Today, we celebrate Malaysia Day!

Forty Eight years on, we still get to hear these memorable tunes commemorating the coming together as one nation.

Pakatan leaders in the crosshair of UMNO politics

Ever since Pakatan made substantial gains in the 2008 GE, there was no let up on UMNO's part in their unrelentless pursuit in bringing down the opposition especially in states administered by the latter. Out of the five states, UMNO successfully regained Perak through dubious means. Lim Guan Eng was next in the firing line with one attack after another but the attempt so far has been futile. Now they are gunning for Selangor, the cash cow for UMNO, in the DUMC issue in which Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has been accused of Chritianisation of the state. Simultaneously, they launched a broadside attack on Mat Sabu of PAS on branding him of being a communist "sympathiser". More attacks are expected in the days to come and the Opposition must weather these onslaughts till the coming GE, and so far so good despite the loss of Perak state. UMNO must send its sniper teams for more shooting lessons as the results are certainly less than satisfactory.

AirAsia, you are flying the wrong direction

The following was posted by one Richard Teo :

Once upon a time , AirAsia's slogan was 'Now everyone can fly.' But nowadays this no longer holds true. In the beginning, AirAsia was really making a serious effort to enable everyone to fly on the no frills airline. Fares were not only cheap for those who purchased their tickets in advance. Also there were no hidden costs and the total fares after taxes were cheap and really affordable to the man in the street. In fact if you were lucky enough the tickets you bought could even be cheaper than the cost of the ticket for a long haul bus. Not only were there cheap tickets but there were a lot of extras that normal airlines did not provide.

Senior citizens above 60 were given priority of boarding, you could select any seats of your choice, there was no such thing as fuel surcharge added to the cost of the ticket. In short, there were no hidden costs. But AirAsia , nowadays cannot boast of its 'now everyone can fly' slogan because its concept has been totally altered. Now, its policy is to charge for everything. Senior citizens no longer have the privilege of boarding first. If you want to board first you have to pay for priority boarding. If you want to select your favourite seats you have to pay for it. Just you think that is the end of it, you are hit with another cost. It's call processing fees for using a credit card for your online booking.

It seems that the credit card company commission is even passed to the passenger in the guise of processing fees. The moral of the story is that we should no longer be deceived by the AirAsia slogan of 'Everyone can fly'. Maybe its time travellers should revert back to our national carrier MAS. At least there are no hidden costs and what you pay is transparent. And if you are a golfer the more reason why you should travel MAS because they don't charge you for your golf bags whereas AirAsia charges RM50 for that extra luggage. And if you are a handicapped person, please be aware that AirAsia charges RM15 for using their wheel chair. Lastly, MAS provides you the luxury of boarding and landing using an air bridge whereas with AirAsia, you have to be content with climbing up and down a gangway to board and disembark your flights.

The reason? Because AirAsia can save paying the airport authorities for using the facility at the expense of discomfort to the paying customers.

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I guess you can say that when one becomes successful, one tends to forget his own humble beginnings. Although we can accept this no-frill concept, the impression given is that, what they can't get from you in the air, they squeeze you on the ground.

Monday Humour

DAD'S REPLY ......

I took my dad to the mall the other day to buy some new shoes (he is 76).

We decided to grab a bite at the food court.

I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him.

The teenager had spiked hair in all different colors - green, red,

orange, and blue.

My dad kept staring at her.

The teenager kept looking and would find my dad staring every time.

When the teenager had had enough, she sarcastically asked:

"What's the matter old man, never done anything wild in your life?"

Knowing my Dad, I quickly swallowed my food so that I would not

choke on his response; I knew he would have a good one!

In classic style he responded without batting an eyelid .....

"Got stoned once and had sex with a parrot. I was just wondering if

you might be my kid."

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NEW COUNCIL RATES FOR 2011/2012

YOUR HOUSE

As seen by yourself

As seen by your buyer

As seen by your lender

As seen by the bank's valuer

As seen by your Council Rate Assessor:

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What is a Financial Bail-Out ?

It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down harshly, and all the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a 100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives him some room-keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the 100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 note and rushes down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the 100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of animal feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the 100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the friendly neighborhood pub. The pub owner slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar - who, in spite of facing hard times, has always gladly offered him her services on credit.

The hooker then rushes over to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the 100 note.

The hotel proprietor quietly replaces the 100 note back on the counter, so that the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that none of the rooms are satisfactory, picks up the 100 note, pockets it and leaves town.

...No one has produced anything. No one has earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, dear ladies and gentlemen, is how a basic financial bailout package works !

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SOUTH AFRICAN HANDSHAKE

PDRM, why have you forsaken us?

The image of our men in blue has certainly taken a good bashing following the bashing they gave to Bersih 2.0 protesters on July 9 2011. Even long before this event, things were not going right with the PDRM especially with the increase of custodial deaths as well the increase in crime rate which they look so helpless to contain. The excuse given was, it was only due to a few 'rotten apples' that are giving the force a bad name. Then by logic, isn't it easier then to remove these 'few rotten apples' before it tarnishes the entire force? Why was it not done? The public faith is almost down to zero and unless something is drastically done, the PDRM will end up to be nothing more than a bunch of uniformed thugs.

Perhaps we could take a leaf out of the 'Robocop' movies and have our police personnel all re-program to think like our titanium armored hero. In view of their limited education [some of them], we can give them three simple directives to enable them to carry out their duties efficiently ...

1. Serve the public trust.

2. Protect the innocent.

3. Uphold the law [certainly not UMNO's law].

I believe this should solve the problem. If this doesn't work, God help us all.