Last week, when I blogged about people dropping dead due to stress; KGC, someone in his early 30s left this comment:-
“Hi Zewt, I have been diagnosed by a qualified physician that I am under lots of work stress – been having difficulty breathing and high BP. When I produced the letter to the HR in my office, they just refused to accept the diagnosis. Can you believe that?”
Firstly, my answer to his question would be a plain and simple “yes”. I have actually heard of a case from my friend where her boss denied my friend MC when my friend was diagnosed with suspected cancer. With such story, how surprising can KGC’s story be?
When you are face with such situation, it is no a matter of whether how you are treated is believable or not. I think a more important question would be… what are you going to do about it?
My next follow-up check up is due and I am staying home the whole of today to collect my urine for my 24-hour urinalysis. Yes, I have a kidney condition and the cause, till today, remains unknown. Was it my diet? Was it genetic? Or was it due to over-work? I don’t know. Some have more probability than the others.
While I don’t know the cause, and probably never will; I know that if I don’t look after myself well, I can expect the worst. And then, I know what I need to do to look after myself… watch my diet, have enough rest and exercise regularly. Having enough rest and being able to exercise regularly means I will not slog in the office till ungodly hours. I am sure you know what I mean by ungodly hours.
With that, I have actually made it clear to my superior and the people I work for and work with. People will sympathise initially, but when they see you going off at 6.30pm almost everyday while they have to stay and slog till ungodly hours, the sympathy will soon disappear. You will begin to hear things. Perhaps your increment, bonus and promotion possibility will be affected. That’s reality.
So am I supposed to slog it out like the rest? Slogging the hours means I will not be able to exercise after office. This tends to lead to me skipping dinner and eating mamak food just before I sleep. All in the name of career?
Indeed, in most times; we have no choice. For the sake of your pay, your bonus, your increment… you have no choice. Indeed, you have no choice, or so you think.
Hey… ya’ know what? I have no choice too. For the sake of my healthy… my life… I am also in a position where I have no choice. But it is a different type of “no choice”. It is a kind that you would rather not be in.
Hence my friend, before your type of “no choice” becomes my type of “no choice”, you better give yourself a choice.
1 year ago… Absolute boleh-ness… A take at the E-scandal
2 years ago… No topic?
Was talking to a good friend of mine and one thing led to another, he told me that he once met this girl with quite a peculiar name. We have heard of girls with names such as April, May and June. But this one is different, her name was July.
Well, if you ever met someone with such a name and you intend to pick her up, let me give you a good pick-up line. And this pick-up line is zewt-original.
July: Hi, my name is July.
You: Hi, my name is August.
July: Oohh?
You: Yes, I always make sure you cum first before I do.
Have a nice weekend. Maybe you’ll meet a July… who knows?
P/S: I am up for my next kidney check up and will be doing my urinalysis again. Do pray for me!
1 year ago… A London Chinese New Year discovery
2 years ago… No time?
A lot of people; myself included, were jumping for joy when the govt announced last year that the tax exemption will be given to hybrid cars. We all know ridiculous taxes are levied on foreign cars in order to keep Proton competitive so this exemption, perhaps we can all own a good quality car and play a part in preserving the environment at the same time.
Many eyes were on the Honda Civic Hybrid, which I believe is the only hybrid model available in Malaysia the moment. The Civic Hybrid was priced at RM160,000, rather expensive if you were to ask me.
Alas, Honda announced the new price yesterday taking into consideration the tax exemption given by the govt. The new asking price is RM129,980.
But I am curious. Does this price truly reflect the exemption given by the govt?
Before I proceed, I would like to say that this is purely my own calculation based on simple mathematics.
If I am not wrong, the taxes levied on a completely-built-up (CBU) cars with engine capacity below 1,800 cc such as the Civic Hybrid prior to the exemption are as follows:-
Import duty – 5% (assumed CEPT, otherwise 30%)
Excise duty – 75%
Sales tax – 10%
Reference: Customs Act 1967 / Excise Act 1967
Hence, total taxes levied on the Civic Hybrid should be 90%. This simply means the original Civic Hybrid price of RM160,000 has been inflated by at least 90% due to taxes. With this, we can deduce the pre-tax cost price of the car using simple mathematics as follows:-
(160,000 / 190) * 100 = RM84,210
So the price of the car before being levied any taxes should be approximately RM84,000.
