The debut weekend for George Clooney's atmospheric thriller, hailed by critics as a visually captivating but restrained departure for the Hollywood star, took in US$12.3 million (RM38.3 million) in US and Canadian theaters this weekend, according to figures from industry tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Last week's winner "Takers”, starring Hayden Christensen, Idris Elba and singers Chris Brown and T.I., earned US$11.5 million and fell to second place in its second week of release.

In third position was "Machete”, mixing violence with a campy tribute to 1970s exploitation movies from directors Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis for an opening weekend take of US$11.3 million.

Fourth place went to the gruesome documentary-style horror movie "The Last Exorcism”, which fell back from its competitive runner-up spot last weekend to take US$7.6 million.

The movie, directed by Daniel Stamm and co-produced by Eli Roth, a director known for his bloody thrillers, follows a disillusioned minister supposedly filming his last exorcism for a documentary.

At number five was new release "Going the Distance”, a romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long about surviving a relationship where the couples live on different coasts of the United States. It earned US$6.9 million in its opening weekend.

In sixth was "The Expendables”, Sylvester Stallone's film about a group of weathered mercenaries out to topple a South American dictator, which earned US$6.8 million in its fourth week in theatres.

Falling one position to the seventh spot was "The Other Guys”, the latest Will Ferrell slapstick comedy, about two mismatched police officers paired on a high-profile crime investigation, which had a US$5.4-million take at the box office.

"Eat, Pray, Love”, Ryan Murphy's adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's novel about a divorcee's jaunt to Italy, Indonesia and India, starring Julia Roberts, fell to eighth position with a take of US$4.9 million in its fourth week of release.

Down two places to number nine was blockbuster "Inception" starring Leonardo DiCaprio as an expert infiltrator of people's dreams, which took US$4.5 million over the weekend to bring its eight-week earnings to US$277 million.

"Nanny McPhee Returns”, the sequel to a popular kid's film starring British actress Emma Thompson in the title role, rounded out the top 10 with US$3.6 million.

- AFP

"I want to return to meet some of the leaders of the Xikrin-Kayapo tribe who invited me," the Canadian director said in an interview published in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

"I want to take a 3D camera to film how they live, their culture," said Cameron, whose blockbuster movie Avatar tells the story of the peaceful Na'Vi people who live in harmony with nature on the planet Pandora and wage a bloody fight against strip-miners from Earth.

The filmmaker has already come to the Amazon twice in a show of support for the indigenous tribe and to film a short piece on their resistance to the damming project on the Xingu River, which will be included on the "Avatar" DVD to be released around Christmas.

Speaking of the fight against the dam construction, Cameron said he "did a film on the same topic”, referring to Avatar, adding that when he was asked to help "the Brazilian Indians, who were desperate, I could not turn away”.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gave the green light last week for the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on the Xingu River, a southern tributary to the mighty Amazon. Work is set to begin on the project either late this year or early 2011.

Opponents of the dam project say it is not economically viable and would cause the displacement of 16,000 people because it would create a flood zone of 500 square kilometres along the banks of the Xingu.

The government says no indigenous land would be threatened and that it has spent millions on reducing the social and environmental impact of the dam.

- AFP

On the Food Trail with Tiberius Kerk

The richness of Malaysia’s racial diversity is expressed magnificently in the wide spread of food found all over the country.

On a given Sunday when one fights the urge to eat at our usual joint, an Indian colleague loudly proclaimed: “Let’s go to Brickfields and I will teach you how to appreciate Chettinad food!”

I was the only greenhorn sandwiched in between two Indian friends who had big smiles on their faces. “That’s Chettinad, not Chettiar,” said my well-heeled Indian friend.

In a matter of minutes, we found ourselves outside the very ordinary looking premises. Since it was a Sunday, parking was not a problem. On weekdays, I was told, a customer would have to park his
car two or three blocks away.

A glance upwards told me the place is called Vishal Food & Catering. It also says “authentic Chettinad cuisine”, not that I know any better.

Inside, the restaurant looks a bit like a school dormitory. There were long tables with chairs on both sides. However, the popularity of the restaurant is seen in the good mix of races happily having their
meals.

My friend said this place was so popular that a member from a well-established royal house was seen dining in a sports shirt and joining the “rakyat” at lunchtime. And that esteemed member of society is from another State.

At Vishal, customers are expected to eat with their hands on banana leaves. Plates, forks and spoons are for people with “no class”, or so it seems.

House rule

Since I wanted to blend in, I did as the Brickfields folks do. I washed my hands first, of course.

Waiters walked around with large stainless steel plates with a variety of dishes. The house rule is just to point at what you like and the dish is placed on your table.

Since we were a bit greedy, we ordered fried “bulus” (a type of fish), dry curry chicken, curry squid and a generous helping of veggies.

The gravy is limitless, so are the refills of rice. But we were people who knew our limits, so it was just one heap of rice.

Papadum is compulsory for those diners who like the crunchiness of the dried lentil chip. In fact, no meal would be complete without papadum, as any Malaysian Indian will tell you.

You can eat take a mouthful of rice and then a bite of the papadum or crush the papadum into bits over your rice. I once witnessed an Indian friend breaking his papadum into pieces over his plate of rice at a restaurant. That was pretty cool, I thought.

Anyway, by the time lunch was served, the three of us were oblivious to the surroundings because we were trying to eat as much as possible in the shortest possible time.

To add balance to a spicy meal, a wise diner should either order a lassi drink or fresh cow’s milk.

Since I was not a regular, I preferred the ubiquitous teh tarik.

A certain ambience

My Indian colleagues told me that the lassi (yoghurt drink) or cow’s milk will neutralise the curries that one consumes at an Indian restaurant.

At Vishal, everything is spicy and if you have a sensitive tummy, you should go easy on the spicier stuff. But we are all Malaysians, so we are expected to be tough internally, even though our delicate
exterior doesn’t express our strong physical constitution.

A word of advice to newbies at Vishal. Don’t over-order because you may be a little surprised at the bill on your way out. But if somebody is footing the bill, never mind, just go ahead and eat to your heart’s content.

Since my maiden visit to Vishal Food & Catering, I have made two subsequent visits. There’s nothing extraordinary about its exterior or even its interior but the restaurant has a certain ambience.

Customers usually eat with great gusto. When I was there on my third visit, there were even some “mat salleh” eating the way locals do, with their hands.

There are several washbasins for customers to clean their hands and mouths. Service is swift and kitchen helpers are quick on their feet.

In case you want to show off a bit of Malaysian culture and impress foreign visitors with our delightful range of food, Vishal is a good place to be during lunchtime.

The address is 15, Jalan Scott, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. Don’t forget to bring along your fat wallet.

The Write Way  by Tiberius Kerk

I took the second option and found out that we are just about equal. Just kidding! Let’s get the record straight. In 1985, she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person having the highest IQ on the entire planet – 228!

Of course, that listing shot her to global fame. Everybody wants to know what she has to say about a wide range of subjects, some even stretching beyond her wildest imagination.

