Visiting the Penang Port

My wife and I visited the Penang Port Commission yesterday. Basically at the invitation of a close pal and former colleague whom I've known for almost 30 years now. 

In the mid-1990s, we were part of the early Internet users in Penang. Together with several others, we met rather regularly at the YMCA and Universiti Sains Malaysia to share ideas and promote online activities such as Telnet, FTP, Gopher, Newsgroups and Bulletin Boards, Internet Chats and of course, the World Wide Web.

Then he went for his further studies in Alabama, United States. He came back after graduation, joined a company (can't remember the name) somewhere in Burmah Road, later Solectron and a few others before finally joining me as a colleague in JobStreet.com. In the 2000s, JobStreet.com became the company that some of us early Internet users gravitated to.

After his stint at JobStreet.com, he joined the nascent Penang government which had just won the General Elections in 2008 and soon gained the trust of the Chief Minister. From there, he was transferred to the Penang Development Corporation. Today, he heads and is doing great work in the Penang Port Commission.

Meet Jeffrey Chew, the Commission's chairman. He was appointed to the post earlier this year. When we caught up with him yesterday, we discussed many things and he shared with us his vision for the port in Penang. Of course, with tourism taking a more forefront role in the state, there are plans to upgrade the facilities and the expansion of business there but I'm not in a position to disclose them here. I wouldn't want to spoil his fun, would I? So I will just say to be patient and wait for the announcements to come from him at the appropriate time.

But there were two things we talked about that shouldn't be out of place here. The first was the efforts to help our respective old schools. I was from Penang Free School and he was from St Xavier's Institution. Rival schools in Penang. We agreed that despite the general drop in the quality of education, our alma maters are still worth helping. As individuals, we can - and should - do something to help our respective alma maters in whatever ways we can contribute. Don't just criticise; do something to help your old schools. In Jeffrey's case, he and his school mates had raised money to hand out as annual bursaries to the needy but potential students at St Xavier's Institution for their further studies in public universities. A very noble cause.

The other matter we discussed was the problem of dementia which affects a considerable percentage of the population. We shared experiences about dementia which has affected some of our close family members. We agreed that the most affected are the caregivers: primarily the spouses of the affected dementia patients who just couldn't accept that their partners had changed and probably wouldn't be getting any better. It's all so very sad.