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.)

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Don't Ass-u-me...

because you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me' must have been a cliche by now, having been immortalized by the late comedian, Benny Hill.

Here is a story of how someone could have got the wrong meaning by 'jumping to conclusion':

The Shoe Box
There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other, except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about. For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totalling $25,000. He asked her about the contents...

"When we were to be married," she said, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue.

She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily."

The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears.

Only two precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

"Honey," he said, "that explains the doilies, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?"

"Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the doilies."

Before anyone gets teary, what if the husband turned round and said (judging from the $25,000, don't think it had been a bed of roses):

and before anyone starts condemning me, my licence is:



Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Little Penang Street Market - Nov 30 pictures

A picture paints a thousand words. I have taken some pictures on November 30, of Little Penang Street Market's countdown to the Festival of Jazz (Dec 4 - 7).

Ronald Vic and his sons: Lucas on drums and Vince on keyboard.

Lucas and Vince:
Part of Northern Jazz Ensemble: Ronald and Vince in front row while a pretty saxophonist plays solo:
Other part of Northern Jazz Ensemble
Surprise of the day - two professional belly dancers!
Belly dancers giving free lesson to sporting participants:

(Click to enlarge pictures)

Travel to add topics to talk about...

This morning, our group of retirees were chatting about their recent trip to Vietnam again. It will take a while before the subject becomes stale. Yesterday, all of us had a good laugh over the word 'tiu' or 'tiew' which in Vietnamese, means toilet or salt. One can imagine how each time they were made to laugh when someone said, 'who wants to go tiu', 'all of us go to tiu at the same time' and especially when one intentionally asked another, 'want to go tiu or not'.

I still remember a lady colleague who called up to enquire about a housing project as advertised. Before finishing the conversation, she asked, 'You are Ms...?' and the girl on the other end replied, 'Ms. Tiew'. My colleague laughed out loud and the other person obviously did not mind as she must have got used to it.

Anyway, it is hard to convince my friends that I did not envy them because I heard problems of being stuck in a tunnel (one actually went in backwards!), jumping onto the moving boat and then realised the danger of 'what if the skipper accelerated at that moment!', and upon arrival at KLIA when they returned, the van that was supposed to pick them did not turn up and they had to wait another two hours for a replacement.

Besides the trip, topics of discussion included digital technology. One of them was impressed with Bluetooth technology while another was impressed with digital photo image-making abilities like adding on a jacket and a necktie to an old portrait photo. The following pictures were sent to me, giving another perspective of certain parts made invisible:














I think the last one was not digitally done. It so happens the dogs appear to fly!

As expected: Umno sacks Zaid

Umno cannot tolerate dissenting views. So everyone, especially Zaid, would have expected this decision. Attending PKR Congress is considered open defiance, so nothing less than sacking is sufficient.


It is a pity because whenever there is someone likeable by the general public, he is cosidered a bad example or like the proverbial bad apple which can spoil the whole barrel of apples.

I cannot help using one of Warren Buffet's tips on investments which basically means employing people better than him, to show how Umno misses out on a good leader:

People who join Berkshire Hathaway seldom leave. How do you get along well with all your executives?

I try to get quality people. I always say - Hire someone in your organization who is better than you are. If you do that, you build a company of giants. If you get people worse than yourself, you build a company of dwarfs. And do not try to do everything yourself. Delegate the jobs and look out of the window. The results will come. That's how you build institutions. It happens only when you empower others, believe in others. I am an investor, I am very secured at that, I have no clue how to make Coca-Cola or how to dole out credit cards (Mr. Buffett owns 8% of Coca-Cola and 13 % of American Express). I understand the wisdom of the aphorism that you cannot please all the people all the time. Of course, you will always find qualities that you don't like in people around you, but if you observe carefully the love of the work unites you both. There is no point in being obsessive about a bad quality in a person, whom you otherwise respect.


Crime is all about perception?

"That's what the Royal Malaysian Police and the Government would like you to think. Clearly, it seems if since the Police can't fight crime effectively, the next best thing to do is to fight perception.

The Royal Malaysian Police and the Deputy Prime Minister have over the past few days, gone on an offensive to blame the high crime rates in Malaysia on “perception”. "
More in Tony Pua's blog:
http://tonypua.blogspot.com/2008/12/crime-is-all-perception.html
As for me, this is perception in graphic form: