The middle-income trap…an enligthening read.

Income Trap; Oh yes, here’s one of the victim. Once you pay off your house, cars, fuel and food, you have…… ????

Good reading,

Rattle your mouth, get kick in the butt.

1. Shouldnt have happened in the first place.

2. Im glad Najib gave him the kick.

3. Fact of the matter, his aide overstepped. Najib took action.

4. This is how the country should be governed.

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Datuk Nasir Safar Will Tender Resignation

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 (Bernama) — Special Officer to the Prime Minister, Datuk Nasir Safar will tender his resignation from the post following racist remarks he allegedly made at a 1Malaysia seminar in Melaka Tuesday.

The Prime Minister’s office in a statement issued here Tuesday night said the remarks allegedly made by Nasir “does not in any way reflect the views of the Prime Minister.”

“Datuk Nasir never intended to make any derogatory remarks. He spoke at length on the contributions made by all races in developing the country.

“Nevertheless, Nasir apologises for any offence caused.

“In light of this, Datuk Nasir will tender his resignation,” the three-paragraph statement said.

Meanwhile MIC president Datuk Seri Samy Vellu, in condeming the remarks by Nasir, said that it did not reflect the Government’s stand and that it had hurt the feelings of the Malaysian Indians.

“His views are entirely the opposite of the goodwill shown by the Government and the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) under the 1Malaysia concept,” he said in a statement issued here Tuesday.

He said Nasir should be punished under the Sedition Act for his derogatory remarks.

Meanwhile, MIC Youth secretary Shivarraaj Tuesday night lodged a police report in connection with the statement made by Nasir at Sentul Police station.

Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said the immediate action taken by Najib in response to the derogatory remarks by Nasir indicated the prime minister’s seriousness and commitment in ensuring the success of the 1Malaysia policy.

“This should act as deterrent to ensure that similar statements are not repeated by any quarters. The government of today is very receptive to the sensitivities of all communities,” said the MIC Vice President.

One For Allah, Allah For All ?… I dont think so.

Dear All,

The name Allah should be only refer to the Islamic God and nothing else.

To do otherwise will only bring more problems than good. Is it really a necessity to rock the harmony of a country just because you want to use the word Allah as well ? Was it crucial before this ? Will you be prevented to go to your respective heaven if you dont use the word Allah in your publication?, Thanks to your effort in streamlining the word Allah now we have churches being burned, worse still, there are people silently approving such violent means.

To those who think the use of Allah is fair usage for all god, please review your opinion with the context and feeling of the Muslim society in Malaysia. The Muslims have never bothered to use the word Yahweh to replace the name of Allah, nor do they use Lord Zeus nor Jesus’s Father, Lord Shiva, to replace the name of their God.

If they can, why cant you ?

Trust me, this usage of Allah for all God will bring more harm than good.

The muslims are getting even more suspicious of other religion than they already are. Worse still those that doesnt agree with their suspicious Muslim brothers are now joining the chorus.

If this move to have the word Allah for all God is to disrupt the harmony in Malaysia, then it is brilliantly achieving its objective.

Ihram

This post is written to remind me of what at the end of the day really matters.

An Ihram clothing is 2 piece of cotton cloths wrapped around the body.

When in Ihram one is not allowed to wear perfumes or anything else. That includes any brooch, any above ankle shoes headgear or really anything else. Put it this way, 2piece of cotton cloths. That’s it.

There is no issey miyaki, no sean john, no hugo boss cufflinks, no sabo bracelets, no raoul shirts, dunhill leatherbags, lv prada and all goes out of the window. There’s even no iPhone. At the end of the day none of it really matters when you faced Allah.

I’m not trying to preach. I’m far worse off than most of you. It’s just something I realised along the way.

Making Safety of the State an Attractive Option

1. This post is written with the utmost respect to those that are in my honest opinion are the best of what this nation has to offer.

2. If  I had it my way, i would have made it compulsory for all to serve the nation for a few years before they start serving themselves for a lifetime.

3. Anyway, that is not what the issue is about. The issue is about enhancing the attractiveness of the military force. The reason for enhancing the attractiveness is simple at heart.

4. This is a nation which the total size is 329,750 sq km. This is a sizable size by any amount.

5. This nation requires the service of its young men adn women to ensure its survivability.

6. Recent years has shown a decline of and able young men and women willing to join the service.

7. I believe there are a few reasons for the decline

1) The attractiveness of the salary

2) The attractiveness of the life

3) The clarity of the progression path

4) The extra trainings of skills that can be learned to be applied later outside of the service.

Before you read further, i appreciate if you could see the table attached to understand the context better.