To bring everyone back to earth and down to reality, in 1990, Marilyn wisely concluded that IQ measurements were not adequate to draw conclusive proof that she’s the cleverest person on the planet.

Thus, she gave up the title and quickly veered away from the path of unwarranted glory. But still, those pests we call human beings followed her around like a swarm of locusts.

Marilyn is 64 this year. One of her pastimes was to maintain a weekly column called Ask Marilyn in the Sunday Parade. The magazine has a readership of about 81 million and a circulation of 37 million.

Over the years, Marilyn has been asked all difficult questions, some very strange, and a few simple ones very profound.

So as one of America’s foremost mathematicians, she employed some of her great deductive abilities to its maximum entertainment effect.

Hence, this book – The Power of Logical Thinking.

Personal agendas

The gist of the book for those of us with normal IQ is that her country, the United States, is bereft of people with a high sense of logical thinking.

She blamed it on statisticians and politicians who have abused numbers, data and information, especially during presidential elections, to fulfil their personal agendas.

The Power of Logical Thinking is but one of the six books which she has written and it is by far, one of the most entertaining books on logical thinking that I have read.

Take this question: What makes a leader powerful? Marilyn answers: The power you give him.

In just five words, her answer made me think of all our leaders, past, present and future. My brain utters: Ah, Ha!

But Vos Savant, as most of her admirers and devotees call her, is more famous for her foray into a mathematical enigma and conundrum called Fermat’s Last Theorem.

In 1993, Marilyn came out with a book The World’s Most Famous Math Problem, in response to mathematician Andrew Wiles’ announcement that he had solved that famous puzzle.

It was Marilyn’s criticism of Wiles’ solution that drew enormous flak from fellow mathematicians. Marilyn was accused of having misunderstood “mathematical induction”, “proof by contradiction” and “imaginary numbers” (whatever that is).

To make it more interesting for colleagues who share the same interest as her, she made references to non-Euclidean geometry and hyperbolic (Lobachevskian) geometry.

Please don’t look at me for explanations. I was an Arts student in school who barely passed his maths.

Profound simplicity

To put an end to the mathematical storm that she had kicked up, she proclaimed in 1995 that Fermat’s Last Theorem was “an intellectual challenge… to find proof with Fermat’s tools”.

Again, in a nutshell, what the smartest woman in the world is trying to tell us is that our minds can work against us in many circumstances; how statistics and other data can mislead ordinary intelligent folks and how often politicians will happily exploit our innocence.

Many of the questions and answers in this book evolve around the logic of numbers and the art of reasoning. Since Marilyn is also very witty and insightful, many of her answers to some of life’s most bewildering questions are answered with great intelligence and profound simplicity.

If an Arts student can understand 70% of what she says, then it shouldn’t be a problem for the rest of the class.

There’s a sub-chapter in the book on Facts About Fallacies which deals explicitly with the study of logical thinking. Being a world renowned mathematician means one shouldn’t be caught around walking in circles.

There are a handful of Latin phrases that would help students of logical thinking to get out of entrapments set by people with dubious intentions.

These phrases, if you are interested, are: argumentum ad populum (an appeal to popular passion is invoked), argumentum ad misericordium (an appeal to pity is invoked), reduction ad absurdum (the argument declares that an assumption is false if a contradiction can be drawn from it, and plurimum interrogationum (the argument demands an answer phrased in such a manner that any direct reply supports the implication of the question).

All the Latin phrases above are a bit mentally tiring but they come in handy, in case an intellectually sneaky fellow tries to throw you into a loop with some tricky propositions.

Nevertheless, Marilyn has scored a bull’s eye with her powers of reasoning with this stimulating book. Since planet Earth has sometimes been described as a global community of irrational people, we need to bring some sense into the whole scheme of things.

To keep Marilyn on the straight path of logical thinking is her husband,  Robert Jarvik, who is the inventor of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart.
And if you have a question aching to be answered by someone like her, bear in mind that she receives about 40,000 letters a year. If your question bears remembering, she may just deign to proffer you a solution that may change your life.

"My wife has always dreamt that her beauty would be immortal," Frederic von Anhalt said. "I would like to show the plastinated body of Zsa Zsa Gabor in the context of a scene in one of her films."

Von Anhalt said German anatomist Gunther von Hagens should carry out the procedure, after his controversial world exhibitions displaying plastinated bodies with just muscles and tendons intact.

Gabor, who has been hospitalised several times in the past months, returned earlier this week to hospital in Los Angeles after von Anhalt had found her unconscious.

The Hungarian-born actress's lengthy film career includes spots in a dozen films and television series, including John Huston's 1952 "Moulin Rouge" and the 1958 film noir "Touch of Evil" by Orson Welles.

- AFP

FEATURE KUALA LUMPUR: When Malaysia's only openly homosexual pastor announced he was establishing the nation's first gay church, the proposal was met with a torrent of outrage and criticism.

Reverend Ouyang Wen Feng faced down threats to block the plan by government and religious leaders who said it would encourage homosexuality -- still a crime punishable by 20 years in jail in the Muslim-majority nation.

The church he co-founded has, however, been operating quietly in suburban Kuala Lumpur for the past three years, drawing a group of gay Christians for Sunday services and bible studies.

Ouyang's battle is part of a campaign being fought on many fronts in Malaysia, where there is a growing sense of activism among the gay community which is beginning to mobilise to fight for its rights.

"We are working on encouraging more people to join the church, for Christians to come out and live authentic lives," says the pastor, who was married for nine years until he "came out" publicly in 2006.

"Whether one is gay or straight or bisexual, they are sexual orientations, it is not something we do that makes us gay."

Ouyang says the church, which also embraces bisexuals and transsexuals as well as welcoming heterosexuals to its services, wants to help the community know they are not "alone in fighting the battle".

"When I was young, how I wished someone who was good, highly admired and respected in the society could come out and tell me 'I am gay too,'," says the 40-year-old.

Social taboo

Homosexuality remains a social taboo across the racial and religious spectrum in Malaysia, a conservative country which is also home to large ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.

Gay men and women are a visible presence out in public, and on the Internet where they are connected through online forums.

However, authorities periodically crack down on the thriving gay scene, carrying out raids at gay-friendly bars or massage parlours, leaving some with a constant fear of persecution.

Few feel they can declare their sexuality openly, and there was a dearth of groups representing the community until 2008, when the first "Seksualiti Merdeka" or "Sexual Independence" festival was held.

Organiser Pang Khee Teik, an art gallery owner, said he was inspired by rising activism in the region.

India and Nepal have de-criminalised homosexuality in recent years, in Thailand the annual Gay Pride festival is being revived, and even in conservative Indonesia there is an annual gay film festival.

"We thought the time was right to replicate something similar in Malaysia," Pang says. "We are trying to tell people: you have sexual rights whether the state recognises it or not."

"The long-term goal could be the repeal of laws against sodomy and oral sex, for instance," says Pang, adding that anti-discrimination laws are also needed.

Low-key festival

The annual festival, which includes talks, music performances and film screenings, has seen the number of participants double from 400 in 2008 to about 800 last year.

