Lousy Forum.....

A few weeks ago, our lecturer, Mr Terry asked us to attend a forum about children with special needs. According to him, we could learn a lot about the children with special needs from the forum and it would help to prepare us when we take that course at the coming semester. At that time, I was quite interested with the forum because I could legitimately skip work on that day. Erm, I mean I could learn a lot from that forum. : p

The forum was held on the previous day, 29th November 2008. It was supposed to be held after our last Moral Studies class at 2 p.m. On that day, we had to present our moral assignment and hand in our journal to be marked by our lecturer, Mr Michael. We didn’t even break a sweat during our presentation as I think most of us were already immune with the pressure from our previous assignments. Compared to our previous assignments, this was nothing to us. That weren’t anything special about the presentation, so I’m not going to elaborate about it. By the time class ends, all of us felt super relieved as though a 5 tonne burden has just been lifted of our back. Now, we feel as though we could fly.

Before:


After:


After class ends, I went to have lunch with Jian Shi, Xinzi and Rachel WSF. Jian Shi proposed we go to eat fried kuey teow at the stall near our college. We have always wanted to try the “char kuey teow” at that stall. The fragrant smell of “char kuey teow” from the stall has always been very tempting. Before we went there, Jian Shi and I have to listen to Xinzi and Rachel argue for 5 minutes about eating at that stall. ~Sigh~, women, always so complicated. They should learn from men, simple and decisive.

Jian Shi and I ordered 2 big plates of char kuey teow for ourselves while Xinzi and Rachel ordered a big plate to share. The fried kuey teow was really delicious with generous amount of lap cheong and shrimps. (Sorry, forgot to take picture). However, we still have doubts about eating at that stall. If you look carefully around the stall, the hygiene of the stall is terrible. There’s even a carcass of a rat near the place we sit. I was regretted about ordering the grass jelly water. The grass jelly which is used to prepare drinks was kept in an open plastic bag, being exposed to all sorts of pollutants and micro organisms. By the time, I realised that, it was too late. When I ate and drank the food prepared, I kept on hoping in my heart, “Oh, please no diarrhoea, no diarrhoea, no diarrhoea!!!!” Phew, luckily nothing happened to me after that meal. It’s waste for the owner to operate his stall at such a dirty place. If they opened their stall at a coffee shop or a food court, I’m sure they would have more customers. One thing is for sure, I won’t be going back to that stall again. Here’s a picture of them eating:


Jian Shi (looking discontented): Why do I have to eat at such a low class place?


Rachel: No, I haven't put on my cosmetics

While we're eating we overheard what Xinzi talked on the phone.

Xinzi: Aiya, no need to bank in the money la. I still got a lot of money.
Xinzi: Ha! You didn't sell the share aaa! Now, the world is facing a terrible recession.
Xinzi: Faster sell all the shares that I have! If not, I'll lose millions!
Xinzi: Don't worry, I still got a few millions in my Swiss account.
Xinzi: I just bought a genuine hand-crafted Gucci Handbag last week.
Xinzi: See, I'm fine here. So, you don't need to worry.

(She didn't say that of course. I was just kidding)

After we ate our lunch, we went back to college while Rachel went home. On our way back to the college, we spotted a beautiful white BMW which has a modified body kit. We were so mesmerised by the beauty of the car before we spotted something.


Noticed something weird?

Look carefully

Holy crap! What kind of ominous number plat is that! Who in the world would be stupid enough to buy that kind of number and install it at his car! The beauty of car is tarnished by the 4 figures at the number plat.


"die die die die"

For those who don’t know Cantonese or Mandarin, the number 4 is pronounced as “sei” in Cantonese and “se” in mandarin which resembles the word die in both dialects. Therefore, the number plat also meant “die die die die”.

At 2 p.m., we registered our names, paid RM5 and went to the forum. We were having high expectations towards the forum as many professionals who are experienced and have Masters Certificates in the ECE field would be attending the forum. It was a mistake that we regretted dearly later. The forum began with an introduction speech from Dr.Lim Boon Hock who has a doctorate in “Children with Special Needs”. During his speech, he mentioned that all of us should share our resources together during the forum to revamp the education for children with special needs. That phrase made us even more excited. However, as the forum continued further, we felt something’s amiss. The forum was starting to become like an advertisement for Malaysia Care centres and other preschool centres, and the parliament where they debate about new laws and policies for ECE. They kept on talking about how preschool centres should be set up, what kind of law should be enforced, how children with special needs shouldn’t be segregated and other topics that we have learned when took our Foundation course last semester.

