Discriminatory and Prejudice

In today’s (Sept 4, 2010) news report, it was quoted that the Kedah Department of Health will not recommend for service excellence for its staff if they are smokers, which I guess is the prerogative of the department concern which however is smack of discriminatory and prejudice against smokers for whatever reasons provided.

Whilst, in embarking on this, I hazard a guess that it is ok to be addicted to other substances and alcohol for one to be recommended for the service excellence award. One the other hand, what about those who play corporate politics, ass-kissers, backstabbers and practicing cronyism and nepotism?

I believe that whatever it is, service excellence has got nothing to do with you being a smoker or not! Period!

Peter White - Deja Vu

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Talkin' Bout Love by Peter White

Give it a listen...

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Friends and Strangers

I collect watches and have my favourite haunts for me to look for watches to buy. I don't just buy new watches but also old, second hand watches. Why I buy them, well I am collector of sorts, and the same time what I had bought I had not sold any... I don't think I would want to sell any of them yet.

I had been doing this for a while and have a hefty collection, let's just say that I can put on a watch a day for the next few months.

That aside... I have this neighbour who has a peculiar habit whenever we meet or gather. His eyes would be on my wrist and on several occassions would insist on having a closer look of the watch I have on. And on several occassion he'd remarked that he would want to buy exactly what I have. To this very day he behaves the same way.

Now fast forward a bit... on many occassions he would insists on knowing where I bought my watches, well one place is e-bay, the other is at mudah.my, then of course there are several shops that I frequent too.

These shops that I frequent, the owners have become friends, as not only I bought from them, I sent some watches for servicing to them, and also on days that I am free I would just drop by and 'talk shop' with them, along the way we are friends rather than just customer-vendors.

It brings me a bit of benefit where I can get discounts on watches that other walk-in customers won't get... and this is where it gets interesting.

This neighbour of mine, upon knowing the shops that I go to, would go to them and along the way throw my name around and insisting or expecting to get the same discount that I enjoy.

Recently I happen to visit the shop and the taukey friend told me about it and I asked did my neighbour get the same discount? His response was, of course not, coz the neighbour was not a friend....

Speed of trust?



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Ramadhan

Tomorrow will be a week of fasting in the month of Ramadhan, you don't actually feel it unless you are counting the days.
For some people this is also the month to feast, and hence pig themselves out at breaking of fast buffets in hotels and restaurants and paying through their noses, costing more of what they would spend eating in a day with that one particular feast. Well who am I to say what they do are not correct, at the same time I have my own right to my own opinion don't I?

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Phil Collins Farewell Tour - Drums and "Take Me Home"

Wow! Phil Collins the Man!

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Eric Clapton&Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight-Live

All time favourite

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World Champion FIFA World Cup 2010

This weekend the World Cup will come to a close. We had our teams, 2 still in the rest are back in their home country.
Paul the octopus had cast his prediction.. putting too much faith on an octopuss?
May the best team win.... and an exciting games must be at hand.
http://www.fifa.com/


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FIFA World Cup - 2nd Round

The World Cup in South Africa is now in the second rounds. Just look at the casualties in the group phase; Italy and France; one the defending champions the other was runners-up in the last World Cup.
Not that I shed any tears for either of them. Italy is full of senior citizens, even Canavarro is not playing in the Serie A anymore, he is with one of the clubs in the Middle East... bidding his time to retirement.

France is a disgrace and underachievers, rebelling and revolting againsts the coaches, a sign of a team breakup.

England just barely made it.. and now kicked-out of the second round by Germany. Anyone of you watching the game will notice that Gerrard and Lampard have bags under their eyes... signs of tiredness? They were outclassed by Germany. Many who supported England do so coz of the EPL I believe... again not bloody tear I shed... good riddance.

I do wish a Brazil - Argentina final...













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FIFA World Cup 2010

Image via Wikipedia

The event every football fan in the world has been waiting for and anticipating every 4 years had started on June 11. I believe it will affect the way people run their daily routine, particularly if you intend to catch the early morning (2.30 a.m. Malaysian time GMT +8).
In fact one factory I know of had anticipated a lower productivity and higher number of absentism due to the the World Cup....

All the best to Brazil and Argentina, the 2 teams I am supporting...
England is simply over rated, Signor Capello... is the escape clause still valid in your recently signed extension contract?
Germany had been underachieving since they had beaten Australia.
Netherlands is a rank outsider.

Many late mornings!!!!!


