Missing the grunts of Sharapova

I stayed up late last night, watching the match between Safina and Mauresmo in the last 16 of Wimbledon. I thought that Mauresmo was going to win the match when leading 3-0 on the third set after both of them won one set a piece. But Safina lives up to the expectation as world number one and overturned a 0-3 deficit to capture the last set at 6-4. Both fought like lioness but perhaps long battle was clearly costing a toll on the 29-year old Mauresmo while credit has to be given to Safina for her gutsiness and never say die attitude.

The match between Federer and Soderling was pretty much a serving contest as mentioned by Federer during the interview after the match. They were firing aces after aces and no long rallies so the match was quite boring. The match between Andy and Wawrinka should be very exciting as that 5-set thriller was the latest ever finish in Winbledon as reported by ESPN but it was too late for me to watch as the match between Safina and Mauresmo ended close to 1.30am. Perhaps a replay can be seen tonight on 813.

It is fun watching professional tennis tournaments as the players are so committed that sometime their guts and spear wills outpace exhaustiveness to churn out miracle shoots. It will be fun to see Andy playing Federer in the final but alas I miss the grunts of Maria Sharapova already.

Is the name really that important?

In handling crisis, the worst thing to do is losing focus and deviations on unnecessary trivial issues. You can see a very good example on how our ministers or other high ranked government officers were divided by how Influenza A (H1N1) to be called. Medical experts like TanSri Ismail Merican insists of the term Influenza A (H1N1) as that is what agreed upon by medical experts of WHO as it is a new virus strain derived from a mutation of swine-flu, bird-flu and human-flu. But there are some others who think that Influenza A (H1N1) is too difficult to pronoun or too technical for people at large to be familiar with. The difference of opinions on what the H1N1 to be called spiced up arguments among the ministers and related authorities which doesn't auger well to lessen the confusion of the general public on this flu pandemic. The word swine flu is even too sensitive for President Barack Obama as it may deter people from eating pork, thus affecting million dollar business of the pig rearing industry.

Whatever it is, the virus couldn’t be care less on what human beings going to call them. You can call them angel but they will still infect you if you are not taking any precautionary measures and too unfortunate to come into contact with people already been infected but unaware of their infections. Let stand united in fighting Influenza A. The name of this highly contagious disease has nothing to do with the outbreak. Let implement more stringent measures to curb the disease as fast as possible so that we don't have to worry so much while travelling or going to public places.

Bye, Farrah & Michael

Sometime we see extremely talented and gifted people are bogged down with trivial issues that to our mind is just part and parcel of life. Six years ago when the pop singer Leslie Cheung ended his life by jumping down from the 24th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, I was pondering how come such a gifted singer and actor with richness beyond our imagination simply could not free himself from self inflicted deadlock and surrendered his life so easily. Leslie was told to have suffered from clinical depression for many years before committing suicide. To him, living a normal live could simply be something that is beyond reach just like how we are dreaming to be in his stardom and successes.

This morning we were shocked by the news of the death of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Farrah, just like her staunch character in the Charlie Angels, brave and resilient to fight life threatening cancer since 2006. On the other hand, Michael who became freakish when he underwent countless plastic surgeries to make his face look like Elizabeth Taylor and also tried to be a white man instead. I really don’t know how all these surgeries and operations were depleting his life, or whether worth it to undertake such dangerous surgeries just to be a fair bit whiter? I’m not trying to be disrespectful to Michael whom I grown up well entertained by his exciting songs and performances. He sang the song Black or White, but was instead trying to defy all odds to become white. Black or White does really matter to him I guess.

Somehow god gives talents to some people to make them extremely successful but forget to give them strength to appreciate a normal live.

Shanzhai (山寨)

The term Shanzhai (山寨) becomes popular since last year and it generally refers to Chinese knockoffs or pirated brands and goods particularly electronics. You would be surprise to find out that the pirated electronic products such as cell phones, PDAs, DVD players, MP3 and so on are so rampant in China. Last year end when I was in Guilin and a few other nearby cities, I found that faked hand phones were so popular over there. Instead of NOKIA, they have exactly the same model with similar functionalities only with slightly different tag of NCKIA. Instead of iphone, they have similar product calls iOrange. Amazing isn’t, I was stunned when I came to know that the price of the products were not even half of the original ones. In the past we know that the branded handbags, watches, T-shirts and so on were counterfeited, now the Chinese have gone so high tech that even cell phone and other more sophisticated electronic products can be cloned.

