On
20 September 2012, Shila Amzah from Malaysia became the champion ofAsian Wave, a "pop talent
show" in Shanghai.
Her
delivery of a Mandarin song by Chinese pop star Na Ying-a brought the studio
audience and the judges to their feet, and rendered the show's host Lin Hai
speechless while Chinese composer Gao Xiaosong praised her by saying, "You
gave me goose bumps. You broke my heart." She also sang Wang Leehom's Forever Love in one of the
prelimilary rounds of Asian Wave. Shila sang three number one hits - Set Fire ToThe Rain by Adele, Grenade by Bruno Mars, and Gemilang by Malaysian Idol winner
Jaclyn Victor-to scoop the most number of online votes from home viewers. With
the success, Shila defeated five other finalists who are each from China, South
Korea, Singapore, Thailand and India.
Choking
back tears of joy Shila said"To
all my fans, thank you for making me feel so blessed. I will be here more often
and I want to learn more Mandarin because it's a beautiful language." She
is making arrangements to improve her Chinese, a language that she learned from
pre-school until Year Three.
Our temporary home was built on top of a hill,
isolated in the middle of nowhere and far enough away from civilization. How do
we survive and adapt in times like this? ~~~Enjoy and make full use of the gifts
that nature provides.
We depended on rainwater for our daily
water consumptions. Water is collected from roof gutter channelled down into an
underground storage tank, treated and pumped up into the water tank.
Periods of hot and dry weather would bring serious water
shortage... Tankers were sent deep into the jungle to collect spring
water from the hills, a slow process which would take hours to fill up just
one tank – rationed and distributed to everyone.
For a refreshing and complete bath the best
solution was to take our families into the jungle, find a stream and splash
splash splash, like wild animals!
Twenty four hours diesel generators provided
electricity for our basic needs, air conditioning and fans, TV, freezers, computers,
kitchen and other home electrical appliances including water heaters. In times
of breakdowns and the wait to have these generators repaired – revert to kerosene
lamps and candles.
Moonlight
is a welcoming relief, helped us move from place to place at night – (the deadly
silence and thick heavy mist - very eeeriee to travel at night!).
Masi and Asma with a basketful of veges from our vegetable plot
Travelling to towns was never easy (rugged, long
and tiring journey) and during bad weather, almost impossible.
We therefore grew
our own vegetables; greens, beans, tubers, legumes, roots and herbal plants - just
about anything grew well here.
Vegetables like water
spinach (kangkong), chillies (cili burung/padi), cekor manis, terung pipit, fern/bamboo
shoots and many others grew
wild in the jungle year round.
Besides the many types of veges and herbal
plants we also grew melons, pineapples, sweet corns, coconuts, bananas,
papayas, etc.
Fresh succulent Asparagus shoots
After work and rest, workers spend their free hours
at the vegetable plot; a coordinated community effort (in Malay gotong-royong)
and harvests were shared and distributed free for all in the plantation.
Plentiful.
My poor 2nd son just received his haircut - chipped and crafted by his naughty big brother...
During weekends another group of workers would head
to the rivers to catch fish and fresh water prawns (using traps),
fresh! fresh! fresh - also distributed for free.
We have security men patrolling the plantation
(24hours) mainly to drive away wild animals found venturing in the plantations.
There had been reported cases where several acreas of young oil palm trees were
destroyed, trampled or uprooted by elephants and wild boars causing a
lot of damage.
These men move in groups accompanied by hunting
dogs. Occasionally they would bring back some wild catch from the jungle - meat
shared and also distributed free for all.
The
UN Environment Programme defines the Green Economy as one that results in improved human well-being and social equity,
while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.
In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.
World
Environment Day
(WED)
… Is celebrated every year on the 5th June to
raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental action. It is
run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) …
Remembering Wangari
Muta Maathai
Wangari Muta Maathai
(1 April
1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan environmental and political activist.
In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement,
an environmental non-governmental
organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental
conservation, and women's rights.
In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood
Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive
the Nobel Peace Prize
for "her contribution to sustainable
development, democracy and peace."
In 2011, Maathai died of
complications from ovarian cancer.
More here.
