For The Sake Of Sedekah

A friend sent me an email entitled "What logic is this?". In it he sent me a link for a news article. I have not answered the question, but I'm posting this article instead. I hope my readers are not dumb like those idiots referred to in the news article.

Let's talk a bit about Anwar Ibrahim and his accuser, Saiful. Saiful claims that Anwar sodomised him; and the latter denies it. Saiful went to the extent of swearing on the Quran, and then challenged Anwar to do the same. But in the end, apparently there was little for Saiful to support his claim. So when Anwar was finally charged in court, it was for the crime of consensual sex between the two. The strange thing is that only Anwar is charged and not Saiful. Syed Hamid has his justification, of course. But many years ago, Malaysians will remember that the police found that Anwar did similar acts, apparently with the consents of, two other men. And both those men were punished with jail terms, although both of them retracted their confessions later. One must ask the question why has the authority given Saiful a different treatment now? Anyway, justification or not, that is how the matter is handled by the authority.

Now we have a different case involving some VIPs. They have been found to have sex with Chinese nationals [The Star]. But what's important, according to the asshole, is that they did not ask for the women. Those women were sedekah (alms).

How did these dumb assholes get to hold those positions anyway? Sedekah? So what if they didn't ask for those women? That still doesn't change the fact that these idiots are corrupt officers and accept bribes, whether in cash or Chinese women. And they had the cheek to lodge a police report against the person "inducing" them to have those women. If they knew that what was offered was morally wrong, they could have easily turned down the offer.

So how did their bosses deal with them? Should the inducer be punished? Or both parties should be punished? Well, obviously both parties should be punished. After all, where is the logic in taking action against one party only when both were involved in it? So there can only be one way to deal with it [The Star].

So we can see the different approaches adopted by the different parties. In the case of Anwar, the crime was, according to the charge, consensual between the two men, that is to say that Saiful and Anwar did it together, willingly. Yet only Anwar is being punished. In the case of the assholes with the supposed inducer, it was decided by their boses that both should be punished.

Which approach would you prefer to have in our legal system?

Sighting New Moon

This morning I received a call from my step-mother. She will be going to Lahad Datu to visit my sister, Audrey, for the Hari Raya holidays. As usual, she would call me up for some travelling pocket-money. And she wanted it immediately! She said tommorow is already Hari Raya, because she's convinced that the new moon could be sighted this evening. I said to her that no new moon would be sighted this evening.

Then I raised the question of moon sighting in my office; and it became quite a commotion! We have quite a number of self-proclaimed astrologers in the office, really. Some said that we will certainly be able to sight the new moon this evening; and some said otherwise.

Of course some tried to be funny, asking me to be more specific—did I mean sighting of the moon in Malaysia or Makkah? That question probably had a lot to do with my asking too many trick questions to my staff. They sort of have this automatic defensive mechanism against my questions, you see. An example of such questions would be something like this:

There are 5 durians in a basket. You take away 2. How many durians would you have then?

Anyway, after all the explanations and justifications, I think I am satisfied that Hari Raya will be on 01 October, i.e. no new moon will be sighted this evening.

I have long been convinced of the accuracy of the Chinese calendar when it comes to things like this. According to the Chinese calendar, today is the first of a new month. Usually, the new moon would be sighted on the first day of a new month. However, because the previous month had only 29 days, it is unlikely that the new moon would be sighted on the first day of the following month. If the previous month had 30 days, then it is possible to sight the new moon on the first day of the following month. Interesting what you can learn from all these self-proclaimed astrologers!

If the above is correct—and I think it is—then no new moon will be sighted this evening; and our Muslim friends will have to fast for one more day!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim friends:

Selamat Hari Raya

Maaf zahir dan batin

Dan kalau pun tak dapat maafkan, pura-pura maaf pun jadi lah!

Running Tops & Bras

Mia and I are both running in the Borneo International Marathon in October. The other day, we were talking about running outfits, and we ended up talking about running tops and bras for women. She said instead of running in T-shirts, she'd like to run in something more comfortable. I said why not a running vest? She said she didn't like vests (women!!). She still prefers a specific running top or bra. So she started describing it to me.

I said if it means a lot to her, then just go and buy a few of those. I have since searched the net based on her description and just shortly ago, she has confirmed that the above is indeed the kind she's looking for. She is not keen on running in just bras, if you know what I mean. If you like perhaps we can say it's something in between bras and singlet.

