It must be lonely to be old !

31 Dec 2009 35 Comments

by Dr Hsu in humanity, life, social economic

It must be lonely to be old

Updated version which I sent to MI .

JAN 1 — My late father drove a car until the very day he died of a heart attack at the ripe old age of almost 90. He got his heart attack not while driving, but in his sleep.

When he was 78, I used to tell him that he should consider taking buses and taxis and stop driving. Not that he was a bad driver; on the contrary, being old, he drove very carefully and always stuck to the official speed limits. He also never ventured to KL from PJ; for that he always took the bus — there was no LRT then.

He drove mainly for certain errands like going to the bank, to the market and to his barber, all around the neighbourhood. Being careful, he never had an accident, not even a scratch on his car.

I was however worried that at his age his reflexes might not be that good and that he might hurt himself and others, if an accident did occur.

He replied that he was OK, and he had never had an accident before. Well, being an investor, I quoted the maxim of investing to him that ”past performances do not guarantee the future”. A past safety record would mean nothing if something happened, I said to him.

So we had this debate again and again. When he was in his 80s, still strong and walking as fast as me, and even able to travel to Huangshan in China on his own, we had this argument again.

I remember him saying this: ”Well, why are you always bringing up this issue when the government gives me a driving licence and renews it every year for me? If the government renews my licence, why should I stop driving? Legally I am recognised as fit to drive.”

Do you know that the Road Transport Department will renew your driving licence even when you are 80 and does not require you to go for a medical checkup (for saloon cars then, at least during the ‘90s; for commercial vehicles, everyone needs to go for a medical checkup).

Then some time back, I saw a documentary on TV about a woman trying to seek a restraining order on her mother from driving in the United States. The mother is more than 80 years old. The woman did it for her mother’s safety. But the mother’s argument was that she needs to drive to be mobile, to go about her normal activities, and that without the car she would be like a prisoner in her own home.

After seeing the TV documentary, I realised how much my father must have resented me for asking him to stop driving. To be old and immobile, a person would just be like a prisoner in his own home.

We have not put ourselves in their shoes. As an old man with no work, life can be very boring and to break the monotony, he needs to go out and mix around. Even saying hello to a shopkeeper means something to the old folks.

For those of us who were much younger then, we sometimes tend to neglect how our aged parents must have felt. How lonely they must be feeling even when they are staying with their own children, who have their own work to attend to.

Now that I am older and nearing retirement age, I realise that most of us did not spend as much time as we should to sit with our parents and talk to them.

My great consolation is that both my parents stayed with me until they died at a very old age. And I did attend to their every need, be it medical, social and financial. But still I thought I could have spent much more time with them. I could have accompanied my father on his various trips to China; I did not because I had just started my own practice and was working very hard then…

Once they are gone, we miss them; and the older we get, the more we would understand how they must have felt.

I hope younger people out there, who are lucky to have their parents around, will spend more time with their parents. Let them move around. If they are healthy and free of illnesses, let them continue driving, as long as the government renews their driving licence.

Chat with them, listen to them. Let them repeat their stories over and again and pretend to listen as if you are hearing it for the first time.

After all, without our parents, we would never be here. Without their upbringing, we will never be what we are today.

Flight 253 and the breach of airport security

31 Dec 2009 7 Comments

by Dr Hsu in The other side of the world

On Christmas day, a terrorist on board of a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, NOrthwest flight 253,  tried to set off an explosive device taped to his thigh, when the flight is descending to Detroit airport.

The whole incident is best described in Time magazine:

The incident occurred about 11:30 Christmas morning, as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers from Amsterdam, was in its final descent into Detroit’s international airport. According to the FBI affidavit, a few minutes before the events began, Abdulmutallab went into the bathroom for about 20 minutes then, upon returning to his seat, complained that he had an upset stomach and put a blanket over himself. Suddenly, passengers heard a loud pop and then saw smoke and flames coming from Row 19. “What are you doing? What are you doing?” one woman shouted toward the man, later identified as Abdulmutallab. A male passenger leaped toward Abdulmutallab and pulled him to the floor. Flight attendants apparently rushed to the scene with fire extinguishers. One flight attendant reportedly asked Abdulmutallab what he had, to which he allegedly replied, “Explosive device.” According to the FBI complaint, one passenger saw the remains of a partly melted syringe in Abdulmutallab’s possession and took it away from him, shook it to stop it from smoking and threw it on the floor of the aircraft. Abdulmutallab was then placed in a headlock and pulled into the first-class section. “He didn’t show any reaction to pain, any feeling of shock or nervousness,” one female passenger who sat across from Abdulmutallab told television reporters after the plane landed, shortly before noon. Abdulmutallab was taken to a hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The FBI has described the material apparently used in the syringe as PETN, which it called a “high explosive.” PETN is an ingredient in Semtex plastic explosives; it was also reportedly used by the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid in his abortive Christmas 2001 terrorism attempt. Representative King said the device was “somewhat sophisticated,” that it was more than a firecracker and that “it should have been detected.” Federal officials swiftly called the incident an attempted act of terrorism. President Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, ordered strengthened security on international flights. The Department of Homeland Security said it had amplified screening measures.

The suspect is the son of a Nigerian banker, and the father was reported to have warned the authority that his son may have extremist views. He was thus on the ‘watch list’ of the authority, but was not on the ‘no fly’ list.

The incident resulted in many red faces in the intelligence circles. But even without  intelligence warnings,,  airport screening should have  detected the explosive. This is of grave consequence, since the failure of airport screening to detect explosive means that all of us , who travel by commercial airlines one time or another , would be vulnerable.. The end result would have been certain death, if the explosive have exploded.

Looking at the reports, there is a breach in airport security safety procedure in this case. I have been to Amsterdam many years ago, a nice place and I really enjoyed the canal cruise there. The Dutch are a very friendly and efficient people(Royal Dutch/Phillips are some of their world renown brands), and they take their tasks very diligently and professionally. SO Amsterdam airport is not manned by people with ‘tidak apa’ attitude. So even with personnel that does not have ‘tidak apa’ attitude, slips-up that are so often the case in Malaysia  can also happen in the developed country.

