Colin Charles Agenda

Oura was pleased with everything but Activity, oh well. Spent most of the day working (as one might be able to tell how late this dispatch is coming out). Achieved another perfect month with the Apple Watch. Woohoo. All meals were consumed at home today, not getting takeout (I think I’ll try this tomorrow too).

Today marks a whole month of not seeing an airport, not sitting in an airplane, or staying at a hotel. This hasn’t happened to me maybe since 2004. This is a very weird feeling. I have also not gone anywhere for 14 days, enjoying the confines of my home. It would be a lie if I said I didn’t miss being on the road.

I didn’t pay attention to the 5pm press conference since I did a workout with Aiman Ox. To play along in the next 14 days, follow Ping and/or Flyproject.

We’re at 43 deaths (1.55% of total cases), we’ve also had heaps get discharged. Seems if you come to Malaysia after April 3, you get to a 14-day quarantine centre automatically. This is going to want to make Malaysians return, eh? Better wait for the MCO to be over… apparently compliance for stay-at-home notices are around 75%, which means we only have fellow Malaysians to thank for crazier times. Incidentally, they claim Ramadan bazaars can start post-MCO; of course with effective social distancing… and for a bit of comedy, ‘Talk like Doraemon’: Malaysian ministry issues tips for wives during COVID-19 movement control order.

It was not long ago we had a Minister talk about drinking water. And now this gaffe. They’re probably going after who could win an Ig Noble Prize or something. But if they’re all this dumb, how did they manage a coup to take over government?

I’m beginning to think that the WHO are not as competent as we think; maybe more politicians than we expect, instead of being public health officials. They’ve played down this thing quite a bit, didn’t heed Taiwan’s advice about human to human transmissions, and still say masks aren’t required but frontliners need it more. I am beginning to think masks make sense for when we go out post-MCO (or even if you go out now). I’m not even saying medical masks… reusable, fashionable ones.

Anyway, maybe a hint of Ozark and then bed. It is late. Tomorrow was supposed to be the return to normal life, but we begin Phase 2 of the MCO…

An early morning with Nick, and he had some fun boy bands as music. Enjoyed it as always. All meals squared off in the house today.

Malaysia’s situation is a handful more deaths, a huge amount of discharged patients (expect this to happen more), and another lockdown, this time a condominium building in the heart of KL. They’re detaining more people for breaking the MCO, and also imposed stricter conditions from April 1: everything that is allowed to operate, operates from 8am-8pm, and then it is a shutdown afterwards, and definitely no more than one person in a car going forward (I guess you have to have a reasonable excuse to have two folk in a car).

Been busy with work, and now mentally spent that it is time to go catch an episode of Ozark.

Caught far too much Ozark before crashing, so awake, breakfast, and it was time for Ping’s morning session. Enjoyed it as always. Calorie wise, burnt the most so far from all these HIIT workouts, so I am getting there, slowly, but surely. Weighed in upon waking up and was pleasantly surprised… I sure hope to reach my goal in April.

We had a pretty big spike in Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia today, but as numbers go, we’re about 1.4% or so in terms of death rates. Another location, this time within the Klang Valley, somewhere in Hulu Langat is on the Extended Movement Control Order (aka a lockdown). Malaysiakini’s Covid-19 coverage has also gone free; has taken them sometime, and again as a subscriber I am happy to see this happen (far too much fake news out there). Incidentally, we had five mosques run on Friday, but you’ll hear nothing of this on social media (joggers in Mont Kiara though, let’s hate on all the “rich” T20s).

I have been watching social media conversations around the hatred for the “T20 group” in Malaysia. It is frankly, appalling. It is clear that many within the T20 also have “foot in mouth disease”. I firmly believe that when empathy stops, disrespect begins. Malaysians need to be more empathetic across all economic statuses; this is something the early Internet users understod, where we never had barriers based on nationality, race, creed, or economic status. We were inclusive. Malaysian need to be Malaysian. In the end, it is clear lack of understanding, so much emphasis placed on “luck” (rich got rich by being lucky not by working; luck always plays a role, but do not assume that there wasn’t hard work there…; the other side is poor are poor by choice — who wants to be poor?), and simply not understanding Parkinson’s Law. It applies to finances just as well — (complete hypothetical follows: when you’re B40, your handbag may be from Bonia, when you’re M40 from Coach and when you’re T20, Prada). There are other examples even from brands of rice! The economy lives on credit, which is again why you have Perodua, Toyota, and Volvo’s.

