Cooking is Easy, but...

Being a foodie, (or glutton) i truly enjoy good food. Staying in Penang is a boon to my gluttony (or foodie) since the place is blessed with loads of delicious food.

Watching Asian Food Chanel frequently somewhat convince me that i too, could cook. During an outing, i tried to put this "can do" mood into good use and tried to cook some chicken curry myself. To my horror.. it ain't delicious as i am hoping. The taste is fine, but not as good as i hoped for.

This is the look of my first attempt chicken curry!

It doesn't look good. Right?

The conclusion to this post is that, cooking is easy but cooking great food is not! it requires lot of thing. From now onwards, i'll appreciate more all the good food. Thank God for giving me a mother with great cooking skills. Let's hope i'll get a capable wife to do the same. Hahaha!

Anyway, since i am hungry... let say it helps me to eat my own cooking. It is as if i am tormented by my own cooking. Fortunately my friend says it is "OK" for a 1st timer. Phew!!

Thanks Bonda for doing it tirelessly for us everyday.

Only God can repay you.

P/S: Going to hug my mom for this... certainly!!

My Concern: Food Issues

Food is a necessity for everyone, but it is not strong enough to attract people to participate in agricultural sector. This is very frightening... especially for a food lover like me. (Being a large sized person highlight the significance of food issues to me)

Most farmers in this country is at their 50's-late 60's. There is not any youngster who are interested with agriculture as it wasn't cool enough for us enroll. The problem can be contributed to our mindset that successful people only limited to those who work in big office... even as some fishy executive position with low pay. A friend of mine, make a living just from selling lemon grass (serai) and catfish (keli) makes around RM5,000 per month. He planted the lemon grass and rear the fish in a tank himself. Pretty awesome for a field job right? My law degree worth around RM2,300 if i am employed by the Government.

Agriculture is a business in its own right. All human beings is potential customer. Right? So this is a pretty darn good business but no.. no.. some people prefer to join some lousy Multi Level Marketing (MLM) which frequently employ some pyramid scheme with some hint of ponzi scheme. I don't understand why some people willing to walk door to door, visiting thousand home with probability being chased away by people or some naughty dog, rather than toil the land and get the results.

Currently we are having global food shortage, with number of people being denied to this basic necessity increasing each day. With agrarian economy shifting to an industrialized one, more fertile lands worldwide, along with its workforce shifting into manufacturing industry. Countries like India, China and Vietnam, used to be food exporter are now importing them (except for Vietnam, but exporting at a smaller scale)

All the shoes, cars, tyres, computer & cellphone produced could not replace a plate of rice in any scenario which involves starvation. This is the reason why we, as a nation, need to produce food sufficiently. Malaysia imports her food supply from her neighbour, but this position won't last forever especially when our food exporting neighbour are turning into industrial based economy themselves. The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam is heading towards industrialization rapidly.

Following above mentioned concerns, here is my proposal to bail us out from a potential hungry future;

1. Redistribute unused land to the people for agricultural activity.
2. Provide better financing terms for this sector.
3. Introduce a large scale farms, which is more efficient in productivity rather than small farm used by traditional farmers.
4. Put more artificial reefs in our seas to promote growth of our seafood resource.
5. Balance production of cash crops (palm oil & rubber) with food crops (paddy and vegetables)
6. Provide better seeds and breed to the farmer.
7. Spend more in R&D for food production. Thailand could have up to four Paddy planting season a year (translating that paddy could be harvested every 3 month while Malaysia, at best with two paddy planting season)
8. Reduce taxation for this sector to attract both investor and participation of youngster to make more money. I rather see our food producer getting hefty subsidy and trade protection than our Proton. Not all people use car but all people needs to eat.
9. Encourage people to be part of agricultural industry with better rewards.
10. Utilize unused land throughout the country. Sarawak, Sabah, Johor, Pahang & Kelantan have abundant of empty land. Use them!!

