The events of the past few weeks have prompted me to put this out since I believe this information is important in influencing our reaction(s) towards provocation.

Invoke an internal and external threat
- People who are afraid are willing to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.

Establish secret (unaccountable) prisons where torture takes place
- In a secret system, the government does not have to provide any proof of wrongdoing by those it holds, so it can incarcerate anyone it wants.

Develop a paramilitary force
- A private military force — under the exclusive direction of the “commander in chief” with no accountability to Congress, the courts, or the public — blurs the line between a civilian police force and a militarized police state.
[Edit - This is part that scares me the most.]

Surveil ordinary citizens
- People who believe they are being watched are less likely to voice opposition. To scare a population into silence, the government need only monitor the activities of a few to make everyone fear that they are being surveilled. Every closed society keeps a “list” of so-called opponents it tracks.

Infiltrate citizen’s groups
- Spies in activist groups put psychological pressure on genuine activists by undermining their trust in one another. They may also disrupt legal activities, undermining the effectiveness of group efforts.

Detain and release ordinary citizens
- Detention intimidates or psychologically damages those arrested and also lets everyone know that anyone could be labeled an “enemy combatant” and “disappeared.”

Target key individuals
- People are less likely to speak out when those who are highly visible, like journalists, scholars, artists, or celebrities, are intimidated or have the livelihoods threatened. Targeting those who are especially visible makes it less likely that people will speak out and robs society of leaders and others who might inspire opposition.

Restrict the press
- The public is less likely to find out about government wrongdoing if the government can threaten to prosecute anyone who publishes or broadcasts reports that are critical of the government.

Recast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason
- People who protest can be charged with terrorism or treason when laws criminalize or limit free speech rather than protect it.

Subvert the rule of law
- The disappearance of checks and balances makes it easier to declare martial law, especially if the judiciary branch continues to exercise authority over individuals but has no authority over the Executive branch.

Now, these 10 points are from Naomi Wolf’s book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, which is spawned a documentary with the same name. I’ve not changed the text above to fit the Malaysian context, but does ANY of this sound familiar to you?

It should be noted that the steps detailed in the book, undertaken by Bush-era America, themselves mirrored the steps taken by Nazi-era Germany in the years before WWII.

Believe me when I say that the screws are being turned slowly, day by day. There will be more and more provocation, designed to elicit a specific response. We must not play their game.

Notable links below:
The End Of America Movie
Wikipedia
The Huffington Post – Noami Wolf expands on the 10 steps

The documentary is available on *cough-cough* certain file sharing sites, or you can buy it online, or you can ‘borrow’ my copy.

- Update – 25 June 2009 -

Lurks will be playing!

After such a long time of no updates and no gig news, we finally have another gig to play (even though we had to organise it ourselves), our first since Bangsat at Central Market Annexe 1½ years ago. Very nice!

The people at Urbanattic have been very accommodating, friendly and helpful. My thanks to See Mun and Leonard for all their help so far.

So onto business. The drinks coupons have yet to be printed, but the bands (including us) will be taking preorders for the time being. Coupons should be printed by mid next week. RM20 gets you either 2 soft drinks or 1 house pouring drink. For each coupon sold, RM5 goes to a worthy cause.. the band that sold you the coupon!

More information updated soon!

With photography installation “789” by Hishamuddin Rais and Mohd. Redzuan Othman

Exhibition Opening: Fri 20 June 2008 / 8pm
Officiated by Nurul Izzah Anwar

Venue: The Annexe Gallery, Central Market Annexe
Exhibition period: Sat 21 Jun – Fri 4 Jul, 2008, 11am to 7pm daily

The Exhibition
One of Malaysia’s brightest young artistic talents Saiful Razman
presents his first solo exhibition, entitled Pelan-Pelan Dan Bilik
Gerakan. Tackling the theme of urban fatigue and psychological stress
of the sensibility-numbing life in the Klang Valley where Saiful lives
and works, the artist puts city life squarely in focus in his latest
works. Among the subjects Saiful tackles include media overload,
religious and moral hypocrisy, monocultural and monotheistic tyranny,
and right-wing chauvinist ideologies.

Those interested in a sales preview please contact Pang: 012 305 1135 or the gallery 03 2070 1137

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=14313523233

I know this is very short notice, but if you are free on Sunday and are in the vicinity of Central Market, please come down to the show.

One good reason for coming for the show is to catch your’s truly on stage. Yes, I have a band. To find out which one, come for the show. We aren’t as prepared as I’d like to be, but we will wing it. By the way, Mass Separation will not be performing to due unforeseen circumstances.

“The first credible account of the May 13, 1969 racial riots in Malaysia based on documents recently declassified at the Public Records Office in London”

This book will be launched, tied in with a public forum this Sunday, May 13th 2007.

