Have you ever thought of buying a government? Is it even possible?
Apparently it is. I was having a small talk with a Ukrainian friend the other day when our topic shifted to politics. I was telling him the amusing stories of our country politics, how the Malaysian are getting frustrated at our inefficient and corrupt politician. That was when he told me about his country even more amazing story.
During the 2004 election the ruling party lost the election to the opposition. However the leader of the previously ruling party did not want to let go. So what they did was they offer 300 million dollar to the party who won the election. Both then party would then combined into one, and the previous leader would take over the leadership of the new party and thus lead the government!
Amazing isn't it? I could not believe what he was telling, this cannot be true. But he said that thats what happened. It even leads to a revolution in the country called the orange revolution. I checked in Wikipedia but it was a different story from what he told me. So till today i still have doubt over his version of the story.
He also told me that corruptions is very common back in Ukraine. This i think i would believe him. Why? Its because when i was driving him around on the potholes laden roads, he mentioned to me that Malaysia has excellent roads. And that, says a lot.
*I hope BN is not reading this. Else if they lost in the coming election, DAP or PAS or PKR might be a new member of the BN family. Maybe i should copyright this idea, make it my own intellectual property, hahaha.....
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Entertainment - "Ying Chow"
Recently one of my buddy was brought to one of the thousands of "entertainment" outlets in the country. He was the first among my buddies of friends (I was from a boy school, so all my buddies are guys). I share with you his experience. My buddy, lets call him B, his job commitment brought him to the most religious state in Malaysia to a town close to the border of our neighbouring country.
B was there for only 2 days. He went with two others from KL. And one of the day, after a day of work the manager of the branch in the town brought the three of them together with a local staff for dinner. They had Thai food and according to him the food was excellent. And so after dinner, the manager, to be known as M from now, suggested they would go for drinks. They hesitated for a first, but M told them they will only go to one of the pub nearby.
So they agreed to go but not before the local staff excused himself and mention to them that the Golok town "mayor" will bring them around. He was referring to M. M was known as Golok town mayor but B and others have no idea why was that. At 8.30pm they left the restaurant and went to the pub. When they reached the place, they saw that it was a nice place with a few huts where u can sit and have drinks. It can fit around 10 peoples. They thought it was just a place to chill out.
A Thai girl greeted them politely when they walked in - just plain Sawadika with a friendly smile. A minute after that they realised that they were dead wrong. A girl suddenly hugged B tightly from the back, wrapping herself tightly around him. It was clearly not a friendly type of hug. B looked at M, hoping that he would do something about it but M just smiled cheekily at him as he wrap his hand around the waist of another girl.
They all walked into one of the huts accompanied by 3 girls. A bucket of beers was brought to them, 3 big bottles in the bucket. The girls pour the guys the beers and literally forced-drink them. The cups will be filled up to the brim, cups after cups. B being his first time in this situation, felt awkward. M and the girls was laughing at the antic of B while speaking to each other in Thai language. Though B doesn't understand a work in Thai, he knew they was teasing him.
There was nothing B can do but to drink. He drank about 3 cups in no time. He has a girl close to him. This particular girl knows a bit of english so at least they could communicate. She stayed closed to him, even sitting on his lap. After about 15 minutes, she asked him if he would like to go to the toilet.
.....to be continue......
B was there for only 2 days. He went with two others from KL. And one of the day, after a day of work the manager of the branch in the town brought the three of them together with a local staff for dinner. They had Thai food and according to him the food was excellent. And so after dinner, the manager, to be known as M from now, suggested they would go for drinks. They hesitated for a first, but M told them they will only go to one of the pub nearby.
So they agreed to go but not before the local staff excused himself and mention to them that the Golok town "mayor" will bring them around. He was referring to M. M was known as Golok town mayor but B and others have no idea why was that. At 8.30pm they left the restaurant and went to the pub. When they reached the place, they saw that it was a nice place with a few huts where u can sit and have drinks. It can fit around 10 peoples. They thought it was just a place to chill out.
A Thai girl greeted them politely when they walked in - just plain Sawadika with a friendly smile. A minute after that they realised that they were dead wrong. A girl suddenly hugged B tightly from the back, wrapping herself tightly around him. It was clearly not a friendly type of hug. B looked at M, hoping that he would do something about it but M just smiled cheekily at him as he wrap his hand around the waist of another girl.
