(with many thanks to Charmaine for a bit of risque Aussie humour)
Q: What do you get if you put a donkey in water?
A wet ass
Q: What do you get if you put a chicken in the freezer?
A stiff cock
Q: What do you get if you put a cat in a milk pan?
A contented pussy
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Zakaria Kurang Ajar
/Y.B.%20Dato%27%20Haji%20Zainal%20@%20Zakaria%20Mat%20Deros.jpg)
The MB of Selangor has also urged him to resign his post as a Majlis Perbandaran Klang Councillor or face the sack. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the people were unhappy with what had happened and this reflected badly on the ruling party and government.
"Society cannot accept such offences committed by an elected representative and action must be taken against him (Zakaria)," Abdullah said.
I think this does not go far enough. The Sultan of Selangor should strip Zakaria of his datukship.
Zakaria had the audacity to refuse to go to the Palace after being summoned by HRH the Sultan to face a royal rebuking over his corruption, abuse of public position and arrogance charges.
Zakaria had used his position as a Majlis Perbandaran Klang Councillor to demolish a rival's satay stall as it was doing better than his, which doesn't have a TOL (Temporary Occupation Licence) even.
Idiots like Zakaria have no place in Malaysia. Tell him what you think of his antics:
Y.B. Dato' Haji Zainal @ Zakaria bin Mat Deros, DSSA, AMN, PJK, JP
Tingkat 1, Bangunan UMNO Bahagian Klang
Jalan Sentul KM 5
Persiaran Raja Muda Musa
42000 Pelabuhan Klang
Selangor, Malaysia
E-Mel : datozakaria@mpklang.gov.my
Tel : 03-3165 4121
H/P: 019-332 4504
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Train defecator caught by police
Police have released a CCTV image of the suspect
Bonney Eberndu, 36, a thoroughly disgusting black piece of shit
Bonney Eberndu, 36, of no fixed address, was arrested at Camberwell Green bus garage, in south-east London. He has struck on at least 22 trains since August.
He waits until he is alone before committing the offence, smearing excrement inside carriages.
"This is a serious public health issue as well as being exceptionally anti-social..." said Detective Constable Donna Fox. She said his offences had resulted in many carriages being taken out of service, causing disruptions, cancellations and serious inconvenience to the travelling public.
Different times
"There is no particular pattern as to when he appears," said Ms Fox.
"He travels to various areas and at different times of the day and different days of the week.
"On at least one occasion CCTV footage shows the man being disturbed by a passenger walking through a train.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Aid for alpacas
Alpacas have been raised in the Andes region for centuries. Docile and easy to domesticate, their wool is highly-prized by fashion designers.
The animal has become a symbol of this snow-capped region, but farmers in Peru are concerned that wool quality is declining and fear that the genetic pool of the world's largest alpaca industry may deteriorate dramatically. More...
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Fancy a Banana Guard?
Does your banana need protection?
Whatever will they think of next?
Monday, October 23, 2006
SAMBAL 101
Subject: Sambal belacan tomato
Message: Er, how exactly do you make that? Do you just add tomatoes when you're frying the sambal or is there something more to it?
In response to the above inquiry, which denotes a lack of understanding of the salient features of sambals, I have decided to give this SAMBAL 101 lecture.
Sambals (what the Hispanics would call SALSA, I guess) can be broadly divided into two categories ~ the SAMBAL TUMIS and the non-tumis. Tumis means saute or frying lightly. Sambal belacan is in the latter category and therefore DOES NOT INVOLVE ANY FRYING. If you "you just add tomatoes when you're frying the sambal" as the inquirer had suggested, you will just end up with one big mess.
Having said that, however, please don't let "big messess" put you off. Some of the most unaesthetically pleasing messes are quite delicious. For example, one day my mom asked my goblok Indon maid to pound the spices and then add to the limpa (spleen and other assorted offal) before frying. The goblok pounded the limpa together with the spices and then fried the whole mess. Looks a disgusting mess but was delicious. But I digress...
To make sambal belacan, you generally need chillies (big red ones, green ones, chilli padi or whatever you fancy ~ there is no hard and fast rule ~ I come from the whatever-I-can-lay-my-hands-on school of cooking), bawang merah (shallots), some sugar (like a teaspoon or tablespoon, depending on your taste), pinch of salt, maybe some garlic, some people add MSG but I generally do not use any MSG in my cooking at all; some lime (limau nipis or calamansi) juice but lemon juice, asam jawa (tamarind) juice or even limau kasturi would work (I guess some vinegar or grapefruit juice would do at a pinch) and of course some BELACAN.
You can try to make it without the belacan if you can't find any, but then it won't be sambal BELACAN, would it?
THIS IS WHAT YOU DO:
Get a frying pan or some tin foil. In my childhood days, we used to cut out the tin foil seal from 2 kg Milo tins for this purpose. Heat up the belacan. No oil, nothing. Just heat it up to get some "fragrance" emanating. This is best done while you're right beside it. Don't heat up the belacan and bugger off somewhere. One Thai university flatmate once did that only to discover that, in his absence, a Mat Salleh flatmate had thrown a fire blanket over it and sprayed the kitchen with half the contents of a fire extinguisher. Mat Salleh assumed, from the "pong," that something was on fire and took prompt remedial action.
You don't have to use excessive heat. Stop when you feel it smells right. Then, if you have a lesong, pound the belacan with the rest of the solid ingredients. Add the lime juice (or alternatives) at the end to adjust the acidity and consistency. Its not quite the same when you use a blender.
VARIATIONS
If you wanna make SAMBAL BELACAN TOMATO, add TOMATO to the above before adding the lime juice. Just be aware that tomatoes have some level of acidity and moisture, so you don't have to add so much lime juice.
If you wanna make SAMBAL BELACAN STRAWBERRY, add sour strawberries to the above before adding the lime juice. Just be aware that sour strawberries have some level of acidity and moisture, so you don't have to add so much lime juice. This recipe is for what to do when you've bought a punnet of strawberries and they turn out to be sour. Instead of chucking them out, make SAMBAL BELACAN STRAWBERRY. If they are sweet, just eat them, no need to go to the trouble of making it into a sambal belacan.
If you wanna make SAMBAL BELACAN MANGA/BINJAI/WHATEVER, add MANGA/BINJAI/WHATEVER to the above before adding the lime juice. Just be aware that of the acidity and moisture levels, so adjust the lime juice accordingly.
You can eat sambal belacan with just about any raw vegetable. I tried it and it goes down well with carrots, cabbage, lettuce, asparagus (yes, raw), aubergines, sour green apples (Brambleys and Granny Smith, I've been told they work a treat with Russets but I've never tried it myself).
Some vegetables you have to blanch first. (This involves dipping them into a pot of boiling water from anywhere between a few seconds to a minute.) These include okra (ladies fingers), jantung pisang, and what have you.
If you can find ulam wherever you are, great. If not, experiment!
SAMBAL TUMIS
As the name implies, this involves "tumis-ing" which is to saute, or lightly fry. You will need some cooking oil, chilli powder, tumeric powder, salt, sugar. If I do have to tumis, I like to use Alagappa's dhall "sambar" powder, which already has a nice mix of chilli, tumeric, jintan manis and jintan putih powders. However, as I belong to the why-bother-if-it takes-longer-to-cook-than-to-eat-it school of cooking, I generally don't bother with making sambal tumis. The most common sambal tumis is SAMBAL TUMIS IKAN BILIS which is commonly eaten with nasi lemak. You can also eat it with pisang goreng as well and if you down it with some robust red French wine, it works a treat. I recommend a Merlot or a Bordeaux.
You can check out some recipes of mine at:
www.lulu.com/azlan
as well as photographs and short stories. Proceeds from sales of most of the items go to either the Azlan Adnan Education Fund or my Humanitarian Fund.
