Monday, November 24, 2008

Hey, Guys - it's that time of the year again!

Evenstarr's 'Patah' Music Video dedicated to The White Ribbon Campaign 2006, directed by Tim Shim.



Higher res versions + commentary available at Tim Shim's site.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Campaign Champions, Artiste Activists!



My gratitude to these guys featured here is immeasurable. They all stepped forward without a fuss, to offer their support.

Ribuan terima kasih to each of them.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

IF, ... NO BUTs!


My nieces. A seventh is on the way. They are one of the main reasons I am on my White Ribbon Campaign. Join me.

IF YOU ARE A GUY

Please come to support, take the White Ribbon Pledge to end violence against women, maybe even contribute a performance -- we will have full stage and band set-up to accommodate any kind act.

Do this to honour your mother, sisters, wife or partner, daughter, all children and friend, and all women.

IF YOU ARE NOT A GUY:

Please drag along as many of your guy friends to 1 Utama on Saturday ... and "pujuk" them to take up the Campaign on a personal basis.

IF YOU ARE A GUY PUBLIC FIGURE:

... a celebrity, a role-model, a mentor, a leader or simply a guy that feels strongly about violence and discrimination -- you don't know how important your presence can be to the White Ribbon Campaign media launch this Saturday. COME!

IF YOU ARE ANY FRIEND OF MINE:


Please tell as many people about the event as possible. DRag them there, if you have to. AND I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Role Models, Mentors & Icons



Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, Tony Fernandez, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, and Shebby Singh. Three exemplary entrepreneurs and a national soccer icon.

(I'd like to have them join us. Anyone know how I can make this happen?)

If any of you are actually reading this humble blog of mine ... I am already privileged. Please say you'll come, Sirs?

White Ribbon? Malaysia Boleh!



Am I crazy to think that this could possibly be the largest single gathering of Malaysian male public figures, celebrities and role models to come together in support of an urgent social issue affecting us all, every day?

Perhaps it could be when we are made to realise that a rape is reported every 4 hours somewhere in Malaysia.

Ribuan Terima Kasih to Reshmonu, Manbai and Vick Teo for being the first three leading celebrities to lend their support and celebrity presence to The White Ribbon Campaign.

I hope to see you there too, Sir?

Hey Guys, It's 1 Utama This Saturday!


YES, GENTLEMEN! ... you can take THE WHITE RIBBON PLEDGE this Saturday 25th November 2006 at 1 UTAMA, at a media launch of this years WHITE RIBBON CAMPAIGN.

The event from 11am to 3pm will also feature appearances and performances from what is hoped to be the biggest gathering of male celebrities and public figures in the Klang Valley. Rock legend, Manbai, has confirmed to sing two songs. So, too has Vick Teo, the 2nd runner-up from Malaysian Idol 1.

A Malaysian version of Il Divo are also expected to blow away the audience. And the list appears to be growing.

If you're not sure how to get there, here's a map!

If you're a famous guy and you haven't heard from me yet, it's not that you're NOT on my list of invited celebrities. It's just that I haven't had a chance to get in direct contact with you.

I apologise, and urge you to come along and join us all in this significant cause. You may like to read an article in The Star about the event.

Men who see themselves as role models, who wish to be exemplary figures among their communities, colleagues and families should come along and support the WRC.

Come on guys, be a REAL man and come take the pledge of The White Ribbon Campaign! It's a brotherhood of conscience we owe all the women in our lives.

Pop-rockers Join WRC 2006




Evenstarr, a Kuching-based pop-rock band comprising 4 young professionals, has taken up on the mantle to bring awareness of gender-based violence to young people.

I am grateful for their participation.

They have donated a new song called PATAH from their forthcoming album "Ruang Di Antara".

Their videographer, Tim Shim, is working on a music video that will convey shocking statistics about violence against women. Tim created the music video to an earlier release entitled MASIH, and you can see the video here.

I think PATAH will be a compelling piece of music and video to help conscientize men and boys to the issues of the campaign in an exciting new way.

Breaking Men’s Silence To End Men’s Violence

From:
THE WHITE RIBBON CAMPAIGN
Men Working to End Violence Against Women
Canada

If it were between countries, we’d call it a war. If it were a disease, we’d call it an epidemic. If it were an oil spill, we’d call it a disaster. But it is happening to women, and it’s just an everyday affair. It is violence against women. It is sexual harassment at work and sexual abuse of the young. It is the beating or the blow that millions of women suffer each and every day. It is rape at home or on a date. It is murder.

There’s no secret enemy pulling the trigger. No unseen virus that leads to death. It is only men. Not all men, but far too many men. In some countries, most men will never be violent against a woman, in others, the majority of men take it as their birthright to do what they want, to women.

And just who are these men? Just regular guys. Men from all social backgrounds and of all colours and ages. Rich men and poor men, men who toil in the fields and men who sit behind desks.

All those regular guys, though, have helped create a climate of fear and mistrust among women. Many of our sisters, our mothers and our daughters, our girlfriends and our wives do not feel safe in their own homes. At night they cannot walk to the store for bread or rice without wondering who’s walking behind them. It’s hard for them to turn on the television without seeing men running ‘amok’ in displays of brutality against women and other men. Even those women in relationships with gentle and caring men feel they cannot totally put their trust on men. All women are imprisoned in culture of violence.



Men’s violence against women isn’t aberrant behaviour. Men have created cultures where men use violence against other men, where we wreck violence on the natural habitat, where we see violence as the best means to solve differences between nations, where every boy is forced to learn to fight or to be branded a sissy, and where men have forms of power and privilege that women do not enjoy.

Men have been defined as part of the problem. But the White Ribbon Campaign believes that men can and must be part of the solution. Confronting men’s violence against women requires nothing less than a commitment to full equality for women and a redefinition of what it means to be a men, to discover a meaning to manhood that doesn’t require blood to be spilled.

With all of our love, respect and support for the women in our lives:

# We urge men around the world to wear a white ribbon, or hang a white ribbon from their house, their vehicle, or at their workplace each year for one to two weeks, starting from November 25, the international day for the eradication of violence against women. Wearing a white ribbon is a public pledge never to commit, condone, remain silent about violence against women. The white ribbon symbolises a call for any man who is violent to lay down his arms in the war against our sisters.


# We ask unions, professional associations, student groups, corporations, religious institutions, the media, non-governmental and governmental organisations to make this an issue of priority.


# We urge government to pass the comprehensive laws against all forms of violence against women and to fund programmes for survivors of this violence such as shelters for battered women and rape crisis centres, and for services to treat violent men.


# We call for large-scale educational programmes in schools and workplaces, for police officers and judges, on the issue of men’s violence.


# We believe that respect for girls and women and equality between men ad women are preconditions to ending the violence.


# We urge men to organise local and national White Ribbon Campaigns, open to all men and boys, right across the political, social and economic spectrum.

It has been the longest war, the greatest epidemic, the biggest disaster. With strength and love, we commit ourselves to work alongside women to bring this violence to an end.