Sabtu, 29 September 2012

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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The Malaysian Insider :: Food

Wine and your health: your questions answered

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 07:14 PM PDT

A man tastes grape juice as women squash grapes with their feet in traditional style during the autumn harvest celebration and young wine preparations in Aliman village, some 240km east of Bucharest, September 28, 2012. — Reuters pic

LOS ANGELES , Sept 30 — From protecting your heart health and lowering breast cancer risk to fighting off colds and gum disease, red wine is touted as a medicinal super food.

But before you crack open that bottle and toast your good health, here is what you need to know.

Is red wine healthier than white?

Yes, experts say, but not all grapes are created equal. White wine contains resveratrol but not as much as red, and scientists believe pinot noir grapes have the highest concentration of the compound.

Is wine fattening?

Actually, researchers from Purdue University say they've found a compound in red wine, grapes, blueberries, and passion fruit that blocks immature fat cells' ability to develop and grow. Studies find that people who drink wine daily have lower body mass than those who indulge occasionally; moderate wine drinkers have narrower waists and less abdominal fat than people who drink liquor. Plus, if you're going to drink, wine is the most calorie-friendly choice with a typical 20 calories per 28g.

Is it okay to drink wine, or any alcohol, during pregnancy?

It's complicated. A new series of studies from Denmark found that children of women drinking up to eight alcoholic drinks a week in early pregnancy showed no effects in terms of intelligence, attention, or self-control at age five. Yet many doctors still advise pregnant women to avoid alcohol altogether. Drinking during pregnancy, particularly heavy drinking and especially during the seventh and 12th weeks of pregnancy, has been linked to foetal alcohol syndrome, which causes serious developmental problems in children. This is a question best settled with your doctor.

Will drinking wine boost a woman's risk of breast cancer?

The jury is still out. Women who drink three to six glasses of alcohol per week have a 15 per cent higher risk of getting breast cancer than women who do not drink, according to research led by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Yet in a conflicting study at the University of Calabria, Italy, the resveratrol compound was also found to block the cancer-fuelling effects of the female hormone oestrogen, as well as inhibiting the growth of breast cancer cells that have become hormone resistant.

Will wine reduce blood pressure?

There is research aplenty on the heart health benefits of a daily glass (or two) of red wine, but Dutch researchers discovered that the antioxidants in wine that account for the benefits don't reduce blood pressure.

Can I get all the health benefits of wine from drinking grape juice?

Maybe: According to the Mayo Clinic, some research studies suggest that red and purple grape juices may provide some of the same heart benefits of red wine, including reducing the risk of blood clots, reducing so-called bad cholesterol, and preventing damage to blood vessels in the heart. Some research suggests that whole grapes deliver the same amount of antioxidants that are in grape juice and wine but have the added benefit of providing dietary fiber.

Is wine healthier than beer or hard liquor?

Possibly: Multiple studies have show any type of alcohol, when consumed in moderation, offers life-extending benefits. But the polyphenols, resveratrol, and other ingredients common to wine have also been shown to prevent heart disease, slow muscle deterioration, and offer other health-boosting effects not found in beer or spirits. — AFP-Relaxnews

Plans afoot to open Vogue café inside Dubai Mall

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 06:33 PM PDT

'Vogue' plans to open a café inside the new shoe department of The Dubai Mall, billed to be the biggest in the world. — AFP pic

DUBAI, Sept 30 — Vogue has announced plans to open a café for the well-heeled inside the largest shoe store in the world by the end of the year in Dubai.

The Vogue Café will serve international cuisine inside Dubai Mall's Level Shoe District, which will house designer shoe brands across 8,919sqm.

Plans are also afoot for a GQ Bar which will open in an as-of-yet unnamed international five-star hotel in the city.

Currently, parent company Condé Nast Restaurants operates a Vogue Café, GQ Bar and Tatler Club in Moscow, with plans to launch more outposts in Istanbul and Kiev early next year.

Condé Nast isn't the only publishing powerhouse to mix food and fashion.

