Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Cheapest haircut in my life
Another article that I wrote while I was in India...
Last night I visited the little barber shop located opposite to the hotel to get a hair cut. The 3 stars hotel that we are staying bill us for RM290 per day, so I brought RM40 values of Rupees to the barber shop, due to I am expecting them to charge me around RM9-10 for a haircut.
I asked the barber how much it cost for a haircut. He told me a number that I couldn¡¯t believe it and I have to re-confirm with him again. I tried to be cautious with them because last time my colleague hired a taxi and the driver was very dishonest, when he asked him to turn on the A/C, the driver said that the price that he paid doesn¡¯t include A/C. I also have another story to tell but this time will stick to the topic.
I sat on the chair and the barber began his work. The interior of the shop is quite old and I don't have much complain with the price that I am paying for this "special lifetime experience". Looking into the mirror, I notice there is a 30 years old black and white TV playing today news, first thing that came to my mind is, there is quite a long time that I didn¡¯t see a B/W TV¡
After ten minutes, a young lad brought four cups of tea to the owner and the rest of the people inside the shop. The barber stopped for his tea break and asked me if I want some tea, I said no thanks to him due to I don¡¯t dare to drink it and I also don¡¯t want to increase his operation cost and bring down his profit. After two minutes, he continued his business and I felt my neck is quite itchy and I had some red rashes on it.
The session ended after the barber asked me if I want a head massage or dye my hair, I rejected politely, thanked him, and pay my money to him as we agreed earlier. The hair cut was ok for what I have paid, (FYI, Jennifer Lopez paid 15k USD for a single haircut). I crossed the alley and head back to my hotel to take a shower right away, right before I do that, I called up my colleague and told him how cheap is the haircut. Guess how cheap is it?
The most expensive hair cut that I paid in my lifetime is 25 USD with tips 8 years ago. The cheapest hair cut that I once recalled is around RM3.50 when I was in high school about 16 years ago, but the money I paid today was able to beat the cheapest price. It cost me only 20 Rupees, which is equivalent to RM1.74! What an experience! :)
Last night I visited the little barber shop located opposite to the hotel to get a hair cut. The 3 stars hotel that we are staying bill us for RM290 per day, so I brought RM40 values of Rupees to the barber shop, due to I am expecting them to charge me around RM9-10 for a haircut.
I asked the barber how much it cost for a haircut. He told me a number that I couldn¡¯t believe it and I have to re-confirm with him again. I tried to be cautious with them because last time my colleague hired a taxi and the driver was very dishonest, when he asked him to turn on the A/C, the driver said that the price that he paid doesn¡¯t include A/C. I also have another story to tell but this time will stick to the topic.
I sat on the chair and the barber began his work. The interior of the shop is quite old and I don't have much complain with the price that I am paying for this "special lifetime experience". Looking into the mirror, I notice there is a 30 years old black and white TV playing today news, first thing that came to my mind is, there is quite a long time that I didn¡¯t see a B/W TV¡
After ten minutes, a young lad brought four cups of tea to the owner and the rest of the people inside the shop. The barber stopped for his tea break and asked me if I want some tea, I said no thanks to him due to I don¡¯t dare to drink it and I also don¡¯t want to increase his operation cost and bring down his profit. After two minutes, he continued his business and I felt my neck is quite itchy and I had some red rashes on it.
The session ended after the barber asked me if I want a head massage or dye my hair, I rejected politely, thanked him, and pay my money to him as we agreed earlier. The hair cut was ok for what I have paid, (FYI, Jennifer Lopez paid 15k USD for a single haircut). I crossed the alley and head back to my hotel to take a shower right away, right before I do that, I called up my colleague and told him how cheap is the haircut. Guess how cheap is it?
The most expensive hair cut that I paid in my lifetime is 25 USD with tips 8 years ago. The cheapest hair cut that I once recalled is around RM3.50 when I was in high school about 16 years ago, but the money I paid today was able to beat the cheapest price. It cost me only 20 Rupees, which is equivalent to RM1.74! What an experience! :)
Battle of Chernobyl
Wrote something while I was in India...
Last night there was a documentary program with the title, “Battle of Chernobyl” in discovery channel talking about the nuclear disaster in former Soviet Union twenty years ago. It catches my interest because these few days there are a lot of news regarding Chernobyl, I don’t know why there are so many news or reports about Chernobyl recently, it could be the reason of 20th anniversary of such incident or perhaps is because US is plotting for such propaganda through media so that they can scare the world to put pressure on Iran; and hopefully they will drop their nuclear reactor project which US government worry it will lead into nuclear weaponry research.
For us who never experience or have any idea about “radioactivity”, I would like to share with you how disastrous it could be when there is such incident happened in any places in South East Asia, we should thank that we don’t have such technology in our country and our neighbor doesn’t produce plutonium in our region.
The pollution that caused by Chernobyl is actually more serious that we could imagine, even after twenty years, people around this area was affected, a lot of baby was borned in deformed shape due to mutation, the TV program showed the picture of babies with oversized head, missing arm or leg, etc.. A lot of people died before the age of forties due to cancer or other sickness, whatever crops produced in such polluted soil which is close to the site will continue to bring damage to the locals. In order for such pollution to stop naturally, it will take 800 years! Imagine we can live 9 life cycles for 800 years!
