TO MARIER OR NOT TO MARIER-by: Clara Chong

My close friend from England told me that it has to be love.... yes, love and motivation and I am talking about big doses. Our mutual friends agreed that while it is never easy adapting to a foreign country, this is further complicated if the foreigner happens to be French and you are choosing to live in his country.

Well, we who have done it have gone through a culture shock. What with learning French and then trying to create a balance between our Malaysian and French lifestyles, what more?? Le jour J, bien sûr.

After the French fiançialles tradition (which has gone ringard et la mode again), it’s time for the faire-part.

And I thought that we Malaysians have rigorous customs to follow (take my sister’s wedding for example, it took my parents and her “in-laws” so long just to agree on a date) until I discovered about

the French wedding.

Le civil-état at the mairie gave us a couple of forms to be filled and a list of documents to be submitted and medical certificates to be obtained, including blood tests. I have had more medical examinations and blood tested in the past 12 months than my 30 years in Malaysia. The only aspect that made it less painful was having a doctor at home instead of having nurses stabbing your arms with syringes at disinfectant smelling hospitals.

Consider the documents that had to be obtained from Malaysia and the Malaysian embassy. Well, that’s easy. Take your calculator out and start to multiply the total documents and time estimated for these papers by 2. Been married and divorced? Multiply by 2 again, because you have more papers to translate. Your family who does not live in Kuala Lumpur, but has offered to help you to obtain these documents? Multiply by 5, because they would arrive at JPN only to be told that they need to produce some other documents (which you were not informed of during your many phone calls from France - made just to verify that all was in order). Worse still, some documents are with you in France. But my gratitude goes to our dear Su Chin who is working at the French embassy and Mariana who is determined to see me through le mariage. I guess they do not want me to contribute to the percentage of spinsters....

Meanwhile, the preparation of “jour J” includes guests-list, faire-part, liste de mariage, hotel arrangements for guests, etc. The “to-do” list gets longer if you have a church wedding, vin d’honneur, restaurant or traiteur and so forth. And then there is also le contrat de mariage to be drawn up (if you opt for one) at the notaire. See next page for le contrat de mariage courtesy of Mariana, recommended for a happy mariage.

In Malaysia, faire-part is even provided by the hotel or restaurant where the dinner is held. You just have to provide the family details (ie. parents’ and the to be married couple’s names) and they print these standard red cards for you and give you as many as you need free of charge. And for chic-looking cards, we could go to the local printer and it’s done, cheaply. In the hotel all decorations, in the ballroom, are done by the staff. Florists make deliveries so you don’t even have to lift a finger in any decorations.

The hotels even offer a honeymoon suite, free, without any negotiations and hassles.

In Malaysia le liste de mariage is almost never practiced. Here, you search from Printemps to Bon Marché to Geneviève Lethu or wherever your guests’ budget allows you to. In short, if you have rich relatives, by all means, choose Wedgewood, Havilland...and if you don’t, settle for a robot, coffee-maker, linen etc. And since I haven’t even met half of the family situated between 600 and 1000 kms away from Paris and that we don’t need any of these household stuff, does that mean I can ask for ang pow?? It was only responded with, “mais, non...nous ne demandons pas.....”. According to a Japanese friend (who is marrying a Frenchman this July), they are not bothered with le liste de mariage and asked for “cagnotte” instead... life gets even simpler....

And guests from faraway... well, families and close friends arrive a day earlier and a dinner is organised (with all the logistics as to who is assigned to pick whom from which gare or aéroport and at what time). No church wedding means that there is no need to follow the customs that the bridegroom and his bride are not allowed to see each other the day before. But it doesn’t stop me from having a room in the hotel with my friends... pssst...for beauty sleep, konon. And phew! The civil ceremony is arranged in the morning, so it’s luncheon for everyone which is expected to end only after hours and hours of food and talk. And then of course followed by dinner with family members and friends.

In Malaysia, the most important banquet is the dinner (although in the “Chinese” villages, lunch is sometimes held in the restaurant). And the most important part of the dinner is the “yam sing” or tching tching with cognac bottles being passed from table to table. Yes in our hot tropical weather, we drink cognac on the rocks. And yes, once the dinner is over, the most important thing is to count your “ang pows” and settle the bill.

