Ladies and Gents, Yet Another Smart Comment on Bloggers...

“We already have bloggers doing all sorts of things and only the opposition believes what they write."

Nazri Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department

And he's not the only intellectually-challenged one. Read what Howsy and The Malaysian have to say about the newest idiot to join the fray.

Update on Siti Aisya

Bloggers Daphne Ling and Pi Bani have visited Siti Aisya and her parents after receiving tremendous response from all of you out there after Jeff Ooi and I ( and others) posted appeals on our blogs. Daphne presented RM4000, half on behalf of INTI College and the other half which was donated by people who responded to the appeal, and that's not counting other pledges which hadn't come in yet. (UPDATE: Daphne just told me it's now up to RM6000!). Pi Bani also gave some money which she had collected from her own networks.

Encik Shahidan, Siti Aisya's father, was totally overwhelmed by your kindness and generosity and thanks everyone.The parents are attempting to stand on their own two feet again by opening a gerai outside their house.

Meantime Aisya is getting on as best as she can. Feeding and diapering her can be quite expensive at about RM400-RM500 a month. Said Daphne, "She 'eats' everything blended...Basically, things like bubur ayam or ikan or ikan bilis and even vegetables, but all blended into a creamy concoction...She also takes stuff like nestum, and milk and glucose." This does not include medical incidentals and travelling to HUKM.

Daphne is also thinking that Aisya might benefit from taking a special glucose called Polycose which she's seen work on another child by helping him retain the nutrients he takes. It's not a professional opinion of course though she suspects that doctors are reluctant to recommend it because of the cost.

You might want to consider donating in kind eg Aisya's food and diapers (M size). Or help her parents start a small business that generates some income for them.

Meantime, let me just thank Daphne for her incredible compassion and hard work in bringing this to everyone's attention.She's a 21-year old young Malaysian we should all be proud of. Thanks also to all the bloggers who have responded and also everyone who inundated Daphne with emails, smses and calls to pledge help.I think it really shows the positive power of the Internet to mobilise people to help but also it shows that Malaysians are a caring lot and will not hesitate when called upon like this.That really gives me a nice feeling in our Golden Jubilee year.

Looking for Rape

For people who still think that women who complain about the level of violence against women are just being over-sensitive paranoids, there was this in the paper today:

Tuesday March 27, 2007

Woman gang-raped over small loot

By FARIK ZOLKEPLI

JOHOR BARU: Four robbers, unhappy with their loot, grabbed a 22-year-old woman in the house and took turns raping her.

The men, armed with parangs were believed to have entered the house in Kampung Felda Ulu Tebrau, Ulu Tiram, through the back window at about 4.20am here yesterday while the family of five were still sleeping.

The suspects held the victims at knifepoint and ransacked the house for 20 minutes.

Not happy with the RM2,000 worth of cash, four mobile phones and a gold ring, two of the robbers dragged one of the daughters into a room and took turns raping her while the robbers held the family at bay.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shafie Ismail said that the other victims were unharmed. The robbers, believed to be Indonesians, escaped.

“The rape victim has been sent to Sultanah Aminah Hospital for treatment and a medical check up,” said ACP Shafie.

ACP Shafie said 30 police personnel were now on a manhunt for the culprits.

He urged anyone with information to contact the police hotline at 07-2212999 or the nearest police station.

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Now, why rape a young girl just because you didn't get enough from the burglary? Because she was helpless and you can. Rape is about power, not lust.

I took note of this because there seemed to be a number of reports about rape recently. A few days ago, there was a 73-year old woman in Terengganu who got raped, which puts paid to the notion that young attractive girls in certain types of clothes are just asking for it.I tried to find the article and typed in 'rape' in The Star's online search engine. And these are some of the headlines that came up:

Multi-faceted musician : a story about Tori Amos

Court extends remand of bogus lawyer by five days

A celebration of springtime in Japan (because apparently there is a rape plant..)

How did it start? : a fashion story about jeans

Gyllenhaal joins Batman : all the latest from Tinseltown

And that's the first two pages. OK, maybe the word did come up in the text of the articles but it does seem odd. And I couldn't find the story about the 73-year old woman.

Then I typed in 'Terengganu' and got this:

Monday March 26

Burglar rapes 73-year-old at her home

KUALA TERENGGANU: A 73-year-old woman was raped by a burglar at her home in Kampung Ging Batu Limau Nipis, Setiu.

She was washing dishes on Saturday when the burglar entered her house and demanded cash and jewelleries but became angry when the old woman tried to defend herself.

He then threw her on the floor and raped her.

State CID chief Asst Comm Mohd Hazam Abdul Halim said the woman later walked to the village headman's house to seek help.

The woman has been warded at Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital.

Meanwhile, a 31-year-old housewife claimed that a cook at a post-natal traditional treatment centre in Kuala Berang raped her a few weeks ago while she was recuperating after giving birth. She related the incident to her husband after he returned from out of town.

Police have detained a 50-year-old suspect.

(So washing dishes, and recuperating from giving birth, is also like waving red flags to rapists?)

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What goings-on in traditional conservative Terengganu! Maybe that's why they are doing this:

Tuesday March 27, 2007

Park chosen as site for Islamic event

KUALA TERENGGANU: The Islamic Civilisation Park at Pulau Wan Man where the main attraction is the floating crystal mosque will be the venue for a Hadhari congregation here next year.

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh said the park was expected to be completed this year.

“The location is ideal as it contains many Islamic features and complements our efforts to instil religious values,” he said after opening the Hadhari congregation themed “Close to Heart” at Teluk Warisan Club in Pulau Duyong here on Friday.

Idris said Pulau Duyong was not only for the Monsoon Cup race but was opened to everyone in Terengganu.

“The state has not sidelined anyone in our development.”

Maybe Clark Gable might want to comment on this?

Turning NS into a Rehab programme?

MORE (IDIOTIC) UPDATES:

This was in The Star today:


Tuesday March 27, 2007

Youths can volunteer for NS if not picked

PETALING JAYA: Youths who are keen to participate in national service but are not selected should apply as voluntary candidates, said NS Training Department director-general Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil.

Speaking in response to Gambir assemblyman M. Asojan’s suggestion made in Johor on Saturday to send problematic students to the programme, Abdul Hadi said the department had received about 2,000 applications so far. (2000 'problematic' youths applied??)

“Regardless of whether the students have disciplinary problems or not, we encourage all interested youths to apply,” he said, adding that acceptance would depend primarily on available space for more trainees at the camps.

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Ummm...yeah...DELINQUENT youths who can't get into NS can volunteer to go? That's really being in touch with the world. Is this an admission that the NS is really a rehab programme?



UPDATE: Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye has clarified his statement regarding the rationale for all-girl camps in The Star today.Now you have to wonder, if he never said that the rationale for this is to limit sexual assault in the camps, where did the original quote come from? Does the paper make things up? Or is this another case of foot being put in mouth, and then hastily backpedalled when the import of what he said became obvious?

Most people including the DPM have come out against the all-girl camps. Except for some parents who still worry about their daughters. Why so much anxiety about safety, unless there has been more than one case of assault in the camps?

