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The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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Yummy dishes to satisfy those cravings Posted: 13 Dec 2013 08:02 PM PST BY EU HOOI KHAW December 14, 2013 Lap Mei Fan with Chinese sausages, waxed duck and meats.It's that time of the year again for waxed duck and Chinese sausages in that irresistible rice dish called Lap Mei Fan. These are usually steamed, their delicious drippings tipped into the rice in the claypot and stirred up, with more sauce added and served. I have just had this at Oriental Cravings at 1 Utama in Petaling Jaya and it has somewhat soothed my craving for this seasonal dish. Pomelo Salad, a festive dish at Oriental Cravings.This restaurant serves it in individual portions with romaine lettuce at the side. It was attractively presented, with slices of pork and duck liver sausages and waxed duck laid over the mound of rice, with a dried oyster in the centre. Even better, more of these waxed meats and sausages were cut finely and stirred into the rice so that it was well infused with their flavours. I liked it too that the sausages were cut into large slices with sufficient thickness so that I could revel in each delightful bite. Sambal Petai with Fluffy Egg is an unusual, but delicious, combination.I was looking forward to the Pomelo Salad too, and it should be on the menu soon. It's a mélange of sweet, juicy pomelo (from Tambun no less), crunchy bits of deepfried cuttlefish, sliced shallots, cili padi and slivers of bunga kantan tossed in a lime juice and fish sauce dressing. A generous sprinkling of crushed peanuts and sesame seeds, and fresh mint leaves complete it. New dishes are always appearing on the Oriental Cravings menu so that I never get tired of eating here. One of these is the Sambal Petai with Fluffy Egg. Who would have thought of such a combination? At first I felt I should have some rice to go with this. Then I started enjoying the soft, large crumbles of fried egg with fresh coriander, topped with the zesty sambal that had lots of onions and fried crispy ikan bilis, and of course the petai. It was not as stinky as I would have liked but still good. Yam with Garoupa Fishhead in Claypot.I love yam in any dish and powdery, sticky chunks of it appeared in the Yam with Garoupa Fishhead in Claypot. Fried dried cuttlefish, garlic and Chinese celery gave it those defining, yummy flavours. It was so good eaten with rice. Noodles are what the chef here shines at. He does an amazing Hokkien Noodles with the requisite crispy lard bits, Claypot Loh Shee Fun and Curry Noodles with Roast Pork. The flavourful Fried Prawn Mee.This time the Fried Prawn Mee rolled out of his wok. The yellow noodles were braised in a prawn stock, then fried with pork, egg, beansprouts, fishcake, prawns and crispy lard bits. The sweet essence of the stock hugged each noodle which stayed firm and separate.  They were delicious. Chicken in Rice Wine is one of my favourite dishes at this restaurant. I would just come here and have this with mee sua or rice vermicelli. Cendol with the thickest and most aromatic Gula Melaka.I can never get tired of this home-brewed, mildly sweet wine with a heady aroma cooked with hot, fragrant ginger, kampung chicken and wood ear fungus. The fluffy omelette floating on top of this, soaking in all the winey flavours, is simply scrumptious. I had brought friends living abroad here. One particular friend had this at lunch, and came back for the same at dinner! Ais Kacang loaded with ingredients.For dessert, the cendol is hard to resist. The cendol threads are soft, smooth and bursting with pandan aroma but what sets this apart from other cendol is the thick, gooey and aromatic gula Melaka drizzled over it. For an ais kacang fix, there is no better place for it than here. It is a towering heap of shaved ice with rivulets of rose syrup and gula Melaka running down, with santan and evaporated milk added. The entrance to Oriental Cravings.There is a longan at the side and crunchy peanuts. Dig in and you turn up delectable blobs of soft red beans, cream corn, cendol, pink agar agar and cincau. It is a satisfying Ice Kacang and a wonderful way to end your meal at this restaurant. The Lap Mei Fan is RM23.90, Sambal Petai with Fluffy Egg RM19.90, Yam with Garoupa Fishhead RM36.90, Rice Wine Chicken RM31.90, Fried Prawn Mee RM17.90, ais kacang RM6.90, cendol RM5.50. - December 14, 2013. * Oriental Cravings is located at 359 Ground Floor Rainforest, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya. Tel: 03-7727 2581.

