This will be a follow-up to my reviews of the years 2022 and 2023 both years which got progressively worse especially for us Malaysians. This year, 2024, ends the (hopefully) the shitty trilogy – the next era will be made for TV short-lived miniseries – if you get my cynicism here. Unless Malaysians get to their senses and do something about it – like not believing that one man can reduce the fuel price the next day after he wins election. Simple, right?

And that would be an understatement, especially when you take note of the great pile of dung that has speedily been gathering up lately, especially with inept leadership all over the world, most notably in our own country, and that nature really, really hates us.

Allow me to weave in and out of the country, to the international events, and pick some of the most interesting events, which usually means lots of face-palming and groaning. Hold on to your horses, or, anything else, err…handy.

X-citing Leadership

In the global arena, mid-January was greeted by the appointment of a new King in Denmark (yes, descendants of Hamlet, in a way), Crown Prince Frederick who would be King Frederick X. Malaysians would probably be taken aback a trifle to note that, yes, we have our own very X, PMX (not to be confused with the motocross bicycle…you know, the one you ride on). The algebraic nature of X being filled with anything and everything will be the theme of our prime minister – that has since baffled his most hardcore supporters, especially members of the Bersih coalition that used to surrender themselves on the road, rolling their bodies on tar and gravel like Hindu devotees during Thaipusam. The leader and agent provocateur of the coalition, Margaret Hamilton, pardon me, Ambiga Sreenivasan, later expressed her disappointment over the slow-reform that the current leadership has been doling out. Gee Ambi, what were you expecting? Another Abraham Lincoln? Here we have a former jailbird who got behind bare not because he fought for our country’s freedom, but his sexual freedom.

The good news, though, for Malaysians, like Denmark, we got ourselves a new King too. This time, it’s the no-nonsense Sultan of Johore. Those who know the Johore royalty (I come from that state) knows that the members there do not treat words like meat in Bolognese sauce. They love the subjects (Johoreans, not you other buggers and gals) and are equally very firm. And yes, we use pasta for our laksa.

The first thing the king did was to give warnings to the MPs in parliament to not “overstep the boundaries”. This is very much in the view that the parliament has indeed become circus-like with cracks in the alliances, hocus pocus of quitting nd some MPs going rogue like batik-wearing Rambo or something.

The Swift US of A

Speaking of which, the US continued with its usual way of life, including another school shooting incident killing a sixth grader and wounding 7 other folks. Ah, American way of life, the NFL, Budweiser and shooting of kids in school – a great tradition like Thanksgiving turkey that goes all the way to 1764.

February though – bereft of any schoolkid shooting – still belonged to the Americans and one in particular – Joe Biden…. Haha, who am I kidding? 2024, as far as US is concerned belonged to Taylor Swift. Yes, the world was invaded by Swiftmania rather…err, swiftly. Why, according to this entry, “…she made history when she won the Grammy Award for album of the year for Midnights (2022), becoming the first artist to win in that category four times. Later that year she broke the record for the highest-grossing concert tour when her global Eras Tour wrapped up in December, having earned a whopping $2 billion”. That could feed the members of the entire Forbes billionaire list.

Malaysians were so charmed, so much so, they watched in awe as Swift performed live in …. Singapore. It’s no secret that international artists tend to jump over our country like clogged drain to the island next door to do mega concerts. Hell, even over-the-hill Indian artistes are postponing their concerts…and typical of discipline-averse Indian artistes –  with their “great management skills”  – the concert  “A Lovely Night with Udit Narayan”, was called off days before it was due to be held at the Setia Spice Arena on Nov 28. This is actually a sequel to another Bollywood concert pulled out last minute at end of last year as well. A concerted coitus interruptus.

There is nothing wrong with that. It is just that we already have the reputation for banning artists from coming and performing here; there is a whole bunch of history of us banning musicians coming here to play. To the point that most international artists look at us the way vegetarian monks look at medium rare steaks.

KK ‘k?

Come March, we had the Kalimah Allah issue (yeah, you are permitted to shake your head slowly, sadly, and sigh your tobacco or vape smoke out), which I have written about in-depth here. There were cries of boycott and braying for blood. It has so much of effect that the affected party, the KK convenience store, has opened up more outlets. Whole point of being a” convenience” store which we call out for blood conveniently and then shop for convenience, parking our vehicles next to the outlet… illegally. It’s a must or you are not a Malaysian. It’s business as usual now for KK Mart and its customers. Others may call it hypocrisy; we call it, “quick to forgive”. Hey it’s in all holy books.

Bombing Aids

As the conflict in Middle-East continued in the tradition of 1001 Nights, March also saw – surprise, surprise – the US dropping humanitarian aid in the war-torn Northern Gaza. What do you call a duck hunter that kills the mother duck, and spreads seeds for the ducklings. Fattening them up?

Naturally, wry comments sprung up, whereby Dave Harden, a former USAID director, noted, “The airdrops are symbolic and designed in ways to appease the domestic base.”.

Skin Theatre

Actually the whole bloody operation was completely criticised for being screwed up, whereby Oxfam (Oxford Committee for Famine Relief) stated that it did not support the “ineffective” aid drops and called them a way “to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials”. Al Jazeera English described the airdrops as an “absurd spectacle aimed more at the news cameras than the people who need it.”. Over here we just call it wayang.

In May, the country was faced with a shocking news which was not quiet wayang as it added to the ever-growing frustration against the football fraternity here – poorly paid players.

Haha, who am I kidding again? No, our football fraternity, already thick-skinned with getting trashed in the international arena, is now getting skin thinned by – acid attack.

Among others, that is. Yes, check the link and figure out the news yourself. Our sports minister, Hannah Yeoh, urged for a speedy investigation and blah, blah, blah. And nothing has been heard from here on this issue since. I tried searching for Hannah Yeoh’s latest news to see if she has gotten on top of the situation and become a guardian angel to these vulnerable footballers…and voila, I got this headline: Police confirm 7 reports filed against Yeoh. Oh well, business as usual.

Speaking of wayang, we now have a tourism ambassador – from a film industry, nevertheless – heading the news announcements in the month of June – for the state of Melaka. Yes, it is Hang Tuah. Haha. Again, who’s leg am I pulling? It’s more of Hang Li Poh, actually, as Chinese movie star Fan Bingbing was appointed as Melaka Tourism ambassador. It’s a beautiful premise, almost as if Shah Rukh Khan was appointed as ambassador Marshall of Texas.

Tragic Mid 2024

Tragically, two headlines shocked the country in the months of July and August, involving both Malaysian Indian and an Indian from India. In July, social media influencer A. Rajeswary Appahu, known as Esha, was found dead in an apparent suicide. So, the communications minister announced amendments to the communication and multimedia act. The sad usual mentality of getting things done only when tragedy strikes that has been prevailing our country for so long. Likewise, an Indian national literally sank without trace in Masjid India. Till today nothing is known of what has happened, as she will join MH370 to be featured in future “unsolved mystery” shows and content entries.

Vanitick-tock

As far as social media is concerned, 2024 is definitely the year of TikTok. What was once dismissed as a bunch of kids’ online playgrounds is now joined by professionals and politicians plugging their stuff and attempting to look as cool and hip as we wish they are ardent students of hara-kiri. But nobody is paying any mind to them. Despite being celebrated more for the embarrassing moments, the damned thing reached a billion users two years ago and is expected to generate US$4 billion in influencer marketing spending. Yes, influencer is now even more powerful than a sales/marketing evangelist or actual religion evangelists (whichever is more profitable and has access to minors). At least influencers sound less threatening – though it rhymes with influenza.

