Why Can't I Question the "Social Contract"?

Let’s not mince our words; the “Social Contract” as laid out in the Malaysian Federal Constitution is official racism of the most absurd and blatant of its kind. The “Social Contract” as it was first established under Article 153 of the Federal Constitution grant the Malays special rights and privileges irrespective of even if they are millionaires, just as long as your skin is of a certain colour.

The “Social Contract” originated during independence when the “pendatang” or foreigners (mainly Chinese and Indians) were given the special privilege of citizenship in exchange for the Malays being given “special privileges” as the indigenous people of Malaya. The special privileges include “Malay” entitlement in the areas of business and economy, quotas for certain trade licences, education and public scholarships, quotas into public universities, civil service and politics. Then in 1969, when the ruling UMNO party lost it’s parliamentary majority after the elections and hundreds of Malays ran amok and went on a killing spree at the expense of the Chinese, the New Economic Policy (NEP) was establish to further extend the “Social Contract” which was meant to be only temporary and was recommended to be reviewed after the first fifteen years as advised by the “Reid Commission” which prepared the framework for the Constitution. It was due for review in 1972 but after the May 1969 riots and with a state of emergency declared, it passed without incident.

That’s a bit of history and now the hard questions. I know that the “Social Contract” is not meant to be questioned or challenged but what the hell.

1. Would it not be better for the government to improve funding and cut out corruption in the education sector and improve the overall quality of the education in Malaysia than to reserve certain quotas for Malays irrespective if they’ve earned their place in the institutions of higher learning or not? Would placing quotas based on your skin colour only alienate the other races who will have to work harder, earn more money and fund their own education overseas and after they’re done to never return to Malaysia, choosing to stay on in the country that gave them their higher education as staying on and working there would earn them ten times more than if they returned to their corrupt and racist mother land? The local graduates on the other hand, when they “graduate” are left wanting and can hardly cope with the rigours that face them in the real world. Employers on the other hand are weary of local graduates especially those that made it based on their skin colour.

2. Would it not be better to develop social welfare policies that helped the genuine poor irrespective of their skin colour, that is, help the poor rather than help based on your skin colour? If you are Malay, and are very well off why should you be helped over a poor person just because of your skin colour? No proponent of the “social contract” has given a satisfactory answer to this question to date. Undoubtedly the NEP was designed to help the cronies in the ruling UMNO party rather than to genuinely help any poor person Malay or otherwise.

3. Would it not be better to lift the uncompetitive protection given to the national carmaker “Proton” after so many years, so they can compete on their own two feet? Get the best brains, best training and best quality process in place to make it a national car that the whole country can be proud of instead of the butt of all the jokes even if this means hiring more of people of other races? Why not give the majority of Malaysian citizens the choice to choose other cars of higher quality without imposing such heavy duties to protect Proton? Why would you protect one company at the expense of the other millions of Malaysians? Why do Malaysians have to suffer driving a substandard car at over inflated prices to protect Proton and its cronies?

4. How do you justify an across the board discount for property purchase for Malays when some of these people could be very wealthy? Where is the equity and fairness when a Malay millionaire could purchase a property cheaper than a poor non-Malay because of this institutionalised racism that exist?

5. Would it not be more appropriate if the government could improve skills training to those that needed it most instead of imposing law that requires local companies to meet the hiring quota for Malay people? Many of these companies hire the Malays just to “comply” but the driving force of the companies is the other races. Would that then improve the skills of these “dead wood” that would otherwise just remain dead wood?

6. If there is some law in the constitution agreed or otherwise fifty years ago and if we knew it to be bull shit, could we not question it and amend it if it would be better for the country to do so? All the indicators and also common sense tells us that the social contract is one of the most regressive, absurd and utterly racist policies that exist for Malaysia and it’s hurting the reputation, business environment, competitiveness, quality of life, education and almost every aspect of life as we know it in Malaysia and the only people who don’t want to amend it are the UMNO politicians and their cronies that are benefitting inequitably from the policy. They rape, pilfer and rob the nation with the help of the “social contract” and are enriched so unimaginably and will go to any lengths to ensure it remains that way, even threatening riots and death to anyone who questions the social contract.

The social contract is not working to its initial goal and everyone knows it, even UMNO but its initial goal is no longer a goal worth fighting for and there is a new goal to enrich UMNO and its cronies beyond anyone’s wildest imagination and in order for this new goal to be achieved with vigour, this “social contract” need to remain in place. Anyone questioning the social contract needs to be put in their place either by using a host of draconian laws like the ISA, Sedition Act, Communication and Multimedia Act, Printing Act etc. to be muzzled forever. Malaysia Boleh!

http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/from-around-the-blogs/35426-why-cant-i-question-the-qsocial-contractq

My Trip

Well I just got back from one hectic 8 flights, 10 cities total of 25 hours in direct flying time and equal in taxi trips to the airport and airport waiting time in 7 days and I'm buggered. I did Perth -- KL -- Jakarta -- Singapore -- Hong Kong -- Shenzhen -- Dongguan -- Shenzhen -- Shanghai -- Dongguan -- Guangzhou -- KL -- Seremban -- Perth in just 7 days and to say that I'm tired is the understatement of the year. In fact while typing this up I can still hear the roar of the aeroplene engines ringing in my ears. My body is still but the mind is travelling at 800 km/h at 36,000 feet. Seem like out of a total of 7 days, 2 full days were spent on travelling, although it seems more than that.

To add to the gruelling schedule one missed flight and one leg straight from the club to the airport with a total of 3 hours sleep over a two day period makes for one gruelling trip. I averaged around 3 hours of sleep per day and 4 hours if lucky, comprised mainly of late nights romps with friends followed by early morning flights to the next destination.

So what did I get up to?

