Tag Archives: The Nut Graph

The One About The Busy, Enlightening Weekend

I don’t know why, but many, many people chose to have their events or meet ups

during the weekend that just passed.

I nearly didn’t make it through! Woke up this morning and felt

like I had been hit by a two-tonne truck.

Some pictures …

First up was the KLue’s Klue Plus 5 event at MapKL on Friday.

They were pitching projects on green ideas.

I think enterprising, creative minds will want to look out for the next

Klue Plus 5 event. Even if you do not win, it is a great way to form

and lay out your plan as well as practise pitching it. I think many who

do not win the RM2,000 grant to execute their project will still carry on with it.

A little request though, KLue, perhaps we could find out what the ideas were etc,

even if it’s after the event?

Unfortunately I came late and missed out on the pitching, sigh!


Good crowd at MapKL


Malik pops by to check the scene

I know there are a lot of her fans around so this is a pix just cause ;)

The Yap Brothers. Gaya, Mutu, Keunggulan ;) Heh heh.

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We appreciate our rare but quality catchup moments, Malik & I.

We were at The Royal Oak at Solaris, post Klue Plus 5. I remember

the time I used to go to Royal Oak in Shoreditch, London, so that

brought a smile to my face.

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One of the best workshops/classes I have ever attended in my whole

life. I never had such roller coaster emotions going through a

workshop before, and it opened my eyes to so many things.

Thank you, Sisters in Islam, sincerely.

.

This was at Julian’s house, when we just had chilled but hilarious

conversations over tea and apple pie :) This door could or could not

have housed the mysterious Man Bat, a ‘friend’ of Jia Wei’s.

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The perfect end to the weekend was TNG‘s Found in Conversation on

innovation in education, held at Leonardo’s, Bangsar. You can see the panellists

above – Marion de Cruz, TNG chief Jacqueline Ann Surin, Marina Mahathir &

KV Soon – or see more pictures here. It was a nice and cosy event, with an

interesting, varied crowd. We had teachers, educationists and other members of

the public who were eager to hear the panellists out and give their two sen

about education. While the general tone was sombre & worried (Everyone

was understandably concerned about the current system, saying kids are coming

out uncreative, without passion, with no mastery of languages etc) there

were several positive sparks. People spoke about passionate teachers in the past

or those who, like Marion, are still out to make a difference; there were

interesting cases of innovation cited (personally though I’d have loved to hear more

of these); and it was good to know that we now have an education watch dog in

the form of Parent Action Group for Education (Page).  I have known Page’s

Datin Azimah for quite a while, courtesy of my years as the education beat

writer for the NST, and she is the kind of formidable lady you want to have on

your side. I was so happy that she came!

On that note, I do really think people should make some time to attend the next

FIC on Aug 8, same place. There will be 8TV’s chief executive officer Ahmad

Izham Omar, independent singer-songwriter Azmyl Yunor, and actor-director

Joanna Bessey. It will be moderated by the wonderfully talented Shanon Shah

himself. You may say I am biased about all this, but I’d say I just simply like

quality & ace events, attended by quality & ace people.

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By the way, it would be during FIC that someone asked me

something that kind of took me by surprise. I guess

nobody ever asked it that way before.

“You mean you had a chance to get out of Malaysia but

you didn’t? Why?” this guy asked me. We had been

chatting about our careers & I had told him that I’d

come back two years ago from London after my masters.

After he asked that question, I paused for quite a bit.

“But …. I never want to ‘get out’,” I told him slowly.

“It’s never crossed my mind. Even if I travel, even if I

do live overseas in the future, I will always be in.

I will always want in.”

And that was that.

He smiled, and then said “That is such a journalist thing to say.”

.

.

Did you like that fellow journos? :)

I guess that’s a lil Salut! for all the journalists out there who continue to

stay, and who try, wherever they are, and whatever organisation

they work with.

xo

The Ongoing Jho Low Saga

For my little but lovely group of friends who read my usual insignificant

ramblings here (and I thank you for it) perdóneme, this is one of those more er ..

