Malaysia has decided

Its truly un believeable! BN (Barisan National) lost Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Perak. Mind you these states were once strong BN supporters. So what HAPPENED?

I tell you what I know so far. BN brought this upon themselves. The promises BN made on 2004 were so-called "achieved" and was said to be done beyond those promises. But how does the layman know? There's no one watching or even monitor the said "progress" by so-called NGOs. NGOs in M'sia I've always believed that it has the backing of the government. If not they would not have "lesen" to even form or operate as a group!! Call me paranoid or a baseless blogger, but there's no such thing as black and white in politics. There's always the "GREY" area, where politicians build their so-called cronies and get support for their causes or "other agenda".

As a Malaysian living abroad. I think many would agree with me that looking (reading or hearing) at current events of our home country from the outside gives us an advantage on perspective. We look at (and experienced) at the ways of local government and its economic situation of our host country, some may agree with me on this but some may not, and we do compare it (conscientiously or not) with those of our home country.

Its not that we love our home country less but its that we love our home country more that we compare and simply want the best for our fellow/future Malaysians at home and abroad. Its like parents wanting what is best for their children. As there's no such thing as "the best" government in any countries. Voting IS actually a way to choose and the only outlet that we, its citizens, to voice out what we want for our nation.

On why BN loose these states; well simply put it this way. Noticing that these states aren't actually "moving"forward or even going any where with BN - rural folks wishes not met, the "play" on race/religious issues (sensitive matter), the security issues (crime, immigration etc) and economic matter has got from bad to worst. Its no wonder the rakyat wants the winds of change after having BN "rule" the country for more than 3 decade (the Opposition won in 1969 - and we know how the rest of the story goes!).

I think this generation of Malaysians are mature enough and fearless to make such decision. Fear is the mother of all evil. That is what created riots in 1969. Let me just say this, although we may not know what the future may hold but we are fearless enough to venture into the unknown. Malaysia has its faults, she makes mistakes and hopefully learn from each mistakes. She is also a young nation, dynamic and eagar to learn from the rest of the world. We can not let race and religion blind us from what we set ourselves to achieve. We must see to it that we not take for granted that tax payers money is easy money to fulfil our wants but needs of our rakyat regardless of background/colour/believes. We must see to it that we teach our children that Malaysia belongs to them and that they are Malaysians (full stop), not just Chinese/Indian/Punjabi dan lain-lain Malaysian. This my dream for my home country - Malaysia and I am a Malaysian.

On the trail of scandals my friend?

I just recieved this from a friend. Don't know how true this is but when Air Asia wanted to take over Sabah & Sarawak routes then actually "return" them again, makes one actually wonder no, on what the hell is going on behind the scenes? I may not be able to vote, even if I am, I'll vote using my brains and with relevance to all that is and has happend in the country.

Fasten Your Seat Belts : The Air Asia, Badawi , Singapore , Kamaludin, Tengku Adnan, Kalimullah Story I bet you all know that Air Asia in Thailand is call Thai Air Asia and they have Thaksin family as their share holders. Guess who are the share holders in Malaysia Air Asia?.... Good guess! Did know you are so smart my fren! Read on my dear tax payer!

Posted by Raja Petra - Wednesday, 27 February 2008

By Little Bird

Kawan-kawan, please fasten your seat belts now. I thought that I knew something about what is really going on in the administration of Abdullah Badawi. Today I found out I have not even scratched the> surface. The following is panas-panas news. You may want to hit the> ejection button (not yours but theirs) after reading this. Firstly, the shareholders and/or stakeholders of Air Asia (directly, indirectly, through proxies, etc.) include Kamaluddin bin Abdullah Badawi, Kalimullah Maseerul Hassan (also into Tune Hotels), Khairy Jamaluddin, Tony Fernandez, etc.

We all know the story of Air Asia. Well, we all thought it was a rags to riches story. It is actually a story about riches. The rags part is actually very hazy. When MAS entered into a phase of 'restructuring' about three years ago, Air Asia, through Tony Fernandez, struck fast and furious. Before we go further, you may want to ask why did MAS have to suffer yet another 'restructuring'? That is a story by itself for another day but just bear in mind that Badawi's brother, Ibrahim, is the owner of the catering company (Skychef?) that used to supply mineral water at RM35 a case to MAS. With that kind of pricing, surely MAS would need 'restructuring'.