It will be held for the third time later this year and has managed to avoid any action from protesters or the authorities, partly due to efforts to keep it low key.

But religious figures who have an influential role in Malaysian society remain vehemently opposed to the new mood. A top religious body in 2008 also issued a "fatwa" or Islamic religious ban on lesbian sex.

"Homosexuality is going to destroy the world as we are not thankful to God's creation and we are going against His wishes," says outspoken Islamic cleric Harussani Zakaria.

"Homosexuality is a very bad thing. God has created men and women, how can it be man with man, and woman with woman?"

The gay community takes heart from small steps, including a recent Malaysian Film Censorship Board decision to reverse a ban on the depiction of homosexuality and allow gay characters to be featured in films.

But in an indication of the distance campaigners still have to go, the new guidelines also stipulate that gay characters must repent or go straight before the credits roll.

"They recognise that we do exist and that is a something positive, at least," says Azri, who has a boyfriend of five years, as he sips coffee at one of Kuala Lumpur's upmarket shopping malls.

"My ideal world is to be recognised as a couple and enjoy the rights just like any other heterosexual couples," says the boyish-looking 28-year-old.

"We can't rush, we are slowly building the momentum."

- AFP

The Write Way by Tiberius Kerk

BOOK REVIEW Extreme Survival by Dr Kenneth Kamler) Books about human survival in extreme conditions have always been a mini obsession with me. I suppose it is a throwback to a restless childhood with lots of imaginative years.

Kamler is an unusual doctor who practises what his medical colleagues would term as “extreme medicine”. He would travel into the hostile and almost inhospitable interior of the Amazon to search for cures for exotic diseases in extraordinary environments.

For ages, man as the upright, superior species in the long cycle of life-forms on earth has survived life-altering periods that have been studied by paleontologists and archaeologists.

Extreme Survival is not an ordinary book. Its uniqueness is the series of observations of the human condition in desperate instances, seen from the medical point of view.

Dr Kamler has travelled to the hearts of six daunting environments and has returned to relate amazing tales of survivors who triumphed over crushing odds

The author too has his own story, one in which he interestingly called “the most competitive arena on earth”. He made a trip down the great Amazon River and recounted his adventures where nature met man on uneven terms.

But to the tribesmen who lived in the bowels of the earth, survival is as natural as their next breath of air. So in an unfriendly habitat where anacondas and poisonous creatures call home, a western doctor has to use his imagination and wits to find a solution.

Thus when an Amazonian Indian steps forth with a cut finger caused by a piranha that he has fished out of the river, the solution is to find jungle army ants to bite on the wound, twist their heads off and use them as a suture.

This brave MD who was selected by the New York magazine in 2002 as “one of the best doctors in NY city” has written a fascinating book from the perspective of medical science.

The reader learns of the strategies employed by our human body to survive extreme cold, heat, starvation, exhaustion and exposure.

For example in 1994, 137 people took part in Marathon des Sables, otherwise known as the “Marathon of the Sands”. Among them was Mauro Prosperi.

Unfortunately for Prosperi, he got lost for nine days in the Moroccan desert. How he managed to survive was nothing short of a miracle but the Italian was not expected to live in the 257km race after he had veered from its original course.

By the time, he was found, his liver was damaged, kidneys barely functioning and his eyeballs had sunk deep into their sockets. In short, he “looked like a tortoise”.

Limits of human endurance

Prosperi’s tale of survival was so astounding that he was given a hero’s welcome on his return to Italy. From the point of view of medicine, it was truly a lesson on the remarkable ability of the human body to adapt and survive in a very hostile environment.

We have often heard and seen on TV the phenomenal feats of survival by people who were often given up for dead, and yet they returned to tell their tales.

Extreme Survival has 16 stories of the most gruelling, and very painful accounts of individuals who were pushed to the limits of human endurance.

In a chapter entitled “In the Kingdom of the Gods”, Dr Kamler illuminates on the special anatomical abilities of Sherpas who have helped guide dozens of climbers to the peak of Mt Everest.

He explained that the lungs of Sherpas are not uniquely big or strong but they are very sensitive to low oxygen. Thus, Sherpas have a “higher idling speed”.

The natives of the Himalayas also have hearts that are designed to survive well in high altitudes. On top of that, their blood has a special enzyme that prevents them from suffering heart attacks as a result of relentless physical exertions.

Thus, land lubbers like us who may complain that we are built according to “wrong specifications”, the law of creation propounds that we don’t need the “extras”. After all, we are not short of modern conveniences found only in the city.

Dr Kenneth Kamler is not only a micro-surgeon, he is also a mountain climber who has been on exploratory missions on Mt Everest .

One of his many outstanding passions is to write for the National Geographic and being involved in the Boy Scouts of America.

This book casts a wide band of light on intense and severe situations where the human body can defy the laws that govern its natural capabilities.

Because of Kamler’s findings and explanations, some day a reader may use the knowledge from this book to cross the boundary of extremity to return home safely to his family.

Extreme Survival teaches all its readers that there is an unexplored reservoir of exceptional human faculties that may be called to the fore to overcome and survive against devastating odds under dire circumstances.

FOCUS SINGAPORE: A narrow flight of stairs leads up to a well-appointed room in a colonial building in the banking district where moneyed Singaporeans gather regularly to discuss investment opportunities.

But they don't talk about shares, derivatives, commodities or property.

Instead, they sip fine wine at small tables facing a wide array of investment-grade vintages and appreciate panoramic views of the Singapore River and Parliament.

"This is where we hold wine-tasting sessions and make presentations to clients," said Mohan Nainan Nainan, the chief executive officer of homegrown wine investment company Assetton.

His client Dennis Ng, who runs mortgage consultancy HousingLoanSg.com, began investing in fine wines in 2007 after selling most of his stocks before financial markets crashed the following year.

Ng is among a growing number of investors who think wine is a safer bet than traditional financial instruments and assets.

"Investors should wait three to five years for good capital appreciation," he said.

The Assetton boss couldn't agree more.

"Look at the bank interest rates. Look at what happened in the financial crisis. People are more educated now. People are willing (to invest in wines) and they've been exposed," Nainan said.

Strong markets

Assetton, set up in late 2007, specialises in premium wines from France and caters to high-net-worth individuals as well as working professionals with smaller budgets of around 10,000 euros (RM39,839).

Assetton buys wine for investors and stores it in facilities in France.

Nainan said his business grew during the recent global financial crisis, and predicted a 250% increase in revenues this year over 2009, but declined to give exact figures.

Prices of fine wine are holding up well and their value increased sharply between 2005 and 2009, said Serge Forti, the chief executive officer for the Asia-Pacific region at BNP Paribas' wealth management division.

"There was only one significant drop which was noted over this period, in the fourth quarter of 2008, but since then, it has gone up by 13% over 2009," he added.

Singapore and Hong Kong are strong markets for fine-wine investment but China and other developing countries are playing a bigger role, said Forti.

He said the short-term prospects of investing in fine wines were very promising, mainly driven by an outstanding 2009 vintage -- especially from France's Bordeaux region -- as well as high Asian demand and a weaker euro.

