BN’s Lembah Pantai candidate Raja Nong Chik political communication in Election 2013t
See the mess that is TTDI today.Of course the Federal Territory Minister has abandoned his duties to strengthen his bid to BULLY Nurul.It becomes apparent that this same situation would befall the residents of Lembah Pantai, especially upmarket Bangsar should they reject the incumbent Nurul for the UMNO cucumber.Many have asked Anwar to put Nurul in a safe seat where she does not have to fight against any moneybags. He did give her the choice and her reply is vintage NuruThe people of Lembah Pantai ARE my people and I will do battle for them.
Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin today slammed news portalMalaysiakini for allegedly twisting facts about his involvement in an offshore company, RZA International Corporation.Tell us, Raja Nong Chik, how much of our money is sitting in your bank account? Would Raja Nong Chik please explain how his family make its millions? Hopefully not another cronyism or cow-shit story.we think the question that is begs for an answer is why would anyone want to set up their business affairs through an offshore route in a tax haven overseas unless they obviously wanted to evade or avoid tax or circumvent normal scrutiny and procedures in their own country of residence?
Yeah right! “Malaysiakini for allegedly twisting facts” but you twisting when you used your gangters to throw stones at Nurul Izzah Skeletons spilling out from his closet. Pity the closet. Hang him by the balls. Simple solution to your ‘problem’ – declare your assets just as Nurul Izzah has done If you didn’t do it why explain? The truth will prevail right?We think this information is good enough for our Inland Revenue Dept to investigate the tax returns of Raja Nong Chik and his family for the past ten years. And Mahathir should immediately tell his son, Mirzan to come out to explain his offshore accounts. And don’t forget Michael Chia too. IRD, over to you. This ambitious man wants to represent possibly one of the affluent constituencies but does not realise that a substantial of the residents are well informed and educated lot. The voters will demand for public servants to be more transparent and accountable. Dodgy character wont do !The people of Lembah Pantai will choose between a well-heeled crony scumbag with a dubious past and a young incorruptible Malaysian woman who truly represents the best of the future
Her opponent — even though it is still unofficial — is Raja Datuk Nong Chik Zainal Abidin, who is the federal territories and urban well-being minister. Although Raja Nong Chik, 59, an accountant, is more well-known in the corporate scene than the political arena, he has taken to his role as Lembah Pantai challenger rather well with a mix of on-the-ground events and social media.
There is the perennial accusation of phantom voters and a suspicion that some 14,000 Umno members have been relocated to Lembah Pantai from bordering seats of course. All this will purportedly bump up the number of votes the BN candidate — whoever it is — will receive of course.
THE TWINKLE IN DATUK SERI SHAHRIZAT ABDUL JALIL ’S EYES SAYS SHE IS BEST POSITIONED TO BE YOUR YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IN LEMBAH PANTAI BUT YOU’RE IRRESISTIBLE SHE LIKE THE NAME RAJA DATUK NONG SINGING TO RAJA DATUK NONG RELATED ARTICLEHTTP://SUARAKEADILANMALAYSIA.WORDPRESS.COM/2012/08/31/FOR-LOVE-IS-HEAVEN-AND-HEAVEN-IS-LOVE-ARE-RAPE-JOKES-FUNNY/
WOMEN, STAY SAFE !FROM NONG CHIK THE RUSPUTIN related article http://suarakeadilanmalaysia.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/women-stay-safe-pakatan-now-aiming-for-more-support-from-women/
When news broke of Hina Rabbani Khar (Pakistan’s foreign minister) and Bilawal Bhutto’s (son of Asif Ali Zardari and Benazir Bhutto, the slain former prime minister of Pakistan) link-up, surprisingly Indians displayed amusement and a very tolerant attitude. Twitter overflowed with indulgent humour and witticisms, while Indian men ribbed each other about having missed their big chance when Hina visited India, having imagined her to be off-bounds.
Nobody was judgmental, not even those generally given to being so. Even news that Hina may be planning to leave her husband and daughters to settle with Bilawal in Switzerland, was met with equanimity.
