Wednesday, August 22, 2012

"Take two tablets twice daily..."

The Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, Tablets of Law, or Tablets of Testimony (in Hebrew: לוחות הברית Luchot HaBrit - "the tablets [of] the covenant") in the Bible, were the two pieces of special stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments when Moses ascended Mount Sinai as recorded in the Book of Exodus. Exodus 31:18 refers to the tablets as the "Tablets of Testimony."[Source: Wikipedia]


"But... but... we're still in the Analog Era!"

"How much should we retail these for?"
Only 30 centuries down the line... Time flies!
Moses presents the latest Tablet of Testimony 
(15th century painting by Andrea Mantegna)


"Moses with his Tablet" (by Michelangelo)


Steve "Moses" Jobs, the street-savvy dude 
who offered an Apple to Eve in 1976, 
now attempts to seduce her 
with something even sexier...




It must be the onset of womenopause...
(That's another name for "male menopause," my dear).
Lately, I've been thinking about TABLETS...

But the idea of being online wherever I go strikes me as
rather dangerous. 
After all, the whole point of traveling away from
my comfort zone is to get away from the internet!

At this point in time, I have yet to decide 
whether to treat myself 
to a smartphone or a tablet 
(in anticipation of some unexpected windfall).

I'd like to get some feedback from 

those of you who own smartphones as well as tablets: 
if you had space for only one device,
which would you lug around with you?




Early manifestations of The Tablet...

It has been around for eons... 

It just wasn't commercially viable... 
until Adam took a bite of the Apple 
and decided it was pretty cool. 

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Is this the most expensive Monty Python skit ever concocted?

Please click here or on the image to view this side-splitting 2:36 video 

Wagah is the only road border crossing between Pakistan and India, and lies on the Grand Trunk Road between the cities of Amritsar, Punjab, India and Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.

Wagah itself is a village through which the controversial Radcliffe Line, the boundary demarcation line dividing India and Pakistan upon the Partition of India, was drawn.

The village was divided by independence in 1947. Today, the eastern half of the village remains in the Republic of India while the western half is in Pakistan. It is particularly known for the elaborate Wagah border ceremony that happens at the border gate before sunset each day. [Source: Wikipedia]

[Brought to my gobsmacked and incredulous attention by Vernon Cornelius]




Friday, August 17, 2012

Asia Sentinel on "Malaysia's Murky Water War"

Does the Klang Valley’s water company mainly service UMNO?

Written by John Berthelsen
THURSDAY, 16 AUGUST 2012

Mahathir Mohamad built his power base through
privatization and crony capitalism
In the mid-1990s, then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ordered the privatization of a wide range of government activities from highways to airports to railways to shipyards and much more. However, privatization Malaysia-style would result in a cornucopia of money funneled to companies linked to the ruling national coalition, and particularly to the United Malays National Organization, the country’s leading political party.

There are few better examples of that river of cash than the system that provides water to the 8 million-odd residents of Selangor, the country’s biggest states, as well as, Kuala Lumpur proper and the new Putrajaya government center. The water service was hived off in a 30-year contract to a company called Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, more popularly known as Syabas, which was incorporated to operate the system.

Khalid Ibrahim, Selangor chief minister leading the war to
reclaim state water rights and take over Syabas
That was when the state of Selangor was an UMNO stronghold. But in the 2008 election, Selangor fell to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition. And since that time, Pakatan Rakyat has been attempting to get the water service re-nationalized. It has been an intense and so far unsuccessful campaign that has become a game of chicken between the federal and state governments ahead of the next general election, which could be held in November.

The issue has become part of Umno’s attempt to re-take Selangor state from the opposition, with government figures charging that the standoff will lead to water shortages for the domestic and international companies involved in manufacturing in the area.

Umno crony and Puncak Niaga chairman Rozali Ismail
pays himself RM8.4 million annually despite massive losses 
Syabas is 70 percent owned by Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd., whose chairman and beneficial owner is Rozali Ismail, a personal friend of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor. Rozali is also the former UMNO treasurer of Selangor state. He has been given the honorific of Tan Sri, the second-highest of Malaysia’s odd hierarchy of titles. The other 30 percent is held by two vehicles of the Selangor state government. Malaysia’s Finance Ministry holds a single so-called golden share, which gives it voting primacy.

