Gunners begin new era under new leader Cesc

New Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has pledged the young Gunners must now "fulfil our potential".

Sacked skipper William Gallas has been reinstated to his defensive role for the Champions League clash against Dynamo Kiev but 21-year-old Fabregas is the new permanent skipper, one of the youngest in the club's history. Giving him the responsibility may also serve to deflect his attention from a raft of continental suitors which may well have been uppermost in Arsene Wenger's choice of on-pitch leader.

"It is a great honour for me to captain one of the biggest clubs in the world. It is a proud moment," Fabregas declared.

"I know it is a big responsibility, but together with my team-mates, I know we have the spirit and commitment to get back to winning ways and fulfil our potential."

Let's hope Arsenal can put all these troubles behind them and turn back their focus to the domestic league as well as their European campaign :)

Source: ESPN Soccernet

Overnight Policy Rate lowered to 3.25%

Bank Negara has cut its benchmark Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 3.25% from 3.50%, and signalled it was ready to cut the rate further.

This was the first rate cut in over five years. The move, which can be considered well-timed as the economy slows, will result in a lower cost of funds for banks. This, in turn, brings down the cost of borrowing for consumers.

To inject more liquidity into the banking system, Bank Negara also cut the statutory reserve requirement (SRR) for banking institutions for the first time in a decade - from 4% to 3.5% - effective Dec 1.

The last time the SRR was cut was in the midst of the Asian financial crisis, on Sept 16, 1998 when it was reduced to 4% from 6%.

EPF moving strong silently???

While the market had been going down steadily since October 2008, Employee Provident Fund have been quietly acquiring many shares from big companies and expanding their fund distribution. Referring to the chart above, look how much have they accumulated? Of course they can do it cause they have the strong fund and capital from their other investment and also from our monthly contribution. Once the market returns to normal routine (one would wonder when will that day come), EPF will be the one laughing non-stop. Make sure you do the right move, EPF! Don't mess with our hard earned money !!!

Song for this Christmas during recession

You better work hard
You better act tough
You better not whine
I’m telling you why
Recession is coming to town

You better cut cost
You better cut lines
You better don’t buy (gears)
I’m telling you why
All our jobs are…….on the line

You'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cash

I'm telling you why:

Recession is coming to town.

It's hitting you once,

It's hitting you twice

It doesn't care if you've been careful and wise

Recession is coming to town

It's worthless if you've got shares

It's worthless if you've got bonds

It's safe when you've got cash in hand

So keep cash for goodness sake, HEY

You'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cashI'm telling you why:

Recession is coming to town!

Finance products are confusing

Finance products are so vague

The banks make you bear the cost of risk

So keep out for goodness sake, OH

You'd better watch out

You'd better not cry

You'd better keep cashI'm telling you why:

Recession is coming to town.

Sighting of moon for Aidiladha on Nov 27

The sighting of the moon to determine the date for Aidiladha will be held next Thursday evening, the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal announced today.

The Council of Rulers has agreed that the date for the Aidiladha will be determined by the sighting of the moon and calculation, it said in a statement.

The date for the Aidiladha will be announced over radio and television the same night.

Pikom PC Fair is back in Penang!

5 - 7 December 2008 (11:00 am - 9:00 pm)

Penang International Sports Arena, Penang

Wonder if flash drive's price will continue to go down this time at the pc fair. The other day I saw one advertisment saying 8GB thumbdrive is now selling at around rm50!!! This was the price for 4GB size during the last pc fair held at PISA. Just image the drop. Expect the price to hit RM40+ come Sunday 7th Dec when the retailers starts throwing price :) Good luck for ur bargain if you are planning to grab something from the fair...

Malaysia among top five with Internet access in Asia Pacific

This is a piece of happy news for everyone here in our country. Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are the most connected countries in the Asia Pacific region, with 55 per cent to 80 per cent of their populations having access to the Internet by 2007. One question: This was in 2007, are we improving in 2008 and even beyond?

In contrast, the bottom five — Myanmar, Timor-Leste, Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia — have less than one per cent of their population using the Internet while the average for region is 20 per cent.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) said that despite significant progress that Asia and the Pacific had made in utilising information communication technology (ICT), a significant disparity still remained in access to the Internet between high-income and low-income countries. Personally, technology supposed to be made borderless without based from any level or by countries. Which is why I'm very grateful for our Penang state government to go ahead with the proposal and plans to make our state wide full broadband coverage :)

It said the wide gap appeared despite its study which showed that both phone and Internet use had increased over the last five years since the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was first held in 2003.

For us, this is definitely a happy news and proud news as Malaysian citizens. However do bear in mind that as a developing nation, this is nothing extraordinary to be proud of and we must not rest on laurels but instead should focus on improving our insfrastructure and also in many many other area. Else our vision 2020 to reach the status of developed nation will always and forever be far far away. More efforts needed, so our beloved government, are you listening out there ???