Putting two and two together

Some are saying I am getting lame with all these Malaysia bashings.  Well, not sure if I want to admit to that.  One thing for sure, Malaysia is just so bash-able.

And here is another thing which I think every Malaysian should take note of…

Last Thursday, an umno MP said this as reported here –

For the un-informed, Warisan Malaysia is a 100-storey mega tower costing MYR5b Malaysia intends to build.

Anyway, interesting to note that MP saying it will not be govt money which will be building the tower. I totally agree with him, the govt pocket is empty. 

And more interestingly… on the very same day… this was reported in TheStar:-

Apparently, EPF contributors are asked to withdraw our money only when you hit 75.  And… note that EPF said this…

“We will also transfer the money to the govt if it is not claimed when contributor reaches the age of 80”

Can you put two and two together?

P/S:  Thanks Redbabe fore the “Versatile Blogger Award”.

1 year ago… Between saying nice things and facts… Sex and the office

2 years ago… Have you ever tried this before?

3 years ago… Is smoking an addiction… Living: Malaysia vs. Hong Kong

The teleo vs. deonto thinking

I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately and the above notion intrigues me a lot. Don’t be overwhelmed by those sophisticated terms. They are merely the processes our brains go through in making decisions.

Essentially, a teleological approach in making a decision centres on the consequence(s) of the decision.  You can call that a ‘result driven’ approach.  The what-is-the-benefit-of-this will be ringing in your brain.

The teleological approach is then segregated into 2 different components. 

The egoist teleological approach is the branch that focuses on the consequence(s) on the decision maker. You will only think about the consequence(s) to you, the benefits to you and you alone.  No benefits to you, no go.

The other branch is the utilitarianist teleological approach where the focus of the consequence(s) is on everyone else, probably people affected by the decision.  You will only make that decision if it benefits others.  Kind of like a selfless approach, isn’t it? 

The deontological approach in decision making is one that does not focus on the consequence(s), but the action of the decision itself.  Result doesn’t matter, the focus is on the process, the focus is on the action of the decision.  This approach too, is segregated into 2.

The first is the deontology with the “right” element.  “Right” here represents ‘privilege’.  Based on this, you will make a decision because you believe it is your God-given right to do it.  How it affects you or the people around you does not matter.

The other side of the coin is the “justice” element.  Here, a decision is made because it is the right (i.e. correct) thing to do, without considering whether there is any benefit.  One may conclude that this is the noble approach.

And now, to paint a better picture (apology for using a guy’s perspective)…

If you sex a girl with a condom because you are afraid of infectious disease… you are an egoistic teleologist.

If you sex a girl with a condom because you are afraid you will make her pregnant… you are an utilitarianistic teleologist.

If you sex a girl, with or without condom, because you believe your very existence is to f__k around, you are a right-based deontologist.

If you sex a girl, with or without condom, because the girl is your wife/bf and she was there naked and asking you to do it and you feel it is the right thing to do, you are a justice-based deontologist.

Now… what are you?  Tell me ok…

Off for a business trip… have a good week ahead.

1 year ago… Will you say the same thing?… Modern slavery anniversary reflection

3 years ago… Let us be reminded… The price to drive… A penis song

Randomly Friday

I gave up my seat to a pregnant lady in the MRT just now… and everyone stared at me as though I tried to detonate a bomb in the MRT…

I guess that’s not a surprise… when I first arrived and had to move around in crutches, I was ignored entirely in the MRT.  One even went into instant slumber as soon as she made eye-contact with me.   You should have seen how she did it… quite outrages.

There were 2 occasions where a seat was offered to me… and both were from Caucasians.

Anyway… have been very busy at work.  Brain seems to tire down quickly here.  Maybe I use my brain more here, or maybe I just don’t have the brain to catch up hence over-worked my brain.

Will be travelling next week… Up… down… meeting… up… down… meeting… meeting… up down… back to office… up down… attend wedding dinner… going to be crazy.

Heard Malaysia just announced in the national budget that a 100-storey tower is to be built.  More money to be spent!  Actually, I already heard about this 6 months ago… someone said it’s another election money raising scheme… oh well, I am just glad I am no longer funding it.

Since import duty on handbags, perfumes and lingerie has been removed… time to go shopping!

Have a good weekend…

1 year ago… Perils of direct translation… Dissecting the brain… You are going!!?

2 years ago… The chronicles of holes and poles…

3 years ago… An erotic lunch and a traumatic locker experience… Are you still chasing?… A very personal sharing

Without a car

Besides throwing me with this question, another common query I get from people (as some of you might have guessed from the title) is whether I am suffering from not having a car.  Yes, in case you don’t know, I don’t own a car here in Singapore.

Objectively speaking, this no-car issue is an epitome of half-glass-empty vs. half-glass-full argument.

Indeed, as a typical Malaysian – suddenly not being able to just hop behind the wheel and go to where you want to go is quite a severe loss of convenience, or “perceived” convenience depending on how you see it.

