Will Our Buildings Withstand Earthquake?

After experiencing those earthquake shakes at my condo and office building before, it's really not comforting to have read about a Bernama news report that Malaysian buildings cannot withstand a strong earthquake even if it happens at a neighbouring country.

Indonesia's many earthquakes have caused many tremors in Malaysia and a 6.0 Richter Scale shake in Indonesia could be felt in Malaysia easily.

A professor from the Universiti Sains Malaysia's Disaster Research Unit has commented that less than 1% of Malaysia's buildings have constructed the buildings factoring in the earthquake situation. My my.

Which of the buildings in Malaysia then?
Answer: Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers, Penang Bridge and Komtar. Only three structures? That's even less than 0.1%. For those of you whose buildings that are not mentioned .......... ahhh you know what to do.

My office building shook on 30 Sept 2009 when a strong earthquake hit Padang in Indonesia. It was a correct decision to evacuate the building no matter what.

I did hear from friends that not all their colleagues evacuated their offices on that day with some saying that it's just a tremor from Indonesia (if it was an earthquake) and some said that there's no earthquake in Malaysia. Some people really take things for granted.

A structural engineer has told me before that even if it was just a tremor due to an earthquake that has happened faraway, a building may not collapse immediately. Structural damage may have occured but we don't know. If there was a damage and if the structure was built according to actual designs, the structure could withstand the damage temporarily up to say thirty minutes. That's enough time to evacuate and walk faraway from the building.

What about you? Will you evacuate or you are more worried about what others may say about you being the first person to run away?

Reading: Less Than One Per Cent Of Buildings In Malaysia Have Earthquake Preventive Measures - Bernama

Related post - Earthquake Shook My Office Building
Tags: Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers, Penang Bridge, Komtar, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Disaster Research Unit, Earthquake, Richter Scale, Structural Engineer

Sorry State of Public Asset

Going to certain government offices (I can say that this applies to any part of the world) is something that many people do not look forward to. The queues would be long, waiting period for the processing of documents may be hours and the worst of all would be the waiting area are congested.

But it won't beat the situation as shown below -
Tags: Government Office

Barred From Leaving Malaysia

Recently, there were some Malaysians that were barred from leaving Malaysia. Who are they? Wanted criminals? Tax evaders?

It seems that the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) and the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) are conducting such checks in collaboration with the Immigration Dept and managed to catch up with many income tax and loan defaulters.

Those badly affected were Malaysia Airlines employees who have to travel frequently in their line of duty. It was affecting the cabin crews and can you imagine that you are trying to board your plane (or report for duty in the airplane) and you were stopped at the Immigration check point.

The last minute replacement crew would have been rushed from somewhere to replace that crew that was barred from leaving Malaysia.

In a way, I can't pity such people as they have a duty to settle their income tax or loans. If you have taxes or loans to be paid, do pay first because you are obliged to do so. It could also be a chicken and egg story where a cabin crew needs to 'fly' to earn their income in order to pay for the taxes or loans.

Unfortunately, I have also heard from someone that even though you had made payments to PTPTN, the people working there were slow in updating the files. In due time, info on bad loan accounts were sent to the Immigration Dept to nab such culprits.

In this case, I agree that income tax defaulters/evaders should be barred for they were supposed to pay taxes based on preceding year's income. They have earned the income but failed to remit the required amount. It's their bad financial management then. They chose to default.

Some are really innocent. Some acted as if they were innocent. Why did it happen in the first place? It happened because these people took it for granted.

The Malaysian Airlines System Employees' Union (MASEU) is calling for a review on the travel ban on income tax and study loan defaulters. What for? To protect people who flout the laws?

Unless these staff had agreed on settlement plans with IRB or PTPTN in advance, they should barred. Well, you were barred because you failed to do something properly. Whose fault in the first place?

If it was IRB or PTPTN that didn't update their files even though settlement agreements/payments were made, then we should get those fellas in IRB or PTPTN to compensate for the loss of income of those that were barred from travelling for no reasons. Fair?

It works in both ways, cannot be just penalising the defaulters but also the bad performers.

Reading: MAS employees want review of travel ban on tax, loan defaulters - Star
Tags: Inland Revenue Board, IRB, National Higher Education Fund Corporation, PTPTN, Immigration Dept, Malaysian Airlines System Employees' Union, MASEU, Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Finished Behind Laos

"Malaysia Finished Behind Laos" - when I saw that headline in the online news, I got a very good feeling that it was related to football. True enough, it was. How devastating!

