Main Cause of Hockey & Soccer Downfall

Malaysia's football and hockey teams were a major force to be reckoned with in the 1970s and 1980s (in Asia). Malaysia could beat teams coming from South Korea, Japan or the Middle East nations. Come to the 1990s, we have seen slight deterioration in their performances.

Today, the teams that we trash in those yesteryears are right at the top of the game and beating us every now and then.

Where was Vietnam in the 1970s? They were just recovering from their war against the USA and today, their football team is the champion of South East Asia.

In Malaysia's match against the United Arab Emirates for the 2011 Asian Cup qualifying stage, only three pathetic players were declared fit for the match. The rest? What were they doing? What sort of training did they go through? How are you going to play three against eleven? We lost 5-0!

Our deplorable football team is ranked 161st in the FIFA ranking (as at today). Really sad! I have even heard a comment stating that too much of televised English Premier League matches in our TV channels actually stopped many Malaysians from having interests in supporting local Malaysian teams. What an excuse!!!! Instead of coming up with better ideas to improve it, excellent excuses were thought of.

The upper echelon of the national football team management has to be responsible for the dismay but the national football coach has been blamed by the management instead. The players that the coach could select were from state teams that are not managed well enough. How do you expect the coach to have a strong team then? Even the former national players blame the Football Association of Malaysia for the state of the national football team.

Not only football, even our national hockey is in the same predicament. What's happening here? The hockey team is preparing for the upcoming Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in April 2009 and went through a fitness test. Unfortunately, only nine passed the fitness test conducted by the National Sports Institute. So much for the millions poured into the sports ............ or was it poured elsewhere that we didn't know about it? Otherwise, how could such things happen.

The Pakistan and India teams feared the Malaysian hockey team in those years ....... now? They could be heard asking "Who's Malaysia?".

I don't think I'm allowed to question the upper echelon who's in charge of the respective national football and hockey teams as I could be charged for treason or sedition under weird Malaysian laws.

We are not asking Malaysia to win the World Cup in both sports as even though there are no mutu, show me some gaya at least (of which I can't see it also).
Tags: Malaysia, National Sports Institute, Football, Hockey, FIFA Ranking, Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, 2011 Asian Cup, Football Association of Malaysia

Silence on Credit Card Clause?

How true is this clause? Can anyone verify it?
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The limit of our liability for a lost or stolen credit card is RM250.00 only under Rule 13.2 of the Bank Negara rules on credit card if it has been fraudulently used.

Please note this limit and ensure that your bank does not overcharge you should your card have been used illegally. Most are unaware of RM250 limited liability - PLEASE READ AND BE INFORMED! CARDHOLDERS need not pay more than RM250 whenever their lost or stolen credit cards are used by others. Yet, often times, they end up paying much more.

This is because Bank Negara has not informed cardholders that they do not have to pay more than RM250 for fraudulent transactions carried out using their lost or stolen cards, when they had not acted fraudulently and had informed the banks about the lost or stolen cards as soon as possible.

This protection is given under Clause 13.2 of Bank Negara's Credit Card Guideline:-

"The cardholder's maximum liability for unauthorised transactions as a consequence of a lost or stolen credit card shall be confined to a limit specified by the issuer of credit cards, which shall not exceed RM250 provided the cardholder has not acted fraudulently or has not failed to inform the issuer of credit cards as soon as reasonably practicable after having found that his credit card is lost or stolen."

Banks know about Clause 13.2 but have chosen to ignore it. Instead they pursue cardholders for the fraudulent transactions. They will tell cardholders that a clause in the credit card contracts states that all transactions carried out before the loss of the cards are reported to the banks, are deemed to be carried out by the cardholders. Many cardholders then pay up because they are unaware of the RM250 limited liability.

Bank Negara should rule that:-

*The RM 250 maximum liability on fraudulent transactions is highlighted to cardholders in the card agreements as well as in the monthly card statements.

*Banks are not allowed to insert any clause in the card agreement which is contrary to Clause 13.2.

*Banks should refund all money in excess of the RM 250 collected from cardholders whose cases clearly come under Clause 13.2.

S.M. Mohamed Idris
President, Consumers Association of Penang
(extracted from Star)
Tags: Bank Negara, Credit Card Clause, Consumers Association of Penang

Discover Your Calling

Read 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 (Based on Gordon Smith's Courage and Calling and Yoke Yeow's idea with Incredibly Called) Delivered at RipTreat 2009.