Anyway, Air Asia stepped in and pushed the Gomen for a 'rationalisation' of the domestic air routes in Malaysia . Air Asia asked to be given MAS' Sabah and Sarawak routes. MAS could keep flying> in Semenanjung, they said. Despite objections by MAS, Air Asia was> granted its wish. But the wish did not just happen. Zaki, a fourth floor boy at the PM's office, helped Air Asia make its wish come true. Once MAS lost its Sabah and Sarawak routes to Air Asia, there was a> staff redundancy. So MAS had to organise a VSS. MAS demanded that since Air Asia was taking over their Sabah and Sarawak routes it would make some of their staff redundant so Air Asia should pay MAS some compensation. Everyone (MAS, Gomen and even Air Asia) agreed that compensation was payable to MAS. But Air Asia would not pay anything. Finally, the Gomen (err that means you and me lah, Encik Taxpayer) paid the compensation to MAS, which MAS promptly used in one of the most expensive VSS payments in our history. If your blood is starting to boil, stop reading and better cool off because it does not get better.

Then, within one year, Air Asia realised that the Sabah and Sarawak routes were not profitable. They never were. MAS was performing national service in Sabah and Sarawak . Flying chickens and goats is not a money-making venture. No problem.

Air Asia made another wish. They told the Gomen, we have to return these air routes back to MAS. Again MAS objected. Again overruled. Not relevant. Then came the handing over ceremony of the air routes and the airplanes. When they took over the Sabah/Sarawak routes, Air Asia had 'acquired' seven airplanes from MAS in perfect working condition. (MAS does have one of the best safety records in the world.) However, when Air Asia 'returned' the planes to MAS, only one was left in working condition. The other six planes were grounded, not fit for flying and could not fly. In actual fact, Air Asia was cannibalising parts from the six planes to keep the seventh one flying. Again MAS objected. Again overruled.Not relevant. It eventually cost MAS in excess of RM50 million to make the planes flyable again.

This was a direct subsidy to 'rags to riches' Air Asia's profits. Then Air Asia started eyeing the lucrative KL-Singapore routes. Tighten your seat belts. This one will really jolt. But they went about it the roundabout way. They said they wanted to go international. They did (some) but international routes are tough. No Zaki, Badawi, Khairy, Kalimullah or Kamaluddin to make your wishes come true. But the KL-Singapore sector was generating RM40 million in PROFITS to MAS. This was the plum in the pudding. Air Asia wanted it badly. So they made another wish. It came true. This is how they did it. Air Asia 's bid to break into the KL-Singapore sector was first discussed in Cabinet when Badawi was on holiday overseas.

Najib chaired the meeting and Air Asia's application was rejected. The application was rejected for two main reasons:

i. By 2009 the whole of ASEAN becomes open sky anyway. ASEAN airlines can fly to all ASEAN capitals without restrictions. So why open up KL-Singapore in double quick time?

ii. If budget flights are allowed between KL-Singapore, KLIA will die> an unnatural death. KLIA will become a feeder airport for Singapore 's Changi. People will fly from KL to Singapore and then fly off from Singapore to the rest of the world. MAS will then die a natural death. So the request was declined.
Then Badawi came back from his travels and asked Tengku Adnan the Minister of Tourism to prepare a paper on tourism, linking MAS, Air Asia , SIA, etc., to tourist arrivals. At the next Cabinet meeting chaired by Badawi, he asked Tengku Adnan to present the 'Cabinet paper'. Insiders say that the paper was an 'out of Agenda' item - meaning it> surprised everyone, but the dunggus approved it nonetheless. Air Asia got its wish again. Tengku Adnan also secured his Putrajaya seat.

Now here is the killer. Soon after Air Asia started flying the KL-Singapore sector, they started giving away 300,000 free tickets, 5 sen tickets and all the other gimmicks. Singapore is believed to be> subsidising Air Asia for all these expensive gimmicks. For SIA, losing RM40 million (S$17 million) profit from the KL-Singapore sector is chicken feed. Air Asia is feeding thousands of transit passengers from KL to Changi . Air Asia is providing RM19 bus rides from KL to KLIA. From KLIA, passengers fly almost free to Changi. From Changi the passengers can connect to the world. Now, Air Asia is making another wish - they want to fly direct from Kuching, KK, Penang, Alor Setar, Kota Bharu, etc., to Changi. They will earn even more 'subsidies' from Singapore . KLIA will drop dead later, MAS will die first.

