I’ve been reading ‘A confederacy of dunces’ in my spare time, and I’ve caught myself wondering if I was reading a farce, a true story of a farce or the biography of a farce in the person of Mr Ignatius Reilly. It’s been a great read, but a mind-bending one. Ignatius is funny, pathetic, a member of a pseudo-intelligen ...Continue
Check out Badawi’s flood of bad news and a losing battle against flagging public opinion. That must explain why there was, recently, a review of PM Badawi’s performance for the past three years. I’m reminded of a recent get-together by NGOs, bloggers and Opposition politicians, discussing how one should “set Pak Lah freeâ ...Continue
We were getting some documents signed when I asked him where he was from. I couldn’t place him: he either had some Arab or Indian ancestry in his physical make up. He had sunken cheeks and bulging eyes, and hair befitting a man who’d spent years building up his business. He smiled and told me he was from Cambodia. His wife, sitting ...Continue
I’ve been talking to colleagues who were in Segamat when the floods hit. They were involved in the post-flood recovery work, and that meant lots of trudging about, talking to people and hearing horror stories. This is a truism: it is only in the worst of times that you see people as they really are. I’ve gathered my own collection of ...Continue