‘heavier’ ones which has a little connection with my job as a journo.

This is one for those who keep coming back for that Malaysian millionaire

who apparently, can’t keep out of the spotlight.

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It is the month of July.

Am sure you have read all the latest, necessary reading about Taek Jho Low,

also known as Joe Low, who has been keeping in very rich & blonde company.

Am sure you have seen this all out and about from

- http://www.fadedyouthblog.com/197536/paris-hilton-strikes-a-pose-for-malaysian-millionaire

- http://rockybru.com.my/2010/07/paris-hiltons-majestic-masterpiece.html

and so on.

Newcomers to the Jho Low saga would only now be discovering things that have

been somewhat public knowledge here &  in grand city of New York last year.

November, to be exact.

I wrote about him last year, and if you still are a bit lost as to how it all

started, perhaps you could begin with that.

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As you would probably be reading other recent updates in the blogosphere like:

Who Is This Young Millionaire, Taek Jho Low?

Our ‘favourite’ millionaire cavorts with Paris and

Low Taek Jho, Paris Hilton, Rosmah & RM 11 billion ,

I will not repeat what it being said in these blogs, twitterverse etc.

I’m going to assume you know lah what has been said, reported on thenutgraph,

and that I have kind of spent many hours lah researching all this.

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And going through all of it these past few months, I think I could say this:

  • It would be very easy to assume Jho Low is using public money to party with Paris Hilton. It is not easy in the slightest to prove that this is true.
  • It would be very easy to assume that Paris Hilton is only hanging out with him for the money. It is not easy to imagine that, like his Middle Eastern friends, she could just genuinely like hanging out with him? You know, cause er .. he is rich? He could be … hilarious, or … er nice, for all we know?
  • It would be very easy to say Jho Low is ‘fat’, or ‘tubby’, and this and that. It is not easy to find actual, solid, reasons to validate why we are criticising him, to justify why we are actually calling him such names. Besides, you got no bigger-size friends meh yang kau adore? Suddenly the argument is about fat people is it? Do people realise that when you resort to ad hominem attacks (Your mother bodoh, your muka hodoh), you effectively sully & blotch painfully researched info?
  • It would be very easy to say because Jho Low knows/interacts/is close to Rosmah, it automatically makes him … suspicious or dodgy. It is not easy for us to explain how that we can even ascertain/explain that reasonably. In public. On the record. If he is friends with her son, is that … bad, or illegal, or dodgy, in any way?

.

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And oklah while I’m at it … I guess I’ll also put it in there that it is also very easy

to present somebody’s trails and links as your own as if you came up with it, and

not so easy to spend hours & hours destroying your eyes in front of the computer,

making those connections. Tidak apa, you know, I know lah Misters. Minus

respect points lor.

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Anyway, I am not writing a In Defence of Jho Low piece.

I guess this is more about journalism versus gossip/rumour.

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BUT …

Despite all the things I have pointed out above,

we can say these things for sure:

1- We already know he definitely is well connected to the upper echelons.

2- We know, from all sources, everywhere, that he really. likes. hanging.

out. with. stars. And drinking champagne. And living the high life.

3- We also know for a certainty that he has real influence and power. He makes

money from that.

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A friend and I were laughing one day when we saw this

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1221007/+40 ,

where someone spoke quite emotionally in defence of JL.

More specifically, we laughed out loud when we read “i sense Joe Low in ACTION! icon_rolleyes.gif“

implying of course, that the man was defending himself anonymously.

The thing is that:

For months and months and months, the activities of Low have been a hot topic

among so many circles, whether business folks, diplomats or politicians.

This is fact.

Because Klang Valley is very small and incestuous (and Klang Valley-ites know

this), there is only one or two degrees of separation between many of us and

the famous Mr Low.