The report today said that even if the National Service Council finds in favour of all-female camps, they would still have to refer the report and recommendation to the Minister of Defense for his approval. But the Minister of Defense is also the DPM, no? And didn't he just say he didn't think this was realistic?



Send problematic students to NS, says rep

JOHOR BARU: Students with disciplinary problems should be enrolled in the national service (NS) programme, as it is a good rehabilitation programme.

Gambir assemblyman M. Asojan, who was willing to be criticised for his suggestion, maintained that all students with records in their schools or even with the police, should be given priority for the programme.

He said that by enrolling, these problematic students could be disciplined, learn more about their country, get religious training and also learn how to interact with the other races.

“This is the best rehabilitation they can get apart from the usual detention or counselling they may receive in schools for their mischief.”

Asojan, who is also state MIC youth chief, said that schools and the police should compile a list of the delinquents and submit them to the NS Training Council.

Asked about the fears from other parents about their children mixing with “bad hats” he said: “I did not say send all the bad boys to just one place. Just spread them all over the country and with the help of all the other good students, they will surely change for the better”.

“We should give them a chance to change.”

**********************************************************************************

Now I'm all for giving young people a chance to change but this sounds like another of those not-quite-thought-through ideas. My recollection is that the NS programme is to promote national unity. As it is, there are more than enough problems with discipline, security, food safety and even alleged sexual harassment.Presumably, there are already some 'delinquent' kids in there. Now this guy's suggesting sending all the delinquent kids to NS, indeed making them priority?

Yes, maybe they will benefit from mixing with the other kids. But most delinquent kids aren't shrinking violets.They are not going to submit to any of the programmes with the same Boy Scout eagerness as the rest (and I'm assuming everyone else is an eager beaver which may not be uniformly true either.) Just to take an analogy from a slightly different field, our policy of sending every single person arrested for drugs, regardless by what drugs they are on, into Pusat Serentis has only resulted in some of them 'graduating' from mild drug use to the more hardcore stuff.Who's to say that sending problem kids into the NS camps, even if they remain in the minority, will not lead to them establishing a following in the camps and influencing the other kids the wrong way?

Are the NS trainers equipped to deal with problem kids? Is it just a matter of counselling, or do they need more skills? What sort of 'delinquent' kids does Asojan mean should be sent to NS? Just the truant types or the bullies and Rempits as well?

The NS programme needs to be looked at in a more comprehensive way and evaluated in an objective way. The key question is, has it achieved what it set out to do? ( And I don't understand how the aim of promoting national unity is sustainable if they come out and then see 'adults' wielding kerises...). Right now, there are kneejerk reactions to every problem. Perhaps they should abandon firstly the whole militarised flavour of the entire scheme. There are lots of very disciplined people who have never been in the army so it's not the only way to instil discipline. Discipline is achieved best by a strong sense of ethics, that if you aim to do something, you do it to the best of your ability for the benefit of everyone around you. It's not something that marching endlessly can teach.

There's another proposal to have all-girl camps to make NS safer for girls. Is that an admission that NS is not safe if you're female? Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye says "having such camps would limit instances of sexual assault and harassment." But why not use the opportunity to talk about sexual assault and harassment to all the kids and to teach them that these types of things are simply not acceptable? If you have all-girl camps, that means that the other camps become all-boy camps. How do we teach kids about gender equality and harmony then? If the logic is that mixing kids from all the different ethnic groups will promote unity, what does gender segregation promote? Besides, the logic is that when you have boys and girls together, the girls have a civilising influence on the boys and makes them behave better.

Which points to the real question: who exactly is doing the harassing in the NS camps? If it is the trainers, then how does segregating the sexes solve the problem of low-quality trainers? (Another question: why call them trainers? Why not camp leaders or something friendlier?) The all-girl camps are also supposed to have all-female staff looking after them. Do they have qualified female staff? How many camps would this entail?

I just wish that people would think a bit more before spewing out so-called ideas. Every idea has a consequence. Bad ideas have bad consequences. Who's going to pay when half-baked ideas get implemented? Not our kids I hope.

Let's Get Cosy: The Symbiotic Relationship between the Media and Government

There is a fascinating article in the New York Times Sunday edition this weekend which talks about the court case between the US government and the press over leaks which led to the White House making the case for the invasion of Iraq. The title of it is 'The Washington Back Channel" which, given recent ravings about rectums and such, might resonate with some people here. It's a very long article so I won't reproduce the entire thing here but if you have time, take a look at it here.

Written by Max Frankel, who was a longtime Executive Editor of the New York Times ( and what an Executive Editor! If only we had someone as erudite in any of our papers!), it is a comprehensive account of the trial of I. Lewis Libby,an aide to Vice President Cheney, which revealed how the US government, chiefly Cheney, made the false allegation that Saddam Hussein was hoarding WMDs, in order to have a pretext for invading Iraq.

But what the article also illuminates is the cosy relationship between the media and the government, which at the same time uses each other to get and pass on information (albeit for different purposes) and then does not hesitate to stab each other when things go wrong. As they very much did in this case.

Given current debates at home about official secrets,whistle-blowers and the credibility of the mainstream media versus the internet and bloggers, some of Frankel's quotes struck some chords with me.

For instance, the Libby court case revealed many things. "We heard about celebrated correspondents routinely granting anonymity — better called irresponsibility — to government sources just to hear whispered propaganda and other self-serving falsehoods. We learned how our patriotic guardians of wartime secrets wantonly leak them to manipulate public opinion, protect their backsides or smear an adversary. And we learned again how clumsy are the criminal laws with which high-minded prosecutors try to discipline the politics of Washington."

Frankel was the New York Times' Washington correspondent during the Nixon administration when the infamous case of the Pentagon Papers occurred in 1971. "Sensing then that even our own lawyers, like most judges, felt an urge to bow before the incantations of “national security,”" Frankel wrote a memo "that shared with them the ultimate secret about secrets in Washington: that practically everything that our government does, plans, thinks, hears and contemplates in the realms of foreign policy is stamped and treated as secret — and then unraveled by that same government, by the Congress and by the press in one continuing round of professional and social contacts and cooperative and competitive exchanges of information.”

He continued, "The governmental, political and personal interests of the participants are inseparable in this process. Presidents make “secret” decisions only to reveal them for the purposes of frightening an adversary nation, wooing a friendly electorate, protecting their reputations. ... High officials of the government reveal secrets in the search for support of their policies, or to help sabotage the plans and policies of rival departments. ... Though not the only vehicle for this traffic in secrets — the Congress is always eager to provide a forum — the press is probably the most important."

Frankel tells stories of how over the years, US Presidents and their minions have carefully dropped hints - sometimes more than hints - to the press in order to get them to angle a story a certain way, while not disclosing who told them. Yet when the government didn't like the news being leaked, they would pressure the press to tell them who had made the disclosures. Obviously governments like being able to control the media.

To do that, they had to read it."I also knew from experience, " Frankel wrote, " how the highest officials, while publicly scorning the press, parsed its daily offerings with obsessive concern." It would be fair to surmise that our own officials may scorn blogs every day but it must also mean they are also scanning them with the same obsession as their American counterparts.

This cosy relationship between government and the media may or may not exist in our country in the same way. I wonder though, if it does exist, if the relationship is as sophisticated as Frankel reports it is in Washington.

