on the eve of eid mubarak...

nothing like lemang prepared the tradtional way, the way it should be done always..

wak gimin at 83...and his lemangs...

lemang oh lemang..where art thou...

my first primary school (1961-1963) sultan adulllah primary school kuantan...

the house, well, the spot, not the house, where i was born...hehe

This afternoon like all other afternoons, on the eve of Eid Mubarak, I'd go about my usual chores. Washing the car at the favourite Mobil station, in town, was one of them. Then I'd quickly make my way to Bukit Setongkol, the once quaint little, predominantly javanese village where I was born. Embah Babut, Embah Sitom (my late grandmother) have all passed away a long time ago. Datuk Johan Jaafar, on his regular saturday column in NST said that this year he would join his predominantly javanese folks kampong at Sungai Balang, Muar, Johore, for the javanese ritual called 'baraan'. I went straight to the back of Wak Gimin's home, beside the house I was born in. He was there, that frail 83 year old man. Watching diligently, his lemangs over the fire lest they might get overcooked or at worst, burnt. He recognised me intantly cos whenever I am back to celebrate Eid Mubarak in Kuantan, I never fail to get a few sticks, well bambo sticks of lemangs from him. He has been burning the lemang as far back as my childhood days. The lemang is glutinous rice, carefully prepared with coconut milk, placed in banana leaf and carefully inserted into well-chosen bamboo and placed at about a 70% angle beside a delicate charcoal fire, to be simmered away. It takes a couple of hours before the lemang is done.

Now back to Wak Gimin. He was telling me the banana leaf used to cost just 20 sen, it is now 40 sen piece. The flour used to be RM2. Its now RM4 ringgit a kilo. The bamboo is getting difficult to get because the orang asli burned the bambo areas in the nearby jungle so they can build their new habitat. So, I guess u guessed it right, hehe. His lemang, the medium ones, is now RM11 a piece. But its worth every bit of it. I tested one just now during the fast break...whoala...mama miyya...smooth man...it melts in your mouth...just as I had predicted. Old javanese men, like wak gimin will take his skills away with him when he is gone..unless he transfers them to his children, which I doubt, cos I notice none of them (his children) seemed to be interested.

Again, as usual, I took the oportunity to pay the alms (fitrah/zakat) at the mosque at bukit setongkol. That too has gone up. It's RM7.30 per person now in Kuantan. I took a foto of my primary school at the junction of Jalan Dato' Wong Ah Jang. This Hari Raya seems a liitle more nostalgic then previous years. I wonder why. In 2006 I was celebrating it at Odaiba, Tokyo and there wasn't any nostalgia at all..hehe. I dunno...age is catching up perhaps..which reminds me that Tan Sri Arshad will also be 80 this coming november and his favourite line would be...'age does not matter; what matters must not age..' hehe.. ok folks...don't forget to wake up early for tomorrow morning's Eid Mubarak's morning prayers...and it starts at 9.00 AM here at the bukit setongkol mosque...

of changing times and changing values...

Its that time of year again. One or two days before Eid Mubarak. Where muslims the world over, celebrate in victory (as they say in indonesia) after a month long of fasting (abstention from food, drink, sexual activity and a host of other do's and dont's, from sunrise till sunset, one of the 5 tenets (pillars) of Islam). Just arrived in Kuantan about 2 hours ago and at my sister-in-law's residence. Most of my wife's other siblings are also back. From KL mostly, except one from Penang. Everybody's back except one family still in KL. When big oh well, huge families go back to their kampongs, it's always the rooming problems haha. The eldest usually get the best suite, ensuite (with attaching bathroom and all hehe). The rest, according to seniority and pecking order...hahaha. Well not really, some depends on how much more your mother in law loves your wife (wink). If your status is your Lordship (a datuk) or at best a Baroness (makdatin)..then the perk varies again..hahaha. Hmmm feudal system at work again. Imagine you're the youngest in the family and your husband is only a despatch boy with lots of kids, can't even afford a kancil and had to book the bus tickets months in advance, and everybody else is a dato' or a tan sri? You'd be lucky if you and your family get to sleep at the kitchen area. But, isn't that what Ramadan is all about? patience and surrenderance to Him? And what it is supposed to have taught you? Spluttering Humility rite? No, not that borgouise feasts at 6 star hotels or crates of grub fit for a King? Well, as usual..plenty of stuff to debate here. That's why I consider meself fashionably oxymoronic hahaha. I'd still think that I so have a pool of detractor followings hehe.

