Friday, August 04, 2006

No Hope

Its really funky when someone looks up to you. Especially an Oxford graduate who's been working abroad for the last few years.

So I bullshit as usual and as usual he thinks I'm beyond him. All because I told him I write occasionally. I Laugh Out Loud with you folks.

I showed him my blog through my tree geez phone no less. He went "Wow! UNCLE, not Bad!! So I said disagreed, "Really I'm BAD".

"No, I can tell you're really sweet, UNCLE." " Tell me the secret of your success."

Now he wants a tattoo too.

* After writing this post and before he slept, sicko pee-d into the laundry basket. Dont offer him champagne today if you meet him.

24 comments:

an0nymous-ign0ranus said...

i look up to you too, Uncle, literally.

Anonymous said...

Uncle, be kind to the impressionable soul ;-)

Unknown said...

I just have one question:

Why is HE telling you how sweet he reckons you are?

Leen AshBurn said...

Ah, young fresh naive meat...is he single? *giggles*

Lily G said...

'Funky' is sooo 70's :P

sic6sense said...

He calls all his father's friends uncle. The father is old. I'm not. i dont look down on people although i may overlook them. i'm sweet thats why he said it. young,fresh, naive and single. he wants to party and meet people. he didnt specify gender. i like the 70s except for potluck parties. that is so unfashinable. i'm not waiting and wanting to find out his sexual inclination.

[V]landa said...

pass him my number. i dont care whether he's straight or gay.

Anonymous said...

"...i'm sweet thats why he said it."

*rotflmAao*

A priceless statement if I ever heard one... :D You could charm the pants off a nun... but sweet? Can taste you to verify or not? *diabolical laughter*

-- The Asamboey

--

Anonymous said...

I studied computing in Australia a decade ago, and one thing I grew to love is open-book exam. Every computing subject has open-book exam, I never needed to memorize anything. All I did was understood the concepts and worked hard with assignments.

If I spent the effort in doing assignments (which were really hard), then there is a good chance to score well in exam, because it is all about algorithm design, problem-solving and understanding.

By doing difficult assignments, you developed competence, and with that competence you should be able to do well in open-book exam. The exam questions always asked you to solve some problems that sound different from what is covered in assignments or lectures or past-year exams.

I would say a good faculty of computer science should have open-book exam. But I am not sure local faculty knows how to set proper open-book questions. Of course not all disciplines are suitable for open-book exam.

The matriculation college in Australia which I attended offered computer science and its exam was open-book. By offering computer science at matriculation level, students could find out and try it whether this might be their degree choice.

Do accountants do their work without manuals? Do lawyers handle court cases without access to law guides? Do professionals design software without access to manuals and references?

An open-book exam recognizes this reality in practice, and attempt to simulate a problem-solving environment in exam. But it can be scary because I never knew what questions would come up.

In closed-book exam you predict questions in terms of topics relevance. In open-book exam there is not much you can do to prepare, except sleep well the night before, which was the best thing about the exam.

Anonymous said...

My understanding is so long as there is discrimination against one party, there will never be trust among each other. Let take for an example, imagine a person work so hard each day to support his family, and at the end of the day, he/she realize that the tax paying to the government will fully used to subsized and assist another party systematically.

Given that the economic share cake has now been totally controlled by the malays (more than 50%) and couple with all those systematic discrimination action taken by the government, I wonder how the unity of Bangsa Malaysia is going to exist.

In fact, my personal view is all has to do with the malays self, I find malay is very disgruntled and never satisfied, and with disgruntled behavior that is built in subconsciously, no wonder all the malay employees work in the government institution or any government link company will systematically bias when comes to approving some decision that involve "malay" and "non-malay", for example, we always see our leader talks about racial harmony and education scholarship should based on merit and fair.

However, little did he realize that when come to execution of his talking is not actually implemented by the middle management people in those institution.

A general truth is high dependency behavior will not make you growth!

Anyhow, don't be so naive, I hope you malay can read more newspaper and open up your eyes to see things more clearly. Quite clearly you have no idea what is going on in this country in term of the policy that have been implemented by our government.

Did you realized that your income that you earned is being divert to systematically assist the already affluent malay community!

