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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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Blog category: all categories. - July 2006
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 Zam 18th century minister - by @lbert
  Posted:31/07/2006 - 16:29 - in category: politics Malaysia
The government must control the internet and websites to curb the spread of rumors and news that can harm racial unity in the country, said Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin today.
This guy is living in the 18th century with all the nonsense he is talking everytime.
Control the internet?? Wohaaaaa man have you ever heard of servers abroad Zam? You really have a kampung thinking. Besides that, the government/Umno is talking more racial shit than any website will ever do!
Want to control, ok than the sites move abroad, and many will go anonymous, so what do you gain?? NOTHING SIR, because anonymous sites will have total disregard for the Malaysian ministers, and probably give a much more racial biased opinion. So the result is negative.
This Zam better goes and plant jagung in his Merbok garden.
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 Back Home - by @lbert
  Posted:31/07/2006 - 12:42 - in category: general
Back home from Indonesia, after long waiting hours at KL-CCT. A terminal which is totally unsuited if you have to wait for a long time, due to the incooperative schedule of Air Asia.
My back still hurst from the lousy plastic seats.
Shops are damned expensive and the CCT-Emporium is such a shit store that everyday they even dont have a newspaper after 12.
Top up cards same story 'habis', a real malaysia boleh shop. No competition, far to few shops.
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 Another Indo blanket - by @lbert
  Posted:17/07/2006 - 15:04 - in category: general
The haze is back in full force in Penang.
This yearly event is getting annoying.... This 'negara jiran' every year promises it will take action, but nothing happens.
Thank you Susilo Bambang and your fellow corrupt countryman for not adhering to the law, and play blind. I hope you will suffocate in your own smoke, that solves the overpopulation as well! And the Malaysian government also does nothing because we do not interfere..... we also rather suffocate. Syed Hamid Albah this is not sand but thick smoke blown into your face, do something!
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 Cairo dilemma over prayer calls - by @lbert
  Posted:14/07/2006 - 21:10 - in category: religion
This is an interesting piece on the BBC website. Since this problem is also widely known in Malaysia.
For sample the masjid Jamek in Tj Bungga Penang is so loud at 5.30 in the morning that the amount of decibels is way above the pain level if you live to close to it!
Another terrible example is the Mesjid Besar in Medan. The sound is so loud that afterwards you are totally deaf for at least 10 minutes.
Whereas the old mosques minarets were designed for natural acoustics, not 2000 Watt++ amplifiers.
Read it here
Especially the comments from many muslims are quite interesting.
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 Out of town - by @lbert
  Posted:14/07/2006 - 15:21 - in category: general
From monday on i will be out of the country for another visit to the land of no progress.
I will return from Indonesia by the end of the month.
I also want to so the level of aid dodged out to the poor people of the earthquake zone in Yogya.
If nothing shocking happens there, no blogging till i am back.
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 The new Aceh - by @lbert
  Posted:13/07/2006 - 22:50 - in category: religion

This is the new Acheh! Caning woman.
Words fail me i am disgusted in 1 word!
For comment read Friscodude's Blog.
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 HeatSeek-browser for porn-fans - by @lbert
  Posted:13/07/2006 - 22:02 - in category: internet / computers
Since yesterday there is a special browser for visiting porn sites. It is named HeatSeek and specially for adults.
They say that explicit porn sites can be visited safely.
You can make playlists and even surf via bookmarks to certain scenes.
It has a panic button to make the thing disappear from the screen if a child or worse... the boss comes in and disturbs your viewing pleasure.
Well the net is getting more crazy by the day....
Wanne try? Go here Dirty fellow......
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 Worth reading..... - by @lbert
  Posted:13/07/2006 - 16:39 - in category: politics Malaysia
I just read Mr Oon Yeoh's article about the Mahathir - Ahmad Badawi tussle in TODAY online.
His observations are indeed very interesting as they reveal the future power struggle in this country.
Read the story online here
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 Villagers to court over quarrying operations - by @lbert
  Posted:12/07/2006 - 14:34 - in category: Yan Kedah
Seven villagers in Yan, Kedah, filed for an interim injunction from the Alor Setar High Court yesterday to stop the quarrying works in Gunung Jerai.
These villagers probably are all from Singkir Dalam.
