Sunday, June 26, 2011

How we wish Malaysian leaders use public funds wisely

It is a well known fact that when Putrajaya was being developed, lakes were created (rumours had it that water used caused water shortages in certain parts of KL) so that beautiful bridges could be built over them! To justify the huge sums spent in creating our new national capital, foreign tourists were interviewed and their delight and compliments were shown on television. No publicity about poor Malaysians having to find their way at great expense to deal with government departments housed in this new capital. White elephants can be interesting to tourists too, after all they were built with our money. They enjoy our free food and drinks too, when there were open houses hosted by our ministers. Contrast this with the following engineering feat which is also useful...


Water Bridge in Germany. What a feat!

Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long... now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin.

The photo was taken on the day of inauguration...

To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair engineers and physicists.

Question:
Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?

Answer:
It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.


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3 comments:

  1. CLY9:40 am

    You should see the offices in Putrajaya. Bi...iig office for politicians and civil servants. Equivalent to a bungalow for the top echelons, semi-d for the second level and double storey terrace for middle management and single storey houses for the rest. What a waste of prime office space. No 1 has a whole floor to himself. Cut that and we will save millions immediately.

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  2. nick11:54 am

    Another interesting question for Malaysian to ponder: "Does a nation needs the ability to withstand the stupidity and the corruptness of its government of the day, or does it just need to be able to withstand the consequences of such stupidity and corruption?

    Answer: The nation only needs to be able to kick out those stupid and corrupt government and prevent the rise to power of other stupid and corrupt government! Sadly for Malaysia..we as a nation lost that ability when we believed the government promise of never using the ISA for other reason than fighting communism. The consequences? We are still under "Emergency rule" and all those illegal and unlawful acts are enforceable. So much for democracy, UMNO style!

    Nick.

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  3. KoSong Cafe12:07 pm

    Aha, now I know why communism was mentioned in the arrest of PSM members - to justify the use of ISA?

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