Grammy: Eminem grabs record sixth Best Rap Album |
- Grammy: Eminem grabs record sixth Best Rap Album
- Guru SJKT dan bunuh diri — Bahagian 1
- Redmayne scoops best actor award at BAFTAs for Hawking biopic
- It works! claims Van Gaal on United’s ‘long-ball’ tactics
- HSBC in hot water over tax evasion secret files
- Bloomberg Video: Super yacht to be kinder to Mother Nature
| Grammy: Eminem grabs record sixth Best Rap Album Posted: 08 Feb 2015 04:56 PM PST
With the win, Eminem has won a record six Grammys for Best Rap Album. "The Marshall Mathers LP 2" was his eighth studio album, and was considered a sequel to his largely autobiographical "The Marshall Mathers LP" from 2000, which remains the fastest-selling album by a solo artist in the United States. The now 42-year-old Eminem beat out a field that included Iggy Azalea, who would have been the first solo woman to win in the category. Eminem raised controversy with a recent song in which the rapper — or, he says, a character he is playing — threatens to rape Azalea. Azalea hit back by charging that Eminem was old and could not think of anything new other than to threaten a young woman. Eminem did not appear to accept the award, presented at a ceremony ahead of the main televised Grammy gala that features major pop performers. On "The Marshall Mathers LP 2", Eminem teamed up with veteran producer Rick Rubin, who brought in hard rock elements, as well as his veteran mentor Dr. Dre. The album features the hit "The Monster", in which Eminem again collaborated with singer Rihanna. Eminem – who is sober after a long history of substance use – on the album reflected at length on his trajectory into superstardom from his troubled youth in Detroit, where he grew up as Marshall Bruce Mathers III in a largely African American community. But Eminem also encountered further controversy on the album by using anti-gay slurs. Eminem had for years tried to battle accusations of homophobia, going so far as to perform at the 2001 Grammys in a duet with Elton John, who is gay. Eminem argued that he supports gay rights but that he uses the slur as a narrative device. On "The Marshall Mathers LP 2," Eminem also patches up with his mother after a notoriously difficult relationship, including past lyrics in which he hinted at violence against the "selfish bitch." — AFP  |
| Guru SJKT dan bunuh diri — Bahagian 1 Posted: 08 Feb 2015 04:48 PM PST
Persoalan ini muncul dalam minda selepas tersebar berita kononnya seorang guru di sebuah SJKT di Johor cuba mengambil nyawa sendiri dengan meminum racun. Beberapa orang — khususnya guru-guru SJKT — menghubungi saya untuk berkongsi maklumat mengenai kes tersebut serta beberapa kes seumpama itu. Secara umum, apa yang didapati adalah bahawa kebanyakan guru tidak tahan dengan penderaan mental yang diberikan oleh guru besar; sebagai tambahan kepada beban kerja yang terpaksa ditanggung atas arahan Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM). Program New Deal (Tawaran Baru atau Bai'ah) yang menjanjikan "habuan" besar kepada guru besar dikatakan menyebabkan kebanyakan guru besar SJKT lupa diri dan hilang pertimbangan rasional. Guru besar terbabit yang mahu mencapai cita-cita peribadi mula memaksa guru-guru bekerja lebih masa — termasuk pada hari cuti — tanpa memikirkan hakikat guru-guru juga ada keluarga. Menurut sebuah rencana di Utusan Malaysia (18 Februari 2011), guru besar selaku pemimpin dan pentadbir akan menikmati habuan RM7,500 jika berjaya membawa sekolahnya melepasi tahap kecemerlangan yang ditetapkan. Bagi sekolah rendah, 70 penilaian berdasarkan keputusan UPSR manakala 30 peratus meliputi pengurusan dan pentadbiran sekolah. Pencapaian murid dalam akademik dan kokurikulum turut diambil kira. Bagi SJKT pula, guru besar khabarnya menerima habuan agak lumayan daripada MIC bagi setiap murid yang mendapat 7A dalam UPSR. Maknanya, ada lebih daripada satu habuan yang menanti guru besar jika berjaya melonjakkan pencapaian murid. Bukan sekadar kes terpencil seperti disangka Terdapat 523 buah SJKT di seluruh negara. Agak menarik untuk diperhatikan bahawa kebanyakan kes "penderaan" melibatkan guru besar wanita dan guru wanita. (Ada juga kes guru besar lelaki melakukan gangguan seksual