The water system pays Rozali RM8.4 million (US$2.68 million) per year, making him Malaysia’s 16th highest paid executive director although he has denied the figures. In any case, the water company paid RM17 million to its executives last year despite the fact that the water company suffered an RM75 million pre-tax loss according to Bursa Malaysia. The company’s 2011 financial statement shows current liabilities of RM2.38 billion against assets of RM1.7 billion, with debt at nearly Puncak Niaga also faces a RM2 billion lawsuit over the fact that it has paid only 40 percent of its obligations to water treatment companies. Despite the debt – or perhaps because of it -- it appears that Syabas may have been a cash cow for a long list of UMNO cronies. According to an auditor general’s report that was abruptly withdrawn from public view under the country’s stringent Official Secrets Act, 72 percent of all subcontracts with the water company were awarded through direct negotiation to the contractors without recourse to public bidding.

Master of Murk: Umno
deputy-president & deputy
prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin
Syabas is just one of more than a score of government-linked companies that provide the mother’s milk of money for UMNO. As Asia Sentinel reported on Oct. 23, 2010, at least 23 of Malaysia's biggest companies appear to have been vehicles to siphon off money via government contracts. The companies and the people who run them are so hard-wired into UMNO and its investment arms that de-linking them could conceivably destroy the party. Many of the companies have suffered from disastrous mismanagement and have had to be rescued by the government.

In Syabas’s case, the government has staged a no-holds-barred fight to keep the water company in UMNO hands. A special cabinet committee set up to deal with the issue recently rejected a state government proposal to take back the system, with Muhyiddin Yassin, the deputy prime minister, saying the state government doesn’t comply with a variety of procedural matters.

The problem is that the squabble between the state and national governments has meant that some of the 34 water treatment plants in Selangor have hit capacity, with critics alleging that several areas of the Klang Valley, in which Selangor lies, to face water problems.

Crime minister Najib Razak presides over a moribund
rogue regime that has misruled for 55 years
The state government argues that the concession agreement granted to Syabas is not in the interest of citizens, that returning water to public ownership is a basic citizens' basic right and that in fact Puncak Niaga is asking an exorbitant penalty payment from Selangor to surrender the concession agreement.

In an effort to open up the issue to its constituents, the state government sought permission to make the concession agreement between Syabas and the government public. A high court in Selangor agreed with the opposition only to have the federal court, which is famously malleable to political winds, reverse the high court’s decision on appeal. That was a year and a half ago. The appellate judges have yet to furnish a written judgment justifying their decision.

[Read the entire sordid story here.]

Saturday, August 11, 2012

FLASHBACK ~ Did I read this in The Star or NST? NOPE!

In view of the recent reappearance of Balasubramaniam Perumal (a private investigator hired by Abdul Razak Baginda to keep Altantuya off his back) and a rash of accusations posted by maverick blogger RPK undermining Bala's credibility - and hinting that he may be more deeply entangled in the sordid murder than he has let on - I'm prompted to repost this excerpt from Asia Sentinel which first appeared on this blog on 23 June 2008...

Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor at a press conference (pic:NST)
An influential Malaysian blogger alleges that Najib’s wife was present when the Mongolian translator was murdered in 2006

Asia Sentinel

One of Malaysia’s most prominent bloggers, in an explosive statutory declaration to a Malaysia court, has alleged that the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as well as a Malaysian Army officer and the officer’s wife were directly involved in the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu on October 19, 2006, and that people at the very top of the Malaysian government are aware of the fact.

The declaration, by Raja Petra Kamarudin, who edits the web publication Malaysia Today, has been ignored by Malaysia’s government-linked mainstream media. However, it threatens to finally break open the case. Even if it doesn’t, it adds considerable chaos to the country’s political mix. The Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition, is reeling from the loss of its two-thirds majority in March elections.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, taking the brunt of criticism over the loss, has already promised to step down at some future date to cede the premiership to Najib. District elections are due in July in the United Malays National Organisation and there are suspicions that the verdict in the Altantuya murder trial is being delayed until the elections are completed.

Raja Petra wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up. Both Najib and his wife have repeatedly denied any involvement in the case although top society in Kuala Lumpur has been buzzing for months with rumors of their complicity.

