Chinese's negotiation skills ?

Over a salary dispute, a labourer, Pu Zhengxing took the wife of his boss as hostage and threatened her with an axe. Picture shows a police officer negotiating with Pu on an overpass in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province on December 8, 2006. Pu's wife and child are also at the scene trying to calm him down.

For a few dollars more, what will they think of next ?

(Source : Chinese Business View )

40% Salary Increase for Civil Servants ?

The Malaysia's civil servants wanted a salary increase of up to 40% across the board. They claimed that their productivity and performance had improved. Some of the example given by Cuepacs ( Civil Servant trade union) are passports can now be ready within hours, and several government agencies had raised their key performance index and achieved ISO certifications. Another set of reasons given for asking the salary increment is petrol, water, electricity, toll rates has gone up and likely to be increased again. Civil servant are finding it difficult to cope with the increasing costs of livings as compared to salaried workers in the private sector.

I find it interesting that, with a population of 26 million people, we actually have a huge 1 million civil servants in Malaysia. That works out to 1 civil servant for every 26 citizen. After many huge privatization exercises, I am indeed surprised that there are still so many civil servants out there. We have not even take into consideration of the number of employees in other government related organizations. Honestly, with this huge number of civil servants, has there been significant improvement in civil servants' performance and productivities ?

The question is, is it productive to have such a high ratio of 1 civil servant to every 26 citizens ? How does this translate into improved productivity as claimed by Cuepacs as compared to 10 years ago ? Perhaps, when the ratio is improved to 1 civil servant to 260 citizens, then maybe it is appropriate for Cuepacs to stake the claim for improved productivity and performance.

No doubt, a passport application can now be processed and issued within a few hours. That merely gave an indication of the appropriateness of new technology being used in the Immigration Department, it has nothing to do with the improved productivity of the civil servants.

With regards to ISO certifications, it is basically a process of "do what you report, and report what you do", and a long overdue requirement for quality control and accountability. It has nothing to do with productivity improvement. ISO compliances are basically the basic job responsibilities of civil servants, and it should never be used to seek for higher salary.

Petrol, water, electricity, and toll rates increases are basically due to inefficiency in the management of resources. It should never be used as justification for another round of salary increases by civil servants. Right minded civil servants should find ways to work with the government and privatised agencies to ensure better and efficient management of resources to bring down the costs.

The Cuepacs also claimed that Civil servants are getting less compared with salaried workers of private sector. I would like to believe that this is a misconception anf fallacy. I have yet to come across a audited report objectively stating that private sector employees are better paid than civil servants. Therefore, Cuepacs should not resort to emotional justification for higher salary. Maybe Cuepacs should engage ASLI to prepare a report to substantiate their claims of civil servant being under paid compared to private sectors.

As a tax payer, I am not against better salary package for civil servants. But the productivity and performance of the civil servants must be significantly improved first. In addition, there are hard working civil servants, and there are also not so hard working civil servants. Any salary increase must be exercised on case by case basis in accordance to real performance and productivity, not across the board as proposed by Cuepacs. Irresponsible demand for higher salary without taking into consideration of real productivities and values added deliverables will create unnecessary inflationary impacts on our economy. General elections maybe coming soon, is this an indirect threat of using the 1 million numbers as an indirect form of votes selling?

Colours of racism

Why create intended misplaced animosity
for the differences we have ?
Was it the colour of our skin ?
Was it the differences in religions and cultures ?
Ignorances, arrogances, and misplaced hatreds,
made you the man of no spirituality,
no guilts, and no sense of human decency.

The colours of our skins are different,
but look deep within us,
human beings are always human beings.
What is the colour of our blood, hearts, and sweats ?
God graced us with the diversity of skin colours
and hearts capable for bountiful love and generosity.
Let us not colour our souls.

Why do we resort to the might of gun, threats,
hatreds, and deceptions to impose our demands ?
Why allow our minds whirling in racist insanity ?
Let race and religion not be exploited
to cause harm and deny the rights of others.
Let the united colours of our hearts and souls
reject racism, jealousy, and intolerances.

