Ahad, 6 Oktober 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Hong Kong journalists kicked out of APEC for shouting at Aquino
Sri Lanka's first elected Tamil chief minister to be sworn in
Typhoon Fitow slams into China

Hong Kong journalists kicked out of APEC for shouting at Aquino

Posted:

Nusa Dua (Indonesia) (AFP): APEC hosts Indonesia on Monday denied stifling press freedom after withdrawing the credentials of several Hong Kong journalists for shouting questions at the Philippine leader, insisting that they had posed a security threat.

Despite protests from Hong Kong's main journalist group, President Benigno Aquino's spokesman also said the journalists had "crossed the line" by aggressively questioning him about a hostage siege in Manila that left eight Hong Kong people dead in 2010.

"We deemed it improper for media to act that way, as they didn't talk normally but they were very demonstrative, like they were protesting," Gatot Dewa Broto, the Indonesian communications ministry official who is in charge of the APEC media centre in Bali, told AFP.

"So we did this due to security concerns," he said, adding that the press badges of four Hong Kong journalists had been deactivated.

They were free to remain in Bali, but could no longer access the media centre or venues being used for the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the official said.

Hong Kong media said at least nine people, including journalists and technicians, were affected from Now TV, RTHK and Commercial Radio.

As Aquino entered a meeting of APEC business leaders on Sunday, the reporters demanded to know whether he would meet Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying in Bali and apologise to the families of the hostage crisis victims.

Now TV footage showed the journalists shouting "So you're ignoring the Hong Kong people, right?" and "Have you met CY Leung" as they tried to reach their microphones over Aquino's entourage.

He did not answer the questions, and APEC staff then intervened to admonish the journalists with one accusing the reporters of "ambushing one of our visitors", Now TV showed.

Sham Yee-lan, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association, said Aquino's government had "yet to provide a satisfactory explanation" for why the eight Hong Kongers died in a botched police rescue and that the journalists in Bali were doing their job.

"The barring of the media for asking critical questions is an outright infringement of press freedom that is totally unacceptable," she said in a statement.

But Aquino's spokesman Ricky Carandang said the journalists had crossed an ethical boundary.

"As a former journalist I know what it's like to aggressively question a subject," he told AFP in Bali.

"The behaviour of these reporters crossed the line from mere questioning to heckling, and was even construed by Indonesian security personnel assigned to the president as a potential physical threat to him," he said.

Sri Lanka's first elected Tamil chief minister to be sworn in

Posted:

Colombo (AFP) - Sri Lanka's first elected Tamil chief minister will be sworn in by President Mahinda Rajapakse Monday after a bitter election campaign, despite pressure from supporters to boycott the ceremony, his party said.

C. V. Wigneswaran's opposition Tamil party won a landslide victory in polls for a provincial council held last month in the former war zone.

The election was hailed internationally as a step towards ethnic reconciliation after decades of bloodshed.

The election, in which Wigneswaran's Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won 30 out of 38 seats, was the first in the battled-scarred northern region since the councils were formed 26 years ago.

But the campaign was marred by claims Rajapakse deployed troops to intimidate and attack minority Tamil supporters and candidates and scare off voters on polling day, to try to increase the chances of his own Sinhalese party.

In a sign of goodwill, Wigneswaran will go ahead with the oath of office at Rajapakse's official residence in Colombo on Monday morning, despite the pressure to stay away, a TNA leader said Sunday.

"Most of our supporters are dead against being sworn in before the president," said Dharmalingam Sithadthan, a TNA member elected to the Northern Province council in the September 21 polls.

"We have decided to show our goodwill. We have a desire to work together," Sithadthan told AFP.

President Rajapakse, whose party has denied claims of voter intimidation, has accused Wigneswaran of raising expectations of a separate state for minority Tamils before and after the election victory.

Elections were promised after councils were formed in 1987 in a bid to address Tamil demands for greater autonomy in exchange for an end to the separatist conflict. But continued fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and the military meant they were never held.

Rajapakse's troops crushed the rebels in May 2009 and he declared an end to 37 years of ethnic bloodshed, in which at least 100,000 people were killed, according to UN estimates.

India's External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is due in Colombo on Monday at the start of a two-day visit. He is scheduled to meet newly elected members of the council as well as the president, officials said.

New Delhi supported devolution of power to Sri Lanka's Tamils, who share close cultural and religious ties with Tamils in southern India. It has stressed the need for "genuine reconciliation" with Tamils after the war.

Typhoon Fitow slams into China

Posted:

Beijing (AFP) - Typhoon Fitow slammed into the east coast of China Monday after thousands of people were evacuated to safety and weather authorities issued their highest alert level.

The storm, packing winds of up to 151 kilometres (94 miles) an hour, made landfall in Fujian province in the early hours, bringing lashing rain and causing widespread blackouts, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

It was expected to continue northwest but weaken quickly, the National Meteorological Centre said.

