Faizly’s Life Rumble

Two cans of black coffee didn’t seem to percussing my quiescent mind.Thus,lets jot something down since that I’ve been putting my blog into mothballs for quite a long time and the sequel that I’m trying to drag you into is something not really phony yet it’s just two cents of mine I’ve been looking forward to divvying up.

Reading the news concerning Malaysia every day, there’s always bound to be a story that is political in nature. Some political guy doesn’t want to step down, some want this and that, and all these political games are just plain cumbersome to the nation.

Because if all these games are still forging ahead, none of the real issues in the nation are consigned. Since when we are truly concerned, then our voices would not be heard. Only when it comes near to electoral dates, only then these people that we have never seen would pop-out from their small peach-fuzz world claiming on what the best thing they could bequeath.

I’m myself, been trying not to write any blogs linked to any politics because I myself do not like politics. It’s all a game, and it only happens when people who have the jurusdiction are blinding themselves towards these games whereas they should put the people and issues as their preeminence.

Looking at the environment closely, while being pretentious, it seems that there’s a lot of problems that are etched in our country. This is not fresh per say, but sometimes we need a reminder, either by an outsider or a third party, that we need to stop all these gibberish, and just converge on something that really matters. How can we be pivotal, when we are just like audiences in a political theater that seem never ending?

Sometimes, I wonder do people tend to be concerned at the start of the week and suddenly forgot about the big picture when weekend reaches? There are just so many things missing in this country, not only the opportunities but we do not have proper foundation that is set for tantamount, happiness and prosperity.

Jimi Hendrix the great blues guitarist once said and I quote him : “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

Being a peasant, we all go through a lot in our life. Unfairness and et cetara, but when we learn to accept our fate without fighting god’s will, then that is when we have truly lost. I refuse to accept Malaysia’s fate when I see that it is dwindling down to the drain and I refuse to accept where I need to go out of the country to exert my abilities somewhere else. I won’t want my future generations to blame us what happened in the past.

Our nation probably has one root problem or many more, but I do not know, but the possibilities are there.

It’s time to stop all these political games by the elected people to lead the country. It’s not nice to look upon serious issue with mediocre perspective. It’s only when these politicians learn to be humble and walk with us, it’s then when change would spark.

I do not know what’s my agenda of this blog but I just wanted to say something.

Professor Henry Higgins (from ‘My Fair Lady’)’s fears has come true. One who uses proper English Language in Malaysia today will probably be considered a freak. This opinion does not proclaim that I speak the best English around, for I think I still have much to learn. However, the problem with the falling level of English Language is a perennial problem for higher education, so much so that, even lecturers are not spared from committing errors while using that language.

The main reason for the poor level of English grammar, vocabulary, verbal and writing skills stems from the fact that we are not the English. We are users of English as a second third, or even fourth language. The mother tongue is of paramount importance to learn, in a lot of societies, and that fervor of preserving the mother tongue should be lauded – to a certain extent. This effort is what keeps a good number of languages from dying out. However, the university aims at becoming a world-class institution. Admittedly, one of the fastest growing languages in the world is Mandarin. We have English-medium tertiary institutions, and this is the institutions’ strength, and we should persevere with this effort. This effort seems to be thwarted by weak command of the English Language of students and academics in the university.

The only way to stop the rot is from the beginning, from the start of a person’s education. However, we cannot do that at the tertiary level of education. Academics have to make do with the situation at hand. Students come to universities and colleges with a pre-existing grasp of the English Language. Some are very weak. Some have very strong command of the language. I will not be surprised, if one were to run a statistics regression of English Language results vis a vis the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of the student, those with good language scores tend to have higher CGPAs.

Furthermore, expecting lecturers, who have the propensity to converse in a language other than English at the first opportunity, to write grammar-free research papers, and to set exam papers that are grammar-error free, is a tall order. It is not just exam papers that are littered with grammar mistakes, it is the smaller things too, such as lecture slides and notes, lectures themselves, and subject guides and (sadly enough) textbooks published by academics. I remember reading the lecture notes of a subject as a student of a Malaysian university. I ended up correcting the grammatical errors, instead of digesting the content, for the latter cannot happen without the former being done first. This was five years ago. I shudder to think of how far has conditions worsened since then. It is a dire sign of our current predicaments, when notices put up by lecturers, and by departments that are supposed to teach languages, are grammatically incorrect. We must not pass the buck, to improve the level of the English Language in at the tertiary. It must be done now. It must be done right.