Shaariibuu was executed by two shots to the head and her body was blown up with military explosives in a patch of jungle near the suburban city of Shah Alam. One of Najib’s closest friends, Abdul Razak Baginda, once the influential head of a political think-tank, and two of Najib’s bodyguards, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of the elite Unit Tindak Khas or Special Police Action Unit, have been the subject of a marathon murder trial that got underway more than a year ago.

Neither Najib nor his chief of staff, Musa Safri, has been questioned nor summoned as a witness despite the fact that Baginda in a sworn statement in November 2006 said he had contacted Musa for help in dealing with Altantuya, his jilted lover. That has raised widespread suspicions that the court – prosecution, defense and judiciary – have all been struggling to keep the case under wraps. It has been subject to numerous delays for reasons that are unclear.

Raja Petra himself is due to go on trial in October on sedition charges that were filed against him for writing an article titled “Let’s Send The Altantuya’s Murderers to Hell” and accusing Najib, his wife and others of complicity in the murder. He amplified the statement considerably in his statutory declaration, made last Wednesday, in which he also said that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had been handed a full report by military intelligence on the involvement of his deputy premier’s family. Badawi gave the intelligence report to his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, for safekeeping, according to Raja Petra’s statement.

Raja Petra, a member of the Selangor royal family, also wrote that one of the country’s sultans had been given a full report on the matter. He didn’t identify the sultan, but that raises additional implications, presumably that there is at least one member of royalty who can back up his declaration, which was made under oath, if he is subjected to additional charges over the matter.

From the time Altantuya’s body was discovered, there has been widespread suspicion that not only figures at the top of the government were involved but that the 28-year-old translator and mother of two may have been involved in a much bigger controversy than a jilted relationship. She made several trips to Kuala Lumpur to attempt to confront Baginda, at one point standing in front of his house and screaming “Razak, bastard, come out.” The last time she was seen alive was again in front of his house, when she was bundled into a car and taken away.

She accompanied Baginda to France when he was involved in negotiating the purchase of two Scorpene submarines and a used Agosta submarine produced by the French government through a French-Spanish joint venture, Armaris, for the Malaysian defense ministry, which was headed by Najib. The submarines were bought through a Kuala Lumpur-based company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd, which at the time was owned by yet another company called Ombak Laut, which was wholly owned by Abdul Razak Baginda.

The €1 billion (RM4.5 billion) contract to buy the submarines was non-competitive and netted Perimekar €114 million. Although Najib has sworn an oath to Allah that he had never met the woman, he was in France at the same time one of his best friends was there, dealing with matters over the submarine. A cousin of Altantuya's testified at the trial that she had seen a picture of Najib together with the dead woman, but she was quickly hushed up by both defense and prosecution lawyers about the matter.

Altantuya, by her own admission in a letter discovered after her death, wrote that she had been blackmailing Abdul Razak, presumably to keep his family from finding out about their relationship. But in his cautioned statement to the police, Baginda said he had already informed his family of the relationship and said she was pressuring him for US$500,000. Her father, Setev Shaariibuu, a psychology professor in Ulan Bataar, has said she was killed because she "knew too much," although he has never elaborated on that statement.

Given the close relationship between the two men, and that Najib was reported as presenting jackets made available by Perimekar to the submarine crews training in France, and that Altantuya was along with Baginda, it is difficult to believe they had not met.

It is also difficult to believe, given the wealth of published reports, plus the fact that Azilah Hadri, and Sirul Azhar Umar, were members of Najib's own bodyguard unit, that neither has been questioned about how the bodyguards came to be involved in allegations of Altantuya's murder.

READ THE REST HERE.

NEWSFLASH! THIS APPEARED IN THE STAR 23 JUNE 2008...

KUALA LUMPUR: Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) has submitted a notice calling for an emergency motion to discuss allegations by online news portal Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin over the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case.

In his notice, Lim said the credibility and legitimacy of the Government would suffer a mortal blow if the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and those named in the allegations remained silent on the matter.

Copies of the notice were distributed to reporters in the Parliament Lobby.

Lim repeated the statutory declaration by Raja Petra who claimed that he was reliably informed that three people were present at the scene when Altantuya's body was blown up.

