“I only drink on social occasions, such as Chinese New Year and Christmas. I’d have many more glasses if I were a drinker,” says Joshua Arulselvan, 58, of Bandar Sri Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, who has amassed about 700 unique glasses. “There is only one of each,” he emphasises.

To the casual observer, the glasses in Arulselvan’s collection seem very ordinary. Arulselvan explains that, though some of the glasses look similar, upon closer inspection, one will notice the subtle differences. For instance, one glass may have one ring around the rim while another has two rings, or there may be a slight difference in the height of the glasses.

“I’m trying to reach 1,000 glasses,” adds the insurance agent and teamworking trainer. Although he doesn’t think that there are any valuable collector’s items in his collection, he says, “Ultimately, a collection has the most meaning for the collector, no matter how spectacular or otherwise.”

The clinking of glasses

It was in 1982-83 that Arulselvan got started on this peculiar hobby.

“I used to have this habit of reading in bed at my home in Ipoh, with a drink beside me. One day, after I had finished my drink, I pushed the glass under my bed as I was too lazy to wash it immediately … and I heard a clink. I looked down and saw four or five other glasses there. They were Milo glasses of different designs – free gifts with a purchase of the product.”

Nestle was just one of several companies that were giving away free glasses when they were promoting their brands back in the 1980s. That prompted him to look around his home for other glasses – and he found various ones.

“In the 1960s and 70s, drinking glass sets were often presented as wedding gifts. Some of the glasses were not used, yet were not given away either.”

Joshua Arulselvan holds up the first glass in his collection, which got him started on this hobby.

image: https://www.star2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/str2_evjoshua_ev_6_oldbrands.jpg

Drinking down memory lane with a few vintage brands.

Arulselvan gets his drinking glasses from a variety of sources. “From relatives – cousins, my sister-in-law who took some from her mother’s house – friends, colleagues, Rotaract Club members, church friends, games partners.”

When word gets out that he collects such items, his contacts tend to give him their spare ones, sometimes to de-clutter their own homes.

Special items

Arulselvan remembers meeting an elderly woman over a decade ago in Petaling Jaya Old Town, Selangor. She said that in her late father’s collection were a few Queen Elizabeth coronation glasses that bore the image of England’s coat of arms.

She told him that no one else in the family was interested in the collection. He would have offered to buy the glasses from her but, to be fair, he did tell her that they would be of worth. And that probably caused her to change her mind about selling them.

“They would’ve been quite valuable, and collector’s items,” he comments, “with a small glass worth RM60 to RM100 and a big glass, upwards of RM200. I like browsing flea markets, jumble sales and garage sales, as you never know what kinds of glasses you’ll find there.”

Joshua has no less than 700 unique receptacles.

image: https://www.star2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/str2_evjoshua_ev_8_colourful-1024×1024.jpg

Joshua gets his drinking glasses from friends and relatives.

However, his search for the Queen E coronation glasses, in places like Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya, has proved unfruitful.

“Only 10% to 15% of the 700 in my collection are bought, whether locally or from overseas. The rest are gifts, what people didn’t want, some left behind when people moved house,” Arulselvan elaborates.

The glasses that were bought from overseas have come from countries such as France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Philippines, England, Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand.

“The one that is most dear to me is the one I call No.1, the very first glass that started the whole collection. It is a sturdy and plain non-coloured glass with a handle. To me, it’s very special and I won’t give it away,” he says.

image: https://www.star2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/str2_evjoshua_ev_3_kualaLumpur.jpg

The Kuala Lumpur glass depicting iconic landmarks stands out.

image: https://www.star2.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/str2_evjoshua_ev_5_foreign2.jpg

Seven hundred is a lot of glasses, so storage is quite a challenge for Arulselvan. “In my previous place, there were ample shelves. Then I moved to this apartment. There are five long tables, and all my glasses are displayed here. I’m running short of space!”

