Monday, March 31, 2008

Oxbridge Boat Race 2008

Last Saturday, thanks to the invite by Wan Nadiah, I was at Putrajaya Lake being the cox (for those who don't know the meaning of the cox, go google! :P) for Harvard team. It was a great experience for me, especially seeing how En. Hashim, Dr. Beh, En. Yazid, Mr. Adrian row the cox four sweep.

We managed to beat Cambridge to 2nd place, although we were made to eat humble pie by the obviously much stronger Oxford.

To those of you who wants to catch me on TV, tune to NTV7 Breakfast Show on 1st April (not an April fool) between 8am and 10am.

Enjoy!
-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Proton Recalls Savvy

Proton is now recalling all 34,000 Proton Savvy for inspection. It seems quite a huge exercise and is going to burn the pockets of Proton further.

Really hope that our national car could get its acts together and more importantly correct, to rectify these problems.

The full reports in The Star

-----
Proton recalls 34,000 Savvy cars


PETALING JAYA: Proton is recalling its Savvy cars over a possible problem with regards to the car’s rear-wheel bearing.

The company said a recent inspection has brought to its attention that water could get into the bearing, which could lead to a malfunction.

“The safety and satisfaction of our customers is a primary concern. As a precautionary measure, we are recalling all Savvy’s for inspection and repair,” Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed said in a press statement.

The recall will affect a total of 34,000 cars. All Savvy owners are advised to take their cars to the nearest Proton Edar or EON service branch for an inspection.

Proton said it would conduct the necessary checks and replacements at no cost to the customer.

They can also call Proton i-Care at 1-300-880-888 for further info.


-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

CIVICUS Youth Assembly 2008

Thanks for the link submitted by one of my loyal blog readers
-----
CIVICUS Youth Assembly 2008
Date: June 16-18, 2008
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Building on the success of last year's CIVICUS Youth Assembly the 2008 event will offer an opportunity to meet and work with other young women and men who are really making changes to things that matter. The Youth Assembly will offer young delegates a program and a space to develop and commit to action internationally. Applicants aged 18-25 are encouraged to apply!
 

http://www.rnw.org.uk/CIVICUS2008.aspx

Northeast Malaysia Forum Summary

For those of you who want full version of summary of Northeast Malaysia Forum, do go to the official site at here . John Lee, Andrew Loh and Nick Wong have written up superb summary of all the seminars.

To look at interesting comments, summary and coverage, do go to here and here for Hafiz's blog.

Thanks, Hafiz for a photo of Tony Fernandes signing my cap.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

US Universities Admissions for Malaysia - Updates 30th March 2008

Since it is weekend, not much updates, except for Yi Xiang got into CMU, and Ern Sheong got into Berkeley. Congrats!

-----
Below are a list that I have come to know as of now for Malaysians who get into some of the top US Universities for Class of 2012. This includes the Regular Decision only. I had blogged on outcome of Early Decision earlier.

(The actual figures could be much higher). -

Berkeley (2 admits) - Sivapratha, Ern Sheong

Boston (1 admit) - Josh Foo

Carnegie Mellon University (8 admits) - Claire, Yiling, Julia, Mei Yueh, Liang Yeet, Yoke Peng, Koon Hua, Yi Xiang

Chicago (5 admits and 2 wait list) - Su Ann, Eu Win, Michelle, Jin Tik, Vincent (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Li Xian)

Dartmouth (1 admit) - Amy Ang (MBA at Tuck)

Duke (1 admit) - Samantha Lee

Harvard (1 admit) - Lin Lee (PhD)

John Hopkings (1 admit and 2 wait lists) - Sabrina Lim Shin Jing (Wait List: Jia Mun, Sivapratha)

MIT (2 admits) - Lin Lee (PhD), Ooi Boon Teik

Mount Holyoke (1 admit) - chyen

Northwestern (6 admits and 5 wait lists) - Mei Yueh, Chia Chyuan, Yoke Peng, Tong Wei, Josh Foo, Fiona (Wait List: Sabrina, Julia, Jia Mun, Claire, Chun How)

NYU (5 admits and 2 wait lists) - Su Ann, Vincent Ang, Wan Xin, Wai Kar Leng, Samantha Lee (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Eu Win)

Rice (1 admit) - Sabrina

Stanford (4 admits and 2 wait lists) - Lin Lee (PhD), Mei Yueh, Jin Tik, Timothy (Wait List: Chia Chyuan, Sivapratha)

Swarthmore (1 admit) - Su Ann

UCLA (1 admit) - Sivapratha

UPenn (1 wait list) - (Wait List: Amy Ang (MBA))

Virginia (1 admit) - Wei Ken

- Info above are passed by some of you personally to me, or via other students. If you are uncomfortable of being listed, please email me, and I will remove immediately. If you know of others/yourself who have gotten in, do let me know, and I will put up. I'm not limiting to any university, just that the info I get are as above.

Congrats to all of you who got in, especially many of you who are ReComers and my blog readers! Getting into university is just the first step. Hope that you would make full use of your opportunities there!

For those of you who got wait list, hopefully, you can turn it into an admission! Do work hard to submit additional material to the university.

For those of you who didn't get, hope that you won't get too sad. Lets hope for the best for other universities that you apply. In the end, it is how you make use of the university opportunity.

Good Luck for decision for Super Tuesday! I'm going to be awake at 5am Malaysia time to join in the fun! Hopefully, a large number of you guys will get into Cornell and will eventually decide to study there!

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Northeast Malaysia Forum 2008 - Malik Imtiaz

The next speaker for Northeast Malaysia Forum at Harvard University is Malik Imtiaz, a Human Rights Lawyer.

We need to keep certain concepts up front. Race, religion and politics have a very distinct role in Malaysia. The reason it is being put as first priority is that what we called social contract.

As of now, democracy is sort of dismantled 20+ years ago, during the Tun Dr. Mahathir's reign. The quality of judges appointed, especially with the judicial issue. The judiciary is not functioning at its level. This has been recognized by 2 of the chief judges already. As of now, we don't have a functioning judiciary.

If that is the case, then we have a serious case of checks and balances. Before this, it was almost entirely by a coalition of Barisan National, who is very focused on racial delineation. Race politics have allowed the concentration of power in an elite group, and this might have allowed corruption to happen. Speaker was appointed by BN, and motions raised by opposition is often being blocked.

What is happening in the last 2 years over here, has been in much of a denial. Put that together, with the seeming lack of attention of Attorney General and Auditor General, and this makes a pretty bleak picture.

On March 8, would that picture changed? We see people voting across races. As of now, we haven't had real democracy, unless we have serious restruction. If we maintain our NEP (which has outlived its purpose), and we maintain the concentration of power, and this would allow spawn the problem. Islamization is not a problem with race and religion, but it is a problem of politic. Race polarization is due to agitatioin of politics.

To move forward, unless Malaysians feel that they are being the stakeholders of this country. We need to do something to make things better. If we are just talking about the bad thing, and we are not doing anything, then we are equally responsible for the bad thing. We need to have the stakeholders take actions. On March 8, we talk about themes and issues, rather than parties and races/religions.

Q: Dissertation on Bloggin and Democracy
A: Changing of minister is a good thing, but lets not celebrate first. Malik Imtiaz worked with Zaid Ibrahim at his partner for 1 year. When we get rid of a person, do we get rid of the view. For all the political parties, it is to keep the momentum going. People are looking at Datuk Nazri, who as someone who has influence, and people will listen to that.

Q: Article 3 and Article 11 (How to remove contradictions in the constitution), as well as on what/how to execute on this.
A: In 1988, Supreme Court decision that says Malaysia as a Secular Law. Islamic Law is only for personal law consideration, for example marriage and inheritance. In 1988, Supreme Court granted hiabus corpus in the case of Che Omar Che Soh, for a Malay to join Christianity. Supreme Court said that for a person who converted into christianity, is that person has freedom to do that.

This changed in 1999. UMNO is having tough time with PAS since early 1990s. Tun Dr. Mahathir decided that we are an Islamic country, and then later as an Islamic state. Judiciary was weak then, after the Tun Salleh Abbas dismissal.

What the Prime Minister said, was taken to heart. There was no big issue in early 1990s.

On the solution, with strong judges, we can get this situation rectified. The idea is to strengthen on judiciary. There is a lot of discussion for an independent commission of appointment of judges.

We should use constitution to deal with issues, rather than through back door effects.

Malik is speaking as a Muslim as well, and March 8 shows Muslim that they can have ways to vent their emotions, besides going deeper into religion.

The second idea of the debate - Social Contract. When social contract was made, it was in 1957, rather than in 1969. Malik did not support Sedition Act. We can deny the fact that people are using language of supremacism, and this is something that hopefully will change post March 8. We have to monitor this kind of debates. And all this comes from mismanagement of government. And if there is corruption/nepotism etc, people are going to react, and it depends on how they react.

Q: Are there efforts to rearticulate Human Rights in Malaysian religious contexts
A: People can't really talk about Human Rights in dinner table. From last year, Malik tried to emphasize on Bangsa Malaysia. And we should try to emphasize on the equality of every Malaysian, while not hurting anyone. Special status is provided for in Article in 153 in Constitution. If Agong thinks if it is necessary, he can offer some sort of assistance for a selected period of time. In constitution, for civil service, to join there is quota, but once it is joined, it is via meritocracy.

Constitution also provides a scheme of protection for bumiputera, rather than a scheme of priviledge. Barisan Rakyat is a civil society initiative, and it has a People's Declaration. In the context of Islam, it is sensitive. Everything happened in the world, would cause Muslims feel that they are in the threat. But in Malaysia, Muslims would not feel threathened. What happens in Malaysia, it is undermining people from other religion.

The constitution provides for Syariah Court to have jurisdiction to have someone who believes in Islam. And for those who did apostosy, then how can they go for Syariah Court. Before 1999, there was no need for that, but today, it is in.

