Sabtu, 15 Februari 2014

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

0 ulasan 11:20 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

French chefs rebel against ‘food porn’ photos

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 10:07 PM PST

February 16, 2014

The next time you try to take a picture of your dinner in a posh French restaurant, don't be surprised if an angry chef comes storming out of the kitchen.

Fed up with patrons snapping photographs with their smartphones to post on social networks, several Michelin-starred French establishments are trying to crack down on so-called "food porn".

Some Instagram users are solely created to post pictures of food, and users accompany pictures of their meal with the hashtag #foodporn. – Instagram picture by Aziff Azuddin, February 16, 2014. Food bloggers, and even some chefs, defend the pictures as free publicity, but for many the sharing has just gone too far.

"There's a time and a place for everything," said Alexandre Gauthier, chef at La Grenouillere in the northern town of La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil.

"We are trying to give our clients a break in their lives. For that, you need to turn off your mobile," he said.

Short of formally banning photographs in his restaurant, Gauthier has put an image of a camera with a strike-through on his menu.

"People just won't disconnect anymore," he told AFP.

"Before they used to take photos of their family, of their grandmother, but now it's photos of dishes," he said.

"It is gratifying, but we're a restaurant without very much light, so they have to use a flash. And with each dish it's 'stop everything', or the photo has to be retaken three times.

"It's Tweeted, liked, comments are made and replied to – by then the dish is cold."

Intellectual property

Gilles Goujon, chef at the three-starred L'Auberge du Vieux Puits in the southern town of Fontjoncouse, said he is increasingly frustrated with the poor etiquette of amateur food photographers.

He said food pictures "take away the surprise" of some of his dishes and "take a bit of my intellectual property".

Not to mention that "a photo taken with a not-so-good smartphone is rarely good."

"It doesn't give the best image of our work. It's annoying," he said.

One blogger at his restaurant several months ago posted a complaint about the doneness of her pigeon, complete with a picture, but hadn't cut the bird open.

"You couldn't even see how the pigeon was cooked!" said the still-fuming chef.

French chefs complain that customers take pictures of their food and tweet them, and the pictures are liked, commented and replied to, and by then the dish is cold. – Instagram picture by Aziff Azuddin, February 16, 2014. "It's complicated to ban it," Goujon said. "I'm trying to find the right way to say it on the menu but haven't found the proper formula so it doesn't make people angry."

French chefs are hardly alone. There has been a growing backlash in the United States to intrusive photo-taking, with some top-tier restaurants banning photography.

French food blogger Stephane Riss said critics of food photographs are overreacting.

"For chefs, the more they are talked about, the better," he said. "Photos boost visibility and revenues... It's free publicity."

Riss even suggested that some chefs fear the scrutiny of photographs, which make a badly presented dish undeniable.

"The chefs have to be in top form every day because if there is one mistake, it goes on the Internet," he said.

And not all chefs are so unwelcoming to the craze for food photos.

David Toutain, whose eponymous Paris restaurant is a darling of the critics, said word of mouth on the Internet has been a boost to his career.

"You have to live with the times," he said. "Social networks helped at the start of my career and are helping me now. It's advertising." – AFP, February 16, 2014.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

0 ulasan 3:22 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

Eight years on, Ahn returns to win gold for Russia

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 07:58 AM PST

February 15, 2014

Viktor Ahn (pic) kissed the ice and paraded the Russian flag after winning gold for his adopted country in the 1,000 metres short track speed skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics on Saturday.

Grabbing a pair of flags, he handed one to his team mate Vladimir Grigorev, who had claimed silver, before the pair embarked on a victory lap that had one nation cheering and another fuming.

"Of course I'm happy. I'm very happy," said Ahn. "But I'm even more happy because Russia managed to win both the gold and silver."

Competing under his original name Ahn Hyun-soo, he won three gold medals for South Korea at the 2006 Olympics in Turin before a bitter fall-out with officials in his country of birth.

He failed to qualify for the 2010 Vancouver Games then decided to switch allegiances to Russia and changed his name, even though he did not speak the language or have any relatives in the country.