Have we become more tolerant of matters of the heart? More understanding of the heart’s wayward ways, and indulgent to those, who after some years of marriage and children, suddenly discover a grand passion that demands they leave their family and start life all over again? Else, how does one explain the lack of debate on whether Hina was contemplating the ethically right move or not?
There is often a collision between what the heart desires and what the mind knows is right. Mostly, what tempts the heart is frowned upon by the mind. If the news is true, and Hina is actually contemplating leaving her family to marry Bilawal, one can only imagine the turmoil within her. It is all very well to “let one’s ‘Maya’ (inner self as discussed in last Sunday’s O-zone) out” and celebrate love and passion, but what of one’s sense of duty, of the moral code embedded into us since birth? It is not easy. And when the two collide — ‘Maya’ has to retreat to maintain balance in life and society. Man or woman, a love affair is one thing, but breaking up a home quite something else. Leaving your children behind, or even taking them away with you and depriving them of the other parent’s love requires nerves of steel or a heart of stone. Faced with such a situation, what would you do?
The head-heart conflict, is of course, not just confined to romantic liasons — it is encountered for myriad things, from the most inconsequential to life-altering, at all ages! The heart is spontaneous and gets tempted and the mind is thoughtful and in control, much like the difference between a child and a mature man of the world. There’s nothing wrong in being tempted, almost everyone encounters all kinds of temptations in their lifetime. But not everyone gives in.
What determines whether one should give in to the heart or the mind? Apart from the strength of the temptation itself, character and willpower play a major role in determining how we deal with the mind-heart conflict, as does one’s level of satisfaction with circumstances surrounding him or her.
A netizen caught in such a situation, married to one and in love with another woman, threw the question open to the world of internet, seeking advice. Most other men advised him to follow his head and not his heart! “Your head, always follow your head to avoid suffering,” advised one. Another said, “I’ve been there, done that. You don’t want to be that guy!” Yet another said, “Emotions are strong but we are not meant to allow them to guide our lives!” And then one man asked a very pertinent question, “Is your marriage worth fighting for?”
Sure, if the present circumstances are stifling, irretrievably painful and harmful, it is worth contemplating walking out and following the heart; though in such a case I would say the mind also colludes with the heart. If Hina has a bad marriage (which I define as a relationship involving mental or physical cruelty, or one that stifles personal growth) her mind would be influencing the heart to step away. On the other hand, if she has a normal, reasonably happy life with her husband and yet chooses to move away, tempted by another relationship, it is altogether a different matter.
Of course, the happiest circumstances are those when the head and heart agree with each other. However, life is not so simple, and more often than not both are in conflict. Rationalists advise you to follow your mind, whatever the outcome. At least you would know you did the “right thing”. Well, the right thing yes, but right by whom, for whom?
Romantics will advise you to follow your heart, but you do end up hurting those you love. Spiritualists advise you to follow the heart, always. But when they say heart, they do not mean temptations; what they talk of is your intuition, that instinct that has its seat deep within the heart and almost always leads you right.
And then there is the practical guy who came up with this – “Whenever there is a tussle between Head and Heart — to handle yourself, use your head, but to handle others, use your heart!’
Nurul Izzah will win if the BN and Nong Chik continue to insult the people’s intelligence with their lies and all kinds of intimidation and bribery tactics. To the BN/UMNO, the words “sympathy”and “disgust”do not exist in their vocabulary which explains why they continue to be stubborn and defy the people’s feelings. The BN/UMNO will never learn their lesson that the more they resort to cheating, intimidation and bribery, the more they increase Nurul Izzah’s chances of winning Lembah Pantai.Politics is Dirty, especially Umno/Bn.
That Needs to CHANGE. Nurul has the Ability & Tenacity to Win Cleanly with Integrity.
Lembah Pantai is an Opportunity to Prove herself, the Future PM of the Malaysia .PR will still win comfortably with all the hard effort by Nurul and as usual the people are behind her all the way to Putrajaya. Let’s also welcome Nong Chik to stand in Lembah Pantai and also make him retire from politics if he losses in this GE. It’s really sickening for one to misuse or mismanaged the machinery of DBKL and deprive the people of such facilities or services.