There were days when it rains in the morning, where I felt a car would be nice because the walk from my place to the MRT station is not entirely sheltered.  There were nights where I would like to meet up with my friends for drinks or ‘teh-tarik’ but that is not possible.  There were days when I am standing next to people in the MRT who will release aroma as though they have just dipped themselves in shite… and I felt that I should have been sitting in a car.

And many more…

But hang on…

The walk from my condo to the nearest MRT station is at the most, 5 minutes – actually, 3 to sheltered underpass leading to the station.  I’ve timed this. My office is located right above the MRT station.

Rain or thunderstorm, I know I will only need to be in the MRT for 10 minutes – the duration of my journey.  This also means that when I sms my wife “Coming home now”… she can begin to heat up dinner and I will be back sitting at the table enjoying my meal within 25 minutes, max – rain or thunderstorm.  How long does it take for you to get home, in a non-rainy day?

I can always walk away from people with “those” aroma.  And because I am not that short, I don’t have to endure the projection from the armpit of those people who lift up their hands to hang on to the handle-bar.  Maybe others had to endure mine, but I haven’t noticed anyone walking away from me.

And all these, cost me SGD2.02 a day, about MYR100 a month – less than 1 full tank that I had to fill weekly in Malaysia.  And I am not paying for a car which is a depreciating asset.

Right, I can’t have my teh-tarik or nasi-lemak or roti-canai at night but seriously, I can live with that.  And if MRT doesn’t go to the places I want to go, I can take the bus from the bus-stop right in front of my condo – which is clean, on time and takes me to a lot of other places.  Alternatively, I can take the cab – which is reasonably priced, charges based meter and safe.

If all fails – I will take it as God telling me not to go out.

Certainly, I will not say that I will never buy a car.  But at the moment, it is more of a “want” instead of a “need”.  Am I tempted to buy one?  Hell yes! Car prices are cheap if you compare dollar-to-dollar.  2 months ago, a fellow brain-drain digger just walked-in to a dealer and bought a 4-year-old 5-series for less than SGD90k.  I checked out a few 4-year-old 3-series and most of them are below SGD70k.  I am fighting temptation on a daily basis.

Another point – my boss who probably earns double my salary does not own a car. I know another unit-head within my function who probably earns 4 times my salary does not own a car either.  Hence, it is the Malaysian in me who wants a car, not the Zewt in me who needs a car.

Just want to touch on the “convenience” of having a car in Malaysia… a friend of my mine said he cannot work in Singapore because he cannot stand not being able to “just hop into the car and go to wherever he wants to go”. 

I think that statement is grossly incomplete.  Yes, you may be able to go wherever you want to go.  But can you get there on time?  Is it peak hour and hence jam?  Is it raining and hence you will be sitting in your car cursing in facebook?  Can you get a car-park at your destination?  And depending on the time of the day (something which is getting increasingly worrying and I have stories to tell), is it safe to just drive out? 

So is the car-less situation a half-glass-empty or half-glass-full for me?  A bit of both depending on the situation; but more towards half-glass-full… for now.

1 year ago… Joseph the unfortunate banana… Maybe reality could be should be

2 years ago… And you think they have no life… And you think the big pays big

3 years ago… A state of many people… Metamorphosis of slaves

To Dubai and back

For all the environmental talk that I have spoken, it’s ironic that I landed myself in Dubai in my first official business trip.  This piece of land is a desert not too long ago. Today, Dubai is a full fledge metropolitan city.

I was told the temperature has come down a bit but coming out from an air-conditioned shopping mall to catch a cab in the open, I felt as though a fireball was thrown at my face.  It was really hot!  Moving in between the hot open space and the winter chilled air-conditioned building can make you sick, literally.

Do you know… that 99.999999% of the working population in Dubai is foreigner?  My colleague told me the Emiratis don’t work, or more accurately… don’t need to work. They are freaking rich already.  He said even the govt agencies and police are foreigners! 

Well, I saw 1 Emirati who worked though… the guy who stamped by passport at the immigration.  He made up the 0.000001%.  For the rest, money comes out from the ground for them… literally.

Throughout my stay here, I have been having meetings with Jordanians, Lebanese, Pakistanis (yes, a lot of high flyer from this nation), Indians and some Brits.  Oh… one Lebanese I met looked exactly like… I kid you not… Takeshi Kaneshiro!  A very nice guy and I am working with him on some transactions.   Any girls want his number?

I went up the Burj Khalifa, the pride of Dubai.  This building makes the Petronas Twin Tower look like a dwarf.  The lift which took us up was amazing… 124 floors in less than 30 seconds. No kidding.  124^th floor is not the top by the way.

The view from the top? Well... everything just look small…

Don’t think I like being here but my colleague who is based here said it will take a while to settle down and once settled, this is quite a nice place to live.  I am not sure if I can agree with him. This place is an insult to mother nature, the amount of electricity used is beyond comprehension… they built an ski-mountain in the middle of a desert!!!!!!