This quarry is operating illegal WITH approval of the Yan majlis daerah!! They do nothing because probably some people have vested interests.
The slope is way to steep to allow this nonsense and blasting is to damned dangerous. They already damaged a whole area in the PROTECTED Gunung Jerai forest.
This would never have happend in the time that YAN was under PAS, but since its back in the hands of the UMNO clique, money wasting and fiddling has started on grand scale again.
They build shoplots while plenty of them are empty, a stall area build just a few years back in Yan Kechil was torn down because we need a giant bus station with a 2 story shoplot connected. (If it rains you will be soaking wet waiting for the bus because of the stupid design). Money enough....
We already have a menara penjara on pantai Murni that has cost a few 100K now it is good for peeing.... If they would have build a new jetty with that money they would have had a flourishing Pantai Murni now, but now its a mud hole!
We also have a Taman Persisiran in Yan Besar, this thing has cost a furtune! And dont forget we have the highest flag pole in Kedah too!
All these are shining examples of Malaysia Boleh! Total cost? A million and a half or so.....
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 Never before so many youngsters. - by @lbert
  Posted:12/07/2006 - 10:17 - in category: general
About half of the 6.500.000.000 people on planet earth is below 25 years.
Never in history were there as many youngsters as today said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) last tuesday on World Population day.
According to Koffi Anan todays yougsters have a bleak future. All over the world they are confronted with poverty, crime, shortage of education and work.
According to Unfpa 500 million people between 15 and 24 years have to survive on less than US$ 2.00 a day.
Almost 100 million woman in developing countries do not get any education and every year 14 million woman between 15 and 19 years of age get pregnant.
Every day 6000 youngsters get infected with the hiv (aids) virus.

This is really sad sad news, and populations keep exploding in countries like Malaysia, India, Indonesia.
Malaysia among others refuses to promote effective birth control.
Mahathir once said Malaysia can hold 70 million people (Nut case or not?) All these exploding populations damage the environment and pollute and pollute and pollute....
Some would call it self destruction.... is that what the human race is doing?
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 MAS' survival on the line - by @lbert
  Posted:11/07/2006 - 20:12 - in category: politics Malaysia
The government is meddling again in the affairs of Malaysian Airlines.
How do they expect an airline so deep in debt to recover if they keep on meddling in its routing plans.
These politicians with their peanut sized brains always think they know better.
Mas still gets a subsidy for local flights (tax payers money) and Air Asia gets nothing (and makes a profit!!)
Air Asia was supposed to take over local routes and receive no subsidy, now the 'cream' to Sabah / Serawak routes will be handed back to MAS and have to be subsidized, because MAS keeps on giving steep discounts (paid by the taxpayers).
Look at the Belgian example of SABENA, the airline was unable to make money, kept on loosing and loosing. So there the government was smart enough to say enough is enough and SABENA went bust! National pride or no national pride.
MAS should get a chance to survive but without government interference, and NO subsidizing. And if they cannot make it in 2 or 3 years, well end of story no more MAS national pride or no national pride, or is it going to be a second Perwaja?
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 Landslide at Miami Beach - by @lbert
  Posted:11/07/2006 - 09:55 - in category: general
Penang's Miami Beach half way Batu Feringgi suffered a landslide after a heavy downpoor.
As i wrote before this area has been stripped naked because they want to build villas up there (1.4-2.5 juta a piece).
As predicted the soil came down.
Which moron government gives out a permit to build on slopes like these? Yes only the morons in Penang, i wonder how big their commission is. Imagine these villas were already build and the whole thing washes down....
That will not happen the developer will say, well i say we will see, but i warned you in advance...... And i will hold Koh Tsu Kun and his clique responsible if it happens!
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 Padi farmers want increase. - by @lbert
  Posted:10/07/2006 - 11:18 - in category: general
The Kedah Farmers Association, with about 106,000 members, has submitted a proposal to the Government to double the price of padi.
At present it is RM 550- per ton.
That means RM 1.10 per kg !! That is the sales price of unsubsidized rice in Thailand, go figure.
Hard work for padi farmers? Go and have a look in Indonesia, there they have to work, and not a sen subsidy!
It is high time the malaysian padi farmers learn what the word efficiency means. Right now they live of subsidy only. Work? What work??