In any case, the glasses are not purely ornamental. And there is definitely no lack of glasses to drink from, whenever he has visitors. “When friends or relatives come over, they are invited to choose a drink … and a glass,” he quips.

Quirky glasses in the shape of a boot, and in various sizes to boot.

Creative ways

“I have given a number of the extra ones away as gifts, for Christmas, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. At one time, I also had 50-plus mugs and I gave them away. To me, it’s akin to giving part of myself away,” says Arulselvan.

His recipients have done some creative things with the glasses. For example, the womenfolk in his family and among his colleagues place floral-shaped soaps into the glasses and wrap them in lace. They do make pretty gifts.

Some take the glasses to Central Market in KL to have special words painted on them – such as, “As you go through life together, take some time to have a drink” – to be given as wedding presents. For a touch of personalisation, some have their own names painted on the glasses.

Arulselvan also uses his collection to build his student’s vocabulary when he gives tuition classes.

“I started giving English language tuition three years ago, and I still do it every Saturday morning. My student, Amir Hazim Hanzam Hairus, 12, knows my glass collection well. Part of his English lessons with me had been on the different varieties in my collection.

“He asks about my collection every now and then, and whether I’ve got any new ones. He understands my passion for my collection – and doesn’t think I’m strange or crazy!

“Also, he carefully keeps some of the glasses I’ve given to him. Eventually, I intend to leave a significant part of my collection to him,” says Arulselvan.

Asian markets mostly fell Friday as US President Donald Trump abruptly axed next month’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but Europe rebounded on hopes the pair would still meet.

Frankfurt, London and Paris equities had already skidded lower on Thursday as Trump’s announcement hit the newswires, prompting many investors to ditch risky equity investments.

But European indices bobbed higher on Friday as both Washington and Pyongyang left the door open for the summit to eventually take place.

North Korea declared that it is willing to talk to the United States “at any time”, while China urged both sides to show restraint.

“The focus has been firmly centred upon Donald Trump, with his decision to cancel the June meeting with Kim Jong Un bringing about a return to the risk-off sentiment,” said analyst Joshua Mahony at trading firm IG.

“However, it seems that it is the North Korean who is the pragmatist on this occasion, with his openness to reinstate the meeting helping limit the fallout from yesterday’s announcement.”

In a letter released by the White House, Trump told Kim he was cancelling the June 12 summit because of North Korea’s “anger” and “hostility”.

The message came after a key aide to Kim hit out at comments by Vice President Mike Pence, saying they were “ignorant and stupid” and warning the talks could be cancelled.

However, Trump’s letter added that the talks could still go ahead.

Markets have been jittery this week as the US president had warned in recent days that he could cancel the summit, while also voicing his displeasure at a deal to avert a trade war with China and threatening tariffs on car imports.

Thursday’s summit cancellation took many by surprise — including North and South Korean officials — and fuelled concerns about the future of a rapprochement that has had many hoping for peace on the divided peninsula.

“It looks like we are back to fire and fury as the modus operandi for the White House again after President Trump (threatened) a new 25 percent car import tariff and cancelled the summit with North Korea,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader.

“Not only was the summit cancelled but it was back to threatening the DPRK with a military response.”

Fears for oil cap 

World oil prices meanwhile dived by more than a dollar, extending Thursday’s heavy falls after Russia said an agreement with OPEC to cap production — which has provided support to prices in recent years — could be up for revision at a meeting next month.

The comments from Energy Minister Alexander Novak dented a rally in the commodity, which has hit three-and-a-half-year highs on the back of improving demand and supply worries from Venezuela and Iran.

Meanwhile Russian and Saudi Arabian oil ministers meeting in Moscow on Friday said they believe a deal is possible to gradually boost oil output from as soon as July.

