Category: Ranting Is a Right

Not another rant about the Malaysian government?

This is not my first complaint. Just had one not too long ago. You can read it here.

Went to Duta’s immigration office to make Liam’s passport today. We reached there just before 1pm and found the passport office was dark, as in literally all the lights had been switched off.

According to a personnel who was there, the office was closed between 1pm-2pm.

I was annoyed because there’s no notice on changes with operation hours on website or anywhere.

If you know Bahasa Malaysia, it says operation hours during fasting month is 8.30am – 5.30pm. Sounds fair. No mention of 1pm-2pm rest time though.

As you can see, normal operation hours is 7.30am – 5.30pm. No mention of afternoon breaks too, except for the Friday which is for prayers.

So who sanctioned that afternoon break!?

I guess I am lucky that I have flexible hours so I can suck it and deal with it. But really, with such bloated civil service, how hard is it to keep operations going by having staggered breaks??

Half of the staff work while half of the staff take a break. After one hour, the one who rested start work and the one who worked could rest for an hour. Like this also difficult meh!? Simple logic no? But no no no no no, everyone rests and the rest of Malaysians get their toll, petrol, time and work leaves wasted for no reason.

This sort of inefficiency really gives me the angrys!!!

What about normal tax paying working people that have to go all the way to the government office during lunch break only to find that the shutters are down because they have decided to “rest” for an hour. Pay tax for this kind of shitty service?

With other companies, if I don’t like their service I can boycott the brand, stop buying their products or service. But hello, I can’t boycott getting a passport?

Anyway, I went to have lunch at the nearby Publika and went back at 2.30pm. It was pleasant, paid up etc and got a slip to come back to collect the passport after an hour. So, instead of waiting we went off to Publika (5 minutes away) to get some groceries, got back to the goverment office at 4.58pm and guess what??

Lights all turned off again! *&^*&^$%%$&^%$&^%$&^*&^(*&)*&$&^

What is this!? 5.30pm closing time right? Why not yet 5pm already closed??

Not a single soul in sight. Don’t know if sleeping behind the counters or gone home already. Who knows? Mind you I am not in some sleeping town type of branch, I am in Duta branch! Next to one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Malaysia.

These people really have no pride in their jobs. All they want is more rest, more rest and more rehat.

Don’t make it so easy for people to insult you can or not? Be professional! Have pride in your jobs!

Like I always say, I feel most sorry about being a Malaysian whenever I go to the government office. The chaos, the slightly run down amenities, the awful charts and farce of inspiring slogan after slogan, the attitude. Everything is just a hint, a taste of the state of our nation.

Malaysian school-going children are doomed!!!!

I was browsing Facebook and then I stumbled upon a post. So much rage coursed through my veins after looking at the pictures posted. SO. MUCH. RAGE.

How could something like this get published and sold to our school-going children?

I shudder to imagine what kind of adults they will become.

CONFIRM BLUR LIKE SOTONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First things first, please remember this book cover and avoid it like the plague:

Fortunately, the parents who bought the book in the Facebook post are educated enough to know that the proverbs have been lost in translation but what about parents who are not so educated?

What’s the point of getting educated if the quality of education is horrifically subpar? How can these children improve and be better than the previous generations??

This is appalling!

To show how bad the translations are, I’ve taken to re-translate the malay translations myself and put in the correct ones too.




I had so much anger while doing this, so if you spotted any mistake please let me know in the comments below, thank you!

Last but not least, this is the publisher of said abomination…BOYCOTT!

My son turns 2 month old and just a teeny bit of rant

Liam has just turned two month old, however his adjusted age is just shy of 10 day old :)

Here are pictures of me and Liam because the light was nice and we were both wearing white :)

Whenever we say that we do not have help (ie: confinement lady or a relative) with Liam, we’re always met with surprise, followed by mild sympathy. Honestly, don’t feel sorry for us as it’s a choice we made. And one we are glad we did.

We just knew very early on that having “help” will frustrate us more than anything. The last thing we needed was for someone to insist that I sleep in another room away from my baby just so I could “rest”. Or someone making comments about my parenting skills. Or someone doing something stupid to my baby because of some housewife’s tale.

No wonder so many new mothers who go through with traditional chinese confinement end up getting so stressed up. The stress I believe affect the milk supply of breastfeeding mothers too. Babies who lack maternal skin contact also tend to be colicky (contrary to belief, colic is not just about wind it means crying for no reason and baby lacking of motherly contact are fussy as hell). Lets not even start with the sheer ridiculousness of the confinement diet.

No drinking of plain water, anyone?

When Liam was in NICU, a relative told me that she thought my doctor was scamming us because another relative who was premature did not need to stay in NICU. I guess if my premature baby stopped breathing at home, this relative would be able to resuscitate him for me because obviously she knows better?

And then, there was someone who sent me an article about how babies lose 10% of oxygen while strapped in car seats. I suppose I should then risk my baby being flung out of car in the event of an accident then? Honestly, people!!!

What new parents need are encouragement, support and kind words. Fresh, healthy food. Heck, even unsolicited advice are fine as long as they are scientific, logical and beneficial. At the risk of sounding crass, yes, money is great too. Just don’t come and tell me not to do this or that cause I’d get wind and will suffer in 30 years.

Seriously, who doesn’t suffer from aches and pains and farts when they’re 60? Don’t be foolish can?

Anyway, enough of ranting. The past two months have been a heck of an experience but we wouldn’t have it any other way :)