A large population of this planet is very engrossed with the upcoming World Cup. Everyday and in almost every newspaper it is football, football, football in almost all the sports pages! Football fever could be classified as an epidemic in its own class. The numbers affected by this fever run into millions! Everyone involved seem very overjoyed and can't wait for the actual event. But there is a dark side which is slowly emerging in Germany. The racial factor. There are people still living in the dark ages who think 'white' is supreme. Black and Asian football players are getting the brunt of these thugs who throw racial insults and death threats at them during the game. If the organizers of these football matches do not take the necessary precautions, we might have a tragedy in our hands by the end of this month.
Talking about tragedy, the Indonesians living in central Java are going through one right now. The earthquake has killed thousands of people and left many thousands homeless and in need of food, shelter and medical aid. This catastrophe taking place just after the tsunami! Foreign rescue teams and international aid workers have gone to the quake zone to distribute food, water and tents.
One thing I notice when something like this happens to any country, the people who offer help are usually from the west. Lately, Malaysians and Singaporeans have learned to send their medical team to help also. Maybe I don't have the latest news but I rarely hear of any team from Iran or from Arabia or from Pakistan coming to the aid of victims of natural disasters. We only hear of death threats from these people who claim to be very holy! Look at Iraq. Two tennis players were shot dead for wearing shorts when playing! I guess one can't expect much from people like that. Maybe I am wrong.
Over in Timor Leste, there is more killing. Army against army, police against police, south against north. What is going on down there? The Australian, New Zealand and Malaysian armed forces have been sent there to help solve the problem. Hope peace will return to that land and people won't fear for their lives when they go out to buy daily provisions.
Over in Malaysia, there is a sort of religious tolerence at the moment. It is slowly being eroded by religious extremist who are gaining inroads into the government. The recent incident in Penang(one of the northern states in Malaysia) where a group of people (about 500) stormed and disrupted a forum on religious rights which was being held with permission from the relevant authorities. The police advised the organizers of the forum to stop in order to avoid trouble! Who is the tolerant party here? We shall wait and see what action the government takes on these thugs who stopped the forum. Then we will know if the Prime Minister walks his walk and talks his talk as he has gone around the world telling of how the government is tolerant to other religions in this country.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
The Specialist
Read in the papers that our government is trying to woo Malaysian specialists serving in Britain back to Malaysia. They will be rewarded with an "instant" pay rise of about RM 4,000 if they were to return. Besides this monetary reward, there were also other incentives like allowing locum in government hospitals and even 'simplified' Bahasa Malaysia exam for service comfirmation among other things. Sounds like a good offer for people already staying here. I wonder if there will be any takers!
My question is, what about those who have been serving faithfully here? What perks do they get? If these guys who have been enjoying themselves with high pay over there now come back and still get better deals than those who never went overseas but stayed home to serve the Malaysian people, what kind of treatment is this? If I were a local specialist I would feel very downhearted. The government must come up with something to appreciate the local specialists also, otherwise we will lose them to the private sector.
With so many rich people(and also the not so rich) getting sick and what with the trend of the rich to be treated by speacialist for almost everything, I would not be surprised if most of them went over to the private Medical Centers! The government hospitals would be left with the head of departments and their senior assistants who assist in looking for files or something like that because the specialist worker ants would be busy making money on the other side... heh heh.
We need to look after the 'baby in the house before we worry about the monkeys in the forest' la.
My question is, what about those who have been serving faithfully here? What perks do they get? If these guys who have been enjoying themselves with high pay over there now come back and still get better deals than those who never went overseas but stayed home to serve the Malaysian people, what kind of treatment is this? If I were a local specialist I would feel very downhearted. The government must come up with something to appreciate the local specialists also, otherwise we will lose them to the private sector.
With so many rich people(and also the not so rich) getting sick and what with the trend of the rich to be treated by speacialist for almost everything, I would not be surprised if most of them went over to the private Medical Centers! The government hospitals would be left with the head of departments and their senior assistants who assist in looking for files or something like that because the specialist worker ants would be busy making money on the other side... heh heh.
We need to look after the 'baby in the house before we worry about the monkeys in the forest' la.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Teacher's Day
What can I say. Most of my teachers are dead and gone. There are one or two still around. My primary school English teacher is still alive and kicking. He still remembers my full name! We meet at the park sometimes. I wander'd lonely as a cloud ... or something like that. He introduced us to 'Daffodils' by William Wordsworth, I think. It was so long ago. My secondary school English and Maths teacher was a very strict man. For English class, he made us read one story book a day and use some of the new words from that book in our weekly essays. I was usually picked to read the winning essay. When he taught Maths, everyone remembers getting caned. This was because he always gave weekly tests and every question you get wrong will earn you two swish from the cane on your palm or on the back of your thigh. We wore shorts in those days. But strangely, nobody from his class failed in the final exams! What a teacher. After leaving school I only managed to see him once before he passed away.
There were also those teachers who are best forgotten. They were there just for the pay and couldn't care less if the students learnt anything.