"It is a live investment growing much faster in global value," he said.

Rarer vintages

Chad Merchant, executive director of wine investment provider Premium Liquid Assets, said that among alternative asset-class investment options, "only wine offers such a quantifiable track record".

"The well-established secondary market for top wines, primarily from Bordeaux, ensures that investors can know how their assets are performing on a spot-check basis," he said.

"The transparency of the market and the relative ease of liquidation places fine wine in a class of its own when it comes to alternative investments."

Merchant cited the industry's "Liv-ex 100" index which tracks the 100 most traded wines in the world.

"In the past five years, which includes the worst global recession since the 1920s, this index has gained over 166% in value," he said.

"Over the past year, slow recovery from the worldwide financial crisis, coupled with the most extraordinary harvest in Bordeaux in over 60 years, has driven some fine wine prices to record highs," he added.

According to Assetton estimates, premium wines like the Chateau Angelus see good appreciation, with the 2005 vintage first released at 155 euros per bottle now commanding an average price of 288 euros.

And with a weak euro, Nainan's customers are asking for rarer vintages.

"Fine wine has been around for hundreds of years. It's very steady. In a crisis everything gets affected... but wine is the last one to be affected because it has little correlation to the market as a whole, and it is the first to recover," he said.

"You don't buy on credit -- people pay cash. There's no such thing as half way through -- you can't service loans."

Wine consultant Malcolm Tham believes it is the sentimental value associated with wine, not just the transactional worth, which ensures it remains less volatile than the stock market.

"It’s not just for the money that you hold wines," he said. "If you have your hands on the right type of wine then you’re safe, definitely."

- AFP

"I can't think straight, only feel, feel and feel this emotion," a sobbing, nearly speechless Tokyo-born Chizuko Kuwamoto said after winning the competition.

She and her partner Diego Ortega live in the Japanese capital, where they competed in last year's Mundial de Tango but lost. This year, they decided to represent his home town of Colon in the contest.

The couple this time beat their Japanese rivals Kyoko and Hiroshi Yamao, title holders since 2009.

In the closing ceremony of the eighth tango dance-off, thousands of people watched all the dancers participate in a final spectacle, hosted by Panamanian singer-composer and sometime actor Ruben Blades.

"Salsa (music) and the tango both spin an urban tale of music that transcends borders and nationalities," Blades told the crowd.

Twenty-two couples reached the finals, including three from Japan, five from Colombia and one each from South Korea, Chile and Venezuela.

The tango in 2009 was declared part of the world's cultural heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

- AFP

LOS ANGELES: Michael Douglas said yesterday he had an 80% chance of recovering from advanced throat cancer.

The 65-year-old "Wall Street" actor told TV talk-show host David Letterman that a biopsy indicated that his cancer was at stage IV, which he described as "intense, and so they've got to go at it ..."

Noting that Douglas' revelation drew a gasp from the audience of the New York-based show, Letterman asked whether stage IV was a good diagnosis.

"Um no," Douglas replied, according to a transcript provided by CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman".

"No, you like to be down at stage I ... but it has not -- the big thing you're always worried about is it is spreading... and the expectations are good ...

"The percentages are very good," Douglas added. "I would hate to say, but right now, it looks like it should be 80%, and with certain hospitals and everything, it does improve."

Douglas told Letterman that his cancer was caused by his drinking and smoking.

He said his throat had been bothering him for a while, and a multitude of doctors put him through a battery of tests in the early summer, but had found nothing.

After a summer break, he underwent a biopsy, which revealed his advanced cancer.

He expressed frustration with the doctors who could not find anything, "because I was on it early in the summer and started complaining about something, but they couldn't see it then”.

- Reuters

LOS ANGELES: "Mad Men" kept its crown as the best television drama series at the 62nd annual Emmy Awards yesterday while comedy show "Modern Family" dethroned "30 Rock" to establish itself as the best in the genre.

"Mad Men", which tells the story of an advertising agency in the 1960s, won the outstanding drama series award for the third year in a row.

"Modern Family", which makes fun of the everyday life of three American families, emerged meanwhile as the top winner for outstanding comedy series.

Television movie "Temple Grandin", which tells the story of a woman who triumphed over autism, also did well, boosting the standing of its producer, the Home Box Office cable television network.

The movie swept a total of three prizes: Claire Danes won for lead actress in a movie or miniseries; Julia Ormond won supporting actress; and David Strathairn for supporting actor.

Hollywood's glitterati were out in force to fete television's finest performances, with actress Edie Falco nabbing one of the first coveted statuettes of the evening at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater.

Falco, an alumna of the hit show "The Sopranos", won top acting honors for her starring turn in the show "Nurse Jackie", a dark comedy in which she depicts a drug-abusing hospital worker.

"This is just the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened in the history of this ceremony," a flabbergasted Falco told the audience. "I'm not funny!"

Deranged professor

Ryan Murphy meanwhile scooped an Emmy for directing "Glee", another popular situation comedy show.

"Glee" entered the award season with 19 nominations but picked up only two statuettes, with the other going to Jane Lynch for supporting actress for her role as a supercompetitive cheerleading coach.

Producer Tom Hanks' and Steven Spielberg's epic World War II miniseries "The Pacific" took the prize for outstanding mini-series. The production made the HBO cable television network the most prominent in the event, with 101 nominations this year.

The show covers the exploits of young American soldiers proudly defending their nation after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Kyra Sedgwick won her first Emmy, for actress in a drama series, playing a tough Los Angeles policewoman in TNT's drama series "The Closer".

Bryan Cranston for the third year in a row won for lead actor in a drama for "Breaking Bad", where he plays a deranged chemistry professor turned methamphetamine dealer.

Other winners included Adam Mazer for writing the screenplay for the TV movie "You Don't Know Jack".

Jim Parsons took a Grammy for best actor in a comedy series for his performance in CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" while Eric Stonestreet won the best supporting actor award in a comedy for playing half of the gay couple on the ABC hit "Modern Family".

Al Pacino, who plays the much maligned right-to-die activist in "You Don't Know Jack", won the outstanding best lead actor award in a miniseries or a movie.

George Clooney, who led a galaxy of stars in a January telethon fundraiser for Haiti's earthquake victims, meanwhile received a special Emmy for his humanitarian efforts.

The 49-year-old Hollywood heartthrob was honored for hosting the "Hope for Haiti Now" special as well as his efforts to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina and awareness of the crisis in Darfur.

"George was an obvious choice for this honor," said John Shaffner, chairman and chief executive of the Television Academy.

"It's important to remember how many good things can be done because we live in such strange times where bad behaviors suck up all the attention in the press, and the people who really need the spotlight -- the Sudanese, people in the Gulf Coast, people in Pakistan -- they can't get any," Clooney told the audience.

- AFP

FOCUS MUMBAI: Bollywood is tackling the subject of sexual harassment in the workplace, which campaigners say is increasingly becoming an issue as traditional gender roles change in modern urban India.

