Landmark fall

7pm yesterday evening, I was in the porch with KF, we were sticking up our new road tax discs (coincidentally both our cars' dates are only 2 days apart). My neighbour was chit-chatting over the gate with another neighbour. Then another neighbour walked over and asked if they'd heard about the Jaya tragedy and she related what she'd heard. Then one of the ladies broke out from the group rushed over to her own porch to inform her husband, and everyone ran in to see if they could catch the news.

KF was busy grumbling about the stupid JPJ stickers from last year that left sticky marks on his windscreen. After he'd finished, I told him what I'd heard the neighbours saying. We strolled in to the house slowly, my mind thinking maybe it was just housewife-chatter (making small things bigger than they are) and remembering that demolition works were ongoing at Jaya, so maybe it was just news of the building being demolished.

Curious and wanting to see pics of the demolition, I opened up Internet Explorer - much faster than waiting for news that you won't know when it'll appear (yea, this is the digital age - info must be immediate, we don't wait for anything). Opened up both The Star and Malaysian Insider, both pretty reliable sources, and true enough a disaster had happened.

I called my mum, who was at the hospital with dad who's recovering from angioplasty surgery, and she said she'd received the news thru sms (both my parents are subscribed to mobile news, their phones constantly beeping with breaking news, very updated they are). I also sms-ed my colleague who uses that road home from work - she was stuck in a 45-minute jam from PJ Hilton to Jaya! Unfortunately I was out having dinner so I couldn't tune in to the news feed.

Coming in to office this morning, hungry for more news (especially after hearing comments from Priscilla Patrick on Mixfm about the incident) I surfed. The best update comes from The Malay Mail with some photos (I think the nearby Menara Bakti must suddenly be inundated with throngs of media hoping to get good aerial views of the site next door). The Nut Graph has very vivid photos too.

Some reports say that the building collapsed due to the heavy machinery (cranes and excavators) on the various floors. First question I thought was : why didn't Malton just use those "demolition bombs" to blow the building down into one neat pool of dust? Handimart did it (I was passing by when I saw the "bombing" happen, pretty cool it was).

Then my next thought was : it's so sad for those construction workers. I've constantly told KF that I pity those construction workers. Last night when we were driving home from dinner in Damansara Perdana, we passed by one of those numerous construction sites, and I saw 3 workers on the 2nd floor painting a wall with the help of a small fluorescent lamp. Some time ago, I was sitting in Kelana Jaya opposite a construction site, waiting for Brothers to finish carpet-ing KF's car, and I noticed how dangerous construction work is. The workers have to hop from one unfinished beam to the next carrying timber, hang precariously over ledges to paint, etc. I think : these Indonesian workers travel here for more money and a better future, highly risking their lives while at it. It's not right. Developers and contractors should be more responsible and really implement site safety. Like, how do they sleep after knowing this has happened on their watch?

And this morning, I was feeling sentimental. Jaya was where my parents used to bring us as kids - I'm sure many people have the same memories. Grocery shopping at Cold Storage, walking down those winding stairs instead of the escalator, buying books in MPH, and at one point of my school life when friendship bands were all the rage, we used to get our stock from this threads store. Many after-school sessions were held in the area, with burgers in McD's and then traipsing over to Jaya just to hang out. It was a cool place to see and be seen. And definitely a place plenty of PJ school students have fond memories of.

Somehow, Jaya didn't deserve to go down embroiled in all these controversy and bad publicity. It should have been demolished elegantly and fuss-free. I guess now with all these "bad energy" surrounding the building, it's gonna take a long while before the development's completed and the people's short-term memories are erased. My honest opinion : they should have left Jaya as it is, maybe just do some refurbishment. The spirit within Jaya seems to be making things difficult for its new owners, huh?

Read of the day

Wednesday May 27, 2009

Study confirms mothers-in-law are the chief cause of divorces

By YENG AI CHUN

KUALA LUMPUR: Every married person knows it, but a local study has confirmed it – mothers-in-law are the chief cause of divorces, especially in the Indian community.

Data in the Malaysia Community and Family Study 2004 by the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) revealed that “meddlesome in-laws” is the number one reason why Indian couples get divorced.

It is also among the top three factors for divorce among the Malays and Chinese. The other two factors are incompatibility (42.3%) and infidelity (12%).

“Interference by in-laws is the main reason for Indians to divorce. It is the top-ranked reason at 30%,” said LPPKN director-general Datuk Aminah Abdul Rahman when presenting a paper on Malaysia’s family profile and its effects at Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia yesterday.

Infidelity is the marriage breaker among the Malays and Indians but it is tolerated among the Chinese.

“Among Malays, the second most common reason is infidelity and refusal to put up with polygamy,” she said.

“Among the Indians, infidelity is the second highest ranked reason for divorce at 25%,” she said.

However, the Chinese considered infidelity as the least crucial reason for a divorce.

