The biggest irony of our times is that people perceive all politicians as ‘thieves’ but at the same time they are also forced to elect them to Parliament again and again to rule the country.  And, these ‘thieves’ pick up people similar to them from all walks of life and every profession to build a nexus they need to loot the country. Do we have any choice?The ruling class has made laws as per its convenience. We need to take radical measures to counter them. We must vote for a candidate who does not spend a penny on his election campaign or contests on the minimum expenditure. It will be better if we field and elect a person who has renounced his/her wealth. We need to vote for honest candidates and not parties. Some may find this illogical, while others would argue that voting for individuals may lead to fractured mandate and result in policy paralysis. Let there be paralysis for some time instead of allowing our motherland to be robbed. It will be a very small price to save the honour of the country.In physics it is known as threshold; in management we called it tipping point (made popular by Malcolm Gladwell). It is not farfetched to say that endemic and big time corruption has reached beyond redemption in Malaysia. Who has the power and audacity to investigate alleged corruption involving Scorpene submarines and timber concessions in Sarawak? Paul Low? Paul Low resigned from MCA in favour of TI because of its involvement in PKFZ. Where is PKFZ now? Who created the fiasco and took the money, Tun Ling only? Paul Low will most probably be put in charge of hapless national unity department.Then we have Wahid Omar who is supposed to take charge of NEM and EPU. Do we know why NEM was a stillborn baby? Look, it was never about affirmation action under the NEP that the NEM was trying to get rid of. It was the endemic corruption, cronyism, nepotism and abuse of power inherent in it. What credential and authority can Wahid Omar bring to the table when fighting UMNO warlords over who get what and how much. No, Wahid will not be able to do much, just like Idris Jala. They are there to give some semblance of credibility when there is none to begin with.

The May 5 general election was a “transitional general election”, where an emerging group of people voted in the hope of a better democracy, Umno supreme council member Saifuddin Abdullah said  Paul Low, if you are really cut out for the job, the first order of the day is to start working with SUARAM on the Scorpene case. We want you to bring the people to books even if it means the prime minister himself. Mahathir can come second followed by the rest like Sharizat and her RM240m loan. If the BN is serious about curbing corruption per se, then you must also work with people from Pakatan. People like Rafizi and Tony Pua can be a great help. The people want to see every sen accounted for and corruption brought to a halt. That’s all, no more, no less.Hilarious that we are discussing TI-M and Paul Low’s credibility, when this article appears on the same page of Malasiakini; “TI Divided Over Taib’s Dam Congress” Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) secretary general Josie Fernandez (right) told Malaysiakini that she and other Malaysian members were “disappointed and embarrassed that TI is a sponsor of the World Congress hosted by Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), a public company controlled by Abdul Taib Mahmud, the Sarawak chief minister who is being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on allegations of grand corruption.” …and so it goes.

.

– Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah urged Barisan Nasional (BN) today to admit its past mistakes and apologise for them in a process called “drawing a white line” today, for it to move forward and continue its relevance.

In a forum to discuss the future of Malay politics here, the Umno Supreme Council member (picture) also agreed with fellow panelists PAS MP Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad and DAP MP Zairil Khir Johari that the next general elections will be fought along lines of “values” rather than racial.

“There must be a white line … First we must apologise for past mistakes. Second, we must affirm that we will not repeat past mistakes,” Saifuddin said here, using the analogy of the starting line in a foot race.

The word “colour-blind” was used numerous times as all three panelists tried to debunk the “Chinese tsunami” alluded to by BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Umno-backed daily Utusan Malaysia, insisting that the current generation has stopped viewing politics along racial lines.

“If it were to be described as a tsunami, it was more like a “tsunami nilai” (tsunami of values),” said Raja Kamarul Bahrin, saying that voters are more sensitive towards issues such as poverty and corruption.

In Election 2013, BN had won the polls but lost the popular vote, prompting Najib to suggest a “Chinese tsunami” had caused his BN to record its worst-ever electoral results.

Utusan has also suggested Chinese voters were provoking race tensions by voting against BN, with one headline last week asking the question “Apa lagi Cina mahu? (What else do the Chinese want?)”.

Saifuddin grouped voters into two categories today – those who desire development, and those who desire democracy – claiming that the trend has shown that more voters are swinging into the later category since Election 1999.

He warned that BN had lost in the area where there are more “hopes for democracy” compared to “hopes for development”, and the coalition needs to transform itself to attract those who did not vote for it.

The former Temerloh MP also rubbished calls for a political unity between Umno and PAS, saying that Malay unity does not depend on such a move.

“Having differing parties does not mean a schism,” he said, insisting that differences in opinions must not be chastised.

All three politicians also echoed each other on the need for good governance, with Saifuddin calling for neutrality among government agencies and local elections to strengthen grassroots politics in Malaysia.

The panelists shared views led to a heated question-and-answer session, as two irate members of the crowd took the chance to attack Zairil and DAP for allegedly sidelining Malays in Penang.

In the aftermath of BN’s result in Election 2013, the maverick Saifuddin has been leading the call for Umno and the coalition to reform, including raising the proposal that members be accepted directly into BN instead of having to join the coalition’s component parties.

On Monday, Saifuddin had also said in an exclusive interview published by the Sin Chew Daily that Umno will be committing suicide if it attempts to bring down its president Najib or leaves the moderate path.

Najib. Most of the intiatives he implemented is to save his job.

Malaysians are block-headed, they don’t know who refused Chinese to be Cabinet members. Najib just have to follow the wishes of the great Chinese, and idiotic Chinamen said Najib sidelined the Chinese, stupid lah, the great Chinese do not want Chinese to be in Cabinet, that’s why all potential kaik voted out, and all cannot be in Cabinet kaki, like Lim Kit Siang etc all voted in. See or not, Lim Kit Siang doesn’t need any Chinese to be in Cabinet, but he wanted Ghani to be minister, even if it’s by back door. Chinese, Lim Kit Siang included, only phor Melayu punya lanpha lah. Chinese does like Chinese, even Melayu yang pro-Chinese like Safuddin, who is stupid enough to fight for recognition of UEC, but who voted him out, if not the Chinese?

This is no reform government, for sure. If that is what Najib promised the voters in his Election Manifesto and during the election campaign then you can perish the thought. What we are seeing is not only old wine in a new bottle but also old wine that has turned to vinegar.

I see some of the recycled faces such as Shahidan Kassim (Perlis), Mustapa Mohamed (Kelantan), Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz (Perak), Ahmad Shabery Cheek (Terengganu), Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (Melaka but now Putrajaya), Hilmi Yahaya (Penang) and Idris Jusoh (Terengganu). And should not Malaysia be spared the likes of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Perak), Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Perak) and Hamzah Zainuddin (Perak), all rascals of the first degree?

Come on, Najib! Those are all expired goods plus tainted like hell.

eg 1Malaysia is only half-hearted becuase he did not rebuked anyone who goes against the 1Malaysia spirit. BN promises and handouts before the election are just votes buying. What has his Cabinet done about the Auditor General report??

That is why Najib needs to spend millions in public relations and branding experts such as APCO’s and TV3’s to take short cuts instead of doing the hard work to refom his Government.

Malaysian voters are not as stupid as yesterday. They are much more well inform now as the cyberworld is providing the wealth of knowledge which they connot get before. Change or Najib you will be changed.

Najib’s logic in selecting these people to be in his Cabinet. First of all, Najib needs representatives from each state. Secondly, he needs to ‘pacify’ the warlords and get them on his side in the event anyone tries to push him out like what happened to Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi soon after the 2008 general election. new team good for Malaysia? I doubt it is good for Malaysia but it most certainly is good for Najib. Some of those people are his people. Some are Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s people. But what I do not understand is why Najib appointed Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar the Minister of Youth and Sport.

Najib knows what he is doing. But from where I am sitting it looks like a disaster. But then maybe Najib is more worried about the next party election than about the next general election. In that case then maybe Najib made the right decision after all.

Anyway, read the letter from a reader below. I am not going to analyse or comment on the letter since the contents are self-explanatory enough. You can make up your own mind as to whether you agree with the writer or not.

In the recently concluded General Election, the total numbers of eligible Chinese voters were 3.94 million. In Penang they constitute 53.3% of total voters and in Kuala Lumpur 52.2% of the total voters are of Chinese origin.

Even though by population the Chinese constitute about 22.56% of the total population in Malaysia but by the number of voters their strength is 29.68% of the total 13.3 million voters in Malaysia.

There are also many mixed seats where Chinese voters are present in significant numbers and the way the electoral boundaries are drawn they allow the Chinese voters to be quite influential.

The EC states that 84.84% of the total number of registered voters had cast their vote on May 5. This would mean that we can assume at least 3.4 million Chinese votes were cast. It goes without saying that the majority of Chinese voters are pro Pakatan Rakyat.

What no one knows is the actual total percentage of Chinese votes that went to PR. Considering the number of Chinese supporters that did outnumber all other races at most PR’s ceramah’s nationwide, many suspect anywhere between 75% to 95% of the Chinese may have voted for PR in the recent GE.

It was also reported that a huge number of Malaysians based in Singapore (mainly Chinese) had returned to cast their vote causing a massive traffic jam at the causeway. If the numbers were at least 85% then it would mean that more than half of PR’s popular votes amounting to 5.6 million would have consisted of mainly Chinese votes.

After deducting the Indian votes as well as the Sabah/Sarawak votes that went for PR, this would leave the Malay votes in PR quite a minority. A conservative estimate could give PR only attracting 40% of the Malay vote in total.

Even though they may have received considerable amount of new, young urban Malay votes, at the same time PR had lost a lot of their traditional Malay voters that they had in the 2008 GE. If PR had amassed at the very least 45% of the total Malay vote then they would have easily won the elections.

In the 4 predominantly Malay majority states Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu, BN lost an average 0.8% of the popular vote as versus PR gained an average 0.53% of the popular vote when compared with the 12th GE.

The overall increase of 2.9 million new voters (28% increase) could have contributed to this. The majority vote difference between BN and PR in these 4 states in the recent elections is a mere 9,149 votes in favour to PR, however it must be noted that Kedah itself has more than 160,000 registered Chinese voters.

No Change is possible in UMNO, thanks to Dr. Mahathir

by Zaid Ibrahim

I have never seen as many vile and seditious statements invading the public sphere as I have in this past week. We’ve had Utusan Malaysia provoking the Chinese for rejecting the Barisan Nasional and UMNO leaders labeling non-UMNO Malays as greedy and easily misled.

An academic suggested the abolishment of vernacular schools to encourage unity among the races and an old and pro-BN “historian” said that the Chinese are not actually keen on unity. To cap it off, a retired Court of Appeal judge (right) practically made a call for “restoring” Malay rights and dignity by whatever means.

I never realised that retired judges are also involved in part-time politics, although I believe this case to be a serious aberration.  In the meantime, have we heard anything from the Prime Minister expressing regret for these statements? Perhaps a promise to take some action to stop this dangerous game of provocation? None whatsoever; in fact, he defended Utusan by saying Chinese newspapers are playing the same game.

Is this the kind of Prime Minister we want? Certainly not. I have been very patient with him, as have so many Malaysians.

We have always given him extra room to breathe because we thought he was surrounded by the worse ultras in UMNO. We allowed him to dabble in “double speak” because we thought it was necessary for him to maintain his equilibrium as UMNO President.

Najib has to go

But enough is enough. This man has to go. He is afraid to do the right thing for the country. His 1Malaysia is a sham. I blame him for allowing this mad, racist frenzy to pander to UMNO delegates so he can retain power at the party elections at the end of the year.

His conduct is inexcusable. If he wants to deal with a challenge from his No 2, he need not appear to be more Malay than Muhyuddin.  There is no need to unleash the keris and Utusan or to get all these half-baked Malay leaders to spout hate.

His mentor Dr Mahathir has given him all the ammunition he needs. UMNO is the only political party in the world where a Supreme Council decision can override any provision in its own Constitution (hard to believe but it’s true).

