Manglish

I'm terribly sorry for those who have been a regular at my blog. I just started working and my boss is really squezzing my balls on a daily basis.

Anyhew, this topic came to me when I went back to Penang a month ago. The sign on the wall at one of the construction sites I saw was "Do not parking at the entrance." To me silly grammatical mistakes like that is intolerable. It is embarassing for me as a Malaysian when tourists see that sign.

IMO, the education ministry seriously failed in its mission to teach our people the English language. I thought that nowadays English is already being used not only in high schools for science subjects, but have been the official language used at our local universities.

Maybe you can argue that the people who make those signboards don't have a bachelor's degree, but if their level of English is not up to par with basic spoken English then those people aren't supposed to be making signboards in English in the first place.

After coming back from America for about 3 months now, I have noticed that there is an increase in English tv programmes but it's still not enough. Channels like tv3 shouldn't be playing the damn lousy Natasha 2 (starring Fasha Sandha, doesn't know how to act but fuckin hot!! DAYMN!!) .

TV3 should include more English progs, especially from the local scene. These progs however should use good spoken English and not Phua Chu Kang English, which actually is Singlish (Singaporean English). English progs from our local actors would encourage more Malaysians into communicating in the universal language. Xde aaa menggelabah bile tourist dtg tanye direction.

Anyhow, that's how I feel. Lack of good English in our country saddens me.

Kucing Liar

It's been awhile now .. I guess I've lost my interest in writing blogs lately. I've been busy looking for jobs for about 3 months now .. finally I got a reasonable job in KL .. Alhamdulillah.

Anyhew, I went back to Penang last Monday .. my parents were bored staying home I guess .. being retirees there's nothing much for them anyways. From my standpoint, besides meeting my gramps, I've got nothing else in Penang .. except for the good food, Goergetown is quite the 'Bandar Purba' to me .. very dull.

So, on Tuesday after visiting my gramps (my mother's side), my pop decided to take me to a Hamidiah restaurant somewhere in the middle of Penang, by foot. I was reluctant as the weather was hot as hell but my pop said "I've got something to show u."

So, we walking until we reached Argyll Road. I was a bit confused why my pop stopped walking as I couldn't figure out wtf was interesting bout this street anyways, it looked mundane to me.

And then my pop, while pointing a an ugly looking old house said "That was the home of the Alleycats brothers (David and Loga Arumugam), back in the day. This was where it all began." My pop added that he used to be classmates with David and Loga's elder brother, Mohinder (or something that start's with an M), when my pop was in Penang Free School.

The weird part was I didn't know Loga had lund cancer at that time. So, at the end of the day I was watching the news and found out that Loga already died. Daymn!! Baru nak feeling Alleycats skali meninggal plak.

Even though, I'm not a big fan of Malay music, I did watch Muzik Muzik in the late 80's/early 90's era when the Alleycats were quite big. I know they have been in the music scene since 1969 but only started recording tracks around late 70's I think.

Anyhew, during my 'budak hingusan' I was a big Alleycats fan myself with Sampaikanlah Salam and Hingga Akhir Nanti ringing thru my ears all the time. Until now their songs still get a lot of airtime on radios and remake of their songs such as Jika Kau Bercinta Lagi by Flop Poppy, could only signify how big they are.

I guess their evergreen singles will always remain in our hearts just like P.Ramlee's. More on their history and news can be found at Wikipedia

Ain't No Sunshine

I just don't know why the Malaysian gov is so freaked out about how bloggers have the power to voice out their opinions. They are scared that bloggers would rant anti-government statements and how it might affect the Malaysian community.

As a matter of fact, our gov had done so with Harakah, when they forced the opposition newspaper to be a bi-weekly news instead of on a week to week basis. The weird thing is our gov has been practicing this since forever. Why must the gov oppress our minds and suppress us from freedom to thinking?

They keep on saying that "Melayu jauh ketinggalan" this and that, yet still want to control our minds. How does the gov expect people to move forward and to evolve when they aren't letting us think on our own?? Somebody needs to tell the gov "Enough with the cock talk, let's move on with some effective actions to drive us into vision 2020."