A Cautionary Tale of Political Betrayal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Sajahan Kamaruddin’s “Letter to the Editor” published in FMT, October 31, 2022 – I’m only reproducing a part of it – titled “PBM crisis a cautionary tale of political betrayal” is a good read and serves as a timely reminder of how toxic frogs in Malaysia are: 

 

“Just days before nominations for the 15th general election, Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) has been rocked by a crisis with its president, Larry Sng, suspending key leaders, including former Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, who had joined PBM as its ‘president-designate’. 

 

That PBM should implode at this critical time should come as no surprise. This is because the party is founded by opportunists with their own agenda. 

 

Most of the senior leaders there were in one way or another “political frogs”, led by Zuraida, a former PKR vice-president and among the key protagonists of the Sheraton Move. Zuraida had quit PKR with Azmin Ali to join Bersatu and was duly rewarded by being retained as housing and local government minister. 

 

While in Bersatu, she covertly supported the setting up of PBM, with the hope of becoming the country’s first female party president. And for that, she was sacked from Bersatu, but her allegiance to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob paid off as she was retained as the plantation industries and commodities minister. 

 

Sng himself was a serial party-hopper in Sarawak, his political base. Although he contested and won the Julau seat as an independent during the 2018 general election, he subsequently joined PKR and was even made the state chapter’s chairman, before quitting the party in the aftermath of the Sheraton Move. 

 

The other MPs who stood under the Pakatan Harapan ticket and joined PBM were Dr Xavier Jayakumar (Kuala Langat), Steven Choong (Tebrau), Edmund Santhara Kumar (Segamat), and Mohamaddin Ketapi (Lahad Datu). 

 

There are (a number of) assemblymen from PH who hopped over to PBM, including A Sivasubramaniam (Buntong), Paul Yong (Tronoh), Leong Cheok Keng (Malim Nawar), Haniza Talha (Lembah Jaya) and Daroyah Alwi (Sementa)”. 

 

You may read the full article at this web link:

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2022/10/31/pbm-crisis-a-cautionary-tale-of-political-betrayal/

NYC Ordered to Reinstate Workers Fired for Covid Vaccine Refusal

In the US, a New York state Supreme Court judge has ordered that city workers who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid must be reinstated and receive back pay. 

 

Judge Ralph Porzio said in a ruling issued last Monday that a New York City Commissioner of Health and Mental Hygeine’s order requiring their workers be vaccinated was “capricious and arbitrary” and had violated the state’s separation of powers doctrine. 

 

The case was filed by 16 employees of the New York City Department of Sanitation who had their employment terminated in October 2021 for failing to comply with a vaccine mandate. It’s believed the order will also apply to the more than 1,400 city workers who were fired in February for refusing the vaccine mandate. 

 

I reckon there will be a lot more of these rulings at the state and federal level going forward. The vaccine mandate was based on stopping transmission when in fact we now know the vaccines don't stop transmission. They only lessen the severity of the virus.

 

FYI, in Malaysia, it is not compulsory to take the Covid-19 vaccine, although the MOH strongly encourage it. Having said that, the government on September 30, 2021 did make it mandatory for all federal government employees to be vaccinated, with exceptions only to be allowed on health grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In yesterday's Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Livingston, the former triumphed 3-0. 

 

Inside 10 minutes, Kyogo Furuhashi latched onto a through ball from Greg Taylor on the left hand side of the penalty area and rifled the ball past the Livi keeper and into the top left corner of the net. In the fifty-third minute, Taylor struck the ball low through a cluster of players, and it went through the keeper's legs. And then David Turnbull galloped into acres of space and squared for Jota (i.e. João Pedro Neves Filipe), who side-footed into the back of the net in the eighty-seventh minute. 

 

The win saw Ange Postecoglou's side extend their lead at the top of the table to four points over bitter rivals Rangers.

Russia's Mobilization Numbers

Russia’s special military operation is set to escalate. 

 

On September 21, the country announced a partial mobilization and on Friday, its Defense Minister informed Russian President Vladimir Putin that this exercise has been completed, with 300,000 reservists drafted as planned. 

