ASSHOLE ASTRO

A friend of mine had just forwarded this article to me a minute ago. I fully support his statement and I will also make a comment and suggestions on this issue for the good of all subscribers and consumers at large.

If you have anything to say on this issue, please email the details to me at the following address :-

aduan.awam@gmail.com

or

nordinblogspot@yahoo.com

This is an explanation on why our Astro channels go blank during rain, written by an engineer friend. In Malaysia, the Asshole (a.k.a. Astro) arranged for the govt to ban all large satellite discs for public use before the Asshole launch their satellite TV service. All other countries allow large antenna of more than 1.0m that you can receive from any channel in the world. With the small <1.0m>to line some people’s fat pockets. When we are only allowed to install the miniature antenna we cannot receive other satellite broadcasts other than the Asshole's channels and must use their decoders. This scheme is deliberate, and when they use such small discs the frequency they use is much higher.. Satellite transmission has many bands ranging from C , X, Ku, K, and Ka bands. And the frequency increases from around 4GHz (uplink higher frequency) and downlink lower frequency, 6GHz, 8Ghz, 14Ghz, 15Ghz and 30Ghz respectively. The C bands used by most geosynchronous satellites for communication is most resistant to rain attenuation while the higher frequency bands like Ku and above suffer easily 5 times more signal attenuation during rain. You can overcome this by having higher power and gain in the antenna, but the very purpose of Asshole using the miniature antenna (larger antenna are banned and illegal in Malaysia and no other country did this) is to restrict the gain and make sure that everyone can only receive the Asshole's channels and not the other channels that other countries nearby can receive. So the trade off in Malaysia is we cannot receive satellite TV transmission from other channels other than Asshole's channels (due to small disc with low gain) and suffers greatly when it rains. It is very profitable for the Asshole as we can only receive Assholes channels (they can have high power transmission from the satellite) since the gain from the disc will not be good enough to pick up signals from other channels other than Asshole's transmission. They encrypted their transmission, if you are not a paying subscriber you cannot receive the transmission. When it rains, the attenuation will cause the screen to go blank due to poor signal strength as the gain of the antenna is too low and you see nothing. All Malaysians have suffered this loss of access to free satellite TV the day Ananda Krishnan got his licence to start Asshole TV when large TV discs were banned in Malaysia (except for commercial applications) . So my conclusion is Asshole did not choose the wrong satellite band, they choose the band deliberately to make sure that they can get maximum profit and service (or rather poor service) is not part of their equation. Now, the one who wrote is not an asshole but a smart ass . ARTICLE RECEIVED AT 1106 ON SATURDAY 25TH JULY 2009

SOLAR ENERGY INCENTIVES SOUGHT

The Government needs to introduce subsidies, grants, tax rebates or any other kind of incentives to encourage the public to install solar system to generate electricity from renewable sources.

A solar system, also called solar power or solar radiation, is a renewable or sustainable energy source and an obvious alternative energy to fossil fuels such as coal and oil or gas, as it does not deplete the world's natural resources and release greenhouse gases especially CO2 ( Carbon dioxide ) into the environment.

Malaysia could contribute significantly to the cause of halting global warming and climate change if solar energy is widely used in the country. The solar system that harnesses energy from sun is a fuel that powers all life on earth directly or indirectly, providing warmth and light green plants using it to produce food which in turn feeds us.

The solar water heating system, for example, could also be used for domestic water heating as well as larger scale applications for business and the community. Not only could the system save money, they will also reduced a negative impact on the environment.

The Government too needs to introduce a new policy planning guide for developers to consider installing renewable sources of power to help cut carbon emissions in all future housing developments. When carbon emissions have been eliminated it would create our future homes with "zero carbon".

In certain European countries, the Government there are making it compulsory for new homes and commercial buildings to use renewable energy as part of their Government plans to boost green energy.

The solar system could also reduce the escalating use of fossil-based fuels, release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a disturbing rate and global warming.

