Ruminations

* How do you find a title for such a mish-mash of a post??
Saw this on instapundit: “I’ve found that bloggers seldom match the mental image one has — but that once they start talking, they usually sound just like their blogs.” Those of you who know me in person, do I sound like my blog? Or rather does my blog sound like me?

I do wonder who reads this blog now. I get a weekly report from the free hit counter Site Meter, but it just tells me how many visits and page views per week. Usually I barely glance at these reports anyway, since they don’t tell me where the visitors are coming from. And I haven’t wanted to get fixated on trying to increase my hits per week. (Although, looking at the reports now, last week I had 4,129 visits as opposed to 909 at the end of July - okay, maybe most of the recorded views are not just me admiring my handiwork over and over ) If you feel so inclined, do leave me a comment ¹ so I know you’ve read the blog. Even if you’re one of my valued regulars - Israd, Cherry, Mooiness, tfp, Anna, Miss L, Fiona, M, MR… (who have I missed?)

It’s great that there are so many free blogging tools and services available for newbies like me to play with. A free blog hosting service like Blogger has been invaluable for getting me started. And yet, I’ve been noticing a few comments from other bloggers along the lines of how using free blog hosting services are bad, bad, bad. It irks me when the implication is that it is just somehow not sexy to be a “naïve beginner”. That said, I have been thinking about what I want to do with this blog in the near future. But what name should I get?? www.constancewiebrands.com sounds too painful, www.ruminations.com sounds like a New Age site selling angels or something, and www.flexnib.com sounds like something only a fountain pen lover could want.

I think I prefer a list like this one, which focuses on content:

1. Credibility
2. Authority
3. Passion
4. Personality
5. Reliability
6. Empathy
7. Reality
8. Unique
9. Timeliness
10. Membership

Much better.

¹If you get a little confused with all the options when trying to leave a comment, feel free to select anonymous but leave me your first name in the content of your post. Or read the section on Comments from my other blog. Feel free to email me instead if you prefer.

Categories: blogging, blogs

Some time ago I wrote about Huai Bin’s blog, sixthseal. I was amazed at his drug-taking antics and even more amazed at his willingness to display his face and reveal his identity online. Yesterday I saw that Huai Bin has become aware of a letter someone has sent to a Malaysian newspaper, demanding to know how a “website” like sixthseal, which is “dangerous to children”, can be allowed to exist. The letter was written in the Malay language, so yours truly quickly translated it and posted the translation up as a comment on the blog:

Sir,
I have come across a website www.sixthseal.com that frequently displays the drug addiction activities of the site’s owner, a Malaysian citizen who lives in Sarawak. This link http://www.sixthseal.com/ 001049.html for example, provides a video clip that teaches the site’s visitors how to misuse dangerous drugs. All sorts of information on the abuse of dangerous drugs are displayed on this website.

The website owner is so proud of the various drugs he buys from time to time, and freely and fearlessly displays his face and real name (Poh Huai Bin) at the website, as though to challenge and insult [memperlekehkan] the authorities and the laws of Malaysia. Daily many visitors to the site write comments there and sadly I note that many of these visitors want to share their experiences of drug addiction and exhange drugs and liquor that are illegal not only in Malaysia but also in the United States.

I am very surprised, why has no action been taken against the owner of this website? Is the media not aware of the existence of this website? Should this website be allowed to continue so that our children can come across it and learn how to abuse dangerous drugs? Why are we allowing someone who admits to abusing and trafficking dangerous drugs to continue to rampage [bermaharajalela] in society?

I really hope Harian Metro will expose this website so that action can be taken by the authorities.

Thank you.

B.Azham

(I need better Malay language dictionaries. I’m sure there are flaws in this translation; if you are curious and can read Malay, take a look at the original letter. Feel free to point out better words to me - particularly for memperlekehkan and bermaharajalela.)

Looking at the comments in response to Huai Bin’s post, I’m not surprised (but sad) to see the number of racist posts. (The letterwriter was probably a Malay Muslim, Huai Bin is an ethnic Chinese, and I’m guessing a lot of the blog’s readers are non-Malays. Wikipedia has a nice, succinct entry on Malaysia for those unfamiliar with Malaysian history and society.) I remember reading usenet and groups like soc.culture.malaysia (and all the soc.culture groups, for that matter) and being shocked to see the amount of racist commentary flying around. I guess nothing’s changed, even if the Internet continues to evolve.

I refuse to judge anyone on the basis of their ‘race’ (I think the concept of race is flawed anyway) or religion. I think using racist arguments is lazy and stupid unsophisticated stupid. I mean, if you disagree with someone, surely you can find a better way of saying why, rather than falling back on stereotypes or insults? Or maybe I am overestimating some people’s capacity to think rationally…

Anyway, I hope Huai Bin doesn’t get into trouble for his blog. I don’t know what the Malaysian laws are for merely using prohibited substances like marijuana and crystal methamphetamine, but what worries me is the letterwriter’s allegation that Huai Bin mengedar dadah berbahaya - trafficks dangerous drugs - which I am sure carries a death penalty in Malaysia. I don’t think Huai Bin does - but such an allegation could get him more attention than he might want. And as one commenter pointed out, racist comments could also draw the authorities’ attention, as has happened in Singapore recently.

Categories: drugs, letter-to-the-editor, Malaysia, racism, blogs,translation