Significance of the insignificant

On the voting day of this by-election, I was on the flight leaving Penang, transit at KLIA being held few hours due to an unforeseen delay for a plane flying out of this Central Peninsular. Probably, my designated plane was used up by the great B-End machinery to parachute off more goodies to the voters or temporary superstars of HS.

Initially, I thought things were still cool, as I was able to go online and do things, like send an important paper to my colleague Tim, but dang, the speed was crawling, turtle speed and I had to cable up near the disabled toilet.

Luckily the toilet is unused and squeaky clean, most importantly odorless. And, no, I wasn’t in the toilet, I was like 2 seats to the left of the entrance. And beside me were a bunch of Africans speaking English in their native slang which I could make up parts of what their talking about, while the others turned up to be the unwelcome unexpected unbearable noise pollution around me.

The major parts of it that I understood was how corrupted their own country’s government was and how this and that agency stupid and not fair, almost had me believe that this anti-government sentiment is kinda global.

I turned to paper technology just to have something to read and pages after pages in the dailies was the commentators’ review and aspiration on the by-election.

By default, thanks to the transparency of cyberworld, all its dwellers shun the national front, no matter how much moolahs (which is from the people to begin with) B-End decided to throw in to this small poor area.

Before the election, like I say, a lot of commentary was going down the line of significance of winning the election, ie. Bro Wong CH’s hypothesis about people decision on their tolerance on bumiputeraism and etc. However, since a lot of funding Barbies were thrown into the game, probably the end game bear no significance at all.

I reached the other side of peninsular in one piece thanks to the attentive pilots who cared more about the windy skyline than the votes-counting progress in HS.

And I found out that the People’s Goliath lost in a battle that Uncle Lim had cleverly predicted or issued warning a few days earlier. Perhaps this was Uncle’s unusual but not uncommon reverse psychology strategy to get the Malaysian Chinese behind his Team, and it did worked with regards of the Chinese’s major backing of 80% for the PR. Otherwise, people would have blamed him for cursing them to the losing end and shaking up the confidence that run high from the strings of by-elections won previously.

After the news went viral, gloomy atmosphere curtained down on the cyberworld. Most, probably a lot (although

I didn’t have the statistic for it) gave major credits to the wonderful ‘gift’ from Numero Uno to the people of HS for the winning of K from B-End while others struck a bitter chord of criticizing the people of HS, to extend of saying certain ethnic groups there will forever be prostitutes and slaves. Some neutral assessors got worried that the voting went along racial lines, which is a step backward from the 308 tsunami, a hindrance to form a Malaysians’ Malaysia or 1Malaysia (depending on which ever flavor you prefer, it meant the same thing anyway. With or without APCO).

I guess thinking about what significance in the winning is just, seriously, an unnecessary wastage of brainpower. With pouring in of allocations, B-End had successfully made this a zero-sum game, like the early pawn’s showdown in the opening chess. The Feds and State government didn’t change much, and least likely to do any major solid improvement for HS after this by-election. The only thing that was making a vast difference is the major part of time; energy and concentration of leaders in Feds and State government which can and should be used to ensure a better running of the country were instead being used up in campaigning.

On the healthy note, it is probably a good thing; a regular walk around the area can be an appropriate cardio work out. The people surely don’t want another MP dying, eventhough it seems like the popular trend nowadays. Soon enough, it will probably be an epidemic.

An MP expires, then comes the by-election, then lots of moolah for the people, then people got happy, then other people in other area got jealous and starts to wish their MP dead (unless he/she is really working hard for the people) and finally their wish come true, then the vicious cycle continues.

Why B-End won?

Probably it’s the blinding flash flood of money or simply called it as ‘buy election’. The Don from The Godfather once said “I got a deal you just can’t refuse”. Probably, they simply had a deal that they can’t refuse. Not easy for us to understand as we sat in our bum in an-airconditioned room pluggin into broadband and reading this probably nonsensical article in the comfort of home, within the sense of security that at the end of the day, we have enough food to satisfy our palates, enough entertainment to keep us dumb, enough layers of beds for a good slumber and enough love to keep our life meaningful. A broken bridge in town stopping the children from proper schooling probably matter more than heartbreaking news of submarine unsubmergable. A matter close to their hearts matter more than the national interest.

