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Lamborghini pile-up, Seremban-Port Dickson Highway
Okay, this blog is not a news portal.
But, this accident happened just this morning, 6 December 2013, at a location in the stretch of Seremban – Port Dickson Highway involving three Lamborghinis.
Lamborghini accident at Seremban – Port Dickson Highway
(Photo source: social media, Ownership: unknown)
While our sympathy goes to the victims, an accident is an accident, and it has happened. The lost could have been in millions but two questions arise from this incident;
- Would a fire extinguisher in a car make a different?
- How fast is our emergency response ability to react to this kind of needs?
More on emergency response, on the next post. Meanwhile, keep safe on this rainy season.
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Cost of KNOWLEDGE
If knowledge is expensive, try ignorance
Well, there is no denying that knowledge comes with a cost, especially nowadays where everything is so commercialized that even fresh air has a price tag.
But, without knowledge, the cost that ones have to endure would be unscalable. Period.
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12 years car’s lifespan: The impact of data, or the lack of it
This is unbelievable!
The story begins…
“Cars that are more than 12 years old are not safe to be on the road.” Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon Director General, MIROS. (Bernama, 15 Nov. 2013)
Where did he come to this conclusion? He made this claim while attending a car collision test arranged on a 23-year-old car at a speed of 40 mph (64 kmph). Can anybody make any connection here? We definitely find it very hard to comprehend.
Dr Wong stated that cars were designed to last for 12 years, but he did not articulate which manufacturers were practicing this, or which models felled within this scope. Could this be an open trade secret kept away from public knowledge? Well, Dr Wong may have other source of reference but he really left the public in the dark making wild speculation.
And then, the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Transport (MOT) exclaimed, “The recent suggestion by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (MIROS) director-general Professor Dr Wong Shaw Voon was basically a new finding,” (Bernama, 17 Nov. 2013) and urged that a probable life span for cars in the country shall be deliberately imposed.
What finding? As far as the media report, it was only a vague statement; unsubstantiated, unverified and unsupported. There was no mention of any study, or any proven hypothesis, or any hypothetical testing. Can we impose a new regulation that will impact the whole nation from such statement? Wow…
And then, the Acting Minister of MOT toned, “We need to study cost of living and financial predicament faced by motorists before implementing such rule.’ (The Malay Mail Online, 19 Nov. 2013).
Err… wait a minute! We are talking about the lifespan of a car and its connection with road safety here, are not we? So, does cost of living or financial difficulty can overrule our safety? Is cost of living or financial difficulty a predictor to our road safety that we need a comprehensive study over those two areas for such purpose? That is very odd indeed.
And then, “I want to stress we have no plans to impose a cap on the lifespan on cars for disposal purposes as we do not want to burden the public,” the MOT Deputy Ministry told the Parliament (The Malaysian Insider, 21 Nov. 2013).
What was the objective of imposing a cap on car lifespan in the first place? Is it not about road safety? Or, it is something that cross our mind, and have not gone through deep thoughts, but the tongue just slipped?
The story ends.
Old Car, credit clker.com
We are running round and round in circle without getting anywhere. From the above scenarios, in no circumstances were we provided with the right data, let alone a conclusive analysis and, that is the sad fact.
If we were honest about the public safety while on road, and want to see if the age of the car really has any significant contribution to the safety factor, then there are several ways that we can work around. And in all cases, we require data.
Road accident statistics
We are sure, we have all the road accident data stacked somewhere in certain government agencies, and MIROS should have been made privy to such data. There, we will know the number of accident each month. We will have the registration number of the vehicle, so we can know its age. Sure, we may need some tweaking with data query, but with just a flick of fingers, it is done… as always. Now we can know which age group (of cars) are more frequently involved in accident.
It is that easy, no?
Actually the above simple analysis will only tell us the age of the car involved in accidents. Surely, the roads are filled with more newer cars that we might find that the age of cars meeting accident are pretty young. We have to dig further to know further. We will need on-the-road vehicle population data from JPJ and check the proportion of each age-group incidents. Run a proportion test, and we will know which age group is more prone of getting road accident.
Laboratory collision test
Or else, we can do a collision test in a laboratory like the one belonging to NCAP in Tiang Dua, Melaka.
We will need to do it on each age group we want tested.
We will need to do it on each manufactures.
We will need to do it on each models.
We will need to do it twice each, for validation.