In the midst of the discussion, I raised up my hand to ask for some advice on how to manage a child with special needs at my centre. To my surprise, my question was rejected. They said that what I’m asking was irrelevant to the goal of the forum. Goal? What goal? You didn’t say anything about the goal of the forum in the brochure! You just mentioned that the forum was about children with special needs. You even put “No Children Left Behind”. So, how was my question irrelevant to the topic discussed in the forum? I asked how I can modify my lessons so that the child wouldn’t be left out from my class. Wasn’t he the one who said that we should share our resources to revamp the education for children with special needs? By refusing to answer my question, wasn’t he contradicting himself?

We were so disappointed with the forum that we decided to run away after tea break. During, tea break, we ate some of the food prepared to fill our stomach. Besides, we did pay RM5 for the forum. Jian Shi didn’t waste any time in attacking the food. He took as many sandwiches and curry puffs that he could so that he could get back the RM5 he paid. We didn’t think that he was serious when we joked that we should eat a RM5 amount of food to avenge the money that we lost before running away.

Moral of the story: Ask for more information directly from the organizers before attending any forums in the future.

Finally....Our "Angkasawan" Project Is Succesful!!!

Yahoooo!!! We have finally succeeded in launching our “Angkasawan” programme by launching our fuel price and inflation rate into outer space. Our fuel price and inflation rate skyrocketed so high within such a short time that even we are able to feel the scorching heat in our hearts. That's right! The scorching heat which infuriates us so much that we want to burn down the federal government.



I think most of us have already known that the cost of living most revolves around the price of the crude oil. This is because petroleum and diesel are one of the essential materials needed to operate our daily operations and businesses. For example, we need natural gas for cooking, petroleum and diesel to operate vehicles, bitumen for making road pavements, etc. Whenever the price of crude oil increases, the cost of living will also increase. Therefore, we can conclude that our cost of living is almost directly proportional to the price of crude oil. That means that the higher the price of crude oil, the higher is the cost of living. Price of Crude Oil : Cost of Living.



The several increments in the price of oil over these few years have certainly caused a significant impact in our daily life. The price of crude oil has increased in a meagre amount each time the government decided to do so. Therefore, we only felt the impact of the increments as something similar to a mosquito bite. However, as these meagre increments started to build up, the harmless mosquito bites have begun to develop into a malignant tumour which is beginning to threaten our lifestyles.

After several increments in the price of crude oil by the government, we are starting to feel the impact of the increment especially by the low and middle-class wage earners. Almost all the price of the items essential for us to survive such as grocery items, electricity and water has increased significantly. Services which rely greatly on petroleum or diesel to operate such as bus and taxi fares, aviation fares, and lorry services have also increased. Since the cost of transporting people and goods has increased, the cost to operate the business will also increase. This will then lead to the increase of price of goods and raw materials. When the price of raw materials increases, other products that are made from these raw materials will also become more expensive. To simplify the situations, the changes in crude oil will set off a series of chain reaction that will eventually affect the consumers.

Each time the government decides to increase the price of petroleum and diesel, they will pacify the anger of the public by blaming the volatility of the global price of crude oil. However, I’m still not convinced by how the increase in the global price can affect Malaysia which is a net-exporter of crude oil. These are the list of things which still puzzle me now and what I believe most Malaysians are also wondering about.

1. If Malaysia is a net-exporter of crude oil, then Petronas will gain more profit by being able to sell crude oil to foreign countries at a higher price due to the increase in the global price of crude oil. Am I right?



2. If Petronas maintains the price of domestic petroleum and diesel, Petronas should still be able to garner a higher profit despite the rise in the global price of crude oil. It’s is logical because if Petronas can make a profit by selling domestic petroleum and diesel at a lower price before, why can’t it do the same thing now? There isn’t any significant increase in the cost of production of petroleum, is there?



3. Therefore, the statement issued by the government saying that Petronas will go bust if the government continues to subsidies the price of petroleum and diesel is false, isn’t it?
   
   
4. Why do you think that Najib said that the government would go bankrupt if they lower the price of domestic petroleum and diesel as what the opposition party proclaimed they would do if they won in the general election? Do you think what he said is true?
   
   
5. If Malaysia truly is an oil-producing country, why does it depend on the global price of crude oil when it is selling petroleum and diesel to its own people? We are not importing crude oil from foreign countries.
   
   
6. Malaysia is an oil-producing country. So, it should be able to determine the price of its own crude oil when it comes to selling it domestically, am I right? (“This is my oil. So, I can sell at what price I want”)



7. Does the government want to increase the price of the domestic petroleum and diesel simply because it does not have sufficient funds in order to complete the billion-ringgit project that was planned initially such as the Iskandar Development Region and the construction of a second bridge connecting Penang and Kedah? Is it due to the mismanagement of funds? For example, the opposition MPs at Kedah who are now questioning the former MPs on how did the allocation fund of RM80million for a year is used up in merely a few months.
   