I recently bought a condo at PJ, and one of the buyer next to me is a malay and was driving a brand new Honda Accord, and during conversation between him and his family that they can be granted a discount of 10%.

This is a real discrimination and obviously the government would have been taking to the court if this happen in the USA (unfortunately our legal system is also not discrimination entity).

Did you realize that nowadays that most of the people buying the branded staffs in Kuala Lumpur is dominated by malays, just take a scroll one day to KLCC and ask the branded shop personal about the majority of their community customer, you will be surprised.

Further, what really upset is the education scholarship not granted to other races. Big hope, I am fervent believer of God, and my church always pray for Malaysia. Do me a favor, wake up yourself, or stop disguising yourself.

I thanked God today because he has woke me up from my foolishness. Now it is my duty to wake you all up if you are still sleeping.

Yes, I can make a change! From now onward, as much as possible, I will not support any organization or body that worship racial discrimination. I will start this from petrol station and fast food restaurant. I do not have to wait until general election to decide what type of government I want.

And as for you, my beloved people, you have to decide today whether you want to reject, ignore or accept, my invitation to make a change in our country for the better future of our children and their next generation.

May God's wisdom be with you all.

It is sad and those of us who chose to stay pay the price for ourselves and our children, but I prefer they learn and choose what is best for themselves in their future. As for me, my destiny is here, no matter what. We walk with God, pray, do our part, and be secure in him. We can influence, small it may be, but never underestimate the power of love, hope and faith.

Anonymous said...

Too much has been said.

When I actually make that giant leap, I make it solely for the future of my family. If you look at it from an economic point of view, I will lose more than half of my accumulated wealth.

Emigrating is simply a decision that I make within my family and has nothing to do with the guy next door. Call it selfish or whatever, but all I can say is that it is none of anyone's business. I am the one leaving behind the bad and good times, family and friends, my social circle, and the people and things I love.

If I had millions of surplus cash like many of our 'politicians', I might put it in a briefcase and just walk into another country and buy properties and live a good life. It might then be a decision that needs not much thinking about at all.

You see, I am not leaving my country, but leaving behind a system that does not present a fair future for my generation. It is a pity that my kids will not have the opportunity to grow up with their cousins and the older generation.

They will lose a very big part of our tradition, but I am hoping that they will grow up to be good human beings, able to do whatever they please with their future.

There is so much out there for everyone, but it is a pity that the lords and masters of our country are trying to limit the capabilities of our children. From where I stand, we are moving from becoming a developed nation to a backward nation in terms of intellectual ability.

See what is happening to our universities, as they churn out youngsters into a workforce that does not view them as valuable resources. This is due to the many limitations (government propaganda, quota, syllabus, etc) within the system that disallows young minds to be competitive and independent in the world market.

Everybody knows it, but no one dares speak out. This itself is creating a very subversive culture which will only damage the country in the long run.

Perhaps one day things will change, but I do not see it in the near future and am not willing to bet my family's future on it. Yes, I am looking for a better life, but not necessarily a wealthier life. When my kids become adults, where they choose to live, will be their decision.

The grass may not be greener on the other side, but you never, never know if you never, never go!

Anonymous said...

We have seen the introduction of toll highways, privatisation, mega buildings for mega people and so on.

Talking about mega buildings for mega people, I wonder why the government has not given serious consideration to the needs of lower to middle income groups for better public transportation infrastructure.

I have been a regular to KLCC, KLIA and Puduraya. It is sad to note the vast difference in facilities offered.

Just because Puduraya has not been an international entry to tourists does not mean that (the bus terminal) should be neglected. As a rule of thumb, an aggregate number of people flocking Puduraya every year is as significant as KLIA. But do we care?

Since Puduraya is the entry point of people from the kampung and small towns in Malaysia, it does not mean that they do not deserve to have a conducive environment upon arrival and during departure.

Are these people going to be neglected forever? Don't they deserve something better? Do we roll out the red carpet for foreigners and give Malaysians from the kampung a muddy welcome?

We have a public transport in Kuala Lumpur that equals any other third world country. Filthy buses, high costs, inefficiency and non-connecting bus to train services. The water in Kuala Lumpur was once potable out of the taps, today the colour looks like it came straight out of the Klang river.

