Category: Sports

I’m bored but I just want to share an article published by the New York Times. It’s Globalizing Good Government:

Globalization’s critics argue that a more open world economy sets off a race to the bottom by encouraging countries to jettison protections for consumers, workers and the environment. In reality, the opposite is true.

In the accompanying illustration, it looks like Malaysia by far is the second most globalized (tag) country within Southeast Asia. First is that island down south.

p/s – some people love to talk about how China is pushing Malaysia aside in every aspect, adversely affecting us. Especially protectionists. Actually no. In NST’s Business Times today, Malaysia is benefiting from China economic boom:

MALAYSIA ranks second globally on being positively impacted by the fast growing economy of China, according to an independent survey.

The 2006 Grant Thornton International Business Owners Survey (IBOS) found that Malaysian medium and large enterprises (MLEs) are benefiting from the Chinese economic boom.

That along with more than USD 2 billion Malaysian trade surplus with China prove that these pessimists are wrong.

pp/s – this season’s bastard kampioen is P$V. Mathematically confirmed. Ajax on the other hand lingers at fifth and if things don’t improve soon, Ajax might miss the chance to be in the next Champions League season (tag). Ajax needs at least fourth placing to qualify for the new weird Champions League playoff. For the why, see Wikipedia.

However, that won’t prevent me from celebrating Ajax’s 1 – 0 win over AZ! Hat off to Boukhari and Stekelenburg.

w00t! Podcast. Well, technically, Zencast because I used my Zen Micro. For clarity, refer to [761] Of the reason why this Lampe Berger fad is a pyramid scheme, posted yesterday.

You will need Quicktime to listen to it. However, if you’re more anti-Apple than me, you can download the mp3 file here and play it on your favorite media player instead.

p/s – almost forgot. Justice served. Inter 0 – 1 Villareal. Aggregate 2-2, with the away goal belongs to Villareal.

United States and Malaysia are planning for a free trade deal (tag). According to Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and Malaysia will announce plans on Wednesday to negotiate a free trade agreement, industry and congressional sources familiar with the decision said.

U.S. trade officials have previously said they were very close to launching talks with Malaysia, the United States’ 10th-largest goods trading partner.

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Malaysian International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz are expected to announce plans to begin negotiations at a joint news conference with U.S. lawmakers, one source said.

I wonder how the FTA would affect Malaysian automotive industry. And rivalry between palm and soybean oil industries would probably flare up during negotiation.

It wouldn’t be too far off if I suspect some sort of bullying by the United States’ representatives to occur. From what I read, the US trade representatives are notorious of that. Stiglitz made that even more vivid. Moreover, when US-Singapore FTA was discussed a number of years back, the United States representatives managed to convince the Singaporean government to legalize chewing gum – we all know about how much the Singaporean government hates chewing gum! Well, partly anyway – Singapore dragged its feet.

I support free trade. I even go farther and support free flow of trade and labor. Not in totality of course since sometimes, things need to be done on case by case basis but in general, I’m for free trade. However, most free trade agreements are only free in name and hardly fair at all. For instance, remember India’s offer last year? Thank goodness that has been flatly rejected.

For this very reason, it’s good to know that Rafidah Aziz will lead Malaysian team to the table. She might be unpopular but she has the experience to withstand or even counter United States’ pressure. I’ve problem imagining of whom would be more suitable for the job. Syed Hamid Albar? Maybe but Abdullah Ahmad Bawadi certainly can’t do.

p/s – oh, yea. Ajax 6 – 0 Sparta. PSV is next.