Sambal Belacan [Chilly shrimp paste sauce]

What would our Sambal Belacan taste without those Chilly!!!... I just could not imaging the look and the taste of such concoction.. Sambal Belacan without Chilly!!... Well that would it be if it had not been for the Portuguese who brought those Chilly to this parts of the world, when they came as explorer and colonizer to our regions.... For chilly is Not native to the countries in this parts of the world..It is indigenous to South America...Chilly, lada, Cili api, Cabai in the Malay language means Chilly of the Capsicum family....We Malaysian can never do without this Chilly in our food...It would never taste the same without chilly...But then have we every thought that Chilly is not native to this country and that our ancestors did not use Chilly before it was brought here by the Portuguese, when they came over to this part of the world in the fifteen century...Sambal Belacan is my favorite appetizer and if I had my way I would have it with every lunch and dinner, but at this age I take it from time to time...We all have to take care of what we eat...So as to stay healthy...Not that Sambal Belacan is not healthy...It is indeed a very healthy appetizer...It contain shrimp, lime, chilly and it is a very healthy food indeed...The greatest appetizer ever invented..I should say so!!...Well..In this part of the Malay world... Just take a pause and think hard...Before the Portuguese came...It meant that we, the Malay do not make Sambal Belacan like the one that we do it now...With the Chilly, We have perfected a sauce of our own, that had stood with times...Once only served in the traditional Malay homes, now could be found at almost all restaurants and even in four stars hotel...It has indeed progress well with times...A once traditional appetizer had graduated and found a place on the table of grand feasts in this country...Loves by all the races that makes the Malaysian...Surely it would not taste as good without those chilly, hot and pungent...Really hot especially the cili padi [Small chilly which is extremely fiery hot].. It is not a joke...Experience it and you would understand the fire in this tiny chilly , even the green one...It is these concoction that make the fun of eating Sambal Belacan and enjoying it with other dishes to accompany the rice that had been our staple food. And that all our lunch or dinner could not be just as complete without it.. The Sambal Belacan...A wonder sauce that we could proudly call our own..Thanks to the Portuguese..For the Chilly....

The AP's things...

It look like the AP [Approved Permit to import cars into Malaysia] is still a hot issue...It has taken much of the times of our Members of Parliament debating this issue...So I would like to suggest to the all the good members of our Parliament that they get the approval of the Parliament to give AP's to all Senior Citizen.. So that these people in their Golden Age could all import cars of their own choice...It would be great to see all those Senior Citizen in their golden age, who have contributed so much in the making this country to what it is today, driving happily in their imported cars...Come on surely they deserved this little luxury like those good members of Parliament that we all elected to office...

Blogging with wisdom....

This week many things happen in the blogging world in Malaysia...First there were those "good man" comments on a few blogs,this,this and this blogs, that could be seditious, a very serious offence in this country...And a few days ago this blog was hacked...In a week before there were some good articles in the local mainstream daily that talk about the effect of blogging to the society and today to top it all the Editorial of a mainstream newspaper the New Straits Times brought the subject of blogging to a new phase...As I had said before Blogging is a godsend tool to all of us who wanted to contributes our thoughts for others to read and perhaps in doing that we all contribute to the process of nation building, as well to the larger world, making it a great place to live and enjoy life..Well it look other then writing to the Newspaper, writing a book...Blogging gave us Malaysian a total new media that we never had before...A place to share our thoughts with others who surf the net...Both local and overseas...Use it with wisdom it would give us greater benefit then ever before..Since I start blogging some two years ago...I have always enjoy writing my thoughts and in that process get comments on the blogs itself and emails for one to one discussion, where more could be discuss further...In a country where we are bound by social contract between races, things could became offensives and seditious if it hurt one another, especially on subjects such as race, religion and the right of every citizen to live in peace and harmony as stipulated in the Malaysian Constitution...We are at peace and live in harmony now is because we all respect each others right and do not say things that are not nice to others...This might sound no freedom of speech...To me it is not...What is freedom if there are no peace and harmony in this country...We have all prosper well beyond the dream of our founder,just because we all are sensible enough to know what is right and what is wrong to say...We have develop our own way of talking about the freedom of speech and we are all doing fine and are happy with it as for now...Thing are changing with the coming of the internet and today with blogging...We have the choice to share our thoughts on our common interest and at the same time give us that freedom to express ourselves, so that things do not get bottled up and explode some time later, that would cause greater harm to ourselves, the society and the country at large....I have always told Malaysian that we are a very young country, just forty eight years old and a democratic country...Democracy does not give us a blank check to do what we like...For doing just that might destroy democracy itself...We have to give time to develop the democratic culture...And in the history of a country, forty eight years is indeed a very short period in history...So to Malaysian do take this into consideration and proceed on we caution and learn as we go...So that we may continue to prosper and enjoy living in this country that we share...Malaysia...Do blog with wisdom..