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Double Standards and Hypocricy

Image by may the circle remain unbroken via Flickr

Recently I received a joke through the email from an acquaintance and it was also send to several others. The butt of the joke are several people, even though the names are not full names but you can imply who they are and the other thing that you would observe is that these people have a certain political affiliation and the joke is about Marketing Techniques
I paste some examples below:

Samy Vellu sees a gorgeous girl at a party.
He goes up to her and says: "I am very rich. Marry me!"
That's Direct Marketing.

Mukhriz sees a gorgeous girl at a party.
One of his loyal UMNO friends goes up to her and pointing
at Mukhriz and says: "He's very rich.. Marry him!"
That's Advertising.

Khir Toyol sees a gorgeous girl at a party.
He goes up to her and gets her telephone number.
The next day, he calls and says: "Hi, I'm very rich. Marry me!"
That's Telemarketing.

Of course there's a little bit more to that. Nobody in the mailing list made any noise about the joke or about who became the butt of the joke. Not that I care. However a thought struck me, 'what if the butt of the joke is on an name impliedly associated with a different political affiliation.' So I penned the joke below:

Anwar is at a party and sees a gorgeous guy.
He gets up and straightens his tie, walks up to him and pours him a drink, and invited the guy for a ride with Nalla driving to Tivoli and to enter the compound the codeword is “Mokhtar.”
In the room in Tivoli he said "By the way, I'm rich. CIFUT?"
and don’t let Wan Azizah and everyone else know about this.
That's Guerilla Marketing.

And send it out to the same people in the list. One thing, several of what are contained in the joke above were published in the news about a pending court case.
 
True to my assumption that double standards and hypocrisy existed, I received responses from 2 people fromt the mailing list, quoting from the Quran, the Prophet and the Sahabat somewhat telling me the perils of hearsay and fitnah. While I can understand and appreciate the reminders, my question is why only after I send the joke out about Anwar that these reminders spew forth. Why not when the butt of the joke were first about Samy Vellu, Mukhriz etc.?
 
Why? Is it ok to make fun of people you are not affiliated with, and it is not ok when it is about the others?
 
Hypocrisy is the act of persistently professing beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that are inconsistent with one's actions. Hypocrisy is thus a kind of lie.

The hypocrite thinks that what he usually professes do not somehow apply to him. It is not simply an inconsistency between what is praised or admired and what is done. Samuel Johnson made this point when he wrote about the misuse of the charge of "hypocrisy" in Rambler No. 14:

Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practice; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory, as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage, or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others, those attempts which he neglects himself. Wikipedia.


  I stand by my opinion, and I stand corrected.

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Becareful of whom you ask

I found this gem of a story.... scary!!!!

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Missing Persons

Just to check whether you are familiar with the missing persons whose posters I put here.

He/She had been elected to act on the best interest of the rakyat. Seem to be missing from the constituency.

Why the photofit? Simple, I just seem to not remember exactly how the MP look like.

Too busy politicking I bet at the same time busy enriching themselves and their cronies. Or as people who are visionary, they might be holed up somewhere planning for the 13th general election.

This is the other person missing, since the same period. People are saying this person is seen around town but elusive, just like the Yeti or Bigfoot or Loch Ness monster.

These 2 may or may not be related, should you not be able to contact me when you find them, please contact the nearest zoos or SPCAs or national park administration.

 

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Learning and challenging

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I am presently undergoing my post-graduate studies in one of the universities, something that had been long delayed due to commitments, work and otherwise.
To a certain extent one reason for me doing this to get a piece of paper that would allow me to speak with authority, a paper...
I had been working for more than 20 years and garnered experiences from the length and breadth of corporate organisation.
In the first semester while I was introducing myself to everyone in the class, the professor asked why am I doing the program, my rely was "I want to validate what I had done in the corporate world with the concepts and theories that you are teaching." Hence even though I want the piece of paper what I want to do is to learn (old and new things), find congruence, challenge ideas and maybe come out with new thinking... just like any good post-grad student is supposed to do.

Today the last tutorial class, the subject Strategic Management, I challenged an idea in class, telling everyone and the professor about what I thought regarding compliance to norm, when I said is it wrong to be different? Breaking away from norms... then the professor started to rant about something else and instead of understanding he started to something else...

Maybe it's just me when I disagree I would challenge, maybe it'sjust me who has a temper as short as my hair (I am shave my head bald by the way) so you know what kind of temper threshold I have... I blurted to the professor "that's bullshit! Why do I need to comply to norms?" The professor then ranted more... I was shivering not for being cold, I was trying to control my temper! I was about to blow in the class when someone asked for a tea break.

