Like I said - nothing new!

So amputation it is! I really feel for the parents who were given the run around by the officials. Although I am not privy to the information provided by the specialists and hospital administration, I just wonder how much false hope has been planted that the arm could be saved. Even in the very first photo (unclear as it was) the demarcation was clearly evident. The arm was not salvageable. Maybe it was a PR stunt to show that they were trying the best - but the time lost was irreplaceable. And they were still giving the infection background story - please own up!

I pity the specialists too - now they would have to come in whenever the slightest worry or call comes about! Doesn't our esteemed Health Minister know that specialists on-call hardly comes in if there was an emergency? Almost all instructions are through the phone! Period. So the poor medical officers and house officers are the ones to shoulder the burden and responsibility. Worse for them, there are those specialists who scold them whenever there is a call for advice!! Even though the specialists are ultimately responsible for the care given to patients. Sometimes I don't get it - I myself find it difficult to give advice over the phone without seeing the patient first hand - maybe these specialists has got super vision or mind reading abilities or something. Now it has come a full circle to haunt them, especially the specialist involved in this unfortunate baby's case.

So unless Chua Soi Lek has been living in a tempurung - it is nothing new!

Merdeka!

Yay! Merdeka...but not much to celebrate about, sniff... As we celebrate our 50 years of independence, we enter a period of increasing corruption, crime rate, standards of living and racial polarisation - even as our national leaders espouse the exact opposite. Everything seems to be hunky dory if the mainstream media and government spin doctors are to be believed...but the truth is more painful to the world.

Tell that to the poor whose lands are taken over and/or taken advantage of by the Government or their cronies.

Tell that to those whose family members and friends are killed indiscriminately in the streets.

Tell that to those who struggle to make a living, and to make ends meet every single day - what with the rising fuel, transportation and food costs.

Tell that to those who has to bear the rhetoric on Bumiputras and Islam on a daily basis.

People are angry and fed up - all talk and no action. They want action. Actions which none up there want to, or willing to take. Guess that is why not many Malaysians want to fly the national colours - even if it was given free! I definitely wouldn't...

What's worse is all this talk of patriotism...so what if I do not fly the flag? Call me unpatriotic - I don't care. Patriotism is something you develop through experience and interaction - I am not surprised if the majority of Malaysians can be considered unpatriotic today. I believe Namewee is more of a patriot that most of the self-serving politicians out there!

So happy 50th anniversary Malaysia...

Is it true?

It is mind-boggling to think that we have our national investment company, Khazanah Nasional, to thank if such rumours turn out to be true! But of course such news would fail to come ashore here, thanks to our media censorship - unfortunately we Malaysians have to read of such failings in the blogs, which have come under fire of late. And if blogs were proven to be more reliable source of information than our mainstream media, so be it; it is sad that as our nation celebrates its 50th Merdeka Day, we still have a government which tries to blackout news of such importance. Of course if it turns out to be true...

Well, even if the story is not entirely true - that the sale of one of the MV Agusta brands to BMW netted an amount less than the reported 93 million Euros - it would still make Khazanah Nasional the laughing stock of the investment fraternity. It would look like Proton had not done their homework, or the sale was done in extreme haste. Or was it? Is there more behind the scenes? Did someone make money out of this deal at the expense of Proton? More questions are being raised as the deal unfolds...

While Proton reels from yet another quarterly loss, little has been made public regarding its efforts to rope in Volkswagen AG to prop up the ailing company: I am wondering whether they are truly still at the negotiating table. And as usual there is some glossiness projected over the new Persona model and exports of its cars to China and an Egyptian escapade.

Maybe it is time to put Proton out of its misery. And with that maybe Malaysians will be entitled to something it has been deprived of for nearly 25 years - an affordable and reliable car.

Smokescreen

I guess Jeff Ooi sums up the Namewee issue best: a smokescreen

PM's chief judge
The bailout (Part 2)
The bailout (Part 1)

Let me add to the ever growing list:

Proton's MV Augusta shocker
More evidence of corruption?
Trouble in the police
Bloggers under siege
Trials and tribulations

These are to name a few. More maybe on the way...

No surprise...

It's so easy to get the charges against you dropped in Malaysian courts these days. Hire a fu-yoh lawyer? Play badminton with the judges? No need to be so strenuous on the pockets or body lar...just don't turn up in court! Malaysia Boleh! Or should I say Datuk Z Boleh!? Or RM xxxx Boleh!? Well, in more developed countries, I guess you would be jailed for contempt of court or evasion or something of that nature - but here they will just drop the charges against you. I guess that is why crime and corruption is on the rise here...sigh...

Really...every Malaysian worth his salt would have seen it coming. In this country if you have money and power, you will go scot free or just with a slap on the wrist. Altantuya (I guess) found that the hard way.

Such sad state of affairs in this country of ours...

Frustrated!

Is it just me or has Streamyx gotten slower since its so called upgrading exercise over the week? Website page loading, Youtube, Blogging...you name it - everything is so slow since then!! Not to mention of course: BT; while I fully expect them to clamp further on file sharing to enhance speeds, I could not have expected surfing to be equally affected.

But then again what do you expect? Malaysia Boleh! Or is there an ulterior motive? After all the unwanted publicity from the blogosphere and YouTube...maybe they have a bone to pick?

Double Talk

To be a good politician you must learn to double-talk. You must not only learn to please your supporters, but also the opposition - if you do it well, then you will be a successful politician. Well that may be difficult to do elsewhere in the world when the free media hounds your every word, but much much easier here when Malaysians in general forget easily, and when the 'free' media is actually under your thumbs.

