Overloading your vehicle can result in excessive heat inside your tyres and cause them to fail. Throw in a case of improper wheel alignment and you get a serious safety issue.
Always ensure proper wheel alignment and balancing when driving long distances with a heavy load!
One friend of mine was talking about Singapore’s children with me today. Her husband is working in Singapore as a lecturer so she actually gets to know Singapore children quite well (thru her husband, of course).
She was commenting that Singapore new generation (those studying in secondary and tertiary schools now)are too spoilt. Yes, Singapore outperformed all ASEAN countries in economy but this is due to the contributions and sacrifices done by the older generations. Those older generations experienced Singapore independence (separated from Malaya). They experienced how hard it was to build a country from scrap. A country with limited land, no resources, nothing. They were poor when they were young so they appreciate what they are enjoying today.
But the new generation takes everything for granted. Singaporean families usually give birth to only 1 or 2 children. So, in most cases, those children are too pampered and spoilt. My friend raised up lots of examples that happened in school that her husband is teaching, including confrontation by parents, etc.
Old generations that are responsible of spurring up the Singapore economy will die one day. MM Lee will also pass away some time in future. And today’s over-pampered and spoilt child will rise to be the national leaders. Where will they lead Singapore to?
I am sceptical that Singapore will ever retain its predominance in economy after some 10 to 20 years.
There will be no surprise in government’s annual budget that ‘sin’ tax will be increased. Sin tax means tax for tobacco and alcohol products. So, i also address these products as sin products, haha!
I still remember that Peter Stuyvesant tobacco is just RM 4 a few years back but due to heavy taxation, it’s now RM 9, more than doubled! And my dad is still puffing in and out without feeling sinful! So as the price of alcohol.
Since these kind of sinful products are actually no difference from drugs, addicted people will be addicted for life, ya, till they day they end up in tomb. So, even if you sell a pack of cigarette at RM 50, I believe they will still buy (they might smoke less, but they will not STOP smoking!).
World 2nd largest public listed tobacco giant - British American Tobacco reported a 20 % increment of before-tax profit.
What say you?
Yes, the toll hike has been deferred indefinitely. But so what? Government has decided to pay compensation to the concession companies by CASH. It’s billions of Ringgit Malaysia CASH. Those money comes from the tax payers. We rakyat are still the losers. Concession companies are still the winners.
It’s just that tolls that should be paid by highway users are now being paid by ALL Malaysian taxpayers.
Should we laugh or should we cry?
Hahaha, I don’t know what should I feel when I read the news today about toll increases in PLUS highway, Sprint, Ampang Elevated Highway, Sg Besi Highway, and New Pantai Expressway today.
Just as I’ve blogged in my previous post, this government thinks we rakyat are all LULU. They abolished tolls in LOW-traffic areas (to falsely make people think this government is so good) but build new tolls in high-traffic highways.
As you can see, they are increasing the toll rates on all major high-traffic highways.
No surprise.
Anybody wanna place a bet with me for the results of the on-coming 4 by-elections? I am willing to show hand.
Work Minister had abolished the Salak Jaya toll plaza yesterday.
Actually, it was supposedly something worth celebrating. But as a compensation of abolishing the toll, government has granted permission to the highway company to extend the highway and build one more toll.
So, what the heck was that? Abolish one and build one. Minus one plus one equals to zero. The toll that was being abolished was actually a low-traffic toll. People always use an alternative route to bypass the toll. So, since the traffic is low, there is no harm abolishing it to falsely let people think that this government is empathising people.
Hello, YB Work Minister, you really think Malaysian rakyat are all lulu meh? If you are really sincere, please abolish the tolls on high-traffic highways, like LDP. And, If you wipe out all tolls in PLUS highway, WOW, i am going to guarantee you that all Malaysian will clap their hands non-stop and BN will just win like crazy in next GE. Uh-hmm, I am just saying, IF.
UUM has increased its bus fare recently without consulting opinions from various parties involved. This has led to dissatisfaction especially among students as they are the ones who use the bus facilities.
A student named 朱国伟 (Choo) has started an online petition to gather signatures to express their dissatisfaction over the price increment as University should not burden students during this economy downturn. When the petition was submitted to the Vice-chancellor, Choo has been prosecuted under University and College Act.
