Saturday, January 31, 2009

Meet Your New Home Minister...

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Enjoy the weekend!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

MUGABE FINDS A HOME IN ASIA

Asia Sentinel | Thursday, 29 January 2009

A detested African satrap and his family take refuge in the east

Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong are becoming homes from home for Robert Mugabe and his family. In Hong Kong the government is ignoring its own laws to accommodate the despised African dictator.

While Zimbabweans, once citizens of one of Africa’s most prosperous, food exporting countries, suffer food shortages, cholera epidemics and the world’s highest inflation (approx 5,000 percent) the country’s first family has been splashing out on shopping and banking trips to Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Attention to their travels was occasioned by an assault on a Hong Kong resident press photographer working for the London Sunday Times by Grace Mugabe and a bodyguard in Hong Kong. The photographer was taking pictures of her shopping near the Shangri-la (Kowloon) hotel where she was staying.

A Mugabe family celebration (with Bona circled)

This led to the news that the Mugabes’ daughter Bona, 20, had been studying at HK University since last September under an assumed name.

Asia Sentinel has now learned that this was a modest visit compared with one last year by Mr and Mrs Mugabe and a huge retinue which occupied two floors of the same Shangri-la Hotel. The hotel bill, running to tens of thousands of US dollars, was paid in cash by a flunky. Under Hong Kong law, such large cash transactions are supposed to be reported to the police and investigated under anti-money-laundering money rules.

But either the hotel, controlled by the Kuok Group, failed to notify the authorities, or the government decided to ignore the question of why Mugabe and his family and retinue of bodyguards paid cash. (The reason may well be that no international bank would accept the credit cards of persons banned from entering the US and other major jurisdictions).


According to reports on Zimbabawe news sites, on this latest occasion US$92,000 in cash was drawn from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the broken country’s central bank, prior to this trip, for spending on hotels and Grace’s favorite activity – shopping. Grace, who is 40 years younger than her 84-year old husband, has on previous occasions attracted attention for her extravagant spending in luxury shops.

Prior to Hong Kong, she had been in Malaysia and Singapore with her husband. They are very welcome in Malaysia where her husband was lionized by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. However, to protect Malaysia’s own reputation and avoid local controversy, the visit was kept low key. As for Singapore, according to Zimbabwean media reports, this is the favored location for Zimbabwean ministers and military chiefs to park their ill-gotten wealth.

In Hong Kong the government and the University of Hong Kong say there is no reason why Bona (right) should not study there. Many sympathize. The sins of the parents should not be visited on their children. However, Australia last year expelled the student offspring of some of Mugabe’s ministers and Britain has been contemplating the same – which is probably why Bona left her studies in the UK to come to Hong Kong and the protection of China, a good friend of Mugabe’s. The fact that she was allowed to enroll under an assumed name in itself is quite extraordinary and suggests some high level, un-transparent dealings.

However deserving Bona may be of an education, the fact is that her father’s policies have ruined Zimbabwe’s educational system and forced the few students who can afford it to go abroad. In Bona’s case the cost to the nation is not just her board and tuition, plus any gifts that might have been made to help her anonymous entry, but the cost of providing for her mother’s demands while Bona is in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is still investigating the assault on the photographer but charges seem unlikely now that the culprits are out of town and Mrs Mugabe anyway would claim diplomatic immunity. Mugabe’s political thuggery in Zimbabawe is well enough known. His own reputation in that respect was confirmed by footage of assault by a bodyguard on a journalist who was trying to interview him in Cairo last year.

But thugs and corrupt politicians remain welcome in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore so long as they bring enough money to be spent or laundered.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

When will BN stop raping Sarawak?

More landslide losses for UMNO ahead? (Pic courtesy of Michael Chick)

LOGGING OPERATIONS CAUSE DEADLY LANDSLIDES

Tony Thien | Jan 28, 09 11:11am

The landslide in Upper Limbang in northern Sarawak that caused the death of three people and injured seven others is a direct consequence of destructive logging practices, according a Swiss-based NGO, Bruno Manser Fund (BMF).

The landslide is the third in just over a week in Sarawak. On January 16, a landslide killed two workers at a petrol station near the city of Miri in northern Sarawak.

Last Wednesday, a landslide severed a section of the Pan-Borneo trunk road near Bintulu, causing hundreds of vehicles to be stranded for hours.

The most recent incident involving three people killed and seven others injured occurred at a timber camp in the Upper Limbang region of Sarawak, BMF said in a statement to Malaysiakini today.

It quoted Bernama as saying the dead were identified as two Filipinos and a Malaysian who worked for a local timber company.

