Alfred Molon's Travelogues

Beautiful pics of places around the world!

Travelogues

More antics in Bolehland...

Drug Bust Jails 22 Innocents

I got character

Many people got no style one. Me, I got character. See-ah. I don't simple take instructions from people. I think first lah. Don't like it, don't take lah. With boss also like that. I don't care. Sack sack lah. I not afraid one. Then, when got no mood to work, I just go for teh tarik. Don't like? Not my problem, what! When boss make noise, I tell him to fly kite. Money so little, some more got so much work. Where can? Some more got so many bosses. Big boss, small boss, woman boss. One say one thing. Listen until you pengsan. You can died like that. I tell you sometime not fair. Client also another kind. Always last minute change this change that. Ganrantee one. Make my life difficult only. Then. Kena work until two three a.m. Who can tahan like that? Something koyak in their head. I not joking. Don't know advertising but only talk big all the time. Then some more when the thing tak jalan, they complain we all no good. Then who kena? Me lah! Some more who?

Anon

Malaysia to Earth

Anyone have an idea when Earth Shoes will be available in Malaysia? If not, is it in Singapore yet?

Malaysia's Most Bitchy-ful?

There are no beautiful women in Malaysia, only bitchy ones...

If you don't agree, just tune in to 8TV Thursdays at 9:30pm and you'll see what I mean. It's the new reality TV show to search for Malaysia's Most Beautiful... a woman who radiates with inner and outer beauty. NOT!!

The whole show is full of malice and it appears to be contagious. Even got psycho contestants, I swear! Sooooo..... memalufy-ing for Malaysians and womankind in general. Last night was the third episode and to be honest, it's getting a bit tiresome, all this bad-mouthing and crying and bragging. At the moment, there are but a couple of them who have not been underhanded but at the same time, their so-called beauty just isn't shining through. Seems as if too few people turned up for the auditions and the producers just took the lot.

Hate to say this but despite the awful editing and the lack of explanation on why some of them get voted out, hubby and I will block our diaries on Thursday evenings after dinner to plop ourselves in front of our telly and laugh at these bush pigs, as Austin would call them. The show does have some entertainment factor after all (we got no Astro mah). It's far from pretty but who cares? We just wanna watch the catfights and see how they try to cover up when they "sabo" one another.

Looks like being on-screen does bring out the worst in some of us. Who needs to be on TV anyway?

Perpetual loop

Last Friday, on our way to Penang, Austin was relating a story where a woman changed her sex just so that she could be in a relationship with a gay guy. So in short, both man and woman bent 180° backwards so that they could arrive full circle at a union that was biologically natural in the first place.

Do these people actually know what they want?

Einstein's Riddle

There are no tricks, just pure logic, so good luck and don't give up.

1. In a street there are five houses, painted five different colours.
2. In each house lives a person of different nationality
3. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke
different brand of cigarettes and keep a different pet.

THE QUESTION: WHO OWNS THE FISH?

Hints:-
1. The Brit lives in a red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The Green house is on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the centre house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water.

Albert Einstein wrote this riddle early during the 19th century. He said
that 98% of the world populations would not be able to solve it.
Be part of the 2% that could.

Finding my passion

I know a lot about passion because in the process of living, I lost it, but in the process of dying, I found it again.

My life was about three things: pleasing, proving and achieving. I thought that if enough people liked me, I would feel better about being me. I wanted desperately to please everyone . . . family, bosses, neighbors, people I didn't like. It hardly mattered who they were; other people's approval and validation were the source of my self-esteem. "Looking good" was my daily regime, and I was incredibly good at it. I continually quested for greater and greater accomplishments because those proved my value to the outside world.

This thinking affected the entire fabric of my life. My work was a series of long hours, proving my dedication and making sure I never offended anyone. I made impossible promises that were hard to keep because I was afraid to say no, which added untold amounts of stress. By constantly reacting to outside circumstances rather than taking charge of my life, I felt victimized and I lived in fear that "they" - whoever "they" were - would suddenly discover I was incompetent. The fact that I was the youngest woman in my company to hold an executive position and became director of corporate communications while still in my mid-20s did not assuage my concern. Nothing soothed my self-doubt.

The only solution I knew was to try harder, work longer, achieve more. I just knew I'd be happy when I did the right thing. I left the corporate world knowing that being independent would change everything. Ironically, I became a career consultant and taught people how to look good and be aware of what others expected of them. I knew all about that.

Of course, I was still a people-pleaser and took lower fees because I feared no one would use my services. Instead of being driven by the demands of a boss, I was driven by the demands of my clients. I couldn't understand why I was financially struggling and assumed the answer was to simply make more money. So the cycle escalated as I decided to increase my marketing and promotion efforts even more. When I burned out and grew discontented with no improvement in my income, I decided there was something intrinsically wrong with me and embarked on a campaign to fix it. I went to classes, lost weight and joined personal-growth groups. I was still empty.

So it went . . . my life of pleasing, proving and achieving. What did it get me? Tired. Broke. Emotionally depleted. And terribly afraid.