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Lance Armstrong “bought” Million Dollar Race, claims former rival Posted: 13 Dec 2013 08:02 AM PST December 14, 2013 Retired Italian rider Roberto Gaggioli told Friday's edition of the Corriere della Sera that Lance Armstrong (pic) paid him US$100,000 (RM323,000) in 1993 in order to win the Million Dollar Race in the United States. "It was a young American colleague," Gaggioli, who is now 51, was quoted as saying. "He offered me a panettone (a traditional Italian Christmas cake) as a present and wished me a merry Christmas. In the box there were US$100,000 in small bills. That colleague was Lance Armstrong. "Lance said that my team, Coors Light, had agreed to it. I understood that it had all been decided," added Gaggioli in reference to Armstrong's win in the CoreStates race in Philadelphia which was crucial to him winning the one million dollar prize for the victor of three races held over 21 days. The Million Dollar Race, which was known as the Thrift Drug Triple Crown, was comprised of the Pittsburgh Classic, the West Virginia Classic and the CoreStates race. "Two laps from the end, I was in a breakaway with Lance, Bobby Julich and some Italian riders from the Mercatone team. When Lance made a sign, I turned away as if not to see that he had escaped. He broke away to win on his own." The newspaper added that other riders also failed to respond to Armstrong's attack because they too had been bought, and cited one, Roberto Pelliconi, who said: "Angelo Canzonieri (another rider) and Lance agreed on a fee of 50, Angelo thought he meant dollars but Lance meant lire. "At the Tour of Lombardy he gave us 50 million (lire)." Armstrong, who was riding for Motorola at the time and is now 42, was officially stripped of his seven Tour de France wins in 2012 after being found guilty of a string of doping offences. He publicly admitted that he had cheated earlier this year. - AFP, December 13, 2013.

FAM has no more excuse for not joining football development committee, says Khairy Posted: 13 Dec 2013 07:48 AM PST December 13, 2013 Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (pic) said the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) no longer has any excuse not to join the National Football Development Programme Committee following the resignation of Tan Sri Annuar Musa from all local football associations. Khairy said an FAM representative was needed in the committee as many matters which would be implemented by the committee needed FAM's endorsement. "Earlier, FAM did not allow any suspended individuals (by FAM) to be in the committee. After a discussion with Tan Sri Annuar, he decided to pull out. "Now FAM have no choice but to send a representative to the committee as we need FAM's endorsement on coaches," he told reporters after presenting medals to winners of a karate event at the Myanmar SEA Games here today. Khairy said he hoped that following Annuar's decision, differences between the ministry and FAM would be resolved. Annuar in a statement today said he was resigning from all football association posts including as president of the Kelantan Football Association (Kafa) with immediate effect. Asked if Annuar could join the committee after the resignation, Khairy said Annuar could not be in the committee as he was still an FAM leader under suspension.  "I have conferred with the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and was told that those who were suspended cannot be a member of the committee," he said, praising Annuar for the bold step and adding that the ministry could seek inputs from him in a non-official capacity. Annuar had earlier submitted his resignation as a member of the ministry's committee after FAM claimed the Ketereh Member of Parliament's appointment was not valid as he was still serving his suspension which began in April. The FAM deputy president was suspended after being found guilty of violating FAM's Article 88 which provides that only the FAM president and secretary-general could issue media statements on the national football squad. - Bernama, December 13, 2013.

