Greenbacks Popular as Hell Money

In high demand: Ang Siew Siew showing the US dollar hell notes at her shop Eng Chin Heong Sdn Bhd in Kimberley Street, Penang. Image credit: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/03/30/us-dollar-popular-as-hell-money-this-year/

The weakened ringgit has got the Chinese community alarmed and anxious for their dearly departed ones as well.

With All-Souls Day (Qing Ming) being observed 10 days before and 10 days after April 04, many stores selling religious paraphernalia are seeing an increase in the sale of “hell money” – notes printed to resemble legal tender and burnt as offerings for the deceased – in foreign currency, especially US dollars.

One store owner Kelly Tan said demand was also high for the yuan and Singapore dollar notes.

Ang Siew Siew, another shopkeeper selling prayer items had also mentioned the “paper bank headquarters” as another best seller.

Last Saturday, club member Kyla Malupa conducted the Power Image 101 workshop at Federation International College which is housed in Menara Liberty in Jalan Sultan Ismail, KL.

A Liquid Gold Advanced Toastmasters Club event that was organized in collaboration with John Robert Powers.
 
Eighty-five people came for the talk  – a success and another feather in the cap for the high-flying Toastmasters club.

The KL-Klang BRT Line Proposal

I was looking at the empty buses that were running on the elevated BRT Sunway Line that traverses between Bandar Sunway and Subang Jaya when a thought flashed through my mind: “Another white elephant”!

We have many white elephants in Malaysia.

Anyway, lest I digress, I remember reading a March 06, 2017 article in The Edge Malaysia that talked about the viability of the KL-Klang BRT line.

Just like the BRT Sunway Line, the government are turning to the private sector to finance the proposed 34km KL-Klang bus rapid transit line via a concession.

With an estimated cost of RM4 billion – although I am betting that the final price will escalate – the BRT is considered relatively cheap compared with the other public transport infrastructure projects.

Yet, I read that many construction players are balking at the prospect of funding the endeavor themselves because the risks are high and the returns are low.

To recap, the KL-Klang BRT is one of the twelve corridors identified in the Land Public Transport Masterplan back in 2013. It is about building exclusive lanes so that the buses do not lose travel time in traffic congestion.

The said Line is expected to cut journey time from the present 70 minutes to 40 minutes and is envisaged to benefit some 1.9 million commuters in the Klang Valley with a forecast daily ridership of over 400,000.

Again, they're numbers that are nice to crunch but they don't mean anything.

In fact, SPAD’s Greater KL/Klang Valley Land Public Transport Masterplan had highlighted that the present total daily ridership for rail transport in the Klang Valley is only a mere 464,500.

So as I have said, the numbers are not credible.

We only need to look at the two LRT lines built in KL – STAR LRT and Putra LRT – the operators held 60-year concessions – and yet the government had to bail them out in less than five years due to lower-than-expected ridership. KL Monorail – with a 40-year concession – faced the same sorry fate when it was taken over by government-owned Prasarana in 2007 – four years after it began operating.

Almost ten years after bailing out the monorail project, Prasarana are struggling to turn a profit for all the three lines despite a much-improved ridership.

The mammoth debt of about RM18.36 billion as at December 2015 translates into a gearing of 16.5 times. And the company booked an operating loss of RM227.36 million in FY2015 and a pre-tax loss of RM1.24 billion.

The government have no business managing a business! Is it any wonder government-owned businesses are losing money?

Theresa May Signs Brexit Letter

Image credit: http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/785255/brexit-mean-meaning-article-50-theresa-may-economy-pound-immigration

British Prime Minister Theresa May has officially triggered the Brexit process by signing Article 50 on March 28, 2017 – following a June 2016 referendum that voted to leave the European Union. 

The said letter was delivered by hand to European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Belgium the day after by Tim Barrow, Britain's permanent representative to the EU. 

Addressing parliament on March 29, May acknowledged that the Brexit vote had been divisive, but expressed hope “that we are no longer defined by the vote we cast, but by our determination to make a success of the result”. 