Enjoy!
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Healthcare in Myanmar
Myanmar shares borders with Thailand, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, China, Bangladesh and India. Estimates for 2004 indicated there were 50.1 million people living in Myanmar which is one of the least densely populated countries in Asia. The rugged, forested portion of its terrain is still only lightly settled; it is a land of villages, with only around 29.3 per cent of the population living in urban areas (2003). The annual population growth rate is high by world standards, but is about average for South East Asia. Myanmar has a centrally planned, developing economy that is largely nationalised and is based principally upon agriculture and trade. The GNP per capita, however, remains one of the lowest in the world.
Healthcare
Myanmar's hospitals have long queues of patients, many with the classic diseases of poverty such as tuberculosis, malaria and water-borne illnesses, but are often unable to give them the treatment they need, because medications are either too expensive or impossible to obtain.
Myanmar's military junta has been ruling the country for four decades, during which time many other South East Asian nations have seen dramatic improvements in their economies, government services and standards of living.
The World Health Organization estimates that Myanmar spends US$10 per person per year on healthcare, compared with its neighbours Thailand and Malaysia, which spend US$160 and US$218 respectively. One NGO estimated that the actual Burmese figure was even lower - more like US$0.50. As a result, an estimated 150,000 Burmese children under the age of five die every year of malaria, acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea.
HIV/AIDS
Myanmar has one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in South East Asia. The Ministry of Health estimates that 338,911 adults aged 15-49 years old were living with HIV in September 2004, of which 28.6 per cent were women, indicating a total prevalence rate of 1.3 per cent. UNAids estimates that 360,000 Burmese people are currently living with the disease - and other organisations put the figure as high as 600,000. With national estimated HIV prevalence of between 0.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent, Myanmar is experiencing a generalised epidemic, considered one of the most serious in Asia.
Officially reported AIDS cases attribute 30 per cent to intravenous drug use and 68 per cent to heterosexual transmission. Intravenous drug users have exceptionally high rates of HIV infection, with rates among drug users tested in Yangon and Mandalay in 2003 ranging from 50 per cent to 85 per cent.
Source: WHO: Summary country profile for HIV/AIDS treatment scale-up (June 2005) & WHO HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific Region 2003
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
US to accept Myanmar refugees
A 22-year-old Karen hill tribe woman cleans the ring around the neck of her mother at a village near Mae Hong Son province, north of Bangkok in this picture taken September 7, 2006. For the past two decades, hundreds of ethnic Padaung "long-neck" people from military-ruled Myanmar have enjoyed relative peace and security as refugees in the hills of northern Thailand.
Strict laws passed after the 11 September 2001 attacks prevent people who have provided "material support" to armed groups from resettling in the US. Many Chin refugees had provided such help to rebel groups such as the Chin National Front and Chin National Army. The majority of Chin refugees from Burma live in camps in Malaysia, Thailand and India.
Washington has already issued similar exemptions for Burma's Karen people, who were in a similar situation.
"Exercising the exemption authority allows the US to resume significant processing of the thousands of extremely vulnerable ethnic Chin refugees living in Malaysia and elsewhere," the US State Department said in a statement. But it added that the applicants must meet other eligibility requirements for resettlement, "including that they pose no danger to the safety and security of the United States."
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Thursday, October 19, 2006
George W. Bosch & the Loose Screw
"Ok, where's that loose screw people keep talking about?"
~ The ever-obliging-for-the-camera George W. Bosch about to
give his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il a good screwing...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
The most haunting image of the horror of war since Goya
Kim Phuc on fire, (detail)
Kim Phuc on fire, (full frame)
The photograph showing excruciating pain in the face of death has become a photographic icon, an anti-war rallying point and a symbol of hope. The photograph rightly stands among a few honorable and memorable images of the last 150 years of photojournalism. The London "Observer" Sunday paper calls the photograph "the most haunting image of the horror of war since Goya."
Kim Phuc's brother, Phan Thanh Tam (right), thirty years on
Biography
Phan Th? Kim Phúc known as Kim Phuc (born 1963) was the subject of a famous photograph from the Vietnam war. The picture shows her at about age nine running naked after being severely burned on her back by a napalm attack.
Kim Phúc was a resident of the village of Trang Bang, Vietnam. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes dropped a napalm bomb on Trang Bang, which was under attack from and occupied by Viet Cong forces. She joined a group of civilians and ARVN soldiers fleeing from the Cao Dai Temple located in the village along the road to safe ARVN positions. A South Vietnamese VNAF pilot mistook the group as a threat and diverted to attack it.
Along with other villagers two brothers and two cousins were also injured. Associated Press photographer Huynh Cong "Nick" Út earned a Pulitzer Prize for the photograph. The image of her running blistered and naked (she had torn off all her burning clothes) amidst the chaotic background became one of the most remembered images of the Vietnam War.
In an interview many years later, she remembers yelling, "Nong qua! Nong qua!" (Too hot! Too hot!) in the picture. After taking the photograph, Út promptly took Kim Phúc to a hospital in Saigon where it was determined that her burns were so severe that she would not survive. However, after a 14-month hospital stay and 17 surgical procedures, she returned home. Út continued to visit her until the fall of Saigon three years later when he was evacuated.
When she was an adult, due to pressure from people to use her as an anti-war symbol, she requested permission from the Vietnam government to go to Cuba to resume her studies. By this time, she had converted from her family's religion of Cao Dai to Christianity. Pham Van Dong, the then Prime Minister of Vietnam, became a friend and patron of hers.
After receiving permission, she then moved to Cuba, and met her future husband, Bui Huy Tuan. In 1989 Út went to Cuba to meet her and her fiance. Kim Phuc and Bui Huy Tuan married and, in 1992, they went on a honeymoon. During an airplane refueling in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, they got off the plane and defected to Canada. They now live in Toronto and have two children. In 1996, she again met the surgeons who saved her life.
Recently released audio tapes of then-president Richard Nixon in conversation with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, show that Nixon doubted the veracity of the photograph, musing whether it may have been "fixed." Following the release of this tape, Út commented:
"Even though it has become one of the most memorable images of the twentieth century, President Nixon once doubted the authenticity of my photograph when he saw it in the papers on June 12, 1972... The picture for me and unquestionably for many others could not have been more real. The photo was as authentic as the Vietnam war itself. The horror of the Vietnam war recorded by me did not have to be fixed. That terrified little girl is still alive today and has become an eloquent testimony to the authenticity of that photo. That moment thirty years ago will be one Kim Phuc and I will never forget. It has ultimately changed both our lives" (from program booklet for Humanist Art/Symbolic Sites: An Art Forum for the 21st Century).
Film footage of Kim Phúc running from her village was shot by British news cameraman Alan Downes, then on assignment for ITN.
Vietnam Memorial Speech
In 1996, she gave a speech at the United States Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day. During the speech she said that we cannot change the past but can work for a peaceful future. After the speech, Vietnam war veteran John Plummer talked to some of his old buddies and got them to ask if she would like to meet him, for he stated that he was the one who ordered the bombing. She accepted and they met briefly and Kim forgave Plummer.
The news story of Kim Phuc forgiving the American who ordered the bombing was reported on a special report by ABC. Some parties have denied that Plummer ordered the bombing, but according to the Washington Post, December 19, 1997, Plummer says he received a call from an American military adviser working with a South Vietnamese army unit, who requested an air strike on the village of Trang Bang. He relayed the request for a strike to U.S. Air Force personnel, who asked the South Vietnamese air force to launch it. Later, he saw the photo in Stars and Stripes, and recognized the bombing as the one he had requested.
