Starbucks at IPTAs???

I was dumbfounded after reading this article, which appeared in today's Sunday Post, p. B3 under the heading: Body receptive to foreign franchisees opening outlets at local varsities.

Apparently, the Higher Education Ministry has given permission to franchise holders like Starbucks, Kopitiam and Dunkin Donuts to open their outlets in public institutions of higher learning. Okay, as a business student, it means better opportunity to franchisees but to me, if I were to subsidize, I doubt I would call this an opportunity. Well, if I subsidize, yes, more customers=more revenue (which may not equate to higher profit). If I don't subsidize, less customers as it's too expensive and not many students can afford to patronize it minimum, once a week.

That aside, I don't think it is a good idea. I mean an average Starbucks coffee would cost about RM10 per cup. RM10 for a cup of coffee isn’t cheap, at least for me. How many students are earning their own money or do not have to rely on their parents or guardian for pocket money?? If students are not relying on their parents or guardian for pocket money, fair enough- they can go indulge themselves in a cup of gourment coffee to compensate for their hard work. If they aren’t and are currently relying on FA-MA@father mother for their pocket money, aren't we encouraging them to spend what-is-not-their-money-in-the-first-place lavishly and soon, FA-MA would have to remit more money to their kids?

Deputy Minister of Higher Eduction, Dato Idris Haron claimed that by opening Starbucks on campus, would help provide a more comfortable place for the student's to study with wifi internet connections. Is he trying to say that local universities does not have campus-wide wireless connection?? I don’t know as I’m not a local uni student. HECK, they didn’t want me in the first place because my academic intelligence level according to the Malaysian public exam (which does not cover cognitive thinking skills and ability to think-outside-the-box) was below their standard. From what I heard from my friends, most local universities eg. USM has wireless coverage in most parts such as the library, lecture halls, main hall and etc. and all hostel cafes have wi-fi.

In my point of view, opening a Starbucks on campus would just add different social classes among the students.
Class 1: those who can afford Starbucks and enjoy it,
Class 2: those who can't afford Starbucks, and watch jealously at those who can afford it go there,
and Class 3: Wannabes; those who don't have that much discretionary money, but heck, since everyone's going, I so have to go or Class 1 would not want to be my friend. (those who succumb to peer pressure easily).
So in short, I think it's just not good for the students.

Imagine this scenario:- doing assignment in a group. The group consist of Group 1, 2 and 3 students. The Class 1, being the leader, decides to go to Starbucks for assignment discussion since they can't discuss in the library as library is too full of groups that comprise of Class 2 students. Class 3 student agrees (got to please the Class 1 leader so that he/she would not look down on me). Thus, majority wins so Starbucks is the place. Both Class 1 and Class 3 students are drinking the Ice Blended so Class 2 student is somehow compelled to order a drink too (plain water excluded). Class 2 student orders the cheapest drink unwillingly and is thinking of eating Maggi mee for dinner tonight to cut cost. Is there a possibility that this scenario would happen?? I don't know but I hope it is only hypothetical scenario.

Okay, the Malaysian Franchise Association chairman, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir was smarter to say that local coffee franchisees should be given the same opportunity. Well, that’s a better idea as I expect our local coffee franchisees to be cheaper as compared to Starbucks, albeit different quality. Thus, it wouldn’t be that painful on the students’ pocket (Don't get me wrong, I’m not trying to imply that price is a surrogate indicator of quality).

Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir then continued, “University students would loiter outside the campus. So if we allow them (franchisees) to open the outlets in the campus, what more with wi-fi facilities, it will help the students to stay in the campus to enjoy the gourment coffee." After reading that line, I thought his IQ level dropped one notch. I’m not insulting him or what. But why is Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir worried about UNIVERSITY students loitering? University students should be matured enough to think. HELLO, they are UNI students, NOT secondary school students. The youngest of them all should be around 19 years old. Is he trying to imply that some uni students are still immature and often spent their time doing something unproductive. If yes, how did they enter Local Universities which is actually more difficult to gain entry as compared to private institutions of higher learning???. This makes me doubt the standards of our local universities. Students actually have the time to loiter… Heck, when I was doing the diploma course before (and even now), my weekends were dedicated to assignments, tutorials, revision for upcoming quizzes, and some leisure activities eg online, tv and window shopping to relax. I had/ have practically no time to loiter...

PS: I’m not trying to insult any local university students here but Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir actually used the word LOITER, which somehow gave me an impression of how free students are over there. Therefore, my sincere apologies if I have hurt your feelings. I had no intention to do so as I only said some local u students are immature.

