The Garbage Talk

What kind of promise Malaysia holds?

In Taiwan household dump are collected from doors to doors. These collectors, I assume, contractors paid by local municipal council; collects and measures the weight and house owners would be charged according to certain tariff set. In short, I assume there are no estates or apartment dumpster, instead, a dump collector in their jumpsuit uniform would come every alternate day and do their job. In a meanwhile, unit occupiers need to be ready with their packed garbage with coins to spare.

In a nutshell, this is a great idea. On paper it sparkled several positive chain effects, this includes the reduction of unnecessary garbage produced by each household; each household puts a tremendous effort to reduce wastage knowing the fact that they are paying for those unneeded stuff. They would be going to wet market and refusing polystyrene packaging or whatever sorts of wrapping, instead they relied on their own reusable market bags.

Any foodstuff bought was done in tactful moderation. Anything too much like an extra carton of milk would just be too heavy to be charged, being careful; things were bought in sufficient, if not too low, quantity. Plans were made if there were friends and family gatherings so that the resultant waste would be at bare minimal. Children were taught by their parents to eat until the plate is squeaky clean like those of dishwashers’ advertisement where rubbing finger against it would produce that imaginable ‘krrrrrieek!’ sound. So, another indirect advantage is kids in Taiwan are guaranteed to be safe from malnutrition with the No-Leftovers rule(unless they chose to be anorexic)

Apart from waste reduction, Taiwanese may be cracking to think creatively on how to recycle their garbage. Like one of Disney channels’ Art Attack where most paper or plastic based refusal were reincarnated and turned into wonders of purposeful or decorative items. Thus this all reduce the amount (importantly the total weight), imagine walking into Taiwanese residences to see flowers made from cake wrappers or coin holders made of cigarette boxes. Nice! Menthol smelling coins…mmmm….

Implementation Here

If we were to implement this Taiwanese pragmatism of charging household per weight, we honestly going to be swarmed by endless pessimism. We may gather all effective and wonderful ideas all around the world yet making it work here is no way easier than said. Thing look rosy in the papers; just like buying a furniture from IKEA where it looked very much stylish-modern uber high-income indie hipstep, yet, the moment you unpacked and assembled it in your living room; the furniture drowned into the monotonous 80s furniture and dull coloured wall with pre-historic chandelier hanging off the ceiling glimmering with non-energy efficient bulbs.

Endless of ideas tanked due to inefficient execution or bureaucratic resistance or we are just Malaysian. For instance the introduction of PUSPAKOM, an autonomous body with private-level efficiency to inspect/grade/report on motor vehicle safety level in Malaysia using fully computerized methods. Wow! I guess that whole sentence would blow the wind off to anybody face… wouldn’t it? Yet, PUSPAKOM currently are ridden with the disease ‘C’, unreliable and inefficient.

Not forgetting the EPF scheme so that enables each family to own personal computers through reductions. The implementation of back seat safety belt which kept getting delayed into the next millennium, toy safety grading system and recently announced grading of car workshops around Malaysia. As if we lived in a nation that moved backwards rather than approaching that vividly envisioned Wawasan 2020.

It would be something marvelous to hear echoes from a expatriates that sounded like: “ did you know, every toy in Malaysia is inspected for safety – even if its as small as lego bricks “ or “ did you know last week when I went to Malaysia, every car has got to have backseat seat belt even though it’s a friggin Kancil? “

When we start charging Malaysian households for the garbage they produce, the immediate effect would be more and more garbage being thrown on the streets or open area. Many people who barely make a living have yet to spare some cash and be responsible for their refuse. Its just throw and forget, something that had been hardwired since independence. Unlike Singapore,the tiny and micro-managable city state, here is like a Chrismas for litterbugs – we could have thrown cigarette buds to construction refusals without being caught.

Every citizen in a country that still trapped in low-income high-inflation syndrome( like us ) would have us investing tremendous amount of time devising various types and methods that would save them every ringgit and cent. Say, stealing of water supply, taking-off copper from high voltage electricity cable or taking routes around KL that has no tolls ( samseng one uses toll free road emergency lanes )No doubt, if Taiwanese garbage weighting were implemented here, there are household which would take it to the extreme with burning it. Thus providing a cheaper option to destroy household refusals and forget the kilograms of Carbon released into the atmosphere since its intangible.

There would be slim elite minority which is somewhat special type of homosapiens which is above the law. As you know, Malaysian social fabric are filled with fringes of above-law people ( Datuk, kawan Datuk and adik-beradik Datuk ), these people would have another set of standards which exclude them from paying the proposed garbage cost. They make as much dirt and waste and given the exclusion from paying.

Thus, the garbage collection, like taxi and timber, would be a multi-million industry where everybody wants a piece of the cake. Now, an issue would arise of whose adik-beradik or saudara Datuks shall get a wet bite of these contracts?

Bleak as it is. There is no other lowest period being a Malaysian than now. Worst, when you’re a teenage going to adult - the outside world seems and sounded very ridden with old things that takes more than my generation to replete and change. Its apparent my generation lives in a marvelous age of great ideas but never done. Its been a while since I abstain myself from talking about politics – so, I guess you might take this as just a concern from a citizen of this once promising country.

To make this place promising again, just like the days of Wawasan 2020, some may think we have the power to vote and change things for the better. But how well can we do? Its possible to change the incumbent government, would they be able to shun big cooperates which runs shoddy businesses like money laundering and curb ah long? Or developers and contractors who were starved from cheap outside labors when a ‘concerned’ government wanted these jobs taken by local workforces? These big companies are high rollers and could tip the favor to anything that benefit them. Ah! The competitive nature of capitalism.