We have non-Muslims who say that it is the problem of Muslims, but that is not solving the problem. Being perceived as defensive is nothing wrong, but there is a real basis for being insecurity. We should allow room for us to deal with this insecurity.

Q: Is there a problem with members of Civil Society joining Political Parties?
A: During the Bersih march, Malik answered to AP, that the civil society now is taking action. Malik clarified that he is not from opposition, but he wants to see whether opposition is living up to its promise. Charles Santiago is an economist and human rights lawyer. Hopefully, with this new breed of politicians in parliament, hopefully the quality of debates in parliament is going to improve.

There was a move at some stage on whether to have a coalition of independent candidates. But Malik felt that it would be better for him to stay outside and look from outside. Students can get involved with this civil society and help out in research and other initiatives. It is interesting to see how that can translates into a better Malaysia.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Northeast Malaysia Forum - Dato' Tony Fernandes

The forum is for all Malaysians in US, and not just for those in Harvard, or else, we would not be able to fill 120-140 Malaysians, right? A lot of them flew all the way from the West Coast, like Stanford/Berkeley etc.

Do hope to see a lot of you to participate next year.

On the Northeast Malaysia Forum website, it is here .

To all, live blogging will start at 8:30pm Malaysia's time, with Dato' Tony Fernandes coming up!

The next speaker is Dato' Tony Fernandes, Founder and CEO of Air Asia.

Air Asia is not built by 1 man, but a team.

It has gone from 200 people to 5,000 people. Hope that more people would come back to work.

Tony worked at Virgin, was kind of Richard Branson's slave. One day, he decided to start an airline, and thought that he had to see his record company. Then, joined Warner. Started as Warner Communications, and then became Time Warner, and then became AOL Time Warner.

Loved the music business.

Stock price was USD90. Tony said that the price would become USD100, but the boss thought that it would be USD500. Tony quit and sold off his stock option at USD90. Tony's boss was thrilled that Tony left, and then Tony left New York and has no career. He just didn't want to be part of company that had no vision.

Tony was sitting at a bar, and saw a guy from Easy Jet. Tony never heard of low fare. People are flying from place to place at very cheap rate. Thought of bringing it back to Malaysia.

Not a lot of money. Not much experience, but thought that it was a great marketing idea. If there is a good idea, the rest is just a preseverence. There is a fine line between brilliance and stupidity. When told wife starting an airline, his wife was laughing.

He thought of this idea, and got together with Kamaruddin Meranun and Aziz Bakar. Tony put in money and they matched the price. They sat at a roti canai stall, and then thought it is a good idea. Aziz asked on how to get an airline license. It can't just get from Walmart.

So, thought of asking Datuk Pahamin Rejab, retiring from Ministry of Domestic Trade. He used to help fight piracy. And he became Chairman and helped to get appointment with Tun Dr. Mahathir in June 2001. Was at Putrajaya at 6am, and appointment was at 11am. Tony had to sit outside at the stairs. Someone recognized Aziz, and asked what they were doing. Tony replied that they are starting an airline.

The first people to see Tun that morning was Fadzil Noor and Lim Kit Siang. So, Tun's mood might not be good mood. The second batch of people who went to see Tun was by MAS. It was about their restructuring. Finally got to see Tun. And Tun was sick. But Tony brought a CD with Siti Nurhaliza and broke the ice. Tun said he like the idea, but he said that there won't be new licence, so would need to buy a new airline licence. Between 3 of them would have RM1 Million.

Two airlines could potentially to be bought. One was Pelangi Airline. The balance sheet was very bad, and then the second one was by DRB-Hicom for Air Asia. So, Tony said RM1, and they said ok. Tony didn't think about asking them to pay for it. Tony signed on 8th September 2001. Tony and Kamaruddin remortgaged their house, and there was a due diligence period. Then 11th September happened.

Eventually, 11th December 2001, Air Asia was taken over. Today, Air Asia 93 routes, 72 aircrafts and ordered 175 planes. Through the way, faced SARS, Bird Flu, Singapore Government etc. Air Asia always made profit.

During SARS, every airline cut their routes. So, Tony knew that Malaysians would take risk due to low price. So, if RM800 they won't fly, if RM88, they would fly. Started an airline in Thailand and Indonesia.

Took unpolished stuff and polished them. The driving force of Air Asia is to get the best out of people.

The message is that everything can be done, if you put your mind on it.

When oil price is high, plays the blue; when oil price is low (although it hasn't been low for a long time).

Lots of new routes, eg: KL - Bandung.

Harvard Professor is going to have a case study on Air Asia, and they have flown to Malaysia to meet Tony, and Tony would go to Harvard and spoke to students there.

Q: Freedom of Corporate - Stop the monopoly and deal with bureaucracy of Singapore
A: Freedom is crucial, and we must start believing in market economy. It took Air Asia 6 years to get 2 flights a day, but would ideally have 20 flights a day. Air Asia thought that there is enough space for everyone. It is very hard for entrepreneurs to come in, if there is no level playing field. As it becomes more market economy, there is more market access. It is very difficult to raise capital in Malaysia. Tony has done many talks with youth, but the access to capital is tough. So, that's why Tony started this group of Tune companies to support the younger entrepreneurs. It is not good to be a duopoly. Keep aside a good budget for marketing. It is crucial for others to hear about. Not enough put enough for people to hear about.

Q: Race based economy
A: Tony is an Indian and his 2 partners are bumiputera. But Air Asia practices meritocracy. If Tony has a way, there won't be army anywhere in the world, but put money into educating the youth. The university should do meritocracy, and that would solve a lot of issues. No one should give up. We Malaysians always say we need this, we need that, but there are ways around it. Tony has a lot of grey hairs now. Tony's son always ask whether he would be young enough to buy toys. In Air Asia, those who carried bag, was sponsored by Air Asia to take pilot course, and now they are flying brand new Airbus. So, there are enormous talent. For us, we should develop a Malaysian race.

Q: Was the formation of Air Asia affected by arbitrary factors? Should business processes in Malaysia be different?
A: Tun did not say buy Air Asia. But say buy an existing airline. So, only two, unless we counted MAS, but of course, it is not available. In France, there is no low cost airline, and they are even more backward in this sense. They are blocking Air Asia from flying into Paris. The French government is even more behind than Malaysia. For airlines industry, it is a very regulated licence. But as Malaysia develops, transparency is the key. Business should not be just hand-outs.

Q: What kind of skills need to be cultivated to be an entrepreneur
A: Tony did not expect he has the courage to start an airline. He was frustrated by political bureaucracy. Main skill set is that hire the best people. As long as you are willing to learn, willing to get idea from others, and willing to take some risk, then you would be fine. Don't be afraid of failure. We have the problem of people all want to be engineers, lawyers. We don't want to regret when we get into 55. The only bit of music industry is that you can play music, when oil prices is USD125. Don't take no for an answer.

And Tony just signed a cap for me, with the word "Dare to Dream!".


-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Brand's Sudoku Challenge 2008 Asia Pacific Open

For those of you who are interested to participate in Brand's Sudoku Challenge 2008 Asia Pacific Open in Singapore on 5th of July, you can now take part in a Malaysia national selection. First prize at the Asia Pacific Open is S$10,000.

For more info, go to Sudoku.com.my .

For participation form, please download it at here .

Please submit the form by 5th of April 2008 to info@sudoku.com.my

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

3rd World Sudoku Championship 2008

The 3rd World Sudoku Championship 2008 to be held in Goa, India from 14th to 17th April 2008. As of now, there is still no participant from Malaysia.

For the Polish International Sudoku Championship held last year, 1 Malaysian participated in it and did very well and was placed 25 out of 207 participants. Syabas.

Mr. Balasingam, from Sudoku Event Management will be able to help you register. Closing date is 5th of April 2008.

I have last year's questions, so if you are interested to participate, or just want to try out, do leave your email address in the comments or email me at chenchow at my gmail account and I will get back to you.


-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

MIT Club of Malaysia Undergraduate Admission Talk

THE Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Club of Malaysia is organising a talk on undergraduates' admission to MIT.

The talk will be held on April 13 at the Royal Selangor Golf Club, Kuala Lumpur, from 10.30am to noon.

Students and parents are welcome to attend.

The dress code is smart casual.

For more information on MIT, application procedures and financial aid, log onto
MIT Website or e-mail
htewe@alum.mit.edu .

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Entrepreneurship in Asia & Europe

This is a nice seminar to attend too, especially for those in Singapore

-----
Entrepreneurship in Asia & Europe organized by ASES Singapore

Date: Friday, April 4, 2008
Time: 7:00pm - 9:30pm
Location: Munchie Monkey, Yusof Ishak House, NUS
Phone: 97329555
Email: penny@ases.org.sg

There will be panel discussion and networking session.

Fee: SGD 10
(Dessert and free flow drinks will be provided)
-------------------------------------------
Together with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, graduate students, and MBAs from INSEAD, NUS and NTU, come learn from the entrepreneurial scenes across continents. Come network with an audience of Asian and European backgrounds, it will be thrilling explore the opportunities which lie within.
-------------------------------------------
Moderator:
Prof. Desai Narasimhalu, Chairman, SMU Business Innovation Generator

Speakers:
Mr. Camelo Pistorio, Founder, Upstream Ventures
Ms. Doris Yee, General Partner, iGlobe Partners
Mr. Jean-Fabrice Cope, Vice-President, INSEAD Entrepreneurship Club
-------------------------------------------
Limited seats available.
Sign up now @ ASES Singapore


For more info, go to the Facebook group
-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

US Universities Admission Decision - 29th March 2008

Below are a list that I have come to know as of now for Malaysians who get into some of the top US Universities for Class of 2012. This includes the Regular Decision only. I had blogged on outcome of Early Decision earlier.