Awesome sight...

White Bougainvillaea that bloom in my garden, a magnificent sight to enjoy...

We journey on...

Like all journey, we sometime divert direction... In this case we decided not to lease our condo anymore but instead use it as our second home in historical Malacca.. So now we got to live in two habitat from time to time...It is among the many apartments in the Merak Melaka Beach Resort at Pantai Putri in Malacca...The whole complex is situated just about two hundred meter from the sea...with that we always have a picture postcard of the straits of Malacca, out front of our window...It is a real living postcard of a sorts...In the evening the sun glow ember in color as it settle behind the horizon, giving a wonderful color of what a sunset be at its moment of it slow disappearing act at the end of the day...It is indeed a picturesque sight to see...It is now a sight that we enjoy every evening of our stay at this apartment of ours, our second home... One hundred and fifty kilometers from our first home in Ampang Jaya, a suburban of Kuala Lumpur..Living here is a totally a new experience to us for we had never really live in a condominium before...This one is actually a four star hotel living environment, with swimming pool and other amenities that come with such a holiday resorts complex...We told our friends that whenever we are in Malacca, they are invited to stay with us, for we had an extra room for quests....it would be great to have friends or relative to come over and enjoy their time with us, a sort of a holiday get together of friends and realives...

Lets concentrate on the economy..

I was just thinking aloud...Why must they talk so much about politic and religion...You switch on some of the TV channels and you hear talk about either politic or religion...I think personally I had enough of both...Come on.. We have been an independent nation for forty eight years already...I think all the talk about politic have gone too far, we are just wasting our resources and energy...So why not concentrate on the most important aspect of the country development...Economy, it is the economy that really make the country, It is commerce and trade that make the country prosperous...With that would come national unity and national harmony...It is the ingredient that what make the culture of the society.. The Malaysian society...For without economic developments, all the talk about politic and religion would not help to unite the society...It is economy that would do the job of uniting the Malaysian Society...Remember the two prong strategies of the NEP [National Economic Policy]...That just ended...It was to restructure society and to eradicate poverty...I believe we have done that and in a way been successful..The Malaysian society, of whatever race, have more money in their pockets now they ever before and now are more interested of improving their quality of life then get bogged down with politic and religion..So I would like to suggest that we put all our resources and energy toward achieving the economic objective of the country. A prosperous Malaysian would be able to enjoy living, thus would ensure peace and harmony at peace time and a great defense force at time of war...If the society are happy with the country, they would love the country and would surely work for the benefit of their motherland, no matter whoever they are...They would continue to be patriotic to their motherland... But if they are not happy, then it would indeed be a worrisome to the society at large...As a person who have live through from the day of the British rule and the beginning of an Independent Malaya and then Malaysia, I know for sure that we would succeed in our endeavors, if we play less politic and religion but instead concentrate of our common need, that is to live a comfortable lives together...Let religion be a personal issue and practice it well,so that we all have a balance life and with that a good citizen of the country...For now let us all focus on the economic aspect of development for I believe that with success we all would have more to enjoy living in this land of plenty...Malaysia.

The Chinese primary school...

I came across this article in the Chinese Newspaper.. The e.sinchew-i.com, it is about the Chinese Primary School in Malaysia.. Read on... Why Did They Choose Chinese Primary Schools?....It is indeed an interesting article to ponder and discuss, for the benefit of the future generation of Malaysian...

Blogging...

