A bit more on Fiona Zuzartee, the winner of Miss MalaysianIndian Global 2008 (The Star):

The 1.6m beauty, winner of Saturday’s 2008 Miss Malaysia-Indian Global pageant, came across as an ambitious and articulate but a humble person.

The 20-year-old lass was also buzzing with confidence and professional patience.

“But I still got stage fright. I knew I was rambling during the question-and-answer session as I was not used to it yet,” she told The Star yesterday.

A shy but amicable person unless she was with small groups of friends, Fiona’s ambition was to open a fusion restaurant business in five years, something she learned to do while working as a supervisor at the Starbucks outlet at Assunta Hospital here.

Her real passion to be an airline pilot was derailed because of her family’s weak financial background.

Her parents — a charity logistics manager and an IT project manager — did not give her an allowance until she was in secondary school and had taught Fiona the value of money at an early age.

“I used to earn money from radio contests. The RM100 or RM200 I won, I would stretch it for a month,” she said.

Her lack of chance to pursue her dream of becoming a pilot spurred Fiona to organise a charity event to raise funds to help secondary school students pursue their tertiary education. The charity event will be part of her year-long obligation as a pageant winner that is to be involved in a large-scale community project.

Yup, a first of its kind of we take the words of its producer: NHI Sdn. Bhd. (Natural Harmony Industries)’s managing director P. Ramaness. The website is at www.nhi.com.my and from there. i found that the company has patented its process to produce natural polymer from tapioca starch:

Incorporated in February 2004, NHI is poised to embark on its maiden project to commercialise a Malaysian Patent for manufacturing environmental friendly, disposable and fully biodegradable tapioca (cassava plant) based food/beverage serving containers and customised packaging materials using natural polymer technology.

A bit more on the product:

NHI Sdn Bhd’s managing director P. Ramaness said the biodegradable plates were the only product of its kind in the country.

“The plate is made of tapioca and it will biodegrade in 28 days. It is durable enough that it is microwave-safe and can store liquids for about an hour.

“We have taken almost three years to research and to produce it and we see it as an alternative to polystyrene which is not environmentally friendly as it takes a very long time to biodegrade,” he said.

He said the product has been tested safe, that it can be eaten by fishes, while also becoming a form of fertiliser when it biodegrades.

Ramaness added that his company would also be producing other biodegradable products such as cups, bowls and food wrappers, adding that each biodegradable plate is sold at 35 sen per piece.

Currently, the Malacca Chief Minister is using it for his Hari Raya open house.

He is taking the lead in using the country’s first commercially produced biodegradable plate to serve guests to his Seri Bendahara official residence in Ayer Keroh on Wednesday.

“I have ordered 20,000 plates to be used during my Hari Raya open house,” he said.

“I hope my move to go green during Hari Raya will help promote further use of environmentally friendly products, not only here but also in the country,” he told reporters at the Al-Azim state mosque yesterday.

Mohd Ali said he opted to use the plates as a way of helping promote the environmentally sound concept for the city which had been recognised as the most sustainable city in the country since 2006.

The plate, which has a shelf life of two years, is made from tapioca and is so environmentally friendly that it is actually edible.

Congratulations to Vimalahthavi Gopalan or Vimalah Nair, KMN for being recognised as Women’s Institute of Management (WIM) Woman of the Year 2008.

She attributes her grandfather for her success:

G. Vimalah Nair has her grandfather to thank for telling her to look at the pictures of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru adorned on the walls of their home in Gemas.
Last night, she received the Women’s Institute of Management’s (WIM) Woman of the Year Award 2008.

She attributed her string of successes to her late grandfather. “He kept telling me that I can be a leader and advised me that leadershipknows no gender,” she said after receiving the award from WIM honorary life member Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali.

Vimalah won RM30,000, a trophy, a RM30,000 watch, RM15,000 worth of jewellery and hampers.

A bit on her background:

FROM her third day of marriage, Vimalahthavi Gopalan, also known as G. Vimalah Nair wanted out. Married off after Form 5, Vimalah suffered five years of emotional and verbal by abuse her husband, who was excessively jealous and possessive.

G. Vimalah Nair: ‘If you think you can, you will.’

Vimalah,
56, from Gemas, Negri Sembilan, stayed married because her mother believed if it failed, Vimalah’s younger sisters would have difficulty getting married.

However, the last straw was when her ex-husband threatened her mother with a stick.

“I realised then that I needed to do something about my marriage,” says Vimalah amidst sobs.  Vimalah took her son and lived with her grandfather near Gemas after the divorce.

However, her ex-husband showed up and took their four-year-old son away.

Only after over a year, she found her son in Malacca. Eighteen months, a court case and much anguish later, Vimalah managed to get him back.

When Vimalah reached her late 20s, she was saddled with the heavy responsibility of looking after her seven younger siblings after her mother died of stomach cancer and her stepfather decided to go back to India for good.

As a temporary teacher, Vimalah earned a mere RM270 a month but she managed to bu y a house by sewing, giving tuition and making muruku to earn extra income.

She eventually managed to enrol in university and obtain a Bachelor of Education from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 1991. Later, she moved with her siblings and son to Kuala Lumpur.

From 1991, she taught at Damansara Jaya Secondary School in Petaling Jaya for 15 years. She later secured a scholarship to do her Masters in Educational Management in Bristol, Britain.

Vimalah opted out of teaching at 48, and did freelance teaching and lecturing. Currently, she is in the midst of studying and pursuing a PhD in urban poverty.

Recently, Vimalah was appointed special adviser on Indian issues by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry.

In addition, she is MIC’s women development bureau chairperson and counsels abused women and single mothers.

She was also deputy president of the Malaysian Hindu Youth Council from 1984 to 1996.

For her contributions to society, Vimalah received the Tokoh Belia Wanita (Jabatan Belia Wilayah Persekutuan) in 2006. She was also awarded the KMN title by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong last year.

Vimalah hopes to inspire other women to be strong and hold to values in life.

“If you think you can, you will. Every woman has her inner strength. They should be like lotus flowers which float when the water level rises,” she says philosophically.