As everyone knows, a deadly pandemic is now occuring. No, I’m not talking about the mourning of Micheal Jackson’s nor Farrah Fawcett’s death. Tragic though they may seem, this pandemic holds more cause for concern especially for everyone and anyone around the world. Influenza A(H1N1) doesn’t sound too scary though, but spreading like a wildfire in an Australian bush is what it is doing at the moment.
Are the people fearful? Yes. Are the people concerned? Maybe. Are the people taking the right steps to stop the spread? 50-50 chance. Are people being responsible about it? Hell no.
This rant comes after several irresponsible comments by the family of those infected with the influenza. My heart goes out to those who have been irresponsibly exposed to this virus through no fault of theirs. I’m not talking about those who came back from the virus infested hotspots. Those can rot in hell. Let me correct myself. Those that should rot in hell are those who did not impose on themselves self quarantine after coming back from those places. And saying that they are victims too.
Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/25/nation/4188481&sec=nation
Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/21/ah1n1flu/4164576&sec=ah1n1flu
And the government supports those who spreads the virus without apology?
Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/26/nation/4198775&sec=nation
Such shame and disgrace. If you did a mistake, have some balls and say sorry. You go off holidaying in Melbourne, a hotbed for the virus, come back and say it’s not your fault? I spit out of a balcony and it lands on your head and say it’s not my fault? Why not say sorry? If the public won’t accept the apology, THEN the government should step in to quell the disquiet. One of the articles in the Opinion section sums it up pretty well, although I was not sure where was he heading to with that column in the beginning of the article.
Look at it this way: How would you feel if someone broke quarantine and passed on the disease to someone you loved, maybe one of your children, and your child later ends up as a “death†statistic.
Hardly a cause for celebration is it?
Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/26/focus/4196459&sec=focus
Statistics don’t lie, although most statistics have heaps of assumptions. This statistic however, holds no assumption as it is based on hard cold facts.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/20/ah1n1flu/4161391&sec=ah1n1flu
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/25/ah1n1flu/4190287&sec=ah1n1flu
Note that most of the ’start of transmission’ cases occur from ‘coming back from xx country with known cases’.
I fully support the idea where employees coming back home from holiday and have to face quarantine should be given unpaid leave, whereas those coming back home due to work and facing quarantine should be given paid leave. Can you blame employers for this decision? Whose fault is it in the first place to go off holidaying in hotspots? Don’t give us the bullshit saying that you bought the tickets before the outbreak. You could opt NOT to go at all! Life > Money? Or Money > Life? You would rather die and kill others than waste the few hundred or thousand ringgit?
Utter disgrace. You guys who show no sense of responsibility should be shot for causing unnecessary worry and unrest. Reflect upon this as your actions start to cause a chain reaction of deaths. Hope you get nightmares every night.
KW
Wow… the number of spam comments and new users is kinda terrifying. Hmm… wonder if I should just close applications for users for my blog. No one really reads nor comments anyway (except for a very select few).
Anyway, hopefully I should be able to start again on my blog. Should be a good outlet if I wanna bash something. :)
KW
Attended the exhibition last weekend, with the intention of learning new stuff on business and employment. It was held at the Putra World Trade Centre in conjunction with the iYouth ‘08 exhibition hosted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Being a 3 day thing, I attended quite a few seminars, selecting those of which I feel were of use to me.
Friday (18/01/08):
Business Funding 5c’s Strategy – useful, highlighting on the criteria as seen by banks and financial institutions on loan approval
Debt Management – not bad, highlights the need for financial management, but is targetting the people in debt and promoting the government institution AKPK
Memory Power: Forget No More – good course, trying to apply what I’ve learnt
Saturday (19/01/08):
Making Money and Adding Value Via The Internet – not bad, quite good advice, won a shirt (speaker was from google)
Money Works@Wealth Management – =/ Not as good as I hoped, nevertheless, there’s always something to be learnt, this guy was promoting himself and his company a lot more than teaching
Painting with your Brain: Mind Mapping & Creativity – not bad, but like the earlier one, is promoting himself and his business more than teaching the methods
Knowing What you Want and Getting What you Want – urgh. if i’m not motivated, then it might do me some good. but since i am motivated, bleh.
