Friend of mine bought a tomato for RM1.20 at the Tanjung Bunga market.
Now you would think a RM1.20 tomato would have to be pretty special.
No, this was just a little tomato, not even big and juicy.
Unlike ordinary tomatoes that would rot in a few days if left in the open, this one could keep for a while. Makes you wonder.
If a tomato could cost RM1.20, imagine the prices of other fruit and vegetables. The question is, how are the lower-income group coping? As food prices soar, as real wages remain stagnant and as overtime pay is slashed, many among the working class are struggling to put food on the table for their families – while some of our leaders squander our nation’s resources and their spouses go on shopping sprees abroad.
Back in school, we were taught that the three essentials of life are food, shelter and clothing. Let’s focus on item one on the list. While we have grand NKRAs and common frameworks, what are we doing about the price of vegetables?
In the name of (misguided) “development”, we have lost the vegetable farms in our towns. Now, we have to bring in vegetables from farther away – Cameron Highlands, China, Australia and elsewhere – some of them perhaps genetically modified or laced with pesticides and preservatives, who knows.
This is not only bad news for food self-sufficiency and sustainability and security, but the loss of food security also makes us vulnerable to the global food crisis. Worse, the transportation of food from great distances to our dining tables is a major contributor to global emissions.
What could be done: open up unused or idle state land, now filled with undergrowth, and make that available for sustainable organic or permaculture farming. Encourage and support small farmers. Urge households not to cement their lawns and instead grow some food in their gardens or even in their apartment common spaces, corridors and balconies.
Every bit helps. Remember, we can’t eat microchips.
Blog reader My Blog adds:
Anil, I also go to the Tanjung Bungah market. Earlier red chilies use to cost RM5 per kilo when the supply was less, last week it was RM10 per kilo, week before last RM12 per kilo. All vegetables have drastically gone up in price. I talk to the vegetable seller, he just smiles and says ‘apa boleh bikin, semua sudah mahal’, not even saying it is expensive because of rains etc which means temporary.
High cost of living is here to stay, even if gormen change, the damage is already done. Tomato not so expensive lah, if I am not wrong about RM5 or 6 per kilo. You can buy for use today or a bit less ripe which you can use for several days, if put in the fridge can last 1-2 weeks.
Fruits, again even banana and papaya also expensive, I bought a large bunch of banana and 1 medium size papaya already cost me about RM12 and I wanted a watermelon, when I heard the price, I told him it is okay, can do without.
It is bad times for me like many others, so even few dollars makes the difference. If the gormen keeps up with its badly thought out policies, I envisage it getting worse. If they offer me land, I will start a vegetable farm…
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Anil, You should come shopping with me, and I will show you all the places t get the best deals. FYI, tomatoes in Tesco is in the RM3.50/kg range. It used to be cheaper in Penang, until the Batu Lanchang market traders used to raid all the tomatoes & vegetables from Tesco. They would then sell these vegetables at 2x the price in the afternoon.
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I went to South Korea in early 90s for my ex-company’s symposium. That journey was an eye-opening experience for me, no land in Korea is unused for wild grass “lalang” as Bolehland here. The vacant land between highways and hotel courtyard is all planted with paddy.
This may explain why South Korea is sprang ahead to become a developed nation while Bolehland is plunged… like the Zimbabwe.
I disagree with Anil that the wages is stagnant. In real value, the wages for our workers and engineers are diminishing over the years.
Malaysiakini.com has just published my bashing letter today on wages issue for graduates.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/120560
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You are probably right, real wages could have dropped especially if you look at purchasing power in terms of house prices.
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The solution is simple. Reject BN. Ban the money changers. Ensure that the money that go out of the country are properly documented. Make the crooks who wire out ill-gotten or legally gotten money answerable. Make them return the money or put them in prison. When jet engines disappear, don’t go after the junior officers. The minister should take the responsibility and resign. Bring all corrupted politicians to court but first of all ensure that the court is not kangarooed. Tell those from MACC to go after the big fish and not the fries.
Looks like there is no case against Mr Khir.
