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8 May 2009

Chinese are a bunch of Cowards

Five thousand years of Chinese Civilization have transformed the Chinese into a unique race which possessed all the necessary ingredients to survive in a harsh environment. But they are still the same homo-sapiens that are clever yet selfish and cowards. Although the Chinese are complex they’re relatively easy to understand once you mix with them. And they don’t call Singaporean “Kiasu” (fear of losing) and “Kiasi” (afraid of death) without any good reason. As usual there’re two sides of the coin and hence the Chinese are known to be rich (or rather economical capable) yet they need to be led and controlled under communism regime for obvious reason.

Generally the Chinese (in China) are weak in politics thanks to thousands of years under autocratic dynasties’ rule. From the first emperor Qin Shi Huang to the last emperor Pu Yi, the Chinese never tasted real politics let alone democracy. So when the Taiwan’s lawmakers started throwing punches and chairs, spraying water at each other, pulling hairs and literally transformed the House into a wrestling hall, it was understandable as they were just infants learning the rope of democracy. However the Chinese are very good in business so much so that they “may be” the first race that invented corruption (whether they realize it or not) in order to speed up the business deals.

Because of the “Kiasu” characteristic, the Chinese are always in front of the queue when come to the business of making money regardless whether it is legitimate or illegitimate. They can naturally smell the aroma of money miles away and they are willing to enter the ring of no-holds-barred for the sake of making money. There’s not a single business which can make money without the presence of Chinese. From stock market speculators to drug smuggling you will see the Chinese have some parts in it. Yes, the Chinese are brilliant and can make huge amount of money quite easily but that’s because they’re a great spender as well. They can create an efficient economy mill within a small town with ease and you wonder how the hell the community can prosper. As a comparison, go to a kampong dominated by ethnic-Malay and your jaw will drop to the floor.

Unfortunately the Chinese are “Kiasi” at the same time. They have extremely high level of tolerance and as long as they can bring food to the table for their family, they can accept intimidation, inefficient and even a very corrupted government. That was the reason why they never strike back even though their husbands and sons were brutally killed and their wives and daughters were gang-raped during the riot in Indonesia of which many said was engineered by General Wiranto and endorsed by President Suharto. The Chinese have done a calculated risk and knew it wasn’t a battle for them thus they migrated leaving behind the debris but not before transferred billions of dollars out of Indonesia (mostly to Singapore). They understand the concept of live another day and you will still be alive to avenge your losses. Fight a losing battle and you’ll lose your life cheaply.

Having said that the Chinese would not tolerate if their country is at stake as can be seen when the China was invaded many times by outsiders. In fact historically the Chinese never invaded other countries (if my old memory serves me right) but was enjoying many civil wars within the current modern China territory. The Chinese had the greatest opportunity to expand their empire during the height of their naval power under Admiral Zheng He when the China generally ruled the seas but they didn’t. They’re happy to show off their power and as long as you do not poke their nose, they’ll leave you alone. And for this simple reason former PM Mahathir once said Malaysia (and other countries) has everything to gain and nothing to lose if China continues to prosper although the other superpower U.S. didn’t think so, out of jealousy I supposed.

Unlike the Chinese, the ethnic-Malays are specialists when come to the topic of politics. They’re willing to risk everything for their political beliefs including their lives and for this reason the UMNO supporters were easily intimidated and demoralized with the presence of a bigger crowds from PAS, both consists of Malays. There’re reasons why the “Bersih” rally was a huge success but the supposedly “Perak” rally yesterday was, well, a failure. Unlike the “Bersih” rally, there was no serious organizer for the “Perak” rally and everyone “thought” people will show-up naturally as if it was a “Michael Jackson” concert. But sadly the urge for the rally never reach the Perakians. Furthermore the “Kiasi” Chinese will only turn up if they see scores of Malays turn up. It was like a 100:1 ratio – if there’re 100 Malays then you’ll probably see 1 Chinese *grin*. They need PAS-Malays to lead them, period.