We will need to control all other possible variables that may have effect on our test result.
Since this test is not a non-destructive one, we will want to scrap this. Too much wastage!
Look at other variables first!
Unfortunately, we already know that age of car is not the only factor contributing to traffic accidents. In fact, we are not so sure about that as yet, that we do not know that the initial analysis on this writing actually is just a nought.
Thus, first we have to decide, what variables are more significant in causing accidents? We have to be very sure of it. We have years of data to tell us what was actually happened during that road accident. It could be speed. It could be the location. It could be weather. It could be the traffic condition. Many variables need to be dissected before we can come to a solid conclusion. But before the data tells us anything, we better keep it to ourselves.
If we really want the data to speak to us, please find an expert. This is another thing that Malaysian is known to be good at. We tend to hire any Tom, Dick or Harry that we deem fit to do our job. Worse, we love to spend a bounty to big names for a meagre consultation. Just stop making ourselves look stupid, or sound stupid for that matter.
It will be a good thing if we could take heed from what W. Edwards Deming has said, “In God we trust, all others must bring data,” more so if you are at the ministerial level.
Otherwise, we can continue running round and round in circle, speculating over a nought hypothesis.
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ENGLISH PROFICIENCY & DEVELOPED NATION STATUS
Is English proficiency a pre-requisite for Malaysia to become a Developed Nation?
There is no denying on how important English is, and the language is considered as the lingua franca of the technical and scientific sphere. The dominance of English could be further demonstrated in the internet where more than half of its contents are written in this language (Wikipedia, 2011). Thus, as it has been assumed since the beginning of modern era, English is the most widely used medium of knowledge.
Languages in which internet contents are written
But, that does not prove that we have to master the language if we were to achieve a developed nation status? Or, does it?
Former Premier, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad echoed his appeal that science and mathematics to be taught in English (Bernama). He implied that if Malaysia wished to make progress and become a developed nation, than English mastery should be a priority.
Let us see if there was any truth behind that claim.
English Speakers and Developed Nation
Among many other indicators, developed nations are normally determined by their GDP per capita. Though it is not a sole measure, here we compare the percentage of English speakers in a country with its GDP per capita to see if there was any relation between these two variables.
GDP per Capita over Percentage of English Speaker
Data gathered from World Bank and many other sources amassed in Wikipedia.
It seems that there is a faint correlation between English speakers and national GDP per capita. With a correlation of 0.42 and regression R2 of 0.17, the relation is so weak that it could have happened only by chance. However, with a p-value < 0.05, it shows that in fact, there is a significant relation between the two.
English proficiency
Surprisingly, Malaysia ranked eleventh in the EF English Proficiency Index from 60 non-English speaking countries, topping the Asia class and ahead of Singapore, which listed English as one of the official languages. We are categorized as high proficiency level along with high income nations like Singapore, Germany and Switzerland. The very high proficiency level is all occupied by European nations.
|
Country |
2013 Rank |
2013 Score |
2013 Level |
| Sweden |
1 |
68.69 |
Very High Proficiency |
| Norway |
2 |
66.60 |
Very High Proficiency |
| Netherlands |
3 |
66.19 |
Very High Proficiency |
| Estonia |
4 |
65.55 |
Very High Proficiency |
| Denmark |
5 |
65.15 |
Very High Proficiency |
| Austria |
6 |
62.66 |
Very High Proficiency |
| Finland |
7 |
62.63 |
Very High Proficiency |
| Poland |
8 |
62.25 |
High Proficiency |
| Hungary |
9 |
60.41 |
High Proficiency |
| Slovenia |
10 |
60.19 |
High Proficiency |
| Malaysia |
11 |
58.99 |
High Proficiency |
| Singapore |
12 |
58.92 |
High Proficiency |
| Belgium |
13 |
58.74 |
High Proficiency |
| Germany |
14 |
58.47 |
High Proficiency |
| Latvia |
15 |
57.66 |
High Proficiency |
| Switzerland |
16 |
57.59 |
High Proficiency |
| Portugal |
17 |
57.52 |
High Proficiency |
| Slovakia |
18 |
54.58 |
Moderate Proficiency |
| Argentina |
19 |
54.43 |
Moderate Proficiency |
| Czech Republic |
20 |
54.40 |
Moderate Proficiency |
| India |
21 |
54.38 |
Moderate Proficiency |
| Hong Kong |
22 |
53.54 |
Moderate Proficiency |
| Spain |
23 |
53.51 |
Moderate Proficiency |
| South Korea |
24 |
53.46 |
Moderate Proficiency |
| Indonesia |
25 |
53.44 |
Moderate Proficiency |
English Proficiency Index by EF Education First
But, Malaysia is still far away to reach her destination of a rich income nation. Could English proficiency accelerated her journey? Let see the relationship of English Proficiency Index with GDP per Capita.