Even the Chinese Communist party does not have this provision. So all the Prime Minister has to do is get the Supreme Council to pass a resolution prohibiting any challenge to his position.

With his men intact in the Supreme Council (both elected and appointed by him), there would be no contest for the party presidency. Even if this resolution is “flawed” it could not be challenged in court. Dr Mahathir has made sure of that. With the amendment to the Federal Constitution and the Societies Act, the Court no longer has any power of judicial review of decisions made by political societies.

So why engage in this song-and-dance that can irreparably damage racial and religious harmony in the country, when all you want is another five years at the helm? UMNO delegates are easily managed if their leader has the means to address their concerns. They are not terribly difficult to deal with.  Just ask Dr Mahathir.  So please, spare innocent Malaysians your UMNO gamesmanship—we want peace and harmony, not hate politics.

Stone-age politics holds back 21st century Malaysia economy

It is once again open season on PM Najib. He presides over the most corrupt BN government has seen, his inertia has infected policy with paralysis, he has no authority except to twitch as desired by puppeteer Tengku Adnan Mansor, he loves power too much to just resign and leave if he cannot fix things. The litany is long. And perfectly wrong.

Najib’s current travails stem from the tension between a reformed economy and an unreformed polity. The politics of the ball sucking era has survived into the era of globalised growth, to become a fetter.

 Paul Low must be hallucinating. believe me, you will see another running dog. wow, 1malaysia now after low, transparency?

FUNDING via CORRUPTION

Paul Low – the sole Chinese anti graft fighter against the whole bunch of Bumi / Malay Ketuanan Ministers/ Malay civil servants? I predict Paul will be more like a chihuahua dog, a lot of noise but no bite.

The need to mobilise political funding through corruption means proliferation of rent-seeking opportunities. This is what keeps  Malaysia low on the World Bank’s ease of doing business surveys, makes coal a state monopoly so that captive mines can be allocated to those who pay up, converts PSU jobs into saleable commodities and renders theft large enough to make the power sector unviable. Corruption is systemic, not opportunistic, thanks to this manner of funding Indian democracy.One swallow does not a summer make. Another futile attempt in this window dressing exercise. The rakyat has lost all hope after almost 60 years living under a most corrupt regime with absolute power winning every election through wholesale corruption & cheating. Low is just a little lamb going into the lion’s den, or like throwing Mickey mouse into a cage full of hungry cats. You really think Low could get the hungry Orang Utans in a banana-filled CABINET to return the bananas?! If the govt has any iota of integrity & is serious to fight corruption, firstly demand all Cabinet ministers to declare their assets like the PR State govts are doing, or put in Class A leaders like Tony Pua & Rafizi Ramli in the MACC, otherwise, please don’t insult the rakyat’s intelligence & think the rakyat are stupid to believe you. When corruption is institutionalized & the govt is led by a “you help me, i help you” leaders from top down & are all corrupt & deformed, it’s impossible to transform! As a proactive measure in order to prevent corruption and abuse at the very top hierarchy, Paul Low needs to be bold enough to tell his boss (Najib) that the overburdened PM must show leadership by example by giving up the Finance Minister’s post in order to have proper checks and balances. We can’t let the decision maker and the person who signs the cheque be one and the same person. But will Paul be daring enough to do so? The rot may start right at the top.

PATRONAGE & IDENTITY

Thanks to economic reform, some segments of the economy can flourish without state patronage. They pay bribes not to get favours but as victims of extortion. They resent such victimisation. This feeds the anticorruption movement, which has produced false prophets and some wrong-headed moves that recommend inaction as the safest policy even for honest civil servants. This leads to policy paralysis, in the absence of firm political resolve.

Political resolve is dilute in a fragmented polity, riven by divisions arising from identity politics that mobilises people based on region, religion, caste, language and ethnicity. Some sections are alienated enough to take up arms against the state, in the jungles or as terrorists.

The challenge is to reform politics on all these counts, not make a scapegoat out of the PM. That means reform at the level of the political party, rather than in the government.

The economy, as it were, had two cocoons: the direct controls that liberalisation broke and an outer one of political interaction with the economy, more like a roomy cage than a tight corset. The butterfly could spread its wings after emerging from its first cocoon, but soon found itself flapping haplessly against the steely mesh of the outer shell. The point is to recognise the reality of this shell, and not blame one individual.

a communications and an information technology revolution were merging — to democratise knowledge.

Three, the Soviet Union had collapsed, to demolish the myth of noncapitalist development. This helped shift focus of policy from sham socialism to broadening the base of participation in admittedly capitalist growth.

Four, in the World Trade Organization, large chunks of trade got an institutional framework to maintain openness. This helped India integrate into global trade on reasonably fair terms.

And one fortuitous factor was internal to India: the demographic transition, in which the share of the working to the dependant population rises, increasing savings and raising aggregate output even without any increase in productivity.

Paul Low will resign within 6 months, just as Zaid Ibrahim. there is no place for good people in the cabinet.

readmore  When pushed against the wall, both Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Datuk Seri Najib Razak have reacted similarly.Back then, just days after Election 2008, after losing Barisan Hoping for better in a new Cabinet of old ideas

How fixing Najib’s new cabinet has been a good fix for Mahathir

Developing a democratic society

A democratic society may develop itself only by generating culture not as an abstract body of superior knowledge but as a complex dialogue that must never come to rest. In fact, democracy must become a lived philosophy, which it can only do by refusing absolute truth and its attached totalitarian regimes. The only hope of a democratic politics is to form citizens who articulate their own practical needs, freely and unencumbered by the pressures of simplistic and lazy metaphysical systems.

The political message of philosophy after the end of modernity is that there is nothing outside our human and natural community. Philosophers must understand problems as rooted in society. The danger is that philosophers become alienated from communities – as has happened to so many analytical philosophers. We therefore submit that philosophy must subordinate itself to the political demands of democracy.

Mahathir confuses ponderousness with deliberateness, equates yelling as emphasizing, and thinks that furrowing his forehead as being in profound thought.  In the hands of  Najib gifted actor, those could be great comedic acts.  Alas, Najib is also far from being that.there was nothing in Najib’s   new cabinet  that was so urgent or important to justify that.  As self-professed champions and defenders of transformation,

Mahathir’s remark that he still ‘remains active in politics’ to pursue his ‘dream to make Malaysia the greatest nation.’ Both the timing and the substance of these comments have predictably raised eye-brows. Why did Najib say what he did when there is a growing clamour within the Najib’s cabinet to project Najib as the party’s mascot for the UMNO elections? And why has the veteran  Mahathir thrown his hat in the ring in all but the name when the cadres have in overwhelming numbers made known their preference Mahyuddin ?Against this background it made sense for Mahyuddin ? to not rule himself either in or out of the succession battle. To rule himself out would have meant reducing himself to playing a lame-duck role for the remaining term of the BN  GOVERNMENT. And to rule himself in would have rubbed both the -for-PM  and other wannabe prime ministerial candidates in his party

Democracy never arrives at a resting place – it is always under revision, refinement and revaluation

From a political point of view people still believe in nostalgic and dangerous ideas like “objectivity” “reality”, “truth” and “values” as a precondition for democracy. But believers in absolutes forget a crucial lesson borne out of the historic record namely, that the tide of secularisation is irreversible and remains inextricably bound-up in the human condition. This reality necessarily checks and harnesses the search for fanatical, absolute truth-claims that, we maintain, are contrary to the very nature of democracy.

Indeed the demand democracy places on us is therefore a commitment to maximising critical, open dialogue whilst maintaining a minimal peaceable solidarity among different social and political actors. We thus submit the need to dispense with arrogant notions of truth opting instead for more temperate and humble philosophical programmes, ones that, for example help nurture a larger more volatile discourse of human flourishing.

It is worth briefly examining the logic that appeals to claims that are absolute and beyond the reach of history. From the birth of religion and early philosophy the ever-changing natural world was interpreted as threatening, chaotic and unpredictable. This further resulted in a neurosis, which was only cured, it was thought, when the threatening material world of change was a result of a more fundamental unchanging, immaterial idea, or a God.

By appealing to absolute moral foundations, or a God, or Truth, any disagreement could be resolved so long as everyone agreed with the final appeal pronounced by the ruling class. And if there was disagreement, the rulers in power, like political or religious authorities, could be justified in exacting violence against a dissenter.

Pragmatic and hermeneutical approach

The danger in this metaphysical universe was that only the King or Pope (or the philosopher-king) could discern what the true will of God (or Reason) was on earth without question or criticism. In this way, an eternal, unchecked idea was given moral justification beyond the reach of democratic discourse. Consequently, unjust political regimes could get away with implementing their power in the name of the Almighty or an idea.

It is little wonder that one minor tradition in Greek philosophy, the Platonic legacy, was quickly adapted into the Greek and later Roman Empire, as Peter Sloterdijk has recently argued. This legacy could then easily be transferred into the hegemony of Christianity in the form of the Roman Catholic Empire, which neutralised many other divergent Christian, religious, pagan and philosophical traditions in order to alight as an absolute authority both religious and political. This set the stage for the spread of the Islamic Empire in the 7th century.

By contrast, we submit that history and not religion (or unchecked Reason) must be taken seriously as opposed to idealising absolutes, which, in political theologies, only serve as flimsy veils behind which violent and inflexible premises invariably lurk. It is difficult not to interpret mainstream religious ideology and its historical reality as employing appeals to almighty God as a means to dominate the cultural, political, moral and even economic discourse.

By contrast, when, for example, Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government excluding all others, what he meant was that you cannot find a better system if you take history seriously. This is a pragmatic and hermeneutical approach, which entails a modest style committed to an experimentation and perpetual improvement on inevitable shortcomings.

The letter written byMuhyiddin  to Najib . What was there in the letter that will  take such a drastic step of not nominating Najib as the next UMNO PresidentDoes it mean that there is zero tolerance in the party for “viewpoint plurality” (rather than for corruption)? Can the party simply not discuss its internal problems, and handle charges against its president leadership without exerting authoritarian measures? The answer is that the contents Muhyiddin ’s letter are indeed damning; and shows Najib and Rosmah in poor light. While the letter is damning enough, it also begs me to ask another question: Who is behind the leak of this internal letter? Is itFT MINISTERTENGKU ADNAN MANSOR TOLD NAJIB THAT WINNING THE UMNO POLLS AND FENDING OFF ANY CHALLENGE TO HIS POSITION ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN REFORMS  Stone-age politics holds back 21st century Malaysia economy It is once again open season on PM Najib. He presides over the most corrupt BN government has seen, his inertia has infected policy with paralysis, he has no authority except to twitch as desired by puppeteer Tengku Adnan Mansor, he loves power too much to just …Read more

considering how much he benefits if  Adnan Mansor,  Hishamuddin are cut to size? There is more than a small reason to believe this theory.

“Since you talk so much about corruption, can I ask you  as to where did the money come from for toppling Adullah Ahmad Badawithat brought   you to power; Why were you silent when all this was happening without hindrance?”. Good questions indeed. Of course  Adnan Mansor  knew there was illegal money funding his party’s election in . What is Operation   Adnan Mansor? How did this operation enable you buy over a majority delegates fo rthis ? Did you buy out the delegates vote, and their leaders?

Nothing became  better than the manner in which Muhyiddin Yassin played out the waiting game.The Old Testament, which can be pessimistic about God’s mercy, notes that seven lean years are followed by seven fat ones. Nawaz Sharif doubled the Biblical average, and maintained his patience through the desert of exile, and the torture of standing by as the credibility of an usurper, Ex-PM  Abdullah and Najib, peeled off in heavy layers.Muhyiddin  did not panic, did not fuss and did not rush. When  Najib sought to make a meaningless point by completing   full term,Muhyiddin   kept his cool and waited.Sharif’s confidence should be familiar to any student of elections: once people have lost trust in a government, they do not change their minds. A shrinking government never forsakes the desperate hope that some last-minute miracle will reverse anti-incumbency . Najib believed till the last minute that he would manage to cobble together a new coalition for another term,in UMNO preserves the hope of continuing beyond the next election. God reserves miracles for saints, not politicians. PAS  Talibans will be kind towards Muhyiddin during  UMNO polls;

The tough test of character comes in a waiting room. We are all heroes in a drawing room, stoking plans toward fantasy as far as the tensile strength of imagination will permit. While waiting, the lacklustre kill time and die of boredom . The ambitious dread the possibility that time will kill them before desire becomes reality.