Anyway, this whole MCO, and the coronavirus is going to cause an economic downturn that many have not lived through. Jobs across all sectors are going to be an issue. I’ve seen SME owners already stating they’re thinking of closing down. This is going to get ugly.

Woke up in time to do an Isabel & Marcus workout. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Read a bit. And will keep today short as I’m going to watch Ozark Season 3 — been a while since I used my Netflix account. I notice Better Call Saul is back too. Pity Ray Donovan is missing from the lineup. Today is the one day of rest I’ll take before working again tomorrow (who cares if it is a Sunday?).

Malaysia’s situation is interesting. We are going to test a lot more for COVID-19. 100,000 kits came in from China, 200,000 from South Korea. Rapid testing should be great. But worryingly, they’ve got the equivalent of an NHS Nightingale Hospital at The ExCel Centre; it is at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS). 600 beds, and they are worried about a spike mid-April (read for stats: Health Ministry: Serdang exposition centre set up as makeshift hospital in preparation for worst-case scenario). Does this mean the MCO will get extended?

World over, we are seeing more borders close. Japan is being picky with the foreigners they let in (Singapore, Malaysia and most of South East Asia, now affected). We also see Tokyo sort of having their first day of a shutdown (First day of Tokyo shutdown to stem coronavirus spread begins). There are medical trials that the WHO is approving, and Malaysia is participating (primarily at the Sg. Buloh Hospital — and it is not limited to Remdesivir); Japan has their own with Avigan.

Just yesterday I said we have to prepare the Malaysian public to get information no matter what controls exist. It is beyond porn, obviously. Today we can see a chap tweet: “Welp, 2 news outlets have either pushed back my commentary on Pakej #PRIHATIN , or told me I couldn’t appear unless I was willing to talk it up positively only. Instructions from above. I said no to the latter because I’m an economist, not a shill.” I encourage sources to go direct, publish on WordPress or Medium because social media will ensure that at least a huge chunk of the population gets to read it. But again, maybe that’s only the “T20/M40”, we still have to disseminate information to the B40 (which is maybe why Claire Rewcastle-Brown’s Radio Free Sarawak was such a game changer).

More now than ever, I am realising I need to go out into the heartlands of Malaysia, and speak to my fellow brothers and sisters. I’m reminded of what I learned at Asia Source, and the other bits of stuff I did with TacticalTech. I’m also thinking how we can make everyone a “smarter Malaysian”. More informed.

Two workouts done — one with Ping, the other with Isabel and Marcus. Both great.

Stimulus announced for Malaysia. Started with RM250 billion. The reality is it is maybe a tenth of that that is cash. The B40 group got the most. M40’s get a little. Everything is very one-off (which is great for an announcement, but really, terrible for being effective). Grab drivers get a stimulus. Reality is, this seems like an election stimulus. It is not a real stimulus. Even the RM600 wage if the company can prove a 50% decline for a few months is weak. Of course, the T20’s only got the last 2 paragraphs in English…. so I think overall, an underwhelming stimulus, but not a trivial one. I wasn’t going to link to stuff (I guess Life with Rona is getting a marked change from today), but the T20 got nothing, besides this tweet.

Ended up getting GrabFood delivery today; you can now tip RM2,4,6,8,10,12. Pick the maximum, it is worth it.

World over, the Covid-19 scare is getting more real. Hong Kong does not want you to gather in groups of 4 or more. Singapore has something similar (with the stick of the law waved at you). Boris Johnson has tested positive and is self-isolating at 10 Downing Street. I think this is a good thing, because as he gets better, people will start to realise that maybe the scare isn’t all too bad; become a bit more rational, because let’s never forget that panic is dumb.

