How should we judge a government?

In Malaysia, if you don't watch television or read newspapers, you are uninformed; but if you do, you are misinformed!

"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience - Mark Twain

Why we should be against censorship in a court of law: Publicity is the very soul of justice … it keeps the judge himself, while trying, under trial. - Jeremy Bentham

"Our government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no
responsibility at the other. " - Ronald Reagan

Government fed by the people

Government fed by the people

Career options

Career options
I suggest government... because nobody has ever been caught.

Corruption so prevalent it affects English language?

Corruption so prevalent it affects English language?
Corruption is so prevalent it affects English language?

When there's too much dirt...

When there's too much dirt...
We need better tools... to cover up mega corruptions.

Prevent bullying now!

Prevent bullying now!
If you're not going to speak up, how is the world supposed to know you exist? “Orang boleh pandai setinggi langit, tapi selama ia tidak menulis, ia akan hilang di dalam masyarakat dan dari sejarah.” - Ananta Prameodya Toer (Your intellect may soar to the sky but if you do not write, you will be lost from society and to history.)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Which direction you read from is important...

The traditional way of reading Chinese is from the right to the left. It gets a bit complicated when there are more characters, and we have to read from the right downwards until the last character, then up again to the next character of the top line and read downwards. To the uninitiated, the order is as follows (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) :

741
852
963

Even till today, since the change from 'right to left' to 'left to right' many years ago, there are signboards which show the old-fashioned way. Anyway, I didn't know Arabic is read like the old Chinese way...

A disappointed sales manager of Coca-Cola returned from his assignment to Saudi Arabia.

A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Saudis?"

The sales manager explained, "When I got posted, I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch. But I had a problem. I didn't know how to speak Arabic. So I planned to convey the message through three posters."

First poster : A man lying in the hot desert sand totally exhausted and fainted.
Second poster : The man is drinking Coca-Cola.
Third poster : Our man is now totally refreshed.
And then these posters were pasted all over the place.

"Terrific! That should have worked!" said the friend.

"The hell it should have!" said the sales manager.
"No one told me they read from right to left!"


The following poster shows a reversal of meaning when changing from top to bottom, to bottom to top, meaningfully...

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