At the moment
Mood: Wondering
What I had last: Ice Cream
Time: 22:57
Wishlist: Greenbacks, as Lex aptly put it. I'd sell friendships for a stack of it, yep.
This is really a continuation of my earlier blog. I forgot to put in a few things in college just now. For instance, I drove to college and gave my mom quite a few heart attacks. The close calls were a little too close, true. After class we headed to CIT and went into a small, classroom-sized lab. While I was blogging I noticed the tall, bespectacled guy next to me. I glanced once, twice, saw ICQ2Go on his monitor. And on my ICQ2Go on my monitor I noticed this senior from school choir online. I messaged, and promptly saw my ICQ message pop up in his (the guy next to me) screen. Hooboy. The conversation went like this:
Me: Hey. U in college?
Him: Yea. How you know?
Me: Cos I'm sitting next to you. Duh.
It is him. Auyong Chee Keong, long time no see, indeed! Last Thursday I sat next to Jacinth without noticing it for 30 minutes. CIT building is a good place, that one.
*Graphics ahead. Discretion needed. No responsibilities for nightmares*
It was raining really hard and my friend Stacy was hooked to Friendster so we headed to the main lab with more people and she downloaded Nick Berg's decapitation video. To be honest, I told myself I will never watch it since I'm a wuss when it comes to gory, but when she sms-ed me to go to her section I scooted over. The video was slow, she was using the headphone but I refused to put in on. Stacy told me it's a bunch of Arabic - God is great, etc. It was a frame-by-frame and suddenly Berg (decked in orange) was bent over, and then someone was holding his head and the frame ended with his head on a piece of cloth. It was blurred, the video, but enough for me to keep telling my friend she's a perv for wanting to watch the video one more time. The rain and dark skies and almost-empty college isn't very good touches to the sombre atmosphere. It wasn't the most sickening thing I ever watched but maybe it's because it wasn't clear. My mom was disturbed that I watched it, she told me to have respect for the dead. Whatever.
These days there seems to be 3 issues on the papers all the time:
1. Cruelty to human by human - maids, POWs, a spate of murder & rape.
2. Thunderstorms and massive jams.
3. STPM/matriculation students whose application's rejected.
I'm a little hoo-hah over issue 3. So 1774 STPM students accumulated CGPA of 4.0. This is an amazing feat. I don't even want to start imagining the blood, sweat and tears these 1774 students shed to score CGPA 4.0. Why do people question these poor students' integrity? No matter what sort of marking inflation went on behind the scenes, these students will not, cannot, never will be able to score perfect 4.0 without justifiable sheer hard work.
And why do people question these students in the first place? Because they make a big fuss and appeal and become angry that they did not get their major of choice? My mom was annoyingly smug when she said students only single-headedly go fo med or law, but I rebutted her, telling her 51% of these students toil through STPM because they want to achieve their dream in the first place. If they never intend to do med, they will not go through STPM. Personally, I did not. The torture scared me. My point is, why are people so cynical when 128 heartbroken youths are having their ideals shattered? And who the fuck is this Dr Abdul Latiff to comment on taking only students with 'real' interest in medicine? PEOPLE WILL NOT GO THROUGH STPM IF THEY ONLY HAVE HALF-BOILED DREAMS OF A MEDICAL PROFESSION, doctor. Fullstop.
Our government contradict itself all the time, no doubt.
1. A couple of years ago, they hasten the intakes of Form 6 to March/April for efficiency and it's not been pushed back to May because of NS.
2. They refuse entree to public universities for SPM graduates, insisting only those with STPM/Matriculation qualifications will be considered. But, hey, how many places do they allocate to these STPM graduates? a 5% addition from last year? How many is that? 10? 20? 779 places (only) for medicine? I understand government might lack resources, like teaching hospitals, lecturers, etc but you are the government! That is why we voted for you! That is why we put you there in the parliament! They bitch and bitch about the lack of doctors in govt hospitals, but what's the active action? Nothing! 3000 doctors needed since time immemorial, only 779 doctors will graduate in 5 years' hence.
