Formal Education against Creativity and Ambitions..Oil and Water..

So finally a blog post on the Education System of Malaysia.. Though, this is no usual rant and complaint you have heard from any parent. Screw the timing, screw the syllabus, screw the Bahasa Malaysia or English compromise. What's more important is the outcome; and that ain't good.

Not only does our formal education inhibits our creativity but the ability to dream big, to follow our ambitions, to prove, how smart we really are. The syllabus by itself is a drag for the students, but, the way it is taught makes it worse, the stress cause by the thought of the coming Public Exam, made it a kettle of water pouring into a larger pot of boiling oil (please, do not try this at home). There's nothing to blame here except ourselves.

First of all, the core subjects, English & Math; compared to many other nations, we have the slowest bloody syllabus for a country as modern as ours. The pain is when the last three years (Form 4, 5 & 6), everything is rather cramped up; making complacency and sudden accumulation of stress a common enemy. Still, as we head out into a private university, some students are no match. It does not make any sense. What's more stressful? the addition of new subjects (after streaming) during the years which these cores are "crammy".

Bio, Chem and Physics in two years for me was fun, though, it could have been more fun, I mean, the practical work that we got were all boring. The teachers are usually afraid that we may break something or the school does not have enough apparatuses. So, at an average, the sciences were boring, coming into Form 4, it was already stressful having the thought that SPM was at the end of the next year. For a sixteen year-old, it ain't fun. All we needed was a different approach to learning, once in awhile. Is it bad for all teachers to used one simple and fun way if it is effective? I wonder what do the teachers do in conferences?

STPM was the next likely (supposedly) step for a Malaysian. But no, it is not, its not popular because its just unnecessarily difficult, waste of one and a half years and it does not prep people for university. It's funny how you learnt so much but other people from say, foundation courses, do better. Its a do or die situation, 5 or 4 A's or you won't get to do what you really want to do. The other problem is, you'd have no idea how to do research papers and assignments the way universities want you too, so no matter how smart you are, you might just get stuck.

I think formal education drains the creativity and the ability to think from our brains; as it was mostly used for memorizing things. It had brainwashed into a community who does not criticize properly, foresight-less, and a follower of any system. Like our days in school, if we didn't like it, we'd complaint amongst our friends and throw insults at our teachers or talked behind their backs. Looks fucking similar in the whole country; political situations, religious compromise, human rights, and quality or living and service; if we have a problem, we tolerate, but tolerance has its limits you see.

For people in the creative field, after getting out of school, they'd never feel the same about creating things; "finally, the freedom, but I feel rusty, and my vision is boxed in". Many have great talent you may argue, but can they do their potential best. Just maybe, if their skills were sharpened at an early age, they'd would have the thought and experience to do better.

They say it is difficult to find what you love. It's different actually, I think it is difficult to keep loving or in love with something. Like for me, I always had a fascination in Particle Physics; sounds big, but its something I am interested in; people around me weren't dreaming as big and formal education had boxed me in. I'd just waste my time if I learnt art or biology but I did it, and liked it, hence, indecisiveness. Many people are like that all over the world. Our brains are used up by things that do not really matter. What's the good in being knowledgeable or an all-rounder when you still do not get to indulge in an interest.

I hate that Chinese mentality about getting a good job for money, hence a good marriage and then a good life. Somehow, it's stuck in every teenager's mind; although I am not a conformer and hated to be one, there's no choice, I had to compromise. If I had a choice, Particle Physics under some willing professor... but no, I need formal fuckeducation.

Practice makes perfect;

So theoretically, if a student loves design and follows a path that leads here there, doing design all the way, having surface knowledge of important things; she'd be a better designer than a girl who'd studied biology, chemistry and physics until college?

If that's true, formal education is just conned up........

BTW, why the hell does the art stream in Malaysia not have design or proper art? Or even art classes that thought the techniques of drawing and painting rather than "Here's an art block, do something nice".

Internet; a bad thing. (research project declassified)

At first, the internet was used as a database of information shared all over the world and as a simple communication tool opened to the whole world. Slowly but indefinitely though, negative issues arouse about its safety and the freedom it provides to the society. Hence, the Internet can be termed as a negative influence because it encourages unhealthy social behaviours, divides nations, and allows unethical usage.

