Things To Keep Us Sane in Sudan

Friends do ask "What do you guys do to keep yourself occupied after work?"

My colleague got another colleague (who came back to Sudan from Malaysia) to bring in this small helicopter.

Spot the heli in this picture.



This is the small heli being controlled in its flight.

Well, it did keep us occupied by learning how to control it.











And most importantly, it kept us sane.
















On Friday, which is also our off day in Sudan, we went to one of our favourite restaurants called La Pergola.

This is a simple sandwich ordered by my colleague but being a small eater he couldn't finish it and brought it back for another colleague who was sleeping during our meal time.

Fairuz ordered glass noodle but was given meehoon instead. How disappointing that they don't even inform you that they have ran out of glass noodle. By right, he should be given a discount as glass noodle is more expensive.

Nazril ordered his all time favourite meal in La Pergola, the grill beef.

Their mashed potato is definitely my favourite.







Very nicely cooked indeed, medium rare. Soft and tender.

As for me, I thought having a light meal since it was already afternoon. How much damage can a Home Made Burger would cause?











To my surprise, it was this huge. Two giant burgers. One top half of the bread bun was definitely missing but nevertheless it was so feeling that all of us didn't come out for dinner.

Yummy indeed. One burger has an egg on top of it. The other burger has a large slice of cheese on it. No wonder my weight is gaining.
Tags: Helicopter, Sane, La Pergola, Home Made Burger

Lawn Bowl Team Facing Problems

We have heard that Malaysia's football and hockey teams are not having fit players prior to important matches and thus the poor team results.

In the Malaysian lawn bowl team, it's totally different altogether. In the team, both Siti Zalina Ahmad while Norhashimah Ismail, have been suspended for 18 months and 12 months respectively by their Malaysian Lawn Bowls Federation ("MLBF").

Reasons given for their suspensions:-
* Siti Zalina Ahmad - alleged misconduct while undergoing training at the Bukit Kiara training centre here on 26 Oct where she was alleged to have got into a fight with another member of the team, attacked a MLBF official and refused to follow instructions from the coach.

Medals won / honours:-
- singles gold medal @ 1998 Commonwealth Games
- a singles and pairs gold @ 2008 Asian Lawn Bowls Championships
- Malaysian Olympian of the Year in 2002
- short listed for the 2008 Malaysian Sportswoman of the Year Award

* Norhashimah Ismail - allegedly failing to stop the fight and not acting as the captain of the women’s national team.

Medals won / honours:-
- team gold @ 2006 Commonwealth Games
- consecutive wins @ Asian Lawn Bowls Championships since 2001

But both players cried foul over their suspensions. Reasons for crying foul - she claimed that the real reasons for the action was because an official in MLBF was unhappy that she would not entertain that person’s request to “fix” a match to allow another player win a championship last year.

That's a serious allegation but till todate, MLBF or its officials has not responded to this allegation. Suspending the team captain for failing to stop a fight? First hearing such suspension. What were the other officials doing then? Only one official at that point of time? What about other coaching staff? No one else was there?

Here you have top quality players who have medals from top competitions and who are ready to play for the country ............. unfortunately such things happened. Are the two players telling the truth?

It doesn't stop there. Kamarul Aizad Othman, another lawn bowl player, has decided to quit the national team. Reason - feeling despaired by the action of a majority of MLBF officers and came forward to expose this to help my friends who had been victimised by a MLBF officer.

Medals won:-
- gold medal @ 2003 Asian Cup championship

My My ............... more to come ......

Another former national athlete, who requested not to be identified, claimed that he was also victimised by the officer and was forced to leave the national squad. "I have never sent a letter asking to leave the national squad, but the officer informed the MLBF president that I did," he said, adding that he did lodge a report with the federation, but no action was taken.

And hopefully this is the last from the lawn bowl national squad ........

A former athlete in the back-up squad, Noorazwin Ibrahim, claimed that the officer had forced her to "sell" a game during the 2006 Champion of Champions. She said she lodged a report on the matter with the NSC, but no action was taken against the officer.

I salute you, Kamarul Aizad Othman, for standing up for your friends!

Reading: I was suspended for refusing to fix match, says Siti Zalina - Star
Reading: Former National Lawn Bowls Athletes Claim Victimisation By MLBF Official - Bernama
Tags: Siti Zalina Ahmad, Norhashimah Ismail, Lawn Bowl, Malaysian Lawn Bowls Federation, MLBF, Kamarul Aizad Othman, Noorazwin Ibrahim

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