Seriously most of the Chinese in Ipoh consists of middle-age or retiree who do not have the stamina to run should they greeted by tear-gas. Also, they do not read blogs but still subscribe to the government-controlled newspaper, mind you. In addition, many of these Chinese are still haunted by the 13th May 1969 bloody incident. The youngsters who are “relatively brave” have mostly migrated to towns such as Kuala Lumpur, Johore Bharu or Singapore. They have yet to see that should they be whacked by UMNO-Malays, the PAS-Malays will come to their rescue and can you blame the Chinese considering they’re one bunch of “Kiasi” cowards?

Now, after seeing how an Indian-Hindu Speaker Sivakumar was humiliated and dragged away as if he was a stray-dog by, God knows if they’re real police, do you think the already “Kiasi” Chinese will not think thrice to come out, if there’s another rally in the future? If the so-called police can treat a Speaker in such manner, what guarantees are there that an average-Joes will not ended up like toasted-bread with several broken bones? Yes, in this case the Malays are well-built wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan, Batista, Triple-H or Goldberg but the Chinese are just novice with body no better than Tian Chua. So it’s not a level playing field with Tian Chua holding a poster while Hulk Hogan holding a steel-bar thirsty for blood. Oh yeah! Do you want to know the court’s decision on Monday to decide who the rightful Chief Minister of Perak is? I’ve the crystal ball for this *grin*.

• Graduate (duh!)
• Be more decisive rationally
• Eat more and healthily
• Read a book a month
• Read the papers everyday
• Budget management
• Gym 4 times a week
• Try more restaurants
• Self reflect
• Try out more teas
• Catch up with old friends

Happy New Year 2009 from the UK!

Source

Once again, its time to update my goals that I would like to achieve within the next decade. As I grow older, I do realise the goals I last made almost 2 years ago in the post titled Aims of My Life, well, is ambitious, no doubt but doesn’t seem to be practical in one way or another.

My goals then were:

1. Finish my degree with more than just a scroll of paper.
2. Get a job in a multi-national company.
3. Progress from an engineering oriented position to a management position.
4. Earn my million before 26, and my second before 29.
5. Open an Engineering firm in New York.
6. Own a house in Beverly Hills.
7. Own several more houses in other highly desirable areas of the globe.
8. Retire before 50 and having more than enough assets to live the remaining of my life happily.
9. Travel the world in 120 days.
10. Live a happy life with a happy family.

Well, I am well within my range of achieving goal #1. Hooray! Goals #5 – #9, well, it’s ambitious and difficult to achieve but not really practical in any sense and admittedly somewhat immature and childish for some. Therefore, it is time for a revision!

So here it is, Aim’s of My Life – Take 2.

Another simple list of 10 updated, revised goals.

1. Finish my degree with a First Class Honours
2. Start a new innovative business with a close friend as a business partner
3. Expand the business to rival other big companies, and if the opportunity arises, go global
4. Own a car by 23
5. Own a house by 25
6. Make my million by 27
7. Invest in the property market by 28
8. Start a charity organisation
9. Adopt a child
10. Retire before 50

I’ve entirely removed the term family from my goals as the thought of getting married is just daunting for me at the moment. I might change my mind later on in life but for now, I’ll stick to not getting married anytime soon. Therefore, I’ve settled for an adopted child. I might have to rethink that again sometime in the future though. Until the time comes, I’ll stick to my goals.

About my engineering related job, I’m getting really tired to doing science my entire life. Since the day I started to remember, I did sciences. All through primary and secondary school, from college all the way to university, it was science all along. Unfortunately, it is that time when we get second thoughts of the decisions we’ve made in our past regarding our future.

I dread the day I have to start working. The day when the boss will order me around to perform tasks as his slave. The day where my prospects rely totally on a single person sitting in front of a mahogany table one floor above my cubicle desk.

Since I’ve started my management module this semester, I’ve grown to like it a lot. I am now more interested in the science of management above engineering sciences. Therefore the best way I can exploit my increasing interest in management is to start a business. And the best part is, I’ve found a close friend who shares the same aspiration! I’ve yet to break the news to my parents about my aspiration. Hopefully, they’ll accept and support me for this is what I truly want.

*crosses fingers*

Assuming that my parents totally support my decision, I hope to gain my million by 27. That’s approximately 5 years after the business is started. I guess that would be sufficient time for the business to grow and expand provided that our business models are strong, it should be more than sufficient.

#7 through #10, with the exception of #9, are minor goals which are likely to change in the future depending on the outcomes of #2 and #6.