In an attempt to alleviate the impact of rise in petroleum and diesel prices, the government set up a few measures which I think are quite useless. They promised that vehicles with a certain engine capacity will get a rebate when they pay their road tax at the end of the year. They will also be given a reduction in road tax. Even so, consumers are only able to get these benefits when they pay their road tax after a year when their road taxes expire. How does the government expect us to survive one year with the inflation rate so high? The government also advised us to change our lifestyles in order to assimilate with the rising cost of living. Well, they don’t have to worry about this matter because we do it even if they don’t tell us too. The question is how many times the government wants us to change our lifestyle. How many times to we need we need to degrade our lifestyles? Most of us are already quite impoverished from the beginning. Do they want us to change our lifestyles until we have to eat yam as our staple food like what happened when the Japanese subjugated Malaya? The cost of living and owning a car is so high now. By the time, I graduate and procured my diploma, I might need to resort to cycling as my main means of transportation. The minimum wage for degree holders now would not be sufficient for a decent lifestyle in a few years time.




Pheeww, luckily the government did not really proceed with the "Angkasawan" plan. That would cost us a few more billions which would lead to a higher increment of the petroleum and diesel price. Now, I welcome anybody to come and answer the questions on this post. In fact, I challenged anyone who is able to do so, especially the government to answer those mind-boggling questions that have been puzzling me. I heard that the government have even set up an IT team to answer all the allegations placed by bloggers. Now would be a good time for them to start working if you want the people to vote for you in the future. This is not something to be treated with levity as this is about our standard of living which is now deteriorating. So, what if the economy is getting better. That only means that the rich is getting richer but the poor is getting poorer. If that happens, then the New Economy Policy has failed. The non-bumiputras would have been marginalised for nothing.

My photo gallery

Well, I don't know whether there's anyone out there who still visits my online photo gallery at dotphoto but I'll just inform that I've changed the password of my photo gallery. The username in order to login as a guest is Agent47 and the pa$$word is my real name. The password contains no capital letters and spacing. Only those who knew my true identity will be able to look at the photos I uploaded. Here's the link to my photo gallery: http://wai2403.dotphoto.com/

Disappointed...........

Warning! This post is not suitable for those who are not open minded.

The election that had ended with an expected loss by the ruling part UMNO was indeed shocking. After the humiliating loss of 5 states to the opposition party, it would be assumed that the ruling party would work harder to revamp the current government system in order to cater the needs of the people and amend whatever factor that has led to the unsatisfactory of the people. Ironically, I have only been reading about news regarding political leaders pointing fingers to other members of the same party, accusing them as the cause of the loss in the elections. If you read the newspaper, you’ll see a lot of these political leaders telling each other: “Hey, we lost because you didn’t do your job properly!”; “it’s your fault for being an incompetent leader”; “we lost because we were sabotaged by our own members”; bla bla bla. Even more disappointing is the news item which I have read in the newspaper recently. Apparently, the Tengku Mahkota of Kelatan, Tengku Faris reiterated the words that many political leaders have always said over and over again.

According to him:

1.) Nobody should challenge the right and special privileges of the Malays.

2.) The Malay rulers will act as a source of unity and loyalty among the people as stated in the constitution and Rukun Negara.

3.) As such, the people should be united and no one should question the special rights and privileges of the Malays because it is quid pro quo in return for providing citizenships to 2.7 million people of other races who joined the Malay Federation.

4.) It is not appropriate for the other races to demand equal rights and privileges after they had already acquired their citizenships.

The above statements was made by him in his opening address at a Malay unity gathering held in conjunction with the Maulidur Rasul celebration at the Putra World Trade Centre yesterday. The theme of the event, organised by a group of Malay NGOs named Barisan Bertindak Perpaduan Melayu (BBPM), was “Malay Unity is the Core of National Unity.”

Actually, he was not the only one who has said these selfish words. Many of the political leaders who made these statements have created a furore among the Non-Bumiputras in Malaysia. Feeling afraid that they will lose the political support from the Non-Bumiputras, they always cover up what they have said by apologizing and saying that they didn’t mean what they have said literally. I still remembered a political leader that said something similar though I have forgotten what his name is. He said that those who are not satisfied with the government’s policy regarding the Malay’s special privileges and rights should go back to China and India. The following day, he appeared in the front page of the gazette again; telling the people that that was not what he had meant and said something totally different in order to cover what he had said. The moment we read about his biased statement, my friends and I felt that we have been stabbed in the heart. In our hearts, we thought that how a political leader such as him who are supposed to help to maintain the integrity of the citizens can utter such a statement. We felt that as though we are actually still immigrants from China instead being a part of the Malaysian society. We felt betrayed by our own country which we have been so patriotic about since we are young. From that day onwards, we knew that there are still people who still haven’t accepted the Non-bumiputras as a part of the Malaysian society. They still have the mentality thinking that we are immigrants from other countries even though we have been living together for so long, even before our country gained independence from Britain. May be in their mind, we are of the same type as the Indonesian immigrants who came to our country to work as labourers and maids. This really makes me very sad and disappointed. The recent statement made by Tengku Faris has saddened me even more. It is as though we are only a trivial society in Malaysia who ranks lower than them in the society. They spoke that without even considering what we have contributed towards the development of the country.

