He who shouts the loudest is RIGHT & GOOD

I went to a “Bank’s” automated centre in Penang. I saw a”KWSP” (EPF=Employee Profident Fund) statement printing machine there. Since the machine was there, I thought of trying to print my EPF account statement.

The steps were simple. I have to slot my “MYKAD” (Identification Card), wait for the verification, then place my right thumb on the scanner, wait for while, then click (touch the screen) for the statement printing. Like a magician’s wand, the statement came out in a standard A4 size paper. Wow, great technology, great use.

I don’t have to go to the EPF office to get the statements. I love technology.

After printing this year’s statement, I saw an option to print the 2007 statement. Nothing to lose, I clicked (touch the screen) the option to print the 2007 statement. The automated equipment did it’s sound effect, colourful screen changes, beeping sound and I looked at the slot where the printed statement should come out, nothing was there. I waited for a while, nothing happened. Waited a little longer, still nothing happened. Then there came the famous words, “Machine Temporarily Out of Service”.

Now I was in dilemma, did the machine print my 2007 statement? If yes, it would be stuck inside and the person who is going to repair and reset the machine will have full information about my EPF. I wasn’t feeling very comfortable. I asked the security officer to ask the bank officer to help me to get the stuck paper out. The security officer said nobody can help now, the bank will do it later.

It was only around 4:20pm. I was in the midst of deciding whether to make the issue big or not. At that moment another guy came in and straight away went to the EPF machine to get his statement printed. The moment, he saw the screen saying out of order, he cursed the bank and shouted to the security officer.

Guess what happened, the security guard went inside the bank and brought out an officer. That officer went into the bank again and came out with another officer. They opened the machine and removed my statement which was stuck. They handed me my statement, then reset the machine and locked it again.

I thanked the bank officer and the security guard, but neither replied or cared to respond to me.

The guy who came after me created a chaos, didn’t even thank anyone nor appreciated the help rendered by the officer. He cursed them further.

The officers apologized to this guy.

Now,
I asked nicely, no action.
The guy shouted, immediate action was taken.

I thanked the officers, they didn’t acknowledge.
The guy cursed the officers, they apologized to him.

I think the phrase, “He who shouts the loudest is RIGHT and GOOD”, is true to it’s core.

Subra

http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=p2index&pg=bm_p2index_service&ac=3&task=kiosk

If I can reverse the time.......

I am very sure many of us did wish that we could reverse the time in order to amend back some mistakes we made in the past. Just imagine if we really had such a mechanism....wouldn't it be wonderful.

Don't you think everyone in this world would be happy. Every mistake you make, you reverse the time and amend it again. Another mistake another reversal of the time and another amendment, that's it, everything is corrected and all are on the right track.

Surely nothing can be wrong anymore isn't it?

But before you think on the feasibility of this wish coming true, can we define what is right and wrong. Yes, if you can unanimously get a list of right and wrong, then you can ask for the time reversal equipment. What is right to one person can be wrong to another person and what is wrong to one person can be right to another person.

I think we are getting to something now. I make a mistake, reverse the time and amend the mistake. With a great smile of achievement I carry on with my work. Then came a man who is not happy with the amendment I made because it effected him. Therefore he would reverse the time back and amend my changes according to what he wants.

All this will continue and many of us will be engaged in reversing the time and amending what we have done in the past. Neither of us will bothered to think on how to correct the mistakes from happening again.

We will choose to sit on our mistakes and spend time thinking on how we could have avoided the mistake then reverse the time and amend it. All these regrets and time spent to do the reversal act dampens our vision to move forward.

Once you know it was a mistake, analyse what went wrong, think on how to avoid it or prevent it, then move on...don't stay on the mistake for too long, many other things are happening and if you missed it, then you tend to miss more.

Think again.......If I can reverse the time.....it will be a disaster.

Change and excitement - What we wanted and what we got!

We were all eagerly waiting for changes.

Changes that happened:
4 states changed hand.
Many seats in the parliament changed to opposition members.
The perspective of democracy changed.

Changes that did not happen:
Policies and tactics (which are base words for politics) used by ruling government did not change.
Mentality and thoughts of the ruling party did not change.
Information disseminated to the public is still based on "I talk you listen-don't ask, don't think".

Think back on what we (the rakyat) wanted.
We wanted real change in the arena of politics.
We wanted to see the political parties and the politicians change their view and their stand on the race based political system.
We wanted to see some initiatives triggered to realize these changes.
We wanted the opposition party to take over the government from the ruling party in order to give a wake up call to the ruling party.

We thought that the ruling government will understand possibility of the opposition party's intention to take over the government may happen.
We thought ruling party will think for the benefit of all the people in Malaysia and do something to correct the wrongs and re-align the path for betterment.

But what happened was:
Ruling party is just struggling to keep their job by taking care of the few who decide their immediate positions (positions in their party and the governmental positions that come together with the party's position) - "rakyat" is forgotten.

Opposition party made fantastic promises and indeed staged a good performance till they tumbled on their own deadlines.

I am not complaining on the opposition party's "missed" deadlines, but I feel that, the dates were committed by themselves and were not imposed by the rakyat.

If I ask you to dig a 1000 feet hole within 3 days without knowing your capabilities and your equipment, your failure to dig the hole can be shifted to me. But if you yourself committed that you can dig the hole within the specified time frame, your failure is 100% yours - knowing your own capability and your resources, your commitment should be realistic.

We wanted changes, but both parties (ruling and opposition) gave us some excitement, not the real change.

