Built was done in 6 months. Its not smooth sailing all the way…theres always small little things that always bugs me. But its not all that bad. Now its time to pack it up with furnitures. So far I’ve installed all the appliances, a garage door opener, all the shelvings. Next is the central vacumm system. Its been fun so far.
Holy crap this blog is dead. I think its due for a new post, every now and then. I’ve moved to my brand new house. Work is as usual, its kickin my ass, although I am on holidays currently. Cant take it much more. too much to deal with, moving and having to try being creative at work. I’ll post some pictures of the new house soon. I am just writing this as a reminder to myself that I should be updating this spot soon…cause it’s LAME having a blog but not updating it.. 
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p/s Raya was a non event. I went to Raya prayers and did some house work afterwards. Maybe I should socialize more with those Pak Arabs, so I get invited to Raya open houses.
Back for a quick update. Been busy and I spend way too much time on FB anyway. Summer is coming and it seems that I might not get any time off this year AGAIN. A project is ramping up and any projected time off can usually be written off. Sucks!
The good thing is my lil Canadian dream is progressing smoothly. Projected possession date , middle of July. Un freakin real how they build this thing. Its like building LEGO.
I think the roof shingles will come on next. And maybe they will concentrate on the interior work for a while. Overall I am quite happy with quality and how fast they did things.
Thats it for now. I’ll try coming back when things aren’t so crazy here. Later!
So, its been a while. Maybe because I’m a bit lazy, a lot busy, maybe because I am hooked on FB. You tell me, all of the above. Lets start with work. So we are like 20 steps out of 10,000 steps from finishing this project. Out latest and greatest. I hope we make shit load of cash out of it, cause I worked my ass off on it. But hey, dont have your panties all bunched up and say I can hang my hat and stretch my legs cause this one is done…ohhh nooo….now I gotta start on this next one. All I can say, I freagin need a vacation…cause I am beat.
On the home front, literally the home front, we are building this Spring. I’ll post pictures when they start digging. I am excited. How long have I been talking bout this, more than 2 years…hell yeah I deserve to be excited.
What do I have to look forward to this Summer. Other than its not winter (hehe), I am looking forward to go to NYC visiting my good buddy there. I hope it all works out. I really feel like making a trip back home, but it doesnt feel right. With the economy and all. Gotta prioritize.
So what do you guys think about this economy. I think the media makes it worse than it is. I know some people are in the trenches, and I dont wish to be in that position, but we are still far from the great depression. What I am saying is it could get even more worse yet. Where am I goin with this…not sure….
Thats it for now. Congratulation to all my friends who got married or in the process of gettin the balls and chains on. May you be blessed with many years of growing your family and being around people you treasure most. Now, for some oldies but goodies…
IN the strident and unnecessarily unpleasant debate over the concept of ketuanan Melayu and the Malay community’s political future, the quiet voices of urban middle-class Malays have yet to make themselves heard.
As a partial corrective, I spoke to several members of a tribe that, while small in number, is intriguing from a social anthropology perspective.
The Malays of the anak Datuk class – the children of senior civil servants and technocrats whose parents’ careers in public service predated the Mahathir era – are interesting in that their values and ideas about Malaysia must have been formed at least in part by their families’ experiences of nation building.
As their parents made the country, it stands to reason that they would have a considerable emotional stake in how it develops in the future.
Even within this rarefied sub-caste of children of the Establishment who are not themselves involved in politics, however, their feelings about ketuanan Melayu show a marked diversity.
Fahmi Fadzil, 27, is a writer and performer. He is the son of Datuk Fadzil Yunus, the former director-general – and later general manager – of the Felda group of companies, and Datin Fauziah Ramly, a senior civil servant who was most recently a Commissioner with the Public Service Commission.
I asked him what he makes of the concept of ketuanan Melayu.
“I never grew up thinking about it very much. My parents never spoke to me about it. Even when I was in college the whole matter was never really present in how I saw things.
“I think because I live in KL – and especially because my parents came from that group of earlier middle class Malay civil servants – I don’t think I would subscribe to ideas of ketuanan Melayu.”
But does he subscribe in any way to the idea that the Malays are the natural leaders – or in some way the owners – of Malaysia?
“No. On my father’s side I’m the fourth generation born on this peninsula, on my mother’s side just the third generation, so I see myself as a pendatang too. I don’t subscribe to the idea of a natural leadership role for the Malays.
“More than that, as a Muslim, I don’t see the need for this. There is no such thing as one group being ethnically superior to another.
“The thing I remember most from school, from kelas agama, (is that) from the early days of Islam there was a clear message that you were all the same. Whether you were Arabs or not, you are all the same now.
