Barack Obama is wasting his time ...

Don't expect Barack Obama to get nominated as a Democrat candidate for the presidency. The very fact that he is black rules out his ultimate nomination. In any country that practises democracy, he stands a good chance of being a chief executive of the country. But this is America where bigotry is strong. The blacks, hispanics, Indians, and others of  non-European  descent might support him wholeheartedly and would like to see a black president in the White House, but the majority of the voters are "whites" and a great number of them are bigots. Even the nicely behaved and polite white friends that you meet in the street  are bigots to the core. They prefer the "anglo-saxon" types to be president, not those of the jewish faith and definitely not the blacks no  matter how brilliant the candidate is. 

Why the other day a woman commentator apologised to Tiger Woods for using the word "lynch" on him. The sad history of white extremists lynching poor Negros in the deep, deep south of America is still in the psychic memory of the "whites".

I predict that Hillary Clinton will be the Democrat's candidate to fight against the Republican's candidate in the coming US presidential election. Firstly, Hillary is a woman and women like to see a woman in the White House. Secondly, she can garner sympathetic votes from women who despise her ex-president husband for being a womaniser while in office. Thirdly, she is "white" and most likely would get votes even from the white republicans and neutrals just because they are horrified to see a black president.

An Arab slap on Malaysia's face ...

I read somewhere today that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is investing a whopping  USD 10 billion to set up a university in Singapore and has already appointed a person by the name of Shih Choon Fong to start the university, called the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology from scratch. Why it decided to choose a non-Muslim country instead of a Muslim country, especially next door Malaysia, I have not the slightest clue. Full credit must be extended to Singapore for convincing the Kingdom to invest in the country when Arab-toadying Malaysia was ignored. For all the Kingdom being touted as a founder, protector and defender of Islam, when it comes to money, the Kingdom behaves just like any Jewish State, and Singapore is a Jewish State.

I personally never like the Arabs because they are violent, morally corrupt, selfish, greedy, and unhelpful. With so much of accumulated wealth from OIL, it's not in their character to help poor Muslim countries. When the tsunami hit Acheh, an impoverished but a staunch Muslim country, the Arabs (I include those Arabs in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and all those rich Middle-East countries) never lifted a finger to help until they were told to do so by Christian and Buddhist countries like the West and Japan who contributed substantially. If anyone is in doubt, just go to Acheh and you will find no Arab or Arab NGO helping the Acheh people. But if you go to Bangkok and Pattaya, you will find many of them reeking beer and whisky in sex clubs, massage parlours, and brothels. 

In spite of the fact that some 2 million Muslim pilgrims ( most of whom are poor) are contributing billions of USD of their hard-earned money to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia annually, yet this bloated Kingdom of easy wealth never see it fit it to help poor Islamic countries other than contributing token amounts. Their moral corruption was blatantly typified in an incident told by someone I knew of a delegate from an Arab country attending an OIC  (Organisation of Islam Countries ) convention in Kuala Lumpur . He was brought to a hotel by a taxi and no sooner had he took out his luggage from the taxi, than he impatiently asked the taxi driver where he could get "women" for the night. 

The taxi driver was embarrassed ! Firstly, because he was a Haji ( i.e. someone who had been to Mekkah and had performed the Haj ), secondly the delegate looked like a senior representative of his country, not a  young  western tourist looking for a "fuck" and thirdly the taxi driver had no wish to ferry the passenger to the hotspots in Kuala Lumpur. To save the situation, the taxi driver managed to get a Chinese taxi driver to assist the delegate and of course he had no qualms in helping the randy Arab, if an extra buck could be earned, and perhaps making some recommendations himself as he drove along. This bloody Arab must have been thinking of sex no sooner had he left his country, rather than preparing what he had to contribute in the convention.

Let them earn an honest living ....

Yesterday the  Malay Mail, reported news of a raid carried out by the Ministry of Trade on traders selling imitation goods. In the accompanying picture, the Ministry officials looked gloatingly happy when they confiscated some RM 200,000 worth of goods. These officials have over the years been raiding and confiscating imitation goods like watches, handbags, video discs and many others. 