Public Forum
Revisiting May 13 Tragedy:
Race Relations and National Unity After Independence

Speakers: Dr. Syed Husin Ali, Dr. S Nagarajan, Dr. Kua Kia Soong
Moderator: Elizabeth Wong

Date: 13 May 2007, Sunday
Time: 10.00am – 1.00pm
Venue: Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, 1, Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur ({wt} off Petaling Street)

Free admission to the book launch and the public forum. The public forum will be conducted in Bahasa Malaysia and English.

For more information:
Ms. Enalini Dewi Ellumalai : +60 3 77843525
Suaram : Web | Email

But we’re not quite sure what it is! Do you know what you’re breathing and how it got there? More to the point, what is going to happen to air quality in the future?

The answer to the last one is, we don’t know, and we’re not allowed to know. When the largest waste incinerator in Asia was planned near Broga, the residents had to take out a court case to try and find out details of the project. We’re still waiting for answers, though there are rumours that it has been shelved.

If you want to know more about the problems of waste management and access to information, come to a talk by Bradley Angel. He’s just come back from a trip to Japan where he was meeting with the main beneficiary of the Broga project, the company awarded the contract to build it and his latest concern is about the building of a plasma arc waste treatment facility in KL, Malaysia using a technology from a California company that Greeaction has been up against with. The US company is called IET ( and their medical waste subsidiary is InEnTec, www.inentec.com). The KL project will serve as a testing and demonstration facility for the Malaysian market.

His biography is below… so browse through then join us!

Venue : CIJ office (27C, Jalan Sarikei) | Map
When : Friday 27 April 2007, 8.30pm
Who : YOU!!!

Bradley Angel’s Biography

Bradley Angel is the Executive Director of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. Bradley joined with grassroots community environmental justice activists from California and Arizona in 1997 to form Greenaction. Greenaction works with urban, rural, desert and indigenous communities in campaigns for health and environmental
justice.

Bradley is a nationally recognized leader in the environmental health and justice movement, working with communities to stop pollution threats and to promote pollution prevention, clean technologies and safe jobs. Since 1987 Bradley has worked with hundreds of diverse communities and Native Nations impacted and threatened by pollution,
and has played a leading role helping communities win some of the most important struggles in the history of the environmental justice movement.

Bradley and Greenaction have also assisted groups in Mexico, Eastern Europe and Asia. Bradley has extensive experience helping communities defeat existing and proposed incinerators, helping evaluate and critique incinerator projects and helping communities organize to stop incinerators and to advocate for safe, non-incineration alternatives. Since 2003 Bradley has worked with many communities in the U.S. facing proposals for gasification, pyrolysis and plasma arc
facilities, and has been instrumental in defeating these projects.

Bradley and Greenaction are very active in the Global Alliance Against Incinerators/Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and Health Care Without Harm. Bradley and Greenaction are currently helping to organize a national grassroots coalition in the U.S. against medical waste incineration and to promote safe alternatives.

Bradley was the co-author of the new report: “Incinerators in Disguise” that critiques the claims of the plasma arc, gasification and pyrolysis companies and includes several case studies. Prior to co-founding Greenaction, Bradley was the Southwest Toxics Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace USA for eleven years from 1986 though 1997.

Bradley has helped co-found numerous local, statewide, national and international environmental health and justice coalitions, including California Communities Against Toxics, Don’t Waste Arizona, California Zero Dioxin Alliance, the San Francisco Community Energy Coalition and the Environmental Justice Air Quality Coalition. Bradley also helped bring together Indigenous grassroots community activists and organizations to form the Indigenous Environmental Network. Bradley was also Co-Director of the San Francisco Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign in 1985.

Bradley has been active in many other social justice issues since a teenager, including organizing on anti-war, tenants rights, anti-racism and other community and justice issues. Bradley has a law degree from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Dear Friends/Family/Auburn Angels,

RE: “A Night of Magic & Music” with Auburn and Friends … All are welcome!

Here are the details of our first real showcase night:

When:
Sunday, April 29th, 2007 (That’s this Sunday, folks!)

Where:
KL Jam Asia @ No.19-1, Jln 22A / 70A, Plaza Crystalville, Desa Sri Hartamas, KL (sandwiched right behind, on the row in between True Fitness Sri Hartamas & Maybank Hartamas).

What Exactly:
Longdrawn musical performances by Auburn and our amazing sister band, Plush, with an intermission by surprise non-musical guests (keyword: MAGIC).

How Much:
RM12 / RM10 (If you present the flyer for the night). You’ll also be given a copy of our record, Karya, with the entry price (for those of you who are already in possession of one, share the love, give it away to someone special, thank you!).

