Ramli Ibrahim - A Legend

Malaysia’s legendary choreographer of Indian classical dance Ramli Ibrahim says “Bollywood is not my scene,” ruling out any involvement with India’s commercial cinema.

“I like working in dance theatre. Movies are a different world with a different agenda,” Ramli told Bernama.

Ramli presented his Sutra Foundation’s latest Odissi show “Amorous Delight – A Case of Possession by Love” in New Delhi on Thursday evening.

Asked if he would ever consider getting involved with the Indian film industry as a choreographer or in some other role, Ramli said: “I can’t do it. Bollywood is not my scene.”

He said he enjoyed doing classical dance-based shows in India as his performances attracted an appreciative audience.  Last year, his Odissi dance show “Ganjam”, which derives inspiration from the cultural heritage of the Ganjam district in the eastern state of Odisha, was staged in New Delhi and three cities in Odisha.

Ramli said he was looking forward to Ganjam’s new performances in India.

“Amorous Delight” is a contemporary Odissi production inspired by the ninth-century Sanskrit poem collection “Amarushataka”.

Ramli said as an Indian classical dance style, Odissi is now “firmly planted” in Malaysia together with Bharatnatyam.

“Where Indian culture in multiracial contemporary Malaysia is concerned, Bharatnatyam and Odissi have found easy acceptance alongside Bollywood, yoga, sari, dosa and ayurvedic massages,” he told the audience before the show.

Autistic Arts

Hazrita Mohd Hatta didn’t know what to expect as she approached a booth set up by the National Autism Society of Malaysia (Nasom) at KLCC two years ago. But she’s glad that she did. “They were displaying paintings by autistic children and I was really impressed with what I saw,” said Hazrita, who comes from a family of artists.

Hazrita was then only just getting back to work after surviving a stroke which left her temporarily unable to walk, talk or use her right arm. Because of the stroke, she had to give up her fast-paced job in events management. So she started her own business of organising art exhibitions featuring works of amateur artists, which allowed her to work at her own pace.

“I started Art Market Malaysia in 2015, a year after my stroke,” she said. “Not long after my first event, I was at KLCC and that was when I saw the Nasom booth.”

Hazrita said she loved the paintings but was sad to learn that the artists didn’t have a proper platform to display and sell their works. “That’s when I knew I had to do something. With my business, I knew I could help provide that platform.” 

Since then, Hazrita has been working with Nasom to collect, exhibit and sell works produced by autistic artists. Art Market Malaysia does the same for other disabled artists. Art Market Malaysia, which moves from one place to another nearly every month, doesn’t take a single sen from the sale of works by autistic and disabled artists.

“In the case of autistic artists, 90% goes back to them and 10% goes to Nasom to help fund its many programmes,” she said.

At any one time and wherever Art Market goes, the works of at least 15 autistic and disabled artists will be on display alongside those of amateur artists. The works of the autistic and disabled include oil paintings, sculptures, doodles and handicrafts. The artists come from all walks of life and they include children. The paintings are sold at RM150 or more. “They’re are worth every single sen,” said Hazrita.

“The autistic artists, especially the kids, are amazing. They have so much talent and they paint from the heart. They paint or draw what they want. They can’t replicate what they’ve drawn or painted before, and you can’t force them to paint something they don’t want. That’s why each artwork is truly unique.”

Throughout April, Art Market Malaysia will be having an exhibition at 1Utama’s Ledge Gallery on the 3rd floor of the mall’s new wing.

Skirt Too Short & Indecent

The fashion police are at it again, this time in Parliament. Women's Aid Organisation (WAO) assistant treasurer Meera Samanther was the latest target when she was told that her outfit was deemed "indecent" by security personnel at the Parliament entrance on Thursday.

"I was shocked when a security personnel approached me and said my skirt was too short," she told The Star on Friday.

A lawyer by profession, Meera said she was wearing her usual court attire, which included a knee-length skirt.

"I lost my cool, so I raised my voice and I told him to stop harassing me," she said, adding that the security personnel were surprised by her reaction and let her walk off.

Meera was in Parliament with a few others from women non-governmental organisations to meet Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran and M. Indira Gandhi over the deferment of the debate on the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) (Amendment) Bill to the next Parliament session.

Meera said the security personnel should focus on actual security threats instead of being moral police. She added one of her colleagues was also stopped at the guardhouse as she was driving in to get a security pass.

