Sights from Saturday Farmer's Market

I always like Saturday because it's two days away from Monday and there's Farmer's Market! Usually when I'm not that lazy to wake up a little early in the morning, I will ride my bicycle and grab a cup of coffee from Sweetwaters Cafe (no Starbucks please !), buy some organic vegetables and enjoy the sight of people buying local harvests.

Mode of transportation...

People and Corn

Flowers...

And more flowers...

The Big Durian...

Do you remember "Prebet Adam"?


I managed to borrow and watched this DVD from my university's library (I requested for them to buy it, long time ago). An Amir Muhammad's production (the same guy who produced Lelaki Komunis Terakhir).

A very interesting documentary. Never have I seen a Malaysian production, not to mention, this rare Malaysian documentary 'breed', that touched a very sensitive topic, which involves racial issue in Malaysia, without creating any negative impact or negative view.

Basically, the documentary touched more than just racial issue, it touched various sensitive issues, that definite will open your mind, to do some judgment on these issues.

It didn't say any which side is right, which side is wrong. It's basically telling what had happened during that period (October 1987) and what did people involved, indirectly, with that issue.

I hope all Malaysians have the opportunity to watch it, especially during this 'almost' election period.

Cycling his way back home....

From The Star

"He pedalled off from Los Angeles, reaching Washington DC in 38 days, covering a distance of 5,625km.

He cycles about 150km daily and his daily routine begins between 5.45am and 6.30am, stopping at about 7.30pm. He takes a three-hour break in the middle of the day.

Yesterday, he flew to Dublin, Ireland, to begin the European leg of the journey. He has another 15,000km to go.

He said that he would like to see emerging from this adventure was a charitable effort involving international and domestic organisations, and said that matters were being worked out to channel funds to a few such organisations in Malaysia and the Mae Tao Clinic in Myanmar.

Those who would like to follow Law’s journey or help him in charitable work can read his journal, www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/longwayhome or e-mail him at tzuohann@gmail.com."

I met this guy personally when we were studying together at INTEC before flying to the States. A brilliant guy, very energetic in everything (as both of us were ATUSA Committee member).

I always dream that I could do something great like what he is doing. Although I did traveled for about two weeks on Amtrak alone backpacking. I guess my next adventure would be traveling around Southeast Asia region by train (if possible, make my way up to Nepal).

Of Responsibility and Obligation...

"The Constitution of Malaysia requires that a general election must be held at least once every five years. However, the Prime Minister can ask the Yang di-pertuan Agong to dissolve the parliment at any time before this five year period has expired. A general election should be held no later than 3 months after the dissolution of the Parliament."

According to my calculation, the last time Malaysia had it's last election was in 2004. It has been almost four years since the last time the country had it's last election, which was won by the ruling party, which is now the government. Thus according to simple math and the current issues going on the main stream newspapers, it seems like the next general election is just around the corner.

Apparently, time has finally arrived for me to be a responsible citizen of Malaysia which is to cast my vote. That sounds great right? Finally I have my own voice, opinion and right. Well, it's not that great to have the right to vote.

Who should I vote for in the upcoming election since I now have the right to do so? I have no idea. Yeah, the government have done so many things ( good things and not to forget, bad things too) to the country. And the opposition, what have you done to the country? Good question...

Should I give my vote to the ruling party? For me, I never against the government of Malaysia. As long as good things are being done, why should I be mad of the government. But how can't I be mad when there are so many ruling party politicians seem to care about their wallet, projects and power. And in Malaysia, if you critic them out loud, although what you are saying is right, either you go to the ISA and/or you won't have any chance to 'cari makan'. And in Malaysia, the ruling party is 'the government'. Nobody else can be the government. If you support the other party, you have betrayed 'the government' and that is like equivalent of betraying the country.

As a sponsored student, we were told not to be associated to any political party while we were studying here. But let me rephrase it. It is more like not associated to the opposition party, because if I am not mistaken, UMNO is a political party and it seems that there's no action taken to any students who are involve with UMNO.

As for the opposition. I don't see the country would go anywhere with them. Most of them are based with radical ideas, one issue party (which some of them does not even make any sense anymore) and racist too (just like the government)! Political party based on race? For me that is racist. So should I give up my vote to them?

If I don't vote the ruling party, don't ever say that I did not vote for the government. For me, it's really annoying to hear people say you have to vote the ruling party because they are the government. But in election, you are casting your vote for the politician that your are think is right, and the party that is relevant. There's non in the constitution saying that you have to vote for the ruling party and the ruling party will forever be the government. If I decided to vote for the ruling party and they lost the election, isn't it like I've voted for the opposition party, because the government is not the used to be ruling party?

