Experiences Makes What You Are Today

I had a flash in memory lane yesterday. I had a chat with an old friend named Megat who is now working in Qatar. He was my housemate back during my uni years in Melbourne Australia. He took a month leave from his busy life in Qatar (he is an engineer with an oil and gas company there) just to participate in voting in the recent General elections apart from getting aback with his friends here.

I forgot how the conversation started but along the line, we started talking about the various ‘odd’ part-time jobs we did back then during our 3-4 years stay in Australia. You see, for most of us JPA students, the monthly allowance was just enough to pay rent, food and other essential needs. To save for leisure, well… lets just say, we stocked up on ‘Maggi’. So, we worked to earn some extra cash.

In Australia, as students, our visas permit us to work a max of 20 hrs a week. So I started my first job in the university's café as a cleaner. Then after, I did a lot of other ‘odd’ jobs to survive. It ranges from a few days to 2-3 months. I delivered pizza, worked in a bakery, became a kitchen hand in an Asian restaurant, a cleaner at a shopping mall, picking fruits and vegetables, statistic analyst, administrative clerk at the Post Office, factory cleaner and painter, taxi driver, research assistant and a tutor. But the longest job I did was as a train cleaner. It supported my leisure and traveling needs for 2 years.

Cleaning trains was easy money and the job was fun. I clock in at 11.30 pm and finishes at 1 am everyday. I sometimes cycle 30 minutes to work or take a 10 minutes drive. That was my life then. It pays more than what JPA gave me. During holidays or times when I felt too tired to go to work, I will have my house mates join me. They get half of the day’s pay. So, Megat was amongst the frequent volunteers. I know he did not really need the money (he was a Petronas scholar) but he enjoys helping out a friend. I can never forget how many times he was there for me…..

In my opinion the experiences I went through in the jobs I did matured me to some extend. I learned the concept of humility, to appreciate others less fortunate, to really value ‘money’ and of course independencies. I know everyone has their own experiences to tell, I just wanted to share one of mine.

Hey that’s my 2 cents on the issue, what’s yours???

Election Is In The Air

I am not going to campaign or anything here, just wanted to say 'Happy Mengundi' to everyone. In this 12th General Election of Malaysia, I hope more of its citizents will embrace and perform their rights and obligations to VOTE.

I was really dissapointed when I got to know that two of my sisters will not be voting as they did not regiseter as a voter. I think if you are already 18 (an ADULT), you should be MATURE enough to know how important is the Elections. I hope all SEVians are registered voters and come out to vote tommorow. Who you choose to be your YBs are your discretions however, please think it hard as it will affect our future.

This will be my second time voting. In the 1999 elections, I was in Australia and thus could not vote. Back then I did not really know that you can vote at the emabssy. If I did know, I would surely cut class and travelled to Canberra (the embassy is located at the capital of Australia 800 km away from where I studied) to performed my duties. In the 2004 elections, I went proudly to affix my 'X' on the little piece of paper that shaped the country for the last 4 years. Now, I am really anxcious to do the same tommorrow.

This time, I will not give my 2 cents as I have realised (past experience) ..... sometimes differences in political views can cause cracks in relationships. Yes, I have lost friends due to politics, some families became distanced due to political stands and so on (you know what I mean). Anyway.... due to that, I will reserve my comments....

Flat World???

I have finally completed the book I was reading since 2-3 weeks ago (I told you guys before, I am a SLOW reader). As interesting the title of the book may sound, in my humble opinion, it’s too lengthy, wordy and if you are familiar with the author, Thomas L Friedman you would agree with me. Then again, he won the Pulitzer prize a 3 times for his work ... and this book was a best-seller quiet some time... Yes (for those who can guess), the book is titled ‘The World Is Flat’.
In brief, the book is about globalization and its affects to change. Friedman recounts a journey to Bangalore, India, when he realized globalization has changed core economic concepts. He suggests the world is "flat" in the sense that globalization has leveled the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries. Friedman recounts many examples of companies based in India and China that, by providing labor from typists and call center operators to accountants and computer programmers, have become integral parts of complex global supply chains for such companies as Dell, AOL, and Microsoft.
Friedman described 10 forces that flattened the world…. (actually, just refer to Ija’s blog on this).
So, what does this mean??? To me, if we continue to operate as we have previously and refuse to accept change, well in my opinion, we will definitely be left behind. Tg Farith has kept on mentioning about innovation and change (refer to Tg Farith's blog ). I guess, to get to the top and to stay on top (refer to Shariff's blog), to need to seriously thinking about innovation and explore new opportunities.

Anyway, we have no real idea how the 21st century's history will unfold, but this terrifically stimulating book will certainly inspire readers to start thinking it all through.

Hey, that’s my 2 cents on the issue, what’s yours???