Now assuming one is a university graduate and is looking for work he may consider joining the military service as a career option. One  thing is for sure, if you could refer to the table attached,  assuming a graduate will attain the rank of Captain the moment he enters the service, he may expect a salary base of RM 2000 to 2500 excluding any perks he is entitled for. (ie medical/housing/travelling)

Compare this to the other options that a university graduate has, from what i know a university graduate may earn a starting pay in KL of

a)RM 3000-3500 in a public sector excluding perks (medical/housing/travel)

b) RM 3000 -4500 in a private sector excluding perks (medical/housing/travel)

c) RM 3000-3500 in a teaching profession in a local university excluding perks (medical/housing/travel)

That is a variance of RM 500-RM 1000.This makes a whole lot of difference for someone who is about to start his life. 500-1000 could be used to pay for necessities such as paying for the rent/car/ food and etc.

Furthermore , if you could look at the salary progression in the table attached, At the height of his careeer assuming if he can be made a General ( there is only about 5 or 6 of them so such position is highly rare, his peak salary would be about RM 9835.  A General would easily be someone who would be around 50 years of age  ++. This mean that the salary that he would attain at the peak of his career is at most about RM 10,000. Such is the sacrifice these brave men and women make to serve this nation. Remember Leftenan Jeneral Zaini Mohd Said who stared down the barrel of an M16  in the Al Maunah confrontation.  Yup.His salary is about that range. How many of us have the guts to do the same  for such amount of money ( with all due respect im sure Leftenan Jeneral Zaini did not do it ffor financial reason but rather  patriotic duty)

Lets also not forget that other profession also would require less strain on the physique and also would mean the warmth and comfort of home and family at the end of the day.  Being in the military would mean missing home many times  a month and a sleeping cot for comfort for many nights.

Then the reasonable question would be, what would be the enticement be for the young men and women for this country to join ?

I believe it is safe to assume that there is  no way that the military could ever surpass the salary of the private sector. The best it could do in any given condition is to match it. Even then it wouldnt last forever.

Therefore i propose a way to make the military service be more attractive.

I propose that the military service offer professional courses for their servicemen. ie the military should offer professional medical courses to the servicemen who qualify. In the end of the bond, they should be able to get their medical degree.

This is a way to entice the young to join the military.

Sure, not all can qualify, no doubt, but imagine a nation where the military servicemen are not only soldiers but also given the trainings of a doctor, lawyer, engineers and accountants. Wouldnt that be wonderful ?

This cadre of disciplined young men and women equipped with the knowledge of specialised skill is more invaluable to the development of the nation more than any weapon systems combined.

I believe this is killing two birds with one stone. You get more people to enroll to the service due to the possibility of their degree being sponsored and also you are building the nation with capable men and women.

This program is not new, the Ministry of Defense had committed to such programme but the implementation seems to vary year by year. And what is most definite that this programme is not being used as a “promotion” for the young to join the military service.

This proposal  believe will be an attractive offer or “carrot” to entice young men and women to join the service. Imagine if they are being told that one of the benefits of joining the service is that they will get a medical degree/ engineering qualification/ ACCA certificate/ Called to the Bar  at the end of their service.

Wouldnt that be an attractive option ?

I believe the military service now is an option that is only  seriously considered by kampung boys like me who has no further avenue to pursuit their life dreams. They ( We) are mostly too poor to go to overseas or afford such expensive learning option. A medical degree will set us back Rm 600 000.00 and no amount of selling our harta pusaka/sawah/bendangs will ever get us that much.

Joining a service that provides an avenue  for such learning is definitely an attractive option for us, even if the salary is low but if at the end of the day we will get to achieve our dreams then it would be definitely worth it.

Back to you dear readers.

Jadual_Gaji_Pegawai_dan_Lain-Lain_Pangkat[1]

Feudalism at work….right here in the 21st Century

Clan chief tries to stop installation

KUALA LUMPUR: A minor clan chief is making a last ditch attempt to stop the installation of the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan, claiming that the ceremony tomorrow will be flawed as it will be against the state customary legal system.

Zulkepley Dahalan, who claims to be the Datuk Seri Maharaja DiRaja Lagi Bandar Lembaga Tua Waris DiAyer, claimed that the Undang Luak Sungai Ujong Datuk Mubarak Dohak, one of the four major clan chiefs, was not entitled to take part in the ceremony.

He claimed that the Lembaga Sungai Ujong had held three extraordinary meetings and had “removed Mubarak” as the Undang.

Zulkepley said if Mubarak continued to play a part in the installation of Tuanku Muhriz Tuanku Munawir as the ruler, then the whole ceremony would be “cacat” (tainted).