Heart Digital Media magazine Harper's Bazaar hosted a pop-up bar at luxury Paris hotel Le Bristol during fashion week earlier this spring. — AFP-Relaxnews

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The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

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The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

Chelsea win at Arsenal to continue strong start

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 07:30 AM PDT

Chelsea's Ashley Cole (L), John Mikel Obi (C) and John Terry celebrate at the final whistle after beating Arsenal in their English Premier League soccer match at the Emirates Stadium in London September 29, 2012. – Reuters pic

LONDON, Sept 29 – Premier League leaders Chelsea beat London rivals Arsenal 2-1 with goals from Spaniards Fernando Torres and Juan Mata today to maintain their unbeaten start to the season while handing Arsenal their first defeat.

Both Chelsea goals came as a result of Mata free kicks with Torres benefiting from some poor defending by Laurent Koscielny to volley the European champions ahead at the Emirates Stadium after 20 minutes.

Gervinho equalised for Arsenal three minutes before the break when he turned crisply and fired into the roof of the net for his fourth goal of the season.

Chelsea, who started with John Terry as he mulls an appeal over a four-game ban for racist abuse, regained the lead after 53 minutes when Mata's free kick eluded everyone before clipping Koscielny and flying in past Arsenal keeper Vito Mannone.

The victory lifted Chelsea four points clear at the top, at least until the rest of the programme later today. – Reuters

Lorenzo seizes pole in Aragon

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 07:04 AM PDT

Yamaha MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo of Spain shake hands with Yamaha's staff after his pole position during qualifying session at the Aragon Grand Prix at Motorland race track in Alcaniz, near Zaragoza, September 29, 2012. – Reuters pic

ALCANIZ, Sept 29 – MotoGP leader Jorge Lorenzo took pole for tomorrow's Aragon Grand Prix by edging out rival and Spanish compatriot Dani Pedrosa in a close-fought battle.

Yamaha's Lorenzo set a fastest lap of one minute 49.404 seconds on home soil as Pedrosa, 38 points behind him in the overall standings in second spot, could only qualify second on his Honda.

Britain's Cal Crutchlow was third quickest with American Ben Spies, also on a Yamaha, managing fourth on the grid having been quickest in yesterday's second practice.

Valentino Rossi's woeful season for Ducati continued as he qualified eighth. – Reuters

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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Activity programmes do little to get kids moving, says study

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 11:01 PM PDT

A new British study finds that activity programmes for kids, such as extra-curricular exercise clubs, have little impact on children's overall daily activity, and hence on obesity rates. — Reuters pic

NEW YORK, Sept 29 — According to new research out this week, programmes designed to get kids moving have little impact on children's overall daily activity — with results equivalent to just an extra four minutes walking or running per day. To fend off soaring obesity rates, experts say that is clearly not enough.

Published in the British Medical Journal, the findings also showed that children who attended extra-curricular exercise clubs or PE classes did less activity at home afterwards.

Researchers from Plymouth University in the UK looked at 30 studies, involving more than 14,300 participants, that monitored activity levels of children under 16.

Brad Metcalf, lead author of the study, told the BBC that "extra-curricular PE lessons could often be far from energetic." He adds, "A PE lesson can be 10 minutes of running, 10 minutes of walking, and 20 minutes of standing in a queue waiting for your turn."

Also the BBC reports that kids may feel encouraged to snack more at home afterwards because they feel they have been more active, "or parents may decide not to take their children to the park because they believe they have already had their exercise for the day."

However new US research published this July in the journal Paediatrics finds that kids who play on several sports teams are nearly 40 per cent less likely to be obese. "Team sport participation had the strongest and most consistent inverse association with weight status," wrote researchers from the Hood Center for Children and Families at Dartmouth in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

In addition, the researchers also found that teens who walked or biked to school more than three days a week had a 33 per cent lower risk of obesity than those who took the bus or rode in a car.

