Resident, Evil

Mainstream media has its limitation; they can’t report everything, even though it’s happening in front of many eyes including their own. Happened 2 weeks ago at a renowned mamak stall, Steven’s Corner’s boss, whose nickname is ironically Steven, hurt his neighbor badly. Newspaper treated it like some regular domestic disturbance, leaving out names. Are they afraid of lawsuit?

As it turned out, they have a greater fear… Fear for retribution. Retribution from a giant invisible hand. Not to be confused with The Invisible Hand as described by Adam Smith, this hand, is gangsterism. They would not strike at the publisher, but instead sabotaging the retailers, paper stands, the weaker links.

Gangsters by definition, is a group of people taking law into their own hands, spreading fear and demanding submission through acts of violence. Hiding in shadows, they are the cancer cells of the society, they live to torture especially the minority voices.

Steven is clearly a cancer cell, with good connection with the white blood cells, aka society’s immune system called Police. There’s no way white blood cell is able to completely purge off cancer cells, so they live in harmony as long as the cancer cells remain dormant. Would you believe Steven is dormant?

Some first world countries have long purged its cancer cells, their immune system are so strong leaving no space for any infection to grow; like Finland, Denmark. Countries like America and Japan have strong immune system, but their unhealthy lifestyle renders cancer cells air space, waiting to strike back once their immunity weakens. Third world countries are struggling to suppress its cancer, foreign aids act as chemo. A few countries like North Korea, corrupted to the core, like zombie; there’s no living cell, the mindless body decaying in oblivion. In China, the cancer cells were so rampant they poisoned their own younger generation through the milk product. This is what I regard as Evil Resident.

Corruption by power is the apparent virus here. Every time someone do something they should not do, they are taking law into their own hands, they act like gangsters. This pan- gangsterism is left unchecked most of time, culprits getting off with a small fine and mild warning, signaling failure in the judiciary system and law enforcement.

Example of malign cancer cells manifestations: consuming nutrient and oxygen (monetary reserves and natural resources), leaving less or none for normal body cells. Blocking blood vessels (toll). Killing ordinary body cells (murders, deaths during investigation). Building toxics (spreading discriminative, derogative comments) in the body. Need more examples, go to malaysiakini.

One may not get involved directly, but somehow the spillover effect poses certain collateral damage. A guy borrowed from loan shark, his sister’s boyfriend murdered.
When human traffickers found their product, usually women from other unfortunate third world country, dead in transition; they simply kidnapped a replacement from nearby neighborhood. Know why many girls left home and was never found?

Today’s gangsters’ entry level is operating cyber cafes and selling pirated software, DVD. As they moved up the ladder they started dealing drugs to the runners, or operating vice dens. Further up they would manage fast-moving consumer products, like selling computers, laptops, stolen autos etc. Later on they get promoted into syndicate running multi- billion online gambling, international human / exotic animals trafficking. Even criminals follow a well documented career path.

Next time you pick up Starcraft 2 by roadside, think of the consequences. That young man eager to make sales, might be the one kidnapping your daughter 10 years down the road. Put down the DVD and walk away, let the Wings of Liberty have it chance.

As for Steven, you can take a man out of the gang, but you can’t take the gang out from the man. I foresee him out of business soon, and exiled from the underworld. This is our retribution.

Mother's Day Special

Eve of Mother's Day, had to go to a jobs fair at KL Convention Centre. Let's face it: Jobs fairs are for amateurs, veterans who had made a name in the industry would have also made the head- hunters' lists. Companies don't really hope to find a gem at jobs fairs, they are merely there for show and publicity.

You'd find all sorts of young, wondering eyes, a fleeting unrest upon their faces, sweaty palms grasping what I believed the folder holding their years of accademic achievements, possibly awards and other certifications of the sort. I sure hope they found what they are looking for, or at least found out what it takes to find it.

Of all the jobs booths, one offered to teach 'how to' do your own business, hmm. The same speeches followed, listing how pathetic it is to not having your own business, to '95% of businesses folded within the first 5 years'. Of course there weren't time to deliver the whole sermon, bystanders were asked to register for a one- day- course for like, RM30 only, whereas normal courses go for RM800 plus. I'd bet if a person would pay RM30 to attend such courses, they would as well pay RM800 when the speaker announced another power- packed course due the following month. Get it? There's no free lunch.

I was there solely for Digi's seminar, to uncover what's beneath their website which offer no job application segment. How the heck they recruit? Well I found my answer. No surprises, they did it by recommendations, sometimes through coffee chats. I didn't feel pity that my resume ended up in a recycling bin at the first filter.