Internet advancements suggested that there are no boundaries to what you can do in an online environment. Though there are boundaries now (online laws), yet, many still seek ways to cross them. As such, Flew (2005) suggested that the internet has given the opportunity for one to play, create deception of, and adopt many other personas. Subsequently, there are people who try to pose as other people to gain some sort of advantage and others just to have fun. Having an impostor in the system can build negative issues. Jordan (cited in Flew 2005) wrote about a girl who chose to have gay male sex online in South Miami Beach, Florida, USA (where the gay community was large) just for kicks. Besides that, there were many cases of rather “fake” medical specialists causing their mentally or physically ill patients more traumatized (Jordan 1999). This virtual environment is unhealthy for the social well-being of humans.

The Internet is the largest source of information and news. On the other hand, it is also the largest source for explicit media. For example, there is, pornography. In this case, the most unethical use of the Internet is the spread of child pornography. Any images, video of a child’s body or child portraying sexual acts is child pornography (Ost 2002). “Extreme hardcore child pornography may include images of the infliction of sadistic, physical harm to the child and occasionally, may even end in the child’s death,” Pierce (quoted in Ost 2002). Not only that, the spread of pornography through the easily accessible Internet, is also highly unethical itself. This is because the Internet is open to the whole public; young and old. Especially for the youngsters, pornography is no doubt a bad influence.

Many argue that the Internet is a stepping stone to globalisation. However, the Internet has become more of a divider of nations. This is because ICT technologies take longer time to be transferred to other parts of the world. The technology of computers and the rapid advancements of the internet have played the biggest part in dividing the world while many others think that it is the first step towards globalisation or a world without borders. This is called the Digital Divide; where digital mass media creates inequalities of access to different Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that is cause by social, economical and geographical inequalities (Flew 2005). The most tremendous digital divide is between the First World economies and lesser economies (Flew 2005). As proof; “A North American child is 19.5 times more likely to have internet access than a child from the Asia Pacific, 28.5 times more likely to have internet access than a child from Latin America, and 195 times more likely to have internet access than a child from Africa” (Flew 2005). These statistics were taken several years ago but this tells us a bit about how divided the world was at that time. As the internet and computers being one of the fastest growing technologies, it can be deduced that slower countries will have too much catching up to do -compared to those countries that allow faster logistics or technology transfers and at the same time have the infrastructural capability and compatibility to install such technologies-. As a result, divides the world further.

Of Machetes and Desperation

A few days ago, my bro came back home and told me he got robbed. For a second I thought he'd lost everything in his pocket and his arm or something; I asked "where?" 

He was robbed at a pub, by a bunch of masked machete wielders. My bro said they were Indians -who do not know how to take care of their weapons- as their machetes were rather rusty. For once I was proud of my juniors in the 10th Petaling Troop for having better equiptment. These robbers were rather nice, they let the customers of the pub (whom they robbed from) have their wallets back. "Good Samaritans". They were rather desperate and patient too; some of the customers actually threw their money on the floor just to watch those pathetic robbers kneel and pick up the money. One more thing, how are they gonna kill with a rusty machete? might just shatter if one were to retaliate using another metal object, right?

Sigh..What has the world become? So desperate and pathetic some people can be. This saddens me down to my balls. The world is or rather Malaysia is producing more and more bollocks.

6 to 7 men; masked; wielding machetes, rusted machetes (still laughing at that fact); 6 to 7 more getaway motorcyclists...Seen them before? I heard of a cyber cafe and a coffee shop being robbed by a group of people that fit that description  but I haven't seen a single newspaper post on it, or maybe it was hidden somewhere in there.

So guys, and girls, beware; rusty machetes not only will injure you but it also increases your chances of getting "sawan babi"...keep a look out for these bastards and report them to the police quick!

More on Stereotyping....Just Quit It!

Adding to the previous posts of hates... There are many slightly more liberal, and open minded people; who sometimes seek justice for their fellow Indonesians who were ill treated. It is true some that Malaysians treat Indonesians quite badly and stereotyped them as criminals and all, but this is the consequence of stepping into another country; especially in a large number and in desperation.