I came across some lovely poems about teachers and decided to post them here in honour of Teacher's Day, and also for my wife who happens to be a teacher also.
Unity
I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child’s mind
And they fashioned it with care.
One was a teacher:
the tools she used were books and music and art;
One was a parent
With a guiding hand and gentle loving heart.
And when at last their work was done,
They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had worked into the child
Could never be sold or bought!
And each agreed she would have failed
if she had worked alone.
For behind the parent stood the school,
and behind the teacher stood the home!
- Ray A. Lingenfelter
Children Learn What They Live
If children live with hostility,
they learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule,
they learn to be shy.
If children live with tolerance,
they learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement,
they learn confidence.
If children live with praise,
they learn to appreciate.
If children live with fairness,
they learn justice.
If children live with security,
they learn faith.
If children live with approval,
they learn to like themselves.
If children live with acceptance, and friendship,
they learn to find love in the world.
- Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph. D.
There were also those teachers who are best forgotten. They were there just for the pay and couldn't care less if the students learnt anything.
I came across some lovely poems about teachers and decided to post them here in honour of Teacher's Day, and also for my wife who happens to be a teacher also.
Unity
I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child’s mind
And they fashioned it with care.
One was a teacher:
the tools she used were books and music and art;
One was a parent
With a guiding hand and gentle loving heart.
And when at last their work was done,
They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had worked into the child
Could never be sold or bought!
And each agreed she would have failed
if she had worked alone.
For behind the parent stood the school,
and behind the teacher stood the home!
- Ray A. Lingenfelter
Children Learn What They Live
If children live with hostility,
they learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule,
they learn to be shy.
If children live with tolerance,
they learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement,
they learn confidence.
If children live with praise,
they learn to appreciate.
If children live with fairness,
they learn justice.
If children live with security,
they learn faith.
If children live with approval,
they learn to like themselves.
If children live with acceptance, and friendship,
they learn to find love in the world.
- Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph. D.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Local 'Hot' News
It was reported that a Member of Parliament tried to influence the Customs Department to 'close one eye' over an illegal import of sawn timber from Indonesia. It seems he(The MP) is the sole proprietor of the company that was involved in this case. This issue was brought up in Parliament by the opposition leader. Is this something new? Something unusual? Unheard of? NAH....
What made the news was the support given to this issue by the Chief of the Backbencher's Club. The BBC is part of the political party that is in power today in this country. For somebody from the ruling party to support a motion from the opposition - this is unheard of. It is not only news but made history. That man has character. Unfortunately the powers that be were not impressed by his actions and so he resigned from his post. That was a sad day for Malaysian politics and showed the immaturity of most Malaysian politicians. Enough said.
The news nearer to home is a number of parents are driving their children to a town called Sungai Petani so that their children can take part in the inter-district tennis tournament. Some of them have to wait from morning to 7.00pm while their children run around the tennis courts in the hot sun! I was more fortunate as one of the parents kindly offered to give my son a lift to the tournament leaving me free to post my blog (heh heh). Of course I phone him every now and then to see how he and his friends are faring. He seems to be enjoying himself.
Much nearer to home, a Royal Military Air Force plane(Pilatus PC-7 MK II) crashed into the padi fields about less than 1km from my house. I could see the tail of the plane sticking out into the air from where I was standing which was about 100m from my house. You could hear the sound of ambulances and police cars and helicopters bringing some excitement to the locals. As there was no explosion, I sincerely hope no one was seriously injured. We will get the details in tomorrow's paper. Couldn't take the picture with my H/P due to the distance. There is a railway line and the North-South Highway between me and the plane, not to mention the 1000m distance!
Picture from a local newspaper.
What made the news was the support given to this issue by the Chief of the Backbencher's Club. The BBC is part of the political party that is in power today in this country. For somebody from the ruling party to support a motion from the opposition - this is unheard of. It is not only news but made history. That man has character. Unfortunately the powers that be were not impressed by his actions and so he resigned from his post. That was a sad day for Malaysian politics and showed the immaturity of most Malaysian politicians. Enough said.
The news nearer to home is a number of parents are driving their children to a town called Sungai Petani so that their children can take part in the inter-district tennis tournament. Some of them have to wait from morning to 7.00pm while their children run around the tennis courts in the hot sun! I was more fortunate as one of the parents kindly offered to give my son a lift to the tournament leaving me free to post my blog (heh heh). Of course I phone him every now and then to see how he and his friends are faring. He seems to be enjoying himself.
Much nearer to home, a Royal Military Air Force plane(Pilatus PC-7 MK II) crashed into the padi fields about less than 1km from my house. I could see the tail of the plane sticking out into the air from where I was standing which was about 100m from my house. You could hear the sound of ambulances and police cars and helicopters bringing some excitement to the locals. As there was no explosion, I sincerely hope no one was seriously injured. We will get the details in tomorrow's paper. Couldn't take the picture with my H/P due to the distance. There is a railway line and the North-South Highway between me and the plane, not to mention the 1000m distance!
Picture from a local newspaper.
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