Life's Happenings

Judas Asparagus

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 08:19:00 +0000

Through the eyes of a child:

The Children's Bible in a Nutshell

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that.

Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.

Then God made the world.

He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.

Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.

Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.

God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments.

These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff.

Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.

After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot.. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets.

One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats.

Jesus also had twelve opossums.

The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.

But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.

Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again.

He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
Tags: Funny, Humour, Children's Bible

Improper Advert

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:37:00 +0000

Saw this advertisement placed by Groupon Malaysia on behalf of International Islamic University of Malaysia (''IIUM"). On the email section, we can see that the Construction Business MBA is being offered at a discount rate of up to 70% with a price of RM2,000. Just by reading this, you would have really thought that the actual price is RM6,666.66 and now that IIUM is giving a discount of RM4,666.66 and you only need to pay RM2,000.

Any person would have quickly click onto the advertisement to read further.

Well, on the actual Groupon page for this same advertisement, it reads "[30% Off] Construction Business MBA from International Islamic University of Malaysia for RM17,500 instead of RM25,050. Pay RM2,000 up front and remainder upon admission."

So, it's correct that you need to pay RM2,000 BUT that's just the up front fee.

This advert is to mislead you and purposely put it in a way to catch your attention or your curiousity got better of you.

I strongly advise Groupon Malaysia to put that email advert part right i.e. to change it to Discount up to 30% with RM2,000 (up front fee) being mentioned.

Although buyers are supposed to read the fine print or caveat emptor applies but I personally feel that such catchy words shouldn't be used. We must have ethics in whatever we do and the duty is ours, not just sitting there and hope that the other person sees it and act on it.

As this is an advert for education, we are not teaching the people the right thing even right from the beginning.

Tags: Groupon Malaysia, International Islamic University of Malaysia, IIUM, Construction Business MBA, Advertisement, Caveat Emptor

How to seek redress when abused by Malaysian authorities

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Tue, 22 May 2012 01:12:00 +0000

How to seek redress when abused by Malaysian authorities

If you know of anyone, let alone our citizens, who was abused, bullied, sexually harassed or mistreated by any member of our Msian police, immigration officers, army personnei or civil servants or any such like, you may lodge a formal complaint to the newly set up Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission or SIAP which stands for Suruhjaya Integriti Agensi Penguatkuasaan.

Please visit its website http://www.eaic.gov.my/ to know the procedures to file the complaint. You can contact 03-88886618 or email aduan@eaic.gov.my.

FYI, Datuk Paul Low who heads Transparency International - Malaysia was appointed as one of the six commissioners of this Agency and is currently holding the position as Deputy Chairman. Datuk Paul is a God fearing believer and he is very committed to do his part in these positions to weed out corruption and see justice served.

Please inform others of this Agency ... and remember, be advised to lodge a complaint with SIAP besides making a police report (which may not be effective in punishing those responsible).
Tags: Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission, SIAP, Suruhjaya Integriti Agensi Penguatkuasaan

Global Bersih 3.0

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:32:00 +0000

Such Press Statement Won't Be Publicised

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:00:00 +0000

UMNO's lies & Personal and Public Safety Of Penang CM

Press Statement By Special Officer To Penang Chief Minister Zairil Khir Johari In Komtar, George Town On 1.4.2012

UMNO, Utusan Malaysia And TV3 Are Warned That They Will Be Held Responsible For The Personal and Public Safety Of The Penang Chief Minister For Repeatedly Publicising And Highlighting Lies That Lim Guan Eng Had Caused Mosque Land To Disappear.

The public safety of the Penang Chief Minister can not be treated lightly following dangerous racist lies by UMNO, TV3 and Utusan Malaysia that Lim Guan Eng had caused mosque land to disappear resulting in personal threats by Perkasa to confront Lim personally and violent and hate-filled language by UMNO leaders. These lies have been repeatedly played up again and again on TV and the BN-controlled press to create hatred against non-Malays and non-Muslim as well as Lim personally.

Penang UMNO Youth's lies against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng that he sold or caused mosque land to disappear can not be lightly dismissed as some stupid April Fool's Joke. Even though Lim had refuted these allegations as a desperate lie by UMNO Penang to claw back lost Malay support in Penang, UMNO and TV3 as well as Utusan Malaysia has continued to publicise and promote these dangerous lies.

It is most irresponsible and immoral that denials not only by Lim but also by Dato Seri Nazir Ariff, the Deputy Chairman of the developer that won the open tender bid for the 102-3 acre Bayan Mutiara land, were not publicized in the BN-controlled media. Many Muslims are very disturbed by these lies that have been played up and many have approached Lim personally for clarification. These Muslim members were completely shocked when they realised that these were bare-faced lies by UMNO and became very concerned about the safety of Lim.

These Muslim members of the public say that UMNO, TV3 and Utusan Malaysia playing such racial and religious lies against a non-Malay and non-Muslim leader like Lim, is sinful and unacceptable because they put Lim in personal danger. They advised Lim to be extra careful with his personal safety as such lies can inflame Muslim religious sensitivies and result in action by Muslims against Lim by those who believe in UMNO's lies.

Two days ago on Friday, Perkasa organized a demonstration against Lim on these lies in Komtar. I was informed that Perkasa behaved in a very crude and violent manner even threatening to confront Lim personally as reported in the New Straits Times on 31.3.2012 if Lim does not answer within 7 days. Would Perkasa organize the same demonstration and make the same threats against UMNO when these allegations are proven as lies?

Perkasa public threats to confront Lim personally are the type of threats to Lim's personal and public safety that Lim's Muslim supporters were concerned about. For this reason, UMNO, TV3 and Utusan Malaysia are hereby warned that they would be held responsible should anything happen to Lim as a result of such lies. The police should also take notice of the serious impact UMNO's lies exploiting religion on Lim's personal and public safety.

This is not the first time that Lim had been attacked by lies, as his son was also attacked by UMNO Online of sexually molesting his female classmate and that Lim paid RM 200,000 to cover-up the scandal. Even though the lies were exposed, to-date no action has been taken by the police.

UMNO's lies against Lim, comes close to the Johor Education Department intended seminar that warns of the threats of Christianization to Muslims. Even though the title of the seminar was changed, such attempted demonization of non-Muslims and non-Malays is extremely dangerous and harmful and must be stopped. UMNO's actions are contrary to Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak's 1Malaysia and incompatible with nation-building of a united harmonious multi-racial society.