Potong padi...upah orang.
Cuci tanah ... upah orang.
Planting padi, all use a blower so what work is left?
Furthermore there are to many farmers on to little land. 1 Farmer can easily do 20 hectares of farmland, that is modern farming. Not the silly way it is done now where all farm land is splitted into numerous small pieces due to the malay system of inheriting land.
RM 550- per ton is more than sufficient for UNSUBSIDIZED padi when the farms are run efficient.
If they cannot, well than import from Thailand because its cheaper by 50% and let the padi farmers go bust, thats economy, if you cannot meet it you go under, that happens in every industry, so why not in the food industry?
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 Asean meeting in 15 days.... - by @lbert
  Posted:08/07/2006 - 22:25 - in category: general
Asean foreign ministers will gather in KL, for another fruitless meeting probably.
It is astonishing that in all those years that Asean exists, hardly anything has been achieved.
They dont interfear, a dictatorial member like Myanmar is still not expelled.
They want better inter-relations, but Vietnam / Laos / Myanmar all require visa for Asean visitors.
Is this not totally ridiculous, after so many years of empty talk, even a simple thing like free travel has not been agreed on!.
Malaysia wants to impose an entry fee on foreign vehicles, Singapore impose an entry fee on foreign vehicles.
You really wonder what is the reason for continuing Asean.
Malaysia keeps on protecting Proton, while Perodua can do without protection.
Thai rice cannot be imported, Thai cars are taxed like crazy.
What is the use of Asean i really wonder, they talk and talk, they negociate on and on, but the result is ZIP-ZERO.
You we can see a count down on TV how many days to the next meeting, asif that interests anybody.

Well Syed Hamid Albah can makeup another nice story about the importance of the meeting.
Well sorry i dont buy it anymore, it is all crap!
As long as Myanmar remains a member this organization makes itself totally unbelievable.
And even a country like Laos (just as dictatorial without improvement) is just as doubtful.
We do not interfere in other words we do not want any change, and meanwhile we suffocate in Indonesian smog again.
Thank you Susiloh Bambang great job, every year promise to put an end to it.....
another useless Asean achievement.
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 Must read.... - by @lbert
  Posted:05/07/2006 - 11:40 - in category: politics Malaysia
Singapore follows the spat bertween Pak Lah and Mahathir with great interest.
But so does Malaysia.
Read this article in The Edge by M.Gunasegaram, they were also verbatim printed in The Straits Times Singapore.
It poses 22 questions to Mahathir......
Wow would i like to hear the answers from the old man! Now he is in catch 22....

Another read i found is an interview reporter Helen Vatsikopoulos had with Mahathir for ABC (Australia) on 27/6/06
A transcript can be found here.
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 Third world StreamyX (2) - by @lbert
  Posted:04/07/2006 - 21:50 - in category: internet / computers
Today i did a trace to Postbank.nl
(part of ING group) they have a beast of a server!
Look at the ridiculous routing Streamyx is offering...
1 202.71.107.129 (202.71.107.129) 0.590 ms 1.349 ms 0.934 ms
2 ge-0-1-0-mix-cbj01-eastgate.net.my (202.71.96.30) 0.656 ms 0.557 ms 0.533 ms
3 219.94.9.5 (219.94.9.5) 3.751 ms 1.728 ms 0.919 ms
4 210.187.129.139 (210.187.129.139) 21.771 ms 30.362 ms 7.355 ms
5 210.187.15.253 (210.187.15.253) 13.537 ms 5.411 ms 9.205 ms
6 210.187.142.1 (210.187.142.1) 7.353 ms 5.762 ms 6.343 ms
7 219.93.174.147 (219.93.174.147) 15.286 ms 5.815 ms *
8 * 202.188.0.23 (202.188.0.23) 9.710 ms 3.180 ms
9 59.128.15.81 (59.128.15.81) 99.336 ms 115.820 ms 95.363 ms
10 203.181.96.53 (203.181.96.53) 103.880 ms 102.217 ms 101.333 ms
11 gsr-la2.kddnet.ad.jp (203.181.100.78) 237.238 ms 240.035 ms *
12 tr-la3.kddnet.ad.jp (59.128.2.58) 235.602 ms 233.615 ms 227.354 ms
13 59.128.2.194 (59.128.2.194) 210.212 ms 209.037 ms 213.404 ms
14 bur-core-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.213.105) 219.346 ms 212.543 ms 210.417 ms
15 * * *
