Updates!!!

70 Posts(+1 today)

Wow..I never knew I wrote so much entries....I wrote 30+ pieces last year and just went through all of it since 2006..so much memories. I started this blog when I first arrived in Australia..!! The first entry was about the trip to Melbourne in 2006!! As I was a very lenghthy and inelegant writer, the first entry was so crammed with details that I conjurred vivid memories when I wrote them!!! My inelegant long 'essays' continued,mostly about my travelling in Australia,m such as the Morialta falls trip with Zaipul,Ajay and Zahied which confirmed that those three capitos were not my invisible friends back then before they warped into some other dimension for the next three years(never actually met them in 2009,saw them from afar but that's it). My 'essay' misadventure was proving exhausting after which I will hibernate this blog for several months...with entries being 4-6 months frome each other!!!

Blog=Alter Ego?

2009 changed. I became strangely active. When I red what i wrote, I feel I was reading the blog of a different Hijaz Hasnan. I felt that the Hijaz in 2009 was lonely, felt victimized and angry. To sum up..I was really emo and I think I was. From what I can see, I wrote entyries everytime I felst stressed, especially after project meeting or when my 'former' housemates make a douche of themselves and annoy me which is extremely rare(1 or 2 entries, so I managed to control my 'emo' and not lambast at some particular person). Reading these past entries was truly interesting and made me gratelful that I am alreade a Degree holder in Aerospace Engineering babe!!! The Hijaz in 2009 was striggling and hallucinaing about failures for every second in 2009!! But It is sad I ddin't write my NZ adventures, It would have been another long and inelegant 'essay' but would have contained so much details compared to the 10+GB of photos that I do not care to see again!!!

To sum up, I am glad I wrote those entries,lots of lessons from past years and plenty of beautiful memories.I will persevere to continue blogging...my alter ego...the memories embedded in the WWW.

Back to life

Picked up the offer letter on Thursday,quite late as I was pre-occupied with other worldly things.Drove to Subang>>>>DUKE>>>Federal Highway>>>>.Subang Airport Ramp>>>>Dhungy industrial building>>>>Blondal.

The offer letter was picked, Ms.Ding, the old elegant lady which interviewed me last week, has a bit of chat, telling me about salary issues which still do not comprehend and do not bother to explain here and what to expect of my job.Fine.I opened the letter later.

The offer letter

To tell you the truth.Terrible. 6 working days per week, 8 days leave per year until 2013(other companies my friends work in gave 20+ days!!!) and only RM3000 medical coverage.

I am not impressed and Ms.Ding was screwing me telling me how my 'commission will be several times my base salary, but I ain't see the commsion yet and for all I know the commission will probbably be dispensed after the project is finished which may be several month and several years!! At the end, it will not make much difference after spreading the commission over the months!!!!

I am really praying MEMC to give me that training job..Insya-Allah, but I will still work with Blondal..I may seem pessikistic but 'belum cuba belum tahu'..who knows Ms.Ding is not screwing me and I may get some good bonuses if we get good projects this year...despite the fact that Blondal's client, Nestle is relocating to Indonesia.

Plus, I am sick of staying home with the hamster....

SoPo stuff(Extremely inelegantly long)

Haha..since I have began a misadventure into the world of SoPo blogs, I would like to begin a long inelegant essay on a particular subject, the Malay rights.

As you may know, in exchange for the citizenship of non-Malays in 1957, the Malay or bumiputera rights was enshrined, where the federal government has the right to mobilize the nation;s resources skewed to the benefits of the bumiputeras which is alsonthe majority and make up the working class and low to low middle class of Malaysian society.