Then in 1986, the awakening came. I discovered I had bladder cancer and the prognosis looked bleak because my symptoms could be traced back for three years. My doctor had the bedside manner of a blacksmith and was not gently encouraging. In my first surgery, he removed the largest tumor he had ever taken from a bladder and announced we would be doing another surgery in 10 to 12 weeks "to see what was left." This is a fun guy.

The cancer changed my life forever. I made a decision to live, and that had a number of implications. I gained immediate clarity about what was important and began focusing on becoming well. I changed my diet, discovered herbs, explored holistic healing and learned what it meant to take care of myself.

Most important, I began asking the question: Who am I and what am I doing here? Previously, my concern was: What does everyone else want and how can I make them like me? I shifted from being involved with the changing demands of the outside world to focusing on what was in my heart. This was not an easy process, since I had spent my whole life looking outside for answers. I was so accustomed to ferreting out what other people wanted from me, I had no idea who I was.

I realized that my life totally lacked passion . . . that zest for living, that sense of joy, creativity and spontaneity that truly comprises life. Suddenly faced with possible death, I knew I had never really lived. In fact, there had been no "life" in my life. As a result of this awareness, passion became my reason for living. I committed myself to it wholly and completely!
No, I had no idea what it meant. I just knew that my daily purpose was to get up and do something passionate each day. I walked on the beach, discovered I love rollercoaster rides, took fun classes that wouldn't make me a "better" person and read books I had wanted to read for years. I made a list of things I wanted to do before I died (whenever that might be) and as I did them, the list just grew. Enthusiasm, excitement and fulfillment were ends in themselves. I wanted to fully experience and live every moment I had left. I could wait no longer.

I felt more positive and hopeful. It took less energy to produce better results. I allowed myself to be uncertain about how my future was going to unfold; I just continued exploring and expressing my passion on a daily basis. I now know the sheer force of this commitment produced miracles.

By now, my business was shut down, I had no money coming in and no one was interested in hiring a terminally ill patient. But some of my old clients began calling and asking if I would do career coaching in my home. Heaven knows, nothing else was happening, so I said yes, but my consulting took a new turn. I talked about the cancer and my commitment to living a passionate life; I thought they might want that, too. Indeed, many wanted to hear more, and I began conducting groups. By the end of the first year working in my living room, I discovered I had seen more people and made more money than I had any other year in my career. After all those years of working and trying so hard, it was that simple. What a revelation! I knew I had stumbled onto something that could work for anyone who embraced it.

The other major miracle is that I have been cancer-free since 1987. My doctor is stunned by my recovery. When I have my annual checkups, he always comments on how well I have healed. Apparently, there are not even any remaining indications of the surgery. Is this the result of a commitment to passion? While I cannot prove it to you, I don't doubt it. I believe passion is the strongest force in the universe and that it is a magnet for all one's good—happiness, power, joy, abundance and health. You know how exhilarating it can be to be around a group of passionate people. It produces a euphoric energy. Like running, it creates endorphins in the brain.

Endorphins boost and protect the immune system. Cancer is a disease of the immune system, so why couldn't passion heal it?

For me, the process of dying brought great relevance to living. Today I bring as much life to living as possible. It has also become my livelihood. I built an organization called The Career Clinic, which has helped well over a thousand people heal their relationship with work through discovering their passions and purpose in life. Passion is not for the lucky or the talented; it is the fire waiting to be ignited in every soul.

Through cancer, I received the gift of life. Now I get to give it away by speaking and teaching, and do so with great gratitude and joy.

By Mary Lyn Miller

Top 15 weird how-tos

How to:
1. stop toilet water from splashing on your buttocks (quite handy in public toilets, this one)
2. avoid pornography (for the Mormons, perhaps?)
3. make a fake contact lens using tears (???)
4. wiggle your small toe separately from the rest of your toes (will this make me smarter?)
5. wake up early from bed without an alarm time piece (aren't alarm clocks simply easier?)
6. convince people to go skinny-dipping (why not just rip off their clothes?)
7. exercise your headbanging muscles (warning: too much headbanging could cause brain damage)
8. pick items to put inside a purse (whatever happened to travelling light?)
9. change your whole personality (how sad is this?)
10. sit in a chair (why, for those who've never sat in one, of course!)
11. spot someone born in the year of the Snake (you would want to if you were born in the year of the Rooster or Ox)
12. be a nerd (and I would want to because??)
13. get other guys to stop staring at your pretty wife
14. get other guys to stop staring at your very pretty wife
15. weigh the costs of cheating on your wife (men, read and learn!)

Handpicked from Wikipedia's ehow.com site

Crabby Old Woman

When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee,
Scotland, it was believed that she had nothing left of any value. Later,
when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this
poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made
and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to
Ireland.

The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas
edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental
Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on her simple, but
eloquent poem.

And this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world,
is now the author of this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet:

Crabby Old Woman

What do you see, nurses?
What do you see?
What are you thinking
When you're looking at me?

A crabby old woman,
Not very wise,
Uncertain of habit,
With faraway eyes?

