web of vice

phewwwww!


finally! ... The Star runs this report.


ever since pakatan riot began winning few states in the twelfth general election, one of the earliest phenomena that seemed unstoppable is the mushrooming of massage parlours throughout the nation.


these web of vice is known as foot reflexology or body and foot massage centres and the most prominent feature of these centres are young sexy amoi from tanah besar who can ask you 'sakit?' and that's about all they can say to you. 


I went into one of these in my quaint little town. I had to. It was so strange to see these centres actually popped up overnight when in 2008 the whole world went into economic freeze but my little town was turned upside down and housing estates mushroomed, new town with new bus terminal built [a turnkey project and until now the bus terminal is not operative]. Nevertheless hotels and massage parlours mushroomed. 


they were not friendly at all and i had to wait very long for someone who eventually shoved a piece of laminated A4 [i could almost smell the 'freshness' of the 'menu']. And this old mokcik know what a reflexology is NOT. 


just like the notion that EVERYTHING from China is good and medicinal, so  the scantily clad pink nailed impeccably made up china dolls are purportedly expert reflexologists.


for all it takes, it doesn't need a rocket scientist to figure out these out of season mushroom!!!


i don't know what will it take to make ANYONE listen

Young M'sians lured into web of vice by massage centre services

ANN - Monday, December 27

Miri (The Star/ANN) - Young men, including college and university students, have found themselves caught in a web of vice after being lured by the "special services" offered by massage parlours that have mushroomed throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

Some of these so-called body and foot massage centres here are accepting young men in their late teens and early 20s as customers, and the masseuses serving these clients are very young, mainly from China.

Concerned parents told The Star that they have heard of cases of college and university students frequenting these centres daily after getting "hooked" on the "extra services" these centres offered.

These youths are among many men who are making a beeline for the more than 100 massage parlours that have sprouted up here.

Dr Umah Devi, the chairman of the Miri Tunas Bakti Institution (a rehabilitation institution for troubled children and youths), said it was anyone's guess what actually was happening in some of these massage centres.

"It doesn't take a genius to realise that young healthy men in their late teens and early 20s don't need regular body or foot massages.

"It is also obvious that young women in their early 20s are usually not experienced in giving body massages because most expert body and foot masseuses are older people, many of whom are in the 'pakcik and makcik' age-bracket," she said.

Dr Umah wondered why these centres hired only young, sexy and beautiful foreign girls as masseuses.

"It is a fact that blind people are among the best masseurs or masseuses. So, why are these centres not hiring professionally-trained masseurs like the blind or experienced tukang urut from the villages?

"Why only sexy masseuses dressed in skimpy mini-skirts and revealing dresses? And why do these massage centres have small cubicles where clients are given one-on-one service?"

Dr Umah, a former Miri Hospital director, said the move by the Miri City Council to freeze new licences for massage parlours and foot reflexology centres, "though good, was not enough".

"There must be very strict by-laws on the age of customers seeking services in these centres. At the moment, there is no age limit. There is also no dress code for masseuses and a masseuse needs no qualification.

"Any so-called massage centre can simply hire any woman and say she is a masseuse," she said.

Miri Mayor Lawrence Lai admitted that even though the council had issued only 37 licences for massage centres, there are more than 100 all over the city and in the outskirts.

Censorship - porn on the net

i like this post from here. Copypasting everything here in the hope of penning more thought later. very surprising to note that Britain actually 'ban' porno sites [whatever that means]. What interest me the most is the 'tips' on how to access sites despite censorship by government ie Facebook in China.


No ‘opt-in’ system in S’pore for online porn: MDA
By Xavier Lur – December 25th, 2010

The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) does not intend to follow the British government in its plans to blocking pornographic websites and allow consumers to “opt in” to receive explicit material.

However, this does not imply that the Singapore government is not taking a serious stance on the matter.

According to The Straits Times, the MDA instead plans to better educate the public, especially school children and teen. This is believed to be more effective in the long run as compared to the mandatory ban.

“Education (particularly of children and youth) is a more effective long-term solution than the mandatory provisions of filters,” said the National Internet Advisory Committee (NIAC), whose members include academics, senior government officials and industry executives.

