Anyone for Urine Therapy?

Teh ori satu!


India's fourth PM (1977-79), Morarji Desai, was quoted in this excerpt from Urine Therapy - Omaha's Heartland Healing Center:

"In the ayurvedic tradition of yoga, drinking one's urine is called amaroli. Because extensive Vedic texts exist from at least 2000 B.C., this practice provides us with much of the most thorough guidance available. Yogic techniques tell us exactly how to go about drinking or applying amaroli. One of the most famous users of urine therapy was Prime Minister of India from 1977 to 1979, Morarji Desai. On the occasion of his ninety-ninth birthday in 1995, Desai attributed his longevity to drinking his morning urine on a daily basis.

Admittedly, there is very little Western science evidence to support the historical claims. After all, how would a researcher fare in submitting a grant proposal for such funding? "We are asking for five million dollars to investigate the health properties of pee cocktails." Or even more difficult, how would one find a test group to drink their own urine? And what would you give the control group? Apple juice?"

Source:
http://www.heartlandhealing.com/pages/archive/urine_therapy/index.html
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Why we cannot take history by anyone at face value

This is just an analogy, not an intellectual dissertation by some academicians who came out from their ivory towers after Mat Sabu made a boo-boob or was deliberately misquoted by our mainstream media and BN leaders and their hangers-on (depending on which side you're on).

I found a CCR (Credence Clearwater Revival) compilation which has 'Joy to the world' (or 'Jeremiah was a bullfrog' to most people) and presumably CCR recorded the song made famous by Three Dog Night. Yet, a nephew said something that it was not by CCR, or like a blogger asked in a forum, 'Did CCR play or record that song?' I am sure it is easy to confirm the fact, whichever way was true, but over a period of time, memory fails and details get blurred and distorted.

It is quite interesting to read some information on such an uneventful act (to most people) as recording a song. Here are some which I picked from Songfacts.com:

"The band hated this song when they first heard it, and wondered WTF Jeremiah was a bullfrog had to do with anything, according to the autobiography of Jimmy Greenspoon, TDN's keyboardist. The band buried the song in the middle of the second side and only released it after its management urged them to do so, according to Greenspoon's book. I love TDN and can live with this (overplayed and overrated) song. What's too bad is this was a great band and when you ask people to name their favorite TDN song, they typically say, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog," like they know what they're talking about."

"Though I see the quote from Hyot Axton that the "Jeremiah" line was a throw away line, I had heard on an interview that a "Bullfrog" is a New Orleans term for a drunk."

"Hoyt Axton wrote this for an animated TV special called The Happy Song that never materialized. Axton pitched it to the group while he opened for them on a tour. Three Dog Night also had a Top-10 hit with "Never Been to Spain," which was also written by Axton."

The Naturally album was released in November, 1970, and the first single to chart from the album was "One Man Band," which peaked at #19 US in December. "Joy To The World" was a lowly album cut, until Larry Bergman brought it to life in Seattle. Larry tells us: "I was the DJ who first played 'Joy To The World' on the radio that caused it to start its journey to #1. I was working at radio station KISW-FM at the time. It was the sister station to the number one radio station in Seattle, KJR-AM. That was when AMs were more popular than FMs. My job was to select odd cuts from albums by popular artists, not necessarily their hits, and record them on tape for on-air use. I remember I needed to find one more song to fill a tape I was producing and came across Joy To The World. It was on the second side, last cut on their Naturally album. I put it on the tape and played it on the air. Within the hour the KJR DJ (Gary Shannon) came running over from the AM side and asked where I got that song. "People were calling," he said. I told him and he had me record it on to another tape for him. He took it and played it on KJR and within a few weeks it went to #1 in Seattle. It wasn't long after that the song reached #1 on Billboard. The station got a gold record for it and Three Dog Night came to Seattle to launch their next album."

"On a television special, Hoyt Axton said he had come up with this song while he was recording some other songs. He had already written the melody and the chorus but didn't have any other lyrics. The bass player encouraged him to record the song anyway, so Axton simply made up some nonsense as place holder lyrics. The place holder lyrics stuck and the rest is Rock history. (thanks, Nick - tampa, FL)"

The above sample of opinions on just a song show that each of us will have an opinion on any event and there is no clear cut 'yes or no' or 'black or white' answers which we hope for.