In Zhejiang province's coastal Cangnan County some houses collapsed in the strong winds, according to flood control authorities, while a boy was injured by flying glass.

As the storm bore down Sunday, the National Meteorological Centre issued a red alert, its highest level. In Zhejiang 574,000 people were evacuated, while in Fujian 177,000 were displaced, Xinhua reported.

Two port workers in Zhejiang's city of Wenzhou went missing and may have fallen into the sea, the agency said, as authorities were urged to check the safety of dams, reservoirs and chemical plants.

The storm also forced the suspension of bullet train services in several cities in Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces Sunday, while Wenzhou's airport cancelled 27 flights, Xinhua said.

Chinese maritime authorities also issued red alerts, warning of storm tides and waves, with fishermen urged to return to port and local authorities told to prepare harbour facilities and sea walls for high tides.

In Zhejiang more than 35,000 boats returned to harbour while in Fujian nearly 30,000 vessels were called back, according to Xinhua.

Named after a flower from Micronesia, Fitow comes just two weeks after Typhoon Usagi wreaked havoc in the region leaving at least 25 reported dead in southern China.

Fitow, which Xinhua described as the 23rd to hit China this year, arrived after passing through Japan's southern Okinawan island chain and surging past the north of Taiwan, causing flight and ferry cancellations. - AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

U.S., Russia to urge U.N. to set November date for Syria peace talks - Kerry
Corruption curse follows India's Congress party to the polls
China warns U.S., Japan, Australia not to gang up in sea disputes

U.S., Russia to urge U.N. to set November date for Syria peace talks - Kerry

Posted:

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - The United States and Russia have agreed to press the United Nations to set a date for a Syria peace conference sometime in the second week of November, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday after talks with his Russian counterpart.

"We will urge a date to be set as soon as possible," Kerry told reporters at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Kerry also said that the start of the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria was a "good beginning" and, in unusual praise for Damascus, said Syria's government should be given credit for complying with a recent U.N. resolution to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal.

"I am not going to vouch today for what happens months down the road but it is a good beginning, and we should welcome a good beginning," he added.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Corruption curse follows India's Congress party to the polls

Posted:

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - For two decades, Lalu Prasad Yadav was a giant on India's political stage. He ran a state of 100 million people, he took charge of the country's massive rail network and his party was a crucial prop for the shaky coalition government in New Delhi.

Yadav managed all this despite a constant whiff of corruption around him. Indeed, he liked to thumb his nose at the law, riding triumphantly on the back of an elephant after a brief spell behind bars in 1997 as a crowd of admirers cheered.

Last week, a court sentenced Yadav to five years in prison for his part in a multi-million-dollar embezzlement case.

It was a landmark moment in a country where public disgust with corrupt politicians is finally starting to bite. Voters could throw the ruling Congress party out of power at the next general election, due by next May, for presiding over one of the most sleaze-ridden periods in the country's history.

An opinion poll in August said the party's parliamentary strength could drop to about 125 out of 543 elected seats. Currently it has 206, and rules with the help of coalition allies.

"Endgame of India's unclean politics," Kiran Bedi, a former police chief and now an anti-corruption activist, tweeted cheerily after Yadav was bundled off to jail last week.

The popular outrage has also spawned a clutch of new parties committed to ending the nexus between politics and crime, and - for the first time in quarter of a century - it has put corruption firmly on the agenda for national polls.

SWEEPING AWAY THE MUCK

Probity has never been the strongest suit of the world's largest democracy. A staggering 30 percent of lawmakers across federal and state legislatures face criminal charges, many for serious crimes such as rape, murder and kidnapping.

Politicians and gangsters have long been bedfellows, not least because of the dirty money that fuels political campaigns. More than 90 percent of funding for the two main national parties, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, comes from unknown sources, according to the advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms.

Yet, only once in India's history has the public been exercised enough about graft to boot a government out for shady dealings. That was in 1989, when a kickbacks scandal over the purchase of artillery guns from Sweden's Bofors contributed to an election defeat for Congress and its then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

The scandals have come thick and fast on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's watch in the last few years.

There was a huge scam over the sale of the 2G mobile spectrum, which Time magazine listed as number 2 on its "Top 10 Abuses of Power", behind the Watergate scandal. New Delhi's botched hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games led to dozens of corruption cases, and then the government was hit by a furore over the allocation of coal deposits now known as "Coalgate".

All this has prompted the emergence of an anti-corruption movement, one that swelled in 2011 with huge protests led by Anna Hazare, who styled himself as a crusader in the mould of independence hero Mahatma Gandhi.

The outcry has continued since then, rattling the government, in part because much of it comes from the urban middle-class, a traditionally apolitical bloc whose sudden engagement could shatter electoral calculations.