What the hell!!! Choo is not against the government, neither is he against the university or whatever. He was just voicing out the dissatisfaction over bus fare increment. How could the university charge him under University and College Act? That is ridiculous! Totally absurd and crazy.
Youths in Malaysia are politically and socially apathetic and this is a sad thing. Choo is the paradigm of today’s University’s graduates. He possesses the quality as a a real university undergraduate – dare to speak out for the interest of community and society.
Choo’s act should be lauded instead of suppressed. I express great disappointment toward the top management of UUM for being over-reactive towards the petition submitted. Now we have every reason to suspect that maybe the contract signed between bus company and university might have something ‘wrong’. Now the university is urged to publicize the contract details (but I bet UUM will not publicize, we already knew what is in the contract, it is just the same thing like PLUS highway contract or other highways contracts in Malaysia).
Anyway, I strongly condemn such a malicious attack towards a supposedly-laudable act.
朱國偉作為一名自發發動網上聯署，來表達意見的北大生，不但不應該受到任何對付，反而應該得到嘉賞。在目前年輕人普遍上對社會冷漠、不關心社會發展的當兒，他作出這種自發性的行為是個典範，而不是罪犯
- 《東方日報》
Hi all, especially to Sabun (cos this piece of post is related to you!) The government has proposed that cars above 15 years old will be given RM 5000 incentives to be scrapped.
Haha, so here comes the question. Is RM 5000 enough for you? (You may leave your comment) To me, if I were the owner of a 15 years old car, I would not scrap it.
Yes, I will get RM 5000 cash-back, but so what? If it’s scrapped, I would have no car to use, how inconvenient it is! It’s well-known that Malaysian public transport is unreliable and personal car or motorbike is the only solution. If I scrap it, I would certainly need to fork out more than RM 5000 to buy myself another car. So, what’s the point of scrapping?
The Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) supports the proposal. Of course they support, because if people scrap cars, they will be able to sell more new cars and make more money, as simple as that!
In my opinion, if the government enforces this policy and FORCE all 15 years old or above cars to be scrapped, it would be a good news to car dealers and automotive industry. But it is a bad news to poor people. Not everyone can afford the monthly instalment of a new car. Furthermore, the maintenance of a new car is higher as you need to patronize the authorized workshops to carry out servicing to avoid voiding the warranty. Authorized workshops always charge an exorbitant price for servicing, that’s for sure.
I hope the government will just make this policy an optional one. Unless government is able to provide world-class public transportation like Singapore, if not, please don’t enforce such a policy, for God’s sake.
p.s. Hi, Sabun, do you want to scrap your old car (leave your comment)?
Bukit Lanjan assemblyman, Elizabeth Wong’s nude pictures have been circulated in the internet. Personally I have not yet seen the pictures (I think it’s unethical to look at it?).
There are 2 possible culprits to this incident. One is her political opponent, and another one is her ex-Malay-bf.
The police are still working on the case to find out the real culprit. If it is done by her political opponents, I think this is simply a low-down, dirty, cheap tactic (ironically, it works well). Everyone of us should condemn such an despicable act. Women are extremely vulnerable in politics. If the authorities do not do something, I believe more and more good people – good people who really serve the country and people, will be put off.
If the pictures were circulated by her ex-bf, then what is his motives? He hated her after break-up? Or is he being bought over by Elizabeth’s political opponents?
As a conclusion, NEVER let your partner take your nude photos no matter how close, how intimate you are. You might be black-mailed after breaking up. Hey, don’t say that you’ll love each other forever. Don’t be naive, we can’t predict future. Furthermore, relationships get more fragile nowadays.
Hi, everybody, it’s afternoon coffee/tea break.
One cup of coffee/tea costs RM 2.50.
Ratings for deliciousness and value: Above average loh. I don’t really patronize coffee shop often.
Hi hi, here comes CC’s favourite – Tai Son Restaurant. The business here looks not quite encouraging because all the seats and tables are vacant when we reached around 12 noon +. There is only 1 car in the car-park (probably belongs to the manager’s?)
There are only 3 of us but 5 dishes are ordered namely ‘heng cai’, chef recommended ‘tofu’, cod fish (2 flavour: fried and steamed), black pepper crab, crab fried with its roe. Haha, don’t be surprised, we managed to finish eating all of them and lick our plate. keke….
