50 sen for 20 sen

Okay, so it is almost 3 years late. And only now I am saying that I am coming to realize this; about why Bank Negara Malaysia, the Malaysian currency authority, came out with its then latest 'new' currency notes and coins. Well, I got embarrassed again, yesterday. I was called back by a newspaper vendor for giving him RM 1 and 15 sen instead of RM 1 and 20 sen for a copy of the daily, The Star. Believe me, I did not do it knowingly. The latest 5 sen coin is about the same size as 10 sen coin and I had carelessly given him 5 sen instead of 10 sen. (Latest means year 2012. Ha ha!)

Yes, maybe the government thinks Malaysians are very careless with money, just chucking money here and there, without realizing the value of money, in life. So the Bank Negara Malaysia issued the latest coins; 5 sen and 10 sen coins are almost similar in size, 20 cents coin are almost about the same size and colour of 50 sen coin. The 50 sen coin is only slightly bigger. "But the 50 sen coins have slightly curved edges", BNM says. Okay, you win BNM! But we have still got to scrutinize to differentiate. The 10 sen coin is also about the same size as 20 sen coin, only slightly smaller. Look at the color, you stupid! Yes, sir BNM! 20 sen coin is copper color, 10 sen and 5 sen are stainless steel. 

RM 1 note is the same color as RM 50 note (blueish); only that RM 50 note is bigger. To make matters worse, the old RM 1 notes with their blueish color too close to the RM 50 note are still in circulation.(My son once wondered where his RM 50 had gone!)

So the government has achieved its purpose, now. People will, now, carefully observe the value of the money in their hands, before departing with it. Ha! What brilliance! Well done BNM!

Jose Mourinho And The Law Of Karma

 

So my favourite coach, Jose Mourinho got sacked, yesterday, from Chelsea Football Club. I had been, enthusiastically, following his work from his time at Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Chelsea again. No doubt, he was a good football manager, but calling Arsenal manager 'a specialist in failure' a few years back did not go down very well with me, but still my liking for him continued, but I think, on a cautious note, lest he utters more derisory remarks regarding his other compatriots in football.

The law of Karma, the ancient concept in Hinduism, seems to have caught up with Jose. What goes around, comes around. He offloaded several players who I think played faithfully and strenuously for Chelsea, with a confident hope that they will end their football career at Chelsea. To me Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Drogba stand out among this category. He also removed some players who came with great hope of making it big at Chelsea, but this was not to be so; good players like Demba Ba, Lukaku, Bruyne, Eto, being some examples. 

Then, there is the case of the team's medical doctor - Eva Carneiro. In my eyes, Jose was very undiplomatic with her and cruel, showing his displeasure in front of all those thousands of spectators. 

They, I mean all those players and Eva Carneiro herself, should have felt the agony of leaving their beloved Chelsea Football Club. I am sure Jose Mourinho would have also had some notion of staying in Chelsea for a very long time due to the fantastic fans support for him. But poor Jose, this was not to be so, then. Now he should be feeling some of the pain that the others felt. I really feel some sympathy for him.

 
At any rate, Jose still remains my favourite coach. What he says to the media is very poetic and quite realistic in life as a whole. Let me see where he goes from here. He had called himself ‘the special one’, and when he won a game ‘the happy one’. Ironically, yesterday the media called him 'the sacked one'!

Cows on the roads.

In my earlier post, I have grunted that all the sign boards on the roads, in Malaysia, are in the Malay language, disadvantaging the foreign visitors, workers and tourists. There is no change yet. Foreigners are still free to interpret the information and instructions on the sign boards as they wished.

Well, still talking of the roads, have you driven on a Malaysian highway? Of course, you would have since they are so convenient. Along the highway, you would have surely noticed a yellow sign board with a cow's picture in black. You would have expected to see the text underneath the picture of the cow to say 'Be careful of cows on the road' or something like that, in Malay, of course (and you would have hoped someone would translate that to you). But what we actually see is just this; 'HATI- HATI MEMANDU' or when translated into English, that will be 'DRIVE CAREFULLY'. Looks like they are telling us 'You cow, drive carefully!

Actually, the letterings would have been enough. But they chose to have a picture of the cow along! Ha ha! You get it?

May be they could be right! Many drivers in Malaysia drive like cows on the roads, especially on the highways! Proof? All those accidents happening daily!

Reimage Malaysian Airlines (MAS)

Poor Malaysia. Poor MAS (Malaysian Airlines)! It is getting well known to the world, all for the wrong reasons – all of them sad. Just less than five months ago, on July 8, Flight MH370 was strongly presumed as dived into the Indian Ocean. That Boeing 777 was on a trip from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing in China. The search for its whereabouts is still going on. In that calamity a total of 239 people went missing, presumably drowned in the ocean. I am always hoping and praying it is not true.

Now this. News is everywhere that a Malaysian Airlines plane, Flight MH17, also a Boeing 777, on its way from Amsterdam, Holland to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was, in the words of American Vice president Joe Biden, “was blown out of the sky” by surface-to-air missile launched in Ukraine. It is strongly alleged that Pro-Russian rebels shot it down on Thursday 17 thinking that it was a military transport plane belonging to Ukraine. 283 passengers and 15 crew members died in the mishap. How tragic!

People would now hesitate to travel by air and especially by MAS planes. They may think that traveling by MAS planes could be a bad omen. Though, this was not the fault of the MAS authorities it was just a bad coincidence that MAS had the misfortune to be involved in both the mishaps, in just a so very short time, hence, registering strongly a bad and disapproving impression in people’s minds.

Without the Malaysian government’s help the MAS Airlines would surely close down. One way for the airlines to get out of this predicament and doldrums and is to get the name 'MAS' out of the people’s minds. 'MAS' had been a good name. It came from the Malay word 'EMAS' which means gold. But the golden airline is losing its shine fast. if not lost already. Yes, change to a new name. It could be National Airways of Malaysia (NAM), Malaysian International Airlines (MIA) or just Air Malaysia or any other name at all, but not MAS. MAS would only remind the people of the MASS loss of human lives.

Selamat Datang Ke Malaysia! (Welcome to Malaysia!)

Malaysian authorities from all levels, from the Prime Minister downwards, have been harping on the need to attract more Malaysian visitors and tourists to Malaysia, but they fail to realize that Malaysia is so tourist-unfriendly. Just look at the signboards everywhere, they are mainly written in Malay language; the directions to the places of interest or necessity, you name it, they would be in Malay. Even the safety instructions beside the highways and byways are only in the Malay language. How are the people from overseas going to understand ‘ Pandu Laju Maut Menunggu’. I am a citizen, belonging to Malaysia and so very well understand what the sign says. But pity the poor foreigner. For all we know, he could be just speeding, not knowing that death awaits him!

Okay, fair enough. You must be proud of the national language. But it should not be at the expense of inconveniencing the much welcome tourists. You are not going to lose your pride if English translations are placed below the Malay signage. Make the English signage smaller then, if  it satisfies your ego. At the end of the day, you are not going to lose anything. In fact, you are going to earn admiration and appreciation from the foreign guests, and even from the foreign workers who are living in the millions here now.  

The spillover effect is that, even our own citizens will have a chance to grasp a thing or two of the English language, if all the signboards have English translations.