Legal Talk: Intellectual Property – Devolved into a mostly Q&A session, but I managed to learn a LOT from this session.
Sunday (20/01/08):
Entrepreneur Group Coaching: Turning Dreams into Deals – a change of speaker, and like some sessions, more of promoting company services
Striving towards Job Excellence – great talk, something that every EMPLOYEE should learn, with conflicting ideas with what I’m taught as my dad is grooming me to have more of an employer mindset
Managing Difficult People – good talk by the same guy as the job excellence one. good impression with great ideas on how to manage people, regardless of in the office or with customers.
Took notes on the seminars I attended, close friends who want to know what was said, I can send a copy of my notes (please pardon the messiness, it’s hopefully legible :P ) to you. In the course of the seminar, I met some people and of course, networked as much as I can.
A particular thing to note, while the MCA 9-Point Party Platform Exhibition was something that was of immense use to youths (things that everyone who faces real life has to learn), it was massively overshadowed by the Youth ‘08 convention that was going on. I noted that most of the youths around preferred to hang out at the ‘cool places’ there like the stage that took up most of the middle area on that floor, with people yelling, singing, and doing youth stuff. The whole of the lower floor was also reserved for youths, with things like shuffling competition and graffiti art going on down there. Kinda makes me sad to see the lack of enthusiasm from youths on what could be a great boon to their future being neglected. Heh me speaking like an old man? The sad thing is, I see most of the attendees to the seminars being held were old people (mid 30s++?) and of course, parents bringing their reluctant kids (less than 14 yo by my estimate). Where are the youths? Where are the people whom this exhibition was aimed at? Financial management, debt management, entrepreneurship… these are the topics that shape a youth’s future, and yet it’s something that they neglect?
Well, if partying and enjoying oneself is something that defines being a youth, then me, being a 24 yo guy (year 2008) would like to find the ‘youth counter’ so I can return my membership on a category that I find ‘not progressive’ to my future. Does anyone of you know where the ‘challenging young people’ counter are? I would really like to sign up.
A step further.
KW
Gah… Took so long for the ‘write page’ to load. God, I’m tired. 2 more days of exams, and I’ll be off playing games like there’s no tomorrow.
Hmm… The last post prompted a lot of emotions and deep thoughts. I have to admit and correct the previous post, my girlfriend did a lot for me. Of all the people that I have talked to, I know I can open up fully to her. Well, going through 5 years of being together does give an inordinate amount of trust, and I know my days have been brightened being with her. In a way, this post is sort of like an apology to her; I know the previous post hurt her a lot. Therefore, I would like to say:
“Dear, I love you. I’m happy that you accept me for who I am, for what I may be and for helping me melt the ice around my soul. I’m sorry for hurting you with that post, and I’m silly for not realising how important you are to me. I know we already made up, but please accept this as a sincere public apology for a comment I made publicly. Much love.”
:) Well… after my exams I might drop by the bookstore again and hunt for more Murakami books. And John Grisham. The next posts will probably be a bit more book reviews, hopefully without spoilers. (Mim, if you see the title, go read it first if you don’t want me to spoil it for you.)
Editted: Took that emo post off :P Hindsight = 20/20 and it’s not a pretty picture.
Took a break earlier, went for dinner with Robert after his IELTS exams. We strolled down to Borders in Melbourne Central to look for some good books to read. He needed something that’s not too intensive, with a stimulating story. It was… extremely tough to find books like that. His level of English isn’t very high, so I had to find something where he could understand at least 70% of what he is reading without referring to a dictionary. Tried to introduce him to David Eddings’ books, but he isn’t interested in fantasy so I had to switch to fiction. Not a strong area of mine. Recommendations from Jonie were authors like John Grisham, but the English level that’s used is too strong a flavour for him. Nevertheless, he remembered a Japanese author who wrote a best selling book back in China, and we got down to searching for it. We finally found the English edition, Norwegian Woods by Haruki Murakami. I even bought the same book for myself, as well as The Rainmaker by John Grisham. After much encouragement, he bought a second book, The English Patient (can’t remember the author, but the book is famous).