These are ideas i could think of at 4.02 am.. i could do better during daylight. I suppose. I really wished our Agricultural Minister could do something about these issue. I also hope that people agrees with me that being a farmer is way more rewarding then being chased by dogs just to sell some outdated encyclopedia. Why not we test our farming skills in reality since everyone could easily be a successful farmer in Farmville.

P/S: I wish i could toil on a piece of land, let say a few acres planting tomatoes. Juicy tomatoes i'll say. I missed the day when i plant my own vegetables for my family consumption in my little garden.

I miss Home!!

this is a picture taken during my journey back.

it was taken during sunset

it reminds me of home and food.

miss my family, friends

and..

the glorious food!!

Lush Green!!

I like this photo so much!

The greenery is beautiful.

No editing was employed.

Me: A Stock Trader

Stock trading is a skill to make money. It is not as cool as other skills like singing, dancing, ability to play various musical instrument, sky diving, capoeira but still... money can buy loads of things. For this very reason we see people flocking to workplace every morning repeatedly.

I am writing this post not to brag but to correct certain people perception on stock trader;

1. Stock Trader generally refers to people who traded listed company shares in Stock Market.

Yes, we traded company shares based on their value. The valuation was made based on several benchmarking process. Putting that aside, we are not responsible for shortage of goods like rice, sugar, cooking oil and stuff. For that, blame it to retailers, distributors and manufacturers for their failure to supply the market adequately. Stocking and hoarding stuff is not our doing.

2. We can make RM10,000,000.00 in profits with just only RM1.00 capital.

It is undeniable that stock traders makes both profits and loses, but we don't print money for sure! Some people presume that we can multiply money miraculously without considering the environment. To make RM1000 in profit from RM10,000 is reasonable but to assume us could create RM10,000 from RM1,000 is insane!! This is, of course, given in short time span.

We don't have Gnomes printing for money or Dwarf working overtime mining riches for us.

Of course the header is an example of insanity from people's perception. LOL!

3. RM 5,000 for golf lessons but RM200 for stocks lessons... Sigh!

Every successful trader surely have suffered from losses & misfortune from trial and error of their beginner's day. These valuable experience makes them who they are today.

If you're willing to pay thousands for some ridiculous skill that gain you nothing (yeah, you might argue on all the non pecuniary benefits that you obtained but still... don't you need money to pay for the course in the first place?) but you're stingy when it come to knowledge on how to multiply your money.

I am saying this because this is what we are facing frequently. It irritates us. It is akin to, let say, you are proposing the most beautiful girl in town with the most cheapest ring you could find, and it is one ugly ring.

Have a nice day!!

Heaven is for Everyone

"Heaven", a concept believed by humanity.

It is a place, or destination where everyone wished to go in their afterlife. It is the motivation that drive all the faithful to willingly abide the divine rules, inspires people to be good and kind to each other. It is usually reserved for those whom are deemed worthy by their respective religion.

This place... "Heaven", motivates people to part with their hard earned money, to work for nothing in the name of religion for the betterment of their community, to be charitable, to be a loving person and many more great deeds. Isn't it a miracle on its own right?

The reason i write this post because recently, there is a disturbing comment i read in Facebook where a person call people of other religion as infidels and as a member of the hell just because that particular group of people belongs from another faith.

This is wrong. This is another type of extremism that views other as inferior to others. As a Muslim myself, i will say Islam is great, but that is not a justification for me to undermine other religion. Insulting remarks such as this just cast a bad light on that offender faith generally and that person specifically.

This disguise of "hollier than thou" attitude is just like racism, which employs "better & rightful than thou" attitude.

This is my own way to voice up my mind for a better future. What good can we do by disrespecting others? Being a victim of such remarks back in United Kingdom before, i know how it hurt when people said that i am going to hell just because i am a Muslim and refused to join their religion.

I don't know why i am offended with the remark... maybe because i have a Faith after all.

I dedicate this post to all of my friends who was offended by such people.