And she added: “We are one great union of people and nations with a proud history and a bright future. And, now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, it is time to come together”.

On Monday, March 27, 2017, I was at the UniRazak Toastmasters meeting in Jalan Tangsi, KL where I helped out this club to evaluate three of their speakers doing their CC manual projects. Two of them were CC#10 speeches and the third was a CC#8.

On Sunday, April 02, Celtic whipped Hearts 5-0 and in the process, earned the Scottish Premiership title for the sixth consecutive time (and their forty-eighth Scottish title) – with eight games to spare!

Scott Sinclair scored three (24, 27, 84 penalty) and the other two came from Stuart Armstrong (55) and Patrick Roberts (61).

In fact, the records keep tumbling for Celtic, who remain unbeaten in 37 domestic games this season – and eclipsing a 100-year-old club record!

RM100 Fine Charge

Shah Alam MP Khalid Abdul Samad (right) had labelled the charge slapped against his assailants, where a RM100 fine would be imposed upon conviction, as an insult to Parliament itself. 

The Parti Amanah Negara communications director said this in reference to the eight hoodlums including Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman's son Firdaus – who had attacked him on the grounds of Parliament last November 24.

Khalid wanted them to be charged under Section 124 of the Penal Code, which constitutes acts detrimental to parliamentary democracy. But the Attorney-General had charged them under the Minor Offences Act instead.

On a Saturday morning, March 25, 2017, I was at the main campus of Tunku Abdul Rahman University College in Jalan Genting Kelang, KL to evaluate an Advanced speech at the TARUC Toastmasters meeting. 

It has been years since I attended a Toastmasters meeting here.

I also want to share photos of my IPD-OUM class that I was teaching a day later. My Filipino students who came for this Marketing & Sales Management lecture just love to snap photos:

I must admit I enjoyed teaching them! And of course, I love my students!

History of Mankind

If we really sudy human history, it would seem that only two things matter! Sex and war!

Seventy-one year old Italian comic book writer and artist, Milo Manara did the "History of Mankind Illustrated" (2001) and I thought it would be really interesting to share some of his illustrations:

For many, this is really our collective history. And as they say, history always repeats itself. 

On March 24, 2017, I was at the Rice Garden Cafe & Lounge in a KL suburb, Sri Petaling for the Liquid Gold Advanced Toastmasters meeting.

We had the whole place to ourselves – well, not counting the one or two occupied tables.

And I was the Table Topics Master – one of those rare occasions where I did not deliver a speech!

April 01 was a day of unbridled joy for all Liverpool fans because we beat derby rivals Everton 3-1, thereby enhancing their prospects of a top-four place in the EPL.

Sadio Mane gave the Reds an early lead in the eighth minute but Matthew Pennington slotted in for the other side twenty minutes later.

The match was level for just two minutes and 57 seconds before Philippe Coutinho beat two players and curled a beautiful shot into the top corner, and then he set up substitute Divock Origi to power in Liverpool's third in the sixtieth minute. 

Somebody to Love

Photo: pinterest.com

The Queen song that can make me feel as if magic is in the air is “Somebody To Love”.

It’s an amazingly powerful song – the woeful tale of a man begging God to send him love – sung as only someone of Freddie Mercury’s caliber could.

But when you factor in his massive 4-octave vocal range completely on its own, you know you’re in for an incredible, once in a lifetime treat as you are with his vocal track from the 1976 classic!

For 5 minutes, we get to hear “Somebody To Love” in all its raw and open honesty as Freddie is heard without his band behind him, voice rising and falling and cracking in all the right places and never once tempted to fake his way through any part of his performance.

This was Freddie Mercury at his most open and vulnerable, pouring his heart and soul into his craft with a level of authenticity that’s impossible to ignore.

Check it out in the audio below!

Last evening, I was at Jalan Kiara in Mont’ Kiara, KL where I attended the Ireka Toastmasters meeting.

I evaluated a CC #10 and was rewarded with a Best Speech Evaluator accolade. I took part in Table Topics and I was voted Best Table Topics speaker. A double winner.