"Learning always to trust each other to some extent, and never to trust each other fully — for their purposes are often contradictory or downright antagonistic — the reporter and the official trespass regularly, customarily, easily and un-self-consciously (even unconsciously) through what they both know to be official “secrets.” The reporter knows always to protect his sources and is expected to protect military secrets about troop movements and the like. He also learns to cross-check his information and to nurse it until an insight or story has turned ripe. The official knows, if he wishes to preserve this valuable channel and outlet, to protect his credibility and the deeper purpose that he is trying to serve."

But as Bob Woodward of the Washington Post and Watergate infamy said, "While many sources speak confidentially for very noble reasons, some do so for less noble reasons.”

Frankel however concludes by observing that "Clearly, from the perspective of the public interest, there are and always have been both good and bad leaks, true and illuminating betrayals of secrets as well as false and conniving ones."

But he also wondered, "When is a leaker a true whistle-blower, risking his personal security to inform the citizenry and preserve the public’s interest? When is a leaker a mendacious opportunist, out to advance the narrow interests of himself or his boss? When does a leaker become so appalled at the self-serving actions of his colleagues that he crosses the line to shine a light on them? Is there a reliable way to distinguish among the many varieties of that genus peculiarly indigenous to Washington, the leaker?"

His own conclusion was that " there are no neat lines of distinction. Ambiguity can inhabit even a single leak, serving a selfish and public interest in one breath. Officials who leak secrets to ward off blame for policy failures may be disloyal and insubordinate, but they may also inspire constructive corrective action."

But while the Libby case revealed how the US Government lied in order to go to war, it came at a price: the media's ability to do good investigative journalism.

"The damage to newsgathering, I believe, has been significant. Celebrity journalists like Bob Woodward and Tim Russert may not lose access to sources, but more vulnerable reporters and less-wealthy media outlets will surrender to the subpoenas and jail threats now descending on them in unprecedented numbers. Some will betray confidences; some will suppress articles whose defense would be costly. Others may avoid risky reporting altogether. Sensing danger, many investigative reporters have become highly circumspect, using what one judge sympathetically called the methods of drug dealers to protect themselves: resorting to disposable cellphones, meeting sources outdoors and avoiding e-mail and other computer communication." The curtailing of press freedom in the end does the nation no good at all.

Trying to regulate information is ultimately a disservice to the public. Frankel prefers to carry on in the time-honoured chaotic way. "For the vast majority of “secrets,” there has developed between the government and the press (and Congress) a rather simple rule of thumb: The government hides what it can, pleading necessity as long as it can, and the press pries out what it can, pleading a need and right to know.

"Each side in this “game” regularly “wins” and “loses” a round or two. Each fights with the weapons at its command. When the government loses a secret or two, it simply adjusts to a new reality. When the press loses a quest or two, it simply reports (or misreports) as best it can.

"It may sound cynical to conclude that tolerating abusive leaks by government is the price that society has to pay for the benefit of receiving essential leaks about government. But that awkward condition has long served to protect the most vital secrets while dislodging the many the public deserves to know."

Given the much curtailed media environment in our own country, where getting information from the Government is akin to pulling teeth, unless they decide it serves their interests, I found much in this article to ponder.

There will be many who will say that there is no relevance at all since the US is a much more developed democracy where there is almost total freedom of the press. But I was in the US in 2002 when the drum beats toward war had begun. I saw how the mainstream media in the US kowtowed to the government, hardly ever displaying any scepticism towards the information that the White House was giving them. I saw how journalists interviewed each other as if they were the only experts and made up theories on why acts of terrorism were happening. Arriving in the US, the day after the Bali bombing, I watched appalled as Christopher Hitchens, whom I normally respect, 'explained' on TV that Bali happened because Osama bin Laden was angry with the Aussies over East Timor. Huh?

But in the end, all the falsehood that led to war was revealed. Because there were civil servants with consciences, because there were journalists who were sceptical, because there was stuff on the Internet that questioned the premise of war and because they do have public prosecutors who were not in thrall of the government.

It leaves me convinced that while we do not as yet have the same environment that will allow truth to out (although Frankel does wryly note that "Except in the comics, of course, truth and justice do not often occupy the same realm.") we need the Internet and blogs as the first step towards that environment of freedom, and in the end, the mainstream media will have to follow. Already one brave MP has called for more press freedom because the country ( not just the government, please note) will run better that way. Well, yes.

Who is Wong Nai Chee, and why is he saying these things?

This was in The Star today. I've never heard of him (her?) but maybe you Melaka people have. Anyway obviously he's been reading blogs and is actually saying something sensible.


Friday March 23, 2007

Wong: Press freedom will lead to country being better run

AN MP has called for the setting up of a select committee to promote freedom of the press and to reform laws that restrict them.

Wong Nai Chee (BN-Kota Melaka) said the committee’s role would be to see the extent of press freedom in the country, rationalise existing laws that overlap with other laws and review the provision that allows the minister to revoke the permits of media firms.

In supporting the motion of thanks to the King for his royal address, Wong cited the Printing and Presses Act, Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act and the Internal Security Act as having overlapping provisions and restricting the media.

“These laws create a situation of media self-censorship. Too many of these laws also cause a situation where the newsroom can receive calls from people, including politicians, advising them to do something or face having their permits revoked,” he said.

Wong added that the time had come for there to be a direction for press freedom in Malaysia and said he was not calling for absolute freedom but for the media to project the real situation in the country, without fear or favour.

“The acid test for media freedom is in the reporting of political and economic news, which tend to be more controversial and can paint a less favourable picture of the Government,” he said.

Media freedom, he said, would create an open society and allow accurate information to be disseminated, so that the country could be better administered.

At this point, Mohd Said Yusof (BN-Jasin) stood up and said that a major English newspaper was the only paper that did not report the opening of the Parliament meeting by the King on Monday but instead highlighted a lock-up report. (Ho hum...)

“I am perplexed because this paper did not respect the event in the August House that was officiated by the King,” Mohd Said said.

In response, Wong said: “This is part of media freedom, for the newspaper to freely choose its news item. There is no problem as long as the report is accurate.”

On the right to information, he said that public documents such as Environment Impact Assessment reports and toll agreements should be open to public scrutiny.

However, he said, this should not include documents on national defence, national security, international relations, Cabinet and state exco documents, enforcement of law and public order and personal data.

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Meantime, Shahrir Samad, erstwhile blogger, is singing the same old tune. Perhaps if he really joined the blogger community, he might find that bloggers aren't that anonymous at all.

Friday March 23, 2007

Be responsible, bloggers urged

By JANE RITIKOS

KUALA LUMPUR: Bloggers should not hide behind their anonymity and must have ethical responsibility over what they write and regard their word as binding, said Johor Baru MP Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, who has had a blog since 1999. (but hasn't been updating it...)

Shahrir also feels that the media should not quote anonymous bloggers as this was as good as quoting a poison-pen letter.

“I am old-fashioned and what I say is as binding to me as what I write. What you write is powerful and I make sure what I write is what I see as a fact or opinion, which I sign off as myself.

“To me, bloggers must be able to stand by what they write,” he said when asked on recent comments made against bloggers.

