Multiculturalism

Update - Here is another article in response to the issue of multiculturalism.

It is interesting to note that the writer of the article acknowledged the fact that in multicultural Singapore, the Malays have become a minority in their own motherland and the government of the day distrust them.

Doesn't this smell of 'apartheid' when the native of the land becomes a minority and the non-native becomes the majority who forms a government that practices policies which discriminate against the minority?

In 1987, the Second Minister for Defense explained the absence of Malays in the higher echelons and combat unit of Singapore armed forces:-

"If there is a conflict, if the SAF is called to defend the homeland, we do not want to put any of our soldiers in a difficult position where his emotions for the nation may be in conflict with his religion".

In 1999, in referring to the Malays in Singapore Armed Forces, former MM LKY said:-

"If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who's very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine gun unit, that's a very tricky business. We've got to know his background ... I and my family could have a tragedy."

In January this year, in his book "Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going", LKY caused an uproar when he said,

"I would say today, we could integrate all religions and races except Islam."

He added, "we were progressing nicely until the surge of Islam came" and he called on the community to "be less strict on Islam observances".

With such public statements by their senior leader is it really of any surprise then, to have among the majority race a mindset that is so full of suspicion towards the minority race?

pic from here

This photo put up on one young PAP member's fb wall caused an uproar that the Singaporean was reported to have quit the party [read here]


Someone wrote on Yahoo News [here] wondering just how multicultural Singaporeans really are.


He argued that Singaporeans need to move beyond tolerance, the first attribute which their former MM LKY said is a must have for them to be a SUCCESSFUL multicultural cosmopolitan society.  


A National University of Singapore professor Syed Farid Alatas opined that beneath the word tolerance is "irritation, lack of interest, certainly not admiration".


There are fears of the increasing xenophobic and racist stuffs heard about mainland Chinese or Indian who were recruited as foreign talents and given citizenship or PR status in Singapore.


Consequently, there seems to be a great need to take a bold step of facing up to the differences and not be apprehensive to debate about it. After all, that's what being a modern, intellectual state is all about, said the writer


Hmm ... the phrase sounds familiar over this side of the tambak ... circa Pak Lah and the 4th floor boys' era. You know them young Oxford educated guns!


Read the comments to the article copied here.


One issue I noticed that's eating up the Singaporeans is their foreign talents who are mainly from mainland China and India having different values and attitudes and not having a care about the country.


When WE feel the same ... Malaysian Indian and Malaysian Chinese screamed racist at us. 


When we want to foster integration through ONE school, they screamed racist at us and yet they keep their vernacular schools.


HINDRAF even went as far as accusing the government of genocide.


They dangle their votes, blackmailing the lutut hogeh telur kecut hantu loncat hancing to give in to their every demands.


Multiculturalism is DEAD in German [read here]. 

Multiculturalism is dying in Malaysia. Instead we have 1Malaysia.


Will multiculturalism live a healthy life in Singapore?

Alex 13 hours ago

I do not think Singaporeans are racist. I actually always felt people are Singaporean 1st irrespective of whether they are Chinese, Malays or Indians. They all think like Singaporeans, they all have the same accents and the same values.

On the other hand when you see a wave of "Not-so-FTs" come in because the hiring manager is their same nationality... and these people honestly do not give a crap about Singapore, they are just here to take and act like in their own countries.... how do you expect local Singaporeans to show interest/sympathy in them.

These people are simply breaking the rules and the local values.

As a FT I can tell you Singapore is a much better place than what everyone thinks....

6 Replies

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  Nimal 10 hours ago
  

  Sadly no Alex.... I'm singaporean... travelled much.... Singapore is Racist.... most chinese people obviously don't realize it.... but if you're not chinese you will see it blatantly in your face. Its harder to secure jobs if you're not fair skined or chinese here... Thats one very blatant sign of racism.
  