(The actual figures could be much higher). -

Berkeley (1 admit) - Sivapratha

Boston (1 admit) - Josh Foo

Carnegie Mellon University (7 admits) - Claire, Yiling, Julia, Mei Yueh, Liang Yeet, Yoke Peng, Koon Hua

Chicago (5 admits and 2 wait list) - Su Ann, Eu Win, Michelle, Jin Tik, Vincent (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Li Xian)

Dartmouth (1 admit) - Amy Ang (MBA at Tuck)

Duke (1 admit) - Samantha Lee

Harvard (1 admit) - Lin Lee (PhD)

John Hopkings (1 admit and 2 wait lists) - Sabrina Lim Shin Jing (Wait List: Jia Mun, Sivapratha)

MIT (2 admits) - Lin Lee (PhD), Ooi Boon Teik

Mount Holyoke (1 admit) - chyen

Northwestern (6 admits and 5 wait lists) - Mei Yueh, Chia Chyuan, Yoke Peng, Tong Wei, Josh Foo, Fiona (Wait List: Sabrina, Julia, Jia Mun, Claire, Chun How)

NYU (5 admits and 2 wait lists) - Su Ann, Vincent Ang, Wan Xin, Wai Kar Leng, Samantha Lee (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Eu Win)

Rice (1 admit) - Sabrina

Stanford (4 admits and 2 wait lists) - Lin Lee (PhD), Mei Yueh, Jin Tik, Timothy (Wait List: Chia Chyuan, Sivapratha)

Swarthmore (1 admit) - Su Ann

UCLA (1 admit) - Sivapratha

UPenn (1 wait list) - (Wait List: Amy Ang (MBA))

Virginia (1 admit) - Wei Ken

- Info above are passed by some of you personally to me, or via other students. If you are uncomfortable of being listed, please email me, and I will remove immediately. If you know of others/yourself who have gotten in, do let me know, and I will put up. I'm not limiting to any university, just that the info I get are as above.

Congrats to all of you who got in, especially many of you who are ReComers and my blog readers! Getting into university is just the first step. Hope that you would make full use of your opportunities there!

For those of you who got wait list, hopefully, you can turn it into an admission! Do work hard to submit additional material to the university.

For those of you who didn't get, hope that you won't get too sad. Lets hope for the best for other universities that you apply. In the end, it is how you make use of the university opportunity.

Good Luck for decision for Super Tuesday! I'm going to be awake at 5am Malaysia time to join in the fun! Hopefully, a large number of you guys will get into Cornell and will eventually decide to study there!


-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Northeast Malaysia Forum 2008 - Karim Raslan

Next speaker for Northeast Malaysia Forum 2008 at Harvard University is Karim Raslan, who is a lawyer, columnist and author.

He is now spending most of his time in Indonesia, so hard to look at our country. He is 43 years old, so 19 years older than median age of Malaysia.

Malaysians are strange bunch of people. So, it is very hard to generalize.

When Karim speaks with Malaysians across the country, from Tawau, KK, Belud, to Johor and other parts in Malaysia. Now, many younger Malaysians are much more interested in political scenario in Malaysia.

Channel where young people are voting are hitting 90-95% for Keadilan. So, this seems a good future for Keadilan in the future. MP of Bukit Bendera says that they are quite confident of the younger generation, but hope to win over the older people.

Karim hope that it is not just that we are voting out people that we don't want anymore. But it is more looking like whether to take on a service provider. The young people should remain very engaged in the process, and not just voting once in every 4-5 years.

Can play a role in new media. But can still play a role in mainstream media. Karim reads blog, but still is a mainstream media. It is important to stay the course.

Another point is that networking and confidence building. This is what is so important, and it should be across all racial lines. It should get everyone around that table, and then get everyone to talk. We shouldn't avoid any issue, and should take it heads-on. Have discussion sessions with people who are even different in opinion.

1st. Keep active
2nd. Network and keep together.

Then, use those group to do something. Malaysians come together, for instance, a group where to mix between UK and US, Australia, Egypt etc. Reaching across people across the divide. Reach to those in Taiwan and Middle East. And not forget the students at local universities. Lets not hold against those in local universities. We shouldn't think that foreign vs local universities. The students in local universities do not have the opportunities as others who are in overseas universities.

Do reach across the divide. Use as much as possible the alternative media, and keep those in power at their toes. Maybe if you are interested in this kind of engagement, maybe can be a politician. Or else, can be journalist or author.

Every election shows a snapshot of Malaysia changing. It is a lot of flaw to apply the past election as an indication for this election. Karim made the mistake earlier of thought that this election is not going to make any difference.

Christian, younger Malay, Chinese etc all have different issues against government, and also all have an across of arrogance of the government and also the corruption.

Q: People have concern on freedom of speech, eg: ISA, sedition act, are these concerns over ex-aggerated.
A: Karim says that since the students are in US, they should use the opportunities. Should use opportunities out there, and be counted. Have courage to say that. He quoted example like Malik Imtiaz and Irene Fernandez to use that space to say it. When students are young, just use the opportunities to do so.

Q: Karim praised Tun Abdul Razak for introducing new and young leaders into UMNO, but today when Pak Lah trying to inject this new breed of young leaders, he got lambasted.

A: Should introduce a number of people, and not just one person. Karim identified the person as Khairy. Should bring in more grassroot politician. UMNO has failed to regenerate itself. A lot of young candidates are poor and very disappointing.

For example, Nik Nazmi and younger chaps in DAP stand out, but not all of them from Keadilan and DAP stands out. This kind of talent is very rare. If people sets in because of parents', then it is going to be tough for UMNO to get good talent. There isn't many top grade talent joining UMNO, or if they are, they are obsessed with making money.

Q: Different ethnic groups have their own concerns. What consequences do you see from this fragmentation of interest and what solutions do you see. It is obvious that one government cannot please everyone.

A: Fragmentation is a very nice way of putting it. The challenge of opposition, now government in many states, now need to bring across all interests to coalesce. Karim met with Guan Eng yesterday. And in fact, Karim looked at Guan Eng has the ability to bring across a plan to get everyone together. He sees potentially for Guan Eng and Tan Sri Khalid to be established government in the future. Karim would speak to Tan Sri Khalid, hopefully next week.

Q: How can a banana engage?
A: Karim came from a background that spoke English. BM has been turned into a language of control and a language to "memperbodohkan" orang Melayu. But we have in Malaysia reduced it to an amalgam of conversatism and orang kolot. Students should go out and read Kompas, where they will be discussing issues like christianity and discuss it in Bahasa. And then we see how much potential BM can it be.

It is the question of how much we are willing to engage

Q: US has 2 terms maximum, do you see that happens in Malaysia?
A: MCA has introduced the term limit. UMNO should do that too, and perhaps Keadilan should too, but Karim does not see that goes down well with Keadilan future leader.

Pak Lah seems to be too weak. Dr. Mahathir, a lot of people hate him, but he is very clever and outwit others, so people have to respect them.

Question is do we want the repetition of Dr. Mahathir. This GE shows that we want a very strong leader.

On 2 terms idea, it is a good idea, but may not get those in power to agree. Guan Eng may not agree too, since he is still very young and capable.

Q: Why we are getting suddenly become so manarchist, and where do you see where this is going.
A: Melayu tetap ugama, raja, islam etc. Karim feels so. Even when Karim sees Sultan, he would sembah. Sultan Selangor (by heart) and Raja Nazrin (by his education) both play an important role to shape the coalition in their states. These two try to take the interest of their subjects, to interfere. However, he does not see why other Royalty are doing so.

This is going to be something unfold. 20 years after our constitution issue, and we are back to square one.

Q: How do you see the separation of powers and the check and balance vs simple majority
A: Sense of monarch and house of commons in UK, have a long history. In Malaysia, we don't have a free media. Good media can shape opinion very constructively. Karim hopes to free up the media. That would make an enormous difference in the country. Put the government and opposition player under equal glare, and that would put more balance in them, including the police, army etc.

A: Malaysia is so much more organized, and that cause is very tough to live with. Make friends with those in Indonesia. That is a very important learning curve there. We don't have much for us to learn from Singapore on democracy. We have a lot to learn from Indonesia on culture, democracy etc.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Northeast Malaysia Forum 2008 - Colin Nicholas

The next speaker for Northeast Malaysia Forum at Harvard University is Colin Nicholas, Coordinator, Center for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC).

55-60% live in forest area or fringe area.

Orang asal like orang asli and natives in Sabah and Sarawak, are different from other people in Malaysia. It must be different than other Malaysians.

Orang asli are native people in Peninsular Malaysia.

Orang asal are bumiputera, minus Malay.

Orang asal are original inheritant of Malaysia. Orang asli like orang asal, has a special relationship to the tradition to the land. Indigenous people are linked to a particular space, not land specifically. It is about a specific area. It is because at that ecological area, they get their culture, spirituality, that they get their identity. They call themselves people who are from a specific area, eg: river valley.

The land is also the place where children learn. Things that are defining them as indigenous people. So, it is very important that we appreciate them as very site-specific. They are very localized. It is inevitable that the loss of land would cause a social breakdown of society.

What makes a person orang asal, they live in the area for a long time. The older people live there for a long time and they are being well respected. When everyone settles at an area, the older will have more knowledge of the area. If they are moved, everyone would have similar knowledge, and the older people are not getting more knowledge, and hence less respect.

What is happening to the land today. Housing and commercials, eg: Bukit Lanjan (Now called Damansara Perdana) used to be an orang asli area. The Runaway 1 in KLIA used to be 2 settlements of orang asli. UKM used to be orang asli. Orang asal are also losing the land to agricultural areas and also to logging. Conversation of forest for logging and agricultural impacting their land.

Why is it that it is so difficult to bring orang asli people out of poverty line. Why is it that it is so hard to move them out. They are very far behind especially on health. Why is this happening and what does orang asli wants. They want recognition, and want this land secure.

Orang asal are again reasserting their rights to have rights to self-determination. What does government offers? Non-recognition of orang asli's land, and sometimes their land is taken.

There is a department of non-orang asli, which currently is not headed by orang asli. Sometimes mind set of orang asli being influenced.

Tunku Abdul Rahman said that the Malays are the indigenous people, and before that, there wasn't civilization.

