Giving is caring: Hand-ry gives a helping hand to Haiti

The sinner attempts to redeem himself

A fallen angel of the football world, that's how I would describer Messr. Hand-ry. His mesmerising pace, quick feet and undoubted talent endeared him to the hearts of many football fans, Arsenal or otherwise, the French or the English.

However, it would be his hand-control rather than close-control with his neat footwork which he would always be remembered for.

IF France wins the World Cup, a huge IF, the holy grail of the football world would be forever tainted by those same hands which on a day, many moons ago, when the they eyes of the world was focused on two teams vying to be the final team to reach the World Cup Finals, a player of great gift, used those same hands to cheat!

Forgiven, never forgotten, and never doubt a person's love for life

And now, a helping hand (pun intended) from the same Hand-ry which made the headlines for the wrong reasons a few months back.

Read it here.

I give him the benefit of the doubt, that this donation of his was indeed done in good faith, but I know of some who would say otherwise, that all he is doing now is trying to reverse the damage done. Sincere or with hidden intentions, it is good to see the saints and the devils of the soccerfields did not forget Haiti.

For one, I do believe it's a sincere gift from someone who I will always remember for speed and grace on the field, Thiery Henry, handball or not :)

Regards,

Ben Lai

FOOTBALLERS!!! Come on guys! You can spare 1 day's wages for Haiti!!!

Haiti a tragedy

Not one, but two major quakes to hit such an improvished country. Lying just 700 miles off the US mainland, however the gap in income disparity is way way larger than the water which separates the two land.

There have been a lot of calls to help, with the US leading the way and not suprising, twitter and facebook.

And it is nice to see that plenty of idols helping out, with White Cleft Jean being the most prominent.

Footballers are rising to the call

Sometime last week, the Germans took the first initiative. The national team, the GBL teams and even Audi & Volkswagen chipped in. Read more of it here .

It is heartwarming to see such a gesture, moreover since footballers are usually branded as nice cribs-flashy cars-spoilled brats. And guess what, not only the footballers are getting involved. Fan initiatives are urging these footballers too.

Diego "Forlone" Forlan

Forgive me for the title above.

In no way I am taking a dig at Forlan himself, but to those detractors who wrote him off when he was offloaded from MU. I like him, he reminds me of Tevez, willing to run, scores an occasional goal and being South American, has flair in his blood.

Forlone no longer, with a European Golden Boot in hand (which he shares with one very prominent Samuel E'to) and with apparently Barca looking at him, I guess a change of climate did make him a better player.

What more suprising is this: HE WAS THE FIRST TO RESPOND TO FANS CALLS TO DONATE A DAY'S WAGE TO ASSIST HAITI! YES HE DID!!!

Read more about it here.

Forlan, as ever, you amaze others around you, humble, never one for the spotlight and an honest, hard working model professional. Kudos to you, and to those who used to call you Forlone, I guess they must be choking themselves now ;)

Regards,

Ben Lai

RESIGN SIR ALEX: Would Sir Alex lead us us to victory?

This morning while getting my daily dose of football updates I was taken aback by an article calling for Sir Alex to resign!

To common football fans or non-football fans, just reading the title of the said article alone might be a little misleading. Read further and you will see why.

Football clubs are more than profit!

A club of Manchester United (even Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal) is more than a profit making machine. It's a revered as a religion, it's something that connect with the fans and it was put into its current zenith standing by the fans.

Ever since these major buy-outs by foreign owners, experts in the football and business world alike have given their own views about the intentions and viability of such purchases. Not only the top-4 and BPL clubs were subject of these LBO (Leveraged Buy-Out), QPR, Notts County, Newcastle, West Ham, Man City and Pompey and more recently the buzz is even BPL chaser, Cardiff might soon be in private ownership.