To bolster his point, Plummer provided a copy of a Bronze Star citation, the authenticity of which was confirmed by U.S. Army officials, which details his responsibilities during that time. It notes that Plummer "assisted in the coordination of pre-planned and immediate tactical air strikes in the Military Region 3," which included Trang Bang. The citation adds that he helped coordinate 60 South Vietnamese air force air strikes between April 12 and June 16, 1972.
Phan Thi Kim Phuc in 2000
On November 10, 1997, Kim Phúc was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. On October 22, 2004, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada for her work to aid child victims of war around the world. In 2004, she was awarded the Order of Ontario.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
"one of the most significant and recognizable images in history,
and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time"
The photograph was instantly popular, being reprinted in hundreds of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images in history, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.
Of the six men depicted in the picture, three (Franklin Sousley, Harlon Block, and Michael Strank) did not survive the battle; the three survivors (John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes) became instant celebrities upon the publication of the photograph.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Saudi Dentist turns Best-Selling Novelist
24-year-old Rajaa Al Sanie
In her first book, Al Sanie lifts the curtain off the secret society of Saudi girls, exposing a new image of a community that has always pretended to be the beacon of modesty and Islamic morality.
"Everybody resents my daring writings and blames me for broaching taboo subjects we are not accustomed to discussing openly, especially given the fact that I am a young girl. But is there not always a first time? Did anyone imagine that pacifist preacher Martin Luther King would be able to emancipate the blacks from racial segregation? I may face the same problems as King, who was imprisoned half a century ago at the beginning of his struggle against the wrong beliefs of his society," says the author of a novel that has whipped up a storm of controversy since its publication.
The book was first published by a Lebanese publishing house in September 2005. In less than four months, it went into its third printing. According to Al Sanie, English and French translations of her novel are expected to come out late this year.
Several observers have wondered how Al Sanie managed to get away with her work in such a conservative society without being harassed.
"On the contrary, I was never harassed. In fact, every day I receive many calls and e-mails from people who thank me for being able to connect to reality in a society shrouded in mystery. It has shed light on an important aspect of the society and created an important dialogue that hopefully will result in a fruitful outcome," says Al Sanie.
For the same observers, the fact that Al Sanie has not faced any harassment so far shows that a genuine change toward openness must be emerging in a society deemed closed for centuries.
Al Sanie, a recent graduate of the College of Dentistry at Riyadh?s King Saud University, explains that her novel is based on real observations she made at college.
"When I enrolled in university, I heard stories and learned about many events that made me choose them as a subject for my novel," the author says. "I chose, however, four fictitious characters from the different regions of Saudi and narrated the stories through them."
Al Sanie is quick to remind people that the book is a novel - a work of fiction. "I hate to disappoint you but the characters in the book are not my friends," Al-Sanea said. "The novel is based on events I've heard about; they have added authenticity to the novel."
She considers herself an author, not a firebrand. "I am just a member of this society who is giving the reader a chance to look through my small window and share the same scene with me," she said. "Any successful work should have a creative idea behind it, and I do believe the issue is not to write about different aspects of society, but to catch a creative idea and put it on paper."
Many of Al Sanie's critics sum up their opposition to the book in this way: "It is our tradition not to talk about the ills of our society. We know there are problems in our society, but the general reaction is to keep quiet. We have been taught from an early age that if we talk about the ills of our society, people will laugh at us. We are seen as role models in the Muslim world. And even when we are not entirely perfect, we should pretend that we are."
"I want to draw the attention to one important point: the work shattered an idealistic and imaginary figment that existed in the minds of those who criticized the novel: an inhumane image that does not compare to our reality. Such individuals lack the sense of what literature means," Al Sanie contends.
"What I crossed were merely social taboos, not religious ones. This is a very important clarification. There is a difference between time-honoured traditions that cannot survive our modern times and those eternal values upheld by religion."
Al Sanie herself claims her novel is a critique of traditions, not Shariah.
"I respect my religion. I am a faithful Muslim and proud of it. Shariah is an important part of Islam that should be respected," Al Sanie says, "but there is confusion here. What the novel speaks about are traditions that are not part of our Shariah and have simply hampered our way of life to the point that they have resulted in the misery and suffering of people in our society."
Synopsis
The heroine of the novel is an anonymous young Saudi girl who created an e-mail list and sent weekly letters to Saudi internet users over the course of six years, recounting the love stories of four friends, all of them members of the Saudi aristocracy. Early in the book, the author shocks the reader with an exotic picture of an underground society where girls drink champagne, dress like men and drive around dating guys in a country where women are forbidden from holding driving licenses, let alone mixing with the opposite sex in public.
"Banat Al-Riyadh" examines the lives of four Saudi girls: Sadeem, Qamrah, Lamees and Mashael (her name is similar to Michelle in pronunciation. She is half Saudi and half American. Her American mother and friends prefer to call her Michelle). All four are students at a university in Riyadh.
According to one Saudi female columnist, there are in fact five women instead of four. "Everyone seems to forget the narrator," she wrote. The narrator is unidentified, except that she is in her early 20s. She is a modern Scheherazade who tells the stories of the girls' weekends. Her motivation is to end society's tyranny over her friends.
The four girls are bound by a strong friendship despite many differences. Each one of them experiences failures except Lamees who succeeds in both her professional and personal life.
Lamees is the group's fortune-teller. She always is consulted by her friends about future matches and emotional relationships. At one point in the novel, she ends her friendship with Fatima because she is a Shia, and Lamees is a Sunni. Lamees likes Fatima's brother who is studying medicine, but the relationship ends abruptly after they are caught in a café by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. (Dating is not allowed in Saudi Arabia and is an offence punishable by the Religious Police.) Fatima?s brother suffers in the hands of the Religious Police and his suffering is compounded since he is a Shiite.
Lamees has a kind heart and helps her friends in resolving their problems. She supports them in times of need. For example, she teaches Qamrah, who has been ill-treated by society, how to use the Internet, send e-mails and to chat online so that she can come out of the isolated world she finds herself in. Qamrah is a divorcee with a baby.
Qamrah's story is typical. She married Rashid after an arranged meeting at which the two families allowed the prospective husband to see the girl once to decide whether he liked her. There was no exchange of ideas or thoughts. "See the girl once and make up your mind." Qamrah also had the same chance to see the man and give her opinion. Since they both agreed, their families proceeded with the marriage. After marriage, the two go to Chicago so that Rashid can finish his postgraduate studies. The novel discusses their marital discord.
Rashid forces her to give up her hijab. And she does so in the hope of winning his heart. But when he sees her without hijab he thinks she looks ugly. He asks her to wear the hijab again to hide her ugliness. Qamrah loves Rashid despite all his cruelty. Matters come to a head when she learns of Rashid's betrayal. He has a mistress: A Japanese-American woman. When she confronts him, he shocks her with the truth that his parents refused to let him marry his Japanese-American girlfriend and forced him to marry a Saudi girl instead. Qamrah is seething with the desire for revenge. She stops taking her contraceptive pills and becomes pregnant.
When Rashed finds out that she is pregnant, he slaps her and sends her back to Riyadh. He then sends divorce papers and she becomes a single parent. She lives at her father's house completely isolated. Her family members prevent her from going out. They fear she will stain the family name and honour if she goes out but her friends nonetheless manage to get her out from time to time.
Sadeem's story is no less tragic. She is raised by her father because her mother dies soon after giving birth to her. She loses her first love and then her second. Her first tragedy is caused by Walid when he deserts her after a few months of marriage. She gives herself to him one night considering that he is her husband even though the wedding party had not taken place yet. Walid disappears and is never seen again. He eventually sends divorce papers which come as a shock; she blames herself because she did not wait until after the wedding reception. Sadeem never tells her family about what happened. She believes Walid divorced her because he thought she was girl with loose morals.
