Malaysia Blacklisted by World Body

On the ascension as Malaysia's sixth Prime Minister on Friday, Najib Abdul Razak has lots to do in the next few days. The first big news to greet him on his office table is that Malaysia has been blacklisted by a world body, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Before reading this piece of news of being blacklisted, I have only knew that banks in Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Isle of Man, Gibraltar and those nations located in Carribean Sea are known for their banking secrecy.

I have never ever thought of my nation being one of those nations. Malaysia has been blacklisted together with Costa Rica, Philippines and Uruguay for failure of not having agreed to international tax standards and refused to adopt new rules on financial openness.

This whole issue arose from the on-going G-20 Summit in London. The G-20 has delivered a strong message to tax evaders - we will find you wherever you are but somehow four countries haven't comply. The decision made in G-20 was based on OECD's listing.

Under the OECD definition, countries will be considered non-compliant if they have less than 12 bi-lateral agreements to exchange tax information with foreign governments on request. Authorities should have access to the information to effectively crack down on tax evasion.

The only tax haven location in Malaysia is at Labuan, an island off the state of Sabah. This island is a territory of the federal government where the Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority ("LOFSA") was incorporated to administer the tax haven island.

Labuan is an integrated International Business & Financial Centre, offering a wide range of offshore financial products and services to customers worldwide, including banking and investment banking, insurance, captives, trust business, fund management, investment holding, company management and Islamic financing ............................. Labuan's legislative framework is not only business-friendly but also prudent to safeguard Labuan's international image as a clean and reputable offshore financial centre (as extracted from LOFSA website).

If Malaysia do not comply with OECD strict requirements, the following sanctions will be imposed on Malaysia:-
• Increased disclosure requirements by companies and individuals using tax havens
• Withholding taxes on transactions with tax havens
• A ban on the use of interest paid in a blacklisted country to offset tax
• Reviewing tax treaty policy
• Putting political pressure on global companies to withhold investment to a haven
• A reduction in aid
• Scrapping of tax treaty arrangements
• Imposing additional taxes on companies that operate in non-compliant countries
• Tougher disclosure requirements for individuals and businesses that use shelters
• Withdrawal of financing by the World Bank or International Monetary Fund

Besides this tax haven matter, OECD is also against the discriminatory policies and new forms of protectionism towards investment. Malaysia still has such policies within the New Economic Policy. Will Malaysia escape the eyes of those OECD policymakers? Will Malaysia amend its policy first or wait for OECD to enforce this ruling to force a change in Malaysia?

Well, I can only assume one answer coming out from the mouth of one of those ministry officials - Malaysia is not a member of OECD. Just wait and see.

Reading: Following G20 OECD delivers on tax pledge
Reading: Resist investment protectionism, countries meeting at OECD agree

Tags: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, Najib Abdul Razak, Malaysian Prime Minister, Labuan, Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority, LOFSA, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, G-20 Summit, Tax Treaty Policy, Tax Haven, Tax Evasion

100 Billion Note is Useless Now

This is a Z$100 billion dollars note for the nation of Zimbabwe.

It's worthless as not long after the new Z$100 trillion note was circulated to overcome the ever increasing inflation rate that was running into millions of percentages. To be precise, 231,000,000% in the third quarter of 2008.

The people in the Zimbabwean are no economists at all or do not have any good advise from any specialists in the nation. Everyone was in just to ride on getting the side incomes while working with the government. Unfortunately, at the detriment of the general public.

How much is Z$100 trillion dollars worthed actually? It's only US$30. Pathetic isn't it ...

The money is growing smaller and smaller each and the public was forced to withdraw more and more money to survive. How much can they withdraw to meet the ever increasing prices of daily goods required?

Banks do not have enough monies for the public to withdraw and people even found that it was more expensive to work than not to work. A teacher's present salary is only worthed US$1 and to catch a bus to the school is US$2 ...... thereby leading to an unemployment rate of 80% now.

