Correlation or Causation?

You decide:

On October 31 2009 PPB Group under the flagship of Robert Kuok issued a statement to the Bursa Malaysia that it decided to dispose of its sugar units along with land used to cultivate sugar cane for RM 1.29 billion to Felda.The sales resulted in a one-off gain for the company.The sugar unit and sugar cane plantation were the second largest business segment upon its grain and feed which were topping the sales.

While under the "Sugar King of Asia", sugar prices were placed under the Supply Control Act 1961 and the Price Control Act 1946.

About 2 months later, after the shares and land are sold to Felda:
Prices of sugar jumps up.

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 31 — Sugar will cost 20 sen more per kg from tomorrow, with the new price being RM1.65 in the peninsula and RM1.75 in Sabah and Sarawak, it is announced today.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry secretary-general Datuk Mohd Zain Mohd Dom, who made the announcement, said the government would also withdraw its subsidy on white bread from tomorrow, and remove the commodity from the price control scheme.

Questions arise as to why Robert Kuok would even consider letting go of such a lucrative oligopoly business, for a relatively measly sum of 1.29bil? Also, why only after the acquisition of the assets by Felda, why is sugar 'removed from the price control scheme', resulting in the prices takeing a spike? A coincidence?

Independence Day!

While hanging out at Chew's place, the topic of those old patriotic/propaganda songs they used to play quite often on the TV (usually on the RTM channels), and in the spirit of commemorating our country's Independence Day, I did a little searching and dug up some of those classics we used to hear so much of (because they were often strategically slotted in between cartoons :P).

Alas, I couldn't find any trace of the awesome "A.I.D.S, merbahaya, aedes pula, mengancam manusia" video except for various references on blogs.


Keranamu Malaysia



Ella - Standing In The Eyes of The World



Sejahtera Malaysia




Fikirkan Boleh




Tanggal 31

Meritocracy only worth 20 percent in Malaysia

PUTRAJAYA, May 18 — Only 20 per cent, or one in five, of Public Service Department (PSD) scholarships are given based on merit while the rest are allocated based on racial quotas.

Source

So let's take a look at the issue in a little more depth than we usually do.

Every year without fail, we hear the hue and cry from parents about the biased allocation of PSD scholarships. As usual, nothing is changed and the wailwagon starts making a ruckus again the next year, but very few people actually look at the bigger picture, and look beyond the "racial" aspect of it.

By causing controversy over the allocation of scholarships, they divert attention from the effects: less citizens who attain higher education.

The better educated people get, the more they will analyse and question the social and political issues occuring in the country.

Let's face it. Politicians like Rakyat who are docile sheep who do what they're told. They prefer unquestioning acceptance and obedience to challenges to their 'authority'. They've more or less succeeded in this goal ever since Independence, at least until last year.

Their actions are proof enough of this; certain politicians have been harping on and on about not questioning issues that they spin into racial issues. Do not question the social contract in the Constitution. Do not question the decisions of our Royalty. Do not question our decisions.

Education is admittedly just one of the tools they've used to maintain control of the Rakyat, but it is also an important one. Tying quotas to racial profiles also has the convenient side effect of inciting racial sentiments, cementing their tried-and-true 'divide and conquer' strategy.

That is why in primary and secondary school, all you're told to do is to shut up and listen to instruction.

That's why those who can get into uni have to unlearn all the "stfu and listen unquestioningly" programming imprinted on every Malaysian student in primary and secondary education.

Make them obey and listen unquestioningly when they're young, make it hard for them to obtain higher education, and the result is a large population of willing drones to work for you and support you.

Such methods are simple and effective instruments of control, and have been used since the feudal ages, and are still being used today in some form or another.

This might not be new to some, but a thought not expressed might as well have been not thought of at all, as the (most likely misquoted) saying goes, and knowing is half the battle.