Shall we go back to the days of Pharoah where absolute rule and slavery gets shit done? The Pyramid wouldn’t be standing without the Pharoah forcing hundreds of thousands hard labors to charge forward with tons of stones on their back. But we wouldn’t want to go back into these dark times.

Looking on the bright side, Taiwan does it well...why couldn't we? Someday, we’ll get things retooled and sorted out.

The Designer Babies

Designer brands are within reach of most people, designer cars are probably harder to get; but what happens when designer babies are made available? Babies that are tailor made to its parents liking? Seriously, tell the geneticist you wanted an Audrey Hepburn with kuning langsat skin and singing voice.

While I was in primary school, there was a boy I knew named Bernard, I always met him at the football field since our lunch lasted for an hour and half, so we usually had football matches amongst friends. Bernard plays like a champion; he dribbles, passes and receives the ball like no other of us can do. I wasn’t in the same classroom, so I wasn’t sure about his studies, but his classmates told me Bernard is someone of an ‘A’-scooper, someone who grabs A like its nobody business, yet, his schoolbag is not bulky, very light enough for a cool sprint if Bernard misses a bus. Who is this Bernard? He did not talk much about himself. Occasionally, I heard plenty of girl having crushes over him (I’m not sure if they catfight over him). He is not too giraffe-like tall or rhino-like short, skin is tanned dark and friendly. He is a Chindian; the mixed parentage of Chinese and Indian. Like a fine specimen from outer space, Bernard became an instant renaissance man. Almost everyone went ga-ga about Chindian.

Simple biology thought us children inherit good genes from both its parents. Be it physically or mentally, from immunity from diseases to unique skin and hair pigmentation. Mastery of different language is a proven edge, this happens as a result of cross cultural parentage. Exceptions for talents and knowledge, since those are gained through experience. Yet, not all humans are created perfect; there are still imperfections which can be inherited by later generations.

I ‘am not a geneticist to tell you which genes is responsible for this and that, yet, I’am well aware that we are not far away from genetic engineering. Simple alterations can be made in near future to curb hereditiary diseases or deformities. Take, for example, me, I guess, I inherited my loud sneezing (due to sinus) from my father. You can tell how disgusted people responded to my achooos! And Im sure to tell you its such a disrespectful thing to do although it’s a euphoric sensation to sneeze in such way.

By the time im writing this, minor genetic alterations would needlessly be in final few stages before widespread implementation, perhaps less than a decade? I could walk to a geneticist and get that loudsneeze strain erased from my DNA before my children inherited them. This is important, before my generation would posthumously had to be given the surname ‘loudsneezer’ or something like that.

When What God Given is What You Should Keep

But what religion has to say about this? As Muslim, the novelty of saying ‘alhamdulillah’ no matter which odds we are in are recommended. Good or bad. There was a debacle that people with white/grey hair were not allowed to dye their hair; the concluded rational behind this is because ablution taken before prayers wouldn’t cover strains of hairs thus prayer is considered incomplete. Pity, my dad is now officially a ‘hantu uban’ with almost all of his head covering hair white. While its much comforting when other regard white hairs as a sign of hard-thinking. Am I going to have white hair before mid 30s?

Genetics had proven that most of our genes were inherited from our mothers’ side. Then, we can conclude that there is a bit science in Will.I.Am hits “I got it from my mama”, taking all the hearsays and cakap kedai kopi; we can get extra-judgemental by looking at our future mother-in-laws and how graceful as she gets older (careful, do not stare for too long). Then we will get the idea of how our best-half would get older. Will she be prettier? Will she ever runs out of collagen? Will she be crippled with diabetes? Or will we consider for ‘new branches’ when things get saggy and eyebaggy?

Thus, today, in the quest for beauty and perfection; we are in transition period between altering our appearance physically (long after birth) or genetically (long before birth). Expect one day, Muftis and Ustaz giving their thoughts about genetic modifications. Perhaps, they would converge and issue a fatwa or plenty of fatwas regarding genetic modifications; I bet there will be two sets, one the allowable and the other not-allowed. This wouldn’t be as sensational as decree on divorcing through SMS. Yet, it will be similar to BOTOX. To look even farther, lipsticks and blushers are considered haram as well. Those aforementioned are among the most superficial form of beauty enhancement elements. Never a single knife that cuts the skin or chemical that intrudes the bodily systems. Yet, widespread usage can be seen now.

Through the religion eyes, beauty is not something that is prohibited or elicit. Islam allowed women to dress beautifully to please the husband. One of the four major criterion seek by Muslim matrimony would be looks apart from Trust in One God, which is Allah (not to be mistaken with Kitab Injil Allahs’), Good family and appropriate amount of properties. Some may think this debacle (lipsticks and blushers) is necessary because its their mutual responsibility to guide the ummah to the right path, some, under guise of secularity or liberty refused to talk about this matter because it is too small, unconstructive and petty to talk over. For me, I ‘am drifted away from religion because of such debacle which sometimes can get ugly, they might create a facebook haters group (Kami membenci sekalian-sekalian). It wouldn’t be simple to drop this subject; you’ll get slapped with being too ignorant (jahil)

All this will drag on for some time before the public goes to a process of ‘normalization’. When too many accepted the notion using lipstick is fine, then, the debacle seems to become silenced. By then, our ear wouldn’t miss voices saying this normalization is a sign that the end of world is nearing (kiamat sudah dekat). This endless loop of debacle is what driven me far away from religion matters; yet not from God.

I suspected Muslim advocate natural beauty type through selected breeding. By looking at the criterion in regards with finding a good family; the demography is essentially a pool of genes in which a man has to seek the most suitable and caring mother to bore his children. And His Most Gracious Allah willingness to ascend too many of different races scattered all over the world, men would embark on an epic (whatever he may calls it) search.

