Running

Hi Everyone,

Some of you may have heard that I've been participating in various running events for the past two years. Here's how it got started.

I picked up sports again from 20o4 as a form of exercise and to keep fit. I started jogging and playing badminton with my friends and colleagues. Sports improve my overall health and reduces stress. I sweat a lot and feel much fresher after sports. I feel happier after I exercised. My athletic capability is not the best of the best. I have not considered joining competitive running prior to that.

A good friend, Daniel Teo encouraged me to pick up competitive running in the middle of last year.  He knew that I've been jogging and playing badminton each week. He asked me to consider about joining the McDonalds Olympics Fun Run 2012. He also participated in several running events that time. I told him I will think about it.

A lot of my friends from school and colleagues joined Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2012. Some joined the Energiser Night Run. More and more people are joining competitive running in the past few years. After some time, I thought that I can try running a 5km or 7km event. I then signed up for the McDonalds Olympics Fun Run 2012 together with Daniel. It was a 7km running event held at Dataran Merdeka. I started to train myself for the run. There was no official timing for the run thus I do not know the results but overall it was an achievement. I never knew that I could complete 7km. It was a good run.

I signed up for the Brooks Marathon 2013 earlier this year after that with Daniel. We took part in the 10km run held at National Stadium. I completed the run in a net time of 1:30:09. It was another achievement. The medal is the small silver trophy that you see in the picture below.

I've decided to join the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2013 (10km Cruise) after that to challenge myself. Maybe I can be faster. My time was 1:32:38. It was slower but I still completed it. I then signed up for Adidas King of the Road held at Sunway Pyramid in October 2013 with my school friend, Kevin. My time was slower as well, finishing in 1:34 with 3 minutes toilet break after the first water station. I have been training prior to this by jogging myself or with my colleagues every week but my time seems slower each time. Each run that I went to have different kinds of terrain. Uphill, downhill, straight road, slope, curving and passing through tunnel are among those terrains. My timing is consistent across the 3 races. 

Joining these competitive running events have these benefits:

1. Challenge myself to finish faster
2. Very good exercise and burn calories
3. Feel fresher and happier
4. Running at different locations

I can see places that I never saw before. For the McDonalds Fun Run, we ran past Bank Negara, Memorial Tunku Abdul Rahman and other government agencies along that area. At the Brooks Marathon, we ran past Bukit Jalil, IMU, Astro and Kesas Highway before ending at the National Stadium. As for the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2013, we run from Padang Merbok and passed by KL Sentral, Brickfields, Majestic Hotel, Masjid Negara, Lake Gardens and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. Last but not least, we ran along the NPE from Sunway Pyramid until slightly after Continental tyre factory and heading back to Sunway Pyramid at the Adidas King of The Road.

The biggest marathon event that I've gone to is the Standard Chartered KL Marathon with 33,000 participants. This is followed with Adidas KOTR with 11,000 participants. I have signed up for the Multi Purpose Insurance 8km run on 5th January 2014. I wish to participate in the following running events next year:

1. Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2014
2. Brooks Marathon 2014 (maybe)
3. Adidas King of the Road 2014
4. Putrajaya Night Run 2014
5. Mens' Health Night Run 2014

Come and join me in the next run! More friends running together creates more fun. I want try going for night runs next year. We can train up together and improve our timings.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Food Safety & Hygiene

Hi Everyone,

We often heard of more and more of tainted food and food poisoning cases in the world. Among these cases are:

1. China Tainted Milk Scandal in 2008
2. 13 Pupils Hit With Food Poisoning in Alor Star
3. Unhygienic Food Preparation
4. Unhygienic Eateries
5. Cyclospora Parasite Sickens 362 in 15 States, 18 Hospitalized

The China milk scandal involving several milk brands including budget brand, Sanlu, Mingli, Yili and Yashili. Babies who had been fed Sanlu branded milk were found to have kidney stones resulting in 16 babies were dead in one region in Gangsu. Further investigations revealed that the milk powders were laced with melamine, a chemical used to increase protein content^.1 Greedy and ignorant companies were boosting their profits by including melamine in milk production. We wonder why there is no conscience among unscrupulous manufacturers.

Closer to home, there were several food poisoning cases happened recently^2,3,4 and in the past few years. There were also reports on unhygienic food preparation and eateries. Rats and cockroaches are the main culprits in most of these cases. Surprisingly, some people are defending the unhygienic eateries by claiming that it tastes good. There is a restaurant near by house that is always full of people yet I have been told that this restaurant is surrounded by huge rats. Most people would actually avoid these restaurants rather than frequent these restaurants. In some cases, people will find some type of insect such as a cockroach or a fly on a plate of rice or in the bowl of a soup. 

