Apr 30, 2010

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 2nd 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.

Apr 26, 2010

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!

Apr 24, 2010

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...

Apr 22, 2010

vanity licensed plate

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

Some of my personal favorites would be:

bk2sq11 back to square one
carrpdm1 seize the day...
idfynme1 i define myself
madphd1 tis one permanent head damage
opuleez1 OMG.. another lame excuse..
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.

Apr 21, 2010

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.