If you can be a superhero, who would you want to be? Why do you want his or her super powers?

Do you remember the movie The Incredibles? Or Kungfu Panda? Or Ratatouille? The heroes of each story have a deep desire in their hearts to be superheroes, a chef (Remy the Rat) or kungfu master (Po The Panda), they face huge internal and external problems that prevent them for realizing their dreams and we cheer them on when we see how they finally overcome these barriers to be what they were meant to be!

Each and every one of us is given special talents, skills, abilities and a calling from God. Not all of us have the same spiritual gift. Why? It’s supposed to be like a body when we mutually build up and bless each other with the diverse gifts we have been given. Since we cannot be experts in everything, we need each other…

First and foremost, God calls us to Himself, to a personal Father-child relationship with Him. He loves us unconditionally, there is where our self-worth lies. Secondly, He has also equipped us with abilities and called us to fulfil a purpose, mission and destiny in life.

What happens when we don’t exercise our gifts or we don’t know what God has called us to do with our lives? When people don’t discover what God had made them to be, they very often experience these symptoms

Boredom: Mr Incredible is super-strong and loves to fight crime and save people from trouble. But when he was forced to retire by the law, he earns a living filing claims in an insurance company. He’s cramped in a tin can and sneaks out at night to play super hero.

Mischief: Do you remember Dash? Wonder-boy capable of supersonic speeds but to hide his superpowers, he can’t show his true colors in school. So he must pretend to lose races in school to conceal his abilities. In frustration, he expresses his talent by putting thumb tacks teacher's butt. When people can’t express their abilities in positive, productive ways, these gifts can have a dark side.

Inferiority Complex: Violet the shy, insecure girl whose gift of invisibility helps her fade ever more into the background. When you don’t find your call or purpose in life, you may eventually believe you are good for nothing. There is no meaning or rhyme in life… you get overwhelmed with self pity, inferiority and insecurity.

Mismatch of work: I would also like to suggest to you that because many people do not discover the true superpowers, they choose a certain job or study certain subjects because everybody else is doing it, it makes lots of money or due to society expectation or because it is easier road to take. We dun stop and ask:

Is this “who I am”? Is this what God has called me to do?

Disclaimer: If you are in secondary school, this is probably not the time for you to make firm decisions on what you’d be doing for the rest of your life. So don’t go home and tell your parents “I’m not going to school anymore because I wanna go US and be American Idol”. It is a lifelong journey. You won’t find out the entire purpose of your life tonight. At your age, I want to encourage you to try new things, dun limit your ministry experience and continuously learn more about you like/dislike but it’s never too early to start thinking about these things.

What I like about movies like Kungfu Panda, Incredibles or Ratatouille is not so much the silly humor or kick-butt action, what satisfies us most is when they find the joy of finally doing what they were made to do. Like when Remy the rat creates delicious dishes instead of scavenging leftovers or when Po the Panda finally defeats the bad guy by being himself and he finds out that the secret of the dragon scroll is “There is no secret!” we cheer for these heroes.

What are you spiritual gifts? Freely you have received, freely give. A Hero is waiting to be set free in us. Only One Life To Live. Don’t Waste It.

But how do we find out what is God’s will for us? What are our spiritual gifts? Must we hear audible voices from heaven before we know it? Is there a secret spiritual formula to finding God's call? The secret of the dragon scroll is "there is no secret".

It’s not something overly difficult or mysterious. In fact, after this we will do a little survey together to help you find out more about your spiritual gifts. Would you like to find out? (Disclaimer: The purpose is to get you started on discovery not absolute answers because unless you have tried some of these ministry areas, how do you know you don’t like it or good at it? The answers will change as you explore and learn more)

Here are FIVE Questions to help us find our Life Calling

1) What do you feel joy doing? What is my deepest desire or passion?

It doesn’t mean that just because you enjoy playing Counterstrike, you are called to be a gamer. But since God put the body together, you will feel fulfilled (Yes, I feel God’s pleasure when I run, sing, write, play the guitar, serve the weak etc) when functioning in the proper area. There will be a sense of purpose, like jigsaw puzzles that fit. Look out for the sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, pleasure when you exercise a gift/ministry.

2) What are you good at doing? What are my abilities, skills, spiritual gifts, mutant powers?

