Thursday, January 29, 2009

Superman Vs. CicakMan

Jika ditanya apakah bezanya watak hero Malaysia dan watak hero Amerika, pasti panjang jawapan yang akan diberikan. Saya tidak mahu dengar itu semua, sebab saya menulis ini bukan untuk membicrakan filem dan membuat perbandingan filem Timur dan Barat. Yang nak saya tulis disini ialah apa mesej jangka panjang filem hero Malaysia dan filem hero Barat?

Ini kisahnya. Watak Superman (manusia terbang idola kanak-kanak yang terbang hanya memakai seluar dalam dan baju ketat) dicipta oleh Jerry Siegel dan Joseph Shuster dalam bentuk komik untuk menaikan semangat bangsa Yahudi . Kal-El dalam cerita Superman ialah “Tuhan” dalam bahasa Hebrew. Asalnya adalah komik dan kemudian difilemkan. Sehingga kita Superman banyak meninggalkan bekasnya kepada kanak-kanak, termasuklah kanak-kanak di negara Muslim dan Malaysia.

Lantaran begitu berjayanya filem Superman ini maka kedua pencipta watak Superman tersenarai sebagai tokoh penting dalam buku The Jewish Contribution to 20th Century. Kedua pencipta watak tersebut juga turut tersenarai sebagai antara 100 tokoh penting Yahudi dalam buku tulisan Michael Shapiro.

Beginilah adalah antara strategi banga Yahudi untuk menawan hati dan perasaan masyarakat dunia. Sekarang Cuma kita telitikan juga, apakah suambangan jangka panjang filem hero Made In Malaysia? Terbayang hero papaya, Keluangman, Cicak Man, dan satu lagi kartun Malaysia dalam Astro. Fikirkankanlah…

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Explore your mind

MY vision for the next millennium is one of hope. Not the darkness, horror and strife of the last hundred years, but the beauty of the human spirit. I have faith in the human spirit, and the absolute conviction that when we open ourselves to guidance from above, together we can create that world of truth. Why has the world lost its vision of hope? Is it because all the bad deeds now outnumber the good ones? The world and its citizens now have to create good deeds in order to create a vision of hope that will endure through time and space.

And what about myself? It is important that I begin where I am and not somewhere out there. In other words, whatever changes I wish to see in the world, I must first bring them about in myself and in my own life. I need to look into my mind and heart. How can I open up my heart and explore my mind? There are many different interpretations of the word ‘mind’ in philosophy, psychology, and religion and yet, how much do I know of what my own mind holds and to what extent can I use its power and energy in the right direction?

Human hearts have become cold and human heads hot. It is time to turn that around, to make our hearts warm, compassionate and loving, and our heads cool, stable and clear. If at any time I begin to lose hope in myself, let me simply look inside my heart and see all the good actions I have performed in the past, from the smallest to the grandest.

The floods have gone...

The floods have gone.The city is all clear from flood threats, State Disaster Relief Committee chairman Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan announced around 4.30pm yesterday.

And true enough, even when the King Tide reached a record high of 10.9m at 7pm, it did not flood in the city centre. Dr Chan also announced that the ‘red stage’ weather pattern of continuous heavy rain and thunderstorm issued by the Meteorological Services Department a few days ago had been withdrawn, he said.

“There’ll be showers but the vortex (of rain clouds) is gone. We expect to have fine weather in the next few days,” he told a press conference at the Flood Operations Room, Wisma Bapa Malaysia here. Dr Chan said little rain on Jan 12 (11mm) and Jan 13 (two mm till 4pm) allowed flood water from upstream to be flushed out faster.

By 3pm, he said the Sarawak River Barrage gates were closed to prevent incoming tide from going upstream and causing the Sarawak River and its tributaries to swell. “If there is no barrage gates, it will definitely flood again tonight during the King Tide which is expected to hit 10.9m,” he said.

“The barrage can prevent flooding in the city now because there is a huge volume of (rain and flood) water (from upstream),” he said. Therefore, he said that those affected by the floods could now clean-up their houses and shops.

“Some people haven’t cleaned up their places because they fear that there’ll be another flood tonight (last night),” he said. At 6.19pm, the upstream tide read 8.93m and 11.06m downstream. On Jan 12, the upstream tide was 10.8m. Continuous heavy rain and thunderstorm since last week caused some low-lying areas in Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman divisions to be submerged under two to 14 feet of water on Sunday. The situation was made worse by King Tides that started to occur on Jan 9 with the highest tide prediction between 6.1m and 6.3m from Jan 11 to 14.

By Sunday evening, because of the King Tide, more areas near Padungan and the city centre were under one foot of water. On Monday evening, the flooding became worse as flood water pushed its way inland, covering much of the city with water of between two and four feet.