It started off with an ex-colleague. He told me during one of our lunch together
Then, someone from another unit in my current department said the same thing.
Then, I realised I am being referred to as “that name” by everyone on another floor in my workplace.
When I walked into my fiancé’s (now wife) room when she was doing her make-up before our wedding photo shoot, the make-up artist looked at me and said the same thing.
My hairstylist also joined the club.
While doing the make-up for my wedding dinner, the make-up artist paused half way through and said she had to tell to me. She told me the same thing.
When I was part of my friend, Peter’s heng-dai contingent during his pick-the-bride ceremony, all his wife’s ji-mui said exactly the same thing!
Having seen me at my sister’s wedding dinner, my sister’s ji-mui also… guessed what… said the same thing!
My wife’s colleagues who have only seen me a few times in someone’s wedding dinner said that too!!
Now, littlepolaris, who has only seen me in photos has also joined the bandwagon…
They all do not know each other. And they all said…
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… that I look like him…
Till today, I disagree.
Upon disclosing that we will be heading to Beijing for holiday, we often get this remark….
“Huh, both of you don’t speak Mandarin and you are going to China?!?!!!”
Indeed, me and Jules hardly speak any Mandarin. Maybe I can still go about asking for direction and order a simple meal but that would be it. As such, many are showing concerns on our survival probability when we head to Beijing later this month.
I find it really strange, really really strange. Ya’ know why?
If you hear of people going to Spain, do you hear rhetoric such as “Huh, you don’t speak Spanish and you are going to Spain?” ¿Habla usted español?
If you hear of people going to Italy, do you hear people remark “Huh, you don’t speak Italian and you are going to Italy?” Lei parla italiano?
If you hear people going to Japan, do you hear people say “Huh, you don’t speak Japanese and you are going to Japan?” あなた日本語を話せますか？
Do you?
Anyway, I will be heading to Singapore this weekend for some games. Should I have any concern?
1 year ago… 3 comparisons, 2 awards, 1 interview
2 years ago… A very personal sharing
“How old if Dr. F?”
“Oh, Dr. F is past his 50s already…”
That’s what I asked the nurse while I was at the nephrologist clinic during my last kidney check-up. Just to recapitulate, a “nephrologist” is a medical specialist for kidney function. It is a very rare discipline. When I first discovered my kidney condition, I had a hard time looking for one, let alone booking an appointment.
And it’s worrying…
If you’ve noticed; most medical specialists… or should I say, most “known-to-be-good” medical specialists are in the 50s, or late 40s. Hence, some friends and I share a common concern, i.e. when the current batch of good medical specialists finally retires, will there be a competent batch to take over?
Of all my friends who are doctors and are finishing or have completed their respective specialised discipline, none of them are in Malaysia. There are 2 surgeons, one in US while the other in Australia. There is an orthopaedic consultant and an A&E specialist, both in Singapore.
They were all top students during their educational years, who obtained entry into top notch medical school on credit (not on quota). And they have decided not to return to this country.
As of now, I know of 2 doctor-bloggers who are currently pursuing their respective specialised discipline overseas and they don’t sound like they will return “home”. Worse, some of my other doctor friends who are currently here are looking at migrating.
15 or 20 years from now, who will be the next batch of medical specialists looking after our health, or our children’s health? Will they be the top notch doctors who have gone through the right kind training? Or will they be the kind of doctors who cannot even read simple x-ray films? If I am to stay, will I need to travel to Singapore every 6-month for my kidney check up in the future?
Brain-drain, is a big word… a very BIG word. It is so big, that I think most Malaysians have not fully grasp the frightening repercussions that come with it. If you think brain-drain is only going to cause the economy to crumble, please think again. You have no idea what is upon you.
I can go on and on, linking the economic elements to this worrying medical issue, clasped within an often over-looked concern. But I am sure you know what I am trying to get at.
But if you are unable to digest, or if you still believe that all these will not affect you; you better pray you can afford good private medical care when you have all sorts of medical problems from eating all the good nasi-lemak, bak-kut-teh and char-kuey-teow. That is, if there is still “good-private-medical-care” around.
1 year ago… The chronicles of holes and poles
2 years ago… Modern colonisation
I am sure many of you have read last Friday’s post regarding an unfortunate banana. And there appears to be a debate on the true definition of a “banana”. We all have our very own interpretation. Some are of the opinion that knowing a Chinese dialect means one is no longer a banana. Ability to read or write is irrelevant.
I tend to disagree. In my zewtpinion, inability to read or write the Chinese language makes one a banana. If you know a particular dialect, it only reduces the degree of your banana-ness. Hence, I am a banana too; just that my banana-ness is within control. You may disagree.
