JOHN LENNON - DECLASSIFIED

This was an interesting documentary on the History channel yesterday and the entire scene played out to roughly what is happening in Malaysia today to certain bloggers. Only this was in the USA and happended 30 years ago to a prominent and influential musician.

John Lennon said, " We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus." And the sparks began to fly!!! The FBI opened a file on him!!

He then goes on to criticize the Nixon Administration for the Vietnam War and rallies great support based on his massive fan base. The FBI files get thicker!!!

The various efforts by the goverment to shut him up are very similar to what our goverment is doing right here and now too. Even the way peaceful protest were violently broken up had uncanny resembelances to BBC and Al Jazeera footages shot in our capital city some months ago.

So, is it going to take us 30 years to get our civil rights in order too?? And until then I guess we have to just "IMAGINE"...................

MY FIRST 3 STUDENTS

Andrew Chin, Alix Chan and Jan Muir. They were great!!

I was a little nervous at first. Here were 3 people trusting me with their lives....."better do it right Nanda", I kept saying to myself. As we went along, their confidence grew and their confidence in me grew as well. I taught them the PADI way and of course added the Nanda way which they loved.

As usual, decending was the first problem we encountered. How to dive if you can get underwater la????? Haiyo!!! hehehehe!! Taught them how to exhale, relax, etc.

Once that was settled, then it was all about buoyancy control. Up and Down they went...and as a good instructor....so did I. We did the PADI buoyancy exercises over and over until they got them right. As Jan said, "You really must have patience to do this, Nanda!!!". Well, my honest feeling was that there is only one way to do things.....THE RIGHT WAY!!

At the end of the course, I achieved what I wanted:

1. All 3 of them knew what it meant to have good buoyancy and how it helps divers stay off the coral. The fact that they truly appreciate it was worth all the effort.

2. They knew that safety should NEVER be overlooked. Things that they should check for themselves and buddy checks were emphasised.

3. They saw the beauty of the underwater world and all it had to offer.

4. They enjoyed the after diving chats about anything and everything!!! (And the beers too!!!)

5. They ALL want to dive more!!!

It was a great close to the Malaysian East Coast dive season and I'm looking forward to 2009 when, I guess, my scuba instructing will take off at a larger scale.

Maya will be a year old and it will be time for the whole family to become beach bums again!!!! (Mary really misses the islands too!!!!)

The beach we left behind......sigh!!

INTEGRATION BASED EDUCATION

As usual, I would like to look at this from a rather "cold" context. (As otherwise, it tends to get rather heated!!) I'll leave the politics out of this one and stick to education.

Just like mixing chemicals, we can only know the outcome when we know the details of the individuals components and what makes them tick. So in a similar fashion, I would like to look at the 3 major races in Malaysia, what their likes and dislikes are, then look at common likes and dislikes with the other communities and finally, how do we put it all together and have a dynamic, progressive mix without explosions and bad reactions to move to a MALAYSIAN IDENTITY.

Hope you join me for the ride and feel free to add anything I may have overlooked. Please do NOT take this exercise as stereotyping a particular race or racial profiling but more of a "general" view and perception to better understand integration.

Let us begin with:

THE MALAYS

This is a society which is very much rooted to religion and "adat" or culture that forms their basis of everyday life. Respect is of primary important. Obedience is another strong trait. A community that has had it "easy" (You can read the "Malay Dilemma - Tun Dr M" to better understand this.) for a long long time. A community that is rather contented with what GOD and government provides and the drive to strive for more is lacking considerably.

Likes:

1. The Malay language. - The majority would consider speaking anything else among Malays as rude.2. Islamic rules/law. - Obeying the rules of the Quran/Hadith is mandatory to most.
3. Food. - HALAL it is. Large variety and the more of it, the better.
4. Socialising. - The community enjoys large occasions with song and dance, i.e. Kenduri, Open house, etc.
5. Malay humour and entertainment. - A slap-stick, 3 stooges type of humour combined with the likes of Akademi Fantasia gives rise to entertainment that's vastly different from what the rest of the world enjoys. The reason I've listed this seperately is that the other communities seem to sometimes have problems with this brand of humour and entertainment.

Dislikes:

1. Other languages. - Although this may be changing, (Can't really verify) finding Malays that speak Tamil, Chinese or any other language or dialect that helps them understand other communities is rare. (English is taught in school and is mandatory so I won't bother with that.)
2. Demanding jobs. - Only a small number of Malays are willing to push to their full potential and become high achievers.
3. Non muslim values. - Consumption of Pork and alcohol by the other communities is a primary dislike. The dog is another "islamic" issue that is disliked. Education on other religions are frown upon.
4. Obeying simple traffic laws. - Use of helmets, obeying traffic lights, etc.

THE CHINESE

This a community that throughout history has been through the worst and survived. They have weathered the most demanding rulers, torture and hardship before they got to our shores. This community stops at nothing to get what they want. Money is GOD or almost GOD in their culture. Their business sense is sharp and sometimes perceived as ruthless.

Likes:

1. Money. - This is their main driver. Enough said.

2. Education. - They strongly believe that this is the key to success. The uneducated will strive to educate the next generation.

3. Chinese culture and language. - Since they have a long history of civilisation behind them, pride of their origins run strong and deep.

4. Food. - Their food is very much a part of their culture and history. (i.e. The wedding tea-ceremony, funeral dinners, food for the ancestors and ghost, etc.)

5. Socialising. - Involves large amount of food and drink. (Of the non-halal kind.) The Kareoke culture (And the women that go with it) is also largely their thing in Malaysia although it is catching on with the rest.

6. Gambling. - Luck is also traditionally a chinese phenomenon.

Dislikes:

1. Other races. - Sad truth but a community that is so proud of who they are and what they have achieved, tend to be this way and this has been true throughout history with most strong communities.

2. Losing. - This can be physical or just the "losing face" aspect of it.

3. Unproductiveness. - Relaxing, holidays, sitting back and watching a sunset, etc, etc, all fall under this category. ("This time can be spent making more money!!" is the general sentiment.) The "Bumiputra" status is also considered here for them.

4. Social etiquette. - They can't really be bothered with talking softly, eating quietly, not making a mess at dinner, etc. (Can be quite unnerving to the non-Chinese.)

5. Obeying simple traffic laws.

THE INDIANS

This community arrived in large numbers during the British era. Mostly uneducated and unskillled labourers, brought into the country to work the plantations. Predominantly from South India, they were Tamil speaking and highly rooted to the caste systems from their homeland. Today, they are the most backward community in Malaysia in terms of economics and education. (Although they seem to be the largest "English as 1st language" speaking community.)

Likes:

1. Tamil entertainment. - Songs, movies, Sun TV, etc, etc, take a major share of their time.

2. Tamil language. - The passion for this language is sometimes mind blowing.

3. Food. - South Indian food has become part and parcel of Malaysian life.4. Religion - They are extremely passionate Hindus, Christians and muslims. But as studies have shown that the belief in religion is inversely preportionate to education, this therefore could be the reason.
5. Socialising & Drink - Vast majority of pubs, bars, etc thrive on Indian customers.

Dislikes:

1. Poverty. - They don't like being poor but find it hard to get out of this.

2. Malay "bumiputra" status. - Strong feeling of "being left behind and nobody cares". (2nd class citizen feeling.)

3. Being associated with crime. - Indian have been branded thugs and gangsters.

4. Obeying simple traffic laws.

And there you have it!!! The things in common:

1. FOOD

2. SOCIALISING

3. DISREGARD FOR TRAFFIC LAWS

We love to eat and drink and we love socialising .And we're ALL horrible drivers!!! We don't have a common language we all love to use, don't feel the same way about education, don't feel we are equal human beings and generally get along but don't really like each other for deep rooted reasons such as religious differences, social status and just a lot of history of "bad blood".

So...what do we do now?????

Well, let me give a few suggestions based on the above:

1. The Malays need to relax a little on this non-halal issue and we'll be able to enjoy a Malaysian food experience and be able to socialize as a group of Malaysians better.

2. The Chinese and Indians need to lose this "country of origin" identity and absorb the Malaysian Identity.

3. Think of GOD but please please do what is GOOD. (This includes obeying traffic laws!!!!)

4. Forget the "sensitivity" issue and ask cross cultural questions. (Why Hindus got so many gods? Why Muslims don't eat pork? Why Chinese burn massive things at funerals?? etc, etc)

5. Give and take respect. But do demand it when it fails to come.


As I've said before, this is just my innocent view on my friends around me and how we can once again become what were back in the old days.

Feel free to comment.

BABY MAKES THREE

Kind of just realized that I haven’t really written much about what’s going on in my life recently. What’s it like having a 6 month old little girl? How has it changed me?

I guess I’ll need to go back in time a little. To the time when it was just Mary and me. The times when we would be heading home from work and say, “Ahh….let’s swing by to Backyard for a pint”…and like the KITT car from Knight Rider, my car would make the GPS auto correction and get us to a cold pint of GUINNESS!!! No worries about what time we get home, in fact, no real worries at all. We would sleep in on weekends and only be up in time for lunch. (Which was also conveniently provided at mummy’s in Klang!!!) We’d go out for dinner and movies, meet some friends and hang out. Hell, we even threw some really cool parties at the renowned, BALCONY of Menara Duta!!