  I've even heard of it practiced in saf when mindef in gombak needed clerks, they actually told the admin in my unit "I don't want indian black black". I'm sure there are chinese people now itself that might find this funny.... and that is why we are racist.

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  Biplob 9 hours ago
  

  I agree with Nimal,

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  Zorro007 8 hours ago
  

  If it's in the army, navy or air force the reason is simple, internal security. We have to accept this.

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  Roger 8 hours ago
  

  Yeah sadly its true Nimal.

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  Holy Roller 8 hours ago
  

  "when you see a wave of "Not-so-FTs" come in because the hiring manager is their same nationality...." from where these Fake Talents come from, they're a dime-a-dozen and mediocre in their own country of origin.

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  Alex 4 hours ago
  

  @Holy Roller - We all know where they come from :)

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  VantagePoint 10 minutes ago
  

  So even when they are so mediocre and so blatantly in-capable,, why do they still get the likes? You have to agree that SGporeans lack unity...this is sth we as nation needs to work on...local managers should try to hire locals as much as possible...it has to start from there.. even for MNC where the big bosses are Foreigners .. they need the support of local managers and staff .. make them understand that. 

  
  

Sourgrapes

Found this bunch here.

Aren't they cute?

sour grapes

We know it takes more 

to scrunch up the facial muscles 

and it can be painful after a while.

Better to smile!

See these brave golden girls

still smiling strong

smiling from our hearts

2011 is closing in

gosh!

time does fly

especially when you are having

a great time

To all my friends

old and new

far and near

real and cyber

especially

all my family members

From the bottom of my heart

THANK YOU

GIGO

Had a great weekend.

Saturday attended a wedding in Maran. A classmate found her prince charming in the golden years. Never too late. Tim's happiness radiated.

tahniah Tim. semoga bahagia kekal abadi

Wakil tok ngulu Maran took us to Maran Golf Resort for coffee. Nice place. Kena pergi lagi nih.

Next - AKSHAH at Zenith Kuantan. Last minute confirmation. Couldn't be bothered to join at first but Sher managed to drag me.

great food!

and KDYMM Sultan SANG for us. He was still going strong after song number 10. 

food was marvelous, company was superb

the next day, Idzah and her hubby treated us to nasi lemak kerang at undertree restaurant at Teluk Chempedak.

love the camaraderie. thanks idzah and azman. i had a great time banging head with azman about education in general. azman being an ex lecturer and now a consultant was highly eloquent with his opinions regarding the subject.

spent today finishing the translation job while doing the usual blog hopping.

found this posted here

“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!”

I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of inservice. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife.

I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that had become famous in the middle1980s when People magazine chose our blueberry as the “Best Ice Cream in America.”

I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the industrial age and out of step with the needs of our emerging “knowledge society.” Second, educators were a major part of the problem: they resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure, and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! TQM! Continuous improvement!

In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced — equal parts ignorance and arrogance.

As soon as I finished, a woman’s hand shot up. She appeared polite, pleasant. She was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran, high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload.

She began quietly, “We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream.”

I smugly replied, “Best ice cream in America, Ma’am.”

“How nice,” she said. “Is it rich and smooth?”

“Sixteen percent butterfat,” I crowed.

“Premium ingredients?” she inquired.

“Super-premium! Nothing but triple A.” I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming.

“Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, “when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”

In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap…. I was dead meat, but I wasn’t going to lie.

“I send them back.”

She jumped to her feet. “That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with ADHD, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all! Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business. It’s school!”

In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians, and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, “Yeah! Blueberries! Blueberries!”

And so began my long transformation.

Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO screaming into the night.

None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when, and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a post-industrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission, and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America.

Copyright 2011 Jamie Robert Vollmer


remember an old posting here



What Do Teachers Make?


The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"


He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.


To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?"


Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what I make? (She paused for a second, and then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could


I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor.


I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.


You want to know what I make?" (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table.)


''I make kids wonder.


I make them question.


I make them apologize and mean it.


I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.


I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything.


I make them read, read, read.


