Don’t flatter yourselves — your beauty is not your deeds. Neither is the shape and size of your glands matter. The eyes; the nostrils; the perfect lips; the hands; the skin … and how spaced the pores are, the colours of your hair, the shades, the worlds within you; your cells are part parcel of what you have formed of yourselves, be it a fiery temperament, or a shade darker than the abyss.

These are just veils for a theatre play. Be it a musical, a tragedy or an epic.

Whatever you have formed of your selves is just a form in this apparent universe. It is there to entice an affair — a love exchange. Your life history is marked forever. Whether I choose to recycle and ground it is another option, I have the prerogative to do. Whether I open the book, or judge, that too is mine. There are many layers and complexities to the human being.

To please the audience, you would first have to please yourselves.

At most time, I take them at face value. Please do not be insulted. I’ve written these lines a million breaths, and each time it can be a tragedy, an epic or just a short story. If you are inclined to play masks, or if you are inclined to be good and naive — if you are the latter, you are too deep into yourself, that prying the lid takes just a flick, even Pandora the Persian cat can easily do.

Easy is not a challenge. Easy is neither enticing, nor mysterious.

That is why minimalism is such a strong statement. The blankness of snow, and seemingly “empty” Moleskin unmarred with ideas is more enticing than something, which is already formed, and fashioned. The complexities and the anguish of the first kiss, and how the thunder within is formed are more mystifying than a book cover. See how complex the mind is when it comes to design — but a disfunctional product or an incomplete product is such a waste of Time.

How you have designed yourselves, your words and worlds, so too how you should put that into your art, your work, and your passion.

A brand that is simple is not necessarily easy. You would have to play with the senses to get it right, like how food should be displayed on a plate to whet the appetite. Too much would be too full, and unwanton. The choice of plates too is of concerned. The weight, the material it is made up of, the glint of light that throws off hues enticing appetite should be taken into consideration.

Darling, it is not just that — It should rent and cleave the Heavens!

The stage too, must be dressed as how you would veil yourselves but that is the last thing you would do to set a defile de mode, a theatre, the timbre of the voice when reciting a poem.

Too little in functions would be wasteful.

Functional design should be just right — if value is what you intend to achieve with a product, make it good – there in its littleness and function, is the price tag. There in its design is the complement.

South East Asia Pacific Briefing 26th February 2010 : An Australian government program imposing radical restrictions on Aborigines in a crackdown on child abuse is inherently racist, breaches international human rights obligations

Australia

An Australian government program imposing radical restrictions on Aborigines in a crackdown on child abuse is inherently racist, breaches international human rights obligations and must be changed immediately, a U.N. official said Feb. 24. In an advance copy of a report to be released next week, the U.N. special rapporteur on indigenous human rights, James Anaya, expressed serious concerns over the controversial initiative known as “the intervention.” The program forced a series of tough rules on Aborigines in the Northern Territory – including bans on alcohol and hard-core pornography – in response to an investigation that found rampant child sex abuse in remote indigenous communities. “The measures specifically target indigenous people and impair certain rights and freedoms,” Anaya said. “It does impair self-determination of Aboriginal communities, their ability to make certain choices about how their communities are run.” {AP}

Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s army has been sent to the south-eastern Chittagong Hill Tracts following violent clashes between Bengali settlers and tribal people. Officials say at least 30 people were injured in violence centred around the town of Khagrachari. At least two people were killed in clashes in other parts of the Hill Tracts over the weekend. One unconfirmed report put the toll higher. The violence is the worst in the area since a peace deal was signed in 1997. Thousands of Bengalis were settled in the 14,200 sq km {5,500 sq miles} region under a government plan in the 1980s to ease population pressure. But tensions between the predominantly Buddhist tribal people and the predominantly Muslim settler community have long simmered. Police say that 100 houses were burnt down in the latest violence in Khagrachari, as relations between the two groups have deteriorated because of disagreements over land ownership. Officials say that at least two people died in the town of Rangamati. {BBC}

China

Rich and developing countries have little hope of overcoming key disagreements over how to fight global warming, China’s climate change ambassador said Feb. 24, warning of a year of troubled negotiations. China’s Special Representative for Climate Change Negotiations, Yu Qingtai, said as nations seek a new global treaty on climate change by the end of 2010, major players are unlikely to budge on the issues that stymied stronger agreement at the contentious Copenhagen climate summit in late 2009. “There may be some adjustments and shifts in the positions and tactics of the various sides, but I personally believe that on some core issues, the positions of the major parties will not undergo any substantive changes,” Yu said at a meeting in Beijing on China’s climate change policies. After they failed to agree on a comprehensive pact at Copenhagen, negotiators now hope to put together a binding treaty through meetings culminating in Mexico late this year. {Reuters}

India

India accused Pakistani border guards of firing at one of its posts across the disputed frontier in Kashmir on Feb. 24, on the eve of the first formal peace talks between the South Asian rivals since the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. The alleged shooting, which Pakistani officials denied took place, came after an Indian army officer and two soldiers were killed in a gun battle with suspected Islamic militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The latest in a series of skirmishes on the de facto frontier is not expected to destabilize talks in Delhi between Nirupama Rao, the head of the Indian Foreign Service, and Salman Bashir, her Pakistani counterpart. The talks highlight the centrality of Kashmir in the troubled relationship between India and Pakistan. {Times Online}