A Lowy Institute poll of Indian citizens in May found that 92 percent thought corruption had increased over the past five years, and even more believed that reducing corruption should be a top priority for their government.

A newly formed party, the Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party, has tapped into the angst over sleaze. The AAP chose a broom as its symbol, to suggest it is sweeping the muck out of politics. In a video game launched last week, the party's leader navigates the corruption-plagued streets of the capital wielding a broom.

An increasingly activist judiciary has added to the clamour to rid politics of criminals.

In July, the Supreme Court decreed that lawmakers convicted of a serious crime would immediately forfeit their seats, closing off a loophole that had allowed politicians to stay on during appeals, which can drag on for years in India.

Last month, the court ordered the Election Commission to introduce a "none-of-the-above" choice for voters, allowing them to reject unsavoury characters instead of choosing the best of a rotten bunch.

The AAP, which is expected to disrupt the usual two-party race in a Delhi state election next month, is just one of several parties to be set up on an anti-corruption platform.

Among them is the Nav Bharat (New India) Democratic Party of Rajendra Misra, who gave up various business interests to join public service seven years ago. He worked with the main national parties to improve policy and governance, but was disillusioned by the venality around him and finally decided to go it alone.

"India isn't a poor country. It's a poorly managed country," says Misra, who is planning to stand in next year's election.

There will be many election first-timers like him: young white-collar working professionals challenging a system where political seats are mostly occupied by old men and handed down to next generations like family heirlooms.

The upstarts have their work cut out for them in a country where votes are still cast along community lines rather than by ideology, and where mainstream parties are flush with cash.

Milan Vaishnav of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says the chances of a criminal candidate winning an election are three times better than others, and money is not the only explanation.

"Candidates often use their criminality as a sign of their credibility to protect the interests of their parochial community," Vaishnav said, saying that voters sometimes choose criminals not despite of their criminality, but because of it.

Shekhar Tiwari, a co-founder of the Nav Bharat Democratic Party, recognises the enormity of the task facing the anti-corruption challengers. "Some of what we say sounds like a dream. But if we don't dream, nothing is possible," he says.

"TORN UP AND THROWN OUT"

Still, a recent drama in the Congress party, which is led by Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, showed which way the wind is blowing.

Prime Minister Singh's cabinet issued an executive order allowing convicted lawmakers to continue to hold office and stand in elections, in essence defying the Supreme Court. Critics said the move was aimed at shielding allies - such as Yadav - whom the Congress may need to form a ruling coalition after the elections.

As brickbats flew, Rahul Gandhi - the Congress party's likely candidate for prime minister and scion of the dynasty - stunned and embarrassed his own colleagues in a rare public outburst, calling for the order to be "torn up and thrown out".

A few days later, humiliated and looking divided, the government withdrew the decree.

"Rahul did that because he is convinced that this would destroy the tattered remnants of Congress' credibility," said Prem Shankar Jha, a political analyst. "Had this gone through, Congress would no longer be a victim of the criminalisation of politics but would be a patron of it."

(Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

China warns U.S., Japan, Australia not to gang up in sea disputes

Posted:

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China said on Monday the United States, Australia and Japan should not use their alliance as an excuse to intervene in territorial disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea, and urged them to refrain from inflaming regional tensions.

On Friday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised the maritime disputes during a trilateral strategic dialogue in Bali, Indonesia.

Relations between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies, have been troubled in recent years by a row over tiny, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

In the South China Sea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and China are involved in long-standing sovereignty disputes over the potentially oil- and gas-rich island chain.

A joint statement from the U.S.-Japan-Australia meeting opposed "coercive or unilateral actions" that could change the status quo in the East China Sea and called on claimants to maritime disputes in the South China Sea to refrain from destabilising actions, according to the State Department website.

"The United States, Japan and Australia are allies but this should not become an excuse to interfere in territorial disputes, otherwise it will only make the problems more complicated and harm the interests of all parties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday.

"We urge the relevant countries to respect facts, distinguish right from wrong, be cautious, and stop all words and deeds that are not beneficial to the proper handling of the issue and undermine regional stability," she said in comments on the ministry website.

The U.S.-Japan-Australia meeting took place on the sidelines of an annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Separately, another Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, voiced China's opposition to Kishida's raising of maritime security at an informal breakfast meeting with foreign ministers, saying that it has long been considered inappropriate to discuss issues of political security or sensitive and controversial topics at APEC.

"There has not been a problem with freedom and security of navigation in this region for a long time," Qin said in another statement released late on Sunday.

"Playing up so-called maritime security issue goes against real efforts for the freedom and security of navigation."

(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business

Money can't buy me love
One-stop property portal, StarProperty.my, aims to transform marketing of developer properties
Prices of hybrid cars may go up

Money can't buy me love

Posted:

Indeed, love is a many-splendored thing. When we are passionately in love, nothing really matters in the world. But when the romance settles and financial issues start to pile up, can love be thrown out of the window?

