ambulift launch by air asia : questions and concerns

for more details follow this link : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/4/13/nation/20940015&sec=nation



when air asia comes up with the plan to create low-budget flying packages about five or six years ago, everyone seemed unassumed with the fact, believing its just another high-level marketing campaign mischief a-la prepaid mobile providers. but as we all found out now, it is indeed true, as real as the fact that we have to leave behind the memories of airline novelties



so off goes the aerobridge, in-flight services, three-tier 'caste system' (first,business,not-so-poor-but-not-so-rich-but-still-can-afford-to-fly) and also the fact that now 'eeeeveryone can wait' (for delayed flights) while remaining patient and tak marah-marah.


one of many problems haunting this low-cost-carriage airlines is the fact that without the airbridges, disabled passengers (ie wheelchair-bound) have to get off their assisting equipment, and climbs up the stairs (with assistant from the staff/relative in charge, of course) WHICH can both be harmful and time-consuming.



but now thanks to the consideration of mr tony fernandes, air asia is launching ambulift services for disabled passengers, which currently (as it seems) apply to their main hub in LCCT.






However, few questions may be asked following this latest addition of services offered by air asia. first, when will this ambulift be available in all the airports currently served by the asian largest low-cost airliner?

for this question, mr tony has revealed that he will hold a discussion with malaysia airports berhad to make free usage of aerobridges possible, in case the airport was not equipped with ambulift service. this, however brings us to another question: there might be very few wheelchair-bound personnel boarding the plane on one occasion. how will air asia handle the other 100-something able-bodied passenger? if they will be using the aerobridge as well, for how long will the service remains free of charge ?

it has been several days since mr tony make a quite startling announcement that each checked luggage piece carried by passengers will be tagged with a fee

http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/page.jsp?reference=baggage

mr tony might have came up with plausible reasons to introduce this idea. hence, in relation to the ambulift project, another question arise: for how long will the ambulift service remains free?

this service, according to logical thinking, will require labor and use of machineries and fuel to certain extent. all of these requires capital resources. since one of the reason behind the luggage-fee introduction is to save money from fuel price hike, for how long will air asia remain true to its cause in providing the community with this ambulift project? and will there be any other new fees to be ushered in the future? only time will tell.

for now, lets hope air asia will stay as the cheapest and safest passenger airliner in this region, and remains as the shining ruby of malaysian economy for decades to come

Hard times for non-malaysian children. so be thankful

Tough justice for West Bank children in Israeli military courts
(Taken from msn news http://news.my.msn.com/lifestyle/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1339151 )

Mohammed, 14, barely glanced at the Israeli military judge as he was led shuffling into the cramped courtroom, his legs in shackles.

The Palestinian boy had eyes only for his father, and mouthed the traditional Arabic greeting "Salaam Aleikum" -- peace be upon you.

Seven minutes later he was sentenced to four months in prison.

The prosecutor claimed the boy had hurled rocks at a watchtower and at Israel's separation barrier in the occupied West Bank. Upon his attorney's advice, the boy pleaded guilty to avoid spending even more time behind bars.

Human rights groups say Mohammed's case is typical for child offenders under the military law Israel imposes on the Palestinian territory.

As of March 31, 324 Palestinian children were held in Israeli prisons, according to the Geneva-based Defence for Children International (DCI), an international rights group.

With conviction rates above 95 percent, Mohammed didn't stand much of a chance, said his lawyer, Iyad Misk.

"The military trials are a sham. As a lawyer, I'd prefer not to take part in this charade, but I still try to help the children. For a lawyer, it's a moral dilemma," Misk said outside the trailer at the Ofer military camp where his young client was sentenced.

The trials, conducted in Hebrew and translated into Arabic, generally last just a few minutes. Lawyers are at times denied access to documents, when military officials classify the evidence as secret.

Some of the children never get a trial, but are held without charges under "administrative orders" that can run up to six months and be renewed indefinitely.

"Everything in military courts is designed in favor of the occupation," says Khaled Quzmar, who coordinates DCI's legal unit in the West Bank.

Lawyers say as many as 50 percent of jailed Palestinian children are held for throwing rocks. The favorite targets are security forces in watchtowers or armoured vehicles, and the walls, barbed wire and fences that prevent free travel to Israel and within the West Bank.

After an apparent stone-throwing incident earlier this month near the Al-Arub refugee camp several Israeli soldiers brandished their assault rifles and yelled at passers-by but eventually drove off without finding the culprit.