The govt announced that full exemption from import duty and 50% exemption from excise duty is given to hybrid cars for a period of 2 years. Following this, this taxes now levied on a hybrid cars should be as follows:-
Import duty – nil
Excise duty – 37.5%
Sales tax – 10%
Hence, the amount of taxes levied on a hybrid car after the exemption should be 47.5%. If that is the case, shouldn’t the new price of Civic Hybrid after the exemption be:-
RM84,000 + (47.5% * RM84,000) = RM123,900?
On the basis that profit has already been factored into the pre-tax price of RM84,000, what happened to the additional RM6,080 (RM129,980 – RM110,625) which was originally taxes but have now been exempted?
And, if the Civic Hybrid is not assembled within ASEAN thus making it falling into non-CEPT import duty rate of 30%, the pre-tax price of the car would actually be RM75,000 and post-tax exemption price of RM110,625 based on the formula above.
Of course, the above is based on my very limited knowledge and very simple minded mathematics. I could be wrong.
1 year ago… 2 true remarks
A lot of people have been asking me why I have not touched on politics for such a long time. They are of the opinion that I should utilise my “influence” to spread more awareness amongst Malaysians.
Firstly, I don’t think I command such great influence. Secondly, I have not blogged on the social and political front because I have given up. Honestly, I am truly fed up.
Initially, I still keep a very close eye on the happenings in the country but as time goes by, I realise I have grown more and more numb towards those developments. Perhaps it’s because I know I have an escape route underneath my sleeve. Maybe… maybe not.
But seriously, don’t you think events in the past 2 weeks indicate that this nation is beyond the point of salvation? We not only have a govt that is… well, you know what I mean. And then we have a police force which… well, you know what I mean. And if you get into some legal trouble, our judiciary is… well, you also know what I mean, right?
Ya’ see, that is exactly the point. The whole freaking country know what the hell is wrong this country but they only freaking thing that the people in this freaking nation want to do is to get some so called “influential” bloggers to continue to do the dirty work.
But ya’ know what? These No-Action-Talk-Only souls do not annoy me that much. Those who really get to my nerve are those who still live in fantasy land, like one of my friend whom I talked to today where the conversation went something like this…
Friend: Zewt, this is a beautiful country. Life is good here.
Zewt: How so?
Friend: Things are cheap.
Zewt: A country should not be judged based on cheap stuff.
Friend: Just don’t think too much.
Zewt: What about the govt, education, the police and the judiciary.
Friend: Just stay out of trouble. Education… still have twinning programme. I have never met any corrupt police. If you stay out of trouble, you don’t have to deal with the judiciary.
Zewt: And what is cheap? Our economy sucks.
Friend: Roti canai is cheap. Teh tarik is cheap.
Some of you must be thinking… Zewt, you should educate her. Well, I am a person who happened to blog… not a saint.
I went and play badminton with some uncles today. I don’t usually join this group due to my work commitment but since today is a public holiday, I was able to make it.
As I was resting after a game, I managed to catch up with Daniel (not his real name), a 59-year-old man who is still; as far as I am concern, very fit. Our conversation somehow travelled to the notion I mentioned in my previous entry… people dropping dead.
Daniel has got… not 1, not 2… but 3 friends who dropped dead while playing badminton. As far as Daniel is concern, these people are quite fit souls; and certainly not overworked of sleep deprived because they were all retirees.
What happened then?
Apparently, these retirees pushed their body over the limit playing badminton against younger opponents. Daniel, being a senior citizen himself said that many “old” people out there still carry a very big ego and since they can play very well when they were young, they think they can still triumph when having a game against the youngsters.
Lost the first game; push and push to win the second game and challenge the youngsters for a rubber set. The rubber set happened to be the last game they will ever play. They pushed their not-so-young body so hard, the heart just stopped. That’s it.
What can we draw from all these stories?
I know the human body is an incredible creation by God where out body allows us to push it to the limit. But I also think that God does not intend to have us push it so hard till the stage where we are abusing it. When you are not so young anymore, your body should not be running around the court at high speed like a young soul. It cost the lives of 3 friends of Daniel.
