full ahead both engines!

what is this? my friend/schoolmate have tagged me (http://haziamyperspective.blogs.friendster.com) i have no ideala. anyway these are the rules

rules: people who are tagged should write a blog post of 6 weird things about them as well as state this rules clearly.in the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names.don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read their blog.

anyway , why not? i am weird? that was what most of my friends said. an eccentric ,but then i think other people just don’t admit that they are eccentrics as well.

1) i qoute the rules from the international convention on prevention of collisions at sea and laughed in my sleep. (my friends told me).

2) i will make sure i parked my car well within the box, no protrusion or entering other box.most malaysian can’ t park at all: have to revise the parking system or the examination system for new drivers.or eliminate the parking altogether(pls read no 5). maybe malaysians have started to think out of the box?

3) i normally do a perfect 3-point turn.most malaysians do 50-points turn, so i appear weird to them.

4) i do queue when going on a bus.weird? malaysian doesn’t know how to queue, so it means i am weird to them. they overtake everywhere,even in a toilet queue. kiasuness is another imported disease which affected lots of the local population.

5) i don’t double park my car in a congested road.malaysians always double park everywhere as if they owned the road,just to be near to their intended destinations. malaysia should start to create drive through banks,office,coffee shop,departmental store,goreng pisang/rojak/cendol stalls,  newspaper agents, everything la, including drive through house. so  making the  usage of the car to the maximum, from bedroom to the boardroom. since cars are so expensive here, why not use it to the maximum.

6) i signal and indicate my direction every 200 meters before a junction or any exit.malaysians doesn’t use the signals indicator at all. if it was a cost option, i think the signal light manufacturer will go bust  here. i wish i could read other people’s mind while they are driving.

this is the list of people that i have tagged

dazzledalie: http://crookedlittlemind.blogspot.com
nina          : http://jadeite.wordpress.com
kucai        : http://kucailiah.fotopages.com
muffster   : http://fuzzboks.blogs.friendster.com/rules_of_engagement
ijah amran :http://ijahamran.blogs.friendster.com/killing_time
amoi          :http://thedancingfingers.blogs.friendster.com/bila_jemari_menari

happy tagging!

a very interesting topic, being debated and discussed in my school’s forum. the current education status are being heavily discussed again. was it necessary to learn mathematics and science in english? the excuse was the two subjects was originated from that language. really? i thought the greeks came with the pythagoras theorem and a lot of other things that is based on the islamic era: algebra, the number zero, etc.

why don’t the two subject being taught in ancient greek or arab? we know that the europeans ‘mutated’ those knowledge and made them theirs. hence the terminology used in the modern world are from the language of the people who devised the modern method.

example are, all medical terms are in greek, botanical terms are in latin,  musical terms are in italian. the only terms devised by our people are : amuk or english spelling ; amok. that was our achievement in human civilisations.

so, why is it good to study those subjects when the people who teaches them are not proficient in english themselves. it is like  an elephant trying to teach a snake walk.(not really relevant).

actually,shallowness doesn’t show at only the lower level of society. regretfully,it  also appeared in the upper echelon of  state government executives. in a report, that was published widely, stated that the state is the most developed state in malaysia, taking also into account the federal amenities that lies in the state.that does not belong to the state and was initiated by the federal government. when we selected our political leaders, we don’t expect them to be that shallow. how about that?

does our geological conditions effect our peoples mentality? we know that the sea all around our nation are not that deep. the malacca straits are just around 28-30 meters at the deepest point. deep enough for a small canoe, but difficult navigation for a 330,000DWT very large crude oil carrier, with 26mtr draught. or is it the continental shelf on the other side, the east coast. maybe?

most civilisations are also sculpted by their surroundings. that is why we don’t wear heavy winter clothings here(unless you are a rap singer). that is also why we can’t just wear our baju melayu in reykyavik or vladivostok even in summer. therefore,
we must adapt. but then, when the world is changing, we must adapt too, but not blindly like those rap singer(in the dressing sense).

very intriguing title. there is a malay proverb giving an equivalent meaning. enggang sama enggang,pipit sama pipit or common ones: birds of the same feather flock together.

