Welcoming 2010 and a brand new decade

It's the last day of 2009 today. What have we achieved in the last 365 days? What is good and what is bad? Were there more good days or bad days? What did we learn from it? What is to be improved, changed and what's to keep and take away? So many questions to ask, so many things to ponder.....

BUT keep it all for tomorrow! Just party hard today and get drunk. After all, all of us deserves it after a year of hard work and more of the same shit ahead of us. If there's a good day to get drunk, this is the day. What other day has a better excuse than today? Moreover, we're "celebrating" the end of one decade today. Another decade....man...how many have I gone through???? Urgh....scary.....not that many but enough to be scary.

We're supposed to drive down to a town in Tanzania tomorrow but just realised that there are something called the logbook which is locked with the company. We only have the copy and we must have the original to get pass the border of Kenya into Tanzania. And the keys to the cupboard is with the guy who has been on leave since 2 weeks ago :( Now gotta find out if a friend of ours is willing to "contribute" the use of his car instead of ours. He usually doesn't like taking his car on long trips coz its his own while ours belong to the company. If no trip, guess it's gonna be mahjong all weekend again. BORING!

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! And I hope 2010 is going to be a good year coz 2009 SUCKED BIG TIME ('cept grandma's birthday)!!!!!!

I'm a Mrs for 1 year!

On the 28th of Dec we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Amidst the all the "turbulence" in the marriage, we have managed to survive one year. Time seem to fly but in actual fact, it's a long journey towards this day. It hasn't been smooth as I'd imagined it to be.

Hubby came home from work early - he left home in the morning without any hint that he remembered what day it was. He arrived home way too early - around 2pm and stayed home sleeping till 6pm. It was only when I said I'm gonna go make dinner did he say he's taking me out for dinner.

Say hellow to MBP

:) I'm now blogging to you from my brand new MBP. Well, ok, not that new anymore since I've had it since Christmas day and have only managed to find time to start blogging now. Mostly, it's been used by hubby - he's been playing with it since and I have not have had a proper chance to explore it till today. Nothing much to explore I guess - it's pretty basic since I have not upgraded/added any extras.  I will have to sit down and compare my old computer to this one though and point out which applications I need to install and which ones are redundant.

This newbie is a breath of fresh air from my old laptop. Man......this is so much faster! Each click performs its task so quickly! Hubby's also used to my old laptop and when he started using MBP with the Internet, he said to me "we've been complaining about how slow the internet connection is but I think the problem lies with the computer, not the connection. It's so fast here!" :s

Anyway just to announce the arrival of my baby! :)

New Scam Method by Nigerians Part IV

So my last post was analyzing the whole "paypal" email. This post, I'll show you how you can determine from the email itself if it is from the true sender. It's back to basics without all the fancy stuff I just went through.


All the TOs, FROMs, who the address is registered to, his/her country of origin etc can be faked. But one thing is for sure - the codes embedded in the email itself, the message the emails takes with it so that it can communicate with the servers in the WWW can NEVER be faked. So if you're suspicious about any emails, open up the message header. There are a lot of information inside but there are only 1 or 2 which you should know. 


This is how an email message header looks like (I'm going to comment in RED what to look out for):

