Har Har Bedolnya

I shall now produce a few quotes.
-----

I was contacted by the judge who denied he was the person on the other side,”
de facto Minister of Law Datuk Mohamed Nazri Aziz

-----

Those responsible for releasing the videoclip should be mindful of their action as it was unlawful to erode the people’s confidence in the judiciary. It could just be a political stunt. If it was genuinely meant to rectify the situation, give (the videoclip) to the police to investigate,”
de facto Minister of Law Datuk Mohamed Nazri Aziz

-----

"Unless they want to show their hostility, why should they stoop so low by behaving like Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP and PAS?"
de facto Minister of Law Datuk Mohamed Nazri Aziz

-----

“In any event, how can the call for strengthening of the Judiciary be only the position of opposition parties when surely it must be the Government’s stand too,”
Bar Council president Ambiga Sreneevasan

-----

"There is no crisis in the judiciary and neither is there any scandal involved" (link)
de facto Minister of Law Datuk Mohamed Nazri Aziz

-----

"Those who participated in the "Walk for Justice", their brains are like opposition party. It is better for them to register as members of opposition party. I will be more delighted if they (Bar Council) register as an Opposition party. So that I know how to handle them,"

"I will ignore them as if they are non-governmental organizations (NGOS)"
de facto Minister of Law Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz to Sin Chew Daily

Har har. Where's all the big shots? Suddenly so quiet already, how about Kinabatangan, Jerai and Jasin (a.k.a bocor)? Apasal diam sangat? Last time during Negarakuku even Lesbian Sports pun buka mulut. Although tak kena jurisdiction pun asyik condemn aje, sekarang semua not in my power, not in my jurisdiction, no comment. Bedolnyaaaa..

Note: If you don't understand Malay, basically I'm just asking why are they so quiet, when during the Negarakuku issue, power figures systematically launched condemnations and threats to the person involved in the video although the matter mostly does not fall under their jurisdictions (I know.. a national anthem.. a national issue).

Oh, and if you haven't Dr Azmi Sharom's take on this, go read this.

Wahooo!!

Oh!! TGI Friday's ads!!
Seriously, go check out their menu, I've just checked it out and it looks dashingly delicious. 3 course for rm39.90, rather affordable considering the last time I ate at TGI's with my family the bill was pretty hefty. Oh come on, I know you can fork out that much to stuff your tummy enough to last till the next lunch. rm6 for one shot of smirnoff, ok lerr..

I'll run a post of TGI's soon, so I can take part in the competition and hopefully win food!! And if I'm really lucky, luckier than 4D Magnum Sports Toto, I might just win an extra rm1000 - to be donated to charity la of course (<-- wtf? I must be kidding myself)

I've Never Seen

Have you ever seen someone just breathing their last breath before they pass away? I've never, even for my paternal grandparents. So when I saw this picture, I could just imagine the poor man, exhaling his last breath, still holding his camera.. thoughts whizzing through his mind. There's this really awkward - "he's not coming back again" - feeling. I'm at a loss for words to describe this. It's kind of a depressing thought.

Kenji Nagai, a Japanese reporter, died from gunshot wounds on 27 Sept.

-----
Digressing a little, I don't get it, how come ASEAN officials are saying that they cannot do anything. UN Sec-Gen barely uttered a few comments, and all we have are the Western countries yapping their mouth off about sanctions, barring officials from travelling etc. The way the western media have been talking about things, it almost as if sounds like they are preparing the western public for military intervention in Myanmar.

It's their problem, a country's sovereignty cannot be undermined by letting others take part in their own problem, although at times international pressure (note - not intervention) has had proven success.

My thought goes out to all the monks in Myanmar.

A Little Enlightenment

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||| 43% Stability |||||||||||||||| 70% Orderliness |||||||||||||| 60% Accommodation |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Interdependence |||||||||||||||| 70% Intellectual |||||| 23% Mystical |||||| 30% Artistic |||| 16% Religious |||||||||||||| 56% Hedonism |||| 16% Materialism |||||||||||| 43% Narcissism |||||| 23% Adventurousness |||||||||| 36% Work ethic |||||||||| 36% Self absorbed |||||||||||| 50% Conflict seeking || 10% Need to dominate |||||| 23% Romantic |||||||||| 36% Avoidant |||||| 23% Anti-authority |||||||||||| 50% Wealth |||||||||||| 50% Dependency |||||||||||||||| 70% Change averse |||||||||||||||| 63% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 50% Individuality |||||||||||| 50% Sexuality |||||||||||||| 56% Peter pan complex |||||||||||| 43% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Physical Fitness |||||| 24% Histrionic |||||| 30% Paranoia |||||||||| 36% Vanity |||||||||||| 50% Hypersensitivity |||||| 23% Indie |||||||||| 40%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were high which suggests you are very relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic..