GDP per capita over English Proficiency Index score
Again, there is a very weak correlation between English proficiency and national GDP per capita. With a correlation of 0.46 and regression R2 of 0.21, the relation is not so convincing. However, with a p-value < 0.05, we know that there is a significant relation between the two.
Underlying factors
Since the R2 value is very low, the relation shown in the regression analysis could have been indirect. In other words, there are underlying factors that link these two variables. If the government are to re-enact the teaching of science and mathematics in English, than these underlying factors have to be first identified and tackled accordingly. Otherwise, it would be just another ‘melepaskan batok di tangga’, and will only incur more losses.
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Budget 2014: 6% GST implementation
At last, the Malaysian 2014 Budget was tabled, and all mysteries behind it were unveiled. All questions were answered, albeit raising further pressing questions demanding serious attention. There are numerous areas in this Budget 2014 document requiring the general public awareness but for the time being, let us look into the 6% GST.
1 April 2015, when the GST will take effect, is about seventeen months away from the date of this writing. It is still a long way, but are we really ready to embrace this new tax structure when it comes?
Image credit: malaysiakini.com
What is GST?
Did not we already have GST, as in Government Service Tax?
No, this is Goods and Service Tax (GST) or in some other countries called Value Added Tax (VAT), and it will replace the existing Sales Tax and Service Tax (SST).
Okay… but, where does Government Service Tax (the other GST) fall into? Government Service Tax refers to the common Service Tax.
And, there is another Service Charge sometimes appears in our receipt. Which tax is that? Service charge is not a tax and will not go to the government. It is an additional cost normally charged by hotel and restaurant operators.
So, what difference are all these taxes have? While sales tax covers mostly manufacturing sectors, and service tax covers hospitality and professional services, this new GST will covers a broader spectrum. Only few major food items, transportation means, education and healthcare services will be exempted. The rate for Sales Tax varies from 5% to 20%, but mostly are charged at 10%. The Service Tax rate stood at 6%. Whereas GST is charged at flat rate of 6%.
What impact to expect?
If Sales Tax is 10% and Service Tax is 6%, would it be a good thing that GST actually happens and we only need to pay 6% flat? That is a lot smaller, isn’t that?
If only GST is that simple, yes. But NO! GST is a multi level tax system where tax is payable at every juncture of the supply chain. The following tables will illustrate better.
Let say that a manufacturer add 70% value, and a wholesaler charges 10%, and a retailer marks-up 30% from each ringgit they spend. We will get the following scenario:
GST impact on products previously taxable under Sales Tax
The difference is RM12.76 or 4%. It means, even that GST is only 6% compared to 10% Sales Tax, the consumer ends up paying 4% more. Notice that, the current tax system only taxes the supplier and manufacturer. This after taking into account that a supplier could also be a manufacturer, where their sales are taxable. Imagine if they were not taxable. The difference would be bigger. Whereas GST would tax the wholesaler and retailer as well.
Look at the price without tax as well. GST will reduce the base price, but tax will just gallop that over.
GST impact on services previously taxable under Service Tax
In service industry, the effect will benefit the consumer from the above diagram. But it does not necessarily be true. The supply chain could be too short to reflect the reality. But, imagine to those multitude of products that current system does not catch the tax. The difference will be huge.
There are more questions we need to ask and find the answer. Is it timely for tax structure transformation? Are Malaysians ready? Why GST? Do not we have any other models? What about 2.5% of all assets and wealth as implied by the divine teachings? Would not that be fairer for the rich and the poor, and would not that suffice to cover all our current expenditures?
What about reducing our waste in expenditures? What about stopping our leakage? What about spending wisely?
Of course, more data and analysis are required to get the answers for those questions, more initiatives, more efforts need to be done. It still not too late to start, but until then, as a consumer, or a retailer, or a service provider, or whatever we are, this change will surely impact us. How well prepared are we in handling this change is the only thing that count.