In fact, the effects of climate change are now accelerating so rapidly that statistics are out of date before they are printed. Worse still, the patterns of rainfall are changing, while heat waves, floods, storms and droughts are all becoming more prolonged and severe. Not only that, the sea levels are also rising without warning.

We need to be aware of the risks before its too late. The main causes of environmental phenomenon is nothing else other than as a result of human activities.

I am glad that the people as individuals, businesses and public bodies are becoming increasingly aware of the need to reduce their 'carbon footprint'. In what way we look at it, is down to us to do something about this problem.

DONT OVER COMMIT IN SPENDING INCOME

Due to the rising cost of living, we must not to be over-committed in our spending and budget our income wisely. By budgeting and planning our financial commitments as well as income, we can avoid debts and make the most of our income.

We have to be realistic about what we can afford. It is easy to become financially over-committed. Our monthly commitments and extra bills would increase for example when we sign up for a new service such as satellite tv or a post paid mobile line ( by contract ) buy something on hire purchase or add to a credit card debt.

Another reason for financial over commitment may be a change in personal circumstances resulting to a drop of income, for example, if one loses his job or meet an accident resulting in loss of earning or the need to stop working. When this happens, we have to change our spending priorities.

The most important thing a person has to do is to review his or her budget as it can help them plan ahead and make the most of their income if any of the above happens to them. They must identify their commitments, for example, mortgage, rent, bills, cars and work out how much they cost?

It is also important to review the budget regularly, because circumstances are likely to change. By working out the budget we'll know how much money we have for our essential living expenses, such as household bills, rent or mortgage and food and how much we can afford to commit to other plans, like buying a car, taking out another mortgage, going on holiday or saving for the future.

By prioritizing our commitments we can make sure our basic needs are met and then we can decide what else we can afford and what we have to save for or do without. By shopping around and negotiating, not just for goods and services but also for financial products such as loans and credit cards, we can make our money go further.

If one is over-committed and have a debt problem, please, in my view, do not ignore the problem, hoping it will go away. It is also important to decide which debts are priority debts and which are not.

Signs when an individual may have a problem includes :-

1. Having rent or mortgage arrears
2. Taking out new loans to pay off old ones
3. Only paying the minimum amount on the credit card
4. Using a credit for day-to-day purchases
5. Ignoring letters from creditors

From debt cases that i've handled, too many people let debt take control over their life before they sought assistance to settle their problems. Consumers are encouraged to take control early to help stop spiraling debt especially at this time of year when people can be prone to mounting credit and debt as their thoughts turned to Puasa and Hari Raya expenses.

If one is really in financial trouble, one could seek help and assistance from Bank Negara, through their Credit Counseling and Debt management Agency ( AKPK ). The AKPK offers a helpline, providing free and impartial financial advice to people with debt problems.

MacDonalds McValue Lunch 12 TGH - 2.45 PTG ??

Beginilah iklan yang dipamerkan di Macdonald Jalan Sulaman ia itu mempromosikan McValue lunch mereka yang sepatutnya dihidangkan daripada pukul 12 tengah hari hingga 3 petang daripada hari Isnin hinggalah ke hari Ahad. Tetapi setelah saya membuat penyiasatan berdasarkan daripada aduan yang telah diterima daripada orang ramai maka lain pula ceritanya.

Dalam beberapa minggu ini, saya telah mendapat banyak panggilan dan aduan daripada rakan-rakan serta orang ramai yang mengadu bahawa mereka merasakan mereka telah ditipu. Ada yang bergegas ke Macdonald hanya untuk membeli set lunch tersebut sebelum pukul 3 petang tetapi hampa kerana Macdonald tidak menjual set lunch ini selepas pukul 2.45 petang sedangkan masa yang di iklankan sehingga pukul 3 petang.

Alasan yang diberikan oleh kakitangan Macdonald adalah mereka hanya mengikut arahan supervisor dan waktu yang telah ditetapkan di dalam " cash register " yang mana tidak boleh diubah. Mereka hanya berpandukan pada jam tersebut.