- ZAIRIL KHIR JOHARI
-- Chief of Staff
Democratic Action Party Headquarters
Jalan Yew, Off Jalan Pudu,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-9200 5000 Fax: 03-9200 7000 HP: 6019-3212828

----------------------------------------------

My opinion - to do it this way is so unethical and playing with fire will surely
burn themselves in the end
Tags: Zairil Khir Johari, Penang Chief Minister, Dato Seri Nazir Ariff, Bayan Mutiara Land

Understanding the Lynas Rare Earth Plant

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:02:00 +0000

Q1: What is rare earth (RE) ?

Rare earth (RE) is just a metal, as ordinary as other metals like iron,
silver and gold. The difference between them is we don’t encounter RE in
daily life, e.g. you don’t wear RE bracelets, you don’t build the bridge
with RE. It’s precious, valuable and essential for many high-tech
industries.

Q2: Who is LYNAS ?
LYNAS is the owner of the RE Mine and Gebeng plant, incorporated and listed in Australia. LYNAS (M) Sdn. Bhd is wholly owned by LYNAS Inc.

Q3: Where does the RE come from ? What is it like ?
Like other metals, RE is found in ore ( rock ) in West Australia.
The ore is mined, cleaned and crushed into sand or powder form, before being
shipped to Kuantan. The journey is about 5000 km.

The size of a single grain of powder can be 100 times smaller than the
diameter of a strand of hair.

Q4: Why do they take the RE from Australia and process it here ?
The official statement said that Australia cannot provide high-skilled
manpower, and that Australia cannot supply enough water, acids and natural
gas to process RE.

Q5: What do we get in terms of income ?
Malaysia was offered 12 years tax break by LYNAS, which means they do not
pay us anything during the first 12 years of operation.

Eventually, all revenue generated here will probably be channeled back to
the LYNAS Inc. share holders in Australia, and not to LYNAS (M) Sdn. Bhd.

Q6: What do we get in terms of job opportunities ?
Only a total of 350 employees are needed, including expatriate, skilled and
unskilled workers. The number of employees in a mid-size supermarket is
greater than this.

Q7: What do we get in terms of new world-class technology ?
Malaysia is not a traditional, major RE-producing county.
Transferring RE processing knowledge to Malaysia does not considerably
benefit the country and its people.

Q8: So, what actually do we get ?
Save the “ Jobs created, new technology and sales revenue of chemicals,
water and natural gas ”, strictly speaking, in the first 12 years – Nothing ! Except large quantities of waste. To be more precise, 500 cubic meters / hour of waste water, 100,000 cubic meters/hour of waste gas and 280,000 tonnes / year of solid waste.

Q9: Is RE dangerous ?
Most RE metals are harmless, but in natural ore RE is normally mixed with
the radioactive substances. During the separation process, valuable RE
is extracted and exported to US, Europe and Japan, leaving behind harmful
substances in Kuantan.

Q10: How dangerous is it ?
The radioactive substances release radiation and two major toxic materials –
radon gas and lead. Radon is a colorless, odorless toxic gas. When it
gets into the human body through inhalation, it can damage cells and cause
cancer. As for lead, many years ago petrol gas been changed from leaded
to unleaded, as we didn’t want lead to be released to the air through our
car exhaust. Lead can harm the nervous system, and cause brain and blood
diseases. In short, two key hazards can be found in Gebeng RE plant -
the Radiation and the Toxic Materials.

Q11: Where and when can the radiation, radon and lead be found ?
The RE raw material (in powder or sand form ) arrives at the Kuantan port,
then gets transported to Gebeng by truck, where it is unloaded,
transferred and processed. Waste gas from chimneys, the waste water
disposed into the Balok River, the solid wastes that are stored in Gebeng
- possibly in all of the above we can find the radioactive substances,
which can emit radiation, radon and lead, wherever and whenever they are
present.

Q12: Mr. A lives in Balok, 3km from Gebeng. Mr. B lives in Kuantan, 30km
from Gebeng. Mr. C lives in KL, 300km from Gebeng. Can the radioactive
materials endanger them ?

In short, the answer is NO for all of them if they stay more than 100 metres
away from radioactive materials. But, the answer is YES for all three if
they consumed these harmful substances, even if they stay hundreds of
kilometres away. WHY ? The radiation emitted in Gebeng doesn’t travel
long distance to harm us, hence if you stand a short distance away from the
materials without consuming it, all you will get is a slight Radiation.

Radon gas and lead in general do not affect our body externally, as we are
protected by our skin. However, if these radioactive materials contaminate the solid waste, waste water and waste gas, they will be released to the atmosphere, water streams and eventually the food chain. Once the radioactive materials enter the human body via inhalation, ingestion and wound penetration, the radiation, radon and lead will be released inside the body and these can cause very serious consequences.

Q13: Why did they say that it is safe ? Why did they say that the
radioactivity is low? Who should I listen to ?
You decide who you should listen to ! It’s your life, it’s your family,
it’s your home. See above to understand why they said the radioactivity
is low. The media, authorities and LYNAS have failed to report the
consequences of consuming radioactive materials

The questions were answered by Dr. Lee Chee Hong, Chemical Engineering
Expert on Metals.

Extracted from http://www.loyarburok.com
Tags: Dr. Lee Chee Hong, Chemical Engineering Expert on Metals, Lynas, Rare Earth Plant, RE, Australia, Lynas (M) Sdn Bhd, Lynas Inc, Ore, Radon, Radiation, Toxic Materials, RE Raw Material, Kuantan, Gebeng

Doctor, Why Are You So Irresponsible?

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:18:00 +0000

The doctor was called one evening for an urgent surgery. He answered the call, rushed to the hospital in minutes & went directly to the surgery theatre.

The boy's father, waiting in the hall for the doctor, yelled at the doctor on seeing him, "Why did you take all this time to come? Don't you know that my son's life is in danger? Don't you have any sense of responsibility?"

The doctor smiled & said, "I am sorry, I wasn't in the hospital & I came as fast as I could after receiving the call...... And now, I wish you'd calm down so that I can do my work".

"Calm down?! What if your son were in this room right now, can you calm down? If your own son dies now what will you do??" said the father angrily.

The doctor smiled again & replied, "I will say what "Job" said in the Holy Bible: "From dust we came & to dust we return, blessed be the name of God". Doctors cannot prolong lives. Go & pray for your son, and we will do our best."

"Giving advices when we're not concerned is so easy" Murmured the father. The surgery took some hours after which the doctor came out happily, "Thank goodness! Your son is saved!"

And without waiting for the father's reply he was heading for the door. "If you have any question, please ask the nurse!!"

"Why is he so arrogant? Can't he wait a few minutes so that I ask about my son's condition?" Commented the father to the nurse.