I can also say this as a matter of fact because I am in the same generation as him,

and there are many people out there who personally know/knew him, or his friends.

Even people from London tell me things about him, so it is not just here that he is

being talked about.

There is one thing that is constant. The tone is always … one that is unimpressed.

Most of it … basically kind of sneering.

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Bear with me here. What I am saying is that people don’t necessarily hate or

resent rich people.

I am quite sure when people think of Tony Fernandes or the YTL family [correction:

Sorry, I was thinking of the Low Yat Family - sleepy mistake] etc they

don’t immediately sneer at their wealth. There is always a certain amount of respect

because we can distinguish people who built things up thru very hard work &

took many, many years to do so.

Perhaps the reasons why JL is written & talked about in such .. dare I say it ..

disgusted tones is because:

1. He is very young to be so rich & powerful.

2. He has done so primarily through the who-you-know route.

3. He splashes money even more outrageously than superstars.

Bukan Klang Valley superstars okay, Hollywood superstars.

4. And that he seems to want you to know it.

Let’s face it – this is not exactly shunning exposure a la Ananda Krishnan.

.

However. Until someone proves any of this is actually wrong, actually dodgy,

or actually illegal, who is to say he has no right to do so? Yes, in this world nowadays,

many people make business deals and they make commissions from it.

They link people & profit.

.

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I shall end with this however. You know all the rather sneering tones and all

the activities and deals that people talk about when it comes to Jho Low?

People around him must be talking, giving the information.

People close to him, his entourage, perhaps those who partied with him in NY,

or who followed him to South Africa or France?

Which makes me wonder … and this is pure conjecture on my part …

but how do his friends / buddies /acquaintances / the entourage behave in

front of him, and what do they say … behind him?

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6 Hours

I know I have been very bad with updating.

In all honesty, there are now seven … yes, seven postings ready

in draft and are actually ready to go up here but somehow

I just had no time to tweak them yet.

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In these many, many weeks I have worked my behind off in preparation

for these few days … just for the pleasure of … relaxing.

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Points, I am always better at points.


1. I’ve wanted to say this for a while because it stares at me in the face month

after month. Stats don’t lie.

I know you guys are still coming here for Jho Low. You come

here every day, every week, every month. I know this.

Some of you know about the NYT ad articles I have written for The Nut Graph.

You are clicking all the links, revisiting all the question marks.

You know I am still digging, researching, digging.

You write to me asking me to do more … and then I ask you back,

give me more information, proof, and then we can talk.

You really want this to be ‘So and so’ Chronicles a la Msia Today, where you

can’t tell fact from fiction?

So yes, until there is something I can really use, you and me are in the same boat

buddy, and that is in the realm of can talk, can’t write.

And that is all I have to say about that.

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2. It’s the World Cup season, and as usual, it is wonderful.

But this is honestly the most boring World Cup I have ever watched (so far),

and okay, so I’m not THAT old and I started late, when I was 16 in 1994, …

but what the hell is going on? Where are those goals?

They tell me it’s just about as bad as the 1990 one in Italy (which they say I am

lucky to have missed), and I certainly hope it picks up.

The world certainly needs more goals and cheer.

.

3. The mega catastrophe that is The Great Oil Leak is doing my head

and heart in every time I think about it. Two months in, and probably a long

time more to go. I think it is, hands down, the most shameful, disgusting,

heartbreaking problem we have in the world today – Numero Uno.

Everything else is just politics. We humans, the most advanced species on earth,

don’t even know how to fix this yet. Not can’t. Not won’t.

We just don’t know.

That scares the living daylights out of me.

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4. Sometimes I look at my beloved country, and I think ….

that so little has changed.

Appearances perhaps, but the core? The core still reeks.

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But before I can take a proper breather and finally post

those damn drafts and pictures up, I now go to sleep.

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In six hours we will be reunited.

I guess that is all I have to say for now.