The development of an internet filter system a.k.a "Green Dam" made known by our "Culture" Minister, Dato Rais Yatim was quashed hours later by the Prime Minister himself. Cilck
here for the news.
Though the idea is noble that is to prevent pornography from our kids, but it is going to be totally useless, politically incorrect and another waste to the taxpayers's money.
Instinctively we abhored pornography. It degenerate the value of a human being and we tried to prevent our children from getting such materials. And we also know that sex-addicts and sex-offenders are porn lovers.
Nevertheless pornography has been around for thousand of years, e.g. the ancient Romans decorated their mansions and public bathrooms with fornicating men, women and everything in between. Even so the book of Kamastura from India, that's ancient "porn". But this doesn't make pornography acceptable whether in the West or the East.
And today, these images still existed except that they are "motion" pictures and distributed far and wide with the help of the internet, a tool where almost everybody have the access to it.
Essentially this destroys our taboo on sex and I believed almost all of Malaysian teenagers have at least watched a "Blue" or an X-Rated movie once in their lifetime.
So this brought us to some of the most essential questions
1. Should we filter the internet for porns?
Pro:Yes because porn degenerate our minds.
Con:No because it is the basic rights for Malaysians to get what ever information they want. The individuals themselves using their own conscience to choose what information they want.
2. How can we filter porn itself?
Pro: We built a centralised "Mega-super-duper" filter in Cyberjaya that controls the in's and out's of information in the internet.
Con: No we can't stop the porn getting into the country, as technolgy evolves rapidly and once we stop a "porn-material carrier" another system wil replaced it. Thus the filter will be useless and government need to spend some more money to built a new "dam".
3. Will the filter be used just for porns?
Pro: Obviously! That's the purpose.
Con: Once the government started to control what we should watch, think and say through a filter that "we" condoned in the first place, it will eventually moved to other things such as politics, culture et cetera. So better reject it know rather than when it is too late.
The Prime Minister decision to outrightly reject the idea of an internet filter should be praised. Living in a world where information criss-crossed from one place to another in a fraction of a second, I simply cannot understand why Malaysia still need an information cum culture minister, who is still living in the Ice Age.
So what we need now is a vibrant society that discusses on important issues such as education, environment, religion etc. Actually thsi is not so difficult, as more and more of our children are getiing into universities. This I think would probaly make the pornography industry die from a natural death as we are just too busy to surf porns.
I think Rais Yatim should go.
For the last several weeks (perhaps 3 weeks already), I've not been to the GSC to watch a movie. There are several good movies out there like Angle & Demons, Startrek and Night at the Museum; but non of those movies able to entice me to go to the GSC and buy a movie ticket.
Maybe these are the symptoms of a "Movie-Goer Fatigue". After 10 weeks or so in a row, watching every single new movie release on either Wednesday or Thursday with Makdi, I've grown tired of them all. I don't know about Makdi, but the movies today simply can be categorised as overly credited or promoted or some sort of.
Yes there are several good movies like Wolverine, Talentime and Watchmen; but most of the movies that we watched were absolute farce (especially Mall Cop!).
The probable explanation for this fatigue might also be found from my new "habit" of visiting the Biotech Labs after 5 pm to have some chit-chat with Makdi, Ain, Ainil, Azlinah and other frequent visitors.
But one thing that might actually answer this "fatigue" is that I've tried to exit my solitary by spending some amount of money for instant gratification with a best friend. And I found that, it is not the answer.
It was Wednesday, a movie day. Makdi and I went to the GSC to watch a movie and the obvious pick would be X-Men Wolverine.
The movie is about Wolverine, a comic character in the X-Men series. Everything was superb. From the casting to the story-line, the location to the animation.
The best movie we've seen for this year perhaps.
Two Thumbs Up! (Or is it four?)
5 out of 5 stars.
The movie started quite "seriously", with a girl being haunted by voices coming out of no where. The girl was totally being “controlled” by the voice and she suggested to her teacher to produce a time-capsule. This is for her friends and herself to put letters and aspirations for their future generations to open it later.
She then wrote a long string of numbers on a piece of paper and her teacher, perplexed with what she saw, took the paper away and put it in the time capsule.
