in my previous post, i was rather upset that i didn't have something positive to write about malaysia, the country i love. and i had a good think about it.
what do i love about malaysia? what makes me proud to be malaysian?
ok, lets try...in no particular order...except which point the idea popped into my head...
1. i love the warmth of malaysians. truly. when i went to singapore for two weeks during my student years, i realised that the nicest, friendliest, most generous people i met there were malaysians! they offered me their home, their time, their company. it was a really pleasant surprise. malaysians don't have to be in malaysia to exude the warmth n generousity that we've been famous for all around the world!
2. what can say? food glorious food!!!! i have a ongoing gastronomic affair which started the first time i bite into a roti canai dipped in chicken curry, my first slurp of penang asam laksa, my first taste of ice kacang...sigh...one of the best thing about being multi-racial is that the variety of food which results from this mish mash of culture is mind-boggling!!!
3. the availabilty of everything...i mean, we get music not only from america, but britian, taiwan, japan, korea, india!!! to give u a rough idea. and the choice of clothes, and daily goods, branded or cheap, the selection is endless, or at least, limited by the amount of cash u have in ur wallet. many a friend and relative visiting from overseas actually found that their luggage multiplied by the time they are ready to stop shopping and go home :O)
4. how rojak our language is. sometimes i amaze myself when i start counting how many different ways i can converse with someone else. mandarin, bahasa malaysia, teochew, hokkien, cantonese, english, and not forgetting-manglish and our ever popular sign language..to be used when driving of course!
5. the beautiful, bountiful treasures nature has endowed upon us. we have fantastic beaches, astounding caves, amazing forests, delicious fruits and beautiful flowers of the earth and oh yeah, pretty nice people too!
6. the diversity of the people.i have yet to stop making a new friend of different and interesting background...malay, chinese, indian, iban, kadazan, chindian, portugese+chinese+indian, thai+malay+chinese, i mean, like maths, the probabilities are endless... and it's fascinating to see how the cultures merge and melt and new ones are formed while old ones are cherished.
the list goes on...please add on if there is something u would to share too, maybe i forgot ur favourite...like they say, count ur blessings. perhaps merdeka day should be also made malaysian thanksgiving day.....for us to truly appreciate what we have.
selamat merdeka malaysians!!!!!
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
49 years of independence...
49 years of independence and counting!!!
by birth, i am a citizen of malaysia, and proud to be one. we have been independent for 49 years and there are many things to be proud of...but if one were to pick up the newspaper today, u would seriously think otherwise, and it is hard to maintain my pride as a malaysian as i am struggling to make sense of what i see in the dailies too!
one would have thought that history will be our best teacher. apparently, one makes mistakes too! despite several tragedies, it seems that malaysia has yet to learn from her mistakes. the collapse of the condominiums in kl in the late 90's, the death and injuries of snatch theif victims, terrible road accidents that plague our festive seasons, the death and collapse of communities during the nipah virus outbreak, the tsunami in 2004. the yearly haze...health threatening yet not important enough for pro-active action to be taken. what have we learnt from these? the government and the people were shocked and appropriately sympathetic when the tragedies happen, but after several press statements and the formation of fund and problem solving committees later, the issues died down, never to be heard of again until the next tragedy occurs. then the finger pointing begins...
how much death and loss does it take before SERIOUS action is taken? what happens to the pledges by various people to improve and prevent similar situations from occuring? what happens to the money that were collected in the name of the victims, but never reaches their hands? why isn't the government doing enough???
the proudest and loudest tagline of our nation is that we are a harmonious and tolerant multiracial community. hah! tolerance...tolerance is not punishing people who do things you actually don't like - Wikipedia...is that what our society is like? where our harmony results from not being punished for being of a different race? should we just rest on our laurels simply because leaders of other nations have praised our multiracial society? what sort of signal are we sending to others when offhand remarks with a racist slur can be made and simply excused on the basis that "it wasn't meant to be harmful?". should there even be a demand for public apology by the offended before the offender says sorry???