Nazi Eugenics

In the month of May, almost everything seems to point out to military; especially the WW2. Yes, it no other than a commeration the Fall of Nazi. It was exactly on 9^th May when Berlin fell to Soviet troops, and officially German Nazi laid down its arms. Shortly after that, trial begins in Nuremberg where most generals were charged under crime against humanity so on and forth.

Ironically, selected breed is something which had been advocated by the Nazi regime. These are called Eugenics. It derived from Greek word; eu meaning good and genics meaning genes. During the time when DNA strain couldn’t be stripped apart and analyzed under the microscope, a crude method of selected breed is done in which includes segregating the good and bad ones. In Malaysia, reason for eugenics happens in non-science rationality (sometimes discriminating). These includes marriages between Syeds and Tengku. The higher strata of so-called Prophet Muhammad descendants and non-descendants. This were done to maintain somekind of ‘purity’. What kind of purity? Well, you should ask them who strictly abide to the purity ideals, they might have a strong reason to enlighten us the less-pure.

During WW2 German, rarities such as coloured eyes and twins are further experimented by Nazi Doctors. In the time when Germany suffered severe drop of population, twins are something which Nazi leaders look forward to ensure systemic growth of population. Not only the troops for the cause of war, but industrial workforce which proportionally grows according to increasing number of Germany foes. Efforts were also made to dispel unwanted ethnics such as the Jews, which Nazi regarded as ‘the other gifted race beside themselves, the Aryan’. Doctors during third-reich were instructed to do compulsory sterilization onto people who were inflicted with hereditary diseases such as epilepsy, mentally retard or physically retards. These are akin to preventive measures instead of curing the sick. These are all part of Eugenics which wanted an eventual improved pool of human genes. Those associations with Nazi had given Eugenics a bad face and became subject of debate among human rights activists and medicine practitioner.

Selected Breeding has been done on animals and even fruits. Poultry and livestock usually saw the benefits of selected breeding, for a simplistic childish example, a milk producing cow when breed with long-living cow may produce a milk producing long-live cow. In Malaysia, we had UPM specializing in research in these type of feat. The Durians we ate with all its funky name (D24, D12, Kucing Tidur and Udang Merah) are all selected breed of fruits with qualities beyond our understanding. Through genetic modifications, we enjoyed seedless grapes. The nation as a whole may grin in pride with its agricultural technology.

Debunking Eugenics

We call all dump this theory of Eugenics and start living ignorant of this good genes idea. Striding through life as it gives and take whatever it wants. It takes a huge leapt for all of us; all men shall drop their obsession for beautiful and pretty girl, narrow mindedly *ehem* assuming women wanted to look pretty just to attract men, all women shall then live without hassle for the need for vanity and countless make upping hours. It’s a whole new thing for most of us; teaching ourselves not to judge whichever is good or bad; while whole fundamental idea of God-given powerful mind is to differentiate between what’s good and bad.

Slimming centers all over the world would close down and cosmetics industry shall collapse. But, our quest for perfection had given those thoughts as some sort of madness that wouldn’t happen. Eugenics on the other hand would have taken generations to successfully achieve the good genes pool aim. After Eugenics, genetic engineering takes over to allow perfection to be imbued and deformities erased before birth. And a whole new dimension of manicure industry appears in a shape of genetic science where you talk to a geneticist about propagating a your children to have quick feet muscle like Zoe Deschanel

Bernard may be a true rare specimen (no offense, he is not a lab rat). A person which most, if not all, in my generation get awed and girls go ga-ga. An example of what selected breeding can produce (although his parents might meet by serendipity). Blessing of mixed parentage in the form of Chindian. That’s Bernard of my generation. Current generation is global citizen where US parents can adopt Cambodian kids, that’s apparently clear whom to look at.

The Bernard you’ll see in next generation shall be more detailed engineered. Altered to close-perfection from the granularity of cells, DNAs and genes. Behold! The designer baby.

The Mayhem of Media

“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players”. William Shakespeare almost completed that sentence. He might just left it hanging. Not until Joseph Goebbels perfected the sentence and complete the triad of stage, actors and the ‘missing’ director.

There was a time when people were crazy about furthering their studies in mass communication. Like IT and biotech that precede the hype, mass communication attain a special glamour of its own; it’s a gateway to the glitter and bright light. It’s a course as cool as living; a plain shirt and skinny jeans and you’re ready for class. No need for T-square of architecture students. Mass Communication students were dangling on hopes of someday being newscasters, hosts, interviewer and eventually getting to know big names or being PR face for notable figures of high place. Collaterally, absorb them to be part of the higher ones. Even so, if they never indeed make contact with big names, they had attain the skill to ‘make believe’, they’ll make your eyes sees the different, and the mind shall believe.

Does it sound rhetoric? Honestly there are no ill feelings towards mass communication. Whatever they do and convey to us, they’re just doing their job. Honestly, its not an easy task to convey a particular message to the masses, making sure its easily misunderstood…ehem… I mean understood. Even a good orator occasionally had that ‘shake’( gemuruh ) before, during or after their speech for a few hundred people, now, its about conveying message to hundredths of thousand people across different media and platform.

Since the main intent is to deliver message clearly, then. Who else would mass comm. student would look back and thank other than Joseph Goebbels, he, which I think lays the foundation and principle of mass communication.

To begin with, Joseph Goebbels is neither someone from the literature line nor a mass comm. figure, and if the ending matters, this man committed suicide on May 1 1945 (exactly sixty five years ago) near the ‘Wolfslair’ or the Hitlers Bunker somewhere in Berlin. He firmly believed in Hitlers ideal that it took his life, wife, Magda and six children with it – or else he would have surrendered and admit that he is only a mere ‘foot soldier’ following orders.