Set Phazorz To Starn!

secure: I'm currently simulating the internal multiwave guide to fix the posistron flux, this should allow us to know the stardate by reversing the polarity in the photon dampener of the warp core

Lynx: Remember to set your phasers to stun when jumpstarting the positronic modulation reflex field, or you'll cause a chain reaction in the dilithium stabiliser array, which will cause a flux in the quantum wave particle matrix, and in turn cause a disruption of the tensor emitter resulting in a conical gravitational singularity that will cause the universe to be divided by 0.

And make the water in my tea too hot.

O HAI

Very long time no update, and yes my excuse is, as always, the popular 'i've been busy' and 'working hard', but isn't it always. I realise its rather hypocritical especially since I believe in the idea that, "where there is a will, there is a way". So i'll amend my excuse to "I haven't been arsed to make the time to blog".

There, a more accurate and honest assessment.

So, with that aside, a little blogging about my freelancing life. I've grown quite fond of doing work such as this, as I feel it gives me the best of 'both' worlds: income, with a high degree of flexibility.

I've found that people by and large tend to have a dim perspective of freelancing, there's that subtle thing that often shows on their faces when I say I do freelancing, like a bulb shut off, or a slight shifting of their body like they just heard something uncomfortable.
Some gave me the impression that they think freelancing means lazing around, not seriously working and being 'free'. Others project their feelings that its a very unpredictable, unstable choice of career, and not a 'real' job.

I understand why they feel that way; I had my own doubts about it not so very long ago; it seemed to me the anathema of everything a person craved: stable job, stable income, stable life. Or put simply, a predictable, relatively uneventful, familiar job which provides a strong sense of security.

So why have I been doing it? What turned me to the "Dark Side"? Necessity, first and foremost.
Studying in university was rather costly, which meant I had to get additional income so I wouldn't have to live on a diet of instant noodles for 3 years, (like some students I knew in KTAR did, I kid you not).
And as any other university-going youth, other interests and activities usually needed "monetary reconcilliation" as well, so to speak, and I sure as hell wasn't going to dig into my education loan to fund those.

So, I took on part-time work alongside full-time study. I admit that sometimes it affected my studies especially in my second year of university, but I learnt some very valuable lessons from it, got my prioritising straight the following year and I still did reasonably well, IMO, considering how distracting and stressful it was to juggle work and studies.

But you ask, "you've graduated now, isn't it time to find a *real* job? Why continue in this unpredictable, unstable activity?"
For many reasons. Having done freelancing for more than a year now, and doing some basic expenses/income calculations, my net income is actually higher than if I were to get a permanent job. Reduction in travelling expenses alone is enormous as I mostly work from home, especially since petrol prices shot up recently.

Freelancing also gives me a constantly challenging job, usually something different each time, and getting paid, while being able to structure my time to set aside enough for friends and family, with the added bonus of minimising living/travel expenses, and practicing my skills while doing it.
To my mind, a reasonable tradeoff for highly irregular working hours, the constant need to take initiative and find more work when my email's relatively quiet, and a lack of socialising in a professional/office environment.

Still, necessity is ever the mother of invention, and its nearing time for the necessity to 'invent' a permanent job/ Thanks to having a loan to repay, and i'm not keen on explaining how i'm servicing it to the IRB or whatever body of the government tasked with regulations of such matters if i'm technically and officially "grape-ing".

So, i'm preparing to take a long hiatus from freelancing, taking a detour from the road less taken and down the commonly trodded path. Because society is a marvel to behold. It self-regulates, ties strings to your arms and legs and, for good or ill, makes you dance to its tune. And its strings are reinforced in every level of itself, from the highest corridors of power in the society's governance, to the most individual of a society's components.

Eating One's Own Words

Wow, what an epic about-face.

From this:
Adnan Mansor: "From my understanding, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women. Bloggers like to spread rumours; they do not like national unity."

Khairy: "There are no laws in the cyberworld except for the law of the jungle. As such, action must be taken so that the "monkeys" behave."