MONEY certainly can't buy us love but it can to some extent, prevent financial struggles.

I have seen many relationships fall apart due to mismanagement of family finances.

Arguments about money can also multiply into other emotional issues.

That is why financial planning must start as early as family planning.

Couples must make time to ensure that money issues do not stand in the way of their relationship and their family goals.

In managing family finances, both partners need to be financially responsible and
accountable.

There are many instances in a marriage that one of the partners takes charge of the finances.

Usually he or she is the one with more financial knowledge and experience, the so called "Finance Minister"of the home, whilst the other partner is left tofocus on other family matters.

This sort of arrangement can be beneficial as different partners focus on different areas in their family life.

However, it is advisable that the financially astute partner shares with his better half what he or she does with the family finances so that his partner is more aware of where the family money goes to and learns to be more financially literate.

This becomes especially important in the unfortunate event where the "Home Finance Minister" passes away first or becomes unable to manage the family funds.

Manycouples make the mistake of leaving the family financial matters to solely one partner and the surviving partner becomes "financially incapacitated" due to financial inexperience.

Involving your partner in the family's finances must stretch beyond just having joint accounts to updating your partner about your loans, retirement plans, insurance policies, wills, and where important documents are kept.

If you hire a financial planner to assist you, make sure your better half is included in most of your discussions.

We have often heard that the love of money is the root of all evils.

Conversely, the lack of it can be so too.

Think about it.

One-stop property portal, StarProperty.my, aims to transform marketing of developer properties

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: Consumers looking to buy real estate can now turn to StarProperty.my to get a one-stop, holistic look into the dynamic Malaysian primary property market.

"There's a gap in the market for this," said the Star Media Group's general manager of new media, Timothy Hor (pic).

"There's a lot of clutter on the Internet and it's not easy to find the right information. People have no place to go to for a holistic, comprehensive view of all the latest developer properties and launches."

Using simple and clear processes, the newly revamped portal will, at a glance, give users an overall view of all the options out there for a rich and interactive experience. All information will be linked to the comprehensive stream of news supplied by the Star Media Group.

StarProperty.my is targeted at all property buyers, from first timers and upgraders to investors and foreign buyers.

StarProperty.my will also help developers in their marketing sales efforts. "This would transform property marketing," said Hor.

"Our purpose is to help our customers reach, engage and convert effectively," he added. "No one else can reach as pervasively as we can, being the number one English newspaper and news portal, coupled with our other media channels like radio, television and web."

"You can even book units online through our e-booking facility," pointed out Hor. "No need to elbow other people in sales galleries, go to all ends of the Klang Valley to attend previews or queue up at ballots. You can get straight to your desired unit, including the floor, view and layout you want, from the comfort of your computer."

The portal's mobile app, meanwhile, will utilise the latest technologies to provide users with customised, location-based information. "We have a lot up our sleeves. We believe it will contribute to a much more efficient and healthy property market."

Those wanting to experience the new StarProperty.my are invited to attend its launch at the upcoming Star Property Fair to be held from Nov 8 to 10 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

The fair will feature the latest projects from over 30 top developers, including S P Setia Bhd, Mah Sing Group Bhd, UEM Sunrise Bhd, Eco World Development Sdn Bhd, Sime Darby Property Bhd, Tropicana Corp Bhd, Putrajaya Holdings Sdn Bhd, IOI Properties Bhd, Berjaya Land Bhd, PJ Development Holdings Bhd, Hap Seng Land, Land & General Bhd, LBS Bina Group Bhd and OSK Property Holdings Bhd, among others.

Financial institutions will also be at hand to give loan advice, while the itinerary includes talks by experts on property investment, home ownership schemes, home design and feng shui.

Prices of hybrid cars may go up

Posted:

Hybrid car prices may go up

Import, excise duties on hybrid cars expiring by year-end

PETALING JAYA: Sales of hybrid vehicles might be dented should the Government decide not to extend the exemption of import and excise duties on hybrid cars that would be expiring at the end of the year. The move will drive up prices of these models.

Industry players are expecting the Government to continue with the exemption for locally assembled completely knocked-down (CKD) hybrid vehicles but not for imported completely built-up (CBU) hybrid cars.

An industry player who declined to be named said the main hybrid car distributors, UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd and Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd, are preparing for the impact of the exemption withdrawal.

"There might be a possibility of withdrawing the exemption for CBU cars as this would be in line with the Government's aspiration to promote the country as a manufacturing hub for energy efficient vehicles (EEVs)," he said.

This would be in Honda Malaysia's favour, as it is the only one with hybrid vehicle CKD assembly operations in the country. The Honda Jazz Hybrid is assembled in Malacca.

Recently, Honda Malaysia managing director and chief executive officer Yoichiro Ueno urged the Government to consider extending the incentive for CKD hybrid units.