But anyway…
June is a true blue banana. She grew up in an English speaking family and attended international school. But unlike some bananas out there, she knows that she should learn up the language and constantly makes effort in reducing her banana-ness.
During her college days, June often mixed around with a bunch of Cantonese speaking friends. This gave her the opportunity to buck up her Cantonese.
One fine day, June and her friends went to a coffee shop for lunch. Out a sudden, June asked her friends…
“How do you say breast in Cantonese?”
“Lin-ku lah, hahahahaha!” (It’s called lin-ku) A friend replied.
June then stood up, walked to the chicken rice store and said…
“Aunty, ngo oi kai lin ku fan”
I am afraid you must know Cantonese to appreciate this…
1 year ago… Are you still chasing?
By now, I am sure many of us have received the forwarded mail regarding an employee who lost her job because she complained about her boss in facebook (“FB”), not knowing her boss is in her friends list. Of course, there is the more erotic one where a woman proclaimed that a particular guy’s d*ck is forever welcomed in her love canal after a sexciting night together.
While we may all laugh at these victims, we should not discount the fact that FB is getting increasingly dangerous. To-date, I have heard of 2 real-life situations where people have been dismissed due to FB.
The first is very much similar to the forwarded mail. The victim explicitly expressed her fury in her status update. Though her boss is not in her friends list, someone captured the screen of FB status and sent it to HR. Though the logical speculation is that a fellow colleague (now ex-colleague) did it, the culprit remains unknown to-date.
The second story is pretty much due to the stupidity lack of reasonable care on the victim herself. She told her office that she was not well and will be on medical leave, which is of course, not true. She attended a party during the day and took lots of photos and happily posted those photos in FB. Someone in her office saw the photos; I don’t need to elaborate further.
Notwithstanding such mishaps, I think FB can be quite an intrusion to one’s privacy. Do you know that a google image search of your name will most probably reveal your FB profile photo?
Of course, there are people who find it glamorous to have their faces plastered all over the web and have people recognising you everywhere you go. The web has indeed given a great sense of celebritism to these people. What used to be only achievable via excellence in acting, singing, sports or other artistic/specialised skills can now be achieved with just a click of a button.
And this sense of celebritism is exactly what online advertisement companies are thriving on. By creating this feel, they can harvest a large number of cheap online advertisement platform for their business expansion. Anyway, I have digressed… let’s come back to FB…
And so, if you are someone who wants to have your face plastered all over the web and have a sense of internet stardom, then FB is a fantastic platform (besides blog). But if you are not, then I think it’s an intrusion of privacy. I am referring specifically to the “photo tagging” function.
Worse, FB even allows tagging of photos for non-FB user. So your face could have been tagged somewhere in someone’s photo. If you are a private person who wants to remain anonymity, FB will screw that all up.
And of course, it also exposes you to a certain degree of risk. Just like the second situation I mentioned above. If you fake a medical leave and got your photos taken somewhere, someone else might post your photo up and tag you as a non-FB user. So even if you are smart enough not to post any picture of yourself, you may still be at risk.
And referring to the first story I mentioned above, you just do not know who are your enemies within your FB list. I know some people will happily add anyone who makes a FB request. Perhaps one should think twice before randomly adding people.
Certainly, those are very specific and perhaps isolated situation. But no matter what, the fact that FB allows visual identification without one’s knowledge and the proven vulnerability of one’s exposure to public is something we should all think about.
1 year ago… From far and near, they all flock here… And you think the big pays big
“Ringgggggggg”, the alarm signalled the start of a brand new day.
After a good stretch, you head towards the bathroom. It’s a big bathroom, with hotel-like big mirrors and above average quality fixture. After washing-up, you made your way to a walk-in wardrobe to select your outfit for the day. Yes, a big bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe, you can afford one.
You then made your way downstairs for a good breakfast, prepared by your housekeeper. Sipping the last drop of coffee, you made your way to your car.
Car selection was a dilemma. Besides the BMW 3-series that you have, the brand new Proton Mega was delivered last Saturday. Mega is the 2.8 litre engine luxury model under Proton which won the Asian Car-Of-The-Year award, beating the likes of Honda and Toyota. You bought it for RM48,888. You decided to try your new toy today.
The roads were relatively clear, as usual. On the way, you saw the latest model of high-speed train being put to service. If not because you wanted to try out your new car, you might have taken the train too. After all, the local train system is now one of the best in South East Asia.
