Researcher? Cheap Labour?

Being a postgrad in Malaysian universities (the four RU@ research universities might be excluded), one not only need to have research ability, but also physical strength+creativity+secretarial skills. Why? Look at the following list of tasks that we need to do in labs:

• de-froze, clean -80 or -20 storage freezers (by breaking the ice down into pieces using whatever suitable spatulas or big forceps that you could find in lab)
• carry water tanks filled with 25 litre distilled water from another lab to your lab (if you are lucky, the 'another' lab is on the same floor as yours)
• check for chemicals/ reagents stocks regularly and purchase in advance to ensure a steady supply (once run out of anything, will take months for the items to arrive)
• look for suppliers, ask for quotations, do the necessary paperwork to ensure smooth purchase of items (and you are not allowed to use the university telephone to make phone calls, so all on your own bills)
• do some modifications to equipments or find other alternatives (at your own creativity) as long as it works and needs no additional $$$
• work as lab demos/ instructors for FREE

See? We are so multi-tasking and capable in almost anything! Yet none of our local uni manage to produce any Nobel laureate. Why is that so?