They all walked into one of the huts accompanied by 3 girls. A bucket of beers was brought to them, 3 big bottles in the bucket. The girls pour the guys the beers and literally forced-drink them. The cups will be filled up to the brim, cups after cups. B being his first time in this situation, felt awkward. M and the girls was laughing at the antic of B while speaking to each other in Thai language. Though B doesn't understand a work in Thai, he knew they was teasing him.
There was nothing B can do but to drink. He drank about 3 cups in no time. He has a girl close to him. This particular girl knows a bit of english so at least they could communicate. She stayed closed to him, even sitting on his lap. After about 15 minutes, she asked him if he would like to go to the toilet.
.....to be continue......
NGV scandals
The government has been asking the people to use Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV). The government has been telling us that they want to promote the use of NGV and are building the necessary infrastructure to support the use of NGV, such as building more refueling stations for these NGV.
For those who do not already know, NGV are cars that uses Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) instead of the normal petrol or diesel as fuel. Currently, the NGV in Malaysia are mostly those taxis in Klang Valley and the only refuelling stations are a few selected Petronas station. The number of refueling stations of NGV are really very limited. If you have been wondering why there are such a long queue of taxis at a petrol station, its because those taxi are waiting for their turn to refuel their tank with CNG. These long queues are very common, happens every single day of the year, minus maybe those long Raya or CNY break.
But from what is reported in the paper, I can tell you that its a big lie! NGV is not much of an option at all in Malaysia. I realised that when i did some thinking about it. The government has been cheating when they asked us to use NGV vehicle. Prices of NGV is damn low in Malaysia because it is HUGELY subsidised by Petronas.
Read carefully. There is a reason why i use the word HUGE. Look at this piece of news from TheStar. It mentioned there that the production of CNG is not sufficient to meet the demand of the country. They have to import from Indonesia to meet the demand.
Now look at the price stated there. Petronas sell the CNG at RM6.40 while the market price is RM40 when the a barrel of oil at that time was only USD80. If the Government were to go all out and promote the usage of NGV, imagine how much Petronas would have to subsidies. The market price is 8x the price that they are selling to the industry. Do you think the government can afford to give so much in subsidy?
They are lying. They just telling us to convert to NGV while at the same time, not building the infrastructure to support. Its an excuse that they are using for the imminent increase of petrol prices after the election. After they increase the price they would tell you that you have a choice. Why don't you people convert to NGV? When the fact is that its so inconvenient to use NGV.
What i'm trying to say here is that NGV is not the answer to the solution of alternative fuel. It may look cheap and easy, but the reality is that it is NOT as simple as that. Well, i might have been wrong. The is not much detail on the actual price of NGV on the market. All this is based on the news report. If anyone has a better idea of the price, please correct me if i'm wrong.
For those who do not already know, NGV are cars that uses Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) instead of the normal petrol or diesel as fuel. Currently, the NGV in Malaysia are mostly those taxis in Klang Valley and the only refuelling stations are a few selected Petronas station. The number of refueling stations of NGV are really very limited. If you have been wondering why there are such a long queue of taxis at a petrol station, its because those taxi are waiting for their turn to refuel their tank with CNG. These long queues are very common, happens every single day of the year, minus maybe those long Raya or CNY break.
But from what is reported in the paper, I can tell you that its a big lie! NGV is not much of an option at all in Malaysia. I realised that when i did some thinking about it. The government has been cheating when they asked us to use NGV vehicle. Prices of NGV is damn low in Malaysia because it is HUGELY subsidised by Petronas.
Read carefully. There is a reason why i use the word HUGE. Look at this piece of news from TheStar. It mentioned there that the production of CNG is not sufficient to meet the demand of the country. They have to import from Indonesia to meet the demand.
Now look at the price stated there. Petronas sell the CNG at RM6.40 while the market price is RM40 when the a barrel of oil at that time was only USD80. If the Government were to go all out and promote the usage of NGV, imagine how much Petronas would have to subsidies. The market price is 8x the price that they are selling to the industry. Do you think the government can afford to give so much in subsidy?
They are lying. They just telling us to convert to NGV while at the same time, not building the infrastructure to support. Its an excuse that they are using for the imminent increase of petrol prices after the election. After they increase the price they would tell you that you have a choice. Why don't you people convert to NGV? When the fact is that its so inconvenient to use NGV.
What i'm trying to say here is that NGV is not the answer to the solution of alternative fuel. It may look cheap and easy, but the reality is that it is NOT as simple as that. Well, i might have been wrong. The is not much detail on the actual price of NGV on the market. All this is based on the news report. If anyone has a better idea of the price, please correct me if i'm wrong.
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