This is how we go from 'rags to riches'. And we all thought Tony Fernandez was such a great guy too. The shareholders and/or stakeholders of Air Asia (directly, indirectly, through proxies, etc.) include Kamaluddin bin Abdullah Badawi, Kalimullah Maseerul Hassan (also into Tune Hotels), Khairy Jamaluddin, Tony Fernandez, etc. Yes, we believe in open skies, competition and all that. But friends, fellow Malaysians, this is the PM, his son, his S-I-L and his cronies lah. How can they sell out their own country? But this is what they are doing.

Kawan-kawan, come March 8th, 2008 you have an opportunity to hit the button for the ejecion seat. Hit the ejection button and send these people out into oblivion. Don't give them any parachutes either.

They say never trust a shrewd businessman (most of them are shrewd, if not how can get KAYA wor?), so why trust the words of a politician? They are merely words. So VOTE WISELY FELLOW MALAYSIANS!!

Is Milk a "poison" for humans?

Moo!

Living in a milk rich region, its hard to avoid products made with cow's milk. Be it butter, cheese, yogurt, cakes, cereals etc...

However there are reasons to believe that milk is slowly poisoning our human bodies. Well at least I do. Do you think cow's milk is right and safe for human consumption at all? Well, most people say right away YES! For the very few would say NO!

For the YES! group, their reasons are:

• 
  
  Well that's where you get your calcium and protein from. Honestly? Well no. Calcium and protein could be obtained from other sources such as soy and green leafy veggies. Like the cow which gets their sources from. Cow's milk are made from vegetarian diet. We don't we see cow's drinking each other milk don't we? Unless of course if its their new born.

The NO! group reasons:

• milk contains hormone which is either injected by farmers or produced naturally by the animal for the usage of their new borns. These hormone can and could react with our human body cell which causes cancer. Take for example, breast cancer. In order for cow's to produce milk, it has to produce insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I). Same as human female. Therefore since us females produce these IGF-Is ourseves, why take in more from milk? "It has been widely known that IGF-I is one of the key factors of cancerous cell growth" from here.


• There are a lot of people who are lactose intolerant or milk will make them very (very) ill. Some people like me who suffers from migraine would be thankful to know that milk is one of the main culprits besides sudden change of temperature, allergy of certain foods (peanuts, chocolates etc), stress, toothaches etc...


• Its also widely known to cause osteoporosis in the western world. I've actually not heard of osteoporosis while I was back home!!! I think must be the reason that in Asia (notably China & Japan), we don't drink that much of milk or at all. The other reason for this would be that most Asians have milk intolerance. Drinking milk will not prevent loss of bone mass. It seems that bone mass loss is accelerated by having too much protein and dairy products.


• One could actually find residues of pesticides and what nots. These residues remains in the fat cells of milk even after pasteurising it.
• 
  
  Well it causes bowel movement in most cases, kidney stone and prostate cancer in most cases.


• Have anyone seen how cow's are milked? Well if you're thinking a maid with a bucket in hand milking the cow happily, you're darn wrong! Milk consumption as double and tripled in the last decade. Milking cows the old fashioned way would take too long not to mention too expensive to fill the demands of todays "new" consumer market, namely China. Cow's are being "sucked" with machines on a daily basis. Can you imagine YOU being "sucked" in such manner? I could: from previous breast lactating machine in the hospital!! :(

With so many reasons, why the dairy industry giants such as Nestlé (they were involved in a infant food product scandal. The Nestlé Boycott read all about it) etc continue to promote milk as a healthy and safe choice of food? Because it involves the loss of trillions of investments and jobs. Imagine farmers, cheese makers or your average milkman loosing their income/jobs. I'm hot asking people to immediately stop taking dairy food while I ironronically continue to take them. I have been reducing them and will continue to do so. I hope that you will do the same perhaps?

Most sources are from www.notmilk.com and image from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/