And you think the big pays big

Someone in my colleague’s team resigned and naturally, he, being the manager of the team had to look for a replacement. On a fateful day, a particular candidate who seemed to fit the bill based on her resume came to our office for interview.

She went through the usual protocol of filling the application form and was then sent to a room for the interview. During the interview, my colleague (the manager) was shocked when he looked at one of the information in the application form.

Expected salary = RM14,000!!!!!

My colleague nearly fell of the chair but of course, he tried very well to remain calm. The position in question was “Senior Financial Analyst” and the candidate is currently working as a “Financial Analyst” in her current company. And you know that? Her current salary is… RM11,400.

Current position is Financial Analyst
Current salary is RM11,400

Position applied for is Senior Financial Analyst
Expect salary was RM14,000

My colleague later found our from the candidate that she thought a “senior” position in one of giant foreign multinational organisations in the country, RM14,000 should be reasonable. Bearing in mind that the candidate is currently working for a local multinational, we certainly cannot blame her. What she does not is that the position she applied for, though “senior”, so to speak, does not even offer half of what she was expecting. Heck… it was not even half of what she was getting!

People in my department have always been complaining about being under-paid. This incident shocked us beyond words. If you think working in a big foreign multinational company means you will get a fat pay; well, think again. Those getting the fat pay cheques are those sitting in the headquarters.

Like I mentioned a few days ago, companies are definitely going to squeeze our balls. Recession or no recession, companies are going to use it as their licence to cut cost and squeeze more life out of us modern slaves. And while at it, they expect us to work harder to keep our job. So why not let everything come tumbling down and we start all over again? After all, most of us are at the bottom of the food chain already.

From far and near, they all flock here

In case you don’t know, the picture on the left is the entrance of a small park in Bukit Bintang called Ain Arabia. Our govt was so kind to the middle-eastern tourists that we have park built just for them. Well, since we claim that tourists from that region now contribute a significant amount of money to the tourism industry, I guess that was just a small hospitality gesture.

We often hear that middle-eastern tourists prefer to come to our beloved country as we share the similar culture, religion and a somewhat less-punishing but yet similar weather. Those are the reasons why they are pouring their oil money into our country, or so they claimed.

When I was in London earlier this year, I visited Harrods; one of the premier shopping places in town. As I entered the building, I was greeted by a multitude of Arabs. No disrespect but it is very easy to recognise them due to their distinct dressing. There were just an ocean of them. I told my friend that I thought they prefer to go to Malaysia.

“Cannot afford to come to London then go Malaysia lor…” that was his reply.

On that weekend in London, I had dinner at this placed called “Wong Kei”, a very famous Chinese restaurant due to a peculiar reason. A story for another day perhaps.

Anyway, sitting next to my table were five “ang mohs” chatting away about purchasing properties. I know it’s rude to ear-drop but their conversation caught my attention as they mentioned the phrase “properties in Malaysia”. True enough, they were talking about how cheap it is to buy properties in Malaysia as they cannot afford properties elsewhere and how the local girls here are “hot”.

After their meal, they picked up their helmet and left. Their helmet… no, they were not policemen… they were… construction workers. No disrespect to construction workers but, that bunch there didn’t look very pleasant.

If we think that the “rich Arabs” are flocking here because they like our culture and weather and the “rich ang mohs” are flocking here because of our Malaysia-truly-Asia slogan, we might just have to think again.

By the way, I heard that Filipino maids here are those who can't make it in Hong Kong and prostitutes here are those who can't make it in Geylang.

Oh well, I guess I am over judgemental. What say you?

And you think they have no life

I was invited to attend a private function organised by my mom-in-law’s friend yesterday. Since it was a holiday and I have got nothing much to do, why not? It was a private screening of the movie “Mama Mia” and the host booked the entire cinema in one of the mall in town for her friends.