Who dribbles her food
And makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice,
"I do wish you'd try!"

Who seems not to notice
The things that you do,
And forever is losing
A stocking or shoe?

Who, resisting or not,
Lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding,
The long day to fill?

Is that what you're thinking?
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse,
You're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am
As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding,
As I eat at your will.

I'm a small child of ten
With a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters,
Who love one another.

A young girl of sixteen
With wings on her feet
Dreaming that soon now
A lover she'll meet.

A bride soon at twenty,
My heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows
That I promised to keep

At twenty-five now,
I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide
And a secure happy home.

A woman of thirty,
My young now grown fast,
Bound to each other
With ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons
Have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me
To see I don't mourn.

At fifty once more,
Babies play round my knee,
Again we know children,
My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me,
My husband is dead,
I look at the future,
I shudder with dread.

For my young are all rearing
Young of their own,
And I think of the years
And the love that I've known.

I'm now an old woman
And nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age
Look like a fool.

The body, it crumbles,
Grace and vigour depart,
There is now a stone
Where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass
A young girl still dwells,
And now and again,
My battered heart swells.

I remember the joys,
I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living
Life over again.

I think of the years
All too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact
That nothing can last.

So open your eyes, people,
Open and see,
Not a crabby old woman;
Look closer . . . see ME!!

Remember this poem when you next meet an old person who you might
brush aside without looking at the young soul within...........
we will all, one day, be there, too!

A-nibbling we go

Holidays are never long enough. Had been eagerly anticipating our short break to Penang for so many weeks and now it's over...

It didn't turn out to be quite the eating spree that I was expecting it to but we still managed to fill ourselves above the brim! The 2 hokkien "langs" who were supposed to know their way around & bring us to all the good eateries suddenly had amnesia, not forgetting bad sense of direction, so we ended up having to rely on our noses and "wai sek" (see: greedy) instincts to fulfil our cravings.

The itinerary:

Friday
6:30am: Left house.
8:45am: Got to Ipoh & headed to Ming Court for tim sum. Stopped by Perak Tong en-route as Austin wanted to see the limestone caves.
12:30pm: Arrived in Penang. Lunch at Anson Road. Loh mee, CKT, assam laksa, wan tan mee. Ban chiang kueh & mamak mee stalls not opened on Fridays. Recommended: Loh mee.
2pm: Checked into Sunway Georgetown. Slept.
7:00pm: Was raining heavily so went down the road to Macalister's for dinner. Loh mee, CKT, or chien, pork spare parts porridge, prawn mee, lor bak, hokkien char, sar hor fun, fried tau kua, sotong kangkong. Recommended: Loh mee, porridge, lor bak.

Food galore

8:00pm: Cruised around the island. Still raining so decided to go walk-walk in Gurney Plaza. Bought Taboo to play.
9:30pm: Val & Yu Lin arrived. Went to Song River along Gurney for supper. Lor bak, chicken wings, otak-otak, CKT, roti babi, fish noodles.
11:00pm: Got back to the hotel and spotted my kuih ketayap stall. They had moved to the Lorong Baru side, where the hotel is, and were no longer along the main road. That explains why I couldn't find them when I came last year. However, the kuih just didn't taste the same. Attributed it to the fact that it was the last remaining batch and so was cold.
11:30pm: Played Taboo till 1am. CH & Austin were sleeping & couldn't wake them up to join us.

Saturday
10:0am: Bumped into Kwee Tee on our way out. She was on a business trip & was also staying at Sunway. What a coincidence! Breakfast at Jalan Kuantan market. Roasted pork, wan tan mee, pork noodles, curry mee (complete with "chue houng"), bubur cha-cha, kueh kak. Recommended: curry mee, wan tan mee. Roast pork ridiculously cheap.
11:30am: Visited Khoo Kongsi. Very well-kept & maintained by friendly & knowledgeable old men who appear to be part of the clan, as we gathered from their name tags.

Did someone make a boo-boo here?

1:00pm: Passed by Jalan Anson so we stopped for the ban chiang kueh & mamak mee. Mamak mee highly recommended.
1:30pm: Went to Cheong Fatt Tze but were told that the tours only operate at 11am & 3pm daily. Bummer! Headed to Ayer Itam to drop CH & Austin at Kek Lok Si temple while we sat at the market savouring the assam laksa.
3:00pm: Decided to scrap CFT & headed back to the hotel for more rounds of Taboo. It was hilarious with CH & Austin joining us this time. Uncle even made a reference to CH when he got the word "Freak".
7:00pm: Evie came to meet us & we went to Ang Hoay Lor. Got there after going round and round many times. Food was disappointing & not worth the RM180 Evie paid (she told us she was going to the loo and actually went to the counter to settle the bill, the sneak!).
9:00pm: Back to the hotel for Taboo, this time with our guest player. Got more kuih ketayap & apom of many varieties. Somehow, it was still not as good as I remembered it to be. Maybe the fumes from main road do contribute to the taste.

