Community Radio (Cure); Tagging along for the ride

Hey friends and lovers
Today Thanam (in charge of community work and training at CIJ) took Jose, Apsara and me on a trip to a Organ Asli village about 40 minutes outside of KL. She was going there to conduct a small discussion on community radio to a small group of women from the village. The three of us interns tagged along for the adventure, and I brought my new toy. We weren’t around for too too long, but I managed to snap some cool pictures along the way. We didn’t really get the chance to meet any new people, but on our wanderings through the village I passes many happy kids playing and dancing, innumerable puppies and some friendly people on mopeds. Here are some of my better snappings:

Caring is Daunting

So, I'm back at Coffee Bean, sipping on a hot chocolate (this one is christmas themed, but the only difference i can spot is the addition of small marshmellows), drowning out noise with my ipod and thinking about the days to come. I'm an ambitious boy for these next few weeks. Like strangely really ambitious - which is kind of frightening considering I did nothing today except eat, lounge, skype and be really comfy (if not a little uncomfortably full for awhile).

Jose and I did an all you can eat lunch today at this Indian place in the basement of Starhill Mall. I would LOVE to go on about how ridiculous Starhill Mall is (in particular the basement), but I think that is for another entry. In any case, the all you can eat kebab lunch was RM 55++, and consisted of various meats, naan, daal and drinks. Beer was included, so I had several in an attempt to make sure I got my moneys worth. Strangely, the best part of the meal was the complementary curry dish they gave us. It was amazing, and I'm not sure what it was. It was a curry chicken, but had a Kourma-esque taste to it. Hmm... I suppose I'll never know. Anyways, the result of that lunch was me sprawling on my bed in lazy content for the next like 7 hours. Well, I wasn't sprawled the whole time... among other things was a long Pokemon Emerald Green Session using an emulator on my computer. It's weird... I know.

Anyways, so as I mentioned above, I'm an ambitious kid right now, and my schedule is looking a little daunting. Here's some of what I've got going on for the next three weeks:

• Final paper for my "virtual worlds" directed readings course. The topic is Activism through virtual world technology, specifically Second Life. I've got the paper pretty well planned out - but I have a craaaazy amount of work to do if I want to make it half as good as I ... want ... it ... to ... be (awkward sentence?). I'm choosing to do it about advocacy because I feel it really sums up my life right now - it gives me the chance to discuss the theory I've gone over so far for the course, while going into detail about the educational potential of virtual worlds and the notion of virtual world art (and how these apply to activism and advocacy). I hope to do a long case study section that looks at existing NGOs in Second Life, as well as RL NGOs that could use virtual world technology to their advantage. hmmm... for the latter I'm planning on talking to Take Back the Tech in Malaysia - an NGO focused on ending gender-based violence against women through the use of ICTs.
• Read and summarize about 20 civil court cases for CIJ.
• Fly to Bali on Friday and learn how to surf in three days.
• Help Amnesty International Malaysia in their events leading up to the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Interestingly enough, this will involve putting up posters in the Annexe Art Gallery at Central Market. Weirdly full circle, no?
• Spend some time with some women's organizations during the 16 Days of Activism (Nov 25- Dec 10) with CIJ

Hehe... so much to do. Maybe today was good... you know- to get spending a day eating, lying around, playing pokemon and drinking hot chocolate out of my system before buckling down to the tasks at hand... maybe?
Anyways, I'm not complaining or anything - I'm really quite excited to do all of this. It should be excellent! That is... as long as I don't spend many more days doing hedonistically delicious things :)

Pictures and scandal for Sandy

These are a few pics for the FIMS website... I'd say they give a nice hint at what sort of adventurings we've embarked on lately

aweir22 fiddling awkwardly at a press conference announcing the results of CIJ's survey on media freedom

Jose and Apsara putting final touches on the "Make Amends" exhibit at the Annexe. I seem to be not working under the guise of taking pictures. Hmm...
haha... yeah

How I see CIJ

Zac Hill and I in our prime

Jose and some of the participants of CIJ's workshop/training session in Kuching

Apsara Murale helping out in Kuching

Me... being generally good looking at the nine emperor gods festival in Ampang

Jose and I at 4000 meters

Gayathry speaking from the floor at a public forum on freedom of expression

Jose interviewing Arts Programming Director for the Central Market Annexe, Pang Khee Teik for a short video on Freedom of Expression

Pictures from Genting

So this is what a theme park from the 1970s in the clouds and the only casino in Malaysia look like:

Just flying

OK ok ok - so Miss Phang took Jose and I to Genting Highlands yesterday. Descriptions and photos to come soon! But for now, here's a clip that jose put together of some simulated skydiving that we did

Kuala Selangor, Monkeys and Seafood: An exposé

Hiya!
So I just got back from an adventure out to the small fishing village of Kuala Selangor for lunch and monkeys with Jose and Apsara. We trekked up Bukit Melawati to check out the lighthouse that isn't anywhere near water. For the area, it is very old and mysterious - unfortunately, I was totally distracted by Silvery Lutung, or silverleaf, Monkeys. They didn't attack or try to eat me, so before I knew what was happening, we were best friends. These monkeys were quite gentle, and a lady sold packets of beans for 1RM for people to feed to them. Baby silverleaf's are orange... so great.
Anyways, after snapping far too many photos, we visited a few museums at the park, and headed down to a seafood restaurant overlooking the river. Even though I really don't eat seafood or fish, it was quite delicious. The restaurant is apparently quite well known for its fresh food and reasonable prices -- the building itself, like many many more on the river is on stilts and apparently they are able to catch food right out the back door. Prettty cool! Sorry for the excess of monkey photos... though I'm not going to lie, I'm getting pretty boss at taking them :p

Hanging out in the space between time zones

Now, I'm the last person to put any kind of stock in horoscopes. However! Today, iGoogle presented me with an unintentionally uncanny one... check it out:


Update: OK fine maybe its not that uncanny. I just got really excited that it said I was "all over the map" - I am! I'm stompin all over the map
argh, I get too easily amused

Forum on Freedom of Expression

“If you silence someone,” Professor Cherian George said at the Chinese Assembly Hall on Tuesday night, “how can that person tell you that his other rights aren’t being respected? It is difficult to even conceive of even a democratic or just society in the absence of freedom of expression.”

He was speaking at a public lecture called “Perspectives on Freedom of Expression in Asia and Europe,” organized by Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).



Over the course of the evening, he and Professor Kevin Boyle from the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex spoke to a crowded room made up of concerned citizens, members of NGOs and the press. The result was an overview of the importance of freedom of expression as well as some of the major issues standing in the way right now, especially within the ASEAN countries.

“There is an urgent need for citizens to press for media reform in the form of removing or amending repressive laws,” Professor George said.

The lecture gravitated to the enormous restricting power of pieces of legislation such as the PPPA, ISA, OSA and Sedition Act. The public should not have to rely on government regulation to have accountable and responsible media – such restricting laws as are in place now aid only to tow the current administration’s line.

George noted how it is the public who should be keeping the media accountable. Media organizations should be pressured by the accountability methods set up by consumers, not heavy-handed laws or parliamentary enacted media councils.

As the speakers finished their talks on Freedom of Expression, the floor was open for questions. Some major concerns of the audience involved the strength of civil society in Malaysia; concerns of a persistent culture of fear; as well as freedom of expression versus the respect other people’s freedoms and reputations.