Hiatus Endus: 50 x 44, SmartBITCH and other oddities while Walski was on sabbatical

Technorati tags: Hiatus, Merdeka, Malaysia Day, Stray Dogs, MPS, UPM, Universiti Mat Rempit, VK Lingam

Okay, bloggerhood. Walski's back. Well, kind of. You see, Walski's been suffering from a bit of blogger's block. Plus, there's been work, and other stuff in real life that's sapped his creative juices out of every pore in his body - and if you need to put an image to that, picture the creative juices to be a greenish shade of mauve.

Yeah, nasty.

Oh, and a note to The Angelic Sinner: Don't worry, dear - Walski just needed some time off the bloggerhood to clear the cobwebs from his thoughts.

And so, it's time to recap some of the highlights and lowlights of what's been brewing over the last 10 days or so. Of course, Walski won't talk about everything that's been happening. And nothing here about the latest high-profile victim of senseless violence, Nurin Jazlin Jazimin - that deserves its own post. Just a few random things that happened while Walski was on his self-imposed sabbatical-cum-exile.

50 x 44 - Independence vs Nationhood
On Sunday, we celebrated 44 years of being Malaysia. Or at least, should have celebrated. For some reason, Malaysia Day is one of those important dates that is less than important for most people here on the Peninsular. Many are probably not even aware that Sunday was Malaysia Day.

Instead, August 31 becomes the date more remembered, and often (mis)taken as Malaysia's birthday. Which is not quite untrue either. It all depends on how you look at it.

Take the United States, for example. It's national day, July 4th, is not the day the last of the 50 states, Hawaii, was incorporated into the union (trivia task: go find out when). Rather, it is the day that their forefathers declared independence from Great Britain. July 4th, 1776.

But for our brothers and sisters in Sabah and Sarawak, September 16th is the day they became independent of Britain. And it is a date that is more significant for them. As it very well should be. The argument of which date should take precedence, however, continues to rage.

You see, as far as Walski is concerned, both dates should be celebrated equally - August 31 as Independence Day, an historic moment that paved the way for September 16, Malaysia Day. Of course, some people would also want to celebrate August 9th as Singapore Got the Fuck Out Day, but let's not even go there... m'kay? As it is, we got too damn many public holidays as it is.

Particularly Selangor.

SmartBITCH, Bark-n-GO or RFido?
Which nicely segueways into the next thing Walski wants to talk about. The hare-brained idea of how to tackle the problem of stray dogs in Selayang. Incidentally, Walski happens to live in this neck of the woods, and so what happens in the Selayang district is near to Walski's house - but not necessarily his heart.

First, it was an ill-conceived dog-catching contest... which, fortunately, got shot down faster than you could have said Kooikerhondje. Better to use that moolah to fix the stray potholes, Walski thinks. And perhaps to pay some dumb consultant to decide once and for all what the fuck speed limit to impose on the portion of MRR2 that runs thru the district. 60 km/h on a 6-lane divided thoroughfare? Walski's available, by the way.

But we digress... So, with the contest becoming a non-starter, the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) decided on a more high-tech method, as reported by The Star on Sunday, one week ago:

What better way than to replace one stupid idea with another...

Woof... for some odd reason, Walski's doggie senses say "Crony Contract Opportunity"....
(more doggone post-hiatus thoughts, in the full post)

And how would giving your pet a Bark-n-Go implant (SmartBITCH if it's female) help control the problem of strays? Enquiring minds would surely like to know...

Council president Zainal Abidin Azim said the next time a pet owner goes to MPS to renew their dog's licence, their pet will be implanted with a computer chip.

"This chip only costs about RM2 for each pet owner. MPS officers will have the scanner to identify the dog owners.

"This is so that we can trace irresponsible pet owners and put a hefty fine on them so they would not repeat their actions.

"The problem with so many strays is not the dogs per se but pet owners who abandon the dogs and do not spay them," said Zainal...
(source: The Star)

The problem with having too many public holidays (if Walski's not mistaken, Selangor leads the nation in annual public holidays) is that the mind tends to turn to mush when you don't use it often enough...

Right... now consider this. Your dear Poochie Poo gets its implant. Then one day it decides to wander the neighborhood, without your permission, and gets mistakenly nabbed as a stray. Probably by Rela or some other government dweebs, and hands Poochie over to MPS. Zapp the bitch, and you get charged with canine negligence. Not exactly fair, is it? Pet dogs do wander off sometimes.

And what if Poochie Poo (assuming Poochie's a he-dog) decides to exercise its procreativity and impregnates some attractive stray that's soliciting the neighborhood? Bitch bears puppies, puppies become strays themselves, get nabbed by MPS...

Unless, these high-tech implants somehow transfer to the puppies (via some kind of nanotechnological mishap), guess what? You're still gonna have strays.

Stray dog problem solved? RFIDon't-think-so...

Not to mention who's gonna be the lucky fucker that's gonna get the contract to supply the RM2 chips, scanners, encoding equipment, etc. Or why no complaints about stray cats, which are probably a bigger nuisance, especially at eateries...

University Mat Rempit...
... referring, of course, to UPM and the latest harassment of non-establishment worshipping students (to borrow the term from Uncle Kit).

On September 14, student Yee Yang Yang had his notebook PC, some other electronics equipment and political leaflets were confiscated from his UPM dorm room by campus security, while doing a spot-check on his room, purportedly looking for a stolen mobile phone.

The saga has been reported quite a bit on Malaysiakini (see here, here, here, here and here - subscription required). Having had the privilege of studying abroad, Walski really feels that university life in Malaysia is the pits. Universities are supposed to be institutions of learning where a student gets the opportunity to expand their horizons. Instead, they're nothing more than an extension of our regimented school system - a glorified secondary school, so to speak.

They may be academically okay (many would question even that), but in terms of allowing an individual to find themselves, our university system fails in a big way. And it's really no thanks in a big part to the University and College University Act (1971) - better known as AUKU (1971).

But back to Yee's stuff - to date, they've not been returned to the guy. Apparently, the UPM authorities are still "investigating". Harassment. Not less. And as usual, Mob1900 has a message that Walski wishes to share with you folks.

Free Yee's Notebook and other stuff!!
(courtesy of the incredible Mob1900)

Candid Lingam Wonderland
Last, but not least, is the now infamous V.K. Lingam expose. There are at least 5 videos up at YouTube. And this post would not be complete without having one of them up. This one is the latest posted, and comes with subtitles, for your viewing pleasure.

Crisis in the judiciary? Well, for starters the CJ has denied ever speaking with Lingam, and since no identification of who was on the other end of the line was made in the video, it's really up in the air. Was it the CJ or not?

Regardless, the video does hint at the fact that our judicary is possibly one of the best that money can buy... Okay, bad joke. But it does warrant investigation, and Walski supports any move calling for a Royal Commission to look into the matter. Not surprisingly, Pak Lah doesn't think one is necessary... Better yet, why not refer it to the Attorney General? "No case", almost for sure!

In closing... lots has happened in the last 10 days, while Walski's been away from the bloggerhood. And this post, of course, doesn't cover half of it... The bad thing about being on an extended hiatus is that it kinda becomes difficult to get back into the blogging groove. 10 days may not be a lifetime, but for Walski, the itch to come back to the bloggerhood has never been more intense...

So there... Walski's back... 'nuff said.