That was in 1959 and today, in the year 2009, the time capsule was re-opened. Prior to that, viewers were introduced to the Hero of the movie: Nicolas Cage. Old and serious in nature, he is quite suitable for the role as a father, a Physic Professor and an agnostic.
At the ceremony of the time-capsule’s opening, the letters were distributed to the schoolchildren and Nic Cage’s son got the letter with numbers on it. From that moment, the movie has gotten crappier than ever.
Nic Cage, a “professor” by his own right, try to solve those strings of numbers by relating it with accidents that killed a lot of people for example the 9/11, Madrid bombings und so weiter…
Then he predicted that another accident is going to happen and it did. And then another and then another.
The one thing that I like about this movie is its graphics. The plane crash, the subway accident and the earth being eaten up by the sun, excellent works of art!
Long story short, the aliens (where the voice originated) were actually not the bad guys. They were “angelic” in nature and tried to salvage the human’s generations by taking a pair of boy and girl into their large spaceship, in this case, Nic Cage son. And the funny thing is? Nic Cage, who solved the riddle of the numbers was being left behind by the aliens. He almost got into the space ship with his son but the aliens made gestures saying “NO, you cannot come with us, though you solve the problem, but you cannot, maybe because you are so hideous, we don’t like that in the new planet.”
So that’s was it, Nic Cage drove back to his home to be with his family for the last time before being eaten up by flames from the Sun. The End.
Makdi and I laughed away as the movie ended. Poor you Nic Cage. Hahaha..
This movie got 3 out of 5 stars? Hehehe..
Viewed on 11th April 2009
This time around, I am alone in watching the movie and it is a story from our neighbouring country, Thailand. It was about a nation named Langkasuka, located on the northern part of present Malaysia, which was ruled by a woman and her sisters during the 16th century or so. They were typically Malays in outlook but they spoke Siam (I once had this feeling went the last time I’ve visited Bangkok last year, Malay looking but cannot speak Malay, it was weird).
The storyline goes along love, magic and war. The state of Langkasuka were given two large artillery guns from the Dutch but the ship bringing it was sunk after a daring attack by the pirates. The pirates tried to retrieve them from the sea bottom but it was guarded by “magic” obor-obor.
They were also a group of sea gypsies living at the nearby island to the Langkasuka state. They helped the state by fending off attacks by the pirates against the state. In this group of Gypsies, came the hero of the story that was quite an “eye-candy”. He tried to learn the magical art of “Du-Lum”, an art that involved the sea creatures und so weiter. He got married to Bintang and one day Bintang was killed by the pirates and thrown into the sea. That made him “mad” and proceeded by learning the art of Du-Lum, the wrong way from the Du-Lum master on an island somewhere in South China Sea.
One of the surviving artillery guns designers stayed for years with the Sea Gypsies. This Chinese guy was eventually being captured the pirates and helped to them to built a few small powerful cannons. He was saved by the Langkasuka warriors and was brought to the state to built two powerful cannons and some other inventions.
Also throughout the story, there were “skirmishes” by the Langkasuka warriors as well as by the Sea Gypsies themselves against the pirates. One thing is there was no continuation from one plot to another and that sucks. Almost at the end of the movie, the pirates assembled a large army and tried to invade Langkasuka. The Queen of Langkasuka also prepared for a defensive position with her high-walled city. At one point, the pirates successfully destroyed all of the state’s small cannons but the attack was staved off by the two large cannons built by the Chinese inventor. The story ends with the defeat of the pirates after all the magic and bombs being used.
It was a total waste of time for anybody expecting a good Thai movie that involved history and actions.
As a whole 2 ½ stars out of 5.
Viewed on 8th April 2009
It was Wednesday. Makdi and I went to watch Fast and Furious and the hall was entirely “full-house”. No wonder, it was Wednesday Movie Day. Thunderous applause came as the movie started and though some of the viewers disliked such commotions,anyway, you don’t get that always right?
One thing is, I have never seated at the first line of seats, and those were the only seats that we could get. It was uncomfortable at first but as we go along the movie, it was still uncomfortable. So guys, buy ticket early, especially on Movie Day.