Kebetulan pada hari ini ia itu hari Jumaat bersamaan dengan 2 Syaaban 1430 / 24 Julai 2009 saya dan beberapa rakan sampai tepat pukul 2.40 petang untuk menyiasat perkara ini. Giliran kami sampai di counter tepat pukul 2.44 petang.

Kami membuat order dan memesan untuk membeli 3 set Mac Chicken spicy tepat pada pukul 2.46 petang dan dimaklumkan oleh cashier yang bertugas McValue Lunch dah habis pukul 3 petang tadi. Kebetulan kami sedang mendengar siaran Radio Kelasik Nasional di dalam kereta dan hanya menunggu berita tepat pada pukul 3 petang untuk membuktikan masa sebenarnya.

Kami memberitahu cashier yang bertugas itu waktu sekarang belum lagi pukul 3 petang, dia menjawab " itu jam salah yang betul apa yang dipaparkan di till saya" ujarnya.

Saya tidak mahu menceritakan dengan panjang lebar perkara ini di sini dan sekiranya saudara / saudari pernah mengalami situasi seperti ini, sila hubungi saya melalui email : aduan.awam@gmail.com atau tinggalkan pesanan di dalam ruang contact yang disediakan.

Saya sempat menghubungi pengurusan atasan Macdonald sebelum pukul 5 petang tadi untuk memperjelaskan keadaan sebenar dan apa yang telah berlaku selama ini. Mereka telah berjanji akan menyiasat perkara ini demi untuk kebaikan pengguna dan akan memperbetulkan kesilapan-kesilapan yang ada.

DRUNK DRIVING – TEN FINED BY THE TRAFFIC COURT

A stiffer penalty should be imposed on motorists who are arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. A heavy fined should be meted out on the offenders, in addition to an automatic 12 month driving ban and if it involved in a fatal accident , a jail term of between three and ten years.

Many developing countries have been enforcing such law and have successfully reduced the number of accidents involving drink-driving offences.

The offender’s car insurance premium would double or even treble for many years and hiring a car would be difficult for up to 10 years. Once the offenders were convicted of their offence, the Road Transport Department should revoke their driving licence with immediate effect.

The offenders should also take a medical test to prove that they were no longer heavy drinkers and to go for fresh driving test. A compulsory policy of breath testing for all drivers involved in any accidents must also be introduced. This is to confirm the alcohol affects on the driver ability to judge the distance and speed correctly.

The safety or legal limit here is 80milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood, 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath and 107 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of urine. Actually, it is impossible to calculate the legal limit. It takes about one hour for each unit of alcohol to leave our body.

This means if we have eight pints of ordinary strength beer and stopped drinking at midnight, all the alcohol would not be dispelled from the body ( and we would not be safe to drive ) until about 4pm the following day.

There is no way to speed up the process up - cold showers, coffee and sleep – do not make any difference at all – time is the only factor. Drink driving drivers have caused a lot of nuisance and inconveniences to other road users, especially during weekends when they have to avoid being run over or knocked down by these drivers.

They just simply overtake or stop their vehicles without warning and drive dangerously at a very high speed. For those familiar with the area where the common road block is, they try to use alternative route to prevent being arrested.

Consumers are advised that if they plan to drink they should leave their car at home or leave their car and go home by taxi and collect the car the following day. Never ride as a passenger with someone who has been drinking. Alternatively, if you’re going out with friends, take turns to nominate a driver who does not drink during that evening.

Meanwhile, ten motorists were fined between RM1,200 and RM2,200 each by the Traffic Court here yesterday ( 22 July 2009 ) for driving under the influence of alcohol. Senior Assistant Registrar Encik Mohd Faiz Omar meted out the fines on all the accused after they pleaded guilty to their separate charges under Section 45 (1) of theRoad Transport Act 1967, which carries a fine of between RM1,000 and RM6,000 or a jail term of up to 12 months, or both, upon conviction.

CODE OF PRACTICE FOR WORKSHOPS?

The relevant Government agencies should introduce a code of practice for workshops to improve and regulate their operations in servicing and repairing vehicles in Sabah. This is to protect innocent consumers from unscrupulous workshop owners or operators.

