mamakk!!!

via NST:

KUALA LUMPUR: Overbooked passengers on Malaysia Airlines are hopping mad after they were told to give up their seats at short notice. Things got so bad that several MAS ticketing staff at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) were apparently slapped and verbally abused by irate passengers.

It is learnt that an average of 30 passengers were off-loaded from each flight heading to Europe, the United States and Japan.

According to several travel agents, on MAS flights, passengers who had paid the least would be the first to be removed when there is an overbooking.

However, the off-loaded passengers would be given meal vouchers, hotel accommodation, transportation, cash, compensation of RM600 each, free upgrade to business class (if there were any available seats) and free telephone calls.

No wonder I couldn’t find any seats to London till 20+ Jan….now I have to fly the other way…sighz…what a great start to Visit Malaysia Year!

Link

via IHT:

This fall and last, the number of Asian-American freshmen at Berkeley has been at a record high, about 46 percent. The overall undergraduate population is 41 percent Asian. On this golden campus, the creek running through a redwood grove, there are residence halls with Asian themes; good dim sum is never more than a five-minute walk away; heaping, spicy bowls of pho are served up in the Bear’s Lair cafeteria; and numerous social clubs are linked by ancestry to countries across the Pacific.

Asked what it is like to be on a campus that is overwhelmingly Asian, to be of the demographic moment, Hu shrugs, saying there is a fair amount of “selective self-racial segregation,” which is not unusual at a university this size: about 24,000 undergraduates. “The different ethnic groups don’t really interact that much,” he said. “There’s definitely a sense of sticking with your community.”

lol…same thing’s happening in the UK, especially London unis!

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via AP:

HONG KONG - Hong Kong surged past New York this year and became the world’s second most popular place — after London — for companies to float new stock listings.

The city’s amazing success was due to several factors, analysts say. Being next door to mainland China’s booming economy was a huge help. Tough new U.S. accounting rules have discouraged many companies from listing in America.

Perhaps most importantly, Hong Kong benefited from a new trend that involves the rise of regional markets, diminishing the importance of places like New York. With the help of powerful computers and increasing liquidity, capital can easily zoom around the world, scouting for the best investments.

London was the world leader for IPO equity raised, with $48.92 billion raised, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. Hong Kong was second and the
New York Stock Exchange lagged back in third with $33.61 billion, according to the most recent WFE figures, which included the January-November period.

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Malaysian Housewife in London wrote:

It seems that to this man, without one’s husband, a woman is a non-entity. This is the type of man who takes it for granted that the woman of the house will provide the drinks and food – it’s her job (not unlike a maid’s) - and therefore it is not necessary to acknowledge the woman and say ‘thank you’ or at least, the malays like to say ‘susah susah je..’ (you needn’t trouble yourself) ..and then, without even blinking an eye, the man goes on to consume the food served.

My husband defended his conclusion by saying that, most Malay men, when confronted with a Malay woman will feel that way; they’re not completely at ease, they just feel like they need to keep their distance a bit so as to not be ‘over-doing it’ because most Malay women will not ‘welcome’ any extra attention. Basically, they just don’t feel ‘free’ enough to chat or speak to a Malay woman in fear of trampling on certain ‘barriers’. On top of that, he says that most Malay men find it easier to speak with women of the other races because that ‘barrier’ is not there.

What the heck?!

maybe he’s just shy?

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