Malay dad. Chinese mum

This is what the kid said:

My old man thinks the Chinese deserved 513 for being b****es and questioning POWAH MELAYU, that Malay supremacy should never be questioned, or the Chinks will use our land to rear babi [pigs].

My mother thinks Malays are all lazy bastards, rely on government handouts, are inefficient civil servant monkeys, and can't survive without Chinese taxes. Till this day votes rocket, doesn't believe positive discrimination, and "tak suka kawan Melayu [do not like to befriend Malays] because their attitude sucks".

Science and math in English may not be great after all

I left the article below since most people don't like to read a wall of text.

I received instruction for the sciences and maths in Malay before college. At college, everything is in English. I recalled that I had little problem with this transition.

When ex-Prime Minister Mahathir pushed English for science and maths, he argued that students will benefit by knowing technical terms of these disciplines in English and that this will ease our efforts towards becoming a knowledge-based economy. Many pro-English Malaysians lauded this move despite opposition from Malay and vernacular proponents.

Today, the academics are arguing that the instruction of science and math in English isn't really benefiting students. They point that students had such a poor grasp of the language that it effectively impair learning and comprehension. Ok, so they now know terms in English, but it stops there.

Just like how we know some words from some languages foreign to us but possess low proficiency in them.

If they did reverse the policy back to Malay, Tamil, and Chinese, besides from the government wasting resources to prepare materials in English, I would say it will not be a step backward for Malaysia. After all, it is most important that students comprehend the subjects being instructed.

But do I think English is important? Definitely. However, if the social and political climate does not allow for a full-scale English adoption in schools - with the purpose to better the mastery of English - teaching science and math in English just because of the 'technical terms', is fail policy.

I had little problem transiting from Malay to English in the sciences. I believe those with decent English share this lack of difficulty during the transition.

From The Malaysian Insider

Language barrier splits Malaysians into classes

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — A visibly angry Maimunah Hamid shook her head in desperation as Education Ministry officials struggled to explain to angry parents gathered at a parent-teachers meeting at a national school in the city last week.

"I have had enough, I am moving my daughter to an international school," said Maimunah, an accountant with Maybank, Malaysia's biggest bank. "I am sick of this flip-flop policy, why can't you all make up your mind?" Most of the 120 parents agreed with Maimunah, 46, a mother of two daughters aged nine and 12.

"Make up you mind please — English or Malay. Don't torture the children," said another parent Kanagaratnam Vellupillai, 39. "This issue has been going on for years and years." In fact the issue — English or Malay as a medium of instruction — has been hotly debated and remains unresolved since the British colonialists left in 1957.

After acrimonious debate the matter was settled in 1967 that Malay would be the medium of instruction in all national schools, but that Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools could continue teaching in a mixture of Malay and their own mother tongues.

However, in a decision in 2002, which was widely opposed by parents, officials, opposition lawmakers and even civil servants, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad ordered the return of English on the grounds that national education in Malay narrowed student minds, retarded economic growth and that if continued, Malaysia's competitiveness would collapse against Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

The return of English was widely supported by middle-class parents such as Maimunah and Kanagaratnam, who were already westernised and inclined to want an open, English-based education for their children.

However Malay nationalists, Chinese educationists and Tamil parents, who wanted Tamil as medium of instruction for Tamils, strongly objected to Dr Mahathir's desire to bring back English.

The veteran politician offered a compromise — only science and maths would be taught in English. All other subjects would be in Malay and vernacular languages.

That decision has been hotly debated ever since and the latest round erupted last month with academics, teachers and parents hotly divided over whether to continue Dr Mahathir's policy or revert to teaching all subjects in Malay.

The matter remains an emotive issue in this multi-ethnic society divided by race, religion and now mother tongue education.

Five years after Dr Mahathir retired in 2003 his successor, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, still finds it difficult to reverse the "science and maths in English" policy now widely described as a "silly legacy".

At the time it was introduced, the move was strongly opposed by parents, educators and teachers, but Dr Mahathir pressed on. Opposition continued over the years and has reached a peak in recent weeks with top educators openly arguing that the five-year-old policy has seriously damaged students' grasp of not only English but also science and maths.

"You cannot study a language by studying maths and science in that language," said Ungku Aziz, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Malaya.

"The tragedy of our time is that students have no idea what is grammar and syntax, they are not proficient in English," he told an education forum this month, adding his weight to chorus of demands to end the policy.

"English or any language should be learnt as a language on its own right."

National Union of Heads of Schools president Pang Chong Leong agreed with the argument against using English as the medium of instruction for science and maths.

