The Most Expensive Suit and Another Hole in the Head

Maybe I've been away for too long and kept silent for too long, hence the need to comment on news stories big and small...


Mara to pay RM185,000 for Dr Muszaphar's space suit

KUALA LUMPUR, March 14 — Mara plans to buy the US$50,000 (RM185,000) space suit worn by Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustaphar and put it on display for all Malaysians.

Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Datuk Noh Omar said he had instructed Mara to buy the costume as a symbol of the institution's success in producing the first Malay spaceman.

"Dr Muszaphar had a discussion with me and he hoped someone would buy the space suit.

"The government is not going buy it but a local company has shown interest, so I've asked Mara to get it," he told reporters after launching the 2009 Mara Education Carnival and Mara Day celebrations at the Putra World Trade Centre today.

(The Malaysian Insider, March 14, 2009)

Spend RM185,000? During a global financial crisis? Kaya nye Mara. Don't get me wrong, I think the suit would be a great display in a museum, but you have to wonder why someone didn't think of it before? Why wasn't the purchase of the suit (or some other physical display of the trip) included in the whole package deal with the Russians? It's a short-sighted decision made worse by the current state of economics.


Malaysian Capital to have new mega-tower
By AFP | Posted: 13 March 2009 1349 hrs

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur will see a 65-storey Four Seasons building rise up alongside its iconic 88-storey Petronas Twin Towers, a report said Friday.

The tower, which will include a hotel, apartments and a shopping mall, will be completed by 2012 despite the global economic crisis, developer Syed Yusof Syed Nasir told the New Straits Times.

The daily said the project, known as Four Seasons Place, was being built by a firm controlled by Syed Yusof along with Malaysian tycoon Ong Beng Seng and the Sultan of Selangor.

"We are committed to the project even during the downturn," Syed Yusof said.

The daily said the 140 apartments in the project would be sold for about 2,500 ringgit (677 dollars) per square foot.

(Channel News Asia, March 13, 2009)


We need another high-rise like we need another hole in the head. Must we build yet another skyscraper? Does that make us more "developed"? Closer to first-world nation status? Why do we keep kidding ourselves? There are so many, many buildings in a sad state of neglect, disrepair and abandonment. If they really are unsuitable for whatever project a developer has in mind, then those buildings should be torn down and another built in its place.

I used to live near Detroit, which was once the 4th largest city in the US. Now the Motor City is the 4th poorest in the nation (2004) and the most dangerous (2007) due to its high crime and high unemployment. Home values have plummeted so much and living conditions deteriorated so badly that some people are simply packing up their belongings and abandoning their homes. Detroit is a city with severe urban decay. While I don't foresee KL becoming anywhere as bad as that, city planners in the government need to bear in mind that urban decay is a real disease. Throwing up a fancy new building whose appeal will only last 20-30 years may bring in money in the short-term but bodes trouble in the long-term.