Foreign workers revisited

In my previous post, I was curious whether countries that supply (low-skilled) foreign workers would benefit from these individuals. One thing for sure, the receiving countries would, by allowing the local workforce to pursue higher value activities.

Seems like a good thing.

On the contrary, however, the Malaysian government is proposing a bill that would restrict foreign workers to their work sites unless they receive special permission to leave.

Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said: "We are not trying to confine the foreign workers ... but it will be better to supervise them for law enforcement."

In the same article, Police Chief Musa Hassan said that foreign laborers may be restricted to their living quarters and their "activities monitored" as part of efforts to curb crime. Under the proposed legislation, foreign laborers will not be allowed to leave their homes unless they register beforehand, and their employers will be responsible their movements.

Not allowed to leave their homes?

Musa further added that about 5,000 crimes were committed by foreigners last year from a total of about 230,000 (232,620 cases, to be exact).

That's not even 3% of the total crimes committed...

Typically, people use the 80-20 rule, a general assumption that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes. Although it's highly dependent on how one stratifies the causes, but if foreigners-related crime is one of the causes, 3% is definitely too low to even spend resources for.

Unless, of course, there are other reasons.

But still, this doesn't feel right. Like a foreign construction worker said in the article: "To keep us in our beds when we have a day off is criminal."

There's gotta be a better, more effective way.

[Read more...]

Jakarta flood - the aftermath

Many people here in Malaysia asked about the Jakarta flood. Not much I could tell about it, other than what I saw on the TV and read on the internet. I think pictures from Javajive and Marek Bialoglowy capture most of it.

One of my close relatives' home was badly hit by the flood. The family stayed at my parents' for a couple of nights, and the last two weekends my family has been going there to help clean the house. Almost everything is gone or no more usable. Sofa, mattress, TV, refrigerator, clothes, documents... We're now trying to get their life started and going again.

Letter from a Sun's reader questions the RM3.6 billion fund to help mitigate flood in Johor. That's about USD 1 billion (Malaysia's 2005 GDP was $290 billion.) The letter nicely put it that the flood could've been prevented if developments around Johor had been properly assessed.

"... The root cause is no doubt due to corrupt practices. The government is trying to fool people by putting the blame on global warming."

Quite a similar situation to Jakarta. What about the fund for tsunami , earthquake, and others?

Will the government ever learn?

Because anything that can go wrong, will -- at the worst possible moment.

[Read more...]

Peanut butter recalled

Just got an SMS that the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia has recalled Peter Pan brand of peanut butter, following the first U.S. salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter. The product is manufactured by ConAgra Foods, Inc.

Salmonella is a type of bacteria that causes typhoid fever and foodborne illness.

Please throw out jars with product code on the lid beginning with "2111".

[Read more...]

Here and there: roundabouts and traffic circles

Roundabouts are different from traffic circles. Since it confuses me, I'm just gonna use the term roundabout for both.

The number of roundabouts in Kuala Lumpur is much more than I've ever experienced or imagined. Especially the roundabouts without traffic lights. Not the one like in Jakarta's HI or Monas roundabout. (there are also traffic-light-less roundabouts in Jakarta, like at the intersection of Jalan Senopati and Jalan Rajasa.)

If I remember correctly, there's no roundabout in Ann Arbor, while only one in Durham.

Going to work, a 20-minute drive, I could pass one to four roundabouts in the past quarter of the drive only, depending on how the traffic on the highway that day. At busy times (like lunch hour or morning), these roundabouts are extremely problematic. Frustrating. Traffic is stuck around the island.

If this happens in KL, imagine how it will be in Jakarta.

Since the traffic-light-less roundabouts depend on the "yield" or "give way" sign, and in this part of the world most people don't really obey the sign, this type of roundabouts is not suitable anymore in high traffic areas.

Will traffic lights help? Perhaps a bit, to ensure less interruption to the circling traffic. But high traffic is high traffic, unless either the number of cars is reduced or the medium of cards is increased -- to reduce the density.

For now, I guess I should be thankful the traffic is comparatively not that bad.

[Read more...]

White house visits wisteria lane

Bush, the old one, had lunch with "Desperate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher. Apparently George Sr. thought that Teri really was desperate, because he ended their lunch date by giving her a couple of slaps on the ass.



Another reason not to be the biggest fan of the Bush family... what Bill Clinton did was more fun!

[Read more...]

Midday nap to live longer

In this demanding and fast-pace life, getting enough sleep is sometimes a big challenge. Some people even often skip lunch or have theirs while working. Work-life balance is out of the equation.

Taking a nap? Forget it.

Whoa, not that quick. A recent study ties drop in deaths to a little nap after lunch.

"... researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and in Athens reported that Greeks who took regular 30-minute siestas were 37 percent less likely to die of heart disease over a six-year period than those who never napped. The scientists tracked more than 23,000 adults, finding that the benefits of napping were most pronounced for working men."

It even concluded that napping was more likely than diet or physical activity to lower the incidence of heart attacks and other life-ending heart ailments.

The researchers mentioned, however, that while working men appeared to benefit the most from naps, they couldn't reach any conclusions for working women because there were relatively few in the study.

Midday napping, eh? Be sure this is the midday napping to improve health, not the other kinds of napping -- no study just yet... :)

[Read more...]