Budge It

Hark! October has arrived, and y’all know the best part of the month – October Fest. Yes, but that’s elsewhere, despite the fact that here and there pubs in the country do very, very, tame cleavage-less events. No, it’s an equally fantastic day of great promises and high, drunken lies that precede bad hangover and only sensual reward you get is watching related Ministers smacking their lips when the related allocations are mentioned.

Yes. In Malaysia, October is the month of Budget. This year, it is boasted, has the biggest budget ever in the history of the country. Which is a nice backhanded compliment to another record – debt that reached RM1.173 trillion, an increase of RM92.918 billion (8.6%) from the previous year. It may look frightening, but the article where I took the figure from assured me, hopefully you the readers, and the horse named Boo, that is not something to worry about. Let’s look at the article’s grandfatherly reassurance:

“…. not all debt is inherently bad. If managed correctly and used to fund productive investments, the debt could generate returns that more than offset the costs. The key is ensuring that borrowed funds are allocated to projects that stimulate economic growth and improve the country’s fiscal health in the long term……”

Keywords “managed correctly”. In Malaysia? Where politicians get their respective asses hauled regularly in court for treating public money like personal whores? Right.

Trust issue

As if “budget” sparked a curse or something, the month of November immediately hauled Khazanah Nasional – yes, our very own treasury – into the limelight (or headline, whichever you prefer) with the issue involving Fashionvalet Sdn Bhd prompting the anti-corruption crusaders, MACC to confiscate documents from the…. wait for it… finance ministry and Khazanah itself. How about that? The private company has been charged with criminal breach of trust. But what about public’s trust with our national treasury that has gone down the toilet bowl?

And so, we end the year with the news of a PKR member insulting the Agong. Ever since Najib has left the stage, the royalties has been subject to not too flattering statements and off-the-cuff remarks by some prominent politicians. Since the cat has been away, the rodent leaders have been cartwheeling their cheese with glee. 

So, there you go. There may have not been absolutely shocking events that rocked the country to the core like the drop in fuel price as promised. It’s going to be status quo, until the next election, less the folks are swayed again by empty promises. Till the next year in review, happy New Year. – NMH

The post  2024: End Of A Crappy Trilogy first appeared on NMH.

Frankly, I don’t care one way or another about the US presidential elections, especially the now concluding contest between ex-President Donald Trump and the current vice-president Kamala Harris. But I should.

What happens in the US reverberates across the globe (or platform, for the flat earth believers). It affects all of us. For one, the winner’s mug that’s going to appear day in day out on newspapers and media portals online, and I would have preferred someone better looking, a gal especially. Too bad, Harris.

So, we are back at seeing the infamous Republican candidate Donald Trump’s bloated face and the roadkill hair for another 1460 days (that’s four years, by the way; stop scratching your head). What does this say about the US of A?

Since many of us do not follow these sort of news – our source of news usually comes from phone screens through social media shares (when our friends and family are not preaching on moral values). The only representation of the US for most of us are the celebrities, sport folks and fast food.

Speaking of celebrities, folks from these damned screen trade and music business have traditionally been leftist, big fans of the Democrats. Watch how they cosy up with the candidates, and we saw how ex-president Obama was too comfortable with Hollywood, even appearing in Saturday Night Live, a show notorious for its political satires that had often relentlessly poked more fun at the Republicans than the others. And now, it looks like Alec Baldwin has a new set of work cut out for him. Famous for satirising Trump through his performance on SNL, he himself had thrown his support towards Harris’ direction.

Tinseltown Endorsement

I mean, look at the overwhelming endorsement from Tinseltown and the recording industry, backing Harris. You will see big names on that link. And surprise…surprise! Even Trump’s fellow party member, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Conan the Republican, as the media used to label him), said good stuff about Harris and slammed Trump for some “unpatriotic” stuff the latter has resorted to or has remarked about. Yes, the Austrian born knows a lot about patriotism, which he can regale in Austrian accent.

It was almost a no-brainer that, at that point of time, everyone thought that Kamala Harris is going to have the cake and eat it too, and Trump is the loser goofball with unpopular policies such as the immigration issue that smacked of racism, as some criticised.

But whaddya know? At the time of this writing, with two states left to be called, Trump has 295 electoral votes, while Harris has 226. Indeed, Harris has already conceded the 2024 presidential election to President-elect Donald Trump.

Interestingly, the analysts are unfazed by Trump’s lead. Some of them are very certain indeed, having noted what had failed the last four years. “Donald Trump has been elected president again because the future of American democracy was not on the ballot in 2024. What was on the ballot was the record of a failed administration led by President Joe Biden and Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris,” says Jonathan Tobin, the editor-in-chief of JNS.org, from an analysis piece in the Newsweek magazine. 

“As it turned out,” he continued, “a majority of Americans didn’t buy the smear that Trump was an authoritarian or a Nazi or that the only thing mattered in determining our future as a nation was a Capitol riot that was falsely inflated into an ‘insurrection’.”

Muslims for Trump

It’s no secret that the Muslim community too played an important factor in Trump’s win, with the latter having had already warming up to them, despite his earlier stance before he was the President for the first time.

In my own personal observation for the last one year at least, there is the rise of conservatism in that country, especially in the media, such as podcasters and commentators from conservative front like Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, and a host of others. Even the provocative, wildly popular podcaster Joe Rogan lent his last-minute support to Trump, something that the latter kept bragging about during his campaign rounds. 

One thing I suspect that may have taken place is the backlash against the rise of the woke culture that has been permeating the US, no thanks to those very celebrities mentioned earlier. Not to mention, overtly, the trans rights issue that sort of crosses the boundaries, irking even more detached disinterested blokes like me. 

All these contributed to the rise of conservatism, not only in the US but all over the world. It’s not surprising to find more folks returning to their religious roots, with Islam being the most popular one now and no matter which faith—the conservative route is the way the majority of the world population is taking on currently as religious nationalism is definitely on the rise.

Assassination Attempt

Let us also not forget the assassination attempt, where, though the assassin was not within the earshot, still got Trump’s ear shot (thank you) that created waves of sympathy for the old man (surprised to note that no one brought up conspiracy theory that it was staged for publicity except these two women, I suppose)

There have also been complaints that Trump is going to be the first president with criminal charges hovering over him like a death drone—currently standing at four criminal indictments in four different cities as he reclaims the White House, totaling in 91 felony counts among others.

The US, which prides itself on being modern, open-minded, so on and so forth, is a nation of murderers and lots of other horrible stuff that I have covered before in pursuing the argument that it is not a great nation. Hence, this time, it deserves the comic relief leader it has chosen. It’s going to be a great time for stand up comics, and the comedy circle in general.

Look, the current guy, Biden, who’s going to hand over the baton is basically a zombie and will not be missed. Obama may be good, but he is boring—he is just a nice guy, a supposedly virtuous family man, and, again, dull as dishwater.

Trump, with his criminal cases, his penchant to stick his feet in the mouth, and being inappropriate, rude, and dumb—incredibly all three at the same time—makes for great content, traditional or social media. I, for one, am really looking forward to his years as the president of the most decadent country in the world at the moment. Come on, for being the greatest nation in the world 18% of US adults (approximately 57.4 million people) are illiterates.

I am glad that Kamal Harris didn’t win. Gosh, if only she did, the amount of bragging by the Indian community world over, as if she is directly related to and have cooked Biriyani for them, would be unbearable. Welcome back, Donald Trump; and boy, are we in for great fun or what. – NMH

Aside: Talking about colour, what’s with the orange hues? Here are some possibilities!