Tun Dr. Mahathir said that Malays are the definitive indigenous people here.

Criteria for political dominance are civilized society and establish recognition. The Malays are hence being tagged as indigenous people.

Hence, orang asal are being tagged by people as backward, dirty etc.

What orang asli value the most is autonomy. What that is often translated is anti-development. They do not reject development. In fact, they are asking for development on their own terms, own land and their own pace.

It is not enough for us to be just mere observer, but we need to create more knowledge to change for a better.

Q: Tell about anecdotes with orang asli
A: In the main range, Colin was told to be careful. It was told by another orang asli. Host took Colin in, and gave food. Colin thought that he kept Colin's sleeping bag, and Colin felt very cold there. He gave Colin their best blanket. And after that, Colin found that he accidentally left it in the car.

It is because of misconception that we sometimes pre-judge people.

Resettlement of orang asli does not bring better thing for orang asli. Sometimes, nutrition actually got worse.

There are orang asals who are attending conference/forum in Geneva. When Declarations of Rights, Malaysia voted for it. And there is inter-regional efforts on this.

Q: Why does the government feel so compelled to marginalize the Orang asli
A: Orang asli is only 0.5% in Malaysian population. Native people in Sabah/Sarawak are running their own state. Why does the government marginalize the orang asli? The policy is to integrate the orang asli into main stream.

In the past, for instance, Parameswara got the help from Orang Laut previously to fight the pirates. Perak and Johor royalty in the past got help from Orang Asli (eg Orang Laut). Previously, we used them. Today, we move them into interior. Previously, those ulu areas in jungle which were unused land previously, today is useful land.

A: Orang asli requires territory and respect of culture. So, they need to ensure that their land is taken care of. It is their right to determine their own culture. It is orang asli's rights.

A: If the orang asli is given rights/protection, just like bumiputera, then we can one day stand on equal foot. Colin stressed that it is not the right way to go. We need to move on as Malaysians, but until we do that, orang asli should be treated like other bumiputera.

Q: What are the recommendations for the way forward with regards to sacred land?
A: Reason for resettlement, because the land wants to be given to others. Orang asli is not against development, but they should be treated equitably. We should not just give them something that they don't want. We should perhaps have them as joint owners.

Q: How can we Malaysian citizen stand constructively with orang aslis
A: At least, we should find out about their voice. Understand about their issues, empathize about their issues.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Northeast Malaysia Forum 2008 - Mark Chang

2nd of the posts for Northeast Malaysia Forum is Mark Chang, co-founder and CEO of JobStreet.com . There would be a total of 6 such posts (4 today and 2 tomorrow. The 2 tomorrow would be Dato' Tony Fernandes and Malik Imtiaz).

-----
Mark talked on there are a lot of graduates, especially from IPTAs, could not get into good companies. Overseas grads are getting on average 15% higher salary than local grads, be it at fresh grad, or after 5/10 years of working.

For Singapore, statistically, there is no difference in salary between local grad and overseas grad over 5 years or 10 years.

So, this shows a gap of between local and overseas grad.

A lot of time, people might think that the structure of education in Malaysia is the reason of impacting. Actually, it is not the structure of education that matters. Our education system inherited from UK. And Singapore shared the same structure as us initially. But what is important is that the quality of lecturers/professors, who are in our university system now. And a lot of them are not as good as they should be. And they are not able to teach students as good as they should be.

In US, if you are from a very good university, you are studying using the same textbook as students from average university. So, what differentiate is the level of teaching.

Over the last 20 years or so, our lecturers in IPTA are falling behind. There are a lot of efforts needed to hire the right people to be a good administrators and professors, starting from VC and Dean.

India and China are now creating the most jobs. In Malaysia, we are more or less slow down. In the 1990s, we create a lot of jobs, but now less. But there are still a lot of new jobs created in this region, eg: Singapore. Singapore has migrated into service industry, biotech and those are creating jobs.

Malaysia, we have not yet migrating ourselves fast enough from manufacturing base to service base. Malaysia is still encouraging manufacturing to come to Malaysia. But sooner or later, manufacturing would not be competitive in Malaysia. China/Thailand/Vietnam might be much more competitive in this nature. So, for us in Malaysia, what are the jobs is important in Malaysia, would be engineering and IT-based. We still have some manufacturing that are going to be continue here for a long time. IT is a very important productivity too.

If you are a student and wants to look at what you want to study to have a good future, Biotech is going to be important in the future. IT capability that we have will help a lot for us to grow in biotech.

Education is very important to the success of our nation. A number of you who are studying in US are very lucky. Students should study very hard and gain a lot of knowledge, so that you will be useful and be competitive to be moving forward in the future. If students are just scrapping by and Bs and Cs students, then you might face difficulty.

Malaysia needs to get good profs, to make significant changes, to strengthen the curriculum and learn it. This change will take quite a long time. Students in IPTA should go out and learn a lot to prepare well for the industry. Education is very important, because from historical perspective, 100 years ago, we did not need to be well educated. That time, we needed land, as that was what we used for agricultural.

50 years ago, land was no longer that important. Machinery was the main important tool. Capital was important to buy the machinery.

Now, idea is most important, and that came from education. Education would help to solve the problem. There are a lot of VCs out there chasing after good idea. In the future, having money doesn't matter. What matters is having great idea.

Q: What is stopping Malaysia from having world class companies.
A: Without very solid education, we will not be able to have fantastic companies. We need to have blue ocean. What are the issues that are not yet solved. We need to have good education to come out with a good company. With poor education, it would be me-to education. Malaysia only has about 30 million population. So, for start up in Malaysia, to be successful, they need to branch out to regional. Malaysia who studied overseas have done a lot of start-ups, especially in US. Some of them are very highly skilled and well educated.

Instead of them coming back, they work in Silicon Valley for a few years and then started their own company.

Mark's dorm mate, started a company to sell to Netscape and sold for USD200 Million and he has started a few other companies. He has also sold another company to anti-virus company for a few hundred million. And they can have very successful start-up. So, question is where can they have very good start-up. Malaysia may not have very good market.

Like in JobStreet.com, it is in a very niche market. JobStreet.com is very successful on its own. Malaysiakini is pretty successful. Some might be doing very big business and some smaller business.

Reason of many people from JobStreet are from MIT, because they are his dorm mates and friends. There are some successful start-ups in Malaysia too.

Our mind divides into 2 parts. One part memorizes and another part processes thing. So, memorizing thing may not be a very bad thing. For example, we memorize multiplication system, and it helps. So, memorizing in our education system is not a bad thing.

When Mark went to US to study, in US, things are more flexible, promote more creativity and challenge more thoughts. And combine both the education system of Malaysia and US, it would be the best of both world.

We don't need to change the education system here. But we need to change the people who are running it.

Q:
A: To make changes in education system. It is beyond our individual effort. There are a lot of good professors who want to teach back here, but they are not given a chance. Our leaders need to know that there is problem here and we need to address it. Head of Universities shouldn't be appointed based on certain reason, but elected based on most qualified person. All these must be based on merit and not based on political alliance. There are still a lot of quotas which are based on various reasons. All those are no longer relevant, and as then, we can't hire the best people.

In Singapore, a lot of professors are not Singaporeans. But they can teach very well to Singaporeans. If Malaysia can have very good graduates, then other companies will continue to invest in Malaysia. Malaysia is being the choice, because of cheap labour and not quality of education.

Q: On employability of liberal arts grads
A: Philosophy/Liberal Arts majors, find it hard to get jobs in Malaysia. A lot of liberal arts students end up working through management field in companies or through sales/marketing areas, and sometimes in teaching. There might be quite restrictive in this area on prospective career. At this stage, there are limitation of career of liberal arts.

Q: Should graduates go into education industry to boost it
A: For these liberal arts students, to be in education, problem is that teachers are not being paid very well. So, there are not many who would be willing to come back and earn not much as a teacher. Teachers' salary should be paid equivalent to other fields, like engineering. So, right now, the renumeration is not attrative or competitive.

Mark explained on why we need a lot of technical peole. Foreign investors would employ a lot of people and in technical field. Foreign investments go to China/India (Eg: Bangalore) for technical fields.

Even though liberal arts are important, the technical aspects are what being competitive now. The situation now is as above.

Q: In the 1990s, Malaysia's job creation was pretty high and why is it healthy then
A: China/India not yet really open up. So, at that time, Malaysia was a very attractive place. Since then, China are opened up, and labor are much cheaper there. Vietnam is opening up. Those are more attractive areas to build manufacturing plant.

Malaysia will not be able to go back to 1990s, as now we need to have a lot of competent people, and we have not yet really move up the value chain. For examples, if we have a lot of top scale talents, then foreigners will come over and set up shop.

Q: Advice to Malaysian graduates who decide to work abroad and not come back to Malaysia
A: If come back to Malaysia, then for personal reason, it is perfectly fine. If for people who want to gain some skills, which do not have in Malaysia, then they should head up to areas like Wall Street like financial institution and they can have very good exposure.

Once they do that, they can pick up more skills and maybe get sent back to Malaysia.

Q: Why is Malaysia trying to attract FDI
A: Malaysia does not have that much skilled labors at the moment. So, we are being used for cheap labor. Ideally, we should change our value add. The main reason we are losing out to other countries is because we are no longer competitive. If we do not change, we will not be competitive in the global market.

The video conferencing turns to show the audience, and ask for a show of hand for those in liberal arts.



-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Northeast Malaysia Forum - Premesh Chandran

Am copying my live blogging posts from ReCom.

I am keeping it as it is, although there are some grammatical error, due to live blogging. This is my first live blogging, so quality is not good, but hopefully, can share the info to those who are interested to read.
-----
Northeast Malaysia Forum is happening tonight (i.e. now).

This will be my live blogging from Malaysiakini office here.

Premesh Chandran is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Malaysiakini. He would be our first speaker.

Full details, do go to Northeast Malaysia Forum's Website . There will be live blogging there too! It will be live blogging from Harvard University.