"Hello Darling", which was released yesterday, is inspired by the 1980 Hollywood comedy "Nine To Five" in which Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton seek to get even with their arrogant and sexist male boss.

The Hindi-language film -- the latest to address more contemporary themes rather than the traditional Bollywood song and dance love story extravaganzas -- stars Eesha Koppikhar, Celina Jaitley, Gul Panaag and Jaaved Jaffrey.

"'Hello Darling' gives a very serious message to society," said Koppikhar. "There are some men in the corporate world who are always on the lookout to flirt with women.

"The film speaks about such men and how women have to be careful and deal with them."

Sexual harassment -- or "Eve teasing" as it is called in India -- is a growing problem, as more women leave the home to go out to work, said Sudha Sundaraman, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association.

But she said unwanted sexual comments, contact or advances were not just confined to traditionally male-dominated offices. They also happened in the "unorganised sector", where many women do jobs such as low-paid domestic work.

And women working often unsociable hours in so-called "sunrise" sectors such as call centres or the IT industry were vulnerable to sexual harassment or exploitation, she added.

"Attitudes are still very patriarchal," she said. "There's a strong sense that women who are working or single in any of these institutions are somehow accessible. That also leads to sexual harassment."

Self-defence classes

The latest available government statistics indicate that crimes against women in India are increasing, with more than 12,000 cases of sexual harassment and over 40,000 of molestation recorded in 2008.

Indian field hockey was rocked last month by claims that the male coach of the women's national team sexually harassed an unidentified player and the side's video analyst consorted with prostitutes while on tour.

The coach resigned, denying the charges, while the video analyst was suspended.

Sexual harassment lawsuits have also been filed against top Indian executives at the country's second-largest software exporter Infosys and the publisher Penguin, leading to out-of-court settlements.

But most victims are thought to refrain from reporting incidents, due to the social stigma, attitudes towards complaints -- and the lack of faith in available remedies.

The widely reported cases involving Infosys and Penguin were brought in the United States and Canada.

Gender equality and the right to live in dignity are enshrined in India's constitution but the country has no specific law to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Supreme Court issued guidelines after a landmark case in 1997 for all companies to take appropriate steps to prevent sexual harassment as well as investigate any complaints and take appropriate action.

But the guidelines are not mandatory, said Sundaraman, who has been pushing for a law to be passed, allowing the practice to continue virtually unchecked.

In the meantime, some Indian women are fighting back at the gropers and the touchers by enrolling in self-defence classes.

"These programmes do not solve the main problem," Kalpana Viswanath, a researcher at women's rights group Jagori, said. "Women can learn but it is the men who really need lessons on how to behave."

- AFP

The "Titanic" and "Inception" star said in documents filed with Los Angeles Superior Court this week that he was frightened of the "delusional" woman and felt his personal safety was in jeopardy.

His lawyer submitted a number of hand-written letters from the woman, named as Livia Bistriceanu, to DiCaprio.

"Do you want to be with me for real and to be the father of Jesus? I've explained you I can't be with nobody virtually. I have to have a father in reality for Jesus not like this," read one of the letters, obtained by celebrity website TMZ.com yesterday.

The court ordered Bistriceanu to stay at least 100 yards away from DiCaprio, 35, who remains one of Hollywood's leading heart-throb stars actors despite attempts to move away from romantic dramas in film since the success of "Titanic" in 1997.

The restraining order was granted the same week that another woman was ordered to stand trial in Los Angeles on charges of striking DiCaprio with a wine glass at a private Hollywood party in 2005, and injuring his face and neck.

DiCaprio needed several stitches after the incident.

Aretha Wilson, 40, who was extradited from Canada to face the charge, could face up to seven years in prison if convicted at trial.

DiCaprio, whose next movie project is taking on the role of former FBI director J Edgar Hoover for director Clint Eastwood, was not in court for either of the hearings.

- Reuters

On the Food Trail with Tiberius Kerk

The morning market at this place still retains all the flavours of old Penang. Some of the food sold and eaten here remind those of us who have come of age (a long time ago) that some things are best
savoured at their original sites.

Naturally, when an ex-Penangite shows up at Pulau Tikus, he tends to arrive at about 10-11am. Not exactly the right time because the housewives were already there at 8.30am.

Breakfast means a bowl of hokkien prawn mee inside the market at the food court. Or, perhaps just a plate of fried beehoon or plain chee cheong fun, Penang-style. That means none of those concoctions you find in KL.

Penang chee cheong fun is best with some local sweet sauce, chilli sauce, oil and a handful of fried onion rings. The locals swear that it surpasses those fusion chee cheong fun outside the state.

It is a unique feature of this market that there’s a stall selling nyonya dishes that our grandmothers and mothers used to cook for us.

This includes the dry sambal mixed with shrimps, acar with all the right ingredients, curry chicken with special nyonya flavours and “perut ikan”.

The last dish is rapidly fading from the nyonya menu these days, simply because it involves too much work. The hawkers will tell you that the returns are low, and perut ikan is unfamiliar to many members of the younger generation.

Below market price

Fortunately at Penang’s Pulau Tikus market, it still exists and thrives. Some of us who have sampled the dish (perut ikan) will tell you with tears in our eyes that it reminds us of our mothers.

Perhaps that is why so many ex-Penangites rush back to their beloved island the first chance they get. Where else but Penang, you can get a bowl of steaming hot hokkien prawn mee for RM2.50.

And if you are a hardcore and very frugal person, you will head towards Jelutong and find a stall selling hokkien prawn mee for RM2.

It is said that Penang people are so stingy that they won’t pay more than RM2.50 for “ordinary” hawker food.

In fact, if they can get it for RM1.80, they will drive five miles to find that crazy hawker who sells his dishes at below market price.

Another seasonal local dessert is the “koay ee” (glutinous rice balls). Luckily for us, when we were there, this woman who was selling all our favourite nyonya dishes was also selling the glutinous rice balls.

Opposite her stall was another woman who specialised in ordinary dishes that were of great help to the local housewives who found it quite a chore to cook up more than three dishes on a daily basis.

Fried kembong, various types of veggies and some unsophisticated curry dishes will complete any meal at any Chinese home on the island.

Right eating places

Frankly there’s no shortage of good food in and around the Pulau Tikus market. Just a hop, skip and jump away there are two corner coffeeshops that are filled to the brim every morning.

I will happily vouch for the above par hawker food sold in either coffeeshop. It is not coincidental that the residential homes in Pulau Tikus are highly priced.

Great food and that includes mamak mee goreng, mee rebus, roti canai and with the seafront (Gurney Drive) nearby, Pulau Tikus is a favourite pit-stop for many visitors to the Pearl of the Orient.

I normally have my second breakfast at the market on my annual pilgrimage to the island. Anybody who knows Penang won’t go hungry if he knows all the right eating places.

Mornings at Pulau Tikus easily take up two or three hours. The food portions on the island are not big, neither are their prices. That’s the way, it should be.

A visitor to Penang eats little but often. The challenge is how to squeeze as many variety of hawker food in a single day and night as well.