Exclusive: Why is Donald Trump so orange? Make-up artist solves mystery after wild theories

Fake news or fake tan? Photo of ‘orange face Trump’ goes viral

The post The Trump Card: Why The Americans Want The Orange Dude Back first appeared on NMH.

What is IMPACT? Before we touch on the details, let me share some realistic figures.

It is reported recently that in our country alone, there are 35,240 single mothers and that is 1.7 per cent from the total population. That is official record, heaven knows what is the actual number.

But this doesn’t mean that these mothers are deprived of livelihood and living on handouts as often that image prefigure in the mind of many. Most eke out living, at all levels and there are many success stories out there (the CEO of my current place of work is one).

The IMPACT Programme

Not to mention, there are great many organisations which are helping out women, and especially single mothers in the country with various initiatives.

One such wonderful program is called the IMPACT Mentorship program – which is designed to support female founders of new and small businesses, providing them with essential tools and strategies to thrive in the competitive social media space. This is part of the She Speaks Power Mentorship initiative by Naga DBB Tribal, a marketing communications and brand strategy company.

The She Speaks Power IMPACT Mentorship Program aims to empower participants by focusing on three key areas:

Business Development: Streamlining services and marketing to a digital-first audience, ensuring that businesses can effectively reach and engage their target markets.

Impactful Content Creation: Sharing best practices and design principles to enhance brand visibility and create compelling content that resonates with audiences.

Social Media Growth: Utilizing social media platforms for growth, teaching techniques to build a loyal online following and drive business success.

Hajar Yusof, Head of Digital Experience, emphasised the initiative’s commitment: “At She Speaks Power, we are dedicated to making a real impact in our community and providing a platform for collaboration. This program is not just lip service; it’s a tangible effort to support and uplift female entrepreneurs who need the help the most.”

Now, why would I be interested to scribble a couple of lines on the subject, instead of the usual movies, politics and harmful socks, is that the first of the mentees of She Speaks Power is none other than NMH’s editor in chief, Hasnah Abdul Rahman, the program’s first mentee.

Autism Family

A single mother, she has always cared for her four sons, two of whom are under the Autism spectrum while her 32-year-old second son has just been diagnosed with mild ADHD and General Anxiety Disorder.

Of the program, she noted that as a one-woman show, the help of this IMPACT Mentorship Program will be incredibly valuable. “I look forward to learning from experienced mentors and applying their insights to grow my business.”

Hasnah has, for 15 years, successfully helmed her own communications company but had to give it up to focus on Ziqri, one of her seriously neurodiverse sons. With her youngest son Aidel’s diagnosis of high-functioning Asperger’s, she decided that she needed to be home more often, so she moved on to provide consultancy services to boutique PR firms and corporate organisations.

Projek Impian

Additionally, she also benefits from Projek Impian, an initiative under Santapan (by Kembara kitchen, a social enterprise catering organisation specialising in providing sustainable food to disaster areas), that supports selected small F&B operators by providing the necessary support, knowledge, capital, and facilities to launch their own products in the Ready-to-Eat Meals segment for commercialisation.

Said Hasnah: “About food? Well, during the struggle, I realised that food is what is going to put food on the table, and that’s what I have been doing for the past 10 years, cooking for clients from my small home kitchen, until William, the  founder of Kembara, took me by the hand and encouraged me to become a beneficiary of Projek Impian. And here we are…”

Laksa Johor

The first item to hit the shelves is the Ready-To-Eat Hasnah’s Laksa Johor, one of the most popular products from Hasnah’s home kitchen with regular clients having ordered for their celebrations and during festivals for the past 10 years. Today, they can now order the Ready-To-Eat version and after passing the lab tests, we now know that these packs can be kept for 1.5 years, thanks to the Retort machine at Kembara.

This mentorship helps women entrepreneurs effectively launch and grow their businesses. Participants will receive guidance on best practices and personalised 3-month mentorship to ensure their business success and sustainability.

Farrah Harith McPherson, Chief Growth Officer of NagaDDB Tribal, highlighted the agency’s involvement: “As experience makers, Naga DDB Tribal believes in putting our services to a greater cause. The IMPACT Mentorship Program is a perfect example of how we can leverage our expertise to empower and support women in business and celebrate women entrepreneurship.”

For more information about the She Speaks Power IMPACT Mentorship Program and how to get involved, please visit @SheSpeaksPower__ on Instagram. 

Single mothers like Hasnah have been making full strides with their entrepreneurial efforts. Those who need to find out more about her Laksa Johor can check out the link. – NMH

The post IMPACT Mentorship Programme To Empower Women Entreprenuers first appeared on NMH.

Mohandas Karamchand Ghandhi once said, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”. Let’s turn it around, and we get, “A nation’s awfulness is measured by how much its own citizen wants to kill its president.” We are looking at you, USA.

With the recent assassination attempt against former US president Donald Trump, we can surmise one thing: the United States of America is not the greatest nation, as it always beats its bullet-riddled chest and proclaims. I agree that it had the world’s greatest screen actor (one; the rest are from England and other parts of Europe), most gorgeous actresses (classic), and the greatest range of ice cream flavours (or flavors). That’s it.

Measuring the Greatness of USA

They are so enmeshed with dope that the co-founder of Pay Pal, Peter Thiel (an American, duh!), proposed Enhanced Games. What is it? Well, this one is the Olympics for athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs. How about that?

Of course, there are other ways of measuring the USA’s greatness, like its performances in sports, for example. But there is more mess there than you can shake your baseball bat at. Check these guys out, for instance. Known as the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, eight players from the Chicago White Sox team conspired to throw the World Series for money (the World here consists of the USA and Canada, by the way). Then, there are doping scandals, especially in the swimming category—occurrences as regular as pickles in their hamburgers—with swimmers failing the tests again and again at international events. And you thought they were bright.

Coming back to Trump, let’s face the facts; no country has blood thirst against the head of state (or former) like this country does. Allow the facts and figures to speak for themselves.

According to this report (dated 2009, so you hafta add the Donald in on your own; don’t be lazy): Direct assaults against presidents, presidents-elect, and candidates have occurred on 15 separate occasions, with five resulting in death. Ten incumbents (about 23% of the 43 individuals to serve in the office), including four of the seven most recent presidents, have been victims or targets. Four of the 10 (and one candidate) died as a result of the attacks.

If you look at that site, you will notice that one of the assassins is a gal, looking like a 1950s TV housewife straight out of a washing machine commercial. Talk about equal opportunity.

Now, look at this chronology chart, courtesy of Al Jazeera:

Gosh, they really hate their presidents, whom they voted democratically for. Sure, it has become—ever since the country’s inception in 1777—a breeding ground for president killers, but while underground, it distils chambers filled with serial killers.

Here, just take a look at the difference between the first entry and the second on the nation with the highest number of serial killers taken from Data Panda.

Based on that I asked Chatgpt as to why USA is holding the flag to having most number of the worst human beings on earth. The response:

The prevalence of serial killers in the USA can be attributed to several factors. While it’s a complex issue, here are some contributing factors:

1. Population Size: The U.S. has a large population, which naturally increases the likelihood of having more criminals, including serial killers.
2. Media Influence: American culture places significant emphasis on crime and violence. Movies, TV shows, and news coverage often sensationalize serial killers, creating a sort of “infamy” that may attract disturbed individuals.
3. Mobility and Urbanization: The U.S. has a highly mobile population, with people moving across states and cities. This mobility makes it easier for serial killers to operate without detection.
4. Access to Weapons: The availability of firearms and other weapons makes it easier for individuals to commit violent acts.
5. Historical Context: The U.S. has a history of notorious serial killers, such as Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy. These cases have left a lasting impact on public consciousness.
6. Cultural Anonymity: In large cities, people can remain relatively anonymous, allowing serial killers to blend in and avoid suspicion.