Amsterdam airport has very advanced security machines too. Besides the normal metal detectors, they have 2 Full Body scanners.. These full body scanners practically stripped you electronically, and your image on the screen will be like that of a naked person. Your bulges and hollows in your body will be shown as clearly as your pimples in front of a bright mirror.

Unfortunately, this person who is on the security watch list, did not go through the full body scanner. He must have gone through the normal metal detectors which would not detect plastics or liquids. HIs belongings must have gone through the compulsory scanners which scan you hand carried luggage. Under the regulation, any liquid more than 100 ml must be discarded, but even those container with liquid less than 100 ml must be displayed to the security officers inside a transparent plastic bag. So how the syringe , which can be between 5 to 20 ml, with the liquid slipped through the scanner?

A lot of unanswered questions are there. Air travel is supposed to be the safest. But with this incident, where a person can slip explosive through a well equipped airport security, then those of us flying  would be like playing the Russian Roulette; you never know when your luck is so bad that there is someone sitting next ot you with an explosive.

The explosive in this case is easily detectable, according to MSNBC, which reports:

The chemical — PETN — is small, powerful and appealing to terrorists. The Saudi government said it was used in an assassination attempt on the country’s counterterrorism operations chief in August.

It was also a component of the explosive that Richard Reid, the convicted “shoe bomber,” used in his 2001 attempt to down an airliner.

Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid. One law enforcement official said the second part of the explosive concoction used in the Christmas Day incident is still being tested but appears to be a glycol-based liquid explosive. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

PETN is the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions and can be collected by scraping the insides of the wire, said James Crippin, a Colorado explosives expert. It’s also used in military devices and found in blasting caps. It’s the high explosive of choice because it is stable and safe to handle, but it requires a primary explosive to detonate it, he said.

Crippin and law enforcement officials said modern airport screening machines could have detected the chemical. Airport “puffer” machines — the devices that blow air onto a passenger to collect and analyze residues — would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab.

Terrorism in the air is a hazard, if we apply the rules of safety. It cannot be removed like removing an obstacle in the road. The risk can only be minimised through the adoption of safety policy . Under the policies, we need to implement certain programs to put in place a set of fail safe safety procedure.

In this case, perhaps the first thing all airports should do is to be given the ‘watch list’ in addition to the ‘no fly’ list. Those who man the check-in counter will run the name through their computers and anyone on the list must be marked through the issuance of a boarding pass of a different colour, so that when this person approaches the security check area, he , and he must go through full body scanners , if they are installed. If no full body scanners are available, he can be given a very thorough search, including padding down..

In addition, a certain profile of likely terrorists should be compiled and also be made available to the persons manning the check in counter. Anyone fitting the profile should be given the special boarding pass, and go through the same checking procedures as those on the watching lists.

To ask all passengers to remain seated during the last hour of flight, which is what is being proposed, is not logical, since a terrorist can set his bomb anytime during the flight . Just because in this flight, the terrorist tried to set off his explosive during the last hour does not mean that all other terrorists will do the same.

Rather than restricting the freedom of passengers, it would be better to put in place a more thorough and fail safe procedural process before boarding to reduce the risk of explosives being smuggled on board.

Happynprogressive 2010

31 Dec 2009 14 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Uncategorized

Today is the New Year Eve. Everything good or bad must come to an end. Change is the only constant in this world, and as one year ends and the next begins, let us hope that there will be better things to come next year.

I wish all of you , people with different colours, different beliefs, different political thinkings, different mindsets, different makeups, different temperaments, different jobs, different aspirations in lives:

I wish you all progress in your work, your love lives, your investment, your family, your children’s study, your health  and your bank account$$$$$.

Hope you all have a very uplifting year in your luck and fortune ..

A brief discourse on Occupational safety

30 Dec 2009 20 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Uncategorized

( I may stop political bloggings but i shall talk more on socio economic issues, since to some die hard fanatics that I do not qualify to speak on the shortcomings of the present govenrment. Today, I shall talk about an area which I have some expertise and which I may be as good as anyone in the country at least where theory is concerned.)

There is a branch of medicine that is called occupational medicine, which treats occupational diseases, a big term for workplace illnesses and accidents. It has evolved to include prevention of accidents and occupational diseases, and adoption of safety measures and procedures to reduce the risk of workplace diseases and accidents. It has thus evolved to covered what is now known as Occupational Safety and Health (OSH).

A simple example is ‘low backache’ due to a sitting in a badly designed chair. So for clerical staff and typists and receptionists, they need to be provided with ergonomically designed chairs to prevent low backache. In fact, low backache among office workers are very common , and in most cases, are due to badly designed chairs which encourage bad postures and slouching.

Central to occupational safety is what we called “hazards”.Hazards are things with potential of causing sickness and accidents. For example, a pot hole in the ground is a hazard, for anyone walking or riding a bike over the pot hole may end up in a nasty fall and sustain injuries.

So to safety specialists , the main theme is to remove hazards wherever it is possible.

In the example of a pot hole, the hazard can be removed by repairing the pothole. But at times, the hazard may not be easily removed. For example, the pothole cannot be repaired in time for certain reasons, the hazard can be replaced by a lesser hazard, for example putting a tong in front of the pothole so that people would not walk directly into it. By itself, a tong in the walkway or a drive is also hazardous, but since it is more visible, it can be used temporarily to reduce the risk of a more serious hazard, that is the pothole.

Some times a hazard cannot be removed. Night driving is a form of hazard since night is the time when our body needs sleep and rest, apart from decreased visibility. Since this is the type of hazrd that cannot be removed, we need to formulate procedures to reduce the potential of accidents during night driving. Procedures such as ensuring the vehicles have sufficient lights to illuminate the roads, procedures on checking the braking systems, procedures ensuring that all seats belts are being fastened before the vehicle can be given the nod to move.

