Happy Deepavali

To Whom It May Concern:-

I would like to take this opportunity to wish a very merry, happy and jolly Deepavali to those who celebrates it today.

May you be blessed by the supreme being, and may you have prosperous health and wealth for the time to come.

On the other hand, I will try to keep-off from checking my facebook today for fears that I may read some non-sensical remarks, pathethic fatwas (religious edicts) that would accuse Muslims like myself and others of blasphemy for wishing other's season's greetings.

We live in a harmonic and peaceful Malaysia,, and I certainly do not need Islamic scholar wannabe to tell me what is right or wrong. You wanna know what is wrong? Go look in the mirror and fix your extreme attitude which has no place on this Earth. Look somewhere else beyond this terrestrial and shove that attitude of yours there.

Enough said. Moving on...

The picture below is a "deepavali" cupcakes given to my company from our advertising agency. The cake is sweeter than sugar, yummier than yoghurt and certainly tastier than some words uttered from bad some mouth :) very thoughtful of the advertising & public relations agency to give this cake to their customer/client on this festive season.

That is what you call -- to quote the theme of the recently conclude 9th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in London -- "changing world, new relationship"!

Happu Deepavali, or Diwali!

New Glassess

Peeps,

I am a four-eyed man. I "suffer" from a 'disease' of a long-eyesight disease. Not sure whether I put it right or not, but yeah. You got the idea. I can't see amything far away from me. It is all blurry which is why I need a spectacle or glassess to help facilitate my sight of this world.

Recently, I broke my old glasses - I accidentally sit on it while it was on my bed. It was one of my favourite spectacles that I ever owned.

I bought the old glasses when I was in Jakarta. It costs me Rupiah 500,000, which when converted to Ringgit was not that much. The simple trick to convert it to ringgit is to divide the value by three. That should be ... go figure! I ain't calculate that for ya.

The old glasses was cheap, made in Indonesia and possibly a fake one too, in terms of brand. Best of all, the spectacle was a polarized one, meaning to say that it will quickly (and yes, really quickly; despite its fake status) turn dark once it was hit by the ultraviolet light that came along with the radiated heat emanated from the scorching sun.

I like the glasses. The old glasses, I mean. But ever it was broken -- by ehem ehem, me! -- I have since thrown it away and bought myself a new spectacle from Menara Optometry, in Bandar Baru Bangi.

It doesn't cost much, and it is made of plastic. Very light despite it being big in size. Quite a fashionable glasses too. It made me look like an artist in a way. Yeah, I know.

But the thing is, it is not polarized because it costs much to do it in Malaysia. Almost double the price of the frame, can you believe it?

Fact: it will cost you at least (minimum) RM 1,000 to do a polarized glasses here in Malaysia. My god. Over there in Jakarta, it costs much much much more lesser. Lesser than RM 250, that is for sure.

Nevertheless, I plan to return to Jakarta, sip my lovely street and cooling alpokat (avocado), and get myself few more glasses from Mangga 2, a famous shopping mall in Jakarta.

There are literally hundreds, if not thousands (okay, I am exaggerating!) of optometrists there in Jakarta. Believe me when I say this!

Over there in Jakarta, glasses are like toys to babies - people there buy them not so much because they have eyesight issues, but they put it on because of fashion, being up-to-date and keeping in style with current trends. Talk about being cosmopolitan!

Oh well, for now, this will do!

Oh wait, how do I look? Yeah. I know ;) thank you for your compliment!

Unethical Front Page

Folks,

I got a bit frustrated looking at The Star's patheticity in its front page, today, Saturday, 12 Oct 2013.

It is clearly abusive, unethical and certainly defamatory. Though the political party Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) controls The Star, it does not give them any right to defame any member of its party,and humiliate them publicly, especially on its front page.

There is a growing crisis between MCA President Chua Soi Lek and his rival, Liow Tiong Lai. But that conflict should not be the main topic of the paper. There are many more important things to report on the front page than some stupid and silly remarks by Chua Soi Lek.

