Respect Other Races

A few more days, we will be celebrating our Independence day (31 August 2010). I know many of us are looking forward to the holiday and soon on 16 September, we will be celebrating our Malaysia Day.

So, how's life after the independence? No doubt, we have been going through tremendous changes in many ways right? and are you proud to be a Malaysian as I am? The call by our PM to be One Malaysian is probably misunderstood by many Malaysians. Many of us thought that to achieve 1 Malaysia, we need to have a standardized government system, religion, human rights, and culture. Hahahaha! Was that what they were thinking?

Some people have been complaining on sensitive issues when they talk about 1 Malaysia. They questioned "why they need a passport to enter Sarawak when Sarawak is in Malaysia, why the Malays still have their special rights, why is there still a quota for university entry for the non-bumiputera? Oh gosh! All these are already stated and discussed in our constitutions. So there should be no question about them right?

The thing is, 1 Malaysia is all about fostering good will, understanding and tolerance among its people by respecting the differences and treating and accepting the different races well. It is not about standardization on how we do things. Allow me to give you a specific example; language. What we can do to achieve 1 Malaysia, is to learn other people's language. Although I am born Iban, I never restrict myself to the Iban language. But I mix well with the Malays and learn their dialect.

The Sarawak Malay dialect is different from the West Malaysia Malay dialect. Let me demonstrate to you;

DIAM : Senyap or silent (West Malay language)
Tempat tinggal or the place of living (Sarawak Malay dialect)
TANGGA : tangga or ladder (West Malay language)
lihat or see (Sarawak Malay dialect)

LEWAT : lambat or late (West Malay language)
Takkan ler or Why is that? (Sarawak Malay dialect)

Oh well...let us learn each others' language if we really want to foster good relationship among ourselves. And I am sure there are many other ways right?

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Can Government Vehicles Cut Que?

Very rare that I blog without photos and for today's entry, I just want to write with the intention of informing the public on the ferry services. I am a regular customer of ferry service because my school is across the river. When queing for ferry, we usually encounter government vehicles cutting que. Of course some of us, who have been waiting there felt uneasy about this. Furthermore, it is stated on the signboard that government vehicles will board the ferry for free and it did not say that they can cut que.

After I bought my Almanac (the government's all year calendar) I saw that there's a call line where the public can complain to Sarawak government pertaining to many issues. It is called the TALIKHIDMAT - phone number 555999. So I decided to call them first. When there was no feedback for three weeks, I decided to e-mail them.

Here's my email:




































Click on the e-mail to read the content.

To put it in simple words, yes, all government vehicles, are given priority to board the ferry whether or not there's an emergency. They called me up after the email was sent to me.

What If You Were Asked To...

"Willie, can you be our photographer for this Saturday staff's meeting? " Now, how would you respond to this question if you are not a person who take photographs for free and the fact that the school will expect you to use your expensive equipment? Oh well, without any hesitation, I answered "Yes, sure, no problem".

As a free lance photographer, unpaid task like this still have a few benefits:
a. To create network. When people see your photos and they love them, you'll get famous.
b. To build rapport. As business people, you need to be friendly to potential clients. When they are comfortable with you, they might need you in future to take wedding photos.
c. To show that you are easy to work with. I like to work with people, I don't want anybody to feel that I am a difficult person to work with.
d. But above all, naturally, I am person who cannot say NO to a request. Hahaha!

Talking about using expensive equipment, since the school will not pay me, I will,
a. use only digicam to take photos.
b. edit a few photos only. But if I were to edit, I will do it seriously. Just look at the photos I edited below,

Are babies blessings?

A few days ago, I blogged about the lost of my good friend, Mr Ratino. A photo of him was posted in my friend's facebook and there were a lot of comments made by facebook users on him. Counting the comments, it seems that facebook is more popular than blogging, which explains why it contains many advertisements. What happen to friendster anyway? It used to be a popular networking website before right?

Have you ever heard of a quite popular saying that says "people come and people go". To some of us right now, we might be feeling remorse or in the midst of mourning for someone whom we have just lost. But to some people, they are now celebrating someone new into the family.