The CDC in the US and NHS in the UK both recommend that school-aged children get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. — Reuters

A letter from Indonesia: Shiites in Southeast Asia

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 07:45 PM PDT

A poster of Shiite leader Musa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978, is seen in front of a poster of Pope Benedict XVI at roadside, — Reuters pic

SEPT 29 — Over Eid Fitri in Indonesia, news about the persecution of Shiite Muslims blared out daily in the Jakarta Post, Kompas and Jakarta Globe, to name a few. It has become more violent, and it is very surprising for a country like Indonesia, which has a reputation of being open-minded and inclusive. Over 80 per cent of Indonesians are Muslims, and many still practice animist rituals and beliefs alongside their Muslim faith, and there are reputedly many inter-faith marriages. The Shiite Muslim persecution could well be the unveiling of a new Muslim Indonesia, which is of intolerance.

On August 26, 2012, Shiites in East Java were chased out of their homes, torched, killed by machetes, and are now believed to be in hiding in nearby forests and other areas in Sampang, Madura. In spite of the violence they faced, the Shiites have expressed wanting to go back to work, and homes. They are not transplanted Indonesians from other areas; they were born and bred in Sampang. They're as native as a native can get, and yet their faith has ostracised a community against them.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now in Jakarta for talks on the US-Indonesia Comprehenseive Partnership. The Human Rights Watch reported in its website on September 2, 2012, that "… (Clinton) should raise concerns about religious minorities and political prisoners with the Indonesian … and (she) should press the Indonesian government to take concrete steps to address rising religious intolerance," said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director. "Indonesia needs to recognize that oppressive laws and policies against religious minorities fuel violence and discrimination."

Indonesian authorities have failed to adequately address increasing incidents of mob violence by militant Islamist groups in Java and Sumatra against religious minorities, including the Ahmadiyah, Christians, and Shia Muslims, The Human Rights Watch stated.

Earlier this month, The Jakarta Post reported,"Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali says converting Shiite Muslims to the Sunni Islam followed by most Indonesians would be the best way to prevent violent outbreaks between the sects in Sampang, East Java." He referred to "the local religious leader in Ciaruteun village in Bogor, West Java, who persuaded 15 members of the minority Muslim Ahmadiyah sect in March 2011 to convert to the form of Islam practiced by most Indonesian Muslims."

For the layman seeking to understand the Shiite-Sunni divide, a good primer would be Reza Aslan's book, No God but God. In short, the divide is about familial politics versus the Caliphates. The divide began when followers of The Prophet Mohammaed (PBUH) disagreed on the leadership of Islam, upon the Prophet's death. Shiites believe that it should be Ali, the late Prophet's son-in-law, to take up the rein. This war still persists until today.

The Malaysian scenario

Now while it would seem that the Shiite Muslims of Indonesia are true Indonesians, what of the Shiites of Malaysia?

There is a small minority of Shiite Muslims (about 40,000 to 50,000) in Malaysia. Islam arrived in the country and around the region in the 12th century (or even as early as the seventh). Traders from India, Middle East and China came to trade, not conduct missionary work, though there were a few missionaries who came to the new land. Who can say that the traders were Sunni Muslims, when history has alluded that some of the traders themselves were recent converts? Shiite Muslims are not a contemporary phenomenon.

Now, what of the recent arrivals of Iranians and Iraqis who have been changing the food and neighbourhood landscapes? Middleeastern fare is popular with Malaysians and tourists, and areas like Ampang and Bukit Bintang, once the havens of Caucasian expatriates, is dotted with Arab supermarkets.

There are about 60,000 Iranians living in Malaysia, and according to Property Report Asia, are some of the biggest property buyers. Many participate in the Malaysian My Second Home Programme. With their arrival (and food palate), come a new life that Malaysian Muslims are not comfortable with. Many Iranians keep dogs. For the canine-phobic observant Malaysian Muslim, seeing a dog in the home of a Muslim is akin to seeing the devil. Our young women swoon over Middle Eastern men's exotic looks. Locals can't understand it.

Let us assume that some, if not many of these Persian residents are Shiite Muslims. Add ours to the fore. Consider these:

• What will the Malaysian government do now, when it is reliant on trade and business with these countries? Creating new mosques just for the Shiite foreigners is not a solution. That would be preferential treatment based on business.

