Stop playing with my cheek!

Dear beloved Education Minister,

I'm spelling king, and I think I'm cool, and I look better without smiling on my face. I know you like keris, and your mouth is big enough to pretend like smiling anytime anywhere.

But I'm not you, I don't wanna be like you either.

So, stop playing with my cheek!

Victor Teoh (who was embarrassed by you)

Kuala Lumpur Olympic 2020

I did not watch the live-broadcast of Beijing Olympic's opening, which everybody anticipated. After all China's not my homeland.

I read about China a lot. To me it isn't worth that much of proud. Beijing was changing too rapidly because of the Olympic, which caused pretty much of heritage lost. The Bird's Nest and Water Cube and other post-modern projects were built on lands which buildings of heritage and historic values were destroyed.

They showed that they're rich and capable, but they too showed all their inconfidence and eagerness to get acceptance. They failed to show that they actually have better understanding of selfness. These are views by Chinese intellectuals.

I'm thinking crazily, if Malaysia suddenly gets one or two golds(Spain and Greece weren't big players in sports too) and suddenly we have a visionary PM who is so confident to lead Malaysia into a developed nation on 2020 in true sense, and to prove that Malaysia's the leading country in South East Asia, we applied for Summer Olympic 2020...

The decision of host city could not be later than mid-2013, the selection process'll be started anytime around 2011. We still have 3 years time to build up, oh wait a minute, doesn't seem enough huh. We're fighting with high inflation and political uncertainties now, talk about Olympic? Stop dreaming la! Ok ok...

Two sides of coin - pride & prejudice

Xu Zhiyuan(许知远), a Chinese columnist described interestingly the relationship between China's local governments/authorities with the people as like two sides of coin, which will never look properly at each other.

Local governments/authorities represents 'pride'. They view the people as uneducated, trigger-happy mob.

The people represents 'prejudice'. They view the authority as self-appointed vigilante which must be lying all the time.

There are too many riots happened in China nowadays, all because of the tension above-mentioned. The columnist blamed lack of democracy and voting rights in China.

But, in Malaysia, isn't there the two sides of coin, too?

Not allowing people to speak is un-Islamic, let alone un-Malaysian

When I studied about Islam civilisation and law back in my Form 6 and university first year, I remembered though many rules of Islam seem unreasonable to non-Muslims, there were actually certain resonableness behind given Islam has been a long time religion. For instance, many can't accept why they're allowed to marry 4 wives, but non-Muslims did not know that to marry 4 wives, you must prove that you can 'berlaku adil'/treat every wives fairly, at least materially.

And there's no consensus on many issues even within Islam. Muslims are allowed to debate on many issues regarding life, politics, etc. Why's the Bar council's forum so sensitive and controversial?

Malaysian Constitution gives us certain rights and freedom, if not narrowly interpreted.

Both government and opposition leaders agreed that the forum should be called off? That seem Malaysia's tomorrow would be pretty much the same, whether there's a change of ruling party.

Holding the forum closed-door or not is not much different, Bar council could not fit that many audiences.

But gentler views like one given by PAS Youth chief are still much appreciated.

MNP's coming. Huh? What's that?

I told my colleagues (Uni graduates) about MNP's coming. To my surprise I face difficulties in explaining the service to them. They're confused.

MNP = Mobile number portability

Malaysia will introduce this by Oct 2008. Refer The Star.

Why are they confused? Because most of the people think:

012 = Maxis/Hotlink, 016 = Digi, 019 = Celcom/Xpax

So the conversation became like this:

D: Oh, that means I'm using 012 now, but I can change to 016?

P: No, you're using 012, you can change to Digi.

D: Oh, after I changed, I can get the exact same number with 016 prefix?

P: No, you can retain all 10 numbers, but subscribe different service provider.

D: Oh, then what's the difference huh?

P: ...

Everybody said Digi'll be the biggest winner. I don't think so. I think in our population there are a lot 'lazy to move' and 'lazy to understand' people. Unless the cheaper margin's like how the fuel price hikes, they don't think it worth bothering. Maxis and Celcom are not stupid, they'll do whatever they can to remain as key players.

I am Digi postpaid customers since 2003, long before postpaid became popular. Can't deny their service and branding's good. But I'm a bit unhappy with the flexibility of the plans. I know what I'm enjoying should be the best rate in the market. But most of the time I couldn't fully utilise the monthly commitment. I'm still the generation who only call for important matters, do not chat for long and seldom sms.

Maybe the service providers can come out with more useful mobile contents, combine the talk plans with broadband to provide better rate, or convert 50% of my unused credit into petrol voucher, wahahaha...

The keyword would be 'free'

'George Town developed like London and Amsterdam, a free city open to all talents.'
by Neil Khor and Khaldun Malik, in the Star, today.

I guess this is what we, as Penangites, always proud of.

I have this thought for Penang government or property developers:

Forget about Time Square or other skyscrapers first. Go Airasia.com to check those nearest destinations, then travel to Kota Bharu, Medan, Banda Acheh, Bangkok, Yangon, etc etc, invites their talents to open businesses in Georgetown. KL has a Korean street, well Penang doesn't need to go that far, let's become the centre of the golden triangle, which we heard long time ago.

And then are Penang's sister cities still exist? Go Amoy, Adelaide and Kanagawa as well!

If last time we can have Burmah Road, so do now. In Kota Damansara, all Chinese restaurants are helped by Burmese.

Revive George Town. Let's start by now.

Trams for George Town

http://anilnetto.com/2008/05/14/bloggers-launch-penangites-for-trams-campaign/

Hope this is not too stylish for Penang. But the state government should really act fast.

When I left Penang five years ago, there are few pieces of land in town area:

1. One near Jln Gurdwara, owned by Hin Bus Co.


2. One near Gat Lebuh Presgrave, owned by Yellow Bus Co.


3. One near Prangin Mall, once Mutiara Parade's site.

Not sure whether the lands are still vacant. But the state government can discuss co-venture with these companies to provide new public transport system. Use the lands as depot or park & ride interchange stations.

If the Pakatan government is so good in attracting FDI, they should act better to co-ordinate local companies' investment. Unless, those local oo lui lang/merchants did not vote for them.

My favourite Indian snack

Finally found out the name of this delicious snack: vadai. :)


Source: www.paajaka.com