203

Have a good Merdeka Day to all Malaysians out there and those impacted by it. May you realize the meaning of independence while you are embracing consumerism as your religion.

"Freedom is slavery"
- 1984, George Orwell.

p/s - A short but meaningful post about Merdaka.

202

And so, Ajax Amsterdam has been drawn into Group H. The other members of the group are the defending champion and Ajax’s conquerer in last year quarterfinal - AC Milan of Italy, Mido’s team when he was loaned out – Celta Vigo of Spain and lastly the team that defeated Borussia Dortmund – Club Brugge.
Personally, I would like to have Bayern Munich instead of Milan but I guess some traditions, like the Ajax – Milan affair dies hard.
Overall, I think it is a good draw for Ajax though seeing AC Milan again is not really what most Ajacied had in mind. Apart from that, the good news is, on paper Ajax could somewhat dominate both Celta and Brugge. Nevertheless, recent Ajax’s performance was not very convincing.
Against AK Grazer of Austria, Ajax had a really rough time. The only reason that made a Dutch’s victory possible was luck and time. The first leg for the qualifying match was terribly poor by Champions’ League’s standard and it ended with a 1 – 1 game. Ajax goal was scored in the last possible minute after struggling to contain the Austrian. The return match also ended with the same score line. Ajax only managed to get through to the group stage by the silver goal rule, after two of Grazer’s players were sent off the field.
In the Eredivisie, although Ajax won two of its first matches and currently sitting on top of the table, their wins are not convincing. Even Ronald Koeman admitted that Ajax needs to improve itself soon or risk seeing 1999/00 season repeating itself.
Though recent performance is in doubt, Ajax this year is boasted a large income due to its Champions’ League success last year and the sell of Chivu, Mido and van de Meyde to Roma, Marseille and Inter Milan respectively. With those resources, new promising players were brought in. They are the Frenchman Julien Escudé from Rennes (last year, he came to the attention of Alex Ferguson. Manchester United almost bought him. So far, he has performed well as Chivu replacement; French International), Tom Soertaers from Roda JC (he had a good one last season in the Eredivisie), Wesley Sonck from RKC Genk (last year Belgium’s Golden Boot winner; Belgian international), Zdenek Grygera – a young midfielder from Sparta Prague, Anthony Obodai from Antwerp and Sander Boschker from FC Twente. And reportedly, the Nigerian International Kalou Uche will be joining Ajax soon from Polish’s side Wisla Krakov.
I am convinced that Ajax will improve because the main reason Ajax is not performing well is that there are so many Ajacied that are injured. A few of them are Hatem Trabelsi of who attracted Manchester United interest earlier, the captain Jari Litmanen and the American International John O’Brien.
With Litmanen out of the field, Koeman is appointing van der Vaart as the captain but sincerely, though van der Vaart is a great footballer, he has little charisma when compared to Chivu or Litmanen.
Though Ajax’s defense is quite remarkable with the presence of Grygera and especially Escudé, it will be better when Trabelsi joins his team mates on the field.
In the midfield of which Ajax’s having problem right now, Ajax will only return to its normal performance once both Litmanen and the reliable O’Brien return. Furthermore, Litmanen will be able to provide more depth to the team with his experience. Once that’s done, Ajax’s scoring machines – Ibrahimovic, van der Vaart and Sonck will be able to bring the opponent’s wall down to earth.
But till then, Hup Ajax Hup!

p/s - Ajax has finally reclaimed Chivu from Roma officially. Chivu, Ajax's former captain was sold to Roma for €15 000 000 with a down payment of €3 000 000. Roma however is unable to get a bank guarantee for the purchase. As a result, Ajax will not get the promised €15 000 000; fortunately, Ajax’s profit last financial year is considerable huge and thus, Ajax will not be hurt with the lose future income of €15 000 000. Again, fortunately for Ajax and unfortunately for Roma, Ajax gets to keep the downpayment.
It is reported that Ajax is however looking for other buyers – one of the said interested clubs is Real Madrid. Ajax needs to find a replacement buyer for Chivu before the Dutch transfer deadline, which happens to be this Sunday.
Personally, I would prefer Ajax to keep Chivu. Imagine, a defense with the lineup of Grygera - Escudé – Chivu – Trabelsi. Ajax will have a defense stronger than most Italian teams.

201

AFC Ajax Amsterdam is in deep trouble. The third round qualifying match between Ajax and Graz resulted in 1 - 1 after full time. With the aggregate of 2 - 2, they are playing in extra time through the silver goal rule.
If Ajax lost this, it would be a disastrous start for Koemen and the boys.
C'mon Ajax.


p/s - And Ajax is through for the 2003/04 UEFA Champions' League group stage! Thank you Tomas Galasek! Thank you Zlatan Ibrahimovic! Thank you Wesley Sneijder!