Whenever I had the opportunity I would tag along during my husband's routine site inspections, to take pictures of the goings on in the plantation. Sharing here are photos on jungle clearings and
earthworks activities in oil palm/cocoa cultivation - Tenegang, Kinabatangan,
Sabah, Malaysia.
Greenpeace, Wetlands
and Friends of the Earth are currently running elaborate campaigns against palm
oil, pressuring developing nations to reduce or even eliminate the land
conversion necessary to cultivate this basic food ingredient.
These green activists
claim oil palm cultivation causes tropical deforestation, poses a serious
threat to the global climate.
But these NGOs are
silent on soya bean, rapeseed and sunflower farming causing deforestation in
temperate countries. Too many questions remained unanswered:
……"How come
these NGOs do not lobby for reforestation in Europe and the US? At the very
least they should campaign for 10 per cent of the 100 million hectares planted
with soyabean, rapeseed and sunflower to be with replanted with trees to absorb
carbon dioxide from the polluted air there?….. quote
…..How come these NGOs do not tell their own governments to replant forest and
restore the habitats for racoons, beavers, frogs, wild foxes, deers and
bears?" …... quote
……Surprisingly, there
is no such call by these NGOs for a moratorium on cars, ships, airplanes, oil
exploration, coal mining and petrochemical processing industries, which all
emit more carbon dioxide to the air than agriculture.
"Isn't it ironic
that the carbon emission of 3.5 tonnes from one tonne of depleting fossil fuel
is tolerated while biofuels, which have the advantage of being renewable, are
abhorred even though they are proven to be 35 to 65 per cent less polluting
than fossil fuels?" …….quote
At the
Malaysia-Indonesia Economic Seminar 2009, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad advised the two top producers to speak with one voice to
counter the anti-palm oil lobby by Europe-based environmental activists.
For more interesting
read and a better understanding of this controversial environment issue please follow;
Everyday
we consume palm oil without even knowing it. It starts
with the toothpaste we use when we wake up in the morning; to the moisturizer
we rub on our skin, to frying oil at restaurants. Even our electricity grids
are powered by biogas plants at palm oil mills. Here.
The Impact of Oil Palm in Borneo
By Rhett A. Butler. Here
Is Harvesting Palm
Oil Destroying the Rainforests? Here
Among The Great Apes With Michelle Yeoh
: A must watch!
This 50-minute documentary, which took 18 months to produce, tells of
Malaysia's conservation efforts to protect the orangutan, which are among the
planet's most endangered primates. Being the only great apes found in Asia,
they now survive only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Here
Remembering
Michael Jackson and his beautiful “EARTH SONG”here.
“What about the bleeding
Earth
(What about us)
Can't we feel its wounds
(What about us)
What about nature's worth”
On March 15th, 2012, MBC Wednesday and Thursday
drama series The Moon Embracing The Sun rang down the curtain with viewership
ratings of 42.2%. The highest single minute ratings of the day even hit as high
as 48.1%.
Although the audience had already guessed the ending through the
original novel of the same name, but people was still concerned about the
tension development of the plot, until the last moment. The Moon that Embrace
the Sun had been broke in in full fury since debut.
cr:asian-drama.org
The
South Korean MBC TV historical television series The Moon that Embraces
the Sun recently was exported to 7 Asian countries -Japan, Thailand, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia - the TV series that fetches the
highest price in the history of South Korea’s per episode export price.
This
Hit series also caused the share prices of many companies involved in the
production to rise sharply. Source MyDaily
STORY PLOT The
story of the love shared between Lee Hwon (a fictional king of Joseon) and Wol
(a female shaman) is based on the novel by Jeong Eun Gwol. Yeon Woo (Wol), born
from a noble family was selected to become the Crown Princess of Joseon, until
the Dowager Queen plotted against her (political conspiracy) and secretly
ordered her death.
With the help of the powerful head shaman, Yeon
Woo was given a medicine to fake her death; all including Lee Hwon the Crown
Prince she was to marry, believed her to be dead. Yeon-woo awaken in her grave
six feet under - the shock and trauma robbed her of all past memories. She was
secretly shipped away and lived as a shaman under the care of Jong Nok Young,
the head shaman.
Years later Yeon Woo returns as shaman Wol. Lee
Hwon notices her close resemblance to his 13yr old deceased Crown Princess. “He’s
mistaken her for someone else (Yeon Woo), or that his longing for her has
created such illusions and heartache”. Wol, having no memory of her past,
firmly denies that she is Yeon Woo.
