Are we being petty and mean?

Thinking back about the Indian maid who stole our chicken pie, pandan-layered cake, bread and a pair of slippers, should we report the incident to her supervisor. Are we being petty and mean to complain about her behavior?

She must be very hungry. That must be the reason why she helped herself to strangers’ food. Suet Ben claimed she has light fingers and it is a habit to steal rather than satisfy a hungry stomach. And Dona does not trust Indian maids around her. This is not about race but a behavioral problem which is very much familiar to us.

She must be too embarrassed to tell us she is poor and cannot afford to buy such food. The pie costs RM1.20. And that maybe slighty expensive for someone who is earning as low as RM600.00 per month. Maids are paid on a daily basis. No work, no pay. She is not a fulltime worker, replacing whoever is on leave.

I understand how it felt to be hungry. When I tried to cut half a portion of my noodles for breakfast, come 10 am I felt shaky and just couldn’t concentrate on my work. Up and down the office I walked, mumbling and getting agitated with things around me. For this reason I have an airtight porcelain container where I store my precious “Hup Seng” crackers. Cheap, salty and delicious. This is one of my backup meals. If that is still not enough, I have my mixed cereals beverage in the pantry.

She stole Jun’s slippers. Perhaps, not for herself but for a member of her family. It is not an expensive and attractive pair of slippers, one she wore while cleaning the washrooms. How shall we rate this deplorable action.

Helping yourself to someone’s stuff is obviously unacceptable by society. But when you are desperate enough to want something that badly, you demoralized yourself and only think of the urge to get it. You just refused to care about others. Greed, bad habits, fun? If she works in Saudi Arabia, both her hands will be chopped off.

This is not the first time we have been abused by our office maids. Maids, lots of stories about them. Some appreciative and praiseworthy. Some, drove us up the walls. They are human, we are human, too. This is a time when I welcome syariah law.

Just do not love in public

It was inopportuned for a student to be caught hugging her boyfriend passionately in their car by a passing patrol car. More ill-fated was, they were chased by the police and ended up being the culprits who caused a 5-car pile up.

‘Love is so hard to find when the whole world is watching’. Our law does not allow you to express your passions to your Romeo or Juliet in public. Just don’t get excited if you have not seen each other for sometime. You can whisper sweet nothings in your phones. SMS your flowery poems to each other. Just keep your distance.

This reminds me of the couple who joined us for our trip to Lake Toba, Indonesia. He was married, she was married. They fell in love with each other. They could not get enough of each other, so they found a way out to be together. I could see they were very much in love yet I could see the strain in their relationship. They had the freedom to appreciate each other during our trip. However, when we landed in Subang Airport, he was practically crying. They had to return to their respective spouses afterwards.

I do not know what happened to them after our trip. But I hope they find each other and be with each other. Or else, he can take her as his second. He is permitted to have four.

What does it takes to be a Malaysian Chinese

It is so sad that there are people out there who wants to be a citizen here yet not allowed to be one. He contributes to the Inland Revenue, help built the country, yet not recognize as a citizen. Why asked him to pay when you do not recognize him as your own.

Waiting for 50 years, until your neck grew long is a long time. Waiting and died waiting is more ridiculous.

You are automatically a citizen if you are born on and after August 31, 1957. A Merdeka Child! If you were there to rejoice and join in the shout for “Merdeka” , so what? You still can’t vote.

I wonder what does it takes to be a Malaysian Chinese.

Born in KL in 1949 but still not a citizen

KUALA LUMPUR: Kon Foo Chin, 58, has always called Malaysia home. Born in 1949 in Kuala Lumpur to a Chinese immigrant father and a Malaysian mother, Foo Chin calls himself a Malaysian – but his red identity card (IC) and the authorities say otherwise.

“He applied for citizenship in the 1960s, but the only problem was that he failed the Bahasa Malaysia test which he took as a young man.

“Not being granted citizenship has been difficult because my father does not get the same kind of privileges that citizens get. Applying and renewing passport is one example,” said his son Kek Heong, 29, when contacted Tuesday.

He said his father had filled in the application forms and attached the necessary documents, including his father's birth certificate and his grandmother's death certificate in his application for Malaysian citizenship.