UMW Toyota also hopes the tax incentives would be extended.

"Without the tax incentives, hybrid cars would not be as attractively priced. More time is also needed to educate the public and improve awareness on these eco-friendly cars. We are also seriously looking at introducing new Toyota hybrids in Malaysia, or local assembly operations with the right incentives," said UMW Toyota Motor president Datuk Ismet Suki recently.

Hybrid cars have enjoyed tremendous sales growth in the past few years, after the Government introduced full import duty and excise duty exemptions for hybrid and electric cars and motorcycles two years ago under Budget 2011. The incentive applies to both CKD as well as CBU units.

According to Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) numbers, sales of hybrid vehicles were negligible before the exemption with just 322 units recorded in 2010. This changed dramatically in 2011, with sales surging to 8,403 units.

It doubled to 15,355 units last year as more hybrid models were launched in the market. The hybrid car sales came from four marques, namely Honda (8,712 units), Toyota (5,653 units), Lexus (979 units) and Porsche (11 units).

"As of July 2013, the country recorded 8,571 units of hybrid vehicle sales. EEVs would still be in demand if the models were priced competitively," said MAA president Datuk Aishah Ahmad.

At a roundtable discussion held recently in conjunction with the KL International Motor Show 2013, she expressed hope that the incentive would be extended.

"At the same time when we talk about EEVs like electric vehicles, the infrastructure must be in place before sales. The Government should let industry players know the timeframe to introduce better quality fuel. We could then relay the message to our principals, and draft up plans to introduce more fuel efficient vehicles into the country," she said.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

Ghana must go

Posted:

Sometimes, a writer needs to get out of the way of the story.

TAIYE Selasi's debut novel, Ghana Must Go, tells the story of the Sais, a fractured Ghanaian-Nigerian family that comes back together following the death of family patriarch Kweku Sai.

Having been fired (in a racially influenced incident) from his position as a top surgeon in America, Kweku goes back to Ghana, so humiliated that he cannot face his wife and four children.

Wife Fola eventually moves back to Ghana as well, but not to where Kweku is living, while oldest son Olu follows in his father's footsteps and becomes a gifted and skilled surgeon – although he hides his marriage to his long-term same sex partner from everyone in his life.

The youngest child, Sadie, is a vivacious dancer with a photographic memory who later becomes bulimic.

Taiwo and Kehinde, the fraternal twins and middle children, are by far the most complex characters in the book, described as beautiful and gorgeous, but hiding a dark secret from the world.

The problem with Selasi's writing is that she often times becomes so caught up in describing things or events that the reader gets lost in the sheer wordiness of the narrative.

For example, when Kweku is dying, his attention is caught by the beauty of his garden. Which is then described in great detail – "Now the whole garden glittering, winking and tittering like schoolgirls who hush themselves, blushing, as their beloveds approach: glittering mango tree, monarch, teeming being at the center with her thick bright green leaves and her bright yellow eggs."

This exhaustingly detailed description makes it very difficult for the reader to stay focused on the fact that the man is actually dying! Instead, the mind wanders and the reader finds herself lost and needing to start again.

This does not help the book's overall slow start and leaves the reader wondering what exactly Selasi is trying to say.

It also disengages the reader from the characters during what should be emotional and impactful moments.

There are some parts of the book that were also a little difficult to believe, such as Kweku hiding the fact that he had been fired for almost a year – and Fola is none the wiser. In this, I think Selasi seriously short-changed Fola's character.

Throughout the book, she is described as strong, intelligent, with an indomitable will. Yet, after Kweku's abandonment, she cannot cope with four children and sends the twins to her half-brother (with whom she definitely does not share a good relationship).

It is difficult to believe that Fola, who had once been offered a full scholarship to law school, didn't even try to get scholarships for her brilliant and gifted children – this is how they are described – and instead chooses to send them away to her estranged half-brother who is a drug lord.

There are moments like this scattered throughout the book, making it seem that Selasi herself is not too sure about her characters' personalities and limits. And if the author herself has trouble, how is the reader supposed to understand or empathise with the characters?

The second half of the book is thankfully much more fast-paced than the first, with Selasi attempting to fill in the huge gaps left in the first half.

It almost seems as if there were two different Selasis writing this book – one drawn to elaborate phrases and caught up in the aesthetics of her words, and one who is just trying to tell the story.

To be honest, it would have been better if the latter showed up earlier in the novel because it would have made the story a lot more interesting and gripping.

Ghana Must Go is not a bad book. But alas, it's not a great book either.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

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The Star Online: Nation

Nasi kandar goes airborne on Malindo Air flights
Taxi driver brutally beaten after accident
Duo may have been kidnap victims

Nasi kandar goes airborne on Malindo Air flights

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: If you have enjoyed satay and chicken rice on a flight, there are more local dishes to savour now.