I followed a Taiwanese talk show last night that deliberated on the Shanzhai culture in China. It was reported that of the 1.15 billion cell phones sold worldwide in 2007, about 150 million cell phones sold in China the same year were Shanzai products. That means at least one tenth of the cell phones sold in 2007 were fake products from China. That's why the intellectual property is always a big issue in China. But how come the original brands such as Nokia and so on are not taking serious actions on their imitated products? The show offered very good explanations. It seemed that the genuine brands are also aware that the existence of Shanzhai products is a reflection of the current purchasing power of the majority consumers in China. They simply can’t afford the original LV handbags or original Nokia cell phones which cost probably more than double as compared to the Shanzhai alternatives. But Shanzhai products are of inferior quality, the genuine brands are probably taking the opportunity to educate the consumers on the quality aspects of their products. As the purchasing power increases in tandem with the fast growing economy of China, consumers will naturally source for the genuine products which are of better quality and more importantly reflective of their standard of living and lifestyle. You simply can’t go to a LV party carrying a counterfeited LV handbag, don’t you? Your peers will laugh at you.

Political wisdom of Tok Guru

I could see why UMNO is so enthusiastic about the unity talks with PAS as proposed by Nasharrudin. UMNO is losing supports while Pakatan Rakyat is gaining popularity with days. It is therefore logical for UMNO to destabilize Pakatan Rakyat before the coalition becomes stronger. Remember the divide-and-rule trick used by the British during the colonial time? By pulling PAS out of Pakatan Rakyat, there will not be a strong coalition to pose a serious threat to UMNO.

I suppose UMNO is also not really interested in the unity talks. They have been in the political supremacy in this country over the past many decades and for sure they can’t stomach the fact that they are slowly losing out supports of the people. There is a hidden agenda. The unity talk is aimed to destabilize the Pakatan Rakyat by creating fractions among the coalition formed by PKR-PAS-DAP. With time, the Pakatan Rakyat is gaining the recognition of the multi-racial community as a probable alternative to Barisan Nasional. The unity talks will cause the Chinese dominated DAP to be in a dilemma. If PAS is pulling out, Pakatan Rakyat will surely lose a large supports from the Muslim voters and DAP will be back to square one as a Chinese predominated party without strong supports particularly from Muslim community.

It takes a wise man with wisdom such as Tok Guru Nik Aziz to disperse the dark clouds looming at the Pakatan Rakyat. The stern utterance of Tok Guru to ask Nasharuddin to quite PAS and join UMNO has somehow reaffirmed the commitment of PAS to Pakatan Rakyat. As a result, DAP and PKR can now be relieved from a possible breakaway.

Istora Senayan losing its notoriety

It is not a bad day for Malaysian badminton fans today. We won two titles in the just only concluded Indonesia Open Super Series with Lee Chong Wei winning the men single and Wong & Chin won the women double. Not bad at all. Indonesian fans were clearly disappointed. Only Taufik Hidayat managed to get into the final but the aging golden boy of Indonesia has surely losing up steam against his younger opponent and went down tamely to Chong Wei in the final.

Istora Senayan used to be a fearful venue for non-Indonesia Badminton players for its notorious ground supports. I remember many years ago when Cheah Soon kit and Yap Kim Hock were playing against the Indonesia pairs, you could always hear the Indonesia crowds shouted “botak, botak” to distract Kim Hock. That was very disturbing indeed. It will take a steel mind to overcome the abusive boos and jeers of the enthusiastic fans of Indonesia. In the past, it seems impossible for non-Indonesia players to win the Indonesia Open because of the strong supports by the local fans. But for the past few years, it seemed that Istora Senayan was not as notorious as it used to be when their top players are fading and couldn’t even qualify for the finals. Taufik is aging and Sony is not good enough to succeed him. The double pairs are also not as deadly as before. This year in particular is a disappointment for Indonesia badminton fans as they won nothing.

I was amused when I saw the young Indonesian girls cheering and shouting in support for the good looking Lee Young-Dae of South Korea when he and his partner played against the Chinese pairs in the final of men double. I guess when you don’t have your own countrymen to support, it is not wrong to support the good looking one, just like I always support Maria Sharapova when watching tennis tournaments.

