Poor vs Rich

This article was written by one of my colleagues.

Income Inequality And Rising Prices.

by Ros Norita Abd Samad

“The rich become richer, the poor become poorer”. This is the situation which any countries wanting peace and stability should avoid. Malaysia is no exception. The fact that Malaysia has the highest Gini coefficient in Asia of 0.46 is very worrying. (The Gini coefficient measures income inequality, where 0 denotes total equality and 1 denotes total inequality).

The rising of food and fuel prices definitely would make matters worse. Last year, the global price of wheat and rice rose by 130% and 75% respectively. The fuel price rose from USD 78 a barrel in July 2006 to USD 138 in June 2008, a whopping increase of 77% in two years. As consumers, Malaysians previously need to pay RM 1.42 for a litre of petrol, now they have to pay RM 2.70 per litre. A kilogram of rice was RM 1.80 previously, now RM 2.80 per kilogram.

To the rich who spend 10%-30% of their disposable income on food and fuel, the increase would have little effect on their lifestyle. However, for the poor, they spend almost all of their money for food and transportation. Just imagine how difficult it is for a family of six living in Kuala Lumpur with a disposable income of RM1000. How to allocate the money for food, fuel, toll, rent and school fees? Forget about new dresses and new shoes. KFC and McDonalds is just a dream.

The voice of the poor must be heard. History has shown how riots, violence even wars happen when hunger, fear and distrust envelope the nation. In Somali, thousands of angry Somalis rioted on May 2008 over rising food prices and the collapse of the nation's currency. In Bangladesh, 10,000 workers rioted near Dhaka smashing cars and buses and vandalizing factories in anger at high food prices and low wages. Dozens of people, including at least 20 police officials, were injured in the violence. Street demonstration occurred in Cameroon, Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire, Morocco, Philippines and Indonesia.

The onus is on government to ensure better wealth distribution. Poor implementation of good programs, combined with corruption and abuse of power have been the factors that prevent a just distribution. If all of these maladies are not tackled and fought with a vengeance, then a lot of our precious treasures; a beautiful country, a peace-loving nation and a fate of future generations will be at stake.

A Student's Life & An Unhealthy Diet

I was having lunch with my friends including guys in the faculty’s café. While discussing about the progress of our study, one of the guys started talking about slimming pills.

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The “intellectual” discussion about the slimming pills had made me realized that for these few months of my student’s life I change my diet and eating habits. I’m not a type of too conscious about my diet but after talking with my friends during our lunch hour, we noticed most of us gain a ‘bit’ of our weight. My friends told me to get back to our ideal weight before finishing our study and go back to work. We don’t want our colleagues to think that study is sooo easy until we are sooo senang hati and gain a lot of weight.

I think there are few factors that contributed to our weight gain and unhealthy diet.

1. There is Bon Appetite’s food selection in our café and we always make a discussion in the café and teh tarik has become our official drink.
2. Late night snack especially during finishing our paper work or during our examination weeks.
3. Drinking Nescafe 3 in is compulsory to start my day and most of the time I took more than 1 sachet because extra energy is needed for studying. I know caffeinated drinks still have adverse effects on the body when consumed in excess. However, at the moment I really couldn’t stop taking it.
4. Instant mee is too significant with a student life. I should made a study whether there is a valid correlation between student’s life and instant mee. It does give some temptation to eat even though you are not hungry.
5. Lack of exercises, too much time spent infront of the computer.
   

Cost Benefit Analysis

Two days ago I went out from my university at 7.00 p.m. and on the way back to my house I was caught in the traffic jam. Usually it took only few minutes from the university to my house but this time I was almost one hour in my car. At about 8.00 p.m, I saw hundred of cars waiting to fill the petrol at the Petronas station It was like a fiesta. The announcement on Wednesday evening of the petrol price hike triggered chaos at the petrol stations because a lot of motorists try to fill up the tank. I was a bit furious not because of the petrol price hike (even though it affect me a lot as I always balik kampong and it will increase my cost to balik kampong) but because I was stuck in the middle of people who were eager to fill their tank and I still didn’t perform my Maghrib prayer. At that time I was thinking of using the cost benefit analysis about how much petrol they spent to queue for few hours before they can fill up the tank and how much money the save if they fill up the tank before the measure took effect. Think of it!

