Former South Korean president dead, suicide probed: police

Former South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun, who was at the centre of a multi-million dollar corruption probe, plunged to his death off a mountainside on Saturday in an apparent suicide. Police said they were investigating whether Roh, who was in office from 2003-2008, killed himself. A former aide said the ex-leader jumped off a cliff after leaving a suicide note.

Roh, 62, had left home around dawn, accompanied by a bodyguard, and climbed a mountain near his retirement village of Bongha close to the southeast coast. "He jumped off a rock in the mountain at 6:40 am (2140 GMT Friday)," former chief presidential secretary Moon Jae-In told journalists.

Read more here.

The suicide problem in KOREA is way out of control. I've read about the chain suicides of celebrities and government have been trying to reduce this TREND - even if it means banning the word suicide from the internet. Even the HAHA thing that korean celebrtities are doing (SNSD or DBSK) are so that the citizens could loosen up a bit.

but when the former president himself jump off a mountain, how effective is korean government actually? Hmm. nothing good comes out of suicide.

Implications of going to restaurants at 10 am for "minum pagi" by tiqah

Its 10 am and if you can see at any restaurants there would be MANY customers wearing working attire eating. Hmm.

And i am reading titah KDYMM in his opening speech for the majlis mesyuarat negara 1983 saying

hasrat untuk "mewujudkan pentadbiran kerajaan brunei yang efisien, jujur dan amanah, yang hanya dapat diwujudkan dan di jamin hidupnya sekiranya semua pegawai pegawai dalam kerajaan baginda dapat melaksanakan tugas dan masing masing bertanggung jawab dengan cekap, jujur dan amanah disertai dengan tulus ikhlas semata mata kerana Allah, yang bertujuan untuk kebaikan penduduk itu sendiri"

Kejujuran. I wonder where that goes. Telling us students the future leaders to study hard and be JUJUR whereas some government officers would have been gone to ca mohd or similar restaurants to have their "minum pagi" by n0w leaving mountains of UNFINISHED or unchecked proposals that in turn leaves thousands of people waiting.

and when the same thing happens to themselves they complain that the government is slow.The government is not an independent body. Now, i don't study the government or politics but then again for me a government is made up of interdependence between ministries and ministries and made up of interdependence between departments and departments are made up of interdependance between sections and so on so forth. SO one government is made up of many people who are mostly citizens of Brunei Darussalam who works in that sector. AND we go and say unpublic that the government is slow when what we should say is "haji pulan or hajah pulan" lambat mencop borang ku" And there they are a huge part of the government is out at sumbangsih or restaurant lain makan. Macam tah canteen nada. Turun skajap minum then naik buat keraja bebalik.

You don't have to drive to any restaurants, just go to the canteen sudah- wasting your petrol, wasting the country's oil, emmitting green house gasses and when the climate changes and it rains like hell- you complain again. I mean, imagine what would happen if people really work for the sake of the country not just for the sake of preveilages of being a civil servant or for the pay check.

kejujuran. I wonder where that goes in our working population.

My name is Nur Atiqah and if i have said anything wrong or sensitive i am not scared. What i say is what i think and i don't think what i think is wrong, right? might as well post this at brudirect and let the whole working population bash me.

Funds for gaza.

Brunei Sets Up Fund For Palestinians
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei Darussalam has set up a humanitarian fund for Palestine beginning yesterday (Jan 14) amid Israel's atrocities in Gaza being unleashed since Dec 27, which has claimed over 1,000 lives, mostly women and children, with over 4,500 wounded and thousands left homeless.

This was revealed yesterday at the national committee meeting of the Palestinian Humanitarian Fund.

The cash donation drive will last for three months until April 13, and the public can donate through various channels such as short message service (SMS), donation boxes at mosques and suraus, banks, shopping complexes and public buildings including government buildings throughout the country. The long duration is to enable organisers to carry out charity and welfare activities.

The public can also go directly to the secretariat of the Palestine Humanitarian Fund located on the 2nd floor, Administration and Finance, Community Service Department of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

The donations will be handed over to international organisations. It is hoped the initiative could lessen the burden of the palestinians.

Present at the meeting yesterday were the joint advisors of the fund, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Pehin Orang Kaya Setia Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Dr Awg Hj Ahmad, and Minister of Religious Affairs, Pehin Jawatan Luar Pekerma Raja Dato Seri Utama Dr Ustaz Hj Awg Mohd Zain.