There are also restaurants that do not prepare food hygienically. Vegetables and fruits are not washed and food are cooked using unclean cooking oil. Unclean oil means that the cook uses the cooking oil that was used in the previous day or the cooking oil found in the drain also known as Gutter Oil. It is to our disgust that we see the video showing how gutter oil is produced. Gutter Oil is present in 1 in 10 of China's cooking oil and is carcinogenic. Food not prepared in hygienic ways will cause diarrhoea and vomiting. It will cause Hepatitis C and death in worst cases. Rats in the surrounding area also cause the Leptospirosis disease.

Recently in US, there is also the case of Cyclospora happening mostly in the state of Iowa. It sickened 274 people and hospitalises 10. To know more, please read Item 2 in the links above.

A number of fruit and vegetable farmers and sellers are also spraying huge amounts of pesticide and insecticide to their crops. These are not good as there will be high level of chemicals in our body after consuming these foods.

There is also a concern of food safety in China. This is written by one of The Star's journalist who is working in China.

In a nutshell, all food should be prepared in a clean environment. Food must be fresh and free of any harmful chemicals. Fruits and vegetables need to be washed thoroughly. Dirty parts should be removed. Unhygienic food can kill.

1. 2008 Chinese Milk Scandal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal, 

<sup>Accessed: 27th July 2013

2. 12 Penang students down with food poisoning, http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/12-penang-students-down-with-food-poisoning/, Accessed: 27th July 2013

3. 13 Pupils Hit With Food Poisoning, http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/36-local2/332061-13-pupils-hit-with-food-poisoning.html , Accessed: 27th July 2013

4. 70 pupils of Bukit Kapar school down with food poisoning, http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/02/20/70-pupils-of-Bukit-Kapar-school-down-with-food-poisoning.aspx , Accessed: 27th July 2013</sup>

Safety on the Roads

Hi Everyone,

Snatch thieves, robberies rape and other crimes are happening frequently for the past 2 years. Innocent lives were threatened and some were lost. All these happened in an instant without any warning. It can happen anywhere including residential areas, commercial areas, restaurants, alleyways and parks. As of today, there is almost a murder or shooting in the news everyday.

Areas involved include Bukit Gasing, Wangsa Maju, Cheras, Penang, Petaling Jaya, KL, Johor and other areas. There is a crime awareness website and a crime awareness Facebook page as well. It is not safe as before. This also applies to cities such as Melbourne, Australia and Italy.

Actions seem to have been taken but crime rate still increases. More and more residential areas have started to employ guards to guard their community. Most of us need to come back home by 12am. We need to be vigilant to our surroundings and not fall victims into crimes. 

Perhaps these are some steps to take to curb crimes: 

• More patrolling by the police should be done
• Learn martial arts and kick boxing for self defence
• Pepper Spray
• Don't carry expensive items
• Don't carry things in a position for snatch thieves to take
• Carry minimum cash when jogging
• CCTVs / Guardhouses in residential areas
• Take the more crowded (average to slightly more crowded) ways to go home instead of short cuts
• Wear cheap watch
• Just give them money when they ask

These thieves and robbers may not necessarily be done by foreigners here but can be the locals. The cause of these may be due to rising costs of living and insufficient money to buy what they want. Some may be their plan all the time as an act of revenge or something. I do not know what their reasons are but we need to be vigilant outside.

Can all these be reduced and stopped? Please help to make each country safe whether here in Malaysia and other countries.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

My Book Collection

Hi Everyone,

I like to read and here is my book collection. I bought most of it but some are from my sisters' collection. For example, my sisters had The Complete Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes and Wild Swans previously. Please do note that I have not read some of those books yet (Emperor Tang Ming, The Singapore Success Story for example).

The classics are mostly from my sisters' collection except for Bleak House, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (bought by my mum). Besides that, my mum also bought The Prince and the Pauper, A Tale of Two Cities and Black Beauty.

Here are my latest books that I bought:

The Racketeer
The Lord of The Rings + The Hobbit 75th Anniversary Box Set
Kill Alex Cross

I bought at a discount for some of these books. For example, I bought The Racketeer at MPH at 25% discount. Buying the box set for Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit is actually cheaper than buying each book individually. Currently, I am reading The Return Of The King (40%).