Maris Stella High School, which embraces a high level of technology into its educational system, places the safe use of the Internet as one of its top priorities.

“It’s not about those fanciful gadgets. Our goal is to create a rich ICT-orientated culture that inculcates a sense of responsibility regarding the use of technology in students. This is what education is all about,” Principal Joseph Lim tells Yahoo! in an interview two weeks ago.

MDA has banned over 100 “mass impact objectionable” pornographic websites so far, according to a 2008 report by Reuters.

Why the government chose not to block all pornographic websites

It is just not feasible. The sheer volume of pornographic material online made the job impossible.

According to the “The Stats On Internet Pornography” infographic by OnlineMBA, 12 per cent or 24.6 million websites on the Internet are pornographic.

And the number is growing significantly everyday, thus requiring a huge effort and manpower to block them. As such, MDA thinks that is not a wise solution to combat pornography.

There are numerous ways to bypass the ban and access to undesirable sites — via file-sharing networks, proxies and Virtual Private Networks (VPN).

How VPNs work is that users are given a foreign IP address, which connects them to servers based in foreign countries such as the United States or France, therefore allowing them to access blocked websites. This is how many Chinese Internet users manage to access Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in their country even though these websites are blocked in China.

Moreover, there are several legal issues regarding consumer rights laws that need to be reviewed before any blocking policy is implemented as it will include websites that sell premium pornographic materials.

Will educating the public be a better solution?

It will be a more effective measure, but only to a certain extent.

A mandatory ban sends a signal of what is acceptable and what is not in society while education tells a person the right and wrong doings, but it does not ensure that he or she will abide by it.

A surprise

Somehow always struck me the lion prides down south are invincible.


This is interesting.

Indonesia's anti-trust agency seeks $13 mln from Singapore

Reuters - Wednesday, December 22

JAKARTA, Dec 21 - Indonesia's anti-trust agency is seeking ways to seize assets worth 120 billion rupiah from Singapore's Temasek Holdings over an outstanding fine of the same amount, a KPPU commissioner said on Tuesday.

The KPPU ruled in 2007 that Temasek and eight affiliates were in breach of Indonesia's anti-monopoly laws because of holdings in two Indonesian telecom firms, and ordered Singapore's state investor to sell the stake in one while fining the affiliates 15 billion rupiah each.

Indonesia's supreme court rejected a final appeal from Temasek to overturn the ruling in May this year. [ID:nJAK180737]

"We're working with the central Jakarta district court to gather data for the plan," said Erwin Syahril, a KPPU commissioner, in a phone interview with Reuters.

"If they don't want to pay, then we have to seize assets worth as much as the fine," he said adding the agency had not set a deadline for the recovery.

Temasek, through its units, sold a stake in PT Indosat Tbk in 2008 but retains a significant shareholding in PT Telkomsel, a unit of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia .

The company said it was not officially aware of the move.

love scorned

will update on this issue based on these two reports today

1- Stabbed teen fighting for life

2- Heartbreak in Facebook world

Malaysian Chinese

One thing I noticed, the Malaysian Chinese [funny ain't it when they insist that they are the sons of this soil but in truth they are Chinese born of parents who were GIVEN Malaysian citizenship but couldn't even bother to speak the tongue of this soil] would swear on their mother's head that everything that comes from China is definitely superior and full of medicinal value. Even the  bottled rainwater could heal 1001 ailments that no one in this universe could.


Apart from news after news about all sorts of contamination [latest being contaminated oranges] I am not at all surprised with this news from thestar 

This is what aroused my interest -

A 51 year old woman from Singapore is fighting for her life after taking pain-relieving pills that maybe linked to liver failure.

The pills – round, black balls about 5mm in diameter – came in plastic bags with Chinese words claiming to be “homemade from secret ingredients of herbs”. It recommended that adults take four pills a day and children take half that dose.

She took them till July this year. The pills seemed to cure her pain.

But in August, an annual health check found problems with her liver. The doctor told her to stop taking the pills and referred her to a specialist.