What Malaysians did wrong was to stereotype each Indonesian as a criminal, or illegal foreigner or anything like that. It is also wrong to stereotype we Malaysians as a bunch of bullies. Both blardy sides are wrong and the only way to resolve this issue is that both parties work together.

It is in the individual and not nationality that makes the person steal or kill. Though one's nationality would influence different needs and wants of that individual, but the choice of doing crime is all in their personality. So why blame Indonesia? More than half of the Indonesians I met are normal people. Those who were abused is a small figure compared to the number of Indonesians here.

On the other hand, why blame Malaysians? Not all of us are bullies and cultural thieves. Though, in many cases, Indonesians were caught, but that's because they broke the law. If they were caught for nothing and punished for nothing, once again, just blame stereotyping. We, Malaysians and Indonesians share so many things in common so why bother fighting?

Firstly, most Indonesians who come to work are desperate so they may have to resort to committing crimes and may be forced to do unwanted things; normal human nature I guess. On the other hand, Malaysians think that these individuals are good labour. Its a stale-mate.

Once again, I reiterate my stand that we shall not stereotype people from other countries. Because that just makes smart and civil people angry; and therefore, insulting the stereotypist..

Someone Out There Really Hates Malaysia..

Today's post will be about stereotyping and unnecessary Public Display of Stupidity..

I have found this blog written by someone (he's from Indonesia) deeply in loathe with Malaysia, and posts "disgustingly" about Malaysia. Although certain posts had the essence of truth in it, it was all spoiled by the blogger's childish remarks and imaginations of what he thinks Malaysia is. Poor Malaysia. My blood was boiling as I read the "self licking blogger's" posts, that fellaa had so much anger, resentment and just pure "cow dung". I couldn't stand "that piece of crap's" hate for Malaysia, and his non-working mind!

"The CCB's" posts turned bits of truth into a wholesome bunch of lies. Kudos to "the cunt" for good journalism. TWO THUMBS UP..."that clown's" ARSEHOLE! (maybe ten thumbs to make him suffer, ten thumbs of gays). The "bugger's" posts were filled with emotion; spilling with emotion, that is, I correct myself; but none of it when through a working brain, I guess. It went through the "butcrack's" brain but it went through as smooth as diarrhea (I meant he did not use his brains). =)

For "the pothole" to blog about another country like that, I think, Indonesians would be ashamed of him/her. I guess, Indonesia and Malaysia are meant to share the certain cultures because the two countries where so closely related and the fact that it was apart of "The Kepulauan Melayu". It was a misunderstanding of traditional cultures; by Discovery Channel (from America, one country that does not know crap about ASEAN countries).

I found his blog through a friend who linked the blog in Facebook...after a few comments, this random girl commented that she'd support this dude who wanted to "whack" Indonesians; so it seemed. This dude just wanted that "cucumber in the butthole" to bleed, not Indonesians. The girl was caught red-handed for being a racist and stereotypist. haha...she got a lecture right away from the dude and I about how we should not judge a whole country by one man or one event,just as the "blogger" did and so shouldn't you.

The nicknames given in bold and in inverted commas is the writer..that's about all the chance I have to insult him..

Here's the disgusting link:

http://www.malingsia-donkey.blogspot.com/

Live In-Tolerance!

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/28767

That URL, check it out. You'll have to read that before you can understand.

First thing I want to say about this is what in hell is this thing all about? sacrificing a poor cow for that? I really hope the cow head was bought from the market and the rest of the cow was used properly for our friends who are going to "buka puasa".

This shit is not only inconsiderate but I feel it is just, extreme! Malaysia, supposedly a peacefully country, is in this kinda mess? I live in Shah Alam, and I admit, the amount of Malays & Muslims in ratio to other races is kinda overwhelming but this does not mean they own the land here. Whatever those people did, local or not local just disgusts me. An indian temple there would not hurt anyone right? Can't we just tolerate other religions like how I learned to stand the "noise" at 6 in the morning?

My bro said:

The last time a severed head was brought into a measly confrontation, our rivers ran red with blood.

Anyone remembered anything like that?

