The Billion Ringgit Water Deal

I was beginning to wonder what happened to the newly elected opposition Petaling Jaya Utara MP, Tony Pua. There had not been much news about him since he won the seat (to me, at least... maybe I've not really read enough). There was this great hype about him selling off his business to join politics to serve us people. However, I am not really surprised to find that he is one of the mastermind behind Selangor state's planned acquisition of the water bodies in the state given his business background.

The current opposition held state government made an offerring of RM4.6 billion to the four concessionaires in the state without buying over their liabilities. Three of the concessionaires rejected the state government's offer. During the midst of negotiations, Pengurusan Aset Air Bhd (PAAB), a unit of Minister of Finance Inc. came out with an offer of RM5 billion - RM400 million more than what the state government offerred. I guess we know whose brilliant idea this might be. Kakacaucau!

Looks like the federal government ran out of ideas on how to serve the public better and instead hijacked the opposition's idea on the planned acquisition to do the same thing - to prevent the contractual tariff hike of 31%. The federal government claimed that the negotiations started back in September 2008. So if this is true, it might be that the opposition who are the one that stole the idea. Hmmm... who do you trust? ;)

I don't really know what I am saying in the business sense here but I think this about sums up the situation. Much more details at Star Online.

ps I'm a bit amused, though, that previously, the federal government went on a privatising spree and now attempting to buy them back... a way of pumping in more money for...?

Update 28 February 2009: My bud AndrewK's pointed me to another link with some scary news. This link appears to have reports that conflicts with the one in Star Online (link in two paragraphs above). You be the judge who is lying and who is more accurate. The truth is out there! I hope we Selangor people are not going to die a death of dehydration.

More Streamyx Slowness

Just reached home last night and tried out the internet. Just as what my friends said, it's slow. I did not even get connected for half an hour but I think that was another problem. The Streamyx slowness is this (via Star Online):

Streamyx broadband users will have to bear with sluggish surfing speeds until March 5 due to technical problems, according to a statement by Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM).

The statement said there has been a disruption of TM’s Internet services since Feb 18 due to circuit faults on the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) between Malaysia and the United States.

Due to this, customers using Internet services may now experience slow browsing while accessing content hosted in the United States, said the statement.

Additionally, customers using Internet Protocol services such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other critical business applications linked to the United States may also experience some service degradation.

To alleviate the problem and ease the congestion, some links have been rerouted, TM said.

Previously about Streamyx here.

HOME!

HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME! HOME!

Yes, I'm shouting! HOME! So great to be HOME!

And Before Leaving Vietnam...

... I leave you with some unknown berries just outside where I stayed:
Alright, leaving in about half an hour for the airport (I so very, very, very hope). Finally! HOMEEEEEeeeeeeeeee...

And when I get home, I promise you visitors, THE SKY!

Simple English Wikipedia

I get very lazy to search words in dictionaries even though I don't understand them. Well, if I am online, I might just go define: word in the Google search bar but if I am reading a physical article (no, not ebooks), I normally don't bother. To my delight, Wikipedia's got a version written in simple English! The main page even says it! "The Simple English Wikipedia is for everyone! That includes children and adults who are learning English." :D

The guidelines when contributing to this simple English version:

• Use easy words and shorter sentences. This lets people who know little English read them.
• Write good pages. The best encyclopedia pages have useful, well written information.
• Use the pages to learn and teach. These pages can help people learn English. You can also use them to make a new Wikipedia to help other people.
• Simple doesn't mean little. Writing in Simple English means that simple words are used. It does not mean readers want simple information. Articles don't have to be short to be simple; expand articles, include a lot of information, but use basic vocabulary.
• Be bold! Your article does not have to be perfect, because other editors will fix it and make it better. And most importantly, don't be afraid to start and make articles better yourself.

And guess what? I got to know about it from xkcd. ;)

A Plus Point To Work Here...

...only if my company offers donuts this way:

Too bad it doesn't. So there goes the plus point.

From Pixdaus: Helping Hand

It's Monday morning and I am still at foreign land at work. Not to mention I was also at work yesterday and the day before and the day before and the... can someone please give me a helping hand here? :'(

Rush Hour in Vietnam

Monday's coming and it's time to brace for the rush in a few hours!
Traffic jam here in Vietnam is slightly different from that in Malaysia. The motorcycles here outnumber the cars greatly so the jam is caused by the bikes instead. :O

Supposed to ZzZzZz...

Sigh... it's a Sunday and I am working in the office in a foreign land...
Previously, also created from Garfield's Comics Creator here.

It's......... complicated...

As described in my flickr:

I noticed the cables around Ho Chi Minh city are wired like this. The electricians have my total respect on how they managed to troubleshoot. I was told that they are in the process of cleaning them up to get ready for some form of rapid transit system.

Someone's Getting Married in Vietnam :)

Caught this early morning while going to (GASP!) work (GASP! GASP!):

Touch 'n Go Conspiracy II

"Touch ‘n’ Go Sdn Bhd is targeting sales of at least RM10 million from one million new cards the company expects to sell this year."

Of course they do. They force us to change our cards every 10 years.

"Self-Charging" Batteries

I would certainly like to have self-charging batteries - don't need to plug in any chargers and look for power points. And the best part, it can be charged by placing it any where. These batteries with built-in solar cells (above) sure come close. Just need some source of powerful light, preferably the sun, I suppose. These are just prototypes and the cells charge very slowly. Hopefully, the resourceful Knut will be able to create a commercial product really soon! :)

via Inhabitat via Notes from Knut.

Coca-Cola in Glass Bottles! :D

Not seen these for awhile. It's widely available here in Vietnam. :)

Milk Fruit

Previously, I've heard my colleagues mention about a fruit where its flesh has a milky taste and I tried it last night. Sorry, forgot to take photos but this link should be sufficient. According to the link, it appears to be from Cambodia and I am here in Vietnam. I did ask some English speaking Vietnamese about this milk fruit previously but they don't seem to know what it is, so I guess it is possible that it is not a Vietnamese local fruit. I am a amused by how a tree could produce a fruit with "milk" inside, though. Nice, tasty and juicy. Yum, yum.

Oops, forgot to mention that the one I had had a greenish outer skin whereas the one shown from the link had a purplish skin. The link also mentioned that it is greenish when it is still raw but I am quite sure the one I had was ripe. :)