Modern Colonisation

During the olden days, the British were a powerful empire that spreads across the globe with countless colonies. Of course, colonisation was not only the habit of the British, the French, the Portuguese and the Spaniards all had their fare share of colonies too. With the exception of Japan who tried and failed, most olden days colonial masters originated from the west.

While being colonised, all the wealth of the colonies in the form minerals, spices or produce were transferred back to their home country. Our country’s reserve, once said to be the highest concentration in the world, were all repatriated back to England. There were also gold, mainly from India and other reserves being sent back to England. All these are achieved by using the local population as cheap labour. Once they have sucked a country dry, they leave in the name of ‘granting independence’ to the colonies.

Basically… they came…they invade… they repatriate…

The days of colonisation are over… or are they?

Former colonies like ours, which have been granted independence spent years in developing themselves in order to reach whichever state they are today. Let’s just leave out the notion of corruption or mismanagement of funds in our country for the time being. That aside, our country have indeed made much progression from whatever that was left with us when the colonial masters left.

Now, with whatever wealth that we have gathered, we asked the west, or anyone who has money to come and invest in our country. With much potential, many came and some are still coming. They pour money into our country… employ us as their employees… make us slave ourselves in trying to make profit for them… and finally send back the profit to them in the form of dividend.

So now… we ask them to come… they invest… we repatriate…

In the old days, they came with their warships carrying troops and invaded our country. They put our forefathers into a somewhat slavery state to plough our lands of our resources and took all our wealth away.

In the modern era, they come with their Multi-National Corporations (“MNCs”) carrying cash. They pay us and tempt us into believing that we will be paid better and better thus most of us are willing to slave ourselves for them. Unknowingly to most of us, they will only pay us a nominal amount. All the wealth in the form of profits of the MNCs will be sent back to them by way of dividend. Worse, some professional mistakes makers here are willing to slave day and night to trying to package the repatriation process in order to maximise rewards for them… and then feel proud about it.

You will be surprise that there are a lot of MNCs whose domestic operations are not making much money; some are even making losses domestically. But they are seen as giant on the world stage simply because the money generated via overseas operations is tremendous… simply because operations from overseas keeping sending money back to the MNCs.

It has been years since the colonial masters left their colonies. But where once there were invasions, there are now investments. Where they were once invaders, they are now investors. Where we were once slaves, we are now employees. Where there was once this land is a colony, it is now flooded with subsidiaries.

This is indeed… modern colonisation.

P/S: Thanks Rinnah for the “Fabulous Award” and also to Mumsgather for the “Creative Blogger Award”. I feel very honoured indeed.

KPMG in law suit over unpaid overtime

I am feeling really tired today trying to do some songs searching and see what is appropriate for my wedding dinner and which one I should embarrass myself on stage. Hence, not much time to blog and I shall leave you with this piece of news which came to my attention last month. I have pasted the article below.

As for those formerly Ernst & Young, you might want to have a look at the debate on overtime payment that’s happening here. Apparently EY is also under a lawsuit over unpaid overtime… Very interesting time we live in…

I wonder such thing will ever happen in Malaysia… you’ll never know.

RITA TRICHUR
BUSINESS REPORTER

KPMG LLP has become the second high-profile employer to be slapped with an unpaid-overtime class-action lawsuit and could face damages worth millions of dollars, says the lawyer for the lead plaintiff.

The suit against the Canadian division of KPMG, which provides audit, tax, and advisory services, comes on the heels of similar action in June against Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Both cases were filed in Ontario Superior Court.

"Professional services firms are under the impression that because they are professional service firms, they are outside the purview of the overtime rules," said lawyer Henry Juroviesky, of Juroviesky and Ricci LLP.

That's because chartered accountants make up the bulk of KPMG's staff and are excluded from overtime provisions, he said. The firm, however, has a diverse workforce that includes other professionals subject to the rules. The suit's proposed class covers those employees who worked more than 44 hours in a week without overtime.

"This class action will hopefully make them cognizant of that fact and lead to behaviour modification on the part of these firms," Juroviesky said in an interview.