What I cannot stand is when he said that you cannot speak of a subject when you don't have a qualification i.e. MBA etc.... well I may not have that, yet, but I do have the experience to go with that. What have you?

I am not disagreeing to fact that I am here to learn, but post-grad students are not like under-grads where you accept, remember, comply. Post-grads are people who generally have experience, a certain point of view, we want to challenge ideas and find new ideas, dialogue, engage, learn, unlearn, expressive etc.

But I did not know well enough to understand that this Professor is not one to be challenged by a mere student.

Thanks to my classmates who read my temper and asked for the tea break LOL.



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A Zoo in Ipoh - The Perak State Assembly

It was amusing to have read that on the first day of the Perak state assembly sitting on April 30 went on smoothly despite an attempt by the former Speaker Siva to take the Speakers' seat on the that day. He was twarted by the sergeant-at-arms. Calm before the storm.

Then the next day all hell broke lose. Why did I say it was amusing? The situation on the second day was something that was anticipated the only thing was how much a trouble the opposition members intended to make.

I think it is high time for the opposition members to play the constructive role of opposition, rather than a destructive role. I call these 3 Stooges, Nizar (the former MB) and the cousins Ngeh and Nga and the clown Siva to stop the whatever that they are doing or planning to do. It seemed to me that they had put in much effort to strategise to distrupt the proceedings of the assembly rather than putting in the brains together (should they have any) in thinking how they can improve the rakyat and help the people who had elected them to be the YBs they are today.

Sometimes I think they don't understand and respect the law, that the court had decided who is the government of the day. Nizar ever since the shift of majority, and by default no longer the MB and also after the court so decided who is the rightful MB, seem not to be able to accept the decisions. He is from PAS, the Islamist party (or shall I say a party which rides on religion, politicing religion, rather than practicing politics guided by the principles of religion) had been acting like gila talak, a husband who cannot accept the fact that he is now divorced.

Siva the clown, seem to love the Speaker's seat or the robe that the Speaker wear or is it that he loves the power of the Speaker that he send out invitations on the Speaker's letterhead when he is no longer the man. Grow up la brader.

Yes one of the posters the oppostion members were carrying said "The World is Watching," how ironic the it cuts both ways, the world is also watching the new zoo in Ipoh.

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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Image by MacQ via Flickr

It's not the title of the movie that I used to watch when I was a boy, a cowboy movie starring Clint Eastwood. A spaghetti western.

I just want to mention a little about the the Malysian Parliment, the august house that passed all the laws we live by today in the country.

The Good - it is good to have a parliment. This means we as a country practices democracy , has a forum to discuss, dialogue and debate the laws and also the welfare of the country. We voted the members of the house in the general election. The expectations over these elected members are to highlight the concerns and the factors that effect the citizens and the people they represented. A healthy debate that we expected to happen in parliment to enable the parlimentarians to find out ways to enable the citizens to prosper.

The Bad - the bad thing that can happen in parliment is when the 'wakil rakyats' are not really interested to understand the public. They are more interested to play politics in parliment at our expense, with their theaterics and their public show of spats. The bad thing is when the members of the house opposed because they can oppose, opposed because they are oppositions, opposed because they are seating across their political rivals.

The Ugly - it is an ugly thing when the members of the house can simply throw allegations and heresays without any evidence because they are protected by their august house. You are protected by the rules of law hence you can say what you want to say and not worry about the repercussions.
What is ugly is when you see the members of the house shouting, yelling and raising their voices and heckling, staging a walk out. Just like school children, I would hazard a guess that kids do not stage walk outs.
What is ugly is that the show of stupidity and uncouth and uncivilised behaviour by the Yang Berhormats (It should be changed to Yang Berkhidmat).

Who are they trying to kid?



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Move On

sImage by Astig!! via Flickr

When I started this blog my intention is to avoid writing about politics, the operative word is "avoid," hence if you check on the previous posting maybe one or two of them are about politics.

What had happened several day ago in parliment, seem to be something worthy of mention.
Anwar Ibrahim, as alleged by Dato' Zahrin had master minded the September 16 conspiracy and his allegation had made Anwar Ibrahim so hot under his butt, and he left the proceeding a bit later. He was also absent from parliment the next day when Zahrin continued with his speech.

I wonder why didn't Anwar Ibrahim sit through the speech and be like a gentleman.

