Lunar New Year Celebration In Mt Albert.

The Albert Library celebrated Lunar New year with a fashion parade of traditional Chinese costumes, music, display of Tai Chi sword exercise and a beautiful Chinese Dance. My friend Siong organised this event, a job well done. Ka Pi to all the librarians and the children who participated.
The graceful ladies wore beautiful dresses with long sleeves with floated as they twirled them around. They wanted to take a photo of me with them, but the camera had a mind of its own and decided I didn't look good enough to be with them.

Breaking news, man shot

You could say I was at the right place and right time again. I was walking along Sandringham road taking photographs and happily minding my own business when I looked up the sky and saw the Police helicopter. I was reminded of the time  when the helicopter hovered at at Point Chevalier school.

The next thing, I heard sirens of police cars coming my way. There was about fifteen cars, marked and unmarked giving chase. Then there were some more. The New Zealand Herald reported there were twenty police cars. Cars had to give away to the chase.

Looking at my pix, I wonder if I actually captured the escaping car. I did capture the helicopter.

Can you tell if it is a Nissan Skyline?

nzherald.co.nz 

Friday January 23, 2009

One person has been shot dead after a high speed police chase on Auckland's Northwestern Motorway.

There had earlier been reports that two shots were fired and a man had been taken into custody.

It is not clear at this stage who the dead man is or who shot him but police confirmed the fatality.

A Herald photographer at the scene said he could see the feet of an unmoving person visible from a white van.

The motorway in both directions is blocked and several areas near the St Lukes on-ramp have been cordoned off.

Police are investigating and members of the Armed Offenders Squad have been involved since a vehicle was stolen in west Auckland shortly after 1pm.

Callers to Newstalk ZB report seeing a grey Nissan Skyline car crashed into a fence on the Northwestern Motorway near the Western Springs off-ramp.

When the chase ended, witnesses reported seeing a man try to hijack a truck.

A total of 20 police vehicles and the police helicopter are thought to have been involved in the chase.

The high speed chase began in the west Auckland suburb of New Lynn and police said the person they were chasing was armed, TVNZ reported.

It said there were reports the incident began when a man tried to steal a handbag. He was then said to have got into a car and driven off.

He is reported to have ditched the car in Titirangi before getting into a Skyline, TVNZ said.

Police shut the motorway with one witness describing it as "looking like a carpark".

Ice tragedy: Car firm backs down

Yesterday morning, when the controversial news broke, a friend and I had a heated argument. Like the rogue Edwin Chan, he had assumed the boy drove the car when he was not registered to do so.

The family were unhappy with a criticism Mr Chan made about Akshay having the keys in his pocket when he was not permitted to drive the vehicle.

Mr Fernandes said Akshay had the keys only because he had returned to the locked car to retrieve his cap, and then kept them in his pocket.

He had not been driving the car.

I argued that that doesn't mean that he was driving the car. To prove my point, I often go to excursions without carrying my Gucci bag (LOL) and wearing clothing without any pockets. To further prove my point. yesterday, the very outfit I was wearing had no pockets at all. I was wearing a dark blue demin jacket, a pink T-shirt and a pair of white pants. Not one pocket any where. So when I go, what do I do? I may give my 12 year old Sam my car keys. Does that mean that Sam was driving my car?

You may have notice, Edwin is a Chan, that is my madam name. Thousands of years ago back in China, we may have been related. He sounded like a foreignor, he may be a recent immigrant. The water engineer defended him that his background is different, therefore his business accument is different. No matter what, the old adage holds true: When in Rome, do what the Romans do. Otherwise, there will be ghettos and it will be disasters.

Even though, Edwin had backed down, he had done enough harm to the New Zealand reputation. I quote another Chinese proverb which my Dad used to say," FAN KA HIN"  or add salt afterwards. This means when the dish is cooked, and served to the diners, there is not enough salt, adding salt would never make the dish the same. (Of course, this can not apply to Europeon dishes where one adds salt on the table.) The application of this is, no matter what you do to make up, the harm is done, and you can't rectify the mistake. The moral of this proverb is to always do things right the place, do not be too hasty in your decision or the popular proverb," Look before you leap."

Ice tragedy: Car firm backs down 

4:00AM Thursday Jan 15, 2009

By Jarrod Booker

New Zealand Herald

A rental car company which charged recovery costs to the grieving parents of two young men killed at Fox Glacier has backed down after a storm of criticism led by the Prime Minister.

The company, NZRCS Rental Cars, faced heavy criticism after the Herald revealed yesterday that it was going to charge the Australian family for towing the electronically locked car 418km to Christchurch, and for a new transponder key to operate it.

Police, Victim Support, and even Prime Minister John Key criticised the company for taking the actions when the family was still struggling to cope with the deaths of Ashish Miranda, 24, and Akshay Miranda, 22 - both crushed by tonnes of falling ice while their parents Ronnie and Winnie were nearby.

Akshay's body remains trapped under the ice, and the car keys are believed to be in his pocket.

Offers of cash to cover the up to $1600 in charges flowed yesterday, and NZRCS director Edwin Chan said contributions made would mean no costs would fall on the family.

