Many Malaysians have migrated to other countries for a variety of reasons. Those who have stayed behind stated brain drain, better and fairer deals by the host countries as some of the obvious reasons. The grass, of course looks greener on the other side. The funny thing is that those who have migrated never fail to keep in touch with those whom they had left behind. And most often than not, they kept coming back 'home'.
If a firm offers you a better package, be it a local or overseas firm, would you take up the offer? If the firm happens to be in another country, would you impose on your present firm to match the offer? If they can't match the offer would you take the overseas offer and give the reason for leaving your present firm as brain drain? We as employees always expect our employers to counter offer when we get another offer from another firm. I for one second would not believe that we left because we can no longer contribute in the most effective way. There are always ways to contribute for the betterment of the firm. No, we left for the money. It's always, 'Show Me the Money' that counts. Those that can offer will get my service. Period.
So years after staying abroad, you finally want to come home for good. You have made your millions due to the exchange rate. And you feel you still can contribute to your country... Why now? Why not before when you are still young and energetic? Why now when you are old and less energetic? And when no local companies can match what you want, you put brain drain as the reason for not coming back. How absurd! The company cannot 'Show you the Money' that's why you don't want to come back. Sometimes, it's your pride. Friends whom you have left behind are now holding important posts. How can you serve under them? So please Mr. Politicians do not harp on brain drain issues. It just won't work. You show me the money and I will sign on the dotted lines.....
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A Matter of Taste
I am not a fussy eater. By that, I meant..I eat whatever is served { everything halal, of course}. If the food is nice I will give compliments, if not, I'll just keep quiet. That's what was taught by my dad. To my dad, the cook has done his best preparing for the meal so it does not make sense to criticize his effort. Of course this does not include for the food that we pay for.
That is why sometimes I cannot understand why some people like to cirticize on others' cooking. To me, one's man meat might be another man's poison and vice versa. It is a matter of taste. The same goes for beauty. Otherwise we can never understand why a handsome man marry an ugly lady or an ugly man has a beautiful wife. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
A handsome man can be ugly if his character is unbecoming or perhaps he likes to lie. An ugly man will not be so ugly if he is caring, attentive and very nice to be with. In the end, it's not the look that counts but the person's characters.In my life, I've met so many beautiful girls with not so handsome husbands and they are very happy. My daughter's friend asked me a question ages ago....
Daughter's friend : 'What do you look for in a son-in-law?'
Me : 'Full of responsibility'
Daughter's friend : 'Is that all?'
Me : 'Yes'.
' If he is responsible, he knows how to take care of himself and his family. He
knows how to provide for his wife and family. He knows how to treat his
wife and family. He knows what is bad and what is good for his wife and his
family'.
Daughter's friend : ' A simple one answer that meant so much'
Me : ' You are right'.
Some people look for different things in a person or food. Some goes for tall, dark and handsome thing. Some crave for dessert and ice cream. Some goes for the rich and famous and some cannot live without eating rice everyday. It is just a matter of taste and what is more important to you.
That is why sometimes I cannot understand why some people like to cirticize on others' cooking. To me, one's man meat might be another man's poison and vice versa. It is a matter of taste. The same goes for beauty. Otherwise we can never understand why a handsome man marry an ugly lady or an ugly man has a beautiful wife. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
A handsome man can be ugly if his character is unbecoming or perhaps he likes to lie. An ugly man will not be so ugly if he is caring, attentive and very nice to be with. In the end, it's not the look that counts but the person's characters.In my life, I've met so many beautiful girls with not so handsome husbands and they are very happy. My daughter's friend asked me a question ages ago....
Daughter's friend : 'What do you look for in a son-in-law?'
Me : 'Full of responsibility'
Daughter's friend : 'Is that all?'
Me : 'Yes'.
' If he is responsible, he knows how to take care of himself and his family. He
knows how to provide for his wife and family. He knows how to treat his
wife and family. He knows what is bad and what is good for his wife and his
family'.
Daughter's friend : ' A simple one answer that meant so much'
Me : ' You are right'.
Some people look for different things in a person or food. Some goes for tall, dark and handsome thing. Some crave for dessert and ice cream. Some goes for the rich and famous and some cannot live without eating rice everyday. It is just a matter of taste and what is more important to you.
For The Better For The Worse For The Cheapest..
I am sure most first time overseas travellers experienced this. The moment you want to buy something, you tend to convert the price to Malaysian Ringgit. If you are in Indonesia or Thailand, whoa... you have a good deal.. or in any other countries that the currencies are lower than Malaysian Ringgit. But when you are in USA or Britain, you tend to think twice...no, not twice but many times over before you start to depart with your money.Sometimes you ended up not buying anything at all.
