Pic. courtesy of the STAR.
IMITATION GOODS ANYONE!

I have seen imitation goods from Thailand being traded freely at night market. It is quite common to find items like branded cosmetics, handbags or perfumes but a car. Oh yes a full size Porsche and Ferrari. Well ,there is a saying ' Imitation is the best form of flattery'. I wonder what the automobile maker think of it.

Burning Money.
One of the papers today, stated that one out of three cigarettes consumed by Malaysian are actually on the market illegally. The syndicates make more than RM1 billion annually and that is tax free. Government loses more than RM1.5 billion annually. This is simply because lax of enforcement. Since the price of cigarettes had spiralled up it had become very lucrative to smuggle these items.
You can increase the price indefinitely like Singapore where a pack of 20 can be as high as RM23 equivalent or create more smoke free zone but it is not going to curb smoking among the population as long as it is available widely.
Some time back the Health Ministry spend millions in anti smoking campaign. There were bill board everywhere to increase public awareness on danger of smoking. Finally the Ministry had to concede defeat as the smokers number do not show any decrease.
Let’s ask ourselves why people smoke. As long as there can find pleasure in it they will continue the habit. There is no point in telling people smoking kill as there are many smokers who lived beyond 80s. Are we brave enough to ban smoking totally? I am just thinking outside the box for a second.

My Hi Fi set.

One of my favourite singer.

This EP is more than 40 years old.

Back to the 70s.

I have a collection of more than 100 LPs which I accumulated during my younger days. All these years it was collecting dust in the store room. Recently I managed to play them after repairing the hi fi set. All those songs brought back sweet memories as I recall how each of those LPs were acquired, sometimes by sacrificing my pocket money over other luxuries. The Strollers has long disappeared from Malaysian scene but The Beatles is as popular as ever. The digital age had revolutionised the music industry but sweet memories still remained.

DRAGON BOAT RACE TRAGEDY.
More facts surfaced after last weekend tragedy that claimed six young life. As usual the finger pointing started but no matter what being said you can not turn back the clock, you can not bring back the dead. My sympathy goes to the family members of the victims. The memories of the tragedy will be with them for ever. We have rules and guidelines in place but there is much lacking when it come to enforcement.
Any sport activity has its own risk including game such as badminton and ping pong which can be considered safe. What more of out door sport like dragon boat race which take place in an open sea. These sport men were doing routine training in preparation for a race that will only take place few months from now. I think the focus should be on the determination of these young men in taking their sport seriously rather than finger pointing exercise that our politician and administrator so fond of.

Missing Indians in Malaysia, 39000 of them (In STAR today)

Are we worried? he he we are not even concerned. Why should we? There are providing cheap manpower to everyone. Next time when you go to a mamak stall, just look at waiter who served you. Ever wonder why they can hardly understand you?

A friend of mine told me this story. A mamak stall employed several newly arrived Indians from the continent. Since they can hardly communicate to his customer, he employed them in the kitchen until such time they can pick up basic language skill. One day he was short of workers so had to deploy them as waiter. He told the new waiter to reply "sudah habis" (mean it is finish) for any order that he could not understand. Of course he could not understand a lot of things except for few common dishes. A customer came and ordered something which the waiter could not understand, so came the reply "sudah habis". The customer was not satisfied as most of his regular menus was not available, decided to test the waiter by ordering "bulu ayam goreng" (fried chiken feathers). He founded the truth of the situation when he received the same reply "sudah habis".

Obviously issuing visas is not the answer here. What about enforcement?

The walkaton team arriving at Subang Jaya.

Fellowship night.

Dance lady dance.

75th Rotary international district 3300 Conference.(8-10 Jan 2010)

This is an important annual affair for RID3300 where Rotarian from various states in the district (Negeri Sembilan to Perlis) meet. Rotarian from foreign countries also attended this function as guest. This year conference started with walkaton with theme 'End Polio walk'. Rotarian who took part walked from Kedah to the conference venue, Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel. That was a distance of more than 500 km. I manage to join the walkaton entourage as they entered Subang Jaya which by then had swelled to more than 100 walkers. The first event for the conference was Fellowship night which had theme called One Malaysia. It was funny to see baju Melayu being worn by Chinese or cheongsam being worn by Malay ladies. Rotarian spend relaxing time to renew acquaintance and make new friends. Of course good party time to those who still have energy left after a long day. It was even funnier to see pak lebai (Chinese in pak lebai costume) discoing late into the night. He he he.