I have been following Zimbabwe's predicament since 2007 and the central bank, under useless guidance from some so-called professionals, kept adding a numeric zero to their currency note to overcome the inflation and continued to print new monies.

I did mention that by adding more numeric zeros in the currency notes does not help at all as the root of the problem was not the money. In Aug 2008, the central bank re-valued their Z$10 billion into 1 Zimdollar, efffectively cutting away 10 zeros. They thought they have made it. How wrong!

The inflation continued and continued, the new currency was changed and changed again till it reaches Z$100 trillion dollars in Jan 2009 in a short five months.

Now, how are you going to carry your monies around when you require Z$1,243,255,000.00 to pay for your meal in the Victoria Falls Hotel.

The people in the Zimbabwean government and central bank, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, cracked their heads again ....... they could be really doing their work but they are really lost in their own world.

The solution? Cut the zeros behind the Z$100 trillion dollars ..... it's so simple only.


What's the value now? Z$1 trillion = Z$1.

To overcome the damages, foreign currencies are allowed to be traded and workers' salaries are payable in foreign currencies too. Practically, the Zimbabwean dollar is useless.
Tags: Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean Dollar, Trillion Dollar Note, Billion Dollar Note, Victoria Falls Hotel, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Special Agro-Cheque

Road Robbery at Petaling Jaya

road incident....to be wary...pls read
Posted by: "Jessica Teh"
Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:39 pm (PDT)

Hi Everyone,
Pastor Guy has asked me to share my stories about recent road incidents which I really apologised have taken so long due to my many demands in time as mom to a very very active, demanding, emotional, etc... 2-year old toddler!

I have recently experienced a near attempted robbery while I was in the car (with Evan) and had friends who experienced the same few weeks later. During this very tough and difficult financial crisis, the cases of road robberies (or any kind of robbery) are getting rampant and we need to be watchful wherever we go (at any time of the day). We need to keep our families and loved ones in prayer at all times.

Few weeks ago while I was taking Evan back from my mom's place, I experienced an attempted robbery while I was still in my car with Evan! A screeching sound of a motorcyle behind initially had me wondering if an accident occured. But to my shock, the second motorcyclist flew onto the window of my passenger seat and started using his helmet and another sharp object to break the glass. At first I was still wondering whether the guy had an accident and flew onto my window (cos I don't see ppl flying to your window everyday!!).

Then after 2 attempts to whack the glass, I knew he was trying to shatter it. It happened really fast and I couldn't escape and drive away because I was sandwiched between cars at the traffic light (along 17/1 just before turning to Damansara Highway). All I could do was pray...and after 4-5 times of very hard whacking he gave up. My glass didn't shatter because I had installed a security film that holds the glass together.... although there were tiny pieces of the side that had already landed on the passenger seat.

To my horror, as the traffic light had not turned green yet, the guy immediately targeted another car on the opposite side of the road, and I am very sure the guy didn't have time to see if there was any handbag or items in the car because within less than 10 seconds he started smashing her window as well. This was an old car with a woman in her 40-50s. He took her belongings. Obviously she was screaming and nobody could do anything as the traffic light turned green and everybody left.

I had to take a slow drive home as the glass to the side of the window was slowly crumbling, but am so thankful that the glass didn't completely shatter and Evan was not shaken by the incident. And I had lock all my doors! But I still had the image of the man's evil look in my mind over the next few days. I had never seen such an evil look upfront and upclose before!

2 weeks later, a close friend experienced the same thing. I had just shared with her my experience the week before and she was the only one who had installed security films to her windows as well. She was going to a shop in Old Klang Road with her sister. She came down from the car while her sister sat at the passenger seat to wait for her (It is advisable for everyone to leave the car and not wait inside nowadays!).

A man came to the passenger seat window (where her sister was) and started smashing the window with a sharp object. Obviously it took a while to shatter the glass due to the film, but because the car was parked and he had more time, he continued whacking until the whole glass piece shattered. This was at 3 p.m. in the afternoon. After screaming her lungs out, the guy fled without taking her bag but she was bleeding due to the glass falling on her and in trauma. Really thank God the glass didn't go into her eye (nearly did!).