These two are my colleagues and I must thank them for their willingness to pose for me. Natalie came back to work last month, after she safely delivered her third baby and Stephanie is waiting to deliver her first baby. These two moms, right now, are among the happiest moms on earth right now.

But, on the other hand, we are hearing reports saying that young moms dumped their babies on the street. I seriously condemn those mothers! I do not think that babies deserve to die for their parents' sinful act.

The government of Melacca had just announced they will allow, schoolchildren age 14-18 to get married and have babies. The government will open a special school for pregnant students to complete their studies and will give RM500 to them to perform the holy matrimony if they are poor. They said by doing this, it will reduce the divorce rate, the number of single mothers and immoral activities among students.

Nevertheless, this ruling had created an uproar among many parents because they think that children are not ready financially, emotionally and mentally to manage a family. Don't you think it is a waste of public fund to build a special school too? But oh well...I let you decide and think yeah?

Petronas Mesra Card

When I did my Masters a few years back, I came across this saying by an economist "There's no free lunch". When we go shopping, I believe we have encountered a promo that goes like this "Buy one, get one free" or, "this item comes with a free gift" am I right? But the fact is, we need to purchase something to get the free item and thus making it as not 100% free.

Another example is, if your friend treat (pay your food) you at KFC, is it really free? Consider these, we have to sacrifice our time for it and even pay for our own petrol to drive to KFC. However, there is still a good opportunity to take advantage on this situation. You also have heard "Better something than nothing" right?

Well...I am a loyal customer of Petronas. I pump petrol to my car almost daily and I spend around Rm30 per visit. Although getting a membership has some disadvantages, I feel that having a "Mesra Card" is worth something although not everything.

That something is that, you can use the points you collected to purchase petrol. For every RM10 you spend, you will get RM0.10 (1 point) back. So far I have spent RM589 since i got the card from Petronas and I just checked my points and I already have RM5.89. And like I said "Better something than nothing" right?The bad thing is, once you become a member, you will get annoying calls from other financial institutions trying to promote their insurance to you. But be smart my readers, if you are a Sarawakian, just don't answer any 03 code calls. Hahaha

Fake Batteries

Is your child playing with toys? Does he/she want a toy that uses batteries?

Electronic or mechanical toys are rather expensive to buy. Not to mention, purchasing batteries for toys can be costly. I have a few original rechargeable batteries at home, but those batteries are only used for my DSLR. So, one day, as I was walking in a Super Save store at 10th mile, I saw these batteries (look at the picture below)

(Labelled as Sony batteries, not sure whether they were fakes or originals)

"Ah!!! this is good. RM4.99 only" I said. I read the info on the packaging and it was written "made in Japan". Then I checked the language and it was perfect. So I told myself "This could be a good bargain". So I bought a pair of batteries. "Even if they are fakes, at least I can still use them for a few times" I told myself.

Once I reached home, I tested them on one of my son's toys. Unfortunately, the batteries were unusable and could not be charged. Dissapointed , although they were cheap, I threw them into the rubbish bin. And there goes my RM4.99. With that money, I should have pumped 2 litres of petrol into my motorbike.

P/s: Please don't buy these batteries. Good alkaline batteries should cost you more than RM30.

Can You Leave Us Alone Please?

The recent proposal by "not to be named" to make it a compulsory for teachers to have a license to teach is really something that I am unhappy with. To obtain the license, teachers will need to sit for exams.

Among many national agendas, why must teaching profession be the big issue? I am really tired of ministers or prominent individuals trying to show off their talents by introducing new ideas that is not in their jurisdiction. I have been reading about schools and education matters written in our local newspaper almost daily and the truth is, I am bit sick of it. According to "not to be named" minister, licensing of teachers will enhance professionalism and solve crimes in schools such as child molestation and rape.

Firstly, I have a few doubts about how a license can solve crimes How does obtaining a teaching license stop a teacher to molest or rape a child? Please explain to me why does a person with a valid driving license still break the traffic law?

