Econo-money

So, is the recession finally has come to hit our country? Maybe some people may want to say positive things and still want to mellow down the impact, but for those people who has been directly affected and for those who has opted for vss or other type of retrenchment, life will not be the same again and they really need to adjust their lifestyle... Now, the news from the US and some European countries has been alarming. People are comitting suicide, and it is not only those who without jobs, billionaires also has been reported to commit suicide...

Maybe for the rich, they are still rich, but paper loses maybe amounting to billions. Just imagine, if we own 1 billion stock valued at RM5.00 per unit, that is RM5 billion worth of stock... but if the stock value suddenly loses its value and drop to RM0.30, then its value has reduced to RM300 million and that is a loss of RM4.7 billion... wow that is really a lot of money...

People are fast losing their jobs and sales are dropping at a very alarming rate, I was told by my friend that the company his work for has experience a drop of sales up to 40%, and some say their sales is just 5% compared to usual sales volume.

Hopefully, Malaysia can engineered an economic plan that could soften the impact of these economic meltdown. Perhaps, this is the best time to review and have some lifestyle changes in our life. Why the economic slowdown happen? That would be an interesting questions..... So far we have been trying to answer the same questions over the years, but it seems that when we thought that we have the answer, there is another twist of the turn taking place...

The Economics of the English Premier League

When Manchester City announce a £108m bid on the Brazillian soccer star Kaka, I am left wondering, wow, with that amount of money, we could built a new town, built a new power genaration plant, finance a new oilfield development project and many other things. It is equivalent to RM576m, and that is a lot of money, more so in the wake of the global economy crisis. When everywhere else in the world, the economy seems to heading a downward trend, it is amazing that a bid of that proportion has been tabled for a football player. The previous record for the transfer fee was done around 7-years ago when Zinadene move from Juventus to Real Madrid for a transfer fee of £46m (RM246m).

Accoding to some analyst, the total cost for Kaka, inclusive the transfer fee, agent fee and the salary for the entire contract will be around of £243m (£108m transfer fee, £28m agent fee and £100m salary fee)... that is around RM1.3billion... Wow, that seems like a good bail out or rescue plan for the ailing economy.

A 300MW power generation plant may cost around RM 1 billion or less....

A jack-up oilrig for shallow waters may cost around RM300m....

The Engineering Economic or is it the Economic of Engineering?

Engineering is a branch of science that innovatively applied the principle of sciences and express it in a very wide variety of things... According to Wikipedia,

Engineering is the discipline and profession of applying technical and scientific knowledge and utilizing natural laws and physical resources in order to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective and meet specified criteria.

The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET[1]) has defined engineering as follows:
“[T]he creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.”[2][3][4]

I believe here in Malaysia our IEM and BEM also have their own definition which more or less similar to what other people around the world is using...

For some people, they do not see any engineers around them, they do not know what the engineer does. They just know that the car can function with atwist of the key and just step on the accelartor pedal. That is how creative and innovative engineering can be.... From a very complex law of physics, thermodynamics, electrical, combustion, aerodynamic and the calculas bla..bla..bla.... which is not easily understood, suddenly it is being expressed into a very easy to use and to maneuver machine - cars... There are many more engineering works around us, most of the things around us have some degree of innovative engineering inside them... The pen, the computers, the light bulb, the television, the radio, the handphone, all is the product of creative engineering. For common people, a light bulb is on just by clicking the swithes, but apart from the switches, there is some thermodynamic, electrical technolgy, metallurgy and other branches of engineering involved... The anode or the filament which is usually made of metal is related to the mining engineering.. The swithches which is usually made of plastic is related to material engineering, the ergonomic design is related to civil or mechanical or even an ergonomic engineering.