Do you think March 2008 could have happened had the Malays remained the Malays of 1957? More importantly, do you think 5th May 2013 could have happened had not the seed of change been planted in 1946, 1959, 1969, 1990, 1999, and finally in March 2008?

Some societies took thousands of years to change. Some took just a few hundred years. Nevertheless, whatever time it took, it still took time to see that change. And someone must always be the one to bell the cat.

We must also remember one thing. The non-Malays suddenly swung only in 2008. Before that the non-Malays were living in ignorance as well. The Malays have been swinging back and forth since before Merdeka. The Malays swung this way and then that way from time to time. However, each swing the Malays make, it is always larger than the last time.

You can see the Malay swing in 1946. Then they swung back and took another swing in 1959. Then they swung back and took another swing in 1969. Then they swung back and took another swing in 1990. Then there was another swing in 1999 after swinging back in 1995 (and then swung back in 2004). In 2008, we saw another swing and a slight swing back this time around in 2013. Will the Malay ‘pattern’ prove true and will we see yet a bigger and maybe a ‘terminal swing’ (for Barisan Nasional, that is) in the 2018 general election?

That is all up to you. If you know how to handle the Malays you are going to see that. But how do you handle the Malays? I think I have written about that so many times in the past I really do not need to repeat myself.

You will never read from anywhere that brand Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King as racists.

Abraham Lincoln pawned his life to fight against the enslavement of the African Americans, Nelson Mandela traded decades of his freedom to free South Africa from the shackles of the Apartheid policy and Martin Luther King paid for his life for the equal rights of Americans. Their detractors could call them any vile names they wished but never as a racist.

Only in Malaysia, the very people who do not condone racism and voted against it are labeled as racists. Over the decades, Umnno, led by Dr. Mahathir and his armada of mass media had been accusing DAP with its vision of “Malaysian Malaysia” as a bigoted political party, hell-bent to destroy the Malay.

The rakyat particularly the IT savvy urban-dwellers who ironically voted for the multiracial parties from Pakatan Rakyat in GE13 were branded as racists because they rejected the race-based political system where every race fights endlessly to defend their respective rights.

To put things into perspective, could anyone imagine any American being branded as racist if they do not endorse Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization?

For a record, DAP has a total of 2 Malay lawmakers representing the party, (Malay from MCA = 0, Malay from MIC = 0). The number of Indian and Sikh representatives from DAP amounts to 14 at state level and 6 at parliament level (MIC state assemblymen = 6, members of parliament = 4).

Talk about DAP being a Chinese chauvinist party, their Indian and Sikh representation is 2 times of MIC!

As for PAS, the party even has a Chinese Muslim state assemblyman in Kelantan and fielded a Chinese Christian in Ayer Hitam. Not to mention PKR is very evenly represented by all ethnics including the Kadazan-Dusun ethnic from Sabah.

So the question is, exactly how many non-Malays represented Umno and Malays represented MCA and MIC? Your calculation is as good as mine – NONE.

Now, where is the racism element in Pakatan Rakyat, specifically DAP?

What about BN endorsement of the far right groups such as Perkasa and Hindraf, both which were rejected by the rakyat? What about the racist remarks from an ex-judge and a pro-chancellor of a university? What about the call by various far right NGOs to boycott Chinese products? Najib do you have the courage to make a stand these nonsense?

Come post election, our very Prime Minister set the racial persecution ball rolling by coining the term of “Chinese Tsunami”. The accusation of Chinese voted along the racial line become more raucous by days with attacks spearheaded by none other than Utusan.

Excuse me, didn’t the Chinese voted overwhelmingly for Rafizi Ramli in Pandan against a MCA candidate? I am sure had Khalid Samad from PAS contested in the Chinese majority Seputeh constituent which was won by Teresa Kok with super majority in the last general election, he would have won handsomely too, even if he was up against the president of MCA!

The highlight of the Malaysian political black comedy must go to the recent fiasco resulted by remark from Azran Osman Rani, the CEO of AirAsiaX who stated that “I am Malaysian. I am anti-racism. I am disgusted by Utusan’s editorial stance” – a statement apparently defending the Chinese community from the continued racism attack in the media.

Now he is branded by his detractors from being arrogant, ungrateful, someone who has forgotten his root to a racist by some blogspot!

Only in Malaysia, you are racist if you are not racist.The biggest irony of our times is that people perceive all politicians as ‘thieves’ but at the same time they are also forced to elect them to Parliament again and again to rule the country.  And, these ‘thieves’ pick up people similar to them from all walks of life and every profession to build a nexus … Read more

Angelina Jolie went public with news that she had a preventative double mastectomy to reduce her likely chances for breast cancer because of her genetic-seal. Sad to see the twins go… Anyway, her tits were nice but were never even that great in my opinion.. Angelina’s best feature is her lips and that mouth on her by far and she still have that amazing cock sucker. Hoverer we can still have a memorial in the memory of Angelina’s boobs with a few pics of their most glorious moments. Also, the last pic is what her new fake boobs may or may not look like after reconstructive surgery. Angelina, you might as well go big! And I would pay a million dollars to see the smile on Jennifer Aniston’s face when the news of Angelina Jolie double mastectomy for broke. Please stop laughingJennifer, every man would still rather do Angelina over you. Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy makes me want to do porn.

The Voice of Student Dissent

Is this the man on whom we depend to defend this nation? He won using aliens as voters. Can we trust him for integrity.

Home Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has defended his statement calling for groups unable accept the country’s political system to migrate to countries with systems that suit them.

 Elections are over but young citizen activists who are unhappy with the results are back to show their dissatisfaction with the outcome by attending rallies organized by the Opposition in large numbers. They are defying orders from the Police not to attend these gatherings which have been declared illegal by the Police.

They see injustice and want to change so that they are free to choose a government through free and fair elections. This movement for change cannot be suppressed because people like Adam Ali and his friends and associates in various universities and other educational institutions are driven by democratic ideals, not by money or fear tactics. Like their counterparts in Indonesia at the close of the Suharto era, they choose democracy and freedom.

His friends were feeding him food while his hands were handcuffed when he was brought to his place in Bangsar this evening.

Their demands are simple; they want a legitimate government, not one that retains power by massive electoral fraud. They want the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of our Election Commission to step down; like BERSIH, they seek electoral reforms, and they want the EC itself to be revamped and made independent. not an appendage of the Prime Minister’s Department.

Will the Najib administration engage them civilly? Obviously not, since the symbol of student protest, Adam Ali, is under detention and faces the prospect of imprisonment of up to 20 years under the penal code.

Here is the opportunity for the government to crack down on Malaysian dissidents. We have a new Minister of Home Affairs and Inspector-General of Police and his Deputy (above). They are keen to show that they are tough and intolerant of dissent. They will not hesitate to use whatever means available to them to deal with student  protests and political dissent led by the Opposition.

In truth, high handed methods will only acerbate, not alleviate tensions since these student activists are intelligent and reasonable people.

What the Home Affairs Minister and his Inspector-General of Police need to do is to have dialogue with them. It is very much in the power of the Minister of Home Affairs and the Inspector-General to defuse the mounting tension by releasing Adam Ali from detention and by allowing peaceful protests to go on.

At the same time, the Najib administration should address the issue of electoral reform and the demands of BERSIH for free and fair elections. It should also ask for the resignation of the Election Commission Chairman and his Deputy to facilitate change. –Din Merican

___________________

Cops widen probe on Adam

by Ram Anand@http://www.malaysiakini.com

Student activist Adam Adli, who was arrested yesterday, is also being probed under Section 124 (B) of the Penal Code in addition to being investigated under the Section 4 of the Sedition Act.

PROF DR MOHAMAD TAJUDDIN MOHAMAD RASDI is a 23-year veteran academic and teaches architecture at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He specialises in mosque and Islamic architecture particularly that which relates to Malaysia using a hadith-based and socio-cultural approach in order to create the total idea of built environment suited for a whole social structure.

Considering that immigration to the UK from the erstwhile colonies began in full steam from the early 1950s, and mainly in response to the post-war labour shortages, and was given an additional fillip by the movement of European Union nationals from the 1980s, the demographic shifts will be monumental. In just a century or so – a very small time in the history of nations – the Britain which we knew (and in many cases idolized) will be a completely different place. The “green and pleasant land” invoked by the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ will probably still be there, unless the property developers and road builders are given unlimited powers of desecration, but it will be littered with abandoned churches , pubs serving tepid bitter and samosas and its bustling markets filled with hijabwearing housewives. The England of P G Wodehouse, Enid Blyton, John Betjeman and Agatha Christie will be a thing of the past.

“Change? Why should things change?” Guy Burgess, the upper-class British traitor living in grey Moscow remarked in Alan Bennett’s celebrated play ‘An Englishman Abroad’ . It’s a question that many who were deeply influenced by the soft power of Empire often ask in exasperation when confronted by Caucasian waitresses for whom English is at best a fourth language.

“Change and decay” may well be all around we see but transformation is inevitable. Indeed, there is little point opposing it, demanding the return of the pre-decimal currency and the meat-and-two-veg diet that was a feature of the culinary wasteland. The real challenge is to manage change so that the future doesn’t break with the past and present entirely.

Fortunately, there are politicians whose vision doesn’t merely extend to the next general election. One of the most intellectually stimulating members of David Cameron’s government is education secretary Michael Gove, a man many commentators say could end up as a future leader of the Conservative Party.

What distinguishes Gove from the ‘modern’ Conservatives of the Cameron school is his innate distrust of fashionable theories and politically expedient choices. Gove has offended the powerful teacher’s unions by suggesting shorter holidays, longer school hours and tougher evaluation standards. He has called for a renewed emphasis on teaching grammar and encouraged the establishment of independent schools that put a premium on academic excellence. It would also be fair to say that Gove’s stress on raising standards has enjoyed the backing of parents with school-going children.

However, what has raised the hackles of the ‘progressives’ who have dominated the education establishment for very long is his proposal for a fundamental change in the teaching of history – an issue that remains a favourite with ideologically-driven politicians.

The changes proposed by Gove fall into two broad categories . First, he has sought the return of the traditional narrative history within a chronological framework. Therefore, rather than present history as a ‘fun’ exercise replete with fancy dress shows and allusions to popular characters from comics and Disney films, Gove has sought to reinject history teaching with the cultivation of lucidity, analysis and logically consistent thinking . Secondly, and this is important in the context of a Britain that is changing a bit too rapidly for anyone’s comfort, he has suggested that curriculum include a substantial chunk of British history.

The patchy syllabus of the past where familiarity with Tudor England was blended with an awareness of Germany’s Nazi experience has been attacked and sought to be replaced with a more thorough and chronologically flowing awareness of the British experience.

Predictably, Gove has been attacked for encouraging insularity and putting the UK at the centre of the world. There is merit in that charge. But when you consider that in the next few decades Britain will have a generation which lacks the moorings of the British oak, he is right to emphasize the importance of the national over the cosmopolitan.

When people make a choice to live in Britain, leaving the ‘old country’ behind, they also accept the obligations of citizenship. And these obligations are better appreciated by imbibing the essence of the entire British experience. If multiculturalism becomes a celebration of the ethnic menagerie, the next 50 years will see Britain undergoing a personality change. That, to me at least, would be undesirable.

Instead of a “national reconciliation” pronounced by the Prime Minister on the night of election, what we are witnessing today is the “national aggravation” of race-relations by all UMNO and BN-related machinery, particularly the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia and Umno’s team of bloggers and cyber-troopers.

The situation, with absolutely no restraint from UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself, is spiralling out of control, worsening race-relations to its lowest ebb in recent decades.