Well the main purpose of the visit was to go to the World Expo and to experience the commerce in the southern Pearl River Delta economic region of Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The Jakarta trip was a last minute call we made due to some insistence of our friends in Indonesia who wanted to show us what their country had to offer. This meant that on the first day I had flown from Perth to KL (bypassing Jakarta), waited a few hours for the next flight back down from KL to Jakarta (another 2 hours) and another 1 hour wait for my ride to pick me up from the Jakarta International Airport due to the notorious jakarta traffic and another 1.5 hours back to our hotel in Mangga Dua. I had enough time for a quick shower only to be brought to a club to meet some other contacts who were supposed to be important locals who we were told were worth our time meeting up with. As the case is with Jakarta business men and being a Friday, we only managed to pry ourselves away from the group at about 5am, went back to the hotel and slept probably about 6am only to wake up at 9am unable to sleep any further, strange noises still ringing in my head.

The next day was some massages, a fantastic traditional Sundanese meal and a quick stop at the mall to get some sundries before heading off to meet some other friends at another club. This time round we had to wrap up the nights activities around 4 am to head straight to the airport to catch the 7am flight to Singapore onward to Hong Kong and straight into southern China via Hong Kong, not the best route but needed to be done as one our mates hadn't arranged for a China visa, leaving the Hong Kong -- Shenzhen border the only viable alternative to apply for a full China visa within the hour. It turned out this friend could not make the trip to China anyway, but our tickets were already purchased leaving the rest of us with valid visas to make the ridiculously gruelling trip anyway, when a direct flight from Jakarta to Guangzhou would have sufficed and saved us the pain. When you've only had 3 hours sleep in the last 48 hours, the last thing you need is to travel thousands of miles though cities which you don't need to go to, and a long wait at the airports for connecting flights which you should never be taking in the first place to get to your destination only about 6 hours away. The leg which started at 7am ended at 11pm at our hotel in Dongguan!!

Has China Progressed?

Economically, China has progressed as everyone knows but socially and behaviourally, not much. I was in China 5 and 7 years ago and China has progressed in how they behave due to the constant effort by the government to teach the people proper etiquette and behaviour but it's still quite common to see people spitting on the pavement, jumping the queues and atrocious driving habits. Signs in the World Expo reading "One Step Forward" in front of the urinals which I assume was meant to say "Please take a step forward" when doing your wee wee make me conclude that either they pee all over the place or they have short dicks. Other signs read "Don't Climb" on the railing guiding the long queues leading me to think it was intended for those who climbed the railings just to get ahead of the queue.

Driving in China

In Australia, you honk only if someones has committed a serious offence that would endanger the safety. In Malaysia, you honk if you think that someone is going to commit an offence that could be considered dangerous but in China you honk as you like all the time anytime. They honk when they're in danger, they honk when not in danger and they honk when in between danger and out of danger. They drive like drunks when haven't actually drunk anything and common sense is not so common when it comes to their driving. Cars swerve to the left then right for no apparent reason whatsoever. You'll see cars swerving to the left when just a second later they are heading to the next right turn. The safety aspect also leaves a lot to be desired, for example people riding bicycles on the road at night with no lights heading in the opposite road direction with their usual swerving all over the place.

Bad English in China

I can't say too much about this one as I can't speak Mandarin but you would think with the World Expo, China's opportunity to showcase their progress to the world, they could afford to pay someone $50/hr to do a proper check that the English was proper. Signs all over the World Expo with broken english, some of them causing me uncontrollable laughter until now. I can't remember all of them as they were too many but some of them include: "No Noising" and "Please be Mindful of Civilisation". One in the airport read "Please proceed to the departeur gate" leading one to believe it was meant only for the french traveller. They provided great entertainment for me when I needed it most.

People in China cannot walk straight

I kid you not, if you look at the majority of people in China and you see how they walk, they never walk in a straight line. Just like their driving and business ethics, the Chinese people walking is never straight. This made it quite challenging for me especially in the Expo where there were hundreds of thousands of Chinese walking crooked.

Finally...

My critical nature of China and its people reflect a mindset of Western Society thinking that I think fall in the 'less travelled' category and have only really seen their own backyards although I think it is more in my nature rather than being less travelled to be critical. This blog was started due to my inate urge to criticize and to vent my no holds barred thoughts without any filters. Westerners staying in China however, are less critical due to their understanding that different cultures, different upbringing and social environment more often than not lead to different social and behavioural habits and that's part of life not only in China but all over the world and as such tend to tolerate the bad behaviour espoused by the Chinese people in their everyday encounter with them more so than their Western counterparts who see the appallingness for the very first time.

All in all this trip was overdone and too gruelling for an ageing man like me but undoubtedly one of the most interesting and eventful trips I have ever taken. It has given me very fond memories to remember especially meeting many people in China and understanding them a little better and their quest to better their lives and that of their families. I would make a similar trip like this if I ever get another opportunity to do so, my strongest endorsement yet that this trip planned for us was a resounding success.

Tiger Airways Voted Worst Domestic Airline in Australia

Got these from a consumer complaints website on Tiger Airways. Good read and beware as I agree that Tiger Airways should be boycotted.

Graeme of Adelaide, Australia September 11, 2010


15OCT09 we booked and payed AUD 741.65 for flights TR2423 Penang to Singapore and TR2716 Singapore to Perth for two Adults and two Children travelling on 16MAY10. 16MAY10 we arrived at Penang Airport to find that Tiger Airways no longer operated out of Penang on this day and that they had rebooked us on 19MAY10 flight without any prior notice. As there were no Tiger Airways staff available we had to rely on the airport information staff to help us.

They spoke to Tiger Airways on our behalf and were told that there were still seats available from Singapore to Perth for that day and all we would have to pay would be a rebooking fee if we could get there. We had no choice but to buy tickets on a Silk Air flight from Penang to Singapore for AUD 671.56.