Earlier this week, South Korean President Park Geun-hye ordered a government ministry to investigate how one of the country's top athletes had ended up competing for a rival.

Ahn's win, in one of the premier events in short track speedskating, confirmed his place as one of the sport's greats.

"It's my first gold medal in eight years. When I finished first, my head went blank. It's unbelievable," he said.

"I was touched by the loud applause the Russian spectators gave me... today's result proves that my decision was right. That's why today is so meaningful."

For Ahn, victory was made all the sweeter by the fact South Korea, the sport's traditional powerhouse, has still not won a gold medal in short track at Sochi.

Just moments before his win, South Korean teenage world champion Shim Suk-hee had to settle for silver in the women's 1,500m.

The men's 1,000m world champion, South Korea's Sin Da-wan, failed to win a medal in that final, with the bronze going to Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands.

"I had no idea Russia was such a strong short track country. It's my first Olympics in my home country. I'm so grateful for all the support people have given me here," Ahn said.

Grigorev was also representing his adopted country for the first time at the Olympics after changing citizenship. He competed for Ukraine at the past two Games.

"I made a choice to come to Russia," he said. "I wanted great competition and the coaches are better here."

From the outset it was clear the Russians were going to be hard to beat. They made a clean getaway and went straight into the lead, where they were able to control the race.

The two traded places early on, but none of the other competitors managed to get past them and they dashed across the line to deafening roars inside the Iceberg Skating Palace.

"It was our strategy - for me to block out the skaters, to hold them back," said Grigorev. "And for us to go fast so it would be impossible for the other athletes to chase us." – Reuters, February 15, 2014.

China’s Zhou retains women’s 1500m title

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 04:57 AM PST

February 15, 2014

Zhou Yang (right) and her compatriot Li Jianrou react after the women's 1,500 metres short track speed skating finals race at the Iceberg Skating Palace today. – Reuters pic.Chinese short track speed skater Zhou Yang successfully defended her 1,500 metres Olympic title when she won the gold medal in today's final at the Sochi Winter Games.

Shim Suk-hee of South Korea won the silver medal and Italy's Arianna Fontana took the bronze after a hotly-contested race at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

Dutch skater Jorien ter Mors finished fourth while China's Li Jianrou, South Korea's Kim Alang and American Emily Scott all fell midway through the race, effectively ending their chances of making the podium.

The 22-year-old Zhou timed her race to perfection, taking the lead approaching the final lap and sprinting clear to collect her third Olympic gold medal after she won two in Vancouver four years ago. – Reuters, February 15, 2014.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

0 ulasan 1:40 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

Scorsese says NY Review film meant as guide to young

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 04:41 AM PST

February 15, 2014

Director and producer Martin Scorsese (pic) says he hopes his documentary to mark the 50th anniversary of the New York Review of Books will point young people in the right direction for getting reliable information in an age of data overload.

Scorsese and co-director David Tedeschi screened what they said was a nearly finished version of the as-yet-untitled documentary on Friday at the Berlin international film festival. They said it should be ready for release in March.

Best known for box-office hits like "Raging Bull" and "The Wolf of Wall Street", Scorsese said he had been a faithful reader of the review.

Since it was launched during the 1963 New York newspaper strike, the influential publication has published authors and critics ranging from Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal and Joan Didion to Ian Buruma and Zoe Heller.

Scorsese said the review's editor and co-founder Robert Silvers – who attended the screening – had asked him to make the film, and that he had agreed in part because he wanted to guide young people to sources of information he deemed trustworthy.

"Particularly in this age of the glut of information and the data that's around, how do they select, how do they choose what to believe in as a value?" the director said after the screening.

"They have no idea of how fragile the freedom is, none, you see. And so this is an attempt in a way to maybe point them in a direction."

The film interweaves scenes of Silvers and other staff at work in the review's book-filled Manhattan office with interviews with contributors including Irish author Colm Toibin and British commentator Timothy Garton Ash.

It also includes footage from a 1971 televised encounter in which review contributors Mailer and Vidal spar over an article Vidal had written attacking Mailer, accusing him of misogyny and equating him with Henry Miller and the cult killer Charles Manson.

