Rabu, 21 Ogos 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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The Malaysian Insider :: Food

Thyme and punishment - New Zealand prisoners go gourmet

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 06:34 PM PDT

August 22, 2013
Latest Update: August 22, 2013 05:34 pm

Whipping up a blackcurrant jus in Wellington's Rimutaka Prison, shaven-headed convict "Pete" rhapsodises about his new-found love of gourmet cooking, the swastika tattoos on his hand blurring as he whisks intently.

"You can get five dishes, five different flavours, from one fish," the New Zealander says. "I thought normal fish all just tasted the same but I've learned a lot."

Pete - not his real name - is among a team of inmates from the jail on the capital's outskirts who prepared a five-star banquet for the public as part of this year's Wellington on a Plate food festival.

More than 30 prisoners a year earn catering qualifications in the prison's kitchens, providing them with skills to help them land jobs in Wellington's thriving restaurant scene after their release.

This year, authorities decided to display the prison's culinary prowess publicly for the first time.

In a programme that gives a whole new meaning to "doing stir", they enlisted Martin Bosley (pic), whose eponymous restaurant was named New Zealand's best in 2007, to train six prisoners over a nine-month period.

The result was Prison Gate to Plate, two nights of fine dining in August that offered 140 paying customers a four-course banquet in the prison grounds.

"It's been the most extraordinary thing I've done in 30 years, and the most confronting," said Bosley.

The chef, whose restaurant is situated in the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club, admitted he was initially sceptical about swapping his swish waterfront location for weekly sessions in the grim surrounds of a prison kitchen.

"I wasn't interested. I had very set views on crime and punishment, paying your debt to society, and wanted nothing to do with them," he said.

"Then the idea started to intrigue me and I realised that these guys are going to get out eventually, what are they going to be doing on the outside?"

Asking an inmate what he did to end up behind bars is a serious breach of prison etiquette but Bosley said he initially assumed the six convicts selected for the programme would not have committed serious offences because Rimutaka is a medium security jail.

He soon realised he was incorrect, as most of his students had originally served time in high-security institutions before being moved to Rimutaka as a reward for good behaviour.

"It's made me question some of the things I believed in, getting to know these guys, working with them and coming to like them," said Bosley, who was not paid for his involvement.

"But always at the back of your mind there is the thought that there are victims out there.

"There's been days when I've come out and just sat in the car park here for half an hour feeling desperately sad and despondent, thinking what a terrible place. Other times I've come out and thought 'that's amazing, we're making a difference'."

Bosley, who now has a former Rimutaka prisoner working part-time at his restaurant, said the skills of each inmate gradually emerged during his weekly sessions.

"Brownie" turned out to be a skilled butcher, wielding a razor-sharp knife with a surgeon's care to trim fat from prime cuts of beef.

"Marco", who says he could not make a sandwich before he was jailed in 2004, dreams of becoming a baker on the outside after perfecting his jailhouse pastries: "I want to make wedding cakes," he told AFP.

"Wolf" took charge of the vegetarian option, creating a meat-free Wellington roulade accompanied by French puy lentils and goat's cheese mousse.

"Every time I failed, I learned something," he said. "Once I realised you can't chuck all the stuff in a pot and just go for it, you actually have to study it, I found it fascinating."

Bullet-headed and with a frame almost as wide as it is tall, Wolf admits that contact with non-inmates has been the most challenging aspect of the programme, saying that like many prisoners he is intensely shy and being inside "stuffs up your social skills".

He describes working on the banquet as nothing short of life changing, saying cooking has given him a goal to work toward.

"I've been here a long time and most officers would agree that when I came I was a troubled inmate," he said.

"Since I've been involved in this it's changed my whole focus (going) forward. I've now got a passion for this. It's something I want to do and nothing else matters now.

"You sort of muddle yourself through the years and you've got no focus because every day is the same. It's really good when you finally zoom in on something and go 'bang, that's what I want to do when I get out'."

Wolf and the other prisoners were nervous about the reception their food would receive when AFP spoke to them just before the banquet on August 9 and 10.