The lead plaintiff is Toronto resident Alison Corless, who was employed as a "technician" at KPMG from 2000 to 2004. She alleges she is owed $87,000 in overtime for that period.
According to the statement of claim: "It is well known in the accounting and professional industry that hours worked by a productive employee are approximately one-third more than the hours they charge."

The suit alleges breach of Ontario's Employment Standards Act and breach of contract. It seeks $20 million in general damages for the class, but Juroviesky estimated the claim is viable for damages between $65 million and $100 million.

The case has not been certified and none of the allegations has been proven in court.
KPMG issued a statement saying it values its employees, adding it provides "a competitive compensation and benefits package in keeping with its goal of being an employer of choice."

"Our comprehensive compensation practices include overtime policies which comply with applicable legislative requirements. We have only recently received this lawsuit and will be reviewing it in detail with our counsel before making any further response," it added.

Are you still chasing?

“lei oi cho fung sin dai mo?” (would you like to be sitting under the fan?)
“yu gu em cho fun sin dai, kam jo mei ah?” (what if I fail to be one sitting under a fan?”
“jau wai jao, ho san fu” (running around, would be torturous)
“gam ngo oi cho lang hei dai” (then I want to be sitting under an air-cond)

That was one of the conversation I had with my dad very long ago, since I was a little kid. Sitting under a fan simply means working in an office environment, where your income is stable and don’t need to run around. Any job not office based is tough, to my dad at least. Of course, I was more ambitious; I wanted to sit in an air-cond room instead.

As I grow up, I observe the people around me… and my dream was to work in an office environment room, and not any office… must have air-cond! I also wanted to be able to go to work wearing a tie; don’t quite remember what the reason was. Then I remember I wanted to have a car because I saw a lot of my church friends having car and I don’t have one. Another thing I wanted to do was to travel to Hong Kong, probably due to too much TVB series.

Those were my dreams when I graduated.

Now… I am working in an air-cond environment. Yes, I wear a tie to work everyday. I have a car. I also own a property. I have been to Hong Kong… twice. On top of that, I have been to China, Singapore, England, Scotland, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and the Czech Republic. Not showing off really.

Technically speaking, I have over-exceeded my dreams already… What were your dreams when you were young? Have you achieved them already?

And yet we wonder… why are we still struggling? Are we trying to chase our dreams? Or are we trying to meet the standards the world has set for us? Some of us may say that we are slaving ourselves for the well being of our children… is it really true? Is it really for your children? Or is it for you to upgrade from a Civic to a BMW?

Indeed, some may say we should not hover in the realms of mediocrity. But if we continue to chase new dreams… when are you going to live your dreams?

An erotic lunch and a traumatic locker experience

We had a farewell cum birthday lunch for a few of my colleagues today; 1 person leaving the company and 4 people celebrating an increase in their age. Since birthday celebration is involved, we got ourselves a cake. We passed the cake to the restaurant captain and he immediately placed it in the fridge while we enjoy our lunch.

Lunch was quick and soon enough, the birthday celebration began…

We lit 3 candles and after the first was put off, the remainder 2 birthday girls did a fantastic blow job putting off theirs; they were slick and quick. After the fantastic blow job, we assigned one of the girls to distribute the cake.

For some strange reason, the cake was rather hard. I guess staying in the fridge for some time made it… harder. Someone said he was puzzled why that thing was still hard after having blown by the girls. Must be a tough piece of cake…

Then, one colleague was tasting the cake (still hard by the way) with her tongue and said she felt some nuts. I guess it’s not a strange thing to find nuts around hard shaft… I mean cakes. A few minutes later, one colleague shouted that there is… hair in the cake!!! I wonder if it’s curly. Thank God I didn’t have that piece.

While we all continue to savour the hard piece of cake which survived some efficient blow job, the girl who refused to use the sponge then said… “I like the authentic colour of the cream”. And it made us all wonder what kind of cream she has been seeing.

It was a chocolate cake.
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On a totally unrelated matter… I was at the gym today and after a good work-out, I went to the sauna and thereafter, had a very refreshing shower. No no no, nothing was hard or being blown in the shower. Anyway, after my shower, I went to my locker and there was a guy occupying the space where my locker is.

