Prosperity and Chinese New Year 2011

The economic wound caused by US sub-prime crisis might have started to recover but in Malaysia consumers are still not feeling safe to spend more for this upcoming Chinese New Year 2011. For some reasons Chinese's spending behaviors for this festive season are somewhat reflective to the country economic condition.

FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI  has gone down for more than 30 points in 2 weeks (prior Chinese New Year) and  the pointer is expected to go down further unless cash-rich investors decide to buy in some bluechips at low price. I read a newspaper article saying stocks listed i  Bursa Malaysia offer lower rate of return than debts, theoretically debt is less risky than stock and risky investment should promise higher return. However, I'm not able to verify the statement so we shall see. 

In a nut shell, Chinese have not been spending the way they used to. Textile and apparel industry has been complaining about the raising cost of production and low demand, result in lower profits or even loses. 

Afraid of intelligence property infringement, businesses also reluctant to play CNY music and further reduces the so-called 'CNY atmosphere'. 

Nevertheless, I wish all readers and haters of this blog Happy Chinese New Year and a fruitful year ahead.




RM3000 is benchmark for high-income

A minister named Mustapa Mohamed said RM3000 will be used as benchmark for high-income jobs. He also said its a reasonable income for working class in Klang Valley and its probably considered as lucrative for someone from places like east coast and east Malaysia.

I immediately recalled what my mum told me (complained to me actually). She said:"You must study harder you know? Study hard so you can get good pay in future. Everything is about money now. Do you want your wife and children to die of hunger? Your father and I work so hard only earn about RM5000 per month which is barely enough to offset all the expenses and house loan."

My family own a Proton car and my parents only use the car to travel to work place. My mum is a typical housewife so she cooks everyday. My family barely go for shopping (not even window shopping). We do not have Astro at home. Even though we have air-conditioner but we seldom use it. My parents have 3 children who are currently studying. My brothers' get RM5 each as their daily pocket money. My mother also said:"Everything becomes so expensive, petrol increased everything else follows. Last time when I was small 5cents can buy a bowl of noodle already."


Housewives are actually good economists. They are observant and sensitive to price changes in market. Don't believe you can ask your mum:"How much is 1kg of sugar nowadays?" or go shopping for grocery with your mum, she will make sure that your value of money is maximized. Even though they might not know the term inflation but they certainly can feel it and try their best to preserve their money's value. But even they think RM5000 is barely enough to survive. How about RM3000? How about the inflation? Is RM3000 worths more than RM1000 of 20 years ago?

p.s.
I am completely aware of the statement made by Mustapa - You won’t be rich (with RM3,000) but you can survive.And RM3000 is only an initial benchmark, which will be improvised and adjusted to a higher level. I have no intention to take his words out of the context to create negative perception towards him or ETP or the RM3000 benchmark. I merely wanted to point out the pitfalls of this benchmark, where inflation is not being emphasized.



source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/high-income-job-bar-set-at-rm3000/

Read Before Comment

I noticed some people like to comment on things that they are not certain or don't understand. They are not illiterate, in my humble opinion, they just don't bother to read.

For example, Namewee (黄明志) updated his facebook's fan page and he said:
FB closed / blocked my official "NASI LEMAK 2.0" the movie page! Sigh ... it happened to me before in 2009 when my own page was closed for almost 5 months ...

Because he is popular, people started to like and comment on the status update. Below are some of the funny comments I extracted. They are written in Chinese so I translated them.

不是真的!facebook要关闭是假的!
(It's not real! Facebook shutting down is a hoax!)

消息传出facebook创办人将在3月15号永久关闭facebook server。我看你应该不用抱着期望他跟你开回了。
(Rumours say the founder of facebook will shut down facebook's server at 15th March. I don't think he will reopen it.)


LOL,namewee bro...about the facebook close is fake..so u still can continue to do ur next thing =D 我很期待 (I'm looking forward to) ur new movie =D

吊你们那些相信脸书要关的人,无脑!
(Fuck those people who believe the facebook-is-shutting-down hoax, no brainers!)


