#west malaysia

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

heteropoda davidbowie? one of my fav spiders :3c

[thozhar]

In the estate, Thangamaal, despite not knowing how to read or write, raised her son, Neelavanan, with stories from the Mahabaratham, Ramayanam, as well as Tamil Bhakti songs. In spite of her devotion towards Hinduism, she was a woman who liked eating beef, a meat often seen as ‘impure’ by caste-Hindus.

“Once, my mother bought beef from the town, and when the neighbours asked her what she was cooking, she said mutton. When I asked my akka (sister) why amma (mother) said that, she told me that people [Hindus] who pray can’t eat beef,” recalled Neelavanan.

As Neelavanan grew up, he understood that Hindu religiosity surrounding beef was a weapon against Dalits who consume it. “People around me eat mutton, chicken, water monitors, pork��they eat everything,” he said. “But when it comes to beef, they say that it is god. They brand [Hindus] who eat beef as coming from a certain caste. We are buying [beef] with our own money; we did not steal or beg for it. Yes, I eat beef, so what?”

Ove time, however, the culture of eating beef has deliberately declined among Dalits in Malaysia as a way to escape casteism and adapt to caste-Hindu practices. This shift can be seen in Neelavanan’s own family, where his siblings and relatives refuse to eat beef and even scrutinise him for his beef-eating habits.

[troythecatfish]

[adropofhumanity]

[satiricaily]

The West, the US and its lapdog ally the United Kingdom, lie and misled their people into supporting their wars. The lie about the weapons of mass destruction is testimony to the extent of their deception and propaganda to justify their aggression and the result were the murders of millions of innocent Iraqis. Without remorse of shame, new leaders who had taken over the rule of these belligerent nations now support Israel's genocide of Palestinians and inevitably, Israel's efforts to take over whatever is left of the Palestinian land. (...) I have been asked, surely the leaders of US and UK, leading nations of democracy and human rights, could not be that evil in their considerations. I cannot fathom their inner thoughts but I can assess what they do and I do believe that they are only concerned with democracy and human rights if and when it serves their interest.

Speech by He Tun Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad for Global Solidarity and Rally for Free Palestine on November 4th, 2023

(full video here)

[chimaeraonwards]

Batang Kali Massacre in Colonial Malaya

Today Al Jazeera published an article about the Batang Kali massacre in colonial Malaya (now known as Malaysia) where 24 innocent people were killed by British forces.

I won't go into the details of the atrocities committed by the British in Batang Kali here (i suggest you go read the actual article on Al Jazeera). But I do want to share the following excerpt:

The British forces falsely accused these innocent people of being communists to justify murdering them. To this day, the families of the deceased have not received any justice.

The article goes on to describe how halfway around the world in Ireland, the same injustices occurred:

It talks about the similar incident, the Ballymurphy massacre in Belfast, and how in 2021 they were able to get legal justice.

In my opinion, I think these incidents is an eerie parallel to what the Israeli forces is currently doing to the people of Palestine - killing them and then justifying it by saying they were Hamas or hiding Hamas. Or committing crimes and then labeling the victims as Hamas to justify it.

None of this happens in a vacuum. It is all interconnected.

I don't think people understand the long lasting multi-generational impact this kind of horrific acts have on victims and their families. This is an excerpt from the Batang Kali article that describes that:

Colonization impacts people for generations. On a personal level, my grandparents and others in their generation were all impacted by the British colonization and Japanese occupation of Malaya.

Our grandparents were once young people living in occupation. They were young girls hiding from the military to avoid becoming comfort women. They were young boys who were made to do forced labour by the occupiers. Young people who fought and rallied for our freedoms today. They survived for our freedom.

History is already repeating itself in Palestine. Justice for Palestinians does not stop at a ceasefire - just as it did not stop at the end of World War II or after Malaysian and Irish independence. But we have to start somewhere.

And to any Palestinian reading this, in some weird way, I hope that this may bring you hope. These atrocities happened over and over again throughout history and yet, here we are - our people survived. I am here and you are here. Isn't that beautiful? I hope you know that you are not alone in this fight. Its not pretty and its not immediate, but justice will prevail and Palestine will be free in our lifetime.

