My Longkang

While the whole world’s focus is on the Korean hostages in Afghanistan, the Afghans themselves find themselves in a quandary. They are helpless against the action of the Taliban.
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I came upon this link in the BBC. It shocked me to the core mainly because I am so out of tune with the people who perpetrated the crime of killing a woman in what has been loosely termed ‘honor killing.

Her crime: she had a boyfriend.

She had gone to the police to seek help but the police did not take her seriously.

I just want to share this link with you.
Click BBC

Selama Itam could only watch in horror and in total helplessness when scores of looters looted a longboat under cover of darkness. Her dead husband was still trapped inside and the callous people who came in longboats, cars and four wheel drives trampled all over the long boat and presumably her dead husband.
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Operations to capture and after that quarantine the crocodile that killed a 24 year-old man on Wednesday evening are ubderway. The team will be armed with 10 fishing rods and eight spears, The license to hunt down the reptile was issued on Friday. Fresh chicken will be used as bait.

The crocodiles are ferocious animals. I remember last time I watched a neighbour trap its cousin, the local biawak or called by the Chinese si ka chua or alligator. It was only six feet long. He tied hooks similar to that used by butchers to hang meat from at the market and attached them to thick green ropes. For bait we used pig skin as it was tough and wouldnt break off so easily. The reptile had cost my neighbour dearly in terms of chickens and ducks.

Anyway, after catching it, somehow or other he managed to quarantine it inside a chicken coop. Its tail was so powerful that within minutes it had damaged the thick netting around the coop, brought down the clumsy wooden structure and would have escaped if not for the hook still stuck in its mouth.

After that, my friend slung it over a tree trunk and killed it after it had exhausted itself. He then made a slit in the skin right in the centre from the neck to the tail and then removed the skin. Slowly he disentangled the skin from the rest of the body with a fine knife. Then in a second, he pulled it down just like pulling down a man’s trousers. He sold the skin.

He wanted to sell the meat for RM4.00 a kg but there were few buyers as it was an old reptile and its meat was tough so he made curry for his family and friends.

In the meantime the crocodile that ate a nine-year old child, Liu in Beijing has been shot. Liu and three other boys had climbed over the fence and tormented the reptiles. They pelted the animals with sticks and rocks. One crocodile caught hold of a boy’s clothes and dragged him into the water. Altogether eleven crocodiles fed on him. The incident took place at the Yintan resort in Beihai.

I shudder to think how the adults responsible for the resort through their negligence could have allowed this horrifying incident to happen. The manager and the keeper were being held by police.

The search has been called off.The badly mutilated body of the crocodile victim has been found. He was found at 9.25p.m. on Thursday night not far from where the tragedy happened.The body was a gruesome sight and covered with bite marks from the chest to the head.

Now, the family of the deceased and anxious villagers wait for the Sarawak Forestry Corporation to decide on the next course of action based on stipulated procedures and regulations. Wilfred S Landong, general manager of Sarawak Forestry’s Protected areas and Biodiversity Conservation told the press that his men had been sent to the ground to scour for the crocodile.

In the meantime, the Sarawak Wildlife Controller has issued a license to hunt down the crocodile that killed Jamhari.

Crocodile drags man into river
croc’s penchant for bachelors
tug of war with croc over victim’s body

I don’t quite understand why I include this in my blog. I am horrified by the ramblings of this man who is obviously ‘not right’ mentally and the horrible events that he has caused to happen at the campus. See the video and make your own conclusions.

It didn’t just happen. It was planned. He doesn’t fit the profile of any killer stereotype that I know of. Let us pray that events like this will never happen again or if an individual like this should pop-up, we identify them before further tragedies like this occur. I now worry for copy-cat attention seekers.

Transcript of gunman’s message

Pic courtesy of www.gps.caltech.edu.com

In the rural areas where there is no running water, it is common for the people to bathe in the river. I still remember many a time when I go travelling upriver, I would go to the river, clad in a towel carrying a pail, soap and toothbrush. Many Sarawakians in the rural areas will remember this scenario. The river is everything. Transportation, source of irrigation, source of water, place of recreation. Some stretches of the river banks are even used as a beach.
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Pic thanks to theborneopost.com

A drunk man bit off more than he could chew literally. He wanted to drink a snake’s blood and cut a snake into several pieces. He then bit the head in an attempt to drink its blood. He fell into a coma and has not recovered. He was rushed to Limbang Hospital and then to Miri Hospital. His condition is deteriorating. His mouth is swollen and the area around his lips turned septic.

The snake is suspected to be a deadly viper.

What happens when we have some one in the family who is suffering from mental illness? For most of us, we haven’t experienced it so will not be able to understand what happened to Rinit.

The skeleton of a woman believed to be Rinit from Rumah Gawan in Pekan Siong was found near a forest in Rantau Panjang. Locals speculate that she was mentally unsound and probably died of starvation. She returned to her longhouse in February but was rejected by the residents because she was smelly and dirty. As a result, she took shelter in an abandoned hut near the forest.

In small communities, every one works as a team and has to conform to a certain code of conduct. Anything out of the norm in unacceptable. Add to that the spectre of ignorance over mental health issues, the future was bleak indeed for Rinit

The Borneo Post

It was totally unexpected. Ling Siew Kiong,20 was riding pillion on his brother’s motorcycle when lightning struck. He died on the spot. His brother is seriously injured and is now in Sibu hospital for further treatment.

Initially Sarikei residents thought it was a traffic accident. This occurrence has stunned and shocked the residents of Sarikei and everyone is now rooting for the other brother to recover soon.
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