A week ever since
Rude cities: KL ranks third
Asian cities generally fared poorly in these rankings, eight of nine of them in the bottom 11, raising the notion that what is considered courtesy in the West — holding doors, helping strangers, service with a smile — is culturally alien in Asia.
The Times of London reported that Reader’s Digest magazine sent reporters into the principal city of each of the 35 countries in which it publishes to conduct a survey of local politeness. Three tests were employed: Dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help; checking how often shop assistants said "thank you"; and counting how often someone held a door open.
London and Paris came a disappointing joint 15th, beaten by such cities as Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid and Prague. New York came top in the survey, with a score of 80 per cent, compared with 57 per cent for London and Paris.
Ed Koch, a former mayor of the city, said: "Since 9/11, New Yorkers are more caring. They understand the shortness of life."
The rudest city in the world, according to the survey, is Mumbai, which is even ruder than Bucharest, judged the rudest city in Europe, where door-holding, paper-picking and thanking the retail customer are not part of the culture. The Romanians are, the results show, much surlier than even the French.
Citizens of Zagreb, in Croatia, are the most willing to help you to pick up a pile of papers; one man insisted on helping despite arthritis and a bad back. The shop assistants of Stockholm are the most polite, unfailingly thanking customers for making a purchase.
In São Paulo, Brazil, even the criminals are civil; the researchers were attempting to buy sunglasses in an illegal market when the police arrived; the stallholder said "thank you" as he fled.
Moscow, meanwhile, is a very rude place indeed, with a score of only 42 per cent.
One woman, refusing to hold a door open, sneered to a Reader’s Digest researcher: "I’m not a doorman; it’s not my job to hold doors. If someone gets hurt, they should be quicker."
Courtesy is not big in Asia, either. Every city on that continent tested, with the exception of Hong Kong, finished in the bottom 10.
None of the three tests scored more than 40 per cent in any Asian city.
Overall, the tests found that the under-40s were the most courteous, and the over-60s, particularly the men, the least. Some claimed that they were concerned about patronising modern independent females, and were particularly unwilling to hold a door open for a woman. Grumpy old men are clearly not a purely British phenomenon.
Katherine Walker, editor in chief of the Digest’s British edition, said: "This was the world’s biggest real-life test of common courtesy; our researchers conducted more than 2,000 separate tests."
Analysis of the results suggest that the worldwide level of politeness stands at 55 per cent. If common courtesy is the oil that keeps society running, Reader’s Digest concludes, some cities could do with a top-up.
Port Dickson Triathlon
Launched in 1999, Hed Kandi has evolved from humble beginnings as a compilation brand into the global phenomenon it is today. Hed Kandi´s popularity is attributable to the love of great music, & the urge to take it to a wider audience. wait i tell you guys more about HED KANDI in the next blog time. in the meanwhile chill.. sorry i cant put a sample out cause i aint no technogeek to go host a webspace to load my music here.
ITS OVER !!
The Result of PJ HALF Marathon
1. Picked up Anand at 5am and after that head of to Arvin’s house
2. Reached Kelana Jaya Stadium and there was so many people, over 5 thousand i guess
3.Went to register ourself and hand in our report card (yes REPORT CARD)
4. Dragon dance, aerobic class going on, so many ppl, didn’t bring my cam 
so much hype in the Stadium
5. Race Flag off with cheerleaders (saw a couple of ppl, saw Ah Wei, saw Cecil, saw Sharom, i think i saw don also,.. ahah
6. Race started on 6.30am, Bang the gun went off so was everyone
7.The Weather was superb, ran till motorola now called Freescale bridge, where the first water station was there
8. Made a turn at the bridge and still top 50 people.
9. Running along the Federal Highway was good, who would let a bunch of people run along the Highway hehe
10. Turned into the Old Airport road, still had my power gel in my pocket, to eat or not to eat
11. Running along the Old airport road, RrOOOoaArrRR.. the sound of a v12 Lamborghini murcielago zoom passed.
12. Reaching the old cargo hanger where they store all the PLanes. and making a U turn there, my mind actually drifted like tokyo drift, sigh.. i really slowed down dont know what i was thinking..
13. At this point of time my legs felt like stopping, but i kept going on, i saw a water station in front YES YES YES (time for powergel)
14. Now is the time for my Super Power Gel, ate the whole thing even before i reach the station and guess what.. DARN its not a water station, its a sponging station, yucks.. but i got no choice as i ate my power gel and the goo is in my troath, no choice left but to drink from the sponge. GOD knows where the took the water from
15. Reaching the Stadium was hell, my legs was screaming at me cause i got my self soaked from all the sponge station.. and my shoe was wet, darn, now every strike i hit on the ground makes my toes blister. no choice.. RUN AHEAD, another 3 KM to go
16. I felt i had no more chance to get the limited 200 medals since i was so slow and i thought i saw a granny walked passed me. my legs feels as it is made of stone (ah poh wait for me yeah)
17. The turning to the Stadium was hell, this time my foot started moving as if its on cruise control, just MOVE IT ! ran and ran, guess what.. reached the finish line medal or not ?
18. lady shouting to me, CARD .. here is your medal.. congratulation .. ahah .. YES I GOT MY medal, but i didnt beat my time of 2hours, its unofficial as there is not time chip.. my watch says 2hr 4min
18. Check out this BABY MAN, the MEDAL only 200 given and it is the last of the design its also made out of Selangor Royal Pewter.. har har. .mission acomplished !
this is for my own information collection:
Date: 18 June 2006
Time: 2Hr 04Min 27sec
Limit: 163hr/132hr
Average Hr: 179hr
Kcal/fat: 1756/20%
PJ HALF MARATHON
THE INTERVIEW WITH GOD
I dreamed I had an interview with God.
“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.
“If you have the time” I said.
God smiled. “My time is eternity.”
“What questions do you have in mind for me?”
“What surprises you most about humankind?”
God answered…
“That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then
long to be children again.”
“That they lose their health to make money…
and then lose their money to restore their health.”
“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”
"That they live as if they will never die,
and die as though they had never lived.”
God’s hand took mine
and we were silent for a while.
And then I asked…
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
you want your children to learn?”
“To learn they cannot make anyone
love them. All they can do
is let themselves be loved.”
“To learn that it is not good
to compare themselves to others.”
“To learn to forgive
by practicing forgiveness.”
“To learn that it only takes a few seconds
to open profound wounds in those they love,
and it can take many years to heal them.”
“To learn that a rich person
is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.”
“To learn that there are people
who love them dearly,
but simply have not yet learned
how to express or show their feelings.”
“To learn that two people can
look at the same thing
and see it differently.”
“To learn that it is not enough that they
forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”
"Thank you for your time," I said humbly.
"Is there anything else
you would like your children to know?"
God smiled and said,
“Just know that I am here… always.”
Jokes
Wife: Honey, what are you looking for?
Hubby: Nothing.
Wife: Nothing? You have been reading our marriage certificate for an hour.
Hubby: I was just looking for the expiry date.
(dont we all wish they come with expiry dates.. ahah)
and i got this from wendy’s site..
2 Indians stood a distance from each other. How they communicate? Remember they have a red dot on their forehead? Well, they communicated via INFRARED. No wonder they always shake their heads when chatting due to poor reception. But they are going to change red to blue ones. You know why? Because bluetooth has better signal.
jeer, racist at its best !
