During the last couple of years of my stay before coming home, I stayed with this eccentric lady, let’s just call her Miss AL. This eccentric mature lady (she was way older than my Mom, even older than my Mom’s oldest sister) lives her life to the fullest. She partake the Ironman competition almost annually, so she rides her bicyle whenever she had the time, swim couple of times a week at the local, or rather over at the Greenwich, YMCA, took couple, or three dozens (I am NOT kidding!) health pills daily, eat organic foods (sometimes delivered from online orders, some bought at Stop n’ Shop nearby), plant vegetables during spring for summer harvest, and have live five persian cats!

When I moved in, she just finished remodeling the house, and that includes the kitchen. Almost all appliances in the kitchen were new. She just bought a new two door fridge (with the older fridge and a freezer stashed downstairs in the basement), a new electric range, and a new breadmaker. I woke up, some mornings, with the smell of freshly baked bread wafting upstairs from the kitchen. Heavenly, I must admit, but I have never used it. I could have used it to knead some dough for some doughnuts that I had wanted to make for awhile now.

Other than that, she also bought a GE trash compactor. I never used a trash compactor prior to this. I have never even seen a trash compactor bags . Yes, I am a country bumpkin. Before using that, Miss AL had assured me that anything could be thrown down the chute, and so being a country bumpkin that I am, I did just that. The accident occured one day while I was cooking something, probably chicken rendang. Or something that uses lemongrass, because I threw in the upper part of the lemongrass, and then buzz the thing.

It didn’t work. The thing did not buzz. Miss AL had to call in the trash compactor’s people, and they took it apart.

Enough to say, they found the lemongrass inside.

I felt so bad, but Miss AL brushed it off. She said she herself didn’t realize that lemongrass stalk would be too hard for the trash compactor to shred.

Heh.

Through this paid review, I am reminded (yet again) of how much fun I had while staying with Miss AL. I haven’t been in touch with her for the longest time, maybe I should now.

I just hate it when I get sick. Mommy can’t get sick, especially when that Mommy had to take care of a very active kid. I am sick today. I had been sneezing since early in the morning, and my throat is scratchy and my body is aching. Yes, I am whining.

It was last Sunday that I felt sick like this. I took some medication, and took a nap later in the afternoon. I woke up feeling better and thinking that I am not going to catch it after all.

But it seems like I am wrong. Probably caught it from my husband who had been sneezing and most of the times he didn’t cover his mouth. I am mighty pissed since he knew better.

But old habit die hard. So now I am taking vitamin C and giving Tia some piriton to counter the disease. She did cough some, no temperature, but she did not want to eat anything today. Just some milk, tea, yoghurt, and some peanut butter cookies.

I took a couple of hours nap earlier on after the husband came home. Right after I took some medications. I couldn’t afford to take a nap during the day since I know my daughter, and I know that she would put her mischevious cap on whenever she thought nobody is looking.

She did not even want to eat bread. Hmmm… we’ll see how tomorrow goes.

Hopefully all would be better.

I can hope.

Or rather, She’s The Man. Yes, I know. Totally teen flick. But hey, whatever works for you, or me, right? So anyway, I watched this movie like twice. I know this is an old movie, last year’s to be exact. But we don’t have the movies channel on Astro then, and we do now. But even if we had it last year, we still have to wait to watch it this year anyway, yes?

I don’t think I need to give a short synopsis of the movie. I believe everyone who was interested already knew, no?

So I watched it once, with much interruption from Tia. So I recorded it to watch it when she is sleeping or whatever. Last night I watched it, but still I was interrupted because Tia wouldn’t let me watch the telly. She wanted me to play with her. So what else is new, eh?

I know that I could stop the movie, and continue whenever I am free. But I couldn’t be hassled, really. I think I would wait later on tonight after she fall asleep and watch the movie then.

I really have to watch this movie because I don’t remember laughing so much while watching a movie lately. But then it could be due to the fact that I kept on watching horror flicks too much.

I can’t start laughing while gory scene was on, else people will think that I had gone wankers wonkers.

Heh.

I was reading online newspaper this morning, and I came across this. I like this one so much that I wanted to put it up here.

Purely for my own reading pleasure, that is. But, you know, really something to think about.

