The first thing they teach us in Business school is Planning. Chapter 2, right after Introduction, which is not a bloody waste of time, contrary to popular belief. Any idiot knows that to do something correctly, you must have some semblance of planning. Even I , the Queen of Winging It (and lately the Queen of Leeching Stuff) understand the importance of planning.
It's bloody simple, really. If scientists can calculate this, right down to the year, how much brain power do you need to guess, just fucking guess, that the people who use Smart Tag on the Kesas Highway would eventually run out of credit, and would like to reload their Smart Tags when they're passing the tollbooths ON Kesas instead of going to the next nearest reload booth on the Seremban Highway?
At times like this, I can't help but think that there's a test they make everyone take before someone's allowed to hold a position of authority, where their decision-making skills would be tested daily, and where those skills would have great ramifications in the daily lives of us lowly peons. Then, after everyone has submitted their test results, the graders do something that directly contradicts the way schools and universities grade papers: they throw out scores higher than 40 and pick people who score below that to fill out the positions.
Don't ask me why, I don't know. I'm still trying to understand how something so logical could have escaped the minds of EVERYONE involved in making Touch n Go the only tag thingy to use in the whole of Malaysia. I don't care if the concessionaires can't agree on a suitable cut of the profits, I don't care if someone didn't get his kickbacks, I just don't care. The whole point of using one single tag thingy is for 'the good of the people' or 'the convenience of taxpayers'.
I am not convenienced.
So while I am fuming and growing wrinkles on something that should have been thought out beforehand, I open the newspapers and I see this.
Newsflash, darlings. Apologies mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING if you have to ask for it. If the guy's truly sorry, he wouldn't repeat the mistake again, and it's understood that the issue is over. Water under the bridge. The past. It will never be brought up again. Let go, move on. It's been 60 years, how long do you wanna keep harping on the same thing over and over again?
I would actually have more respect for our MPs if they'd raised this issue before Japan apologised to China. What a bunch of wimps.
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13 comments:
The whole integrated card thing is a farce. A commission...'sigh'. What would make the card viable is if the card system is deployed via a joint-venture of the public transport and highway operators. But too late for that now, decision made. And yes, it's bloody difficult to top up, I just leave my card at home.
As for our MPs :) They are quite laughable. They are so clueless and react like 2-3 weeks after the furore. I'm not sure if any of them understood the significance of the issue (ie. visits to the war memorial shrine and textbooks which btw is not widely used, that particular text they made noise abt). Anyhow, I say, let's move on.
Give it another 30 years, when all wwII survivors would have died out, then any apologies would be irrelevant. As it is, it is already quite irrelevant to most of us.
Planning? That word does not exist in some people's vocabulary.
Malaysian MP's are the best! The most focussed! On the most petty issues! It is laughable sometimes the things they discuss. And DAP provides and equally balanced opposition in terms of focus and laughability. Our cabinet ministers are no better. Especially the one with the toupee. Its a political system that thrives on and nurtures mediocrity. The sad thing is some of these people start out intelligent enough but they are then dumbed down out of the sheer need for survival. But to rant about Malaysian inefficiency and ineptness is akin to punching a wall of water (if water walls exist). So as someone said, move with the punches. Use the cash lane.
To forgive is divine. Something that happened a long time ago, even before my parents were born. I don't think we need to demand apologies now. And I don't think they should suffer anymore for their forefather's mistake. In fact I don't think they even demanded apology from US for literally raping the country after the war was ended. Let's move on. There are better things to worry about. Like the stupid spiralling oil prices.
Oooh we should demand an apology from Japan for unleashing karaoke upon us!
Firstly, I want to apologize to Saffy for hijacking her blog with such a long comment again... That aside... Here goes...
I believe these to be very unfair statements... BN, DAP, whatever, they're not all bad... I'd rather have Kit Siang then most MPs... Give him a break... He's only doing his job... He needs to take care of his own jurisdiction after all... All this is also partly because of the people, some just dumb if not dumber... I can prove this very easily by pointing out that the BN lost Terengganu to PAS on the election before the last... If the people didn't complain about Japan's atrocities, there would be less reason for this proposal, and it would have been more baseless... I know it's ridiculous how they want to ask for apologies, and weeks after I saw the news and videos on the Net, what's more... But then, I don't believe all of them are bad... Like the way the Foreign Ministry Parliamentary Secretary said it would be considered, I feel is the politically correct way of handling it... He did the right and smart thing...
It's true that the government often does a lot of dumb things, and doesn't do smart things that they should have done... True, I do complain some about what the government does... But to say they are idiots, fools and all is, I believe, too extreme and is very wrong and unfair... After all, they are the goverment... Who is the bigger fool? The fool (government)? Or the fool who follows him (people)? I think the fool who follows the fool (people) is the bigger fool... Discussing is fine... But if we're just going to complain and call those in leadership idiots, then we should really just shut our mouths and not make any unnecessary noise... If we really think the government is full of idiots, then someone smart and politically able should step up and do something about it... Or start an organization, or draft out a proposal, or report about it fairly as journalists should do... Otherwise we are no better than demonstrators who demonstrate and riot without any better alternative in mind...
As for atrocities, why does nobody question the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings by the US? Japan had already lost... The atomic bombings weren't necessary... The US only used the Second World War as an excuse to test their new atomic weapon... It was an atrocity far greater than anything Japan, Germany, Italy and Russia combined ever did... If we demand any compensations, it should be from the US, no? But then, that was like over 60 years ago, so we should just forget it and concentrate on the present... The past is only for learning... What's done is done... The present is what determines the future that we make from what we have...