ok ok let get back to the foto above. That's an oil painting of what' left of the house of my wife's grandparents at Pulau Jawa, Pekan. Late Grandpa-in-Law was the late Sultan Abu Bakar's boatman and late great Grandma-in-Law was the current Sultan's nanny. The house in the picture used to be the focal point, the converging spot for the whole Abu Bakar clan. The parents, in malay culture, are always the unifying factor. When they are gone, the siblings go their own separate ways, well mostly, and repeat the rituals with their own families all over again (I hope!). Oh I forgot, for the last 2 years my family and I have been downgraded to a 3 star lodging house...somewhere nearby The Ritz-Carlton of Kuantan (wink) uwaa uhu hu hu..but my wife isn't complaining even though she is the eldest in the family. I am the Taro Aso kicking up the big fuss here...hehe. Upon reflection, I too, may do the same when our parents are gone. I guess we won't be soo eager to balik kampong for Hari Raya then. We will celebrate it wherever we may be, Paris? London? New York? Perth? Chicago? (hahaha yeah..you wish!) or just Jakarta or Bandung perhaps?.....wishing friends who took time off reading my blogpost, Salam Eid Mubarak! Maaf Zahir & Batin...

of depression and retirement?...

Testing my samsung omnia 5 megapixel fon camera. That's how cluttered my private desk is...haha. Slightly relieved as I just emailed my regular column at bodyshopnewsAsia in Sydney. Still one more to go for them and two more I promised Datuk A Kadir Jasin for his Malaysian Business. Lepas Raya lar kot. It's 3.05 AM here at Kelana Jaya, Quiet as I think most people dah balik kampong. Seems like bailouts by governments are becoming fashionable yet again haha. Paulson the US treasury secretary tersengeh tadi on CNN/BBCWorld happy that the bailout of AIG got approval from both democrats and republicans. In the UK, another bank is nationalised joining the ranks of Northern Rocks. This is really the year of bear sterns, freddie mae, merrill lynch, lehman brothers and AIG...ok ok..I shal not spoil your hari raya mood with all the financial crisis and possible meltdowns...probably worse than The Great Depression of 1929. As Kennneth Gailbraith once said 'Men have been swindling other men. But in the autumn of 1929, men succeeded in swindling themselves!' Just wanna share with you an email I received from Michael Smith, secetary-general of RCAR on his retirement. We wish him well, farewell my friend...

Dear Khaeruddin,

You will have seen my letter to all the RCAR Members thanking them for the wonderful presents we received in Paris . It really was very kind of everyone. However, I felt I should write to you to thank you for your personal kindness. The gift of the Pierre Balmain leather desk set was most generous and also it will be very useful. Very many thanks.

I was delighted that MRC were elected to full membership. I think this was a combination of the work that you are doing at present and also the very interesting presentations that you gave in Paris - although I only attended part of the Technical Conference it was the important part as I heard both your presentations.

Patricia joins me in wishing you and your wife the very best for the future. I know you have your own retirement coming up in a few years and I hope that that goes very well. I can certainly recommend the additional time one gets after stopping full time work.

Very kind regards,

Michael

Solat Hajat Perdana SBPIK...

MRC managing director handing over the notebook to the principal of SBPI Kuantan...

Friday September 12th, 2008 was an important day for us (MRC) and me especially, as that evening I was guest of honour (again) breaking fast with 600 students and their parents at their fully residential school at Bandar Indera Mahkota in Kuantan, Pahang. We then adjourned to the school's mosque for the special Perdana Prayers to seek blessings from Allah for the wellbeing of our children (except my children, none are schooling there..hehe) who will be sitting for the coming PMR and SPM exams. I gave a 4 minute highspeed train motivation speech and also handed a notebook and a desktop to the school as promised in my speech at their awards ceremony last year. It is a small donation on our part but I hope it will trigger other parents to come together and collectively contribute to the school via the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association). We also donated in cash, just a small token sum, to help pick up the tab for that evening's food bills. A most trying thing happened that evening, just before the maghreb solat. My driver left the car keys in the trunk of the car and closed it. Ya ya I phoned everywhere, AAM, my chaps in KL....eventually 'Nicholas Cage 60 minutes' of Kuantan came to the rescue..and I was RM200 poorer...uwaa .... juz to get the keys out so we can go home to Kuala Lumpur that same night...