With tears in her eyes, the nurse said, "His son died yesterday in a road accident, he was in the burial when we called him for your son's surgery. And now that he saved your son, he is getting back to his son's burial."
Tags: Doctor, Surgery

Urgent Message from PAGE Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:04:00 +0000

For your children, your children’s children and their children…..

Subject: Fwd: URGENT Message from PAGE Malaysia

URGENT Message from PAGE Malaysia

Please email, share and/or share this with all your friends so that we can quickly collect the numbers that we need to transform us all into a voice loud enough to be heard. Hopefully with everybody’s effort, we can make this go viral on the internet and strengthen our voice in the shortest time possible.

Dear Students, Parents and Malaysians,

MALAYSIANS APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE OPTION TO LEARN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS IN ENGLISH (RETAIN PPSMI AS AN OPTION)

You would have heard by now that the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English (better known as PPSMI) will be abolished in January 2012. The Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) has been in the forefront to champion the cause to maintain the policy for those who wish their children to learn these two (2) subjects in its lingua franca that is English.

Here is how the abolishment of this policy is going to affect you.

For Primary School Students

You have been learning Science and Mathematics in English since Standard 1, however when you enter into Form 1, you will have to learn these subjects in Bahasa Melayu until Form 5 and do your PMR and SPM in Bahasa Melayu. After SPM, you will revert the study of these two (2) subjects back to English.

For Secondary School Students

If you are entering Form 1 in 2012, then you have been learning Science and Mathematics in English since Standard 1, however in 2012, you will have to learn these subjects in Bahasa Melayu from Form 1 until Form 5 and do your PMR and SPM in Bahasa Melayu.

If you are entering Form 4 in 2012, be prepared ... you may have to switch to Bahasa Melayu for Science and Maths after learning these subjects in English for the past 9 years, do your SPM in Bahasa Melayu and then switch back to English when you enter college or university. Yes we know this is crazy and unless you are “super-adaptable”, you will most likely be stressed out and confused. We have heard that the choice of language for Form 4 in 2012 may be determined by the Gurubesar of the different schools (???).

If you are not in Form 1 or Form 4 in 2012, there is no escape either. You WILL eventually be affected by the change when you reach Form 4.

If you have just completed your SPM in 2011, then you are in the luckiest group !!! You will be able to go straight into college and continue to do these subjects in English.

For Parents and Malaysians in General

After only a few years of implementing PPSMI and despite strong evidence that PPSMI is good for our students and Malaysia’s future generations, the Government has decided to change its mind and will abolish this policy in 2012. They think that it is best for ALL Malaysian school children NOT to learn Science and Mathematics in English. They actually believe that learning these two subjects in Bahasa Melayu is adequate and equivalent (or better) than to learn it in Englsh !!! ???

The sad truth is that despite the constant voices that they hear and read wishing for the option of PPSMI, the authorities seemed determined to proceed with the abolishment with the excuse that PPSMI will be replaced with another policy known as MBMMBI, to improve the standard of English amongst Malaysian students.

They keep missing the point (maybe on purpose) that we want PPSMI, not to improve the standard of English but rather, we want PPSMI simply because of the need to learn the subjects of Science and Mathematics in its lingua franca, that is English, for our children to be globally competitive, and for our nation to progress in the desired direction and speed.

In realising that perhaps the voices speaking out for the retention of the PPSMI policy (for those who want it) are too soft or too sporadic, PAGE Malaysia has decided to go all out on a nationwide wide and international campaign to reach out to as many Malaysian students and Malaysians wherever they are in the world, to come together as one and to build up the voice of the “silent majority” to inform the authorities that there exists a large and substantial number of Malaysian citizens (children and adults) would like to have the option for our students to learn Science and Mathematics in English.

We are not against the MBMMBI policy nor are we against the wishes of other groups who prefer to learn Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin or Tamil.

We are simply asking to be heard and for the right to have the freedom of choice for an option to learn these two subjects in English, alongside Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Tamil.

Where and how to make your preference known?

PAGE Malaysia has specially set up two (2) separate platforms for Students and for Parents and Malaysians to register their wishes.

Students are requested to visit: http://goo.gl/QHd42

Parents and Malaysians are requested to visit: http://goo.gl/cFSlD

1.2012 is just a mere two (2) months away … do visit the website, complete the form today and make a difference !!!2.Please email, like and share this with all your friends so that we can quickly collect the numbers that we need to transform us all into a voice loud enough to be heard. 3.Hopefully with everybody’s effort, we can make this go viral on the internet and strengthen our voice in the shortest time possible.

Thank you.

PAGE
Parent Action Group for Education (1266-10-WKL)
pagemalaysia@gmail.com
www.pagemalaysia.org
For Our Children. Demi Anak Kita
18 October 2011
Tags: PPSMI Option, MBMMBI, Malaysian Education, PAGE, Parent Action Group for Education, Education Minister, Mathematics, Science, Bahasa Melayu

Many Malaysians Say YES to PPSMI Option

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:09:00 +0000

From: PAGE Malaysia
Date: Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 6:16 PM
Subject: MALAYSIANS Say YES to PPSMI Option
To:

Dear parents and friends,

The quality of Malaysian education has deteriorated to an alarming level, with our schools and local universities churning out TOO MANY unemployable graduates who possess a severe lack of ability to communicate or correspond in English despite numerous A's scored in examinations, and producing 'professionals' of worryingly poor calibre especially in the fields of science and mathematics.

The former Prime Minister took steps to rectify the situation by implementing the policy of English for the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics and Science (Malay acronym: PPSMI) in 2003. The policy was fully embraced by the Government of the day, and ICT, hardware and software were acquired and designed and teachers were trained. Parents were greatly relieved that finally something concrete was being done to arrest the decline of the Malaysian education system.

Shortly after that, the general election was held and a new minister took over the Education Minister's portfolio.

* Shockingly, after only 6 years of implementation, without even allowing the first cohort of students who started with PPSMI in Primary 1 to complete the full cycle of schooling, the new Education Minister decided to abolish PPSMI in 2012, mainly for political reasons, despite huge public outcry and protests from parents and students alike;

* a massive number of letters and articles in newspapers and cyberspace from people in support of PPSMI, far outnumbering those against PPSMI;

* support for PPSMI from various professional bodies, business concerns and numerous concerned groups both local and international; and

* solid evidence that PPSMI has improved student outlooks and is advantageous for the future of our children and the country.

The Education Minister has IGNORED the pleas of parents and has blatantly disregarded the provision of the Education Act 1996 which stipulates that pupils are to be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents.

