I have to start mentally preparing myself to face this hunt because it’s not going to be like one of the general treasure hunts I’ve participated in up till recently. 

As I leave to begin the mental preparation I leave you with this picture of me as a listed participant – purely for braging reasons of course!
 

• Innov8 Run Hunt Gallery
• Adventures On The Innov8 Run Hunt (Pt1)
• Samsung Innov8 Run
• Innov8-tion by Samsung
• Adventures On The Innov8 Run Hunt (Pt2)

Seeing as treasure hunting is in my blood here is my attempt to qualify and hopefully become a shortlisted contestant in the hunt!

How will I describe myself in 10 words?

Fun, Wacky, Tech-Savvy, Mysterious, Sincere, Outgoing, Adventurous, Explorer, Street-Smart, New-Age

Individualistic or a team player? What am I?

Easy. I am both. When need be I can take initiative to blaze my own path in my lifes journey. Yet when teamwork is required, I never turn my back on my fellow teammates and will always stand by their side through thick or thin!

What is the craziest/ most outregious thing have I done in my life?

Participated in and successfully set both a World Record and Malaysia Book of Records record for the Longest Running Movie Marathon in Malaysia and the world in 2006. I survived through 31 movies non-stop in the grand total of time clocking in at 72 hours 8 minutes! I placed 2nd among the 8 record setters!

Proof in case you think I might be pulling a fast one:
http://www.cathayholdings.com.my/cineplexes/cp_news_worldrecord.html 

How has technology changed my life in 1 sentence?

Technology has allowed me to experience the world in many ways, do new things in new ways, explore the vast treasures of the Internet and be able to be connected anywhere, anytime & on the go.

Do I have a blog?

I shall assume then if you’re reading this here ‘post’ then you are currently at my blog. Hence the answer you’re looking for is … Yes I do have a blog. It’s The Enigm@ Chronicle.

There. These are my answers to the question. To Samsung I cannot overstate how eagerly I await news from you in regards to my qualification.

Innov8 Run here I come!

• Innov8 Run Hunt Gallery
• Innov8 Run Here I Come
• Innov8-tion by Samsung
• Adventures On The Innov8 Run Hunt (Pt1)
• Adventures On The Innov8 Run Hunt (Pt2)

However fret not as the said blogger has always return to TEC and picked up where he left of. Meaning which, as you read this post and have not yet realized it, I’m BACK….

To those friends that have continually check back here for recent updates and in finding none have buggerd me every which way to get back posting – thank you for you care & concern. Keep checking back and hopefully you can look forward to some new areas that I would like to explore with TEC.

• Tough Motivation
• Free Domain & Free Hosting at Sabahan
• To Be Bling
• WILT: What I Learned Today

Bad as that may sound , I for one am equally if not more concerned with the statement made by the Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abd Aziz Shaziman Abu Mansor following on the heels of the announcement from the Malaysia Nuclear Agency.

To sum it all up here’s what was said:

Dr Muhd Noor, Deputy Director of Malaysian Nuclear Energy:

With prices of fuel escalating drastically, there have been calls for Malaysia to consider nuclear energy as it is cheaper in the long run.

Typically, it takes 15 to 20 years for a nuclear power plant to be completed.

We cannot rush into nuclear energy as there are a lot of construction management issues. There is a lot of effort and know-how that need to be translated into a real plant.

The longer Malaysia waited, the costlier it would become to implement it. Currently, the estimated construction cost of a 1,000MW nuclear power plant could vary from US$1.5bil to US$3bil (RM4.8bil-RM9.6bil).

He, however, admitted that setting up a nuclear power plant had its challenges such as high capital expenditure, long project implementation and liability and a long payback period

Datuk Shaziman Abd Aziz:

The country shouldn’t reject the possibility of using nuclear energy in the future.

The implementation of nuclear fuel facilities takes time by at least 12 to 15 years. Acts and regulations have to be tabled.

My Corncens

Being a simple layman myself, here’s what I find perplexing.