"The security personnel even peeked into the car to see what she was wearing and told her to get down so they could see the length of the skirt.

"This is unacceptable," she said.

Life Insurance Made Easy

Insurance can be tricky whether you're a first-time buyer or you've had a policy for years. Many people don't even know most of the benefits of their policy or understand the terms and conditions when they sign their name and pay the premium. Here's a few things about insurance policies that everyone needs to know - and in simple terms!

With everything in life - at least the things that are complicated - the first thing you need to do is familiarise yourself with some of the insurance jargon and what it means.

Life Insured - Sometimes referred to as the Life Assured, it is the person who is covered by the insurance policy. So that means the life insured receives the benefits, right? Wrong!

The life insured is the person who is insured for say Rs.1 crore. If the life insured dies, then the nominee will receive the benefit.

Policyholder - A policyholder is usually synonymous with life insured except in a few cases. For example, when parents take out life insurance policies for their child, in those cases the policyholder will be the father or mother (whoever pays the premium) and the child will be the life insured.

Beneficiary - The beneficiary is the nominated person (someone the life insured likes!). This person is entitled to receive the benefits from the policy once the life insured is no more. Usually, people nominate their spouse, child, parents... Basically, the life insured picks somebody who they want to receive money from the policy.

Premium - This is simply the payment the policyholder or life insured needs to make in order to purchase the plan. The premium may be payable as a single one-time payment, annual, bi-annual, quarterly or monthly payments.

Policy term - Sometimes referred to as tenure, this is the duration of the policy. Life insurance policies can cover you for 1 year or 2 years or 5 or 10, you get the gist. You can also take life insurance policies for up to the age of 100.

Premium payment term - This duration may be the same or lesser than the policy term depending on the insurance plan. Premium payment term is the number of years you need to pay premiums towards the policy. Sometimes, you will only need to pay for 10 years and the life insurance will cover you for 20 years.

Sum assured - The amount of money the beneficiary will receive upon the death of the life insured. This is also known as the claim amount.

Survival benefit - If you survive till the end of the policy term, you might receive a survival or maturity benefit. This means if you don't die, you'll get the premiums you paid back plus a few more other benefits.

Renewal - Upon the maturity of the policy, you will be given the option to renew your policy and continue to be covered under the policy.

Grace period - Insurers usually grant a period of 30 days from the due date to pay the premium. Taking into consideration that people may have their own financial expenses that are of high priority than the life insurance, insurers grant this grace period.

Lapse - If you fail to pay your premium, after the insurer has sent reminders and the grace period is over, your insurance policy will lapse.

Reinstatement - If you want to reinstate or revive your old lapsed policy, you can do so by paying up all the unpaid premiums plus interest. Usually insurers allow you to reinstate your policy within 2 or 3 years from the due date of the first premium you didn't pay.

Exclusions - These are the events under which the life insurance company will not pay any benefits. Usually suicide is an exclusion for the first year of the policy. Other exclusions include death due to dangerous activities, dangerous sports, and so on.

Free-look period - This is a period of 15 or 30 days granted to the buyer of the policy. The buyer can read the policy, review the terms and conditions. If they are not satisfied, they can return the policy and receive a refund of the premium. The insurer will deduct any charges borne to issue the policy in the first place.

Now that you know what all of these terms mean, life insurance plans will make a whole lot more sense. Read the offer document carefully before you make a decision. Always be sure to look for the following:

• The amount of premium you have to pay
• The premium payment tenure
• The sum assured
• Maturity benefits

Life insurance is beneficial to those who have dependants. In case of the death of the life insured, then the beneficiary will receive a lump sum or payments in instalments. This will ensure that the dependant has some source of income once the life insured is no more.

Free Financial Literacy Guidance

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is giving free financial literacy guidance to its members that will inculcate better financial and retirement planning, chief executive officer Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said.

He said the free service is available at all its branches would certainly assist the EPF members to sustain their life, especially during economic uncertainty.

"We'll also be conducting public talks pertaining to issues on personal finance management and retirement planning," he told reporters after the launch of financial education and retirement module, "The Start of New Journey" in Kuala Lumpur.

The EPF in partnership with Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency on Friday launched the module, which acts as a guideline in conducting public talks pertaining to the issues. This programme also allows the EPF to widen its target group in managing inadequacy of retirement income issue.

Shahril said the fund was committed to focusing on advising members who have retired, as well as those who have just begun their career.