Billions is lost because of irrresponsible governance, cronyism and corruption. No action is taken. Things are swept under the carpet. Billions of Petronas money is used on useless mega projects and to bail out failed companies and projects. Universities and colleges have become ‘diploma mills’. Unemployement is bad enough to soon make the country another ‘failed country’. No investors are coming, other that to invest in Penang and Selangor. The economy has been stagnant for many years. Prices of all goods have shot up. Scandals involving leaders are abound. Their ‘denial syndrome’ make people feel that they have ‘foolish’ leaders. In one case the ‘rib’ seems to be more powerful that the man! This never happened during Mahathir or Pak Lah’s time. The people are confused. This is Malaysia Boleh we live in. The people want a change. Pakatan is our CHOICE. GO FOR PAKATAN.
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What can the Pakatan offer to us? Beer ban? They even can not agree to form a formal coalition. There is reservation by PAS President. With BN there is NKRA for us which is so promising.
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Gerakan K,
What NKRA? NCRA? FYA? PKM? PGST? NFA is the most understandable by all Malaysians!
You can continue to send your children to do computer science and whatever and survive on microchips. So shallow is your mentality, ( I am sorry, bro), one must be self sufficient in food before we use the herd mentality and follow blindly and talk about industrialization, without knowing what is in store. You talk a lot of computer and so forth, but, can we be as good and as competitive as the Indians? Again, please comment to the point la, bro. Please do not say you can sell an item and make so much, la, we are talking about the market in general and not small retail businesses in Malaysia ok? Have you heard about Bangalore? Who are the best computer engineers in the world that are flooding the silicon valleys in USA? Mind you la bro, if the knowledge that the Indians have acquired in this field in the USA are brought back to India it will be worth more than the total GDP of Malaysia for a few years! Also, please understand that the Indian has excellent command of English, and they are wise, as they always had been, never to neglect this language of knowledge and power, unlike your master who had flip flopped and now Maths and Science, is again to be taught in BM again, making another generation of Malaysians to speak Malglish, in the process making them neither here nor there! Mind you, I am sure you will say that Malaysians can do just as well as the Indians, but, the sad fact is that it will take decades to educate Malaysians in English to compete with the Indians, but then again, by then they will again be so far away for us to catch. The fact is when it comes to the crunch and there is a need for computer related professionals, Malaysians cannot compete against the Indians. Who will want to employ Malaysians when they can employ these Indian computer scientists at a fraction of what they need to pay for Malaysians? So you see, what I am trying to impress upon you is that, we are not self reliant as far as computer education is concerned, sadly because our knowledge is limited, we always have to rely on others to proceed, and the stark reality is transfer of technology will not happen as easily as you think, they will like to lead people like you by the nose that depends on them eternally, like what UMNO had done to those old Malays in Malaysia. Have you heard of any new discoveries whether in Science or Mathematics written in Bahasa Malaysia? Be practical la, bro.
Another thing, it is easy to import when we have insufficient food, right? Do you think when you are short of food, and the exporters have just enough to feed their country, will they sell to you? Can you remember our Minister going to Thailand and Vietnam begging them to sell us rice when there was a shortage of rice? Even so, they sell inferior grade rice to Malaysia only and that too, at limited quantity.
You mentioned that you are well travelled, why are those industrialized nations like Japan, China, South Korea, they are nearer and easier for you to see, still maintaining huge acreages under agriculture? Even USA has huge amount of lands devoted to agriculture and their farmers are absolutely powerful politcally, because they play an important part in the development of the country and the Government acknowledges that. Perhaps, I am reading from journals and watching National Geographic only?
You just see things from your narrow point of view and without taking consideration of the overall scenario, that is why it is difficult to exchange views with you. Come on la bro, let us enjoy a drink together, Cheers! Be a good boy, Gerakan K.
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India used to be the main outsource destination for US based corporation because of low-cost factor. But due to widespread acknowledgement of poor command of English (English with heavy Indian dialect which is worse than Manglish/Singlish), poor attitude problem (disaster customer service) and emergence of new players from other countries. Now less and less US corporations choose India as their outsource partner and now US President also banning any outsource work to India (based some criteria).