When we spoke to the Tiger Airways customer sevice desk in Singapore we were told that we had to re purchase new tickets (AUD 1308.48) and that we would get a refund for the original purchase. We have spoken to Tiger Aiways on three occasions since our return and on each occasion they said they would only refund the amount of AUD741.65 for the tickets from Penang to Perth and that we would receive payment in three to six weeks. It has now been four months and as yet have not been refunded one dollar.

Elise of Port Sorell, Australia September 4, 2010


I booked flights with Tiger Airways at least 6 months in advance to get specials for my family. Tiger has now cancelled both out going and in bound flights to where I live. They told me I would get a full refund but it is pittance in comparison to going with another carrier at short notice, they give no other help financially or changing of flights as I have a connecting flight with tiger that I now cannot get but they wont change this or refund money for this.Been 3 months still no refund and 3 letters later no response from them except on my behalf only bieng able to contact call centre where they are useless.As a company I wouldnt put a name to this as I would be ashamed.

Phil of Somerville, Australia July 21, 2010


Tiger Airways is the worst airline I've ever had the misfortune of flying with! My critique is based on my experiences in over 30 years of domestic & international air travel. No matter how cheap it appears beware the hidden costs! Check-in fee! Oversized luggage fee! Overweight luggage fee! Re-booking fee! Beware of cancelled services! Services are delayed & cancelled regularly, the best you'll get is a meal voucher & a long wait at the terminal to board another flight. 2-1/2 Days at the Gold Coast Airport in one instance.

Beware of lousy customer service! Particularly the off-shore customer service centre at the end of their one & only advertised contact number! Long queues, hang-ups & mis-information are a regular occurence. Long wait at check-in counters and small & overcrowded terminals.

Let me reflect on my family's recent experience. Last minute travel to Brisbane for the Vic School Holidays, Tiger was the only airline that had affordable (not cheap,cheap) seats available at that time. Called Tiger customer service to confirm the departure terminal, answer "International at Melbourne Airport". Arrived airport 90 mins prior to departure time & parked car in Long Term car park. Headed to the International terminal - WRONG! After wandering around international departures for 15 mins trying to find the Tiger counter we were directed to the correct terminal at T4 (old Virgin). I'm told the Tiger customer service person had meant Melbourne International Airport!

After walking the family to T4 (10 mins or so) we arrived at the Tiger check-in counter 50 mins prior to departure to find that they were no longer checking in baggage. The "young" fellow behind the counter was not open to any reasoning or discussion re our plight, the only option given to us was to pay an additional 210 to be moved to the 5.30 am flight next morning. So there we were, 8.30pm & home was over an hours drive away. Taking into account the cost of fuel, toll charges & the 4am start next morning, we decided not to return home and so began our search for some affordable accommodation nearby. Having paid the 24 to get the car out of Long Term parking, we checked into a nearby motel 2 hours later, best rate 170, all for 5 hours sleep.

Arrived back at the Tiger terminal 4.30am next morning 90 mins prior to departure (Tiger reccommends 2 hrs). We'd already paid the extra 20 per passenger to get a 15 kg baggage allowance (55 pp if paid at the airport). One bag weighed in at 15.3kg, they then proceeded to try and extort another 55 from us for the extra 300 grams. No way was I going to pay them another cent, so I unpacked the case on the scales & removed my diary & jacket which I was then allowed to carry on as cabin baggage at no further cost (WHAT A JOKE! 300 grams is 300 grams, whether it's in the hold or in the cabin. WHY THE FUSS?)

The guy beside us was about to kill the check-in chick. He had a carry-on bag that he'd taken on board many different airlines while travelling the world. Tiger was telling him that it was oversize by 3cm and were demanding he pay 55, we was not happy. Every other queue was held up with people unpacking suitcases at counters trying to reduce the weight of their luggage. How efficient is that? Especially given that most of the stuff removed is carried on board as hand luggage anyway. 5 of the 55 baggage fee is supposedly an administration charge...SURE!

Once we'd left the check-in counter we were in yet another queue, this time weighing hand luggage to make sure it was under 7kg. Once again, people were forced to wait while passengers unpacked their bags in the queue. Moving on, there was yet another delay while we stood in the queue at the security point. A very narrow & innefficient choke point. The T4 terminal is very cramped with little seating available when 2 or more flights are scheduled to depart. Food & beverages are typically overpriced and there are queues at counters. Access to the aircraft is via the tarmac which was quite uncomfortable given the cold winter winds at Melb Airport.

Once on board, it becomes apparent that the aircraft are not cleaned regularly, there is no in-flight entertainment and the aircraft are not fitted with in-seat radios or video screens. All food & drink must be purchased and they DO NOT accept cash or eftpos on board, credit cards only. I had cash but I'd left my cards in my luggage, I couldn't even buy the family a drink of water... WHAT A JOKE!)

I ended up heading back to Melbourne earlier than expected, I booked with Qantas and left my family to return with Tiger as originally planned. My family reported that the service from Tiger in Brisbane was just as bad as Melb. Our itinerary had a seat booked for me including a 15kg baggage allowance that I'd paid for. Tiger would not allow my family to use the seat nor would they allow my family to use my 15kg baggage allowance despite us all being ticketed on the same itinerary. Once again, my wife had to unpack a jacket to bring a bag below 15kg. It turns out that they subsequently resold my seat & yet offered no refund.

Given the whole "Tiger" experience I will never ever fly with them again. At the end of it all I could have flown my whole family on a Qantas every day fare, at a time convenient to us, for less cost than we ended up incurring with Tiger. The airline is a joke and deserves every bit of the negative press & consumer backlash that it incurs. The company has taken domestic air travel in Australia to an all time low.