Probably it’s along the racial line. Seems like a probable answer, albeit a scary one, unless it brings out the competitiveness of ethnic-voting, as what Bro WongCH advocates.

Nevertheless, despite the big carrot thrown in for a good taste (Rasa), being labeled ‘pendatang’, ‘prostitutes’, treated as 2^nd class citizen and the on-going mysterious death of the father-to-be late Teoh will constantly haunt most Chinese Malaysians without any significant Alzheimer.

Numero uno’s initial gameplan to throw this into a zerosum game probably not expecting the future dilemma that they would be facing – people will ask for MORE.

Greed has no limit.

Now, Sibu probably is an open but simple game to play. Sibuans should be asking for the same, if not, better deals than the citizen of HS or else they will stain the ballot otherwise.

Sibu is better known as B-End’s fixed deposit; although at this moment of time, cashing out may be a Herculean task.

I guess Numero Uno did not read Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

My point is by-election is simply overrated, overspent and overwhat-ever it is about it. See I wasted half hour writing about it.

I seriously hope the Election Commission can come up with a ruling that the candidates have fairly clean bill of health, or at least have certified reasonable 5 years survival at the point of nomination.

When can we actually stop all the politicking and focus more on nation building?

P.S. Knowledge is power, but ignorance is bliss. I guess knowledge of ignorance brings out the power of bliss.

tis li'l piggy iz TREZ!!!

Time flies when you're having a good life.

2 days ago was Aedan's milestone into 3 years old.

And, he's going to be a big brother soon in few months time.

Every year, on this fine day, the family will celebrate this little cheeky boy's coming to this world, while my dearest reminisces her courage and tolerance towards the painful contractions which did not went through well and the associated operative pain thereafter.

That date also reminded me about how I was 99.99% tired post call (thanks to whoever who decided to put me on active call a day before and whatever beings which endorse such arrangement) while attending to my dearest's initiation of labor induction till Aedan came into the world all naked and cute (and slightly bloody mixed with tinged of meconium).

To date, Aedan had grown to be a pretty chatty chap.

Just to look back on those 3 years, I browsed through some videos of him.


Laughing Aedan: He laughs easily and cheerful.
Whole family simply adores his laughter, every bits of it.


Walking Aedan: This was - the moment -

Aedan's first few steps was captured by my dearest as I was on call. I remembered how I was being called immediately when I was in OT and being told about this magical moment.


Strong Aedan: Once he started to walk, he aint stopping. Scary. Yes, but in a sweet way.
And then, he started to display upper body strength, pushing the cartload full of heavy groceries.


Flirty Aedan: His communicative skills got better as he befriended his cousin sisters with body language and charming smile.


Dancing Aedan: Then, he fell in love with performing arts, not the boring type, but the hip-hop R&B dance craze.


Singing Aedan: It was our (father & son) belief that children songs don't have to be a yawn, and we recorded our first jam session.


Acting Aedan: Of course, once you're obsessed with singing, you'll want to try a bit on acting. I guess he's pretty lame with the expressions and doubt he'll make it to the Big Screen.


Soon enough, he becomes a chatterbox and switches from show biz to literature-inclined interests, probably realizing that it isn't easy to earn a living in the showbiz.
And soon enough, he was hooked on story telling - Ugly Ducklings and Red Riding Hood.

He's 3 years old now. I'm sure there'll be more videos of him in the future...

Happy Birthday, Aedan!

complaining about Facebook?

Haha.. Owen Parsons rocks.. this is like the best Facebook joke. Ever. Ever. Forever.

Although it seems like an outrageous joke, but there's a lesson to learn.
Do not, i repeat, do not complaint about things that you got for FREE or things that come really CHEAP, because at some point, things can really turn nasty, VERY nasty...

vanity licensed plate

came across the top 100 list of vanity licensed car plates in US...

Some of my personal favorites would be:

back to square one

seriously irritating person

seize the day...

ten ten ten.. tententen...

i define myself

chics on big engine

tis one permanent head damage

sixth sense

plastic surgeon...

OMG.. another lame excuse..

psychiatrist?!?

not so demanding... going with the flow

Local car plates ain't that flexible, but i guess creativity is the ability to think outside the box.

Being inclined to O&G, probably the vain plates would sound something like:

LSC 5 (LSCS)

TAH 850 (TAHBSO)

CA 125 (the tumor marker)

Probably there are special vanity plates for my colleagues from other specialty, what would it be, I wonder...