Indonesia

Local villagers and government rescue teams, using sniffer dogs and farm tools, were searching Feb. 24 for workers on an Indonesian tea plantation who were buried by a mudslide estimated to be 35 feet deep. More than 17 bodies have been recovered, including two children, according to Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the country’s Disaster Management Agency. He also said they believed there were between 50 and 60 people still buried in the mud and presumed dead. The mudslide, in the village of Pasirjambu in West Java, happened early on Feb. 23. Mr. Priyadi said the authorities did not learn of the situation until eight hours later because of poor communication lines in the village, which is located about 125 miles southeast of Jakarta. “I think also that people were panicking and so focused on saving their own lives and the lives of their family members that they didn’t think to contact the authorities sooner,” Priyadi said. Most of the victims were plantation workers — who are typically women — or their family members. {N.Y. Times}

Laos

Small towns in Laos are experiencing an influx of migrants in search of better living conditions, increasing the strain on infrastructure and services such as water and sanitation, the U.N. and government officials say. Laos is experiencing a high urbanization rate of 4-5 percent per annum, adding to pressure on local authorities to provide basic infrastructure, according to the UN Human Settlements Program {UN-HABITAT}. There are an estimated 139 small towns in Laos, and many of those along economic corridors – bordering Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam – are seeing influxes from rural areas. “Many of these small towns experience high population growth, and increased pressure on the local environment. Small towns are now becoming increasingly polluted because of a lack of adequate infrastructure,” said Buahom Sengkhamyong, chief technical adviser for UN-HABITAT in Laos. As part of its regional Mekong water and sanitation program, the agency is providing improved services in small towns, especially along the economic corridors. {IRIN}

Micronesia

The Czech Republic will finish in March an environmental assessment of a planned coal plant refit that a Pacific nation opposed on the grounds it threatens its survival, a Czech minister said Feb. 24. The Federated State of Micronesia in January lodged a formal objection to a Czech plan to renovate a lignite-fired power station in Prunerov, arguing that the plant’s carbon emissions will lead to sea-level rises that could swallow up the tiny archipelago. Jan Dusik, the Czech Republic’s Environment Minister, said that the government would consider Micronesia’s complaint in its final decision and he expected a report on the environmental impact of the plant to be finished next month. He told Reuters on the sidelines of a U.N. environment meeting in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, that his government was yet to decide if the project should proceed but added that renovating the power plant could actually reduce emissions. {Reuters}

Nepal

Nepal has officially eliminated leprosy, but challenges remain in the battle to eradicate the disease, which could take years, aid workers say. On Jan. 19 the government declared the elimination of leprosy, after achieving a prevalence rate of 0.89 per 10,000 people nationally. Elimination is defined by the World Health Organization {WHO} as being achieved when fewer than one in 10,000 people have the disease. Despite this milestone, NGOs say they fear the news could encourage complacency: “We are concerned that the news of elimination could impact the flow of aid on leprosy programmes,” said Kamal Shrestha, chief executive officer of the Nepal Leprosy Trust, an international NGO involved in leprosy work in the country since 1972. “Leprosy is not just about eradication, but also about supporting tens of thousands of leprosy victims who have been physically disabled by the disease,” Shrestha said. {IRIN}

North Korea

Three days after North Korea declared it will not abandon its nuclear weapons program, a senior United Nations official who has just visited Pyongyang strongly defended international food aid to the so-called Hermit Kingdom. “These are human beings that need the food. It’s not the political system. This shouldn’t be argued in a political way,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe told CNN. He said the United Nations is giving nutritional supplements to as many as 1.3 million of North Korea’s 24 million people. But the U.N. World Food Program has estimated that more than a third of the population needs food aid. Pascoe, who earlier this month was the first top-level U.N. official to visit North Korea in six years, said, “There clearly is malnutrition at younger ages, so we’re trying to help them with fortified food and up through the schools so that they can eat. There also was a very large program on immunizations for the children.” {CNN}

Pakistan

Pakistan received USD349.3 million from the United States on Feb. 24 as part of a fund to help the U.S. ally sustain efforts to fight Islamist militancy. “We have received USD349.3 million as reimbursement from the U.S. for the coalition support fund,” said Syed Wasimuddin, chief spokesman for the State Bank of Pakistan. The U.S. fund is used to reimburse states such as Pakistan that have incurred costs in supporting counter-terrorist and counter-insurgency operations. Pakistan had in recent months been complaining that the United States was behind on payments. The U.S. said there had been some delays for administrative reasons. Last month, President Asif Ali Zardari told U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke that the war on militancy had cost Pakistan USD35 billion in the last eight years. {Reuters}

Philippines

The Asian Development Bank {ADB} signed with five Philippine banks several agreements that will enable them to access the Manila-based institution’s USD1 billion trade finance program. The program has been designed primarily to help firms cope with a credit crunch similar to that at the height of the global financial crisis. The program provides trade financing and guarantees via international banks and lenders from the ADB’s member-nations. The banks signing the agreements under ADB’s Trade Finance Facilitation Program {TFFP} are Allied Banking Corp., Development Bank of the Philippines, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, Philippine National Bank, and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. If SMEs can access more trade finance, “they will be able to expand and employ more workers. That would boost personal incomes and help to reduce the country’s poverty levels,” said ADB Private Sector Operations Director-General Philip Erquiaga. {Dow Jones, Xinhua}

Sri Lanka

Nearly 58,000 farming households in Sri Lanka are expected to benefit from a U.N.-funded program designed to improve their livelihoods, boost their incomes and enhance their participation in the marketing and selling of their products. The USD25 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development {IFAD} will enable the country’s National Agribusiness Development Program to help small producers, women, landless households and young people in rural areas. Among the program’s goals is to increase the incomes of smallholder farmers by 20 to 30 per cent, and help farmers become directly involved in processing and marketing their products such as fruits, vegetables, spices, cereal, milk and dry fish. {U.N. News Service}

My late maternal grandmother whom I dearly loved would be 110 this 28th February. When I was a child without the complexities of ever calculating how many times the drunked earth would twirl around the Sun, I’d just have to look into her eyes for answers to everyday living, which by the way this idea of the twenty-four hour you humans delight so much in, is really the divisional breathing of the ‘moment’ — as in the pursuit of ‘Now’.