Today's paper truly disgusts me, and I certainly hope that Liow will take legal action against The Star.

Government Budget Allocations

Folks

I read with interest the infographic prepared by Foong Li Mei, as appeared in Focus Malaysia, Issue 44, Page 41.

The infographic look strikingly similar with the one presented by a local think-tank by the name REFSA (Research for Social Advancement).

Anyhow, this infographic is indeed a useful one to us Malaysians.

It basically give a detail information about how our country's budget are distributed among the many government arms and machineries, some of which are Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Prime Minister's Department etc.

In essence, the budget is divided into two:-

(a) capital expenditure (capex),
(b) operating expenditure (opex).

The capex is provided to all ministries and departments to cover specific functiond within their own purview, while the opex is used to cover expenses needed to operate the country which may include subsidies etc.

Read on, folks.

---
Image source: Focus Malaysia, Issue 44, Sept. 28th. Page 41.

Focus Malaysia vs The Edge

Kawan-Kawan,

As of now, there are are two weekly business newspapers in Malaysia, namely Focus Malaysia and The Edge.

The former is about 10-month old (launched December 2012) while the latter has been around for quite sometimes (more than five years, I think).

The feel and look in these weekly newspapers are strikingly similar - the type of papers used, the layout and the style of writings.

But in my personal opinion, the news coverage is much more wider in Focus Malaysia than in The Edge.

There is a 'corporate feel' when reading The Edge, possibly because it covers a lot about corporate Malaysia, as well as the 'captains' and 'big boys' of respective industries. I somehow personally feel that the paper is reserved for the niche lot - "the elitist". I can feel it when looking at the 'fonts' used in this paper: classic, old-fashioned and reserved for selected echelons in the society.

On the other hand, Focus Malaysia tend to cover not just the corporate big boys, it include too the small-players, particularly the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), thus making it more comprehensive and reaching wider audience than The Edge. This I can tell by looking at the 'funky' fonts used in this paper.

Of course, this is my un-scientific assement of these two papers.

Each has its own merits, pros and cons.

Anyway, of particular interest is the ad that I saw in this week's edition of Focus Malaysia. The ad may have been around for quite sometimes, and maybe it went unnoticed before my two + two eyes.

What interests me is the wording used by Focus Malaysia in their ad:-

"Stay focused. Keep off the edge"

The choice of words here are "focus" and "edge". Very smoothly and subtly done, woven between the words and interspersed with a nice image of a cliff, but it has a deep meaning to it.

One need to simply read between the lines to connect the dots ans putting the jigsaw piece together.

It may be perfectly legal as, but is it ethical?

I leave this to you to ponder.
Go figure! :)

---
Image source: Focus Malaysia, Issue 44, Oct. 5th-11th. Page 6.

Price Increase

Friends,

To recap, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib announced fuel hike of 20 sen (RM 0.20) on Sept. 2nd, 2013.

As we all know, an increase in fuel price will increase almost every single cost and price in Malaysia.

The data below was checked and compiled by a research house (M&A Securities) which shows that there is an increase of 20 sen in almost all food prices.

The increase, when read in percentage, is a rude jolt for my mind to fathom. Imagine a 20% increase. Wow, that is a lot to consider; even though it is an increase from RM 1.00 to RM 1.20.

I can definitely understand the fluctuation of oil price, but the government should be a bit mindful too of the resultant domino effect when raising the oil price.

Source: Focus Malaysia, Issue 44, Oct. 5th-11th. Page 16.

Ranking of Banks in Malaysia

Folks,

I have been quiet for a while.
Just busy with life and work and never ending things.

Below is the ranking of banks in Malaysia according to the Return of Equity (ROE) ratio.

The list was compiled by Focus Malaysia - one of the leading business newspapers in Malaysia.

Source: Focus Malaysia, Issue 43, Sept. 28th - Oct. 4th, 2013. Page 14-15.