(In the Saudi world, engagement norms are different from those in the West. The man and woman are considered officially married when their marital vows are exchanged and the documents signed. However, the period from the time of signing the documents till the night of the wedding party is the engagement period. There is nothing in Islam to prevent them from having sex before that night as they are officially wed, but to do so is considered a mistake by society and men may get the impression that the girl is too easy or that she has had a premarital relationship.)
Sadeem's second tragedy is caused by Firas. She meets him in London while recovering from her first tragedy. She falls in love with him and he with her. But the fact that he has never been married prevents him from marrying a divorcee. Firas then marries one of his relatives and later calls Sadeem and offers to continue the relationship without leaving his wife. Sadeem refuses. Her suffering increases as Firas continues to call her. She finally decides to forget all about him and she is left with no choice but to marry her cousin Tarik. (Consanguineous marriages are discouraged by Islam but are not prohibited. In a society that separates men from women in all social gatherings, there is no chance to see a woman except those who are relatives which is another reason why consanguineous marriages make up a big share of all marriages in Saudi Arabia.) She never wanted to marry him even though Tarik had strong feelings for her.
Mashael is more realistic and more liberal. Compared to her friends, she has had more freedom. She was born to a Saudi father and an American mother. One day, she meets Faisal when he asks her and her girlfriends to allow him to enter the shopping mall with them as a brother. (Single young men are not allowed to enter big shopping malls in order to prevent them from flirting with women.) This brief encounter is the start of mutual love.
Their attraction lasts a year, and when Mashael asks Faisal to marry her, he refuses since his mother will not allow him to marry a girl who was not chosen by his family. On top of that, there are objections to Mashael's American mother. The upshot is that Mashael loses her faith in men and travels to San Francisco to study with an American cousin. They are attracted to one another, but things never progress to love. Faced with this confusing relationship, she travels back to Riyadh. Her father decides to move the whole family to Dubai in order to escape the gossip about Mashael as well as what has become her bad reputation.
In Dubai, Mashael works for a satellite TV channel. She succeeds in her work and lives freely. She admires a TV director who works with her, but she remains confused about whether she loves him. She asks her father if he will allow her to appear on TV as there is an opening for a TV presenter, but he refuses and convinces her that her appearance on TV would lead to problems in Saudi Arabia and with his family.
The novel has one encouraging story and that is the marriage of Lamees to the man she has chosen, a colleague in Medical School. It seems that Lamees learns from the mistakes of her friends and never repeats them. In fact, she formulates a strategy to win her colleague's heart after falling in love with him at first sight. She uses everything to make the relationship succeed. Her plans culminate in a happy marriage and a trip to Canada to study postgraduate medicine.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath
W. Eugene Smith
Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath
Minamata, 1972
The photo depicts a mother cradling her severely deformed, naked daughter in a traditional Japanese bathing chamber. The mother, Ryoko Uemura, agreed to deliberately pose the photograph with Smith to exhibit the terrible effects of Minamata disease (a type of mercury poisoning) on the body and mind of her daughter Tomoko. Upon publication the photo became world famous, significantly raising the international profile of Minamata disease and the struggle of the victims for recognition and compensation.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Fucking Neighbours!
Then, it was that conceited idiot Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who seems to think he's been nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. He can't even keep his stupid countrymen from starting illegal forest fires and polluting the air over half of Asia and he thinks he's in the running for a Nobel? Pordah!
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono:
conceited idiot deserves a tight slap; maybe even a kick up the backside
Malaysians have had enough of haze woes
PETALING JAYA: We've had enough! That just about sums up the feelings of Malaysians when once again they have to bear with the blanket of haze that has left those suffering from respiratory problems gasping for breath.
Non-governmental organisations, greenies and government officials have slammed the Indonesian authorities for the haze that is originating from forest fires in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Riau province and other parts of Indonesia.
Readers have sent e-mails and SMSes expressing their anger and frustration.
Even Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid is hot under the collar. "Frustration is an understatement," he said as he showed reporters the "view" from his 13th floor Putrajaya office on Thursday.
How many more years will it take for the Indonesians to solve the problem of forest fires and open burning? How much longer do we have to suffer? These are the most commonly asked questions.
Sarawak, one of the worst hit states, is already preparing for the worst and has activated operations rooms in all the Resident?s Offices.
Schools in Sarawak will close when the air pollutant index (API) reaches the hazardous level of 300 and above.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said this was decided by the state Cabinet during its weekly meeting on Wednesday. A state of emergency will be declared when the API hits 500.
According to him, schools would usually only be closed when the API level was at 400.
"However, for the sake of the children's health, the Cabinet has agreed that all schools be closed when the API breaches the 300 mark," he said.
Cloud-seeding has been carried out in the state since Wednesday, but there has been no rain. In the past week, the API in most parts of Sarawak registered an unhealthy level of 101 to 200, and Petra Jaya recorded a very unhealthy reading of 213 on Wednesday evening.
A state disaster relief committee meeting, to be chaired by Dr Chan, will be held next week to discuss the next step of action.
He added that the number of respiratory cases was increasing due to the haze.
"In some areas, it has doubled or tripled, and we advise people with respiratory problems not to go outside," he said.
On giving assistance to Indonesia to put out the fires, he said that was a matter to be decided at Federal level.
The Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board has already distributed more than 200,000 masks to the public.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia field officer for Sarawak Jok Jau Evong said: "The Malaysian Government must apply constant pressure on Indonesia to take action. We should not make noise only when the haze gets bad.
"Malaysian authorities must also ensure that Malaysian-owned oil palm plantations in Indonesia are not involved in open burning."
He added that Indonesian NGOs have also told him to get the Malaysian Government to pressurise the Indonesian authorities into taking action.
Malaysian Nature Society executive director Dr Loh Chi Leong said the society was very concerned that the problem had dragged on for so long.
"Asean has a working group for the haze, but exactly what has been planned has not been revealed," he said.
Dr Loh said the group had to present to the region what steps needed to be taken, and a timetable to execute the steps.
"A number of issues must be addressed, including the poverty in Kalimantan and Sumatra, and also the enforcement of rules and regulations," Dr Loh said.
"Plantation companies must also cooperate in these initiatives."
Global Environment Centre (GEC) technical officer David Lee said the action taken should not only be at the policy level.
"Everyone gets worked up when the haze comes every year and a lot of talk takes place. But once it's over, everyone forgets about it," he lamented.
Lee said the economic loss from the haze was huge, with its capability of grounding airplanes, affecting tourism and also reducing the intensity of sunlight, which would affect crops.
"The problem needs strong political will to solve and it is unfortunate that Indonesia is not able to commit by ratifying the Asean transboundary haze agreement," he added.
Lee said GEC would work with Indonesian locals and educate them on other methods of clearing land other than the current slash and burn practice.
"However, if nothing is done, especially in terms of enforcement, the haze will be back again," Lee said.
Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee said there was a great need for Malaysia and Indonesia to take effective and long-lasting steps to eradicate trans-boundary haze.
"International law recognises a sovereign state's right to protect its biosphere and it is its duty not to injure another's," chairman Lim Chee Wee said in a statement.
"In order to ensure greater ecological security, both countries must take their respective obligations under international environmental law seriously.
"Negotiations should address fire and haze prevention measures and attention ought to be shifted away from the mere incidental issue of financial reparations," he said.
Datuk Ch'ng Toh Eng, Selangor environment committee chairman, said: "It is unfortunate that we cannot choose our neighbours, so we need to tolerate it. Let the Ministry of Environment or Wisma Putra relate our deep frustration to their counterparts.
"On our part, we have to ensure that there is no open burning in Selangor. We will do our part, and we want others to do theirs," he said.
