Stop Hunger Now....KL Style

No this isn't your normal KL foodie blog.....but it should be.

Last weekend I joined several hundred enthusiastic people in Bangsar Village I, and assisted in packaging Stop Hunger Now meals.  The event was sponsored/hosted by Rotary International Clubs in Georgetown, Penang, and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.  At this site 88,000 meals were packaged during two volunteer shifts.  Rotary was the organizing group facilitating his event in conjunction with the Stop Hunger Now Malaysia international office.

Volunteers in Bangsar Village I Mall

88K meals sound like a lot, but two years ago Taylor University in Petaling Jaya organized 4000+ students who packaged over 1,000,000 meals.  That is a lot.

The logistics of the project is amazing.  The local organizing group follows a project management template established by Stop Hunger Now.....an international NGO based in Raleigh, North Carolina...our former home.  Liz is aware of the group having taught at least one of their former staff members at North Carolina State University.

The KDU culinary students on the STOP HUNGER NOW assembly line.

So how did it work. Stop Hunger Now provides the rice, beans/lentils, vitamin packets, bags, and instructions.  Around a set of long tables 4 individuals put measured amounts of the dry ingredients in the bags.  Several more weight the contents and adjust the contents to a standard weight, two individuals heat seal the bags, and several more pack cardboard cartons with exactly 36 bags of food.  Each resealable bag contains food for 6 meals, and instructions (in English and in pictures) are printed on the bag.

Fill each space with two meal bags and you have a full box.

The math....each carton contains 216 servings.  And we packed 400 - 450 cartons.  The total is my approximation given the announcements accompanied by the striking of a large gong.  No jokes please about "the gong show".

Although I pre-registered for a time slot, I had to wait in line to join the assembly line.  A large enthusiastic group of culinary arts students at KDU (a local university/college) provided a base of manpower in the afternoon.  Without them, the job would not have been completed.

So if you hear of a local food packaging event associated with Stop Hunger Now.  Go join them...it is a lot of fun...and it doesn't matter how old you are...from teen to 90+ you can do it.  

10th Hari Organik by CETDEM

June 23rd marked the 10th occurrence of Hari Organik (Organic Day) in the Klang Valley. The event was held in the park adjacent to the market in SS2, Petaling Jaya.

Preparations began several months prior to the event, but I became involved one month prior. Individuals were tasked with program organization, seedling propagation (Chinese herbs), publicity, publications, baking, tent rentals for commercial vendors, vetting of vendors for organik products, site setup, and finance. This is a well-oiled machine where things just appear to happen.

A discussion on Composting

I was tasked with re-editing the press release, and preparing the inventory of publications to be sold at Hari Organik. The publications included many written, edited and/or published by CETDEM. Others included 'organik' farming materials written for the Malaysia and Asian audience. The bestselling item was a RM 5 colour brochure detailing how you can create your own home compost. CETDEM even sold compost bins for the adventurous. BTW composting is really easy.

Liz was in charge of selling Chinese herb seeds. Now we all know she know nothing about seeds and growing plants, much less Chinese herbs. However that did not stop Liz from pulling in experts who could tell people which herbs were easy to grow, and which herbs could be planted together. All told, over 100 RM2 packets of seeds were sold.

Lush Chinese Seedlings

Chinese herb seedlings were also sold. They had been grown organically from seed and progressively transplanted. It was amazing to see the plants being sold, when two weeks earlier; they looked to the untrained eye (mine) to be on their last legs. They had been transplanted the day before into larger pots and were suffering. They were being watered using an eyedropper to minimize the damage to the fragile seedlings. CETDEM uses collected rainwater and homemade compost in this project.

Slow food is an important part of Hari Organik. Home baked bread products were sold, all made from 'organik' materials. Herbal snacks were available, and a gentleman from Penang made steamed noodle rolls which delighted the attendees of Hari Organik. Staff was provided with rice, chicken curry and vegetable curries to snack on, but in keeping with the focus of Hari Organik, we provided our own recyclable plates and utensils to minimize waste. It was amazing to see the garbage bins at cleanup. No plastic bottles, no plastic bags, no excess waste paper.

Slow Food (Fast Eaters?)

Vendors of organik products flanked the main stage. I visited a fermented organik soy products vendor (I replenished my supply of light soy sauce), kampong honey (I purchased honey, made from bees that had feasted on cinnamon flowers), and a vendor of bath soaps.  There were vendors of organik noodles, and many other supplies too numerous to mention.  At the end of the day, we heard sales teams from one of vendors vocalizing cheers.  Everybody cleaned up their work spaces.

