Jailed For Being Idle

The title is straightforward ......... you will be jailed if you were proven that you were idling your time away. This is happening in Nigeria. According to its Sharia penal code, a person found idling around without any work or even school will be sentenced to jail time and be given strokes of cane.

Of course the court officials won't go out hunting for such people. A dad of the muslim community has reported his son to a Sharia court out of love for him. His son was mixing with bad hats and one way to save his son was to send him to jail and hoping that the jail term will wake his son up. Will his son wake up after getting six months jail and 30 strokes of cane? I will even before a single stroke of cane.

This strict penalty is being practised in Bauchi state that adopts the Islamic Sharia law. Is this law good and effective which can be considered in the land of milk and honey - Malaysia?

Reading: Nigerian man jailed for idleness - BBC News/Africa
Tags: Nigeria, Bauchi, Sharia Court, Sharia Penal Code, Islamic Sharia Law

Japanese Food Being Recalled

We have heard of many food products being recalled especially those being produced / manufactured in China. Their QA/QC methods could be totally skipped or neglected. Long and tough road ahed for the Chinese producers / manufacturers to regain the customers' confidence and trust.

When you talk about QA/QC, the Japanese seems to be excellent in this area as their electrical goods / products are being exported worldwide. But the food aspect has its doubt now.

I'm sure many people have tried the Japanese noodles where it could be bought in almost any convenience store or supermarket. One of the famous brands is the Nissin Cup Noodles. It has been made known that Nissin Food Products Co Ltd ("Nissin Food") has recalled their 500,000 Nissin Cup Noodles in wake of detecting paradichlorobenzene, a key chemical in bug repellent.

Apparently this batch of Cup Noodles has not been exported and all of the products were being sold in Tokyo and neighbouring areas. Has Nissin Food's extensive Food Safety Research Institute has somehow failed to detect this insecticide chemical found in the Cup Noodles?

A similar food producer / manufacturer by the name of Myojo Foods Co Ltd was implicated with the food scare as well. The same kind of chemical has been detected in their products. It was noted that this company has been bought over by Nissin Food in 2007.

Reading: Japan's Nissin recalls 500,000 noodles over insecticide fears - AFP
Tags: Nissin Food Holdings Co Ltd, Nissin Food Products Co Ltd, Nissin Cup Noodles, Food Safety Research Institute, Myojo Foods Co Ltd, Paradichlorobenzene, Bug Repellent

Cheapest Airline Started Operations

The cheapest airline has started its operations. Malaysians will enjoy the cuisine served in the airline that will make you feel at home.The airline's name? Kerala Airways ................ a guaranteed low cost carrier Tags: United Kerala Airlines, UK, Airlines, Travel, Kerala, Kerala Airways, Low Cost Carrier

Hugo Boss Has New Product Name

This brand name of Boss Babi is found in China's departmental stores. Could this be Hugo Boss' latest brand name for their handbags.
The word Babi in my malay language is actually pig. The animal pig is somehow off limit to the muslims. I guess this handbag section is non-halal then ........ hehe but maybe not. Co-incidentally it was named as such but the material couldn't have been sourced from the pigs.

Be careful when you purchase this as a present for your lady boss as you wouldn't want to insult her with brand name of Boss Babi = Pig Boss!

This Boss Babi brand is owned by Guangzhou Lankai Leather Development Co Ltd and they produced various types of high end leather goods. If you are interested to market their goods, give them a call as they are looking for joint-venture partners. But I think this products won't make it in Malaysia and Indonesia for sure.
Tags: Boss Babi, China, Hugo Boss, Guangzhou Lankai Leather Development Co Ltd, Leather Goods

Lower Price for Goods & Services?

With the looming threat of a recession in Malaysia, the cost of living in the capital city is still high. Majority would agree that their salaries do not move in tandem with the cost of living (it's always never enough though).

The government did the unthinkable by raising the petrol price by a whopping 40% at one go in June 2008 and immediately after the increase, providers of various goods and services took the opportunity to raise their fees, fares or prices.

Subsequently, we saw prices being increased for food ....... where the general public has to purchase no matter what. Secondly, the materials used for the housing industry went up in tandem which caused getting a roof over our head even harder to achieve. Thirdly, transporters have no qualms in increasing their charges.

The Malaysian government, in seeing that petrol price has dropped as much as 60% from its highest level of US$147 per barrel, has decided to reduce the price of petrol down to the current pricing of RM2.30 per litre. With this lower petrol price, the government would be thinking that generally all other products and services would see a lower pricing and curb the inflation one way or another.

The government did mention that price will be adjusted if the world crude oil price has stayed below US$72. It did but government is always slow in reacting.

I guess the politicians sitting in those top level government ministries are not well equipped with the happenings around the world. Professionals in their respective fields are finding it hard to adjust to the current financial meltdown. Cost is rising but economy is dwindling. Don't tell me that our government has not heard of this quote before - "when the prices for goods and services go up, it will stay up forever".

Then the Prime Minister has the guts to tell us, the citizens and the consumer associations / groups, to assisnt the government in reducing the prices for the goods and services. How in the world do you think we can do that? If your government ministries are not functioning as it should be in enforcing the right price to be transacted, how do you expect the poor citizens to command that?

A company where the government has a strong say has not even buck in decreasing their charges. That company is Tenaga Nasional Berhad ("TNB"). Their recent price increase effected in July 2008 was due to higher generation cost especially with the increase in the price of fuel and gas. Now that both of this energy products' prices have reduced significantly, we are still waiting for the government to get TNB to reduce the electricity charges.

Everyone is already complaining that prices are still going up or staying where they are despite the reduction in petrol price. What's happening?