Ceasefire now.

You can read about the Al Jazeera article about the Batang Kali massacre here:

[xtruss]

[danial1]

Trip Bercuti Tempat Menarik JB-Alor Setar-Kota Bharu-JB : Tiba di Plaza Beruas(3235), WCE (West Coast Expressway)

Trip Bercuti Tempat Menarik JB-Alor Setar-Kota Bharu-JB : Tiba di Plaza Beruas(Exit 3235), WCE(West Coast Expressway) Foto atas : Plaza Tol Beruas(Exit 3235), West Coast Expressway (WCE) Foto atas : Pada masa ini WCE masih belum siap sepenuhnya dan kami terpaksa lencung keluar di tol Beruas. Perhatikan barrier konkrit pada foto. Sekiranya siap, perjalanan akan terus ke Tol Changkat Jering(). Ok…

[rhk111sblog]

The major United States (US) and European Electronics Manufacturers are investing at least Usd 18.3 billion into the Politically "Neutral" Malaysia which is a lot more than the Usd 1.8 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Inflow in 2023 to the supposed "Ally" of the West, the Philippines

This was initially released as an Article last March 31, 2024 at https://therhk111philippinedefenseupdates.blogspot.com/2024/03/us-european-companies-pour-investments-neutral-malaysia-instead-western.html

[nathandulce]

Coastal Acoustics

Went to Coastal Acoustics at West Coast sometime back for dinner with a bunch of friends and had a pretty good time!

Caesar Salad, homemade prawn balls and spam fries. Perfect starter combination.

Their signature dish: Coastal Chicken, the most tender and juicy roast chicken (they have a brining process) and the creamiest mash potato.

Delicious Sausage Mix Grill.

Pricey, but well worth the money.

***

Coastal Acoustic

27 West Coast Highway

#01-08/09 ORTO West Coast

Singapore 117867

[yunsound]

Chinese Mythology- Ne Zha

In case you forgot, there’s a little (well, not-so-little) country in between Russia, India and the sea near Australia called China. She’s pretty well-known for being big, red, and old. 

As well as other things, but that’s all pretty new and not what we’re talking about here, I draw the line at those topics.

China is like the grandma of most Asian countries within the Sinosphere (area of influence that spread Chinese culture through the Silk Road, Tang dynasty diplomats and ideologies like Confucianism and Taoism and occasionally Buddhism).

As such, Chinese mythology and lifestyle practices are very deeply rooted in cultural beliefs across Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. 

This isn’t a post about the history of China. Well, it is, but the history of China is some 10,000 years of culture and 4000 years of recorded history, and I have neither the time nor the patience to go through all of it. To be quite honest, about 70% of it is irrelevant to even the lives of Chinese people.

What I’d like to talk about, instead, is some Chinese culture and mythology.

Many of you might have heard of the Journey to the West, or more specifically the Monkey King Sun Wukong. Undoubtedly he’s probably the number one IT boy in China, our biggest cultural icon and representative myth, and his name is synonymous with power, defiance, and badassery. 

You may have seen him featured in the recent hit game, Black Myth: Wukong!

Much of Wukong’s story involves his various shenanigans in his attempt to go to the West and retrieve Buddhist sutras with the monk Xuanzang and several other eclectic and iconic characters. However, Wukong’s history is not as well-known. In fact, much of his early days were spent in constant battle with the Heavenly Court.

That is what I want to talk about: the Heavenly Court. Essentially China’s pantheon. Wukong is so well-known that I feel it’s unnecessary for me to add any more commentary beyond woah, he is so cool, and other people probably have made enough content about him that anything I could add would be 画蛇添足 or paint feet on a snake (a Chinese idiom that means to stop adding useless details that don’t make any sense or serve any purpose).

Regardless.

China, beyond just Wukong, has an enormous selection of mythology involving gods, spirits and immortals as well as their battles against demons and monsters. These stories aren’t as well-known outside China but also feature prominently in what makes up the Chinese mindset. Having said that, here’s my attempt to inspire someone to make a Dragon Ball equivalent that doesn’t feature Wukong. 

