Thursday, January 7, 2010
Thinking of consumer rights
In one of the highly developing country, consumer education is still a big issue. I bet most of us know our rights but none of us care to fight for it. Why?
a) too much political intervention; any consumer issue will relate to some political parties which then claim to be the champion even though the issue was not resolve at all.
b) too many policies than action; due to political transition- we get more ministers in the same ministry. To that, as minister change policy change, previous policies may not even have the chance to be implemented.
c) Too many NGO and associations- everyone want to be the champion, to be the first person to tackle recent issue.
We as consumer need to be united in tackling certain issue such as lack of sugar supply, high food price etc....We should start to remind the retailler that we are in control not them, we are the one who buy not influence by them....when the economy monopolize by wise consumers than we will get wise retailler.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Buying a Car
but not this types of car

First of all- set your objective; what type of car do you want? big car 4WD or Sedan, Why do you need this car? big family (8 seater) or small family (5 seater) or maybe other related reasons..
Secondly, set your budget...Don't get over excited once you reach that place (sales car or individual seller).. keep in mind that you are willing to pay only certain amount of money- if the price over your budget, try to bargain and if he/she does not agree than forget about the car..
Thirdly, act like an auditor when inspecting the car...always be very detail in and out...look at the engine, tyres, maintenance record...and ask why he/she want to sell the car? be very precise..
Fourthly, try to influence the salesman or the seller and not the other way around. Any seller will try their best to promote the car.Don't believe what they talk good things about the car (such as memorable, fast, reliable) but pay attention on the bad things (such as sometimes the car..., minor scratch...etc)
Lastly, the 'deal'.. this is the moment when you say deal or no deal. Remember, buying a car is always a risk ( regardless of new or old car).. you just need more luck when you buy used car.. Good luck
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Living in other country
When me and family decide to go abroad, we don't think much of the consequences, we just go and face the rhythm. Well, as most people experience, being in other country does postulate some pros and cons experience:-
1) Doing something that you have never done in your country : Back in Malaysia, i will not go fishing or crabbing as it is too hot and the facility such as fishing port etc are not much encouraging. Well, in Adelaide, i went to fishing and crabbing frequently and surprisingly, i enjoy doing it. Other than that, in Malaysia i would not be able to walk my kids to school always drive them to school; but here i did it and its fun.
2) Homesick : friends and relative : Well, it is normal for anyone to be homesick as most people say : There are no better place than home. I miss the foods, friends,my car etc....
3) Feel different in any place: definitely! an Asian family walking in the city surrounded by white people...however, in some occasion, we did see other Asian family here in Adelaide but majority of the people are white. I could not imagine, what my kids will say when we come back to Malaysia...
4) Start comparing life: This will be the key point in any travelling experience. We start comparing the social culture, the facilities, the government transparencies and policy, the quality life, the car prices etc...at the end, we may start cursing our government or vice versa..
In conclusion, take some times to go away from your country and spend some times in other country...you may get more than less. You'll learn more than staying at home country..it's true the more you travel, the more you realize that's life is not for yourself.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
How much blind spot could cause you?
after the mass, we go back to our house...and on our way back, I was drving at the left lane and wanted to go to the right lane. Not by chance, after giving signal to change lane, someone gave a big horn from the right just near my car. I did not see the car was coming cause they were in my blind spot. And what make this event even interesting, it was a police car.
So i have to pull over and stop. A police woman approached me and asked for my licence. Well you know what happen next- all the rules and regulation advise and so on..bla bla bla..comes out. She wrote down my address and phone number. Then, the final question comes out- Will you prefer to receive the ticket (summon) by post or now? I asked how much would it cost me...she said around AUD100 to AUD200. Goodness me, because of blind spot error i have to pay that much?..
Well, luckily i have my own persuasive skills and manage to get only stern warning from the officer. From that time, you could guess how will I drive in Australia.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Moving House
It all happened without any proper planning. It started when my wife told me that we really need a three bedrooms house. The kids are getting bigger and there are not enough space to play and so on. So i just went to the agent and tell them my intention. Within a week, they call me back and said that one house is available and they will give it to me if i want it (it is very difficult to get a house through an agent if they don't trust you). Since, they are the same agent for my previous unit so they now what kind of tenant we are.
However, in this new house, we have to move everything including dawson and daniel school. So new house and new school for the kids. And another unplanned situation happened. One day before moving to the new house-all of us went to look for a van that was published in the newspaper at AUD1600. We though it will be nice for all of us. Once arrived there, the van was taken by someone else- so we went back frustrated but on our way back, we passed this used car shop and was just looking for a van. I saw one and enter the shop- test drive and talk to my wife then we took it- trade in with my sedan car. Then, we have a van (enough space for everybody) and a house (enough room for everyone). I hope the next move will be to my own house.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
My writing experience?
