· August, 2005

Stories about Malaysia from August, 2005

Macao: Better air routes

  31 August 2005

Budget airlines are adding new routes linking Macao and South-East Asia. Singapore-based Tiger Airways will launch flights between Macao and Manila in late October 2005, in addition to its Singapore-Macao route. Air Asia currently operates Macao-Kuala lumpur and Macao-Bangkok flights.

Malaysia: Political blog

  30 August 2005

Group blog, Politics 101 Malaysia, has been created as a social-political awareness exercise to reach out to young Malaysians who have little or no political knowledge. It's been rated by Yahoo.

Malaysia: Opposition Leader starts a blog

30 August 2005

Even Lim Kit Siang, the Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition Leader, has started blogging. In his sixth entry, he talks about the 1957 Proclamation of Independence, and the gulf between promises and realities.

Malaysia: National Day + Blog Day

30 August 2005

Malaysia's National day falls on the same day we observe Blog Day, August 31. Blogger Minishorts feels the 48-year independence has been taken for granted, TV Smith's heart sank seeing the faded and forlorn fluttering with a few remaining shreds of dignity. Some English bloggers chose to write in the...

China: Newspaper circulation

  26 August 2005

While Malaysian newspapers conventionally base their advertising rates cards on readership figures, China's base it on both circulation and readership. As such, disputes often erupt with one newspaper publishes a set of quarterly figures and rival newspaper disputes them, like what happened in Malaysia. In China, the lack of reliable...

The World Reacts to Robertson

In the global chatter about U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson‘s remarks calling for the assasination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (for which he later apologized), there is much reflection on religious extremism – and the extent to which it is tolerated in various countries. Calvin Ng, a Malaysian Christian, condemns “Mad...

Malaysia: Gay community

25 August 2005

Malaysians reject Alfred Kinsey's 10% rule-of-thumb but readily admit that 1 to 4% of the national population are likely to be gay. thecicak.com says official gay organisations are non-existent in Muslim-majority Malaysia. However, there are organizations that support the gay community, such as HIV/AIDS non-governmental organizations like the Pink Triangle....

Malaysia: The New Blogocracy

  24 August 2005

Jeff Ooi points to a story in Oxford Business Group titled: The New Blogocracy which features the Malaysian blogosphere. It is also the topic of academic study with the recent publishing of a paper entitled “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom: A Malaysian Case Study on Blogging Towards a Democratic Culture”...

Malaysia: ISP meets bloggers

23 August 2005

One of the earliest agendas the new CEO of Malaysia's largestISP wanted done is to meet blogger Jeff Ooi to resolve quality of service issues raised in his blog, Screenshots, and an issue raised two years ago in his column in Malaysian Business, a business fortnightly with a 32-year history....

Malaysia: Richard Stallman

22 August 2005

Richard Stallman, founder of free software movement, will conduct two seminars on “Software Freedom and Danger of Software Patents” in two Malaysian universities later this week.

Malaysia: English – Benglish Translator

16 August 2005

The ever-intrepid Kenny Sia impressed by the variety and quality of machine translation on the web, has written the first ever English-to-Benglish translator.

A track less travelled for bloggers?

  15 August 2005

Perhaps, bloggers should outreach to the communities of practice to give blogs a relevant context in a knowledge-based economy. There are critical thinkers who should be networked together to influence change in society and economy.

Malaysia: The 21's who blog from across the world

15 August 2005

The Cicak (lizard in Malay) is climbing up the wall. San Francisco-based student Poh Si Tang leads a virtual world of young Malaysians scattered across the world to blog on politics, society, education, media and business back home. She takes the role of managing editor, besides toiling her busy schedule...

Malaysia: Haze-haters collect evidence online

15 August 2005

Blogger Koh Lay Chin blew her own cover one week after setting up Haze Haters In Malaysia as a repository of images of Malaysia shrouded in smog and haze. She has originally blogged behind anonymity – an effort she calls a pictorial petition – to protest against Indonesia for allowing...

Malaysia: The haze

11 August 2005

One of the biggest immediate problems facing Malaysia right now is a thick layer of haze over peninsular Malaysia, leading the government to declare a air pollution emergency. Malaysian bloggers are, of course weighing in: Volume of Interactions lays the blame on ASEAN inaction; Jeff Ooi notes that the government...

Malaysia: Rafidah in Hong Kong?

8 August 2005

Brand New Malaysian passed on a rumor that Malaysian Minister for International Trade Dato’ Seri Rafidah Aziz was secretly in Hong Kong, rather than in Perth, as had been reported.

East Asia: Nominations Open…

  6 August 2005

The overseas Chinese blog Yellow Peril writes, in a sort of round-about fashion, about how female asian bloggers who write about sex are human rights pioneers.

Malaysia: The Valley of Bio-Ghosts

5 August 2005

Referencing a Nature article, Jeff Ooi wonders what ever happened to BioValley, Malaysia's purported biotechnology research center.