Transparency International Malaysia president Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said the Government should convene an urgent regional conference to discuss the haze in the region and come up with concrete and long-term solutions.
He also questioned the effectiveness of the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution signed in 2002 in tackling the issue.
"The agreement is not producing results. Year in, year out, we see the haze continuing to occur due to illegal logging or open burning in Indonesia. What is ASEAN doing about this?" Navaratnam asked.
Indonesia smoke blankets region
The haze has raised pollution in Singapore to near-record levels
Large parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have been hit by smog from illegal bush fires burning on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
Visibility in parts of Borneo was reduced to 50 m while Singapore recorded its worst pollution levels since 1997.
Flights were cancelled, cars put their headlights on in the middle of the day, and Singapore warned citizens against taking exercise outdoors.
Indonesians use the fires for land clearance despite a government ban.
Hundreds of fires
Visibility was down to 50 m in Central Kalimantan, on Indonesia's part of Borneo island.
Environmental agencies reported from 500 to 2,000 fires burning in the flammable peat soils of the region.
"The worst situation is in Central Kalimantan now. Most areas in the province contain peat," Malaysian forest fire chief Purwasto told Reuters news agency.
"We cannot estimate the extent of the fires now."
Singapore's environment agency recorded a pollution index level of 128 early on Saturday and said satellite data showed 506 fires burning on Sumatra island.
The pollution index is the highest level seen in Singapore since smog covered the region in 1997, causing billions of dollars in damage and lost tourist revenue.
The index had been at 80 on Friday. Any level above 100 is considered harmful.
Plantations blamed
Indonesia has outlawed using fire for land clearance but the laws are widely flouted in remote areas of the country, and the government seems helpless to control the situation, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta.
Pungent smoke from the fires is an annual problem across south-east Asia during the dry season.
Farmers have traditionally used brush fires in agriculture, but environmentalists claim the problem has become more serious in recent years due to timber and oil palm companies clearing land for plantations.
"The fires are seasonal and very predictable, but the government never implements effective measures to prevent and manage them," Nordin, a spokesman for Indonesian environmental group Save Our Borneo, told AFP news agency.
Indonesia urged to aid smog fight
Malaysia says Indonesia is "dragging its feet" on pollution
Malaysia has urged its neighbour Indonesia to sign up to regional plans for fighting pollution from forest-clearance fires.
A thick haze has been spreading across several countries, with visibility in some places down to 200 metres.
Indonesia is the only country in the 10-member Asian regional grouping not to formally approve plans to co-ordinate a response to open burning.
The situation has forced Singapore to issue a health warning.
Large parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have been hit by smog from illegal bush fires burning on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
'Costing billions'
Pungent smoke from the fires is an annual problem across South-east Asia during the dry season.
Flights have been cancelled, cars have put their headlights on in the middle of the day and Singapore has warned citizens against taking exercise outdoors.
The worst case of smog ever recorded was in 1997, when a choking cloud engulfed large areas of South-east Asia, costing local economies billions of dollars.
Our correspondent in Kuala Lumpur, Jonathan Kent, says the the smoke form this year's fires is less severe than last year but the fact that the annual smog has reappeared at all has caused annoyance.
Waiting for Indonesia
Saying Indonesia was "dragging its feet", Malaysia also asked for offending firms to be prosecuted.
Malaysian Environment Minister Azmi Khalid said he did not know why Indonesia was "dragging its feet" over the agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (THP) approved in 2002 by the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean).
The THP agreement envisages the creation of a regional co-ordinating centre for reacting rapidly to the haze, which is mostly attributed to slash-and-burn farming methods.
Mr Amzi told the BBC that his counterparts in Indonesia assured him in June that they had plans in place to prevent a repeat of the haze. However, he says these do not seem to be working.
Indonesia has outlawed using fire for land clearance but the laws are widely flouted in remote areas of the country and the government seems helpless to control the situation, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta.
Environmentalists say the problem has become more serious in recent years due to timber and oil palm companies clearing land for plantations.
"The fires are seasonal and very predictable, but the government never implements effective measures to prevent and manage them," a spokesman for Indonesian environmental group Save Our Borneo, told AFP news agency.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Scrotum Self-Repair
Confirmed True by Darwin
One morning I was called to the emergency room by the head ER nurse. She directed me to a patient who had refused to describe his problem other then to say that he "needed a doctor who took care of men's troubles." The patient, about 40, was pale, febrile, and obviously uncomfortable, and had little to say as he gingerly opened his trousers to expose a bit of angry red and black-and-blue scrotal skin.
After I asked the nurse to leave us, the patient permitted me to remove his trousers, shorts, and two or three yards of foul-smelling, stained gauze wrapped about his scrotum, which was swollen to twice the size of a grapefruit and extremely tender. A jagged zig-zag laceration, oozing pus and blood, extended down the left scrotum.
Amid the matted hair, edematous skin, and various exudates, I saw some half-buried dark linear objects and asked the patient what they were. Several days earlier, he replied, he had injured himself in the machine shop where he worked, and had closed the laceration himself with a heavy-duty stapling gun. The dark objects were one-inch staples of the type used in putting up wallboard.
We x-rayed the patients scrotum to locate the staples; admitting him to the hospital; and gave him tetanus antitoxin, a broad-spectrum antibacterial therapy, and hexachlorophene sitz baths prior to surgery the next morning.
The procedure consisted of exploration and debridement of the left side of the scrotal pouch. Eight rusty staples were retrieved, and the skin edges were trimmed and freshened. The left testis had been avulsed and was missing. The stump of the spermatic cord was recovered at the inguinal canal, debrided, and the vessels ligated properly, though not much of a hematoma was present. Through-and through Penrose drains were sutured loosely in site, and the skin was loosely closed.
Convalescence was uneventful, and before his release from the hospital less then a week later, the patient confided the rest of his story to me.
An unmarried loner, he usually didn't leave the machine shop at lunchtime with his co-workers. Finding himself alone, he had begun the regular practice of masturbating by holding his penis against the canvas drive-belt of a large floor-based piece of running machinery. One day, as he approached orgasm, he lost his concentration and leaned too close to the belt. When his scrotum suddenly became caught between the pulley-wheel and the drive-belt, he was thrown into the air and landed a few feet away. Unaware that he had lost his left testis, and perhaps too stunned to feel much pain, he stapled the wound closed and resumed work.
I can only assume he abandoned this method of self-gratification.
By Dr. William A. Morton, Jr. MD, a retired urologist residing in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2006
Submitted by: Bruce A. McCausland, Dennis Golchert, Robert Christopher
Reference: Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality, July 1991
Origins: Ow! The above article did indeed appear in the July 1991 issue of Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality, submitted by the physician who treated the victim. We tracked down the doctor to obtain verification and further details about the unusual injury, and he replied as follows:
Dr. William A. Morton, Jr., M.D.
26 February 1994
I am now retired, but submitted the article; treated the patient about 20-25 years ago and have had phone calls from all corners of the U.S. ever since. A xerox is on the billboard in practically every army post, college dorm, men's club, etc. I've had interviews/phone by talk-show hosts, etc. No Phil Donahue yet!
The man actually came to me 3 days post-injury when the fever, swelling, and pain of secondary infection frightened him. Though unlikely, tetanus was even a possibility. He was not that impressed with the pain of the moment of injury ? it happened so quickly, like losing your fingertip to a band-saw ? and was unaware his left testis was probably propelled up into the rafters of the machine shop where he worked.
Every man who questions me imagines the initial pain to have been intense, but should realize that once the testis had been ripped out (gasp!) there was not the continuing discomfort one would experience from a first-class kick in the nuts!