"He (Raja Petra) said these three people have thus far not been implicated in the murder nor called as witnesses by the prosecution in the ongoing trial at the Shah Alam High Court.

"He was aware that it is a crime not to reveal evidence that may help the police in its investigation of the crime,” Lim said.

- The Star

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Where on earth is Saiful Bukhari Azlan (Malaysia's infamous anus)?


Actually, I don't have a clue. 
And, frankly, I don't give a fuck.

This photo of Saiful Bukhari Azlan on pilgrimage to the Ka'aba is undated.
Let's hope the same applies to Saiful.
What a twisted little Saicopath!





Friday, August 3, 2012

Rafizi Ramli ~ A shining star in the fast-changing firmament of Malaysian politics



I don't particularly like attending weddings and funerals, even though I appreciate that these are significant rites of passage for most humans. All non-human life-forms generally mate and expire without undue ceremony - and I prefer to align myself with non-human life-forms, simply because I don't detect too much hypocrisy and pretense among them.

Some wedding invitations I cannot refuse, for various reasons - and there are times when one is compelled to formally send off a beloved friend or relative on his or her further adventures. Well, one of the rare weddings I did attend last October was when my dear friend Fi-Sha married Rafizi Ramli.

I had met Fi-Sha during the Hulu Selangor by-election in April 2010 when she came to KKB to observe the proceedings. It was an instant soul connection between us. I found her beautiful and honest beyond words and completely uncontaminated in essence. We chatted often via email, SMS and facebook, and enjoyed a long chat over tea after an evening at the theatre. Her openness, empathy and vulnerability were not only endearing but made me feel very protective towards her. So when she announced that she was engaged, I felt compelled to run a check on her future mate.

PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli
One look at Rafizi Ramli's face was all it took to convince me that theirs was destined to be a very auspicious union - one that would ultimately influence the future of Malaysia in a truly positive way. My instincts were confirmed when I finally met Rafizi Ramli on his wedding day and congratulated him on his exquisite taste in women. I also met members of both families and found them perfectly charming and befriendable - the sort of authentic, uncorrupted Malaysians with core values intact who would do their country proud simply by being themselves.

Fi-Sha and Fizi (as she calls him) looked absolutely resplendent at the wedding reception - a very homely and modest affair attended by close friends and family. I whispered to Fi-Sha: "Now you're in for it. One of these days your hubby will be a key figure in the new government, and you'll have your work cut out keeping him grounded, sane and on track."

Disgraced Wanita Umno Chief
Shahrizat Abdul Jalil
It didn't take long for Rafizi Ramli to hit the headlines. His spectacular exposé of the grotesque and almost comical RM250 million National Feedlot Corporation fiasco involving Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and her immediate family gripped the attention of the entire country - and Rafizi's calm and lucid revelations presented over a series of well-attended media conferences lent his shocking accusations irrefutable credibility.

Malaysians have almost become unshockable when it comes to political scandals. What gave an incisive edge to Rafizi's investigation into the NFC scam was the thoroughness and detail of his probe. Of course, a whistleblower or two was involved - otherwise it would have been well-nigh impossible to produce incontrovertible documentary evidence of such shameless financial wrongdoing.

In the following weeks and months it appeared that Rafizi Ramli was on a roll and rapidly warming to his new-found role as Umno's can (of worms) opener. Even as BN was forced to make a big show of arresting and charging Shahrizat's husband Mohamad Salleh Ismail with multiple counts of CBT and misappropriation of funds, Rafizi launched a full-frontal assault on the biggest target of all - crime minister Najib Razak himself who, doubling as finance minister, was shown to have personally manipulated the outcome of an "open tender" exercise in favor of a golfing crony's bid.

Needless to say, BN's knee-jerk reaction was to order Rafizi Ramli arrested on a spurious charge of breaking some banking secrecy law. This is akin to arresting a kid for unlawfully peeping through a keyhole (and infringing on some minister's privacy) when he reports a brutal murder in the bedroom. In this instance, a murder was committed, for sure - the cold-blooded murder of the public's confidence in the BN regime.