These privilieges cover many areas. Scholarships, housing and government jobs and many others such as Malay land titles etcetera.The right have been utilised for decades to uplift the economic status of the Malays.The most positive legacy of the bumi rights, manifested through the DEB and then the NEP is the provision of education to the Malays. My mom and uncle ate beneficiaries of the MARA overseas programme and I dare say they are successful products of the NEP.My mom is now a Master holder and Honors Degree holder in English Literature but now is an experienced Marketing Senior Manager at a Tier 6 University(really good university) while my uncle, who initially a Civil Engineer is now an IT specialist for a subsidiary of Swiss Bank which only allow very talented people to work with them.My uncle speaks French and German which are the spoken languages in Switzerland.

Other legacies include a largely Malay Civil Service which provided about 1 million stable jobs to Malays and government incentives and favours when it comes to business opportunties.As a consequent, GLCs are run mostly by Malays.There are successes and failured.Sime Darby and Petronas are successful Malay GLC ventures. Petronas in particular is the bastion of Malay professionalism for being one of the most successful oil companies in the world while oil companies such as Pertamina in Indonesia which handles more oil resources is cionstantly failing to meet expectations. Other companies such as Proton have mix successes but is currently doing well and has been successful in deleoping a local auto technology and MAS which despite having financial problems managed to carve a good reputation under Malay stewardship while companies like Renong went bust despite successfully built the North-South highway which is a massive engineering feat. Whether successful or failure, these ventures had created a new class of professional Malays ranging from academcians, Project Managers, and Engineers.

Despite government assistance, Malaysia's econoic landscape is dominatd by the minorities particularly the Chinese. Notice anything during CNY,Chap Goh Meh and even Wesak? All distribution of food and raw materials grinds to a halt. There will be sugar and cement shortages and everyone have problems!! The Chinese, dominate the economy end to end. The harvest the raw materials and process them to the finished products, hence, the private sector and the factories are dominated by the Chinese.This gave a them a leverage over the majority. Despite Chinese interest groups accusing the Malaysian government of being unfair to the brink of ethnic cleansing, the Chinese, through their dominance of the private sector causes more damage to the Malays. Malays, no matter how good their education backround, are routinely denied job opportunties. Why? Look at Chinese companies even MNC companies, the HR Manager will surely be a Chinese.Many tales I heard on how a Chinese from UTAR is given the engineer position over the Malay who went to the University of Melbourne. The Chinese will always give excuses that the Malay candidate have poor English proficiency and even have the audacity to to require Mandarin proficiceny, denying many professional private sector jobs to 65% of the population.In terms if business, Malay businesses can never beat the Chinaman companies as the Malays can never get the raw materials such as cement and timber as cheaply as other Chinaman to the extent that Malay companies have to hire Chinese consultants and pay them grossly just because they could talk Ah Pek to the Chinese supplier. The Chinses in Malaysia, have a strong Social Capital, waht does that means? Simply cronismes and nepotisme, favors for the same ethnicity built upon generations upon generations since the clan days. This is not racism and many Chinese are innocently unaware that they are probably the biggest practitioners of cronisme in Malaysia despite being self professed meritocracy society. As a cosnequent of their massive Social Capital, Chinese graduates, even at diploma level can get better higher paying jobs than a PhD Malay while and experience Malay can never get higher pay than a poorly experienced Chinama at his level.

Proof, my uncle and my aunties. My uncle once came back to work for the Mykad project.My uncle was one of the specialist working for a Chinese contracting IT company.Despite having decades of experiecne and being an expert programmer and willing to come back to Malaysia for lesser pay than what he earned in Zurich, my uncle was perplexed that his pay is lesser than the a fresh graduate who was attached to him.Reason? The chinaman was some long distant relative of the company's director or something and the chinaman newbie was rude to my uncle and was only an obstacle to him.That chinaman would probably now brag how the Zurich Malay is inferior to him and took all my uncle's credit. My uncle naturaly returned to Zurich after his ex-boss begged him to come back......my auntie, she works for ana devrtising company, Chinese owned.My auntie worked hard and aptly rewarded, but sadly, her pay will never be as high as her chinese counterpart, Her artner can't even speak proper English and her boss sold his Merc at cheap price to his Chinese employees, but he will never offer such discount to his Malay employees, and my Auntie is still stuck with her Kelisa while her gagap partner driver the boss' ex-Mercedes.