Remember, though, that this is a multifaceted issue, and no single explanation can fully account for the phenomenon.

Yeah, in the last line, basically, the AI is throwing its artificial hands up.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the US has also been frequently rated as the worst country to live in. According to this report, safety is the biggest concern. …About 69 percent of expats reported feeling safe in the U.S., but that number is far less than the 81 percent average worldwide.”

Even Forbes says that the country is uninhabitable.

Point four is especially the most off-putting factor. You have an organisation like the National Riffle Association that is still fighting for gun rights despite the frequency of school shootings that killed many innocent kids.

Just to give you an idea of where this so-called advanced, developed nation stands, check out these 2024 statistics on gun violence by the World Population Review site.

The higher number of suicides compared to homicide surely lets us non-Americans know that we do not have to hate that country; there’s enough self-loathing. Speaking of which, it has often been recorded that more soldiers in that country died of suicide than in actual combat, with the rate going up to 127 per day. Dig this chart taken from its veteran affairs site. 

Then there’s the friendly fire—yeah, accidentally shooting your own team members. According to the report here (I couldn’t get the latest) during the Gulf War (part one, not the sequel), 35 Americans and nine British soldiers lost their lives due to friendly fire, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the total 148 combat deaths.

Now, leave all that aside. If you can live there dodging bullets and blindsiding, you have to face another bigger obstacle: racism.

Right now, forget about the African Americans there; they are destined to experience racism in that country for the rest of its existence. It’s the Muslims who are the new blacks. The PEW research in 2021 found out that ever since the 9/11 incident (or tragedy) and with the increase in the population in the country, “Muslims have reported encountering more discrimination. In 2017, during the first few months of the Trump administration, about half of Muslim American adults (48%) said they had personally experienced some form of discrimination because of their religion in the previous year. This included a range of experiences, from people acting suspicious of them to being physically threatened or attacked. In 2011, by comparison, 43% of Muslim adults said they had at least one of these experiences, and 40% said this in 2007.

Let’s face it, the Americans and United States of America are in a mess. They voted in an orange guy with a gift for foot-in-mouth disease and then a zombie as their presidents. The orange is poising for a comeback (the walking dead’s ain’t gonna return, as mentioned in the same story in the link). It must be the beaming Trump and that sunny glare from the follicular creature on top of his head that had the assassin missed the aorta and gave Trump free ear piercing.

You gotta admit, America is ailing. The sad truth is, with trash piling up in its own gutter, it wanted to clean other homes, sometimes out of the neighbourhood. I am reminded of the rock band Led Zeppelin’s song lines: “If it keeps on rainin’, the levee’s goin’ to break; when the levee breaks, I’ll have no place to stay.”.

Who wants to stay in the USA, anyway? – NMH

Other articles by the writer:

The Rise of Hinduism: A Worrying Trend to Be Wary About

Blackrock And Malaysia: The Fourth Round Of Colonisation?

Influencers. How Influential Are They?

The post Step Down, USA. You Ain’t The Greatest Nation In The World No More first appeared on NMH.

Back then, when I was done bumming around wasting my life, followed by a stint at rehab for alcoholism, and after which I started freelancing, I lived and still do in a town called Rawang, on a floor above a shop lot. Right below is this place selling Hinduism related prayer items, like sambrani, also known as Dhuno, benzoin resin, or in Malay, kemenyan.

In simpler term, it’s a goddamned fragrant coal.

Apart from the dreadful feeling that one day a fire might break out there is that comfort in knowing that – it wouldn’t matter if I’d be either original or crispy –  at least I would smell holy. What really struck me about this shop was the varieties of sambranis, when it used to be just only one type back in days. Evidently, there are two main groups now, namely Paal Sambrani (natural resins) and Computer Sambrani (artificial resins). Don’t ask, and no, it has nothing to do with AI.

The Newfound Enthusiasm for Hinduism

Why am I talking about that? Well, lately I have been noticing a certain uptrend among the Indian communities in Malaysia, namely the Hindus. They seemed to be pretty excited about their religion, almost everyone I know seemed to be going for temple tours or even pilgrimages to some “holy places” in India.

I mean, there seemed to be a rise in the enthusiasm for Hinduism more than what I experienced growing up in the conservative plantations, where each “estate” would have several temples, usually branched out because someone dreamt about it or have quarrelled with the original temple and end up with sequels and remakes. One estate we lived in had up to five temples: one big central place of worship, and others being mini-me, R2D2s and Ewoks.

Sanadhana Dharma and the Hit Men

First and foremost, there will always be a disclaimer from certain quarters that Hinduism is not a religion, especially for those who have just rediscovered it. It’s supposed original name is Sanadhana Dharma. It means eternal order/ law. Usually to understand the philosophy, to know the rituals, to go into the subconsciousness, blah, blah blah, one needs to be a follower of the gurus of their choice, which is a more popular approach than just personal relationship with the creator which is my family’s preference.

These gurus are not exactly priests, mind you, though some do function like one. They are also like spiritual brokers cum teachers, or worshippers’ consigliere on all matters god, universe, subconsciousness, or whatever. Anyway, I asked the Chatgpt to list the most famous Hindu gurus who are now, you know, trending. It gratefully responded and did a lot of asterisking while at it (ones in parenthesis are my own comments):

Certainly! India has a rich tradition of spiritual leaders and gurus who have influenced countless lives. Here are some **contemporary** Hindu gurus who are well-known:

1. **Sadhguru (Jaggi Vasudev)**: Founder of the Isha Foundation, Sadhguru is renowned for his teachings on yoga, mysticism, and inner engineering (really, no kidding). He actively engages in social and environmental initiatives.
2. **Shri Shri Ravi Shankar**: A prominent spiritual leader, Shri Shri Ravi Shankar is recognised both in India and globally. His teachings emphasize meditation, stress reduction, and holistic (from the word whole, not hole) well-being.
3. **Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma)**: Known for her unconditional love, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, affectionately called “Amma,” is famous for her motherly hugs (really) and spiritual guidance.

Damn… I know those names. For all the wrong reasons. For one, that Jaggi guy has been mired in controversy for a long time. Yes, each link has different stories about the trouble he has been in, perhaps with a bit of inner engineering.

Aside: Mocking Hindus can be confusing to both the mocker and the intended victim. I mean, which sect, cult, God, goddess, followers, students are you going to offend anyway? It’s like using shotgun to shoot mosquitoes, and if you do hit one, the other group of mosquitoes would be happy it’s not them. End of aside.

How about the other guys, that Shri Shri Ravi Shankar? I don’t know who he is, but having two “Shri”s in his name must have worked wonders to his self-esteem. Alas, again, he too is no stranger to controversies. He once claimed to have rejected the Noble Prize, which he denied later. Yes, some commentators did make fun of his double Shri, hinting that perhaps he should award himself a third Shri, which is awesome only it will sound like his name is being greeted by crickets.

And that Matta lady? Well, lets put it this way, one of the devotees, an Australian, got out of the cult and wrote a book titled Holy Hell: A Memoir of Faith, Devotion, and Pure Madness. Crikey!

The Resurgence?

Back to issue in hand. The resurgence of Hinduism. Yes, resurgence, because it used to be thriving historically before the Abrahamic religions started stomping all over the globe. The Hindus here like to brag, sharing their selective knowledge of history, on how the Hindu kingdom had once flourished in this region.

Once.

Anyway, in Malaysia, according to Wiki, Hinduism is the fourth-largest religion. “About 1.78 million Malaysian residents (6.3% of the total population) are Hindus, according to the 2010 Census of Malaysia. This is up from 1,380,400 (6.2% of the total population) in 2000,” it noted.

