Gripevine

ONE of the most potent dangers a dog is likely to face in its lifetime, besides physical abuse is poisoning. Whether a dog is owned or a stray, poisoning is always a clear and present danger. Stray dogs are more likely targets, as they are constantly scavenging for food and a tasty piece of meat is not easy to resist when you don't know where your next meal is coming from. That being said, many beloved pet dogs have also fallen victim to poisoning from neighbours who don't like the presence of dogs in their neighbourhood, people who might dislike the dog's owner or simply very cruel people who hate dogs. In fact the poisoning of dogs is way too common for comfort, as it is the easiest way for an unscrupulous person to get rid of an unwanted dog without being found out. Just walk or drive by in the dark of the night, throw the lethal piece of meat, and the deed is done. Throw a stone, and you're likely to hit a person who has had a dog poisoned, kno...

Recently two incidents of cruelty against man's best friend gained the attention of animal lovers in Malaysia. Both incidents shone a harsh spotlight on the reluctance of "the powers that be" to get tough with animal abusers. First incident On May 13, 2014, a man believed to be an army officer, shot two arrows at a dog spotted outside his house at Taman Sinaran, Taming Jaya. FMT PIX  The dog, and old and partially blind Rottweiler was subsequently named Brianna by canine welfare project Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better (MDDB) who took her in. Brianna was rescued by Allan Chong who lived in the same neighbourhood. At the time of her rescue, she had one arrow lodged in her front leg and another in her back. Though Brianna received the best care, she succumbed to tick fever at a veterinary clinic a few days after her rescue on May 16, 2014. Policemen assessing Brianna's condition at a veterinary clinic in Subang Jaya. STAR PIX The vet who treate...

When I first got on Facebook in 2007 after much cajoling from some close friends, I found that it was a really cool platform that enabled me to keep in touch with people from different eras' in my life - school, university, former colleagues and family. FB was like my one stop button to touch base with all my "friends" on a regular basis. Fast forward to the present, the way I use Facebook today has changed markedly from way back then. Now Facebook has had many facelifts in the last couple of years - not all of it has been welcome. But one feature definitely has my seal of approval - "Facebook Subscribe" . Yes I know that the originator of this idea was Google+  and Facebook introduced it in a bid to retain its users. Good move! Thanks to this feature, I get to subscribe to and see a side of famous personalities that I otherwise wouldn't be able to. Yes a lot of them have fan pages, but a fan page is rather impersonal in my opinion. "Subscrib...

Journalism today is not what it was like five years ago. The popularity of blogs, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, plus the surge in independent online news portals is changing the landscape of publishing as we know it. As more people get wired, they have at their fingertips, access to a wide array of online content free of charge. In light of this, how will the print industry (newspapers and magazines) keep their readership and sales levels up? Then there is the issue of the "Independent Journalist" , many journos with reputed news organisations are gaining a steady following through Facebook and Twitter - where their friends and subscribers get a dose of the news as it happens in a stream of quick updates. So by the time the story comes out in the paper the next day or makes it to the online edition, those in the social media world would have got the gist of it already. Mainstream publications have taken to tweeting and facebooking news updates t...

Barack Obama ain't the only one capable of ushering in the winds of change. Anyone can do it! Twenty two year old Molly Katchpole did just that when she made Bank of America remove a US$5 monthly debit card fee it was planning to charge its' customers. How did she do it? When Katchpole who works two part-time jobs in Washington D.C. heard about the yearly US$60 increase, she turned to Change.org - an online platform that enables people to initiate campaigns for social change. What she did: Wrote an open letter to Bank of America to withdraw the fee. The letter went viral. Closed her account with Bank of America. Cut up her debit card on camera. Moved her money to a community bank. After one month and 306,000 signatures later, Katchpole succeeded. Bank of America removed the charge on  November 1. Other top national banks have also scrapped plans for a similar fee. Katchpole's success is a sign of the times. Can you imagine any other era in whi...

The face of journalism as we know it is changing. News organisations and governments no longer get to decide what we know and what we don't. Who or what brought about this emancipation? Technology in the form of smart gadgets and social media with its unprecedented reach. In fact we now live in an era where the power of independent journalism is giving established news organisations a run for their money. For one who was a reporter with such a media group, I say this is good news! I don't know how it is done in other countries. But here in Malaysia, if we are dealing with - The private scandal of a politician from the ruling party, something that makes an opposition politician look good, racially tinged issues and epidemics to quote a few, there is usually a certain amount of filtering that is done before the news reaches the public. It has been a few years since I left journalism, so I don't know to what extent things have changed. It must have, at least a little...

The other day my mum who was reading news alerts on her mobile asked me, "Hei have you heard about this festival - ' Seksualiti Merdeka '......?" And I was like: "Seksualiti what....??" Then I promptly googled it and oh then I knew! My first reaction? I was mighty impressed that we actually have such a festival here and wondered how come I never knew about it before this. I'm sure a lot of you out there are hearing about Seksualiti Merdeka for the first time too. But imagine this guys, if the powers that be didn't go all frothy at the mouth and decide to ban it, would the majority of us even know about this annual sexuality rights festival that has been around since 2008? Now not only city folks know all about Seksualiti Merdeka, even those in Baling......where is that again? Are up in arms about this event which they fear will encourage more gayness in society......well people will always delude themselves silly if they want to. So what...

Pic courtesy of coolchaser.com  If I gained a Ringgit each time I hear the phrase "Hot Mama", I would be rich, so freaking rich. Thanks to the advent of social media, this has become the most over used and overrated phrase each time a woman with kids posts a pic of herself in which she looks um just OK. Yeah I get it, your friend has just posted a pic of herself sans kids at a party or at some holiday destination. So you wanna be nice, friendly, or just comment for the heck of it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not writing this to belittle those mums who posted the photos. Some of them look great, some of them look OK, some of them look like how they have always looked, even before they had kids. Nothing wrong with these gals, great that they have a life outside of motherhood. But what irritates me is the almost flagrant use of the term. If they are hot, why can't it be: "Hei you look hot!" Why add the "mama". She's hot coz she...

Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus should consider hiring Aaron Wood and Brian Winfield Moore for future advertising campaigns. These two savvy illustrators have taken branding and imagery to a new level with their brilliant retro inspired posters of these three social media giants. Aaron an illustrator drew inspiration for his posters from wartime propaganda. So yeah, if there was such a thing as social media during "The Blitz", the Allied Forces and Axis Powers might have reached out to people with powerful symbolism like these. Brian a media designer, derived the idea for his posters from the 2009 Iran election protest, activism, censorship and citizen journalism. Aaron's posters Brian's posters Aaron's posters can be purchased from Etsy while Brian's is available at: http://store.briiiiian.com/