 

According to Sergei Shoiqu, 82,000 mobilized troops were sent to the conflict zone in Ukraine. Another 218,000 draftees are getting ready for combat duty at training centers and at training grounds. 

 

The end is coming for Ukraine! 

 

I missed this when I scrolled through HuffPost’s “39 Weird Halloween Costumes, From Outrageous To Asinine” earlier.

 

I don't know why but I revisited the page – and saw this Evil Fast Food Girl costume! I love it! 

 

It can do triple duty. Wear it for Halloween, to the next animal-rights rally and when you’re caught up in a murderous rage and desire to go on a killing spree! Now that's value! 

 

Available at

halloweencostumes.com

Birthday Suit

I came across this cool item that was featured on HuffPost – a Birthday Suit costume featuring a nude glitter bodysuit with sparkles over the bust, a rhinestone embellished collar, a sheer bodice, a rhinestone studded bottom, a cheeky cut back, glittery leg pieces, a sparkle party hat, and a cake clutch. 

 

Available at yandy.com

 

Struggling Leeds United beat Liverpool 2-1 in yesterday’s Premier League game. 

 

Once again, the latter conceded the first goal – in the fourth minute – before Mohamed Salah volleyed in from Andy Robertson's cross to level the score. And then, in the final minute of normal time, the Whites sent their supporters wild with the decisive goal. 

 

The Reds were outfought and outrun! They were meek. At home. At Anfield. Under the lights! 

 

And all Jürgen Klopp could say was "So many things are unlike us in this moment"! 

 

Klopp said just last week after the Nottingham Forest defeat that it is his job to “find solutions” – it looks like he is just as clueless as his team. 

 

Hopes of fighting for the title are now replaced by aiming to finish in the top four – but even that is looking a tough task.

Rubes Cartoons

Leigh Rubin, an accomplished author, cartoonist and a "professional daydreamer and nap taker" creates fun and light-hearted comics, "Rubes Cartoons", featuring weird and absurd situations that might happen in a parallel universe.

 

The Bird is Freed

It’s for real this time. After months of legal drama, bad memes and will-they-or-won’t-they-chaos to put your favorite rom-com to shame, Elon Musk (right) has closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. 

 

Musk sealed the deal Thursday, taking Twitter private and ousting a handful of top executives. 

 

The likes of chief executive Parag Agrawal, as well as the company’s chief financial officer Ned Segal, General Counsel Sean Edgett and Head of Legal Policy, Trust and Safety Vijaya Gadde, according to reports from The New York Times, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. 

 

[FYI, leadership bloodletting is not new in Twitter. Within a few weeks of Agrawal taking over for Jack Dorsey, two executives “stepped down”: Twitter’s Chief Design Officer Dantley Davis and Head of Engineering Michael Montano. Thereafter, Twitter lost two more leaders, Chief Information Security Officer Rinki Sethi, and Head of Security Peiter Zatko (aka Mudge). In May, Twitter GM of Consumer Kayvon Beykpour announced he would be leaving the company after Agrawal asked him to step down. And at the same time, Bruce Falck, Twitter’s revenue product lead, also left the company]. 

 

Truly, the Twitter purchase had been long delayed. 

 

But now, the bird is freed! 

 

And it signals the beginning of a new chapter that raises a million questions about what the platform is actually worth, what it’s for and what, exactly, Musk plans to do with it. 

 

Only time will tell.

i-Speak @ Sunway Uni: Next Round

A continuation of the i-Speak @ Sunway Uni program (as per my post published October 22, 2022). 

 

The involvement of Sunway Center of Planetary Health meant that the focus of speeches are on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – essentially, a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future".

 

The seven participants were given two topics to prepare and today's session saw one of the two being picked for them to present. It’s a five-minute speech and there were four of us (including CV+'s Cyril Jonas and Victor Ong) tasked to provide oral and written evaluations. 

 

Listening to the speakers filled me with wonderment – I am not exaggerating! – because these students keep on improving and impressing. 

 

Well done! 

 

Wall Push-Ups – Muscles Worked

I didn’t know that wall push-ups can be just as beneficial as the regular push-ups. 