On Nov 10, doctors confirmed that she had acute liver failure and put her on the waiting list for a liver from a dead person.

Her daughter, a 27 year old bank executive had been worried about her mother taking the Chinese medicine. “I asked her if she was sure it was safe. She told me that Chinese medicine has no side effects, and that they worked.”

In 2002, slimming pills under the name Slim 10 took the life of one woman, and actress Andrea D’Cruz survived only after getting a liver transplant

Double standard - SUARAM

I thought there are invisible hands playing the tunes for SUARAM.


Here is Tun Dr Mahathir's reply to earlier report.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 (Bernama) -- Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today dismissed a human rights report released by Suaram, which said Malaysia''s poor human rights situation signalled a return to his era.

The former prime minister also said the report showed poor judgement and described the human rights NGO as a lackey of foreign countries or some politicians.

"If you are concerned about human rights, you must not be concerned about human rights in this country only. In Gaza, people are being killed. Did they say anything about it.

"Did they do anything to help?," he told reporters after attending Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM) Ideapreneuer Innovation Programme 2010 at the Malaysian Technology Park Auditorium in Bukit Jalil near here today.

In its Civil and Political Right Report 2010 released today, Suaram had said that violation of human rights this year, including arrests over public assemblies and clampdown on media, were signals of a "closing society".

-- MORE

MAHATHIR-HUMAN RIGHTS 2 (LAST) KUALA LUMPUR

Dr Mahathir also said that the report was basically political.

"But they are thinking politically in Malaysia and they must make accusations, accuse people that they are against. That is not a good judgement," he said.

"I can also say they are guilty of breaching human rights because I have the right to say...they are just lackeys of some other countries or some politicians. That is my right to say," he added.

What is going on?

Really! 


I do not understand this


Wonder if the same rule applies to ... say Singapore?


What about Guantanamo?


Is this an effort to "Cubanized" us? 


Because we do not kow tow?


Is GE coming soon that this invisible hands are starting to spin again?


I am praying hard that sons of the soil realize this MO by now.


I am also praying that the new media will be able to give some kind of balance to this assault.


Here is the news.

Malaysia's leading human rights watchdog Thursday accused the government of committing rights violations this year that mark a return to the era of authoritarian former leader Mahathir Mohamad.

Suaram said in an annual report that despite reforms promised by Prime Minister Najib Razak when he came to power in 2009, the ruling coalition "continues to display intolerance towards dissent and free speech in 2010".

It said that the use of draconian internal security laws which allow for detention without trial, bans on public protests, and controls on publishing and the media were ominous.

"Taken together, all the incidents and controversies that have happened... signal a return to the Mahathir era, a period of stifling control, abuse of powers and suppression of human rights," said the report's author Hasbeemasputra Abu Bakar.

Mahathir, who ruled for more than two decades until 2003, was known for his tough stance against political opponents, many of whom were locked up under the tough Internal Security Act (ISA).

Hasbeemasputra said recent pledges to amend the ISA failed to address the "fundamental flaw of... detention without trial" and that the government uses the law as "as a tool to instil fear and stifle political dissent".

A relic of the British colonial era, the ISA has been used to detain alleged terrorists as well as government opponents in the past. Suaram says there are presently 15 people being held under the legislation.

The report said the government was also flouting the "constitutionally enshrined right to freedom of assembly" with the arrest of over 100 people taking part in street demonstrations this year.

And it said freedom of speech has been curtailed with the banning of several publications critical of the government, which it also accused of using publishing laws to "stifle dissent and alternative opinions".

All newspapers in Malaysia need a permit which must be renewed annually. The licensing system allows the government to close media outlets at will and puts publishers under pressure to toe the line.

What next?

This is interesting [full news here]


Perhaps they will get inspiration from us to demand for vernacular school next.

The plaintiffs are seeking to join an August complaint filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Kern County federal court over the hospital's enforcement of a rule requiring workers to speak English.

Filipino workers said they were called to a special meeting in August 2006 where they were warned not to speak Tagalog and told surveillance cameras would be installed, if necessary, to monitor them. Since then, workers said they were told on a daily basis by fellow staffers to speak only English, even on breaks.