Fly My Ideas

It’s unusual for me to start writing towards the end of the month. Four weeks into the semester, I’ve done basically what a college student does: classes, work, sports, and not to forget some own entertainment. But there’s still plenty of things to talk about this month. The Asian Games is happening now. This time we will be at Incheon, South Korea witnessing the second largest multi-sports event happening. Here’s the link to the promotional video of the games. Let’s talk about Malaysia Airlines recovery plan . It’s going to be the fifth time Malaysia Airlines has embarked on a recovery/transformation/re-energized (or whatever you want to call it) in a decade. It’s obvious that after so much transformation, the biggest problem is yet to be solved. Are they overpaying for their contracts? Are they gaining high productivity from their employees? Are they flying with full loads? Are they operating with the correct strategy? To be honest, I’m quite pessimistic about this once again transf

We are just exactly a week away from the last major of the year, the US Open happening in New York. It’s time to make some predictions for this year’s tournament.  * A wildcard pick which is for a player that might surprise us at this year’s tournament whom is still in search for the first major of their career. Men’s Singles Champion: Novak Djokovic (Serbia) I gave a long thought on who’s the favorite to win the men’s title. I know he’s not the player in form following early round exits at Toronto and Cincinnati. But when it comes to grand slam tournaments, he’s the most consistent player over the past few years and his record at the US Open is certainly impressive. He had made at least a semi-final appearance at Flushing Meadows since 2007. Wildcard: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) The victory at Toronto will definitely be a confidence boost for the Frenchman. Just his only second ATP 1000 series title victory since 2008, this could be the turning point of his career. His perf

With the Commonwealth Games coming to an end, it’s time to start looking forward at some of the major sporting events around the world happening in August. For Malaysia, our quest for another World Champion in badminton will begin on 25 August at Copenhagen, Denmark. Our main hope or rather the sole hope of winning a world title will rest on the shoulders of World No.1 - Lee Chong Wei in the men’s singles event. It’s unclear how serious his injury is that forced him to withdraw the Commonwealth Games, but one thing’s for sure - He will go out all guns blazing on another (possibly final) assault on the World Title that eluded him from his resume. The path definitely looks better with his nemesis - Lin Dan not being able to defend his title because he didn’t obtained sufficient ranking points to qualify for the tournament. Another Chinese player - Chen Long, which held an impressive head to head ranking with Chong Wei is struggling with form. So, the stage is definitely set for Lee

It's the end of the World Cup season, the time to look back at this year’s tournament. So, here is my 2014 World Cup Team of the Tournament. I elect to go for a 3-5-2 formation, which is formation that got the results for teams like Netherlands, Mexico, and Costa Rica who did well at this year’s tournament. GK: Manuel Neuer (Germany) He’s definitely one of the best goalkeepers right now. A well-deserved Golden Glove award to add to his resume. Neuer has the skills and intelligence that most goalkeepers in the world doesn’t possesed. The awareness to know when to come out from his line to make those saves. The sharpness to make incredible saves and the good ball distribution technique that help facilitate the German team. CB: Mats Hummels (Germany) He’s definitely one of the world’s best defenders right now and the performance he put on in this World Cup certainly justified that. He is a guy that is able to able to contribute defensively and offensively for the team, scori

Losing two straight matches, conceding 10 goals in the final two matches isn’t the way you want to end your World Cup especially when you are playing at home. Tears of sorrow, the voices of disappointment surrounded every Brazil fans all around the world. It was a massive let down for the Brazilians considering they had high hopes for this team to win the World Cup for the sixth time. Now, it’s all done and dusted. Considering how eventful it was leading up to this World Cup, this certainly wasn’t a football festival the Brazilians have wished for. After all those horrific moments on the pitch, now it’s the time to sit down and analyze what could have been undo to get better results. At the end of the day, we need to face the truth - This Brazil team is not good enough. It’s unfair to say this is the worst Brazilian team by judging on their 1-7 defeat to Germany. But this team is definitely not the best they had over the years. Let’s start with their manager. Luiz Felipe Sc

Just in case you were wondering, I’m talking about the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, not the decision whether to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the winter. A few days ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the candidate cities for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The three cities vying to host the games are Oslo (Norway), Almaty (Kazakhstan), and Beijing (China). The decision on who will host the games in 2022 will be announced by the IOC on 31 July 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Based on the IOC’s decision to award the 2020 Summer Games to Tokyo, Oslo will definitely have the edge. IOC decides to award the bid to Tokyo as it’s viewed as a safer decision in terms of facilities, safety, finance, and experience. Tokyo previously hosted the Summer Games, a similarity that is shared with Oslo, which hosted the 1952 Winter Games. (Another Norway city, Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Games) Apart from that, Norway has the massive experie

Obviously, it’s the World Cup fever all around us. But I’ve decide to skip talking about World Cup in this article because I’m pretty sure you are tired of reading anything regarding the World Cup after the enormous amount of facebook statuses, comments and articles regarding the World Cup. It’s better that we shall move on to other stuffs. Motorsports Let’s start with motorsports. There’s only one word to describe it for now - dominance. In Formula 1, the Mercedes team is in total control, winning 8 out of the 9 races of this year’s Formula 1 season. Their drivers - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have totally dominated the rest of the field. While last year’s dominant team - Red Bull, which won 13 out of the 19 races is struggling to cope with the pace of these Mercedes cars. I’m not really a motorsports fan, but I do follow motorsports closely. It’s the lack of competition in these events that drives people like me away from watching the sport. If you think there are not enough com