 

Indeed, wall push-ups are a compound exercise, where you work multiple muscles at the same time. In fact, wall push-ups are virtually a full-body exercise! They're a great way to train your body to correctly perform push-ups, as it's a similar movement and recruits the same muscle groups. 

 

FYI, the primary muscles trained during wall push-ups are: 

 

Pectoralis major – known as the pecs for short, these are the muscles located on the front of your chest. The pecs have three main functions: shoulder adduction, shoulder horizontal flexion, and shoulder medial rotation. 

 

Deltoids – the deltoids are your shoulder muscles. Known as the delts for short, there are three sets of fibers called heads in this muscle: anterior (front), medial (side), and posterior (rear). All three deltoid heads are involved in wall push-ups, but the anterior head is the most active. 

 

Rotator cuff – located deep inside your shoulder, the rotator cuff controls and stabilizes your shoulder joint during wall push-ups. The rotator cuff muscles are the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. 

 

Triceps – located on the back of your upper arm, the triceps are responsible for elbow extension during wall push-ups. The triceps often fatigue first during push-ups, so you may feel this muscle working more than the pecs and delts. 

 

Serratus anterior – located on the side of your lower chest, the serratus anterior is so called because it looks like the edge of a serrated or saw-tooth blade. During push-ups, this small but important muscle keeps your shoulder blades flat against your ribs. 

 

Core – you must use the muscles of your core to stabilize your spine during wall push-ups. The core is the collective term for your rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae. These muscles surround your midsection like a weightlifting belt to create intra-abdominal pressure, which supports your spine from within. 

 

For now, I'm sticking to wall push-ups.

Disney-Marvel Embrace Woke Culture

Ever since Phase 3, Marvel Cinematic Universe has been witnessing a severe decline in quality – and this is becoming plainly obvious. 

MCU in Phase 3 had great movies, such as Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But when it comes to MCU Phase 4, Marvel movies have become sub-par in every single aspect. Why is it so? 

For starters, what are Phase 3 and Phase 4? The MCU is divided into a total of six phases by its creators, with each phase focusing on certain characters and culminating in a particular story arc – e.g. MCU Phase 1-3 started with Iron Man and ended with Spider-Man: Far From Home. Post Avengers: Endgame, is the starting-point of Phase 4 and we are witnessing a rapid drop in quality in Marvel content, be it Thor: Love and Thunder, The Eternals, Ms Marvel, She-Hulk, etc. In terms of consistency, character, story, and execution, MCU Phase 4 is the worst phase yet. 

MCU Phases 1-3 weren't perfect, but they had a sense of belonging to one another and built toward a final resolution from phase to phase, building hype and whetting the appetites of fans for what was to come next. 

In Phase 4, we have an overabundance of content that meanders in tone, style, and theme – and the stories end up becoming aimless, random, stale and erratic. 

And then, you have Disney’s pandering to America’s woke culture and doing a complete 180-degree turn on their priorities. 

Therefore, the latest batch of movies from Disney-Marvel are more concerned about identity politics, representation, diversity and multiculturalism rather than character depth and storytelling. 

Supporting diversity is great. Not every superhero should be white or male and there should indeed be greater representation of all sections in the superhero world. But when the sole focus of your work is pushing a political agenda, then your movies are going to miss the mark. 

It would seem that wokeism is the new superpower of Disney’s flagship Marvel Cinematic Universe. The powers-that-be are going all out to promote woke ideology. The focus is not the storyline but putting the protagonists in the spotlight. Particularly the pro-LGBTQ+ standard-bearers. 

“Eternals” in 2021 featured the first openly gay superhero, Ben, played by Haaz Sleiman, an openly gay actor. And “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” introduced fans to hero America Chavez, who sported an LGBTQ+ pin and talked about her “two moms”. 

“Thor: Love and Thunder” featured a number of pro-LGBTQ+ characters. Taika Waititi’s character, Korg, alludes to his parent’s same-sex relationship in the film. And the bisexual hero, Valkyrie, is played by Tessa Thompson, who announced interest in both sexes in 2018. 

Disney and Marvel are going to lose on this wokeness gamble.