On one side of things over the last 2 years or so after the last general election, too much politicking had been the thing.

I would like to suggest to the parlimentarians, please shut the hell up, stop making accusations and counter-accusations, don't waste you bloody time in parliment. We the citizen are tired of your politicking.

Grow up!
Move on, do the things you are suppose to do, help the citizens to grow. There's time for politics and there's time to do your job. Enough politics! Go out and start doing the job you all were elected to do.

Anwar Ibrahim, just get your butt to court, we are just tired of your delaying tactics... and why the hell lobbying for support from the Australian and British politicians?




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Alice in Wonderland

Image via Wikipedia

I recently gone to watch the adolescent version of Alice in Wonderland... Johnny Depp played the Mad Hatter.
He kept on asking Alice, "What's similar between a raven and a writing table?" It is like a teaser/teka-teki kind of thing....
So what is the answer?




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Queue Jumping at the Highways

Image via Wikipedia

I read in the news today that the police had been stationed along the highways to summon Q jumpers. In fact beside issuing the drivers with summons they were also delayed for a further 10 minutes as a penalty for driving along the emergency lane. I applaud the move but its not enough to just do it during the long holidays.

Usually when I drive during the weekends or even the wekdays, particularly when there is a heavy traffic on the highways, there will always be these drivers who make it their business to drive along the emergency lane. How I wish that the policemen were stationed there and then.
Look at the picture on the left... fat chance that this is the Malaysian highway... look again, besides the cars are on the wrong side of the road, no cars on the emergency lanes.

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How you dress is not what you are

Last night I frequented my regular capati joint not far from home with my wife and son. Mat, a Bangladeshi, makes one of the best capati I've ever had, its soft and light.
I've known Mat for some time and we can talk about many things just like how friends would do. If I had not visited his stall for sometime, he would fret, thinking that I did not like his capatis and the teh tarik-maker would also enquire about the long absence.
Mat came to Malaysia many years ago to work as a production engineer with a factory but decided to leave and work as a roticanai/capati maker with a stall here, when the factory was right sizing people.
He decided that working at the stall enable him to make more money so that he can send it back home to Bangladesh. Last year he got married.

What happened last night was that, sitting at another table were 2 elderly men, both of whom I guess just got back from the surau, and having their round of teh tarik. One of the man, with his kupiah (skull cap) and his janggut (goatee) and on this account alone you would say this is an orang alim (religious man). But what came out of his mouth and how he sounded was not becoming of him.

He asked Mat about chicken, Bangladesh has no chickens, and the way he sounded was that chicken is somewhat strange to Bangladeshis and Bangladeshis would not have had chicken if they do not venture out of Bangladesh... he sounded patronising and demeaning.

Mat, smiled and said there are plenty of chickens in Bangladesh just like Malaysia, chicken is not something strange or that Bangladeshis are deprived of them.

The elderly gentleman was not to happy with what sounded like a rebuke from Mat to him and said something like Bangladesh is a poor country, many poor people, that's why they leave Bangladesh. (By this time I told my wife, this is the kind of man (the elderly gentleman) that I don't like.... the one who sounded ego driven and everything must be from his point of view).

Mat calmly said to him that yes, just like Malaysia there are poor people in Bangladesh, but there also plenty of rich people... houses with swimming pools and, he pointed to the gentleman's Mercedes Benz 200E (not E200), saying there are many people who drive Mercedes too....

Touche' Mat, the man decided his mouth had confirmed how stupid and obnoxious he was.... if you are not sure if you are stupid just close your mouth, opening your mouth only comfirmed your stupidity.

What saddened me is the fact that the personality of the elderly man, with his kupiah, janggut he looks like a pious man, but when he talked and the way he talked he sounded like a snob, patronising, egoistic... I know fullwell when you are just having a friendly banter (bergurau) but he was not.....

Can't just judge a book by its cover.......
But hey, who am I to judge... I judge you not.

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Salt Lake City 2

Image via Wikipedia

One of the things that I like about most American cities is the grid or block system of the city design. The grid system allows for better organisation of the buidlings, road names, transportation services. It is also easier to find your way to a certain destination in the city.
Salt Lake City is organised in such a way that most streets in the downtown area is refered as South, West, East, North.

Let me give you an example:
I stayed at a hotel which is at the corner of South 200 West Street. To go to the Salt Palace Convention center, when I asked the reception for direction, besides giving me a map, he said, "You go 4 blocks down (he pointing the way for me) and then 2 blocks on to your right."
I walked 4 blocks and then turned right and walked 2 blocks and there I was standing in front of the Salt Place Convention center.
The same thing when you drive from the hotel, but of course you got to be aware of the one way streets.