That, and other such clips, bring to life what Scorsese admitted was a "tricky subject" of making a film about "literature and the word".

Silvers was full of praise for the result, saying: "I want to say that Marty is dealing with after all 15,000 articles over 50 years and I think it's been a work of genius to find a line and to find something meaningful in this enormous murk of all our stuff." – Reuters, February 15, 2014.

Simon Cowell’s girlfriend has baby boy

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 05:00 PM PST

February 15, 2014

Cowell, who had long said fatherhood was not in his plans, welcomed a son yesterday, his representative AnnMarie Thomson said. – Reuters pic, February 15, 2014.British TV and music mogul Simon Cowell, who had long said fatherhood was not in his plans, welcomed a son yesterday, his representative AnnMarie Thomson said.

The former "American Idol" judge's girlfriend, Lauren Silverman, gave birth to the 2.9kg boy in New York. It is her second child and Cowell's first.

Cowell, 54, who gained fame as an acid-tongued judge on television singing contests in the United States and his native Britain, has never married.

"I'm not brilliant with babies," Cowell told US magazine Parade last October. "I never know what to do. But (once he's older) I think I'll be a good dad in terms of advice."

Silverman's pregnancy first came to light last year when her ex-husband filed for divorce in New York and naming Cowell as a co-respondent.

Cowell's "The X Factor" contest was cancelled last week by US broadcaster Fox, and he said that he would return to the judges panel on its UK counterpart amid sagging ratings. – Reuters, February 15, 2014.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

0 ulasan 1:14 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

Africans get a kick out of Shaolin kung fu

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 12:52 AM PST

February 15, 2014

Buddhist monks from the Shaolin temple perform in January at Dakar's Grand Theatre. – AFP pic.Ten grey-suited Buddhists crouch like leopards stalking a muntjac before barrelling across the stage in an explosion of gravity-defying pivots, kicks and somersaults that would make an osteopath wince.

These are the warrior monks of China's fabled Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of kung fu which is spreading its gospel to Africa as part of a wood-smashing, sword-dancing, spear-balancing grab at global ubiquity.

"Shaolin kung fu isn't simply a physical exercise," said 26-year-old Shi Yancen as he limbered up at the Chinese-built Grand Theatre in the Senegalese capital Dakar ahead of the monks' first ever show in west Africa.

"Through learning kung fu you can also learn and admire the culture of Buddhism."

Shi, who has an incongruously gentle face and looks barely out of his teens, has been mastering kung fu for half his life in the austere surrounds of the Shaolin Temple, nestled in the forested mountains of Henan, one of China's most impoverished provinces.

A common sight for years across Asia, the United States and Europe, the Shaolin monks are turning their attention to Africa, where kung fu has been largely overshadowed by tribal martial arts but is quickly growing in popularity.

Since 2008, monks from the temple have been wooing sell-out crowds in South Africa, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Uganda, Eritrea, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi, eyeing Africa's huge untapped potential.

The attention is paying off, with thousands of youngsters taking up kung fu each year, and 12 nations, including Senegal, participated in the fifth pan-continental kung fu championships in Madagascar in September.

The temple has no schools yet in Africa but its foreign liaison officer, Wang Yumin, said its strategy was bring pupils to China and get them to spread the message of "love, justice and health" back home.

"The Shaolin Temple has the mission to spread our tradition and Africans have the same demand to share our legendary culture," she said.

Students from six African countries started five years of training at the temple in 2011 and the monks have also begun shorter courses, all funded by China.

In December apprentices from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Uganda and Nigeria graduated from the first three-month Shaolin Kung Fu African Class of the Ministry of Culture.

"Life in the Shaolin Temple is unimaginably lovely and peaceful. It's not like the real world where there is so much hustle," one of the graduates, Nigerian Peace Emezue, was quoted as saying in the state-run China Daily newspaper.

"I have found a lot of peace of mind here and to be at peace with myself. I would like to teach more people how to do that."

Legend places the origins of the Shaolin tradition at 495 AD, when the emperor Xiaowen is said to have ordered the construction of a temple, deep in a mountain forest, in honour of a wandering Indian monk named Batuo.

