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  1. Letter from a Bersih Badass to her Dad.

    April 30, 2012 by June:Wow

    Dear Papa,

     

    How’s Kedah? I know you’ve been worried ever since I took over the business but I assure you I am as bad as I am ever going to be. I got it all under control. In fact, i’m actually writing to share some good news.

     

    By now, if you’ve been following the reports on Bersih 3.0, you would have read all about how our crew were responsible for all the violence and damage in town – breaking the barricades, beating people up, throwing tear gas canisters back at the cops, overturning a cop car… everyone thinks we caused all the trouble, and that we’re the baddest there is in town! Business is booming!

     

    I thought you might be interested in hearing about how we pulled the whole thing off, so here is an account of what happened that day:

     

    As we were there to cause as much trouble as possible, we didn’t want to get caught before things got heated. So we fooled the cops and the press by giving out flowers before the rally.  They thought we were hippies trying to create a happy environment; promote peace and understanding, and all that sort of stupid shit! We sure fooled them! HAHA!

     

    amita

     

    As you can see, the gang and I were actually clad in the latest gangster garb. We were prepared for the shit to get heavy!*

    *I told you I am well bad now, I got the lingo down to a T.

     

    dillme

     

     

    We parked ourselves as near to Dataran as we could, in front of the fountains facing the barricade. The whole area in front of us was  already chock-a-block with people, and it was impossible to get through. I think some of those guys had gathered there from the night before.

     

    amitamedill

     

    Check out this video which shows exactly where we were, the number of people who were around us, and the sort of silly chants we were coming up with. Nobody even suspected we were bad ass undercover gangsters about to kick off! You would have been so proud.

     

     

    We even got some guys in dressed as phantom voters to entertain the crowds. The people were laughing and in good spirits, many even wanted photos with them, we made it feel like Disneyland!

     

    phantoms

     

    And I made sure we were fully prepared for any eventuality. I got these Brits in as reinforcements at the last minute because everyone knows the British are skilled in the art of colonising. The one on the left is an heir to the East India Trading Company and the one on the right is the product of Chin Peng’s relations with a British spy. Did I get the right people for the job or what?!

     

    natmike

     

    So this was all leading up to the mayhem. And you would have read all about how “a small group of people charged through the barricade and rushed the square causing others to follow.”

     

    Actually, a lot of people (most of whom did not even attend the rally) have simply concluded that everybody who went to Bersih was responsible for one thing or another. They have linked us to political groups who want to take over; the home minister thinks we are responsible for all the damage in town; and even Ibrahim Ali has managed to link the event to a threat on malay rights!

     

    But the truth is, we didn’t even do anything!


    If anyone bothered checking any of the video footage that’s out there on the internet, they would’ve easily seen that it was near impossible for most people to even get NEAR the barricade. For us, it was because:

     

    1)  We were actually sitting a good distance from the barricade and the crowds prevented us from moving anywhere;

    2) The police started shooting tear gas almost immediately after the barricade was broken; and

    3) As we were getting away from the tear gas being fired in Dataran, we were ambushed from behind with more tear gas. (In the midst of escaping, one of our boys saw a guy in a yellow Bersih t-shirt taking a gas canister out of his backpack and throwing it on the ground. That shit was fucked up.)

     

    But the fact that there are still people stupid enough to judge the many based on the actions of a few, shows that the level of stupidity in this country remains at an all time high!  And that in turn means that we don’t even need to do ANYTHING in order to achieve notoriety!


    Between you and me, and despite all the good this bad press is doing for the business,  I just hope nobody ever finds out that we were actually SCARED when we were ambushed. Of course we were, that shit happened without warning. Everyone knows that if the police fire in front of you, they want you to move back. It makes no sense to fire in both directions to trap the crowd if you’re trying to get them to disperse, right? But I guess  I made a mistake assuming our cops would play fair. They haven’t exactly got the best track record.

     

    Anyway, I really hope no one took photos of us looking helpless, choking from the gas, throwing up in the back alleys. In between coughing fits, I saw that some of our boys were even bleeding from the head. The boys who had recovered were helping those who were falling over and handing out salt to everybody, the whole thing looked like a big hippy gathering of love.

     

    That shit is bad for business.

     

    At the last recruitment drive, we were a bit desperate and got some old people and children to join the gang (they’re cheaper). That was a big mistake because those guys got fucked up real quick by the gas.

     

    To be fair though, there was A LOT OF GAS.

     

    The good news is, it’ll take a while for the idiots in Malaysia to catch on. A lot of them will just believe everything they read in the papers/ see on TV. The less they see, the lower the chances of identifying the people who actually broke the barricade. There is already this video online which does a pretty good job of proving we had nothing to do with it:

     

     

    Lucky for us though, the government is censoring most of the stuff as usual. Even foreign reports. Check out this video which shows how Astro censored a BBC report:

     

     

    But those pesky bloggers and citizen journalists aren’t letting up. Apart from all the independent reports online,  Twitterjaya is going apeshite.

