The DJ is back. Let us start with some rock n roll and rhythm and blues. I am presenting Fats Domino, Bill Haley and His Comets and Roy Orbison for your listening pleasure. Have a good weekend. Don’t expect too much from Badawi’s 2008/2009 Budget which table in Parliament this afternoon; otherwise you will have a depressing weekend.—DJ Din Merican
ps. I have asked Johnny Tillotson to join, and dedicate “Poetry in Motion” to my Big Apple Kedahan, Mr. Bean. When this was first released in Malaysia, I was in Kulim to enjoy my academic year end holidays. Kulim is not far from Penang, even then (1961).
Go for Barack Obama, Jong, Mr. Bean and others, but let us not forget that Senator John McCain who I met in Phnom Penh at a US Embassy function a few years ago is a formidable opponent and a war hero. We need to watch the debates for a clear indication of who will emerge to be the next President after George W. Bush. But I think it will be a close Presidential race. May the best man will win. Leave it to the American people to decide who they wish to be their President.
Fats Domino- Blueberry Hills
Bill Haley and His Comets–Rock Around the Clock
Roy Orbison–Pretty Woman
For Mr. Bean in New York City: Take It Away, Johnny T
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
Dear Din,
I am already depressed having had hopes for goodies from the budget. Well, on the bright side, the budget could probably hasten their demise.
___________
Leo, relax. the Government has run out of ideas about how to revive the economy.—Din Merican
Jong,
I was glued to my TV set throughout the Democratic Convention in Denver, Colorado. I wished I could be there when history was being made. Obama a fierce orator showing moral outrage at how the Bush Administration had squandered the opportunities, connected to the 85,000 people who came from all over the country to hear him speak. You and I would have to be there to actually feel the electrifying moment. Be that as it may, my TV set became red hot even thousands of miles away!!
What I find inspiring is to hear him speak about his mother (and Din Merican could easily connect to him), how she raised him singlehandedly, his father having abandoned him at the age of two. Often she would be on food stamps (money from the government to help the poor buy food) just to get by, saved and scraped through so she could send Barack to school. (Din Merican has had to work to earn his ‘duit sekolah’ in the shadows of Wat Siam early in life and it is this experience that served him well into adulthood and gave him the qualities needed to succeed in life – independent, tenacious and resilient in the face of adversity with a sense of empathy for the underprivileged).
Often you see people among the crowd with tears streaming down their cheeks just listening to Obama.They see in him a reflection of themselves. Obama had connected and connected to these people well last night – as he always does.
Barack’s story is the story of many Malaysians who struggle daily to make ends meet, a parent, often a mother who has had to raise their children single handedly, of a father who is not there for their kids and a mother who has had to work in the many “pasar malams” because their day job didn’t bring in enough money, just for that little extra so they could send their children to a good school, buy them the sports equipment they need and put that little extra in their pockets so they do not have to go through what their parents are going through.
Din Merican,
About the same time when Roy Orbison was singing his “Pretty Woman”, Johnny Tillitson was singing his – “Poetry in Motion”.
__________
Thanks, Mr Bean. Good old times. Glen Campbell at 72 has come out with a new album. One can never too old for anything. Ask Jong about this as she knows what I mean. 🙂
I found my thrillllllll,
On…….
Oh yesss…the much awaited return of the DJ.
Talking about Bill Haley & His Comets, soon when situation is swinging irrevocably towards PR’s way then Jesse Stone’s ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ will be a nice one to sing to ‘you-know-who’.
Dear All Bloggers ,
From today onwards lets all of us here write the word of ” MERDEKA 916 ” at every ending of our comments
MERDEKA 916
“….and Din Merican could easily connect to him” – Bean
Hahaha, that was what I thought too and Din Merican came to my mind when Obama touched on his mom. 😀
The guy’s fantastic and articulate. His choice of Joe Biden as running mate looks good, many people love Joe because he’s very clean but somehow I’ve that phobia for another Mr Clean(sounds familiar?)! 😀
Yep, and guess who McCain chose as his running mate?? A little known governor from Alaska!!
It is a little too condescending too. He thinks Hilary’s supporters are dumb.
That sealed his fate!
How come you think like me?
Great men (and women) think alike, fools seldom differ? 🙂
Anyway with or without her, McCain won’t be able to win. Barack is too good for him. Let’s face it, his only advantage is his skin color.