All in all, we had fun, after a tiring day that began at 7am.  Our friends left us at our condo and went off to the Bukit Bandar Raya AGM (annual general meeting) for the neighborhood association.  Local democracy in action.

Visiting Putrajaya

We made our 3rd visit to Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia; it houses the Prime Minister's residence, the Prime Minister's offices and the country's ministries. The landscape is lovely, and the buildings are large and spread out. Malaysia's climate does not encourage long  daytime walks, so I wondered how often staff interact across ministries. Interactions with the commercial sector and the NGOs are surely rarer. I have heard NGO staff complain about the distance from KL and the lack of parking.

An acquaintance from Turkey compared Istanbul and Accra, noting that Istanbul was fun to live in with lively exchanges of ideas and Accra was generally sterile. The same comparison can be made between KL and Putrajaya, although Putrajaya probably has less non-government life than Accra. (An article examining administrative capitals must exist, but I found none in Google scholar. IMO administrative capitals do not correlate well with responsive gov't)

An Indian lunch in Putrajaya

Our trips to Putrajaya remind us that without a car we  miss a lot of this country. Fortunately,  our friends were eager to arrange an outing with an Indian meal a highlight. We had roti, dhal, mango lassi, rogan josh, vegetables jalfrezi, and chicken biryani. We left full and happy and headed for the wetlands.

Ong sisters & Aaron at Putrajaya wetlands

We climbed a watchtower, watched a lizard on a plant, and visited the pelican pool. Seeing the pelicans take off and fly was mesmerizing. Our last stop was for sate and ice kacang (shaved ice with sweetened condensed mill). We neglected to take a picture of the sleeping sate man before we woke him.

The next night we joined the Ongs for a family dinner. Mooi Lian's parents have treated us to so many scrumptious family meals that this time we are honoring the parents instead of the food.

                           The end of a long satisfying meal

Hunting for an apartment part II

Well, it was October, almost 7 months after we arrived in Malaysia when we began our search for better housing.  As our son and friend Tracy can attest our previous apartment was "basic".  Since we received our MM2H visa and felt better legally, and our lease in the mall was almost up, we decided to look for a different apartment.  Our goals for the new apartment:  not in a mall, adequate cooking facilities, and something that would feel like we had left graduate school digs.

To look for an apartment, we went back to the real estate agency we used the first time.  YJ, our agent was the same person we used again.  Why you ask do you use a real estate agent?  Most apartment/condos for rent are individually owned and rented.  Virtually no building is owned/managed by a single company.  Searching the web results in listing of properties, but as I learned later, many of the listings are not active (even though they appear to be current listing), and many agents do not return phone calls.  And since I do not have a car (by choice), the agent provided an additional service: transportation.

I gave YJ parameters of what we wanted: 2 br, 2 ba, a "real kitchen", and in the Bangsar area.  We also wanted to be close to transit facitilies (a reliable bus line, LRT, and adequate taxi service).  The local train service KTM Kommuter was not condered adequate.

I also searched two web sites:  iproperty.com.my, and mudah.my to find properties that met our specifications.  I gave the property listings to YJ for consideration. 

On four separate days, I went on apartment hunting trips with YJ.  In all I visited 16 different apartments...some twice.  Liz joined us on two additional trips.  One the last trip two apartments were rejected, one was similar to a well worn beach house, and one was rejected due to "old plumbing".  Because we live in the tropics, high ceilings are welcome, and cross ventiliation is a desirable feature.  If the unit was on a low floor, screens are mandatory.  Some apartments have standard approximately 8' ceilings.  No room for ceiling fans and thus dependence on a/c.  This is not a good idea as electrical power is expensive in Malaysia.

On our last trip we viewed a new building.  It was nice, although the bedroom had no windows.  They were in an adjacent sitting area.  The view was over an industrical area, a construction site and a shopping mall.  No stores were within easy walking distance, and crossing roads to get to public transit would be a problem.  Another building was promising, but we both decided that it was too much like a resort, with signs stating where bathing suits could be worn.  My comments was:  this is the home of corporate wives and diplomatic spouses.  We did not want that.