“We should be talking about values and principles held by people rather than subscribing to simplistic ideas of certain ethnicities being the owners of the land. I don’t subscribe to that, and even if I did, I think the rightful owners would be the Orang Asal.”
Datuk Zahim Albakri, 45, the director and actor, is the son of Datuk Ikmal Hisham Albakri, the first Malay architect and the first President of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia, who designed the National Library, Putra World Trade Centre, and the Bank Bumiputera headquarters in KL.
Zahim’s grandfather, Datuk Seri Mustafa Albakri, of the Malayan Civil Service, was the first Commissioner of the Election Commission and the first Keeper of the Ruler’s Seal.
For Zahim, coming to grips with the concept of ketuanan Melayu means dispelling ambiguity: “There seems to be a confusion between the bumiputera policy (the New Economic Policy) and the idea of ketuanan Melayu. The bumiputera policy was a reaction to the riots of 1969, whereas ketuanan Melayu, in the Constitution, I don’t think is particularly giving special privileges or rights to the Malays, it’s to ensure that the Malay Rulers have a certain place, to ensure that those institutions continue.
“I grew up in a family where we were brought up with the understanding that the Malay rulers are there, and this is our history, our culture.
“I grew up with my granddad being proudly Malay, and proudly Orang Perak. There was this sense of being proud of our culture. But never were we made to think that being Malay gave us a right to something beyond.
“I was brought up (to believe) that every citizen in Malaysia was equal. I was never brought up believing that Malays should have more than everyone else.”
How would he feel about a non-Malay Prime Minister?
“I have no problem with a non-Malay PM. It should be about their competence. It should be the best person for the job.”
The composer Datin Saidah Rastam comes from a family steeped in public life. Her maternal grandfather was Perak’s 14th Datuk Panglima Kinta, who held 56 public service posts at the time of his death. Her father is Datuk Rastam Hadi, the former managing director of Petronas and former deputy governor of Bank Negara. Her husband is the urbane lawyer-turned-banker Datuk Charon Mokhzani (who, with exquisite politeness, declined to be interviewed for this article).
Says Saidah, “I think the races should be treated equally and the biggest thing that makes me uneasy about the concept of ketuanan Melayu is that it’s increasingly being used in fascist ways.”
She believes that the NEP “was a necessary thing at the time, given the racial tensions, but that’s different from the concept of Malay supremacy”.
She points to the historical record: “Tun Razak said that that was only for that time, and this NEP thing would end at some point, so that’s different from the notion that there’s an inherent Malay supremacy that can’t be questioned, which I’m very uneasy with.
“I’m somebody who benefited from the policies which favoured Malays – at the outset I’m happy to admit that. But looking at things today, my personal view is that we should give everybody equal opportunities because the policies favouring Malays haven’t been used properly.
“And given that the people who are supposed to safeguard the correct implementation of the policies are the same ones who benefit from them, I’m not optimistic that those policies will be correctly implemented.”
Dain-Iskandar Said is a writer and film director. His father was Datuk Mohamed Said Zain, a diplomat and intelligence officer.
He sees the concept of ketuanan Melayu as “outmoded, out of step with the times we live in, when the world is becoming more and more global. The world over, people are bringing down barriers of race, yet we are trying to instill and install those outmoded values.”
In his eyes, there are many aspects to the problem. “First, what is a Malay? Most Malays I know are some kind of mix, so who defines being Malay? Who are the guardians of the definition?
“The definition of ketuanan Melayu seems to be Umno; it always seems to lead back to Umno’s agenda.
“I’m not saying that outside of it it’s not valid; it may be valid to a lot of people. I can understand that. The main problem is the way it’s implemented. The tone of it is fascistic.”
For him, the promotion of the tenets of ketuanan Melayu “exposes deep insecurity, because if you really believe you are leading this country, what are you so scared of? I don’t think any of the other races want to take that away from you. They can’t, because in the Constitution are enshrined certain precepts.”
Dain argues that our debate is impoverished. “While many of us middle class Malays can be liberal and open, there’s never been any kind of infrastructure that supports ideas or traditions of openness.
“So on the one hand you have people who are willing to be open and liberal, but on the other hand it is so easy to destroy it, because there is no critical, intellectual or educational infrastructure to support those ideas.
“When you attack something that has no support, it is so easy to play to the rural Malay masses, to instill that kind of fear, and make people feel extremely powerless.
“There’s no tradition of talking critically about race and identity politics. You’re almost suspended in a vacuum.”
