Tsunami... what we could have done but did not

Panglima's log Wednesday 29 Dec 2004 0915 hours

if you guys have not heard the news (http://www.bernama.com.my or http://news.google.com or http://www.thesundaily.com or http://www.thestar.com.my) then you have missed one of the most significant event of the century!

simply put, an earthquake a few kilometers below the sea bed west of north sumatera triggered a tremor recently graded as 9.0 on the richter scale, as well as a tsunami that hit the coast of indonesia, malaysia, thailand, myanmar, india, bangladesh, sri lanka, maldives, seychelles, somalia, kenya and tanzania. to date the death toll is almost 60,000 lives. more are seriously injured. the details can be read in the news as i am not about to copy and paste everything into this tiny space.

could we have done something? if there is, probably very little. it took approximately an hour for the tsunami to travel from the epicenter to malaysia. it cant be predicted. it can only be tracked with difficulty once it is generated. and good ol' malaysia has never been under threat of a tsunami before for at least a hundred years (that's how far i know and its a very conservative number). even if we had known it's coming over, there's nothing much we could do in an hour.

we do not have a well practised mass emergency public notification system. name a beach in malaysia that has a siren and pa system with someone constantly at watch. you'll be lucky if you see the notorious red flag which most ignored or went unnoticed.

most malaysians have never seen a tsunami before in their lives. those fortunate to be watching it on discovery channel may still not recognize it again, even if it occurs before their own eyes. in penang, what happened when the sea receded 200 meters (pulled to form the wave)? picnickers ran towards the sea to pick clams and flopping fish left by the water. when the waves reappeared minutes later, very little time was left to realize that they are sitting duck. doomed.

we are ignorant about a lot of things. apathy too. every year we experienced major flood. after each relief operations, the powers that be hold a post-mortem meeting to discuss the shortfalls of the operation. and it ends the moment the meeting ends. the following year we make the same errors again.

we face similar problems after a multi-agencies joint emergency exercise. post-mortem meeting carried out and the same mistakes are made at the next exercise.

who are to be blamed but our own ignorant self? everybody - the federal and local government, their agencies, and the rakyat including the victims too.

i can go on and on but looking at the photos in the paper just derailed my train of thought. until next time... be safe, be good.

Almost Weekend...

Panglima's log Thursday 23 Dec 2004 1745 hrs

it's been a very long while since i last wrote. too much work and too little time to post my thoughts and feelings etcetera etcetera etcetera...

let's work backward. just completed a presentation pack for the bosses meeting at mindef. spent 3 weeks developing this thing. finally all done, printed and bound. siap kaler print lagi... jenuh menunggu printer tu tendang 6 copies out.

before that meetings and meetings and meetings with various vendors and partners. presentations left and right. ahah! went to microsoft education conference at crown surya mutiara hotel. about 300 people showed up. interesting conference.

anyway, tomorrow i have been asked to become voice talent for a video recording. not for the real thing but only for draft presentation. dont have a voice good enough to compete with geoffrey nicholson or rodney michael. hahaha.... but it'll be a fun experience.

its almost six pm... time to knock off from the office. tomorrow's another day...

had an interesting discussion the other day on PLUS toll hike.

i'll try to write more often. if you like to read other fun stuff, go to http://www.parlimen.gov.my/hansard.php and select any documents. The starting of it is usually quite dry but as you go along... you'll discover what i meant.

later...

Wedding Weekend

Panglima's log Mon 6 Dec 2004 1537 hrs

what a busy weekend. i took friday off. first thing in the morning was to elder scn's school. he's entering primary 1 next year. so went to his school to buy his text books, exercise books, workbooks etc. the school shop didnt have all the required books yet. maybe in a couple of weeks. boy, did i find out the cost of text books nowadays! bapak mahalnya!!!!!! standard 1 and his books cost as if he is entering university. nak masuk skim pinjaman buku teks, tapi tak layak. adehhh....

all that over, left for kampar perak. wife punya female cousin punya wedding. arrived kampar around 2:30 pm.. ahhh, just perfect for lunch. gulai ikan kembung masak tempoyak and some other things which i cannot recall. my target was the tempoyak. had a good lunch. for the wedding, the uncle slaughtered 3 goats. so the rest of the afternoon was spent melapah memotong kambing. that lasted the whole afternoon. boy, self ended up smelling like a goat tak mandi seumur hidup. the smell stuck. it took a lot of scrubbing to rid of the strong pungent kambing smell under a hot shower at the small hotel we were staying.

that evening was the akad nikah ceremony. i didnt witness it as i was spending time outside the house with the other cousins smoking my stogies. the others were cigarette smokers. one of the cousin was an air force trainer. he invited his students over to the wedding and they assist. aduh.. ada pilot wanita juga but dont think i want to mess with them. we left for the hotel almost 1 am.

saturday - kenduri day. didnt do much. help out a bit here and there as most of the job was taken care of by the helpers. oh, one of the female pilot was attractive. appreared to be close to one of the guys. lucky bloke. late afternoon, a group of us made our way to lata kinjang, a popular waterfall. twas fun as usual. boy, was the water freezing cold! macam ais.

that night after wedding present opening session was the photography session. i was called upon (i did not volunteer eh) to direct the session. so i have to fix up their look. the grooms shirt was a bit loose so tucked it in. the brides tiara kept falling senget. fixed that too. so seronok la getting them to pose intimately. malu-malu... pehhhh. i think we shot around 100 poses. of course using digital camera.

the following day was the groom's family kenduri. oh, both the bride and groom are from kampar. so easy one. and this time i got called again to prepare the groom. apparently the mak andam - another cousin - didnt know how to tie the sampin. so, with the experience i have - over a few weddings - tied the sampin p ramlee style, fixed up the bengkung really nice and tight and voila.. the grooms ready. after that, off to the grooms reception.

left back for kl that sunday afternoon. rained quite heavily near tapah. made it to kl around 6 pm. had a raya open house invitation but all of us were like dead tired. had maggi for dinner. kesian kat maid penat. but then, none of us had appetite for anything else either.

today, back at work. meeting in the morning. so drowsy after taking anti-histamine medication. still reeling from that effect. so, catch up with you guys later.

take care. be good.

Open house, viral fever and stomach flu

Panglima's log Thu 2 Dec 2004 1430 hrs

greetings..! it has been almost a month since i last posted. what has happened since..? well, let see... first it was raya. spent a whole week in kuantan. on second day of raya my elder son underwent circumcision. first he was apprehensive.. but as soon as he was given an injection and the needle bent, all went well. actually the doctor bent the needle but i told him the needle bent because he was tough. that's when he felt better. he sat through the whole event awake and even watched the skin being cut away. only the injection hurt.. but then, even for adults, even the thought of an injection at you-know-where would hurt. ouch!

the following days were just me taking care of him. by the third day he was already running around in sarong playing with his cousin. two days after that he was running around in trousers. see... the trick to early healing is by strictly following the doctor's orders. no oily, fatty and gatal food. keep dry at all times. air it when ever possible as it keeps the area dry and accelerates healing. no gamat ointment either. drink lotsa fluids. oily and fatty food stalls healing. gatal food including eggs will make the healing unbearable. water and moisture stalls healing. by two weeks he's off pantang and can take regular bath already. and now.. i've got to get the skateboard i promised him.

got back to kl friday. did nothing much but laze around. went to aunt and cousin's open house. by monday back to work. monday morning greeted with news that two of my good friends each got a new baby daughter. had lunch and that's when it started moving down hill. got migraine after work. two panadols did the trick. tuesday was better but got sick again after work. wednesday slightly better but cannot tahan so went to the clinic near the office. doc said got fever with temperature of 37.8C or something. gave me a bunch of medication with antibiotics. went home immediately. slept. that night, my body temperature went up to 39.2C. yikes!!! i was away from work for the rest of the week.

by weekend i was already feeling better. went to five open houses on saturday but didnt eat much. took more fluids in than solids. monday back to work. tuesday evening i vomitted my guts out. thought it was food poisoning from the briyani at lunch. wednesday after morning meeting, vomitted again, this time mostly spit and water as i had nothing in the stomach except water. went to clinic after morning meeting and a series of vomitting. doc said, post-fever viral infection and dehydration. sent me packing home with another course of antibiotics, anti-nausea, oral rehydration salt and a couple more types of pills. got home and slept until morning. woke up just for dinner of nasi bubur. doc said, no spicy oily fried food. no milk and caffeine either.

that brings us to today thursday. still feeling shitty... like getting up after being hit by a 20-tonne truck! but alive... and that's a lot to be grateful for. i'll be on leave tomorrow for the wife's cousin wedding in perak.

till then, take care.