The success of these takeover varied, of course, with a change of owner, the fans would be reasonable to expect that these new owners would pump in money, invest in infrastructures, get new players (even managers) and hopefully propel these clubs into greater heights. This is true to some extent for Chelsea and Arsenal, with new training facility (Chelsea) and a new stadia (Arsenal) and a lot of coming and goings in the playing staffs (turnstile managers and countless big name signings for Chelsea and Man City).

On the other end, you have basket cases like Newcastle, West Ham, Pompey and the worse of the lot Notts County.

Basket cases - Who's to blame (Or rather WHO THE HELL ARE YOU???)?

There's lots of finger pointing, the blame game, or passing the buck(et) as they call it in the US - the League admin, the previous owners and of course the new owners themselves, 3 different parties but at the center of this blame game is the issue of transparency of ownership. Take Notts, with Qabak investment listed as their owners, no one knows where the funding comes from nor the ultimate identity of the shareholders of this investment vehicle (an accounting term). Also, the merry go round of owners for Portsmouth, what a pity that a club which as recent as 2 seasons ago lifted the FA Cup only to see it now languishing at the bottom of the table with 7/8th of its Cup winning squad now plying their trade elsewhere!

Let's see what each of the 3 accused above could have done more to avert the current agony:

The League

There is so called 'fit an proper test' which applies to directors of clubs and since owners appoint directors it would be fair to assume that the owner themselves are subjected to such a test. I am not saying that the League failed in applying this rule, but the process could be done in a more transparent manner, with the outcome (not the details) of the assesment to be made public to assure the fans that indeed the owners are reputable and are indeed 'fit and proper'.

The previous owners

They form part of the transaction and to a certain extent should be hold a certain level of responsibility if the club fails after the takeover. Did they dispose off the club to the highest bidder? Or did they dispose the club to the party which serves the best interest of the club? Were there proposals tabled by these parties? Secured financing? I am pretty very sure these were in place when Ken Bates (now at Leeds United) divested his stake in Chelsea to Czar Roman, but what about Notts, Newcastle, West Ham and Pompey?

New owners

You came, you bought and you think you have conquered, but it is far from job done once the ink on the agreement dries. There's still plenty to do, and lets start by revealing who the heck you are and the plans for the club! More often than not, huge promises were made by these owners which they fail to follow up, and when there's trouble, the *poof* and just vanish into thin air (Pompey, West Ham, Notts County and to a certain extent Newcastle)!

Manchester United: What next???

I must applaud the Americans (Notice that I never once call them by name, I shall NOT!) for being transparent, however, loading the club with so much debt will hamper our growth and is no way to run a club. You are basically taking hard earn money, monies paid throughout these honest, hard working fans lives to support a team they love and finance the purchase of the club! The move should have been blocked, just like when Sky tried to purchase us many years ago. NO WAY it should remain in private hands, we were self sufficient, we have success and there was no need for any change, not least to be used as a mortage to finance some silly American dream!

I have a gut feeling that Sir Alex would love to have Tevez in red rather than the blue of the other half of Manchester. I believe the lack of funding was the key issue. Here's how I arrive at my conclusion: Although he tried his best to support the owners and with the the 3 stooges themselves coming out and openly declaring that the 80 million received for the sale of CR7 is still there if Fergie needs it, the recent financial statements of the club reveals otherwise. A loss of 49 million before taking into account the Ronaldo windfall is surely a course of concern. The timing of the restructuring exercise, which is supposed to release funds to Fergie further contradicts the availability of the 80 million war chest. As much as we hate to be compared with Liverfool (intended) we are indeed in a simillar position as they are, chocked out of the transfer market because of some stupid American who came with a LBO (Loads of Bullshit Offer).

United was built by the fans and of course a great manager, we dont need no YANKS to screw us up and impeed our growth now. As a Knight, and a person of which the fans would always associate with United, be it now, be it 100 years to come, I too plead for Sir Alex to resign just like Kevin Keegan did at Newcastle. Let the club take a fall if that is what is needed to drive those profiteering Americans out of Old Trafford.