S.Chandrasekar of Chennai 600042 , Tamilnadu ,Indi, India February 19, 2010


Self had booked both ways 3 Air Ticket each on Tiger Airways under concessional fare on Chennai/Singapore leg along with separate Fee for seat allotment & baggage was paid by self using my ABN Amro Master card through their Website. ABN Card usage charge was 3.5% on the total amount. Transaction confirmed, Tickets confirmed but Seat unassigned in spite of the requisite amount paid by self at the time of booking. Tritinerary@tigerairways.com sent me the booking confirmation on 30 Jan 2010 but there again the seat was unassigned as against the actual seat numbers blocked and paid for. I took up this immediately with their Indian Call Center number wherein they maintained that they need to check and revert with no proper response as they claimed to have no access to do the needful in India, instead wanted self to call up Singapore.

I had no choice but to call Singapore too but the call never were answered, I was left with additional spending on phone calls and unnecessary mental tension & mail communications. This continued since day one, ie., 29 Jan 2010 till today when my travel date per confirmed ticked falls on 25 Feb 2010. Tiger Airways continued with their deliberate negligence and failed to rectify their mistake resulting to utter service failure.

Hence I was pushed beyond my extreme levels of tolerance and had real pain and mental unrest and agony due to which i came to a decision to not travel in Tiger Airways and ask for Full refund of paid amount plus the 3.5% commission on Credit Card for canceling. I sent mails in return on the email id that i received requesting them for full refund and cancellation thereof which again had no response at all till date.

On the 18 Feb 2010, I Called the call center and the Singapore office by the same continued with claims that additional fee over and above what i paid earlier for seat allotment will be applicable for seat allotment & refund /cancellation not possible. I faxed the emails and request for refund in total to Tiger Airways Singapore on 0065 68222310 by 1355Hrs today.

Its all most 20 Days and no revert on the query, on 18 Feb 2010 i checked for refund, then they come back with excuses but i had made up my mind not to travel in Tiger Airways / Refund of paid amount and 3.5% Credit Card charges due to such pathetic & uncertainties service of Tiger Airways leading to mental unrest & agony. Now they are holding on to their stance that they will not refund as per Ticket terms though they were at fault. What should i do?

Pls Note - Tiger Airways have their service out of Chennai but DO NOT have their liaising office in Chennai to assist the passengers on pre and post bookings/queries at Chennai. We also face the difficulty on communication as they are not willing to provide Tiger Airways email id to address the issues accordingly .

Yesterday evening(Post IST 1800Hrs18Feb 2010) they come up with seat allocation which i denied to accept and insisted on refund. As i mentioned, Am firm on Refund and am in no mindset to proceed to travel on this Airline due to such service failures which resulted me in mental stress, unrest with additional expences on phone calls, wastage of my productive time with agony pushing me to suspend my travel plans to Singapore on Tiger Airways once and for all.

Today, the 19 Feb 2010 around 1000Hrs IST , Mr.Kelvin T. - Manager Reservations, Claiming to be from Tiger Airways Singapore called on my hand phone and updated that they will not refund and cancellations not acceptable though they were at mistake. I denied to accept his claim and wanted them to Refund in full along with the commission of 3.5% on Credit Card Transaction.

He even dared to threaten self on forfeiture of total sum paid if i proceed on legal front. He also asked self as to what proof do i have for all such communication over telephones and wanted the records. Hence, I requested him to advise me their email address for me to address my further queries which he denied to provide and wanted self to use the Sin Fax no for any such communication. Moreover, he was not ready to transfer the call to the PRO or the legal department.

Lyndsay of Malvern, Australia December 22, 2009


Flight No TT669, Sydney to Melbourne on 29 November (Sunday) 2009 was cancelled. The aircraft apparently went out of service the night before, but we (three of us)only found out when we arrived at check-in at 10.00am the next day. No notice from Tiger that the flight had been cancelled. Fortunately we were second in the queue - if you happened to be number 123 you'd be really peeved! Anyway, we're told the flight has been cancelled. The next Tiger flight available to us is Wednesday - three days later! No assistance with alternate travel arrangements or accomodation. Given a slip of paper with the Tiger call-centre number on it. This number rings engaged for hours. No apology. "Should get a refund in about a month" - not holding my breath. Insurance only covers up to the value of the flights cancelled - so we get a refund to the value of a cheap flight booked three months previously, to buy a premium cost flight from a competitor airline at no notice. Who gets screwed here?

In summary, cancelled flight; no notice to customers; unclear refund process and timing; insurance not worth the paper it's written on; Tiger couldn't care less - on checking, this philosophy is written in to the fine print of their terms; impossible to find a Tiger official more senior than a check-in operator or a call-centre operative. Seven flights in the past six months - will not darken their doors again:-)

Shannon of Caulfield North, AL December 18, 2009


On the 6th of October 2009 I was due to board a flight from the Gold Coast to Melbourne on Tiger Airways. When I arrived at the airport EARLY to check in I was told that my flight was oversold and that someone else had taken my seat. I was told to fill in a form and that the cost of my flight would be refunded to me within 4 weeks. I had to then go to another airline and book another flight to get home, at an additional expense of course. To date (18th of December 2009) I have still not received the 214 owed to me.

In this time I have since written 3 letters, sent 3 faxes and have made numerous phone calls - of which I would be on hold for no less than 40 mins. I received a email from Tiger on the 19th of November saying that the money had been transferred into my account. Well, as above IT HAS NOT! I called my credit card provider, because apparently it is now their problem that the money hasn't been credited. They tell me I have to wait 30 days from the time they sent the email. I've waited the 30 days... the day is today. Now they have to dispute it with Tiger and it could potentially take up to another 90 days to sort out!

Maree of Narre Warren, Australia June 15, 2009


I've had a flight time changed, and they have asked if I need to speak to anyone, to call their Australian number, however after the automated service giving the information speel, the phone just goes dead, and after exactly 2.50 min the phone then engages. I've over the last 2 days made in excess of 20 calls to this number and still have'nt got through to anyone. I've also sent Fax to their Australian fax number, asking for them to contact me on my mobile earlier today (Monday June 15) and have not had any response to that either.



Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/tiger_direct.html#ixzz11ZJ0iDBE

Are Solar Panels to the Home Economically Viable?

For those of you thinking about getting solar energy for your homes, perhaps this posting may be of some help. I got my 1.5kWh solar panel (total of six panels) installed on my roof a couple of weeks ago. To date it has produced more than 50kWh, not that it means anything much but it just means I have actually saved or contributed (depending on how you look at it) 50 kWh back to the electricity grid, in effect doing my bit for the environment.

Now the Australian government gives huge subsidies and buy back schemes to encourage people to take up solar power if you can afford the remainder that needs to come out of your pocket, that is. As I understand it (it’s still a bit of a blur), my panel costs about $8k and I paid $2k and the government paid $6k (not bad eh!). Yes, that’s not a misprint; I paid slightly above $2k for a $8k, 1.5kWh solar panel system installed on my roof. That’s on the smallish side but the government rebates only apply to a maximum size of 1.5kWh.

So the upfront costs seem attractive as you pay $2k but receive something worth $8k, if you can afford the $2k that is. Now what about the payback period/ return and all that jazz? Well we’ll get to that but let us first look at it from this perspective. If you were to put your $2k (if you had it) into the Commonwealth Bank, that $2k will be worth $2.1k after a year (at 5% interest the bank pays you). Now, I’m almost positive I will be able to save more than $100 a year by installing an $8,000 solar powered electricity system. If you can’t do that, then solar is a dud. So looking that way it’s already a good investment (if you had the money to invest in the first place).

Now, the state government was promising the most generous of buy back schemes in the nation but like all government promises this came up short. Initially, the government was going to buy back the gross and not net electricity generated by your solar system. Now what difference does this make you ask? Well there is a difference because the buy back rate is different than the usage (or import) rate. Essentially, the government buys back the electricity from you at 47c (40c government and 7c Synergy) but when you consume electricity you pay a lower rate, about 18c.

So under a gross system if you produced 6kwh per day you would export ALL of this back to the grid and a credit of $2.82 will be due to you. On the same breath, if you used 12kwh per day, your consumption costs will be $2.16 per day effectively putting 66c in your pocket.

Under a net system, the calculation is based on the ‘net’ import/ export of energy in the home at the time of generation. So assume once again if you produced (export) 6kWh of energy and consumed (import) 12kWh per day and out of the 6kWh produced 4kWh is produced net and the other 2kWh was produced for consumption the calculation will be somewhat less exciting than the net calculations. That is net exported is 4kWh ($1.88) and consumption is no more 12kWh but just 10kWh now as 2kWh was bought back from your own self at 47c!! You would have then consumed $1.80 per day and would only be on top 8c compared to 66c if it was net.

There has been complains also that while the state government was touting this to be the most generous scheme available in Australia, it was more smoke and mirrors where the tax payers were basically funding the electricity company (Synergy). Remember, the export to the grid is being funded by two schemes, the feed in tariff from Synergy (at 7c) and the “Buy Back Scheme” from the state government (40c). Before 1st August the “Buy Back Scheme” never existed and solar panel owners only received a credit from Synergy of around 18c for every kilowatt hour of energy exported to the grid. When the “Buy Back Scheme” was announced, most solar owners expected the same feed-in tariff rate from Synergy plus a higher than 40c buy back rate from the government, something above 60c for every kilowatt hour exported but the new feed in tariff reduced to 7c (from 18c) after 1st August and the government foots out 40c. So while the solar owners export rate has increased from 18c to 47c, the taxpayer is footing most of the bill while Synergy’s buy back rate dropped from 18c to 7c effectively meaning the taxpayer has funded Synergy indirectly.

Nevertheless, the scheme is generous enough although as I understand it the buy back only lasts for ten years to help recoup the initial costs for the panels. The costs for the unsubsidized panels above 1.5kWh will be much much more than the $2k I forked out. The only thing to remember with a net feed in tariff is that to get the most credits you will want to minimize your usage while your solar is producing energy at its strongest during the middle of the day so the “net” effect is more significant and if possible use the energy when the sun goes down where you will be buying energy at the selling rate of 18c, otherwise by using energy you would otherwise sell back to the grid effectively mean you are foregoing the 47c opportunity cost or buying back the energy at 47c which you would otherwise buy at 18c when there is no energy produced whichever way you look at it. This suits mostly working families who are not home during the day and use most of their energy at night.

So those of you considering purchasing solar panels, my take is apart from the fact that solar energy is good for the environment and that a solar installation invariably adds some value to your home, the subsidies and various schemes available are a huge incentive assisting this “investment” and well worthwhile and may put a few quid back into your pockets if you're an electricity nazi like me.

There's Just No Competition In Australia

There's just no competition in Australia and consumers are ultimately the ones to suffer. Neither the government nor the agencies empowered by the government to curb anti-competitive behaviours by the predatory companies are doing anything about it. As they say, it's much better to hold shares in the Commonwealth Bank than to put your money in savings with them.

Let's start with the banks. On the same day the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank warned that interest rates may rise irrespective of the interest rates set by the Reserve Bank due to "higher funding costs", he also announced a record profit of $6.1 billion by the bank. The business model of banks used to be to borrow money from savers and pay them say 3% and lend the money to borrowers and charge them 6%. Nowadays, banks do more than just charge margin. They charge fees for a multitude of things like "account keeping", overdrawn account, handling fees, bad cheques, etc etc, some justified, some not and some even illegal. They also get involved with investing the money trusted upon them for safekeeping by investing in high risk investments which some go belly up like the "Storm Financial".

