to the auction so far had been "nothing short of overwhelming with multiple bidders competing for every lot." Taylor, regarded as one of the last great Hollywood legends, died of congestive heart failure in March at age 79. Her fabled collection of ruby, diamond and emerald jewellery — many of them gifts from two-time husband Richard Burton — attracted the biggest interest, selling for a total of US$116 million earlier this week. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Arab Spring, Russian Winter — a bad year for dictators Posted: 16 Dec 2011 10:36 PM PST Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni works her mobile phone and her laptop computer at a cafe in Tunis: "This (rise of the middle class) is not about bread, this is about cleanliness. It's not political, it's hygienic," explains Moscow author Grigory Chkhartishvili. — Reuters pic NEW YORK, Dec 17 — This has been a bad year for dictators, starting with the Arab Spring and closing with the Russian Winter. If you are one of the autocrats who survived the annus horribilis of 2011, here are three lessons, drawn from some smart Russians and Russia-watchers, of what the unexpected Slavic protests this month could mean. The first is that authoritarian regimes don't run on autopilot. To survive, particularly in the age of the Internet, jet travel and global capital flows, dictatorships need to be savvy and effective. We often attribute the success of democratic revolutions to their brave leaders or the spirit of the times, but, as Lucan Way, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto, argues, "authoritarian incompetence" can be an equally powerful driver. That is certainly the case in Russia, where one reason United Russia, the party of power led by Vladimir Putin, did so poorly in elections this month is the simple fact that the regime made a lot of political mistakes. "The ineffectiveness and stupid actions of the authorities have accelerated the process," Grigory Chkhartishvili, the best-selling Moscow author who writes under the pen name Boris Akunin, explained in an email. He recalled asking Yegor Gaidar, the late architect of Russian economic changes, "when does he expect society to awaken. Around 2015, he answered, if they, meaning Putin and his entourage, do not make too many mistakes. Well, they have made too many mistakes." Vladimir Gelman, a professor of political science at the European University in St Petersburg, made a similar point this week. Gelman argued that the Kremlin's wobble in December was an own goal, or, as he put it, "a blow delivered with its own hands". Russian communist party supporters in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk protest against violations at the parliamentary elections. — Reuters pic The biggest mistake, in Gelman's view, was "the attempt to mask Russian authoritarianism with a liberal facade". That turns out to have been an error partly because "part of the political class and concerned members of civil society actually believed in the liberalisation of the regime". But the bigger problem was that Russia's authoritarian leaders became so infatuated with their political Potemkin village they neglected some of the coercive basics: focused as they were on the carrot, the authorities didn't pay enough attention to the stick. Gelman contrasts this political season, when the government's attitude before the election was "peaceful", with the 2007-08 political cycle, when the opposition was repressed in advance and the state's political machinery was fully engaged. The standout example of authoritarian competence, by contrast, is China, whose rulers have continued to focus relentlessly on doing whatever it takes to stay in power. That determination was in evidence after the "colour revolutions" in the former Soviet Union, which prompted a thoughtful and concerted effort to tighten government control, as did the uprisings in the Arab world this year. The second lesson of the Russian protests is one that will be particularly worrying for China. It is that economic success does not guarantee political success. This equation is mystifying in Western democracies — where people tend to believe that "it's the economy, stupid", and usually they're right. That's why the International Monetary Fund, which focused on Egypt's healthy gross domestic product numbers, was wrong-footed by the protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo. And it is why the demonstrations in Russia perplexed many foreign observers, who noted that many of their participants were well-heeled members of a middle class that prospered in the Putin era. Moved by their souls, not just their pocketbooks: A woman with her face painted in the colours of the Kingdom of Libya flag, at a protest against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The word on her forehead reads, "Leave". — Reuters pic A partial explanation of this puzzle is that, as in Tunisia and Egypt, middle-class citizens in a dictatorship