• The government and Malaysians will now have to seriously consider assimilation. Will Malaysia practise selective migration - choosing only Sunni Muslim professionals such as doctors, lawyers and such - so that there is no divide among Sunni Muslim Malaysians?

• Does Malaysia focus on assimilation or integration? Is she able to when she cannot manage her own racial politics?

• Will the international Shiite community have access to our resources, which is denied to Malaysia's own Shiite Muslims?

• To integrate into Malaysian life, will intermarriage be allowed, especially with a Sunni Malaysian and Shiite expatriate/immigrant?

• Lastly, will Shiite Muslims in Malaysia be persuaded to convert to the Sunni path?

• While Indonesia Shiite Muslims want dialogue, it does not look that the Malaysian Shiite Community will be afforded an opportunity.

The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

Stephen Chow makes movie comeback in early 2013

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 08:13 AM PDT

Hong Kong actor Stephen Chow in 2008. – AFP pic

LOS ANGELES, Sept 29 – Top Asian actor-turned-director Stephen Chow will direct five films over the next seven years in a new deal with ChinaVision media group, beginning with the newest movie directed by Chow, an adaptation of the Chinese classic Journey to the West, announced ChinaVision this week.

The Chinese-language movie titled Chu Mo Chuan Qi, translated as "Slayer Legend," is expected to be released during the Lunar New Year in February 2013. The film release will mark the on-screen return of the Hong Kong-born star, who last appeared in front of the camera in 2008 in CJ7, which he also directed.

Hong Kong-born Chow hailed as the king of comedy in Asia and has a successful career marked by a string of box-office hits including Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.

His newest movie, reportedly in post-production, is a spiritual adventure movie and is expected to feature Chow's signature 'wu li tou' slapstick humour. The film will co-star other top Asian actors including Shu Qi and Show Luo.

This film is the second movie version of Journey to the West starring Chow, who played the Monkey God in the 1994 production, also known as A Chinese Odyssey.

Journey to the West is popular fodder for Chinese film directors and has seen numerous adaptations on television and in movies.

Published in 1592 by Chinese writer Wu Ch'eng-en, the novel is a fictionalised account of the pilgrimage of a seventh-century monk, Xuan Zhang, who has to travel to India to bring Buddhist scriptures back to China for translation.

As the journey is fraught with danger, the monk is assigned the protection of three bodyguards, including the Monkey King god. – AFP/Relaxnews

Justin Timberlake may play food critic in ‘The Last Drop’

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 04:24 AM PDT

Justin Timberlake will soon be back in theatres in the Coen brothers' 'Inside Llewyn Davis'. – AFP pic

LOS ANGELES, Sept 29 – Justin Timberlake is tied to romcom The Last Drop, in which he would portray a food critic with a drinking problem, according to Variety.

Timberlake is in talks to take on the lead role; if the deal is reached, he will play a charming food critic for New York Magazine who has a serious drinking problem. When he meets the woman of his dreams, he realises he has to choose between love and the bottle.

Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) is tied to the project as a director. Production dates have yet to be announced. – AFP/Relaxnews

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The Malaysian Insider :: Books

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The Malaysian Insider :: Books

Rushdie says writers losing influence in West

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 04:55 PM PDT

Author Salman Rushdie gestures during an interview with Reuters in central London, September 28, 2012. — Reuters pic

LONDON, Sept 29 — Salman Rushdie believes literature has lost much of its influence in the West, and movie stars like George Clooney and Angelina Jolie have taken the place of Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer when it comes to addressing the big issues.

The British author, who has just released his account of 10 years in hiding after an Iranian fatwa was declared against him in 1989, believes the "Arab Spring" uprisings have failed but that there is hope for freer Muslim societies in the future.

He has warm words for his elder son Zafar who was nine when the famous edict which amounted to a death sentence was announced, but the tone turns harsh when dealing with famous figures like Rupert Murdoch, the Prince of Wales and John Le Carre who he said failed to back him during the dark years.

