Can you feel the Jazz

What does money mean to you?

2010-03-18T06:05:00.003+11:00

Money.

What a word. The mere mention of that word evokes all sorts of different emotions among us.

I believe the 2 most common emotions evoked are greed and fear. We all know most people will never stop wanting money.

Fear that comes with money, however, is a bane to our lives. Have you ever felt your heart sink whenever you started imagining a situation where you've lost all your money? Or have you been paralyzed into not taking action because of fear of losing money? Unfortunately a lot of us feel that we would die if we lost all our money.

Until we start realising that money is just a word, we will never be free from its bonds of fear. In fact, the whole concept of money itself comes from the idea of 'something valuable' that people can trade with. Back in the hunting and fruit-picking days, people bartered an animal for some fruit. Did the cavemen fear about not having an animal with them? Of course not, they just needed to go out to hunt for another one. It's not the money, or the animal that's valuable. It's the SKILL of being able to hunt the animal.

So what if we lose all our belongings? If you've been doing your part in being a life learner, then you're bound to have the skills to earn back the things you lost. Unless of course, you've just been living like a parasite, not wanting to learn or grow, depending just on handouts. Then you'd better be afraid. VERY afraid.

Shares.. to share or not to share?

2009-09-15T03:29:00.000+10:00

Shares has always been something 'evil' to me.

But now I'm getting more and more curious.

Lets start with question 1:

What are shares called SHARES? Are they meant for sharing?

Perhaps one day I'll figure it out.

I shall fly

2009-09-02T19:48:00.004+10:00

Fly?

Oh I just can't fly. I have no wings yet!

Oh I just can't fly. My wings are but so small!

Oh I just can't fly. My feathers are wet and sparce!

Oh I just can't fly....or can I? My wings have grown!

Oh I just might fly. But the sky is dark!

Oh I just might fly. But the wind is blowing!

Oh I just might fly. But the rain is pouring!

Oh what the heck. I was born for this.

I shall fly.

-------------------------------------------

This poem is written as a reminder to myself to never allow immediate obstacles to stop me from being who I am destined to be. Just had to pen this down, currently feeling quite dejected after having failed to advance to the next stage of my career. Yet again.

I shall fly.

I SHALL FLY.

Life Goes On...

2009-04-23T15:42:00.002+10:00

How odd. Time flies.

Have not been blogging for ages now, I wonder when blogging started taking a back seat in my life. Well, up til now I still haven't sorted out my priorities yet.

Work is starting to define who I am. Starting to hate that.

Gotta start blogging again.

From Mum, with love.

2008-10-28T18:03:00.003+11:00

I know, I haven't been blogging for AGES....but I cannot help but want to put this article written by my mum to me for my 25th birthday present. Reading through it really reminded me how much a mum's love for a child is really worth: priceless.

Remembering you on your 25th Birthday
Before my memory lapses as age advances, I think I better pen down all that I could remember of you so that you could relate them to your juniors, if there be any in future.

You cried the loudest of all the babies in the ward, thus were accorded ' the crying champion' by Dr Chew in the KL Chinese Maternity Hospital 25 years ago. Your cry continued after birth for it was around this time that your dad sank into the lowest ebb in his career and dark clouds shrouded the family and laughter had become a scarcity for some time.

For this reason, dad always has a soft spot for you in his heart. You did not get to play as many toys as your elder brother did. Even when situations and circumstances had changed for the better in the ensuing years, dad's guilty feeling towards you changed not.

You could win your dad's heart easily with your thoughtful acts and words. Once, your dad wanted to pay you for voluntarily washing his car but you told him matter-of-factly that it's unnecessary as 'what dad has also eventually will become mine."

Towards your siblings,though you were rather hard on your younger brother, there's this bond between you and 'koko'. that no one could sever. You would wait for him to come back from his primary school and open an umbrella to welcome him home.

Whatever koko did, you wanted to imitate even his Chinese caligraphy style. Wherever koko went, you wanted to follow. This sometimes got on koko's nerves and he would complain to me and asked you to go away.

Once Aunty Choo deliberately whispered into your ears 'a secret' but all she said were only these words, "Don't tell koko." When koko pestered you to tell him the 'secret' and you willingly , faithfully related the same words to him but this would only provoke koko to anger which your tender mind could not comprehend, "I am loyal to koko. I leaked out the 'secret' to him and why was he still unhappy with me?"