Blogging...The word itself does not exist in the dictionary..It is a new word altogether.. Like everything in cyberspace, new word are create everyday, so now the word blog or blogging is here to stay...So here we are blogging in cyberspace...The freedom to express oneself, the freedom of speech, a very important ingredient of Democracy...Before blogging in a new democracy like Malaysia, there were very few venue for us to express our thoughts...Well if we are lucky we get our thoughts published in the local Newspaper or if we are to write a book then we would have got our thoughts in a books...But then it is not the same like blogging...To me it is a Godsend tools for us to express ourselves and share it with the world...I have been blogging for more then two years already, thanks to Blogger.com...blogging had never been that easy...I had always wanted to write and to be able to do so by blogging is a dream come true...As I had always told my friends in this country, like any tools, if we use it with wisdom, it would help to contributes, to making exchanging thoughts an asset to the country. If we do no use it wisely, it could be a liability, for freedom of speech is not total, especially so in a multi religious, multi racial and multi languages country like Malaysia...For information are useless if kept closed or wrongly use...Spreading it would help others in many ways then one...In a democracy dissemination of information are important, so that the masses are not been subjected to a one sided views of things...As Malaysian got to know about blogging and get to blogging,the political cultural scene of information sharing in Malaysia would no longer look the same with the introduction of Blogging....Now more and more Malaysian have taken to blogging day by day and a few have became a totally political blog with a difference...I found some of this political blogs very informative indeed and have bookmark it for easy reference..These blogs are playing a very important part in nurturing the process of democracy in this country...Take a look at these blogs that I found in cyberspace and I am sure you would agree with me that these blogs do make the differences to the socio political scene of this country....Brand New Malaysian , Screenshots.. ,Lim Kit Siang , Politics 101 Malaysia...Personally I felt it is a very good development in the political scene of the country and for that I am sharing these sites with the world...With that blogging have somewhat create a new socio political scene of Malaysia... It has given Malaysian a new media to gather information, thus contribute in making democracy works better then before in the country....Use with wisdom it would help to nurture the political culture of Malaysian, thus making free speech a vital part of democracy in this country....For those who have yet to blog, my advice is that, wait no longer, start a blog today and share your thoughts on whatever subjects that you felt good. As for me my journal of life have been my way of telling the world how interesting life is...For in sharing we would be able to make Malaysia a better place to live and enjoy living...

The crooked bridge..

This issue of building a bridge replacing the causeway at the Johor Bahru and Singapore crossing have been going on far too long and the project had been delayed unnecessarily... I felt that it should not be an issue any longer and that Malaysia should start building the bridge immediately...So I wrote a letter to the mainstream newspaper, the New Straits Times....And today a condensed version of my letter appear in the Letters to Editor's section of the newspaper... I thanks the Newspaper for putting this view, which I felt are also the views of most Malaysian..., in the newspaper today [ NST September 8, 2005 ]...The content of my whole letter is as below..

I refer to the building of a bridge across the straits of Tebrau to replace the Causeway….It should be done immediately but before that let take a pause…We should not be just building a bridge, just for the purpose of crossing from point A to B only…It should be more than that, we should change our mind set of the building of This Bridge, at our part of the straits…We should built a Monument not just a Bridge…we should look at a new concept of the linkage…an infrastructure so unique that not only would include a bridge but another amenities as well…like built a MRT from the boarder to JB, so that ordinary people could move fast from Singapore to JB and back, built a shopping arcades, a watching tower and other amenities…The design of the bridge could be crooked as suggested before, it does not matter…What we must do is that we must make it a monument of a sorts, like the Petronas twin towers or the KLCC in Kuala Lumpur…It is now a well renowned monument, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris…people from all over the world come to KL, just to be able to see the twin tower and be on it…The Petronas Twin Towers is the symbol of the nation in the capital of Kuala Lumpur…Let us built a bridge so unique that it befit the royal town of Johor Bahru, as the southern gateway to Malaysia, thus making this a landmark bridge/monument, a piece of architectural marvel that would make people come to see and enjoy and not just to cross to get to the other side only…Time has change, let our good neighbor do their side of the bridge, the way they like it….Let not waste our time…do it now and with a difference…Believe me if we do it right, it would be a sight that every visitors local or foreigners would want to see and with that making Johor Baharu a wonderful place to visit and enjoy living and shopping….

