Kidney-harvesting both fact and fiction

Mrs Lucy Ling and I were sipping teh tarik after having partaken of nasi kandar at Bestari, a Mamak restaurant in Petaling Jaya. While browsing through The Malay Mail of Dec 2, 2009, I was startled to read that two Johor Bahru men had complained to Michael Chong of the MCA Public Complaints Bureau that their kidneys had been harvested after visiting prostitutes.

"Ohmigosh!" I exclaimed. "This is scary. Kidneys gone after a fling with a sex worker! But I wonder whether it's true or not?"

"Let me see the news," said Lucy, putting down her cup and reaching out for the tabloid. After reading it, she quickly fished out a handphone from her handbag. She uttered: "Lou kung (Cantonese for "husband")! You better be careful! You better don't go and visit prostitutes any more! Two men lost their kidneys after doing this... blah...blah... blah...."

Kidney-harvesting is both fact and fiction. Websites such as www. hoax-slayer.com and www. urbanlegends.about. com have classified such stories as "urban legends." The story started circulating by email in the USA in the 1970's, and had been forwarded around like a chain-letter.

Normally, it goes something like this: a traveller or party-goer consumes a spiked drink after being lured by a woman, and wakes up in a bathtub full of ice and a surgery wound on his waist. A note is left for him to call for help, and while in hospital, he is informed that his kidneys have been stolen. Such kind of "thefts" have been vehemently denied by the American Kidney Foundation as none of the purported victims have ever come forward. Though I doubt such incidents have happened in Western countries, there is indeed illegal organ trafficking in China, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Israel, Palestine, Mozambique and Kosovo.

Perhaps the most infamous organ trafficker of the century was Dr. Amit Kumar (see pix) of India who tricked poor peasants to his medical centre in the city of Gurgaon in the outskirt of New Delhi with false promises of construction jobs. The victims were then forciby sedated at gun-point or duped into selling their kidneys. Online news portal hindustantimes. com reported that Dr. Amit Kumar (nicknamed Dr. Horror) had been arrested last year in Nepal and deported to India. He had been trafficking in kidneys for 15 years, with a record of more than 500 kidney transplants. His cohorts included several other doctors, and they had wealthy clients from Western countries.

Later, I phoned Lucy's hubby. I told him: "Mr Ling, your wife is right; my personal advice if you want to be naughty is to consume only canned or bottled drinks, and go only for quickies; never pass the night -- better be safe than sorry."

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False news late Lim Goh Tong declared a Muslim irresponsible blogging

Recently, I received an email containing news that the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong had been declared a Muslim by the Pahang syariah court, and that his non-Muslim children will lose their inheritance. After a bit of research, I traced the story to a posting by an anonymous blogger, who later admitted in a subsequent posting that the "news" was just fabrication. Even though I am a pork-eating, beer-guzzling Taoist who prays to pagan idols, I am not amused with this inciting of religious hatred by a non-Muslim. His (or her) action is both irresponsible and terrible.

For a start, why be disrespectful to the late Tan Sri Lim by using his name? How would this blogger in question feel if a story is written using his/her father's name? Next, why is he (or she) blogging anonymously to hit out at other people? If this blogger fancies himself as a hero of the non-Muslims, then he/she should not hide in the toilet-bowl of anonymity. Did Martin Luther King, Malcom X and Nelson Mandela fight for the rights of Africans by anonymous means?

If Tun Mahathir has been re-labelled an ultra-Malay of late in certain blogs, then this blogger can be dubbed as ultra-Chinese (or ultra-Indian, depending on his/her race) -- and also a coward. The fewer we have of these three kinds in our country, the greater are the chances of racial harmony.

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"Count the panties" contest distasteful

The count-the-panties contest that has appeared in newspapers and TV is distasteful. Like condoms, briefs, bras and other personal hygiene products, panties are intimate items that should not flaunted or used as the "star" in a contest. Doesn't the organiser, Kotex, have other things for the participants to count?

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Why Ganesh has an elephant's head?

Many non-Hindus are familiar with Ganesh (aka Ganesha), the Hindu god with an elephant's head, but few know the legend behind it. According to mythology, while Lord Shiva had been away for a long time, his consort Goddess Parvati created Ganesh from her sweat and body's dirt. The boy was instructed to guard the bathroom while Parvati bathed.

One day, when Shiva returned, he was surprised to find a "stranger" denying him access to Parvati's bathroom. A fight ensued, and Shiva cut off Ganesh's head. Parvati was grief-stricken, and to console her, Shiva sent his squad to get a head from any creature that faced north. So, an elephant's head was brought back as a replacement. Furthermore, Shiva elevated Ganesh to the status of god, and proclaimed that all new activities (such as entering a new home or official opening of a business premise) should begin by invoking his name and blessings. Thus, he is also known as the God of Good Fortune or God of Success.