___

I figured now would be as good a time as any to start with 哪吒三太子，or the Third Prince Ne Zha, since recently the Ne Zha 2 has smashed some records and brought the myth of Ne Zha into more prominence.

By the way, go watch this movie! I'll gush about this later, but it's super good.

As with most everything in Chinese history and mythology: overly-long exposition and background is always needed. In the 16th century, two dudes got together and decided to record the fall of the Shang Dynasty and the rise of the Zhou Dynasty in a novel. Being dramatic, they romanticized the historical tale and added a lot of pizzazz, including spirits, monsters, and gods. This tale is now referred to as 封神演义,or 封神榜: The Romance of the Inauguration of the Gods, or more commonly translated as Investiture of the Gods. 

This story serves as the basis for much of Chinese mythology and storytelling. Think of the Iliad or the Odyssey.

Ne Zha is a character in Investiture of the Gods. He’s not a key character in the main plot, which centers around King Zhou of Shang (who ironically rules over the Shang Dynasty and not the Zhou Dynasty, which uses a different Zhou pronounced differently in Chinese). However, he’s probably more famous than King Zhou is, just because he’s so fun, and also he’s featured very prominently in many of the stories we tell kids. 

According to the Investiture of the Gods, Ne Zha was born during the Shang Dynasty under the rule of King Zhou. He eventually becomes part of the rebel faction that overthrows King Zhou of Shang and establishes the Zhou Dynasty. For now, though, he is just a kid. His homeland is called Chentang Pass.

In fact, Ne Zha was born with hacks. He’s the incarnation of the 灵珠子, or the Spiritual Pearl, a ball of condensed spiritual energy. As such, he’s pretty OP from birth.

He has two older brothers who are already immortals, called Jin Zha (which means Gold… Zha) and Mu Zha (which means Wood Zha) and his parents wanted five sons named Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, representing the five elements, with Zha as a suffix.

However, in popular culture, it’s known that Ne Zha, originally Fire, absorbed his brothers Water and Earth in the womb. Because of this, his mother, Lady Yin, is pregnant with him for over three years- which really sucks. When he’s born, he manifests as what looks like a big meatball. 

His father, Li Jing, who’s a very high-ranking military general, freaks out and tries to stab him, but he pops out of the meatball as a fully-formed child, and is bestowed the name Ne Zha, literally: That Zha, since he’s three Zha-s in one. Kind of funny. 

Ne Zha, since he’s OP, could talk and walk from birth and skipped the baby stage and went right to infant. He was taken as the disciple of 太乙真人, or Realized One of Yin and Yang. We’ll call him Master Taiyi for simplicity. He gets two cool weapons: 混天绫, the Skyblinding Sash, or a sentient moving red ribbon similar to Doctor Strange’s red cape, and 乾坤圈, the Ring of Heaven and Earth, a gold size-changing ring. 

Ne Zha is still a human kid, despite being super OP, so when he’s little he asks his mom if he can go out of Chentang Pass to play. She’s like, sure! What’s the worst that can happen!

Oh boy.

Ne Zha wanders for a bit, then decides to take a bath in a river and uses the Skyblinding Sash as a towel. Basically the equivalent of using a tactical nuke to squish an ant. This powerful weapon being used as a towel sends so much energy through the stream that it literally reaches all the way to the East China Sea.

The Dragon King of the East China Sea is called Ao Guang, and he’s also got three sons. In the most well-known Ne Zha movie from 1979, he looks like this:

Ao Guang is like, what the fuck? He sends a yaksha, a mischievous water spirit, to check things out (no, not the yaksha you're thinking of.)

Ne Zha basically makes the ancient Chinese equivalent of a your mom joke to the yaksha, who gets super offended and tries to fight him. Then the yaksha gets his ass thoroughly kicked by a seven-year-old, who uses the Ring of Heaven and Earth to basically bash his head in. Yikes.

