Critical thinking, logic and crap...

In the teaching of languages, there are 5 to 6 contexts in which topics are derived from...People, Environment, Social Issues, Values, Health, Science and Technology. I think they forgot to add in another one....Political Awareness. If our country is to move forward, we must bring up a citizenry capable of thinking critically of their government's policies and administration.

Why is this important?? Cos our headlines are filled with news such as these...

First...the Eurocopter fiasco. Different ministers have been giving different figures. Some of them obviously think that rounding off the figures amounting to billions is small change. What is 30 million or 300 million when the figure is 1.67 billion? Wah! This small change can put a person on the Who's Who list. And never mind that these choppers were bought without even a detailed study or tests..... it's just like buying crackers of the supermarket shelves... if they don't taste good, just throw them away and replace. Vaguely remember reading about some planes bought by our gahmen but in the end didn't even see service. Just sat there in the field, wasting away!

Second...the fuel rebate scheme which was introduced when the government increased the petrol prices by some 40 percent. Now that oil prices has come skydiving down, the honourable Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs says there are many complaints from the public regarding this scheme. Is that so? One does not need rocket science to figure out that the scheme is no longer tenable. Period! What complaints? Only idiots would complain when money is given to them. RM625 goes a little way in paying for household expenses, you know!

Third... our leaders seem to think that we're insulated from the recession which is hitting everywhere now.... If the cost of producing a barrel of oil for Petronas is around USD$60 (I may be wrong), then obviously Petronas won't be making that much money. Couple that with the dip in our commodities' prices...again no need for rocket science to figure that the budget that we tabled earlier would be a hard act to keep up.

Fourth...probably the most famous acquittal in our judiciary's history. It enforces the notion that this nation is indeed a nation of Bolehland. One sits in Kamunting...I hope he will not be forgotten....for writing 'stories' related to this debacle. His stories contain such 'preposterous' and sordid details that I think they'd have no problem qualifying as scripts for Desperate Housewives and what have you not...

Fifth...the yo-yoing of the teaching of Maths and Science in English. Face it, the deplorable state of our English is also our own doing....call it racial politics or protecting individual race's interests or the Brit's divide and rule...they're all the same. One objective - so that the brown, yellow, dark skinned flers all will be wary of each other... united we stand, divided ...ah, we stumble along. You stumble your road, I stumble mine. Anyway, this teaching in English thingy,...how to get it to work...when the teachers who are supposed to be the front line flers can't even master the language which is supposed to be the medium of instruction. Again no need for rocket science...

Such is the state we're in... I'm not anti gahmen...I just hope that our leaders have our best interests at heart! For the brown, yellow and dark skinner flers who call this place home!