Around 30 years later another Indian ascetic named Bodhidharma arrived and spent nine years meditating in a nearby cave before teaching the monks Zen Buddhism – known as Chan in China – and the beginnings of what would become Shaolin kung fu.

By its 13th century heyday, the temple was home to around 3,000 monks, but it fell on hard times after a warlord set fire to it during China's civil war in the 1920s and it was damaged further under Japanese occupation 20 years later.

With kung fu outlawed during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, much of the temple was burnt down by Chairman Mao's Red Guards and deserted by the monks.

The monastery's renaissance is largely the work of "Shaolin Temple", a 1982 martial arts mega-hit film starring kung fu champion Jet Li which established the monks as a global brand just as China was embarking on its economic liberalisation.

Farmer's son and factory worker Shi Yonxin firmly ingrained the brand in the public imagination when he took over as abbott in 1999 and began sending his monks off around the world.

Today the temple houses around 500 monks teaching and learning Buddhist theology, running schools and orphanages, practising kung fu and greeting the tourists who make the trip to its tranquil grounds each year in their millions.

For some, however, the magic of Shaolin is wearing thin.

Traditionalists have complained that the temple's financial adroitness is overshadowing the prowess of the students, who are swapping meditation for lessons in business studies and copyright law.

The temple, which already has nearly 130 martial arts clubs in the United States alone, was criticised in 2011 over the commercialisation of Buddhism when it announced a vast business plan for global expansion.

"We currently operate over 40 companies in cities across the world, such as Berlin and London," the Chinese Global Times quoted the financially-astute Shi, the first Chinese monk to earn a master's degree in business administration, as saying at a Beijing culture forum in 2011.

Hanqiu Huang, the deputy chief of Henan's culture department, said ahead of the monks' west African debut in mid-January, Shaolin's expansion was fulfilling an overseas infatuation with its particular brand of spirituality.

"The leader of the Shaolin temple is doing all he can to spread the teachings of Buddhism. He's not doing that for commercial reasons," she said.

Whether Shaolin will catch on in Africa as it has elsewhere remains to be seen but the portents looked good on the monks' opening night in Dakar.

"I wasn't expecting much but it was outstanding," said Marika Kotze, a 48-year-old IT consultant who has been living in the city for 15 years.

"Wrestling is the big thing in Senegal but I can see this catching on." – AFP, February 15, 2014.

Not just baby talk – chatting spurs brain development

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 06:10 PM PST

February 15, 2014

Talking to babies is so important that researchers say it is a major reason why children from disadvantaged backgrounds perform poorly in school. – AFP/Relaxnews pic, February 15, 2014.Baby talk is more than just bonding: chatting with your infant spurs important brain development that sets the stage for lifelong learning, researchers said Thursday.

And while high-pitched, sing-song tones may capture your baby's attention, the best way for them to learn is to be spoken to like adults. At least when it comes to vocabulary and sentence structure.

"It's not just how much speech you get, but the kind of speech you get," said Erika Hoff, a psychologist at Florida Atlantic University.

"Speech needs to be rich and complex."

Talking to babies is so important that researchers say it is a major reason why children from disadvantaged backgrounds perform poorly in school.

By the time they reach the age of five, the children of low-income, poorly educated parents typically score two years behind their privileged peers on standardised language tests.

These differences can also be measured in the brain, said Columbia University neurologist and pediatrician Kimberly Noble.

The human brain experiences incredible growth in its early years.

By the age of three, it has formed 1,000 trillion neural connections – the links between cells that help the brain do everything from picking up a stick to remembering song lyrics.

"A child's experiences really come into play to determine whether those connections strengthen or are dropped or pruned," Noble told reporters at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.

Noble and her colleagues compared the brains of children with low socioeconomic status to those whose parents are highly educated and paid well.

While they found differences in the core cognitive systems that support social skills and memory, the largest disparities were in the brain structures for language development.

"With increasing age, children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds devoted more neural real estate to those regions," she said.

Stanford University psychologist Anne Fernald has found that the language gap can be measured as early as 18 months. By a child's second birthday that gap is already six months wide.

Fernald and her colleagues made recordings of what a group of low-income, Spanish-speaking children heard all day.

