A tiring weekend

Yeah,

So that's why today I've just woke up from my long afternoon nap. Budiey expected me to have updated my blog but sorry dude, I'm way too tired of travelling.

I've got to wake up early saturday morning to catch the 6.30 bus and I thought I'm so lucky to be able to ride on a double decker bus. That was my second time. It was nice to sit pretty high but given the last row seat of the bus.

I believe the backache (and the exhaustion) I'm having is cause by the bus.

Time to get rid of my extra fats I suppose. A friend of mine who is slightly lighter than me is now suffering from the, errr.. what they call it, slip disc uh?

Further, the double decker bus was so slow that I expected myself to be able to reach the Serdang R&R by 10.00 AM but it reached there at around 10.30. I was late for the meeting at the Telekom Tower but thank god Elizany was waiting patiently at the R&R while sleeping.

And I've got my first experience in a Proton Tiara. Not bad lah. For me, any car that can actually be driven is good enough. So actually Elizany forced me to drive the car as he was still unable to wake from his booze.

I went with that short meeting (a briefing actually) and went for lunch at the Bangsar. Went home and grabbed Mazuien's car to be driven to Genting.

Why am I going to Genting? I won't go there for nothing. Actually, Budiey had asked me to go with him to Genting for the Anugerah Era 07,and freakingly excited as a photographer, I just said yes and you know how fast I was driving that Perodua Kelisa up to Genting?

I took only 40 minutes to reach the top from KLCC. Hahahaha. Perodua Kelisa rocks. After this I'm gonna try with both my Frontier and Civic. See whether they can beat Kelisa or not.

I was really like 'Unta masuk hutan' when I reached Genting. I don't really know the place and if I'm alone, I'd just went off. Well, we had a nice lunch at the Burger King (thanx to Budiey for your treat). Mahal tu beb. 2 meals at RM32++. Can already have 3 normal meals at the McDonalds downhill.

The thing started with the showcase at around 5 PM and ends at around 630PM. As usual the showcase were normally for the AF grads or new artists. Up to my surprise, Rosma AF is damn thin. I remember last Aznil Nawawi, had by mistake (or intentionally) called her 'Anak Gajah' (Elephant child) in one of the AF concert.

Now, I'm also very well tergoda. Her pictures (lotsa pictures) were all worth keeping and staring at.

Dafi is maybe cute but I think everyone noticed he was way out of tune a lot of time when singing the Dewa song. I've forgotten the song name already. One of my favourite song.


At around 7, Budiey and I went inside the Arena Starts Area waiting for the Green Carpet event after getting my media tag. Kewl eh? Why not red carpet? Don't ask me..

While waiting for the flows of the artists to walk in on the red carpet, Mr. Boogie noticed me and smsed me. Kewl. Nice meeting you dude! He's an Astro guy uh? Hehehehe..

Here are them on the red carpet guys! More updates in my Pojok and Photo Blogs.

Double Impact

A simple maths for you to consider.

First Impact

Years, from 1997-2004, when the RM was pegged to USD, 1 USD is equivalent to RM3.80.

So for years, a lot of people enjoying this stability for doing business without having to be scared of the currency price hikes and so on.

People used to export things at USD100 per tonne of which they made RM30 profit from each tonne. If they export 1000 tonne, that means they're making RM30,000 profit.

As for now, 1 USD has dropped to RM3.40, they're still selling at USD100 per tonne, of which they're now making -RM10.

That's a loss.

So they really cannot sell timbers anymore. They really cannot sell because the disability of Malaysian not-so-good-of-quality timbers to compete with the international cheap prices and better quality timbers. There are even sawmillers from Johor who bought timbers directly from the US.

Why not? The US are selling in the same US dollar price. The fuel price is also in US dollar so what do they care? They were all spending in US dollar. So in fact, they are making money no matter what.

So, the wood price has dropped. To a level that is hard to survive.

Second Impact

Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu is very well-known to be producing a lot of logs, big logs and of high quality compared to Johor. All this while, whenever Johor has been asking to be buying logs from them, Johor people can only get the small-sized logs.

Even though Johor is very well known as the State with the most number of wood industries such as furnitures and sawmilling.

And because they also have been selling to the Thailand, as they are paying better money as they're exporting furnitures, paid in USD.

The election is coming, and as state governments needs money, they have released a lot of logging areas and the permits, of which means that a lot of logs are coming.

Unfortunately, as the US dollar drops like hell, East Coast Timbers (ECT from Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang) who were being paid in RM has been in some ways become expensive to the Thailand, and furthermore, the cost has been so high in Baht that selling US dollar is no longer profitable.

Hence, they refused to buy the ECTs.

What happened? They are desperately dumping all the timbers to Johor now as Johor's wood industry is still surviving. That made the timber prices to drop a lot more as they supplies are more than the demand.

So, the wood price has dropped. To a level that the buyer can just ask for the best price anytime.

Conclusion

It's a double impact. Price of timber has gone down really bad. This situation lead by these situations:-

1. The US is lowering down their USD value so that they can sell their things. (Another economic attack?)
2. The election is coming. Hehehe..

So who are you going to vote?

Merdekakah kamu?

That means, you smells bad. Even the monkey ran away.

Hehehe.. Gotcha..

That actually means, are you really free, independent from all kind of colonization.

Sigh, I need 10 more words in english to translate a two word phrase in Malay. My English is still nonethelessly bad.

I have always asked myself, what does independent actually mean to all of us? Malaysia has been colonized by so many people until i do think there are people who were still unaware of that Malaysia once was not even Malaysia.

Tanah Melayu sounds very obsessive. Malaysia makes the same meaning as anything with the suffix 'ia' brought the meaning of land. Like, Australiza, eh silap australia, austria, kampuchea bla bla bla. Malaysia also means Tanah Melayu but, if you suffix an 'l', it will become Malay S**l. Hehehe. No offence eh. Hehehe, fact what?

So we can actually ourselves as an 'AS' as asia is for 'tanah as'. Luckily it was not spelled Assia, which means Tanah Ass. Tanah Bontot.

"Are you assian?" (adakah anda orang tanah bontot?)

"I am an ass" (saya adalah bontot?)

Why not Malayland like the netherland, switzerland, holland, new zealand, swaziland and bla bla bla. It may sounds weird but as the name Malaysia came out, I think a lot of people did think that the name was weird too. Just like us when we heard of the word MalayLand.

Maybe at that time, the word 'Si*l' does not exist yet so they happily accept the name. Very happy until later, the Lion City got to pull themselves off the country as it's the Land of the Malay, not for others.

Worse, they twisted the history to make us look bad. Pity Malaysia.

You may read this as something harm but this is what actually boggling my mind. I've read in a lot of places where people regarded Malaysia and Malaysi*l.

Pathetic. They live in this country but can you please be thankful that you're still alive, can't you guys?

Merdeka right? Lucky you know. You're very lucky. We're very lucky. All of us are.

I know, there's a lot of racist out there but why do you have to? Bear in mind, all we need is to live and let die. All we need is to work and make money. The economy is so bad, why do we have to listen to all the racism hypes.

We're all 50 years being on our own and what we need is to work. Take a far look ahead and think of your future, your anak cucu and your country.

Well, yesterday, when I drove around JB, I saw some Malay chaps shouting Merdeka in a very pathetic manner while being drunk.

I believe they're all muslim...

Sad... Are we really merdeka then?