vessel with deep draught have limited under keel clearance. if she ventured into shallow waters, she might have grounded, the biggest nightmare in all the men in the sailing world.

my proverb is devised from nautical jargon, which i am familiar with. both vessel and the sea might evolve. either they evolve conversely or not, depends on the prevailing circumstances and conditions.a vessel and the harbour might be evenly matched. adequate under keel clearance and the vessel’s draught is just nice for the harbour. the relationship is good.

once the vessel increased in size, the harbour needs to be deepened also. because of the prevailing conditions, such as silting and fast movement of currents, the harbour entry might be limited again due to inadequate depth of water.

basically, human relationships are more like resembling a ship and a harbour. both might be well matched in the beginning. but when time goes by, so slowly, the harbour becomes shallower due to strong current carrying mud and silt .dredgers might be employed, but if the outside forces keep on acting upon the harbour, the battle might be lost.

in human, when another person becomes shallower, it is hard to bring the person back to the state it was before. stubbornness, ignorance and just plain foolishness adds up, in addition to that, third party interference. this is a main plague in a relationship.

if the harbour still not deep enough for the ship to enter, the ship might skip the harbour altogether. any other way, both parties lose. if that what it takes, both have to accept the reality. when applied to humans, go figure……….

life must go on. it that is the only way to move on, just do it. are u a ship or a harbour?

Sounds familiar? Well ,  that was the front page title of new Sunday times yesterday. But today I will take the title to a story of different scope and perspective.

To quote mr kathirasen’s words from page 19 :

Are we wrong to hold universities to a higher standard than schools and other educational institutions?
aren’t universities the apex of our education system where young adults are shaped into THINKING people?
Aren’t universities supposed to broaden the mind of students?
Aren’t universities the grounds from which the next crop of leaders arise?

4 questions to be precise.

From my observations, I may conclude but not generalize and apply it to all the university students(or ex university students). I have encountered a number of  ex-students of a prominent local university. some of them are from my secondary school and most of them either colleagues or workmate.

During my interrogations(normal conversations really), I found out that they lack general knowledge and a proper command of English ,even as a secondary language. Both of this traits are not acquired through drills in class or any other approaches. you just can’t buy language skills.  It is more about reading, documentaries, reading again and the most important lessons from the school of hard knocks, interaction with other people.

Going to university is not about gaining good grades and upon graduation, get the scroll and expecting a good job. That is the impression that have been given by a lot of people. If this shallow perception still exist, no point of getting a degree or diploma when just getting it is the main point, so that other people recognizes you as an educated person.

Which is not.

Trying to answer mr kathirasen’s question, going for a tertiary education is, in addition to gain knowledge, is  to further building character that have been developed during the secondary education stage. it is also to build confidence, creative and cognitive thinking , as well as interaction between different group of society. In addition to that, preparation to face the real and brutal world. Also there is the ability to make the right decisions in a critical situation. That was it.

When we talk about preparation to face the real world, various activities have been done in this level which is to expose them, such example can be seen through community projects, reserve officer training units and so on. If the students(or ex-students) absorbs these elements, the problem never existed. What I see is shallowness and ‘banking on’ petty and trivial matters, making a mountain out of a molehill.

They have yet to see beyond the façade and short sightedness in making crucial decisions in the prevailing circumstances and conditions.

When the ability to see beyond the façade is not there, this reflects their ability to think, which the most important element is being in a tertiary education level. That is why all institutions, when stipulating the criteria of employing people, required the tertiary education, which they assume will make a person a thinking person. Which is not also.

Too sad, but it’s true. No wonder during these hard times, a lot of graduates failed to make it. Because of the values that they adopted, employers don’t require non-thinking people, no matter how many straight A’s these students have.

We might have to go back to the industrial needs. Are those students really interested in that field or just another one coming into the ‘herd’? Normally, the teaching personnel are being brought back from the industry as to instill real working situations to the students. If they are just teaching after they graduated, what experience do they get from the industry?

