They are human beings too

THINGS must change by time. For one instance, in past, Asia nations like China & India people are crazy with getting son. They even intentionally kill their biological unborn girl when they know in advance for genital with the help of TV scan. These two giant nation's people might have a good reason behind to do such cruel act. Chinese had one child one family policy to control their already vast population. Indian parent will have a bundle of worry for wedding cost when their daughter grows up. Luckily, my country has no genital favor when it come to deliver for all parent. Culturally, we consider every child is equivalent to a precious gem. That's why our people appreciate their new babies regardless of boy or girl. We all welcome new member of the family by the best possible effort.

Nowadays, I read a lot news regarding adult working men are finding hard to find a suitable wife especially in those male-favor countries. Obviously, China and India is leading those bride-shortage nations. Rich men are buying their life partners from poorer countries of the region through agents and this business become sizable now. This fashion dramatically lead the human smuggling among the poor countries and fuel the crime. I am not happy to learn such news because most of them are not positive. It used to come in cruel ways. Some agents might have lured the potential young bride with a good paid job in the developed countries. Some frankly bought them from their parent. Some young women are not knowing what're awaiting them ahead and what are they suppose to do until they eventually realize it. For those unlucky women can end up at the brothel house. What an unfair life is it to end like that without consent?

For those who are chosen as a wife also can meet their expectation with very little chance. Because regardless of she loves or hate, she must marry to a man who is interesting in her. They are exposed on a parlor of the agent's office. Those men who are unable to find a bride by their own ability due to different reason usually go such places. It can be because he is so poor or he is so ugly, or he is so old or he don't have a good job or he is not educated man. Anything can happen to those men. No wonder such places or agents become modern paradise of such men. Sadly most of such men treat their wives as a domestic maid. I am really upset to read news of run away wife as she can't bear the cruel of her husband. Being underdogs, they don't have a favor of the family members. Surprisingly, some agents are boasting by marketing that beautiful wife can be taken to home by installment in the lure of poorer men. What a bloody story like this?

Being poor is not a sin and nothing to do with those playful cruel people, I think. They are not object, they are also human beings and they can have a feeling. Please see them as a human being and treat them with dignity. If you don't want to love or kind enough to a certain person, better leave them so that they can meet next kind person. Please do not kill their live to feed your selfish mind. Life is short and we all would be die one day sooner or later. Then we all are the same again. Being human beings is already honored by God and please appreciate it. Do not spoil our beautiful planet by doing those ugly things, my friends.

It's real that rich nations like China, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea are importing young women to fill the gap of their adult men needs. The stats has shown clearly that there is not enough brides to plug in the demanding grooms. This has become modern matter to be solved out by some governments these days. So it is real threat to us if we are from the poor society and lets educate our people so that they can avoid from falling the lure of cruel agents. I am not happy to learn that most of my fellow female people are being smuggled by agent through the boarder. Most agent take advantage of uneducated villagers. Hopefully our civilian government can address this matter before it goes uncontrollable. It's not just a matter of some families who suffer, it's national level case as our new generation can be severely affected by such ill activities.

May the authorities hear my voice and able to take necessary action.

Chaos property market

I HAVE BEEN in the property market for more than six months through my cousin sister who is local business woman and residing in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city. I told her my budget would be in the range of 10 to 15 million Kyat which is local currency. I heard that there are some building contractors who are selling their flats in advance with little upfront and installment the balance during construction period. Usually people prefer to buy existing/finished flats in order to avoid hidden risks. Some opted to installment scheme due to their shortfall of budget despite they know it is risk involved. How is it going to be risk by installment?

Our local currency is not strong and easily to be inflated or depreciation. As a result, the builder found construction material prices go up by two, three fold within construction period which exceed their master cash flow plan drawn during feasibility stage. When things go against plan, builder's interest fall deepest and hit bottom rock if they are unfortunate enough. In this scenario, most of developer usually stop the project without giving any reason/explanation to its customers who had been invested through installment channel. So what happen if it's surfacing to people?

There is no visible impact at all because those agreement made between builder and buyer are considered illegal. Thus, contractors took this advantage when they are sure the project is going to be lose by stopping it. What customer can do when they are trapped in like that. They just upset and lose their already paid money. Going through legal channel would add further burden by needing them to pay legal fees. Most of the case took long and the end result is not suppose to be reliable. Being corrupted country, the verdict is most likely to go the side who pay more. It's pain to live in such society. In this reason, people usually prefer to buy existing flat despite they might need to pay a bit more compare to those installment flat.