I am not sure if you guys saw the actual video clip on news that a helicopter flew to the exploded nuclear plant, due to extremely high radiation, the helicopter failed to operate and later on you see the rotors broke into pieces and eventually the helicopter crashed to the site. The Soviets spent 18 billion of their money to clean up the aftermath of such incident. Technically whatever happened is irreversible, the money spent only reduced the radiation for 35%, the most important thing is, it stopped the spread of radiant pollutant scattering around Europe, the pollutant actually came from the dust of the concrete and metal after the explosion which will caused harm due to it is “radioactive”, who knows, it might reach us some day, which I think is very unlikely due to our geographical location.
The documentary also showed that the Russians were sending robots to the roof top of the plant so that they can clean the highly radioactive area and seal the roof top back with thick steel to prevent further pollution. Guess what? After some time, the robots failed as well, and ironically they have to send some “special robots” which they called “Bio-Robots” to the roof top to clean the debris, the Bio-robots are live humans. About half a million of Russian reserves, volunteers, miners were summoned to do this deadly job, that’s why this program was named, the “Battle of Chernobyl”. One of the interviewees said that while he was on the roof top, he can’t felt his teeth, with his mouth tightly shut and covered with mask, he can felt the taste of the lead in his mouth, even until today. People around him died one by one after the clean up mission, I believe different people reacted differently to radiation, that’s why some people tend to last longer.
The general who oversee such project was interviewed for this documentary, you can see a lot of medals pinned to his coat, he said that whoever joined the clean up mission was given a certificate and some money by the government which is equivalent to 100 USD nowadays. These are the heroes that put their lives at risk to complete such dangerous task without us knowing it.
After such terrible incident, the Soviets will never ever start a new nuclear plant in their own soil, besides, they also have 2700 of their nuclear warheads, which they save it for US during the cold war period, to be dismantled and buried under the ground. Each warhead can cause 100 times of damage like what happened in Chernobyl.
In conclusion, although nuclear generated energy may seem to be a cheaper alternative of resource for some countries, however, the potential damage they it might bring to us will probably cost more than what we have saved. Nobody can guarantee such incident in Chernobyl will never happen again, therefore, my standpoint is I am NOT going to support such nuclear energy solution chosen by Iran or India, unless it is their only choice.
Last night there was a documentary program with the title, “Battle of Chernobyl” in discovery channel talking about the nuclear disaster in former Soviet Union twenty years ago. It catches my interest because these few days there are a lot of news regarding Chernobyl, I don’t know why there are so many news or reports about Chernobyl recently, it could be the reason of 20th anniversary of such incident or perhaps is because US is plotting for such propaganda through media so that they can scare the world to put pressure on Iran; and hopefully they will drop their nuclear reactor project which US government worry it will lead into nuclear weaponry research.
For us who never experience or have any idea about “radioactivity”, I would like to share with you how disastrous it could be when there is such incident happened in any places in South East Asia, we should thank that we don’t have such technology in our country and our neighbor doesn’t produce plutonium in our region.
The pollution that caused by Chernobyl is actually more serious that we could imagine, even after twenty years, people around this area was affected, a lot of baby was borned in deformed shape due to mutation, the TV program showed the picture of babies with oversized head, missing arm or leg, etc.. A lot of people died before the age of forties due to cancer or other sickness, whatever crops produced in such polluted soil which is close to the site will continue to bring damage to the locals. In order for such pollution to stop naturally, it will take 800 years! Imagine we can live 9 life cycles for 800 years!
I am not sure if you guys saw the actual video clip on news that a helicopter flew to the exploded nuclear plant, due to extremely high radiation, the helicopter failed to operate and later on you see the rotors broke into pieces and eventually the helicopter crashed to the site. The Soviets spent 18 billion of their money to clean up the aftermath of such incident. Technically whatever happened is irreversible, the money spent only reduced the radiation for 35%, the most important thing is, it stopped the spread of radiant pollutant scattering around Europe, the pollutant actually came from the dust of the concrete and metal after the explosion which will caused harm due to it is “radioactive”, who knows, it might reach us some day, which I think is very unlikely due to our geographical location.
The documentary also showed that the Russians were sending robots to the roof top of the plant so that they can clean the highly radioactive area and seal the roof top back with thick steel to prevent further pollution. Guess what? After some time, the robots failed as well, and ironically they have to send some “special robots” which they called “Bio-Robots” to the roof top to clean the debris, the Bio-robots are live humans. About half a million of Russian reserves, volunteers, miners were summoned to do this deadly job, that’s why this program was named, the “Battle of Chernobyl”. One of the interviewees said that while he was on the roof top, he can’t felt his teeth, with his mouth tightly shut and covered with mask, he can felt the taste of the lead in his mouth, even until today. People around him died one by one after the clean up mission, I believe different people reacted differently to radiation, that’s why some people tend to last longer.
The general who oversee such project was interviewed for this documentary, you can see a lot of medals pinned to his coat, he said that whoever joined the clean up mission was given a certificate and some money by the government which is equivalent to 100 USD nowadays. These are the heroes that put their lives at risk to complete such dangerous task without us knowing it.
After such terrible incident, the Soviets will never ever start a new nuclear plant in their own soil, besides, they also have 2700 of their nuclear warheads, which they save it for US during the cold war period, to be dismantled and buried under the ground. Each warhead can cause 100 times of damage like what happened in Chernobyl.
In conclusion, although nuclear generated energy may seem to be a cheaper alternative of resource for some countries, however, the potential damage they it might bring to us will probably cost more than what we have saved. Nobody can guarantee such incident in Chernobyl will never happen again, therefore, my standpoint is I am NOT going to support such nuclear energy solution chosen by Iran or India, unless it is their only choice.
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