The committee for the fund was jointly chaired by Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs and comprise members from government and non-government agencies.

During the meeting, it was highlighted that as a form-of information dissemination, circulars will be distributed to various government ministries and departments through the Prime Minister's Office and through promotion in the electronic and print media. The committee will only receive cash donations, as it is easy to channel it faster to the victims.

The Israel bombardment of Gaza, which is populated by 1.5 million people, has entered the 19" day killing hundreds of innocent civilians, damaging buildings and cutting water and power supply. The Palestinians are in dire need of food, clean water, medicines and temporary shelters. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin



This gives me an idea of something. Last year when i had my job it was easier to set aside a few sum for donations. Hmm its a worthwhile cause. So i guess it just may be KK or closer places for me this long break. And volunteering. But before that i need to tidy up my room (something i have been procrastinating about since last year) and THEN finish off my craftwork as a birthday gift =p HEHE. (iski sebenarnya =p) then worry less of human geography (or try not to think of it at all )

I ate some of my worries away though. Satay, bihun sup, peanut butter horlicks. i am worried if i can cope human geography or not okay.

To a better place.

And there's chaos in the Gaza strip right now and you might wonder why haven't i update on that. Recently, an airstrike on a school by israel killed 40 people- many were kids.

To say the fight is their fight is just too selfish. So long as you still regard yourself as a muslim, the fight is ours too. This has been going on for centuries. Israel and palestin. Islam and Yahudi. Its in the Quran.

And i am not going to update you on it. Because when love is best expressed in silence. my silence is bigger than you think. My thoughts will always be to those innocent children who were killed. They are not victims. Why so? Because the Almighty has a better place for them other than the place they used to live- one that is being missiled over and over. Who is wrong and who is right? We don't have the right to decide. I hope for the palestinians, they will have the strength and patience to endure what ever it is that is happening now.

Amin.

The answer to a bold question: Trust.

Bear with me. I am still watching Mumbai's news reports. More from NDTV. Foreign minister paki Shah mahmood Qureshi is in Delhi.

Amazingly, NDTV asked Pakistani's Foreign minister- "Why should we trust you?" A very bold question indeed.

And he answered "you should trust us because that is the only way forward. we are neighbours... "

that is by far the most refreshing word from Pakistan officials- Trust.

Perhaps there is hope in the world. Now can trust be placed in the politics dictionary.

Dirty Game.

An amazing phrase just came out from NDTV's reporter based outside Nariman and Taj hotel.



"when will the politicians learn. When will it be enough for them to say enough is enough"





Like i say, towards the end of this drama of terror, politics starts to play their dirty game. I don't want to take sides. But i have been watching live NDTV for the past not so few hours and Paki says that they will fight hand in hand with India (even though every one knows their history. Lets just say paki-india has a palestine-Israel 'relationship') and these reporters and everyone over there in mumbai do not believe a word paki said. Biased. I know. Different people will take different sides. But it is this kind of attitude that will bring more chaos isnt't it? In this last phase of this terror everyone seems to have their own political view. and this is provoking more chaos won't it?





I am neutral here. Because i find it disrespectful to now jump into the political play just right after innocent people were victimized.


amazingly yes. I am still watching NDTV online live.

44 hours : The start of politics game.

Sources from NDTV:

PM pakistan told PM india, we are both victims of terror.

Pakistan PM tells india PM, a terror act on india is also enemy of pakistan.

PM tells pakistan PM there is enpigh evidence link to pakistan.

WTF?

amazing thing. Now towards the end of this terror play we see that politics are starting their game. Just now you won't hear anything about this what you will see in the news are people, the commandos, police- real heros trying to evacuate people, the death of these heroes just after they make speeches to the press. Now towards the end the news are starting to take a turn. Plunging towards the political side. PM pakistan says this. PM india says that. And i am hooked on this. Thank god for live NDTV online.

good news. No more hostages in Taj hotel.

Haha. I am watching fresh firing at Taj. by fresh i mean they are recording everything including the sound of gunshots. And the live visual of chaos. and yeah 8 foreign nationals were killed and a lot of foreign nationals were rescued (although i have yet to look for the malaysian who was still taken hostage just now.