Malindo Air is serving nasi kandar, spicy chicken and mutton curry, chicken kurma and achar on board its flights – a first for an airline – prepared specially by the popular Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar restaurant chain.

The nasi kandar meals are free in Business Class and priced at RM12 each for economy class passengers.

"Travellers do not really like airline food so we decided to source for something different and since we introduced the nasi kandar meals last month, it has become the top selling meal on all our jet flights,'' said Malindo chief executive officer Chandran Rama Muthy.

Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar managing director Burhan Mohamed said this was the chain's first such arrangement with a commercial airline.

"We have been catering nasi kandar meals for VVIPs on private jets,'' he said during a flight to Langkawi.

Burhan operates eight nasi kandar outlets in the country – one in Penang and seven in the Klang Valley.

Malindo passengers are given a 10% discount for a limited period for meals at the eight restaurants but they must show their boarding passes within 24 hours of their travel.

Malindo is Malaysia's third airline which calls itself a hybrid airline – the in-between of full service and low cost airline – because it provides light snacks on board, offers 20kg free baggage, and free in-flight entertainment.

Malindo began operations seven months ago and now flies from Subang and KL International Airport.

"Next, we are looking at introducing mamak mee goreng but that requires more planning,'' Chandran said.

Malaysia Airlines has been serving its award-winning satay for several years now, while AirAsia serves the famous Hainanese Chicken Rice on its flights.

Taxi driver brutally beaten after accident

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: A taxi driver was beaten up so badly by a road bully that he is now fighting for his life and may face permanent paralysis.

Hiew Chen Guang (pic), 66, is now in coma at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) as doctors struggle to save his life.

Chen Guang was driving his taxi along Old Klang Road at about 7am on Sept 30 when he accidentally hit a motorcyclist in front of him.

However, eyewitnesses said that as he was in the middle of a traffic light junction, he decided to drive a short distance away before stopping.

They also said they later saw a second man on a different, larger motorcycle drag him out and start raining punches on him.

Chen fell unconscious on the road before passers-by called an ambulance.

Chen Guang's son, Hiew Chun Wei, 37, said his father had a broken nose, severe bruises on his face and internal bleeding in the head.

"The doctors tried to stop the bleeding by performing an operation a few days ago but it has not stopped. If it continues, he will be in a vegetative state or may never wake up from his coma," he said yesterday.

Chun Wei added that it was unclear if the two motorcyclists knew each other as the first motorcyclist claimed in his police report that he did not see the beating.

Duo may have been kidnap victims

Posted:

IPOH: Two friends who were found dead in a car boot at the south-bound Alor Pongsu rest area were believed to have been kidnapped in Penang.

Seu Hong Chee, 19, from Tangkak in Johor and Ting Liong Chin, 28, from Sabah were reported missing on Oct 2 from Nibong Tebal by a friend.

Their bodies were found tied with a rope on Friday, and their heads wrapped in plastic bags. There were bruises caused by a blunt object on them.

According to sources, the victims were salesmen for a hardware chain based in Kuala Lumpur, but Seu was transferred to the Penang outlet a few months ago.

On Oct 2, he and Ting went to collect a debt from a client in Jawi in Penang, in the same car in which they were found dead.

A source said they had called their office when they reached their destination, but they could not be contacted when a colleague tried to reach them after that.

After several attempts, the colleague lodged a police report.

Perak CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Mohd Dzuraidi Ibrahim said Penang police arrested three men in their 20s and 30s on Friday and yesterday in connection with the murders.

SAC Mohd Dzuraidi said a post-mortem at the Raja Permaisuri Hospital here showed that Seu was strangled while Ting suffocated from having his head covered with the plastic bag.

Both the Perak and Penang police are investigating the motive behind the murders, and trying to determine whether this was a case of a kidnap gone awry.

"We are trying to find out how the car with the bodies ended up in Perak," SAC Mohd Dzuraidi told reporters here yesterday.

The families of the victims identified the bodies at the hospital's mortuary at about 11.30am yesterday.

A relative of Seu said that when family members learnt of his disappearance, some of them put up his photograph on their Facebook page, asking if anyone had seen him.

Ting's family members declined to speak to reporters.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

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Free app to detect colour blindness

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PARENTS will soon be able to tell within minutes if their young children are colour blind, with a simple game available as a free app from next month.

Designed by National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers for children between the ages of three and six, the game requires them to "catch" butterflies of matching colours by tapping a screen.

Those who are colour blind would consistently select different butterflies since they are unable to tell the difference between red and green, for instance.

A study on 32 children by the Singapore National Eye Centre this year found that the game, believed to be a world first, was as effective as existing tests in identifying red-green colour blindness, the most common variant.

A 2008 local study of more than 1,200 teenagers here found that 5.3% of boys and just 0.2% of girls were colour blind.