By the way, are university students who spent their time LOITERING a product of the Pendidikan Moral syllabus? Has studying and memorising the 36 "nilai moral" and their definitions in any way made us more virtuous?? Do moral decadence, juvenile delinquency, vandalism, drug ingestion and abuse, glue sniffing, gangsterism still exist in schools, universities and the society?? Has Pendidikan Moral really made a better moral society??? Cadit qauestio.

HOLY-days

BEWARE: This is a "jealousy-inducing" post for those who are not on holidays. Please proceed at your own risk. Thank you.

Finally!!! After a long semester, I can feel an utter sense of liberty at last. No more encumbrance. No studies to worry for the time being. Indeed how nice it is to be liberated from all bondages!!!

I'm having my God-blessed semester break. It started 6 hours ago, exactly as 10:40am after the invigilator collected my CB exam answer script. With God's blessings, it was okay as I managed to "bull-shit" my way through with examples as I had forgotten some theories!! God is faithful, praise Him. The rest was history. After all, I'm on holy-days now. Don't worry, there's no spelling error or typo error here or in the title of this post. Uni has taught me well to appreciate holidays. That is why I call my much-needed semester breaks as God-blessed holy-days as they are as pure as holy water. Semester breaks=No more assignments, no more lecture/tutorials, no quizzes, no exams.... free from the period of reckoning. Ah, the day I have been waiting for since the beginning of the semester has finally arrived. Pure bliss, pure satisfaction.

Maybe that's one of the highlights of being a student. We have holy-days besides the normal weekends or public holidays. But weekends or public holidays aren't holy-days for us as most of the time, we still have assignments or quizzes to worry about so those holidays aren't holy-days at all. Well, life is all about of giving and taking...Thus, God is fair for rewarding students with holy-days after a long semester of hard work and _________. God is great.

F-R-E-E-D-O-M!!
(yay, I can spell the word FREEDOM!!!)

Anyway, it's time for me to go now. Got to get ready for tuition now (replacement for Monday since I couldn't make it and I don't want my employer to deduct my pay..., times are bad.....)

Till then, adios.

A sign that you have been studying too much...

You hear this calling that there will be CLASS on a SUNDAY NIGHT during exam period...

It's NOT Me.

It's E and C, 2 course mates of mine. E sms-ed me at 1:50pm, informing me that there will be class tonight from 7-9pm. I was shocked. WHAT??? Class on a Sunday NIGHT?? What on earth has happened?? I called her to reconfirm and she told me that C, another course mate of mine, told her that there will be revision class tonight and C heard it from God-knows-who.

So I sms-ed the lecturer asking him whether it was true that there will class tonight. I think he was laughing his head off upon reading the message. (Yeah, I know it was a total insult to my sanity and intelligence to ask such a stupid question when I could guess the answer myself but I wanted an answer from the most credible source. Who knows, somebody might get overly dedicated so better be safe than sorry...) Still, he had the courtesy to reply the stupid question, though it would be an insult to one's intelligence too by doing so (blame it on those two students of yours, Sir. Me excluded. Yes, I was conducting a source credibility experiment!!!!) No class..... Duh, why would there be class tonight, right? After all, it's a Sunday- a day of rest. Everyone needs a rest including the college and the lecturer (who became a subject of my course mates' hallucination!!). Having classes on Saturday nights, Sundays (and the eves of any festivals too) should be condemn as tenable for eternal damnation- That's the rule of thumb of every student and I'm sure every human knows that.

Several possibilities how E and C got that news earlier on:

- C and E must be missing classes or the lecturer too much that they think about it (or him) 24-7 ever since the last class and they probably had some wild thoughts that there would be class tonight because class=can see lecturer...roflmao. my friends are real hardcore fans of classes/ the lecturer, which is which?!!. PS: Lecturer's attached, people. No longer S&A, if you know what I mean..

- Side effects of studying too much. Studying can cause you to be delusional as proven by my 2 friends.

ARRRRGH, my course mates are scaring the wits out of me.

Freedom....wait up

Prelude: I never understood why people would just take the short cut to commit suicide. When I read cases of it in the newspapers, I would just ignore the news cos after all, our lives are already miserable enough so there's no point reading another miserable news. However, after reading Cedric's post, here, I somehow felt sad for a student from my former school, St Thomas. I do not know him and neither did he know me but what struck me was how lonely he must have felt. How painful it must have been to have gone through the whole of secondary school without friends - without people he could talk to and people he could trust. And how he could even put on a smile when I don't think I'd be able to if I were in his shoes. To Voon Hian Cherng, May you rest in peace. At least your troubles are over and you can truly smile from high above.

PS: To all my wonderful friends, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING..... Not to worry, I'm NOT contemplating suicide. I'm still sane, normal, and free from any psychopathic tendencies. I might be stress due to exams but it's not to the point of suicide, certainly. I'm just compelled to restrain my urge to scream to the rooftops and strangle someone- Neh, I'm just joking

because.................