“Research by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has shown that the landslide took place near Long Sebayang on the upper reaches of the Limbang river,” BMF said.


Logging in the area, which is claimed by the local Penan and Kelabit communities, has been controversial since the mid-1980s when locals set up a number of blockades on logging roads to prevent the timber companies from encroaching into their rainforests, it added.

The Bruno Manser Fund said logging interests in the area used to be closely linked to James Wong, Sarawak's former minister of the environment.


It added: “Logging operations near Long Sebayang are currently being carried out by Lee Ling Timber, a company with its headquarters in Limbang.”

Further upriver, a second company, Samling, extracts timber on a large scale. Both companies have plans to convert large natural forest areas into tree plantations, which is likely to cause further environmental destruction.

[Images courtesy of Bruno Manser Fonds, Malaysiakini & Michael Chick]

BRUNO MANSER: Tribute to an Ecowarrior

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Plane Crashlands in the Hudson River

A US Airways plane with 155 people on board ditched into a chilly Hudson River on Thursday, [15 January, 2009] apparently after striking at least one bird upon takeoff from New York's LaGuardia Airport, according to officials and passengers.

Everyone on board was accounted for and alive, officials said. About 15 people were being treated at hospitals and others were being evaluated at triage centers.

Flight 1549, headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, was airborne less than three minutes, according to FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown.

The pilot [Chesley B. Sullenberger] radioed to air traffic controllers that he had experienced a bird strike and declared an emergency, a New Jersey State Police source said.


"I think a lot of people started praying and just collecting themselves," said passenger Fred Berretta. "It was quite stunning."

He said he was expecting the plane to flip over and break apart, but it did not.

"It was a great landing," Berretta said. [CNN]


_________________________________________________

Here are two very different takes on the same incident...

TAKE ONE: Just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama, a plane crashed into the Hudson River in New York City. All 155 people on board were saved. This was considered a miracle by everyone who witnessed the unified efforts of all those who were involved with the rescue. For several days, this event held the attention of people all over the world. Throughout that time, the collective consciousness of Humanity bathed the Earth with hope, joy, happiness, wonder, amazement, and gratitude. This positive influx of Light paved the way for the historical inauguration of Barack Obama.

It was reported that more people watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama than any other event in the history of television. This collective cup of Humanity's consciousness was overflowing with wondrous expectations, hope, gratitude, commitment, oneness, prayers for peace, and prayers for viable solutions to the maladies existing in the global economy, as well as every other facet of Life on Earth.

Now, with these positive frequencies of Light building in momentum, we are being offered another opportunity. During the upcoming Solar and Lunar Eclipses, and the two-week period in between the Eclipses, we can expand the patterns of perfection for the New Earth and empower the hopes and dreams we have for our own individual lives.

The Company of Heaven has revealed that the most receptive frequency of Light to use in this endeavor is Divine Love. Please join with me, and thousands of Lightworkers around the world, by focusing on the following Invocation throughout this rare opportunity. Together, we will empower our visions, our hopes, our goals, and our dreams.

I AM ALL LOVE

O, Supreme Presence of God within all Life, into your Eternal Heart of Love do I immerse myself and all Life on this sweet Earth. I consciously surrender my vehicles to be merged with the Love Nature of Your Being until I AM a pure focus of Love—a living jewel in Your Crown of Adoration.

The path I walk in Life leads only to Love. My physical body filled with Love becomes shining and invincible. My etheric vehicle radiating Love transmutes the past. Love in my mind ensures the expression of Your Divine Thoughts. Love in my feelings reaffirms that God is the only power acting.

As I AM thinking, feeling and remembering only Love, I know that my I AM Presence is working through me, radiating forth the perfection of my omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent Father-Mother God, All That Is, to Humanity and all Life, which I have promised to Love free.

In this awakened consciousness of Divine Love, my spirit becomes Holy Spirit, and I AM the Love of God reaching out to claim this Earth.

In Love I magnetize all of God’s blessings to me, and in Love I radiate these blessings forth to all Life around me. I AM the Spirit of Love permeating form until all is drawn back into the indivisible whole.

I feel the pulse beat of Love in all Life and the continuity of Love in all of the experiences I have ever known. It is ALL Love.

I was born out of Love, I AM evolving through Love, and I AM Ascending back into Love.

I AM ALL LOVE, and I AM Grateful.

And so it is, Beloved I AM.