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Budget 2014: bonus and allowance increment
The Budget 2014 is about to be tabled on this Friday, 25 October 2013, and CUEPACS are requesting a two-month bonus payment to all 1.42 million public employees, plus an increase in several other allowances as reported by Bernama on 10/10/2012. Datuk Omar Osman, the CUEPACS President said, the bonus and allowance increases are due for the ever rising of living cost, particularly after the recent hike of fuel price.
Image credit: hasrulhassan.com
Well, if we were talking about the cost of living, everybody is impacted. The talks over GST implementation are so widespread, and regardless of what the future will bring us, most of the arguments are pointing to how bad it will affect each and every one of us.
We know that this 6% GST, along with the reduction of fuel subsidy are measures to counter our economic downturn. Reduced subsidy means less expenditure to the government. Price hike means more taxes to the government coffers. Yes, it will hurt momentarily but together, we must endure the turbulence and hope it will not last long, and that we will come out a victory.
But then, why would the government servants receive special treatment (in forms of bonuses and increments) at the expense of general public?
Profitability
If we want to know whether a business entity is doing well, we will look into their profitability. We will check their expenditures against their revenues. And, in private sector practices, bonus is given based on collective performance measured by business profitability. Unfortunately, government sectors are not business entities, and shall not in any manner focus on profits.
Nevertheless, revenues and expenditures have been the main indicators since ever on how good a government is.
Malaysia’s revenues and expenditures, 1970-2013 (million)
Well undoubtedly, most of the time our expenditures exceed our revenue. Of course, to cover that extra spending, we have to cover it with borrowings. But then, it is another issue altogether that we have covered in previous post. For now, look how bad our shapes are.
Malaysia’s expenditures surplus/deficit, 1993-2013 (million)
No, you do not have to turn your phone or tablet or monitor upside down. There is nothing wrong with the display nor the graphic. It is just that we have been constantly at the deficit side since 1998, and any recovery efforts does not seem to take any effects and thus, are not capable to materialize in the chart.
Efficiency
There are many indicators to gauge the efficiency of a government, and one of the measures is the government employee per population ratio.
Government employee over population ratio (percent)
Comparing with few other economies from Asia Pacific, it is clear that Malaysia tops the chart with 4.9%, almost tripled from our neighbour Singapore at 1.7% and far ahead of China at 0.5%. Is that good? Looking at the chart without getting the right context would bring us to a wrong conclusion. Let us look from a slightly different angle.
How many people each government employee served?
- Number of population each government employee served
Now, that shows how far our government employees are, behind the others. Are we bad? Of course, there are other indicators that we need to dissect as well, but unfortunately in this context, yes… we are still not efficient enough.
Sure, there are many other areas as well, but knowing us Malaysians, the picture would not paint much different.
So, back to the question again. Are the government servant deserved bonus and allowance increment in this 2014 Budget?
We do not really have the answer, but you do.
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MALAYSIA’S EXPENDITURES
Come 25 October 2013, the Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak led government will be tabling the 2014 budget in the parliament. With a theme of fulfilling promises, accelerating transformation; we are anticipating a lot of fresh measures and counter measures to deal with current global economics uncertainties. And, the establishment of a new Fiscal Policy Committee that will be led by the Premier himself indicates that the output of this budget will bring stability to the public finances and reduce the fiscal deficit.
While awaiting for the future to come, let’s bring ourselves to the past and see how our performance shape us today.
THE EVER INCREASING SPENDING
Year 2012 witnessed Malaysia’s revenue exceeded RM200 billion for the first time. But at the same time, our expenditures shoot beyond RM250 billion, also for the first time.
Figure 1: Malaysia revenue and expenditure 1970-2013 (million)[1] [2012-preliminary, 2013 forecast]
HOW DO WE SPEND?[2]
Figure 2 shows how the Malaysian government spent the revenue in 2012. 80% of expenditures went to Emoluments (29%), Subsidies (21%), Supplies & Services (16%) and Other unclassified expenditures (14%). Note that Debt service and charges stood at almost 20 billion, a tenth of total revenue.
Figure 2: Malaysia expenditure 2012 (million)
Figure 3: Malaysia expenditure 2000-2012 (million)
Looking at the trends since year 2000 as in Figure 3, Emoluments had always been top of the chart. Subsidies experienced a spike increase in 2010 and had doubled since. Debt service charges and Pension and gratuities also showed a steady increase year after year.