Delivered-To: 
Received: by 10.204.99.70 with SMTP id t6cs85196bkn;
        Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:11:06 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.224.63.219 with SMTP id c27mr5354621qai.168.1261584665242;
        Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:11:05 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path:  Return path means reply-to. So the owner of this fake onlinetrackpost@in.com is a Linda Cox
Received: from snt0-omc1-s24.snt0.hotmail.com (snt0-omc1-s24.snt0.hotmail.com [65.55.90.35]) This email was received from Hotmail's server.....what is paypal doing with a Hotmail server??
        by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 8si12162417qyk.56.2009.12.23.08.11.04;
        Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:11:05 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of lindacox1957@hotmail.com designates 65.55.90.35 as permitted sender) client-ip=65.55.90.35; 
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of lindacox1957@hotmail.com designates 65.55.90.35 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=lindacox1957@hotmail.com
Received: from SNT105-W47 ([65.55.90.8]) by snt0-omc1-s24.snt0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959);
  Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:10:48 -0800
Message-ID: 
Return-Path: lindacox1957@hotmail.com
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
 boundary="_a85adced-9f6e-43a3-bea7-96852d6a2f6a_"
X-Originating-IP: [82.128.68.207] Finally to know where this fella is sending his emails from, search for an IP tracker online and put in these numbers. I use www.trustedsource.org and this fella is actually sending me emails from Lagos, Nigeria. Hmmm...such a coincidence - just where the parcel is supposed to go! 
From: payPal Service 
Sender: 
To: 
Subject: =?windows-1256?Q?******Noti?= =?windows-1256?Q?fication_O?=
 =?windows-1256?Q?f_An_Insta?= =?windows-1256?Q?nt_Payment?=
 =?windows-1256?Q?_From_Loga?= =?windows-1256?Q?n_Smith_(l?=
 =?windows-1256?Q?ogansmith@?= =?windows-1256?Q?operamail.?=
 =?windows-1256?Q?com)=FE=FE=FE?=
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:10:47 +0000
Importance: Normal
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 23 Dec 2009 16:10:48.0126 (UTC) FILETIME=[7D4CEDE0:01CA83EA]

--_a85adced-9f6e-43a3-bea7-96852d6a2f6a_
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1256"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

The last few email correspondences between myself and Mr Smith:

okay..thanks ..i mailed paypal and they said your account will be credited in 7-8 day beacuse they are verifying the tracking number.. i have been scammed like this before i don't want to be scammed so i need to be careful..okay get back to me if thats is okay
Thanks

----- Original Message -----
From: Ann
To: "logan smith"
Subject: Re: very very urgent
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:38:53 +0300

Isn't UPS better and more secure? It is a courier company as is DHL. USPS once arrive in Nigeria will be in the care of local post office. I don't want it to go missing and then the trouble later. Mails to Nigeria do go missing you know.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 23, 2009, at 10:04 PM, "logan smith" <logansmith@operamail.com> wrote:

thanks for the mail... but i said USPS EXPRESS MAIL...why didnt you send it there let me know

----- Original Message -----
From: Ann
To: "logan smith"
Subject: Re: urgent
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:23:44 +0800

yes, it is insured and i have mention item as gift. however i need to ensure the money is in my paypal account before i will release the tracking number. i hope you'll understand.

thanks

Ann

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 12:17 AM, logan smith<logansmith@operamail.com> wrote:

thanks but did you insure the item and please get back to me with the tracking number..
thanks

I actually did a check on logansmith@operamail.com - it is registered in California. This could again be either fake or maybe the real Logan Smith's email account has just been hacked. I do not know Opera so I can't say.


So people, be safe! There are too many of them out there! I just receive ANOTHER email today from a Mr Philip Chu (philipchu63@yahoo.com). Exactly the same message I received in my Facebook inbox BUT this time - it's damn funny. It's Christmas eve today and Mr Chu is looking for a Christmas gift for his step brother in Africa! Too many step brothers in Africa man. 

Hi, was guessing for a gift to buy for  stept brother of mine who is based in Africa i wiill like to buy a chrismas gift for him , and while browsing , i saw what you have for sale and found it quite nice as a Christmas Gift. Would like to know if its till for sale... hope to hear from you soon.. thanks Can you tell the similarities between Mr Chu and Mr Smith's email?? The subject of Mr Chu's email is electronics. He did not mention where he was browsing and what electronics. And I believe, after seeing this email, that Mr Smith and Mr Chu's email account has been compromised. That's all folks! Merry Christmas again! PS: I'm finally gonna see my MBP tomorrow! :)

New Scam Method by Nigerians Part III

So my last post ended with my telling Mr Smith that he should cancel his payment immediately. 