Currently, there are about 120 Malaysians gathering at Harvard University. There will be another group of Malaysians, who will be linking in from Singapore, eg: Yi Jian, Jiin Joo etc.

Do stay tuned here.

It is starting...

Premesh Chandran is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Malaysiakini. He would be our first speaker.

Premesh just talked about 5 of them in Malaysiakini shaved bald after opposition won quite a number of seats.

Nithiya is doing introduction over at Harvard University. And now Joyce Tagal is giving her speech.

Mark Chang, Founder and CEO of JobStreet is here too. He would be our 2nd speaker.

Stay tuned here for the live blogging...

Premesh is about to start now. Premesh greets his virtual participants. Nice and warm in KL, and cold in US.

He thanked for the invite. He introduced Mark Chang. He would be speaking on New Media.

Premesh expects everyone to know Malaysiakini. He says that if people do not read Mkini, they should. This should be taking off.

Prime Minister statement the other day, on why BN lost, one of PM's comment is not taking cognizant of the internet, was his biggest mistake. Premesh stresses on this.

He commented on the bad internet connectivity. Urban area has better internet, but voting heartland of the country, Pahang, Johor, Kelantan, Terengganu, still does not have much internet there. So, PM does not realize on this new media.

Only 20-30% of our population uses internet. So, this does not show impact of internet. Mostly focused on the urban. So, BN did not discuss issues raised on internet, and this led to the downfall of BN in several states. Internet is where a lot of people gather info. Info spreaded indirectly to a huger segments to other parts of country - video, vcd, email, blog, forum.

Prof Janet Steel was in Malaysia. Her host in Malaysia asked a cleaner video. And she watched a video of temple destruction via vcd. Premesh stressed that those images were captured by malaysiakini.tv ,and then copied on vcd and spread nationwide. As well as other contents. And Premesh stressed that is a critical point. And this can get spread far and wide.

Internet credibility has grown. Malaysiakini was founded in 1999. In 1999, impact was not much. Then in 2004, Jeff Ooi blogged with some exposure via Malaysiakini space. As well as Raja Petra blog, which reached out to a lot of people. Premesh talked about Khairy chronicle via Raja Petra, and while not all might be true, it impacted KJ's reputation and caused KJ to have to take a lot of blames in this recent GE.

Malaysiakini has been around, publishing stories day after day. Mainstream media has to move itself to follow Malaysiakini's pace.

Some of the aspects highlighted by Raja Petra, for instance of PM's marriage, well ahead of it. And eventually, it turned out to be true.

NST filed a suit against Jeff Ooi and also Rockybru. New Media has a wider impact to a larger scope.

With videos, people get to see a lot of videos, from Hindraf to other occurances and that caused people to see things first hand. And soon, people are going to use internet to watch via mobile phone. Televisions going to hook up to internet.

With the results of this GE, there will be more internet start ups, and shifting the focus to internet. Internet is here to stay and going to have bigger impact.

And also the use of social networking. Facebook is used by Selangor State Government, DAP etc. This has been used in GE. This is going to play a major role.

Malaysiakini is getting about 250,000 unique users a day. There is now an extra server, and serves 50,000 video downloads a day. There will be opening up of traditional media. The Star and NST has started covering of opposition news. Mkini now have to further compete with traditional media which has reformed.

Q: Relationship between Malaysiakini and bloggers.
A: Malaysiakini is collaborating with bloggers and in Mkini front page, it is devoted to bloggers for a good section. And pull bloggers in and this is showing a lot of opinion on people blogging about various issues.

Now politics have moved from federal to state politics. Esp. with opposition holding several states. Mkini plans to have an office in Penang too. And this will feed into Malaysiakini too.

Q: Mainstream - pro government and bloggers - anti government
A: It is not totally the case. NST is owned by UMNO. Star is owned by MCA. Mainsteam is political tool. Unless Printing Acts are repealed, there is no way to bring away from this. Media Prima is owned by Umno etc.

There are bloggers who are pro-UMNO, but they are not getting traffic. This is because they are saying same thing as mainstream.

So, Premesh's opinion is not that bloggers want to anti-government. So, would hope to see more convergent between mainstream and bloggers.

Q: How to control the blogs
A: Premesh said it is wrong question to ask. Newspaper is read by 100,000 people each day, and it needs to be correct and can't be lying. Blog read by much fewer people. It is not the freedom of speech, but freedom of influence. And we should manage the influence.

Blogs have been policed, and hence the comment in blogs which contained potential inflammatory posts can be found.

Premesh stressed that it is the failure of mainstream media that caused blogging to thrive.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

US Universities Admission (Updates: 29th March 2008)

Below are a list that I have come to know as of now for Malaysians who get into some of the top US Universities (The actual figures could be much higher). -

Carnegie Mellon University (2 admits) - Claire, Yiling
Chicago (5 admits and 2 wait list) - Su Ann, Eu Win, Michelle, Jin Tik, Vincent (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Li Xian)

Dartmouth (1 admit) - Amy Ang (MBA at Tuck)

Harvard (1 admit) - Lin Lee (PhD)

John Hopkings (1 admit and 1 wait list) - Sabrina Lim Shin Jing (Wait List: Jia Mun)

MIT (2 admits) - Lin Lee (PhD), Ooi Boon Teik

Mount Holyoke (1 admit) - chyen

Northwestern (6 admits and 5 wait lists) - Mei Yueh, Chia Chyuan, Yoke Peng, Tong Wei, Josh Foo, Fiona (Wait List: Sabrina, Julia, Jia Mun, Claire, Chun How)

NYU (5 admits and 2 wait lists) - Su Ann, Vincent Ang, Wan Xin, Wai Kar Leng, Samantha Lee (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Eu Win)

Rice (1 admit) - Sabrina

Stanford (4 admits and 1 wait list) - Lin Lee (PhD), Mei Yueh, Jin Tik, Timothy (Wait List: Chia Chyuan)

Swarthmore (1 admit) - Su Ann

UPenn (1 wait list) - (Wait List: Amy Ang (MBA))

Virginia (1 admit) - Wei Ken

- Info above are passed by some of you personally to me, or via other students. If you are uncomfortable of being listed, please email me, and I will remove immediately. If you know of others/yourself who have gotten in, do let me know, and I will put up. I'm not limiting to any university, just that the info I get are as above.

Congrats to all of you who got!

For those of you who got wait list, hopefully, you can turn it into an admission!

For those of you who didn't get, hope that you won't get too sad.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Northeast Malaysia Forum

After several months, The Northeast Malaysia Forum is finally here tonight at Harvard University!

Saturday 29th March

Day 1

Boston (EST)

8:00 a.m.
Registration

8:30 a.m.
Opening Speech and Welcome

9:00 a.m.
First Teleconference session

- Premesh Chandran/Jeff Ooi
- Mark Chang
- Colin Nicholas
- Karim Raslan

12:30 p.m.
Lunch (provided)

1:30 p.m.
Invited Speakers

- Meredith Weiss
- Azly Rahman

3:30 p.m.
Second Teleconference session
- Bridget Welsh

4:15 p.m.
First Discussion Workshop session

5:30 p.m.
Break for dinner (not provided)

7:00 p.m.
Reception/Mixer (semi-formal attire requested)

Sunday 30 March
Day 2

Boston (EST)

8:00 a.m.
Breakfast

8:30 a.m.
Second Teleconference Session

- Malik Imtiaz
- Dato' Tony Fernandes

10:00 a.m.
Invited Speakers

- Zainah Anwar

11:00 a.m.
Second Discussion Workshop session

12:30 p.m.
Presentation of Proposals

2:00 p.m.
Goodbye Speech/Group Picture/Departure


-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Friday, March 28, 2008

US Universities Updates - 27th March 2008

For US University Admissions, would like to convey my latest congrats to:-

(The actual figures for Malaysia could be higher, below are those who I have found out)
Chicago (5 admits and 2 wait list) - Su Ann, Eu Win, Michelle, Jin Tik, Vincent (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Li Xian)

Dartmouth (1 admit) - Amy Ang (MBA at Tuck)

Harvard (1 admit) - Lin Lee (PhD)

MIT (2 admits) - Lin Lee (PhD), 1 undergrad

Mount Holyoke (1 admit) - chyen

Northwestern (6 admits and 5 wait lists) - Mei Yueh, Chia Chyuan, Yoke Peng, Tong Wei, Josh Foo, Fiona (Wait List: Sabrina, Julia, Jia Mun, Claire, Chun How)

NYU (3 admits and 2 wait lists) - Su Ann, Vincent Ang, Wan Xin (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Eu Win)

Rice (1 admit) - Sabrina

Stanford (1 admit) - Lin Lee (PhD)

UPenn (1 wait list) - (Wait List: Amy Ang (MBA)

Virginia (1 admit) - Wei Ken

----
Congrats! To all those on wait-list, do hope that you work hard to turn your wait list into reality!

An interesting commonality of those 11 who got Northwestern or on wait-list for Northwestern. They all apply to Cornell. :)

Good Luck to all of you who are still waiting for admission decision for other universities!!! Am sure you guys are excited about the Super Tuesday, 1st April (aka April Fool Day)... :)
-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

SEALNet Summer Projects 2008

Hope to see more of my blog readers would participate in this. Do help to spread the words around!

----
Passionate about a cause?
Want to make a difference in Southeast Asia?
Want to meet other college students who share the same vision?
Want to learn how to become a better service leader?

JOIN SEALNet!
WANTED: TEAM MEMBERS FOR SEALNet Summer Projects

PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS (project dates, locations, goals) http://www.sealnetonline.org/projects


APPLICATION DEADLINES
Apr. 7, 2008 for Project Malaysia
Apr. 14, 2008 for all other projects
SUBMIT AT http://www.sealnetonline.org/forms/2008_projects_application

Who We Are
The Southeast Asian Service Leadership Network (SEALNet) was founded at Stanford University in 2004. Our mission is to create a cross-cultural network between students and professionals interested in Southeast Asian developmental issues. Our goal is to empower students to create positive change both by participating in service leadership projects and by inspiring other students to become leaders in their own communities.
FIND OUT MORE!
Video from past projects http://sealnetonline.org/about_us/media_center/video_center

Questions? Email sealnetrecruit@gmail.com




-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

TMI New Board Members

Tan Sri Ghazzali Sheikh Khalid, former Malaysia Ambassador to US have been appointed as an Independent Director of TM International Berhad (TMI). Congrats, Tan Sri!

