Every Singaporean are Astronaut ?

After a long break, here is the surprising news! The answer to the question is "Yes". Why? If you do things that are done only in outer space, can you call them astronaut? or the altitude still matters? In fact majority of Singaporeans stay and work on higher altitude than Malaysians. Nevertheless, they also drink what the astronauts drink. Do you know that the astronauts also drink NewWater. Their urine are recycled for them to drink! Are our vying Malaysian astronaut informed of this?

On the other side, even though US is a Superpower on this earth, at the outer space, they still have to use toilet facility belonging to Russia. Not only that, they have to bring back all their waste to their spacecraft. No way the Russian will clean for them! Not only that, their waste from outer space will be burnt on earth's atmosphere. No wonder, the US (foreign policy) smells stink. Shame with such thing, now the US want to have their own toilet facility outer space and paid U$ 19 million to the Russian for them to build it.

What I wish to have in Malaysian Budget 2008 ... and why?

Come the month of April, many Malaysians (exp the middle income group) feel the burden of income tax payment obligation. Though in many cases, they are experiencing monthly deductions, this is the month when they need to document their past year earnings and settle any balances. It is really a pain to allow your hard earned money to go out of your pocket without knowing how your money will be used. Of course the govt will say that the money will be used for development, so do I believe. Besides the personal income tax, the govt is also getting a lot of other incomes (custom tax, corporate tax, service tax, etc...) which amounts to tens or hundred of billions per year. At the same time, we also hear from our opposition party that the govt is also wasting a lot of our tax monies. Only god knows how my monies are spent!

By the way, countries like Andorra, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, Burundi, Kuwait, Monaco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Uruguay does not have personal income tax. How lucky they are! So can we dream that one day Malaysia will abolish personal income tax? It sounds like it will be never. But, it is wrong to request our elected govt to consider giving us more rebates and allowable deductions? With increasing living cost, many of us would be happy if the govt can share with the public the country's strong financial footing and feel good factors it has been experiencing.

I think it is for the benefit of Malaysians if Malaysian bloggers community propose some wish list for Budget 2008 and forward it to the govt for considerations. This is also a form of public consultation, coined in the 2004 Barisan Nasional manifesto. In extension to Azmi Atan's wish list published in May 1 2007 Online New Straits Times, I am proposing mine.

Azmi Atan Budget 2008 Wish List (a summary):
1. Rebate for sibling expenditure; provided there is a ceiling amount and with proof of expenditure. (Mr. K. Partiban, our new Ijok representative will be happy also)

2. Rebate for wife's medical expenses

3. Increasing rebate for insurance premiums and EPF contributions (currently RM 6000)

4. Rebate for broadband internet use

Note: I think Azmi Atan confuse between rebate and allowable deductions, the 3rd item should be allowable deduction and not rebate. I would be happy if it is a rebate.

HundredOne blog Budget 2008 wish list:
1. Rebate for NGV equipment fitting to our cars - Help reduce govt fuel subsidy and promote greener environment

2. Allowance for investments - Promote investment culture among Malaysians which the govt can also benefit (thru other form of taxes that currently exist)

3. Allowance for first house purchased - The basic need of everyone and also to reduce rakyat's burden with increasing house prices and interest charged to finance their house.

4. Allowance for public transport usage - An alternative way to reduce traffic jams in big cities. Moreover charging city entry fees, building more highways and roads are not holistic way to solve the problem. The allowance can be given to those holding weekly or monthly passes. At the same time public transportation must be further improved to encourage more usage, especially by building faster LRTs.

That's all for budget 2008 wish list.

How to use Blue Ocean Strategy in Elections?

Blue Ocean Strategy is a book written by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne and became one of the world’s best selling books. In Malaysian context, it is also the favourite book of Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister, and he urged Malays in his party General Assembly to adopt its concept. For those who have not heard of the book, it is about creating new market and winning without competition. The author argues that competition with competitors only creates “Red Ocean” and finding untapped market will avoid bloods of fierce fighting and hence creating “Blue Ocean” of opportunities. So can the Blue Ocean Strategy be used in elections? Yes I am talking about elections, isn’t election also a kind of business.