They need not have worried. It received rave reviews, including one from the Dominion Post restaurant critic David Burton, who cited the opinion of one happy diner in his write-up: "If the food is always like this, I'd consider doing time." – AFP, August 22, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

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Crystal Palace lure Puncheon from Southampton

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 08:55 AM PDT

August 21, 2013

Southampton winger Jason Puncheon has jumped ship to fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace on a season-long loan deal, the London club said today.

Puncheon, who did not feature in the 18-strong squad for Southampton's opener at West Bromwich Albion last weekend, said he was thrilled at the chance to return to Palace where he had played as a boy.

"I think it's a great move for myself to come and play games," the 27-year-old said. "Obviously Crystal Palace are my hometown club and more importantly (manager) Ian Holloway is here as well.

"I actually played for Crystal Palace as a kid when I was eight. I left and there were a few times in my career that I was due to come back but didn't. Now I'm here that's the main thing.

"I've always as a young kid dreamed of playing at Selhurst Park, so it's a young boy's dream coming true." – Reuters, August 21, 2013.

Man United strike deal with Indian tyre firm

Posted: 21 Aug 2013 06:39 AM PDT

August 21, 2013

English Premier League giants Manchester United today announced they have signed a three-year regional sponsorship agreement with Indian tyre film Apollo.

Under the terms of the agreement, the firm becomes United's "official tyre partner" in the United Kingdom and India.

"Apollo Tyres is a leading player in the tyre industry and its rate of growth and development into new territories made it an attractive partner for the club," said United Group Managing Director Richard Arnold.

United have struck a number of similar agreements in the last year. Apollo joins firms such as Mamee, the club's official noodles partner, and Yanmar, United's official diesel engine partner, in associating itself with the 20-time English champions. - AFP, August 21, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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Somalia gang rape victim accuses African Union force

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 09:03 PM PDT

August 21, 2013
Latest Update: August 21, 2013 08:03 pm

Abducted, drugged and gang raped in Somalia: a young mother details the most brutal of allegations against African Union troops and Somali soldiers in a case causing widespread anger.

"The soldiers raped me... I tried to defend myself but they beat me badly and I passed out," she said, speaking to the Somali Channel television about the attack earlier this month.

She alleged she was stopped on the streets of Mogadishu by three soldiers from the national army, blindfolded and forced into a car, before being handed over to African Union troops, where she says she was repeatedly raped.

She has needle marks on her arms from where she says drugs were injected during the several hours long assault in the Maslah compound, a Ugandan troop base on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

"There were other women in the room... one of the them badly bleeding," she added, speaking from a hospital bed.

The woman, in her late 20s with a young baby, was unconscious during the attack and says she does not know how many men raped her. She was later thrown back onto the streets.

AMISOM, the 17,700-strong United Nations-mandated force that supports the government in its fight against Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents, said it has launched an investigation together with the Somali army.

"Appropriate action will be taken once the facts of the case have been established," AMISOM said in a statement.

Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said in a statement that the government was "deeply troubled by the alleged rape... involving a number of personnel from AMISOM."

AMISOM, fighting since 2007 in Somalia and funded by the UN and European Union, insists it "strongly condemns ... sexual abuse or exploitation".

The force is mainly made up of troops from Uganda, Burundi and Kenya, with smaller numbers from Djibouti and Sierra Leone.

The case threatens to badly dent the reputation of the force, and play into the hands of the Shebab.

Shebab fighters are themselves accused of horrific attacks and rape, but the extremists' spokesman Ali Mohamed Rage gloated at the rape reports.

"Somali soldiers first abduct the girls and rape them, they also share them with AMISOM troops," Rage said.

"The Somali troops are the remnants of the former warlords, they are killing their people and raping our daughters and mothers... the African Union troops are brutal."

The allegations come at the same time as the country reels from a surprise pullout by medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF), ending work in Somalia after more than two decades following a "barrage of attacks".

On Tuesday, MSF president Unni Karunakara said the "painful decision" of pulling out "came at a moment when world leaders, for the first time in decades, began making positive noises about a country on the road to recovery and with a stable government."

Rape is pervasive in Mogadishu, but the extreme nature of the woman's allegations and the accusations of AMISOM involvement have shocked many.

