HW3

For late-comers or thinkers, HW stands either for Heart-warmer, or HW3 is the number plate of the city taxi that Desi once proudly owned but had to dispose of (Some MSM editors prefer 'off' not because they are Bardist but they knoweth not better:) due to hard-pressed times.

A challenging thinking aloud by my sin-land counterpart Joepsc yesterday is worth 3sen worth pondering now. (Some MSM prefer 'ponderance', but let's leave that for another day while I check the Dick..., and don't anyone too sensitive that This Blogger is a corrupting influence and is another reason why Blogging be subject to the PPPA1984.:)

Joe, not so average, mind you because sometimes I race him neck-and-neck to the ridge where some bride with a G-string awaits, PAtiently, with unabated breath (MSM sometimes use neck-to-neck, but that's alright by non-professionals like Desi and Joe:) commented:

"I agree that the Internet will find its level, probably like you said "..Good (few), the Average (majority), and the Bad (few)"

The question is what are we going to do with the "few bad ones", say in the blogsphere for example?

If the "bad ones" are readers, the blog owners can push the "delete" key; what if the "bad ones" are bloggers themselves, threatening peace and harmony...shouldn't a "delete" key be availabe to a kind of controlling body? Can we really leave it to ethics and common sense, with all respect for freedom of speech/_expression ?

Brother Mave SM now equipping himself with tomes of law and order and jurisprudence books may be better endowed to answer Joe's poser, but as hoRst, I'd give it a first go, half loyar buluk that I'm.

Before I do that, let me start off with a short HW from the news today.

Page N16 of The Star, but the source-attribution is to BERNAMA:

Ex-head prefect is top M'sian student in South Australia

ADELAIDE: Former headprefect of SMK Damansara Jaya Justin Lee has been voted the Most Outstanding Malaysian university student in South Australia.

Lee, from Petaling Jaya, was presented with a certificate, a laptop computer and $1,000 (RM2,774) by fromer South Australia Governor Sir Eric Neal at a gala dinner here to mark Malaysia's 49th National Day.

:
:
DESIDERATA: WOULD JUST SUMMARISE HERE THAT TWO OTHER WINNERS SWEEPING THE 2ND AND 3RD PRIZES WERE ALSO MALAYSIANS, namely, drum roll...:
Daisy Kee of Penang, and Ng Han Tien, from Subang Jaya.


First off, CONGRATULATIONS to the trio. Desi, hacing worked with the Australian diplomatic mission in Kuala Lumpur for 12 years-plus, but paying Malatysian taxes throughoput that period, is familiart with the "outstanding" results achieved by our brethren overseas.

The "unfortunate" aspect (...it could be "fortunate" to the other party/parties concerned) is that more often than not, these "performers" chose/choose to stay back in the countries they graduated/will graduate from, which translates into a nett loss for NegaraKu.

My question is: Do our national leaders care? (I could have used 'bother', but that would not be giving them the benfit of the doubt, yes?)

Now I reprise another news item -- sounds neutral enough and seemingly disparate, but perinent to today's discussion if you bother to put on your thinking caps, which seems quite lacking noadays (The 'lacking' can either refer to 'putting on' or 'caps', I'm tryibg to be very democratic in my writes, giving my ER many multiple-choice situations, like doing some examinatios in a few local universities...I'm not so good as Howsy, linking you back to one-year-back entries; further, that would truly involve diversion, making worse my many digressions I stand guilty of. One 'f', not two!) I already hear whispers of WTF!, the asses had not come in yet... Hey, Desi's truly ENJOYING the Blogger's luxury of abusing his Digression LIcence besides the PL:) That's another reason why I belatedly welcome one PATCHWORK @patchwork.wordpress.com to Blogsworld ~~ the saying, Better Late Than Never, does pay, especially when Desi visits Catsville!


One "cheong hei" (that would be coming from Helen or Anak Merdeka!) paragraph leading to this:

from Starbiz B9~~

Survey: Corporate ethics a
growing concern in the US



NEW YORK - Unethical corporate managers contribute to lower worker productivity, drive away recruits and make some employees leave, a new survey says.

Ethics is a growing concern among American workers, according to the employee survey being formally released Thursday by LRN Corp., a Los Angeles based-company that works with corporations on ethics issues.

Eighty-two percent of a group of 834 full-time employees surveyed across the country said they would work for less to be at a company that had ethical business practices, and more than a third said they have left a job because they disagreed with the actions of fellow employees or managers.

Chief Executive Dov Seidman, who founded LRN in 1994, said Wednesday the survey shows the advantages of being ethical and being a winning business.

In January, a similar survey showed 76 percent of respondents saying that how they perceived the company's ethics would affect whether they would want to work there. In the most recent survey, 94 percent said it was either critical or important that the company they work for is ethical.

Female managers over the age of 35 living in the western and southern U.S. were most likely to say they cared deeply about ethics in the workplace.

The growing importance of ethics is reflected at the nation's business schools. The number of schools with professors devoted to business ethics has risen to 68 in 2004 from 50 schools in 2000, said Joseph Mondello of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.--AP

DESIDERATA: I sincerely hope that Malaysians who proceed overseas for studies benefit with the progressive policies pursude by institutions holding business schools with staff committed to ETHICAL THINKING & IDEALS as promoted by the likes of LRN CORP.


I was working at an MSM when the Arthur Andersen-Enron scandal broke, raged on for months, effected tsunami mindset debate, saw the big bosses dragged to court, etc. At the height of the scandal, which also brought on similar ones in the greatest opower on eartgh, United States of America, one local topgun was interviewed by a local press. Ther cpatian of industry when asked if there were similar ENRONS happening in Malaysia, he answered firmly, and proudly, to this effect:

::No. Malaysia has better corporate governance. There is NO enron or anything simuilar in Malaysia.::

Then there was no bloggers like JeffOoi's Screenshots, and Desiderata was just another madcap poet's life philosophical soliloquoy that Ignoramuses like YLChongy thought was a special thingy. Ooops, I digress agin...

