The Singer Not The Song

Hantu Laut

Much ado over nothing.

When I read Pasquale's comment of Malaysiakini tasking of Rosmah's and her son's rendition of Chinese songs as enticing the Chinese votes, I almost tip over in laughter.

Does Rosmah think the Chinese are the most stupid people and can be bought over for a song? Well, the people at Malaysiakini think so.

It shows that Malaysiakini is running out of spins.It dwells on triviality.

It's no big deal.So what if Rosmah sang Chinese songs? Most people who love music would have liked some songs in languages they don't understand.Music is universal and transcends all boundaries.You don't need to understand the language to enjoy music.

It 's no more the days of Romeo and Juliet where the paramour entice his lover with music and songs.If Rosmah managed to bring the Chinese back to the fold,which is unlikely, it's her not the song.

Just for entertainment, I present the Rolling Stones' " The Singer Not The Song"



,and a movie by the same name "The Singer Not The Song" starring Dirk Bogarde and John Mills.It's a mixture of gay and heterosexual love.The movie is not exactly box office catergory. It's the actor not the movie.



It's Rosmah not the song.

SESB's Craps:'USED' Is Better Than 'OLD'

Hantu Laut

Not 'old' but 'used'? SESB trying to justify its purchase of second-hand generators for Sabah.

This chap from Tenaga thinks Sabahan are fools when the actual fool is himself.

In the case of Sabah it means from the frying pan into the fire.

Those second-hand generators purchased by SESB that the idiotic SESB Managing Director prefers the use of the term 'used' instead of 'old' is a complete hogwash, trying to bullshit Sabahans that 'used' is better than 'old'.

When people sell their old equipments it can only mean those equipments have exhausted their economic life.It means high maintenance cost, regular breakdown and expensive downtime.Otherwise, why would they sell? Bloody joker!Even a child knows that.

The 'old" equipment become 'used' equipment in the hands of the new owner, usually someone who has less money and can't afford to buy new equipment.So, does it matter whether you use 'old' or 'used'?

Tenaga has lots of money but it seems Sabah doesn't deserve to get better generators and better power supply.Priority, it seems is always given to the West.Sabah is a dumping ground for old things.

Below is SESB's Managing Director Baharin Din's feeble ground after being attacked by the MP for Marotai Ghafur Salleh asking him to resign or be fired for the perennial power shortages in Sabah.

I fully support Ghafur's stand on his removal.If you can't get the job done you should have the sense of shame to resign or be sacked. You have failed as CEO of the company, meaning you can't even convince your own board to do the right thing.

In most countries power companies make tons of money.In Sabah the power company has become a four-letter word.... completely fucked-up.

His incompetent statement below.

Kota Kinabalu: The mobile electricity generator sets supplied to Sabah's east coast, whether they are second-hand or new, have helped boost electricity supply there and significantly reduced the frequency of disruptions.

Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) Managing Director, Baharin Din, said the 32 generator sets (40 megawatts) - 17 in Tawau and 15 in Sandakan - had operated well so far.

"They have reduced power disruptions in Sandakan by 81.6 per cent and in Tawau by 87.34 per cent last month.

"So it's not a matter of whether they are new or old. As long as they are functioning and provide what they are contracted for, it should not be an issue.

"Also, the sets referred to were not old but used," he told a media briefing after a ceremony to sign a memorandum of understanding with Dewan Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu to promote energy efficiency, Thursday.

Baharin was commenting on recent reports the Kalabakan Member of Parliament, Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh, had claimed that Sabahans were being treated poorly when some of the mobile generators used to boost power output in Tawau, were found to be second-hand.

DAP had also claimed that the generators in Sandakan were second-hand ones. However, Baharin said if SESB were to follow normal procedures of obtaining new sets, it would take years.

"Following the scenario and the need to deliver the supply due to critical electricity situation in the east coast last year, the best option was to sign an agreement with Sime Darby Industrial Sdn Bhd (SDI), which is one of the country's biggest mobile genset suppliers," he said.

He said SESB's board of directors, to protect its interest, has also signed guaranteed buy-back and customer service agreements with SDI.

Baharin said under the deal, SDI would buy back the sets when the electricity supply situation has been resolved and the reserve margin improved, taking into account independent power producer (IPP), Ranhill Powertron 2's stations which were expected to be operational in stages this year.

"The first IPP unit of 65 MW will be launched this Saturday, while the second 65 MW unit in June and the third 60 MW sometime in October," he said.

Ghafur blasted SESB here.

Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin Kui Fah said he would resign his ministerial post if the shortage of power in Sabah is not resolved by the end of the year.Likewise, he said the SESB's MD Baharin Din should also resign if the company failed to reach the target by then.

Nice to hear such bravado.Sabahans should jot this down in their diaries and make sure these two gentlemen resign should they failed in their promises.If they don't, than we should ask the prime minister and the whole cabinet to step down.

SESB blamed the lack of power due illegal connections and power theft.This is just poor excuse to cover their own incompetency.How much power can those miserable immigrants steal? Most squatters colony used low wattage appliances and light bulbs.

SESB should have dedicated inspection schedule of squatter colonies to regularly check on illegal re-connection.

They closed their eyes and ears to much bigger thievery, legal domestic users and factories who fixed their meters reputedly with the help of SESB staff.Factories are heavy consumers of energy and I wouldn't be surprised if some fix their meters to cheat SESB.

SESB should go state-wide to check on all meters suspected of stealing power and impose hefty fines on those caught doing it.

Sabahans have enough of those empty promises.If Tenaga can't handle the power woes in Sabah than they should ask the government to give it to other people who are competent and have the experience to run power company efficiently..