The economic of engineering may be related to the degree of engineering approch has succesfully improved the efficiency of the system or the machine. According to Wikipedia, Engineering economics, previously known as engineering economy, is a subset of economics for application to engineering projects. Engineers seek solutions to problems, and the economic viability of each potential solution is normally considered along with the technical aspects. It can also related to the impact of socio-economy or can have a big impact on politics as well... For instance, when we look at the marvels of engineering works such as the handphone or the computers and internet, we could see how well an engineering products has change the lifestyle of the world and have tremendously contributed to the development of a much faster growing economy. We can now communicate more effectively and the usage of email have steadily reduced our expenses for stamps and postal services. The recent development of a hybrid car also offers a new era of transportation technology which aimed at reducing the fuel consumption.

Off course Engineering and Economics may not always be at a same wave pattern. From my experience in the industry, it is a common situation when there are always "issues" when it come to decision involving both technical and commercial matter. I used to work as an economist monitoring the economic of activity of the mineral market around the world. And when it comes to investment, the subject of engineering economics is extremely important to ensure the succes of a project or investment initiatives. It will always be in the interest of the engineers to have the best solutions and best technical capabilities for the company, but from the economics point of view, it is important for the company to always try to save as much as possible, and this may lead to the budget factors and may result to a compromise of quality and technical competency. Regardless, it is not always true that the higher price will offer the better solutions. Some of a more effective solutions are much-much more cheaper compared to the higher pricing.

So when it comes to the economic of engineering, it will always will be the issues regarding the cost, the profits, the losses, the impact to the environment, the impact to the community, the long term and short term issues, the sustainable development issues, bla..bla..bla... I remember clearly when I was studying mining engineering my Professor Dr. Eric Goh always give us a very practical method of learning. He will teach us all the mining methods and he will outlined all the advantages and disadvantages of each of the mining method and from these advantages and disadvantages, we could further discuss on the costing issues and the technical issues, and that really help us a lot in understanding the economics of the mining engineering.

Well, when we recently witness yet another massive landslide tragedy at Bukit Antarabangsa, I just wondering if we could applied the slope stability designs and monitoring strategies for minings at these hillside? Slope stability design and monitoring is a very important issue in mining since almost everyday there will be excavation and without a proper design and monitoring, any landslide can resulted in a massive losses in the mining operation. I believe that safety issues is always paramount and it is always important to ensure that our environment is a safe environment.

Perlukah Ada Azam Baru?

Selamat menyambut tahun baru 2009 dan maal Hijrah 1430... Alhamdullillah dengan izin Allah, kita diizinkan untuk sampai ke Tahun baru dan insyaalah kita akan menyambut Tahun Baru Cina pulak diakhir Januri nie...

Nampaknya mungkin terdapat ramai juga manusia yang tidak sabar-sabar untuk menyambut Tahun Baru ini dengan penuh debaran. US bakal mendapat Presiden baru Barack Obama yang akan mengganti Presiden "kena baling kasut" Bush, dan Malaysia juga dijangkakan akan mendapat Perdana Menteri yang baru. Kenapa saya kata "dijangkakan" sahaja? Almaklumlah, politik diMalaysia nie memang sukar diduga, lebih-lebih lagi dengan kehangatan pemilihan UMNO ini yang pastinya akan menimbulkan kemeriahan di Tahun 2009. apa pun, dengan keadaan ekonomi yang agak membimbangkan, suasana iklim yang juga kadangkala tidak menentu serta serangan terbaru Israel terhadap Gaza, nampaknya tahun baru ni pasti menjanjikan lebih banyak cabaran kepada kita.

Tetapi, soalan yang menjadi pilihan di Tahun Baru ini pastinya "APA AZAM TAHUN BARU?"

Soalan nie memang setiap tahun akan ditanya setiap munculnya tahun baru... Saya pun tertanya, apakah kita harus menunggu Tahun Baru, barulah kita akan membina azam baru? atau kita akan menjadi manusia yang lebih proaktif, dan membina azam baru sebaik sahaja kita merasakan terdapat pelbagai perkara yang perlu diperbaiki didalam diri kita. Bagi seorang individu yang proaktif, saya rasa mereka pastinya tidak suka menunggu-nunggu tarikh tertentu untuk melaksanakan sesuatu azam. mereka pastinya mempunyai corak pemikiran positif tersendiri yang bertindak sepantas mungkin dan memberikan reaksi tindakbals positif yang pantas kepada sebarang persoalan serta sebarang peluang perubahan yang ada. Satu jam mungkin sudah terlalu lama untuk menunggu untuk memulakan suatu azam serta satu langkah baru didalam memperbaiki diri dan kehidupan kita. Menunggu terlalu lama, kadangkala menyebabkan "mood" azam baru itu sendiri akan hilang... Saya kekdang biasa mendengar omputih kata "strike while the iron is still hot" ... apa makna sebenarnya tak lah berapa saya faham, tetapi lebih kurang buat sesuatu sementara keujaannya masih ada.. ketika masih teruja-uja dengan semangat yang meluap-luap......