Ajax labour through against nine-man Graz

AMSTERDAM, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Ajax Amsterdam laboured through to the Champions League group stage on Wednesday when they beat nine-man Graz AK of Austria 2-1 with a 'silver goal' by Tomas Galasek.
The Czech midfielder struck from the penalty spot a minute from the end of the first period of extra time to settle a tightly contested third qualifying round tie 3-2 on aggregate in the Dutch side's favour.
Ajax, who were fortunate to gain a 1-1 draw in Austria a fortnight ago, took a 15th-minute lead through Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who headed home a Maxwell cross.
By then Graz's Roland Kollmann had already threatened Bogdan Lobont's goal. Graz midfielder Dieter Ramusch also came close to an equaliser midway through the first half but Ajax's French defender Julien Escude cleared his effort off the line.
Escude's misjudgement, however, gave Kollmann a free route to the Ajax goal after 40 minutes and the Austrian international beat Lobont to make the score 1-1.
Ajax, Champions League quarter-finalists last season, lost their organisation and shortly after the break Kollmann failed to punish sloppy defending as he missed two great chances within 60 seconds.
The well-organised Austrian defence kept a tight grip of Ajax's attackers to force extra time but six minutes into the first period they were down to 10 men after left back Gregor Potscher received his second yellow card for a foul on Wamberto.
Seven minutes later a handball by Graz's Anton Ehmann was punished by Russian referee Valentin Ivanov with a penalty and a second booking for Ehmann, who was also dismissed.
Galasek calmly converted the spot kick to kill the tie and bring relief to the four times former European champions.

200 This is part 7. Please read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6.

We slept like babies that night but woke up easily the next morning. I was the last to wake up. By the time I opened my dreamy eyes, the breakfast was served and it was great.
Once the stomach was filled partially, I undid the tent and prepared myself for another day. We were ready to leave the place by 0900 and left we did.
The day started easily as the path stayed flat. In fact, it stayed flat for another 10 or 15 miles. As in the previous day, the path followed the river jealously and so, the sound of the roaring river screamed at my right ear all day long. Furthermore, the trail was covered by tall and bushy trees, making our journey less painful.
Throughout the day, we didn't talk to each other, perhaps each of us was trying to concentrate on our footing or just didn't have the mood to talk. I myself rather be left alone most of the day. Nevertheless, there were times when we exchanged some thought, asking for help but never starting a conversation.


Somewhere deep in the canyon
At one point, I was so bored and I sang Row The Boat for more than an hour, repeating the rhythm over and over again until my boredom reached another level. The only thing that prevented me from dying out was the sight of the river and the mountain on both of my sides.


One of the few sceneries that kept me from total boredom
While singing, a group of hikers came from the opposite direction. One of its members was a girl with black hair, wearing a blue top and carrying a small backpack on her back. Boy, she was an angel. She smiled at me and I simply melted away. At that time it seemed, even my weariness melted away. He girl face stuck in my head and thus, I stopped singing Row The Boat and be with myself.
We hiked for another three or four hours before we reached a great place to take a cat nap in the heat of the afternoon. Immediately after freeing our shoulder from the 50 lbs burden, Epol and Leman went straight to sleep. I however, didn't quite feel sleepy though no doubt, the rest was needed by me. I laid on my back with my head on a clean whitish stone, eyes wide opened singing old songs that I used to hear when I was a child. Later, I fell to sleep joining the others in slumberland.
The rest took longer than we had anticipated, more than an hour or so. And so, we took off quickly and quietly.
There was nothing worth mentioning in the second part of the day hiking. We simply hike all the way till about 1800 when we found a fantastic camping spot. There were a few tall confiner trees there and thus keeping the place sufficiently shaded. With the river a few meters from the camp site, it was cooling as the air was rich in water vapor. The river was filled with rapids, making the water looked white. Across the river, just after a companion of trees growing at the edge of the river, there was a rocky hill with the height as tall as the Dragster rollercoaster in Cedar Point.


The mountain that captured our hearts
Now, last week, I went to Cedar Point, just a day before the biggest blackout in North America happened. Though I went to a few crazy rides, I still can't believe I took on the Millennium Force, the once tallest rollercoaster in the world, with the maximum height of 300++ feet. The first drop felt like terminal velocity; I actually felt my body wanting to get out of my seat. The only thing that had prevented me from flying without wings was the safety strap around my lap.
It took considerable amount of my courage and patience to get on the Millennium Force ride. It was fun but Dragster was something else. No matter how hard I tried, I could never garner any courage at all for the fastest and the tallest roller coaster in the world. I dare to drive 110 mph but driving a car and riding a roller coaster with a maximum speed of 120 mph and as high as 420 feet, are two different things. Call me a coward, call me a chicken but before that, I just need to challenge you to stand outside the track and see how the train sped faster than you could say holly fuck.
Enough digression.
We stopped at the said camping spot and just sit there. We had not even planned to stop but somehow, we couldn’t resist the temptation to stop and savor the pretty sight.
At this time, the Sun was still high and we could have just hiked for another hour or two. Leman and I were in favor of walking but Epol suggested that we camp here for the night. Nevertheless, Epol somehow managed to convince both of us to camp here tonight.


An upstream view from our campsite
By far, this was our best camping spot ever for this trip. In addition to God’s gift, the ground was not hard because white soft sand made up the earth. Standing on it was like standing on a thick expensive Persian carpet. And since we had lot of time, we properly planned the layout of the campsite.