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PM Najib vs Robert Kuok: who won?

Or rather, who lost? Apparently, according to someone's opinion, the people of Malaysia lost much more than what a few cronies benefited. The article was written in Chinese and translated by someone. So read and be mindful of possible errors or omissions in the translation. Anyway, it is just one person's opinion of events and not necessary true of Robert Kuok's personal intentions and views...

SUGAR AND FROZEN DURIAN

A good read. (not sure who the author is...By 忠政快讯

Some friends have requested translation for the 忠政快讯's piece on Sugar King Robert Kuok's history. Thanks to Google translate with some corrections.

Knowledge is empowering. Reading is knowledge.

Recently, the government offended Robert Kuok, as a result, the Malaysian economy suffered a great blow! After the official Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Malaysia , the Najib government now really understands Robert Kuok's influence on China !

In order to benefit their cronies, they arm twisted to swallow Robert Kuok’s sugar empire. The cronies get richer by 10’s of billions, but it caused a national loss of more than 200 billion!

Malaysia sugar king was forced to leave Malaysia , but became the world’s sugar king! He bought the world's largest sugar mills in Australia, invested USD10 billion, it is the world's largest sugar cane sugar refining industry, living up to the name of the world’s sugar king.

On the other hand, the Malaysia government benefited cronies at the expense of national interests. For those who have insider info, Kuok offered immense help to the Malaysian government in the past few decades, he has done everything possible; but what the government did was like what you will get when you turn over a pig stomach: faeces. In other words, Najib Government is UNGRATEFUL!

In the "Confidential" news, is about the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Malaysia recently, it hit a snag with Najib.

Prior to Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Malaysia , Najib and his cabinet on more than one occasion, hinted that he hoped China will double the amount of palm oil with Malaysia .
We all know that China is the largest consumer of palm oil from Malaysia . Rapid economic rise in the recent years, China became the largest palm oil market for Malaysia , but Malaysia has also strong competition from Indonesia , trying to sell palm oil at lower prices to China and India , diluting the Malaysian market share. This is most worrying for Najib.

Najib hoped to sign a new palm oil trading contracts with Premier Wen Jiabao to sign in order to more than double the average 10 million tonnes monthly export to China . But Wen Jiabao came to a Malaysia, told Najib, it is impossible. It was an utter disappointment.

Najib knows the Chinese market demand. Even to import one million tonnes of palm oil daily, is not a problem. So, where is the problem?

The problem is Sugar Kuok does not agree!

Why was Sugar Kuok able to influence China 's decision to buy Malaysian palm oil?

Who is the monopoly of Chinese national oil market? China national oil market leader is "Arowana" cooking oil, accounting for nearly 40%! The Arowana cooking oil boss, is Robert Kuok!

Think about it, Premier Wen Jiabao on behalf of the Chinese government to buy Malaysian palm oil. Who is going to refine it into cooking oil? Of course, it is the privatized enterprises! With 40% market share, if Arowana cooking oil company refuses the supply, how is the Chinese government going to utilize the supply?

Najib was insensible from the start, and did not know Kuok had such big influence in China . He had helped cronies, forced Robert Kuok to give up the Malaysian sugar king throne, and didn’t expect to have such quick retribution

Kuok was forced to leave Malaysia , his heart is of course very unhappy. People of Malaysia must know, during the early days of Malaysia , we did not have aviation professionals, the BN government requested Kuok's father to help set up Malayan Airways.

1970 Malaysian maritime shipping industry is also a vacuum, the Malaysian government sent representatives to Hong Kong to personally invite Kuok’s help. For national development, Kuok put aside the Group's business, came back to Malaysia to assist the Government to establish a national maritime shipping industry, this later transformed into MALAYSIA INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING CORPORATION, referred to as MISC.

Robert Kuok was a big help when Malaysia repeatedly faced economic difficulties. Even in MCA Tan Koon Swan’s case, it was Robert Kuok who paid the bail! Malaysia ’s successive governments, from BN to the National Front, owed Robert Kuok a hell of a lot. But the Malaysian Government was ungrateful, using the hard arm twisting excuse to forcefully take over Kuok’s empire. This is not ungrateful?

