Another year has passed by ever so quickly. And it was memorable again for how little D and K take the trouble to get colour paper, draw colourful hearts and other stuff and insert the birthday greetings. Yup, that was the highlight.
Last night while watching a tv programme alone, I broke down. It was a death scene. How the father was hospitalised and died unconscious after the operation. At that point of time flashbacks kept coming back. Tears started flowing and within seconds my body was shaking and I was crying silently. Everyone else were asleep. It has been a long time since he left us. It has been a long time since I last cried. I have had to try hard to supress thoughts and avoid thinking of him. Last night, sitting there brought back all the memories and pain in losing him suddenly.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Once upon a time, life revolved around a conference
3 months. Thats how long a break it has been. Most of February and March was all about organising a conference here in Johor Bahru. I was the conference secretary. Not entirely something new but nothing had prepared me for the scale and scope of the responsibility that was on my shoulders.
Over the years, I had assisted to organise various half day and full day seminars for the Institution. But this was a major 2 day event with the State government in the picture. After much effort by the Organising Chairperson, we managed to secure confirmation and proceeded to work towards delivering the end product. 5 weeks was all that we had. Finalizing the list of speakers and the topics was the number one headache.
Next on the list of headaches was venue. With such a short time available, ZON wasnt available, and we were forced to accept latest convention centre in town. This was done with much reservations considering the slow response time and exhorbitant cost. Just to get a quotation was taking them 1 to 2 weeks. To amend it took another week or so. The excuse was it took 3 persons to sign the document. And I replied, "So why does it take more than a week???". Cost wise, it was 30 to 40 % higher than ZON or Hyatt. And for participants, RM8 was the parking fee, which was almost double of the rates quoted elsewhere.
The one major thing I was personally proud of doing was ensuring the buffet menu was sensitive to all the major races/religion i.e. meaning, no beef to be served. It didnt make sense for a multi racial group to be served beef when half of the participants abstains from it. What motivated me further to act was seeing the first proposed menu containing only beef soup on the first day. No options. Very insensitive on the part of the convention hall managers. But then again, since school going days, we keep seeing this insensitivity again and again.
There was much paperwork. It was beyond all pre-conceived imagination. The office secretary and 2 other staff were asked to assist. And they delivered. They worked hard and helped ensure we were on schedule and in control of the situation.
We were somewhat lucky in selecting the printers. An old classmate gave a lead which led us to work with a medium sized outfit from Kg Melayu. My gut-feeling was to go with them, and pray all went on well. True enough, they delivered. They were very obliging in delaying deadlines and came up with finished products of reasonable standards.
If I was asked what was the critical factors to ensure success of a conference, I would say there were 2. One was the speakers lined up. Get good ones, and half the battle is won. The second critical factor is marketing. There is no point lining up world class speakers if nobody turns up.
The marketing was a time consuming task. We had no prior experience to tackle an assignment of this size. Getting 80 participants to attend a one-day seminar was a big deal. Getting 300 to 500 participants was different altogether. I pushed for adverts in the local papers and we got that done. Flyers were sent to all members of the Institution. Flyers were hand delivered to post boxes of all major office buildings in the city as well as all the pigeon hole boxes at the Courts. Next came the faxes. Hundreds were sent out to other professional bodies, other professionals, financial institutions, fund managers, property developers, contractors, embassies, etc. Emails were sent out to various individuals, companies and real estate groups. The latter exercise made us realise, there were lots of people out there who dont read their emails regularly, if ever at all.
Coincidently, we were getting very busy at office with our work. Work that we get paid for. Those were trying times. Assistance was requested. Someone had volunteered to send a staff over to our office to assist. We took up on the offer. Later on, we were told the staff was there only to collect cheques and bank them in. Duhhh big time. That incidently practically set my soul ablaze. The anger and disappointment will be there for a long time. At a time when a plea for help went out, none at the top obliged.
Almost everything was heaped on us to handle. Correspondence that was supposed to be done by others, landed on our desk. Various lame excuses given. Yet, we tried hard to deliver. Even the souvenir magazine preparation was very very slow off the block. The printer required 2 weeks to prepare and yet when the deadline to deliver came, the person in charge had hardly done anything, citing a busy work schedule. Again here we had to assist with the editing and compiling. In the end, the printer had only 3 full days to get the books produced, which they did.
At various times during the month, I contemplated resigning out of frustration. And each time I came to the conclusion, to do so was to be irresponsible, regardless of how justified my actions would be. Towards the end, I desensitized myself when hearing comments of me being a superman in handling the tasks.
Short of sleep for days at a time, it was natural tempers were on the rise, on my part. The fuse became shorter. Office work couldnt be neglected either. For me, it was a responsibility to deliver on all fronts. A speaker on the second day, an old friend, when asked the single most important factor that defines success, answered it was "promise". If you make a promise, make sure you deliver. That hit it right on the nail. We promised to deliver a conference and therefore we had to go all out to ensure we delivered. Incidentally, that paper and the panel discussion that followed, were the only sessions I had the time to listen to. The price one paid for being part of the organising committee.
