Malaysian pride

From The Star: Burglar who slept on the job nabbed after family returns home:

KUALA TERENGGANU: It could have been a scene out of the old favourite bedtime story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

A burglar actually helped himself to Chinese New Year delicacies at a house at the Petani Flats on Saturday evening and promptly dozed off on a bed, scaring the occupants when they returned home from a nearby shopping complex.

The unwelcome guest, in his mid 30s, was found sleeping comfortably on the bed with the blanket pulled over him.

The family called the police, who shook the burglar from his slumber and took him away.

V. Sathya, 39, and his 30-year-old wife Wong Chee Chu, had gone shopping for Chinese New Year at Kampung Cina at noon together with their children, Kavelan, nine, and Shalini, six.

The boy was shocked when he entered his room to see a man sleeping in his bed.

“He shouted and ran out of his room. Even then the burglar did not wake up and carried on sleeping while holding on to one of my wife’s purses,” said Sathya.

Despite the loss, Sathya and his family plan to hold an open house for family members and friends.

Burglars are not welcome.

This journalist has a sense of humor. I like it.

From The Star: Two top concert promoters team up:

PETALING JAYA: Two of the country’s top concert promoters – Galaxy Group and Arianna Event Management – have joined forces to further elevate the English concert entertainment scene in Malaysia.

A new establishment, Artiste World, has been set up by Galaxy Group to focus solely on Western international gigs. Arianna Teoh has been appointed as the executive director of the new company while Alan Chan will be its managing director.

Hopefully this means we get more people coming.

From The Star: Online petition for Nian Ning:

PENANG: Friends of Lee Nian Ning, a medical student who died in a bus accident on Jan 25, have set up a website to seek signatures for a petition on express bus safety that they will send to the Transport Ministry after Chinese New Year.

There is also an online forum at the website (http:// www.buscrashnomore.blogspot.com) to discuss bus crashes in Malaysia.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia law student Teo Lee Ken said the site had already received 17,000 hits and 3,750 e-signatures since it was set up on Jan 28.

He said the website with the theme: ‘If this happened to her, it can happen to you’ targeted students who use public buses.

“We don’t know how much we can change the situation but we know that something needs to be done and someone has to start something,” he told reporters while collecting signatures after the memorial service for Nian Ning at Mahindrama Buddhist Temple yesterday.

Nian Ning, 21, a medical student and Public Services Department scholar at the University of New South Wales in Australia, was killed in an accident when the double-decker express bus she boarded from Penang to Kuala Lumpur crashed near Slim River at 5.55pm on Jan 25.

I approve of this. Instead of just complaining and bitching like most Malaysians (esp. certain uncles) do, they do something about it. It gives me hope. Sniff.

From NST: Organ Donation Board set up:

GEORGE TOWN: An Organ Donation Board has been set up by the Health Ministry to ensure all records of organ donors and recipients are up to date. The board will act as the intermediary between the donor, the receiver and the hospital. Health Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Lee Kah Choon said the board would comprise professionals who "are there to conduct research and document organ donations".

Finally. I'm an organ donor. Don't know if they'll actually want to take anything from me la, but I'm giving them the option to.

From NST: Cave temples 'can rival Angkor Wat':

IPOH: With the right kind of promotion, the unique cave temples in the Kinta Valley can put the former tin capital of the world on the international spiritual heritage trail along with Borobudor and Angkor Wat.

The more than 30 temples nestled in the valley's limestone outcrops have been drawing domestic tourists for years. They come to pay obeisance to the numerous deities, or simply to marvel at the exquisite structures.

Benita Premchand, of Kuala Lumpur, has conducted extensive research on the caves and she says that more effort should be made to draw foreign tourists to the limestone outcrops and cave temples. Be it the 300-odd steps of the Perak Tong in Jalan Kuala Kangsar, or the scores of deities at the Kek Look Tong in Jalan Gopeng, she says these beautiful structures could be packaged attractively and promoted as part of the world spiritual heritage trail.

"The Kinta Valley, especially the stretch between north and south Ipoh, has the highest concentration of cave temples in the country. Arguably, this is the most diverse and vibrant use of caves anywhere in the world.

"These temples are unique to the Kinta Valley and in the last 150 years, their existence has enriched the historical, religious, social, cultural and spiritual lives of people in the valley."

The spiritual heritage of the valley dates back almost 1,400 years, as evidenced from the idols and prayer items found when miners were digging for tin.

Anyone want to go? I'm all up for this.