My main genres of books remain as below:

1. Mystery / Crime / Thriller (Agatha Christie, James Patterson, Arthur Conan Doyle, Michael Connelly, Michael Crichton, Stieg Larsson)
2. Lawyers / Court Cases (John Grisham)
3. Christianity
4. Fantasy (Narnia, Lord of The Rings)
5. Horror (Stephen King)
6. Classics
7. Biographies

In addition, I also read Life of Pi and the Power of One. I have also read other books such as Malay stories and books on health and IT magazines. Besides these, I read free classics on the IPad and my phone. I am considering buying e-books in the future. 

That's all,

Rogerkoo

Father's Day

Hi Everyone,

We celebrate Father’s Day every 3^rd Sunday of June every year. This year, it falls on 16^th June 2013.

Fathers will always be there for their children. Together with mother, he brought us up to where we are now. He knows what is best for his children. He gives advice to his children. He works hard to earn a living for the family.

He willingly fetches his children to / from the places that they want to go. For example, friend’s house, piano lessons, swimming lessons, school, meet up with friends, tuition among others, airport. We can talk to him about technology, cars, sports and politics. He listens to the music that you listen to although he still listens to the classics. He follows what you are watching on the tv. He wants to know about technology.

He disciplines his children. He can spend the time to help to you pass the exams. He is willing to sit down with you and helps you with your studies. He knows about men’s fashion. He was the one who taught me how to tie my tie. He wants us to study well and know the importance of education in our lives. He supports our decisions if it is fine with him. He can manage his finances well. He plays sports with us. 

He guides you in your life. He tells you to drive carefully. He advises you not to mix with bad company. He wants you to be a gentleman.  He tells his children to be street smart in the working world. He knows what it’s like at work. It can be tough sometimes. He knows what it is like to work hard in his career. My dad tells us that drinking and smoking are bad for our health.

We love you, Dad.

Everyday is Parents' Day.

Here are some songs about fathers:

Boyzone - Father and Son

Michael Bolton - Butterfly Kisses

Harry Chapin - Cats In The Cradle

Mengetahui Pelbagai Bahasa

Para Pembaca Sekalian,

Kebanyakan penduduk Malaysia boleh bertutur dalam dua atau tiga bahasa termasuk Bahasa Melayu. Ini tidak menjadi satu masalah kerana penduduk Malaysia berbilang kaum and bangsa.

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) sebagai badan rasmi untuk bahasa negara mengambil langkah untuk memelihara and mengekalkan penggunaan Bahasa Melayu di negara kita. Ini adalah baik untuk mengekalkan warisan bahasa ini. Akan tetapi, saya berasa bertuah dapat berbual dalam lebih daripada satu bahasa.

Bahasa Melayu saya bukanlah baik sangat tetapi memuaskan. Secara jujurnya, saya lebih selesa berbahasa Inggeris daripada berbahasa Melayu. Selain daripada itu, saya juga boleh berbual dalam bahasa Cina, dialek Kantonis. Dari sekolah rendah ke sekolah menengah, kita belajar kebanyakan mata pelajaran dalam Bahasa Melayu. Dari sinilah kita bermula mengetahui Bahasa Melayu. Hanya satu pelajaran saja, iaitu Bahasa Inggeris kita dapatlah belajar bahasa ini.

Sebenarnya, tiada salahnya kita menggunakan Bahasa Inggeris atau Bahasa Cina di negara ini. Ini tidak akan menjejaskan budaya Bahasa Melayu di negara ini. Penggunaan Bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa kedua negara ini adalah baik untuk memajukan negara ini and memajukan diri sendiri. Bahasa Inggeris merupakan bahasa antrabangsa, juga dikenali sebagai lingua franca di dunia ini. Ia digunakan di kebanyakan negara seperti Amerika Syarikat, Australia, Kanada, England dan negara-negara Asean dan Komanwel dalam perbincangan rasmi sama ada ekonomi ataupun teknologi dan isu-isu antarabangsa. Kebanyakan istilah-istilah bidang teknologi maklumat, kewangan, sains, kedoktoran and kejuruteraan adalah dalam bahasa Inggeris. Syarikat-syarikat antrabangsa dan tempatan negara ini juga melihat Bahasa Inggeris sebagai salah satu keupayaan untuk seorang individu. Bahasa Cina sama ada Kantonis atau Mandarin atau dialek lain juga digunakan dalam perbualan semasa dengan ahli keluarga atau kawan-kawan. Bahasa Melayu hanya digunakan di negara ini, Singapura dan Indonesia. Ia juga digunakan untuk perbualan dan dokumen rasmi negara. Bahasa Inggeris adalah penting untuk berkomunikasi dengan orang ramai di negara-negara lain selain Malaysia.

