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One noticeable difference with Kuala Lumpur when I arrived yesterday was the public transport system. For the past few weeks, many Malaysians have been complaining about the public transport which has been inefficient and unreliable. And the government responded to this by setting up fund to improve the current situation. I, like many of my colleague in UK were very sceptical about this. But I tell you now, from what I see yesterday, there are some improvements in the system. Take the bus service in my area for example. Before this, the frequency was like one bus in one hour during off-peak times and one in half-hour during peak times. Yesterday, the bus came every fifteen minutes! Wow, I must say that I am impressed. Congratulations to RapidKL (The company set up by the government to manage Kuala Lumpur’s public transports). Well, that was just one observation about Kuala Lumpur 24 hours after I got here. I have until 22nd of April to see if there are any other major improvements in a...

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur! From today onwards, I will be updating my blog in the comfort of my own house in Malaysia. I am still tired from the 16-hour-journey and all I really need right now is some sleep. Well, maybe a LOT of sleep ( By the way, this is my 50th entry here so, Happy 50th Entry! I wish all my friends a very good spring holiday. Ciao.

At 3.30 p.m. today, I will have my Current Issues Assessment on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). I don’t know what the questions will be (It’s a test, duh!) but I have one hour to answer them. Wish me luck! Ciao.

Recent increase in fuel prices had saved the government RM4.4b (0.97b Euro, $1.19b) from subsidy. It is true that the government cannot afford to subsidise fuel anymore and Malaysians just have to accept the fact that the cheap oil era is over. I mean, Malaysia is one of the few countries who still subsidise oil prices while many other countries actually taxed it. While fuel price increase is inevitable, recent price hike in Malaysia is followed with ridiculous development. Firstly, right after the government said that they had saved RM4.4b of subsidy Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) announced their turnover plan which will require the government to inject RM2b into the company. But the government later said that they will give MAS a loan instead of a grant. Thank you, that is assuring enough. Secondly, the Sarawak state government said that they will request some money from the federal government to re-subsidise fuel prices in the state. What? That is the most ridiculous thing that I ha...

I feel bored tonight, so I want to do a little experiment. I know that I am wasting time here but I just have nothing better to do. Well, that might be a little bit misleading since I have a test and an exam next week, nevertheless, let just get on with it shall we? So, what is this experiment about? Here it goes, have you ever thought about what will come up if you google your name or nickname? Well, tonight I will google my name and some of my friends’ name and we will see what Google can give us. This is going to be fun! First, I google Adam and I was pointed to this site “ADAM, the Art, Design, Architecture & Media Information Gateway”. COOL! I have no idea what the site is about. The description said something like this, “ADAM, the Art, Design, Architecture & Media Information Gateway, is a searchable catalogue of Internet resources that have been carefully selected and catalogued by professional librarians for the benefit of the UK Higher Education community.” Huh, quite ...

I made a couple of changes to my blog today. Firstly, I took off the “Links” in the sidebar because I think it is redundant having them because I never use them. Secondly, I took off some people in my “Bloggers” list because again they just never update their blogs for the last couple of months. And for blogs like paultan.org and jeffooi.com, I already put them in my favourite list. So, having them in my “Bloggers” list is useless. I also delete my photoblog today. A sad decision but I just have to do it for a couple of reasons which I don’t intend to share here. And lastly, I just added a tracker to this blog. I just want to see how many people actually read my blog other than the occasional people like Kaicito, Faisal, Imree, Emirin, Ijah and my sister. Next week is very important for me because of three reasons. First, I have a Current Issues Assessment on Tuesday. Second, I have Philosophy on Thursday. And third, Spring Holiday starts on Friday. YEAY! OK, I’d better get back to my ...

I just realized that Malaysian carmaker, Proton, is not getting any better really. OK, they managed to post some profits in the fourth quarter of 2005, congratulations for that. But, one have to remember that they managed to gain some profits because Proton gave massive discounts on their cars which I personally think, is not sustainable in the long run. Then, Proton signs up an agreement with Mitsubishi to reduce production costs by sharing platforms and components. Although this sounds promising for Proton, one again has to remember that Mitsubishi is also a loss-making car company. In fact, they are the only unprofitable Japanese carmaker. Proton also seeks to co-operate with Volkswagen in developing few new models for the Malaysian market. This might seems great to Proton but Volkswagen is currently not in a very good shape. They are struggling in the US with their tiny market share and the top management team is in some kind of internal conflict. Later, we see Delphi wanted to inc...

I was watching the opening ceremony of 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne just in time to see the Malaysian athletes march into the stadium. Apart from being proud to see my fellow countrymen, watching the opening ceremony brings me back to the year 1998 when Malaysia hosted the 16th Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. The 1998 games were meaningful to me not only because it was held in my country but also because I attended the opening ceremony and the full rehearsal of the opening ceremony the day before. Hence, I consider the 16th Commonwealth Games as special to me, personally. I can still remember how vibrant the atmosphere was. You see a lot of people from different background sitting together just to cheer for their country. Just before the ceremony began, all of us formed a couple of human waves and GOSH, I love it! OK, snap back into the present. I wish all participants in Melbourne the best of luck and may the best team wins! Oh yeah, to Malaysian athletes, MAKE US PROUD! C...

The cartoon row is almost over. People from both sides are actually working together to solve the problem. It looks like the sea is calmer now than it was few months ago. Then suddenly Pat Robertson came out with this statement on his live television programme, The 700 Club. “Islam is not a religion of peace. The goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen whether you like it or not, is world domination.” Mr. Robertson was talking about the cartoon row and how the Muslims react to the issue. What was his motive anyway? Was the cartoon issue not offensive enough that he has to come up with another offensive statement? I seriously hope that he has a very good explanation about this and of course, an apology too. For those who don’t know who Pat Robertson is, he was the man who suggested that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be killed and the coma state of Israeli President Ariel Sharon was a punishment from God. Although he did say that he was referring specifically to the radicals, I don...