I ain't just a complainer...=)

This post is the second part of MALAYSIA BOLEH? It's more like a finishing touch to my "constructive" criticism. So, in this post I will share some of my plausible ideas and hopefully inspire better minds to come up with something for real. Besides that, my likes and dislikes about my beloved country...

Here are some of my "funky" ideas:

1. Drainage systems that extend under roads and allows water to seep into soil
2. Cars with a "cooldown" button, allowing engines to have slower revs during jams.
3. Car interiors with heat resistance -I just hate black leather seats, heard of BBQ bums?-
4. A specially shaped umbrellas to shield pedestrians from rain water blown into them
5. Planting trees all over the city and have irrigation techniques that reduce damage or property done by tree roots
6. Genetically modified grass for our football pitches.
7. WARNING, HIGH LEVEL OF STUPIDITY- teh tarik and teh ais vending machines.
8. Piping that allows natural (sun) heaters for showers.
9. Using heat resistant materials for building -e.g. foam for exterior
10. Coloured tar roads that reflect heat but still not blind drivers.
11. Fashion fit for hot weather. we need a new and local brand

Now my likes and dislikes..

I'm proud of
1.Malaysian timing - how we can use it as an excuse, just awesome.
2.Manglish -one word for that; convenient-
3. Good food -you nod in agreement-
4. Being able to find food at 3am -once again, you nod in agreement-
5. Brave DVD vendors -gosh, how else would I be able to watch Ironman 9 times?-
6. Brave throwing experts (newspaper vendors) -UNSUNG HEROES-
7. Able to find random comedy
8. Air Asia
9.Bak Kut Teh

I'm not so proud of:
1. Pity toward students resulting in lower education levels
2. Staying up late culture
3. Drivers (sometimes, including myself)
4. Orang puith cakap macam tu, kita ikut pulak
5. Services

Malaysia Boleh?

I wish to share my thoughts on Malaysia's development..Now, don't be childish, who said there isn't any progressive development in Malaysia?
Well, look at the Petronas Twin Towers, KLIA, the man who went to space and had roti canai. Malaysia's few milestones but is it really that Malaysian? Petronas towers - 99% designed by Europeans; KLIA - designed by a Jap; Angkasawan - if he were an engineer or something, he would have been some help rather wasting space in space. I do not want to start on Proton.

Eye of Malaysia copied the Eye of London, most probably, the picture was taken at night to hide the dirty water.

Malaysians, I think, there's lack of creativity and ingenuity when it comes to development; or maybe we just don't really care; or we find it hard to mass produce things. You see, "Malaysia is truly asia" & "Malaysia is unique" quoted from the travel adverts, I feel, are words that really, really signify Malaysia. Truly asia and unique, but still, we Malaysians often settle for innovations from the far west, the far east and as far from the equator as possible. Some technology just can't work efficiently here. For example, convertible cars, powerful cars, umbrellas, highways, latest fashions and many more!

Developed countries just aren't the same as Malaysia. Therefore, a lot of technologies are just not suited for the environment here and the fact that Malaysia tends to follow the G8's footsteps to achieve development; just makes us sound like copycats. Furthermore, the weather here affects many things but Malaysians never thought of adapting to it; instead, we think that it's just something we have to live with; typical Malaysian thinking. More research and engineering should be done to make Malaysia better. That is if and only if Malaysians start to think for the country, and not thinking of trying to get out of its weird political situations.

These pictures were on the first Google page for image search "Malaysia". - I realized what most of the world would see first when they type "Malaysia" on Google Images-

Most man-made attractions of Malaysia are not truly Malaysian products. How can we be proud of that? So, where's the originality?Only the natural beauty of our country is "ori" from Malaysia. No wonder the Europeans thought we lived in trees; cause they were doing the building for us all along.

A Community Service Message

YES, it's on H1N1..

Goodness gracious, people who has flu or cough, wear a mask or stay at home and get screened. I know wearing a mask is not the most suitable and fashionable way to match your face with your clothes but its for the sake of others; especially ppl close to you (not including ur loved ones who are at home).

But somehow, Malaysians are just, -searching for a word- well, MALAYSIANS. I was in an elevator with another couple; this lady wearing a mask came in and the couple, got worried and moved away from the poor lady (who was just trying to be a good citizen); not only that, the couple covered their mouths and noses and staring at the lady as if she had bathed in piss.

