Occasionally in my troubled existence I have the pleasure of receiving a fan-e-mail. This time however I received a complain.

Dear Josh,
I have been following ur blog for about 6 months or so. However this time, I notice u are [getting] really predictable. I don’t dig stuff on politics tho i respect yr views - I prefer not to know too much politics because it [is] depressing. I [would] love to see more funny pictures or more funny stories [like you] use to blog.

Life is already so depressing as it is - so why write so much about depressing things you can’t change.

Depressed already,
Simon.

Dear Simon,

I must say I was depressed after reading your email. What trigger your email I am not too sure. Perhaps it was the deflating feeling after you watched England bungled out of a simple qualification to Euro2008.

For a team like England whose people were out on a limp of a prayer for an Israeli football miracle and actually received the answered prayers, to then bungled out at home to a team that has nothing to play for - that must be really deflating. Especially so, for a nation that created football.

Thanks to Astro, one of my colleagues who isn’t even English was so deflated - he looked like he lost 3 kgs! He spent the whole day wallowing in his room with his door closed. So I can imagine the trauma of a real English football fan. They must be mourning today, and just to rub salt to the wound - the Americans are having thanksgiving!

Or perhaps, you were stuck in the jam this morning - like half a million of us. And had a bad start to a day.

All roads out of Puchong Jaya was jammed as if everyone just woke up at the same time after watching England lose. I doubt that so I turned to the ever reliable Patricia Patrick (of Mix.FM) who told me not to get out of the house. Too late I was already out in the car and stuck. According to Patricia, roads were jammed everywhere going to PJ and out of PJ but strangely no reasons was given!

Only when i came home and read Malaysiakini did I discover the real reasons - the Police (or government) is really trying to make all of us depressed.

Scores of police roadblocks have been sighted across Selangor on roads leading to Kuala Lumpur, causing major traffic jams. Malaysiakini received information that roadblocks had been set up since this morning bringing the rush-hour traffic to a crawl.

Selangor Traffic and Public Order Department chief Supt Che Hussain Che Omar, when contacted, said roadblocks have been set up in all 12 districts in Selangor.

“It is for crime prevention. We have placed roadblocks in all major strategic area this morning. When it will end depends on the situation. We still study the situation,” he said.

Asked if the roadblocks were to prevent people from entering the capital to attend the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) rally scheduled to take place on Sunday at the British High Commission, Hussain declined to comment.

More than a week ago, similar roadblocks were set up to frustrate thousands of people from attending the Bershi rally demanding for free and fair elections. However, despite the lockdown, about 40,000 turned up in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

Perhaps you was one of the thousands that our “crime preventing” police is trying to frustrate this morning. I am so sorry Simon I dont have any funny pictures or funny story to share today, but I really hope you can see the funny side of our law enforcers who are out to prevent a non-political rally by a harmless group while doing little or nothing against real criminals.

Simon, I hope for your sake that you are not a Hindu Malaysian and thinking of rallying to protest against all the demolitions of Hindu temples in Malaysia or else you would have been bagged away like some terrorist by our over-proactive police doing their road blocks today. In fact it is not even 25 November, and you just celebrated your Deepavali. It is too early to be treated like second class citizens.

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