can be moved to protest by their souls, not just their pocketbooks. The refrain during the Arab Spring was that the protests were about dignity. As for Russia, Chkhartishvili put it another way: "This is not about bread, this is about cleanliness. It's not political, it's hygienic." Research by Carol Graham and Stefano Pettinato suggests another reason why a prospering society might still be a rebellious one. In work that initially focused on Russia and Peru, the two identified a group they described as "frustrated achievers", people who had become both richer and less happy. "Frustrated achievers are people who are just out of poverty or the lower middle class," Graham, who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said. "They are people who have made relatively large gains, but they report being very frustrated." A source of that frustration, Graham said, was when "the gains around them are much bigger than their own, and bigger than they can ever achieve in their lifetime". Post-Soviet Russia, with its oligarchs, crony capitalism and corruption, is a petri dish for frustrated achievers. The third lesson of the Russian Winter is one it has in common with the Arab Spring. One consequence of the rise of social media is the emergence of what Way calls "leaderless protests". "In Russia, as in the Arab world, protests started largely spontaneously without the participation or instigation of the major opposition groupings," Way said in an e-mail. "Instead, they were inspired by actors who came out of nowhere and lacked virtually any kind of organisational backing." But this new world is also hard to manage for the would-be revolutionaries. Twitter and Facebook may make it easy to get those frustrated achievers onto the streets. But the really hard work always starts the day after the revolution, and if you didn't need to build a protest movement in the first place, you may soon lose power to the people who did. —  Reuters * Chrystia Freeland is a Reuters columnist. Any opinions expressed are her own. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

Picturing the sinking of the Soviet Union Posted: 16 Dec 2011 09:30 PM PST Russian Boris Yeltsin and Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev face the media. — Reuters pic The following story recalls the experiences of Reuters photographer Shamil Zhumatov when the leaders of the newly independent post-Soviet republics gathered in his home city of Alma-Ata in 1991. Zhumatov has been a Reuters photographer in former Soviet Central Asia for the past 17 years and has also covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He lived the first 20 years of his life in the Soviet Union and the second 20 years as a citizen of Kazakhstan. ALMATY, Dec 17 — The Soviet Union, we had always thought, was surely too big to fail. We had all seen the bare shelves in the shops. We knew that many constituent republics had declared their independence. But this was still my almighty Soviet Union, the only country this 20-year-old photojournalist from Kazakhstan had ever known. So why had 10 national leaders rushed to my capital city, Alma-Ata, on December 21, 1991? Who were these hordes of journalists and photographers jostling for position and shouting questions? It was one of my first assignments for the Kazakh Telegraph Agency. The night before, I sat in the agency's darkroom splicing 300-metre rolls of film and inserting it with great care into cartridges, 36 shots at a time. We didn't work with factory-made rolls of film; this was the Soviet Union. Painstaking preparation was part of the job, especially before any major event. And this was certainly major. Even my seasoned colleagues had had few opportunities to photograph national leaders. Party congresses, military parades, even New Year celebrations: these happened in Moscow, events we watched on television. Less than two weeks earlier, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus — the Slavic core of the Soviet Union — had signed the agreement that dissolved the country and created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Spotlight on Yeltsin at Alma-Ata. — Reuters pic Although the alliance wasn't closed to other republics, when we in Central Asia heard of it, we felt cast off and betrayed. Shouldn't we also have a say in the fate of our country? The excitement and freedom of independence would come later; right now, we were frightened children clinging to the coat-tails of our parent. WHAT IF? Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of newly independent Kazakhstan, mobilised quickly to ensure our country and a host of other newly independent republics were brought into the fold. He met one leader after another at the snowbound airport as they arrived to sign the declaration that would bring the number of countries into the grouping to 11. It seemed everyone who arrived was in a rush. Even now, when I edit my pictures, I can see the worry etched on the faces of the Kazakh statesmen of the time. What if someone were suddenly to change their mind, snatching away the security Moscow had always provided? Signs of insecurity: One of two lone protesters outside the hall where the signing would take place. — Reuters pic Two lonely protesters stood in the snow outside the hall where the signing would take place, holding posters decrying the end of the Soviet Union. "Shame on the Destroyers of the USSR!" said one. "Down with the CIS!" Our shared Soviet heritage was all that bound us together. Even the name of the new alliance sounded strange. We could appreciate the idea of "independent states". But a "commonwealth"? Between a set of ethnically divergent countries, two of which — Armenia and Azerbaijan — were already engaged in a brutal conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh? Inside, the grandiose ceremony had begun. Never before had I seen so many KGB officers gathered in one place. Its 9th Department, which was responsible for guarding dignitaries, had a lot of people to look out for. And so many journalists! Some photographers had brought ladders to climb above the crowds — a device I would use countless times over the next years, but something I'd never seen before that day. Russian President Boris Yeltsin was the most charismatic of all the leaders present. His words — and he spoke a lot — were accompanied by animated hand gestures. People shouted questions at him on the move. For a photographer, he was a great subject. Yeltsin's individual style contrasted sharply with that of the ranked officials around him. Even the Trilby he wore was at odds with the thick fur hats of other leaders. Leaders of the post-Soviet republics face the media in Alma-Ata. — Reuters pic After the signing ceremony, the leaders stood for a group photograph. One journalist shouted to Yeltsin: "How are you feeling?" He grinned and gave the thumbs-up. With a single click of my mechanical Nikon F2, I realised that a new time was upon us. I was recording history. STRANGE FILM Before writing this article, I was scanning my old black-and-white negatives in a photo store in Almaty, as Alma-Ata is now called. The other customers were printing out pictures taken on their mobile phones. "What a strange film! I can't even see any picture numbers along the perforations," said the curious sales assistant, too young to recall the 300-metre rolls with which I once worked. At 40, I have now spent half of my life in the Soviet Union and half in independent Kazakhstan. The second two decades have brought changes unimaginable during the first. The Soviet Union gave me much for which to be thankful: an education that could not be bettered today, and the well-built apartment blocks that my parents still call home. But gone are the fear and uncertainty — my own and Kazakhstan's — I remember from that day in December 1991. They have been replaced by a maturity and an independence that comes from facing and overcoming your challenges. We have both grown up. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Polis ‘mesra’, bantu mahasiswa demonstrasi protes AUKU Posted: 17 Dec 2011 02:16 AM PST Kumpulan mahasiswa menyerahkan memorandum kepada wakil Umno. - Gambar oleh Choo Choy May KUALA LUMPUR, 17 Dis — Selepas insiden penahanan 15 mahasiswa yang menyertai 'flash mob' di KL Sentral Rabu lalu, polis ibu negara hari ini mempamerkan 'kelainan' apabila bukan sahaja tidak mengambil tindakan keras, malah membantu kira-kira 100 mahasiswa yang menyertai demonstrasi menuntut pemansuhan Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti (AUKU).  Anggota polis yang diketuai  Ketua Bahagian Ketenteraman Awam Ibu Pejabat Polis Dang Wangi, ASP W. Karthik  mengawal kelancaran lalu lintas dan kumpulan pelajar tersebut sepanjang demonstrasi mereka. The Malaysian Insider difahamkan, kumpulan mahasiswa itu dibenarkan untuk meneruskan demonstrasi mereka selagi kumpulan itu tidak melibatkan penyertaan mana-mana parti politik dalam demonstrasi hari ini.  Kumpulan mahasiswa yang terdiri gabungan Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM) dan Gerakan Menuntut Kebebasan Akademik (Bebas) bergerak menuju ke bangunan Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia (Suhakam) dari Masjid Jamek dengan membawa sepanduk antaranya bertulis "Mahasiswa Bukan Robot, Mansuhkan AUKU, Bebaskan Mahasiswa Berpartisan dalam Politik". Mereka kemudiannya duduk di atas jalan raya di Jalan Sultan Ismail berhadapan bangunan Suhakam sambil diawasi kira-kira 15 anggota polis berpakaian uniform. Kumpulan mahasiswa ini turut melaungkan "hidup-hidup, mahasiswa, hidup-hidup kebebasan, mansuhkan AUKU sambil diselang-selikan dengan ucapan daripada wakil-wakil persatuan mahasiswa daripada institusi pengajian tinggi seluruh negara.  