What's in a name

This is one has been sitting on the boiler for some time but I thought this is a good time as any to talk about it.

I'm not sure what it is about Sabah and building naming, but there seems to be a tremendous dearth of creativity among the developers here. Originality is something I find sorely lacking here.

Take for example this building called the KK Times Square. You'll find a building with a similar name in Kuala Lumpur, the Berjaya Times Square. We will also have a Megamall here (though it's still in progress), just like the more illustrious one in KL as well. And Putrajaya? Well, we have a Putera Jaya here. We even have a Bandar Utama (of course, that's in Sandakan...but still)!

But, the lack of creativity doesn't just stop at names of places. It extends to road names as well. Take for example this hilarious excuse for a road name - Muntahan ('vomit' in English). Well, a road with a name like that is rather sad, but imagine having a few of them (Muntahan 1, Muntahan 2, Muntahan 3, etc.). Sounds like a really bad series of sequels to an equally terrible horror flick.

And the un-originality (is there even such a word?) of the road naming doesn't end there. There's a district in Sabah called Penampang, and one of it's major towns is called Donggongon. And guess what the name of the road that runs through this town is called? The 'Road in front of Donggongon Town'. Exact words, no kidding! And we also have the 'Access Road to Family Planning Centre', which leads you to (yep, you guessed it!) the Family Planning Centre.

With all these howlers for road names, I hope someone high up in the Public Works Department will elect somebody with at least a minute spark of creativity to helm the road naming committee, so that we'd get at least more 'normal' names.