BINTULU 9

Bintulu 9 – February 19th to March 23rd 2005.

Bintulu March 16, 2005.

I ponder. Another day goes by. I was told by my sisters that their respective functions went well. The proper function for a newborn was held and was well attended while another nephew of mine is married now. My other sister must be enjoying herself in the glory of her school producing the best student in the recent examinations, with lunch and dinner functions and meeting up with royalty and dignitaries alike as reported by the local newspapers. It must have been a hectic period for them. For us here its hectic in a different way. With the two boys constantly noisy and attracting attention its difficult to concentrate in what one wants to do. Their playful antics however wipe off any disappointment in that respect.

Sita eMailed some recent pictures of Najla and two of these are posted here. Najla is six months old now.

A few days ago there was an article in the local newspaper on the Malaysian postal service. The article more or less described the transformation of the service provider from its early beginnings as a government department to what it is now, a corporate entity. All the good that they do are highlighted, the increase in the number of mails and parcels handled, number of staff, offices and sub-offices and so on mentioned, such that I get the feeling they are trying to portray something, justify something to the public. Many many years ago, mails were delivered quite haphazardly. They were either late, delayed or mislaid. Post was not regarded as a service provider but an enforcer. You want to send mail, come to us and we will deliver for you when we are able to!! Then came the courier service. This was in the early or mid seventies. In late sixties there were already small or private concerns providing such courier service but they were rather crude and not well organized. When they were organized properly, they became a threat to the Post services. I think its was DHL that first set up the services in a big way. So Post had to buck up and face the competition. They have to increase efficiency. They have to service the public as a true service provider. They have to deliver on time. They finally decided to corporatise to increase efficiency. But is that the only way to increase efficiency? A corporate entity has to prove profitable besides being efficient. They have to answer to their shareholders. So which comes first? Shareholders or client? Profit for the shareholders or efficient service to the public, their clients. If you consider what has transpired recently my vote is their responsibility to shareholders comes first and service to clients second or is it last!! What has become apparent is that rates are increasing. It is a lot more expensive to use their services now. Will they be more efficient? I wonder. They are setting stricter rules before they can provide their service, as example, no more brown envelopes. Envelopes must be white. But white envelopes are more expensive!! All envelopes must be sealed when previously you can send open envelopes, open-ended parcels of magazines, periodicals and other printed matters and so on which was at a cheaper rate, compared to sealed envelopes. There are many more new rules and regulations being introduced. In addition they use all sorts of justification to increase rates. One, which I always fail to understand is, the rates in our country is currently the lowest in the region, or the lowest amongst so and so and similar reasons. (You also hear this reason for the increase in toll, electricity tariff, public transport fares and others!!). Must we increase our rates just because other countries charge higher rates? Other countries use our services as a dumping ground to enjoy the cheaper rates they say so we have to increase rate. So, we, the general public, having enjoyed cheaper rates have to suffer by paying higher rates to prevent others from using our country’s services as a dump? That is not right is it? Why can’t they handle the dumping by the few instead of ‘buggering’ the masses?

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu

Najla: who is that behind the camera? 

Sita and Najla, connecting .... 

BINTULU 8

Bintulu 8 – February 19th to March 23rd 2005.

Bintulu March 14, 2005.

I ponder. Another day goes by. In fact its been a few days since I posted my last ramblings. I am now into my fourth week in Bintulu. The two boys are constantly keeping us on our toes. School break has just started, so the two of them are together always. They play together, loudly and they fight loudly too. The little sister are often awakened in a jolt. We have to constantly coax them to be quiet. Its peace and quiet when they are asleep.

Over the last few days three of my sisters and their families went through different functions. One had held a celebration for her eighth grandchild yesterday, another held a marriage solemnization ceremony for her son also yesterday and yet another sister attended and accompanied one of her students to functions upon functions celebrating her success in obtaining A1s in all 17 subjects she took in the recent examinations. (See my previous blog on this). For obvious reasons I could not attend the first two functions but I am sure the functions went well, and I wish all of them well too.

Over the last few days a number of visitors came to visit Mini and the baby. One of them came and introduced Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water system to Shaffik. He even demonstrated the difference between RO water and other waters available. He was convincing. But then again, all of those trying to sell their stuff, whatever system it is, will be just as convincing. So where do we go then. There are many systems of water purification in the market. All of them claim theirs are superior than others. Theres even one system that claims to purify water to just water, nothing else. Is pure water and nothing else in it really good for us? I ponder. When I was in school, health science taught me that we need minerals in our body, all sorts, from calcium, magnesium, iron to selenium and a myriad of other minerals. One of the sources of these minerals is the water we drink. To my mind, we only need to purify and clean the water from bacteria and impurities, without any need to remove all else from the water. So, something at the back of my mind suspect, only a suspicion, that there is a correlation between the water supplier, the Jabatan Bekalan Air, Puas or whatever and the water system manufacturer. I wonder. When I was young, I used to carry water in metal pails and other containers from the standpipes at the roadside into the house, (water were not piped into the houses then). I used to drink water direct from the pipe. Nobody thought of filtering the water before use. Even when the water was allowed to stand in the containers for a long time there were no sediments or any settlements at the bottom. Now? Phoooh! The muck that comes off the water filters is just unbelieveable. Whites when washed in the washing machines can turn yellow if not careful. I even read in the papers that people have found all sorts of impurities coming out of their taps, including live ‘crawlies’ and worms!! So can I be blamed for pondering and wondering if there is a connection between suppliers and manufacturers?

I recently see advertisements and hear news of a prominent personality appealing to people to attend a musical function that is held to collect funds for the Tsunami victims. Over the past few months there have been many funds and collection centers set up for this purpose. Millions upon millions have already been collected. A lot of Hoohaaa on the amount collected, of how generous so and so are, such and such a company are. They appear on TV to show to the world how conscious they are to the plight of the victims. Who then is responsible for all the money? Who then accounts for all that has been collected? Its money held in trust from all that has donated. As its money in trust, it should be properly accounted for. If not it will be a breach of that trust!! How about the victims? Have they been adequately attended to? I know from an experience of someone very close to me that her attempt to pass on donations directly to the victims at one location was thwarted by the politicians and their cohorts, to the extent of using the police to prevent her. All donations must go through a certain ‘authority’ they say. Is this then genuine attempt at helping the victims? I wonder and I continue to ponder. I am very much afraid of the wrath of the One and Only, the Almighty. Was not tsunami one of it?


MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Bintulu

Ahhh! peace. Those two guys not bothering me now. I'l catch up with my beauty sleep!! 

Hey you guys lay off please!! You are smothering me!! 

I am 17 days old.