Niqab Ban

Came across this article today:

Egypt cleric 'to ban full veils'

The niqab has become increasingly popular among Egypt's Muslim radicals

Egypt's highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women's veils, known as the niqab.

Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith.

Although most Muslim women in Egypt wear the Islamic headscarf, increasing numbers are adopting the niqab as well.

The practice is widely associated with more radical trends of Islam.

The niqab question reportedly arose when Sheikh Tantawi was visiting a girls' school in Cairo at the weekend and asked one of the students to remove her niqab.

The Egyptian newspaper al-Masri al-Yom quoted him expressing surprise at the girl's attire and telling her it was merely a tradition, with no connection to religion or the Koran.

After reading the Sheikh's point, I can't help from recalling this photo called "What's the point"

Nihongo

Hajime mashite ..
Betul ke ni? Biar benar?
Another language to learn .. another office to manage .. another country to explore

You know you are fat when ..

You know you are fat when:

1. Your kids say you look like a pregnant woman in your body hugging thermal wear.

2. When your kids say you look like 9 months pregnant, your sister - in all honesty & sincerity, quashed the claim and said instead, "No. That looks like 6 months. 9 months is so much bigger."

3. Your wife says, "I've waited 12 years for him to go kurus. I can wait another 6 months."

4. You mumble profanity when bending down to help your heels into the shoes.

5. You bought a shirt your size, come back home try it on and see in the mirror something similar to "nangka pakai baju" at Tok's house.

6. You pick up a Levi's jeans and say "Uh .. this is huge." Try it on and say "This fits so well".

7. You'd rather wait for the level crossing bar to come up & cross the rail track than cross the pedestrian bridge to the other side.

8. When you weigh yourself up, you look at the scale and soothe yourself by saying - "the jeans is about 1 kg, shirt 300 g, sweater 500 g, socks ...."

9. Your wardrobe turns blackish.

10. Your wife tries to help you lose weight, and you say "you kasi I makan ini aje?"

That's it. Losing weight is definitely gonna be at the top of this year's resolution.

New Year New Friends

I have always maintained that my pitching is better than Mawi's. Amazing! Winning a singing talent show due to other qualities than singing. Ooooh! Terbakar all those Mawi fans out there.. Kah kah kah..

The real talent I've seen/heard so far in the AF series is Idayu. Whatever happened to her?

Back to Mawi. More amazing is the fact that he is supported by all walks of life. I remember talking to a hard-core Pas (the party) security guard pak cik. He said, "Ohh! Mawi menyanyi semalam sedap betul lah. Pak cik memang suka. Bagus betul budak tu." And another hard-core Umno guy sitting with us at the table immediately approved the statement. And I went "Huh?" (dalam hati of course).

Mawi has also seem to bond people out of nowhere, out of nothing. There were/are internet forums everywhere dedicated to him. And this new year 2009, I had the privilege of meeting some new friends from one these forums/groups (which I am not a member). This one is called KBR (short for Kiambang Bertaut Resort - which I've yet to korek what the heck that means).

Via my BIL (fan No 1!!) & Sis, I met Sawal & Anom from Southampton. The micro-electronic engineers doing PhD. Hosted breakfast before leaving with them to Harrod's. Anom wanted to change her Vera Wang perfume. Imagine you bought a perfume, got home, and found that the bottle empty - not a drop. Macam tu pun ada ye?

BIL belanja makan at Mesia Hall. Sedaap - coz makan free. Yiiihaa!

Then off to Popat Store at Wembley. Quite a collection of Corelle. Not bad. I think they are the sole distributor in UK. The shot to Uxbridge for another meeting with Mawi-related buddies. This time Srikandi (forum nick) or actual Fazida & hubby Razif, studying at Brunnel University.

BIL, Sis, Fazida, Razif, Sawal, Syafiq & Anom

A non-Mawi fan gets new friends because of Mawi. Now, that's a first.

Manimal

Gaza is being assaulted again and again. Israelis rammed aid ships to prevent them from reaching (to help) the Paletinians. One look at the Israeli soldiers - young, boyish looking. All brainwashed by "orang2 terdahulu". Of being the chosen one (in other words, accusing God of being racist). Its ok if I screw you, but you can't screw me. Because we are the chosen one. Pure Shylock.

Never have I seen blatant approval of genocide, from the US, British & the enemies of Muslims, let alone the Israelis who lauched the attacks. Where blood was shed - women, children, civillians. And the world say, " we support Israel retaliation". What retaliation? Hamas (who is so damn stupid too) rockets create craters the size of flower pots. Israel's bombs create craters the size of buildings. 1 Israel guy died, 315 Muslims died. Don't tell me all these years of weapon building you can't aim at the correct buildings that there need to be collateral damage? Pure ethnic cleansing I'd say. Animals don't do this.