Her opponent — even though it is still unofficial — is Raja Datuk Nong Chik Zainal Abidin, who is the federal territories and urban well-being minister. Although Raja Nong Chik, 59, an accountant, is more well-known in the corporate scene than the political arena, he has taken to his role as Lembah Pantai challenger rather well with a mix of on-the-ground events and social media.
Sabarlah pakcik.. moga kepala Dato’ Raja Nong Chik bin Datuk Raja Zainal Abidin yang melastik ball bearing tu pulak pecah kena lenyek lori..aminYes, Khairy, and I can categorically state that you have reduced yourself to the status of an apologist for all of Umno’s crimes against common decency – albeit a very well-dressed one with a posh imported accent
There is the perennial accusation of phantom voters and a suspicion that some 14,000 Umno members have been relocated to Lembah Pantai from bordering seats of course. All this will purportedly bump up the number of votes the BN candidate — whoever it is — will receive of course.
After all, Nurul Izzah only won by a 2,895-vote majority in 2008 against the then-incumbent BN’s Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who won previously with a huge majority of 15,288 votes.
Still, Nurul Izzah, 31, has found it a hard slog trying to carry out events and hold ceramahs within her own constituency. “Yes, it is practically impossible for the current Lembah Pantai MP to use any Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) facilities,” said one of her aides, referring to Kuala Lumpur City Hall. “We are stonewalled.”
Getting permits for her events has been particularly difficult in the Kampung Kerinchi and Pantai Dalam areas. Very often Nurul Izzah has had to cancel ceramahs planned for the People’s Housing Project flats neighbourhood and hold them in private homes, using their compounds, instead.
“Yes, her programmes have been blocked many times. Sometimes directly, others indirectly,” said another aide. “We’ve been told that those who host her programmes — especially those in the low-cost housing area — are often harassed by DBKL or other agencies afterwards.”
The stonewalling takes on various forms: she has been blocked from presenting aid to students at a school in Pantai Dalam; not permitted to distribute dates and her MP newsletter at the Masjid Saidina Abu Bakar As Siddiq in Bangsar during Ramadan (she had to retreat to a nearby carpark) and so on.
The more affluent middle-class component of Lembah Pantai — Bangsar, Bukit Travers and Pantai Baru — is home to the chattering masses. These are well-educated, highly opinionated Malaysians who used to be content to just chatter and complain. But in the past two years, many of them have walked their talk… attending both Coalition for Free and Fair Election (Bersih) rallies, for example.
At the last Bersih rally, the Orchid Room at Lake Club — that bastion of senior civil servants, lawyers and corporate heads — was filled with yellow T-shirt-wearing members who were having a refreshing drink after a hot and thirsty outing at the rally. Many of these people are residents of the previously mentioned Bangsar, Bukit Travers and Pantai Baru areas.
They will very likely vote for the incumbent but across at the land of low-cost flats and blue-collar workers, the largesse a BN candidate will very likely bring may just be too tempting.
But Nurul Izzah remains optimistic even though her face-to-face encounters with Raja Nong Chik have been less than cordial. At a recent Hari Raya open house in Bangsar attended by both of them, Raja Nong Chik was overheard referring to her as a “major destroyer.”
Those funding kindergartens in the area under her initiative have been harassed to stop giving money. PKR volunteers who carried out surveys for her office in Lembah Pantai have been harassed and some even arrested and, of course, there was the very high-profile incident earlier this year when a PKR ceramah was stoned, resulting in some people being injured.
“The latest incident happened past midnight on the day of her open house in Pantai Permai… some 50 thugs came and threatened to take down our tents,” said a PKR volunteer.
So who will win this election hot seat? “Izzah thinks she may actually get an increased majority if it was a level playing field… but she is still confident despite all the obstacles,” said someone close to the always-cheerful Lembah Pantai MP.