And with the publication of "Joseph Anton", a 633-page autobiography, the 65-year-old is finally determined to put the fatwa behind him.

"I have a sense of people thinking it (literature) is less important," he told Reuters on Friday in a wide-ranging interview at Waterstone's book store in central London.

"If you look at America, for instance, there is a generation older than mine in which writers like Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal would have a significant public voice on issues of the day. Now there's virtually no writers.

"Instead you have movie stars, so if you are George Clooney or Angelina Jolie then you do have the ability to speak about public issues ... and people will listen in a way they would once listen to Mailer and Sontag. That's a change."

He added that in authoritarian countries the situation was different, and literature had held on to some of its power.

"In those places literature continues to be important as you can see by the steps taken against writers," he said, counting China among them.

Fatwa and free speech

More than almost anyone, Rushdie sums up one of the most pressing problems facing leaders today - the tension between free speech and the desire to avoid offending people's faith.

He argues in his book that he does not feel his novel "The Satanic Verses", which prompted the fatwa, should have been particularly offensive to Muslims in the first place.

But Rushdie said he would continue to defend even the most provocative individual's right to express an opinion.

Joseph Anton (Rushdie's pseudonym while he was in hiding) hit the shelves at the same time as a film, made in the United States mocking the Prophet Mohammad, sparked riots across the Muslim world leading to many deaths.

"It's clear that you have to defend things you don't agree with," he said, when asked if he thought the film should have been censored in any way.

"What is free speech if it's only for people that you agree with? Often in the free speech argument you find yourself defending stuff you really dislike. I've seen this film and it's as bad as it can be. It's so incompetent that you wonder how anyone can get upset about it."

He described what he called the "outrage industry" in which people deliberately "inflamed the faithful".

Part of that "industry" pointed the finger at him again in recent weeks, with a semi-official Iranian foundation upping the bounty on his head to US$3.3 million (RM10 million).

Asked if he feared for his life, Rushdie replied: "The world is a dangerous place and there's never a 100 per cent guarantee, but in general for the last decade it's been really okay."

The author who won a Booker Prize in 1981 for "Midnight's Children" said he saw hope for a better understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim countries, but only in the long-term.

"I'm less optimistic in the short-term because I think right now the temperature is very high, but in the medium- to long-term I think it will change," he said.

"In those countries in which Islamic radicalism has been most powerful it's also most disliked. So the people of Iran are not enamoured of the Ayatollah's regime, the people of Afghanistan were not enamoured of the Taliban."

He believed the "Arab Spring" uprisings had failed, but that the fight for a free society would not go away.

"I think in the long-term you have to believe that this very young population in the Arab world demanding a better life for itself will somehow make its views known and I don't think we've heard the last of that."

Praise for son

Elements of Joseph Anton are intensely intimate. It speaks of the death of close friends and family members including Rushdie's first wife Clarissa, while his second wife Marianne Wiggins is portrayed as delusional.

He points fingers at those he thought betrayed him, although in the interview he denied setting out to settle scores.

His elder son Zafar, who was nine when the fatwa was declared and who saw his father only occasionally in the first few years, features prominently.

"In a way he had a harder job than me because he had to grow up too," he said of his son.

"He was nine when this began, he was 21 when it ended so that's an extraordinary atmosphere in which to grow up having to conceal your father's home address from your friends.

"He could easily have been messed up by it, but instead he comes out of it serene, good-natured mature, much calmer than me. I'm the arm-waver in the family. He's the sort of unflappable voice of serenity and reason."

He said he was worried when his second son Milan was born.

"I thought, 'here I am bringing another child into this nightmare and what are we going to do? How is he going to go to school? Does he have to start lying at the age of two?

"In the end I just thought that it was a kind of act of optimism to have a child. It was a way of saying there's going to be a life after this."

Rushdie said the fatwa was not something he would choose to live through, even though it made him one of the world's best-known writers and opened doors to the great and good from President Bill Clinton to U2's Bono and downwards.

