when zen is not zen

i have a lot of admiration for sim wong hoo and his combative spirit to fight with apple. this is real talent. i would not want to mention anything that would be not complimentary to him or his products. but for him to get it right and fight a winning battle he must know where he went wrong. his zen is anything but zen. and apple's ipod is anything but zen. it is what zen is all about. quiet simplicity and elegance. nothing gaudy or confusing or distracting. that is the beauty in zen. the spirit of zen is in the ipod. being beautiful without trying. it is so unassumingly dignified. its design and colour is so quiet while the creative zen's design is just too noisy for zen.

sia: mm taking charge

is this a good sign or bad sign? from the positive angle, mm is still hands on, still active and committed and full of energy to take on a difficult task. from another angle, i am getting worried. are we saying that no one is capable to handle the sia unions except mm? what next if he is not around? what happens to all the highly paid super talents? it is a worrying sign.

goodbye malaysia. see you in year 600 ad.

the last few bill changes in malaysia and the right of the state to own the body of a dead man instead of the family are the signs of where malaysia is heading. i think they will find it more to their liking if they can transport the peninsula to the middle east and rewind the time to the time of the prophet.

independent schools: cocky frog in the well

many parents still think that they can buy quality education. and if their child did not do too well in psle, they can buy a place in a better independent school. and the administrators in independent schools also think so. this parent applied for one. and the independent school agreed to accept his daughter on condition that he pays the full school fees in advance. 4 years of school fees in advance is only $22,000. so cheap. but this parent found it ridiculous and rejected the offer. one week later the school called again renewing the offer. the parent asked how come still got vacancies. answer, someone just rejected and a place is available and he is given 24 hours to accept. the parent is not so stupid. he knew that not all parents are suckers and will fork out $22,000 in advance. but this independent school administrators probably still believes that there are many desperate parents or suckers around. and this independent school is not even top notched, just a so so secondary school. sure there will be a few rich and desperate parents who have all the money to splurge, and going to an expensive school is good enough. how many more suckers are out there?

nkf: 38c not good enough

the new nkf clarified that 38c of donations will go to the patients. is this good enough? obviously not. the donors donate their money to treat the patients, not for nkf to put into a kitty as a savings. like someone said, god's money will never be finished. it will keep on flowing. this charity money comes from the hearts of the people is like god's money. it is given with no strings attached. it will pour when the real need asks for it. now the real need is being questioned. all the figures given by nkf, new and old, are being questioned. the new nkf must come clean and give the donors a complete and accurate picture and discard the mindset and myths of the old nkf. the numbers given by a cheong wing lee in the today paper forum contributes to more doubts about the financials of the nkf. he claimed that he is a renal patient and is receiving private dialysis treatment at $180 per treatment. and the treatment centre is a profit making organisation. if a profit making centre can charge $180 per treatment and makes money, how can the old nkf claimed that its treatment cost is $200 and the new nkf is $162, when both are supposed to be non profit making? if nkf is not efficient and has to live with such a high operating cost then something is fundamentally wrong. yes, they better farm out their treatment operations to the private profit making centres.