Even if victors of World War II had caught him, he would have the same fate as the other Nazi military leader. Certain death, hanged and witnessed by the public eyes, so he never given a second thought and took the suicide shot before Allied forces came and manhandled him.

But if Joseph Goebbels were to think again and think hard, he might not necessarily have to commit suicide. His captors might have captured him, punched him here and there, put him in a gunnysack and ship him to an unknown secret location in South America or depths of Africa with a table, chair, pen and paper. After all, the war after that was all about his specialty. Joseph Goebbels is the chief propaganda minister during the Third Reich.

Before I precede further, lets us clear our mind of the usual stigma/association when we mention the word ‘propaganda’. Does the word immediately smell stench, full of negative vibe filled with visions of evil that advocated lies and libel? Truth is, when we mention sex, some had pornography in mind, or something dastardly sinful beyond repenting. When sex, among its wide context referred to human reproduction activity. Propaganda belonged to the same hordes of misunderstood word that demanded our reexamination.

Propaganda is known as techniques of shaping others perception. Simply put, like a parents tried to convince their children that toy A is better than toy B when truth is, toy A is cheaper than brand B. It’s an art of convincing, which influence the next logical step of deciding. Much like a teenager in his/her social circle, when they intended to date someone and their social circle gave a negative feedback thus paralyzing the intention, this signaled that propaganda is running in the background.
Joseph Goebbels took his heads up had taken the role as director, giving ‘scripts’ (propaganda) to actors(people) and ensure them that everything will be fine, as long as they follow the script, yet the ending for this director ended tragically, the Nazi was destined to fall on May 1 1945 and victors of World War had embalmed him as one of most evil person.

After the smoke of World War II disappeared followed by brief grief for those who had perished; a new war is brewing. The threat of communism lurks in the east. Communism is not a type of monster that eat or rip human limbs off, it’s an ideology which subtly seep into mind and hearts of people. Asking people to seek total reform of the social structure, envisioning that it would be better this way than the other. Britain and United States saw this as an imminent threat especially to their economic interest. The capitalist endorses private ownership and these nations are profiteering well seeping labor and natural resources from colony states. Communism on the other hand seek nations to disallow private ownership of national equity, instead, nationalize them – make it belong to the people, or collectively, by the government.

It was during this time, the officers of propaganda minister brought into shores of United States in an effort to wage a war that needed no bullet, tanks, aircrafts or army. The propaganda war travels as quickly as any military equipment can ever achieve. And no territory was at stake, only our opinions and piece-of-mind were the battlefield. Yes, including you and me.

Propaganda Arts

In present day, social networking tool has become a propaganda apparatus for individuals. Its relatively quick and publicity is achieve at no cost. From the new item you have purchased or places you have visited; you can make them a widespread knowledge. It encourages everyone to emblazon their vision and shape others perception towards them; rich, classy, intellect or elite. For instance, a person may put up photos of them in clubs which eventually shape-up people option that they’re a socially acceptable person. A person may also put up photos of their involvement in sporting events, gala or any other theme; and the much inclined the person tends to show similarity of the many picture, the clearer it gets that profile owners tries to propagate their ‘branding’ onto you. In return, for pointing out the obvious, these people might prolly admit to such things, or simply felt outsmart, they deny such allegations and question our perception of being judgmental.

Joseph Goebbel, together with Dr. Joseph Mengele had firm believe that the Germans were the given race. With the firm believe of Eugenics (where bad genes should be purged, and couples with good genes should get married and produce as many kids as possible), they were keen to create an ideal German/Aryan race with all the men were as tall, physical and macho like Boris Becker or Michael Ballack and female were as curvy, voluptuous and blue-eyed like Gisele Bundchen or Diane Kruger. Yet, the Nazis believe of ethnic supremacy doesn’t come next to none. They also firmly believed the Jew were on par with them as a ‘given race’ thus a problem persist. Two kings cannot rule a single throne. This had become another reason for their systematic liquidation of Jews within Germany and annexed regions. Yet trying to convince the common about how Jews should be disposed were not as easy as walking into a crowd and start delivering a fiery speech. The Germans would have thought them as being crazy if they do so.

Then names like Leni Reifensthal and Hans Schweitzer make things easier to shape public opinion about what Germany can possibly achieve. The Jew almost dominated the Germany commerce had Nazi tirelessly shaping the opinion of German people that it is not good in the long term. Trying to soften this hard facts, arts were effectively employed so public opinion can be won. These propaganda posters gives strong message and precursors today poster method of conveying message to the masses. Motion art like Jud Süß (1940) delve back into history how a Jewish banker which had been entrusted by several European Kaiser and Dukes were later captured and admitted to several charges. The German Olympics were extensively documented to show the superiority of German race in sporting event compared to the rest of the world. All this were deemed right during the Nazi rule as means to uplift their spirit after the devastating and humiliating loss in World War I. Party assemblies were filmed to show how organization were committed to drive forward and prevail after the shock of first war. All this were downward negatively labeled by the victors of war until today.

Above, left; 1940 anti semitic movie poster, Jud Suss. Above, right; a German propaganda poster depicting an industrial worker with duck head, translation reads " Your responsibility is to remain silent, our enemy is listening", after World War I, Germany arms production and capacity were capped, and prior to WWII, German ramped up production of heavy mechines and weaponry. This was done silently.Bottom, Left; another propaganda poster, translation reads "The Guarantee of Germany Military Strength" featuring dark coat SA (sturmabteilung/ stormtrooper) men standing next to soldier

Attention Seeker

A television station in Malaysia once had this motto: Berita Terkini, Hiburan Sensasi ( which translated, Latest News, Sensational Entertainment ). This is no farther than the extension of propaganda and how it was decorated to look like a lamb rather than wolf. Without entertainment, crowd cannot be made or gathered, without it ears and eyes cannot be lend. Thus, entertainment is undoubtedly an important aspect to be accompanied with propaganda; may it be visually, audio or live action- it must exist - or else propaganda would pass by like slow breeze in the wind.

