Historical Day for Samoan

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Today will be a historic day because it is the first country since 1970s to bring such a change. Drivers in Samoa in the South Pacific are preparing from driving on the right of the road to the left of the road after a rule change by the government. The switchover is due to start at 0550 on Monday (1650GMT), when radio messages will broadcast telling drivers to stop and to prepare to overturn 100 years of motoring tradition. Soon after that, a second instruction: to move from the right to the left side of the road. Critics of the plan claim that increase in road accident will occur due to the changes. Even bus drivers will have to let their passengers alight their buses in the middle of the road since the bus door will open on the wrong side of the road. To reduce the chaos, the government has declared two days of national holidays.

The changes are implemented so that Samoa will be joining other South Pacific nations for driving on the left of the road. In addition to that, the move is to reduce the dependent on the expensive left-hand import American cars. Historically, most of the countries switched from left-hand drive to right-hand drive of the road. Thus, there are about one third of the countries in the world have their vehicles driven on the left-hand side of the road.

I think it will be more expensive for the Samoan government to carry out infrastructural changes to all the road side furnitures such as bus stops, signages, etc. Also, additional costs are required to remove and then to repaint on the road markings for all categories of road in Samoa. For more stories refer to Samoan Cars Ready to Switch Side and Samoa Drivers Brace for Left Turn. As of the latest news, there seem to be a smooth transition for the historic swithching from right-hand to the left-hand side of the road.

Responsible Broadcasting

Image by Dominic's pics via Flickr

They burnt our beloved Malaysia flag, instigated over small issues that had happened to some of them in Malaysia, pelted rotten eggs at Malaysian Embassy, etc. These protests in Indonesia had reportedly been triggered by allegations that a Balinese dance had been used to promote a television show about Malaysia.

Actually, I haven't seen the footage of the television show aired by the Discovery Channel. As reported in the news, after the footage being broadcasted, the protests from Indonesian was getting stronger in their home country. According to the Tourism Ministry and Tourism Malaysia, they were in no way involved in the production of the promotional video that was aired by the Discovery Channel and they were unaware that the traditional dance from Indonesia had been used.

It was reported that the Discovery channel had set the record straight after being contacted by the Malaysian Tourism Ministry. However, hopelfuly, the Discovery Channel will be more responsible than that because the consequence of their mistake has affected the relations between the two neighbouring countries. Not only that, I am not paying to watch the Discovery Channel and let them make that kind of silly mistake. Furthermore, I am sure that there are some irresponsible parties took the opportunities out of this situation to further blowing the issues out of proportions. For more information about the

Malaysian Scorpene Submarines

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Scorpene class submarines are a class of diesel-electric attack submarine. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP), jointly developed by the French company DCNS, formerly DCN, and the Spanish company Navantia (Formerly Bazan, then Izar).

The Royal Malaysian Navy ordered two of the submarines. One of the submarine, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman, sailed from Toulon, France on July 11 and took 54 days to reach Port Klang, making stops at Jeddah, Djibouti and Cochin on the journey, which included 32 days of submersion and 10 days of surfacing. The submarine arrived at KD Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, the naval base in Pulau Indah last Thursday. To read news report about the arrival of the submarine in Malaysia, go HERE.



General characteristics of the Scorpene Submarine:

Type: submarine
Displacement: 1450 tonnes (compact)
                      1,700 tonnes (normal)
                      2,000 tones (AIP)
Length: 59.4 m (compact)
            66.4 m (normal)
            76.2 m (AIP)
Propulsion: Diesel-Electric, Batteries, and AIP
Speed: 20 knots (37 km/h) (submerged)
           12 kn (22 km/h) (surfaced)
Range: 6,500 nautical miles (12,000 km) at 8 knots (surfaced)
           550 nmi (1,020 km) at 5 knots (submerged)
Endurance: 40 days (compact)
                  50 days (normal)
                  50+21 days (AIP)
Test depth: >300 meters
Complement: 31
Armament: 6 x 533-mm torpedo tubes for 18 torpedoes or SM.39 Exocet anti-ship missiles, 30 mines in place of torpedoes

Extra Flight for Holiday Season

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The festive season is just around the corner where those far away will be heading to their respective locations to celebrate the Eid-Ul-Fitri or Hari Raya Puasa. Muslim, after performing fasting throughout the month of Ramadan, will celebrate Eid-Ul-Fitri. During the Hari Raya Holiday period, almost all of transportation mode has been fully booked. For those who stay in Sarawak and Sabah, their only mode of transport to the Peninsular Malaysia is by air.

However, the Malaysian Airline System has announced that from Sept 17 until Sept 28, a total of 49 extra flights have been added to the existing services, covering popular destinations. For those who have not booked their ticket can do so now since there are several seats available. They can contact MAS’ 24-hour call centre at 1-300-88-3000 for reservations and enquiries about the additional flights. Fore related news about the additional flight, go HERE

Beware to Those Who Owned These Items

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This posting is only applicable to people resides in Malaysia where owning tasers or stun guns is considered against the Malaysian Law and the owner can be jailed. The weapons are categorized as scheduled weapons under the Corrosive and Explosive Substances and Offensive Weapons Act.

The warning was issued by the police because most people are not aware that the items are considered as scheduled weapons. Furthermore, the items are easily available to the public and it can raise security issues. According to the Criminal Investigation Department Director, offenders are liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a RM2,000 fine or both.

The ACT is also applicable to those who are found selling these items. For more information, please read HERE.