As it mattered then, it matters ‘now’.

But not so much as how it mattered because in the world of matters, matters account only when one is oblivious to the workings of the Spirit, within. However profound one contemplates in the abyss of ‘reality’, everything as much as the drop of rain in South East Asia, to that golden drop of snow in the European spheres, everything; each drop of food from the table of providence through the last drop of blood drying up on the corpse of the unfed child in Ethopia matters.

When one is connected in matter, which the Spirit forms to paint a story for Judgement Day, how would things not matter?

Mummy came to my bedroom a few days ago, worried. I have rarely seen that mug painted nicely on her face.

« What is wrong? » I asked, my heart thundered.
« What would happen to you when I go? » she asked. « Who will take care of you? — What will you feed on? You’re not working, and … » and the whole encyclopaedia of Life was suddenly jarred expecting a myriad of questions that demanded attention, and answers.

Two moleskins packed in my luggages have yet to be doodled, or naseautingly marred by the Hand that would design the ‘realities’ in this lower dimension.

« Why, are you going somewhere and not taking me along? » I asked like a child of three or a fœtus just about to be conceived in the Mind. I knew she was talking of death. O this idea of the ‘end’ is really not very funny to to have as a mother-daughter conversation just before dinner you know. When she goes, I’d expect to go alongside with her as well, I had thought. I wouldn’t like the idea of having to live to a ripe old age of ninety six or a hundred and ten, renting the world asunder flattening the earth and opening the Book, reading each comma, semi-colon, a letter and a next paragraph for each imagery in this lucide dream, you fervently call a reality.

If this is reality as some opposes, then why in bullocks name isn’t it perfect as it should be?

In my perfection, as the Spirit Speaks, Jesus was never crucified. The concept of cruxi-fliction was ‘imprinted’ in the minds to ‘reveal’ one the basis of self-lessness; the basis of compassion without expecting a reward — Hence the degree of comprehension about the self, in its ressurection towards the hereafter in an unspoken, and un-worded Heaven. For bliss can never be defined, nor can it be formed as an image — the same as one would never be able in one’s ‘lifetime’ to ever define Allaah, or The Sacred Soul.

To do so would limit the unlimitless.

As to how I will continue living the ‘moment’ would also depend on how Society would subjugate itself, in this lower realm. When a soul aspires to reach the heavens, it will undertake every single energy wavelet to weave a cosmic proportion in the hopes of delighting a grander heaven, a better one over the other. There are the known eight heavens as scribed in the Greater Book, therein the Tree of Life.

Are we not connected in breath in this ‘reality’ breathing each other? Are we not connected within each other’s hearts when we proclaim being human? Are we not ever connected despite the skins we wear, brown, white, black or yellow? Or the ‘religions’ we’d die for, and fervently idolized as effigies on the altar sacrificing rituals painting histories meant anything? Are we not profound in our Spirit as a living temple, the niche that encompasses the Light within? Do you not in your connectedness and conscience perceive that the Light within is the Spirit of Gaia, the perfected embryo, living in this perfected Universe?

But humans rarely walked too close. Their instincts told them what their conscious minds would never understand: we were dangerous. Edward Cullen, Midnight Sun

They won’t be there to help me through my crossing the threshold of life. They are not here now anyways, and even after knowing my plight, and apart from being on my list, making stories about me behind my back I can do without these, and those.

Delete, delete… I don’t know who she is but I’ve been informed her birthday falls on the 25th – this thing about birthday celebrations and poking should only be on the wall where the donkey has its tail pinned. I for one stopped celebrating birthdays more than a decade ago.

I don’t get it. I never did. I’ve always believed, that if one must celebrate, it is Life !

As to poking, I only do so when I’m thinking of you, or when I know you’re thinking of me, or when I need to tell you to stop worrying rocking on that chair that does not budge a centimeter nearer to heaven.

Delete, delete … yes this one, and that email as well.

I no longer am as enticed to the World as I used to be when things mattered. Business never did and even when it did, it was built to put food on the table for people who really needed it and for making a difference to their worlds, but these people out of my courtesy for adding them to my list do not care {about other worlds or the Cause I’m working on — its always about them, their worlds and nobody else, and Lord have Mercy, if you’re a nobody like me !}, so why should I even bother – I know its a sadistic approach, but I’ve lived my ‘life’ thus far without them then, even if they’re supplicating a prayer or two in the Universal Temple, it is my prerogative not to grant them the favour of a blissful life.

Even asses make better brays than these who call themselves humans.

In this world, and until one can fully live the comprehensible divine law of unity, there will never be peace. Multiplicities carry on as if without a care in the world, their worlds, their problems which amount to nothing is are more important than the greater world humanity is set therein.

I’d advise to turn your fire or ember into Light ! Really do so, for then it will be easier for each cyclic event to materialize otherwise there’ll be friction to no end, but no, these words are of little importance to those who proclaim having the glitzy life, with a dozen children or two ; or even a couple of millions in their coffers.

I’m not bitter. I just abhor injustice to humanity !

Delete this one, and yes that one too – I don’t bloody care if the brand is the better one over the other. This seeming bluntness to make some lifestyle better over the other does not entice me anymore – send those bloody emails to those who care or are oblivious to the conniving lifestyle !!

I don’t.

Does it really matter if Twitter is better than Plurk or Facebook than Yahoo ? I don’t give two hoots really – its not like I’ll get hired anyway or have all that in a yearbook saying « this is what we did and achieved in 2010 or … » ! All this small talk about brands just pushes me away from wanting to team play with humans on the lower level.