When wealths and powers are acquired
through hatreds, intolerances, and arrogances,
would that accord you a place in heaven ?
What is the worth of your soul,
when it is infested with the ills of racism ?

We are born with nothing.
and when we die,
we shall go with nothing.
The only difference is,
the body of racist shall stink and rot like dirt.
and, their souls forever hurt in Satan's hell.

Contaminated not the human spirits.
In the name of ethnic pride,
let not greed and selfishness
maketh you the scums in the eyes of others.

This grieving heart
seek you to give life another start
to love and be loved
regardless of race and religion.

Put the true colours back into humanity.
A united colours of love,
harmony, peace,
and appreciations for diversities.

Top Ten Billionaire Heiressess 2006

The world's top ten hottest heiresses

(source : www.forbes.com )

These young, beautiful, sexy, and stylish daddy's girls. They are the billionaire heiresses, the celebutantes of dreamed lifestyles. Most of them are below the age of thirty. Girls, just wet your lips, and the world is at your mercy !!! Life isn't always fair, isn't it ?

Here goes the world's top ten billionaire heiressess :

#1 Ivanka Trump (Age 24)

The Donald's little girl graduated summa cum laude in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. A one-time model, Ivanka has appeared on Trump's reality show, The Apprentice, and is currently vice president of real estate development at the Trump Organization.



#2 Paris Hilton (Age 25)

The original celebutante continues to grab countless press mentions thanks to a slew of high-profile--and videotaped--flings, fallings-out and fashion hits and misses. Paris also boasts the most Web hits of anyone on Forbes.com's annual listing of the world's 100 most powerful celebrities. The great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, and granddaughter of billionaire William Hilton, Paris earned an estimated $7 million in the past year on her own, mostly through licensing deals attaching her name to a perfume, watches, nightclubs and a new videogame. Stay tuned for a new album and two movies.

#3 Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Age 45)

The eldest of our favorite heiresses, this daughter of French billionaire Gerard Louis-Dreyfus is best known as the Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning Seinfeld actress who played Elaine. The comedienne is a Saturday Night Live alum and also appeared on the cult TV hit Arrested Development. This summer, she received an Emmy nomination for her latest sitcom, The New Adventures of Old Christine, prompting folks to claim she has finally broken the Seinfeld curse and is on her way to another success.


#4 Anna Anisimova (Age 21)

The daughter of Russian metals magnate Vassily Anisimov has made her mark on New York's real estate and social scenes. She dropped $600,000 to rent a house in the Hamptons this summer, on top of a combined $950,000 spent the previous two summers. A New York University student, who's also a member her father's real estate firm, helped broker a deal to buy Diane Von Furstenberg's headquarters in New York's Greenwich Village for $23 million in 2005. Most recently, the former-model paid $15 million for her own 4,000-square-foot pad in the new Time Warner Center.


#5 Georgina Bloomberg (Age 23)

Her father may be mayor of New York City where she attends New York University part-time, but this award-winning equestrian appears more at home in tony Wellington, Fla., training and riding horses. A two-time gold medalist at the North American Young Riders' Championship and one of the youngest riders ever to compete at a World Cup Championship, she has earned close to $300,000 and is sponsored by publicly traded Dover Saddlery and Heritage Gloves. Bloomberg hopes to compete in the 2008 Olympics and sits on board of the Equestrian Aid Foundation.


#6 Amanda Hearst (Age 22)

Great-granddaughter of publishing legend William Randolph Hearst, Amanda is taking over for Paris Hilton as blue-blood society's new "It" girl. The student and model, who is the new face of preppy designer Lilly Pulitzer and a recent Town & Country cover girl, has such a high profile that Hearst Corp.'s own Harper's Bazaar ran a story detailing the socialite's annual maintenance cost: a whopping $136,360. Good thing she's got rich relatives: four uncles made Forbes' annual listing of the 400 richest Americans.