The Malays despite its 'crutches' are still margizanlized despite being educated. Many Malays are now at a level playing field as the Chinese and are proven to be as skilful. Many Malays such as myself, are educated and have self confidence and have skills to offer to the nation, but we will have hurdles in securing a professional job because of our skin color and our non Mandarin language handicap. AEven if we get jobs, our pay will be low and we will have to work very hard and get abused because the Chinese boss thinks we are a waste of taxpayer money, never mind that almost RM50 billion are in the hands of 40 Chinaman while Chinaman are very good at tax evasion with which they buy their Ah beng pimped Mercdes and BMW. Never mind that they are the ones that snap up the million dollar condos and villas around the country. Sure there are poor Chinaman, there will always be poor Chinaman, but opportunities are open to them far wider than the Malays(and Indians to a large extent), employment and even borrow money from Chinese companies and clans.

The government's requirement of having Malay partners in companies is to allow the Malays to penetrate the Chinese Social Capital and tap its resources, But the Chinaman are a jealous guardian and most of the malay partners they select are the incompetent lots.No Malays partner will ever be successful in a Chinese dominated company and will be regulated to a directorship doing nothing.

The Malays have balanced the Chinese economic dominance wthrough poltical power, But that has changed. The Malay votes has been split, thanks to the ego of a single convicted sodomite to become Prime Minister and the hatred of a self proclaimed Muslim Cleric who hates another group of Malays which he considefrs as bad as infidels but sleeing on the same bed as the pagan and jesuite Chines chauvinists. You know who they are.

Now, the government is being blackmailed by the minority whose weight in the democratic scale has increase significntly. The millions of RM foe Chinese schools that teach Chinaboys and Chinagirls in a language of a forein country and teaching false history(now Chin Peng is refarded as a freedom fighter by many Malaysian?) and demands for more scholarships despite 48% of the JPA scholarships being awarded to non Bumis...I bet they will not be hapy until no Malay are given any MARA loands even for a Certificate.

Last week, there are calls for the 7% bumi discount for >RM500l homes to be scrapped. To the Chinaman and blind Liberal and UMNO hater Malays, this may seem like a Robin Hood triumph over the UMNO nobleman. But try to see the big picture, hiw much does a terrace house cost? In Penang and KL? RM500k!!! My mom even had to share with my auntie to buy a terrace house in Shah Alam that is already RM500k...and that's only leasehold!!! 7% is alot,and makes a difference.I assure you many Malay buyers are working class, engineers, leacturers and manager who probably have to take 20-30 year loans buying a terarce house or an upscale condo(that could reach RM500k) where they can raise their children in a better environment..7% coul mean some extra thousand RM for their children education and some life's comfort..there are not many obsecenly rich Malays to hoarde on all the bumi allocated luxury homes and bleieve me, most bumi unist are eventually sold to non bumis or foreigners after a years if no bumi steps up and that happens alot.

Hence, I bring to you the question. Do we still need the NEP? Not just for yuu, but for the kampung folks, for the Malays who may not get straight A's like the Chinaman with 20As but could not speak proper Bahasa but have other talents or the Malay who is gifted in arts.Some months ago while on MARA carnival in Perak, we met a Malay boy who took a bus from Kelantan who arrived 6am at Ipoh and waited for hours at the MARA Perak office....we looked at his results..not straight As..his STPM cukup makan..but enough for a Degree programme.....did he deserve it? he came all the way from Kelantan...he has the determination and we registered him for a Degree programme in engineering.......will he get the opportunity without the NEP?

The MAS Interview

Insomnia















Figure 1: Insomniac


I dunno why, but I can't damn sleep last night and ended up reading endless SoPo blogs that I got a really bad migrain.

