Human Nature #1-5

Zahirah ‘ZZ’ Zulkifly, our guest writer, spends a lot of time working in and out of student organisations.Currently MASS's sitting president, ZZ mines her experience to share with us some of her observations on ‘Human Nature’.

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Human nature #1: Where you come from can have a positive or negative effect on your personality. But usually, it's negative.

We all have friends who come from rural and city areas. Have you noticed that there can be significant differences between the two? Like it or not, location and surroundings influences the way we act and behave a lot.  An old Malay saying says, “masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang kerbau, menguak” which simply means that you have to adapt yourself to the surroundings where you are. This might be the main reason people change as they move to a new location. How good or bad the changes are? It is up to the person’s tolerance to peer pressure as well as his or her principles. All you have to do is just remember, who you are, your roots and your purpose of being there.

Living the news through Twitter

Freelance journalist Andrew Marshall's tweets on the shooting of Thai general Seh Daeng in Bangkok yesterday was widely retweeted by Twitter users who were interested in the latest developments in Thailand.

Marshall, currently reporting in Thailand, gave instantaneous updates of the incident and through his tweets (seen above) we get as sense of the uncertainty and chaos in the minutes that followed.

Inaccurate information and errors, likely unchecked, is rapidly posted anyway to readers. An unforgivable oversight in other reporting circumstances which could cause the journalist his credibility, but not so on Twitter.

Rather the contrary is true, as more readers 'followed' @Journotopia (Marshall's Twitter page) after the first tweets despite the error.

For all the attention it receives, Twitter is still seen by many in journalism as a frivolous novelty. There remains a major absence of veteran and working journalists from the site (though this is slowly changing), and a confusion remains on how to use the site.

Major news organisations concerned with the effects of their reporters tweeting to their reputation (and bottomlines) have put out guidelines on its use. Reuters' Handbook on Journalism, for example, instructs its employees to 'Not scoop the feed' in their tweets in its new social media section, while The Washington Post expressly forbids it employees from expressing any content that is less than objective.

Credibility and profit matters aside, there is little innovation in the way major news organisations utilise the technology to rewrite journalism. Instead, we find new and exciting trends emerging from the margins.

In the ongoing Thai troubles, an increasing number of news readers are looking to alternative sources for the newest developments as they happen. In what is looking to become trend for news junkies, readers are following multiple twitter feeds for the latest unfiltered information from various unconnected sources, with little regard for their journalistic status.

The updates are constrained by Twitter's 140 character limit, and individually can only communicate bits and pieces of a situation. It is in a timeline that contains multiple feeds that we see the net effect of the information, as they slowly come together to create a landscape of what's going on from different vantage points, and potentially from different viewpoints.

In what pundits have dubbed 'ambient journalism', this is a new way of experiencing the news, though not without the expected pitfalls.

As there can be as much misinformation as there is information, concerns on the reliability of ambient journalism hampers its usefulness.

But when read as a 'first draft of history', it becomes invaluable.

Trans-mute

Throughout the show, my eyes kept sliding down to the knees and elbows of the actors looking for marks and bruises. The play's physical intensity operated at a level higher that i was accustomed to that at times I could not tune out the thought that someone might get hurt.

Trans-mute combines elements of butoh and cabaret to create a show that was at times odd, puzzling and violent. 'There is no story here,' I've been told, leaving me, and the audience, to our devices to interpret the chaos onstage.

Bollywood: Panduan untuk hidup dalam kisah cinta agung

Menyoroti kembali zaman kanak-kanak aku, tampak warna-warna yang boleh aku kenal pasti sebagai 'distinct' yang membentuk paling kurang tidak aku yang sekarang. Aku dibesarkan dengan menonton pelbagai jenis hiburan yang terhidang di peti televisyen. Ada yang membina, ada yang entah apa-apa. Menonton seleksi kartun Disney dan rancangan siri Sesame Street paling tidak memberi gambaran akan pelbagai perkara yang kebanyakan menunjukkan moral itu bagaimana.

AsamTV Zee Avi

AsamTV. Zee Avi. 'Nuff said.