A total of about 510 participants attended, including some invited guests and organisers. We had the most unpleasant task of turning away late-comers. As for the speakers, part of them gave their papers at the very last moment. At least three of them declined permission to distribute their papers to participants. It was naturally their right but I found that very surprising. It was ok to show the slides to 500+ persons in the hall and press that were present, but it wasnt ok it put it onto hard copies for circulation. I will never understand the logic. In the end, I, personally, didnt get to know what was presented. My loss.
Various incidents occured during the two days. To list them down would be emotionally draining I guess. Or, am just too frustrated and lazy now to put it down to words. It may not bring any good to bring such stuff out in the open. Venting frustrations here does have it limits. In the end, the committee did its job. We delivered.
If a conference's success was judged by the number of participants or the number of speakers or the probable high profitability, then this was indeed a very successful event.
Much time had been spent to deliver the promise, at the expense of office work and time with the family. It has been an invaluable experience. And now, we are tying up loose ends. Once that is done, am out. I have done my "national service".
Over the years, I had assisted to organise various half day and full day seminars for the Institution. But this was a major 2 day event with the State government in the picture. After much effort by the Organising Chairperson, we managed to secure confirmation and proceeded to work towards delivering the end product. 5 weeks was all that we had. Finalizing the list of speakers and the topics was the number one headache.
Next on the list of headaches was venue. With such a short time available, ZON wasnt available, and we were forced to accept latest convention centre in town. This was done with much reservations considering the slow response time and exhorbitant cost. Just to get a quotation was taking them 1 to 2 weeks. To amend it took another week or so. The excuse was it took 3 persons to sign the document. And I replied, "So why does it take more than a week???". Cost wise, it was 30 to 40 % higher than ZON or Hyatt. And for participants, RM8 was the parking fee, which was almost double of the rates quoted elsewhere.
The one major thing I was personally proud of doing was ensuring the buffet menu was sensitive to all the major races/religion i.e. meaning, no beef to be served. It didnt make sense for a multi racial group to be served beef when half of the participants abstains from it. What motivated me further to act was seeing the first proposed menu containing only beef soup on the first day. No options. Very insensitive on the part of the convention hall managers. But then again, since school going days, we keep seeing this insensitivity again and again.
There was much paperwork. It was beyond all pre-conceived imagination. The office secretary and 2 other staff were asked to assist. And they delivered. They worked hard and helped ensure we were on schedule and in control of the situation.
We were somewhat lucky in selecting the printers. An old classmate gave a lead which led us to work with a medium sized outfit from Kg Melayu. My gut-feeling was to go with them, and pray all went on well. True enough, they delivered. They were very obliging in delaying deadlines and came up with finished products of reasonable standards.
If I was asked what was the critical factors to ensure success of a conference, I would say there were 2. One was the speakers lined up. Get good ones, and half the battle is won. The second critical factor is marketing. There is no point lining up world class speakers if nobody turns up.
The marketing was a time consuming task. We had no prior experience to tackle an assignment of this size. Getting 80 participants to attend a one-day seminar was a big deal. Getting 300 to 500 participants was different altogether. I pushed for adverts in the local papers and we got that done. Flyers were sent to all members of the Institution. Flyers were hand delivered to post boxes of all major office buildings in the city as well as all the pigeon hole boxes at the Courts. Next came the faxes. Hundreds were sent out to other professional bodies, other professionals, financial institutions, fund managers, property developers, contractors, embassies, etc. Emails were sent out to various individuals, companies and real estate groups. The latter exercise made us realise, there were lots of people out there who dont read their emails regularly, if ever at all.
Coincidently, we were getting very busy at office with our work. Work that we get paid for. Those were trying times. Assistance was requested. Someone had volunteered to send a staff over to our office to assist. We took up on the offer. Later on, we were told the staff was there only to collect cheques and bank them in. Duhhh big time. That incidently practically set my soul ablaze. The anger and disappointment will be there for a long time. At a time when a plea for help went out, none at the top obliged.
Almost everything was heaped on us to handle. Correspondence that was supposed to be done by others, landed on our desk. Various lame excuses given. Yet, we tried hard to deliver. Even the souvenir magazine preparation was very very slow off the block. The printer required 2 weeks to prepare and yet when the deadline to deliver came, the person in charge had hardly done anything, citing a busy work schedule. Again here we had to assist with the editing and compiling. In the end, the printer had only 3 full days to get the books produced, which they did.
At various times during the month, I contemplated resigning out of frustration. And each time I came to the conclusion, to do so was to be irresponsible, regardless of how justified my actions would be. Towards the end, I desensitized myself when hearing comments of me being a superman in handling the tasks.
