Malaysian official blames naked tourists for causing earthquake, says they upset 'mountain spirit'; survivors charged

[Dazzle]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/malaysian-official-blames-canadians-and-other-foreigners-for-quake-that-s-killed-13-1.2409601

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- A Malaysian official is blaming a group of foreigners including two Canadians for an earthquake that struck Malaysia's highest peak on Friday, killing 13 people.

The deputy chief minister of Sabah state in Borneo said 10 foreigners "showed disrespect to the sacred mountain" by posing naked at Mount Kinabalu last week. Joseph Pairin Kitingan said a special ritual would be conducted later to "appease the mountain spirit."

Officials have said the foreigners, who included two Canadians, two Dutch and a German national, broke away from their entourage and stripped naked before taking photos at the mountain peak on May 30.

Members of the Malaysian rescue team plan as they wait for victims to be evacuated a day after an earthquake in Kundasang, a town in the district of Ranau, Malaysia, on Saturday, June 6, 2015. (Source via AP)

Police have said five of the tourists are believed to still be in Malaysia and will be barred from leaving on the offence of gross indecency.

A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs said they are aware of reports that two Canadians have been barred from leaving the country and that the Canadian High Commission in Malaysia is ready to provide consular services as needed.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of 11 climbers on Saturday. Six people remained missing on 4,095-metre high peak, where a magnitude-5.9 earthquake on Friday sent rocks and boulders raining down the trekking routes, trapping dozens of climbers.

"This is a very sad day for Kinabalu," said Sabah's tourism minister, Masidi Manjun.

Nine of the bodies found Saturday were flown out by helicopter, while the other two were brought down by foot, said district police official Farhan Lee Abdullah.

Most of the other climbers made it down the mountain in the darkness early Saturday, some with broken limbs and one in a coma.

The two dead retrieved Friday evening were a 30-year-old local guide and a 12-year-old Singaporean student, Farhan said.

Police said earlier Saturday that they were looking for 17 other people, including eight Singaporeans and one each from China, the Philippines and Japan. The rest are Malaysians. The nationalities of the 11 dead recovered Saturday were not immediately clear.

About 60 rescuers and four helicopters were combing the mountain, where loose rocks and boulders that fell during the quake blocked part of the main route.

The quake also damaged roads and buildings, including schools and a hospital on Sabah's west coast. It also broke one of the twin rock formations on the mountain known as the "Donkey's Ears."

The mountain will be closed for three weeks for maintenance work, and flags will be flown at half-staff in Sabah on Monday to mourn the victims, Masidi said.

This brings new meaning to making a mountain out of a molehill.

[hsedin33]

Time to call Zoolander!

[etsen3]

Sure we laugh but there are many people on our side of the world who believe similar things about natural disasters beings punishment for anything from abortion and gay marriage to the war in Iraq.

[Offensive Threat]

Sure we laugh but there are many people on our side of the world who believe similar things about natural disasters beings punishment for anything from abortion and gay marriage to the war in Iraq.

Few centuries ago the belief in trolls and fairies was widespread and a few centuries from now people will look back at us now and our weird superstitions.

[Hugor Hill]

Believe is the death of reason.

-Qyburn

[Baer.]

Yeah I'd be pissed if foreigners disgraced my sacred monuments too

[Gurn]

I know some people are overweight, but causing an earthquake? Nah.

[ckamo]

I obviously don't think any naked people on a mountain caused an earthquake, but what they did was still disrespectful. If you go to another country, observe the local customs (at least within reason)...really not a hard concept to grasp. And all this just so they can have some likes on Facebook/Instagram, right? I hope it was worth it for them.

[Chalky]

Just think, if they didn't take pictures and post them online the Prime Minister of Malaysia wouldn't have known who to blame for the earthquake. Now the naughty man can direct the blame to the correct people.

May the victims of the earthquake RIP.

[aGENT]

[TOMapleLaughs]

The year is 2015 and the global village is still being held hostage to the archaic belief systems of idiots.

[Tre Mac]

This is a small example of why i am in the minority of not traveling. I've never been on a plane, furthest I've been was maybe by boat to the Gulf Islands or camping by 100mile house. Just no need to see the world. Plus i am a bit of a weed addict haha. I just know if i fork out $2k on a trip that ill get sick or cause a earthquake somehow.

Plus it doesnt help my reoccurring nightmares are watching planes crash.

