The Penjahat Menace

Initially I don’t feel the need to justify to anyone, safe for my parents, my choice to stay overseas and look for a job. But of late, especially during the Chinese New Year period, I am becoming quite unpleasantly annoyed at some of my relative’s and friends’ comments about not coming back to my home country.

“Overseas graduates like you are contributing to our brain drain…”
“Why not you come back to work here and contribute to your own economy instead of another country’s?”
“Young people like you should be more grateful and remember your roots, you are still a Malaysian and must always remember that.”

Why imagine hearing these comments time and again over the space of only a few weeks back… I’m certain even the most learned monks would at least be slightly roused up. Well I’ve decided to offload some of my steam here… sorry to those of you reading this that disagree… but I think even those that condemn my decision to stay abroad would most definitely jump at a chance to migrate if granted the opportunity.

And to begin with, I am not uprooting myself and moving to another country for good. All I am planning to do now is search for a job overseas to broaden my horizons. I am certainly very open to the option of coming back to Malaysia in the future, if my country wants me, I want him too.

Economic reasons is certainly one of the key factors in me making my decision, but as with all trilogies, I’ll save that for the last. What I’d like to talk about firstly is the general safety of our beloved country.

Having been around for a while in the neighbourhood that I’m in… my house alone has been the victim of theft a total of 4 times… thankfully all four times nobody was home and only earthly possessions were sorely missed. I however fear to even imagine the ghastly consequence of a family member being home when one of those ruthless thieves striked.

Some people may casually dismiss my unfortunate quadrupled theft to simple bad fortune, but let me assure you that this is very much a petrifying and real threat to all of us. In fact the evidence is staring at us right in the face, I have now totally lost count of the number of housing estates and neighbourhoods around the Klang Valley that have been regrettably tasked to set up and hire their own gated security force, just to sleep soundly at night.

The fact that we the citizens are required to hire our own security force is blatant distrust and lack of confidence of the authorities. And that is how we the people of Malaysia have been ‘trained’ to function, when faced with a problem… like bad social security, instead of taking it up with the people in charge… we sit back, take it up the ass, and fork out our own money to hire extra protection.

It isn’t really tackling the problem at the root, but just finding an alternative ‘temporary’ solution. But I suppose to be fair, there are a group of Malaysians that have worked hard to weed out the evil in the system, but to no avail… it seems that even now, they have only succeeded in proving that nothing can be done.

For its citizens to live a productive life and contribute to the general economic wellbeing of the country, they must firstly feel safe in whatever environment they are in. When our general safety and wellbeing is consistently and frequently challenged, its hard then to live a productive life when you always have to look over your back.



Having to hire and establish our own security and gated community is in my opinion a mild form of vigilante-ism. And vigilantes are usually only required when your city is in the slums and the authorities cannot be counted upon, whether due to a lack of hands or a lack of motivation. Corrupted cities like Gotham requires Batman and Metropolis need Superman. Having to establish our own security system is a little like that… it is a form of vigilantes.



My mom always chides me when I come home late after a late night out, and I understand that she fears for my safety when going out late. What with all the internet and sms circulating around about stories of people getting robbed and harassed at night, her fear for my safety is not unfounded. In fact, sometimes even I feel a little scared when staying out too late, but hey… I do like the occasional night out with my friends…

So I start of a series of posts on my reason of staying abroad with safety… some of you may disagree with what I have to say, but… frankly speaking, this is how I feel. And when the time is right, if I am able to convince my parents to do so, I also hope they may choose to live in a safer environment. And of course, I sincerely hope that the safe environement will be back home here in Malaysia. But a lot of work needs to be done before we can achieve that.

Safety first!

Signing out.

How Much Would You Learn?

How far will you be willing to go in order to find your better half? Had this conversation with a friend the other day… what do I mean by that? For example if you liked a certain stereotype of guy, how far would you go in order to get closer to that particular community of stereotype? In particular would you learn the language?

For example if you like Japanese stereotypes… the same guys you always see in Japanese porn… would you go the extra mile to learn the Japanese language? Would you learn to make certain Japanese dishes… to attract a Japanese boyfriend?



On the other hand if you liked latino stereotypes… Will you be wiling to learn Spanish? And what do I mean by latino sterotypes? I guess its your usual Spanish looking hunk or latin American looking hunk!



I get the feeling my friend (the one I was having this conversation with) likes the typical blond haired blue eyes stereotype… that is very much my type as well :p so in terms of a blond haired blue eyed stereotype, would you be wiling to learn a European language such as german or French to get closer to that sort of stereotype?



Of course apart from leaning their language, you can also learn to cook their dishes, or watch their movies/ books, so that you can better strike up an intellectual conversation with them…

Here I have just covered the regional stereotypes, but nonetheless there are a lot more... would you watch star trek and star wars if you were into geeky stereotypes? Or would you watch sports in order to attract the masculine straight acting type of guys? Would you learn to surf if you like the typical surfer boy types? And would you try to learn more about wine culture if you liked the pretentious preppy type boys? Of course not to leave Takashi out, if you like the gym-bunny stereotype, would you start going to the gym more often? To either lift weights or join group fitness classes?

I guess the list goes on and on… and you can go all out of your element to learn a brand new subculture and/or language, just to attract the type of guy you like. But is that worth it in the long run? Maybe to satisfy a temporary lust, but would connecting with someone from a completely different culture or speaks a totally different language be feasible in the long run? I guess it depends which school of thought you subscribe to… opposite attracts? Or guys from the same community/culture would be able to communicate better in the long run?