Kit Siang's flat tyre

Kit Siang was furious as his car tyre was deliberately flattened by some morons poking a needle into the tyre of his car parked at the MP parking lot at the Parliament. He should indeed make a police report so that police can find out who are the culprits. I suppose there are CCTVs everywhere at the parliament and it would not be that difficult to find out if the sabotage incident as described by Kit Siang was indeed happening at the parliament and not other places. Kit Siang said that it is the first time after 40 years of driving that his car tyre was deliberately punctured by hooligans.

I have been driving a car for the past 15 years and thank god, no sabotage. But my wife, having just driving for one or two years after working as a lecturer in a private college, her car tyre was deliberately flattened by a student. One day, she came back home with a tyre almost flattened. I thought that could be a puncture so I sent her car to a tyre shop only to find out that some morons deliberately put a piece of stone grain into the cap of the tube of the tyre, and that caused the air to leak out slowly. The mechanic told me that it was an act of sabotage as no way can a stone grain go inside the cap accidentally.

So my wife was as furious as Kit Siang was. The next day she went to the lecture with a red face and scolded at all her students. From their reactions, she roughly knew who did it. I told my wife many time that it is no point wasting so much time to educate the hopeless one. Such acts of sabotage do not only happen in private college or university. My aunt is a secondary school teacher in Selayang. One day she was happily driving a brand new car to school and almost fainted after school hour when she was about to leave as she noticed there was a “beautiful flower engraved” on the top right corner of her car bonnet.

Come on MPs, educationalists, politicians and people at large, instead of arguing time and again whether English should be made compulsory to pass SPM, why not focusing on the real threats first. The discipline of the student nowadays is rotting fast and nothing has been done to improve it. No wonder mat rempit is becoming a social menace and the adolescent crime is on the rise.

Playing with Barbie dolls

By now most of us would have known who Jason Wu is. He becomes increasingly popular when Barack Obama becomes the president of US as the first lady is an avid client of this young and talented fashion designer born in Taiwan, currently based in New York. Michelle Obama wore a gown designed by Jason at the inaugural balls on the night of Barack Obama inauguration. Wow, that certainly will make Jason Wu a popular fashion designer sought after by celebrities in US or even around the world.

I know nut about fashion. I wear collar T-shirt to work. I wear T-shirt and a pair short and slipper during casual time. I only reluctantly put on formal costume during meeting or other formal functions. But I’m interested with Jason Wu because of his mother, an open-minded and unconventional mother at least from the Chinese society point of view. We know that most of us Asian grow up with a traditional mindset whereby sons are preferred over daughters. At least, Chinese traditionally view that daughters will eventually become the family members of the groom family after marriage, thus giving less preference to the daugther. Sexual inequality is common in Asian society, let’s be frank about that. The reason why I write about Jason Wu is not because of him suddenly becomes superfamous in the fashion world, simply because last night while watching a Taiwanese TV host show that discussed on gender disparity, one of the guests revealed how extraordinary Jason’s mother was, in the way she brought up her son.

Unlike most of the boys who like to play with robots, video games or other more boyish toys, Jason Wu grown up playing with Barbie dolls. He especially liked designing and sewing costume for his Barbie dolls. Wow, if that happened on me, most probably my oldman will throw me into a padi field and asks me to go fishing instead, no doubt my mom was a tailor herself. But his mother actually saw a talent in her dolls-loving kid. The family left for Canada when Jason was 9, to a place probably more accommodative, gender-equality wise perhaps, as compared to Taiwan.

The host pointed out that should Jason’s mother like any other ordinary parents, scolded her son for playing with Barbie dolls or unsupportive of him doing some girlie things when he was a small boy, we would not have a world class Chinese fashion designer sewing gowns for the first lady of the United States of America.

World class company?

Of late, there are some hiccups in my office. A few staff resigned arising from the relocation exercise as our office in Seremban is being closed down and thus all staff members are relocated to Banting or Lukut. The relocation is unavoidable due to merger exercise. We can only blame our bad luck as our company is not in a leading position to dictate any things. The staff members are mostly from Seremban. Some have been working for more than 20 over 30 years in this colonial styled office and too bad that they have to suffer all the hassle of relocation towards the tail end of their career. As though they are not being appreciated after lifelong contributions to a company, some of them naturally will be upset when they were chucked here or there against their wills.

