CAUGHT IN OPPA GANGNAM STYLE MANIA

Few days back, my daughter alerted me about PSY caricature was on McDonald's shaker. It was in The Star. Both of us rushed to the nearest McDonalds and bought the meal with the shaker. How disappionted we were when we got the shaker without "PSY" character!

 

Anyway, the world seemed got caught with the Gangnam Style Phenomena. Switched on the radio, you'll hear all kind of versions. KL version, Kampung version etc...
Even the cricket World Cup T20 was also caught by the bug. Superstar Chris Gayle was seen dancing to the Oppa Gangnam Style in the middle of the field!

 

Whats worse, company annual dinners do also caught with this madness! Just imagine how would it be if you could do something like that!!!!!!!

ARE WE TAKEN FOR GRANTED?

I read this article the other day and few things crossed my mind.
1. This company is willing to spend S$3,400 a month for dish-washer (if you read the article till the end then you find out that its for Singaporeans and PR status citizens only). This alot of money to Cuci Pinggan! Thats RM7,500 a month! If you are a local graduate you can't even command this salary! It relates to this question? Why is that companies in Singapore are so conscious of having Singaporeans to work for them and yet in Malaysia its the total opposite? The cheaper the better, thats the Malaysian motto! That guy is not even customer fronting, he is the lowest ranked worker in the restaurant!!
2. I read a facebook ad, offering  a nursery helper position for RM500 a month!  RM500 a month? You pay your maid more than that!(the maid even gets food and bed!!!) Pretty sure the ad was not for some non -educated foreigner as it was written in Malay and posted in the FB! So, where's the logic behind all these? Then if the nursery does ever get one, what do you think that person would be like? I would definitely NOT send my kids to this nursery!! (where's the minimum salary wage thing that they talked about?)
3. If a dishwasher gets S$3,400 a month pretty sure a 5-year experience Accountant will get some S$20,000 a month salary. So, do you think that TalentCorp will be able to bring the best overseas Malaysians back to our shores? They just need to go across the Causeway! Sure, they'll get a lower salary than their Singapore counterparts (maybe S$15,000 a month) but still much better than any Malaysian company willing to pay them! Some, 15 years ago I used to be paid a mere RM4,000 a month to manage a multi billion dollar Country Fund!!! Just imagine how sickening it was then, just to get those experience. ( few months later I was offered to stationed myself in Indonesia by a Hong Kong Investment House for US10,000 a month plus perks). Being Malaysian in Malaysia is simply no class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the end of the day, we Malaysians have always been a second class citizen in our own country! Foreigners (especially the KwaiLos, Mat Sallehs) get better salary, they even been better treated! Will this ever change????

IPOH AGAIN!!!!

Just to share with you guys about Ipoh! An interesting article in the Star Business pages! Worth reading it!

ORANG MELAYU DENGAN OPEN HOUSE

Dah masuk bulan Zulkaedah,saya masih dijemput ke Open House Hariraya. Memang hebat, puasa sebulan, rayanya lebih sebulan. Sepatutnya sambutannya sehari sahaja tetapi orang Melayu cukup suka menjamu orang. Kadang kadang (terutamanya ahli politik) sampai 3-4 Open House dibuatnya. Ini lagi lagi di musim pilihanraya, semua berlawan lawan nak buat Open House. Konon nak pancing undi! Kurang dari 40 hari, tiba pula Hariraya Aidil Adha. Orang Melayu sambut lagi dengan meriahnya. Open House lagi!
Budaya Open House tiada kaitan dengan agama Islam. Ia sebenarnya merugikan. Tengok sahaja betapa banyak makanan yang dibuang selepas satu satu Open House. Dari satu Open House ke yang lain bukannya dekat. "Jam"nya tak terkira, sangkut kat jalan berjam jam! Duit minyak lagi, buang masa lagi! Dah tak tahu apa yang perlu diperkatakan lagi!!!!

IPHONE OR SAMSUNG???

With moblie technology moving into hyper pace, no one seems to know which technology is better, Apple or an Android. Well, check this out!
Guy Kawasaki, the Apple evangelist, who built the Macintosh brand during his heydays with Apple uses a Samsung S3 phone. Stopped using iphone for more than a year! So think about it!!!

THIS IS WHAT FOREIGN HYPERMARKETS HIDE

You would believe what I am going to show you. These photos ere taken from Tesco Ampang, company that most Malaysians regard highly. (just because its a British firm). Many believe they bring in set of values that British being proud of but mind you these photos will proof you wrong.
1. TAKEN 9TH JULY 2011

 

It was fasting month and the dates fell to the floor. I told the officer and what happened next was a SHOCKER!!!!!.