I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.


I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.


I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.


Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life."


(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)


"Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant...


You want to know what I make?


I MAKE A DIFFERENCE


"What do you make Mr. CEO?"


His jaw dropped, he went silent.

I would like to just post Jamie Robert Vollmer's conclusion

The second group argues that the comparison of children to blueberries is specious. Most of these people contend that the children are “the customers,” not the raw material. The truth is that no one can agree on who the “customers” are. Candidates include students, parents, grandparents, business owners, corporate executives, human resource directors, and college deans of admission. (I tend to designate the entire taxpaying public as the rightful customers. They are the ones who are paying.) This problem is further complicated by the fact that few of these “customers” can agree on what they want as a finished product, except in the broadest terms. Everyone has an opinion. Politicians and bureaucrats are left to define what children should know and when they should know it. And they are constantly manipulated by dozens of organized, aggressive, well funded special interest groups. Many of these groups have conflicting agendas that are directly at odds with the best interest of kids.

If the final product of the PreK-12 enterprise is a young adult prepared with the knowledge, skills, habits, and values needed to succeed in a fast-paced, global, knowledge society, then the quality of the “raw material”—the student’s talent, intelligence, physical and mental health, attention, and motivation—is a huge variable in the education process over which public schools have little control. Parents, teachers, administrators, board members, civic and business leaders must work together with the students to develop their potential and help them reach the goal. Whether they are called customers or workers is next to irrelevant.

Kiamat Semakin Hampir

22 tanda kiamat semakin hampir

[pic and writing from fb wall posting here]

1.Sembahyang diabaikan (diringan-ringankan).
2.Keinginan nafsu syahwat digalakkan dan berleluasa disebarkan melalui iklan, buku, gambar, risalah,atau filem.
3.Penjenayah menjadi pemimpin dan kebanyakannya jahil mengenai agama dan banyak memberi fatwa yang menyesatkan pengikutnya.
4.Perkara benar menjadi salah dan salah menjadi benar. Sukar untuk membezakan perkara halal dan haram kerana yang haram dianggap halal serta sebaliknya.
5.Berbohong menjadi satu keperluan dalam hidup dan menganggap jika tidak berbohong sukar untuk hidup senang.
6.Membayar zakat (harta, perniagaan dan pendapatan) dianggap beban.
7.Orang yang hidup mengikut kehendak agama ditindas dan hati mereka sentiasa merintih kerana maksiat berleluasa tetapi mereka tidak mampu mencegahnya.
8.Turun hujan di luar musimnya dan hujan tidak memberi keuntungan kepada makhluk di muka bumi.
9.Fenomena lelaki berkahwin dengan lelaki (homoseksual) dan perempuan berkeinginan kepada perempuan (lesbian) semakin menjadi-jadi.
10. Perempuan menguasai lelaki dengan memakai ubat guna-guna, sihir dan amalan syaitan lain.
11. Anak-anak mengingkari dan menderhaka ibu bapa (ibu bapa menjadi kuli dan anak menjadi tuan).
12. Kawan baik dilayan dengan kasar, manakala musuh diberi layanan baik. Kawan disangka lawan dan musuh dianggap sahabat serta memusuhi orang yang mengajak berbuat kebaikan.
13. Dosa dipandang ringan malah bangga melakukannya seperti zina, minum arak, bergaul bebas antara lelaki dan perempuan, meninggalkan sembahyang, mendedahkan aurat dan berjudi.
14. Masjid dihias indah tetapi kosong, terpulau, berkunci dan banyak berlaku kecurian barang masjid yang berharga.
15. Ramai yang sembahyang tetapi munafik dan berpura-pura. Di dalam sembahyang berjanji akan mengikut suruhan Allah tetapi di luar sembahyang melanggar perintahNya,
16. Akan datang golongan manusia dari Barat menguasai mereka yang lemah (iman) dan ramai terpengaruh dengannya seperti mengikut cara mereka berpakaian, bergaul dan suka berpesta.
17. Al-Quran dicetak dengan indah tetapi hanya dijadikan perhiasan dan jarang dibaca serta diamalkan kehendaknya.
18. Amalan riba berleluasa hingga orang alim pun terjebak sama.
19. Darah manusia tidak berharga, sering berlaku pembunuhan, peperangan dan jenayah.
20. Penganut Islam tidak mahu mengamalkan suruhan agama dan tidak mahu membela serta menyebarkannya.
21. Akan bertambah banyak penyanyi wanita (wanita yang tidak beriman adalah senjata syaitan yang baik).
22. Ramai orang kaya pergi umrah dan haji dengan tujuan melancong, yang sederhana pergi untuk berniaga dan yang miskin bermaksud meminta sedekah.