Therefore, i salute the academic writer particularly the regular writer. Some friend say - practice make perfect and i really hope so. My other constraints will be the language. I have read most of the journals and they masterpiece was brilliant. Some of the articles seem to communicate effectively with me as a reader and that really amaze me. Being a non-English speaker, writing a paper for a journal especially in English really challenge me a lot.My bad grammar and poor vocabulary may influence my way of writing the paper.
Anyway, i hope things will get better soon. All i need is focus and learn.
Values in life
Suddenly, i miss the weather in Malaysia. It's funny how we value things according to our priority. When we are in a hot country, we seek for cool weather then when we are in a cool country we seek for warm weather. I remember what Edward de Bono's write about value :
"Values give purpose, meaning, enjoyment and value to life. We can also become hostage to our values, just as we become hostage to our desires."
For the same reason, i feel that being in two places changes my value accordingly.I wonder what will other person that travel more than two places in a month value the most? work? family? money?
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Coming back to Sabah
At first, i was very excited and happy to be in Sabah (meeting friends and relative here) but after few days here especially without my beloved family (my wife and kids) i feel really lonely. My body is here but my heart is there with them.
I wanted to finish my work here as soon as possible and go back to Adelaide. I did not felt this when i was in Peninsular Malaysia. But after coming back to Sabah and looking at my house here- the old memory keep reminding me of them. I will always pray that they will be patiently wait for me and i can keep go on with my survey here.
I owe them for their noble sacrifice for me- being there without any family members except for my sister will not be the same as being here in Sabah. God Bless them.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Why we need Blog?
Long time ago, we write on wall, leaves and papers until few centuries ago we developed a binding machine to bind a book. Then we write on a book and this practice of writing continue over the years. Until 15 years ago, we developed our communication technologies and created a website which recently have been widely used worldwide. Then, some group created their owned website which they called blogger while other company created special website such as facebook and so on. What ever website emerge during this transition- blogger are increasing everyday. Why most people like to write they personal life in website? What's wrong with dairy etc? Here are my own personal opinion :-
d) Blogging creates new community-via blogging, we creates new community, new structure of society that come from common objective and idea- regardless of political , society or economic point of view. Positively- we have new nation in the making. Nation that united under one goal and objective, that share every detail information we ever needed in nation building.
Gift from God
Last weekend, i was so upset and frustrated with my work until I end up having this gout in my foot. Not sure if there is a significant relationship with stress but it surely feel the same. I was on my way to the clinic when suddenly my phone rang. I picked up the phone and my wife with her strange voice asking me if i ever bought something last week. Surely, i say with our financial constraint in Adelaide, buying something expensive would be quite impossible.
Well, she said that someone has just send us a new double bed complete with mattress. I said who ever it is, it's not me. Then she started to mumbling at me; telling me not to buy things that are not important. You can imagine how i feel with my gout and this news- painful yet joyful.
After i received my treatment, i quickly hop in my car and drove back to my house. I know something was wrong- someone might have mistakenly sent the bed to our house. As i arrived in our house- my wife still with her anger, waiting for my explanation. I looked at the bill and the boxes, my name was clearly written on it. It was strange and funny. I then asked my wife- what does the man said when he delivered the bed. My wife explained that the man told her- the bed was a gift from God. Someone bought it for us, so she thought that i was playing a joke with her. At last, my terrible weekend end up with fixing and putting up the bed for my sons. They were so happy and exited. And When ever they asked me who bought the beds?, i told them that "it was a gift from God."
something that i and my family do not expect at all. Thanks God
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The baby that went straight up to Heaven
This is
Once upon a time, there is this beautiful family who happened to live far from they other families and cousins. They live and stay in a big and beautiful island. In this family, there are two boys and one girl name Dawson, Daniel and Bridget.
One evening,
From that day on,
After this story,
Sunday, March 15, 2009
WHAT MATTER MOST IN EDUCATION?
What is education? Why do we send our children to school? What skills do we expect our children to learn and acquire? Education is the process of learning something (subject) and acquiring skills through various types of knowledge. We distinguish knowledge such as mathematics, science,language,geography and so on. So in the same manner, do we send our children to get all this knowledge? If it is, how can they learned this knowledge - should the school force them to memorize these knowledge and test it with a method which we call examination. When I recalled the documentary movie, I realize one act that may stimulate the cave man education . I realize that they ability to think (in adapting with new environment and so on) that promote their civilization. However, during those time, they tend to act more than think, they want to survive first than to settle down in one place. That’s why it took them 500 000 year to learn how to eat cooked food for thinking was not they priority. But what happen today? Our mailing technology evolve rapidly – we invented telegraph machine but within 100 years we create fax machine and then, less than 50 years we are able to write email in the internet. Now, we are in the (short messaging system) SMS era. The world is getting smaller every days, months and years when invented something new. What sparks these invention? Simply, it’s our ability to think of making new things-creating new way of living-and so on. In this modern world, we are so attached with the sense of settling down-making our self comfortable where ever we are, adapting our self accurately-even on the moon. Our new invention and technology really changes our way of thinking.