Frankly, I have never been an enthusiast of action movies involving cars. Starting on that note, the movie as a whole was quite average. The storyline is about a guy who involved in crime and one day found himself wanted to stop from doing it. His crime partner cum girlfriend was then found dead and he resulted in taking revenge on whomever the bad guy is, that is Bragas (really looks like a Bajau from Inanam).
Long story short, the hero teamed up with a policeman (the only nice thing to look at from the entire movie) and went up against Bragas. After a lot of killings and car chasing, Bragas was captured by the police and the hero ended up in jail. But at the end of the movie, the director gave a twist by giving the impression that the hero is to be rescued by his car-drifter friends. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla…
The movie content great cinematic features with appropriate castings but the storyline was not that good. As a whole, 3 out 5 stars.
Viewed on 1st April 2009
For the 7th consecutive week, I went out to watch a movie at the GSC with Makdi. And now we went for the latest Yasmin Ahmad movie, Talentime.
As expected, Yasmin’s movie was about i) love ii) multiracial and religion Malaysia and lastly iii) family.
The movie espoused an almost totally unknown material of actors and actresses. Some are well known like Adibah Noor but most of them are unknown. The storyline was quite strong as it happens as it is expected to be but the “speed”, at times, can make you go to sleep. People called it “Artsy”. J
The settings were very “Malaysian”. It reminds me of my childhood in Johor Bahru, the old city with pre-war British architecture and the roads were filled with Malaysian made cars- the Proton and Peroduas. Even the school where most of the movie being filmed really looks like my school. If any Malaysians living outside of the country watched this movie, it was going to be very very syahdu…hehe.
Several mini-stories intertwined with each other that represent the feelings and aspirations of different races in Malaysia. The Malays- represented by the Azean Irdawaty (great acting!); Adibah Noor and Harith Iskandar family; The Chinese- represented by a Chinese schoolboy who was being pressured by his father and at first saw his Malay friend as being helped by the government but he was wrong; and the Indians- represented by the Jaclyn Victor family, poverty and killings.
The much anticipated scene where Azean died due to cancer, was not as sad as being said by other reviewers. (I heard my ex-lecturers Dr Noumie and Dr. Zaleha were “reportedly” cried, hehehe..)
So that’s it for Talentime and the OST was great!. 4 out 5 stars for this Yamsin Ahmad’s movie!
Watch Date: 19 March 2009
“The International” is a movie about a group Interpol officers going against a rogue bank located in Europe but dealt with clients all over the world. The bank was suspected to be involved in illegal arms deals around the world, supporting the overthrow of legitimate governments in Africa and many else. The recent “evil” the Bank is going to do is the selling of Chinese-made weapons.
However, the wrong-doings of the Bank were being made known to the Interpol by “insiders” within the Bank itself. The result: Death. Many of these insiders were either missing or found dead in a freak accident. These weird patterns of death have caused the Interpol guys scrambling to stop it. So here the movie starts…
One informer/insider, working as one of the top management staffs found himself with an undercover police in Italy inside a car (the police have been trying to illicit information about the bank). This informer agreed to make a deal and the police left the car immediately. A colleague of him, waiting across the road watched how his friend died in front of his eyes. He was assassinated by a passerby simply using a chemical poison without anybody noticing it. This assassin would also be the main focus of the story afterwards. The informer was also found dead in an accident near Luxembourg.
As usual, there must be the bad guys. They were the top management of the Bank, about five of them, looked very European, decent, and intelligent. Throughout the movie, they were shown as “bad” bankers, i.e. scheming to kill anyone who dared to leak their secrets and dealings. The most powerful of them is a Danish guy, who in the movie, once asked for his 7 year-old son’s advice what to do as one is getting deeper into a problem (what a great scene!). Also, this one old German guy, an ex-STASI (the East Germany secret police) and now a banker himself became the main intermediary to the sole assassin of the Bank by meeting him in art galleries anywhere around the world.
