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A weblog about life / politics/ impressions of Malaysia through the eyes of a foreigner




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Monday 30 June, 2008
25 Jumada al-Thanni 1429AH

A weblog by Albert. From my home in Yan Kedah. I reside here since 1992. See here to know where Yan is.

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archive
- last 10 entries
24/06- bn representatives in the dewan
23/06- subsidy country
20/06- firefox 3.0
19/06- profitering.
14/06- grab your cookies...
14/06- pure discrimination
13/06- progress in hospital (3)
10/06- rm 4.00 a liter?
10/06- penang taxi's
10/06- a responsible husband....

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 BN representatives in the Dewan - by @lbert
  Posted:24/06/2008 - 19:31 - in category: politics Malaysia


Self explaining no comment needed
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 Subsidy country - by @lbert
  Posted:23/06/2008 - 17:37 - in category: general
Malaysia since 10-20 years has been turned into a subsidy country.
Everything is artificial!
Petrol prices
Flour
Sugar
Rice
Vegetables
Chicken
Competition is not allowed through high import duties, or total refusal to import.
This subsidy craze now is rapidly undermining the country's economy.
Inflation up to 8.5% current government deficit they say 3.5% that totals an inflation of 12%. Still FD is still at 3% (when do you finally wake up Dr Zeti?)
Look at Thailand, they can survive without oil susidy, rice susidy and you name it.
In Malaysia you put up double petrol pumps, what a waste of money.
They allow public servants to moonlight, so with more people selling the same, the current pasar malam sellers will suffer.
(Pasar malam where no one displays any price!)
Than if some parlementarians cycle to the Dewan Rakyat a certain idiot called Nazri calls it childish!
I remember we had a burgomaster in Amsterdam who cycled to the townhall more than 5 km every day up and down, rain or snow! He did this his full term and refused to use the provided car with driver.
High time ALL susidies in Malaysia are abolished and the natural way of competing takes over, not the artificial way we live in now. Yes it keeps exports cheap, but it makes the people suffer time after time if something changes.
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 Firefox 3.0 - by @lbert
  Posted:20/06/2008 - 07:34 - in category: internet / computers
Firefox 3.0 has been launched.
It has plenty of new features and is blazing fast, but i noticed that it is a real memory hog.
In comparison the memory use:
IE7 wih blank page open: 17 Mb
Firefox with blank page open: 41 Mb
So on a laptop you better stick to IE7 and save precious memory.
Especially on lapops like my Asus where i have 1 Gb memory but NO swapfile enabled.
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 Profitering. - by @lbert
  Posted:19/06/2008 - 19:49 - in category: general
I think that after the oil price raise, lots of companies are raising their prices in a ridiculous way.
What percentage is the petrol raise in their costprice? Probably no more than a few %.
(Transport exempted)
Than I do not see the logic in raising chicken by 30%, taxi fares by 3-5 RM illegaly (in the city), foodstuff like vegetables up by 30-40% on local pasar.
Potatoes from 1.50 to 2.50 well i can go on.
Government takes no action anywhere (as usual) laws are a joke, if not enforced, just scrap them, this is ridiculous!
Everybody has to tighten the belt except the government and GLC directors.
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 Grab your cookies... - by @lbert
  Posted:14/06/2008 - 20:43 - in category: general
I was in Tesco Sungai Petani this morning.
The Postoffice was having a queue of a few hundred people, like idiots queueing up to get their Badawi cookies..........
Crazy, if they have to do something they queue because they do it on the last moment, they can get something free....hantam lah... all afraid they won't get it.
This is actually just nothing more than a one time hand out, and does not solve the problems created by the sudden petrol raise.
It is nothing else than a stuid sweetener, and could have been used a lot better, than giving out to people who are rich enough to afford a car.
There are plenty of people who cannot afford a car, and have to use a motorbike, or bycicle.
They are the needy once!
Think about pensioners, they already get little and now their small pension is devaluating by the day. Think about those plantation workers who still get a lousy 5-600 ringgit a month or even less. Those are the needy.
Those with a car can go car pooling, after all in the morning 95% of cars is SOV!
And furthermore in places like Penang i think in a year or so you can not even move around anymore, no parking space, jams all day till 8-9 at night. Thats the holy cow future.
Penang registers an average 30-40.000 cars and motorbikes a month, and all wants to show off their new vehicle..... well enjoy, i stick to my 10+ year old Wira, not gonna buy a new one anymore, because it is useless.
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 Pure discrimination - by @lbert
  Posted:14/06/2008 - 09:48 - in category: politics Malaysia
The road tax refund of RM 650.00 i read now is only for Malaysian citizens.
Non Malaysian citizens do not qualify!
This is pure discrimination, we are good enough to pay the exorbitant import duties and other taxes on a car, but not entitled for the road tax refund.
Shameless, and typical Malaysia Boleh!
That is all i can say....
So now i transfer my car in a good friends name.... and will collect as well!!
Tit for tat.
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 Progress in hospital (3) - by @lbert
  Posted:13/06/2008 - 23:55 - in category: general
The progress was not long living....
At my 9th chemo i found out that the hospital wifi was no longer freely accessible for patients.
They put in a password protection. I was pissed and went to ask how or what.
The answer was that the network was for 'kaki-tangan' only.
My question than, how many patients will come with a laptop to the hospital, probably only for chemo (1 in 10 maybe) and a few who are taken in for post-operation.
So out of 800 + beds probably 5-10 maximum will come with a laptop to kill time.
And for those 5-10 people they are not willing to give a temporary password or so.........
Super childish, typical Malaysia boleh attitude.
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 RM 4.00 a liter? - by @lbert
  Posted:10/06/2008 - 14:52 - in category: general
RM 4.00 per liter is almost here!
Petrol prices are totally out of control....
SO......Start Re-Training YOUR vehicles

TODAY...!


