Dine & Drink with Bali ambience in Singapore

This place is quaint and idyllic restro-bar is usually packed on weekends, the pack really only started to come in at around 9pm so better head there early if you want a quiet dinner. The place is really laid back hidden at one corner where the deeper you walk the more rural (kampung) it looked with thick foilage and super tall trees. The only problem is the existence of BP tower. When you look up at the sky with trees, leaves and stars, at the corner of your eyes you see this annoying looking sky scraper which reminds one of the concrete jungle. Amidst the abundant shrubbery and willowy trees, there are rustic, Balinesestyle wooden pavilions with bale rooftops, which you can clamber into with friends, and pretend you are on an exotic getaway together.






Ambience is really unique, the moment you stepped in the place,you almost forgotten you're still in a urban concrete jungle. Greenery is abundance with a lot of authentic bali decor (stone statue, some water fountains, stone pavement, a miniature 'waterfall' with some zen stonework. They even got this little wooden huts for larger groups to dine in.There is even an elevated hut on the 'cliff'. Take the cushion seat, you need to spend a minimum of $200.In the background there is some traditional balinese music. Traditional music does makes the place a very soothing and unique escape. There was even some traditional dance display while diners enjoy their food. Oh don't worry about the outdoor, there wasn't a single mosquito and the trees actually make the place quite cooling. They also have a indoor bar for friends to chill out (relax)or you can always go al fresco.

The place features 4 different kitchen, thai, bali, western and indonesia. The Garden Restaurant serves contemporary Balinese, North Indian, Thai and Western cuisine at is luscious garden. The Villa Bali, Balinese Chill Out Bar prepared a broad selection of Asian Tapas snacks to munch while you savour wines and boutique beers from Europe and Asia. The prices are quite standard bar price with friendy staffs. The Gin Palace indoors are exceptionally simple and spacious to cater to the clientele who prefer air-conditioned comfort. Bali Jimbaran, charming Balinese village restaurant serving BBQ seafood styled after the famous Jimbaran Beach in Bali, served with five sambal sauces. Frangipani Bali Warung provide Asian food at sensible prices.(Cheaper than the other serving areas)

There is also a traditional Chinese seafood restaurant set in the tranquility of a colonial mansion surrounded by Balinese pavilions and landscaping. Service, slow but then again, maybe that the whole idea, since you're in this laid back stress free retreat. One thing that you wouldn't expect was that mineral water is served free with dinner and they serve free flow of chips.

All in all, not a place for good food but is definitely one of the most unique places you have ever been. It is a good idea to bring your family there to soak up the atmosphere!! Great place to hang out since you're too busy to actually travel down to Bali. A popular place for expatriates.

Address: 9a Lock Road (Next to St Andrew's JC)
Contact Details
Reservations - 6733 0185 / 9750 2140
Sales - 6473 6395
Fax - 6473 5431
Email - info@littlebali.com
Bali Seafood Restaurant - 6473 5101
Take-Away Orders - 6479 8194
Website
Map:Click to enlarge




By bus hop into number 57,61,51,100...963. Alight at HP building. Opposite former SAJC (now is River Valley High) then you have to walk towards SAJC. You will see the "gillman Village" Little Bali is just in the midst of that place.

Man with 86 Wives

21 October 2008-Chief Magistrate Court in Minna, Niger State capital yesterday granted protective bail to Alhaji Mohammed Bello Masaba, restricting him to only 4 wives. Masaba is currently standing trial for allegedly insulting Islamic religious creeds contrary to the state penal code. The magistrate stated that Muslim Youths in Bida home of the octogenarian with 86 wives and over 100 children took to the streets recently not only to denounce his position but passed Fatwa death sentence on him. The trial Magistrate, Ahmed Bima, said granting the accused bail would not be in his best interest and that of the society. He, therefore, ruled that he was granting Bello-Masaba a protective bail, ordering him to stay in Minna during the duration of the trial, with the state government providing him with a suitable accommodation. The case has been adjourned till November 5 for further hearing.

External links: Adesina Ogunlana comment on fatwa




Nigerian Mohammed Bello Abubakar is a short, slightly built,84-year-old, former teacher and Muslim preacher, who lives in Niger State has 86 wives and at least 170 children. He says his wives have sought him out because of his reputation as a healer. Mr Bello Abubakar says there is no punishment stated in the Koran for having more than four wives. Mr Bello Abubakar and his wives do not work and he has no visible means of supporting such a large family.


Bello Masaba has refused to explain where he gets the money to feed and clothe such a large family. Every mealtime they cook three 12kg bags of rice which all adds up to $915 (￡457) every day. According to one of his wives, Mr Bello Abubakar sometimes asks his children to go and beg for 200 naira ($1.69, ￡0.87), which if they all did so would bring in about $290 (￡149).

Most of his wives live in a squalid, unfinished house in Bida; others live in his house in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.Most sleep three and more to a room in the dank and crowded home.