atau meminta habuan seks bagi "meringankan" beban kerja guru wanita; tetapi itu bagi makalah yang lain pula.) Seorang guru SJKT menghubungi saya untuk berkongsi pengalaman. Beliau meminta identiti kesemua individu terbabit dirahsiakan. Apa yang penting, beliau mahu kisah dan pengalaman yang dikongsikan itu sampai kepada pengetahuan umum. "Saya tidak mahu orang beranggapan kes yang berlaku di Johor baru-baru ini sebagai suatu kes terpencil. "Sebenarnya kes seperti ini banyak berlaku tetapi sering disembunyikan demi menjaga maruah dan nama baik SJKT," kata Cikgu Selvi (bukan nama sebenar). Sebaik mendapat berita mengenai kes yang berlaku itu, Selvi segera terkenang akan pengalaman yang dilaluinya sendiri. Dia bersedia untuk berkongsi pengalaman pahit itu demi membuka mata orang ramai serta menarik perhatian kementerian dan jabatan pendidikan. Katanya, memang kes guru besar membuli, menekan dan mendera guru secara fizikal dan emosional berleluasa di beberapa SJKT. Semuanya demi memastikan guru besar dapat melonjakkan nama dan menerima habuan atas kejayaan sekolah yang ditadbirnya. Saraswathi halang guru pakai sari ke sekolah Pada sekitar tahun 2008, Selvi mula mengajar di sebuah SJKT di Selangor. Masalah hanya timbul apabila Puan Saraswathi (bukan nama sebenar) berpindah ke sekolah berkenaan hampir setahun kemudian. Saraswathi seorang guru besar cemerlang. Entah mengapa, sejak awal-awal lagi, Saraswathi kurang menyenangi Selvi. Menurut Selvi, guru besar itu sering bercakap secara kasar, menyindir dan menghinanya tanpa apa-apa alasan. Secara kebetulan, kereta yang dipandu oleh Selvi adalah lebih mahal (mewah) berbanding kereta Saraswathi. Pada suatu hari, guru besar itu mengarahkan Selvi supaya tidak lagi membawa kereta berkenaan ke sekolah kerana kononnya menjejaskan kedudukannya sebagai ketua. "Dia juga mengarahkan saya tidak memakai sari ke sekolah. Kononnya ibu bapa dan pihak PIBG membuat aduan. "Saya bukanlah guru yang muda. Anak-anak saya sudah besar-besar belaka. Entah apa yang menjadi isu jika saya memakai sari ke sekolah," Selvi meluahkan perasaannya. Saraswathi sentiasa mencari peluang untuk mengkritik, menghina dan memburuk-burukkan Selvi, sama ada di kelas atau dalam mesyuarat. Guru itu mula menyedari bahawa guru-guru wanita lain juga menjadi sasaran tetapi mereka hanya berdiam diri. Mesyuarat dipenuhi leteran, penghinaan Mesyuarat diadakan pada setiap hari Sabtu, dari 8 pagi hingga 5 petang. Kononnya untuk meningkatkan prestasi sekolah dalam akademik dan kokurikulum, selaras program New Deal. Akan tetapi, dua jam pertama pada setiap mesyuarat digunakan untuk menghina para guru dengan kata-kata kesat yang meletakkan guru terbabit lebih hina daripada anjing jalanan. Amalan Saraswathi hampir menyerupai budaya politikus kaum India yang gemar melakukan perkara sama dalam mesyuarat bagi memastikan semua orang bawahanya menjadi pak turut yang tidak akan berani melawan dalam apa-apa keadaan. "Kalau ada cuti sekolah selama dua minggu, minggu pertama (Isnin-Sabtu) pasti diisi dengan mesyuarat sepanjang hari. "Para guru terpaksa hadir untuk mendengar leteran dan penghinaan yang bertubi-tubi," Selvi menceritakan dengan nada sedih. Pada tahun 2011, Selvi mendapat gred DG44 berdasarkan kelayakan manakala Saraswathi masih berada pada paras gred DG32. Gaji guru besar itu masih lebih tinggi daripada Selvi tetapi Saraswathi mula mengungkitkan soal maruah dan kedudukannya. Guru besar itu mula menyindir dengan berkata, "Lihatlah nama anjing mana yang ada pada kedudukan teratas pada senarai nama" kerana nama-nama disusun mengikut tangga gred DG. Secara automatik, nama Selvi berada di atas nama Saraswathi dalam senarai. Maka guru besar itu secara terang-terangan melipat-gandakan tekanan dan penghinaan terhadap Selvi yang ternyata tidak disukainya. – Bersambung esok * Ini adalah pendapat peribadi penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili pandangan Malay Mail Online. |
| Redmayne scoops best actor award at BAFTAs for Hawking biopic Posted: 08 Feb 2015 04:46 PM PST