It makes sense why Hinduism is the fourth. Malays, the majority among the races here, are all Muslims; then there are those from other races who are Muslims too.

Apart from that, you have the Christians (including Catholics and other denominations), which, like Star Trek’s Borg, tend to “assimilate” members from other races (except Malays, of course, right? Though, there have been some sneaky evangelists).

The thing is, they all can be pretty evangelical, depending on the group, the moderation of their practice, denomination, the cults, etc.. Also, there is the default factor here in Malaysia where, in the case of Islam, if you marry into one family, there’s conversion involved. Now, don’t drag me into this “forced to” thingy. When you are head over heels in love with a Muslim gal or dude, you know what you are in for and are prepared for it. Well, if your spouse converted after you are married, then, again, you should have known what you are in for and are prepared for…like any marriages.

Next of course is Buddhism, which is claimed to be atheistic or nontheistic; choose your pick. But the thing is, a large number do worship Buddha himself directly. Imagine, the chief of a group of thieves shows them plans to rob a bank, but they rob him instead after the heist. Poor comparison, but you get the idea.

Also, we should not forget that our constitution says “belief in God,” so you better grab one faith, or god, and hang on to your citizenship.

The Split and Splinters

Anyway, thanks to the influence of marriages and evangelism, Hindus in Malaysia have been losing their fellow worshippers pretty quickly – many Hindus in the country have been pac-manned by other faiths. Then, you have the splits among the Hindus themselves, there are the Saivism, the Vaishnavism, and the strictly “guru” followers (see above).

As mentioned, the interest, nay, the zeal for anything and everything Hindu in Malaysia has been rising also no thanks the influx of Hindu products, like those multi-fragrance flammable sambranis, among others – the advertisements of which get tremendous airplay especially over at the Tamil radio stations.

I will not say the resurgence is a cause for concern, but one thing is for sure. It is not going to help with the unity of the Indian folks here, already split apart for so many reasons. Then, the now so-called various “cool” gurus are pulling the youths and old farts this way and that. What is it about them that is appealing to the contemporary Hindus?

Well, to answer that question, this article here even starts with a standfirst saying, “Despite many gurus and babas implicated for crimes including murder, rape, tax evasion, and fraud, Indians continue to flock to self-styled godmen.” You can read further about the rise of these figureheads there and why India’s Hindus are crazy about them, especially as one of them, Baba Gurmeet Singh, has written, produced, and directed five films starring…Baba Gurmeet Singh. Dude, of course, was later accused of rape by a female disciple. Sigh.

The Hindutva Influence

These things, the mess, are there in India, and to see that the Hindus here are following them, swearing by them, even forgoing the temple idols in favour of these self-elevated human beings –  many of whom as mentioned above are complicit in various crimes and disgusting acts – is not only worrying but is going to make the image of this community in this country – already mired in gangsterism and labelled as loud, obnoxious drunks – look a lot more pathethic.

Yes, the influence is strong in India – partly thanks to the Hindutva infused government running the country, to the point where the other religions in India are screaming persecution, like the Muslims in Varanasi or the Christians in Karnataka. The image of Muslims as terrorists is slowly fading away, for me at least, as I started viewing the dangerous precedents set by those said Gurus and some of those Hindus feared by the followers of other faiths.

Why am I bitching about this, knocking on my own background, as my birth certificate still says that I am a Hindu? Simply put, I am always reminded of the terrible tragedy that occurred in our history, in this country, that is related to race and religion. We have not been there again, just some friction now and then – usually triggered by the oh ever so helpful politicians.

And speaking on behalf of the Malaysian Indian and specifically the Hindu community, I would say, moderation is the way to go. One need not be sceptic, agnostic, or whatever label I carry for myself, but continue to know, and be empathetic of the other communities and their faith, respect them, and it will be reciprocated. Many of our own relatives and friends have converted to other faiths, and they will, sooner or later, yearn for our relationship. We can’t let this faith divide and split us apart.

In fact, this entire country can’t afford that as we learned from the history. Despite the so-called raging enthusiasm, we are too small – the Hindus here – and it’s easy for us to crash and burn. Especially if you live above the shops selling sambrani. – NMH

The post The Rise of Hinduism: A Worrying Trend to Be Wary About first appeared on NMH.

The recent lamentation by former premier, Tun Dr. Mahathir that the current Madani government is “authoritarian” for placing limits on freedom of speech, tickled me. Of all people!

This reminded me of a scene in the 1987 Tamil film Nayagan (a film “inspired” by The Godfather, 1971), in which an ageing gangster character, Velu Naicker, has a quarrel with his daughter. You see, in the heat of the moment between him, her, and his right-hand man, the girl smacked the latter. The old man smacks the daughter back and yells, “Where did you pick up that habit of hitting others?”

“From us, Naicker,” the aide says.

So, where else did this “authoritarian” government come from? This is his exact quote: “Well, with this Kerajaan Madani (Madani Government), you have to accept that it is an authoritarian government. You are not allowed to speak about anything.”

Whither Freedom of Speech?

Yes, that is coming from a man who used the Internal Security Act like his personal maid and was responsible for the brief shutdown of The Star newspaper. You can read the recollection from the newspaper’s former correspondence here.

As you may know, the Madani government has approved plans to license and regulate social media, which, as this report noted, “includes imposing a content code on such platforms that would also have regulations regarding political content.”.

The reason I used that movie as an example is that it’s galling to see that the man who used the draconian act and was responsible for shutting down what is still the most circulated newspaper is now bitching about the freedom of speech limitation. Where did the current government pick up this trait? From Tun, of course.

Yet, as much as I disagree with him on many issues, I am sure many would agree that not only trying to reign in social media under a certain level of control is unmistakably authoritarian but also incredibly stupid, like trying to clip Medusa’s follicles. Cyberspace is not called the world wide web for any reason; it’s a jungle out there.

How many of us do social media platform hopping, having been frustrated or bored with one, and jump onto the next bandwagon? There are newer and more convenient platforms coming up every now and then, and to regulate them would be an amateur plate-spinning disaster.

Alternative Platforms

As alternative platforms keep spurting out, users frustrated with a lack of freedom would just abandon the current one and grab another, like serial pet owners. Curb one, and the platforms regenerates like the planarian flatworms.

But what amuses me quite a bit is the whole “kicking the ladder after using” attitude this government is fond of indulging in. Not only has it betrayed its own voters with the retail price issues, namely fuel, but it has also forgotten that it was the alternative media platform and the social media that helped Pakatan Harapan and its ilk, I mean, partners, win the 15^th General Election, with its trolls continuing to be the chief reason for its subsequent victories.

Coming back to Mahathir, if you think it’s just an old man whining and complaining, get this: even someone as young and hip as Syed Saddiq is up here with the whole curbing of media freedom thing.

Indeed, the Muar member of parliament cited former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Bin Razak as being even more liberal: ““Even the former Member of Parliament for Pekan (Najib, if you do still remember) did not resort to such actions, yet the current government intends to do so, which I find quite strange,” he was quoted in that report. Regrets, Saddiq?

Interestingly, Saddiq’s own party, Perikatan Nasional, when they were in power, was criticised by the then opposition leader Anwar for the slide in the press freedom index at that time. The kettle was already calling the pot black back then, and this will confuse those who have been twice waylaid since the BN of Najib has left the scene.

Lawyers Incensed

Alas, even the usually Pakatan-friendly lawyers are incensed. Here’s what Lawyers for Liberty has to say: “It is… unsurprising that the government’s new plan to impose licensing and regulations on social media has set alarm bells ringing. It stinks of despotism and self-interest. It draws comparisons with North Korea, Communist China, and PAP-ruled Singapore.” Ouch.