In the first six months of 2012, some 800 cases of sexual violence were reported in Mogadishu alone, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which refers to the rapists as "unknown armed men and men wearing military uniform".

Many more cases are believed to have gone unreported.

"Sexual violence in Somalia is one of the most serious and urgent human rights challenges facing the government and people of Somalia," said Nicholas Kay, UN special representative for the country.

Kay, who expressed his "grave concern" at the rape allegations, has demanded investigations be "rigorous and prompt".

"If there is a case to answer, any perpetrator should be prosecuted," Kay said in a statement.

But Maryan Qasim, Somalia's minister for human development, insisted there was "major exaggeration and inflation of the number of attacks".

In an interview with Somali media, she claimed women were taking money to allege that they had been raped, and that it is "better for a girl to be shot instead of being photographed and publicised" while making such allegations.

Somalia's army, an often rag-tag force incorporating militia fighters, has repeatedly been accused by rights groups of a string of abuses against women, including rape.

Even reporting on rape in Mogadishu carries its own risks: a Somali journalist and a rape victim he interviewed were both sentenced to a year in prison in February, but they were released after two months in jail after the case sparked widespread international criticism. - AFP, August 21, 2013.

Egypt Brotherhood could go back underground to survive

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 08:50 PM PDT

August 21, 2013
Latest Update: August 21, 2013 12:00 pm

A campaign of repression by Egypt's government against the Muslim Brotherhood could force the group back into the shadows, once again becoming a clandestine organisation.

A return to the underground could allow the group, which has seen its victorious presidential candidate ousted from office and its top leaders arrested, a chance to regroup and review strategy.

But it could also divide its ranks, with the most radical among its supporters peeling away to become militants, experts say.

For decades, the Islamist group thrived in the shadows in the Arab world's most populous nation.

In the years leading up to the 2011 overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak, it stepped carefully into the limelight, fielding parliamentary candidates as independents.

But it was only after the uprising that it took centre-stage, winning nearly 50 percent of seats in parliament and then Egypt's first free presidential vote, which brought Mohamed Morsi to office.

Its fall from grace since has been spectacular, with its top leaders now in jail and hundreds of its supporters killed in clashes with security forces since Morsi's July 3 ouster by the army after a wave of mass protests.

The group, which "has always been organised like a pyramid," is now facing "an organisational problem," said Karim Bitar of the Institute for International and Strategic Relations.

One clear sign of the disarray is the sudden disappearance of the Brotherhood's media officials, who have gone from reachable at all hours to completely absent.

Another is the dwindling response to calls for the group's supporters to attend protests calling for Morsi's reinstatement.

As it faces calls for it to be banned, the Brotherhood has "familiar options... including going underground," said Francois Burgat, director of France's Institut Francais du Proche-Orient.

"All evidence suggests that the army will succeed in paralysing the decision-making apparatus of the Brotherhood, but will not be able to erase a party that has a solid and longstanding base," he added.

The Brotherhood has shown its ability to react quickly under tough circumstances, swiftly naming deputy Mahmoud Ezzat to replace supreme guide Mohamed Badie after his arrest on Tuesday.

While it adjusts to its rapidly changing fate, it will eventually have to reconsider the strategy that led to its fall from power, Bitar said.

The Brotherhood will need to undertake "a long phase of soul-searching during which they will need to learn the lessons of the Morsi fiasco," he said.

Despite winning elections, the group proved "incapable of moving from a culture of secrecy to a culture of government," he added.

Instead, it displayed sectarian behaviour and tried to "monopolise all the power for fear that it might lose power again."

But before rethinks strategy, the group will have to reorganise its ranks and its hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of supporters.

"Unless they reestablish order within their ranks, they could see violent acts by individuals or radical fringes... who will ask whether playing the democratic game wasn't a mistake," Bitar said.

The spectre of a return to the Islamist violence that swept Egypt in the 1990s has been raised in recent days as the country faces unprecedented violence between Morsi loyalists and security forces.

In the Sinai Peninsula, attacks against police and army facilities have become an almost daily event and 25 policemen were executed by militants on Monday.

The interim government has likened those attacks to the clashes between Morsi supporters and security forces, and labelled its crackdown a "war against terror."

