Let this Hari Raya greeting to all who celebrate this occasion be a sweet reminder of how simple life can be - and what a cheerful, friendly, abundant land this will be when love proves stronger than hate. Read More...

Few fit the description of Wizard better than Daevid Allen (from the planet Gong). When my hair turns to white, I'd like to be doing pretty much something like this... Read More...

"Music is a purposeless play, an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living." ~ John Cage (in a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music) Read More...

The Malay-ization of the entire public service and defence forces was apparently the aim of the Mahathir government, as complete control over the public administration is an important aspect in achieving and maintaining Malay ethnocracy. Read More...

Sometime in 1999 I found a compact yellow dog lying weak with hunger under a rambutan tree. He had an ugly sore on his back, the remains of a rope around his neck, and his fur had been ravaged by mange. But his eyes sparkled with soulful intelligence and I was compelled to nurture him back to health. Read More...

Whether it's Hukum Orang Putih (White Man Rule), Hukum Melayu (Malay Rule), or Hukum Hutang (Rule of Perpetual Debt) - you'll never catch an Orang Asli yelling, “Merdeka!” Read More...

Every now and then, Malaysians are forced to watch the show based on an outdated script, written perhaps by those in power who benefit from racial polarisation. Read More...

Many of my painter friends are extremely reclusive by nature and recoil at the thought of being in the limelight. Yet they realize they eventually have to make their private obsessions public and exhibit their work. After the invitations to the opening have been posted, there's the nagging anxiety that only a handful will bother showing up - or that the usual incestuous clique will turn up for the free wine, stand around "networking" amongst themselves, and then adjourn for dinner somewhere chic after a cursory, non-commital glance at the work you sweated for months to produce. Read More...

The MACC, the Attorney-General’s Office, and their masters in UMNO, have made Malaysia, our judiciary and legal profession a laughing stock worldwide. Read More...

Behind the glossy façade of our public personas are we proud of and at peace with our true selves? How long can we fool ourselves with our own hype – even if it’s the most expensive grade of hype, paid for by hapless citizens? Read More...

One day in class when I was guest lecturing at a private mass communications college, I got passionate speaking about a pet topic and suddenly felt my dental plate shoot out of my mouth and onto the floor... Read More...

Policemen will now think twice before attempting to arrest me – lest I turn out to be a member of Tian Chua’s secret school of dental shaolin. Read More...

What we have seen in Sarawak recently has the same capitalist logic, namely, to drive the indigenous peoples out of their native customary lands so that these lands can be exploited for their commercial value and the indigenous people can be “freed” to become wage labourers.
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I am shocked by the behavior of the leadership of my nation. I find it patronizing, archaic, oppressive, blatantly and self-righteously elitist and top-down. I do not experience your administration as democratic, transparent, open, accountable or responsible. Read More...

My friend Dennis sent me this today. I'm not sure it qualifies as the Best Cartoon of the 20th Century, but it certainly is topical and absolutely relevant in Bolehland under BN misrule! Read More...

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, #2 DAUGHTER BELLE... AND #7 PRIME MINISTER ANWAR! Read More...

There's no way I can adequately thank Daniel Tang, Kate James and Martyn Gillman for helping me raise my music from the dead, thereby making it available to posterity. The photos below show how the musical resurrection was accomplished... Read More...

I describe my addiction to musical extemporization as "libidinous" - because the thrill I experienced listening to the playback on the studio speakers of music I had just recorded was the closest sensation to a full-fledged orgasm with pants on. Read More...

Those who have tacitly or overtly endorsed this obscene state of affairs - from the despatch rider to the Yang Di Pertuan Agong himself - bear equal responsibility for allowing the nation to be dragged into the depths of depravity. Read More...

Those suffering from xenophobia have great difficulty accepting people with different linguistic and cultural imprints as close friends or family. They tend to label others as pendatang (immigrants), orang asing (outsiders), or Mat Salleh (Caucasians). Read More...

In recent years there has been a radically increased interest in the Mayan calendar and especially its end and so many ask what this tells us about the future. Surprisingly, many people ask this question as if the answer had nothing to do with themselves or the choices they make. Few seem to have considered that the fulfillment of the cosmic plan will require of them to step up to the role of co-creators with this divine plan. Read More...

For some time now elders of several indigenous peoples have held gatherings to prepare for a new time to come. In the words of Don Alejandro Oxlaj of the Maya: "The time of 13 Ahau and 13 Baktun is the time of the return of the ancestors and the men of wisdom."
Also this upcoming weekend, July 17-18, 2010 of the Conscious Convergence, will include indigenous peoples from many parts of the world and a global medicine wheel ceremony, which will allow the Eagle, the people of the north and the mind, and the Condor, the people of the south and the heart, to fly together. Read More...

