I am Really Hardcore About This Issue!

How come your are rich & I am poor?
(click image for a clearer view)

I get really annoyed when reading the Malaysia newspapers and listening to the Malaysian TV and radio, and quite often seeing and hearing references to "the hardcore poor". This inept use of the word 'hardcore' is very common in Malaysia.

This incorrect usage was probably started by some self centred, greedy, brainless twerp of a politician (that maybe includes all of them) some time ago; and seems to have become the expression of choice when describing the chronically, or perhaps one could say the endemically poor in Malaysia, who have been neglected by the system and are as a result as poor as a church mouse.

Hardcore, as can be seen by the various definitions listed below, is a most unsuitable word to use when describing the poorest of the poor.

Are they stubbornly poor,  
aggressively poor,  
electing to be poor,  
resisting becoming better off,  
explicitly poor,
loyally poor,  
steadfastly poor, or whatever?

No, they are just bloody well poor, they have insufficient food, inadequate shelter, slum like housing and are unable to properly educate and care for their children and extended family.

The government should, instead of labelling them with an inappropriate, and if I may say so, a most offensive designation, take positive and effective urgent action to completely eradicate poverty in oil rich Malaysia.

Minister's aide says: "The gap between the rich and the poor is not very much"
(click image for a clearer view)

Ministers, get your fat backsides out of your overstuffed armchairs located in palatial offices and residences and do more than just talk incessantly.
Urgent and effective action is needed now!

Never again use the disgusting term “HARDCORE POOR”

Realistic Immediate Needs:-

-  Set a realistic minimum wage.
How about RM 12.50 per hour?

-  Set the chronic poverty level as being any income
of less than RM 2,000 per month per household.

-  Be proactive instead of reactive and ensure
that all those in need of help,the poor, the
elderly, the disabled, the sick and the orphaned
are taken care of in an holistic and all encompassing way.

Various definitions of the word 'hardcore'

hardcore

 Adjective 

1. : stubbornly resistant to change or improvement;

"hardcore addicts"

2. :intensely loyal

"his hardcore supporters"

3.: extremely explicit

"hardcore pornography"

 

Adjective

hardcore

- intensely loyal;

"his hard-core supporters"

hardcore

loyal - steadfast in allegiance or duty;

"loyal subjects"; "loyal friends stood by him

hardcore

explicit, expressed - precisely and clearly expressed or readily observable; leaving nothing to implication;

"explicit instructions"; "she made her wishes explicit"; "explicit sexual scenes"

hardcore

Noun:

1. The most dedicated unfailingly loyal faction of a group or organisation:
the hard core of the separatist movement.

2. An intractable core or nucleus of a society, especially one that is
stubbornly resistant to improvement or change.

3. often hardcore (härdkôr, -kr) A form of exceptionally harsh punk rock.

hardcore

Noun

1. a style of rock music characterized by short fast numbers with minimal melody and aggressive delivery

2. a type of dance music with a very fast beat

Slang use:

hardcore

Adjective

1. ‘a lot of’.

“She's making hardcore money at her new job.”

2. ‘extreme’.

“He's a hardcore skate-boarder.”

Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus


- Mountains will be in labour, and an absurd mouse will be born.


(all that work and nothing to show for it)

Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics!

The gap between the rich and the poor? "Not very much!"

EPU Household Income Report: see BERNAMA report HERE

The report from the Star Business Section entitled "Correct structural issues involving household incomes" HERE is an eye opener, and gives a good analysis the statistics churned out by the Malaysian Statistics Department which are often used as propaganda food by the BN Federal Government, and by subservient agencies of the civil service (e.g. Economic Planning Unit) to produce dubious reports, these reports invariably are unrealistic when compared to the ‘real world’ situation.

Since the beginning of 2008, prices of many foodstuffs have increased tremendously in Malaysia, just ask any housewife who is trying to feed her family, the ends often do not meet now!

In some cases prices have gone up by up by 50%, for example check yourselves the increase retail prices of the following products compared to what they were in the last quarter of 2007.

Butter (and all milk products), liquid and powdered milk, bread and cakes, flour, cereals, rice and other grains, fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat, the list goes on and on.

On the other hand, household incomes have been stagnant, (the influx of foreigners who are very low paid, they could even be called 'slave labour' has depressed wages and reduced job opportunities for Malaysians) of course the statistics say the average household income is RM 3,686 but there must be a huge percentage of families with a household income of less than RM 1,000 per month , this means that a very small percentage of the population gets most of the money. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer!

Conclusion:

Stagnant wages + Less employment + Retail price increases

= Greater poverty for more people

What Benjamin Disraeli said holds true,

THERE ARE LIES, DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS!

Fallaces sunt rerum species

- The appearances of things are deceptive.