If you are not an active facebook user, then you probably don't know that there is a hoax spreading like wild fire claiming that Mark Zuckerberg is going to shut down his $50billion business at 15 March 2011. Thanks to facebook addicts who do not read and do not know how to differentiate news and hoax.

Anyway, it's not the point I want to discuss. Read again, what did Namewee write and how people commented. They don't match at all. Namewee was saying his new page has been blocked and these idiots misinterpreted his statement as facebook is shutting down. Read before you comment ok? Verify rumors before spreading it ok? Do not make yourself look like idiot. Use common sense.

Malaysia's Top Politicians' Monthly Salaries

1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower page shared an interesting piece of info quoted from The Sun revealing monthly salaries of Malaysia's politicians.

1. prime minister - RM22,826.65,
2. deputy prime minister - RM18,168.15
3. cabinet ministers are paid RM14,907.20.
4. political secretary effective Jan 1, 2004 is RM5,709.99.

People responded differently towards the information. Many think it's a fair price while a lot have doubts that how do these people afford multi-billionaires' luxurious lives with that kind of pays. Some comments caught my eye and I think they deserve some forms of recognition and replies.

"SIKIT JER...GO GOOGLE SIN(GAPORE) PRIME MINISTER ..SURE NAJIB GO THERE.."


reply: The matter of fact, Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Long is the second highest paid politician in the world with basic salary of 2,183,516 USD per annum. Najib would definitely go there if Singaporeans would accept him as their Prime Minister. I think they would pay him RM20k just for not becoming their PM. The matter of fact, Najib still get 89,137.59 USD per year which is a lot higher than India's Manmohan Singh and China's Hu Jintao. (source)

"you guys pandai ckp je.. you don't have parents from the above sectors, senang la talk.. being the public figures that they are, they're risking their lives, time and families for the country.. like singapore? go live there :)"


reply: If I have parents from the upper class, I wouldn't want to change because the status quo is enabling my family to lead Donald Trump's lifestyle. Risk their lives, time and families for the country? I leave it to your own judgement.



"the point is, stop talking shit about his salary + side income + royalties when nobody knows what shit he's going through.."


reply: Nobody knows what shit he has to go through? Guilt and sleepless nights for not able to find the murderers for both Altantuya and Teoh Beng Hock?




"yes, and that commission and bonuses are what u also get at ur company rite? the same practice here"


reply: In a company, you'll only get commissions and bonuses when you did well, created values and earned profits for your company. 


"thinking about it... i think its kinda true...
have any of u seen Dr. Mahathir's house ? its just a normal 2 storey house.. it aint that big anyways.."


reply: Do you read news


Nevertheless, I'm not saying RM22k is not a fair price. I personally think it's fair even if Prime Minister is paid RM2.2 million a year, provided he is doing his jobs right and free of corruption.

What is Politic? (For Dummies)

Politic is around us, but who really understand what does the term politic really mean? I came through this piece of article defining and explaining politic in the simplest words one possibly could.

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is politic?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me capitalism. Your Mom, she's the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you the people. The nanny, we'll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we'll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense,"

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents' room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now."

The father says, "Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about."

The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep poo."


Not Suicide Nor Homicide. How Did Teoh Beng Hock Die?

Court says Teoh Beng Hock's death was neither homicide nor suicide. Then how did he die? Let's unleash imagination and see what are the possibles.

Is it possible that ~

1. He died of heart attack. Beng Hock had weak heart and was intimidated by MACC interrogation, can't stand the stress and died. But how did he end up at the 5th floor of the building (he was supposed to be at the 14th)?

2. He fell off MACC building (Plaza Masalam) during 'prison break' attempt. But it was just an interrogation, he wasn't jailed or prisoned, so this doesn't make sense to escape as well.

3. He slipped and somehow flied through the window and fell off the building. Slippery floor, banana pile?


http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/1/5/nation/20110105153818&sec=nation
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1000 days and the story ends.