Of noble statesmen, apples & a Bung

As we all know, my home state of Perak is all abuzz today as the Raja Muda, Raja Nazrin, is set to marry Zara. It is heartening to note that Raja Nazrin had politely declined any use of state funds to finance his wedding and prefers to have a simple ceremony. He even went to the extent of ensuring that sponsorships should be used to benefit the underprivileged and needy. That is truly a noble gesture and being a Perakian myself, I should say that I'm proud to have such a respectable and caring Statesman. Now, let's see others take the cue from this fine example of a leader.

My heartiest congratulations to the happy couple!

(Pic courtesy of The Sun/Bernama)

(Pic courtesy of Fotopages)

In contrast, a photo in The Star on Monday 14/05/07 shows a hotel in Port Dickson happily wasting food for the sake of creating a record. In the picture, an employee of the hotel is seen indulging in a swimming pool filled with 20,000 apples supposedly used as therapy. How exactly, can swimming in a pool of apples be therapeutic? Surely, durians would do a better job... you know, it's like getting acupuncture. Wouldn't it be healthier to eat those apples or drink the juice? And mind you, it's not twenty or two hundred apples we are talking about. It's TWENTY-THOUSAND!! Sheer waste of food... unless, they were planning to serve them to their guests afterwards. Eewww... :-((





Another hot issue brewing in the political arena is none other than the "bocor" incident that happened in the Parliament recently. The inconsiderate and sexist remark by two MPs has gotten the women all flustered and up in arms rallying for them to apologise. Some others even went to the extent of demanding that they be stripped of their "Datuk-ship" titles.

Just as I was wondering what to make of all this, I found this article today in The Star by Dr Azmi Sharom, written from a different perspective, sort of enlightening. In his column "Brave New World", Dr Azmi compares the incident to a Shakespearean play with the court jester being the central but important character. Actually, he is not so far off. There are quite a number of clowns in the Parliament. Search YouTube for videos of Parliament proceedings and I'm sure you'll find them very entertaining.