Secondly, in the midst of financial crisis, do we still want to spend money lavishly? The cost of conducting exams for our existing 400,000 teachers in the country is not cheap and for goodness sake, we already have PTK exam to deal with. The cost will include paying the invigilators, paper printing, shipment, the examiners etc. Are we prepared to spend that much?

Thirdly, teachers are already over burdened with the paperwork and co-curriculum in schools and now they want to give more work to teachers by asking teachers to sit for exam?

Finally, how could they think that we are not professional enough?. I remembered before taking a degree in education, I underwent an exam and an interview. After I passed the exam and interview, I went through 5 years of academic training plus a few teaching practices. Just before I entered job market as a teacher in schools, I had to undergo another test.

There were so many tests and exams I went through and yet, they still don't see our professionalism? And during our service, we will have to go another interview, attend courses and PTK exams. Are all these not enough to increase our professionalism? Why do they want to add more to our already hectic life and work schedule? This is really mean!

I just couldn't see the rationale behind this and I am glad our Minister of Education has his sense and he is not buying the proposal at present. And I hope it will not happen.

I am not against new ideas, but there are some ideas that we need to consider deeply and require collective opinions from the society. Policy should not be made ased on personal judgment or agenda.

Is Courtesy Expensive?

Few weeks ago, I have received many SMS (Short Messaging Service) from my friends to my phone. It is indeed the easiest way to communicate or probably the cheapest, if that person is in your friends and family list.

Some of the SMS I usually get are in the form of questions such as "Is there any ferry today?" "What is the phone number of the school?" etc. After answering the SMS, I always wonder why these people had problems writing a simple phrase which is "Thank You". Is sending another message as a courtesy too costly?

The worst is when people never bother to reply your SMS, right? I think not having enough credit or too busy are lame excuses. We can always reply later once we get the credit or once we are free. Oh well....I think we all (including me) should learn phone etiquette. In my lesson on "Effective communication Skill" I always include this part a bit. What do you think.?

And now, let me introduce this blog:

I would like to welcome Chybee into my blog list. Her blog is interesting because her blog is a photo blog. She posted a lot of nice photos. Since I am a photo enthusiast, any blogs that show beautiful photos will definitely attract me. To all my blogger friends, please do visit her blog too at http://chybeelila.com .

Seniority: Blessings or Dressings?

Note: The content may be sensitive, but it does not apply to all.

Seniority is a big thing in work, be it in a private or government sector. While it is good to have seniors in our workplace, there are some who bound to seek for respect from new staff and think that they have gained immunity from disciplinary actions.

The big question that I would like to raise is that, "does seniority brings more problems than blessings to an organisation?" Throughout my 4-month observation in school, I discovered that it is difficult to work along with some senior teachers because they are always against or think negatively on the changes in the way we do things, new policies and new ideas. The worst thing is that, some of them refused to cooperate with the junior teachers and abandoned the work without proper explanation and sometimes leave the work to new staff to handle. How irresponsible and selfish can they be? It really makes me wonder that ten years or twenty years of working experience may just be only a dressing to their resume.

We have to remember that things change over time. Our experience before may not be useful in today's situation or probably we lack of experience since we have been doing the same thing over and over again. Once a motivational speaker said to me "me might have gained the number of years teaching and not the quantity or quality experience". Oh well it simply means, doing the same thing all over again might only represent one experience and not a lot of experience, although we have worked for many years.

The seniors probably need an attitude change: be willing to accept changes and be willing to perform their duties wholeheartedly and try not to be "Mr Know it All. I am always right, because I work longer than you". Humility to learn is a virtue that we all must have. However, having said these, I do believe that all teachers, regardless of whether they are seniors or juniors should be appreciated during the upcoming teachers' day.

(My students, preparing Teachers' Day cards for their teachers)
Photos taken using Olympus Sp560uz

Being a teacher means I have a heavy responsibility on my shoulder to educate the young ones. Instead of having one child, I now have hundreds of them. It is sad to hear that some students curse, criticize, and ignore the teachers. Some of them see the teachers as low life beings. But we, the teachers, still give our best to them to ensure their success in life.