Umno crime minister & finance minister(!)
Najib Abdul Razak
By heavy-handedly tampering with routine administrative procedures to ensure that public projects are competently, effiiciently, cost-effectively and - most importantly, safely - implemented, Najib Razak and his cohorts in crime are not only committing massive fraud, they are also endangering the lives of commuters by allowing a dishonest and inexperienced operator to engineer and construct a railway extension at grotesquely inflated cost.

Almost overnight, Rafizi Ramli has joined the ranks of the most electable young candidates in Malaysian politics. My heartiest congratulations and thanks, Fizi!

Once more with feeling... ABU!









Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Goodbye, Gore! What a colorful, intense, brilliant and vibrant life yours was...



Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (3 October 1925 – 31 July 2012) was a liberal American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar (1948), outraged conservative critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality. He also ran for political office twice and was a longtime political critic. [Source: Wikipedia]

"We are all bisexual to begin with. That is a fact of our condition. And we are all responsive to sexual stimuli from our own as well as from the opposite sex. Certain societies at certain times, usually in the interest of maintaining the baby supply, have discouraged homosexuality. Other societies, particularly militaristic ones, have exalted it. But regardless of tribal taboos, homosexuality is a constant fact of the human condition and it is not a sickness, not a sin, not a crime... despite the best efforts of our puritan tribe to make it all three. Homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. Notice I use the word 'natural,' not normal." ~ Gore Vidal



A SUDDEN OUTBURST ~ short poem by Antares



A sudden outburst of outrage
Brought on by gasps of indignation
Cataracts of complaints
Cascading down adrenal gutters -
Innocent bystanders are in for a soaking!

There must be better things to talk about
Than private outcry against public obscenity.
There must be better ways to get it off
Than to do it up in everybody's face.

Mr God didn't expect to stay for the speeches;
He thought it was going to be all fun & games.
On top of that the chocolate chip cookies
Were stolen by crooks from the casino.

More music is what the government should listen to.
And it's never just a question of taste:
Music is everything that makes sense and rhythm
Out of the contrapuntal harmony of Chaos.

By this time most humans have realized,
Being sapient has nothing to do with homogeneity.
In fact the truth has been cleverly disguised
In strange forms of fiction authored by deity.

Next you'll be asking for a bibliography
Of every book you feel you ought to lay your hands on;
The trick is not to fondle the folios
But to caress the ideas within with your soul naked.

You're probably wondering where the thread runs
That connects the first verse with the last.
Who said anything about last or first?
And what do you mean by verse?


[Written in 1975, first published in Moth Balls, Magick River 1994]


Do you still want your kid to study accountancy and become a big banker?



[Brought to my attention by Olivia de Haulleville]



Friday, July 27, 2012

Megaprojects like Bakun Dam are doomed to abysmal failure in Malaysia...

Malaysian Robber Barons Mahathir Mohamad & Taib Mahmud (Azlan Zamhari/Malaysiakini)

Umno mafia boss & ex-finance minister
Daim Zainuddin
More than 8 years have elapsed since the following information came into my hands, but very little has changed in Malaysia.

Robber barons continue to misrule and ruin the landscape with their grandiose multibillion-ringgit megaprojects (mostly unnecessary, extravagant and purely decorative) - impoverishing humble folk, exposing them to unknown hazards, and leaving them landless and desperate.

Bakun Dam - the ultimate monument to hubris, megalomania and terminal myopia - was first approved by the Malaysian government in 1986. It was shelved in 1990 after the recession of 1985 led to a drastic decrease in electricity demand.

Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad decided to revive the Bakun Dam project in September 1993; and in January 1994, a privatized contract was awarded to Ekran Berhad - a construction company owned by Sarawak timber tycoon Ting Pek Khiing, whose main expertise was fast-tracking resort hotels.

Sarawak timber tycoon
Ting Pek Khiing
The Bakun Dam swiftly turned into a financial nightmare - except for Ting Pek Khiing who received RM1.1 billion compensation on top of free access to all the precious timber found within 10 square kilometers of the site. It was a colossal white elephant that should never have been attempted - because it was patently unnecessary and massively destructive of the primordial rainforest and its diverse flora and fauna - including indigenous human tribes who have inhabited the region for countless generations.

Alas, all robber barons are driven by their inflamed egos that tend to see serious obstacles as mere challenges. They also have a nasty habit of being obnoxiously arrogant and insatiably greedy.