We could have done it without you Sir Alex, please do not let our dreams fizzle, please lead us to victory over them YANKS!!!

Regards,

Ben Lai

When the inevitable finally came true, how shall I respond?

***This post shall be read with my previous post as when read as a standalone, it might project a different meaning than it was intended to. For the aforementioned post, please click here***

















The bitter-sweet pill

A change in 'Relationship Status' on facebook was how the devine power above sunk my heart. From "Being in a relationship with" it now states "Engaged to". I made a promise to myself, and I shall keep it, just as I had kept my previous promise of not objecting the split. The promise was, I shall move on as and when she is engaged.

I made 2 promises on Sept 16, 2008, the day she left, the first was as above, and the second, that from that day on, I shall look back to the days we spent as an item with a smile, with no regret, no pain, just a sense of greatfullness that at least we did spend those precious time together, I shall not again shed a sorrow tear for the relationship.

I must admit, being with her is still the happiest days of my life, period. I know, I used IS in the previous sentence. Yes it was intended and no I am not a stalker nor am I in denial.

Just the 2 of us

Now for the mushy part - days spent just with her and when nothing else mattered. Missing flights, driving around KL and Putrajaya, taking in the KL skyline at Luna Bar and the 2 week road trip from Malacca all the way to Langkawi, memories which until today still lingers on fresh, just like it was yesterday.

Those around me knew that whenever she was in town, not even an earthquake could separate us. She being quite possesive made sure of this, and on my part, knowing that these few days she is in town would mean that when she departs, it would be another 6 months or so before seeing each other and this made me cheerish every second with her.

At times we would just sit in front of the idiot-box and just watch chick-flicks together, catch a standup comedy or two and just order room service so we could have time to ourselves, just the 2 of us and no one else.

At other times, when I was at work, she would keep calling once it is 5.30, pestering me to leave work and be with her, once, she even showed up at my office door!

A scar worth the pain

Infatuation, lust, like two rabbits, call it what you may, I still call it love.

A tough guy I might be, but when it comes to love, I am hopeless, not in the sense that I get all weak-knees or sweaty-palmed, but rather, I do tend to throw caution at the wind and go with my heart instead.

I do believe that the mind could do wonderful things, but it is the heart which is true.

To say that I am not feeling the pain all again would be a lie, an insult to the relationship.

However, I know the pain is just temporary, the wound would heal, time will one day patch it up, the scar would remain, a reminder that cupid indeed strucked me and I was indeed in love.

Another chapter begins, on what might be another beautiful, bitter-sweet relationship ;)

Again, thanks for the sweet memories Lin :)

Regards,
Ben Lai

A broken heart, a broad smile ;)

Pain, painfulness...

Ever lived your life a certain way and when circumstances changed abruptly you find yourself being a little lost?

Sometime a year ago, a flame in me died. It might sound harsh to word it so, but indeed a light which I built my life around and which kept me warm and guided me through almost 5 years of my life dimmed and doused itself out.

I felt excruciating pain, pain beyond words, pain which only time would heal and after that an emptiness, a void in my heart.

As daft as it sound, it was as if the sky just crashed down on me.

It was not that I did not see it coming. I read the signs well, I even tried my best to change the outcome, but I was in no power nor position to change it. I had to keep my word, and by doing so, let her go.

But once the reality sunk in, about a week or so after the last kiss at the terminal, a hug and best wishes, 'Bye' was the word last spoken, not 'See you', the love of my life is no longer mine, and I had to accept it, be it I like it or not.

Love = pain. Correct?

Excruciating, emptiness, void, very negative words, for what to many was certainly an event to forget. Most would expect words like hate, never again, distrust and cheat to litter the rest of this article, but you shall not see these words :)

Feeling pain on separation is proof that I did love. Not only I loved, I was loved. Let me explain. I see love as something like a poker game, when you do not risk everything, it just doesn't feel right, but when you do, it has the tendency to hurt you.

