Travesty of justice!!

I'm really feeling very angry. Here's why. Calling the death of a person for 'blasphemy' is fucked up. Also, I wouldn't consider Kashgari's postings to be blasphemous of sorts - they appear to be pretty mild, innocent personal reflections of a man. This is a nightmare trip back to the dark ages indeed. These religious fanatics are behaving like uneducated and uncivilised pricks.

Also, what happened to due process? The Malaysian government and police appeared to have deported Kashgari with great haste - and the move can be deemed illegal, as the High Court issued an injunction, ordering for his deportation to be stopped (albeit coming in 3 hours late). It's a farce how these law enforcers have not upheld the tenets of the law. I hope the family and friends of Kashgari would sue the Malaysian government under international law and win HUGE exemplary damages.

Looks like I won't be voting BN for a number of elections and would be dissuading others too. We need a government that would uphold human rights. Sorry, but due process is more important to me than the BN's propogated 1Malaysia ideology.

On another matter, cross off Saudi Arabia from list of countries to visit. We need to identify products of Saudi Arabia and boycott them.

Customer is always right... or not?

I had the most unfortunate experience last night for having witnessed a customer verbally intimidating and humiliating my colleague in front of other staff members. The cause of the incident was apparently the 'intimidation' of the wife of the said colleague earlier on in the morning, and he (customer), acting upon his wife's hearsay, decided to 'lecture' my colleague on how to do business, and said (to this extent), "Don't you dare intimidate any female". He also said my colleague was 'gangster-ish' (most likely because of his tattoos), and that he can "take him on anytime". The customer also said that he knows many of the other customers, and implicitly exclaimed that he can tarnish the name of the company and hurt our business by dissuading others from taking lessons from us.

Now, I've known my colleague for about 2 years now, and I trust he's pretty professional in his manner. Surely enough, not wanting to escalate the situation, he apologised for any unintended miscommunication. Not contented, the customer went on admonishing and humiliating my colleague. The whole incident left a bad taste in our mouth.

Newsflash: The customer's actions can be considered a form of criminal intimidation under the Penal Code:

Criminal intimidation
503. Whoever threatens another with any injury to his person, reputation or property, or to the person or reputation of any one in whom that person is interested, with intent to cause alarm to that person, or to cause that person to do any act which he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to do any act which that person is legally entitled to do, as the means of avoiding the execution of such threat, commits criminal intimidation.

The reason I didn't intervene was because I was unprepared and unsure what I should do. Now that I've thought of it clearly, here are a couple of steps we can all take to deal with such situations:

1. Video the record interaction.

2. When spotted video recording, and the customer prohibits us from recording and demands we delete the recording, we need to assert our right to record. At this juncture, if you give in to your fears and to the customer's demands, you've essentially pulled down your pants and bent over - preparing yourself to be sodomised (figure of speech if you haven't figured it out).

3. If threatened with some dubious laws (e.g. breach of privacy bullshit), continue to assert right to record, and say that the interaction is not private, and it's certainly does not constitute wiretapping. We have the right to record an open interaction.

4. If the customer becomes physical, cite these sections of the Penal Code:

Assault
351. Whoever makes any gesture or any preparation, intending or knowing it to be likely that such gesture or preparation will cause any person present to apprehend that he who makes that gesture or preparation is about to use criminal force to that person, is said to commit an assault.

Explanation—Mere words do not amount to an assault. But the words which a person uses may give to his gestures or preparation such a meaning as may make those gestures or preparations amount to an assault.

ILLUSTRATIONS
(a) A shakes his fist at Z, intending or knowing it to be likely that he may thereby cause Z to believe that A is about to strike Z. A has committed an assault.
(b) A begins to unloose the muzzle of a ferocious dog, intending or knowing it to be likely that he may thereby cause Z to believe that he is about to cause the dog to attack Z. A has committed an assault upon Z.
(c) A takes up a stick, saying to Z, “I will give you a beating”. Here, though the words used by A could in no case amount to an assault, and though the mere gesture, unaccompanied by any other circumstances might
not amount to an assault, the gesture explained by the words may amount to an assault.

Also, call the police to deescalate situation if needed (it's within our rights).

Bear in mind, any force used to confiscate the video recording device can be resisted with reasonable force under Section 97 of the Penal Code:

Right of private defence of the body and of property
97. Every person has a right, subject to the restrictions contained in section 99, to defend—
(a) his own body, and the body of any other person, against any offence affecting the human body;
(b) the property, whether movable or immovable, of himself or of any other person, against any act which is an offence falling under the definition of theft, robbery, mischief or criminal trespass, or which is an attempt to commit theft, robbery, mischief or criminal trespass.