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Pakistan’s “ghost schools” threaten next generation Posted: 12 Dec 2013 08:41 PM PST December 13, 2013 This photograph taken on November 20, 2013 shows Pakistani children playing in a classroom at an empty government school in Chancher Redhar in the southern district of Thatta. Their teacher fled in the spring, never to return. - AFP pic, December 13, 2013.In a decrepit white-walled classroom in southern Pakistan, Bushra valiantly struggles to keep discipline as a dozen girls run and scream around her. With no teacher for the past eight months, the 10-year-old has been forced to step in. "I teach them lessons from the Quran, I teach them Sindhi, I teach them to count one-two, I teach them the alphabet A-B-C-D," said Bushra, wearing a traditional nose stud and a scarf around her head. She says she dreams of becoming a doctor and learning about computers. But her academic ambitions risk being scuppered after her own teacher fled. Authorities have not appointed a new one, making Bushra's situation typical for a student at one of Pakistan's 7,000 so-called "ghost schools", where no formal classes can be taught. These abandoned pupils are part of a growing education crisis in the country where, according to the United Nations, over five million children do not attend primary school. "The last teacher told us she would stop coming if we did not pay for her transportation to the village," said Salim Samoon, who has seven granddaughters at the school catering for the roughly 600 residents of Chancher Redhar, a village two hours drive from Karachi in the south of Pakistan. "But we have no money and the authorities have not appointed a new teacher," he said. The southern village is far from the notoriously conservative parts of northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, where Taliban attacks against public schools are commonplace. Schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai become an international symbol of the right to education for all after surviving a 2012 Taliban attack in which she was shot in the head. But the damage caused by "ghost schools" across Pakistan, such as the one in Chancher Redhar, is self-inflicted and potentially greater: a new generation of children growing up without an education, either because the schools have been abandoned, destroyed, or because teachers are not turning up. "Maybe the media highlights the bombings of schools more because it is visible. But this is a more dangerous problem," said Rahmatullah Balal of the NGO Ailaan Alif, who has published a ranking of districts in terms of the quality of education available. According to his ranking, the district of Thatta, home to Bushra and her classmates, lies in 140th position out of a total of 144, behind Taliban hideouts in the northwest. Alerted last year to the problem of "ghost schools", the Supreme Court of Pakistan asked provinces to scrutinise institutions that took students and were officially regarded as schools. The results, released in late November, where shocking. "In most of the basic teaching units of the district, the situation is very alarming," the report said. "Most of these schools are teaching institutions only in name, but virtually no student is being admitted there to seek education and the teaching staff is taking salary at home." Along with teachers who received salary but did not teach, other schools failed to appoint teachers, were appropriated by wealthy landowners, or had budget irregularities, such as "paid-for" computers which never arrived. "The government and bureaucrats have no willingness to solve the problem," said Balal. "The money that the government gives to the school is consumed by bureaucrats. The budget might tell you what the money has been used for in the schools, but you don't see it get spent and then the money is gone." He says school funds are split "50-50" between feudal lords and bureaucrats, partly to ensure that there is no threat to the feudal lords' power base by seeing the poor receive education. Those politicians who are actively trying to raise the issue say that it is not a priority for the government. "We have to invest in our education because it is the only way to get progress," said Humera Alwani of the Pakistan Peoples Party. "You have to admit to a problem before you can correct it," she said. The existence of "ghost schools" also removes incentive for poor families to ensure their children get an education. Instead, many see more value in sending them to work in the fields or bazaars. "I do not like this school, this is why I do not go," said Arbab, not yet a teenager. "I go to fetch and buy water, and then I sell it." Local residents worry another generation will grow up without the skills they need. "These kids of ours, they don't know anything. They don't know the meaning of their names, they don't know the basics, they know nothing," said Kazoo Samoon, a villager in Chancher Redhar. "My other daughter grew up without an education and now these children will grow up without any education." In the cramped class, Bushra's attempted lesson is over in just a few minutes, ending with a rendition of the national anthem. Then the girls continue to play as they have done every day since their teacher left, waiting for the arrival of another who may never come. - AFP, December 13, 2013.