The world is moving forward but yet Malaysia is going backward. We are going to remain stagnant in terms of progress and development.

Students in Form 1 next year will have to study Mathematics and Science in Bahasa Melayu after learning these subjects in English in primary school. Worse, for those who are going to Form 4, after learning Maths and Science in English for 9 years, they will be forced to switch to Bahasa Melayu for 2 years and then back again to English for their tertiary education!

Parents and friends, enough is enough. We are the Rakyat. The days of 'the Government knows best' are OVER! A democratic government must abide by the wishes of the majority.

We believe the majority of parents in Malaysia would choose PPSMI for their children if given the option. Unfortunately many choose to remain silent. Why? WE MUST MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD! Our numbers must be significant so that the Minister has no choice but to heed our wishes!

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. CLICK HERE AND SAY YES TO PPSMI OPTION !

If you want your children's school to be given the option of continuing PPSMI in 2012, attached is a simple form for you to REGISTER YOUR SUPPORT. It will take only a few minutes of your time to fill in. We urge you to register immediately as 2012 is just around the corner.

Please also help to forward the email to as many people as possible.

Please be assured that all information you provide will be carefully guarded and we will take great care to ensure that your personal information remains confidential.

Thank you for showing that you care about your children's future AND the future of Malaysia!

PAGE
Parent Action Group for Education (1266-10-WKL)
pagemalaysia@gmail.com
http://www.pagemalaysia.org/
For Our Children. Demi Anak Kita
Tags: PPSMI Option, Malaysian Education, PAGE, Parent Action Group for Education, Education Minister, Mathematics, Science, Bahasa Melayu

Business Courses For Permanent Residents?

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:23:00 +0000

It was reported that six bus loads of 240 permanent residents purportedly of Indonesians, Cambodians and Bangladeshis were ferried to a remote Bangi resort to attend a business entrepreneurship course.

Our Home Minister has said he has no knowledge about such course being offered to permanent residents.

What a privilege we have here in Malaysia for the permanent residents.

Even the poor Malaysians don't even get to smell such a course for themselves.

This course is being funded by Malaysian taxpayers but if you, as a Malaysian is interested, sorry not for you brother because you are not a foreigner who had just obtained permanent residency.

It's not to benefit Malaysians. Who cares if you are unable to meet your high cost of living.

I wonder who organised the business course?

I wonder who gets paid to bring in those permanent residents?

I wonder who gets paid for renting those buses?

Can we as Malaysians request for such course to be provided on FOC basis by the government within the next two months? And I mean for all Malaysians .............

Reading: Biz course for foreigners: Hisham has no details - Free Malaysia Today
Reading: MyKad scam: Foreigners at resort for business course - Yahoo! News

Tags: Business Entrepreneur Course, Bangi, Malaysian Permanent Resident

Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:25:00 +0000

Stanford Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

10 Hours Delays?

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:21:00 +0000

(as published in Malaysia Today on 19 Sept 2011)
By Lynne_c

On behalf of the passengers of Air Asia X flight D7 2686 from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon, Seoul on September 2, 2011, I would like to share our experience about a delay that cost us more than 10 hours and the shabby treatment that Air Asia extends to its paying customers.

The chronology of the events are as follows:

The flight, D7 2686 was initially supposed to take off at 11.00pm and reach Incheon at 6.00am the next day.

11.00pm - Captain of the flight announced a delay due to a route change which requires the plane to upload 2 tonnes of fuel. The reason given was non-approval from ATP for clearance from Ho Chi Minh to Taipei.

12.00 midnight - Captain announces another plan change, requiring the uplifting of 1 tonnes of fuel from the plane.

1.00am - The plane was waiting by the runway to take off when the Captain announced clearance from Taipei and said that he would decide in 2 or 3 minutes if he would repark the plane.

1.30am - Captain re-parked the plane at the terminal

1.50am - Passengers were told to disembark to T18 by the Captain

2.30am - After more than 3 hours stranded in the plane, the passengers were finally allowed to disembark to T18 where everyone rushed to the rest room or to purchase much needed food and drinks

3.30am - Cold croissant and cold mineral water were distributed to the passengers.

4.00am - Some of the Korean guests requested for blankets for their children. The passengers were told that the plane will take off by 5.00am

5.00am - A new announcement was made that the plane will take off by 7.30am

6.00am - Two of the passengers cancelled their tickets and left

7.00am - One of the Managers assured the passengers that the plane will take off by 7.30am. A second Manager then said that Air Asia could extend our flight to another day. But he could not qualify for food and accommodation.

7.30am - The passengers were asked to re-board the plane.

8.00am - The plane reversed out of the parking bay and was parked in another place in the middle of the airport with 2 ground crew still on board. The new crew sat in the front portion of the plane, behind the red curtain, laughing and joking

8.20am - One of the passengers, a Mr. Chew, got up from his seat to approach the crew to find out what was happening. He was told that there was no pilot and the new crew said that they had just arrived from Delhi and were only told to sit in to board us on the plane. Anoother crew member, a Mr. Narin Singh, openly said that there was no pilot and he was there to bring the plane to where it was currently parked (in the middle of the airport). When pressed for confirmation, he declined to comment. However, it was very clear that Air Asia had moved the airplane without a qualified pilot on board!

9.20am - The plane finally took off for Korea

The delaying tactics employed by Air Asia was obvious. On top of all that, the passengers were subjected to rude treatment and thuggish behaviour from the ground crew and staff of Air Asia. When a disagreement arose between two Korean ladies and the ground crew at approximately 5.30am, passenger Mr. Chew recorded the incident on his handphone, but he was subsequently threatened and browbeatened by the Air Asia security to delete the video or else his mobile phone would be confiscated.

To date, there has been no effort from Air Asia to reach out to its customers and at least make an attempt to compensate everyone for the ordeal they suffered at the hands of Air Asia. We have never received any official answer on the reason for the delay. From what we had found out verbally, someone in Air Asia forgot to ask for clearance through Taipei air space, which sparked off the whole fiasco.

I am writing this to you in the hopes that our experience on board Air Asia X flight D7 2686 will be shared with your readers. Was all these hassle and stress worth the price of a cheap ticket? My answer, and the answer of all my fellow passengers would be, a resounding No.

More than that, seeing how shabbily Air Asia treated its guests that night, how they verbally accosted the Korean passengers who were struggling to speak English, I can honestly say, I felt an emotion I had never felt in my lifetime - I was embarassed to be Malaysian because Air Asia is a Malaysian company.
Tags: Air Asia X, Incheon, LCCT, Taipei Air Space, Ho Chi Minh, ATP

Accident Plot Created By Police, Hospital, Lawyer & "Victim"

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:14:00 +0000

Happened to a friend's friend from another church.