He revealed that most Malaysians did not realise how much capital or savings they actually needed to sustain their particular lifestyle. "They should start saving more if they are under a higher spending pattern category.

"If you think your lifestyle requires you to spend at least RM3,000 a month for the next 20 years, then you should have roughly over RM600,000.

"But, if you have RM228,000 savings at the age of 55, you have enough to draw down about RM1,000 a month until you're 75 years old... whether that is enough will depend on your spending," Shahril said.

When Airline Turns a Blind Eye

When you do not take a flight for some reason or the other, or have to cancel one prior to the departure date, you can ask for a refund of the airport taxes. But how many people actually want to go through the process of getting a refund? 

Often, people don’t bother to claim, and globally, these monies run into billions of dollars.

In Britain, a report said that airlines are estimated to have pocketed up to £300mil in airport air passenger duties over the past six years from people who didn’t make their flights and didn’t claim their refunds – and it’s a sum that’s rising.

Other local airlines also have collected such amounts, but they just do not disclose how much.Over a month ago, one airline group during a question-and-answer session with analysts said that it had pocketed over RM90mil from no-show passengers after six months of no claims.

Locally, the no-show claim could be worth anything from RM200mil to RM300mil, and this money will just grow if passengers do not claim. With the number of people travelling going up every year, the number of no-show passengers will also grow as will the unclaimed monies.

As an air traveller, you have a right to claim the taxes. That is your money and more often than not, the tickets that you buy are non-refundable. However, the taxes are, so don’t 

believe the airlines or travel agents if they say the taxes are non-refundable.

Airport taxes are collected by the airlines for the airports, and this money, in turn, goes to the Government in whatever form the arrangement may be in the different countries.

Most airlines will allow you to make a claim within six months of the cancellation or no-show of the departure date, but you will have to find out the details from the respective websites or by calling the call centres.

If you don’t claim, you can’t fault the airline for keeping the money.

The passenger service tax here has been increased from Jan 1 this year. For international routes, it has gone up to RM73 from RM65 for the KL International Airport (KLIA) and is RM50 for KLIA2. The refunds include the portion of taxes for the country you are visiting. 

For example, if you are going to Japan, then you pay the taxes to the local airport and also the Japanese airport, so the amount may not be just RM73, it will definitely be more.

The question is, should the airline keep that money or could it be put to other use if the traveller does not claim that portion?

There are suggestions that the monies be pooled into a fund with an independent body or even the industry regulator managing it.

Other than ensuring the money is spent on improving services for travellers, it could be also used to help airlines when fuel prices eventually rise. By so doing, these airlines should not then impose fuel surcharges to help them foot their fuel costs.

Jet fuel prices are at US$63.5 per barrel and when they go beyond US$80, airlines will start looking at ways to impose fuel surcharges, burdening travellers and hampering the travel trade industry in the process.

However, by using these unclaimed monies, airlines will get their feed and travellers will not be charged more, creating a win-win situation for both parties. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, travellers should make that claim for a refund as it is their money.

Number One Killer Malaysia

The Ministry of Health (MOH) estimates that 73% of deaths among Malaysians are caused by non-communicable diseases.

MOH Disease Control Division deputy director Dr Omar Mihat said the non-communicable diseases were hypertension, diabetes and heart problems that were closely related to people’s unhealthy lifestyle.

“This includes bad smoking habit, unhealthy diet and lack of exercises that are often difficult to change. These non-communicable diseases are also detected among young people each year,” he told reporters after opening the National Adolescent Health Symposium here yesterday.

Dr Omar said a survey conducted in 2012 involving 25,507 youths in Malaysia revealed that only 22.8% of them were active, 19.1% were overweight and 7.9% were obese.

He said a study conducted by the Tobacco and E-cigarettes Survey Among Malaysian Adolescents (Tecma) in 2016 showed that the number of smokers among Malaysian adolescents had increased to 15.2% from 11.2% in 2012.

“More worrying, from a dental examination conducted last year, it was also found that smoking was detected among pupils in primary schools,” he said.

As such, Dr Omar stressed that various programmes and a holistic approach must be taken to empower efforts to raise public awareness on the importance to adopt healthy lifestyles, especially among adolescents.

He said continuous efforts should be implemented with the involvement of all parties, including the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sports through programmes at the school level.

A healthy living environment and culture should be prioritised to produce a healthier generation in the future as well as to reduce government spending, he added.