Indian infant deaths – high but falling steadily Posted: 12 Dec 2013 06:43 PM PST December 13, 2013 In this photo taken on November 6, 2013, Radha Bagnele (left), 20, lies in a bed in Shivpuri hospital in Madhya Pradesh hours after having delivered twin girls at a local hospital. - AFP pic, December 13, 2013.Having previously lost two babies to diarrhoea and dysentery, 25-year-old Suman Chandel lies on a bed in a clinic in remote northern India and smiles with relief. Hours earlier, Chandel gave birth to her fourth child, a seemingly healthy baby boy weighing three kilograms, and is optimistic that this time the chances of survival are good. "I was very worried beforehand. I was having more and more problems with each delivery, but he seems fine and I'm happy," says Chandel as she tries to breastfeed her newborn wrapped in a blanket. Married at 15 and pregnant three years later, Chandel's struggles to keep her babies alive are a familiar story for millions of women battling disease, caste discrimination, powerlessness and poverty in rural India. India has long had a dismal record of deaths from preventable illness; the nation accounts for 29% of global first-day deaths, for example — or 309,000 newborn deaths a year, says nonprofit group Save the Children. But figures from the census office published in October suggests that after 15 years of booming economic growth and explosive modernisation, India may finally be turning the corner. "There's a long way to go and traditional practices are still there," says Karin Hulshof, regional director for Unicef, the United Nation's children's fund. "But there has been great progress, a great call to action, with heavenly investment (at the government and NGO levels)," she tells AFP. Initiatives have focused on health issues such as encouraging women to give birth in hospitals instead of home, and increasing health centres and immunisation drives. Education has also been a priority, including on the importance of breastfeeding, improved nutrition and using clean water for hand washing and toilets to prevent episodes of life-threatening diarrhoea. Paul Vinod, head of paediatrics at one of India's most prestigious teaching hospitals, says the figures speak for themselves - infant mortality rates have dropped from 80 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 42 deaths in 2012. Despite the improvements, India still accounts for 22% of the world's deaths of children under five, and more than one quarter of all newborn deaths, the UN, WHO and World Bank estimate in a joint 2013 report. And public expenditure on health remains woeful, accounting for just 1.2% of gross domestic product, according to Vinod from AIIMS hospital in New Delhi, citing government figures. "Some developed countries spend 8% to 10%," he tells AFP. "We should be close to 3% or 5%. Anything less than 3% is poor." A child's chances of survival are also skewed depending on where a family resides. So the mortality rate in southern Kerala state is 12 per 1,000, the new figures show, but jumps to 56 in Madhya Pradesh — where Chandel lives. This postcode lottery is blamed by experts on population density and the priority successive state governments have placed on child health, among other reasons. Deep cultural issues, including the powerlessness of women and accepted attitudes about their role in society, also remain a huge battle. "These girls are unable to make independent decisions about their own reproductive choices or fertility," says Anuradha Gupta, a senior official from the Indian health ministry. "We have a huge battle ahead to change societal attitudes and norms towards adolescents, particularly girls," says Gupta in a November interview with Jhpiego, a nonprofit group attached to Johns Hopkins University. Pale with anemia, Radha Bagnele, 20, lies in a bed in Shivpuri District Hospital in Madhya Pradesh and listens to her mother-in-law despair about Bagnele's newborn twin daughters. "We wanted boys, so we are not happy, we are just okay," says Ramkunar Bagnele sitting on the bed. "Of course she will keep trying until we get them," she adds. Married at 13, Radha already has two daughters and worries her husband does not earn enough as a farm labourer to feed and care for their expanding family, who live in a nearby village. "I'm worried, but we need a boy," she says softly. Shivpuri hospital, together with Unicef, have developed a 24/7 call centre and a fleet of 35 ambulances so that women throughout the district can reach a hospital or clinic in time for a safer delivery. The number of infant deaths has fallen dramatically since its introduction but problems still exist. In the delivery room, a blanket covers a woman not moving and barely conscious. Her baby died shortly after delivery at home two days earlier, and the woman later collapsed from complications. "It could be a brain haemorrhage," a doctor says. "She will need to go to Gwalior (a nearby city), we don't have the facilities here." Down the hall, Sunil Gautam hovers over rake-thin babies in the special newborn care unit also funded by Unicef. He points to a boy in an incubator born days earlier weighing 600 grams — less than a half of the minimum healthy weight of a newborn. "Eight hundred grams today!" the paediatrician says. Asked why the 17 babies in the unit were born underweight, premature or sick, he reels off problems that have improved steadily in the five years he has worked there. "Poverty, illiteracy, nutrition deficiency, early marriage and no spacing between births," he says of the mothers. "Things are working, are improving," he adds. "But it's slow." - AFP, December 13, 2013.