Real roles for reel men

There has to be an end to the wimpy deadbeat male characters we see in movies today. But more importantly, there must have been a start, before which cinema actually portrayed responsible, respectable men.

Have audiences not tire of the many man-childs filling the screen? Shallow with the emotional maturity of 15 year-olds, for whom life seem to revolve around sports, videogames and bongs. The thought that film-makers are only producing characters like these because people are able to identify with them makes me worry too much about our young males that I simply refuse to believe it.

ASAMTv with Reza Salleh Malaysian Independent Singer-songwriter

It ain't easy being indie

In this week's episode of Asamtv, Azrina meets with Reza Salleh at his recent gig in Melbourne.

Reza shares his thoughts on his inspirations, life as a musician, and selling out.

Backstage at Muzika

I'd say my first real involvement with Muzika Musim Luruh began two weeks before the event in the basic radio studios of 3ZZZ in Fitzroy. I was butting in on the Malay program that night, and the committtee members turned up to promote the event.

They brought along with them free tickets to give away, and once announced, the studio phones were never hotter.

An auspicious start, it seemed, for the final stage of a project four months in the making.

An ancient confession

It’s a book that chased me around. Recommended, referenced, and mentioned, so I read it. I bought myself the abridged Penguin version with the pretty cover that said ‘God grant me chastity and continence but not yet.’

An awfully familiar line around here. Something you'd say to yourself to silence your conscience when you habitually do something wrong.

This saint had a mistress and a son born out of wedlock. He had a mother too, and she never stopped praying for him. He knew this of course but was determined to do things by enquiry and reason, more so than faith. He harboured Manichean views before he turned Catholic.

At this point of reading the book, I am reminded of the saying that it is better to be stupid in truth rather than rationalising error. Sometimes being too intelligent just doesn’t pay. There are catalogues of views, opinions and thoughts right in front of us, each offering their different takes on things. The PC thing to say here is that every opinion is equally valid. History would tell us otherwise.

Maybe it’s not about validity, but about the right of every opinion to exist and be expressed so that they its claims may be taken apart and put back together for validation.

Humbleness must be what we need to always keep us grounded. St Augustine was fortunate to have received an epiphany that made him leave his world of sin. Miracles and epiphanies however aren’t much of an option for us earthier individuals, so that only leaves us with humbleness. The humbleness to listen to other people’s views and recognise their merits, but more importantly, the humbleness to listen to other people’s thoughts and recognise our faults.

The title of the book is 'Confessions of a sinner'. Don't bother reading if you aren't one.

My Tribe: A Home For Your Work On The Web

by: Juliana Zainal Aznam

Looking for a place to share your work?My Tribe is the perfect opportunity for you to submit audio, video, stills and text on the web.

Basking within the vibes of Zee Avi

Zee Avi was playing two shows in Melbourne recently did you know? If you didn't . . .

WHY??!

Well I had the opportunity to see the show and personally meet her for a chat so obviously I have nothing but nice things to say about her because as far and I'm concerned we're best mates whether she likes it or not.

Her music, is good. But you all know that. You've subscribed to her YouTube channel when she was still known as KokoKaina, you've sang and swayed along to her songs to the point that your ears start twitching and you get strangely excited when you see an uke, and you've bought the CD's or snagged it off iTunes. However, you've might not seen her play live and to that I say 'you're missing out on the most important part of the marvelousness that is Zee Avi'. I am one of those people who prefer my music live. "the medium is the message" as Marshall McLuhan would put it and everyone who hears it nods. The show was.. [ believe it or not, I paused and left my laptop for about 40 minutes trying to think of a suitable adjective and i finally found one ] ... fun. Incredibly fun. Watching a lady in an oversized sweater with an uke playing songs that are lyrically and atmospherically heavy is just so much fun. I would imagine that it would be hard to stay chirpy when singing about drug addiction and cheating partners, but everyone was singing along, swaying, especially these two big, tall, burly, ang mohs who were at the top of their lungs cue "my phone was on silent, I was at the gym!". Good times.

