Subscript5676

joined 3 months ago
[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago

I wish there’s a better meme to describe the current Malaysia-China relationship lol

The Malaysian political class has always played the strategic hedging game with more powerful nations. In the case of China, they’re super happy to take Chinese investments and even take their aid in building out large-scale infrastructure (just earlier this year, I learned that Penang accepted the large above-water power transferring cables on floats, from China, in order to replace the existing old power cables underneath the first Penang bridge), and meekly complain about China encroaching on the South China Sea. I sometimes wonder if they’re happy to play that game just cause of how little they care about East Malaysia, which is more dependent on the South China Sea. Overall, Malaysia is playing a risky and IMO losing game against China.

In Canadian context, the Eastern Malaysian states are kinda like BC and Alberta in some ways: a lot of political decisions are West-Malaysian-centric, so separatist sentiment rises from time to time. East Malaysia more rich in off-shore oil fields, but West Malaysia don’t particularly lack them. In terms of political culture, all of Malaysia’s considered culturally conservative so both sides aren’t too different in that sense (but at least East Malaysian governments aren’t jerks, unlike the government in that one province we know of). Their local cultures differ quite a lot though.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 days ago

Could we share this with MPs or even Carney so that they’d see this? Cause I really wish they can see this to know that this is what we’re facing, and we really hope they’ll do the right thing. I’m probably just trying to feel hopeful though.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

If more people can actually care about the lives of others, the problems that our world and humanity face right now would’ve been much easier to solve.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Oh I’ve heard of this, but for a different country:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Malaysia_Plan (for years 2021-2025) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Malaysia_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Malaysia_Plan And you can find older ones from there. The first one started in 1966, just about 10 years after Malaysia’s independence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Malaysia_Plan

There’s also a 13th plan in the making from various news sources in Malaysia, for the next 5 years from 2026.

Most of these plans have some amount of controversy that come with them.

  • In the first plan, they’ve been happy to even support the US in the Vietnam War, in order to get some money out from the US for economic development. It was a rather unpopular move, but here we can already see how Malaysia chooses to play in the international scene, which generally continues even today.
  • Throughout many of the plans, there are sections that clearly give preference to the Malay race and the indigenous people, typically grouped under the term bumiputra; though this sort of affirmative action is actually enshrined in Malaysia’s constitution as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_153_of_the_Constitution_of_Malaysia; and from the word of mouth passed through generations of the Malaysian Chinese, there’s a strong belief that the ancestors of the Chinese and Indians there made this concession so that their people may stay in Malaysia, as many of them left their home countries due to strong push factors back home, and they aren’t welcomed back either.
  • If you’re wondering what other sorts of preferential treatment have they given to the Bumiputras over the years: a percentage of enrolment in universities, a percentage of employment in sufficiently large enterprises (from somewhere medium and up I believe), and attempts at essentially emboldening rich Malays to own even more of Malaysia’s wealth in terms of percentage (there’s a common theme where previous governments will use the word Bumiputras when they really mean the Malay people, almost as if it’s a useful facade or shield against criticisms from non-Bumiputras and sometimes even foreigners; the indigenous people are fractured and generally don’t care about Malaysian politics).

Whether these plans are inspired by Soviet Union plans, I don’t know, as no one seems to talk about that. The Malaysian government’s approach to international relationships has never really changed throughout the years, despite changing governments recently: they will deal with the country regardless of whichever side of the power struggle they’re in, be it the US, Europe, Soviets, Russian, and today, China, as long as they would throw money at it without seemingly hurting the country, as well as other Islamic countries. So there’s a good chance that these 5-year Malaysian Plans are very much inspired by the Soviets.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Recent news all really just make me wonder if we just voted the Conservatives into power.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

I played the first Nioh and really liked it. Been planning to play 2, but dang there’s now a 3 upcoming?

Really hoping their recent mixed records won’t carry forward here though.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

It’s baffling to me how a fucker who would lie straight in your face with no change in their facial expression is even allowed to hold any office without people being up in their pitchforks to force em out of power, and for decades too.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

People are just selfish

Not sure if you’re stating that as a “humans are selfish beings”, or just stating that people you know (from the example you gave) are selfish. Either way, while it may make you feel good saying that, lumping all of humanity as one and sweeping them all with a blunt stick is frankly pointless and non-constructive.

In any case, your very article is an illustration of your own selfishness. Just look at what you said yourself:

But frankly, this isn't what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear that prices are going to plummet. I don't care if investors, REITs, and people who own more than one home will suffer. I want them to burn.

