Plan Your 2011 Vacations

If you work in the Federal Territories (of Malaysia, that is), and you do some mental planning for time off in some sandy beaches, winter outings, so on an so forth, you might have noticed that there'll be a long holiday in February 2011.

February 1, Tuesday: Federal Territory Day; and

February 3 and 4, Thursday & Friday: 1st and 2nd Day of Chinese New Year.

So, if it's a bumper holiday you're looking for, perhaps you'd want to pencil in January 31 (Monday) and February 2 (Wednesday) in your leave form for next year and voila! You get 9 days of vacation. So, go Cuti-cuti Malaysia! If you are the adventurous type, I'd say, go backpack in Europe!

Who Wants A Spectacular Case Study?

I was on my daily dose of merempit the other day as I wondered about all these unflattering remarks about the average number of pages that a Malaysian reads. With the plethora of reading materials that are on the market these days, I honestly don't think that those remarks still hold water. The issue is what kind of subject matters my fellow compatriots choose to read. Knowledge is power, so they say. Technology has afforded us a huge array of source of information. But as the late Malcolm X put it, it is up to each of us to use our God-given intellect to sieve thru the truth from the false. Of course, this being not a Utopian world, no homo sapien can possibly claim that he/she has complete (and accurate) information. In the world of economics, this is equivalent to saying that there is no such things as a perfect market.

Having said that, my curiosity about the whole PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) debacle got the better of me when I recently found a book on the issue. Written and published by R. Nadeswaran (who claims to be the one half of two then The Sun journalists who first uncovered the scandal), I just couldn't believe my eyes as I read thru the pages. The amount of (public) money involved is simply staggering. The way the whole issue was played out to the public was, well, not exactly proper. I do hope that due process will be carried out soon. Too much money is involved and the integrity of too many officials are in question. Ultimately, lessons must be learned.

P/S: the book is entitled "PKFZ: Some Untold Stories".