After a mere < 30 minutes, it has become like this:
hehe!
Address: Lot PTD 85473, Jalan Molek 2/4, Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru
Tel: 07-3560277, 3573388 Fax: 07-3550857
My ratings:
Delicousness- 5-star
Comment: Since our prominent international gourmet, CC, loved this restaurant so much, there is no reason I give any ratings below 5-star.
Value- 5-star
Comment: The bill is RM 160. 2 crabs, 2 pieces of cod fish, 1 vege, 1 tofu. Basically it’s crabs that made up most of the bill. Int’l gourmet CC said it’s cheap. How do you think (leave your comment)?
Acknowledgement:Gratitude is expressed to Dennis Vun for footing the bill.
Just as I’ve blogged about Air Asia a few days ago, coincidently Tony Pua did the same today! haha!
Unlike many of our country's pseudo-pretend-entrepreneurs who rely on government concession and oblique guarantees to become multi-millionaires, Tony Fernandes made it big with no government guaranteed passenger traffic, protected air routes, monopoly license or government underwritten loans.
Anyone with real ambitions to become an entrepreneur in Malaysia should emulate Tony Fernandes’s "gung-ho" spirit. (二姐，spend some time reading his blog! It might help, who knows… haha!)
Talking about pseudo-pretend-entrepreneurs who rely on government concessions, there are tonnes of them in Malaysia, sad to say. Just take MAS as an example, about 1.2 million government servants nationwide are forced to use MAS as the only way of air travelling for official duties. GUARANTEED 1.2 million customer base, yet MAS has the gut to shamelessly announced losses a few years ago. These kind of pseudo-pretend-entrepreneurs are just hell sucking the money out of rakyat’s pockets. When these kind of businesses fail, the government will always back them up by bail-out. If these companies need funds for expansion or whatever hell reasons, again, the government is there to lend them using rakyat’s hard-earned money.
Cronyism, nepotism, squandering of public funds. Enough is being said.
I am going to introduce you a new dish today. A dish that can hardly be found in Penang (at least I think so).
Personally I call it black soup koay teow, but it’s actual name is 粿条仔。It is basically koay teow immersed in black soup and you’re given some side dishes.
Since I opted not to eat internal organs, I was given some slices of pork, fu zhok, dried tofu and an egg.
The chilly is worth mention because the aunty is quite clever to add in some vinegar. The vinegar added some sensation to the tongue and it definitely added some score to my overall ratings!
Wuhoo, here comes the black soup koay teow. Koay teow was silky smooth while the black soup tasted just nice, not too salty. You will tend to drink the black soup while eating, and without knowing, probably you would have dried them up! But no worries, if the aunty happens to see that you dry up your soup before finishing the koay teow, she would be so kind to add in more soup for you! One more point scored.
Address: Ho Ping Kopitiam, Taman Impian Emas, 81300 Skudai.
My ratings:
Delicousness:
Comment: 5-star. It’s delicious. Everything came in together just nice. The portion, the saltiness, the taste are all in good combination. It’s worth trying!
Value:
Comment: 5-star. The price is RM 3.50 (But sometimes the aunty charged me RM 4, I don’t know why). Since I was only charged RM 3.50 this time, I would give it 5-star. If the aunty charged me RM 4, then I might cut one – 4 star.
I would recommend all of you to visit Tony Fernandes’s blog. He is undeniably one of the most respectable CEOs in the world.
11th March – a date to be remembered. AirAsia X will have the first London—>Kuala Lumpur flight. It will be recorded in history as the longest low-cost flight. Isn’t it something to be proud of as a Malaysian? This flight will change aviation forever.
If that’s not enough, Tony has announced in his blog that Manchester United has approached him to talk about AirAsia’s sponsorship of jersey. That means if Tony says yes, we will see AirAsia’s name on every MU’s jersey! Isn’t it something unbelievable? A Malaysian brand appearing on English Premier League.
In a mere 7 years, Air Asia has transformed from a debt-stricken (RM 40 million worth of debts) company into a multinational conglomerate.
One thing worth to be noted, Tony Fernandes is a chartered accountant by himself. I have read lots of listed companies’ annual reports and found out that most of the directors, managing directors and CEOs are chartered accountants!
So, I have made up my mind. I am going to send my children to accounting schools next time when I have my family.. hehe!