Why We Must Fire Bad Teachers

In no other profession are workers so insulated from accountability.

The relative decline of American education at the elementary- and high-school levels has long been a national embarrassment as well as a threat to the nation's future. Once upon a time, American students tested better than any other students in the world. Now, ranked against European schoolchildren, America does about as well as Lithuania, behind at least 10 other nations. Within the United States, the achievement gap between white students and poor and minority students stubbornly persists—and as the population of disadvantaged students grows, overall scores continue to sag.

For much of this time—roughly the last half century—professional educators believed that if they could only find the right pedagogy, the right method of instruction, all would be well. They tried New Math, open classrooms, Whole Language—but nothing seemed to achieve significant or lasting improvements.

Yet in recent years researchers have discovered something that may seem obvious, but for many reasons was overlooked or denied. What really makes a difference, what matters more than the class size or the textbook, the teaching method or the technology, or even the curriculum, is the quality of the teacher. Much of the ability to teach is innate—an ability to inspire young minds as well as control unruly classrooms that some people instinctively possess (and some people definitely do not). Teaching can be taught, to some degree, but not the way many graduate schools of education do it, with a lot of insipid or marginally relevant theorizing and pedagogy. In any case the research shows that within about five years, you can generally tell who is a good teacher and who is not.

It is also true and unfortunate that often the weakest teachers are relegated to teaching the neediest students, poor minority kids in inner-city schools. For these children, teachers can be make or break. "The research shows that kids who have two, three, four strong teachers in a row will eventually excel, no matter what their background, while kids who have even two weak teachers in a row will never recover," says Kati Haycock of the Education Trust and coauthor of the 2006 study "Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students Are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality."

Nothing, then, is more important than hiring good teachers and firing bad ones. But here is the rub. Although many teachers are caring and selfless, teaching in public schools has not always attracted the best and the brightest. There once was a time when teaching (along with nursing) was one of the few jobs not denied to women and minorities. But with social progress, many talented women and minorities chose other and more highly compensated fields. One recent review of the evidence by McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm, showed that most schoolteachers are recruited from the bottom third of college-bound high-school students. (Finland takes the top 10 percent.) Read more.

Does Najib Spent 10 Hours On Facebook And His Son Is Worth US$98 Billion?

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If there is anything that stands out about Lim Kit Siang and NH Chan, it is their dogged dog's life.They are forever in political bereavement. Complaint,complaint,complaint. They couldn't find any goodness in others other than those they can use for their political agenda.Not a single day missed without mowing down the Prime Minister and our higher court judges, even on the flimsiest of excuse. Not that I believe the PM and judges in this country are infallible.To 'err is human' but to be called idiots, impostors and intellectual frauds.Well, that is another thing.The judiciary subjected to contumely and contempt.Only in Malaysia.

Read his latest much ado over nothing about Najib spending too much time on Facebook.As if he knows for sure Najib spent 10 hours a day staring at his computer's monitor on Facebook.Quoting Najib's political secretary as saying that Najib personally attended up to 600 messages a day which take up most of his time leaving none for running of the state.Well, maybe, Najib's political secretary is an idiot too.

Just two days ago I was having a drink at my favourite watering hole when two gentlemen walked in and perched themselves at the other side of the horseshoe bar across from where I sat.While waiting for their drinks, I could hardly believe the conversation I just overheard.One of them told the other that there was a book written by a "Mat Salleh" where the writer claims that Najib's son has amassed USD98 billion.I almost fell off my bar stool as the mind-boggling figure gave me instant vertigo and my biological calculator just couldn't compute such massive figure.Gosh! What have happened to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, two of the world richest men? Have they been displaced by this young man?

Although his friend was a bit sceptical, the man insisted that it must be true because it was written by a well-known journalist who used to work for a reputable international newspaper.

You see, not all are born idiots, some are made.

I am not sure which book he is referring to.I suspect it could be the one written by Barry Wain on Mahathir, which, unfortunately, was banned here.I see no reason for the ban.The government should lift the ban and lift the suspicion that it has something to hide.One can get a copy across the causeway or purchase and download the e-book from the Internet.So, what the point of the ban?

Most writer writes to make money, not all tell gospel truth.Sensationalism makes money, truths don't.The book written by Barry Wain is to disparage Mahathir and Malaysia, so anything goes no hold barred.

The worst kinds are those coming from the fourth estate and Barry Wain is no exception.Susan Loone , maybe an exception, she is more smutty than smarty.

If NH Chan, the irascible ex judge openly called our Appeal and Federal Courts judges idiots, impostors and intellectual frauds than it wouldn't be wrong to say that most Malaysians including him are equally guilty of such inherent flaws, thrive on rumours and the untruths and believing in the unbelievable.

Many of us do know or have read Darwin's "Origin Of Species" and his theory of evolution and natural selection.

Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection can be considered as intellectual frauds because the apes that we were supposed to have evolved from are still around and his theory of natural selection fell by the wayside, there was no survival of the fittest, the world is still full of idiots, which by his theory of natural selection should have been taken out of the equation.

Why bother yourself with such complicated scientific craps, just stick to simplicity, religion.Not to forget that God too isn't perfect in his creations.That's why we still have idiots.Divine intervention has also not been able to iron out the imperfections.

So, smart asses people like Lim Kit Siang, NH Chan, Martin Jalleh and the ilks must accept that even science and divinity can't guarantee that there wouldn't be any idiots left on mother earth.

For the faint-hearted, if you believe Najib spent 10 hours a day on Facebook and his son is worth US$98 billion than you would believe the Malaysian pigs can fly.

Read who is the richest man in world now.Not Bill Gates, not Warren Buffett ?

"World's Richest" Person Now