As I said, our company is not in a leading position, neither do our bosses have any say in this relocation exercise. Although the merged company insists that nobody will be neglected after merger but they put in such a way that you either take it or leave it when it comes to relocation exercise. There is no alternative given. For executive, it is not too bad as they are paid housing allowance after being relocated to Banting. But for staff, there is nothing for them except for relocation allowance for six months. Most of the staff are lady with their families in Seremban. They surely will face a lot of obstacle if they were to travel daily to Banting which will take about 1 and a half hour. Those with school going children are expected to face more problems, going to work before sun rises and reaching home after sun set.

Sometime I wonder what it takes to be a world class company. Is size does really matter? You can have 100,000 over employees but are they really working wholeheartedly for the company. World class facilities can be built with money. World class employees need to be built upon mutual employer-employee relationship that takes time and concerted efforts to come about. In Singapore, the government and private sectors alike are encouraging extension of services to retired employee. No other reason, they are simply in the opinion that an experienced employee is more efficient and trustworthy. Some of the companies here, as I know, having the mentality of “one go ten will come” or “Why worrying of people leaving, we have the money, we can always engage someone else”. World class company, without correct mentality, it will be talks only.

Oil plam seeds scams

It was reported recently that there were syndicates deceiving planters especially smallholders into buying fake oil palm germinated seeds which are not of genuine DxP hybrid crosses. MPOB managed to seize approximately 6 million fake oil palm seeds last year but there were no reports as to whether the culprits were being identified or brought to the court. Essentially, the fake oil palm seeds are more likely to pose severe implications to smallholders as the big plantation companies would not resort to unreliable sources of oil palm germinated seeds. Oil palm trees once planted will continuously produce fruits for 20 to 25 years until the palms are too tall to be harvested. Hence, should low quality planting materials are used; it will affect the income of the planters for the rest of the economic life span of the palms until and unless the low yielding palms are chopped down and replanted.

MPOB should reveal who are the culprits involved in producing and selling the fake oil palm seeds. By so doing, the smallholders will not fall into the traps of these illegal seed producers. We know that there are such a scam going on through newspaper but don’t expect the smallholder to keep themselves up-to-date with all these development in plantation industry.  It is also imperative to make sure that the genuine oil palm planting materials are available to the smallholders so that their income is guaranteed by decent yield. MPOB should implement strict enforcement to weed out all illegal seed producers and the culprits involved should be made known to the public especially smallholders so that they would not be cheated into buying low quality planting materials.

USM should drop its apex status

When I was in standard 5 about 30 years ago, I was shortlisted by our art teacher to take part in a state level drawing competition. Quite a number of standard 4, 5 and 6 pupils were shortlisted. I was delighted and thus asking my mom to buy me a new set of water color. Very excited, anxious and proud, I practiced drawing almost every day. Coming close to the date of the competition, I was told by my classmates who were also shortlisted to wait at a bus stop in Arau town the next day so that the teacher could gather all contesters before taking a bus to Kangar, where the competition supposed to take place. 

The next day my dad sent me to the bus stop with his motorbike. Upon reaching the place, a few of my schoolmates and the art teacher were already there, cheerfully chit chatting with each other. When the teacher saw me, he looked confuse, sensing something was amiss. Apparently, I was not selected for the competition and was somehow wrongly informed by my classmate who was selected. I felt very embarrassing naturally. The teacher was equally embarrassing as he certainly overlooked and felt guilty for dissembling wrong information. He called a cab to send me home. As disappointed as I was, I felt very shameful especially to my mom who bought me a new set of water color. I asked the cab to stop some where a bit further from my house. I sat at a nearby paddy field for a couple of hours then only I walked home slowly. My mom asked me how was the competition, I bluffed her that it was suck, all other students were too good in drawing, and I won no prize. She consoled me, saying that it was ok if I had tried my best, unknowing that I could merely keep my tears from dropping. 

I sympathized with the students wrongly informed by USM that they were accepted but found out later that it was actually a bloody mistake made by the university administration which wrongly uploaded the name of all applicants instead of successful candidates. If that happened to me 20 years ago I would have sat down at the registration hall and cried, worrying how am I going to tell my parents, especially so with the whole neighborhood knew about it. The place I grew up was a small kampong anyway and going to the university was something that not as common as nowadays. Fortunately that wasn’t happening to me. UKM informed me my acceptance via a formal letter and I went for the registration without any hiccup. 

The frustrations of the affected students were inconsolable. The bloody blunder made by USM could also jeopardize the chances of the students to be taken by other universities. USM should drop its apex status voluntarily if it still has a sense of shamefulness.