REMEMBERING ALIJAH GORDON - fi-sabil-Allah

How ignorant I could be of Alijah Gordon of MSRI (Malaysian Sociological Research Institute) and her monumental efforts to save and ease the pain of Palestinian refugees?

It was towards the end of her lifespan I came to know her personally. It was the Letters column in the NST of August 15, 2001 that alerted me that MSRI was looking for sponsors for Palestinian children in refugee camps.

I volunteered and MSRI arranged an 11-year old girl by the name of Dina Miri in the Borg ash-Shemali Camp, Tyre, South Lebanon to be my god-daughter in December 2002.

Her father was bedridden and she had 4 siblings.Alhamdullillah, she is now happily married about 2 years ago.

Refugees fled from Palestine and living in a camp at its early state (R).

Alijah, born on March 29, 1929 was the eldest of four siblings. She began a few words like 'good girl' 'doll' at the age of 7 months.

With the Egyptian Ambassador to the UN, 1951 (R).

Alijah's 406-paged autobiography was published in 2003. My wife and I visited her on August 25 of that year and she was already bedridden. On the second page of the book we bought she signed and said " In-sha-Allah this will be followed by Part II - pray for me ...." She completed writing Part II. I got to check whether it has been published yet.

Alijah wrote 4 other books including 'In the Time of the Mishmish'. In the dedication page of 'The Real Cry of Syed Shaykh al-Hady' she penned a message (R) which I have yet to fulfill.

Moga Allah cucuri rahmat kapada jasad Alijah yang sentiasa berjihad semasa hidupnya.

IS NOH OMAR BRAVE ENOUGH?

Padi planting is a culture and tradition. When we see sawah terbiar it means that part of our culture - customs, celeberations, community  are lost. It is a sign that the rural youth has migrated to urban areas to find work.

When done manually as in the olden days it is backbreaking work in the padi fields - cangkuling, pulling weeds, harvesting, and carrying padi .

The feet get soaked in mud for hours, plus the rain, hot sun, lintah, cuts by the razor sharp padi leaves do not make work easier.  I have done it all.

The Bario rice produced in the Bakalalan highlands in Sarawak is done manually with some help from buffaloes. The area is isolated and not accessible by road so the Kelabit villagers have to produce their own crop of rice. It is a specialty rice which they are proud of.

Even with the aid of machines work is still not easy.

Harvesting machines increase work and production efficiency but still we need to import 30% of rice from Thailand,Vietnam, and Cambodia. There will be rice shortage for export because the flood in Thailand wiped out 1.4 million hectares (14%) of padi land.

In September Noh Omar said that we have rice stockpile to last for 45 days (300,000 metric tonnes) and in October he said enough for 4 months (1 million tonnes)!! Whatever it is that is good for short term only.

For the long term food security measure there are 2 things he must do if he is brave and smart enough:

1. Open up another mega padi area the like of MADA in East Malaysia;
2. Beef up rice research by setting up a National Rice Research and Development Institute/Board (like MPOB).

A budget of RM5 billion is needed initially to kickstart the two-prong approach.

OWC and KAMA SUTRA

Sex is in the air. The Obedient Wives Club (OWC) made it known that they are enjoying 4+1, 3+1, 2+1 sexploits. Ashaari, long gone can still excite them! Alas, their book is banned, we would not know the details.

There must be something missing in the majority of 1+1 romp. The enlightened PIL (Persatuan Isteri Lebih) members are quietly keeping their secret.

The ancient Indian civilisation came up with a dogma on sexual customs and techniques 'Kama Sutra ' centuries ago. Richard Burton had its translated and published in 1962. Have yet to read the copy  and do not know what it says about orgies.

The many sultans, kings and emperors of past kingdoms kept harems for indulgence.

This African man has 40 wives. Lucky guy!

How does a man cope with many wives. No problem. Today we have many types of enablers, pills, rub-ons, supplements - Viagra, gambir Sarawak, ubat kuat, minyak belacak, dhab etc. that purportedly do the job.