Peserta demonstrasi tersebut dilihat turut bertengkar dengan beberapa pengguna jalan raya termasuk seorang penunggang motosikal yang tidak senang dengan tindakan mereka menghalang lalu lintas dan mengarahkan mereka ke tepi jalan. "Woi, tepi lah! orang nak pergi kerja, janganlah duduk sini (tengah jalan)", dan kemudiannya salah seorang daripada peserta demonstrasi menjawab, "aku pun bayar cukai, suka hati lah". Dalam demonstrasi terbabit, kumpulan ini turut menyerahkan memorandum kepada Pesuruhjaya Suhakam, Md Sha'ani Abdullah. Dalam kenyataannya kepada media, Md Sha'ani berkata, tindakan kumpulan terbabit duduk di atas jalan raya dan menghalang lalu lintas merupakan suatu kesalahan undang-undang, tetapi kehendak mereka tidak boleh dinafikan. "Memang tindakan mereka itu merupakan satu kesalahan, tetapi kita tidak boleh menafikan hak mereka, sebelum ini pun belum ada lagi orang yang ditahan kerana menghalang lalu lintas," katanya selepas sesi penyerahan memorandum. Menurutnya, memorandum tersebut akan diteliti dan ada perkara tertakluk di bawah hak asasi manusia sejagat. "Suhakam akan meneliti memorandum yang diserahkan, dan kami percaya pernyataan ketidak puasan hati  boleh melalui pelbagai bentuk, sama seperti berdemonstrasi demi untuk menarik perhatian golongan tertentu apabila medium lain seperti surat dan sebagainya tidak mendapat respon yang sewajarnya," jelasnya.  Setelah kira-kira 30 minit berdemonstrasi di kawasan pejabat Suhakam, kumpulan mahasiswa kemudiannya bergerak ke Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC) untuk mengadakan demonstrasi dan menyerahkan memorandum kepada Umno. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

SBPA: Jelaskan rasa tidak puas hati, Subra gesa Cuepacs Posted: 17 Dec 2011 01:48 AM PST SERI KEMBANGAN, 17 Dis — Kongres Kesatuan Pekerja-pekerja Di Dalam Perkhidmatan Awam (Cuepacs) perlu menjelaskan secara lebih terperinci kepada kerajaan berhubung rasa tidak puas hati terhadap Skim Saraan Baru Perkhidmatan Awam (SBPA) supaya ia dapat ditangani secepat mungkin.  Cuepacs akan mengadakan perhimpunan khas di ibu negara esok. Menteri Sumber Manusia Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam berkata perbincangan lanjut dengan Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) merupakan antara cara terbaik dalam membantu kerajaan mengambil langkah yang dapat menggembirakan semua pihak. "Tujuan kerajaan ialah untuk membuat penambahbaikan dan peluang tambahan kepada anggota perkhidmatan awam, tetapi kalau ini mendatangkan isu, Cuepacs kena jelaskan kepada kerajaan supaya perkara itu boleh ditangani dan semua orang puas hati," katanya dipetik Bernama Online. Subramaniam (gambar) ditemui pemberita selepas merasmikan "Konvensyen Antarabangsa Dr Ambedkar" di sini hari ini. Laporan sebelum ini menyebut Cuepacs akan menemui Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak pada Isnin bagi membincangkan mengenai SBPA yang disifatkan tidak begitu adil.  Mengulas lanjut, Dr Subramaniam berkata skim baru yang ditawarkan itu bukan satu paksaan, malah terpulang kepada kakitangan kerajaan untuk menerima tawaran atau kekal dengan sistem lama. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Rovers running out of time Posted: 16 Dec 2011 04:02 PM PST DEC 17 — It might be the last weekend before Christmas, but there's not much festive cheer being directed by Blackburn Rovers fans towards their manager Steve Kean or the club's owners, the Indian poultry company Venky's. Rovers are rooted firmly in the Premier League relegation zone, having won just two games so far this season. Even the most recent victory — a 4-2 home success over Swansea a couple of weeks ago — did little to raise spirits amongst the Ewood Park faithful as the post-match talk was dominated by a heated debate over the rights and wrongs of some fans booing striker Yakubu when he celebrated a goal by running over to receive the congratulations of his much-maligned manager. Rovers now face a potentially decisive pair of home fixtures: today against West Bromwich Albion, and on Tuesday night in a relegation six-pointer Lancashire derby with bottom-placed Bolton. If Blackburn fail to win either of those games, they will face a long and hard struggle to avoid relegation — especially as their following two fixtures are away at Liverpool and Manchester United; a pair of home wins, though, could propel them away from the relegation zone and inject a rare dose of positivity before Christmas arrives. And how they need some positivity. It's been a tough year for Kean and the Venky's, who have continually lost the PR battle since their arrival at Ewood Park last November. In the emotive world of professional football, that PR battle can often be decisive: it's not necessarily what you're doing that counts, it's what the fans think you're doing. Upon arrival in Blackburn 13 months ago, the Venky's quickly set themselves up for a fall by declaring their intentions to turn the club into regular Champions League contestants and sign players of the stature of Ronaldinho and David Beckham. That's a dangerous game, especially when the talk isn't followed up by action, and the Venky's failure to follow up their hot air with a significant transfer kitty was a