Being aware of that, it is not exceedingly difficult to rationalize the logic of the glamour associated with mass communication. It is important to seek as much attention as possible before making a statement – especially the one that needs to be known to many. How to grab attention? Is it as simple as banging a wine glass with dinner spoon? Entertainment is the key. Entertainment industry had always been lively through thick or thin. Millions of movies and songs being illegally downloaded yet new tunes and films keep coming, each time with bigger budget and much spectacular cinematic experience. Artists were complaining about dwindling sales and problematic divorce battle; yet many wanted to be rockstars (including the worst behaviours). This would implicate that entertainment trades were not just money and cari makan; instead, the subtle message that it had conveyed determine the success.

Obviously, songs and films doesn’t contain any cryptic message that make us do something weird, it’s the news program which came later or during commercial minutes which taps our attention. We have to admit that watching some of their teleseries are addictive, may it be the sultry porcelain-like hot actresses or hunky dudes with juicy abs; when the uninvited ‘we’ll come back after this messages’ appear you exhale with dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, commercial minutes don’t come with countdown timer and you shall remain seated staring at the idiot box. With attention and anticipation remained high; propaganda slips in taking advantage of your awareness. Wullah!

Propaganda has taken on a new platform. Even, if there is no commercial interruptions, there will always be follow-ups, drop down the internet and you’ll find data pool of that hunky dude or porcelain-skin sultry chick; they’ll always be links accompanied to other portal. You’ll end up drowning in a spiraling maze of multiple tabs. You’ll delve deeper into the private lives of these people you love to watch, what do they do? What do they eat? What are their values? The attitude they had? which in turn, translate into a form of idolization.

With idolization sets in place, you prepare to be an actor amongst the many actors in this world. With the world as the stage, and social networking tool as the publicity agent; ever ponder who is the director and script writer? Of course, above scenario is the simplest type of how external opinion shaping takes place. Some may had higher resilience might defy all this and remained confident wearing their skin, even if its dull or not porcelain-like or lacks six packs.

The Culprit

Humans – we are protein based life forms that can be crippled with diseases. In the teens, it’s not morbid to be in the know on diseases that know no age, no race or religion. I guess you might want to give a deep thought and start to appreciate life.

In my field of study, architecture put emphasis on many hygiene-preservation strategies. One of the simplest would be the good air flow, cross ventilation, penetration of sunlight and avoidance of water stagnation (sanitary). It is of architects partial responsibility to ensure a building inhabitant comfort, or else, a building would be rendered hostile and risks abandonment. During my lifetime, a few epidemic had struck and made headlines around the world; but never once these disease had caused my school to close down (only haze did give me an official day off, thank you!) . To name a few; Japanese Encipilitis, Coxsackie, SARS and recently the avian flu.

Yet still, today diseases are pretty much volatile. They evolve and strike without warning and human wages a war on enemy that goes deep inside of themselves. One of disease that I got carried away knowing them would be polio, an epidemic in the 1950s that did not eradicate human race whatsoever, but done a considerable damage to the person it inflict. Good news, polio today is classified as nearly eradicated disease, much like tuberculosis. The government had provided a compulsory vaccination scheme for all which covers pretty much known highly-contagious disease.

Polio generally puts a person motor function at risk. It’s a virus that’s attached to the spinal cord ‘literally’ eating the cords that’s responsible for the motor functions. Worst, Polio is a type of disease that is ‘kind’ enough to let its patient live. Mortality lays at one digit percentage paving way for polio patient which are rendered paralyzed to live until adulthood. Polio also goes by the name ‘infancy paralyses’ due to its affinity to inflict infant. Early civilization takes it lightly and thought it was club-foot disease; a birth deformation.

An infected kid doesn’t necessarily be an infant to contact this disease. They spread through oral fluid, like a boring Sunday afternoon when a person shared his ice cream with another person with overlap licks. After a few weeks, the person would develop the usual symptom when a body detects breach of different organism in body. Starting with mild fever.

Fever lasted on, and Polio would later shed its true face by weakening the motor function of lower limbs; feet and leg began to feel numb. At advance stages, muscle function of abdomen and chest were incapacitated resulting to patient having difficulties in breathing (since breathing works through contraction and expansion of a set of chest muscles). A lumbar puncture where fluid of the spine would be sampled and taken to lab, upon confirmation, patient would be placed in ward.

Loss control of hand, worst still, the muscle pain caused. Prolonged unused muscle resulted in degeneration, which is why most photographs had polio patient depicted with slightly off scale limbs which seems shrunken. Having legs farther apart or closely together due to muscle strain. The brain no longer signals it what to do. What is much devastating would be polio striking paralyzes its victim yet the sensory and cognitive nerve which runs parallel with motor spinal wasn’t inflicted by the virus. It seems the virus has got appetite for motor spine.

For cases of loss of lung muscle control, an industrial-like device was designed in the mid 1940s. With gauges, clunky and shaped like torpedo tubes; it’s the infamous ‘iron lung’. One of the scariest devices ever invented for human medical treatment. Patients would be put inside the machine with its head out in the normal environment. However the iron lung would put lower half of the limb in negative pressure situation. Allowing the chest cavity to expand and contract. This helped polio patient breath, only this time, ‘mechanically’.