2010 - tahun yang mencabar.
Cabaran tahun baru bermula dengan kenaikan harga barang. Nampaknya rakyat jelata memanglah dicabar untuk mengurangkan makan gula, kurangkan merokok dan sebagainya. Adakah dengan menaikan harga gula, rakyat akan mengurangkan makan gula. Adakah teh tarik, abc, ais kerim dan gula gula akan menjadi lebih tawar apabila dikurangkan bahan gula didalamnya. Anda tentu tahu jawapannya. Sisuami akan melenting apabila minumannya tawar dari biasa. Pengguna akan merungut apabila apabila tehtariknya tawar dari biasa. Yang suka memakan abc juga mungkin akan menamakan minuman kegemarannya 'abt', air batu tolak, tolak apa? tolak gulalah.
Kenaikan harga barangan mungkin tidak dapat dibendung 100 peratus. Apabila harga bahan mentah naik, harga barangan akan naik. Apabila harga bahan mentah turun, harga barangan akan terus berada ditahap baru. Kononnya nak menghabiskan stok bahan mentah yang sudah dibeli dengan banyaknya. Mengapa sebab yang sama tidak digunakan bila harga bahan mentah naik. Turun pun susah, naik lagi susahlah. Inilah yang membuatkan kepala menjadi pusing apabila memikirkannya.
Rakyat idamkan harga barangan yang stabil. Turun naik ni membuatkan mereka susah nak mentadbirkan kewangan mereka. Samalah juga seperti kerajaan yang idamkan keadaan negeri yang aman dan stabil supaya senang nak buat kerja.
Jadi menstabilkan harga barangan adalah penting. Oleh kerana ia penting kerajaan sepatutnya menubuhkan satu kementrian khas untuk menananginya. Bukan kah sudah ada 'Kementrian Hal Ehwal Pengguna' untuk tujuan itu. Memang betul tetapi kementrian itu kurang fokus kerana terpaksa menjaga bermacam macam hal. Jabatan yang menjalankan kerja tersebut boleh dinaikan taraf kepada Kementrian dan ditadbirkan oleh seorang yang bertaraf menteri. Apa nak panggil beliau? Bagaimana dengan 'Menteri Barangan Turun Naik'. KPI beliau senang sahaja tetapi tidak kurang pentingnya. Apabila harga gula dinaikan X peratus, pemakanan gula pula, targetnya, mesti kurang Y peratus. Jika tidak mencapai target dan tiada sebab yang munasabah, sama ada turunkan harga gula atau tukar menterilah jawabnya.

Breathtaking view from the hotel window. Penang bridge on the right.
Penang Vacation - Day 3.
All good things must end. Time to check out and leaving our good memory of Penang behind. What about nasi kandar for lunch? Why not, at least can leave Penang with full stomach. I was told nasi kandar originated from the days when hawker actually carry all the food stuff behind their back, peddling their products from house to house. Must be back breaking task to earn a living. Well now days they operate from restaurant.
Driving in Penang city area is quite an experience. The road is narrow and there are too many cars and he he they have no where to go. My friend had given some direction to Kassim Mustaffa restaurant which is located on Lebuh Chulia. Parking, I learned something, as I was about to insert coin in the paking meter, an old man approached me and told me I could park as long as I like for just one ringgit. Looking at my puzzled face he added " saya jaga, jangan susah". Since I did not see any parking attendant I had to trust this old man to take care of my car so that we can have our meal in peace.
The place just started filling up with lunch time crowd as we took our seat. We had a hearty meal before leaving Penang. Sayonara till next trip.

Hair style demonstration featuring Fatin.

Komtar from the hotel window, the second Penang Bridge under construction can be seen in the backgroun.

With Talib and Mrs.

Penang vacation - Day 2.

Spend most of the time at the Gurney Plaza. A a holidays is not complete with out proper shopping. This quite new shopping mall is located along Persiaran Gurney, sandwiched between condominium and terrace houses. Probably there is no master plan for the development of this particular waterfront. So when somebody decide to have a commercial development there, hey presto you can have it. As a result access to the area is chaotic even during lull period. From the plaza one can see the second bridge construction is well under way.My former school mates Talib happened to be in the vicinity. It was very nice of him and his Mrs. to drop by to say hello.

In the evening friend from Malaysia Airlines drop by at the hotel. Had good chat as he updated me on latest at Penang Airport.

KOMTAR Penang..crossing busy street.
Ride to new Penang Times Square.
Singing fountain - Penang Times Square.

Penang vacation - day 1.

Crossing Penang bridge around 4pm. What a sight, the newly renovated bridge has an extra lane now. I was looking for Sunway Hotel and wish had invested in GPS. I was told it is located somewhere near KOMTAR so I just headed toward that tall building. It was not difficult afterall as my daughter commented one can never get lost in Penang as long as you remain on the island. he he geog lesson not wasted .

After check in, oh got welcome drink some more, not a bad start, time to discover the place. KOMTAR was a walking distance away, so we set for first destination. Wow! busy street, exercise extreme care when crossing the road. KOMTAR remind me of my favourite place in KL, Ampang Park or Pertama Complex.

Second destination was Penang Times Square. Just completed and many tenants had not moved in yet. What a contrast, comparable to Berjaya Times Square in KL since it was developed by the same Company.

What to do at night? We headed to Batu Ferringgi, shopping and dinner. We are at familiar ground here, been staying around this area most of the time when we are in Penang. Have steak at The Ship which is cheap and the service par excellent. Oh! The TARBUSH just open an outlet here, may try next time. Then shopping at nite market. Cheap imitation goods. Where do these products originated from. Don't want to know, of course not from Italy or France.

Already mid nite time to drive back to the hotel and test those DVDs.