Why do ours never resign?
By HUZIR SULAIMAN

By global standards of ministerial responsibility, Malaysia’s performance leaves much to be desired.

THE Westminster Parliamentary system, for better or for worse, is our former colonial masters’ gift to us, and to many Commonwealth countries. According to its conventions, Cabinet ministers are bound by both collective and individual responsibility.

Collective ministerial responsibility means that the Cabinet must speak with one voice. Whatever disagreements may take place behind closed doors, there must be a united front on policy matters in public.

A rare example of a Malaysian breach of the convention of collective responsibility occurred in 2005 when Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Dr Sothinathan questioned the Government’s decision not to recognise Ukrainian medical degrees, and as a consequence was suspended for three months.

The Westminster principle of individual ministerial responsibility, however, is probably of greater concern to Malaysians. It is explained by Rodney Brazier in his 1997 book, Ministers of the Crown:

“Broadly, each Minister is responsible for

(1) his private conduct,

(2) the general conduct of his department, and

(3) acts done (or left undone) by officials in his department.”

Let’s look at the first responsibility: private conduct. When confronted with evidence of personal impropriety, Malaysian ministers – with the recent exception of Chua Soi Lek – usually do not resign. In other democracies, resignation, though reluctant, is still the norm.

Looking at House of Commons research papers, for example, we find that of the 125 British ministerial resignations in the 20th century, no fewer than a dozen were for reasons of “private scandal” and two were for “private financial arrangements”.

In many democracies, even unproven allegations are sufficient to provoke resignation. In November 1997 the Portuguese Minister for Defence, Antonio Vitorino, resigned following accusations that he had not paid the full property tax on his country house.

“If there are doubts or suspicions over my behaviour, the situation must be fully clarified and therefore I must take responsibility as a citizen,” Vitorino said. “In view of the way I have always conducted myself in political life, I think it is impossible to hold public office at my level under any type of suspicion.”

Among legislators more sensitive to questions of honour and shame, the desire to minimise the stain on one’s reputation can lead to tragedy. Last year, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, the Japanese Agriculture Minister, went a step further then mere resignation when, embroiled in allegations that he filed false expense claims, he hanged himself in his Tokyo flat.

Perhaps the most stringent standard for private conduct was set by Mick Young, the Australian Immigration Minister who resigned in the 1980s. His crime? He failed to declare a stuffed toy in his suitcase to customs officers when he returned to the country.

The “Paddington Bear Affair” led to his resignation but established in the minds of many the international standard of conduct for ministers – a standard of probity to which I think even Barisan Nasional supporters would agree our Cabinet does not hold itself.

So much for private conduct. What of a minister’s responsibility for “the general conduct of his department, and for acts done (or left undone) by his department”?

As Noore Alam Siddiquee of South Australia’s Flinders University wrote in 2006 in the International Public Management Review, “the principle of ministerial responsibility as seen in mature democracies is either weak or missing in Malaysia. The principle means that the minister accepts responsibility for any lapses or irregularities within his ministry and resigns from the office.

“Despite reports of numerous irregularities in various agencies at different levels, misappropriation of funds by individuals and groups and increasing volume of complaints received from the public on the quality of services and responsiveness, rarely has a minister chosen to accept responsibility for such irregularities.”

Siddiquee points out that despite the 2004 public outcry over shoddy construction projects, the then Works Minister “not only rebuffed calls for him to step down, he practically took no responsibility for the defective projects and other anomalies, and has had no problem retaining his ministerial office.”

But Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu was able to rebuff those calls for resignation – which came not just from civil society groups and Opposition lawmakers, but also from BN backbenchers – in large part due to the unwillingness of his Cabinet colleagues to apply the doctrine of individual ministerial responsibility to him, perhaps lest they themselves be judged by the same standards.

In Cabinet Governing in Malaysia (2006), Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim reveals how they protected Samy Vellu: “Finally, after what was a prolonged episode that almost cost him his job, the Cabinet found that he took it upon himself more than he should have shouldered. ?. The Cabinet session of 20th October 2004, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak, discussed at length the background of this public outcry. Datuk Seri Samy Vellu’s extensive reports to the session were noted by the Cabinet with the view that the Minister ought not to take it upon himself all the blame hurled by the public as there were various parties that were responsible like consultants, contractors, engineers, architects, etc.”