Utusan Malaysia takes a completely racist position when defending UMNO over BN’s worst ever electoral performance in history, placing the blame squarely and entirely on the Chinese community. The newspaper kicked off its tirade with the inflammatory headline “Apa lagi Cina mau?”. It has since on a daily basis, inundated its readers with racist quotes from UMNO and NGO leaders chiding the Chinese for being ingrates such as the quote from Dr Mahathir who claimed that “the Chinese has rejected the Malays’ hand of friendship”.

Utusan Malaysia has gone on to attack the CEO of AirAsiaX, Azran Othman who had gone on record to say “I am Malaysian. I am anti-racism. I am disgusted by Utusan’s editorial stance.” Utusan Malaysia now accuses Azran of being “anti-Malay”, “having forgotten his roots” and an ingrate towards presumably Umno and Utusan, for contributing for his achievements today. It has become shocking how those who stand against racism are being vilified in the mainstream media owned by Umno and Barisan Nasional.

Boycott the Chinese

Now the Umno-owned media are playing up the call to boycott “Chinese-owned” goods and services by Umno bloggers, cyber-troopers and Umno-linked NGOs. Muslim Consumers Association Malaysia (PPIM) for example, had recently called for consumers to boycott or at the very least buy goods sold by Chinese companies last.

While the new Domestic Trade, Consumerism and Cooperatives Minister, Datuk Hasan Malek has stated that the Government will not endorse such a call, he has at the same time said that it is these organisations’ right to make the boycott call as it is a free country.

Such a lame response to a racist attempt to divide the nation certainly leaves much to be desired. It is certainly true that people can choose to be racist, but it is the moral duty of the Government to demonstrate leadership by discouraging and rebuking such racist actions and causes.

It’s not elegant silence from Najib but tacit approval?

Pakatan Rakyat call upon all Malaysians to not only frown upon racist calls – whether to boycott “Chinese” goods, or to discriminate against “Malay” companies – but to stand up against racism because regardless of whether the goods were produced by Chinese or Malays or Indians, we are all Malaysians.

Unlike the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who likes to keep his “elegant silence”, Pakatan Rakyat leaders will not hesitate to condemn attempts to divide the country through racism or religious bigotry. We have proven that in the recently concluded General Election, Malaysians of all races have increased their support for Pakatan Rakyat, and not only the Chinese and we have called for the results not to be racialised.

Hence we call upon the Prime Minister to demonstrate his sincerity in “1Malaysia” by breaking his silence and condemn the racist developments in the country before his reign becomes recorded in history as the one which caused Malaysians to be the most racially divided.

Tony Pua

Scam fatigue. Simple truth. We are tired. In statistics,”, this is being called “convergence”. In as, India is now converging back to an era where there were them who would suffer extortion, and there are us who will go around shouting “corruption corruption” when people resist extortion.this is like many dependences coming together to form correlations, regardless of the variables thrown.Take any activity in Malaysia, and there will be a scam in them somewhere, and nabbing those scamsters has now become a reason for media noise. It all comes together, eventually, with no action against the really guilty and some fall guys going to jail for a while. Or injustice committed on them.

The government will not be issuing warnings anymore but will act tough against individuals whose extreme actions would only disrupt public order, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi

“Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng should differentiate political objectives and political measures from the implementation of laws. Do not politicise every law enforcement by the IGP and other agencies under the ministry.

“We will not compromise but will act in accordance with the existing Acts and enactments. We will not give anymore warnings, so don’t be angry with us when we take action,” he said at a news conference in conjunction with his first day as home minister, here.

He said the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and heads of departments and agencies under the Home Ministry had been given the full power to carry out the task within their respective jurisdiction and without political interference.

Ahmad Zahid said any action taken by the ministry to maintain public order must not be regarded as politically motivated but was based on the existing laws of the country.

Today’s self-assertive culture is all about stating clearly your desires and wants, and expecting to fulfill them. We have allowed ourselves to imagine we have a right to get whatever we want; this creates a sense of entitlement that makes us selfish and self-centred, blurring needs from wants. It is important to define the tipping point at which a want becomes a need and to understand well the reasons for allowing this walkover. We all wish to cater to our needs, but it is essential that we understand what they are and how important these are to us. Sadly, most of our needs are dictated by someone else. We wish to acquire that bigger mansion, that fancy car or those expensive trinkets all in an attempt to outdo others and prove we are no less than anybody else. What a waste! These are precisely the ‘wants’ that masquerade as ‘needs’.

For a need to be genuine, it has to rise from within, be a growl within the system, something that is a must for inner happiness, our very growth, or maybe a one-off that fuels the rest of life! Need is not about others, it is about one’s own self. So whereas it is acceptable that many of yesterday’s ‘wants’ are today’s ‘needs’, one has to be cautious and alert enough to recognise the difference. What are the requirements to satisfy, to complete one’s own self?

When David Karp was 14, he was clearly a bright teenager. Quiet, somewhat reclusive, bored with his classes at the Bronx High School of Science. He spent most of his free time in his bedroom, glued to his computer.

But instead of trying to pry him away from his machine or coaxing him outside to get some fresh air, his mother, Barbara Ackerman, had another solution: she suggested that he drop out of high school to be home-schooled.

“I saw him at school all day and absorbed all night into his computer,” said Ms. Ackerman, reached by phone Monday afternoon. “It became very clear that David needed the space to live his passion. Which was computers. All things computers.”

Awareness and exposure have widened our horizons, which in turn have expanded our list of needs — and there is no going back. Living the life I do, I do not define my cellphone, laptop, a decent wardrobe, books and car as ‘wants’; they are very much needs as I cannot function without them. And an indulgence gives me the high that makes me feel better about life, so why not? Having established that, it is up to each individual to decide towards which end of the stick he likes to lean — between asceticism and overindulgence. I need a phone, sure, but do I really need a top-end contraption? The same goes for the car, the house and the wardrobe. Each of us needs to set our limitations at both ends as per our comfort and proceed within these set parameters, without guilt.Life is like a book; if you don’t travel, meet people or enjoy its varied experiences, you have read but one page of it,” said a friend. “I have always thought of life as a dream,” said another. “All that we experience and live through is but a dream”. “Or a nightmare…,” piped up the third.

This exchange had me turn to social networking for more responses, and I wasn’t disappointed. The debate got deeper and richer on Facebook. Here are some nuggets. For Anil Kumar, life is “a journey full of dreams and nightmares; meaningful and meaningless moments.” Vinod Dhir calls it “a blessing of God … a journey with ups and downs that you enjoy as they come.” Sakshi Bhardwaj says, “Life is neither a dream, nor a nightmare. It is reality – it is what I make it!” Surabhi Awasthi calls life “a journey which has planning, accidents, dreams, nightmares, meanings, emotions and feelings.”

“No, no, no,” said Jyotirmaya Sharma across continents. “Life just IS. Full stop. We overload meaning and significance to life. Do we ever ask a dog or a cat if their lives have any significance?” Sri Velagalketi agrees, “Life is not a serious phenomenon. If we take it seriously, we will go on missing it!” Khuman L Rathod says there is no meaning to life per se. It is an empty canvas that we can fill up as we please.

Interesting to realise each of us has our own confident take on this question that has been the topic of much scientific, theological and philosophical debate over the ages. For Plato, the meaning of life was to attain the highest form of knowledge. For Aristotle, life’s objective was to attain the “highest good”. Epicureans defined it as a seeking of modest pleasures and freedom from fear. Nihilism suggests that life is without objective meaning. For pragmatic philosophers, a practical understanding is far more important than seeking abstract truths of life. Existentialists opine that each of us creates the essence of our lives. Absurdist philosophy finds disharmony between our search for meaning and the meaninglessness of the universe! And Confucianism suggests that we can realise the ultimate meaning of life in ordinary human existence.

And that is perhaps what I was trying to do with this exercise – discover what we ordinary human beings think of life, as we go along our everyday living. What does life mean to most of us, apart from the philosophical, scientific or theological discussions? Do we pause to think about the purpose of living? Or should we even do so? Are we overloading meaning and significance to life? Or are we not ascribing it enough significance? Difficult to figure out, particularly if one decides to consult the vastness of material available from thinkers, theologians and scientific minds, not to talk of poets and writers.

Hence, let us rely on our instinct and experience. Most agree that we want to be happy. Then comes the need for fulfillment and contentment, which will come from a feeling of self-esteem. This leads to the quest for spiritual benevolence and exaltation, which may be defined as the ultimate goal.

Clearly.

Now 26 years old, Karp never finished high school or enrolled in college. Instead, he played a significant role in several technology start-ups before founding Tumblr, the popular blogging service that agreed to be sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion this week. With an expected $250 million from the deal, Karp joins a tiny circle of 20-something entrepreneurs, hoodie-wearing characters like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley, who have struck it rich before turning 30.

“When I first met David he was 20 years old and wearing sneakers and jeans,” said Bijan Sabet, a general partner at Spark Capital, who was one of the first people to invest in Tumblr. “But I knew he was one of these rare entrepreneurs that grew up on the Web and who could come up with an idea, build it himself, and then ship it that night.”

Since founding Tumblr six years ago, Karp has been admired for his programming skills and Web site design acumen but at times has been a polarizing figure in New York tech circles because he so often blogged about his personal life and party-hopping. He has popped up in the New York Post’s Page Six Magazine, and has been a recurring target for the gossip Web site Gawker, where he was labeled a “fameball,” a derogatory term for someone who has an unquenchable desire for fame.

Tall and willowy, with a mop of brown hair and piercing blue eyes, Karp typically dresses in jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers. He speaks at a rapid clip and, often, for minutes without stopping. Technically, he never graduated from high school, which he cracked in an interview is “hopefully not a condition of Yahoo employment.”

After dropping out and working for a time in small New York tech outfits, Karp made his way to Tokyo, where he worked for several months for a start-up. He returned to the United States and became the chief technology officer for UrbanBaby, an Internet message board for parents. CNET Networks bought UrbanBaby in 2006, and Mr. Karp took the several hundred thousand dollars he made from the sale to start his own company, called Davidville. One of Davidville’s projects was a simple blogging service called Tumblr.

Karp’s run at Tumblr has not been without problems. He had trouble hiring in Tumblr’s early days, unsure how to even interview recruits. He often thought large companies were too big for their own good, proclaiming he could manage Tumblr with a team of four.

But Karp stepped out of the party scene and started dating his current girlfriend, a graduate nursing school student at New York University, four years ago. He also appeared to get more serious about his company as it grew from less than a dozen employees to more than 175 today. “David has grown up in Tumblr,” said Mark Coatney, who oversees Tumblr’s relationship with media companies.

Still, Karp’s unsure footing led to discussions about his taking a different role at Tumblr, according to two people who worked with the company and who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. Because revenue was not growing as fast as they would have liked, investors considered putting Mr. Karp in charge of Tumblr’s product development and finding a more seasoned chief executive.

Karp denied in an interview that there was a plan for him to give up the chief executive’s job. He said that when Tumblr’s chief operating officer left in the middle of last year, filling that job and other critical roles like head of marketing was “top of mind,” but he said there was no plan for him to step aside.

Like many who run so-called social Internet companies, Karp can teeter on reclusive. In an interview last year at the F.ounders conference in New York, he said he preferred to come to the office early to work alone, avoiding other people.

“Where I feel the most productive and engaged is when I’m buried in code, buried in some project, tweaking some designs,” he said. “I’m certainly introverted. Fred Seibert, a television producer who was MTV’s first creative director, first met Karp in 2000 while he was still in high school. His children attended a private school on the Upper West side of Manhattan called the Calhoun School, where Karp’s mother was a science teacher. “My wife and Barbara became very friendly,” Seibert said. “Over coffee, she was describing how bored David was in high school and my wife said, ‘Fred really likes teenagers, you should send him over.’ And that’s how I met him. He was 14.”

Karp arrived at Seibert’s offices on Park Avenue and said he wanted to “learn about engineering and become a good engineer.” At first, Karp came to the office a few days a week. But then, one day, Karp announced that he would be coming in every day.