Sunday
11:0am: Checked out of hotel. Brunch at Swatow Lane. Otak-otak, CKT (from 2 stalls), kuey teow t'ng, fishball tung hoon, or chien, wan tan mee, hokkien char, mamak mee (both very lousy), ice kacang, rojak. Recommended: otak-otak, or chien (crispy type), rojak, KTT.
1:30pm: Went to Padang Brown but popiah stall not open so headed home.

What you get when you put 2 fairies together

All-in-all, we did have a good time. However, as far as eating marathons go, this only made it into the 1km stroll category. We were a long way off from replicating the 5-meals-a-night experience that only happens when FIL is around. Then again, I'm 24 no more...

Real food on the go

Apparently a Finnish creation...

First, pick a flavour

Lunch on the go

Light a match

Watch it burn

... and burn...

And what have we here?

Fish on a stick! Yum!

How it works

Of food and fairies

Got home from work on Thursday to find the lights down low, table nicely set, candles lit and a warm, delicious aroma emanating from the kitchen. I was promptly offered a glass of red wine before I had chance to even put my bags down. On the menu was bread with vinegar & olive oil dip, Spanish Paella (cooked by a Spaniard - can't get more Spanish than that) & salad tossed in balsamic vinegar.

Austin was such a perfectionist & almost drove CH up the wall with his demands (he even went so far as to buy saffron strands worth RM35!) but in the end, it was worth it. We were really impressed. My 29" inch wok was full to the brim with rice, prawns, squid, fish, and chicken cooked in flavourful broth.

CH the calamari cleaner & Austin with the blackforest mini cake

Sigh... coming home to a sumptuous dinner with 3 guys. What more could a girl want?

In the beginning... there was no fat...

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Krispy Crème Donuts.And Satan said, 'You want chocolate with that'? And Man said, 'Yes! Then Woman said, 'And as long as you're at it, add some sprinkles'. And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

Then God created healthful yogurt so Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said,'Try my fresh green salad. And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side.And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, 'I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them.' And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and
chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it 'Angel Food Cake', and said, 'It is good'. Satan then created chocolate cake and named it 'Devil's Food'.

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels.And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger.Then said,'You want fries with that'? And Man replied, 'Yes'! 'And super size them'!

And Satan said,'It is good'. And Man went into cardiac arrest.God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.Then Satan created HMOs.

Thought for the day:
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research.This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

Six gluttons, one hypochondriac and an Aussie Spaniard

Yay yay! Going to Penang tomorrow.... Can't wait to grease my lips with char kuey teow and pop one after another of the melt-in-your-mouth kuih ketayap. I'd be hugely disappointed if the stall wasn't open for the 2 nights we'll be there. After all, I did book us into Sunway Georgetown precisely because it was off Jalan Macalister.

Whilst Uncle will be mostly indulging in the healthy food (if there's any to be found), we're not sure how "Aunty" Austin will behave as we've come to refer to him. He's squemish about eating at roadside stalls and certain smells turn him off. Worst of all, he's been going on and on about how much he needs to diet. When you're in Malaysia for only 2 weeks?? Hello!!! Why did you bother coming in the first place.

Anyway, we'll soon know... The rest of us though, are looking forward to a raving makan time! Tune in to find out.

Killer wave to hit?

Could be a hoax but thought I'd blog about it and then look back on the accuracy of the predictions should it really occur... *sentuh kayu*

Quake and tsunami predicted in S'pore & M'sia

BANGKOK: Thailand's now iconic meteorologist, Dr Smith Dharmasaroja, who in Year 1998 predicted a killer tsunami would hit Thailand one day & was ignored, said S'pore & M'sia were also in danger from a future earthquake and tsunami.

"I believe the epicentre of future quakes will shift northwards, north of the Andaman & Nicobar islands."

"A big earthquake with a more northerly epicentre than the Dec 26 quake will generate a tsunami which will have a more direct route down to the Straits of Malacca, swamping S'pore and M'sia." during the month of December 05' and January 06'.

"As the sea passage narrows, more water will build up and the wave will become bigger. S'pore is relatively low-lying & quite flat, and would be badly affected.

Remember, in Dec, the tsunami was 30m high at Banda Aceh. At Khao Lak, it was 16m high," he said."

Dr Smith, 70, retired as chief of Thailand's Meteorological Department well before last Dec's disaster. But before that, he had warned first in a speech and then in a memo that Thailand's Andaman coast was at risk from a killer tsunami.

Tragically his warning, although widely reported by the media, was ignored.

Government officials, fearful of tourists staying away, branded him a cranky and dangerous man. The authorities in Phuket castigated him & said he was not welcome to visit. After the tsunami, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra recalled him and made him the chairman of a committee tasked with developing a national disaster warning centre and strategy.

"I'm not happy that I have made the right prediction," he said.

"Nobody can accurately predict an earthquake; you can only assume from historical data," he added. He said big natural disasters occur in 80 year to 100 year cycles, apparently randomly across the world.

"If you speak out too much, forecast too much, you will get a lot of criticism, from government agencies, the tourism sector and so forth," he added.