And I indeed gave and risked everything for our relationship and thus the pain I felt, pain as described above.

Forget how much I committed to the relationship, and forget the pain, more important is what happened next? Read on.

Looking back with a smile :)

Before I go any further, I am an optimist. Even in the worse of situation I will look for the positives and always draw strength from them to carry me forward. I believe that if you look hard enough, you could find some good in everything and everyone. Also, life is too short to be negative, bitter or hate.

For the reasons above, I could now still look back at our relationship and smile :) Yes, not a conventional reaction, but one that I chose. Why look for the negatives in a past relationship? A relationship is between two human, two incomplete and imperfect human, where one or the other or even both would make mistakes. Forgive, forget and move on. Which I did.

However, I held on to the sweet memories, memories which even now, a year on, when I look back at I could afford to smile. I am grateful and thankful that we met, that we spent some wonderful time together, stuck through thick and thin and in the end when things did not work out, we did not end it in an ugly manner, we met, we talked, promises were kept and we said goodbye. It was a beautiful relationship, one which left a mark on me, pretty much like a tattoo, there was a period of pain, but thereafter, sweet memories which would stay forever.

Thanks for the sweet memories :)

Regards,

Ben Lai

When the tidak-apa-attitude meant a loss of a young life...

Justice for Gary Robert <--- Click here
On 2nd August 2009, one Gary Leon Robert went for a run, and never made it home.

What a tragedy, that a life, only 22 years of age was taken in such a crude and lackadaisical manner.

Just reading the article kills me. Clearly someone erred in the duties and Gary paid for it - with his life.

My heart goes out to Gary and his family, the cause of death was put down to severe dehydration, but it stills beggars belief that no one knows his whereabouts and was found at a remote tunnel. How could someone who has to be stretchered on arrival at the finish line go missing by himself? And this is an event organised by Adidas, impossible is nothing? You would assume an event organised by such a renowned would be well equiped and well planned out.

Clearly someone failed in discharging their duties and no one is owning up to it. May God bless your soul Gary.

When common sense got an upper hand against capitalist - Courts rule in favour of McCurry against McD!!!

A victory against unethical capitalist

As many of you know, I do not in any way like McD. I have not had a McD burger or fries in ages and I do not plan to have it in the near future.

Put it this way, McD are an unethical company not only in how they market themselves but also in disclosure of what is actually in their food.

Unethical Marketing Practices

They market to kids, with their Happy Meals and "free" latest kid-flicks toys. Untrue? I am pretty sure many of you have seen kids going "Mommy/Daddy I want toy!" at a McD counter.

The question now is, are they selling food or are they pressuring parents to give into the demands of their kids?

I for one feel that this is in no way ethical marketing. How can you be claim to be ethical when a choice of meal is influenced by the "free" toy it comes with and not the question if the meal is healthy or not.

Are McD fries vegetarian?

The second issue revolves around whether McD fries are actually vegetarian. Rumours were circling that McD includes beef fat in their oil to make their fries taste and smell better.

This is not a new issue, it was first raised in the 90's and after a huge public outcry, especially in India McD issued a statement saying that since 1990 they only use vegetable oil to fry their fries. How did they change their oil but still maintained the flavour of their fries? That's where their unethical practice came into play.

What McD did was to remove the beef fat from the oil and include it in the fries! Smart move? No, under immense pressure, they admitted to their underhand non-disclosure of the presence of beef tallow in their fries and they agreed to settle. Please click here for more details.

A victory for David?

Not quite. What's US$10 million to a mega-billion company like McD? PEANUTS!

On a personal note it just strengthens my resolve not to consume McD. It shows how unethical and bias Americans and their corporations can be, for as long as it doesn't hurt themselves they don't give a damn - even when they infringe on others' beliefs. America a liberal and free country? No. A country which respects others? Double NO NO!