cause for alarm. It immediately looked like they didn't really know what they were doing — whether that was true or not, that was the impression created. Instead of signing superstars, the new owners' most significant early move was to sack experienced manager Sam Allardyce and replace him with his coach, Kean, who had never previously managed any club. That move prompted a chorus of complaints from supporters, and it's a chorus that has never been quietened as fans continue to clamour for the dismissal of a man they believe is out of his depth. I have a lot of sympathy for Kean, a former colleague of mine at Reading (where he was a member of Tommy Burns' backroom team) who has been placed in a very difficult situation not of his own making. He is a hard-working and decent man who clearly understands football inside-out after spending more than a decade as a coach at Reading, Fulham, Real Sociedad, Coventry and Blackburn. When the owners decided to sack Allardyce and offer Kean the job, what was he supposed to do? Say "no thanks, the fans might not like it", or take the opportunity that had come his way and try to make the most of it? There was only one option, and Kean doesn't deserve the vitriol that is being poured in his direction. But whether he deserves it or not, the criticism won't abate (unless, of course, he leads the team on a six-game winning streak including victories in those away games at Anfield and Old Trafford). That's simply how fans work: they're not happy, so they're going to show it by booing and calling for the manager's dismissal — even though everybody knows that Kean isn't the underlying cause of the team's woes. In fact, the current plight at Blackburn provides an interesting example of the rights and obligations of supporters: are Blackburn fans correct to direct such intense and sustained protests because they sincerely believe they have the club's best long-term interests at heart? Or should they just put their negative views to one side and focus all their energies into supporting their team through an extremely challenging period? After all, it can hardly help the morale amongst Blackburn's players to have one of their goalscorers booed by his own fans for celebrating with his manager — and the players are not the ones blamed by Blackburn fans for their current situation. Fans being unhappy with an owner or a manager is hardly a new scenario, and by now you'd have thought that supporters would have worked out the best way to show their discontent in a constructive fashion. The ideal solution, surely, would be for fans to come together and agree on an organised campaign which insists on protests taking place only before and after matchdays, with nothing but a positive, supportive display of solidarity during the actual games. That way, fans could make their feelings known whilst still remaining supportive of the team, aiming their anger in the direction of the right people and avoiding the potential of being blamed for bad results by creating a negative atmosphere. However, that would be a rather clinical, rational and unimpassioned way of dealing with the situation, and that's not how football fans are. Supporting a football club — or any sporting team — is a strange and irrational business that gets to the heart of human relationships in all their complexities. Fully grown adults with responsible jobs and loving families spending a small fortune and getting themselves all worked up about 22 men running around a field? On the face of it, being a football fan is a faintly ludicrous occupation. Yet it possesses the power to stir deep feelings amongst people of all shapes and sizes all over the planet, so it cannot be dismissed as worthless or pointless. Due to the very nature of the activity, though, it cannot be approached from a rational point of view — you can't think logically if you want to understand what being a fan involves. So although it might make sense for Blackburn fans to realise that their players are struggling and therefore need help and encouragement, that common-sense approach just won't happen. Instead there will be frustration, boos, chants, insults and self-destructive anger. And when a club sets off down that negative road, there's a word for the likely destination: relegation. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