Implication

Yesterday, a girl came to see me to report her lost lesson folio. I asked the class if anyone had seen it. A boy said he saw it in another class. I asked why he didn't take it to the girl since he knew it was hers. After all, they are classmates. He said he was afraid he might be accused of taking it in the first place [cases of missing lesson folio are rampant].

I thought he got a point.

Read this from here.

Could the fear of being falsely accused or sued in court have resulted in people ignoring the bloodied body of a two-year-old girl who lay dying on a street in China?
In a strange twist to the tragic hit-and-run accident in the southern Chinese city of Foshan, online commentators in China are saying that these passers-by could possibly have refused to help precisely because they feared being accused of injuring the girl.

According to China Digital Times, netizens said there is a fear of extortion among the Chinese who witness public injury.
The video of the accident, which has since gone viral, shows two-year-old Wang Yue being ignored by nearly 20 passers-by even as she lay dying after being run over twice by vans. A trash collector eventually later notices her and alerts her mother, who rushes her to hospital.

The toddler is now in a coma and is likely to remain in a vegetative state if she survives, according to reports quoting the Guangzhou Military District General Hospital’s head of neurosurgery.

Online commentators pointed to a 2006 case wherein a resident of Nanjing, Peng Yu, helped an old woman who had fallen only to have her accuse him of causing the injury.

A judge subsequently ruled in favour of the plaintiff, saying that Peng would not have helped the woman if he did not cause the fall. The case was later settled in an agreement but Peng still paid 10 per cent of the costs.

This controversial ruling seems to have eroded the country’s ethics, netizens fear.

A recent online poll found that in China, 84 per cent of respondents would not offer assistance to an elderly person who falls on the street for fear of extortion, reported the site.

In August this year, a bus driver in east China’s Jiangsu province helped an 81-year-old woman lying on the ground by the side of her overturned bicycle.

She later told the police the bus driver had hit her but a video camera on the bus showed she was lying.

A month later, an 88-year-old man in Wuhan fell on the streets about 100 meters from his home and remained lying face down on the ground, until an ambulance arrived ninety minutes later, according to a China Daily report.

He died because his respiratory tract was clogged by a nosebleed, but might have survived if someone turned him over, the report noted. But none of the passes-by in the Wuhan, Hubei province offered a hand.

Ginger

From here

New research finds that ginger's anti-inflammatory properties may play a role in reducing colon cancer risk.
The study, published Tuesday in Cancer Prevention Research, found a link between daily ginger supplements and a reduction of inflammation in the colon, which researchers suggest is one step toward better understanding the role ginger root might play in preventing colon cancer.

Prior studies in mice and rats have shown that ginger helped prevent the formation of tumors when the animals were exposed to a chemical that causes colon cancer.

For the new study, researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School in the US randomly assigned 30 healthy adults to take capsules containing either 2 grams of powered ginger root (about two tablespoons of ground-up ginger root, noted the researchers) or a placebo powder every day for four weeks.

Before and after the study, the researchers took tissue samples from the lining of the colon. They "tested these samples for chemicals called eicosanoids that increase inflammation in the gut," stated WebMD, noting that the ginger-eating subjects showed reduced inflammation.