Enjoying breakfast...

Enjoying breakfast with the grandchildren at a holiday resort recently..I had a great time seeing these kids enjoying their breakfast..What a day in my life...The journey continue to be colorful...As always with the loves one...The T shirt!...Well, I got it when I visited Washington,DC sometime ago...

Katrina... A Divine Message!!.....

Hurricane Katrina has done her job... Let us take a pause and think hard of this happening and why America did not act like it should. It is the most powerful and riches country in the world..A suppose to be very efficient and managed like clockwork..Why! Why! What happen to its leaderships at the time of this happening in New Orleans.....Mother nature was very generous in that it gave ample warning time before it attack America this time....Unlike the September Eleven happening that came without a warning, or was it!, this time the facts and data were all there for everyone to digest, years before and yet with the ample warning that mother nature gave, no action was taken to avoid the attack or at least prepare for the attack. And plan A, B, or C would and could have been ready for action in case the onslaught of mother nature do happen...But then when it did happen, Hurricane Katrina bashed that part of America with all her might, angry that all her warning were not making anyone in the leaderships of America to wake up and listen to the reality of its force...It is now not the fault of Katrina...It gave generous warning and no one care...America was indeed sleeping despite the September Eleven happening...And than it happen...Suddenly a part of prosperous America, a first world country became a third world in a blink of the eyes, instantaneously transform the effected areas into a third world..In fact worse then a third world. There were completely chaos and anarchy, which never happen in any third world country whenever such disaster happen..The images on the TV shock us, my daughter who was watching BBC shout...It look like a third world country with the victim all black...Is this for real...Than we are start to watch both channels CNN and BBC...Something are definitely wrong, where are the White...Or are the images a wrong one....Surely it could not be.. It is the BBC and CNN...We watch in horror when as days goes no one come to help...Lawlessness turn to anarchy and people were soon without foods and water, the basic that they need to survived....This happening is in America and it look like another world altogether, people all black, like some places in Africa out of home, out of foods and water..I am sure there are White, Hispanic and Asian out there but not seen on the TV....Trying to escape the onslaughts of the hurricane..There was total disorder and indeed a very sad scene to watch, people of all walk of life, mostly black were helpless, in total disarray and miserable..You want to cry...Where is humanity at this moment in time, in a country call America...No help seem to be coming...The mayor of New Orleans was shouting on the top of his voice for help and help still did not come and soon it create anarchy...I just do not understand why the leaderships of America did not act fast enough...Or are they would only act if the attack had come from an enemy from one of our own species and just take its easy when Mother nature did the job...What were the leaderships thinking at that moment in time...It would be real interesting to know....Well America, I have live in your country and love it and I know for sure you all are great people but Why must this happen...Could this be a reminder from the Creator...A sorts of a Divine Message to the good people of America to wake up and face reality....Take care.

From first world to third world...

