What’s love got to do with it?

I am pasting Tay Tian Yan's interesting story about sex and teachers.

Let's have some fun.

"I really had no clue how to give this article a proper title.

Should I just put it forthright: To be a good teacher, learn how to make love first?

Or: I’m a good teacher, and I make love every night?

If I did, I would have been smashed up by teachers and their spouses.

But what else could I say? This is the real thing! Kisah benar!

Two days ago, 41-year-old male teacher Alias Ismail, winner of the Tokoh Nilam award for outstanding teacher, revealed the secret recipe of his success. He said he derived his vitality and focus in teaching from, you guess, reading and sex!

Reading and making love every night, and the love-making always comes after the reading!

I have the slightest hint what these two things have got to do with each other.

For other people, the following might be the reality:

“Darling, what’re you reading now?”

“I’m reading XXX. What about you, babe. Are you reading something?”

“Put that down, honey! Roll over quickly!”

So, to ordinary people, reading and love-making do not seem to get along so well with each other, unless you are holding hard porn in your hands before going to bed.

But with the advent of CDs, DVDs and things like that, even this remaining possible linkage is now annulled.

It is not easy to emulate Mr and Mrs Alias for a number of reasons.

Firstly, people usually drift into dreamland having flipped a few pages, too exhausted for anything else including sex.

Secondly, if love-making is on the agenda, there is absolutely no place for reading mood.

As if that is not enough, these two things are physically and mentally exhausting, and the engagement in either of them could potentially kill the second day’s vibrance.

But our Cikgu Alias accomplishes both these daunting tasks, and still stays physically and mentally active over time.

Wait a minute! It shouldn’t go this way. Alias is a role model among teachers, someone the students should emulate and learn from.

But he is telling everyone that half his achievement has been attributed to his daily love-making routine.

Should other teachers and his pupils take the cue from him?

As a teacher par excellence, a prominent figure in the education sector, he should have shared his teaching experience instead, for example, how to advance holistic education and how to prevent our schools from turning into “hell schools” like the one in Rawang, among many other things.

What he must not divulge to the public is the contribution of his daily night-time feats towards teaching excellence.

If he has some special liking in certain fields, that will constitute wholly his personal undertaking.

Common sense tells us that there is no correlation between these two things.

Alias’ logic has been built upon the society’s misconception about sex. Many people are only partially informed of regular sex, resulting in a lot of exaggeration, distortion and misinformation.

Ubiquitous love potion ads on lamp posts and road signs, the aphrodisiac effects emphasised by coffee drinks, the open sale of X-rated pornography and cheap and fanciful love that abounds in our midst. And to top it all, we now have a model teacher-turned-sex sales master.

Perhaps, Alias should take up an offer to speak for Tongkat Ali products, but where education is concerned, he has been talking nothing but trash. And from the medical perspective, he should consult a physician, or a psychologist, to get his indulgence fixed. — mysinchew.com"

Walla! There you have it. A tall story?

Wilmar: Who Did the Boo-Boo?

Jakarta(2/6/2010)

Wilmar International Ltd. (Wilmar), the world’s largest palm oil trader, is being investigated by the Indonesian tax office over fictitious value added tax (VAT) refunds said tax director-general M Tjiptardjo, the top tax official said Tuesday. The taxes in question are from the period of 2007-2008.

Wilmar has denied the company ever falsified its tax returns.

“Questions of fictitious or false claims made by the group do not arise.Internal records in respect of the VAT refund claims vis-a-vis export sales will stand scrutiny,” Wilmar had said in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange on May 19.

Wilmar said it was entitled to receive VAT refunds after it “exported more than US$3 billion worth of palm oil in each of the last three financial years”.

Lawmaker Bambang Soesatyo said on May 18 he received a report from an unidentified tax official that Wilmar received VAT refunds worth Rp 800 billion ($87.2 million) in 2007 and Rp 900 billion in 2008. The company was set to receive another refund worth Rp 1.9 trillion. 

Let's wait ans see who did the boo-boo.

We Are Billionaires/Millionaires: No Need for University Degrees

Well, with skills, talents, an innovative mind and good business sense,perhaps luck too, these ten men made it to the top of the pile without a university education.

Who are they?

 Bill Gates- Microsoft

Steve Jobs-Apple Computers

Frank Lloyd Wright- Architect

Buckminster Fuller-Architect and Inventor

 James Cameron-Director

Mark Zuckerberg-Facebook

Tom Hanks-Actor

Harrison Ford

Lady Gaga

Tiger Woods-Golf Pro

Rafidah: Political Wisdom?

Rafidah Aziz has advised the Barisan Nasional leadership against repeating past mistakes, by listening to the voters and not party members when selecting candidates for the next general elections.

I think this is one good advice coming from this doyen in a long, long time. I sometimes wonder whether she took her own advice when she was surfing the political waters as Wanita UMNO chieftain.

She said too many good candidates had been axed during Election 2008 because of this policy.

“In the next general election, what we really need are good candidates, the right candidates, winnable candidates.“To get this, we must listen to the people, not the party members,” she said. On the dot, my dear lady, on the dot!

The outspoken leader pointed out that many party members had their own personal agenda to achieve, which could prove to be detrimental to Barisan Nasional (BN) at large.

“If you ask only them (the party members) on who should contest next, they might say the present representative needs to be removed.

“Of course they would say this. Why? Because there is usually already someone else there, waiting in the wings to take over,” she said.

Rafidah said it was important for the leadership to start collecting grassroots feedback from all quarters of society, which includes both party members and the voters themselves.[Who is being task to do this? Is he or she morally upright?]