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Dodo, fanged cat come to 3D life in Attenborough film Posted: 12 Dec 2013 09:47 PM PST December 13, 2013 Britain's Prince William (left) and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, sit with Natural History Museum Director Michael Dixon before a screening of 'David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive 3D' at the museum in London, December 11, 2013. - Reuters pic, December 13, 2013.Extinct creatures both cuddly and nasty have been brought to life with 3D computer technology as nature documentary maker David Attenborough turns his attentions to fossils and skeletons at London's Natural History Museum in a new made-for-TV film. Featuring creatures ranging from the Dodo and a giant sloth to a 10-metre long snake and a terrifying sabre-toothed cat-like animal, "Alive at the Natural History Museum" had a premiere showing at the museum on Wednesday night for a crowd that included Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. The film will air on Britain's Sky satellite channels on New Year's Day and is clearly aimed at a family audience, with children sure to laugh at the antics of the awkward Dodo or the ostrich-like giant Moa bird. But Attenborough in his narration admits "there is no more alarming animal in the museum than this" as computer imagery makes the skeleton of a sabre-toothed Smilodon spring to life. It is not entirely reassuring that, as he asserts, neither the Smilodon nor the equally worrying Gigantophis prehistoric snake, shown slithering around the halls of the Victorian-era museum, would have eaten humans because they were extinct before mankind evolved. Attenborough said he had been particularly astonished by the computer-generated movements of the skeletal Smilodon. "Actually it is an extraordinary animal, those sabre-like teeth," he said. "But the clever thing was to work out on the computer how all those joints moved so that you could get it stalking and actually leaping. Seeing how the joints moved was actually more interesting than if you'd put fur on it." The film by production house Colossus was made in collaboration with the museum and its curators, some of whom were on hand on Wednesday to show the actual fossils and skeletons on which the computer-generated 3D images were based. "It does help to visualise some of the things that I only have in my head," Dr Paul Barrett, head of the museum's Vertebrates and Anthropology Palaeobiology Division, told Reuters when asked about the computer imagery. "To be able to translate that into something that looks like a living, breathing animal is actually challenging and more intellectually interesting than you might guess, from a scientific point of view." Attenborough, 87, whose films and television programmes over the past 60 years have mostly focused on living creatures, from wildlife in Africa to the insect world, said he'd been fascinated by the museum's collection since he was a young boy. He said he had relished the chance to make a film based on the collection of some 70 million specimens, including the huge, though plaster, skeleton of a Diplodocus dinosaur in the room where the film was screened. "I came here as an eight-year-old and came in through that door and saw this thing and I thought, 'Gosh it must be so exciting to see the basement where they keep all those secret things'," he said. "And to be able to come here over the years and... to be lucky enough to be taken behind the scenes is a great thrill." - Reuters, December 13, 2013.

Sandra Bullock to join George Clooney in political comedy Posted: 12 Dec 2013 08:35 PM PST December 13, 2013 The Oscar-winning actress (pic) is in talks to join the feature "Our Brand is Crisis", produced by her "Gravity" co-star George Clooney for Warner Bros, Thewrap.com reports. The forthcoming comedy was inspired by the 2005 documentary of the same name, which focuses on the political campaign marketing techniques used by Bill Clinton's former political consultants, James Carville and Stan Greenberg, in a presidential election in Bolivia. Sandra Bullock would join the cast of "Our Brand is Crisis" in the role of Jane Bodine, a retired political consultant. It remains to be seen whether George Clooney will have a role in the feature. The two actors and longtime friends recently starred in "Gravity", which is expected to earn at least a few Oscars in 2014. The project will also reunite Clooney with Peter Straughan, the screenwriter on Grant Heslov's 2009 comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats", in which the actor starred. - AFP/Relaxnews, December 13, 2013.