Egypt & Jordan closed their gates. What is this? The Saudis are ball-less. Infact the Muslims are in so deep a shit, these events will just be another statistic. Filthy stinking rich Mercedes cheuffered leaders whose people don't even know how to build a bicycle.

Conclusion: We have to equip ourselves with knowledge, translated into actions to at least be at par with the world. Then we have the respect we need to execute change.

OxStreet on Xmas Eve

Buat bodoh today pakai jeans. Its gonna be half day & not gonna trade anyway. Only British, French & Dutch markets were opened. By 2pm dah terpacak kat Tottenham Court Road. Had lunch with Dell, Mas & Anne at the restaurant at the corner of TCR ntah apa nama tah. Had mixed donno what (ada lamb shish, kebab & chicken) + chicken doner. Not bad, sedap juga .. so boleh pegi lagi. Damage for 4 pax around £32. OK lah.

Then rendek2 tengok orang berpusu2. But this is so much less vs last year especially since this year sale signs are everywhere. Up to 50% off etc. Then imagine on this 26th boxing day pulak (some shops 27th). How much more are they gonna slash?

I bet in January everything will dry up. By March some companies will be stretched. April we'll hear administration, liquidation & all that jazz. Imminent, Zavvi having problem. As for currency, £1 is now RM5.09 when I left office. Man .. this currency is £**<€d!! Imagine from £1 = RM7.13 at one point to now. That's bloody 29% devaluation. May be now its time for Malaysian companies to buy up British assets. Tunggu sikit lagi, houses might fall another 30%.

Anyway, ended up buying 1 shirt from Gap for £9 something (I bet its gonna be cheaper tomorrow, then may be I go and return it and repurchase it at lower price .. ha haa haaa [ketawa jin afrit]). Cun juga cuma tak de riak (the term riak means bila orang tengok orang tau tu brand apa - may be the logo at the pocket, strip on the side, engraved buttons etc). Although sometimes its brilliant not to have any "riak" especially when you bought stuff from Primark, which I do quite a lot for myself, baju £3, sweater £5 .. murah siot. Ye lah, coz nak kasi wife pakai MNG, Morgan, Uniqlo .. anakanda pakai Monsoon, Gap, Osh Kosh. Heh heh, suami cum bapak mithali. Woo hooo!

Yeayy! The books arrived.

2 days are what it takes for the books to arrive. Bought via Amazon
marketplace. 1 p each with P&P £2.75 ea. Hardcovers! Bloody good deal
I would say. Tah bila nak baca ntah la.

Kera di Hutan Anak di Rumah

Surfed for news from homeland. As usual most are bad news or at the very least, stupid news (as in how the thing become news). A lot of debates on Ketuanan Melayu, democracy, tak sedar di untung, Melayu mudah lupa, PAS vs UMNO, PAS vs DAP within Pakatan Rakyat, Umnoputra, Ameno, Fatwa, Altantuya, ish banyak nya membaca .. tak kerja ke aku ni?

Anyway, something from Datuk Kadir Jasin, a friend of Arwah Abah, sebijik kena batang hidung. BTW, I like his house .. cantik siot, kat Tropicana lagi ..

Melakar Cerita Suka Duka
A Kadir Jasin

HARI ini, izinkan saya berpuisi
Meluah rasa terbuku di hati
Melakar cerita suka dan duka
Tanah Melayu bumi ibunda
Semakin hari dibenci dikeji
Ditertawa dipersenda di desa dan kota
Kerana Melayu semakin tidak berani.

Kerana apa?
Kerana yang berkuasa
Lesu tidak bermaya
Yang diberi amanat
Dan memegang wasiat
Hilang dan sesat
Lupa sumpah dan janji
Tidur lena dibuai mimpi
Tidak peduli lagi perjuangan suci
Kerana selesa berpura-pura
Diracuni harta dan kuasa.

Yang Melayunya berkata:
“Kamilah Bumiputera
Peribumi tanah pusaka
Inilah tempat tumpah darah kami
Di sinilah kami hidup dan mati
Kerana di sinilah terkubur
Nenek moyang kami
Polis dan askar Melayu
Dan perwira-perwira dulu
Datuk Bahaman
Datuk Maharaja Lela
Tok Janggut
Dol Said
Mat Kilau
Tok Gajah
Mat Salleh
Datuk Sagor
Tok Kenali
Dan ramai lagi
Yang tumpas dan mati
Demi bumi dan pertiwi.

