Things You Should Know About Women

1. The most important thing for a woman is financial security.

2. Although this is so important, they still go out and buy expensive clothes and stuff.

3. Although they always buy expensive clothes, they never have something to wear.

4. Although they never have something to wear, they always dress beautifully.

5. Although they always dress beautifully, their clothes are always just “an old rag”.

6. Although their clothes are always “just an old rag”, they still expect you to compliment them.

7. Although they expect you to compliment them, when you do, they don’t believe you.

Midnight Thought

To err is human; to blame it on somebody else shows management potential.

How true this is! Some people are really good at pointing their fingers at others. Blaming other people can always make you appear good, but will it last? I do not think so. There are a lot of differences between someone with substance and someone with just empty talks. We only need to observe with a clear, objective and critical mind and we will see.

Someone may preach about a lot of things but to me, actions always speak louder than words.

The sad thing is that this kind of people manage to get their way and progress in their lives because they manage to hide their weaknesses by exposing the weaknesses of others. They are very good and deceiving and convincing others.

But like I said, their success will short-live. Truth will reveal itsef sooner or later.

What is Malaysia Day?

If you don't know it, don't feel bad. A lot of people especially the younger ones are with you.

Here is some info I found from Wikipedia.

Malaysia Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A national ceremony celebrates the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 in Singapore.Malaysia Day is held on September 16 every year to commemorate the establishment of the Malaysian federation on the same date in 1963. It marked the joining together of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore to form Malaysia. The formation of the new federation was planned to occur on June 1, 1963, but was later postponed to August 31, 1963, in order to coincide with the sixth Hari Merdeka. Several issues related to the Indonesian and the Filipino objection to the formation of Malaysia delayed the declaration to September 16 of the same year. The postponement was also done to allow the United Nations team time to conduct referendums in North Borneo (now Sabah) and Sarawak regarding the two states participation in a new federation.[1]

The formation of Malaysia was made possible through the introduction of the Malaysia Bill to the Malayan Parliament on July 9, 1963, and consent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on August 29, 1963.[1]

Prior to the formation of Malaysia, Singapore and North Borneo unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom on August 31, 1963, thus coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the Malayan independence.

Beginning year 2010, September 16 is a federal public holiday. It coincides with the birthday of the Yang di-Pertua of Sabah.[2]

An act beyond comprehension

If we take serious note of the news everyday, we would be shaking our heads in disbelief to hear the same stories over and over again. Carjacking when people left their car running unlocked for a few seconds, girls and women tricked into being drug mules, ladies conned of their money by some smooth-talking, loving ‘foreigner’, people parted with their money in some get-rich-quick and scratch-and-win schemes, women cheated, raped or molested by bomohs or mediums- these are among the common stories we come across very frequently.

But all these stories are nothing compared to the murders of Datuk Sosilawati and her companions. To say that the murders are brutal is an understatement. The murders are simply beyond imagination, spoiled the Hariraya mood of everybody, and the whole nation is still in shocked as more and more information surfaced.

What is happening to our society? Are we too trusting? Have people lost their humane nature and becoming animals? Are there any ways we can stop all these?

One thing we all know is that humans by nature are greedy. When greed meets carelessness or plain stupidity, a disaster will happen. And it is even worse when greed comes with violence.

I would suggest these types of news are highlighted more, in more effective ways. Maybe these stories should be highlighted in schools for the benefits of the children and their parents. Important issues like these should not be left aside. Let the children start thinking of all the possibilities for them to take precautions, and maybe communicate this with their parents as well, who might also be ignorant on the matters.

More awareness surely will help the people to be more alert. Responsible parents should always be alert themselves and teach their children to be the same. We should always remind ourselves that if something could happen to other people, it can happen to us.

I can confidently say that our society is such that parents and schools never encourage the children to keep abreast with current news. It’s time we did so.

Education Ministry making a costly blunder

This is my earlier letter which was published
by the Star on Friday March 26, 2010
Education Ministry making a costly blunder


The letters “Stress on grammar, not phonics” (The Star, March 24) and “Grammar matters more than phonetics” (The Star, March 25) really caught my attention. I wish to add a couple of points in support of their views.

I totally agree with both writers that the Education Ministry has obviously got its priority wrong again. Bringing in foreign teachers to teach Malaysians to “pronounce English words as spoken by native speakers” is an expensive mistake that will take us nowhere as far as improving our standard of English is concerned.

First of all, as mentioned by both the writers, it is the grammar that is the problem. While most Malaysians can pronounce the English words well enough to be understood, it is the grammar that leaves much to be desired.

The priority is thus to really focus on grammar, and the way it is taught needs to be revised for it to be effective.

Secondly, I have been wondering all these years why we never make use of the phonetics symbols, available in every good dictionary, to help us with the pronunciation.