They found that infants didn't gain much from simply overhearing their parents and caregivers talk – the real learning came from being spoken to directly.

It is crucial to develop "culturally sensitive interventions" to teach low-income parents to talk to their children, Fernald told reporters.

"There's a wide range of views about whether it's even appropriate to talk to a child – in some cultures it is not," Fernald said.

A pilot project she is running in San Jose to teach Latina mothers to engage verbally with their children has shown promising results.

"By 24 months, the children of more engaged moms are developing bigger vocabularies and processing spoken language more efficiently," Fernald said.

While parents might want to help their children prepare for school by speaking to them in English, Hoff said they are usually better off sticking to their native tongue.

A study she was set to present yesterday showed that when parents don't have a firm grasp of a second language, they aren't able to teach it to their children.

Instead, they end up limiting their children's overall language development by failing to expose them to more complex speech.

"We want to do whatever it takes to give children access to rich, varied language input at an early age," Hoff said.

Parents wanting to enrich their children with a bilingual education also have to weigh the cost.

"Learning two languages is a great thing. What we have to recognise is that learning two languages does not happen for free," Hoff said. "You don't learn two languages as quickly as you learn one." – AFP/Relaxnews, February 15, 2014.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

0 ulasan 3:27 PG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Taking the Malaysian league by storm

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 05:40 PM PST

February 15, 2014

As a player, Shebby Singh won everything there was to win in Malaysia football, and represented the country on the international stage.

One more weekend and then there is a welcome international break for what has been a fast and furious start to the new Malaysian football season. This season certainly looks exciting and competitive; not since yours truly was winning matches in style has a season in Malaysian football felt this enticing to follow.

The football has been fast paced, albeit still sloppy at the best of times, but to have a shining light like Pablo Aimar certainly lends credibility to a nation that has more often than not allowed football to be run by suits without a clue about the game.

The excitement that has surged through my home state of Johor is down to our Crown Prince having the know–how and fiery passion for the game. But as His Highness Tunku Mahkota Johor always reminds and reiterates, the game of football first and foremost is an effective social mechanism for bringing communities and groups of people together. Keeping the youth of today involved and fulfilled through sport is an added caveat; then, and only then, is it about winning trophies.

A dream was formulated, and now TMJ wants to fulfill his vision. The introduction of Pablo Aimar, a genuine superstar of the game, is quite possibly the best thing to happen to Malaysian football. Our country has certainly been put on the map as a nation which is finally realising that to improve their stature in the international football scene, the local football league has to improve in quality and attraction; attracting a footballer who has won league titles in three different national leagues (Argentina, Spain and Portugal) as well as achieving success with Argentina as a FIFA U-20 World Cup winner is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.

And how Aimar has enchanted us with moments of quality and magic! It is a pleasure to be on television as Astro Arena showcases moments of pure Pablo. Television plays a major role in promoting a relatively fledging league into further social prominence, and Astro Arena should be commended for this brave adventure especially when Malaysian football was sinking faster then the Titanic mere seasons ago.

The emergence of some very talented young local players too has been a bonus. It has been enthralling to watch Hafiz Kamal take the game by the reins as he commands Pahang like no other.

The marauding Mahali Jasuli quite possibly has created the most goalscoring chances in the league, and he plays at rightback!

The playmaking of Badrol Bakhtiar for Kedah in the second tier Premier League too has been a feature, though Kedah fans hardly need a reminder of his quality. Foreign imports, Pablo Aimar aside, have been impressive as well.

29–year–old Australian Mario Karlovic has slotted in comfortably alongside Ismail Faruqi for Terengganu in central midfield while Juninho is clearly going to take Selangor places. The unbelievable engine of Spanish central midfielder Jose Gomez has been a feature too, his ability to distribute the ball being an added bonus to his tireless work in attack and defense.

And the fans, inspired by JDT's passionate and vociferous rhythmic vocals, have sparked further synchronised followings up and down the country. The sheer intensity of the fans in stadiums all around the country harkens back to my days as a player when the Merdeka Stadium was always rocking, both at the domestic and international level.