Short of sleep for days at a time, it was natural tempers were on the rise, on my part. The fuse became shorter. Office work couldnt be neglected either. For me, it was a responsibility to deliver on all fronts. A speaker on the second day, an old friend, when asked the single most important factor that defines success, answered it was "promise". If you make a promise, make sure you deliver. That hit it right on the nail. We promised to deliver a conference and therefore we had to go all out to ensure we delivered. Incidentally, that paper and the panel discussion that followed, were the only sessions I had the time to listen to. The price one paid for being part of the organising committee.
A total of about 510 participants attended, including some invited guests and organisers. We had the most unpleasant task of turning away late-comers. As for the speakers, part of them gave their papers at the very last moment. At least three of them declined permission to distribute their papers to participants. It was naturally their right but I found that very surprising. It was ok to show the slides to 500+ persons in the hall and press that were present, but it wasnt ok it put it onto hard copies for circulation. I will never understand the logic. In the end, I, personally, didnt get to know what was presented. My loss.
Various incidents occured during the two days. To list them down would be emotionally draining I guess. Or, am just too frustrated and lazy now to put it down to words. It may not bring any good to bring such stuff out in the open. Venting frustrations here does have it limits. In the end, the committee did its job. We delivered.
If a conference's success was judged by the number of participants or the number of speakers or the probable high profitability, then this was indeed a very successful event.
Much time had been spent to deliver the promise, at the expense of office work and time with the family. It has been an invaluable experience. And now, we are tying up loose ends. Once that is done, am out. I have done my "national service".
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Follow-up: How rotten is the system - work in progress
This will be a very very long post. Unfortunately or should i be thankfull, I dont have the time to do this in one sitting as workload appears a bit on the heavy side now.
There are numerous federal, state and local authority departments and offices in Malaysia. At federal level, you have the various ministries and agencies. At State government level we have the various committees, district offices, land offices, departments and agencies. The local government level has various local authorities such as the city hall, district councils, municipal councils, and other agencies.
I hope to slowly list down as much as possible each of these units of governance and the way the system of governance has allowed or encouraged or resulted in corruption to root in.
A. Local Government level
B. State Government level
C. Federal Government level
A. Local Government level
Local authorities - city hall, district council, municipal council
These are the people who run the day-to-day management at ground level.
1.Licencing of business
2.Rubbish/waste collection and disposal
3.Advertising and banners, permits
4.Assessment
5.Health checks on businesses
6.Town planning countrol and development control
7.Building plan approval, engineering
8.Parking
9.Enforcement units
10.Landscaping
There are numerous federal, state and local authority departments and offices in Malaysia. At federal level, you have the various ministries and agencies. At State government level we have the various committees, district offices, land offices, departments and agencies. The local government level has various local authorities such as the city hall, district councils, municipal councils, and other agencies.
I hope to slowly list down as much as possible each of these units of governance and the way the system of governance has allowed or encouraged or resulted in corruption to root in.
A. Local Government level
B. State Government level
C. Federal Government level
A. Local Government level
Local authorities - city hall, district council, municipal council
These are the people who run the day-to-day management at ground level.
1.Licencing of business
2.Rubbish/waste collection and disposal
3.Advertising and banners, permits
4.Assessment
5.Health checks on businesses
6.Town planning countrol and development control
7.Building plan approval, engineering
8.Parking
9.Enforcement units
10.Landscaping
Malaysia Boleh? Malaysia Airlines definitely TAK Boleh!
The jury may still be out whether Malaysia Boleh, cos as the days and months pass by, it seems the country's situation is just worsening in terms of governance as well as attractiveness as a place for business and secured comfy living.
This afternoon, I surfed into MAS (thats Malaysia Airlines)'s website to checkout prices of tickets to a particular city in India. I've had plans for a long time to re-visit but circumstances had not permitted.
There I was keying in the dates, sometime in April this year being the planned dates, for a 2 week trip. Being away from KL meant I had to have connecting flights from this small cowboy border town to KL. 3 adults and 2 young ones. The fare amount came up to RM26,005.00 inclusive of taxes!!!!!! Bloody shit, I can fly to europe at cheaper prices. Surely something was wrong.
So I avoided multi-stopover menu, and checked out the direct flights. Here to KL and back. KL to India and back.
Here to KL and back totalled to RM1310 only. (damn expensive in comparison to Air Asia!). Surprise surprise! The return fare KL to India was RM7,080.00 The total fare amounted to RM8390.00. Thats RM17,615 more cheaper!!! In other words, RM17,615 was the cost of getting them to carry my luggage between connecting flights!
As Madnoh would have said.. tiuuuuuuuuu! to MAS.
This afternoon, I surfed into MAS (thats Malaysia Airlines)'s website to checkout prices of tickets to a particular city in India. I've had plans for a long time to re-visit but circumstances had not permitted.