Confused, suspicious yet doubtful, Lee Hwon
secretly begins investigations to find out the truth of the princess’s death
eight years ago and broke down hysterically when he finally discovered the true
identity of Shaman Wol.
Superb
and exceptionally outstanding performances by these beautiful Korean
actresses........
Aja
aja Fighting!
Han
Ga In as Heo Yeon Woo / Wol Kim
Yoo Jung as Yeon Woo (13 years old) Kim
Min Seo as Yoon Bo Kyung Kim
So Hyun as young Bo Kyung Jun
Mi Sun as Jang Nok Young Bae
Noo Ri as Jan Shil Jo
Min Ah as young Jan Shil Kim
Young Ae as Queen Dowager Jung Hui Nam
Bo Ra as Princess Min Hwa Jin
Ji Hee as young Princess Min Hwa Yoon
Seung Ah as Seol Suh
Ji Hee as young Seol
The
emotionally heart-wrenching video is a remake of Vanessa Carlton's "A
Thousand Miles," featuring brothers Ryan and Gregory Miller singing lyrics
inspired by their longing for their mother, Nicole Miller.
The
boys lost their mother in 2004 when she was only 34-years old, according
to the video description. She was killed when her Ford Explorer rolled over
after blowing a tire.
Making
my way downtown, walking fast
Faces pass and I'm home bound
Staring blankly ahead, just making my way
Making a way through the crowd
And I need you
And I miss you
And now I wonder
If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you
Tonight
It's always times like these when I think of you
And I wonder if you ever think of me
'Cause every thing's so wrong and I don't belong
Living in your precious memory
'Cause I need you
And I miss you
And now I wonder
If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you
Tonight
And I, I
Don't wanna let you know
I, I
Drown in your memory
I, I
Don't wanna let this go
I, I don't
Making my way downtown, walking fast
Faces pass and I'm home bound
Staring blankly ahead, just making my way
Making a way through the crowd
And I still need you
And I still miss you
And now I wonder
If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass us by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you
The Moon that Embraces the Sun
If I could fall into the sky
Do you think time would pass me by?
'Cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles
If I could just see you
If I could just hold you
Tonight
One of my favourite singers Adele with her
beautiful song
“Someone Like You”.
“Secret Diary of a
Call Girl”- Head over Heart
This song was played in the finale episode where Ben,
Hannah’s long time boyfriend, despite promising he could handle
it, finally makes the
apparently unreasonable request that his girlfriend 'stop being a prostitute'.
He gave Hannah the
ultimatum of choosing between profession and being with him.
HEADLESS. On a dark stage design bedecked with a
cross and flaming torches, Lady Gaga stepped out of a confessional booth
seemingly decapitated while cradling her own severed, singing head. Source here
Stefani
Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), better known
by her stage name, Lady
Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Gaga came to prominence following the release
of her debut studio album The
Fame in 2008. Its first two singles, "Just Dance" and
"Poker Face",
were number-one singles and the album itself reached the number-one spot on
nine record charts worldwide.
In
late 2009, she released an extended play, The
Fame Monster, which spawned international
number-one singles "Bad
Romance", "Telephone" and "Alejandro". She embarked on the
eighteen-month long Monster Ball Tour, which
became one of the highest-grossing
concert tours of all time.
Her
second album Born
This Way was released in 2011, topping the
charts on several major markets and spawning international chart-topping
singles including "Born This Way",
"Judas"
and "The
Edge of Glory".
Gaga
has sold an estimated 23 million albums and 64 million singles worldwide, which
makes her one of the best-selling music
artists of all time.
Forbes list for year 2011of world’s
most powerful women placed Lady Gaga as one of the most powerful celebrity,
securing 11th place on the list.
'Talking
Occupy Wall Street Movement' is Michel Montecrossa's New-Topical-Song dedicated
to the 'Occupy Wall Street Movement' and its demand for change of the financial
system.
Occupy protests
spread to cities around the worldCNN - 15 October 2011 – here
Occupy Wall Street protests go global, From Tokyo to London, protesters worldwide to rally
against in solidarity with New York's Occupy Wall Street movement. Al
Jazeera and agencies 15 October 2011
