Happy New Year 2011

Believe it or not, yesterday was the 365th day of the year 2010.  I initially thought that the year would trudge along very slowly, dragging its feet through the months of the year, with much difficulty, to reach the end of the month of December.

How wrong I was!  It did start very slowly at first, but once the first day of 2010 was completed, the next day came and then the next and then the day after that.  The days got to be very busy indeed with school work abound, children to send to boarding school and university; and then fetching them back again for long holidays and festivals and tons of the things I did during the year that I now find difficult to recollect. 

2010 also saw me making new friends and getting acquainted with old ones.  It also saw me doing things that I like doing with huge feeling of self-satisfaction after accomplishing it.  Of course some kind of recognition would have been the icing on the cake, but I was satisfied to have just the cake, even it was without the icing which was surprisingly eaten by someone else.

Apart from that, 2010 also saw me losing friends whom I held dear to my heart.  They are still around but the choice to sever the friendship was not mine but those people whom I still consider as friends.  Aside from their unique individuality, I love them for various other reasons, but apparently they needed more than I could offer; which meant they wanted more than just friendship.

All in all, I have a lot to be thankful for.  Allah has given me health and reasonable wealth to get me through the days.  Allah did not always give me things I wished for, but I saw that as something to make me more determined and ambitious.  Allah has, for twenty years now, continued to foster my love for my spouse and has bestowed upon me offspring who are, well, offspring!  Allah is all knowing, but I continue to ask for his grace.  For of these and more, I am more than grateful to Allah.

New Year's Resolution

Insya Allah......

Every year, when it comes to the end of the year, it seems customary for people to make new year's resolutions.  Some make more resolutions that you ever think of while some make resolutions that are out of this world.  Some people make new year's resolutions just for the fun of it while others do it just to follow the crowd.

I, just like many other people, am guilty of making resolutions of my own.  But, unlike those that I mention above, I have always been satisfied with making only one new resolution per year, and I have always made sure that my resolutions are within my means to achieve.  Of course, some people may gasp in surprise at my single resolution in comparison to their long list of annual ambitions.  But, again, unlike them, I make sure I achieve my resolutions and continue to practise what I have achieved.

The year 2010 saw me striving to renovate the store room that was designated as the Form 6 teachers' room.  I resolved that I would do all I could to do up the place and make it more like a teachers' room and more hospitable.  It took me, more than a month to do up the place all on my own, which included removing old furniture and replace them with those that were in better condition.  I resolved to make a small rock garden near the entrance of the room and continue to maintain the well-being of the plants.  I resolved to draw some murals on the walls to spruce up the appearance to the entrance of the room.  And I also resolved to establish a small teachers' reading corner in the room.  I am happy to say that I managed to achieve all of them and am singularly maintaining the condition.

For the year 2011, I am making again, one new resolution.  This time my ambition is more to the spiritual side; a more personal and internal fulfillment.  I pray and hope that I will achieve this resolution and also continue to maintain it once it is achieved.



Football or Foot 'brawl'

I have always wondered what is it about football that makes it such a universal game.  Not a single country in this world is ignorant about the game.  Everybody, from the young to the elderly, enjoy this game, either by getting physical in the game itself or just by watching it.  I am at awe about the attraction that this game has on people!

But the thing that really strikes me dumb is the influence that it has on people.  Like a hypnotic device, football brings out feelings and emotions from the deepest and inner most recesses of a humans soul.  Feelings that has never emerged from those murky depths, make their way and emerge as something that is very difficult to comprehend or relate to such a universal game.

Most people who watch football are prone to outbursts of negative emotions like anger, revenge and hatred, probably because they want their team to win badly, thus they themselves behave badly.  Some football fans are more fanatical than others, so much so that they go to the extent of tormenting others physically and emotionally.

Perhaps one solution to this is for matches to be played on independent grounds where there is less, or indeed no chance of violence.  So be it if there are no supporters, as long as the game can be played safely and in the spirit of sportsmanship, as it has always been intended.



