I am unsure why I have not posted this photo at this blog. Anyway, presenting to you, probably, the most famous photo of the Malaysian Houses of Parliament on the web, courtesy of Wikipedia, by me:
What?
You do not trust me? The claim is true! Try Googling it! Hahahahahahaha…!
The mainstream media is celebrating the strengthening of the Malaysian ringgit against the United States dollar. Through the glory days when a dollar cost roughly only 2.5 Malaysian ringgit is something that many long for, I find the jovial mood caused by stronger ringgit is something awkward. I am in the opinion that the media, through the tight leash put on by the government, is manipulating laypersons’ sentiment. These laypersons unfortunately have little economic education and do not understand what stronger ringgit mean. I have discovered that nationalists with little economic background tend to cite a stronger ringgit as a proof of sunny day. But perhaps, the strong ringgit against the dollar might signal stabler sunny days in the long run.
I have mentioned earlier that stronger ringgit relative to the US dollar would hurt Malaysian export to the US; a large portion of Malaysian export goes to the US. This is on top of the slowing electronics demand in the US. With the USD growing weaker, US citizens would consume more of local product and less of imported goods.
The ringgit is growing stronger compared to the dollar. Analysts are betting the ringgit to hit 3.4 for a dollar in the coming months and yet, still convinced the the ringgit is undervalued almost two years after the ringgit was unpegged from 3.8 to a dollar. Yet, against other currency, the ringgit is remarkably weak.
Malaysia is heavily dependent on the US economy. For this very reason, I expect Malaysia to experience economic slowdown this year, in tandem with the trend — albeit increasingly confusing trend at the moment — in the US. This dependency is caused by us putting our eggs in a basket. If a slowdown is to occur as expected, the important lesson Malaysia needs to learn to diversify.
Indeed, with stronger ringgit against the dollar but weak against almost everything else, the invisible hand is conspiring to push Malaysian export towards diversification. Slower export to the US would be cushion by greater export to elsewhere. New and more baskets are available out there.
Weak currency encourages the local export component to grow while stronger currency encourages the import component. Rationally, given everything else the same, one would expect Malaysian export to start looking into other markets where the ringgit is weak. Some of those places are Australia, India, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
With diversification, we would cushion ourselves from the harsh realities that others face, making globalization a little bit easier to shallow.
I might be wrong but this must be the tightest season in recent history. Or ever. With one more game to go, three teams mathematically have the chance to be the next kampioen of the Eredivisie. It is all down to PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord.
Wait, not Feyenoord! No! It is AZ Alkmaar!
How close it is right now?
This situation is made possible through the simultaneous win of Ajax and AZ over their respective opponent while PSV pulled down by Utrecht.
Ajax had their chance to top the table but just like how Chelsea squandered their chance earlier this evening, Ajax were unable to capitalize on the fever PSV had a few weeks ago.
Though Ajax could claim the title, I doubt trophy would go to Amsterdam this year. In my opinion, AZ would win the title. If AZ manage only a draw next week, the odd would favor Ajax because of the superior goal difference. At the moment, AZ have 6 more goals than Ajax.
But fret not for Ajax is in the final round of the Cup game against AZ. One silverware to win.
One interesting possibility: all three teams could end up with 75 points at the end of the season, with the same goal difference. How cool would that be?
And heh, the folks from Rotterdam are doing so badly this season that I always almost feel pity for them each time I look at the Eredivisie of table.
Anyway, let us savor Ajax’s 5-2 victory over Sparta.
First goal by Sneijder in the 9th minute. 1-0:
[youtube]lu2ZuO-HhXI[/youtube]
Sneijder again in the 17th minute. 2-0:
[youtube]sPeaaizP8Ik[/youtube]
The Hunter in four minutes later. 3-0:
[youtube]LGefXCg7IDg[/youtube]
Krohn-Deli, an Ajacied on loan to Sparta, assisted Bouaouzan. By the 37th minute, 3-1:
[youtube]f4bszpH2pdE[/youtube]
Krohn-Deli assisted another goal. This time scored by Freire. In the 47th, 3-2:
[youtube]lw_Q3Z5SrJ0[/youtube]
Too close, but Perez made some space for Ajax in the 76th minute. 4-2:
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Mitea completed the demolition in the 82th minute. 5-2:
[youtube]EwyiHqX_Mxg[/youtube]
The second podcast, ever.