Rain

Woke up quite late.It was raining in the morning and it was heaven sleeping in the cool and damp air,Woke up at 10am,slogged through the shower for quite a long time, cloth myself in office attire and the South Korean tie my mom bought in Seoul and departed to Subang airport.

Malaysia Hospitality,MH

Arrived there at 1.30pm exaclt, as the email from MAS syas they'll have a 'Case Study' before the intyerview by 1.30pm.The HR executive came half an hour late, opened the interview room and we received the Essay Question about the viability of a silly Local restaurant which offer 100 dishes at too many branches which is suffering from poor profit growth.Duhhhh..memangla..which dumbfuck franchise offer 100 dishes!!! Look at 'Chicken Rice Shop','Laksa Shack','Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa' and 'Mee Rebus Ramli'!!....see a pattern!!? I attacked the subject subtly.

This is MH at it best

The panels of intreviewers were in a meeting so important that they made us(four interwees including me) wait until 5pm!!!!!Between that I went to their greasy cafetaria and ate Kuey Teow and a glass of extremely sweet sirap bandung and went back to the spartan interview room with posters of destinations that the poorly networked MAS is no longer serving such as New Mexico and Ipoh.. I was so bored that I napped on the sofa after failing to take interest in the financially troubled Reader's Digest magazines.

Eventually, two interwees, who has been waiting since morning as they had to sit for the IQ and aptitude test asked for their leave ane requested another alternative session. The apologetic HR executive as accommodating and gave permission.Then the two interviewers came!!!! I went in first at around 4.45pm.

MH Interview

The interviewers were a man and a lady.Both Malays, so as usual, borak je banyak after the usual 'Talk about yourself' and 'What is your weakness?'. From what i see, they were quite surprised that the 100kg Malay boy with the horribly short crew cut hair in front them could speak coherent English. ..haaha..they took some interest in me and began asking stuff about my school, my university and what I did, like I said, borak borak, I was being cautious so I brag myself on how I like trying new things, diligent, can work in unsupervised environment bla bla bla and talking about places I've been to which made me miss Australia so much..demit. The borak2 cum intreview took about 30 minutes which ended with me questioning about the positions they are offering.

Management Trainee

Apparently MAS is 'compelled' to a hiring free to employ 64 staff which will be rotated through various departments in a year and evaluated before they are permamnently attached to their repsective departments. I am also happy to hear they are also finding people for their Engineering department. So there is a chance for me to become an engineer but the management may have other things for me in store, so I my end up fucked up in Marketing or HR..but hey.at least I would be working in an industry closely related to my degree!!!!

Overall, the interview went well, but I don't know, all my interviews before this went well and the decisions are still pending. Overall, MEMC still offers the best opportinuty to be an engineer cum slave at a hideous factory, Blondal' position is largely a sales type of engineering and I am not sure where MAS will throw me in their large pool of staff of 20 000 people!!! Like I said, I will just start with Blondal first and wait for offers from MAS and MEMC.No more interviews after this..tak larat faking my smile and talking proper English!!

All is well!!

Getting to the job place

The Office and where it is

My designated office will be at Blondal HQ in Batu Tiga, right smack in the midde of the federal highway.

Getting there

Of course..by car!! But I dislike the idea of using the horrible car infested Federal Highway not to mention the tolls amounting to RM7 per day by taking the Sprint Highway and then DUKE or RM13 by taking PLUS and DUKE. It will cost, by my estimate,RM350 on toll and fuel(estimating I use RM200 per mont) not to mention the RM250 per month for a second hand car(my estimate using a 2nd hand Atos as bench mark). All in all transport will consume close RM600 if I include miscellanoeius such as junk food I chew while being stuck in the Federal Highway!!! And my company will only provide RM300 transportation cost!!!

I could skip the tolls and get up really early like 5am and then brave the Federal Highway saving me RM150 per month f tolls. But that leaves me with less time a internet addict human being.