2 papers down, 1 more to go...

I can taste and smell the sweetness of freedom on next Wednesday. -it smells like perfume: you know the smell of acriflavine..

How are my papers so far??

Er....??? Leadership was EXTREMELY HARD. My connectivity with the textbook faltered. Nevertheless, both papers should be Pass-able, I guess but I wrote my answers with the world's most amazing, crappiest, unintelligible handwriting EVER. Hopefully the ever-so-merciful examiner would be able to decipher what I was trying to write when my hand was hurting, sore and numb. I couldn't hold my pen properly after 20 minutes through the exam. Hopefully my handwriting would somehow become legible and readable.... Wish I am an ambidextrous. Well, my fault for not learning how to write using my right hand when I was a kid.

Time to start reading up on CB...

FREEDOM, WAIT FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm coming.........

Good Luck, KJ and to all other Aussie uni students. Good thing most of the Australian unis are having exams around the same time. At least I'm not the only one...

**KJ prays fervently for a decent mark for her MR Assignment 2**

On a lighter note, I love analyzing data using those non-parametric and parametric tests of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) due to one solid reason: MR Assignment 2!! Come to think about it, it wasn't that bad after all......
*Runs off to do a victory dance*

Daddy Geniuses

Daddy is really a bright spark with a big heart. He wasn't highly educated. In fact, my sister and I are even more academically qualified than him or Mum (thanks to his financing, though), but this does not make us (or only me) more knowledgeable than Dad in all aspects of life.

Every Sunday, Dad makes it a point to buy Sunday Star for our reading pleasure to complement the Borneo Post. I bet you Dad would rather buy Sin Chew Daily since it's cheaper than The Star and has a wide coverage of both local and national news with some added bits and pieces of information that can't be found in English dailies. But being an accommodative person that he is, Dad would spend RM1 more to by Star because of my linguistic ability in the Chinese language that is beyond salvage. Yes, saya seorang rakyat Malaysia berbangsa Cina tetapi tidak fasih bertutur, membaca and menulis Bahasa Cina. For the record, I can speak a bit of my mother tongue (often with inaccurate pronunciation) and understand some normal everyday conversations but I have lost the ability to write and read Mandarin characters in Primary 4 (the day I finally managed to convince Dad to let me quit Mandarin tuition since it was pointless sending me there as I consistently failed every tests and a nice egg for my spelling test that I call the "listen, write". I could have passed if the teacher did not help me jumble the words up during test time!!!). Yup, I'm a gone case. Therefore, I should change my bangsa to Pisang the next round I fill in any forms. I'm proud to be a banana.

Anyway, last Sunday, as I was flipping through the Sunday Star, I saw the word "caveat emptor". Thinking that it was some legal term like stare decisis, res ipsa loquitur, obiter dicta, ratio decidendi, per incurium, mens rea, or something related to caveat on land, I asked dad what it meant as he knows some legal terms too. He's not a lawyer, doesn't have an LLB nor a diploma, did not study Commercial Law or Company Law unlike me, but he's one street smart guy, I have to say.

Me: Hmm, caveat emptor.... D [short form for Daddy], what is caveat emptor?

Dad: You know the answer
Me: Huh? If I knew the answer, I wouldn't be asking you.
Dad: You know the answer..

Me: *silent* (tried recalling back where did I hear that word.) Oh yeah, caveat emptor and caveat venditor. Yup, I learnt it in Consumer Behaviour lecture. (Heck, how could I forget the words caveat emptor and caveat venditor? Mr Alan was trying to drum those two terms into our saturated brains that night while I related the word venditor to vendetta as in V for Vendetta. Problem is I have forgotten what it meant.). *ran to get my CB textbook and start flipping through the pages to find that word. Why must it be so thick??*

Me: Oh yeah, caveat emptor means let the buyer beware. Profit maximization, subjected to legal constraints. Consumer interests less favoured. The antonym is caveat venditor which means let the seller beware. Consumer interests favoured.

Dad: See, I told you that you know the answer.
Me: Ya lah, but I forgot ma...
Dad: *smirks* Forgot. Exam's coming up, ar you....

Me: Aiyah, I haven't started my revision for Consumer Behaviour. I will start as soon as Leadership's over. Wait a minute, D. How did you know that I know what caveat emptor is? Have you been reading my Consumer Behaviour textbook?

Dad: Just a wild guess. Why would I be reading your textbooks, anyway??

Dad's a genius, man.

Position of:

"the world's most loving, caring, considerate, understanding, thoughtful, smartest, best-est and all those other characteristics that make a father a one-in-an-infinity position"

is hands down filled by my Dad :)

Happy Father's Day, D.

You are the best daddy.

老爸, 我爱你.