Proton has burdened the nation and the country. The reason why Proton has survived until today is perhaps because of the New Economic Policy. Attempting to pick winners from the malay entrepreneur pool is truly the work of a feudalistic Umno which has every reason to protect the upper-class malays.

Entrepreneurs are not picked at random, they are self-made. And if politicians think that they possess the same skills as businessmen, then they should be in business, not in politics.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir believes that Malaysians should be proud that their country could build their own car. But what is there to be proud about if it cannot compete on the world market?

Dr Mahathir also wondered how the Koreans were able to build cheap cars which had quality. It is because they have the determination and the will to succeed. They want to make their nation proud.

In a feudalistic society nothing is fair. When nothing is fair, the environment will not be conducive for the talented and the hardworking to produce results.

In the end, it is the ones who are closest to power - not necessarily the most qualified - who will be chosen to lead such complex organisations such a car-manufacturing outfit.

If politics were left out of decision-making when tenders are called and contracts awarded, I think the citizens will have better services and facilities. One day perhaps, when government is there to govern and not play politics, we shall see a reversal of all the injustices that goes on today.

Anonymous said...

University Malaya standard dropped the moment the UK General Medical Council stopped recognising UM medical degree. From medical, the "disease" spread to other faculties over the years.

In fact I am waiting for past UM graduates to write more and more letters to highlight the real problems within the university. Otherwise, the vice chancellor will be in denial syndrome.

When are we going to see such a success story and the like back here? Maybe we have to wait for another 50 years. We are 50 years back compare to Singapore University and how we are going to catch up?

Our country is lack of strong R&D culture in all spectrums of sectors. Be it biz world, industrial, university, etc. Even MSC in the eyes of IT and property expert, it is just another "white elephant" and more on property development showcase rather than ICT.

What can argue is to certain extent valid, but look in holistic view if IT in MSC Cyberjaya is lack R&D, then our IT sector can absorb how many IT graduates? It is not a surplus of IT graduates but the Malaysia IT sector growth is limited, thus limit the employment opportunity.

Never compare with western or Singapore education level as our education fundamental systems are flaws from primary to tertiary level, constraint by current "third world mentality".

During my time, had excellent external examiners - Nobel laureate Yang Zheng Ning was one of them. We had never missed his speech each time he visited UM. I can still vividly recollect his comparison of NUS and UM students.

Singapore students have extremely good memory. They can memorise and reproduce word-by-word text from books into their answers. UM students used their own words to answer questions. What a compliment from a Nobel Prize winner! This day will never return!

These days, when I travel overseas, I refrain from telling people where I come from, if I can - you know the reason/reasons.

It is really sad to see all the good things gone forever. All systems in Malaysia are crumbling!

30 - 40 years ago, if you get a place in UM, you don't bother about going overseas. Nowadays, if you get a place in UM, it ranks behind places offered overseas, and even behind some twinning schools like Monash and Nottingham. Most of the ministers send their children to international schools, and then on to foreign universities.

The rot has set in too deep. The situation can only be reversed over a long period of time, starting with the overhaul of our entire educational system, and the establishment of a level playing field for all Malaysians.

If you sit in at any of the lectures, you will find it very boring, lacking, uninspiring in content and interaction.

An extension of our school system no doubt where it is just a one way traffic and the lecturer in front just delivers or reads his notes and the students just copy whatever they can, not questioning anything and the lecturer not giving anymore or encouraging intelligent discussion.

At exams, the lecturers give out very strong hints, even the questions themselves at times, to ensure their students pass.

Listen in on the tutorials and you wonder what they are all talking about, very low in intellectual contents, contributions and efforts. You would wonder what our schools and universities are producing and can't believe that you are actually at a university.

Everyone is just going through the motions of an "education process" for three years or more picking up absolutely nothing and with their minds essentially undeveloped and unprepared for their working lives ahead.

They graduate illiterate and useless, unable to communicate, fend and think for themselves. But they feel and think the world owes them a living.

You will then appreciate why our "graduates" are unemployable. Only the civil service and Pak Lah want them.

Even the education minister is sending his children overseas. It has always been the case. Local education is for the ordinary people but not for the ministers and royalties.