The Internal Security Ministry’s Publication Controls and al-Quran Texts Unit senior officer Che Din Yusof was reported to have told newspapers not to quote and publish “anti-government” articles from online portals and blog.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor recently created a controversy when he said that most bloggers were women who were unemployed and bloggers should not be believed. (That's a nice way of saying that bloggers lie...)

While declining to comment on these statements, Shahrir said it was ethically wrong for newspapers to quote anonymous bloggers as it meant they did not ascribe to a source.

He also felt that having a law to govern bloggers was not as important as bloggers themselves being ethical. (Agree...)

“A blogger should exercise the right to write without being vindictive and hurting anybody,” he said, adding that the best way for those who wanted to seek recourse against bloggers was through a media council.

Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, however, said such “anti-blogger attitude” by the authorities was worrying and not keeping with the Government’s aim to have an information- and knowledge-based society.

“The blanket denunciation of bloggers is not good and reflects on their attitude of not being ready for an information society and advances of ICT (information communication technology).

“They are doing a disservice to the Government, which talks about promoting ICT and transit to a knowledge-based economy,” said Lim.

He said the authorities had to live with blogs and not conveniently denounce bloggers for revealing unpleasant things about the authorities.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said blog postings could create confusion and feelings of hatred and bigotry in youths.

Syed Hamid, who is also the Malaysian Association of Youth Clubs president, said some bloggers might have an ulterior agenda. (Oh dear.....)

Article 11: Upholding Our Constitution

For those of you who are confused about what the coalition known as Article 11 is all about, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, lawyer and blogger, clarifies today. Have a read and have a think.

Be scared, Zam, be really scared...

Our dear forward-thinking Minister of Propaganda..oops, Information, Zam, has said that the mainstream media really should not rely on the Internet too much because there's nothing but lies up there in cyberspace. Truth only comes in ink apparently, and on RTM and TV3. Bloggers are of course a bunch of cowboys (and cowgirls) who have nothing better to do, since they're all unemployed, but fabricate stories that make politicians look bad. As if our politicians can't do that (look bad) themselves.

But why just worry about the Internet and blogs, when the future for news could be even scarier? Imagine if this idea below takes off....

(OK lah, the day our mainstream papers relinquish control to the public, cats will grow horns, the moon will turn green, ...)


Experiment unleashes citizen journalists
By David Carr
Published: March 19, 2007, International Herald Tribune


NEW YORK: Journalism has always been a product of networks. A reporter receives an assignment, begins calling "sources" — people he or she knows or can find. More calls follow and, with luck and a deadline looming, the reporter will gain enough mastery of the topic to sit down at a keyboard and tell the world a story.

A new experiment wants to broaden the network to include readers and their sources. Assignment Zero is a collaboration between Wired magazine and NewAssignment.Net, the experimental journalism site established by Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University. Zero.newassignment.net intends to use not only the wisdom of the crowd, but its combined reporting efforts — an approach that has come to be called "crowdsourcing."

The idea is to apply to journalism the same open-source model of Web-enabled collaboration that produced the operating system Linux, the Web browser Firefox and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

"Can large groups of widely scattered people, working together voluntarily on the net, report on something happening in their world right now, and by dividing the work wisely tell the story more completely, while hitting high standards in truth, accuracy and free expression?" Rosen asked last week on Wired.com.

That may not seem like much of a revolution at a time when millions are staring at user-generated video on YouTube, but journalism is generally left in the hands of professionals.

Assignment Zero will use custom software to create a virtual newsroom that allows collaboration on a discrete, but open-ended, topic from the very start.

In this instance, the topic will be crowdsourcing, so the phenomenon will be used to cover the phenomenon itself. Citizens with a variety of expertise will produce work to be reproduced and edited by experienced journalists.

"This is designed as a pro-am approach to journalism," Rosen said. "I think I saw possibilities here that others did not, and you can only do so much writing about it. There is so much up for grabs right now and the barriers to entry, the costs of doing something, have become low enough to where it seemed it was best to just give it a try."

If all that sounds like Web 2.0 rebellion, consider that the Gannett publishing company is in the process of remaking the newsrooms at its 90 newspapers into "information centers," a place where readers are given access to all the tools of journalism, including the journalists themselves.

At the Gannett newspapers, citizens can dial into databases and public records or contribute their own experiences to provide grist for reports.

A project at The News-Press on the high cost of sewer and water lines included volunteer engineers going over blueprints in their spare time and an insider who disclosed critical documents.

Making the choice in favor of transparency, dialogue and in some instances collaboration, Gannett, the largest American newspaper company, is willing to surrender traditions of competition, expertise and control.

Help Siti Aisya

This is where bloggers, defamed everyday as liars, cheats and rumourmongers, can do a lot of good. I received an email from blogger Daphne Ling who asks that we spread the news about little Siti Aisya, who suffers from a very rare condition called Fraser Syndrome where she has no eyes and no eyelids, and help her in any way we can. Jeff Ooi has also done his part today. The Star wrote about her last year but she still needs help. So spread the word, blogbros and blogsisters, and make a difference to the life on one little girl and her family.

A New Sorrow for Afghanistan: AIDS Joins List

Aaron Huey/Atlas Press, for The New York Times


Heroin users shooting up among ruined buildings in the old section of Kabul. Injectable heroin first hit the city’s streets about five years ago.


By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: March 19, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 13 — Sitting and eating quietly on his father’s lap, the 18-month-old was oblivious to the infection in his veins.

Aaron Huey/Atlas Press, for The New York Times

A farmer, holding his 18-month-old son, as he was tested for H.I.V. in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. The boy had previously tested positive.


Aaron Huey/Atlas Press, for The New York Times


Heroin users in the old section of Kabul. Most smoke heroin, but the injectable form of the drug first hit the city’s streets about five years ago.

But his father, a burly farmer, knew only too well. It was the same one that killed his wife four months ago, leaving him alone with four children. The man started to cry.

“When my wife died, I thought, well, it is from God, but at least I have him,” he said. “Then I learned he is sick, too. I asked if there is medicine and the doctors said no. They said, ‘Just trust in God.’ ”

Cloistered by two decades of war and then the strict Islamic rule of the Taliban, Afghanistan was long shielded from the ravages of the AIDS pandemic. Not anymore.

H.I.V. and AIDS have quietly arrived in this land of a thousand calamities. They remain almost completely underground, shrouded in ignorance and stigma as the government struggles with the help of American and NATO forces to rebuild the country in the face of a new offensive by Taliban insurgents.

The father of this boy, the youngest Afghan known to have H.I.V., agreed to speak to a reporter only if their names and other details were omitted. He has not even told his family what his son has.

He said he believed that his wife contracted it through blood transfusions in Pakistan years ago.

The few surveys that exist suggest that Afghanistan has a low prevalence of H.I.V. — only 69 recorded cases, and just three deaths. Yet health officials warn that the incidence is certainly much higher.

“That figure is absolutely unreliable, even dangerous,” said Nilufar Egamberdi, a World Bank consultant on H.I.V./AIDS. The World Health Organization has estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 Afghans are infected, but Ms. Egamberdi said even that was “not even close to reality.”