Deng Xiaoping made a comeback in the 70s, announced China's reform and needed most generous help of overseas Chinese entrepreneurs; Robert was first to take actions to help Deng. Among the other entrepreneurs of Chinese economic miracle are Henry Fok and Li Ka-shing Hong Kong. Malaysian entrepreneur Robert Kuok is the first to response to Deng Xiaoping in Beijing and built China 's first five-star hotels: Shangri-La!

With over 30 years of deep relationship with the Chinese government and leadership, Kuok has great influence. Najib failed to recognise that. This is why the quote at the start of this post : “For the interests of their cronies, they arm twisted to take over Kuok’s Sugar Empire, cronies get rich by the 10s of billions, but it caused a national loss of more than 200 billion!”

Kuok's sugar empire was eaten by the fat vampire's family abruptly. Imagine, a world renowned international trade business personality, what humiliation he received in return for his single-minded help all this while for his own country and government? And Najib would never think that the consequences of offending the Sugar King will be so so serious.

Right after Sugar King left Malaysia , he immediately announced the acquisition of Australia 's biggest sugar factory. This is the world supplier of raw material for sugar manufacturing. Of course, this includes supplying to the family of the fat vampire woman’s sugar factory in Perlis.

Early this year, Kuok announced plans to invest USD 10 billion in Indonesia for development of the world's largest sugar cane growing areas, as well as advanced refinery. The world economy was facing a downturn, the Malaysian government travelled around the world to solicit investment. How much was Malaysia ’s foreign investment? Kuok’s single investment in Indonesia is equivalent to as USD10 billion dollars!

At the moment, Kuok’s take towards China ’s palm oil contract with Malaysia was to remain with the agreed terms. There won’t be any increase. Indonesia has more palm oil than Malaysia . It is cheaper too. Now that Kuok had invested so much money in Indonesia , the Government of Indonesia would have treated him as their God of Wealth. Certainly, open to negotiate anything with him. Moreover, Indonesia has been eyeing to take over the China palm oil supply contract from Malaysia .

The CONSOLATION China gave in return for not increasing the purchase of palm oil was buying frozen durian. Do the Chinese people have the habit of eating durian it? How much time and effort is needed to market frozen durian from Malaysia ? Thai durian may not sell well in China, let alone Malaysia frozen durian?

Business is business, who would supply millions of dollars’ worth of frozen durian into a brand new market with no durian eating habits? Should the Chinese people become non-receptive of it, how do we deal with return goods? A total loss with capital. Is this how to do business?

Earlier this year, when the news hit the papers that Kuok made an announcement to invest USD 10 billion in Indonesia, many criticized Kuok for being unpatriotic, preferring to take so much money into Indonesia instead of Malaysian. What CRAP! You arm-twisted him to take over his empire, forcing the man to leave Malaysia in hurt and humiliation; now that the man ignores the Malaysian market, and you criticize him?

For him to bring his huge investment to Australia and Indonesia instead of Malaysia, who is to be blamed?

Incidentally, Kuok is not just Chinas’ hotelier, king of cooking oil, the world’s sugar King; he is also the patent owner of the Coca-cola soft drink brand in the Chinese market. Kuok is involved in a diversity of businesses in China . He created many job opportunities for China . The Chinese central government and leaders have great respect for him as an entrepreneur. When the man speaks, the weight it carries can be far-reaching.

So far, Kuok is the only man who never accepted any of the titles rolled out for outstanding Malaysians.

Many people address him as “Tan Sri Robert Kuok,” in actual fact, he does not have these titles, he doesn’t need them.

To put the record straight, he is neither “Tan Sri” nor “Dato”. (…is that true?)

Unrelated, a glimpse of the legend himself being interviewed by CNTV (in Mandarin):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAU8VeJQObs&feature=autoplay&list=PLDF1321A11C159A0C&lf=autoplay&playnext=3
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Is it better to get off at the old rail station instead of KL Sentral?

Last Friday was my first trip to KL on the ETS which took only 2 hours instead of 3 from Batu Gajah. Being a senior citizen, I paid only Rm26 instead of the normal fare of Rm34, almost 25% discount.