Some of the wild flowers found nearby
To celebrate the sight, we built a huge bonfire relatively to the others that we had made earlier. Even dinner was comparatively more luxurious than the days before. After dinner, we exchanged some jokes.
The best joke of the night was about a refrigerator, an elephant, a giraffe and King Solomon. The first question was how to place a large elephant into an incredibly small refrigerator. As stupid as the question is, the answer is to open up the fridge door, push the mammal in and close the door. The second question was how to get a giraffe into the fridge of which the elephant took the whole fridge space. The answer to this was to open the door, get the frozen elephant out, push the giraffe in and close the door. The final trivia was when King Solomon calls up all the animals, which would not come. The answer is the giraffe because the giraffe is stuck in the fridge still. It is an old joke but it never fails to crack me up.
That night, before going to bed, I raised my head up and marveled at the heaven above. I didn’t see any constellation that I recognized but there were countless of stars decorating the dark sky. Imagine what the others in the cities, full of light and other kinds of pollution, are missing. By God’s name, even the mystifying Cleopatra cannot possibly be compared to the alluring Milky Way.

199

If everything in this world is rested on me, I will make sure that the world will be a greener place to live in. All of my policies will be based on three of the Green Four Pillars - okologisch (ecological sound), sozial (social stability) and basisdemokratisch (democratic society).
The economy will not be based simply on capitalism. There are more to life than just capitals. Though free trade is important, certain things will be given some leeway, of such as subsidies so important industries to the green ideology may flourish for the benefit of the whole. Taxes and tariffs will still play an important role in a laissez faire market.
The most important thing that will be made compulsory is the pollution market. Each firm will have its own amount of pollution allowed to be produced. Of course, the amount of pollution it is entitled to will vary according to its size and sector. In this way, the firm will be allowed to do whatever it wants with the permit as long as the activity is within the boundary of the law. Furthermore, the firm will need to pay for each extra ton of pollution it makes as a fine. The amount fine will be large enough as to offset the violating firm profit. In this, it is hoped that the fine will be a sufficient deterrent without hurting the industry greatly.
The only way to produce more products is to obtain pollution permit first. However, it cannot obtain such permit directly from the government but rather, it needs to buy the extra privilege from other firm that uses only partially of their share. Despite this, the government still has the ability to issue such permit as it deems necessary for a sustainable economic growth of a particular sector and not of a particular firm. It is important to state that the permit transaction between firms will still be needed to be approved by the government. In a way, this is similar to the coupon system when in the market, both monetary and coupon units are used for transaction activities. Through this, carbon based economy or rather green economy will be born.
The government on the other hand distributes the permits that in turn given by a world body that regulates the permit circulation internationally. Each country will receive a particular amount of permit after that particular country’s industry, population, resources and area size are considered. A world body, perhaps a neo-WTO will be given the power to make sure that the carbon trading will run smoothly on the international level.
Reward and punishment philosophy will be upheld in order to convince countries to accept this economy. Economic sanction will be imposed on countries that commit serious environmental breach. Most common sanction will be the withdrawal of pollution permits. The heaviest penalty would be an economic isolation on all sorts of goods save essential such as food and medicine. However, environmental violation does not include environmental accidents though inaction may lead to moderate punishment. Through this, it is hoped that pollution problem will be reduced significantly.
Furthermore, developed countries will be demanded to commit a small portion of its income, if it could be afforded, to contribute to global organizations such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent and the UN to fight hunger and poverty. The contributors will be rewarded with extra pollution permits at a discounted price.
Income originated from the sale of pollution permits will be used as near free aids to the third world nations. The aid however will be given as long as the receiver commits itself to green economy. At the first sign of diversion from green economy, the receiver will need to repay the aid in full plus backdated interest.
Politically, countries’ traditional borders will be preserved due to cultural difference but within countries, a new kind of political lines will emerge – the ecoregions. Ecoregions are, as stated in Wikipedia, area that has strong ecological connection to other area. These areas will be considered as one political unit. As a simple example, Southeast Asia will be considered as one ecoregion due to its vegetation similarity throughout the region. In introducing new political border, it is hoped that problem such as polluted river or burning forest will be able to be fought effectively. Though this seems to be difficult and annoying redistribution, such method has already been carried among the great lakes states such as Michigan, Illinois and Ontario (3 of the 11 members of the Great Lakes Commission) in order to manage the administrative matters concerning the great lakes. Note that this caucus crosses the US-Canada border.
Free will and democracy will be paramount in governance though it will not be as free as the libertarians would like. Minimal restrictions will be applied in order to maintain social order. Then again, freedom of expression will be observed to almost the fullest extend.
Socially, recycling will be the way of life. To make it a reality, California’s styled system will be practiced. Recyclable consumer products (i.e. cans, bottle etc.) will be sold a little bit higher than its market price. The additional cents will be returned to the buyer once the post-consumer product is returned back to any recycling center. Of course, the price of recyclable product will be lower than any non-recyclable counterpart so as to encourage consumer to buy recyclable product.
Population will be redistributed to various areas so one area will not have too dense with Humans. Also, population control will be enforced through. By doing this, not only could the government prevent overstraining the ecosystem but the social standard including the health system could also be maintained with high standard. Draconian population control however will not be allowed in the constitution as in observance in human rights.
The opening of new lands will be minimized. Land will only be allowed to be opened for essential activities when it is needed. Land opening for holiday resort, golf course and such will be made difficult if not impossible. Also, to reduce environmental impact due to development, tight Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will be made compulsory to every project without exception.
Transportation also plays an important role in pollution control. To combat pollution, public transportation will be the main method of moving around and the vehicles ownership will be discouraged by the introduction of special tariffs and taxes. Regular public transportation users (including carpoolers) will be rewarded with various schemes such as privilege in government and privately controlled services. In addition, car manufacturers will be needed to meet high environmental standard (engine efficiency and such) before their products are allowed to hit the street.
Area on land and in the water (the Amazon, Great Coral Reef etc.) that are recognized as essential to biodiversity will be preserved aggressively. No development will be tolerated in the area and violation will be met to the fullest extend of the law.
The Earth will be given time to adapt to us and repair herself. We as Humans will not only give the Earth time, we will also be proactive in repairing her. In this, the hope of a peaceful coexistence between Humans, other biotics, abiotics and Gaia will come to reality.