So anyway, she said running tops like in the above picture are not available here in KK. They're only available in bigger cities, perhaps in KL or Singapore. I found that hard to believe. So last weekend, I went around to some shops to prove her wrong. To my surprise, it's really hard to find this kind of running top in KK! On Sunday, I went to Sports Mart in Api-Api Centre because I knew that they're having a discount sale right now. Unfortunately, as Murphy's Law would have it, they were closed then.

Although I have adopted the "Advertisement" label for this post, actually I'm not advertising to sell anything. Instead I'm advertising to ask my KK readers where to find anything like in the above picture. Ummmm... I mean the outfit, not the sexy model please! If anyone has any information, please let me know. I still don't believe we don't have it in KK.

theSun Motor Hunt 2008

This is for the benefit of my Sabahan friends who might be keen to go for a different kind of adventure holidays this year. TheSun Motor Hunt 2008 is now confirmed on 02 November, and the entry form may be downloaded from the Timeout Solutions website (it may take a while for the page to load).

I have attempted to invite some friends from KK to form a scrap team, but having received negative answers, I have decided to secure a ride with some friends from KL instead. In fact, we have rushed to register as soon as possible. At first I thought I could gain an advantage from registering early (not because we're afraid that we won't be in time to register), but it turned out that there isn't much advantage after all. But I will reveal more about this in time to come. I want to see what's gonna happen first.

Meanwhile, this morning a friend from KK—he's a strong hunter—said that his team might also join theSun. So I think the Open Category will be quite interesting this year! It would be nice if more Sabahan hunters would venture out to the west to try their luck.

In the mean time, the CoC must be having a tough time conjuring up questions for the treasures, now that the scope of search had suddenly been reduced by 132 items. But hopefully most of those items would have been put back onto the shelves by November.

Borneo Marathon—Countdown

It's the final countdown—the Borneo International Marathon is just over 2 weeks away. The excitement is mounting, but the anxiety is also gradually building up. And being the paranoid person that I am, the anxiety can be quite tough to handle.

Will I be able to finish the run?; will it be raining on that day?; I hope the weather won't be too hot that morning?; oh... hopefully I won't get injured before the run... One thousand and one worries, and still building up!

Since last week I've begun to taper; last Sunday, I did only 15 km. And I will probably reduce the distance some more. YFitness is still closed up to now (I think it's a gone case), so the only option is the Likas jogging track. Luckily the weather has been kind over the last 2 evenings. I went for short runs (6 km and 8 km) yesterday and the day before so that I could work on my pace (it doesn't seem to be working though). And I'll be there again today. I see many familiar faces doing their final leg of marathon training.

What an amazing 2 months these have been. When I first stumbled upon the Borneo Marathon post in a friend's blog, I decided to sign up for the 10k. But later another friend, Teo, who's signed up for the full marathon, convinced me to sign up for the half marathon instead. I have since been increasing my pace and distance; and peaked at 21 km about 2 weeks ago. Now I am looking forward to repeat that feat on 12 October.

Shan has recently informed me that there is a possibility that everyone might get the adidas running vest as opposed to only the full marathon runners. Keeping my fingers crossed that that will indeed happen.

So all system go—New pair of adidas adizero (hey, where's my RM50 discount voucher?) set to go; shorts and vest, go; fitness level, go; power bars, go—all looking good.

Bring it on!

Hazard Of Steel Benches

For quite a while now I've been meaning to write something very basic about the tort of negligence. Of course I am not a lawyer, but there was once when I read quite widely on this particular subject when I had to defend my valuation report in court.

I delayed writing this article until a friend sent me a weird new today. So I thought I might as well take the opportunity to, finally, write this long-overdue article.

In order for the injured party to succeed in his claim under the tort of negligence, he must satisfy 3 main requirements, viz:

1) Whether there is a duty owed to the injured party;

2) If there is indeed a duty owed, whether there is a breach of that duty;

3) Whether the loss is a result of the breach of that duty (causation).

Obviously there is a long dicussion on each of the above requirement, but for the purpose of this article, I'd like to discuss the extent of the responsibility when there is indeed a duty owed to the claimant.

