48 posts tagged “nation”
I just wonder how are students being taught in the interior schools.
I interviewed a 17 year old girl, a patient from a district, in the clinic. She is supposed to take her SPM examinations this year.
Me : Bila ambil SPM?
Her : Tak ambil dah. Henti sekolah dah.
Me: Kenapa?
Her : Tak pandai.
Me: PMR dapat apa?
Her : Dapat "telor" (giggling)
Me: Cikgu ada ajar? Kamu ada tanya?
Her : Cikgu kata siapa tak faham angkat tangan.
Me: Kamu ada angkat tangan?
Her : Tak
Me : Kamu tau baca dan tulis?
Her : Tak
Me: Jadi apa kamu buat hari-hari di sekolah?
Her : (Giggling)
Me : Bapa, mak kerja apa?
Her : Petani. Tanam padi.
Me : Di rumah kamu buat apa? Kamu ada tolong potong padi?
Her : Belum musim. Bulan dua-belas nanti...
Me : Tadi macam mana datang? Macam mana kamu balik?
Her : Ikut "Ngii...ngo...ngii...ngo" (giggling)
Me : Ikut ambulans kah?
Her : (Nodded)
After 17 years of schooling she cannot read and write. I tested her myself. She was very cheerful though. I could not detect even a hint of jealousy nor dissatisfaction.
However I felt sad. How did this happen in our country? Poverty? Ignorance? Lack of opportunity? Neglected? Education system? Some population just don't realize that they have not been given a fair share of the socio-economic pie. Easy going people. Easy to be taken advantage of. The state's wealth plundered away while they are still in the dark. Obviously the "Dasar Ekonomi Baru" didn't reach here. She is a "Bumiputra" though.
Whatever happened to the fair distribution of wealth and opportunity? Looks like it is a skewed distribution.
Rice, is something we may have taken for granted. In the era of MacDonalds, steakhouses, Japanese cuisine and fine dining, rice is something regarded as cheap food. It is not surprising to see people in buffets ignoring the rice and target the "expensive" food like meats and seafood instead. In the restaurant, we have often seen extra rice being asked and then not finished and left on the table.
In a country where natural resources are aplenty, yesterday I was given an insight on how a local family, as the guardian ( also known as "jaga") of a probably multi-million dollars sports complex had for dinner. The local lady was given a room (more like a store room) beneath the spectator's seat to live. 3 elderly ladies were sitting around a discarded table and heaps of discarded chairs which was used once for some VIP parade in the stadium but were now left to rot. A couple of malnourished cats roamed nearby.
The lady had plain white rice for dinner with a bowl of Maggi Mi for company. Yup, plain white rice and maggi mi as the "vegetable". Something tugged at my heart. In our country where natural resources are aplenty, and multi billion mega projects are cropped up on a daily basis, this is something that should not happen. (to me at least)
Poverty is a disease which needs to be eradicated. When our country can boast the tallest and longest and can offer ONE MILLION RINGGIT to an Olympic gold medal, I can't help but wonder about the priorities our country is taking.
What is the point of having the most sophisticated scan machines and medications when patients do not even have proper nutritious food to eat due to poverty? Who benefits more from the the purchase of medications? The patients or the middleman or the pharmaceutical company? If you ask me, proper nutrition and food has more benefit than the few hundred ringgit anti-platelet agent. Proper nutrition and food is going to help the bed bound stroke patient with horrendous bed sores more than the few thousand ringgit of antibiotics.
Poverty is endemic around here. We have read about the apparent fair distribution of the country's wealth in various forms and agendas but to me what's more pertinent is the fair distribution of opportunity. Every citizen should be given equal opportunity to better themselves rather than dishing out money to them. If lazy people do not want to work despite given the opportunity then they themselves are to be blamed. But I can't help but feel that most people here (especially locals) do not have the opportunity to better themselves as these opportunities are being siphoned by the "powerful connected" people leaving crumbs behind.