There are other concerns for those who buying installment flats. This is quality of construction material. Since most of customer are not familiar with building knowledge, the builder used cheapest construction material to get most profit available. The builder are most likely to boast with the best quality material when they are marketing before construction start to lure potential buyers. This kind of case is no longer strange to this society which has no exact rule & regulation with regard to property developer to protect customer's right. On the other hand, builder are usually building low cost apartment so that people can afford. Thus, people cannot afford to expect good quality one rather than reasonable one.

The apartment in Yangon are mostly come as a hall-type, i.e, the flat has only one span. The normal width of the span range from 9 ft to 18 ft and length range from 45 ft to 55 ft. The buyer gets plain apartment if he buys a new one. The buyer needs to do further A&A works to suit his requirement according to the budget. Some stays in the plain flat as they can't afford to renovate their flats. For those who doesn't own a flat need to rent from the flat owners and it's not coming cheap as well. Those people who want to rent usually have two options to adopt depend on owner. One is free deposit which come expensive rental fees and another option come cheaper but need to pay heavy deposit.

I am disappointing to be told by my cousin sister that the budget I can afford is not enough to snap a flat in Yangon. She subsequently suggested me to buy a house in home town located in upper Burmese which is much lower in property price. Since my country changed from military rule Junta to democratically elected civilian government, the property market has been shifted so much. The property market price goes up by sky-rocket rate after hefty demand by oversea investor. They are buying a lot land and places with the help of local partners. Local resident can't resist to refuse very good offer made by such local big boys with the back of foreign traders and the property gone crazy.

It's ridiculous thing to see property price goes sky while people are finding very hard to survive their lives. There have been definitely something wrong but there is no sign of control by government. The government is busying with the other things such as privatizing, selling natural gases and precious gems, welcoming foreign investments, etc. The downtown area of Myanmar's biggest cities are acquired by either foreigner or second class citizens. The true Burmese live in far outside town area after selling their heritage land plot and home. Our people are naturally don't know how to do business and lose their asset by time. They are surviving by selling their property and valuable assets. This is not long term solution but they settle like this and it become a fashion in our society.

To be continued.

Water-scare island

SINGAPORE is known for its human resource because it's only way to make city state popular among world's stage. It is just a tiny island and possess no natural resources even don't have enough water to provide its people needs. We all know that Singapore is even buying raw water from Malaysia and they have been cautious in handling this sensitive matter whenever the two nations come to cross. It became internally-self governing in 1959 and got fully independent from Malaysia two years later in 1965.

After split from Malaysia, its founders might have concern with the weak point of city state. It's considerable to fix other problems while lack of drinkable water is unsettled problem. It might have forced its leaders to make water agreements between two states. There were two such agreements made in 1961 and 1962. Yesterday, the 1961 water agreement expired and the city state handed over its facilities to Malaysia authorities. Subsequently, people became so much concern with the impact of ending this first agreement. Is PUB going to increase water bills in near future? How does this agreement contribute to the Singapore? Here are some facts that can make us a little understanding.

1961 water agreement is meant for 50 years contract to date. It allow city state to use 3 water catchment area in which Singapore have to pay land rental fees for S$5.00 an acre. Moreover, Singapore government needed to pay 3.00 cents for every 1,000 gallon raw water they are collecting. Also term limited the maximum quantity at 250 million gallon a day. The city state built water treatment facilities in Johor and sent purified water to back home. As per water resource minister, it only cover 5% of Singapore's needs. Regardless, this news might have made its people nervous. Singapore's current needs of water is 380 million gallons per day.

Minister Dr. Balakrishnan assured its people by explaining city state's effective replacement plan so called increase reservoirs, improvement of NEWater and desalinated water technology. In addition, there is one agreement still left and it'll be legal until 2061 due to 1990 supplement. Together both NEWater and desalinated water contribute 40% of Singapore needs now and it'ld be increased to 80% in 2061. It's incredible performance by a tiny state. The water minister insists that handover will not affect Singapore's water supply. But he didn't assure that PUB bills wont' be affected. It is, I think, the most conscious for all Singaporean. Anyway anyhow, for sure right now is

We all are drinking/using 40% of NEWater and desalinated water at the moment and it would be double at 2061. Hopefully, I wouldn't be reside in this island by the time Singaporean are enjoying 80% of those advanced treatment water. May all Singaporean be safe of water resource regardless of time.

Flat hunting trip

OWNING a flat in my homeland today is not easy for ordinary people like me. I read a lot concern raised by Singaporean with regard to their difficulties to cope rising price of their HDB flats. They can get a flat as early as they are early 30s just before married for working young couple. They seem no patient to reach their turn and continuously voice out to government. I see the process to own a flat here is much easier than ours. Because the buyer can use their CPF money as well as mortgage loan from the banks. They don't need to worry about upfront money by getting from this two sources alone. The government is heavily subsidies for first time buyer especially. But they still no please with the treatment of their own government. Let it be.