I told hubby everything and he told me to make it even more fun - tell him that I know how urgent and important it is to him that this gift will get to his brother on time. Tell him I have sent the laptop already. I did exactly that before getting his reply to my email about him cancelling his payment. Anyway, I received his reply:


thanks but did you insure the item and please get back to me with the tracking number..
thanks

And guess what came with his reply? 2 more emails from "paypal". I don't believe there's someone who can be soooo stupid! I have already told you the first time that I believe that the PayPal notification is a fake and yet you send me the SAME notification, only this time with words and paypal logo. I lost one because I reported it as phishing to Gmail and they deleted the email from my inbox. But anyway the one I'm going to attach is the baby. 


Ladies and gentlemen, I reveal to you the new generation of "paypal" LOL:

This is part one of the mail - too long gotta shorten into parts also :p So I'll point out the signs by pictures.
1) Same sender, same header - we've already discussed this in Part II so I will not repeat it here oh but I have to add that email address from PayPal will ALWAYS be paypal.com


2) This time with logo - Fuiyoh so real ah - but thing is, emails from PayPal will not have any logo unless it's advertisement or marketing emails. *Tsk tsk* 


3) Free money!! I'm $30 richer!! Where got people give free money one??? Our deal was for $800 and this payment is for $830! Christmas present for me? Extra bonus for me because I wrote him a lovely mail?? DUH!

What is wrong with this one then?
1) No purchased from


2) This payment notification looks more like an invoice! All these are wrong! Paypal's email is plain simple text. No fancy fancy stuff. This an HTML email. 


3) How the hell would PayPal know how I'm going to ship to the receiver? This is payment notification - not an invoice. And unless this is an invoice from MY business, there will not be Shipping Insurance printed. How the hell would PayPal know what this payment is for? So how the hell would PayPal know what to add??

1) The important note part is the biggest giveaway of all. There will not be such thing in ANY PayPal's emails. 


2) See onlinetrackpost@in.com? Why would PayPal need a 3rd party to do their job when they are covered globally? Too much money to spend is it?


3) Anybody has sent money/paid for any purchases using PayPal before? Is there any way you can control when the money is paid to seller?? Answer is NO! The best you can do is, pay, wait and if you don't receive your purchase, report seller to PayPal. They will then start their investigation. There is NO WAY you can buy something without paying. Fuck the "to secure buyer and seller" clause. By using PayPal, both parties are already secured.


4) PayPal never refer to themselves as the PayPal Team. Yea yea yea.....and they DO NOT  publish any sort of Registration Number. 


5) PayPal will never lighten the last part of the footer by that much. 


6) Address status confirmed. What status? Confirm what??


This is what a authentic PayPal footer will look like:

See the difference? 


It's pretty real right?? The fake one even has a PayPal Email ID!!! I forwarded both emails to PayPal and they have confirm that these are fakes.


Finally:

1) Again, we see hotmail here


2) There are too much space between the footer and this hotmail message. This will never happen in PayPal's emails. This could be intentional by the sender - it is really a long way down before you see this Hotmail message. You might not scroll all the way down from the end of the email - I guess if this is intentional, that is what they hope for that you know you've reached the end of the email so why continue scrolling and if you don't you won't see Hotmail at the end. 


I guess part IV will be the final part.....I'll show you what else he said and how else - if all else fails - you can trace if the email is what it says it is.

New Scam Method by Nigerians Part II

My last post ended with me replying to him with my PayPal ID. 


This might be the last part, maybe not - depending on how long this post is going to be. But with this post, I'll be showing you some of the tips & tricks that will point out a shammer (I bet most of you already know these stuff anyway)


I received a reply - very fast response - with the subject Payment Made. 


hello, how are you?
just want to inform you that i have send the money for the item into your paypal account so i will like you to ship out the item today and get back to me with the tracking number so this is where you are sending the item to.......
Name......... Ohai Gabriel
Address.......8,Ajana Street IjeshaTedo
City...........Surulere
Receivers Number....+2348038537546
State.....Lagos
Country........Nigeria
Zipcode......... 23401 so ship out the item and one more thing want you to write on the item as gift on the mail slip because i dont want the customs to place their attention on the item so post out the item out via USPS Express mail(EMS)..and make sure you place insurance on the item..
thanks get back to me with the tracking number..