1. Malaysia energy provider TNB already is purchasing a 40% surplus of energy from the Independant Power Providers (IPP) and have agreements in place for continued purchase for a period up to 30 years.
2. The state of Serawak is on the path of plundering the vast natural reserves of it’s forest in a deluded attempt to build up to 12 hydroelectric dams.
3. Nuclear energy is a long term investment that on the face value only, could cost the country anywhere from RM 4.8 billion up to RM 9.6 billion. I cannot stress the importance of the term face value – as we are well aware that initial estimates such as this always end up being bloated to double or triple of the original cost.
4. Malaysia being Malaysia, we should be marginally aware of the classical case of our 3rd world mentality that always see major screw ups on most projects undertaken. When it comes to nuclear energy, any type of screw up is definitely going to be costly!
5. Most importantly, I must ask the powers that be what about using ‘green’ power i.e. sun and wind power as potential renewable energy sources. Being situated on the equator Malaysia is prime position to embark on solar energy initiate and in addition to that we have long coastlines that make wind turbine energy generation is distinct possibility.

As the famous saying goes, a picture can speak a thousand words, so I leave you with the following images.

Will this …

Nuclear Power Plant in Malaysia?

equate to this ….

Can anyone say Chernobyl?

or will the government of the day wise up and go for …

Solar(photovoltaic) panels provide clean and free energy

and also for …

Wind turbines for Malaysian coastlines

For your reading:

1. 20 years for a nuke plant – The Star
2. Don’t reject possibility of using nuclear energy: Shaziman – The Star

• Breaking News: KLSE Market Plunges!
• Serawak is Planning to Plunder Natural Forest to Build Dams
• Will the New Information Minister Truly be Engaging?
• How Your Goverment Is Screwing You!
• Is UMNO full of Resentment and Ill Intent?

The MB of Terengganu – in a knee-jerk attempt to explain the decision – has indirectly stated the reasons for the switch being that there are various issues that have plagued Proton cars especially in the area of the maintenance costs.

He also has the nerve to cite better resale value for the Mercedes as a plus point for the Mercedes purchase. This of course is pretty much bullshit as we Malaysian all know that the state official cars are mostly sold off for peanuts to these politicians who basically end up taking us all for the ride!

Now I am not even going to ask the question why would the exco’s of Terengganu require such expensive cars the likes of Mercedes when in reality the current standing of the state of Terrengganu is as the 2nd poorest state in the country.

Instead I would like to pose this scenario to the people of Terengganu:
Imagine being a low income citizen struggling to survive in these harsh times, who has the misfortune to see their duly appointed politician making their rounds among the citizens in their luxury Mercedes!
Turun Ke Padang has never been so stylish as it will be in Terrengganu.

Furthermore this issues has highligted another glaring sign of the lack of power of our current PM and his DPM holds. Instead of directly telling off their subbordinates in Terrengganu to stick to Proton as would have been the case previously, Najib has instead announced that the ‘cabinet’ will meet and discuss the issue. I mean with things like an ailing economy of their books one would think that the cabinet has better matters to talk about.

• UMNO Disrespectful To The Agong
• JPJ – Please Put An End to The Xenon Headlights
• PKR’s Anwar Speak on Issues Faced Under BN Rule
• Is The Possibility Of A Non-Malay Deputy MB That Bad?
• PM Badawi’s Same Old ‘New’ Line

• Rais’s Half-Past-Six Statement
• Take an Ego Trip
• To Apologise Or Not To Apologise
• Samsung Innov8 Run
• UMNO Disrespectful To The Agong

I use the word incompetence justly so in lieu of the fact that the government has the necessary mechanisms in place to monitor and be ‘in the know’ about the possibility of such an issues as the rice stockpile shortages actually coming to be. So where did things take a turn for the worse? Based on my initial research the fault lies at the feet of Padiberas Nasional Bhd (BERNAS) .

For your information BERNAS is the privatised custodian of the Malaysia paddy and rice industry. BERNAS is the sole importer of rice into Malaysia besides also being in charge of the National Rice Stockpile. In essence they are the sole importer and overseer of rice in Malaysia. Already the share market is seeing a rise in BERNAS shares as the recent increase in rice prices coupled with the presured buying trend locally – all of which has contribute to a favarouble outcome for BERNAS. Unfortunately this does not translate to being favourabel for the rakyat .

