Views from the top

Melbourne, 23 September 2007, Sunny Sunday morning.


Manal's eyeview of the panoramic sceneries across a few angles of Melbourne captured by her 2 years old fuji 6 megapixels digicam from 43rd floor, room 19, Sofitel Melbourne hotel:



Photo #1: The building down below houses a few commonwealth and city administration offices next to the Treasury Park on the right. All the way down the park, you may catch a glimpse of river Yarra.

Photo#2: That dark cathedral smack in the middle of the byway is supposedly one of the oldest of its kind in Melbourne.


Photo#3: The lower building in the middle of the brown and grey buildings is the Parliament House. Melbourne used to be one of the country's main admin domain until everything is shifted to Canberra.


Photo#4: The heart of the city where commercial areas and banks and some colleges situated near each other.



Photo#5: Another view of the Treasury Park in Spring time. To the right middle of the park is the Conservatory area where they grow some exotic plants, herbs and flowers. A bit like a plant nursery.

Pretty sombre yet tranquil city on a Sunday morning was what I could describe. Not so much of a traffic seen, and this reminded me of a certain part of London especially on the East End, Mayfair, and Chelsea on a normal Sunday.

The hotel is situated in what looks like one of the posh and quiet vicinities of the city. Even though it is not really london or paris vis-a-vis (relatively speaking), but the city's close proximity to the places around it made this hotel a convenient spot to begin your little journey to roam across the city sans unnecessary hassles. Nevertheless, people can still enjoy some sense of je ne sais quoi the more you travel across the city (and perhaps all the way to the coast line down south) (kan makji esah?)

More on protests against the knighthood conferment

Hmm....why is it that this news does not appear in any of the local papers including latest updates but already published by Reuters World News just over 1 hour ago???

And of course, since it is part of the PAS members street demo in front of the British Embassy, this incident was also reported in their website, Harakah Daily.




Here's an excerpt of the news:


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -
Supporters of Malaysia's hardline
Islamic party protested outside the British embassy on
Wednesday against the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie,
whose novel the "Satanic Verses" outraged Muslims worldwide.

Chanting "Destroy Salman Rushdie" and "Destroy Britain,"
some 30 members of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia urged
Britain to withdraw the honor or risk the consequences.

"This has tainted the whole knighthood, the whole hall of
fame of the British system," party treasurer Hatta Ramli told
reporters after the party handed a protest note to embassy
officials.

"The British government must be responsible because it has
created a sudden feeling of anger not just on Salman Rushdie
but on the British government," he said. "They have to bear the
consequences." he said.

About 40 policemen, including a dozen armed with batons,
stood by. A spokesman at the British High Commission was not
immediately available for comment.

Rushdie, whose book prompted late Iranian leader Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a 1989 fatwa death warrant against
him for blasphemy, was awarded a knighthood last week for
services to literature in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honors
list.

*****************************************************************

Anyways, this knighthood award has been gaining a mixed reviews even amongst the British themselves. But somehow, organizing street demo by chanting "hancur Salman" ( destroy Salman) and "Jahanam Britain" (Go to Hell, Britain) shows the typical emotional response from the hardliners just like their Indonesian brothers. But of course, those Indonesian hardliners go way over the board, rather on the extreme end by burning things, destroying valuables or anything along the way just to accentuate their anger demonstration.

Why are they chanting "Jahanam Britain" for? Why the country itself? There are like over 3 millions of their muslim brothers and sisters there and they are also british. Why cant they write: "We stand united against this knighthood conferment" or something like that on some banner? Typical hysterical act.

Oh and by the way, I need to learn on how to post the exact photo-feed of the online news on my blog. Can anyone help me here? Zewt, Idlan, Zaki, anyone?