Key figures around 1000 GMT

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 7,736.86 points

Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.6 percent at 5,581.57

Frankfurt – DAX 30: UP 1.1 percent at 12,989.76

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.6 percent at 3,544.32

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.1 percent at 22,450.79 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng: DOWN 0.6 percent at 30,588.04 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,141.30 (close)

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 24,811.76 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1727 from $1.1720 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3369 from $1.3381

Dollar/yen: UP at 109.57 yen from 109.26 yen

Oil – Brent North Sea: DOWN $1.75 at $77.04 per barrel

Oil – West Texas Intermediate: DOWN $1.02 at $69.69

    The LA Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun and Orlando Sentinel websites all displayed the same message saying they could not be accessed.

“Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries,” the message read.

“We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.”

The blocked websites are all owned by media company Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing.

Local US newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises, including the St. Louis Post Dispatch and Arizona Daily Sun, were also out of reach.

“We recognise you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore cannot grant you access at this time,” its website said.

The EU says the so-called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will allow citizens to take back control of personal information held online.

Brussels insists that the laws will become a global benchmark for the protection of people’s online information, particularly in the wake of the Facebook data harvesting scandal.

But it has also been blamed for a flood of spam emails and messages in recent weeks as firms rush to request the explicit consent of users to contact them.

Even though the rules were officially adopted two years ago, with a grace period until now to adapt to them, companies have been slow to act, resulting in a last-minute scramble this week.//AFP

The Foreign Ministry (Wisma Putra) said in a statement on Friday that Malaysia remained resolute in the pursuit to prosecute those responsible for the act.

In this regard, it said, Malaysia appreciated the presentation by the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on Thursday (May 24) on the latest report and the way forward on the criminal investigation as well as its related press statements.

“We will study the findings contained in the report carefully,” Wisma Putra said.

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In a statement published on its website, JIT said the team was convinced that a BUK TELAR was used to down MH17, and that it originated from the 53rd Anti Aircraft Missile Brigade (53rd Brigade), which is a unit of the Russian Army from Kursk in the Russian Federation.

Wisma Putra said that as a member of the JIT, Malaysia expressed its gratitude for all the hard work of the JIT members that had enabled critical information regarding the tragic incident to be established.

“Malaysia commends the progress on this,” it said.

Wisma Putra said Malaysia had consistently called for and supported a fully transparent, independent and exhaustive investigation process.

Hence, it said. Malaysia reiterated the JIT’s call for the public to come forward to assist in the investigation process and to provide additional supporting evidence against the people directly involved in order for justice to prevail.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the grieving families and the loved ones of the passengers and crew of Flight MH17.

“We owe it to them to do everything possible to bring closure to this tragic incident,” Wisma Putra said.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine on that fateful day. All 298 people on board were killed.

The money was seized along with 284 boxes containing designer handbags, as well as watches and jewellery from a condominium in Kuala Lumpur, which was raided along with Najib’s home and other sites last week.

Najib’s coalition was thrown out of power for the first time in over six decades in the May 9 poll, defeated by a reformist alliance headed by his former mentor Mahathir Mohamad.

Public disgust at allegations of corruption swirling around Najib was a major factor for the loss, with the ex-leader, his family and cronies accused of looting billions of dollars from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

There has been much speculation about what the seized goods consisted of and their value after five trucks were reportedly brought in to help move the vast stash.

Giving an update, the police’s head of commercial crime Amar Singh said: “From the money found, there were 26 currencies, the total amount as of yesterday is 114 million (ringgit) ($28.6 million).”

The money was found in 35 bags while another 37 bags contained watches and jewellery, he told a press conference. The value of other items will be calculated later, he said.

The seizure of the luxury goods added to public scorn of Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor, long reviled by Malaysians for her perceived haughty demeanour and reported vast collection of designer bags, clothing and jewellery.

Her love of overseas shopping trips, as middle class Malaysians struggle with rising living costs, added to a sense of spreading, deeply-entrenched rot in the country’s long-ruling elite.

The couple’s fall from grace has been swift and hard.

They have been barred from leaving the country and the ex-premier has been questioned by anti-graft investigators over claims 1MDB money ended up in his bank accounts, and looks likely to be charged.

Najib and the fund deny any wrongdoing.