"It's all from God," he says. He claims the Prophet Muhammad speaks to him personally and gives detailed descriptions of his experiences. He now faces charges of insulting the religious creed for his inflammatory comments about Islam when he drew attention during his interviews to local journalists and television crews claiming he had special God-given powers and challenged accepted interpretation of the Islamic holy book, the Koran. In years past, he kept quiet and nobody bothered him. His 86 wives are mounting a protest to get their husband out of prison because, they say, they are happy with their unconventional arrangement. He will appear Oct6 in court for the charge.
VIA

Related Post : Why do men take second wives?

A Saucy Octogenarian Waitress

Fri Oct 17 NEW YORK –-A petite, white-haired and 88 years old Rose Donaghey is a bit of a legend in the East Bronx, so well-liked and well-known that she can attract business to a new restaurant — as she's doing these days at the Wicked Wolf( Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m). If you ask Rosie the waitress what's in the meat loaf, she's likely to tell you, "It's made of old socks." "Any time you joke with her, she jokes back,""She always tries to order for you. You ask for a burger well done and she says, `I'll have it cremated.'"
Other waitresses enter her orders into the computer. She brought a Budweiser instead of a Bud Light to one table, but turned it into a joke: "I'd blame the bartender," she whispered. Order clams and she'll say, in her delightful Northern Ireland brogue, "I'd rather be shot than eat clams."

Kathy Gallagher previously the restaurant's manager at Charlie's Inn, a German-Irish hangout hired Donaghey 14 years ago. Gallagher nows under the Wicked Wolf called and hired Donaghey Gallagher (again) two months ago. Rose McElroy, born in 1920 in County Tyrone, married James Donaghey in 1947. They came to America in 1949 from Northern Ireland.

Gallagher says Donaghey's success is built on "her personality and her charm — she's a little bit of a spitfire. ... She can take orders, come out and serve people, and then talk to them and keep them entertained. I know they're coming in to see her."

Gallagher beleives Donaghey extra income goes into the church basket as she takes in a Mass every day, in person or on TV. "I guess it's the blarney," Donaghey said Asked what it takes to be a great waitress. VIA

Couple Saws House In 2 In Radical Property Settlement

Oct. 10, 2008-A 35-year-old wife, Vat Navy in rural Cambodia is left with a half standing house after
a 18-year marriage which were terminated with a divorce settlement. The husband, 42-year-old Moeun Sarim brought his relatives and used saws to cut the house in half, carried all the debris to his parents' house nearby. The 20-by-24 1/2 foot house is made from wood with a tile roof and propped up on wooden pillars, a typical style for a Cambodian country home. According to Vat Navy the divorce was prompted by her husband's jealousy about her alleged relationship with a policeman in the village. She denied having an extramarital affair. VIA

World economy in a poor state, but could get a lot worse.

Authorities around the world have been scrambling to shore up public confidence in the global financial system by nationalising banks, guaranteeing deposits and putting together massive bank bailout packages. The global financial market is facing lack of capital in the banking systems and the lack of liquidity as the wholesale funding market is frozen.


04 Nov 2008 Chinese officials pledge more measures to boost domestic demand. Output from Chinese factories has sunk to a record low in the face of shrinking orders worldwide. In Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang Province, millions of dollars worth of goods are churned out every year for global giants like Walmart, and many more multinational brands. And manufacturers are feeling the heat. Beijing is adjusting its monetary policy along with other measures to minimise the impact of the worldwide slowdown. People's Bank of China (PBoC) imposed strict loan controls last year and the first half of 2008 to rein in credit growth and prevent the economy from overheating. But it has since eased its limits in order to help growth as China's economic expansion slowed to 9.9 percent in the first three quarters of the year from 11.9 percent in the whole of 2007. The central bank cut key interest rates on Wednesday to spur economic growth, the third such move in six weeks. The reduction, which came hours before similar moves by other central banks including the US Federal Reserve, was aimed at maintaining vitality in the economy.
Inflationary pressure remains large as the world oil price is still at a high level despite some corrections. China's growth slowed to nine per cent in the third quarter of this year, the lowest quarterly figure since the second quarter of 2003, partly due to a slowdown in exports. China's trade surplus for the first nine months of the year reached US$180.9 billion, down 2.6 per cent year-on-year, according to customs data. Source: CNA




Footage:23 Oct 2008 Asian markets suffer heavy losses Asian stocks tumbled Thursday as concerns about the worsening global economy played on investors, despite continued efforts by governments to ease the financial crisis. Markets ignored signs that the credit crunch may be easing and focused on the risk of a global recession, which could hit company profits, lead to rising layoffs and cut consumer spending. Worst hit was Seoul, which shed 7.48 per cent to a three-year low. Shanghai also gave up just over one per cent, while Singapore tumbled 4.14 per cent and Taipei eased back 2.72 per cent. The markets took their lead from Wall Street, where the Dow Jones slid 5.69 per cent on recession worries, falling oil prices and a poor outlook for corporates. European markets also fell heavily Wednesday as a blunt recession warning from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown cast a shadow over trading. "We must now take action on the global financial recession which is likely to cause recession in America, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and -- because no country can insulate itself from it -- Britain too," he told parliament. Source: ChannelNewsAsia



