A house built on smart ideas with earning power

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A house built on smart ideas

By WINNIE YEOH winnie@thestar.com.my Photos by WAN MOHIZAN WAN HUSSEIN 

WITH cool breeze blowing into his house which is also basking in ample natural light, retiree Tan Vait Leong does not need to switch on the lights or air conditioner during the day.

Even at noon, the 56-year-old’s bungalow at Puncak Bukit Mutiara in Pearl Hill is still cool, thanks to the environmentally-friendly and open concept design of the house.

“The planning of the design of the house started five years ago, while construction of the property took three years to complete.

“I would draw up the designs and concepts for the house while I was at airports or in planes, as I travelled frequently for work.

“I enjoyed the process, as it was also an outlet for me to destress,” said the former vice-president of a multinational company.

Having spent a substantial amount of time travelling, the father-of-four said it was only right that he designed his house ala-resort style so he would not “need to go for holidays anymore”.

One of the special features of the house is the photovoltaic (PV) solar panel fixed on the roof, which Tan had obtained through the National Suria 1000 programme to generate power from solar energy.

With that, his household is automatically enlisted under the newly launched feed-in-tariff (FiT) programme where Tenaga Nasional Bhd will buy back power generated from the PV solar panel.

Currently, the PV electricity subsidised about 20% of the household’s total electricity intake while Tan pays about RM700 monthly for his power bill.

“With the FiT, I might not have to fork out a single sen for my electricity bill,” he said yesterday.

A tour around the handsome house with a built-up area of 8,000sq ft shows there are five spacious rooms, four bathrooms, an infinity pool with a view overlooking the sea which is also connected to the living room and master bedroom, an indoor fish pond, a kitchen, a family room, a study room, a living room, an outdoor deck as well as a cosy playroom for Tan’s 10-year-old twin daughters.

Aptly named after Tan’s wife, Foo Sin Gein, 54, he said his home Gein Villa was constructed to blend into existing green environment where the big trees around are spared from the axe.

“I don’t spend money on landscaping. The trees shed leaves seasonally but it is part of the feature of the house. I don’t understand the reasons behind cutting down trees if people want to build houses on the hillside.

“Well there are occasions where our ‘special guests’ — monkeys, squirrels and bats will pay a visit but we don’t harm them as they are not aggressive, just playful,” he said.

There are no excessive furniture in the house, with only the walnut and cherry flooring along with salvaged chengal wood which Tan used to lay the staircase and kitchen tabletop.

“I also use the hollow bricks that were left over from the construction as display shelves,” he said.

“We water the plants with water from the fish pond, and we keep plants at the pool and the filter tub to absorb the nitrate.”

Retiree who still has earning power

By WINNIE YEOH winnie@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: While most people have to pay for their electricity, a 56-year-old retiree is looking forward to selling it to Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

And Tan Vait Leong (pic) simply can’t wait to be paid by the utility giant for the power generated from his photovoltaic (PV) solar panels fixed on the roof of his Tanjung Bungah home.

Believed to be among the first consumers in Penang to obtain the PV under the National Suria 1000 programme to generate power from solar energy, his household is automatically enlisted under the newly launched feed-in-tariff (FiT) scheme.

“This is a blessing in disguise. I have always been conscious about the environment and had incorporated recycling and green ideas into my daily life.

“With this, I might not have to fork out a single sen for my electricity bill,” he said excitedly at his double-storey bungalow at Puncak Bukit Mutiara in Pearl Hill.

The former mechanical engineer said the PV electrivity subsidised about 20% of electricity usage for his sprawling premises with a built-up area of 8,000sq ft (743.22sq m).

Currently, the father-of-four forks out about RM700 monthly for his power bill.

Tan also maintains an open concept for his five-room bungalow where good air circulation keeps the environment cool while ample natural light through glass panels brighten up the interior.

“The swimming pool is part of the house while the indoor fish pond keeps the home cool and is low maintenance too.

“I don’t need to switch on the lights or air-conditioners at all during the day while I do keep several floor fans on,” he added.

Launched last week, the FiT allows individuals or non-individuals to sell electricity generated from renewable energy sources back to power utility firms at a fixed premium price for a specific duration.

The four renewal energy sources that are eligible for FiT are biogas, biomass, small hydropower and solar photovoltaic.

Currently, the rate Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) pays to renewable power producers is 21 sen per kWh. 
Concurrently, the average domestic rate that consumers pay to TNB is 27.6 sen per kWh.

With FiT, consumers can install their own solar modules at home and earn a secondary income.

Under the Renewable Energy Act 2011, consumers who installed capacity up to and including 4 kWp (kilowatt peak) would be paid a FiT of RM1.23 per kWh.

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Go East, Young Entrepreneur!

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Rebecca Fannin, Contributor

Mid-career U.S. and European professionals in their 30s and 40s are making it in China and can’t get enough of the place.

 

Qunar founder Fritz Demopoulos at Silicon Dragon Beijing 2011 >

Fritz Demopoulos, 43, a Southern Californian and MBA grad from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management hasn’t mastered Mandarin, but has scored two Chinese Internet successes over the past decade. In June 2011, Baidu invested $306 million in the travel search engine Qunar he formed in 2005 and he stepped down as CEO, turning management over to Chinese staff. Demopoulos, who was born in the U.S. to a Greek dad and Austrian mother, got his start in China as business development manager for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., working alongside Wendi Deng in the late 1990s in Hong Kong and mainland China, and running information technology portal Chinabyte.com. He next joined NASDAQ-listed Chinese portal and gaming company Netease and worked closely with the CEO on a two-year turnaround. In 2001, his first China startup, sports portal Shawei, was bought by Hong Kong-based Tom Group for $15 million.

With his credentials, Demopoulos could write his ticket. He’s exploring opportunities to start another business or become an active investor, and plans to continue working in either Hong Kong or Beijing. “I don’t think I will be based at the debtor to China, ie the U.S.,” he says.

Richard Robinson, 43, hails from Boston and still drops the “r’s” with his accent though he’s long ago broken through the language and cultural barrier on a whirlwind tech startup career in China. His journey has led from helping to jumpstart the original Rupert Murdoch-funded Renren to a VP at wireless and entertainment player Linktone to spearheading seven startups in wireless technologies – and even running his Beijinger wife’s venture, Kooky Panda, a mini-Zynga mobile social gaming business, on a miniscule $40,000 budget before Infinity Ventures funded it. “In China, you can live on a penny and a big dream,” notes Robinson, who points out that burn rates or monthly costs to ramp up a business in China are about one-tenth of those in Silicon Valley.



The latest gig for the hyperkinetic Robinson is heading up international for Beijing startup Youlu, a mobile phone address book that leverages social network connections. Youlu’s CEO is rock star Zany Zeng, the former chief technology officer at China’s Facebook-plus site, Oak Pacific Interactive . “I really feel we have lightning in a bottle with this one,” he says.

Spurred on by seeing his friends and colleagues venture over to China and succeed, Silicon Valley tech executive Elliott Ng found he could not resist the lure to go eastward. In early 2011, the overachiever ‒ Harvard MBA grad, ex- Microsoft product manager, McKinsey associate, co-founder or director of four tech startups, and angel investor – joined Google to lead product management for Greater China. He’d lived in the Bay Area for 14 years, his wife had a full-time job as a pediatrician, and their three young boys were pretty happy where they were.

But in July, he and his family relocated to Beijing. “Silicon Valley is still the best, most open startup/tech ecosystem in the world,” says Ng. “Beijing is the center of Chinese culture, government and information technology.” The one drawback? Polluted Beijing air.

Family reasons have kept social media goddess and Taiwanese native Christine Lu from making the break herself. The 35-year-old single mother has her support network in Los Angeles for her six-year-old son, and she’s managing to stay very involved as an entrepreneur at the intersection connecting China and the U.S.

