"Toothless" Journalism and UNcredible bloggers

This article over at thecicak.com nails the bug right in its face and unearths the age old discussion of Malaysian press freedom. Whilst, and I'm sure you've read about this before, this counter punches alternative media.

So what's a honest-to-goodness Malaysian citizen to read nowadays to just get an honest-to-goodness perspective of what's happening in the country? If we have journalists who can only paint rosy pictures and bloggers who spread lies, there doesn't seem like much else to read.

Of course, that depends on which camp you're on.

One side would have you believe that it's new media that's uncredible and therefore should be dismissed without a second thought. These "bloggers" or "citizen journalists" don't do their research before shooting off their views, and should be summarily ignored.

In the other camp, the mainstream media is pictured as suppressed. The only way to let the truth out is to do it online.

I'm not for either camp, as there's truth to both and bad examples of both camps. You've got great journalists and great bloggers. At the same time, I've come across some pretty poor examples of both.

But what I'm really wondering is... does your average Malaysian really care? I studied that the Media was the fourth institution of society, meant to be a watchdog. So, whilst we're watching out, who're we watching out for? Do they even care?

Gah...

Take that! MidValley / I want a bike!

So I survived my first day of parking at MidValley (post-rate-increase) with flying colours. And here's the evidence:

Exhibit #A: A parking ticket that shows I entered and exited just on the dot.


Take that, MidValley Management! No, I'm not sore that parking rates have gone up. I'm just sore about the fact that they made no option for an alternative, and the whole thing just reeks of moneymaking.

What I'm really interested in doing now is getting a bike to cycle to work. It seems like a solution that's going to work for me from multiple angles:

1. I save money.
With the RM 7 I'm paying everyday, I could afford a bicycle if I could save that money over four months. Not to mention petrol costs.

2. I lose weight
Yup. Cycling is one of the best fat-burning activities out there. Why waste money paying the gym to let you cycle on the spot for hours when you can be freewheeling through town with your little own set o' wheels?

3. I save the environment
Yeah, a cliche. But saving the environment is really something we all should be doing.
Plus, it adds a little "feel good" factor.

So, anyone with a second-hand mountain bike they'd like to unload for RM 600 or so?

Curses! Parking fees skyrocket at MidValley

Yup, it's finally official. MidValley parking rates have gone up today from just RM 1 for the whole day to a maximum of RM 7 daily, depending on how long you park. The new rate means you pay RM 1 for the first three hours and RM 1 for each subsequent hour, up to a maximum of RM 7.

Is this going to affect shoppers? I'm sure we'd see a more frequent cycle of people coming in and out of Midvalley. But it's not going to really affect shoppers as they will most likely still pay RM1. So MidValley won't lose shoppers by the bucket loads to 1 Utama or other competing shopping malls.

BUT, does this affect office workers? YES! Management somehow has decided that only 4 season parking lots will be given to each floor of each building at the boulevard. Yup, you've read it right. FOUR. Which each floor averaging 10 or so workers, the majority of whom drive, this is a major bummer for office workers like myself.

But the one thing that really miffs me about this is that management have not provided an alternative. It's pay or don't park. There isn't even an open air carpark that's 500 m away that I can park in and walk to work from. So, people like me who have not gotten the season pass will just have to cough up seven times the amount, to come to work everyday.

And what about the promoter girls, cashiers etc. who work at Midvalley? I rest my case.

The "Industry Standard", a discussion on fees

A couple of posts back, I mentioned that PRCAM (that's the PR Consultants Association of Malaysia) was planning to put on-line a "fee guide" for prospective clients.

My guess is that it'll be somewhere around the region of RM 300 per hour (blended rate).

So why this measure? I'm mixed over whether this will be good for bigger or smaller agencies. Someone I spoke to thinks for bigger agencies, this will stop smaller agencies from under-cutting them with lower than "industry standard" fees. I think smaller agencies are going to offer smaller than "industry standard" fees anyway and now, their case is gonna be stronger since an actual "industry standard" is put up.

On the other hand, bigger agencies can now breath a sigh of relief and calmly tell clients they aren't "overcharging" but "merely" charging "industry standard". So I guess they win too.

But who'll be the real winners? I'm guessing it's the mid-sized agency who delivers good work, has a reasonable reputation, but have never been able to command the fee a more established agency like Weber Shandwick or Hill and Knowlton would. They now have an "industry standard" to adhere to, which, like it or not, dear client, is higher than what we're charging you now.

So, put your hands together and welcome, "Industry Standard" fees.

Wanted: Hitman to kill two dogs

Have you heard about the one where a bounty is put on the heads of two dog?

"The two sniffer dogs instrumental in the seizure of fake optical discs worth RM10 million now carry a price on their heads.

It is learnt that an undisclosed bounty has been put up by syndicate bosses.

"Following the successful raid at a shopping complex in Johor Baru on Tuesday, sources informed the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs that syndicate members are looking for the dogs," the ministry’s enforcement assistant director, Firdaus Zakaria, said yesterday.

"The dogs are a genuine threat to the pirated disc syndicates, thus the instruction to eliminate them."
- New Straits Times, 23 March 2007

Read the full story here.

Apparently, the underworld has put a price on the heads of both canines. I wonder how much? SPCA Malaysia should get someone to look into this.