Ao Guang’s soldiers report this to him, and he’s very troubled by his lackey’s violent end at the hands of China’s worst iPad kid. Ao Bing, who is Ao Guang’s third son, volunteers to go beat up this seven-year-old kid, and is like, I’m the mighty third dragon prince of the East China Sea, there’s no way this toddler can beat me!

Not only does Ne Zha beat Ao Bing, he beats him so badly that he ends up pulling Ao Bing’s tendons out to make a belt for his dad Li Jing. Ao Bing probably died a staunch advocate for birth control. Ne Zha maybe needs some therapy.

Regardless, when Ao Guang hears his precious baby son has been killed rather painfully, he freaks out and goes to complain to Li Jing. Ne Zha is like, oops I killed your son, he was weak anyway, maybe you should train your next kid to be less pathetic, and Ao Guang is like you son of a bitch I’m reporting you to the Jade Emperor!

The Jade Emperor, by the way, is the leader of the Heavenly Court. In Chinese mythology, unlike many religions, being a god doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a good or virtuous person, it just means you got a promotion. Essentially it’s like being a government worker. 

There is sometimes discussion on whether the Emperor in the myth is the Heavenly Emperor or the Jade Emperor. They're usually considered different people, with the Jade Emperor being an underling of the Heavenly Emperor, but the exact details get foggy. For the purposes of storytelling, I will assume the Emperor in this story is the Jade Emperor.

Ne Zha says, oh shit what do I do, and goes to his Master Taiyi for help. With an invisibility spell Master Taiyi gave him, he goes to Ao Guang’s house and kicks his ass.

Ao Guang, feeling thoroughly wronged, gathers the other three dragon kings of the North, South and West China Seas respectively and decides they’re going to sue Ne Zha and his family in front of the Jade Emperor. 

Lady Yin, Ne Zha’s mom, tells him to chill the fuck out and sits him in their house’s backyard. Ne Zha, thoroughly bored, decides he’s going to do some archery practice with some fancy bows and arrows, which are all inscribed with their family name.

He uses the literal Emperor’s bow and arrow, which were stored there for safekeeping and were unliftable like Thor’s hammer or Excalibur, and casually shoots an arrow up into a cave and kills the disciple of a lady named 石矶娘娘 Lady Stone Spirit.

Lady Stone Spirit kidnaps Ne Zha’s dad after recognising the name on the arrow, and Li Jing is like, yo I’m nowhere strong enough to use that bow and arrow, let me go back home so I can find the true culprit.

Eventually they find out it’s Ne Zha, and Ne Zha flips on Lady Stone Spirit. Master Taiyi eventually kills Lady Stone Spirit for him after Ne Zha loses his weapons. 

Master Taiyi then says, oops, remember Ao Guang, that dragon king you pissed off? Well, he’s back and he’s pissed, and he’s got the Jade Emperor on his side. Ao Guang vows he’ll take revenge for his son and his dignity on Chentang Pass and Ne Zha’s parents.

Li Jing, who’s a bit of a dick father, is royally pissed off at Ne Zha. He’s always been very strict on Ne Zha, and has never liked him much, and basically tells Ne Zha to go fuck himself. Ne Zha, who’s mischievous but responsible, decides he’s going to save his family.

In quite possibly the most gruesome children’s tale you’ve ever heard, in order to pay his parents back for birthing him, he cuts all the flesh off his own bones and then cuts his own bones up as penance and to satisfy the dragon king’s wrath. Metal.

Excuse this blurry image- it's hard to find the exact scene in 4k.

Ne Zha’s wandering spirit tells his grieving mother to build him a temple and try to get him a new body, so she does. The temple goes viral, and Li Jing finds out and smashes everything. Ne Zha is like, what the fuck was that for? Now father and son properly hate each other.

Master Taiyi, this story’s MVP, builds Ne Zha a new body out of lotus roots, and he is reborn in a lotus flower. That’s why he’s sometimes called Ne Zha the lotus prince, and why he’s commonly associated with lotus flowers and lotus roots.