He added that for the last 40 years, Foo Sin has worked as a painter. Foo Chin's five children and even his siblings all hold MyKads, but he is still waiting. And Foo Chin is not alone.

According to Federal Territory MCA Youth deputy chairman Yee Poh Ping, he estimated that some 200,000 Chinese residents in Malaysia are still holding red ICs. “Most of them are senior citizens who have been living in Malaysia for many years. Some have been here even before Independence.

“Over the years, they have paid their taxes and contributed to the Malaysian economy, and their families are all here,” he told the press yesterday.

He added that for many of them, they have no other country to call home, as many have lived here for the last four to five decades.

Yee, who initiated a week-long campaign in August to help such individuals, said he has received 485 applications so far.

“Those who have applied for citizenship have also ensured that all the documents are all in order. Some have even gone for a Bahasa Malaysia fluency test and passed.

“But every time we check with the NRD, all they say is 'Tunggu' (wait). Some have been waiting for 50 years for their citizenship, and others have died without getting their citizenship,” he said.
Yee added that he had forwarded a memorandum to MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting on Oct 9 and was informed that Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho will look into the matter.

Yee also reminded Malaysian permanent resident (PR) holders to change their red ICs and blue MyKad PR to the red MyPR by Dec 31.

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/17/nation/19186566&sec=nation

Raya Mood

I have been in a Raya mood since yesterday. Filled with high spirits and excitement for the weekend ahead. Izani, Rozi and Dona were already on leave. It was quiet in the office. Work was slow and there was a kind of peace flowing through the office. Sent some mails to customers, made several calls to distributors wishing them ‘Selamat Hari Raya’ and that’s it. Yan Lee came back from her visits to her relatives in China and brought back dried longbeans for me.

Jun, our office maid was on Raya leave and a young Indian girl replaced her. She was here for only a day so we tolerated her. She stole a chicken pie, a piece of pandan sponge cake which Suet Ben bought from Tong Kee for Elaine. As for Elaine, she ‘lost’ a piece of her homemade bread. I put RM5.00 on Florence’s table, kept an eye on her, it was safe.

It was awfully quiet outside the office too, until we realized that Dutch Lady was closed today. Usually we could hear the loading and unloading sounds from the trailers, laborers chatting with each other as they worked, forklifts traveling to and fro from the warehouse to the trailers, vice versa. Students from UTAR are on semester leave. Noel Hampers was off after lunch or we could hear their staff bypassing our backdoor to the washrooms. As I looked out of my window, there was no activity at all on the street below. The mamak stall was unusually empty of its customers.

Traffic? As smooth as it is in a kampong. It only took me 16 mins (6.53am – 7.09am) from home to get to Section 14. There was a road builder ahead of us. Without it, I guess, it would only take 10 mins. Well, Subang Jaya is not that far from PJ. It took me exactly half-hour to get home today.

With the many interesting programs on TV, my mother predicted I will not be doing much work during this Raya holiday but will stay glued to the TV instead. I have lots of plans for this weekend. I hope to prove her wrong but I have a very erratic mind and might change it any time.

Calvin Klein snapped up Rain

Just as he was back from Berlin after completing his filming for Speed Racer, his first international movie, Rain was off to the US for his photo shoots for Calvin Klein advertisement campaigns.

Calvin Klein? The American designer with the midas touch? The man who turn a nobody into a somebody. The man whose ads reek sex.

To quote a web writer “Models in Calvin Klein advertisement campaigns are under the watchful eyes of the entire world and it would be impossible not to be a celebrity after appearing on the cover of any CK ad prints or television commercials. CK models are the targets of the media.”

CK models are phenomenally traffic stoppers. And this time CK chooses Rain.

Calvin Klein has endorsed Rain as his spokesman for his range of apparels. For his ads Rain donned CK jeans, t-shirts, pullovers and jackets. No underwear centerfold spreads like Travis Fimmel who sprawled half-naked in prints. Just decently sober photo spreads but tantalizingly provocative.

