Singapura, Oh Singapura....

The date has finally arrived. After a few weeks of planning, we are finally going to board the midnight train to Georgia... oops, I mean Singapore. Passports for my hubby and daughter were done about 2 weeks ago (mine is still alive), train tickets and hotel booked last week. Now I need to go back from work to pack some clothes before we set off to the train station later tonight. My sons will be taken care of by their por por for the weekend at my house, which is good because por por can also help feed my dog and tortoise.

My colleague was surprised that I am going without my sons but I think I have no choice. To drag 3 kids along will be torture, to their mother :P. Anyways, the boys will have a week stay at their Grandma in my hometown which they are so looking forward to, so they kind of agreed to be left behind this time. I think moving forward, when we go travel, we will take the kids in turn. This will

I made some itinerary for our visit but I am not sure if it will be practical. Also I have to slot in some ladies' time with all my old friends who have settled in Singapore. So probably I should be less ambitious and just go with the flow. Anyways, Singapore isn't that far away, we could always come back another time if we want to go touring. This time is about my good friend's wedding and meeting all the ladies whom I might not have seen for many many years. Really looking forward to meet them and learn about their lives there.For the record, the last time I was in Singapore was for a week's training, I think 6 years ago.

We have also been thinking of how light to pack because, there will be some time we have to drag our luggage along because our train home departs late at night on Sunday. And we are thinking that maybe we can get new clothes from there as I heard the clothes are nice and cheap there. I am planning to shop a bit too, since things available may be unavailable here. I have done some pre-tour study of the MRT route, the interesting places and I think we will do fine.  So Singapore, ready or not, we are coming!

School's Out, My Headache Starts!

It's Friday again. This week I was extremely busy since my colleague went for training. Didn't have time at all to blog or Facebook! Luckily, I am able to take half a day off today to attend my sons' school academic prize giving ceremony. Pretty boring, the prize giving hasn't started. So many speeches and 'doas'. So I thought I could blog a bit on my iPhone.

I remembered when I was at school, there were Islamic elements creeping in to schools then when the numbers of non Muslim kids were more in the kebangsaan schools. I remembered feeling uncomfortable about it even though I was still young. Now it looks like this is even more so now with only like 10% non Muslim students in such schools. When I 1st send the boys here, I was quite shocked and doubted if I made the right choice for them. After awhile they seem to be getting on ok and have friends, I was a bit more relaxed. But I am not so sure if I will send my daughter to the same type of school although I dislike the chinese school way of teaching which puts too much pressure on young kids. We'll see, still have a few years to think about it.

I really think the education system needs to be reformed. I am a support 1 school type for all! All children should go to the same type of schools no matter what race and creed. This will truly sow the seeds of a real 1 Malaysia. But one of the changes that needs to be in place is to make schools secular, this will make non muslim parents more at ease to send their children to these schools. Any religious teachings or ceremonies should be extracurricular. Of course just as important, increase the quality of the education and the teachers. One day when the stupid politicians can stop setting policies for their political gains, we may have such a system. It is an chicken and egg issue, when we start having quality education, we may be producing smart politicians with conscience. We will have to live with this for quite a bit I suspect.

Anyway, today is also last day of school and I quite dread it because the kids will be bugging their grandma for full day every weekday instead of half day. And you can bet I will be getting calls from the boys in turn complaining about each other. And my girl, who without her brothers is an angel, will turn into crying and shouting monster! I got to get the boys to their BP grandparents for 2 weeks! At least I can have some peace and quiet time until school reopens next year.

BTW, I have also gotten the RM100 for each boy from the school, although I think it is a bloody stupid idea but what the heck, it's like a tax rebate!

Apart from this, I am getting my new 7 seater car tomorrow to replace my Matrix which had been a very good car except it has bad 2nd hand value. We will miss her but we have to get a bigger car for the growing family both in our sizes and in our numbers *wink wink*. More on this soon...

11.11.11: Beautiful Date

11.11.11. a beautiful date and many got married! The PM announced the day will go by without the Parliament being dissolved. Well, it was expected. Looking at how things are, BN is not ready to give back the mandate to the people yet. But it won't be that far off after all. In a few more months at most, early next year. With so many things not going well and Bersih & Co demanding electoral reform before the 13th Election, it would be unwise to call for election now. Although I am doubtful real reforms will take place but at least, there will be some cosmetic stuff to make the illusion of some sort of reforms. However, if the will of the people is strong enough, even though there could be some rigging and dirty tricks, I think and hope that it will still lead to change!