Explaining the northward shift of future epicentres, Dr Smith stressed:
"This is no joke. I would like you to put this message out to S'pore and M'sia."

A researcher working on the hypothesis, who did not want to be named, said the research was on-going and final results were not yet ready.

Dr Smith said: "I have seen the simulations that indicate this and they look believable.

From my own experience, it is possible."Only a few days ago, there was a 6.1 quake in the Andaman sea near the Nicobar islands, which is about 321.8km north of the Dec 26 quake.

So, this is an indication that the epicentre is moving north."

How Sharp got it's name

Sharp Corporation (シャープ株式会社 Shāpu Kabushiki Kaisha) (TYO: 6753) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in 1912. It takes its name from one of its founder's first inventions, the Ever-Ready Sharp mechanical pencil, which was invented by Hayakawa Tokuji (早川 徳次) in 1915 [1].

After the pencil business was destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, the company relocated to Osaka and started designing the first Japanese radio sets. These went on sale in 1925. In 1953 it started production of the first television sets in Japan. Other notable achievements include the world's first all-transistor desktop calculator in 1964 and the first LCD calculator in 1973. LCD technology continues to be a key part of Sharp's product range, in both the component and the consumer-appliance sides of the business.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Man-icurists at work

Marc & Teon putting the ladies to shame with the special Korean manicure sets.

Manasa Yoga in the news

Yoga teacher has own style of practice

Poesy's plight

Article not quite complete.

Malaysia Boleh? Not quite.... (Part 2)

Why UM's ranking dropped so drastically
Oon Yeoh

During Universiti Malaya 's centennial celebrations in July, its Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Hashim Yaacob proudly celebrated the fact that UM was ranked 89th in the world in the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES).

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was at the celebrations, optimistically challenged UM to get ranked among the top 50 by 2020.

When this year 's rankings came out, far from improving its standing, UM had dropped some 80 points to 169. What happened?

That 's exactly what Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wanted to know when he asked UM to find out why its ranking had dropped so drastically.

Prof Hashim has tried to put a positive spin on this by saying that UM has, in fact, placed in the top 100 in three out of five categories: Arts and Humanities (45), Biomedicine (82) and Social Science (83).

He has not, however, been able to explain the sudden drop in the overall ranking.

I somehow doubt that Prof Hashim reads blogs but there 's one that I 'd like to point him to (www.educationmalaysia.blogspot.com) which is run by Tony Pua and Ong Kian Ming, two former Asean Scholars who care deeply about education issues in this country.

Together, they seem to have solved the mystery of UM 's drastic plunge. They recently alerted me to their findings and it makes a lot of sense to me. Read on and see if it makes sense to you too.

Prof Hashim has said that while he did not dispute the methodology used for the survey, he did not believe all the criteria used were of importance to UM.

Two examples he gave are the scores given to the percentage of international students and faculty members at the univer- sity.

How ironic that he should say that, for it is precisely UM 's favourable scores in these two areas that allowed it to be placed in the top 100 last year.

Last year, UM achieved an overall score of 166.4, out of which 68 came from its international student score. That means nearly 41% of UM 's total score was due to its "supposed " high percentage of international students. UM scored so high in these areas that there were only five other universities that did better.

They were the London School of Economics (100), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (80), Curtin University of Technology (79), Universiti Sains Malaysia (78) and School of Oriental and African Studies, London (77).Ê

But does UM (or USM for that matter) actually have that many international students?

To give you a sense of comparison, UM actually outperformed Monash University for international student intake.

We 're talking about a university where some 30% of the student population comes from overseas. For UM to beat Monash, more than 30% of UM 's student population should be foreigners.

I 'm not a gambling man but if I were, I 'd bet good money that the number of foreign students in UM does not even come close to that.

So, how did UM score so highly in this area last year?

Bloggers Pua and Ong suggest that the score-keepers at THES probably mistook Malaysian Chinese and Indian students for foreigners.

This is highly plausible. In fact, likely. After all, non-bumis do make up just slightly more than 30% of the student population in local universities.

Now, let 's fast forward to this year. UM 's international student score suddenly plummets to a lowly 7 (a whopping 61-point drop).

It would seem somebody has alerted the statisticians at THES that there are such people as Chinese and Indian Malaysians.

Not convinced? Let 's look at more circumstantial evidence.

Last year, UM got an impressive 29 points for its internatio- nal faculty score.

That 's pretty close to the National University of Singapore (NUS), which got 35 points. NUS, of course, is well-known for recruiting lecturers from around the world. UM, unfortunately, is not. Yet their scores were so close in this area.

Now, let 's fast forward to this year. UM 's international faculty score suddenly plummets to a mere 12 points.

Could it be that the statisticians at THES also realised that Chinese and Indian lecturers at UM are not foreigners but Malaysians, and avoided the mistake they made last year?

The ironic twist in all this is that despite its drop in rankings, UM has, in a sense, done better this year.

If the statisticians at THES had not made the mistake of classifying non-bumi students and faculty members as foreigners, UM would not have even made it to the Top 200 last year.