Orderliness results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.

Extraversion results were moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

trait snapshot:
clean, organized, regular, self reliant, tough, positive, high self control, very good at saving money, dislikes chaos, resolute, realist, trusting, hard working, dislikes unpredictability, prefers a technical specialized career, not worrying, respects authority, enjoys leadership, finisher, normal, optimistic, controlling, prudent, modest, adventurous, does not like to be alone, intellectual, likes the unknown, very practical, high self esteem, assertive, perfectionist, busy, altruistic

A little inaccurate. First, I am not at times, overly-organized. And I am only reclusive towards strangers. Like I said once before, once you get close to me, my ass starts talking. Oh and I managed to turn my once-low self esteem to high! Wooo my self-reflecting sorta-hiatus worked!! (Thanks~ Steph for the suggestion!)

Today is also post-what-you-got-from-other-blogs day. Credits to Sue Ling for her post... which was.. uh.. very long ago. Oops, that probably means I haven't been reading her blog for a month. =P Uh-oh..

OMG Another Donut Store!

As usual, when I open Mozilla, the first thing I'll do is browse through all the blogs in my blog list. Now into the picture comes kukujiao.com. Read today's post, on J.Co Donuts. I happen to know this donut company while reading through one of Kenny Sia's older posts while he was in Indonesia.

Now I don't quite get this, how come Indonesia can get Krispy Kreme and J.Co while we only get shitty Dunkin' Donuts?! Well Dunkin was great in the ol' days but now after a decade of facing Dunkin' Donuts' donuts, it's about time we get something nicer!

Well, in my opinion, J.Co is not quite as nice as Krispy Kreme (especially their original glazed!) but their donuts are innovative. And definitely better than Dunkin'.

Open now! At Pavilion KL. If you don't know how to get there, you're in real trouble. (And you still call yourself a KL-ian? Noob.).

Wheee, that's another thing to-do in December.

All credits to Earl Ku, without his blogpost I'll never know that there's a better donut store in town!

Brr..

It's really cold outside.. really cold. I seem to have forgotten this feeling of coldness (well warm becomes warmth, so cold becomes.. coldness?). Must have been the hot sweaty and humid weather in Malaysia.. hmm..

Rupanya, it's only 4°C outside.. one of the odd days in autumn I guess.. but with only a jumper, longsleeve, and undershirt it sure feels like shit walking outside. Gotta get used to it, it's effin' Edinburgh.. the weather here's shit.. as I've heard.

In General Sense

My opinion about the credit crunch in America, should differ from quite some number of widestream analysts. I believe that Mr Bernanke, Fed Chairman, has gave in to pressure from Wall Street. In fact, why should anyone be taking the blame when it is actually greedy Wall Street bankers and their risk undervaluing who are to blame? It has been proven in the past in Wall Street that moving with the herd is always a good thing to do.

Anyway, there's another point. What or who initiated the housing bubble instead? No other than.. Mr Bernanke's predecessor, Alan Greenspan. His policies during the 90s, created the dotcom boom and later in the post-911 era, the housing bubble. By adjusting the federal funds rate to historic lows of 1.0% (which by common sense, encourages house owners down to the lower proportion of society - in the income hierarchy - to take up mortgages.), he has pretty much lit a match and threw it into a pool of gasoline.

Mr Greenspan also publicly acknowledged the virtues of subprime loans, as quoted.

With these advances in technology, lenders have taken advantage of credit-scoring models and other techniques for efficiently extending credit to a broader spectrum of consumers. The widespread adoption of these models has reduced the costs of evaluating the creditworthiness of borrowers, and in competitive markets cost reductions tend to be passed through to borrowers. Where once more-marginal applicants would simply have been denied credit, lenders are now able to quite efficiently judge the risk posed by individual applicants and to price that risk appropriately. These improvements have led to rapid growth in subprime mortgage lending; indeed, today subprime mortgages account for roughly 10 percent of the number of all mortgages outstanding, up from just 1 or 2 percent in the early 1990s.

Remarks by Alan Greenspan on Consumer Finance at the Federal Reserve System's Fourth Annual Community Affairs Research Conference.