Her latest adventure is Affinity China, a private network that provides members access to unique luxury, lifestyle and travel experiences – an area that matches her interests well as a shareholder in two swanky Shanghai cocktail bars, CVRVE and M1NT.  She’s had some grass-roots experience in China as well, designing and launching two clothing lines for her family’s apparel business in the Mainland, launching an e-commerce site for women during the dotcom days, and working in Shanghai for five years from 1999 to 2004 as head of marketing for TV Shopping Network.

Her conversational Mandarin is a plus and quarterly trips to Shanghai keep her plugged into what’s happening. “If it wasn’t for my parents forcing me to visit China for the first time in 1995 as a freshman in college, I would be late to the China game today playing catch up. That trip changed everything. The entire city was under construction. There was no skyline in Pudong. There was no expressway to the airport,” recalls Lu. “But there was an energy, a feeling that in ten years, things were going to be much different . . . and I wanted to be part of it.”

Since moving to China in 1997 to study Chinese at Shanghai’s East China Normal University and marrying a Chinese woman he’d met on campus, suave Parisian native Bruno Bensaid, 39, has not looked in the rear view mirror. After working in finance for Cisco Systems from Singapore, he moved back to Shanghai and managed a tech accelerator that launched several venture-backed mobile startups from France in China, then joined French venture firm Ventech to do China deals, and in 2008, started his financial advisory group ShanghaiVest in 2008.

He’s well rooted in the tech community as a founder of the Shanghai chapter of industry networking group MobileMonday and an angel investor with Shanghai’s tuned-in AngelVest. “I’m very involved in business development with the startups I invest in,” says Bensaid, who’s recently backed a luxury travel network, a mobile apps engine for kids and a social marketing company with an all-star team.

Robert Strawbridge, 42, grew up on Long Island’s North Shore and spent summers in Newport, Rhode Island and Maine, later moving to San Francisco in time to ride the dotcom boom as IPOs were soaring. In 2008, he left behind his Cape Cod style home overlooking the Bay and rented an apartment in Beijing to catch the next big trend. A Hambrecht & Quist alum from the mid-1990s who later co-founded a sportswear manufacturer and worked as a VP at a Zurich investment bank, Strawbridge launched Beijing-anchored Sea Cliff Capital International in 2008.

The boutique merchant banking firm specializes in cross-border transactions with a focus on assisting clean tech and energy-related companies expand into China and raise capital. Strawbridge, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for five years and was a combat diver, likens his China experience to “deployment” and says he’s in Beijing for the long haul.

As excerpted from Startup Asia (Wiley, Oct. 2011) by Rebecca A. Fannin

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PAS will close Genting casino if it takes over Pahang

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PAS stands by its plan should Pakatan take over Pahang in next election

By ROSLINA MOHAMAD and NIK NAIZI HUSIN newsdesk@thestar.com.my

FATE UNKNOWN: The casino in Resorts World may take its last bets if the Opposition wins at the polls — Pic: 1Malaysia Travel Blog

 KUANTAN: PAS is pushing ahead with its plans to shut down the casino in Genting Highlands if it takes over Pahang in the next general election.

Pahang PAS Youth chief Sharil Azman Abdul Halim said the only thing the party would allow the Genting Highlands resort to run was the theme park and other parts except the casino and gambling-related facilities.

“PAS has no intention of closing the whole place down as the highland resort is a major tourist attraction,” he said, reiterating the party’s stand on the matter.

Sharil Azman is the third person to state the party’s stand after two PAS assemblymen, Syed Hamid Syed Mohamad (Kuala Semantan) and Syed Mohammed Tuan Lonnik (Beserah), stated recently that the party could not tolerate gambling and would close the casino if the Opposition took over the state.



Sharil Azman said this in response to allegations in the state assembly that PAS intended to close down the resort if the Pakatan Rakyat coalition captures the state at the next polls.

Backbenchers Datuk Chuah Boon Seong (BN–Mentakab) and Datuk Pang Tsu Ming (BN–Semambu) had raised this matter on Wednesday.
Syed Mohammed had clarified to the two Barisan Nasional reps that only the gambling facilities would cease operations while other tourism-related activities would continue.