3. Government set up more courses and universities for us, the good citizens of Malaysia, so that we (technically) have a fair chance at tertiary education, based on our ethnicity ratio. But even on public transports, we see many (many many) foreign students from Muslim countries studying in our public uni. Hello! Do you see something wrong here? While it's good to give international students from poorer country a shoot at uni-edu too, but with one allocation to them, one Malaysian miss out. I don't get it. Dear govt haven't solved our lack of places in local uni, but they are accepting international students?!
4. The subject of brain drain. Malaysians are a queer crowd. We're so proud to tell the world Rebecca Loos(e) was Malaysian-born. We don't miss a beat telling people Guy Sabastian was Malaysian-born, too. And we look the other way when they admit they don't remember much about the country they left years ago and whose citizenships belong to them no more. Oh and Anita Sarawak being a beloved 'Malaysian' diva hoobaloo. She's not even Malaysian, fer cryin' out loud! She's S'porean! We forgot our own stable of talents, gone wasted because they're denied their opportunities. Why blame students for wanting to get out (and never come back)? When opportunities beckon elsewhere, we go for it. This is reality. Singapore is smart. They took up so many Malaysians, there's a saying if all Malaysians in Singapore are recalled, Singapore's economy will fall. Jimmy Choo made it out there. Michelle Yeoh. Zang Toi. Economists, heart surgeons, engineers, lawyers...people whose intelligence Malaysian need to exploit to go further in the rat race for development. Why the hell are we so proud of their achievements? Apart from being born Malaysian, we gave them nothing else to go where they are today. They had to go overseas and they made it against all odds. Where in Malaysia can 3D animation majors and philosophy majors, among other majors can hawk their trade? Where? It's so frustrating.
These issues will see their death in a few weeks, only to resurface next year, every year. The battle never really begun, it won't stop. Please, the Higher Education Ministry of Malaysia, I plea, for the sake of my fellow students and their dreams, to put in some effort, to see that dreams can be achieved and there will be more places for students for their choices. It is only a win-win situation to the students, to the people of Malaysia and to our country. I still have faith. I think.
No offense intended with this blog entry. These are my humble opinions and mine alone.
Comments:
A visitor made this comment,
Just to clarify a few things. 1,774 top students were not from STPM. Only 542 or around there. That's why the whole hulabaloo. Many thinks it's not fair as the Matrics is a 1 year-programme with internal exams while STPM is acknowledged worldwide as one the hardest (third, if I'm not mistaken) in the world.
And yes, the grade inflation issue does matter. The increase in top scorers makes it harder to distinguish the creme of the crop for fields like medicine and law (and before this, for JPA applicants with SPM results).
But anyhow, I'll tell more on my own blog which I'll probably post tomorrow.
Jun Hoe
A visitor made this comment,
agree with you abt government and their blatant self-crediting attitude. they say it's fair in m'sia. well, it's simply not enough. somehow in a way i feel they are taking one step fwd then two steps back.
hippo
A visitor made this comment,
Yes! Finally, someone who says it like it is, and isn't taking the STPM. Most rants that I hear come from those frustrated post-STPM kids, while society in general seems pretty nonchalant about the whole brua-ha-ha. What, one mak cik even said, "tak dapat tak apa-lah! Masih boleh cari kerja, kan!" *Rolls eyes*
Now, I'm thinking : That 5As guy who couldn't get into medicine, what's he going to do? Bio-whazisname? I positively widened my eyes to the size of dining plates when I read that little snippet of news. 5As isn't enough? No wonder my friends're paying, like, $100,000(I forgot the currency) for a Pre-U course to study medicine in Ukraine. Initially, I thought, 'What a waste of good money!'. Now, my perspective's changed. It's more like, 'You go, girl!'. The Malaysian education system is illogical. And pernicious. Period. And you know what's rich? I'm taking Form 6. We work hard, play hard, make the grades, only to end up reading all about the disappointment of the likes of us. Gee, I can't wait to see what other crackpot is going to say "some students don't have 'real interest' just because they get straight As. Shouls be interesting. I'll be rolling, laughing till my sides split when the day comes. I mean, who is he to declare himself as the 'Discerner'? How would HE know who has the most interest??? The way the minds of these people work baffle and entertain me. Stupidity personified.