One terrific scene was in Guggenheim – an art museum in New York- the German guy met up with the assassin and asked him to kill the hero (one of the Interpol guys-oh yeah his name is Mr. Salinger, I kept on asking Makdi his name was!). The Interpol has been tracking the assassin and it was their best opportunity to catch this guy. After the old German left, the Interpol officers tried to arrest the assassin but it resulted into one of the best shooting scene I have ever seen! BANG! BANG! BANG! Anyway, the assassin did actually turn his back to the Bank but died due to the massive lost blood as he was shot by the guards of the old German guy (a lot them really!).
The Interpol managed to capture the German guy and put into an interrogation. This scene was also great, where you have to really listen carefully to the philosophical words said by both the old German and the interrogator (Mr. Salinger). One part that moved me when the German said something like this, “There is only logic in fiction but not in life.” They managed to come to a deal, by releasing the German and bring down the Bank from the inside. The Achilles’ heel of the Bank was that they ordered the killing of one prominent politician also a client of the Bank, Mr. Calvini while he was campaigning (the assignation scene was also terrific!). Obviously, Calvini has turned his back to the Bank by revealing the Banks bad dealings to the Interpol.
In an arms deal discussion in Istanbul, the Danish and the German (now a mole) guys met with a sophisticated Turkish missile dealer named Ahmat Sunay. They tried to arrange the selling of missiles to Syria as well as missile-jamming equipment to Israel. Without the Dane knowing about it, Mr. Salinger was also spying on their conversation. The German who tried to help the Interpol was then unexpectedly found dead and a chase ensued between the Dane and Salinger. They ended up on the rooftops of Istanbul suburbs. Before Salinger could do anything, the Dane was shot dead. Who shot the evil Banker? An assassin sent by the Calvini’s sons. His line was (in Italian), “Gratitude from the Calvini brothers.” The end.
The title of the movie does not represent the true gist of the movie. I think it is the most underrated movie of all time! What a great action packed movie it was and Makdi and I ended up satisfied that night.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
It was Friday evening; I've just returned from Labuan and decided to watch a movie at the GSC One Borneo. And as usual, Makdi joined in and we decided to watch any movie that might seemed to be interesting. Frankly, I suggested to him the movie "Sayang You Can Dance", but due to Makdi's dislike of the actor Dafi "Baik Punyer" Akademi Fantasia, we went for his movie choice for this week, namely "Dragonball: Evolution".
The movie is based on the popular cartoon characters of a comic book named "Dragonball" read by millions of kids around the world including Makdi, but not me. I've never been an aficionado of comic books except for Doraemon the Japanese Feline- Robot, and thus making me a total skeptic. :)
Anyway, the movie started quite well on introducing the characters one by one including the "white-boy" Goku, his Japs grandfather, his out of the world friends and obviously his nemesis (the green guy!). But the movie goes with weak plots afterwards; the bad guy came back to the real world after thousands of years of imprisonment by some magicians in China. So in order for him to be powerful again, he needed the help of Shen-Long, a dragon that will fulfill anybody’s wish with the precondition of collecting all of the five (was it five?) Dragonballs, just like Ali Baba’s gene in a bottle story. At the end (it is excruciating to go through the middle part, boring indeed!), the evil guy went for a “buku bertemu ruas” event that is a duel between him and the Goku.
As predicted, Goku won, killed the evil nemesis and used the 5 dragonballs to summon ShenLong. He wanted his mentor to be given a second life (an obvious khurafat!) and he got it. Oh yeah, his mentor was played out by the famous HK movie star, Chow Yun Fatt; and I think he’s the only positive factor coming out of the movie, his jokes were great!
To sum up, the movie is being superficial and bored me to death. While my Manga-enthusiast friend, Makdi, gave thumbs down too, saying “Macam tengok trailer!”
Conclusion: one half star of 5 and simply not worthy of your hard earned ringgits. Don’t go watch this movie please.
(This movie review was done after a two-week lapse between watching and the review itself. So I remind the reader that the review might be inaccurate due to memory lapse.)
This week I was in Labuan for a few days (since Monday) and returned to Kota Kinabalu on plane by Friday afternoon. I went there with Kak Tini, one of Biotech’s Programme lecturer and we stayed at the Grand Dorsett Hotel, in separate rooms obviously!