To make sure that teachers are appreciated of their hard work, I asked my students to create cards for their teachers. The cards will be distributed to teachers on Monday.

(Happy Teachers' Day to all teachers)

Can Something Good Comes From Bad Things?

As I walked into a room with a heavy heart, I avoided people who were in the room and I quietly put my bag on the plastic chair and slowly opened my laptop to check my FB.

After 20 minutes, the emcee announced "Those who are still outside the hall, please come in because the service is starting soon". So, I quickly switched off my PC and safely put it into my bag again. Later the priest started to preach and he said...

"Too many people complain because they have problems. But God says, problems exist because we complain too much!"

Oh! It was a pinch on my stomach. Ouch! I think it is true. Sometimes, I complain too much about life. Maybe I should be grateful with what I have in this life.

To recall about how blessed I am, I remembered when I was lecturing in Chermai Jaya College (2000-2003) . After the Ministry of Education stopped giving Chermai Jaya College fund, the college had financial difficulties. It collapsed almost instantly. Our EPF was unpaid, our salary was cut by 15%, and during the management meeting, we were always scolded by our boss.

The staff were afraid of losing their jobs and some had difficulties in applying for loans due to Chermai Jaya bad financial record with the banks. Things were hair wired for all the staff.

The college could not retain. It was ordered to close by the Education Ministry in 2008. Thank goodness that many staff had left the college before that. So, had God closed his eyes to the people who worked there? Had he abandoned his people who were suffering a financial lost there?

The answer is NO! He provided a way out!

Many of my ex-colleagues today are successful people. Many of them applied KPLI (Teaching post in government schools) and they succeeded. Some went overseas to further their studies orwork there and some became successful businessmen.

I was telling myself "Wow! There is always a greater blessing after each bad thing I'm sure problems help to improve ourselves"

(My two ex-colleagues, who left Chermai Jaya College)

Left: Elley Lina is now a manager of her own tuition centre in Gitak. Today, she enjoys her financial freedom. She acts as a part-time unit trust agent and is doing well)

Middle: Sandra Wong is a lecturer is one of the Universities in Singapore. She completed he Masters a few years ago. She was also a lecturer in Swinburne University.

Right: Yeah...that's me. Right after I left Chermai, I actually worked in Amsterdam as an English language trainer to offshore workers. But my boss was in SMTC, Miri.

Hmmm...what is there to complain right?

Do Away With Dirty Talks Please!

Warning: This entry contains explicit talk (18sx). If you are under 18, please leave the entry.

During my free time, I would love to take a break at the canteen and join a bunch of male friends drinking coffee and eat 2 sets of "Roti Kahwin" or toasted bread. So far, when sitting with male companions, who are younger than me, they enjoy talking about school work, sports, hobbies and studies which in turn, I will show great interest in their conversations. And sometimes, we tell jokes. Telling jokes is indeed fun and it is one of the ways to unwind yourself from all the hard work in school, but what if goes down to a "dirty talk"?

I may be wrong, but most of my friends do admit that a "dirty talk" is always initiated by middle-age men. It might be a hasty conclusion but I am sure you have heard an adage "Kerana nila setitik, rosak susu sebelanga" which is translated as "due to a drop of salt, a whole bucket of milk is spoilt" hehehehe...my own translation la....not necessarily to be correct. It means, just because one or two middle-age men talk dirty, the whole group is labeled as dirty talkers.

Probably you think that it is alright to make a "dirty joke" and say "it is a joke what? it is okay to make people laugh and you need to take it easy", but what if it is too extreme? Here are some examples of "dirty talk" I have listened to and I did not enjoy them at all. Sorry it has to be in Sarawak dialect to preserve the authenticity of the conversation:

Old man: Ish...gatal narr peley aku tok eh! Sik pat lah malam tok? melior jak aku kelak!
Old man: Sik guna kawu banyak duit...bagus kawu makey duit kawu ya pergi ngamput induk kat KL nun.
Old man: Iboh ngembak bini bah. Kelak mun kawu udah tua, expired peley kawu ya!