There are actually more cases from my friends relatives..mostly at traffic lights. This incidents just proves to warn us over and over again to be wary of our surroundings. ...and esp ladies (cos we are the main targets!) to hide your bags or don't carry any bags if you can, to avoid trouble. Let's continue to pray for safety everywhere we are, at anytime of the day.
Tags: Road Robbery, Petaling Jaya, Damansara Highway, Jalan 17/1

Authorities Giving Up On Taxi Drivers?

Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board ("CVLB") is the government authority that issues taxi licences to companies who in turn rent out the taxis to the real taxi drivers who hold public service vehicle licences.

CVLB dare to say that they have ran out of ideas to counter what the taxi drivers have been doing all this while i.e. :-
* refused to pick up passengers
* overcharge passengers
* did not use meters
* did not display their driver cards
* not having driving licences
* not wearing seat belts
* driving recklessly

What has CVLB been doing all this while then? Just let it happen? If the operations to nab them were so frequent by those undercover CVLB officers, the taxi drivers would toe the line.

I would suggest that whichever company that the taxi drivers belong to has to be punished and fined as well. I'm sure by then those companies will also ensure that their taxi drivers will comply with all the requirements at all times. Right at this moment, the law is there but not enforced strictly or enforced whenever there are too many complaints found in the newspapers.

On one hand the Road Transport Department ("RTD") (from the same government ministry) has stated that they will issue show-cause letters to 612 rogue taxi drivers. When will they issue that sooooooo many number of letters? Nobody will know actually because they mentioned that ". It takes a while because there are more than 600 of them".

RTD said they expected "a majority of them to keep quiet". What does this mean? Will RTD keep quiet after that also?

Get the owners of the taxis to force their taxi drivers to comply then. If fail to do so, suspend all their taxis from operating in that particular company. I always wonder why no actions have been taken against those companies that operate such businesses ......... linked to the untouchables?

It's not that there are no solutions but as long as the relevant government authorities are not strict or serious in enforcing whatever laws that are there .............. everyone will continue to read more, hear more and see more of such shameful acts done by the taxi drivers.

This has been going on for years and years and years .... what is CVLB and RTD's KPI on such law enforcement on taxis? None? Show us ............ don't just mumble there.

Reading: Losing battle against cabbies - Star

Related post - Malaysian Taxis - Worst In The World?
Tags: Malaysian Taxi, Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board, CVLB, Road Transport Department, RTD

Roadside Dinner in Khartoum

Before showing the pictures on the dinner at roadside, we shall go through an English class - which word was spelled (this word was amended as a commenter Gary K caught me spelling "spelled" as "spelt") incorrectly?














This is where we had our dinner last night, roadside though but it was packed .... really packed by the locals. We were the only foreigners there.








What to order at such food outlet? For a start, they have deep fried goat's head.










They have lots of wadir that is being fried at the same time in the square cooking utensil.















We didn't order the goat's head although there was a challenge thrown to a colleague.

We played safe with chicken and goat's meat.

They do provide simple vegetables with their local vegie, few slices of tomatoes, onions and half slices of lime.

The plate below the vegies was the deep fried goat's meat. Found it untasty as I could feel either the charcoal smell or the overburnt taste. Failed!



Sudanese don't favour rice like what Far East Asians do. Instead bread is their staple food. Given a long long bread for you to eat together with those dishes. You could either dip into the goat's soup or pick up a deep fried goat's meat with the bread.












Our deep fried chicken. Too deep indeed. Slightly overfried. Taste - the marination was not done properly as the taste has not sipped into the meat.













While walking to our car upon finishing dinner, we saw this pick up truck delivering fresh bread. Tons of it ........ with the city full of dust everywhere and this is how they transport food.

Just don't think of cleanliness as your criteria before eating here ....... otherwise you'll end with nothing to eat.