Following this logic, it would appear that a Minister only need resign if he were a one-man ministry, doing everything himself. In reality other parties, whether external or in the civil service, are always there to take the blame.

In Cabinet Governing Dr Rais repeatedly talks about the difficulties that ministers have with the civil service, shifting the responsibility onto them:

“It takes years to rid a public servant who misbehaves or who does not perform and by the sheer procedural rigmarole it involves, bosses are quite reluctant to effect the actual brunt of the General Orders.

It is instructive to know, lacking in acumen and productivity are not listed as grounds for dismissal. Neither is the inability to achieve results put in as a factor to dismiss or suspend.”

While this might perhaps be true, it is distinctly at odds with the principle of ministerial responsibility in the Westminster system, and it leads to a complete abdication of a minister’s duty of ultimate supervision.

Contrast this Malaysian blame-shifting with the 1954 resignation statement of Sir Thomas Dugdale, the British Minister for Agriculture:

“I, as Minister, must accept full responsibility to Parliament for any mistakes and inefficiency of officials in my Department, just as, when my officials bring off any successes on my behalf, I take full credit for them.

“Any departure from this long-established rule is bound to bring the Civil Service right into the political arena, and that we should all, on both sides of the House, deprecate most vigorously.”

Similarly, when in 1982 the junior British Foreign Office Minister, Richard Luce, resigned along with his two ministerial colleagues, accepting responsibility for the Argentine invasion of the Falklands, he said, “It is an insult to Ministers of all Governments, of whatever colour or complexion, to suggest that officials carry responsibility for policy decisions. Ministers do so, and that strikes at the very heart of our parliamentary system.”

In November 2002 South Korea’s Justice Minister and the prosecutor general both resigned to take responsibility for the death in policy custody of a murder suspect.

In the same year, Britain’s Education Secretary resigned because the nation failed to meet targets for child literacy and numeracy.

Last month, the South Korean Prime Minister and his entire Cabinet offered to resign in response to public unhappiness about the beef import deal South Korea has made with the United States.

Would our ministers do any of that?

Huzir Sulaiman writes for theatre, film, television, and newspapers.

Now that is really something to ponder about, no?

And when there is no oven around, I have this hankering for some desserts. It could be good ol’ chocolate cake, it could be a pie. It could be anything baked.

Well, actually, I do have something that I wanted to try. I wanted to try baking this meringue. I had never attempted to bake any meringues before. It does look complicated, and I am not sure whether I would be able to do it, but heck, at least I could try, yes?

But then, I would have to wait until we go home to Kedah, or if we get one over here. But then, if we do get one over here, we then would have to buy all those baking products, like the mixer, all the pans and tins etc etc etc. How could I justify getting all those stuffs when all I wanted was to make one measly fruit meringue? You tell me.
Bah.

So now if we wanted to eat any chocolate cakes or any desserts, we would go to the bakery. Or we would go and pick one of those ice cream cakes from Haagen-Dazs. However you spell it. It is exorbitantly priced, so I don’t think that would be one we would get even once a month. We get this one, almost similar like this, I mean, and it costs us bunch. How could people spend that much monthly,

I am not sure. We must have a lot of well-to-do folks about, eh?

Perhaps their grow money on trees. It keeps on growing, eh?

I would like to have a money tree, come to think of it.

Anyways, we don’t really spend that much on desserts anyways. Our favorite would be the one that we get over at McDonald’s. Really.

I have taken some photos of the Haagen-Dazs torte, but I haven’t uploaded it to the photo gallery. So I would put it up here later. Much, much later. Maybe. Perhaps.
So OK I would put it up later on. I am anal like that.

Yum. I definitely would want to have these raspberries on the meringue.

For real. Check this one out. Weal? Wale? Weird right? Yet I go scrambling on my chubby digits on the keyboard to type out whatever I could think of whenever I see the timer ticking. This one is short, though not easy enough for me. Wait till you get this rows and rows of boxes to fill in, now that would make you really pounce on the keyboard.

Tick Tock Tick Tock. This is just too sick! Very sick, and yet very addictive.