Patricia Diane Cota-Robles

TAKE TWO: January 16, 2009 Report by SORCHA FAAL*

Russian Military Intelligence reports circulating in the Kremlin today state that an attempt to shoot down an American passenger plane over New York City carrying some of the top officials from the United State's largest bank, and largest financial services company in the World, Bank of America, failed when the pilot quickly reacted to his crippled and burning aircraft by landing it in the Hudson river extinguishing the spreading flames and saving the lives of all aboard.

Quoting some of the direct statements from passengers on the attacked aircraft (including Jeff Kolodjay who stated "I heard a loud explosion from the left side of the plane [and] the smell of gas was strong," and Dave Sanderson who also stated "I heard an explosion and saw some flames coming from the left wing.") Undoubtedly the missile used to attack this US Airways aircraft was a Russian made Igla-S man-portable air-defense system manufactured at the Degtyarev factory in the city of Kovrov due to its "unique frequency signature" recorded by [listening devices] located at Russia's UN Mission offices in New York City and orbiting satellites.

It has long been known by Russian Intelligence Analysts that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been in possession of 50 Igla-S missiles stolen from Russia by the British MI6 terrorist spy ring run by their agent Hemant Lakhani, and who in 2003, while being pursued by FSB commandos was "rescued" by CIA forces and brought to the United States where he remains today.

It should be noted that the United States has stated that Hemant Lakhani was "convicted" by their Federal Court and sentenced to 47 years in prison for his arming of terrorists with stolen Russian weapons, but to this date, our requests to have this verified, and to actually see and interrogate Lakhani, have been denied by US Intelligence Officials. Likewise, repeated Russian requests to have the stolen Igla-S missiles returned have been denied as the Americans have stated that they are still being used as "evidence."

The reason behind this attack on some of the most powerful bankers in the United States was to accelerate the collapse of the American economy by assassinating Bank of America's top officials who were returning to their home base in North Carolina after negotiating a $138 Billion US government bailout, and which would "totally destroy" the stock value of America's largest bank, plunging the US into further financial chaos.

_____

* Brief History of the Order of Sorcha Faal

The Order of Sorcha Faal was established in 588 (BCE) in Tara, County Meath, Ireland, and claim as their Founder the oldest daughter of King Zedekiah, Tamar Tephi.

The name, Sorcha Faal, comes from the ancient Gaeilge branch of the Goidelic languages of Ireland and derives from Sorcha: She Who Brings Light and Faal: the Dark and Barren Place.

The Order of Sorcha Faal comprises 18 Monasteries in Ireland, Russia, Egypt, Lebanon, and the United States. Join Sorcha Faal’s mailing list by sending your request to: sorchafaal@fastmail.fm

Monday, January 26, 2009

KONG HEE FATT CHOY, PAK LAH

Today, to celebrate Chinese New Year, RPK sends his second open letter to Pak Lah, which touches on the problem of police brutality and the vote of no confidence against Najib in the recent Kuala Terengganu by-election.

Yang Amat Berhormat Dato' Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi
Prime Minister of Malaysia
Prime Minister's Office
Main Block
Perdana Putra Building
Federal Government Administrative Centre
62502 Putrajaya
MALAYSIA


Dear Pak Lah,

Kong Hee Fatt Choy, Pak Lah. I trust this second open letter finds you in good health. I was told by a reliable source that you read my first open letter. So I thought, since this appears to be the only way to reach you, I would send you a second open letter. I truly hope you get to read this one as well.

Sorry I was not able to also send you my Selamat Hari Raya Puasa wishes. It is not that Chinese New Year is more important than Hari Raya. During Hari Raya Puasa I was in the Kamunting Detention Centre, courtesy of your government. So, I sort of missed Hari Raya, if you know what I mean. But I believe my friends did attend your open house at the PWTC to send you Hari Raya wishes on my behalf, wearing ‘Free RPK’ T-shirts, much to the chagrin of the police who summoned them to the police station later for their ‘statements to be recorded’.

In the past I used to be sad if I was ever away from the family on Hari Raya, not that it happened too often. Even rough and tough Malaysian soldiers serving overseas cry on Hari Raya, so I was told. So it’s not lack of macho that makes you sad when parted from the family on Hari Raya. This time, however, anger overcame my sadness. Instead of being sad, I decided to ‘boycott’ Hari Raya. Maybe anger is a stronger emotion. Anyway, I did not celebrate the recent Hari Raya Haji as well, though I had already been released from detention by then. I have sort of shut out Hari Raya from my mind and have convinced myself that the festival does not exist. I think, from now on, Hari Raya no longer means anything to me.