LRT>>>>>KTM>>>>>Blondal

There is a Batu Tiga KTM Komuter station, but it is on the other side of the federal Highway,DAMNIT, hence I will have to cross an underpass a km away and then walk another 2km to get to Blondal!!

I have walked from Norwood to Adelaide countless if times and it takes 5o miniutes of leisurely walk to cover 4km!!!

The KJ line+KTM trip will probably consume close to 1 hour.

So in the end I will spend close to 4 hours per day walking in the sticky climate and then packed like a sardine in the short and narrow KTM and KJ line coaches.

The cost:
KTM Komuter Monthly Pass: RM84
LRT Pass: RM100
Total:RM184

Thank you Malaysia for having a fucked up public transport system which is basically useless once you stepped outside the LRT and KTM station!!!

Maybe I will buy a foldable bike and cycle like a clown to Blondal!!!!!!Naaahh....my ego as a Malaysia will not allow me stoop low as the Indons and Banglas..gaspp..!!!!

Car it is then......I guess...oh MEMEC..please offer that fucking training post!!!

Will officially be a taxpayer!!!

Blondal

A company specializing in dust control equipments used in the manufacuting industry.You can see their building besides the Batu Tiga Toll, an inconspicuous building with a polar bear on its crown.It is not a big company but I am confident they ca provide me with the opprtunity to pratice my engineering skills.Plus they are Swedish, with a Swedish Ang Moh boss...their mascot os a Polar Bear..I never knew Polar Bear is Swedish...I only kniw IKEA is Swedish...after Volvo got OWNED by China...

The interview

Last Thursday. Firstly met with the senior manager I guess, an old but elegantly professional Chinese lady who studied in Sydney ages ago I guess. Naturally, I maneuvered the interview into a chat about Australia which I am sure both of us enjoyed..who doesn't love Australia after studying there? She seemed please with my control of English and praised me as a bout of fresh hair...I am not exaggerating.It was a good change from the previous interview at MEMC...especially the session with the QA engineer..

The engineer

After that I had a short meeting with one of Blondal's engineer , two of them I guess.The firstengineer was a Chinese guy called Peter. He began explaining to me about the company's operation which sells engineering solutions with regards to dust control systems at manufacturing plants. Our meeting was conducted in another lady engineer's office, she is called Nadia, UK graduate who's worked with Blondal for 6 years.We had some chat too after Peter left from which he never returned.I politely asked my leave which Nadia accepted as I didn't want my mom to wait in the car outside any longer.I was abit pessimistic to be honest.

The job offer

After I got home, Peter called the house.My mobile was on silent so I didn't notice his 5 missed calls in the past 2 hours. He was offering a position as a Project Engineer..yes..a Project Engineer!!!!..not the Sales Engineer position as advertised.I was dumbfounded.I didn't expect to be given an offer immediately.I asked Peter that I will give my decision the next day.

Sleepless night

I was not sure.My mom was also not surre.Although she's pleased with the offer. I was still interested to wait for MEMC decision after my their interview with them and I still have an interview with MAS(a second interview after their stupid IQ and aptitude test the previous week). I still wanted to explore other options.I don;t want to be stuck in a jon I don't like..yes.fucke me..I am choosy..a spoilt brat MARA student..biasa le....

Fortunately,I had a good friend wo chatted with me the whole night. He got in touch with another girl I knew from Melbourne who underwent the same experience as I did. In the end, after receiving and processing their advices, I made my decision and said Yes to Peter the next morning.

Still restless

I have stopped applying for jobs at Jobstreet and concentrate on the interviews with MEMC and MAS and the job offer from Blondal. My take is that should MEMC offer me a position, I will have to,sadly, abandon Blodal's offer as I believe MEMC offers a better engineering experience (plus a chance to go to the States for training).Most importantly, MEMC is the closest MNC company which is in par with the likes of Intel,Western Digital and big MNC firms who dragged through three three interviews.I am also curious about MAS's offer, but personally, I will stick to Blondal even if MAS offer a position.From what I understand,MAS is offering me a 'Management Trainee' position which does not seem to affiliated with engineering.Well, we will have to see.