Footage:21 Oct 2008 Economists say China is not immune to global credit crisisChina's economic growth has slowed to nine per cent in the third quarter of 2008 - the slowest in five years. Growth in the first nine months of 2008 stood at 9.9 per cent, a decline from overall 11.9 per cent growth in 2007. In recent days, thousands of factory workers in the country's southern manufacturing hubs have been laid off. To sustain growth, Beijing has pledged to undertake measures such as encouraging banks to lend more, and supporting technological innovations in Chinese companies. It will also work on tax cuts, investments in infrastructure, and further curbs on the real estate market.
With inflation at a 15-month low, experts said the government should expand China's domestic demand. They also recommend that Beijing lower corporate taxes, and lift individual income taxes. Economists have pointed out that even with inflation and rising energy prices, China still has a strong growth potential due to its large labor pool, its vast domestic market, and its increasingly competitive companies.
Source: ChannelNewsAsia

Oct. 17, 2008- Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises "Be greedy when others are fearful," and time is right to jump back into stocks. Buffett has been moving his personal investments from safe Treasury securities into U.S. stocks and he expects his personal account to be 100 percent invested in U.S. equities if prices continue to look attractive according to an article he wrote in Friday’s New York Times. Buffett is ranked as the nation's richest individual with a net worth of $58 billion, and due to recent market turmoil he has surpassed his friend and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates according to a recent calculation by Forbes magazine. Buffett said buying stocks now is better than trying to time markets and guess when a turnaround will happen. Since stocks began to tumble in September, Buffett and his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., have made large bets on U.S. companies, exacting rich dividend payments in the process. Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College and the author of “Wall Street: A History.” was not immediately convinced that Buffett's strategy is right and said that his position is probably the opposite of what someone close to his age should be doing: keep more of their money in Treasuries. VIA
Related Post: Bill Gates lost as world's richest


17 October 2008- Friday sees a Wall Street rebound which helped to calm recent panic over the financial crisis but Asian markets are ever cautious over the spluttering global economy . A drop in oil prices and signs of an improvement in credit markets helped to soothe jitters in the region a day after a fierce selloff that left Tokyo reeling from its worst loss in two decades. But worries about the worsening health of the world economy continued to dampen the mood despite moves by world powers to pump billions of dollars into shaky markets and banks teetering on the brink of collapse. NAB Capital economist David De Garis noted with fears the global economy is headed for recession continue to reverberate around the world. VIA


Video Clip:16 Oct 2008 Global markets battered by recession fears The financial turmoil is hurting hedge funds across the world as profit opportunities shrink.Investors have also been withdrawing their money, weakening the size of the funds and their ability to be nimble in these times.But observers said Asian hedge funds have managed to come out ahead of their counterparts in the West. Despite their relative good standing, Asian hedge funds – like others in the world – are seeing concerned investors step up the focus and depth of their due diligence on funds. And as redemption pressures mount, hedge funds are switching to higher levels of cash holdings. It has increased from about 5 per cent a year ago to about 50 to 60 per cent currently. Despite the market turmoil, UBS – considered the third largest prime brokerage service in Asia, with a 17 per cent market share said it has yet to see any distressed Asian funds in its customer base. VIA


Video Clip:14 Oct 2008 Global stocks soar as world govts battle crisis
15 October 2008-Asian stocks were mostly lower Wednesday as a global market rally lost momentum amid growing fears of recession in some of the world's biggest economies. On Monday, the Dow had registered its biggest points rise in history and its biggest rally in percentage terms since 1933 as markets around the world rebound to government intervention to tackle the financial crisis. Investors took profits after stocks ended lower overnight on Wall Street, despite news that Washington will inject up to US$250 billion into ailing banks to try to end the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.A top US central banker said that the United States "appears to be in a recession". There are also growing fears Japan and Europe are heading for a spell of economic stagnation or recession. Markets across the globe have been extremely jittery since the middle of last month when Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy after the US government refused to bail it out.
While panic selling on global markets has subsided for now, there are still deep concerns about the outlook for the US and global economies. The US dollar traded mainly lower against other currencies on Tuesday as investors moved away from the safety of the greenback amid a stepped-up effort by world governments to rescue the banking sector.

The euro climbed to 1.3618 dollars at 2100 GMT from 1.3576 dollars in New York late on Monday. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar firmed slightly to 102.07 yen from 102.01 yen on Tuesday. The yen meanwhile had found support on the view that Japan would remain relatively untouched by the credit crunch and as investors unwound risky so-called carry trade. Carry trade is when investors borrow in a country with low interest rates such as Japan before investing in higher yielding countries with higher interest rates. It entails selling the currency from the first country and buying from the second. VIA VIA
13 Oct 2008-European summit agrees on financial crisis rescue plan
Until this week the politicians trying to tackle the credit crunch had done little to restore this essential ingredient. In America Congress dithered over the Bush administration’s $700 billion bail-out plan and Europe governments have casually played beggar-my-neighbor politics, with countries launching deposit-guarantee schemes that destabilize banks elsewhere.

( One distinct exception is Singapore where flight of capital does not occurred as Monetary Authority of Singapore implemented trade-weighted monetary policy instead of interest rates and had allowed for a modest and gradual appreciation of the Singapore dollar. The Australian dollar had plummeted below par against the Singapore dollar last week from $1.36 in November last year. Yesterday, the Australian currency traded at par with the local dollar. Singapore has not yet issued a guarantee as at 13 Oct 2008 for all bank deposits. Finance Minister Tharman said Singapore banks have enough capital and they are not dependent on the wholesale funding market, unlike banks in some other countries. With the threat of inflation easing, the MAS has now shifted to a policy of zero appreciation. This strengthened against currencies like the sterling and the Aussie dollars . There is a slight possibility of people moving their money overseas as savers will face uncertainty in exchange rates plus Singapore banks are still in good health. )

Video Clip:15 Oct 2008 Singapore's banking system not in trouble, assures finance minister

16 Oct 2008-The Singapore government said it would guarantee all Singdollar and foreign currency deposits of individual and non-bank customers in licensed banks, finance companies and merchant banks. The guarantee takes immediate effect and will remain in place until 31 December 2010. Following on 17 Oct 2008 Malaysia has also issued a guarantee for all bank deposits until December 2010, following the lead of several other nations in a measure to maintain the stability of its financial system.

European leaders from the 15 nations met in Paris to tackle the financial crisis together in buying into banks by taking preference shares and guaranteeing inter-bank lending to help increase liquidity. The United States was reportedly also heading towards taking direct stakes in threatened banks in the coming days. The European talks came after leaders from the Group of Seven (The Group of 7, whose finance ministers typically gather four times a year, is made up of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.) richest economies pledged to support key financial institutions, take measures to get credit flowing, assist banks in raising capital and reassure savers. World Bank president Robert Zoellick said the financial crisis, the worst since the 1929 market crash, underscored the need for coordinated action to "modernize multilateralism for a new global economy."

Coordination against the crisis is considered vital to prevent the actions of one country harming another and exacerbating the bank solvency and credit shortage problems. Already seen in the unprecedented co-ordinated interest-rate cut on October 8th by the world’s main central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and (officially a coincidence) the People’s Bank of China. America and Britain recapitalize their banks most profoundly with the Fed doubled the amount of money available to banks on a short-term basis to $900 billion and announced that it would buy unsecured commercial paper directly from corporate borrowers. More surprisingly, Gordon Brown’s government produced the first
systemic plan for dealing with the crisis, not just providing capital and short-term loans to banks but also offering to guarantee new debt for up to three years.

China could do a lot to help the rest of the world economy (and itself) by loosening fiscal policy and allowing its currency to appreciate more quickly. The Group of 7 had reaffirmed that exchange rates should reflect economic fundamentals, a statement that was against governments that manipulate the value of their currencies to bolster growth, like China and Japan. Central bankers around the globe have routinely criticized both countries for intervening in currency markets to keep their currencies artificially low, policies that also lower their export prices and thus boost their share of international trade.



The credit bubble & financial excesses with dodgy lending, including a tide of cheap money from emerging economies, outdated regulation, government distortions and poor supervision failures were as evident outside America as within it to the current poor world economy state. The failure of confidence is based on three related issues: the solvency of banks, their ability to fund themselves in illiquid markets and the health of the real economy. The bursting of the housing bubble has led to hefty credit losses: most Western financial institutions are short of capital and some are insolvent.Liquidity is a more urgent problem necessitate government
intervention which stakes are also much higher against the belief that markets and prices "work best when allowed to operate freely".

Now that commodity prices have plunged, the inflation risk has dramatically receded across the rich world. With asset prices plummeting and economies shrinking, deflation will soon be a bigger worry. Even in the best of circumstances, the consequences of the biggest asset and credit bubble in history will linger.

VIA


* The Economist Print edition Print edition October 11th 2008
Saving the system
At last a glimmer of hope, but more boldness is needed to
avert a global economic catastrophe.
Read More: UK lenders will continue to rely upon wholesale funding and securitization.