I caught up with her after the show and we hung out with a small group of friends and chatted about, owh gosh, all sorts of things, art, old school movies, Bob Marly, Tarsem Singh, Quentin Tarantino, malaysian food, malaysian urban slang, the works. She is such an affable, approachable person, it's beautiful. And why shouldn't she be? A friend of mine commented on a ring that Zee was wearing that night that had a Piet Mondrian influenced design on it and she responded with a Vito Corleone impression, she got excited when she saw my clone trooper keyring and when we talked about malaysian food she just sulked. "don't la guys, I rindu". I guess before last night, I only recognize her on YouTube, posters, cover's of CD's. Things. In my head the idea that she is just as Malaysian as I am just blurred along the way. I was wrong. And am glad of it.

I got home way past midnight, with a feeling in me that I initially thought was star-struck. But gathering my thoughts I came to understand that emotion as satisfaction of being involved in a decent conversation. She's so approachable, so friendly, and I had so much fun talking to someone who was so actively involved in turning creative ideas into songs.

You should be able to tell, I'm finding it hard to keep this as a music review because I've met her and spoke to her, and listened to her past the barriers of webcam, microphone, stage, and she's wonderful. I am excited to see what she would do next as a musician. And I do wish her the best.

Asam Siam

Wiriyak Suvanmani

Zee Avi's website link : www.zeeavi.com

Zee Avi's iTunes : click here

The Asam Team at Asam Event March 2010 Videos

Naturally we'd put our videos up first!



More after the break.

Farish Noor's book of lectures reimagines Nusantaran history

A lot of people will find a lot of things wrong with this book. Malay ultras will not appreciate their much-loved Hang Tuah reframed as the universal man, Islamic types would have much to say about the celebration of hindu-buddhist pasts, and the people of the region would not like the thought that they continually feed the neo-feudal foundations that form the governments of the day.

Alice in Wonderland.

Before I begin, we need to be clear that the reason why Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) is so famed, and I dare say, immortal in the literary world is that he is a logician that speaks nonsense. And obviously I mean it in the most impressed manner. He has a way with words that skates beyond that is understandable but still capable of forming images in our heads. And that was the entire point of Alice in Wonderland. Knowing that itself, I do not think that it translates very well into a movie.

Reading, problems and art

Here's a little something from The Age.

"Reading is our favorite art form to consume. 84% of Australian say they read books"

Impressive figure eh? You cannot walk around Melbourne and not see at least one person reading a book, whether while in a tram, or waiting for one, in the park or even when lining up for movie tickets.



How many of you turn to books when you have a problem? Life problems, I mean. I dare bet that most of you have never thought of such an idea before. Many of us would turn to friends, who tell us how cruel life can be, sobbing while slowly expressing how difficult breaking-up is, angrily complaining how much of a jerk  your so-called best friend is. Others might  just keep to themselves and hope that time will heal the heart, the friendship, the annoyance.

Friends are not entirely reliable when it comes to solving problems though. Most of them are just there to comfort you, telling all those good things you wanted so much to hear. I'm not saying thats bad. But lets put it this way; it's good in a bad way because at the end of the day your problems aren't really solved. In fact, your problems may even worsen when you discover that those words of advice weren't truly the keys to solving your problem.

Here's an example. Let say you had a huge fight with one of your best friends. You go to another best friend and tell them about the fight you had. The friend might comfort you and might wanted to cool you down by saying that the best friend is a jerk and should apologize. The problem is, you were the bad one.

I'm not making a generalisation, and saying that all friendly advice is 'ill-advised'. But to say that most of them are, would not be an overstatement.

I once had this huge problem (for me at least, i'm not sure if anyone else would call it that). Apart from not having a friend that i can and truly rely on (don't tell them, its just how I feel), I kept to myself, and repeated those magic words "time heals". It worked for me before, But not this time. The issue  continued to haunt me. At last i told a friend and asked for his advice. Though his advice was fairly logical, I could not figure out whether it was told to comfort me or to solve the problem.

Thats when i tried something different. I bought this book that is fairly related to the problems that i was having and started reading it. Reading the book, i felt if as i'm talking to the soul itself (mine of course), which provided me with an insight into what my problems really were about while the author gave some advice on how to deal with/solve them. The thing with the book is, you surely knew that the book would never please you. Most of the advice is bitter but medicine taste worst eh? and look at what miracles medicine has brought us.