Ortho: BK 4? AK 4?
Surgery: MRC 5? BRC 4?

However, at the end of the day, I guess I'll pretty happy with this number


Not too vain. Not too vain. Just a moment to remember.

Bummer...

Seriously, some people never failed to humor me more than ever. Ever.

There is this junior doctor who graduated from the great esteemed abroad, most probably financed by the lots of idiotic the taxpayers of our Bolehland (Dang, I am one of those moronic losers and I can't do a thing about it). He was sort of like the black sheep, I guess, because the others (mostly) who gained their medical knowledge from First World Country seriously is a winner, inside out.

I was kind off impress that he actually created history as his extension in the most strict posting on this earth of my hospy was being waived by the fearless head of department. He must have done something pretty escalatingly wonderful that really wowed the whole gloomy situation, like how MU came back from a losing match to clinch a title in the past. Note: in the past.

Here's the few thing that he do that really impressed me. I was 'impressed' sure enough.

Everyone was busy doing something in the ward, and this fella had the nuts to sit down and talk to the magazine sales rep to sign up a subscription. Even I was busy and asked his other colleague to ask him to get back to ward work, and he just ignored his colleague, as if he's the blardy consultant. After he jovially signed up the papers for the subscription, he turned to me.

- Actually I got 2 cases to inform you.
- Huh? When they admit?
- Few hours ago
- Few hours? OK, tell me...
- This pregnant lady complaints of syncope
- And your plan for the past few hours is?
- Err
- (I read his plan) Continue observation... To inform MO... Huh, no investigation?
- Yeah... (sheepish look)
- That's great, for someone who had completed 4 months of Medical posting...
- So tell me what are the possible causes of syncope?
- Err...

Great.

Today, he was called to come down to clinic by the leader of the junior doctor. All the senior doctors were seeing patient without any break.
After 10minutes, he was nowhere to be seen.
After 15minutes, still not even a shadow of his fingers was within the vicinity of the clinic.
After 20 minutes, I called up to the wards and his colleague reluctantly told me the noble truth - oh, he is currently in the pantry eating.

This, I really can't blame him.

Food does trump seeing patients who are not even distancely related to you.
A good amount of kiloJoules for his cerebral processes probably could do him some justice.

a dark secret will always come into light

there's a chinese saying that paper will never be able to wrap up fire.

it's probably a matter of time...