But that approach could backfire, allowing the Brotherhood to benefit from a new "martyrology," particularly as several of its top leaders, including Badie, have lost children in the violence.

"They will be able to benefit from being cast as victims even though they were in the process of discrediting themselves while they were in power," Bitar said.

And despite the strength of the campaign against them, Burgat said there was little to suggest the Brotherhood would not survive.

"They have survived a lot of persecution and always emerged stronger," he said. – AFP, August 21, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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Wong Kar Wai’s ‘The Grandmaster’: an exile story told through Kung Fu

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 07:35 PM PDT

August 21, 2013
Latest Update: August 21, 2013 06:35 pm

It was a black-and-white home movie of an old man, diminutive and cancer-stricken, performing Chinese martial arts techniques in a Hong Kong apartment that spurred director Wong Kar Wai to make his latest film, the Kung Fu epic "The Grandmaster." Wong, best known as an auteur of pensive and brooding urban dramas "Chungking Express" and "In the Mood for Love," said he was deeply puzzled by the intentions behind the homemade film of Kung Fu master Ip Man, made days before his death in 1972.

"I keep asking myself why he wanted to do it and much later I realized that there's a saying in Chinese martial arts that's like 'to keep the fire burning,'" Wong, 57, told Reuters.

"So what I think he intended to do is to do this: he wanted to preserve his technique so it can be shared and taught to future generations," the director added.

"The Grandmaster," in U.S. theaters on Friday, is Wong's attempt at sharing that legacy, telling the story of Ip - the trainer of Kung Fu film icon Bruce Lee - as a man whose calling as one of China's martial arts masters was taken from him by the upheaval of World War 2.

Starring longtime Wong collaborator Tony Leung as Ip, the film is divided into three parts that span the Kung Fu master's adulthood in 1930s southern China and his exile in Hong Kong following the Chinese revolution in 1949.

The story of Ip, who was born in Foshan, China, in 1893, has also experienced a revival in recent years with a 2008 biopic and a TV miniseries broadcast earlier this year in Hong Kong, China and other Asian countries.

But Wong said he wanted to differentiate his film, which was released in parts of Asia and Europe earlier this year, from others by conveying technical authenticity, specifically the Wing Chun style of Kung Fu.

"I wanted to make a film about Chinese martial arts in a different way, to tell you more about what is the value of Chinese martial arts," he said, adding that Leung twice broke his arm while training for the role.

Other Chinese martial arts in "The Grandmaster" include Baji and Xinjyi, each characterized by swift and powerful handwork.

What defines "The Grandmaster" are Wong's trademark themes of frustrated love and exile, his plot-less and episodic storytelling, and sumptuous cinematography by Philippe Le Sourd.

The film, Wong's first attempt at a martial arts movie after 1994's box-office flop "Ashes of Time," also writes in a fictional love story between Ip and Gong Er, the daughter of a Kung Fu grandmaster played by Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.

"It's so physical and there's an animal quality in it," Wong said about the first sparring match between Ip and Gong, after which Gong pursues him by exchanging letters.

"During that part (the fight), it's like two beautiful animals fighting each other. I think that tells a bit more about this relationship than just a normal romantic story," he said.

Both of the characters are uprooted by the Japanese invasion of China, which began in 1937, and end up reuniting in Hong Kong as refugees in the 1950s, their families in China now dead.

"Gong Er is in a way a symbol of a time that he (Ip) wants to go back to. It's almost like a lost paradise," Wong said.

Their reunion in Hong Kong, to which Wong moved from Shanghai at age 5, punctuates the film's legacy theme amid its masses of dislocated people. - Reuters, August 21, 2013.

Shah Rukh Khan to perform live in Malaysia - Bernama

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 06:04 PM PDT

August 21, 2013
Latest Update: August 21, 2013 05:04 pm

The legendary king of Bollywood, Datuk Shah Rukh Khan will entertain his ardent Malaysian fans in Kuala Lumpur at a live concert called Temptation Reloaded at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, here, on Oct 11.

Hitman Solutions and 2SPICY Entertainment , the organisers of the concert, expect Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit and rapper Honey Singh to perform on stage with Shah Rukh aside from the usual backup from Bollywood dancers and other performers.