Over the years, we distinguish knowledge into different subject such as math (the skills of counting), history (the skills of understanding things from past experience), geography (the skills of knowing what this planet made of) or science (the skills of knowing how things work in this planet). Eventually, these knowledge once we acquired and understand- complete our reasoning to live in this planet but the most important thing is this knowledge indirectly force us to think -to ask the why, when, what, how and where questions –to develop our thinking skills. However, this basic skill was not thoroughly enforce in education. Thinking was the indirect skill that emerge while we are learning other subjects especially in the primary and secondary level. Eventually, what we care most in this level is the certificate- how many A’s you have achieved in the past examination? And how many D’s you have avoided? Our parents only cares about how good is your achievement in the examination rather than asking how far does your thinking skills have developed?
When we investigate further the post-education level - the higher the level of our education goes, the higher our thinking activities ability are needed. When we enter undergraduate degree- we will be exposed with other specific knowledge which come from this big branch of knowledge. For instance, Management can be divided into specific knowledge such as human resource, management function, organization culture and so on. We will study and understand this knowledge. Once we get to the other level which is the post-graduate level, then we start to apply our knowledge- try to put this knowledge to work in the real world (master degree) or even contribute to a new knowledge (PhD degree).
Generally, our main purpose to educate people are not only to pass them these knowledge but to make them actively to continue thinking- to stimulate our brain. Researchers indicate that when we think a lot, our brain cells tend to actively evolve. In other words, even when we are old or retire, we must never stop thinking. In conclusion, in this modern world, our ability of thinking evolve rapidly-our children IQ getting higher everyday- not only because of the education system we have but also relate to the sophisticated technology we acquired. For instance, PlayStation games- stimulate children brain and thinking ability. Simply, if we like to think creatively and actively- we can be as par as PhD holder. The only thing that differentiate between a thinker and a PhD holder is the certificate.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Why makes friends?
Firstly, i met one great old couple who are the owner of our first home unit in Adelaide. They were so lovely and kind. They have more than five kids and enjoying they life as the land lord of more than two units here in Adelaide. Since then we became friend even though that we are no longer staying in their unit. So my first experience making friends in Adelaide was when i am looking for place to stay.
The second experience was when my children got lost in some of the units around my area. The home units in Adelaide happened to be in more or less the same design and colour so this scenario makes it complicated for my children and even me myself to identified our own unit especially late in the evening. My children have been playing around our unit for quite some times until one day, i dont hear any noise from them playing outside the unit. It was so quite and peaceful, but after half an hour someone come in knocking on our door bringing bridget (our 2 years old daughter). He was sending her back; he worried that my daughter might play near the road. I was so supprise how my daugther manage to go that far; while her brothers do not even care about they sister. But that event turned to be another blessing in disguise. He became my good friend in Adelaide.
The third experience was when other people children want to make friend with my children. I have three energetic kids and it happens that most of the family here in Adelaide like to have not more than two kids or some even happy with one kid. So what happen when they have one kid? they dont have anyone to play with. In my neigbourhood, there is one family from phillipine that have one daughter. She wanted to make friend with my children but afraid to do so by her self. So her mother came to our house and introduced herself to us; getting to know each other then the daugther came in and play with my children. And after some times, everyday the girl will come and play in our house.
The fourth experience of making new friends was in any parties. One of the party was my supervisor welcoming party. He invited all the master students including us (Phd students). In the party, i met a lot of international students. We exchange information about our country and talk about life in Adelaide etc. The other party was the girl from phillipine birthday party. She invited my children and of course us to come to her birthday party. I met a lot of her parent friend in that party. And i got new good friend which leads me to a new and affordable unit near they house. What happen next? i moved to that unit this december, and able to save my rent money around AUD90/week.
So here i am with my new neighbour which i met from the birthday party. My children have more friends to play with, ample space to play with them, and great memory for me making friends here in Adelaide. I conclude simply that making new friends leads you to other friends, and you would not know what to expect next. It might be blessing in disguise after all. So dont stop making friends.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
What money and knowledge mean in our family?