    It’s only a matter of time before the truth gets out, but we’re making the best of the situation. I’ll write again soon.

    Much love,

    June


  2. Die now, or die later?

    April 26, 2012 by June:Wow

    This is an article on Aging that I wrote a while back. It was rejected by a healthcare magazine. More on that later.

    Aging Well

    By, June Low, February 2012


    metal

     

    What does it mean to “age well”? Is it measured by how long you’ve lived, or how good you look; whatever age you’re at?

    A 50 year old who looks 21 may be considered one who has “aged well”, yet 50 is not that big a deal compared to a supercentenarian, even one with lung cancer.

    So who do we put on the poster?

    Wine that has “aged well” tastes better and fetches a higher price after being left alone for a particular period of time. If only the same formula applied to geriatrics.


    iggy


    Articles about how people in other countries age well invariably discuss the lifestyle and diets of the oldest living people on earth, but what’s the point? If you’ve read one recent article, you already know all about the oldest living people in the world.

    Don’t believe me?

    The old people who are still alive are trying not to die, remember? And there can be no new contenders until one of them does. So when one of our finalists eventually strike out , there will probably be lots of hoo ha in the media to mark the end of their mission (struggle?), and you will probably hear about it.

    Till then, trust me, there’s nothing new about the old unless one of them has decided to climb Mount Everest wearing nothing but a sequined bra and Birkenstocks.


    surf

     

    But as it’s tradition, i’ll bring up an oldie:

    (taken word for word from the Wikipedia entry)

    “Jeanne Louie Calment of France lived to the grand old age of 122 years, 164 days. At 85, she took up fencing and rode her bicycle up until her 100th birthday. She was reportedly neither athletic nor fanatical about her health, smoking until the age of 117. She ascribed her longevity to olive oil which she poured on all her food and rubbed onto her skin. She also drank port wine and ate nearly one kilogram of chocolate every week.”

    I’ve brought that up to show you just how futile an exercise it is talking about oldest people in the world and their living habits. It’s an inspirational story, but hardly instructive, let alone applicable. If anything, it proves that life is full of surprises, and makes it all the more important to go back to considering what “aging well” means in the first place.

    If you think about it, one could die in twenty years, or within the next twenty seconds; at age ten, or age a hundred. Personally, I think the distinction between someone who has aged well and someone who hasn’t is not how they look when they’re dead, or feel when they reach a certain age; but rather how they live in the present. Because as much as you would like to believe that you’ve “aged” only when the wrinkles appear, you’re aging in real time.


    gaming

     

    I’ve seen so many people brush off advice to “live in the present” in favour of retirement plans, insurance schemes, and traditional practices. The rationale is always that it is the “sensible” thing to do. But when you really stop to think, is it really?

    I think living in the present is the more sensible thing to do, and I don’t say that recklessly.

    The man who consciously lives in the present has to acknowledge the fragility of life along with the possibility of old age. He is more likely to make decisions to balance both enjoyment and security, than someone who lives for the future, giving in to fear or guilt. Be that through doing hard drugs or yoga, the man living for the Now is probably more in control of his life than the man who lives only to fulfill obligations and expectations.

    To die with no regrets, knowing that you truly lived… if that’s not aging well, then I don’t know what is.


    naked


  3. So, what do you do?

    December 27, 2011 by June:Wow

    A lot of people ask me that question. And i’m guilty of asking the same of others. At this point, you must know two things: 1) I don’t really have an answer to that question, and 2) I don’t know why I ask other people what they do, because most times I have found that it has no bearing on their character. It’s not something i’m proud of, and i’m trying hard to mend my ways.

    I do lots of things.

    This year, I did a lot of corporate writing, worked with UNICEF as a consultant, started a little events company, and taught sex ed to kids living on plantations. I worked with various companies, NGOs and individuals to bring different ideas to fruition, some of which (I sincerely hope) helped make a difference to people in need. Next year, I hope i’ll be doing other things. So when people ask me what I do, I always say i’m a “writer”, because it’s the most honest answer I can give in the shortest time. If you think about it, all the stuff I do requires some writing at some point (from emails, to reports, to articles, to scribbling my name on a contest form hoping to win a free trip to Honolulu etc.)

    But this usually invites more questions, such as: “What do you write about?”, “Who do you write for?”, and the inevitable, “Are you a blogger?”.

    [By the way, the standard answers to those questions are: 'Nonsense', 'Anyone who will pay me', and 'NO'.]

    bmf

    I think I spent quite a bit of time being bothered by not knowing what defined me, but i’m over it now.