"I would have much rather it hadn't (happened)," he said. "But given that it did I am prepared to try and use that experience in order to say what I think about what's happening.

"If you had offered me, on February 13, 1989 for this not to happen on February 14 I would have taken you on, because I was perfectly content with my life as it was. I had a good life as a writer, I had written some books that were well-liked.

"I would much rather have my 40s back. I was 41 when it started and that decade, which is supposed to be the prime of life, for me turned into a kind of nightmare."

Wig disguise

Joseph Anton is a highly personal account of Rushdie's life on the run, of relationships which flowered and died, of swanky parties where he rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous and of years of despair and frustration.

It is tragic, funny and at times both.

Rushdie recalls scurrying to the bathroom to avoid being discovered by the cleaning lady in one of many safe houses. His guards suggest a wig as a disguise, but when he goes out wearing it a man calls out: "There's that bastard Rushdie in a wig."

He said he hoped Joseph Anton would help him move on from his past, and in particular the fatwa: "I think it's a way of drawing a line under it, you know?"

With a broad smile, he concluded: "I do think that in future, if I do publish future books and somebody wants to go back into this story I can just hit them over the head with a 600-page book." — Reuters

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The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa

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The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa

Noh Omar yakin BN menang 32 kerusi ADUN di Selangor

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 01:51 AM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]SELAYANG, 29 Sept – Datuk Seri Noh Omar yakin Barisan Nasional (BN) akan menawan semula Selangor dengan memenangi 32 kerusi. Beliau berkata, dalam keadaan sekarang, masyarakat di Selangor mulai sedar bahawa Pakatan Rakyat (PR) tidak mampu memerintah negeri. “Saya tidak mahu mendahului takdir, tetapi Insya-Allah saya yakin BN mampu kembali menawan ...

Kerajaan mampu bayar hutang negara: Ahmad Husni

Posted: 29 Sep 2012 01:43 AM PDT

IPOH, 29 Sept – Rakyat tidak perlu bimbang dengan kadar hutang negara kerana kerajaan mampu membayarnya, kata Menteri Kewangan Kedua Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah.

Beliau berkata kerajaan membuat pinjaman berdasarkan kemampuannya untuk membayar balik pinjaman berkenaan.

"Kita mampu bayar balik. Tidak pernah di dalam sejarah (kita tidak bayar hutang).... sejak saya Ahli Parlimen, kita tidak pernah hadapi hutang kita," katanya kepada pemberita selepas merasmikan Mesyuarat Agung Tahunan Persatuan Kontraktor Melayu Malaysia Perak di sini hari ini.

Beliau mengulas dakwaan pembangkang bahawa Belanjawan 2013 yang dibentangkan semalam tidak mengambi kira situasi ekonomi dengan hutang negara yang semakin meningkat.

Ahmad Husni berkata keupayaan membayar hutang itu bergantung kepada beberapa faktor termasuk jumlah dan tempoh bayaran pinjaman yang dibuat.

"Kalau kita buat pinjaman RM1 bilion dan tempoh bayarannya adalah 20 tahun, jumlah yang perlu dibayar adalah rendah berbanding bayaran dalam tempoh lima tahun," katanya.

Beliau berkata hutang negara ketika ini berada pada paras tidak melebihi 55 peratus daripada Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar (KDNK).

Ahmad Husni menjelaskan pinjaman yang dibuat oleh kerajaan digunakan untuk tujuan pembangunan yang dapat menghasilkan kesan berganda bagi memangkinkan pertumbuhan ekonomi negara.

Beliau berkata kerajaan perlu meminjam bagi memastikan pembangunan dapat dilaksanakan.

"Kita perlu meminjam. Jika tidak, kita tidak dapat melaksanakan sebarang pembangunan tetapi perlu dilakukan pada tahap keupayaan untuk membayar balik," katanya.

Laporan Ekonomi 2012/2013 yang dikeluarkan semalam menyebut hutang kerajaan Persekutuan dijangka meningkat 10.1 peratus kepada RM502.4 bilion disebabkan pinjaman domestik yang lebih tinggi untuk memenuhi keperluan pembiayaan.