Rain sported tinted hair reaching well below his nape, disheveled and untidy, tresses falling teasingly over his forehead, covering part of his face and eyes. This mirror a wild, untamed look. Tattoos are everywhere, boldly stamped on his right arm, nesting on the inside of his right wrist, printed on his left hand and one sits sexily just on his right hipbone. Defiant, rebellious, independent a streak in today’s youth. Rain was also seen wearing accessories like hand bands and necklace, evident of a trendy, urban metrosexual male.

His poses were executed to be provocative, sexual and relaxed. The taut, toned muscles of his chest and flat plane of his stomach was sinfully displayed in jackets. Hipster jeans, unbuckled, pushed low by a hand to reveal the famous white band of Calvin Klein underwear. Looking cool over his shoulder he seemed to say “I look different, feel different in a CK. You wanna try one?” But then, something is missing in all his images. His smile. If he had flashed that charming smile of his, like in the Korean Tourism “Sparkling Korea” ad, that would be devastating.

Thinking over, Rain need not smile in his ads, he just need to smile in his heart. This irresistible offer from Calvin Klein will obviously propel him to international stardom. Most CK models move to be hot commodities in the entertainment arena and Rain will no doubt be any different. Everyone will wonder who this sizzling hot Asian guy is. From the Eskimos to the pygmies, they will want to own a pair of CK jeans.

When Brooke Shields said “I don’t care who wears the pants in the family just as long I wear the calvins” there was a smug on her face. Her provocative 1981 ad, “Nothing comes between me and my calvins” caused an uproar.

Advertisement whether commercials or prints, tap on the emotional juice that is in us, manipulating us to think it is a great product worth spending money on. Whether we agree or disagree, advertisements are here to control our lives.

I will try to fit myself into those jeans. It is so sexy to be wearing one. Well first, I will have to make a few adjustments. Trim my tummy, and have the jeans altered short to accommodate my legs. Hey, how much will it costs? Mine is usually RM9.90 from Carrefour. China-made products really spoil the fashion market. But I want to be sexy. I want to flaunt the valley between my fabulous buttocks when I sit or squat down! And I want to display the tattoo below my navel!

A hot dusty day never seem so cool and clear with CK sunglasses. A filthy man never smell so nice with Crave. You never look so sexy and feel so sexy like Rain in a pair of CK jeans. Believe it or not, you make your own judgement. Just follow the flow and be IN.

It is okay to stray

Wan Zainunda was just 31 when she joined us as our distributor. When our marketing guys recruited her, her husband was against the move. He preferred she stayed home to look after their kids and did the house chores. We managed to open her mind to accept a change in her life would mean financial stability, a wider scope of friends and a healthy wellbeing. She was a very timid, submissive woman. With a domineering husband like Abdul Halim, whose profession is a teacher in a rural primary school, she was not parallel in knowledge, intelligence and articulate as him. Whatever he said was final.

But Abdul Halim was no match to our guys. We are trained in the arts of persuasion, influencing and we are more experienced in spotting the weakness in him. Wan Zainunda as we learned, was a good sales woman if given a little boost to her eagerness to excel. She accumulated a collective number of customers. Her business with us grew gradually. She contributed financially to her family’s income which Abdul Halim found extremely straining as time passed by.

Little did she know the reason behind his reluctance for us to rope her in. He fell in love. Everyone in their community knew about his infatuation except Wan Zainunda. Finally she heard from her circle of friends about his infidelity. When she confronted him, he confessed he was in love with his 18 year old student. He was 35. He had loved her since she was 15. She is 3 years older than his eldest child.

When Abdul Halim’s heart was directed elsewhere and his body was on turbo, to satisfy his present need was more important than anything else. He wanted to keep his little Lolita. He needed marital adjustment. He quitted his family and move in with his new love. He promised Wan Zainunda RM1,500 monthly to support his five children. He bought her a Perodua Kancil, he promised to settle the monthly installment.

Like babies, promises are easy to make but hard to deliver. He promised a lot but deliver none. He brought her lots of anguish, heartaches and disillusion. Wan now works as a cook in a hypermarket in Kuala Lumpur and lets out her car to a friend for RM300.00 a month.

This is her life. Her husband decides it is okay to stray just because his religion allows him to marry up to four women at a time. I thought a religion helps bring family together, why does this helps to bring misery and add burden to one. Very strange.