Run through some of the gifts and talents in the spiritual gift survey. It's not an exhaustive list. Maybe you think “Oh, I’m good at none of these things.” But again: “Belum cuba belum tahu”. Risks: When people ask you to serve as ushers, “Oh no, because I don’t have that gift”. You begin to avoid evangelism or prayer. And at this time, none of us have enough life experience to really know what gifts you have, Some people would rather die than say, sing in public, but when they are given training and opportunity they may turn out to be gifted singers. So explore new opportunities. Get involved in different church ministries to meet the needs of some real people, expose yourself to the needs around and see if God puts a burden in your heart.

3) What do you feel are the biggest needs of the people around you?

When you look at the world around you, what are the things that make you sad or lose sleep? Are you burdened by the suffering of poor people? Are you burdened to see that people are lost without the gospel? Do you feel angry when there is injustice or cruelty? Of course, all Christians should feel such burdens in some degree. But it’s also true that some people feel more strongly about some areas than others. And it’s okay, dun fight over it and accept that God calls people differently while learn from others. Evangelism (Alpha Course) versus Social Justice? (Angsana) Don’t insist others to be like you. Have you felt like: “Why isn’t somebody doing something about it?” Maybe you should.

4) What is your unique personality?

God has wired each of us differently, in a unique way like snowflakes. There is no “right” personality. Our individual temperament is unique to us as our fingerprint. John Calvin once said: You cannot know God unless you know yourself. You cannot know yourself unless you know God.

- Extroverts are energized by being with people or enjoy being the center of attention. Introverts tend to be content and energized being alone, and avoid attention when in a crowd. Which is more true to who you are?- How do you process information? Am I more inclined to trust clear, certain and concrete facts (sensate) or more inclined to trust intuition, gut feeling and imagine possibilities (intuitive)?

- Do you make decisions depending on logic/analysis or personal relationship/feeling? Thinker or feeler?

- Am I more inclined to live with order, structure and routine or do I prefer going through life with more variety, spontaneous changes? Different personality may clash in a meeting. Derive fulfillment from finishing a task or find more joy in the process?

Again, your calling is not determined by one factor. For example: “Unless you are an outgoing extrovert, you cannot be a leader” – too simplistic. There are different leadership styles, a quiet person can lead effectively also.

5) What do others in school, family, circle of friends, church community say about me?

Since spiritual gifts are designed to benefit others (edify each other), you should see positive results as you exercise these gifts. But results take time so don’t give up too quickly, give it a fair try. Sometimes it’s hard to be brutally honest with ourselves – we can be either too hard on ourselves or unable to see our own shortcomings. So we need other brothers and sisters in Christ to help us recognize and confirm our gifting. Cannot ‘syok sendiri!!’ And as a youth group, be on the lookout and encourage those who do well, affirm them to continue using their gifts, be generous in giving honest feedback and constructive suggestions or evaluations.

But you can’t consider this question alone: Sometimes even people who mean well may misunderstand us, may be biased and their feedback cannot be absolute. We need to weigh opinions of others carefully as well. Usually some truth, some exaggerations…

So there you have it: Five Questions to help you discover your calling in life
What do you feel joy doing? What are you good at doing? What do you feel are the biggest needs of the people around you? What is your unique personality?

After doing the survey:
Beware of ‘gliding on our gifts’. Sometimes our relationship with God is not that healthy or our hearts are not right (bear grudges or hatred on others) but we can still do well in our ‘ministry’ because we are gifted in it and nobody notices. Your gift can never replace what goes on inside your heart. “Lord! Lord! Look at what we have done for you” But I never knew you. (Matt 7:21) There are people who are not so gifted but because their character is godly and their relationship with God is close, people are blessed and sense the aroma of Christ in their lives.

Our gift, ability or ministry is not an extension of ourselves. It is not where your source of self-worth. Unless you see this, you’d be driven or scared, too timid or too aggressive.

If we measure our self-worth by our achievements and abilities, we will either burn out (“I must be the best otherwise I’m a failure”) or give up (“What’s the point? I’d never be good enuff”).

But the good news is Christ “loves us more than we ever dare imagine even though we are more sinful than we’d ever know”! How does that change the way you measure how valuable you are and how you use gifts? Humble boldness…

I hope this message gets you to start thinking over the next few days we are together. What is the kind of person God has called me to be? What are the needs around me that I could me in Jesus name? What gifts have he given me to bless others and glorify God?