Shahril Azman said it was the PAS Youth wing that had come out with the proposal to shut the gambling business.

Meanwhile, when met on the sidelines of the assembly sitting, Syed Mohammed said he stood by the Islamic teaching that gambling is a sin.

“The party’s stand on gambling is also clear,” he said, adding that the country did not need to include in its coffers revenue from gambling.

He said it would be up to the Pakatan leaders to reach an amicable decision on Genting Highlands and its gambling activities should the Opposition alliance rule the state.

He said non-Muslims were free to drink and gamble and Islam did not prevent them from doing so, such as at their homes and other places of their own.

Chua: Casino closure plan shows hudud will affect non-Muslims

PUTRAJAYA: PAS is contradicting itself when it claims the implementation of hudud is not likely to affect non-Muslims.

MCA Young Professionals Bureau chairman Datuk Chua Tee Yong said its intention to close the Genting Highlands casino would surely affect some of the 15,000 people working there.

He said the tourism industry would be severely affected if Pakatan Rakyat went ahead with its decision as the resort received some 20 million visitors yearly.

“How can PAS claim the implementation of the law would not affect non-Muslims?

“What would happen to the people working there? Wouldn’t they become jobless?” he asked yesterday.
Chua said the country would also lose about RM1bil in tax revenue if the casino was closed.

He hoped the rakyat would scrutinise PAS’ claim on the matter as the party was fond of changing its stand to suit the situation.

“DAP should state its stand now and not say the matter would be discussed if Pakatan Rakyat took over the state,” he said.

PAS’ intention to close down the casino was disclosed by a government backbencher at the Pahang state assembly sitting on Wednesday.

Mentakab assemblyman Datuk Chuah Boon Seong asked whether PAS had considered the fate of the resort’s workers should it implement the move.

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China executes female gangland prostitution ringleader!

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Wang Ziqi was convicted of forcing hundreds into prostitution

The female head of a gangland prostitution ring in Chongqing in south-west China has been executed, Chinese media say.

Wang Ziqi was convicted in 2010 of luring hundreds of women to beauty salons or hotels and forcing them into prostitution.

She and her sister seized the women's identity cards or ruined their reputations, reports said.

Chongqing has been the scene of a drive against corruption and organised crime.

A court in the huge metropolis in south-west China sentenced Wang Ziqi to death in August 2010 after convicting her of organising and leading a criminal organisation.

She and her sister Wang Wanning would control the women by such methods as seizing their identity cards, confiscating their earnings and detaining them illegally, according to cqnews.net, a website that belongs to the official Chongqing Daily.



Wang Ziqi is one of many gang members to have been sentenced to death or executed in Chongqing since 2009.

Chongqing's Communist Party chief, Bo Xilai, has been waging a high-profile campaign in the city to smash corruption and criminal gangs.

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Gimme, seems to be the easiest word

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MUSINGS By MARINA MAHATHIR

In a land of opportunity for all, people should remember John F. Kennedy’s famous words: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

THIS is going to be one long sigh of exasperation, folks. I get like this when I think of my country sometimes and despair at the sheer shallowness of how we talk about her.

How, amid protestations of how much we love her, we insist on treating her with such disdain and thoughtlessness that in fact we are ruining her every day.

Once upon a time we used to talk about our country and what we could do for it. We used to think that what John F. Kennedy said – “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” – was so admirable.

We wanted to make our country so good that we could hold our heads up high anywhere in the world. Instead, all we hear these days is what can I get from this country, how can I get rich off this country.

While this should be a country of opportunity for all, why is there this attitude that this country owes us a living? Indeed, some of us think that we are entitled to be cosseted and pampered to the nth degree for as long as we live.

When I was little, my aunt gave us children a book that taught us about how to be good people. Basically, it meant expelling from our vocabulary two phrases: “Give Me”, and “I Couldn’t Care Less”.

People who used these phrases often were selfish people who were not considerate of others; indeed, thought the whole world was only about them. We learnt that it was better to give to others than to take, and to always care about other people.