I'm sure many of our leaders' children are busy studying overseas while back at home there are so many children who are not schooling due to poverty. They have to find means to put food into their stomach instead. Some schools are in dilapidated conditions too.
With the rising price of rice, I'm not surprised if some poor village people may need to resort to eating tapioca to survive. Which reminds me of the time of the Japanese Occupation as told to me.
Poverty, is the world's most prevalent and deadliest disease. Not heart attacks. It is the greatest tragedy of all times if a person dies of malnutrition due to poverty in our country. Which I'm sure is under-reported.
Kakakah. This is a funny statement. Here
"The country's poverty rate will increase from 3.7 per cent to 24.3 per cent if the poverty line is raised from the current RM800 to RM1,500 per household"
Why don't we just adjust the poverty line to RM100 per house hold so that our poverty rate is at 0.001%. Kakakah.
We can also adjust our SPM examinations passing mark to 1/100 so that our passing rate is 100%. Now everybody can pass! Kakakah.
And now we can impress everyone too!
Another funny statement here
"The inflation rate for the first five months of this year is 2.9 per cent, Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said yesterday"
So if I follow the inflation rate of 2.9%, my favourite curry mee should cost RM5.66 (from RM5.50) and not RM6 now.
Sometimes you get the feeling that nobody really sits down to formulate at least a semi-permanent solution for our petrol price woes.
Firstly it was no selling to foreign registered cars within 50km of the border. ( Was Sabah/Sarawak considered? These two states have large borders with Indonesia and Brunei )
Then it was changed almost overnight. The petrol price was increased to RM2.70/litre and now everybody can buy!
Next there is a proposal for a two-tier pricing system, one for local cars, another for foreign cars.
Then there is the rebate system. First it was RM625 per car under 2000cc. Then it was announced the rebate would be extended to above 3000cc in Sabah/Sarawak. Now there is a RM200 reduction of road tax for 4x4 and trucks above 3000cc in Sabah/Sarawak.
When something is decided for certain, somebody please do let me know. I cannot keep up with the ever changing policies.
1) Hypermarts "in-house brands" are replacing "international brands" in their stores.
2) People removing items from their shopping carts at the cashier because they discovered they did not have enough money (prices went up).
3) People buy the cheapest cooking oils which is almost sold out and "luxury" cooking oils like sunflower, peanut and olive oil are left untouched.
4) The most popular items sold are instant noodles.
4) Places where parking is free starts to charge parking fee now.
5) Free food is the main agenda at government meetings.
6) There is political turmoil in the country.
7) When you're asked whether you want to retire at 56 or at 58 years.
8) When going dutch whenever friends gather together for the occasional "makan" is the norm.
9) When spare change are taken as well in the restaurants.
10) When the government insists that everything is OK
Aw huid, Aw houik, Ow shuek, muntah darah, vomit blood, hematemesis, nokoilob raha....all means the same thing - Blood gushing out from your upper orifice.
That's how I described the office efficiency.
Case 1: I applied for a promotion post - filled in the forms, which I downloaded and printed myself and send it to the relevent personnel in office within 3 working days of the advertisement. Closing date was 6 weeks away. Was assured everything was is order and would be "processed" asap.
2 DAYS before the closing date, a colleague checked out with the office and was told "Belum hantar ke Putrajayalah doktor...itu SKT belum cari dan isi. Orang yang buat itu cuti sakit! Mengandung...muntah muntah.Tak ada orang ganti"
Case 2: I applied for further training. Filled in the necessary forms, which I downloaded and printed myself, and handed up to the office to "process". Aaaah...yesterday the person who received my form, happened to meet me at a hall, "Arr...doktor, hari itu ada bagi saya borang pohon training ka? Saya ada jumpa dalam fail doktor. Masih mahu hantar ka?" I HANDED UP THE FORMS 6 MONTHS AGO.