A plot created by a policeman, a hospital staff and the so-called accident victim's lawyer plus the "victim" himself almost duped the court into awarding and causing a Malaysian driver to be penalised just for the sake of extra money.

Justice prevailed in the end but you have to be cautious of such scam from now onwards.
Lesson learned here ..... do not take things for granted in any minor accident. Do the needful like in any other major accident. Remember, take as many photos as you can with your hand phone (vehicle, driver & accident site) after all it's digital and free. It may not seem important to you at that point in time but you never know how useful they (photos) will be one day, like in Linda's case. Please read her husband's write-up on the incident.

Dear Friend

This is a true story that happened to my wife – it just shows one has to be very careful these days. Also – although Malaysia is a wonderful country – how an incident like this could happen is unbelievable. Could not happen anywhere else in the world. Crime unfortunately is on the increase.

Motorbike hit Linda's car driving on the wrong side of the road outside Sri Penaga Condo in Bangsar to avoid lots of water due to heavy rain. Linda got out of the car – took photos on her handphone – few scratches on her car – nothing on the motorbike. Motorbike was coming fast down hill. Linda driving up hill with indicator flashing – turning left into Sri Penaga.

Linda went to the police station to make a report – then went to Japan on business for 7 days. Whilst she was away – motorbike rider makes a police report with a hospital report showing he had substantial back injuries (but he never fell off the bike).

Police send Linda a letter asking her to come to the police station for further questions – as she did not answer for 48 hours (she was overseas) – sent her a summons. I was in China so saw nothing.

Summons was to attend court – reckless driving.

She consulted the lawyer of Tokio Marine (her insurance company) who told her this was a scam between the police sergeant, motor bike rider and the motor bike rider seeing a Chinese Woman in a two door Mercedes to make money. Fine in court was RM 10,000. Three way split between the Sergeant, Lawyer and Motor Bike Rider. Charge reckless driving.

Because of Linda's no claims for years – they would defend Linda FOC.

Linda went to court – the court asked for someone to stand bail RM5,000 with court case postponed by one month till this week. Family not allowed to put up bail. Her office GM had to go to her own bank account – withdraw her money and take cash to the court to set Linda free.

Been praying every day for a month.

Linda has just been in court for two days this week because you have to wait your turn so it takes a long time. Judge was a Malay Lady. Linda's lawyer tore the testimony of the police sergeant and motorbike rider apart. He demonstrated they were trying to make money – Judge had no choice but to reprimand both of them in court and allow Linda to go with an apology.

The motorbike rider had obviously paid someone in a hospital to fabricate the report. The police sergeant got the time of the incident wrong – part of the road where the accident occurred wrong and the lawyer tore him apart for being unprofessional.

Lawyer took photos printed out from Linda's handphone and stuck them in front of the motorbike rider and asked him why his bike was not damaged. In his testimony he said his bike went under Linda's car and was a write off. Also said according to the hospital report he had to be off work for months. He actually never fell off the bike and there was not a scratch on it so it was all fabrication to make money and the police sergeant should have seen this straight away – not allowing it to go any further instead of wasting public money and time.

One has to be very careful these days – that’s why I shared this with you as friends.

Kind regards
Mike
Tags: Sri Penaga Condo, Bangsar, Fake Accident, Accident Plot, Fabricated Hospital Report

An Unprepared Team A Danger To All

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:44:00 +0000

A team by the name of Putera 1Malaysia Club went into Somalia with the idea of conducting humanitarian aid mission in a particular war zone area with the famine crisis being the main concern.

Unfortunately, this team was so unprepared and went in a haste without knowing what they are heading into. Not only that they have risked their own lifes unnecessarily but they had to be protected by the security forces that were already busy with the war. And now, they have to worry for a bunch of innocent / naive people from Malaysia who were trying to claim a name by doing something good.

Things didn't went as planned and maybe the plan wasn't a good plan after all.

I'm so sorry to hear about the demise of our Bernama TV's cameraman, cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor, in Somalia while following this bunch of unprepared team.

You have to read some true facts of what has happened prior to and during the so-called humanitarian aid mission leading to the demise of a Malaysian.

Failure to listen cost a life, an article in Star, depicted that a 7 member reconnaissance team of Malaysians arrived earlier to assess the safety situation for the upcoming humanitarian aid mission. The verdict - "Risky".

Was this "Risky" situation looked into or further planning with proper risk management being factored prior to the arrival of the 48 members of the Putera 1Malaysia Club?

Apparently, out of the 48 members, 40% of them were from the media. 18 of them? An experience army team going into the war zone will not allow so many media members to follow them else it may jeopardise their mission as they have to waste resource to save the media members if caught in a crossfire. It could have been more media members if not for the limited seats in the military aircraft. 74 media members were at the airport but only 18 were allowed to follow eventually. I really wonder what sort of briefing notes that had been provided to the media members in preparing them.

You don't send so many media members to cover a war zone story in a particular group. Moreover, this Putera 1Malaysia Club are not trained soldiers or they were carrying any weapons? Were they?

The 7 member reconnaissance team actually reported to Putrajaya first prior to the departure of the 48 members under the umbrella of Putera 1Malaysia Club. Their recommendations stated the following:-

a) that this team should make full preparations and leave after Hari Raya; and
b) concentrate their work and set up a clinic at one selected camp for the refugees.

Even though "Risky" but the team went ahead without listening to the advise as mentioned in items (a) and (b) as above. Outcome?

An international news agency journalist did mention that they have to go through a 3 days intensive training conducted by former commandos before they jump into the war zone. That too, does not guarantee their survival in a war zone.

To quote Putera 1Malaysia Club president Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim who asked everyone not to politicised or “cashed-in for cheap publicity" on the death of a Malaysian - you mean to say that people can't ridicule the club for its unpreparedness which caused a Malaysian to die unnecessarily?

The humanitarian aid mission was cut short immediately following the death of a Malaysian journalist. Why cut short the trip? If this team was so gung-ho about the mission, it should have gone ahead with the agenda that had been planned. A death shouldn't have derailed a humanitarian aid mission where its main objective was to save even more lifes.

This Datuk made the following statements to the press:-
a) We are preparing for a second mission but we have to settle several unresolved matters before we make another attempt.
b) The club would not rush into things and would take all necessary precautions and follow closely all standard operating procedures during the next mission.
c) 45 people, including pressmen, had signed for the next trip so far.