You know the news about buildings being empty and all because the economy collapsed and there is an oversupply of real estate?  Well… somewhat true… I see a lot of construction and yet, a lot of buildings are vacant.   Rental has crashed… what used to be Dhs120,000 (SGD45,000) a year is now Dhs70,000 (SGD26,000) a year… and you can even get a bigger place!

Being a city born into metropolitan state, there is no cheap coffee shop type of food here.  A meal will easily cost you Dhs40.  Well, the guys here (those who worked in the same company as I am) are all paid in USD and they don’t need to pay tax so… no problem for them.

And so… my first business trip…

Oh… being flown in business class and at arrival, chauffeured to my hotel in a Lexus… and the same tomorrow morning to the DIFC… I felt like a small kid who just got his first taste of candy… and I guess this is why I became a modern slave.

1 year ago… Satu lagi peristiwa berkenaan bahasa… A first of such

2 years ago… Hypocrites aplenty

3 years ago… Once is enough… Conference dinner tales

How does it feel to be in my current modern slavery position

Obviously, the initial feeling is pretty good. I mean… moving into a head office position, it does gives you a glamorous feeling.

When I first arrived in the office, almost all the administrative and logistic matters were already settled… gadgets were cool and they gave me an i-Phone!… linked to my work mail server of course. But still… very cool. So yeah… it was a good feeling…

Next, the composition of colleagues within my team is quite over-whelming. I am the second youngest guy in the team and the only person without international exposure, the rest are all very experience people in this function I am in.

Sometimes, during discussions; the level of conversation is so high level and so corporately intellectual, I am left thoroughly amazed. I would like to believe that I am quite a quick thinker but man… these guys whom I work with are way too fast for me. I am like a small child feeding off the experience and knowledge of others.

And then, there will be days where I do feel quite powerful. With just 1 e-mail, I can (if I want) send chills through some people’s spine. With just 1 e-mail, I can instruct people to do a lot of things involving quite a lot of $$$. The details are beyond sharing boundaries but yeah… such are the days when I feel powerful.

Then there are days where I feel I am being put on the spot. Today – was a classic example. I was thrown with about 15 slides and was then asked to do a presentation… 10 minutes before a meeting. Fair enough, I am fairly familiar with the stuff but shite… 10 minutes preparation!

I think my boss did it on purpose because he has put me on the spot several times. Maybe it’s a training process, I should ask him the next time we have our 1-to-1 talk. Anyway, I have to say enjoy it. It’s actually very satisfying when you pull it off.

Apart from all that…

I have to admit that it can be quite frightening being in this position. I would even go to the extent to say that there were times where I really felt very fearful. I am fully aware that this organisation has very low tolerance for mistake. If I am fucked… I am really fucked…

Yeah… it’s glamorous to feel powerful and all but if I made a wrong call, I know my job is on the line.

Life is like that… I guess…


1 year ago… The unforgettable accident experience Part 3… Are you racist?

3 years ago… Whack it over the weekend

My Singapore working hours

“So what time do you knock-off?”
“How late do you work till?”
“Are the hours crazy?”

I have been bombarded with the above questions or the likes for the last 3 months by my Malaysian friends and ex-colleagues. All are under the impression that people here work non-stop and I will be drowned in it.

Remember the conversation that I had with my boss on why he hired me? In that conversation, he also told me this…

“You want to come in late, you come in late. You want to go for 2 hour lunch, you go for 2 hour lunch. You want to go back early, you can just go. But whatever you do… make sure you don’t fucked up in your work. If you’re fucked, I’m fucked. Staying back late to show me that you work hard doesn’t work here”

I guess that pretty much sums up the trend in my office. The big-boss generally leaves at around 6.45pm because he needs to pick up his kids. Of course, certain days he will have to stay for con-calls or other urgent matters. But it’s not very frequent.

There are a few days where my direct boss will leave between 6 – 6.30pm for his sports activities. Generally, he won’t stay past 7pm.

As for me… So far, there was only 1 day where I stayed on past 9pm because I had to rush something. On average, I will be having dinner at home by 7.30pm.

So to answer all those questions…

I do not stay late because my boss has made it very clear that it’s the quality and not the quantity that matters. I believe that’s the general principle here in Singapore, it’s all about performance. The if-you-go-back-early-means-you-don’t-have-enough-work theory doesn’t apply here, though that theory is very prominent in Malaysia where quantity is often perceived as performance.

As for getting into the office, I get in at around 9 – 9.15am. There were a few days where I have to come in early for calls with people from USA but that is not an everyday thing.

During my recent kidney check-up, I told my boss about my appointment and that I will be coming in late. He (fully aware of my kidney situation) looked at me funny and said…

“You don’t have to tell me these things. It’s a very matured working environment here, and you are not a junior person. If you have to go, you have to go”.

That’s pretty much my Singapore working hours.


3 years ago… A trip of co-incidences… A thought from an overloaded brain