Visual Sharpness

There is a man's face amongst the coffee beans in the picture as below. Time yourself on how fast you can locate the face.

Within 3 secs - normal developed brain. Within 1 to 3 minutes - brain responding slowly. Additional protein intake will help to improve it. More than 3 minutes - brain reaction is too slow. You need such brain exercise more often to improve further.
Tags: Visual, Sharp, Brain

Life in Kuala Lumpur

Enjoying my time in Kuala Lumpur now. The quest for food has not taken me quite far but getting to taste what I have missed thus far while being based in Sudan. Be it at mamak, hawkers or chinese restaurant, have tried it.

Daily visitation at family/relatives/friends' house would be the main programme now. Normally will set visitation priority by the food being dished out especially during the lunch or dinner hours. No lah ..... just joking. More of catching up with old times.

I still do get "ang pau" (red packets stuffed with money) from a friend's parent. This is also the time where kids liked it as they looked forward to receiving those ang paus. Older kids will take this ang pau money to buy what they have been dreaming of. Younger kids portion will be kept by parents in piggy bank (nothing to do with the Year of Boar).
Tags: Chinese New Year, Kuala Lumpur

Happy Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai To All Readers,
In China, it's widely known as the Spring Festival. For chinese, the Chinese New Year's Eve will be a gathering of all family members for a reunion dinner. The start of my quest for food back in Kuala Lumpur.

Tags: Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, Chinese, Reunion Dinner

What Is Guts?

Once during the gulf war, the President of USA, and the Prime Ministers of UK and Singapore were travelling on a warship that was cruising near Saudi Arabia. The 3 were talking about how brave their soldiers were; their discussion soon turned into an argument where each wanted to prove the bravery of their own soldiers.

The President of USA said, "Let me show u what is guts", where upon he called his Colonel and said "Jump into the sea and swim 3 rounds around this ship!". The Colonel replied "Anything for Uncle Sam, Sir", jumped into the shark infested sea and swam 3 rounds around the ship, with the sharks chasing him like mad! After the successful 3 rounds, the Colonel came up to the deck and said, "I did it for Uncle Sam Mr. President!". The proud US President replied "That's what I call guts!".

The Prime Minister of UK was pissed. He had to show. He called his 3-star General and said "General, jump into the sea and swim 10 rounds around this ship!". The General replied "Anything for the Queen, Sir", jumped into the shark infested sea and swam 10 rounds around the ship, with the sharks chasing him like gila (lunatic!). After the successful 10 rounds the 3-star General came up to the deck and said, "Long Live the Queen!". The proud UK PM replied "Hurrah, that's what I call guts!"

The Prime Minister of Singapore could not tahan (control) further. He had to show that his soldiers have it too. He called one of his Private, Ah Beng and said "Soldier, jump into the sea and swim 50 rounds around this ship!".

The Private replied "Oi, you siao (crazy) izzit? I juz bought my condo and I am paying for it through my nose. Now, U want me to jump and die? If u want to Hao Lian (show off), you jump into the sea yourself ! @#*&%F!........

The Singapore PM grinned and said "Now, that's what I call guts!"
Tags: Jokes, Funny, Humor, USA, UK, Singapore, Guts

Restricted Sports For Viewing

Recently I came across a statement by a mufti (mufti (Arabic: مفتى‎) is an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law (Sharia), capable of issuing fatwa) that men could still watch women athletes as long as they are dressed decently. Why this statement arose?

PAS, an Islamic political party in Malaysia, was organising a Malaysian All-Women Games this coming weekend. The PAS's state women and sports committee chairman Abdul Fatah Mahmood mentioned that men can only attend the opening ceremony but NOT the individual sporting events. Did I read it wrongly or did the press published the wrong words? (source: The Star)

I can bet for sure that the attendance for the sporting events will be real bad. I wonder how is PAS going to re-coup the money dumped into organising this sporting events then if the ticket sales are restricted to women only. Most women are either housewives or working mothers and do you think they will take time off to watch a local women-only sporting events. I'm not against PAS's view to ensure that men don't lust by watching women participating in sports. Maybe they can implement a new competition ruling that women athletes must wear certain sporting outfits rather than prohibiting men from viewing the sporting events.

I joked with my malay colleague that he would be barred from watching the following women's sporting events in the coming Beijing 2008 Olympic Games:-
1) Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo, Swimming & Diving;
2) Volleyball
3) Athletics
4) Cycling
5) Gymnastics
6) Tennis
7) Rowing
and especially 8) Beach Volleyball

To which he responded "Only can watch Archery then? Anyway, for a mufti to have said something, it's a very strong issue already"

I'm wondering whether it's intended as a sporting event or a way to tell muslims that PAS is very pious with some subliminal message too. But kudos to PAS for taking the effort in trying to organise such an event. Seriously speaking, how did they picked the participating athletes? From which qualifying events? Please enlighten me.
Tags: PAS, Islamic, Mufti, Malaysian All-Women Games, Beijing 2008, Sports, Women

In Kuala Lumpur Now

Arrived in the afternoon on 14 Feb and knocked off early in the night due to insufficient rest during the long journey from Khartoum, Sudan. As I was travelling in the limousine taxi back home (45 minutes journey), had a chit chat with the taxi driver.

Following are some of the conversation:-
Q: How's your business lately?
A: Just have to work starting early in the morning till evening. No choice as I have to pay off the daily taxi rental.

