Friday, August 8th, 2008 941 views
Today is Friday, 8th of August, 2008 – 080808 aka 888! The number 8 for Chinese is a very auspicious number. The pronunciation of the word 8 in Chinese dialects is very similar to the word ‘wealth’, so you know why the obsession among Chinese people with this number.
Chinese are obsessed with numbers, often relating and making sure their phone numbers, wedding date, car plates, anything quantifiable to be a good number. If you ask me, how on earth a piece of plastic with the number 888 in front and back of your car can bring good fortune to you, I have no idea. Just because it rhymes with auspicious words?
Probably the only God that matters to many Chinese is God of Wealth and a big part of their life, being hardworking and slaving their ass all that is for one simple reason – chasing wealth = money. It is not uncommon to hear remarks praising Chinese people as ruthless, conniving, greedy and materialistic bastards. Hahahahaha! Such wonderful traits!
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Thursday, June 26th, 2008 835 views
I love it when the government start talking in numbers. This is because, Maths never lie. Take a look at the figures quoted below in bold.
Yes, we export crude petroleum, says the president and chief executive officer of Petronas, Tan Sri Hassan Marican. In 2007, Malaysia extracted about 600,000 barrels per day, of which 339,000 barrels per day were refined here. The remainder was exported unprocessed, making us a net exporter of crude.
On the other hand, notes Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Shahrir Samad, Malaysia is a net importer of refined petrol.
We produced 110,000 barrels of refined petrol per day last year but the demand was 190,000 barrels per day.
The balance had to be imported – 29 million barrels for the whole year.
At RM43 billion last year, Shahrir notes, fuel subsidies consumed about a quarter of the RM164 billion operating and development expenditure.
(Source: NST)
Let us do some number crunching.
1 barrel = 159 litres (Read here)
190,000 barrels per day = 30,210,000 litres per day
1 year = 30,210,000 x 365 = 11,026,650,000 litres
Subsidy in 2007 (last year) = RM0.19 per litre, (quoted from table)
So total subsidy = 11,026,650,000 x RM0.19 = RM2,095,063,500
= RM2 billion??
Hmm.. probably petrol subsidy and diesel subsidy should be added together.
Subsidy in 2007 RM0.19 + RM0.43 = 0.62 per litre,
So total subsidy = 11,026,650,000 x RM0.62 = RM6,836,523,000
= RM6 billion??
Using the numbers given by Shahrir Samad, I can’t get RM43 billion fuel subsidies from all the calculation I did!!
WHY? I probably sucks at Maths. Can you help me here? How to get at RM43 billion? Find, get me RM35B. Oh, I think RM30B is enough. Please? I need to go to sleep now..
ps: I actually made a mistake of using 190,000 barrels per day demand to calculate the subsidy, when I probably should use the 29 millions barrels per year that need to be imported for calculation. Well, why the government need to subsidise what we can produce locally right? Then the subsidy for fuel is just 29 millions x 159 litres x RM0.62 = RM2 billion. 
This is not making any F sense!
pss: I will be glad if somebody points out I made a mistake in my calculation. Please. Then we will know where the rest of the billions went to..
pss: You probably want to read The Truth About Fuel Subsidy and What Is Never Mentioned In Mainstream Media as well.
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