Orang India dan Cina
Yang asal usulnya
Pedagang dan buruh ikatan
Jauh dari seberang lautan
Pun menuntut hak yang sama
Menolak kontrak yang ada
Kononnya demi reformasi
Meritokrasi dan globalisasi
Lupa bahawa nenek moyang mereka
Kiblat mereka bumi asalnya
Aspirasinya Parti Kongres India
Kuomintang dan Parti Komunis China.

Tetapi Melayu mudah kasihan
Mudah pula diperkotak-katikkan
Maka oleh British disyaratkan
Terimalah mereka sebagai rakan
Maka dapatlah mereka
Satu juta kerakyatan
Di bumi Malaysia yang merdeka
Tanpa orang Melayu sedar dan perasan.

British hebat putar-belitnya
Mereka tidak buruh Cina dan India
Dari tanah jajahan bernama Malaya
Membanjiri bumi suci mereka
Menuntut taraf warganegara
(Seperti terjadi dengan Orang India dari Uganda)
Maka yang mereka bawa
Dari China dan India
Mereka tinggalkan di Malaya
Kerana Melayu pemurah hatinya
Dan mudah pula lupa.

Sekarang Melayu layu dan lesu
Pertahan hak sudah tidak tahu
Takut, malas dan malu
Menjadi defensif dan apologetik
Hanya berharap kepada kuasa politik
Yang gagal diartikulasi dan diisi
Kerana terlalu lama dibuai mimpi
Tidur lena kerana jenama Bumiputera
Lega dan selesa
Dengan tanah se kangkang kera
Dan panji-panji politik yang hambar warnanya.

Kalau Melayu tidak bangkit
Tidak sedar jiwanya berpenyakit
Jangan salahkan orang lain
Kalau terlondeh baju dan kain
Bogel bagaikan orang gila
Di bumi sendiri yang kononnya merdeka.

Ingatlah permata kata
Nenek moyang kita yang bijaksana
Kerana Melayu kita berbudi
Kerana Islam kita beriman
Maka jika Melayu kenal diri
Jadilah dia orang budiman
Yang harga dirinya
Bukan pada wang berjuta
Tetapi pada budi dan bahasa
Tauhid dan pekerti mulia.

Kerana Melayu mudah lupa
Apa sudah jadi kepada negara?
Bumi ini menjadi tempat buangan
Pelacur dan GRO dari Yunan
Ke bumi ini konon mencari pelajaran
Pengemis dan Shao Lin Master
Yang entah dari mana datangnya
Sepatah haram bahasa Melayu tidak tahu
Meminta sedekah hilir dan hulu.

Itu belum dikira
Pendatang haram yang berjuta
Dari Indonesia, Burma dan Afrika
Yang masuk keluar sesuka hati
Maka jadilah bumi ibunda ini
Periuk menidih yang isinya basi
Jenayah dan maksiat menjadi-jadi
Kerana birokrasi dibaham korupsi
Rasuah, pecah amanah
Salah guna kuasa dan berbagai lagi.

Melayu sudah jadi pengkhianat
Lupa kepada amanah dan wasiat
Kerana wang, kuasa dan harta
Mereka khianati bangsa dan negara.

Akhir nukilan,
Ingatkan pesanan orang tua-tua
Sesal dahulu kedapatan
Sesal kemudian tidak berguna
Kera di hutan disusukan
Anak di rumah mati kelaparan.

Tak Habis Lagi?

Ter-listened to a phone conversation re: suruh ....

Sapa yg baca ni rasa nak marah, tok sah. Nanti kena jual.

Happy Birthday My Luv

It's 21st Nov, and again I failed to get her flowers. Instead I got Anne a Dell Notebook. Actually I am the one yg teruja lebih2 with the spec. For £449 its got among others:

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5800
  
• 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
  
• 320GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
  
• 2.0 Mega pixel web camera

and for the heck of it, topped up another £29 to give the notebook her favourite colour.

• Spring Green Colour with Microsatin Finish

Checked for such spec everywhere, even Malaysia cannot give such spec for that kind of price. Advert pun keluar 1 day je. Need to chat with sales rep (in India) to get the proper link for the item.