RCAR2008...some eclectic fotoblog...dah malas...Bonjour..hehe

Lucina Espinosa, Jennifer Accosta Huato, Maurico Ruiz Correa, me, Joes Aurello Ramalho, Daniela Costa Almeda,Giovanna Petrabon, and Catalina Preito, waiting for the coach to take us for the farewell dinner aboard a yatch crusing the scenic River Seine in the middle of Paris with a night view of the Eiffel Tower...hehe

Antonino Arrigo (MD CESTAR Italy), Ignacio Juarez Perez (MD CESVIMAP,Spain), me (MD MRC Malaisie), Jose Manual Carcano (Centro Zarazoga) and Angel MArtinez Alvarez (Directeur-General CESVI Mexico)

with my latino frens, squatting is Victor Orihuela (CESVI Mexico)...

Tapani Alaviin (Finland) and his wife , retiring secretary-general RCAR Michael A Smith and pardon excuse moir..me hehe

Andrew Miller, THATCHAM UK's Director of Research taking through the salient features of RCAR's future Strategic Direction at the final day of the global meet in Paris

montmartre street

picasso wannabes at montmartre..hehe

modern day picasso waiting for someone to draw...haha ...a visit to paris without taking the funiculaire train up the montmartre, would utterly be incomplete..hehe

again, another picasso trying to finish his monumental oil painting..hehe

if you like history, don't forget Versailles, where the refinement and eclecticism of Marie-Antoinette, emphasises her way of living and freedom of thought that was inspired by enlightenment theories (unlike templer's conspiracy theories at rennes de chateau which is further way at the pyranees...hehe). No wonder eventually both she and King Louis XVI was beheaded ..hmmmm

my 2nd and final country report/research paper at the global meeting...

sharing with fellow RCAR members (26 insurance-backed research centres from 19 countries) our efforts at eradicatiing cut&joint vehicles in malaysia...

MRC is a member of the international P-Safe committee...

where the week-long meeting is being held in Paris, the Groupama HQ, France's largest insurer

Earnest Hemingway (the famous novelist) joint at REIMS, champagne district, about 2 hours out of Paris on the way to Brussels, Prague, Budapest..

On wednesdays, the children in France don't go to schools. Its their day out visiting agricultural exhibits in town. France is, like other european nations, a predominantly agrarian society and the fabric of their social and economic activity is still very much cooperative-based...industrial sector aside..

the new secretary-general of RCAR, Wilf Bedard of Canada, in deep thought during proceedings...

also in deep thought, Fabian Pons, gerenti-generale CESVI Argentina, ramalho CESVI Brasil and steering committee chairman, Robert McDonald of AIG, Australia...

yucks...ya ya..that's where I break my fast almost everyday...turkish kebabs...ok aah...can't complain..quite tasty actually...hahaha

RCAR2008...Day 2...

welcome dinner menu...

the dessert of the welcome dinner on sunday nite...

Ya ya I know your're fasting. So am I ok? The first day session (on monday) was at at 8, 10 rue d' Atorg yesterday. Tuesday and till friday, will be at building 21, rue Malesherbes. While bloging this post i was also simultaneously chatting on Gchat with my fren pengeran hassanul of Universiti Malaysia Sabah and he asked me to visit a place he was infatuated with a long long time ago, rennes-le-chateau where it seemed the templer conspiracy theory originated. But that's at the Pyranees..omg...bloody faraway man! hahaha.