In Chan Kwai-ngor v Leung Fat-hang [1992] HKC, there was a warning notice that the floor in a dim sum restaurant was wet. But the notice was not put up in a place where it was easily seen. The plaintiff, who was a patron of the shop, slipped in the entrance hall when entering the kitchen while trying to get some dim sum. She did not wait for people to serve her. As a result of the fall, she suffered bodily injury. She sued the restaurant for negligence.

The court held that the agent who's managing the building was liable as it did not take sufficient steps to prevent the incident from happening.

I must point out that the standard of care that is required here is that of a reasonable person. If, for example, it is not reasonably foreseeable by a layman in the street that someone might slip on the wet floor, then it is doubtful that the action against the restaurant would have succeeded.

As you can see, the standard of care in this particular case was very high. Having the warning sign was deemed not good enough. It was not revealed what was the exact content of that warning sign, but I supposed it didn't really matter because the point is that it was put up in a place that was hard to see.

Local authorities, too, owe the duty of care to the public at large. In Malaysia, it is unclear whether one can actually sue the local authority for injuries suffered due to, say, faulty swings or see-saws in public parks. We are all familiar with warning signs in the car parks, e.g. Park At Own Risk, something like that. Perhaps some of the lawyer readers of this blog would like to comment on this.

What kind of warning signs would be required for public parks or other common properties. Perhaps the local authorities should consider putting up a warning sign containing this:

MALE VISITORS TO THE PARK

STRICTLY ADVISED NOT TO

INSERT PENIS INTO HOLES

IN STEEL BENCHES.

Or something to that effect...

Then maybe this guy would have been spared of the misadventure. But of course who in his right mind would have foreseen anyone could have wanted to have sex with a bench?

Super Maids?

I have written about the quality of university degrees these days. A fair number of local university graduates have been seeking employment in our firm. Some of them made it to the interview stage where I found out that they could hardly handle English. The medium of instruction in our local universities is Malay. Yes, I am aware that in some cases these students are also given the option to attempt exam questions in English. But they are not compelled to answer in English. Unfortunately, in the private sector, we are still overwhelmingly English. The letters we write, the reports we produce, and almost every other documents are all in English.

Apart from the language problem, many of these graduates are essentially well-tuned photocopy machines. The education system have trained them very well to be able to reproduce whatever they read from the text books—they are extremely good with the cut-and-paste through the computers. But when you instruct them to write a report from scratch on their own, they are paralysed.

I am not very well-versed with the situation in West Malaysia, but here in KK, we employ a fresh Valuation Graduate at RM1,200 per month. After 3 months, if we find that he can justify the worth of his degree, that salary would normally be revised to RM1,500 per month. That is usually followed by a small annual increment. After a few years, he would typically earn RM2,000 - RM2,500 per month. I am aware that other firms are paying even less.

In the event that he pursues his registration with the Board of Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents, Malaysia, his salary would be revised substantially upon registration. However, usually most of them will never ever get that far. They end up earning their fixed salaries month after month; year after year. A typical excuse is that they don't have the time to pursue the professional qualification.

Now compare that with paying a maid RM1,372 per month. How ridiculous can it get? I don't know about other Sabahans, but I would rather not have a maid than employing a Filipino maid at whatever price. Perhaps one of these days I will become so desperate for a domestic helper that I have no choice but to employ a Filipino maid. But I doubt that that will come anytime soon. Of course I have my reasons why I view Filipino maids so negatively, but perhaps it's not such a good idea to discuss that here.

Apart from that RM1,372, employers are also required to provide a decent room plus 3 square meals per day, not to mention the cost of work pass etc. And when I say meals, I don't mean only RM5.80 per day. So in fact the cost would be much higher than RM1,372.

In Sabah we have many Bumis earning a lot less than RM1,372 per month. And I am convinced that the situation is also similar in the West. If that is the price of a maid, then it means that only the rich can afford maids.

Incidentally, my maid has gone back to her village in Indonesia a little over 2 months ago. She said she'd like to come back to continue working for me. But I have a feeling she's stuck in Nunukan and probably finds it hard to enter Sabah, now that the Government is all out to show the people that they're doing something about all these illegal foreigners.

It is very difficult to cope without a maid, but it will take much more than what we're going through now before we even consider employing a Filipino maid. Who knows, maybe in a week or two, Fin will arrive from Indonesia. Keeping my fingers crossed.