Ban open sale of soft drinks with alcohol content: CAP

When I was in Hong Kong a few years back, I had a very nasty experience. It was night and I was walking at the night market (Is it ?) somewhere at Mongkok. I went into a 7 Eleven to buy drink. Browsing through the cooler refrigerator, I was looking for the cheapest drink that I can find. I saw a pineapple drink and its the cheapest among all the drinks displayed in the cooler. I think it was less than HK$3.00.

Soon, I went out and pulled the tab and sip the content. Oopss, the taste is different. I recheck the label and, OMG, it was pineapple beer. And I drank beer. Oh No!!!!! Astagfirullah hul azim. That was the word that came out of my mouth. I threw away the whole tin in the dustbin. And today on The Star online this tittle appeared:

Ban open sale of soft drinks with alcohol content: CAP

Photo Credit: Kosmo Online

I agree totally with CAP's suggestion. Displaying of soft drinks with alcohol content should be given serious attention. It can be bought easily at convenience stores 24 hours a day and can be bought without any restriction. Even though it just contain 5% to 20% alcohol, it is still haram to Muslims. These drinks should be stacked together with other alcoholic drinks and restrict to nol Muslims and above 18 years old only.

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• NZ acts to limit alcohol access (bbc.co.uk)

Beware Of SMS Traps

Every now and then people get trapped on their mobile phone with unnecessary SMS messages that has no value at all. Mobile phone users tend to fall prey to such scams when they fail to read the small Terms and Contract somewhere on the page. These contracts are usually written in small letters because people usually skip reading sentences printed in small letters.

I would like to share this as an advice. I was surfing on a website and really the Ultimate Brain Test question (or is it the silhouette graphics of the ballerina) did attract me to click the answer. I thought base on the ballerina movement, I clicked the answer and the result will appear. However, it lead to a set of another 10 questions and I clicked and answered all the questions. After finishing all ten answers this page appear. I am supposed to key in my phone number and they will send the answer for my Ultimate Brain Test.

Before I start to key in my phone number, maybe my sixth sense asked me to read the small print below and this is what the Terms look like.

This is a sound subscription content service. The sound subscription content is compatible with most phones. The extra content will be send after you’ve subscribed to our sound subscription. Upon subscribing, you will receive 2 chargeable messages at RM4 per message. Service is charged at RM4 per message, 4 chargeable messages per week. Normal mobile operator network charges apply. Age: 18+ only - ask bill payer's permission. Unsubscribe? To cancel send ‘STOP’ to 36622. Helpdesk: 03 – 2175 4700 (9.30am – 5.30pm (Mon – Fri). By sending an SMS to 36622, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the ‘General Terms & Conditions’ and agreed to be bound by these 'General Terms & Conditions'. Service Provider: Ericsson (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.


If I were to have taken the wrong move to key in my phone number, I can be a victim of the company. Just imagine I have to pay RM 16.00 per week and amounting to RM 64.00 per month for some stupid SMS.

Security Of Your Credit Card

This Star Graphic can be a guide to us who use credit card for transactions. I post it here to share because crime prevention is a public community service. Read the news report from the Star.

Source : The Star Online


I posted an article on 3rd October 2007 that concern credit card safety too. Read it HERE. For that reason I keep the key cards and it has now become one of my collection items.  

Dinar And Dirhams : Its A Warm Welcome

Kelantan's Gold and Silver Coins

We can still remember in the late P.Ramlee's movies, we use to hear the word of Dirhams and Dinars. Today the same currency is being introduced by the Kelantan government and to be used by certain sectors in the state. The launching of the Matawang Syariah was officiated by the Kelantan Menteri Besar, Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat on the 12th August 2010.

I pick the Introduction from the official website of the Kelantan Dinar and post below:

This is the first time in the last 100 years, since the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, when a Muslim government introduces Shariah Currency. Indeed there has been four generations of Muslims who have not seen Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham; four generations of Muslims who have been divided into little national reservations and sentenced to permanent robbery first by local, then by international Masters of Riba; four generations of Muslims who haven’t known what is their Deen. The introduction of Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham in the state of Kelantan is not a new idea or experiment, it is the return to the medium of exchange that has been known for 1400 years throughout Dar al-Islam as Money of Shariah taking its legislation from Allah’s Revelation and Rasul’s Sunnah.

Hats off for the Kelantan Government for implementing this Syariah currency, which should be more fair as compared to the secular currency. Let us all pray that this currency will be accepted nationwide just as how we all accept the Islamic Banking policies. 

As a normal matter of fact there will be people who object to the use of this new currency and the first party will be none other than the Federal Government through Bank Negara Malaysia because they lost the race. Read a blog posting HERE and this mooted me to write this post. 

Dr Mahathir did once outlined a plan for the use of the Gold Dinar to trade Internationally as a way to prevent currency manipulation. 

KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 Kyodo

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday outlined a plan for the use of the dinar, a gold coin formerly used in countries of Southwest Asia and northern Africa, for international trade as a way to prevent currency manipulation that sparked off the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Mahathir, who blamed ''greedy'' currency traders for impoverishing Asia, said ''With paper currency there is no intrinsic value. The exchange rate is therefore arbitrary and subject to manipulation as we saw during the Asian financial crisis.''

Why when Tun Dr. M mooted the idea of using the Gold dinar, nobody objected to his idea? 

Another report on the same topic was published HERE. 

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (AFP) - Malaysia hopes to base its trade with Iran on the gold dinar soon as a first step in decreasing dependency on the US dollar in international trade -  Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. 

So, is the Kelantan Government doing something against the tide or just being proactive.

G String...Ooppsss.... Read It as Geostring

At a glance I read it as G string, the scantily sexy  panties worn by sexy ladies. This is actually Geostring and International advertisement company

What is a Geostring?

GeoString is an online marketing company. Its simply a string of your contacts and their contacts all strung together to build an incredible cash generator for the length of the string. You'll be amazed at how far your string reaches, both in numbers, and geographically! ( So, if the longer the string gets, the more $s you will get.) 

Upon registration, one will be deposited with $10.00 to his/her account and registration is FREE. 

It’s unbelievable how fast FREE money adds up!

GeoString pays you for each person you refer, and each person they refer!

This trend takes place through 10 full levels of referrals with unlimited width.

Your FREE income potential with GeoString is unlimited and with no costs to you!

The minimum cash out limit is $100

How It Works?

Sponsors pay to put their message in front of their members. In turn, Geostring pays you for becoming an opt in member of their program. The advertising revenues from their sponsors make it possible to pay their membership base for doing nothing more than creating a free account, referring others, and opening the once weekly email from their company.

When they said that I will earn from reading the sponsors ads, I remember sometimes ago I was doing the same. I had registered with a few online Pay To Read websites and all those are FREE too. However when I had reached the eligibility to withdraw my accumulated FREE money, I found out only PAID members can request for payout. I sent a few emails to the websites and received a message "We will respond to your email soon". How soon is their "SOON?". Until today, 6 months later, I still did not receive any email from the website. Luckily I did not pay any single cent to the website to withdraw my more than $36,000 in my account. 

That was a $10,000 minimum limit for Payout. Now this Geostring is just $100. Since I get $10.00 for registration, I have to find another $90.00 to be eligible for cashout. I am giving this a try. After all its FREE and I don't have (and will NOT PAY) any money to cashout. If after I reached the minimum cashout  limit and did not get any money from them, then thats it. I'll cut the strings.

Are you going to join me to prove something about FREE online money making websites. After all you will only loose your time while waiting for something to get downloaded. 

Blackberry Ban In Gulf State

The article below was taken from HERE.

DUBAI, August 2:  The banning of BlackBerry's messaging services, which include the smartphone's signature push-email service, will affect all residents and visitors to the UAE.

The ban, set to take effect on October 11, was announced by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) on Sunday.

The issue surrounding the BlackBerry began last week when the TRA announced that it was working with Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian manufacturer of the smartphones, to address issue of "social, judicial and national security."

Following Sunday's announcement, local reaction varied between condemnation and full support.

Security analysts and experts, however, have said that given the region's security concerns, moves to control and intercept communications were not only understandable, but recommended.

Mustafa Al Ani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Centre, said efforts to control BlackBerry services were understandable as a lack of control could be a "major security headache" for the country.

"I can definitely understand this… There have been suspected cases of [organised criminals] using BlackBerrys to communicate. For me, that is enough to be alert. When you lose the ability to monitor the communications of organised criminals or spies, you immediately [take precautions]," he said.

After the announcement, the Department of Economic Development's Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection Division said it expects a spike in the number of complaints it will receive.

"We expect to get a lot of complaints, especially about the long-term packages," said Omar Bu Shahab, chief executive officer of the DED's Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection Division.

Bone of contention

Security experts say BlackBerry's Messenger (BBM) service, which uses both encryption and a secure data connection, is the root of the issue.

Messages sent on this network bypass local security and are sent direct to RIM's data centre in Ontario, Canada.

Following the announcement, UAE telecom operators etisalat and du said they will develop "alternative" products and services for BlackBerry users. Both operators said they "understand the legal and social considerations behind the TRA decision" and would fully comply with it.

The TRA instructed the operators to "ensure minimal consumer disruption in the provision of alternative services". A TRA spokesperson said etisalat, du and RIM are all working to find a service that follows the TRA regulation and UAE law.

Etisalat spokesperson Ahmad Bin Ali told Gulf News that there would be a lot of alternative services, but did not clarify any further.

"Alternatives and all information will be announced hopefully this week, as we just received the announcement from [the] TRA today," he said on Sunday.

RIM did not respond to requests for a comment.

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