Finally, we saw three units in the Cascadium.  One was on a high floor, facing the street.  One was on the top floor, was very large and had good cross ventilation.  Unfortunately, its furnishings were well worn and the owner had done little to fix it up.  We went back to the one on the third level.  It had a large terrace, two bedrooms, two baths and was tastefully decorated.  We made an offer and it was accepted.

The owners have been very nice. We have been continiously surprised by the hospitality of Malaysians.  The apartment was fully furnished with sheets (new), pillows (new), and a fully functional kitchen, knives, dishtowels, buckets, etc.  They even brought over a drying rack so we can dry our cloths on the large terrace.  We have been continiously surprised by the hospitality of Malaysians.

The satelite tv was already installed and we were allowed to customize the channels.  The building is fibre optic ready so in a month or so the service will be installed.  In the meantime, our wireless wifi system is working even better than before.  We almost never drop out and even managed a skype call to see our grandson and participate in a Thanksgiving Celebration in Maryland, USA.

What I learned during this process.  Apartment hunting takes a lot of time.  Almost all apartments are individually owned and managed.  The use of an estate agent speeds up the process.  You delegate the responsibility for arranging appointments for viewings, and he/she handles the negotiations and documentation.

Okay, now some pictures.

The pool is just down the hallway.

A view of downtown Kuala Lumpur from the pool.

Our living room.

Half of our kitchen, but fully functional.

Master bedroom with en-suite bathroom.

En-suite bath.

Our guest bedroom.

Our terrace overlooking a little piece of jungle (green lung area).

Malaysia My Second Home - MM2H

The Malaysia My Second Home program is the Visa program sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism in Malaysia. The goal of the program is to attract "high Income" expatriates to settle for up to 10 years in Malaysia. The program is evolving......it started as the "Silver Haired Program," obviously targeting retirees. It was renamed and revamped early in 2002, to allow all expatriates to participate with certain income and net worth restrictions. The benefits: long term visa stability, permission to own real estate, import household goods without customs duties, importation of a car or purchase of a car in the first 12 months of residency w/o import duties and local taxation, and finally, all income derived from outside of Malaysia is exempt from Malaysian income taxes.

So how did we hear of the MM2H program? We were visiting the State of Sabah, on the island of Borneo in 2005 when our taxi passed a billboard advertizing condos for sale and the "Silver Haired Program." We read a little about the program while in Malaysia and filed it away in our memory. Upon return from our holiday in Malaysia I spent some time searching the web for the "Silver Haired Program," read about it, talked to Liz about it, and we said....well we can do this. It immediately satisfied some of our retirement plans...we wanted to travel, we had nothing holding us to Raleigh, North Carolina, and we had a lot of friends in Southeast Asia. As we say to some of our friends..."we are like house guests who don't know when to leave." Our exception is: we have our own home here in Malaysia.

In 2008 Liz had an opportunity to do research and teaching in Malaysia. So she spent 6 months in Penang. We viewed this as a test of "can we actually do this." The answer was, absolutely!!.

So we had a plan to approach retirement, we purchased a condo in Indiana (because Liz wanted a place in case the move was a really bad idea), we retired from our jobs in North Carolina, and moved to Indianapolis to settle in. We had hoped to have sold our home in Raleigh by this time, but the economic collapse inspired by the real estate bubble intervened. But that did not deter us, we moved to Malaysia in early April 2011. Once here we located temporary housing and began our quest for the MM2H visa.

In late April we contacted a MM2H authorized agent to work as our representative to the Ministry of Tourism, MM2H office. While this is not necessary, you can do it on your own, we decided that for our sanity it would make sense to have someone pull it all together. We first met with the agent in second week of April. This meeting confirmed that she was someone we could work with. We got our marching orders regarding the documentation needed: tax records (three years), income statements (three months), bank and brokerage statements (three months, letters of good conduct from US based law enforcement agencies, letters from pension funds, copies of passports, passport photos, resumes, and a letter stating why we wanted to live in Malaysia.

At this point we made our best decision, we purchased a printer, scanner, copier. It was less than US$ 125, but made life really easy (and also made the sale of the house go smoother). In total we printed well over 750 pages, and I learned to refill ink cartridges.

First hurdle to deal with....the police report. I had checked out web sites and found the US FBI will prepare the document, but I would need to provide fingerprints. I was advised not to get an FBI letter....they are printed on black and white printers, and the Malaysian government does not view these as original...they need letterhead with raised embossed seals. Solution: we used the CCBI (City County Bureau of Investigation, Wake County, North Carolina). I called them, they told we what forms to download, I scanned them on my trusty printer and sent them to a relative in North Carolina. In a mere 15 minutes she had picked up the letters which were appropriately notarized.