Christmas In Leeds

Mary Morris International Residence

Being in Malaysia, I have never been caught up in the thick of Christmas celebration.  That was not the case when I was studying in Leeds.  I, in fact, joined in the hordes of holiday shoppers weeks before Christmas with sales abound all over the city.  In fact, sales went well into Boxing Day!

It was not just the joy of joining other people in their shopping spree, but also seeing the sights and decorations put up in the shops and also the Christmas lights put up in the city.  Colourful lights in different shapes and colours adorning and criss-crossing streets as soon as it was dark and well into the early hours of the morning.  On top of that, to add the merriment, snow fell every day.  In fact, on one day we had 14 inches of snow!

To me Christmas should be all that plus the turkey that is slowly cooking in the oven, chestnuts roasting on open fire and gifts under the Christmas tree.  My Christmas in Leeds that year, was celebrated in Mary Morris International Residence with other students from different nationalities.  Of course those from the European countries had gone back for the holidays.

So, in place of the roast turkey, all of us cooked one dish each that represented our respective countries.  All of us were required to bring our dishes to the common gathering room.  Of course, every body wanted to show their expertise in cooking their national dishes.  I cooked chicken satay!  Unfortunately, I almost burnt the satay sticks because I had forgotten to soak them in water first before skewering the meat.  Anyway, nobody cared about the burnt sticks because we were busy enjoying the food.

My second year in Leeds, Christmas was celebrated in Beeston.....

Bring Up Children

Que Sera Sera?

All parents, regardless of race, creed or religion, want the best for their children.  They will do everything in their power to be the best provider to their offspring to ensure that these children have a good future.  Thus, in order to achieve this, parents provide their children with the best education, formal or informal, academically or religion wise.  On top of that, they will also do all they can to earn as much as they can to put food on the table, clothes on their children's back and roof over their heads.

However, after all they have done, fathers especially, seem to feel that they have fallen out of favour from their children.  This is not a matter of whether they love their mothers more than they do their fathers! This is just a matter of respect!

I am not speaking on other fathers' behalf.  I am just saying my piece.  I seem to feel that, apart from all that I have done to ensure that my children grow up to become well-educated and well-behaved individuals, I have to silently come to the conclusion that I cannot expect too much from my children.  My children don't seem to share my idealism about how youngsters should behave towards their elders, no matter how much I stress the matter to them.  Unfortunately for me, my spouse doesn't share my enthusiasm either!

So, I am confined to the fact that I shall be the lonely father figure who will not have his ideals shared my neither his spouse nor his offspring.  I may think that my ideals are the best, because they were taught to me by my own mother.  Sad to say that we are the only two who share similar sentiments and my mother has passed on.  My turn may be coming soon!  Perhaps then, and only then, my children and spouse will realize that I have been right all along!  But by then, it will be too late!



Teachers Unhappy Over Transfers

Teachers unhappy over transfers

In the move to Uphold BM and Strengthen English, teachers can expect many new strategies to be implemented by the Ministry to achieve this goal.  And obviously through this news article, it has not taken into consideration the human factor that is required to fulfil this goal.

Strengthening English is not just the Ministry's goal but also the goal of the teachers who are out there in schools to teach the subject.  These teachers, however much the Ministry pretends to acknowledge, are faced with arduous tasks of getting this task done especially the fact that English, in reality, is not a second language in Malaysia.  Consequently, teachers are faced with students who are not interested to learn the language, no matter how much coaxing is given or what ever resource materials are used. 

But back to the issue at hand, the Ministry, before strengthening English, should take precedence in strengthening the teachers moral.  Teachers after all are humans who have feelings and are affected and influenced by their surroundings.  The Ministry must realize that teachers who have set up root in a particular place would find it difficult to uproot themselves, especially to a place that is two or three hours drive from their current location.

The unhappiness does not only come from the distance but also from the fact that they would have to uproot their whole family like transferring their children to other schools, spouses to a different working place, finding new accommodations, looking for nannies to care for their babies plus the emotional transfer that all these people will have to go through.  All these weaken the teachers moral and spirit.  So, how then do you expect them to carry on strengthening English!

On one hand, transfer is good because you meet new colleagues and students, hence new challenges.  On the other hand, strong teachers can be weakened by transfers that they personally feel are uncalled for.  Perhaps the idea of this particular teacher transfer should have been opened to applications.