Furthemore, all of the writing was written based on the experience of thousands of people facing the same problems that we have. So the odds of solving the problems are high enough. You'll be amazed to find out that you are not the only one having such miserable life, and others are much worse off. The key is solving it once and for all. Not just hoping some good words to please you and time healing miracle.

At the end, its all up to you. No matter how much books you  read, or advice you hear, be it from friends, family, you are the one that have to do the final step in acting accordingly to solve the problem. God will never help you, if you yourself never make an effort in doing so.

Now, no wonder Australian love reading books and even regard it as an art form. Reading is for nerds? Think again!

Melbourne essentials

If you find yourself alarmed by the hail falling from the sky last weekend, don't. That is merely the way Melbourne shows its love to newcomers, by throwing rocks at them like boys do to girls in sekolah rendah.

Epic Hail by Shiny Things

I'm seriously sorry for you new arrivals. When I first came here some time ago, things were normal. Summer was hot and dry, you could hate the Prime Minister without having to explain yourself, and you got curry-bash because you deserved it. It's all different now, nothing's the same now. You, my Bata-wearing new friends, are in a completely different Melbourne.

Down in front by looking glass

In my role as unsolicited guide, I first offer this piece of sagely advice: gather every thought you have about Melburnian campus life, and chuck it in the bin (some local lingo there, take note). A SAM or AUSMAT certificate does not prepare you for life within the hallowed halls of Parkville, Clayton, or Hoyts Melbourne Central if you're in RMIT. You will find little discipline, motivation and support, and that's just for waking up for 9am classes. Taking it easy is an extremely seductive option, but do so at your own perril. (rolling r added for effect.)

Make friends, and soon. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to break into cliques. In university, girls (and boys) are like cookies; you snooze, you lose.

And please, if you're here with mates (aha!), don't forget them just because you have some unexplainable need to hangout with whatever new bunch of people who take you in out of pity. Pity works for some people, but for the rest of us it's just sad. Besides, you might need those bridges you burnt one day in the future. Which can turn out to be not so distant sometimes.

Being active is good, but don't invest to much of yourself in clubs and societies. You can make friends outside of club circles. You should make friends out of club circles. Constant club meetings does not necessarily lead to deep meaningful conversations. Which you need; trust me.

Have fun. Responsibly. Think off all the crazy stuff you can do now with your new-found freedom. Do only half of that. You need your brains for your studies too. And writing for ASAM.

So those are some tips plucked from my reservoir of wisdom that I now share with you my fob brethren. Heed them, and tread wisely the road ahead. Godspeed.

YHA Sydney Harbour

My 2nd day in sydney began abruptly. A staff member stormed into my dorm, and announced that 'two boys were supposed to have checked out at ten am'. It was already 10.15. That was how I got turned out of my room. A humiliating experience, but educational nonetheless. Never overstay your welcome, or checkout time.

Yha apparently has a 10pm checkout time, strictly enforced (as i had recently discovered) failing to comply with this will incur you a fine.

The rooms were good for hostel standards. clean, neat, with a private bath in each room, travelers have a choice of renting out the male, female or mixed dorms (four to a room), or the twin sharing ones.

This is a backpackers hostel, so you will be sharing rooms with other people. if you're the sort to mingle with new people, you'll find plenty of opportunity here to get to know people from all over the globe, and their associated smells, sounds and sleeping habits.


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Rooms start from 46 dollars a night, check in at 2pm.

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Upcoming events: Massive BBQ

PROUDLY INVITING ALL MALAYSIANS IN VIC TO MASSIVE BBQ 2010!!!

"Bring Your Appetite!"

Upcoming Events: Pesta Warisan Melayu

The Victorian Malay Community is a community that values the uniqueness and beauty of their proud heritage. This is personified in their arts and culture. The passion of their arts is not only in their song and dance but is reflected in their traditional attire/wedding costume, customs and craft. The tantalizing Malay Cuisines is world renown and celebrated in all occasions.

Upcoming events: Muzika Musim Luruh

This autumn, Melbourne hosts Muzika Musim Luruh – the only event designed to explore and showcase the musical talent of Malaysian youth in Victoria, Australia.