Sebenarnya, kita mempunyai kelebihan jika kita boleh bertutur dalam beberapa bahasa. Sekarang, kita dapat melihat bahawa Bahasa Cina (Mandarin) sudah mula mendapat perhatian orang ramai. Negara Cina merupakan salah satu daripada negara-negara terbesar di dunia. Ekonomi negara Cina juga ialah salah satu daripada negara ekonomi terbesar di dunia ini. Lebih banyak orang sudah mula belajar bahasa Cina atau bahasa lain seperti bahasa Jepun, bahasa Korea dan bahasa Itali. Ini boleh digunakan jika kita mendapat pekerjaan di negara Cina atau semasa melancong. Ini memudahkan kita bertutur dengan lebih mudah di sana dan juga bertutur dengan sahabat berbangsa Cina. Negara Cina juga mengehos Sukan Olimpik Beijing 2008. Penduduk Cina beria-ria ingin belajar Bahasa Inggeris untuk mengalu-alukan kedatangan pelawat-pelawat demikian dapat mengeratkan hubungan.

Kalau difikirkan, sesetengah perkataan Bahasa Melayu adalah dipinjam daripada Bahasa Inggeris. Perkataan seperti ais, dialek, diskusi, isu, efektif, kronik, kompromi, wad, hospital, klinik, ambulans, tren, sistem, radio, trafik, musik, pen, pensel, kad, fail, dinamik, telefon, tisu dan rel merupakan perkataan yang dipinjam daripada Bahasa Inggeris.

Penggunaan Bahasa Inggeris and Bahasa Cina tidak akan menjejaskan warisan Bahasa Melayu. Matlamat untuk menjadikan Bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa rasmi mata pelajaran Matematik dan Sains (Fizik, Kimia dan Biologi) adalah satu usaha yang baik untuk meningkatkan prestasi pelajar-pelajar di peringkat kolej and universiti. Penggunaan Bahasa Melayu dalam mata pelajaran Matematik and Sains adalah bagus tetapi ini akan digantikan dengan Inggeris terutamanya di kolej swasta dan universiti swasta. Cadangan ini akan membantu pelajar-pelajar memahami istilah-istilah Bahasa Inggeris dengan lebih cepat and mudah. 

Daripada,

Rogerkoo

Mother's Day

Hi Everyone,

We celebrate Mother’s Day every 2^nd Sunday of May every year. This year, it falls on 12^th May 2013. We came out from our mother’s womb when we were born. Some of us were breast fed by our mothers.

A mother will always be there for her children. Together with father, she brought us up to where we are now. She knows what is best for her children. She gives advice to her children. She can be nagging and longwinded but she will say it will be for own good and it turns out to be so. She will ask you to find a girlfriend / boyfriend prior to our marriage age. She can sacrifice her work to be a full time housewife, fetching her children to school / college / university and back, cook and takes care of the house.  She will find a good school for you to study in. She is a listener.  She works hard for her family. She can advise you on your clothing choices.

She needs to know where you are when you are not home. She will be worried when you are working late or coming back from cell group late. She is worried for our safety. She wants us to walk in brightly lit places or crowded places.

She trains the maid for those of us who have maids at home. She is there when we need help. If we are overseas, she will fly over to help you. She can help to take care of your new born baby and give you tips on looking after the baby for daughters. She will prepare fruits for us when she knows we are not getting enough of that. She makes sure we have a good breakfast every day. She is patient. My mum flew over to Melbourne for cook nice meals for me one year during my university exam period. She flew over there as well to help my sister to take care of my niece and nephew and cook for my sister’s family during her stressful period.

She encourages you and gives hope to you. She asks us to take care of our health.

We love you, Mum.

Everyday is Parents' Day.

Here are some songs for Mother's Day. I discovered Il Divo's Mama by accident when I was finding out the song Charlie was singing for American Idol.

Il Divo - Mama

Spice Girls - Mama

Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

News RSS Readers

Hi Everyone,

We can our PCs and mobile devices such as IPad and smartphones to get the latest news. Here are some of the notable apps that I use:

Flipboard

Available on iOS, it is one of the best apps on IPad and the IPhone. I like the interface and the mini graphics for the news. It provides a summary of the news and provides the full link to the full website.