Malaysian’s got the last laugh maybe over Mont Kiara… over a 2 hour span, the police arrested 11 folk, for jogging. 4 of the 11 were Japanese. The Japanese are known to be obedient but does Malaysia make anyone with a shred of decency, corruptible? I feel we are terrible at social capital, and I don’t see it improving anytime soon. Overall all this exercise bans I think are 100% a mistake, and social media just has people who are experiencing schadenfreude.

In the end, one has to ask, do you trust the government that has implemented such rules? Are the rules right, to begin with? Here’s an example that I’m not personally affected by, but I think is important: porn sites blocked via IP address instead of the usual DNS hijacking. CDNs help. And the VPN is the only way out. Now think about this for a moment. First they come for your outdoor activities. Then they come for your porn. What could be next? Parts of this government has blocked access to Medium.com in the past…

The way I see it is that we need to build capacity for people to have easy workarounds and store this information everywhere. On GitHub. On the Ethereum blockchain. On services that they’d find hard blocking. I mean it would have been unfathomable to block Medium before… but I might be in a tech bubble clearly. I still remember when my father showed me that he installed the Tor Browser to read The Sarawak Report. All I can say is that we need to think ahead. Think a little like Chinese activists: #MeToo activists in China are turning to the blockchain to dodge censorship. Go on, take a look see: Etherscan transaction hash 0x2d6a7b0f6adeff38423d4c62cd8b6ccb708ddad85da5d3d06756ad4d8a04a6a2; go to Input Data, View Input as UTF-8 and see a message in both English and Chinese. My thinking is we better get the workarounds in the hands of people now, long before they’ll need it when the political situation eventually does take a turn for more censorship and control.

A day filled with mostly a lot of work. I did enjoy the usual breakfast, a lunch of chicken+cheese+cucumber croissant, and a dinner of some cencaru fish, cincalok omelette, and rice. I also did Nick & Ishaq’s cardio workout at home (I don’t know if Open Cardio on Apple Watch records less than HIIT?). But most of the day has been hacking away at the keyboard.

Malaysia has had a great spike in cases today, despite the MCO. We’ve also seen 2 areas in Kluang, Johor go under a total lockdown (“Enhanced Movement Control Order”). Thailand has basically said they’re done with foreign tourists for now under their emergency orders. We see Bali trying to extend Nyepi (maybe they will act before Jakarta does). I guess Malaysians have to brace for more impact under the MCO going forward.

US jobless claims are out. The numbers are scary. From a couple hundred thousand to over three million. Singapore has announced an amazing stimulus package (some 11% of GDP?). Cabin crew get up to SGD$4,500 (up to 75% of salary) which I think is amazing. They even catered for the self employed.

This is what people expect from their governments. Some kind of social safety net. Not “please withdraw money from your retirement savings”. I don’t know if it is the woke on Twitter that see things, or it is the general consensus, but so far the Malaysian efforts seem paltry in comparison. Speaking of Twitter, Mont Kiara was trending all day today; sure there are some joggers there… but the vitriol for the rich (T20) is also really shocking. I wonder if many on Twitter realise they’re richer than they think compared to many in Malaysia? We after all have a terribly high GINI coefficient.

Stimulus. Everyone needs cash. It seems Malaysia’s MyKad (identity card — every citizen has one) is still an active ATM and MEPS card (Not just MEPS Cash which was this one time failed experiment). I know the MyKad is also a Touch N Go card. So Shawn Tan did wonder if this is the best stimulus mechanism? Maybe it is. Can it just be enabled that every IC gets RM1,000, so anyone goes to the ATM, pops their IC in, and gets RM1,000 cash? This could be the best cash transfer mechanism, ever… e-wallets (I’m no luddite, I use them regularly) is really not the solution. There was just a little over 50% usage (probably; last I read it was 7.4 million out of 15 million eligible that got it) for the last stimulus (e-Tunai rakyat) the previous government gave, of RM30 for anyone earning less than RM100,000 per annum. The argument there was it is money that expires to ensure people spend it. Spend it where? Not at your nasi lemak seller…

Let’s see what March 30 brings Malaysians. A stimulus that will shock us all?