Well, I guess that’s about it. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need to update this list anytime soon. Until then, I should focus on goal #1 which, in plan, should be achieved in July 2009.

I’ve decided that I’m going to apple-fy my entire house in the (near) future. All Apple products in the house. And of course, they’re all going to be Apple White too!

First, an Apple-fied house isn’t an Apple-fied house with at least one iMac. Beautifully sculptured and bleached white to perfection.

Perhaps if I had enough money, I could even throw in the Mighty Mouse and wireless keyboard, wireless and cooler than any other accessory in the market.

Of course, an iMac isn’t complete without wireless internet! And the solution to this is the Airport Extreme.

Featuring the latest in wireless networking technology, the 802.11n. Speeds up to 5X faster and 2X the range of a normal 802.11g network. Connects up to 50 users at once (excellent if I have 20 kids in the house!). The good thing Airport Extreme offers is wireless printer and file sharing. There can be up to 50 computers in the house sharing one printer wirelessly in a central location! How good is that. Plus it’s pretty…

Next is that Airport Express. Works the same as it’s big brother, the Airport Extreme just that it’s much smaller than it’s bigger siblings. In fact it’s so small, it can fit into your palm easily and weighs less than 500g!

It’s used to extend the Airport Extreme’s range if there’s a computer out of the range of the Airport Extreme. It can also do printer sharing too. But the best thing the Airport Express offers is AirTunes! Listen to music from iTunes from your Mac anywhere in the house. Just plug the stereo’s input cable into the port and listen away to your favourite tunes from your Mac anywhere in the house whether it’s the kitchen or the living room or the garage or even outside, heck even the toilet if you do have a stereo in the toilet!

Oh, the joy doesn’t end here. There’s still the Apple TV! Watch movie on your computer on your Widescreen HDTV (doesn’t have to be widescreen or HD though) anywhere in the house. Just plug it in, it’ll join the Airport Extreme’s wireless network and Apple TV will automatically stream all Music, Movies, TV shows, Photos and Podcasts from the computer wirelessly.

Plus it comes with a super cute tiny remote similiar to those used with iMacs and Macbooks.

If I do every manage to Apple-fy my house, it’s a dream come true. I’ve always fancied Apple products just that the wonderfully beautiful and shocking price tag keeps hindering me from getting one.

I think I’m starting to sound like an advertisement here. I better stop.

Apple-fy away! *crosses fingers*

WordPress is getting cooler and cooler by the day! This time to experience this coolness, all you need to do is just hover your mouse over almost any link on this page and magic happens! You’ll actually get to see a snapshot of the webpage of the link! How cool is that?

I tell you, I have no regrets whatsoever of migrating over from that lousy head-blogging, mind-bothering, un”user-friendly” Blogger. WordPress rocks! And it always will be!

So this is my first post for 2007! Yay!

So 2007 has finally arrived. Too fast for me in my opinion. I’ve completed so much in 2006 but yet I don’t feel that I’ve done enough at the end of the 365th day.

To list down a few of the most significant things I accomplished have done by the end of the day 3 days ago are:-

1. Completed my first year in Chemical Engineering in less than 1 “normal” academic year in the UK (click here, here, here and here and also here to find out what I went through; Author’s note: It was a terrible, horrible, vegetable 6 months
2. joined a Chemical Car competition but sadly didn’t get anything that has monetary worth except a free lunch from my lecturers;
3. completed a 200 page report on how to build a plant, calculating equipment conditions (e.g. flow rates, temperature, concentration, pressure etc.), run the equipment, maintain the factory, hire staff, calculate costs, and fully operate a chemical plant producing benzoic acid at 50,000 metric tons per year alone together with 3 other colleagues;
4. participated in 2 Engineering Fairs which caught the national media’s attention; Author’s note: Had quite a few brain seizures due to this
5. finally got out of the continent of Asia and set foot in a country I’ve never entered before my entire life; and lastly
6. Spent endless amounts of cash on food, shopping, movies and books (as the year before, and before that, and also before that).

Doesn’t sound great isn’t it? Just like any other year. A year of spent cash on unnecessary things, a year that zipped through without me doing anything that I would remember on for coming years of my age. Uhh, I’m starting to sound like Marvin, the paranoid android from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I’ll most prolly go down a beaker of pure freshly distilled alcohol from the Chemistry labs. That should help me forget some things permanently temporarily. Yeah. I think that’s what I should do… (Sadly, this is how I welcome the new year)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to everyone!!