For now, her sheer magnetism and unflagging energy seem to give her just that little bit of an edge — in fact, some people think her being so easy on the eyes is also a plus — but this hot seat is a little too close to call. For now.
Army veteran Don Matyja was getting by alright on the streets of this city tucked in Southern California suburbia until he got ticketed for smoking in the park. Matyja, who has been homeless since he was evicted nearly two years ago, had trouble paying the fine and getting to court – and now a $25 penalty has ballooned to $600.
The ticket is just one of myriad new challenges facing Matyja and others living on the streets in Orange County, where a number of cities have recently passed ordinances that ban everything from smoking in the park to sleeping in cars to leaning bikes against trees in a region better known for its beaches than its 30,000 homeless people. Cities have long struggled with how to deal with the homeless, but the new ordinances here echo what homeless advocates say is a rash of regulations nationwide as municipalities grapple with how to address those living on their streets within the constraints of ever-tightening budgets. The rules may go unnoticed by most, but the homeless say they are a thinly veiled attempt to push them out of one city and into another by criminalizing the daily activities they cannot avoid.
There’s been a sharp uptick in the past year in the number of cities passing ordinances against doing things on public property such as sitting, lying down, sleeping, standing in a public street, loitering, public urination, jaywalking and panhandling, said Neil Donovan, the executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.
“It definitely is more pervasive and it is more adversarial. I think in the past we found examples of it but it’s not simply just growing, but it’s growing in its severity and in its targeted approach to America’s un-housed,” said Donovan, who compared it to a civil rights issue.
“There’s the whole notion of driving while black. Well, this is sitting while homeless.”
Denver earlier this year voted to make urban camping illegal despite protests from homeless activists. Philadelphia banned feedings in public parks in June but the ordinance was put on hold the following month after homeless groups sued the city. And there’s a new curfew for pets that help their owners beg on the Las Vegas Strip.
Matyja, in Costa Mesa, has gotten multiple tickets for smoking in the park where he camps out since the law took effect earlier this year.
“When I was in the military, I’m golden. When I was working, I was golden. When I’m not working and I’m out here, I’m a piece of garbage as far as these people are concerned,” said Matyja, 50, as he walked past a row of neatly manicured lawns on a sweltering day. “They figure if they don’t see you, then the problem don’t exist and then they can say, `We don’t have a homeless problem.’”
Can an election ever throw up the right candidate? Or to put it more moderately, is an election the mechanism best suited to throw up representatives that will strive to work for their constituents and attempt to better their life? Are there in-built into the electoral process, a set of imperatives that help pre-determine one kind of outcome, irrespective of the quality of the candidates? corruption which is gnawing at the vitals of the nation (I know it sounds like a cliché but look around the number of thugs and criminals who are holding political offices and you will know what I am saying) and the electoral system that we have does not ‘consider’ corruption as an issue. Why? Because the voter does not believe that any politician is honest. He takes it as a given and has become fatalist in his approach (so Malays!). So if all politicians are corrupt, the elector casts his vote for a neta who gives them the most (earlier it was who promises them the most). So there is a competition between political parties to up the goodies that they offer to voters – whether it is free color TVs, free power, free medical aid or cheap rise or even thinly disguised cash transfer schemes. With each successive election the battle for offering freebies is becoming more intense. In my opinion elections should be renamed as ‘game of freebies.’ The poor dumb also greedy voter (as all of us are) are taken in by this opium offered to us forgetting in the process that there is nothing known as a ‘free lunch’. Somebody has to fund the cost of the freebies and it is the tax payer (that is you and me that is doing it). Mind you it is not only the income tax payers who are paying for this free lunch but also the poor because there is something known as indirect taxes that you pay while buying any goods/services in the market. And we pay for this in innumerable other ways as well – like the grid collapse in north and east India the other day. So we are all participants ( wily-nily) in this game of freebies that is actually subverting the process of elections and striking at the heart of democracy.