There are other issues more important than who makes it for 2010 or 2012. Gosh, the world has such a long way to go to become compassionate without hoping for a heaven, or two !!

Aimez toutes les créatures, quelles que soient leur religion, leur race ou leurs opinions ! Chacun est à la place où Dieu l’a mis et il ne nous appartient pas d’en juger.

People do get bothered in a small country like Malaysia. It is dusty, humid, hot and just not comfy enough for indulgence, and then there’s the plethora of small-minded cunning ones who would do anything to rub shoulders with the who’s who in the hopes of getting a brick here and there. Dropping names has become like an asserted way of life, and if you’re not seen with the who’s who or connected with them, you’re nobody. Business in Malaysia is golfing in the mornings. Politics is dirty business and if one wants to get things done outstandingly, politics have to be literally dismissed like the infidel servant.

I am glad the Prince is not blind. I am glad I’m nobody.

There are many things to be grateful for even if things do not fall nicely into place, like those tiny Chinese green pea cookies served on nice but less intricate sixty grams paper doilies at an MP’s home recently celebrating the Tiger. Since the institutional crisis, even government officials are belting up.

It’s time they did. Taxpayers’ money is for the betterment of the country, not otherwise!

Marche-Movenpick at the Curve is under new management. Ever since they had the renovation, the menu too, has been limited. The sirloin is still cooked the way I liked it, just raw and bloody. The Prince had his share of Bread & Butter Pudding. He must have missed living the English life. He was after all educated abroad. I for one could not muster enough courage to eat puddings. Either I go totally French, Swiss, or Japanese.

We spoke of the past, and the future of the country.

In between visiting showrooms displaying artifacts from Asia, he facebooked. You’d imagine how comfy he was. It’s little things in life that makes it worthwhile — learning of a past that shaped the present, reshaping the future. Not because he is royalty, but because he is human and the friendship we share. I like humble people, and real royalties are.

Royalty consists not in vain pomp, but in great virtues — Agesilaus II

As for the commoners, like little children restless for your attention it is nice to watch from afar, and smile.

Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. {Luke 11.34-36}

Only the King Knows the Heart of the Secret — {of} the Lover, and the Beloved.

People need joy. Quite as much as clothing. Some of them need it far more — Margaret Collier Graham

Australia

Australia’s immigration minister, Chris Evans, has announced policy changes to attract more highly skilled workers. He criticized the current trend for new arrivals to sign up for cookery or hairdressing courses to gain residency. Evans said Australia would abolish the current list of 106 skills in demand and review a points test used to assess migrants. “We want to make sure we’re getting the high-end applicants,” the immigration minister said. His comments were welcomed by the mining sector, which is struggling to meet China’s demand for raw materials. “We had tens of thousands of students studying cookery and accounting and hairdressing because that was on the list and that got them through to permanent residency,” Evans told Australian radio. {BBC}

Cambodia

The United States has refused a request by Cambodia to write off USD317 million in debt, but has instead agreed to reschedule the impoverished country’s loan repayments. The U.S. also declined to convert the debt into development aid but would work out a plan for Cambodia to pay back the loans, which date back to the 1970s, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel said. “The U.S. position is that Cambodia has recognized its debt,” Marciel told reporters during a visit to Phnom Penh. “We think Cambodia should begin the payment, which the Cambodian government has not been willing to do.” The loans were given to the government of Lon Nol after it came to power in a 1970 coup backed by the U.S.. The loans were intended to develop the country’s agriculture sector and boost commodities exports. Lon Nol was toppled five years later when the ultra Maoist Khmer Rouge staged its “killing fields” 1975-1979 revolution. {Reuters}

China

A Chinese activist who investigated whether shoddy construction contributed to deaths in the 2008 Sichuan quake has been sentenced to five years in jail. Tan Zuoren was formally charged with inciting subversion in connection with the bloody suppression of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But human rights groups say the real reason for the action taken against him was his investigations. Many school children were among the 80,000 people killed in the earthquake. Tan’s wife, Wang Qinghua, said the verdict was ridiculous. “This isn’t justice,” she said as she left court. Tan was arrested while preparing a report into the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan quake. {BBC}

India

The Indian environment minister decided Feb. 9 against allowing farmers to grow the first genetically modified {GM} vegetable in the country. A decision has been pending since last year on the introduction of a genetically modified type of eggplant, known as Bt Brinjal, and sparked a heated debate over its potential benefits and dangers. Advocates of GM crops say such varieties can boost food supply for India’s 1.2 billion people and protect farmers, as they can better withstand adverse weather, raise output significantly and mitigate the heavy use of pesticides. Opponents say GM seeds such as the “Bt Brinjal” can be a hazard for the environment and public health, threaten diversity and must be tested thoroughly before they are commercially used. {Reuters}

Japan

Activists vowing to stop the killing of whales exchanged water-cannon fire with a Japanese whaling fleet they are tailing in the Antarctic Ocean, as sea confrontations that have led to collisions and a sunken vessel continue. The Sea Shepherd conservation group said its ships, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker, confronted the Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru early Feb. 8. “The factory ship turned on their water cannons and were surprised when the Steve Irwin responded with a more powerful water cannon that had a couple of the whalers diving for the bridge doors,” the group said. On Feb. 6, the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in icy Antarctic waters, causing minor damage to both vessels. A Japanese whaler struck Sea Shepherd’s high-tech speed boat Ady Gil and sheared off its nose on Jan. 6. The Bob Barker then came to rescue the crew of the Ady Gil, which sank a day later. {AP}