Unlike business, in an election, it is the competition between ruling party and the opposition party(ies). And they are fighting over the majority and need as many vote as possible; the number of votes determines the revenue, and the margin is their profit. Like business, their market is the people (i.e. the public). From the issues either current or old and their manifestation, they will try to create new market. For example, by playing racial game, they will create a market of race based people, by giving out election incentives, they create a market of rent-seekers, by giving out promises, they create a market of anticipators, and by exploding ruling govt’s frauds, they create a market of haters. To them, to win over the election, it is best to win over as much as new market as possible. This is how ruling party and opposition party works, but how voters can create their own new markets to maximize their benefits from the competing parties/candidate? That is the question. Any Solution?

Ijok By- Election: Like Microsoft Vs Open Source

If you ask a computer enthusiast about the by-election in Ijok, what answer can you expect? Lets assume someone that read all sort of political news available online such as that from pro-govt site, opposition site, and not to forget, independent news portals explains to this computer geek about the scenario. How do you think he will explain it to you in non-political way?

He will first scratch his head and may end up telling you about the fight between open source movement and microsoft. He will try to argue that microsoft is always buggy and you pay to get those buggy software. On the other hand, open source software is free, they address many of the issue or functionality that proprietor software offer, although they normally don’t provide after sales services. On the publicity side, microsoft has huge fund with them and they can afford to advertise anywhere, anytime. In comparison, open source movement, with its limited fund, can only go for online promotion. Nevertheless, they aim to get bigger market share and give a stronger competition to microsoft. Microsoft is catchy to new users due to its graphical interface, but these users will start to think again when their microsoft system is hacked, and latter on need to reinstall with microsoft's immediate patch. It is how long you can stand with those patch work and the amount of dependence on microsoft software that will finally decide you to about turn and use open source software. The microsoft people recognise this, and to avoid dropping market share, they will introduce new products as well as preinstall new machines with microsoft products. In addition to that they had also made it easy to do patching and mostly it is automatic. This is psychology tactic to make it hard for them to switch to open source. Anyway up to now Microsoft is still winning the game…

Now, it is quite obvious that Microsoft is Barisan Nasional and the Open Source is Parti Keadilan Rakyat. Now your task is to guess the proper political word/phrase for the bolded words/phrases as this computer enthusiast is not common to those words/phrases… is this fun?

Formula One: Malaysian GP or Singaporean GP?

I am not a person with interest in formula one race. I always get bored with the live telecast of any GP in Malaysian TV (RTM namely) and always curse Malaysian Information Ministry for wasting time showing such events. I don’t know if they are having good ratting for such events or gaining good revenue. Anyhow, the reasons why I don’t like the game are:-

• I get fed-up seeing "Mat Rempit" race on Malaysian road. "Mat Rempit" is a famous calling for Malaysian night illegal road racers. The sounds always disturb me! Can't stand with it anymore!
• Not anyone can play the game except F1 video game! How to get interest of the game if you yourself cannot play it? I don’t even know its rule!
• Why should there be sexy girls showcasing their body before the game starts? To stimulate the driver? No wonder "Mat Rempit" also using the same style!
• Sound pollution - Al Gore need to take note of this in his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth V2.0"

But recently I saw news reports saying Singapore is going to have its own version of formula one GP. In Singaporean version, the race will not be on a dedicated F1 circuit, but rather on public road and will be at night. To me, the main question is why Singapore is eager to have F1? Could these be the possibilities?

• Singapore found that Malaysian "Mat Rempits" are glamorous. However, to save their face, they would like to have something similar but done more professionally. That's why it will be F1 race held at night and on public road!
• Singapore, a country with low birth rate, wants to have more NIGHT life. The F1 sexy girls if seen on public road converted race circuit may stimulate roadside spectators as well as the drivers. The feasibility study may have shown projected higher birth rate. Soon, young Singaporean couples will be mandated to buy Singaporean F1 tickets.
• Singapore Govt has changed its foreign policy to "Look North" policy. This will allow Singapore to copy whatever Malaysia (Singapore's North neighbour) is doing.
• Tit-for-tat action for Malaysia's aim to attract investors coming to Singapore to Johor's Iskandar Development Region (IDR). Since Singapore has labelled Johor as "not safe", it does not want to attract thieves from Johor. So, no choice, need to attract good people from Putrajaya, a place near to Sepang F1 Circuit.

Model Driven Architecture (MDA) ... A Solution?