I saw him again 5 years later in the hospital for a non-urologic problem. Incidentally, the Navy has left xeroxes in every bar along the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Tel Aviv ? my son's girlfriend saw one in Greece 2 years ago.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Friday, October 06, 2006
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan, the creator and Leader of the Mongol empire, was born around 1165 (dates vary wildly), and died in August 1227.
At the time of the rise of Genghis Khan, the Mongol tribes were disunited. They had a fiercely independent nature, a strongly held system of social rules, and were essentially shamanistic in religious beliefs. Their nomadic existence meant they relied on barter rather than money, but because of long standing in-fighting between the tribes, they were economically poor. Stories of eating "anything that moved" and even of some cannibalism in hard times persist.
Politically, whilst the Mongols clearly recognized their own tribal connections and blood ties, there was no "Mongol Nation".
The Tartars to their east, and the Keraits to their immediate west were enemies of the Mongols. To the south-west were the Uighurs, and due south, the Chinese Chin dynasty was well established. The Chin were powerful enough to extract dues of various kinds from their northern, nomadic neighbors. And, to the far west, stretching to the Black Sea, the Islamic Sultanate of Muhammad of Khwarazm prospered.
The times were cruel, with execution being the usual punishment for transgressions. Wars were fought with no mercy for the opposing army. Slavery was the norm for conquered peoples. On the other hand, the Mongols had an intense sense of loyalty, hated theft, had a history of the acceptance of the beliefs and the way of life of others, and tended to be generous to people they trusted.
Not surprisingly, this background helped shape Temuchin, who later became Genghis Khan.
Temuchin's first major patron was Toghrul, of the Keraits, who he saw as an adopted father. Toghrul was probably the strongest leader amongst the Mongolian tribes at that point, although he was constantly under threat both externally and from family infighting. When Temuchin's wife Börte was abducted by the Merkits, Toghrul and Jamuka (Temuchin's blood brother, his "anda", and eventually his enemy) helped rescue her (1183/84).
But not everything went Temuchin's way, with a major defeat in 1187 leading to almost a ten-year gap in his life history, until 1196. That year Temuchin successfully attacked the Tartars. He then rescued Toghrul from exile, who was given the Chin title "Wang Khan". Jamuka declared against Temuchin in 1201, when he was elected "Gurkhan". In 1202 Temuchin exterminated the Tartars, and that year Wang Khan broke with Temuchin. Thus, and perhaps inevitably, Genghis was at war with the Keraits.
In 1203 Wang Khan died, and Genghis assumed his title of King of the Keraits. Jamuka was betrayed to Temuchin, and died in 1205. Thus the stage was set for Temuchin to be elected "Genghis Khan", over all of the Mongolian tribes, in 1206.
In 1209, the Uighurs submitted to Genghis, leaving him free to concentrate on the Chin and to refuse to pay tribute to them. Eventually, after many battles and even a withdrawal to Mongolia, Genghis destroyed Zongdu in 1215. This was the Chin capital (later to become Beijing), so the Chin capital moved south to Nanking (Kaifeng).
Treacherously, and somewhat stupidly, soldiers of Sultan Muhammad of Khwarazm killed ambassadors from Genghis, forcing him to declare war on that Islamic empire in 1219. Genghis won in 1221. His Empire stretched from the Korean peninsular almost to Kiev, and south to the Indus. It was the largest land empire ever seen.
Genghis was thus now able to focus his time on establishing an effective administration of the Mongol Empire, whilst keeping internal strife under check and setting his succession in place.
He died in August 1227 (the cause is not certain), having named one of his sons Ogödei Kha'an his principal successor. Ogödei is remembered by history as probably the most principled of the sons, explaining Genghis' choice.
Genghis' youngest son Tolui (by all accounts the cruelest of his sons) was not chosen - but Tolui's son became Khubilai Khan, later the first Yuan Emperor of China.
Genghis Khan's value system was visible to all, and he certainly "walked the talk".
He totally shared his people's belief in the nomadic way of life, recognizing that, in war as in the hunt, booty is the main aim... and winning was what counted. However, amassing material wealth did not matter much to him, as he shared everything with his loyal supporters. He was seen as a most generous Leader.
As an individual, he wanted power. He was a physically strong man, although he was probably not a "hero" in the sense of an outstanding hand-to-hand fighter. He encouraged his supporters to be frank and speak without ceremony, and usually moderated his passion and anger with thoughtful responses.
Genghis also demonstrated a rather liberal and tolerant attitude to the beliefs of others, and never persecuted people on religious grounds. This proved to be good military strategy, as when he was at war with Sultan Muhammad of Khwarazm, other Islamic Leaders did not join the fight against Genghis - it was instead seen as a non-holy war between two individuals.
Whilst Genghis was himself illiterate, he understood the power of spreading ideas via the written word, and used it to administer his empire. He was responsible for the spread of the Uighurs script as the common Mongolian alphabet. He was relentless in learning new things, absorbing ideas from other cultures as often as he could.
Against his enemies, vengeance was a constant theme, reflecting his Mongol cultural heritage, and he slaughtered people with ease. Terror was always one of his principle weapons of war. He laid waste to entire cities and populations that resisted his armies, although he often by-passed others that submitted.
He was clearly most perceptive about politics in rival tribes and cities, and he understood what drove individuals. Usually his strategies involved finding psychological ways to undermine his enemies, based on these perceptions
On the other hand, he recognized the values of his individual enemies. He would put to death a soldier who had tried to be disloyal to their own commander, by, for example, betraying the commander to Genghis. However, he would pardon and even bestow honours and responsibility on those who had fought loyally for their commander - even if against Genghis. In fact one of his most trusted generals, Jebe, was once a young opposing soldier who shot Genghis' horse from under him in battle.
Genghis Khan actually used the 4 E's of Leadership, even if he didn't know it!
The vision was one of economic prosperity for his people, power for himself, total destruction of his enemies and fairness for willing subjects.
At the beginning it is doubtful that he had a grand vision of building the World's biggest empire. Rather, he recognized that rich plunder was the best means of preventing the Mongol tribes from fighting each other. He also recognized that this would allow them to preserve their nomadic way of life.
His enablers included good use of military technology, a unique organization of his army, promoting leaders on merit not lineage or family, definite rules of engagement in war, and a clear administrative system for conquered peoples.
Whilst his army had no unique weapons, he put to good use the short horse stirrup, to give better control at close quarters. His elite troops were quite heavily armored, although others were more militia-like. His soldiers used the Central Asian compound bow, which had the power of a European crossbow (although they didn't know it), whilst being half the size of a long bow.
He organized his army into units of "ten thousand", not sorted by tribal affinity as was historically the case. This reduced the possibility of internal friction. He also had an elite "Household Guard" with hand-picked commanders, upon which he relied for the most difficult tasks. All of his officers were instructed never to abuse their soldiers.
Rules of engagement were clear to all, and rigorously enforced. For example, if a soldier deserted his troop, he was executed. If a soldier failed to stop to help a fellow warrior whose baggage fell from his horse, he was executed. If two or more members of a troop made a great advance, but were not supported by their comrades, the latter were executed. And so it goes on ...
In terms of battle strategy, it seemed that there was little unique about Genghis' approach, building as it did on the Mongolian way of hunting. He also tended to close in on the enemy only when he was sure of overwhelming them - although he did loose some battles, even then. It seems that the thoroughness, fierceness, courage and total dedication of his troops were what carried the day.
In peacetime, Genghis developed unique administrative organization structures, designed to pre-empt feuding. the unit was not the tribe, family or aristocracy - but based again on tens, hundreds and thousands - "mixed and matched". Leadership was, as ever, based on merit. And he organized a system of internal communication by horse riders. (As an aside, the way some of these riders behaved caused much distress to the populace. They were accorded first right to virtually anything they wanted from local people as they rode across the country, and often abused this right. Genghis was not perfect in his adminstration ...)
