Indulgent Deals For Tourists

 

by Chuah Bee Kim

JOHOR BARU: URUS I Event Wangle Enterprise is working with the Johor state government and other tourism-related agencies, namely Johor Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) and the Johor Tourism Department to stage Black Box Studio Seniman Johor Baru.

Its manager, Yunos Bakar, 60, said the company has drawn up a package for foreign and local tourists where they can enjoy a meal and watch a cultural and heritage performance at the Restoran Singgah Selalu at Jalan Skudai here.

Yunos said there are three packages available.

“There is a package where guests can have lunch and watch the dance performance priced at RM50 for adults and RM35 per child aged seven to 12.

“Guests can enjoy a buffet spread. After their meal, they can watch our dancers perform zapin, cerapat inai, masri Sarah, joget Johor Sports Club and the ghazal.”

The performances will be held daily from Saturday to Wednesday at about noon.

“From Thursday to the weekends, we do not have shows but it can be arranged by special request,” Yunos said.

Calling themselves the Black Box Dancers, the group comprised eight dancers, a choreographer and a production manager.

There is also a package for high tea beginning at 3.30pm priced at RM30 for adults and RM20 (children). For dinner, guests can enjoy a set dinner priced at RM60 (adult) and RM35 (child). Both packages come with a show.

For those who only want to enjoy the show, the price is RM25 for adults and RM15 for children.

The seating capacity at the studio, located inside the 24-hour restaurant, is 100 people.

For details, call Yunos at 012-708 1 709.

- sourced from NST online

Clogged Drains and Rubbish

sourced from NST online

JOHOR BARU: THE Rotarian Action Group (RAG) is calling on the authorities to look into several areas in the city where there are potential breeding grounds for Aedes mosquitoes.

RAG secretary John Cheah named areas such as Taman Sentosa and Jalan Susur Tun Abdul Razak where the drains are clogged up and rubbish are strewn everywhere.

Cheah said he had highlighted the matter to the authorities, but to no avail.

“It takes mosquito larvae about a week to reach adulthood,” he said.

“The clogged drains and rubbish spotted in the two areas have been there for more than three weeks.

 pic by Dazar Suarman

“The authorities should spring into action immediately to clear the rubbish.”

A recent Health Ministry report stated that there were 42,229 dengue cases in the country from January to June. This is an increase of 248 per cent, compared with 12,143 cases in the corresponding period last year.

Cheah also highlighted a report in the Straits Times which quoted Singapore Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan as saying that the new dengue vaccine to be marketed by a French pharmaceutical company Sanofi next year was “not good enough”.

Balakrishnan had reportedly said that the vaccine was not effective enough against the two most common types of the dengue virus here — types 1 and 2.

Cheah also called on researchers, academician, engineers, doctors and lecturers to attend a two-day international conference called Second International Conference on Dengue Fever, Situation and Its Control, which starts on Sept 20, to learn ways to fight the epidemic.

The event is organised by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia with the support of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia and Rotary International District 3310.

It is taking place at the university’s Dewan Sultan Iskandar.

The speakers include University of Phayao associate professor Dr Busabong Jamroendararasama and Chiang Mai University associate prof Dr Nopporn Sittisombat, both from Thailand.

“Speakers from Thailand and the Philippines are coming to the event to share their knowledge on dengue. The conference will help us to learn more about combating dengue,” Cheah said.

The conference is priced at RM300 per participant for locals and US$100 (RM318.45) for foreign participants.

For enquiries, call Dr Shamila Azman at 07-556 6157 or Lucas Chew 017-777 7648.

Bouquets and Brickbats For Time Limit Parking

Cars parked illegally in front of the Johor Baru City Council. Pic by Nur Aisyah Mazalan.

by Chuah Bee Kim

sourced from NST online

This is My Say on the matter. What is yours?

THE Johor Baru City Council’s proposal to introduce time-limit parking has received praises and criticisms.

Those who are working in Singapore and have to park their cars near the Sultan Iskandar building before heading for the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex to take a bus to work in the republic, are of course, unhappy with the proposal.