Every English teacher must learn phonetics, and they can in turn teach students to learn the correct pronunciation themselves.

Sadly, I have never heard of phonetics symbols being taught in Malaysian schools. If the above cannot be done for some reason, there is even a better solution nowadays.

In this technological age, digital dictionaries always come with the recorded sound for each word, both in American and British pronunciations. Just click on the words and you can hear how they are pronounced immediately, any time you want! How expensive can a digital dictionary be?

Much has been said about the sad state of our education system, yet again we are seeing another costly blunder being developed by those responsible to salvage it. I will ask the same question that many have asked: What has happened to this country?

A. HASHIM,
Sungai Petani.

Education: Let’s set it right

My letter in NST 8 Sep 2010
Education: Let’s set it right


I REFER to the letter, “Education is not all about scoring As”(NST, Aug 4), from C. Arjun and the recent discussions on our education system.
For years, many have debated on the deteriorating quality of Malaysian education, but there has not been much change. Every time results of an examination are announced, the media is full of stories about the top scorer s.

As a result of the “A-Syndrome”, our children struggle with homework, extra classes and tuition at the expense of their childhood pleasures. Some survive and succeed.

Some fail and give up, drop out from school and join the bands of kaki lepak, mat rempit and drug users as they lose interest and hope in education. Some even commit suicide when the pressure gets too much.
What happens to those who endure the hardship and graduate from universities? The common complaint is about the difficulty they face landing decent jobs.

Not long ago, Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah acknowledged that our graduate unemployment rate was one of the highest at four per cent, and there seemed to be a “mis - match between our industry’s needs and the output from local univer sities”.

This comes as no surprise. I am not an expert on education, but having been in human resources management for more than 18 years, I have interviewed many fresh graduates. A majority lack soft skills. They are unable to express themselves, let alone present views or arguments when asked.
It is no secret that most multinationals prefer graduates from foreign universities as they are perceived to be more confident and h ave better interpersonal skills.

Therefore, we need to change the way we do things in school.

Children must be trained to speak their minds freely at every opportunity, thus exposing them to reasoning and communication skills and developing self-confidence.
For example, portfolio assignments should focus on topics that require students to provide their own input rather than just presenting a search-copy-paste-print- and-bind project. They could even be asked to present their portfolios before the class, allowing the teacher and other students to listen, ask questions and give their opinions.

A simple school trip could be organised in such a way to improve students’ observation and analytical skills. Follow-up discussions could be held, making it more worthwhile.

Quality education at primary and secondary levels should focus on comprehensive development of the child, with academic expectations balanced with games and informality, as opposed to the present system which suppresses self-reliance and motivation.

We need schools with invigorating, stimulating and inspiring classroom environments, where students will come to know themselves and love learning.

It is also important for policy makers to ensure that the purpose of the curriculum and activities is not lost in the implementation.

Other countries have examinations, but in the United Kingdom, for example, students are not evaluated on how many As they get, but on how they think and prog ress.
Tests and assessments are used mostly to diagnose needs and to target instructional resources where they can help the most, rather than to sort and screen.

Most exam questions do not ask for memorised facts. They ask for “how” and “why ” and the justification for the answers. And a big percentage of the grade comes from projects, not just exams.

Parents are called to meet the subject teachers every two to three months to discuss the students’ progress and to identify improvement needs. In Malaysia, parents meet only the class teachers and only after the exam results are out.

I was told that in Japan, Australia and some other developed countries, the students do not have homework because exercises are done in school during the last 20 minutes of the period after the teacher finishes the lesson.

They learn better that way because the lesson taught is still fresh in their minds and the teacher is still around to explain, thus making tuition classes almost unheard of. Look at the amount of homework our kids have every day, besides attending tuition classes.

Recent reports seem to point to Finland as having the best education system in the world. Perhaps Malaysia can send a team to benchmark the system and p r a c t i c e s.

We desperately need a metamorphosis of education to create a school environment that is fun and motivating, which promotes creativity, initiative, individuality and curiosity instead of the current one which relies on rote learning, fact-regurgitation and conformity in order to pass exams.

Unfortunately, the action taken so far to improve the quality of our education is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Ti t a n i c .

We must re-engineer our education ship to take us to the right destination in the sea of challenges; we don’t need a sophisticated ship that takes us to the wrong port. I hope the current discussions on our education system will finally put us back on the right course. It is insane to do the same things over and over again and expect different outcomes.

A. HASHIM Sungai Petani, Kedah

Bon Jovi - I'll be there for you with lyrics

Cerita daun ketum

Dua hari lepas aku terjumpa sorang kawan lama dari kampung yang sudah hampir 30 tahun aku tak jumpa. Sebab lama tak jumpa, kami berbual panjang, dan cerita yang aku dapat dari dia adalah sesuatu yang unik yang aku tak pernah dengar secara terperinci dari orang lain.