Ego of a few men

‘There is no disease that has no cure, except for death’. As a Muslim, I’am on several occasion reminded of this saying. A word which should uplift the spirit of Muslims alike that God would allow anything to happen, yet still attains the ultimate and definite fate of it.

Two men came and somehow heed this call. Two American men by the name Robert E. Salk (pic,left) and Albert Sabin hurdled, and funnily fuelling doubt over each other vaccine . When the race initially started, worried parents across America were donating money as generously towards the cause so-called ‘March of Dimes’ (Dimes referring to a value of American denomination, akin to ten cents) Today, a dime in the United States commemorates Franklin D. Roosevelt. The coin had his apparition in honor of his effort founding the National Institute of Infantile Paralysis; the foundation of later re-named March-of-Dimes itself.

Robert Salk has got two jobs, while searching for an effective vaccine; he occasionally made radio speeches on radio reporting his vaccine tests on monkey. His remarkable pace of research coupled with funding by March of Dimes put the expected widespread usage of his vaccine to about a year or two. By 1952, parents were very eager as their children grow up in somewhat ‘hostile’ environment. Kids remained indoors as the disease is known to be highly infectious. His rival, Albert Sabin cast doubt on Robert Salk vaccine saying that a hastily produced vaccine might not provide immunization against polio; but instead enraged the spread of polio in a much dangerous evolved strain.

In his calculation, a viable polio vaccine can be released earliest, in the next decade putting it some when in first half of 1960s. Well, American people at that time had enough of polio. Its been a tiring battle since 1930, and they cannot tolerate another 10 years of vaccine research.

It was believed that improvement of sanitation across America during the late 1920 had resulted in humans naturally not producing enough immunity against such virus anymore. Strangely, in common sense, a hygienic condition avoided disease, but in long term, a clean environment had signaled our body to stand down from any threats. Due to that, polio became an epidemic in 1930 as America faces its Great Depression. One of prominent polio victim is Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the movie, Pearl Harbor you might see him wheelchair bound, that’s because he has polio. He was paralyzed waist down.

Robert Salk did not sulk, he conducted first test on November 1953 on 100,000 children, and to add confidence of his test subjects, he injected himself and his children as well. Albert Sabin once again retaliated that his comrade in the Polio battle might be in a verge of making biggest mistake in medical history. Robert Salk version of vaccine was in fact killed polio virus cultivated within monkey kidney. His vaccine intended to be injected intravenously, thus, triggering body response to create natural immune against the virus.

Albert Sabin has a different approach to polio vaccine. He did away with intravenous injection (good for children who fear needles). Instead his creation can be delivered orally (yes, you drink them! Clear liquid in small paper cups). His polio vaccine are live polio virus, but a weaker version (medical terminology; attenuated virus) which trigger the same bodily response as Robert Salk vaccine; production of natural immunity. It’s cheaper to manufacture, yet has stringent requirement for transport and storage as weaken live virus were prone to become ‘bad’ if anything is compromised. Albert Sabin took too much time and his quest to produce ‘ultimately safe’ virus. It was licensed in the United Stated in 1962. Exactly ten years after Robert Salk injected himself with his own version of vaccine. Overall its safer to use the injected ‘dead-virus’ version.

By 1954, Robert Salk openly tested his vaccine on 1 million children as mass test subjects. News announcement were made through the radio for test volunteer. Parents, amidst doubt thrown by Sabin, were eager to put their children in the first in-line to receive the injection. Yet, the effect is not immediate. All test subjects were monitored by National Institute of Health which created a special committee on live virus. Initially, some children developed allergies, some too an extent of being admitted into hospital.

In 1955, it was a happiest year for America and mankind as a whole. The first effective polio vaccine has been found. The report published shows test subjects developed 80-90% average immunity against all three type of polio (yes, polio has type A,B and C). Albert Sabin on the other hand did not rest on his laurel, his persuasion for his ‘Sabin-made’ vaccine carried on. Tests were still conducted while Salk vaccine is being widely adopted by medical institution. By 1962, seven years late, his vaccine is being licensed.

By 1986, The United States had declared Polio eradicated. Today, cases of polio had tremendously dropped to a few thousand worldwide. Malaysian receive their polio immunization through combination of three serial shots of injection (beginning 2nd month of birth) and oral administered for booster (if im not mistaken). Vaccination program in Malaysia includes protection against disease like (most notably) tetanus, TB, Hepatitis and Rubella. In a new wake of Malaysian teenagers getting sexually active, government had plans to administer anti-cervical cancer jabs for to all underage girls.

The Guerilla Style

When news approaches you from vague sources saying that some product may contain non-halal material, how far would you go beyond skepticism? Its halal and haram at stake, ini serius!

Another day and another routine to check the e-mail inbox. Like usual, I went through mail which mostly notifications send by Facebook. I picked and deleted them to keep my inbox clean. From photo comments to tagged photos to friend requests, a whole bunch of them back to back all into the trash. Then, I stumbled upon a mail that is not from Facebook. It must be some forwarded e-mail. I usually deem forwarded mail as unpleasant, unoriginal or junk. It’s a way of lazy people to reach out during hari raya or new year, I rather not receive these messages and start aching my eye reading a lame crafted message which intended to look snazzy yet sleazy (remember? Sir lump mart harry raya? Saya baru pulang dari London? )

There is something different about this particular e-mail content. Indeed, it’s a forwarded message. As soon as I opened it, I had to scroll so many time as the content lays so far below. What filled the upper part of the mail was lists of e-mail addresses which the mail had been send to. Judging by the hundreds of mail addresses with all swanky names like famous footballer and anime superheroes, I assume the mail had been received by many recipients. Finally when I reached the content part, I began to realize, it is not a spam neither a link to a get-rich-quick scheme. I wasn’t infuriated, but felt compelled how we had to resort to guerilla tactic to point out certain message.