So my jaw has to drop to the floor when I read the papers these days, and almost all that anyone says is “Give Me” and “I Couldn’t Care Less”.



“Give me,” they say, even though they have done nothing to earn it and even though it will bring ruin to the country. When asked to consider the feelings of others, basically they show a finger and say that they could not care two hoots.

Obviously nobody gave them the same book.

It’s hard enough to teach values to our children these days without adults showing every day in our papers and on TV that they have none at all.

How do I teach my children that nothing comes without hard work and discipline, and that consideration for others is not just a value but a duty as a human being?

As a little girl, I was taught one of the biggest sins was telling lies. Nothing made God angrier, it was drilled into me, than telling untruths, especially about other people. To this day, I cannot fib much, not even about my age or weight.

But nowadays people tell such blatant lies. You can always tell when a person is lying; they always feel the need to shout it out, as if sheer volume makes it truthful.

I’ve never known people with clear consciences to ever be anything but calm. So you watch this lying and you have to wonder how come their parents didn’t scare them to death about God as mine did?

Of course you only tell lies because you think that people will actually believe them. Which means that you think that such people are fools.

And indeed they often live up to the label. The astounding thing is, why are there so many of them? Are there absolutely no smart people around?

People who see through all this, and say something about it, are somehow made to feel as if they are unpatriotic.

Just because we don’t buy into the improbable stories, we are not playing by the rules. Of course, nobody wonders if the rules are good in the first place.

Actually, rules have been broken a great deal in these past few years. The rules of simple civility, for one, are long gone. I used to think of my people as the gentlest, most polite people on earth.

Until I saw a video of a meeting with much shouting and screaming, and someone pulling a chair from under an old man. We don’t censure behaviour like this, but we tut-tut at people kissing. Go figure.

I struggle to teach my children to be kind to others, to mind their manners, to never emulate those who are doing things that are wrong.

I tell them that whether it’s five ringgit or five million ringgit, if they take what’s not theirs, it’s called stealing. And if they make up stories that can cause harm to others, they must own up and apologise.

But when adults are the ones doing these things, what do I tell them?

Prepare for combat, China’s Hu urges navy!

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Chinese President Hu Jintao Tuesday urged the navy to prepare for military combat amid growing regional tensions over maritime disputes and a US campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power.

The navy should “accelerate its transformation and modernisation in a sturdy way, and make extended preparations for military combat in order to make greater contributions to safeguard national security,” he said.

Addressing the powerful Central Military Commission, Hu said: “Our work must closely encircle the main theme of national defence and military building.”

His remarks, which were posted on a statement on a government website, come amid growing US and regional concerns over China’s naval ambitions, particularly in the South China Sea.



Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday urged the navy to prepare for military combat, amid growing regional tensions over maritime disputes and a US campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power.

The navy should "accelerate its transformation and modernisation in a sturdy way, and make extended preparations for military combat in order to make greater contributions to safeguard national security," he said.

Addressing the powerful Central Military Commission, Hu said: "Our work must closely encircle the main theme of national defence and military building."

His comments, which were posted in a statement on a government website, come as the United States and Beijing's neighbours have expressed concerns over its naval ambitions, particularly in the South China Sea.

Several Asian nations have competing claims over parts of the South China Sea, believed to encompass huge oil and gas reserves, while China claims it all. One-third of global seaborne trade passes through the region.



Vietnam and the Philippines have accused Chinese forces of increasing aggression there.

In a translation of Hu's comments, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the president as saying China's navy should "make extended preparations for warfare.

The Pentagon however downplayed Hu's speech, saying that Beijing had the right to develop its military, although it should do so transparently.

"They have a right to develop military capabilities and to plan, just as we do," said Pentagon spokesman George Little, but he added, "We have repeatedly called for transparency from the Chinese and that's part of the relationship we're continuing to build with the Chinese military."

"Nobody's looking for a scrap here," insisted another spokesman, Admiral John Kirby. "Certainly we wouldn't begrudge any other nation the opportunity, the right to develop naval forces to be ready.