On the way to the cinema, we bumped into some of guests and when I saw them, I turned to Jules and I had the “are-we-going-to-be-the-only-young-punks-in-the-outing?” plastered on my face. I don’t mean to be rude but… they are after all, my MIL’s golf club friends.

When we reached the reception area where finger-food, wine and champagne were served, it was good to see some other faces from my generation. Some are even younger. Not that many but enough to make not feel out of age.

Ya’ know, there were times when colleagues were talking about which babysitter is taking care of their baby and all the baby stuff and I feel out of frequency. Have you ever had that before? Well, if you think that was bad, think again. A guy came and talked to me while I was enjoying the finger-food and he was talking about where his children were… working!!!

After taking our seats in the cinema, the host gave a short speech telling the guests that we can all be crazy since we were among friends and when the songs are played, we were asked to stand on our feet and … shake-a-boom-boom.
At this stage, I already see some alcohol-high souls running around… a little screaming here and there… I even saw a few ladies, yes… ladies…smuggled wine and champagne into the cinema. If you think only young people do such things, think again! I repeat… they are my MIL’s friends.

The movie started and there were people screaming. And when the song came on… wow… some people just went wild. There were people standing to clap and hands waving and people singing to the tune of the song. It’s really quite hilarious watching the movie-goers, and I mean hilarious in a good way. I repeat, they are my MIL’s friends and their reaction was like how some of us boys go… “OoooOOoooo” when we saw Transformers last year.

When the finale came on after the movie, the climax set in and so many of them got to their feet and start shake-a-boom-boom. After the movie was over, I could see many ladies (not men though) were pretty tipsy due to the smuggled wine. All these people made the saying “age is catching up” redundant.

I wonder if there will be any shake-the-bed-boom-boom tonight. I know… I know, they are my MIL’s friends… but still…

But you know what is the morale of the story?

I found out towards the end that the host has just gone through a major operation and could be still fighting against cancer. I guess this private screening was for her to celebrate life and get to enjoy the best things in life… fun with friends, true friends.

Do you need to wait till something like that before you have some fun and not neglect your friends?

How many of you are working this weekend?

Just have to share it

When I talked about how nice Singapore was a few days ago and how I wish we are perhaps 50% like Singapore, some disagreed.

Well, no matter how compliant-based or how Singaporeans are made to just follow law, I am very sure something like this will never happen there. And it is incidents like these which make me worried about the future of our well-being in this country. What's more worrying is that looking at the trend, things like these are just going to get more rampant.

Read it, and you will know.

Eid Mubarak

Kepada semua Muslimin dan Musliman sekalian,

Selamat Menyambut Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Maaf Zahir dan Batin

P/S: Agent called, "ticket" to grassy land has been granted... :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Why I prefer it to fail

A few weeks ago, the US financial market was reaching a near collapse, threatening a possible global economic recession. Everyone was in a panic mode until the US govt announced a USD700b bail-out plan. Then things sort of picked up a bit, with stock markets around Asia region rallied for a while.

Now, it appears that the bail-out plan may not happen, triggering another major shake up in the market. It sent out a chill to a lot of people late last week as a few more banks in the US failed.

Well, if you were to ask me… I would say… let the bail-out plan go bust!

Why?

I’ve been talking to a lot of people about the world’s economic health and I noticed one thing… most, if not all of the people who dread a crash in the market are usually the ‘richer’ ones. These are the people who are currently driving big cars and living in high-class condos, not to mention having a few other units around the region as… “investments”.

They are all very stressed now. They are stressed not because they are afraid of losing their jobs, but because a crash in the financial market will result in them losing their rather luxury lifestyle. These are the people who have been making heaps while the rest of the workforce remain at the bottom of the food chain.

Of course, I am sure you are thinking right now that a global recession will also result in people like us losing their jobs.

That is very true, our jobs may or may not be at risk depending on the nature. But have you been spending beyond your means, regularly swiping that piece of plastic called credit cards and buying things that you do not need to impress people you do not like? If you have not been doing so, you should have amassed for yourself a certain amount of savings to survive.