Bolehland has been screwed up by a bunch of "half-past-six" for many decades, in particular our education policy, which has been permanently damaged.

When UM was the only one university for the whole country, it was producing graduates recognized overseas. Medical degrees were recognized along with engineering, science, etc. Not so today.

It will take several generations to undo what politicians have done to the standards and the systems for the last thirty years. That is how bad it is.

The only thing that can reverse the sorry state of affairs in UM, and indeed in all the other universities, is the establishment of a level playing field. Have one entrance exam for all, and award places based on meritocracy. The level playing field must also extend to the teaching staff.

Where meritocracy prevails, the cream will rise to the top. It may take years to right the wrongs of the past, but we must start implementing the process of meritocracy now if there is to be any hope at all.

Anonymous said...

It should be an interesting study on how Singapore has capitalised on the failure of the NEP, and the Malaysia system where we removed all the Sultans powers and replaced them with politicians, who now rule our lives through devious means.

Each year, Singapore attracts hundreds of our best and brightest.

Even my malay friends advise me not to go back Malaysia after completing my PhD here. It is a well-known fact that no matter how hard they strive, they will never be able to go to the top.

This comes from the horse mouth of a group of foreign experts and researchers in my university. Just feel a bit embarrass when they told me this. But have to admit. After all, it is the truth, nothing but the truth.

Meritocracy in Malaysia? We must be in the land of fantasy! With the present socio-political status quo, Vision 2020 is nothing but a mere mirage.

Why is that so? Because it is creating a mediocre-minded culture that drives away excellent-minded non-malays and malays.

Can you work in an environment where merit is not rewarded?

As long as the blatant, shameless policy of rewarding only the mediocre, and denying opportunities to the best, based merely on one race and religion, the obviously myopic leaders of this country are ensuring that this country will go down to the dogs in the not too distant future.

The standard of English language in Malaysia going down to the dogs is one fine example of our leaders myopic policies.

A lot of things change for those who leave. Once you are in Singapore, much pressure is "applied" to keep you there.

The programs in Singapore are structured in such a way to make sure that the "immigrants" would stay after completing their studies. Many take up Singaporean citizenships after many years of agony and contemplation.

This normally happens after one finds his/her spouse. Practical considerations come in; idealism flies away.

These "Malaysians" never forget their Malaysians past. But as the days, weeks, months, years go by, they slowly lose their Malaysians and become one of those floating masses in the global village. (I have met Malaysians of this kind in all sorts of odd places in different parts of the world.)

Make no mistake - however - most of them are very successful.

The malays do not live in this country alone. Malaysia is made up of all the races. Everybody looks the same when they send out the tax forms. In fact, our economy will be doomed if one of the component of our multi-racial society suddenly vanished.

Our overseas brains refuse to come back. Capable brains here not valued, and they want to leave. The rotting education system stops producing capable brains. Overseas countries are "fishing" for smart brains worldwide. Added together..........you get the brain drain effect.

Unless there is a structural change in our mindset to set things right, we will continue talking about the same thing for the next 100 years.

Anonymous said...

To me, Ketuanan Melayu is the false notion of malay greatness or malay supremacy. Truth is - there is nothing to associate the malay race with greatness.

By any widely accepted standards, it will be obvious to see that the malay race does not quality to be called one of the great races of this world. Truth is that the Chinese and Indians have a culture accomplished much more and far greater than these jokers have.

It should be Chinese and Indian supremacy in Malaysia. The only reason why malays have power in Malaysia is because they have the biggest population, and the racist rhetoric of the malay Umno politicians always sway the malay vote towards themselves.

Anyway, back to the untrue notion of Ketuanan Melayu. Let us see what malays have accomplished. Has any malay won the Nobel Prize - no. Has any malay been nominated for the Nobel Prize - most probably not.

By contrast, numerous Chinese and Indians have won the Nobel Prize and various other awards. The Chinese and Indian diaspora is widely recognized as two of the three most successful diasporas in history, the other being the Jewish diaspora. All over the world Chinese and Indians have become successful artists, CEOs, doctors, filmmakers, scientists, writers, etc, etc.

Name one malay who is widely recognized around the world in his or her field. The only malay whose name might be recognized out of this country is Mahathir, and he is part Indian. Is malay culture recognized as a world renowned culture - no.