Live dhab at Sunday market, Ipoh.

This could be the first Malay sexology book  by a lady author published in mid 70s by Syarikat H.C Muhammad Abd. Rahman, Marang.

The book says one can tell a few things by looking where the tahi lalat is, shape of face, nose etc.

Walla hu alam.

Pantun malam pertama dimuatkan dalam buku.



Apa buku panduan yang digunakan dalam kursus kahwin? Bab2 seperti ini tak masukkah?

ROUGH RIDER vs DAUN PUCUK

Pak Lah kata "Tak Nak".
Pfizer kata " Atasi Rokok. Jadilah Juara".

Bukan perokok, kali terakhir mengisap setahun dulu, itu pun mekanik Cina membaiki enjin kereta hulur rokok. Yalah nak kamcing sama dia.

Kalau di kampung dulu biasa merokok daun pucuk dengan menggobek sirih. Dari dulu lagi tekak ni terasa kering dan batuk bila merokok. Bagus juga tu.





Kalau  kuat merokok agaknya dah kena bypass. 
Beberapa tahun dulu dada terasa sakit bila buat angiogram ada saluran darah jantung tersumbat. Kena buat angioplasty di IJN. Setakat ini Alhamdulillah.





Diet kena control dari segi cholesterol dan glucose terutamanya. Oleh kerana suka berkebun bermandikan peluh tidak perlulah exercise atau jogging.



Kalau mengikut OpEd (Nov 6) saya tergulung dalam Pickers - cari/beli barang lama atau second hand dan kalau boleh dijual kembali.

Saya geledah tong mesin jahit Singer lama dan jumpa beberapa kotak rokok Rough Rider, Player's Nay Cut, Capstan Navy Cut dan Gold Flake. Rokok2 tersebut di import dari England.

Kotak2 sudah di frame (L) kalau jual berapa boleh dapat? Nak simpan pun saya bukan perokok.

Brand Player's ada kilang sendiri sementara 3 yang lain dibuat oleh W.D. & H.O. Wills, Bristol & London.

Rough Rider dan Player's munkin ada curi2 cuba kerana keduanya lebih popular.

Di England tidak ada cowboy. Jenama Rough Rider munkin dipinjam dari US sempena kemenangan rejimen sukarelawan berkuda Rough Riders (1st Volunteer Cavalry) menawan San Juan Hill, Cuba, 1898.

ARCHIVING "THE DEBONAIRS"

Blogger Remgold of OpEd (thank you) said put pictures and walla I have to dig for them from various sources - books, magazines, and old pictures from own/family or relatives' albums. The thousands of slides in my collection are yet untouched to be digitalised and saved.

Debonair, a nice sounding word. I have heard of it before but does not know when to use it in writing or conversation. Looking up into the dictionary, it means - gentle, courteous, urbane; light hearted.




While rummaging through my sister-in-law's picture album (and to put the old pictures into a new album), I found a group picture of the band "The Debonairs" which was probably active in the 70's. I do not know how famous they were. Perhaps the members are still around but not as handsome as before!




How about "The Debonairs" for entertainment!

How about "The Debonairs" for entertainment!

TENTERA MENENTANG GANYANG

ARTIKEL INI DEDIKASI UNTUK KOL. HASSAN SAAMIN (arwah), hidupnya untuk askar, askar untuk hidup.

Indonesia mengganyang Malaysia mengkonfrontasi.



Di Semenanjung, penyusupan angkatan bersenjata Indonesia (ABI)tertumpu di sekitar pantai Johor melalui Selat Melaka. Operasi tentera yang pertama dijalankan menentang pencerobohan ialah Operasi Limit pada 12 Ogos 1964.


Dalam Operasi Liver, 17 Ogos - 4 Nov 1964 di kawasan Benut, Kukup dan Pontian, 21 penyusup terbunuh, 70 ditawan dan 9 menyerah diri. Pasukan keselamatan Malaysia mengalami 2 kematian dan 3 cedera. Kesemuanya melebihi 21 operasi dijalankan - Operasi Lilac, Operasi Flower, Operasi High Speed ...