I personally believe in a mix, not too much similarities and also not too polar in terms of differences, I think that is the best mix for a successful relationship.

Signing out.

Alien Invasion

I should be called Ludicrous Lucas... Usually the only time I listen to the radio is when I'm driving. So today when I was driving around, as usual i turned on and listened to the radio... something shocked me... All the radio channels were playing this slow-jazzy type of tune... there weren't any advertisements and no DJs talking...

The first thing that came to my mind was that we were being invaded by aliens... and they are playing this sort of a hypnotic melody to mind control the whole of mankind. Being the curious me, I obviously continued to listen to the radio to see if I start getting mind controlled... although in reality if I was under a mind control hypnosis, I wouldn't know it... would I?



Anyway, I definetely continued to listen to that slow hypnotic jazzy type music, when suddenly there was an announcement on radio. I was expecting something like, " Human race, do not panic, we come in peace, all we want to do is to control all of you!"

But none of that happened. Apparently the sultan of Johor passed away, and so none of the radio stations could play any lively music... So basically thats the whole story, no alien invasion at all. Sigh... and I was getting excited. Anyway RIP your majesty.

Signing out.

A Matter Of Pride

Hmm… since its important to have pride in being gay, its important to know what our gay pride flag stands for :)



Hot Pink stands for sexuality
Red stands for life
Orange stands for healing
Yellow stands for sunlight
Green stands for nature
Turquoise stands for magic and arts
Indigo stands for serenity and harmony
Violet stands for spirit

The flag was originally invented by Gilbert Baker, the flag was first used in the 1978 gay pride march in San Francisco. However the eight coloured flag was soon reduced to a seven coloured one with the Hot Pink removed. This was because at the time, hot pink wasn’t a commercially available colour, and so to mass produce the pride flag, the hot pink had to be officially removed.



In 1979 a year later, indigo was removed from the seven coloured pride flag and then there were six. This was done so that during that years pride march, the colours could be equally divided on the marching street.

Whats the reason behind all this pride? Well I recently watched a recorded version of the 60th anniversary for china… apparently my parents thought it was good for Chinese all over the world to take pride in china’s achievement so far. And while watching the anniversary at Tien-An-Men Square… I was utterly shocked when I saw the pride flag embedded in the marching colours of the Chinese anniversary ceremony. Maybe China is more open than we think, and we should give them more credit.






I assure you that none of these pictures have been doctored in any way whatsoever. They are as seen on the recording I saw. Amazing right?

Signing out.

Noble Peace Out

I was never really convinced about the guy when he was elected as the president in one of the more important nations of the world. I mean I personally always found him to be too much of an actor, its like instead of a world leader… he was more of a celebrity, the way he spoke, the way he talks and the way he acts. I do not doubt that he is an excellent public speaker, certainly heaps better than any of the politicians we find back home. I mean, quite a number of our MPs can barely give a good speech in their own mother tongue, be it Chinese, tamil/hindi or malay, let alone give a public speech in English as eloquently and with such charge as Barrack. But, we aren’t here to criticise our politicians, because I know that they are trying to do their best back home (what??? Its not as if I’m only adding that sentence so that my blog doesn’t get shut down… I’m quite sure I really mean it…)



Well he recently won the Nobel peace prize, congrats Barrack… but hmm, I wonder how peaceful is he really is? I mean, sure he shut down Gvantanamo Bay, but that just means he doesn’t like some ISA established by Georgy-boi right? He could very much have something similar somewhere else in the world that is hidden…

Ok, ok… I know I sound pessimistic and critical of him, but I think he has yet to have done something exceptional. Sure, some of his decisions have helped cure the global economy of its ill health, but in economic cycle terms, after about a year and a half… economies usually do recover from extreme financial crises anyway. So, yea nothing exceptional I suppose.

The one thing he probably did that I would raise my cup to is his stand on gay rights. Well he has always claimed to be a traditional Christian so he cannot in his on religious views stand for gay marriage. But despite that, he has manage to try and please us gays by supporting full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. I guess that’s a pretty good start, if the gay people cant have a legal marriage, at least they can still be legally acknowledged as a couple in civil union. That once again much more than we can ever expect back home. Barrack also mentioned that he has no objection to state governments themselves legalising gay marriages, and this is already the case for 5 states in the US: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire :) Thumbs up to the voting people there that made it possible.



Barrack is also in favour of abolishing the “don’t ask don’t tell” military ruling, whereby gay soldiers are allowed to openly serve as gay soldiers in the military. Currently in the US, if you are enrolled in the military… you’re actually not allowed to ask if anyone else is gay, or tell anyone else that your are gay. And that ruling is in place for the entire time in which you are enlisted in the army. Any breach of that ruling can earn you a dishonourary discharge from the military. Boo!

Well, through all his traditional Christian views, I’m happy to see that Barrack has in some ways been accommodating to gay people in the US. Allowing civil union but not gay marriage is still discriminating in some sense, but at least it’s a start isn’t it? Anyway, I’d just like to say once again congratulation Barrack in winning the Nobel peace prize this year, and may you prove me wrong in my pessimistic views on your policy and ‘celebrity-like’ actions. Please don’t just turn out to be a celebrity president and suddenly feel pressured to start adopting African or Cambodian babies.

Signing out.