Genghis' legal code (The Yasa of Chingis Khan) was firmly based on Mongol common law, but written down and extended as cases arose. And, as for his armies, the rules were clear and tough. For example, theft of any kind led to execution, and adultery was also punishable by death for both parties. He also rigorously enforced the Mongol religious taboos, although as noted before his administration was tolerant of other people's beliefs. On the downside, it should be noted that the continual pursuit of booty and plunder meant that many valuable artifacts were destroyed as he conquered, both religious and otherwise.
In no way am I trying to justify the more uncivilized of these rules .. but I simply want to point out that the clarity and universality of Genghis' rules ensured that his empire worked.
It may be difficult to see that a Leader as strict as Genghis practiced "Empowerment". However if we define "Empowerment" as a contract between a leader and his followers for mutual trust and accountability, it was certainly central to Genghis' approach.
Merit was Genghis' guiding principle in choosing his leaders, both in wartime and when at peace. He did use the noble group as commanders, but his most valuable generals were solely picked on merit. He trusted these people to get the job done, although he clearly held them accountable for results.
The army units were led by commanders personally picked by Genghis. His commanders could be from his immediate family, lowly sheep herders, or even conquered warriors he trusted and respected. Commanders were expected to have their troops ready for battle at all times - else they were replaced. All of the soldiers from whatever rank thus literally had the possibility before them of becoming commanders, based on their own merit.
Next, the Mongol army fully agreed with the goals of their Leader, and accepted the rules under which they fought. They totally trusted Genghis, and would rather die than let him down. In that sense, empowerment was clearly at work.
It seems clear that Genghis was consistently reflecting the real desires of his followers. He unleashed their need to escape from a poverty cycle, rather than simply focus them on visions of world conquest. Then, he made the "enemy without" the tool to prevent internal conflict.
It is perhaps most difficult to assess exactly how Genghis Khan energized his people, as almost no speeches are accurately recorded, and he himself could not write. However, "The Secret History" and several Persian chroniclers provide a few clues.
Whilst Genghis sought power for himself, he also was careful at every stage to offer his followers major gain from their conquests. He shared his animals, his clothes, his food and his plunder with his people, almost irrespective of their social position.
He constantly demonstrated his loyalty to his trusted people, and his generosity surely encouraged all to follow. Rules were clear, rewards were many, and merit was a guiding principle of his administration.
When he went into battle, he very clearly intended to win. His people knew they followed a winner. Even in matters of vengeance, or of being insulted (as was the case with Sultan Muhammad), he very obviously put things in terms his followers could deal with and act upon.
Finally, he was totally true to his own value system, in a way that was obvious to both his friends and his enemies. This in itself must have provided significant energy to his followers.
Genghis Khan forged the unification of the Mongol tribes, and reversed their decline in living conditions.
Trade flourished, and contact with distant lands, including Europe, was encouraged. He set in motion the events that created the World's biggest land based empire, including the creation of the Yuan Dynasty in China. Importantly, his firm stand on his society's ethical rules and his intolerance of misdeeds led to a marked change in the social climate. Inter family rivalry all but disappeared, and peace and order were very evident to outside visitors, including European travelers.
As Microsoft Encarta says:
"The greatness of the khan as a military leader was borne out not only by his conquests but by the excellent organization, discipline, and maneuverability of his armies. Moreover, the Mongol ruler was an admirable statesman; his empire was so well organized that, so it was claimed, travelers could go from one end of his domain to the other without fear or danger".
Or, as in the introduction to the Genghis exhibition at the Royal British Columbian Museum said:
"Genghis Khan pledged to share with his followers both the sweet and the bitter of life. In structuring his army, he integrated soldiers from different tribes, thus inspiring loyalty to the Mongol army as a whole rather than to a specific lineage. He gave his enemies one simple choice: surrender and be enslaved, or die. By consistently enforcing discipline, rewarding skill and allegiance, and punishing those who opposed him, Genghis Khan established a vast empire".
For the people he conquered, the impact was very mixed. The Chinese fields got turned into nomadic pasture, adversely affecting the Chin peasants and causing hardship. On the other hand, for the cultures that he and later Khubilai Khan ruled, like the Chin, the encouragement of the exchange of knowledge and ideas helped them develop. For example, the Chinese became acquainted with Iranian medical knowledge and astronomy, and in return the peoples of the Middle East learnt much from China.
Unfortunately, unlike earlier days, increased prosperity meant that the lifestyle of the Mongol nobles tended to edge too far past that of the commoners. And, the sheer size of the empire and the extent of the losses in Mongolian manpower meant Genghis' empire was stretched thin.
Finally, recall that warfare and booty was the order of the day for the nomadic existence. So, in gaining a stable empire, the Mongols had to get used to the money economy. And, just as the administration came under control, so the administrators themselves became less militarily capable, and more intent on self-gain.
It was perhaps inevitable that, on his death, the empire was destined to split between his three remaining sons. Eventually, though, four Mongol Leaders became great Khans in their own right. It is a tribute the the memory of Genghis Khan that they did not war between themselves - rather they linked co-operatively together in separate Khanates to "rule the world".
Perhaps the most important Khan was Khubilai, who founded the Chinese Yuan dynasty. This dynasty flourished from from 1279 to 1368, and had a lasting effect on all aspects of Chinese life.
It is thus very clear that Genghis was a Leader with a "capital L".
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Concrete proof...
...that Aussie men are complete idiots, even when not drunk!
A man pulled over for driving slowly in the Australian outback has been charged with reckless driving - because police found him driving in reverse.
The man was stopped for driving at a little over 56 km/h (35 mph) on a highway near the outback town of Kalgoorlie.
But quick police work soon established that the car was in fact heading backwards - all the way to Perth, some 550 km (340 miles) across the desert.
The driver, 22, told police he chose to drive in reverse when his gears failed.
Police were left baffled as to why unnamed driver chose not to call a mechanic from Kalgoorlie, the Western Australia gold mining town where his gearbox "cooked".
Instead they listened as he explained how he set off in reverse gear along the Great Eastern Highway in his 1988 Ford.
He was forced to slow down from his top speed of 80 km/h because he found himself swerving wildly across the road, police said.
He had already travelled 20 km before he was stopped.
Police breathalysed the man, who was found not to be under the influence of alcohol.
Backward about driving forward
By Braden Quartermaine
October 06, 2006 02:00 pm
SHOCKED traffic police have caught a man who was attempting to drive 600 km from Kalgoorlie to Perth - in reverse.
Police from the traffic-enforcement group could not believe their eyes yesterday when they saw an early-model Ford LTD coming over a hill near Coolgardie doing 66 km/h - in reverse.
The driver told police he had transmission problems and could not use the forward gears.
He said he had been travelling at up to 80 km/h, but had to slow to about 65 km/h because he was swerving too much.
The driver had covered 20 km in reverse along Great Eastern Highway before being stopped.
He was breath tested and returned a negative reading.
The 22-year-old was charged with reckless driving and other traffic offences. He will appear in Coolgardie Magistrate's Court on Monday.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Roger D. Kornberg
Won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006
Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 "for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription" which explains the process by which DNA is converted into RNA. His father, Arthur Kornberg, who was also a professor at Stanford University, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1959.
Biography
Roger was the first of three children born to Arthur Kornberg and his wife, Sylvy, who was also a biochemist working with Arthur.