Watch here.

Slow paralysis part 2: Thai Haj pilgrims stranded.

Update on Thailand Airport issue. I know i said i am too bored of Thai's neverending issue. But.. haha still i keep myself update with these stuffs so why not share ait?

From Bangkok post.com

More than 5,000 Thai Muslim pilgrims had planned to make the haj but are unable to leave since the PAD forced the shutdown of the airport on Tuesday.

"Some have sold their land for this once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage, and now they end up being stranded at the airport," Mr Pridi said.

More read here.

Owh remember last time i posted a dissing post on Samak? Well apparently (tho those who have been living in a cave) he stepped down eventually. (thank god) and was replaced with Somchai. But PAD are still not satisfied they decided to attack the airport as Somchai was arriving back to Thai after going to Peru.

And i did say a while ago (weeeks or months ago when Samak was still in the chair), refrain visiting Bangkok since it might sound safe, but its not. Now two airports are closed by PAD and people are being stranded. Great. Now.. this might just be Thailand's Tourism industry BIGGEST lost.

I did say that these situations are a slow paralysis to the country if it doesn't stop. Now, gladly an article proves that they too agrees read Politics will worsen recession's impact

24 hours of terror: MUMBAI under attack.

lets pray for the safety of those innocent people in mumbai who are the victims of play between terrorist and politicians.

I want to update you with it. but i am too busy updating myself since this is fresh and STILL happening. This morning before i left the house for exam Taj hotel was under attack. NOW. I am still watching live footage of the Taj hotel gun battle, Trident Oberoi Hotel and naraman house.
Apparently terrorist are attacking large hotels, train stations and restaurant. AND i doesn't seem that it will stop tonight since right now the police are still trying to rescue hostages and bear in mind this is a BLOODY battle.


From the indian news channel they say it is sad to see that terrorist are more united than their politician and people are the victims of political play (which they are not even a part of). And that religion is the root of terrorist attacks like this.


News flash... mumbai police intercepted the terrorist communication and heard that the language the terrorist use were punjabi hence the finger might be pointed to accross the border.
I will try to keep updated. Lets hope it stop. I watched the interview of a rescued hostage and what he said was.. frightening.

Bah i am still watching live footages of this incident... there were explosions even while reporters were making reports. Yeah i am supposed to be studying but.. hmm this is far more interesting for me than reading textbook.

Slow paralysis.

ON another news, Thailand's airport are both closed- bangkok and chiang mai. Reason- again political warfare. PAD party seized the airport just as the thai PM went back. Its too tiring to talk about Thailand now. India is far more interesting. Thai. Hmm. Closed airports. more protest. Thailand condition now is like having a slow stroke. First you can't speak well. They you can't hold grip of something. Soon, if you still don't realise about the stroke, you'll be paralysed. A slow process of paralysis.


AND. closed airports end of year when people from all over the world come and bring income through tourism industry. This is indeed a slow paralysis.

America. Make the right choice.

LIke i said, i am interested in world politics for the fun of dissing world politicians and analysing how greedy some are. And global issues but i still enjoy biology so no more questions there as to why i did not jump into either public policy or ir or perhaps political science. I thought about it once. But if i think about it.. i would regret big time if i were to let go of biology.


i know this is useless.


But although we are far here in the south east asia.
Barrack obama has supporters too here. (and i'm not just talking about me)


Its election day peeps. And i hope america would make the right choice. when i say the right choice i meant NO MORE useless warfare that kills lots of uinnocent soldiers. (and i meant this for the americans too. How many american soldiers were killed because they were told to 'bring peace' by their superiors just because the POTUS 'said' that iraq has weapons of mass destruction?)


Make the right choice america.

If you are interested too in keeping up. click here. or here i have to say its quite a close race. If you notice i am quite a boring person am i?=p I watch news channels while revising. Entah. I just love watching the news.

ps- probably will upload funwalk pictures soon (if i finish my revisions for upcoming tests and finish my essay which is due soon) where we became a flightless bee, fairy and ladybird. Awu. Its a walkathon with a twist- everyone has to dress up as cartoons. Spent my 2 holidays reading. But now i spent most of my time sleeping or mengusai bilik baru ku. kejangkitan damam si husrin ku bah. And you know how bad it would be when i am infected with flu.