Malaysian Members of the Parliament (MP) are a disgrace to the country! That is all I have to say after watching how those MPs behaving like a bunch of idiots. It is a wasted effort by Malaysians having to queue up to elect them during General Election only to see them acting like MONKEYS in the Parliament. I know it is normal for MPs to shout at each other over certain issues, but it is OK if they are shouting at each other fighting for the cause of people who voted for them. Malaysians voted for you because they want you to represent their voice in the Parliament. In the end, will the shouting benefits the people? NO, because the real issue that was debated at first was dropped at the end of the shouting as if it was a meaningless issue. It is not a surprise to see why it took the Parliament a very long time to pass a bill only to realize later that the bill has lots of overlooked loopholes. Then, the people will protest the new bill and they will have to bring it back to the Parliam...

I am now happy to say that I have finished my Environmental Management case study on Kellogg Company! Well, I know that you might not share the same enthusiasm as I am, but hey! I don’t give a damn. Haha, During the past two weeks studying Kellogg Company, I found many interesting things about Kellogg. But there is one thing that I found it quite interesting, at least for me. As you may or may not aware, there are almost 1 million Muslims living in the UK and Kellogg obviously is aware of this and went to a great extent to tap into the Muslims food market. What did they do? Well, if you take a look at Kellogg’s cereal boxes, they will have a ‘Halal’ stamped by Halal Food Authority (HFA). I think this a very commendable effort by Kellogg because technically, cereals are not made of meat, hence the issue of whether their products are Halal or not do not exist. Despite all that, Kellogg went the extra mile to get their products certified as Halal. Good job Kellogg! I just hope that many o...

Today I want to share a very disturbing video that I have ever seen in my entire life. I just could not believe my eyes seeing how cruel human can be. It took me the whole day before finally decided to share this video. I only managed to watch it for a few seconds because I just cannot bear to watch it till the end. According to People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), eighty-five percent of the fur industry’s skins come from animals living captive on fur factory farms. These farms can hold thousands of animals, and the practices used to farm them are remarkably uniform around the globe. As with other intensive-confinement animal farms, the methods used on fur factory farms are designed to maximize profits, always at the expense of the animals. Before you watch the video, I will again warn you that the visual in the video is very gory. If you still want to proceed, click here (enable your pop-up blocker if you have one). SOURCE: PETA.org . P.S. I got the link for the video from...

Today, I was given a chance to manage the Australian economy. Well, not really but it is for real. Haha. OK, let me explain, in my economics tutorial today we have to play this simulation of the Australian economy. To start with, we (My partner, Martha and I) are given data on the 1987 Australian economy. And in this simulation, we only have the power to manage four variables namely, government spending, income tax, sales tax and money supply. We were given 10 years to manage the economy. It turns out that managing an economy is a LOT harder in practical because my knowledge in theory is not helpful at all. OK, in macroeconomics, we always have to aim for a couple of goals which are low unemployment and inflation, favourable balance of payment, positive economic growth and favourable exchange rates. But, in this simulation we have to aim for low unemployment, inflation and interest rate. In 1987, the unemployment level was 6.3%, rate of inflation was 8.0% and interest rate was at 8.5%....

Talk about cars. Geely Automotive Company will be making cars in Malaysia soon. But, the cars are meant for South East Asia market excluding Malaysia. To quote from the Chairman of Geely, Li Shufu on the percentage of cars will be sold in Malaysia, “Is so low that I don’t even want to mention it.” Hmm, this is really interesting. But the real killer is, Geely was never an automotive company, in fact, they had just begun assembling cars in 2001. Prior to that, they make refrigerator compressor. Wow, a refrigerator compressor making company is now making cars. I am really impressed by all this. Maybe after this any company can just turn themselves into carmaking business if they want to. I mean, Lamborghini did not make cars when they started business. They make tractors for God’s sake. Looking at Geely’s ability to expand outside China just after 6 years into the market, make me think about Proton . I mean, having been around for almost 20 years, surely Proton should be able to achiev...

In the first part of the case study, I talked about the problem with two giant car manufacturers, General Motors and Ford . In this second part, I will continue to elaborate on the next two giant car manufacturers. I will also talk about two successful car companies. In 1998, Daimler-Benz merged with Chrysler . This deal was the biggest consolidation deal at that time and was thought to be beneficial to both Daimler and Chrysler. However, turning over a tired brand like Chrysler proved to be an uphill task for Daimler which costs them a lot in German market when Mercedes lost its market share to BMW . Daimler found out that, to revive Chrysler, they have to provide the brand with new and better products. They also have to take a lot of time to reshape Chrysler to become a leaner and efficient organization and managed to turn losses into profits in 2005. The reason why this deal had taken in the first place was because Daimler-Benz cannot bear the high cost of producing electronic sy...

It snowed for a while today. But, as usual, the snow was not that much. And the ground is not cold enough to stop it from melting. So, even after 1 hour of snowing, Wye did not turn white, unlike Manchester. Anyway, that is not really the point here. As I was reading my friends’ blogs, I began to realize that I have not updated my blog for almost a week. Yesterday, I had to give a presentation about global car industry and since I love cars so much, I was more than happy to be given this topic. So, here is goes. For so many years, mergers and acquisitions have led to the birth of giant car manufacturers such as General Motors (GM) and Ford. However, now, these giant car manufacturers are not as successful as they were before. Therefore, one starts to think about how is it possible that mergers and acquisitions which have proven to be beneficial to these companies are now threatening them. Looking back into history, players in car industry have been consolidating with each other since i...