Mongolia

Mongolia plans to sell as much as USD1.2 billion of bonds overseas later this year, its first sale of dollar-denominated debt, to fund infrastructure supporting its mining industry, Finance Minister Sangajav Bayartsogt said. Investment banks are advising Mongolia to issue bonds with maturities of between five and 10 years, Bayartsogt said in an interview today in Ulan Bator. The government plans to meet investors in Hong Kong, London and New York, he said. The offering will take place after International Monetary Fund {IMF} restrictions on the country issuing debt end in October, Bayartsogt said. {Bloomberg}

Myanmar

While thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar are benefiting from better healthcare and nutrition, complete recovery may be delayed unless livelihoods are restored, warns a survey released on Feb. 9. The review, the third since Nargis struck in May 2008, killing at least 140,000 people, assessed the needs of people in the worst-affected Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions between October and November last year. It found that focused efforts were still needed to help people with their livelihoods to restore household self-reliance, even 18 months after the disaster. “Unless livelihood-related needs are addressed, recovery will be prolonged, raising the potential for another crisis,” said the Tripartite Core Group {TCG}, comprising the Myanmar government, ASEAN and the U.N., which released the report. {IRIN}

Nepal

The final batch of the nearly 3,000 child soldiers who served in the Maoist army during Nepal’s decade-long civil war have been discharged and re-entered civilian life, in a move hailed by U.N. officials as a milestone in the country’s peace process. The 268 individuals released Feb. 6 during a ceremony in Rolpa included those who had joined the Maoist army as minors, and as late recruits, and had remained in temporary camps for three years after the signing of the peace deal that ended the conflict. .The release of these young people today is not only symbolic for the country but a milestone for these young men and women who spent their formative years inside a military structure losing out on critical skills vital for adulthood,. UNICEF Country Representative Gillian Mellsop said. {UN News Service}

North Korea {DPRK}

Premier Kim Yong Il has apologized for inflation caused by last year.s currency revaluation and vowed to better feed the country.s 24 million population, a Seoul-based rights group said. Kim acknowledged the state prices for goods were wrongly set after the currency revaluation in December, causing .confusion and unrest,. Good Friends said on its Web site. Kim.s comments were made at a recent meeting with key officials in Pyongyang, said the group, which says it obtains information by contacting people in North Korea. The report is the latest to suggest unintended fallout from the totalitarian regime.s currency revaluation, which reportedly stoked inflation and caused shortages of goods. {Bloomberg}

Pakistan

Thousands of mourners have attended funerals for those killed in a double bomb attack targeting Shia Muslims in the Pakistani city of Karachi. The death toll from the Feb. 5 bombings rose to 33, with 165 injured. A police official told the AFP news agency more then 10,000 people had attended a funeral for 14 Muslim victims. Five Christians were to be buried later. The attacks – the second at a hospital where victims of the first attack were being treated – targeted Shia pilgrims. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani appealed for calm amid fears of growing tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims and security was tightened in Karachi as the mourners gathered. {BBC}

Philippines

Philippine prosecutors filed charges Feb. 9 against the head of a powerful clan and 195 others in the biggest and deadliest murder case since the country’s World War II war crimes trials. The indictment said Andal Ampatuan Sr. and the others were part of a conspiracy to ambush and kill members of the rival Mangudadatu family and supporters, who were gunned down Nov. 23 on a hilltop in Maguindanao province. In all, 57 people died the massacre apparently to prevent Esmael Mangudadatu from challenging the Ampatuans’ control of the province in a gubernatorial election. Among those killed were 30 journalists and their staff who were going to cover the filing of Mangudadatu’s candidacy papers. The massacre was unprecedented even for the country notorious for election violence and political killings that have claimed hundreds of lives this decade alone. {AP}

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka will hold general elections in April as President Mahinda Rajapaksa dismissed parliament a day after the arrest of Sarath Fonseka, the defeated opposition candidate in January.s presidential ballot. The 225-member assembly was dissolved at midnight and the elections are .expected to be held in April,. the government said in a Feb. 10statement. The ballot will probably take place on April 8 with the new parliament meeting April 22, the Daily News reported. Fonseka.s detention .could have a serious impact on the election,. said Rohan Edrisinha, director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an advocacy and research group. .The opposition was divided at the time of his arrest as how to contest the election.. Rallying behind a single figure was .much easier. for presidential elections. The January ballot was the first national vote since the defeat of Tamil Tiger separatists ended a 26-year conflict in May. {Bloomberg}

I can’t think of any of my friends, or relatives calling me at such a ghostly hour. They rarely do, not on weekdays.

“Can I speak to Mizz Aie-na Ritz?” he queried.

I should have just hung up the phone. But it was a long distance call. Nobody in his or her right frame would start a conversation with ‘Can’. Didn’t someone teach him that in these days of political correctness, ‘May’ should have been the order of the day?

Oblivious to phone ethics he didn’t introduce himself either.

“May I know who’s on the line?” I asked, still caught between what I posted on Facebook a few hours before crashing into oblivion.

“I’m calling from Oracle ” still with no trace of a name. I might as well be talking to a bio-robot!

“We’d like to confirm your details so that we can send you our magazine” he continued.

It’s eight in the morning.

If you’re calling to speak to me at eight, it be best an International emergency. Asking for confirmation for my details for a magazine subscription, which they never sent the past year, is not an International emergency. He was more interested in getting the confirmation instead of asking me whether I could entertain him with his questions. For crying out loud, if you were calling me from England or elsewhere eleven thousand kilometres away, you would have at least looked at your watch or the World-Time on your desktop.

Eight in the morning is bloody too early for anyone, CIO or otherwise. Your eight in the morning may not be the same eight in my mornings.

He repeated his last question, twice to ascertain he had heard it correctly. I would be ashamed if I was managing Oracle — that conversation should have at least been tapped.