It becomes more inappropriate when the person/s they dare to say it in front of female colleagues. Well..of course, I would laugh since it is funny but then, I think those phrases should not be spoken out.

It makes me wonder the reason behind making this "dirty talk". To get attention? To make more friends? or to it is just a mid life crisis? The truth is, the negative implications are one will have less friends in school especially among the ladies and secondly, that person will be labeled as a pervert.

I strongly believe that a conversation should be clean and jokes should be moderate. We need to remember that "dirty talks" is not our norm and most family institutions in Malaysia still sees it as a taboo. What more to say in religion?

An excerpt taken from Ephesians 4:29 (Holy Bible)
Think before we talk. Hehehe... 18 SX huh?

Money and Education

I have read Robert Kyosaki's first book entitled "Rich Dad Poor Dad". He commented that education does not teach people on how to make money and that educated people tend to be poor due to heavy debts. While there are some truths about what he said, people should not jump into conclusion that education is meaningless and money is far important than anything else. Having a lot of money in a pocket again is only a matter of choice. St. Paul said, be content with what you have and live accordingly.

A friend of mine is an active member of a direct selling company and having a lot of money is his life's ultimate goal. He spends most of his time (day and night) working and looking for people. In his motivational talks, he passes the message that money is all that important in this world.

On the other hand, I am a person who is happy with the salary I am earning now. My life's priority is none other than to appreciate life more than work. Spending quality time with my family and doing some social and church work. It is really fulfilling to see other people happy.

There is a way to earn money without jeopardizing our personal and family life and that is through education. Not all people have the talent and will to venture into business. Let us leave the business to other people who can. For us who are not skillfull in business, education is the way to earn money. I always tell my students that.

Being in the education line is very interesting. I have lots of things that I want to share. I will soon open a blog dedicated to teaching and now I am still finding the most suitable blog layout for it. For my toy fans...I am sorry. I might have to close it down.

So have a nice day folks!

The Loneliest Person At Work

"I am so lonely" says the dog. Oh well..this week, due to work, we couldn't go back to kampung. I guess this dog must have missed us so much, although it does not belong to us. Whenever we go back to kampung, we will feed him with lots and lots of food.

(Dog is a man's best friend. Do you agree?)

Anyway, today I would like to talk about loneliness at our workplace. Have you ever heard about this saying? "It does not matter how many friends you claim to have. What matter is, how many people accept you as a friend" A few days ago, I was asked by a friend to apply for a transfer to my wife's workplace. The first sentence that came out of my mouth was "Oh no no no no!" I said. People might be confused with how I responded to his question but again I would say, it is a matter of personal preference. I just can't accept the thought of working under the same roof with my wife.

I know for some people, working together with their wives or husbands in the same office is like "Alice in wonderland". However, I feel couples who work in the same office seem to be the loneliest people on earth. Of course I am not saying all couples!. But most of them! I have worked in many firms before and I met people who were married and worked in the same office.

One of them, whom I knew a few years back, were so attached to each other that they didn't socialize with other people. One day, his wife was on a sick leave and he approached me asking me out for lunch. Although I said nothing about it, but in my mind, I was saying to myself..."errr...hello! where were you when your wife was here? I thought you have forgotten about us? was I invincible before to you? " You see...making friends with other people when your other half is not around seems to be a selfish behaviour.

Husband and wife who work in the same office, should not restrict or refrain themselves from socialising with other people. Maybe it is hard to do so because that's what they call Love but then, we are not living in a world of our own right? Nevertheless, having said all these, I really respect a few teachers in my school who know to distinguish between work and marriage life whenever they are in the office together. The two of them are friendly to other staff and they are easy to bring out for a drink. It is a two thumbs up for them.

To end my write up, allow me to show you my other macro shot of a beautiful flower I did last weekend. Sorry eh! I do not know its name.

Raising Fine for Traffic Offenses?

The production of local cars in Malaysia is booming, with Perodua and Proton are trying their best to boost their yearly sales and with banks supporting them, no wonder I heard at about 400 cars are shipped to Kuching daily. In a week, we receive about 2800 cars (both local and imported cars). Not sure where my lecturer got this information from anyway. Hahaha.