Tuesday technical session was really heavy and plenty. We startedat 9 and it wasn't over till 6 pm. Topics range from Thatcham's global vehicle security standards, IAG australia motocycle design guide, Bumpe teting at IIHS USA, report of the RCAR crash test working group by Hartmuth Wolff of Germany, review of global vehicles by State Farm USA, to access to non-oems and the norwegian body repair market by NARC Norway....fulamak...berat, berat...hehe. I was seated next to my good ole fren Jan Erik Skar of Norway and he was sharing his experiences when he worked with Renault and observed the working culture of the French..an obsession with approximations and they would have lots of committee meetings ( reminds me of someone at level ape ek? hehe) before agreeing to something as opposed to when he was working with BMW where the culture is that of precision and creativity. Probably because BMW wasin Bavaria, south of Germany nd close tothe Italian border. The italians love to sketch ( Da Vinci)...they sketch, the germans at Bavaria make them a reality. Erik, as we chatted also told me that it is also probably because the Germans in Bavaria and more relaxed and much more freindlier because they are mostly Catholics unlike their protestant cousins say in Frankfurt. Ok I gotta go now, visiting the French countryside today, gotta washup...don't want to be left behind by the coach ok? ....another long day before buka puasa beb...hehe..ciao for now...

RCAR2008 Paris..day 1...

my paper day 1 of the meeting yeterday sept 15th at rue d' astorg, Groupama Global Headquarters, one of Fance's largest insurers...

seated on same table as delegates from Kart Korea and Cesvi Mexico

the louvre glass pyramid museum is at the rear of this hotel

Arc de Triomphe..

MRC's country/research report was presented this morning after State Farm, USA and CESVI Spain. CESVI France, came after my presentation. MRC's 2nd and last country paper/research (cut & joint vehicle scenario in malaysia) for this RCR2008 meeting, will be on friday. Asian stocks are battered as I blog this post at 4.40am in my hotel room in Paris while having my sahur. Earlier today, major global financial/economic tremors: the US wall street meltdown when Lehman Brothers after being around for over 150 years, filed for chapter 11 (the US equivalent of bankruptcy), Merrill Lynch bought over by Bank of America and AIG the world's largest insurance company is struggling to survive. Its shares fell 60% yesterday. All these a result of the housing slump. So, the subrime saga is reall not over...hmmm. While blogging this my mind is thinking about our own scenario at home...all is not well? Please tell me all is well...uwaaa. ok folks..need to finish of my curry maggi...will update later today...ciao...

RCAR2008 Paris...

View from my hotel room...in Paris..

juz a close-up...

Vincent Claeys, Director CESVI France manning the reception desk since this morning at the lobbly of The Concorde Saint-Lazare at the heart of Paris...

When the triple seven didn't touch down, more like it came down with thud, you can imagine how the flight must have been. Yes, one of those rare flights where almost all along the way, the flight was quite turbulent. The headwind was strong. 13 hours on the air...ya ya blame it on the current global weather conditions. Our annual global research council for automobile repairs (RCAR http://www.rcar.org/) 2008 hosted by CESVI France this year, begins in a few hours, with the standard cocktail/welcome dinner. MRC Malaysia (http://www.e-mrc.com.my/) was invited to be a member at the similar annual meeting in Berlin in 2004. MRC is a subsidiary of HeiTech Padu Berhad (http://www.heitech.com.my/) and MNRB Holdings Berhad, both main board public listed companies. I will be presenting 2 country reports 1) the malaysian motor insurance claims monitor and 2) the cut & joint vehicle scenario in malaysia.

Its early autumn but I underestimated how cold it is...burrrr am shivering while blogging this post. To make matters worse, its sunday, all the shops are closed and I didn't bring along my sweater. And breaking fast is only at 8.05 pm local time...uwaaaaa. Will update the proceedings of the meeting..if I am not too tired, too cold or if I can stay awake to blog it...hahaha....

cheaper by the dozen?...

that was my buka puasa at bukit kiara equestrian club yesterday while waiting for my other exco members at our monthly executive committee meeting hull university alumni association in malaysia...the president must set a good example and must always be the first to arrive...

Fasting month, I always look forward to this holy month and try to derive the most of it (in malay we say (mendapat menafaat sepenuhnya). I may have my other naughty human frailty obsessions or innocent vices but when it comes to fasting, the training, regimentation by my late father was something that became second nature, to me. Its a given and you observe the fasting with full surrenderance to Him Allah Almighty swt. By the age of 7, no excuses but we were all made to fast. Try it for half a day, was how it all began and soon practice makes it well not perfect but yes to become not something dreadful but a pleasurable duty as a good muslim should. Don't worry folks, I am not about to go into deeper discussions as to the scientific benefits of fasting.

