(wanted to blog about the road signs in penang hoo haa but don’t have time. will do so tomorrow. in the meantime blog on what happened yesterday).

yes, yesterday, was our catholic church’s all souls day, a special day in the year, where we remember and visit the graves of our dearly departed ones to offer prayers. not that we don’t remember or don’t visit them all the other 364 days of course, but yesterday was, well, a day for ALL to come together as a community. just like how you love your mother so much but on mother’s day is a special day for you to show the love.

it’s the weekend and normally on weekends i’ll just do a CnP post - either news/issues or sometimes jokes/stories. so ok, today i’ll share with you reflection on the current issue from 2 priests.

the first one, is by a jesuit priest, fr aloysius mowe, who is in washington dc. he has an interest in islamic law and history. he’s a contributor to the nut graph and it is contribution there that i would like to share with you. it’s an excellent piece where he compares the issue of obama running for president in the US with the current happenings in our country. since the nut graph is free (unlike malaysiakini) you can go straight there to read. yes. please click on ‘the prison of history’ to read.

there were 43 members of SSVP who attended the formation at pulau jerejak.

it was a good formation. started on saturday 9.30am and ended on sunday 11.00am. during the free time, together with a few friends, we walk round the resort - went to the beach area, then we went to the suspension bridge to try out the bridge. some members dare not walk on the bridge. i enjoyed the walk! in fact it was me who suggested we went there.

early this morning i’ll be off to pulau jerejak  (off penang island) for a one night stay. it is not really a holiday but rather to attend what we catholics call ‘formation’ which is basically something like a seminar/workshop/talk. the word ‘formation’ is used because the seminar is suppose to ‘form’ you into a better person. i guess only catholics will understand the word ‘formation’ so i can’t say going for a formation if want to be understood by all.

well, this formation is organised by the penang state society of st vincent de paul. methink about 50 people will be attending, mostly from penang but maybe a few from kedah and perak too.

btw for those who haven’t heard of pulau jerejak, it has an interesting history. read about it in wikepedia or google for it. it used to be a centre for those with leprosy in the 30s then a hospital for TB patients and later on converted to a prison in the 60s.

i haven’t been to pulau jerejak before. i heard contrasting views - some said it’s a nice place some said no! many said that the food at the resort is not nice. ayoh! like that one ah. problem lah. luckily we’ll be staying only one night. check in today morning and check out sunday afternoon. ok for sure, i’ll be back with a report and lots of photos - watch out!

well so this is the reason i can’t attend the PM’s open house today. this formation had been planned for a long time (knew about it as early as march this year) and it is a once a year affair, so i’m not going to miss it.  further, the priest speaker we managed to get hold of is someone who is very interesting and dynamic - the young energetic long-haired fr. jojo fong (youth love him!). he was one of the speaker at our national seminar few years back and he made us laughed so much. so you bet i’m not going to miss this seminar.

ok back to blogging on monday then (none on sunday!).

zoo’ zoo’ zoo’ allah zoo… (2x)
allah zooo’ zooo’ zooo
allah zooo’ zooo
zooo’ zooo’ zooo… (2x)

oh please! to those sensitive muslim or silly (?) ones (eggs can be insulted, remember?), please do not file a police report (that seems to be the trend now) on me for insulting allah… associating it with zoo or whatever. ok?

first of all, this is a song (more like a chant) from nigeria. secondly, this is to show that allah does not belongs specifically to malaysian muslim only?

yesterday i attended the ‘migrant sunday’ celebration at the church in butterworth. there were those from vietnam, myanmar, sri lanka, india, philippine, indonesia and nigeria. each of them present an item for the show and the nigerians present 3 songs of praise. they gave our paper with the lyrics to everyone.

they sing 3 songs of praise. and this one ‘zoo’ zoo’ zoo’ allah zoo’ means ‘come come come god’. the language is from the hausa tribe in nigeria.

NOTE: anti-ISA vigil photos can now be found at my photo album
NOTE 2: yesterday just passed my 5 years blogging anniversary.

special! special on the front page of this week’s (21 sept) herald.

(you can get to see the online version, i think only on monday, after the site had been updated. at the time of publication - usually herald of the week dated sunday gets published on a wednesday - teresa kok was still in prison).

this is the front page that appears in this coming week’s herald, the catholic weekly.

"we love you, teresa, because you love god more."

2 nights ago we had the anti-isa candlelight protest. yesterday we had the anti-isa candlelight mass!

the mass was held at the cathedral of the holy spiit in green lane. the church was full. it was estimate there were about 800 people. i was helping POHD to sell stuffs from SUARAM e.g. badges, books, t-shirts. we also gave out flyer on the ISA and SUARAM. a petition to abolish ISA postcards were abailable and we get many people to sign the cards. the anti ISA badges were selling like hot cakes… unfortunately we don’t have enough to sell. (btw these badges were not the red ones like i have before - shown in this post. this badge is black in colour and smaller size with the words ‘malaysis bebas dari ISA".)

organsied by gerakan mansuhkan ISA (GMI) penang.

date:  14 sept, sunday
time:    9.00pm
place: dewan sri pinang, light steet

also, specially to all catholics, there will be a special mass to pray for our country:

date:   15 sept, monday
time:    8.00pm
place:  cathedral of the holy spirit, green lane.

O God, we understand You today as Lord
not only of individuals but also of nations and governments,

We thank You for the graces you have given us
to exercise our political charity in Malaysia.

We also thank you for the opportunity of free choice offered to the people
of the constituency of Permatang Pauh for electing a leader.

Lord God, give them the courage to exercise their solemn duty
as citizens of Malaysia to vote on behalf of the whole nation.

Guide those voters with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit
so that they may choose a suitable and trustworthy candidate
in becoming the next Member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(first appeared in this post. this is not my own composition but from the herald catholic paper)’

NOTE: for live coverage of the polls today, apart from malaysiakini (which seems hard to get in but there is a malaysiakini mirror site), visit anil netto’s blog. (good update there!)
also, don’t forget to check out mafrel’s blog for updates too, particularly on complaints received.

UPDATED with press statement from the christian federation of malaysia (CFM). scroll down to read.

two days ago i posted martin jalleh’s article ‘home minister very at home with his ignorance‘. he had called me up in the morning on that day (wednesday), to ask for my email to send me the article. so immediately after 5.00pm that day, i quickly posted it in my blog and also send to beritamalaysia. i then notice it appeared in lim kit siang’s blog too and yesterday i spy it the letter’s page of malaysiakini. good that it appeared in malaysiakini, since it is a popular site and widely read by all, even by many of the ministers.