They workers(of course foreign workers) swept some of the dates but took the box and the rest of the dates back to the pile. Imagine! YOU BREAKING FAST WITH SUCH FOOD! YOU DON'T WASH DATES!!!!! SO, THIS WHAT THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW!!!

 

2. TAKEN 8TH SEPTEMBER 2012

 

There was a Milo drink spilled on the floor and boxes. When I took out on one the boxes, there was cockraches. Many of them as it was building a nest!I was not able to get a clear picture, but I recorded a 30 seconds video of it.(still trying to figure out how to download it).

 

Pretty sure many other had some other eventful experiences! Just don't believe what all this Mat Salleh's hype of cleaniness and integrity! Just ripping us off and treating us like idiots!!!!

QS UNIVERSITY RANKING

I was fliiping through the Guardian yesterday morning and found out about this article. Actually, I am not a fan of this ranking stuff! But I was so curious I had browsed through the website and came out tho some interesting conclusions. (well, 30 years ago I went through the Baron's yearly top universities listing because I wanted to enter a well established university)
Nothing suprises me the top 10 ranking unversities in the world, All are highly reputable universities and its everyone's dream to have studied there!
What bothers me most is 2 things :
1. Malays, especially, are TOO dependent on the government assistance to get their kids to further their educations! Many were overseas graduates but still willing to send their sons or daughters to the local universities despites its limitations. The best ranked university is Universiti Malaya ranked 156. That too you could hardly see many Malays in the critical schools : Accountancy, Medicine or Engineering.I could not understand why!
Most non Malays who are more choosy!. My neighbour (Chinese) send his son to the States to further his education. A business colleague(Indian) sourced whatever money he could get to send his daughter to India to do medicine. Another colleague who could hardly speak any other language but Mandarin or Hokkien sent his daughter to Sunway University (Accountancy)despite being chosed to enter Universiti Utara Malaysia (Business Management)! He had to fork out RM5000 and the rest PTPTN.
Same goes with my other Indian friend whose son got 9As (SPM) but not able to enter medic school here. Sourced RM40,000 to send him to Russia to do the course he wanted most!

But Malays had this "tak pa" atitude! He still goes to the university!!!!UiTM pun UiTM la! (UiTM had such a lousy reputation that private sectors are NOT willing to touch their graduates!) Btw, I can't find Uitm in the QS rankings!
Don't blame them! Had I been given the chance to choose, I would definitely had taken the foreign grad as my employee!! Why are they not willing to spend on their kids but willing to spend so MUCH money on Hariraya Open Houses????

2. This is most interesting from the QS rankings. The "Employer's Repuation" towards the university!. Despite being ranked 156 Universiti Malaya had a low 54.4 points(out of 100) in its ER. Many universities which ranked lower than UM had a higher ER ranking! (moreover, UM no longer command the aura of being THE university in Malaysia)
There so many overseas graduates in Malaysia that it makes local graduates non-marketable. All you could hope is these graduates either end up in the government agencies or become lecturers or even politicians. Whats worse for a small country with only 30 million local population, Malaysia has among the highest number of higher learning tertiary education centres. We have universities, university colleges, colleges, polytechnics, foreign university campuses, teacher colleges, nursing colleges, etc....... Just image where do these graduates will end up in the next 5 years! Don't talk about those who comes back from overseas!!!
So for the mak's and bapa's out there think hard before sending your kids to futher their studies!!!

FEELING OLD!

The Forum was organised yesterday but I did not had the opportunity to attend this session. However, my other half was a participant and we had a healthy discussion about it over dinner.
These was some interesting facts gathered:
1. Despite being the keynote speaker, Tun Dr Mahathir (former Prime Minister) was unattended during his arrival. Such thing would not had happen if he still hold office as our government is so strict about protocols. I guess being an elder statement doesn't mean anything in this country! He was even sarcastic enough to mention it during his session that he is no longer the government and any help needed should be addressed to the current admistrators!! How crude he put it!!!!!!!( well, nothing surpises me anymore. Used to be a country fund manager for top investment house! Will get calls and invitations from everyone, fom CEOs, Ministers etc but once you were out of office, no one even  noticed your existence!!!)I know how you feel TUN!!!!!!!!!!
2. Since he no longer holds the top post, top tier CEOs were conspicuously missing. This was even mentioned by Ernst and Young partner. Well, I had said enough!!!!
3. There was a huge gap between  a senior speaker and new budding CEO in terms of knowledge and experience. Both talking about the current state of the economy but the articulation about the situation was very apparent. Both gave different perspective of the economy and the divergence was extremely noticeable. One seems to wonder how such person could hold a senior post in a financial instituition!! Well, I don't have a father and mother who could pull such strings in the governemnt!!!

