The new pope is level headed

How wonderful that the new pope continued with a sensible concept against "just war". No war are just , and he can't seem to find it in his official church teaching nor in the bible. I think the evengelicals should take note and relook into how we come to certain conclusions.

http://www.cjd.org/paper/benedict.html

Latest update on Club scenes in Kuala Lumpur

So , i did an excursion to the nighspots in Kuala Lumpur yesterday . Rather interesting. hope it will be helpful to you if you want to come over to KL for a trip or otherwise.

KL nightlife is generally accepted as to be more superior than Singapores' , but should be behind the mega ones in Thailand . I was the host to a colleague from L'oreal Taiwan who wanted to see some of the nightlife here. So , took her to 3 different big areas ;

1. Desa sri Hartamas
Grand place for the yuppies with pretty decent hang out places. more family oriented in some with less / no 'undesirable' accompaniments - addict traffic attendents , Sarong Party Girls (SPGs - those who are eyeing caucasion men ) etc.

Low - parking space is too limited - but free.

2. Bangsar

A miracle happened that i got a parking spot right in the middle of these area. It is as good as striking a lottery. So , what are the changes. ?

Finnigan's - still the best place around with good music and nice people. A great place to be with friends and get a bucketful of various beers. Had a Beemer's stout here - it taste better than local stout with less bitterness. in fact , the Carlsberg is more bitter. Large portions.

Modesto's - the other 'can go' place . but the interior lighting is horrendous. Good food.

Telawi Street Bistro - good place for dining and chill. no dance floor.

Grappa's - the wine place - a bit empty yesterday.

Absolute Chemistry - fighting hard to survive with a slat towards the Bollywood style , sometimes.

And the host of Starbucks etc.

3. Jalan Sultan Ismail - Enough of Bangsar , as we head down to KL town for the real things. Helena wanted to go to see dance places , as the ones in Taiwan are apparently super big.

Zouk KL - the latest happening place in KL . An upmarket disco that serves an upmarket client . Generally a consensus image that they are more snobish than anybody else. RM50 per entry.

The Beach club - the happening place. To summarize the allure is Denis , a University of Groenigen student who visited my factory 3 weeks ago. Stated his displeasure of being surrounded by girls who 'touch here and there'. They have a band here.

The Thai club - opposite the Beach club is the Thai club who seemed to have a more chinese crowd interspersed with Gwailos. 3 levels of fun.

Atmosphere , Twelve Si - the king of the clubs no more . in fact , Atmosphere was closed yesterday pretty early .

Modestos- again .

Now , comes the interesting part. Presenting

Basement - a 'mix' club . Going down the stairs of this out of the spot place with a door ajar is an experience by itslef. There is something funny in the air , i shun to think what. The bouncer allowed us to go in without paying , sitting beside a light with caberet fur beside it .

There are 2 groups of people there , one standing and chatting while showing their muscle . The other one was huddling at the corner of the room. Bell were ringing and was confirmed with an advert on the TV that shows a barrage of muscular men. The helpful waiter instinctively explained that the club is for a mix gendre when he saw me pointing out the Mardi Gras advert to Helena. Apparently , the non-straight crowd will come in beyond 1 a.m.

Flame - the longest running disco that caters to Canto-pop , lots of chinese based groups and perhaps those that likes to listen to banging house music. Apparently were in the list of police for having patrons who used ecstacy and other party drugs. Got in for free and to our amazement - this is the most happening dance floor in Sultan Ismail. Packed with people who moves indifferently , it is quite a sight. We spend some time here 'dancing' to .. hemmm .. some kind of music. i have no idea. And at one stage as i was mimicking a hand movement dance repertoire , another man came in to have a contest . aiksss...

But the best part is when they introduced their bartop / pole dancers of skimpy dress origin. 2 malays girls and 1 chinese girl were performing on poles and such. It was an amazing sight - not much the girls but the pack of wolves that comes to the meat. I saw young men giving tumbs up to their fellow friend , some uncles from the street , maybe a few gangster boss who seemed to get respect from the rest and yes .. businessmen. It is pure joy finding out where these guys hangs out other than yuppies than are more evident. And i tot i saw a Datuk type of guy dancing , away from the 2 girls that he came along with.

well, spend about 2.5 hours learning new things and updating myself. One will never know what you will meet in this conditions. Btw , as we were going out , a lanky Caucasian male approached me on location of ATM . Sorry , but ATMs here are closed by 11-12 pm. So , get your cash ready before that.

the storyteller

the storyteller

Hurrah !!! My malaysian movie hero's blog. If u like Sepet ,u will like her blog.

to be or not to be?

to be or not to be?