I suppose this is very useful considering the Attorney General is appealing the Shah Alam High Court decision releasing me from ISA detention. The government’s appeal will be heard in the Federal Court in Putrajaya on 11 February 2009 and if the Federal Court allows the appeal then I will be sent back to Kamunting to serve my two years detention order. So it is necessary that I continue being angry and not get sad about things like being under detention on Hari Raya. Anger makes you strong to resist the powers-that-be. Sadness weakens you.

I really don’t know if the Federal Court will uphold the Shah Alam High Court’s decision to free me. If it does, well and good. But if it overturns that decision then you better get ready for a bloody fight, Pak Lah. Sure, the government can ‘legally’ send me back to Kamunting. But I shall be going back there screaming and kicking. The government is going to see a fight never before seen in the history of the almost 50 years of the ISA. And this is no threat. It is a promise. And, as I said, anger is an extremely powerful emotion, which can make you move mountains.

Anyway, that is not the purpose of this open letter. What I want to talk about today is with regards to the current controversy swamping this country, in particular the police brutality issue. This is actually not something new. It has been going on since before Merdeka. When I was a teenager in the 1960s I have personally witnessed and experienced many incidences of police beatings. Your late wife Endon’s brother, Osman, can testify to this. When I got my motorcycle licence at the age of 15 in 1965, my first bike ride was with Osman. I fetched him from your house in Bellamy Road and we went Jackie’s Bowl in Jalan Ampang and got high on weed all night long.

You see, Pak Lah, in those days we used to sport long hair and wear tight trousers and the police somehow became very upset with this ‘fashion statement’. The police would push a bottle down our trousers and if it could not fall to our feet then we would get beaten up. The same applied to our hair. If it dropped over our forehead or touched our ears we would get beaten up as well. So imagine what we had to go through in the 1960s since we had long hair and wore tight trousers. As I said, Osman, the brother of your late wife, can tell you more about this as we used to run in the same pack.

One night in 1965, while waiting at a bus stop along Jalan Ampang (in front of the El Chico next to the AIA building), a few of us -- Tun Dr Siti Hasmah’s nephew, Azlan Aziz, included -- were picked up by the police. Our only ‘crime’ was that we were sitting at the bus stop. The police took us to the High Street Police Station and we were all asked to line up to witness the police beating up a Chinese youth. They beat him real bad and he was coughing blood. I don’t know if he died after that but I would not want to put my money on whether he survived.

It became so bad that whenever we saw the police we would run away. We actually became quite good at it. For example, once, about ten of us were sitting on our bikes in front of the HKL and a police van stopped and about a dozen police jumped out. We leaped on our bikes and managed to escape just as the police were within an arms-length from us. They pursued us along Jalan Tun Razak with little success. Our bike numbers were on the top-ten list of the police’s ‘most wanted’ but they never caught us. We knew if they did they would beat the shit out of us so it was definitely an ‘incentive’ for us to never get caught.

That was how it was back in the 1960s and, trust me, it has not changed one bit. The police still beat the shit out of you if you ever find yourself in the most unfortunate situation of ending up in their lockup. In fact, your Director of the CID, Bakri Zinin, once beat me up in March 2001 in front of my wife and six other detainees and about a dozen police personnel.

My only ‘crime’ was that I had walked into the Dang Wangi Police Station. I had not committed any crime or was under arrest. I had, on my own accord, walked into the police station and Bakri Zinin happened to be in the mood to beat someone up. So he beat me up. After he beat me up he arrested me and kept me overnight in the lockup under no charges whatsoever. That is how your police operate. And these are all Muslims, mind you. I bet they even pray five times a day and their wives wear tudongs. Now do you know why I am most unkind to Muslims? Many are hypocrites of the highest degree.

I know you tried to implement the IPCMC but were prevented from doing so. And the reason you are not able to implement the IPCMC is because the police, whom represent the major portion of postal voters, threatened to vote opposition if you do. (IPCMC: Police threaten to vote for the Opposition).

In the March 2008 general election, the opposition needed only 300,000 more votes to form the federal government. Therefore, if the postal votes had gone to the opposition, Barisan Nasional would have been out of power. To ensure that the postal votes remained with Barisan Nasional you succumbed to the threats and agreed to compromise on the IPCMC.

In that sense, Pak Lah, you are indirectly responsible for the continuing problem of police brutality. What the police are doing is your fault. This is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog and not the dog wagging the tail. Maybe you would like to reconsider your decision on the IPCMC and demonstrate to the nation that you, and not the police, are running this country.