The accursed Bakun Dam (image courtesy of Sarawak Report)

I received a copy of the following email on 14 April 2004 from Susanne Wong of International Rivers, a global NGO dedicated to saving free-flowing river systems from being dammed in the spurious name of "development":

From: Susanne Wong
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Subject: Leaked information on Bakun


We recently received emails from a former cost controller for Bakun who quit because of frustration over construction delays and cost overruns. He leaked the attached documents to us which contain information on costs and the plan to get the project back on schedule.


Obviously this information and the contact's identity must be treated very sensitively. We're not sure what we can do with this information and thought you could best use it in Malaysia for some media exposes of the project or whatever you see fit. I've included the email exchange between us below.


Hope you can use this. This disastrous project just seems to be getting worse.


Best wishes,
Susanne

On top of massive environmental and social ruin, shoddy construction and low-grade cement (Sarawak Report)

From: "Whistle Blower"
To: Susanne Wong
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004
Subject: Re: BAKUN HYDROELECTRIC


     Ms. Susanne,
It's my pleasure to assist you. The construction is behind schedule due to the inexperience of the contractor (Sime Engineering) who has undertaken this project. For your information, Sime Engineering does not have the capacity and expertise to handle big civil projects. They have only done several oil and gas projects such as building and fabricating oil rigs. The 'screw up' is mainly due to late approval of the design and delays in awarding the sub-contractor package. 
     The cost overruns incurred are mainly due to the lack of proper ground surveys. For the entire 10 square km area, only l8 boreholes were done. The contractors made their first mistake by excavating the wrong area. They excavated approximately 600,000 cubic meters of overburden and still could not find enough rock for the dam fill. After the extra survey was done, they found out that they would need to excavate approximately 2,000,000 cubic meters to find rock. Sime Engineering is unable to decide if they should continue excavating that area or start all over again elsewhere. The cost overrun to date is already around USD52 million.
     The project is one year behind schedule now. The 6-month recovery plan has yet to be approved by the Ministry of Finance. Original cost estimates only focused on construction but did not include design, procurement, and so on. Many details are still kept secret by the ministry.
     Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd (SHSB) are facing financial problems. They have voiced their intention to issue a bond for this project but the 2nd Minister of Finance (Nor Mohamed Yakcop) said there is no hurry to issue bonds for Bakun. I bet you know the reason why.
     Actually, this project is not bankable, since the return of investment takes a long period and there is an oversupply of power (especially after the Aluminium Smelting Project by GIIG was shelved).
     Lastly, think about passing the information to your Malaysian counterparts, e.g., Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Suaram. I think we have to play it smart. In Malaysia we have an act called the Official Secrets Act (OSA). Since this information can be regarded as government secrets, I trust you will handle it professionally. This is not the US, where people can speak freely.
     Regarding the photos, I will have them burned on a CD and mailed to you if you provide me the address.

Aerial view of Bakun Dam

From: Susanne Wong
Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 
Subject: Re: BAKUN HYDROELECTRIC


Dear Mr. Whistle Blower,


Thank you for sending the recovery plan and spreadsheet. It is extremely useful information.


Can you provide more information on the financial problems with SHSB? I would like to send the information to my colleagues in Malaysia but wanted to check with you first to make sure this is okay. I'm sure our colleagues at Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Suaram would be very interested in using these documents to expose the problems with Bakun. Would it be acceptable if I forward them this information and put them in direct contact with you? If you prefer, IRN can act as an intermediary and pass the information on to our friends in Malaysia and we can keep your name confidential. Please advise.


Regards,
Susanne

At 01:11 AM 4/9/2004, you wrote:


Ms. Susanne Wong,

Herewith something for you to read, it is the Recovery Plan for Bakun Hydroelectric. It was drafted last November, 2003. Until today it has yet to be approved by the Ministry of Finance.


Bakun Dam ‘Unsafe’ ~ Exclusive Evidence on Corner-Cutting and Sloppy Construction Practices

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

David Wilcock on Financial Tyranny & The Biggest Scandal in History

The Department of Justice - home of the US Marshals - has now blown the lid off of the biggest financial scandal in human history... after a highly covert three-year investigation. The LIBOR scandal has started the Great Revealing of Financial Tyranny. Mass arrests must begin with mass charges, and mass court cases - and that has now arrived. Disclosure of many great hidden truths will follow...