Now you tell me how you'd show me the way to Berjaya Time Square from the Pavillion. (Not that you cannot, but what would you say to me?)


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Salt Lake City 1

Salt Lake City, Utah, weather when I arrived was about -2 celcius, with wind it felt more like -12 celcius.
It's large city, but I do believe KL is bigger.
One thing that people must understand, SLC is not a happening city, not in the same mold as LA or even San Francisco... I term this city as "tempat orang-orang beriman" city of the faithful. Why? The Mormon Temple is smack in the middle of the city, it is also the city where the Mormon faith resides, the hometown if you will.

Downtown SLC? Nothing like Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, its virtually dead on a weekend.

They have a good mall though, the Gateway Place Mall, but what can I say about it? Its the only mall in downtown SLC. How many does KL have? Several!


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Flying.. long haul

Its been a while that I posted anything here. So I guess an update is in order.
I recently flew to the US of A on a work assignment. I was adviced of the trip a few week prior. The first thing that came to my mind was not so much about the assignment itself but the flight to and fro.

One thing about me, I don't get jittery or quesy on flights, but its the sitting down for many hours in a confined space that really gets to me.

Let me explain.
I got up at about 4.30 to get ready, and the cab duly arrived to pick me up and transported me to KLIA for my 9.00 a.m flight. I took the Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. Why to Hong Kong, simply because I wanted to arrive in San Francisco instead of Los Angeles.

About the flight, its a 3 hour trip, which I can stand, its ok, my butt is not hurt. There's the inflight entertainment to while my time, took my nap after the meal served. Uneventful flight altogether... By the way the MAS flight attendants are a wee bit more attractive.

3 hours of sitting down and no cig for the whole trip, now that is a little bit trying but I can manage.

As we landed in Hong Kong, I made sure that I went to the right terminal and found the gate, but prior to being at the gate, found the smoking lounge. Had my dose of cigs and a bit more to prepare me for the 12 hour flight to San Francisco.

By the way, the books in the terminal are far more expensive than the ones found in KLIA.

Boarding the flight to US was a bit of a hassle, we got to remove our shoes, their security people going through my carry on bags, and of all thing, my gastric medicine, in liquid form cannot be taken on board with me... so into the bin it went. But it was ok in KLIA though.

Boarded, aisle seat as requested, at least I need not share one arm rest with the person next to me.

Now its a 12 hour flight, at least, as it was announced earlier.... by the 3rd hour my butt is sore. Used the blanket under my butt, part of the way it was not sufficient. The small pillow went under my butt.

While most passengers were asleep, I can't. Read, watched the movies, walked around the cabin (I was also afraid that the US Airmarshall was on board and observing me...) I am harmless my man, its just my sore butt and swollen legs.. I need to move around.

A wonderful surprise was that Cathay Pacific put this cart of goodies near the galley, peanuts, apples, cookies, soda (including my Light Coke) for your helping...


It was such a relief to have landed in Frisco......

But this was where I was heading.... Another 2 hour of flight and it was delayed by 2 hours because of the storm in San Francisco.. more waiting, more sitting, more whiling.....

Salt Lake City was where I was heading... that will be another story altogether.

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Happy New Year

A Happy New Year, 2010. I am writing this entry on January 3, and for some it is no longer a new year, it has been 3 days passed.
Many people would have new year resolutions but by the time the first week passed, new year resolutions are no longer new year resolutions and how many get the deserved follow-through for them to be fulfilled? I don't think that I ever had any resolutions to begin my new year. It is too short-termed and I choose to live my life as I think it should be, based on my mission in life. I do have a life mission and I do try to live my life based on that mission.
Several things are in store for 2010, the price of sugar is now increased due to the reduction of subsidy, not that that I care. I don't take too much sugar anyway.
The price of my ciggies are to increase, it had been been that way for a long long time and people still keep on buying. I wonder if people have a thing against smokers?
Liverpool started the new year with a positive note and I do hope they can sustain the results.
I bought a new mountain bike this evening and rode it from the shop in town back home and it's almost a 7 km ride. It took me less than an hour and had only one stop to buy a bottle of water and I rode in the rain and I love it... riding in the rain. I have 4 old mountain bikes that I am going to sell off to the scrap dealer.

Happy New Year!





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