Bonnie & Clyde

... is drawing to an end, THANK GOD. Putting the goods and the bads on the scales this year, I concluded the bads outweighed the goods. Such a stinky, crappy, year.

The Goods:

I won a finalist cert for New York Fest.

I visited another 7 Wonders Of The World - The Angkor Wat.

I witnessed the aftermath of Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh. (I’m not sure if this is good tho)

I was posted in Mumbai for 4 weeks. (I’m also not sure if this is good)

I visited one of the 7 Wonders Of The World - The Taj Mahal.


The Bads:

I feel so sorhai after the Sorhai Episode.

I was told I’m only giving 4 stars performance although I am getting a *promotion*. Go figure.

I am still seething over unsettled debts.

I am still treated like bat droppings by family members.

And a money tree.


In 2008:

I will be nobody’s sucker.

I will selfishly focus on my own happiness and nothing matters to me but MYSELF.

I will walk out of my job/relationship(s) if I am unhappy because I can.

And I shall sleep better at night.


Happy New Year everyone!

It has been a good 3 weeks since I was back from Cambodia but I still can’t wipe the vivid images from my mind. It’s eating me inside-out. I’m not gonna blog about the whole trip trip coz it’s all over my facebook d so go there and have a look. Instead, I’m gonna give my 2 sen about the whole Pol Pot-Khmer Rouge political scene and what I observed in Pnom Penh.

Pol Pot is a deluded, self-glorified, power-hungry, trigger-happy maniac. Communist leaders will tell you everything they do is for the people, but surely causing the death of 1.7 million by slave labour, malnutrition, starvation, torture and mass execution is not ‘for’ the people. Bullying and scaring people out of their wits to obey to your whims and wishes is not ‘for’ anyone. D-uh. The scars left by ‘Year Zero’ are still healing some 28 years later. Pick up any books on Pol Pot regime to feel the aftermath. Today, Cambodians still live in fear as some Khmer Rouge is believed to have escaped authorities and are now residing in the jungles. Cambodians gravely brave themselves should there be another take over. Pol Pot claims to promote equality in order to end poverty is a freaking joke. He admired Hitler and wanted to copy his success to purge the nation of all capitalist and imperialist, but he is not a Fascist like Hitler. The Germans do not kill themselves, only Jews and Poles. Hitler deliberated genocide and Mr. Pot, auto-genocide because he kills everyone, especially his own. Typical small dick syndrome. His government the Angkar (pronounced as ong-kah) are headless chickens with herd mentality. No brains so can’t use any. Monkey see monkey do oni so the entire organisation is like a freak show circus.

I can afford to say this not because I existed during the civil war, thank God no, but I visited the Killing Fields and Toul Sleng museum in Pnom Penh. Photographs and paintings captions were vivid, descriptive and graphic. In the quiet, breezy classrooms of Toul Sleng, hundreds and thousands of photographs of KR soldiers and victims were exhibited, including pictures of carcasses still chained to the original metal bed, window sills, the beige and black chequered floor tiles, metal shackles to chain prisoner's legs to the bed, wire cords used to tie the victims hands together, ammunition boxes that the prisoners defecated in, torture equipment, etc. Nobody says a word while browsing but somehow I can hear the painful screams and anguish cries. I can taste the salty tears and metallic zing of blood droplets as if time froze. Skulls is self-explanatory of how the victims were murdered; gunshot, hammered or decapitated. A tour guide was explaining to a female French tourist how babies were killed and she ran out of the room weeping. No, it’s not that bad. Imagine WORSE and multiply it by 100 folds.

I never liked politics, but like the Khmers, that doesn’t mean I can avoid it like the plague and have a choice when I live my everyday life. Politics is everywhere. And by being part of the community, I am part of the it somehow. But we can learn from it, can’t we? Dictatorship doesn’t work. Oppression sucks. Grow up, be a man, do the right thing.

Such, is life.

When I was young, I had this small 4 wheel cycle that had a metal plate in front painted with a number which made it looked like a formula racer. It had a pair of small paddle ( like a paddling boat) and a steering wheel. I always imagined I was driving a real formula racer.

My sister is 3 years elder than me, and with her height, she got a real bicycle. Everytime we raced, she always won. My pride as a formula racer was badly smashed. I cried and ran to my mom.

She told there's nothing wrong not to be the fastest. Being slower is ok because it's better be safe than never. She put me back on the four wheel cycle, pretended to be the linesman; "Ok, ready.... 1, 2, Go!"
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Just had a nice trip with Bonnie and two of our good friends to Cambodia. A very nice trip indeed.

Like any other trips or vacation, i m more interested in observing the "human" side of the locals than whatever their ancestors leftover to them. Well, they're nice too, like the Angkor Wat, Royal Palace and such. However, I had a more enjoyable time seeing them walk, drive, eat, talk, laugh; seeing their markets, roads, shops. Everyday life.

I first thing i noticed, immediately we got outta of the airport, is the way they drive. Having recently haunted by India's chaotic traffic, I was expecting the same thing in Cambodia; at least some similarity. How wrong was I! The driving there is extremely polite! The traffic structure might still a little chaotic and not well planned, but at least in terms of speed, I was totally shocked.

In India's road, a car cant kill a man because no car has the space to drive fast. It's basically bumper to bumper traffic 24 hours a day. In cambodia, no car WILL kill a man because of the way they shift gear!

Take our driver for example, the 1st gear never exist. He started moving the car from idle speed in 2nd gear. While the car started to pick up in a 50second to 100km rate, and the speed is still under 20km/h; if there's a car in front, probably50 meters away (Also probably speeding like 35km/h), breaks, we could feel our driver started to release pressure on his pedal!

The more amazing thing is, he ll shift to 3rd gear!

I must say this is definitely very alien to us, the hot blooded Malaysians. Imagine this: Just outside of midvalley, you are speeding 20km/h in 2nd gear and 50 meters in front there's a car slow down, and you shift to 3rd gear while reducing your speed to probably 17km/h. What would the driver behind you say?

From amazed, to shocked (lots of "Wa Lau" commented), to even frustrated and worried (How many days would he need to drive from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh), in the end, all we could do was just make a laugh at it and told ourselves at least be late but safe than be sorry.

That's all we could do, under constant frustration created by a 2nd gear pick-up.

Well, suddenly I remember my mom and my four wheel cycle.

Excerpt from today’s Star online:

KUALA LUMPUR: A serial rapist, who asked for directions to mosques and religious schools before pouncing on his victims, failed to have his 30-year-jail term and 24 lashes sentence reduced.

[edit]

Ismail Shah was convicted of three counts of rape, two counts of sodomy, one for forcing one of his victims to perform oral sex on him and for illegally confining one of his young victims between 2004 and last year. 

[edit]

Pleading for leniency earlier, Ismail Shah said he wanted to spend some time with his family.

“If the current sentence was upheld, I will spend the rest of my life in jail,” he said while reading out his mitigation from a letter. Ismail Shah claimed that he had not *hurt* his victims or use *violence* against them.  

“Please consider that my victims are not *injured* and they can be *cured* in future while I have to suffer the injuries due to the sentence,” he said.  
He said further that “I could control my desire as I *only* rape each victim *once* and each of them was sent back to a safer place afterwards”.

What can I say... delusion and idiocy at it’s best. This fler more sorhai than me.