Emerging Medical Tourism

23 May 2010
My family and I went to the FELDA Plantation Resort at Sg Klah, Perak over the weekend. It was a very interesting trip indeed. FELDA had developed the hot springs within their 6.5 hectare oil palm plantation at Sg Klah to become a tourist attraction, complete with resort rooms, hot spring family spa and a picnic area where you can boil your own eggs and eat them!. The hot springs were carefully preserved and channeled to serve as therepeutic pools for the aching body, legs and the tired feet. The sulphur content in the natural hot springs can cure skin diseases, refresh and energise the body. Over the weekend, there were many cars with Singapore number plates, parked in front of the hotel lobby. As I ventured deeper into the surrounding area, I could sense the emerging medical tourism element making its mark here. Oil palm and medical tourism - a perfect combination!
It was awesome to see and feel the elegance of the oil palm trees as avenue trees leading to the picnic areas. (Oil palm was first brought to Malaysia and planted as avenue trees way back in the 1870's. It was later planted commercially at the Ist oil palm estate in Tennamaram, Selangor.) Visit http://palmoilis.mpob.gov.my/Vtour/index.htm  for a brief history of the oil palm/palm oil industry of Malaysia.
I hope the big players in the oil palm industry of Malaysia emulate this FELDA example, preserving the oil palm trees in their quest towards developing their land banks into property development.

Music, music, music

23 April 2010
Last nite, we went to see Lewis Pragasam's Asiabeat & Friends Concert at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas and it turned out to be one of my best musical outings so far for the year. To me, it was music at its best! Of course,  Lewis was in his metal with his drums. But it was his guest, Tengku Ryo from Indonesia, who  stole my heart. With his violin, he mersmerised the audience with his rendition of traditional Zapin Melayu music fusing it with the beat of the Tango. It was fantastic! This young fellow had a story of his life to all his fusion numbers - mixing the sounds of the violin with the trombone, tabla and the drums, with back-up sounds of the piano, guitar and the keyboard. Then there was John 'Kaizan' Neptune, playing the Japanese flute and his home-made tabla of some sort. Local singers include Zainal Abidin and a young local group Caprice.
To me, Lewis Pragasam applied reserach and development(R&D) in the music discipline, integrating the beautiful sounds of specific musical instruments to produce new music. Kudos to Lewis and Asiabeat!
~If music be the food of love, play on~ Shakespeare

13 April 2010
Our local daily The Star today carried an interesting article on oil palm harvesting under the Commodities Talk Column by Reporter Hanim Adnan. Yes, the call to mechanize oil palm harvesting is very appropriate right now, and also then since 3 decades ago. Much R&D work on this subject had been done and is still going on at the  Malaysian Palm Oil Board(MPOB), but so far, no breakthrough technology has emerged to mechanize the harvesting process. The Mechanical Harvesting Pole(MHP) aside, the strategy now is to grow the dumpy oil palm, short but more productive species so that the harvesters do not need to use the long and clumsy harveting poles to harvest the bounty. I totally agree that harvesting should not be a labour-intensive process as what it is now, in the light of labour shortage in the plantations. I am sure estate and plantation managers would very much welcome farm robots working their fields, but are they able to recognise the ripe FFB to pluck?
P/S In memory of the late Tn Hj Ir. Ahmad bin Hitam (1949-2009) of MPOB, who spearheaded pioneering work in oil palm mechanization in PORIM/MPOB. Al-Fatihah....

Sepang International Circuit(SIC)

4 April 2010
I have never been an F1 fan, but yesterday I was there at the Sepang International Circuit(SIC) to watch the big race. (I was there at the make-do Medical Centre on the ticket of Moody International (Dato' A Aziz Mat is one of the auditors of Moody International auditing the Angkatan Tentera, the Hospital of which is providing the medical services and treatment for the F1 drivers). I actually saw in person David Schumacher,Lewis Hamilton and a few other drivers. Before the race, Schummy stopped by the Medical Centre to go to the loo...he is thinner than I thought, smiling away and partially greeting the passers by there. And Lewis Hamilton is a very small guy, very unlike his photos. This fella is reserved and not smiling like Schummy. In fact, other drivers like Alonso and others from Japan do not even bother to shake hands with fans who reached out to them. Poor guy.....Schummy, after he was out of the race, he pleaded to the press not to take his photo...stressed, he said.
The Sepang International Circuit was built 6-7 years ago on a former oil palm plantation. Hence you can see in the foreground, if you watched the TV coverage, beautifully lined oil palm trees bordering the Circuit grounds. And a close up of the scenery, you would be able to see the oil palm folige on your TV screens, bordering the scenery. Being a lover of the palm species, I find it very picturesque indeed. Malaysia, the No 1 producer of palm oil, is proud to host this big international event every year here in our homeland.  Bringing in the tourist dollars, very good for our image.....Malaysia Boleh! 