Well , profound to say the least . Wonder if he really have a 'wife'yet . ahem ahem

Desecration of the Quran

Today marked the reversal by Newsweek on their story that inflamed the Muslim population still angered by the Guatanamo and Abu Gharib incidences. What is certain is the fact that Newsweek kinda still think that it was a true story till today and perhaps did not do a good job geting all the facts. But , nobody is discounting that this could be due to political preassure as the government has kept logs of these reports in their file for the last 2 years. And an incidence of inmates of Guatanamo resorted to fasting unless they got an apology for interogators who shown disrespect to their Quran. They got their apology ...

Even with a statement that says that they have a SOP that entails how to handle the Quran , application wise may be different at best. US has gone deep down on the 'trust' and 'confidence' that they are finding it hard to even to get the benefit of doubt. Generally , a mistake breeds another one and another and another . They should be sorry but nobody else is sorry for their mistakes. Of course , US governement will never apologise for their mistakes.

However , it is surprising that the US goverment is angered that this misreporting has caused death and create dissentment to the country. Perhaps they forgot that all the false reporting done by US news ( FOX , CNN etc . ) contributes to a useless war and hundred thousands of death. It is ok for them to lie or tell white lies / unsubstanciated claims , but not for others.

Sincere Peace

Ponder sometime one what is the difference between Muslim and Christian teaching ? One of them is something called forgiveness. If God can forgive our sins ... what then?

Please read the following article that is located at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/006/2.46.html

I remember a visiting Pastor from UK who knelt down in the middle of his sermon to apologise to Malaysians for the occupation of the country. Can both sides have enough courage to do the same to each other? Perhasp should extend the question to the Japs / Chinese /Korean as well.

Wouldn't you say that Christians have apologized because they recognized that they did not live up to the ideals of their faith, such as turning the other cheek? A lot of Muslims might think, however, that the Islamic doctrine of jihad justifies certain violent actions. Thus, they may not be so willing to apologize.
That's true. Islam doesn't teach you to forgive your enemies. But, for the sake of truth, we need to confront them. We can do it lovingly, but we need to do it.


One final conclusion by the writter that seemed so matured.

I think it's very much waging peace on Islam rather than taking a militant stance as Christians. It's a kind of spirit. It's doing mission in the light of the Cross, or in the shadow of the Cross. It's a spirit of reconciliation, and it certainly does help. And Muslims respond. They do.

Seeing Christ on the Cross forgive his enemies in The Passion of the Christ was really quite powerful for Muslims. They may have gone to see the movie with wrong motives, but the fact that he forgave his enemies from the Cross seemed to touch them. Many, many Muslims went to see this movie. It was very powerful.
Do you expect Kingdom of Heaven to have an effect on Christian-Muslim relations?
I don't know. I hope it doesn't hinder them, because there's enough already out there to worsen conditions.


Wonder what i will learn from the "Return of the Sith "?

Untuk Tontonan ramai - eh hai mah ..

Dear Editor ,

I went to GSC Summit yesterday to catch the latest action epic called the "Kingdom of Heaven" led by Orlando Bloom. The excellent story is directed by Sir Ridley Scott ( Gladiator ) who is known to be able to capture battle scenes in a realistic manner.

Thus , to my horror I saw a small framed child ( perhaps 7-8 years old ) walking to his seat with 2 other adults during the opening scene when the head of a Blain's wife was chopped off. I checked with my girlfriend who confirmed that the rating for this movie is "U" - " Untuk tontonan ramai".

Here are some other scenes that I remember , perhaps due to their gory images.

1. Blood spurting out of Saladin emissary's throat
2. Killing of villages in a field where the head was chopped and collected in a container. You can hear the 'thunk'.
3. Head of Guy de Lusignan ( and some other ) on a stick.
4. Disfigured image of the "Leper King".

I am not even sure if the editor of the Star will publish this mail because of the description. So , I am not able to comprehend the logic of such poor judgments by the Censorship board for this show to allow even children to watch this. It is obscene.

Honestly , I can't imagine what is running through the child's mind when he was watching the show , nor those who went to watch the movie without prior research. I realized the importance of the censorship board yesterday to provide guidance or even restrictions. Yet , the censorship board is surprisingly liberal in their interpretation of this movie. I hope the Censorship board can justify their reasonings or review their guidance as soon as possible.

