SCUBA

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but bubbles.

Touch only the ocean, and chase only your dreams.

A haircut, Ali and the Ant

Once a month I have my hair cut. A grade one short back and sides at a local branch of a London barbershop here in KL. It takes 45 minutes to cut, shave and shampoo.

Ali always cuts my hair. We talk about our families. He is from Syria, from a small town on the border with Turkey. He hasn't seem his family for nearly three years, but plans to visit them next March.

He is very excited this morning because of the upcoming Hari Raya celebrations. 

Yet at the same time you can detect the sadness in his blue piercing eyes, made worse by his tiredness from fasting during Ramadan.

"You know that in the Quran we are not allowed to even hurt an ant," he says to me. 

"I don't know why people are doing what they'e doing in my country. Why? " he adds.  "We are not all bad people."

"I understand," I say to him, "I understand". 

I just wish the rest of the world could too.

Selamat Hari Raya.

Weapons of Art

To read of how weapons are treated just like another commodity sold at a trade show, read here

Men are happier with a smart wife

This is news? That having an equal makes you happier?

Click here for the full Daily Telegraph article.

Not a Grade A student?

Academically, I was never a Grade A student. But I do like to think I am at least a B+ in a few of these.

Shimmy, Shimmy Ya

You're driving in the city. Its sunny, no haze, no rain, and a bright blue sky. But there's a jam, jam, jam. And you need music to jam, jam, jam. 

You look at the car next to you. The fella in the driver's seat is skanking up and down, happy as can be, listening to  Shimmy Shimmy Ya by Prince Fatty. It's me.

TGINF!

Poetry: Through her eyes and ears

My daughter, Sophia, is now 13 months old.

She is our pride and joy. She is also an excuse for us to remember what we loved when we were younger.

I found this online and love the youngsters' comments that precede every poem.  If only we could remain this innocent and honest into adulthood.

Listen to it here

My favorite is Andy Garcia reading Mariposa del Aire at minute 11. Remember him in The Untouchables and The Godfather movies. Good or bad guy, his reading is untouchable.

The Future

Prediction is difficult, as Niels Bohr once observed, especially about the future.

Source: The Economist 

Reach for the Sky

One of my luckiest underwater photographs!

After a very long and lacklustre dive we were doing our safety stop. At that very moment this beauty decided to surface for a gulp of air.

With the sun shining through the water's surface above her head, her extended fins, and her crucifix-like stance, it couldn't be more celestial.

How do I know she is a she? The way she moved gracefully through the waters around me. The way her eyes melted into mine. The way she waved goodbye to me...

Mariposa del Aire (Butterfly in the Sky) by Federico Garcia Lorca

My daughter loves this poem. She doesn't understand the Spanish words, but she does understand the simplicity of its rhythm and intonation.

With it nearly a week since MH17 was shot down in cold blood, I dedicate this poem to the 298 souls lost onboard.

In spite of the butterfly's everlasting beauty, it flew too close, disappearing forever....

Cherish who you have.

CESH

Andy Garcia reads the poem here

A Child's Poem: 

Mariposa (Butterfly) 
by Federico García Lorca

Mariposa del aire,
qué hermosa eres,
mariposa del aire
dorada y verde.

Luz del candil,
mariposa del aire,
¡quédate ahí, ahí, ahí!
No te quieres parar,
pararte no quieres.

Mariposa del aire

dorada y verde. 

Luz de candil,

mariposa del aire,

¡quédate ahí, ahí, ahí!.

¡Quédate ahí!

Mariposa, ¿estás ahí?

Boxer shorts or not?

I have the same dream once, sometimes twice a year.

I'm usually the first to arrive in the office, around 6am.

Working diligently at my desk, building security walks in at 9am on the dot.

"Sir. Please leave the premises with us now."

"Why?" I ask.

"You cannot work naked here. It is an outrage of modesty to others - and not very hygienic," he says, looking down at me. 

Cheeky sod.

And he's right. I'm there in the buff, typing away, but oh what a great work ethnic to be starting at 6am....

The truth is, I'm wearing just boxer shorts. I'm never naked, as hot as it gets here in KL.  And I work from home. 

I have done so since January 2002, when I chose freelance journalism over investment banking, after witnessing the horrors of 9/11 in NYC. 

No office drudgery for me, please. Carpe diem and all that, but literally dying at my desk is not for me.

The dream only happens when I'm doing well, happy, and succeeding in my chosen career.

Its also my brain telling me that I'm very lucky to be in the position I am in. 

No three hours of commuting every day to work. Instead a short five-second walk from the bedroom.

Some, but very little, office politics.

Flexibility. My gorgeous wife can share the childcare (assisted by an amazing nanny), allowing us both to have an equal opportunity for interesting careers.

And best of all, the ability to choose my day's activities. 

I get out of it, what I put into it. 

Researching, writing, reading, traveling, taking photographs, talking, listening, interviewing,  or nothing. 

Writers "block" is a posh term for having no freaking idea why you are doing what you're doing, over-analyzing the fact that you are overworked and underpaid, and lacking direction.

Focus. And be disciplined. Write lists. It works. 

Plan for 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. It works.

I haven't had writers block for years.  Though I do wonder if I went without the boxer shorts, would that tip the balance and help me find the will to finish my first book.....?

(ADL)

Tough as Nails

Reiko Nomura, a Japanese Ama free-diver, I recently interview in Mie Prefecture.

82 years-old, she free-dived for 65 of those.

Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride

A dull, cloudy, wet and hazy KL.