“I asked him if his school schedule changed,” recalled Seibert. “And David said ‘No, I’ve dropped out!’ “

Seibert said it wasn’t long before Karp became invaluable. He asked him to build the site for his new company, a Web video production outfit called Next New Networks.

“He comes in two weeks later and he hasn’t done it,” Seibert recalled. “I thought he was being a flaky 19-year-old. But he said, ‘No, no, your idea is just so 2000.’ “

Karp pulled out a Sony PlayStation Portable gaming device and told him that soon, Apple would be releasing an iPod with video capabilities. “He said, ‘This is the way people are going to watch video and you really ought to be there.’ ” Next New Networks was one of the first video products on iTunes and was eventually acquired by Google for around $50 million.

“Because of his prescience and timing, we were ahead of the curve,” Seibert said. Seibert eventually became an investor in Tumblr and sits on the company’s board.

Karp, who lives in a $1.6 million one-bedroom loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with his girlfriend and dog, said he is staying put in New York and with Yahoo. He intends to “figure out something” with philanthropy. And one day he might even go to college.

“At least I should be able to afford it,” he said.

The board of Yahoo has agreed to a deal to purchase the popular blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Yahoo did not immediately return AFP’s calls for confirmation, but CEO Marissa Mayer has scheduled a news conference in New York on Monday at which the company said it will unveil “something special.”

Reports last week said Yahoo is eyeing the move to attract more users from the key 18- to 24-year-old age bracket, and that the Internet pioneer sees the fast-growing Tumblr as one of the “coolest” sites with young Internet users.

Yahoo has been looking at a range of acquisitions since Mayer took over as chief executive last year and vowed to revive the company, which has faded in the face of competition from Google.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in New York, Tumblr says it has more than 107 million blogs, 50 billion postings in 12 languages and 175 employees. The website ranking site Alexa lists Tumblr as number 32 in terms of global popularity.

If the acquisition takes place, it would be the biggest for Yahoo under Mayer and come in the wake of other pricey deals for startups, such as Facebook’s acquisition of the photo app Instagram for stock worth $1 billion at the time.

Which came first the chicken or the egg? A similar question haunts happiness and positivity researchers.

Consider a few facts:

A lot of scary, awful sh*t goes down in our minivan. There’s yelling, there’s arguing, there are sippy cups being thrown and oh, the complaining. It’s too hot, too cold, we’re never going to get there, my seat belt’s too tight, the van smells bad… the list goes on and on.

In regards to the van smelling bad (yeah, I’d like to complain about that, too), I’m not sure what in the world the kids do in there, but they’re gross and they make my van stink.

However, every now and then, the girls have actual conversations while we’re cruising down the road, my favorite among them being “What are you going to be when you grow up?”

These conversations are so filled with hope and promise my heart nearly bursts. They are going to be dancers and singers and doctors and teachers and fashion designers. There is nothing out of reach. Nothing they can’t do. Everything is possible. These are the conversations I try to burn into my memory so when I’m old, feeble and sitting alone in my nursing home, I’ll be able to recall their tiny voices — their tiny voices and big dreams.

Was there ever a time that I felt like this? A time where I felt I could do anything? If such a time existed, I can’t remember having it, nor can I remember losing it, yet I miss having it; that feeling that I could be anything, do anything.

Long gone are the days of my childhood dream where I thought I could be an Olympic gymnast. That dream was crushed by my inability to throw my ass over my head in any sort of graceful way.

However, the girls’ childhood dreams are alive and well, and on any given day, they can be anything.

Yesterday, however, Cameron grew anxious about her chosen profession as a fashion designer.

“What if I change my mind?” she said. “I wrote I was going to be a fashion designer on my paper at school, but is it OK if I change it later?”

What will you discuss with your children this evening? Sports, the weather, celebrity gossip, rape?

We are from three generations (81, 50, and 36 years old), three faiths (Christian, Muslim, Jewish), and three continents (Africa, Asia, North America). One of us is a religious leader, one a writer and rape survivor, and one the CEO of a non-profit organization. We come together in the wake of the recent upheaval around rape in India, South Africa, the U.S. and the UK, because we share a passionate conviction: we must bring the discourse home to the next generation on every continent.

Why did the men in the recent India and South Africa crimes rape, torture, and murder their victims? How could Jimmy Savile of the BBC molest hundreds of people and still die a hero? Why did the gang rapists in Ohio feel safe boasting on camera about what they had done? Why do too many Indians dehumanize women, and too many South Africans believe that men are just intrinsically badly behaved and programmed to rape? Who do we think these sub-human women and out-of-control men are?

They are us and, if we are not careful, they will be our children. We do not have the answers, but we should all be asking the questions, and we should include our sons, daughters and all the young people in our lives in our discussions. We need to stop behaving as if it’s all a terrible problem out there, and start talking about it with each other and with our children.

So much ink has been spilt in the media over the last few weeks. Rape has become a ubiquitous global topic, and that is encouraging since it is a global blot on our collective humanity. But hardly anyone has paid attention to how this affects the most important group of all: the next generation, which is poised to inherit our poisonous baggage.

The fact is, rape is utterly commonplace in all our cultures. It is part of the fabric of everyday life, yet we all act as if it’s something shocking and extraordinary whenever it hits the headlines. We remain silent, and so we condone it. The three of us deal with this issue in different ways every day of our lives, yet we too are guilty of protesting articulately outside but leaving it on the other side of the door when we sit down to dinner with our families. Until rape, and the structures — sexism, inequality, tradition — that make it possible, are part of our dinner table conversation with the next generation, it will continue. Is it polite and comfortable to talk about it? No. Must we anyway? Yes.

It seems daunting. But which is more painful: talking sensibly with young people about this issue, the same way we might talk with them about drugs, guns, or bullying, or waiting for something terrible to happen so close to home that you have to address it in a time of turmoil?

Children can seem fragile, and adults often have the mistaken notion that telling children about harsh realities will destroy their innocence. But you do not lose innocence when you learn about terrible acts; you lose your innocence when you commit them. An open culture of tolerance, honesty, and discussion is the best way to safeguard innocence, not destroy it.

Changing rape culture is family work, but it cannot be only family work. It is a public health issue of gravest concern. The statistics are everywhere, but the evidence is weirdly shadowy: like the one in four girls abused in South Africa, by the one in four men who admit to having raped someone. (But who are these girls, and where are these men? Hardly anyone is talking.) The cost in human suffering, lives decimated, families destroyed, mental anguish, physical trauma…the cost of rape is probably bigger than any of us can comprehend. Rape is expensive. Not just families from China to Canada, but all the important institutions in young people’s lives everywhere — schools from Finland to the Philippines, youth programs from London to Laos –should spend less energy ignoring the issue and more energy helping children understand the basic concepts of respect and choice.

Yes, governments must step up. But so should we all. Why shouldn’t rape be dinner table conversation? We talk about war, we talk about death, we discuss values with our children. But on the subject of sexual assault, we remain silent and squeamish. We leave them ill-prepared, with whispers of untold horrors and no guidance for our sons on how they should behave if one day they should find themselves in a group of boys with a girl in their power.

Rape does not exist in a vacuum, and we cannot talk about it as if it is removed from the rest of our lives. Let’s teach our children that they don’t need to live in little boxes defined by their gender or culture. Let’s teach them that they are all of equal worth. Let’s not favor our boys over our girls. Let’s not tolerate bullying or stereotyping. Let’s reject utterly the notion that boys will be boys and girls must work around this assumption or pay the price.

Yes, policies should change, laws should be just. But if we want to make a fundamental difference, all of us must bring the conversation home. It is our opportunity to start to create true change. It might not be polite and comfortable, but it is essential. We owe it to our children.

I assured her that she could change her mind. I told her that people evolve and their interests change and she could grow and change with them. I told her that I, myself, was still deciding what I wanted to “be” when I grew up. This blew her little mind.

“But Mommy, you’re already sooooo old,” she said.

Concerned about my career path, or lack thereof, Hadley offered a suggestion.

“Mom,” she said. “I think you should be a waitress. Yes, a waitress. That would be a fun job.”

Cameron said, “Oh Hadley. That is not a good job for Mommy. Mommy could not EVER handle that job.”

Well, sh*t. I get it — being a waitress is damn hard, but she’s clearly missed the part of her life where I’ve waited on her nonstop for six years. Either that, or she really doesn’t think I’m very good at it.

So, I’m left wondering: What will I “be”? What is my dream?

Is it possible I’m living it? I might be. Driving the smelly minivan down the road, listening to the girls dream out loud — yes, this could be it. It’s quite possible I’ve arrived at everything I’ve ever dreamed of and it smells like baby poop and has automatic sliding doors. Yet, dream big, girls. Mommy is counting on a super sweet nursing home.

1. Happy people live longer, and are healthier. From cold, to flu to heart disease, correlational and at times experimental data has shown that happier people are less susceptible to these diseases and have a healthier overall immune system.
2. Conversely it has also been found that those having good health (indexed by say more heart rate variability associated with the vagus nerve) experience greater positive emotions and are good at regulating emotions and increasing and self-generating positive emotions.
3. Happy people help others more, are more compassionate, altruistic, are more socially engaged and inclusive and in general have better social relationships.
4. Social support or perceived social connectivity is an important predictor of health; and loneliness or perceived social dis-connectivity is a stronger risk factor for heart disease etc, than the combined risk from smoking, not exercising, sedentary lifestyle etc. Thus perceived social relationship seem to ensure good health.
5. It can also be argued that warmer social relationships are a cause of daily happiness; it’s hard to see how you can sustainably feel positive emotions if your relationships with say your spouse or boss are not good.
6. Vagus nerve is part of para-sympathetic nervous system (PSNS) that relaxes and rejuvenates us. Greater heart rate variability (HRV) is good for us and our hearts and we can increase HRV by interventions that increase positive emotions. More activation of PSNS helps us relax and puts us in a relaxed and unguarded frame of mind where we can open to others and build close and trusting relationships.

So what comes first? Good health, good relationships or positive emotions? They actually have reciprocal relationships with good prior health (say indexed by greater HRV) enabling one to experience more positive emotions and benefit more form interventions designed to increase positive emotions.  Positive emotions in turn lead to actual psychical changes in HRV, increasing it and thus decreasing our risk of heart disease and increasing overall health. This, thus becomes an upward dynamic spiral with one feeding into other. What about the role of (perceived) social connections?

A new study [pdf] by Barbara Fredrickson and team, using an experimental procedure, showed that perceived social connections mediate the effect of positive emotions on health.  What this means is that the causal chain linking positive emotions to health has a hop in between labelled ‘perceived’ social connections. In simpler words, if you became happier, your health would be affected positively, t o the extent that those positive emotions lead to greater perceived social connectivity.  In even simpler words, the path from happiness to longer and healthier life passes through the forest of increased social connectivity.

The study Barbara and team did was to enrol about 60+ participants for a Loving-kindness meditation intervention, while a control group was kept on a waiting list. The Loving-kindness meditation is an ancient Buddhist/ Tibetan practise that encourages one to widen ones sphere of compassion and generate positive emotions and thoughts towards self and others.  They kept daily scores of positive and negative emotions faced by study participants and correlated this with their daily meditative practises.  They also kept a daily record of how connected the participants felt in their crucial social interactions. Also prior to, and after the study (lasting ~ 60 days) they gave the participants a test to measure the vagal tone or HRV.

What they found proved their hypothesis that increase in positive emotions lead to increase in positive health and that this is mediated by increase in perceived social connectivity. Reducing negative emotions on the other hand had little to no effect on HRV. It is instructive to pause here and reiterate that positive emotions and negative emotions are separate constructs and not just opposites on a continuum. You need to work to increase positive emotions and a reduction in negative emotions does not automatically guarantee that positive emotions will increase. Also, while negative emotions typically activate sympathetic nervous system, while positive emotions activate the para sympathetic branch. The PSNS helps us relax, broaden-and-build our social capital and thus leads to greater social connectivity and thus greater health. It also helps us better regulate our emotions.