When a poor sport realizes they may be losing, what do they do? More often than not, they figure out a way to cheat. In politics, things are no different. Facing the reality of an ever-diversifying electorate, and their own party’s failure to broaden its horizons,
The Lembah Pantai MP said To be a successful UMNO politician inMalaysia, an individual must be blessed with three attributes: the art of listening patiently, the ability to tolerate fools and the skin of a rhinoceros . Most of the successful practitioners of what has come to be a disreputable profession in Malaysia normally manage the first two—witness the career graph of . However , when it comes to the third, there are too many that falter.There are two issues involved. First, there is an astonishing show of prickliness over anything critical that appears overseas. This suggests a deeply ingrained inferiority complex that most foreigners find deeply amusing. Whereas Chinese xenophobia stems from the country’s upward climb,Malaysia’s gripes are centred on either frustration or plain pig-headedness . Somehow we seem to believe that the rest of the world lives to undermine Malaysia, its beloved leaders and subvert our pre-destined journey to greatness.
The traffic controllers are often considered daredevils. But some of them are taking this trait too far. Is that the reason why we are seeing increasing incidences of them taking the law into their hands with little concern either for their own safety or that of passengers? any lapses in processes or time, many give the impression of a devil-may-care attitude. If any mishap had occurred during Aviators, more than any other profession, have a huge responsibility and commitment towards their passengers. The lives involved are so many more. Mangalore’s tragic accident where 158 people were killed should not be forgotten. But often in the recent past, some pilots have been slipping up, be it drinking in excess, not reporting incidents or being too casual about their jobs. Part of the reason for this is that many join airlines because of contacts and are contemptuous of the rules and regulations that should guide them
In the September 12 incident, the air traffic control system at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport failed for nearly two hours from 2.30am to 4.20am when there was “total failure in the system with no radar, no radio frequencies”, said the PKR vice-president.
It is understood that air traffic controllers and aircraft pilots in Malaysian air space were “blind” and air traffic control had to be handled by a neighbouring country.
Nurul Izzah said PKR had earlier requested for an independent audit but the ministry and DCA had dismissed the complaint and did not consider malfunction in the RM125.4 million system as an issue.Apparently every errors done by the Devils or their cronies are NOT an issue…
That show how CORRUPTED the Government is running this Nation…..
PKR please proceed further to this Issue and let us know more details….
Air Control Flop is NOT an Issue…? Who knows, my be, when one plane crash directly into Putra Jaya then only they will consider it a BIG issueAir traffic system malfunction is not an issue. Bloated military purchases is not an issue (national security lah). Scopene subs that can’t dive is not an issue (technical glitch). Cows in condo is not an issue (just charge the whistleblower). LAMP radiation pollution is not an issue (more likely to get traffic accident than radiation poisoning). Rising crime & corruption is not an issue (just a perception). Vote buying (or close to it) is not an issue (PM has lots of money). Oppressive Peaceful Assembly Act is not an issue (go assemble far away at the stadium). Overseas voting is not an issue (just come back to vote lah). Debt ceiling is not an issue (just raise the ceiling lah). BN to win 13th GE is not an issue (bomb voters with more cash/goodies). But you will not get my vote. Hidup rakyat.This is VERY serious! There needs to be a complete investigation and full accounting. Matters like these cannot be compromised with. Higher ups should take note, whether you are a VIP or not you use the same air traffic control system as ordinary Malaysians! A failure there will affect you too!