THE TIME HAS COME
By David Wilcock

Every person on Earth is increasingly aware that our world is ruled by corrupt forces - to an almost Biblical degree. The astonishing events that have unfolded since June 27, 2012 have made that much more obvious - even for those who have been in the greatest denial. This process has been fascinating to watch - not to mention remarkably rewarding.



After many years of hard work to expose the truth, we are finally seeing results - on a worldwide level. The knowledge will spread much, much more with each passing day. Critical information was leaked to us from highly classified insider sources, working for the good of humanity. Current events have proven that their plan is still very much in effect.

THE FINANCIAL TYRANNY SERIES: A FULL BOOK-LENGTH INVESTIGATION

Every word of this investigation has been released for free. The bulk of our original findings are in the Financial Tyranny series. The first and largest portion of our extensive investigation was released on Friday, January 13th, 2012. The remaining elements took almost another month to finish, and were published on Thursday, February 9th. You can begin by reading Sections One through Seven of Financial Tyranny here. Then go here to complete Sections Eight through Ten.

This truth is admittedly painful to accept. You will probably have to go through a grief process once you understand the full scope of what is going on. Nonetheless, it is absolutely essential for everyone, as a planet, to end the denial and face the truth of our world - as it actually exists today.

THE MEDIA IS ALSO IMPLICATED

The Great Revealing has not yet become the one thing everyone is talking about. The arrests and resignations have only just begun - and the mainstream Western media is equally as culpable as those controlling the financial system. After all, it's the same people.

This is one of many popular notions that are proven in Financial Tyranny. It is no longer a "conspiracy theory." Vast psyops have been used - including tens of thousands of professional online hit-men, paid to look like normal people sharing their opinion. Shame has been a very powerful weapon to stop people from learning the truth. No one wants to be "crazy" or hated for their beliefs.

You are about to see a variety of article links where the writers express surprise that the American media isn't covering this story yet. As you are well aware, this has nothing to do with the press being "shy." They are simply staring into the face of their own destruction.

THE COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION - WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

On June 27, 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, filed a surprise legal order against Barclays Bank - in a move that has shocked the world. A wealth of emails were presented, giving irrefutable evidence that Barclays was manipulating their own credit score - to generate almost unthinkably vast profits.

Here is the link where you can download the legal order yourself - and a photograph of the top page of this historic document.

This may not seem like a big deal at first - but in order for Barclays to have rigged their own credit score, they had to be conspiring with all the other biggest banks in the world. These are the banks they are supposedly in competition with.

This story has taken off with unprecedented, explosive force in the UK - but is almost non-existent in the US, except on Huffington Post and alternative news sites.

This legal action required extraordinary secrecy to perform. Had the Cabal gotten wind of it, they would have killed everyone involved.


ALL THE BIGGEST BANKS ARE IN BED TOGETHER

Indeed, the world just found out that all the biggest banks are in bed together. They are all implicated in a vast conspiracy to lie to the public, and create artificial investor confidence that benefits no one but themselves.

Mass criminal charges are already being prepared - by labor unions, local banks, local governments, state governments and federal governments - as a result of this move by the Department of Justice.

All the evidence is now freely available, as we will see - and the story is nearly moving faster than we can keep up with at this point, with new developments on a day-by-day basis.


SOME PEOPLE PROMOTE A GENOCIDAL BELIEF SYSTEM

Some people are so war-weary that they refuse to believe anyone in government, military, finance, intelligence or the judiciary could be a trustworthy human being - or want to do the right thing. As I have said before, this is ultimately a genocidal belief system that seeks to paint the world in black and white, reinforce victim consciousness, and create an "us" versus "them."

The reality is that humans are complex creatures. No one is "all good" or "all bad." Each person is quite capable of thinking for themselves - regardless of where they work. Plenty of people now realize that the goals and aspirations of this cabal could literally destroy our entire planet. We cannot simply stand back and watch it happen. Actions must be taken.


THE NUMBER OF "GOOD GUYS" IS NOW AS HIGH AS 75 PERCENT

Between 70 to 75 percent of the United States military community is now aligned against the cabal as of this past week. This is according to top Pentagon sources I am in contact with, by one degree of separation - as a result of years of building up insider contacts as a public investigator.