We were actually sent there by Dean Harun on short notice and his PA helped us much on the plane ticketing as well as the accommodations. The “purpose” was for us to be the SST’s “ambassadors” to the UMS-Kampus Labuan’s event and the event was a Seminar on The Qualitative Research, something that we in the Biotech programme simply won’t use it for whatever reason!
Anyway, what’s good about this trip were:
1. I’ve got a very spacious two-bed room (as shown below) equipped with the most modern equipment of communication called the flat screen TV (hahaha!)
2. Easy access to shopping places like Ujana Kewangan and other duty free shops of which I’ve visited once back in Oct 2008 for another SST event.
3. Making new friends among the aging and obviously older-than-me academicians (I’m 23 and the average age for most of them are 30! One of gals kept on asking my age, almost to point of admiring me, I almost vomit). Another person was Dr. John, I think he’s nice and had great mind!
4. The seafood restaurant, Anjung Ketam was terrific (C’est magnifique!). Only at RM35 per head, we ate probably the world’s best cooked prawns and crabs. The freshness. I’m hungry now
5. The forum that closed the Seminar was absolutely an eye-opener for a freshman like me. Again Prof Syed Azizi gave his views unfiltered on the Research University concepts, the social responsibility of UMS, the workload of academicians in Malaysia etc. He said that “ An academician is not a civil servant, we don’t simply followed but think on our own feet and having backbones. You must argue. And that’s why I became an academician myself.”
That’s a wrap for my review on latest worktrip and this really helps my SKT! Haha…
-Le fin-
Recently I have been a frequent visitor of the GSC in OneBorneo. Last night I went to hang out with Makdi at the cinema to watch a new movie, Watchmen by Warner Bros. As always, I'll be commenting on the film we watch together and so here it goes:
The story is about love and war, heroes and villains, idealism and reality. The movie was entirely narrated by one of the superheroes and he died at the end of the movie. The movie started with the killing of a person in an apartment of his in New York. The USA as entirely a different nation altogether, the US won the Vietnam war, Richard Nixon was voted in as President for the 5th time, there were a lot of looting and crimes und so weiter. All of these happen during the 1980’s and the Cold War has yet to end.
The killing brought us to the introduction of more superheroes; they were a group of them altogether formed during the 1940’s. They helped to win Vietnam for Nixon and also caused a lot of destruction in the US later on. Much of them was killed, I don’t know by whom, but they were left to about three of them or so?
The story line was filled with many unnecessary scenes and the dialogs bored us to death, I almost slept on Makdi shoulder! Some of the viewers even menguap loudly! Anyway, I found the graphic and cinematography were quite awesome, especially at the beginning of the movie when the villain spared with the one of the superheroes, they went into slow-motion mode!
Almost at the end of the 2 and half hours movie, one of the superhero was actually a villain, he wanted to detonate major cities around the world for “peace”!
He managed to do that unexpectedly and New York, Beijing, Moscow and London were almost evaporated by nuclear-like bombs bla2…The world ensued for peace, the Cold War went to an end and everybody live happily ever after…
The movie gets 3 out of 5 stars!
Le fin.
Anyway, after that we went to Mosha for dinner, chit-chatting a bit about friends and politics and near 10 pm parted to our own ways.
It was Thursday evening and the first year lab that I've handled finished earlier than expected. My juniors smiled after I've explained about the Blue-White Screening, plasmids and E coli, maybe out of content or probably discontent.
Anyway, I quickly went to the Tissue Culture Lab and met Makdi there and after a while, agreed to meet at GSC One Borneo to watch a movie, the fourth in this month. What the h***!
Around 7.oopm, we were at the cinema and obviously out of luck, we chose to watch SexDrive instead of the designated/planned to be watched movie, that's the ROLE MODEL. Crap.
But our expectation totally changed after watching it and the SexDrive is quite Goood! The hero was a boyish looking guy, 18 y-o and can act well. The movie started with the hero hooking up with a woman through online chatting. He said he got great body, a Cadillac etc.., woke up with wet underpants and his evil brother and families came in, it was hillarious.