Exactly! It is proof, because Nurul Izzah provided the time the system was done and Umno-BN and DCA did not refute the time nor directly refute the claim. And no doubt Singapore’s civil aviation authority could verify if it was the neighbouring country that had covered the duration the KLIA2 system was kaput. The big question too is whether DCA and the government is willing to take risks with people and property by installing sub-standard systems at extraordinarily high costs, which in turn would suggest shenanigans by the regime in allowing its cronies to make supernormal and illegal profit.They allow leakages and abuses, corruption and rent-seeking to fester. It appears that health and personal safety are being compromised. Lynas and use of cyanide in Bukit Koman may be detrimental to our health in the long run. A malfunctioning air control system puts air travelers at risk
They allow leakages and abuses, corruption and rent-seeking to fester. It appears that health and personal safety are being compromised. Lynas and use of cyanide in Bukit Koman may be detrimental to our health in the long run. A malfunctioning air control system puts air
travelers at risk readmore http://nambikaionline.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/the-lembah-pantai-mpsaid-to-be-a-successful-a-politician-in-malaysia-the-art-of-listening-patiently-the-ability-to-tolerate-fools-and-the-skin-of-a-rhinoceros/
The word which I think most appropriate to describe the present feeling about Raja Nong Chik,is disesteem. The word captures all the negatives — dishonour, disrespect, held in low opinion of, repulsive, etc.
Why has it come to that? I think the most important factor has been the increasing disconnect between what is desired by the majority and the small elite that’s leading Umno. And that increasing disconnect has also been caused by Umno’s refusal to hold its own elections. Here is why Umno has made the crucial mistake. It thinks by suspending its own elections it can expel the bad feelings; what it does is only postponing the anger and frustrations and disconnect. What it has done is to build up frustration and anger. That will translate into rejection of Umno.
Thomas Paine, the American writer and thinker, wrote “… prudence will point out the propriety of having elections often; because as the elected might by that means return and mix again with the general body of the electors in a few months, their fidelity to the public will be secured by the prudent reflexion of not making a rod for themselves.”
Lest the above paragraph makes life miserable for many Umno people, what it means is that if the elected voluntary submit themselves to be judged frequently by their electors, they will be restrained from forming self-interests. The answer to legitimacy therefore is no prolonged suspension of elections but frequent as per provided for by the constitution. Now, if the elected leaders postpone elections indefinitely, that is a strong presumption that those elected have already made a rod for themselves.
The Newport Beach Public Library, nestled in a coastal city better known for its surfing and miles of wide beaches, recently updated a policy that says staff can evict someone for having poor hygiene or a strong aroma. The policy also bans lounging on library furniture and creates strict limits about parking shopping carts, bikes and “other wheeled conveyances” outside the premises.
Library Services Director Cynthia Cowell insists the policy isn’t aimed at the homeless, but the action has nonetheless stirred anger among homeless advocates.
“They become very clever about it and try to blanket it because they say “strong aroma” could be perfume also, but in the end it’s an attempt to keep people out of where the neighborhood and community folks feel uncomfortable,” said Scott Mather, director of Haven, a program for Orange County’s chronically homeless.
Some cities have seen a legal backlash as homeless advocacy groups sue. Last week, the homeless in Sacramento got checks ranging from $400 to $750 apiece to settle a class-action lawsuit brought after police destroyed property seized during cleanup operations. In a similar case, a federal appeals court ruled last month that the city of Los Angeles cannot seize property left temporarily unattended on sidewalks by homeless residents.
For cities struggling with large homeless populations, the solution involves walking a tightrope between complaints from the voting public and the possibility of a lawsuit.
In Costa Mesa, a city of about 110,000 tucked between south Orange County’s famous beaches and the tourist mecca of Disneyland, officials have been trying to figure out what to do about a homeless population of about 1,200 people, including up to 120 chronically homeless with severe mental illness or substance abuse issues.
Residents routinely complain about the homeless in Lions Park, a large green space in the city’s downtown that is home to the library, a recreation center and a community swimming pool. The city has received calls about people masturbating and urinating outside the library’s windows, taking baths in the park’s fountain and leering at children who attend classes at the rec center, said Rick Francis, the city’s assistant chief executive officer.
On a recent day, dozens of homeless individuals lounged in the park on blankets or sat near bikes piled high with plastic bags, bedrolls, sleeping bags and, in one instance, a full-sized suitcase that dangled from the handlebars. A man who appeared to be intoxicated panhandled outside the library, asking passersby for cigarettes.
Another man listening to a portable radio said he’d been released from prison earlier in the week and had nowhere else to go.
