Happy St. Andrew's Day

Today is St. Andrew's day which is also happens to be Scotland's National Day (St.Andrew is our patron saint). Although it is moderately celebrated back in Scotland, there are calls to make it a celebration worthy for a saint plus a few days back the Scottish parliament have voted to make St. Andrews Day a new national holiday . Anyways, here in KL whats St. Andrew's Day without whisky eh? God Bless Scotland & Cheers!

Some facts about our saint:

SAINT Andrew and his brother Simon Peter were both fishermen before joining Jesus to become disciples and "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). After the crucifixion, St Andrew spent his life spreading the word of God through Asia Minor, Macedonia and southern Russia. It is believed that he was martyred in 70AD at Patras, Greece, by the Roman governor who ordered him to be crucified on an X-shaped cross known as a Saltire Cross. His bones were removed in the 4th century by Emperor Constantine and taken to his new capital Constantinople.

Legend has it that St Rule, an Irish assistant of St Columba, was told by an angel to remove St Andrew's remains to the "end of the earth" for safekeeping. St Rule did as directed and took a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap and some fingers from the tomb. St Rule was shipwrecked off the east coast of Scotland near a Pictish settlement at what is now St Andrews and where he took up residence.

The rest of the saint's bones remained in Constantinople until they were stolen in around 1210. These remains are now in Amalfi in southern Italy

While the story is speculative, what is a matter of record is that by the mid-8th century a religious centre was founded in the area of St Andrews by either St Rule himself or the Pictish King Ungus (731–761). Another version of how the bones came to Scotland has Acca, Bishop of Hexham, a renowned collector of relics, visiting this religious community and bringing the bones with him in around 732.

The bones were placed in a specially constructed chapel until 1160 when they were removed to the newly built Cathedral of St Andrews. Medieval pilgrims travelled to view the relics here and it soon became established as the religious capital of Scotland.

During the Reformation, on 14 June 1559, the interior of the cathedral and, it is thought, the relics were destroyed by a mob led by the Lords of the Congregation who - fired by the teachings of John Knox - destroyed many Roman Catholic buildings in Scotland.

Scotland was to remain without relics of the saint for many years. Then in 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi sent a small piece of St Andrew's shoulder blade to the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. In 1969 Pope Paul VI gifted more relics of the saint to Scotland with the words "Saint Peter gives you his brother." These can be seen at St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh.

St Andrew is the patron saint of Greece, Russia and Scotland. As protector or guardian he is also invoked against gout and a stiff neck.

- source from The Scotsman

Sad State of Affairs

We live in interesting times where the world has lost its mind and it seems like the epidemic has reached our shores. This entry will an unprecedented event as i never blogged about politics before this and i think things have reached a level even an ignorant bum like me got something to say.

I have lived in this country for most of my life and grew up loving it till lately where i realised it aint so sweet anymore and recent political affairs/foreign news reports/comment from an Iranian friend just confirmed my fears that indeed this country is 'tearing apart' (to quote a good friend's term) and there is nothing we can about it. The neo-con politicians from the party that represents the country majority ethnic group are busy talking & arguing about issues of NEP,other races are taking away our wealth, bla,bla,bla without caution or care that these viewpoints actually spook the minorities in the country and of course the foreigners who dont or little understand how Malaysia works. Now, firstly i think the NEP is relevant still and should stay in place but what rattles me is that the policy had been hijacked to benefit a few and most of these few are politicians themselves. The policy had been abused where you see it actually encroach the rights of its minorities and the minorities are not happy anymore.

Of course they wont shout it out like the majority but they will retaliate in a quiet & subtle manner. The key to this retaliation is the economic power the minorities still have and the most powerful weapon of all, education. The country's brightest people have already left and will continue to drain out and the business community will put their money somewhere safer like Singapore or Hong Kong. It will make Malaysia an uncompetitive nation in 15 years time and it will be too late then to reverse the damage.

The short-sightedness of the country's rulers will see Malaysia slip further economically and the likes of Thailand & Vietnam overtake us as the prefered foriegn investment destination. I can also see that more & more minorities are planning or already migrating to other countries and this means the brightest and smartest of the Malaysian minority will contribute to the likes of Australia & Singapore who appreciate their contribution. All these will slowly but surely be felt and when it does, its too late to reverse the damage.

I personally dont see any future for this country anymore unless a miracle happens and its sad that being called a Malaysian for many means nothing anymore. All i can say is God bless Malaysia.

from
Don, a Scottish born Siamese who has been residing in Malaysia for the past 20 years.

"May God grant me serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can and the wisdom to know the difference."

Baroque and Roll @ Singapore

Train tickets: RM 70
Concert Tickets: SGD75
Hotel: SGD 60
Getting deaf while watching Yngwie Malmsteen live in front of you: Priceless

Yea man, i caught Yngwie (pronounced Ing-way) Malmsteen live in concerto at Fort Canning Park in Singapore last Thursday nite. With the Great Wall of Marshalls (guitar amps), it dawned to me that this is not going to a symphony in the park. How true that was as the maestro wasted no time in starting the concert with the opening number The Rising Force and we rocked all the way rock kapak style (long hair, tight leather pants, guitar shredding) for 2 hours and its an experience to behold to watch one of my guitar idols live in action with his famed lighting speed adagio solos. Imagine this guy actually made Bach sound good with electric guitars and heavy drums plus some quick fingers over the fretboard (Vanessa Mae eat your heart out!!). This is Neo-Classical at its best!! I got some pictures below to show to you all, enjoy!!





P.S: Despite the great time we had, there were some grouses that nite concerning the sound setting (amps dont sound right & too much echo) and the promised meet and greet session didnt materialize at the last minute (we were waiting the hotel till some fellow fan told us it has been cancelled). Of course more pictures will be uploaded once i get my hands on them.