Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Asean Bloggers Conference In KL

The first Malaysian-Asean Regional Bloggers Conference will be held from Friday to Sunday at the Intercontinental Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

The conference, organised by the recently-registered Blog House Malaysia (BHM), is themed "Blogging Mindfully and Responsibly".

BHM president Syed Akbar Ali said there would be two workshops on Saturday for participants from 10.30am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 5pm.

The topics to be covered include blogger networks and blogger etiquette.

"We are expecting 16 Asean bloggers at the conference. They will come from Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines. On Sunday, our patron, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, will deliver the welcoming address. Prime Minster Datuk Seri Najib Razak will then deliver the keynote address at 12.20pm, followed by a 15-minute question and answer session," he said.

For details and registration, visit www.bloghousemalaysia.com. - The New Straits Times

8 comments:

samgoh88 said...

TO BLOG AND NOT BE FLOGGED - 210411

When bloggers worldwide don't unite to blog
They risk being easy victims, individually to flog
But first they must ensure they don't have minds to clog
And how to dog certain issues without sensitive ones to hog

(C) Samuel Goh Kim Eng
http://motivationinmotion.blogspot.com
Thur. 21st Apr. 2011.

Sumitra said...

Hi there Nuraina,
I was one of the readers who was very much disappointed by NST's poor choice of word in the article blurb.
I agree with you that there should be complete focus on the issue itself, on why there are boys that have been unfairly singled out on the unsubstantiated whim of an organisation.
However, I also believe that words carry great power and play a vital part in influencing the manner in which people form opinions. The NST's decision to use such a word to describe the boys almost felt like a judgement call, after all if the NST is merely reporting the news, why label the boys too?
It was very kind of you to apologise in your blog though, and i just wanted you to know that i appreciated the gesture. I hope for the sake of the boys, the boot camp is completely quashed and the brainiacs behind the idea get sent to a reeducation bootcamp of their own.
Cheers!

Fahirul Ramli said...

Salam Datuk,

FYI, pictures of PETS 18/2011 are posted and available for viewing at www.flickr.com/photos/pairan/

Thank you again for spending some time and sharing your stories with us the other day.

Best regards,
Fahirul Ramli
(Berita PETS 18/2011 photographer)

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

sumitra:

the thing about words is that some in the english vocabulary have taken on a whole new meaning or they have more than one meaning.

The word "sissy' is one of them.

I've not used the word on anyone before nor have i used it in writing. In conversations, yes...a very long time ago. Innocent enough.
The world has changed. So many words are politically or socially incorrect. And self-professed social libertarians or civil society activists and militants go ballistic and berserk when words that fall under this category are used.

reminds me of the word "khinzir" which is "babi". means the same -- swine or pig..

As for "sissy" - people take exception to the use of this word because it is pejorative, insulting, offending and so on.

But "sissy" is "sissy". I won't call anyone sissy. But someone did.
Anyway, NST used the word without any ill-intent. No malice. No agenda. yadayadayada.
Certainly not to label the boys such.

Readers and anyone else are free to condemn NST for that. Some did.

"...after all, if the NST is merely reporting the news, why label the boys too?".. as i have said, it was a word --very much an acceptable English word -- to describe what was described by the state education dept director.
If it was regarded as a label, it was most unfortunate. And, we apologize.

anyway, we can go on and on arguing and debating about this.

So, I'll stop here.

thank you for commenting.

NURAINA A SAMAD said...

fahirul,

thank you...

Anonymous said...

A sissy is someone who takes ages to make a simple decision or cannot make a decision at all, whether right or wrong. Like Hishamuddin Hussein Onn.

Anonymous said...

sissy |ˈsɪsi| informal
noun ( pl. -sies)
a person regarded as effeminate or cowardly.
• chiefly offensive an effeminate homosexual.

adjective ( -sier, -siest)
feeble and cowardly.

DERIVATIVES
sissified adjective
sissiness noun
sissyish adjective

ORIGIN mid 19th cent. (in the sense [sister] ): from sis + -y 2 .

Fahirul Ramli said...

You're welcome, Datuk.

P.S. Watch out for photo updates! :)