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Liver and let die – James Bond was an alcoholic Posted: 12 Dec 2013 05:18 PM PST December 13, 2013 An offbeat study published by the British Medical Journal examines all 14 of the original James Bond novels and concludes that in real life, Bond would have been a chronic alcoholic."A dry martini. Just hand it to me, and I'll do the shaking myself." This, according to British doctors, is somewhat how James Bond would have been in real life. 007 boozed so much that in all reality he would have had the tremulous hands of a chronic alcoholic, according to an offbeat study published by the British Medical Journal. If statistics are any guide, Bond would have died from alcohol- and tobacco-related diseases in his mid-fifties, it says. And the paper darkly questions Bond's supposed success as a womaniser. Given the vast quantities of drink he consumed before bedding a conquest, the evidence may not have stood up, it says. The conclusions are made by a trio of British doctors who read all 14 of the original James Bond books authored by Ian Fleming, noting when and what the character drank. Two of the novels were excluded: "The Spy Who Loved Me", written in the first person by a waitress and thus deemed an unreliable source; and "Octopussy and The Living Daylights", a compendium of short stories that also fell short of the mark because it was not one single coherent tale. That left 12 novels, which yielded 123.5 days for analysis. Of these, 36 days were booze-free because Bond was incarcerated or in hospital. This leaves 87.5 days, during which Britain's top spy glugged down a whopping 1,150 units of alcohol, or 92 units a week — four times the recommended amount. "James Bond's level of alcohol intake puts him at high risk of multiple alcohol-related diseases and an early death," says the tongue-in-cheek investigation. "The level of function as displayed in the books is inconsistent with the physical, mental and indeed sexual functioning expected from someone drinking this much alcohol." On a cruel note, it concludes: "James Bond was unlikely to be able to stir his drinks, even if he would have wanted to, because of likely alcohol-induced tremor." - AFP, December 13, 2013.

When books go digital – “The Kills” and the future of the novel Posted: 12 Dec 2013 03:52 PM PST BY DONNA HANCOX December 13, 2013 Digital technology has changed what, when, where and how we read. - The Conversation pic, December 13, 2013.There is a section early in Richard House's transmedia novel "The Kills" – published this year by Pan Macmillan and long-listed for the 2013 Man Booker Prize – in which the protagonist, Ford, is on the run from some seriously shady financial dealings for a large US contractor in Iraq. "The Kills" has been described as both a "multimedia thriller" and a "digitally augmented novel" – and it offers a hint as to what the digital future of the book may hold. Ford is making his way from Iraq to Turkey in a ragged, fraught manner, never sure who is looking for him and moving between multiple false identities. In a rare still moment he observes a young boy waiting for a bus and wonders how this ordinary-looking boy ended up on the edge of a war zone – and directly below this passage is a link to a short video. The video is a view of Morocco from a bus window overlaid with a male voice documenting the breakdown of his relationship. It is extraordinarily beautiful and perfectly juxtaposed against the text. The information in the video, such as it is, doesn't follow on from the preceding passage and it doesn't directly relate to any of the story thus far – but it provides an insight into Ford. It is a part of his history I didn't necessarily need to know. Once I did, though, it added poignancy to his current situation. I can't now imagine experiencing this scene other than how House presented it. "The Kills" presents one of the futures of the book. Digital technology has changed the nature of reading: what, when, where and how we read. Consequently, our understanding of the book has had to shift also. The book as a physical object with paper pages is now only one version of what a book might be. Innovations in writing go far beyond the e-book, which continues to represent a change in mode of delivery rather than an innovation of form. The e-book has been considered a transitional form for some time. In fact, in the trajectory of change for books and writing it is the compact disc of writing. It is important to consider the multimedia, transmedia or digital novel as a wholly different form to the traditional novel – in the same way graphic novels are a different form to the prose novel. Embedding short video or audio clips into text, as House does in "The Kills", can reveal character in unexpected ways, or create