Anyway, brought Anne out to Que Tapas in Staines. Just our luck some stupid printer rosak la pulak. We waited for 1 hour but still no food. When we checked with the waitress then she told about the printer. Brought our receipt & got everything done within 15 minutes. 1 hour 15 minutes .. that must be some record. But they were quite good, gave us complimentary drinks as well as complimentary desserts worth about £11. It was Churros & Choc fudge cake (sedap giller!!) Heh hee .. makan pree. Tak pe lah, tak de lah lapar sangat. Siap tapau lagi.

Happy Birthday My Luv

Leadership

There I was, sitting infront of the idiot box, squeezing my mind hoping that it would ooze out words for the speech/talk I'm preparing for my boss to present in Cardiff this weekend. The title is: Corporate Leadership: Challenges and Prospects (or is it Opportunities? whatever .. sounds the same to me). 

The TV was playing School of Rock .. you know, Jack Black. Damn! It's all there. He played a phony teacher after being thrown out of his rock band. And how stupid this may sound, his "teacher on crack" character really has some leadership qualities.

• Has an eye for talent, not unlike Sir Alex of Man U.
• Great empowerment - assigned each and everyone a great role according to their strength
• Everybody listens to him! - although it was actually some kind of a manipulation
• Flexible enough to change - who does what
• Listens to & solves greviences - consoled the chubby black girl when she wanted out because of her weight problem
• Understand the organization (school)
• A great mentor/teacher - taught the class the evolution of rock
• Leading the team - the Rock Band called the School of Rock

Damn! I enjoy this movie. Again.

Now, why am I writing this? I'm supposed to write the speech. Duh!

Dubya Out Mubarak In

Yesterday, in Washington, the Secret Service arrested a man who climbed over the White House fence.

Secret Service told the man, "Get back here, Mr. President. You have two more months."

- Conan O'Brien

It's Obama Mania all over again. After the most expensive campaign ever, where all candidates raised $1,553 million (of which Obama alone raised $639). 21 months of traveling & campaigning. We see history today - 1st American black President.

Checkout Obama's acceptance speech - made infront of 240,000 audience at Grant Park, Chicago. Moving! Pandai siot speech writer dia. This is the CNN version which has a transcript (siap nyala2 macam karaoke lagi).

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/04/video.transcript/index.html

I probably will never forget this day. It's Shasya's birthday too .. dah belasan tahun kalau dalam Melayu (sebelas). But in England she's yet to be a teenager, only Venager (eleven).

BTW, I certainly hope the new President will live up to his name .. Barakah.

Dato' Latt - Ketua Bahagian Kuala Kedah

TERMUDA: Latt Shariman Abdullah, 40, kelmarin menjadi Ketua Bahagian termuda di Kedah apabila memenangi jawatan Ketua Bahagian Umno Kuala Kedah.Latt Shariman, kini bertugas sebagai Pegawai Tugas-Tugas Khas Timbalan Perdana Menteri Najib Razak, menewaskan Timbalan Ketua Bahagian Hashim Jasin. Ketua Bahagian dahulu Syed Razak Syed Zain Barakbah tidak mendapat cukup pencalonan untuk mempertahankan jawatan beliau.

Dato' Latt is my buddy from school. Great guy. Will go to illogical length to help people. After school we were quite active for old boys dinner/concert. I think at least 3 times I acted in sketches with him. Twice I was Tun Ghaffar Baba (Encik at that time) and he was DSAI. That was fun .. so much so that people who don't remember my name, simply call me "Ghafur".

Dato' Latt was the guy who persuaded me to go to UK for the 1st time in 1993 (FX was RM3.87:£1.00 !!). He even gave soft loan for half the ticket price, which was only RM1,600 return. Murah kan? We stayed near Baker Street station that time. Kalau tak, memang tak merasalah jadi tourist.

Congratz bro!

BTW, it snowed just now. Hmmm .. it's still October. Camana January nanti???

In Others' Shoes

Today's the first time I go to work in a car. Dell drove (I couldn't), coz Anne & the gang ada Rombongan Cik Kiah to Queen Anne & Stoke. Left around 0615 & reached office close to 0700. Took Earl's Court/Embankment route, missed turning near Queen Victoria St & had to take a slightly longer route. Actually, we took the car coz we had to bring the extra office carpet from previous renovation which is now parked in my garage.

Duh, forgot that I had an appointment with Dr Galton at 0900. Brilliant! Had to take the train back to Egham. The best doctor at Grove Medical Centre so far.

Anyway, got back to the office. Suffered some anxiety. Am starting to get immuned with the non-stop markets fall. Left around 1715. It's already dark by then.