Put it this way… at the end of this year, your boss is most definitely going to announce something like…

“Don’t worry, the company is doing well. But due to the current economic climate, we have to be mindful of our spending to ensure costs do not escalate. At the same time, I trust that we will all work hard to ensure that this company continue to grow”

But then, it effectively tells you…

“Times are bad. If you still want your job, please work extra hard to ensure that the company stay alive. And while you’re at it, don’t expect an increment or bonus this year.”

Some companies are already drilling this message to their slaves.

The rich has gotten too rich while the poor are not getting any better. Inflation is soaring. It needs to come down. So many of us cannot afford a decent property in town because property prices have been jacked up by people who not only buy one, but a few properties as “investments”. Developers prefer to build high-class condos because they know there are people out there who will buy these expensive condos with an intention to sell or rent.

And who are these people? They are those who fear a recession most.

When recession is here (and yes, it’s definitely coming), crude oil prices will fall, car prices will drop, property market will burst… prices of everything will come down. Some of us may lose our jobs. But if you are willing to take a pay-cut and have not over-committed yourself financially (i.e. buying a car and a house within your income capability), you should be alright as prices of most things will drop to an affordable level.

Perhaps I am being naïve, and I may not have been sensitive to the impact of recession to you. But I personally don’t really fear recession that much. Time for the rich boys and girls to face the music and sell off their stuff cheap to poor people like me. And like I said, our bosses are going to screw us one way or another.

Last but not least… let me leave you with this…

Recession is bad for poor…
Recession is worse for the rich…
But recession is worst for those who are poor but think they are rich…

Which category are you in?

Singapore snippet

It has more than 5 years since I last went to Singapore and I must say, it has changed a whole lot. For a start… heck, it has so many cars now. And they are not just any ordinary cars, they are all very new and very nice cars, goes to who Singaporeans are really reaping the fruits of their economic prowess.

Although they have introduced Electronic Road Pricing (“ERP”), there are still many cars in the city centre. For those who are unaware, ERP is a payment system where cars will be charged “toll” for entering the city. The rates are different depending on the time of the day. It is something I wish KL will implement but I know it will never happen, because we will always have to look after the interest of the motorcyclists, something almost non-existent in Singapore.

Prices are quite reasonable, if you don’t convert. I went for coffee at a reasonably good café and it was SGD3.90 for an iced chocolate. Imagine if you earn SGD, everything is almost half prize. I guess that is why so many of my friends are trying to get a job there. Yours truly included.

Bunked with a good friend of mine and we went dinner with some of his colleagues. You know what? They are all Malaysians. And he told me… 80% of the people in his office are Malaysians. Like what I told one of his Malaysian colleagues, who ‘buka puasa’ with us… “it’s brain drain at the highest level”.

Oh… I found out one thing. You know how Singapore cars entering Malaysia must have at least 3/4 of their petrol tank filled? All these working people in Singapore have been going to Johor to fill up their tank for more than a year already. Apparently, no one really check their petrol-meter when they enter into their country. And we thought we have been denying Singaporeans cheap petrol all these while…

Orchard Road is just fantastic. Over very own Bintang Walk is nowhere near the kind of atmosphere and aura that Orchard Road generates. Perhaps some of us know that already. Personally, I find Orchard Road quite comparable to the famous Champs-Élysées in Paris. If people say Paris has got the 4 seasons advantage, then these people have to go see how successful Orchard Road is.

Overall, Singapore is a country where everything works. If they want to implement something, it will happen. And the people will support it.

There are also many Malaysians who make fun of Singapore… calling it sillypore and calling the Singaporeans kiasu and kiasi or whatever not. But you know what? Deep down, I feel we are just jealous… deep down, we wish we can be something like Singapore. Clean… low corruption… fantastic economy… strong currency. I know I am one of them.