The mail I received that day contains several pictures of Old Town White Coffee, a local franchise which food themed on pre-independence big towns of Malaysia when eateries were prone to fire because they were made of wood. They serve local selections of black coffee, tea, nasi lemak and roti bakar. The accompanied statement pointed out that those food served are not halal and shouldn’t be consumed by fellow Muslims in Malaysia. Followed by pictures of retail packed instant noodles which labels had been blurted (libel laws?) having halal label but being sold at non-halal section.

I wouldn’t elaborate much on the mail I had received; I bet some of us had received such mail. I did not pay much attention, but I wonder no matter how much research or investigation done by the initial sender, does the Jabatan Kebajikan Agama Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) took notice of this issue? The initial sender mail claim may still remain as accusation/hearsay not until an official, fully recognized agency and professional body like JAKIM conduct test and verified the halal status . No matter good or bad the initial sender intend, this forwarded mail may smell, look and feels like one of old tantrums usually thrown by some unsatisfied consumer with somewhat hidden intent. I vividly remembers when KFC allegedly slaughtered its livestock in inappropriate manner against the syarak practice, did JAKIM issued any action against them?. Starbucks mixing some sort lard in their product to enhance the ‘creaminess’ of their beverages, did JAKIM put those beverages under their microscope? Dubious Yellow Mee and Sausage which are made of pork belly? Does that all belonged to quick foods for college students, don’t they?. Now, these tantrums had turned its face on locally established footstalls like Old town White Coffee. All those claims are frail and supported by statements like “my auntie/uncle is some high ranking who works with the officials, and confirmed its not halal” How can we take by word such claims?

Emasculated or hikmah?

Finding Halal food is a paramount importance among Muslim. Its compulsory .No matter what the reason is, we must avoid consuming them except in times where life is at risk (eg. you are trapped in some Pandora like island and the not any vegetation can be consumed, but the only thing present was a pork chop) I’m not being paid by Oldtown to write this kind of entry, but what are the odds me, as a muslim, taking this kind of mail beyond benefit of doubt? I have friends working in Oldtown and Starbucks, I did interviewed the latter and they responsibly claimed that they had to bare with the accusation. “Biasalah, benda macam tu memang selalu orang kata” said a former barista in my local Starbucks. But I did not further scrutinize him out of wonder if he knew any content contained any non-halal material. He is doing his job. The mixing products delivered to his Starbuck outlet then he prepared them according to instructions. His job is akin to taxi driver which provide services to ordinary patsy and hobos without knowing their intent, or lawyers who defend guilty person and won the case, thus making money out of it. There is always a hikmah in all of God arrangements.

Or should Malaysian Muslim consumer which lived in self proclaimed Islam state (Negara Islam) must practice caution like they were wandering tourist in Shanghai or Moscow? They were told to do their own homework carefully because halal food is not easy to find, and halal food had become so scarce that they need to buy live chickens and slaughtered them behind some bushes? Can JAKIM pounce into our consciousness us to do homework instead of relying onto them 100%. Would JAKIM scream at us telling that we take them for granted and it’s partly our job to determine the halal-ness of mass manufactured food.

This ultimately means, the initial sender of the mail may be a concerned muslim. Trying to pull all of us out of trouble and wrath of non-halal food. He is responsible and successfully chained that mail without threatening the receiver that their parents would be dead if they fail to resent within 20hours or so. Hurrah for the sender. But in an age of information freedom, internet is proven to be easily abused. The initial sender has got nothing to lose. He may just send it and relied on receiver fear/sentiment for the mail to gain momentum throughout the digital realm. Who wouldn’t freak out when a meal contains something non-halal, especially those restaurant that you can easily find at the corner of your neighborhood.

Who is this person to be taken by word? If he did quote by some mufti statement, would that lend some credibility? My family had some time upheld principle that we have reached a certain maturity where opinion must be shaped independently, not by mere one-two line statement by high-power people. Its clear that a collective body like JAKIM must play its active role by implementing stricter implementation. Set-up a website where we can confirm the halal status of manufactured foodstuff ( I know it had existed, but its unheard as whisper) . Create an iPhone application called ‘iHalal’ (or whatever Arabic sounding words) where people can have an instant access of the halal food reference. Make newspaper announcement displayed image of that product from all elevation and state that product is not halal. If possible, any company that uses fake halal label, make them apologize just like what Microsoft make some hardware company do when they were caught selling fake software.

But it seems JAKIM is emasculated, leaving words of non-halal product somewhat ‘sendimented’ below the streams of public knowledge. Worst, they had to be dispersed the guerilla-style. Shoot and hide. Maybe its true, the hastily constructed e-mail with disproportioned photos might be a brave truth from a mouth which had nothing to lose. On the other hand, JAKIM is a government agency, and the government had many many many interest to take care of. Starbucks? Which Malaysian corporate body that brought them in? Maybe its likely to be a hikmah behind all this.

The Things We Watch

Cinema were once regarded as 'den of evil' for their gloomy and dark situations watchers are engaged in. But things changed, now, positive message can be spread through the dark rooms of cinemas.

I have to admit, I watched Avatar a little bit too late, precisely 16days after its release. There was a saying that film rolls had began to get loose the along the many times it’s been played. Assuming the firm rolls were loaded 5 times a day, I watched Avatar, presumably on the 80^th roll, which come to think of it, must be pretty suck. Yet, watching Avatar is nothing short of amazing.

