Irish logic?

An Irishman walks into a bar in Dublin, orders three pints of Guinness and sits at the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn.  When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.

The bartender approaches and tells him, "You know, a pint goes flat after I draw it, and it would taste better if you bought one at a time." The Irishman replies: "Well, you see, I have two brothers.  One is in America, the other is in Australia, and I'm in Dublin.  When we all left home, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days we drank together.  So I drink one for each me brothers and one for me self."

The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there. The Irishman becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way: He orders three pints and drinks them in turn. One day, he comes in and orders two pints.  All the other regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss."

The Irishman looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns and he laughs.  "Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains, "It's just that me wife had us join that Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking.  But it hasn't affected me brothers though."

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Recent seminars on labour and social protection in ASEAN

Tripartite Seminar for Enhancing Social Protection in an Economically Integrated ASEAN
25-27 November, 2015 Jakarta, Indonesia

Book:

http://www.ilo.org/jakarta/whatwedo/publications/WCMS_428982/lang--en/index.htm

3rd ASEAN Course on Economic Integration & Labour Migration
7 - 11 December, 2015 Bali, Indonesia

ASEAN Economic Integration and Labour Migration: challenges and opportunities

With that, Cheng has officially left the building.

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Can we still rely on USA to protect us in the region?

I refer to the current show of force by USA in the South China Sea:

US bombers' flyover 'serious military provocation', says China
More:
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/323970

The long drawn spat among China, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia over Spratly Islands has again drawn the attention of Big Brother, the United States of America.

China has taken the initiative of reclaiming land, resulting in a man-made island large enough to act as a naval and air base to protect what many believed to be its future oil and other explorations around it.

This had triggered alarm again among those countries laying overlapping claims over The Spratlys. As expected, US has to show its support against China's overtly unfair actions by a show of force in sending its navy to the region.

History has shown how US was incapable of fighting a long drawn war, far away from its shores. It was costly in terms of money and lives. Most US citizens would not support their country in fighting some countries' wars and losing their own lives in the process. US President is democratically elected, and they can only serve a maximum of two terms.

How can a President promise anything if he could not be in office soon after? This is the situation with the current President, Barack Obama, who will be ending his second term soon. A serving President has to account for his decisions, what more, where those involved heavy expenditure over a long period and would cost citizens' lives.

Compare and contrast this with an enemy like China, where its President has autocratic power over major decisions which in effect, means decisiveness, something so vital in any war.

Financially, it is more ironic, or even ludicrous, when China is now the biggest creditor of USA. Just imagine, your enemy financing you in developing or buying military hardware to fight with you! Without firing a single shot, China can easily withdraw its credit to US and probably cause its financial system to collapse.

My simplistic and naive suggestion in Facebook:

Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam appear to have overlapping claims over Spratly Islands for years without resolving the issue. Now that China is claiming them, what can those countries do? Depend on US? US cannot sustain a long drawn war far away from its shores. China seems to have in place a 'permanent' warship with the newly reclaimed land. Why not let China be Big Brother instead of US, if it can promise not to have further territorial ambitions and can even offer economic aid to those countries willing to accept the conditions? This will avoid unnecessary war and bloodshed.

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Sunday market economics

As a frequent visitor to the Jalan Horley Sunday market in Ipoh, I got to know a trader for many years. He started to pack his things even though it was just elevenish. It was still crowded as usual, but most people are not buying. His explanation was simple:

Government has collected over Rm30 billions in GST. Just imagine the loss in purchasing power of the people. My mind added to that the illegal charging without accounting to the government, as well as the opportunistic profiteering and unavoidable general increases in prices which could easily amount to double the official tax collected, then we know why the public has to cut back on spending... simply because they can buy less with the same incomes!

They have to be selective in spending, and antiques and collectibles can wait. He said he is glad he let go of his usual helper, otherwise, what he earns for the half day goes to his wages with nothing for himself.

In 1999, when he lost his job as a salesman, he found to his surprise, that his takings was as much as Rm2000 a day at the People's Park then! For 4 Sundays in a month, he could easily make a few thousands in profits that he told himself he is not going back to working for others. His previous job paid a basic salary of Rm500 and he had to meet his target of Rm120,000 a month to earn a total of Rm1,600.

'But now, bad times are here. Before, you wouldn't see me wrapping my stuff at the end of the trading day. Everything was cleared. Those were the good old days.' he lamented.
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A bit on transport and its charges

More than 40 years ago, I was tasked to ferry 4 outstation girls (my fellow classmates) on my way, from Jalan Pekeliling flats to Cheras and back. I did not charge them and on my birthdays, I received some gifts from them instead.