198 A time for peace, I swear it's not too late...

I can’t help but feel envious toward Malaysian students’ association in other universities such as in University of Minnesota in Minneapolis for their professionalism in organizational matters, or as matter of fact, in many other students’ societies in Michigan.
The Malaysian students’ association here couldn’t even be considered a proper organization. It is not even registered under Michigan Students' Association. In fact, I don’t consider it as useful to me right now. It has outlived its usefulness. The only organization that I really enjoy being in is the Solar Car Team.
Perhaps I should praise the Malaysian Students’ Association or the sassier acronym, UMIMSA for organizing Malaysia Week. Nevertheless, I don’t really call it as a success as majority of the event visitors were Malaysians. The event was held in order to introduce Malaysia to foreigners but I dare bet that Malaysia receives more publicity from terrorism to Malaysia Week.
By criticizing it, I am not saying UMIMSA is useless at all, though currently, sadly it seems exactly that. UMIMSA does have a role. All I am saying is that the organization should be more proactive for its members. By proactive, it includes professionalism. If all UMIMSA does are luncheons and dinners, then UMIMSA has no right to collect membership fee. Having to pay USD 20 just for chicken wings, turkey or fried rice is outrageous.
However, I am glad seeing UMIMSA at least organized something though with UMIMSA’s size, much is left to be desired.
Why do I say no professionalism? First of all, time management. Never have I seen anything that was organized by UMIMSA was punctual to the minute, or should I say, to the hour. Secondly, nothing that is going to be done was told in advance with sufficient amount of time. Even the Malaysian Week for example, was made public to its members barely two or three weeks earlier. As a result, as I saw it, the preparation was substandard. Thirdly, everything was passed through my mouth, no paper work, no nothing. Not even a proper report. To some extend, the attitude of the committee members are amazingly irresponsible. A clear example was during the Michigan convoy preparation for the 2002 Midwest Games. A supposedly-not-to-have-happened mistake had cost the convoy members more money than it supposed to be. The post-mortem – nothing, not even a decent apology.
Sometimes, even the activities that were planned during its first committee members meeting was not carried out. This situation happened last year when I was a member of the committee. This year however, beside the Malaysia Week, I saw no other activities at all (eating is not an activity). There are only two possibilities to explain this – one, as I have said earlier and two, nothing was planned. This year, even the skiing tradition was not carried out.
UMIMSA’s incompetence has resulted in its members to organize events on their own. On one instant, most Malaysians’ class of 2005 went ice skating in Yost Ice Arena on their own, bypassing the association. It was not just the class of 2005. Even the class of 2006 had organized a barbeque on their own, without any help from UMIMSA. Even now, the freshmen are planning to organize Malaysia Day inline with the upcoming Malaysia’s Independence Day and a paintball trip somewhere in the near future, again bypassing UMIMSA.
Perhaps UMIMSA might be able to redeem itself in my eyes when the new freshmen reach Detroit on this August 22nd. Yet, skeptically, I think only a handful of persons will fetch the freshmen out of pity rather than in UMIMSA’s name.
UMIMSA needs to do something for its own sake because each time it does not do anything, the more people are going to do things on their own and slowly if not immediately sidelining UMIMSA for good. As long as UMIMSA continues as it is right now, I will not feel the urge to actively engage in it as I had and planning to in the Solar Car Team.

197

Something to celebrate for the return of electricity.
Let's sing Blame Canada!

Times have changed, our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents they just want to fart and curse

Should we blame the government?
Or blame society?
Or should we blame the images on TV?

No, blame Canada, blame Canada
With all their beedy little eyes have packed thier heads so full of lies,
Blame Canada, blame Canada,
We need to form a full assault its canadas fault

Don't blame me for my son Stan he saw the darn cartoon and now hes of to join the klan

And my boy Eric once had my picture on his shelf but now when I see him he tells me to fuck myself

Well?

