Barang Naik in KLCC Friday 13

Friday the 13th nightmare in downtown KL

The protest march through downtown Kuala Lumpur today. — pictures by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Thousands of protestors, about six car lanes wide and almost 100 metres long, took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur to express their dissatisfaction against the federal government after being hit by a series of price hikes in the last few months.

It started at 2pm, right after Friday prayers, in the compound of the "legendary" Masjid Jamek in Kampung Baru, about 3km away from the national oil company, Petronas's headquarters in KLCC.

The original idea was to walk from the mosque to KLCC along Jalan Raja Abdullah, turn into Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Ampang before stopping at the main entrance of the iconic building.

But PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar had received word of heavy police presence at KLCC. So they resorted to Plan B.

Instead of KLCC, their end destination was the Sogo shopping mall along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, another artery in the heart of the hectic city.

Despite the mass of people, it was a relatively peaceful protest. They walked and chanted many slogans, like at a sports meet.

"Tumbang BN! Tumbang Umno!" "Turun harga! Undur PM! Hapus rasuah!" "Allah hu akhbar!"

The masses moved as one, like an assault of locusts, steadily and swiftly along Jalan Raja Alang, bypassing the police blockade on Jalan Raja Abdullah, chanting themselves hoarse.

The police helicopter hovering rather low overhead failed to drown out their chants.

Adding to the din were the honking sounds of passing motorists, expressing their support.

It took them roughly 20 minutes to reach the heart of hearts, the crossroads of Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Dang Wangi, where Sogo meets another iconic building, the Odeon cinema.

Mimicking the father of all peace protestors, Mahatma Gandhi, the crowd proceeded to sit down on the road to demonstrate their anger against the government's announcement last week. The fuel increase has caused a whiplash reaction - food sellers have hiked up prices, causing great and immediate hardship on the low-income groups, meaning those who earn under RM1,500 a month.

"The rakyat's message is clear" cried Riduan Mat Nor, Youth central exco member, over the loudspeaker.

He continued to address the now silent crowd, even as the police personnel looked on from the five-foot ways.

A section of the protestors and the messges they are sending to the government.

"If the price doesn't go down, the rakyat will bring Umno and Barisan Nasional down," announced Riduan to vociferous cheers from the sitters. Even as the water cannon truck idled ominously in the shade some 50m away on Jalan Dang Wangi.

Almost half an hour later, he wrapped up the sit-down protest with a prayer in the middle of the crossroads.

The men, and some women, held out their hands in front of their faces before getting up and continuing their march to a parallel road – Jalan Raja Laut, where PAS has an office.

There, they shouted some more slogans for another 20 minutes before moving off and on with their lives.

The FRU trucks, meanwhile, were stuck in traffic at the other end of one-way Jalan Raja Laut. They were 15 minutes behind time.

Today, being Friday the 13th, was a nightmare for the federal government and poor, unsuspecting motorists caught in the jam, but a major success for the protestors. After all, they managed to stop traffic on a working weekday in the heart of Kuala Lumpur city. The point had been made.

Petrol hike: Look on the other side.....

With oil prices going up like that, how about a little humour:

Importance Of OIL in modern times

Are We Human?

Atrocities Of Humankind

1963. Thich Quang Duc, the Buddhist priest in Southern Vietnam, burns himself to death protesting the government's torture policy against priests. Thich Quang Dug never made a sound, or moved, while he was burning.

1962. A soldier shot by a sniper hanged onto a priest in his last moments.

1965. A mom and her children tried to cross the river in South Vietnam in an attempt to run away from the American bombs.

1966. U.S. troops in South Vietnam dragged a dead Vietcong soldier.

February 1, 1968 . South Vietnam police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan shot a young man, whom he suspected to be a Vietcong soldier.

1980. A kid in Uganda about to die of hunger, and a missionary.

1982. Palestinian refugees murdered in Beirut, Lebanon.

1987. A mother in South Korea apologized and asked for forgiveness for his son who was arrested after attending a protest. He was protesting the alleged manipulations in the general elections.