But if you were to stay in these so called expensive countries and earn in their currencies, you will realise that their cost of living is much lower. Let's say you are earning RM3,000 a month in Malaysia and the equivalent US$3,000 in USA. You are buying a ' Kitchenaid' mixer. In Malaysia, you will have to fork out more than RM3,000 for it, whereas in USA you will only pay around US$300. You may say that this is an imported product, therefore it is very expensive.. but most of the mixers in our country are imported therefore they are quite expensive. Perhaps the lower range may be cheaper but still you have to pay around 10% of your salary to own it. And yet in USA , you pay 10%of your salary for a better product.
How I wish our government stop comparing prices in other countries by converting it to Malaysian Ringgit.In Singapore, the price of gas is around S$1.53/litre [6 months ago], that is around RM 3.67/litre [ 1.53 x 2.4 exchange rate] which is very expensive compared to Malaysia. But if we are earning in Singapore dollars and paying in Singapore dollars, the price of gas is still cheaper if you know what I mean. In Singapore, we are paying S$0.35/hour for parking in a shopping complex along the Orchard Road, how much do we have to pay for parking in KLCC? It definitely costs less to park in Orchard Road. So.. it does not make sense to me if our government say that the cost of living in Malaysia is cheaper compared to other countries. To me, it is only cheaper if you are earning , let's say in Singapore dollars and paying in Malaysian Ringgit.
That is why I am totally against building a new bridge linking Singapore to Malaysia since it only helps Malaysians who are earning Singapore dollars, paying Singapore taxes but lives in Malaysia for cheaper cost of living. Mind you, these Malaysians do not pay taxes to the Malaysian government and yet have the cheek to ask our government to use taxpayers money to make life much better for them. Does it make any sense to you? Well, these Malaysian can't have their cakes and eat them too. And do not say that they are helping in the Malaysian economy as an excuse.
But if you were to stay in these so called expensive countries and earn in their currencies, you will realise that their cost of living is much lower. Let's say you are earning RM3,000 a month in Malaysia and the equivalent US$3,000 in USA. You are buying a ' Kitchenaid' mixer. In Malaysia, you will have to fork out more than RM3,000 for it, whereas in USA you will only pay around US$300. You may say that this is an imported product, therefore it is very expensive.. but most of the mixers in our country are imported therefore they are quite expensive. Perhaps the lower range may be cheaper but still you have to pay around 10% of your salary to own it. And yet in USA , you pay 10%of your salary for a better product.
How I wish our government stop comparing prices in other countries by converting it to Malaysian Ringgit.In Singapore, the price of gas is around S$1.53/litre [6 months ago], that is around RM 3.67/litre [ 1.53 x 2.4 exchange rate] which is very expensive compared to Malaysia. But if we are earning in Singapore dollars and paying in Singapore dollars, the price of gas is still cheaper if you know what I mean. In Singapore, we are paying S$0.35/hour for parking in a shopping complex along the Orchard Road, how much do we have to pay for parking in KLCC? It definitely costs less to park in Orchard Road. So.. it does not make sense to me if our government say that the cost of living in Malaysia is cheaper compared to other countries. To me, it is only cheaper if you are earning , let's say in Singapore dollars and paying in Malaysian Ringgit.
That is why I am totally against building a new bridge linking Singapore to Malaysia since it only helps Malaysians who are earning Singapore dollars, paying Singapore taxes but lives in Malaysia for cheaper cost of living. Mind you, these Malaysians do not pay taxes to the Malaysian government and yet have the cheek to ask our government to use taxpayers money to make life much better for them. Does it make any sense to you? Well, these Malaysian can't have their cakes and eat them too. And do not say that they are helping in the Malaysian economy as an excuse.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
You can give it a different name, it still comes from the same animal
With more and more people getting the influenza A, I am getting more and more worried about my son , Nabil. If he is studying in the Mid West, I will not be this worried.. But his school is just 10 minutes away from the Big Apple. I have advised him to stay away from crowded places and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. But this is summertime and I don't think he likes to be confined in his room or summer classes. I can only hope that nothing untoward happens to him.
Swine was created to clear Noah's Ark from all the wastes produced by humans and animals. The sheer functions of swine should make us wary from being close to them whatmore eating them. If we human stays away from them, they will be confined to the forest, far away from human contacts. Then we will not have SARS, Influenza A or that sickness that happened in Negri Sembilan[ JE, I think].
Now, the Health Authority found out that Influenza A can also be transmitted by water not only by air. This is due to the fact that those infected with it , 25% of them suffered from diarrhoea.
As I am writing, there are already 5 influenza A cases in Malaysia. All were imported cases and I hope there will not be any human to human case here. If the WHO do not imposed a ban on travelling from one country to another, I doubt there will be a decrease in this disease. At least what The World Health Organization should do is to prevent persons with this flu from travelling out of the country. The thermal scanners should be placed at entry and disembarkation points.
In the mean time, my son has to give this summer a miss.
