Why a book is different from a politician?

I believe the major differences between a book and a politician are:
1. Books are published to educate, add meaning to our lives, teach us something, as a guide as well as to entertain. Politicians are well ... you will see the difference big time if you treat them as guides, as teachers, entertainers and educators.See my drift? Look at Tina Fey parading as Sarah Palin at every turn. One has to look hard and listen carefully to spot the differences between Fey and the real Palin. They look identical, sound similar, wear similar clothing, have similar hairdos - the only giveaway is how popular Fey is with the audience and how quickly she can turn the room into a circus. Pity the real Palin could not turn her audience into a bunch of lemmings the way Fey can.

2. Books go through a rigorous process of writing, editing, reviews and more assessment before they can be published. I should know. I am an academic. We go through hell to get data, then get peer reviewed, then get university assessed for proper funding before it goes out the university press house for limited numbers of publication copies.

3. Books are notations written to denote the times and challenges we face as a community in this period of time. You can read economist Adam Smith right through to Keynes and Sach to see the economic policies that were implemented to circumvent the crisis and drive US economy. Keynes wrote many articles and books for us to follow through and debate the benefits of his ideologies. I tended to agree with some of them in my university days. However, times have changed with the current global financial crisis and with new terminology of “greed”, “ the new poor” and the role of regulators in the financial industries. Politicians, well, they can drive the economy by talking it up to instil consumer confidence rather than begging people not to spend money. Consumer confidence is an important indicator of our market index and so leaders have to be cautious on comments on public spending and fiscal policy.

4. Books can be recycled or pulped or reprinted due to popular demand. Dr Seuss’s books are being reprinted due to recent interest, so old books do have some intrinsic value in them to teach us basic values and decency. Politicians, can they be recycled, re-done and copied into something that is relevant to current needs? President Jimmy Carter is one of few older politicians who can rejuvenate his status relevant to current US situations – rallying for funds and international awareness over a range of humanitarian causes. The same goes to President Clinton. They still can maximise their currency and credibility as motivators, leading the way for community efforts to rebuild towns damaged by recent floods in US.

5. Books are for reference to guide us to the future like a road map. It may not be accurate but at least they provide some indications on how we are going to manage our current times and the challenges ahead. As it was written in the good book of Ecclesiastes, nothing is new under the sun: “..Whilst there is unceasing change, nothing is new; it is but a repetition of what has been before, and which again soon passes, leaving the heart empty and hungry still...”
Politicians, on the other hand, are a dime a dozen, each trying to outdo one another with their brand of bravado, language, policies, leadership style and their tenacity on certain projects to make sure they or the people benefit. So are the politicians trying to make a difference in our lives? Yes. They try to do that publicly, taking advantage of photo opportunities from kissing babies, talking to elderly folks, distributing money and mattresses to flood victims and the like. What is new? Again, all these are not new. Ask any newspaper seller and they will tell you, election is coming soon.

I could go on but I rather stop here in case you are getting migraine from my writings.
As posted in http://www.thenutgraph.com/books-and-politicians

What is Marriage?