Second hurdle: notarized statements from my pension fund indicating my income and showing three months of deposits into my current account. A call to the pension fund, and some respectful conversation with the appropriate people convinced them that I really needed this documentation, even though it was not part of their standard reports.

Third hurdle: find a "commissioner of oaths." Akin to a notary, he merely witnessed our signatures on the copy of our passports, total cost about USD $3 A good deal cheaper than a similar service by the US Embassy which charges USD $50 per page.

When all the documents were gathered and assembled we met with our agent, issued a check for her services and submitted the documents in late May. We were told the process could take 12 to 14 weeks.

So we waited...in mid August (during Ramadan) I made a status inquiry to our agent. Lo and behold we had been approved, but I did not know since the Ministry of Tourism had failed to notify anyone of the approval. Now started the next part of the adventure....getting documentation of our health insurance status.

I called my health insurance company representative, someone with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina, the plan administrator. They issued new insurance cards (which contain only an issue date) and a letter saying how to get coverage when traveling. Fine, but the Malaysia Ministry of Tourism wanted to know the term of coverage....the beginning and ending date. Well back to the Insurance administrator, who replied: "We cannot do that, it is just not what we do." Now it was plan B, I went through a bureaucratic contact, got to the head of the health plan and worked it downward from there. In several days, I received drafts of the necessary documentation.

Now the wait began. Documents had to be original, no faxes, no pdfs. Documents were mailed to our son, who was making a business trip to Asia. We met him in Singapore in late September, received the documents, and had a good time with him.

On October 3rd, we met with the MM2H agent, had a medical check (to see if we were alive and healthy) and went to Putrajaya. Putrajaya is a new city, the administrative capital of Malaysia, about 50 km south of Kuala Lumpur. Our appointment was for 2:30. We arrived ahead of time. The building is so new, the elevators still had shipping protection on the walls. We went to the 10th floor and entered the MM2h offices. We were confronted with 10 windows, 5 for immigration, 5 for MM2H personnel, and a room full of applicants....and no apparent queuing system. Somehow all in the room were served graciously by the Malaysian staff. Some people were do it yourself (DIY) applicants. The staff patiently answered their questions. Our agent submitted the documents. Abut 45 minutes later, our passports were stamped and we were official MM2H visa holders.

Could we have done this ourself, absolutely. But it would have taken many trips to Putrajaya, frustration on rejected documents, documents whose date had expired, etc. The fee we paid was well worth it.

So who was our agent: Yvonne Lim from Joy-Stay (MM2H) SDN BHD. Many thanks Yvonne.

Updating Microsoft and other stuff

Today is the first Thursday after the monthly updates of the Microsoft operating system. I am diligent about this every month, and what a pain. I really sympathize with my former co-worker at the NCGA who is responsible for maintaining over 800 computers.

So this process started yesterday with my ASUS N10J. Now this is a netbook class computer with a lot of frills attached using Vista Home Premium (cannot be upgraded because ASUS does not provide the necessary drivers and bios fixes). I started at about 3PM and the update process was completed by 6:50, just in time to leave for Bahasa Malaysia classes at the YMCA. Only 21 fixes to be applied since last month. Hey Microsoft, please build some secure software to begin with. And I only have Windows, and Office products from Microsoft. I also have Open Office installed, but still need the Office products.

This was followed by installation of a newer version of Kaspersky Internet Security. I have enjoyed this product since Trend Micro turned toxic on me...identifying the entire operating system as a virus on another computer. It took weeks to get the Trend Micro removed and replaced by Kaspersky. So I downloaded the update file (110 MB) and followed the procedure for update. Delete the old software (they have a feature that allows you to keep a bunch of stuff, like the license code, databases, etc.). This took about 45 minutes. Perform the install, from the downloaded file. This took about 30 minutes. Then nearly 1 hour to update the databases. I finished by 11:15PM after returning from the YMCA language classes at 10:10PM.

Total time spent: 5 hours with Liz wandering around fuming. If she is a typical end user, no wonder Microsoft products remain so vulnerable. Who has the time to do this, especially when you are connected by WiFi or WiMax services.

Now I thought I would breeze through this with my other computer, a Toshiba Satellite A505, a modern desktop replacement laptop with 6GB memory, an Intel I7 chip and plenty of hard drive space. It runs Windows 7 64bit OS. It also is kept upto date with all patches applied monthly. Well the speed did help some, and I helped it out by saving the Kaspersky Internet Security download file from the other computer on a thumb drive.