Don't they realise that these traders are actually  making an honest living. The night traders whom I know are mostly the unemployeds, that they cannot get regular jobs, and therefore are compelled to earn their livelihoods by selling such goods. They are mostly poor people who earn between RM 30-50 a day in order to pay house rental, provide education for their children, or just to survive living in the Klang Valley. I have never met a night trader who is prosperous. Even those that have been in the business for several years are actually eking out a living. The cars or vans that they use to carry their goods are old second hand vehicles. The long hours that they endure working from 7 pm to 4 am  are sometimes not worth the few ringgits in sales.

Why then the Ministry listen to those Western corporations that sell the genuine goods for thousand of ringgits. A Christian Dior handbag that sells for say RM 6,000/= when I can buy a look-alike one for RM 70/= does not impoverish the distributor or the manufacturer of the bag.  Does Christian Dior expect me to buy its exorbitantly priced goods when all  I can afford is RM 70/=. The company that makes the bag does not lose anything when in fact it gains in advertisement value.  So what if I buy an imitation Rolex, or a Louis Vitton bag, or a Prada shirt knowing that it's not the real McCoy and that it wont last a month. I just buy it to make me feel good. That's all.

As if they are not high already ....

Its reported today that Malaysian property market would increase by 10 to 30 percent this year. This is due to increases in the prices of 2 essential components of buildings viz. steel and cement. These 2 items are controlled items - meaning the prices have already been fixed by the government at RM 11.50 per bag for cement and RM 1,800 per tonne for steel. But suppliers have a way of going around the restriction by increasing transport, administrative and other costs to get their 10 to 30 percent increase in their supplies. It seems to me that this report is an annual affair announced by those people who are pro-developers and anti-consumers. If  it's not steel or cement, they would blame the increase in property to increases in land cost, or sand, diesel, bricks, and so on. 

In fact, there has been no let up in property price since 1970. These same people are the ones that are against any consumer-friendly proposals for a build-first and sell-later concept and very pro on progressive construction and pay as you go along. In the first instance, the consumer has a choice of inspecting the property and decides whether to buy or not, while in the second instance the consumer is committed to buy the property even if the property is still on the drawing board. Such are the ways things are in Malaysia and the present government are no help either in assisting the consumers.

Any property developer that approaches me to buy a house, I always tell him to build the house first, and then I will consider buying it later. To this, the agent would always reply that the house is now "cheap" and if you wait when it's complete, the house will be "expensive". It's like buying a car. The salesman is persuading you to buy the car now saying that the price would go up in the next month. If you are patient enough, come next month, the car price remains the same or may even be lower.

My uncle liked to tell me that when he first worked in KL in the early 1970, a single-storey (ST) terraced house cost about RM 20,000-25,000, a double-storey (DT) about RM 28,000-32,000, a semi-detached (SD) about RM 35,000-50,000 while a detached house (popularly termed wrongly as a "bungalow" ) for less than RM 80,000-90,000. At that time, no detached house cost more than RM 100,000 unless it's located in Kenny Hill, and Damansara Heights - 2 prestigious locations during those days. 

At that time, my uncle was earning a monthly salary of RM 1,500. When my uncle retired some 30 years later with a last drawn monthly salary of RM 15,500, an ST house anywhere in the Klang Valley cost about RM 300,000 to 400,000, a DT house about RM 500,000 to 600,000, a SD about RM 750,000 to 950,000 while a detached house not less than RM 1.5 million anywhere, and in those  2 locations not less than RM 3.5 million. So while my uncles's salary has gone up 10 times, an ST house has gone up 11-12 times, a DT house 12-14 times, a SD 18-20 times, and a detached house more than 15 times, and in the 2 locations some 20 to 30 times. No wonder my uncle never bought a house. Instead he lived in a small apartment.

I like to think that property price increase is caused by the developer only. Since there are 2 parties involved - the seller and the buyer - the consumers are partly to be blamed, perhaps even more so due to the speculative attitude of the Malaysian house buyer who is greedy to make a fast buck even when he's already owned a couple of houses to his credit. Encouraged by easy financial  terms, he buys a house now in order to make 5 to 10 percent when he re-sells the house (even when under construction) in a few months time or at double his original purchased price in a few years time. Under this environment, no wonder property prices have been spiralling upwards for years.

I am beginning to think that the Malaysian domestic economy is dependent on only 2 things, one is the property industry while the other is the car industry.