My comments on the above:-
a) You mean to say that the club didn't resolve certain issues for the first mission but still went ahead with it?
b) Admitting that this first mission was a rush job and SOP wasn't followed at all?
c) All the best to this 45 persons.

Immediately right after this tragedy, a cabinet minister said that "standard operating procedure should be created to serve as a guideline for all parties." Isn't this a little too late?

The cabinet minister also mentioned that "There should also be a reconnaissance done in these areas to determine the level of security." I think he hasn't been briefed about the 7 member reconnaissance team hahaha.

Worse still, our PM quoted this - "But if you're not prepared to take the risk, then stay home."

This blogpost is not written with selfish intention or any political agenda. It's in the minds of Malaysians who cannot understand why such humanitarian aid mission cannot be handed over to the professionals such as the Médecins Sans Frontières ("MSF") who have been there for years.

I respect the intention and the main objective of this trip but they should have prepared themselves in view of MSF International President Dr Unni Karunakara's experience in Somalia.

Irrespective of whether our journalist was prepared in mindset or knew what he was volunteering for or for the fact that many organisations have/would be contributing aids to the journalist's family, whoever organised the trip should have been more responsible for it as his death could have been avoided.
Tags: Putera 1Malaysia Club, Somalia Famine, Humanitarian Aid Mission, Somalia War Zone, Bernama TV, Noramfaizul Mohd Nor, Médecins Sans Frontières

The Mousetrap

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 02:49:00 +0000

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. The mouse wondered, "What food might this contain?" He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is of grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it." You are on your own.

The mouse turned to the goat and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The goat sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose." Just too bad for you.

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap . . . . . . Alone. Abandoned by his friends. No way out.

That very night, a sound was heard throughout the house - the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it. It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. When she returned home she still had a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued. Friends and neighbours came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the goat. But, alas, the farmer's wife did not get well... She died.

So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon.

And the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, Remember:

As Malaysians we think in terms of racial divides. Do not set artificial boundaries when assistance is required. Go beyond the bastions of racial exclusivity. We are all vulnerable within the realities of a shared destiny. Do not leave your fellow Malaysians lost, abandoned and alone in times of dire need.

When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
Tags: Mousetrap

Football Officials Charged By FIFA

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:26:00 +0000

The cats are being let out of the bags now.

FIFA has charged 16 football officials representing Caribbean nations.

They are as follows:-
David Hinds, Mark Bob Forde (Barbados)
Franka Pickering, Aubrey Liburd (British Virgin Islands)
David Frederick (Cayman Islands)
Osiris Guzman, Felix Ledesma (Dominican Republic)
Colin Klass, Noel Adonis (Guyana)
Yves Jean-Bart (Haiti)
Anthony Johnson (St Kitts and Nevis)
Patrick Mathurin (St Lucia)
Joseph Delves, Ian Hypolite (St Vincent and the Grenadines)
Richard Groden (Trinidad and Tobago)
Hillaren Frederick (US Virgin Islands)

I thought bribery happens within government or political enrivonment or in certain white collar crimes. Just for the sake of obtaining certain positions in FIFA, some people will go to the extent of bribing others.

Does this involve the bribing of these officials to manipulate the controversial selection of FIFA World Cup host?

I have already highlighted this in my previous blogposts of Never Before In World Cup Venue Selection and Scandals Involving World Cups 2018 & 2022.

Australia is just waiting to sue FIFA for losing out in the selection of being a World Cup 2022 host. To cover their costs, I supposed, in entertaining the FIFA officials or football officials from other nations plus costs incurred to prepare for the bid. In the end, Australia had spent up to Aust$46 million to FIFA.

I wonder who will be arranging to fix the winner for the coming World Cups.
Tags: FIFA, Caribbean, Caribbean Footballl Officials, World Cup 2018, World Cup 2022

Press Statement By Harapan Komuniti

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Press Statement by Harapan Komuniti

Thanksgiving/Fundraising at DUMC

10 August 2011

Harapan Komuniti is a non profit organization, working to bring love, hope, peace and dignity to the needy, downtrodden, children, women and people living with HIV and AIDS. We help people, regardless of race, religion or creed.

Harapan Komuniti is a partner of Organization of Malaysian AIDS Council.

On Wednesday, 3 August 2011, Harapan Komuniti merely held a thanksgiving /fundraising dinner at DUMC’s (Damansara Utama Methodist Church) premises. That dinner was attended by donors, friends and beneficiaries of Harapan Komuniti. About 120 people, from various backgrounds, attended the dinner and were treated with a meal catered by Muslims, followed by live performance, a 1Malaysia dance, a quiz, and reporting by individuals. Harapan Komuniti also offered a general prayer.

Around 9.30 pm, about 30 officers from JAIS (Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor) and the Police, some were in uniforms and others in plain clothes came into the said premise without any search warrant or permission. Harapan Komuniti immediately requested the JAIS officers if they had any warrant and despite repeated requests, JAIS officers refused to hand to us any warrant to search or arrest. They proceeded into the hall and took photos and videos and even removed pamphlets from the various drawers and cabinets in the said Hall, without any permission from us or the landlord of DUMC’s premises.

Harapan Komuniti’s lawyer, Mr Annou Xavier stated that Malaysia should be fortunate to have non-profit organisations such as Harapan Komuniti that gives ”Harapan” or hope to the needy, afflicted, poor, marginalised and yet, on that fateful night on 3rd August, Jais decided to take the opportunity to raid the thanksgiving charity dinner on the assumption that conversion of religion was taking place. Harapan Komuniti has helped many needy and downtrodden citizens of Malaysia, without regard to race, religion, creed, yet Jais took it upon themselves to disrupt a peaceful and harmonious charity event on that 3rd August.

Mr Annou further states that Harapan Komuniti is a ‘1 Malaysia’ organisation in its pure sence, in that its Board members consist of a Malay, Encik Mohd. Rahim Bin Ithnen, a Chinese, Mr Raymond Koh and an Indian, Mr Sri Ram s/o KS Gopal to help all races, religion and creed and not some parties that simply chant ‘1 Malaysia’ merely as a slogan. He hopes that such an unwarranted raid would not take place in the future that would cause unnecessary anxiety and trauma to peace loving Malaysians.

By Mr. Raymond Koh
Executive Director
Harapan Komuniti, 3-1, Jalan PJS 3/48, Taman Sri Manja, 48000 Petaling Jaya.
Tel: 03-77843901
Tags: Harapan Komuniti, JAIS Raid, Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor, DUMC, Damansara Utama Methodist Church. HIV, AIDS, Organization of Malaysian AIDS Council, 1Malaysia

Secret Of Living Up To 80 Years Old

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:57:00 +0000

I recently turned 65 and had to choose a new primary care physician for my Medicare program.

