A pathetic advert on AOL home page

These days, many people have been facing high interest rates, credit card debts and problem with mortgages in Britain and the US.

The number of people who managed to take out a home loan last month collapsed to its lowest level since 1995.

The figures, published yesterday by the Bank of England, show just 73,000 were approved for a mortgage to buy a house in December.

In a rapid downturn, the number has slumped 35 per cent since last summer and it is the latest sign that the boom in Britain's housing market has come to a grinding halt. Source

In England, you can get 3 bed room house with £250K mortgage. But these days, mortgage approval has been difficult while many people are in debt troubles. But some people are not aware of the real situation or making a joke. Yesterday, when I logged on AOL, that advert made me amazed. If it is properties for under £200,000, it would be something attractive.

Myanmar doctors and British Health Service

Nowadays, more and more Myanmar doctors are working in British hospitals across the UK. I believe there are at least one or two Myanmar doctors working in each hospital. In fact, that number is nothing compared with Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi doctors who have been major contributors of National Health Service in Britain.

Basically there are two kinds of Myanmar doctors in the UK, based on their origin. The first group is those who came in with their own money. Most are young graduates. They do not join government service in Burma. Once they complete their 1 year internship, they come to Britain. They sit General medical council's PLAB test to be eligible to practise in the UK.

Another group is those who came with Myanmar government scholarship programme. After achieving master degree in Burma, they need to take selection exam. Ministry of Health selects the candidates with highest scores and send them to UK for further degrees,such as MRCP, MRCOG. Government provide them £5000 as scholarship award, as far as I know. For those from Myanmar defence service, they get extra money from Myanmar army Medical department. They are supposed to go back to Myanmar after 2-3 years. Majority go back. But some did not.

One interesting thing is that there are 2 types of Myanmar passport, Red and Green. The red one is for general public and the green one is for government officials. The latter is also issued to Myanmar scholarship doctors. It is only 3 years valid and not renewable. That is problem for those who want to stay in Britain for more than that duration. Some have not achieved intended degree. Some have achieved, but do not want to go back for some reasons (main reasons are a high salary and a better life style in Britain). Pay for a junior doctor is from about £25,000 to £34,000 annum. Around £40-50K for middle grade doctor and over £70K a year for consultant level doctors. According to my close friend, some doctors have a very good relationship with Myanmar passport authority. So they were able to change their green passport with normal red one which is renewable.

Ok, I'm just sharing what I know. For me, whoever they are, I like to see more and more Burmese doctors in west as Burmese community is still tiny. At the same time, I have a concern about care of patients in Burma. But I console myself with the though that there have been 3 medical schools with enough production in Burma.

Buddha Idol in my living room

I just decorated Buddha Idol like this as my sister brought it from Burma last week. Some people might think it's not so appropriate to place a Buddha Idol in the living room. For me, that's fine. I don't think my Buddha Idol will bother other people visiting my house.(if they're not happy, don't come anymore, no problem at all. In my house even my senior consultant physicains need to take off their shoes, not because of Burmese tradition, it's just for health reason) I am traditionally Buddhist, but not religious. I will create my life myself while following Buddha's some guide lines. I would say Buddha would be my teacher as well as my companion.

Think about Canada

You may be aware that Britain's high skill migrant programme is becoming tougher. Many of my friends's applications have been rejected despite their annual income is around £32,000 (over US$ 60.000). Sometime, I wonder why many people keep trying to get a stay in this tiny island while even British natives have been leaving for a better place. In fact, there has been a concern about British economy as manufacturing sector has plummeted and it is only depending on vulnerable service industries. 2 years previously, the UK has left behind China.

Health service is one of the disappointing areas. In Britain's national health service hospitals, everybody has to wait for 4 hours to see a doctor. (some hospitals might happily announce that they achieve 4 hour waiting target) It is a shame, I feel. In Burma, world's so called poorest country, people can see consultant doctors, who are fellow members of Britain's Royal Colleges in an half an hour when they need medical attention. A news paper revealed a couple of years ago an elderly people died in accident and emergency department while waiting for a doctor.

For many more reasons, I am thinking to leave Britain. I picked up 3 countries, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I don't like Australia without obvious reason though I love to visit maximum 2 weeks. New Zealand is a stranger to me.

I just choose Canada. I feel Canada is a fantastic place. I dont need to surrender my British citizenship. I can easily achieve their required scores for high skilled visa. Easy to get permenent resident and Canada citizenship as far as I understand.

If you have a Bachlor degree, if you have IELTS score 7 in each skill, if you have around £3000 in your bank account, you will most probably qualify for Canadian high skilled worker program.

If you are interested to settle in Canada, you can assess yourself here.

Skilled workers and professionals: Self-assessment test

For more info, here is an official site.

www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

Good luck.

Weird AOL

These days, for some reason I have to use AOL dial up. It's understandable that dial up connection is terribly slow. But what I don't understand is that sometime connection was lost. After that pop up windows appears repeatedly, asking me to restall AOL software. When I clicked the buttom, it led me to IE browser with blank page. You know what happened. I mean no point after losing of Internet connection to ask me to download and reinstall online AOL software.



That problem is not new. It has been going on for years. Maybe AOL has chosen wrong persons in its firm to make such a silly mistakes. I know human error is inevitable.But sometime I think if those IT persons got a job as airplane pilots or medical doctors, the area of cemeteries needs to be extended indefinitely.

In fact AOL is notorious for its very heavy front page with all sorts of rubbish adverts. For AOL broadband users, they can bypass that page. But Dial up users need to wait sometime up to 3 minutes to load its font page before getting its service.