And what is so obvious now days, Malaysia is so divided because of politic. And everything is about politic now in Malaysia. Yeah, it's awesome to see Malaysia people stand up for world issue, protesting on the street. But please, if you would like to protest, in the name of Malaysian people, leave your political flags and banners at home. Malaysian flag is good enough to say you are Malaysian and you don't like what other countries are doing. Rather than supporting you, in the name of Malaysian, I got sick looking at these people, trying to show they care but the fact that all they want to show is that I am brave, my political party is brave, and give me seat because I brought hundreds of party flags and vote for me! Rather than being proud, I got pissed.

Then who should I vote for? I will look into the matter of who are the candidates contesting for the seats in my area. Certainly I won't vote for politician who obviously from other state, or even other area then where I live (what do this person know about the problems and issues in my area, they don't even live here!!! And you want to represent my area? Go balik kampung and represent your area!). And I will look into their agenda, their background and how brilliant the candidate is.

Until then, don't ever say I am not supporting the government. Who ever the government is, I don't care because it's the people who the government should be scared to, not the government that people should be scared off. But I know, in Malaysia, it's a long way before we could ever reach that point.

I will only be loyal to the country of Malaysia and for me, that's good enough.

From the Ann Arbor Art Fair...

The Ann Arbor Art Fairs are a group of four award-winning art fairs taking place annually in Ann Arbor, Michigan that attract over 500,000 visitors each year. The fairs take place on a Wednesday through Saturday during mid-July. In addition to art exhibits, the fairs also feature music performances and children's activities, most notably the "Imagination Stations." The four fairs are the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the State Street Art Fair, the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair, and Ann Arbor's South University Art Fair.

Nuri...oh Nuri....!

Nuri in action

Nuri, should this helicopter still be flying today? It seems that it's kinda old but even US is still using the same helicopter. And guess what, they use it to carry their President !

Marine One

Chronology of Nuri crashes and near misses since 1969.

April 25, 1969 - First Nuri crash when four RMAF men were killed in Kuching, Sarawak.

March 11, 1972 - Another four men were killed in a crash in Gambang, Pahang.

April 26, 1976 - 11 crew and passengers were killed when a Nuri was brought down by communist fire in Gubir, Kedah.

July 19, 1980 - A Nuri crashed near Ipoh, Perak but 18 people survived.

April 25, 1981 - Two RMAF men were killed and 13 others escaped with injuries when a Nuri crashed near the Kuching Airport in Sarawak.

July 11, 1981 - A Nuri crashed near Batu Melintang, Perak. 11 people survived.

Nov 14, 1989 - 21 people perished in a crash between Gunung Gerah and Gunung Bilah on the Kelantan- Perak border.

Dec 18, 1989 - 16 men were killed in a crash near Sungai Lundu, Sarawak.

Aug 28, 1990 - 9 men training for Merdeka celebration survived an emergency landing near Rawang, Selangor.

Jan 16, 1991 - A Nuri from Sungai Besi to Kluang made an emergency landing in Kampung Parit Zin, Muar, Johor. 12 men cheated death.

June 10, 1991 - 6 men were killed when a Nuri crashed and exploded in Banding, Perak.

July 11, 1991 - 7 men were killed when a Nuri crashed during landing also in Banding, Perak.

Oct 16, 1996 - 2 men were killed when a Nuri crashed in Muka Head, Penang.

March 19, 1997 - 11 RMAF men were killed when two Nuris crashed near Gunung Lumaku, Sipitang in Sabah.

March 5, 2004 - 2 men were killed in a crash in Taman Udara, Butterworth.

March 30, 2004 - 3 pilots survived an emergency landing in Bukit Kalam near Labuan, Sabah.

Aug 15, 2004 - 3 men were killed in a crash at Long Seridan, Sarawak.

July 13, 2007 - 6 RMAF personnel perished when a Nuri crashed at Genting Sempah, Pahang. Their bodies were recovered four days later.

Want a Porsche 911 Targa 4..?

The man got into the high-performance car and asked a saleswoman to switch on the engine before making his dramatic exit, Malaysian news agency Bernama said.

It described him as well-dressed, and said he produced a cheque book before smashing his way out of the showroom in the 963,000-ringgit Porsche 911 Targa 4.

But the thief did not get very far. Officers found the car abandoned 1.5 kilometres away, and newspapers reported it had run out of fuel.

Then...

Malaysian police were left red-faced after a man who abandoned the theft of a $280,000 Porsche for lack of fuel attempted the crime a second time and drove the sportscar out of a police station, local media said.

The man kept the keys and returned with a canister of petrol to a local police station where the car had been towed. He drove off with the Porsche, ditching it later after he discovered roadblocks had been set up to stop him. Police recovered the car an hour later, about 15km away. But this time, unlike in the first incident, the car had fuel.

Maybe next time Porsche should use a new tag line...