Menurut laporan itu, jumlah hutang kerajaan Persekutuan dijangka meningkat kepada 53.7 peratus daripada KDNK tahun ini. – Bernama

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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Gunners’ pride, on and off the pitch

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 06:09 PM PDT

SEPT 29 — It has been another successful year. That is what Arsenal can proudly claim … after the financial results were officially announced yesterday by Arsenal Holdings plc.

According to the report, revenues from football increased to £235.3 million (RM1.17 billion) — up from £225.4 million in 2011; operating profit in the football business was £32.3 million — down from £45.8 million last year due to increased wage costs; profit from player trading was £26 million — the result of a number of significant player sales, including Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri; and finally, group profit before tax was £36.6 million, which is more than double last year's £14.8 million.

Meanwhile, at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad, oil barons do what they do best, grease any problem by pumping in even more money to help managers rev up their professional fantasies on the pitch. That both clubs are running at massive operating losses despite significant earnings from their winning the Champions League and Premiership titles, respectively, in May, matters not.

Can you hear that? It is the sound of moaning Arsenal supporters around the world wanting a little bit of that glory too, as the directors walk happily along the hallways of Ashburton Grove (the real name for the Emirates stadium) that have been barren of a trophy cabinet since the club moved from their previous home, Highbury.

That the financial results should be released on the eve of a major London derby with Chelsea just enhances the disparity between both these clubs.

But this Gooner is not complaining. I continue to believe in the principle of building a winning team, rather than buying one. With or without UEFA's Financial Fair Play guidelines (or rules), the Gunners are going to be the winners in the long run. Fans just have to be patient.

I strongly believe, however, that they need not wait too long. This season has clearly seen one of the strongest starts by Arsene Wenger's men (and boys) in recent memory.

Last weekend's display of grit and flair combined, gave the rest of the Premiership a taste of the Gunners' real strength — failing to take all three points against Man City only because of poor finishing.

Then, in mid-week, the trouncing of League One side Coventry City in the League Cup, in which a few seniors (including Theo Walcott and Andrey Arshavin) combined well with younger talents, further enhanced the possibility that this season might be the start of Wenger's long-awaited victorious comeback trail and prove his critics wrong once and for all.

Not that I ever doubted him, nor felt he needed a comeback of any sorts. He has delivered every season he has been with the club, and many a club would give up all their failed managers for even half a Wenger, let alone a complete one.

For example, it is not often that one can get a better buy on the transfer market for half the price. That's exactly what happened after Wenger failed to get Eden Hazard from Lille due to the £32 million price tag, which Chelsea willingly paid.

Instead, the professor, who celebrated his 16th year in charge of the Gunners yesterday, targeted a talented Spaniard by the name of Santi Cazorla for about £16 million.

The official Premiership stats has shown that in the first five matches played this season, the individual performance of Cazorla has easily overshadowed that of Hazard. Yes, the season is long and form may change, but it has already set him apart as being possibly the best buy of the summer transfer market.

Cazorla, who previously plied his trade at Primera Liga side Malaga, has made many stand up and take notice of the Gunners in a way they have not for many years. Some even rate him higher than Fabregas.

This is why tonight's match (8.45pm) becomes even more crucial as a match-up between clubs on opposite poles in terms of sustainable financial policies and practices.

Facing the two most obscenely rich clubs, in terms of player transfer value and wages, back-to-back, and getting a victory after last Sunday's courageous draw, would be the ultimate answer to all the pre-season concerns by Arsenal supporters.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Great adaptations

Posted: 28 Sep 2012 05:09 PM PDT

SEPT 29 — Even though the Malaysian film industry is probably only 20 to 30 years younger than that of Hollywood (we missed out on making silent films, but our very first feature film "Laila Majnun" was still made in the late 1930s), we're further behind when it comes to industry trends and genres. In many cases, we not only missed the bandwagon but very often it felt like we never even knew the bandwagon existed.