The common problems that consumers are facing are workshops charge for work that is not actually carried out; malpractice by repairers such as stealing parts of vehicles for resale; spare parts are not genuine; short periods of warranty; charging more than the consumers might expected based on the information provided prior to work being carried out and work is done that is not necessary without approval.

Almost all workshop owners have better or more technical knowledge about cars. As a result, they exploit the gap in knowledge to make consumers vulnerable and fool them. They deliberately vague about what they do and they are charging for. There is a lack of transparency of costs, and many of them do not provide or have a copy of their standard terms and conditions.

The workshop owners association here should be more active in safeguarding their business and interests by working very closely with the relevant Government agencies by giving accreditation to their members so that it would bring back the confidence and trust of consumers to their workshops.

It is not easy to find or choose a reliable workshops nowadays, apart from personal recommendation or through word of mouth. Consumers have little information on the performance of workshops furthermore anyone can just open a workshop regardless of whether they are well-trained or qualified mechanics.

Bad experienced by consumers reduces their confidence and if the association with the help and assistance from the relevant Government agencies, could set up a reference agency or directory it would definitely help to overcome the problem.

With the rapidly increase of private car ownership, the relevant Government authorities and agencies should look into this matter very seriously. The consumers do not want these workshops to take advantage of the situation for economic benefits without considering the safety aspect of it.

Shoddy workmanship done on vehicles carries obvious risk to public safety. We don't know if poor workmanship and sub standards parts replaced on vehicles had contributed to some of the accidents occurring on our roads.

If this is so, the relevant authorities should consider introducing a new legislation covering this aspect.

CVLB - Organise Public Transport Refresher Course

The Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board ( CVLB ) should introduce a compulsory intensive refresher or awareness course for all drivers of public transport such as bus, minibus, school bus and taxi following the recent increasing number of deaths and accidents involving buses.

With the introduction of such courses, it will automatically disqualify those drivers who have summonses and warrant of arrests to drive public transport vehicles. Only those drivers free from any offences could attend the refresher course and awareness courses.

CVLB should organise the refresher course every two years and without such certficates, these drivers would not be allowed to drive. The certificates must be accredited and approved by the Ministry of Transport and consist of the individual driver's assessment, theory and practical training.

If Puspakom made it compulsory for commercial vehicles to be checked after a certain period of time why not the drivers? As this also involved the safety of passengers.

The refresher or awareness course content should include important subjects such as legal responsibilities, passenger and personal safety, health and personal safety awareness, risk assessment, breakdowns and accidents, duty of care, evacuation procedures, fitness test, medical check-up and defensive driving.

By introducing an assistant or co-driver and restricting the hours of driving for long distance travelling are not good enough if these drivers are not well versed on other aspects of passengers and personal safety.

If those horror road accidents continue, the consumers would lose confidence on our public transport system and it would affect the Government efforts to encourage the public to use it.

The proposal by FOMCA to the Government to provide free school bus service as part of the education subsidy should be considered and should include subsidy to upgrade those ageing school buses for the convenience and safety of our school children.

The school bus and other public transport operators must improve the quality and efficiency of their services in line with the fare increases to give a better services to the consumers at large.

Pengurusan Persatuan Pengguna Sabah dan CASH lama diambil alih oleh CASH baru

Kita telah dimaklumkan melalui beberapa buah akhbar tempatan bahawa Persatuan Pengguna Sabah telah diambil alih oleh CASH. CASH yang tidak pernah didaftarkan akan wujud semula dengan nama baru setelah didaftarkan dengan Dewan Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu untuk memulakan aktiviti-aktiviti kepenggunaan mereka.

CASH sekarang ini digelar CASH atau pun nama barunya ialah :- Pergerakan Pengguna Sabah dan Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan yang berkuatkuasa serta merta setelah ROS membatalkan Persatuan Pengguna Sabah atau CASH.

Ini adalah satu petanda yang baik sekiranya mana-mana persatuan mempunyai masalah dengan pejabat pertubuhan atau ROS bolehlah mendaftarkan diri dengan Dewan Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu untuk mendapatkan lesen supaya dapat bergerak.