There must be procedures to ensure that the driver is healthy at that time of driving ( not just at that time of medical checkup which is required by law once a year only). If the driver reports that he is not well, there must be replacement for him. There must also be procedures that the driver has sufficient sleep. If the driver has not enough sleep, he should be replaced.

Then there must be procedures that after certain minutes of driving, the driver needs to stop over to rest. Some times just to stop to break the monotonousness of driving. Lets face it. All jobs, in the eyes of occupational speicialists, are repetitive and all repetitive jobs will become monotonous.

Once a job becomes monotonous, the risk of accidents increased ten folds, since monotony leads to boredom and boredom leads to sleepiness or decrease in alertness and reaction time.

The same safety procedures are adopted by airlines for their pilots. For those of you who have followed National Geographic channel’s ‘air crash investigation’, there were a few instances where investigators found that pilot errors were the cause of air crashes, and in most of these instances, pilot fatigue leading to judgement errors were  the causes.

Looking at the Malaysian scenerio, most companies do not have any occupational safety measures or procedures. The onus is on the company management to provide such measures or procedures.

In the case of  bus drivers or drivers of other public service vehicles such as taxis, they do go for the once a year medical examination. But passing the medical examination does not guarantee the health of the driver involved. He may be healthy and alert at the time of medical examination, but he may suffer from lack of sleep a week later which leads to decrease in alertness and hence increases the risk of accidents.

So it is not enough just to send drivers for a yearly medical check up. The company must adopt a policy of ensuring the safety of their passengers and workers, and once the safety policy is spelt out, there must be program to implement the policy; program such as safety procedures which everyone must adhere to.

So there must be procedures to ensure that the drivers have enough rest between trips. There must a procedure to educate the driver to report any lack of sleep and sleepiness.. Driver fatigue is the main cause of bus acccidents. The drivers must also report any unusual sounds coming from the vehicles .

But companies would not take the initiatives to put in safety program and safety procedures. The onus is for the government to legislate laws and rules to enforce them to adopt such safety procedures. And laws must be enforced for them to be effective. There must be adequate surveillance to ensure that all laws and safety procedures are adhered to.

Besides that, litigation from the victims of accidents (or victims’ families) will serve as a motivation for the companies to adopt safety procedures. If each accident victim sues the bus company and driver for negligence after an accident caused by lack of such safety procedures, the companies will learn the hard way to adopt and implement such procedures.

SO victims in workplaces, get a lawyer to sue and you will help to prevent the occurrence of accidents in future.

( The writer is writing on occupation safety , a subject which he has some expertise  and hopefully more employers will realise the importance of adopting safety measures for their staff…It is actually more cost effective to have a safe workplace,including vehicles, since with accident payouts and increase insurance premium, it would be cheaper to provide staff with safety measures, as in Australia and other western countries where every business with more than 15 staff must have occupational safety policy and program to implement safety procedures. On top of cost, the most important thing is of course human lives, once lost cannot be replaced).

next i shall talk about the US flight 253 where safety procedures were breached at Amterdam airport, one of the airports with the best security procedures..

A lengthy comment on my stand

28 Dec 2009 30 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Gerakan, Malaysia, politics, social economic

Instead of a post toady, I have written a lengthy reply to some readers on my stand. Please read the comment https://hsudarren.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/merrry-xmas/#comments

Merrry X’mas

24 Dec 2009 30 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Uncategorized

Wishing everyone out there

Merry Christmas !


May Peace and Happiness be with you!

Tap the best brains

23 Dec 2009 19 Comments

by Dr Hsu in government, Malaysia, social economic

When I was a houseman in Penang hospital, eon years ago, there was an episode which I can still recall  which involved the doctors and a state DPP.

As a houseman, I was required to help run the A & E Unit (Accidnet and Emergency Unit, unofficially called the Casualty department) once in a while, according to our rosters.

I still remember at that time, in that emergency department’s consultation room, there were 2 tables, one in the centre which was occupied by the medical officer on duty, the other table was at the side and would be occupied by the houseman on duty. There were examination couch which were divided by curtains to ensure some form of privacy for examining patients.

Government emergency unit was always packed, in those days as in now.

In those days, after 4.15pm, the outpatient clinics of the hospital would be closed, and all patients, whether emergency or not, all came to the A&E units. We of course would see the emergency cases first– those involved in accidents , bleeding cases, and cardiac arrest cases , asthmatic cases and so on–and the not so serious one would have to wait for these emergency cases to be managed first  before we could attend to them.

One night, when I was on duty, the medical officer was a CHinese lady doctor, known for her compassion and efficiency. She would not entertain whether a big shot’s child was having fever and waiting outside,; she would see the emergency cases first, as should be the case.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the consultation room, and not long after, a man barged in angrily and confronted the Medical Officer (MO). He asked whether the MO knew who he was. Of course the doctor answered in the negative. He then loudly claimed that he was so and so, a State DPP, and he wanted his kid who was having a very minor ailment to be seen first.

The MO refused saying that she would see emergency cases first, and other non emergency cases on a first come first serve basis, no matter who the patient was..A stand which I agreed totally, and  I chipped in to say so.

The man then became very angry, used abusive words, and then foul languages, and before he left, and made some threats as to ” make sure we tremble in our pants and that we would have our pants down and so on”…

The MO filed a complaint to the hospital director the next day, and i wrote a witness account too. To make sure that action would be taken against this DPP, all the MOs and Housemen signed a joint memorandum and submitted to the then DG through the hospital director. In fact, the DG came and visited and spoke to both the MO and myself as well as the staff on duty that night.

A formal complaint was lodged and the DPP was transferred.(whether there was any demotion or promotion, we were not told).

Even in those days, people tended to throw their weight around. This might  be human nature, especially those in the legal profession where they controlled the fate of whether to put people on trial or not.

In a way, those DPPs are like judges, since they have the power to decide on whether a case has sufficient  merits to be tried and whether such a case should be dropped.

That being the case, would it not happen that some of them might hesitate to put  top civil servants or  top private lawyers on trial? Especially those whom they have come to know well as Golfing partners or fellow club members?