So, if you ask me who caused it, I would say.. the above.

If this bores you, I know it does, go here for a lighter side, or just continue doing your own stuff.. whatever you were planning to do before you looked here aight?

Minority Report

Oh, so I shall assume that most Malaysians studying in the University of Edinburgh.. are.. Medics. Hahaha so I went to this Buddhist Society meeting in the University Chaplaincy today. There were probably 16 people there. Only 3 newbies. Me, a girl, and another postgrad. And everyone else were medics.. and probably Malaysian. The newbies were the ones doing the other subjects, Economics (that's me), Neuroscience (the girl), and Architecture (the postgrad).

Then after that I went to this senior's flat, and he was real friendly. Learned quite some things about Edinburgh and I'm so envious that he has a flat 3-4 floors to share with his close friends! And apparently a non-medic Malaysian in Edinburgh is rare.

Damn I sound desperate and kiddish. Damn.

Half Past Six

A alleged proof of 'judge-fixing' has been made public by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim - our ex-ex-DPM.

Read here, here and the video's here.

It's just amazing, this news item was just posted over 13 hours ago, and now it's already being buried by an unusual amount of coverage over the tragic find of a body in a bag supposedly belonging to a small girl. That's 11 news items. And combined with other items, it makes PKR's news item look like a minor story.

There seems to be quite some high profile issues recently, and PM is keeping a veeerrryy low profile. Sleeping kah?

I'm Here!

I'm sorry for the period of quietness here. Was really busy, and trying to settle down into my new life.

The first few days I just felt nervous. All alone in a small room, real quiet outside, and feeling lost. Now, after 5 days, I've finally settled down. Got my Student Card, getting my NHS card in a few days, finalised stuff with the bank, and subscribed to the courses that I wanted, bought some textbooks, and basically started getting used to the life here.

So, let me break it down.
Subjects I'm taking this year.

• Economics 1A,
• Accountancy 1A(this sem) and 1B(next sem),
• Business Studies 1.
• Computing in Management and Economics
  

I didn't really want to take business at first, but since it's a prerequisite to Finance, I guess that's the only way to go. Oh, and total lecture time... 8 hours a week. I haven't included tutorials yet but the way tutorials work is every alternate week (every 2-3 weeks or so), there's a few hours of classes in that week. I'm expecting my total contact time to be around 16-17 hours a week probably. Quite free really. That's taken quite a lot of weight off my back =)

Hmmph.

I guess people do have insecurities. 12 hours away from my flight and I'm feeling quite insecure at the moment. Who will I meet there? How will life there be? I guess this question faces almost everyone right in the face. Ah well, at least I still feel excited to be there I guess.

Summer's been great these 11 weeks. Really had fun as I pretty much feel reluctant to go back, but oh well life goes on doesn't it?

This or This?

So, a ceramah backed by the Opposition turns into a so-called 'riot'. This was what happened. Permit which was given in the past wasn't given this time, for reasons which weren't an issue in the past. So the organisers promised to dismiss the ceramah when everybody arrived, but FRU (Federal Reserve Unit / Riot Police) fired tear gas, and water cannons at people who were there. Then there were shouts of Special Branch as people suspected that some people were not part of their group. And shots were fired injuring two civilians by the officer in plainclothes. According to sources, the man was supposedly an agent provocateur / penghasut from Special Branch who was causing unrest within the group. Opposition officials are organising a press conference to explain the entire matter thoroughly.

Shots were fired at the civilians. Wtf?

Ok, here's the police(and the government)'s take of the story. Police were there to dismiss the illegal assembly (which permit wasn't given because the house which the ceramah was held was on a main road and there were tourists in the vicinity) when it turned rowdy and started becoming a riot. A plainclothes officer was directing women and children to safety when people started attacking him, so he fired several shots, thus injuring the assailants. Officials from the ruling government in Terengganu and UMNO started pointing fingers at The Opposition, accusing them of underhanded tactics, and the usual stuff. There were also photos taken of people who were burning the national flag, and the opposition has taken some rapping on the knuckles for that.

So, who's to believe? Was SB officers really there in plainclothes causing trouble as witnesses say? Or was it really a peaceful gathering turned riotous? There's also the point that the GE is approaching, hence there is a possibility that this is to ruin the image of the opposition.

I'm merely suggesting. So.. who's right about what happened at Pantai Batu Burok?

No!

I wanna go Pavilion KL!!
Ted Baker and Banana Republic are opening their flagship store there!!

=(

Wuah, freebies.