Exactly!!! It seems like te MPs have no better topics to debate about! Why can't they just get down to the basics, just the most fundamental stuff that pertain to the locals, the welfare, convenience of the locals. Let's not even get to the MPs-pay-rise topic. There's even a hoo-haa over recent remarks accused of MPs being stupid. I mean, sometimes i feel the Parliament is some in-house circus, playground or something.
@Seanna:
You always write long comments. This one is nothing new.
Please state where I have attacked Lim Kit Siang in my post, otherwise please not to go off-tangent, as I have had some comments about the essays you leave on my blog already.
Do you personally know anyone who is demanding an apology from Japan? Even my grandmother, who's 71, has gotten over it. She talks about the war and what they sufefred back then, but she doesn't go around demanding apologies and setting fire to Japanese stores, even after the textbook hoo-haa.
I would've expected someone with backbone to stand up and point out the fallacy of our MPs demanding an apology after Japan has already apologised to China, but then again you're entitled to your opinion. If you don't think it's a fallacy that's perfectly fine.
Your quote about fools and the fools who follow them would be valid IF and only IF there was a viable alternative to BN in this country, As it stands, there is none for me, because I can't vote for PAS, Keadilan is a joke and DAP would never stand a chance. Hobson's choice for me, and all I can hope for is a stronger opposition for checks and balances.
Maybe I am just complaining, but the fact that none of the people even planned the project (funded by taxpayer's money, mind you) out before implementing it is plain stupid, and there's no two ways about it. I am not going to just sit there and be politically-correct by not calling stupid people stupid, because denial ain't gonna help them.
And the last few lines of your 3rd paragraph just smacks of hypocrisy. Look at yourself.
Now on Japan. Losing and giving in does to have to come hand in hand. Weren't necessary? Are you saying that if those bombs have not been dropped the war would've ended when it ended, and not been dragged on for a few more years?
I would suggest that you read up on materials to understand the pysche of the Japanese people during WW2 to understand what it would have taken for them to give in. I also suggest reading up what Hitler did in Germany, because you don't appear to understand the motivations behind the bombings and the motivations behind shoving 6 million Jews into ovens and incinerating them. Bombing Japan, horrendous as the outcome was, was a necessary evil in a war. Genocide was not.
Read up on how the war progressed before and after American intervention. Instead of kicking up a ruckus in BF, go instead to the Serious Discussion board and look up the WW3 threads. There're plenty there.
I'm not glorifying the Yankees, but I believe in giving due credit. I reckon the Americans pretty much saved the day back then.
Since everyone else basically agrees with me, I'll just say thank you for reading, and I'm happy to be right this time. *grins*
Off to WoW!!
1) I never said anyone of you attacked Kit Siang. Show me where I did.
2) I never did kick up a ruckus in BF. They just assumed bad stuff about me and deleted my posts and banned me. That I dislike.
3) I very well know just what the Germans did, or what the Japanese were like.
4) What makes you think I do not attempt my very best to follow what I say and believe in? Hypocrisy is when you do not bother to, not when you fail after trying.
5) If we wait for others to supply us with the parties, etc. then we are following, are we not?
6) What he did was right. I did not say what the MPs did wasn't a fallacy. All I said is that they're not all bad. And how it was handle was correct. If you handle it by blasting people, then you get lesser results. In the long term, it's better to be tactful.
7) Why the HECK does everyone like to attack me so much when I don't even attack them? I was merely giving a different opinion.
Thank you very much for being so personal and assuming so much about me. Really...
Nice of you to do this in point form.
1)You said "I believe these to be very unfair statements... BN, DAP, whatever, they're not all bad... I'd rather have Kit Siang then most MPs... Give him a break..."
Please note "give him a break". That denotes that someone somewhere was attacking him. Since no one did, the conclusion I came to was you're going off-tangent.
2)You registered, you insulted a mod, you resurrected 2 dead threads, that's grounds to put you on a watch list. We don't have a policy of being lenient with idiots, and while you may not be one, the way you behaved didn't give them a lot of room to maneuver.
Then you made a second account (which is a bannable offense if you even cared to read the rules in the first place), said you knew me and they didn't ban you. Which is fine except for the fact that I have always advocated the banning of idiots, and now I look like I'm abusing my power and allowing you in because you're my friend.
No ruckus?
3)Now you're just contradicting yourself. If you know full well what the Germans did and what the Japanese did, why did you say this: "It was an atrocity far greater than anything Japan, Germany, Italy and Russia combined ever did..."
Note the parts I've kindly bolded for you. Explain your comment, please.
4)If this is what you call trying your best, fine. I don't want to hear another peep out of you about problems that I've already heard 4 billion times.
By the way, about pre-judging. What makes you think I have no done my part in trying to make the system work better? You talk about me judging you and you're doing the same thing. Hypocrisy is not just restricted to one area. I came to that conclusion way before I read your little rant up there.
5)Yeah, so we just all shut up unless we want to form our own parties and fight the Smart Tag.
6)Did I say they were all bad? I said 2 things. Number 1: whoever was in charge of Smart Tag is stupid for not planning the system before implementation. Number 2: MPs who support the demand for an apology from Tokyo are wasting their time and should focus on better stuff, like making the Smart Tag system work. I may have also mentioned that they were wimpy somewhere.
I don't mind if you go off-tangent, really. Just don't put words in my mouth when you're doing it, because by now you should know what pisses me off and what doesn't. Of course I'm not saying you shouldn't piss me off, just know that I don't take things sitting down.
That's why I didn't ignore this like someone advised me to.
7)No you were not merely giving your opinion. You were putting words in my mouth. There's a slight difference.
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