Finally, you keep asking is Malaysia as good and as competitive as the Indians and my response is please check our previous GDP breakdown by relevant industries/sectors. I’m afraid you don’t know what I’m talking about as I always suspect you got so many info from foreign … reports. Do you know in Penang there are plenty of MNCs which are global leaders of respective area of computing sectors. Do you ever know why they choose Malaysia as their foreign base? Do you know is USB pendrive creator and his net worth currently? I can tell you bluntly, Malaysian is smarter than what you can think of. Be it Malay, Indian or Chinese.
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You are sadly mistaken and terribly misinformed, don’t even try to start to compare against India. You are nobody and nowhere.
Your Manglish and other forms of English can only be understood in Malaysia and nowhere else.
Do you think before writing or just simply a loose canon.
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My staff experienced that personally. Not once but everytime. They need help from other Indian staff to interpret the recorded trouble-shooting phone call with the India based **senior support manager** regarding to my ERP system. To make the matter worse, they charge me US$150/hour that lasted 2 hours!!!
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Gerakan K,
It saddened me to always need to enlighten you each and every time you pose your comment or reply.
Just name one Malaysian owned Company that is competing globally with their own brands in this so called high end, value added economy?
Please do not quote MNCs again because they are not Malaysian owned.
Further, a short comment on why foreigners today do not want to invest in Malaysia, because of the absolute lack of security,( whole consignments of cargoes can go missing even at the airport cargo terminal, even jet engines can go missing from a high security base, it was initially stated that 1 engine was missing, then two and now they say it is four plus wares as well. Total loss of respect for the rule of law, and that includes the infamous, missing datas from immigrations Malaysia, foreigners being C4ed, Witnesses dead after interrogation, a tainted judiciary, and the list of scandals that only under the BN Government can happen. Besides, the lacked of proficiency in English, low productivity is another concern. Simply because those in authority imbues false sense of security in people like Gerakan K, with pea sized brains of course, with all sorts of propaganda and courses like the NKRA which these people like Gerakan K attends therefore wasting invaluable working time. Thank you bro, cheers. I am going to watch a boxing match on now.
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Again it showed your ignorance of international work place. In USA, they can call you the president or vice president or any name or title in this planet, earth, as far as you can perform!
USD 150 per hour charges are normally charged by those contract professionals and not contractual professionals, as those in the latter charge substantially higher or they do not charge at all. Perhaps you are running an organization without knowing who is the head at the other end? Interaction is very important in today’s globalized society. Do not be reactive when you have one or two bad experiences, as the foreigners can tell you the same, if they bother to, with their problems with Malaysians professionals who cannot interact properly, and with pea sized brain,like you!
Perhaps your staff was wrong? Did you manage or bother to check personally? Your mentality of Indians again, I must say is biased! You still live in a world where you think the Indians of today are those we encounter 3 decades back, who are backwards but certainly not now, bro. Give credit where it is due and just visit Mumbai and see the developments that are taking place and will take place in the short future.
Bro, I will be leaving for Mumbai first week of January, care to come along?
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Gerakan, this is the whole problem, you only see your side and think the Indian in India cant speak proper English.
Actually it is probably your staff that cant speak proper England (oops English) and creating a communication problem.
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Gerakan K,
Perhaps you are dealing with those cottage industry type or third class type of Companies? Yes, it is not unusual that we find monkeys working for us if we pay peanuts?
Have you checked the credibility of your counterpart at the other end?
Perhaps it was your employees that cannot communicate? Your employees are not up to mark? These are all possibilities for you to check to improve on the operations of your Company. I am sorry to hear what you encountered but I must thank my lucky star that the Indians I worked with are first class professionals, and we cannot help but appreciate the way they articulate themselves in every subject related to the cause of doing our job efficiently orally or in writing. You know England so well, and I am sure if you were to land in Gatwick, you can see the huge Indian sub continent population there, and surely they do not speak with an Indian slang, do they Gerakan k?