What of the older generation that only have that one unit they’re planning to sell off after their kids have all grown up and moved out, so that they can buy a cheaper, smaller house, AND use whatever money they make out of their old house for their retirement? What if the families that just have 2 places because they frequently work between the two cities? Or those who have a significant number of the family members living in another city? These families are all over the place, and you’re fine with them being burnt so that YOU can afford to buy a house?

What you’re saying here makes you not much different than that person beside you at that dinner, except you’re either hiding or ignoring some of the people that will be hurt in the process.

Yes, housing shouldn’t be an investment asset. Yes, allowing the rich to just buy up every single housing unit without constraint is bad. Yes, people shouldn’t be shit to other people. And yes, housing prices should come down. But the problem is more complicated than how you’re treating it in the article. I don’t deny that a strong reason why this problem isn’t solved today is because a lot of rich and powerful institutions and people are benefiting from it, but a lot of people who’s already passed that ever-growing gap aren’t there because they wanted to join the other side and pull that ladder up; they’re there because that’s the setting of the game as it is right now, and they were just fortunate enough to make it there.

I understand your anger and frustration. I can’t afford a house too, and probably for a very long time as well. But literally burning the “other side” just so I can own a house and own “the other side” is not the way for us all to win this, practically and morally so.

It’s frustrating. It feels hopeless. But it does no one any good going at the problem naively.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately I don’t :/ I’m renting a place after all, so I’ve never looked into in-wall switches or outlets. But hope you find one there!

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Awesome! Thanks for the info! I’m getting some then :)

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Oh! I forgot that IKEA has smart plugs too.

Do you have to get the Dirigera hub though? I tried looking around and there’s not much info about the TRETAKT and HA, only a few Discus threads where people suggest using zigbee2mqtt or ZHA with quirks (and it does seem like the quirk is in their repo), but no mention of whether they had the hub.

[–] Subscript5676@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 weeks ago

There’s no good reason today and in the future, period.

There are “experts” who still claim these, but they are based on a very dated recommendation from at least 15 - 20 years ago at this point. To some, such non-sensical requirements (by the fact that we should be storing passwords as hashes today) have become doctrine, rather than any fact based in reality.

And some users have been conditioned into thinking that these are good security practices as well, because governments and banks still make use of them, and these are the very organizations that should be the best-in-class when it comes to security. Some of these users become CEOs or product designers with more say than their IT and security experts in the company. The rest is history from there.

 

I am once again here asking for a product, fully expecting with yet another “you probably won’t find a Canadian alternative for this”. I was surprised with the smartwatch + fitness tracker options last time, so I think this might be worthwhile too.

Does anyone know of an energy monitoring plug? Too many of these are made in China by Chinese and American companies, so I’m hoping to find alternatives here.

Ideally, I’d also like to hook it up with Home Assistant, and either via Zigbee or Matter. If it’s WiFi-only, that’s fine too, but preferably not, cause I don’t want to add more WiFi devices on my network, if possible.

 

I thought this was a great analysis of the published meeting between Carney and Trump so thought I’d share it here, not only because this is also my takeaway from the meeting: nothing’s actually done in a practical sense, but a bridge is built without compromising Canada’s position, and, more subtly and interestingly to Canadians, without actually praising Trump, but got him and his supporters to think that he’s being praised. It’s my first time actually liking doublespeak lol.

And I think it’s a great display of restraint from Carney, a kind of restraint we should have as adults. A close friend of his was insulted right in his face, and he took it without saying anything back, only to give out a response to a later question by a journalist in a way that is both slightly elaborately vague and lightly sugarcoated, just enough for you to maybe guess what his thoughts were when that exchange went down.

~~Also, if someone knows if CBC posts these anywhere else but YouTube, it’d be great if you could share that with me.~~ I’ve updated the link to CBC’s website. Thank you @zqwzzle@lemmy.ca!

 

I fully expect this to be an “I don’t think there’s any good replacement” scenario, but I’d love to hear some options. I also know that this isn’t a good time to really make expensive purchases, and I don’t plan to make the purchase, but I’d like to hear people’s thoughts and bits of knowledge on smartwatches, or fitness-tracking watches / wearables.

So what’s your non-US, non-CN (yeah I have more than just a non-US constraint) option? Anything good out there?

I know there might be a revive of the Pebble but it’s not great for fitness tracking, and there’s no plan to go in that direction for now. And it might still be a US product.

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