There I was keying in the dates, sometime in April this year being the planned dates, for a 2 week trip. Being away from KL meant I had to have connecting flights from this small cowboy border town to KL. 3 adults and 2 young ones. The fare amount came up to RM26,005.00 inclusive of taxes!!!!!! Bloody shit, I can fly to europe at cheaper prices. Surely something was wrong.
So I avoided multi-stopover menu, and checked out the direct flights. Here to KL and back. KL to India and back.
Here to KL and back totalled to RM1310 only. (damn expensive in comparison to Air Asia!). Surprise surprise! The return fare KL to India was RM7,080.00 The total fare amounted to RM8390.00. Thats RM17,615 more cheaper!!! In other words, RM17,615 was the cost of getting them to carry my luggage between connecting flights!
As Madnoh would have said.. tiuuuuuuuuu! to MAS.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Its a new year, but its the same ol ..same ol.. shit
2006 went by like a breeze. It was by far one of the lousiest years.
Anyway, Happy New Year! May the year be filled with loads of fun, much happiness and good health.
Its visit malaysia year. But nothing much has changed. The country is still in a screwed up state. The top continues to screw the bottom. The uncivil service continues to rake in the percentages at the expense of my tax payment.
Driving along Jalan Wong Ah Fook in JB, just before turning into Jalan Gereja, you will notice a traffic cone and some other stuff put onto the left lane to warn people of the bad condition of the road. Its been like that for 2 weeks or more. Ever since the heavy rains late december. Almost the entire city that looks like a cowboy border town is in a state of mess.
Reading the papers only gets you more depressed.
I've been toying with this thought past few weeks. Someone should start this, to document the extent of the CBT problem. The culture of croynism and subcontracting. Getting contracts and deals, and then immediately selling it to others and making clean profit. The coffee money problem. The kickbacks. The inflated tender prices. The inflated privatisation agreements. The ridiculous Independent Power Producer contracts. Its CBT. Criminal Breach of Trust.
For example, the national service transportation fiasco. The contracts are given to cronies who are not in the transport business. They just sub it to others who sub it to others...it goes on. Tax payers pay a hefty sum, the cronies make easy money, and the poor fella who does the transport business gets peanuts for providing the actual service.
Multiply this with the contracts for uniform, food, etc in the NS. Add further the various ministries that we have, each having numerous departments. And thats only the federal government.
Add further the State Government and its various departments at state, district and mukim levels. At each "profit centre" tax payers monies are paid at inflated rates for services and products.
That is the tip of the iceberg. What about all the close one eye deals. All the coffee money that needs to be paid. At every department, there is bound to be such occurences. This is their shameless way of becoming rich, without working for it.
This is rotten state of affairs we are all in. How i wish the general elections was held now. Let the public show their displeasure.
Yes, visit malaysia. Write all the good stuff. May all the shit rise too for more to see.
Anyway, Happy New Year! May the year be filled with loads of fun, much happiness and good health.
Its visit malaysia year. But nothing much has changed. The country is still in a screwed up state. The top continues to screw the bottom. The uncivil service continues to rake in the percentages at the expense of my tax payment.
Driving along Jalan Wong Ah Fook in JB, just before turning into Jalan Gereja, you will notice a traffic cone and some other stuff put onto the left lane to warn people of the bad condition of the road. Its been like that for 2 weeks or more. Ever since the heavy rains late december. Almost the entire city that looks like a cowboy border town is in a state of mess.
Reading the papers only gets you more depressed.
I've been toying with this thought past few weeks. Someone should start this, to document the extent of the CBT problem. The culture of croynism and subcontracting. Getting contracts and deals, and then immediately selling it to others and making clean profit. The coffee money problem. The kickbacks. The inflated tender prices. The inflated privatisation agreements. The ridiculous Independent Power Producer contracts. Its CBT. Criminal Breach of Trust.
For example, the national service transportation fiasco. The contracts are given to cronies who are not in the transport business. They just sub it to others who sub it to others...it goes on. Tax payers pay a hefty sum, the cronies make easy money, and the poor fella who does the transport business gets peanuts for providing the actual service.
Multiply this with the contracts for uniform, food, etc in the NS. Add further the various ministries that we have, each having numerous departments. And thats only the federal government.
Add further the State Government and its various departments at state, district and mukim levels. At each "profit centre" tax payers monies are paid at inflated rates for services and products.
That is the tip of the iceberg. What about all the close one eye deals. All the coffee money that needs to be paid. At every department, there is bound to be such occurences. This is their shameless way of becoming rich, without working for it.
This is rotten state of affairs we are all in. How i wish the general elections was held now. Let the public show their displeasure.
Yes, visit malaysia. Write all the good stuff. May all the shit rise too for more to see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)