It is their position as overseer is where I definitely find fault with BERNAS for failing to be prepared for exactly such the scenario of increasing trends of rice shortages that we are now experiencing. In their ignorance BERNAS has until recently maintained only 2 WEEKS worth of rice stockpile for the entire of Malaysia. That’s right 2 weeks of rice supply before it runs out in a worse come to worse case scenario. This is why there have been recent spate of consumers in huge droves snapping up rice due to concerns that our rice stockpile can easily run out in just 2 weeks.

Looking back to just last year, when any trend forecaster worth his salt could have predicted increases in food prices in addition to the decrease in global stockpiles. Unfortunately BERNAS was more inclined to ignore the situation and instead focus on increasing the price of rice sold locally . I haven’t the precise details right now but it is known that BERNAS is importing rice at cost prices while selling it in Malaysia for a higher price, thus earning a profit.

If BERNAS wasn’t farsighted enough then at least the government to some degree were already prompting BERNAS to increase their national stockpile to cater for future trends. In reference to article(below) from The Star dated July 12 2007 , we can see that the government was already informing BERNAS to increase their stockpile:

Create a big stockpile, Muhyiddin tells Bernas

Padiberas Nasional Berhad (Bernas) has been told to create a stockpile so that the country will not be plunged into a crisis if there is an acute shortage of rice globally.

Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that although Bernas had a floating stock of 92,000 tonnes of rice in the local market, it could not be considered the country’s stockpile.

“We are afraid that any shortfall in global supply and increasing global demand for rice would affect us.

“And there are already early signs in the region where the demand for rice has gone up while the rice producing countries’ yield had dropped due to disease, floods and weather changes,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after his ministry’s weekly post-Cabinet meeting here yesterday.

Muhyiddin said he was not trying to alarm the public.

“But we need to look at future trends. This is why we need to look at having an appropriate amount of rice stockpile for the country,” he added.

If that was not enough then the same call was repeated beginning this year with more emphasis being made for a 3 month rice stockpile plan to be put into place. This is highlighted in the the following article(below) from The Star dated 31 January 2008 :

Bid to up rice stockpile to three months

The Government wants Bernas to stockpile rice for three months or more to ensure there is sufficient supply for the people in the event of a shortage.

Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the current agreement was to have a two-week stockpile.

“We believe that two weeks is not enough, so there is a need to review to, say, three months.

“We need to have more than the stock we have at the moment to create the actual stockpile for the rice later.

Therefore in lieu of the calls made to BERNAS from the government to increase the National Rice Stockpile to a 3 month capacity has fallen on the deaf ears of BERNAS . Already 9 months has passed since the initial call had been made to BERNAS and as of yet no credible action has been taken .

Only now in light of the worsening conditions of worldwide food shortages and the recent limelight on the insufficient national rice stockpile that BERNAS has made moves to increase the stockpile. This too was partially due to pressure from the government.

So the pertinent question that we must ask ourselves is it is fair for us the rakyat/consumers that BERNAS is allowed to continue to be the sole importer of rice for our country. The lack of any competition in this sector can only be regarded as a monopoly and a possibly unfair one at that!

• US National Debt BREAKS The Clock
• The Degree of Contention on Political Issue
• How Your Goverment Is Screwing You!
• No Representation, No Voice!
• To Apologise Or Not To Apologise

News first surfaced on the web via the ever delightful Lulu’s blog, and was then picked up by MP Tony Pua with his blog post containing the direct question and reply of the current issue in parliament.

The question:

Berapakah jumlah perbelanjaan yang ditanggung oleh Kerajaan sepanjang tempoh kempen Pilihan Raya Umum ke 12 dari 24 Februari sehingga 7 Mac 2008 hasil dari penggunaan jet eksekutif Kerajaan bagi kegunaan YAB Perdana Menteri dan YAB Timbalan Perdana Menteri.

The answer:

Bagi tempoh 24 Februari sehingga 7 Mac 2008, jumlah perbelanjaan untuk penggunaan jet eksekutif adalah sebanyak RM792,325.20.

Now the thing that really gets to me is that in the time period specified (24 Febuary to 7 March 2008) these personalities were by right not entitled to the right and privileges of their positions as they had reverted to being candidates and not the actual PM and DPM.

So while campaigning to be re-elected, these leaders of our government were in actuality squandering the rakyat’s monies on flying themselves all across the country in order to campaign.

And mind you this are the very same people who have the cheek to tell us rakyat to live within our means a.k.a ubah gaya hidup!