What is marriage?
1. something both of you commit to, in terms of time, effort and financial resources besides sharing your space, snoring and toilet habits.
2. you acquire a new set of in-laws including brothers, sisters, step siblings, aunties, uncles, nephews and nieces from the future husband’s side.
3. You have new expectations due to your new status and acquisition of item 2.
4. You also have added responsibilities to your new in-laws. My friend (A) has to cook separate meals for her in-laws (for health and age reasons) and her own husband. She hardly has any time to work full time which was what she wanted. Today she is a full time housewife even though she is highly qualified as a infrastructure planner with a PhD to boot.
5. You rarely see your own friends. The group of friends you used to hang with before your marriage. Reason: you have new responsibilities, things to do, expectations to fulfil and events you have to attend besides from having to manage a household and looking good at the same time. So what you wear when you go out must also be upgraded from you used to wear in your care free single days.
6. Your free time is shared with others and you would look ways to disappear for 10 minutes the minute the mother in law start her daily monologue conversation around the dining table. My friend, A wants to move out because she used to live with her in-laws due to the household chores and also she hardly sees her husband alone. Her husband is an only child so he hardly does any housework or taking care of his parents. Yup, life can be tough.
7. Your definition of romance and love do not correlate with reality. Romance is what you read in the Mills and Boons novels, chick flick movies but they do not take place in your life right now. No roses, no chocolate surprises, no scenic views with only 2 of you on the beach with “everlasting love” music blows over. My friend, A longed for her monthly facial massage as a means to escape her in-laws and her clingy husband. What do people see in this marriage? I see both high levels of dependency and expectations. She didn’t have a marriage, she has a slave contract written on her face. She hardly goes out by herself because her in-laws forbid her from seeing her old friends. I do not know the reason behind this. A accepted this blindly. I only know about this when I bumped into her doing her grocery duties.
8. You are given some money to maintain the house, taking care of family members and yeah, fill up the car. I am not sure if married women who are unemployed received some pocket money for themselves. Have you checked this clause as money gives you some sense of freedom rather than ask handouts from the husband to buy that pink ribbons?
9. You have another set of rules to obey. No one pay attention to what you need – except when you fall sick, people are anxious when you will get back to your feet and start serving them again. How sad. My friend B who was pregnant with 2 children, has to make sure everyone in the family was fed, clothes washed and fridge filled with food before she went to the hospital for her third child. Things do not get better after that. I have not seen her for a while.
10. You are not your own person. You see everything in two some, like going to movies together, shopping together, walking in the park together and making decisions together. Can you handle this? At this point, I have to sign a bank agreement to part pay a down payment for my spouse’s intent to purchase a new house. Do I get to say anything? Not much. I was asked to sign just in case he ran into money problems. Does that mean I cannot leave the country now?
11. Your name in the payroll suddenly was amended from your original name (Ms Selina Tan) to your married name (Mrs Selina Lim) with no consultation with you. How did that happened? My sister in law suffered this when she married my brother and her employment details were changed overnight – her membership, her security card access, her computer login, her car parking facilities and her social club membership. She was so upset because she wants to maintain her history with the firm, having worked there for 10 years previously. It is as if Ms Selina Tan never existed and she felt like her marriage is a personal affair. However, her marriage becomes a public affair when it comes to females in her company. She said if male officers got married, nothing is changed in their personal particulars, membership, security, social club and etc. I do not know what to think. Do you see discrimination here? Once you are married, other things in your employment records are changed without your knowledge. This is where the kaypoh (gossip) ladies in the office are useful to update this social register – like who is going out with who, who got hitched and who is single again.
12. I know of one female employee who wants to advertise not only was she married but she married a doctor, a GP. Guess what she called herself now - Mrs Doctor Lam!! Like she is telling everyone to be aware of new status and her current job as a filling clerk suddenly was beneath her. We did not know what to think. We just referred her by her old name - Angie. I dread the day we have to invite her formally for the office Christmas party!! How do you then address her husband as well? Dr Lam and Mrs Dr Lam? Sounds obnoxious and self flagellation?

I do not want to go on anymore in case you are put off from marriage. However, there are benefits when you get married. Tax incentives for couple for example. Your get together party will full of merrymaking. The other is savings from twin sharing expenses when you travel and book a room or rent a car. Well, two can cheaply live as one, I was told. I am not sure. You may want to comment on that one.

Do we lack personal hygiene?

Do we have poor personal hygiene? I am not rich, hence i take public transport. But I teach so I also need to point out that we need to educate ourselves on this topic. Like why we smell and how to control it. Bad odour and bad breath can be troublesome, but it can be control with personal hygiene and good habits.
I tell this to my students so that they give good impression in their job interviews. What is the matter with us when we can not take criticisms? Albeit constructive ones are generally welcome because that it how we improve. If everyone says I am good and doing great and there is not a thing to change. I would not be motivated to improve my teaching skills, learn new language, learn how to communicate with dyslexics, autistics and other learning impaired individuals. I am taking this as point to improve myself. I do admit I do have bad hair day and I do smell after I walk 40 mins from my unit to the LRT.
So please, I know about my body odour and bad breath at the end of the day. I now join a gym nearby on daily basis and get a shower as well before I start my teaching rounds. Being a teacher, I have to be a good role model - so lots of give and take, lots of sayang and berterima kasih that I am still alive today. So if we can give comments, then we must be prepared to take comments, brickbats and smelly eggs thrown in our face.
I used to lecture in a hall of 400 students, so please, I have been there and I think the audience would harbour a wish to throw rotten eggs at me. I do not blame them. Our schedule was so tight that I need to cram a whole semester into a 3 hour lecture or speech. I feel sorry for the students and I feel that most were so tired and exhausted before the exam. I admit I am a human being and I take humour from all of our postings.