So, it's everywhere. I'm quite glad on a few points made in Budget 2008.

• Single-tier tax system, effective from the year of assessment 2008. Under a single-tier tax system, profits are only taxed at the company’s level and dividends received are exempted from tax.
• Further reduction (by 1% only...) of the corporate tax to 25% in 2009.
• Commission rates for internet trading and cash upfront transactions will be fully negotiable. This measure will further reduce the cost of transactions. In addition, clearing fees will be reduced from 0.04% to 0.03%, with a maximum fee of RM1,000. The minimum broking charges per transaction is fixed at RM40.
• The examination fee for Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia and the annual fee for primary and secondary schools will be abolished.
• Beginning the 2008 school session, the Text Book Loan Scheme will be provided to all students, irrespective of their families’ income and with no restrictions on the number of eligible children.
• The Government also proposes that last mile network facilities providers be given Investment Allowance of 100% on capital expenditure incurred for broadband up to 31 December 2010; import duty and sales tax exemptions be given on broadband equipment and consumer access devices; and tax deduction be given to employers on benefits in kind in the form of new computers and payment of broadband subscription fees for employees. Such benefits in kind received by the employees will also be tax exempt.

Ok, end of freebies.

Here's the sucky part.

Beginning financial year 2008, public listed companies will be required to disclose their employment composition by race and gender, as well as programmes undertaken to develop domestic and Bumiputera vendors.

Real smart, while encouraging transparency, it indirectly forces Berhad companies to hire more ethnic Malays, and women. Ok, pretend you're a CEO at one big public listed company, would it make perfect sense to think like that, "Oh shxt, now must show out how many Malays in my company already, ok note to myself, send memo to HR after lunch to hire at least 30% Malays before year end. Later government don't like, 'blacklist' the company then sial lah. 30% enough, NEP target right?"

Effective September 2007, the Government will increase the COLA for students in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada by up to 97%, almost double the current rate.

I'm jealous. You increased another £400+ in allowance for gov-sponsored students in the UK! Arghh, means more money to spend on food, clothes, and booze loh..

--
All in all, this budget has corely focused on corporations, and vernacular schools. If you don't believe me, you can just go and read the full budget report. Like the Opposition Leader puts it, this is truly an election budget. I can't help but feel like what he says could be true. Next year = GE. No rise in sin taxes, more freebies given to students, freebies given to the ethnic Chinese and Indian education sector, freebies given to corporations, freebies given to biotech and agriculture.

Biasalah. But remember, this happens almost every year. They have all been promised, but how well will they be implemented remains a separate issue..

Even Women Can Be Greedy

Pardon me for the slight sexist slur in the title, but hang on, it has something to do with the context as well. =) Ok, The Government approves of 5-years unpaid leave for women, to take care of children. I'd say, yeah, at least it still allows the option of going back to work, without the hassle of finding a job, after the child has grown up. So, pretty good, and flexible.

Now, this group says it wants more.

This was far behind other countries like Sweden (14 weeks), Singapore (12 weeks) and Hong Kong (10 weeks).

In Sweden, fathers are also entitled to 10 days' paternity leave with 80% of them taking advantage of the benefit, said the Swedish Consular Deputy Head of Mission Eva Nilsson Mansfeld.

On top of the leave, parental leave is provided for 480 days per child, with 60 days reserved each for the father and mother while the rest are shared freely, she said.

During parental leave, 390 days are paid at 80% of the parents' income, up to a given ceiling and the remaining 90 days are set at a daily rate of around RM90 per day, she said.

Ok, so you provide much comparison to Sweden. How about comparing our taxation rates with theirs?

The compilation of taxes that compose the final income tax (2003): tax on gross income from the employer: 32.82% (indirect, fixed), pension fee on gross income: 6.95% (indirect, fixed), municipal tax on gross income less pension tax and a base deduction: ~32% (direct, varies by municipality), state tax on gross income less pension tax and a base deduction: 0%, 20%, or 25% (direct, progressive).
Source:Wikipedia.

Prepared to pay so much taxes or not? I'm not quite clear on the taxation system, but if I'm correct, you retain a maximum of about 40-43% of your income, after taxation, (and that's probably the worst case scenario there is). Correct me if I'm wrong.

So, janganlah compare banyak banyak. Beri betis nak peha, beri peha nak dada, beri dada nak kepak, nah ambiklah semua makan sendiri. (Literally means, give you this, you want that, give you that, want the other one, nah, take everything and eat yourself lah.)