Came the Q & A session. The MC is a nice guy, he shoved the mic at me with an encouraging smile. I enquired about the saturating mobile service market, and complimented Digi's effort to incorporate creativity in their adverts. The speaker seemed impressed, I hope the impression lasted till she got my email with my revised resume.

Though somewhat saturated, she mentioned mobile services operators still have about 30% room for expansion, which I think is rather optimistic. Audio calls and SMS are still the bread and butter, whereas data offered a mere 20% to their revenue. Implicitly, the government's protectionism is quite hindering to business, but judging from how 3G's taking off, Digi hasn't loose out big time. They are focusing on India's vastly untapped market as I write.

The question remains: how to increase mobile usage? People would rather use a lot of web apps on the internet and laptops than mobile phones. It is true there's more mobile phone owners than laptop owners, but digital contents wise, static internet users dwarf mobile internet users by billions, maybe trillions.

Since Necessity is the Mother of all Inventions, it's only a matter of time, a 'killer apps' being developed that'll take the world by storm, completely alter people's habit of using mobile phones. Here's a hint: Japanese resellers are having a hard time, housewifes are comparing prices of everyday groceries down to the yens. They are sharing these info with frens and strangers alike, pushing resellers into the red ocean of price wars. Of course they are using mobile phone for this purpose, because anything cheap is in limited supply, speed is king.

Mother alone cannot give birth, so, the Father of Invention has to be technology, ideas, and maybe some luck. Necessity is the need to increase mobile usage, the technology is readily available, the idea is data that needed access to urgently. Urgency would drive mobile usage. With any luck, anyone could go down history with the title: Father of 'Next Gen Phone', alongside Alexander Graham Bell, Father of Telephone. Just remember to patern it.

Speaking of mother and father, Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

Where the Wild Things Are

It's not easy to keep on writing. Ideas are always abundant, but the will to write would ebb if not geared consistently. Sometimes I almost forgotten, how fun was it to write, to pen down the ideas lighting up in my head? The creative process is really 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, according to Einstein.

After my last post, I went to the Lumut Powerman, and straight onto the flight to Gold Coast. 20 days in a foreign country, I would say I hardly mingled with the people there, leave alone blending into their lifestyle. Maybe because of that, I couldn't really appreciate the stay there. Note to self: I need to be more curious and more adventurous!

Back on homeland, I discovered the Immigration had banned me leaving the country due to unsettled study loan, what a bummer! Got to get my act together, finding a job is top priority. That takes me back to square one: what I wanna do, and in which growing industry can I thrive?

Assuming same qualification, similar job scope, equal effort and time spent, some industry rewards you well, some lead you to no where. So lesson 1: get into a proliferating, growing industry, with healthy competition. All my previous jobs are nothing better than a slow moving raft in the red ocean. Sad, but true. The satisfaction of learning something new is always exhilarating, but if you were good, you'd learn everything and hit the glass ceiling sooner than you thought.

Markets have their ups and down, so does a company. If you were long enough in the business, you know how the company fared compare to the whole industry. Then comes the question: is the company moving forward, stagnant, or moving backwards? Think big pictures, and superimpose your company on it. The non- forwarding trend signals an imminent retreat plan. Small company with 10 years in the market, sitting happily in their comfort zone, chiao!

Experience is a function of effort, time and enthusiasm, with 'time' to the power of 2. Time is the key, it's compounding effect dominates all. That leads me to think, what have I been spending most of my time on? Writing? For that burst of satisfaction? I'm beginning to doubt myself, am I writing because I'm narcissistic? Would I had better spent my time elsewhere?

To write or not to write, I chose not. In the mean time, job search has been a setback. I decided not to go into journalism, had enough of medicals, and not even close to chemicals. IT seemed good, but it'd been a while, the resume really look bad. Had it not for the constant exercise, 2 months and countless rejects could drive me into depression. Of all people, I might be the last few who would suffer long term depression, that's a blessing.

It's been weeks that I picked up the reference book for a professional certification, writing bugs are all over me again. Maybe I shouldn't mind, if narcissist I am, so be it. Don't let those brain juice go to waste, life is too short not to have fun. Most men in their 40's suffered midlife- crisis even more intensively, I should try to avoid that.

Also there's a few life- changing revamps, resetting of priorities, and a more thorough cost- benefit analysis taking place here. Some doors that left opened had to be closed, closed so gently, not slamming. With that, the door to writing has opened wider than before, more so than I could imagine.

Read from somewhere, the world needs people who can tell stories, to make the world more interesting. I could be that person.