How do we put an end to this? Instructing academics to ensure that exam papers are grammar-error-free is the first step. However, much more must be done, as I have pointed out earlier, that errors in the usage of the English Language are not limited to the exam papers, but to other things that academics publish as well. What we can do, is to have a check and balance system, where the exam papers and other publications of lecturers (lecture notes, book drafts, papers for journals) go through a review committee of academics who are good in the English Language, before it is published (both the papers and exam questions). The committee ought to be provided with benefits of reduced teaching workloads, or otherwise, stipends for their role in promoting the proper usage of English. The committee can be academics from the faculty, or academics from the language institute of the university.

The following are reasons for the need of the committee. In the age of knowledge economy, the knowledge workers we have in universities have a lot of tacit knowledge that are not unearthed as yet. Imagine the number of unpublished research that academics can produce in international and peer-reviewed journals. The committee can be a catalyst that improves the publishing output of the academics. In addition, are not academics supposed to be the joy and pride of the university? Students with better command of English have often cringed when listening to grammatically-inappropriate speeches by lecturers (sometimes students purposely use bombastic words, or speak in English rapidly, thus confusing these lecturers), and the reputation of the university as one with lecturers who are bad in the English Language will inevitably spread to the outside world. One does not gain respect, by demanding it, but by earning it. One way for lecturers to gain the respect of students, is by speaking in grammatically-correct English Language.

There are many other ways to improve the standard of English in at the tertiary level. The above are suggestions that can be carried out right away. The debate on the appalling level of the English Language has been going on in the main stream media for a long time now. University authorities can go through the wealth of information gathered from the debate to seek for solutions to this issue. Other suggestions that can be carried out in the future are such as hiring new academics and ensuring that current academics have the requisite language level. What is the use, I beseech you senses, to demand for students to have at least MUET Band 3 score, if lecturers are not scoring at that, or higher than that level? If the university is adamant to improve its standard of the English Language, this is a highly recommended approach. Lecturers, whose command of English is beyond reproach, should not fear this, while lecturers with below-par English Language skills should see it as a chance for them to improve themselves.

In summary, the education industry is a competitive one. For an institution to really stand out, and aspire to be the next MIT or Cambridge, it needs to start from the basics. That would be to improve the English Language level of the students and academics.

You know, we humans have a life span of how much? With the aid of modern medicine, 60 ? 70 ? 80? By 40 onwards we are already experiencing the early onset of age – physical and mentally mostly but it is quite the opposite for our emotional aspects. With age, comes ripening and often wisdom. (Hence why elders are asked to lead the people in the hope they know better. But it is easy to question this today, do they really?) By 50 our systems start breaking down gently as though preparing us for our eventual transition into death. And then we are gone. 100 years from now, we must have done something really significant in order to be remembered or something truly great to be honoured. Otherwise, we are as good as dead.

Religions, races and other external differences aside, we are basically humans inside. Whether a tribesman hunting in the jungles or a corporate man sitting at a board meeting or even an MP sitting in parliament.We all have the same basic needs. Survival. We only need much to survive, the rest all is wanting,which does not seem wrong in this world that we have all created. We seek privileges. We all want to feel special. But is it worth trampling on each other to achieve this? Is having foie grass and truffles for dinner at the latest restaurant in town instead of just plain old nasi goreng biasa at a road side stall really a validation of who we are? Yes, we have all heard this sermon before but is there not some truth in it? It is a superficial world, yes, we are all well aware of it and we are involuntarily/voluntarily contributing towards it. If there ever is going to be a chance in our perception of material achievements, it might take a few more generations. But that’s another story.

But meanwhile, why can’t we all open our minds a little? Look at the bigger picture,as humankind surviving on this very small planet – that is not even visible to from the next galaxy. Earth takes a year to circle the sun while Neptune and Pluto takes 160 and 247 earth years respectively. None of us humans will ever, ever live to see either one’s full rotation. Are we really that big a deal? One shift in earth’s plates and we are running helter skelter like ants for protection.Does it matter then what race or religion we are. Wouldn’t we turn around and help each other? Why does have to be only in moments of despair that we become humane? Why is it so difficult to stay humane, honour each other’s differences and respect every one’s equal right in life?

Bigger nations have screwed up. Suppression and injustice of any kind will finally find a way out and rear its ugly head. There are unhappy people whose government is condoning wars and killing of the innocents. Do we need to tread by those lines? We are an intelligent nation, we know that. There is something about this land that is blessed and peaceful, we know that too. But why are we so bad at learning lessons of past?

Sometimes wonder whether i’m better off, NOT knowing everything that is going on in the world today. The disillusionment that one inevitably suffers, as he realises that world is not as perfect as he once assumed, is a standard ritual of growing up, and yet i can’t shake the nagging doubt that perhaps i would have been much happier, though evidently less worldly, if these incidents had never been brought to my attention in the first place.