So keep posting and have a laugh at ourselves as well. I do not think we are belittling ourselves. I rather think we are examining ourselves and investigate ways to manage these anti social behaviours where it is possible. It is time we grow up as a nation and take a stock of where we had been, where we want to go and how to get there. If all I need is listerine, deodorant and a good hair style and some ironing for my clothes, I would think I can get anywhere in my career. We all live and learn to get by, so have a laugh is also good for your heart.

Public Health is everyone's business

Public Health is everyone's business - we must start with education & local action groups as posted in www.blog.thestar.com.my on Friday, September 14, 2007

Malaysia in her 50th year of Independence should now concentrate to her public health, environmental management and food safety for everyone in the community. For too long, these issues had been glossed over by the government bureaucrats, consultants and experts. Instead, these parties promised that they will “look at” at these issues as they arise rather than being proactive about taking care of our lives and safety of well being for all Malaysians.
These issues are far too important to be relegated to these elite groups. All of us must participate in this dialogue because we are the backbone of this country and contribute our efforts in building and sustaining this nation while the powers that be play with words in the media statements.
So what are we talking about? Let me briefly define public safety, food safety and environmental management.
Public safety relates to how to reduce the likelihood of incidents and fatalities affecting our everyday lives – such as road safety, public transportation safety, building safety, and consumer awareness and consumer rights.
Food safety relates to how to reduce the likelihood of food contamination, poor hygiene in food handling, food storage, food preparation, kitchen equipment safety, kitchen cleanliness, food waste disposal, soft waste disposal (cooking oil) and running water to clean utensils, food preparation area and utensils, crockery, etc.
Environmental management relates to overall indicators for good and healthy living including our air quality, water quality, noise quality, soil quality, water run off, drainage, sewage disposal, drinking water quality, waste management, industrial hazardous wastes and etc.
For too long these matters were left to individuals to take care with little or no guidance from the authorities to advice on the quidelines, minimum requirements and enforcement. It is pointless to tell your neighbour to stop pouring paint and cooking oil into the common drainage if there is no one to enforce this ruling. This issue is common when we live in highly densed units or terraces or flats. Education is the first place to start to raise awareness for cleaner and healthier living.

The recent incidents where our workers were exposed to asbetos created grave concerns. Asbetos is dangerous to humans, it usually ends with death. Being expose to them create a long term illness that would be difficult to prove "cause and effect" relationship later. Their respiratory systems will be severely affected if these workers keep handling and inhaling closely with these materials with no protection. If the asbestos materials had been punctured or broken by way of nails or sawn off, the effects of these tiny particles of asbestos are very dangerous as they can linger in the atmosphere and absorb into our bodies via breathing. Because they are tiny, our airways will absorb these tiny particulates into our lungs. Are we aware of this side effect?

Research has shown that asbestos is linked to fatalities over a long period of time. Furthermore, it is quite difficult to pin point to a single source of contamination after many years, thus adding to frustration to win a legal case. Fellow Malaysians - take a stand and rise up to start local action group to promote & educate on these awareness before it is too late.

For more information, please visit www.ohiotoxicmold.com/asbestos.htm to see the effects of asbestos to our health.