Therefore, it is no surprise that this report noted that in 2023, about 1,862 requests were made by this government to take down content—an average of 10 daily—for the second half of the year, 5.5 times the number six months before. “The whole of 2023 saw 2,202 requests, a more than 30-fold increase from the 70 requests made in 2022,” it said.

The curbing of media freedom and its cousin, the regulation of social media, are not going to solve issues. You have to go back to the roots. There’s the culture, the education system, and the good parts of many faiths practiced that’s necessary for life in the 21st century, especially when the so-called goodwill of the previous centuries written in holy books may not exactly be in line with globalisation and the 48,100 McDonald outlets around the world. Those are the ones that need another look. Killing the messengers would just fill up graves.

Thus, it is a bit too clear that social media is just another fodder, something for politicians to blame when the cyberspace guns are trained at them. As for Pakatan Harapan and its cohorts, it is amusing that the dragons they once rode on are now breathing fire down their dirty collars.

I will finish with another movie quote. In the 2008 excellent The Dark Knight, the bad guy, Harvey Dent, says, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Ditto the Reformasi government. – NMH

Articles by the same writer:

The Boycott Issue: More Than Just Socks!

Greenwashing: Consigning Conscience to Consumers

The post Freedom Of Speech: A Tale Of Chained Content first appeared on NMH.

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about BlackRock. No, it’s not a new heavy metal genre that mixes black metal and hard rock. It’s worse than that. It’s a gigantic investment company that is basically, indirectly, impacting our livelihood, our health, and potentially the next government we are going to foolishly choose. Again.

I am exaggerating, of course. Our lives are actually controlled by social media Likes, cat videos, and food porn on Instagram. Not some investment companies. Anyway, let me start with my usual film quote.

BlackRock? Who are those guys?

“Who are those guys?” is a famous line from the classic 1968 Hollywood flick Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, where the infamous robbers of the title are chased by these dark, mysterious posse of horsemen from distance who finally finish off the legendary bandits at the climax of the bloody shootout. What is then, BlackRock, that seemed to be purposefully named to strike fear upon hostile investors, greedy businessmen, and corrupt politicians (or all three in one)?

In fact, it is not until recently that Malaysians in general have heard that name, the desas desus (words in the wind, so to speak), about the mysterious investment entity. However, this information is now publicly available. When it was reported that Gateway Development Alliance (GDA) announced an offer to acquire Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) on 15 May, some folks got frantic. GDA is part of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). GIP, in turn, is in the midst of an acquisition by BlackRock Inc.

You can read more about GIP’s intent here, where a news agency conducted an “interview” with GIP’s head of transport, Phil Iley, in what looks like an emailed Q&A possibly responded by the company’s PR agency, where the business lingo, spread like cheap margarine, filled paragraphs that look like the parts we tend to skip before signing “I agree.”

Not to mention, we have already spoken about Malaysia Airlines’ somewhat openness in allowing dubious airport lounge operators with its affiliation with El Al Israeli Airlines that would also easily grant the genocide loving country’s intelligence agencies access into passenger database. Among others.

The Opposition’s Opposition

Naturally, there are oppositions. By whom? The opposition, of course.

“The Prime Minister did not explain to the public that according to a statement by GIP a few days ago, the company said that it will play a role as a technical partner and be involved in airport management,” grumbled Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, Machang MP of the opposition pact, Perikatan Nasional.

Wan Fayhsal and some others mentioned in the news have reasons to reject the offer. For one, the asset management company is a collosus that can swallow a country like an open-mouthed whale going head-on against a school of fish. I mean, look at the size the number crunchers are spitting out.

According to this report, “As of the first quarter of 2024, the New York City base… BlackRock had total assets under management (AUM) of around 10.5 trillion U.S. dollars. This compares to 8.59 trillion U.S. dollars of AUM as of 2022. The total assets under management of BlackRock Inc. more than doubled between 2016 and 2024, reaching a value that makes them the world’s largest asset management company.”

Alright, more jaw-dropping time: Here’s a video clip of a Scandinavian gal explaining in detail what BlackRock owns or has a considerable share of throughout the globe. Her nonchalance can be disconcerting, but really check her—I mean, the numbers out.

While In Malaysia

Now, as far as our country is concerned, BlackRock’s Equity Fund is already capitalised at USD 279,011,893 (as of June 25th, 2024), holding equity in hundreds of Malaysian corporations, totaling around RM24.7b, and among them are CIMB Holdings, Tenaga Nasional, and Petronas, the latter of which paid RM40b in dividends to the government in 2023 (I recommend Minyak Cap Kapak, which still works).

Some may rejoice, especially those who take masochistic pleasure in seeing our country slowly go through another round of colonisation. Yet, there is another reason that should be concerning, especially for those who believe that not eating sausage McMuffin can help stop genocide in Gaza.

The Greenwashing

For one, we have established that the company can just buy the entire nation out on the open market. But its complicity with the genocide in Gaza is something that concerns many. All these, while BlackRock takes pleasure in championing environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) on one side.

Which it does so well while also profiting from fossil fuels and war. It never shied from bragging that it is the world’s largest investor in fossil fuels, where BlackRock holds stakes of about 9% in Philips 66 and Occidental Petroleum; 8% in Valero Energy and ConocoPhillips; and 6% in ExxonMobil. Overall, the money manager has nearly $260 billion invested in fossil fuel companies around the world, including $91 billion in Texas. Therefore, we can surmise that their ongoing efforts in ESG are nothing but pure greenwashing at best.

It is also no surprise that its transplanted, battery-operated conscience may have been involved, as the company also plays a huge role in the pharma industry, especially in the US.

BlackRock, alongside its kindred spirits Vanguard and State Street, owns shares in the top three pharmaceutical companies in the US: Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck. And every year, BlackRock and its ilks, Vanguard, and State Street receive billions of dollars from these investments. Here’s a look at the market capitalisation of these companies in the pharma stratosphere:

Aside: Not related, but I bereave the passing of the great Hollywood film actor Donald Sutherland, who once played a guy who starts fires so that it can give something for the firemen to do (Backdraft, 1991). Oh wait, this has nothing to do with pharmaceutical companies and the recent trend of, err, trendy new viruses and diseases. End of aside.

The Gaza Connection

Then, believe it or not, with all that bleeding conscience, BlackRock has shares in defence companies like Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing, Raytheon Technologies Corp., General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman Corp., which are arming the terrorist state of Israel to the teeth. Here’s from the horse’s mouth: its involvement with the companies that produce death machines:

It’s Already Here

Thus, now there is a fantastic chance that they are going to make an inroad into Malaysia, having already gotten one foot through the door through its investment in more than 100 companies in the country (with a total amount of investment of USD 4.3 billion or RM 24.7 billion). If the MAHB deal is in the bag, it is going to put the other foot in.

Sure, the bigger the investment, the better the economy and the job opportunities, blah, blah, blah. If that is the case, then it is wise for the entire nation to also sit and, like the majority of other nations, watch the cleansing of Gazans enter its climax stage.

What’s the point of the country leader announcing that we are not going to sit down and do nothing about Gaza on one side and, on the other side, not only allowing this foreign entity to slowly gorge the businesses in the country but also welcoming one of the facilitators of genocide to waltz in through another door?

Colonisation

You see, colonisation has now evolved into a different animal. Only the uncivilised go for military incursions (cough! Cough! USA! Cough! Cough). Also, it’s a question of sovereignity. Therefore, the ownership of the country. Is Prime Minister Anwar intending to finish what he sought out to do back in the 90s with the IMF?