16 jfk-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.30.18) 876.784 ms 880.331 ms 862.984 ms
17 nyk-s1-rou-1003.US.eurorings.net (134.222.249.253) 299.756 ms 302.914 ms 298.829 ms
18 nyk-s1-rou-1002.US.eurorings.net (134.222.230.101) 347.800 ms 343.565 ms 339.821 ms
19 obl-rou-1021.NL.eurorings.net (134.222.231.233) 345.382 ms * 343.765 ms
20 obl-rou-1003.NL.eurorings.net (134.222.231.185) 298.447 ms 301.526 ms 299.239 ms
21 195.190.233.250 (195.190.233.250) 298.157 ms 300.397 ms 313.764 ms
22 195.190.233.41 (195.190.233.41) 298.004 ms 306.779 ms 296.984 ms
23 rt-dc2-ias-arg17.nl.kpn.net (195.190.227.144) 297.578 ms 306.372 ms 298.802 ms
24 193.172.170.10 (193.172.170.10) 302.774 ms 304.057 ms 302.310 ms

Here we go we leave Malaysia via 202.188.0.23 than go to Japan ONLY 6 HOPS!!! Than to the US (qwest+eurorings) 5 hops.
Than to eurorings.nl for no less than 5 hops before i end up at postbank.nl.
No less than 24 hops in total.
Well done Telekom Malaysia this is real third world quality, I call it SHIT to the power of 10!!
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 Penang awakes..... - by @lbert
  Posted:04/07/2006 - 09:03 - in category: politics Malaysia
Finally Penang awakes from their dreams...
Three months after the public transport system here was overhauled, the state government admits it is in shambles.
It has realized that bus operators could still not satisfactorily meet the conditions of the Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (CVLB).
says the Star.
The system has failed and has caused inconvenience to the public. The buses are operating at the expense of the public.
Well that they did already for years.
The same goes for Taxi drivers in Penang, they still do not use meters although they are obliged to do so since 3 or 4 years ago!
The Federal Government had agreed in principle to give a loan of RM50mil to the state government to buy new buses.
BUT they say the government would appoint operators through open tender and pay them to operate the system.Well than its back to square one. The government simply should operate the whole thing, than they can hire and fire as they wish!
Hopefully it is implemented soonest, as for now taxis and busses are a disaster!
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 Third world StreamyX - by @lbert
  Posted:03/07/2006 - 20:01 - in category: internet / computers
Since i was checking various destinations via StreamyX, i found another shocking one.
Connection to a website in Estonia.
Leaves Malaysia via 219.94.9.46 (already heavy overloaded with 300 msec)
Than it goes to London with 3 hops, and switches over to telia.net with no less than 3 hops. Next is geant2.net with hops via Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Talin, and than finally it reaches its destination.
Great isn't it what a superb quality!.
Loading a page from that site takes 2-3 minutes, that is StreamyX broadband.
And i will continue fulminating against Telekom Malaysia till they finally get there things in order, or the minister forces them. But the last i doubt will ever happen, as usual the minister talks and talks and does nothing.
Afterall he is not there for the rakyat, he is there for himself and the party!
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 Third world banks (3) - by @lbert
  Posted:03/07/2006 - 17:21 - in category: general
Today i wanted to pay some bills online via HLB online.
The thing was so bloody slow that it took me 5 minutes + to effect 1 payment, can you imagine.
Than i decided to find out why this is so slow.
Well the answer is simple, the stupid server is all the way in the US! Hong-Leong does not trust anyone in Malaysia to do save banking transactions.
On top of that after 7 (YES 7!) hops the connection goes to LA in the US 2 hops, than to Paolo Alto another 2 hops, than to San Jose another 2 hops, than to San Fransisco for 2 hops, and than .....dont laugh....
BACK TO Los Angelos for another 2 hops!!!
Than you get savvis.net 2 hops, and finally ecbanking.com.
This is totally crazy! A total of 21 hops for a connection to the US.
What kind of connections StreamyX uses, its all the biggest SHIT you can imagine.
StreamyX stinks big time, but so does online banking.
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