Knowledge in Action conference - Kuala Lumpur:
28th Feb - 3rd March 2000

Comments by Scott Balson

The Conference "Knowledge in Action" was organised by IFES directors, Sandra Sims and Gary Hay (seen left).

I was invited to talk to the delegates about my experiences with the Queensland Government and the Murdoch media - something I was happy to do.

I left Brisbane on Sunday the 27th February on a Malaysian airlines plane.

As we rapidly climbed we swept around the city of Brisbane - allowing me to capture this remarkable picture of the city below.

The trip was uneventful taking about eight hours. I was accompanied by Jeremy and Nancy Lee and other people attending the conference (I will not be mentioning names as I am aware that The Courier-Mail might add them into their list of targets in their infamous slime bin).

The airport at Kuala-Lumpur is quite remarkable. It dwarfs Brisbane International - which would fit into one of its wings.

The picture on the left (Nancy and Jeremy Lee nearest camera) was taken shortly after we had arrived at the airport that never sleeps.

After leaving the plane we caught a train to the main departure terminal... a train!

Customs was pretty frightening - one man dressed in a duffle coat with unbrushed hair went through the works with customs who were seeking out drug pushers - who we had been warned on the plane before departing "faced a mandatory death sentence".

It was a great relief to arrive at the remarkable Palace of the Golden Horses.. the entry has this amazing ceiling and these fingers that are moulded into a table dominating the entry lobby... quite a remarkable sight! (Images below)

There are 8,888 horses in the hotel grounds. The Chinese owner of the Mines complex (which includes the Palace of the Golden Horses) had written in this as a condition to the contracting builders.

The hotel is massive with the image on the right just showing one part of the complex.

Some of the larger horse sculptures can be seen below...

During my stay I decided to have a drop of the proverbial ... at my cost!

Shortly after posing for this photograph I discovered that the bottle of Australian white wine I had ordered at the Palace of the Golden Horses had cost me Malaysian Ringit 180... or about Au$80! I could have bought the same bottle in Australia for about Au$12.

The Knowledge in action program was excellent with a variety of speakers talking on a range of issues including: life coaching; designing your destiny; banking to your advantage; GST and tax reform; economic education, inflation and trade; real estate for substantial profit; offshore banking; peak performance in health; media corruption; personal superannuation; offshore structures; health in the new millennium; future and business trends. 

The conference was excellent.

The talk I enjoyed the most was given by Jeremy Lee (right) who spoke about the impact of the new world order on our lives in the future. Jeremy Lee has his own website.

The images below show some of the delegates who attended the conference.

The next IFES conference will take place in Fiji in July this year - I will be advising my mailing list of full details of the conference - the conference I attended at Kuala Lumpur was a real eye opener and well worth the time invested.

The trip back to Brisbane from KL on Friday night/Saturday morning was pretty uneventful... except for a very pleasant surprise in the form of a Malaysian steward, Saiful Anwar (right), who has got to be one of the airlines best assets.

The image was taken at about 6am in the morning - after he had been on his feet all night - despite this fact he maintained a happy disposition and I was not alone in remarking to the positive impact that he had on the trip...

Good on ya Saiful....

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