Still very authentic right?? I know! But that is before you see the next attachment. When you pay via PayPal, both receiver and sender will receive a notification email from PayPal. I did too. Take a look and see if you can point out what is wrong with this:

OK can you find anything wrong with the email yet? No? Look again - very carefully this time. Yes? No? Fine, let me tell you what is wrong with this email.


1) Look at 'from'. It says payPal Service. Paypal is 2 capital Ps it should be PayPal. So that is the first thing I noticed when I saw this mail in my inbox.


2) Have you ever noticed that PayPal only has 1 email address for all their notifications? For non-US I mean. It is ALWAYS service@intl.paypal.comand they do not have a name. What do I mean? For example in the 'from' field you might have Will Smith . For PayPal, it is ALWAYS service@intl.paypal.com . Notice this email has payPal Service? 2nd sign.



3) There will NOT be **** before the start of the subject (I'm sorry I cannot remember the exact words PayPal will use). 


4) The body of the email is empty. 


5) At the bottom - the footer - the big giveaway. Hotmail???? WTH???? This is one HUGE giveaway which the shammer cannot change because it is imbedded in all hotmail's emails. You cannot change it from your email or your account. It's a way Hotmail advertises their services. 


6) I'm not sure if other mail providers have this option (I'm loyal to Gmail) but you see there's a mailed-by below the subject?? It says hotmail.com. Again WTH???


Getting exciting huh? So what did I do??? I replied - I played along. Immediately I knew this was not authentic. Of course I checked my PayPal account. But with the email body empty,  didn't have enough to contact PayPal to report a fraud. 


So replied to our friend Mr Smith saying that:
Hi Logan,

I have received a payPal Payment Notification. However, I can confirm that this notification is not authentic and I have not received any money in my PayPal account - there are tell-tale signs of it being a fake and have checked with PayPal also. I suggest that you cancel your payment immediately. 

I have sent you a payment request. You will just have to follow the link enclosed in the email to make payment. 

I will send out the laptop once the payment is received in my PayPal account.

I just wanted to play along and see what this guy has up his sleeves you know. And maybe, you can say, I was gathering evidence so that I can write a post like this on my blog. But then again, as I'm writing this post, do you think I have just educated these people?? Let me know!!! If most of you think I have made things worst by educating them where the loopholes are, I'll be more than happy to take the posts down.


Time to move on to Part III - oh yes, this ain't the end. It's only the start and it's getting more fun!

New Scam Method by Nigerians Part I

First of all, a very Merry Christmas to everybody out there!!


I'm going to break this post into several smaller posts for easy reading. This is going to be a loooooooong one. So bear with me but read it - it's a good to know and keep you on alert if you come across such scam. I'll be attaching all original emails from sender and myself.


Yeap, I'm a "victim" of a scam (in PayPal's terms spoof). Why "victim"? Coz I'm alert enough to see through the scam after only the 2nd mail I received from the sender. I am lucky enough to be a heavy user of PayPal due to my business needs and hence am able to tell the difference between an authentic PayPal email from a fake at first glance.


And yes, Nigerians AGAIN. Why why why? Why does it always have to be them? Don't they know that they have an extremely bad reputation for being cheats already? 


You might say I brought this unto myself - I published an advert to sell my laptop on Facebook's marketplace. After weeks of silence, I received a PM in my Facebook inbox from this guy name Logan Smith. Below is the message, word for word, which came into my inbox:


Hello, was guessing for a gift to buy step brother of mine who is based in Africa on his birthday next month, and while browsing facebook, i saw what you have for sale and found it quite nice as a birthday gift. Would like to know if its till for sale. I am willing to offer $800 for it, including shipping cost via Usps express mail. I will be paying through paypal, because its the safest means of online payment. Hope to hear from you as soon as possible. reply me at (logansmith@operamail.com)
thanks


You can imagine how happy I was when I saw the message right? I mean hell, RM2500 for my used laptop? Of course yours truly replied to his email. How the hell would I know he's a fake? But Nigeria - yeah....oh well. I was thinking man this is a good deal cause I'm in Africa already! If I'm living in USA or any other continent, this might not be that good a deal coz see, he says USD800 INCLUDING shipping. I told him that the laptop is still available and I need to know where his brother is exactly because he only mentioned Africa right. 