The game makes early detection of the condition in pre-school children possible, and in a fun way, said Dr Ellen Do, co-director of the Keio-NUS Connective Ubiquitous Technology for Embodiments (Cute) Centre.

Most would otherwise be too young to take standard colour blindness exams such as the Ishihara test, which requires them to make out numbers hidden in a group of coloured dots.

This is important because children begin learning using colours in kindergarten, said the game's designer Nguyen Linh Chi.

"They may get scolded by teachers and parents if they cannot complete a colouring task, but no one knows they are colour blind," she said. "They may begin to lose self-confidence."

Early detection would also prevent parents from wrongly thinking that their children have a learning disability if they struggle in school, added Dr Do.

Their views were echoed by Professor Saw Seang Mei, an eye disease expert from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.

"If a child has colour blindness, it's good to know early. It may have an impact – not just on their visual function – but also emotionally and mentally, like how they cope in school."

She added that the new game app would make it more convenient for parents to test their children, rather than wait for a formal screening.

Colour blindness is caused by faulty cones in the eye's retina that help tell colours apart.

The free app will be available from next month on the Apple App Store. A version for Android may be developed in the future. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

Big Brother is always watching

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Thanks to modern technology, it is very easy for governments to spy on their people.

T Aipeh: Big Brother is watching you" – The horror of being constantly spied on by the government, as depicted by George Orwell in his famous novel 1984 seems to have become reality in Taiwan.

It is nothing new that a ruler would want to spy on his people. A dictator may be anxious to take total control of the country; a president may want to know what moves his or her political rivals are plotting. Spying may be done in the name of crime prevention; it may be needed to enhance public safety, or against infiltration by foreign enemies or terrorist attacks.

We've seen many examples of governments spying on their people throughout history.

Queen Elizabeth I is believed to have run an extensive network of spies working for her. Christopher Marlowe, one of the greatest English playwrights of her reign, is said to have been a government spy.

Perhaps it is because of England's strong tradition of the government watching its people that it was the 18th century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham who put forward the concept of the panopticon, a watch tower at the centre of a prison where inmates' cells are arranged in a circle around the tower.

The idea is to make it easy for the prison guards to watch the inmates. And the beauty, or horror, of that design is that inmates constantly feel they are being watched – whether there actually are prison guards inside the tower may be irrelevant.

Orwell wrote 1984 in defiance of that panopticon tradition but, ironically, modern-day London has the most public surveillance cameras in the world, watching every corner of the city. It is just a step shy of the panopticonic vision, as citizens are still not watched at home. But do they really have the privacy they think they have?

In China, the tradition of the government spying on its people may be as strong as that in England.

The most notorious and fearful spying network in Chinese history was run by eunuchs during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The spies helped the emperors control the government officials and the country, and very often, the emperors themselves were controlled by the spies.

And it is this piece of history that the opposition camp in Taiwan has been frequently alluding to when criticising the Ma administration over the ongoing wiretapping row.

Spying is of course nothing new in Taiwan. Wiretapping of civilians by the military and law enforcement units – whether legal or illegal – has often been conducted.

Not long ago, when Taiwan was still technically at war with China, its people were constantly reminded of the threat and possibility that communist spies were around them.

Such a propaganda move actually turned each and every one of the citizens into a spy for the government as they suspected and monitored one another.

Now, like London, many big cities in Taiwan have installed public surveillance cameras supposedly for crime-prevention purposes.

And thanks to modern technology, it is very easy for governments to spy on their people. Phone conversations can be easily monitored and recorded. All Internet activities are recorded by service providers.

The Edward Snowden controversy has revealed that the US government has been spying on its people over the Internet. Internet firms' transparency reports have shown that many governments have asked them for user information. Taiwan is among those governments.

The requests for information from Internet firms may be legitimate, but it highlights the fact that few can really escape Big Brother. You think your home shields you from the surveillance cameras on the streets, but when you log onto Facebook or any other social media, or surf the Net, you are being watched.

Big Brother is really watching, and the panopticon is really working – both enabled by modern technology.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

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Ian Teh travels to the edge

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Malaysia-born, London-based photographer Ian Teh talks about ambiguity in landscapes and creating moving storylines within still images.

THREADS of narratives can be found all around us; being able to retell them through images is what holds true for documentary photographer Ian Teh. A glance at his work will tell you as much – with an eye for capturing ideas and concepts, rather than just still life or breathtaking sceneries, Teh has the ability to tell stories that extend far beyond the frames of his photographs.

Born in Petaling Jaya, Selangor but bred in England, Teh has developed a visual style that speaks of his keen interest in social, environmental and political issues. A collective exploration of his discoveries in the post-industrial landscapes of China can be seen in his book, Traces: Dark Clouds, which juxtaposes cold hinterland panoramas with a selection of moodier, but more intimate, human-focused imageries.