For more info, go to The Star

-----
TMI names new board line-up

By B.K. SIDHU

bksidhu@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: TM International Bhd (TMI) yesterday named a new board line-up in the hope that the nine members will be able to provide “strategic insights and business expertise” to the mobile company that is aiming to list on Bursa Malaysia by end-April.

Topping the list is chairman Datuk Azman Mokhtar, also managing director of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, followed by Datuk Jamaludin Ibrahim as president and group CEO-executive director, and Datuk Yusof Annuar Yaacob as group chief financial officer (CFO)-executive director.

In a statement to Bursa, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) said it had also appointed Ismael Fariz Ali as TMI non-independent non-executive director and Datuk Farid Mohamed Sani, his alternate.

Five others appointed independent directors were David Lau Nai Pek (also audit committee chairman), Datuk Azzat Kamaludin, Tan Sri Ghazzali Sheikh Khalid, Juan Villalonga Navarro and Gita Wirjawan.

Azman said the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience of the new board would certainly add value in governing the strategic direction and performance of TMI as it forged ahead to be a leading mobile operator in South-East Asia.

Jamaludin said he looked forward to working with the board whose diversity of expertise would be invaluable to TMI, which would benefit from the broad perspective, strategic insights and business expertise in this exciting phase of its development.

TM also accepted the resignations of four existing directors, namely Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar (TM group CEO), Datuk Bazlan Osman (TM group CFO), Datuk Lim Kheng Guan and Ganen Sarvananthan, the executive director at Khazanah. Wahid would be heading Malayan Banking Bhd as president/CEO beginning May.

Lau, 55, is a chartered accountant; Azzat 62, is a lawyer; Ismael, 46, is executive director of investments at Khazanah, while Farid, 32, is senior vice-president at the managing director’s office at Khazanah.

Ghazzali, 57, was former ambassador to the US, and Spaniard Navarro, 54, is a global investor based in London. Indonesian Wirjawan, 42, is currently managing director and senior country officer for JP Morgan in Indonesia.

TMI emerged after TM undertook a de-merger exercise to separate the mobile business from the domestic fixed-line operations. The de-merger exercise is expected to be completed on April 17.

Earlier yesterday, Jamaludin told Bloomberg that profit margins at the mobile unit might come under pressure from rising competition, but call volumes would compensate for smaller margins in the longer term.



-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

CEO Series of Talk - Ruben Gnanalingam

Every fortnight, Young Corporate Malaysians (YCM) organize talks with the movers and shakers of the Malaysian corporate world, inviting them to speak on various issues.

For the CEO Series No.6 we are proud to invite and inform you that we will be hosting Mr Ruben Gnanalingam, the Executive Director of Westport Malaysia. He is the son and apparent heir to Tan Sri Datuk G.Gnanalingam, the Chairman of Westport Malaysia.

Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Time: 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: Rumah UKEC
Street: 67, Jalan U-Thant, Ampang.
(Along Jalan Tun Razak, turn left after US Embassy. Go straight all the way till see a signboard for Palestin Consulate. Turn right and it is next to Palestin Consulate.)


Despite his young age, Ruben is one of the brightest young stars in the corporate malaysia scene. Westport Malaysia is one of the biggest port operators in Malaysia, recorded an impressive 26% growth to handle 3.7 million TEUs (Twenty- foot equivalent units) of container cargo last year compared with the previous year's total of 2.9 million TEUs.

Ruben Emir Gnanalingam is currently the Executive Director of Westports Malaysia. His previous responsibilities in Westports includes extensive stints in the Corporate Planning, Operations and IT divisions. He is currently responsible for Marketing, IT and Procurement.

He graduated with a BSc(Hons) Economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Ruben also has a diploma in Port Management from Cambridge Board and has attended several business and Management courses at the Harvard Business School.

Prior to this, Ruben founded Makmal Jaya Sdn Bhd, an MSC status incubator to invest and nurture Malaysia high-tech start ups.

Outside his professional engagements, Ruben is also involved with many business and industry related groups, such as TiE Malaysia Chapter, Harvard Business School Alumni Club Malaysia, Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the Corporate Malaysia Roundtable.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Lifelong Learning Activities 2008 March

 Hope to see more people attending it!
 
 
-----
资深护理詹瑞兰与你分享
《安宁伴行》

《安宁伴行》是台湾临终关怀的先驱赵可式教授记录她廿余年所看到与接触的生命故事。本书传达了照顾与理解病人的重要性,也希望没有经历病痛的人学习到生命的智慧。


日期:3月30日(日)
时间:4pm
地点:大众书局Ikano Power Centre 门市
导读人:詹瑞兰,马来西亚善终协会及阿松大医院董事,退休资深护理人员
------
 
幼教专家与你分享
《教导孩子成材》

本书提出如何培养孩子关键性的心理素质和乐观思考模式。作者郑石岩教授认为父母惟有不断吸收新知,透过缔造学习型家庭,带领孩子走向光明幸福人生。


日期:4月7日(日)
时间:8pm
地点:梳邦终身学习中心,Pelangi Business Centre, Mutiara Damansara
导读人:谢永坤,幼教中心执行董事
 
------
 
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
Known as one of the best business titles, this book provides a master blueprint for building organisations that will prsopser long into the 21st century and beyond.


Date: 9th April (Wed)
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: KTAR Learning Centre, Ground Floor, Wisma MCA
Mentor: Alex Wong, a Finance Manager for an established corporation
Registration: Free admission.

 
----
报名与询问 For registration and further info (Tel: 03-21618044) 
 

Congrats to US University Admits

For US University Admissions, would like to convey my latest congrats to:-

(The actual figures for Malaysia could be higher, below are those who I have found out)
Chicago (5 admits and 2 wait list) - Su Ann, Eu Win, Michelle, Jin Tik, Vincent (Wait List: Yi Xiang, Li Xian)

Dartmouth (1 admit) - Amy Ang (MBA at Tuck)

MIT (1 admit)

Northwestern (6 admits and 5 wait lists) - Mei Yueh, Chia Chyuan, Yoke Peng, Tong Wei, Josh Foo, Fiona (Wait List: Sabrina, Julia, Jia Mun, Claire, Chun How)

NYU (2 admits) - Su Ann, Vincent Ang

Rice (1 admit) - Sabrina

UPenn (1 wait list) - (Wait List: Amy Ang (MBA)

Virginia (1 admit)

----
Congrats! To all those on wait-list, do hope that you work hard to turn your wait list into reality!

An interesting commonality of those 11 who got Northwestern or on wait-list for Northwestern. They all apply to Cornell. :)

Good Luck to all of you who are still waiting for admission decision for other universities!!! Am sure you guys are excited about the Super Tuesday, 1st April (aka April Fool Day)... :)

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Maybank Purchases PT Bank Internasional Indonesia

March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Malayan Banking Bhd., Malaysia's biggest bank, offered $2.7 billion for PT Bank Internasional Indonesia to become the largest foreign financial services company in the Southeast Asian nation.

Maybank beat Bank of China Ltd. to buy a 56 percent stake held by a group led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings Pte for $1.5 billion, 23 percent more than yesterday's closing price. Maybank will also offer $1.2 billion for the rest of the stock, it said in a statement today.

The offer values Bank Internasional at 4.7 times book value, about double the average valuation among Indonesia's publicly traded banks, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A takeover would give Maybank 230 branches in the world's fourth-most populous country, a market it said is ``under-penetrated.''

``It's a bit pricey,'' said Li Hsia Wong, an analyst at Affin Securities Sdn. in Kuala Lumpur. ``To really have stronger growth they need to look outside Malaysia. The Malaysian market is quite saturated.''

Bank Internasional, Indonesia's sixth-largest bank, surged 12 percent to 465 rupiah at the 4 p.m. close in Jakarta, the biggest gain in four years. The stock has risen 63 percent this year, compared with an 11 percent drop in the benchmark index.

Maybank said it's offering 510 rupiah a share for Bank Internasional, and won't raise the bid price.

`Good Buy'

Maybank shares were suspended on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange before the announcement. The stock closed at 8.95 ringgit yesterday, down 2.7 percent this year.

``For anyone that doesn't have exposure to the Indonesian banking sector, this would be a good buy,'' said Winston Sual, director of PT Panin Sekuritas, which manages $272 million at its fund management division.

Temasek and its partners won a bid for a 51 percent stake in Bank Internasional in 2003. The bank was the third that Indonesia sold that year to fund a budget deficit and as part of state asset sales following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The sale of Bank Internasional will allow Temasek and its partners to profit from an investment that has soared about fivefold since they first paid 1.99 trillion rupiah ($216 million) for the stake in Bank Internasional.

Declining Profit

The shares didn't reflect the bank's declining profit. Net income fell 65 percent from 2005 to 2007 after Bank Internasional bought a 43 percent stake in PT Wahana Ottomitra Multiartha, a motorcycle financier. Wahana posted a 241.4 billion rupiah loss in 2007, Bloomberg data shows.

Maybank ``are seeing that the fundamentals of the bank are better than the market perceives,'' said Felix Sindhunata, head of equity research at Jakarta-based PT Mega Capital Indonesia, which manages about $163 million.

Temasek owns 75 percent of a joint venture that holds about 56 percent of Bank Internasional. Kookmin Bank, South Korea's largest, owns the remaining 25 percent. Kookmin Bank fell 1.4 percent in Seoul trading today.