I remembered my sister asked me which way I took to send my friend to the airport. I told her I was using Pajam Nilai route because the toll price is lower. Then my sister asked me again how much petrol that I spent using the Pajam Nilai route compared to the KLIA highway. Well…..I was not using cost benefit analysis that time.

Busy III & A Wedding

I was really, really busy handling my brother’s wedding last two weeks. After I finished my final exam paper, my sister and I went to Nilai 3 to do some shopping spree. As I volunteered to do the gift / goodies part going to Nilai 3 was the right place. Excitement was all around to do the shopping for my brother’s wedding.

My brother was getting married on the 23 of May, to a teacher from Muar whom he's known during his university years. Hence the trip to Muar which took weeks of planning and argument among my siblings since we want the best to this memorable event. My 4^th brother played his role to lead the Rombongan Cik Kiah on the chartered bus. However there was mini drama before the rombongan started the trip. The bus that was scheduled at 7 a.m didn’t come due to some problems with the bus. The representative from the bus company came to our house and ask us to wait for the bus to be repaired. My makciks were impatiently waiting and of course I could heard some murmur from a few of our makciks. Hence, I had to play my role as tuan rumah and a daughter in the family (my sister was already in Johor for conference) to prepare all the foods and drinks in just a short notice. We only headed off the at 10.00 in and school bus and not the persiaran bus as we charted. We exhaustively arrived at 4 p.m. at our rented penthouse in Muar. My brother (the groom) was anxiously waiting in Muar.

The akad nikah was scheduled after the Isya’ prayer in the mosque nearby. After another drama and commotion of missing bracelet for hantaran the groom and the rombongan headed off to the mosque. During the majlis Akad Nikah we were required to bring the bracelet and the dowry. The rest will only be brought during the bersanding. And finally, after only one lafaz, my brother is officially married. Congratulation to both of you!.

After the akad nikah, we headed to the bride's house for dinner and berinai kecil. I got a chance for the first time in my life to do the upacara merenjis. Feeling like makcik now! Then we had dinner/ kenduri of fried bihun and roti jala. Delicious but I didn’t eat much coz too busy taking the photos of the event.

We went back at 11 p.m to the penthouse and prepared to do the last hantaran sirih junjung and final touch to the other hantarans. The hantarans which half was made by ‘Sayang You” and another half was made by my sister in law were brought all the way in the charted bus. Just imagine how we had to take care of all the fragile hantaran during our journey to Muar.

On the next day, another ceremony of bersanding was held at 2.00 p.m. My nieces and cousins became the dulang bearers. Of course there were few adat we had to go through such as silat, toll and suppose to have pantun but since our brothers claimed not too jiwang to handle the pantun, that event was cancelled off (Takut nanti kitaorang tekebil-kebil nak jawab pantun). Then we were ushered to majlis bersanding, The bride and groom later went up the pelamin or dais for the traditional well wisher ceremony before continuing on to the celebratory feast or makan beradab. I definitely couldn’t resist all the yummy combination of lauk pengantin infront of me. He3X

After the bersanding ceremony ended, we headed back to the to our rented penthouse, pecked our belonging and headed back home.
All in all we had a great time. Not only we now have a new addition to the family (and another one involve in teaching line), my nephews and nieces were the ones who enjoyed it the most - getting to ride in a big buruk bus, they were so happy throughout the trip.

My brother wedding reception was held a week after on a sunny Saturday, 31 of May. Coincidently there were 3 other wedding ceremony involving our relatives. We expected not many of the guests will be able to come but the ceremony was a big turn out as hundreds of guests and well-wishers - my father’s friends, neighbors and as well as relatives from Kuala Lumpur, Jengka and etc came to the reception.

Due the shortage of beras and the rise of the price of beras the caterer didn’t prepare a tasty nasi minyak. They used a low quality of beras. My 2^nd brother who was in charged in handling nasi minyak couldn’t hide his frustration. He did remind the caterer many times to use a good quality of beras and didn’t bother if the caterer mark up the per head price. However the low quality of nasi minyak didn’t affect much of our ceremony.

The wedding reception held on the groom’s side was really simple ceremony but really a memorable to our family.