Apa pun, Tahun 2008 telah pun meninggalkan kita dan banyak juga peristiwa suka dan duka yang berlaku... Saya juga kehilangan "embah buyut" saya yang telah pulang kerahmatullulah pada 27 Ogos yang lepas .. Selepas itu pula berdepan dengan cabaran baru apabila isteri saya terpaksa bersalin pra-matang akibat "abrupt placenta" ... Alhamdullilah segalanya berjalan lancar dan setelah berada dalam NICU selama lebih kurang 80 hari dan SCN lebih kurang seminggu, bayi comel yang diberi nama Siti Aishah ini telah dibenarkan dibawa pulang... Mungkin hujung bulan nie saya bercadang nak buat akekah, apabila keadaan baby sudah semakin sihat...

Cabaran bayi pramatang atau preemie ini merupakan suatu pengalaman baru yang sangat berharga. Sebelum ini, ketiga-tiga anak saya dilahirkan normal dan saya telah berpeluang untuk menyambut ketiga-tiga anak saya tersebut, tetapi bagi kelahiran ini, isteri saya terpaksa menjalani "ceaserean" kerana komplikasi yang dihadapi... Mungkin saya akan menulis lebih panjang lagi mengenai bayi pramatang apabila saya mempunyai kelapangan nanti. Mungkin pengalaman-pengalaman yang saya lalui dapat dikongsi bersama oleh ibubapa-ibubapa bayi pra-matang ini... Apa pun, suatu pengajaran yang sangat-sangat penting didalam menghadapi cabaran ini ialah, seperti yang biasa saya dengar omputih sembang "never take for granted anything in life" .... maksudnya tak lah saya faham sangat tetapi lebih kurang, jangan ambik lewa atau pandang remeh perkara-perkara kehidupan nie... terutamanya apabila ibu mengandung... kena beri sepenuh perhatian dan jagaan rapi... dan kena bertindak dengan proaktif..

Video utube: Balada Buat Siti Aishah

Tetapi, 2008 juga menyaksikan beberapa perkembangan menarik, apabila harga minyak mentah melonjak ke paras USD147 dan kerajaan kita menjadi "proaktif" dengan menaikkan harga minyak petrol sehingga RM2.70 seliter... Manchester United (kelab bolasepak pilihan saya semenjak 1970an) juga berjaya menawan Englan, Eropah dan Dunia apabila menjuarai EPL, Champion League dan Fifa Club Worl Cup. Bila bercakap tentang Manchester United, saya rasa kunci kejayaan kelab ini banyak dipengaruhi oleh kualiti kepimpinan Sir Alex Ferguson. Didalam keadaan dunia bolasepak yang telah banyak berubah, Sir Alex masih mampu untuk menyesuaikan diri dengan keadaan dan selepas 20+ tahun dan 20+ piala-piala yang dimenanginya, keunggulan beliau memang sukar digugat. Selama 20 tahun di Manchester United, beliau sememangnya membuktikan bahawa beliau bukan sahaja mampu meraih kejayaan, tetapi beliau mampu mencipta kejayaan.

Semoga 2009 akan menjanjikan suasana yang lebih cemerlang dan lebih dinamik. Apakah saya ada azam baru ditahun baru ini? Hmm.. kalau tanya saya, setiap hari saya akan ada azam baru, iaitu memastikan hari ini menjadi lebih ceria, dinamik, produktif dan berjaya daripada hari semalam...