Intel To Streamline Its Malaysian Plants

Intel Corporation, the chip manufacturer that produces your computer's processor, will be consolidating their worldwide manufacturing operations. Their plan is to close two existing assembly test facilities at Bayan Lepas, Penang.

These consolidation exercise will affect Intel's plants in Cavite, Philippines and Hillsboro and Santa Clara, USA respectively. All in all, 5,000 and 6,000 employees will be affected.

The affected employees, in Penang, numbering up to 1,000 people will be transferred to other existing plants in Malaysia. Intel has a total of six plants in Malaysia (including the affected plants) with three in Kulim, Kedah and three in Penang. The six plants employ up to 10,000 employees.

Any Malaysian companies who are ready to absorb these employees if the world economy becomes worse?

Intel is already facing problems and had to close down its plants owing to current market conditions. They reacted even before we could start boycotting them. What if we continue to boycott Intel and cause them to completely shutdown their Malaysian plants ........ that will be powerful indeed! Now, who will support the 10,000 employees?

I did hear that quite a number of foreign owned related manufacturing plants would be streamlining and restructuring their operations too.

Reading: Intel to Consolidate Manufacturing Operations; Company to Halt Production at Five Older Factories - Intel Corporation
Tags: Intel, Intel Corporation, Assembly Test Facility, Bayan Lepas, Penang

Michelin Star For Malaysian Owned Restaurant

A chinese restaurant in London has been hailed as the best chinese restaurant by virtue of obtaining the Michelin star rating.

Kai Mayfair is owned by a Malaysian, Bernard Yeoh, who in turns entrust the kitchen to the head chef, Alex Chow. The restaurant has been operating for the last fifteen years and it's regarded as the highest honour to be rated by the Michelin Guide.

Just by reading its Dom Perignon menu, it does potrays the class and quality it possesses. Can I get a discount when I'm in London?

Once a restaurant is rated by the Michelin Guide, food connoisseurs and those who likes to eat would be making their beeline towards it. In order to minimise any congestion, the restaurant has arranged for table reservations via email and instant online booking.

Michelin Guide should be making its way to Malaysia in due course and I did submit an application to them hoping to be selected as one of their Food Inspector ........ I like to eat, I know what to look for in a dish and I'm good with food tasting ....... willing to travel for food. Yes, I'm dreaming about it and if I don't dream about it, it's definitely zero chance.

Reading: Michelin first for Malaysian restaurant in London - Star
Tags: Kai Mayfair, Foods of China, Best Chinese Restaurant, Bernard Yeoh, London, Michelin Guide, Michelin Star Rating, Food Connoisseurs, Food Inspector

Man Utd Asia Tour 2009

Manchester United has announced their Asia Tour 2009 and will be travelling to East Asia, known for its fabulous fans, in the coming summer.

I can't wait to see them playing again in Kuala Lumpur. The last time they came was in year 2001 where they played against the Malaysian national football team. Man Utd won 6-0. Could have been more but it was more of an exhibition match lah. Cristiano Ronaldo will be the main draw this time.

Hopefully they will have the match at Bukit Jalil stadium on 26 July 2009. This stadium could fit in at least 78,000 people. It will match Old Trafford's capacity at 76,000. In their last visit, there were 67,000 people in the stadium and the atmosphere in the stadium was absolutely amazing.

The atmosphere will certainly be much more exciting when compared to Chelsea's visit to Kuala Lumpur in the last summer as Man Utd is a well supported club in Malaysia. Even two of friends are Liverpool supporters went along with me for the Man Utd's match last time.

However, my wish is to see both Liverpool and Man Utd coming to Malaysia for a match. This will be a cruncher and it could generate the same atmosphere as if it was played in England.

The Man Utd match will definitely bring in lots of people from all over Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Now, my fingers and toes are crossed as I'm hoping that I'll be in Kuala Lumpur during that period.

Tags: Manchester United, Man Utd, Asia Tour 2009, East Asia

Top Up When You Need To Fly

How are you charged for travelling on an airplane? You will tell your travel agent or airline office that you wanted to travel from a destination to another destination and your airfare could be determined by that.

But how do they determine that airfare? A fixed rate? A rate normally charged by various travel agents or airlines?

With low cost carrier like AirAsia and Tiger Airways plying this region, you have to surf their websites to catch the deal of the day to get a low price for your travel.

An airline in South Africa will buck the trend in charging their passengers in time to come. A revolution to the air travel industry, I would say so. If not mistaken, this is the first airline to do so in the world although the airline claimed that it's the first in South Africa.

Who are they? What sort of calculation do they adopt in determining the airfare?

I'm sure everyone has heard of the top up or purchasing of prepaid call time for mobile. Well, this airline doing something similar.

Airtime Airlines, owned by Blackbird Aerospace Corporation, is going to change the face of the air travel industry by charging passengers in terms of the number of minutes they travel from one destination to another. For a start, you need to get a starter pack.

For this, they have patented the words "Pay As You Fly".

Example, Destination A to Destination B takes only 60 minutes and you'll be charged at a certain rate per minute for that particular flight. You could have bought a top up for 120 minutes earlier and by now you have used up 60 minutes. Your next destination will be a 2 hours flight. In order to fly, you would have to top up another 60 minutes.

You would have to surf their website frequently to catch the best rate per minute. It could range from 3 Rand to 9 Rand (1 Rand = US$0.11) per minute.