This is a vacuum that we need to fill with the plurality and diversity of our opinions. It has always been the position of Wide Angle that Malaysia’s many problems and tensions should not be ignored; they need to be addressed by continued, forthright yet respectful debate by citizens, and the issue of ketuanan Melayu is no exception.
Presenting the 44th President of the US of A. This is majorly historic since this proofs that the Americans would elect the best person to steer the country in the best direction possible without any prejudice towards race or skin colour. This makes the Americans cool again. I am hoping he will take all the nessessary actions to get America to do what it does best, a well oiled economic machine it was before. Its impossible to fix everything but it is important to prioritize and fix the most broken. Change is what he promised and I hope he delivers. It’s definitely a big job and takes a lot of long hours and complicated manuvering to get things done. Good luck Mr President, you will need it.
I am sitting watching phantom gourmet (http://www.phantomgourmetbeer.com/) this Sunday morning and just watching the show brings back nostalgic memories of my old stompin ground. Yes, theres lots of awesome eating place in Boston. You name it, Boston would have it.
I remember first year in Boston, Abg Tafa, Rumie and me lived in the same dorm – Stetson West Hall. We used to order lots of onions and mushroom topped pizza. Its kinda sad since sometimes that same pizza would last for breaksfast too. Kuak once in a while would stop by and would joined in the festivities. We were enrolled with the on campus meal plan, which we dreaded. The food sucks, except that you get all the scrambled eggs for breakfast. Like most freshmen dorm halls, you’ll see chicks puking in the men’s washroom around midnight every weekend. Better yet you’ll hear some college chick taking shower in the next stall with some guy. We came around fall, so we experienced our first snow fall together sometime in October ‘91.
Our sophomore year, we all moved out. Still on campus residency, but not as crazy as living in a freshmen dorm. I think at this point we were living at 319 Huntington. We bought TV, electric guitars, ordered cable. Life was good. We were learning how to cook. We were also starting to go on our CO-OP assignments, so moola was slowly coming in. I think it was at this time that the next batch of Malaysian students came on board. Now we didnt have any females on our batch. So this next batch introduces some “home made” variety. Love was in the air, except for me I guess….I was the lone wolf…hehehe.
Boston was good since everything was within walking distance. The city is just vibrant and theres lots to do. The public transportation was excellent. Ample entertainment. Never a boring day. Theres a good community of Malaysian students in the neighbouring areas..Berklee Music School, MIT, Harvard, BU, BC,Mass U. So theres a good mix of people whenever theres a gathering.
Our junior and senior years are non short of excellent. I moved couple more times after that, White Hall, then off campus at Alphonsus St, then back to Huntington Ave. Its hard to believe that that was 12+ years ago. Everybody went their separate ways. I still do keep in touch with some guys especially Abg Tafa. Although most just dissapered. I wish them all well. The last time I was in Boston was back in early 2006. The campus area extended all the way to WIT. They built more on campus dorms. Theres still a lot of hot college chicks around. I’d have to say that my college years was one of my favourite time. Maybe one day we can get all the boys to get together.
I need a vacation so bad….where should I go…where where where?
I just heard this over the radio this morning, tips to weather the economy either in bad or good times:
I know its hard looking at your investments going down the drain. Emotionally it is really hard to control spending when you are use to having lots of available cash to spend. Those credit cards are also evil when all you want to do is window shop and ended up spending hundreds of dollars on stuff you dont really need. And its even harder to save.
Then again theres no one to blame other then yourself when you lost your job, start borrowing money from relatives and friends cause you cant even feed your family or pay your mortgage, you cant get away from accumulating more debt and you dont have anything stashed away in the bank for those rainy days. Its all about what I call money discipline. I think we’ve heard of the tips mentioned above one time or another, but do we really practise them? Some may, but majority of us dont. So, if you just dont follow any advise ever in your life, do follow the tips above. I know money cant buy happiness, but admit it, they do buy you some freedom.
The hype that the press created dont help things either:
This is from thestar.com this morning:
Desperate to escape the vicious bear market, Canadian investors pulled a record $4.5 billion out of mutual funds last month and apparently threw much of that money straight into their bank accounts.
And this is from Associated Press also from this morning:
Worries about the economy sent the Dow Jones industrials down a staggering 733 points earlier Wednesday, erasing any hopes that the convulsions that have shaken Wall Street for a month were over.
The selling spree carried over to Asia, where stocks fell sharply Thursday. Japan’s key stock index plummeted more than 11 percent, South Korean shares shed 9.25 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 4.8 percent.
Look at the words they are using…desperate…worries. All I can say, when others are selling, I am buying, cause they are cheap now, but do remember to invest for long term. And thats my 2 cents for today. Happy investing folks.
