And so our new finance minister announced new measures to preserve our economy. I thought our economy is the only economy in the world which is not and will not run into a recession? Hmmmmm….
And so RM5b (that’s RM5,000,000,000) will be allocated to this company called ValueCap to buy undervalue stocks. You mean the shares in our stock market are worth more than what they are now? Hmmmmmm…..
Wait a minute…
The RM5b (that’s RM5,000,000,000) will not coming from the govt, which means the RM5,000,000,000 will not be coming from taxpayers’ money pool. Instead, it will be coming from EPF!!!! WTF!!!
It will be RM5b (that’s RM5,000,000,000) our O.U.R. money!!!
I have a grand proposal…
Why don’t they give the RM5b (that’s RM5,000,000,000) back to us since it’s our money and we use the money to invest in the stock market. I am sure that will be more “effective”. What say you?
After all, one will wonder how much of the RM5b (that’s RM5,000,000,000) will actually be used in buying undervalue stocks.
It’s the time of the year again. I am talking about year-end salary revision and (hopefully) bonuses.
If I could get our beloved finance minister to do one thing, that would be for him to publish an accurate inflation rate. Why? The answer is very simple.
A lot of big corporations out there rely on inflationary statistics to adjust the salary of its employees. I happen to work in one of such corporations. So the maths is very simple, the higher the published inflation rate, the higher the salary revision will be.
I understand the inflation rate for the month of Aug 2008 was 8.4% and it is expected that the figure for Sept 2008 would be around 8.2%. Regardless of the argument that calculation of consumer price index in our country is not entirely accurate, around 8% will do just fine.
There have been arguments late last year and our CPI can be as high as 20%+. Well, with the basket of goods used to calculate the CPI being mostly controlled items, one will tend to agree.
Regardless of whether the figure published is high or low, we cannot deny the fact that things have gone more expensive. As such, I am really hoping that the published CPI will remain high for my salary sake. And if you are in the same boat as me, you should pray hard about it too. And for others, maybe you’re in the same boat as me… you just don’t know it.
Related article: Don’t bother about inflation?
Nobody likes it when it pours in KL. Gone are the time when it pours and you think to yourself… “great time to sleep”. Not anymore; for when it pours, the streets will be congested. This is most significant as it affects most protected habit… our driving. Scan around facebook and you can see quite a number of people complaining about the rain in their status update.
Although the rain has indeed made me spent additional time behind the wheel, I prefer to have it keep pouring. Let me tell you why…
On my way to work everyday, I have to drive through this particular highway that gives me a rather good view of the KL skyline. I have noticed that for the last month (could be more than a month), the visibility of the KL skyline has been rather poor.
No, the haze is not back. The haze has always been here for the longest time, we are just too occupied with other things till we are not aware of it. And for the most part, the very one thing that has been cleaning our air on a daily basis is the one thing which many of us are complaining about… the rain.
Anyway, I am on leave today and it poured cats and dogs before I decided to go out and run some errands. Despite the heavy downpour, the visibility is still poor. And I am very sure it’s not because of mist. It is bad air quality.
One very simple way to see the air quality is to look at the sun. Normally, one cannot look directly to the sun, but if you manage to do so in a particular day, and that the sun looks beautifully orange, it is a sign of highly polluted air. I saw such sun yesterday.
I am inclined to think that when the dry season hits us, we will see the haze craze all over again.
I read in an article some time ago (sorry I couldn’t locate the article now) and it states that air qualified as “good” in Malaysia does not meet the minimum standard set by Japan. Considering that an average Japanese live the longest in the world compared to the rest, it does speaks something about the quality of their air.
Also, I have got many friends with sinus problem and their problem will miraculously disappear when they live in places like Australia or the suburb in England. The moment they return to KL, so does their sinus problem.
If you have been reading the kind of effect poor air quality has on the people of China, it can be quite scary. Industrial development is killing their people, literally.
Anyway, let’s not talk about that today. For now, I thank God that he has been watering our land everyday and keeping the air quality at a considerably safe level. It is interesting to note that despite the daily heavy downpour, the Air Pollutant Index (“API”) in KL only manages borderline between good and moderate. That also includes the present of “serbuk halus” (fine dust). I wonder how safe is this “serbuk halus”.
Is the forest fire in Indonesia again to be blamed? Maybe… maybe not…
Found this in my inbox:-The financial crisis has finally hit Japan…
In the last few days, Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly-up while Bonsai Bank has announced plans to cut some branches.
This follows by Karaoke Bank being up for sale and will likely go for a song while shares today in Kamikaze Bank was suspended after they nose-dived.
Samurai Bank are soldiering on following sharp cutbanks and Ninja Bank are reported to have taken a hit and will remain in the black.
Furthermore, 500 staff in Karate Bank are going to get the chop and analysts report that there is something going on in Sushi Bank where it is feared that something fishy is going on and staff may get a raw deal.
Original addition by Zewt:
Last but not least, Yamate-Yamate Bank has ceased on penetration attempts into new market.
P/S: Zewt has got nothing against Japan. It’s all for a good laugh.
P/S/S: Any AZAIG reader currently residing in Perth? Plan to make a trip there.