Hitman Solutions founder Rohit Rampal said the 47-year-old actor would lead the three-hour concert full of music, dance and gimmicks.

"The Temptation Reloaded concert is to reach out to the fans and spread the magic of Bollywood and Shah Rukh Khan worldwide.

"It is also to give continuity to the previous successful temptation tour around the globe, which was held in 2004," he said at a press conference, here, today.

Rohit said other popular Bollywood actors and singers would participate in the performance but he could not divulge their names. - Bernama, August 21, 2013.The legendary king of Bollywood, Datuk Shah Rukh Khan will entertain his ardent Malaysian fans in Kuala Lumpur at a live concert called Temptation Reloaded at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, here, on Oct 11.

Hitman Solutions founder Rohit Rampal said the 47-year-old actor would lead the three-hour concert full of music, dance and gimmicks.

"The Temptation Reloaded concert is to reach out to the fans and spread the magic of Bollywood and Shah Rukh Khan worldwide.

"It is also to give continuity to the previous successful temptation tour around the globe, which was held in 2004," he said at a press conference, here, today.

Hitman Solutions founder Rohit Rampal said the 47-year-old actor would lead the three-hour concert full of music, dance and gimmicks.

"The Temptation Reloaded concert is to reach out to the fans and spread the magic of Bollywood and Shah Rukh Khan worldwide.

"It is also to give continuity to the previous successful temptation tour around the globe, which was held in 2004," he said at a press conference, here, today.

Rohit said other popular Bollywood actors and singers would participate in the performance but he could not divulge their names. - Bernama, August 21, 2013.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Books

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The Malaysian Insider :: Books

Makeover draws the crowds for new home of books in Subang Jaya

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 11:58 PM PDT

August 21, 2013
Latest Update: August 21, 2013 07:44 pm

The new Subang Jaya Book Exchange Programme cabin will be officially launched on Sunday, August 25, 2013, by Hannah Yeoh.A once dilapidated cabin at a field in USJ 12 has been given a facelift and is now a new home to used books under the Subang Jaya Book Exchange Programme (BEP).

The makeover is thanks to MPSJ's Jawatankuasa Penduduk Zon 3 (JKP3), which provided funds for the renovation, and Subang Jaya assemblywoman Hannah Yeoh, whose office contributed RM4, 000 to furnish the cabin.

Bookworms who have unwanted books now have a place to exchange them for other books for free.

The BEP will be holding an official launch for its new cabin on Sunday, 25 August 2013 from 3 - 5pm.

The event will be launched by Yeoh, who is also Selangor state assembly Speaker, a first for a woman in Malaysia.

Besides the book exchange, there will be an interactive storytelling session by FuziMagic, a benefit-for-children establishment. FuziMagic will also hold a toy donation drive on the day.

The Persatuan Kebajikan Kanak-kanak Kurang Upaya Subang Jaya (P3KU) will have disabled children showcasing their artistic talents and selling hand painted aprons and paperweights.

Times Bookstores has generously contributed 50 RM10 book vouchers for the first 50 families who participate in the book exchange.

MPSJ councillor Dr Loi Kheng Min of JKP3 allowed BEP the sole use of the cabin, which belongs to MPSJ.

The community programme, which began in 2009, previously held its book exchange sessions at the USJ 2 Community Hall on the first and third Sunday of the month.

"We used to pack our books in boxes, which we would carry out from the storage room during each book exchange. We couldn't put up bookshelves since we were sharing the hall with others in the community.

"With our own cabin, we intend to hold book exchange sessions more frequently and other book-related activities. There's a children's corner for kids to play and read as well as a reading zone for visitors.

"We hope the BEP Cabin will serve as a hangout spot for readers of all ages and to promote the reading habit among the Subang Jaya community," said BEP coordinator Yong Sheet Fay.

The Subang Jaya Book Exchange Programme Cabin Official Launch

Date: Sunday 25 August 2013

Time: 3 - 5pm

Venue: BEP Cabin Jalan USJ 12/2F (located on field about 200m away from Surau al-Muttaqun)

For more information, please contact Lim Su Lyn (012-2249721) or visit our Facebook page. – August 21, 2013.