Not that I'm bothered. In fact I've expected it. My many years in service has taught me something. To get things done in the bureaucratic way, one must make as many photocopies as possible and send to as many places and people as possible. It's like trying to dig for oil. Hopefully one of the many attempts will strike gold. There is no system. There is absolutely no connection between one department to another. In fact it is faster to send a snail mail from and to Putrajaya 2000km away than from someone in Putrajaya to pass it to another colleague sitting a few desks away.
I got what I wanted 6 months before someone at the office even took a look at my forms because I used the multi-hit theory. Just hit as many departments and people as possible. The more the better - the more chance you have to hit it right. Never depend on one. To those who put their faith in "The System", sorrylah.
Can really AW HUID.
And we are wondering why doctors are leaving in droves. Fed up.
Looks like prices are going up again. Not surprising though. But somehow the government still tells us every thing is under control, GDP still on course, inflation still low etc etc.
My favourite laksa mee now cost RM6 for a large bowl and RM5 for a small bowl. Last year it was RM5.50 and RM4.50. The year before that, it was RM5 and RM4. That is an approximately 20% inflation from the last 2 years.
With the petrol prices up and food prices up, there is less spare change nowadays. Sigh...
Can someone please tell me the logic of this? The Star
Pleeeaaaselah, Pak Lah, just take care of our country's finances ok, and I will know how to take care of mine. No need the government to play daddy and mommy. This is not free pocket money ok, I earned it.
Perhaps the rationale is to prevent some people from spending all their money at one go on payday and then go bust before the end of the month.
Now they can go bust TWICE a month hahahahaha.
I wonder who came up with all these half baked ideas. So are we gonna chop more trees and spend more money to print TWO payslips every month?
Our esteemed Minister says civil servants can now take up part time job or businesses. Check out here
The last time I check when I was in Form 5, the rate for working in Pizza Hut was RM3.50 per hour. That was so looooong ago. KFC and Mc Donalds was a bit less.
Since I'm getting only RM50 for a 24 hour on call work, I might just request not to be put on call and perhaps work in Pizza Hut instead (RM3.50 per hour = RM84 per 24 hour), or KFC or Mc Donalds.
Problem is that patients might meet me in the Pizza Hut saying "Eh doctor, you're working here also ah?" Doesn't look very impressive huh?
Well I can then proceed to say "Yeah, let me recommend you some low fat pizzas. But if you choose this fatty one, you can later come to see me during office hours to get some anti-cholesterol medication"
"If you buy 3 pizzas, I'll throw in some cholesterol medication for you later free. And if you order this coca-cola, just take another half tablet of your diabetic medication"
Waiiiit a minute....just wait a minute. Maybe can work with these businesses too...more profitable lah.
"If you develop shortness of breath, you can see me also during office hours at this hospital"
"And If you buy 3 packs now, I'll throw in a Ventolin inhaler free of charge during office hours"
Hahahahahaahahahahahah.....just jokinglah. It's not ethical but it might not be that outrageous. Perhaps nurses or medical assistants may consider doing it. Seriously.
Let's see which part time job or business looks enticing...
Umm...just read this, not once but twice just to make sure I'm not hallucinating.
"Ministers' and deputy ministers’ entertainment allowances will be
slashed and their paid holidays limited to local and Asean destinations
in a cost-cutting move that will save the Government RM2bil this year"
"For the paid holidays, Cabinet members will not be allowed to claim for more than a week's holiday"
Umm...you mean that we've been paying for your overseas holidays exceeding one week for donkey years?!!!!! And what's the limit of your claims, if any?
"The Prime Minister currently enjoys a monthly entertainment allowance of RM18,865 while his deputy gets RM15,015. Other ministers and deputy ministers are given RM12,320 and RM6,000, respectively"
Umm...with this much entertainment allowance shouldn't you be paying for your own holidays?
Sigh...sigh...regretted being so honest with my income tax returns. Got slapped again...really hard this time