Just to refresh lots of convulsed minds, back when we had an economic crisis going on in 1997, Anwar, as the then deputy Prime Minister, was pushing for aid from the International Monetary Fund. It was already noted then that critics of the IMF pointed out that the institution pushed for too much reform within too little time. (Latest: He is refuting some of the stuff, in apparently a lengthy outburst).

And In Indonesia

This happened to Indonesia, which, at the time, had earlier taken up the IMF’s bailout package, and the country erupted in riots.

Thankfully, the then prime minister, the then Datuk Seri Dr (pre-Tun) Mahathir Mohamad, whose brain was yet to be taken over by complaint bureau aliens, did not budge to Anwar’s idea, knowing well that allowing the IMF in would mean his own financial interests in various entities would have to do a striptease.

Some of you may say, MAHB is just contemplating, nothing is confirmed yet: So, why are you scaring us with some financial Godzilla story? Well, way back in 1600, the Brits started East Indian Company just to, you know, do business in a certain sub-continent. And all hell broke loose. – NMH

The post Blackrock And Malaysia: The Fourth Round Of Colonisation? first appeared on NMH.

You can’t go to social media these days without some people (Influencers?) yelling at you about some products, streaming into your consciousness with a couple of agendas, or having a sneaky son of a gun or two trying to proselytise you into succumbing to their religion, ideology, politics, or loving dogs.

Having resisted those, especially the latter, I can’t help but notice that what used to be random knocks on the door (physical) by strangers selling snake oil, or Jesus Christ, has since creeped into the cyberworld and jumped straight through the telcos into our hand devices. The nerve.

You see, a friend mentioned Ozempic that I know nothing of, and being both rational-minded and panicky at the same time from not having a clue about what sounds like Olimpic as pronounced by Scooby Doo, I ended up googling, where I kept bumping into which influencers said what and which popular Youtubers recommended which. Like, I give a damn?

The Explosion of Influencers

The trouble is, I am almost alone. Many, many users of social media have caught up with the wave of influencers grabbing them by the back of the neck (virtually, go easy on your imagination, will ya?) and pouring opinions or photos of their well-endowed posteriors down the users’ throats.

The growth of these content creators has been so phenomenal that if you ask most kids what they want to be when they grow, quite a large number would say, you guessed it, astronauts. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s to be influencers, of course, with the article in the link revealing a finding that over 57% of Gen Z’ers surveyed desired influencer roles, outpacing other age groups by16%, and a majority (53%) view it as a respectable career choice. Respectable.

The burgeoning interest is understandable. Here’s a headline screaming, “Google Searches for Influencer Marketing grew 1500% over 3 years.” Take a gander at this chart. Of course these are 2019 figures, but you can imagine the numbers now as we speak.

Also, according to Statista (a statistic portal, duh), the global influencer marketing market size has more than tripled since 2019. In 2024, the market was estimated to reach a record of 24 billion U.S. dollars.

As of 2023, social media continues to thrive, with an estimated 4.9 billion people actively using various platforms worldwide. The most widely used platform remains Facebook, boasting 2.9 billion monthly active users globally.

The Definition

Has influencer marketing become that important? What in the name of Goebbels is a social media influencer anyway, asks anyone who just walked into this article. Grab some popcorn (that’s probably recommended by your favourite influencer).

The same Influencer Marketing Hub site defines it as:

• the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience.
• a following in a distinct niche, with whom he or she actively engages. The size of the following depends on the size of his or her topic in the niche.

My own personal definition is that it is a sort of bastard child of “celebrity ambassadorship” and “word on the street.”  Mostly useless but hung on to by fans and gossip consumers.

Yet, as history is the witness, with great growth comes the inevitable, the great crash. Like the infamous stock market crash in 1929 which actually followed a bull run at that circuit . Will the influencers of today become the Hello Kitty of tommorrow? Remember those YoYos that kept us kids tied up back in the 80s. Check out this reddit entry on dead trends and don’t be surprise if you are cowering in embarassment. Bad comparison, but there’s a lesson there.

The Fall?

If the traditional media has “reporters” and “journalists” (don’t scratch your balding scalp; they can mean the same thing), social media has influencers. But unlike traditional media, social media influencers do not exist as a group or as an organisation.

Because that may not happen. Already, the influencers have taken up arms against each other; heated rivalry, jealousy, serious controversy, and some petty (or, as we say in Malay, remeh temeh) reasons are pushing away the users. Not to mention fake numbers, as there are even companies that can help, with some fee, with the number of followers. It’s getting messy over there with bogus accounts and fraudulent chats (or the other way around; I leave it to you).

Slowly, influencers may have the potential to reside next to trolls as the bottom feeders of cyberspace. It is unregulated, as this article explains that the influencer industry is “a space for both entrepreneurship and exploitation, connection and harassment, truth and falsehood, self-expression and harm, encountering new ideas, and finding comfort in familiar biases.”.

The Regulation

This is where regulations may want to place themselves amidst the fiercely competing online entities. Who and what? We don’t know for now, and though individual countries have their own regulatory bodies, they can only do so much patrolling, and platforms like Facebook do their own bit of policing the content, as they temporarily ban its abusive users, though the latter can always sneak in as different avatars or simply move on to a greener terrain like TikTok, which is now the fastest-growing social media app and the most sought-after outlet by influencers, especially as it is suitable for followers with the attention span of a domestic fly.

Will there be a great fall in this whole business of influencing online? No, not necessarily (which is why there’s a question mark next to the word in the headline), but it would definitely evolve. The users get old, and the needs change.

Let’s not forget, it might even take a toll on the influencers, where a few have actually committed suicide, no thanks to the very platform that gave them the fame. Not to mention, the same platform has since been invaded by politicians, especially those trying to win the young voters.

Nevertheless, fret not; we can be assured of the fact that, at least, these practitioners of politics would never commit suicide should bitterness engulf them. Never. Not when they have the skin of a rhinoceros—one of the biggest criteria for being a social media influencer. – NMH

Read more articles by the same writer:

The Boycott Issue: More Than Just Socks!

Bullets Ahoy! Death Threats And What’s Happening In Malaysia

The post Influencers. How Influential Are They? first appeared on NMH.

In the wake of the power of social media and the rise of netizenship, I cannot but remind myself of this great sci book from the late 19th. You see, novelist and social critic H.G. Wells wrote one of the greatest sci-fi novels of all time, Time Machine. Cited as one of the, if not THE, most important novels of that genre, Wells took it upon himself to look, with a critical eye, at the evolution of human beings, the class system, and the economic order of the day.

In the novel, the Time Traveller (no names, just that, Time Traveller) shoots about 800 thousand years forward, where extreme evolution has taken place and the evolved human race is divided into two: the fair, childlike Eloi living on the ground and the savage, simian Morlocks living underground.

Of Netizens And Netizenship

Whenever I come across the word Netizen, it’s the image of the latter, the Morlocks, that pops up in my head. Because Netizens have since been synonymous with overly reactive, crude, bleating herds of beings, that has also been responsible for many things wrong. Their (our?) voice can be heard everywhere and every day, on our social media platforms and the news portal comment spaces. Yes, these days, even the legacy media has taken to making a big deal about what netizens are fretting about. “Netizen sees red,” one headline screams, treating the netizens with the same honour as if they sat with King Arthur at the bloody round table.

Yes, netizens spew opinions, vomit comments, and rediscover something everyone knows and fret over it like a monitor lizard having two minds halfway swallowing a bullfrog. Sadly, we never know if we are one of them. And the worst part is that what netizens share gets spread further, creating waves of somewhat adverse reactions, some of which can be quite disturbing, which I shall talk about later.

