nimiety

i dare you
google it.

how many of you actually understand the meaning of the word nimiety?
i bet you probably are in the minority

it comes from the latin word nimius, meaning excessive

and i have something to say concerning the state of our society in relation to this word
(obviously this sentence is superfluous but i just put it in anyway to stay in theme of being excessive and just to rile you up)

still reading?
good

i attended the resorts world berhad and genting group berhad's annual general meeting today.

to clarify things
i am not a shareholder (poor man i am)

but i will still tell you how i got in

you see (still reading, patient bloke aren't you)
we live in a culture of excesses

and man (and women in particular) is a greedy animal

knowing that at agm's there will be a nimiety of food, hordes of old ladies
(the majority of which own less than 100 shares which is deemed so small an amount that on the annual report it is written as "insignificant")
descended on crowne plaza (where the agm was held) to exercise their "rights" as shareholders to collect the goodie bags full of food.

naturally they are too busy with other "pressing" business to actually stay and attend the agm.
thus, with the liberal application of my manly charm, i was able to inveigle a tag from her declaring me as
a shareholder of both resorts world and genting bhd, allowing me to "legally" attend the meeting.

now is a very good time to question my morals, but let's just gloss it over k? thx

before we continue i must state that i am here to present a satirized account of the agm.
on the whole it went very smoothly, except for a few minor hitches.
and i am only going to touch on the hitches

you're still here? amazing!

anyway, the agm was a literal circus
i've never seen so many people trying to make a fool of themselves and succeeding so marvelously.
malaysia boleh indeed

the first grouse raised was why the food was doled out in goodie bags instead of the usual buffet style lunch.
and i agree with the proposer, a mr. chew
with goodie bags handed out in an orderly fashion, there was absolutely no opportunity for me to see old men and women jostle and kick like children fresh out of kindergarten in the mad rush to grab food.
sigh... you can't always get what you want

next, another mr. chew (a different one) complained why genting did not pay for the parking in crowne plaza, which was 8 ringgit.
well, it's actually simple economics

genting group has a shareholder base in excess of 35000 people
over 16000 of those hold less than 100 shares

genting's dividend payout for 2007 was something to the tune of 4.03 sen per 10 sen share
if you owned 100 shares, you'd get 40 sen in dividend
if you came to the agm, genting would have to front 8 ringgit, which is a heck of a lot bigger than the dividend they paid you.

duh

this was only 5 minutes into the meeting, which incidentally started 15 minutes late because of the mad rush outside to register for the meeting and collect goodie bags
i might add that the hall was most definitely not filled to capacity
and the amount of goodie bags given out was assuredly greater than the number of people sitting in the hall

i'm surprised the chairman, tan sri lim kok thay did not just break down and cry like a little girl.
i know i would.

towards the end of the meeting
(the middle part is where all the serious people get up and make themselves heard, not much to satirize there)
a mr. leong got up to complain about the state of the police in genting unfairly apprehended him for "weird behaviour" (his own words, i swear)
he then complained about the singaporean staff at genting trying to sabotage genting's casino operations because they are singaporean and there exists some deep seated animosity between malaysia and singapore.
he then proceeded to submit a police report to each of the board members and demanded a written explanation while the chairman kept saying "this is not the place or time for this."

go figure.

wow, that was fun!

now which agm should i sneak into next?

p.s.
samuel, thought you were a shareholder, why were you not there?
chia, thought you were related to lim goh tong (daughter/granddaughter/granddaughter in-law/goddaughter, you keep changing your story so can't remember which)