The 33-year-old won for his role as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything", the world's most famous living scientist crippled by an advanced form of motor neurone disease. He had already scooped a Golden Globe and is hoping to add an Oscar later this month to complete the trio. Among his fellow Oscar nominees was his friend and fellow British thespian Benedict Cumberbatch, who also played a troubled genius, Alan Turing, in "The Imitation Game". Redmayne has won plaudits for his theatre work over the past decade, and has had parts in a number of major films, but this was his first leading man role — and it has propelled him into the big league. The film tells the story of Hawking and his wife Jane, starting in the 1960s at Cambridge University — before he was diagnosed at the age of 21 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Based on a memoir by Jane, played by fellow Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, it charts how their relationship changed as his health declined and his fame grew, until their marriage fell apart in the early 1990s. Redmayne was not the first choice to play Hawking. But he managed to arrange a meeting in a pub with director James Marsh, where he drank too much beer out of nerves and secured the part without an audition. Immersing himself in the role, he spent four months visiting people with motor neurone disease at a clinic in London and reading everything he could by Hawking. The result is a physical transformation that has been compared to Daniel Day-Lewis's Oscar-winning performance in "My Left Foot". Hawking has reportedly said there were moments watching the film when he thought he was watching himself, and he gave the ultimate seal of approval by allowing the director to use his trademark computerised voice. Redmayne said he was "terrified" that Hawking might not like it, but that it was an honour to spend time with him — even if the first meeting started badly. Lost for words, the star-struck actor blurted out that they were both Capricorns, to which Hawking replied: "I'm an astronomer, not an astrologer." Chiselled good looks The son of a London banker with four siblings, Redmayne took acting classes from a young age and was a child extra in the West End production of "Oliver!". He attended the elite Eton school alongside Prince William and studied History of Art at Cambridge — the same university where Hawking still works. Barely a year after graduating, Redmayne had a part in an all-male production of "Twelfth Night" by Shakespeare's Globe theatre, and by 2004 had won his first theatre award. A few years later he picked up both a Laurence Olivier award and a Tony award for his role as artist Mark Rothko's fictional assistant Ken in the play "Red". He has also appeared in a number of hit films including "The Good Shepherd", "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and "The Other Boleyn Girl". He also played Marius in the Oscar-winning 2012 musical "Les Miserables". Like Cumberbatch, Redmayne is blessed with chiselled good looks that always had the potential to make him a star, and has modelled for luxury brand Burberry. Both men have a legion of fans on Twitter, dubbed respectively the "Redmayniacs" and the "Cumberb*****s", undaunted by Redmayne's recent marriage and Cumberbatch's impending nuptials. While the Hawking biopic has won him an Oscar nomination, the next film on his CV is set to send Redmayne's profile stratospheric. Next month will see the release of the latest offering by "The Matrix" trilogy's Andy and Lana Wachowski, the sci-fi movie "Jupiter Ascending", in which Redmayne plays a villain with a six-pack. — AFP |
| It works! claims Van Gaal on United’s ‘long-ball’ tactics Posted: 08 Feb 2015 04:45 PM PST
United started with Radamel Falcao, Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Angel di Maria and Adnan Januzaj at Upton Park yesterday, but it took a stoppage-time volley from Daley Blind to earn the visitors a point after Cheikhou Kouyate had given West Ham a deserved 49th-minute lead. West Ham manager Sam Allardyce said United's strategy was "thump it forward and see what happens", and Van Gaal admitted that the introduction of gangly Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini as a 72nd-minute substitute had heralded a change of tack. "I've done that already a lot of times with Fellaini, so that is not