The gift of towering view...

Being a teacher, I am given a towering view since I have to stand in front of the class for every lesson. Therefore anything happened in a class's compound obviously can be seen. The picture below is the thing that I grabbed when one of the students was busy admiring it as it was the more important thing in the world than the lesson of that day. (Click the image for bigger view)

The old but memorable melody

This melody is my favourite one during Ramadhan. When I was little kid, I stayed with my grandparents since my parents had no house. This melody was played by a radio channel (perhaps RTM) before azan. At that time radio was the only entertainment that we had. While the radio was playing this melody, I always looked out of the window to see the sun set. The combination of the melody and the scenery produced very serene and harmonius effect on the surrounding. Hmm... that good old time. Miss my grandpa and his favourite 'bubur kacang' and 'strawberry jam bread'.

To listen to the song from its original singer Fairuz, click here

The Ramadhan

To all muslims, may this Ramadhan full of blessings for all of us.

A friend of mine

There's a guy, named Fahmi, a friend of mine. He requested to put his Merdeka Day thought in this blog. I invited him to be one of the contributors but he was reluctant to be one. So Fahmi.... Behold! ye request is answered!

What Merdeka means to me.... by Fahmi Mohd Fadzillah

The 31st of August 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of our nation's independence. It is the day we as Malaysians remember the struggles of our forefathers to give us the gift of freedom. Throughout the country, people congregate and wait for the stroke of midnight to shout the magic word "Merdeka!" as we celebrate our freedom. What is freedom? Freedom means a lot of different things to different people. Some see it as their right and others perceive it as their privilege. If freedom is a right, therefore everybody deserves to have. However, do thieves, murderers and rapists deserve freedom? Some of this "humans" don't deserve even life. Therefore this means freedom is not a right because not everybody deserves it. If it is not a right, is it a privilege? If it is a privilege, only a select few can have it. Would freedom still be what it is if it is only enjoyed by certain people? To me freedom is neither a right nor a privilege. Freedom is a responsibility. It is a responsibility to choose what is right and what is wrong. To have freedom means to have the moral obligation to decide to do the right thing. This is a big responsibility. That is why during the early years leading to our independence, there were people among Malaysians who were sceptical about whether we can achieve Merdeka. They may have had many reasons. Perhaps some of them were afraid. To some people, it is easier to do what they are told to do than to figure out what to do by themselves. These are people whose minds and souls are still not independent. They do not have the courage to decide what is right for themselves, their family, their people and their country. Our forefathers fought for independence not just for us to live free. They fought for independence so that we can decide the future of our people. What they have done is to give us the responsibility to determine our destiny and not let a bunch of invading colonials dictate our lives. To honour their sacrifice, we the people of Malaysia, regardless of culture or religion, should always have the courage to take hold of this responsibility that they have fought so hard to get. Whether we achieve greatness or fall in our stride, we must have the responsibility to do it as one people, Malaysians. Even if we stumble along the way, it is our responsibility to pick ourselves up and keep our heads held up high as one people, Malaysians. That is our responsibility. That is what freedoms means to me. That is what Merdeka means to me.

The Password Protected USB Flash Drive

I am using a brand new Toshiba U3 drive and satisfied with the protection system and its user friendly. Now my data are all protected with my own password. I love this device because when I insert it into the USB port, it automatically launches the U3 software.

Read more about this at...http://www.toshiba.com/taec/news/press_releases/2006/memy_06_441.jsp

Ooops... Teacher did it again...

Since I entered the teaching profession, I found that teachers were the most unfortunate creature in Malaysia. Teachers’ conducts are always under the spotlight. The worse thing is media loves to create wonderful story from any mistakes that teachers did. Media speaks people’s mind (I heard this from someone, perhaps a politician). So, it can be concluded that Malaysians has no more respect on teachers (who cares about teachers, even Mufti’s Fatwa nobody wants to follow).

Last few weeks, teachers were reported as cruel entity that whacked their subjects without mercy. Slap, cane, soak, hit, slam, kick, whack were among the famous verbs used in media. Teachers were given barbaric image. The most interesting story and most published was the ‘Pond Squat’ case of Sarawak.

THE STORY: TEACHER WEE, THE PONDY SQUATTY TEACHER

Wee Yim Pien, an English teacher and a hostel warden had gained a bad reputation from her effort to enforce discipline on his ‘anak didik’. She wanted them to live in a hygienic environment but the students reacted negatively towards the rules that she and the school authority set.