That brings us back to the issue of prosecution. The Teoh Beng Hock’s case was prosecuted by a private sector lawyer , a former DPP. This actually started a good precedent.

Looking at the whole civil services, we have a perception that the standard of everything is not as good as before. In other words, there is a loss of excellence in all fields. In the Judiciary, many cases which were prosecuted were unsuccessful because of not ‘sufficient’ groundwork done, meaning that the case was not well investigated and prepared. So in many cases , justice is not done because of technicalities.

But there are a lot of expertise outside which can be tapped..

Malaysia still has plenty of good lawyers in private practices, some with 30 to 40 years of experiences, and many of them have gone through the golden age of our legal system in the 60s and 70s, when Malaysia’s judiciary was among the best and most independent in the Commonwealth.

So why not let some of these senior lawyers prosecute cases especially those involving civil servants and government GLCs and public funds?

Why not let these lawyers head investigative task force to investigate big scandals like PKFZ and the missing jets?

WHy not let Karpal Singh prosecute Lingam when he openly declared that he is willing to do so? Karpal is  very experienced and allegedly one of the best lawyers in the country, there is no doubt about it. Why not let him prosecute the case in his capacity of a competent senior lawyer?

I think Malaysia’s legal system needs to adopt new thinkings and new mindsets in order to nail down those culprits and perpetrators who are enjoying themselves because we did not use the best brains to tackle them.

As long as Justice is done and seen to be done, whether the rats were caught by the white mouse or the black mouse  or the brown mouse is really immaterial…

Treat the underlying disease !

22 Dec 2009 27 Comments

by Dr Hsu in corruption, culture, Malaysia, social economic

The missing engine is again a symptom of a very serious underlying disease.

Where else in the world, except maybe in movie plots, can you see a jet engine being stolen and transported out of the country? I was told even the log and maintenance book have gone missing together with the engine.

It is not something that you can hide in your pocket. It was taken from a military airport, where the perimeter is fenced and where there is supposed to be guardhouse and patrols and watch towers.

If this thing can happen to our defence force, how are they going to defend us? why the need for the defence force then? Why the need for air fighters, submarines and so on.

Who in the world would want to sell us their sophisticated military technology when such technology can be easily stolen and sell to rogue businessmen?

There is really no point to set up another Royal commission, as suggested by the opposition . This is just a symptom and even if the perpetrators can be hauled up and punished, it would not change the culture.

What we need to do is to treat the whole disease.  That means to change the whole culture of greed and corruption. The whole culture of double standard being practiced. The whole culture of selective law enforcement.

The cancer has spread so widely that it may not even be possible to resuscitate the patient. It has infiltrated to our civil service, our education system, our sports arena, our enforcement agencies, and the armed forces.

The only way perhaps is to bring back meritocratic practices and ensure the independence of institutions and enforcement agencies.

Any thing less will result in more brain drain and flight of money from the country.

We may go down to the level of the Philippines sooner than we thought.

The missing engine

21 Dec 2009 33 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Malaysia, social economic

It is reported in the front page of NST today that a Brigadier General was sacked together with 40 others . NST also reported that the general may be one of the 4 identified as the main players in a case of missing jet plane engine.

However, in the same report, it is mentioned that the general retained his pension and other retirement benefits.

I rubbed my eyes as I thought they were playing tricks with my brain. How come a sacked public servant can still retain his retirement benefits? What kind of sacking is that? Is this a case of ‘forced early retirement’ which is totally different from being sacked. Either the report is not correct or the whole system has gone berserk.

There are so many questions here.

How on earth can an object as big as a jet engine been stolen?

GE J85 engine (pic from internet)

How on earth can this object be hidden and transported out of the country?Where are the custom officers?

How on earth a sacked civil servant still receiving pension and other benefits?

Why aren’t any legal actions being taken against the culprits?

If a main player in this case can be sacked and still retain all the benefits, will it not be sending a signal to other civil servants that it is alright to have things missing under their watch? Perhaps it would encourage top civil servants to have expensive things missing under their watch so that they can receive their pension and other retirement benefits earlier than would be the case if they work till the actual retirement age. Not to mention any proceeds that may be derived from the disposal of the missing item..

Does anyone working there still have any more  sense of right and wrong?

Malaysia really Boleh!

…………

(BTW, this news has put Malaysia in International limelight. All major agencies are carrying the report. Maybe some nuts will say that we need to thank them for putting Malaysia into International news… The publicity is worth more than the 50 millions.)

Green energy research

21 Dec 2009 8 Comments

by Dr Hsu in economy, government, Malaysia, technology

It is high time that we look into  renewable sources of energy. It is one way to cut carbon emission and also a way to conserve our environment. It will do our economy wonders too.

Green industries will be the future engine for economic growth, like what IT has done  the last 2 decades.

For Malaysia to move up to become a higher income country, perhaps we should give incentives for the research and setting up of green industries.

Among the most important of all green industries is perhaps harnessing renewable energy sources and store them as electricity for use.

In other words, we need to look into the production of electricity using renewable sources such as wind, solar energy and water. We need to develop technology to store these energy for use too.

One source of renewable energy that is gaining importance is the wind energy.

In May last year, when I drove around South Australia near Cape Jarvis, I saw so many wind turbines along the country road that I drove. In UK, off shores wind turbines are being installed to harness wind energy to produce electricity.

This is in Wikipedia:

At the end of 2008, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 121.2 gigawatts(GW).[1], which is about 1.5% of worldwide electricity usage;[1][2] and is growing rapidly, having doubled in the three years between 2005 and 2008. Several countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration, such as 19% of stationary electricity production in Denmark, 11% in Spain and Portugal, and 7% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland in 2008. As of May 2009, eighty countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis.

Malaysia has plenty of sunshine and winds. Wind power is plentiful during the monsoon. We should channel our resources, following the examples of small nations such as Denmark , to develop alternative energy sources usnig wind turbines and developing better Solar panels for solar energy.

We should give incentives to companies to develop this alternative energy production. Maybe it is a good idea to let smaller companies spearhead this research and production. In any case, these companies should be allowed to sell their energy directly to consumers..

One disadvantage of wind energy is that the electricity generated is non-dispatchable, meaning that the energy cannot be turned on and off on demand.

This brings us to the subject of energy storage. This is one area which has vast potential , how to store energy and convert non dispatchable energy to dispatchable..

In hindsight, we should have used part of our petrol dollar to finance all these energy research, set up energy research centres, like how SIngapore set up their biotech research, and if necessary, use the petrol money to employ world class researchers to come and perhaps lure back some of our migrated fellow Malaysians to man these research centres.

Alas, we have missed the boat. But it is still not too late to use the petrol (or natural gas ) dollar to set up these centres..

2 pieces of classical music

18 Dec 2009 10 Comments

by Dr Hsu in music, music & leisure

Today is a PH, and as such I will post something light and close to my heart.

What else but my eldest son’s latest piano recording. He is a nephrologist working in the States, and has recently bought a grand piano and recorded these 2 classical pieces.

The first one is Rachmaninoff’s piano concerto NO 2 part of first movement, the other one is one of Chopin’s etude.

]

The second one

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Squeezing a piece of dry cloth drier !

16 Dec 2009 23 Comments

by Dr Hsu in economy, Malaysia, social economic

Malaysia faces the prospect of dwindling income from petroleum, since petroleum is a depleting resource and will not be there forever. After suffering the curse of oil, which has resulted in massive misuse of petrol money and wasteful expenditures like massive buildings and bailouts, we are now staring at a future without oil money.

To cover for the loss of income from oil, GST is to be implemented in a year or 2.

In theory , GST is a good tax, and it will be good for the country if income is growing and people’s earning is expanding.

GST taxes on goods consumed and so is a form of consumption tax. It expands the revenue base of the government, and as a form of consumption tax, it discourages wastage and encourage wiser spending by individuals and hence maybe considered a form of ‘green’ tax.

It is a fair and equal tax in principle since everyone is subjected to this tax as long as you buy things or get services. But in reality, it hits the poor more than the rich .

A 4% increase in goods will be nothing to a high income earner and would do little to discourage his spending habits. But a 4 % increase in goods and services consumed to a middle-income person will be felt quite badly, and he or she  has to budget and reduce spending in order to save the same amount of money for a rainy day.

But to a low-income earner already struggling to survive especially in Urban and semi urban areas, a 4 % increase in goods and services will really burden him, and when income is insufficient to cover expenses in order to survive , he has only 2 ways to resort to: either turn to the loan sharks, in which case his life will be even more miserable    OR he may turn to crime..

A GST tax is good when the income level of everyone is rising and when the country is prospering. That way, the pinch felt would still be tolerable.

But in the words of a deputy minister, ‘ Malaysia’s economy has been stagnant for the past decade”, a situation all of us know. So a GST tax at this stage when the economy is not growing will only push a big segment of population below poverty line.

IN fact, Malaysia’s economy has been stagnant since 1997, more than a decade.

A fresh university graduate earns about 1500 a month then. A fresh university graduate  earns about the same amount now, even though the money is much smaller now than 12 years ago, taking inflation into consideration. A cup of coffee costs more . A plate of chicken rice costs more. Income remains stagnant.

On top of that, his expenses has gone up. In 1997, he did not have to worry about handphone bills. Now he has to foot handphone bills since handphone has become a necessity. In 1997, he did not have to pay much for internet services, but now, he has to dig out money for broadband, which is also considered a necessity to a university graduate if he wants to keep up with knowledge. The lifestyle now necessitates certain expenses which were not there 12 years ago, but is considered a necessity now.

Urban dwellers are now like a piece of moist cloth being squeeze for water. The moist cloth is fast becoming dry and still, there is relentless effort to squeeze it drier; any drier, however, the cloth will be full of irreparable holes.

I hope the implementation of GST can be delayed until the country’s economy start really moving again. In the mean time, the government can easily find the 1 billion revenue (which GST is supposed to raise) by more careful and prudent spending and tackle corruption at the top levels.

(This is the 1000th post of this blog — nothing to shout about but there is definitely some satisfaction in my inner self for being able to sustain and persevere in spite of all the shortcomings , busy schedules and pressures).

Let people have more choice

15 Dec 2009 14 Comments

by Dr Hsu in education, government, Malaysia

Yesterday, the PM visited Chong Hwa Independent High School for the School’s 90th anniversary dinner.

I think his visit augurs well for the multiracial society that is Malaysia. Chinese schools have played an important roles in producing many useful citizens, and many of the owners of SMEs have CHinese school backgrounds, just as English schools and National schools have played importnat roles in producing useful citizens.

What I am trying to say is that freedom of choice is very important when it comes to Education. I do not for once believe in the narrow view that a single stream will be the answer to our racial polarisation. Just look at the 10 percent of the Malaysian Chinese that attended National primary schools and you know that single stream is not the answer. Students in those schools do not mix well, especially in the urban and semi urban areas. Anyway, most of those who study in CHinese stream priamry school go on to study in national Secondary school, with only a small portion elected to go to CHinese Independent schools. Even in National Secondary schools, students do not mix well..

My youngest son is a graduate of Chong Hwa. He is diligent, courteous, respectful of elders, and is good in 3 languages. He writes well in all three languages, as are many of his classmates.

It is not easy to be accepted by CHong Hwa. My son got a place without having to sit for the school’s entrance exam, since his primary school results were very good and obtained all As in UPSR. Many of those who wish to go to Chong Hwa have to sit an entrance exam, and every year you have hundreds of them trying to qualify for a place in the school.

Why is it so? Well, it is a case of meritocracy at play. CHong Hwa has 100% passes in SPM for many straight years. The students are made to study in both CHinese and English as well as Bahasa. They study science and maths in both Bahasa and English, and that is why they are able to sit for SPM, as well as external exam called “Tong Kao” and exam which is set by the Dong Jiao ZHong and is recognised all over the world. IN fact, my son told me that Tong Kao is tougher than SPM .