There was alot more being discussed but these were among the interesting ones!!

IPOH....

My trip to Ipoh last Friday (14 September 2012) was an opener! I did not realise that the quality of life is much better there than in the Klang Valley. My overnight stay there made me realise that you will not get the quality of life you ever dreamt in greater KL.
The first think that strike me was the people! Yes , the people! Never I seen so many Malaysians for sometime as I lived in an area surrounded by FOREIGNERS! My security guards are Nepalese, my maid is Indonesian, the grass cutters are either Rohinyas or some guy from Africa. The pump attendents are Bangladeshis! The blue collar workers at the construction site at the back of my house are either Indonesians, Indians, or Pakistanis! The kopitiam waiters are Burmese(s). Even the maid in front is from some Indo-Chinese country! Any those shopping malls here are either full of Middle Eastern customers or other South East Asians.

Here, the only foreigners I met were the the professional Pakistani hockey players staying in the same hotel that I had stayed for the night. What a relieve to see so many Malaysians. (True and it is no joke of what I have just mentioned earlier!!!!) Even the hotel cleaners were Malaysians!

The other charming thing about Ipoh is the lifestyle. Hardly any jams, lack of noise pollutions and you could simply move around with ease.
I had lunch at Hainam Chicken Rice Shop in Anderson Road, watch hockey (national league) in the evening, had dinner in Ipoh Garden, visit a school in Cator Avenue, watch football (also national league) later that day and did also buy some stuff in TESCO. All within a span of 7 hours! Try doing that in KL. (yesterday, got a customer from Muar who got stuck in the KL madness for 2 hours!!!)

 

 Life here is so laid back, not even Kuantan had this kind of  atmosphere! People seemed to enjoy what they do and even a simple food feels so tasty! Maybe because there's hardly any major construction work or projects in Ipoh! TIME TO THINK OF RETIREMENT!!!

GARBAGE!!!!!!!

Its Tuesday noon and its supposed to be garbage day but I have yet to see the garbage truck! I have stayed in this housing project for the past four years and I have NEVER  been happy with the garbage collections. Complaints after complaints have been lodged to the Municipal Council but NO ACTION TAKEN.

 The contractors  have never been consistent in collecting the garbage and the manner they handle the garbage is a deprolable!! The workers just threw the garbage onto the road and the lorry will pick them up later (look at the pictures). What kind of Standard Operating Procedure do they have here? I don't see this happening in Subang or even in Taman Melawati. Maybe because I am staying in the HULUest part of Klang Valley that these residents here are being treated such manners!

Mind you, I consider myself living in an upper middle class area with houses here being valued more than RM1 million each. (with more continental cars than other makes being driven in this 300 odd resedential area). Pretty sure there are more Porsches here than many other areas! But we still being treated like a blue collar foreign worker!!!!! No one seems bothered about our existence!!!

 

We even had an experience whereby the workers left the garbage in the open for more than 8 hours, with flies and crows flying all over the place! Surely, there were rodents and also mices around!! But who CARES?

 

HOW ABOUT THIS?? THIS INCIDENT HAPPENED AFTER THE GARBAGE TRUCK LEFT MY  AREA!!!

 

   

  

DO YOU REALLY THINK ANYONE BOTHERS ABOUT US?

HARGA OH HARGA!

Gambar ini di ambil pada 30 Julai 2012, di pasar Ramadhan Taman Melawati. Saya tekejut melihat harga "lobster" yang dijual. RM150.00  seekor!!! Memang kaya orang Malaysia kerana ada yang sanggup membeli barangan sebegini harga. Bukan makan di restoran lima bintang ke atau di hotel canggih! Ini street food!! Kalau ke hotel 5 star untuk menikmati juadah berbuka puasa, bayar pun tak sampai RM150.00. Boleh makan macam macam!!!
Apa pun saya terpaksa akur dengan keberanian peniaga tersebut membuka harga sebegini rupa!!!

FIRST POSTING

It took me awhile for me to start blogging. Initially, I intended to write my first piece early of the month but I was so distracted with work and other chores.
The reason for me to blog is to record the thoughts and things that happen around me. I may not be like other bloggers who spend countless hours writing them as I have other things to do.
Hope you will enjoy reading my blog.