Swine was created to clear Noah's Ark from all the wastes produced by humans and animals. The sheer functions of swine should make us wary from being close to them whatmore eating them. If we human stays away from them, they will be confined to the forest, far away from human contacts. Then we will not have SARS, Influenza A or that sickness that happened in Negri Sembilan[ JE, I think].
Now, the Health Authority found out that Influenza A can also be transmitted by water not only by air. This is due to the fact that those infected with it , 25% of them suffered from diarrhoea.
As I am writing, there are already 5 influenza A cases in Malaysia. All were imported cases and I hope there will not be any human to human case here. If the WHO do not imposed a ban on travelling from one country to another, I doubt there will be a decrease in this disease. At least what The World Health Organization should do is to prevent persons with this flu from travelling out of the country. The thermal scanners should be placed at entry and disembarkation points.
In the mean time, my son has to give this summer a miss.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Wedding Headaches
Wedding invitations kept on coming these last few days. My weekends were filled with lunch and dinner receptions.. be it at home, community halls and hotels. Weddings can be very expensive affairs if you are on the ladies' sides. The brides normally have to host the engagement ceremonies, the 'nikah' ceremonies and also the wedding receptions. These can range between tens of thousands to maybe a hundred thousands depending on how elaborate the weddings are.
No matter how grand or small the weddings might be, nothing is perfect. Said one celebrity wedding planner, 'if you want a perfect wedding, do not come to me'. How true..I have yet to see a perfect wedding. Like a friend said during her daughter's wedding, 'what you see might be perfect but the actual scene behind it might not'.
I remember during Nadia's wedding, how some of my friends like the band so much. But until today, Nadia was extremely upset since the band did not play her songs at all. The right songs were not played when the couple walked in and during the cake cutting ceremony. The band even started to pack up when the couple cut their cake.My husband and I decided that for our children's future wedding, we are not going to hire any band, instead we are going to use the CDs. But then again we have to make sure the one who is playing the CDs has to know which songs to be played and when.
I sometimes wonder how some caterers can cook good food and some can't. The host paid a substantial amount of money for food. At least the caterers should have some decency to provide nice and tasty food. 'Ayam masak merah' should taste like ayam masak merah not something else. You only have to put nice amount of salt, sugar and vinegar into it. Not..so much salt , a bit of sugar and a lot of vinegar. Then ayam masak merah is not ayam masak merah anymore. Worst still, the guests cannot eat it. And then.. there are not so fresh ingredients.. I pity these hosts, not only their money not well spent and also there are food down the drains.
How I wish that weddings can be a lot simpler. Why not? instead of inviting 500 to 700 hundreds guests, we should only invite those who are really close to us. 100 to 250 guests would be nice and a lot easier to handle. My auntie has a ground rule; those that you have not seen for more than 5 to 10 years should not be invited. We can always forego the engagement ceremony or perhaps combine it with the nikah ceremony. After all, the same people are going to be invited for both occasions, right?
Well, I hope I still have a long time to go before preparing the next wedding in our family. Nabil is just 20 and I hope I will not get any phone calls saying,' Ma, I want to get married', so soon...
No matter how grand or small the weddings might be, nothing is perfect. Said one celebrity wedding planner, 'if you want a perfect wedding, do not come to me'. How true..I have yet to see a perfect wedding. Like a friend said during her daughter's wedding, 'what you see might be perfect but the actual scene behind it might not'.
I remember during Nadia's wedding, how some of my friends like the band so much. But until today, Nadia was extremely upset since the band did not play her songs at all. The right songs were not played when the couple walked in and during the cake cutting ceremony. The band even started to pack up when the couple cut their cake.My husband and I decided that for our children's future wedding, we are not going to hire any band, instead we are going to use the CDs. But then again we have to make sure the one who is playing the CDs has to know which songs to be played and when.
I sometimes wonder how some caterers can cook good food and some can't. The host paid a substantial amount of money for food. At least the caterers should have some decency to provide nice and tasty food. 'Ayam masak merah' should taste like ayam masak merah not something else. You only have to put nice amount of salt, sugar and vinegar into it. Not..so much salt , a bit of sugar and a lot of vinegar. Then ayam masak merah is not ayam masak merah anymore. Worst still, the guests cannot eat it. And then.. there are not so fresh ingredients.. I pity these hosts, not only their money not well spent and also there are food down the drains.
How I wish that weddings can be a lot simpler. Why not? instead of inviting 500 to 700 hundreds guests, we should only invite those who are really close to us. 100 to 250 guests would be nice and a lot easier to handle. My auntie has a ground rule; those that you have not seen for more than 5 to 10 years should not be invited. We can always forego the engagement ceremony or perhaps combine it with the nikah ceremony. After all, the same people are going to be invited for both occasions, right?
Well, I hope I still have a long time to go before preparing the next wedding in our family. Nabil is just 20 and I hope I will not get any phone calls saying,' Ma, I want to get married', so soon...
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