The only blot is a little bunch of idiots trying to ruin all the good work and effort being put into place for a perfect environment for football fans.

Football hooligans, go away, we don't need you! Passion is important, but when a small group of fans threaten the safety of other spectators, they not only make a mockery of themselves with their inability to keep their emotions in check; fans like these act as a deterrent to other Malaysians whose only interest is to enjoy an entertaining game of football in person.

The big match of the weekend is at Larkin Stadium, Johor Baru, where Selangor, as table toppers, come to strut their stuff. They rightly deserve their place on top of the pile, but will face a severe test of their credentials as Johor Darul Takzim 1 look to start stretching their legs and attempt to begin their ascent up the table.

The East Coast derby of Pahang versus Terengganu will provide sparks of its own, a match never lacking in atmosphere and competitiveness. The midfield battle promises to be one of the highlights of the season, as Hafiz Kamal looks to make his mark on what is sure to be a hotly-contested tie. – February 15, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

Perjalanan ke Iran (1)

Posted: 14 Feb 2014 03:44 PM PST

February 15, 2014

Mujahid Yusof Rawa is MP for Parit Buntar and PAS National Unity Committee chairman.

Sejak meninggalkan bumi Iran pada 1978, saya tidak pernah kembali ke sana lagi walaupun Iran adalah negara luar kedua masa paling panjang saya habiskan untuk menetap, selepas Mesir. Di Mesir, saya tinggal hampir 7 tahun di sana kerana menuntut ilmu di Al-Azhar tetapi saya berpeluang beberapa kali menziarahi semula bumi anbiya tersebut. Bagi Iran, inilah pertama kali saya menziarahinya semula setelah menetap di sana dari 1975-1978. Ayah saya waktu itu bertugas atas misi negara sebagai Duta Besar di sana dan saya mengikutinya pada umur 11 tahun.

Tersungkurnya Shah

Iran waktu itu bukan Iran sekarang waimma namanya pun sudah menjadi Islamic Republic of Iran dan bukan lagi semasa saya di sana sebagai The Royal Kingdom of Iran. Iran sebelum revolusi terkenal dengan rajanya yang menggelar dirinya sebagai Shahanshah Aryamer yang membawa konotasi Raja kepada segala Raja Aryan sebagai kebanggaan bahawa baginda adalah daripada keturunan mulia. Malangnya kebongkakan Shah Iran terungkai apabila ia dibuang oleh rakyatnya sendiri dalam satu revolusi terhebat abad ke-20 yang dikenali sebagai The Islamic Revolution of Iran pada 1979.

Post revolusi

Keseluruhan perjalanan sejarah Iran berubah dan Iran menjadi satu-satunya negara Islam yang berani mencabar hegemoni kuasa besar Amerika dan sekutunya malah tersenarai salah satu daripada 3 negara dalam senarai Amerika sebagai negara 'bahaya' selain Korea Utara dan Cuba. Keberanian Iran mempertahankan program nuklearnya dibayar dengan harga yang mahal apabila dikenakan sekatan ekonomi sejak 1990-an walaupun hingga ke tahap ini Iran masih lagi bertahan dan terpaksa bergantung kepada sumber utamanya daripada minyak melalui pasaran gelap yang tinggi permintaannya.

Khomeini

Aayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini adalah figura yang mengubah persepsi dunia terhadap kemampuan Islam muncul sebagai kuasa dunia yang disegani dalam era moden ini. Berbekalkan semangat revolusi dan ucapannya mampu menggoncang jiwa yang mahukan kebebasan daripada diktator Shah dan renungan matanya tajam menggambarkan keazaman yang tidak mungkin diruntuhkan, Khomeini mencipta sejarah Iran yang baru.

Seorang ulama Syiah yang mendapat gelaran Ayatollah hanya perlu berucap dari rumah kecilnya di Perancis sebagai orang buangan dan disebarkan ucapannya melalui kaset sehingga tiada isi rumah yang tidak mendengar ucapannya melainkan semuanya terkesan dan bangkit kemudian untuk menggulingkan diktatator Shah.