Pada pendapat saya, CASH sebenarnya harus mendaftarkan diri sebagai sebuah pertubuhan politik kerana skop tugasan atau aktiviti mereka bukan lagi khusus untuk memperjuangkan hak-hak kepenggunaan kerana kebanyakan isu-isu yang diperjuangankan oleh CASH adalah bermotifkan dan berunsurkan politik.

Kenyataan yang dibuat oleh seorang pemimpin kanan CASH yang baru dalam sebuah akhbar tempatan pada hari sabtu 18hb Julai 2009 mengatakan bahawa mereka akan terus memperjuangkan serta membela nasib pengguna dan rakyat Sabah. Ini bermakna apa jua isu yang tidak berkaitan dengan hal-hal kepenggunaan akan diperjuangkan oleh mereka. Jesturu itu adalah amat tepat sekali bagi CASH untuk menubuhkan atau menjadi sebuah parti politik baru di Sabah.

Mungkin ini adalah satu strategi baru lagi bagi pemimpin-pemimpin CASH untuk bersiap sedia bagi menghadapi pilihanraya yang akan datang untuk mencuba nasib sekali lagi. Pada pilihanraya lepas ramai yang gagal bertanding atas tiket pembangkang dan terpaksa bertanding di atas tiket bebas.Sekiranya rakyat mempunyai kepercayaan penuh dengan mereka dan apa yang mereka perjuangankan itu adalah benar-benar untuk pengguna khususnya dan rakyat Sabah amnya saya percaya mereka akan mendapat tempat di hati rakyat.

Tuduhan-tuduhan yang dinyatakan dan dilimparkan secara terbuka oleh beberapa pemimpin CASH untuk menghancurkan CASH adalah semata-mata strategi untuk mengelirukan mata dan pandangan rakyat sahaja. Sebenarnya permasalahan dalaman yang dihadapi oleh CASH belum lagi selesai selagi pendakwaan oleh pendakwa raya belum selesai dan didengar di makhamah.

Apa yang kita dengar dan dimaklumkan sekarang ini hanya sebahagian sahaja, ia itu daripada pejabat pertubuhan ( ROS ) dan belum lagi kita dengar daripada pihak-pihak yang lain.

Tuduhan yang dibuat oleh pemimpin-pemimpin kanan CASH seperti yang tersiar di dalam blog Malaysia kini konon ada orang-orang kuat di Sabah ini untuk menghancurkan CASH adalah hanya sebuah gimik belaka. Siapa juga CASH yang mereka hendak hancurkan? Setakat mana CASH boleh mempengaruhi rakyat jelata Sabah? Jumlah keahlian CASH yang berdaftar tidak sampai pun 100 orang ( Dec 2008 ) apakah dengan jumlah 100 orang ini boleh mempengaruhi 2 juta penduduk Sabah? atau dapat menggugatkan kerajaan negeri yang sedia ada sehinggakan ada pihak hendak menghancurkan CASH?

Sekiranya kepimpinan CASH mempunyai kredibilti yang amat tinggi dan berwibawa saya percaya orang-orang dalam kerajaan di Sabah ini akan tunduk dan takut dengan CASH. Kita harus pandai mencerminkan diri kita selalu sebelum menyalahkan orang atau pihak lain.

Umpama hari baik dibuang-buang, hari buruk dikejar-kejar begitulah peribahasa melayu yang dapat saya ungkapan apabila masa utuk menyelesaikan masalah dalaman CASH yang dihindari oleh sesetengah pihak pada awalnya. Umpama enau dalam belukar, melepaskan pucuk masing-masing sebenarnya berlaku dalam CASH lama.

Logo CASH yang tidak pernah diluluskan oleh ROS akan digunakan semula setelah mendapat kebenaran untuk beroperasi oleh Dewan Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu.

Logo ini juga digunakan oleh Consumers International dan samada telah mendapat kebenaran atau tidak cuma orang-orang tertentu dalam CASH baru sajalah dapat menjawabnya.