This proves that the mentalities of some of the people in Malaysia are still more than 40 years behind the western people. The situation in Malaysia is something similar to the discrimination towards the “black people” that happened in America more than 40 years ago and the Aparteid policy at Africa. The so called “white people” segregated the people based on the colour of their skins. The “black people” are supposed to rank lower in the rank of society and have fewer rights. They are so discriminative that they even separated the washrooms for the “white people” and the “black people” thinking that they are not fit to stand next to them. Then, came a brave man named Martin Luther King Jr who fought for equal rights for all the people in the Untied States of America regardless of the colour of their skin. What do we need to do in order these people to acknowledge the Non-bumputras as a part of the Malaysia society? Do we need another Malaysian type of “Martin Luther King Jr” in order to get equal treatment from the government? Is it wrong to demand equal rights and to be treated fairly? Is it wrong to wish for the abolishment of any policies that are considered discriminative? Is it wrong for us to express what we feel is right? Apparently it is in Malaysia. We have always been told to keep our mouth shut and compromise some of our rights in order to maintain the integrity, and peace of the multi-racial community in our country. Whenever we try to question something which we think is unfair, we would be alleged of trying to spread slanderous statement that will threaten the integrity of the nation. Some might even be jailed according to the ISA which stands for Internal Security Act for trying to spread seditious statements that will aggravate the racial tension in Malaysia. Some were even allegedly linked to the “Tamil Tiger” extremists in Thailand.

In my opinion, we shouldn’t be discriminated just because we have different skin colours or belong to a different race. All of us are of the same species, Homo sapiens. We live in the same country where each of us has a role in developing the country. All of us are very patriotic about Malaysia as it is our birth place and has been our home for so many years. I totally disagree with the theme of the event organized by the BBPM which says that Malay unity is the core of national unity. The unity of a country does not only depend on the unity of a certain race. In fact, the unity of the whole community in the country depends on all of the citizens living in the country regardless of race. May be these people should stand in our shoes for once in order to get them to understand our feelings. What do you think they would feel if they were the one who are discriminated in the same way we are now? What would they feel if the Non-bumiputras were the ones who have the special privileges while they have none? Do you think that they will sit down quietly and do nothing to protest against the unfair treatment? Do you think that they will accept the so called compromise just because they are given citizenships? No way! I bet that they would also do the same thing as what we are trying to do now. They often think of us as selfish and ungrateful people. However, sometimes I myself wonder who the real selfish people are.

Well, I hope that this matter would be resolved in the future peacefully. I really don’t want the horrible “May 13” massacre to occur again. Hopefully, we would then truly be able to live together as a united Malaysian community. Malaysia Boleh!!!

Attention!!!!

Hello everyone. I think I will finally continue my blogging activities again. I’m not sure whether there will be anyone who wants to read my blog but I’ll try to continue blogging again in order to revamp my English and to find a good hobby to fill my free time. The reason I stopped blogging last time was mainly due to the fact that nobody wants to read my blog except Stone. Most viewers like blogs with a lot of pictures and flashy stuff but hates blogs that are only full of words such as mine. Famous blogs such as kennysia.com, etc which have hundreds of fanatic ardent viewers upload dozens of photos and funny pictures that have been “photoshopped” to attract viewers. They can make quite a lucrative profit from the advertisements at their blogs and have various privileges made for bloggers. I understand why that people find it lethargic to read my blog and most of the time I try to ignore that fact. However, after so much time spent on blogging with nobody to appreciate what the contents that I conceived, I felt quite depressed over it even though I find quite a joy in expressing what I feel in the form of words. In addition of the dismay I felt, I also have to bear with the hectic life which I have gone through last year. In order to ensure a good result in my SPM examination which I took last year, I have decided to stop blogging for good. However, I was quite inspired by my lecturer at my college, Mr Terry who also teaches us English besides foundation in Early Childhood Education. I’m now in a vicarious journey to search for the joy of blogging that I have lost. To all the few people who view my blog, I hope that you will give me some encouragement to continue blogging.

Just something trivial

H, i think i might need to update my blog to prevent it from getting deleted by Google. So, here's a new post.

Blah, blaah, blaaah, blaaaah, blaaaaah, blaaaaaah, blaaaaaaah, blaaaaaaaah, blaaaaaaaaah, blaaaaaaaaaah.