After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing "fairly well" for my age.

A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him, "Do you think I will live to be 80?

He asked: Do you smoke tobacco or drink alcoholic beverages?"

"Oh no," I replied. "I don't do drugs, either."

"Do you have many friends and entertain frequently?"

"I said, "No, I usually stay home and keep to myself".

"Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?"

I said, "No, my other doctor said that all red meat is unhealthy!"

"Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?"

"No, I don't," I said.

"Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?"

"No," I said. "I don't do any of those things."

He looked at me and said, "Then why would you want to live to 80?

Hundreds of Thousands Of Illegals In Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:51:00 +0000

Malaysians are harbouring sooooooooooooooo many illegals from other nations.

The Home Ministry has stated that as many as 530,000 illegals immigrants have registered with the Immigration offices throughout Peninsula Malaysia. This figure doesn't include Sarawak which could make the statistics even worse.

How in the world did they enter our nation?

The six PSM members that were held under Emergency Ordinance lately is nothing to shout about and personally, I think it was just a political ploy.

But having half a million of illegal immigrants entering our nation without being detected, I would say that the police and army have done a disservice to our nation by not protecting our borders. The government is so worried about the six PSM members but not the 530,000 illegals?

For those businesses and homeowners that are hiring the illegals, you are contributing to this mess if not, the lives of our people has been endangered.

If 'allowing' this 530,000 illegal immigrants into the country is not waging war against the Agong, you tell me what it is. If these 530,000 illegal immigrants wanted to create a riot, they could do it nationwide and our police plus army wouldn't be able to contain it.

The Malaysian Defence Ministry is spending billions as if to wage war against another nation but the government has neglected the fact that the illegal immigrants have penetrated our defence.
Tags: Illegal Immigrants, Emergency Ordinance, Home Ministry

Global Bersih 2.0 Happening in 25 Cities

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:20:00 +0000

Global BERSIH 2.0 events in support of the BERSIH 2.0 gathering in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Info such as country / time / location / Facebook url / contact person is listed below for your reference:-

1. New Zealand @ 02:00PM Wellington – Malaysian High Commission
http://on.fb.me/jMlCwc - Danielle Ng Tallon danros20@gmail.com

2. Australia @ 12:30PM Canberra – Parliament Front Entrance
http://on.fb.me/kBLI2H - David Teoh david.teoh@gmail.com

3. Australia @ 02:00PM Sydney – Sydney CBD Town Hall
http://on.fb.me/j0RzYt - David Teoh david.teoh@gmail.com

4. Australia @ 01:30PM Melbourne – Federation Square
http://on.fb.me/j0rDf1 David Teoh david.teoh@gmail.com

5. Australia @ 01:30PM Hobart - Parliament House Lawns, Salamanca Place
http://on.fb.me/jP0MWL Jason Lee jasonleecj@gmail.com

6. Australia @ 01:30PM Perth – Malaysian Consulate-General, 252 Adelaide Terrace http://on.fb.me/lihTnU David Teoh david.teoh@gmail.com

7. Australia @ 02:00PM Adelaide – Victoria square, Adelaide
http://on.fb.me/klaDdS Maverick Loh maverickloh@hotmail.com

8. Australia @ 11:00AM Brisbane – Brisbane Square
http://on.fb.me/imhKwv Calvyn Tan http://facebook.com/calvyn.tan

9. Japan @ 03:00PM Osaka – Tower of the Sun
http://on.fb.me/mUGxvB Satya Arjunan satya.arjunan@gmail.com

10. Korea @ 03:00PM Seoul - Gwanghwamun Subway Station, Exit 6
http://on.fb.me/lgB4oQ Alfian Tahir alfian_zohri@yahoo.com & Thency Gunasekaran thency@gmail.com

11. Taiwan @ 02:00PM Taipei - The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Liberty Square,Taipei http://on.fb.me/mIEOGW KM Chan qiminchan@hotmail.com

12. Hong Kong @ 03:00PM Malaysian Consulate 50 Gloucester Rd
http://on.fb.me/lxYT2E Sze Wei zweiang@hotmail.com

13. Malaysia @ 02:00PM Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
http://tinyurl.com/5rvefz3 Dave McLaren lmcmcwest69@gmail.com

14. Switzerland @ 02:00PM Zurich - Bahnhoffstrasse, Zurich, opposite Feldpausch
http://on.fb.me/lQq8qB Bala Chelliah bala.chelliah@bluewin.ch

15. Sweden @ 01:00PM Stockholm - Malaysian embassy, Stockholm Karlavägen 37 http://on.fb.me/kfrxAK

16. France @ 02:00PM Paris – Parvis des Droits de l’Homme, Place du Trocadéro
http://on.fb.me/joKlVQ Charis Quay cquayhl@stanfordalumni.org

17. England (UK) @ 12:00PM London – Malaysian High Commission, Belgrave Square http://on.fb.me/kQ9fsQ Yolanda Augustin yolanda_augustin04@yahoo.com

18. Scotland (UK) @ 12:00PM 10/7/11 Glasgow - George Square
http://on.fb.me/kAefYr Mesoul Bin Safie mesoul@gmail.com

19. Ireland (UK and Republic) TBC 9/7/11 – Dublin, Belfast

10/7/11 – Cork, Limerick
http://tinyurl.com/68trlxm Bakhtiar Hasnawi bakhtiar.hasnawi@yahoo.com

20. Canada @ 09:00AM Ottawa – Parliament Hill
http://on.fb.me/kb5OY4 Angeline Woon angeline.aubry@gmail.com

21. United States @ 10:00AM New York City – Consulate General of Malaysia, 313 East 43rd Street
http://on.fb.me/lWrJ8l Leng Feng Lee llee3@buffalo.edu

22. United States @ 02:00PM Washington DC – Embassy of Malaysia, Washington ,3516 International Court Northwest
http://on.fb.me/l9XgH0 John Lee johnleemk@gmail.com

23. United States @ 09:30AM San Francisco – Chrissy Field Picnic Area, Presidio
http://on.fb.me/jehClH Chong Pin Lim http://facebook.com/chongpin

24. United States @12:00PM Los Angeles – Pershing Square, Downtown LA 532 South Olive Street
http://on.fb.me/iBJgM3 James Cheng http://facebook.com/chenglf

25. United States @ 12:00PM Chicago - Milennium Park (Cloud Gate / The Bean)
http://on.fb.me/rjGpaq Andrew Loh andrewlza@gmail.com

Bravo to all these Malaysians who have found it important to bring such awareness to a higher level. May your Bersih 2.0 be a successful initiative to many more things for the sake of Malaysia.