Just before reaching the last stop, an announcement 'next stop KL old station' made me decide to get off before reaching destination KL Sentral. I thought it was walkable to Masjid Jamek where I was to take the LRT to Sentul. I had to ask a staff before I knew I had to walk northwards to cross the pedestrian bridge to get to Central Market and then to Masjid Jamek. It was not pedestrian friendly and the signs not useful for any first-timer. Initially there was a sign to Jalan Sambanthan and who was to know that it would lead to CM? Being ex-KLite, I knew where I should be heading to get to Masjid Jamek station. But my first try getting into the station was a mistake as it led me to the Kelana Jaya Line instead of Star line to get to my intended destination, Sentul. I would say it was worth my while to try out for myself getting off at the old station and walk instead of taking the LRT from KL Sentral to Masjid Jamek, since I had time to kill before DoReMi's 30th Anniversary dinner and concert. I don't think anyone in a hurry and unfamiliar with the route should do it.

After getting off at Sentul, I looked towards the direction where my former school clock tower was visible. In the foreground next to the station is Wesley Methodist School, formerly known as Methodist High School. I had to walk round some old railway quarters before I could reach HGH Convention Centre which is in front of my old school, MBS Sentul. DoReMi's boss, Lim Cheng Wah is also an ex-student. My first purchase from DoReMi was a set of bongo drums, sold by my then niece-in-law who happened to be working for them at their first shop in Pertama Complex. They have grown since and celebrated their 30th anniversary with great fanfare. We normally deal with Lim's sister-in-law, Alice who always give us 15% discount! Because I did not expect much, I was pleasantly surprised when we were entertained by their own band known as Doremians comprising staff members. They have a group of percussionists known as By Heart Clan. But the highlight was the demo by Roland's V-drum specialist, Tony David on their TD-9KX2 and SPD-30. It was amazing how versatile the electronic drums could be compared with the conventional ones. Then there was a young Michael Jackson impersonator who is good enough to make a living with his skills. The band Rade was impressive and I particularly liked the drummer who had the advantage of playing a well amplified Sonor drums kit by DoReMi technicians. It seems the staff in charge of setting up the mass of music and sound equipment were at the hall since 10 am! Incidentally, the first prize for the lucky draws (for those who purchased Rm1,000 and above recently which we did not qualify) was a Sonor set worth Rm26,000! The second prize was a Carvin Legacy amplifier and the third was a Washburn electric guitar. There were many absentees when winners' names were called and the eventual winners for the top three prizes were really lucky because some did not turn up!

More about DoReMi:
http://www.doremi.com.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=106&Itemid=129
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Related parties make a mockery of Corporate Governance in Malaysia

S Dali recommends this blogsite on Corporate Governance in Malaysia:

http://www.cgmalaysia.blogspot.com/

If we had been following events happening in Malaysia, no matter what, our rules are already in place, but the main problem seems to be enforcement. Whether it is about elections, public security, road safety or corporate governance. Often, the people in charge failed in the process of upholding the law. The question is: who can check on the enforcers? Those knowledgeable can criticize, rant and rave, but if the political leaders are perceived to be in it by their inaction, life goes on. 'You scratch my back and I scratch yours' and 'you help me, I help you' seem to be the rule rather than the exception.

The current debate is on Sime Darby's purchase of 30% of E&O which seems like an ordinary corporate exercise. But when it involves public funded SD and the Chairman of E&O happens to be the husband of the head of Securities Commission (the enforcer of corporate governance), and he bought shares ahead of the proposed purchase, then it stinks a bit.

Dali's latest take on it:
http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-on-sime-darby.html

S Dali and the blog also touched on MUI group. I am terribly disappointed with Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng on this. I can still remember having traded in PM Corp shares at around Rm8.00 and when the company sold its cement plant it had a big cash balance. Who would have thought that a big chunk would be lent to a related company which could not repay later? We cannot complain about the turn of events which nobody could foresee, but as Dali mentioned, to be repaid not even in shares but ICULS (at lower than expected rate) which are irredeemable meant basically 'no choice' to the minority shareholders of PM Corp. To add insult to injury, the independent advisers seem to go along with the proposal! As some Chinese used to joke, 'ku piu' or 'shares' in Cantonese is like what it sounds like, as in 'ku' to mean 'guessing' as to whether a particular counter is going up or down! No need to know about fundamentals, just treat the stock market like a casino and you are quite right about it!

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