Another recent study published in The Lancet found that low doses of aspirin, taken daily and over the long term, cut cases of colorectal cancer by a quarter and the death toll from this disease by a third.

How do you know

A great advice [read here] about how to deal with well meaning friends or relatives who offer 'bits' of advice especially concerning health, is to ask "How do you know?"


"Whenever somebody with questionable intentions or knowledge is presented with this question, they will usually struggle to answer (watch them squirm, it is entertaining…). It is a lot easier to tell if they are trying to pull a quick on on you by listening to their answer to this question, than by listening to their (perhaps rehearsed) initial statement or opinion.

If you are not convinced, ask again "How do you know that?" until you get a satisfactory answer.

If all you get in reply is: "I read it in a magazine" or "I saw it on my friend's facebook status update"then continue checking and doing your own research

If you get "I'm a health professional. It was published in a non commercially sponsored, peer reviewed study, and it works for a large proportion of my large client base who's progress has been tracked for months" then its a lot more likely to be correct information and advice for you.

Try it on shady salespeople, Internet forum "gurus" who are just giving you their (usually uninformed) opinion or even a friend who may a great friend but may not be in the best position to help you get results.

Especially in the age of Internet where opinions abound but facts are hard to find, I like the point made by author Isaac Asimov. "Democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge"."

Doomed

Blogger Outsyed The Box's favourite line "Club of Doom" came to mind on reading this.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a report on air quality in countries around the globe, on which we based a list of the ten most polluted countries. Almost all the worst offenders are either major oil and gas producers, or emerging economies that are growing rapidly.



...worst offenders are either oil and gas producers ....

Kuwait, Nigeria, Iran, and other 6 countries  in the Continent of Africa.

Pakistan comes at #3

hmm ... that part about "emerging economies that are growing rapidly" left me kelip pop kelip pop like a lizard that had swallowed some chalk. Well ... Kuwait, Saudi lah kot.

What hit me hardest is 'the club of doom' [quoting Outside The Box]

Sad!

How do You Nip Evil In The Bud?

Guess what this is. Certainly not a kambing gurun despite the horns and the goatie, neither a scorpion despite the hooked tail.

From Google

Satan is evil.


What about the man who sodomised his 23-day-old son after his wife, who is still in confinement, refused to have sex with him [from here] 


or


the teenager who tossed her newborn girl out of a third-floor flat unit minutes after giving birth to the baby in a toilet? [from here]


I am pretty sure none spotted any horn nor poisonous hooked tail.


But then, looks can be deceiving, yes?

Perpetuation of betrayal

Another betrayal [from here].

"UEC syllabus was DIFFERENT from the national syllabus" 

and yet UEC students are allowed to take PTPTN loans, granted scholarship and those with 4 credits can apply for teacher training course

really reminds me of the blood sucking pacat [leech]. 

no. 

'dedalu' is more apt. dedalu is a type of local parasitic plant.

pacats suck blood from the host until they are sated then fall off thus leaving the host to replenish the blood bank.

dedalu will suck the host tree dry and eventually kills off the host



KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has set up a technical committee to work on the feasibility of allowing Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) students to study in local public universities, said MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Dr Chua said he, deputy party president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and other MCA leaders had met Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, and Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin to discuss the matter.

He said both Muhyiddin and Mohamed Khaled had agreed to form a technical committee to look into the matter and MCA was confident that the Government would approve its proposal.

Speaking at a dinner with 210 non-governmental organisations in Kepong last night, Dr Chua said that since the UEC syllabus was different from that of the national education, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency would need to spend more time assessing the independent school syllabus.

The UEC is equivalent to the national school's STPM. It is for students who have completed six years of education in Chinese independent high schools.

“The Government is aware that the UEC is a high standard certificate.

“Therefore, it now allows UEC students to take National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans, grants scholarships to the top 50 UEC students annually and also allows those who scored four credits in the examination to apply for teacher training course,” Dr Chua said.