This chain of reaction is called emotional contagion, which is originated from the study of psychology and is defined as “a direct primitive response produced by sympathetic nerves in the brain.”

A proper definition for emotional contagion in the social media context is, as mentioned here, is  one that “occurs when an emotional state or mood, such as happiness or sadness, can be spread unknowingly between people through reading posts, tweets, blogs, and so forth.”

Emotional Contagion

Emotional contagion resides among netizens and has created wonderful stuff, such as change.org, which has helped with many causes all around the world (you can check out their success story here), and you definitely would have received an invitation to sign some polls, petitions to remove pineapple from pizza permanently, etc. That’s for the Eloi of netizens.

What about the online Morlocks? Remember the monitor lizard I mentioned? Them. Or us. The trouble with hating netizens is that it becomes self-loathing because, as inevitable users of the Internet, specifically social media, we are one of them.

How often do we get What’s App forwards from some folks we really love, and we are not comfortable with what was sent? We don’t forward them, but many do, sort of like the dark side of the “pay it forward” feel-good thing that was so popular more than two decades ago that it became the title of the Kevin Spacey movie. Of all people.

What’s App Groups

Worse is when we are in a What’s App group, where these shares come in volumes, especially relating to politics and religion. It creates awkward situations; to paraphrase Hamlet, “to like or not to like, that is the question. Whether it’s nobler to click like and share this goddamned meme or suffer the ridicule of fellow group members,”

But we are all veterans of many What’s App groups that we have quit from, handing over the badge and spitting at the captain (Admin). Or we were kicked out because we crossed swords with that guy who keeps posting unrelated rubbish, and he is the admin’s stepson. We leave because we are champs, rebels, and anti-heroes, until we get invited to another group.

But as mentioned, not all netizen movements are bad. For example, as this article mentions, “The protests in Hong Kong are a textbook example of community use of technology and information sharing; the Arab Spring was widely supported by the establishment of makeshift relays to maintain a pirate network when the government shut down the internet; and Korean netizens have distinguished themselves by exposing the corruption and fraud of their president or by compelling authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the Sewol tragedy that occurred in April 2014.”

Awesome. But what’s worrying is the Morlock side of social contagion, for  example, the dreaded cyberbullying that can directly cause suicidal thoughts, as a study here shows that “participants who experienced cyberbullying were more than four times as likely to report thoughts of suicide and attempts as those who didn’t.”.

The question is, do we really need to be told to use social media responsibly all the time when most of us are not even aware that we have become part of the delivery system that may have caused damages?

Are we ultimately going to allow ourselves to be swept by the emotional contagion? What happens to our individuality? We have different thumbprints and signatures. But if we allow ourselves to be pulled in and coagulated into a lump of hatred, a clot of anger, and a puddle of vengeance, we end up making wrong decisions, like electing a leader who promised to bring down fuel prices the day after his party won even when we know damned well that it isn’t possible. – NMH

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The recent news on break-ins and incursions is not going make our country look good. You see, Malaysia is often observed as, well, a nice guy in the international community. In the hustle and bustle of the international scene, with genocides on one corner, and cold war on the other, we are like the jazz quartets that everyone respects, professes to like, but no one listens to.

But we are not without issues in our own backyard. Problems, turbulence, predicaments, and concerns like running out of chicken. Yet, we deal with it in the most gentlemanly way.

You see, not to be left out in filling up headlines like our neighbouring (bigger) countries, we do have the standard robberies, state-of-the-art murders, heinous rapes, traffic offences, disabled folks attacked by bodyguards and missing proselyting religious men. Just like any advanced nation.

Serial Liars

As a developing nation, though, we don’t have pillaging or burning of the villages, but we have ascended gloriously up the international statistics platform with mass corruption and car crashes that kill thousands every year. We don’t have terrifying serial killers roaming the country, and we make up for it by constantly electing serial liars. It’s a small price to pay.

Aside: We have been a developing nation for far too long, I wonder if we are suffering from dwarfism. End of Aside.

Yet, the headline mongers got a thrill recently, concerning a curious case a few weeks ago, when a police station in Johore was broken into and the news was most talked about by Malaysians, noisy enough that it got itself quite a bit of a meaty Wikipedia entry. Just as the Malaysian film industry tries to glamourise cops and authorities, real-life criminals give the cops the middle finger. Not to mention that this one was especially a blow to my home state, which often wins the best Laksa argument.

There was a U-turn done by the cops when originally the attack was linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, then watered down the accusation to a “lone wolf” attack. Possibly, as the column here argued, the dilution of the seriousness of the event is due to the current government’s fear of losing confidence among voters. Yes, the same voters who made a guy who made a career of exposing confidential matters as economy minister. Oh, the irony.

Incursions Elsewhere

And, in an attempt to, as we say here, tumpang glamour (bask in the glory), Singapore stepped up its security measures, especially at the checkpoints, after the event in Ulu Tiram. That’s Singapore to you. Always up to mark, spick, and span, securities are as tight as an ancient chastity belt. Being curious, I scrolled down the island’s media to scan for nasty incidents happening on the paranoid island and came across one report that a man was arrested for threatening to bomb DBS bank headquarters. Not bad, they are catching up. Still, no matter how hardcore they try to be like our Mini-Me, it has been proven that their Roti Canai is inferior to ours.

And, oh, speaking of Johor, there was this news about some guys who tried to trespass the Istana Negara, where resides the current Agung, formerly Sultan of Johore, as they tried to enter with a… parang. A local machete. They were simply there to meet the King, apparently, and probably to help clear the bush behind the palace. Or whatever. But we are talking about His Royal Highness, who, with his family, once gave hard time to none other than the owner of the ultimate iron fist, Tun Mahathir, for a long time, so much so that the latter initiated legislation to remove some of the immunities the royalties had. You can read more about their love affair at that link. I just brought this up as a “by the way” sidetrack and did not connect the mummified former premier, who is currently being investigated by the anti-graft body, MACC, for some wrongdoing or another, with the breaking in. What do I know?

If trespassing in the country is becoming, well, not rampant, but seems to be hogging the headline, what about the international waters? For a small country, we do have a pretty long coastline—4675 km to be exact (no innuendo please). That’s like having a small house but a large land with orchards around it, which means anyone can jump in the fence and steal our durian.

Trespassers

Which is why news of ships trespassing our coastline has been making the news again, and again. In 2019 and 2020 alone, Chinese ships have trespassed a total of 89 bloody times, according to this CIA report. But we can’t shoot down durian thieves, can we?

That’s because our nation’s father of independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman, helped the country gain independence through diplomacy and table talk. When Singapore was making too much of nose when they were part of us, Tunku just let the little brat go. We are generous, that way. There is no way we are going to start aiming our torpedoes at the Chinese ships. It’s up to them if they volunteer to become global jerks, competing with the bigger jerks that’s busy mollycoddling the tiniest pr*ck in the Middle East. There’s a whole territorial dispute about the area that China is claiming possibly because the sea is named after the country. They are already patrolling outside of our coast like psychotic mongrels.

I suppose we are better off just managing incursions and intrusions inside the country with the best diplomatic solutions. Let the dogs sleeping outside lie. The whole point is that, like our founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman himself, our country is the gentleman of the country club, even if the nation that coined the word gentleman used to be the biggest bully before the Second World War ripped them apart. They may have “civilisation,”  but we have something better. It can’t be translated properly for the Western barbarians. It’s called “budi dan bahasa.” – NMH

The post Incursions: Dealing With Break-ins and Trespassing Malaysian Way first appeared on NMH.