Reading: Global Bersih 2.0 update - Malaysia Today
Tags: Global Bersih 2.0, Bersih 2.0, Free and Fair Election

I Shot Two Burglars

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:29:00 +0000

George Phillips, an elderly man, from Meridian, Mississippi, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window.

George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things. He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?"

He said "No," but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me.

Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available."

George said, "Okay." He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Then he phoned the police again.

Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well, you don't have to worry about them now because I just shot and killed them both, the dogs are eating them right now." and he hung up.

Within five minutes, six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Phillips' residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to George, "I thought you said that you'd shot them!"

George said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"
Tags: Burglars, SWAT, Police, Fire Truck, Paramedic, Ambulance,

Did IWK Come?

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:51:00 +0000

Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd, at a press conference, stated that they will conduct desludging at housing estates at least once every two years. That means to say some area could see them coming to their housing estates more than once every two years.

Somehow, two years have passed at my housing estate and I didn't see them appearing at my septic tank area.

Was it just a NATO effect? Or was it that the reporters have reportedly wrongly?

Do they attend to your housing estate's desludging once every two years?

Reading: IWK Desludges Household Septic Tanks Once Every Two Years - Bernama
Tags: Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd, IWK, Desludging, Septic Tank

My Most Expensive Dumpling aka Bak Chang

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 01:21:00 +0000

Thanks to a couple friend of mine, they treated us to two gigantic dumpling aka bak chang.

The size is really humongous if you compare it with the size of the fork and spoon at the bottom of the picture.

Guess the price ........... it's RM200 each.

Yeah, we were treated to a RM400 supper plus grapes from Down Under (by another couple) if not mistaken.

It's really nice and the dumpling rice itself is not too oily and not too soft or sticky. Perfecto!

This is the most expensive bak chang I have ever tried. Will we get to eat it again next year? (hoping for that couple to read this blogpost)

You may ask "What is inside it that made it so bloody expensive?"

I was late for this supper and they opened up the second bak chang when I arrived. They looked highly upon me to finish it when five adults and two kids finished the first bak chang.

If you look at this picture, my friend dug up two pieces of abalone (just on the right side of the big spoon).

Other ingredients include scallop, shark's fin, higher grade mushroom, meat and ingredients normally found in smaller bak chang. Can't recall all of it.

This is a home made bak chang and made to order. My friend's company actually ordered 350 bak chang from this lady for her company's function. Really don't know what kind of function was that.
Tags: Bak Chang, Dumpling, Abalone, Scallop, Shark's Fin, Mushroom

Scholarship Mess for Malaysians

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Sat, 28 May 2011 16:46:00 +0000

The recent upheaval about the scholarships not being properly awarded to deserving students is just a ploy. A ploy or a decoy to divert your attention from something more serious. Or the next general election is upcoming and something has to be stirred up. Subsequently the government will come in to 'right' the matter and potrayed to be the hero again. A government that looks into the welfare of its citizen.

Why am I saying that it's a ploy?

This scholarship issue is an annual issue and when government exams' results are announced each year, you'll see people all over Malaysia crying unfairness where the government has either rejected or didn't even process their scholarship applications properly.

These news had been on-going more than a decade ago or even for the last two decades. Why is it being brought up now?

Why is the Public Service Department ("PSD") being picked on now? They should have been investigated twenty or ten years ago for the yearly issue. Why now?

Every year, many top students have been "robbed" off their eligibility to apply for a government scholarship. This is nothing new. Suddenly, the Chief Secretary to the government announced that they will look into allegations where scholarships have not been awarded accordingly to the rules. Then it's also the government's fault for not acting on it ten to twenty years ago. It took the government (say ten years) to act on such discrepancy after seeing so many top students not getting their scholarships year in year out.

Then MCA is now seen coming into the picture to help those "poor" students who have been "robbed" off their scholarship chances. They are blaming PSD also. But this is an annual affair. MCA just realised this?

Is PSD really at fault? Or were they instructed to do so otherwise? Certain people are calling for PSD's staff to be dealt with or taken to task or severely disciplined. Really want to know how will they be reprimanded after all these years of discrepancy.

Let me tell you, if you want to put up a show please do put up a better show.

Then there's this ngo (not naming as not to give them any chance of gaining useless publicity) coming into the picture asking for 67% of the government scholarships to be given to his race. In the first place, please do the first thing right first. What's that? Get a job for each and every single person of your race. Then I will say that your ngo's existence is valid and useful.

Then I read about the Pahang state government's scholarship offer for all of their sportsmen and sportswomen that are representing the state in the upcoming 14th Malaysian Games. Is this done in accordance with the nation's interest? Are we moving in this direction for the future as well? The USA and South Korea governments do have such annual budgets for scholarships for top sportsmen and sportswomen. That's the reason why theirs people are doing so well in sports.

But is the state government awarding it to the right people as in all of them are so bright in their respective sports? I hope that these awards won't go to waste just like that.
Tags: Malaysian Scholarship, Government Scholarship, Public Service Department, 14th Malaysian Games, Pahang State Government, PSD

Voter Registration In Selangor & FT

noreply@blogger.com (Johnny Ong) — Thu, 26 May 2011 10:45:00 +0000

DAP FT/Selangor is having a mega statewide (Selangor & FT) voter registration exercise this weekend, 28-29 May, at 12 locations. We're hoping to hit 10,000 new voters!

Venues include markets (for the semi-urban areas) and shopping centres for the urban areas, locations are:-

1. KAJANG: Metro Point (near Old Town White Coffee); 11am-9pm

2. KEPONG: Waterfront, Desa Parkcity (near Coffee Bean); 10am-8pm

3. KLANG: Klang Parade (Renren Book Store); 10am-10pm

4. KUALA KUBU BHARU: KKB Market; 8:30am-10:30am

5. PANDAN: Pandan Perdana Morning Market (Sat) & Taman Muda Market (Sun); 8am-11am

6. PETALING JAYA: 1Utama (1st Floor, Oval); 10am-10pm & Digital Mall, Sect 14; 10am-9pm

7. PUCHONG: IOI Mall (Guardian, Old Wing); 10am-10:30pm

8. SEKINCHAN: Restaurant Sheng Hui (Sekinchan Market); 8am-12pm

9. SERDANG: The Mines Shopping Mall ; 11am-9pm

10. SUBANG JAYA: Empire Shopping Gallery (P1 Travelator); 10am-10pm

Please share this with all of your friends.
Tags: DAP, Voter Registration, Selangor & FT