I was reading stuff to prepare for this interview session tomorrow between 1130am to 1 pm at kulliyah ekonomi & pengurusan international islamic university, Gombak campus, where 4 undergrads will grill me on issues in compensation and benefits management, TV style, watched by 45 other undergraduates, when i stumbled upon this article below on management Gurus which brought back nostalgia of my early years of basic management theory. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth was one of those management gurus in the league, the likes of Frederick Taylor, Elton Mayo and many others in those days...enjoy the article below from the Economist:

Gurus
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
Sep 5th 2008 From Economist.com

Frank (1868-1924) and Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972) brought together two of the main streams of management thinking over the past 100 years. On the one hand, they followed the pioneering work in time and motion studies begun by Frederick Winslow Taylor, and on the other they developed the study of workplace psychology. Frank, who began his working life as a bricklayer, closely observed the ways in which different men performed the task and came to conclusions about the most efficient way. In one case he increased the rate of laying bricks from 1,000 a day to 2,700 a day. Lillian wrote a thesis on the psychology of management and her first notable publication, “Psychology in the Workplace”, was serialised in a journal of the Society of Industrial Engineers. The two subdivided workers’ hand movements into 17 different units, which they called “therbligs” (Gilbreth backwards, except for the t and the h). Doctors to this day owe a debt to them, since it was Frank who first came up with the idea that surgeons should use a nurse as “a caddy” to hand them their instruments as and when they were needed. Previously surgeons had searched for and fetched their own instruments while operating. The Gilbreths are generally considered as one unit. But Frank married Lillian when he was 36, after he had done much of his time-and-motion work and years after he had set up his own engineering consulting business. He died only 20 years later, after the couple had produced 12 children, who limited the amount of time they had to work together.

Lillian lived on for another 48 years after Frank’s death, continuing to work and give seminars for much of that time. Famously, she travelled to Europe a few days after her husband’s death in 1924 to fulfil a speaking engagement in Prague that he had undertaken. She was a redoubtable woman, forging a career in a discipline—management in the engineering industry—where women were not at the time taken seriously. Often called “the first lady of management”, she was also the first female member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In recent years the Gilbreths’ work has largely disappeared from the management canon, with time-and-motion studies mostly associated with Taylor.

The couple are best remembered for a book written by two of their 12 children (Ernestine and Frank junior). Called “Cheaper by the Dozen” (first published in 1946), it has been turned into films and TV series that have little to do with the real lives of the Gilbreths, apart from the fact that they had twelve children. And even that was not quite the truth, since one of their children (the second) died of diphtheria when she was only six years old. They never actually had twelve offspring alive at the same time. The title of the book was taken from the answer Frank is alleged to have given when people asked him how he came to have so many children: “Because they come cheaper by the dozen.”

Lillian Gilbreth was included in the US National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995.

anything can be predicted?....

I picked up a few books last week at kunikuniya (gawd, its soo difficult to remember this japanese bookshop's name at KLCC! to assist or trigger people's instant recognition, I have a malay name for it...konekukecewa...hahaha...ezier to remember rite?). Am reading the first one now (the pix above). The author, Ian Ayres, is a professor at Yale, both in the Law School and in the School of Management, as well as a lawyer and author (Wadi please take note). He is a regular commentator on National Public radio in America and a columnist for Forbes magazine. A contributor to the New York Times and editor of the Journal of Law, Economics and Organizations and he has written eight books. This book of his, 'Super Crunchers: How Things can be Predicted' starts the chapter with examples of the mathematician who out-predicted wine buffs in determining the best vintages, and sports scouts who now use statistics rather than intuition to pick winners. This book exposes the hidden patterns all around us. The new way to be smart, savvy and statistically superior is the suggestion that no businessperson, academic, student or consumer (statistically that's everyone...hehe) should make another move without getting to grips with 'thinking by numbers'. I have said this many times to my MBA students and to many HR well HC (Human Capital as is fashionably termed these days!) people that inorder for you to be strategic is to be at the table and not on the table (boardroom). The only way to gain respect from your colleagues/peers is to be numerate and an impressive number cruncher. I like the part when Ian quoted Upton Sinclair (and now Al Gore) who said: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it" haha...sounds familiar isn't it? I won't spoil your fun now. Go get your own copy you hear? ciao...time for my beauty sleep..hehe.

intellectual laziness...?