Acquiring Knowledge

March 3 2010

On a trip to Guangzhou, China, organised by PUSPANITA last week (Feb 24-28),  I observed that our Malaysian Palm Oil made its prescence significantly. China is one of the bigger traditional markets for our Golden Oil, importing thousands of tonnes of palm olein to feed millions of her population. Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC) is using palm oil mainly to fry the French fries and the finger lickin'' good chicken. PUSPANITA, the Association of ladies and wives of the Malaysian Civil Service, made a social visit to the Malaysian Consulate General, located at Citic Plaza in Guangzhou. Other places of interest is Makam Abi Wakas, Sahabat Rasullullah(S.A.W.), which we visited during Maulidur Rasul (Prophet Mohamed's Birthday). The group of 20 members also made a shopping trip to Shenzen (about 2 hours drive from Guangzhou) at the Louhou Shopping Complex - everything under the sun is sold there. Overall, we have had a wonderful time in Guangzhou, reminding me again of our beloved Prophet Mohamed's statement, " Tuntutlah ilmu sehingga ke negeri China".  It is wonderful to know that Islam is still very strong and still enjoy a very big following in certain parts of China.
P/S Mengikut wasiat Rasullullah, menuntut ilmu adalah sesuatu yang WAJIB dalam kalangan ummahnya. Ta'allamu, Ta'allamu, Ta'allamu (Berilmulah, Berilmulah, Berilmulah)

Acquiring Knowledge

March 1 2010

Just following up on my hopes for my son, Ammar Zaid, whom we left on our last trip to London in July 2009. (Please refer to my earlier blog published in July). Syukur Alhamdullilah...he got a job with MOFAZ UK in February 2010. And he should be working hard to remain and fend for himself  in London.
Just to recap, Ammar has always been interested to venture out on his own even in his younger days. At the tender age of 5, we sent him on a trip to spend 10 days on a farm tour in Australia. Then in his early teens, he had already told us of his plan to work in Singapore when he finished school. Singapore, because on our visits to Singapore to look up his grandmother there, he was already attracted to the modern way of city life. In 1996, when his father was the Director-General of Department of Standards Malaysia(DSM), we went on a family holiday to UK and Paris for 2 weeks. After his secondary education, we sent him to work with a Malaysian businessman who had developed a fishing industry in Thailand. In 2006, upon my retirement from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board(MPOB), I brought him and my whole family to perform the Umrah(small Haj) to Mecca and Madinah. Then he entered college to do a twinning programme with Middlesex University, doing Marketing Management, a discipline of his choice. When he was in his second year at University, we encouraged him to join his brother-in-law Abang Faly, who was manning the Selangor Tourism Booth at the International Travel Fair in Germany in April-May 2009. These early exposures to the outside world has opened up his outlook in life.
Times have changed for the better now, I hope. When I was a student overseas wayback in mid 1970s, nobody encouraged us to spread our wings especially working overseas . In general, after graduation, the scholars were required to go back home and serve the country. Maybe, the bondage that tied us down as spelt out in the scholarship agreement has prevented us from venturing out. 
I hope the present graduates will be more adventurous in building their life. It is advisable for them to work and gain as much experience as possible overseas in foreign lands before coming back to serve our mother country. As our beloved Rasullullah(S.A.W.) once said 1400 years ago, 'Tuntutlah ilmu sehingga ke negeri China".

Loughborough Alumni Dec 2009

3 January 2010
The Loughborough Alumni had a reunion dinner on Dec 9 2009 at the Shangri-La, Kuala Lumpur. What a wonderful time we had that nite!. Lufbrans from several Asian countries especially came for one of the bigger gatherings ever had by former graduates of Loughborough University outside the United Kingdom, so said Sue Sargent from Loughborough University who flew in with her beloved husband just for that occassion. Kudos to Ir Visayan (Civil Eng 1984) for the wonderful job of reuniting all of us from the 1960's to the 2000 era. Young and old joined in the fun with the MSU Band of mid 1980's making the music again on stage.
The 1Malaysia theme definitely rekindled that auspicious nite!