Here, there seems to be endless meals and drinks before and after the ceremony. I have got the message that this is supposed to be a gastronomic country, but three consecutive days??? Le jarretière during the réception?? Pssst...it originated from Romania, somehow it has been adopted here. But not a bad way of raising funds.... Needless to say, there are also “thank you” notes to be sent out (and hopefully without any mistakes). Did I forget the honeymoon somewhere? Suddenly, being married on an island far away sounds blissful in the midst of this chaos...

We all say that getting married is easy, staying happily married is a challenge of a lifetime and getting out of a marriage takes a lot of courage. But if you are Malaysian getting married to a Frenchman and settling down in France, it doesn’t only take a lot of love and motivation, but also a lot of support and understanding from your husband-to-be, families and friends. And this article is a tribute to all Malaysian women who have had the courage, strength and passion to learn the language, culture, traditions and yet not lose their identities..... TO MARIER OR NOT TO MARIER ……...

now that is what I call a BRAVE decision.

HOW TO GET RICH BY INVESTING IN THE STOCKS MARKET

By: Mariana de Riverieulx de Varax-Sedaiges

Everybody has read headlines like this in other magazines, so it should be of no surprise to find it gracing the pages of ITIK PERTALIAN, your favourite paper. Well , to be honest, for the time being, we should have entitled it “How Not to Get Poorer,” because lately we have seen more teardrops on investor’s faces than big smiles.

The landscape is pretty ugly: -19% on American NASDAQ, -15% on French CAC , -14% in Singapore and -23% on the Malaysian KLSE. So where should an investor hide?

The reason for this minefield, as we all know, is that the economy in the US is slowing down. Since it represents a quarter of the cumulative world GDP, as the saying goes, “When Americans sneezes, we all catch a cold.” For stock prices to move up, company profits must increase. Presently, this is not the case. In addition, most investors are trying to cure their Internet hangover as they try to figure out the morning after, how to get rid of the loads of stock they ended up with in computers, servers, cables……...; These companies are all having to deal with issues like; How to fire excess of staff; How to reduce piles of debts used to buy over companies at inflated prices; How to gain back the confidence of their consumers.

So, at the end of the day, when you see a big company like MARCONI in the UK loose half of its value in a single day, just because it revised down its profit outlook for the year, it is understandable that you would rather hide yourself under the table, than think about your investment plans.

But what about the Malaysian market?

(assuming you aren’t completely discouraged by now):
At first glance, the Malaysian economy is also in a storm: the US exports represent one quarter of its GDP, with a big proportion in electronics, where the recovery is expected only sometime in 2002. That is why the growth of the economy should be around 3% this year, when it was growing at the rhythm of 6% at the end of last year. However, the Malaysian market should be one of the few ones left standing in the middle of all the houses of cards falling down everywhere else around it. This is because:
· The influence of foreign investors on the market is now almost negligible, with less than 2% of the capitalisation owned by them. · The domestic institutions have more than 50% of their portfolio in cash and are ready to seize any opportunity in case there is a change in the environment. · The market is rather cheap at less than 14 times of Price Earnings Ratio. · Some corporate deals can happen in the telecom industry, which can give more confidence in the market: The Norwegian Telenor will buy 28% of DiGi, the portable phone operator, Maxis is looking for a foreign partner to bid for the Singaporean operator M1. · The government can take some measures to boost the economy in the second half , by acting on corporate or personal taxes.

“So what,” you say. “Any tips for me?”

NO! We recommend only serious companies and defensive stocks, such as Gamuda and RoadBuilder in construction, Tanjong in gaming and utilities, Public Finance in credit business. Once the six cuts in interest rates and income tax reduction begin to filter back in the US economy and exports begin to roll again in the world, then you can rush to buy the depressed electronics stocks such as MPI or Unisem. Don’t forget to buy some aspirin beforehand, in case you need it to recover once again, because the last buying spree was started on fake news and all your bets turned into big bites!

Anyway, after thinking it over, what better investment is there than a membership in Pertalian France-Malaisie?

FRIENDSHIP as a dividend, GOOD PARTIES as capital value, and most important of all ...NO TAXES! If you still insist to get into the market, just remember this: You can’t be a winner all the time and don’t be afraid to cut your losses!

We do not emulate, We initiate.

          Respect, Integrity, Honor and Professional Ethics