When koko held your little hands and walked across the zebra crossing to Como pre-school in Perth, I was watching closely from the balcony with baby Francis. Sometimes, during recess, I would go over to see how you had been doing. Many times, I saw you sitting alone in the school yard, peeking over the fence, trying to catch glimpses of koko who was playing with
his classmates.

Even when we moved to Gosnells later and enrolled you and koko in the Seaforth Primary School, koko was much agitated because you refused to play with your classmates and insisted
on trailing koko everywhere he went in the school. Once, koko's classmae, Marcus, invited koko to his birthday party in Como, I had to ask Marcus' parents for permission to allow you to tag along lest you felt hurt. It was only after a few months in the school that you were able to acclimatise and make your own circle of friends.

Remember that fierce piano teacher in Victory Park? She told me you were the first boy who was brave enough to play duet with her in front of all her students. You were eight then, yet you could display such accuracy in your note reading, scales and courage to play in public, what more, together with the fastidious teacher!

You were traumatized on our return to Malaysia. You refused to follow your dad to school as the Malay teacher spoke a different langauge. Your limited knowledge of written Mandarin also posed a set back. The encouragement of your Chen Moh Primary School classmates helped a great deal in your settling down in your new school. Though you encountered hiccups in your initial examinations, you managed to excel towards the end of your first year there. It was amazing how you scored 100 marks in your first Chinese Maths paper by applying what dad taught you: memorizing these words that meant 'minus' and 'plus' despite your failure in reading the questions.

There were moments in your younger days too that were worth laughing over like in an occasion when all the cousins came and you played 'hide & seek' with them, I took the trouble to lift you up and hide you in a big toy box under the staircase but you revealed your hiding place by pulling the string of a musical toy you found in the box.

On the way to your art class one day, the car driver in front of
ours was taking his time to manoeuvre his vehicle amidst the traffic that you sighed in Mandarin 'man tun tun' and wished that you could reach the art class earlier.

Then also was this joke during our tour to the Madam Tussaud Museum in Britain: while waiting outside, your eyes
were looking eagerly in every direction, looking for a lady wielding two swords who, of course, would never appear.

In your Upper Primary years, you incurred my wrath once when your friend's mother rang me up and asked me what I should do about your losing her son's new watch. I was in shock and fury as I wasn't aware of you borrowing your friend's expensive watch and losing it in the swimming pool. You didn't tell me anything, probably you were trying to save your pocket money to repay him before news got to my ears. My rage took over me and I pelted your calves with your school belt so hard that you wrote in your school diary that you learnt a lesson that day that you would never want to be vain and
covet people's luxury items again.

You were so enthusiastic about playing violin that you didn't mind practising it in the Millenium Park alone, braving the stares of all the passers-by. Though we do not have opportunities to hear your pieces anymore now that you are away, it's comforting to know that the passion to play music still lingers in you.

These are just some snippets of my memory of you in your growing years. They might not be the best gift and are not in proper chronological order. I may not be a perfect mother, am just a plain, ordinary mother, so plain and ordinary too is my gift to you.

Blessed birthday, son.

Help Malaysia!

2008-08-06T00:06:00.003+10:00

My heart is with Malaysia wherever I may be. Malaysia is in distress, politicians are bringing it into ruins. If you have been following the latest Malaysian news on the blogosphere, you will agree with me.

And so despite my long absence from this blog, I am making the effort to join forces with other suffering Malaysians in crying out for help. I will be raising the Malaysian flag upside down as a symbol of distress. Please I beg you fellow Malaysians, take 5 minutes to have the upside down Malaysian flag displayed in your blog too.

Hopefully this will catch international media and put our current politicians to shame. Its about time Malaysian politics gets a thorough cleansing. Out with the corrupt, bring in transparency!

Please visit this blog for more details about this online movement.

Use-by-date

2008-05-02T19:11:00.002+10:00

We often see scenes in movies where in the business world people are attracted to icons only as long as the icon stays as an icon. As soon as he stops being an icon, he is what people call past his 'use-by-date', neglected and forgotten.

I suppose that's why people always caution me that the business world is evil, full of shallow people, and that it is hard to have real friends in business.

I know some people out there already think I am past my use-by-date. Hardly so. I am only past my use-by-date when I have shown the whole world that I am capable of building myself an empire. I do not do it because I want recognition, or fame. I do it because I know I can, whether or not I am respected is the least of my concerns. And when I build my empire, I will ensure that EVERYONE in my empire remains respected, even if they are deemed to be past their use-by-date.

Watch out!

=).