There were also no motorbikes on the road. Almost all Malaysians can afford a car now. Riding bikes is now a weekend activity. Mat-rempit is a thing of the past.
Coming out of the highway, you drove past the barrier-less e-tag lane. Toll charges were automatically deducted from your e-tag, which you placed near the windscreen. You don’t have to worry about e-tag theft. In fact, it has been months since the last crime was reported.
As you got into your office, you checked your latest payslip as you just got promoted to the role of manager. RM33,000… that’s accurate, your latest salary. That’s a fair increase from your previous role as a senior executive of RM25,000.
Oh yes, ever since the massive clean-up in national governance, liberalisation of the economy and accountable spending of national expenditure, there have been a massive inflow of foreign direct investments and economic development. Malaysia is now ahead of Hong Kong and Singapore in terms of professional and financial services. This led to a huge boost to income-per-capita of all Malaysians. Hence, an executive earning RM25,000 a month is a norm.
As a reward to yourself for this hard earned promotion, you planned to go for a holiday. You paused to ponder which of your friends overseas could accommodate you. Unfortunately, you couldn’t think of anyone. Ever since the economic revelation, all of your friends have returned from abroad.
And so you started to check out some of the hotels’ rate. You have not been to Hawaii and so, you checked out this resort in that wonderful beach paradise. It cost USD200 a night, which translated to be about RM280 a night. With proper utilisation of resource, better governance and improvement to practically everything, the exchange rate is now RM1.40 to 1 USD. Ohh… it was also RM0.77 to 1 SGD. How about that!
Having finalised your accommodation, you went on to book your flight. The price in the website showed RM3,500 and that was what you have to pay. Airport tax is no longer relevant because the govt has exempted all Malaysians from paying airport tax.
After all the logistics were settled… you then commenced your day at work with a big smile, looking forward to your wonderful holiday…
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Sounds like a fairytale, isn’t it?
The Malaysian Mirror made reference to the Global Corruption Report which states that Malaysia bribe money amounts to USD40b a year. That’s USD40,000,000,000 or RM140,000,000,000 a year!
Assuming corruption started 15 years ago (which is an understatement), simple mathematics without taking into consideration time value of money means RM2.1 trillion, or more specifically RM2,100,000,000,000 was wasted as corruption money.
Imagine that amount of money together with wastages from things like PKFZ or teh-tarik-space-tourist or whatever not being put to good use. Imagine that. Oh, ya’ know what? You don’t have to imagine much. Because the fairytale story above is exactly what will happen if all those money have been put to good use.
1 year ago… And you think they have no life
2 years go…. Metamorphosis of slaves… An erotic lunch and a traumatic locker experience
Joseph is a typical “xiang-jiao-ren” (banana). For the uninformed, a “banana” usually means a Chinese who does not know how to speak the Chinese language. And Joseph is one of such, able to only converse in English.
One day, Joseph returned to his home after work, just like usual. As he walked towards his home having parked his car, Joseph was stopped by 2 men. These 2 men began to ask Joseph some questions in Mandarin.
As they were smiling and appeared to be polite, Joseph tried to respond to them. Of course, he couldn’t really understand what these 2 men were asking and tried to explain himself in English instead. Hence, for a good few minutes; there was a classic chicken and duck talk situation.
After a while, these 2 men became rowdy. Joseph could see that they looked irritated. All of a sudden, one of the men pulled out a “parang” (long knife) and started threatening Joseph. But still, Joseph was unable to comprehend what they wanted as they were speaking in Mandarin.
Instinct came upon him that he was being robbed and hence, he took out his wallet and mobile-phone and gave them to the men. To his surprise, those men threw away his wallet and mobile-phone and continue to threaten him with the “parang”, shouting at him in Mandarin.
Poor Joseph, he just couldn’t make up what those men want. Worse, the 2 men got so annoyed, they started to attack him. They kicked, punched and slashed him with the “parang”. This went on for a while, till Joseph was floored.
As Joseph was rolling on the ground trying to block kicks directed at him, he felt a small bulge in his pocket. It was his car key. It was then that it dawned upon Joseph that the 2 men wanted his car. In a flash, Joseph took out his car-key and desperately handed it to the 2 men.
One of the men grabbed his key, shouted something to Joseph (in Mandarin of course) and drove away his car.
For all those bananas out there, particularly those who are proud that they only speak English, do take note that your banana-ness may just get you killed. In the land of sumptuous food, criminals tend to only speak everything but English.
And ya’ know what? Criminals and sumptuous food in this land share one similarity… there are plenty of them out there…
2 years go…. Can you take it easy?… A state of many people