[Baer.]

This is a small example of why i am in the minority of not traveling. I've never been on a plane, furthest I've been was maybe by boat to the Gulf Islands or camping by 100mile house. Just no need to see the world. Plus i am a bit of a weed addict haha. I just know if i fork out $2k on a trip that ill get sick or cause a earthquake somehow.

Plus it doesnt help my reoccurring nightmares are watching planes crash.

I thought the same thing until I went to Hawaii. Beautiful state. Wouldn't live there but one of the only places in the world I'd visit.

[aGENT]

I thought the same thing until I went to Hawaii. Beautiful state. Wouldn't live there but one of the only places in the world I'd visit.

I'd live there in a heart beat if it wasn't part of "Murrica".

[Dral]

Not much difference then thinking gay people are causing hurricanes

[Jaimito]

Did they blame nakedness for the MH370 crash too?

[jdatb]

lmao that excerpt from the article you posted doesn't tell the true story at all. The tourists were extremely rude to the tour guide, ridiculed him when he asked them not to strip, and urinated all over the "holy site". Sure they believe in some stupid mythology and obviously the earthquake wasn't caused by the mountain's wrath, but I thought most people had the brain power to know not to disrespect the culture of a country that they're visiting. No sympathy at all for these idiot tourists.

[Dazzle]

lmao that excerpt from the article you posted doesn't tell the true story at all. The tourists were extremely rude to the tour guide, ridiculed him when he asked them not to strip, and urinated all over the "holy site". Sure they believe in some stupid mythology and obviously the earthquake wasn't caused by the mountain's wrath, but I thought most people had the brain power to know not to disrespect the culture of a country that they're visiting. No sympathy at all for these idiot tourists.

You're telling us something that we've never heard before. Who and what is your source?

[ckamo]

You're telling us something that we've never heard before. Who and what is your source?

I don't know about the being rude part, but the urination bit is out there in certain news sources.

http://www.ibtimes.co.in/malaysia-earthquake-tourists-who-stripped-urinated-mt-kinabalu-banned-leaving-country-635104

A group of Western tourists, who stripped and urinated on top of Malaysia's Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, have been detained after being blamed for "causing" the deadly earthquake in the region that killed 16 people.

According to the local Sabahan tradition, Mount Kinabalu in Borneo is considered sacred and is worshipped as "the revered place of the dead".

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit the region on 5 June and CNN reported that 16 tourists were killed on Mount Kinabalu. BBC further revealed that a group of six Singaporean schoolchildren were among those killed at Kinabalu Park, which is a World Heritage Site.

Local reports are now blaming a group of Europeans for "the sacrilegious act" that caused the earthquake.

Digital Journal, citing Deputy Chief Minister of the Sabah region Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, said: "Whether other people believe this or not, it's what we Sabahans believe. When the earthquake happened, it's like a confirmation of our beliefs. There is almost certainly a connection. We have to take this as a reminder that local beliefs and customs are not to be disrespected."

Malaysia has identified five of the ten tourists from Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.

A Canadian national, who was one of the tourists blamed for disrespecting Sabah's Mount Kinabalu, hit out against the Malaysian authorities. "Well, apparently I am responsible for the 2015 Nepal quake, and whatever incoming quakes in Canada (as well as Thailand, India, China, Taiwan, Hongkong, and a variety of other countries...)," Emil Kaminski, founder of travel blog Monkeetime, on his Facebook page.

Along with his statement, he also posted a picture of the group posing naked on the Mount Kinabalu. He also noted that he had "time of my life" at the peak.

When advised to show respect to the local culture by a commenter on Facebook, Kaminski replied: "f**k your culture".

Kaminski, on the Twitter page of his travel website Monkeetime @monkeetimevideo, also called Sabah's Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Masidi Manjun an "idiot" and "not a minister of tourism".

A local tourist guide apparently even tried to intervene after the Western tourists stripped and urinated on the sacred grounds, The Strait Times reported. But, he was then mocked and shooed away by the tourists.

This guys honestly sounds like a prick. If it's true that they urinated on a "place of the dead", I don't see how anybody can defend his actions. I don't care that he didn't cause the earthquake, anyone with basic knowledge of science knows that isn't true. This still comes down to a lack of respect for the local culture and for him to respond with "f your culture" just shows what kind of person he is. To some, this is akin to pissing on somebody's grave. It just isn't done.

[WHL rocks]

dp