Dr. Saifur Rehman, director of the National AIDS Control program in the Ministry of Health, agreed. Afghanistan, a deeply religious and conservative country — sex outside marriage is against the law — may still be less at risk of the spread of the virus than other places.

But international and Afghan health experts warn that it faces the additional vulnerabilities of countries emerging from conflict — lack of education and government services, mass movements of people and a sudden influx of aid money, commerce and outsiders.

Geography and migration make Afghanistan particularly susceptible. It is surrounded by countries with the fastest-growing incidence of AIDS in the world — Russia, China and India. Other neighbors, Pakistan and Iran, have high levels of drug addiction and a growing number of H.I.V. infections, as does Central Asia to the north, experts say. AIDS can easily cross borders, carried by migrants or refugees who pick up drug habits or have sex with infected people in those countries and return home. Rates of drug addiction are rising in Afghanistan, with its booming opium and heroin trade.

Though the Afghan government and senior religious leaders have won praise for making H.I.V. a national priority, they are struggling with many problems.

“In Afghanistan, all the traditional risk factors for rapid spread of H.I.V. exist concurrently,” said Dr. Fred Hartman of Management Sciences for Health, a Boston-based group working in Afghanistan. He has worked as technical director of Reach, an American-financed program to expand health care to Afghanistan’s rural communities for three years, and has advised the government on H.I.V./AIDS.

Afghanistan experienced a trade boom in the last five years, and hundreds of thousands of Afghans go abroad, especially to Arab countries in search of work.

A European doctor, who asked not to be identified because his work was confidential, worked in a hospital in the United Arab Emirates where foreign workers went for mandatory testing and said that in 2001 and 2002, 23 Afghans were deported after testing H.I.V.-positive. “There were only 30 known cases in Afghanistan then, and I knew of 23 more,” he said.

The return home of more than two million refugees is another way the disease is likely to spread, said Renu Chahil-Graf, regional coordinator for Unaids, the United Nations program, who was visiting Pul-i-Charkhi prison in Kabul, where a voluntary testing clinic has opened. Some of those returning to Afghanistan have drug habits, and they spread AIDS by sexual contact with spouses, prostitutes and street children.

Afghanistan, the biggest opium- and heroin-producing country in the world, has nearly one million drug users, according to United Nations estimates. Most users still smoke the drug, but five years ago, injectable heroin hit the streets of Kabul, the capital. Now there are an estimated 19,000 intravenous drug users here, according to the World Bank. Addicts are not difficult to find, living in bombed-out buildings in the old part of the city and in Kota-e-Sangi, a neighborhood on the city’s south side.

They are homeless or returned refugees, mostly young men, according to Miodrag Atanasijevic, a coordinator for Doctors of the World, a French aid group that runs a clean needles program in Kabul. “It will become a huge thing,” he said. “In this country you have a lot of drugs.”

Even after five years of international assistance to the health sector, only 30 percent of blood used in transfusions in hospitals is screened for H.I.V., according to a recent World Bank report. Dr. Rehman said that 80 percent of government hospitals screened blood, but he acknowledged that many other institutions did not. Health workers remain ill-informed and careless, often reusing needles even when they know it risks spreading the disease, he said.

While several organizations are working to provide needle exchanges and to increase H.I.V. awareness, a far wider program is needed, according to the World Bank, which is providing $10 million to fight H.I.V./AIDS in Afghanistan.

A recent study of 461 intravenous drug users in Kabul showed that 3 percent were infected, Dr. Rehman said.

Stigma is perhaps the most difficult challenge in dealing with H.I.V./AIDS in Afghanistan. The Taliban government, with its stoning and execution of adulterers and homosexuals, may be gone, but sex outside marriage and homosexual sex are still socially unacceptable.

Doctors and health workers here warn that AIDS patients will face ostracism, even death, if their communities learn they are infected. The Ministry of Health closely guards the identity of the few people who have tested H.I.V.-positive.

Dr. Muhammad Farid Bazger, H.I.V./AIDS coordinator of the German aid organization ORA International, has seen firsthand the cruelty communities are capable of.

During his work in villages and refugee camps in Pakistan, he came across an unmarried man who had returned from the Arabian Peninsula infected with H.I.V. The man told his father, who, not understanding the consequences, told others.

Soon, villagers told the father he should kill his son. The son ended up locked in a brick cell in the family yard, with only a small opening where food was thrown in.

Dr. Bazger and his colleagues eventually rescued him and made a film about him, which has been shown on Afghan television.

ORA has also worked among women in the sex trade in Kabul. In a 2003 survey of 126 of the women by ORA, only one was familiar with condoms and only one had knowledge of H.I.V./AIDS. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed were married. Eighty-four percent were illiterate.

Scores of foreign prostitutes have arrived in Kabul in recent years, along with the influx of foreigners and foreign assistance. Afghans are using their services as well, particularly the well-paid young men employed by foreign organizations, health officials say.

Sex between men is an even worse taboo in Afghanistan, but health officials say it does occur. Ms. Egamberdi, who is from neighboring Uzbekistan, said sex between men was a reality in much of Central Asia, including Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s efforts to combat AIDS have been stymied by the lack of urgency among donors who believe Afghanistan has a low prevalence of H.I.V., Dr. Hartman and others said. Even United Nations agencies have been slow to develop H.I.V./AIDS education, Ms. Egamberdi said. “At least do awareness campaigns,” she said in frustration.

Until this year, the members of the government AIDS team worked out of a shipping container on the grounds of the Health Ministry. They have graduated to a drafty unheated hall inside the main building. While the World Bank granted Afghanistan money to gather data and work with high-risk groups, Dr. Rehman’s hopes for an AIDS treatment ward in Kabul, country-wide testing and antiretroviral drugs remain unfulfilled.

The Health Ministry has enlisted the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs to educate mullahs, often the most influential people in villages, to help promote basic health education and mitigate the stigma of AIDS.

Yet they have barely reached the population beyond the capital.

The father of the infected 18-month-old said his village mullah had never talked about AIDS. Nearly a year of tests on the father have found no H.I.V., and the older children are clear, but his smallest child tested positive at 10 months. “The doctor asked me a lot of questions — did you have an operation, did you have illegal sex?” he said. “But I knew I was a Muslim, and I don’t have illegal sex, and I trusted my wife, too. So then he said it was from her operation.”

Six years earlier, his wife lost a baby and had several transfusions in Pakistan. After she became sick and was found to be infected, “I told the family her blood was not good and to avoid eating with her,” he said. “And I tell them not to kiss the child.”

When he was told he could indeed kiss his son, he burst into tears.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I have sacrificed so much since my marriage. I mortgaged half my land to pay for her medical care.”

The father can do little for his son but keep his secret. There are no AIDS treatment centers in Afghanistan, only a single confidential clinic in the capital that just monitors the disease, and no antiretroviral drugs are available.

***********************************************************************************

Malaysia may be different from Afghanistan in so many ways - no violent conflicts, better healthcare, free treatment for people with AIDS, better knowledge (well, almost) - but in one area, the stigmatisation of people with HIV/AIDS, we are no different. As a recent study conducted by UNAIDS on stigma in Malaysia showed, decades of HIV/AIDS education programmes seem to have achieved little as people living with HIV still face discrimination and isolation.Perhaps the pertinent question to ask is, what sort of education have we been giving people about AIDS?