Another interesting fact is that Ganesh is often depicted riding a mouse, with a snake coiled round his belly. Why a snake? On one of his birthdays, Ganesh was riding from to house to house, accepting offerings of sweets. A snake slithered across the mouse's path, and it panicked, threwing Ganesh off. He fell and burst his belly, spilling all the sweets out. However, he stuffed them back and used the snake as a bandage to wrap his belly.

When I told this story to my buddy Lee Ah Boo, who has been worshipping Tua Pek Kong or the Taoist God of Prosperity in his home altar for more than two decades without striking any windfall, he pledged that he would go to a Hindu temple to pray to Ganesh regularly, and seek his blessings for wealth. Good luck to him.

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Transsexual Fatine has my sympathies

Sex-change woman Fatine (formerly Mohammed Fadzil Bahari) who married Briton Ian Young is currently in trouble with the Syariah court, according to the dailies. My sympathies are with her. No... no... no... not because I am a customer of transsexual prostitutes, but I guess I understand members of the third sex better than the man-in-the-street.

Back in 1995, when I was editor of Men & Women, a fashion-cum-lifestyle magazine (now defunct), I had the opportunity to interview a rather sophisticated transsexual (or transvestite) named Miss Sylvia Chow. She was not the crude "Mari, Bang! Tiga puluh ringgit, Bang!" sex worker that one encounters in the back lanes of KL's Lorong Haji Taib district. Kuala Lumpur-born Sylvia spoke French, Italian, German and English, and worked in Europe for almost 20 years.

During the lengthy interview in her condominium, she played the perfect host, serving me tea and scones, while classical music played in the background from a hi-fi. Her life story was similar to those of others in her shoes: a preference for dolls rather than toy guns at a young age; an attraction for boys rather than girls as a teenager; a secret desire to dress in women's clothes and apply make-up as a young man, and the emotional difficulty of identifying her "true" gender before finally discovering and accepting it.

Alas, finding the courage to express her gender openly by cross-dressing in public was a major step forward for her. Initially, her parents threatened to disown her but they later accepted her true self. Another highlight of her life was winning a minor "Miss Singapore" beauty-contest title in the 1970's when she was in her early 20's.

"Woman trapped in a man's body": this is what all transexuals feel. So Sylvia went for a sex change operation, and left for Europe to work as a strip-tease dancer. While performing in Switzerland, Cupid struck, and she married a Swiss businessman. However, after 12 years, the marriage broke down, and she returned to KL to set up a flower shop.

Sylvia is one of lucky few among the "sheboys" (a Thai expression for transsexuals) who have had a decent and good life. Both she and her kind are also God's creations; so why discriminate and ridicule them? That's why Fatine has my sympathies. Mereka juga adalah insan yang diciptakan oleh Tuhan, bukan?

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"South Pacific" movie not shot on Tioman Island

Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Footprint Malaysia Handbook, local travel websites and some travel literature (even those published by Tourism Malaysia but produced by outside agencies) have claimed that Malaysia's Tioman Island was the location where the Hollywood movie South Pacific (released in 1958) was filmed. I have been to Tioman; have also watched the original South Pacific; I didn't see any iota of resemblance between any scene in the movie with any location on Tioman. A bit of research will reveal that the actual location was the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Colorado-based news portal, The Examiner (http: //www. theexaminer.com), reported that Ms Mitzi Gaynor, the film's star, had returned to Kauai in October 2009 to celebrate the film's 50th anniversary. The portal stated: "Popular sites like Hanalei Bay, Lumaha'i Beach and Mount Makana that were South Pacific's mystical island of Bali Hai are easily recognisable in the movie and by visitors coming to Kauai's north shore today."

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"Saudara Baru" a misnomer

When Chinese in Malaysia embrace Islam, they are referred to as "Saudara Baru" by their Malay brethren and sisters. "Saudara Baru" means "new relations."

Is this an apt term? In the context of history, I doubt it simply because the Chinese in ancient China have been practising the faith more than 600 years earlier than the Malays in the Malay archipelago. In 650, eighteen years after the death of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.), his maternal uncle Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqaas was sent as an offical envoy by the Caliph Uthman ibn Affan of Arabia (currently Saudi Arabia) to the court of Chinese Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. So important was this visit that the Hui people of China regard the year 650 as the founding of Islam in their country. Impressed with the teachings of Islam, the Emperor built the magnificent Memorial Mosque in Canton city.

On the other hand, Malaysia's Batu Bersurat (or Terengganu Stone) that was discovered in 1899 revealed that an Islamic state existed in the area before 1326. A theory was thus postulated that Islam had arrived to the East Coast of the Malay peninsula from China. On the West Coast, Islam began to spread its wings only after Parameswara, a Hindu prince from Sumatra, converted to Islam in 1409. In days of yore, prior to the founding of Melaka, the Malays were under the influence of the Hindu-Buddhist empires of Majapahit (1229-1500) and Sri Vijaya (680-1200/1300), both based in Java, and were probably idol-worshippers.

Thus, doesn't it seem right that the Chinese Muslims in China should refer to the Malays in Malaysia as "Saudara Baru"?

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