They would need to make alternative plans, should such a law be implemented.

The local council came up with this proposal to emulate cities like Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia and Vancouver, Canada.

The cosmopolitan cities have to introduce this system to free up parking bays for others.

In a city like London, for instance, it is common to pay £40 (about RM210), a day to park their vehicles.

In Malaysia, people are unhappy when they have to pay RM20 for parking their car for a day.

It is not only an inconvenience to those who work in Singapore, even reporters will find it burdensome if there is a time limit.

If we were assigned to cover court cases, we do not know when a session will end.

Sometimes, a case is scheduled for 9am, but if the magistrate or judge is not available or the accused or witness is late, the case will be delayed.

Unforseen circumstances often crops up. A hearing can drag on until 3pm.

If would be a problem for us if time-limit parking were imposed.

Nevertheless, it will not affect me because I seldom drive to the city anyway. It is more convenient to hop onto a bus which will take me to the city, so why should I drive and worry about parking?

For those who do need to drive to Johor Baru, or the occasional shopper for instance, will welcome the idea of time-limit zones as it will be easier to find a parking spot.

A shopper will not spend the entire day in a shopping mall, or their purse will soon become very thin.

So having a time limit is good for a spendthrift shopaholic.

Like everything else, there will always be those who like the idea and those who are against it. You cannot please everyone.

But now the question is, does the local council have the manpower to enforce it?

For a long time, there have been complaints about business operators who place chairs, tables and cones on the roads, yet nothing has changed, except for the occasional raids.

There are endless complaints of of rampant double parking and other forms of illegal parking in the city, yet the problems persist.

If you complain about an overgrown tree, it will take some time before any action is taken.

How many skylifts does MBJB have? How many workers?

All these need to be looked into and carefully considered if Johor Baru wants to look anything like Melbourne.

It is common practice for cars to park on double yellow lines.

Pas "wild card" Candidate

Pas to submit third name to Selangor palace

by Shahrum Sayuthi

A NST exclusive sourced from NST online
 
SHAH ALAM: Pas will defy its Pakatan allies and nominate a third person to replace Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

A high-ranking party official told the New Straits Times yesterday that the party would submit three names, including  that of PKR president Datuk  Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and her deputy, Azmin Ali, to the Selangor palace for consideration.

The official said Pas would obey Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s decree on Aug 26 for the Islamist party, PKR and DAP to nominate at least three candidates for the menteri besar’s post by tomorrow.

“It is better to have the third name anyway as it could be the solution in case something goes wrong with the other two names.” Khalid was sacked from PKR on Aug 9 as part of the party’s attempt to replace him with Dr Wan Azizah, the wife of de facto party leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The move had been met with fierce criticism, with Pas leading the charge in insisting that Khalid be retained.

It then changed its stance and supported the move to remove Khalid, but remained steadfast in complying with the palace’s decree.

Two assemblymen from PKR — Dr Idris Ahmad of Ijok and Dr Yaakob Sapari of Kota Anggerik — are thought to be the front runners to be the third Pas “wild card” candidate.

The Pas official said a decision on the matter would be made in a meeting before the deadline.
“However, I have not yet been notified of the date and time of the meeting, but it should be held before Wednesday (tomorrow).”

The official said the Selangor leadership crisis would likely be discussed during debates at the party’s upcoming muktamar (annual general assembly) from Sept 18 to 20 in Johor.

The venue of the assembly, initially set to be in Johor Baru but would likely to be changed to “somewhere outside the state capital”, will be decided after a party leadership meeting on Sept 7.

On efforts by certain quarters to “persuade” Selangor Pas assemblymen to sign a statutory declaration (SD) in support of Dr Wan Azizah’s candidacy, the official said the matter was being handled by the Selangor party leaders.

The party’s patience has been pushed to the limit, with  Selangor Pas secretary Mohd Khairuddin Othman declaring on Sunday that the party would expose “the lobbyists” if this continued.