The process. Begin the security update process from Microsoft. Only 18 to download. After a relatively short period (I was happy) the installation process began. Then the bad news...4 of the updates failed. So reboot, download again, and several additional updates showed up. So I downloaded 6 and installed the updates again. Success.

Then it told me...install IE 9. I had been holding back on this since my experience with IE8 in the fall of 2008. A long story shortened was the pop-up control caused my AMEX card to be suspended (while in Malaysia). AMEX did its job, notified me on my US phone, Vonage sent me an e-mail with the text of the message, and I called AMEX from my Malaysian cell phone, spoke to their security folks and had the problem sorted out in 15 minutes. Total cost USD $2 for the cell phone call (really cheap rates to the US on Digi). Why cannot T-mobile, ATT, Verizon, or Sprint do this? But that is another rant.

Well after 4 reboots, I finally had the Toshiba up to date with Microsoft security upgrades. Then began the Kaspersky Internet Security. From my pre downloaded installation file, I ran the update. I updated the activation code with a new license (RM 99 (about USD 33) for a 3 computer 1 year license). Check out the price on Amazon or at Costco, and you will be amazed. Then the databases needed to be updated. All in all, I was done by 11:15 AM. A total of only 2 hours 15 minutes. Not bad, but how many of the 100's of millions of Microsoft users go through this. Think of the loss of productivity world wide. Maybe this is an economic plot against the world :)

So the monthly problems are solved, until next month after we return from Italy. Oh well, why not, I will be suffering from jet lag.

Yes, you can see why I love my IPad2.

A Saturday Seminar

The seminar, "The New Asset Class in Malaysia," started with the moderator thanking us for coming out early on a Saturday - it was 10:30 a.m. This is not an early country! Since we again have empty walls we thought this would give us some insights into buying Malaysian artwork. Our first lesson - we don't have the money, time, or knowledge to buy art as an investment.

The seminar in Galeri Petronas in KLCC was well put together - a director of Sotheby's Institute of Art, Singapore, talked about the economics of art as an investment (lesson - once you buy a piece of art,  good luck it liquidating it quickly); the Director of the Art Gallery at USM (just up the street from where I lived at USM) who talked about building a museum's collection; the owner of an art gallery; and a retired diplomat and avid collector. The latter has over 3000 objects of art - confirming that we would never be collectors. Among the problems of buying art other than liquidity included getting bored with a painting (then what do you do with it), running out of wall space (our problem), an artist/style falling out of fashion and how to store and maintain your art. An interesting point - works by Malay artists bring more money in Kuala Lumpur and art by Chinese artists costs more in Penang (arbitrage in the art market).  Indonesian artists are less expensive in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia than in Paris, Amsterdam, London and New York.  But watch out, there are the potential for tremendous bubbles in the market.  To paraphrase Heidi Klum of Project Runway, "what is in one day, may be out the next".

Some of the details we learned, art is a market place, where the artist, gallery owner, auction house and the buyer all have a part.  Artists need to learn to manage their careers (don't spread yourself thin by displaying in multiple galleries or showing in mediocre galleries).  Gallery owners assist the artist in managing their careers.  They play the important function of placement.  Akin to IPO's where stock is allocated to selected clientele, a gallery may work to place the artists work with selected collectors.  Some collectors may support artists early in their careers by sponsoring show, printing catalogues, and purchasing objects.  Once a collector decides to prune his/her collection, auction houses support the market by making it available to a wider audience.  Although appearing to be transparent, pricing can be an interesting practice.  A collector may use both the auction house and galleries to make purchases and sales.  Collectors may make private sales of their collections, bypassing both the gallery and the auction house (the savings can be considerable).  But the final word was "buyer beware." Verify, Verify, and Verify!  Remember, art is an economic activity that is totally unregulated.  You do not make short term profits, and the carrying costs can be considerable.

So what are we going to do.  Go to an art auction, of course.

After the seminar we enjoyed my favorite Malaysian seminar tradition - tea time (here called refreshments) Noodles, poi piah, a donut-type cake, and coffee. We chatted with a retired Malaysian banker - a bit about art, selling property, and musical performance in KL. He pointed out that the RM10 6:30 concerts were created so that office workers could attend an hour concert and spread out the rush hour jam.