From the BBC came this offbeat item:

A judge in New Zealand made a young girl a ward of court so that she could change the name she hated - Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

Judge Rob Murfitt said that the name embarrassed the nine-year-old and could expose her to teasing.

He attacked a trend of giving children bizarre names, citing several examples.

Officials had blocked Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit, he said, but Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and Midnight Chardonnay had been allowed.

One mother wanted to name her child O.crnia using text language, but was later persuaded to use Oceania, he said.

‘Social handicap’

The ruling, in the city of New Plymouth on the North Island, was handed down in February but only made public now.

The name issue emerged during a custody hearing for the young girl - who had refused to tell her friends her name and went simply by “K”.

“The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child’s parents have shown in choosing this name,” Judge Murfitt wrote.

“It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily.”

Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii’s name has now been changed and the custody case resolved, court officials said.

New Zealand does not allow names that would cause offence or that are longer than 100 characters, Registrar-General Brian Clarke said.

Officials often tried to talk parents out of particularly unusual choices that could embarrass their offspring, the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

Raja Petra Kamarudin or RPK as he is affectionately known in the blogging community is Malaysia’s most famous blogger. He made another explosive revelation today in his website today.

The following paragraphs taken from his blog:

Today, in the spirit of my fifth criminal charge, I am going to make another ‘seditious’ or ‘criminal defamation’ allegation against Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, in the spirit of what Anwar Ibrahim said to CNN last week (see the CNN report here: http://72.47.236.85/2008/content/view/10077/1/ ). And this allegation is that Najib met Saiful to discuss the sodomy allegation against Anwar and for no other reason other than that — and certainly not to discuss the young man’s future career or scholarship.

This time I am going for broke. This time I am prepared to go to jail for a long, long time just to make sure that Najib is not going to become Prime Minister of Malaysia in June 2010. Yes, I know I am headed for a fall, but I am going to bring Najib down with me. We shall both hit the dirt and become history, side-by-side.

And how will that happen? Well, this time I video-recorded a ‘confession’ session. And the video recording is now in a safe place, ready to surface during my trial when they charge me for this newest ‘crime’, whatever that crime is going to be.

Read more about it here

The only place in the world where a multibillionaire is a pauper….

Values like these remind me of the Chinese Hell Bank Notes (shudder…)

Zimbabwe introduces Z$100bn note

In January, the bank introduced a Z$10m note

Zimbabwe is to introduce a bank-note worth Z$100bn in response to rampant inflation - but the note will barely cover the cost of a loaf of bread.

Some Zimbabweans are already calling for higher denominations in a country where the official annual inflation rate has exceeded 2,200,000%.

Independent economists believe the real rate is many times higher.

Zimbabwe’s meltdown has left at least 80% of the population in poverty, facing mass shortages of basic goods.

The country’s central bank has introduced several new notes already this year in response to the hyperinflation.

In January, a Z$10 million note was issued, followed by a Z$50 million. By June the denominations had reached tens of billions.

Daily bread

In a notice in the state-controlled Herald newspaper, central bank governor Gideon Gono said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would introduce the new notes - known as special agro-cheques - to help consumers.

“This new $100 billion special agro-cheque will go into circulation on Monday,” the notice said.

But Zimbabwe residents say the latest note is already worthless, and does not even cover their daily lunch.

“Nowadays, for my expenses a day, I need about Z$500 billion,” one resident said.

“So Z$100 billion can’t do anything because for me to go home I need Z$250 billion, so this [note] is worthless.”

Zimbabwe was once one of the richest countries in Africa.

But it has descended into economic chaos in recent years, with many international observers blaming the policies of President Robert Mugabe.

In this picture provided by the netizen, A Naughty Lion, the dome of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is wrongly printed in the bottom of the note. [Photo: leotown.blog.sohu.com]

A Chinese internet user has found a regrettable printing mistake in the recently-issued special 10-yuan banknotes emblazoned with Olympic patterns, sohu.com reports.

In his online blog, the netizen – who identifies himself as A Naughty Lion - said the dome of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was separated from the main structure and wrongly printed in the bottom of the note.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, a landmark building in the south Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, is outlined on top of the banknotes with the Beijing Olympic logo printed on.

The notes, also featuring the newly-built National Stadium or the Bird’s Nest below the prayer hall, were sold out in no time after hitting counters on Tuesday.

The Chinese central bank issued 6 million Olympic notes to commemorate the upcoming Games. But the price of the notes shot up after the publication in a spate of questions over the less-than-expected quantity.

The notes have been priced at more than 5,000 yuan by some online retailers, more than 500 times its par value.

(CRI July 12, 2008)

Below is a heart-wrenching letter to our beloved Home Minister taken from Malaysia Today

Pic of Aina at school (right)

Dear YB Syed Hamid Albar
Home Minister

Re: Aina Mardiah Shahrial, 17

You may not know Aina, she is the eldest daughter of Shahrial Sirin, an ISA detainee. On the afternoon of July 2, about 3 pm, she was admitted into Kajang Hospital. The girl was fighting for her life. The family immediately informed authorities at Kamunting, where her father had been detained for the last 7 years.

Somehow, Shahrial was only told of her daughter’s illness at 10.30 am the next day, July 3. Aina’s mother made a personal appeal to the authorities at Kamunting to let her daughter be with the dad for the last time. The doctors said Aina had only a few hours of life left, God-willing.

The authorities at Kamunting said they could not release Shahrial. They had to get your signature on the release papers. Yes, YB, your precious signature.

Aina’s father was finally released at 5pm. It was the longest four-hour journey to Kuala Lumpur.

Shahrial got to her daughter’s side at 9.45 pm. He was too late. Aina had passed away at 6.20pm without seeing her father.

Thank you, YB, and may Allah bless you and your family.

pic: A father’s belated good-bye