A System may run on many middlewares to support variety of services. These middlewares can be OS platform independent and hence easing deployment and development. However, not all services are developed using the same middleware, possibly to take advantage of support offered in a middleware for the developed domain. Therefore making it possible for set of middleware exist in the system. For this reason, designing and developing such system will be painful and for most of the time, the duration spent on it is much longer than spent on modelling business logics. MDA development methodology allows for concentration on business logics during computation independent modelling(CIM), then UML modelling, independent of platform is done for these CIM and is known as platform independent model (PIM) . The PIM will then be mapped to platform specific model using transformation guided by UML profiles.

Sunni - Shia: Brief History

I really don't understand the difference between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. Sometimes i also wonder how come there are muslims that don't go along together though when we ask them they say their religion is "Islam". What causes the division among muslims? read the article by Huda Dodge below! Now i understand that it did not happen during Prophet Muhammad(S.A.W) time, and was created by human themself due to some differences in their opinion. George Bush and her ally had used this "disintegration" to cause trouble in Arab World and grab their wealth. No need to use "divide and conquer" technique, it is already "divided" just need to "conquer"...

By: Huda Dodge
About.com* -

Both Sunni and Shia Muslims share the most fundamental Islamic beliefs and articles of faith. The differences between these two main sub-groups within Islam initially stemmed not from spiritual differences, but political ones. Over the centuries, however, these political differences have spawned a number of varying practices and positions which have come to carry a spiritual significance.

The division between Shia and Sunni dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad , and the question of who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation. Sunni Muslims agree with the position taken by many of the Prophet's companions, that the new leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. This is what was done, and the Prophet Muhammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, became the first Caliph of the Islamic nation.

The word "Sunni" in Arabic comes from a word meaning "one who follows the traditions of the Prophet."

On the other hand, some Muslims share the belief that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet's own family, among those specifically appointed by him, or among Imams appointed by God Himself.

The Shia Muslims believe that following the Prophet Muhammad's death, leadership should have passed directly to his cousin/son-in-law, Ali. Throughout history, Shia Muslims have not recognized the authority of elected Muslim leaders, choosing instead to follow a line of Imams which they believe have been appointed by the Prophet Muhammad or God Himself. The word "Shia" in Arabic means a group or supportive party of people. The commonly-known term is shortened from the historical "Shia-t-Ali," or "the Party of Ali." They are also known as followers of "Ahl-al-Bayt" or "People of the Household" (of the Prophet).

From this initial question of political leadership, some aspects of spiritual life have been affected and now differ between the two groups of Muslims.

Shia Muslims believe that the Imam is sinless by nature, and that his authority is infallible as it comes directly from God. Therefore, Shia Muslims often venerate the Imams as saints and perform pilgrimages to their tombs and shrines in the hopes of divine intercession. Sunni Muslims counter that there is no basis in Islam for a hereditary privileged class of spiritual leaders, and certainly no basis for the veneration or intercession of saints. Sunni Muslims contend that leadership of the community is not a birthright, but a trust that is earned and which may be given or taken away by the people themselves.

Shia Muslims also feel animosity towards some of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad , based on their positions and actions during the early years of discord about leadership in the community. Many of these companions (Abu Bakr, Umar, Aisha, etc.) have narrated traditions about the Prophet's life and spiritual practice. Shia Muslims reject these traditions (hadith) and do not base any of their religious practices on the testimony of these individuals. This naturally gives rise to some differences in religious practice between the two groups. These differences touch all detailed aspects of religious life: prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, etc.

Sunni Muslims make up the majority (85%) of Muslims all over the world. Significant populations of Shia Muslims can be found in Iran and Iraq, and large minority communities in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Lebanon.

It is important to remember that despite all of these differences in opinion and practice, Shia and Sunni Muslims share the main articles of Islamic belief and are considered by most to be brethren in faith. In fact, most Muslims do not distinguish themselves by claiming membership in any particular group, but prefer to call themselves simply, "Muslims."

Huda Dodge is an educator, freelance writer and editor. She is the author of The Everything Understanding Islam Book, published in 2003 by Adams Media Corporation. She has been active on the Internet for over a decade, and has been About.com's Guide to Islam since 1998. She currently teaches elementary school in the Middle East.