Fake - latest news

Miss Universe 2011 is accused of using false documents.

Read it here

Washington, Sept 17 (ANI): Controversy hounds the 2011 Miss Universe pageant after new allegations that the winner, Miss Angola, used false documents to enter and win a qualifying contest in England.



The Argentinian newspaper Infobae published a report Thursday alleging that Lopes was unfairly allowed to participate in a Miss Angola competition for Angolan citizens living in the UK, even though she has never lived outside of Angola, reports ABC News.


The report claimed that a man named Charles Mukano helped falsify documents identifying Lopes as a student of business management at a British school, enabling her to enter and win the contest there.


Infobae cites reports in Angolan media that allege that Mukano may have even bribed judges in England to ensure Lopes' win.

Lopes was the first Miss Universe from her country, but came under attack in the following days by Miss France and fans of Miss Phillipines as undeserving of the crown. (ANI)

Freedom

Some people love Coca-cola so much that they expect to get it anywhere anytime. I once saw a programme on TLC about families in United States of America going for a week of holidays in some remote parts of the world such as Africa, Mongolia, Sabah among others. In one of the series, there was this family sent into the remote Africa and endured all the challenges. However, the mother couldn't stand not having a drink of coke. There is an American living and staying in KL who complained incessantly about not getting pork and pancakes for breakfast the way he used to in USA [I read his blog]. He couldn't comprehend why there is restriction on serving pork in eating places in KL. These people believe that it is their right to want things their way because they have all the money to pay for it. I think that is arrogance.


This reminds me of such arrogance.


In some places the work is a little bit more controversial, and then in other places the works are accepted as a litmus test for how free a country is, or how open a country is, and how full of rights a country is," he told a pre-shoot press briefing.

Despite knowing that such act offends the locals, the organisers pursue it.


The head of the local council in whose area the early-morning photo session took place had threatened to call police to disperse the shoot, which he said was offensive to local residents.


But organisers kept the location secret until the last moment to secure it, and there were no hitches to the two-hour session at the Mineral Beach complex, not far from where tradition says the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, irreparably overrun by sin, were destroyed by God along with their inhabitants. Tunick, who grew up in the largely Hassidic community of South Fallsburg, NY, said in the briefing that he could understand how religious people could find his work offensive.

"That's why I've decided to do the work on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), so no-one would be walking by and see a naked person half a mile away and be offended," he said.


When one is only concerned about one's own wish, isn't it selfish?
When one is born in a country and stay in a house that has no window in order to preserve everything from where one's forefather hailed from but demands to be treated as the son of the soil, isn't that selfishness in the highest order?

Coffee break

Pening kepala lah nengokkan keadaan lintang pukang juak juak UMNO berperang isu dengan juak juak PAS. Puak lain dalam BN sonyap yo. Samo gak ngan teman sebantal PR. Yang bising menyalak sana sini hanya orang UMNO dan PAS je. Teringat satu pepatah yang oamk den selalu sebut maso den kocik duduk kat Kelantan dulu - "ngaju nyio ko anyi" [merajuk lalu lempar kelapa kat anjing]. Makna nya satu keadaan di mana orang yang merajuk tu membuang kelapa kepada anjing. Maka yang kenyang tentulah anjing manakala orang yang merajuk kehilangan kelapa/makanan nya.

Kita berehat sekejap dan jom minum kopi sebab kopi ada super power boleh memulihkan, mencergaskan dan upgrade minda [dari sini]

Coffee is a life staple for most of the world. All too many people swear that they can't get up without their morning cuppa.

We all know that coffee perks you up and keeps you alert, but did you also know that it could make you stronger, faster and smarter?

Here are three ways that coffee can give your body a boost in more ways than one.

1. Regenerative Abilities

When scientists mixed coffee and cancer, they found some startling results. During experiments, coffee showed antiproliferative effects on cancer cells. That is, it stopped the cancer cells from multiplying. Some of the cancer cells even killed itself in the face of coffee.