Christmas is finally here and this means that the year is coming to an end in just a week’s time. How time flies is just incredible.

I do apologize for the lack of updates during the past week as I was holidaying in Skipton (Dan’s house) with Dan being the host of course. Wonderful family I must say. His mum (and dad) can cook good food in a matter of minutes! They can cook up a storm in the kitchen and come out with wonderful, drooling, delicious, scrumpcious meals!

Besides that, this house has the most number of game consoles I’ve ever seen! Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo DS… Too bad there isn’t the Nintendo Wii and the PS3. If not it’ll be a blast! But heck, 4 game consoles is more than a blast already! Oh, I must admit that I just fell in love with the game Burnout 3. Such an addictive game. It may be violent and pointless but what the heck! It’s fun! Crashing cars of my choice and the more damage I cause and the more vehicles that crashes the higher the amount of money I generate and so far my highest record was $2,000,000.00, 34 vehicles! There’s also road rage in the same game. It’s kinda like a racing-cum-remove-other-opponents-game. You’ll be racing on track of your choice and there’ll be other cars racing together. All you need to do is try to remove as many opponents as possible from the race with you crashing as little as possible. Wonderful game I tell you.

During that week, we went to Leeds too! Shopping haven. Much better than Sheffield of course since Leeds is a much bigger city than Sheffield. Many shopping centres but those are nothing compared to what we have in Malaysia. But it’s still great fun! Lots of things to see too. Wanted to buy clothes but then I might as well wait for the Boxing Day (which coincidentally is tomorrow!) sales. It’ll be better that time.

Well, here are some random pictures I took in Skipton.

The church with the big clock!

A nice piece in the middle of the roundabout.

Sir Matthew Wilson Baronet, first MP for Skipton.

Skipton’s High Street.

The canal passing through the town.

A panoramic view of Ermysted’s Grammar School.

Well, aside from the pictures, I arrived back in Sheffield yesterday at 1pm and then I had to go straight to Somerfield to shop for food and groceries for today if not I’ll be starving today. Yesterday night, had a small dinner party at EiLeen’s flat. Cooked together for the first time. Karen cooked curry chicken with lots and lots of vegetables. EiLeen made grilled chicken wings and I made grilled mushroom and cheese wrapped in ham. Had white wine together with it and to top it off, we had ice cream with chocolate sauce and chocolate cake! Yum yum! Watched 2 movies, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Billy Elliot. And the funny thing I am going to say is, I spent Christmas taking photos! Haha! Wanted to buy Christmas crackers but they were all sold out! But it was real fun last night! Here are the pics we took last night.

Karen and her curry.

Me and my dish.

Group pic taken at precisely 12am on Christmas.

Me and my pressie!

Hmm, I guess I’ll stop here. This post is getting a little long and monotonous with pictures. Anyways, a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007 to everyone again! Have a great holiday!

Well, I’m feeling a little stressed out now. So I thought I might as well decide on my lifetime goals that I might and would love to and hope that I will one day achieve them.

Just a simple list.

1. Finish my degree with more than just a scroll of paper.
2. Get a job in a multi-national company.
3. Progress from an engineering oriented position to a management position.
4. Earn my million before 26, and my second before 29.
5. Open an Engineering firm in New York.
6. Own a house in Beverly Hills.
7. Own several more houses in other highly desirable areas of the globe.
8. Retire before 50 and having more than enough assets to live the remaining of my life happily.
9. Travel the world in 120 days.
10. Live a happy life with a happy family.

Okay, the last one is kinda obvious. Everyone wants that. Who wouldn’t want to live a happy life unless one is mentally unstable and unable to think of what’s best for himself.

Come to think of it, why do we work so hard to achieve all these material-related goals but yet at the end, these materials won’t follow us when we depart from the third dimension? It’ll all end up in our children’s hands and the probability of them fighting over who gets what is pretty high these days, so what’s the purpose? We are such material-orientated species. That’s what we are. We lust for material things. Gold, jewellery, houses, cars, estates, big businesses etc. I have to admit, I am one of them.

Anyway, back to work!