I was annoyed. So, I looked at the lady, smiled and signaled to her to not bother about the couple. LMAO. When ppl use masks, you don't really need to cover your holes anymore, cause if the masks do not work, you think your hands would? -Jamie Oliver wasn't talking about H1N1 prevention when he told the TV world that "our hands are the best filters". -

I thought that the lady did her job as a civilized Malaysian; I shall not describe the couple...My point is, if you have the symptoms take precautions like wearing a mask or staying at home (not till the extent of infecting your family). Take initiative, we are Malaysians heading towards a brighter future and Wawasan 2020. Humans develope nations, therefore our brains must "develope" first or our nation won't.

My thoughts on H1N1

This type of flu (Influenza A(H1N1)), is an a$$ of a virus, it spreads fast but kills rather few; so when the worldwide alert goes out, the chillin' and laid back Malaysian people took it for granted. Just like what most of us would do to fliers distributed in public areas; throw it in a recycling bin, no wait, -we don't do much recycling here- the drain or the closest place we find dirty enough for trash. So, when reported deaths hit the newspapers, everyone goes havoc and starts getting all worried. So now, a helpful group of young community loving teens cant get to do some "community helping". Yes, I was apart of that group, you caught me. Therefore, I repeat, its an a$$ of a virus, no wonder H1N1 looks like "HINI" when handwritten -which can be pronounced like "HINEY"-.

Influenza A(H1N1) .... People suffering from this virus attack can die of other diseases including a normal flu and guess what, there's great resemblance between the normal flu and this H1N1; so, ppl die thinking its just a normal flu. Yet, we Malaysians were so comfortable going around in public places making contact with random and likely infected ppl just a few weeks ago, while numbers for infected patients started to rise in Malaysia. Now, there are 13 deaths (06/08/09). Some people even thought their late family members were just having the typical flu, so they didn't bother to get themselves screened. They would have only lost ten points in a game show for a wild guess like that, but in reality, they'd lost a life and maybe caused others their lives too due to contageous infection. Kudos to them!

So, ppl living on Earth, please be notified, check yourseves and check again to see if you have the virus. Its just unfortunate and coincidental that there's another virus going round, it ain't Influenza A(H1N1) but its no reason for you to not check yourself; now please dont flatter yourselves in front of the mirror. Remembering the late Mike Jackson's song - Man in the Mirror; "if u wanna make the world a better, go and check yourselves at the nearest clinic".

I also read about the health ministry limiting throat swabs for suspected patients, great way to curb the virus eh.. this pregnant woman had difficulty breathing after catching a flu for a few days but the nurses told her she couldn't get a throat swab because she did not fully (100%) fit the criteria to get tested.. Way to go Doc's, you could have killed two there; how sick has the mother and her soon-to-be born child got to be to get tested? Sick enough so the test results would confirm their cause of death? Lucky enough, this family were a smarter bunch, took themselves to a private hospital for treatment and survived to tell TheStar their story. Quoting the article's last 3 paragraphs:

How ironic when I read last week that the Health Minister said the latest directive was to have all high-risks groups treated really fast although they had yet to be confirmed with the influenza A (H1N1) virus.

To improve the identification of patients infected with the virus, he said a new set of guidelines would be issued to doctors on how to “increase the index of suspicion of patients with influenza A (H1N1)”.

Only now after the disease has spread and the casualty number has increased are we talking about early detection!

Really, I'm just pissed at how Malaysia was handling this when it started, especially after hearing what officials had to say when the number of deaths started rising. Other countries would be laughing at us going "I told you so!". Where were the notifications? I didn't see it in the newspapers, I saw notifications around my college but is that enough? What about he schools that were closed down, did any information get through to students there? What's the use if our leaders controlled the media? All the news we got was about a man's death and how it suddenly relates to racial tension, and how one party disses the other (which disses me instead) but not about a worldwide pandemic...What The Fenomena ?(WTF?) Papers should have reached out to most ppl, if not, Astro would. The government licensed Astro, use it for the good of the country for Malaysia's sake!