Swine flu, new jackpot for the pharmaceutical industry?

How can we know that the new reports on 'Swine flu' aren't just a media scare driven by the pharmaceutical industry to make money? What happened to bird flu? Where was the pandemic? Come on! 80 people died because of swine flu... and maybe soon it will be 100, 200... even if there's 1000 or more people dead all over the world due to 'Swine flu'. Should the rest of the 6+ billion people seriously be afraid? I won't jump on this train, I'll keep my cool. Besides, some of the people who got it, survived. It's not like AIDS. We should put more money fighting HIV (which really kills millions of people!) rather than create a mass fear over this 'Swine flu', that is more media driven rather than a real threat. If tomorrow something like another 9/11 or another Tsunami happens, would people still be afraid of 'Swine flu'. Would we be still talking about it?

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How they screwed up Prison Break

Yesterday, after a 4 months hiatus, Prison Break continued with it's 17th episode of season 4. It was a decent episode. And in 1 month we will see the series come to an end: A double episode finale is scheduled for May 15. So, after almost 4 years, the series comes to an end. And I'm really happy! Because it sucks big time.
When I watched the 1st season of Prison Break 3 years ago, I felt that it has no competition in the genre. It was brilliant with a very intelligent storyline and an incredible cast. Every episode ended with a cliffhanger that gave you goose bumps and you wanted to watch more and more. I remember I borrowed from my sister's friend the whole season and I watched it all at once in one night. I just couldn't stop. It was an amazing experience. Then came season 2, Manhunt. Also a very decent season. And the end of season 2 was where they screwed up big time. It should be the end of Prison Break. I wanted Michael, Linc and Sarah sail into the sunset. But no, they turned it around and made a new show out of it: Sona. They just try to copy season 1, but they failed miserably. Of course season 3 had some good moments, but it was a totally different show, different (new) characters and now in the overall storyline, it makes no sense. Then you add season 4 and you get again a totally new show. Again new characters, new concept and a totally new focus. I call this season: The Company. Michael suddenly gets sick and all whiny. His brilliance lacks, he's too much emotion-driven. And the actor became really fat. I wondered where was the muscular whole-body-tatoo tough guy from season 1? And then there's Linc, Michael's brother. His storyline is very poor, he seems lost and confused, his actions seem incoherent. Yeah, there was some good moments, too. I liked first few episodes when they try to steal Scylla. We saw some of Michael's genious, but in the middle of the season, they started to complicate the storyline again. Now we know that behind some of the evil there's Michael's and Lincoln's mother. Come on! Give me a break! It is just ridiculous. And it's getting more and more absurd. I'm waiting for the finale, I wonder how they will conclude the whole story. But for me Prison Break is already over for a long time. The real Prison Break is only the first two seasons, the rest is just some kind of spin-off (with same but more confused characters). And it's not just me, I guess many people see it same like me. I saw the ratings dropped for nearly 40% since season 1. That's why it's better to adapt the length to the stroy rather than the story to the length. They just wanted to make more money and stretched it. Money beats art, that's the sad truth. But I'm really glad we have the first two seasons which will remain my all time favourites.

[Photos: Source]

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»You deserve to be bigger!«

Who takes these 'enlargement' spam mails seriosuly? Seriously. It's just stupid. (Look at those email titles!) I keep getting these emails only on my Yahoo account, on MSN I have a strong filter, so I get almost no spam. I hate spam. But luckily it declined. Few years ago you could get 100 spam mails a day. I'm glad they increased the filters, but they still haven't fully managed to get rid of those annoying emails. I hope the future will be spam-free.

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Lee Hyori's legs are perfection

Latest photos of Hyori from a soju commercial

Hyori is cute as always...

Her body is amazing and she's 30 years old!

She's gonna have a huge comeback with her next album...

Hyori was, is and always will be: Perfection.

Don't you agree with me?

[Exceptional women][My HYORI page][Photos: Source]

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Obama is a genius!