Films like "Menyerah" and "Pencuri" are the closest we've come to the film noir genre. We missed out on the pleasures of the Hollywood musical, which is significantly different from the Bollywood extravaganzas musicals we tend to copy.

In Hollywood musicals, not only are the dances choreographed, but the camera movement and the editing rhythm are as well... not to mention the way the songs themselves are used to advance the plot and not just there as an excuse to have people dancing around trees. Only certain musical parts in films like Hussain Haniff's "Kalong Kenangan" bring to mind the elegant film-making of Busby Berkeley musicals.

Only from the late 1970s onwards did we finally see attempts to bring the pleasures of the Hollywood musical (long dead by then since their golden age was from the 1930s to the 1950s) to Malaysian films, but with very patchy results.

While we've always had a great literary tradition, it is quite a well-known fact that we Malaysians are not big readers. We have our fair share of great writers like A. Samad Said, Shahnon Ahmad and Abdullah Hussain, with great books like "Salina", "Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan" and "Imam" (to name just a few) already recognised as great literary works, but still we've been far left behind even by mainstream Hollywood when it comes to literary adaptations.

Famous books by Charles Dickens like "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist" have seen at least two major movie adaptations, and the Bronte sisters are even more in vogue now with "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" getting movie adaptations that can only be described as "modern" (as in modernist films, not films set in the modern day), especially the latest adaptations by Cary Fukunaga and Andrea Arnold respectively.

Looking at the mainstream, just look at how successful the Harry Potter, "Lord of the Rings" and Twilight franchises have been, and how big a hit "The Hunger Games" already is, to see how big an appetite there is out there for movie adaptations of popular or classic books. And just look at the trailers for the upcoming "The Life of Pi" and "Cloud Atlas" to see how far and wide movie adaptations can go.

Applying that theory to Malaysia will result in far scarier results though. With Malay as our national language and it more or less being the official language for local films (seeing as most of the cinema-going audience for local films are Malay speakers, and you English speakers reading this now know that this fact is undoubtedly true), the only logical books to adapt are the popular Malay ones. And this is where things get scary as the popular ones here are usually books that resemble those trashy Mills & Boon novels (but without the sex of course).

While "Lagenda Budak Setan" did good but far from excellent box office, the runaway success of "Ombak Rindu" have now seen Tarantella Pictures, the production company responsible for both movies, take another gamble on a movie adaptation of a book in "Untuk Tiga Hari", adapted from a novel by popular writer Ahadiat Akashah.

Directed by Afdlin Shauki, I don't have much to complain about in terms of technical competence, with Afdlin showing quite a bit of flair and understanding on the power of the tracking shot, the close-up and the use of swelling music as cinematic tools in the melodrama genre.

But there's a disjointed feel to the film's tone as Afdlin tries to inject his trademark humour and I still have huge difficulties trying to swallow the movie's (and the book's) central conceit in which the lovers decided to marry other people, but only for three days, so as to satisfy their family's wishes and then go on and marry each other after divorcing their family's choices.

For me, and I know for a lot of other people too, this is really hard to swallow, and I don't know how the book pulled this off and became a hit. In fact, I personally think this is even more outrageous than the controversial central conceit in "Ombak Rindu." But whatever the reasons may be, I think we are finally catching up on the idea that if you adapt a hit book, chances are that the movie adaptation will be a hit too.

We should thank our lucky stars that there's a quiet boom happening in the alternative Malay book scene, with pulp novels by publishers like Buku FIXI and books by publishers like Lejen Press and Sang Freud Press selling quite well. Quite a few adaptations of FIXI's titles have been lined up, the most prominent of which is probably the upcoming "KL Zombie", an adaptation of the novel "Zombijaya", starring popular local comedian Zizan Razak and directed by the always interesting Woo Ming Jin (who last gave us the excellent "Seru" and who was in the Cannes Directors' Fortnight around two years back with his film "The Tiger Factory").

We're probably still a long way from having our own Harry Potter, but like that old Malay saying "sikit-sikit lama-lama jadi bukit"... better late than never, right?

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 29 September 2012