 

Google Reader

It is a very good news reader. I can add the RSS feeds from newspapers websites (BBC, CNN, The Star), magazines (Readers Digest, Popular Science), blogs and websites such as Paul Tan Automotive Blog.

Unfortunately, it will be retired on 1st July 2013. I have downloaded the archive using Google Takeout.

Mobile RSS Reader

It is able to connect to Google Reader and supports other RSS Feeds as well. We can get the latest news updates. 


Feedly

This is an app available on both Firefox' App Store and Chrome Web Store. Similar to Flipboard, it provides a graphical summary of the news for the day. It is connected to the powerful Google reader whereby all the news from the different sources are summarised into a single page. You can click individual news feeds as well. For example, clicking on BBC will list down the BBC news for the day. 

All these provide a summary of the news and the link to the full details of the news.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Wars

Hi Everyone,

There is still war going on in various countries at this age. World War III may be imminent with the nuclear threats of North Korea. War is still going on between Israel and Palestine. Wars may be caused by people disagreeing in politics, ideology or past history. Humans want power and control over all things. It corrupts the minds of people and leads to violence, greed and malice. When this happens, people choose to attack one another instead of negotiating with one another. We do not want wars such as World War I and World War II to repeat itself. We should be able to forgive one another and move forward. We cannot dwell in the past any more.

We should make efforts to make peace with one another although we disagree on various things. There are always disagreements and differences in opinions. We can negotiate and have a win-win situation. There must be no more killings and massacre of innocent lives such as the genocide during Pol Pot’s regime and Hitler’s assassination of the Jews. Discussions can be arranged to solve all these issues. Compromise may need to be made as well. World peace can be achieved if we make efforts.

Israel and Palestine

Israel and Palestine have been at odds with each other for a very long time. The leaders of Israel and Palestine have made efforts to have peace but they still have not reached a mutual agreement yet. Leaders of both countries should continue to discuss on all the disputes without any disagreements. Both countries should not further agitate the situation further by imposing other conditions or expand their settlements. They should settle the territory disputes once and for all. The war and dispute between these two countries needs to be stopped. More innocent lives will be killed if the war continues on.  More information on the Israel-Palestine conflict and the peace talks can be found here such as:

• Wikipedia, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• BBC News – Middle East Crisis
• Human Rights Watch – World Report 2013 – Israel / Palestine

The territorial rights including the borders for each country should be returned accordingly. Those that belong to Israel belongs to Israel and those that belong to Palestine belongs to the Palestine.

Japanese War

The Japanese was involved in the World War II which causes the US to use the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The Japanese actually apologised to the world. This is the list of apologies issued by the Japanese government after the war.

The British has conquered and ruled a lot of countries many years ago including Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Nigeria. All the countries gained independence after World War 2 ended. All the countries are part of the Commonwealth of Nations organisation now. Commonwealth countries have common values and goals such the promotion of democracy, human rights and free trade. There is no more war and colonization any more. Our country used to have war against the British to fight for independence. After independence, the war has ended.

We have been living in peace and harmony with each other regardless of nationalities and religion for a long time. There are a lot of multi-cultural cities in the world such as Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Sydney, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok and New York. In all the cities that I have visited, I can see Chinese there. There are Chinese churches in Bangkok and Jakarta. There are Malaysians, Singaporeans and Indonesians living in Melbourne and Sydney. Expatriates are also living in various countries to support the operations of companies and for transferring of technology to developing countries.

An interesting fact to note is that all of us are embracing each other’s cultures, products and technology. We embrace the good values of other countries. Almost every country is a multicultural country. Let's take a look.

Entertainment

Gangnam style dance originating from South Korea is so popular that Glee also made a cover in one of its episodes in Season 4. We listen to English, Chinese and Malay songs on radio. One Direction, Westlife, N-Sync, 98 Degrees are some of the popular boy bands from the U.K and the U.S. A lot of people like K-Pop bands such as Super Junior, Beast, Girls Generation and Wonder Girls. We are interested in Japanese animes and Hong Kong and Korean drama series. We also watch drama series such as CSI, NCIS, House, Chuck, 24, Glee, Scrubs, The Big Bang Theory, Law and Order SVU, Bunheads, New Girl, Miss Advised, American Idol and The Voice. We watch blockbuster movies such as Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, Iron Man 3, Life of Pi, The Avengers, Les Miserables, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Finding Nemo and Infernal Affairs. Roda Impian was adapted from Wheel of Fortune. Business news are widely available through Bloomberg, CNBC and Business Insider.