Bird flu virus for sale: unethical opportunism or state of survival?

Indonesian government's decision to negotiate the bird flu virus with an American company has sparked some debates. Many, it seems, argue that this is just another vehicle for corruption.

My buddy Sheque wrote "Kisah Anta dan Prota", about antagonistic and protagonistic (?) characters in Indonesia's sinetron (soap opera) and in real life.

There are new cases of bird flu in Hong Kong and Korea. Not human cases, fortunately.

What if, a big if, one of the bird flu-affected countries sell the virus and make a lot of money out of it, while Indonesian government decides not to? What if, a bigger if, the Indonesian government, indeed, plans to use the "profit" for the welfare of its citizens?

It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures
-- Alanis Morissette

Ironic? Dreaming?

[Read more...]

Barack Obama to run for president

Philips in his blog touched how Obama can be a friend to Indonesia if he becomes the president of the U.S.

At that time Obama hasn't decided if he would run. Last Saturday, he declared himself a candidate for the White House in 2008. Here's the full text of the announcement speech.

Is this good? If elected, will he turn the U.S. to be a friend to Muslim-majority countries like Indonesia?

I don't know. I don't intend to analyze that. But here's an interesting reaction to his announcement.

Australian leader slams Barack Obama for Iraq policy. John Howard, a staunch Bush ally who has sent troops to Iraq and faces his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's proposals would spell disaster for the Middle East.

Obama's proposal, by the way, is to end the war in Iraq and to remove U.S. combat forces by March 31, 2008.

"I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television.
(-- and what are your motives there? Destabilize, destroy, chaos... specifically, what are you and your buddies doing there?)

He further said: "If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."
(-- oh, he's a Republican...!!)

"You either rat on the ally or you stay with the ally," he said. "If it's all right for us to go, it's all right for the Americans and the British to go, and if everybody goes, Iraq will descend into total civil war and there'll be a lot of bloodshed."
(-- Mr. Howard, aren't you aware of what's going on there now?)

Apparently, Howard is seeking his fifth term later this year. Recent polls suggest voters are increasingly unhappy about his refusal to set a deadline for withdrawing Australian troops from the Middle East. He currently keeps about 1,400 Australian troops in Iraq despite domestic opposition to the war.

What does really Howard and Blair get from Bush, I wonder...?

[Read more...]

Hair-pulling disorder

Trichotillomania.
trich·o·til·lo·ma·ni·a (trĭk'ō-tĭl'ə-mā'nē-ə, -mān'yə). n.

Some definitions:

• Dictionary: the compulsion to tear or pluck out the hair on one's head and face and often to ingest it.
• Medical: a compulsion to pull out one's own hair.
• WordNet: an irresistible urge to pull out your own hair.

What? Pulling your own hair (and ingest it)?

It came to my attention as a printed article on the Sun last week briefly discussed this type of disorder. Here's some of it:

Trichotillomania is a poorly understood disorder in which a person repeatedly pulls out his own hair, leading to visible hair loss. This disorder can have a crippling effect on the sufferers and treatment is rarely effective, notes a survey of patients with this condition.

“It has a much larger impact on people than I think even most mental health practitioners understand,” says lead author Dr. Douglas W. Woods, of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “A lot of people will look at this and say it’s just a nervous habit, but it’s not really.”

....

I would seriously think this is just a nervous habit. In fact, I can't recall I saw anyone that I know of show the symptom of trichotillomania as defined above. Not until I found the definition of Trichotillomania from Wikipedia.

Trichotillomania (TTM) or "trich" is an impulse control disorder characterized by the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair, eyelashes, beard hair, nose hair, pubic hair, eyebrows or other body hair. It may be distantly related to obsessive-compulsive disorder, with which it shares some similarities.

So it's really about pulling many types of body hair. Now I can see why the study says up to 3.4% adults may suffer from this disorder. I think the number should be even higher. I can now recall some people doing it regularly.

Perhaps we need to worry about this not only because its negative effect on health (e.g. fatal balls of hair in the stomach), but also because it's disgusting.

Yes, because it's also disgusting...

[Read more...]

Where is Winona?

Winona Ryder, that is. Perhaps the most beautiful actress ever.

She is still out there, acting. It has been much fewer and less popular movies, however, after the shoplifting incident in 2001. After starring in quite good movies, like Bram Stoker's Dracula, Reality Bites and Alien: Resurrection, the only big movie she did was Mr. Deeds in 2002. In fact, she didn't do any "movies" in 2005.

In 2006 Winona starred in A Scanner Darkly, an animated futuristic movie which I could only find in pirated DVD stores. I didn't even bother to buy despite Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson also starred the movie.

But I look forward to watching a couple of her new movies in 2007.

The first one is Sex and Death 101, a dark comedy movie about, as the title says, sex and death. The second one is the Ten, a comedy of ten stories, each inspired by one of the ten commandments.

"For a long time I was almost ashamed of being an actress. I felt like it was a shallow occupation. People would be watching my every move." -Winona Ryder

"Winona Ryder is to Hollywood what Superman is to Metropolis. They both live in the shadows, make newspaper headlines once in a while and live a pretty quiet life." -AskMen.com

Some Winona Ryder links:
Winona Online
Winona Ryder News Channel

[Read more...]