Regular AZAIG readers will know I once blogged about how modern slaves have morphed into different species. And just to recap the main characteristics of the respective breed…
The True Slaves Generation --- Aged 35 and above… heavily infected with the I-must-work-hard-and-die-for-the-company virus… hard work is the only way to success… work is life… never dare to say no to the bosses / company.
The Transitional Generation --- aged 24 – 34… stuck in between the need to work hard to support a lifestyle and the need not to work hard to have lifestyle… constantly complain about the bosses / company and vow to resign but will never get around doing it… severely suffering from the I-have-no-choice syndrome…
The New Breed --- mainly offspring of successful urbanites… salary means additional pocket money… overtime is not in their vocabulary… teach them the meaning of overtime and they will teach you how to break the world record for the quickest resignation in the company.
The gap between these 3 generations of slaves is getting more apparent judging by their reaction to certain things. Let me tell you a real-life scenario…
The company gives out a small promotion gift...
True Slaves – “Wahhh… so nice… so lovely. I really like it. Quick, go get yours”
Transitional Generation – “What??? Such a big company and give us this!! So damn cheapskate lah this company!”
New Breed – [no comment available, did not collect the gift]
Really, the reaction can be quite hilarious. Particularly when a Transitional Generation has to respond to the excessive happiness shown by the True Slaves, who most likely are the bosses.
In the light of the current economic turmoil, would the reactions from the respective breed be like this?
I
n response to the company’s announcement that the company is strong and doing extremely well despite the current bad patch…
True Slaves – “See… I told you right… our company very strong wan. No need to worry la”. Proceed to another individual and repeat the same thing. Then proceed to another… and another… and another…
Transitional Generation – “Yeah right. You think I am stupid ah? I read the news ok!” Continue complaining…
New Breed – “What economic turmoil? What’s going on at the moment ah?”
In response to the company’s announcement that there might not be bonus at the end of the year…
True Slaves – “We should be happy that we still have job”
Transitional Generation – “What the !&*!@%!$@^%$!@^%!. Surely the big boss took all the bonus lah”
New Breed – “Daddy, where are we going for our year end holiday?”
Indeed, we have morphed well…
Looks like the Melamine alert has died out. Most of us are pretty convinced that the dairy products in this country are entirely free from contamination, except for those really delicious white rabbit creamy candy which most of us loved.
Honestly, I am still sceptical about the so-called “all clear” given by our very own Ministry of Health. I remember 2 years ago, there were news report saying bread in our market has got some toxic and it was given the “all-clear” within a number of days. It just doesn’t quite make sense, to me at least.
Besides lacking confidence in them, I am also rather reserve about the quality of our food, generally speaking. Make no mistake; melamine was found in milk products in China not because it was discovered by the health officials. It was discovered because babies there started falling sick and they arrived at the common source, their diet.
But then again, you can't blame the health officials. Why?
Say, if you send your blood to the lab for test, they probably test for your kidney function, liver function, cholesterol, cancer marker and so on and so forth. Nobody in the world will test your blood for say… sperm. Because it just doesn’t make sense. But could there be sperm in our blood? Who knows?
Similarly, when they send the milk for contamination test, the health officials would most probably check for bacteria, fungus or virus. They might just check for human sperm just in case someone got too excited while milking the cows’ tits. But no one in the world will test milk for the presence of melamine.
It was only where people starting to fall sick that melamine contamination was detected. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I read in this blog that the famous (and delicious) Ma-Ling luncheon meat has been banned in Singapore as cancer-causing antibiotic was found in it.
Well, would you agree with me if I say quite a number of foodstuff in our shelves, particularly those processed ones, have got some form of dangerous substance or another? It may be clear from virus, fungus, bacteria or cancer-causing antibiotics, but what about a whole lot of other harmful chemicals?
How sure are we that if they were to test for melamine, mercury or some other toxic in say… our bread and it’s 100% free? After all, prior to this, no one in the world expect to find melamine in milk.
P/S: Don’t worry, I don’t think the milk you drink contains sperm.
Jules went to a health exhibition yesterday and the nutritionist who gave a talk there gave her 3 comparisons…
Apparently, smoking a single cigarette is like burning away the nutrition that you get from eating 60 oranges.
You think that is bad? Well… eating a packet of instant noodles actually required 90 days of detox before your body can get rid of all those preservatives and chemicals. It’s a good thing I have only eaten maggi mee once in the last 9 months.
Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. I am sure most of you will like the 3rd comparison. There is this thing called inflammatory agent which is bad for the body, said to be a cancer causing agent. And… between a roasted skinless chicken breast and roasted lean pork… roasted lean pork (focus on the word “lean”) has got more anti-inflammatory agent.
Anyway, I had an interview today with a journalist from a new local IT magazine. Why do people like to ask “Are you afraid to be ISA?” when they interview me? This is the second time I am being 
asked this question. I guess blogging is indeed a dangerous interest in this country. Anyway… do look out for me in this new magazine called “Surf”… hehe…
AZAIG would like to say a big thank you to Mar for the “Brillante Weblog 2008 Award” and to U-Jean for the “Butterfly Award”.
So… ‘siew yok’ anyone?
I have a grand proposal…