Then for 12 years, I had to travel almost every weekend, between KL and Batu Gajah. Occasionally, I was asked to deliver some stuff for relatives or friends. Just imagine, had I been business-minded, I could have used those trips to do some business, like taking people and charging them fares or buying and selling stuff from either destination. But not being in such business, how could I charge relatives or friends? For more than 3 years, I used an RX7 just to enjoy the driving while making the trips, so taking in passengers was out of the question. Besides, despite its official 1.3 litre equivalent, the rotary engine was a real gas guzzler - even on highway best I could get was 18 miles to a gallon of petrol!

A former classmate, who is having a Bas Sekolah business in PJ, boasted to me that he is earning more than an engineer. Using an Urvan with 17-passenger capacity, and running the morning and afternoon sessions, he can earn over Rm10,000 a month by charging each student Rm300. He can add to his income by taking some to tuition centres. But I reminded him of his heavy responsibilities and he replied, 'Yah, I cannot be sick!' I think the bright side to his business is that if the 34 students are attending the same school, then it makes his job so much easier. But to think of the traffic jams which might upset his routines must be discouraging to anyone thinking of having such a business.
According to a retired teacher, some of his ex-students arrived school at 5.00 am, simply because they were the first batch of their school bus driver's 2 or 3 trips in the morning!

About the heavy responsibilities, I am reminded of how a father refused to provide capital for his son to start a Bas Sekolah service. Known for his '3-minute hot' nature in any new venture, the old man just could not bear to let the possibility of students being stranded happen... even before the start of the venture!

Yesterday morning we happened to patronise a coffee stall in Pusing market and the operator provides taxi service under licence. So the topic invariably touched on taxi charges. A friend commented that his recent trip from KL Sentral to Putra Heights costed him Rm68 plus Rm3 toll charges (the latter seems unfair). His earlier experience was Rm30 from Paradigm Mall to Putra Heights. He said he was pleasantly surprised when he was charged Rm16 from Sunway to Paradigm Mall, which I pointed out that both places were on the same side of LDP. Another friend said his son and family was taken for a ride upon arrival at KLIA, when he was charged Rm300 from KLIA to Taman Desa! That was almost what it costs from KLIA to Batu Gajah.

Where available, it is definitely cheaper to take the train. At the moment, I will not consider taking a bus from Ipoh to KL, especially with the Amanjaya Bus Terminal, which seems to serve vested interests instead of passengers' convenience. Similarly, in KL, it seems all northbound buses have to use the state of the art bus terminal at Tasik Selatan instead of the convenient Jalan Duta stadium. Either location means more trouble than its worth. Taxifare from Ipoh to Amanjaya costs at least Rm20! I suppose I need to double that from Batu Gajah. I dread to think what it would cost from Tasik Selatan to anywhere convenient in KL.

Antares complained in Facebook, about the change in routes by KTM as well as the increase in fares. Relatively, despite fare increase, train is still cheap. But what a time to add on to the burden of ordinary folks...

'Two days ago KTM rerouted its Rawang-Seremban Commuter line so that it now links Rawang with Klang. To continue to Seremban (or Midvalley) from KL Sentral you now have to change platforms & hop on the Batu Caves-Seremban line. This means that if you intend to get off at Midvalley from Rawang you now have to change trains & platforms at KL Sentral & wait an additional 15-20 minutes just to go an extra stop. On the return journey, it takes an additional 15-20 minutes because of this senseless re-routing exercise. Not only that... KTM abruptly raised its fares last month, so that an adult return ticket from KKB to KL Sentral that used to cost RM11.20 now costs RM17.60. It appears that KTM is imitating all the serious mistakes the Najib regime is making in its desperation to shore up its finances, in the aftermath of massive financial mismanagement & outright thievery. Looks like 2016 is going to be an extremely tough year for those who depend on the commuter service or who commute daily on the highways. I'm so glad I don't have to experience this stupidity on a daily basis.'

Anyway, the taxi driver related to us how he managed to get away from trouble with JPJ. Once, he was caught taking passengers from KLIA, after dropping off one from his hometown. Though he was quick to tell the passenger to say they are related, the officers were one step ahead. Driver and passenger were separately interrogated. His ruse failed when he could not even name the passenger nor his home address! But being experienced he was well prepared with documents and newspaper cuttings showing the market fire and police report with his name, and that he was badly affected by loss of income which drove him to pick passengers illegally. He was referred from one senior officer to another who finally pointed a finger at him and warned, 'Saya tak mahu nampak muka awak sekali lagi di sini.' He said he risked a fine of Rm300 or even confiscation of the vehicle. Since then, it seems the rules are relaxed.

Commercial vehicle drivers have to face possibility of being stopped by police or JPJ on a daily basis. It is an open secret that it is an easy means of extra income for the enforcement officers. Some pay tontos to tip them of any roadblock. A tow truck operator is known to be good at names-dropping, with a list of senior police officers' telephone numbers. He actually knew them through towing service. Most times, the officer would give him the benefit of the doubt instead of having to talk to any of them. Tricks of the trade in a 'cat and mouse' situation.
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