I did not know about this until I read a blog posting by Tony Pua. The promised LRT extensions have been delayed, yet again.
The news has been kept low-keyed and main medias do not report this news (even if, they report in a very small column, if not, I wouldn’t have missed it).
This signals that it will be a long way before Malaysians are able to enjoy a better public transportation. And, another lesson to fellow tax-payers, never easily believes in promises made by the government.
Double-tracking and electrification (proposed by Tun Dr Mahathir) are scrapped, and now this LRT extension. Datuk Seri Najib will be the next PM after March, will he follow the footsteps of Pak Lah by reviewing the projects proposed by the former and further scrapping even more?
Quoted from TheStar, 20th, Feb 2009.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan said that there was strong evidence to show that Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim misused his powers over the maintenance of his personal car and the distribution of 46 cows worth RM110,400 for slaughter during Aidil Adha celebrations in his parliamentary constituency of Bandar Tun Razak last December.
Haha, the first big case was targeting the Pakatan big shot, Selangor MB, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. The so-called independent MACC which was promised to revolutionize the previous Badan Pencegah Rasuah (BPR) was nothing but just a stooge of BN, obviously.
MACC chief commissioner said that the case would to be referred to the Attorney-General (AG) for further action. Again, where is the impartiality if the case has to go through the AG? Where is the promised independence? If, let say, there is a case involving some BN big shots, do you think AG will proceed with the prosecution?
It’s just been months since MACC was being set up, but I can predict that it’ll be a failure. As the Chinese saying goes, soup is changed but the medicine inside is still the same.
Today I am going to talk about quack as one of my acquaintances encountered with this problem. He had been told by his Chinese sin-seh that vitamin C supplements shouldn’t be taken as it may cause cancer. This Chinese sin-seh claimed to be graduated from Beijing.
Oh ya, Beijing, sound grand, right? It sounded like this quack has got the highest recognized degree as he is from Beijing, the capital of country of origin of Chinese traditional medicine. I would tell him straight at his face, go to he!!.
First of all, I would like to know which medical school in Beijing he got his degree (or only certificate/diploma?) from. There are hundreds of medical schools, colleges, universities in Beijing, so which one? Most of us tend to ‘waahh’ when we heard that our friend graduated from UK, US or Australia. But I am going to tell you this is not always the case! Unless your friend is graduated from Harvard (US) or Cambridge (UK) or Australian National University (Australia), then you have every reason to admire them. If not, you gotta check first.
Example:
I have a friend who graduated from Deakin University, Australia. Some of you who have never gone studying overseas will think that he is so great and you start to admire with your eyes wide-open. Malaysian Chinese, especially, have the false concept that studying abroad is better than studying in local universities. Let me tell you, if you do a search on THES-QS ranking, you will find out that Deakin is actually ranked 396 in 2008! Here is the complete list. For your information, our ‘l@ousy’ local U, Universiti Malaya, is ranked 230 in year 2008. Everyone knows that local U is very lau yeah, but so you can see, the friend who went to Australia to study is even more lau eah!!!!!! Even UKM (ranked 250), USM (ranked 313) or UPM (ranked 320) are better than this Australia university. So, do you see what I am trying to say to you now? Next time when you heard someone studying abroad, you don’t need to admire unless he/she is from Harvard, Yale, Oxbridge, MIT, Imperial College of London, or other top 100 universities.
All of us know that most top universities are situated in US and UK. But as I have mentioned above, studying in US and UK doesn’t make you more superior because he/she might have attended classes at Southern Methodist University (US) or Clark University (US). Both universities above are ranked 500 + together with the likes of University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), National Chung Hsing University (Taiwan) and Diponegoro University (Indonesia).
Sorry for the long story, now we go back to the story of the quack. After my long explanation, I believe now you understand why I need to know which university/college/medical school this bogus Chinese sin-seh had attended. This will be my preliminary judgement of his credibility.
However, all of these are made on the assumption that this Chinese sin-seh did not fake his qualifications. Sometimes, he might not even own a degree, he was just faking it that he graduated from Beijing!
Example: Tony Pua made a very detailed investigation into the academics qualifications of KDU Management Development Centre (KMDC), which operates as a professional development centre under KDU College Sdn Bhd in Petaling Jaya. He found out that 3-4 out of KMDC's list of 7 faculty members are in possession of doctorates originating from dubious sources.