I am living proof that engineers typically spend 6 months jobless.

Was the 6 months worth it? Of course!!!Between the 6 months I went to Australia for my graduation, swam in a tank infested with Sharks an Stingrays in the Gold Coast,went shopping in Melbourne,played WiiFit until I got bored at home and went to Universal Studios Singapore and ride two awesome roller coasters.

It was all worth it and everything falls into order if we put effort in jobseeking and present yourself well during the interviews..good shirt and pants from Marks and Spencers and a neutral and confident English accent...hahhaa...let me brag a little..I think I deserve it.

MEMC Interview

The Interview

This is probably one of the toughest interviews I have attended. Three interviewers who asked th same question but demand different answers.

But this is good. As this shows that MEMC is looking for competent people, not some half baked assholes who went overseas but could not even speak English without mumbling and stuttering.If the interview is too easy,it means your gonna work in a sweat shop.

Supervising Engineer

The first guy is the engineer in charge of the MEMC KL Silicon plant.Nice guy, must have been handsome if he was younger if he's not losing too much hair.Pretty nice and relaxing.Asked alot of questions about my Final Year Project which I bragged about in my resume. With my stupid results,I am pinning my hope on my gempaq project so hey..I deserved it. I know the answers but explaining stuff to an engineer is so damn hard as It took me awhile of babble before the guy finally said 'that's what I was looking for'.But after that it was all chat and stuff until a rather peculiar looking engineers or otaku came into his office abruptly and forced a form upon my interviewer to sign. It was a very funny moments as those two guys of different 'coolness' exchanged jokes..that small moment seem to make the journey through the morning rush hour to this spartan factory rather meaningful.

The Director

The session with him was OK. We initially had some short chat about Australia before he grilled me about what I was studying and did during my work experience stint with SAS. I never lied and did the best i can with my Engggrishhhh....explaining that I am a competent engineer with passion. But it was a tough session nontheless.

The QA Engineer

It takes another Malaysian to make you feel down. The Chinese Malaysian was rather stern and not as jolly as the previous two.While the Ang Mohs never cared to see my transcript the QA guy persued my transcript and even remerked that I was weak in Maths which I humblly accept with much humiliation. The worst session of the interviews.

Post mortem

I am sure I was prepared and know the answers to what they asked.But their question were different and quite unexpected. As a consequent, I had trouble cobbling up a straight answer and ended up giving two three answers before they were happy.This is not good. But I am still optimistic as I was really honest with my answers which I gave with much enthusiasm and I can only pray for the best. As I said before, I can just look for other jobs although I would really like to see America even if it is for training.Que sera sera I guess.

More Interviews

I am really edging closer to the 6 month limit of being unemployed. I started looking for a job actively in february so I am officially 6 months unemployed although I did work with UniKL from April to July.No worries. I have another interview with Electrolux tomorrow and some lady called me just now to call me for an interview but the line was bad and she vaguely said she'll call me again.Insya-Allah, opportunities are abundant in this short world.

24

According to my deteriorating Sijil Beranak, I came out from some lovely hole at 4am this morning 23 years and 40 minutes ago.So here I am 4o minutes to becoming 24..I am getting too olf for this.

I remember being depressed last year during this time because I had a supplementary exam..fuck Aircraft Design..dem useless subject.Right now I feel cam biase2 je.tak stress..hahahhaa...but I am abit stress because there is a hamster lost in my room and so far it has not gone for the pile of kuaci under the bed not to mention the third interview with a bloody US semi-con company this Wednesday...doa2 dapat..ble berlagak gi US 6 bulan..kalo tak dapat..it's another trip down jobstreet.

