Emergency Festival

While Suzan was in neighbouring Singapore birthday-feasting, Malaysia was having an Emergency Festival (By the way, I know I already wished you via sms BUT happy birthday Suzan! Happy things must be celebrated!).

Emergency Festival? Yes, Emergency Festival.

No, not the emergency with doctors, paramedics, nurses, really cool ugly wounds and bandages, ambulances, fire fighters, drippers, morphines...

Emergency as in Darurat. Where there is curfew, food and water ration, Britishs, communists/revolutionists, I shoot you you shoot me, I kill you you kill me... you get the picture. Apparently this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Emergency Period. Seriously if it wasn't for this exhibition, I wouldn't have remembered.


Activities during this Festival include exhibition and walkthrough of events, dramas, documentaries and even an aftershow dance floor called Disco Darurat. The sound of it is odd right? Oh, but they play really cool songs from that era remixed. Man if they play this kind of music in clubs here in KL, I think I'll be there every night.

And I'll be very broke.

And my parents wouldn't be too happy. Haha. I guess they pray really hard. And God is a prayer-answering God.


The festival was held at the building next to Central Market (Or was it Central Market itself?). The bunch of us didn't know such place existed until then. So much for being KL-bred.

The exhibition exposed us to the lifestyle of the people in Malaya back then. Which, of course, you don't learn about in high school Sejarah and it's only small pieces of a bigger picture. You know, I wished that teachers would really make the effort to have these kind of interactive learning instead of spoonfeeding and lecturing us. I can guarantee that I learnt more about Malaysian History in that one night alone than the five years in high school combined together.


These papers lying scattered all over the floor of the exhibition hall were actually examples of flyers the Brits distributed (by flying all over the place and throwing papers off the plane literally) during the period to brainwash the Malayan people, portraying Parti Komunis Malaya as blood-thirsty criminals.

Look at how much paper was used by the Brits back then! Global warming culprits.

OK. Here's the deal. In school, History textbooks taught us that: (1) PKM members were bad people with bad intentions and personal greed; (2) they have no god; and (3) mereka merupakan golongan yang terjerumus ke dalam ajaran sesat.

Now, here's a fresh perspective. A different one. We actually get to listen to the stories from the other side. Yes the very people who were accused of treason to the country - the members of Parti Komunis Malaya. While the Brits and textbooks call them Communists, they call themselves Revolutionists.


Here's a picture of the director of the Revolusi '48 documentary (long hair guy) interviewing a former PKM revolutionist (old man) who selflessly shared his side of the story. The one story which had been hidden from us.

Back then, Malaya was rich with rubber and tin resources. The British brought in plenty of manpower from other places, e.g. India. With greed, comes abuse of power. With abuse of power, comes abuse of rights. With abuse of rights, comes the establishment of PKM by the labourers as a movement against the British colonists and as an association which fights and defends for the rights of the labourers in Malaya.

Unlike popular belief (or rather the belief a particular group of people wants us to believe), PKM was not a Chinese party. Neither was PKM a racial party. They were revolutionists who were fighting for freedom and independence from the Brits.

Oh, and one of the rules of PKM is to respect and not degrade women. Anyone who is found guilty of raping a woman will be shot to death on the spot. Fuiyoh! Good right? Haha.

Anyway, the documentary we watched was just a first draft. Can't wait to see the final version!


The hanging boards are actually pictures of life during the Emergency Period. There was also a picture of the very first Identity Card (modern day MyKad). Do you know that as Malaysians, the only proof of our Malaysian citizenship all around the world is our MyKad? If we lose our MyKad, then that's it lah. Aliens we become.

Oh, and Identity Card was introduced by the Brits during the Emergency Period to identify PKM members from the neutral (or seemed neutral). I think this was taught in high school, but I never got around liking Sejarah. Let alone remember facts. I remember Year 1511 as the year Malacca got colonized by the Portugese because 1511 was the Jaring internet dial-up number back then. Hehehe.

Now I know why I always get headache and fever whenever I had to study Sejarah back in high school. I'm allergic to bullshit. So, food for thought... the Sejarah we learn in school - is it Sejarah or Sastera?

All Things New

New Study Table

After I've graduated -_-;

Nevermind. At least now I can mark reports in my room while blasting music on my pc. Actually, this picture was taken few months back (I bought this with Suzan. Yes, while she was still here. Yes, I know it took me a few million donkey years to post this up. Yes, I am getting old. Yes, I am getting slow. Yes yes, whatever...)

Never got around posting it up. It was saved as drafts though. This picture is rather old now. Most of the stuff has changed. Although the positions remain the same. And it's messier. But of course, for picture's sake I'm gonna clean it up a little because I paiseh wanna show you the messy true me.