Two Dates to Remember

Two dates to remember, folks. Today, March 19, is the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Since that day,according to the website Iraq Coalition Casualties there have been reported a total of 27,232 people who have died including Iraqi citizens and invasion forces soldiers.But that's really the official count, of people who have records mainly because they are in the military. Who knows how many others who have died anonymously because nobody knows who they are? According to the website Iraq Body Count, the minimum number of civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq is 59,287 and the maximum number is 65,121. That's reported numbers, but estimates may well be higher.

Whatever it is, this we know: if the war continues, there will be more dead bodies, on all sides. OK, so we don't know these people, they live far away and who cares anyway? We should care, firstly because the invasion was illegal, based on false pretenses. If we believe in the rule of law in our country, then we also need to believe in it globally.Secondly, it's not going to end any time soon and the US are already eyeing Iran for the next pre-emptive strike, which will mean even more deaths. Unless we really enjoy reading about people being blown up to bits every day, then OK. Thirdly, if this is the year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our independence, we should support to right of the Iraqi people to self-determination as well, and not have to submit to someone else's idea of what they should do.

All over the world, people have been protesting against the war. In our country, only a small number showed up in front of the US embassy yesterday. But we can protest online, by making our voices heard that we do not support the occupation of Iraq and the only way for peace is for self-determination to prevail. That's true democracy. Not imposed from outside.

But don't take my word for it. Take the word of Hana Al-Bayaty, a young Iraqi woman working for the Brussels Tribunal that documents the violations in Iraq. This is her searing open letter to the anti-war movement.

The other date to remember is March 31. That's the deadline for registering as a voter in the next General Election. If you haven't yet, please do so. When the elections come, get out and vote. It does not matter who you vote for, just vote. Because it is one of the chances you have to have your say. Otherwise, what's the difference between us and Iraq, where 'democracy' is defined and imposed on us by others?

The World's First Metrosexual Policemen

Maybe our police could consider this as a way to improve their image too. And wouldn't it be really helpful to be able to see them at night? Perhaps khalwat squads could be issued with these uniforms as well. Then we might be able to smell them a mile away...



Police hot on the scent of crime
Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:15am ET137


By Rupam Jain Nair

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Police in India's Western state of Gujarat are to wear new uniforms impregnated with the fragrance of flowers and citrus to help improve their image.

"Most policemen look hassled, drenched in sweat after coming from any scene of crime," said Somesh Singh, a designer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad that drew up the uniforms on request of the state government.

"They are surely not the best person one would like to meet, but if they smell good and fresh one might as well approach them," said Singh. (Err...approach them for what, exactly, Mr Singh?)


The uniforms, to be introduced in the next few months to the state's 300,000 police, use cotton with a fragrant finish, reflective prints and fiber optic technology to make sure the uniform not only smells good but glows at night so officials can be located easily . (Uhuh...good idea...)

The uniforms will retain the scent even after washing as the fragrance is embedded in the cotton during processing.

Some police say they are eager to try out the new uniforms.

"We are tired wearing the thick cotton brown color uniform with a broad belt and plastic badges for several decades now," said R.K. Patel a senior police officer.

"If the new uniforms makes us stand out in the crowd, keeps us active with pleasant aroma and is yet very formal, then we are all for it."

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

How Not to Get Sued

In this litigatious days, when people and even institutions get offended at the slightest thing, here is a list of what you should do to never get sued:

1. Don't write. Or at least, don't write anywhere where anyone would read your piece.This rules out the Internet which is where anyone reads anything these days.

2. If you have to write, make sure you write for publications that are so sensitive they can sue others for saying they aren't worth the paper they're printed on.They can't very well sue the same people they employed to write in their own pages.

3. When you write, write a lot about yourself. That way only you can get offended and therefore only you can sue yourself. Very very safe.

4. If you have to be critical of others, be critical about people your bosses don't like but who are nevertheless very popular with all the people who can't bear to read the paper your columns are in.That way people who couldn't normally care less about what you say will be forced to read your column and will react. Not just mirthfully, of course.

5. Most importantly, and most safely, be critical of the people your bosses' bosses hate. Make sure you sound exactly like the most cerebrally-challenged of these bosses, only with longer words, and make it sound as if you're not stamping your foot quite as crudely as they are. Because you are after all a writer and not some crass politician.

For a fine example of how to do all of the above, read this.

Why Do People Stand as Politicians without Policies?

This may be about Britain but it equally applies to us, especially given recent foot-in-mouth disease epidemics among our politicians.



Politics Lite: No Sacrifice, No Substance, No Success

By RORY STEWART, New York Times
Published: March 10, 2007

The accepted wisdom in British political circles is that Tony Blair won three elections by giving the British voters charisma and energy unfettered by dull or controversial policies. The Tories have now taken the lesson to heart. They are fighting back with feel-good, idea-light campaigns of their own, and it seems to be working. They are now significantly ahead in the polls.

This is not just electoral strategy. Many of them believe that we live in a postideological age, that there are no great questions anymore and that there can be no new solutions for domestic poverty or problems with immigration, energy or the economy.

But why do people stand as politicians if they have no policies? Many politicians claim privately that they are simply concealing their policies until they are elected. It is more likely that when the winds of office change in their favor, they will find their faces frozen into an expression of affable inaction. The role of a modern politician is apparently to be likable, to tinker with existing institutions and to manage occasional crises.

Churchill has been replaced by Bertie Wooster.

In Iraq, hundreds of thousands have died over the last few years and hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent by the U.S.-led coalition. The international system is fractured; the Islamic world is angry. Yet both major British political parties still refuse to admit the problem and instead tweak the current mission: withdraw some troops from Iraq, put a few more in Afghanistan.

A million people took to London’s streets to stop the invasion. Thirty million now think we should withdraw from Iraq. Whatever the correct policy, there should be a fierce practical and ideological political debate. But it is not happening in Parliament.

Even though Britain is in a crisis, its other major policy issues seem to be approached with the same complacency. In many parts of the country, Asian Muslim and white communities live separate lives; people shun each other at school and in the streets and defend themselves in gangs.

This very wealthy country has pockets of shameful poverty. I have encountered a level of random hostility, aggression and bitterness in Scottish public housing that I have never seen in an Afghan village. British “civilization” is as tainted by this inequity as Rome by the Colosseum.

The Labor Party continues to invest in child poverty, but three weeks ago a U.N. agency ranked Britain 18th out of 18 rich countries in a study of children’s well-being. (The United States was 17th.) Islamist terror is answered with unprecedented levels of money and troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and comparatively little investment in intelligence and security, community relations and politics at home.

In Kabul I work with a local government councilor called Aziz, who was a champion wrestler. For 40 years, he has dealt with war, pogroms and government. He is assessed by members of his community on whether he is generous to the poor, courageous even in the face of death, a powerful representative of their interests and able to keep his promises. He and they believe that leadership is an exercise in moral virtue and courage, that politics should be a noble profession and politicians virtuous. A British voter might think that is naïve. But I believe Aziz is right.

It is patronizing to assume that voters can’t handle demanding, imaginative and risky policies. More Britons voted for the contestants on the TV programs “Big Brother” and “Pop Idol” last year than in the national elections. But the way to persuade people to vote is to make politics less, not more, like “Big Brother.”