This finally brings me to the fact that many heart patients find a new lease of life after attending Baba Ramadev Yoga shivir or Brahma Kumari’s residential camp in Mount Abu and are radically transformed for the better. While yoga practises or meditative and other dietary practises may have some effect in such turnarounds,  I suspect the major effect is form the increased positive emotions that such camps produce and especially the immediate sense of social connectivity that one feel being part of such a group.  Given the scientific facts that increasing positive emotions through meditative or other practices and providing a sense of social connectivity and support structure, these programs are bound to succeed and alleviate the health problems especially in the cardiovascular areas, which our population suffers from.

While some people may be (rightly) sceptical of the political motivations of the Baba or the religious beliefs of the Brahma Kumari’s , at least they can be assured that the camps for heart patients etc that these organisations conduct are build around solid scientific theory and are bound to deliver results. Of course you can increase positive emotions in your home too, by practising Loving Kindness Mediation or some other form of happiness increasing interventions (like keeping a gratitude journal) , and that would work too.

So the right sequence is be happy, connect more and live long and healthy! And then the sequence will turn into an upward spiral pushing you further and further up the path of health and happiness.

Hudud not a solution, says Obedient Wives Club
The idea of implementing hudud as a solution to the many social problems in this country is roundly rejected by the controversial Obedient Wives Club (OWC).

The idea of implementing hudud as a solution to the many social problems in this country is roundly rejected by the controversial Obedient Wives Club (OWC).Using laws and punishments, says its president Fauziah Ariffin, will not curb problems such as sex out of wedlock, baby dumping and homosexuality.OWC, Fauziah said, believes in the implementation of hudud only if it was the last possible solution to punish those who were involved in social ills.Under Islamic law or syariah, hudud refers to the class of punishments for certain crimes that include theft, fornication and adultery, consumption of alcohol or other intoxicants and apostasy.The requirements of a hudud witness include not missing prayers and a person who is not a fasik(not trustworthy), which would make such witnesses difficult to find in today’s world.”In Islam, hudud is the last (solution). We should not punish (wrongdoers using hudud) if there are other ways.”Even if there is hudud, we must provide four witnesses. Do you think it is easy to find the witnesses – those who have never missed their prayers and are not fasik?”When we see illicit things while walking around, we can no longer be trusted (and become fasik). And if we do not istighfar (seek forgiveness from Allah), we will remain fasik.”Is it easy to get such witness nowadays? That is why hudud is acceptable only when there are four of such witnesses. You can only use hudud when you get such witnesses. If not, the punishment will not be valid,” Fauziah said.Kelantan has approved the implementation of hudud under Syariah Criminal Code II 1993. However, its implementation has stymied due to federal constitutional issues.

Strict laws ineffective
Fauziah believes that hudud will not be able to solve the country’s social problems.
She pointed to the death sentence for drug traffickers and yet the problem remained, and as such the law was ineffective.In many American Muslim families, however, the only lecture given is “Don’t do it!”. Although “it” is never defined, everyone generally understands “it” as a catch-all-provision for any first-to-fourth base activity with the opposite gender before marriage. One would assume the freedom of college would automatically cure all these societal repressions and allow parents to be more open. However, the story of comedian and journalist Aman Ali is sadly familiar to many American Muslims:

“When I started college, my mom told me: ‘You’re there to study, if I catch you talking to a girl, I will break your neck.’ By the time I graduated, my mom told me: ‘Why haven’t you found any good girls to marry? You’re so old!’”
To readers ignorant of Islamic religious traditions, this fits a reductive stereotype of Islam as an austere terrain of angry, bearded men who forcefully engage in joyless sex with oppressed, silent women between bouts of burning American flags and eating copious amounts of hummus. The other extreme depiction of Islamic sexuality plays out like an orientalist fantasy directed by the makers of Sex and the City 2 and features harems, hookahs, magic carpets and a pornocopia of fetishes unfit to print.
Yet Islam, as practised by the prophet Muhammad, is refreshingly candid and human in its treatment of sexuality. The hadith literature – the scholarly collections documenting the sayings, behaviours and etiquette of the prophet – provides ample evidence of this. The early followers of Islam bluntly asked the prophet about sex and marriage in order to correctly practise their new religion. Many books have been written by renowned scholars citing the prophet’s healthy attitude towards sexuality, which encouraged foreplay, playfulness and compassion between consenting, married adults.
The prophetic conduct towards sex has been abandoned by several American Muslim communities, particularly those of immigrant descent, in favour of outright silence. Topics including an acknowledgement of realities such as pregnancies before marriage or adultery are rarely mentioned in many Muslim circles; the fear being that acknowledgement would act as an endorsement, validation and inspiration for unislamic sexual deviances.
During a Muslim’s youth and adolescence, many elders promote repression. However, when this individual becomes a single, unmarried adult in their late 20s or 30s, they are bludgeoned with repeated commands to “settle down”. Muslim youth are expected to go from 0 to 60 mph with a spouse, 2.3 kids and a suburban home without being taught how to start the engine and how to maintain the vehicle on its journey.
Sometimes, age functions as the greatest prophylactic. This is most noticeable in what is currently deemed the great “epidemic” of single, professional Muslim American women in their 30s who face a double standard. Unlike men, they are unfairly accused of forfeiting domesticity for the sake of personal ambition. As the communities have failed to establish a healthy paradigm for social interactions, there is no quick-fix solution. Thus, they are increasingly marginalised as write-offs, ultimately destined to roam forever as the single walking dead. Single Muslim men in their 30s are like Will Smith from I Am Legend – sole representatives of an increasingly extinct species wandering the wasteland in solitude and depression. The assumptions are either the man is gay, a sexually promiscuous player and thus unsuitable for marriage, or that he has issues with his “equipment”.

Mosques and Muslim community centres ensure singles remain sexless. The gender dynamics displayed within many of these social environments reflect the hypocrisy and absurdity of American Muslim gender relations. Theexaggerated gender segregation often found in some mosques actually engenders the exact behaviour and mindset it seeks to eliminate. It treats single Muslims as if they are sex-depraved, ravenous beasts ready to pounce on one another like a Jane Austen heroine unleashed on her wedding night. The walls between genders – both figurative and literal – are analogues to the pink elephant. The more you’re asked not to think about it, the harder it is not to.
Instead of repressing the elephant, perhaps it’s time to acknowledge the elephant’s existence, respectfully offer to buy it a non-alcoholic beverage, and compliment it on the size of its tusks all the while still adhering to one’s religious values. There is hope that the birds and bees talk of today will evolve from “Don’t do it!” to “Do it!” – in a manner that is respectful, comfortable and natural to the sensibilities of Muslim individuals and communities

more picture clickherehttp://clubdesexymind.blogspot.com/2013/05/obedient-wives-clubs-formula-1.html

Sparks can certainly fly and there can be wonderful spells of romantic undertaking even in the sultry summer evenings.
And summer can be the best time to discover the bliss of togetherness. All you need to do is to make sure that you’ve got the right ingredients to make the nights and days too, sizzle. Read on…
When I read the news that Paul McCartney is going to remarry, it brought to mind the challenge and trepidation so many people feel today about their prospects for keeping a love relationship alive. Whether entering a new relationship, like the former Beatle who’s about to turn 69, or hoping to resurrect one from the dead zone, the old adage that remarriage is a “triumph of hope over experience” can give anyone pause.
Even worse, some become outright despairing and cynical about love relationships in general. That became evident to me from some of the comments and emails I received about my previous post, in which I explained why most relationship advice doesn’t really help. There, I argued that most “expert advice” mistakenly focuses on techniques rather than on the relationship’s spiritual core – your sense of purpose and life goals as a couple, and how your values and ideals change and evolve over the years. The challenge is whether these and other spiritual dimensions are in synch.
Here, I want to point out one particular practice — a perspective, really — that helps build or resuscitate a relationship’s spiritual connection: learning to “forget yourself” when relating to your partner. I’ve described this more generally in a previous post, but it’s especially helpful for bringing a supply of fresh energy into a relationship, to keep it alive and growing. By “forgetting yourself” I’m referring to a conscious choice to behave in ways that serve and support your partner rather than just yourself. By doing that, you’re strengthening the relationship between the two of you — which is really a third entity, with a life of its own. Mary, a 45-year-old in a 15-year marriage, illustrated that when she said to her husband, “I still love you, but I hate our relationship.”
In fact, learning to “forget yourself” in your relationship is linked with long-term positive emotions. Research shows that the latter are a powerful antidote to stress, pain and illness throughout life and are associated with proactive attitudes and behavior in general — all elements of psychological health. Moreover, learning to “forget yourself” is crucial for reasons that relate to our evolutionary heritage and our social and psychological conditioning within current culture.
Here’s what I mean: Research into the evolutionary basis of intimate relationships indicates that humans (and some other primates, such as the bonobos) are highly sexual and social creatures. Evolution may have created intertwined needs for sexual and social connections with more than one partner at the same time. In other words, such researchindicates that monogamy may not be “hard-wired.” Nevertheless, it can become a conscious desire and choice. Such a capacity is also part of our potential for continued evolution.
Our psychological and social conditioning also creates challenges for enduring, positive relationships. We learn to relate to intimate partners as commodities and engage in transactional, mercantile terms: I give in order to get; invest in the relationship to receive a return. Relationships have become another part of a commercialized, consumer-orientation approach to life in which someone wins and someone loses.
That orientation is part of what I called our “adolescent model of love.” It includes learning to hide yourself; self-serving goals of gaining power and control over the other; and in many cases repeating the dysfunctional relationships that many people had growing up in their families, like feeling loved only when performing or behaving in ways desired by parents, and subsequently by the larger society.
Of course, that damages people’s capacity for healthy relationships and healthy living in general. In fact, based on research and clinical work on the role of childhood experiences in the development of the brain and behavior, Gabor Mate, M.D. has argued that that current society is so addicted to work and consumerism that it has undermined conditions necessary for healthy childhood development.
In general, our overall way of life has pointed us in the wrong direction, away from growth and health. Consequently, relationship advice ignores the spiritual core of the relationship because it’s grounded in embracing the same self-interest and cultural narcissism that’s rampant. That deadens relationships over time. For example, much of the relationship advice about sex falters because the relationship has become fragmented, one in which sex has become a disembodied activity apart from the rest of the relationship. Then, people feel disheartened to see surveys that show that sex ebbs away in a long-term relationship. But in fact, the data indicate that that happens when partners are emotionally and spiritually disengaged from each other to begin with, when the “parts” of their relationship are not integrated.
But there’s also evidence that we can evolve in healthier directions, that consciousness enables us to evolve psychologically toward attitudes, emotions and behaviors that we desire. That includes an enriched spiritual connection and continued growth with an intimate partner. In fact, the 21st century — with its unpredictable, unstable, economic and political conditions and an increasingly diverse, highly interconnected and networked world — actually makes conscious evolution both more necessary and possible.
That is, the 21st-century events of 9/11 and the economic decline of 2008 turned our old way of life on its head — in love, in work and in our sense of life purpose. That’s opened the door to new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that serve larger, common goals, beyond our old self-centered ones. Overall, I think we’re in the midst of a large-scale shift toward behavior and values that reflect more awareness of our interconnection and interdependency throughout the planet, and of the fact that people’s actions everywhere and anywhere affect everyone in every place.
People are awakening to the reality that “success” and well-being throughout life are now based on values and actions that sustain and build something of value for the larger good — whether in your work or in your intimate partnership. That’s different from seeking to control and extract from the other what you want for oneself.
‘Forgetting Yourself’ In Your Relationship
A simple step: Ask yourself how you feel when you do something or give something to someone who really enjoys and appreciates, what you give — whether it’s emotional or material. You probably recognize that it just feels good, period. That’s the model for fueling positive energy in a relationship, because such action comes from the heart, for the sake of giving, without regard for getting something back. You might ask, “Doesn’t ‘forgetting yourself’ run the risk of being taken advantage of?” Sure it does. But that would tell you something about the kind of partner you’ve connected with to begin with. It’s something to learn from (see my post about doing a “relationship inventory“).
Studies of couples who are able to maintain a highly positive, energized connection for the long term indicate that they “forget” themselves and engage in serving the relationship itself. Interestingly, brain scans of couples in long-term love find similarities between them and couples who had just fallen madly in love. The energy stays healthy and alive.
Here are two practices that couples who maintain long-term connections have in common:
Two-way communication and openness. This is the opposite of the CFO who, when informed that his subordinates complained about a lack of two-way communication, said cluelessly, “But I do provide two-way communication: I send e-mails and I tell them in person.” No, this refers to being open in the sense of receptivity to what your partner is experiencing and communicating to you, and being open in the active sense of revealing your own thoughts, concerns, fears and so on. Two-way openness is the antidote to conventional, relationship-killing vying for power over the other. It supports building positive emotions within yourself and toward your partner, and new research shows that positive emotions are a powerful antidote to stress, pain and illness. An ongoing positive attitude can protect against poor health later in life.
Collaboration toward joint, common goals. This is certainly visible in the most successful, contemporary workplaces. For relationships, the common goal isn’t a new killer app or a new service but rather a high-energy, engaged connection between equals — emotionally, spiritually and physically. In fact, research shows that shared decision making between equal partners actually leads to better decisions. Similarly, brain scans of couples who’ve maintained long-term, positive marriages show activation in areas of the brain that indicate strong connections and engagement. Overall, positive connection around the common goal of the relationship itself is associated with long-term vitality and energy.
In short, a living, growing relationship is an ongoing, flowing energy exchange, emotionally, behaviorally and sexually. Deepak Chopra provides a good description of this in “Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul,” writing that “[the] difference between healthy and unhealthy energy can be summarized as follows: Healthy energy is flowing, flexible, dynamic, balanced, soft, associated with positive feelings. Unhealthy energy is stuck, frozen, rigid, brittle, hard, out of balance, associated with negative emotions.”
Chopra adds that people have the capacity to shift an unhealthy energy state into a healthy one. And that’s a good description of retrieving a relationship from the dead zone and bringing it back into the realm of the living.
Ice ice baby:
A cube of ice, if used as a prop with imagination, can work wonders. Pick one of the ice cubes from the freezer and let it act as a tool of foreplay. How? Use your imagination – hold the ice cube in your mouth and begin by trying to plant a kiss and then simply put – carry forward if the formula clicks.
Summer coolers:
Is there any better mode of seduction than wearing a translucent top? Make sure that it is wet enough to tempt your partner to take notice of what you want to say. What about wrapping yourself up in a damp towel just before going to sleep? If you have a water bed, fill it up with cold water. And then let the chemistry sizzle. Remember, cold is hot.
The morning after:
If the long summer day makes you feel pooped out during the night, don’t worry. Both of you can make some effort to get up a tad early. Well, an ice cold coffee topped with vanilla flavored ice cream can act as an appetizer. What about sharing the coffee together?
So, indulge yourself. Fantasize. Buy yourself something that will melt with the sweat ’cause ‘salty is sexy’. What is food without salt anyway? Marriage seems to be bad for your sex life. Couples who have sex over four times a week before theirwedding, barely have it once a week three years after tying the knot, a survey in Britain has found.