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 Penang taxi's - by @lbert
  Posted:10/06/2008 - 11:18 - in category: general
From the news:
GEORGE TOWN: Taxi drivers here are gearing up for tougher times as they battle rising costs and the re-emergence of the illegal kereta sapu.
Well taxi drivers in Penang are getting what they deserve, finally!
They already flout the law for years by not using / refusing to use meters. The government has done nothing either and let it rot and rot.

I only can say, I hope for more kerata 'sapu' this will teach them and save the consumer his hard earned cash, this since the government is still doing nothing. Did they ever pull one licence? If necessairy pull them all and fine them all, then issue new licences where they have to sign agreement to use meters.

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 A responsible husband.... - by @lbert
  Posted:10/06/2008 - 10:13 - in category: general
From the Star:
The Syariah High Court approved the application of Abu Bakar Embong, 54, after it found that the father of 25 children met all the prerequisites under Islamic law to take a fourth wife.
Judge Shaikh Ahmad Ismail granted Abu Bakar, who also has three grandchildren, permission to take Suhaili Alias, 25, as his wife.

He already produced 25 children mind you! Is this fucker a reponsible person, absolutely NOT? The wife is 30 years younger.
Quaranteed his new wife is pregnant in a month as well.
Well decide for your self.
Educated? I doubt, but Malaysia is a country where most of the Malays dont even know what a condom is, or a birth control pil. The cannot even advertise them in newspapers, Malaysia boleh!
This in a country with one of the highest birth rates in the world.
Well Mahathir said Malaysia can hold 70 million people....he forgot only to mention where....
Well they can proudly put it up in the Malaysian book of records, can't they?
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 Finally abolished - by @lbert
  Posted:04/06/2008 - 21:20 - in category: general
The petrol / gas prices went up, well this was o be expected as almost 60 billion subsidies is unsustainable.
But the way they implemented it, is really panic football.
All the measures taken will prove to be unworkable. Raise the prices and thats it....
Maintaining susidies for fishing boat owners and all the others who want lower prices is nonsence.
If the fisherman has to pay more ok let it be, the price of fish will go up.
The governmen has waited way to long with abolishing these susidies, now it will create an inflation bomb.
Do expect inflation to reach this year somewhere between 10-15% at least, now it is already way above 5% with flour, ilk products, rice, vegetables going through the roof.
Oil prices are beyond control of any government, start using your car thoughtful, do all your shopping in 1 round instead of 4 or 5. Go to work with car pooling, that reduces traffic jams as well.
Use public transport (if available of course) that will save you a bucket.
All those cars in the morning and evening with 1 person in 1 car is totally ridiculous!
Government should implement a system like Jakarta, where you can enter the city center only if you have a minimum of 3 people in the car (from 7-10 morning).
Or like Singapore where all is totally restricted in the restricted zones.
Less cars means public transport will be fast, because it is not caught in the traffic snarl.
If you go shopping shop with your brains, no just sapu-sapu semua and pay with plastic afterwards, compare the prices of say Tesco and Giant, sometimes they are really big!
If you go to the pasar, insist that prices are displayed, avoid sellers that do not display prices.
That also gives a chance to compare. They have to display prices, but in the kampung 90% does not display any price tag.
Since 70% of Malaysians are overweight, start reducing your intake, avoid McD and the likes, they are expensive and unhealthy.
If you really think about it there are so many ways to reduce your expenditure....but it will require a lifestyle change, which many refuse to take.
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 My new laptop. - by @lbert
  Posted:03/06/2008 - 17:37 - in category: internet / computers
As i mentioned a month ago i bought an Asus EEE 4G as 'laptop'.
The thing actually is so small that it fits twice in the average laptop.
.
It is sold here in Penang for a mere RM 1299.00 and really worth its price.
It has WiFi, a build in camera, 3 USB slots, 1 SD slot. Screen size 800x480, but with utilities you can watch even 1024x768 cropped.
The SD slot i fitted with a 4G SD card, and it contains programs i do not use that often.
Windows XP that is on the machine has been stripped with a program called Nlite, now i have 2.45 Gbytes free of the total 4G after installing Windows XP home and all the programs i wanted to use.
If you search on the net you can find many small footprint unbloated programs for the purposes you might need.
For sample a photo editor IrfanView is less than 1mB and does what other 20+ mB bloated programs do.

RainCalender does in 2+ mB what many other appointment managers/calenders do in many Mb's.
Most of these goodies are freeware!

Further the weight of the laptop including battery is 950 grams, so it is REALLY portable.
Compare that to the 2-2.5 kg of other laptops.
The only downside is battery life, i manage to get 1.5 hrs out of the 4200 mAh battery when on WiFi.
I thinks i have to order a 7200 mAh one on the net to get more juice.

In the hospital i use it to watch movies that i put on a sticky in order to make the time shorter. I use zoom-player and kicked out MS's monster.
I am really happy with my 'toy' as i can do everything (even office 2003)!
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