"Our naval forces are ready and they'll stay ready."

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: "We want to see stronger military-to-military ties with China and we want to see greater transparency. That helps answer questions we might have about Chinese intentions."

Hu's announcement comes in the wake of trips to Asia by several senior US officials, including President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

US undersecretary of defence Michelle Flournoy is due to meet in Beijing with her Chinese counterparts on Wednesday for military-to-military talks.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last month warned against interference by "external forces" in regional territorial disputes including those in the South China Sea.

And China said late last month it would conduct naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, after Obama, who has dubbed himself America's first Pacific president, said the US would deploy up to 2,500 Marines to Australia.

China's People's Liberation Army, the largest military in the world, is primarily a land force, but its navy is playing an increasingly important role as Beijing grows more assertive about its territorial claims.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon warned that Beijing was increasingly focused on its naval power and had invested in high-tech weaponry that would extend its reach in the Pacific and beyond.

China's first aircraft carrier began its second sea trial last week after undergoing refurbishments and testing, the government said.

The 300-metre (990-foot) ship, a refitted former Soviet carrier, underwent five days of trials in August that sparked international concern about China's widening naval reach.

Beijing only confirmed this year that it was revamping the old Soviet ship and has repeatedly insisted that the carrier poses no threat to its neighbours and will be used mainly for training and research purposes.

But the August sea trials were met with concern from regional powers including Japan and the United States, which called on Beijing to explain why it needs an aircraft carrier.

China, which publicly announced around 50 separate naval exercises in the seas off its coast over the past two years -- usually after the event -- says its military is only focused on defending the country's territory.

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Why Boston Power Went to China?

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Christina Lampe-Onnerud Boston Power

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Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder of the battery startup, discusses the advantages of moving the company's manufacturing and research to China.

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While it's normal for established technology companies to turn to low-cost Asian manufacturing, lately even very young companies have been heading east.

A prominent example is Boston Power, a startup based in Westborough, Massachusetts, that's developing longer-lasting, higher-capacity lithium-ion batteries.

The company has won widespread recognition for its technology, and lists HP and Mercedes-Benz among its early customers. But in 2009, it failed to get a $100 million grant it had applied for as part of the U.S. Recovery Act, and in late 2011, the Chinese government stepped in with a package of $125 million in venture capital, low interest loans, and grants.

Now Boston Power is building a factory in China that can make enough batteries for 20,000 electric cars. It's also building a new R&D and engineering facility there.



Boston Power's founder, Christina Lampe-Onnerud, says money was only a part of China's draw. Recently she talked to Technology Review senior editor Kevin Bullis about the other attractions China has to offer, the impact the move could have on U.S. innovation, and what it takes for a newcomer to take on big battery manufacturers.

TR: What makes China attractive to young technology companies?

Lampe-Onnerud: It's not like China is all good and the U.S. is all bad. It's not that simple. We love being based in the United States for the innovation culture. Boston is a phenomenal community where there's a lot of support and infrastructure for innovators and entrepreneurs. What China has given us is scale and recognition, very, very high up in the bureaucracy.

The premier of China invited me to meet with him. In the United States, well, I understand that I cannot speak to President Obama, but could I speak to someone in the administration? It would be good for me to know at least what my country wants to do. I could not get through. We would love to do manufacturing in the U.S., but if China is more eager and more hungry, that's where we will go.

Although you're based in the U.S., you've long had connections to Asia. What was the attraction in the beginning?

When we set up the company, we went immediately to China to do prototypes. In the U.S., the idea was, you could run pilot trials, but pay $1 million up front. And I'm like, "I'm not going to pay you a million dollars. I don't even know if it works."

In China, I was able to make our prototypes in production facilities. I paid for the materials and we were able to do small runs. I was there donating time to the team at the factory, sharing my insights from 15 years in the battery industry, so it was more like a trade. We had working prototypes two months into the journey, and I paid for it out of my Bank of America savings account—$5,000 or $6,000 per run.

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