War, famine, pollution, racism, sexism, the list just goes on and on and on. I don’t even need to give examples, just open your daily newspaper, and there you have it. Now, i long ago resolved that this world isn’t perfect, but to be reminded of it every other day, as i am literally assaulted with this information, just leaves me wishing that i could secede from this great brotherhood of mankind.

I’ve known many, who simply turn a blind eye. Those “lucky” few who can simply ignore everything that happens to the world around them, and enjoy their morning cup of coffee with such relish that only a man who was so convinced that the world revolved solely around them, and that so long as this world was unmarred and unblemished, they couldn’t care less about the going-ons of the “rest” of civilisation. I find this cocktail of ignorance, apathy and egotism, laced with cynicism – a little less then unsettling.

And i’ve said to myself, i don’t want to be one of those people, and yet i find myself saying once too often, “I’m glad that didn’t happen to me!” or simply flipping the page over when it seems too morbid and depressing. I find my myself shunting out all the depressing things that happen in this world, just standing waistdeep in a pool of denial, and when finally an ethical and moral crisis decends upon me, i dive for the solace of empathy and charity to salvage what little humanity there is left.

These days though, i’ve realised that the only thing we can do, is try. We certainly can’t change the whole world, but we can at least change the world around us, the people we work with, and our family and friends, or even a stranger on the street. Sometimes the smallest things we do, can make the biggest changes.

There were much blood and deaths splattered over our newspapers recently. Wars, crimes and accidents have taken many innocent lives. They may be considered the luckier ones because many others who live, continue to mourn their untimely loss. It will be absolute grief for those close to their hearts, and whose bittersweet memories will haunt them for a long time to come.

Many who have died are innocent bystanders or reluctant participants in an unwanted confrontation or forced into an unfortunate situation. The rest of us can only read and watch helplessly. You may vent some of your anger but there is nothing much that can be done for those who have died. If some positive reaction materialises, it may have done some good, but this is likely to be some wistful thinking.

The continuing deaths and sufferings that surfaced with such regularity in the news had somewhat desentitised the public’s feelings over the loss of lives. They have become blurred and bored statistics in an unending saga of violence and destruction. We can debate the rights or wrongs about all these incidents but it does not do anyone any good. There is simply no justification for any killing or loss of lives. If Man cannot learn to live responsibly and in co-existence with each other, there is no hope.

One day we may become a victim too. It seems far off and ridiculous but who knows. It is easy to look the other way and think that the fault lies with others or find some other excuses. Unless everyone honestly searches his or her inner selves for answers, there can be no stop to all these carnage. It has been a tough week. I just wish everyone peace and tranquility, to say a prayer to all those who have recently perished unnecessarily.

Hmm…I have something to share before I recapitulate on my Journal – something that has to do with the current pharmaceutical products and abruptly engenders me to generally pen this thing down.

Our life spans are increasing, due no less to improved standards of living as well as significant advances in medical sciences. The great strides taken by the medical profession are however clouded as deadlier infectious diseases are discovered. There is also still no cure for many known ailments, especially those afflicting an increasingly indulgent population.

A disconcerting fact is that many such ailments are kept in check but not fully cured. Ask any patient with heart, hypertension, gout, cholesterol or many other similar problems. They are likely on medication that only help arrest but not get rid of their illnesses. Expensive treatments which have to be continued for the rest of their lives increase their personal financial outlays and create growing drug dependencies.

I ever read from the Reader’s Digest,the legendary fund manager Peter Lynch once remarked that a great patients’ drug is one that cures an affliction once and for all, but a great investor’s drug is one that the patient has to keep buying. He was being coy about it but no drug company will fail to grasp this economic fact about their business. A niggling question does arise, “Are people’s health imperative enough to justify finding complete cures or are financial considerations irresistible for profit hungry drug companies to dither in coming out with more complete remedies?”

That’s very true about him.My mama has been afflicted by colon disorder disease for more than 5 years.Until now,there’s no clear-cut medication to bring this acute illness into a complete halt and thus every three months,she has no choice but to undergo the internal medicine specialist’s review.Now,do your mathematics.The prescription charges for the three-month-medication would cost her RM300 and she is still prescribing it now and again.Plus RM50 each time for the Doctor’s consultation.Got the sum?

Mama ever cracked a joke “Nasib Dr tu handsome,kalau tidak sia-sia ja bayar RM5o.” and I grinned amiably.

So,Needless to say, we must all take real good care of our health and not rely too much on the miracles of modern medical science (if you can). If not, be forewarned that another form of drug (dadah) addiction and dependency is just round the corner. It will result in a continuing expensive financial and physiological drain on you. We should try not to fall indebted to big drug companies to keep us in shape or merely just alive. Stay Healthy Everyone !

Back to work.Hehe…