Laura Gilbert Zero Dollar

October 7, 2008-

The financial meltdown leaving many Americans and around the world wondering what a dollar is worth, one New York City artist has an answer - zero. The U.S. economy faces a massive economic downturn, with job losses on both Wall Street and Main Street, tightening credit availability and large increases in public debt. Central banks around the world cut interest rates in unison on Wednesday but the unprecedented move failed to help battered stocks, thaw credit markets or temper forecasts for a sharp global economic downturn. The relentless slide in home prices has left nearly one in six U.S. homeowners owing more on a mortgage than the home is worth, raising the possibility of a rise in defaults -- the very misfortune that touched off the credit crisis last year. The result of homeowners being "under water" is more pressure on an economy that is already in a downturn. No longer having equity in their homes makes people feel less rich and thus less inclined to shop at the mall. China's manufacturing growth has been spurred by increasing demand for inexpensive goods in the United States, Europe and Japan. The United States with an increasing unemployment rate, dampening consumer and business credit and declining growth, alone accounted for around a third of China's exports would not be able to sustain its demand for goods from China. The United States has been pumping $300 billion (which is half of China's $600 billion GDP) into China's economy in the past couple of years. Hence China's rapid pace of growth will be arrested as the U.S. economy is transformed. Underlying all of this is the fact that U.S. economic woes signal not just a short-term crisis of confidence, but a long-term structural change.

Painter and printmaker Laura Gilbert says the artwork reflected the destructive role of many financial institutions, inflation, and the decline of U.S. currency to the point of seeming worthlessness.





The Zero Dollar, 8.5 x 11 inches. With a print edition of 10,000,
the monetary value of the print is deflated to zero. The signed and numbered print of the "Zero Dollar," will
therefore be available free at El Taller Latino Americano
beginning at the October 24 reception and continuing until all
prints have been distributed.
October 24-November 22, 2008
Grady Alexis Gallery
El Taller Latino Americano
2710 Broadway (@104th St.)
New York, NY 10025
Reception: October 24, 6-9 p.m.

Curator: Jon Coffelt
Laura Gilbert Homepage

Read More (External Links):
As the U.S. economy falters, whither China?
Housing Pain Gauge: Nearly 1 in 6 Owners 'Under Water'
Central banks cut rates, but markets stay fearful

The robogirl Repliee R-1

07 Oct 2008-Based on a real five-year-old Japanese girl, this machine was built to look just like a human. A robot that looks and moves eerily like a human child is set to go into mass production. Developed by a Japanese university, the Repliee R-1 is the latest in a series of robot suits, or Hybrid Assistive Limb technology, each with more lifelike looks, feel and movement.It has 50 sensors and a series of motors to help it move and has been built to help pensioners and disabled people move better.
Japanese boffins from Tsukuba University developed the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) suit using flexible silicon skin. And robotics company Cyberdyne Inc are set to start making it on a mass scale on Friday.
The robogirl, known as Repliee R-1
Related Post: Asimo Humaniod Robot

Rescuers return wayward penguins home

Wed October 8, 2008- Brazil- Animal-welfare activists loaded 373 young Magellanic penguins onto a Brazilian C-130 Hercules air force cargo plane and flew them 1,550 miles to the country's southern coast, where a crowd of onlookers celebrated as the penguins marched back into the sea. They were rescued, rehabilitated and released last weekend after their search for food left them stranded, hundreds of miles from their usual feeding grounds. Healthy Magellanic penguins grow to about 27 inches tall and weigh about 9 pounds.

Animal-welfare activists loaded the birds onto a Brazilian air force cargo plane and flew them 1,550 miles to the country's southern coast, where a crowd of onlookers celebrated as the penguins marched back into the sea.
Magellanic penguins are warm-weather birds that breed in large colonies in southern Argentina and Chile. The young animals then migrate north between March and September, following their favorite fish, the anchovy. The birds are named after Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who first saw them in 1519.


On Friday, the penguins were loaded into special crates and put onto the plane for the journey to Pelotas, in southern Brazil. After their first-ever flight, the birds went on a truck ride to the Center for Recovery of Marine Animals, where they rested for 24 hours.The birds released at Cassino Beach the next day. Some penguins are still being cared for, both in the north and south of Brazil. The newly released birds have bands on their flippers so scientists can follow their progress and learn more about their migratory habits. Of more than 1,600 penguins that washed ashore in northern Brazil, about half are still alive.

Some experts have said that penguin migration is closely linked to their need for food, and that the unusual journey the penguins are making suggests something has gone wrong with their normal fish supply. Experts say it is not clear whether this is due to changes in water temperatures and ocean currents which apparently confused the juvenile birds, who strayed too far north to the warm beaches of Salvador, Brazil, 870 miles north of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Possibility is also pointed at man-made pollution.


Dr. Valeria Ruoppolo of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the group that oversaw the rescue are overjoyed to see these penguins waddle back to the ocean and have a second chance at life. VIA

Why do men take second wives?