*Acts against which there is no right of private defence
99. (1) There is no right of private defence against an act which does not reasonably cause the apprehension of death or of grievous hurt, if done, or attempted to be done, by a public servant acting in good faith under colour of his office, though that act may not be strictly justifiable by law.
(2) There is no right of private defence against an act which does not reasonably cause the apprehension of death or of grievous hurt, if done, or attempted to be done, by the direction of a public servant acting in good faith under colour of his office, though that direction may not be strictly justifiable by law.
(3) There is no right of private defence in cases in which there is time to have recourse to the protection of the public authorities.
(4) The right of private defence in no case extends to the inflicting of more harm than it is necessary to inflict for the purpose of defence.

5. Upload into the Internet and allow the world to see 1st class douchbaggery. Also, this does not constitute defamation as it is fair use (make sure no video editing) showing original interaction.

Even as we're workers serving clients' needs, bear in mind that we should NEVER allow the adage, "customer is always right" to ass-rape us in any condescending manner. We should never allow them to threaten us in any way e.g. threatening to influence others to avoid doing business with us - it's criminal intimidation btw Section 503 PC. We all have dignity, and we need to stand for our rights.

If you do get admonished by your employer, remind them that it is in their best of interests to protect their employees' rights.

I think...

... my life changed somewhat today.

I went to an NSEP site in KL for my data collection, and met up with a number of injecting drug users and some of the outreach workers.

Amongst others, I got to witness first hand of how syringes were given and exchanged for used ones, I got to interview the IDUs and social workers, and was given the opportunity to tour the place.

One of the most surprising facts of the day was realising that the outreach workers were also drug addicts once upon a time ago, and they are now reaching out to others who are like their former self. I always thought social workers who did these kind of work, are those who have gone through some sort of training... but now it makes a whole lot of sense. The outreach workers who are truly suited for the task of reaching out and introducing IDUs into the shelter are actually former addicts who know what it's like to be alone, homeless, an outcast pariah, depressed, hungry, and afraid.

Almost everyone at the NSEP site have had some sort of violent history, so, the shelter is a very much welcomed place of solitude and respite. The IDUs I've interviewed told me they're very happy with the place; They get free and decent meals, a peaceful spot to rest and sleep, access to toiletry needs, and they get to form social bonds. Yeah, stuff that most of us take granted of often. There's also a small clinic to address their medical needs.

3 hours later as I was making my way back to campus, I was lost in thought. IDUs are often seen as scary people who are prone to committing violence, stigmatised like lepers in the biblical times, and they all suffer a lot of hardships that most of us could never really imagine or experience. Most of them are likely to stay single for the rest of their lives as most women wouldn't find their backgrounds appealing, they would have a very dimmed hope of climbing the social ladder, and they'll have to live with the 'addict' label for the rest of their lives. Because society treats them as shit, they have no other choice but to live as one, and the perpetuating cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy goes on and on and on ensuring that they remain the way they are - or deteriorate further...

But it's good to know that at the very least, places like the NSEP site reminds them that they're not alone and that they're are loved.

Of skatin'...

Going through some of my old pictures, I never thought that I would someday be teaching skating.



I remember wanting to pick up skating when I was in lower secondary. Alas, my mum was very discouraging - not surprisingly since she's was a nurse who constantly saw broken bodies of children.

It was only MUCH MUCH later in life that I picked up this skill. I remember seeing an inline skater wheezing through La Trobe University, and that triggered my childhood desires to pick up skating more seriously. I mean, after all, I didn't really have much excuses and I was away from home with much time to spare while doing my PhD.

So I bought my first pair of skates which were the cheapest pair of Rollerblades - AUD350 TERIMA KASIH KEMENTERIAN PENGAJIAN TINGGI!. Now that I'm more familiar with skates, I think I was ripped off back then.



Learning to skate on my own was indeed very challenging. I fell numerous times, bruising my joints, and at one time, hurting the nerves in my right elbow.



And I fell... and fell.



BUT THIS WAS BACK THEN! I FALL NO MOAR!!!



Okay, what you see here is me executing a spin stop. This is actually a Level 3 skill (ICP standards) which I learnt on my own by accident.


Later on, I tried recreational skating in Putrajaya, but realised how much I sucked.

BUT NO MOAR!!!

Anyway, I'm trying to pass on my skating joy these days and the skills I've learnt to my ger ger.

iPhone 4s wallpapers

Obviously these backgound pics are not mine, and have been dug from the depths of the Internetz.





I really love 'aww kitteh' pictures. There's always something about cats that trigger the desires to cuddle them at the expense of the possibility of being scratched/bitten.

I was....

... one of the few people to have received an iphone 4s at the official launch of the phone. :D Surprisingly there wasn't a crowd at 9:30am at Digi centre, BSC.

I'm going to be an agent...

... for the upcoming general elections (PACABA - Polling Agent, Counting Agent, Barung Agent). Fun, fun, fun. The irony is that I don't intend to vote myself - I don't trust any political party. Anyone else interested in this civic duty?