Somehow my mobile didn't co-operate with me as I wanted to take the pictures so another colleague, Fairuz Abdullah, helped knowing it was for the blog space.
Tags: Roadside Dinner, Goat's Soup, Goat's Head

Difference between KFC - IFC - HFC

I'm sure many of you have seen, been to and dined at KFC or Kentucky Friend Chicken wherever it exists. Personally, I like KFC too.

When we were wandering around Khartoum for good meals, we try to eat something that we have not been there for quite some time. Normally that "some time" is only about few days hahahaha .......... because not many places that you can dine here.

At Amarat area, we saw this very familiar signage that caught our attention. It was KFC !!!! Our favourite fast food restaurant. We made a u-turn back to the front of the restaurant and to our disappointment, it was IFC - Ivory Fried Chiecken ....... so close to KFC.

Since we were already there, might as well try it out.

This tree's branches managed to outgrow its main tree trunk was there right in the centre of the open seating area of this IFC (note, not KFC).














The three of us ordered the set of nine pieces of chicken (5 original, 4 spicy ... yeah they have this sort of choices too). Three small cups off coleslaw, a plate of french fries and some bread. It comes with tomato ketchup, no chilli sauce.

Gave my thumb down for this fried chicken. The moment I tried to hold on to the chicken while trying to bite it, the first layer of fried flour gave way ....... it broke into pieces.

The same goes for the other two pieces that I ate.



The hungry hands going for their dinner. We paid 40 Sudanese Dinar for this meal (2 Sudanese Dinar = US$1.00). Not worth it for such quality.

Enough pictures, need to eat before it disappears.

During one of those days, we were travelling around the city in doing our usual stuff and saw this new outlet ............. KFC ..... we saw it! we found it!

We were on our way back to office and decided to try it for our dinner.





To our horror, it was another let down ...... HFC ...... can't they use any other alphabets ah














Already there ...... don't want to waste time and went in for our meal. That's the counter where you order your meals.

Their colourful seatings.












Nine pieces again, with french fries, coleslaw served on a plate, four pieces of buns, one litre of pepsi and a plate of homos (not that ........ i know what you are thinking there).

This meal cost us 53 Sudanese Dinar.

I like this fried chicken as it was almost the original KFC back home. Marvellous!!! Better than nothing man when you are stucked in this place.






This is Homos. Fattening food ordered by my colleague. This outlet's homos is not nice at all. The yellow coloured stuff is olive oil with some peas mixed with it. How do you eat it? You dip the bun into it and scooped up the homos serving.

This is HFC, not KFC, originates from Egypt. HFC stands for ????? H...... Fried Chicken. The alphabet stood for a name which the Egyptian owner told us but can't recall the arabic name now. Operates on similar franchise scheme.

Where are you KFC????
Tags: KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, IFC, HFC, Fried Chicken, Fast Food, Homos

Earth Hour 2009 in Malaysia

The Earth Hour 2009-Malaysia was quite successful although not everyone participated. Kudos to those business entities who made it a wonderful event.

A friend of mine staying up high managed to capture the moment just before 8.30pm.

The moment it hit 8.30pm. Proud of you Malaysians.

For those of you who thought that this would not be followed by fellow Malaysians, we look forward to you joining in the next Earth Hour.

It was not a wasted one hour but imagine the amount of electricity saved throughout the world just for that one hour.

I'm also proud of a wedding couple who had their wedding dinner function which co-incide with the Earth Hour 2009. The hotel, Sheraton Subang Hotel and Towers, approached the couple and told them that the hotel was participating in Earth Hour 2009 and suggested an idea to the wedding couple.

The couple agreed and their dinner was held with candles being lighted up all over the ballroom. Wow, what an unforgettable wedding dinner where all the guests will now know what Earth Hour is all about.

Reading: Couple hold candlelight wedding banquet - Star

Related post - Do Remember Earth Hour 2009!
Tags: Earth Hour 2009, Sheraton Subang Hotel and Towers, Global Warming, Environment