WHen the school has a excellent record, you have people lining up to try tog et into the school. This is meritocracy at play, as I have mentioned earlier.

If all schools can have certain flexibilities to produce good students and schools compete with one another to produce good results, the whole system should improve.

That is why I have advocated to bring back the English stream. Why not? Wth more streams , there will be keener competition, just like in the 60s.

After all, there is already an unofficial English stream in town in the forms of International schools, where most of the big shots’ children and tycoon’s children and those-with-big-cable-and-money’s children are already studying there. WHy not make it official and let the not-so-rich and not-so-well-connected have a chance to choose whether to send their children to English schools too.

WHy only the elites can choose where to educate their children, and the non-elites have to follow policies set by these elites , themselves not following the policies that they set and instead sending their children to International schools?

Why not make it fairer and let the ordinary people have more choice?

The curse of oil – repost

12 Dec 2009 17 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Uncategorized

In light of Ku Li’s speech that Malaysia is an ‘oil cursed” country, I would like to repost an old article of mine published in july 2007, and posted in both Malaysiakini (here) as ‘Beware of the oil curse” and my blog.  I am glad that the prince thinks alone the same line as me, a small fry trying to be heard..:)

This is the article:

The curse of oil

July 16th 2007

There is an old saying by Lao Tzu that “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. This is indeed very true in everyday life.

Many of the super rich families find that often their estate cannot survive the third generation.

The first generation often started as poor working people, but through sheer hardwork and thriftiness  became rich. From being rich, many of them became super rich with good entrepreneur skills and good judgement. Many of them remained thrifty even when they became very rich.

The second generation often grew up during the time their parents were struggling to make their fortune, but when they were older,  their parents had already made the cut. They were often better educated, and many were taught by their parents on how to “fish’. So when the fortune passed to their hands , many of them could still maintain the business and some , a minority of them, might even expand the business. They were , of course, less thrifty than their parents, and often married a spouse also from a rich family.

However, the third generations were usually born with the silver spoons in their mouths. They were  brought up in a life of luxury, and were given expensive ‘fish’ to eat every day . Often, they were not taught how to fish. Many of them were educated overseas, but many of them just fooled around and lived a life of luxury. They were given everything, and because of that , they did not really know how to cope with difficult situations, and the intricacy of the business world.

Many of them also became big time gamblers and womanisers.

Adding to that, the family wealth inevitably got diluted among the more numerous siblings in the 2nd and 3rd generations, especially when these generations were unable to do much to expand the family businesses.

The wealth that were passed down just withered away.

This is known as the curse of the third generation.

I am talking about this curse because there is another curse which works in the similar manner but affect a country rather than a family.

Thomas Friedman, in his book “The world is flat”,  talks about the “curse of oil”.

Many of us would have thought that a nation with petroleum resources would be a lucky and blessed nation.

Oil makes the rulers of some of these oil producing countries super-rich.

However, Friedman mentions that in countries like Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran, the presence of oil in fact is the main retarding factor on the emergence of democracy and a diverse economy. He is of the view that the rulers of these countries use oil money to monopolise all the instruments of the state, including the army, the police  and the intelligence.

They don’t need to be transparent because they don’t tax their people, and when they don’t tax their people,  they don’t need to be accountable on how they spend the money. There is often no freedom of the press.

Oil money will eventually run out.  Because of the short term wealth ( oil is short term wealth as in history , a  hundred years is considered a short duration), they are like the third generation rich men mentioned above.

The rulers don’t bother to develop their economy just like the 3rd generation that don’t bother to learn how to fish. They don’t bother to develop their human resources , drills for natural talents instead of oil, train their people instead of importing trained people from other countries to work for them. Eventually, when their oil runs out, they will find that they cannot compete with much of the world that depends on their human resources instead of natural resources.

In other words, they don’t bother to let their people  learn how to fish, and when their supply of fish is exhausted, they will be in trouble.

Bahrain was one of the gulf States to find oil first and also one of the first to finish its oil resources. It is also an exception to the “curse of the oil”‘. It is  the first to have free elections , in which women are allowed to vote. It is also the first to sign an FTA with USA and the first to develop its own labour market.

It is able to do so because it finishes its oil money before other gulf states, and the people there knew that they cannot depend on the oil revenue forever and hence the development of democracy and free trade treaties.

We are also a small oil producer. We are lucky in that we have already been independent and already has all the democratic institution in place before we discovered oil. Our economy is also very much diversified; we have an Independent internet paper ( Malaysiakini ); we are a workble democracy with regular elections ; we have  opposition parties; we have a fairly vocal NGOs.

We have not been afflicted with the curse of oil, so far. ( Editor 2009: In hindsight, I would say, we have already been inflicted with the curse)

However, our oil revenue has become increasingly important as a form of government revenue.. Last month, Petronas, our national oil company, announced a record revenue of RM 184.1 Billiobn and a pretax profit of RM76 billion for the financial year ending March 2007.

Taxes and royalties from oil and gas now amounted to about 35% of our government revenue, up from 10% a decade ago.

This revenue must be utilised with utmost care because oil & gas revenue is a depletable income; it will end one day and that day may be quite soon. It should not be wasted on non productive expenditure such as building offices and other non productive hardware, or in the rescue of failed state or certain private enterprises.

It should be used for developing our human resources, train our people and prepare them for the challenges ahead. It should be utilised for those infrastructure that will spur the expansion of our economy.

Human resources development must be based on  meritocratic principles with assistance to the weaker and poorer sectors , irregardless of colour and religion. Only by doing so, with suitable amount of competition, we can develop fully our human resources.

We should not allow our people to be like the third generation rich mentioned above; we should not pamper our people too much but instead let them take on competition and develop their skills.

Only by letting our people learn how to fish in the best possible way  , can we then avoid the curse of the oil and the curse of the third generation.

Otherwise, if we just sit around and refuse to learn how to fish, if we just pamper our people by giving them everything they need and take care of them from womb to tomb,   the rot will inevitably set in.