In Islam, polygamy is allowed, with the specific limitation that men can only have up to four wives at any one time. The Qur'an also states that men who choose this route must deal with their wives as fairly as possible, doing everything that they can to spend equal amounts of time and money on each one of them. If the husband cannot deal with his wives fairly, one is enough. A man can only take a second wife if his first wife gives her consent and that a man can only take a second wife if he is capable of maintaining the same level of marital duties due to his first wife; the marital duties are 1) food, 2) clothing, and 3) sexual gratification. Although many Muslim countries still retain traditional Islamic law which permits polygamy, certain elements within some Muslim societies challenge its acceptability. For example, polygamy is prohibited by law in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tunisia and Turkey. In secular Arab states like Tunisia and non-Arab countries with Muslim population, Turkey for example, it is banned. However, polygamy is still practiced in Malaysia, a non-Arab Muslim country, but there are restrictions as to how it can be practiced. In traditionalist cultures where polygamy is still commonplace and legal, Muslim polygamists do not separate themselves from the society at large, since there would be no need as each spouse leads a separate life from the others.

A WRITER'S LIFE
By DINA ZAMAN (The writer is a Malay muslim Malaysian giving her understandings of polygamy from a woman point of view)
Polygamy has nothing to do with culture or religion. Men, and women too, cheat because they can.


WHEN a male friend told me he planned on taking a second wife, all I could do was try not to choke on dinner. Are you serious, I asked. He said yes, he had fallen in love with a single mother, but it was not his fate to marry her.

Thinking it was perhaps due her compassion, her earnest desire to bring up her sprogs in a Godly way and that life was indeed a struggle, I choked on my dessert when my friend told me the first thing he noticed about her was that she owned a great set of jugs.




Now, my friend takes his religious obligations very seriously. His first wife wears the hijab. So to hear him admit that it was his paramour’s cleavage that caught his heart was quite shocking.

It was due to women like me, whose so-called Western, secular and feminist ideas of polygamy that pushed it underground. I then asked him, whether his equally-pious wife agreed to him taking on another wife, and he said no. She gave him an earful.

But our friend was on a roll. Now that his journey into polygamy was thwarted, it was all our fault. We modern Malay women, be they religious or not, were forcing men like him to marry in Thailand or Iran, where they practised nikah Muta’ah.

He was emulating the steps of our good Prophet Mohamed, he argued.

“You have got your Islamic history upside down! Nabi married war widows, and his first wife was older than he. Aishah was the youngest. And I don’t think our Prophet married any woman because she had great breasts!”

“You don’t understand.”

“Okay then. Why don’t you sell your car and take a camel to work then?”

I’m realistic. I know men who adore their wives and love them to bits, but they can still love their mistresses and other wives. Am I condoning affairs and polygamy? No. But this happens. It has nothing to do with Islam or being Malay, though polygamy is part of the culture.

We’re Asians. We have a long history of concubinage. There are good men who are faithful, and there are good men who have other wives. There are also bad men who are faithful and also bad men who are unfaithful.

Just like our politics, love in Malaysia is a circus. Weeee!





I’m not going to bore you with what polygamy in Islam is about, as it has been written before and talked about to death. Women’s rights activists have long fought for this “crime” to be illegal, but we face a tough fight. Sometimes it’s not the men who are itching for it, but yes, our gender, too.

In the 80s, when I was young and clueless, meeting mistresses and second or third wives would be sinful and against my principles.

These days? “Oh, you’re a mistress?” “Oh, you’re a hidden wife?” Yawn. Wear tudung or mini skirt, got. Educated or stupid, got. Some of our mothers are The Other Women, and are good mothers. So how?

Is this phenomenon particular to our culture? Oh no. Read the British newspapers. Mistressing is talked about to death in feminist columns.

But I thought after that dinner with my friend, I’d revisit the issue again. Some of the findings from my five-sen survey:

> Theoretically ... polygamy is OK. But must ikut hukum Allah lah. There are conditions.

> Ya, but… actually, kan, for career women like us, it does work. Nak jaga laki 24 jam … gue tak larat la. Biar bini nombor satu jaga. After all, in Islam, polygamous wives are taken care of legally. Better a Muslim second wife than a common law wife.

> But really. Think about it. Convenient, what. You see him once a week, makan once a week, have sex once a week...

> Sex once a week?! Baik tak yah jadi bini nombor dua macam tu! Chit. Once a week mana cukup?!

Why do men cheat? Again, just an observation dwelled upon by friends and myself. For a lot of polygamous men, they marry good women who fit their criteria of holiness, wifeliness and motherhood.

Intimacy between the men and their wives are perfunctory. It’s make-the-baby-cover-the-face sex. With their girlfriends and second wives, it’s Penthouse all the way, baby. It’s the soul thing.

At least this is what I got from talking to quite a number of married men. It’s not because of the first wives’ lack of trying; they want to have healthy intimate lives, but the bees in their husbands’s bonnets keep reminding the men of the Madonna-Whore syndrome.