If you think that it was alright because it was just the Under-19 team representing Malaysia, please bear in mind that this group of players (if they are the best) would be representing Malaysia for as long as they can play. So, don't think of World Cup qualifications for the next 10 years???????

Hopefully they can spot a few other talented players over the years to beef up this squad.

How can Malaysia's football development be so poor? Whose fault? Our future doesn't look bright at all. Foundation is always the main thing.

If you were to say 'please give them a chance', I would tell you to follow up with the on-going Under-20 World Cup being held in Egypt. Look at who has qualified for this World Cup tournament.

Of all countries, Laos? And kudos to Laos for the fantastic results knowing the fact their resources/facilities are way below what Malaysia can provide for their team.

Why am I bothered with this football progress since it's so poor? I'm passionate about it since young and would love to see my own country being up there. That's why! Not just because I like to ridicule.

Reading: Malaysia finish behind Laos - Star
Tags: Laos, Football, Soccer, Under-20 World Cup

Bloggers Invited By Federal Government

Received an invitation from the Ministry of Federal Territories last week to be present for the Blog4FT campaign which was to be held at Pavilion KL on Monday.

I did question the person who invited me as I was wondering how did he obtain my email address and how did he get to know that I was a blogger. You know what I mean when you receive an email from the Federal Government people.

Found out that he was the Special Officer to the Minister too. A small world indeed when my colleague told me he knew this guy after reading the email invitation for this event.

Took leave on Monday and ran around to settle some stuff for the new house and rushed back to shower prior to departing for Pavilion KL. Quite a jam along Jalan Sultan Ismail after exiting Smart Tunnel. Arrived at the centre of Pavilion and saw that it was filled with chairs in view of the launching of the Blog4FT campaign.

The shopping centre was beautifully decorated with Kolam designs in anticipation of the forthcoming Deepavali festival on 17 Oct 2009.

Back to the campaign. What's the campaign about?

The Ministry is engaging bloggers and traditional media to write about stuff / happenings in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.

Browse through the dedicated website for this event itself, Blog4FT. Are you game for it? A blogging competition is being held and the Ministry actually encourages you to blog positively and promote FT indirectly.

It's opened to anyone divided into four categories, namely:-
* Malaysian Public - This category is open to all Malaysian citizens except those that fall under the Malaysian Media or the Junior Categories.

* Junior - This category is open only to Malaysian citizens below the age of 18 as at 31 December 2009.

* Malaysian Media - This category is open to employees of Malaysian Media Companies registered with the Malaysian Government.

* International - This category is open to non-Malaysian citizens.

I found that this is a good move indeed as this Ministry is trying to build good rapport with the bloggers instead of threatening bloggers as done by another ministry (which do not deserve my mention).

Registered my goodself upon arrival and was told that the event may begin around 3.15pm. My guess was correct. The little delay to the start of the event attended by big shots was expected.

Don't know how many bloggers were invited but felt privileged to be one of the bloggers.

While waiting for the event to begin, I dropped by at Dome cafe which was located just besides the event area. Made full use of the RM5 voucher (part of the door gift) and ordered a Tiramisu cake (a blogger has forgotten to take picture of his food?!?!??!). After deducting the RM5, the cake cost me RM9.95.

The arrival of the special guests was welcomed by a group of drum instruments performers. Can't take a picture as they were seated on the other end of the stage. You get to see different races playing their own drums (must learn the names of those drums) and they were able to rhyme it beautifully.

The Minister, YB Dato' Raja Nong Chik, gave a short speech telling us that he just got the hang of the internet and high technology era because of pressures from his kids.

After much persuasion from his kids (not those in kindergarten mind you but teens), he caught up with it really fast and is now known as the Facebook Minister in the Cabinet for having a thriving Facebook account.

Sadly and maybe unfortunately, the Ministry of Federal Territories' website is not updated and bearing in mind that the event was organised by the same ministry, they should have taken more responsibility in updating the name of the Minister. It's still showing the previous Minister's name and the previous organisation chart ......... tsk tsk tsk.

C'mon, please update your website.

At the end of the speech, a number of guests were called to the stage to press a button I supposed and it initiated a "biometric scanner". That's what it says at the screen behind them.

Thereafter, a short skit was presented by five individuals depicting how they were brought up in FT since young and what FT was to them.

At the closing of the event, representatives from the Ministry, organiser, sponsors stood at stage for a photo session.

The event (especially the blogging competition's prizes) was sponsored by some large Malaysian companies.