It may be harsh but I think the banks are just a bunch of thiefs. With the effects of the GFC and many families struggling to make ends meet, the banks are hurting those that are most vulnerable under the current environment, the battlers trying to put a roof over their heads. Now, a millionaire won't be affected as much if interest rates went up but lower to middle income families will and the banks have used the same old excuse of "rising funding costs" as justification for raising interest rates independant of the Reserve Bank. That's just plain wrong and neither of the big four crooks (banks) are able to show evidence that their funding costs have in fact risen. Not one iorta of evidence but they are still happy to announce record profit year after year after year. My level of economics doesn't go pass 101 but I would have thought the higher your costs went, the lower your profit would be as the facts never lie while the banks do.

Now let's get on to Coles and Woolies. There's no competition to this two big retail giants and the government is doing nothing to rectify that. Coles and Woolies account for 85% of the market share. Yes, that's 85%!!!! The rest of the 15% is shared amongst their other competitors like IGA, deli's and independant operators. What kind of price competition do you think consumers are going to get when there is lack of competition? Consumers are undoubtedly going to pay more for their groceries which will put more financial burden to those already struggling families.

Now I always thought that price fixing was illegal. In the USA, if the government could prove that you were even thinking of manipulating the price of goods, that was a serious crime and you could be put away for a long time. Yes, that's right, anti-competitive behaviour in America is a very serious offence and you could be hauled up before Congress to get a grilling. In Australia, nah....price fixing is a part of everyday life as common as a Vegemite sandwich. The worst offenders of price fixing are the Petrol companies. Irrelevant of the price of petrol in the international market, the prices moves in mysterious ways. It's usually more expensive during the weekends when more people tend to fill up and less expensive usually on Tuesdays and Wednesdays where less people tend to fill up. The grocery companies (Coles and Woolies) understand anti-competition so well that they in turn have jumped on the bandwagon (apart from their own) and gotten some action in the petrol market by partnering with Shell and Caltex by offering discount dockets at the bowser if you shop at their grocery stores. The scam though is that while the docket offers you a discount when you fill up in the petrol stations, those petrol stations that partner with Coles and Woolies usually price their fuel a couple of cents more than independant operators thus negating what you would save from the discount. What a sham, what a scam and the Anti-competitive watchdog ACCC says they have done nothing wrong.

Why are our taxes funding these useless watchdogs anyway when they seem toothless to get tough against these big oil, grocery and financial companies who are so clearly ripping consumers off? While the American congress rips through the directors of a failed financial venture between an Australian and American company, their Australian counterpart ASIC stated that the investors who decide to venture into a high risk investment should have and would have done their due diligence before putting their money into it, even though it was evident to them that most of the investors are just ordinary mom and pop investors without much sophistication in financial markets. If someone wanted to cheat or mislead you into buying a dud financial product, no matter how much due diligence you should be doing, you would expect the financial watchdog to ensure that those accused of cheating are hunted down and brought to justice, wouldn't you think. Not for ASIC though, they blame the investors and that is the end of that, how disgraceful and useless they are. There's almost no point having ASIC around at all.

Now I make all this criticism not just by the "arm chair critic" method although I am lying on my bed writing this piece. I have personally encountered how bad the watchdogs are in terms of protecting the consumers, first hand slug in the guts not only by the companies but ultimately by the final insult in the hands of the watchdogs. Firstly, was the dispute I have had when purchasing my current house. It was riddled with promises to rectify problems unfulfilled by the vendor which the realestate agent told me was done but I founf out later was not. I made a complain with the Real Estate Regulatory Board and they took 3 months to "investigate" and returned a verdict of insufficient evidence. Now, we all know not all dealings during the process of buying or selling a house is done in writing but I thought I had sufficient evidence in writing (not all) while the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming against the real estate agent but the final verdict was not even a slap on the wrist for the agent.

The other case was when I went to a grocery shop and found out that the proprietor had altered the "expiry date" a year forward I was flabbergasted, took a picture of the "evidence" (learning from the real estate experience) and proceeded to forward that with an official complain to the "Consumer Protection Agency". They told me that it was not their jurisdiction and referred me to the "Food Authorities". I took my complain up with them but to my annoyance I was in turn referred to the local council. You try to do the right thing but neither of the authorities were bothered at all to do the right thing by the people.

I'll end this blog entry today with a little analysis on how tough Australian families are doing it today. While the Australian economy remains the envy of many OECD countries and Australians can be called anything but poor, a closer look will reveal that many families are doing it tough. There's no point in earning a lot of money when the high cost of living erodes your ability to save for the future.

Let's take an average family income in Australia and I'll be generous here, $80,000 p.a. At that income, say the family pays about $20,000 in taxes (federal taxes), assuming medicare included. I specifically put federal taxes in brackets as in Australia, there are three levels of government, federal, state and local and each greedy government want a slice of your hard earned money.

Anyway, after taxes then the take home pay of the family is hence $60,000. Now the average mortgage for the average family is about $2,000 per month or $24,000 per year. This means after paying off the mortgage the family has $36,000 left.

The average family would have an average of two cars. The running cost of running each car including insurance, licence fee, servicing, maintaining, fixing, change tyres etc. averages to be $5,000 per car or $10,000 for both. This leaves the family with now $26,000 left.

If you owned a home, you would have the local taxes like your rates, water and usage of electricity and gas. Rates and water conservatively would be aroung $2,000 per year (most are north of this) and electricity and gas say $1000 (for easy calculation, most households are more than this). Add maybe another $1,000 for maintenance of the home like plumbing works, cleaning, broken fence, door etc. and that leaves the family around $22,000 a year.

An average family has 2 kids on average and the school fees, uniforms, excursions etc. conservatively would be $2,000 each if they went to a government school, so $4,000 for two kids. Child care would be around $1,000 (after government rebates) assuming the mother (or father) worked part-time and the family did not use child care very often. That leaves $17,000 to take care of other stuff.

Now telephony (internet, mobiles, fixed line) could be around $1,000 a year. Lunch if say an average of $5 per day (not sure what you're going to eat with $5 but let's say on average) with two hundred working days is already $1,000 (remember this does not even include coffee, usually around $4 for a decent one). Groceries for an average family is around $200 per week or $10,000 per year. Say eating out is a luxury and the family did it only once a month or about $1,000 a year. That leaves the family only $5,000 left.