Malay culture, if cultures were ranked, would be close to the bottom. What is their culture compared to the great Chinese and Indian cultures that are centuries old and really rich. The Chinese and Indians have a 5000 years old history during which China and India have played a very important part in world history.

Nobody knew about malays until the Indian kings of south India first came here. That is why the oldest archeological remains in Malaysia, in Lembah Bujang, are Hindu temples.

The malay sultanate itself was started by a Hindu - Parameswara. And even at the height of its power, the Malacca Sultanate was nothing more than a vassal of the Chinese emperor.

Have any malay architect designed anything worthwhile - no. Have any malay author won the Booker Prize or the Pulitzer Prize - no. Have any malay filmmaker won an Oscar - no. Have the malays achieved anything in sports - no.

Chinese and Indians have achieved all this. So there is no real Ketuanan Melayu. It is a fiction concocted by racist stupid politicians to keep the "kampung" malays happy thinking that they have had a glorious past.

They don't. Their history isn't worth mentioning. You would never find a mention of malays or Malaysia or Tanah Melayu in most books of world history while entire chapters are devoted to the history of China and India.

The discriminative constitution and law of Malaysia is just a recognition of this fact. The malay leaders and to every single malay knows that on a level playing field, the malays will never be able to compete with the Chinese and Indians.

As to the discussions, I can see some hatred in it but then none of it was untrue. I think most Malaysians have done a good job maintaining harmony and peace, but I can see how and why some may be pushed to hatred because of all the discrimination that goes on.

I mean come on, the discrimination towards non-malays is so wide-ranging that I am sure some people will feel robbed.

How do you think a Chinese or Indian student feels when he has worked his ass off to study for STPM and gets excellent result and then sees his malay friends who didn't work as hard or get as good result fly off to the England, Japan, USA etc, under JPA scholarship.

How do you think a Chinese or Indian contractor feels when his superior contract bid loses out to an inferior bid by a malay company.

What is going on in Malaysia is wrong. We should work towards creating a pure meritocracy, because history has shown that only meritocracies prosper and survive. It seems now that the Chinese or Indians don't even get fair representation in legal matters, as illustrated by the Moorthy case. Things need to be changed before bad things start to happen.

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of sensitive issues that are 'forbidden' to be discussed with reasons being racism, national security or anything you call it. But not being able to discuss them openly doesn't mean they do not exist and I do hope to enlighten everyone.

I am not pointing fingers but this is what is happening.

Speaking from the perspective of being a Chinese, we had to study so hard with parents working twice as hard. It is either straight As or you'll end up in a local university much later doing a course that you don't really like.

I achieved straight As in my SPM. I applied for local universities with my results and when I got the reply, I was granted a course totally different from the one that I've applied for. Computer science (applied for by me) and agricultural science (the one given to me) - two very different things.

Yet, I have malay friends who got only Bs and Cs getting into medicine, engineering and everything they applied for. So many of my peers who are fantastic students with fantastic results and great brains ended up going to colleges through scholarships by other governments like Singapore.

When other governments can appreciate our talents, why are we treated like second-rated citizens in our own country?

Perhaps some of you reading this will say, well, the Chinese can afford it because they are rich generally and the government is only doing a fair thing in supporting the malays. Well, think again. I am not from a wealthy family, a lot of us are not too. When our government forsakes us, we had to work extra hard to pick ourselves up. So don't tell me that this is fair.

Affirmative action should be done based on social economic status, not race. How can you justify that the rich malays could get a 7% discount on semi-detached house, while a poor Indian factory worker has to pay full amount for his cheap apartment?

Our country is so far behind developed countries and only our pride denies us from accepting this fact. Examples? We don't even dare to compete on even ground with our automobile industry. Everyone knows the fact that if not for the taxes that the government imposes on imported cars, Proton will almost certainly be a huge flop.

We are 'forced' to buy Proton. Telekom is a monopoly and we are light years in terms of Internet connections. There are countless of examples.

Now, when we grow up, we ought to contribute to our country. But what makes the government think that they deserve our services?

My parents had to work extra hard and use up all their savings to pay for my education abroad as we didn't have a choice. Now, I've graduated and am working in the UK.