From the first world and back to the third world in split second...That is what the hurricane Katrina disaster did to the Mississippi basin especially those cities of New Orleans and its suburban...The American of this generation never had the experience of living in a third world environments and as such just could not accept to be living in such condition where foods, water, electricity and telephone are non available in an instant...And this is what is happening to this part of America today.. They just could or are not prepared to live in such a condition...Physically and mentally just could not accept to be living in such a living condition, thus you see the lawlessness and disorganized in the cities of New Orleans..The shock was such that people became so distress and depress that they began to take the law into their hand, thus making the relief effort became difficult..Can you blame these citizen in distress doing all that, I do not believe so...My friends they are in a super Shock!! ..It is rather naive to see soldier coming to help did not bring foods and water along but instead parade along seeing distress people in shock...Shock is what happen to the American in New Orleans...In just a second they were transported back in time to the third world...That they only saw on TV and movies but never knew for sure what is that reality living in the third world is all about...When the tsunami happen in the third world the situation was different, the people were not as shock...The third world is like that, not everyone have enough foods, electricity, indoor plumbing, telephones, TV. Therefore they were not as distress and depress as those American, they are able to accept the reality fast. Physically and mentally prepared with the reality of such happening, in a single word they always accept that things like these happen in the real world and hence forth put their trust in the faith that they believe...In God's hand so to say and would not blame anyone for what happen..Accept it just as a fate...But for a society in America who are use to all the luxury, when things like this happen they are simply lost...I was listening to the Mayor of New Orleans speaking on Radio... Angry for the slow action by the federal government...He is right of being angry for He never would have expect that relief and help could not be there fast, for I believe in His mind He believe America as a first class nation, surely would and could give its sister cities a first class treatment fast in the time of need, just like this disaster that just happen. But then this just did not happen...Personally I was as shock as Him that the relief and help came rather late .I have being asking and wondering as to why there was no preparation of this attack by the Hurricane that is coming to their shore...With the might of American technology and other resources surely better preparation both pre and post period, could have been done that would have save lives and property on such a large scale...It happen and its history...Anyway I believe, with the American resolves, New Orleans and the other effect areas would raised like phoenix to became a much greater city in the years to come.. To all the good people of in those effect areas...Friends be strong, the world is with you...Our sympathy to all and condolences to those that lost their loves one...The is for real...Move forward with confidence, for that is how our world works in the whole scheme of things...Good day...And take care.... ...

Katrina...

It happened..And nothing could stop it...It lash out at the Mississippi basin and thousand lost their lives and major cities left to rumble...It is like that with mother nature...Last year it was the tsunami that left three hundred thousand dead and a whole city flatten on the island of Sumatra and now it is the Katrina hurricane storm and rain that saw the destruction of the American cities of New Orleans and other adjacent cities...I convey my sympathy to all those that suffered in these tragedy and condolences to all that lost their loves one...Be strong and I am sure that all would be well soon...My prayer goes to all...

The meaning of Merdeka..

It has been a great day celebrating the forty eight years of independence...I am among the fortunate that saw Independence from day one...I was there seeing the first Malayan flag been raise on that historical morning at the Kuantan padang, a town on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia... We were then young and actually did not really understand the true meaning of Merdeka...We all knew that we were colonized by the British but then life was good under the British, unlike under the occupation of the Japanese just before that...The second world was saw some of the worst of the Japanese atrocities...And then after the Japanese were defeated, came the rule of the Komintang, a communist terrorist group that wanted to take over the country and turn it into a communist country...But with the coming back of the British and then later with independence...The horror of murder and carnage were soon defeated...And from that hence forth the country progress from one phase to another and now is what you see the progress of a nation that had made it good...A country which is as prosperous as ever and the population enjoying the peace and harmony, with plenty of jobs to go around...We no longer talk about just having a roof over our head, foods to survived for a day and clothing just to wear but more then that...Malaysian now talk about getting a better housing, a condo, a second homes and now live to eat rather than eat to live...Clothing has became a fashion and we seem to have more then we need...The quality of life have improved much and are at par to those in the west. Malaysian have been lucky that they had great leaderships and with that have progress faster then any other nation in this region and it would be a developed country by twenty twenty... In fact some part of the country are already there, Kuala Lumpur the capital of the country is already a first world community, with amenities comparable with any other cities in the world..Anyone who arrived at the KLIA [Kuala Lumpur international Airport] would be transported into the first world instantly...Take the fast train to KL Sentral, the mega railway station that connect the capital with the rest of the country...Then jump into the Putra LRT and in just five minutes you are at the KLCC or the Petronas Twin Towers..Voila you are in a first world shopping mall...You are pampered with all the hospitality of Malaysian in every ways you ever thoughts...Shops till you drop...Enjoy the Malaysian cuisine that only Malaysian could do it right...Mingle with the multi racial, multi religion and multi language Malaysian that throng the mall and see the smile on their faces.....The truly Malaysian smile...Walk into our Art gallery, our Museum, and other public amenities, you would see more of our history...If you had the time, visit the new capital city at Putra Jaya and you would be amused with the modern architects in these modern administrative capital of the country...That is Malaysia today, my beloved country, a country that I was born and saw its development and progress...To become of what it is today...A prosperous country where races blended well into a truly Malaysian national...Merdeka!!