Kingdom of Heaven - Onward Christian Soldiers - kill?!

Saw the movie on Monday night in THX cinema in Summit GSC. Apparently , i was duped to watch another Orlando Bloom's chick flick but came out satisfied. He is better as Legolas than a adrenaline fuelled leader in a was movie. haha . A satisfactory performance , albeit Eric Bana or Russel Crowe would command more presence.

This is the story about the crusade . Set in the year 1184, the Muslim civilization was much more developed than the 'barbaric' Europe where gangs and vassals roam the land ... in addition to Kings. It is also good to read a bit on the history before attempting this show because not all that is shown is true.

Balian , the Bloomed hero is respected during that time. But he actually did not defend Jerusalem as depicted in the movie. He had an agreement with Saladin to transit for one day only. Anyway , King Baldwin is supposed to be dead one year before this.

Though it is supposed to be a 11-13 century epic movie , some of the thinking were obviously current. In one scene where Godfrey was dying and was asked whether he repented, he said that he repented of all sins except one . Another scene where the priest stated that he has no faith. I agree on a writting that argues that people of this time would treat religion and the matter of death / hell with fear.

And how many Arabs / French / Italian was able to speak good English? Saladin's speech is better in Arabic or Kurdish of whom his lineage is.

This is not a show to watch if you are rooting for your own religion . Being a Christian , I am humbled again by learning from history . We must be able to learn from history to not make mistakes in the future.

Here , we learn about the distinction of people of Christian faith and Christian 'business'. People who used religion as the source of their own enrichment and wealth. It is troubling to see the similarity of people then and now when the used God as the reason for their own agenda. "It is God's will" were the war cries, but which 'God' ?

And to use " It is God's will" as an authoritative request and to end conversations.

Another key learning is the different approach between the Christians living together with other religion in Jerusalem and the newly arrived Crusade Christians. The conflict did happen in history where one side is bend on killing the 'infidels' and the other to avoid conflict. How true again where 'Christians' agree to the killing of others in the furtherance of their 'own domain'. We have George Bush , Tony Blair and John Howard etc. making big noises as western politicians ( dun think that we have a God fearing country nowadays ) with some claiming even divine agreement in the war in Iraq. Even churches came in to support the war. Dun they know that supporting war is to agree on the killings. The killings in Iraq are unjust and marginalized even the Chaldeans.

Thirdly , the bending of doctines to suit their own needs . Here , Catholic church of that day is wrong to came out with the doctrine that "those who get killed during the crusade will go to heaven" and justification of killing of other people. There is no such teaching in Christian doctrine.

Fourth , we see the liberal interpretation and action by the clergy movements with even some resorting to crime. Remember Eli, the high priest of the temple - was passed over due to the conduct of his sons. For God is also a God of wrath , who can't stand sin.

This also showcases how much leaders use their own judgement without even putting God into the picture. Whether it is in reckless killing or strategy. Here , i think the movie was too gracious to the Christians where they were potrayed to enforce a true with Saladin . In reality , after their army was massacred in the battle of Tiff , the Saladin forces went down to coastal Christian towns to conquer them , except Tyre. From there , the came back to Jerusalem to lay siege. Overwhelmed during the siege, they managed to get the agreement from Saladin by seeking to kill all the inhabitants of Jerusalem if not given a safe passage. Saladin was a man of mercy , and he agreed.

It is good that nowadays , we have the bible as the guide for our teaching. The limitation of people at this time is that they have a lot of enthusiasm , but bible is in the control of the few who may not even understand it. (church ) . Our life and conduct shoud be representative by what God's command are.

" Love your neighbour as yourself". "You reap what you sow ".

May we be humbled even by this learning .

Monday tots

With regards to mission , do keep my dad in prayer as he comes back from Sarawak mission trip. This sms evoke fear and impressed on the reality of 'dying' for Christ. Just to share that over the weekend , i have got a peek at my father's direction. He has declined to be renominated as an elder in his church. He has been faithfully serving God with his own pension expenses in the ministry of preaching and prayer for the church. And now , he is impressed to go beyond structure to more evengelism focussed.

The church that he is serving is still as chaotic and marginalized. Important to have a God fearing Pastor and leader , which we are thankful in our church. Always sad to see how human politicking / will undermind the very institution that God placed in that place. But God's purpose will not be undermined and He will raise up other leaders in the absence of the 2 chinese Presby churches. I notice 2 items which are dangerous :

1) Wealth maintenance - so much time is done used maintain the landbanks. Lands that were donated were not used for mission . Instead , the focus and time were diverted towards developing those lands to earn money. And the sense of reliance and thanksgiving on God were lost as compared to the assets. And of course, a lot of arguments ( like a family dividing the will ) .