atmosphere beyond language. This technology is now available to all writers working on digital platforms. But viewing other content is not always a seamless process for the reader – in "The Kills" you still need to leave the book to a web browser. Nonetheless, the multimedia aspects genuinely enrich the experience. As well as video, House also offers his readers digital works of pictures with text superimposed, reminiscent of the art of American feminist artist Barbara Kruger, and phone messages from characters. Those features provide a back story that creates an emotional landscape around the words. As a story, "The Kills" is deeply unsettling: full of menace, confusion, violence and treachery. The digital aspects are as spare and taut as the writing – but they also bring a welcome trace of humanity. Does the book need fixing? Aren't words enough for writers? This kind of question is often raised in discussions around digital technology and the futures of the book. The prose novel has produced profound insights into humans as a species, and already has the capacity to move and entertain us. The possibilities inherent in the digital book – or whatever name is finally settled on – won't appeal to a great many writers or readers, but fortunately, innovation is not an an either/or proposition. The prose novel will always be the best possible way to tell certain stories, and certain writers will always work in this form – what digital technology offers is choices beyond that. Kate Pullinger's "Flight Paths" is another example of the ways in which multimedia additions to text can be thoughtful and sophisticated. Pullinger describes "Flight Paths" as a networked novel: it incorporates a series of digital works that include images, text and sound that were created by the author and collaborator Chris Joseph. The short digital pieces are powerful and restrained, and are used to layer the narrative. Pullinger's first foray into digital writing, "Inanimate Alice", is internationally regarded as a benchmark in this space. Both Pullinger and House have an affinity for conceptualising stories in ways that transcend the written word – and they revel in the collaborative nature of digital writing. For every successful example of digital writing there are numerous failures – but every new form has teething problems and questions that hang over its legitimacy. The function of any kind of emerging practice is not to perpetuate the status quo. Watching a new form emerge is thrilling, and witnessing practitioners such as House and Pullinger grapple with it is breathtaking. It is a time for unruly writers and disorderly readers. - The Conversation, December 13, 2013. * Donna Hancox is a writer and senior lecturer in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests include digital writing and publishing, transmedia writing and transmedia activism.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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Does Ridhuan Tee consider himself educated? Posted: 12 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST December 13, 2013 Zan Azlee is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, writer, New Media practitioner and lecturer. He runs Fat Bidin Media www.fatbidin.com I've been secretly smiling to myself almost every day the past week. It is because I've been very happy with certain stories I've been reading in the media lately. The stories I've been reading has given me joy because they are about how Ridhuan Tee Abdullah has been accused of lecturing about ethnic cleansing to his students. And even before that, a few months ago, he was accused of plagiarism in his academic writings and research papers. Happy, happy, joy, joy! It's no secret (especially to my regular readers) that I've made it one of my life's missions to counter and destroy his every single racist and bigoted thought. And when issue of his credibility and professionalism comes into question, I will obviously jump on the opportunity to highlight it. Teresa Kok, the DAP MP of Seputeh, was the one who brought up the issue of ethnic cleansing and now the Defence Ministry has agreed to investigate the claim. Why the Defence Ministry? Well, it's because Tee somehow managed to wrangle a lecturing job at the National Defence University of Malaysia. And he somehow managed to make himself look a bigger fool by dedicating one of his columns in the newspaper Sinar Harian to denigrating Kok. Of course, he doesn't name Kok in his column. He just refers to an individual he names in his column as a "kiasu spinster", maybe to avoid legal problems. Unlike me, who he has written negatively about and specifically named in his Sinar Harian column! I guess I should be honoured. Anyway, this isn't about me. Kok, of course, retaliated and said that Tee is neither a