Category: Development EN

"At every quarterly examination a gold medal was given to the best writer. When the first medal was offered, it produced rather a general contention than an emulation and diffused a spirit of envy, jealousy, and discord through the whole school; boys who were bosom friends before became fierce contentious rivals, and when the prize was ad­judged became implacable enemies. Those who were...

Physical inactivity substantially increases our weight. Automobility helps us in PHYSICAL INACTIVITY. The graph clearly shows that countries that use more petrol produce citizens that have higher body weight. Physical inactivity and being overweight increase our risks of heart diseases, stroke, cancer, diabetes and many other ailments. We are designed to move and not remain idle. We should walk...

The smallest action has far greater power than the most profound thought. Fill your days with action and you’ll fill your life with richness — and others’ lives with joy. VINCENT Van Gogh was not always an artist. In fact, he wanted to be a church pastor and was even sent to the Belgian mining community of Borinage in 1879. He discovered that the miners there endured deplorable working...

Gehl Architects (specialising in the design of public spaces} identified four types of city. THE TRADITIONAL CITY was adapted to people moving on foot, and with squares tailored to markets, town meetings, parades, proces¬sions etc. Public space served simultaneously as meeting place, marketplace and traffic space. THE INVADED CITY is where car traffic and parking have taken over. Not much space...

Giving discounts for outstanding summonses is giving people a wrong perception of flouting the law… it does pay, at least in Malaysia. Take for example, it was reported in the media that a private company paid outstanding fines totalling about RM500,000 after a 70 per cent discount given out of the generosity of the government. If 30 per cent of the summonses are RM0.5 million, it means that...

In a 1985 survey by Ed Diener (Uni of Illinois) and Martin E.P. Seligman (Uni of Pennsylvania) in "Psychological Science in the Public Interest" (July 2004), respondents from the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans and the Masai of East Africa were almost equally satisfied and ranked relatively high in well-being. The Masai are a traditional herding people who have no electricity or running...

The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) is horrified about the news of the Bangladeshi worker who fell into a waste boiler filled with boiling oil at a palm oil mill in Jasin, Melaka and was fried to death. According to reports, the foreign worker was installing piping for fire sprinklers on the roof of the building when he suddenly fell into the boiler. It was also said that he was not...

Imagine you are a first-time visitor to Penang. Your gateway is very important. The airport, the bridge, second bridge, the underground tunnel or THE FERRY. You are a tired traveller and probably wants to get to your destination as quickly as possible. The gateways other than the ferry do a quicker job. But the ferry creates a lasting impression and it was love-at-first-sight when I first came...

The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) welcomes the Transport Ministry’s announcement that Penang ferry services will not be suspended as earlier planned for three months, beginning 1 September, for upgrading works at the ferry terminals. Replacing the current ferries with twin-hulled catamarans is the recent move as catamarans are known to be energy efficient. Ferry service should be...