Yahoo! Answers Blog Malaysia

Finally after one month of puasa, we will be able to celebrate Hari Raya Puasa with our family and friends tomorrow. I’m always very appreciative that Malaysia is a multi-cultural country so even though I’m not Muslim, I’m still able to learn from my Malay friends about what this day means to them and to participate in it (albeit not the fasting part, I think I’ll faint on the first day! Haha). Well, let me tell you what I’ve learned so far. I’ve learnt that you can experience Hari Raya through your 5 senses but I’ll just highlight 3 that left a deep impression on me.

(Photo thanks to zaido)

1. Sight -  Let’s not even talk about the Ramadan bazaars which are brightly lit and full of colours and thronged with people. Just the simple sight of lights and decorations strung across roads and homes are beautiful enough. That’s one thing I really love seeing during this time of the month. Not to forget the jewel-coloured Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung you see on the streets! I find it so heartwarming that families would wear the same coloured bajus when they are together. It really shows the close ties between the family members.
2. Taste – When we talk about festivals, how can we forget the food? It was during this time that i tasted my first date (the fruit! Fruit! Not human kind. ). A very simple dried fruit used for buka puasa, but it was so fragrant and sweet when chewed on slowly. All the different shaped cookies and kuih-muih are great too but I have to admit the dishes I look forward to every Hari Raya are my friend’s mom’s Ayam Masak Merah and a pineapple dish. I’m very certain it’s not the Pajeri Nenas but for the life of me, I can never remember its name! I only know that the pineapples are fried with onions, chili and cinnamon; but no coconut milk. So if you know what dish I’m talking about, tell me its name!
3. Touch – The Muslim style of “handshake”, or salam, and kissing the hands of older persons as a sign of respect while asking for pardon is one of the most beautiful physical gestures. I think this is something we should learn. We all get a warm fuzzy feeling when people gives us hugs or even just a simple handshake with strangers. So can you imagine how our loved ones will feel if we greet them that way? It is just a simple way of showing love and respect to each other.

(Photo thanks to Farid Iqbal)

Hari Raya Puasa is a time to forgive and forget for our Muslim friends. But for us non-Muslims, I think we have a lot to learn from this time too. So everyone, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

These few days we have been bombarded with news of unsafe milk from China (unsafe food products again!). So what exactly was wrong with it? Well apparently in order to fake the high level of protein in the milk, the manufacturers in China have added an industrial material called Melamine, which is originally used to produce plastics and fertiliser! This product can cause kidney stones in babies, hence so many fatalities in China lately. But that is not all, besides staying away from milk, we even have to avoid products containing milk, such as that old time favourite candy, White Rabbit Creamy Candy. I love that sweet!

(Photo thanks to Liutao)

Sometimes it really makes you wonder, is money so important that human lives can be sacrificed? Perhaps they may have made a lot of profits for the first few batches that went undetected. But once human lives are involved and it all gets exposed by the news, wouldn’t that cause the company more harm? It’s like a vicious cycle: (add toxins to cut cost) -> (profits increase) -> (death occur from product) -> (boycott product) -> (profits decrease) -> (need to find another cheap way to earn more money) -> cycle repeats until the company gets shut down. And then another one will emerge. But money should never be more important than human lives. You can’t buy lives with money; but when you are alive, you’ll always have the chance to work hard to earn that money.

(Photo thanks to Suzz.com)

One of those earn-money-quick-from-home schemes.

So for this festive period, let’s give thanks for being alive, and treasure our family and friends. And remember, beware of the susu!

p/s The Health ministry has released a list of 170 dairy products deemed safe to be consumed. Do check with them!

You know how we’ve been having these “Taking a breather” pages lately right? I know it has been very annoying for some of you, maaf la! But the Yahoo! Answers Team would like to inform you that while we’ve been taking a “breather”, *pant pant*, we’ve also fixed the following outstanding bugs!

(Photo many thanks to Wesley Sng Photography)

• Emails – these are now sent to your contacts when you submit a question. And when you receive an email about a new answer, the text properly describes the answer.
• Dictionary – there are now more words in the spell check function! So when you ask or answer a question, and need help with the spelling, the correct word should appear.

We will keep fixing those pesky bugs and develop more new features for all of you. So whenever you see a “Taking a Breather” page, please be patient! We’re just trying to make Answers better for you. If you have any other suggestions, comments etc., please leave a note!

Interesting news on The Star today which featured a couple exchanging marriage vows “underwater” in a hotel swimming pool in Petaling Jaya. Now while underwater marriages are not new to Malaysia, it’s the first time it was held in the city center! Usually such things are held at beach resorts, probably under the sea. As the bride commented that the swimming pool was freezing cold, we can now understand why other folks prefer to hold it in the warm sea waters.

(Many thanks to kedakai)

As the years go by, some traditions change while others remain. My cousins in Penang held their weddings complete with the requisite karaoke system. Whereas my cousins in Kota Kinabalu had the whole group of performers and even Kadazan dancers! I think that weddings are joyous occasions and it is perfectly normal to invite a huge group of family and friends to join in the festivities and happiness. But personally I draw the line when the wedding becomes the parents’ wedding instead! (o.O) You know… the scenario where the parents invite their friends and at the end you only recognise 50% of the guests as the rest are strangers? That’s just wrong. I think ideally, it would be nice to have a simple and quiet wedding. Where only close relatives and friends are there sharing in your joy. Perhaps at a nice sandy beach somewhere. Underwater? Well, we’ll see.

What about you? How was your wedding like? What is your dream wedding?

A few days ago, Yahoo! news mentioned that the “Geobacillus Zalihae enzyme extracted from protein crystallisation that was tested in space by Malaysian astronaut Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor last year has received a patent in the United States”.

(Photo thanks to orangperlis)

This brought a lot of excitement as the potentials seem endless: produce job opportunities for biotechnology graduates; enzyme used for industrial purposes; and we can even sell the technology to other countries! Sounds too good to be true? Well, the government seems excited enough to consider sending a second mission to space to the tune of RM 96 million! (o.O)

The Yahoo! Malaysia Editors had posted a question to ask all of you here, Should we spend US$30m (RM96m) on a second mission to space? So far we’ve had 40 answers, and many of you felt that we should actually spend that amount of money on basic infrastructure (or even improving our proton cars!) instead of exploring space. What do the rest of YOU think?