gentleman nor a good role model for future military leaders. On that note, I have to agree. For someone who regularly spews out racial hatred, it is dangerous for him to have access to young impressionable minds. In fact, he shouldn't even be given access to the mass media. It is unfortunate that currently, he writes for several newspapers including Sinar Harian and Utusan. But hey, freedom of speech is something that is important to me. And if I believe that I should be entitled to it, then so should Tee. However, it is quite amusing to see how Tee utilises his right to freedom of speech to counter all the allegations and denigrations against him. One would think that he would rebut all his critiques with facts, figures and evidence to prove that he is right and so silence everyone. But the thing that keeps everyone going is that Tee doesn't actually do that. When he answers his critiques, it's always with name-calling, like a little kindergartener. It's funny how Tee, in his column, makes fun of Kok by wondering if she even has a university degree, as if that makes her less of a person. He, on the other hand, proudly announces on his blog that he has one diploma, two bachelors, one masters and a PhD, as if that makes him more of a person. I would like to remind Tee that having a formal educational qualification doesn't mean one is necessarily educated. It really just means that one has some nice looking scrolls made out of pieces of paper with one's name on them. Not much value really. I guess it would be preferable for me to state an example of an individual who has had a formal education qualification but isn't really educated. But you know what? I don't think I really have to go to all that trouble to illustrate my point. Am I right or am I right? – December 13, 2013. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

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Guan Eng dan Jahara bertikam lidah lagi Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:37 AM PST December 13, 2013 Persidangan Dewan Undangan Negeri Pulau Pinang hari ini sekali lagi menyaksikan pertikaman lidah antara Ketua Menteri Lim Guan Eng (gambar) dan Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Jahara Hamid. Insiden tercetus apabila Lim mengaitkan kedudukan buruk Malaysia dalam laporan Integriti Kewangan Global (GFI) dengan Barisan Nasional (BN) dan negara ini "jaguh rasuah". Lim yang menggulung perbahasan Rang Undang-undang Perbekalan 2014, berkata berdasarkan GFI, Malaysia di tangga keempat dari segi pengaliran keluar wang haram dan paling tinggi di dunia dari segi per kapita. "Itulah sebab Wall Street Journal dan GFI menggelar 'Malaysia the most corrupted country' (negara paling korup)... tahniah BN," kata Lim. Katanya berdasarkan GFI, sejumlah RM1.2 trilion wang haram keluar dari Malaysia dalam tempoh 10 tahun. "Dari segi per kapita macam mana kita boleh tandingi China, India, dan Mexico sebab penduduk (Malaysia) tak ramai, tapi 'top ten' (10 teratas). Malaysia apapun tak ada jaguh, tapi jaguh rasuah," kata Lim lagi. Laporan GFI itu menyenaraikan China di kedudukan pertama, diikuti Rusia, Mexico, Malaysia dan India. Kenyataan Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang itu mendorong Jahara bangun mencelah dan mempertikaikan tindakan Lim mengaitkan perkara tersebut dengan BN. Ini kerana katanya GFI menyenaraikan tiga faktor utama sebagai penyumbang aliran keluar wang haram iaitu aktiviti jenayah, lari dari cukai dan rasuah. "Mengapa nak bebankan perkara seperti ini ke atas bahu BN, walhal kebanyakannya berlaku mungkin berkaitan dengan jenayah komersial, berlaku adil lah ketika menuduh," kata Anggota Dewan Undangan Negeri kawasan Teluk Tawar itu. – Bernama, 13 Disember, 2013.

PKFZ: Tindakan kerajaan tepat, kata Dr Ling Posted: 13 Dec 2013 02:13 AM PST December 13, 2013 Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik (gambar) berkata, kerajaan mengambil tindakan tepat dengan menubuhkan Zon Bebas Pelabuhan Klang (PKFZ). Menurut bekas menteri pengangkutan itu, prestasi PKFZ sekarang terbukti bagus. "Saya melawat PKFZ baru-baru ini. Saya diberi taklimat ringkas oleh Pengerusi Lembaga Pelabuhan Klang Teh Kim Poo dan CEO PKFZ Chia Kon Leong. "Tanah itu djual dengan RM21 (sekali persegi) tetapi sekarang RM70 hingga RM80 (sekali persegi)... jadi prestasi PKFZ sekarang bagus," katanya yang juga bekas Presiden MCA dipetik dari portal Malaysiakini. Katanya, keputusan menubuhkan PKFZ betul dan salah faham cuma ditimbulkan sesetengah pihak yang tidak tahu sepenuhnya tentang operasinya. Ditanya pembebasannya daripada tuduhan menipu kerajaan dalam isu PKFZ oleh mahkamah, Ling buat pertama kalinya memberikan reaksinya: "Tuhan Maha Besar. Tuhan Maha Tahu siapa tersilap dituduh." – 13 Disember, 2013.

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