My whole last year 2008 was accompanied with excitement about the US presidential elections and Barack Obama. I can say, I heard about him already in 2006 when he went to Kenya and CNN reported it. One year later, in 2007, I watched on CNN how he announced his presidential campaign. And they began to report more and more about him and I already became a huge fan. At that time, everyone was excited about Hillary Clinton. Most of the meadia thought she already won, but not me. I knew Barack Obama was the best candidate with the best ideas that reflected my views and conceptions. I didn't doubt Obama, I doubted the American people due to the recent history of racism and the dominance of the right wing (that's was the perception). Anyway, luckily I was proven wrong and Obama was elected. It was a roller coaster: From Iowa to the Supertuesday to the debates with Hillary Clinton. Then came Bill Clinton's 'Fairytale', reverend Wright, 'Bittergate', Pennsyilvania and a lot of distress. Was I relieved when he won North Carolina and virtually wrapped up the nomination. I was so sick of those CNN pundits and all their bickering and ridiculing. I got goose bumps when I saw him in Denver in that big stadium. Joe Biden was a great choice, too. It seemed perfect. And then came McCain and the Republicans with their low shots and of course the joke of the year: Sarah Palin, her stupidity and ignorance. It was hillarious. I loved the presidential debates with McCain. Obama showed that he has an exceptional intellect. And then: election night! When he got Pennsylvania and Florida I knew he won. I waited until 4am to hear him speak. That speech was really history made infront of my eyes. I will always remember where I was when I heard it. I felt I was there in Chicago, I felt I was American and all the positive things that are associated with it. I felt that in 1 single day the world became a better place.
And now here we are. It's March 2009 and I tune in CNN and see president Barack Obama has a town hall meeting, answering questions and trying to increase support for his bold policies. After the election and until the inauguration I was in Malaysia and couldn't follow his interviews and all that was happening in that period. So tonight I heard him speak after a long time and I thought: Wow, he is a genius! In this moment I think there's not a single democratic politician in the world who is as intelligent, witted and articulate as Barack Obama. He could sell you any idea by the way he delivers it to you. It's still incredible, it won't decline and I think even after he will face tough backfire, make mistakes, he will give a speech and you will believe him or forgive him. Barack Obama is a genius. He will transform the presidency like Lincoln or FDR did. He won't be topped in my life time, he set the bar too high for any successor, it's a once-in-a-century thing. That's why, even in these hard times, recesion, terrorism, financial crisis... I know we (the whole world) have someone who's honestly working the hardest he can to make a difference. It's a great time to be alive.

[Photos take by me from the TV]

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天坛大佛和我

The Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau island in Hong Kong is an impressive 34m tall bronze statue on top of a hill. In Wikipedia they say: »The Tian Tan Buddha appears serene and dignified. His right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction. His left hand rests on his lap in a gesture of giving dhana. The Buddha faces north, which is unique among the great Buddha statues, as all others face south.«
But what struck me most about this, is the sheer greatness which is seen, it's impressive in size, but it's so humble at the same time. It feels as if you find your inner peace when you are below the Buddha, he gives you confidence that things will eventually be alright. That the disharmony of the bustle and hustle of Hong Kong, or any other chaotic megacity in that sense, will be again restored in harmony between the nature and the mind, between the momentary and eternal.

[Sources: Photo by MKL and Wikipedia]

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Malaysian public toilet

Something that's different in Malaysia

It seems as if this typical Malaysian public toilet and me won't become good friends any time soon. I just can't seem to have any courage to give it a try. I rather wait till I come back 'home'. Would you become good friends with her? It?

[My MALAYSIA page][My BATU PAHAT page][Photo by MKL, 2008]

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Western guy living in a Chinese family

Let me share my experience

Let me share a unique experience with you. I happened to live in a Chinese family for three months and I wanna share my observations with you. This may be useful for those Westerners, who don't know a lot about Chinese culture and wants to know more. First, the facts:

How big is the family?

Ok, first I must say, I live in a quite big family for these modern times. It's a middle class family, consisting of parents, grandma, 1 grandchild and 5 daughters, of which the youngest is 17 and the oldest 25. Three daughters are already married and live on their own, but visit every day. So all together there is 8 daughters (between 17 and 30 years old). Two of which have already children, so sometimes there's 4 grandchildren at the house.

What did I notice?

A Chinese family of this size and consisting of so many women can be very noisy. But that's only at the first glance. Soon I realized that they are very friendly and hospitable towards me. Food is the central part of the family. For Chinese in general, the food is the most important thing. I saw them spend a lot of money on all kinds of food. They would even travel more than 100km just to go eat into a restaurant that has some unique and delicious food. Chinese are very genorous. They treat me so much, I stopped counting and I accepted it as normal. In my country, you always remember who treated you and you seek to treat him back. I can't keep up with my new friends here. They are too genorous. Even when I tried to treat them back, they refused by saying: When I'm in your country, you treat me. It's very unlikely that this will be the case. But I accept it and if really that was to happen, I would gladly return the hospitality at home.
Besides food, Chinese are very traditional. When it comes to family values and friendships, Chinese tend to have very good relations and they respect the elderly more than the Westerners. They also respect their ancestors by lighting sticks every day at the domestic temple and by praying every day and following all other traditional celabrations, of which the most important is Chinese New Year.
Chinese here (Johor, Malaysia) don't have many encounters with Westerners, probably because it's a small town and a rural area. That's why they are curious to see me. Most of them are not fluent in english. The few who are, have many questions. The first one is usually 'Where are you from?' followed by 'Have you eaten already'? As mentioned before, food is very important in the daily life of Chinese. That's why when they have 'small talk', usual question would be: Have you eaten already? ( 你吃了?)
If you consider all the facts, Chinese people can be seen as conservative, but in some cases very progressive and modern. Especially the young people copy the fashion styles of the West or Japan. Older people are naturally more conservative, but most of them allow the young people their way of life and they are non-judgmental. Somehow all generations can find a common ground and stick together as a family. Chinese don't like to talk about their family problems to outsiders. It stays in the family.

