It is said that reading broadens perspectives and open minds and we have no reason to dispute this age old saying. We think it is quite saddening that many Malaysians tend to read very little with some statistics quoting that the average Malaysian only reads a total of two pages of print a year. Reading is in fact a very cheap way of exploring the world and experiencing much of what it has to offer from the confines of your own home while expanding your vocabulary and communications skills. It’s particularly important to inculcate this habit from a young age.

We still need to be mindful, however, that the ability to indulge in reading is really one of life’s little luxuries and that it can be too much for the most disenfranchised amongst us. With that in mind, a former Microsoft executive, John Wood, left a high flying corporate career in order to Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve noticed a trend in Malaysia and indeed with many cultures around the world where people are moving more towards a consumerist society based on the individual rather than a more collectivist model where the wellbeing of society as a whole generally takes precedence over individual pursuits. While some argue that this is the natural progression of a society that aims to maximise opportunities and freedoms, we find it hard to deny that there are some who cannot adjust to the pace of development.

Social disenfranchisement can manifest itself in many forms – including severe depression and can push the disenfranchised to many social ills including drug abuse and even terrorism. Fortunately, there have been many social movements that reach out to the disenfranchised and try to engage them on a human level in order to turn them towards being productive members of society. While societies like the Befrienders and many religious societies are well known to many Malaysians, we’d like to highlight an example we read about from the UK that is turning many of the disenfranchised Muslim youths away from terrorism by giving them a greater sense of identity. Read the rest of this entry »

While we’ve talked about individual efforts by Malaysian companies to promote corporate social responsibility, we don’t think we’ve done this topic enough. We’re pleased to see more companies getting involved in corporate social responsibility, including the largest and most visible corporates. Here are some of the programmes that are being done by some of Malaysia’s largest corporates, and we hope that readers can get involved in the programmes or even start a corporate social responsibility movement within your own company if it doesn’t already have one: Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve talked briefly before about using rainwater around the home but we think this point cannot be stressed enough. Note that in some water distressed countries, particularly in places like India, rainwater is actually a very valuable resource and almost all homes collect rainwater because there just isn’t enough clean piped water to go around. Although we’re lucky here in Malaysia to get more than enough piped water for our use, do note that not everyone around the world is as lucky, and we shouldn’t abuse what we have because there may come a time when there just won’t be enough clean piped water to go around.

If you’re particularly interested in using rainwater, you can always try installing a rainwater tank that’s specialized for collecting rainwater. It’s a lot more effective than simply spreading buckets all over the place whenever it rains! Of course, it’s even more effective if you live somewhere with low population density, as it means that you’ll have more space to collect rainwater, and if you collect enough of it, you may never even need to use any of the water from the tap. Read the rest of this entry »

When Singapore’s Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, visited Malaysia recently we picked up information on discussions between the Minister Mentor and the Menteri Besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, where Selangor was seeking advice from Singapore’s experience with cleaning the Singapore River so that the same could be done in Selangor. Previously, the Singapore River used to be heavily polluted as Singapore’s historical background as a international port and trading city meant that many vessels plied the waterways and rubbish inevitably got thrown into the river. Nevertheless, the Singapore government has made an impressive effort in cleaning up the river such that it is now a fashionable area for luxury property projects.

While it’s probably only government or corporate efforts that can truly regenerate a river on such a large scale, as citizens we can also make a difference in cleaning up rivers. The process of cleaning up a river is actually a very involved one which involves a lot of environmental impact studies, dredging up all the rubbish and silt deposited over years on the river bed and time before the river can once again harbour a variety of river life. Nevertheless, it’s a great effort to preserve what is really a natural heritage to be enjoyed by everyone. Read the rest of this entry »

Nowadays, we face so many pressures on our time with busy work schedules and worrying about a host of other things that impinge on our leisure time and create great amounts of stress. We’re sure that, in this environment, one of the last things you are going to want to do is spend hours slaving over a hot stove or oven preparing a meal and then having to deal with all the cleaning up afterwards. With that in mind, it will probably surprise many of you to learn that there’s actually a non-profit slow food movement initiative taking hold throughout the world, although a more in-depth exploration of this movement will reveal that there are solid reasons for promoting slow food.

The name slow food itself is, in a sense, a response to the fast food movement which took hold throughout most of the 20th century. We think the issues with the fast food industry have been more than adequately highlighted here and in other places, largely to do with some of the practices of the industry and the health problems that are associated with overindulgence with fast food. The point is quite clear that fast food is not only an unhealthy option for all of us and you pay a great price in terms of health for the sake of convenience, it is also an unsustainable practice that leads to a lot of food wastage and pressure on the environment. Read the rest of this entry »

In Malaysia, we tend to view entrepreneurship through the lens of business – if you asked the normal person on the street who they would define as entrepreneurs, they might cite names like Tony Fernandes of AirAsia or maybe the late Lim Goh Tong of Genting as examples of people who built a business from a very small seed and grew it to become one of Malaysia’s leading names. While this is correct, we feel that we should highlight social entrepreneurship, that is to say, entrepreneurs who come up with big ideas that really can impact the “social value” of the world around us rather than the “economic value” that business entrepreneurship tries to increase.

Perhaps it’s symptomatic of the Malaysian condition but many Malaysians generally seek a stable and secure life to provide for our families and for a few luxuries in life. Although this is natural, the social entrepreneur generally wants more out of life than that and seeks to make a difference. While we may dismiss this as dreams of idealistic youth, there are ample examples of people out there who Read the rest of this entry »

We think that the call for blood donations and organ donations has been put out time and time again and that our readers should be aware of the need to participate in these programs but we feel that we should put out the call again since unfortunately, despite receiving great publicity, there never seems to be enough blood available in the blood banks and hospitals and the Health Ministry repeatedly have to put out calls for people to donate their blood to replenish supplies which have diminished to critically low levels.

In actuality, there are a battery of tests that are done to ensure that blood donation provides a supply of high quality blood that will save lives rather than cause problems further down the road. Before you donate your blood, you are required to undergo blood tests so that your blood type that can be identified – this will determine a match between your blood type and the potential recipient’s blood type to prevent any fatal rejections. You will also Read the rest of this entry »