When Maya came along, the changes that came with her were “fast and furious” to say the least. She became the center of my world and everything revolved around her. Pool?? Backyard?? Diving?? They all became a distant memory.

The initial 3 months were the toughest. As new parents, we followed the books, some parental advice, tips from friends and for most of the time, gut feeling.

My parents were with us for the first month ONLY. Yup!! After that, it was Mary all on her own with Maya until I got home from work. Now how did she handle a crying baby, making lunch, doing the laundry and cleaning the house? I REALLY DON’T KNOW…But she did a great job!!

My duties on the other hand was, get home, make dinner, clean up and take care of Maya while Mary has a shower and some much needed rest.

All sound good and fine???????....NOT!!!

Think about it…..Mary is breast feeding so she’s on call 24 – 7. She is exhausted by the time I get home and can’t wait to handover our little “bundle of joy” to me. But I’m working the whole day and am equally exhausted!!
Opps….did I say “equally”???.....hehehehehe!!! No way did Mary agree on that one!!! After many heated “discussions” and some months in re-negotiations, the breakthrough deal was done!! We had a maid come in twice a week to assist Mary.
We also had the assistance of a “life saving” baby tool known as the BABY MONITOR. (They can make huge statues of this and I’ll pray to it!!! Hehehehehe!!) Gone were the days of sitting by her bed and the constant checking if we were in another room. This device was GOOD... or you could even say GOD………

Maid, Baby monitor, baby food, baby diapers, baby stuff, etc, etc, all becomes......baby financing!!! And boy or boy did it take some financing!! 2 sentences used to scare me when Mary said them....."WE NEED TO GET..." and "WE NEED TO BUY..."


And as some people would say that a baby brings good luck, I got promoted and got a raise too!!!

Now that we had figured out our time, our help, our surveillance system and our finances, we had to only figure out one last thing.

OUR BABY!!!

Is she crying because she is:
- Hungry?
- Tired?
- Sleepy?
- Wet?
- Poo Pood? (Or full of S@#T??)
- Teething?
- Wants to play?

This guessing game is SOOOOOOO much fun…really…especially when you get it right and the reward is that the crying stops!!! Hehehehe!! But honestly, she is a great baby and in all my life, I’ve never rushed home the way I do now.
An innocent and pure smile or laughter from her can light up my darkest days.

So for the guys at the party recently who asked the question, “Dude, what’s it like being married with a kid???”

IT IS GREAT!!

CRIME IN THE KLANG VALLEY

It is now at shocking levels!!!

I was at a party last week and a friend was telling us his unfortunate encounter. He was car-jacked at 2am while walking to his car after some late night supper in Klang.

The story then gets worse.

They bashed him on the head and threw him in his car and kept hitting him while they drove off. They took his IC and drove to that address. As it was his old address, they demanded to know where he lived. (Again, by bashing him heavily.) Once they identified his home, they drove him to an isolated “pondok/shed” and tied him up there and went into “breaking and entering” mode.

The remaining part of this ordeal comes from his brother, who was also at the party, who was in bed at home that fateful day.

They broke in and immediately established that any resistant will be trouble for the brother which they already had locked up in a shed somewhere. They also had “parangs/large knifes” and used this to ensure that everyone followed their plan. It was a miracle that the entire family escaped with only minor injuries but they lost 2 cars and anything of value in the house.

Now….why is crime getting to these levels in our own backyard????

1. The official police response: “Biasa/normal” occurrence!! Can you imagine????

2. The official police response: The police force is “demoralized” to do anything as the task of getting rid of criminals/gangsters in Klang was a mammoth one.

3. The gangsters are protected by corrupt politicians and a corrupt police force.

4. The corrupt judiciary or lets just say the ability to manipulate the judiciary to ensure these criminals/gangsters can get away from being prosecuted.

5 . The police force is NOT “demoralized” to conduct road block and speed traps at silly locations and for ridiculous reasons.

6. The police force is NOT “demoralized” to question bloggers for hours on end or to arrest them.

7. The media is terrified to report the truth as follows:
- Indian politician control the Indian gangsters/criminals.
- As long as the victims are also Indians, the police can’t be bothered.
- The Malaysian police force is corrupt at even the highest levels.


Where is all this heading????

Many of my buddies have left the country already. Why?

As they said, “It's better to be alive in some racist country rather than dead in this one!!!”

But like so many other TRUE DIE HARD MALAYSIANS, I am NOT gonna let the country I love go down like this.

We need to stand up and fight this!!