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Gerakan K,
PR cannot offer anything that the BN had offered to Malaysians so far. PR certainly cannot offer Altantuya, missing immigration records,Teoh Beng Hock,
PKFZ, Perak power grab, VK Lingam, correct corect correct and now Malaysians like you in BN must be thankful and proud for the worldwide attention that BN/UMNO had brought to the country, the reported two missing jet engines….. wait a minute Gerakan K, can you confirm whether it is actually two engines only? Words are out now that there are more than two you know? They said it is four and with other military wares as well? Certainly, this is the creme de la cremes of all scandals in 2009?
What PR will offer and has offered in PR administered states are a Clean, Accountable and Transparent Government. And the results is for all to see, the AG’s report. So you can see the difference, BN state mired in corruption and falling roofs whereas PR states, despite the recession, the destabilising efforts and back stabbings by BN, a healthy bank account for the States, and doing its best to assist the Rakyat with every opportunity possible, unlike, BN screwing the Rakyat at every turn possible…GST!!! Hey! any news that the PM’s trip to USA recently is more due to the missing jet engines than attracting foreign investments you know? Ai… should have realized that if the PM goes on a foreign trip to attract investments, his entourage of local successful corporate heads would have tagged along….. why this time, missing eh? And also, what are the MOUs signed in USA, huh? Mind boggling lah. I think you had attended the NKRA, which is so promising, can you please enlighten us on the above? Cheers bro!
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Do you blame LGE when there was criminal activity, for example robbery in Penang? Of course not. Why now blame BN when there was robbery alike scenario in RMAF? Why blame BN when Teoh Beng Hock case is still not concluded. Homicide or suicide, who knows? For PKFZ, do you know the culprit already face impending court trial? For Perak power grab (I think power transition is more appropriate), do you understand what is majority rules principle? BN has more ADUNs and thus deserve to govern Perak. Don’t be a sore loser. For VK Lingam, the recorded videos mean nothing because we only able to speculate but can not ascertain what happening. Is that a criminal offence for someone going to trip with Chief Justice? The case is too weak for any authority to act. Yes GST is bad and everyone must reject it.
Transparent PR government? I don’t think so, for example: In Penang, LGE failure to reveal all exco minutes regarding to Kg Buah Pala cruel demolition and recent Penang monorail project.
Accountable PR government? I don’t think so, for example many election promises PR failed to realized and instead playing with words twisting. For example PR failed to save Kg Buah Pala from demolition and instead claim it has done its best to get the best compensation in Malaysia which is not true at all. The question here is to prevent demolition and not to get the best compensation after demolition. Another example, PR election promise to ensure no racial based policy/discrimination, but look at Kedah PR government, they introduce housing quota up to 50% for bumiputra. They even demolish the only pig abattoir there. Another example, beer ban introduced in Selangor because that area is Malay majority.
The question of clean government, we can only know it after many years later. So don’t prejudge too soon.
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Gerakan K,
With due respect to you bro, I gather from your intimations via all the comments only in Anil’s blog, that at best, you are just a middle level management material with college education. Your ability to interact objectively on all topics discussed is highly suspect! Your tendency to quote people out of context, avoiding answering when you know you are guilty, all point to one thing, an insecure soul in this global village, who is trying his best to adapt but failed to on most occasions and will always deceive your ownself with whatever little you may achieve!
That too, probably a local company, as MNCs have very high requirements, like insisting on a CPGA of at least 3.5 before they consider recruiting you, that is at management level.
Your sense of responsibility or irresponsibility can again manifested itself via your comment above. It showed your sheer ignorance which in the actual work place means total neglect or someone who will not be held responsible or accountable in the event a mishap takes place. Another trait of the BN mentality, they are on self denial mode 24/7 eternally. Deny, deny and deny! Provide statistics, more statistics and then lies to cover up for anything that may transpire. Mr. Perfect but sadly with too many imperfections! So, I think it is best we enjoy watching our boxing match but unfortunately Manny Panaquio is not agreeable to the conditions laid down by the Mayweather’s ( I hope I got his name right, as I am no fan of his)camp. Cheers bro! Let us enjoy a drink together la bro, dunggu?
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@Gerakan K,
Again you think in such simple terms, buddy boy.