We will then regret – and often it is too late – when our oil and gas supply ultimately runs out.

Isn’t racism as dangerous as communism?

11 Dec 2009 33 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Malaysia, social economic

Updated version which is also carried in MalaysianInsider (click here)

DEC 12  — In September 2008, the Umno supreme council decided to suspend Ahmad Ismail for three years for uttering racist remarks. Many people had in fact asked that the ISA be used against him, but as an ISA opponent myself, I was against practising double standards, and I thought he should not be held under the ISA but should instead face the other existing laws of the country.

Politically, his antics in fanning the emotions of his members resulting in the pulling down and stamping on the photo of a head of a component party (Gerakan) were inexcusable, and the least Umno could have done is to expel him. A three-year suspension of party membership, without any legal actions taken against him, was grossly inadequate in the minds of many.

Recently, his suspension was lifted, after not even half way through this three-year sentence.

A top leader of Gerakan was quoted, according to a report in Malaysiakini’s Chinese website, as asking reporters when pressed about the lifting of Ahmad’s suspension: “Is this issue important?”

At the same time, a top Penang Gerakan leader  was quoted as asking reporters: “What position is Ahmad occupying in Umno?”, implying that since Ahmad is not among top leaders of Umno, he need not answer their questions.

Whether they are right or not, I leave it to you to ponder.

I would only say that in this issue, a few considerations are in order:

Firstly, anything or anyone who stirs racial emotion in a multiracial society is serious and important matter. Anyone doing so, just like anyone committing any crime big or small, must answer to the laws of the country no matter how high or low his position is in society. Under the law, every man is supposed to be equal.

Secondly, politics is about perception. If you are perceived to not even be able to stand up to a second-tier leader of the dominant party, then what would the people think of you and what would the voters think of you? Especially when this bully has uttered racially sensitive words that have hurt the feelings not only of a person but of an entire ethnic group?

Thirdly, to a political party, support from the people is everything. That is why it is important to fight for the interest of the people and with that, support shall come naturally. But what will happen when you are perceived to not even be able to stand up to a person who has uttered words that hurt the very people who form your support base?

Lastly, as a result of the third consideration, how are the candidates from this party who have been so belittled going to face the voters come the next general election?

Without the support of the people and the voters, any political party will become irrelevant, and if this party becomes irrelevant, logic and past experience will tell us that the dominant party, Umno, will just chuck the party aside, no matter how subservient and how obedient this party is to Umno.

In politics, it is not about how subservient you are, but rather how useful you are to the dominant party. If you are of no more use (meaning, you no longer enjoy the support of the people), then no matter how diligent or obedient you are, you will be irrelevant.

The experience of PPP is a glaring example. This is a party which used to dominate the whole Kinta Valley, and had four MPs when it joined Barisan Nasional in 1974. What has become of it now? It has lost its relevance and hence it can only take the crumbs or leftovers at the pleasure of the master.

In Ahmad’s case, it is not  about how insignificant his party position is, but rather the principle of double standards being practised.

Why is he not being investigated and charged under the laws of the country and merely made to face disciplinary action of Umno? Why aren’t the feelings of the people taken into considerations as in the case of Chin Peng, who has not been allowed to come back because of the “feelings of a certain segment of the people who have suffered from his action”?

Isn’t racism as dangerous as communism?

A slap on the face again

09 Dec 2009 39 Comments

by Dr Hsu in Gerakan, Malaysia, politics, social economic

In  September 2008, UMNO Supreme Council decided to suspend Ahmad Ismail for 3 years for uttering racist remarks. Many people had in fact asked that ISA be used against him, but as an ISA opponent myself, I was against practising double standard, and i thought he should not be held under iSA but should instead face the other existing laws of the country..

Politically, his antics in fanning the emotions of his members resulting in the pulling down and stamping on the photo of a head of a component party (Gerakan)was inexcusable, and the least UMNO could have done is to expel him. A three year suspension of party membership, without any legal actions taken against him, was grossly inadequate in the minds of many.

Parti Gerakan was badly affected firstly by his action and secondly by this inadequate action of punishment. In fact, the party should have withdrawn from Barisan and stayed independent.

So in the light of the lifting of suspension of his membership, not even half way through the sentence, I wish to lodge my strongest protest and hope the party leadership would do the same.

I urge the party members to speak up on this issue and perhaps the party should seriously reconsider its position within the Barisan, as this lifting of sentence is no doubt a slap on the face of all Gerakan members, ignoring the feelings of Gerakan leaders as well as members.

Substitute BTN course with that of Human Rights

08 Dec 2009 5 Comments

by Dr Hsu in government, humanity, Malaysia, politics, social economic

I support the call to scrap the BTN courses by Ku Li, as carried in Malaysiakini today.

In my opinion, instead of this course, all civil servants, including police and other enforcement agencies, should attend a course on our Constitution as well as Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Maybe it is not a bad idea to have would-be civil servants sit for a course on Universal declaration of Human Rights, since in a world where democratic principles prevail, individual rights will become more and more important, and the hierarchy based governing is no longer applicable in this world of globalisation.

Even in CHina, the rue of Law has become more and more important (even though not perfect, their government is trying hard to learn from the West as to the application of the rule of Law), and that has in no small part contributed to the immense amount of FDI going into that country.

If we want to survive in this modern era, Malaysians would have no other choice but to change their mindsets and thinking, the most important of which is to respect individual rights.

 

When people become selfish animals

08 Dec 2009 5 Comments

by Dr Hsu in culture, environment, Living, social economic

Since the place where I work is very close to a LRT station, and the place where I stay is about 15 minutes walk from another LRT station, I sometimes  take the light transit to work, especially when I send my car fro servicing or when there is something wrong with my car.

Not that I enjoy taking the LRT. Those of you who have taken it ( the putra line from PJ to KL) during peak hour ( morning and evening rush hours) will know what I mean. The coach would be packed like a sardine can, hardly any space to breathe , let alone to move..