That’s Entertainment by Tiberius Kerk

When the show ended almost two and a half hours later, I had a little difficulty getting up from my seat because the air-con has got to my knees.

The year 2010 is now eight months deep, and this is probably the most intelligent film I have seen thus far. Christopher Nolan of the Dark Knight fame has truly performed above and beyond the call of duty as the director of Inception.

The fact that he was also responsible for writing the script adds another big feather in his cap.

Before I went into the cinema I already learnt that this movie is mind-boggling. It was an appropriate description. It is a story that has layers upon layers of dream sequences that would cause a firestorm in your field of imagination.

Watching Inception is akin to playing chess with God. There are no boundaries. The chessboard is as broad and as complex as your mind can design it to be.

In the midst of watching the movie, I was prompted to think of the phrase uttered by the famous fourth century BC Chinese philosopher Chuangtse who exclaimed: “I am not sure if I am Chuangtse who dreamt I was a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming it was Chuangtse.”

Magnum opus

Chris Nolan, director-extraordinaire, has really outdone himself this time. He has spliced together a complicated story, proceeded to dissect it into jagged parts and then glued them back together to
produce a magnum opus.

An unsuspecting viewer must have the mental stamina to keep pace with the runaway plot as it careens off the usual highway. It entails hanging on to the sequential scenes like a pit bull tenaciously locking its jaws on the victim.

Leonardo de Caprio, as usual, put up a marvellous portrayal as Dom Cobb, a corporate thief who possesses an uncanny ability to enter a person’s mind, and opens the deposit boxes of his memory bank.

Cobb is not alone in his profession which deals with industrial espionage. He is ably assisted by Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Ariadne (Ellen Page), Eames (Tom Hardy) and Yusuf (Dileep Rao).

Each member of his team is a specialist in his or her own field. It stresses the mind even to think of the startling abilities of each individual. Suffice to say, Inception may make you question your own
sanity after a while.

The nearest comparison in substance, perhaps, to Inception would be Alice in Wonderland published in 1865. Lewis Carroll, whose real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, achieved everlasting fame with a story which deals with literary absurdity, fantasy and a complicated
narrative structure.

While I am not really attaching any literary excellence to Inception, the movie does deliver a tremendous jumpstart to one’s cerebral cortex.

Ellen Page who plays Ariadne is the perfect complement to Cobb with her role as a prodigy of mental manipulation.

With plenty of help from CGI effects and other industrial magic that is only available in this decade, Inception sucks you deep into the recesses of your own mind, and proceeds to use your grey matter as a dance floor.

Cinematic surprises

There is no shortage of cinematic surprises in this visionary stimulating film. It tests your powers of imagination and taxes your capacity for stretching the limits of that twilight zone while you are
in a dream-like state.

Japanese actor Ken Watanabe as Saito is the only Asian addition to the cast. Watanabe may have attained a fair measure of fame with Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), but he will be favourably remembered again after putting up a powerful performance in this movie.

I strongly suspect Inception may not do as well as The Expendables at the box office, but on substance alone, it wins hands down.

Enthusiasts of high-end comics will appreciate this film more than the ordinary Joe in the street because it has all the right elements to make it a fantastic graphic novel.

I would love to see Christopher Nolan winning an Oscar for this show. I think Nolan deserves it. It is never easy to break new ground on the big screen.

So much has already been done in front of the camera. Plots and scripts of the most convoluted kind have made their appearance with limited success in the hallowed corridors of Hollywood.

But it takes a special person, a director and writer showing no fear in driving down the nebulous highway of one’s consciousness, to emerge crystal clear of his final destination.

Ultimately though, this film is unadulterated entertainment of the finest form. It exercises your imagination and stamps its mark of an elusive reality while you are skirting on the fringes of hallucination and illusions.

In short, it is one heck of a movie. Go and see it or forever be shamed!

Producer Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's epic, World War II miniseries "The Pacific" has garnered 24 nominations, making Home Box Office (HBO) cable television network the most prominent in the event, with 101 nominations this year.

The show covers the exploits of young American soldiers proudly defending their nation after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Another top contender in the August 29 award ceremony is Fox Television's "Glee," in which a Spanish professor takes over a high school music class given up for hopeless by his predecessor.

The comedy series garnered 19 nominations in this, its first appearance at the Emmys. It already won a Golden Globe for best comedy earlier this year and threatens to dethrone "30 Rock," a three-year winner of the best comedy series.

"Nurse Jackie" and "The Office" are included as contenders in the category.

In the drama series, the successful "Mad Men," with 17 nominations, is aiming for its third consecutive Emmy.

But the series about the high-pressure world of advertising in 1960s New York is facing tough competition from "Lost," the globally popular tale about survivors on a mysterious island, the final episode of which aired in the United Stats in May.

Nominated for 12 Emmys this year, "Lost" has made off with nine awards in the past six seasons, but only got the top award for best drama series in 2005. It will have to cross swords this year with, among others, "Dexter" and "True Blood."

In the best actor and actress categories, all of last year's winners are in the running, including Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock"), Toni Collette ("United States of Tara"), Glenn Close ("Damages") and Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad").

They will compete with Tina Fey ("30 Rock"), Michael C. Hall ("Dexter"), Jon Hamm ("Mad Men"), Hugh Laurie, ("House"), Julianna Margulies ("The Good Wife"), Steve Carell ("The Office") and Edie Falco ("Nurse Jackie").

In the category of outstanding made for television movie, critics are keeping an eye out for "You Don't Know Jack" directed by Bary Levinson ("Rain man"), a brilliant portrait of euthanasia advocate Jack Kevorkian, popularly known as "Doctor Death" who served eight years in prison for helping a man commit suicide.

Al Pacino, who plays the much maligned right-to-die activist who was released in 2007, is in the running for best lead actor in a miniseries or a movie, along with Jeff Bridges -- who won his first Oscar last year -- Ian McKellan and Dennis Quaid.

In Sunday's award ceremony, George Clooney, who led a galaxy of stars in a January telethon fundraiser for Haiti's earthquake victims, will receive a special Emmy for his humanitarian efforts.

The 49-year-old Hollywood heartthrob will be honored for hosting the "Hope for Haiti Now" special, as well as his efforts to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina and raise awareness of the crisis in Darfur.

"George was an obvious choice for this honor," said John Shaffner, chairman and chief executive of the Television Academy.

The 62nd Emmy Awards will be broadcast live across the entire United States, for the first time, from the Nokia theatre in Los Angeles, starting at 5pm (0000 GMT).

- AFP

PARIS: A dozen hefty security guards held back the crowd gathered on a Paris street this week to glimpse US director Martin Scorsese jump into a limo at lunch break during the shoot of his latest film, a 3-D fantasy releasing late next year.

But the Oscar-winning 67-year-old, shooting in the City of Light for only the second time in 17 years, was too quick for the fans, skirting the crowd incognito on foot to be picked up a few hundred yards away by a luxury limousine.

"Keep moving, we're shooting," said harried security guards.