“We get a lot of complaints from residents who feel like, `Hey, here’s a municipal resource that we’re fearful to even use because we don’t want our kids playing in a park where they have to step over homeless people and all their possessions,’” Francis said.
“Look, we’re not asking all you guys to leave but we want to be able to come to the park and enjoy it without the blight of stacks and stacks and stacks of property laying around, without the issues of human waste being scattered about, those types of things.”
Costa Mesa formed a homeless task force last spring and came up with a “carrot and stick approach,” said Muriel Ullman, the city’s housing consultant.
The city hopes to build more affordable housing using federal grant money and county resources and has hired a mental health worker to connect with the chronically homeless. It has also partnered with local churches to set up a storage facility where the homeless can keep their belongings to avoid having them confiscated, Ullman said.
But Costa Mesa has also passed a slate of new ordinances, including bans on parking a bike anywhere but on a city bike rack, smoking in the park and sleeping in the park after dark, she said. The city also spent $60,000 to tear down a gazebo that attracted large numbers of homeless people, asked churches to stop soup kitchens there and hired two rangers to patrol the park.
The mayor last week stoked anger by calling soup kitchens nuisances and asking the city to investigate some decades-old charities there.
Critics say that Costa Mesa is “just trying to get rid of our homeless, but what we’re trying to do is help those who want help and if somebody doesn’t want help – and they have refused help on numerous occasions – we want the courts to deal with them,” Ullman said.
Homeless advocates who have watched the ordinances roll out in Costa Mesa and other, neighboring, cities aren’t so sure.
The high cost of living in Orange County, coupled with a severe shortage of affordable housing and lack of shelter space, make it impossible for many homeless people to get back on their feet, said Bob Murphy, general manager of the local nonprofit American Family Housing. Most wind up migrating from city to city to avoid trouble, he said.
In Costa Mesa, a recent city report found a shortage of more than 1,000 transitional shelter beds for the city’s population alone.
“These are people. It’s not like you can go out with a dog catcher and scoop them up and put them somewhere else,” Murphy said. “They have no place to go.”
This is legitimised gangster democracy. The Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (City Hall) have plenty to answer if there is change of government after May 5, 2013. They think that they are helping UMNO-BN but actually they are antagonising the people of Bangsar in Lembah Pantai Parliamentary Constituency, where we will see a hotly contested race between Nurul Izzah Anwar of Pakatan Rakyat and Raja Nong Chik (above) of UMNO-Barisan Nasional.
One Facebook posting delighted in BN’s Lembah Pantai candidate Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin’s ad listing his glowing achievements in the area of drain repairs.
The billboard screams Nong Chik’s “1Malaysia Lembah Pantai Achievements” and proudly boasts three drains in the Bangsar area that the incumbent Federal Territories minister has upgraded or repaired.
Nong Chik has made it a campaign theme against the incumbent PKR parliamentarian Nurul Izzah Anwar, to ask what she had done for her constituents.
However, he ducked Nurul’s challenge in February for a face-to-face debate to clear the air.
Dozens of netizens ridiculed Nong Chik’s ad, with one asking where their DBKL contributions have gone if the minister has to claim credit for the drain works.
“Forgive him. That’s what BN can offer… a Longkang MP that is,” sneered another commentator on the social networking site, while one quipped, “Only drains? No other (achievements)?”
The stupid dog bit me so I caught it, tied its legs to a stone and threw it into the sea,” said the taxi-driver, in his alcoholic stupor. I was left appalled. The man made that senseless quip to me when he saw me look below parked cars, inside building compounds calling out for Frisky – a brownish-black pariah who had moved into my lane on one noisy Diwali night a year back when he fled like those hundreds of strays petrified with the festive cacophony and bolt onto busy roads to either get killed in accidents or in fights with other territorial Alpha dogs. Frisky was lucky. The lane has its share of dog-lovers who stood up for him each time someone attacked him with a cricket bat, once even with a screw-driver plunged straight into his back by a hater who crept onto him as he sat unaware, wagging his tail to a friendly stranger.