He came back with this:

how are you?thanks for the kind and lovely mail...
this is where you are sending the item to.......
Name.........  .Ohai Gabriel
Address.........8,Ajana  Street IjeshaTedo
City...........Surulere
Receivers Number...+2348038537546
State..Lagos
Country.......Nigeria
Zipcode......... 23401 so get back to me with your PayPal email ID so i can make the payment..
thanks

And I can promise you there was nothing lovely about my email. It was in fact very stone cold. I did not even commit to selling him. I just wanted to know where his brother is. Although I thought this is too good to be true, I believed him. So I replied with my PayPal ID. The next part of this saga is as shocking as it can be........to be continued........

AWA

What does that mean? It means Africa Wins Again.

Kenya's International Airport, JKIA, has been suspended indefinitely
because of faulty runway lights (should be night flights only I
guess). We started hearing faulty runway lights 2 weeks ago but this
announcement came last night.

I wonder how will be friend be going back to Singapore this weekend.

Sent from my iPhone

WTF?

Calling all the Malaysians who are overstaying in Britain - GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE IF YOU DON'T HAVE PROPER DOCUMENTS TO ALLOW YOU TO WORK/LIVE THERE! You're causing a lot of trouble and problems for us, normal Malaysians. Because of you, we're running the risk of having to pay RM1,200 non-refundable visa processing fees from 2011! Yeah RM1,200 you heard right. Which other country charges that much??? Over a RM1000 for visa alone???? Plus air ticket? Forget about going there - I guess that is their aim by charging such exorbitant visa fees! And I thought US charges high fees......*roll eyes*

But then again, you can't blame it 100% on these people who overstay can you? I mean if where they come from has good administration, treats everybody equally, abundant of opportunities, etc - in short, good enough for them to stay back, why would they want to leave their family and friends behind and go somewhere to become an illegal? There are consequences that come with being illegal. Terrible consequences in fact - they might never be able to go home to their friends and family for a loooooooonnnnnngggggg time...I mean if they do, they run the risk of never be able to get into their host country anymore. I doubt after going through so much, they would want to risk that.

Then, the host country has also issues of their own. I mean you could easily extract entry information and compare with exit information right? It's not that difficult - it's just plain programming. The computer can do that for you. Oh yeah that's right, UK does NOT have an exit system do they? When you exit UK, there is nobody who looks at your passport, scans them, stamp on them and say OK you're out. Why? You have your own system to blame! I love the UK, don't get me wrong - it's one of the countries I really wanna go and make it my home (of course, I won't do it illegally) but since the first time I stepped onto UK soil, I have always wondered, how can they not have an exit system? Yeah I know you don't care who goes out of your country because that's what you want - people to go home so you don't want to control. But how can you then control who STAYS back and not leave? They cannot be caught unless shit happens - random checks on the streets etc.

Although US doesn't have the normal stamping-your-passport procedure also BUT they have at least some form of control. They are very smart - they "borrow" the ground staff to do this exiting work when you check-in. You don't show the immigration card, you don't get to check in. And if I remember correctly, there's some kind of bar code on the immigration card as well. In UK, none - I remember there's entrance immigration card but I don't remember any exit immigration card.

British government says illegals are taking over the jobs in UK so much so that their own people are unemployed. But wait a minute - think - why is that so? Maybe because these illegals are willing to work for a lower salary or they are willing to work in "non glamarous" jobs like cleaning the plates etc. Will the British be willing to do all these "dirty work" if not for the illegals/migrants? Don't forget, being an illegal, these people has no government's support. They cannot live a day without a job without jeopardizing themselves. No government will give them a minimal monthly allowance.