See it for yourself : What we wanted and what we got - Change and Excitement !

In everything you do (in work or life), bring in the change and not just the excitement.

Innovation - an extension from an existing idea

My nephew Yoga Nadaraajan (my elder brother's son) who is studying Form 4 (10th year of studies) in a well known St. John School in KL was featured in a local language monthly Magazine called "FOKUS SPM". (Yoga is the one on the top right).

He and his team of 3 "bubbly" guys (except Yoga) made a protoype system using "LEGO" sets and other materials. The LEGO set is an advance set which consists of motor systems, programming units, sensors, actuators and so on. It is indeed an advance automation system.

It is interesting to see the kind of effort put in by these guys. Although I don't know about the other 2 guys, but whenever I talk to my nephew Yoga, he will be always saying something about his project and his 2 friends. At a time where friendship is just found in SMS, I saw the automation project bound all the 3 and their schoolmates very closely.

The project they were engaged in was (I think) an innovation from the existing SMART tunnel in KL (refer below link). These guys incorporated the traffic problems as well as the environment protection, energy conservation and others in their project.

The article is in the local language (Bahasa Malaysia). Therefore if anyone wants further details, please contact Yoga at yogaanna@gmail.com

Creativity and Innovation are inter related, there could be many definition for innovation, one of it is; Innovation is an extension from an existing idea. The SMART could be great but these guys' SMEPP will be greater.

http://www.smarttunnel.com.my/smart/index.html

Subra

Salute to the Sun - A rise with no end

YOGA, apart from being the names of good people like my son (S.Yoga) and nephews (N.Yoga & S. Yoga), is an ancient form of exercise developed for the human body, mind and soul. One thing, if you try to analayse the concepts developed in India, you will find that, on the surface it may say everything is one but on the underlays, it will say there are many. Not to go very deep, let's just touch a little; God is one but has many forms in order to serve the many needs of all the creatures. Hope I apprehended myself from being pulled into deep soul searching arguments. Similarly, many Yoga postures were developed to serve the many needs of all creatures (actually I mean human only).


I am not going to defend Yoga or promote the benefits of Yoga, I am just going to tell you that, there are many information found in the internet and you can choose to practise on your own will.


One of the most basic (again, this is my guess) Yoga exercise is the "Surya Namaskaram" or in English it is called as "Salute to the Sun". It is a 12 position cycle. Give and take, each position will take about 5 seconds, 60 seconds (1 minute) for every cycle and 12 cycles every morning (12 - 15 minutes) will give you fantastic health and a body of your dream. Other important things are : you should perform these exercises early in the morning (sunrise - morning radiation from the sun is good) and you must also follow the breathing technique.


Anyhow, those with disc slip problem like me, are advised to get doctor's advise prior to performing Yoga...........now I got you, you cannot ask me "You talk so much, do you do Yoga?"......you see, I wanted to do Yoga but I have disc slip problem.


Anyhow please seriously consider on taking up this Yoga exercise, you will be surprised to see how you sweat when you reach 3rd, 4th cycle. You should be able to reach a complete 12 cycles after 1 week. Keep the progress slow and steady. Don't press yourself too much.

Why salute the sun? It is the one thing that will keep on rising every morning and gives us hope of a fantastic day ahead. Salute to the Sun, a rise with no end.


http://www.suryanamaskar.info/suryanamaskar.htm

Subra

To SMS or not to SMS, that is the end of English !

Last week I received a SMS from a friend called Lily.

The SMS reads as follow :-

Evry tear is sign of brokenes,
Evry silence is sign of lonelines,
Evry smile is sign of kindnes,
Evry SMS is sym of rememberance.

I almost killed myself trying to read this SMS, but consoled myself and replied with below SMS :-

Every SMS is a sign which says "Death is not far for English". To which she replied, "This normalah".

Even my daughter laughs at me when I type a SMS with complete spelling.

Lately, I am also receiving emails in SMS format. I have to figure out myself what each word means. I know good English is dying but I never thought it will be killed in this manner.

If Shakespeare lived in this world now, he would have written his famous words as "To SMS or not to SMS, that is the end of English".

Subra

916 - in the eyes of man and woman

Very interestingly Ms. Choo pointed out in her blog http://mommyscchoo.blogspot.com/2008/09/916-gold-or.html that 916 is seen as gold by women and 916 is seen as a political restructure by men.

Indeed, could 916 start the re-structuring of political fundamentals in Malaysia?

Maybe Malaysia is ready to take on the new era of understanding among the multi racial society.

All the while we have been thinking that Malaysians are still living in a strongly knit racial divisions and in general claim that we are multi racial. March 8, 2008 showed all of us that we are no believers of race based politics. We saw people from all races voting for people from all races based on their political principles. (Although I still say that people voted on the basis that they wanted to teach a lesson to the present ruling party, I tend to agree in general that we are about to leave the race base politics).

Today is 916, there is something big going on. What will be next is not a surprise. All Malaysians (almost all) know what are the possible options.

1. Snap Election
2. Mass arrest under ISA
3. Opposition party forms the new government.

Till now I am still unable to make a guess.

In a remote part pf my brain, I see that there could be a change in the leadership within the ruling party and this will make all those from the ruling party who wanted to defect to think twice before crossing over. If such thing happens then, all the 3 options will never take place.

No matter how 916 is seen in the eyes of man and woman, we sincerely hope it will churn out golden opportunity to all of us and to our country.

Subra