EPF for Househusbands

EPF’s (Employees Provident Fund) recent announcement to allow husbands to make contributions for housewives was welcomed by a lot of people, especially the Women’s rights groups. I too think this a good idea and shows that some people have finally recognised the great role that housewives play. My mum is a housewife and she did a great job.

Of course not everybody thinks that it is a great idea. For example, Chanlilian asks, “Do you think that those puny amount of EPF is enough to pay us?”

She also adds, “Don’t burn your poor husband money away doing frivoulous stuffs like buying tupperwares, re-bonding hair, enlarge breasts, tighten down there, slimming centre, buy diamonds so that your girlfriends from primary school can be jealous.”

A vist to any shopping mall in the Klang Valley however, reveals ladies doing exactly that. Finding parking space in One Utama or even Maga Mall is almost impossible, even on weekdays. Most of the shoppers are women (if you don’t count the lepaking kids). One friend once told me that most of these women are girlfriends and mistresses of rich guys, who have nothing to do in the daytime. So they go shopping. I am not really sure as I see a lot of middle class housewives with their kids too.

Anyway, coming back to my topic, there is another group whose voice remains muted and unheard. They ask, “Why only women?”

As we all know, male to female student ratio in most Malaysian universities is highly skewed with ladies even making up more than 70% of the total students in some Universities. The effects are being felt now. The traditional role of the father as a breadwinner has been reversed in many cases with the wife now taking up that role. In fact, many guys now-a-days don’t mind being the homemaker/ home manager (or in other words the househusband).

During the last Asian crisis (1997 – 1998), several of my friends lost their jobs and had to depend on their wives earnings before they could find new jobs. I guess it was not something that they really liked but had no choice. Maybe it was good in a way. It brought families closer, many went back from Kuala Lumpur to their hometowns and several others opened up their own business.

However, I know of several cases where the husband willingly took up the role. A good example is that of guys who gave up their great jobs to accompany their wives who were doing their PhD overseas.

Don’t they deserve their EPF boost too?

Budi Bahasa, Budaya kita

Came back from KL this weekend with an itchy throat. I think it was caused by too much walking in malls + sitting in open air mamak restaurants + KL's polluted air + Smoke from Sumatra. In case, you didn’t know, large parts of Malaysia are still covered with haze due to open burning in Sumatra. Yeah! Even though we are seperated by man made boundaries, we share the same atmosphere and nothing is stopping the winds from blowing their smoke our way. It is not that bad in Kedah and I am thankful for that.

Anyway, while traveling in the LRT, I realized one thing. The Government’s ‘Budi Bahasa, Budaya kita’ (good manners, our culture ) campaign is apparently working (at least on the LRTs). I noticed several people giving up their seats to pregnant ladies, elderly citizens, disabled and even guys with children.

I guess we have to thank Yasmin Ahmed for her TV ad (which was also debated in the Parliament). I guess it made a lot of people NOT want to be that like the guy in the ad.

Yesterday, I was on my way to Pudu Raya on the Putra LRT and some people got up at the KL Sentral station. I noticed this lady whom I thought was pregnant. I looked at two other ladies sitting next to me and it was kind of funny, all of us got up at the same time and give her our seat. The lady sat down while her companion took another. Te guys around asked to take the remaining seat. Looking at the lady next to me, she didn’t look pregnant after all. However, she was wearing a shirt that pregnant women wear, so I am not really sure.

Reminds me of another incident (again on the LRT). Once, I was dozing and woke up suddenly to find a lady’s big belly jutting into my face. ‘Pregnant lady, Pregnant lady’ warning signal went up. I jumped up and tried to give the seat to her but she refused. Actually she was not pregnant. Just another case of big bones.

Harry Potter Mania

I remember the first time I heard about Harry Potter was when I read a review on a website of the latest book (then), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

This was before Harry Potter mania hit Malaysia. I was wondering what the fuss was all about. I mean, it was just another Children's fantasy book, a story about kids. I was surprised at the number of grown ups who were crazy about the whole Harry Potter phenomena.

Once I was chatting on the net with my soon-to-be sister-in-law Ezu, who was then studying in LSE. She told me that she had just bought the latest Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and could not put it down. Her final exams were a few days away. I was like, "you mean you are engrossed in a kiddy story book when your exams are knocking at your door".

Soon afterwards I got my hands on the electronic version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and as they say, the rest is history. I was hooked. Yes, an adult earning a living in a subsidiary of a huge company. My wife-to-be soon caught the bug and now, she among the early birds, buying the hard cover version every time a new book comes out- on the first day.

I am sure by now that all Harry Potter fans are aware that Rowling killed off one major character in the latest book.

Well! My wife was quite upset after reading the book and told me that she was moody the whole day. She was like, "How can Rowling do this?"

After I read the book, I refused to believe that the character dies. I told her that Rowling is going to reveal that the person didn't die after all - like Gandalf in Lord of the rings.

According to my wife, I was in denial.