I felt some kind of laziness, some unexplainable fatigue. Was it a sign of the times? the mismatch between my biological and physiological age? the current political and economic climate of the country? the impending global recession we read in financial periodicals? the predictable pattern of Japanese Prime Ministers' resignations? When I read Wadi's blogpost I realised...yes...its what we call intellectual laziness. Nothing could describe it better than the email which was sent to me by my MBA classmate last night at my gmail address. I have planned,registered and abandoned my doctoral candidacy a few years ago. I have been constantly pressured by my academic friends (Datuk Prof Ibrahim A Bajunid, Assoc Prof Rasid, Prof Roselina, Prof Fauzi..to name a few and the list goes on...) to register for my PhD,EdD or DBA. I should have got it 2 or 3 years ago...but you can't get through life saying you should have done this or that right? hehe.

"Intellectual Laziness

Intellectual pursuits are not exclusively reserved for the scholars. I believe ordinary folks like you and me can engage ourselves to seek basic /advanced knowledge and understanding of the very purpose of our existence to enable us to earn the pleasure of our Rabb. However, with the present hectic lifestyles and too much distractions/seductions in our daily lives, we keep on deferring this activitiy until we almost forget about it.

As muslims/muslimahs, we all acknowledged and accepted Qur'an as the book of Allah swt. How many of us had read the WHOLE translation of the Qur'an, not to mention the tafseer?. If we do not read, we do not know. If we do not know, how could we think? If we do not think, how could we understand? If we do not understand, how could we get the meaning? Knowledge only comes with the arrival of meaning at our souls!I hate to conclude that we are mostly very lazy, me included. Below is an article I copied from Nasiha.com which explains the issue better than the personal dialogue above:-

It is unfortunate that intellectual laziness has become widespread among today's Muslims, and they have come to prefer rest and idleness over striving and struggling. Luxury and all forms of useless curiosity have become a purpose of life for them, and pleasures have become a goal for them, such that they have no time left for studying and seeking knowledge. Their state has come to resemble that referred to by Imam Ahmad ibn Faris al-Razi, the philosophist born in 329 AH, died 395 AH, may Allah have mercy on him, when he said:

If you are harmed by the heat of summer

And the dryness of autumn and the cold of winter

And you are distracted by the beauty of springtime

Then tell me: when will you seek knowledge?!
Compiled From: "The Value of Time" - Abd Al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah"

So there you are? Perhaps I should rethink and actually get that PhD? Some say it's not necessary. While it does have its merit and advantages, I do believe that it can have its disadvantages too, depending upon circumstances. While it is revered, a prerequisite in academia, it sometimes can make you a bit overqualified for a job. Well, it's a matter of interpretation and perceptions again. You may disagree with me, but whatever it is, acquiring it would be a challenge as I count the days to my impending retirement. I was watching 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' on ASTRO awhile ago and Steve Jobs of Apple computers (in the movie) when he launched the Macintosh PC quoted Picasso 'A good artist copy, a great artist steal' Hahahaha...eh hello, I am not suggesting anything here ok?...just make sure you guys fast and get your 'sahur' in a couple of hours ok?

first day of the fasting month....

nice, cool, breezy, wintry but a sunny day...

the next day..it occured while I was speaking inside the sydney darling-harbour convention centre recently...

Ramadan (fasting month) is here again. Wishing all my loyal fellow muslim readers 'selamat mengerjakan ibadat puasa'. No, there is absolutely no conection at all between the sydney fotos above and the fasting month. It's supposed to be a quiet, repentant, and sin-cleansing month. I saw the fotos on my phone and uploaded it onto my blogpost. I thought I had alot to say, after not having blogged the last couple of days but after I read my good friend Deepak's interview in the newspapers, who is apparently a cyberlaw expert...I become much more cautious now plak.. and the words do not flow easily as it used to!..hehe. Enjoy the rest of the merdeka holiday..