Then, instead of lamenting the fact that our best university had dropped 80 points, we would be celebrating the fact that it had climbed up to 169!

Prof Hashim, perhaps its time to put down those academic books and start reading some blogs. Perhaps then you can give Pak Lah a rational explanation for the sudden plunge in UM 's rankings.

Where do you belong?

Today, in Malaysia, there is no longer just the Chinese. Along the way, the Chinese people divided beyond dialects and religious faith. We now have denomination within the Chinese. The major three groups are Regular, Cina, and Ah Beng.

The Regular group is the minority, making up less than 20% of the Chinese people. This group has the following characteristics:

1. Speaks English as the first language.
2. Thinks the world owes them a living.
3. Uses the Internet more than the other two groups combined.
4. Loves the iPod and/or IKEA.
5. Watches one or more of the following TV series: "Sex And The City", "Friends", or CSI."
6. Thinks that the Regular group is way larger than it is and makes fun of the other groups, particularly the Ah Beng group. Why? Because it's fun.

Recent studies have also shown that there is a growing splinter group within
the Regular group known as the CPWTTANC group. (CPWTTANC is short for Chinese People Who Think They Are Not Chinese.) This growing subgroup are considered elitist by some and are found making statements like "I wish I were in the U.S." or "This never happened when I was studying in Australia."

They also tend to speak with an unidentifiable accent. The women may also prefer to date white men from foreign countries with the excuse that local men just "don't understand me" and have the secret desire to be taken away to the U.S. to live in a sitcom.

The second Chinese group, Cina make up approximately 55% of the Chinese community. (Cina is derived from the Malay word Cina which means Chinese and is pronounced "chee-na". And you will have to say it in a condescending tone for effect.) This group is considered mainstream and contribute to the numbers that reflect development in the country.They are the masses in context of the Chinese community. In other words, if you want to sell something to the masses of Chinese people, the Cina is it.

The Cina are identified by the following traits:

1. Speaks Mandarin or Cantonese as the first language.
2. Generally quiet, self-effacing, and obliging but are actually shrewd and calculative.
3. Sees Taiwan as the place to be.
4. More likely to forward chain email to people in their address book.
5. Goes to Halo Cafe or Wow Wow Cafe BY CHOICE at least three times a year.
6. Has Astro hardwired to Wah Lai Toi.
7. Calls a music video an MTV instead of music video.
8. Knows all the dim sum dishes by name.
9. Seventy percent of lighting at home generated by flourescent lights.

The last group are known as the Ah Bengs. This term was probably made up by the Regulars in the early 80s during the cultural invasion that saw the mass import of music and movies from countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and to some extent, Japan. This phenomenon saw the more open-minded and runaway members of the Cina group defect into Ah Bengs and its feminine equivalent, Ah Lian. They just took their Alan Tam and Anita Mui a little too seriously.

Perhaps the most made-fun-of group not only by its own Chinese people but by people of other races, the Ah Bengs are often seen as people living on the edge and have more flamboyant tastes.

One may identify the Ah Beng by these tell-tale signs:

1. Built-in visual self-defense mechanism that keeps people away from them.
2. Have enough amplifiers in their one car to power speakers for six cars.
3. Hair not in their original colour.
4. Volume of voice is automatically five decibels higher than everyone else.
5. Excessive use of the phrase "Kan Ni Na Bu Ciao Chee Bai". (Although, to be fair, some members of the Regular group have been reported to use the phrase on a daily basis as well.)
6. Once a fan of one of the following groups: Vengaboys, Dr Bombay, Aqua, or the Cheeky Girls.
7. Their Proton car does not look like a Proton car due to modifications.
8. For the Ah Lians, have at least one bag fashioned after a furry animal complete with the head.

Anonymous

First Houseguests

Mum & Uncle came over during the long break we had for Deepavali and Raya for 5 days, by the end of which they wished they could have stayed longer but sadly, Mum had to work on Thurs & Fri. What a lot of eating we had!

They arrived on Sat morning and we tried Twin Joyous, the new kopitiam at the Metro Kajang row of shophouses. The CKT there is good! Chap fan also not bad. Can't say much for the rest of the stuff though. Headed to Red Box to join FIL, Keon & KV for some karaoke. Later went for tea at Kai Mah's. Had to leave them in her capable hands that evening as we had to attend the Ti-Ratana 8th Anniversary dinner at Desa Water Park.

Dinner was vegetarian and we didn't stay for the whole leg (believe me, with the amount of entertainment they had lined up, they could have gone on tour) but there were quite a few interesting presentations, the most notable of which was the ballroom dancing by William & Luisa's dance school. There was this particular boy (he couldn't have been older than 10) who was really graceful! Went for supper at 11 at this "Tai Chow" place off Old Klang Road that Tweedledum had totally forgotten about (can't believe he never took me there in the 7 years we have known each other!) and it was soooooo... sinful! Loads of lard and pork crackling!

Sunday was popiah lunch day at the Toh residence. Had a good laugh at mum's popiah wrapping "skills". Went to watch Jemina's concert at DUMC hall and afterwards had supper at Chef Loong.