Don't forget, with that $5,000, the family will need to carefully divide their pennies to take care of medical insurances, pharmacy, outings, clothing, hair cuts, household purchases, sending money back to their ageing parents etc. You can forget about holidays and that pet their children always wanted or worse still forget about another child if they ever wanted one or worse still saving for retirement or a rainy day, there just isn't any savings for that now is there? Now you see why it is ever more important for the government to ensure that these rip off merchants called Coles, Woolies, Caltex and the Commonwealth Bank are brought into line to stop the massive fraud they commit on a daily basis against struggling Aussie families trying to make ends meet while the Commonwealth Bank executives have their annual meeting in a five star international resort with never ending announcements of record profits.

Will it be Labor or Libs on the 21st August?

On the 21st of August Australia will head to the polls to choose their government. It’s either going to be Labor or Liberals. While the Greens are contesting, they have never and are not a serious contender to be in power although will form part of the government if they join forces with the Labor party should they collectively win enough seats to form a government.

This election campaign has been one of the most uninteresting, void of ideas and petty election campaign in living memory. On the left corner is the current prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard who only became prime minister by dethroning the previous Prime Minister Kevin Rudd unceremoniously with the support of the factions and caucus, the first time in the history of Australian politics a first term sitting prime minister has been booted out of office. The last this happened was when Paul Keating challenged then Prime Minister Bob Hawke and won with the majority support of the Labor party. Bob Hawke was then in the middle of his fourth term in office. Many years later, Bob Hawke acknowledged that he would still have been prime minister if he only gave a minister’s portfolio to Graham Richardson who later shifted his and his faction’s support away from Bob Hawke to Paul Keating. What a dirty game politics is but that’s news to no one. What is particularly disturbing though is that the country’s future are in the hands of these politicians playing politics with our lives. On the other hand coming in from the right corner is the chauvanistic, foul mouthed leader of the Liberals Tony Abbot who we'll talk about a little later.

What happened between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd is anyone’s guess but the execution style and the swiftness in which it was carried out is coming back to haunt Labor from the torrent of unhappiness from one of the marginal states of Queensland where Kevin Rudd is from. A huge swing towards the coalition may be enough to lose the election for Labor. There’s also been a wave of cabinet leaks purportedly coming from cabinet members loyal to the ex-Prime Minister which has hurt Labor so badly that in one week the polls showed a swing of 6% away from Labor to the Libs, something not seen in living memory. To state that Labor suffered a bad week is nothing short of an understatement.

What the Libs and their leader Tony Abbot are really good in is not espousing good policies for the country but what Tony Abbot is a master at is of pointing out the mistakes of the Labor party and quite effectively at that if the polls are anything to go by. From the pink bats debacle to the school halls fiasco to the debt and deficit, to the climate change back down where Kevin Rudd described climate change as the “greatest moral challenge” and then suddenly backed down. With those kinds of rookie mistakes Tony was never short of ammunition. Labor on the other hand have been limp on debunking some of the criticisms of Tony Abbot’s by giving some clear perspectives like the school hall debacle constituted only 1% rort in the program while still not good was relatively small for a program so large which needed to be rolled out in a relatively short timeframe and maybe also that the debt will be paid back within 3 years ahead of schedule a debt which was needed to keep Australia out of recession, the only one in the major OECD countries to do so. They should also press home the point that while the debt is in the billions of dollars it only formed 6% of the countr’y GDP as opposed to some other countries around 90%.

The Liberal party want our vote. A party still operating under the guidance and legacy of former Prime Minster John Howard, Australia’s second longest serving Prime Minister behind only Sir Robert Menzies. A party that is having its third leader in as few years having executed the two before Abbot and is now acting holier than thou by criticising Labor for what they'd done twice before.

John Howard's influence within the Liberal party is still alive and strong. His trademarks are stamped all over the Liberal party where leadership issues are discussed very openly with him. Senior opposition figures like Joe Hockey and even Abbot himself have been known to seek his advice regularly. John Howard was given the boot by the electorate in 2007 when Kevin 07 defeated him. To add salt to injury he was also defeated in his seat of Bennelong which he had held since 1974 by newcomer and former ABC journalist Maxine Mc Kew. While John Howard and his merry men governed Australia for more than a decade and did a lot of good things, education lagged behind most OECD countries, productivity went down, the education visas were abused by international students, house prices soared uncontrollably high out of reach of most first home owners and the mining revolution was not re-invested for the community to benefit in the longer term. This was the man who introduced a big new tax called the GST and forced Work Choices down the throats of working Australians. This was the man who followed blindly the steps of his idol George W. Bush into Iraq and Afghanistan without doing his own due diligence of what we now know was trumped up and selective intelligence reports on the case for war. This was the man who refused to sign the Kyoto protocol and was a climate change sceptic. What made John Howard lose the election was not because he was an ineffective leader. Quite the contrary, he was a very strong leader, he remained unchallenged from within his party until the electorate finally decided enough was enough and gave John his marching orders. What made him lose the 2007 election was that he was unapologetic of his failings and his policies which were unpopular and his determination to push through the policies that he deemed were good policies no matter how much the electorate hated them. This is the man now being idolised by the leader of the opposition Tony Abbot. Paul Keating regularly refers to Tony Abbot as the “small John Howard”, linking Tony Abbot with the many unpopular policies of the Howard era.

What we have now is the Libs accusing Julia Gillard of being a fake and likewise Labor asking will the real Tony Abbot stand up referring to his ever changing stance on climate change, Work Choices, Paid Parental Leave and a slew of other policies which he has back flipped on. Labor’s point is that the real Tony Abbot will eventually come to the fore if he won the election and these promises are all made to make him look to be sensitive to the voice of the electorate. Let’s face it, Tony is under a no win situation here. If he listen’s to the electorate, he will be accused of back flipping from his past beliefs and if he doesn’t he will be accused of being like John Howard. I guess his days of being an arrogant senior member of the John Howard cabinet is coming back to bite him when he now needs the people to make him Prime Minister.