    People work their whole lives so that they can have business cards that spell out their role in society. I have known people who got angry with bosses who didn’t provide them with name cards. Maybe it’s a social tool, as i’ve noticed how people give out name cards as if it’s going out of fashion.

    Back when I was doing my pupillage in a big corporate law firm, the other pupils would look forward to the end of pupillage because it meant having their own 8′ x 8′ office with their name in gold letters on the door, and name cards that told the world they were doing something important. As you progressed in the firm, you were upgraded to bigger rooms; and when you made partner, you got a room with windows or some sort of view, depending on seniority.

    I remember naively asking my boss at the time why people worked hard so that they could be enslaved in a box for the rest of their lives. Working 10 years to get your own parking space and a room with a view just didn’t make sense to me. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t last very long in the corporate world.

    Personally, I prefer to look into someone’s eyes, smile, and say “Hello, I’m June” before any exchange of name cards. It’s a warmer way, brings people closer, and makes them want to call you more. It also took a while for me to buy into the whole name-card-for-business idea, but I do have some now. They were designed by the gorgeous Lisa Zainuddin of Oxoloco <— click the link to check ‘em out!

    Oliver’s philosophy
    When faced with the question “What do you do for a living?” My good friend Oliver used to answer, “I skate, draw, and play for a living. And to make money I do other things.”

    Similarly, I laugh, play, and fall in love every day. People will snigger and demand a “serious answer” when I tell them that, but I really don’t feel like I have a JOB because I really enjoy what I do. It doesn’t feel like work when you love what you do and have the freedom to do it from anywhere. I also do different things all the time, so it’s never dull. And as a result of the flexibility, I have more time to spend with friends and family, building strong bonds that money can’t buy. So, took me a while to explain, but that’s what I do, and I love it :)

     

    I won’t tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world’s voice, or the voice of society. They matter a good deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely—or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose!
    ― Oscar Wilde


  4. Happy Birthday, June Low

    June 26, 2011 by June:Wow

    Have you ever experienced an absence of words amidst a flurry of thoughts? I have always found those moments baffling. How can we have so much on our minds but nothing to say, even when asked? What a shame it is that we aren’t able to share those thoughts, however embarrassing they may be. It’s like donating stuff you don’t want to a charity – you never know who might find it useful.

    But I think I may have found a solution: whenever I feel that way, I just write about something that happened recently, whether or not it’s relevant to my current state of mind. So for example, if i’m thinking about furniture, I might write about pangolins. This method has been extremely helpful at times when i’ve experienced writer’s block.

    If you think about it, there’s always something to write about, because we’re alive. Even doing nothing is an experience in itself.

    I sometimes think the part of my brain where the memory is stored is a bit like Photoshop or a layer cake because each memory can be divided into several layers or seen as a whole. So when I picture something, I remind myself to look beyond the surface and do the necessary prompting to get at each layer. The result is an enriched experience. Memory HD, if you like. And of course, something to write about. Whether it’s worth reading or not is another thing, but it gets you writing, and look, i’ve already done three paragraphs.

    dgs

    At a party last night, the birthday girl said “I can’t be 36. I haven’t done anything!”

    To which I replied, “But it’s been a good life!”

    She agreed, and began recalling the things she’d achieved, and the places she’d been to. By the time she was done, she discovered she had pretty much ticked off every childhood dream she had ever had: travel extensively, finish university, become a journalist, and marry the love of her life.

    As we were ooh-ing and aah-ing, her husband came over, made a face, and gave her a kiss. That warmed my heart a bit, and I sipped my beer in an attempt to hide the gay look on my face.

    I myself turned 26 last Tuesday.

    As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut (I had a really cool poster of Neil Armstrong in space on my wall), a clown, and a riddle salesman (selling riddles by the roadside for 50 sen to people interested in a challenge or a laugh). In my teens, I wanted to be a writer, an actress, and (after watching Legally Blonde) attend Harvard Law School and become a lawyer.

    In recent months, my ambitions have been: to travel the world, to write a book, to perform more, to learn something new every day, laugh all the time, sort my issues out, and figure out what I want to do with my life.

    I am a firm believer that we should revise our list of ambitions every so often so that we don’t become bored/boring. That is not to say you should be a drifter (because they already have enough members), I just think it’s a good idea to constantly have new things to do/look forward to. It may make you depressed when you realise you will never really achieve all of your dreams, but it will also keep you going when you’re depressed over other things.

    Try it yourself. I’m off to learn all about breastfeeding now (no kidding – as in, “not joking” and “no kid’).

    Heard this song on the radio as I was driving home on my birthday. Thought it was a good example of an oldie but a goodie: