short notes
I saw this ad banner on Technorati last week, and I just had to do a print screen:
I’ve never heard of an un-halal toothpaste (you mean they didn’t slaughter the porker BEFORE adding its juice with fluoride into the paste?!) so for a moment I was wondering why Colgate felt the need to declare their halal-ness. Then I thought that maybe there are some e-mails or SMSes flying around claiming that Colgate toothpaste is not halal. And knowing *some* Malaysians who are quick to believe everything they read or come across…
Oh well. Made me laugh for a bit, so it’s all good.
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Last Wednesday was drinkies at The Ceylon Bar, one of my two or three favourite drinking places. I am in two minds over promoting the place, because I’d be gutted if I were there and could not find a place to seat. Just like what almost happened last Wednesday anyway. Luckily Gervais is not a Malaysian, hence arrived on time, and managed to get us the remaining 2 tables there.
Here’s Mr. Tall canoodling with FA’s wooly sweater, among his other poses. Next time he’ll graduate to giving us the pout.
And he having a heated argument with FA.
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Last Friday, we had a group of people for dinner in conjunction with Dabido’s last night in KL. Since he’s a vegetarian, our dinner was at Jade Garden @ Centrepoint, BU (for selfish reasons on my part), and happily a healthy number of nice people was able to make it. Here’s Dabs with a few of them:
The food was surprisingly tasty. I am sure KY will blog about it later on.
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Also found out that evening that someone stole my money. Bitch.
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The next morning I was supposed to wake up bright and early to attend the AllMalaysia Bloggers Project gathering at 10 a.m. Unfortunately I could only wake up at 9.30 a.m. hence I arrived at Midvalley Gardens at only 10.15 a.m. (or thereabouts). Again, very unfortunately, I had to leave after an hour to make it for my next appointment (I make it sound like I am a very busy person, but actually I am not). But it was lovely meeting old and new friends, including Sammy who made me blush for a bit. We want more gatherings, aye?
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Over the weekend, I was in Seremban with a couple of people. The only camwhoring I did was at this pub at Era Walk, called Trilogy which IMHO was rather superb, a place you would not have expected in Seremban. I am not making fun of those from or living in Seremban, but you see, I come from a small-but-growing town, and we don’t have anything like that back home.
Me with Ringo
Me with KY
Me with Nicholas
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Then came back to KL on Sunday, had a lovely lunch (as blogged by Tim), got home and found out that Mom cooked hong zhao ji with mee suah which I could not eat because my normally bottomless pit for a stomach could not take in another morsel. Grrr…
“I’ve never heard of an un-halal toothpaste”
Sigh, Suanie, I really thought you would be smarter than this. There ARE un-halal toothpaste, and by this it does not mean that the substance came from pigs. It can come from alcoholic substances which is forbidden in Islam.
- MENJ
lol i thought you would be smarter to detect some off-handed sarcasm there. or maybe i should be smarter to write witter stuff than suggesting the ‘generalisation’ that halal = no pork, or perhaps i should be smarter to include a disclaimer that i do know that alcohol is haram to muslims, including a list of things or behaviour that i already know are haram and that the above was in no way a representative of my knowledge or the lack thereof.
but actually, i thought that people should be smart enough to know that colgate-palmolive would not be dumb enough to alienate such a large portion of their market by cunningly including haram substance in their range of toothpaste or other products being sold in malaysia.
I do not know what the intentions of Colgate-Palmolive are but the ads you see are obviously targeted for the Malaysian market and regardless, not too long ago Lilian made the same remark you did and I gave the same answer. One would think that being in religiously-sensitive Malaysia with a predominant Muslim-majority, there should be some research done first before shooting the gun unloaded.
well then, you do learn something new every day
Listerine are not halal, but WTF, it is not toothpaste. I don’t recall any local manufacturer are making creative toothpaste contain alcohol. But what if the substances where made using alcohol as reactive agent? Gray area? And for the medication part, alcohol are widely used)
I think this another stupid ads similar to the peanut ads that claim no cholesterol.
FA called, she wants some of those alcoholic toothpaste
lol bitch.
Why do I still feel like I’m the shortest person in that photograph? lol And the fattest!!!
Can switch places with you Suan
[...] You can read a short note by Suan about it here. [...]
eh WTF stole your money
got home and found out that Mom cooked hong zhao ji with mee suah which I could not eat because my normally bottomless pit for a stomach could not take in another morsel.
lol!
ARGH. I look like a swamp thing.
Ah well. My more photogenic days are long over. BURP.
Yay to delish vege food and even more delicious blogger company!
Yeah, sometimes non-halal ingredients can accidentally end up in the products. Most probably from the supplier of the supplier of the supplier of the manufacturer. Unless they do an assessment of the supply chain & processing line (e.g during the application for halal certification), it’s not possible to say for certain if it’s totally halal or not. 8^)
I think Colgate is just trying to make a bigger impact in the Muslim market lah. Halal consumer products is a huge market, even the gwai loh are stumbling over one another to attack this market.
moo_t…
Different alcohol lah. If it’s isopropyl alcohol, then it’s still considered halal. It’s not suitable for normal consumption anyway. The haram one is ethanol.
Digressing… Tapai (a Malay traditional food) contains some small amount of ethanol, but many Malays are sometimes unaware of it and syok makan saja. I guess as long as they don’t get drunk or high, then they don’t realise there’s some alcohol. Heh heh heh!
Hey Suan, thanks for taking the time off to attend our gathering. It was really nice of you, considering you had to rush off to Seremban and all. Next one stay longer yah?
Heh… I guess halal marketing is like vegetarainism…one of those PC things that makes a product more widely marketable. There’s always complaints in the UK about things containing ‘meat products’ - like cheese or chocolate or whatever. Cheese is SUPPOSED to contain an animal product - rennet - so why do miserable vegetarians have to spoil everything for us? At least ‘halal’ meat is harmless. Feel sorry for the animals though, halal butchery is not humane
Also, ringo is hot! I recommend you have a lesbian affair with her (or is she already taken?). Her dog is cute too
Clarification: I’m not recommending you have a fling with her dog lol!
moo_t: peanut has no cholesterol?! which ingenius marketeer managed to pull that one off??
dabs: maybe because…
val: sure! come!
shireen: yeah. kat opis
Nicholas: sakit hati k
erna: bwahahah nothing wrong with the way you look
iamyuanwu: i guess all sorts of precautions can be taken, but it is impossible to control everything.
MAF: my pleasure
sure, catch up next time
doomlord: why is halal meat harmless? or unhalal meat harmless? eh??
funny i’ve never bumped into you in ceylon
i’d been hanging out there since….shites, before it was ceylon. 
then again, i’ve been going much less frequently the past 2 years.
Maybe it’s because I’m still shortest in the land of the midget person. lol
Actually, I felt quiet tall in the shopping malls and stuff. Towered over lots of little people running around.
It’s harmless because it makes no difference to me if meet is halal or not… but vegetarian-approved cheese is not as good as proper cheese. So, when a certain sub-group of society push their views on everyone, we lose out. It’s a small thing, but still… Now, who’s brave enough to photoshop some halal bacon?