mthago knowledge gallery

Houses are indeed a need to everyone and not a luxury. Men need houses or shelters in order to protect themselves from the rain and the sun. All newly married couples wishes to have a new house of their own. The demand of houses is always high because everyone wants to have houses of their own. As our population grows, accordingly the demand of houses also grows. The demand of houses increases as our population increases. As our population grows, the area of land to built houses decreases and the price of land increases. As the price of lands increases, accordingly the price of houses also increases. In some cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, the prices of the houses are very expensive. In those cities, people are forced to live in high rise apartments or flats, instead of houses. High rise flats or apartments are built in those cities in order to compensate for the increase in population and the decreases in land areas. In those cities, prices of the houses are very expensive and only the super rich can afford to live in houses. In Malaysia, particularly in Kuala Lumpur, the prices of houses are soaring high. An average income earner will not be able to buy a house in Kuala Lumpur. (more…)

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My first visit to Bengkulu was in 1998 and I was there for nearly one month. My last visit to Bengkulu was just recently that was during the Labour Day holiday. Bengkulu is a province in Indonesia that located in the west-south of Sumatra. The province is surrounded by hilly mountains and the access to the province is mainly through roads along the coastal areas and crossing the hilly mountainous areas. The roads along the mountainous areas are narrow and winding but all the drivers that drive along the narrow winding roads seems to be so proficient and careful. Bengkulu is the place of my ancestors. Both of my grandmothers on my father and mother sides came from Bengkulu. My grandmothers left Bengkulu in the early twentieth century with the hope of finding a new greener pastures in Malaysia. In those days, Malaysia was known as Klang, because Klang was the first seaport in Peninsular Malaya. In those days my grandmothers and all others who want to migrate to Malaysia would say that they wanted to live in Klang. My father used to tell me that the reasons why my grandfathers want to come to live in Klang were that the life in Bengkulu was very hard and difficult. Bengkulu was once under the control of British and with the signing of the treaty of Bangkok between the British and the Dutch, Bengkulu was given to the Dutch in exchanged with Malacca. My grandmother used to tell my father that life under the control of British was much better than under the Dutch. Under the control of the Dutch, my grandparents had to pay taxes for their head and they were forced to do hard labour in the plantations with very meagre pay. My grandparents decided to leave Bengkulu and migrate to Klang because they want to live under the control of the British and not under the control of the Dutch. Sir Stamford Raffles was in Bengkulu and when he wanted to open up Singapore, he took peoples from Bengkulu to help him. Some of these Bengkulu peoples crossed over to the Peninsula Malaya and some settled in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan while others moved upwards and settled in Sungai Choh, Rawang, Selangor. The migration of Bengkulu peoples over to Peninsula Malaya probably took place during the late of nineteen century. (more…)

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