Bank Internasional, formerly part of the Sinar Mas Group, owned by Eka Tjipta Widjaja's family, received a 11.3 trillion rupiah government bailout in June 1999 in the aftermath of the regional crisis.

Overseas Push

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and State Bank of India have made acquisitions in Indonesia in the past two years, gaining a foothold in an economy that grew 6.3 percent in 2007. Temasek said in a statement it remains ``optimistic'' about Indonesia's long-term prospects.

Indonesia has 5.5 bank branches per 100,000 people, compared with 6.7 in India and 6.5 in Malaysia, according to data from the countries' central banks.

``The Indonesian banking sector remains under-penetrated with excellent long-term growth potential,'' Maybank Acting Chief Executive Officer Aminuddin Md Desa said in today's statement. ``This acquisition effectively enables Maybank to leapfrog into the Indonesian banking market.''

Maybank, based in Kuala Lumpur, is expanding overseas as economic growth slows at home and competition increases from foreign lenders such as Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. The Malaysian bank said in February 2007 it would seek to buy into an overseas lender in one to two years to help boost profit.

Profit Contribution

Maybank said it expects to close the Bank Internasional transaction in six months, said that the acquisition will boost profit starting in the third year. The bank expects the share of revenue from overseas markets to increase to 30 percent within two years from 19 percent now, Aminuddin said.

Temasek, set up more than three decades ago to hold the city's state-owned assets, is selling its stake to meet Indonesia's central bank rules that limit investors to ownership of one bank. It also owns part of PT Bank Danamon Indonesia.

Credit Suisse Group and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are advising Temasek.

To contact the reporters on this story: Angus Whitley in Kuala Lumpur at awhitley1@bloomberg.net; Berni Moestafa in Jakarta at bmoestafa@bloomberg.net.


-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Media Prima To Set-up Media Fund To Expand Regionally

Our Media Conglomerate, Media Prima is moving regionally!

The full article is quoted from Bernama

-----

Media Prima To Set-up Media Fund To Expand Regionally

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 (Bernama) -- Media Prima Bhd (MPB) will set up an equity private fund called MPB Strategic Media Fund Limited Partnership (Media Fund) which aims to raise US$100-150 million with an investment horizon of five to seven years in media assets across South East Asian and other Asian emerging markets.

Its group managing director and chief executive officer, Abdul Rahman Ahmad said that the Media Fund will be MPBs vehicle for its regional expansion plans in line with its strategy to grow and diversify the groups earnings and enhance shareholders value.

"The fund will be specifically looking at Asean countries. The first investment will be in the Philippines and we are also looking at other markets like Indonesia and Vietnam," he said at a media briefing on the company's expansion plan here Tuesday.

In Philippines, MPB will establish a subsidiary, namely MPB Primedia Inc (Primedia), that will soon enter into a block airtime and consultancy agreement with the ABC5 TV network, one of the television networks in the Philippines.

Upon the inception of the Media Fund, MPBs shareholdings and interests in Primedia will be transferred to the Media Fund.

Under a long term block airtime agreement with ABC5, Primedia will provide content and manage the sale of airtime of ABC5.

At same time, ABC5 will also undertake a repositioning and launch exercise as well as transmission quality upgrade, which Primedia will assist under the consultancy agreement to ensure its success.

Abdul Rahman also said that MPB will be the anchor investor and had an intention to secure other domestic and international financial and strategic investors.

"Yes, we are talking with both locals as well as internationals, these are very reputable and credible media companies and financial investors. But, we are not able to name those parties until the closing of the fund," he said, adding the company will provide the details once the fund is finalised.

Meanwhile, group chief executive officer, Television Networks of MPB, Datuk Seri Farid Ridzuan said that the company had also received enquiries from other countries to manage their funds.

"We are also received enquiries from other countries, particularly from Central Asia, neighbouring countries as well as Northern Asia."

MPB shall also be the Media Funds fund manager (via the setting up of a fund management company) responsible for ensuring that the fund and media assets are properly managed and achieve significant increase in value.

Macquarie Capital Securities (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (MCSM) has been appointed by MPB as the lead financial adviser to assist in establishing and raising funds from potential investors for the Media Fund.

Abdul Rahman said that the company is excited about the growth opportunities in ABC5 and Philippines and intend to adopt similar strategies that led to the turnaround success of all its television networks in Malaysia.

"However, Primedia will be managed by a team of local professional managers, consistent with Media Funds philosophy to have local management in its country of investment," he added.

Primedia will be appointing a new local Philippines chief executive officer, a person with extensive experience working in an MNC within the creative industry.

Farid Ridzuan is proposed to be appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the MPB fund management company as well as the CEO of Media Prima International Division.

Farid has been given the credit of transforming TV3 into the leading TV station in Malaysia and being instrumental in the successful turnaround of 8TV, ntv7 and more recently TV9.

He will also remain as group chief executive officer, MPB Television Networks responsible over the four television networks, TV3, 8TV, ntv7 and TV9.

Other movements within the Group include Datuk Amrin Awaluddin, the current CEO of ntv7, moving to TV3 to take over from Farid as chief executive officer of TV3 while Datuk Anthony Firdauz Bujang, the current director of operations, TV3, will move to fill the position of chief executive officer of ntv7.

-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Malaysian F1 Race at Night in 2009

The next F1 race in Malaysia would be at night!

Quoting fully from Bloomberg

-----
Ecclestone Says Malaysian Grand Prix to Be Night Race in 2009

By Ranjeetha Pakiam

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Malaysian Grand Prix will switch to a night race in 2009, Formula One Chief Executive Officer Bernie Ecclestone said in an interview.

Ecclestone, 77, said Grand Prix organizers at the Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpur had agreed to start the race after 7 p.m. Today's Malaysian Grand Prix began at 3 p.m.

Formula One officials want the Asian leg of races to be more accessible to European television viewers. Singapore is staging the first night Grand Prix in September and Ecclestone has told Australian race organizers they must move to a night race or lose their place on the schedule.

Malaysian Grand Prix organizers ``know it is necessary, both to attract television audiences in Europe and the public here,'' Ecclestone said in a trackside interview at Sepang. ``It will be very good for the people in Malaysia and anyone coming to visit the race as it will be very exciting.''

Ecclestone said he'll recommend the race starts no earlier than 7 p.m., requiring the circuit to be lighted.



-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Malaysian won iYomu contest

If this is verified to be true, this is another achievements that would do Malaysia proud.

Full text copied from here .
----

Malaysian iYomu member million-dollar prizewinner?
By CLAIRE McENTEE - The Dominion Post | Monday, 24 March 2008

IYomu, a Kiwi-created social networking site for "grown ups", says it will honour its commitment to pay a US$1 million prize to a competition winner from Malaysia, once it has verified he is bona fide.


The company, whose directors include former National Party president Michelle Boag, aims to carve a global niche alongside the likes of Bebo and MySpace.

IYomu promised to give US$1 million to the member who received the most votes from iYomu users as a promotion, when it launched in August.

Players had to complete puzzles and tasks to earn points. The top ten point earners were then reduced to a final three, who had to explain to the iYomu community why they should receive the money.

Founder David Wolf-Rooney says a member from Malaysia called "Yeongch" received the most votes, though the final number is still to be verified.

"We're going through the verification process, I'm flying over to Malaysia late next week to meet him and our tech people are checking the votes. Within one month the whole competition will be brought to an end in terms of validating and identifying the winner."

According to Yeongch's iYomu homepage, he is a "blue collar worker" from Penang Island. He says he would spend the prize money on his child's education, a new car, charity, living expenses, setting up his own business and on his friends.

Mr Wolf-Rooney says the competition, originally due to end in February, was extended after some players cheated and forced a re-write of the rules. Nine of the top ten players were disqualified in December.

Thousands of people entered the competition and the site has a "significant number" of members from about 100 countries, he says.

"The spread of iYomu's membership is how you'd expect it to be, principally from North America, followed by Australia, New Zealand, and then others."

Mr Wolf-Rooney says it's difficult to say whether the looming economic downturn will impact on the business, and iYomu was always looking for new investors. "There's always a concern about funding. This is very expensive to do, we're going to launch an advertising feature in the near future. It's critical to generate revenue to keep the site as good as it is."

The resignation of several directors earlier this year was part of normal team changes as the start-up company matured, he says.

The competition prize money will be paid by 16 shareholders in instalments of US$83,333 over 12 months. The shareholders have offered various amounts, "from $15,000 to a considerably higher sum".

Mr Wolf-Rooney says growth opportunities in the social networking market are "enormous" and iYomu is the only site especially for grown-ups.

"Members often have three or four memberships with other sites.

"The challenge is to get them coming back.

"You've got to keep bringing out new features, that's a great lesson for New Zealand sites - if you stand still you'll just get consumed."




-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Morning at FRIM

This morning, thanks to Mean Yeit and Teng Yan, we went to Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) in Kepong to have a good relaxation.

We went on a stroll (not really a stroll though, since it is a little hilly too),and then we ascend up towards the Canopy Walk (which is essentially the Suspension Bridge). It is about 20 minutes climb up, but I had to stop for a while due to my stamina. Thanks Mean Yeit and Teng Yan for encouraging me and waiting for me.

It is definitely breath-takingly beautiful on top, with a scenery of Kepong and other surrounding areas. We can even see Twin Tower, Menara TM, KL Tower etc in the far, but it is not too clear.

The Canopy Walk is kind of interesting, where we have to walk slowly through, and it is really shaking. It is the scariest Suspension Bridge I have walked through before (a lot more scarier than the one at Sunway Lagoon). But the view is definitely worth it. Looking at tons of those greenery!

To those of you who haven't been, do try and head out there! You won't regret! To get to FRIM, you can go via MRR2.

After that, we went to Malay Tea House, located within FRIM as well, for a sampling of vary nice tea. It is open from Tuesday to Sunday 9:30am to 6:30pm. It is located within a Malay Kampung house, very well decorated. You can even play Chongkak inside, with some local delicacy. They can even arrange for traditional performances if needed.