Malaysia is not a place for single women desiring Hollywood-movie type of marriages and love. KL especially is a city for marriages and affairs. And it has nothing to do with money. There are rich men who cheat, and I know of a despatch boy who has two wives!

There are many single-again women like my friends and I, who still believe in marriage and love. But I can tell you, should we walk down that path again one day, we’re going down it with our eyes open and keep a part of our hearts to ourselves. Because you never know.

Perhaps my friend, an activist who makes a living entering and staying in war zones, is right.

“We have women like you, me, your mother, your aunt and friend who fight so hard for women and children and yet face a brick wall, simply because we ‘understand’ so much, and forgive all the time, which is why cheating, affairs and polygamy are rampant, to the detriment or contribution (depends how you look at it) of our well-being,” says my friend.

Another friend, Sharizal Sharaani, put it succinctly: “Men (and, yes, women too) cheat because they can. Full stop.”

The writer still believes in love and marriage and wants to move to Corfu
Reproduced Via

Polygamy, or the principle of plural marriage, had its genesis in a revelation received by founder Joseph Smith and subsequently practiced by Brigham Young and a host of church leaders.

After five decades of practice, it was officially abolished by church manifesto in 1890 under the weight of pressure from the federal government and the desire of Mormons to secure statehood for what is now Utah.

But polygamy has never ceased being practiced among Mormon fundamentalists, and many believe it is growing and flourishing despite being illegal under both state law and church canons.- Brave Author Details Living in Polygamy, Tulsa World, USA, Jan. 16,2005

Benefits of polygamy

Philip Kilbride, an American anthropologist, in his book, Plural Marriage for our Time, proposes polygamy as a solution to some of the ills of the American society at large. He argues that plural marriage may serve as a potential alternative for divorce in many cases in order to obviate the damaging impact of divorce on many children. He maintains that many divorces are caused by the rampant extramarital affairs in the American society. According to Kilbride, ending an extramarital affair in a polygamous marriage, rather than in a divorce, is better for the children, "Children would be better served if family augmentation rather than only separation and dissolution were seen as options." Moreover, he suggests that other groups will also benefit from plural marriage such as: elderly women who face a chronic shortage of men.

Polygamy around the world
In South Africa, traditionalist Christians commonly practice polygamy. The leader of the ANC, Jacob Zuma is also openly in favor of plural marriages, being married to numerous wives himself. The wives live in small houses in a circle around the master compound. The Chinese culture of Confucianism and thus the practice of polygamy spread from China to the areas that are now Korea and Japan. Before the establishment of the modern democratic mode, Eastern countries permitted a similar practice of polygamy. In Mongolia, there has been discussion about legalizing polygamy to reduce the imbalance of the male and female population. Before the establishment of the Republic of China, it was lawful to have a wife and multiple concubines within Chinese marriage. After the Communist Revolution in 1949, polygamy was banned. This occurred via the Marriage Act of 1953. In Hong Kong, polygamy was banned in October 1971. Man-Lun Ng, M.D. of Humboldt University of Berlin reported the situation in Hong Kong: it was estimated that out of the approximately two million married couples in Hong Kong, about 300,000 husbands had mistresses in mainland China (1996). In 1995, 40% of extramarital affairs involved an enduring long-term relationship with a stable partner. The traditional attitude toward mistresses is reflected in the saying: "wife is not as good as concubine, concubine is not as good as prostitute, prostitute is not as good as secret affair, secret affair is not as good as the affair you want but can't get" (妻不如妾, 妾不如妓, 妓不如偷, 偷不如偷不到).

Both polygyny and polyandry were practiced in many sections of Hindu society in ancient times. Concerning [polyandry], in the ancient Hindu epic, Mahabharata, Draupadi marries the five Pandava brothers. Regarding polygny, Ramayan, father of Ram, king Dasharath has three wives, but Ram has pledged himself just one wife. The god-figure Lord Krishna, the 9th incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu had 16,108 wives which were his most sincere devotees. Under the Hindu Marriage Act, polygamy is considered illegal for Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs. However, Muslims in India are allowed to have multiple wives. Marriage laws in India are dependent upon the religion of the subject in question. The 2008 BBC documentary series "A Year in Tibet", however, recorded three distinct cases of polyandry in and around the city of Gyantse alone (the pregnant farmer's wife in episode 1, "The Visit"; Yangdron in episode 2, "Three Husbands and a Wedding"; and the young monk, Tsephun's, mother in episode 5, "A Tale of Three Monks"). In "Three Husbands and a Wedding", a 17-year-old girl is also shown being forced into a marriage that would have been polyandrous, except that the younger, 12-year-old, brother had to attend school on the wedding day (his parents hint that he will marry his older brother's new wife at a later date). The programs include statements from the women involved that indicate they did not enter the polyandrous marriages willingly, and commentary that indicates young women in Tibet are routinely forced by their families into polyandrous marriages with two or more brothers. Polyandry (especially fraternal polyandry) is also common among Buddhists in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Ladakh, and other parts of the Indian subcontinent.