Alfred Fernandes, a cousin travelling with the Mirandas on their South Island holiday, had a $1000 charge on his credit card from the company, but Mr Chan said this was being refunded.

Mr Fernandes told the Herald: "We are very grateful to all the help which we have got from every quarter".

Mr Chan, who refused to be photographed because of fears for his safety, claimed he had always intended to reduce the cost to the Mirandas if he could, and charging them the fees was a "worst case scenario".

"I do feel sorry for what happened, and I hope that they will be able to find this is a good outcome for them."

Mr Key described the company's actions as "crass at best, and probably extremely bad business practice".

The family were unhappy with a criticism Mr Chan made about Akshay having the keys in his pocket when he was not permitted to drive the vehicle.

Mr Fernandes said Akshay had the keys only because he had returned to the locked car to retrieve his cap, and then kept them in his pocket.
He had not been driving the car.

***The pix of us in front of the Fox glacier looks as though the Fox Glacier is near by. In fact it is quite far away. Sam was too young at 3 to walk there, and I was too tired. If I remember correctly, only the water engieer went.***

Muslim dress

Nine Muslims, including three children, have been ordered off a domestic US flight after two other passengers heard them making what they thought were suspicious remarks about security.

The group, eight of whom are US citizens, was in Washington on Thursday afternoon on an AirTran flight bound for Orlando, Florida where they were to attend a religious retreat, and were eventually cleared for travel by the FBI, according to the Washington Post.

The airline and FBI characterised the incident as a misunderstanding, but AirTran reportedly refused to rebook the passengers, who paid for seats on another carrier.

Kashif Irfan, 34, said his younger brother Atif and his brother's wife "were remarking about safety" when they were overheard.

"My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect of airport security," he told the Post. "The only thing my brother said was, 'Wow, the jets are right next to my window."

Irfan, who was also travelling with his wife, a sister-in-law, a friend and Irfan's three sons ages seven, four, and two, said action was taken against his party because of the way they looked.

All were traditionally Muslim in appearance, with the men sporting beards and the women in headscarves.

An airline spokesman, Tad Hutcheson, defended AirTran's handling of the situation.

"At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn't have made on the airplane," he was quoted as saying.

"Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened these people were of Muslim faith and appearance," Hutcheson added. "It escalated, it got out of hand and everyone took precautions."

The pilot postponed the flight, and federal officials ordered all 104 passengers off the plane to re-screen them and their luggage before allowing the flight to go to Orlando, two hours late and without the nine passengers.

Ellen Howe, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said the pilot acted appropriately.

"It was an ordeal," said Abdur Razack Aziz, one of the detained.

"Nothing came out of it. It was paranoid people. It was very sad."

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5242090/muslims-removed-flight/

I had just finished reading, “The Bookseller of Kabul” by Asne Seierstad and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini. Both authors talked about the BURQA or the BURKA. These are the Muslim dresses that the Middle East women have to wear. They are usually black or dark blue and cover the women from head to toe with a small slit for the eyes. Even the slit is made of a mesh type of material.

In Sarawak, and in Malaysia, the Muslims are more moderate. In the ladies wear a TUDONG, which is a long fabric. This covers the head and to the shoulders. The face is is shown like an egg shape. They also wear a long sleeved gown which goes all the way to the ground.

It was not always like this, when I was growing up, the Malay ladies wore three types of clothing, the well known Kebaya which you probably are familiar with as the air stewardess of Garuda, Malaysian airlines and Singapore airlines, the Nyonya lacy top, and the Baju Kurong. If they wore a head gear, it was a lacy pashmina loosely draped over their hair.

In 1975, when I went to Canada, I became the secretary of MISSA, Malaysian, Indonesian, Singapore Students association. I had on various occasions had to dance with my fellow students on stage a dance representing this region. We chose the candle dance and were paired off with guys. This dance would probably be condemned by the Muslim extremists as anti Islam as it was in close proximity or KHWALT with the opposite sex. Any way, I had my sister Elizabeth make me a Nyonya top and sent it over. I wore it over a colourful sarong. We shook our booties and wowed our audience.

A decade later, I came back to Sarawak, and found that the Muslim girls had to TUDONG, and most of the women too. I asked my dad, and he said it was the influenced of the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini which started the trend.

During the sixteen years I was in Singapore, I think it was after 9/11, some parents challenged the Ministry of Education. They defied the regulations and sent their six year old girls in TUDONG. The Singapore Government wouldn’t bulge and it became a media circus. Eventually, one ring leader took his daughter to a Muslim school in Australia. The rest withdrew and enrolled their daughters in local Madrasas or Muslim schools.

Here in Auckland, because I teach ESOL, I have contact with a lot of Muslim students. One twelve year old Kenyan student came in a TUDONG. Her mum accompanied her to school daily and she wore a BURQA. As she was older, we spend a lot of time discussing the problems of being a Muslim in a Western society.

***These pix are my Sarawak dress, the bottom is an ordinary sarong. I wear them to special functions, depicting dress of the country of my birth.***

After reading this news article, what do you think? Should be BURQA be allowed on the plane?