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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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• Portuguese Settlement community celebrates annual ‘Intrudo’ festival
• Ex-boyfriend giving pastry seller sleepless nights
• SPNB introduces new system for contractors building homes

Portuguese Settlement community celebrates annual ‘Intrudo’ festival Posted: 11 Feb 2013 09:02 PM PST MALACCA: While the Chinese community were ushering in the Lunar New Year of the Snake, residents, visitors and tourists to the Portuguese Settlement were drenched to the skin when the community commemorated its annual traditional festival of "Intrudo". Intrudo which means "introduction" or "coming before" in Cristao, a 16th century Portuguese dialect that is still spoken at the settlement in Ujong Pasir, is a tradition observed faithfully by community members following the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511. The festival is observed on the Sunday preceding Ash Wednesday and prior to the commencement of the season of Lent, a Roman Catholic period of fasting, penance and personal reflection, leading to Easter Sunday (March 31), which is considered the pinnacle of the universal Christian calendar. For George De Mello, 75, a long time resident of the settlement, he emphatically states that the local community elders and leaders deserve pats on their back for keeping the tradition alive and steadfast. He said: "Our ancestors and presently the settlement's elders and; leaders should be lauded for preserving the annual affair minus a break. It is a unique festival in this country and only celebrated here on a grand scale. The significance of splashing on one another is to portray the importance of water to the community at large. Since we were a seafaring people, the sea or water played an important role in our lives. The tradition reminds us of fishing, the prime livelihood of our forefathers," he added. Shortly following the Sunday Eucharistic Celebration at the settlement chapel, adults and children and everyone else in between senior citizens and the elderly, had a whale of a time playing with water in the spirit of the celebration while taking all splashings, dousings and drenchings with a smile and in good spirit. Even those straying within their home compounds were not spared while visitors and tourists hit by the "water crossfire" took all and sundry in their stride. The uninitiated that were drenched were given a drink of wine by the community elders for taking the unexpected experience bravely and sportingly. Even vehicles entering the settlement were rendered splashes. All "watery proceedings" came to a halt at noon. As part and parcel of the festivities, women folk laced in colourful attire were seen going around selling home-made delicacies such as pang susees (mini buns with meat filling) and putugal (tapioca muffins) while a football and rounders matches between the settlement's bachelors, teenagers and married folks took to the settlement field in the early evening. The eventful day wound down with the staging of the traditional branyo where the settlement old timers and seniors enjoyed ronggeng-styled songs and dances at the square's open air stage. This was followed by a concert featuring the settlement's own crop of song and dance talents, that raged on till midnight.

Ex-boyfriend giving pastry seller sleepless nights Posted: 11 Feb 2013 08:56 PM PST JOHOR BARU: A single mother claimed that her ex-lover has been harassing her and her three children by trespassing into her house and throwing garbage into her compound on various occasions since she called off the relationship last May. Pastry seller Boo Ah Moy, 36, alleged that after breaking up and forcing him to move out last year, her ex-boyfriend kept coming back to her house in Jalan Teratai 38, Taman Johor Jaya here to cause trouble. "When I refuse to let him in, he would climb over my front gates and start shouting and screaming like a mad man just to create a ruckus. "He would sometimes enter from the back kitchen door as he knew that I often left it open while I prepared cakes and desserts," she told a press conference organised by Permas Selatan MCA division chairman Shium Chan Teck here recently. Boo added that she and her former flame used to have arguments that led to him punching and kicking her while they were still living together. She also said that he worked as a contractor and had borrowed about RM10,000 in total from her to "start his own business". She said that she had enough during the last incident at around 1am on Friday where he dumped rubbish into her front porch. "I was shocked to wake up and find rubbish strewn everywhere and when I checked the CCTV footage, I saw him climbing over the gates to dump the rubbish into my house," said Boo, adding that her family was traumatised over the harassments. The mother-of-three said that in the first year (2008) when her ex-boyfriend first moved in with her, he molested her eldest daughter twice. "I had just won the custody of my children after divorcing my ex-husband then so I did not report the matter to the police for fear of losing my kids," she said, adding that she has lodged nine police reports throughout the year about the harassment. Meanwhile, Shium said that a police report has been made recently about the latest incident and would assist Boo in following up with the police about the matter.

SPNB introduces new system for contractors building homes Posted: 11 Feb 2013 03:10 PM PST MALACCA: Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd (SPNB) has introduced a new hybrid construction system to its class F contractors who are building the 1Malaysia People-Friendly Home (RMR1M). Its chairman Datuk Wira Idris Haron said the new system allows contractors to use both the conventional method and the Industrialised Building System (IBS) to complete the homes. "There have been feedbacks where contractors face a shortage in the supply of materials while trying to complete the homes using only the IBS method. "So we are now introducing the new hybrid system that uses a mixture of both conventional and IBS methods," he told reporters after handing over 210 work indents to 102 Bumiputera contractors for RMR projects in Malacca with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam recently. He said the decision to introduce the new system was reached after much discussions and feedbacks received from various contractors nationwide. "It seemed that both home owners and the contractors are more opened and comfortable with the new system." The use of the IBS technology was reportedly to produce durable, economic and innovative homes with more built-up space in less time. Under the new system, Idris said the homes' wall panel and finishing would be completed using the IBS method, with the rest such as platform, roofing and flooring completed using the conventional methods. Unlike the previous practice of IBS suppliers choosing the contractors, Idris noted that SPNB now awards the projects directly to the shortlisted contractors and thus empower them to organise, source for material and complete their projects on time. Meanwhile, he said more than 200 contractors have been blacklisted by SPNB since the People-Friendly Homes initiative was introduced 10 years ago. Among the reasons including contractors not following the terms and conditions set by SPNB, delivering low quality works, failed to deliver works and breach of trust. Those with a household income of up to a RM3,000 (RM1,500 previously) maximum can apply for the 1Malaysia People-Friendly Home (RMR1M), where its construction is based on the concept of three bedrooms and two bathrooms with a built-up area of 1,000 sq ft.

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