"If the intention is to improve the pupils' English, then they should start with the arts subjects, such as moral studies, and also increase the number of English periods," he said at an education forum last week.

"Science involves a lot of thinking while maths does not use too much language and vocabulary. It goes against the principles of education and does not achieve any objective."

Dr Mahathir reasoned though that by teaching the two subjects in English students would not only master the language but also science and maths to make the economy technology-driven, and implemented the policy against strong opposition in 2003, months before he retired after 22 years as prime minister.

Neither aims, however, have been achieved, experts argue.

They say English proficiency fell because less time was devoted to it in language study, while grasp of science and maths also suffered after the sudden switch from Malay.

English originally was taught five times a week, 45-minutes a session in primary schools, but that time was reduced to once a week under the new policy. The saved hours were used to study science and maths in English, leaving teachers and students in the lurch.

The government pressed ahead, spending billions changing school textbooks to English, training teachers to work in the language and at one time even importing scores of teachers from England to fill a shortfall.

Over the years several government "review committees" have studied the issue and recommended to end the policy, but Dr Mahathir's influence in the political arena was so great that a final decision was always postponed.

Another reason for the indecisiveness is that long-time education minister Datuk Hishamuddin Hussein is a Mahathir loyalist and unwilling to embarrass the former prime minister by ending the policy.

However, at a teachers' meeting early this month, Hishamuddin promised the government would make a firm decision — abandon English for Malay or continue the policy — by year end.

Some parents, such as Maimunah, are not prepared to wait for the government to decide.

"I want my daughters to have a wholesome, internationally recognised education so they can work and live anywhere in the world," she said.

"Later this year I am pulling them from the national school and registering them in an international one that follows the English semester system. It's expensive but worth it."

However, parents like Kanagaratnam, a City hall bus driver, cannot afford expensive private education. "English is a must for world commerce and the future. We must have a strong grounding in English," he said.

"I hope the government keeps instruction in English just for science and mathematics. We don't want out children to return to Malay and play catch up all over again."

The government appears reluctant to reverse the policy five years after spending so much money on textbooks and retraining teachers to switch science and maths from Malay to English.

"We have already lost one generation switching from English to Malay. By reversing I fear we will lose another," said retired teacher Kathy Fong in a letter to the New Straits Times daily last week. — South China Morning Post

Drink more coffee and become coffee

From here.

The human species is set to evolve within a thousand years into a ‘coffee’ coloured race of 6 ½ foot giants who can live up for up to 120 years, according to a new research project released today

They will also modify themselves – through technology or otherwise - to attract partners and will therefore be better looking. ‘Race’ will also be a thing of the past - by the year 3000 all humans will have ‘coffee’ coloured skin.

Looking further into the future, 100,000 years from now, thousands of years of mate choice and sexual selection will create greater and greater genetic inequality, which could see humans diverge into two separate sub-species – a genetic upper class and a genetic underclass.

Sexual selection and why so many short men

Someone commented:

Somewhat , I think from the genetics point of view, girls mind having shorter bf, but don't mind having shorter husbands.

If tall guys are more popular... more tall genes would be able to get inherited. But it seems that majority of the people are short... (at least in Malaysia)

My hypothesis on the other hand: there are so many short guys out there because their mums are short.

Anwar Ibrahim and the forgone Sept 16 dream

When 16/9 was nearing, some people were already writing that it was not possible for Anwar to take over the government at that date. Parliament wasn't in-session then. Knowing that, there were only 2 possibilities; either Anwar doesn't know about that (aka: he doesn't have it planned) which is almost impossible considering that he should be watching parliament's sessions closely, OR he was intentionally pandering to us all.

I remembered catching a column in the Sun on 16/9 which addressed the day's event. The columnist pointed that Anwar knew that it was not possible to topple the gov on that day, but made the announcement then anyway to woo Sabah and Sarawak MPs (Malaysia Day is after all an important day for them). It follows then that Anwar doesn't have the MPs at hand.

Anwar could very well have the intention as described by the above columnist. If that is so, he pandered to us all. If that ain't so, he's shortsighted.

He may be brighter than Pak Lah, but I find it difficult to believe that he's a man of high morals. After all, even if he wasn't involved, he was at least overseer of the ministry of finance during the age of cronyism.

I don't think Anwar likes to postpone this. He must know that for every passing day, his followers shrink less and less. As his promises become more and more distant, his followers will be more disillusioned. A lot may not like the BN, but they certainly don't like to get lied to either.

That said, I don't believe he has the numbers at hand, I used to, not now.

Japan

Happy Meal

I notice that kids are always smiling in McD, but the parents have a grumpy look.. why is it like that?