WHERE DID THE FUND GO?[3]
Figure 4 indicates in the government spending according to sectors in year 2012. While Social Services ate slightly over one third of Malaysia’s Revenue, another one third chunk was consumed by unexplained Other expenditures. It is worth to note that Social Services sectors cover Education, Health, Housing, and Social and community services; Security sectors comprise of Defence and Internal security; and Economic Services sectors include Agricultural and rural development, Trade and industry, Transport, and Public utilities.
Figure 4: Malaysia expenditure by sectors
Looking into more details of those sectors in Figure 5, Other unclassified expenditures (33%) topped the table, followed by Education and training (23%). Combined, both areas sliced more than half of the pie. Other sectors that took up 80% from the total expenditures include General admin, Health, Defence and Internal Security. Note that, none of the economic services sectors occupies this 80% region.
Figure 5: Malaysia expenditure by sub-sectors
COMES 2013
MOF (Ministry of Finance) has forecasted a reduction of RM3.63 billion in operating expenditure for year 2013. Well, along with reduced forecasted revenue for that matter.
[1] EPU; 2012-preliminary, 2013-forecast
[2] EPU; data from 2000 to 2012
[3] EPU; data from 2000 to 2011
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Data Analysis has to make sense!
Just like fiction, data analysis has to make sense. But unlike fiction, data analysis ascribes to reality, ALWAYS!
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Organizational Transformation: Data analytics challenges
Overwhelmed by big data? Don’t worry, you are not alone.
But how do you steer around seas of data if you do not have the navigational knowledge and equipment? You wanted to make a good decision, you wanted to have the right direction, you wanted to bring your business into new territory…
All those will require you to look into data, sure.
Lost in BIG DATA!
Tim McGuire, the Director of McKinsey & Company in this video, outlined the key challenges of data analytics and how to turn around big data into organizational advantage.
He highlighted that, there are three critical challenges for all business entities to be aware of;
1. Selecting data
So, you have all the data you need for your business from your operations, supply chains, customers and everything. You have all the infrastructure that your data comes to you automated. You have so much data that you start to wonder which data do you really need to look at.
And then, you may also want to integrate your internal data with external ones so that you will have a wider spectrum. You may want to see the seasonal pattern, the generation trend, or even the weather so that you will get a better picture.
But, if you still do not have the data, then the challenge is trebling for you.
Data collection is not a cheap thingy if you want them to really tell you the right picture. Bear in mind, after you spent so much time, money and resources, you found that the data were not the ones you need. It surely will be a total lost. So, first thing first, you must know what data you want.
But then, this will not be an easy task altogether. Apparently, you would not know what data you will need if you were not sure what you want to know.
Begins with hypotheses
Hypotheses give you direction of what you want to achieve. You can hope that by poring into your mountainous data, something will pop-up, but in most cases, it will not.
You can start by asking questions that you wanted to be answered. You can start building on what really matters to your organization. What would your customers want? Are you meeting their demand? Are you making profit from it?
Bingo, that’s right! You get your answers by getting the right data.
But then, you may not find the correct answer if you were not asking the right question. Err… are we having a chicken-and-egg issue here?
NO, we are absolutely not. As a rule of thumb, we would always want to firstly, address our pain where it hurt most. And then, listen to our voice of customer (VOC).
2. Mathematical modelling
Once you get your data, you will need your data to work for you. Of course, you will need to have an expert here. You will need to interpret what your data is telling you. This is where you are trying to get the gold nugget out from all the ore.
You may want to be conversant with simple statistical jargon like descriptive statistics, hypotheses testing, sigma level, regression, or even correlation. You may also want to leave out the more technical jargon like central limit theorem, probability value, standard of error, or even confidence interval for your team of experts to discern.
Remember, in statistics you will need to set the parameter right and stick to the rule.
3. Translating insights
This is the biggest challenge of all, and the most important one. You want to convert your analysis result into business plans, into something that brings values and benefits to your organization.
It would really beat the purpose if data is collected and analysed just for the sake of record keeping. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, many organizations did just that since it is a part of the requirements of ISO 9001.
The transformation
The toughest part to build a transformational capability is the ability to change a bunch of people who have been operating in the same way for many, many years in the industry and help them to understand that now they need to do thing differently. This is the real challenge for change management.