#7 Lydia Hearst-Shaw (Age 21)

Daughter of famously brainwashed kidnapee Patty Hearst and great-granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst. Like her first cousin, Amanda (their moms are sisters), Lydia keeps the family name alive on the runway--she is a favorite of edgy fashion-design duo Heatherette and has appeared in ads for luxe brands like Louis Vuitton.

#8 Nicky Hilton (Age 22)

Paris' younger sister is generating her own buzz. Nicky began designing handbags as a teenager and has her own clothing line, Chick by Nicky Hilton. Earlier this summer, she announced plans to open two Nicky O hotels, one on Ocean Drive in Miami and one in Chicago. But it was her shotgun Las Vegas wedding to Manhattan money manager Todd Meister, and the subsequent annulment, that really got Nicky noticed. Now she's reportedly dating Kevin Connolly, co-star of HBO's buzzy Hollywood parody Entourage.


#9 Aerin Lauder (Age 36)

The much-photographed style icon and fixture at New York fashion shows is often compared with her legendary grandmother, Estée Lauder. A 14-year veteran of the cosmetics group, she became senior vice president and was elected to the company's board in 2004. More recently, she was instrumental in orchestrating a partnership with fashion designer Tom Ford and signing Gwyneth Paltrow as a spokeswoman. Her billionaire father, Ronald Lauder, is the Clinique Laboratories' chairman.


#10 Dylan Lauren

The daughter of fashion designer Ralph Lauren, this candy girl has created her own buzz by catering to folks' sweet tooth. The confessed candy lover now owns four Dylan's Candy Bar stores in three states, including a 10,000-square-foot New York City location where she not only sells oodles of gummies and lollipops but also throws parties and peddles apparel, plush products and even candy scented perfume. Dylan has been featured on the covers of Town & Country and Hamptons magazine in addition to being profiled in People and The New York Times' Sunday Styles section.

He said, the Holocaust was a myth !

The Holocaust was a myth ? So claimed the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran has also invited "Score-lows" from 30 "cunt-ries" to attend a "Con- ferenece" starting on 11 December 2006. I guess, the futility of the exercise is to derive an "acade-mad" conclusion that "Jews were not killed by the Nazis" and "No torture Gas Chambers were used to Kill innocent Jews". Wait, wait, maybe "The holocaust was a myth created by infidels to justify the state of Israel ?". Dear publicity and grievances seeker, how low can you go ? Maybe six feet under ?

Talking about sensitivity and self respect. Let us take note of the sufferings of the survivors of the holocaust and be sensitive to their emotional scars. Any attempt to alter history for self achieving purpose will have to be perceived as a desperate attempt to immorally glorifying the lacked of self respect and human decency. What would be the outcome, if Israel also organize a serious academic conference to examine whether "the suffering of the Palestinians" is a myth ?

How about the Genocide of the Armenian people ? Nay, I don't think these self proclaimed righteous people has the gut, courage, self respect, and decency to discuss the Armenians Genocide in an international open forum.

Frankly, right minded human beings are already quite fed-up with all the faked righteousness, misplaced angers, and intolerances being noisily generated by these ill intent grievances seekers.

The bottom line is, attempt to alter history is disgraceful, uncultured, insensitive, and offensive to all right minded and peace loving people of the world. I am not a supporter of Israel, neither am I a supporter of Iran. Good or bad, both of these countries are of equal status. But history is history. The fact remained that, millions of innocent human beings were inhumanely tortured and murdered by smartly dressed barbarians during the holocaust. Let us all learned from history, and let not history repeat itself. We are all children of God, why are we now questioning history to justify the past barbaric action of satanic criminals ?

It amazed me to note so much hatreds against Israel by some countries? Israel has the right to exist and defend itself. That is a fact ! Please speak the language of peace and foster friendships rather than animosities. Peace was never elusive. Is it so difficult to accept Peace ? or was it your intend to deepen and pass the wounds to the next generation to let it bleed forever ? Please allow your children the opportunity to cohabitate in peaceful and friendly habitat.

Everybody claimed that their religions are religions of peace and tolerance. Once and for all, Stop behaving like a forked tongues snake. Practice PEACE without any preconditions.

Namo Amithaba Buddha.