Remember Spiderman movie: With great powers come great responsibility! Let us pray.
Tags: Discover Your Calling

Khartoum Life

The van in front of us has a spoiler right above the van ..... preparing to take off ???

Over here, the owner of this office made sure that people knows where to find his office.

Before we start our meeting, we indulge in the Sudanese breakfast called 'foul' ...... pronounced as fool. FYI, I'm still clever after eating it.

You eat the foul by dipping your bread into it and try to scoop the right amount of foul in tandem with the size of the bread in your hand.

What's foul? Egyptian dish made of fava beans. First the beans go in the bowl, then it is time for the toppings: a little cumin, chopped onions, fresh parsley, pepper, salt, and olive oil.

Street mobile vendors - nope, they don't sell mobile phone but they are mobile enough to walk at all the traffic light junctions showing the goods they in their hands.













Sometimes I would notice that when a driver bought something from them and gave them a big currency note, the street vendor would take that money and run over to his other fellow street vendors looking for smaller note denomination.

By that time, the cars would have moved a bit to the front and this street vendor would be running towards that car.

Normally, the street vendor would be walking around cars that are quite far away from the traffic lights, in case the car moves on during a green light with their goods still in the hands of the car driver.

Lots of them. To me, at least they are trying to make a living with their own two feet.

But one of my local colleagues did mention that some of those goods could be stolen goods and sold off to unknowing car drivers.

Tags: Khartoum, Street Vendors, Foul Breakfast

Batman Suparman in Singapore

Voice message recorded in a call centre:-

"Thank you for calling, this is BATMAN"

"Who am I speaking to?.."

"Batman..."

"May I have your name again pls?"

"My name is Bat-man..."

"Trying to be funny huh?!. What is your surname?.."

"Supar-man..."

"I want to speak with your manager... !"
Tags: Batman, Suparman, Funny, Humour

Fees for Toilet Usage in Aeroplane

Pay for seat reservation ......

Pay for food ......

Pay for usage of blanket ......

Pay for pillow ......

Pay for additional check-in luggage ......

These are the things you may need to pay when you board low cost carrier across the world.

But when I heard that you may have to pay for the usage of the toilet, I think it has really gone too far this time.

I can bear with the running on the airport tarmac to the aeroplane or walk a bit faster than the rest of the passengers ...... so can do without the seat reservation.

I can sneak food into my waistpouch and hence, I don't need to buy food during the flight.

Normally I'm afraid of warm weather or place. So, no blanket is still alright.

No pillow? What difference does it make by trying to sleep with a pillow since you are sitting up.

Lesser clothings, lesser space required for luggage space .... problem with ladies usually ... hehe

But the toilet issue .............. you are asking which airplane is going to do that?

Well, it's the Irish budget airline Ryanair. They won't be placing an additional crew in front of the toilet door to collect money but a coin slot would be installed for your sake. Their sake or yours actually?

No coins? Sorry mate, wait till the plane lands. Meantime, get a plastic bag ready if you are about to let go .......... haha

What else will they think of? Pay for your life jacket ...... ?

Reading: Ryanair mulls charge for toilets - BBC News
Tags: Ryanair, Toilet Usage, Low Cost Carrier

Dinner - Amwaj Restaurant

This is a road side stall (one of those larger operations).

We opted for Amwaj Restaurant for the night. Definitely will try out this restaurant each time I'm in Khartoum.

Four stooges went for the dinner. Two here.

The other two stooges.

They will lay a piece of plastic sheet over the table. Less hassle in cleaning the table later.










All the four walls have been lined up with mirrors. Looked classy. It has an area without air-cond. This is the part of the restaurant which has air-cond. You could occupy first floor too but we were lazy to climb up.












Normally people would order a plate of salad each that comes with a bowl of soup plus those giant bread ..... what kind of soup was that already?













A small plate of the really hot chili ........... pure chilli taste.











This our lamb dish that comes with their special rice that has raisins cooked with it.















Our KFC chicken style ...... of course it doesn't taste like KFC.











A frightening dish itself. All jumbled up. If I didn't know what was ordered, I wouldn't be able to guess this dish.














Looks like a squid but it was a fish.

Have you heard of the word "grogs" ???

On the way out of the restaurant, took a quick shot at their big hot plate which was like preparing for a huge banquet. This is how fast they sell their foodstuff ...... could be even better than the local fast food companies.
Tags: Khartoum, Amwaj Restaurant, Food