Blame Canada, blame Canada, it seems that everythings gone wrong since Canada came along, blame Canada, blame Canada
They're not even a real country anyway

My son could have been a doctor or a lawyer rich and true instead he burned up like a piggy on a barbeque
Should we blame the matches? Should we blame the fire?
Or the doctors who allowed him to expire

Heck no, blame Canada, blame Canada, with all their hockey hollabaloo

And that bitch Ann Murray too
Blame Canada, shame on Canada, for the smut we must stuff the
trash we must stash the laughter and fuck must all be undone we must blame them the cause of fuss before
somebody thinks of blaming us.

p/s - Ohio should take the blame too.

196 178

He ran as fast as he could, as fast as his legs would allow him to go. Yet, the assassin was catching up fast. His lung and his muscles could no longer supply the ability he needed to sustain his current pace. Yet, he continued on for his life and for many others.
Soon, while running and grasping for air, he failed to notice the uneven earth. His right foot took a bit longer to reach the ground than he had anticipated but that bit of time was enough to make him kiss the dirt. For a split second, the pain in the lung was forgotten. It was as if, the pain was transferred from his lung to his face. He was puzzled but soon realized that he had fell and his nose was wet with blood.
He got up slowly but carelessly on his feet, trying to run again. However, it was already too late. The assassin was already merely 10 meters away from him with a gun trained at his heart.
“That is my least vulnerable part” he said to the other guy.
“Casablanca is my favorite”
“I know.”
He held his breath and suddenly sprinted away from the hunter. Behind him, he could hear the bullet missed him by a sheer centimeter and hit a tree. Already exhausted but with no choice, he ran and ran until he could no longer run anymore.
Lithium pressed his back against the huge tree trunk, trying to think what to do next. He was breathing hard and tried to slow it down to a quieter level.
It came down to a few options. The first was to continue on running with the disc. He preferred this option as it was the only way to preserve himself. However, he knew only too well that we could no longer outrun his pursuer. The next viable choice was to destroy the disc into pieces and scratch its surface. However, all those intelligence works would be for nothing. The terrible secret would never be made known to the public and the devil, Chiron would be able to live his life without the punishment that he deserved. The last option, hide the disc among the bushes and hope others, especially Wrath and Tao would find it somehow.
And so, he stood up straight, turned his back and faced the tree that he had leaned against. He searched the tree and its surrounding and saw a few meters to its right, a tree stump with a small hole. Quickly, he reached inside his jacket for the disc case. The case was damaged, no doubt during his unexpected fall earlier. Fortunately, the disc itself was undamaged.
With an eye looking for any sign of his assassin, he quietly placed the case into the hole and made a simple sign that only a handful guild members could recognize. Once done, we quickly left the place and ran.
Finally, lactic acid took over his muscles and no longer could he run. It wasn’t long before he saw the assassin face again.
“Where is the disc?” asked the assassin.
“What disc?”
It took just a moment after his last word before the man with the gun kicked Lithium's face. This time, Lithium lost his front tooth and blood was all over his face.
“Where is the disc thief?” the assassin asked again.
“Try the yellow pages.”
And a shot was made.
A few minutes later, Wrath made it to the scene.
“He is dead”, Wolf told his partner.
“Why did you shoot him?”
“He knows me”
“He knew you”, Wrath corrected Wolf.
“Yeah, he's dead.”

195

It is funny how many people tend to insult the Greens. Some of them do have reasons to hate environmentalism due to their extreme industrialist ideology while others are simply being misinformed about the Green movement. Though the earlier group opposition to the Greens is understandable, the latter hostility towards “tree huggers” is annoying. It is here where it is suitable to echo Prof. Charles Xavier’s saying of they fear what they do not understand.
The second group usually identifies the Greens as a return to the primitive people, hating technology and all the comforts that come with it. Some even associate the Green movement freely to vandalism. No doubt there are splitters of people whom hold the dark Green philosophy, the extremists who commit Green terrorism. An example a dark Green organization is the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). They have committed dozens of arsonist acts and cost both the government and the private sectors million of dollars. However, their size is small when compared to the whole Green idealists. Prominent environmental organizations, Greenpeace to name one do not encourage dark tactics though sometimes, they take their protest to the streets. Action, sometimes speaks louder than words.
The Green movement is more than about preserving and conserving the Earth. It is not an idea that exclusively contains the Gaia Theory which says that the Earth itself is a living being, regulating itself through some sort of homeostasis. In reality, as I understand it and at least where my belief is, environmentalism is an ideology that pursues sustainable growth, though the ideology itself is more than about sustainable growth. As Michael Freeden had put it nicely in his paper entitled Green Ideology: Concept and Structure:

“Belonging to the family of green ideology is to a large extent a question of self-description. Self-declared green will enunciate views that can be analysed in terms of themes and priority”
The Green movement as a whole demands a growth that guarantees a greener pasture in the future. We fight for a future where the children will be able to see an elephant in the wild African savanna, a future where our children will be able to visit Amazon jungle, seeing all the floras and faunas that they have read in the geography textbook, a future where we do not have wear a mask so that we could breathe easily.
And to achieve all this, we do not intend to undo everything that was achieved through modernization. In fact, we use these technology as our tools and even as goals in our struggle. For instance, for years the Greens are demanding more efficient vehicles to be used on the road. In this, the goal is to reduce pollution by using better engine. This is why the environmentalists are against General Motors and Ford. We are not against them because we are anarchists or anti-capitalists. If we were, then we should be against Toyota or Honda too. However, both the Japanese and to some extend the European companies produce more efficient (reads better mileage per liter) vehicles and thus, we have little quarrel with these companies.
To further prove our hunger for technology, we are encouraging for the use of hybrid vehicles. Up-to-date, hybrid cars have already hit the US’ road although the refueling services i.e. gas stations (or more accurately, electric stations) are still limited. Fortunately, the number is increasing.
Our belief even touches the energy issues. Though the power issues present a dilemma to most of us, nevertheless we accept the fact that a few sacrifice need to be made. Therefore, we are fighting to upgrade all power plants and in general factories to install devices that could lower and treat their waste instead of demanding for the plants shutdown. Among the smog, the most heated issue concerns the nuclear power plants. Personally, diverging from mainstream Green, I have nothing against nuclear power plants. In my opinion, it is the cleanest way to generate power. The waste that it produces is little compared to the coal power plants. Of course, the issue of dumping the waste will no doubt haunt us but however, we will only need a small patch of land to dispose a century worth of radioactive elements. In spite of this, I as most other Greens believe the numbers should be controlled and balanced by other alternative energy power generators.
Other than that, we are optimistically observing the development of fuel cells. With its only products are oxygen, hydrogen and heat, pollution problem will be reduced tremendously.
And synonymous to environmentalism, recycling activity. Recycling is the most direct connection to sustainable growth as it is a process that reused things that were used. It is the only way to fight consumerism’s waste effectively. Recycling not only reduce unwanted wastes but it also helps to reduce the cost of eliminating the smelly trash that you throw everyday. Through this, we are fighting consumerism positively.
The only reason we are being portrayed as anti-technology is because our opponents have wrongfully painted us with such paint. Every time we demand the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the industrialists, in particular their puppet, George W. Bush claims it is a step backward in improving the economy. By far, the economy goes down because it has reaches it end of cycle and will no doubt rise up sooner or later, though no doubt the pact will have some impact on the world economy. Nevertheless, the tigers will no doubt start sprinting again and the bears will start to wake up from its hibernation.
The Kyoto protocol could even bring to birth a new market for the global economy – carbon trading market. As oppose to the pessimists report, the pact could even help jump start the idle economy.
Gas giants such as Exxon Mobil also tend to accuse the Greens in believing an urban legend, the global warming. Of course the Earth right now is at its end of an “ice age” cycle and an increase in temperature is only natural. The truth is, the Green is fighting against accelerated global warming, not global warming itself. The oil moguls know this but they manipulated the fact before they present it to the public. They even continue on by saying there is no proof connecting the climatic change with the ever increasing carbon volume in the atmosphere. Though it is true the connection is blurred, there are proofs to suggest the climate is changing slowly. The shrinking size of Antarctica, the major flood earlier this year and the current heat wave in Europe and Asia positively are direct effects from this accelerated global warming which in turn brings climatic change. And not to mention, the worsening drought in Africa. The multinational oil organizations are similar to tobacco giants in some respect – RJ Reynolds denies smoking is a hazard to health – Exxon denies global warming is a fact.
The media also frequently belittle Greens’ effort. Nevertheless, their actions come at no surprise as they are being controlled by money. The idea of free press is far from reality.
Environmentalism is not an obtrusion to development as many have labeled us. The environmentalists do want development. Almost none of us want to live in the cave and light a real fire to cook and for heating. Not even the Greens. Rather, the Greens are the people who search for a better way for the betterment of human civilization. What is development when everything is destroyed in its path?

194.1 After much thinking and waiting, I am officially member of Greenpeace. Thanks to Krons and Peebz from guardians.greenpeace.org.

This is part 6. Please read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5.

I couldn’t sleep well that night. The sleeping bag was useless because it was so cold; one could suffer frost if one had slept outside of the tent without proper insulation.
I was only glad to finally see the morning Sun. When I woke up, the tent was wet. I looked up and realized that we forgot to open an opening up for ventilation. Outside the tent, the dew was everywhere, making the sight freaking but charmingly whitish. It was as if snow had fallen in the middle of summer.