The students were punished for their failure of following the rules set. Some of the students failed to understand that sanitary pad is a solid object that is able to stop water flow. They simply threw it into toilet bowl after it was used. Warnings after warnings did not seem to work or to teach them any lesson. Teacher Wee’s patience came to its threshold. The students were soaked in a fish pond after it happened again. This was because there was nobody admitted the offence.

THE EXAGGERATIONS: MEDIA’S FAVOURITE
Media loves to exaggerate. It was reported that the students were soaked in the fish pond during a heavy rain. Teacher Wee denied this statement. She said that the situation was only drizzling and last only for a short period.

The pond was described dirty and contains waste from the nearby canteen. Wee denied this statement and said “We often draw water from the pond for washing. The school has also conducted obstacle courses there.”

SOMETHING TO LOOK ON…

Question:
What are the benefits if Teacher Wee managed to educate the students to throw the sanitary pads into appropriate disposal container?

Answer:
Malaysians will get hygienic environment, pipe leakage can be avoided and can save millions of RM for maintenance cost. The money spent for the maintenance cost can be channelled to any other beneficial matters (such as bonus for civil servants perhaps.. he heh) To get a better idea, read the newspaper extract below,

KUALA LUMPUR: Improper maintenance has resulted in plants and rubbish clogging water outlets, causing water seepage from the roof of the Parliament building, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said. He said the ministry was not going to blame anyone for the situation and that the Government had approved RM12mil for an initial study and immediate repairs to the building...

…..Samy Vellu said the ministry would submit a paper to the Treasury, seeking an allocation to undertake the repairs as well as waterproofing. On the leak from the ceiling of the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital cafeteria, the fifth such incident since the hospital started operations in December last year, he said the ministry would liaise with the Health Ministry on the possibility of putting sanitation boxes in the ladies’ toilets. Hospital director Dr Hariff Fadzilah Che Hashim had blamed the leak on pipes clogged with sanitary pads and disposable napkins. (Source: The Star Online > Nation>Wednesday July 25, 2007)

MY CONCLUSION:
It is very simple and Malaysian. Teachers are the engineers of ‘Modal Insan’. Thank You. Ilalliqa, Ma a’ssalama.

Photo: Teacher Wee, source:The Star Online> Nation>Wednesday July 25,2007.

Le Arome du Sud-Est de Asie

Coming soon.......! How nature teaches us...

I posted this photo on 10.07.2007 but the article was delayed due to the KOF fiesta (My own term. Refer article below for explanation). As promised here is the article.

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July this year is the time for Malaysians to welcome the arrival of ‘His Royal Highness King of the fruits’ (KOF). It is well-known as ‘durian’ {doo-ree-yan}. I have asked somebody who loves durian like bear and its honey-comb about why do we call this durian as King of the fruits. His answer was rather simple and very Malaysian; “I don’t know lah… I just like to eat durian. That’s all”.

As usual, I spent most of my weekend at this KOF feast at my grandma's inherited orchard. While waiting for the HRH KOFs to follow the law of gravity, my ears enjoyed the nature's musical orchestra of mynahs, crickets and merbahs (I do not know its name in English) but my mind kept on spinning with questions. If Sir Isaac Newton thought of why things always fall down to earth not the reverse way (please do not compare me with him okay..), my thinking was more on the sociological aspect. I was wondering who the first man to eat durian was. However, this thought then produced another question, how did he (perhaps she..who knows?) know that the durian was consumable?. I had no answer for those questions though nobody would dare to find it for me. I just made my own imaginative hypothesis. Man learns from nature.

My Hypothesis: Man learns from nature:

The hypothesis follows these imaginative procedures:

1. Man was hungry.

2. Man found durian.

3. Man did not like its smell.

4. Man saw a creature (perhaps squirrel’s ancestor) ate the durian.

5. Man's curiosity reacted towards the creature's behaviour.

6. Man tested the taste.

7. Man liked its taste.

8. Man’s thought concluded that 'bad smell does not mean bad taste'.

9. Man ate the durian.

10. Man enjoyed it.

Result:
Man happy and had full stomach.. burrppp. Praise God!

Chain Reaction:
Man spread the findings, community got the benefit.

Durian’s Personal Impact:
Durian became a famous entity.

Cikgu Farish:
My grandma's civic-minded motto: Fruit, fruit jugak. Sampah tolong kemas!
Le Arome du Sud-Est de Asie= The aroma of south east asia