Researchers found that before marriage, couples can hope to have sex more than four times a week. But after three years of married life, there is a dramatic drop in their sex life and most couples have sex just once every seven days.READMOREhttp://clubdesexymind.blogspot.com/2013/05/nude-chinese-naked-big-titty-temptations.html

SO YOU THINK YOU’VE FOUND THE MAN OF YOUR DREAMS? HE’S TALL, DARK AND HANDSOME, FRETS OVER YOU, GETS YOU FLOWERS EVERY NOW AND THEN AND IS LOTS OF FUN TO BE WITH. THOUGH MOST WOMEN WON’T ADMIT IT BUT AS MUCH AS THEY LOVE BEING WITH THE ‘PERFECT’ GUY THEY CAN’T HELP BUT WONDERING IF HE’S EQUALLY GOOD IN BED. BEFORE TAKING THAT NEXT STEP, YOU DO WANT TO BE SURE THAT HE’S THE GUY FOR YOU. EXPERTS SAY THAT YOU DON’T NEED TO KEEP WONDERING ABOUT HOW YOUR MAN WILL PERFORM BETWEEN THE SHEETS. HIS EVERYDAY BEHAVIOUR ITSELF WILL GIVE YOU AN INDICATION OF WHAT HE’S LIKE.
THIS PROBABLY COMES AS NO SURPRISE TO ALL THE WOMEN OUT THERE, BUT MEN THINK THEY SATISFY THEIR PARTNERS MORE OFTEN THAN THEY ACTUALLY DO, ACCORDING TO A US SURVEY.
85 PER CENT OF MEN SAID THE LAST PERSON THEY SLEPT WITH HAD AN ORGASM, WHILE JUST 64 PER CENT WOMEN AGREED, REVEALED A NATIONAL SURVEY OF SEXUAL HEALTH AND BEHAVIOUR .
THE STUDY FOUND THAT MEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO ORGASM WHEN SEX INCLUDES VAGINAL INTERCOURSE, WHILST WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO ORGASM WHEN THEY ENGAGE IN A VARIETY OF SEX ACTS.
“OUR MAIN POINT IS THAT SEX IS MORE THAN JUST VAGINAL INTERCOURSE,” THE DAILY MAIL QUOTED MICHAEL REECE, DIRECTOR OF INDIANA UNIVERSITY’S CENTRE FOR SEXUAL HEALTH PROMOTION, AS SAYING.
“WHILE IT DOES APPEAR TO BE THE MOST COMMON BEHAVIOUR… MANY PEOPLE ARE BEING DIVERSE IN THEIR SEXUAL LIVES,” HE ADDED.

AROUND 7 PER CENT OF WOMEN AND 8 PER CENT OF MEN SAID THEY ARE GAY, LESBIAN OR BISEXUAL AND SOME 41 DIFFERENT ‘COMBINATIONS OF SEXUAL ACTS’ WERE IDENTIFIED.
SOME 80 PER CENT OF 14-17-YEAR-OLDS – 80PER CENT OF GIRLS AND 69 PER CENT OF BOYS – SAID THEY WORE A CONDOM DURING SEX, COMPARED WITH UNDER HALF OF ADULTS WHO ENJOYED CASUAL LIAISONS
PHONE ADDICT – IS YOUR MAN CONSTANTLY ON HIS CELL PHONE? WHILE IT’S GREAT THAT HE’S QUICK ON THE PHONE, IF HE’S SPENDING MORE TIME WITH HIS GADGETS THAN WITH YOU, IT CAN’T BE A GOOD SIGN. OCCASIONAL TEXTING AND UPDATING OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES IS ALL RIGHT, BUT IF YOUR MAN IS ALWAYS ON HIS PHONE, IT MEANS HE HAS LESS OF A CONNECTION TO YOU. THIS IS A SURE-FIRE SIGN THAT HE’S GOING TO BE EASILY DISTRACTED IN BED AND THE SEX WILL BE LESS SATISFYING.
GROOMING FANATIC – ALL WOMEN LOVE THEIR MAN TO BE WELL-GROOMED. SOFT HAIR, A STUBBLE THAT’S IN CONTROL AND CLEAN SHORT NAILS ALL GO A LONG WAY IN MAKING HIM ALL THAT MORE DESIRABLE. BUT IF YOUR MAN HAS TAKEN THE METROSEXUAL FAD A BIT TOO FAR AND USES MORE HAIR GEL, CREAM, BODY PRODUCTS OR COSMETICS THAN YOU DO, THEN YOU’RE DATING MR VAIN. AND HIS OBSESSION WILL EXTEND RIGHT TILL THEBEDROOM. A MAN WHO IS OVERLY CONSCIOUS ABOUT HIS LOOKS, WILL BE SELF-ABSORBED SEXUALLY. YOU CAN BET THAT HE’LL ONLY BE THINKING OF HIS WANTS RATHER THAN YOURS.
FOOD MATTERS – DINNER OR MEAL-TIME WITH YOUR LOVER SHOULD BE FUN WITH BOTH OF YOU SHARING YOUR DISHES. HOWEVER, IF YOU NOTICE YOUR MAN REFUSES TO SHARE HIS APPETISER AND THINKS YOU SHOULD’VE ORDERED YOUR OWN PLATE OF FRIES, HE MAY BE UNGIVING IN OTHER WAYS TOO. MEN WHO REFUSE TO SHARE ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE STUBBORN IN BED. YOU’D WANT TO THINK TWICE BEFORE CONTINUING DATING HIM.
DATING A MISER – YES, ALL OF US HAVE DIFFERENT VIEWS WHEN IT COMES TO OUR MONEY AND HOW WE WANT TO SPEND IT. IF YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER IS THE TYPE WHO HARDLY EVER TIPS AT A RESTAURANT OR DOESN’T BELIEVE IN EVER PICKING UP THE TAB, DON’T EXPECT MUCH AT HOME. SOMEONE WHO IS STINGY OUTSIDE, WILL BE EQUALLY STINGY IN BED. SO DON’T EXPECT HIM TO SHOWER YOU WITH KISSES AND MORE. ALSO IF HE’S A CARELESS SPENDER, HE MAY BE SOMEONE WHO’S IRRESPONSIBLE IN THE SACK. SO WATCH OUT!
NOT FOND OF PDA – WHILE EVERYONE MAY NOT BE COMFORTABLE WITH PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION, HOLDING HANDS AND PUTTING YOUR ARM AROUND THE OTHER PERSON’S WAIST NEVER HURT ANYONE. MEN WHO GET EASILY EMBARRASSED OR STIFF WHEN THEIR GIRLFRIEND’S SHOW SOME AFFECTION, MAY HAVE SOME SERIOUS ISSUES WHEN IT COMES TO SEX. IT COULD BE AN INDICATION THAT HE IS NOT VERY COMFORTABLE WITH HIS BODY OR YOURS AND MAY HAVE TROUBLE CONNECTING PHYSICALLY. YOU CAN BET HE WON’T BE A VERY SENSUAL LOVER
No matter how much we try to forget what we have left behind us, it is more often than not a difficult idea to let go easily of the past and take a detour from the once familiar and now closed route. This seems a little tougher when the past in question concerns sensitive human relationship of love and marriage.

We all remember the mania that surrounded the news of Hollywood actor Brad Pitt getting married to Angelina Jolie earlier this year. Events took a humorous turn when their marriage became secondary and the speculations about Brad’s ex-wife Jennifer Aniston attending the wedding assumed center stage. Will Jennifer Aniston feature on the wedding guest list or will she accept and be part of her ex-husband’s marriage were questions that their fans and the media debated upon more extensively, thus, pushing the marriage in the offing to the sidelines. And parallel to this comes to mind the episode in ‘Friends’ where Ross is in a dilemma to invite Rachel (ironically played by Jennifer Aniston!) to his wedding to Emily and as if to make things worse he utters Rachel’s name at the altar while exchanging marital vows.

There are many such examples in our ordinary lives too when we find a Ross struggling to invite his ex while gearing up for a new start with a new partner; easier said than done it sounds!

Here are the top five reasons why an ex should not be part of your wedding guest list:

Exes can never be friends: Like two actresses in Bollywood can never strike a ‘friendly’ cord however much they try to prove it on camera, exes too are a couple of miles away from being good ‘pals’. On a serious note, a deluge of emotions and fond memories of special moments lived and spent with an ex takes over the mind of the person, now getting married to someone else. This plays a discouraging force in allowing him/her to send out a wedding invitation card to the ex. It is awkward for the ex too to turn up to a wedding least anticipated, without him/her walking down the aisle. Psychologist and family therapist Dr. Gitanjali Kumar helps us understand the complex interplay of human emotions and says, “To imagine the ideal is to think that exes can stay friends and harbour no malice in seeing the other settling down with somebody else in life. That’s the ideal, often unachievable. The tendency to forgive and forget varies from person to person and cannot be forced to subscribe to the golden rule of ‘all is well’.”