As if snow had fallen in White Wolf in the middle of July
We packed our things up. My hand was numbed due to the low temperature but I simply ignored it so that we could start our hike as soon as possible. Once done, we headed for the restaurant where we had our dinner yesterday for breakfast; nothing good like a few cups of hot chocolate with English muffins and huge piece of omelets to start the day in the cold morning. While we were enjoying our breakfast, we overheard a few people talking about their love for hiking. It was kind of entertaining to listen to their ramblings about their experience.
By 0830, we were ready to pay the bill. It was during this time that we learn why this place is called White Wolf. According to the cook, who no doubt taking a few seconds off from his duty, there are two tales – one was that this place was found by a Red Indian chief named White Wolf. The other story because people in the past claimed to have seen a white wolf somewhere in this area, and thus the name.
Before we left the restaurant, or rather, a grill, we checked out a topographical map nearby. I found that the contour lines at the Canyon were very close to each other, indicating a very steep slope. Intimidated, I checked the other route to the Meadow, the Ten Lakes route. The contour lines were much sparse there and thus, I recommended that we follow Ten Lakes. However, I missed out something; though steep, we only had to go down while with Ten Lakes, the climb was terrible, ascending to nearly 10 000 feet. Since we luckily spotted this, we went ahead with our plan to give the Canyon a visit.
After bidding farewell to White Wolf, we went back south in order to take the trail that leads to the Canyon. We walked rather fast, considerably more than one mile per hour. It took roughly an hour before we met the junction that we passed yesterday. We took the path heading to the Canyon and continued on walking at a fast rate. Also, this was the first time that we actually sang songs together. Perhaps it was the singing activity that made us walked so fast.
It wasn’t long until we observed how the surrounding changed dramatically. All around us, burnt and fallen trees were everywhere. Dust would fly up to air whatever we do. I thought it was a result of a forest fire but Leman said it was artificial lighting, fire started by the rangers to kill the older trees so that its younglings would be able to grow without having to compete with much larger tree.
Although the process is for a good reason, I felt very uncomfortable among the dead trees. It was very Mordor-like.
With all the fallen trees, it didn’t take us long to lose the trail. While singing, we suddenly realized the trail had disappeared for good. We stopped and looked back. No trail at all.
So, we did a standard procedure. We put down our backpacks and sent three scouts to three different directions. Leman searched the front, Epol to the rear and I to the left. I made about 30 yards before I found the trail. I called up the others and continued our mission. This fiasco took us approximately 15 to 20 minutes.
It was among these dead trees and fallen trunks where we got ourselves our very own walking sticks.
All went well after that, at least for that episode. It was here, in the fire-scarred place that we met an impressive hiker. This guys, around his 30’s or early 40’s, armed with a pair of composite walking sticks in both hands with a small backpack, a bit larger than a third of mine, stopped to have a chat with us. While chatting, we came to learn this guy actually hiked 20 miles in one day, all the way from the Tuolumne Meadow and was already about another five or six miles to White Wolf. Furthermore, he told us that he was going to follow the path leading to the Ten Lakes and all the way back to the Meadow. Some people are born to hike.
It wasn’t long until Mordor became something else. As we came closer to the Canyon, I realized that I do recognize the large trees around me. After much mind searching, I remembered Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi was set on Endor, a jungle planet where the Empire had the Death Star II orbited. The feeling and the sight was very similar to the movie minus the undergrowth. Here, the forest doesn’t have a jungle characteristic. The earth is clean, almost clear of mere stem-plants and full of potpourri. I was almost sure that Star Wars was shot here but nevertheless, the movie was shot somewhere a few hundred miles north of Yosemite. To be accurate, near Crescent City, a place located in California, near Oregon.
By noon, the previously flat earth changed into a bit more challenging and our pace was slowed as a direct result. Later, we finally decided to take a noon rest. We stopped, put our backpacks onto the ground and drank a lot of water. However, we didn’t sit and have a rest. Rather, we realized that the hill on our right seemed to offer a spectacular view from its peak and hoped that the Canyon would be in sight from the peak. Together, we walked towards the hill peak.
On the way up, we saw a bunch of flowers in colonies that looked like a white lily on the ground. They were beautiful despite being wild as oppose to cared garden in the city.
On top, there was no sight of the Canyon but the view was indeed spectacular. We saw rolling hills filling a huge valley with tall conifer trees growing as if it is omnipresent. We took our time up there, enjoying the view, sleeping and all things that are wonderful. Alas, all good things must come to an end. We returned to our backpacks, picked it up and again burdening our poor shoulders.


From the top of the hill
It wasn’t long until we saw the Canyon and it was such a great feeling to see such a glorious sight. Again, we took our time to enjoy God’s creation.
I noticed while our side of the Canyon is blessed with verdant greens, the other part seems to be desert like. Down below, the river flowed silently. Maybe it was still too far for us to hear the roaring Tuolumne River. On far left, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, much to the dismay of John Muir, was created in the name of development – the lame reason almost everybody gives in order to sideline the Greens.
And so, we, I finally descended down into the Canyon, down to a canyon for the first time in my life. We stopped no less than ten times just to admire the Canyon. Also, there were a few cascading falls crossing the trail.


Entering the Grand Canyon of Tuolumne
We descended down rather fast, feeling not the weight that we carried on our back. On our way down, for the first time, somebody overtook us. There were three of them, walking with backpacks as large as us.


