I made one of the biggest mistakes in my life last week - purchasing the latest and fastest modem for my home PC. How could I overlook the fact that has made me abandon 'home-Internet-surfing' for the past five months, i.e. is the "snail-paced" data transfer rate offered by our 'beloved' major ISP - Telekom Malaysia Bhd?

There's always a bright side to this scenario, considering our 'Bolehland' craze for the superlatives, from the most flamboyant tallest buildings to the largest popiah . Now we can be proud of another achievement - the slowest data transfer ever offered by a major ISP (I encountered 3Kbp once with my new modem!)

I could not imagine what would 'home-Internet-surfing' be in six months' time - after the highly-awaited Telekom-Jaring merger. How low could the data transfer be - 2Kbps, 1Kbps, or are we going in the hundreds-bps? This merger must be the joke of the year - picture how the Americans would laugh upon hearing our data transfer rate, especially when they are already entering the Giga-bps era.

This may be what globalisation is - Malaysian-style, that is (excuse me for any short-sightedness on my part, for I have just tasted life for 22 years): Big conglomerates 'eating' up smaller companies while not improving their services or product qualities; top-level executives getting access to billions of Malaysian's hard-earned money - later investing it in a bond scam.

Looking at these facts, I am not surprised to encounter inferior letters such as one by Mohd Iqbal ([#1] 'Ketuanan Melayu' is historical [/#], Feb 2). Well, even in 'the land of the free and the home of the brave' (the US), there are still 'red-necks' roaming freely around.