This week, a good friend of mine from primary school invited me to her wedding in Singapore. I did not hesitate to accept because it has been so long since I saw her and also all our other friends will be there too. So I am going to Singapore in 2 weeks! Lots of planning to do, buy tickets, book hotels, etc. Sincerely, I am so glad to hear she is getting married and told myself I won't miss her wedding. When I got married years ago, they all came down from Singapore and BP to attend my wedding too (in Kajang).

I am keeping it short for this entry, have many things to do. Have a nice weekend y'all.

GOD Loves All, including the Queer

I was thinking I should not talk about this because it is like an over-discussed issue. Plus, I honestly think it is not an important issue which the nation should be concerned about when they are many other more pressing problems that need our attention. This is definitely a ploy to distract citizens and meant to divide and confuse us.

But then again I can't help myself. I did some soul searching and researching and although this subject is still kind of taboo in this region, I wanted myself to have a clear stand on the matter. A stand that will satisfy both my religious view and compassion for fellow humans. It may not be agreeable to all but it is certainly put my mind at ease. So you may have guessed it, I am talking about the recent hot topic on Sexuality Malaysia. Apparently, it is an annual event that had been ongoing since 2008. So it's rather strange that now the issue suddenly becomes the talk of the town. But anyways, it is good that I take this opportunity to clear my own misgivings and confusion on the subject.

My experience with people who are openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) is very limited. My first real encounter was probably with a lesbian couple living in US. I got to know them through my friend and was their house guest for a few days while I was visiting US. One of them was a Singaporean Malay (i.e. Muslim) lady while the other was an American girl. They were both nice people and I didn't think much of them being any different at all. I am sure I had many other encounters with LGBTs but since they didn't openly declare that they are so, I probably do not know. But there is a point there, it makes no difference to me when I knew not and it would absolutely make no difference to me if I knew. I would have treated them as any regular friends. That's the kind of mindset I had, you could say I was quite liberal thinking.

As some of you may know, I converted to Catholicism some years back and I believe the decision I made to convert also dictates that I need to review my thinking and practice in many things. Including my view of LGBTs. Since the subject cropped up, I did some researching and I am very relieved with the Church's stand on the matter which I fully accept. This is found in CCC (CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH) 2357 to 2359 as below:

Chastity and homosexuality
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,¹⁴¹ tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."¹⁴² They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

So to summarise the essence of it, it means that although homosexual acts are wrong and as Christians, we cannot in any circumstance approve of any homosexual acts, homosexuals themselves must not be discriminated but must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. For Christians (probably Muslims as well) who find themselves to have homosexual tendencies, they are called to chastity. It is probably easier said than done and I cannot imagine what a LGBT person has to go through in his/her life. No one should have the right to judge any LGBT person and it is far from my thought to do any such thing, especially so when most do not share the same beliefs as mine. Any injustice against this minority group should be abhorred because GOD loves each and everyone of us (we are all sinners by the way), although many do not love HIM back.

Lastly, Malaysians should quit sabotaging these minority groups and move to more pressing issues. If you do not know yet, our education system sucks and corruption is making us bankrupt. How about we take those responsible to task?

Happenings around the World

I am looking around for topics to write in my blog this week. There aren't many things that caught my attention, except for the usual gutter politics of more lies involving innocent family members and the audit report that had some incredible findings of how the government wasted tax payers' money. But somehow, I am not in the mood to criticise all these as others have done lots of it already. So tired of all that, what can be said has already been said. For me, I am just waiting for the time to mark the big X on the ballot. I have made up my mind and no amount of smear tactics will change my mind.

Oh yes, the world is also shocked by several events, from the massive flood in Thailand (and neighbouring countries), to the quake in Turkey and the killing of Gaddafi in Libya. The Thailand flood has brought about many issues affecting Malaysia like the price hike of vegetables and production halt of some manufacturing companies due to lack of parts from Thailand. It is the worst flood in 50 years for Thailand and I hope it will not last much longer. The quake in Turkey see many hundreds dead and more still missing while the killing of the defeated Gaddafi was a sad sight to watch, no matter if he was a tyrant or not. It is sad that people have so much hatred in them to kill a defeated man instead of taking him into custody for trial. Now I heard of some conspiracy theory on the real reason why he was killed.

We will never know the real truth, just like the many other unfortunate things that have happened, in and out of the country.