The pond
At around 1600, perhaps near 1700, we saw a pond, mirroring the sky up above. I was astonished to see such a calm pond, clearer and cleaner then Lukens Lake. A few steps further brought us face to face with the Tuolumne River. The river was by far the wildest one I’ve ever seen and it gets wilder upstream.


The wild Tuolumne River
By 1900, I was already exhausted and both Leman and Epol had outperformed me in stamina contest. We walked and walked but deep down in my heart, I frantically waiting for us to stop and camp.
It came as a delight to me when we finally reached Pate Valley, a place where another large river meets Tuolumne River. However, we had to walk for another 20 minutes as all the spots suitable for camping were already taken by some other hikers. I was holding back myself from trying to kill the hikers and get the site as our own.
In the end, we found a perfect camping spot right beside the trail, merely 20 meters from the meeting point of the two rivers. We set up our campsite and gathered firewood for cooking and heating. As soon as we were done, I took to the opportunity to wash up myself. It is a great feeling to have the cold river water to freshen you up; no mint, no Mentos, no nothing; only the cold fresh unfiltered natural water.
The Sun finally set at 2030. Usually, it wouldn’t be dark until 2100 but canyon effectively blocked the Sun. Even when it was six in the evening, it was started to get dark.
That night, we shared a few jokes and stories after enjoying an improvised dinner. While we were sitting near the bonfire, Leman told us a ghost story, told to him by his cousin who was a lumberjack. A pretty scary story but with some logical flaws but anyway, seeing a ghost itself is out of a sane person’s mind.
Yet, I slept that night, thinking of what actually happened to some of the people who claimed to see ghost back in the Malay College. Irrational or not, I am glad that I didn’t see any ghost myself back at the Big School, a building that saw two World Wars with second one happened right under its corridors.
The Big School, an old building that housed three Houses that, given the chance, would have presented a united front against a common enemy, House Mohammad Shah. That was back then.
Now, such tradition no longer possible thanks to the school administrator. No longer could anybody refers the West Wing as House Sulaiman, no longer could one refers the East Wing to House Ahmad, no longer could somebody refers the Overfloor to House Idris and no longer could everybody insult the Pavilion so one could insult House Muhammad Shah.
I fell asleep that night, remembering a teacher that once slapped me in the face for a false accusation. I fell asleep realizing how much I am missing the Malay College of Kuala Kangsar.

193. Rollerblading is really bad for my ass and back but damn, I could skate as fast as lighthing I tell you, fvck3n fast.

And once again, the State has done something that reduces my belief in them. After the introduction of national service into the system, the improvised Negaraku is going to be further improvised. This time, instead of Negaraku, it is going to be changed to Malaysiaku. The reason is to instill the spirit of patriotism among fellow Malaysians. I say this is lame.
Negaraku is the Federation of Malaysia’s national anthem, modified from Perak’s, one of the state in the Federation, state anthem, the Bulan Terang. It was chosen by Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Malaysia’s, back then known as Malaya Federation, Father of Independence to emulate Indonesia’s Indonesia Raya and the likes. The first version, a slow tempo melody, a little bit faster than the Dutch’s Wilhelmus lasted until 1991. Reached August 31st 1991, an absurd upbeat tempo was introduced to the public by the irresponsible state. And, mark this upcoming August 31st, barely 15 years after its improvisation, the title is going to be change for good. Who knows what else will be changed.
My opinion on this matter? The government should concentrate on improving the economy or at least try to negotiate the water issue with Singapore. Not on a pathetic issue that is useless and without doubt, bring not any good to the public in general.
My discontent might sounds silly but silly complaint won’t come to surface if silly issue does not arise. Malaysia proudly has culture of its own that is old, contrary to the United States or Singapore. However, we lack a national tradition; I consider national tradition as something that was born in 1957 or 1963. Unfortunately, nothing that deserve to be called national tradition last as long as 46 years. Even the name Malaysia was not adopted until the inclusion of Sabah, Sawarak and Singapore into the Federation. Even the numbers of states in the Federation changed after the expulsion of Singapore from the Federation. Even the administrative capital changed. The only things that are so traditional are the leaders and supposedly holy Constitution of Malaysia. But yet, even the Constitution is subject to change. Perhaps, the only thing that could be called national tradition is the unique rotational monarchy system.
Changing Negaraku to Malaysiaku is an insult to every real, living and dead patriots. A real patriot does not have to serve the army nor does he needs to sing a song to raise his love for the country. A patriot is somebody who loves his country without clause.
If the government really wants to increase patriotism and unity among the masses, dissolve racial segregation by erasing SKJ, withdraw MCA’s permit to operate UTAR and open up UiTM. That is the true way to conserve and strengthen nationalism. It’s an unpopular method but the Age of Enlightenment wouldn’t have come if the Europeans had swum with the masses.
Fellow Malaysians, follow me, I assert you. The next time you sing for our country, sing Negaraku. Preserve our history and national tradition.

Negaraku,
Tanah tumpahnya darahku
Rakyat hidup bersatu dan maju,
Rahmat bahagia Tuhan kurniakan,
Raja kita selamat bertakhta,
Rahmat bahagia Tuhan kurniakan,
Raja kita selamat bertakhta.