SO yeah, anyway, now I'm just worried about the EU following suit because someone did mention that if UK really implements visa requirements on Malaysians, EU will as well. I mean that's one bloody big continent! Where then is the glory of holding on to a Malaysian passport anymore? The old saying that one shouldn't give up their Malaysian citizenship because it is very hard to get and it's so convenient - you can go most places without visa. It was considered a prestige to be holding a Malaysian passport. Now - go to hell. What prestige is there? There's only shame with all these and the on-goings in our administration. It's really a shame being a Malaysian. To demonstrate - I met a Kenyan lawyer a week or 2 ago. The first thing he asked me when I told him I'm a Malaysian was "Oh how's Mahathir and the guy who sodomises people?" :s I mean, hellow???? Is that all you heard about Malaysia?? I mean do you really know if THAT guy sodomised anybody at all????

Whatever it is, I can't change where I was born some 20+ years ago now. If given a chance - I think I would jump at it even if it's just being a Singaporean. Ah well - after all is said and done, I'll be having dinner with the new Malaysian High Commissioner to Kenya tonight! He's just arrived. Let's see who and how he is!

Get's get into the Christmas mood

Time to get into a little Christmas mood :)

Light at the end of the tunner

Whoa - I can see light at the end of the tunnel for me and my MBP to be reunited :p

Apparently our friend's dad spoke to her and managed to make sure she brings. Great - which means I'll see it, latest, in a week! Now I'm gonna make some changes to my schedule. Was planning to take this week off to work on my website but if my laptop is coming in a week, I think I'll just take my break next week and start studying this week. Weird but no choice.

Miss A who is supposed to help carry my laptop SMS-ed my mum on Saturday and asked when is she sending the laptop to her coz mum told her Saturday and it was already Saturday evening. So mum said we're just waiting for her to SMS her address. She said - "oh I thought I did already" YEAH RIGHT!!! She didn't even apologize! I mean, so fake right? Just said oh yeah I'm sorry, I forgot. Sounds much more sincere than Oh I thought I did already.

Anyway, just pray that she will not "forget" and leave it at home!

NEED A NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO! I'm not pregnant.....! I need a name for my new children apparel line of business! I have tried so many names from Hansel & Gretel to Kids in Style and none are available. Of course they are but the .coms are not. Urgh.....

I have specifically put this week away to do up my website for this new biz line but without a name, I will not be able to start. So please please, anybody reading this have any suggestions, please just comment.

Thanks!!!!

It's here!!!!

Edited: 10 Dec 2009
My MacBook has arrived!!


Ohhh I can't wait for it to touch Kenyan soil next Saturday. One more week - a good 10 days to wait!!!

Oh yeah, it has arrived alright but looks like it's not gonna touch the Kenyan soil after all :( The girl who is supposed to help me bring my laptop to me, hubby's boss's daughter, doesn't seem very willing to help. My mama has contacted her twice for the address to send the laptop to and twice she said she'll text mum with her address but she never did. I even contacted her dad to ask if he's really spoken to her about. He said he'll call her again - if he did, she's not helping. If he didn't then both are not helping. Poor MBP - guess I'll have to wait till March/April to see you :( UNLESS somebody is coming this way (or vice versa) and willing to bring it for me. But whatever it is, I will not see it next Saturday.

Time, now's the time for you to fly!! Quick

4 down, 1 to go

I PASSED!!! I took my exams today and I passed with 86%! Phew....and I thought if I'm ever gonna fail any paper (the final showdown excluded), this will be the one. To think that I scored higher than my previous paper - I'm terribly proud of meself :)

I'm taking a week's break - well deserved break before I start on my final subject before the final showdown in November. What am I going to do this week? I am considering if I should work on Nelanz or if I should take a break from Nelanz as well. If I should work on children's wear or take a break from that as well?? I have not decided but I am inclined to take a break from books and Nelanz, but work on the children's wear collection and website. I'll decide later.....today is a break from EVERYTHING! :)

From Singapore to KL to come to Johor???