Let’s face it, Labor’s accusation of Tony Abbot being a phoney, back flipper, vote fisher who will do and say anything to get your votes is something like the pot calling the kettle black. All politicians do it. They have in the past and they will into the future. Until the intense media scrutiny modern day politics encompasses subsides or is eliminated, unfortunately you will never see a politician let down their guard and be honest and down to earth with the people. Politicians nowadays are so guarded against what they say and commit to as footage of the interview can be retrieved years from now to be used against them in the future although circumstances may have changed after all those years. Nope, you’re not supposed to change your mind and say anything wrong if you’re a politician. They need to watch every word uttered and ensure that the political correctness is checked and double checked by their media staff over and over again so no section of the vast community is “upset” by their comments. No wonder our politicians nowadays are so contrived and fake, always reading from a script prepared by their media people, never able to answer a question straight up instead always prefering to beat around the bush. When can politics change so that the people’s interest and not the politicians’ will be foremost important as the garbage we’re getting from our politicians is nothing short of repugnant? Will it be Labor or Liberals this 21st August? Who cares I say, they’re both doing an equally bad job.

Alan Shearer Gives His Damning Verdict on England's World Cup Woes

By Alan Shearer (former England Captain)
The Sun
29 June 2010


NO ONE likes kicking a man when he is down but I have to admit that Fabio Capello has left me feeling utterly dejected.
This is the worst thing you can say about any football manager, yet it needs saying: It looked to me as if the England players did not want to play for him.

There was something fundamentally wrong inside that camp and only those who were there know the real problems and can tell the truth about what went on.

From the outside, though, it looked as if the squad were locked away in a boot camp and let out only on match days.

Once they were released, they looked ill-at-ease, under-prepared and totally confused.

John Terry let the cat out of the bag when he made his comments after the Algeria game.

Whether he was right to air his critical views in public is still open to debate. But at least he had the balls to come out and say things were not up to par.

The rest of the squad did not back him in the end and that was their right. I could see the need to close ranks and present a united front before the Slovenia game.

But, overall, there was no hiding from the fact England were a team in name only. We have been found wanting tactically and, once we were rumbled on that score, the team spirit, which can normally be relied upon to drag us out of a hole, was nowhere to be found either.

I cannot be accused of being anti-foreigner just because Capello has failed to take us beyond the last 16.

I have said since the appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson that the England team needs an Englishman in charge.

We have brought in overseas coaches with lots of the right qualifications and a long list of achievements at club level. But they have brought little to our national team.

I still maintain we have enough players of quality to produce far, far more than we have done at these World Cup finals. So why did they fall short?

I know the players have to accept their share of the blame but I am not going along with the argument that they are overpaid and do not care enough because they live with their heads in the clouds and are too protected and pampered.

I do not care if a footballer is paid £1,000 or £100,000 a week. He wants to win, wants success on the field and needs to look back on his career with a cupboard full of medals to display.

What he also needs is the right atmosphere and preparation to perform to his maximum and, for me, the current England team had neither of those.

It is no good pointing to our qualification record. OK, we did great to come through our group with a good set of results but, remember, those were against teams not good enough to get to the finals.

Once we got to South Africa we were not good enough, even against teams we should have beaten comfortably. Apart from a half-decent display against Slovenia, there were flaws to be found in every other performance.

I said it at the start and I will keep saying it until I am blue in the face. I am afraid 4-4-2 does not work against the top teams - or even against the so-called lesser teams.

Then we come to selection. Before the finals, if you had asked most fans which England players were the most likely match-winners, a good percentage would have said Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.

So what do we do? We play them both in positions they do not favour.

Rooney wants to play up on his own and Gerrard revels in the role just behind the striker. They were being played out of position and it was clear to me they did not like it.

It was like Brazil asking Kaka to play at right-back or Argentina requiring Lionel Messi to turn out for them in central midfield.

I reached the depths of despair against Germany when Emile Heskey came on in the second half.

I am not knocking Emile. He has certain qualities but he is not a prolific goalscorer and was certainly not the player to send on when we needed three goals just to get back into the game.


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If I was Peter Crouch, who HAS scored goals at international level, I would be asking just what I had done wrong to be overlooked.

So if we accept the tactics and choice of players were not right, why were we not able to rely on our renowned team spirit?

It was not there and, again, the finger has to be pointed at Capello.

He obviously is not on the same wavelength as English players and does not understand their mentality.

There has to be that right balance between getting the tactics and the motivation right.

The best England team I played in was the one under Terry Venables before Euro 96.

Terry's knowledge and tactical know-how were spot-on and he knew how to get the best out of us too.

We responded to him, believed in him and played some outstanding football in that tournament.

The fact he was English was no coincidence.

Glenn Hoddle had the same impact to a lesser extent.

They both knew how to create a positive attitude and the right tactical framework.

I have been looking at Argentina's performances and comparing them to ours.

Unlike England, they struggled to qualify. But since arriving at the finals they have looked impressive.

They have Diego Maradona in charge and, by all accounts, he is not exactly a tactical mastermind.

What he does have, though, is a rapport with his players.

They respect him and he looks as if he is one of them, enjoying and celebrating their victories with great passion.

I do not think we have ever seen that with Capello and his players.

Those players have gone home now and that leaves me feeling very flat.

I know there are some outstanding games coming up but with no England team there is nothing to fire our enthusiasm.

Then again, maybe the World Cup finals are better off without us if that was the best we can offer.



Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/worldcup2010/3033617/Alan-Shearer-gives-his-damning-verdict-on-Englands-World-Cup-flops.html#ixzz0sRQbz8Vl