We are as reluctant to acknowledge the popularity of the Taliban as we are to acknowledge poverty in Glasgow. We are as reluctant to believe in the Iraqis’ ability to build a nation without us as we are to believe that our citizens will make sacrifices to prevent global warming. Courage, honesty about problems and faith in the population is as necessary domestically as it is abroad. Our failure in these areas explains our hubristic confidence internationally and our cynicism and lack of ambition at home.

Rory Stewart’s latest book is “The Prince of the Marshes and Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq.” He runs the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Kabul and is a guest columnist this month.

And just when we thought we were getting somewhere...

My fellow blogger Elizabeth Wong posted this unbelievable bit of foot-stomping by our Tourism Minister. My, my, what a generalisation-full rant! How's this from a supposedly sober person in high office:

"Bloggers are liars. They use all sort of ways to cheat others. From what I know, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women.

“Bloggers like to spread rumours, they don’t like national unity. Today our country has achievements because we are tolerant and compromising. Otherwise we will have civil war. "

What leadership! What rational statements! And on International Women's Day, women bloggers are defamed as liars and cheats. Fabulous!

Women of the World, Unite!

It's International Women's Day today (March 8).All over the world today, women stand in solidarity with their sisters fighting for peace, justice and equality.The fight has been long and hard and it continues to be long and hard.

Consider these pieces of bad news:

* Three young Iraqi women, Wassan Talib, 31, Zainab Fadhil, 25, and Liqa Omar Muhammad,26, were sentenced by an Iraqi court to be executed on charges which are unclear.The Brussels Tribunal has issued a statement against this.It is quite heartbreaking.The execution has been postponed pending an appeal but nobody knows when the appeal is.The three women had no lawyers at all when they were sentenced and are being held in prison where one of them gave birth.

*Thirty-eight Iranian women's rights defenders were arrested on March 4 in a peaceful demonstration in Tehran.There is an online petition calling for their release here. Please do sign it. International pressure has worked before in securing the release of women activists in Iran so your signature is important.

*Fatima Al Thami 34 & Mansour Al-Timani, 37 of Saudi Arabia have been married for over three years. Fatima’s late father approved the marriage and the couple have two children. (The father has since passed away, leaving the power of attorney and, more important, custody rights over Fatima in the event of her separation from her husband, to his male children, Fatima’s two half- brothers.)

A divorce in absentia was sought by Fatima’s half-brothers on the grounds of Mansour’s “inferior” tribal lineage. The divorce was granted in absentia. An appeal was requested by Fatima’s Lawyer but as of January 21, 2007 the appeals-court ruling has upheld the original court ruling.

Fatima was told to return to her guardian’s home (her half brother’s) and she has refused to return to the custody of the family members who intervened on her three-year marriage to Mansour Al-Timani, 37.

The 34-year-old woman remains in prison (for her safety) while her infant boy lives in prison with his mother. She has continued to languish in prison in Dammam since last summer while her two-year-old girl remains in Mansour’s (the father’s) custody

Mansour Al-Timani, who was forcibly divorced from his wife Fatima, also claims that the half-brothers have always had disputes with his wife's mother. "They have had problems in the past over inheritance," said Timani.

Blackmailing their female relatives with forced divorce on the grounds of unequal tribal stature in order to make them relinquish their inheritance has already been documented.

Please visit the signatures page of the Say 'No' to Forced Divorce, Yes to Reforms and support the Al-Timanis.

* In Pakistan, women suffer one of the worst situations in the world. According to Amnesty International, domestic violence and physical abuse, which includes rape, acid throwing, burning, and "honor" killings is still widespread in Pakistan. Acid-throwing is on the increase. The government has done little to restrict the sale of acid or to punish those who use it to injure women. "Honor" killings continue to be reported daily. Pakistan is also both a country of origin and a transit country for the trafficking of women for domestic labor, forced marriage and prostitution

+Between 2001 and March 2006, over 1,900 Guatemalan women and girls have been brutally murdered. Exceptional cruelty and sexual violence characterize many of the killings. Some of the victims had their throats cut, were beaten, shot or stabbed to death. Many of their bodies show signs of rape, torture, mutilation or dismemberment. According to press reports, 531 women were killed between January and October 2005, surpassing the total figure of 527 in 2004. The police have reported that sexual violence against women has increased. According to information received by Amnesty International, since the transfer of cases of murdered women to the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Against Life in January 2005, there have been no convictions or sentences on any cases.

*Since 1993, almost 400 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, Mexico.A new Special Prosecutor's office to investigate crimes against women has been set up which has reviewed the original investigations.According to Amnesty International,177 state officials were found to have been possibly responsible for negligence or omission in the original investigations. However, none of these officials has been brought to justice by the state authorities as the statute of limitations has been applied in their favour.

*Much of the violence perpetrated in the Darfur conflict has resulted in grave human rights violations against women. These violations against women and girls include abductions, rape and forced displacement. The only real protection being provided for Darfuri women and girls has been from African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), despite significant restrictions on its capabilities. Read about it here and especially watch two short clips from a documentary called Sameera's Tears.

*At the end of 2006, 17 million women were living with HIV, an increase of 1 million since 2004.According to the Global Coalition of Women against HIV, globally, violence against women is both a cause and a consequence of HIV/AIDS: women facing violence within intimate relationships often cannot negotiate safer sex practices, such as condom use. Rape and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation also spread the virus. In addition to untenable levels of stigma and discrimination from the community, women who test positive for HIV are often subjected to physical abuse from partners and can face
eviction from their homes. Further, as a result of such stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, they are prevented from obtaining life-saving medical care and treatment.
These issues underscore the concern that women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is attributed to social roots, not just biological ones. Their subordinate position in many societies can make it impossible for them to protect themselves from HIV.

* And here in Malaysia, it has been over a year since the Islamic Family Law was forcibly passed through Parliament and then immediately sent to the Attorney-General's Chambers for review.Many consultations have been held with many NGOs but to this day, there has been no news on what the result of these consultations have been and what will happen next. As long as the law stays as it is, Muslim women in Malaysia remain at an inferior status to their non-Muslim sisters with regards to their rights in marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance.

The fact that this law is retrogressing from earlier days when Malaysia had one of the most advanced laws protecting Muslim women is an indication of the kind of mindset towards women's rights and women in general in our country, despite the Constitutional amendment preventing discrimination on the basis of gender in 2004. The latest fiasco in Selangor concerning a survey of delinquent girls in order to find ways to prevent immorality among girls only serves to show the one-sidedness of official thinking, where the role of boys in this 'immorality' is totally disregarded.Would there be as big an outcry if a study showed that many boys are not virgins either?

But it hasn't all been misery. Here and there, there are success stories:

* On Feb 4, 2007, a Kuwaiti parliamentary panel has approved landmark
draft legislation that grants a host of benefits to women in the oil-rich
Gulf state, the head of the committee said.

MP Saleh Ashour said the bill allows women to seek government housing on a
par with men, increases paid leave to 70 days from a current 40 and grants
maternity leave for up to two years.

The legislation must be passed by parliament and signed by the emir to
become effective. Ashour expected the bill to be debated in the house in
March or April.