Cheating was at the bottom along with health and gambling addiction at 4.2%.

Surprisingly, abuse is not a reason for divorce among the Malays and Chinese, but is a reason among Indians at 5%.

“Another overall reason which ranked high among the three races at 11.5% is ‘not being responsible’,” she said.

Although it is common perception that the family institution is quite fragile and divorces are rampant, data shows otherwise - only 0.7% of the population was divorced in 2000.

The data shows that divorce is more likely to happen to those under 25 and above 40.

Meanwhile, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said that more Malaysian women were choosing to marry later in life and it could cause a reduction in fertility rate and an ageing society.

“The National Family Policy and its action plan will address this issue of late marriages,” she said.

The policy would be presented to the Cabinet soon.

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Such an entertaining article. Who comes up with stuff like this? And seriously, the Cabinet's gonna come up with a plan to make people marry early??

Yeah, I know, sudah sangat lama. Takpe, soon I shall find the time to do the necessary. Indonesia, by the way, was a blast! Post more about that soon.

I must somehow say I kinda pity Kris Allen for winning Idol 8. He has to sing that horrible No Boundaries song - gosh, it was so painful to hear him sing that horrible song u know. I mean, that song can be sung by someone, say, Miley Cyrus ... but when you know 2 guys are gonna be singing the coronation song, wouldn't you write something far more suitable for a guy's range? And, if Adam Lambert can't even sing the song, you know that the song has something very wrong with it.

BUT, it's good that he won. Reinforces the fact that American Idol is about the IDOL winning, purely a popularity contest, nothing to do with singing - not to say Kris can't sing, he definitely can (my favourite performance was during Country Week : "To make you feel my love" - soooo mesmerizing!).

And the finale was a GREAT episode. Fantastic entertainment, seriously - with Cyndi Lauper, KISS, Jason Mraz, Rod Stewart, and so many more from our generation ... 'twas awesome! :)

Idol 9 begins in January.

I miss blogging. And I still have that San Fran post unfinished. And I got another one coming up - the Borobudur trip on Thursday!

And someone, anyone, pleaseeeee sms to let me know the Idol results on Thursday night as soon as they're announced ... please please! I don't care if I know the results earlier - just NEED to know. PX, I've told your sis to pass on the msg ;)

Btw, Daughtry's latest single is awesome-ness!

Just one more day of work tomorrow ....

Listening to : Daughtry - No Surprise (awesome awesome awesome!)

Reading : Cecelia Ahern's The Gift (what a weird book - but I like that the texture and font and size of the book so reminds me of reading Enid Blyton)

Feeling : So hot! Thank goodness for aircond.

Hating that : tomorrow's Monday

Loving that : I've got a holiday starting Thursday! ... just 3 more days ...

The Idol rant (again)

By now, everyone should have seen the results show ... although I'm only watching it tonight, but due to frequent news-surfing for my day job, inadvertently I come across the results as soon as it's announced in LA - ah, the days of "live" news.


I am so sad she's gone, so so sad. I liked her performance best, among all 4. I couldn't even say the same for Kris - who looked really depressed during the whole show, goodness knows why. Obviously Rock Week's not his week. And I thought it was unfair that he had to duet with Danny and then immediately after have to sing his solo - and adding salt to that was Cowell's horrible-ness in saying that "Danny performed better than Kris" right before Kris had to take to the stage alone. Can't blame him for his moodiness, which looked like it bordered on slight anger.

Allison was amazing. She's got lungs the size of China! And her duet with Adam was AWESOME! Plus, she was really coming into her own, I liked her mannerisms on stage, her hand movements (not like Hokey Gokey), her appearing so natural on stage - she belongs there. Just too bad those texting Americans didn't pull through for her, grrrr.

Danny's last note was bad, horrible, cringe-y, and in Cowell's words "like watching a horror movie". I hated his performance. He should go next. He should have gone before Allison. I don't know how come Hokey Gokey's invisible fan base is so strong.

And as for the Rock God Adam, let's just say I hate Metallica-kind of rock. So I really didn't like his performance, though I guess it's as flawless a rock performance as you can get from any seasoned rock singer. Obviously he belongs in this genre, but I wouldn't rush out to buy his album if it consists of such songs, but then again, that's just me. I hate his screaming, by the way - his signature yelling / screaming / whatever you call that tongue-showing is grating slightly on the nerves.

Or maybe I'm just having a bad morning. Thank goodness it's Friday. Tonight I can go home and watch the results show and catch up on DH and GG that I haven't had the time for. And do the laundry. And clean the house. And water the plants. And do all kinds of things that in my grumpy mood right now I really am not looking forward to do. So yes, I feel like complaining like a brat. But, I just take a deep breath, and close my eyes real hard, and wish REALLY hard that the laundry gets itself washed, dried and folded all by itself ... yes yes yes ... please please please ...