In christianity Saint Augustine saw a conflict with Old Testament polygamy. He writes in The Good of Marriage (chapter 15) that, although it "was lawful among the ancient fathers: whether it be lawful now also, I would not hastily pronounce. For there is not now necessity of begetting children, as there then was, when, even when wives bear children, it was allowed, in order to a more numerous posterity, to marry other wives in addition, which now is certainly not lawful." He refrained from judging the patriarchs, but did not deduce from their practice the ongoing acceptability of polygamy.

Related Post: Man with 86 Wives

Briton bares all at Tokyo palace

Police approached the man in a small rowing and tried to throw him a float. But he beat the water in a threatening way and then threw stones at the officers, barely missing them, footage showed. Japanese usually show respect for Emperor Akihito, whose father Hirohito was revered as a demigod until 1945. Most of the centuries-old Imperial Palace is strictly off-limits to the public except on the Emperor's birthday and New Year's Day when the imperial family waves from the balcony to cheering crowds. But the peripheral area is popular among Tokyo residents for dating, jogging or enjoying lunch when the sun is out.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 A British tourist in Tokyo shocked Japan on Tuesday after he swam stark naked in the moat around the Imperial Palace, one of Japan's most sacrosanct sites.

The man, a British national living in Spain was overpowered and arrested after a nearly two-hour chase in which he hurled rocks at police and scaled the moat's walls as shocked onlookers snapped photos from their cellphones. VIA

Is now a good time to invest in wine?

Sunday October 5 2008
Sounds silly as the credit crunch continues to squeeze our spare cash but choose the right wines you might make a handy profit.Consistently over time, fine wine generally shows a return of around 12% per annum, although some bottles do much better than that. A case of 1982 Château Pétrus in 1983 would have cost £300 which currently fetch around £32,000. Which châteaux to follow? For a list of the top 100 properties, nearly 95% of them from Bordeaux, have a look at www.liv-ex.com, which tracks these things on a daily basis. Wine merchants and fine wine fund managers support the claim that wine investments are offering a more reliable return than FTSE-100 shares!!

Investing some money into wine? Follow 10 simple rules: 1. Buy the best Bordeaux (the First Growths, the Super Seconds and the top St Emilions and Pomerols) from the best vintages. 2. Always deal with a reputable wine merchant or broker (have a look at www.investdrinks.org for a list of companies to avoid). 3. Compare prices before you buy. 4. Consider the services of a regulated wine investment fund, such as the Vintage Wine Fund (www.vintagewinefund.com), Wine Asset Managers (www.wamllp.com) or Magnum Fine Wines (www.magnum.co.uk). 5. Buy your wine as early as possible, preferably en primeur. 6. Leave it in bond, so that you don't pay duty or VAT. 7. Use a professional storage company. 8. Be aware that you are taking a risk. 9. Buy the wines that the powerful American critic Robert Parker likes. 10. Remember that you can always drink your investment. Tim Atkin recommends four wines which won't make you rich, but guarantee you'll love drinking them.

The raisiny, mature, multi-dimensional Taste the Difference 12-Year-Old Pedro Ximénez (£7.19 per 50cl, 18%, Sainsbury's); the racy, refreshing, subtly oaked 2005 Montsant Old Vines Garnacha (£8.99, 14%, Marks & Spencer), which has to rate as one of Spain's greatest red-wine bargains; the waxy, toasty, grapefruity, Semillon-based 2006 Château Le Chec, Graves (£9.75, 12.5%, Adnams, 01502 727 222); and, last of all, the smooth, powerful, sun-drenched 2006 Benmarco Malbec, Dominio del Plata, Mendoza (£11.99, or £8.99 each for two, 14%, Majestic).

VIA

7-year-old Australian boy feeds animals to crocodile

Surveillance video shows a 7-year-old Australian boy throwing live animals into the Outback Zoo's crocodile pen at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia.

Friday, October 3rd 2008
A 7-year-old boy jumped the fence at an Australian zoo and served its resident 440-pound, 11-foot saltwater carnivore crocodile also known as Terry with a variety of live and dead creatures culled from the zoo population.

In the 30-minute rampage 13 animals worth around $5,500 had been killed, including a turtle, bearded dragons and thorny devil lizards. Although none were considered rare, some are difficult to replace. The zoo's beloved, 20-year-old goanna monitor lizard were beaten to death with a rock.

zoo director Rex Neindorf plans to sue the boy's parents added that the nasty 7-year-old comes from a family that's got a history of violence, and he's continued on with it and nothing can be done because he's seven. The child's diminutive size allowed him to slip past the zoo's security system, which uses sensors to detect intruders.
VIA

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