new," said Van Gaal, who lost Luke Shaw to a late red card after the United left-back received a second booking for a lunge at Stewart Downing. "West Ham United should know that. But with him we have more power. With Adnan and Di Maria, we have more creative players. "And that's why the second ball, you cannot always win with these players, but you have to win (it). Otherwise I have to line up always players like Fellaini." Van Gaal claimed that United's failure to win the second ball had been their major failing, but the visitors also looked bereft of ideas when they did have possession. Falcao squandered a good opportunity when he stabbed wide with only Adrian to beat, but aside from a couple of saves to deny Van Persie, the West Ham goalkeeper was scarcely troubled until Blind struck in the 92nd minute. The Dutch utility player's goal was his second last-gasp equaliser of the season, after another late strike at West Bromwich Albion in October. But while it preserved a run of unbeaten away matches stretching back to November 2, the draw represented a missed opportunity for United, who could have closed to within three points of second-place Manchester City in the Premier League table. Terrific skill Asked if his side had squandered a chance to put pressure on City, who drew 1-1 with Hull City on Saturday, Van Gaal replied: "Yes. I'm agreeing with that before the game. "You know what it is. They have lost points, then you can make a gap with your competitors. Now you don't make this gap, so it is a missed chance." While United will expect to return to winning ways at home to struggling Burnley on Wednesday, West Ham face a trip to Southampton, who held on to third place thanks to yesterday's result at Upton Park. West Ham will also face Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal before the middle of March, but Allardyce said his players could take heart from their display against United. "It's not the result we deserved or wanted, but we're back to a level we know we can play at, which has been difficult to get to over that Christmas/New Year period with injuries, the African Nations Cup and so on," he told his post-match press conference. Allardyce said that striker Andy Carroll had a chance of facing Southampton after missing yesterday's game with an ankle problem. Injuries to James Collins and Winston Reid saw midfielder Kouyate pressed into action at centre-back and Allardyce was full of praise for the Senegal international's performance, which he crowned with a delightful goal that saw him juggle the ball twice before volleying home. "We know he played there for Anderlecht and Senegal, but what we didn't now was, can he play with the right tactical awareness and discipline you need as a central defender in the Premier League? And of course he proved he could," Allardyce said. "The icing on the cake was the quality of his goal. In such a tight area, to flick it round and volley it in was a terrific piece of skill and at that time it was nothing more than we deserved." — AFP |
| HSBC in hot water over tax evasion secret files Posted: 08 Feb 2015 04:43 PM PST
The files, analysed by reporters in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), showed that British banking giant HSBC provided accounts to international criminals, corrupt businessmen, politicians and celebrities. "HSBC profited from doing business with arms dealers who channelled mortar bombs to child soldiers in Africa, bag men for Third World dictators, traffickers in blood diamonds and other international outlaws," ICIJ reported. The files list a range of former and current politicians from Britain, Russia, India and a range of African countries, Saudi, Bahraini, Jordanian and Moroccan royalty, and the late Australian press magnate Kerry Packer. The revelations are likely to stoke calls for a crackdown on sophisticated tax avoidance by the wealthy and by multinational companies, a key political issue in Britain and Europe. Notes in the files indicate HSBC workers were aware of clients' intentions to keep money hidden from national authorities. Of one Danish account holder collecting cash bundles of kroner, an employee wrote: "All contacts through one of her 3 daughters