Just look at Barack Obama, he’s young, he’s articulate and full of energy whereas McCain has the George Bush baggage to carry.
Here’s a donut joke for you, Jong!
—————————
A man walks into a hamburger shop and orders a regular meal. Later, the waitress brings his meal to him.
He takes a bite out of it, and notices there’s a small hair in the hamburger. He begins yelling frantically at the waitress, “Waitress, there’s a hair in my hamburger! I demand to see what is going on!”
So, the waitress takes him back where the cook is and to his demise, he sees the cook take the meat patty and flatten it under his arm pit. He says, “That’s disgusting!”
Then the waitress says, “You think that’s disgusting you should see him make donuts.”
OMG!!!
OK I have to call it a night, but I think I’ll laugh in my sleep! 😀 😀 😀 !
Jong,
You’re quick to grasp that one! 🙂
To all you chicken lovers out there! It sure is finger lickin’ good! Enjoy!
WITHOUT YOU – Dixie Chicks
Ive sure enjoyed the rain
But Im looking forward to the sun
You have to feel the pain
When you lose the love you gave someone
I thought by now the time
Would take away these lonely tears
I hope youre doing fine all alone,
But where do I go from here cause
Without you Im not okay
And without you
Ive lost my way
My hearts stuck
In second place ooh
Without you
Well I never thought Id be
Lying here without you by my side
It seems unreal to me that
The life you promised was a lie
You made it look so easy
Making love into memories
I guess you got what you wanted
But what about me cause
Without you Im not okay
And without you
Ive lost my way
My hearts stuck
In second place ooh
Without you
Somebody tell my head to try to tell my heart
That Im better off without you
cause baby I cant live
Without you Im not okay
And without you
Ive lost my way
My hearts stuck
In second place ooh
Without you…without you
Bean, I think you’ve given the wrong link. Check.
I say Sdra Din Merican,
you must have been been poring through the Budget 09.
How many holes have you poked? Or did you tear up the whole thing or you emailed it the the shredder? 😉
____________
Salak, I am studying the Treasury Report because it contains information on the fiscal activities of the Badawi government. I will make my comments on the 2009 budget on Monday.
Off the bat, I worry about the fiscal deficit which will be 4.8 per cent of GDP this year. Badawi, the financial genius that he is, thinks the deficit will be back at 3.6 per cent in 2009/2010. But he has not given us an idea of how he proposes to bring it down in 2010, given that the economy needs an urgent stimulus package to get through these trying times and a boost of confidence in the national leadership. 2010 is the year he plans to retire and hand over the office to Najib. Or is he intending to stay till 2013? That is political rhetoric and as he said, this “cannot contribute to the well-being of Malaysia nor the economic progress of the nation…”(The NST, August 30, 2008).
He must fight corruption and reduce wasteful public expenditure and improve government procurement systems and surveillance. Unfortunately, he is unwilling to adopt a tough stance on corruption or hold his ministers to account for expenditure excesses and take the Auditor-General’s Reports seriously. If , for example, he cuts 10% from his proposed operating expenditure of RM154.2 billion–and this is not difficult to do—RM15.4 billion can be saved and the fiscal deficit will be reduced. These are some of my preliminary thoughts on Budget 2009. Is it a ‘Bajet Prihatin’ as Utusan Malaysia wishes to have us believe? —Din Merican.
Ahh, budget! sorong papan tarik papan cak cukuplah Din! True, things are not helping! Tolong kaki-kaki aje!!!
We just have to look under some rocks and see if there’s a gem! Hey! You know better! 😀
————
Salak, budgeting is not rocket science. It is about how the government raises its revenues and spends the money. The budget, however, must be prepared with certain strategies in mind and with a clear focus on what needs to be done to revive economic activity and boost investor confidence.
As John Kenneth Galbraith says in his book, The Good Society, “[A]n evident purpose of the good economy is to produce goods and render services effectively and to dispense the revenues therefrom in a socially acceptable and economically functional manner”.
Let me study Badawi’s speech and look closely at the Treasury Report, before I say anything more on the subject. Enjoy the weekend with the music on this blog.—Din Merican
I meant “sorong papan tarik papan TAK cukuplah Din”.
While you’re at it, pls tell us what happened of 4 quarters of 07, Q1, Q2 of 08. And what of the next 6 quarters? What will tickle us in decade 2 of this millennium?