Walked up to the 4th floor to take this picture of the event area.















Could see a better effect of the Kolam design from up there.
Tags: Blog4FT, Ministry of Federal Territories, Pavilion KL, Kolam Design, Deepavali, Raja Nong Chik

Earthquake Shook My Office Building

Last Wednesday's late afternoon, around 6.15pm, I was still in my office trying to touch up some loose end for a document before going off. I was leaning towards my work area and looking at the laptop closely.

My boss came out from his room asking a general question "Did you feel it?". "Feel what" was my response.

He said that the building could be moving. At that of time, I relaxed and leaned onto my chair. Then I felt the chair swaying left to right and vice versa.

I said "I felt it now!"

Straightaway, I moved to the pantry area and looked at the construction site for "The Intermark", an on-going development that is taking place where once the Yow Chuan Plaza stood.

Noticed no work is being carried out and thus, the building wasn't affected by the construction activities. Wasted no time and shut down laptop, moved out as fast as possible. I took the second lift that stopped at our floor. No time to think of running down the steps from 31st floor.

The idea of an earthquake struck me but with the construction activities just adjacent to our 58 storey Vista Tower (formerly known as Empire Tower), we doubted the safety of the building.

Upon reaching ground floor, the security personnel requested us to run instead of walking. Maannnnnnnnnnnnn, what tension!

Upon reaching outside, lots of people were already gathered. Security personnel moved us further away standing just next to the busy Jalan Tun Razak.








One thing I noticed, there wasn't any alarm at all to warn us. It was all phone calls that got us down.

Later on, another colleague from another floor did mention that alarm was sounded but when he got down, so many people had evacuated the building long before him.









As I walked further away, I noticed that the construction workers actually evacuated the whole area much faster than we had evacuated our building.

Two of my colleagues (in this pict) still have time to pose for this shot.

What happened to the alarm and the PA system?


We heard from someone that a person who came down earlier saw our office building swaying.

That's ridiculous. If that had happened, the building would have collapsed. That person ought to go for eye check-up. Or was actually too frightened from the swaying effect.










A colleague of mine who stayed back most of the days felt very relieved. He said that he won't feel guilty in leaving for home at 6.30pm hahahaha. Off he went.

Some colleagues can't go home at all. Reason - their cars are still in the office building.

Well, I parked far far away ....... just next to the BMW showroom. When I walked till the BMW showroom, I noticed the workers at this 4 storey building had also ran down in wake of the strong shake ................... confirmed it was an earthquake.

Reached home and a colleague updated me that an earthquake tragedy struck Padang, Indonesia with a richter scale of 7.6. That's awfully high.
Tags: Earthquake, Richter Scale, Padang, Earthquake In Indonesia, Vista Tower, Intermark, Jalan Tun Razak

Higher Calling

A man is driving down the road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?

The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, and even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound; a sound like no other that he has ever heard. The next morn in g, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, We can't tell you. You're not a monk.

The man is disappointed but thanks them anyway and goes about his merry way. Some years later, the same man breaks down in front of the same monastery. The monks again accept him, feed him, and even fix his car.

That night, he hears the same strange mesmerizing sound that he had heard years earlier.The next morning, he asks what the sound was, but the monks reply,We can't tell you. You're not a monk.

The man says, All right, all right. I'm dying to know.If the only way I can find out what that sound was, is to become a monk, how do I become a monk?

The monks reply, you must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of sand pebbles. When you find these numbers, you will become a monk.

The man sets about his task. Some forty-five years later, he returns and knocks on the door of the monastery. He says, I have travelled the earth and devoted my life to the task demanded and have found what you had asked for. There are 371,145,236,284,232 blades of grass and 231,281,219,999,129,382 sand pebbles on the earth.

The monks reply, congratulations, you are correct and now you are a monk.

We shall now show you the way to the sound. The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, the sound is behind that door. The man reaches for the knob, but the door is locked. He asks, May I have the key?

The monks give him the key, and he opens the door.

Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man requests the key to the stone door.

The monks give him the key, and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. He demands another key from the monks, who provide it. Behind that door is another door, this one made of sapphire. And so it went until the man had gone through doors of emerald,

...... silver, topaz, and amethyst.

Finally, the monks say, this is the key to the last door. The man is relieved to no end. He unlocks the door, turns the knob, and behind that door he is astonished to find the source of that strange sound. It is truly an amazing and unbelievable sight.

. .. . But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.

Tags: Monk, Monastery, Blades Of Grass, Sand Pebbles, Humour, Funny