Experiencing the real world is more important than solely depends on theory, which in turn, make them so idealistic, but that does not apply to the real world. Experience and theory go together, that is the most important part of any professional qualification and training. This applies directly to the industry.

Is it the shortsightedness of the policy makers in making the crucial decisions? Is it just society pressure of merely getting a degree or diploma to be recognised as an educated person? Is it lack of experience of the teaching staff that made the students too result oriented and ‘cut and paste’ method of education? 

Mind broadening does not happens? Does the students just mingled with their own society, with regard to locality, tribal or clan?

Do remember that from these grounds that the next crop of leaders should arise. This is not. We can see that most political parties prefer non-professionals to be their young leader. a lot of young professionals have been shunned because of their education or professional status.

Are we seeing a decline of our own civilization? At one time promoting education as a step to eradicate poverty, and at the same time doing things otherwise?

If these conditions persists, what we see in the years to come that we are going to become another extinct civilization : see Inca, Maya ,Egyptians,Abbasiah, Othmaniah,  Mesopotamia, Mohenjodaro-Harappa, Roman , Babylonian, Greeks, Macedonian, Carthagian, Mongols  and so on.

When knowledge flourished, these empires are very well respected, either in the fields of military, education, culture, science, trade, art or anything that may reflect the advance elements during their period of glory. Ignorance and failure to maintain their standings in their respective fields have made the civilizations extinct, up until there are no records whatsoever of their achievements. Too bad if that happens to us, but then, we are on our way there.

coming back to the sailing series again. in a voyage, a ship must adhere to the sailing program and the passage planning. ETA must be as accurate as planned and as the charter agreement. a charterer might not be very happy if the ship is always behind schedule. due to the engine problem, pump failure, generator failure and all other things that might hamper the smooth operations of a vessel.

when there is a failure, the parts may need replacement . sometimes, they doesn’t need to be replaced at all. as an example, a tanker may carry heated cargoes. the tank’s heating system are made up of steam pipes to hold steam supplied from the boiler. cargo contamination might happen if the pipe leaked. either to replace the pipes or shut the system altogether. just carry normal cargo instead of heated ones.the ship have to move on.

same as our human relationship or any institution. when people inside an organisation does not comply to the main objectives that have been instilled, they are a liability to the organisation. it is  ‘cancerous’ to the whole organisation. it might collapse. so in order to prevent the collapse, the cancerous cell have to be removed. instead of bringing down the whole organisation to collapse, it have to move on.

a partner who is a liability must be removed also to prevent further damages. people have to admit that changes are inevitable. last year,  we paid rm1.00 for toll, today not any more. 10 yrs back we dont need to pay , now we have to pay. the changes are indeed inevitable.there used to be scholarship, but now replaced by loans. when there is no jobs upon graduation, how to pay the loans? parents instead of paying the children through education, still have to fork out money after they graduated. very vicious cycle, but then ,it is reality.

we must be able to change to adapt to the present circumstances and conditions. anything we wished for might be as good as we percepted. we can’t get everything. there must be a compromise. in engineering field, it is known that we can’t get economy for power, or vice versa. there is the compromise. we can’t gain everything.

unless that we are really thinking deep, we have to make sacrifices and also compromise. that is the fact of life. no matter what absurd arguments we are throwing to another party, we have to accept that reality bites.

why some people can’t accept reality? maybe they have watch too much sugar-coated soap dramas in the TV? maybe too much fairy tales? happily ever after? that doesn’t work in real life.  that is the TV where everybody looks good and the actors never aged. have you ever  watch the bold and the beautiful? ridge forrester still looked the same as 15 yrs ago. it is an avenue for escapism. only shallow,non-thinking type of people will accept it is true without arguments.

in the era of globalisation, we cannot just being  shallow,non-thinking as the competition is global. if our benchmark is somewhere in guatemala or afghanistan, we might not worry. but then reality bites again. the competition is fast moving onwards, accepting changes as fast as they changed their clothes. even the closed china have accepted changes and marching ahead at a pace that make even the mighty shivers in their veneered board rooms.

as a conclusion, adapting to changes will make us a better person. it is either being left behind or running with the victor.sink or swim.  the choice is yours.