For our Children

Education is basic human rights to me. Without education, there will be no improvement from generations to generations. Nations cannot be improved and mentality of the people will be stagnant. It is commendable that Malaysia has been giving compulsory free primary education for many decades.

However, the current education system that we have in this country is not in an encouraging state. Our government had changed policies so often that even the teachers are confused. We as parents are also worried. My eldest son learns Science and Maths in English but unfortunately, his brother, who is 1 year younger, is learning it in BM. If given a choice, I would rather the teaching and learning of Science and Maths in English continues. I have signed the petition online in favour of maintaining the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) in schools. For parents who feel the same way, do go sign the petition.

Make no mistake, I am not in any way disrespecting BM as the national language. BM, as I have said before, is a beautiful language that I am proud to be able to speak fluently in (not so much in writing due to lack of practice). But like it or not English in the language of businesses in Malaysia. We encourage foreign investors to come to our country, surely they would not be interested if the locals are not able to converse well in English. Unless you are not going to be an employee (and a good one at that), you cannot run away from good spoken and written English.

I recently conducted interviews for 3 positions and I was shocked that many of the candidates cannot even speak well in English. Most of them are from places other that Klang Valley. Even with a public college diploma, they struggle to speak a full sentence in English. It was painful to be in the interview panel, I wanted to ask them to speak in BM instead to make it less painful for the candidate and myself. But that of course that would not be acceptable to the rest of the panel. After all, we are in a British University! So needless to say those who were not proficient in English were eliminated. So tell me English is not important. There are a lot of argument in the internet of people opposing the wide use of English in local education citing Japan and Germany as examples. Unfortunately, we are far far  away in terms of development from any of those countries. It is to our own disadvantage (as a country) if we do not make English as important as BM.

For me, it is highly possible to master 2 or more languages for any average person. So make both English and BM equally important. A third language is also possible to master, e.g. mandarin or tamil. If we start the kids with these languages from young, they will be proficient in all of them.

For the record, I am also not supportive of the many different types of schools that we have, there should be only one type of school for all. And for goodness sake, increase the salaries of teachers and produce high quality teachers. Make it a profession of high esteem. We are placing the future of our children in them (of course parents also play important roles), so they should deserve nothing less! If I were to be a politician, I would make that something I will fight for.

We are really in need for strong and firm education policies which are developed by experts in this field and not politicians whose priorities are not in line with the people such as parents like me. I do hope we will get the correct country leaders who can see the problems we are having with the present education system which has been getting from bad to worse. Look at University Malaya, my alma mater, which standards have been spiraling down due to many reasons.

I hope things will change soon so that my kids will not need to suffer the bad quality of local education for the next 10 to 20 years to come.

Angry Who?

My eldest son has been asking me if his Angry Birds bed sheet is done yet. We went shopping some months ago and saw this Angry Birds motif cloth that both my son were excited about. I had to buy it! But after buying it, the cloth sat in the plastic bag near my sewing machine for months! I finally started work on it a few weeks ago but it is still WIP. This is the first time I try making fitted bed sheets, so made a few miscalculation and it was too loose. So now am trying to rework to make it fit better. So boys, be a little more patient, will get them sewn up soon, mummy promise!

Angry Birds, they are everywhere! On your phones, your iPad, on T-Shirts and bags. I can see them sold in supermarkets, pasar malam, pasar pagi, everywhere. The game is fun, I finished the free version ones but am too cheapskate to pay for upgrades, so I am done with Angry Birds games. But it will not be the same with other Angry Birds stuff like toys, puzzles, t-shirts, stationery, bed sheets etc. Some of them have already made their way into our home, ;). Not that I mind, they are pretty cute.

Apart from the bed sheets in progress, I still have plenty of cloths that I bought but never got around doing anything with them yet. Still pending some PJs and shorts for the boys and their dad. Even bought some pretty checked cloth that I planned to make into a pretty dress for my princess. But *sigh*, they are still packed away in a corner. When am I going to find the time (and the mood) for all that!

Oh, I think I totally forgot to mention about the Budget that our PM announced recently. How could I? Let me see, hmmmm, weeeeeeeeeell, errrrrrrrr..... There is nothing to talk about because none of the goodies are coming my way! Except maybe saving around RM30 for school fee per child, RM60 per year, big deal! Furthermore I do not see how the budget can help save our slowing economy or provide long term solutions to problems like inflation. Disappointing. Because of the impending election, there is a lot of handouts (but non for people like me) in this budget. But once the election is over, there will be GST and subsidy cuts! Oh well, spend and save wisely for rainy days.