In conclusion.

I'm glad to see a culture as complex as Chinese from so close and learn so many new things about it and correct my perception or stereotypical thinking. I hope I will learn more and get to see many more aspects of Chinese culture in the weeks ahead. I especially look forward to Chinese new year 2009.

[My MALAYSIA page][All photos by MKL, 2008]

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Comparing two climates

Sometimes I really consider myself lucky. I saw some pictures coming from Slovenia around this time, showing the huge amounts of snow. Well, at the same time I was looking at that photos, I was in slippers and shorts, sipping beer in the tropical heat of over 30 degrees. What a difference, don't you think?

[My MALAYSIA page][Photos by MKL, 2008]

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Village comparison: Slovenia and Malaysia

The countryside is same everywhere!

[Photos by MKL (2003-2008]

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End of Beijing

The Olympics are over! Finally! And all the commotion surrounding this event is finally over, too. What-a-relief! This was really one of the most phoney Olympics in our life time. From the chinese and western perspective! And you can create breathtaking ceremonies and what not, but these games showed in what kind of world we are living in. From the perspective of sport, we had some exceptions like Phelps, Bolt, Steiner, who gave us some precious moments, goose bumps and made us forget the phony olympic comittee, the chinese delegates, who were showing a facade that's far from the reality. Behind it are people who suffer, who have no rights or prospect for the future. But that happens, as I said, if you give the games to a dictatorship. Well, after 1988 in Seoul, South Korea changed. But will China? I don't think so. The communist party is now much stronger. The propaganda is reinforced, the censorship is tighter. It's a big bullshit now. While the whole world is tearing up at the closing ceremony, in Beijing's hutongs people struggle to survive. But we knew that in 2001 and we know that in 2008. Well, I can't fight something that's impossible to fight. So all these injustices are for the Chinese to fight. Let them struggle for their own freedoms. China is great, huge, too complicated. What is China? You can't define it. You can't change it from outside. And these games won't change a thing. That's what we should know before. We made a big mistake. Only 1 thing is positive: At least the games gave 3 weeks to some simple chinese people to forget their life's struggles and hardships. 3 weeks of a 'perfect world', created by a perfect stage - the new buildings, the well enacted happiness and unity... But we all know, the cute little girl didn't really sing, the fireworks were't all real... it was phoney and fake, only the athletes were real! My greatest respect to them! We saw great sport events with real honesty, unity, effort and strife for the better. The athletes showed us, what is the true olympic spirit.

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Beautiful spring 2008

Today I snapped these two beautiful photos of our cherry and other blooming bushes and flowers. It's really very nice as you can see. I think our spring can compare with the one in Japan. Our sakura is white, but still very bautiful. Do you want to immerse yourself in our garden? Go ahead, you are free to daydream. But it will be hard to find us, since we're somewhere surrounded by forest and hidden from the outside world - like a perfect getaway to rest your soul and forget the stressful fast-paced life of places like Singapore, Taizhong, Batu Pahat, Mino or any other urban area. (There's some inside jokes hidden for you, hehe.)

[Photos by MKL, 2008]

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Battle Royale: Obama vs. Clinton

[Photo: Source]

As some of you have noticed, I'm very interested in the upcoming US elections and especially the primaries. And lately I thought about what's more significant: USA having the first (white) female president or first afro-american president (actually he's half white, but that's another topic to discuss). However, I think America would write history if Barack Obama became the next president. I thought there was many female presidents before, the most famous were british Margaret Thatcher, israeli Golda Meir and current german chancellor Angela Merkel. But when did we have someone from a minority elected president in the West? For example an Arab french president? A Turk german chancellor? A black or latino US president? Well, it's not as easy to pop out a name like Thatcher, Meir or Merkel on the female side. I think racism and sexism in the West is still a tough issue, but my personal opinion is, that racism is a bigger problem. If anyone disagree, feel free to debate.
The second thing that's bothering me is the way Hillary Clinton runs her campain. She used to underestimate Obama, when he overtook her, she started backstabbing him, mocking his message, attacking his leadership credibility, lying about her Bosnia trip and being a second 'republican', helping McCain to attack Obama twice. This could backfire, because she's ripping apart the democratic party and it's really a shame, as Obama said. So, hopefully, Obama will survive these double-attacks and become the next president of USA.

Obama 08!

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