Under Kuwaiti law, only male citizens who are married can apply for a
government house. The new bill gives the same right to Kuwaiti women who
are divorced, widowed or married to foreigners.

The bill also obliges the government to pay monthly assistance of 865
dollars to Kuwaiti women who are married, have children but don't have a
job.

* Last December, a woman was elected to an advisory council in the United Arab Emirates in the first national polls in the Gulf country, in which only a tiny part of the population is taking part.Read about it here.

Calling all Women Bloggers

Dear Women Bloggers,

March 8 is International Women's Day. In solidarity with women all over the world, we would like to invite all Malaysian women bloggers ( and pro-women men bloggers) to celebrate this special day by appending the IWD logo (if you send me your email, I will send it to you) and linking your blogsite to the IWD website (this is a condition of using the logo) at http://www.internationalwomensday.com . We would also like you to dedicate a post (or more) to yourself, the women in your lives or simply to ruminate on the state of women today. Let's do it collectively and simultaneously on March 8.

We will announce this in our blogs as well today. Please help us by forwarding this mail to your women friends/bloggers.

Sorry for the short notice. And thanks for all your support.

In solidarity,
Marina Mahathir (http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com )
Susan Loone (http://www.sloone.wordpress.com)

Blogging is Just Writing

This is one of the more intelligent articles on blogging by a blogger I've read recently.



By ANN ALTHOUSE, New York Times
Published: February 27, 2007

Unlike a lot of other political bloggers, I started blogging with a distinct lack of interest in politics. My first post about a presidential campaign, back in January 2004, the first month of my blog, was purely an accident. I was reading The Isthmus, our free alternative newspaper here in Madison, Wisc., when I ran across a chart comparing the Democratic candidates for president.

Because I had the longtime habit, inherited from my grandfather, of reading out loud whatever little things in the newspaper happened to catch my attention, I said: “Hmm. ‘Little known fact: at 59, Wesley Clark has only 5% body fat.’ ”

My son Christopher, who was used to finding himself on the receiving end of this habit, came back with: “Should it be: ‘Wesley Clark is 5% body fat?’ ”

That cracked me up, and, instantly making the transition from old family habit to new blogging habit, I posted our little interchange on my blog. I didn’t care at all whether I was helping or hurting Clark’s campaign for the Democratic nomination. I had merely encountered something that amused me at the time. I wasn’t aiming to become a political pundit. That blog post had more to do with my interest in the rhetoric of dieting, the subtleties of language and my son’s sense of humor than with politics.

Blogging is just writing, and there is no end to the things you can do with writing. When you read a political blog, you might be running into someone like me, a solo blogger who reacts casually to issues that surface on any given day, or you might be reading the work of a writer who is pursuing an intense, partisan agenda and pushing particular candidates.

If the blog is open to comments — as mine is — there is a mysterious additional layer of writing. Who are these people who tap into another person’s readership? Some of them must be there just to pass the time interacting with other people who have responded to the personal style of the blogger. Others are much more politically engaged, perhaps to the point where you wonder whether they are part of some candidate’s campaign.

“Political Bloggers Fear Publicists Will Infiltrate Sites” was the headline for the column Alan Wirzbicki wrote in The Boston Globe last Friday. He tells us about a little incident on the Redstate blog, where a commenter seemed excessively supportive of John McCain (who is, apparently, not terribly popular on Redstate).

This moved Erick Erickson, who runs Redstate, to do a little research and discover that the commenter worked for a company with some connection to McCain’s political action committee.

“This is going to happen more and more, and blogs are going to have to be vigilant,” Erickson told Wirzbicki.

Somehow I can’t work up much fear over this. How vigilant do I need to be? As long as no one is dropping unverifiable factual assertions in the comments — trying to stir up a scandal for a candidate? — why should I care if my commenters have their secrets, their ulterior motives and their as-yet-undiscovered manipulative ways? That’s the way life is in the real world.

It’s good to have a place where strangers can meet, and it’s fine if it takes you awhile to learn what other people are really up to. The blog is a coffeehouse, and if some new commenter is actually a political operative, I think it would be fun to see how well he can take on the sharp, individualistic commenters who have already set up here, carrying on a long conversation. I bet it wouldn’t take them long to unmask and embarrass him.

Let life on the blog unfold like off-blog life.

I can understand the urge to enforce standards in the blogosphere, but my inclination runs the other way. Watching a video dialogue on the Web site bloggingheads.tv (where I regularly participate), I rankled when the columnist Eric Alterman said:

“I think it would be good if we had some sort of, you know, blogging — you know — council, where we could condemn people. ... You could still blog if you want. Nobody’s going to stop you. But ... everybody’s gonna know that you’re not to be trusted.”

What undermines my trust is that impulse to control. Those who want such things worry me as much as a candidate with too little body fat.

Ann Althouse is a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and writes the blog Althouse. She is a guest columnist this month.

Feelings, nothing more than Feelings

ACA D-G to clear the air

By LOURDES CHARLES and AUDREY EDWARDS

newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Anti-Corruption Agency director-general Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor, faced with allegations of sexual crimes and corrupt practices, will address the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity to clear the air.

The committee is scheduled to sit on March 12 to hear Zulkipli out, according to committee chairman Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.

The committee comprises 12 MPs from the Government and the opposition, including Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang. Zulkipli is among the co-opted members of the committee.

“We have not been in contact with him since the allegations surfaced. We should hear him. We also want to know whether he feels comfortable heading the ACA. We want to know his feelings at this point in time,” Dompok said when contacted.

Zulkipli, in a newspaper report yesterday, denied the allegations against him by former ACA official Mohamad Ramli Manan, saying he preferred to let the law take its course.

Dompok, who is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said Mohamad Ramli would appear before the committee in a separate session the same day to explain his allegations against Zulkipli.

He said the committee had, in its meeting on Tuesday, been informed of certain allegations against Zulkipli. The latter was not present at that meeting.

An Internet news website had carried Mohamad Ramli’s allegations of Zulkipli being involved in “immoral and criminal activities” and interfering with investigations by threatening witnesses.

He also claimed that the ACA had, in 1997, learnt that Zulkipli, then the Johor police chief, was in possession of properties which were disproportionate to his known source of income, and further alleged that Zulkipli had amassed substantial property and assets through corrupt practices.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan, asked to comment on the matter, said police had handed over its investigation papers on Zulkipli to Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail

“I can confirm that we had investigated him while he was Johor police chief for an alleged sexual crime following a report lodged in 1997 by a woman, and that we had recorded statements from all concerned.

“We will let the AG study our investigation papers as a decision was made earlier regarding the case. It is not for me to say what it is,” he said.

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I might be considered odd here but since when do we ask people who have a cloud over their heads if they feel 'comfortable' about anything? Or what their 'feelings' are? Yes, he should be considered innocent until proven guilty. Still, the honourable thing to do is to go on leave or something until the air is really cleared. I just don't get this thing about 'feelings'.

What about the feelings of all of us, who have believed until now, that the ACA is a place we can turn to when we see corruption? Don't we count?

Or is our Minister's English just a bit shaky, and what he really means is 'explanation' or 'excuse'?

I'd like to feel that's true...