My Life - what is it

My life? what is it? All kinda things happened ....why..
50 years gone ... the story continues...

The wind is blowing... the moon is shining
Day already turned to night
Pages of life flip ....waiting to be filled with a new story
Moments of birth.... marriage.... and death
The story is three quarter gone
Only He can tell the ending

Gone through Hindusim..Christianity and now Islam
Searching for truth...
Life before birth..
Life on the earth...
Life after death.....
Only He can tell the truth

Walk through UM, UPENN, UIA and now Harvard
Acquiring Knowledge
Journey to maturity
Journey to success
Journey to excellence
Only He can value the achievement

Roaming through the night and chillness of Boston
Searching for the truth
My moments in this world...
My place in this world...
My journey in this world...
Guess truth will only surface after death...

Harvard Business School,
Boston
21/5/2008 (11.20 pm)

Back to Kuala Lumpur

After 2 months of hectic schedule - readings, discussions and lecturers in Harvard Business School, I will be back to KL on 26 May 2008. The Advanced Management Program was superb and fantastic, a total of 160 of us attended this program (including 8 of us in group 61). I have never attended a program of this nature, it's a one in lifetime experience. The background of the participants are varied from CEOs, CFOs. Senior Managers, Division Heads, VPs and Senior Government Officials. Not only the case studies and lectures discussed new ideas, methodologies and theories but more important are the views put forward by the participants based on their vast working experience and knowledge.

All these experience and knowledge will be part of me and I will disseminate to my officers, with the hope that they too benefit from the program. Re-entry after 2 months of absence, I hope won't be a great problem. I have great and capable officers who handle the work during my absence. I hope to share the knowledge gain not only with my officers and bosses but also with other senior government officials through INTAN.

Knowledge is for sharing,

Sharing will create new knowledge

Poverty vs Inequality

We had a case study on inequality and globalization. The case study provides three reasons for widening inequality in income distribution in the developed, developing and less developed economies. The reasons are globalization, techonology and government policies. Globalization had moved companies to locate their manufacturing industries where cheap labor is available such as in China, India, Brazil and other emerging economies. This resulted in displacement of jobs in the developed economies, widening the income gap, where the rich are highly educated and earning millions or even bilions per year while the poor earning much less. In US for example, those who are professional and in the financial and capital markets are the richest and those working in factories and odd jobs are poor. The Gini coefficient, a measure of income gap is widening in the US and for Malaysia too. Secondly, the techonology is displacing human with machines and robots. This is a global phenomenum and education system need to be focussed on areas where demand jobs in the labor market is high. Finally, government policies are skewed towards growth rather than equity. In less developed countries, the situation is worst, the poor are even denied the right to vote, what more self progression in life through proper education, food and health. Corruption and nepotism are the game of life over there.

Moving on, which is crucial to address poverty or inequality? I pesonally feel that for most of the developing and less developed economies the question of eradicating or reducing poverty is more pertinent than reducing the inequality gap. Millions of people still live below poverty line income and does not have or acessible to 'basic needs' such as food, water, shelter, proper sanitation, healthcare, and education. According to Netaid (Mercy Corps New York)"Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive. Over 1 billion people - 1 in 6 people around the world live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day. More than 800 million go hungry each day. Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot go to school."The government in developing economies, while eager to achieve higher economic growth should put equal emphasis on solving the poverty issues. The International organizations such as World Bank and IMF, though have various programs on poverty, have failed to solve this poverty issues (because they are also involved in other development issues and not to mention sometimes involved in bailing-out activities). For the developed economy, the issue is more of inequality in income distribution. Taking US for example, the inequality is rising. The productivity is rising but real wages are declining. May be for US, the productivity-linked wage system should be implemented. Other than that, the US Government should implement more pro-welfare/social programs such uplifting education level, skills retraining and income generating activities (rather than spending huge amount on military). For Malaysia, the government should upgrade the livelihood of the poor through education, entrepreneurial skill enhancement and income redistribution programs.

Finally, I hope each and every one of us will, in our own capacity, try to address the poverty issue either in our own country or at global forums.

All man are equal
Man make man poor
Why poor in a rich world

Global Warming

We had a case study on global warming. there was heated argument between me, Steve (US) and Lucio (Australia) regarding the effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) on global warming. Lucio was presenting the paper. He said that there are two school of thoughts, one, CO2 causes global warming and the other was there is no evidence to support that CO2 leads to global warming. He supported the second view and me the first. The whole argument arose when I questioned why Australia and US didn't sign the Kyoto protocol where industrialized nations ratified to reduce the CO2 emission levels. Japan agreed to reduce by 6% and European nations by 8% (below the 1990 levels) for the period 2008-2012. Lucio said that firstly, it's not proven CO2 causes global warming. Secondly, he said 'bloody hell' why the Indians and Chinese are not subjected to Kyoto protocol. They are polluting even greater with all the investment and industries moving over there.

My arguments, firstly, there is a correlation between CO2 and global warming. Simple example you go to a city with all the heavy traffic congestion and compare with a rural town where no traffic congestion. Compare the tempareture and the smoke levels between the two places. Secondly, the global warming through the 'greenhouse effect' had caused the global sea level to rise between 4 to 8 inches since 1900. The US is the largest emitter of CO2. I agree to the reasoning that developing countries should also be part of the Kyoto protocol and rules and regulation should be drafted for them to maintain certain minimum level of CO2 emission.