To this:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Some candidates for posts in Malaysia's ruling party will be required to set up blogs, an official said Friday, a turnaround for governing politicians who had derided online politicking.

Abdul Rahman Dahlan, secretary general of the United Malays National Organization party's youth wing, said all those vying for national youth posts must have blogs to introduce themselves and their programs ahead of party elections in December.

[...]

"All candidates must have blogs," Abdul Rahman told The Associated Press. "If not, they are not qualified to be leaders."

Source


So, does this mean that they want to become unemployed, get sex-change operations and use alot of hair-growth tonic now?

Jokes aside, i'm beginning to suspect that they just don't 'get' it.
Requiring party members to set up blogs for the sake of having one is rather pointless. Blogs are merely a single factor among hundreds of others which affected the outcome of the last elections, and hardly the most important.

In retrospect, these 'little things' have been adding up, slowly but surely. As the saying goes, sikit sikit, lama lama, jadi bukit.

Here is but a small list of these 'little things' i'm referring to:

• Seditious, racist and sexist comments by ministers and members of parliament.
  
  
• A "Little Napoleon" who built an illegal bungalow and satay stall then ignores the Sultan's summons.
  
  
• Threats by component party members to burn down the Chinese Assembly Hall.
  
  
• Extremely costly and ultimately futile attempt at imposing "Malaysian values" on other countries.
  
  
• Demolitions of Hindu temples around the country.
  
  
• The brandishing of weapons in party talks.
  
  
• The anti-blogger stance held by the ruling party.
  
  
• Forceful suppression of the BERSIH rally.
  
  
• The Port Klang Free Zone scandal.
  
  
• Illegal billboard fiasco in PJ.
  
  
• The M. Moorthy controversy.
  
  
• Rampant rent-seeking.
  
  
• The Hindraf debacle.
  
  
• Issues of faith.
  
  

As far as I can see, this is a case of "You're Doing It Wrong".

To be fair, the Prime Minister made promises and as far as I can see is really interested in implementing change.
But when the body does not heed the head's instructions and only pays lip service and sycophantic fawning, the cracks appear faster than a sloppy contractor's work on low-cost housing projects, which of course resulted in a landslide in the last elections.

If they are really serious about fixing their image, they need to clean up their act, deliver on their promises and do their jobs, which is SERVING THE PUBLIC as government servants like they should be, not acting like feudal lords.

Discrepancies...

Looking through the papers recently, I came across two articles that point out some glaring discrepancies in our fair country's management.

Now I usually don't bother posting about stuff like this, but there is only so much bullshit that even I can take in one day.

First up is the guy who (in)famously waved around a weapon at a certain function before kissing it like he means it. And then this article comes out:

Militancy not my style, says Hisham.

He is aware that many perceived him to be lembik (soft) simply because he does not condone excessive and emotional approaches.

Instead of posting a lengthy rant about this, here's a picture instead. After all, its worth a thousand words, no?



The second is this one, its headline boldly proclaims, "Price rises hurting the wallets of Malaysians".

So basically we're f***ed because prices of stuff has apparently shot up worldwide for no apparent reason, or at least we aren't given a real reason. Normally, i'd just grit my teeth and deal with it like everyone else, but this announcement is F***ING REDICULOUS in light of our dear country's SPLURGING on what is essentially a very expensive joyride.

I'm referring to this event, which was as "well justified" as a certain war that was waged in a certain middle-eastern country, which was similarly effective. But of course this was glossed over, and our fair country's government is already thinking of going a second time.

So let me get this straight, we're pouring a shitload of money into this, instead of using it to make living life a little better? WHAT THE FLYING F***!?

Now I don't claim to be a hotshot economist, but in this case, it doesn't take a genius to figure out where the money from our progressively-reducing petrol subsidies and increasing prices is draining into.

And above all that, you tell me to be patriotic? We are not living in bloody dreamland!

To quote a certain prominent blogger, NIAMAH!

Collage compiled using pictures from [here], [here] and [here] through Google.