-- 'They broke several of my teeth and nose' --

Shehab, 15, watched the troops nervously from a distance. "Since my release, I try to avoid any contact with Israelis, with the soldiers," he says.

He was sentenced to four-and-a-half months in jail last year, accused of hurling a petrol bomb at a huge concrete watchtower from which Israeli forces keep an eye on Al-Arub, near the West Bank town of Hebron.

Shehab says security forces showed up at his house at two o'clock in the morning, handcuffed, blindfolded and beat him before taking him to a military camp for interrogation.

"They broke several of my teeth and my nose. They put a heater beside my face. They pinched me on the stomach and chest with pliers. They kicked me."

He finally broke down and signed a confession. He insists he is innocent, but says he sees nothing wrong with hurling stones at soldiers "if they aggress us."

Shehab recounts that while serving his sentence, he only had a few hours of classes a week at most. Of the 30 children in his cell 14 to 18 were picked at random to attend the twice-weekly 90-minute class of basic reading, writing and mathematics.

Watchdogs say the arrest and detention process of Palestinian children violates the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is signatory.

"A central aspect of the interrogation phase, is the use of particular forms of torture and ill treatment," says DCI.

Three soldiers were recently indicted for aggravated assault after Palestinian children they arrested were allegedly injured while in their custody.

The army says it investigates every claim of abuse of minors during arrest. "The military advocate general treats this matter very seriously," a spokesperson said.

The army insisted that "minors are only arrested for serious offenses."

"In most cases, the charges relate to attempts to injure or kill," the army said, citing a teenage girl who attempted to stab a soldier and two instances in which minors were caught with pipe bombs.

Arrests of Palestinian children must be authorised by the military advocate general for the West Bank. "In this way, the arrest of minors is supervised," the army says.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that the detention of a child must be used "only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time."

Unlike Israelis who reach legal adulthood at 18, Palestinians are considered adults at 16 under military law. Military judges are trained lawyers but are not qualified to preside over civilian courts in Israel.

"It is discriminatory," Roni Hammermann, a member of the Israeli Women for Human Rights group, said outside the Ofer military court, where anxious relatives of detainees waited for their cases to be called up.

In courtroom five, where a picture of the symbolic scales of justice hangs in a corner, Mohammed respectfully asked his father to "greet everyone in the family" before a soldier led him out to serve his sentence.

MOVIE REVIEW three kingdoms : resurrection of the dragon

Weve just finished our exams, so off we go in search of vile and corrupt entertainment. hahaha no-lah. we simply want to go out and catch a movie. dont laugh but the this movie that we are intent to watch is about evolutionary sciences..not. it was kimi's idea to go and watch kl drift. fortunately (for me) weve missed the 1200 show. the next show will only be in 6 hrs time, so i decided to go on and watch three kingdoms : resurrection of the dragon instead.

only afiq followed suit. kimi, seemingly unintersted with history, drift off on his own course with ojan as sidekick of the day.

this three kingdoms movie is a decent effort to romanticize the real historical epic that had occured in 3rd century china, after the split of han dynasty. basically its about three generals; claiming legitimacy over the throne of the emperor of china. each of these three generals formed their own 'kingdom' namely shu, wei and wu

the plot centres around a voluntary soldier named zhao zilong who after a brief duel with the generals of the kingdom of shu, impresses the commanders of shu's army and were later entrusted in one mission after another, ultimately becoming one of shu's 'five tiger generals'

theres a little bit of well..ugh..romance (dang) in the movie, although it is perfectly quick for a blood-and-gore movie (watch rambo 4 if you really want to see real bloody chopped-off limbs). so the rest is about run-for-your-life-kill-kill-die-kill-run-run.

the movie did contain several historical inaccuracies, as usage of gunpowder is blatantly utilized as part of the plot, eventhough the known historical writings of its usage iwas recorded at the turn of the 10th century.

above all, this is a must watch story for historical buffs like me. eventhough it might contain several historical glitches, it can be valued with its effort to depict life at that era. for maggie q fans meanwhile, perhaps you would like to review how would she look like in a full armor. hehe

white fourteen

i heard that..there will be another of those perhimpunan.

no its not the kind that haunts our schooldays waiting our name to be called up front to be caned/embarassed/ketuk-ketampi in public for the famous and 'chivalrous*' crime we all identify as fly-ing. or that weekly assembly in putrajaya.. its the sort of assembly made famous ..well...quite lately... by the advent of online-video-viewing-and-sharing site and mass-communication-network pages like kawanster and rempitspace..