Though being cut here and there by the "Oh Cut EveryThing Lembaga Penapisan Filem", the movie was still great without them. . One day the woman wanted to hav sex with him! He was totally terrified and eventually agreed to go to meet her. He brought along his good friend and caught up with his dream girl (not the woman) before the journey started. They told her they are going to see his grandma due to her cancer illness, she followed anyway. Haha...the word grandma and cancer became codewords for sex throughout the movie.
Anyway, I think you should go and watch the movie for the remaining parts. It was a decent movie to watch and it get 3 out 5 stars from me.
Awaken at this early hours by I don’t know what but surely I’m awaken and while sipping some orange juice (cap tempatan je…), opened my mail and wa la weh…! My UM supervisor sent me an email at 10.46 pm. Obviously it was my corrected proposal for the postgraduate study. As always, I need to reread the whole thing, not to mess it like before, and I’m still thinking about when I should be doing the correction. Hope hope hope....
Time was surely not on my side, with preparation for practical class today with Bong; and the classes themselves on both Wednesday and Thursday with the boys and girls asking redundant but interesting questions; plus some planned berfoya-foya outings by Thursday night with Makdi. Things are going tough when you least expected. All of a sudden I’ve a lot of things to do! Oh no, this weekend I’ve got to attend a retreat in Kinarut a.k.a menghabiskan duit kerajaan di resort, on the MQA thingy.
Surely, the kite goes up when the wind is strong. I think Churchill said that somewhere. Hope things would be better ahead this week with more work being done (ironic betulll….).
If you realized, I’ve got only hope at the end of the line. Obama la kunun. If I can email this posting to the only ONE, I pray for help and a clear passage through out this week. Praying by writing might be one way to reach the only ONE (the ancient poet and sufi Rumi said this?) and may He read my writings. Apalah daya si kawan ni, hanya merancang tapi dirancang. Bukan cerita pil perancang la ni...
Amin Amin Amin.
This morning my friends and I went for the UMS blood donation drive at the UMS Recital Hall. We reached there by car and there were dozens of people queuing as well as jotting down their particulars. It took us about half an hour just to stand in the lines, some cut queues…macam biasa lah Malaysian…tak sabar-sabar…
After weighing my bodyweight (67kg, astaga gemuk sudah), it was the haemoglobin test. YES! I passed it..My friend did not…poor her…you passed if the blood clumps and drop to the container base filled with blue colour solution (I’m still thinking what solution is that).
Anyway, back to the story, after laying on the bed with my blood bag, the nurse goes on with the blood donation procedures. About five minutes later, the nurse came back to me saying that the blood flow was too slow!
The answer is not to pump it out obviously, but to change to my left arm. The blood flows far better than before and it took me another half an hour or so.
Anyway, I saw a belle femme- a Sabahan nurse. Memang sumandak….haha…
That’s why lah lambat tuh tangan kanan (Censored).
The free gifts were terrific, that include a certificate, a New Sabah Times newspaper, a tuna-filled roti and a few drinks. Thank God we came early, the lines were sprawling outside as if there’s a Megasale…
So people, go donate your blood today and save some life someday. Dapat pahala tau ni….
P/S: Makdi, napa la tia mau ikut tadi...
Today I hanged out with my ex-coursemates at CP, KK. Makdi, Rod and I went to watch a new movie named THE PUNISHER: WAR ZONE in Growball Cinemax (Cinema 8-the largest and the bestest hall in KK).
The movie started with...I can't remember it. What I did remember was that the movie is filled with unintentional killings, terrible plot, obviously a not so handsome-old-killing spree hero, dumb and foul-mouthed bad guys and many other things. I better not filled my first post with so much of hates and negativities!
The movie cost us RM7 each and in the end, it was a bad movie to watch. Perhaps, Valkyrie, though slow and a bit crappie, is a better movie than this one, as my friend Makdi said.
We ended up in McD, eating burgers and slurping Coca Cola for half an hour and continued with chit chatting for...3 hours. Hehe...lama tak jumpa ni...Many old stories cropped out and also what happened to our fellow friends.
So guys out there, if you want to watch this movie, wait it to come out in Astro's Movie Channel.
THE PUNISHER: WAR ZONE: 1 star.