This Budget Paper should have been out 21 days ago for MPs to chew on it and others to preview. After 21 days everyone can do, whatever they want with it. We can’t run a country like this, for God’s sake!
Ok-lah boleh embargo for 14 days but the Public must have a preview 7 days before! Ini Malaysia bukan Dollah punye dusun lah ! We are part of a global economy where billion barrels of crude pass the lanun Straits of Malacca!
Jong,
Nothing wrong with that link. I know the Dixie Chicks when I see one. One cheek at a time! 🙂
By the way, it will shock you but I secretly recorded your conversation with Salak and here it is
Din Merican,
Thanks for letting me take out a leaf from your life experiences. 🙂
Good humor is acceptable, but do cut off the innuendos!
Hey! We are just digital personalities here, Jong! Let’s not over react 🙂
No sexual innuendoes. No aspersions intended.
Listen to Glen Campbel sings:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=69PPpkKTamo&feature=related
“Baby, you’ve been going so crazy
Lately nothing seems to be going right
So low, why do you have to get so low?
You’re so, you’ve been waiting in the sun too long
But if you sing, sing, sing…”
By the way, Jong. There are 14 million hits on that song!
No. Make it 17.5. million hits!
Din, Thanks for the oldies.
All very well to go gaga over Obama but don’t be fooled into thinking it will be him that runs the country if elected. It will be the same old puppeteers that have been in charge for years and years.
As for the Budget, I cannot see anything that addresses the single most important need for Malaysia – to be competitive. But then what can we expect from a party that is in a self-destruct mode. A strong robust opposition that has a practical, no-nonsense approach is what we require.
“As for the Budget, I cannot see anything that addresses the single most important need for Malaysia – to be competitive. ”
It depends on what you’re competing for!
Are we competing for a large deficit financing so we could provide that much needed boost to the economy – without a care for its impact on the rate of inflation, without a care for the ratio between debt and the country’s exports?
In the U.S. the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It’s expanding by about $1.4 billion a day — or nearly $1 million a minute.
This is mind blowing!
To get some sense out of it, that means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.
Can someone come up with a figure to show how much a Malaysian taxpayer is being forced to shoulder as we speak?
Bean’s just joking Jong! Let’s put that behind.
I told Jong a good joke before. I said you can bet your ‘bottom dollar on that’!
I believed then as I still do now, don’t know for sure, many people made money shorting the Dollar. That is, after they’ve put their money on the oil rise. As we write, oil is now $115.32.
Imagine, last time when it was under 50, 75…then it went up and up! I hope Jong really took that advice, joke. Had she done so, even as it hit 100, she’d have enough to belanja us all and donate the balance to MAFREL! Even after taking 9 months hiatus on a world tour and researching elections everywhere! That’s some life, huh? 😀
How about, half empty oilfileds offshore of Miri and Bintulu? 😦
God commanded Jesus not to take the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and it had to be Eve who took it, ate the forbidden fruit and gave it to Adam to eat! Had Adam not been so dumb, mankind would not be condemned to suffer – men having to toil after that first sin, and women having to suffer from the pain of childbirth!
Just imagine Sarawakians not having to go head hunting for a living! No 72 virgins to fight for! 🙂
What a story, how could it be forbidden, aren’t all fruits the creation of “GOD”? How could it be forbidden, …temptation and test for greed? I have never got a good answer and if at all have never been convinced.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
A major storm is about to hit New Orleans this time it is named Gustav!! Frankly, I’ve never come across any storm named after a male!
Salak,
Do you know why storms are named after women??
When they come they are all wet, and when they leave they leave you dry!! 🙂
Nothing like watching the love of my life Scarlett Johansson presenting the award of the year to my favorite country and western Dixie Chicks!
She stole my heart in ‘Lost in Translation’ 🙂 I’d give anything to trade places with Bill Murray! I know Din Merican would love to do that too 🙂
Remember that last scene? What did Bill Murray say to Scarlett?? I waited all this time. Now I know! 🙂
Was that deliberate, Bean? Histriographically, Bible and Qur’an, it was supposed to be Adam.
As for Jesus, with no disrespect, it’s been proposed that he was a man, which he claimed to be, and that he was married.
In both instances, perhaps there is something we should have learned and still learning from Eve. When we do finally, I have a suscpicion we will have absolute Socialism! 😀
Why were storms feminine? I really don’t know. In Bahasa Melayu, dia means both “she” and “he”. In English anything that’s not “good” generally is she. I think in other languages you have neutral gender; some things are both.