Critical steps have been taken to remove powerful opposing forces that were loyal to the cabal - who would have sabotaged this planetary healing process. Many brave men and women have put their lives on the line to uphold their Oath of Enlistment - and defend our freedom. They deserve our respect and support.

There is nothing more dangerous on Earth than to take on the ruling cabal. This also makes it a uniquely powerful act of valor. As a result of these heroic efforts - including criminal investigations - we are now seeing a Point of No Return for the global bankers.

If you don't grasp that yet, the wealth of excerpts you are about to read may well change your mind.

THEY HAVE BEEN WEAKER THAN WE REALIZED ALL ALONG

In truth, these financial institutions have been much weaker than they led us to believe for years now - since at least 2007. They have played around with their own credit reports to convince everyone that they are still a worthwhile investment. If they had told us the truth about how much trouble they were in, they would probably have already been exposed and defeated.

A vast international alliance has been financially choking off the Cabal for years now - knowing that their collapse is inevitable. They are still too powerful to be exposed until a collapse becomes visible to all. Their fraud is so vast that it encompasses every single type of financial investment there is - stocks, bonds, commodities, currency, mutual funds, derivatives, mortgages, loans, you name it.

All the money there is in the world - either real money or fake numbers in a computer - has been manipulated to create the largest financial fraud in recorded history... so far. Many experts now estimate the amount of investments that are affected could be as much as 800 trillion dollars.


[Source: Divine Cosmos]



Saturday, July 21, 2012

Juan Enriquez on Homo evolutis ~ can we trust the evolutionary process?



Plenty of food for thought in this inspired TED talk by Juan Enriquez, chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy. Humanity has no choice but to attain spiritual maturity pretty damn quickly - or the biotech at our disposal could turn us into an entirely hideous and utterly destructive species.

[Brought to my attention by Christy Tice]

In loving memory of the laminated sign on the Bamboo Palace loo...


INSTRUCTIONS
ON THE USE OF THE
“MALAYSIA BOLEH”
OR ZEN TOILET


There is a special technique for
getting optimum performance
from this 100% plastic, BN-approved cistern:

GENTLENESS & FOCUSED AWARENESS!

Try a firm, confident, resolute,
conscious but very gentle push…
then quickly release the lever
and wait till the water stops
flowing into the bowl.
An indecisive lever action
will keep the water running into
the bowl incessantly.

(Our water bill once totalled RM111
before the problem was identified)

TURN OFF THE SUPPLY TAP
AT THE METER BESIDE THE MAIN HOUSE 
IF WATER DOESN’T STOP FLOWING.

TURN ON AGAIN AFTER 10 MINUTES.

(AND NEVER AGAIN VOTE BN!)


Friday, July 20, 2012

How the Moon Tricked the Sun and Won the Night ~ A Temuan Tale Retold


THE SUN AND THE MOON were colleagues and rivals in heaven. The Sun was excitable, showy and hotheaded while the Moon was cool and calm and fairly compassionate. They both had lots of children who cluttered the sky with a great clamor.
     
The Moon noticed that the Sun’s offspring were fiery and hotheaded like their father. They caused the Earth to be so hot and troubled that no crops would grow, and Manusia (humanity) was in serious danger of starvation. The Moon went into meditation and devised an ingenious plan: She hid all her children on her dark side and began to bulge visibly. The Sun came along and was amazed.
    
 “Hey, where’s your brood?” the Sun asked. “And how come you’re all alone?”
   
The Moon burped and answered with a broad grin: “I ate them and they were absolutely delicious!”
     
The Sun, not to be outdone, immediately followed suit and devoured his children, every last one of them, until he too shone alone in the sky. Whereupon the Moon laughed and brought her little ones out from hiding and sent them out to play all over the night sky, where they turned into Stars. 

The Sun was furious but it was too late. He was all alone now and incapable of burning up the Earth with his hot temper.

And every Night, the Earth would cool down enough for crops to grow and Manusia flourished from then on, thanks to the Moon’s cleverness and kindness.

[From Tanah Tujuh ~ Close Encounters with the Temuan Mythos, Silverfishbooks 2007]