cheating?

Here's a good blog post by a friend.
I believe this is worth reading, seriously. If you know me, I am not a person who likes reading. However I read everything in this 1500 word blog post!

http://yaroq.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/kopi-kopi-you-cheetahs/

Malaysian Education System

Foreword: I have no intentions of damaging reputations of any parties.

The quality of education during my father's time is much better than now. It used to be tougher and teachers stricter. Students who fail in the year end examination could not go up to the next level and needed to stay back to do the same stuff all over again. Sadly, now even a student who does not know how to write "ABC" can finish his or her secondary school studies and sit for SPM! This is a sarcastic yet true statement. What the heck is the government doing??? In some schools, students who fail Mathematics and Science in PMR are able to get themselves into science stream. Some schools even force students to go into science stream. Furthermore, certain students who are no good in English qualify for local universities. This is a disgrace to our country! The government are overprotecting their people, and this will only make them even more useless. In years to come, Their people will soon be nothing in the world, they can only deceive themselves with their easy-to-get paper qualifications. How can they work for an international company if they cannot even converse properly in English? This is very sad. I am proud to be a Malaysian, but the way the government handle things makes me very worried and fed up.
Now that some people are complaining because their children cannot cope with Sciance and Mathematics in English, the government is thinking about switching it back to Malay again. After making a decision to have these two subjects taught in English two years ago, they want to turn back to the old way again. How indecisive and useless! I hope the government will not make a foolish decision.

Dealing with People

I broke a guitar string yesterday while tuning. Then suddenly a thought came to my mind, the string snapped because I turned the knob too hard. If I were to be gentle and tuned it slowly, the string would had probably remained attached to my guitar.
It's an expensive set of strings, so it hurts whenever any one of them were to snap.

Maybe this situation could be used to illustrate dealing with people?
Say I want somebody to do something, pushing the person too hard is not the best way. Everyone has his or her limits, nobody is perfect. When I want to "tune" somebody whether for the person's benefit or mine, I care for the person and would certainly not want him or her to "break". Pushing them could achieve results instantly but momentarily; doing it patiently is the best way.

This is what I have learnt from a simple experience of tuning a guitar, that is to do things in love with patience especially when dealing with sensitive people and the importance of being aware of their feelings.

Hair? School?

Many students are said to be having disciplinary problems in school due to what they have on their heads. The school rule forbids too fancy hair styles. When I was a few years younger, I was one of the worst concerning this issue. I was VERY particular about my looks, body height, weight, complexion, and hair, of course. All these thanks to puberty.
Unfortunately, in Malaysian Secondary schools, or at least in my school, some teachers just want to keep your hair short for you. In other words, they would make use of the scissors if you do not visit the hair salon after being warned to.
Teachers do it for various reasons: (I think)
Those who care for students want to keep them out of trouble.
Some do it to show that they are not bias towards students of different races.
Some are simply following instructions.
Others just want to make lives of students miserable.

From my observation, I find that teachers look at the students more than they look at their hair.
They usually go easy on students who are apparently good and have no intentions of keeping their hair long; Teachers tend to be more strict towards students who usually keep fancy hair styles.
And I once was one of those who always get warnings and free haircuts from teachers in school. I remember once when I cried after getting a terrible one. The hurt then was tremendous yet evitable. All because I was immature and could not see the big picture.

Now, I no longer wish to go against the school rules after learning and deciding to put myself in the teacher's shoes. The teacher who gave me the worst haircut ever had to be so irritated and annoyed by my bad attitude, he is a nice person. But he had to show fairness towards Malay, Indian and Chinese students. I kept my hair long over and over again and perhaps that annoyed him then. It is not easy to be a teacher in Malaysian schools, it is even more difficult when it comes to dealing with stubborn adolescents.

To all students: It is not a health hazard to keep your hair tidy and neat within the school rules. It is good to have good relationships with teachers.

I want, I want, I want

There are many things I want and few of which I think I really need.
It's a yucky feeling when you can't get what you want rite?
Recently I've been having problems saving up and the quantity of the contents in that wallet seem unpredictable.
It would be very very very nice if somebody could get me a new guitar. And it would be a thousand times better if he or she gives me the modal Ben's using!
Sigh, I really want that guitar but it is so unrealistic. That lovely thing costs more than a thousand pounds!

Ok, time to be a bit more realistic. I want good guitar strings and capos. Elixir strings are the best but they can be quite difficult to find in this little town called Kluang, and they are not cheap either.
I want a computer with a larger RAM and be virus proof. Well, only the larger RAM part is possible I suppose.
I want to be taller, but.... sigh..

Hehehe! These are only a few of my wants. The post will never end if I were to continue and bore everyone with my self-centered desires.