You can have your existing team to acquire the knowledge and skill to do this, or you can supplement them with new people who have grown up in different environment, who have different way of thinking about the business. Unless that you are willing to change the way you make decision, or the way you implement new plans into the business, and ready to make the transformational change, all the insights from the data will not solve anything.
As Tim McGuire put it;
If you are not willing to commit to getting all the three steps right; the right data, the right modelling capability, and the right transformational method to have your people act differently and make decision differently then do not start the journey.
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More data needed to tackle food wastage
More data needed to tackle food wastage
The original writing is as below
RAMBLING OVER FOOD WASTAGE
Reading through The Star: What a terrible waste, Wednesday 5 June 2013 gave a mixed feeling of uneasiness and discontent. While it is terrible to daily throw away a mountainous amount of food that can feed a whole nation like Tajikistan or Papua New Guinea, or even Hong Kong or Bulgaria, we are left with little direction to move forward.
I rummaged through the pages to find where this 15,000 tonnes amount of food came from but to no avail. Who made the study? What were the assumptions for estimation? Or, is this just another ballpark figure? I would want to be doubtful. Or, it just so happened that the data were confidential, should not be shared among the readers, and that no further revelation is required? That would be farfetched.
I believe that we are heading towards a developed nation, and being data driven would be best fitting. Why would we need authentic data? Of course, that was a no brainer question since the answers were really straight forward. Data is like a mirror. Correct data will give us the correct image. Likewise, distorted data would only reflect a distorted image. Even if we have the right data, we still have to look at the right point from the portrayed image. We could always focus on the pretty ones and ignore the ugly parts if we wish to, but then, that will be a totally different story. Without authentic data, we will not even have any image to look at.
Now that we have an excess of 15,000 tonne of food that we do not have the capacity to consume, how do we go about? Telling everybody to clean their plate and leave no leftover through a national campaign could be costly and may end up on deaf ears. Besides, how many percent of this food waste came from Malaysians individuals? If we manage to improve 20% from these individuals, what would be the impact to the total outcome? Again, without data, we were left in the dark, guessing if we were really heading towards the right direction.
Looking at the food supply chain may give us a better view. We may want to know where the leakage and find out the 80% contributors to this wastage. There will be no use to explore on titbits since it will only incur another waste. As a rule of Pareto, this 80% normally comes from a mere 20% of the mass ensuring us a focused target group. Hence, improving 20% from each of these areas will save us 2,400 tonnes of food daily. Is that a lot? We will go into that later.
Since this wastage is a national issue, it will just right if the improvement initiative to be led and driven by a body with a national capacity. We surely would not want to be slapped in the face once a year during the World Environment Day, and then totally forgot about it on the next day. Mind you, the last record of daily food wastage in Malaysia was published in 2011 and the previous one was in 2009. There seemed to be one year missing in between, and every time a new figure came out it almost doubled the previous ones. Somewhere, somehow, we really need to look back and tell ourselves, we need to reduce our foodprints. The Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G Palanivel may want to own up this challenge.
You surely do not think that a saving of 2,400 tonnes of food wastage deserve a ministerial attention, do you? Well, it does not sound that much. But wait, that figure is on a daily basis. In a year, the saving would amount up to 876,000 tonnes! So, how much is that, you may ask.
Well, up to this stage the measuring scale we are using is not making much sense. So what if we are dumping 15,000 tonnes of food daily, some cynics may say. Now, let us change our measuring scale into ringgit and sen. Since we do not have the luxury of data, let us pluck a ballpark figure of RM3.00 per kilogram of food. Well, that is taking into account that most of the wastage is of vegetables and fruits at a cheaper side rather than of meat and fish. That will turn our 2,400 tonnes of food waste into RM7.2 million. And in a year, voila! We may save RM2.6 billion worth amount of food.
Well, if we took into account the cost of waste handling and other peripherals, we might come out with bigger savings!
Of course, that figure is only on paper. It would take a lot of energy and effort to bring something out from paper into tangible reality. I wonder if we would ever start tackling our food wastage. But if we did, along the way of reducing our foodprints, we may also want to compare ourselves with other countries, learn about their initiatives, look at how they manage their food supply chain, and the list goes on… The point is, we need to benchmark our performance and see how effective we are. And along the way, we may also want to collect data and see how our reflection stares back at us.
NAIM JALIL
Petaling Jaya
Malaysia, Transform! 