Written by John Berthelsen

Friday, 16 April 2010

A potentially explosive scandal in Malaysia over the billion-dollar purchase of French submarines, a deal engineered by then-Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak, has broken out of the domestic arena with the filing of a request to investigate bribery and kickbacks from the deal in a Paris court. Although the case has been contained for eight years in the cozy confines of Malaysia's courts and parliament, which are dominated by the ruling National Coalition, French lawyers William Bourdon, Renaud Semerdjian and Joseph Breham put an end to that when they filed it with Parisian prosecutors on behalf of the Malaysian human rights organization Suaram, which supports good-government causes. Judges in the Paris Prosecution Office have been probing a wide range of corruption charges involving similar submarine sales and the possibility of bribery and kickbacks to top officials in France, Pakistan and other countries. The Malaysian piece of the puzzle was added in two filings, on Dec. 4, 2009 and Feb. 23 this year. For two years, Parisian prosecutors, led by investigating judges Francoise Besset and Jean-Christophe Hullin, have been gingerly investigating allegations involving senior French political figures and the sales of submarines and other weaponry to governments all over the world. French news reports have said the prosecutors have backed away from some of the most serious charges out of concern for the political fallout. The allegations relate to one of France's biggest defense conglomerates, the state-owned shipbuilder DCN, which merged with the French electronics company Thales in 2005 to become a dominant force in the European defense industry. DCN's subsidiary Armaris is the manufacturer of Scorpene-class diesel submarines sold to India, Pakistan and Malaysia among other countries. All of the contracts, according to the lawyers acting for Suaram, a Malaysian human rights NGO, are said to be suspect. With Najib having moved on from the defense portfolio he held when the deal was put together in 2002 to become prime minister and head of the country's largest political party, the mess has the potential to become a major liability for the government and the United Malays National Organisation. Given the power of UMNO, it is unlikely the scandal would ever get any airing in a Malaysian court, which is presumably why Suaram reached out to French prosecutors. "The filings are very recent and have so far prompted a preliminary police inquiry on the financial aspects of the deal," said a Paris-based source familiar with France's defense establishment. "There isn't a formal investigation yet. The investigation will most likely use documents seized at DCN in the course of another investigation, focusing on bribes paid by DCN in Pakistan." The source said police have confined their inquiry to bribery allegations so far and have not looked into the 2006 murder of a Mongolian woman in Malaysia who was a translator on the deal for Najib and his friend, Abdul Razak Baginda, during a visit to Paris. There have been numerous deaths involving DCN defense sales in Taiwan and Pakistan. Prosecutors are suspicious that 11 French submarine engineers who were murdered in a 2002 bomb blast in Karachi – first thought to have been the work of Al Qaeda – were actually killed in retaliation for the fact that the French had reneged on millions of dollars in kickbacks to Pakistani military officers. The Malaysian allegations revolve around the payment of €114 million to a Malaysia-based company called Perimekar, for support services surrounding the sale of the submarines. Perimekar was wholly owned by another company, KS Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd, which in turn was controlled by Najib's best friend, Razak Baginda, whose wife Mazalinda, a lawyer and former magistrate, was the principal shareholder, according to the French lawyers. "Over the past years, serious cases have been investigated in France by judges involving DCN," lawyer Renaud Semerdjian told Asia Sentinel in a telephone interview. "This is not the first case of this kind that is being investigated. There are others in Pakistan and there are some issues about India. To a certain extent, every time weapons of any kind have been provided, suspicion of violation of the law may be very high." As defense minister from 2000 to 2008, Najib commissioned a huge military buildup to upgrade Malaysia's armed forces, including two submarines from Armaris and the lease of a third, a retired French Navy Agosta-class boat. There were also Sukhoi supersonic fighter jets from Russia and millions of dollars spent on coastal patrol boats. All have come under suspicion by opposition leaders in Malaysia's parliament but UMNO has stifled any investigation. Asked personally about the cases, Najib has responded angrily and refused to reply. Despite efforts to bury it, the case achieved considerably notoriety after the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a 28-year-old Mongolian translator and Razak Baginda's jilted lover, who participated in negotiations over the purchase of the submarines. By her own admission in a letter found after her death, she was attempting to blackmail Razak Baginda for US$500,000. She was shot in October 2006 and her body was blown up with military explosives by two bodyguards attached to Najib's office after Razak Baginda went to Najib's chief of staff, Musa Safri, for help in keeping her away from him. Not long after being acquitted in November 2008 under questionable circumstances of participating in her murder, Razak Baginda left the country for England. The bodyguards were convicted but no motive was ever established for their actions despite a confession by one which was not allowed in court, but which said they would be paid a large sum of money to get rid of her. The submarine deal was never brought up in court during a months-long murder trial that was marked by prosecutors, defense attorneys and the judge working studiously to keep Najib's name out of the proceedings. A private detective hired by Razak Baginda to protect him from the furious Altantuya filed a statutory declaration after the trial indicating that Najib had actually been the victim's lover and had passed her on to Razak Baginda. The detective, P. Balasubramaniam, said later that he was unceremoniously run out of Kuala Lumpur. He eventually emerged from hiding in India to say he had been offered RM5 million (US$1.57 million) by a businessman close to Najib's wife to shut up and get out of town. He also said he had met Nazim Razak, Najib's younger brother, and was told to recant his testimony. In the current complaint in Paris, the issue revolves around what, if anything, Razak Baginda's Perimekar company did to deserve €114 million. Zainal Abidin, the deputy defense minister at the time of the sale, told parliament that Perimekar had received the amount – 11 percent of the sale price of the submarines – for "coordination and support services." The Paris filing alleges that there were neither support nor services. Perimekar was registered in 2001, a few months before the signing of the contracts for the sale, the Paris complaint states. The company, it said flatly, "did not have the financial resources to complete the contract." A review of the accounts in 2001 and 2002, the complaint said, "makes it an obvious fact that this corporation had absolutely no capacity, or legal means or financial ability and/or expertise to support such a contract." "None of the directors and shareholders of Perimekar have the slightest experience in the construction, maintenance or submarine logistics," the complaint adds. "Under the terms of the contract, €114 million were related to the different stages of construction of the submarines." The apparent consideration, supposedly on the part of Perimekar, "would be per diem and Malaysian crews and accommodation costs during their training. There is therefore no link between billing steps and stages of completion of the consideration." As Asia Sentinel reported on April 1, services for the subs are being performed by a well-connected firm called Boustead DCNS, a joint venture between BHIC Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of publicly-listed Boustead Heavy Industries Corp Bhd, and DCNS SA, a subsidiary of DCN. Boustead's Heavy Industries Division now includes Perimekar as an "associate of the Group. PSB is involved in the marketing, upgrading, maintenance and related services for the Malaysian maritime defence industry," according to Boustead's annual report. Originally Boustead told the Malaysian Stock Exchange that the service contract was for RM600 million (US$184.1 million) for six years, or US$30.68 million annually. However, the contract later ballooned to RM270 million per year. Boustead Holdings is partly owned by the government and has close connections with UMNO. "There are good grounds to believe that [Perimekar] was created with a single objective: arrange payment of the commission and allocate the amount between different beneficiaries including Malaysian public officials and or Malaysian or foreign intermediaries," the complaint states.