According to the state constitution and customary system, the Undang Sungai Ujong is the chieftain who leads the ruler to the throne for the installation ceremony.

The Undang is also supposed to be the one to proclaim the installation.

According to Zulkepley, the rightful Undang is one Datuk Othman Ismail, who was appointed on Feb 8.

Speaking at a press conference, he said this was the first time such an incident had occurred in the 252-year history of Negri Sembilan’s customary law known as Adat Perpatih.

Zulkepley added that he had written to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Thursday to request for his help to advise the Mentri Besar but has yet to receive a reply.

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(1) “Datuk Seri Maharaja DiRaja Lagi Bandar Lembaga Tua Waris DiAyer” …..wow….that’s 10 words dedicated just for the title

(2) And this is for a state that takes only about 30 mins to cross.

(3) But therein underlies the problem with the country

(4) The whole system of feudalism and subservient concept.

(5) A system where there are better people than the masses because of their title.

(6) i.e He’s a Dato/Datuk, therefore at the very least his letter must be specifically addressed as Dato Azlan, not Mr. Azlan.

(7) From a Federal Constitution point of view, where does this stand with the idea of everyone is of equal right ?

(8) From an Islamic point of view (mine at least), do we need this ?, mati sama besar jugak kubur, (you will be buried in the same depth), and you cant really bring the title to the grave with you. Unless you want to pull a Pharaoh burial where they bring everything including their gold,bodyguards and wives with them.

(9) This system is a costly system to run and maintain and yet bears little viewable results, worse yet This is a system that stymies the development of the people’s mindset. How do we ask the people to grow when they have to serve the feudal lords ?

Boikot ! (Boycott)

(1)Whenever a company gets too big they tend to lose the customer management aspect which is probably the most important aspect in a business. 2 companies stick out like a sore thumb in my book. 1st is IKEA where when I first asked a female ikea worker about how to remove a pushing trolley from it’s dispenser machine all she said was ” I don’t know, this is not my department” I was stunned. For a moment there I thought I was at a 1990s govt department. The next IKEA moment was at the same evening when I asked another worker how should I move a particular big package from it’s shelf. All he said was. ” You aaa …Take trolley” and left. OMG. Gee thanks for the obvious statement Mr. Phua Chu Kang lookalike. Whatever happened to can I help you mr ? Yes if you want to take this item you gonna have to take the trolley located at aisle B or let me help you putting this big shelf into the trolley ? Don’t you (IKEA) train your staffs in customer relationship management ? Shame on you.

(2)Next on the firing line is this too-big-for-it’s -head mamak NZ garden beside public bank. I ordered breakfast. Sat down. Only to be told later that I have to move because the section is closed. Now normally I won’t have any beef with moving my ass to another table but the way these Indians/Bangladeshis/Tamil/Ceylonese immigrants tell me to move really ticks me off. They were so rude. You came to MY country and you want me to jump hoops around for you ? Ain’t gonna happen bud. Learn to speak properly and maybe I’ll entertain your request next time. I did what I had to do. I left the place. Their coffee wasn’t that great either. It was the usual blend of some cheap generic coffee with sugar and creamer. Yucks. And by God’s will I had found another place just opposite KLCC which btw serves great coffees. Ginseng, tongkat ali, radix, black, tarik, all kinds are available here. Plus the shop is manned by an elderly gentleman who is kind and courteous. This place is gonna be my new coffee place

(3)From now on I am not going to tolerate bullshit from anybody.Especially when I am paying for it.

Prepared text of Obama’s speech to school students

Prepared text of Obama’s speech to school students
By The Associated Press (AP) – 1 hour ago
The prepared text of President Barack Obama’s back-to-school address scheduled for Tuesday, as released in advance by the White House:
OBAMA: Hello, everyone — how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through 12th grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday — at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor — maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine — but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life — I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that — if you quit on school — you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our first lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home — that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same. That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education — and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust — a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor — and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you — don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down — don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

macbook air problems

things to remember if i ever want to buy a macbook air.

A Racist Post

(1)This is going to be a racist post. I will make no apologies about it.

(2) ever Heard of the phrase “ke manakah perginya anak2 muda melayu sekarand? ( where have all the young Malays have gone ?) “

(3) The usual answer would be at pusat serenti (drug rehab). Well I think I have found another answer,All of them are conggregated at the Bukit Bintang square area. The proof is the pictures below.

(4) what are they doing there ? From the looks of it and in no particular order, chilling,oogling,smoking,looking and behaving like an stoned addict (they probably are),playing futsal (that’s right,futsal right in the middle of bb)

(5) the irony could not escape me, here