Simply Throw Your Rubbish- it is not my problem

Like everything else, environmental management, workplace safety and food safety in our country always take a back seat with out policy makers, decision makers and leaders. I am not sure why - maybe if we close our eyes hard enuf and wear goggles, the problems will go away. No one needs to know. Close down the media reporting, keep the villagers happy with cash. Get the developers fat and happy as well. They forgot people do have noses and eyes that can “see” with internet blogging and mobile handphone. So now everything seems to get attention overseas first, how bad it is. As if we never had suffer such bad policing and bad strategies before, the leaders tell us, “oh, we will just shift the whole lot to another island where the people will not be offended” (my words, by the way). Hmm, if we want to be serious with environmental management and public health, the regulatory bodies and safety bodies should be diligent to conduct checks on building sites, factory sites, livestocks for how they manage the waste and sewage. What is that? Just throw everything into the parit, sungai and pipe. The usual “I did not know it is illegal to do so. No one told me”. So, now there is a need to conduct training and public awareness not to throw every thing down the pipe or sungai or longkang. Oily stuff, animal waste, blood, offals, dead carcass, paint, petrol, kerosene – there are a few of materials that must be HANDLED carefully. Animal wastes, like human wastes - should be put into container and need treatment before they can be discharged safely. So don’t place the heads of chickens, ducks, intestines down the usual waterways. There are standards to comply for treatment and monitoring before these effluents are considered safe. There are lots of opportunities for companies to manage wastes, rubbish and effluent in Malaysia. There is opportunities everywhere you look, Ahmad. Don’t wait for the authorities, they are not ready to tackle these issues. Everyone of us is guilty in some way on how we handle our household waste. We tend to bungkus everything and put them in the bin for the rubbish pickup men to handle our waste – including baby diapers and human excreta, used paint, methylated spirit, etc. I feel sorry for the rubbish men. Their sense of smell must have been extinguished the day they started their work. I even saw my neighbour bungkus their dead cat into a large plastic bag and simply threw into the rubbish bin. My kampong instincts went up like a rocket. How can they do this? I went into the rubbish bin, took out the dead cat from the plastic bag and went to my kampong to bury the dead cat. I am not an animal fan, but I think we humans should have some decency to bury our animals rather than send them to the rubbish men for burning, land fill and what not. I feel for the mother earth. I am not sure if we are too educated, too rich, too time poor or too high class not to feel something when the earth said “I have enough of all of you dumping your wastes and effluents on me the usual way. What happens if I did the same to all of you?” Sad but true. So we need education, awareness to discard materials responsibly and not campak everything sewenang-wenang or sesuka hati.
Shake my head everyday to see how we mistreat our mother earth.

Why can't we be free from corruption in high places? Why can't we have a better police force and less crime?

The answers are quite interesting after I have done a survey of 10 people at my workplace.
1) We cannot solve everything because we have limited resources – so no money, no talk, no action. Question: Where have all the money gone? Well, the people thought the money went to expensive & expansive projects like Angkasawan, buying overpriced utensils & equipment at govt depts & agencies, Sports facility in London, trips of makan angin sambil belajar by bureaucrats, spouses and cronies subsidised by taxpayers
2) We have short memory so no one wants to deal with the history. Unsolved crimes like Altantunya is best buried and forgotten because they were some colourful, less savoury and infamous characters involved. So we buried our heads in the sand and talk about other stuff happening elsewhere – like England League Football, F1 Grand Prix, Stylo Fashion – just as a cover up for our inability of dealing with unpleasantness. Instead we hang onto these mottos “don’t rock the boat, nanti semua tenggelam” atau jangan cakap nanti kena saman pasal slander.
3) We are selfish in our outlook – only thinking for ourselves. It is all about me:
a. Hmm, what is in it for me?
b. Why should I be nice to you? What do I get in return?
c. What can I do – I do not have time nor resources to handle these issues.
d. I am in hurry, please get out of the way.
e. Haven’t I done enough already with my income tax contributions? The government should take care of these, why ask me?
f. These things like the poor people are always with us since Merdeka, so we cannot get rid of them wah. So many have tried but not successful.
g. We have been living like these for decades, so I do not think we can tackle crime effectively like some country down south (Singapore). Even Singaporeans cannot find their Mas Selamat, so what gives?
h. We cannot carry fire arms to protect ourselves. In United States, citizens can arm themselves to their teeth and shoot anyone who invade their privacy or step into their house. Yeah, everyone wants a pistol or shotgun, by then.
4) A case of lethargic because as leaders come and leaders go, the problem remains the same – high and unsolved crimes hanging around us like bad smell. Better to publish sobbing stories about crooks that got away than waste my time thinking of how the authorities are supposed to do their job of making our country safer.
5) A better pay and retention program for the police and security forces in our county may stem off the heat for awhile. However with the cost of living on the increase, I am not sure if we pay our police enough and care for their families when something happened. How much do we treasure lives in Malaysia? Only when a cop dies then we nangis and say nice things about our fallen heroes. Do we have a program to take care of the dead cop’s family and children needs? Only a lump sum of money was paid and that was supposed to last them another 10 or 15 years? Wake up everyone, we do not know how to take care of our law enforcers and people who put their lives on the line to protect us. So how do we impress on these people to take care of our security and protect us while we sleep and go about our daily lives? Who will take up policing as a career? My mother said “Choi, you wanna die young ar?” when I suggested I want to take a trial programme at the nearby police training workshop. Our mentality has to change, we need to remunerate and take care of our law enforcement officers for life because they dedicated their lives for us. Life is precious, no matter who you are.
6) We shift the responsibility to others – like polis, rukun tetangga, council, jabatan and kementerian. Why don’t we meet as concerned parents, neighbours, tenants, colleagues, customers, etc and unite our energy to find ways to make our lives safer and alert others to trouble spots? Why harp on these issues in a blog but do nothing at the grass root? I have raised this issue with an opposition MP who won at a recent 2008 election. He was too busy attending to his new duties to make time to response to me. So back to the drawing board. I think we masing-masing have to take up the initiative to protect ourselves and take time to investigate ways to improve our security. We must gather as a group to make things happen. Depending on the local police will not work because these police officers are under resourced, over work, underpaid and as long as no one dies, they will not respond quickly to you. So baik kita berdikari dan bertanggungjawab.