During my last visit back to Malaysia, I remembered a lady was asking me if I would come back to Malaysia and serve the country. I honestly said to her, 'Why should I?'

The country and the government rejected me and treated me as a second-class citizen and now I should serve the country? That must be a joke.

Even though I am not a British citizen but I feel so much at home here. I have been treated equally, I am entitled to health care and have the support of the locals.

No one talks about things like this. Forget the press, they are government tools. This is racism of the modern days. I lived through it as a child of Malaysia. Sad but true.

Anonymous said...

In reality, although NEP is officially dead, some of the policies remain favoring one race regardless of needs (example: education, housing, loan facility, etc).

The non-bumis feel that NEP is holding them back (this is true in many cases) in order for the bumis to catch up. It is sad to think some bumis believe the best way to catching up with the non-bumis is to hold non-bumis back.

Malaysia has lost many able non-bumis to other competing countries (brain drain) and is unable to see the relative advantage of retaining this pool of talents to help them.

What an irony that I experienced less discrimination in foreign country than in my own soil?

After my studies in the US, I applied for job there and to my surprise it is unlawful to be discriminatory, employers do not ask your race and religion, and the good things, employment is based sorely on merits regardless of your background, a lot of my friends stay back because the incentives are excellent and the R&D facilities are cutting edge reputation, universities there are really centers for breeding new ideas unlike in Malaysia local universities, where freedom of thoughts are controlled by acts.

Frankly, I have no ideas how we can compete with them when our "think outside the box" culture is oppressed. We say one thing but we do the opposite, the government is sending the wrong signal. In this country, even we have the hardware, we lack human-ware.

Border has no meanings nowadays, talents will go where they are demand and appreciated, and one day globalization will break down our affirmative actions whether we like it or not.

While I submit that Malaysia is a net loser in this global "brain drain", I think the country has to re-look at its programs to stem the outflow. The sad truth is that what we attracting are the "lower skilled" or "unskilled" types.

Malaysia is just the only country in the world where special privileges are shamelessly given to, and accepted by the majority of the population.

Anonymous said...

While in Malaysia university, I have seen endless rounds of discrimination, and I have to admit that I have been a racist since then. Many of my friends who did STPM deserve the places in university were denied, and their places were filled up by you know who. I am racist because the government made me.

I am a racist even though I studied in a sekolah kebangsaan for 12 years of my early education. I used to mix with all races, and we were good friends……….That was until I get into local university.

With the rate these universities are accepting half-baked students from matriculation and churning out quarter-ponder studs every year, you really expect the employment market to absorb them all? Every company will go bust in less than a year if such nincompoops are there. Public sector can absorb la. Use taxpayers money to pay them.

I was once a distributor for scientific products and what I observe every year is, new lab technicians are employed but most of them sit around chatting and do nothing. Why? Because there isn't enough work to go around. They are just idling away in front of computer playing solitaire. How nice.

The government is never remorseful for their sins of wasting the taxpayers money in just employing a particular group for the sake of giving employment.

During Mahathir era, they were twiddling that the public sector is overburdened by having too many employees and so the privatisation began, and today is there much difference if not worse.

It is a sin of wasting the people hard earned money by employing so many who do so little and lately the government is told to hurry up to give employment to 30000 graduates.

Malaysia has the worse system of racial discrimination in this world. Pak Lah, are you listening? Everyone knows it. All the politicians including non-malays hide under their coconut trees and keep quiet. These conditions are not going to change ever. So don't wait.

Although my children were Singapore born, we were lucky not to settle back in Malaysia but decided to make our home in Australia. My son is now an engineer with loan from the government here. And my daughter is on a full scholarship reading pharmacy.

So my advice to all parents is to get out of Malaysia. They should try going to Singapore, Japan or even China. You will be welcome there if you are above average. Good luck.

Ms J said...

oh boy, sic6sence, u have just been spammed!

sic6sense said...

ylander, an islander is self sufficient.

asamboey, did you bring the crowd in? :p

sic6sense said...

inconditus, REALLY??? you potong my stim. i thot i was popular.

Lily G said...

you into ethnic cleansing now :p

sic6sense said...

lils, be careful..they might hear you.

Anonymous said...

Excellent, love it! »