My room looks very different from the one I've been living in during the years I was roomies with my sis. Well, now she's married with her own house, I am the only mistress of the room and I get to do what I want with it. Muahahaa. Space. I love it. Even my mom was saying that it's easier for her to sweep the floor now.

Oh, by the way. Three computers kaput-ed in my room. It's one problem after another. My old pc hard disc konked. So all my data (including my convocation pictures) are gone. Shit man. Should have burned them into the CD after I got them. Not wait until I finished my honours. Haiyah. So yeah, Suzan, I might need to take the pictures from you again the next time I see you. Haiyah haiyah haiyah.

Then, took my brother's old pc (after he got a new one). Something also went wrong with it. Forgotten what though. I think it was RAM or motherboard problem. Celaka betul. That pc only lasted a month or two.

Then, took the study room's pc. My mom seldom uses it anyway. And if she needed to use any pc, she can just pop into either my bro's room or mine. Still same house, same floor wat... Where got far?? ANYWAY. That one was working fine. In fact, my dad's friend helped us fixed that pc and assembled new hardware. And he has been fixing our pc ever since I could remember. Then came virus attack that ate some of the files required for Windows to run. Yes, as you've guessed it, the computer cannot start up and CRASHED!!

THREE IN A ROW YOU KNOW!! THREE IN A ROW!!!!!

You tell me, my luck with computers very the jia lat or not???

My bro and I were discussing on what's the problem, as my dad just bluntly put it, "Forget it lah... the computers are old and probably condemned."

Now my study table is a house to 4 pcs (as you can see).


Three old and condemned pcs sitting beneath my study table. My room's a computer morgue! At least they come in useful as leg rest and pinter paper storage. Haha.

And the fourth one is a New Computer!!! Huehuehue. I got a new toy from Lowyat.


I think everything is different. Except the printer. And the mouse. I curi-ed the monitor from the study. No logic to me to let this bigger Samsung flat screen monitor to lie there and collect dust, while I have to squint my already-small eyes to see stuff on my old smaller LG monitor hor? :P

Even the speaker's changed. Seems to me that everything changed from white to black. I think I am getting into the dark emo phase.

New Handphone
Now this is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really old news. I had changed my handphone in uummmm... June? Or July. See, it was so long ago, I don't even remember!

I had been using the same white Nokia 3100. The one who had been with me so faithfully for as long as 4 years. It's worth so much that when I traded in the handphone, it was valued at only RM 40. Hahaha. Yes, that old. Anyway, I traded the old Nokia 3100 for Samsung Slider E950!


I liked the phone because of the design and its features initially. It had 3.2 Megapixel camera... I think it must be the old habitual thing because I don't even remember that I have a camera in my handphone until months later. Seriously. Usually when people have a new toy, they tend to happily explore everything. I, on the other hand... I think I am strange.

I liked it also because it slides. I wanted either a slide phone or a flip phone. But none of the flip phone looked ideal. I don't know why flip phones in Malaysia look so odd. Why can't they be nice and flat and not boring?

It can also play mp3 songs as ringtone while my previous phone can only take polyphonic ringtones. My first ringtone? Super Junior's "Don't Don". Heheheh. My ringtone now is an irony - "Wrong Number" by Dong Bang Shin Ki. When people call me, I hear Changmin singing something in Korean, then DBSK telling me "You got the wrong number, you got the wrong number, you got the wrong number, so don't call me no more". Would be awesome as a caller ringtone right? Hehe.

What I didn't know was the square thing right in the middle of the phone under the Samsung logo was a touch screen that rotates function with different application. Sometimes it'll be arrows up and down, left and right. When I'm using the mp3 player function, they'll be stop play pause, etc. I also stunned. Haha. It is true that I am a pure bred city gal. But technology is moving way faster than my brain can take. But it's cool man. So cool.

P.S. Now I'm thinking of a 4GB mp3/mp4 player.

Jokers

Just when I thought I've seen everything, and that my job was starting to be a little mundane, I see these random things written by some students in the works they submitted. Really. I am not making these up.

They just make me laugh out loud and be happy in the midst of the brain-stress while marking.

Words of wisdom #1

The aim of the experiment was to determine the concentration of ascorbic acid in vitamin C.

O.o A perfect example of blindly doing their reports. The last time I checked, vitamin C and ascorbic acid are the same thing. Sigh.

Words of wisdom #2

Paprika is made from bell pepper.

HAHAHAHAA. That is equivalent to you telling me that strawberries are made from blueberries.

Words of wisdom #3

(First lines in introduction) Why are most plants green? Why do the leaves of some trees turn from green to orange or yellow in autumn? This experiment will help shed some light on this subject.

Speechless. Beyond. Words. Plus, the experiment was focused on chromatography rather than colours of the plants and different types of pigments. Sigh.

And this one has to be the best.

Words of wisdom #4

The chromatography plate developed into a watchglass.

Omo omo! Magic show!!!