"Visit your local Porsche showroom or your district police station for the latest Porsche Model!!!"
"And 'drive away' with a new one, today"

Minimum Wage...The case of social ethics and econimics

"Sandra, 50, is a single mother who works six days a week from 8am to 6pm at a small bread factory on mainland Penang, in northern Malaysia. Her salary of just over 300 ringgit ($79) id whittled down to below that amount after statutory deductions. She lives in a congested squatter settlement in a dilapidated plank house, covered with corrugated aluminium roofing, which gets unbearably hot under the mid-day sun. With her retirement savings, she somehow managed to place a deposit for a 25,000-ringgit ($6,579) low-cost house, always scarce, and took a bank loan to finance the remainder. Monthly loan repayments alone come to 58 ringgit ($5.3). That does not leave much for food, transport, medical expenses and her son's education."

In Malaysia, the official poverty line is set at 460 ringgit ($121). Some people said to deny an increase in minimum wage is like to deny low-income workers a basic living wage and a right to basic needs including housing and medical treatment.

At first I was agree with the fact of all the employer in Malaysia wants cheap labor and do not want to give up a share of their profits. Everybody is underpaid , from janitors to factory workers to construction worker up to engineer. Then I did some more reading on the issue, thanks to wikipedia and some other website.

Then I realized, it is not simple to just increase the minimum wage. The concept of wage has some correlation with supply and demand. Both labor and demand curve can be demonstrated like the supply and demand with wage on the vertical axis and labor on horizontal axis.

In other words, by introducing minimum wage, 'theoretically' it would disrupt the equilibrium of supply and demand. A minimum wage might prevent companies from hiring workers below the minimum wage. This will result in excess labor and thus increasing unemployment.


Furthermore, Tun Dr. Mahathir made a statement, "if a worker earning 400 ringgit ($105) at present had his or her salary raised to 1,200 ringgit, those earning 1,200 would ask for a raise to 2,000, and others earning more will ask for even higher salaries. In other words, a high minimum wage will lead to a compound increase in wages and salaries which neither the government nor the private sector can afford,''. (sounds familiar).

Furthermore, increasing wage will increase the operating cost of a company. In Malaysia, most companies are international companies that choose Malaysia as the location for them to built their manufacturing . This is what people call offshore outsourcing . One of the reason these companies decided to do this is because the stable wage that remains low, due to the fact of stable labor supply. By increasing the wage, this might drives these companies to move their facilities to somewhere that offers cheaper wage.

My point of view is to evaluate the cost living and evaluate each level of labor. Certainly companies need to provide appropriate wage, but somehow labors need to increase productivity to earn their high wage. I agree with Tun Mahathir that the higher tier of the labor would want to have their wage increase. Thus, companies need to appreciate their worker skill, qualification and experience and set each level of labor with appropriate wage.

But I am pretty sure, we have brilliant economist would have idea on how this issue could be settled. The cost of living in Malaysia is definitely increasing so this serious issue needs to be tackled or else a lot of Malaysian people will suffer.

Malaysia is losing value in coins and people...

An e-mail complaint to The Star that a drink stall attendant in Tanjung Bungah had refused to accept the two pieces of five sen coins that he wanted to use to pay for a drink. Well is it nowdays that 5 cents doesn't have any value in Malaysia? What happened to 1 cent then?

Well according to Bank Negara, under Section 24 of the Central Bank of Malaysia Act that you can use one sen, five sen, 10 sen and 20 sen coins to pay for a transaction of up to RM2.

The Act also allows a buyer to pay for a product or service worth up to RM10 in 50 sen coins.

I would be very sorry to the cashier if someone does that but they get paid to do that, counting money. If the cashier decided that that job is too hard for them, then we should start using vending machine fore everything instead.

Back to the the stall refusing to accepting 5 cents from customer. This is one of the attitude problem that is happening in Malaysia. People are just want things to be convenient to them. It seems that the saying that 'customers are always right' doesn't exist anymore in the service and retail business dictionary. Imagine, one time I was in Kelantan and one of my mom's friend wanted to buy newspapers from a stall. The stall attendant was so unfriendly and so irritated, it was like we were forcing her to accept money from us. I know it doesn't make sense, 'forcing her to accept money from us'.

One thing I will miss when I go back to Malaysia.

Weekend of Wonders

I went camping at Pointe Aux Barques which is in the thumb area of Michigan (see Michigan map). Then my friends and I had a barbecue on Saturday night. On Sunday, I went for a boat ride on Huron River, on glorious day with glorious sunlight. There are just so much to see and do during summer here in Ann Arbor, and Michigan.


Camp Fire Wood


Lake Huron


Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse


Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse facing Lake Huron


Walk on the beach


Burning fire while having dinner outdoor


Clouds like in The Simpson's