BLOG THE HOG

Hog - swine; yearling sheep not yet shorn; wool from such sheep; yearling of other species; formerly slang for a shilling; low filthy person; greedy person; inconsiderate boor; to use selfishly.

Hogback - hill-ridge, ancient monument, or other object shaped like a hog's back; hog-deer - small Indian deer; hog-fish - fish having bristles on the head; hog-frame - frame built to resist vertical flexure; hog-mane - mane clipped short or naturally short or upright; hog-nose - an American snake; hog-plum - West Indian tree (Spondias); hog-rat - the hutia, a West Indian rodent; hog-reeve - officer whose duty  to round up stray swines; hog's pudding - hog's entrails stuff with various ingredients; hogwash - refuse of kitchen or brewery, slang for rubbish talk; hogweed - cow-parsnip.

Bring one's hogs to a fine market - to make a complete mess of something (reminds of Najib?); hog in armour - a boor in fine clothes; hog it - eat greedily.

striped hogs

hog's crossing

suckle my piglet (PNG)

suckling piglets

for the lard (right)

experimenting?

merrily play the flute

FREE WHEN THE JUNGLE WAS NAKED

Not too long ago jungle life was naked. Life was very hard but free. Now the jungle has been raped and ripped open and free no more. The fate of the weak, the protectors of the forest are at the whims of the Malay buggers who run the country.

This picture was of long time ago, just to tell you how life was and why we are like we are. We are more clothed now. Of diamond rings certainly we have not.

We live barely. We use spears to hunt wild animals and protect us.

Our most deadly weapon is the blowpipe with the ipoh dart.

Logs are our bridges. You talk about long double bridges somewhere and wheels zoom. My feet!

Dark is the night. Occasionally we sewang to pass the dullness.

Taking bath in clean, clear river then. Now we get murky, shallow and itchy waters. After you dirty your own rivers which you cannot clean, now you dirty us!

The jungle paths prick us anywhere and everywhere but we are used to it. The scratches heal by themselves if not we poultice them with jungle plants.

Life has improved though, some got better housing than those of zinc roof. Politics not sincerity to help got the better of us. We are but pawns of games that civilised(?) people play.

CLUELESS ON NEW YEAR, LAST RESORT

Ah, my fossilised thoughts

Let's party and catch the sunrises (Sydney, LA ...)

Consult the genie

Clueless round eyes

Don't call me names, orang utan

Watch the rear admiral

Walking (Najib) on a tightrope mid-air

Heavy is the sack

Take me front

Addictive

Tindik lidah

Lick a froggy

Better still, cupid a cobra

Take the inkblot test

Go bokam

Deworm

If all things won't work ...

LIBRARIES OF THE WORLD - LESSONS TO LEARN

In these days of internet vast amount of information are made available in a matter of seconds so much so that libraries are under threat of going dimmer. Innovative measures are to be taken to encourage the populace, young and old to read and make use of libraries.

Libraries in Malaysia are on the downtrend. They are not reader-friendly. Most if not all libraries including those in the universities have security guards at the turnstiles. It is as if knowledge and information kept are to be guarded like gold deposits in the banks! This trend will hasten the demise of libraries in Malaysia, more of this in a future posting.

The pictures of libraries below are of decades old.

Central University Library, University of California at San Diego.

University at St. Gollen, Switzerland, 18th century building housing incunobula and rare manuscripts.

Bibliotheque Nationale, the national library of France, Paris.

L: Sate V. I. Lenin Library, the national library of Russia, in Moscow.
R: Bodleian Library, the library of the University of Oxford, England.

Central Library, Accra, Ghana.

Public library in Vaerlose, Copenhagen.

National Library of Canada, Ottawa.

Central Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City.

Robert Hutchings Goddard Library, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Wichita Public Library, Kansas.

Reading Room, U.S. Library of Congress.

The architectural design of a library must take into considerations of many factors. It can be simple to cut costs or unique but the criterion is functional at the utmost. It has to blend with the surroundings eg. climate, natural and manmade landscape, buildings, types of community catered for. Spaciousness gives that sense of openness and friendly atmosphere. Easy access and centrally located would encourage patronage. The staff should be well trained in their respective job functions that offer diverse  services to cater different needs and modes of knowledge seeking.

DEATH OF POLICE COMMISSIONER BY SELADANG

A herd of seladang or gaur, they very much resemble buffaloes. Gaurs are wild and fierce jungle animals. To protect the herd especially their young the leader of the herd will attack the enemy when it sense danger.

Harry Charles Syers, Commissioner of Police of the Federated Malay States was a game hunter. July 14 1897 was a very sad day indeed for Syers was to die by the sharp horns of a seladang in the deep jungle of Pahang.

H.C. Syers in uniform with Hugh Clifford at Raub Gold Mine stockade, May 1892.

The killer seladang was later hunted and killed by R.S. Meikle. The head of the seladang was made into a trophy in memory of Syers.

Inscription at the bottom of the trophy.

Syers two-storied house (left) and police barracks (right) on the hill, now called Bukit Aman, above the Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur, 1882.

,

n.b. Seladang are known to interbreed with (escaped) cows to produce big size offsprings termed selembu which are unfortunately sterile.

ANALYSING NAJIB WHEN YOUNG

Najib in family photo. What the great man think of him?

Quite a playboy.

Dumped the beautiful first wife. He doesn't like BuDu.

Since he joined politics at the tender age of 22 till now he is still trying to shed the shadow of his father's image - Felda, Razak's visit to China ...

This is what he said as Minister of Education?

He asked for feedback on indiscipline but said that nothing we can do about indiscipline! That is not solving the problem at the same not supportive of the teachers. He must suggest policies and measures to curb serious discipline problems in  schools eg. reward-punishment system, counselling, PTAs, community involvement, extracurricular activities so on and so forth. Not to imply to live with the problem!

Talk is not cheap then. Behind him the RM7.2B paid consultants are doing the talking to propel us into high income economy at the expense of burdening the rakyat. Nazir makes it looks easy with RM9M annual take.

For being clueless and blunderfool after 11x3 years (11 his feng shui number) in politics then the hands that push him up should push him down. Malaysia has and is suffering from two blunderfools. The country is regressing in more ways than one.

Two things happen when you grow older - age and wise. It seems that only age happens to Najib.