1. Dr. James Chong PhD (Ire, 2002)
"Dr. James Chong has a PhD from Irish International University, Ireland..."
2. Dr. Ragunathan PhD (2002), MBA (1999)
"Dr. Ragunathan has a PhD in Business Administration and MBA from Newport University, United States... Dr. Ragunathan lectures on Research Methodology for the MBA and MSc programs."
For Dr James Chong, the university doesn't exist in Ireland, if it even "exists" at all! So where did he attend his PhD programme, the headquarters of IIU in Pakistan? As for Newport University where Dr Ragunathan obtained his PhD and MBA, it is definitely not recognised by the Office of Degree Authorisation in Oregon, United States, which clearly lists colleges which are either unaccredited or diploma mills.
Now, KMDC certainly isn't the only college which employs such faculty members. Prominent Chinese educationist, Dr Yap Sin Tian of Southern College, also secured his PhD from Kensington University in Hawaii/California in 1990, which has since been closed by court order. He has also obtained another Doctorate in Philosophy of Education from, ah, Southern Cross University in 1999.
If you do not know who is Yap Sin Tian, then look at this news from TheStar. During New Era college convocation on 11 January 2009, a man went up to the stage as college senate chairman Dr Yap Sin Tian was giving a speech and punched him in the face in front of 500 people, including students, parents and guests. Here are some more news related to this incident. News A, news B, news C, News D.
Again, back to our story…….
Conclusion, did the Chinese sin-seh really attend a medical school in Beijing? It was in doubt. If yes, then what university? Does he read New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, British Lancet, and Annuals of Internal Medicine? The researchers who published in journals have done double-blinded placebo-controlled studies on Vitamin C. I would love to know based on what grounds he dared to comment that Vitamin C may cause cancer. Any double-blinded placebo-controlled conducted by him before? Or is there any published papers on that?
Come on lah, you Lau Sai sin-seh, please don’t make lau sai comments that misguide your patients just for the sake of selling your heavy-metal-pesticide-tainted Chinese herbs. I am not against you selling herbs to your patients but I am just against you bluffing about something you don’t know.
Disclaimer: I, the author of this posting, has no personal enmities against Chinese sin-sehs or rejection toward Chinese herbs. In fact, I love Chinese traditional medicine and I respect the profundity of ancient Chinese’s knowledge/wisdom towards diseases and herbs. Furthermore, I have spent a considerable amount of time learning the knowledge. I just hope that the incident of one apple spoiling the whole bunch doesn’t happen.
But, sadly, we, in Malaysia, do not have strict regulations on qualifications of Chinese sin-seh. I do hope that one day Ministry of Health may come out with laws to regulate Chinese sin-sehs, making sure that there isn’t any rotten apple around to protect the good reputation of Chinese traditional medicine and to uphold the high standing!
Hi to all my blog readers, I just want your comments. This nasi melayu, bought at Larkin Perdana, is sold at RM 5. Just a fried-till-rock-hard fish + vege.
Please comment on how do you think of the price? It’s RM 5.
Thank you for your comments.
Hi all, as I want to lead a healthy life, as always, I chose to eat salad as my dinner. Initially, I just wanted to eat some fruits, but there isn’t any cut fruits in Carrefour (only in Jusco?).
But then I came across this coleslaw. There is a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and potatoes for you to choose from. The price is RM 1.29 per 100 g. I think it’s definitely a good bargain. I took lots of purple cabbage (as I knew it’s an expensive vege), green pepper, red pepper, carrot, cabbage, watermelon, dragon fruit, potatoes, tomatoes, etc. ( I can’t remember all the names). Finally, I poured 2 spoonful of mayonnaise and thousand island sauce on top of it.
Yummy!!!
The fruits are cold and the vege is crispy. It’s really nice!
Address: Carrefour Sutera Utama, Taman Sutera Utama, 81300 Skudai.
My ratings:
Comment: The whole box of coleslaw costed RM 4.41. To me, I think it’s still okay, not too unreasonably expensive.
Comment: 5-star. The iciness of the fruits and crispiness of vege are certainly a great combination. I gave 5-star because it’s not only delicious but it also makes me feel healthier after eating, haha!