Those who have read “The locker tale” before will know that the lockers in my gym are 2 tier like the one in the picture. As I approached that guy occupying my space, he said noticed me and moved away and said…

“Oh, you’re here?” Pointing to my locker.
“Yeah”
“Oh, I’m here, on top of you”… he smiled… cheekily.

If there is a world record for the fastest time in dressing up and leaving a particular gym, I would have broken that record today.

Metamorphosis of slaves

I had a very long talk with my boss. I did share the conversation with some of my colleagues and they were totally astonished that I pulled of such a feat. What was the talk all about? Well, I refuse to put myself in an I-have-no-choice situation… I asked for pay rise and complained about over-worked. And when I said complain… I really mean complain.

I shall not go into the details but one of the many things I told my boss was that things have changed; that I am not like her. To my surprise, she agreed and told me that she is aware of this perspective. She told me she could see it in her children.

Indeed… things have changed; particularly amongst the modern slaves living in the urban area of this country. In my zewtpinion, the current modern slaves population is generally segregated into a few generations…
The True Slaves Generation… To me, they are usually aged 35 and above and are very much infected with the I-must-work-very-hard-and-die-for-the-company virus. They believe that hard work is the only way to success and success is measured by way of status and monetary rewards. They only know how to say yes to the company and bosses, never dare to voice out any grievances and their worth lies in their work. They think they are sacrificing themselves for the betterment of their family not knowing that their family may also be sacrificed at the same time, metaphorically speaking. That is, if they do have a family in the first place. Because of their I-must-work-hard mentality, they will instil the same to those below them… us…

Most of us here; aged 24 – 34, we are The Transitional Generation. We are stuck between the need to work hard in order to support our lifestyle and the need to not work so hard in order to have a lifestyle. Basically, we still carry a bit of the gene from the preceding generation but at the same time, we are also painfully aware that hard work does not necessary guarantee success. Further, we have a very different definition of success, and we look at the path to success from a different perspective.

We are constantly in a predicament of wanting to leave our job because we are so fed up and angry at the bosses and/or company but never truly get around doing it. We suffer severely from the I-have-no-choice syndrome. Some of our friends did make it big doing their own things, but we just can't bring ourselves to follow their footstep because we are too afraid to venture out of our comfort zone. Also, some decide to be modern slave in the name of ‘glamour’ due to a certain type of slavery.

Next is the generation hovering in the horizon, I call them… The New Breed. A few souls of this generation were seen a few years back and their numbers are growing. Made up mostly of urban population, work to them is just… work. Hard work is slowly being removed from their vocabulary and if you were to ask them to put in a few hours of over time, you will probably not have them as colleague very soon. This is real… I am hearing more and more stories where a new modern slave was asked to work past their official office hour for a few days and before you know it, they handed in their resignation already.

I foresee that this new breed will soon form the next generation of modern slaves. Let’s look at the current pre-slave population, those in their late teens, like the children of my boss. Despite not having made their first cent, they are already having ‘pocket money’ as high as a thousand a month, or more. I don’t even want to go into how they spend their money. This does not include a car and possibly even a condo if their parents are from out of town.

Brought up in such environment and with parents continue to be ever willing to over-provide, do you think The New Breed will slave at a job for a puny pay? Sorry for being too judgemental but I doubt it. Like I said earlier, the signs are already showing, some of them are already giving us glimpses of things yet to come.

But I think it is a good thing. It’s about time the exploitation of the labour force in this country morph into a better form.

Zewt supports the call to free burma, participant #2153. Come, join the stats. Post up the banner and make it your ARK.

They have mutated

There was once when the chief of traffic police made a press statement saying that they will ‘go all out’ to get them. That ‘go all out’ proclamation ended up as a few road blocks and operations which can be counted with one hand. We know where they gather, we know when they gather, we know they are often up to no good… but the police did nothing about them.

But the question is… are they still as brainlessly harmless as they used to be?

No, they are no longer a bunch of pest who probably complained about the rise in petrol price but will yet gleefully waste petrol by strolling around at night.

No, they no longer just ride in a horde and weave around your vehicle and irritate the shit out of you if you so encounter them at night.

No, they no longer just race amongst them for drugs, booze and pussies.

No, they no longer just perform some stupid stunts in the name of thrill and fame.