Technology, Cars & Brands

Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Ford, Mercedes, BMW are car brands that we buy and appreciate. Some of us prefer Chery. China made things are common. Printers sold in Australia are made in Malaysia.  Most of us use social websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We like to own an IPhone, IPod, Samsung Galaxy series such as Tab, Note 2, S4, HTC One, Windows Surface Tablet and Amazon Kindle among others. We use the PC everyday. We like Nike, Adidas and Reebok shoes.

Food

We have various restaurants showcasing the different cuisines of other countries. In fact, Papparich and Kayu Nasi Kandar has opened outlets in Australia. We have restaurants such as Tony Roma's, San Francisco Steakhouse, Sushi Zanmai, Baverian Bierhaus, Dae Jang Gum, Amarin, Dapur Penyet, Shihlin Taiwan Snacks here. Most countries have Japanese, Korean, Western, Chinese, Thai, Taiwanese, and Malaysian cuisines served.

Others

We all dream to work in Google or Facebook.  Most of us want to learn Mandarin to improve our command of this language. Everyone likes discounted offerings from Groupon. All eyes were on China and London when they hosted the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the London Olympics in 2012. We support international football teams like Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. 

Do you notice that the idea of all these things above come from various countries such as U.S, U.K, Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and others? All of these things unite us. These are the things we share in common although we are from different countries.

In a nutshell, please do not start a war again in this age. Please live peacefully with one another embracing the good values of various cultures. If we can embrace each other's technology and culture, we can also end the war. 

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Taking Things For Granted

Hi Everyone,

I attended a memorial service for a church acquaintance who passed away at the age of 22 due to ovarian cancer. She has a bright future ahead of her and can experience marriage, successful career and other significant events of life had she survived her battle with cancer.

Are we taking things for granted? Are we spending less time with our family due to work commitments? Are our jobs completely secure? How about our health? Perhaps we do not realise it. We cannot always think that all these things are always there. It can just vanish or crumble in an instant.

Sometimes we wish that we could have done something about it when we lost it. The question is “If only I have done this”. The Bernas Chinese New Year advertisement this year depicted a son who has not gone back to celebrate Chinese New Year with his mum for a few years. His mum is living alone at her own home while the son was too focused on his friends and work. He may think that his mum is fine living alone by herself until his colleagues reminded him of the significance of family reunion during Chinese New Year. He then recalled and reminded how his mum sacrificed herself to support him. She rushed to fetch him from school after her clothes washing job. She had dinner with him no matter how busy she was. He had meals often with his mum. His mum will ask him whether he needs more rice (ka fan?). He then went back to his hometown to celebrate Chinese New Year with his mother. It was a very good advertisement.

We should cherish our family and friends and not take them for granted. Family and friends are important in our lives. They are always there when we need them most especially our immediate family. We will only realise that our family is there for us when we are away from them. It is the reason we feel homesick when we are overseas studying or migrated overseas. We want to have home cooked food. With the help of technology such as webcam, Skype and Facetime, we can chat with each other. Just like God, a family loves one another unconditionally regardless of what we do. Our fathers and mothers sacrificed a lot for us. Please spend time with our family through meals together, sports, recreational activities, movies and holiday trips. Come back earlier from work. The strength of a family is important. Please cherish our family.

Best friends and good friends are built over time. It can be childhood friends, school friends, college friends, university friends or colleagues at work. It can be someone at church or the friend that you mix with during a conference or training. It can be a friend’s friend. We can share things with friends that we cannot share with our own family. We can share our troubles and prayer points with them. I am talking here about friends that we can trust. Some people are supposedly friends with us but they leave us when we are in trouble. We can take for granted our friends who help us. Sometimes we don’t show that we know their presence there. We should also cherish them and not assume that they are always there.

Our career may not be as secure as it seems to be. We may not see the signs sometimes. Then when something happens, we only realise that it is too late. We could have done something so that that thing will not happen. We need to perform the best in our career. Something will happen if we are not careful.

We also cannot take money for granted. During my younger days, I did have a thought that money falls from the sky. Money is actually earned through our career. It is hard work. We should not gamble it away. We can spend it but not to the point that we have nothing left at the end. We should have some savings and not spend it all at once. We will have bigger issues when we are slaves to money.

Health is important as well. We thought that we are healthy. Some don’t eat vegetables at all.  Some can’t control in their intake of fried and oily food. We should always look after ourselves no matter how busy we are. We should not overwork ourselves. We should not sleep too late. We should eat 3 meals a day. We should have dinner before 10pm. We need balanced and healthy meals. We need exercise. We need to see dentists twice a year. It is too late when we find out they have heart disease, liver disease, cancer, diabetes or high cholesterol. Tooth decay and gum problems may occur without us knowing it. It happens to both young and old. It does not discriminate. Please take care of our health.