Tamatnya konfrontasi, sejumlah 143 penyusup dibunuh, 432 ditawan, 34 menyerah diri.
Dipihak tentera Malaysia dan Commonwealth, 16 terbunuh dan 8 cedera.


Antara wira2 tentera Malaysia bertugas semasa konfrontasi (L, R)



Antara wira yang terkorban mempertahankan negara.


Maklumat terperinci berkenaan pengorbanan tentera Malaysia semasa konfrontasi terdapat dalam buku (R) yang ditulis oleh S. Othman S. Omar, 1999, penerbitan UKM.

















Di perbatasan Sarawak-Kalimantan menjadi hangat juga dengan pencerobohan ABI dan dapat dialahkan oleh tentera Malaysia di bantu oleh 22 Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment (Kanan, bawah), 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles dll.

Pasukan ABI menemui angkatan tentera di Tebedu, Jun 1964 (L)

Tunku melihat senjati ABI, Balai Police Pontian (L).






(Kanan). Perjanjian Jakarta. Upacara menandatangani Persetujuan Normalisasi Hubungan Indonesia-Malaysia, Jakarta, 11 Ogos 1966. Tun Razak (Menteri Luar Negeri), Mej Jen Abdul Hamid Bidin (kiri), Je Soeharto (berdiri, tengah), Adam Malik (Menlu Indonesia, kanan, duduk)

Indonesia, a brave example of revolution against Dutch colonialism and struggled for  independence after the Japanese occupation of WWII.  However, the nation is still not at peace internally. It is warring against several fronts at any one time - Acheh, Timore, Irian Jaya to breakaway for independence.

The nation is warrring against poverty, rampant corruption, demonstrations, religous extremism and clashes. These warring states have a spillover effect onto Malaysia  flaring up seemingly minor misundertandings be they on true or false premises.

Politicians have to understand the political and social climate and not to over react to our neighbour's overtures. Whatever it is we are blood-brothers serumpun leaning against another.

GANYANG MALAYSIA

Adakah legenda kekalahan pertarungan antara panglima Majapahit oleh Hang Tuah dan berpindahnya Keris Taming Sari ke Melaka menjadi dendaman?

Bukan begitu Pak!

Belanda telah kalah dan diusir. Darah nasionalisme dan anti-imperialisme meluap-luap. Bung Soekarno berpendirian kemasukan Sabah dan Sarawak kedalam Malaysia adalah angkara penjajah. Parti Komunis Indonesia (PKI) menyemarakkan lagi api anti-neokolonialisme.

Indonesia perasan dikepung dan terancam. Malaysia mesti diganyang!

1964.

"International Youth Solidarity Meeting for National Independence of North Kalimantan and Against the Neo-colonialist Project - Malaysia."

"Untuk Perdamaian Sedjati Kegugusan ..."

"Malaysia: No For National Independence."

Kanan: "Suasana sidang Komando Operasi Tertinggi (KOTI) di Istana Merdeka pada tanggal 28 April 1964 beberapa hari sebelum Dwikora dikomandokan. KOTI dibentuk pada tanggal 19 Juli 1963 dengan tugas pokok "Operasi pengamanan terhadap pelaksanaan program Pemerintah pada umumnya, khususnya dibidang knofrontasi terhadap unsur-unsur kolonialisme-imperialisme dalam segala manifestasinya serta pengamanan terhadap ..."

Gambar atas: " Guna pengerahan/penggunaan sukarelawan/sukarelawati untuk tugas-tugas dibidang militer dibentuk "Brigade Sukarelawan Bantuan Tempur Dwikora" dibawah pimpinan Kolonel Sabirin Mochtar. Sasaran gerakan sukarelawan ini adalah sepanjang garis ..."

Bersambung "Menangani Ganyang Malaysia" ...