Master Taiyi gives him two new weapons: the 火尖枪, Fire-tipped Spear, a spear that shoots fire, and the 风火轮: Wheels of Wind and Fire, which are basically flying roller skates in the shape of two gold wheels.

Look at that, so fashionable.

Ne Zha tries to go and beat up his asshole father, and Li Jing quickly realises he’s about to get his ass kicked by his pissed-off deified son. Remember when I said Ne Zha absorbed his brothers Water and Fire in the womb?

Because of this, he can now manifest four more arms and two more heads whenever he wants to become 三头六臂哪吒, Ne Zha of Three Heads and Six Arms. Sick.

The Jade Emperor decides enough is enough after seeing Ne Zha beat his dad up a million times. He goes to the Buddha for help, and the Buddha gives Li Jing a mini pagoda which can trap any demon, monster or spirit within it. Li Jing becomes a deity referred to as the Pagoda-Bearing Lord, and Ne Zha is forced to chill out on the patricide.

This is how the tale is known in popular culture, mostly because of a 1979 movie, produced by Shanghai Animation, which changed the original tale quite a bit. I've been using many images from the 1979 Ne Zha.

Movie name: Ne Zha Conquers the Sea, otherwise known as Murder Toddler Terrorizes Local Aquatic Ecosystem

For one, in the movie, Ao Guang and Ao Bing are evil oppressors who eat the children of Chentang Pass. Additionally, details are known differently across different iterations of the myth. For example, in Journey to the West, Ne Zha gets his name because it’s literally written on his hands when he’s born.

Since Ne Zha flies around so quickly on his Wheels of Wind and Fire roller skates, people sometimes see him as a patron deity of racing. If they ever make another Fast and Furious they should give him a cameo.

He is so famous that he’s had like a billion animated movies, stage plays and children’s books written about him. Traditionally, he’s depicted as a kid about seven to ten years old, on his roller skate wheels, holding his staff, with his ring turned into a gold bracelet he wears on his wrist and his red sash flying behind him. He has quite the iconic hairstyle: two space buns!

He’s such an iconic figure in Chinese culture: recent media has included him in many iterations.

Gaming fans will recognise him from Black Myth: Wukong as the aura-farming red fire dude with sick eyeliner and space buns.

I am not gonna lie this is probably the coolest design of Ne Zha I've ever seen.

The most iconic version of him is probably the 1979 version, though the recent Ne Zha movies from 2019 and 2025 are arguably just as popular now.

There was a 2021 movie called New Gods: Nezha Reborn that is a separate adaptation from Ne Zha 2019 and Ne Zha 2 2025, which was kind of a mid movie but worth a watch. 

Several of the adaptations of Ne Zha that have become iconic:

Ne Zha 2019 ^ in his child form

Ne Zha from Fei Ren Zai (非人哉), a comedy series about mythological characters in modern China ^

The Legend of Ne Zha from 2003, a children's TV series ^

Child and Adult (reincarnated in modern world) versions of Ne Zha in 2021 New Gods Reborn: Ne Zha ^

Sometimes though he’s depicted as a teenager. All in all, since he died young, he’s generally never seen as an adult. Occasionally you’ll see him described as male body with a female face, basically meaning he’s super cute. Note that this doesn’t mean transgender or nonbinary as it’s often known in English, which was not a concept in ancient China. 

Oftentimes the media involving him will include jokes of him being mistaken for a girl because he’s a kid with a pretty face.

Eventually Ne Zha becomes an official of the Heavenly Court, a marshall in the army. As I mentioned, he fights for the eventual King Wu of Zhou who overthrows King Zhou of Shang and creates the Zhou dynasty, making him a good guy despite his… concerning childhood. 

Writing the entire myth out in English makes Ne Zha seem like a psychopath from birth, but his story is honestly more about a kid causing shenanigans and being forced to pay for it tragically. He’s really quite a victim, if you can believe it. Imagine a toddler born with Hulk-strength who accidentally smashes a few vases and is beaten for it.