Other studies showed that caffeine also increases the effectiveness of radiation therapy and tumoricidal drugs.

This is all very revolutionary because cancer destroys your body by mutating your normal body cells into cancer cells. If you can stop the cancer cells from spreading, you’ve got one step in the right door towards curing cancer.

2. Faster than before

Have you ever watched that episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon takes coffee for the first time and thinks he’s the Flash? Well, there’s some basis in that.

Caffeine is a turbocharging kit for your cardiovascular system. The liver breaks caffeine down into three demethylated chemicals – Paraxanthine, Theobromine and Theophylline.

Paraxanthine increases lipolysis, increasing the rate of conversion of fat into glycol fuel in the blood. Theobromine has the effect of dilating our body’s blood vessels. Theophylline relaxes smooth muscle tissues, allowing your heart to beat faster and more efficiently.

If you didn’t understand any of that scientific jargon, all it means is that caffeine helps your blood flow faster, at greater volumes, containing more muscle fuels. This all equals a faster runner.

In a 5-kilometer study, caffeine was attributed to a 1% improvement for both trained and amateur runners. So, coffee really does help!

3. Brain Upgrades

We all know that coffee is a way to fight off last night’s hangover. But it also does something extra: it improves the human brain.

In a study, scientists experimented on volunteers by dosing them with small amounts of coffee first thing in the morning. You might be thinking, ‘I do this everyday. No big deal’.

Well, they also found that this helps increase vigilance, vigor, energy, anger, efficiency and reaction time.

So the next time you’re mind blocked on an assignment or find it difficult to finish off a particularly tough task, take in some coffee and try again.

Jailed for Fake Degree

wasn't surprised when i read this from here

..For their involvement in a fake degree scam, at least 18 foreign workers from China were sentenced earlier this week to jail in Singapore for four weeks each.
The workers had been found by a local court to have provided forged certificates to obtain work passes to work for T Y Enterprise and Sun Blues Cleaning Maintenance.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that while another 10 workers from China will be charged with similar offences on Thursday, another nine are being repatriated after being served with warning letters “for providing false information to MOM’s employment inspectors”.

Arriving in Singapore early last year, the 37 Chinese nationals in all had applied for employment and S passes with “university degrees” in hotel management from Jiangsu, Shandong and Henan universities.

While the workers knew their degrees were fake and had lied in their applications for employment passes, they claimed they had little choice after having paid S$8,000 each to agents in China to land a job here.

However, the promise of a high-paying job was dashed after they found themselves scrubbing floors and clearing rubbish. It is understood that some of them were farmers back home and had landed jobs as cleaning supervisors.

The three universities mentioned do not offer a degree in hotel management and that the degrees were fake, The New Paper reported.

Meanwhile, the employers who were involved in hiring the workers, a total of 17 men and 1 woman, will be charged in court at a later date.

One of the workers, Liu Demin, 36, had pleaded to the court for leniency when his case was heard on Tuesday, saying that he had paid a substantial amount to the agent.

Speaking to the court interpreter in Mandarin, he said, “If I did not follow his instructions (about the forged degree certificate), I would not get the money back. I have to support sickly parents and two school-going children.”

In June this year, the same paper had reported that Liu and another worker, Wang Kangxun, 31, had complained about the unusual pay practice adopted by their company.

It was this issue which shed light to the fake degree scam.

The workers were each paid a monthly salary of S$2,650 which was transferred into their bank accounts, but after payday, they each had to return around S$1,600 to a man sent by their employer. They claimed not to have known why there were asked to do that.

For an S pass holder, the worker must have a fixed monthly salary of at least $2,000, and at least a degree or diploma while the minimum salary for Employment Pass holders is $2,800.

While such scams are not new, non-governmental group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) said this is the largest case of employers using workers with fake certificates. Its spokesman alleged that the employers use the scam to get around the dependency ceiling imposed by MOM.