According to the law of conservation of happiness, the total happiness in a system is constant.

Exam mentality

Senthil said

Back home, the mentality is very different. The attitude is, if it is not going to help you in your grades, don't bother wasting your time.

Awhile ago when I was surfing around a Malaysian forum, a student asked

"My teacher said understanding theory is more important than practicing problems in SPM physics, do you guys agree?"

You can almost infer that the students doesn't agree with his teacher.

It's true that doing sums help you a lot in exams. But saying that it's more important than theory is like saying that scoring exams is all that matter.

I still feel though that there's nothing wrong with this. It's just sad. Not wrong.

How to create an Olympic logo

Adopted by the 2012 London Olympics




at least the idea was not from the blood splatter of an execution.

Please don't leave me...

For some reason, I feel that the reason many people plea with their partners not to break up is analogous to why many people don't want to lose their jobs.

It's not like if they're very loyal to their companies, but they just don't like the idea of losing their jobs and the insecurity that pervades. In short, people may not love their jobs a lot, and they would still prefer to stick to them just because they don't want to be in the jobless transition.

They know the transition state may be a long one. Although their partners may not be where their affinities are, they are probably thinking that the status-quo is better than the partner-less transition if they break up in the hope for something better. It is just like the job market.

I may be wrong though, or maybe I'm just half right.

Sometime ago, I have someone who told me that when the money's right, you'll love the job. I can already see parallels of this in the dating/relationship scene. Can you?

Girls Made to Strip Naked for Opening Ceremony Selection

From the Epoch Times.

According, to state-run media, at the opening ceremony girls such as those depicted here, who participated in a programme called “smiling faces,” had to strip naked to get measured in order to get the job. The report notes that after their 6-month training, they were featured in the ceremony for three minutes. (Oliver Morin/AFP/Getty Images)

Can't do away with racial affirmative action in Malaysia yet

I think everyone is underestimating the problem in Malaysia, no I'm not taking about the ailing economy.

In the first place, we don't know how many people supports the racial affirmative action. We can't just suggest that the government scrap these kinds of policies. How many would be unhappy?

In South Korea for example, the new president wants to lift the ban on US beef in an effort to deregulate the economy, promoting freer markets (especially for the US-Korea FTA) and moving the nation towards being an advanced economy. Free markets, like meritocracy, are supposed to be more efficient, they keep the best and trash the bad. Free markets however isn't desired by Koreans who prefer to protect their own livestock industry. I assume that the health concerns are only overplayed as it has been 5 years since the outbreak of mad-cow disease.

This is the way things are in a democracy. The majority dictates what is right, it doesn't matter what is best. It's just what democracy is all about. I'm not saying that most Malaysians are like that, I'm not sure myself. Just noting that we don't know if they are or are not like that. We can't just expect racial affirmative action to go away. Not yet.

I have a feeling that a lot of Malays voted for PR not wanting to drop racial affirmative action. They just did that because they're unhappy with BN. We're all not sure and it's a bit far fetched to assume that their support for PR is proof of their support to end the NEP. Why did Lim Guan Eng became defensive when he was quoted for opposing the NEP? He probably got calls from PKR leaders telling him it's not politically good.

People who voted for BN is the same thing. They may feel that preserving the bumiputra status-quo as more important than ending corruption. Evidently there's still a lot of such voters. No they're not stupid, they just have different priorities than us.

There's just so many things that are good, but we can't do them because we are a democracy. Sometimes the majority supports something that isn't supposedly the best choice (I actually believe dropping fuel subsidies is better for the nation, a lot of economists point this as an economically sound choice, but Malaysians don't share my sentiment and the government is now pressured to reinstate it). The majority has a larger voice than you, I'm sorry.

People power may not always yield the best results for the nation.
But in a democracy, it is right.

What foreigners think about Malaysians

Heh, these are 'badddd' remarks, but if they're not I won't be posting them here anyway.

Number 1: Malaysians, the average Joe on the street, is a great person but that's the experience I've had all over the planet.

Number 2: What you've allowed the government and their rich cronies to do to your country is a shame. The NEP is a national embarrassment.

Number 3: My personal frank opinion is that they are not too friendly as they claim, honestly and are just too cold. yet again they don't get jokes. I love the country though.

Female promoters in Maxis Tower

Maybe they had this for quite some time already, but I've just noticed that they had A LOT of female promoters in the customer service center in Maxis Tower next to the Petronas Twin Towers. No, I'm not talking about counter staff. They are all just standing around. 2 of them are stationed to the left and right of the entrance to say "welcome" and "thank you" to customers.