Whatever it is, the way I think of my age is..if I get a loan for a decent freehold 2 storey terrace house of abour RM500 000 which is typical in the Klang Valley and even Penang, it'll take me 30 years to repay it.Hmmmmm.........................by 54 then I'll own a house.....before that hutang kereta if I am unlucky ade bini dan anak!!!!! Worse if I'm gay coz metrosexual partners are ridiculously expensive because I won't be the bitch.

Reading time

Figure 1: Two of the main characters seeking shelter at an Ice city sliding across Northern Europe.This is the cover of the 2nd book, Predator's Gold which IMO is the best book of the quartet.


My life

I don't wanna talk about it.Just lots of SoPo blog,Jobstreet and the possibility of going to the States to become a Bumper.

New books

Alas..it all started in Adelaide.Demmit.

The author is Phillip Reeves, a steapmpunk writer. What is steampunk? To avoid brain damage from reading my inelegant long writing, I suggest you watch Steam Boy by Osamu tezuka. That is Steampunk.Lots of steam powered gadgets like airships and trains.

Phillip Reeve's world




















Figure 2: Municipal Darwinism in action.It is a town eat town world.



Picked the fourth book of te series somewhere in the middle of 2009. Amidst the assholes around me and the burden of a a final year project, I would naturally saunter among the shelves of worn books at the Adelaidde City Library seeking solace.Since I've decided that heavy themed fiction was too much for my brain at that time, I lingered at the Teen section and a small novel with a cartoonish cover attracted my attention. I knew about the series from Malaysia,probably in 2008. It was a series that probably lost to Harry Potter in some Children;s book award and the first book was Mortal Engines. What is it all about?

The Steampunk world of Municipal Darwinism

Yep.What could could more interesting to a crazy engineer student like me than mobile cities eating other for the crown of the food chain.The steampunk world of Phillipn Reevs is a post apocalypic world where as usual, the United States or the American Empire and probably China went on a nuclear duel which wiped out almost the entire world(save for Africa which emerged as the leading civilization of the post apocalyptic world) with nuclear weapons and bombs laced with SARS like vriuses probably thanks to Biotechnologists. And so, as everyone wanted, the United States was totally destroyed with only a handful of Alaskan survivors, China was also ruined save for its population in Tibet while parts of Europe were completely decimated by nukes and natural disasters such as volcanoes.

Despite being reduce to savages, the Europeans were still technologically advanced,using remnant technologies from 10 000 years ago(yes that long since WW3) such as airships which are used to safely traverse the maze of volcanoes and ravaged landscape in Europe which makes sense. Multiple civilizations flourished but were eventually decimated by natural disasters until the emegernce of the Traction civilization. London,or what's left of it, tired of being attacked by mutants and threatened by earthquakes decided to build a big engine with large wheels and put their city on it and move to safer grounds and later turned back and crushed the mutants with their big tracked wheels. Being a post apocalyptic world, resources were scarce and so London went about eating other settlements.Other surviving emerging European cities did not want to be eaten and went Traction to avoid being eaten and to escape the volcanoes,floods and earthquakes. Soon Europe became a Great Hunting Ground where cities on wheels,caterpillartracks or even ice skids go about eating each other for oil and metal.It was the age of Municipal Darwinism..whatever that means. This new era was also te death of the great African civilizations which were eventually killed off by Traction cities and towns and they eventually joined the survivors of China who did not go traction to form into a the Anti-Traction League which combined their military resources to repel the Traction cities from encroaching on their static settlements and farms.Both sides from time to time salvage some ancient technology from America or China which they will use to their advantage for their selfish needs. The Traction cities obviously learned alot of mechanical stuff while the Anti Traction league began using walking corpse powered machines to become their soldiers.

And so there it is. The world f Phillip Reeves. I don't wanna talk about the individual books but they are really good that the maker of LOTR,Peter Jackson is currently turning the first book into a movie this year.And I promise it is not rubbish like the Golden Compass(which I have also red and stopped reading it at the the third book when it began to involve homosexual angels) or even Twilight, Yes, there's romance and some hint of sex in it too...as usual...but it's OK.