Penang road signage: Penang for Penang Lang only?

I had problems before when trying to find our way back to the Second Bridge from city centre. It was fairly straightforward entering Penang island but the return journey (without proper road signage) seems suitable for Penangites only. It was like a big WELCOME but if you want to leave, sorry loh, you have to learn how to find your way back. Anyway, for visiting our usual places of interest (like Chulia Street), it is still best to use the old bridge.

I had been to the old KTM Butterworth railway station a few times, but last Friday, it was only my second visit to the new station. Both times, I lost my way!

While on the highway (after paying the NSE toll), it is easy to find the slip road to Perai and Butterworth. Then it also seems easy with an overhead sign which has an arrow showing to the railway station... but after that, you are left on your own to guess your way to it! If you are new, or like me with poor memory, you have a 50% chance of getting it right (if 2 directions) or 33% chance if you have to decide whether to turn left, go straight or turn right.

The first time, I took a wrong turn and had to ask a Petron cashier who directed me to go through the toll gate. Despite knowing this,  this time I turned off too soon and drove onto a slip-road into a housing estate. After a couple of dead ends, I found my way out, did a u-turn to get back, but was on the wrong side of the road. Normally to get to the other side, one has to find a slip-road on the left and go up or down, but since there was only an overhead pedestrian crossing, I tried to keep to the right and was relieved to find I could do a u-turn.

KTM Butterworth railway station is still spanking new, yet the car park was full and cars can be seen illegally parking on both sides of the road leading to the entrance, almost making it one lane. Obviously, insufficient parking spaces and this is the time when we wonder if introducing parking charges would ease the problem, not that I like it.

The driveway was closed to traffic, probably to avoid people from parking. But this has caused inconvenience to every vehicle entering, and having to reverse within narrow spaces.

What's the point of a driveway if it's blocked to prevent use? This is at the new KTM Butterworth station. The road leading to it was double-parked and reduced to one lane if a van or pickup truck. Even the free shuttle van has to do 3-point turns to leave.

This shuttle van driver knew better by driving the wrong way but using the driveway. He managed to drive through between the plastic blocks shown in my earlier photo.
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E.S. Shankar's take on why we need a German to be MAS's hatchet man

Why we need a German to sort out MAS? Just like Margaret Thatcher, who used an American to sort out British Leyland and British Steel, we need an outsider to get things done instead of being affected by local politics.

'Put simply, in the divided and polarised 1Malaysia of today, no Bumiputra Malay will be allowed to do what is necessary or doggedly pursue what it takes, to completion. They will succumb to political interference and pressure. When accused of being traitors to their own kind, the dreaded "Jebat, Hang Tuah and derhaka" cry, they will not be able to make those hard decisions. They will wilt under Perkasa and ISMA's accusations, and dare not allow meritocracy to flourish and MAS to spring back to a meaningfully profitable life. They would rather the government print more and more money to bailout MAS, than lay-off one excessive worker. Where ruthless efficiency will be the bitter pill required to be swallowed, we can be very assured that they will substitute it with namby-pamby, syrupy, mollycoddling!

This is how Mahathirism has programmed the ultra-Bumiputras, especially the Malay elite mind. They will set the bar lower rather than higher, until the government itself collapses. One local CEO will plumb for outright buying of aircrafts one year, another will push for leasing the next, both options being acceptable as million dollar kick-backs in the airlines industry are nothing new in a highly competitive arena and cut-throat business domains.

Will appointing a Chinese or Indian work? No! The Chinese will be told that one must not break a fellow citizen's rice bowl or they can return to China, the Indian,  that he should be grateful his grandfather was granted citizenship and that besides, the culture at MAS is such that the staff will boycott a non-Bumiputra CEO. 'Apa lagi you mahu, anak pendatang?' (what more do you want, children of immigrants) will be the insulting reaction. Race, religion, colour, creed and culture will all be used to make life for a non-Bumi CEO at MAS, untenable and unworkable.

Mueller, however, will have arrived with no baggage or tag. He does not have to look at who stole what, when, where and who from before he arrived. That will be PM Najib and Khazanah's job. He will not have to worry about Bumiputra and Malay quotas. His remit will be to transform MAS back into the 5-star profitable airlines star it used to be. He knows no one can achieve that by offering 3-star service, soggy nasi lemak, limp noodles and being side-tracked by cut-throat low cost airlines upstarts. Mueller's job will be to capitalise MAS at the optimum cash plus borrowing (gearing) level and maximise profits. In other words, the return on capital must meet industry norms.'

More:
http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-german-thomas-mueller-is-right.html

E.S. Shankar likes to use pseudonyms to thinly disguise his facts as fiction. But in this article, only the name of the German is different: Thomas instead of Christoph Mueller, and I am sure it was a deliberate mistake. In fact, I prefer his facts than so-called fiction (he tends to get carried away in using pseudonyms) because of his qualifications and extensive experience in accounting, audit and finance.

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Indians: then and now

The joke used to be: 1 Indian talks to himself; 2 Indians form a union; 3 Indians go on strike.

Since Tun Dr Mahathir's latest comment on Indians in Malaysia, I found the following graphics in Facebook:

Courtesy of Ranendra Bhattacharyya

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I have to eat my words

I used to criticise people who waste on food, reminding them about the millions elsewhere who have to go hungry for days. Now, with my loss of appetite, what used to make me drool do not seem appetising to me now. It is a problem having to think of various food items before I decide on one or two. Instead of live to eat, it is now more like eat to live. But the good thing is I don't waste on food.

Nowadays, I have to put up with relative's or friend's comment like 'What happened to you?' Are you ill? So I am rather anti-social because of this. Incidentally, I was surprised even my 3-year old grandson can be anti-social too! Once, on the way to my in-laws, just before reaching he said, 'Today I am not calling anyone'. When we arrived, he refused to get down from the car! Even kids can get fed up with the need to call so and so.


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While we are busy arguing over this and that, some people already got what they wanted

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