The morning was broken with a hush. I wanted to go back to bed, but once you wake me up, there is no way I would be in reverse gear, unless there’s a man in it. The whole hour getting ready for the day, debating whether I should mask my hair or have it shampooed, kept me thinking.

There has never been a confirmation via email whatsoever from Oracle to confirm when would be the best time to call. They should have at least made the effort to ask.

It is only polite.

Not just bluntly call as if my ‘time’ is available for such trivialities even if their publication is the most read amongst thousands around the world.

When you do have an eagerness that never dies, and is constantly knocking on your mind to remind you, without end day in day out… you are rest assured, that that image needs to be captured, and spun into a tapestry. As long as the snapshot in your mind has not been acted out in this reality, no matter how much you may ignore it, it will haunt you like a shadow at two.

Grab the luggage, open it and stash your wares for a month or two, and just move with the wind. Just leave the kitchen sink where it is!

Spontaneous combustion doesn’t always catch fire — sometimes you just need to translate that fervour into an action. Let go of the past, and the comfort of complacency, and take the flight out to the first letter that comes to your mind, if you do not seem to have a direction, or a destination.

“D” for Denmark; “E” for England … or “J” for Jamaica — It can be anywhere and you don’t have the need to fear. Just go and take the flight out. When I was younger, Pappa would often tell me to just go… and live! It would be nice to know I’ll never end up like a decorated Christmas tree.

Cinta itu adalah perasaan yang mesti ada pada tiap-tiap diri manusia, ia laksana setitis embun yang turun dari langit, bersih dan suci. Jika ia jatuh pada tanah yang subur, di sana akan tumbuh kesucian hati, keikhlasan, setia, budi pekerti yang tinggi dan lain-lain perangai terpuji — HAMKA

Oftentimes, we wait for things to happen. We build walls of excuses around us in the hopes of not moving somewhere, of not experiencing life. It is often best observed that a life fully lived is a life not planned. Irresponsible some might add, but assuming that never in a million years will you ever fail in anyway whatsoever, so would you just sit there and not take flight?

Let me see — whom can I beg, borrow or ask for sponsorship or grant? I’d be happy to represent a brand moving about around the world, documenting it, and have content streamed in real-time.

We need that — it’ll put my journalistic skills in gear again, and growing old gracefully, would then be an understatement.

Do you know someone or one particular government who is ready to help make this a reality? You know I’ve knocked on many doors, and another won’t hurt. Being human is one thing, being is another — I don’t want to be. Whilst I am here in your “sight-perception-frame-lock”, living would be a great option! Spread your wings little child, it really is time to Live!

Since no one company, organization or government is eager to hire me based on my qualifications, and experiences.— maybe it really is “time” to leave!

Kalau mati, dengan berani; kalau hidup, dengan berani. Kalau keberanian tidak ada, itulah sebabnya setiap bangsa asing bisa jajah kita — Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Selamat Tinggal Malaysia, Bonjour World!

China

China needs to run a continued fiscal deficit and let its real exchange rate rise to rebalance its economy towards domestic demand and thus sustain the impressive growth of recent years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development {OECD} said on Tuesday. In its Economic Survey of non-member China, the OECD maintained its November forecast of an acceleration in gross domestic product growth to 10.2 percent in 2010 from 8.7 percent last year. China should let its currency rise to cool inflation and help ease economic distortions as it emerges from the global crisis, the OECD said…. A stronger currency, coupled with more social spending, could help to reduce China’s high savings rate, boost consumer spending power and narrow its trade surplus. {Reuters, AP}

India

Maoist violence in India remains a cause for “grave concern”, with rising casualties on all sides, the country’s home minister has said. P. Chidambaram told reporters that nearly 600 civilians had been killed in Maoist violence last year. This was double the number of civilians killed in violence in Indian-administered Kashmir and India’s restive north-eastern states, he said. The rebels are fighting for communist rule in many Indian states. More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels’ 20-year fight. Chidambaram has in the past said the rebels must “abjure violence” before the government can initiate talks with them. One rebel leader, Kishenji, has said the Maoists are willing to talk to the government if it puts off a planned offensive. The rebels have a presence in more than 223 of India’s 600-odd districts across 20 states, according to the government. {BBC}

Japan

Japanese officials are visiting a refugee camp in northern Thailand to interview refugees from Myanmar who are setting to start new lives in Japan, the UNHCR reported Feb.2. This is the first concrete move Japan has taken towards becoming the first Asian nation to resettle refugees from Myanmar, following its announcement in December 2008 that it will take in 90 people from Mae La camp over three years as part of a pilot project. UNHCR selected refugees being interviewed this week based on how long they have been living in the camp, in some cases reaching two decades but with no other solution in sight. “The final decisions as to whether they will be accepted for resettlement rests with Japan,” said agency spokesperson Andrej Mahecic. Barring any glitches, the first refugee family is expected to leave for Japan this September, with 30 refugees set to be resettled every year over three years. {U.N. News Service}

Mongolia

More than 20,000 families are at the risk of going hungry, as temperatures reaching as low as -50 degrees centigrade have killed nearly two million head of livestock in Mongolia, the U.N. agriculture agency reported Feb. 2. One third of the Asian nation’s population leads nomadic lives and depend entirely on livestock for a living. Urgent assistance of USD6 million is needed over the next two or three months to help herders make it through to spring, a rapid needs assessment conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization {FAO} found. Locally known as dzud, the extreme cold experienced in Mongolia followed a very dry and long summer and fall, during which insufficient livestock feed was produced to provide to the animals for the winter months. So far, it is estimated that economic losses have topped USD60 million. {U.N. News Service}

Nepal

After years of civil war and upheaval, Nepal’s fate now rests with a bickering group of politicians who have less than four months to remake the government, write a new constitution and integrate thousands of former Maoist insurgents into the army they battled for a decade. No one knows for sure what will happen if they fail. “There will be a vacuum, and a danger of relapsing into the old days of conflict,” said Baburam Bhattarai, a top Maoist leader. “Time is running out very fast.” The difficulties stem partly from the Herculean tasks facing the fractious nation. It is trying to turn itself into a republic following centuries of royal rule; it is reorganizing the very structure of the country, creating new states to empower marginalized ethnic groups; it is hoping to cement peace by bringing the Maoists into politics and integrating them into the military. {AP}

North Korea {DPRK}

The top U.N. political official will travel to North Korea next month for wide-ranging talks with the reclusive communist state locked in a nuclear dispute with the West, the United Nations has announced. The world body said that Lynn Pascoe, under-secretary-general for political affairs, would visit North Korea Feb. 9-12 to discuss “all issues of mutual interest and concern in a comprehensive manner.” Pascoe, who will travel as special envoy of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and the most senior U.N. official in six years to visit North Korea. Also in Pascoe’s party of four will be Ban’s deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo, who like the secretary-general is South Korean, U.N. officials said. The group will also visit China, Japan and South Korea, the U.N. statement said. {Reuters}

Pakistan

A bomb outside a northwest Pakistan girls’ school killed 10 people on Feb. 3 including students and three U.S. soldiers who were training government paramilitary forces, Pakistan’s army said. The U.S. military personnel were in the northwestern valley of Dir “to attend the inauguration ceremony of a school for girls that had recently been renovated with U.S. humanitarian assistance,” the U.S. Embassy said. The U.S. Defense Department is giving training and equipment to the Frontier Corps, which has a leading role in the fight against Taliban insurgents. The Dir Valley is set between two Pakistani districts ⎯ Swat and Bajaur ⎯ where Pakistan’s army has fought intensive campaigns against the country’s Taliban movement. While the military claims it has restored peace in the region, violence periodically spills into Dir, including a bomb explosion that killed three children on Jan. 27. {Bloomberg}

Sri Lanka

Thirty-seven people are being held in Sri Lanka in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapaksa, state-owned media say. Most of those detained under emergency regulations are military officers, including a brigadier and a colonel, as well as army deserters. On Feb. 1, about a dozen officers were sent to compulsory retirement accused of dabbling in politics. The opposition denies there is any plot and says the government has launched a witch hunt after Rajapaksa won the presidential election a week ago. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s election commissioner has rejected opposition allegations of counting fraud. Another pro-government paper says that in addition to the 37 held under the emergency, 20 more people are being questioned. {BBC}

Vietnam

Vietnam said it has raised one billion dollars after tapping the global bonds market for only the second time as the government tries to plug a massive budget deficit and temper inflation. Some of the money will go towards the national budget and the rest will go to state projects including the Dung Quat oil refinery, the state Vietnam News reported. Vietnam’s economy grew 5.32 percent last year but that expansion came at a price, with a budget deficit that official data said reached seven percent of GDP. “The good news is Vietnam has been able to tap the international capital markets,” John Hendra, the U.N. resident coordinator in Vietnam, told reporters, adding that the budget and current account deficits are both “fairly high” and authorities face a challenge to prevent a recurrence of the overheating that pushed inflation to an annual 23 percent in 2008. {AFP}

Darling,

… what used to be free then accounts for at least a thousand quid or so now, and that’s for just looking and contemplating it.

Living is another option altogether.

There are indeed, beautiful things and … applications on the Internet, but none that warrants my attention enough to want it, to gloat about it, to love it, to shout to the masses “You bloody need this!” {Even if you don’t bloody need it in a thousand blinks}.

Orgasm takes more than just teasing the eyes!

And when I meant stunning, I’m not talking of the iPad, or a flash designed site that is deliberated without enough thought, or taking the time to ensure that each timber falls just right, with the wind bellowing at a certain angle producing ‘sounds’ echo-soft as if these were grapling pleasure, yet hard culled in palms.

Real artists would, the likes of Mogdiliani or even Goethe with his words would have literally slashed your veins and make you think — no, seriously think about where you’re going, what you’re seeing, and how if you’re given the chance to… like mud without all the other elements in view transpire your being into a vase fit for the titivation of an Empress, or a God in the Eastern Wing, or on an altar placed in a city, adorned by millions!

Like breathing, all that ‘perceived’ non-thing-ness should at least lash the capillaries, caving in through each crevice untouched, un-veiled, denting it slowly, making abrasive love to it, like fondling an instrument of Love.

Going with the flow is good for cowards!

Lovers should at least spread their wings, and attempt to fly, at least soar in the hearts of those they professes an inclination to please, and tease.

Afterall, a heartbeat needs to be exhaled, and once it’s gone, it’s gone and can never be re-called yet the pleasure tasted — that in thousand years could never be forgotten nor compared to!

