I just read this amazing blog entry on “The Nine Kinds of Students” and thought it funny and strangely appropriate for mirroring real-life.
The Spy, of course, attempts to cheat their way through.
The redeeming weakness of the Spy is that students too stupid to pass the class are usually too stupid to cheat without getting caught.
Trademark statement: “Oh, I didn’t know that was considered cheating.”
I read a recent article where the head of Talent Corp, Johan Mahmood Merican, asked the Malaysians overseas to ignore the race rhetoric in the press and to focus on what the government policies and actions are.
Unfortunately, the problem happens when these race rhetorics are used as excuses and translated into government affirmative action for the majority – a world leading Malaysian innovation.
I can fully appreciate the daunting task that lies ahead for Talent Corp to try to woo exasperated and dejected Malaysians overseas, to come back to serve the nation. I see them doing some good things in terms of the kinds of programmes that they are doing to achieve this.
However, as long as there are no massive structural and institutional changes in the country, keeping these people here would become a problem. So, I hope that Talent Corp will look into changing things internally in order to keep people here, which is a far more important problem.
There is no point in wooing back 750 talented Malaysians if they end up leaving after that.
Another aspect of the issue that they should look into is the existing talent already within the country – and how these people can be further nurtured. As it stands, the present structural issues within the country are an impediment to our local talent. So, these people are being pushed out as new ones are being brought in to replace them.
Talent Corp has certainly got its work cut out for it and I hope that they actually have enough talent within themselves, to carry through the necessary reforms to drive Malaysia into becoming a modern and developed nation.
I’ve been reading some on-line news and commentary about the whole Christian fiasco sparked by a Utusan headline. To me, a warning letter and a meeting is a really weird way of handling the issue considering the kinds of actions meted out to others in the past for far less sinister reporting.
In my humble opinion, this kind of double-standards will just inflame the middle-class educated public even further and show everyone that the rules are applied equally to everyone – some more equally than others. If the BN government wants to project the right image of a fair and just government, it needs to do more.
I don’t know what is a suitable action but some things that the BN government can consider doing, based on past precedent – lock the reporter up under ISA, suspend the newspaper for a few weeks, sack the editors, or even rescind the publishing license for the newspaper. Not that I think it would repair any of the damage done, but it would at least show that the BN government is doing something about it.
I cannot even begin to imagine a stern letter and a meeting being all that is meted out if the same reporting was carried by some other newspaper.
Weird.
Today, I had to turn down an opportunity to do some things that involved spending 4-month of this year in Canada. I was fine with the rest of the work but spending such a long time in Canada, while my company is growing, was not a good idea. Therefore, I had to turn down the opportunity.
If I did not have other responsibilities and projects to do, this would have been an excellent opportunity to get paid to work on my limited French and travel North America for the first time in my life.
That said, I thought to myself that, things are really changing in my life this year. Ever since I left my old job, I have been inundated with opportunities to do lots of different things. If things go well this year, I should be wearing about half-a-dozen hats by the end of the year. That’s a lot of hats.
However, I see this as training for the big game. If I can learn to handle that many hats, I think I’ll be good to handle bigger things in the future. It helps that I get to pick and choose the things that I’d like to involve myself with, as it means that I get to do fun things that I enjoy.
All is good, as long as I don’t collapse under all that pressure.
(I’m still recovering from my exhaustion last week!)
Wow.
Catch Avenue-Q if you ever get the chance to. I loved it when I watched it several years ago. It’s really good.
I want a Malaysian Prime Minister who can inspire, who can preach of hope, and can sell a future that we can all believe in.
Sybreon Ones Nought 