I have seen old ladies and old men who can hardly stand straight trying to balance standing while young men and young ladies sitting on the few available seats try to look away and avoid eye contact. I have seen pregnant ladies swaying with the movements of the train and yet no one is chivalrous enough to stand up and offer a seat. ( I would have done so but those times that I have seen these happenings, I was standing and could not get a seat myself).

I remember during our times in the 60s, whenever the buses were packed to the hilt, there would invariably someone who would stand up and offer seats to those in need of seats..

What has happened to humanity? I use the word ‘humanity’ rather than ‘ Malaysians” because apparently this sort of behaviour is happening everywhere.

Recently, there was a debate in London as to how  ‘Londoners are now so crammed on the Underground they’ve started behaving like “selfish animals”‘ following a London Assembly report (read here) ad a well written article  published in the London Evening Standard .

That article is beautifully written and since what was stated in the article  is similar to what happens here ( and I guess a lot of other cities as well), I will post the whole article here.

If this thing can happen in London where the underground service (nicknamed ‘Mind the Gap’)is so efficient and among te best in the world , you bet it will and it does happen all over the world.

Perhaps we can start our own debate here too on why people become selfish animals once they are in a situation where they have to rush for time.

Make my day – offer a pregnant lady your Tube seat

I have a confession to make. While I’m standing on the Tube platform I perform a rather disingenous ritual.

First, I loosen my coat and smooth my clothes to the contours of my body. Then I gently rub my belly.

The idea, which goes against several decades of modest Scottish conditioning, is to draw attention to my figure.

The problem is, it rarely works. Despite doing my best to advertise the fact that I am almost eight months pregnant, when the train doors slide open, I’m still barged charmlessly out of the way in the scrum to grab the few free rush-hour seats.

Once inside, it doesn’t seem to matter where I stand; 90 per cent of the time I am not offered a seat.

Not even one of the several in each carriage marked with a blue sticker showing a woman with a bump (which are invariably occupied by younger, fitter Londoners than me).

Friends lucky enough to avoid crush hour don’t understand. “Why don’t you just ask for a seat?” they say, innocent of how great a breach of Tube etiquette that would be.

Earlier in my pregnancy I reckoned I’d start requesting seats at around seven months. Now I realise I’d have to be in second-stage labour before most Victoria line passengers would show a flicker of acknowledgement.

So I couldn’t have been less surprised by yesterday’s London Assembly report revealing that Londoners are now so crammed on the Underground they’ve started behaving like “selfish animals”.

I could have written the report myself, having studied the behaviour of Tube-bound commuters up close these past few weeks.

I’ve seen how effectively they shut down and how expertly eye contact is avoided. The result is I’m no longer surprised – or even offended – when seats don’t come my way.

There are exceptions: usually gallant young men who’ve been properly brought up, or mums who can remember what it’s like to sway unsteadily with a heavy bag and heavier belly.

They spring up with such well-meaning insistence that it can bring tears of gratitude to a pregnant woman’s eye.

There are also those who make a calculated stand not to give up their seat. You see them staring, then a copy of the Evening Standard is placed pointedly between them and you. Out of sight, out of mind.

But I’m sure the bulk of commuters just don’t notice at all. For those of us with no choice, a journey on the Tube is a twice-daily torture made bearable by sticking to a set of coping mechanisms.

We lose ourselves in books, turn up our iPods or simply shut our eyes. And we go for seats like heat-seeking missiles because sitting down is the one thing guaranteed to make the train arrive sooner. Or so it seems.

Acting like a bunch of glass-eyed zombies might feel like the logical reaction to the Underground experience. But deep down we know it only makes things worse.

So go on, do something human today and give a pregnant lady a seat. You’ll feel so much better for it. And so will I.

The cancer of the nation

07 Dec 2009 10 Comments

by Dr Hsu in corruption, culture, Malaysia, social economic

Came back from a 9 day trip on Saturday, but have been trying to rest because of the jet lag..

This is one trip that I completely shut off from emails, internet.. Those of us who blog  actually spend too much time online and may have neglected other aspects of life. Too much of good medicine can kill.. Too much of good things like going online can also be bad..

Well, need some time to get tuned to the happenings past 10 days.

But one of the most shocking is the resignation of the MACC boss.

We do not know what happened , but it is unlikely to be due to the reason that he wanted to rest and with the family, since his tenure has only 5 more months to go.

He was the first commissioner of MACC and he could have earned himself a place in Malaysian history if he put his heart and soul into tackling corruption, like the ICAC of HOng Kong inthe 70s.

Not only corruption has become worse and Malaysia’s ranking in corruption perception has gone down lower and lower, but certain cases like the case of TBH has cast a dark shadow on the whole MACC.

Corruption is the mother of all evils. It is to a country what a cancer is to a person. When a person is having cancer ( I refer to cancer of earlier stages, not the end stage type where metastasis is everywhere and the fate of the patient is doomed), he can have several options:

1.  remove the cancer surgically or by radiotherapy or chemotherapy of a combination of these

2.  ignore the symptoms and wait for it to get worse, and the end result s of course death.

3.  choose to have partial treatment , in which case, he is only buying time and when the cancer flares up again after some time, he will be like that of No. 2

To go for radical treatment is painful but that is the only way to have a fighting chance to get cure. To choose option 2 or 3 is to deny oneself of a chance to get cure.

The country is having cancer of corruption. The perception is that there is selective investigation and prosecution of corruption cases, and those with big cables are left untouched.

I think the blame is not on MACC or its officers alone. The blame should be on the political masters , for they are the one who hold the keys to whether they really want MACC to be independent. Unless and until MACC is given true independence to investigate and prosecute, tackling of corruption is like scenerio No. 3, and there would not be any cure for this mother of all evils.

The end result is predictable: the country is going down the drain… It is already a couple of steps down, and if there is no political wills to allow MACC to investigate with full independence , things will only get worse.

The ball is at the feet of the political master.. How he plays it will determine how this country is going to fare. Whether we will end up as a maid exporting country ( I have been talking about it some time back), or whether we can buck the present trend and achieve our dream of a developed country status, it is up to the top political master, the PM.

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