Also on hand but also shunning the paparazzi was British actor Ben Kingsley, who played in Scorsese's recent hit, "Shutter Island". Co-stars Jude Law, Asa Butterfield, Christopher Lee and Sacha Baron Cohen had the day off.

Scorsese was shooting "Hugo Cabret", a tale based on a 2007 graphic novel by Brian Selznick about a boy who secretly lives in the walls of a 1930s Paris train station.

To restore the ambience of those times, a squad of carpenters, painters and sundry handymen were on hand early morning transforming the facade of the Athenee theatre in central Paris, where some of the action takes place, as well as the Opera-Louis Jouvet square the theatre stands on.

Artificial snow covered the ground and in place of its current shop fronts, the scenery wizards installed a 1930s hat-shop, watchmaker, haberdashery, pharmacy, as well as a news-stands stacked with 1931 editions.

With Paris almost empty as usual every summery August of its couple of million inhabitants and their cars, local and international film crews have flocked into town inspired both by the city's beauty as well as new tax breaks.

Celluloid exposure

The French capital recently had a major cinematic outing with the worldwide release of the partly Paris-set sci-fi blockbuster "Inception" and is now set for more celluloid exposure with 20 feature films being shot here this year.

This summer alone saw three major US projects.

Before Scorsese hit town, Woody Allen began shooting his latest work, "Midnight in Paris", with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in her first major film role in the movie which is set in the 1920s.

And pop star Madonna spent three days here in August to shoot part of her film "W.E.", about Britain's King Edward VIII and the American divorcee Wallis Simpson for whom he abdicated in 1936.

Favourite spots for US shoots in Paris were picture-postcard Left Bank districts with Woody Allen favouring grocery-shops and eateries in the popular Latin Quarter, while Scorsese kicked off with scenes filmed inside the Sorbonne University in the same area.

Madonna helmed in historic up-market Saint-Germain-des-Pres.

- AFP

FEATURE HONG KONG: Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising tens of thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.

Yet aged just 21 and now a university student in Hong Kong, Li already finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as simple as "embarrassed" have slipped from her mind.

"I can remember the shape, but I can’t remember the strokes that you need to write it," she says. "It’s a bit of a problem."

Surveys indicate the phenomenon, dubbed "character amnesia", is widespread across China, causing young Chinese to fear for the future of their ancient writing system.

Young Japanese people also report the problem, which is caused by the constant use of computers and mobile phones with alphabet-based input systems.

There is even a Chinese word for it: "tibiwangzi", or "take pen, forget character".

A poll commissioned by the China Youth Daily in April found that 83% of the 2,072 respondents admitted having problems writing characters.

As a result, Li says that she has become almost dependent on her phone.

"When I can’t remember, I will take out my cellphone and find it (the character) and then copy it down," she says.

Zeng Ming, 22, from the southern Guangdong province, says: "I think it's a young people's problem, or at least a computer users' problem."

One notoriously forgettable character, Zeng says, is used in the word Tao Tie -- a legendary Chinese monster that was so greedy it ate itself.

Still used as a byword for gluttony, the Tao Tie is one of many ancient Chinese concepts embedded in the language.

"It’s like you’re forgetting your culture," Zeng says.

Character amnesia happens because most Chinese people use electronic input systems based on pinyin, which translates Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet.

The user enters each word using pinyin, and the device offers a menu of characters that match. So users must recognise the character, but they don't need to be able to write it.

Writing systems

In Japan, where three writing systems are combined into one, mobiles and computers use the simpler hiragana and katakana scripts for inputting -- meaning users may forget the kanji, a third strand of Japanese writing similar to Chinese characters.

"We rely too much on the conversion function on our phones and PCs," said Ayumi Kawamoto, 23, shopping in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district.

"I've mostly forgotten characters I learned in middle and high school and I tend to forget the characters I only occasionally use."

Tokyo student Maya Kato, 22, said: "I hardly hand-write anymore, which is the main reason why I have forgotten so many characters.

"It is frustrating because I always almost remember the character, and lose it at the last minute. I forget if there was an extra line, or where the dot is supposed to go."

Character amnesia matters because memorisation is so crucial to character-based written languages, says Siok Wai Ting, assistant professor of linguistics at Hong Kong University. Forgetting how to write could eventually affect reading ability.

"There is no way we can learn the writing systematically because the writing itself is not systematic -- we have to memorise, we have to rote learn," she says.

"Through writing, we memorise the characters. Reading and writing are more closely connected in Chinese."

Chinese reading even uses a different part of the brain from reading the Roman alphabet, Siok’s research has found -- a part closer to the motor area, which is used for handwriting.

Chinese characters are so complex that the country's revolutionary leader Mao Zedong told the US journalist Edgar Snow in 1936: "Sooner or later, we believe, we will have to abandon characters altogether if we are to create a new social culture in which the masses fully participate."

Instead, Mao eventually chose to simplify many characters into forms now the standard in mainland China.

Victor Mair, professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, said character amnesia is part of a "natural process of evolution".

"The reasons why characters are innately difficult to enter into computers and mobile phones are innate to the character-based writing systems themselves," he said.

"There are no magic bullets that will make it easy to input characters," he added.

Widespread craze

The Wubi input system -- available on some Chinese computers and backed by the government -- uses character strokes as handwriting does. But the system itself is so difficult to learn that it has failed to gain mass appeal.

However, iPhones and other smartphones now offer an option in which users can input characters by drawing them onto the touch screen.

And in Japan, kanji kentei -- a character quiz with 12 levels -- has become a widespread craze among schoolchildren, housewives and retirees, according to Yoshiko Nakano, associate professor of Japanese at the University of Hong Kong.

Some argue that the perceived decline in character knowledge is, in fact, nothing to worry about.

A survey by the southern Chinese news portal Dayang Net, found that 80% of respondents had forgotten how to write some characters -- but 43% said they used handwritten characters only for signatures and forms.

"The idea that China is a country full of people who write beautiful, fluid literature in characters without a second thought is a romantic fantasy," wrote the blogger and translator C. Custer on his Chinageeks blog.

"Given the social and financial pressures that exist for most people in China... (and) given that nearly everyone has a cellphone, it really isn’t a problem at all."

The explosion of Internet and phone technology has itself led to the creation of new words and forms of writing. In 2008 Chinese people were sending 175 billion text messages each quarter, according to the Xinhua state news agency.

Still, both Li Hanwei and Zeng Ming have become so concerned about character amnesia that they keep handwritten diaries partly to ensure they don’t forget how to write.

If it weren’t for this, would they actually need to remember how to write characters with a pen?

Li is almost stumped, but says she uses one "when I have to sign the back of my new credit card". "That’s almost all," she says.

- AFP

NEW YORK: The life of a transexual in Asia is limited to sexual work -- such is the searing viewpoint of Singapore native Leona Lo, who traveled to New York to present a first-person, three-act play on the subject.

The "Ah Kua Show" is a collage of experiences on the difficulties of being a transsexual person in places like Malaysia, Hong Kong or Bangkok.

The show, on stage at the "La Mama" alternative theater in Manhattan's East Village, is one of 197 events that are part of the XIV New York Fringe Festival.