Other Miscellaneous:
i. Expect some unconventional surprises/treats for your amusement.
ii. The stage is gonna look really cool.
iii. The night will be recorded on both tape and video for posterity (and perhaps home video/music video purposes).
iv. …and the best part is that it will take no longer than a little over 2 hours of your night.

Why?:
Because you care.

Please help us spread word around — we’re going for a gathering of 50, 60, 70 or above to make the night special. The night will be captured on both tape and camera for memories/posterity as well, so we’d really be honoured for you to be a part of it.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking time to pay attention to this message. It would really mean a lot to see you all there this Sunday at 8. Please come, pack the place, be part of our home video, and make the night memorable!

Calling Auburn Angels! The time is now …

“We’ll make things right, we’ll feel it all / Tonite, tonite / We’ll crucify, the insincere / Tonite, tonite / Believe in me, as I believe in you / Tonite”
– The Smashing Pumpkins, “Tonight, Tonight”

The Bands :
Nuk | RAV | Slunk | Melodica | Marionexxes

The Venue :
KL Jam Asia @ No.19-1, Jln 22A / 70A, Plaza Crystalville, Desa Sri Hartamas, KL (sandwiched right behind, on the row in between True Fitness Sri Hartamas & Maybank Hartamas) | kljamasia.com

The First Cross-Causeway Poetry Slam™

Featuring:

K. L. Poets:

Tshiung Han See
Jasmine Low
Fynn Jamal
Sheena Baharudin
Dato Shanmugalingam
Peter Brown
Sharanya Manivannan

Singapore Poets:

Chris Mooney-Singh
Marc Nair
Pooja Nansi
Bani Haykkal

Poetry Slam™ is the competitive art of writing and performing poetry.

Rules: contestants should bring 3 original poems written by the presenter. Each up to 3 minutes in length. No props, costumes or musical instruments are used during the slam.

“The Points are not the point, the point is Poetry”

– Alan Wolf

Date & Time: 3.30 p.m. Saturday 31st march 2007
Place: Seksan’s, 67, Jalan Tempinis 1, Lucky Garden Bangsar.

“Readings” is the love-child of Bernice Chauly, fostered at present by Sharon Bakar and made possible with the generous sponsorship of Seksan and La Bodega.

Map | Wordforward

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJRNyPK-lc]

According to buffalax, the subtitles are based on how the lyrics sound in English.

Wes Borland is in Malaysia as one of the judges for Asian Beat. He will also be conducting 2 guitar clinics, the first one today (10th March) at 7.30pm at Sunway Lagoon, the second one tomorrow (11th March) from 3.00-4.30pm at Bintang Royale Damansara, next to The Curve. Tickets for the clinic are $30 each and will be available at Yamaha Music till this Sunday.

I am not a big fan of the bands that Borland has been involved in (Limp Bizkit, The Damning Well, Goatslayer, Big Dumb Face and bass for From First to Last and currently Black Light Burns) but I do love his sound. On Black Light Burns, Borland collaborates with Danny Lohner (in Puscifer with Maynard/formerly NIN) and Josh Freese (in A Perfect Circle with Maynard). Unhealthy obsession with Maynard on my part, no?

More links : Wes Borland @ Wikipedia | Wes Borland @ MySpace | Limp Bizkit @ Wikipedia | Black Light Burns Official | Black Light Burns @ Wikipedia | Black Light Burns @ MySpace

[YouTube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU]

This is so funny/gay, its wrong. Plus it stinks of Europop. Ubergay. This comment on YouTube about the video caught my eye.

Dear Samwell:

I’d like to singlehandedly thank you for taking over the online world via YouTube with your extravagant dance moves, addictive beats, and seductive lyrics. Of course I want to do it in your butt, Mr. Samwell, you leave me no choice. The only thing I can ask of you is to write songs of differing positions so that everyone I may choose to use shall have an appropriate song that I might remind my parter was written by the most fantastifabulous gay man ever: You.

And this on MSN, from the guy who gave me the head’s up about the video (damn you to hell!).

Black Star says (3:21 PM):
im glad for him.
he’s spreading the message that gay people are funny too.

Black Star says (3:22 PM):
and tell everyone im straight. because i am.

By the way, so am I.

Mr. Samwell has a website, samwellmusic.com where you can download “What, What (In The Butt)” as.. wait for it.. karaoke mp3! And as a ringtone. Ha Ha! And don’t forget (almost) everyone’s favourite social networking site, MySpace. Mr. Samwell can be found at http://www.myspace.com/samwellmusic.

Love him or hate him, Mr. Samwell is causing a stir. Just take a look at bwe (where this video premiered) and stereogum.