So anyway, I had finally succumbed and registered to Facebook. All you folks out there who would like to add me in, the name’s Marlinda Radzi.

Tee hee.

I found people whom I went to grade school with, people whom I knew since I was seven. Yes, folks, since I was seven and I had no clue that I would be able to be acquainted to them ever again since I changed school when I was ten. I made an entry about it, but I am too lazy to dig it up. Perhaps later when I have the time off from playing the ‘twirl. That. Evil. Game! to do it.

To all my fellow American friends, Happy Fourth of July!

Yes, this is about the Princess. Again. Click on the photo to visit her site. Most of the times I would update it. I had been lax in updating for a few months now, but hopefully I would start to add more entries soon.

But anyway, I feel that it is of time that I change her journal’s skin. So I went ahead and changed it to something princessy.

She calls this the butterfly princess.

How apt.

p/s I have a couple of projects that I had been doing since late 2006. I would be introducing those two projects sometimes this month after some tweaking

I can’t bear to make an entry because I just love the pineapples too much!

Anyway, I haven’t written much about Tia and how she is adjusting to this place. And oh, this photo was taken when she was around 13 months old. Don’t you just love those red cheeks? Don’t she just looked so chunky and stubby, with those hair that didn’t want to grow? I just love it.

But anyway, where was I? Oh, about Tia. She is now three and a half year old. I am not sure weather I should be worried or not. It’s regarding her pelatness. She talks more English than Malay, which I presume due to her watching too much cartoons on the telly. Ask her anything in Malay, she would answer in English. So I know that she understood Malay, she just couldn’t be bothered to answer in that language, I suppose. But because it is pelat, sometimes what she said would be totally incorrigible to others. She speaks like the way she moves - haphazardly and furiously in all directions, if that was doable. It is almost as if she’s impatient, and would combines two words together.

It is funny to me because I would understand what she is getting at. I am with her 24/7, after all. Some people thought that she is talking gibberish, really, though I know it is not.

Should I be worried? Hmmm… I am not sure. I don’t want to compare her to other kids, because I know every kids developed differently and at different pace.

What else? Oh, she is starting to like jigsaw puzzles. Quite good at searching for pieces to put together.

She likes pink. Anything pink and princessy. Calls herself Princess Athira *grins*. Though she certainly don’t act like one.

And she is quite tall for a three year old. 1cm shy of 100cm tall, people would usually mistaken her for a five year old.

She loves egg. Rice with kicap and eggs. Rice with kicap and fish. Rice with kicap everyday wouldn’t even bother her. And noodles. She love noodle soup very much. It could be plain, or with eggs. What else *laughs*

Don’t like beef. Not much vegetables she would try, though she used to like eating mushy vegs. Well, as long as she is getting her nutrients from milk, and taking her carbs for energy, I think it is alright.

Oh, I mentioned that she calls herself Princess Athira (sometimes) right? Acted like her royal highness, too, sometimes, whenever she didn’t get what she wanted.

Tomorrow’s the weekend. I know she would want to go swimming somewhere. Hopefully weather would be fine.

Those pineapples, I mean.

AND yes, I purposely put it up real big. I wanted anyone reading this journal (yes, the two of you) to see how thorny those yummylicious looking pineapples were. I think I am going to start putting up large a@@ photos from now on.

Until someone complains that it is eating up the bandwidth, that is :p

But then that could be the situations that one would face in life, don’t you think? Thorny situations, yeah I know it sounded corny, but then think about it. Thorny situations could be one of those situations where subtlety are flung out far out in the boondocks. Well, I am not saying that people from the boonies don’t know how to be subtle. I am from the boonies, and I am as subtle as those delicious pineapples. Heh.

Anyway, I had been put through some tough and thorny situation these past couple of months. It is very tough for me, and for Tia, too, since she is with me all the times, and we are faced with some limitations etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I am not sure where I am going with this. Something happened yesterday, and it really broke my heart. I am not sure what is going on with some people, but I know that I needed to change. I needed to change for me.

But I don’t think that I am the only one who had to change, don’t you think?

But anyway, I don’t know why I am rambling about it here, but I am feeling better.

And, Adik, I love you so much.