Saturday, January 3, 2009

Giant Hypermarket: : Always Low Price?


When I first came to Sabah 8 years ago, there was no "Giant' in Sabah. Giant just made it's appearance in sabah 2-3 years ago with a storm. They bought over most if not all local supermarket chains (Likas Mart, Bestmart etc). They also grabbed all other new licences for hypermarkets ( Citymall, 1 Borneo, Tops etc). they have eliminated most competitions and as a result they monopolised most if not all supermarkets in Sabah. They have plenty of competetions in Peninsular Malaysia from other major hpermarkets like Carre- four, Tesco, Jusco etc but in Sabah it's virtually none.
I've noticed price of goods has increased dramatically since they took over compared to previous ones, not to mention the quality of goods sold here. Most of the fresh veggies are not fresh at all esp the mushrooms and bean curds. Some are sold even beyond the expiry dates.It is not only in smaller Giant supermarkets but also in it's hypermarkets. If you have been to their store in Indah Permai you will be greeted with smell of rotten flesh from dried fish right at at the entrance. Will things change for better? The monopoly need to be broken. Will other hypermarketers take the challenge? I don't know. I guess people of sabah got to live with this for the time being.

Friday, January 2, 2009

The Sabah Federal Adminisrative Building aka "Mini Putrajaya"


I drive pass this building every day on my way to work. I've seen this building coming up from the scratch. Everything about this building is not right, from it's colour to parking layouts and I guess the contractors and sub-contractors as well. Within a few months of the 'great opening', the wall tiles of the main enterance as well as few others blocks came tumbling down the the ground piece by piece posing a deadly threat to people. The building became a great eye-sore and the 2nd phase of retiling began and still in progress. Entire dark coloured tiles of all the blocks has been replaced with new one. Millions of tax payers money like yours and mine went into the drain. Contractors and sub-conractors laughed all the way to the bank.

Why "Smoking Gun" ?


Since young I've always been curious about things that going around me. The CSI nature inside me always want an answer for things that tickle my curiosity. No wonder I'm a great fan of all 3 CSI series on the TV. On of the reason I created this blog was to expose the wrong goings and flaws in the governing system of this country, thus I named by blog as
"The Smoking Gun". I'm sure everyone is aware that this country is plagued with corruption and as result there shortcomings and problems all around us. Hope I won't kena ISA for this.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Resolutions Resolutions Resolutions


Hello Bloggers,
Happy New Year 2009. I'm a new blogger on the blog. I've been reading other's blogs but never had my own. When my wife asked me what is my New Years resolution this morning, I said " To start a blog". And here I am, my 2009 resolution accomplished. I named my blog ' The smoking Gun'. I think is realy cool... The real story will follow
Talking about resolutions..... I've making resolutions every year. Never made it public though. Over the years some accomplished and some were not. My resolution for 2008 was to complete my MRCPCH ( Membership of Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health) examination.It has been some time since I started this battle. There been many obstacles along the way but I'm glad that I made it finally. Another successful resolution.I think resolutions are good in the sense that it gives a direction to project your life. Whether you can stick to the direction is another story on it's own.
This my first article on my blog and the challenge is to keep writing throughout 2009. Wish me luck people. Adios..