Khomeini juga membawa Iran mempertahankan sempadannya dengan Iraq sehingga tercetus perang Iran -Iraq dekad 1980-an. Khomeini mempertahankan golongan pelajar yang menawan premis Kedutaan Amerika yang anti-Iran berpanjangan sehingga beberapa bulan. Khomeini juga mengeksport Revolusi Islamnya ke seluruh dunia Islam sehingga musim haji menjadi gelanggang mesejnya dalam menentang 'Mustakbirin Amerika".

Kini tokoh agung revolusi Islam Iran terus menjadi ikon kebangkitan dan diabadikan nama lapangan terbang yang dulunya dikenali sebagai Mehrabad kepada Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Politik Iran

Asif Bayyat seorang ahli akademik beketurunan Iran yang kini berada di Amerika membuat kajian secara konseptual tentang suasana politik Iran pasca revolusi pada 1996. Antara dapatan awalnya beliau merumuskan bahawa zaman mengekalkan momentum revolusi semakin perlahan dan tekanan kepada aspek realiti pemerintahan dan persoalan ekonomi menuntut ideals dan perlaksanaan dicerakinkan.

Persoalan masa depan daripada sejarah kebangkitan dan persoalan demokrasi dan prinsip Islam seolah-olah perlu mendapat persepakatan termasuk hak kewarganegaraan dan hak asasi manusia. Beliau menamakan tesis beliau sebagai Post-Islamism yang kini diperluaskan perbahasannya kepada mengulas siri kebangkitan Arab spring yang dipelopori antara lainnya oleh kelompok Islamik. Daripada sudut Islam dan pemerintahan, Iran dianggap unik kerana merintis kebangkitan rakyat menentang diktator dan mengasaskan Islamic Republic pertama di dunia dalam kerangka negara bangsa.

Iran menjadi tuan rumah

Perjalanan saya kali ini mewakili Parlimen Malaysia ke konferensi Kesatuan Parlimen Organisasi Negara Islam (PUIC) yang dihoskan oleh Iran. Menarik kerana Iran adalah antara negara yang aktif mempromosikan Kesatuan Parlimen ini dan banyak menyuarakan isu semasa umat Islam melalui platform ini.

Saya masih ingat ketika sidang di Palembang, Indonesia pada 2012, ucapan Speaker Dewan Iran mencetuskan kemarahan peserta negara-negara Teluk kerana Speaker An Nouri mengucapkan tahniah kepada kebangkitan Arab spring dan berbangga bahawa Iran memulakan sejak 1979 menggulingkan pemerintah beraja yang diktator. Ucapan itu amat pedih didengari oleh ahli delegasi Parlimen negara Teluk lalu mereka keluar dewan tanda boikot.

Balik kampung

Saya teruja untuk menghadiri konferensi ini di Tehran kerana sejak menjadi ahli parlimen pada 2008 saya dilantik oleh Speaker Parlimen Malaysia untuk menjadi Ahli Jawatankuasa ke persidangan ini. Selain mengharapkan dapat menjalankan tugas negara dan mengharumkan nama negara, saya ada misi lain yang saya tunggu selama ini iaitu menziarahi tempat yang saya pernah bermain, bersekolah dan membesar dari 1975-1978 di Iran. – 15 Februari, 2014.

* Ini adalah pendapat peribadi penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili pandangan The Malaysian Insider.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa

0 ulasan 3:09 PG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa

Pakatan jadi kerajaan jika persempadanan adil, kata NGO pilihan raya

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 02:27 AM PST

OLEH SHERIDAN MAHAVERA
February 15, 2014
Latest Update: February 15, 2014 07:02 pm

Ng Chak Ngoon berucap di forum awam berkenaan Sistem Pilihan Raya di Dewan Sivik MBPJ, Petaling Jaya, hari ini. – Gambar The Malaysian Insider oleh Afif Abd Halim, 15 Februari, 2014.Sebanyak 117 kerusi Parlimen.

Itulah jumlah kerusi yang sepatutnya dimenangi Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 (PRU13) lalu daripada semua 222 kerusi Parlimen yang mengandungi bilangan pengundi dan kuasa setiap undi adalah sama, kata kumpulan pemerhati pilihan raya hari ini.

