Those Were The Days

TO ALL THOSE WHO WERE BORN IN THE 50's, 60's and 70's

First, we survived with mothers who had no maids. They cooked /cleaned while taking care of us at the same time. They took aspirin, candy floss, fizzy drinks, shaved ice with syrup and diabetes was rare. Salt added to Pepsi or Coke was remedy for fever.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. As children, we would ride with our parents on bicycles/ motorcycles for 2 or 3. Richer ones in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a private taxi was a special treat.

We drank water from the tap and NOT from a bottle.

We would spend hours on the fields under bright sunlight flying our without worrying about UV rays which never seem to affect us.

We go into the jungle to catch spiders without worries of Aedes mosquitoes

With mere 5 pebbles (stones) would be a endless game. With a ball (tennis ball best) we boys would ran like crazy for hours.

We caught guppy in drains / canals and when it rained we swam there.

We shared one soft drink with four friends from one bottle and NO ONE actually worry about being unhygenic.

We ate salty, very sweet & oily food, candies,bread and real and drank very sweet soft drinks, sweet coffee/ tea, ice kachang, but we weren't overweight because....WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, till streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours repairing our old bicycles and wooden scooters out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times,we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.

We never had birthday parties till we were 21.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and just yelled for them!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 40 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were!

Happy Chinese New Year

Beware - PUSH POCKET

I am sure you all have heard of 'pick pocket'.

A new trend 'push pocket'. Read on.. for your own good.

A few days ago a new type of crime has surfaced in town.

It goes something like this:- Somebody slips a hand-phone into your pocket, sometimes it could be just a wallet with an identity card and a few ringgit.

A few minutes later, the 'owner' comes up and confronts you, the 'thief '. He makes a big commotion that you stole his stuff. You, caught unaware, are then pulled aside by the 'owner' for a settlement. You are intimidated and threatened.

That if you do not pay up the police will be brought in. If you pay up, this 'owner' lets you go. Another strange thing is that there always seems to be a 'witness' to your 'theft'.

I am told this often happens to foreigners at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) or even at LRT trains. Given that you're 'guilty until proven innocent' as far as the Malaysian police are concerned, I understand some poor people are in jail for these 'offences'.

At the KLIA, the 'owner' throws his hand-phone and wallet with the few ringgit notes into the luggage trolley of a just arrived passenger. The drama unfolds a few minutes later. The real culprit has easily convinced our Malaysian police to arrest the real victim (if he has not paid up the 'settlement' demand).

This is a very serious matter. This is another form of extortionists operating in broad daylight. They are disgusting criminals who will do anything to rob and steal.

The sickening part of the whole scenario is that unless you pay the 'quoted settlement' money, they will put you in real trouble by calling the police. The real culprit gets back his hand-phone and wallet but the real victim ( i.e. could be any one of us) is thrown into the police lock up and charged in court.

So do be very careful, otherwise you may end up as a 'thief' as you have no way to prove your innocence.

Pass it on..... let more people be aware of such things around them.

DO YOU KNOW THE NO-ZONE?

According to a 1999 report by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, between 1984 and 1992, the number of trucks involved in fatal crashes was on a downward trend, falling from 5,124 to 4,035, a decrease of more than 20 percent. However, in 1993, car-truck related fatalities rose to 4,849, a 16 percent increase from the previous year. In 1994, these types of fatalities climbed another 5 percent to 5,112. Concerned with this trend, Congress requested in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) "educate the motoring public about how to safely share the road with commercial vehicles (CMVs)."

In response, in April 1994, the OMCHS introduced the national No-Zone Campaign strategy to increase public recognition about commercial vehicle limitations in an effort to influence the motoring public’s driving behavior; decrease the number of car-commercial vehicle crashes; and ultimately reduce fatalities, injuries, and property damage.

The term No-Zone represents the areas around large trucks and buses where CMV drivers have limited visibility increasing the risk of a crash. These blind spots around trucks and buses have been named the No-Zone because they are areas that other vehicles should avoid or travel through as quickly and safely as possible to reduce the incidence of a collision. Trucks and buses have large No-Zones on either side, directly behind, and immediately in front of them, as well as limitations of maneuverability and stopping distance. The picture below shows these No-Zones.

The most recent statistics indicate that car-truck crashes remain a serious problem. Statistics provided by the OMCHS Information Analysis Division indicate that in 1997, potentially 36 percent of all two-vehicle crashes between a large truck and a passenger vehicle took place in the No-Zone around a truck. In 1997, almost 13 percent of the people killed in all traffic crashes, or a total of 5,355 lives, were lost in car-truck accidents.

So what does this mean? The drivers should apply the following:

Passenger vehicles and smaller vehicles should attempt to avoid the No-Zone or travel through as quickly as possible.

Large trucks and buses have less maneuverability and require greater stopping distances; therefore, drivers of other vehicles should recognize this and allow added for an added space cushion.

Large truck and bus drivers should also recognize the issues with maneuverability and stopping distance and apply defensive driving techniques to reduce the possibility of having to take emergency action (such as, hard braking).