Past is always sad: With the ex walking into the wedding hall (if invited) also walks in a sense of grief, rejection or betrayal (as the case may be) she/he is a strong reminder of. Recalling one of her friend-cum-client’s example, Dr. Gitanjali explains, “She was invited to her ex’s wedding but she chose not to be an attendee. Witnessing her once upon a time lover’s marriage would come to symbolise her own loss and make her look like a fool. She feared that she might breakdown or show her vulnerable side leading to her own humiliation.”

I know how to move on without you by my side: A pure case of unrequited love. This is the most volatile condition of inviting an ex to your wedding. Anger and vengeance are the overpowering emotions playing here. You want to prove to your ex you have moved on and that the latter is still rotting in a miserable state (unless of course there’s a new partner here too). When asked if she would invite her ex to the wedding, Bangalore-based media professional Surabhi said, “Why not, he should be there to see what a loser he is and that I am happily going with a partner better than him.” An invitation with the motive of satisfying spite or sadistic pleasure is not a marker of maturity as far as the would-be groom or bride is concerned. Dr. Gitanjali blames it on the “media and the daily soaps responsible for breeding a culture of revenge, aggression and intolerance among youth.

Spare me the jeers and sympathy: You were almost married to the one you loved, but fate had other plans. For Nitya Sharma, working in a PR firm, it was nothing less than a nightmare, “We were engaged and the dates of our marriage had been fixed but the family developed cold feet later and my guy too decided to call it off.” Now she hears he is getting married to a girl of his parents’ choice and she has been ‘invited’. “I definitely cannot face the same people who had once come to my engagement ceremony and reconcile myself to be one of the guests now when I could have been the bride,” adds a resentful Nitya. Self-respect and dignity seem more important than surviving friendly ties with an ex.

You cheated on me: This comes as a rebound effect to a failed and short-lived relationship in terms of one of the partners being accused of infidelity, lack of commitment or let’s say being over-possessive. You hurry toward the prospect of marriage as a healing therapy from a wounded past affair. Sociologist Reeta Brara cautions against such a proposal and says, “If the history of the previous relationship has been bitter, then there is no point calling someone to the wedding who would remind you of an acrimonious past. And if there had been commitment issues and infidelity charges then inviting an ex can be more of inviting trouble,” she adds.

You always win some, lose some; better to forget about the loss and look forward to a glorious, new future.

While men may keep asking themselves the eternally puzzling question – what do women really want, there are several things that the fairer sex unfairly assumes about men. While each man is different, here are some simple things you should know about your testosterone fuelled counterparts…

Some men like to talk about feelings albeit indirectly. Be innovative and ask him questions that might reveal how he feels for you. Ask him how he would surprise you with a romantic getaway.

There are some men who like to express their feelings of love through actions. Pay attention to the things he does around the house or just for you. Does he help without you telling him? Little things that make you smile are his way of expressing his feelings.

A recent survey said that the only reason men take longer to commit is because they want to be absolutely sure about their decision and not because they’re scared to commit.

Women often complain that men don’t listen when they talk. While this might be true in some cases, men usually prefer to listen quietly without giving the expected monosyllables like, ‘Ok’, ‘Yes’ or ‘Fine’. Don’t fret – he’s probably processing everything you’re saying and thinking about it silently.

Most men begin to get annoyed when a woman starts whining and clingy. Men enjoy spending time by themselves, too. So while spending time together doing activities that you both enjoy is fine, give him space to pursue his own hobbies as well.

Don’t try to drop subtle hints to men – they don’t get it. If you want to tell your guy something, say it directly.

Men think about sex way more than women. Accept it. But remember that thinking and fantasising is not the same as doing. And several men find sexual intimacy more satisfying when they’re in a a committed and loving relationship.

Men like it when you initiate sex. They like being pursued. Experts say that most men wished their partner initiated sex more often. Don’t feel shy about taking the lead. He enjoys and wants that.

If you thought that men are always ready for lovemaking, think again. Just like women, men, too, sometimes are not in the mood for sex. This could be for a variety of reasons – stress at work or home. Don’t take it personally.

All guys get performance anxiety at some point or the other for different reasons. Help him relax and be supportive

.

MORE PICTURE CLICK HERE http://clubdesexymind.blogspot.com/2013/05/naked-malaysian-chinese-with-big-boobs.html

The fulcrum of this anger is corruption.Actually, there isn’t. But there is no justice in an election. Statutory warning to all ministers, prime or lower down: voters do not punish young men drunk on student spirits. Voters punish older men drunk with power. The story from UMNO victory. The moral of this story lies in  NAJIB defeat. The humiliation of the party’s  peacock, the  who triggered a selfdestructive avalanche, ANWAR, is particularly instructive. He imagined he was going to become PM. He has many years of contemplation ahead.

Public memory’s short. The media too has this curious habit of remembering only what it chooses to. Nothing proves this better than the way we have reacted to the cases against  Newly-Minted Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi  the devil

Najib and newly-minted Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was trapped in a suicidal pincer of corruption and arrogance. The syndrome is so widespread, across party lines, that we might need a word for it: “corrugance” would do. More names keep getting added to a long list: Sarawak CM and Sabah CM t. Corruption kills; arrogance insures a long burial. This was fatal to UMNO; it will be deadly forUMNO across Sabah and Sarawak during general election. The voter is especially unforgiving when governments permit theft of natural resources, the people’s wealth, by cronies. The UMNO’s collapse began with the rape of  wealth of the nation.

The Voice of Student Dissent

Is this the man on whom we depend to defend this nation? He won using aliens as voters. Can we trust him for integrity.

Home Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has defended his statement calling for groups unable accept the country’s political system to migrate to countries with systems that suit them.

 Elections are over but young citizen activists who are unhappy with the results are back to show their dissatisfaction with the outcome by attending rallies organized by the Opposition in large numbers. They are defying orders from the Police not to attend these gatherings which have been declared illegal by the Police.

They see injustice and want to change so that they are free to choose a government through free and fair elections. This movement for change cannot be suppressed because people like Adam Ali and his friends and associates in various universities and other educational institutions are driven by democratic ideals, not by money or fear tactics. Like their counterparts in Indonesia at the close of the Suharto era, they choose democracy and freedom.

One of the biggest casualties of the recently washed out Ahmad Zahid Hamidi  Malaysians recorded a historic voter turnout of 80% in the 13th General Elections to defy and defeat money politics, fear and lies. Despite PR increasing our popular vote by nearly 4% in winning the popular vote of 51% compared to only 47% for BN, BN won government. The victory margin was even larger in Peninsular Malaysia of 53% for PR against 45% for BN. PR won 55% of the popular vote in Perak yet lost power.Malaysia has a minority BN government in Putrajaya, a minority BN Prime Minister and minority BN Perak Menteri Besar. The people have a right to ask what type of democracy is there in Malaysia that permits a minority to rule over a majority. Instead of responding to public calls for polls reforms to respect the “one-person, one-vote, one-value” principle, Ahmad Zahid is taking an autocratic and hard-line approach to crack down on dissent.

Instead of getting the police to focus back on their core business of fighting criminals, Ahmad prefers the police to arrest PR leaders who have not stolen or harmed the rakyat. Crime has escalated to a serious crisis until even the homes of sisters of Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyidin Yasin in Petaling Jaya and IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in Mantin, Negeri Sembilan, are victims of crimes experiencing break-ins over the weekend. The time has come for the police to fight crime and not fight BN’s battles against PR.

Santa Claus has come early this year for UMNO. And Ahmad Zahid Hamidi  come in the unlikely avatar of Najib, who’s been elected Malaysia’s Najib the prime minister for first time, in the  elections in that country which came after the previous government had completed its full term of office.

So has Najib brought to the double gifts of genuine democracy and peace with crime? Popular response was very positive in looosersa gesture that has drawn sharp criticism from PKR .The Voice of Student Dissent Is this the man on whom we depend to defend this nation? He won using aliens as voters. Can we trust him for integrity. Home Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has defended his statement calling for groups unable accept the country’s political system to migrate to countries with … Read more

Holy grail! Even before he could have warmed his newly appointed chair as Home Minister, Datuk Zahid Hamidi has belted out his first threat, demanding that Malaysians who do not like the system here can leave the country.

What he failed to assimilate is that his statement is extremely provocative, downright insulting and beyond doubt an absolutely uncalled for bully-statement against the very subjects of His Royal Highness.

More than 5 mil Malaysians support the Opposition

OMG! What on earth is happening in Malaysia? Are the citizens such pathetic political eunuchs and suckers to earn such brandishments?

The 52 percent of the total voting citizens who cast their ballots for the ‘Opposition’ and the Independent candidates, clearly have taken a stand of not supporting or agreeing with the BN-political position. The more than half of the voting population has taken a position that is in summary, one that is not in agreement with the BN mantra of governance. This is a foregone conclusion, otherwise why did they not vote for BN?

Now, with the given background to the voting pattern, what Zahid’s statement means is that more than five million Malaysians should ‘GET OUT’ of this country. Yes or no?

Where in the world do we hear in-coming Ministers warning their citizens who voted for the ‘opposition’ (i.e. should be rightly termed as ‘alternative political party’), that they better show support for the party that took governance with a minority-votes-system supported by gerrymandering, or they should get out of their country?

Okay, Mr. Honorable-newly-minted Home Minister, let us all agree to your prescription. Let us then de-register all opposition political parties for disagreeing to your BN system and declare them as anti-nationalists. Let us all fall behind BN. We shall have only BN in this country as there shall be no need for any opposing political block. We shall only have your main stream media. We shall banish any media that reports anything against your system. We shall take it lying down. We shall all sing praises and not question anything at all as long as it is the BN system.

How is that? Okay for you Sir?

Arrest everyone

Let us take that given rule of thumb where more than half of the voting population translates to more than half of the entire contry’s population, Now, given this rule-of-thumb, just because the more than half of the population does not agree with BN’s system you are threatening us to get out of this country? And that warning, coming from the Home Minister of this country – of all persons, must be taken very, very seriously. Worse, if the in-coming Prime Minister keeps his trademark silence it also means that the entire, newly-minted government agrees with this outrageous threat and warning from a fellow appointed leader.

Okay. So be it! Then here is the challenge to the Home Minister who carries that burden of yoke of national security:

Haul up all – each and every single man and women who voted not for BN. Haul every single man and woman who is for the ‘Opposition’ political blocks. Every single one, mind you – from the humble road sweeper to the MPs and leaders of ‘Opposition’ political blocks. Everyone – Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Dayaks, Kadazans and others. Put us all in ships and drive us out to the open seas. Of, course, you cannot house us in detention centers because we will bankrupt your BN system as you have to clothe, feed and care for us and true too you do not have that many lodges to house almost more than half the nation’s 28 million people.

Mr. Honorable Home Minister, are you prepared to do that then? No? Then why on earth (rather, why the hell), did you belt out such a statement?

Caught talking nonsense

Please do not go around the bend and say, “I have been quoted out of context”. Remember, as the Home Minister, it is your sole responsibility and imperative duty to ensure that what you spew out to the media is a hundred-percent fool-proof and therefore, no way it can be misquoted in the first place.

And if you have been misquoted, and that it is also established beyond all reasonable doubt that you did not insult the subjects of His Royal Highness, then go after all the media that reported you to have threatened the citizens of this nation.

The rakyat expect to hear from you. Your silence and your collaborating partners and leaders’ keeping mum will confirm that you did make this outrageous and dangerous statement and therefore you must be brought to task as it is an insult to the citizens who are subjects of His Royal Highness.

There is no room for a ‘forgive and forget’ here because your statement is an insidious assault on the very security and safety of this nation.

The moral responsibility too lies on the leaders of professional organizations, NGOs, religious congregations and the international community to register their displeasure.The letter written byMuhyiddin  to Najib . What was there in the letter that will  take such a drastic step of not nominating Najib as the next UMNO PresidentDoes it mean that there is zero tolerance in the party for “viewpoint plurality” (rather than for corruption)? Can the party simply not discuss its internal problems, … Read more