A year of Malaysian cinema Posted: 16 Dec 2011 03:46 PM PST DEC 17 — By the end of this month, a total of 42 Malay films would have been shown in local cinemas this year. With the exception of two films that have yet to come out at the time of writing, I've only failed to see nine of them, because I either couldn't find the time to do so or simply because I have no interest in seeing them, which might be the result of a very bad trailer or it being made by a director whom I've given up hope on. If you add non-Malay-language Malaysian films like "Great Day", "Nasi Lemak 2.0", "Year Without A Summer" and "Petaling Street Warriors" (all of which I saw in cinemas) and films that didn't go through the Skim Wajib Tayang like "2 Alam" to the equation, it's even clearer how exceptionally productive Malaysian cinema has been this year. As a keen observer of Malaysian cinema all these years though this is still no bumper year in terms of quality, I've sensed a general improvement in quite a few areas, which can only serve as reason for optimism for the future. First amongst these is the amazing box-office numbers crunched up by a very healthy number of films. All of Malaysia already knows about "RM20 million man" Syamsul Yusof who scored big this year with "Khurafat" (RM8 million) and "KL Gangster" (RM12 million). What people might not realise is that there are around seven to eight other films scoring more than RM5 million this year, including non-Malay films like "Nasi Lemak 2.0" and "Great Day". "Hantu Bonceng" and "Kongsi" both grossed upwards of RM8 million, with current box-office sensation "Ombak Rindu" (reportedly bulldozing with RM5.5 million in just one week) armed with a very realistic chance of joining the RM8 million club, and maybe even more when the film finally finishes its run in cinemas. What this shows is that there is an audience hungry for and willing to spend their money watching Malaysian films in cinemas, and not just Malay films at that. The variety of the films hitting box-office gold this year also shows that we're not hungry for just one type of film, which can only be a good thing in the long run. Another very interesting development, at least for me personally, is David Teo's Metrowealth blossoming more or less into a sort of mini-studio, or at least a small scale Malaysian version of a movie factory, usually coming out with at least one or two movies per month. It's an interesting business model — keep the costs low, churn them out fast, and with the law of averages pointing to at least two or three of them striking good at the box office, the costs and risks for the entire operation will be more or less be covered by the hits. And when you have to keep the costs low and churn them out fast, the cheapest and easiest way to do it is to give new and young filmmakers a chance, which indirectly provides a training ground for new filmmakers to learn on the job. Remember Roger Corman and his trashy B-movie factory of the late '60s, which saw people like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme and so many others cut their teeth there? Scorsese didn't start with "Mean Streets". No sir, his first "real" film (discounting his student film "Who's That Knocking At My Door?") was a trashy B-movie called "Boxcar Bertha", made for Corman. Coppola, the legend that he is now having made "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now", started with a trashy B-movie called "Dementia 13", also made for Corman. So before you dismiss David Teo and his merry gang of newbies at Metrowealth, have a think about the eventual impact of Corman and his merry gang of newbies, especially considering the gradual improvement and variety of Metrowealth's films this year. And speaking of improvement in quality and variety, I would also like to highlight a few films that caught my eye but seem to be overlooked this year. For fans of horror, do yourself a favour and hunt down the DVD for "Seru", a found footage horror film that's got some truly effective scares and artfully clever storytelling. I think it failed at the box office because it opened just a week after "Penunggu Istana", a pretty weak and annoying found footage horror film, which I think put people off giving "Seru" a decent chance. To all you lovers of romantic comedy, do check out "Tolong! Awek Aku Pontianak", a sweet and funny hybrid of romantic comedy and horror, if only because the hero falls in love with a female vampire. If serious dramas are your thing, then make sure you don't miss "Songlap", playing in cinemas now, probably the bravest and most uncompromising Malaysian mainstream film that I've ever seen so far. A bit further off the beaten path is the new film directed by Namron titled "Jalan Pintas", which I managed to see at a relatively unpublicised screening, but is very much worth your time. And finally, what's a year without a disaster or two, right? Even though the words "Malay films" and "disaster" go hand in hand more times than anyone would comfortably want to admit, there was one stretch of the year where the disasters played back to back with alarming rapidity, the crowning glory of which is the movie "Abuya", a totally unmitigated disaster of a movie if I ever saw one (this despite all the lovely ladies starring in it). Filled to the brim with WTF moments and unintentional hilarity, this is one movie you'll have to see for yourself. And when even the disasters turn out to be quite morbidly entertaining, I'd say it's not been a bad year at all, don't you think? * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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