does tolerance means that when u are shouted and threatened by others you have to forgive and forget? especially when all u did was set up a student help desk to help the freshies in your local varsity? why was the committee which was set up to review the incidence not an independent one? if students are allowed to hassle and bully others (regardless of reason) what sort of example is the unversity setting? i remember being punished by my mother for starting any fight with my siblings, regardless of the reason for initiating the fight. for violence is never acceptable. only the beasts (mind u, not animals but beasts) resort to violence.
please see the video below. http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,713/Itemid,120/
do u really think what is reported by the star newspaper, fair action?(http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/8/19/nation/15186612&sec=nation)
"SERDANG: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) will not hand down punitive action
against the students involved in the July 17 fracas, which the inquiry panel
found to be non-racist and non-violent.
Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Nik Mustapha R. Abdullah said they would instead
be “advised” and “re-educated” on the correct behaviour on campus and the need to
respect the university's rules and regulations."
perhaps when the students grow up, they will think that anything they do will be forgiven and forgotten as long as they did it in "good faith", as exampled by the officers who signed away the rights to all billboard advertisments to a private company. despite making a shady deal mounting to millions of ringgit, these officers were let off without any punishment by the minister in charge. have the people at the top become omnipotent? does it mean that when u dance to the tune of the right leader, u shall be protected of all wrong doings, just because the minister/top person in charge said that u are right? even though the rest of the society is crying "bloody murder"???
check out the news at "http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=15108"
what happened to justice and transparency? what happened to seeing that the people's interest comes first? what happened to the nation i am so proud of???
oh dear, looks like i have to go and think about what was it that i was so proud of to be a malysian in the first place.
happy merdeka??? 49 years of independence and this is what we have....
by birth, i am a citizen of malaysia, and proud to be one. we have been independent for 49 years and there are many things to be proud of...but if one were to pick up the newspaper today, u would seriously think otherwise, and it is hard to maintain my pride as a malaysian as i am struggling to make sense of what i see in the dailies too!
one would have thought that history will be our best teacher. apparently, one makes mistakes too! despite several tragedies, it seems that malaysia has yet to learn from her mistakes. the collapse of the condominiums in kl in the late 90's, the death and injuries of snatch theif victims, terrible road accidents that plague our festive seasons, the death and collapse of communities during the nipah virus outbreak, the tsunami in 2004. the yearly haze...health threatening yet not important enough for pro-active action to be taken. what have we learnt from these? the government and the people were shocked and appropriately sympathetic when the tragedies happen, but after several press statements and the formation of fund and problem solving committees later, the issues died down, never to be heard of again until the next tragedy occurs. then the finger pointing begins...
how much death and loss does it take before SERIOUS action is taken? what happens to the pledges by various people to improve and prevent similar situations from occuring? what happens to the money that were collected in the name of the victims, but never reaches their hands? why isn't the government doing enough???
the proudest and loudest tagline of our nation is that we are a harmonious and tolerant multiracial community. hah! tolerance...tolerance is not punishing people who do things you actually don't like - Wikipedia...is that what our society is like? where our harmony results from not being punished for being of a different race? should we just rest on our laurels simply because leaders of other nations have praised our multiracial society? what sort of signal are we sending to others when offhand remarks with a racist slur can be made and simply excused on the basis that "it wasn't meant to be harmful?". should there even be a demand for public apology by the offended before the offender says sorry???
does tolerance means that when u are shouted and threatened by others you have to forgive and forget? especially when all u did was set up a student help desk to help the freshies in your local varsity? why was the committee which was set up to review the incidence not an independent one? if students are allowed to hassle and bully others (regardless of reason) what sort of example is the unversity setting? i remember being punished by my mother for starting any fight with my siblings, regardless of the reason for initiating the fight. for violence is never acceptable. only the beasts (mind u, not animals but beasts) resort to violence.
please see the video below. http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,713/Itemid,120/
do u really think what is reported by the star newspaper, fair action?(http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/8/19/nation/15186612&sec=nation)
"SERDANG: Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) will not hand down punitive action
against the students involved in the July 17 fracas, which the inquiry panel
found to be non-racist and non-violent.
Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Nik Mustapha R. Abdullah said they would instead
be “advised” and “re-educated” on the correct behaviour on campus and the need to
respect the university's rules and regulations."
perhaps when the students grow up, they will think that anything they do will be forgiven and forgotten as long as they did it in "good faith", as exampled by the officers who signed away the rights to all billboard advertisments to a private company. despite making a shady deal mounting to millions of ringgit, these officers were let off without any punishment by the minister in charge. have the people at the top become omnipotent? does it mean that when u dance to the tune of the right leader, u shall be protected of all wrong doings, just because the minister/top person in charge said that u are right? even though the rest of the society is crying "bloody murder"???
check out the news at "http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=15108"
what happened to justice and transparency? what happened to seeing that the people's interest comes first? what happened to the nation i am so proud of???
oh dear, looks like i have to go and think about what was it that i was so proud of to be a malysian in the first place.
happy merdeka??? 49 years of independence and this is what we have....
Friday, August 11, 2006
i have nothing to write about....???
i haven't written for awhile...perhaps because i had nothing much to say, or maybe too much, i didn't know what to write. perhaps i was just enjoying the simple pleasure of day to day life, and felt that there was nothing special to write about.
i think i am wrong. there is something special in all our daily lives if we only take the time to notice it. if only we knew how to appreciate how wonderful our daily lives are, what a blessing that would be!
we fail to realise how much we take a normal day for granted until something goes wrong.
i'm so lucky that my work goes smoothly, and when i reach home, mom has a delicious meal all prepared for us. i'm so lucky when i open the fridge, there is ice-cream and fresh milk. i'm so lucky that every night when i close my eyes, i do not have to fear that it will be the last time i see the world. i 'm so lucky that every morning that greets me is filled with sunshine and birdsong and not missiles whistling their death song above my head. i am thankful that i have a job that keeps me clothed and feeds me. i may not have enough to buy diamonds or furs, but it makes me happy to have my job.
i am born chinese in a predominantly muslim society but yet i am thankful for i do not have to fear that my neighbour will turn and scream at me and accuse me of anti-patriotism...simply because our skin colour differs or because we belive in different gods.
i am lucky to have family and friends and people who knows me and loves me and accepts me for who i am...i am lucky.
perhaps if i wrote about the bountiful gifts that fills my life, i guess i will never want for another subject to write on. for life is filled with goodness, if only we know how to see it.
for everything and everyone is special, if only we were lucky enough to realise it. but u can, if u try.
have a great weekend!!!!
i think i am wrong. there is something special in all our daily lives if we only take the time to notice it. if only we knew how to appreciate how wonderful our daily lives are, what a blessing that would be!
we fail to realise how much we take a normal day for granted until something goes wrong.
i'm so lucky that my work goes smoothly, and when i reach home, mom has a delicious meal all prepared for us. i'm so lucky when i open the fridge, there is ice-cream and fresh milk. i'm so lucky that every night when i close my eyes, i do not have to fear that it will be the last time i see the world. i 'm so lucky that every morning that greets me is filled with sunshine and birdsong and not missiles whistling their death song above my head. i am thankful that i have a job that keeps me clothed and feeds me. i may not have enough to buy diamonds or furs, but it makes me happy to have my job.
i am born chinese in a predominantly muslim society but yet i am thankful for i do not have to fear that my neighbour will turn and scream at me and accuse me of anti-patriotism...simply because our skin colour differs or because we belive in different gods.
i am lucky to have family and friends and people who knows me and loves me and accepts me for who i am...i am lucky.
perhaps if i wrote about the bountiful gifts that fills my life, i guess i will never want for another subject to write on. for life is filled with goodness, if only we know how to see it.
for everything and everyone is special, if only we were lucky enough to realise it. but u can, if u try.
have a great weekend!!!!
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Ever wonder what the back of a Smiley Face looks like?
http://www.superlaughecards.com/1/smileback.htm
please cut and paste n enjoy!!!! thanks aunty swee, i love it!
i had a great smile today...hope u have one too!!!!
please cut and paste n enjoy!!!! thanks aunty swee, i love it!
i had a great smile today...hope u have one too!!!!
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