Veterinary services Deputy DG advocates eating dogs in dog pounds

PETALING JAYA (March 7, 2010): People with a penchant for exotic meat should be allowed to buy dogs from dog pounds for consumption, Veterinary Services Department (VSD) deputy director general Dr Ahmad Suhaimi Omar says..........link to full article here http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=44085


I read with shock and horror the call from Veterinary Services Department (VSD) deputy director general Dr Ahmad Suhaimi Omar to eat the dogs from dog pounds!!!

Besides the sheer barbaracy of this statement, it was the absolute nonchalance in which it was stated that appalled me. The first criteria of anyone in veterinary services has to be empathy for animals. Or else how would you safeguard the safe and humane treatment of animals and care for their welfare? This person shows NONE of it. He should not be holding this position or in fact be anywhere near veterinary services for that matter and should be removed with immediate effect. Any lack of will here is reflective of the quality and nature of our society and our governments will in having good and decent people in responsible positions.

Or is this the best we have? This person, wasn't some lowly minion in the dept of toilet flush monitoring. He is the Deputy DG of the Veterinary services department. Are we forced to face the reality of knowing that this is the state of affairs here in Malaysia? That something as simple as the Veterinary Services Department isn't and cannot helmed by someone capable and suitable for the task at hand...?

We are losing the battle

Two so-called journalists from AL-Islam magazine took part in holy communion in a church, an act of faith that is deeply sacred and reserved only for Baptized Christians… They defiled a house of worship. But they will not be prosecuted due to ‘overwhelming public pressure’ as quoted by an ASP in the AG’s chambers. From the outpouring of disgust and anger from all strata of Malaysian society one would have thought there was overwhelming public pressure to prosecute. But I digress. The law should not and must not bow to pressure, public or otherwise. It must act in accordance with the law. It is a crime to defile a house of worship, there is a clear evidence that the crime was commited, there were witnesses and heck the perpetrators have publicly confessed that they did it.

So why aren’t they being prosecuted? It's politics isn't it? The BN government under UMNO's stewardship plays to the malay masses with the opiates of ketuanan Melayu and the sense that they are above the law whilst ironically and simultaneously emasculating them...

The gallery is constantly played to on what is at the end of the day non-core issues. The psyche and comfort level of the Malay (and for that matter the Indians and Chinese in their respective component parties) is pandered to. What is truly Machiavellian and what many fail to realise is their insecurity is created and stoked by the very same party. All this so attention is distracted from their management of our country.

We are being emasculated on a daily basis. Does no one shed a tear at the fact that we were at par with a once impoverished Singapore on just the value of our currency? A country with no natural resources whereas we were blessed with oil and minerals in abundance? They are now at, what 2.5 times our money? Within the span of 30 years our ringgit is now worth just 40 cents of what it once was. We have become poor.

Our National debt is mounting, we have engines that go missing from a military base, crime is spiraling out of control. In short the strength, security, the very integrity of Malaysia is being eroded at a terrible rate but the average Malay, Indian and Chinese doesn't see this. He isn't concerned we are falling apart vis-a-vis his neighbours as his eye is focused on his fellow countryman. We are each other’s enemy, we are competing in one upmanship with each other instead of giving each other a leg up or at least watching out for each other. And we are content as long as we think we are ahead or have carved out our place in the sun here, not realising that we are actually sliding down into a deep dark hole, each and everyone of us. Malaysia is indeed burning while the BN fiddles...

So the sacraments of a church are violated and the perpetrators and their supporters think how wonderful. And are grateful for this perceived victory. And in their euphoria fail to see that they, their children and possibly their childrens children are having their own lives violated, their standards of living fall, their very quality of life shredded and their futures compromised on a daily basis while they are none the wiser.