No, they are no longer the same… they have mutated…

Hop around some blogs and you will probably be able to read many horrific experiences of some bloggers with these hideous creatures. What more… they are so daring nowadays that some of their destructive acts can be seen in broad daylight. Some of us here would probably have terrible stories of our own.

I have personally had an encounter with them several years ago, before they were granted ‘national heritage’ status by a certain group of people. I wonder if I will be able to survive their onslaught should the same thing happen to me now. Some of my friends and friends’ friends even had some experiences which can be quite… sensitive. Ya’ know, things that I can't say but we all know it anyway… I do not need to say more.

Many stories have been told about the rampages of the horde. If the mainstream media can report about properties were damaged, windscreen smashed and in some case, lives were lost, can you possibly imagine what actually happen in real life? You can I can only wonder…

Yet… can we do anything about them? Can we expect the police to deliver their promise to ‘go all out’ against them? No… not when a certain group of people even granted them the licence to play police. Of course, we all know very well that these pests would rather play villains instead.

And no, I am not going to call them by that glamorous title given to them. I think you should stop calling them by that name too; it only gives them more fame. They are nothing but a bunch of brainless morons who have been used as pawns in a big game. And the perks in being used as pawns are what we are angry at.

Such is what we have to live with everyday. Given the trend, I wonder what they dare to do next with this unofficial immunity that they are getting. It really worries me. But hey, I am sure it does not worry you… I am sure you still find the food is still good.

A state of many people

Just in case you’re living an ignorant life, let me draw your attention to a state of chaos currently happening in Myanmar. The monks are protesting against the government after years of suppression. It appears that they are representing the people and being a suppressing state, the Myanmar government issued a ‘shoot at sight’ order against the monks and the rest of the protestors. It all began in what seems like a peaceful demonstration against the sudden rise in fuel price.

I am not going to go into details but amidst the chaos happening there right now, I can't help but ponder upon the type of people who live in a suppressed state. I wonder if they made up of such type of people…

Type A: Those who fight…
Like the monks and the protestors in Myanmar, these are the people who stood up for what they believe in. They are the ones who are willing to get their hands dirty. They are the ones who try their very best to get the people at large to stand up and fight too. More often than not, they will fail. And occasionally, they get arrested for no apparent reason. The people at large support this type of people, but only behind closed door.

Type B: Those who don’t need to fight
These are the type of people whose lives are so comfortable and thus, they are totally oblivious that they are living in a suppressed state. The state can continue to fall but because the lives of these type of people are every so prosperous, they do not see a need to do anything. Even if they believe that there is a need for a change, they strong believe it is the dirty job of Type A. Perhaps… just perhaps… they are the other side of the suppressed.

Type C: Those who only know how to talk
By far, this type forms the most amongst those living in a suppressed state. They are the masters of verbal attack, and that’s basically it. They appear to be openly supporting Type A but when any sign of danger shows, they will all just shut-up. But the beauty of Type C is that their mouth will soon be opened again. Being the noisiest of the lot, Type C is probably just what they seems to be… noise.

Type D: Those who keep quiet because they have plan
This type appears to live in an oblivious world too. But deep inside them, they already have everything well planned out. They do not see hope in the state anymore and are constantly working on their quest to head to another state. Not wanting to jeopardise their master-plan, they remain quiet. Many of those in Type B are slowly evolving into Type D but its population never grows big simply because… most will end up successfully leaving the state.

Type E: Those who keep quiet because they are afraid
They are afraid not because they fear for their safety, but rather their family; most of the time at least. Not wanting to rock the boat and land themselves in trouble, Type E chooses to swallow whatever suppression or oppression thrown at them. Sometimes, the reason why they are Type E is because they can't afford to be Type D. As the days go by, their lives morphed from bad to worse and without them knowing. I believe there is a limit in being Type E. And I believe this is the type of people who then ended up being Type A… just like what is happening in Myanmar… they just can't take it anymore.
But what really puzzles me is… what type of the people does the soldiers fall into? I seriously do not think they fall within Type B. Is the training that they went through that effective that as soon as they put on their uniform and carry a rifle or whatever apparatus given to them… they forget that they are also a citizen of the state? It truly puzzles me.

If I am in a suppressed state, I will probably be Type D. What about you?