When the authorities bullshit us.

Last Sunday, 5th of May, 2013 was election day. It was a day I looked forward to. You know why? I just had to know the truth.

You see, earlier voters from the army and police had found the so-called indelible ink not as claimed. According to someone, the ink came off easily when washed. Pictures were seen. Can they be believed? Then, the Election Commission admitted that it was true but explained that it was due to one of the officers on duty being too nervous and had forgotten to shake the bottle before using the ink. Okay, nothing wrong with the ink. Merely, inefficiency of a worker.

I was an art teacher who has used the Indian ink for years to teach my students manuscript writing. The ink is water-proof and it is the best for answering the SPM (the name of the examination at the end of secondary school learning) art paper. It is really indelible and world have your pretty finger looking ugly for at least a few days, So, my students are always very careful with them.

So, it was that at half past eight I was at the voting center to do my duty as a citizen to choose the best possible leaders for my country. I went into a classroom (A school has been chosen as the venue for voting.) and when they found my name, it was read out and one lady painted my finger with a thick ink. Since it is so thick, it must have been well shaken. It did look like it could stay on my finger for a long, long time. I was given a tissue to dry it so that the ink would not smudge my ballot papers and spoil my vote. My marked ballot papers went safely into the ballot boxes, one for state seats and the other for parliamentary seats.

With the ink dried on my finger, I waved to some friends whom I met before taking a slow walk home.
Upon reaching home, I waited for half an hour before I washed my hands with soap and ......fantastic as it may seem the ink came off! What soap was that? Was that a wonder soap? Where did it come from? Oh, no! It may be wonderful for removing ink stains which the election commissioner claims will stick for at least seven days but what can it do to my skin? But, no. It was just an ordinary soap.

Ah! My girlfriends will certainly be happy as it will not blacken their beautiful hands for seven lonely days. So, I phoned a few of them but they were not surprised. Some of them had beaten me to it. Their fingers were already clean even earlier. And that was the cheerful part of this episode.

However, from what I have read, the authorities concerned had spent millions of our country's money purchasing inferior ink.To make the citizens happy with the heavy expenditure, they claim it was ink good enough to stain my girlfriends' fingers for seven days. None of them are going to appear in front of me for seven lonely days. But, it was all bullshit.

To cover up their wrongs, they give other excuses. After all, they have a magnifying glass to look for even a little stain left behind. And it cannot be too indelible, otherwise it is not halal.

Folks, this is what my dictionary inform me:
  indelible    /In"del.I.bl=/ adjective
    1    describes a mark or substance that is impossible to remove by washing or in any other way.

When you get such bullshit from a high ranking officer, what would the law do? I wonder.

My lovely females.

The betta splendens seen in the video above are females of a cross between a striped multicoloured Indonesian double-tail male and and a Dumbo (super big-ears) female. The siblings have so many variety of colours. And they are so active!
I give them enough food to ensure that there is no nibbling of fins. They are certainly lovely and a delight to watch. So, I have uploaded them to share with anyone who would like to watch. Well, enjoy!

How some friends stopped smoking.

April 21st 2013 is a day when three classmates of mine came to Sungai Petani to visit me. We had lunch at Ma Brown's and then we looked up another Penang Free School classmate who told us to meet hin at SP Club. We had a long talk about those good old day as well as what each of us had been doing.

One of usfound out that he was the only one among us still smoking. I was the only one who had never taken up the habit. I had tried to see how it felt like but it never appealed to me and I never liked it. However, the others did allow it to become a habit. So, they were telling David who wants to give it up how it should be done.

Richard Quah who came all the way from Australia told us how he did it by just telling himself he would stop. That was it and he did stop. Of course, he went through some withdrawal symptoms but he managed to overcome the problem. Then after about two years, he met some old friends and was offered a cigarette. Thinking that he was safe from cigarettes, he took a puff and got stuck with it for the next one year. Then, he told himself that that was enough of smoking and he did stop immediately although the same nasty withdrawal symptoms did wreak his a week or so of his life. The point is that he did it and he has been free from cigarettes since then. Like me, he is sixty six years old.

After hearing Richard's story, Tai told us that was also exactly how he stopped from smoking. For him, it was a health reason. But stop it, he did with the same method as Richard's. However, he told us the urge can easily return whenever he comes across people smoking nearby or an advertisement with someone puffing on the screen. Still, he has not been on cigarettes for more than three years.

Well, hope their experience can be of help to soneone who happens to come here.