The move has widened rifts in the loose opposition pact, with two Pas assemblymen, Saari Sungib (Hulu Klang) and Hasnul Baharuddin (Morib), along with their DAP and PKR counterparts, signing a SD on Aug 14 in support of Dr Wan Azizah. The remaining 13 Selangor Pas assemblymen did not sign the SD.

This did not sit well with the Selangor Pas ulama wing, which passed a motion on Saturday condemning Saari and Hasnul. The motion will be forwarded to the party’s disciplinary committee for action to be taken against the two.

Meanwhile, Pas Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat said the party’s wing was concerned with the developments in Selangor, particularly the tussle in Pakatan over the choice of the new menteri besar.

On the wish by certain quarters in Pas, particularly from Kelantan, to field a candidate for the upcoming Pengkalan Kubor by-election on Sept 25, Suhaizan said the matter should be “amicably discussed” with PKR, which had also insisted on contesting the seat despite losing there in the last two general elections

No Hogging

Time Limit To Free Up More Bays

sourced from NST online

by Chuah Bee Kim

JOHOR BARU: THE Johor Baru City Council (MBJB) may introduce a time-limit parking zone in a bid to free up more bays in the city and lessen congestion.

MBJB public relations officer Abdul Aziz Ithnin told Johor Streets here yesterday that a proposal is being drawn up.

He said some residents park their vehicles in public lots in areas under the jurisdiction of the MBJB, and go to work in Singapore.

“These people pay 60 sen per hour, and park their vehicles there for more than eight hours.

“They are hogging the parking spaces, leaving none for the other motorists who then have to park their cars in front of fire hydrants or double park.

“In places like Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia, the authorities there set limits on how long a vehicle can park in a space. If the driver exceeds the time limit, they will face a fine.”

He said that because there is no time limit, people who work in Singapore can leave their cars in the same spot until they return from the republic.

He said that there is congestion in the city because motorists are too lazy to walk a few extra steps.

“There are parking spaces but many people are in the habit of parking in a spot which is closest to the shop or bank they want to drop in, obstructing traffic and causing inconvenience to other motorists. They are too lazy to park and walk even though the distance is not far,” Aziz said.

Mable Tan, 40, a fitness instructor shared Aziz’s sentiment.

“Sometimes, I am afraid to park my car in a parking lot. You know why? Because when I want to leave, often I will find a car blocking mine. I look around and there are empty spaces. They want to park “depan mata” (a habit of indiscriminate parking),” Tan said.

Tan added that these inconsiderate motorists will not think twice about parking in front of fire hydrants or bay for the disabled.

“Not only do they park indiscriminately, they don’t even have the courtesy of apologising if they have blocked your vehicle and kept you waiting for them to move. People today are getting more selfish.”

 

pic by Ben Tan

pic by Nur Aisyah Mazalan

Feedjit, Oh Feedjit

Updated

Hah! I finally got the location setting right. Now the widget shows me as visitor from JB instead of Kedah.

All for the fun of it ...

Original Post

I just installed the Feedjit Live Feed.  I was curious to know where my visitors were coming from, what do they like to read, etcetera.

But I think the widget isn't very accurate.  It guessed my location as Alor Setar, Kedah.  I went to the menu found at the bottom of the widget and tried to correct it.  It then registered me as coming from somewhere else instead of Johor.

And if you don't want the widget to detect you, you can choose the "ignore browser" option.

So, adding the widget is just for the fun of it.  At least people are reading my writings, my thoughts even though I don't know where and who they are. Well, thanks for reading.

Tomorrow, in the Johor Streets, I have a story about time-limit parking in the city of Johor Bahru.  This proposal by the Johor Baru City Council (MBJB) is going to ruffle some feathers, namely, those who go across the Causeway to work.

Read about it in tomorrow's Johor Streets, ok?  It's going to be something like what the city of Melbourne is doing to free parking spaces.  Anyway, it's only a proposal by the MBJB.

If you think it shouldn't be introduced, then perhaps you can drop in some suggestions as to how to ease the congestion in some areas in the city of JB?
  
Ok, going to have my dinner now.  Hungry!