They think they are winning battles against fellow Malaysians when there are none to begin with, and in the process losing the actual war…

The recent caning of women

Friends, there is a petition needing your urgent support against the recent caning of three young women, one of whom was merely 17 years. If you feel strongly about this as I do, then please lend yr support. Pls visit www.PetitionOnline.com/OMOMOM/petition.html. Alternatively, go to the petition online website and type in "Caning of Women".

Power savers and other urban legends

There has been a sudden plethora of purported electrical power saving devices that have flooded the market here in Malaysia. Possibly due to the fact that there is a slowdown in the economies of the world and any and all means to cut costs and save is proving more attractive by the day. The record needs to be set straight however as unfortunately these devices do not save you money and instead just divest you of your hard earned cash.

There is no technical or physical way that plugging in or connecting any device to your household mains is to going to reduce your power consumption. All these devices do (if they at all work) is bring the power factor of your home up to unity. Unfortunately I have to resort to the use of technical jargon here but in essence bringing the power factor of your home up to unity presents a more efficient load to the utility company. It reduces the current traveling through the cables and hence transmission costs for the utility but has no bearing on power consumed by the consumer. One such device which I saw on display and hooked up at a major DIY centre here in KL literally shows the current consumption drop as you switch the power saving device in and out of circuit. Unfortunately all this does as stated above is reduce the current traveling through the cable. The consumer doesn’t pay for the amount of current consumed, he pays for the power. And this device has no bearing on the amount of power consumed.

So, save your money and just turn down the lights.

What ails us

I had watched the recent rebirth of our nation with both hope and happiness. There was a scent of idealism in the air. That we could be better than the gutter, parochial racial politics that permeated our existence here. That we were rising above it. That we could really stand side by side as Malaysians.

What a letdown the last year has been. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so optimistic, should not have rose tinted my glasses. I should have been more of a realist, more aware of what years of conditioning could do to one. And by conditioning I am not solely referring to the all pervasive conditioning that permeates our political landscape, but the conditioning that extends to our family and friends and how we propagate this conditioning and ensure it’s continuance in the choices we make.

Every day I look around and shake my head. I look at the papers and read statements that say Bumiputera quotas will be increased. Articles that say Chinese businesses predominantly hire Chinese. That the Indian chamber of commerce is asking for more assistance for Indians. Private ads that say Chinese only or Bumiputera preferred…

But what is truly gut wrenching if not puke worthy is how we conduct our personal lives on a daily basis.

I was at the Curve dining with a friend yesterday. As urbane an environment as any. And yet, the usual gatherings were there. Groups of Chinese, Malays and Indians, all distinct and in isolation with perhaps the odd exception. Malaysia after 50 years of independence and we don’t even mix outside of our own ethnicity. We have Chinese who use expletives like ‘tau see’, Malays who mouth of ‘keling’ at the drop of a hat, Indians who call out ‘natta’… Our everyday conversation is littered with such rubbish. Why don’t we stop? Because it’s nice to be nasty? Or just that we don’t recognize or acknowledge our bigotry or worse think it’s actually acceptable?

We constantly hear the vents against the racism and bigotry that exists here. Facebook is riddled with comments from users. The Blogs constantly rail against it with user comments all expressing their angst against some perceived racist act, statement or slant by some politician or other. Yet we don’t conduct ourselves any better than the very people we condemn. Is our sense of a better Malaysia only applicable to others? For us to self righteously pass judgement on whilst we ourselves wallow in the gutter? Or is our public altruism far more base, that it is placed, exhibited and stated purely out of self interest so we may carve out more for our own ethnic communities?

We are told that we are 1 Malaysia, a shining example of racial unity, but the truth is far removed from the spin. By pretending that everything’s fine and kosher all we do is allow this ugliness to not just prevail but flourish. We should face it head on. With courage and dignity. And if it shames us to see this side of ourselves, well then we should change. Take those steps. If not, then we should just stop pretending that we are concerned. That bigotry and racism are an anathema to us when point of fact is it’s a source of comfort to us like a well worn blanket. Something we draw on and retreat to, to bolster our petty fears and insecurities.