Posts Tagged ‘Media’

Samsu Report on Al-Jazeera

October 20th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


Got this from Saravanan’s FB entry.

Few interesting facts:

1. Samsu (rice wine) can have up to 50% alcohol content.

2. According to CAP’s Subbarow, the government banned sales of samsu in plastics about 20 years ago because it was becoming a social problem among the Malay youths.

3. MIC’s new Information Chief, P Kamalanathan says taxes on the samsu should be raised, similar to cigarettes, wine, beer etc.

4. The guy interviewed in the report says he won’t stop drinking until death. (Even pawned wife’s jewelery to buy liquor).

5. The reason given be the interviewee is that he drinks to forget his sorrows.

6. CAP estimates rural Indians spend US6 million (RM21 million) annually on alcohol.

7. In this example, drinking samsu leads to domestic violence, runaway children, disease and early death.

No more Star paper

September 9th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


We decided to stop buying newspaper on weekdays since yesterday. I’ve buying Star since young when the paper was 60 sen or so.  Time for change. Reading online is faster and cheaper! 🙂

where is poobalan?

August 12th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


I stumbled upon this weird question and answer in Yahoo Answers. LOL…wonder which Poobalan was being searched for in Yahoo….

where-is-poobalan

Kaalai Kathir DJ’s unexpected behaviour in Facebook

August 12th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


As usual I was listening to the radio in the morning. Was alternating between THR and Minnal. Around 7.45am or so, I heard the female DJ in Minnal (Buvana?) mentioning that SK Devamany urges the community to take up courses related to agriculture. She gave the website as agrolink.moa.com . I had my doubts, so I check the URL and its non-existent. So, I put a message on their Facebook presence “Kaalai Kathir” at about 8.45am or so.  Another guy named Sashi also posted after me, regarding wrong URL for something called e-press. Anyway,  a short while later, I found that both Sashi’s and my comments have disappeared.

the comment which was deleted went something like this (I couldn’t screen capture it because I never expected this, so this is from memory):

I heard you mentioning that SK Devamany was asking the public to take up courses related to agriculture, and you gave the website address as agrolink.moa.com , but the Ministry of Agriculture’s website is www.moa.gov.my because all government websites end with .gov.my . I hope you will correct this because already few times the websites mentioned by Minnal have errors. In this case, the public may think Devamany is IT-illiterate or the deejays not well prepared.

So, i posted any comment, to ask why my earlier comment was deleted:

kaalaikathir11aug

I waited till today (24 hours), but no reply from them. Instead, my comment above was also deleted!:

kaalaikathir12aug

Now,  I would have accepted if they replied saying that the comment was not related to the initial wall posting (or even any other reason), but not even that. (If you read their wall posting, it says  “…any comm..pls drop by…”, what irony!)

I find it disturbing that these very young people can act in such manner, without respect to their viewers.  When listener give comment or point out their mistakes, they delete the comments. I wonder what they will grow up into in another 5-6 years down the lane. Are these the people who are going to lead the organisation later?

Anyway, I’m going to send this posting to SK Devamany, PCB’s Murugiah, all the Minnal staff,  their bosses  at RTM and Information Ministry, and also the yahoo groups by end of  the day if no response in Facebook from the persons involved. I would love to know if the Ministry has any policy on their agencies/departments running a Facebook site, and if the department itself has any guidelines on this matter.

Note: Being frequent Minnal FM listener, I can say that they do make mistakes when mentioning URLs of websites. Perhaps they should go for basic Internet courses – can liaise with those guys that give IT talks on Wed afternoons.

Astro Sports Channel Price Increase

August 6th, 2009
|  Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe to poobalan.com by Email


ASTRO struck a chord at the wrong time. Economy is not improving, and they see it fit to increase the price of the sports channels (channels 811-814) by RM12, meaning RM144 increase per year. Since my subscription is not bound by contract anymore, I’m seriously thinking about removing the sports channel. Just need to pay RM1.50 for teh tarik at nearby restaurant per trip, to watch EPL games.

Anyway, is the cost justified? For one the cost of licensing may be increasing for the football games. But the number of subscribers also increasing. Doesn’t it even out?

However, I think Astro screens too many advertisements. There are sponsors for the in-house programs like Toyota, Nokia, Maxis, etc. Why not have a channel without all these studio-based programs, and just show live telecasts of the games. I wonder if I’m also paying to all these sponsors as well.

Secondly, maybe they should split the sports channel into a few popular segments – soccer, F1, tennis, golf, general, etc. Just make it into mini packages which the customers can choose according to their needs. For people like me who just watch EPL and Champions League games, it will be a better option.

So how? Get rid of Astro? Its a strong possibility at the moment.

So far 15,000 over people had signed a petition protesting the price hike (or better still just disconnect Astro if you feel strongly about it since I don’t think Astro really cares what you or I feel). You can do the same at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/astropce/petition.html