This time around, Frisky named for the perpetual spunk with which he ran about the lane, was missing for over a full day. And, that was uncommon. Something was amiss. He always responded to someone’s whistle, another’s shout often to the jingle of my home keys. “Why did you do that? Why would he bite you? He’s a friendly dog and would never attack anyone,” I offered to him. “I would feed him…even play with him…and this time, when I was simply playing with him, he scratched my arm…I had to teach him a lesson. If he does manage to get free and come back, I’ll kill him,” said the drunken taxi-driver, by now affronted with my needling.
And then, he shut up and walked away to pour himself another drink. Making coherent conversation with him was difficult not because of the alcohol that had impaired his speech, it was because of his skewed logic that a stray’s life was dispensable just because it had ‘dared’ to scratch his arm.
I could have filed a police complain under a relevant section of the Indian Penal Code that made it illegal to maim or cause injury to any animal. That would have fulfilled the need for plain and simple retribution for the act but not tackled the real issue. The issue was one of inclusion – a concept that’s alien to huge sections of society and hugely at threat. The taxi-driver, like millions of others, feel enabled to act upon personal whim and fancy because they ‘feed a dog sometimes,” much like being enabled to hit one’s wife just because he “takes care of her.” I didn’t file a police complaint. Not because, I couldn’t …but because I felt that it would cause more harm towards the cause rather than good. I felt that if I could make the change, it would be much better than simply using a statute to avenge.
Notions of law and justice apart, there is the need for education and awareness towards inclusion. The law has, for years now, been providing ‘equal justice’ to all…and directive principles and fundamental duties suggest citizens care for and tend to animals, birds, plants and all wildlife. Penal laws such as the Indian Penal Code and Animal Welfare Laws lay down directives to punish one who harms but, the key to achieving justice is in changing a mindset…mostly through gentle persuasion modes such as education, familial socialization. A mindset is developed from the learning one gets since childhood and through one’s lives that there is the need to do the right, even if it’s harder and more difficult. It isn’t about hurting an animal…it’s about hurting someone weaker than you…because you think you can get away with it!
Somewhere down the line, I felt the taxi-driver, himself, regretted his action. Frisky was just so lovable and he, when in his senses, wasn’t that bad either. But that boy in him simply couldn’t take responsibility for his own action and express regret. It takes a bigger man to do that, we know. So, when a flurry of us – dog-lovers spread out in the locality to look for Frisky should he have returned – he beat a quiet retreat to his home and watched…from a distance.
The love for an animal is the truest of them all, I’d say. It is, truly, unconditional. So, somewhere down the line, it happened. The next morning, while on one of the several searches at a nearby locality, I found Frisky. He stood with his ears all perked up, wagging his tail, looking frantically for me…long before I could actually reach him. He could sense he was found…and so could I. With uncontrolled raptures, his little body quivered as he leapt all over me, licking me and barking incessantly…telling me all about the ordeal he had suffered…all by himself. He had managed to free himself.
Frisky came back home that morning…to a string of treats by all and sundry. Now, a copywriter – also a friend of Frisky – bathes him and cares for him at times during the day…even feeds him ‘in’ his home following which the dog spreads out for a luxurious nap during noon. A dog-lover home-maker drops in every morning to play with him and feed him his daily dose of chips. Another spirited family, like those scores, gets mutton for him off and on. A Muslim contractor who took personal umbrage at his displacement even offered to adopt him and keep him for good; despite, his personal religious compulsion that disfavors dealing with canines.
The lane has unofficially adopted Frisky as common property as he always was. The taxi-driver got more than an earful from everyone who got to know of his act…and everyone did. Frisky, on his part, is thrilled with his newly-found freedom. True to his nature, he went straight back to the taxi-driver – by now ashamed as hell for his act – leaping at him with joy as if nothing had happened only to sit at his feet and guard him. The man was stronger…but Frisky had won. And, that is the true story of a dog – one of those hundreds you see lying about on the streets of India each time you walk by as they wait for a small morsel, a kind glance, a soft word, a pat on the back…a chance to be included into your life. Stop…look!