And btw i am not going to school today. gue ada mc. So esok!! dangani ku signature hunting for blue form ku. esp MIB. And LC.

tpi i would most probably still be diam because... finals is after 2 mondays. and saya alum start revising for it. bah salut. bon courage tout le monde.

Saturday 21st Jun 08- Congress at ICC.

Before i post an explanation/respond blog to that particular (damn) blog =p, here's a post on last Saturday. The BHAVG reps were invited to attend this particular political congress. When Dibah mentioned about the congress, honestly i thought that we would actually be participating in it but it turns out that we were guests. This was our first time being in the opening ceremony of a political congress (though the sight of alat kebesaran kongres, the protocols, ayahanda-kekanda-anakanda-talk, the yelling and most importantly their thoughts freaks me out a lot) so like D said, it is an honor to be invited. I picked them up around 8 +AM then off to ICC for the opening ceremony.

The whole i dunno how many hours of listening to the speeches was interesting. Since i am no economics student, statistic doesn't bother me at all. And despite that, i wasn't at all surprise to listen to it. But what is interesting for me was their proposals which some i don't agree with especially the part where they proposed a raise in bla bla. If their mission is to help develop Brunei into a better Brunei, then why start with money? If we are to spoon people with a raise in money, Bruneians will take everything for granted even more. We have subsidise education, subsidise medical, subsidise oil and no tax...what more do we want? Macam some of their proposals in my opinion tends to lead to a road where bruneians would be more pampered.

But the pembangunan insaniah where they said in speech, 'kita tidak mahu rakyat negara menjadi seperti negara-negara maju yang lain yang mencapai status kemajuan yang begitu tinggi tetapi moral dan akhlak masyarakat nya runtuh, penghayatan dan jati diri negara semakin terhakis' that...i totally agree with .

The political part was interesting.. one don't get to see these kind of stuffs that often in Brunei but yeah since i'm an avid fan of reading Malaysian bloggers trashing their politicians, politics has become part of my daily read. Then again, if i was asked to participate or actually join, i have NO interest. I'd rather do my part in the society and do well than constantly think and debate that the government or the other side is not doing enough. Action is better than words so i'd rather be action than be words. And ideas are not the sama as words. Pedas kata-kata ku? I don't care. I stand by my words.

Anyway, there's the part where the whole speech (except for a few lines) were made in Malay when clearly foreign officials were invited. I realise their whole point for that is so that we can make use of our language more. I heard the ones at front say- 'Japanese, Chinese, Spain, France and many European countries appreciate their own language and prioritises it. Why can't we prioritise Malay too. If speaking english can make us develop fast, we'd already be developing on par with others'. Its true though. So yeah it seems like they want to make the point of prioritising malay thorugh their deep malay speech. i pity the oficials though. They should have been told to bring intepreters ka. During the break, we had a little chat with one of the AJK tertinggi. And after that went to the toilet just to avoid being seen 'excusing ourself'. =p Dibah wanted to buy some ingredients for her dim sum (kamuuu dibah pandai udahh) so we went to Giant. Macam gila giant tplang tani ani ah.

Then off to see the JIS art and design and technology exhibition. Their art student are really great. Love the arts. And love vaining even more. =p cuba liat ne 'jemputan khas' ah ni naah ulah abisdia. vain kan sorang2? =p



The arts. Meliat baju utk kami kawin nnti =p nada ba we were looking at Osveanne's piece. and the waterfall was some other student piece forgot her name but it was beautiful.

We were hungry so we went to Aminah Arif di Batu besurat.



The two pelahap ordered ambuyat set. I ordered pattaya and KERABU ayam. NYAMAN kerabunya banar.




ne naah kejadian nya lapas pelahap2 makan. =p si dibah n byl vaccum nya g tu ba kerabu a. hahaha ganas.

Typical bruneian habit-lapas bejaur makan. Lapas kanyang duduk diam balik. =p I like this pic. hehehe. Mcm nampak aku tu pemandu berhemah =p Bah outs. Salam

Ps- i realise that i have filled my blog with my deep thoughts and opinion. You are welcome to debate or say that its wrong but i will stand by my words. soo. i am copywriting everything i said in this blog. If you are to use any of it... you should atleast mention me. thank you.