Cooked English breakfast before going to work on Monday for the 4 of us. Took off at lunch to meet Aunt Lolly at The Curve. We tried La Gourmet House. Food was so-so but prices were reasonable. Dinner was at Greenview. Everyone adjourned to our house after that for a few rounds of gin (rummy, that is) and PS2. Watched Stealth. What a load of glorify-America crap!

Tues was Deepavali and it was also a day for secret family recipes. MIL cooked nasi lemak for lunch whilst Kai Mah finally got everyone together for her special Hainanese Beef Steamboat. A pity that most of the clanmembers, couldn't make it. Kai Mah very kindly prepared her very-much-missed Hainanese stewed pigs trotters for hubby and we practically cleaned off the whole pot. We also had a cake-blowing session since the chef's birthday was up in a week. Mum got her a Royal cake from Chef Jerome and it was the first time I saw a cake being finished in one sitting. That was when we also discovered that Val could touch her chest with her tongue.

The next morning, hubby arranged for BKT breakfast in Sungei Way but unbeknownst to us, our usual shop was closed on Wednesdays so we had to head to the alternative. Mum & Uncle went back in the afternoon but the eating did not stop there. Dinner was with FIL and MIL at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao. We tried their Xiao Long Bao when we were in Singapore the last time. Food was quite good actually but a little pricey.

Went Raya visiting at Uncle Azaman's house on Friday. Tried Aunty Lyn's mouth-watering nasi dagang and we vowed to go back again next year on both the first and second days. Arrived at Ti-Nod's church wedding at Trinity Methodist Church in time for the lunch reception but was too full to have anything. After a few snaps with the bride and groom, it was off to visit Mun Hong & Chooi Gaik and their newborn, Kin Zhen. He was sleeping so we only caught a glimpse of him and he looked so serene... awww...... Dinner was at Saravana Bhavan.

Saturday hubby and I decided to cook dinner so we tried his
vegetarian pasta again and used our oven for the first time. Unfortunately, we had not read the manual and didn't know that we were supposed to preheat it for an hour to get rid of the greasey fumes so the kitchen ended up smelling funny. The grilled aubergines and mushrooms didn't turn out as intended but in the end, everything was finished except one serving of pasta and that was only because Keat & Yvette were too full from their Japanese buffet lunch and so shared a portion. Val brought over a Banoffee Pie for dessert. The cream had actually curdled but we disguised it with a sprinkling of Milo & cocoa powder and everyone loved it. FIL even said it was very good.

The next afternoon, Val & I cooked a simple lunch while hubby took a nap. We had japanese cucumbers pickled in lime juice, cili padi and onions, stir-fried cabbage & dried prawns and 3-style cooked egg. What started out as steamed egg was later boiled and ended up being stir-fried as well. Allow me to elaborate. Was keen to show hubby that I could make a good steamed egg, something I have not cooked since I was in Form 3. However, since we hadn't bought a steaming rack for the wok, I used an inverted bowl as a stand. The dishware was happily clacking away beneath the wok cover when suddenly, all I heard was silence. Opened the cover and lo & behold... the shallow bowl of egg had overturned, leaving all its contents boiling in the water. We decided it was a waste of 3 good eggs so scooped up the egg mixture (half cooked by now) and stir-fried it with some of Kak Ti's sambal tomat. Must admit, it went down quite well with the rice.

They say all good things must come to an end but after 1 week of break and good food, we were not quite ready for that. It all seemed so.... final! MIL however, came up with a good finale to the eating spree, fish head meehoon. I had 4 bowls of the tasty soup to drown my depression. And tommorow... I'm going vegetarian!

Malaysia Boleh? Not quite....

Media Conference Statement

by Lim Kit Siang
________________________________

(Penang, Saturday ): Malaysian universities suffered a global blow when the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) World University Rankings for the top 200 universities shattered the complacency of the two Malaysian universities which had been listed in the previous year.

In the THES global ranking of the world's best 200 universities 2004, the University of Malay ranked No. 89 (71 places behind University of Singapore) and the Universiti Sains Malaysia ranked No. 111.

These rankings were proudly advertised by these two universities to demonstrate their academic excellence and quality in a rather unashamed and unacademic fashion.

At the centennial celebrations of the University of Malaya in June, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak expressed the hope that the University of Malaya could be ranked among the world's top 50 universities by 2020.

All these dreams are shattered by the release of the 2005 THES World University Rankings in United Kingdom yesterday – with University of Malaya falling a steep 80 places, plunging from 89 ^th last year to 169^th position, one of the greatest plunges for any single university. University Sains Malaysia plunged even more steeply, falling out of the 200 ranking altogether from last year's ranking of No. 111.

The THES World University Rankings is the latest confirmation of the deep and prolonged crisis of higher education in Malaysia. The country and government must end the denial syndrome particularly of the Ministry of Higher Education that the higher education system in Malaysia is very sick indeed. A lot of hard analysis and soul-searching on the direction and future of higher education in Malaysia must now begin.

