I actually DO work you know?
Evidence that I actually work. Here’s me at a client’s yard.
Pump price war on? Who are they trying to kid?
Channelnewsasia.com today reported that “local stations lowered prices twice in a day, sparking off what could be a price war and countering talk of collusion among oil companies”. My immediate thought is “Yeah, right.”
A quick check with petrolwatch.com.sg would immediately show you how well coordinated their pricing are like.
Just because two price adjustments occurred over a single day hardly signals a price war! What effectively happend was a mere pump price reduction of about 12% (RON98) since the first pump price reduction was announced on 5th July 2008.
The monthly average price of crude oil increased by about 2% from May to July 2008 and has dropped by 9% since July. Pump price rose by about 4% from May to July 2008. This just shows that the prices are moving in tandem with crude prices. Nothing more.
Channel News Asia also noted that “Professor Chou Siaw Kiang, executive director of the Energy Studies Institute, noted how the perceived “closely coordinated group” of oil companies were “discoordinated” in this round of price cuts. “Perhaps they are not in unison this time round because therapid drop in oil prices is sending a signal, and there is no time to react in a unified way,” he said.”
I am not too sure about that. My cynical mind just thinks that after so much public outroar, these petrol giants just decided to create a little excitement for the press to feast on.
I also noticed this little statement that the Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang told Parliament in April the Government has no “evidence of collusion among retail petrol companies”.
Again, the cynical mind, when working overtime thinks that if no investigation is being carried out, then of course no evidence lor. (So, was an investigation ever conducted?)
I mean, if I went to the toilet to shit, but you never go to the sewers to look for my shit, and hence, no evidence that I crapped, then does it mean that I never shit at all?
While I applaud the price drop, I remain sceptical that these petrol companies are not a “closely coordinated group”.
Anwar… should M’sians have him as a PM? Or even an MP?
This chap is good. I mean, time and again he has shown his understanding of how the Government and the Civil Service in Malaysia works and made use of it to gain political grounds
He has shown that he will stop at nothing to become the next Prime Minister. Even at the expense of the country
Let’s see his track record…
The Asian Financial Crisis… as the then Finance Minister and DPM, he wanted Malaysia to get the IMF aid, including all the ridiculous measures that put Indonesia into turmoil. This subsequently ended Suharto’s reign in Indonesia while at the same time, subjected millions of Indonesians into extreme hardship. Indonesia was subsequently one of the last country in the region to come out of this crisis. Suharto died in ignominy.
I believe he knew his boss would meet the same fate as Suharto and without knowing full well what could happen to Malaysia, he pushed for it. This would likely prematurely get rid of his former boss Dr M, as Malaysia sinks into bankruptcy. This would leave Anwar with a nice empty PM slot to fill and a country with nowhere to go but up. History has shown that though Dr M handled the crisis in a somewhat unorthodox manner, Malaysia was the first country in the region to recover from the crisis.
It is not difficult to imagine the suffering Malaysians would have been put through if Anwar managed to get his way. Indonesia went through that.
His corruption and sodomy charges… If it was a government conspiracy of the highest level, he would not be out now. His years in the government has allowed him the connections to side step a few landmines and have them explode in the government’s face. This means we would not really know whether he is guilty or not. What we do know it that he has somewhat managed to come out of this in a more advantageous position.
Recent elections have also shown that he is able to turn former foes into pals, while putting himself as the unofficial leader of the coalition. Scarily brilliant.
Second sodomy charge. If by his claim that it was a conspiracy and that the police are working for the Government to get rid of him, then by the same claim, he could go around slaying people and the government would not be able to do anything. This guy has successfully put himself in a position where by he could get away with murder in the country and blame it on a conspiracy!
Lucky for the Malaysians, their police force still have some balls left in them. It is after all their job to investigate into any reports made without fear or prejudice.
Up coming by-elections. He’s got his bases all covered by saying that massive vote rigging would occur. Now he can afford to lose this by-election and blame the government for it. If he wins, he wins. If he loses, he wins too!
Brilliant tactician. Unfortunately, he has still not shown that he is for the people. ‘Reformasi’? What good is a reform if the country ends in chaos? History has shown that reforms, when done in an overly zealous manner usually results in tragedy. Compare what happened to the USSR against the Chinese way of reforms.
If he is really for the people, then he should take things slowly and nudge the country into reform. There is no way to immediately reform a system that took so many years to evolve.
At the end of the day, it seems like he only wants to be PM at all cost. Sadly, he has only shown that he is a whiner that complains and cries foul everytime he hits a snag on his way to accomplishing his ambition to be Prime Minister.
Flying Qantas in the future? Remember “VH-OJK”
The plane that landed in Manila due to explosive decompression, many sources has pointed out that the plane is likely to be the VH-OJK, purchased by Qantas in 1991.
Two of the Sources I managed to find are the The West Australian and The Canberra Times.
However safe the plane was is really history. I don’t know about you guys but I am not about to ride in a plane that was almost blown out of the sky previously so if I were to fly QF the next time, I’d look at the tail of the plane to make sure it ain’t VH-OJK.
“Government taking calculated risk by deferring construction projects” Or are they?
I came across this article on the Channel New Asia website. “Government taking calculated risk by deferring construction projects”
I think the Government need not come out and talk about taking calculated risks in construction by deferring non-essential government projects. This risk is so mild that anyone can calculate with five fingers.
When you call something “non-essential”, that means we do not need it. Then why build?
Non-essential projects are planned for one main reason; That is, to keep a particular sector of the industry from collapsing. This can be seen in the massive infrastructural projects undertaken in the mid 80s and then later on in the late 90s when the construction industry was in the doldrums.
Waiting for an industry downturn to start on non-essential projects means they are likely to get a good deal. Companies are willing to settle for much less when the market is cool. This would include reducing margins drastically in order to land projects that can keep the company going.
Some even take projects at a loss in the hope that the project will keep their business running till an upswing is within sights. A lot did not get to see the light.
More contractors fighting for less job = Greater Bargaining Power = Greater Cost Savings
What risk? I say, nice game plan!
Deferring “non-essential” construction projects definitely has more upside than downside to it. Worst case scenario, don’t build lor.
