Polite Singaporeans my butt

This little item was in the papers today. From The Star: Malaysians show their good side:

RECENTLY, I made a trip from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur with my family. I was very impressed with Malaysia’s friendly Immigration officers and toll operators.

But what made a truly wonderful impression was when we made the mistake of going into a Smart Tag lane while trying to read the road directions.

Obviously, we were stuck as we did not have a Smart Tag card.

The owner of a Malaysian registered car came to our aid and used her Smart Tag card to activate the barrier. It was very light traffic on that day and she could have easily driven to another lane, but she didn’t.

To the Good Samaritan and all our dear Malaysian friends - thank you very much for your kindness and hospitality.

GRATEFUL SINGAPOREAN,
Singapore.

It's laughable how this Singaporean is so grateful. You want to know why?

Well, I made a mad trip to Singapore over the weekend so that I could claim a prize being given by the Singapore Tourism Board. I left KL at 10pm, arrived at 1.30am, and left again at 10am.

I entered Singapore via Second Link, and wanted to leave that way but mistakenly ended up at the Johor Checkpoint instead. Big mistake. There was massive traffic and it took us an hour to get through.

Of course, it didn't help that the Singaporeans were being rude bastards. Par example:

1. Trying to get into the long line for the car lane, I signalled left and was going to change lane where there were no other cars behind me. Suddenly these 2 Singaporean cars zoomed up and squeezed into the spot leaving me no choice but to try and cut in somewhere, which I hate to do.
2. All throughout the traffic from checkpoint to checkpoint, Singaporean cars tried to cut their way ahead of me, squeeze me out of my lane and just generally annoy the shit out of me. It was a battle just to maintain my spot.

Seriously, after this trip to Singapore, I'm absolutely baffled as to why some Malaysians idealise Singapore as a place to stay and work. They're rude, they're pushy, and they're pretentious. I'll admit that the towns are well planned and that their government seems to be more together than ours, but if I had to drive in Singapore daily, I think I'd go apeshit.

Worst speech writer ever

From The Star: Rethink plan to build tiger park, Penang urged:

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government has been advised to reconsider its intention to build an ambitious tiger park in the state.

Malaysian Nature Society Penang Branch chairman Kanda Kumar said setting up the park would not be right as Penang had no record of the animal’s existence.

“Most tourists would rather spend on heritage and food, not see animals in cages. Land-stressed Penang can do with more houses and recreational parks instead,” he said.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said on Sunday that if the 40ha project materialised, it would be the first tiger park in the country with a “whole lot” of tigers.

I don't know if that comment was made during a speech or not, but 'first tiger park in the country with a whole lot of tigers' isn't very specific.

World Forestry Day

The Ecowarriors Malaysia are having a planting day to plant a whopping 500 saplings at the North Selangor Peat Swamp Forest on World Forestry Day, which is, apparently, 21 March 2009. Details are as follow:

Date: 21 March 2009
Time: 8.00 a.m. - 12.00 p.m.
Location: North Selangor Peat Swamp Forest (NSPSF)

Advice to Volunteers

We'll be planting in an open field so volunteers are advised to:

• have breakfast beforehand
• wear long pants that can get dirty (because they will)
• bring a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.

Please also bring:

• drinking water (in a refillable bottle)
• pair of sturdy shoes (not open-toed)
• an empty cardboard box (to carry seedlings in).

Getting to NSPSF

1. Get on the North-South PLUS Highway and head towards Ipoh.
2. Exit at Bukit Tagar (EXIT 119).
3. Go straight until you reach the end of the road (a T-junction). Turn left.
4. This is the road where the planting site is located. Please look out for the temporary sign that we will put up next to the planting site.
   

If You'd Like to Carpool

Meeting Place: A&W restaurant in Petaling Jaya.
Time: 7:15am. The convoy will leave at 7:30am sharp!
Journey: 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Links
Website: http://ecowarriors.blog.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=34686317757&ref=ts
Email: GreenEcowarrior@gmail.com

So there you have it, a perfectly fun, family-friendly and environmentally-friendly way to spend your Saturday. Think of how much fun it'll be! I mean, who knew that we had a peat swamp forest anyway?

Bonus Doors

I've decided to maintain a list of stuff that I've won.

From Red FM:

• An Underworld 3 letter opener
• RM250

From Fly FM:

• Invitations to the screening of Confessions of a Shopaholic

From the Singapore Tourism Board:

• SGD50 voucher for Robinson's
• A keychain
• SGD5 voucher for Changi Airport

From Pineapple Concerts:

• 1 F1 GP grandstand ticket or 1 night at Desa Resort, Indonesia

From Tongue in Chic/Junk:

• 1 Levi's Batwings t-shirt
• 2 VIP passes to MTV World Stage After Party
  

From MTV:

• 4 tickets to MTV World Stage

From work:

• 1.5 iPod Shuffles
  

On the Dangerous Topics of God, Allah and Oh Tuhan

This is going to be a pretty controversial topic. For those who care, anyway. As you may or may not know, there is an issue with Christian newspapers using the name Allah to refer to God. From Reuters: Malaysia Christians battle with Muslims over Allah:

Those concerns led to the ban on the Catholic Herald newspaper's use of "Allah" to denote God. The Herald is now suing the government to overturn the ruling, made after it appeared the paper would be allowed to use "Allah" provided it stamped "For Christians" on the front page of the paper.

To some, it may seem like a "What's the big deal?" thing, while to others it's heresy. Let's try to shed a bit of light on it.

Language is what the issue boils down to, and let's not pretend that language doesn't matter. In England, 'pakis' is considered a derogatory term referring to Pakistanis, while in Malaysia, it's a fern. In America, 'bastard' is a derogatory term, while in France it's not unusual to find people named Bastard.

In the same vein, in Malaysia, Allah isn't a word referring to God in general, but a name and a proper noun referring specifically to the Muslim God. In Malay, the word Tuhan is used to refer to God in general, be He Christian, Muslim, Hindu or otherwise. Therefore, for a newspaper - a publication that should have a good command of language and custom - to use the world Allah to refer to the Christian God is a major faux-pas (fox pass). It's sort of like referring to Vishnu as Jesus Christ Almighty.

Like it or not, there really is a pretty big difference between referring to Jesus as Allah, or the other way. Actually, if a mosque took to referring to Allah as Jesus (it won't, but let's hypothesise here), they'd be called heretics by Muslims and deviant Muslim terrorists by everyone else.

To put it in perspective, why does this newspaper have to use the term 'Allah', anyway, knowing full well that it is a proper noun? What's wrong with Tuhan? What's wrong with God as a generality? You have to wonder what the point is. If it's to fight for the freedom of speech, there are other (less stupid) ways to do so, and I will back you on it.