living in London. Account holder living in Denmark, i.e. critical as it is a criminal act having an account abroad non declared." In another memo, an HSBC manager discusses how a London-based financier codenamed "Painter" and his partner could avoid Italian tax. "The risk for the couple is, of course, that when they return to Italy the UK tax authorities will pass on information on them to the Italian tax authorities. My own view on this was that ... there clearly was a risk," the employee wrote. HSBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but told the ICIJ: "We acknowledge that the compliance culture and standards of due diligence in HSBC's Swiss private bank, as well as the industry in general, were significantly lower than they are today." Richard Brooks, a former tax inspector, told the BBC: "I think they were a tax avoidance and tax evasion service. I think that's what they were offering." Businessmen, politicians, designers, models The investigation was done by the ICIJ, linked to the US-based Center for Public Integrity, who enlisted more than 140 journalists from 45 countries in cooperation with France's Le Monde, Britain's BBC and The Guardian, US programme 60 Minutes, German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and more than 45 other media organisations. Names in the files include people sanctioned by the United States, including Turkish businessman Selim Alguadis and Gennady Timchenko, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin targeted by sanctions over Ukraine. Alguadis told the ICIJ it was prudent to keep savings off-shore, while a spokesman for Timchenko said he was fully compliant with tax matters. Former Egyptian trade minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid, who fled Cairo during the 2011 uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak, is listed as having power of attorney over an account worth US$31 million (RM109.98 million), according to the files. He did not respond to requests for comment from the ICIJ. Other individuals named include the late Frantz Merceron, an associate of former Haitian president Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, and Rami Makhlouf, cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Makhlouf did not respond to a request for comment from the ICIJ. Also named were designer Diane von Furstenberg, who told the ICIJ the accounts were inherited from her parents, and model Elle Macpherson, whose lawyers told the ICIJ she was fully in compliance with UK tax law. Formula One driver Valentino Rossi, listed as having US$23.9 million in two accounts, said he had regularised his tax situation with Italian authorities. Formula One businessman Flavio Briatore is connected to 38 bank accounts that held as much as US$73 million between 2006-2007, according to the ICIJ. His lawyer told the ICIJ Briatore's accounts were legal and complied with tax laws. The files are a version of a set obtained by former HSBC employee-turned-whistleblower Herve Falciani, who copied thousands of bank documents before fleeing from Switzerland to France, where they were obtained by tax authorities in 2009. They were used by the French government to track down tax evaders and shared with other states in 2010, leading to a series of prosecutions for tax evasion. HSBC Private Bank, the Swiss subsidiary of the British banking group, is under formal investigation in a French probe into tax fraud. In 2012, HSBC paid a record US$1.9 billion fine in a settlement in a money laundering case, after a US Senate investigation found it was used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels. — AFP |
| Bloomberg Video: Super yacht to be kinder to Mother Nature Posted: 08 Feb 2015 04:29 PM PST Duration: 2:25, Published 9 Feb 2015 In the last decade super yachts have gotten bigger and bigger. They now resemble floating palaces complete with multiple swimming pools, helicopters and every available luxury. But mega yachts are trying to change their image. Bloomberg's Angus Bennett reports on the industry's attempt to go green. — Bloomberg |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malay Mail Online | All To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