“Sometimes, the people like their representative. But this representative could not be popular among party members because he or she is maybe not too ‘party-centric’,” she said.

She explained that this may not sit well with the party members who felt that they have not been getting enough “largesse” from the disputed candidate. [ We need a mind-set change here!]

“So that is where the disparity of perception comes in. You ask the party members and they would say to change the candidate but when you speak to the people, they like their representative.

“But do not look at what the party members want alone — the people end up casting the votes in the end,” she said.

Without elaborating, Rafidah said that this had clearly happened during the last general election in March 2008.

The election had seen the Pakatan Rakyat parties of PAS, DAP and PKR unexpectedly rise to power when it swept up five states and denied BN its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

“Last election, too many changes were made without consideration on who these candidates were — whether they could be accepted by the public at large,” said Rafidah.

She commended Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on his leadership to date but urged him to remind his “soldiers” in the government to strive harder to carry out his newborn initiatives.

“He has made real effort in consolidating the country, especially through his 1Malaysia concept.

“But more needs to be done. We need to go to the grassroots and explain to the people that this 1Malaysia not just about ‘one’ everything — one uniform, one murtabak.

“It is not just symbolism... it is about how we are all Malaysians and that despite our differences, we are held together by this one thread that is Malaysia,” Rafidah said.

She said that Najib seemed to understand what needed to be done to strengthen the country’s economy but pointed out that it was one thing to create approaches like the New Economic Model (NEM) and another to ensure that work was actually carried out.

“Having the NEM is one thing but making sure that things are done is another. To me, for any government of any time, there is nothing else but the ‘nose to the grindstone’ approach.[Hard work and clean conscience, my good dame!]

“Everyone in the administration must be diligent in achieving targets. All must be on their toes, there is no slacking, whether or not you are in the Cabinet or in the public service or in the education sector — you have to know your role and achieve your target,” said the former Cabinet Minister cum ex-economics lecturer in Universiti Malaya.

Rafidah added that the government needed to be stern in preventing detractors from politicising policies that were beneficial to the people. “Like the subsidy cuts for example. Do not let these detractors to politicise on it and divide the people because the cuts are for the good of the people. [Who says so? Not the poor. Not the impoverished salaried class!]

“As Malaysians, we owe it to ourselves to accept things that are good for us and the country so if we need to cut back on subsidies, then we must accept it and the government must explain to the people why,” she said.

I guess she is with Jala and suffering the blind spot malady too, in this instance!

The Cabinet in June 2010

The new Cabinet is an old Cabinet plus one new Minister.Ong Tee Kiat has got the tip of the boot and Chor has come in to take over Kong's portfolio. Kong moves to Transport.

We assume that PM Najib is happy with his Cabinet pre-June as except for the MCA replacement and transfer, every one stayed put.

Are we ready for the long haul now?

The MCA New IOUs

Yes, Ong Tee Keat has been summarily removed from the Cabinet. To many, it is just his due desserts. He has lost the political up-manship against his nemesis.

As the gentleman he claimed to be, Dr. Chua has omitted himself from the mini Cabinet reshuffle. What message can we get from this? For public consumption, he said he needs time to go about to unite the party which continues to be in tatters.  This is just shadow play.

Two party supporters were given Cabinet portfolios. Kong transferred to the Transport portfolio whereas Chor was promoted to the Housing Ministry.

Looks like the succession plan is now in place.

Chua Junior has also been elevated to Deputy Ministership to promote a private family succession plan while the two Ministers owe Chua Soi Lek a personal IOU each as well.

It's partial pay-back time for them in supporting Chua Sio Lek in quashing  Liow Tiong Lai's bid for party hegemony.


How he is is going to get his voice heard through the Cabinet meetings is definitely through Kong and Chor. They will have to report to him pronto as soon as any big issues are brought up in Cabinet so that he can lend his wisdom. They will most likely to be at his beck and call.

I believe Chua Soi Lek will leave the presidency by the next MCA AGM to allow Kong to take over to spearhead the next General Elections due in 2013.

We do not know whether all is lost for MCA.

As long as it does not bury its head in the sand every time an issue that affects the community springs up like in the past, there may yet be redemption for this beleaguered party.

OECD: No Double-dipping, only Skinny Dipping

The oraclers at  the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] have crystal-balled and have concluded sapiently that the world will not double dip in recession. Only a little skinny-dipping, perhaps.

" Taking cognizance of the  austerity measures in some major economies, they heralded affirmatively. Its Secretary-General, Angel Gurria has this to espoused. "“No, I do not see a double-dip, I do not see a recurrence of the recession,”

The OECD is a group of free market democracies that is expanding its membership of 31 mostly developed market economies to include an increasing number of emerging economies, such as Slovenia, which was formally approved last week.

Gurria said latest indicators show there is a chance that low growth and high unemployment could persist for years which can only be prevented by necessary policy changes.

“What we see in the medium term, let’s say 5, 7 years, is a relatively low level of growth, a relatively high level of unemployment and relatively high budget deficits. ... What can change this projection? Well, policies,” he said. [ This is very painful, Mr Angel of Mercy!]

“After we have stabilised the financial system, after we have plotted a medium- and long-term fiscal plan, we have to have also medium- and long-term structural policies so that the recovery is sustainable”.

He also said the euro zone’s help package to its indebted member Greece should calm the jittery markets.

“Considering that the total debt of Greece is about 300 billion (euros), 110 billion on the table is an enormous amount of money and it should give peace of mind,” Gurria said."

Temporary reprieve, I would say,my good man!