For reservation for functions at Malay Tea House, you could contact Safinah Yaakob at safinah@waris2u.com or call 03-62803503 or 03-62803506. You could fax at 03-62803607.

Among the tea that they sold include Dukung Anak, Daun Serai, Daun Limau Purut, Peria, Daun Misai Kucing, Daun Hempedu Bumi, Daun Pegaga, Daun Jambu, Daun Ulam Raja, Daun Selom, Beremi, Daun Asam Paya, Daun Emas Cotek, Daun Kesum, Asam Gelugor, Selaseh Hitam, Lemuni. Some of these tea are made from FRIM research.

They are setting up a branch at Central Market too, and it would be open soon. However, for the ambience within the forest, the one at FRIM is still nicer.
-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Common Data Sets for US Universities

Most US Universities provide Common Data Sets to enable students to analyze on various details of each university. Below are the links of those page.

The links below are taken from CollegeConfidential.com

-----
American University http://american.edu/academic.depts/provost/oir/cds.pdf
Amherst College http://www.amherst.edu/about_amh/cds/
Barnard College http://www.barnard.edu/opir/cds/cds_main.htm
Bates College http://www.bates.edu/x2294.xml
Bentley College http://ecampus.bentley.edu/dept/ir/handydata/index.html
Boston College http://www.bc.edu/about/bc-facts/
Boston College http://www.bc.edu/publications/factbook/
Boston University http://www.bu.edu/oep/cds.html
Bowdoin http://academic.bowdoin.edu/ir/data/cds-table.shtml
Brandeis University http://www.brandeis.edu/offices/IR/cds/CDS.html
Brown University http://www.brown.edu/Administration...ional_Research/
Brown University http://www.brown.edu/Administration...andfigures.html
Bryn Mawr College http://www.brynmawr.edu/institution...cds/index.shtml
Bucknell University http://www.bucknell.edu/Offices_Res...n_Data_Set.html
California Institute of Technology http://atc.caltech.edu/finance/budget.htm
Carleton College http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/ira/CDS1/
Carnegie Mellon http://www.cmu.edu/ira/cds.htm
Case Western Reserve University http://www.cwru.edu/president/cir/cdsmain.htm
Catholic University http://computing.cua.edu/PIR/common_data_set/
Colby College http://www.colby.edu/ir/
College of the Holy Cross http://www.holycross.edu/departments/planning/website/
Colorado College http://www.coloradocollege.edu/dean/oir/comdata.htm
Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/
Cornell University http://dpb.cornell.edu/irp/cds.htm
Dartmouth College http://www.dartmouth.edu/~oir/dataset.html
Davidson College http://www2.davidson.edu/administra...m/ir/ir_cds.asp
Dickinson College http://www.dickinson.edu/department...ublications.htm
Drexel University http://www.drexel.edu/provost/ir/cds2005/
Duke University http://www.provost.duke.edu/units/factbook.html
Duke University http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump...2009profile.asp
Duquesne University http://www.irp.duq.edu/commonData.html
Emory University http://www.emory.edu/PROVOST/IPR/ir_factbook.htm
Fairfield University http://www.fairfield.edu/x1137.xml
Frostburg State http://www.frostburg.edu/admin/ois/CDS/cds.htm
Furman University http://www.furman.edu/planning/cdspage.htm
George Washington University http://www.gwu.edu/~ire/
Georgetown University http://www.georgetown.edu/opir/
Georgetown University http://www.georgetown.edu/undergrad...1YRProfile1.htm
Georgia Tech http://www.irp.gatech.edu/
Goucher College http://www.goucher.edu/institutiona...Col-1-6-051.xls
Grinnell College http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/ins...alresearch/cds/
Hamilton College http://www.hamilton.edu/college/institutional_research/
Harvard University (Fact Book not CDS) http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/budget/factbook/index.html
Harvey Mudd College http://www.hmc.edu/information.html#general
Haverford College http://www.haverford.edu/info/commondata03.pdf
Indiana University Bloomington http://www.indiana.edu/~budu/cds/cds034/G1400bl.pdf
Johns Hopkins University http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/i...and_statistics/
Juniata College http://services.juniata.edu/research/new_page_9.htm
Kenyon College http://ir.kenyon.edu/commondataset.php
Kenyon College http://ir.kenyon.edu/profile.php
Lehigh University http://www.lehigh.edu/~oir/cds.htm
Loyola College in Maryland http://www.loyola.edu/academics/res...LoyolaData.html
Loyola University http://www.loyno.edu/oir/cds/
Macalester College http://www.macalester.edu/ir/cds.htm
Messiah College http://www.messiah.edu/offices/research/data/
Michigan State University http://opbweb.msu.edu/
Middlebury College http://www.middlebury.edu/administr.../fall02_cds.htm
MIT http://web.mit.edu/ir/cds/
Mount Holyoke College http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/en...strch/cds.shtml
New York University http://www.nyu.edu/ir/cds/
Northeastern University http://www.oupr.neu.edu/dataset/common.html
Northwestern University http://ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/
Oberlin College http://peacock.adm.oberlin.edu/www/cds/cds_explain.html
Ohio State University http://oem.osu.edu/
Penn State (all campuses) http://www.budget.psu.edu/CDS/default.asp
Pepperdine University http://www.pepperdine.edu/instres/dataset/
Pomona College http://www.pomona.edu/ADWR/Admissio...2009profile.pdf
Princeton University http://registrar1.princeton.edu/data/common.cfm
Purdue University http://www.purdue.edu/idn/CDS_Post/cdsmain.html
Reed College http://web.reed.edu/ir/ReedCDS200405.html
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute http://www.rpi.edu/about/cds/index.html
Rhodes College http://www.rhodes.edu/planning/cds/
Rice University http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~instresr/ricefacts/index.html
Rutgers University http://oirap.rutgers.edu/instchar.html
Saint Joseph’s University http://www.sju.edu/ir/CDS%202003-2004.htm
Salisbury University http://www.salisbury.edu/iara/CDS/cdshome.htm
Scripps College http://www.scrippscol.edu/dept/abou...aset.html#first
Skidmore College http://www.skidmore.edu/registrar/i...k/fact_book.htm
Smith College http://www.smith.edu/ir/cds.php
St Mary’s College (Md) http://www.smcm.edu/instresearch/index.cfm
St Michaels in Vermont http://www2.smcvt.edu/assessment/Co...kIndicators.htm
Stanford University http://find.stanford.edu/search?as_...esheet.xslt&oe=
Stonehill College http://www.stonehill.edu/planningand...CDS2005-06.htm
Swarthmore College http://www.swarthmore.edu/Admin/ins...search/cds.html
Syracuse University (data, but not CDS) http://sumweb.syr.edu/ir/index.htm
Syracuse University (data, but not CDS) http://sumweb.syr.edu/ir/prospectiv...s.html#Freshmen
Temple University http://www.temple.edu/factbook/
Texas A&M http://pie.tamucc.edu/cds/cdsmain.htm
Towson University http://www.towson.edu/ir/
Tufts University http://www.tufts.edu/ir/FACTBOOK%202005%20wv5.pdf
Tufts University http://www.tufts.edu/ir/inresearch.html
U Illinois UC (profile, not CDS) http://www.pb.uillinois.edu/dr/
UC Berkeley http://cds.vcbf.berkeley.edu/
UC Davis (click on Campus Data) http://www.sariweb.ucdavis.edu/
UC Santa Barbara (abridged CDS) http://bap.ucsb.edu/IR/UG_Info_Guide.pdf
University of California Irvine http://www.oir.uci.edu/cds/
University of California Los Angeles http://www.aim.ucla.edu/data/campus/general/cds.html
University of California San Diego http://ugr8.ucsd.edu/sriweb/sri.htm
University of Chicago (stats, not CDS): http://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/level3.asp?id=377
University of Colorado http://www.colorado.edu/pba/cds/
University of Connecticut http://vm.uconn.edu/~wwwoir/enro-gen.html
University of Delaware http://www.udel.edu/IR/cds/index.html
University of Florida http://www.ir.ufl.edu/data.htm
University of Georgia http://www.uga.edu/irp/cds/index.html
University of Maryland http://oirp.umd.edu/public/commondataset.cfm
University of Md Baltimore County http://www.umbc.edu/oir/cds.html
University of Michigan http://sitemaker.umich.edu/obpinfo/common_data_set
University of Missouri http://web1.umkc.edu/ir/
University of New Hampshire http://www.unh.edu/ir/cds1.html
University of North Carolina (CH) http://www.ais.unc.edu/ir/cds.html
University of Pennsylvania http://www.upenn.edu/ir/
University of Pittsburgh (all campuses) http://www.ir.pitt.edu/cds/cdshmpg200405.htm
University of Richmond http://oir.richmond.edu/Databases.htm
University of Scranton http://academic.scranton.edu/depart...-research.shtml
University of Southern California http://afaweb.esd.usc.edu/USC-AFA/u...ile%2020051.pdf
University of Texas http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/cds/04-05/
University of Vermont http://www.uvm.edu/~isis/?Page=cds0.html
University of Virginia http://www.web.virginia.edu/IAAS/dat...ns.htm#current
University of Washington http://www.washington.edu/admin/factbook/ois.html
University of Wisconsin http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/obpa/C...S/CDS_2005.pdf
Vanderbilt University http://virg.vanderbilt.edu/virg/option1/virg1_flash.htm
Vassar College http://registrar.vassar.edu/factbook/
Villanova University http://optir.villanova.edu/
Wake Forest University http://www.wfu.edu/ir/factbook.html
Washington and Lee University http://ir.wlu.edu/cds/
Wellesley College http://www.wellesley.edu/InstResearc...eyresults.html
Whitman College http://www.whitman.edu/institutional...orts_index.cfm
William and Mary http://cfdev.wm.edu/IR/common_dataset.htm
Williams College http://www.williams.edu/admin/provost/ir/
Yale University http://www.yale.edu/oir/ComDatset.html



-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!