For making false declaration in a work pass application, the Chinese nationals could have been fined up to $15,000 and/or sentenced up to 12 months’ jail.

One Man's Meat is Lady Gaga's Red Carpet Dress

Lee Kuan Yew has issued his golden thought yet again. I read it yesterday on Yahoo News here.

He urges Singaporeans to do better in English because:-

"There is an intense worldwide competition for talent, especially for English-speaking skilled professionals, managers and executives. Our English-speaking environment is one reason why Singapore has managed to attract a number of these talented individuals to complement our own talent pool," said Lee.
"They find it easy to work and live in Singapore, and remain plugged into the global economy. Singapore is a popular educational choice for many young Asians who want to learn English, and they get a quality education. This has kept our city vibrant," he said.

He pointed out that Singapore is the only country in the region that uses English as the working language, the main medium of instruction in schools.

Mother tongues Chinese, Malay, Tamil and others are treated as second language.

I read somewhere some time ago that Mandarin is taking over the globe. Even people in America is choosing to send their children to learn Mandarin.

Well, looks like Malaysia is taking the lead. Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) will be officially killed off come 2012. And look at how well SRJK (C) is doing. Berebut rebut ibu bapa ingin hantar anak anak belajar di sekolah cina sebab sekolah cina bagus.

Apa lah ini LKY. Tak up-to-date lah!

Kan?

Those were the days

Reading this from here brought tears to my eyes.

 ... I am now the on looker, the outsider looking at the kampong dwellers from the eyes of a Singapore Malay urbanite,  a far, far cry from the innocent child, who was clueless that one day his very own kampong life will eventually be taken away from him. So I too wonder how much longer can the kampong folks  at Sungai Buloh withstand the pressure of city life that is fast knocking on their doors ...

I feel deeply the grief of the blog owner through her lament

...Chinatown is still standing and thriving. Serangoon Road or Little India survives to tell many a tale. Kampung Melayu and other Malay settlements on the East Coast and West Coast have been obliterated ( like Kampung Fatimah) or tarted into high-rise HDB flats and farcical 'theme parks'. Although there's nothing new in this 'cleansing' - the British in the 1820s shunted the Malay settlers along the Singapore River to Telok Blangah - the PAP more or less knocked the nails into the coffin.

I am seeing it happening up north
Also in Mat Sabu's latest claim 
And there is this tugu peringatan [something connected to Mat Sabu's claim] erected specially in Nilai.

And I can only sigh!

Sharing Info - Contract Law in Malaysia

Read about it here

Notice that most of the time, the receipt/invoice you received from the merchant carries this exclusion clause or similarly worded statement: 'Goods sold are not returnable' or 'No refund once sold'.


The thing that I have learnt from her is that : As long as your good is purchased for home use and not for business ( i.e. to be resold), the above exclusion clause is VOID.

That means, as long as the good is defective, regardless of what is worded, you CAN get back all your money spent. You do not have to accept a repair on the good or an exchange. You CAN ask for a refund. AND you are LEGALLY right and entitled to! What a relevation!!

And most of the time the merchant will refuse to return you your money.

Her advice?

From her own experience (and no less than 7 and all successful!), she will threaten the merchant with four words: 'SEE YOU IN COURT!'

The court here refers to the Small Claims Tribunal Court.

However, you don't have to tell them what court! All you have to pay is RM10 admin fee and the merchant will have to refund you the money PLUS the admin fee!

She shared this with us because she felt that even educated people are cowed by such unfair wordings (which includes her jaded friends who are not lawyers).

Please try not to let the merchant fleece you the next time you have a defective good.

I know where to file this. On the 16th floor of Putra Place (The Mall opposite Putra World Trade Centre). The form cost RM5.00. The Tribunal will settle within two months period.

Tribunal Tuntutan Pengguna Malaysia ,

Tingkat 16, Putra Place ,

100, Jalan Putra ,

50622 KUALA LUMPUR

Tel: 03 - 40492300 / 40424181 Fax: 03 - 40424259