Yesterday, while going through the PPS, I read a blog, which in turn lead me to a site. The author of the site gives very convincing reasons why the character in question did not actually die. Well I quickly notified my wife who was quite happy. I will not put the link here, as I want to avoid spoiling the reading pleasure of people who have not read it yet. However, this is mere speculation, as only Rowling knows what she has in her mind.

I guess we will all know when the next (and reportedly the last) book in the series comes out.

Monsters in Your Bed

Last weekend my wife reminded me that I hadn't cleaned the air conditioning unit for quite sometime. I usually clean the filters at least twice a month but had neglected to do so.

I lifted up the cover and was shocked at the state of the filter. It was so filthy. No wonder the aircon was noisy and didn't seem as cold as before. On closer inspection there was something like black fungus growth inside the unit. Uugh!

My wife washed the filters with water and soap and the basin was all covered with a black layer of grime. That's how dirty it was. I took some tissue, cotton and brush and did my best to clean the inside of the unit. The amount of stuff that had accumulated inside was amazing.

When I was done, the whole floor was littered with black stuff and I was gatal, gatal (itchy, not naughty)all over. My wife was sneezing a lot too. We had the maid come up, vacuum and mop the entire room.

Not good! With Rahil growing up fast, I can't afford to be complacent. What with organisms crawling all around.



I had read about house dust mites (Dermatophagoides sp.). These are microscopic organisms that feed on dead human skin. Their prime habitats are indoor beds. According to this site, 'a typical used mattress may have anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million mites inside'.

They are strongly allergenic and are considered to be one of the causes of asthma in infants.

And you thought the picture was scary.

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USEFUL LINKS

Click here for more information about babies and allergies

Click here for more information about babies and risk of asthma.

Not Again

Writing this post, still groggy. I reached my house at 3:15 am morning (from KL) and could only catch a few hours of sleep. Had breakfast with my friend, Shahmir at our favourite mamak stall. And then I read this: ‘10 sen more for petrol and 20 sen more for diesel’.

It was a real nice way to spoil your mood for the whole day. We all knew it was coming but somehow whenever it happens, any rise in fuel prices really pisses you off. Except maybe for some people who are the ones ripping off consumers.

I dread it because despite the Government’s call not to increase prices last time, almost all the businesses ignored it and I am sure that it will be the same, this time around. The first people to raise the prices would be the transport companies. Last time, bus ticket prices went up by almost RM5 – which meant an extra expenditure of nearly RM40 every month (I go back and forth almost every week). I wonder how much they would increase this time around.

Anyway, it was nice to read about Nicol David’s win in the CIMB Malaysian Women’s Open Squash Championship. Have been following this lady’s career and she is showing no signs of slacking after her various awards (unlike other Malaysian sportsman). Instead, she is getting better and better. This is her forth title of the year on the professional Squash circuit. On her way to the title, the third seed beat World No1. Rachel Grinham (Australia) and World Champion Vanessa Atkinson (Netherlands). Too bad, that this sport is not included in the Olympics.

Malaysia Blogger Map

In case you have not heard, Penang blogger Cheeun has launched the Malaysia Blogger Map web site.

To get your blog plotted on the map of Malaysia, provide him the required details.

However, I was wondering what would happen if there are two or more bloggers from the same area. Wouldn’t the dots overlap?

BTW, Cheeun is the designer of the Firefox theme (which I am currently using) called Phoenity.

And to those who asked, yes! I am contacting the bank today and what their respose is to my problem before writing to the newspapers. I realise that complaining to the authorities should be the last resort after you fail to solve the problem through amicable means.

One of the ladies did mention that we may have a chance to get the late charges waived if we can prove that the bank did send the cheques or money in time.

BTW, Ah OK Lah Blog recently crossed the 30,000 page view mark (one third of which is probably mine). I would like to thank all visitors to my blog.

A Mistake?

Just talked to my wife. She had called up the developer (read my previous post here) to fix an appointment date to obtain our apartment keys.

As I had expected, the developer (from here onwards, anybody working in the company and dealing with us will be referred to as the developer) said that all the dates are fully booked till the 10th of august and we could only obtain our keys after that date. Stalling move? Of course, paying service charges for the two months even though nobody has moved in yet.

I also realized that we would be sharing the approach road with low cost apartments (construction still going on). Also realized that there won’t be enough parking spots for all the tenants. Fortunately, we already bought a covered parking space. (Yes! They are selling parking space).

I am seriously beginning to wonder whether we made a mistake in buying the apartment. Well, at that time it looked like a good investment – great location and reputable developer. I am not going to recommend this developer to any of our friends or family anymore.

The fact that my wife’s cousin had bought a condo at Puchong for almost the same price (RM180K++) didn’t help much. We had seriously considered buying a condo unit at the same place too but the location (Puchong) was not that attractive. However, as a condo, the plae is quite exclusive (more privacy) with free parking space. I was really amazed when I learnt that the condo comes broadband ready with internet connections in every room and other high tech features – example, remotely switching on/off house lights from your office.

Thinking of sending an e-mail to the newspapers tomorrow.