1992. A mother in Somalia held the body of her child who died of hunger.

1994. A man who was tortured by the soldiers since he was suspected to have spoken to the Tutsi rebels.

1996. Kids who were shocked by the civil war in Angola ...

2001. An Afghani refugee kid's body being prepared for funeral in Pakistan ...

2002. Soldiers and villagers in Iran digging graves for the victims of the earthquake. A kid held on to his father's pants before he was buried.

2003. An Iraqi prisoner of war tried to calm down his child.

There is more than enough for everyone on this Earth. Avoid War At All Cost.

A Touching Donation for Earthquake victims in China

This is a real life story in China which was in the news recently:
A donation by someone who felt that the victims of the recent earthquake in China need the money more than him......

He "walked" across. We thought he was just passing by........



"I want to donate!"
He took out some coins from his hands.
The officer wanted to help, but he insisted on putting the money into the donation box himself.



All are speechless.
He was returning the kindness society offered to him in his own way.



"Wait! There's more!"



He took out a few ten dollar notes and put them into the box yet again.



A generous man such as he touches our hearts.....

Rescue And Mourning In China In Pictures

A rescuer held the hand of a trapped student at Wudu Primary School on the outskirts of Mianzhu, in Sichuan Province, China.


Parents mourned near the covered body of their child at the site of a collapsed school building in Dujiangyan.


An earthquake survivor at a hospital in Chengdu, China.


A boy waited for rescue in Beichuan


A man listened for sounds of life in the rubble of a collapsed building in Dujiangyan


A mother mourned near the body of her child who was killed when a school collapsed in Dujiangyan.


An injured woman was rescued from the rubble by soldiers in Beichuan on Tuesday.

Check RM100 notes for fakes (And RM50 notes, too)

Friday May 23, 2008

Check RM100 notes for fakes

PETALING JAYA: Check your RM100 and RM50 notes, folks! Hold each note up to the light and if you can't see the first King's watermark portrait, it’s a fake.

Fruit vendor Loh Man, 53, discovered three days after a couple bought RM15 worth of fruits at his stall in Old Klang Road that the RM100 note they used to buy the fruits with was counterfeit.

Loh Man realised something was amiss when the colour on the note started to fade and the watermark of the King was missing when the note was held up to the light.

1) The security thread on a real note is embedded in the bill and appears on the reverse side of the note as a silver dotted line. When the note is held up against light, it is seen as a continuous dark line and the repeated text 'BNMRM100' can be read. This feature is missing on the counterfeit note, where the 'security thread' appears as a silver dotted line. 2) No raised Braille feature on the counterfeit note. 3) The holographic design on the LEADA (Long-lasting Economical Anti-copy Device) strip represents the same motif as used in the purple patch as well as the text 'BNMRM100'. The colour of these elements change when the viewing angle is changed. The counterfeit note features just a silver thread with a floral pattern. 4) The portrait of the first King on the right of the real note is raised (Intaglio Print). This effect is missing on the fake note. 5) Watermark portrait of the first King is missing in the counterfeit note. The numeral 100 watermark at the base of the King's watermark is also missing.
**************************************************

According to 'Shi Hwa' newspaper - dated 19-4-2008, most of the fake note RM50 found at Lahad Datu started from serial number '529''530'.

He sought the help of MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong who said this was the first RM100 fake note he had come across. He said he had been previously alerted of RM50 fake notes.

“Just hold the notes up to the light and check,” he advised the public at a press conference.

“The watermark portrait can be seen easily. At the base of the watermark, the numeral 100 is clearly visible in a real note but absent in counterfeit ones,” he said, adding that fake notes were also deeper in colour.

To demonstrate how easy it was to pass off the RM100 fake note as the real thing, Chong and a few reporters tested them out on merchants, who thought the notes to be real.

“I am very surprised that I managed to get through five merchants without being detected,” Chong said, adding that one trader took a close look at the note but still did not suspect anything.

Chong said he had seen a number of fake RM50 notes but claimed that Loh's fake RM100 note was more sophisticated.

”I will bring the matter up to Bank Negara,” he said.

Cyclone In Myanmar In Pictures.

The photos are graphic. View them with your own discretion.
For those who do not know the extent of suffering Myanmar is facing...
It is disheartening to have a corrupt, dictatorial government ruling your country!