I met and was seen by a few friends, which was nice, with a few guys even calling me a pimp (I was there with 5 chicks, a first for me hehe), which was cool. The Girl and I got to our seats (the rest had tickets for The Pitt & Rock Zone) around 730pm and waited. The crowd was still pretty sedate. I could see how effective the “barrier” (the stupid red and white plastic tape) separating The Pitt ($233) from The Rock Zone ($113) was going to be, even when the kids were still sitting on the floor.

When the first tech appeared on stage around 8, the crowd went crazy. Heh. Another tech and more cheers. Wow. I wonder how the kids would react once the band went on.

An hour went by with the crowd cheering every time a tech went on the stage. At 9pm MUSE went up on stage, (The Girl couldn’t believe that Matt was in red) and I can only say this…

THEY. FUCKING. ROCKED!

I loved their energy on stage. They really looked like they enjoyed themselves on stage, barring the fact that some idiot threw an empty water bottle at Matt during their opening song. The sound was good, clear, levels were alright and the lights were great. Anyone know who did their sound and light?

The Girl was probably curious why I wasn’t physically expressing my enjoyment. Guess I was too busy taking it all in, and having The Girl swaying with her eyes closed next to me was pretty distracting as well. I’ll do a more coherent write up once I’ve collected my thoughts.

Image courtesy of The Girl. Banning cameras is impossible eh?

Also, check out how much people paid for the tickets! I had a friend who paid $450 on Lelong for a $233 ticket. And after lights out, people from the cheap seats broke through the barrier and rushed to the front. I bet some people got pissed. I know at least 1 person passed out from the crush. And don’t forget to check out the concert reviews on the official MUSE site.

These people were just saying what all of us feel. Whatever their political affiliations, all of us feel the pinch of the rising cost of living. What more when our questions with the standard reply which involves the words “national security” being thrown around. Whose nation? Whose security? The highway companies are mostly Bumiputra (hence Malay if you’re Peninsular Malaysian) and probably some fat cat Datuks and Tan Sris are living large off the Rakyat, skimming off deals made between the sheets and under the tables, between these Highway concessionaires and the Government. In the words of a contractor friend, “Itu BQ tulis 10 guni simen, guna 6 guni, 4 guni masuk poket.”

How much money do you need fuckers? How much can you take?

So is that why Datuk Samy is keeping quiet? Because it was all swept under the table? Because if the Rakyat found out who is really making the money, things would get shot to hell? So much of our cost of living is inflated because too many people want their cut without having to do any work. And who is a position to enjoy such benefits? Some Bumiputras a.k.a. Malay (if you’re Peninsular Malaysian). So fuck UMNO and their racist propaganda and fuck the BN component parties for not speaking up when UMNO tramples all over them and they take it like bitches. I am shit tired of being classified as a race. I am Malaysian, dammit! For those curious to know, ethnically I am Malay. I can almost hear the kacang lupakan kulit comments from here.

Some friends told me about something they saw at a NAO gig, it said something like “Just because I hate my government how the current administration does its job, doesn’t mean I don’t love my country.” Sums up exactly how I feel right now. Is our culture so tolerant of corruption that no one does anything just because it’s their job? Or does doing their job bring them no satisfaction? Last weekend I was at Section 14 PJ when MBPJ officials were doing an operasi, issuing summons for double parking and other parking offences. I observed them for a few minutes and they conspicuously avoided issuing a summons to a vehicle with the words “Dewan Undangan Negeri Perak” on its number plate who was very obviously double parked in front of TGIF. Just issue the fucking summons for fuck’s sake! If he can take care of it through the back door, fine, but do your fucking jobs, without fear or favour! Then again, most of us have heard about someone or other being berated by a Datuk/Tan Sri/Judge/Lawyer/Random Asshole just for doing his or her job. So in the end its the poor sods and the working joes in the streets who get shafted and the rich and well to do are just that, rich and well to do.

Turned out into quite a rant eh? Anyway, I understand the protest happened Feb 12th. Enjoy. Click the thumbnails for larger images. Mind the cluttered look, quite busy at the moment. I will clean it up later.

1 min 2 secs. Over the phone. Faiz called me and let me listen to Tool playing in Melbourne. They were playing 46 & 2. Fucking A!

The sound was so good, even through the phone, even across thousands of miles. It was almost a religious experience. Maynard’s screaming “I choose to live and to lie, kill and give and to die, learn and love and to do, what it takes to step through.” and then Adam Jones.. I’m speechless.

Damn you Faiz! Damn you Alif! Tool! Tonight! Damn it all! Argh. A review and some pictures (hopefully) to follow.

Info on the current Tool tour here and on toolshed.