I was tracking my laptop this morning and I found that it has left the facility in Singapore and has arrived in KL. I mean hello??? DHL has not van or something to just send the laptop across the Causeway?? Why does it have to be sent up to KL which is North of Johor and then back South to Johor again when Singapore is only 2 hours by car from Johor?

KL is 3 hours from Johor and 5 hours from Singapore. It's so duh right??? URGH

A Malaysian tragedy in Africa

Edited: 11 Dec 2009
I have just heard that the girl's family has pulled the plug yesterday. The girl has passed away peacefully. May she rest in peace. There are a lot more red tapes and things her family will have to do before she'll back on Malaysian soil.

I did not get the chance to publish this yesterday coz I came back late but this happened yesterday afternoon.

We came to know of a Malaysian tragedy on Sunday night from the Deputy High Commissioner of Malaysia to Kenya. A Malaysian, educated and working in USA, came to Africa alone for a holiday a week or more ago. Last weekend, tragically, she was involved in a head-on car accident in Tanzania, a small town called Moshi.

She was sent to the local hospital which according to her father is hopeless. They do not have a CT scan machine and X-ray machine was not functioning! She was there from Sunday to Friday. Her father arrived on Friday and after seeing the condition of the hospital, evacuated her to Nairobi Hospital. We don't exactly know what happened, we only know she came without telling her family in Malaysia and that during the first couple of day after the accident, she was in and out of consciousness. But when her father arrived on Friday, she has already gone into a coma.

We visited her at the hospital yesterday. Her father was there. Despite being a well traveled person, she hasn't got any travel insurance. Her head was shaved, her features altered from the accident and has tubes all over. She suffered head injuries and only head injuries. When she arrived at Nairobi Hospital, they did a CT Scan on her immediately to know how severe her injuries are. They found out that she has developed a 2nd hemorrhage and there is nothing else they can do. If she lives, she'll be bed-ridden and will have to be on support for the rest of her life, basically a vegetable. Right now, she's only alive because of the life support. Her father has mentioned that he's decided to pull the plug but he's waiting for his son to arrive (later today) - I guess so that his son can see his sister for the last time and also for support.

It's very sad to see how her father is struggling to be strong. It's not easy especially when you're all alone here. No family, no friends in a country/continent which is so different from the rest. Her father told us, his daughter was actually due to be back in Malaysia during the Christmas holidays and he was planning to bring his family to their ancestral village in China. Now, no chance of it happening ever.

Hubby will be going to the airport this afternoon to pick his son from the airport. I'm not sure when the decision will be taken, when they will leave. But right now, all we can is to help the living. There's nothing we or the doctors can do for his daughter anymore.

1 Malaysia - The Truth

A good article on how Malaysia's history and how the Malaysian government "wins" again!

A small pieceof History for our future generation..Why Kota Gelanggi (lost city) touted as earliest civilization in MalayPeninsula news were banned as they were Buddhist. The Johor  find of 2005 which was quietly dropped was none other than Kota Gelanggi lost city reflecting Srivijaya and its Buddhist splendour.

But they deliberately disregarded it because that would have sidelined Malacca Empire and Islam which was smaller and came some 500 years later. I met Dr Lee Kam Hing, a former History prof at MU in Singapore recently at a seminar.Dr Lee, who is now Star research director, told me he was trying his best to highlight Kota Gelanggi, but that the govt killed it off. This is clearly another case to cover up the real history of Malaya and fool the younger generations into believing that our history only began from Malacca 1400.. Not only that, they try to show Parameswara as Malay and Muslim, but actually he was Hindu! If one were to condemn these UMNO scumbags on how they distort history, it will never end....the condemnations will more than cover 10 PhD thesis!

A small piece of  History for our future generation Hitler'spublic relations manager, Goebbels, once  said, 'If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes  the truth.'

 Once again our government wiped out any references to a famous Melaka prince as being Hindu and belonging to the powerful Hindu empire Sri Vijaya.