Cambodia

The Cambodian government has rejected the annual report of Human Rights Watch that warned respect for rights in the country had “dramatically deteriorated” last year. HRW has called on donors to exert pressure on the government to reverse the trend. But government spokesman Phay Siphan hit back, saying the report was unprofessional, lacked balance and was insulting. He said HRW had ignored the role of Cambodian institutions, and stressed that reform had to come “little by little.” The HRW report singled out Phnom Penh’s forced return to China in December of 20 asylum seekers belonging to the Uighur ethnic minority as a particular low point. {DPA}

China

China’s top leaders laid out a strategy last week for bringing “leapfrog development and lasting stability” to the Tibetan regions, the state news agency reported. President Hu Jintao and other leaders at a Tibet planning conference decided that “more efforts must be made to greatly improve living standards of the people in Tibet, as well as ethnic unity and stability,” Xinhua said. The emphasis on economic development indicates that Chinese leaders still see the solution to the problem of Tibet as one of supplying creature comforts. If the region can develop fast enough, the reasoning goes, then Tibetans will buy into Chinese rule. But a vast uprising among Tibetans in 2008 and continuing tensions since have shown that many Tibetans still feel economically disadvantaged and culturally threatened. {NY Times}

India

India’s finance ministry this month signed loan agreements with the World Bank totaling USD770 million for three development projects on in Hyderabad, including a road improvement and safety project, a rural water supply and sanitation project, and a municipal development project in Andhra Pradesh. The roads project aims at strengthening and widening of 429 kilometers of roads with paved shoulders and construction of long-term performance highways of 6,241 kilometers. The rural water and sanitation project would provide for supply of piped water to 2 million people in six districts. With these new loan agreements, the World Bank’s total ongoing commitment to India has increased to USD19.38 billion. {Financial Express, Reuters}

Japan

Even as Sea Shepherd antiwhaling activists harangue Japan’s whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, Greenpeace is waging a quieter war for hearts and minds back in the whalers’ homeland. Greenpeace has chosen to pin its hopes on changing public opinion in Japan by focusing on the issue of wasted taxes and allegations of corruption among whalers, despite official hostility and a mostly unsympathetic domestic media. Few people know the relatively small whaling industry receives about 500 million yen {USD5.5 million} annually in public subsidies, at a time when wasting tax money is a hot topic. {C.S. Monitor}

Laos

Lao authorities have denied the existence of secret jails in which members of the Hmong minority have allegedly been imprisoned since their forced return to the country last month, media reports said Jan. 26. “There is no secret jail at all in Borlikhamxay province,” Brigadier General Bouasieng Champaphanh, chairman of the Lao-Thai border security subcommittee, said Jan. 25 in Vientiane, according to the Vientiane Times. His comments were in response to a Radio Free Asia report that the government had set up a secret prison in the central province and jailed some of the 4,500 Lao Hmong who were repatriated from detention camps in Thailand on Dec. 28. {DPA}

Malaysia

Worshippers at two Malaysian mosques discovered severed pig heads in the buildings Jan. 27 as religious tensions in the multiethnic nation threatened to escalate. The incidents at the mosques, located in an ethnic Malay-dominated suburb of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, raised fears that already strained relations between Malaysia’s majority Muslim population and its large minorities of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists would be further aggravated. Police chief Musa Hassan said unknown culprits had thrown the severed heads into the mosques and urged people of all religions not to react to the incident. Over the past few weeks, 11 churches, a Catholic school, a Sikh temple, two mosques and two Muslim prayer rooms have been hit by arson and vandalism attacks in an escalating row over the use of the word name “Allah” by Christians. {DPA}

Pakistan

The World Bank is proposing a total of USD6.5 billion assistance to Pakistan under the proposed Country Partnership Strategy {CPS} for the next four years {2010-13} currently under preparation, according to World Bank Country Director Yusupha Crookes. The World Bank’s executive board is expected to the CPS by the end of March. A major part of the funds would be directed toward the energy sector, with USD200 million for a natural gas efficiency and production enhancement project. The lender will provide Pakistan USD4 billion under IDA and some USD2.5 billion is expected to be made available to Pakistan under IBRD terms. Crookes made it clear that IBRD’s lending would be subject to Pakistan’s economic performance as good performance would lead to further increase in IBRD lending and otherwise the IBRD lending volume could remain low against the commitment during the said period. {Dow Jones, The Daily Times}

Sri Lanka

Soldiers besieged the hotel housing Sri Lanka’s main opposition presidential candidate on Jan. 27 as the early count in the country’s first peace-time vote showed the poll was swinging the incumbent’s way. The government’s move to station troops around retired general Sarath Fonseka’s hotel added an element of drama to the last hours of the election, and was the latest indication of the deep bitterness and distrust between the two candidates. Final results were due at midday but the state-run Rupavahini television had already declared President Mahinda Rajapaksa, bidding for a second six-year term, the winner by a margin of more than 1.8 million votes. The president suspects Mr Fonseka of plotting a military coup if he loses, while the former army commander believes the president plans to arrest him should he win the election. {Financial Times, UK}

“If there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it walls, and we will furnish it with soft, red interiors, from the inside out, and give it a knocker that resonates like a diamond falling to a jeweller’s felt so that we should never hear it. Love me, because love doesn’t exist, and I have tried everything that does.” — Jonathan Safran Foer {Everything is Illuminated: A Novel}

“He dug so deeply into her sentiments that in search of interest he found love, because by trying to make her love him he ended up falling in love with her. Petra Cotes, for her part, loved him more and more as she felt his love increasing, and that was how in the ripeness of autumn she began to believe once more in the youthful superstition that poverty was the servitude of love. Both looked back then on the wild revelry, the gaudy wealth, and the unbridled fornication as an annoyance and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude. Madly in love after so many years of sterile complicity, they enjoyed the miracle of living each other as much at the table as in bed, and they grew to be so happy that even when they were two worn-out people they kept on blooming like little children and playing together like dogs.” — Gabriel García Márquez {One Hundred Years of Solitude}

“It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love. ” — Graham Greene

“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In !
From the poem ” Outwitted “ — Edwin Markham

“Te amo como se aman ciertas cosa oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.
— Pablo Neruda {100 Love Sonnets/Cien Sonetos De Amor}

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” — E.B. White

“All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.” — Chuck Palahniuk

“Everyone has his own reality in which, if one is not too cautious,timid, or frightened, one swims. This is the only reality there is.” — Henry Miller {Stand Still Like the Hummingbird}

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.” — Arundhati Roy