The early trade was much more complex than this. We call this trade as Barter System. In those early days, we exchange what ever we have to get something back. For instance, we trade one chicken with three fish or may be more than three. This barter system cause a lot of confusion for the trades; how to measure things? So their introduce money to measure and value things. But in those days, if someone steal their chicken it was not a big crime compare with someone who steal money today. Why? simply chicken can be reproduce by the farmer or by anyone who earn chicken but can we produce money by our own? Nope, we look for money.
Apart from that, in the early days, family with lots of land considered to be rich family (their land can produce agriculture products such as livestock and crops), but if you have lots of land today, you're not considered rich cause some people might come and rent your land and get more money than what you earned from the land rent. Unless, you a wise enough to manage and plan your property.Singapore is not a big country yet it is only a small island but how come their are better than Malaysia? we have vast land and area to produce agriculture products compare to Singapore. What they do? they buy our agriculture products and process it into processed food. Simply they have knowledge and idea to transform raw food into processed food.
So what matter the most your money or your knowledge? My personal opinion is knowledge. That's why people talk about intelectual property - your idea might bring you a fortune than your own property. But where can we get this knowledge? knowledge can come from different sources such as owned experience, other experience, experiments results and etc. We know geography when people discover something, we understand math when we or someone else experiment the formula (1+1=2), we learned psychology when people observed other people. Generally, we get knowledge from experience and this experience come from memory of doing things.
When we miscalculate our budget, we got broke and this is bad memory for us. It is our first lesson to do our budget precisely or to have discipline in our spending. When we decide to rent our house to someone else, we think that this action will stipulates more money for us from rent. But when that person don't pay their rent then we regret the decision. This what we call the process of learning ; the process of acquire the knowledge through experience. This knowledge that come from our own memory. The power of remembering things. Before we sit for exam we need to memorize something (the knowledge). So if we have the money and knowledge then what? then we remind ourselves, we referesh our memory. What is the best memory we remember when we try to get the money or achieve the knowledge?
So my friend, keep our knowledge close to us or precisely keep our memory fresh at all time. When we work hard for money, we will remember how hard we work to archieve some amount of money. But when we spend our time with our family and kids, we will remember good and bad memory with them. And eventhough there are bad memory with our family and kids, the good memory will always makes us smile. Simply, we can look for money when in distress but can we look for other family when our real family is gone. What left for us is our memory with them. Money come and go. family will also come and go, but when they go (die) they will never come back.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Day light Saving in Australia
Monday, October 6, 2008
1st Place
A teacher at a polytechnic college reminded her pupils of tomorrow's final exam. 'Now listen to me, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your immediate family, but that's it, no other excuses whatsoever!' A smart-arsed guy at the back of the room raised his hand and asked, 'What would happen if I came in tomorrow suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?' The entire class was reduced to laughter and sniggering. When silence was restored, the teacher smiled knowingly at the student, shook her head and sweetly said, 'Well, I suppose you'd have to write with your other hand'.
2nd Place
A lorry driver was driving along on a country road. A sign came up that read ' Low Bridge Ahead.' Before he realised it, the bridge was directly ahead and he got stuck under it. Cars are backed up for miles. Finally, a police car comes up. The policeman got out of his car and walked to the lorry's cab And said to the driver, 'Got stuck, eh?' The lorry driver said, 'No, I was delivering this bridge and ran out of petrol!'
3rd Place
The policeman got out of his car and approached the boy racer he stopped for speeding. 'I've been waiting for you all day,' the bobby said. The kid replied, 'Yes, well I got here as fast as I could.' When the policeman finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.
4th Place
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at a branch of Sainsbury's but she couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a passing assistant, 'Do these turkeys get any bigger?' The assistant replied, ' I'm afraid not, they're dead.'
5th Place
A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket and he opened his trench coat and flashed her. Without blinking an eyelid she said, 'Sir, I need to see your ticket not your stub.'
The last one is a worthy winner. 6th Place
It was mealtime during a flight on a British Airways plane: 'Would you like dinner?' the flight attendant asked the man seated in the front row. 'What are my choices?' the man asked. 'Yes or no,' she replied.
(contribute by qion-r)
My children and The Wiggle
One day, my eldest son (Dawson) pose a very good question "daddy, since we are in Australia, do we have the chance to meet the Wiggle?"... i never though of that before coming to Australia. "well, Dawson you have to be a very good boy if you want to see the Wiggle; they don't like bad boy for sure." i told him and it was a classic response i presume.
Recently, Greg (Yellow Wiggle) was not able to continue his show due to health problem and he was replace by Sam. I like Greg very much; he has beautiful soft and clear voice. For sure, he can't be replace by anyone, without him, the Wiggle will not be the same again.
Dawson and Daniel also complain about this recent change; but then what can we do, this is the business world. Thanks and Farewell Greg ; welcome Sam.