Q: I think this year should be good as it's Visit Malaysia Year 2007.
A: I doubted it. Already mid Feb, we don't see many visitors coming in. Most who came into Kuala Lumpur (with the main international airport here) are here for short business trips. It's the same as previous year. I have to wait for almost an hour under the queueing system for taxis at the airport before it came to my turn to pick you up. I can only do up to 5 or 6 trips per day with all those waitings. If there were a lot of tourists, we would only queue for a short while instead of almost 1 hour each time.

Q: Maybe the tourists won't come this early part of the year.
A: Well, even if they were to come, it would only be once as frankly speaking, what are there to see in Kuala Lumpur. I have heard from tourists who were caught in vice-raids on discos & night clubs in Kuala Lumpur. People would rather go to Thailand and Singapore for such night life then. Some African tourists were asked to identify themselves in broad daylight. What do you think they will tell their friends back home? The government is only trying so hard to get people come for 1 year but not long term.

When I dropped passengers at city centre hotels, I noticed the double-decker bus meant for tourists was only filled with about 5 to 8 people. You can tell from all this whether it's successful or not.

Q: Would you be going for your break during the coming Chinese New Year ("CNY") holidays?
A: Can't afford it. Have to work hard to cover daily expenses which are rising everywhere. Not so much of a CNY for me if there is no money. Not that money is everything but my family needs money. The festival is there but I don't come from a well-to-do background so I have to work hard to ensure the festival is liven up with some extra cash. For the rich ones, everyday is a CNY.

These were the words of a normal citizen, trying to survive in the capital city where his brain was not influenced by any political parties.
Tags: Journal, Life, Diary, Visit Malaysia Year 2007, Kuala Lumpur, Taxi, Chinese New Year

News on EPF Nominations/Beneficiary List (II)

This is an important reminder on EPF beneficiaries. Kindly forward to your friends especially the Non-Bumi. Make sure they do the necessary to name their beneficiaries. Be a help and pass this info to all your friends. It pays not to be ignorant. Please read on and do take the appropriate action of naming your EPF beneficiaries or updating your nomination:

1) Scenario, imagine this:
A EPF contributor with a non-working wife and 3 school-going children. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He has been contributing to the EPF since he started work as an engineer about 25 years ago and have a sizeable amount of savings. However, the widow approaches the EPF for the savings she is informed that he had named his 1st girlfriend as the beneficiary and never got to update his nomination. Therefore, the widow is not entitled to a cent of the money even you have a will.

(In case of Muslims, there is still recourse under the Syariah Laws)

For Non-Muslims, however, there is real concern that your life-long savings may not reach your dependants.) The above scenario may seem unlikely to you but such cases are very common.

2) Findings of the EPF
Many EPF contributors either do not name any beneficiary or else fail to update their nomination as conditions warrant. As it stands, about 76% of EPF's 8.51 million members have not made any nomination. And out of the 24% who have, many have not updated their nomination. All your savings and the dividends accumulated over the years may not go to those who need it the most if you do not name a beneficiary or do not update your nomination.

What happens if:-
a) Failure to make a nomination.
If an EPF member has not made any nomination, his savings will be distributed in accordance to the law.

Letters of Administration (LA)
In general, when no nominee is named, the member's family will have to produce what is known as LA and submit this to the EPF in order to withdraw the savings. (The LA authorises the person appointed to act as administrator of the estate of the deceased member. This involves employing the services of a lawyer who will make the relevant petitions to court to get the LA. The whole process takes 8 to 12 months or longer if more than one person decides to obtain the LA).

Grant of Probate (Probate)
If the member had made a will, the member's family will have to produce what is known as Probate and submit this to the EPF.(The Probate is an authorisation by the court to the executor named in the will to administer the distribution of the estate of the deceased member).
a) Distribution Order
If the money in question does not exceed RM600,000 (and there is no land involved), the family of the deceased can then approach the Public Trustee (Amanah Raya)! to obtain a Distribution Order.

b) Consequence of failing to update nomination If the member does not update his nomination, whoever the EPF contributor has named as his or the beneficiary in the Form KWSP 4 (AHL) will receive the member's entire savings. Therefore, the spouse and family of the deceased will receive nothing if the contributor has named someone else, his friend, as his EPF beneficiary. This friend will inherit his savings even if the contributor had named his spouse and children as beneficiaries to his property, including his EPF savings, in a will is made after the EPF
nomination.

c) Muslim contributors
They are governed by the inheritance regulations under the Syariah Laws. The term "beneficiary" does not apply to the person nominated by a muslim. The nominee in effect only acts as an executor(wasi) of the contributor's savings. Upon the contributor's death, this executor has a duty to distribute the deceased's property in accordance with Faraid (inheritance) Laws.

3) How does one make a nomination or update a previous one?
You can do it by completing the Form KWSP 4 (AHL) which can be obtained at the EPF offices. You have to fill in a new KWSP 4 with the name of the person you now want to inherit your EPF savings. The new form will automatically cancel your previous nomination...... The advantages of naming a beneficiary and keeping this nomination updated are enormous. It not only ensure that your savings will go to those who need it most, but also guarantees speedy payment to your loved ones in such a time of need. If all the documents are in order, your nominee will get your EPF savings in about a month.
Tags: EPF, Letters of Administration, Grant of Probate, Distribution Order, Malaysia