My sentiments then as I read the long interview aresuccintly captured by today's headline, I borrow with gratitude from from The Star, page N25~~
Please excuse me while I laugh

NOW

Remember the famous case/s of Pak Lah's Cabinet members -- baggage inherited from the olde regime? -- who did not pay the many years-old traffic offences fines? Some later did, after some nosey Journalist asked about the Emperor's nu'e clothes... after hefty discounts -- MORE THAN 50%!
What the F***s, Desi paid RM600 for two compound fines -- exptred road tax by a few days, and q questionable "beating the lights" which turned Amber (no Cha-cha!) when I was already in the "yellow triangle" fronting Phoenix Plaza one fine day when I did not drive Cheras enough...One Moo_t adds on the salt by saying I over-paid by double which is now a Moot point I'd take up later...

At the back of my mind is would our "performing" and average undergraduates and uner-performing students on joining the workforce emulate the examples set by our national leaders?

Or would they try to improve -- EVEN REFORM? -- the present system should they come back to work in NegaraKu and help to propel us into First World Mindset? Be good students now, do some homework ~~ GO read one letter in The Star, page N48, titled

"So much progress,
but not in mindset
of Malaysians"

And a very good article whihc must be read IN FULL for full APpreciation, so I'm asking my dear ER to be obedient performers to refer to page 16, theSun, August 7, 2006 from the articulate columnist Tan Siok Choo writing (weekly?)

Making Sens

Sports - a window into
a country's psyche

Just some paragraph extracts here~~

"More telling of the Malaysian mindset is the proposal to build a short-term training centre and forward training base at a site presently occupied by the Tun Razak Research Centre (TRRC) in Brickendonbury, England, a proposal that raises several questions.

Why was the decision made to locate a sports training centre at a site that would require the approval of the East Hertford council to change its land use? Was its location just 24km from the 2012 London Olympic Games Village the compelling reason?

Given the proliferation of sports facilities all over Britain, what is the justification for building a short-term training centre in Brickendonbury? According to news reports, some East Hertford councillors say because there are several sports facilities in the vicinity, planning approval is unlikely to be forthcoming.

If the proposed facilities to be built at Brickendonbury are intended to provide the comfort of Malaysian food and a "home away from home" environment for Malaysian players, will such a move enhance their mental strength and determination to win, come what may?

Isn't building mental strength a key determinant of sporting success? Golfing phenomenon Tiger Woods says his father honed his determination to win by deliberately creating distractions. When Tiger was trying to tee off, Earl Woods would jingle coins in his pocket or stand in front of his son and say "I am a tree".

Although the intention is laudable, enhancing a sportsperson's comfort zone can weaken their mental strength. Malaysian sports officials would do well to remember that fire causes plastic to melt but tempers steel. Are Malaysian sports authorities interested in creating sportspersons with the mental strength akin to steel or of plastic?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



DESIDERATA: The key word is mindset. I'm not too optimistic about Malaysian mindset being so easily elevated to First world. I read somewhere just days ago a recent survey on INTEGRITY showed that some 30% (one-third) of the Youth Respondents said they would give a "bribe" (or recive one) under the Malaysian sky. So will academically shining students like Justibn Lee, Daisy Kee and Ng Han Tien join the normal distribution of such youths as exposed in the survey? (APPEAL: Some kind soul who has this news report please forward to Desi?)

Ah, the Moot point cometh~~

If next you are stopped by the Traffic police for illegal parking at a No-Parking Zone, would you pay RM50 to RM100 ("Sekarang apa nak buat? Settle sini ke atau I bagi kompaun?" that's a script-writer thinking allowed...)

Or be an Ignoramus like Desiderata" pay some RM300 several months later when you need to "revew" youer car roadtax and the PC,, so efficient one! says You have an outsanding traffic summons to settle?

Or do you do what was heard, and concurred by the majority of a batch of Masters students at a Management Ethics lecture: When in Rome, Do as the Romans do?


Desi awaits thy esteemed adVice...

So, at long last, answering Joepsc's poser:

"If the "bad ones" are readers, the blog owners can push the "delete" key; what if the "bad ones" are bloggers themselves, threatening peace and harmony...shouldn't a "delete" key be availabe to a kind of controlling body? Can we really leave it to ethics and common sense, with all respect for freedom of speech/_expression ? "

Desiderata's roundup and rounabout response is that we depend on the future Young&Articute ones, especially those exposed to Ethics education whether locally or abroad, to return to put into practice -- like their American counterparts as expressed in the reported surveys in the AP new -- that we go forward. Not regress klike some Ministers who think that because they sit in positions of power, they are entitled to nbe exempt paying that RM300 compound. WTFs, I have urged that for their recalcitrance they should pay double/triple the amonts according to the number of years of default.

An more knowledge-based and educated populace inculcated with universal values of Ethics, Justice, Equity and Humanity will not have to be policed by repressive Legislation like PPPA1984, the Internal Security Act ... and whatever that's in the mind of the over-powering Executive's mind to clamp down on Bloggers community. I
remain ever Optimistic Vision 2020 means First World mobility upwards,. Pak Lah, I believe in you.
DON'T LISTEN TO CLOSTED MINDS THAT URGE YOU ON THAT DOWNWARD SPIRAL -- yes, paved with many good intentions.

Desi ends HW3 with
Three little words like
I Love You.
OR
LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE.