Teman

Apabila kau ingin berteman
Janganlah pandang pada kelebihannya
Kerana mungkin dengan satu kekurangan kau akan menjauhinya

Andai kau ingin berteman
Janganlah pula dinilai kebaikannya
Kerana mungkin dengan satu kelemahan kau akan membencinya

Andai kau inginkan teman,
Janganlah diuji ilmunya
Kerana apabila dia buntu kau akan menyisihnya

Andai kau ingin berteman
Terimalah dia seadanya
Kerana dia hanya manusia biasa seperti dirimu jua

Memori

Bila tengok iklan rancangan Tom Tom Bak kelolaan Aznil Nawawi, saya tergelak. Dia memang pandai layan budak-budak tu.

Ada satu soalan yang ditanya oleh Aznil pada sorang peserta cilik. “Kat kampung awak ada apa?”. Spontan budak tu jawab “Ada Playstation!”.

Saya terseyum, dan terfikir mengenai budak-budak sekarang. Mereka dah banyak terdedah kepada dunia siber macam ni, sampai balik kampung pun boleh main Playstation. Masa saya kecil dulu saya tak terdedah kepada perkara macam ni sangat.

Saya dibesarkan di kampung pinggir bandar Muar, kawasan tepi laut, paya bakau. Masa saya kecil dulu, banyak aktiviti yang boleh dibuat. Hujung minggu saya pergi cari siput sedut dalam hutan, pergi dengan ayah saya. Banyak nyamuk, kadang-kadang lebih habis masa pukul nyamuk daripada cari siput. Bila dah nak balik, beg plastik ayah saya penuh dengan siput, saya cuma ada separuh. Lepas tu kami bawa balik dan masak, lepas tu makan satu famili.

Kalau nak cari lokan lagi tinggi skill diperlukan. Lokan terbenam dalam lumpur, jadi mata kena tajam. Biasanya sekali masuk hutan, saya dapat kurang sepuluh ekor saja. Macam biasa, asyik pukul nyamuk saja. Nak beli mosquito repellent, ayah saya kata tak payah lembik sangat, tahan je, buat apa beli. Saya pun tahan saja. Yang paling saya ingat ialah bau hutan paya bakau ni mengasyikkan. Kadang-kadang masa kami masuk tengah air pasang, jadi rasa seronok pulak main air sekali. Rasa macam adventurer! Siput lagi senang cari masa air pasang, sebab dia akan panjat pokok bakau, jadi senang nampak.

Saya belajar berenang pun sendirian je, dengan izin Allah. Masa tengah air pasang tu, masuk parit, cuba apung-apungkan diri, tiba-tiba pandai berenang. Air pasang memang besar waktu tu. Kami mandi ramai-ramai memang seronok. Cuma kadang-kadang tu terkena ampai-ampai, pedih jugak badan. Kalau kena, kami cepat-cepat pergi tebing parit, ambil lumpur dan lumur pada tempat kena. Saya tak tahu scientifically proven atau tak, tapi setakat ni berhasil.

Saya masih ingat masa saya darjah satu atau dua, kawasan rumah saya rendah. Jadi bila air pasang, air akan masuk rumah. Mak saya cepat-cepat angkat barang-barang rumah naik tempat tinggi. Masa ni kadang-kadang saya boleh berenang dalam rumah je. Yang penatnya masa nak cuci rumah lepas air pasang tu. Bila balik sekolah, lantai rumah licin baru lepas basuh, jadi saya berpaut pada buaian adik kecil saya, lepas tu saya meluncur dalam rumah. Bila mak marah baru saya berhenti.

Ada sekali yang saya ingat, air pasang sangat besar sampai ada sekumpulan ikan belanak boleh masuk dalam rumah saya. Yang tak bestnya, ular pun ada masuk rumah. Setakat saya ingat, tak ada ular yang bahaya masuk, Cuma ular air kecil yang tak berbisa. Ular jenis ni banyak, dan kami sikit pun tak takut nak pegang ular ni. Selamba je pegang dan biar dia lilit tangan. Panjang dia macam pembaris panjang tu. Tapi ada sekali ular gigit saya, sampai nampak bekas taring dia kat tangan. Lepas tu saya dah tak berapa berani dah.

Banyak pengalaman menarik masa kecil. Saya rasa rugi budak-budak sekarang sebab tak dapat nak rasa apa saya rasa. Mereka cuma berkurung dalam rumah, main game.

Kerja

Kadang-kadang saya merasa sedikit tertekan dengan kerja. Kerja bahagian ‘Production line’ ni sememangnya 24 jam tak berhenti. Malam-malam pun ada orang telefon, tanya ini dan itu.

Kadang-kadang terfikir mana ada kerja yang mudah. Setiap pekerjaan ada cabarannya.

Bila direnung-renung, saya ada terfikir. Allah takkan letakkan saya di sini sekiranya saya bukan orang yang terbaik untuk bekerja di tempat ini. Mungkin bila ada orang yang lebih baik daripada saya datang, barulah Dia akan gantikan saya, dan mungkin hantar saya ke tempat kerja lain. Inilah saja yang jadi motivasi saya selama dua tahun setengah saya di sini.

Rakan-rakan sejawatan dengan saya yang agak berumur (40 tahun ke atas) semuanya baik-baik. Sebab itulah saya merasa mereka lagi tertekan dengan kerja, sebab mereka ambil serius pasal kerja sampai jadi hal personal mereka. Lagi menyedihkan, kadang-kadang department boss seolah-olah sengaja menghentam mereka, kerana tahu mereka orang lama dan sukar untuk berhenti atau bertukar kerja. Ada 2 3 kes sampai menangis diorang sebab tertekan. Saya simpati, tapi tak banyak yang saya boleh lakukan.

Ada satu proverb yang terkeluar dari mulut mereka semasa kami berborak-borak. Biasanya peribahasa yang kita dengar berbunyi “ketawa ramai-ramai, menangis sorang-sorang”. Tapi bagi kami di sini, biarla proverb tu menjadi “ketawa sorang-sorang, menangis ramai-ramai”. Kami lebih suka begitu. Biarla waktu kami tension masa kerja kami sama-sama bersedih, daripada membiarkan sesiapa menangis sendirian. Kami suka berkongsi masalah, dan sedia mendengar satu sama lain.

Kadang-kadang, pengajaran dalam hidup ni kita belajar waktu-waktu susah macam ni.

You'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone Liverpool FC.

I will always be with u, but now I'm worry about your new incoming and outgoing players!

Now we've got only 2. Glen Johnson and a young guy from PSG. Glen Johnson should be OK, but based on history, your young player never made an impact to the team.

Plus rumours about Xabi Alonso and Javier Masherano departure, who will then covers our centre?

If you want to let them go, just let them go. But please find somebody fast. Don't be afraid to spend ...come on, you're a giant club. See what Torres has brought us.

When all other clubs are spending big, I'm worry. You don't need to spend as much as them, but buy players who we can trust. Please...

James Morrison

I love James Morrison's voice. He has a unique voice.

According to him, when he was little, a bad cough disease was upon him that almost cost him his life. But thanks to that, his voice turned to be one of the sweetest in town.

His latest song Broken Strings, a duet with Nelly Furtado is just stunning. Find it and hear it for yourself.

PPSMI

(1) It was declared yesterday by our DPM Tan Sri Muhyidin that government will halt PPSMI starting on 2012, and they current batch will be the last batch using PPSMI. After 2012, all teachings of science and mathematic in primary and secondary school will be change back to Bahasa Malaysia in Sekolah Kebangsaan and Menengah Kebangsaan and other mother tongue language in SJK (C) and SJK (T) respectively.

(2) There were many pros and cons brought to the public by media regarding this issue. Some of them agree PPSMI but be continued while the others didn't. For me, I would like to see PPSMI to be continued. I was quite dissapointed when hearing the declaration.

(3) For me, PPSMI can be a good medium to increase our children competencies in English and improve their understanding in science and technology in the early beginning. The situation that made this programme failed was there were not many supports that should be moved parallelly with this programme.

(4) From my point of view, the lack of understanding on how to ensure this programme works was not in the mind of our educationist and those inside the ministry. In order to make anything work, basically you have to do the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action); it's basic of management. In this case, there were only Plan and Do, there were no Check and Action. Things became more complicated when the founder of this programme, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad leave Malaysian administration.

(5) PPSMI was a very daring and ambitious project. However, it was achievable. Nothing is imposible in this world. Imposible is not a fact; it's an opinion.

(6) When Muslim Arabs merge as a knowledge superpower last 1500 years ago, what happened was they translated many books and knowledges from other races, such as Romans, Greeks, Hindus and Chinese..and with them the knowledge transfer happened until they were able to publish knowledges in Arabic. We should be able to understand the first place that in order to translate, they must first learn other races languge.

(7) This is the point why we must emphasized English as Science and Mathematics as a learning medium. People might say the last system has no problem; we were able to generate many engineers, doctors and professionals without problem. Yes, but what if we can generate them even earlier. Children are like sponge, they easily absorb knowledges better than us. What if we can make them been able to read for example current form 5 physic lesson when they're only on form 1. Would it be nice to have such a young fella with a great amount of knowledges, just like a resemblance on what happened 1500 years ago?. Isn't the way to built great empire is to have great minds inside it? Imagine if these smart children continue to pursue mathematic, science and technology knowledges until someday they can questioned the fundamentals of science and maybe develop new enigma in science, just like Albert Einstein did.

(8) To be continued...

PTD assessment programme (3rd July 09)

(1) I received an invitation to join this programme, an assessment that being done to choose the right candidate for this position's last interview session. It was at INTAN Wilayah Timur in Kemaman, Terengganu.

(2) Luckily I was there with 2 of my collegues in NEC, so the awkard feeling could be left aside. We arrived and registered there at 8.15 a.m. There were already many other candidates arrived. We took turn to register. Then, weighing and height measuring session took place. I was 167 cm, with 70Kgs (slightly over my supposal BMI). After my picture being taken, they gave me a breakfast pack.

(3) First activity was a briefing by a fellow PTD officer. Basically, she briefed us what a PTD job is all about. She was a bit grumpy, and I didn't like her much. My friend and I also thought few words from her mouth were unappropriate to use while briefing us. Maybe she had problem back at her house, we will never know.

(4) After briefing, the real activity started. We were given groups to form to, and straight away went to dedicated rooms. This activity needed us to discuss an issue: economic crisis. There were about 10 people in my group, and most of them had no problem to converse in good English. Some of them even opened my perspective in the current economic crisis, since my understanding was lack for this issue. However, I did gave some of my ideas, and they accepted them, so I'm quite happy.

(5) Second activity was a debate; and the title for debate was komunikasi maya merosakkan bahasa. Coordinator seperated us into two groups, boys and girls. In this mini parliamental debate session, boys were the opposition. We had great time debating and showing our thoughts, plus this session seeemed non formal. A great relaxing time.

(6) After lunch and Friday prayer, we undergo 2 tests. It took us about 1 hour. Then came the physical test. After forming a group of 15 person, coordinator gave us ten platic pans. They asked us to make ten lines using those pans, with one line using only 3 pans. We failed to settle this riddle, and only one group succeeded. After riddle solving, we needed to design a dance move according to the song played. The song was about 10 minutes, consist of 3 songs that been mixed; the jaiho by pussycat dolls, basikal tua by sudirman and a siti nurhaliza song (sorry I couldn't remember the title). This was very fun.

(7) We then have to do pumping (30 pumps), star jump (20 jumps) and fly jump (2o jumps). I almost didn't feel my legs after these activity. Last physical test was sprint. I did well, I'm the fastest in my group.

(8) Eventhough tiring, I would be sure to join this activity again if they invite me again.