Here is the music video of S Club 7's Have You Ever:

It talks about this.

The chorus goes like this:

Have you ever lost and love somebody

Wish there was a chance to say I'm sorry

Can't you see, that's the way I feel, about you and me baby

Have you ever felt your heart was breaking

Looking down the road you should be taking

I should know, caused I've loved and lost, the day I let you go

I am a happy go lucky person but there are things we need to do to ensure we do not take things for granted. We need to remind ourselves daily on this. We should cherish our lives, our family, our relatives and our friends. We need to seek work life balance and lead a healthy life. We should not think that everything will be okay throughout our lives.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Domestic Violence

Hi Everyone,

We still hear of many child and family abuse, maid abuse and animal abuse in Malaysia. We are shocked to hear of all these cases regardless of our religious beliefs. As a Christian, I feel it is very sad that this is happening today.

It is sad that some parents abuse their kids for no reason. Parents who are supposed to take care of their baby / babies reacted differently when they are crying. We have heard of news that some fathers actually beat their baby up when they are frustrated with their cries. We hear of fathers raping their daughters in Austria and also in our own country. We also heard of cases of brothers raping their sisters as well. Mother and children are sometimes at the receiving end of a father’s anger. All of these happened rarely but there are a small number of fathers who are like that. Domestic violence is also depicted in the books such as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo written by Stieg Larsson.

The responsibilities of parents are to raise their children to be good and responsible persons. Parents give unconditional love to their children regardless of their attitude and behaviour. They discipline their children when the children are turning to the wrong paths such as befriending bad company, involving in gangs, bullying and rebelling. They train their children to inculcate good values such as:

• respecting elders
• honesty
• integrity
• kindness
• polite
• hardworking
• compassionate
• patience
• generosity
• perseverance
• caring for others
• trying our very best in what we do

For Christian parents, they are also planting the seed of the gospel in their children. Parents are supporting and encouraging their child / children when they fall and when they are facing difficulties in life. They are there when their children gets married and graduated from university. They are there to help you cook and clean the house when you need help from them. They give advice when we are facing troubles in our life.

There are also husbands abusing their wives and vice versa. The numbers are much less now unless I am mistaken. Husbands are the head of their families. They should look after their wives and families. Anger and impatience must not result in violence at all. Both husbands and wives are supporting each other in their roles and responsibilities at home.

Maid abuse is especially common in Malaysia. Indonesia and the Philippines have been sending less maids to our country due to the number of abuse cases here. The percentage of people abusing their maids is possibly little. We heard of cases whereby the employee struck her maid with an iron. Another case was the maid’s hands were burnt due to her employee using the hot iron on her hand. Slaps and bruises are common among these cases. A small number of employees are giving their maids leftovers of their meals for dinner or lunch.

Most of us will treat our maids as normal people, providing them with a place to stay, food and other necessities. We will bring them to the clinic / dentist when our maids are not well or have toothache. We allow them to call their family back at their country every few months. Some of us buy our maids mobile phones as a reward for their help at home. Maids are helping families with two working parents to look after their children, ironing clothes, cleaning the house, washing cars, cooking and tending our garden. Our family will give her the dishes first before we start eating. We will also buy her favourite coffee and biscuits from the supermarket. She will also have new clothes occasionally. We will give her rest when she feels tired.

Animal abuse has been in the radar for some time now. The recent euthanasia of the police forces’ K9 dogs raised the ire among people. Animals in some shelters are not treated in the right way. Wrong food was being fed to the animals. The hygiene of the animal shelters is not good and cleaned often. It is smell of urine and faeces of animals. Dogs are given the title “Man’s Best Friend’ and yet these are happening. We know that a dog can be very loyal its owner from the movie, Hachiko starring Richard Gere.

We are made to take care of animals and the people around us. We must not abuse them at all. Each one of us has civic consciousness and we know that domestic violence is absolutely wrong. Please help our society to change.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Songs That I Like Listening To

Hi All,

Here are some of my songs that I always play on my IPod. The first song is Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars. It is a good song with meaningful lyrics that a guy likes his girlfriend / wife just the way she is. Glee, Jaylesslee and the Philiipine acoustic singer, Sabrina have also made covers of this song. This is definitely one of the best love songs today.