Kawan aku ni dari keluarga miskin. Selepas sekolah rendah, dia tak mampu meneruskan persekolahan dan hanya membuat kerja kampung, kais pagi makan pagi. Tapi kini dia adalah seorang yang boleh dikatakan kaya-raya, dengan rumah banglo besar dan 5 buah kereta. Di hari dia berjumpa aku, dia sebenarnya datang untuk melihat sebuah rumah untuk dibelikan untuk anaknya yang akan berkahwin tak lama lagi.

Yang menjadikan dia kaya ialah perniagaan daun ketum. Aku rasa aku tak perlu huraikan apa itu daun ketum sebab semua orang tahu. Tapi untuk yang belum tahu, pokok ketum memang banyak di Malaysia, terutama di utara semenanjung di kawasan berhampiran sawah padi. Di zaman dahulu, rebusan daun ketum digunakan oleh petani dan pekerja buruh untuk memberikan tenaga dan menghilangkan rasa letih.

Dipendekkan cerita, kawan aku ni dah agak lama mengusahakan tanaman ketum, dari satu ekar tanah sehingga sekarang 6 ekar. Dia tidak memproses daun ketum tersebut, tetapi cuma menjual daun dengan harga RM 45 hingga RM 60 sekilo. Di Malaysia, menananm dan menjual daun ketum belum lagi mejadi kesalahan, tidak seperti di Thailand yang mengharamkan terus penanaman pokok ketum. Pembeli-pembelinya yang memproses daun ketum untuk dijual. Permintaan untuk daun ketumnya memang tinggi hingga dari Thailand dan dia sekarang tidak dapat memenuhi semua permintaan dan bercadang untuk menambah ladang ketumnya. Purata pendapatan kawan aku sekarang ini sekurang-kurangnya RM9,000 setiap dua minggu. Memang menakjubkan bagi budak kampung yang belajar hanya setakat Darjah 6.

Salah seorang pembelinya pula memproses daun ketum dan menjual air daun ketum di satu pekan di utara tanah air. Harga jualan sebungkus air dau ketum telah meningkat dari RM 1 satu masa dulu hingga RM 2.50 sekarang kerana permintaan yang banyak. Pengusaha tersebut mampu menjual sehingga 1,000 bungkus sehari. Rebusan daun ketum dicampur dengan beberapa bahan merbahaya seperti ubat nyamuk dan sedikit racun tertentu untuk memberikan rasa 'high' kepada pengguna, terutama penagih dadah. Yang peliknya, dia terang-terang menjual air daun ketum tak jauh dari sebuah balai polis. Memproses dan menjual air daun ketum adalah menjadi kesalahan di Malaysia sekarang, tetapi dendanya hanya sekitar RM 2,000. Sehari perniagaan cukup untuk membayar denda tersebut.

Tetapi apa yang aku nak ceritakan di sini bukan pasal perniagaan daun ketum. Yang aku nak ceritakan ialah kata-kata kawan aku yang membuatkan aku berfikir panjang.

Kata kawan aku, dulu sebelum dia mengusahakan tanaman ketum, dia sering dihina kerana kemiskinan dan kebodohannya. Tidak ada seorang pun yang menghormatinya sebagai manusia. Dia pernah diludah bila cuba meminjam duit dari seseorang. Bermacam-macam maki hamun dan hinaan dia telah terima.

Tetapi bila dia sudah berjaya dengan perniagaan ketumnya dan menjadi kaya, serta merta dia jadi mulia. Kemana saja dia pergi, dia dipandang tinggi dan diberi layanan istimewa. Orang-orang yang pernah mencacinya dahulu kini datang untuk meminjam duit. Semuanya kerana duit. Katanya, masyarakat sekarang tidak lagi memandang budi pekerti atau kemuliaan akhlak. Tidak penting lagi salah atau betul. Yang penting hanya duit. Kerana duit, seseorang itu nampak mulia. Kerana duit, dia dihormati. Semua yang buruk padanya tiba-tiba menjadi baik.

Sepanjang perjalanan pulang, aku hanya memikirkan apa yang dia cakapkan. Memang ada betulnya. Zaman sekarang, duit adalah segala-galanya. Manusia tidak pentingkan lagi betul atau salah, baik atau buruk. Yang diburu adalah duit, dengan apa cara sekali pun. Yang haram boleh menjadi halal kerana duit.

Memang ini sesuatu yang menakutkan. Tetapi mampukah kita mengawal diri kita? Atau adakah kita juga akan menjadi seperti itu? Mampukah kita pastikan anak-anak kita tidak menjadi begitu?