In my country, we, people, need to pay full amount of flat price if they want to buy. It's always cash-down. No choice to go with installment as the banking industry is yet to mature and people are less trusting on them after they have experience in losing their saving account. So, whatever we want to buy, we have to pay 100% cash of valuation of the object. The flat buying applying the same. We don't have certain rules to be complied when we make business in the property market. As long as the seller and buyer agree, it can be done. The risk is obviously on the side of buyer because there can be hidden risks behind the seller.

After conceding 2 times reject to my application of PRs, I understood that it is time to buy a flat in my native land before it goes sky-rocket high price which I cannot reach. Before this, I saved my account with the prospect of getting SPR one day in future. Moreover, the tighter rules of foreign worker employment pass make me clear what I should do. These two drove me buy a flat immediately. In early July, I went back my country to attend my daughter's 1st year birthday celebration. As the rumour of current property tax policy expired and increased on next one, my wife and I decided to buy a flat urgent. That's why I decided to spend 2 days in finding a suitable flat before I travel to my home town at upper Burmese. I compiled some possible contact address and numbers from my friends in Singapore so that I can minimize the hunting time.

Once I landed my homeland, it's already gone half day after clearing immigration and custom. After resting a while at my relative house, my sister and I started the journey of hunting a flat in the afternoon. We both have no experience with buying a flat before despite we are in mission. I tried to contact some numbers which I bring from Singapore and make some appointment to meet with potential people. The weather is so hot and getting public transport make us tiresome. In particular place, we use taxi to minimize traveling time. In my mind, I am a bit worry with the information I get from my cousin sister who told me the existing market price of a flat within outskirt of the town. The average price she suggest from her survey is beyond my budget. I am quiet in the taxi with my brain thinking unstoppable.

What will we meet ahead? Will I success this mission? Please continue in next post.

Me & Bukit Timah

IT was rainy day I climbed Singapore's highest mountain/hill together with my friends. Also it is public holiday for presidential polling day. My wife and I joined a group of my friends to climb the mountain which is the first such activities during my stay of more than 3 years in city state. The heavy rain spoiled our pleasure trip effectively. We were already wet once we reach nearest bus stop from the mountain. I thought mountain would be so high before I see it physically. I even couldn't able to see mountain peak when I approach nearest bus-stop.

With the help of my friend who had been there once before, we all crawled in the rain until we reach the visitor center at the bottom of the mountain. There, we wait another friends by sheltering in the visitor center. The wooden visitor center is two story high timber building in which there is an exhibition hall for incoming visitors. The entry fees is free and we all enjoy the exhibition while waiting until rain stop. There are not much rooms to be showcased in the exhibition center. We took some photos for good memory in future and continued to climb the mountain after gathering all friends and rain pause.

First of all, we were required to choose 4 available routes differentiated by different colors which are ranged from easy to difficult. As the rain make country routes slippery, we easily chose the shortest and smooth route and continue our journey. As soon as we start, we are greeted by a couple of monkey who tried to grab some of our plastic bags in which some snacks are placed. But the monkey together with her child didn't succeed to get his target. It's amazing to see a monkey cradle her baby under her body. It look like a kangaroo from Australia. This is first thing worth going there, my wife and I agree.

The entrance route was too steep for us who are not familiar with climbing mountain. Some of our friends are complaining for too steep and even they wanted to surrender without reaching peak of the mountain. There are 2 resting station before we reach the peak. Only first step is steep and the rest route between other stations are relatively mild. We saw some visitors as well as group climbers from the secondary schools with uniform. It's worth to breath fresh air as well as seeing scenery by the route. The well maintained roadside trees are quite tall and unbelievably straight. All the view around are green package which can make our tired eyes a bit relax.

Since the route is stretched to about 1km around, we reached the peak after half an hour climbing. The peak is not as interest as we thought. There is one rest-house and a stone infront of it. There is three sentence on the stone that can be read
Ht. : 163.63m
Lat : N xxxx
Long : E xxx
We all took some photo infront of the black stone for remembrance.
Then we ate the foods we brought together and take a rest only.
Sadly there is no view point to enjoy.
We thought there would be some great view to enjoy after we reach peak as we enjoy from climbing our mountains back home. It's major upsetting for mountaineers I think. Anyway, we gain some good experience from this trip. In return, we also went to quarry site which is beautiful granite mountain wall around the lake. Unfortunately that is not sunny day and it couldn't be as beauty as it is. So we took some photos and return home. It was so pain at the whole body in the following day early morning. But we all have enjoyed the atmosphere and hope no one would complain for such small thing.

At least we all can satisfy ourselves that we have stepped the highest point of city state.