yeah! maybe you got it by now. maybe..not. maybe im just being very lame as always by trying too hard to appear mysterious, dangerous yet plain silly. okay. those poly-tick-al perhimpunans-lah. doesnt matter who organized them..the gov, the non-gov, the not-yet-gov, the gov-in-waiting (riiiiighhht)

erm... i just...wana share my opinion on this sort of thing. it might not be important, it might get controversial (depending on this blog's popularity...well...since there are like half-million blogs owned by malaysians..)

well dont you think that we are actually overdoing it? it is actually allright to voice out your reason, to express your freedom of speech, blast off your point of view non-stop like an MLRS with infinite ammo or simply screaming out loud to tell the world that your recurrent laryngeal nerve is still intact despite that total thyroidectomy you just survived.

i know it is bad to question people.. but to make the case, i just want to query..is it allright to do it too often? i mean, we are still fresh from the GE a month ago.. and all those topsy turvy go round the eye on malaysia stuffs we have been through last year.. do we still need to talk about it?

we have spent too much time talking about politics. yes it is true. it does not matter which side you are on. we heard people talking about it everywhere. kopitiam-mapley-kedai kopi pak mat-starbux. its just..well..madness. "eh tau tak? dorang nak bukak ladang zirafah 1 billion rupiah kat negeri XYZ!!" "hahaha haritu kecoh sangat pasal nak lantik MB negeri ABC. MB negeri KLM pun tak setel-setel lagi" and so on.

come to think about it, since the GE in March, how much of our precious time did we spent putting our attention to other things in our lives? about our national hockey team's pre-olympic campaign as example, the badminton squad line-up bound for beijing? malaysian super league? (no. really)

all of the topics listed above belongs to the back-page of any newspaper in this mortal world. so..sports..what the heck? "alaa..malaysia tak bole pegi jauh punye.." so, is there only total insignificance about discussing these matters? dont you think that they can carry an impact?

I remember this one scene. I was at KL sentral the other day, bound for the lrt station. en route, i caught sight of a crowd, all of them had their sights and toughts transfixed on a screen. it was a badminton match involving our national pair. and the crowd itself were made of a rojak of cultures, a nano-community of the whole nation. despite their diverse backgrounds and ideologies, on that moment they were aiming for a common goal; malaysia mesti menang!

isnt it wonderful? i wonder if we the 27million children of the federation could all think the same.. "no matter who we are, all we wanted is for this country to go forward! to glory!" the way that we want it to be might be different, as none of us have the common platform. some are at the throne. others might be on the cement floor seeing his or her way through. but for sure each of us have a social role to perform.

as i said before, it is ok to voice our concerns. but one might ponder, what is our objective, actually? are we asking all good for this country, or are we selfish and ignorant enough to think about nothing but ourselves? to see whether our needs have been fulfilled or not.

i would not want to elaborate further on that and will leave it as it is. now, i want to attract your attention to another matter related to the whole thing. if we did not spend too much time and conserve our energy and efforts by minimalizing our 'contribution' in national politics, wonder what we all may do with the spare time we have?

i wonder, have we, as father, mother or simply an older sibling, sit together with our children to discuss about their 'fruitful future' i.e. homework? have we ever try to sit down and talk with our growing up children, burning with their teenage angst, trying to understand their rage and enjoy their joys?

had we as a husband, lovingly helped our wife in the kitchen? cleaning the vegetables, chopping carrots, washing dishes?

as children, did we ever think of asking our parents, can i make this day a happy day for you, father? mother? today, tomorrow, till the end? or are we to indulged in worldly matters to think about that?

nothing can be done easily as asked. we have to work things through. we. the pawn of the chessboard. we are the one who have to make the first move. a student who had consumed too much from PAMA inc. or any sponsors should study, get a degree, be whoever you are. a husband have to show his love to his family, to fulfill their needs before asking the country to give him what he needs. a child have to fulfill his responsibility to his/her parents. to let them enjoy the remainder of their life knowing that they will be leaving children worthy enough for heavenly redemption. not simply bashing here there and everywhere, snivling about being left behind and worse, being left behind, he/she was picked up and cuddled with love, but then bit the hands that fed him.

too many carpenters wont make the door work, a bhutanese proverb would say. in medical (haha) point of view, too many noises can turn your aditory system obsolete.... itll either make u deaf, or make you simply want to turn a deaf ear on the noises. hence, it simply wont work that way, by talking too much.

reap what we can sow. dont lay waste on it. maybe its time to stop thinking if this malaysia is malaysia enough for us malaysians. yet, think whether we have been malaysian enough for this beloved malaysia.

pardon me sir..may i pass?

welcome readers