If I wanted London weather I would have remained in the 9 to 5 drudgery of an office job.

I love this. Click

Meant for small (and very "big") kids.

Sophia's favorite: He Mele No Lilo

I still love this opening theme song. Click

My daughter even more.

Baby steps

The novella. 20,000 to 50,000 words. One step at a time. Chapter by chapter. 1000 words a day....

Where did we go wrong?

Forty-five years ago we put a man on the moon thanks to the advanced technology of the day.

Yet human behaviour has stood still, remaining as primal and belligerent as ever. 

Where did we go wrong?

*holes

You would be surprised how many intelligent *holes are out there. Be kind. Please.

Music: Food for the Soul

London Azonto music is my current favourite. Ghanaian in vintage, but with a UK twist, its happy, infectious melodies are perfect for a long journey. Check online to find Fuse ODG’s song Antenna.

A competition was held two years ago to find a pair of dancers for the video. A young Ghanaian couple won, with their freestyle dancing on a Manchester tram journey.

It’s a brilliant fun tune and you’ll love the couple’s natural, graceful moves. This summer’s follow-up tune stars them again in the hit, Dangerous Love, with Fuse ODG and Sean Paul, an ode to London’s very cosmopolitan population.

My music collection has become a series of reference points, like page numbers of my past travels. Different tunes remind me of what I was doing, where I was, and who I was with.

Happy memories of growing up. Pubbing and clubbing. Love. Hate. Different countries. New and old friends.

Have you ever thought your taste in music is eclectic (that’s a very polite word for weird or strange) until you meet someone that likes exactly the same music?

There’s nothing quite like a kindred musical spirit. From classics, like the Rolling Stones to The Beatles, The Cure to The Smiths, and Michael Buble to Etta James.

All topped off with a dash of punk, 80s pop, 90s rare groove, reggae, Ska music, and African Highlife.

Eclectic, right?

Search online for a musical tune called Usa Divah by South African band Zozo and Sengere Superbeat.

By 3:45” you’ll be dancing the night away. There’s also an online music video using this tune, with a bunch of African school-kids busting moves, like there’s no tomorrow.

They would put even the late James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, to shame.

Although released a decade ago, its one of the catchiest tunes I’ve heard in a longtime. Guitar riffs and slides, drum beats and singing. It’ll have your feet wiggling and fingers tapping in no time at all.

I played the 11.5-minute tune 16 times in a row the first time I heard it. Addictive, its one tune on my MP3 player that goes everywhere on my travels.

It’s also perfect for dealing with a KL traffic jam. Happy music, it just keeps me going, when all around me is falling apart.

While not quite a prisoner, being a boarding school pupil in London was made much easier with the music we exchanged and listened to on cassettes or the radio.

Listening to tunes from around the world with friends from Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya, and sometimes canto-pop from Hong Kong, and J-pop from Japan, helped pass the time.

Every Sunday evening the Top 40 Pop Chart Hits countdown would play on the radio. My friends and I would have our cassette players ready to push down the pause button, to cut out the DJ’s commentary.

The rest of the week we’d listen to the same tape over and over again until the next Sunday’s chart show.

Mad World, sung by Tears for Fears, is still an 80s favorite. With my mullet hairstyle, I was often mistaken for a band member when visiting family in Johore and Singapore during the school holidays.

Check online. See the ugly one with the long gaunt face and mullet hair? That’s me in the 80s.

And remember vinyl? Twelve-inch singles of the latest dance hits from the US were all the rage in London during the mid-eighties.

Groove Records, a store in Soho’s Greek Street, was THE place to buy them. This was the home of London’s early Hip-Hop record scene.

Flicking through the different record categories was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon’s exeat from school. As was listening to the latest tunes while rubbing shoulders with London’s future stars.

Most consider my musical taste “wide” (another polite word for “what the heck is that fella listening to now”?), but when it comes to shaking my groove thing to my favorite tunes, I’m in real trouble.

Two left feet, long arms, big hands, and without my glasses, I dance like a constipated, headless chicken.  I normally wrap my arms around myself, and jump up and own, to avoid whacking or stepping on people accidentally.

Open your mind, and remember that music is what makes the world go round. And me. Albeit out of time.

BBC Radio 5 Interview: bumped by a former US Ambassador to Ukraine

I was contacted via email at 5am this morning in KL (10pm in London) with a short notice request from London's BBC Radio 5 Producer Laura Jones.

She wanted me to appear on the Up All Night current affairs program with Stephen Nolan.

Could I be interviewed at 7.20am this morning on the recent MH17 tragedy, and explain how Malaysians feel after the second tragedy in just over four months?

Sure. I dilligently prepared and made notes, read the PM's and Transport Minister's last speeches, the airline's press releases, read the latest local press reports, and compiled some personal anecdotes to tell.

But I was bumped at the last minute by a former US Ambassador to Ukraine.

Good to know that even though it never happened, I was bumped by such a hardcore and heavyweight interviewee.

I'm not sure that I would have responded as professionally or factually as necessary as it is such an emotional time for us all here in KL.

We want to know the following:

Is someone deliberately targeting the relatively liberal Muslim country of Malaysia?

Are we just expendable pawns in a geopolitical game of chess between the US, Russia and China?

Will I ever fly with Malaysia Airlines again?

298 souls were lost on MH17. RIP.

And my deepest condolences to the friends and families. I cannot even begin to imagine their pain and suffering, especially during this holy month of Ramadan.

Beauty

So true....