Month: October 2010

#1 on Facebook!

Hey, Malaysians are world #1 at something useful for once! According to research done, Malaysians have the largest number of friends on Facebook, and we spent the most time on Facebook! We averaged 233 friends while the Japanese only averaged 29 friends per person. I know of many people who easily have more than 233 FB friends. So, I am not surprised by this result.

What does this say about us as a society?

I think that it is actually quite reflective of ourselves. A friend once told me that in Malaysia, we have about a 2-degree of separation between any two people. After observing for the last few years, I am coming to the same conclusion myself. Now that a study has shown that an average Malaysian has 233 FB friends, it does not surprise me if I what my friend said was true.

It also shows that we have far too much free time on our hands, until we end up doing silly and potentially illegal things on FB. An example is the case of a man who claims that his doctored photographs appear randomly on FB. He has since resorted to making a police report on the issue.

I thought to myself – this is crazy! People really need to learn how to handle these kinds of situations online. It’s like the wild-wild-west online (why do you think it’s called the WWW?). You need to learn how to handle yourself so that things do not go the wrong way; and if they ever do, you need to know how to take care of it as well.

It is quite difficult for Malaysian police to do anything about these sort of things unless the perpetrator is traced and found to be a Malaysian residing in Malaysia. Otherwise, it is nearly impossible to take any sort of legal action as no real harm has been done, except to someone’s online reputation.

Weird and crazy sh*t happens!

blink

Talent Corp

Our government has recently been trumpeting Talent Corp, an organisation dedicated with the task to head-hunt Malaysians working and residing overseas and enticing them to return to Malaysia to contribute to nation building. While I do appreciate the whole idea of fishing our people back home, I am highly skeptical of the success of such a programme for one reason as identified by TheStar:

True meritocracy has to be practised in every sphere of activity, with transparency in every stage of discussion and negotiation. These would range from open tenders for public projects to full accountability for a range of activities, including government departments and agencies as well as the selection process of student scholarships for families.

There should be no favouritism on any basis other than material need. Where such things as academic achievement and promise are equal, any advantage or preference accorded to individuals must be founded only on personal need and family capacity.

Our government has had similar programmes in the past but they all focused on money – through the offer of APs and other incentives. However, the harsh reality is that things are more than just about money. Focusing on monetary incentives only delay the inevitable as these expertise will quickly grow jaded with the local work culture and decide to return to foreign shores.

Also, while bringing home talent from overseas is important, I hope that the government does not neglect those talents who are already at home. There are a lot of skilled people in Malaysia who are also being subjected to the inane local work culture and grow jaded by the day. It becomes harder and harder for such talent to justify staying home and they will leave after a while.

To succeed in luring them home for good requires Malaysia to replicate the same kind of standards all-round. Recognising the importance of the contributions of these Malaysians and their spouses, regardless of race, religion and nationality, is an important step forward.

I honestly hope that this proves to be a catalyst in improving our local work culture. If it does, we will be able to exploit both sets of talents – those returning from overseas and those whom are already here. We need to be ready to cast aside a lot of our perceived Asian values if we are to succeed in this.

Ageism, racism, and xenophobia must all GO.

Hacker Culture

I have been giving this some thought recently and I am finding it more difficult to identify myself as a Malaysian or a Chinese. While we are all a hodgepodge of various cultures and influences, I have found that the largest chunk of my life has been greatly influenced by and spent in the Hacker culture. I would advise you to read the Wikipedia article linked as your understanding of the culture may differ significantly from the actual meaning.

While sitting here enjoying my cup of teh tarik in the local Hailam Kopitiam, I ask myself – what am I going to do about this?

I think that I will probably take the first step by accepting the fact that I am a hacker, first and foremost. Of all the cultures that I have imbibed, the hacker culture is the one that I live by in totality. While I may celebrate various national, cultural and religious holidays and feasts, I have generally been an observer rather than a participant in each.

I am an active participant in the hacker culture.

Helping out with voter-registrations for more than a year now, I have come across people with various combinations of race and religion in their ICs, some of it has actually surprised me. I have recently bought the book, Found in Malaysia and come to realise that our identities are far more complex than our government would like us to believe.

I think that if I decided to fill up ‘Hacker’ as my race, my fellows would mistakenly classify me as ‘Hakka’ and plop me into the ‘Chinese’ category regardless.

blink!

We are Atheists

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” — Stephen F Roberts.

Very compelling explanation. I’ve got it as my wallpaper now.

Curious Clothes

Something curious has happened recently.

I went shopping for a specific shirt from a specific store. I had previously spotted it at another store but they did not have my size in stock. So, while I was in the Bukit Bintang area in KL last week, I decided to look for it. I parked at Lot 10 and began my search there. I asked the concierge whether they had that store in Lot 10 and was told that the store is located in Pavilion instead.

Pavilion?!!

I don’t know when it happened but I was surprised that I am now shopping for clothes in an up market mall. I have never considered myself someone who would shop at Pavilion. I have nothing against over-priced clothes but people who know me know that I do not intentionally spend money on these things. It was a pleasant surprise in a weird sort of way.

So, after buying the shirt, I thought to myself – at least I am still shopping at Reject Shop too!

Mobile Misdemeanor

It’s odd how things turn out sometimes. I normally carry my phone with me everywhere and rarely ever get a phone call. However, I forgot to bring my phone out with me this morning and I came home to find 5 missed calls and 3 text messages demanding my attention. So, while I normally have my phone with me, nobody looks for me; and on the one day that I forget to bring my phone with me, lots of people look for me. It just has to go wrong that way.