Why Chilvary is Dead in our Urban Cities?

Chivalry or what is left of our bits of good manners have gradually "disappear" from our modern society. If you go to the kampong, you can find good manners are aplenty from the makcik at the kedai runcit to the ah pak at the coconut drink stall. The problem with our so called “urban living” is that
1) we tend to copy western lifestyle excessively without considering the needs of others and those who are less fortunate than us
2) we tend to think selfishly of our needs only. It is all about me.
3) We love to surround ourselves with people who are the same class as ourselves – wealth, education, possessions, etc. We shy away from people who belong to the lower class – when we go to public areas, men and women tend to mingle with those they can identify with. What about those we do not know or are less fortunate? We are blind to these.
4) We put up a mask of false pretences – like we care when others pointed out to us. Are we still in school that we need to be told how to behave civilly? Well, we are still immature that we cannot be considerate of others. When I board the bus or LRT, I always back away and let people sit while I watch people behave selfishly towards the elderly, the pregnant mothers, mothers with young toddlers and etc. This is what we called living with first class infrastructure but with third class mentality. Oh, we even dirty the public toilets and wrecked the public bins because we can and we do not own it –like a bunch of delinquents we are. I captured these images every time I landed at PuduRaya, Masjid Jamek, Central Market, Chinatown and Jln TAR. What is to become of us even though we are more affluent and educated and connected to the outside world than our ancestors?
5) Alas our manners need review and “checking”. We can be courteous pending on who is looking at us. If orang putih are around us, than we go high almighty, putting on our best behaviour and show off our English and good graces. Once we are with our own kind, our good manners just flew out of the window and our mind goes wandering – hmm, what is in for me to be nice to you?
6) we think that to be courteous is invented overseas and alien to our culture. So beat it.
7) we tend to think that to be nice takes lots of effort - like trials and errors on how to say "Hi, how are you today?" or "Let me get that door for you" or "Sorry, I step on your foot". So jual mahal and pretend you did not see the other guy and march off like nothing has happened. Even ppl these days lack good manners not to sneeze openly in public or farted in the bus and LRT. Yes, they do and they stink but hey, life is made for living, not complaining.
So, everyone, take a deep breath and let live. I find the study of human behaviour very interesting as it changes with times- this is called cultural analysis or social psychology. Take time to read these and try some experiment next time you see these behaviours.
Live and let live – time is too short to harp on these shortcomings.