The same principle applies to we young people (if we can still consider myself young). I know the older generation always tells us…
“Work hard when you are young, that’s when you have all the energy to carry on”
But have you ever pause and think about the definition of “work hard”? During the time of the older generation, no matter how hard they work… they never work till 3 – 4 am, they never work till they skip lunch and dinner… they certainly don’t have a computer at home which some to work round the clock. It’s never like that.
Unfortunately, the demand of work has evolved so much, the term ‘work hard’ has been amplified multiple folds. I think we must realise that though our body is an incredible anatomy that seems limitless at times, it is still not designed to only sleep 3 hours a day… not designed to take in food once every 10 hours… and certainly not designed to work 12 – 16 hours, 7 days a week.
How hard are you pushing your body today?
1 year ago… An enlightening beer-less encounter… Some blogging thoughts
2 years ago… The Sculpture… Respect for Malaysian drivers
We have all heard about it. In fact, I have even blogged about it. I am referring to cases where people work so hard, they ended up dead. There was a case of a Romanian. And closer to home, there was a case of this Singapore girl who too, lost her life due to over-work.
I have actually heard a real life story from a friend where her hard-working boss went to toilet prior to a meeting but never came out from there. The boss died of heart attack while relieving himself in the toilet.
And now, right before my very eyes, there is someone from my church who joined the Church History Class in my church just who passed away in his sleep 2 days ago. After a post-mortem and discussion with the doctors, it is believed that the cause of his death is “acute stress”. He has been working non-stop for the past few weeks, sleeping only 3-4 hours a day. He was 24.
Out of respect to him, I am not going to go into his details. When I blogged about the 2 stories which I mentioned earlier, many agree that work is not life. How many of us actually follow that motto till today?
May we all realise that there is more to life than work before it’s too late.
May this person who just lost his life rest in peace in the company of angels in heaven.
1 year ago… The 3 seeks … Just another day of work
2 years ago… Morons of the same brain park together
Did you notice something lately? Perhaps not lately, this new phenomena has been happening for a few years now. A classic example of this phenomenon is when you see an uploaded picture of boys in white shirt and dark blue pants or girls in pinafore and they labelled the photo as…
“My high school days” or “Me and my high school mates”
I don’t know about you but to me, “high school” is not the right term to refer Form 1 to Form 5. I have never referred to any of my school friends as “high school mates”. Based on my possibly out-dated understanding, schools for Standard 1 to Standard 6 are categorised as “Primary school” and those for Form 1 to Form 5 are categorised as “Secondary school”.
Unless one’s school’s name has got “high school” in it, such as Catholic High School, there isn’t exactly this thing called “high school” in Malaysia. Even that, it is still debatable as school name and schooling system are 2 separate elements.
So what exactly is “high school”? It is actually part of the school system in the US. I understand from my friends in the States that their schooling system mainly made up of:-
Elementary School (Kindergarten to 5th grade / age 5 – 11)
Middle School (6th to 8th grade / age 12 – 14)
High School (9th to 12th grade / age 15 – 18)
Here in Malaysia, we do not have “middle school” or “low school” and certainly, we do not have “high school”. What we have is primary and secondary school. Why then more and more people are referring to secondary school as “high school”?
A very good friend of mine said… “It is the westernised thinkers who refer to it, without basis, as high school”. I tend to agree. What about you?
At this juncture, some of you may say…”Zewt, what’s the fuss? It means the same thing”.
I will have to ask… do these “high school people” use that term to sincerely refer to the same thing or do they use as that term sounds more western… more cool? Besides, how are you going to refer to your first year in “high school”? 9th grade, or Form 1?
1 year ago… What’s with the awareness fuss? … when our instincts fail
2 years ago… The tail to the tales
Firstly, my answer to his question would be a plain and simple “yes”. I have actually heard of a case from my friend where her boss denied my friend MC when my friend was diagnosed with suspected cancer. With such story, how surprising can KGC’s story be?
Hey… ya’ know what? I have no choice too. For the sake of my healthy… my life… I am also in a position where I have no choice. But it is a different type of “no choice”. It is a kind that you would rather not be in.