Compare the above to this comment a month ago from our successful politician regarding the 30% Bumiputera programme of the NEP

Little wonder that the New Economic Policy has been called, is now called, and very likely will be called Never Ending Policy...or maybe Old Economic Policy?

Rob-bed!

I guess this must be the buzz word of the day on Merseyside!!! Shocker of a decision by referee Rob Styles denied Liverpool a deserved victory over Chelsea...I dare anyone to defend the penalty decision. Certainly a game of that magnitude, which hitherto was dominated by Liverpool, should not have deserved such poor refereeing! And to top that off, he nearly gave a double yellow-card to Essien, which led to some amount of confusion towards the end of the second-half. In all fairness Liverpool should have finished Chelsea off with a host of chances in the second half, but alas it was a victory not to be.

But we take heart from Liverpool's performance - perhaps a sign of better things to come? Keeping my fingers crossed!

High School Musical 2

Oh no! Another sequel... And you know how sequels are...never as good as the original. I was kind of hoping that High School Musical 2 would be different but alas, I was greatly disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high? But my expectations for sequels were never high to begin with, and unfortunately I was right to the money.

I wish they would have just let the first be it's one and only incarnation, but somehow the $$$ allure was too great. The first was a hit, and raked in the dough...so why should this be any different? Sure there will be those who will watch it once, but I don't think many will watch reruns. It has lost a lot of it's magic compared to the first...the songs and dance moves were just so so, and the actors seemed less energetic and fresh compared to last year; somehow the oomph was not there...maybe the novelty had worn off in the last one year. The storyline was fair, but I think the writers could have done much better. And a good thing is that the spotlight this time around was not so much on Troy and Gabriella, so there was some balance to the characters. However that could not save the show in my eyes.

Let's hope they leave this one alone and not have another sequel next year...pleaaaaseeee!

Ouch!

It was not a pretty sight this last one week. The stock markets have taken a beating, especially in Asia. This is all caused by a fear of a credit crunch as a result of losses suffered by major financial institutions all over the world by investing in the US subprime market - mortgage lenders, hedge funds, mutual funds, even banks were not unscathed. As of yesterday, our KLCI composite index closed at 1191.50, regaining much ground from an intra-day low of 1143.90 after much panic-selling in the early afternoon trading.

In early July, Bear Stearns announced losses suffered by two of its hedge funds investing in subprime loans; followed lately by BNP Paribas and another fund in Australia - it has grown from a local problem in the US into a worldwide one. The problem is no one knows how deeply entrenched are the losses as the subprime loans have been themselves repackaged into different investment grade bonds/money market instruments. Such is the nebulousness of the financial markets these days.

A lot of investors got burnt this time around. The last time, the markets rebounded quickly and surged on. Will lightning strike twice in the stock market? Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed...

Closing time?

Closing early? Now that's a first! When are those who leave their offices late or have other things to do gonna fill their petrol tanks? Shall we just drive to the nearest highway just to fill petrol? Or should we just keep quiet and let these dealers dictate terms and conditions? In a way I'm glad that the government is putting their foot down in this matter, but it is by no means resolved.

I also understand the plight of the unfortunate petrol dealers who has little business after certain hours - perhaps the Government and the petrol dealers' associations can work out an arrangement agreeable to all. But to have a blanket rule of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. opening hours borders on the ridiculous.

And there is still the thorny issue of the credit card charge which the petrol dealers are absorbing. In my opinion if they want the consumers to bear the charges, I say go ahead...but I feel that the Government should also step in and ask the banks to waive this ridiculous charge; after all such charges are waived elsewhere, and banks are making lots of profits - so why burden either the consumer (credit card user) or petrol dealers for the use of credit cards?

For now I am still glad that petrol stations are still open after 10 p.m.: let's hope it stays that way.

Nothing new...

News flash to people out there: This is nothing new!! Things like this happen in the medical world - in one form or another. Admittedly this is not a common occurrence, but a doctor would have to face a situation like this in their working lives. Most of the time the condition does not occur to such a degree and the limb is usually salvaged in the end - but unfortunately for this poor baby it is very likely that the limb would have to be amputated in the end. The demarcation is very clear - amputation would have to be done above the elbow. I would not like to speculate what exactly happened but it is clear to me that an artery has been cannulated and subsequently thrombosed. The official reason as infection being the cause is just a smokescreen - it is not an infection!

We'll just have to see how this works out. By the way, this is not the first, nor will it be the last. The previous case if I'm not mistaken was another baby in Penang. Maybe Malaysians have poor short-term memory. So like I said - this is nothing new...

Negarakuku

This is the infamous video clip that has rattled the nation!



Personally I don't find anything offensive in this video...maybe he poked fun at certain religious practices, but hardly anything to warrant this kind of reaction. Word has it that it has been distorted by quarters in the mainstream media to look as if he has insulted a certain ethnic group and their religion.

I'm sure the storm is just on the horizon...

Mis-Advertisment?

400 SMS for RM 2 alone? Yep, we are talking about that very radio advert peppering our ears since the start of the month...wow it sounded too good to be true? I guess it is...

The radio adverts definitely did not mention the 'surprising' terms and conditions noted in the Hotlink (oops!) website advertisment - so can this be misconstrued as a mis-advertisement? I don't recall the radio adverts mentioning 'Terms and Conditions apply' either. Can the consumer sue if they are not happy?