Hmm..I don't know where Rebecca Loos was born, but I think that Sarah Whazisname's birthplace is Malaysia.
calcifersgrl
A visitor made this comment,
I used to have a Maldivian roomate who had a few decapitation vids on his laptop... mostly from the al-qaeda people... its gruesome i tell you. Lucky u didn`t see the whole thing... or the video wasn`t complete? Becos a few of them will hold the victim`s hand and legs while the other person with a huge machete cuts off the victims head while he`s struggling.... it really gives you sleepness nights! I still can recall the victim screaming in pain as he`s mouth was gagged and head tearing off from one end... i mean the blurred type of scream... really horrifying!!! Ugh.
Andrew
A visitor made this comment,
My only complain is the gov allowing only the Malays to have quadruple marriages. This is so damn unfair to us!!
Plus the roads are too narrow and congested.
Us very careful, tolerant and gentle drivers are succumbed to the stupid roads. Hey, it's not my fault I rammed that Singaporean's ass man...or so to speak. Its the er-,er... the ROADS FAULT! The tar solids used to pave the roads are er-... not SOLID enough.
Oh don't let me go on about the breaks man. There wasnt enough hydraulic air pressure to stop the tyres in time. And where is all the hot air? In the parliment...
Oh the tyres were faulty too. The Gov didnt allocate enough workers to the rubber plantations to tap those rubber properly
Yeah. The Gov must set up more courses in public Unis like Rubber Tapping Technology, Bio-Car-Safety-cology watever etc...
Oh and they shall lessen the samans to RM3 instead of RM300. @#$%&!!!!!!
Delwyn
A visitor made this comment,
Wait! I am not done yet!! There's more they shall implement like
- Ban Singaporean drivers in JB!
- Impose heavy duties and taxes on the price of our seafood, "original" vcds,dvds,cds for those who live across the Causeway (terus get VD lar...). This will deter them from coming in and preventing me from banging their asses...
While I am at it...why not ;
- Build more cinemas
- Shorten the schooling hours
- Nicer looking uniforms for us 6 Formers
- 24 hour, cheaper al-fresco coffees
- to hell with the one pc one family scheme...
- Instead, one ps2 one son scheme
- Plus one car one STPM schooling son scheme
- and best of all, Polygamy marriages to all!
*ISA will be here shortly ...* I'll be hiding under a cave or fridge or car in the next couple of weeks...
Delwyn
A visitor made this comment,
del, shaddup.
u made me burst out laughing in a quiet college lab. shit. i look like the idiot you are.
heh.
py
A visitor made this comment,
And young girls from SMK Kepong shouldn't be allowed to drive much less own a Proton Wira
Delwyn
A visitor made this comment,
How can I forget!
- 24 hour RedBox. Plus free Men's Night every Friday!
Delwyn
A visitor made this comment,
It isn't as easy as "what is wrong with our government?" - things like pride, racism, discrimination and economics come into play in any multicultural society, even our seemingly peaceful Malaysia.
The brain drain doesn't occur just because of educational factor, but because if you look at the big picture, our talents and skills are better appreciated in another place. The labour market - skilled or unskilled - is paid better and comparitively to the standard of living in places like the US, Australia, Singapore...need I go on?
What irks me is not so much that these students didn't get a place - but why didn't they? Was it because the government fear an influx of non-Malay students who will eventually graduate and form the foundation of the new Malaysia economy or what?
As someone in the educational factor, the simple excuse of "we can't make anymore places" is bullshit. No university says that unless it's teacher/student ratio is stretched to out of proportion. It's gotta be more than just that. It always is with Malaysia and Malaysians.
Mabel.
A visitor made this comment,
Hiya, got your link from someone. :) Just like to say that that was a very passionate post there and er, Rebecca Loos was born and raised in Spain, sorry to disappoint you. :) It was Sarah Marbeck.
bex
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