When food and retail outlets were questioned as to why their prices were maintained and do not reflect the reduction in petrol price, the reason given was - "suppliers didn't reduce their prices". You see! Short, sweet and simple reply. That's all they will tell you and the government can't do anything.

The Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association and Pan Malaysian Lorry Owners Association had already mentioned that they can't absorb the cost of other goods and services and therefore unable to pass down the savings in terms of petrol price. The government didn't foresee this?

The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association has mentioned that there is nothing to celebrate on this petrol price reduction as they don't think the prices of other goods will also be reduced. These three associations are telling truth and it's a fact.

When I heard about complaints of high prices and that it will go up even higher, I will give a them a reprieve. I will say don't worry, the prices will definitely come down. To which they will respond "How can? It won't already". That will be the typical respond.

But it will go down definitely. Come recession, where demand for goods and services will reduce, the economics law will set in. Lesser demand will cause the lowering of prices. In order to see the prices going down, are you prepared for a bad recession? It will go down but our life will be affected as well. Some people you know will be retrenched, deemed redundant, put into 'cold storage' and so forth during a recession, maybe you.
Tags: Recession, Financial Meltdown, Economics Law, Malaysia, Petrol Price, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, TNB, Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association, Pan Malaysian Lorry Owners Association, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association, FOMCA

Ten Reasons You Aren't Rich

Here are ten possible reasons you aren't a millionaire:-

1. You Care What Your Neighbors Think: If you're competing against them and their material possessions, you're wasting your hard-earned money on toys to impress them instead of building your wealth.

- This is what we called 'envy'. Envy could even make you go bankrupt without you knowing.


2. You Aren't Patient: Until the era of credit cards, it was difficult to spend more than you had. That is not the case today. If you have credit card debt because you couldn't wait until you had enough money to purchase something in cash, you are making others wealthy while keeping yourself in debt.

- Lots of people spent beyond what they could afford to pay. They are not worried that they are owing the banks due to the excessive usage of their credit cards. Such consumers thought that being able to pay the minimum monthly payment and interest charged are considered good enough and they considered themselves 'risk takers'.


3. You Have Bad Habits: Whether it's smoking, drinking, gambling or some other bad habit, the habit is using up a lot of money that could go toward building wealth. Most people don't realize that the cost of their bad habits extends far beyond the immediate cost. Take smoking, for example, it costs a lot more than the pack of cigarettes purchased. It also negatively affects your wealth in the form of higher insurance rates and decreased value of your home.

- Will consumers realise this? Or the related advertisings are so good that it continued to draw more attention.


4. You Have No Goals: It's difficult to build wealth if you haven't taken the time to know what you want. If you haven't set wealth goals, you aren't likely to attain them. You need to do more than state, "I want to be a millionaire." You need to take the time to set saving and investing goals on a yearly basis and come up with a plan for how to achieve those goals.

- Most people will tell you that they barely survive with their current salaries especially with the higher cost of living nowadays. Besides the cost of living, some have to squeeze out from somewhere to pay for their 'bad habits' as above.


5. You Haven't Prepare: Bad things happen to the best of people from time to time, and if you haven't prepared for such a thing to happen to you through insurance, any wealth that you might have built can be gone in an instant.

- At times, we may have to acquire the right kind of insurance that meets our needs.


6. You Try to Make a Quick Buck: For the vast majority of us, wealth doesn't come instantly. You may believe that people winning the lottery are a dime a dozen, but the truth is you're far more likely to get struck by lightning than win the lottery. This desire to get rich quickly likely extends into the way you invest, with similar results.

- Many people who have fell for those quick bucks scheme are easily susceptible to another scheme if not careful. Why lotteries can afford high pay outs to one in a million winner is because it's very rare to win.


7. You Rely on Others to Take Care of Your Money: You believe that others have more knowledge about money matters, and you rely exclusively on their judgment when deciding where you should invest your money. Unfortunately, most people want to make money themselves, and this is their primary objective when they tell you how to invest your money. Listen to other people's advice to get new ideas, but in the end you should know enough to make your own investing decisions.

- You need to know what kind of investments is suitable for yourself as others won't know what sort of commitment you have.


8. You Invest in Things You Don't Understand: Your hear that Bob has made a lot of money doing it, and you want to get in on the gravy train. If Bob really did make money, he did so because he understood how the investment worked. Throwing in your money because someone else has made money without fully understanding how the investment works will keep you from being wealthy.

- In any investments, it's good that you know how it operates and you have to keep track of its performances as it's your hard earned money.


9. You're Financially Afraid: You are so scared of risk that you keep all your money in a savings account that is actually losing money when inflation is put into the equation, yet you refuse to move it to a place where higher rates of return are possible because you're afraid that you will lose money.

- Put it this way, this group of people is not risk takers. On the other hand, they build their financial wealth slowly slowly ........ can't be millionaires but can live a moderate life without much worries.


10. You Ignore Your Finances: You take the attitude that if you make enough, the finances will take care of themselves. If you currently have debt, it will somehow resolve itself in the future. Unfortunately, it takes planning to become wealthy. It doesn't magically happen to the vast majority of people.

- Lots of people failed to plan. They couldn't care less about obtaining the easiest financing schemes and would pay more for services compared to others.

(extracted from TheStreet.com)
Tags: Millionaire, Finance, No Goals, Credit Card Debt, Building Wealth, Financial Health

Honda's Latest MPV in Malaysia

Honda Malaysia will provide the toughest challenge to Malaysia's local car manufacturer, Proton. Proton has in their plans a new MPV model on their drawing board and rumours are saying that it will be launched in 2009.

Honda is one step ahead of them now, with the launching of their new MPV model that could seat twelve persons and the price is even more shocking .......... retailing at RM56,000 ...........

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Tags: Proton, Honda, Car, MPV