Ne Zha 2019 was super popular, and without spoiling too much, Ao Bing became a super polite and likeable young master instead of the classic villain character he is, and aside from being HOT, he and Ne Zha became friends instead of plucking tendons. No tendon-plucking involved. They also change Ne Zha’s story quite a bit, but not enough that he becomes unrecognisable.

Ne Zha 2019 promotional poster ^

This is Ao Bing (the third dragon prince) in the 1979 movie as a villain.

In contrast, this is Ao Bing from Ne Zha 2019 and 2025. Quite the difference, right?

Adult Ne Zha from the Ne Zha 2019 movie

Ne Zha 2, released in 2025 and currently still airing, is now the eighth-highest grossing movie of all time and China’s biggest-ever film. It’s genuinely quite an incredible film, and is worthy of being the biggest animated movie of all time.

I recommend everyone go watch it even if you don’t know Chinese: it’s super funny and the visuals are astounding. Obviously it’s not perfect, and there are a lot of problems with it, but I don’t know, I’m still a big fan. For being made on such a small budget, it somehow manages to outdo Hollywood animation on sheer spectacle. If you can get IMAX tickets, get them!

If there is no other reason, watch the movie for Ao Guang, Ao Bing's dad. Remember the fugly old dragon from the 1979 version?

Well, this is him now. Talk about a glow-up. No joke, when he appeared on screen the entire movie theatre gasped out loud.

By the way, if you were wondering where Ne Zha falls on the timeline in relation to our friend Wukong, Ne Zha was born several thousand years before Wukong burst out of his rock. As such, when Wukong encounters him and *ahem* kicks his ass *ahem*, Ne Zha is already a deity working for the Heavenly Court. 

I hope after reading this incredibly-long post, you learned something new about Chinese culture and our favourite lotus root, Ne Zha!

[herpsandbirds]

hey, do you have many kingfishers? Their colours are so cool I can't get over it :))

Why yes, I may have a few kingfishers for you...

Rufous-collared Kingfisher (Actenoides concretus), male, family Alcedinidae, order Coraciiformes, Malaysia

photograph by Priya Solcaptures

Woodland Kingfisher (Halcyon senegalensis), family Alcedinidae, order Coraciiformes, Kruger National Park, South Africa

photograph by Pieter Viljoen 

Black-capped Kingfisher (Halcyon pileata), diving for delicious fishes, family Alcedinidae, order Coraciiformes, found in SE and East Asia

photograph by Raymond Cheng

Banded Kingfishers (Lacedo pulchella), L - female and R - male, family Alcedinidae, Thailand

photograph by Sakda S.

Spotted Wood Kingfisher (Actenoides lindsayi), male, family Alcedinidae, La Mesa Eco Park, Quezon City, Philippines

photograph by Doing BIG YEAR! 

Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris), family Alcedinidae, West Bengal, India

photograph by Kamal Basak

Stork-billed Kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis), family Alcedinidae, Malaysia

photograph by Loi Choy Ng

American Pygmy Kingfisher (Chloroceryle aenea), with damselfly friend, family Alcedinidae, order Coraciiformes, Costa Rica

photograph by john l crawley - BIRDS (@jc_wings)

[that-satireguy]

I think a lot of you would stop believing that trans men aren't globally murdered as frequently as trans women if you counted backwards. As in like. Looked at the ratio of trans women to trans men in 'accepting countries' (roughly 1:1).

And then the others.

North Africa (Not much data, but around (2.5:1)

East Africa (Uganda has an actual activist group which has reported a well-evidenced (4:1) but estimated mostly 3:1))

West Africa ((3:1) less in Ghana)

South Africa (2:1)

South Asia (5:1)

South East Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia (5:1), other countries (3:1))

West Asia ((3-4:1) but Saudi Arabia has a special case of (6:1) one of the highest I've found)

East Asia (3:1)

Central Asia ((5:1). Turkmenistan and Tajikistan are again the highest with (6-7:1) yay for my country.)

South America (I got kinda lazy here but mostly (4:1))

Im too lazy to do the rest. But you get the point. Where do you think the trans men are going? Like i understand that the reported numbers of deaths are more for trans women, but since trans men are a whole lot less visible, you gotta look at other numbers.

