Archive for August, 2005
Penang Seaside - Happy National Day Malaysia
And now we miss our Penang.
Investigative Journalism in India - A talk by Aniruddha Bahal
This is Aniruddha Bahal, he is famous for a sting operation that exposed corruption in Indian defence establishment. Aniruddha and fellow journalist Mathew Samuel from online news site Tehelka.com pretended to be sales representatives for a fictional defence gear company. Over a period of nine months they used a hidden camera to video tape defence ministry and military officials taking bribes to smoothen the deal.
Aniruddha Bahal offers insights into investigative journalism in India talking about his experience exposing corruption. Bahal also talks about issues like corruption in India, small media companies Vs mainstream press when it comes to investigative journalism, role of blogs, does public opinion help or encourage a journalist etc.
Bruce Sterling was in the audience too and you can hear him asking questions.
The audio was recorded at Singapore National Library on August 30, 2005.
The Future is already here
(from LtoR - Bruce Sterling, Robert Sawyer, the moderator and Norman Spinard)
Here is an Audio transcript (1 hour 15 mins.) of a panel titled “The Future is Already Here: Is There a Place for Science Fiction in the 21st Century?” held on Aug 29 at the Singapore National Library. This was one of the events in the Singapore Writers Festival. I recorded this for personal reference and the audio quality is so so.
The speakers
Bruce Sterling, Norman Spinrad and Robert J. Sawyer
.
Happy Rakhi Day
Yesterday was the festival of Rakhi in India. Rakhi is the name of a special wrist band specially made for this occasion, The sisters tie this Rakhi on their brother’s wrist and pray for long life and success for their brothers. A cousin or a friend can also tie the Rakhi on your wrist. Traditionally, Rakhis used to be hand made but these days most of them are factory made.
Once, I mentioned this festival to a friend from China. Since then, every year she makes a Rakhi and mails it to me.
Thanks Dan ( the Chinese name Dan rhymes with the word naan)
Nice, isn’t it? Now we must start sourcing Rakhis from China.
Technorati
Rakhi
999 Red Roses
Phu - A Vietnamese tour bus guide explains why we must all learn Chinese and sings an old Chinese love song.
I met Phu on a bus heading from Saigon down to the delta. He works as an English language tour guide. He is also studying Chinese and hopes to become a tour guide for Chinese groups. Vietnam and China fought a border war in 1979. There is still dispute over the ownership of some islands in the South China sea. At the same time, China is also a major trading partner of Vietnam and Chinese tourists visit Vietnam in large numbers. This trend is only going to grow and young people in Vietnam are getting ready with Chinese language skills.