I will also embed here the Jaylesslee version of the song:



Secondly, the next song is One Direction's Little Things. Bringing almost the same message, it is also a nice song to unwind.



Listening to oldies such as Bee Gees, Air Supply, Rod Stewart, The Drifters, Carpenters, ABBA among others has a calming effect too. Christian songs are also good for my mind as well. It reminds me of God. 

Another song that I like to listen is Fun's We Are Young. Glee and 3 Youtube artists comprising Jake Coco, Corey Gray and Caitlin Hart also made covers of this song.

To Give or Not To Give, That's The Question

Hi Everyone,

We passed by people who are begging for money everyday. The question that comes to mind is whether we should help them or not. Do we give or do we not give? Monetary or food? Most of the time we just walked away or just give about 10 to 20 cents.

It is not that we do not want to help them. We have been warned and heard of cases where the beggars / people in need asking for money are not genuine cases. They may appear to be pitiful or limping but they may be putting an act thus our givings will end up in vain. There are definitely some who are impostors and we will get swindled by them. It is very hard to identify genuine ones. We can feel bad after these incidents yet if we give, the money may end in the wrong hands.

I do give a small amount sometimes but usually I ended up without giving them. I may also buy one or two packet of tissues from them.

Should we show sympathy and give to some beggars / people asking for money or all of them? What do you think?

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Taxi Services: Revamp for the Better

Hi Everyone,

The taxi services in Malaysia is known for its inefficiency. It is perceived to be not save generally. 

These are some of the feedback / complaints on taxi drivers:

• Taxi drivers are refusing to fetch passengers to certain places because of traffic jam
• Cheating foreigners and expatriates by charging exorbitant rates.  Taxi rates can be RM100 from Pavilion to KLCC and vice versa
• Taxis may not come whe needed 
• Not using metre
• Rape cases if they are fetching passengers to secluded areas
• Speeding

The attitude of the people of the taxi company manning the operations at KLIA and LCCT are not good as well. Some of them answered questions rudely when we asked them about the different zones for an area or about the pricing. Some of them do not know certain areas well such as Cheras. Cheras is a very big area with covering KL and Selangor (towards Kajang). The Cheras area nearer to KL is in a cheaper zone but we may get a more expensive rate for it.

Having said that, not all taxi drivers are like that but most of them are. There are a number of good taxi drivers. For example, we have a taxi driver friend who is honest and drives carefully. He also arrives on time to pick us up. The taxi service at the Bandar Tun Razak LRT station is quite good too. They are courteous and they agree to fetch passengers to their homes. I commend all the good taxi drivers.

When I was at Indonesia, I sat in taxis operated by Blue Bird and Gamya. The taxi drivers are willing to fetch passengers anywhere near or far. They will pass through traffic jams everyday and so they will still fetch passengers. The service will be more limited during rain but they will still come. The number of vehicles on the road is far more than the number of vehicles in KL. This is the same for Bangkok as well. However, we also met some taxi driver who did not use the meters durnig the ride.

MyTeksi is an organisation that aims to improve the perception of taxi drivers in Malaysia. It also seek to improve the efficiency of taxi services in KL. Some of MyTeksi's missions are:

• Improves the efficiency of taxi services in KL through smartphone bookings
• Nearest taxi is available to reach customers' starting point for each booking
• Provides a safe and pleasant taxi ride for passengers

For more information, please visit MyTeksi's homepage.

Here are some suggestions for taxi services to improve:

• Willing to fetch passengers to any location regardless of traffic jam and weather
• Be courteous to passengers
• Honest
• Give passengers a pleasant and safe ride
• Use the metre for both locals and tourists / expatriates

Just 3 months ago, taxi drivers gathered at the ever busy Bukit Bintang to protest against SPAD's move of introducing the GO-KL free bus for both tourists and locals. It covers Bukit Bintang - KLCC area and Bukit Bintang - Central Market routes. SPAD knew about the report of the taxi drivers and they introduced the GO-KL free bus services to make it more convenient for tourists to travel around the Golden Triangle area. A lot of people are satisfied with the services provided by the free bus.

In a nutshell, the perception of the taxi drivers should be improved over time so that people feel safe to take taxis anytime. They can be confident of taking taxis anywhere and know that the taxi services are efficient here. They also should drive safely There will be no more worries of taking taxis at KL.

This year is also Visit Malaysia 2013 so please let customers give a feedback on the taxi services here. Please help to improve the image of taxis in KL not only this year but the future as well.

Cheers,

Roger TJ Koo