And the other numbers are saying

theres a problem here.

*these figures are all rough and meant to show general trends. Accurate numbers are not available for a lot of these countries, and some countries may be erased in favour of more populace neighbouring countries with better data harvesting options.

[vintagegeekculture]

"New Alibaba" (新阿里巴巴, 1988) was a Taiwanese fantasy film set in the Persian world that rode the trend in the late 1980s of low budget special effect fantasy films for children meant to be released during Chinese New Year, like the "Peach Kid" movies with Hsiao Lin Lin, and "Three Headed Monster." It remains only one of a few Chinese movies filmed in Jordan, and is a curiosity for that reason.

Filmed in the deserts of Jordan and the city of Petra with a pair of pop stars as the leads, the movie received tremendous curiosity from the locals in Jordan, who were a bit...surprised to see a Chinese Arabian Nights movie. The original idea was to have it open new markets for Chinese films in the middle east, much like how Chinese films are immensely popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Alas, "New Alibaba" opened Chinese New Year 1988 in Taiwan with too much competition from other fantasy special effects movies like "Peach Kid 2" and yet another goddamn version of "Journey to the West" (ugh), so it didn't do well and squelched the plan to open up new markets.

[handweavers]

what bothers me about people not understanding how "expat" vs "immigrant" are politicized terms that have connotations outside of their most literal dictionary definitions is that many people have emphasized that the difference between expat and immigrant is just that expats intend to go home and immigrants intend to stay (and then some comment about how i "must not live abroad" or am talking about the USA specifically lmfao) and because you are insisting on talking about how im just a stupid idiot who doesn't understand English and am adding politics to something needlessly, i want to point out that there are many people labelled as 'immigrants' in the west - global southerners who work or live in the north - who do not intend to stay forever or become citizens or even permanent residents, they are here in the west to work or for other reasons, and fully intend to go home. but they are never called expats in common vernacular, you will never hear canadians or brits or french people referring to "Filipino expats" or "Nigerian expats" or "Colombian expats" if you are racialized you are an immigrant. my father experienced this for over 20 years!!

and speaking about Malaysia, my home country, you do not typically hear about Filipino expats or Indonesian expats, even when they are people who have come to Malaysia to work temporarily. the term 'expat' is both racialized and denotes a specific class status in this context. you can cite however many dictionaries you want and call me an illiterate brown person because youre Australian and you moved to Thailand and thus you are the Lord of Migration and the Immigration Understander but you are just proving my point

[athena5898]

This is a perfect example how "good" captalism can't exist. McDonald's is still a captalist international chain. It will always care about its personal interests more then anything else (hence the boycotts in the firstplace).

Fascism, captalism, intersectionality, kyriarchy, all these things are needed to understand how corruption happens and how to break the cycle.

McDonald's Malaysia can truly fuck off:

BDS Malaysia's statement:

More context below cut.

Malaysia has always been a supporter of Palestine - the government has never recognized the state of Israel at all.

Boycotts against Israel have always been a thing in Malaysia for years but in my opinion, they were never properly sustained. McDonald's was usually the first target of these boycotts just because how available it was to the public compared to other companies.

McDonald's Malaysia on the other hand is run by a local company and is Muslim owned. They even pay Zakat (an Islamic religious contribution for charity). Here is their statement after the 7th October incident:

BDS Malaysia made their own statement in response to McDonald's statement on their blog on the 15th of October:

But the lawsuit isn't a surprise. In November this year, McDonald's Malaysia tried using the extremely controversial sedition law against the local BDS chapter:

(in my opinion McD's use of the sedition act is so stupid as the act is usually described as any seditious acts against a ruler or government??? but thats a whole other post)

So now McDonald's trying to sue the Malaysian BDS chapter????

ngl but i was ambivalent on the boycott against McDonald's Malaysia cause 1. they dont support israel here 2. i dont eat McDonald's to begin with.

even the local BDS chapter was kinda eh about it in my opinion. i feel like they kinda focused more on puma.

but now?? i will be telling everyone i know to boycott this as well cause what the fuck.