In Bahasa UMNO you and I named the Tropical Storm in honor of Rozie ! 😀
Malaysian women like most others outnumber men. I honestly think they won the day for Anwar! But they probably won the day for Mahathir, too, last time. So there we are.
I must read up on the Queen of Sheba or the Amazon feminine story and fiction of Greek myths. If you saw the film Sri Tanjung (pls correct) or something, it would do you well to honor women—they can curse you into stone! 😀
But strangely, the Economist Magazine was said to have written in a passing comment, that the previous Pope, Pope Paul, was heard to have said that God was female!
“Was that deliberate, Bean? Histriographically, Bible and Qur’an, it was supposed to be Adam.”
That was to find out if our friend Jong was sleeping! Well, apparently she was!
The first Man is called Adam – and what happened in that Garden of Eden was common to all three (not two) i.e. Qur’an, Bible and Torah (the first five chapters of the Bible).
I believe the New Testament of the Bible came at least some 1,000 years later than the Torah and Qur’an some 500 years after the New Testament.
Though the first Man is named Adam, Eve was not the first woman! Lilith was, and you can find her in Isaiah. You cannot find her in Genesis. She doesn’t appear in Genesis. Lilith was a feminist but male authors of the Bible later (but only later) introduced Eve as her opposite. Eve was acceptable as the docile and dependent woman. Lilith was headstrong, self-reliant and even sexually aggressive.
I think Jong would be happy with Lilith.
..and by the way, Jong, the apple was also introduced later!
If Eve was not the First Lady who introduced the apple, whose ball was in Adam’s throat? He would have been quite speechless, wouldn’t he? How could he complain so much? Like Malaysians complaining a lot? Maybe BN government is older than 60 years! 😀
Anyway, you can find these interesting stories here and here.
Yeah, I was really sleeping, guess it’s the lack of interest in the subject thus missing out the finer details. Now that Salak brought it up, yeah how could I have missed it, aiyaa! You are terribly mischievous Bean!
Aren’t all those laws, religious books man-made and have always been tilted to one side to advantage the men and keep their women forever docile and eternally dependent on them?
Jong,
It may surprise you to know that there are two creations in Genesis. I hope you’re familiar with the Bible. But if you’re not perhaps it is time you get familiar. Get a copy of the Bible and open to Genesis.
The problem is for far too long people have taken the Chinese menu approach to the story of the Creation – choosing some from Version A and some from Version B and they heap together to make a colorful but a mismatched platter! How many times have you seen this happens in Four Seasons!
Under Creation A, God creates man and woman together and in His image, no garden and no forbidden tree – but not under Creation B. Under Creation B, God creates man from the dust of the ground, then creates a Garden of Eden and puts the man there. God later creates animals but the man doesn’t find a suitable partner from among the animals, and God then puts him to sleep, takes out one of his ribs and makes a woman from the rib of man. Naked together, they became one flesh but knew nor felt any shame – until they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Get the drift?
Salak, Shrek and I believe in Creation B i.e. that a woman is created in order to serve man, to be his play mate.
There you go again!
Mr Bean
I believe that woman have to be protected and respected as they came from a rib of the man, not just as a play mate. This play mate thing is to prevent man from playing with himself or another thereby defeating procreation. That is why when a Muslim pray he puts his arm over his ribs.
Wow this is heavy stuff here with Genesis and Creation etc etc. Shrek moving into uncharted waters. 10-4
Actually Shrek, I have more naughty things to say but no, I won’t say it here in cyberspace, not appropriate. 😀
Yes, I believe in Creation. However, I shudder at the thought that we are here to serve women! 😦
But, as modernity dulls my boisterousness, I’m beginning to think there are no servers—it’s SELF-SERVICE! I mean, go get what fills your stomache and your soul! 😉
May I remind you guys, it is a many splendoured thing, too! 😉
Here we are laughing over those cheeky comments, and Din has been very quiet without a murmur eh? The first day of puasa must have taken a toll of him! lol 😀
Hi there Malaysia!
Up above is the line-dance to the song titled “From Honeymoon to Honey-do.” Feel free to listen to the song and to learn the dance that goes with it. It is an early country-styled song about marriage.
Happy New Year!
http://www.sumofsquaresmusic.com