Noisy Neighbours!

I know it is such a cliche thing to write about, but being neighbourly is not something that people living in a society should take lightly.  Living in a society would require members of that particular society to respect not only the boundaries of each other's houses but also each other's emotional boundaries.

Of course it is easier to respect house boundaries because houses are usually separated by fences, whether they are wire fences usually provided by housing developers or concrete and fashionable fences or walls erected by house owners themselves.  Obviously the demarcation point where neighbours can cross is clearly indicated by these structures.

However, when it comes to emotional boundaries, neighbours, especially those who prefer to be ignorant about it, seem to just ram into it head on.  One reason for this is there is no clear definition as to what people can do or for that matter, to what extent, until a neighbour's emotional boundary is breached. 

Disrespectful and inconsiderate neighbours seem to think that they live in a world of their own and that they can do anything they like.  They don't seem to care if their neighbours are disturbed or offended.  Some inconsiderate neighbours are downright noisy, talking at the top of their voices, turning on their hi-fi at the loudest possible volume setting or even bickering with their offspring and spouses without a care in the world; and worse of all these things don't just happen occasionally but on a daily basis!

I think there should be a law against these noisy and inconsiderate neighbours.  People like these should be given like, three warnings before they are asked to leave the premises even though the houses may belong to them.  They should be instructed to vacate their houses and live somewhere else, preferably in isolation, until they know how they should behave to live in a neighbourhood as neighbours!

In Memory of Leeds!

Leeds Grand Mosque

Friday prayers have been something that I look forward to ever since I knew how to pray.  And in my almost half-century of life, I have had the chance to perform Friday prayers in almost one hundred different mosques all over the country and some overseas.  And where ever I prayed, the experience was always different as well.

I have prayed in so many different mosques in the state of Johor Bahru and of course some in Kelantan where I got my formal training as a teacher; not to mention the many mosques in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya where I was brought up and started work.  I must say that all these mosques have unique qualities and beauty of their own that draw people and me to pray within their vicinity.

But the most unique experience was performing Friday prayers in Leeds, United Kingdom where I did my first degree.  Not only was the building unique in structure and initial purpose but the people who went there to perform prayers were also both unique and varied.  Unique because they are quite different from the congregation that you would see in Malaysia and varied because of the different nationalities of people who perform prayers, who  have found the enlightenment to embrace Islam.

Praying in Leeds Grand Mosque was also a totally new experience because people did not wear sarong like us in Malaysia; they prayed in their daily clothes!  And, of course, the one unique thing that I will never forget was when I went to the mosque in heavy snow to perform my Friday prayer! 

Praying in different mosques does have its plus points but one must remember that wherever one prays, the main reason is always the same; that is to pray!

For A Lost Cause!

Rebels Without A Cause!

I know being an examination invigilator is not an easy work because I have been an invigilator for the past fifteen years, but the incident which occurred to me today is the straw that broke the camel's back!  It is such a sad turn of event when, year after year, I notice examination candidates are getting less and less interested in taking their examinations and are even less respectful to the people who conduct the examinations for them.

Candidates nowadays seem to have a couldn't-care-less attitude towards other people let alone for themselves.  The candidates seem to think that they rule the hall in which the examination is being conducted and that they can do what ever they like. 

Two such incidents unfortunately happened to me today.  One was when one candidate wanted to leave the hall only half an hour into the examination.  When told that he was not allowed to leave, he said that he wanted to go to the toilet, which was fine.  But upon given the permission, he grabbed his stationery and quickly made a dash out of the hall, never to be seen again.  Toilet indeed!  More of a toilet case to me!

Another incident was when a candidate wanted to leave the hall early because he was asthmatic and that it was time for him to take his medication.  In such a situation, I had to allow the candidate to leave.  I later found out from a candidate who sat beside him that, not only was he not asthmatic, in fact he was as fit as a fiddle!

I think, that is all the insult that I can possibly endure from these candidates to last me a life time.  And on that note, I have come to a decision that this year's invigilation stint would be my last time!  I can definitely find better things to do during my holidays!