I call on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry comprising reputable academicians and respectable Malaysians into the shocking decline of quality of Malaysian universities highlighted by University of Malaya falling 80 places from 89 ^th to 169^th placing while USM disappearing from the THES World Top 200 Universities Ranking 2005.

A quick look at the THES 2005 Ranking of World's Top 200 Universities shows that Malaysia, whose University of Malaya was regarded as one of the premier universities in the world in the sixties, has not only fallen far behind other countries in terms of university excellence and quality, but we are in danger of falling further behind.

The THES 2005 World Top 200 Universities has proven me right when I had tried to waken up Parliament, government and the nation that we are in danger of being overtaken by our neighbour in the indicators of international competitiveness. In the seventies and eighties, Malaysia was ahead of Thailand in almost all significant indicators of international competitiveness, but in the past decade, we are losing to our Thailand in more and more aspects of competitiveness.

Thailand has become the "Detroit of the East" as the hub of automotive industry in the region while Malaysia, which started off ahead of Thailand in the automotive industry in the seventies and early eighties, is struggling with her Proton national car industry after more than two decades of national subsidy with ordinary Malaysians having to pay for more expensive and lower-quality cars.

In the 21 years from its establishment in 1983 till 2004, Proton had exported 245,222 vehicles – which is not even equal to the car export for Thailand for one year.

This year we lost out for the first time to Thailand in international competitiveness when Malaysia fell 12 places from 16th to 28th ranking
in the International Institute For Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005 with Thailand placed at No. 27 ^th.

Thailand is fast catching up with Malaysia in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, with Malaysia being stuck in No. 39 in the TI CPI 2005 while Thailand is fast improving its ranking from No. 64 last year to No. 59 this year. If Thailand improves five placings per year in the annual TI CPI, Thailand would have caught up and even overtaking Malaysia in the TI CPI at the end of the Ninth Malaysia Plan in 2010.

And now, for the first time, Malaysia has lost out to Thailand in having the better university. Thailand's premier university Chulalongkorn University is ranked No. 121 in the THES World Top 200 universities, ahead of University of Malaya's No. 169 – when last year, Chulalongkorn did not even make it into the Top 200 list.

The second point about the THES Top 200 Universities 2005 is that international competition for academic excellence by prestigious universities is very keen and ferocious, which explains why Singapore National University, which was ranked No. 18 fell four places to No. 22, with three Asian universities in the top 20 being reduced to two.

Beijing University is now rated the best Asian university ranked at No. 15 (compared to No. 17 last year), ahead of Tokyo University, ranked No. 16 (falling fall places from No. 12 last year).

Thirdly, Malaysia is sadly trailing behind many other Asian countries, as shown by the better ranking of the following Asian Universities as compared to University of Malaya:

Beijing University (China)	15
Tokyo University (Japan)	16
National University of Singapore	22
Kyoto University (Japan)	31
Hong Kong University	41
Hong Kong University Sci & Technol	43
Nanyang Tech University (Spore)	48
Indian Institutes of Technology	50
Chinese University of Hong Kong	51
Tsing Hua University (China)	62
Indian Institutes of Management	84
China University of Sci & Tech	93
Seoul National University	93
Tokyo Institute of Technology	99
Osaka University	105
National Taiwan University	114
Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)	121
Nagoya University (Japan)	129
Tohoku University (Japan)	136
Korea Adv. Inst of Sci and Tech	143
Hiroshima University (Japan)	147
Nanjing University (China)	150
Hokkaido University (Japan)	157
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China)	169
Malaya University	169
City University of Hong Kong	178
Korea University	184
Jawaharlal Nehru University	192
Showa University (Japan)	198

Where are Malaysians to hide their face with 23 other Asian universities ranked as better than our premier university, University of Malaya?

Fourthly, Australia continues to be a power house for tertiary education not only in the region but in the world, raising the question why Australia can do what Malaysia cannot.

The Australian Universities in the Top 200 are:

Melbourne University	19
Australian National University	23
Monash University	33
Sydney University	38
University of New South Wales	40
Queensland University	47
Macquarie University	67
University of Western Australia	80
Adelaide University	80
RMIT University	82
University of Technology Sydney	87
La Trobe University	98
Curtin University of Technology	101
Queensland University of Technology	118
University of Newcastle	127
University of South Australia	154
Tasmania University	166

It is a national shame that there are 17 Australian Universities which are internationally regarded as better than the premier Malaysian university, not to mention the other 16 public universities in Malaysia. It would appear that any university in Australia is better than the best in Malaysia. I do not believe Malaysian human capital and talents are any less inferior to Australians. If we lose out, it is in our system of governance and educational institutions.

The shocking THES World University Ranking 2005 for Malaysian universities and Malaysians should be the top agenda for parliamentary debate when MPs reconvene on November 14, 2005 for the resumed debate on the 2006 Budget.

The question to be asked is whether the country can afford to have a Higher Education Minister who preside over the disastrous plunge in the international ratings of Malaysian universities.

(29/10/2005)