Exactly 362 days after that devastating lost in the crucial Game 6 to Miami Heat, the San Antonio Spurs came back and finally nailed the title. The perfect way to win the title when you outscored the two-time defending champions 70 points in the five games played in this series. A Spurs team that showcases extraordinary courage and strong determination to mentally recover from that heart-breaking loss. The same team that was minutes away from the title did the exact thing all over again – training camp, gym sessions, 82 regular season games, highly competitive playoff games, NBA finals, and finally reached where they should belong a year ago. Just in case you are wondering, I’m not a Spurs fan. But as somebody who loves watching basketball, this group of players and coaches bring the game back to its basics. In an era where basketball teams built their roster around their star players, the Spurs did the opposite – withholding their philosophy of team basketball, focusing on the

Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America is going to host the FIFA World Cup in a few days time. Despite hosting such a massive event, lots of Brazilians took to the street, protesting against the hosting of the event. All these protests actually started a year ago when Brazil hosted the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, a warm-up event for the host country of the World Cup. These protests were primary against the high corruption in the government, high cost of living, and the increase in bus, metro, and train fare in major cities across the country. Brazil, one of the G-20 major economies which is known for the huge income disparities between the rich and poor recorded the second highest Gini Coefficient among all the major G-20 economies at 54.69. [1] (Highest being South Africa at 63.14). Gini Coefficient is a measurement of national income equality and distribution in the country. The Brazilian government obviously is facing a tough time hosting both the World Cup and the 201

I guess I don’t need to remind everybody what’s the world’s biggest event that is happening in June. It’s none other than the FIFA World Cup Final happening in Brazil. As usual, I won’t throw my support for any national team. Malaysia, as usual are NOWHERE close to make the World Cup. I just wished that this would be a good tournament after my disappointment in South Africa 4 years ago. But if there’s a team I wished to see them win, it’s probably Germany. There have been playing very consistently over the past 10 years in international tournaments, from the qualifying round to the finals, whether it’s the World Cup or the Euros. This time around they are possibly having one of the best squad of all 32 teams. So, perhaps this is the best time for them to lift the World Cup trophy. I do expect some teams to play well in this tournament. Brazil should perform well in their home soil. Spain, well-known with their passing game are in it to defend their title. Another hot favorite-Ar

Yes, we were that close to ending our 22 years wait for our sixth Thomas Cup title. Everybody in the country throwing their support behind the national team hoping this day would be the day we finally end the drought. Before the start of the tournament, nobody in the country would ever think we will be able to make it to the final because on paper we have the “weakest squad in our history”. Just when we all salute the effort, sacrifice, and determination our national shuttlers had shown on the badminton courts, we still need to face the reality - we are still not good enough. The Japanese are a stronger team than us and the results on the final day itself proven that. One of the key to the Malaysian team’s success in the tournament is the two scratched pair combinations. These scratched pair are formed mainly due to the poor forms the existing pairing have in this year’s competition coming into this year’s Thomas Cup. There’s always a huge risk when you formed scratched pairings.

At last, KLIA2 is finally opened to air traffic after lengthy delays. Since the start of the project, there were a lot of controversies surrounding the building the terminal. The terminal was originally planned to be in operation in 2012. With failed inspections and delay construction works, the opening of the terminal was forced to delay. The cost of building the terminal was announced to be at RM800 million which was doubled the cost that was first announced at RM400 million. Recently, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) questioned the RM100 million cost of of building the 1km rail extension from KLIA to KLIA2. KLIA2, situated beside the current main terminal is designed to handle 45 million passengers per year. The terminal has 60 departures gates all dedicated to low-cost carriers. Every passengers flying with airlines using the terminal will be able to board the plane using the airbridge. The existing LCCT Terminal was first opened in 2005 and handles more tha

May, the start of the wonderful and warm summer season for countries in the northern hemisphere. But right at the start of the month, it’s always the period where you are dealing with your final exam including me. So, I will try to wrap up things as fast as possible. But still there are many thoughts inside my brain forcing their way out of my mind. It all starts right now…….. The start of the summer movie season! I’m not sure why, but there are really not many movies I’m looking forward too. Not to say there are no good movies out there. Spiderman, Transformers, and X-Men will all hit the screen this summer. If there’s one movie I’m looking forward of all these famous franchise movies, I must say it’s the new Transformers movie - Transformers: Age of Extinction. We will see a new cast, a brand new storyline which pretty much not really related to the first three films, and not to forget the introduction of Dinobots to the current Autobots and Decepticons. The UEFA Champion

For every college student like me, April is like the final few laps of a long distance marathon. Everybody picking up their pace, trying to make that final dash to the finish line in the best possible fashion. Tons of works, assignments are waiting to be finished. A lot of people just like me, scrambling to last minute works and submit our work minutes before it is due. The arrival of April also means that winter is really over. (There’s always a possibility of snowing in May here!) The brutal winter of infinity low temperatures we suffered is no more in sight. It’s always the time to sit on the lawns under the hot sun pondering, wondering what will happen next. Lots of things have happened over the past few weeks. The mystery of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is nonetheless the most publicized news over news agencies around the world. I hope April will be the time where more answers will be given the questions asked. Until the plane is found, any possibilities on wha

With the ending of the recent All-England badminton championships, all eyes turned on to some of the other major badminton events including Thomas/Uber Cup, World Championships, and Asian Games for 2014. One of the questions that is hotly debated in the badminton world: Does Lin Dan deserved a second wild card to participate in the World Championship come this August in Copenhagen, Denmark? Some of you might wonder, why did Lin Dan need a wild card to participate consider that he has won two Olympic Gold Medals and five World Championship titles? The answer is simple. He doesn’t have the enough ranking points to earn him a better world ranking to qualify for the tournament. In order for you to make it to the World Championship, you need to have a good world ranking status and ranked ahead of your teammates as each country are allowed to send a maximum of three representatives. Of course, in the case of Lin Dan, he’s currently ranked 106th in the latest world ranking according