Maintenance and Enforcement Mentality

These days, almost everywhere you go, you got this feeling that nobody cares a dime about anything anywhere, worst of all, the local council and traffic enforcers.

I always wonder what the head of the local council does everyday when he goes to work? Does he wanders about his locality in search of improvement or does he just wonders the natural wonders of the surroundings?

I see rubbish strewn everywhere and nobody collects them or clear them; I see them (the rubbish, not the council head) by the roadsides and at the fields everywhere. I see fallen leaves, discarded bottles, dog shits on road kerbs, sands at road junctions, unrepaired drainage fencings, over-loaded lorries, dangerously-loaded lorries, queue-jumping vehicles, traffic light-jumping motorcycles, helmetless motorcyclists, haphazard motor parkings during the Friday prayers,etc.

However, I don't see any of the councillors or traffic enforcers doing anything to improve the state of conditions as they are now. I wonders what the council head tells his councillors in their meetings? Or as someone said recently of our government, are the council's and traffic's managements on 'auto cruise"?

Enough said. A picture speaks a thousand words.

DOES PRODUCTIVITY INCREASE BY REDUCING PUBLIC HOLIDAYS?

Today's headline : " GOVERNMENT WANTS TO RAISE PRODUCTIVITY."

"The government wants to cut down on the number of 'extra' public holidays at national and state level to improve the nation's productivity and enhance the delivery system," so says a Minister.

THE STAR 23 June 2007

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This is a classic example of a Minister blurting something that does not make sense.

In Economic, "Productivity" is defined as "The rate at which goods or services are produced, especially measured by output per unit of labour."

There are 14 national gazetted public holidays and on the average of another 3 per state. If some of the holidays are abolished and production does not go up, the new productivity rate may go down ! It would be more logical for the government to find out how to increase production with the present working days, which will definitely increase the productivity rate.

Quality of life is an important motivating factor to increase productivity. That's why many nations have only 5 working days per week.

In a survey of a multi-national company, the results are as follow:
Nation # of work days
Malaysia 268 days
Taiwan 254 days
Thailand 247 days
Indonesia 247 days
Japan 242 days

Whereas holidays in Malaysia are normally linked consecutively to the most for 3 days, including Saturday and Sunday, Thailand sometime have holidays linked consecutively for more than 4 days.

Japanese companies normally observed linked holidays for average of 9 days! There is the New Year Holidays in Dec/Jan stretching for 10 days; the so called Golden Holidays in Apr/May stretching for 9 days and the Summer Holidays ( phew! How nice if Malaysia has Summer Holidays which will be all year round) stretching for 11 days!

Please tell me whether our government should maintain the present number of holidays or increase the number of holidays/ non-working days in order to increase productivity, or do you have other ideas?


Please click "comments" for your input.

SUCKER

This is a story of a sucker, nay, of two suckers.

The other day I was at Auto City's TAKEHAMA for dinner. Ordered three miso ramen at RM15 each. Not bad. Maybe you should try it but not here please ( you will know the reason in due course).

Then the waitress,seems there were so many waitresses there, recommended to the wife a side order of beef and proceeded to describe in her soft spoken and manja voice on the content of this so-called beef.
" Show me the menu."
" It's not in the menu."
" How much? Enough for three person?"
And then another KP waitress butted in from nowhere and started to mumble something about the recipe and yes, it's enough for three person. About 100g to 120g.
" OK," the wife confirmed the order.
Of course I was a bit worried at first and sarcastically tell the wife about ordering without knowing the price but the wife insisted that the most it will come up to RM20.

Well, it took 25 minutes for the dish to appear and when it finally did, it did look special. Unfortunately, I don't have the photo for you. Let me describe the dish:
* About 15 thin slices of beef, 1mm thick, each the size of 15mm x 50mm. Can you visualise it? Take out a RM1 note and divide it into 6 equal pcs. That's about the size of each slice.
* Add some garlic, taoyu.
* Taste not bad too.

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These are only downloaded samples from the internet. originals in Japan. Actual at Takehama are much smaller in size and thickeness but nevertheless, it is paid by the grammes. As you can see, the original prices from Japan vary but I doubt those I have taken are flown in from Japan.

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Bill time. RM45 for miso ramen & RM120 for ala carte, as stated in the bill.
"What ala carte? Wrong bill. I didn't order any."
" RM120 is for the Kobe beef." First time the Kobe beef been heard. Maybe it was flown in from Japan, that's why we have to wait for 25 minutes. Downloaded from internet, possibly.

My goodness! Real cut throater.
I tell you guys & gals, there was an intention to mislead us and all customers at large. If not, why not listed in the menu? Why evaded the price when enquired? I think these waitresses are trained to trick and deceive.

One of my colleagues said that eatery should be called PIRANHA. Aptly said.

Remember Little Red Riding Hood?
"Mama, what big tongue you have."
" To soothe you with!"

"Mama, what big lips you have."
" To suck you with!"

"Mama, what big purse you have."
"To .............?????!"

The moral of the story is , always confirm the price before ordering.

So who is the sucker? Or suckers?

If you guys up there have any experience of this kind, drop in a comment.