A church will always have enough. May we learn also to be a cheerful giver when we have abundance.

2) Word that is ' not alive'. How can 2 fundamental churches that is based so much on the teaching of the bible have such history ? I suspect that if word is taken as an academic pursuit with fundamental emphasis on knowledge gained , yet is not practised nor any transforming sanctification effect nor bearing of fruits may be dangerous. For faith without work is dead. Talk ( head knowledge ) is cheap , do is hard. We are called to be the light that is burned to shine for others , not a loudspeaker. haha.

Had my first dose of hepatitis B injection today . aggehh .. hate needles.

Happy 050505 - 05: 05 p.m posted .. I hope

Ok .. so this is rather cheesy , but i have 2 minutes till 5.05 to post this up . haha . So , what are the supposedly super auspicious about this timing ? I dunno .

Btw , just had a price increase in petrol across Malaysia - 10 cents for petrol and 20 cents for diesel. And might be in the news cause a girl was snapping photo at the Petronas station yesterday . Whopps .. its time .

Just realised that i can control the posting time . sigh ...

Church camp 05 - Jeram Besu

We had our camp in Jeram Besu , which is about 140 km away into the heartland of Pahang . Pahang is wonderfully situated in the middle of the richness of plants and animals. And this camp is exceptional in this way where it has not only plants , fruit plants and even animals . There are elephants , horses , siamang , lotsa birds , slow loris etc. It is pretty much a wooden shack type of lodging , much to my slight disappointment when we arrive. Of course , it is also in the middle of the current heatwave.

But after unpacking the van , we were cooled by some cold syrup water and a very good meal of chicken curry. And then found out that the rooms were air conditioned. Whooopeee.. And it was amazingly clean yet simple. There is also attached bathfoom for each room. The hall is small , but big enough to fit everybody in. We spend the time to set up the musical instruments and getting things ready . Had a 30 minutes nap before doing the game. Kids were running about and reported that there is a shop that sells ABC for RM1. Super cheap. Lead a team called Mt Sinai which are full of kids, and we won one game and were the second in the other. Haha .. great leader .. i bragged.

The worship was good as well and we learned from a book on Doctrine of grace. Super heavy even for me.

We had line dancing in the morning using the "Night fever" song. Had a detour in the afternoon to do caving as well as a trip to the waterfall. The cave was about 3 km from the main road. We had one van and a 4 wheel drive ferrying us. Of course , we rushed to the pickup to stand on top , beside and even behind the car. It was fun. The cave was not huge. Apparently like other caves in the 60s , it was the supply store for the communists. We had to crawl at one part using a small hole in between. We used our hands , stomach , legs or anything that will hobble us along . After going to the other side , the guide walked with the older people using another opening. aisksss.

Went up the tallest point . Took about 1.5 hours manning the route up and down and then going up myself. With kids running about , it can be tough if someone falls into the gravel. Honestly , nothing much to shout about as the highest point has no extraordinary view. Just saw a wooden shack and unkept farm .btw , saw a ginger plant . It has a flower that is used to make tom yam. Smells like it too.

All hot , sweaty and full of smells , we took another 35 minutes to the waterfall by bus , Lata something. And it was great here. Managed to get a pack of sweet floss at RM1.. super cheap and big. The water was cool , and it was just refreshing. Had a gala time splashing other people wet , and being attacked by the kids for a bite of Mr Potato . ( the snack ) . What a great way to end the 2nd day evening.

We had BBQ dinner at night . it was .. good. ! This is the best camp with the best food for the prize that we pay . (ABout RM 140 per pax , subsidized by church ) . And then we went down to anothe area to have out camp fire. "In the heat of the night .. " .... We sang worship songs. haha. We have to go away from the fire a few times. And then we had sharing . The Namibian kids were very cute and wonderful .

Came back to KL at about 5.00 pm the next day . Had a long jam in between . They were doing road works after Genting and it was pretty bad. The 'sor chai' part is when the authority came to open to contra flow , it was not opened on time. Soon , we see cars zooming on the incoming lane pass us. But thank God that the jam was for another KM .. and then we had a smooth way back to PJ via Kepong.

About Me

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Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
I am mysterious ... and leave la some comments if my writting make sense. Proud Of Malaysia and disillusioned by the direction.