Trip to Kandahar Town I

One of those wonderful trips in Sudan. Our Sudanese friends brought us to an obscure place .......... obscure to us of course, not them. The place that we were brought to was about 30-40 minutes drive from the city centre. It located somewhere around the Kandahar town.

Not far from the city centre, you'll see desert area already. Surprisingly I saw coconut trees???

You'll see houses made out of clay bricks.

Lots of tree trunks for sale at this market area called Libya Market. Such woods came from far away places ..... maybe south Sudan.

A number of shops were selling such woods.

The main mode of transport for smaller towns. You find such mode of transport in the city centre too.

In the city centre, the locals need to pay around 0.50 to 1 Sudanese Dinar for a journey up to 400m to 500m or even further. For us, once we flag one down, we have to negotiate the fare first before we board it.

For the same distance, we would be charged up to 3 Sudanese Dinar.

We arrived at the Souq Nagar market located at the Kandahar town. Our friends brought us to this shop where they always hang out almost every weekend in 2008.

I saw the lady owner preparing a dish for another customer.










Our gang was waiting patiently for the food. This is the only place in Sudan that has such large area of many stall operators selling various kind of meat dishes, i.e. goat meat in various cooking style hehe ....... camel meat (not served and not found in this market it seems).

Customers in this market are mainly from Khartoum city. They chose this place because the food here is very fresh.

That's how the stall looks like. Simple set-up only.











While seated inside the stall area, lots of street vendors will drop in. Our appearance (foreigners) has caught the locals' attention when we arrived.

This young chap just had everything that you need.





Torchlight, pen knive, screwdriver, wallet, cigarette lighter and many many many other smaller gadgets ........ all made in China goods.

Two of the items that caught my attention.

Guess the usage for it.









Went to the stall to see how this guy started to 'cut' those goat meat into smaller pieces. They sell by the kilograms. Don't know about the pricing as our local friends treated us.

Tags: Kandahar, Sudan, Libya Market, Souq Nagar

Just Got A New Car

We finally received our new car .....












The Infiniti EX35 model from USA, the high end model of Nissan.

Personally, I have not seen this model in Kuala Lumpur before and they have it here in Khartaoum. Really amazing!











Really comfortable. You start this car by pressing a button? A person can just drive the car away without a key?

It's being retailed at US$35,450 in the USA. In Sudan, ridiculously priced just below US$70,000 ........................ totally out of control.

How I wished it was our company car .......... actually, it belongs to a friend's friend ......... sigh. That Mitsubishi Pajero in the background is ours.
Tags: Infiniti, Infiniti EX35, Nissan

Have You Eaten the Mini Lobster?

News are being passed around that such mini lobsters may carry a certain organism called Paragonimiasis.

The thing is such mini lobsters are being served as edible food in restaurants. How bad is it actually? The organism may infect your lung.

Why do they possess such organism? These mini lobsters are literally the garbage cleaners in the sewage treatment plants.


The "dirtier" the water, the fatter these mini lobsters become. Their lungs are full of worms and their flesh saturated with poisonous metals.

Somehow these mini lobsters found their ways to be marketed to eateries.

Have you eaten such mini lobsters before? I thought I have seen such crustaceans in those eateries selling food on buffet style.
Tags: Mini Lobster, Crustaceans, Paragonimiasis, Health

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