It seems like its so easier to get a job if you're female than male. The above is 1 example. Promoters are mostly female. A lot of jobs don't have women but (most at least) is really because women don't want those jobs. Jobs like taxi, bus and truck drivers, and window cleaners (of high-rises); you rarely see women and it's really because women themselves don't want these jobs. I myself have not seen a women bus/truck/taxi driver in my whole life in Malaysia.

And then you can't help but wonder; considering that the amount of men and women mobile subscribers are almost equal, shouldn't they put an equal of amount of male promoters to female promoters? I got no idea if men do really get more easily aroused than women (and I doubt I'll ever do for the rest of my life), but I do know that such has been so established, socially..

Assuming that's indeed correct, then the reason why there's always an abundance of sexy female promoters around, and a lack of sexy male promoters; is because males are more sexually inclined than females.

As a male, I find this pretty unfair. Hmmm...

Dr Mahathir's Insensitivity and Hypocrisy

From Che Det

1. Non-Malays and maybe quite a few Malays have strongly criticised my piece on the Bar Council. I am made out to be against free speech, human rights etc.

2. What I was talking was about sensitivity - about the need for people to be sensitive to the feelings of other people. It was not about Islam or its teachings or its history per se. It is about the Malays and the non-Malays in this multiracial, multi religious country and their sensitivities.

Funny. He must have forgotten about his sensitivity to sensitivities when he wrote the book 'The Malay Dilemma' and spoke about Malay rights.
You can catch an example of such of his blog posting here.

20. If what we want is to be able to provoke people as a matter of right more than our own well-being and that of fellow citizens then be insensitive and have open debates by selected people whose views are already known, who are insensitive to the sensitivities of others but are very sensitive about their rights to be insensitive, whatever the cost to others and the country.

I wonder then why UMNO members have to speak about Malay rights and about Malay supremacy. Aren't these opinions already known? And insensitive?

Constitution = some law of nature thing

Today as I sat in a college canteen moments before a Malaysian Studies exam, I overheard this conversation:

Girl: What's a constitution?
Boy: Some law of nature thing.
(got no idea if he meant it back as a question)

In case you really don't know what's a constitution Wikipedia has the answer.

Sarong Party Girl

From the Sarong Party Girl:

I’ve no idea how to deal with the opposite sex without exerting my physical desirability, and it is difficult for me to do so without. I wouldn’t come on to them of course, wanting sex and using the prospect of sex is two very different things. In the former you’re the prey and in the latter, you’re the predator. But I can’t help but cock tease. I don’t think there’s anything we can do about the way we behave around the opposite gender, the only thing stopping other girls from doing it too is a lack of self-confidence or vague notions of what is and isn’t socially acceptable.

Very old entry. The blog is no longer maintained.

Beijing's poor air quality

From here.


Consensus has that reducing pollution is averse to the economy at least in the short-run. Consensus also has that George W. Bush and other similar leaders like his Chinese counterparts are bad because they are non-committal to fight pollution.

But really, is it the faults of these governments? What if the peoples of these nations willingly would forgo their health for more material wealth?

Should governments then be their moral/rational guardians? Malaysians don't think so. "We want cheap oil. We want subsidies. Screw sustainability. Screw the future. We want more wealth now."

Power of non-violence

Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-violence, in his June 9 lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story as an example of "non-violence in parenting":

I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father asked me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced.

When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, "I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together." After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theater. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time.

It was 5:30pm before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00pm.

He anxiously asked me, "Why were you late?" I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, "The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait," not realizing that he had already called the garage.

When he caught me in the lie, he said: "There's something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it."

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads. I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again.

I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday. That is the power of non-violence.

Optimism in the economy.

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_economy_and_common_sense/

A comment from Real Live Girl was interesting. She noted that the economy is fueled by optimism, and Obama brings more of that. Those are two true statements. But is all optimism the same? Wall Street veterans believe the market would go up if McCain gets elected. Lower taxes make the titans of business the most optimistic. Raising their taxes and transferring the money to worthy social services might make lots of people feel optimistic, but that isn't the optimism that fuels economies. An unemployed guy can't get too optimistic until a rich guy gets optimistic first and builds a factory he can work in. McCain makes rich guys optimistic. Obama makes students optimistic. Which approach stimulates the economy more? Beats me. You don't know either.

3 days after Hillary Clinton stepped out from the Democratic nomination race, Obama said he was a free-market guy. So what is it actually? Will he be laissez-faire or be more progressive, raising taxes and renegotiating for less free free-trade agreements?

Either way, I still hope that Obama will win the presidency really because that itself will make history, and it'll make a (hopefully positive) impact on America's image from the perspective of the rest of the world.