The shows are staged on 18 small and experimental theaters, and are a far cry from the glitzy, big-budget Broadway productions.

"The idea is to open up the eyes of the world and to apply a bit of pressure on these countries to grant these women official recognition," Leona told AFP after a recent presentation.

Leona -- formerly known as Leonard -- Lo was born 35 years ago to a middle-class family of Chinese descent living in Singapore.

Lo's difficult teenage years, mandatory military service, school in England, and finally the sex change in Thailand are the subject of a 2007 book.

Transsexuals have different experiences across Asia, and the show, which includes song and dance numbers, attempts to portray this variety.

Silent discrimination

The "Ah Kua Show" covers a broad range, from “ladyboys” in Thailand to transgender women in Malaysia.

Islamic clerics often turn the Malaysian transgenders in for counselling, "and they can only have jobs as sex workers”, said Lo.

In Thailand, Lo said, transgenders "can only be show girls" because they are discriminated against and cannot find regular jobs.

In Hong Kong, Lo said, transsexual men who have not undergone an operation are in high demand.

However, in Singapore "we are ahead of a lot of Asian countries", said Lo. "I can marry a guy and I have a passport." Nevertheless, she said, "there is a lot of silent discrimination for being a transsexual".

Last year, Lo became involved in the Asia Pacific Transgender Network, the first group of its kind in the region.

"HIV is a huge problem among transgender women in Cambodia and Pakistan," said Lo. "Forty percent of all Pakistani transgenders have HIV/AIDS."

In Malaysia and Indonesia "they have a huge problem with religion, preventing them from living as women. In Hong Kong we have a case right now where a woman is struggling to get married and we are supporting her".

Also, the group "just helped a transgender woman to escape from Mongolia and she has a refugee status in a European country right now".

The show's name, Ah Kua, are words in local Chinese dialect describing an effeminate or transsexual man.

The show also mentions frustrated encounters with white western "heroes" who promise eternal love and a ticket out of the world of prostitution and cabarets.

Sadly, this dream often ends up being a nightmare.

"There are lots of so called foreign guys who are looking for a transgender woman to bring back to the country and to abuse them," said Lo.

"Until I met my present boyfriend, I was in and out of several unhealthy relationships because I also had an illusion of getting the ideal boyfriend and everything else in my life would change."

Lo's advice: "Be happy with yourself, be happy where you are, but do something constructive with your life."

- AFP

For decades, I have been curious about this book, much heard about but never read, until recently. Back in school, we always seemed to have so much to absorb.

Consequently, I never had the inclination to set my sights on this “Bird”. However, one day about four months ago, I came upon this compendium at a bookstore which seemed it could do with more business.

Perhaps, because the pressure of studying was no longer there, hence the revival of interest in this book which saw print in 1883.

Isabella Lucy Bird, born in 1831, was an extraordinary woman by society standards during her time. Her father was a vicar and Isabella suffered many health problems as a child.

At 25, she published her first book, The Englishwoman in America.

In 1872, at the age of 41, Isabella travelled extensively. First, she went to Australia, then to the United States. It seemed Isabella was bitten severely by the travel bug.

When she was on the move, she was constantly in the pink of health. But when she was idle, illness followed her like an unwelcomed companion.

In the second half of the 1870s, she journeyed to Asia where she visited Japan, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaya (Malaysia).

The Golden Chersonese is mainly about her extensive travels in this region, particularly Malaya, about 135 years ago.

Time machine

Learning about the old Malaya through Isabella’s eyes is like looking through the window of a time machine. Everything is fascinating but slightly strange because the environment was different and the land was sparsely populated.

The Malays were concentrated mainly in the rustic countryside. The Chinese were preoccupied with making money either through tin-mining, commerce or through undesirable activities and they were mostly living in shanty towns.

But the soul of Malaya was evident in Isabella’s descriptions when she took up residence in Sungai Ujong:

“The view in all directions was beautiful – to the north a sea of densely wooded mountains with indigo shadows in their hollows, to the south the country we had threaded on the Linggi river, forests, and small tapioca clearings, little villages where rice is growing, and scars where tin-mining is going on; the capital, the little town of Serambang (Seremban), with its larger clearings, and to the west the gleam of the shining sea... There was a gorgeous sunset of the gory, furnace kind, which one only sees in the tropics – waves of violet light rolling up over the mainland, and the low Sumatran coast looking like a purple cloud amidst the fiery haze.”

Some of us who have forbears who migrated from very distant shores more than a century ago will find Isabella’s account of “the old country” utterly enthralling because of the vivid descriptions of how the various communities co-existed under the loose control of the British administrators.

Although this 19th century English woman traveller and natural historian had written a captivating account of her visit to the Far East, her astute observations of people in 19th century Malaya may rise some eyebrows in modern-day Malaysia:

On Sikhs: “They have good-natured faces generally, and are sober, docile and peaceable. They are devoted to the accumulation of money, and very many of them being betrothed to little girls in India, save nearly all their pay in order to buy land and settle there. They get on admirably with the Malays, but look down on the Chinese, who are much afraid of them.”

On the Chinese: “…imperturbable, taciturn, independent, and irreproachably clean. They are everywhere the same, keen, quick-witted for chances, markedly self-interested, purpose-like, thrifty, frugal, on the whole regarding honesty as the best policy, independent in manner as in character, and without a trace of ‘Oriental servility’ ”.

On the Malays: “The Malays, if they can, build their kampongs near rivers… Many of these people have ‘dug-outs, or other boats on the adjacent river, some have bathing-sheds, and others padi plantations. These kampongs have much of the poetry as well as inanity of tropical life about them. They are beautiful and appropriate, and food is above and around them. The people are always courteous.”

On the Indians in Penang: “There are over 15,000 Klings, Chuliahs and other natives of India on the island, and with their handsome faces, their Turkey-red turbans and loincloths, or the soft, white muslins in which both men and women drape themselves, each one might be an artist’s model. The Klings are much pleasanter to buy from than the Chinese. In addition to all the brilliant things which are sold for native wear, they keep large stocks of English and German prints, which they sell for rather half than the price asked for them at home.”

A new dawn

The society that existed more than a century ago in this country during Isabella’s visit has since evolved to suit the new age. Much has changed although some have remained the same.

We all like to believe that all of us, regardless of race, have retained all that was and still is good in our hearts and minds over the generations that had come and gone.

Isabella Bird arrived at a gestatory period in Malaya when the country and society were metamorphosing. The land was awakening to a new dawn. Undoubtedly, there were some difficult times that involved all the communities at one time or another.

Malaysia today is testament to the fact that she has survived those times well. The intrepid Englishwoman who stepped on our shores more than a hundred years ago had inadvertently opened a window into our history, allowing us, in modern times, to catch clear glimpses of how our ancestors lived in those days when elephants and tigers were very much part of the environment.

History was walking barefooted into the 20th century. Today, we are just glad that some of these travellers who came more than a hundred years before us had left the written word for all of us to be re-acquainted with the land and the people who had helped shape the country into what it is today.