Jarod’s Den

Rising Cost

The recent fuel hike has cause much concern. Malaysia is an oil producing country and a net exporter of petroleum. Despite that, the price of fuel is high, if not highest, compared to other oil producing countries. The government is always reminding us that our petrol price is among the cheapest in Asia. The only problem is, they are comparing it to the non-oil producing countries.

The government says they can no longer foot the heavy subsidies enjoyed by the nation all these years due to the rising price of petrol in the international market. Yet, they have the money to build their mega projects, pay for a trip to space, waste public funds, etc. I can never understand what is the purpose of the Putrajaya project besides providing the government a  huge and lavish (and grossly overpriced) office to work in. Need I mention the huge official residences of the prime minister and his deputy? Yet, they keep telling us to change our lifestyle. How about leading by example?

I do agree that we cannot live on subsidised fuel for the rest of our lives. But we have been living on subsidies for as long as I can remember you can’t just ripped it away all of a sudden. We need to be weaned off it. We need to adjust to the extra expenses. Of course, it doesn’t help when the price of everything else increase as a result of the fuel hike but our salaries remains status quo.

I was numbed when they announced the new fuel price. Then as realisation sinks in, I became angry. I casted a protest vote 2 months ago. I guess the March 8 wake up call wasn’t loud enough. We need a change. Not just in our lifestyle but also in the government.

Here’s something that I believe aptly describe the situation.

Tags: fuel hike, government, malaysia

All In One

Ever heard of the term “All in One”? In products for example, it means having multiple complementary properties/ingredients in the one product.

I use a All-in-One shampoo by Pantene. It has the shampoo, conditioner and god-knows-what in there. I know it’s a all-in-one because the label says so. That plus the fact my hair is not so coarse after using it.

I love the Old Town White Coffee. It’s from my lovely hometown, Ipoh. It is made from special coffee beans, roasted to perfection, grinded by a seasoned coffee guru and prepared with passion. That was decades ago. Now it’s just roasted at some oven, grinded by machines and prepared in bulk for wholesale. I blame commercialisation for that. Now they’re selling the all-in-one pack that comes with sugar and creamer. Not the same as the original you get back at Ipoh but it’s a quick fix when you’re in a hurry to beat the traffic jam.

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack. This is a all-in-one codec pack. What’s a codec pack? Hmm… basically it’s a collection of codecs (coder decoder) that allows you to play all sorts of video formats such as xvid, divx, quicktime, ac3, etc. I like to use this because it saves me the trouble having to figure out what codec is needed for a particular movie file that I downloaded from the internet acquired. Becareful though. Some of these codec packs comes with viruses and trojans.

In today’s technologically savvy age, an all-in-one IT gadget is a must. One of my favourites is the HP all-in-one printer. The printer comes with the ability to scan and copy besides the usual printing. Some higher end models can even do fax. This saves a lot of trouble having to buy and maintain the many different equipments. For me, it’s mainly because my desk is running out of space.

And then there is our beloved government. Most countries (I used the word ‘most’ loosely here) government I know is made up of three branches; Executive, Judicial and Legislative. All these are independent of each other in order to provide checks and balances. But in our unique nation, the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches are all in one. Of course you will still see the three different branches at work but since they’re all controlled by one man, they might as well just merge all three branches together.

Tags: executive, government, judicial, legislative, nation

Election or Erection?!

Our esteemed Minister of Information was interviewed by Al-Jazeera over the BERSIH incident sometime back. The entire interview was a disaster in my opinion. Listen to the audio-only youtube clip. All I have to say is that my school-going cousins can speak way better than the Minister of Information.

Pay attention to the part where he said Malaysians have erection every 5 years. I beg to differ. Let me clarify. HE has erections every 5 years. The rest of us are pretty active sexually.

Of course something like this can never escape the attention of our more… erm… patriotic youngster. This guy made a parody of the entire interview which I think is the better interview between the two. Enjoy.

He is such an embarrassment to the nation. I meant the minister, not the youth.

[Updates: This minister has been replaced after the General Election 2008. Thank God!]

Tags: election, erection, minister, misinformation