But I believe in him. Look at the traffic today. Don't you think that we have lots and lots of local cars? And the more cars we have on the road, the more traffic summonses we pay for breaking the law. It was really a shocking news when the government is going to raise the fine for traffic offenses. I think the decision received mixed reactions from the public. Before this,traffic summonses is ranging from RM70 to RM300 (USD20 to USD120) but now they are raising it to a maximum of RM1,000 (USD450) and RM20,000 (USD8,000). These figures are already expensive for Malaysians who earn RM2000 on average, per month.

I think, the government could consider the possible impact, where the public will be "highly motivated" to bribe the JPJ or Police officers in order to avoid paying the fine and thus making it difficult to combat bribery. So, is the move to raise fine rational? Feel free to share me your thoughts.

(Please read the news for detailed information)

Are we too proud?

When I was down with Cikhungunya fever a few weeks ago, I gave it a thought about life, particularly on how vulnerable we are to life-threatening danger and how fragile our earthly bodies are. God can just take away our life in an instant and this happened to YB Richard Riot political secretary who died of sudden heart attack while he was sitting in a 4WD car and also Din Beramboi who died suddenly due to a Hemorrhagic Dengue fever at a young age.

Now, in this world, I observe that there are some people who are just too proud of themselves, thinking that they are powerful, strong and rich. However, God can simply take out this pride by inflicting them with diseases and die at unexpected time and place. In the bible, King Pharoah proclaimed that he was God and right after he uttered the proclamation, he was struck to death by God and was eaten by worms on his throne.

No matter who you are, be it a politician, a businessman, an engineer, a rich tycoon, a pilot., trust me, when you are healthy, you think that people should salute you because of your job and wealth, but what happen when you are down with sickness? will you not be laying on the same hospital beds with those who are poor and uneducated? When I was sick, I saw many rich people went to the same private clinic as I did seeking for treatment. So, were they any different from me who are poor and drives a small car?

Being sick really makes us equal to others. Will your mouth be able to talk big when you can't even open your mouth in times if sickness? Will your hands be able to show off the middle fingers (as if you are strong) if all your joints and bones are in pain? Will you be able to eat in an expensive restaurants when your taste bud has gone in time of sickness? Remember, doctors will treat us as a patient and not as someone who are rich and powerful when we are in a hospital. We will just have to humbly submit our life to the hands of doctors, nurses and finally at the mercy of God. Therefore, let us not be too proud of our wealth, status or profession. Always think that we are all equal in the eyes of God. Be friendly, helpful and respect each other.

What inspired me to write the above is that, other than the sickness I experienced, I saw this old lady who was down with mental illness at Siburan. I told myself, that if God wants to pull my pride down and make me behave like a dog, He will surely do it as He pleases at anytime and any place.

(This was a photo of an old woman who has mental illness. She could be a normal person before and it is not that she wanted to be turn into that way. Remember, we are living in a fragile body. Anything can happen to us)

(I really feel sad for this woman. If only I have the expertise to help someone like this)

What Earth Hour?

Err...forgive my for not being so optimistic about earth hour and for not being a fan of earth hour. Forgive me for not appreciating what some environmentalists are trying to do. I have my own way, a silent way in helping the earth such as not throwing rubbish on the street, recycle paper for my notes etc. Switching light for one hour? How deep can the impact be?

Oh well...on Saturday night, I was driving on the street and I could see lights everywhere in Kuching just like any other nights. Who would actually bother to switch off the lights? They didn't care and nor do I.

I read newspaper on earth hour and was I supposed to be impressed by many big buildings that switch off the lights during earth hour? How about the the lights at home, where there are thousands of homes in one place? lights that were not switched off by individuals? Were there more of those than these big buildings? The fact is, on that night, there were thousands of homes that did not switch off the lights and millions of homes around the world that did not switch off their lights too. Should I be proud by a handful big buildings that switched off their lights? Not that I am not supportive of earth hour, but i think it is not even worth trying to knock out these absent minded people out there.

Hah! This is even funny! The shopping complexes in town claimed that they switched off their lights for an hour during earth hour? Hello shopping complexes owners, are you sincere or not? Or... are you trying to promote your superstore to attract more people come to your shopping complexes and in the end, you use more electricity for extending the opening hours? You guys are a joke man!

And for young unmarried couples out there...switching off the lights mean, an opportunity to go out kissing, hugging, groping, touching etc... I hate the view of it especially in public places!

What did I do that night? Oh well...earth hour or not, my life still went on. I went to a BBQ party that night and we didn't switch off the lights.

I guess, there are better ways to save the earth. It is definitely not the Earth Hour. But it is nice to have though...heheheh

RC Car

I bought this RC car for my boy for only RM29.90 from the Spring, Kuching. A good quality car. What do you think?

Bleach

Uh! I may be old...but I still love cartoons. Now I am addicted to Bleach. A cartoon that depicts the heroic act of Kurasaki Ichigo who save the world from destruction by evil doers. It has three seasons and I am currently watching season 2. Just to show your some photos that I love so much about this cartoon. Enjoy...

Dayaks beheaded?

(Above: The original photo. Before being edited)

(This is the result after the photo had undergone a simple editing process. I adjusted the level, increased the contrast enhancement and sharpness. Finally, I adjusted the colour curve. Do you notice the difference with the first one?)

My View

Driving back from Serian to Kuching using a palm oil estate road near my village, I saw a weird-looking pole (as shown in the photo above). I then asked my dad "What was that thing that looks like a goal post?".

After a short silence and sigh, he told me, in a weak voice, that "It was what the Japanese had left for us to remember after they invaded Sarawak. It was actually a place where the Dayaks got beheaded by them".

When dad told me that, I was a bit shocked. I never knew that I will someday discover something that the Japanese had left for us. Looking back at the history, which was the world war 2, I felt upset by the Japanese's cruelty. I think the British treated us better than the Japs when they colonized Malaysia. If only the Japs had been good and merciful, I am sure many of us would be speaking their language. What do you think?

P/s: Oh well...just a short entry today. I am quite busy with work lately.

Have we neglected our responsibilities?

Note: This entry touches on a sensitive issue. It does not apply to those who are working abroad or those who have no choice but to be away from home due to work commitment.

My View:
Almost all of us, in Malaysia, belong to a village. I belong to a village where their main occupation is as a farmer, but not rich farmers as in the United Kingdom or in New Zealand. These people live a simple life and yet many of their sons and daughters are educated and have become important people in our society.

It is the talk of the town that once their sons and daughters got a good job, they will think about buying a car and a house in Kuching or live forever in a city. However, very little of them talk about helping to improve their parents' life in the village or to repay their kindness by visiting them every week. Very little were said about giving money to their poor parents or repair the holes on the roof.

Worst, some of them choose to leave their village forever an it is sad to see old people are left unattended in my village by some ungrateful children. Believe it or not, some of these old people came to our house to ask for food and shelter. What happened to their children who have good jobs? Have they neglected their responsibilities?

(Last week, I spent three days, two nights celebrating the harvesting season at my village)

Unlike them, I dedicate my life to serve and stay in my village even though I work in the city. I do not buy properties in town, but I upgrade the house we have in our village and make sure my parents are visited every week to ensure their well-being is taken care of. When I have long holidays, I will make sure that I visited our native lands so that they will not be taken by other people. I know when I grow old or in sickness someday, it is those people living in the village (my relatives) who will be there for me and not people living in the city and not even my colleagues whom I call as friends will take care of me.

(The blessing of our food)

No matter who we will be in future, I strongly feel that we should not neglect our village, family and our old house in our village. If your village is near you and is accessible by road, I think "busy" is a lame excuse for not paying a visit to your village especially when our parents and grandparents are still alive. Oh well...I guess, this is my rambling because I really pity those who are poor in my village and yet their children are earning big money in the city.

(The blessing of the rice harvested earlier)