Malaysians don’t just blame BN without rhyme or reason. Malaysians blame your BN blokes for the jet engine theft because you guys have been sitting on your backsides for 2 long years despite the report being made that long ago. We aren’t faulting BN for those army thieves’ actions, but faulting BN for being a useless government in its inaction.
We blame BN not just because Beng Hock was a DAP man, but because he died in mysterious circumstances and was maligned (by BN, who else!) even after death.
PKFZ? You silly Gerakan K! You actually believe OC Phang and the other blokes are the only culprits? End of story? No BN involvement here? Ha-ha! This makes my X’mas day.
And ad nauseam the other BN-induced plus BN-originated blame stories.
Comapre all that to LGE and he is definitely an angel. You complain LGE’s problems are what again? Oh yeah, lemme see…lack of transparency in not releasing some barmy official minutes, lack of accountability for the KBP squatters…is that it??? No one died? No one got robbed of billions of RM? Like I said, LGE is truly an angel compared against the BN’s actions.
Hmmrrrphh, you go and do your apples/oranges comparison more and be forever delusional.
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hello malaysians, I live in germany .You guys will be suprised how many people grow their own veges in their homes and the share them with their neighbours.And the prices of veges is far far cheaper than that in penang. Dont complain , just do it.
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I think if we aerate the water that goes to water our vegetables, they will grow better.
It’s probably the reason why vegetables grow fast and healthy in hydroponics.
Aeration is cheap and easy.
Go buy a air pump (for fish tank type) and attach a sponge at the tube outlet so that large air bubbles are broken up into smaller ones for better aeration.
You may also aerate your own urine and use that as fertiliser.
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Dear Anthony Louis,
I work for a German company and I visit our Frankfurt head office twice a year. I’ve been doing that for several years. I’m aware that people grow their own vegetables, service their own cars, repair their own roof, pave their own driveway, etc. I’m also aware that people leave their office at 5pm sharp (thereabouts), enjoy 30 days annual leave a year, not have to work overtime on weekdays or weekends (if they don’t want to). AND even if they chose to work overtime, there’s a Works Council in every company that may decide to REJECT their request – for the sake of preserving the famous German quality of life. And if you are a pregnant lady, you are entitled go away for ONE YEAR to give birth and take care of your baby, and the company is obliged (by law) to keep your job for that 1 year AND the state will pay you up to EUR1,800 a month allowance.
Not to mention the fact that because of the excellent public transportation and the fantastic highways, you spend less time on the road. I have a colleague who works in Frankfurt and lives in Darmstadt – it only takes him 35 mins to get home although it’s about 120 km apart. He has time to tend to his garden AND go for a jog.
As a result of that, the average German has a lot more time on his hands to DIY including planting his own vegetables. And rightly so.
All this is a result of a country well-managed, practically corruption-free, efficient like hell, very decentralised with lots of decisions made at state and local level, with emphasis on technology, meritocracy, and quality of life.
The issue is not about the cost of tomatoes, or about planting vegetables in your backyard. The issue is that we don’t have all the above. The solution is to throw out the BN. We have given them 52 years. That’s just about enough time.
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Even if the BN is thrown out, that would only be the beginning. I dont think that MNCs and local companies would overnight suddenly allow their staff to go home early etc
Quite apart from that, a strong labour movement, strong labour laws and a respect for workers’ rights is needed as well.
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Hi Anil,
The PR has many more people from the labour movement than the BN. They are more likely to push for policies that are fairer to labour. For eg. Syed Shahir who is the MTUC president is a high-ranking member of PKR. It will take time to change but in my opinion, there is higher likelihood that there’ll be changes if (or rather, when) PR takes over.
Having said that, it’s not just about not working overtime. The quality of life in Germany is a direct result of not having corruption, working hard and working efficiently (without necessarily having to work long hours), having an environment that values hard and honest work, spending prudently and caring for the environment. i.e. its the whole works, not just one factor.
In Msia, things have got so bad that I think if PR can reduce corruption by 50%, that alone can improve the quality of life by a significant notch.
Price of tomatoes may even come down. That will be a start. I am hopeful.
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Why should food be cheap? the real price of farmed produce must correspond to the standard of living of the farmer.
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