St Valentine's Day Massacre, Malaysia-style

Generally speaking, living in Malaysia is very easy.  Everyone speaks English, I feel safe, I have a nice home and a good job - everything feels pretty normal.  Then occasionally you hear about things that remind me just how very far from home I actually am. 

On the morning of the 15th I heard about this:

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has arrested nearly 100 Muslims in a religious crackdown on Valentine’s Day, officials said Tuesday, after Islamic authorities warned the celebration encourages “vice activities”.

Raids across the capital and central Selangor state, saw 96 individuals detained for “khalwat”, or “close proximity”, an Islamic law barring Muslims from being alone with someone of the opposite sex other than their spouse.

The mass arrests came after religious authorities in the Muslim-majority nation warned against “immoral acts” during Valentine’s Day, saying they wanted to promote a sin-free lifestyle.

In Kuala Lumpur, religious enforcement officers raided budget hotels and public parks ahead of Valentine’s Day detaining 16 Muslims, mainly teenagers, a spokesman from the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department told AFP.

“The operation was part our regular raids to stop ’khalwat’,” said Asmawi Umar, adding the teenagers had paid around 50 ringgit ($15) for a hotel room for two hours.

In Selangor, 80 Muslims were rounded up during raids between midnight and 6am on Valentine’s Day, according to media reports, quoting state religious authorities.

They face up to two years in jail and a fine if convicted in an Islamic sharia court.

Under Malaysia’s dual-track legal system sharia courts can try Muslims for religious and moral offences. More than 60 percent of the nation’s 28 million population are Muslim Malays.

Religious authorities last week launched a campaign called “Mind the Valentine’s Day trap” to condemn the celebration and said they would reject anything that contravenes Islamic teachings.

“In reality, as well as historically, the celebration of Valentine’s Day is synonymous with vice activities,” said Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz, head of Malaysia Islamic Development Department, which oversees the country’s Islamic policies. - AFP

Read more: Muslims arrested in Valentine's crackdown http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/MuslimsarrestedinValentine_scrackdown/Article/#ixzz1EU7ilBEQ

Needless to say, this was a much-discussed topic of conversation amongst the expats at work the following day. Things like this don't seem to happen in KL too often and the religious authorities frequently seem to be a bit less zealous here than in other parts of the country. That being said, the call to prayer from our local mosque is loud, very loud and sometimes the mullah likes to just get on the mic and pontificate a bit so you can hear this rambling in Arabic being projected across Bangsar.  Apparently, some local authority figure complained and then the mosque burned an effigy of this guy.  I think he dropped the complaint.

BYOB

Apologies for the gap between updates, but really I've had very little of interest to report.  I've been pulling 10 hour work days sitting in front of a computer, so as a result nothing interesting has been happening to me and I don't really want to look at a computer screen when I get home.

Anyway, as I type Ian is currently tinkering with our plumbing.  I went to wash the dishes yesterday and this is what came out of our tap:

It's been 48 hours and this is still going on.  I suspect this is a result of the heavy, heavy rain we received over the weekend.  It poured. Now one of the very few things Malaysia regularly gets right is sewage and drainage - mostly due to the constant threat of malaria and dengue fever - so when several roads wash out and your plumbing is screwed it probably rained pretty hard.

All I can say is thank goodness it's cheap to eat out and don't be expect to be invited round ours for drinks anytime too soon.

In other news travel plans for a trip to India in June are in full swing.  A very dear friend is getting married, so we're off to Madras for a 5-day South-Indian wedding and then I've got nearly two weeks travelling around with my French-Canadian sidekick who previously survived two weeks in Morocco with me.

Otherwise we are off to Borneo at the end of next week and our anti-malarial regimen beings on Friday.  Orangutans, snorkeling and drinks with tiny umbrellas in them, here I come.

Garden variety weekend

I've been following the weather reports in Chicago and can't quite decide if I'm jealous or overjoyed to not be there. On this end it has been hot - and I mean hot.  Yesterday, I made the mistake of walking out to the pool without sandals and nearly scorched the bottom of my feet.  I decided to go back and retrieve my sandals but stuck my feet in the pool quickly so I could make it safely back - I swear the pavement sizzled and my feet were instantly dry the moment they re-hit the pavement.

Taking advantage of the great weather and our four-day weekend, yesterday we went to explore KL's Lake Gardens.  The Lake Gardens are KL's answer to Central or Grant Park and contain (apparently the world's largest) aviary, there is a butterfly garden, orchid and hibiscus gardens as well as plenty of open spaces, jungle and plenty of mangy macaques to rummage through the bins.

We gave the aviary a miss as we were fairly certain it's something we'll end up doing with visitors at some point anyway.  The real highlights were the flower gardens, particularly the orchids.

They sell loads of the orchids that they plant there, so we thought we'd try our hand at keeping one alive and picked up a lovely purple and white one (like in the photo) for $2.00. 

It's another glorious day outside today, so we'll be off on further adventures.  The city is eerily quiet with the Chinese New Year celebrations on and all the Chinese shops and restaurants closed. It's nice during holidays here as each major holiday usually only pertains to a certain segment of the population; so although things certainly get quieter nothing ever completely shuts down and it tends to provide a great opportunity to beat the crowds.

Play it again, Sam

Imagine your least favourite childhood song - or better yet, your least favourite Christmas song - in Chinese, with children who have been given a hefty dose of speed singing it.  That is what is playing in every shop in Malaysia right now, and it repeats itself about every 45 seconds (literally, this is not an exaggeration).

I'm absolutely certain that if this were Europe, the EU would rule that to play this on repeat would be in violation of labour laws and probably even health and safety. If this were America, labor unions would be striking. It makes me homicidal.

I'm fairly certain this is a Chinese New Year thing, so hopefully it will be over soon.  I might even start sleeping again.