So they say it is a new dawn...

May 9th came and went, and they say it is a new dawn for Malaysia. Is it? I guess in some way it is. A new gavornment after 60 plus years. Never thought it would happen in my lifetime. After my whole life of living under an affirmative action hijacked by racial issue, it is a welcomed change, and perhaps with it, a little more hope of a better Malaysia.

Yet in the truest sense a lot of things still remain the same. Change, some say, will need to take time. I guess no one can deny that. But then again, we live in heady times. Technology is rapidly changing us. Things are moving at dizzying speeds. And perhaps with that sort of speed, maybe change will speed up too.

I think there many displaced people from the current change. Like me who have grown old under ‘affimative action hijacked’ they too are affected. For those on the other side of the divide, and in Malaysia the divide separates us into Bumi and non-Bumi. Within the Bumi side, there is the Malay and Others; Muslim and non-Muslim too. So imagine, for them too, having grown ‘old’ and being told that they were the ones needing the help; it is a time of feeling lost too.

It always strikes me as funny that we always claim how compassionate the God we believe in is. Yet when it comes to living out our faiths, how often too we become the ‘oppressors’. How we dress, what we eat, what we say..these remain the areas that are being harped on. I’ve come to a conclusion that for raee relations to work, we need to take out religion from the equation. Religion is divisive; not because it teaches us to be that. It is divisive because the believers are humans who want those carnal things ... power, wealth and status.

But, I still look forward to the hope of better things to come.

Die, die also hers....

It is mind boggling how selfish we can be at times these days... especially when it involves kids.

I recently helped a friend's kid figured out a concept for a Science competition. The way I ended up helping her was actually rather crazy. Her Science teacher had threatened them to deduct marks from their monthly test if they did not complete the project for this competition, which was to come up with an idea or concept that is workable based on the United Nation's Envision 2030 plan. Basically it was a vision with 17 goals to transform the world, with sustainability at the core of its vision.

The purpose of the competition was to identify kids with talent to be discovered, our future engineers and scientists so to say. It is a good competition, I would say. Students had to come up with an idea that meets the Envision 2030 goals and produce a video as well. However, this is where things went wrong. The threat of mark deduction was really effective in getting to students to produce something. The teacher only wanted them to produce a video and upload it. They were to put her name as their mentor. Somebody was on her back and she wanted to show that she could... minus all the work, of course. These days, many teachers work on the premise that students are capable of doing everything themselves.... makes me wonder why they even need teachers then?

Well, my friend's kid was flustered. And so she asked me for help. I tried to give some pointers but a week later and still clueless, the kid was even more flustered. And with the school hols coming to an end, the sense of urgency increased. So, with all that, I sat down and typed out an idea for sustainability of city living, complete with the script. What the kid needed to do was just to put it down in video, which she did. In the process, she learned quite a bit about the subject matter and video making too... and so the video got uploaded, just as her classmates. Marks saved.....

Or so that's what we thought... until the results came out. Her work got shortlisted... Was it supposed to be a big deal? It was the only one from the state that got into the list. One of 15 nationwide and her teacher provided no guidance, no comments or anything whatsoever.

This where the whole thing becomes a joke... teachers idea (you could call that guidance, I supposed..). And it got shortlisted. Oh ya! I forgot to add. The said teacher praised a work done by another group saying that it was really good. But ah.. that's just her way of crapping. I took a look at that particular video... it was just a lot of verbose presentation... but did not meet the requirements. So, who should accompany the kids for the selection round? The best 4 will get to represent the country... 8) Their Science teacher is now dead set on being their mentor... LOL!!! Or might I add, this is an international competition.. in English. She can't write well in that for squats... but she wants credits to put on her resume for she is eyeing for so many things... from the lofty menara gading to the acclaimed guru cemerlang.... Makes me wonder... (and no.. I am not keen to go, dread the travelling and waiting. The latter can literally 'kill')

This is the state of our education. Rather a sad state... a script hashed in 10 minutes without much thought is warranted good enough of an idea. Either I am damn creative or the teams could not figure out anything better... And a teacher who is clueless and might I add, without the lingo mastery feels that it is her right to showcase her 'work'.... We are after all in a show and tell system... So, die, die also hers.....

Tell me, what is right anymore???

2018

Time flies... that's when days are filled with things to do. 24 hours feel rather short now but some day, I guess 24 hours in a day will feel long. When they are things to do, time is always short. When there is nothing to do, the tick tock of the seconds reverberates and keeps reverberating, leaving echoes that keep will keep bouncing back, I supposed.

Seasons come and seasons go. When I was still a wee kid, I always thought that being a grown up is such a long way still. Then the secondary school days came, followed by university... and then the wheels just kept turning, and turning. And before long, I am now back at that point when I was just a wee little kid thinking about how far adulthood was. That was the point too when my parents were busy with so many things cos they had so many mouths to feed. 

Busy... everyone is so busy these days. Whatever little community life that remains is almost gone too. What used to be time which we looked forward to small chats with our neighbours or friends are so scant these days. And that little time is now sold to the small screens that never seem to cease entertaining, connecting, occupying our lives... so connected yet so disconnected to everything real at the same time. 

In my lifetime, I have seen how how homes were invaded by the telephones only to leave it. The telephone is now replaced by one which is no more tied to that little desk or corner of the house. And there is no longer just one phone in a house these days. Phones outnumber occupants very often these days. 

Cars... used to be mostly one car one household when I was a kid. 2 cars are the norm these days but anything more than 2 is not unusual too. But who knows, perhaps I will also see this four wheel mechanical transport ease out of our lives too only to be replaced by something that can be summoned from a common pool. 

The one thing that I have learned is when you are a kid, you tend to think that everything you knew would remain the way they were. They don't. Lots of things are fluid. Life itself is fluid, I guess. 

Another year, another attempt at reviving this blog. Somehow, it goes back to time again. There just doesn't seem to be enough of them for now.