[audio:podcastEarthDay2007.mp3]
I have celebrated every Earth Day for the past several years by highlighting environmental issues that have — in my humble opinion — captivated the nation. I wish to stay true to that tradition by doing the same thing this year.
There is no doubt that the natural environmental faces challenges each day and there are countless issues that need to be addressed. Sometimes, it is overwhelming to simply list down those issues. It is even harder to prioritize it. So, the issues I am going to highlight here are in no way the only issues we face. Rather, the issues are the ones that have taken the center stage of public attention. Further, in no way this list is exhaustive and it will be updated as we ride on 2007.
Earlier this year, major flooding took the whole nation by surprise. A town deep in the heartland of Johor, Kota Tinggi, despite its name which could be rendered as a city on high ground was flooded for several weeks, cutting simple folks from food and fresh water. It was no less than a national emergency since four states suffered billion of ringgit of losses due to the flood.
The flood attracted public attention to anthropogenic climate change. For the first time in Malaysian history, as far as I could recall, the Malaysia started to take climate change seriously. Or least, the perception of it is there. More importantly, the issue of climate change enters into public consciousness and no longer becomes an issue among small number of environmentalists and scientists in the country.
The government announced that it would produce a report on climate change amid the chaos that followed the disaster. Though I am not sure if the document has been completed, I have not heard the government making the report public. If the government is serious about being transparent, perhaps, it could take the first step by making the report public.
El Niño would have been an issue to be discussed but the phenomenon itself has been mild.
Related to climate change is the intention of the government to increase fuel standard in Malaysia. I welcome such move. The move however might increase gas prices. I would support the price hike but that is just me. I support taxation on fuel consumption and disagree with fuel subsidy. The government plans to adopt EURO II while the current standard is EURO I. For your information, in the EU, the more stringent EURO IV is common.
I am unsure if the adoption of EURO II covers carbon emission. Nevertheless, we are losing significant amount of carbon sink through deforestation. While deforestation is common in Malaysia, so far this year, nothing is more controversial than the one in Lojing, Kelantan. Finger-pointing game is currently being played out but no substantial step towards the conservation of Lojing has been undertaken by any side.
And then, there is poaching. If last year, we had a proud tiger butchered and stored a like a common chicken inside a refrigerator, not too long ago this year, to those that care, to our horror, hundreds of turtles were discovered on the boat. Only a few were alive and saved from the barbarians. The authority successfully arrested several Chinese citizens of whom were responsible for the act.
What gone is gone however. We must take effort to protect what is left, and try to replenish it from what we have. Though controversies have struck the Selangor state government for the past few years, probably in effort to clean up its image, declared a large portion of its eastern frontier as state park. From Hulu Selangor in the north to Hulu Langat in the south, the approximately 90,000 hectare park is a good news. Nonetheless, just as what is happening with Kota Damansara Community Forest Park and many others, this announcement should be received with guarded posture for so many words have been proven to be worthless for so many times.
I wonder though, how would the water pipe link between Pahang and Selangor is going to affect that promise. The pipe will have to go through the park. That is not the main issue however. It is the dam in Pahang that will displace many Orang Aslis off their ancestral home. Dams always devastates local environment. The planned dam in Pahang is no different.
These issues no doubt are large issues and individually, we are almost always powerless to act against it. But when individuals of common interest band together to form a common front, much can be done. But one does not have to confront these issues to make the world we live in a better place for all us. Even gram of carbon we reduce, every consumption we reduce, every time we recycle, we are doing our part for ourselves, for our children and for our home.
Happy Earth Day.
Friday is always good. Anything else is extra and makes any Friday even better:
As usual, I do no justice to things that I record.
Though the light show is impressive, it is not as rare as another beautiful occurrence — the light pillar. I have only seen a light pillar once, while skiing somewhere north in Michigan.