Meanwhile to offer you readers a contrast let me point out that the new CM of Penang Lim Guan Eng was recent spotted seated in the economy class section in the plane on his flight back to Penang.

Once again this is another failure to walk the walk after talking the talk in the case of the PM and DPM.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, ….

• The Tale of Menteri Besars & Chief Ministers
• Is UMNO full of Resentment and Ill Intent?
• Penang Protest: A Voice of Reason
• UMNO Disrespectful To The Agong
• Terengganu Government Snubs Proton for Mercedes

On one hand we have a R&D cum glorified tourist program, the Malaysia Astronaut Program where USD 36 million of Malaysian taxpayers monies were utilized to send 1 Malaysian into space. That’s right all that money for 1 guy. Ostensibly there were 6 space experiments to be done that would apparently launch Malaysia into the space R&D field. What the outcome of the experiments were we still have yet to hear about it. Any tangible benefit from the experiments will be years in bearing fruit whilst the regular joe rakyat today will be facing issues like rising prices. The program was for pure political mileage in my opinion.

On the other hand you have the Modern Pig Farm project in Selangor. Here is a project that has attract a fair bit of attention recently – be it positive, negative and sometime spiteful. However when you dissect the project plans you’ll find that that baring some minor administrative costs the entire project is self-reliant in terms of private funding and only requires the approval of the state government in terms of the land allocation. Yet when this zero-burden project is given the green light we have the naysayers coming out and telling the PR Selangor government off for their decision.

Have these people lost their common sense?
Are they too fixated on the religious side of the issue instead of the overall outlook?

Understandably, any issue concerning pigs in this country will certainly be considered as an important issues in lieu of the religious concerns of the national religion. However I have to wonder up till where does religious concerns matters when place side by side against extravagant taxpayers monies wastage as seen with the Angkasawan program. As the times start to experience economic uncertainty, I find myself worried sick that more wasteful programs similar to the Angkasawan program will be enacted by the government.

Similar Posts:

• Star Wars in Space A Reality
• A Tale of Contradicting Statements
• The Tale of Menteri Besars & Chief Ministers
• MCA: Please Change The "Tow Party Line" Into Bipartisanship
• Serawak is Planning to Plunder Natural Forest to Build Dams

Just imagine being rendered temporarily "nightblind " by a an approaching car’s xenon headlights and you will get the gist of my dislike of these type of headlamps. Time and time again this has happened and I am sick and tired of it. Similarly these xenon touting cars are also generally the ones that have ’super-tinted ‘ windscreens – which ironically protects them against the glare of other xenon headlights.

There are some mention of downturned HID Lamps that do not flash oncoming drivers, but as far as my experience goes these are either rare in my driving routes or plain non-existent! And since some drivers who get the xenon headlights are either ignorant of the fact or just plain insensitive – I say regardless of the reasons, they are at best a distraction or a at worst a menace to the other drivers who on the streets’ driving.

So I say kudos to JPJ for taking the effort to put a stop into these xenon headlight cars. My suggestions to you is to take a no holds bared approach. Saman each and every one of these drivers and as long as they don’t change keep on saman-ing them. I don’t care how much the so-called regular joe has to pay the saman as long as they get it into their heads that xenon lights are a menace to the other drivers on the road.

Also let this not be a short-term only approach. JPJ must keep up the pressure of these drivers and keep it up for the foreseeable future. Just conducting a month or two of operations will not change anything.

July deadline for windscreen tints, xenon headlights

KUALA KRAI: Vehicle owners flouting Road Transport Department (JPJ) regulations on windscreen tinting and xenon headlights be warned – you have until July to comply with the rules. JPJ enforcement division director Salim Parlan said the department continued to encounter vehicles with heavily tinted windscreens and flashy xenon headlights, particularly the imported luxury vehicles.“I hope they will adhere to the specifications set by JPJ on tinting windscreens and xenon headlights,” he said.

FYI for a look at the other side of the fence, head on over to the discussion forum @ LowYat located here .

Similar Posts:

• Terengganu Government Snubs Proton for Mercedes
• PM Badawi’s Same Old ‘New’ Line
• How Your Goverment Is Screwing You!
• The Wizard of Oz, Re-Conceptualized
• The Great Twitter Plunge