While on the subject of the police, let it be known that the police managed to reduce Pakatan Rakyat’s majority in the recent Kuala Terengganu by-election from more than 7,000 votes to a mere 2,631. And I have this on video if you would like to see the evidence. You know that the opposition’s majority in the Kuala Terengganu by-election was much higher than 2,631. And I am sure this is troubling you to no end. And I am equally sure you know that this is because the people do not want Najib Tun Razak to take over as Prime Minister in March. As much as you may try to deny this you know I am spot on.

At 3.00pm on Polling Day, the police set up ten roadblocks and no one in town could get out nor those outside town could get in. Kuala Terengganu was totally cordoned off and the traffic jams were so massive that the town was reduced to a gridlock. I was arguing with the police at three different locations and, as I said, I have this on video. At one roadblock, when the police told me that this was ‘arahan dari atas’, I responded by saying that ‘kalau orang atas bodoh dan kita ikut arahan tersebut maka kita juga bodoh’. You should have seen the police stare at me. They looked like they wanted to kill me.

By 4.00pm, voting almost ground to a halt and the 74% voter turnout troubled me. 74% was too low and since the SPR had announced earlier that morning that the voter turnout was going to be 80% I was worried that this would mean another 6% or so are going to be ‘phantom voters’. True enough, an hour later, when polling ended, the voter turnout jumped to 81%. It was later ‘adjusted’ to 79%. This means 5% to 7% additional votes came in although no one was voting any longer. This represents about 5,000 votes or thereabouts.

Say what you like, the opposition not only won the Kuala Terengganu by-election, but it won with a large majority. And this was in spite of Najib and his wife campaigning fulltime in Terengganu and the RM500 million that was committed to the by-election effort. No doubt RM400 million was spent indirectly when Najib launched the special investment fund. Nevertheless, this RM400 million was still for purposes of the by-election and no one can deny this.

Mind you, the RM500 million is just my conservative estimate. It could be more. But it still makes the Kuala Terengganu by-election the most expensive by-election in Malaysian history and yet Barisan Nasional lost, whether it was by 2,631 votes or 7,631 votes. The police air-conditioned tents alone came to RM10 million. The food, at about RM50 to RM60 per day per person over three weeks, came to another RM10 million. Then there was the outstation allowance and so on. I estimate the cost of stationing 8,000 police personnel in Kuala Terengganu over three weeks at about RM25 million to RM30 million. And it could actually be more considering the normal ‘leakages’ in government expenditure.

Then there are the many free dinners and the RM300 to RM1,000 ‘Ang Pows’ for the 80,000 or so voters. Even the press people received RM300 Ang Pows each, though none were offered to the Bloggers, for whatever reason I do not know.

Are you happy, Pak Lah, that Najib spent about RM500 million in the most expensive by-election in Malaysian history and Barisan Nasional still lost? How does this reflect on the confidence the people have in Najib? Do you know that the ‘battle-cry’ in the Kuala Terengganu by-election was the song ‘Najib Altantuya Mongolia’ sung to the tune ‘When the Saints Come Marching in’? Young Malays from the kampong who you would least expect to know this ‘Christian’ song were singing this song.

Yes, say what you like, the Kuala Terengganu by-election was not a by-election. It was a vote of no confidence against Najib. And it was the Malays who voted against Najib -- and young Malays at that, Malays from the kampong. Did not Musa Hitam and Ghafar Baba, both one-time Deputy Prime Ministers, say that Umno’s strength is in the rural areas and that Umno needs to gain the support of the kampong Malays to stay in power? Well, the kampong Malays have spoken on 21 January 2009 in the Kuala Terengganu by-election. I am just not sure whether you heard them; that’s all. If you did not then I am telling you now. The young Malays from the kampong have said no to Najib. Do you still want to ignore this message and doom Umno to the political graveyard?

There is much more I need to tell you but allow me to end my open letter here, for the meantime. I now need to go attend the PKR Chinese New year open house in Kelang and go hassle Anwar Ibrahim on this Anti-ISA thing that I want the five Pakatan Rakyat states to commit themselves to.

Till we talk again, take care, as there are many surrounding you with daggers drawn -- which makes Julius Caesar’s predicament a picnic by comparison. Is it not ironical that in your present situation you can trust your enemies more than your friends? Anyway, once again, Kong Hee Fatt Choy, Pak Lah.

Yours truly,

Raja Petra Al Haj Bin Raja Kamarudin


Previous posting: An open letter to Pak Lah

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Here's to a SUPERCHARGED Year of the Bull!

Happy Lunar New Year, Folks! Let's make this a supercharged year...

We won't take any more bull from the BN!

BONSAI FART PHOO & ALL GOOD WISHES FOR ABUNDANCE (Remember, there IS no "scarcity" apart from that created by the greedy!)