one leg rocks

Another reason why physically-handicapped people with strong mind, is better off than normal-bodied people with inferior baseline cerebral function. Probably they were mildly asphyxiated intrapartum. Just maybe.

april fool | postmortem

I used to be a prankster.

At times, people couldn't really tell whether I'm joking or just plain serious.

Now retired. More of tired, i guess.

Tired of getting others irritated.

At times, people just couldn't take it and thus, distance away - which is not a bad thing, considering it is less stuffy, global warming and all.

Kedah is damn hot this few days. It's like a giant sauna, giant FREE sauna. Tempting? Not?

Keeps those without a good sense of humor away.

I always believe a healer should have a good sense of humor.
Dr. William Osler, the great physician couldn't have agreed more.

Last year, it was an easy task as I began my 1 month attachment in NICU. I managed to deceive (and probably shock) a few nurses or HOs that I was switching to the Paed squad.

Toned down this year because just too busy to play pranks on anyone, except for my dearest who chose to have her modified glucose test done on that day.

I fooled her into believing that she tested positive with a pretty high reading even on fasting itself.

She was actually looking forward in a semi-depressive state to be the giant pin-cushion for regular blood sugar profile.

I wasn't at the end of any pranks, except perhaps for an incidental one, thanks to Dr. K.
He was afraid that I was furious when I told him 'Thanks for the April Fool joke".
He doesn't know me well enough.

Going through the net, I found lots of interesting pranks, absolutely creative and funny.

I found one which is O&G-related, that probably should have brought it up with Dr. Irza, who kept egging me to get myself an I-phone which I doubt I will be needing anytime soon.

It is known as I-Peed (aptly named) for home pregnancy test of I-phone application.

Pink or Blue? One Line or Two? Cup or stream? What woman hasn’t spent countless hours sweating it out over an innocuous white plastic stick otherwise known as a home pregnancy test (whether trying to conceive or not). Not to mention the small fortune spent on multiple drug store trips to buy more tests (just in case the first one was wrong). Even the cheap dollar store tests add up pretty quickly after a few months of trying to conceive.

With the recent launch of iPeed, those high costs and frequent pharmacy trips are a thing of the past, as the new home pregnancy test iphone application offers 99% accuracy 2 days before your first missed period. Created by a pharmacist mom and her computer developer husband, the iPeed is hoping to revolutionize the $50 million-dollar-a-year home pregnancy test market. And at $2.99 a download for unlimited use, it may do just that

After downloading the application, you simply aim your urine stream at the bullseye in the center of the screen. A complex algorithm analyzes the level of HCG (pregnancy hormone) in your urine. Sensitivity is > 12.5 mIU/mL, comparable to most tests available at the supermarket. If the test is positive, an image of a cooing baby appears (above, right). If the test is negative, an image of a martini appears.

If things go as planned, your future pharmacy trips may be limited to diapers and formula. Or vodka.

I wonder whether I-phone is water-resistant...

Sexy fonts.. Pheewwitt!!

Came across these sexy sexy fonts by Alex Merto...
Perhaps you can go through one by one and take a guess what does it denotes each...