"When you watch a film, there's always sound and the pictures move. Directors can play with time sequences and show the same narrative but at different perspectives. That's something that we don't have in photography. So I'm always trying to explore more novel ways of telling visual stories; just finding different ways of recreating that drama," says Teh, 42.

His portfolio has been featured and exhibited in publications such as Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker and The Independent Magazine. In 2001, he was awarded a place in the prestigious Joop Swart Masterclass, being one among the 12 young promising photographers who were given the chance to learn from some of the most experienced individuals in photojournalism.

Teh's work was also highly commended for the Prix Pictet prize in 2009 and 2010 – the prize is the world's leading award dedicated to photography and sustainability. In 2010, literary magazine Granta published a 10-year retrospective of his work in China.

Documentary photographer Ian Teh finds his calling in threading narratives through the pictures he takes.

Awarded with the Emergency Fund from the Magnum Foundation in 2011, Teh went on to document some of the most industrialised areas in China at the Yellow River Basin, where rapid development has come at a significant environmental cost.

Inspired by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson and American photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, Teh already had his sights set on pursuing a career in photography by the time he was 18.

"Bresson coined the term 'the decisive moment'. One of his famous lines was: 'To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.' At my young age, that sounded really poetic. And then I also came across Smith's work on the Minamata Disease – mercury poisoning at the factories in the smaller towns of Japan. His commitment to that cause really moved me.

"Between Smith and Bresson, it made me realise that there was a way to satisfy our creative urges and generate a positive impact through the things we do. Those two guys did that and at the same time, carved a living out of it."

Teh's first encounter with the gritty world of photojournalism came when he travelled to China and stayed on for six months, shortly after graduating with a degree in graphic design.

"I had just won a photography competition and was given a camera and travel money. I chose a country where I couldn't speak the language, and there was nobody there whom I knew. I was partly fascinated by China's past histories and philosophies. And me being Chinese, it was about my heritage as well. Initially, I had just planned for a two-month trip but I ended up travelling for six months. By the time I came back, I was well-versed enough to have basic conversations in Mandarin. I enjoyed that experience so much that I felt like it didn't really matter if I wasn't earning a living from it just yet. I was willing to explore it for a few years more to see where it would take me."

A photo from the 'Dark Clouds' series, taken in Tai Yuan, Shanxi, China, 2006. An employee from a coal mine plays pool late in the night after work. Many workers in the coal industry come from farming communities in the countryside. Driven by poverty, they leave their homes to seek jobs in the coal industry.

Teh kept at it for three years – a journey he describes as his "education" in photography. "I came back broke; I went back out again and I just kept doing it for three years. In the end I learned that it was not just about capturing the one nice image, but how I could weave narratives into a series of images."

Teh operates largely with film – the M6 Leica and Fuji 617 being his machines of choice – except during client commissions, when digital serves as a more practical platform. "For my personal work, I enjoy working with film. What I like is the discipline and the creative process that comes with waiting; there's a longer period of time for consideration and reflection. On the aesthetic level, there's also a quality about it that's just more human."

His photo work on Merging Boundaries, which is currently showcasing at the Leica Store Malaysia in Avenue K, Kuala Lumpur till Oct 27, was shot entirely with the Leica. The solo exhibition, Teh's first in the country, is a collection of visuals depicting his 1,000km road trip exploring the Sino-Russian-North Korean border from 2004 to 2007.

In his process of crafting the photo essay, Teh discovered the inner workings of a bar in China catering only to Russians, and witnessed the peculiarity of Chinese tourists whose idea of a holiday meant traversing to the border for a breather, and a glimpse at the North Korean perimeters on the other side.

With a workshop coming up in Singapore (this follows a five-day workshop in Penang, conducted in June), Teh, who is now a British citizen, has been based in KL for six months now and hopes to be here for the bulk of his future work, which may entail travelling back to the Yellow River in China.

"What I did earlier was just the middle of the river; now I want to go to the source where it's most pristine and beautiful. It'll be about capturing how those places have changed; the price that you pay for a country that's aspiring to have a better life."

As a photographer who strives to innovate with every new picture that he creates, we can't help but wonder if the going ever gets tough, especially when his work, paradoxically, centres on creative interpretations of the monotony felt within the impoverished societies that are his subjects.

"The biggest challenge is always in finding new ways of doing things. Do I ever get tired? If I'm honest – yes, of course. Working for clients is an easier ride. The hardest thing when I'm working on a personal project is about knowing what to put my attention on. When I choose to work on something, it might mean that I keep revisiting the same thing for two or three years, and that's a long time to spend on one body of work. In some ways, I have to keep asking myself if what I'm doing has enough value for it to be worth it."

More info at www.ianteh.com.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

Free app to detect colour blindness
Big Brother is always watching
Without tutors, where would I be?