Tindak Malaysia berkata, keputusan alternatif pilihan raya umum itu adalah berdasarkan persempadanan peta pilihan raya di seluruh negara yang disusun semula pengundi di setiap negeri supaya setiap kawasan mempunyai bilangan pengundi hampir sama.

Menurut mereka, peta persempadanan kawasan pilihan raya akan membetulkan ketidakseimbangan terhadap populasi antara kerusi – dikenali dengan istilah malapportionment - yang menyebabkan keadaan semasa sebagai contoh iaitu undi di Putrajaya bersamaan sembilan undi di Kapar .

Pengasas bersama kumpulan itu Ng Chak Ngoon berkata kumpulan itu kemudian mengkaji corak pengundi pada PRU13 yang dilakar semula pada peta.

Tiada kerusi baru. Peta yang dibentangkan di forum reformasi pilihan raya di Petaling Jaya hari ini, menggunakan jumlah kerusi Parlimen yang sama iaitu 222.

Dalam kajian Tindak Malaysia, BN hanya akan menang 105 kerusi, berbanding 133 kerusi yang dimenangi dengan peta pilihan raya terkini, yang dikritik secara meluas tidak dikendalikan dengan baik dan gerry mandering – persempadanan yang dimanipulasikan.

Pada PRU13, BN memenangi 133 kerusi berbanding 89 kerusi yang dimenangi oleh PR, walaupun pembangkang berjaya memperoleh 51% undi popular.

Beberapa kumpulan NGO menegaskan kemenangan BN pada pilihan raya itu walaupun memenangi undi kurang popular adalah bukti bahawa kawasan pilihan raya semasa tidak menggambarkan dengan tepat bagaimana rakyat Malaysia mengundi. – 15 Februari, 2014.

Adenan jemput Effendi berbincang

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 01:02 AM PST

February 15, 2014

Bekas Menteri Pertanian Datuk Seri Effendi Norwawi (gambar) bersedia membantu pentadbiran baharu Sarawak jika diminta berbuat demikian termasuk bertanding dalam pilihan raya kecil Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Balingian jika berlaku kekosongan.

Bakal Ketua Menteri Sarawak Tan Sri Adenan Satem yang mengesahkan perkara itu berkata beliau ada menghubungi Effendi kelmarin dan akan berbincang dengan Effendi berhubung peranan yang boleh dimainkan beliau dalam pentadbiran baharu negeri ini.

Adenan berkata mereka akan membincangkan beberapa perkara apabila bertemu kelak tetapi tidak menyatakan butiran lanjut.

"Saya akan bincang dengan beliau...Effendi Norwawi dialu-alukan untuk bertemu saya pada bila-bila masa.

"Apabila beliau datang bertemu saya, kami akan bincang beberapa perkara," katanya ketika ditemui pemberita selepas menghadiri Majlis Persandingan Dayang Dina Masfira Abang Affendi dan Azlan Shah Patrick Ling di kediaman bekas Yang Dipertua Dewan Negara, Tan Sri Abang Ahmad Urai Abang Mohideen di Kuching hari ini.

Adenan akan mengangkat sumpah jawatan sebagai Ketua Menteri Sarawak yang baharu pada 28 Februari ini.

Dalam laporan akhbar hari ini, Effendi berkata Adenan ada menghubungi beliau dan memintanya bertemu secepat mungkin.

Bernama sebelum ini melaporkan sekiranya Ketua Menteri Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud mengosongkan kerusi DUN Balingian, anak sulungnya Datuk Seri Mahmud Abu Bekir atau Effendi akan menjadi calon Barisan Nasional (BN) untuk mempertahankan kerusi berkenaan.

Satu lagi nama yang disebut ialah bekas Setiausaha Tetap Kementerian Pelancongan Sarawak Akit Sebli.

Sebelum ini, media melaporkan bahawa Effendi sudah tidak berminat untuk kembali ke arena politik.

Effendi menyertai Kabinet pada 1999 dan bersara daripada politik pada 2008.

Beliau pernah menjadi Anggota Parlimen bagi kawasan Dalat dari 1999 hingga 2004. – Bernama, 15 Februari, 2014.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 15 Februari 2014