Concerted efforts should also be taken to combat the ignorance on the global warming issue. The low lying areas are going to face the consequences due to irresponsible activities of the large CO2 emitters. The developed and developing world should also jointly formulate measures to reduce CO2 emission levels. The green areas (lungs) of the world should be preserved. In addition, rich and poor countries can jointly conduct reasearches on global warming.

Gonna Quit Smoking begining Monday, 19/5/2008

Club 61

In harvard we are in a group of eight participants sharing one common lounge attached with individual rooms which are so small, just the bed, bathroom and computer table. This according to Prof. Tushman to make u unattractive to stay in the room but spend most of your time with the group members in the common lounge. Lecture usually starts at 8 am and ends at 1.00 pm. , followed by your own readings of case studies in preparation of living group discussions in the evening starting 7.30 pm. Our group is placed on the sixth floor, suite 61. During the sixth week, after the group discussions at about 11.30 pm, the whole group went wild, drinking, shouting and dancing, which attracted other groups to join us. The whole partying ended 2.00 am and the next morning everybody went to the lecturer with red eyes and sleepy face. From then on, my group is known as Club 61 and they say "61 Rocks". They started calling me John Travolta after seeing me dancing when the video music Saturday Nite Fever was on.

My group members - Alec, Trish, me, Pedro Riaz and Karl standing behind are Steve and Lucio

My group is also quite unlucky. First, my mum passed away the second week. Then, week three, Steve was admittted to hospital for appendix or some say appendicitis operation. Week seven, Riaz was admitted to hospital for knee operation after injuring himself during a basketball game. This is my final week (week eight) - most of the participants are preparing to go home. Graduation day is on 23 May 2008.

Longlasting Friendship CLUB 61

Visit to Cape Cod

I had a four days break from the hectic AMP course in Harvard. Most of them went home either in US or to Europe. Some of them their family came down and they went on tour in US. Me and other three guys (Martin from Germany, Rob from UK and Alekh from Qatar) went to Cape Cod, south-west of Boston facing the Atlantic Ocean. They have booked the rooms earlier but a last minute decision for me. I just called the hotel and gave my credit card number and it's all set. We rented a car, Martin drove, though only after 1/2 hour going around the Boston city we managed to find our way out of Boston city on to the highway 93. Nobody told me about the place we are going and what we expect to see there. Provincetown is well known for something that I will tell u later. The only thing that I knew was, it's facing the Atlantic Ocean, having nice beaches, good sea-food and whale watching. We left at 2.30 pm on Saturday 26/4/2008 and arrived in Provincetown at 5.00 pm. It's a small resort town. Most of the houses and motels are kind of run down. Some seem to be abandoned for quite sometimes and either need repair or painting. I was told that during off-tourists period the population is only 3,000 and during peak period in summer the population can go up to 50,000. During night time at 8.00 pm its empty and only four of us are there, and of course there is one or two homeless guys. The only place u can see people are in the bars.

It's kind a easy to find the motel which we have booked since it is the only red color motel in that town. It's called the Black Pearl Inn. The picture below shows the Inn. Wow like the movie - Psycho


When we went inside the Inn to register, there was a mexican guy and he led us the way. I was surprised and amazed. I go.... "My god, what kinda place is this". The walls are full of photos of naked men. I just put my hands on my mouth and kept moving. We registered and took our keys to the rooms. Once outside, we were all laughing. Apparently, the owner is a gay. Then, my fren Martin told the whole thing, which he knew earlier about Provincetown through internet and friends. Its actually a popular gay town. Most of the motels, bars and shops are owned by gays. Massachusetts is the only state in US where partners of the same sex ( species) can legally marry. So its seems that all gays and lesbian moved to this resort town to settle down. (Apparently, Malaysian gays should visit this place). That night, I locked my door and slept with the room light on - takut..... not the ghost but.... . Next morning, my friends told me they did they same thing. hahahahahahha..

In the town the road is quite narrow, similar to the old Malacca town. This town too, was first founded by the Portugese and later the British took over. You can see men and men holding hands walking past by you. Most of the people walk with their dogs. My friend said people here don't have kids, so they tend to have dogs. There are men dressed like women - transvestites singing at the roadside and in the bars. I met the gay guy Carlos from Brazil but now settled here working in a restaurant. (By the way, I'm a straight guy, to put things in perspective before u make other conclusions).

We went to eat at a well-know restaurant in the town - The Loster Pot. Ummmmmph..walaaaaa, the taste of huge lobster grilled with butter.

On Sunday we went on a Whale watching trip. We took a ferry at 10.00 am and the ferry took us into the open sea. We spotted whales, dolphins and birds. It's fun, once in a life-time (don't know will experience it again) 3 hrs trip. The whales came near the boat and it's breath really stinks. they are huge 16 feet long. Its amazing they jump out of the water - the whole body up in the air.

On monday, on the way back to Boston, we visited Hyanis - a smalltown where JFK and his family lived. It seems this his parents place and during summer vacation he comes over here. We visited the JFK meseum in the town and learned more about JFK's life. I admire JFK

Here are some of his famous quotes:

"Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich"

"If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity."

Irwan's quote: Everyday u experience new things in life. Each thing has a meaning to your life.