Walking back home, we mused on a lot of things. Heck, we often talk about everything and anything that comes to mind. Even with his limited vocabulary, we are able to develop many interesting topics, with me trying to help him on his English. I’m constantly amazed by his tenacity on approaching the language. I, on the other hand, would love to learn Mandarin and Japanese. But unlike him, the need to master those languages is still far from needed, therefore the urge isn’t there. Que sera sera I guess… Will just need a good push in the right direction to actually get down learning them. After all, my girlfriend is pretty good in Mandarin, and I have a solid friend like him who knows both Mandarin and Japanese. The situation then will probably be reversed, with me asking him on advice and him bringing me around to procure good books to read :P Ah well, time will tell I guess.
Kah Wai
Ahhh ok. A much needed break that will not feel like one. The design lab project has yet to be finished, with a few more stuff to solder on, and probably gonna make ANOTHER one since we might be adding a few things here and there as wow factors.
But then again… there’s no need to wake up early now. Yay! Sleeping like a pig ftw.
Been busy these past few days, relaxing only by going for the cross-realm battlegrounds in WoW. At least honor farming is much easier now… not to mention fun ;)
Saw this headlines today on Star Online.
Lol… the transport minister caught in a traffic jam had to defer a meeting with MAS. At least he didn’t use the ‘police escort’ privilege that many ministers (imo) abuse. Should at least light a bulb in his head that our KL’s traffic system is kinda lacking and would need improvements :) *cough* Federal highway *cough*
Ironic at it’s best.
Meh… Holidays keeps a person busy doesn’t it. :) Well, time to dust off my blog and at least update what have I been doing the past few weeks.
To start it off, my results were OK… Not very good, but hey… I passed! At least this year, my birthday wasn’t celebrated in tears. Step by step as they say, I’ll work towards a better result this semester.
Didn’t do much during the holidays… Mei Yen shifted in with me since she would be graduating at the end of this year, which makes for a slightly more cramped apartment. It’s ok though… I don’t think I’ll be seeing her for the next year or so! We went skiing on the last few days of the holidays. She went with her friends, I went with Sian Siew, Sian Thoe and Ryan. We went in 2 seperate groups since that was the idea at first; although my gf’s group went on the same day and stayed at the same accomodation.
Skiing is sooooo fun. I should be thankful that I did rollerblading before. On the first day I was already up the training hill, and on the second day I went all the way up the summit. Man it’s soooo fun. I had bruises on my shin though. The tongue of the boots weren’t padded that well imo. Either that or they’re really old. Kekeke… I can proudly say that I had the least falls. My butt still hurts though from the falls that I did have. Only Sian Thoe went up with me all the way to the summit. Sian Siew and Ryan weren’t confident, so we didn’t want to force them to go. Lazy to post up the pics though :P There’re quite a few nice ones that we took.
Monday was a PAIN for me. Going for classes is ok. The problem is, my whole damn body ACHED. Lucky I could concentrate well in class though. No problem there. Talking about classes and stuff. Lucky I didn’t get to overload this semester. The introductary lectures were enough to give me white hair and an increase in blood pressure. It’s sooo heavy this semester! I vowed to do well this semester though, so gotta get cracking ASAP.
About the pics for the ski trip… Next time lar. :P
Went to Kayu at Box Hill today. Food was authentically great, but too bad the portion wasn’t true to the Kayu’s spirit o___O In Melbourne all the food portion comes in one size: Large. Kayu actually shrank the portion: Medium. Ah well, at least it’s good Malaysian food. Lazy to put up the pics I took with Sian Siew and the 2 hardo-geis *LoL* Must make a vow to put them up next time. :D
Kk… Got my camera battery charger. I have started snapping some photos here and there, but lazy to put up :D Will get to it soon I hope.
What a relief… exams over, I can finally let go of the stress and relax a bit. Started World of Warcraft again, so to my WoW buddies out there, I started a hunter on Detheroc. Name? Clickz. Clicks was taken. *sigh* Eos was taken too. Sounded quite cool for a NE :D It’s a Greek deity for the dawn. Artemis would be better since she’s the goddess of the hunt. Ah well… Clickz will do :D See if I can take some screenies for you guys to see.
Well, this means my winter won’t be boring :) Till next time…