Kornberg earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1967 and his PhD from Stanford in 1972, before doing post-doctoral research at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He joined Harvard Medical School in 1976 as an assistant professor in the department of biological chemistry. Kornberg returned to Stanford in 1978 as a professor in the structural biology department. He served as department chair from 1984 until 1992. He serves as the Mrs. George A. Winzer Professor in Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Kornberg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Nobel Prize
In order for a body to make use of the information stored in the genes, a copy must first be made and transferred to the outer parts of the cells. There it is used as an instruction for protein production ? it is the proteins that in their turn actually construct the organism and its function. The copying process is called transcription.
Roger Kornberg was the first to create an actual picture of how transcription works at a molecular level in the important group of organisms called eukaryotes (organisms whose cells have a well-defined nucleus). Mammals like ourselves are included in this group, as is ordinary yeast.
Roger Kornberg's younger brother, Thomas Bill Kornberg, discovered DNA polymerase II and III in 1970 and is now a biochemist at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1959, their father Arthur Kornberg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of how genetic information is transferred from one DNA molecule to another. The Kornbergs are the sixth father-son team to win Nobel Prizes.
Awards
He has received the following awards:
1997: Harvey Prize from the Technion
2002: ASBMB-Merck Award
2002: Pasarow Award in Cancer Research
2002: Le Grand Prix Charles-Leopold Mayer
2005: General Motors Cancer Research Foundation?s Alfred P. Sloan Jr. Prize
2006: Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Monday, October 02, 2006
Top Popular US Films
Open Season is the first film from the Sony Pictures animation unit. An animated comedy which features Billy Connolly as the leader of a group of angry squirrels has debuted at number one at the North American box office. Open Season took an estimated $23m (£12.2m) on its opening weekend, with the comedian playing McSquizzy, who barks orders in a Scottish accent.
Kevin Costner's action thriller The Guardian entered in second place, generating $17.7m (£9.5m).
And last week's leader, Jackass: Number Two, fell to third with $14m (£7.5m).
The third new entry in the top 10 was School for Scoundrels, in fourth place.
NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE
1. Open Season ($23m)
2. The Guardian ($17.7m)
3. Jackass: Number Two ($14m)
4. School for Scoundrels ($9.1m)
5. Fearless ($4.7m)
6. Gridiron Gang ($4.5m)
7. The Illusionist ($2.8m)
8. Flyboys ($2.3m)
9. The Black Dahlia ($2.1m)
10. Little Miss Sunshine ($2m)
Source: Exhibitor Relations
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Kevin Costner's action thriller The Guardian entered in second place, generating $17.7m (£9.5m).
And last week's leader, Jackass: Number Two, fell to third with $14m (£7.5m).
The third new entry in the top 10 was School for Scoundrels, in fourth place.
NORTH AMERICAN BOX OFFICE
1. Open Season ($23m)
2. The Guardian ($17.7m)
3. Jackass: Number Two ($14m)
4. School for Scoundrels ($9.1m)
5. Fearless ($4.7m)
6. Gridiron Gang ($4.5m)
7. The Illusionist ($2.8m)
8. Flyboys ($2.3m)
9. The Black Dahlia ($2.1m)
10. Little Miss Sunshine ($2m)
Source: Exhibitor Relations
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
How to Read a Novel
How to Read a Novel:
A User's Guide (Hardcover)
by John Sutherland (Author)
Under his guidance, the UK's most prestigious literary prize was controversially awarded to The Sea, by Irish author John Banville.
How the judges came to that decision forms part of his latest work How to Read a Novel, an instructional tome offering consumers tips on how to gain the most from the wealth of published fiction now on offer.
"There is so much choice, all of it tempting and much of it good,"
Sutherland says.
'Thundering cattle'
To maximise the enjoyment of reading fiction, Mr Sutherland argues, the reader must develop individual criteria based on personal preferences.
These can be hard to establish when every bookshop's shelves come groaning with instructions, exhortations and endorsements.
"I get slightly worried when everyone buys The Da Vinci Code," he says. "It's like a herd of thundering cattle, all heading in the same direction.
"If there is a message in the book, it's choose for yourself - find out who you are and what fiction works for you."
Prizes like the Man Booker can prove a valuable pointer for readers, Mr Sutherland argues.
"Some say the Booker is only there to stimulate book sales, but I don't believe that," he says.
"What will happen is that people will look at the novels that are nominated and say, 'Do I agree?'
'Interesting places'
"At their best, that is what prizes do - they give people signposts."
"People don't necessarily have to follow them. But if they do, they can get to interesting places," he adds.
With its playful references to Jacqueline Susann, Jeffrey Archer and Star Trek, earnest is not a word that readily applies to Sutherland's latest work.
But while the book displays an admirable lightness of touch - not least by having a glowing rave from its own author emblazoned on its jacket - the writer has a serious point to convey.
"Novels can enlarge your life," he says. "The more you read, the more you discover about yourself.
"You can't eat or breathe them, and they won't solve our problems. But they do define our problems in a way that makes it easier for us to solve them ourselves."
How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide is published by Profile Books on 17 August, priced £9.99.
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
Andrew Fire
The Nobel citation, issued by Sweden's Karolinska Institute, said: "This year's Nobel Laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information."
In 1998, Dr Mello and Dr Fire with their colleagues (SiQun Xu, Mary Montgomery, Stephen Kostas, Sam Driver) published a paper* in the journal Nature detailing how tiny snippets of RNA dupe the cell into destroying the gene's messenger RNA (mRNA) before it can produce a protein - effectively shutting specific genes down.
This silencing process called RNA interference, or RNAi, has become a widespread research tool and therapeutic lead. Since its initial description, RNAi has been recognized as an underlying process in animals, plants and lower organisms.
Previously, RNA had been thought to have very little role in regulating genes - in fact some thought it nothing more than a by-product.
Dr Mello and Dr Fire's work, which was conducted the research while at the Carnegie Institution, had shown that in fact it plays a key role in gene regulation. The fact that their work had been recognised by the Nobel committee just eight years after it was published indicated just how important it had been. It is very unusual for a piece of work to completely revolutionise the whole way we think about biological processes and regulation, but this has opened up a whole new field in biology.
This ability to dramatically reduce an individual protein inside of cells makes RNAi a valuable research tool. What was once a laborious process is now as easy as sneaking an RNA molecule into the cell with a sequence that matches the RNA a researcher wants destroyed. That ability to one-by-one shut down the production of a given protein in a cell opens up previously impossible areas of research.
Say, for example, a researcher wants to know all the genes involved in a particular cellular event. The researcher can use an RNAi library to individually disrupt each gene from making its protein, then look for the ones that interfere with the event in question.
Another area where scientists have high hopes for RNAi is in developing new RNA-based treatements for disease including a possible therapeutic role for RNAi in gene therapy.
Biography
Fire was born at Stanford Hospital and raised in Sunnyvale, Calif. He received bachelor's in mathematics in 1978 from UC-Berkeley. At the age of 19 he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he earned his PhD in biology in 1983.
Fire was later a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow in Cambridge, England, where he worked at an MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology group headed by Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner. Between 1986 and 2003, Fire was a staff member of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Embryology in Baltimore.
The initial work on double stranded RNA as a trigger of gene silencing was published while Fire and his group were at the Carnegie Labs. Fire was an adjunct professor in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University starting in 1989 and joined the Stanford faculty in 2003. Throughout his career, all of the major work in Fire's lab has been supported by research grants from the US National Institutes of Health.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Sciences. He also serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors and the National Center for Biotechnology, National Institutes of Health.
See also
* Fire A., Xu S.Q., Montgomery M.K., Kostas S.A., Driver S.E., Mello C.C. Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans, Nature 1998; 391:806-811.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/10/02/nobel.medicine.ap/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5398844.stm
http://mednews.stanford.edu/releases/2006/october/nobel.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2006/press.html
http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/news_releases/PRNobelReleaseFire.html
http://www.umassmed.edu/pap/news/MelloPrize.cfm
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
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