Lately there have been strings of failure/lukewarm responses towards movie involving big budged, star driven, big name directors or 3d intensive movie. Zack Snyder failed to fascinate me with Watchmen after shining in 300. Inglorious Basterds never appeal or making it into some of Tarantinos’ greatest classics despite the director admission that this project took him years of delay, so to say, in order for it to fester, I mean develop. But, Avatar is a leap forward. James Cameron took the death leap venturing into new filmmaking technologies and with a total budget of 400million dollar to make the film. Industry analysts were eager if such super-ambitious film would tremble and shook the realm of filmscape.

James Cameron is like a seasonal sensation. Initially he does robot assassins from the future, then deep water beings, semi-documentary love-epic Titanic, He isn’t a champion of particular sub-genre, until today this director had made two of the biggest budget film in my lifetime, each outranking the other. First, the iconic Titanic, the love story between Jack and Rose on a destined-to-sink behemoth named you-know-what. Secondly, The Avatar, an alien civilization which ride six-legged horses with an uplink made through their ponytail infused with living fiber optics. I couldn’t help thinking telling my kids “when I was your age, these are the big-bombs of Hollywood”

Even, in the event of Avatar failure, Hollywood seems to have endless resources to develop sometimes reckless, unsellable, feeble and crappy titles. Alien versus Predator (both), Alvin and Chipmunks, Garfield are some of those lame films that can be dejected straight away into junkbin. Yet, they have sequel made for them which fared no less better or degraded from chronic to critically fatal. Hollywood either had an attitude of not learning from the past or hoping to do phoenix-rising stunt out of bombed-out film ashes. Or perhaps, the existence of elaborate Jewish propaganda apparatus within the Hollywood circles to make youngsters sway from their studies? Yipes!

On the local front

In Malaysia, the debut of Upin&Ipin Pengembaraan is a giant leap in local film industry. For the first time Malaysian began to open their sleepy eyes on the homefront creative industry. It fared off good with collection reaching approximately RM6 million, while the highest collection of 2009 were handed to ghastly mystic ethereal title: Jangan Pandang Belakang Congkak at 6.1million. A record breaking collection which can eclipse several times Yasmin Ahmad Talentime collection of measly 0.6million. Afdlin Shaukis’ Papadom raked approximately 3.5million. But like Hollywood, we are engulfed in syndromes of making movies that are easily understandable where good triumph over evil naturally in a linear style.

There is never heavy substance injected into film plot which producers/director would risked their films becoming titles only available in archive somewhere in old government building blocks of Kuala Lumpur. Films like U Wei Shaaris ‘Buai Laju-laju’ (starring Betty Benafe and Eman Manan) and ‘Isteri, Perempuan dan …’ are mere study subjects for cinematography students when these are close/true reflections of life and social occurrence of Malaysia. TV serials are obsessed with teen wearing bright tights and fringe involved in family business that has millions in asset values around the globe. Don’t matter whether its shipping business, car sales, stock holdings, poultry or construction (any business that only involves filming within office compound), they all ended up in power struggle and infighting usually involving a single hot babe in the middle of crisis. Not until Jelatang came and dragged me in. With a strong cast, the series covered a subject which challenges the directors to create something original without reference from Hollywood: Sumbang Mahram (close proximity)

Surely, anybody can argue that Hollywood had released plenty takes on close proximity. Hollywood may made it into a comedy, where stepfather-daughter sex romp were done through curi-curi tulang. To avoid the knowledge of the mother. Hell, Hollywood can possibly portray the mother as a psychotic killing machine which overtime gathers momentum into murdering both stepfather and daughter before a heroic cop came and shot her in the arm. But jelatang took a path where a Muslim family with a Malay background which emphasizes on secrecy and decency. The close proximity festered amongst the family (involving daughter played by Intan Ladyana and younger-beefier stepfather played by Fezrul Khan ), a rebellious brother, a patient mother and concerned ex-husband accompanied with jealous new-wife. This all adds up. A problem ‘proportionalized’ according to local social scenario. Series ended with mother willingly accepting daughter’s sin with intention to quarantine the problem out of people knowledge. The mother is never ready for another divorce. The installment of this series is very highly anticipated.

Back in the days jabatan penapisan lifted sanction on ghost/mystic themed film, I was beleaguered thinking if jabatan would also lifted sanction against stories that would depict corruption/misused power among authorities. The Hindustan had long depicted rotan wielding cops becoming jaguh kampong and blackmailed villagers for protection money. This indeed a true reflection of Indian caste-based rampant corruption artistically ported inside their movies without cuts or whatsoever fear of foreign investors being chased off. Its relaxing to know that the film censorship board over there may regards this as creative freedom rather than feeling guilty as it would ‘tarnish’ the image of somebody/someone. Relax! The government had given their assurance that they do their job with upmost transparency, why fear fictuous movie on corruption?

Instead, jabatan agama had been ashamed. Their leniency had led to many ghost/mystic stories being made and released into theatres. All under the pretext of ‘watch and learn’. Earlier into these movies remarks were made that the shown movie was mend for pengajaran purpose, telling anyone who owns/petted a ghost shall receive a punishment akin to the movie. While the true driving force behind almost endless release of ghost/mystic film were not to educate people, but the cash load it brings. Upin&Ipin were just lucky to play with children power of persuasion. If not, the entire top ten film gross in Malaysia will surely owned by a bunch of ghost versus ustaz duel movies. This all translated to cari makan.

Above all, I strongly supported the linearization of our local movie industry. Our directors can prove their movies can become the alternatives to the many Hollywood titles that arrived to our shores. Our citizen is rich enough, even mat rempits can take their girlfriends for movie treat each weekends, if properly spend, can avoid the flux of our money to other country instead thrive the local cinema market. Added with relaxation on rulings and censorship, our creative industry is a bright furred bird never mends to be caged.