Heck! Now I can emphatise with drivers in London. Most times I am a pedestrian. Today, we saw/avoided:
1. Pedestrian selamba kodok crossed roads while talking on the phone.
2. Pedestrians testing their luck crossing roads at non-designated crossings/middle of the road.
3. So many cyclists hogging the left lane of the streets.
4. Cyclists with dark clothing & no light on their bikes.
5. Small streets, sharing with psyco cabs & bus drivers.
6. Dark streets - dah la tengah twilight.
7. Bus lanes, although it was already dark - all the CCTV still berkuat kuasa. Thanks to the new time.
8. Idiotic drivers who flashed light at traffic light as if we were so slow moving, although the light just turned green 0.01 second ago.
9. Jam at M25 Junction 14, nasib baik ada ramp T5 - boleh cut queue via that ramp.
10. Stingy drivers - kemut tak kasi masuk lane. Nak kena lepuk tuh..

Next time, no peak hour driving for me. I believe Dell had the same feeling.

Top Shelf

Went to Top Shelf at Whitecross Street Market (its a stall selling cheap books & slightly outdated magazines, named it as such because .. ermm, well you can just check out any book/mag stores .. see what mags you can find on their top shelves). Picked up some mags for the analysts clan in KL.

The street is one of London's oldest street markets,dating back to mediavel times. At this market you can fantastic local and regional food - Portugese, Albanian, Indian, Thai, Arabic .. macam2 lah. Settled for falafel wrapped up in kinda pita bread for lunch. Sedap jugak.
Had the most amazing experience while eating at Golden Lane's Park. The doves were all over the place, circling our feet for crumbs. All of a sudden every single one of them flew away together, I mean away from the ground of the park! Kisahnya there was a police car siren. I thought only man yg cuak dgn police. Burung pun?

Rewang

Saw this car yesterday when I took Faez & Ita to Staines. Pretty apt for there was a queue for parking & everybody was me-lilau looking for one. Went to Mas & Dell's later makan-makan. Lontong, lemang & nasi tomato ... sedaaaap!

Feel like stress level is high. Just a hunch. May be I should get that high blood pressure monitor from Lloyd's. And not to forget, start exercise balik. Puasa & raya punya hal .. lama nar pause nih.

Fall Season

It's autumn in New York. Leaves are falling...
Also bonds, stocks, banks...
- David Letterman

On leave today. Tapi hatiku tak tenang. Damn you Yankee banks!!!

Lockets

Have sore throat? Like me at the moment. It's hell. Don't go for Strepsils. Go for Lockets. It's so much stronger.

And what if you have hiccups? According to our Colombian cleaner, Calixto - chew sugar. Yes, sugar .. sucre, you get what I mean. Forget standing on your head. Try sugar .. it works!

Po in Rantau Panjang

Markets in Europe made a spectacular drop again yesterday, mostly dropping more than 7% with France & Ireland falling close to 10%. So today, I am feeling rather depressed. And this overdose of rendang & kuah nasi himpit is not helping either.

Anyway, saw this in NST site. Nice architecture. Reminds me of Po a.k.a. Kung Fu Panda jumping around trying to reach the Dragon Scroll. Ahh .. I need to exercise. I'm tired .. yawn...

Lehman Bankrupt, AIG on the Brink

Yesterday Lehman Bros filed for bankruptcy. Price came down 93% since 1-year ago. Today, I'm jolly pleased that Barclays (who walked away from talks to buy Lehman) came back to renegotiate especially the broker-dealer side. That helped a bit. But then another tragedy wacked us today. AIG, the biggest insurer in the world, is in the brink of bankruptcy due to sub-prime mortgage. The stock price crashed by 95% from over USD70 a share to around USD3 a share. So the Federal Reserve had to come up with an USD80 billion rescue package to avoid AIG filing for bankruptcy today. Gosh! That's why they say - The bigger you are, the harder you fall.

How big is AIG? Picture this: its total asset was worth USD 1 trillion. Note that the US GDP is around USD 13 trillion, making AIG’s asset about 7% of US GDP. AIG employs over 100,000 worldwide spanning 5 continents.

So thanks to the US tax payers, another major catstrophy in the financial world has been avoided. But wait a minute .. isn't it more like the rest of the world esp. Japan & China, who are financing this deal? Picture this - Fed need electronic money to finance this rescue (you call it "rescue" if its developed market, and "bail out" when its developing markets like Malaysia), the Fed will issue more bonds (which essentially are debts) which are mostly snapped up by countries with high savings rate like Asian countries. Hmmm .. might as well I go and ask Khazanah to do the bailing out.

Now, where's that small kitab? I need to go talkin kan my equity portfolio.