Holding the post of the Chief Minister of Sarawak since 1981, Taib Mahmud is the longest serving Chief Minister in Malaysia. Being a member of the Malaysian Parliament for 38 years, Taib is also the second longest serving parliamentarian in Malaysia after Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Read More...

Mind-blowing creative ingenuity: Wayne Lytle & Dave Crognale are co-founders of ANIMUSIC, a project that combines digital tech and funky music with jaw-dropping success. Read More...

Italian artist BLU is famous for painting politically and socially charged street murals, but his recent project involving street animation may be his most visually stunning. Read More...

Under the Red Queen's demented and tyrannical rule, Wonderland becomes Underland - a subterranean dream/nightmare with surreal overtones, where the Jubjub Bird and the Frumious Bandersnatch and the Burbling Jabberwock serve as the Red Queen's law enforcement agencies. Read More...

"Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child." - Lazarus Long, 'Time enough For Love' Read More...

Here's an amusing collection of random images forwarded by friends, some of which are well worth revisiting, especially on days when words fail to express the overwhelming sense of absurdity and utter meaninglessness engendered by the powers-that-be in their desperation to cling on to their wholly undeserved privileges. Read More...

The entire world is still sniggering at Famous Anus jokes and asking why Anwar Ibrahim appears to have been singled out for the dubious honor of being the only Malaysian to be charged with sodomy - TWICE in 12 years! Read More...

In our opinion there is no place on Earth that will not be affected by the planetary changes, both natural and manmade. Some areas of the world will be less intensely affected, but all will be radically altered. Life on your planet is an interconnected web. Read More...

In recent years, however, the city appears to have become more sanitized and regimented. The wildman in me feels a bit overwhelmed by the glitter and false glamor of Singapore's futuristic shopping malls. You can't even enjoy a smoke without worrying about getting slapped with a $1,000 fine. Read More...

There's a lot going on locally and much being said about it in the blogosphere. If you've been as busy as I have with other concerns, you might find it useful to read my personal pick of the best sociopolitical blogposts of the week...
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According to Richard C. Hoagland, insider sources in BP and in U.S. Government say that there is a gas bubble 15-20 Miles across 10+ feet high near BP’s oil well head in the Gulf of Mexico. It may cause an explosion with apocalyptic proportions in weeks or months. Read More...

Despite personality differences and frequent lineup changes Wishbone Ash has somehow managed to keep going as a musical entity for more than 40 years. The latest album, Power of Eternity, was released in 2007. Read More...

“What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell’s Angels is currently unclear,” said a spokesman for local police. Read More...

News unfolding from the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has linked media censorship to investment bankers at Goldman Sachs (GS) stewarding the Vatican's wealth, and increasing evidence that the explosion was intended. Read More...

Even as this potentially terminal eco-apocalypse unfolds, humans continue to be obsessed with their own petty games of ego-driven competition, oneupmanship and sibling rivalry. Read More...

If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this? Read More...

Some comic relief from the tragic antics of politicians everywhere... Read More...

Our lives are so interwoven with the very things that are causing the problems on Earth that we feel we must perpetuate them in order to survive. This illusion is the direct manipulation of our fear-based, fragmented human egos. Read More...

While fight-or-flight is a necessary response to an immediate danger, the blood flow to the hindbrain has to come from somewhere. It comes from the forebrain, the place of creative thinking and discernment. In other words, when we are in fear we are less intelligent. Read More...

Ehud Barak's "OneIsrael" is undoubtedly the big brother of Najib Razak's "1Malaysia"! Read More...

So long as oppressive and antiquated laws like the Internal Security Act continue to remain in force, the Malaysian government lacks the moral standing to condemn human rights abuses perpetrated by others who stubbornly cling to the primitive and ugly tenet that Might Is Right. Read More...

Like many Malaysians who do not agree with their own government's policies and actions, peace-loving Israelis are rarely given a voice in the mass media. So it's easy for those in the Muslim world to hate Israel and all Israelis - without differentiating between the people and the government that chooses to use bullying tactics to get its own way. Read More...

Jack Burkman is the right man to save Umno from oblivion. I'm sure, for the right price, he will agree to change his name to Johan Burkaman, embrace Islam and Ketuanan Melayu - and help Umno destroy Anwar Ibrahim and his pipe dream of a New Dawn in Malaysia. Read More...