If my usual airline was to adopt this method, my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai of 7 hours will cost me (7 hours x 60 minutes x say 9 rand) = US$416. Wow!!!!!!

This is what I call, low cost carrier. Really low! It really depends on how much they want to charge you per minute.

Unfortunately, it's only available domestically in South Africa.
Tags: Airtime Airlines, South Africa, Blackbird Aerospace Corporation, Top Up, Pay As You Fly, Low Cost Carrier

Barack Obama's Beast

Barack Obama, the president-elect of USA, will ride in a heavily modified car, the 2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine, in his inauguration ceremony on 20 Jan. The car is a Cadillac-made model and has been given the nickname of Beast owing to its huge size and for its toughness.


How heavily modified? Just look at the specifications:-
* Hand-stitched leather

* 10-disc CD player

* 8-inch-thick doors with each door having the same weight of a Boeing 757 airliner's cabin door (because of these doors, it's also called the Cadillac One)

* Boot contains an independent oxygen supply and advanced fire-fighting system

* Defence systems include pump-action shotguns, night-vision cameras and tear-gas cannons (the president must have been trained using all this weaponaries)

* Supplies of the President's blood in case of emergency medical treatment

* Petrol tank is amour-plated filled with specially designed foam to prevent it from exploding

* Tyres on the limousine are Kevlar-reinforced, puncture- and shred-resistant, with special steel rims that allow the car to continue driving even if the tyre is missing

The bad part of the car:-
* top speed of only 60mph (how to have a fast escape from danger then?)
* eight miles to a gallon (wow, that's really a beast!)

The price - £300,000

Reading: The beast – it's Obama's new Cadillac - What Car?
Tags: Barack Obama, Cadillac, Cadillac One, 2009 Cadillac Presidential Limousine, Kevlar

Robert Mugabe Holidaying in Malaysia

Try googling for "Robert Mugabe in Malaysia" and you'll be astounded with the number of results from the google search.

The media is saying that the Zimbabwe dictator is presently holidaying in Malaysia. It was reported that his wife arranged for transfer of funds to Malaysia for their month long holiday. Which bank accepted that remittance?

Where are they staying? Media reported that they are residing in a family home ........ where's that? Any Malaysian saw him yet? Looks like our own mainstream media has not reported about his presence in Malaysia or was there a government directive to keep quiet on this.

No one is holding any demonstration on his presence in Malaysia?

One of his recent holiday in Malaysia was in February 2008 in which his family stayed at Nikko Hotel.

Maybe his family is escaping the cholera outbreak (2,016 died; 40,448 infected) in Zimbabwe right now. Apparently, he's here for his routine health check. Which hospital could he had checked into? I'm sure he would have gotten himself a good hospital. Lemme see, Gleneagles? SJMC? Sunway? IJN? Pantai?

There are so many things being reported about him (those bad stuff of course) and the Malaysian authorities have allowed such a leader to reside in Malaysia.

The best part is that he may choose to retire in Malaysia.

Related posts on Zimbabwe.
Tags: Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Cholera Outbreak

All Malaysian School Kids Will Be Taught To Hate

In view of the Israeli actrocities against Palestine now, tempers are boiling all over the world that the attacks done by Israel is not coming to a stop just yet.

Malaysia's former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir (a person I revered), has called for a nationwide boycott on USA goods unnessarily.

I thought that the said boycott was bad enough until I read this piece of Bernama news that quoted what the Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, has to say about the Israeli actrocities.

Please check with your school going kids and help them unlearn what they are going to learn in time to come. It was reported that all school kids will somehow be taught on how to have this HATRED feeling against the Israeli atrocities on Palestinians.

It was mentioned that a particular mass movement will involve those in the teaching profession and education ministry staff to be 'brain washed' first before they instill it in the kids.

Please note that this mass movement has been approved by the Cabinet on 7 Jan 2009 (which involves only Barisan Nasional politicians).

Personally, if the Malaysian government wants people to be aware of such actrocities, just teach the positive way. The government declares the nation as an Islamic nation but now they are trying to instill HATRED into the school going kids (please read this statement with proper understanding, no malice & hatred were meant here before you even thought of commenting on this statement alone). A religion teaches us to HATE? What's wrong with the government?

Kids won't be able to differentiate which is correct or wrong unless with proper adult guidance. School kids will be thinking that whichever nation that attacks fervently and without mercy, that nation could be HATED later on.

If school kids so happened saw their relatives fighting but didn't know what happened actually (even though physical fight is incorrect), the school kids would have HATRED feeling against those relatives because they have been taught to HATE. They won't know how to differentiate in different circumstances.

Nothing better to do? What political mileage is there to gain when all school going kids' brains will be destroyed?

The government is really going too far with this mass movement! Do it the positive way!

Why can't the ridiculous Minsitry of Education teach what LOVE is all about?

Teach school kids on how to LOVE and touch other people's hearts irrespective of race / religion / upbringing. Am sure with this, wars won't happen but with HATRED feeling, it will happen right here in our own country itself if not guided properly.

Tell all your friends to check with the kids and instill the right teaching into their minds.

Reading: Students In Mass Movement Against Israeli Actrocities - Bernama

Related post - Besides Boycotting, Quit Too

Tags: Bernama, Israeli Actrocities, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian, Hatred