So all of a sudden our museums, school text-books etc. all referto Parameswara as a Malay prince. What race ruled or did not rule is beside the point. What is important is not butchering history to create your own truths.

You cannot change your race even if you convert - Parameswara could have been responsible for Umno's  proud heritage of 'Ketuanan Melayu'.

If this is what it is based on, there is no 'Ketuanan Melayu' .The lineage of Melaka Sultans are Indians, not Malays. It is no secret that Parameswara was an Indian and a Hindu prince.

It is clear from records that Parameswara never converted to Islam.  He was an Indian Hindu who fled Palembang in Sumatra to eventually  found Melaka circa 1400 AD. It was Sri Maharaja who converted himself and the court of Melaka to Islam, and as result took on the name of Sultan Muhammad Shah sometime after1435.

The most famous of Indian Hindu Kings were Raja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola who invaded SouthernThailand, Kedah, Perak, Johor and Sumatra about 1000 AD.

This is Raja-raja Chola - the Indian/Hindu kings and not Raja Chulan - a Malay king. But what is really sad is that our children are taught as though Malaysian history suddenly began in 1400 with an Islamic Melaka.

We are led to believe that the Indians and Chinese first arrived on the shores of Malaysia in about 1850 as desperate indentured labourers, farmers and miners.. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The cultural influences of India in particular, and China, in South East Asia span over 2,000 years, starting with the arrival from India of the Brahmanical prince/scholar - Aji Saka in Java inAD78, through to Vietnam, Cambodia (Indo China), Thailand,Burma, Indonesia, Bali, Borneo, Brunei and beyond.

The findings at Bujang Valley speak of an ancient Indian/Hindu presence  Kedah. There were Chinese settlements in Pahang and Kelantan around the 13th- 14th  century and in 12th century in Singapore The early Brunei Sultanate had a Chinese Queen.

One need not ponder at length the implications of Angkor Wat and Borobudur or that 40%-50% of Bahasa Malaysia comprises Sanskrit/Tamil words. To illustrate, some of these word are : bumi = boomi putra   putran raja = rajah desa = thesam syakti = sakthi kolam = kulam bahaya = abahya jaya = jeya maha = maha aneka = aneha nadi = naadi kedai = kadai mahligai = maaligai mantra = manthrum tandas = sandas (This list can go on) An extremely important archeological find that pointed to one of the greatest empires in history - the Raja Cholan empire that ruled from the Maldives through India, Sri Lanka and right down to South East Asia found deep in the jungles of Johor a few years ago and made headlines in the mainstream newspapers in 2005, suddenly disappeared from the news…..

The time has arrived for us to record our history as the facts tell us and not as we would like to  wish it.

        The truth will never hurt anyone. Lies, always will .

Prepared for shipment

Yay!!! I just checked my order status on Apple Store and my order has
been updated as Prepared For Shipment. I hope they'll send it out
tomorrow if it's to arrive as promised.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel after all!! :p

Sent from my iPhone

A reply from Apple Store

I have finally finally receive a favourable reply from Apply Store! They told me that my laptop should be delivered on 10th December. You think?? Are they reliable enough? If they do hold up to what they say, then I'm not worried and can just sit back enjoying my little wait till my new lappy arrive :)

This is what they said in their email:
Quote
Dear Customer
Thank you for your email. We are processing your order. We will be able to deliver the laptop to you by 10th of December.
Please drop us a mail if you wish to cancel the order due to delivery not as per your timeline.

Kind Regards
GV
Payment Team
Unquote


They said we WILL be able to deliver - is that a yes or a maybe??? So stress!!! 

When is my MacBook gonna be sent out???

My sister's MacBook has finally arrived after what, 2 weeks? Will mine take as long? No. Why? Because I have given Apple the ultimatum that if they do not send it out by tomorrow, they can cancel my order. I'll have to ask June to buy it from the Apple Store in Singapore and then payment will be a problem. Where the hell am I gonna find so much cash to pay her??! Might have to talk to John - he pays her and we'll transfer the money into his account or her account. 


I'll know my "fate" tomorrow...please let it be sent out......