The Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) is back in Kuching, a small city in the eastern parts of Malaysia. Every year in July, since its commencement in 2005, throngs of people from all over the world have flooded the rainforest of Borneo for  3 days of dance, music and a celebration of the diversity of the two.

The festival is one of the largest music festivals in South-East Asia, and the largest in Malaysia, with an expected turn-out of at least 30,000 people this year. The festival activities include music and dance workshops in the daytime, craft booths, local food stalls and live entertainment at an open air main stage in the evening. The wide range of acts from the world over are the main highlights of the RainFest, featuring performances ranging from reggae rhythms to French chanson to Latino music.  The event gives the crowd a chance to experience the music of traditional instruments from nearly every continent at its best. This highly anticipated event has also been named as Songlines Magazine’s Top 25 Best International Festivals for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, putting it alongside other more well known festivals like the Chicago World Music Festival and Oslo World Music Festival.

This year’s line up includes Trio Joubran (Palestine), La Zikabilo (France), Khusugtun (Mongolia), Kanda Bongo Man (Congo), Danyel Waro (Reunion Islands), String Sisters (Scotland/Ireland/Sweden/Norway/USA), Cankisou (Czech Republic), Zee Avi (Malaysia/USA) and Samuel Dass and Prakash (Malaysia), among others from various countries such as Spain, Brazil and Burkina Faso. Some of the acts also provide workshops, which means that festival-goers can experience playing the traditional instruments themselves. Not many people can say that they have played a balafon before. Dance workshops will also see the crowd doing the Brazilian carimbo or the Bollywood bhangra in the Sarawakian traditional longhouses – talk about a fusion of cultures!

Along with the acoustic music, dancing in the tropical rain is also part of the festival’s annual tradition – it does not disrupt the festival in any way and is almost expected every year. The blend of tourists, locals and performers dancing in the big, muddy pit is a sight to behold – a real cultural mixing bowl. Held at the Sarawak Cultural Village in the outskirts of Kuching, the venue also gives visitors an insight into the Sarawak culture and lifestyle that they would not otherwise experience in the city.

From those who want a change from the music on your local radio, to those looking for a place to spend their summer vacations or for those who just want something different, this might just be the thing for you. This year, the Rainforest World Music Festival will be held on July 13-15.

Image Courtesy of   flykr

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The Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Rim Che-Min) and Korea Health Industry Development Institute (Ko Kyung-Hwa) announced that a 19-year-old woman, Tan Hui-Linn, has been invited to South Korea as part of the government’s Medical Korea project and will receive surgery at the JK Plastic Surgery Center located in southern Seoul.

Tan Hui-Linn’s life that was once full of hope was shattered on October 24, 2009, the date when her horrific incident occurred. Her father, who suffered from mental illness, poured hydrochloric acid on her sleeping mother, leaving her for dead. Tan Hui-Linn, who was sleeping beside her mother, lost one of her eyes and received severe burns across her body, which also left her face unrecognizable.

Although her emotional wounds have healed for the past two years, she still receives enormous stress from her lost face due to the stares she receives from people. On top of running fund-raising campaigns in Malaysia to help Hui-Linn, YB Jeff Ooi, the senator of her village, searched for advanced institutions that could recover her lost face.

As luck would have it, the senator came across the Korean JK Center’s “New Face New Dream” charity project. After several video meetings and reviews of her medical records, this Korean medical center decided to treat Hui-Linn.

Hui-Linn, arrived in Seoul on December 13 and was scheduled to stay until January 2012. Then, Tan Hui-Linn will receive medical treatment surrounding her eyebrows, eyes, chin, and the bottom lip with additional treatment to be proceeded. The airfare and costs for the sojourn will be paid by the funds raised in Malaysia while the JK Center will give the surgeries pro bono.

The Korean Government’s Medical Korea project will finance her nursing fee and tourism cost. Medical Korea, the nation’s medical brand, launched its medical charity program in 2010 to share Korea’s success and know-how in the medical industry and to enhance its advanced medical technology.

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After a Malaysian journalist was shot to death while on a mission trip in Mogadishu Friday, the Prime Minister urges the public not to point fingers. “Let’s not play this blame game,” Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (Najib) said Sunday, in a media conference at the Royal Mayasian Air Force base in Subang. “The most important thing for us is to take stock of what has happened.”

The deceased journalist, Noramfaizul Mohd Noor, 39, worked as a cameraman for the Malaysian National News Agency, Bernama. He had a wife and two children. Najib spent time consoling Noramfaizul’s family.  According to Bernama, Noramfaizul “was shot while travelling in a four-wheel-drive vehicle with other Malaysian media personnel covering the humanitarian aid mission to Somalia by the Putera 1Malaysia Club.”

Officials said that a clash between the African Union (AU) troops and other gunmen resulted in Noramfaizul’s death. Another reporter was severely wounded. A security official told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that initial reports indicate that AU peacekeepers were responsible for opening fire on the cameraman’s vehicle. Further investigation of the incident is being conducted.

Adbukarim Ali, a security official with the AU-backed government army, reported to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the shooting occurred at a busy area, which was Kilometer Four, in Mogadishu. “The men were hit by bullets when they were in their car, as they apparently were returning to their hotel,” said Ali.

In an article by Reuters, Muhideen Mohamed, a volunteer with the Malaysians described the deadly scene.“Two bullets hit the journalist, one in the head and another on the shoulder. He died on the spot,” Mohamed said. Mohamed also reported that the second reporter suffered a bullet wound to the arm.

All 54 members of the Putera 1Malaysia Club mission flew back to Subang on board the aircraft carrying the remains of Noramfaizul, reported Bernama. “There’s a limit to what you can prepare for any eventuality,” Najib said. “Isyallah (God willing), we’ll try our level best in the future to prevent such a thing from happening again.” Najib also said, “this deadly shooting is part and parcel of journalism.”

According to the BBC, as the Somalia’s food crisis has intensified. There has been an increase in the number of foreign aid workers and journalists traveling to region to help.

In July, The Washington Post reported that the famine in parts of southern Somalia had already killed tens of thousands of people, mostly children. Humanitarian aid officials described the situation as the “worst humanitarian crisis in the troubled country in two decades.”

On August 30, an article in Bernama said that a group representing the Putera 1Malaysia Club, which included Noramfaizul, had arrived in Mogadishu.Atuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, mission chief and club president, said that their humanitarian work would focus on five areas in Somalia; Magadishu being the first stop.

The mission aimed to distribute 250 tones of food and provide medicine to approximetly 45,000 families.The report by Bernama concluded with the statement that, “Bernama TV reporter Khairulanuar Yahaya and cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Noor are among the media crew taking part in the mission.”

The BCC said that the crisis in Somalia was “severely aggravated by civil strife.” According to AFP, “Clashes between rival militia groups happen regularly in Mogadishu, a city that has been battered by a bloody insurgency as Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels fight to unseat the Western-backed government.”

Such tumultuous conditions make humanitarian aid missions, like the work of Putera 1Malaysia Club, particularly dangerous. Noramfaizul is not the first individual to be killed while trying to better humanity in Africa.

Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) rank Somalia as the deadliest country in Africa for media personnel, with 23 media workers killed since 2007.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfameastafrica/

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