Alignment

2008-04-20T23:40:00.003+10:00

Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a situation where whatever decision you made would be a wrong decision?

The concept of alignment is very often unappreciated in our daily lives. We go about on our daily routines, and allowing the people around us and the society to dictate our lives, and slowly, because there are so many forces pushing and pulling us in so many directions, we lose alignment of our spirit, soul and body. This is when we feel like we're 'stuck' or 'trapped' in our circumstances and situations, unable to get out. Truth is, we're not really 'stuck', we've just lost alignment, and the solution for getting ourselves 'unstuck' again is just to re-align ourselves.

So how do we re-align ourselves? Re-alignment really should be an ongoing process. To re-align ourselves, we need to constantly evaluate who we are, what values we hold on to, and whator who are the most important things in our lives. We rank these things according to their importance to us, and then adjust our lives so we divide time according to the order of importance. That usually means making changes in our lives, cutting some activities out from our lives altogether, adding new ones; breaking off friendships, making new ones; etc etc. Remember, the trick is to re-evaluate our values AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE, because we're living things, we are not constant, we are always undergoing change, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.

Have you already embarked on the journey of re-alignment?

Disappointment

2008-04-16T00:14:00.004+10:00

We often are disappointed at the people we truly care about. It seems the more we care about someone, the easier it is to be disappointed by them. And the bigger the disappointment.

My explanation for this is that the more we care about someone, the higher our expectations of them. And disappointment happens because the reality does not meet our expectations.

Many times we don't really need to experience disappointment. All we really need to do is learn how to lower our expectations for the ones we love. There is a popular phrase that goes "If you love someone you let them go free, if it's meant to be they will come back to you". A little rephrasing by me, and now it goes "If you love someone you lower your expectations for them, and if it's meant to be they will surpass your expectations". I mean, really, if we love someone, then all we want is for them to be happy. How can they be happy if we show our disappointment to them just because they don't meet our expectations? I find that when I lower my expecations towards others, I am more likely to be pleasantly surprised when they surpass my expectations. More things to be happy about! =).

So just remember. If we can't change the people we love, we change ourselves. That is one secret to happiness.

The brave and the cowardly

2008-04-12T01:10:00.003+10:00

Who are the brave and who are the cowardly in relationships?

Sometimes it is the cowardly who tend to pretend to be brave, and the brave who are misunderstood as being cowardly.

How often have we been guilty of not wanting to take the first step in resolving an argument in a relationship? We often rationalize and justify our behaviour by saying things like:

"It's his/her fault. Why should I take the first step? If I take the first step, it will seem it is always my fault, and then he/she will always keep taking advantage of me. I have to be brave and stand firm on my ground, I'll wait for him/her to apologize first. If he/she doesn't apologize first, then he/she probably isn't worth my time. I need to protect myself."

Are they really being brave? I personally think that these are the cowardly.

The brave are the ones that are not afraid to look stupid by taking the first step to apologize, regardless of whether they think they have done any wrong or not. The brave are the ones that are not afraid to bare their soul and expose themselves to the other half, to allow their hearts to be at the mercy of the other half, for good or for bad. They are brave because they are willing to risk their heart being trampled on by making themselves vulnerable, because they know that by being vulnerable they also allow the other half to shower them with more love and tenderness. They are not afraid to be hurt, because they know they can always pick themselves up again.

The cowardly are those that are so afraid of letting their heart get hurt, they unconsciously build a huge impenetrable wall around their heart. A wall so thick and impenetrable, that although they manage to keep people from hurting their hearts, they also hide the bright glow of their hearts from the view of others. They are forever hiding behind that wall, afraid to open their hearts to anyone, and they will ultimately end up being lonely, and deserted. And cowards will remain just that. Cowards.

Remember to ask yourself about the brave and the cowardly the next time you run into an argument with someone you love dearly.

Are you brave, or are you cowardly?

Balance point

2008-04-08T13:54:00.002+10:00

Life is so often akin to walking on a tightrope. The key to survival is finding the balance point.

I can't remember where I read this statement before, but it has stuck with me ever since.

"In life, you are either in balance, or out of balance, there is no in between"

And I couldn't agree more.

When we are in balance, everything goes smoothly. We sit on a bicycle, and when we are in balance all we feel is the breeze gently massaging our ears as we ride effortlessly down a road. All is happy, all is well. Things just fall into place like fitting jigsaw pieces. Perfect.

Once we get out of balance, everything turns into havoc. Suddenly the breeze feels like a typhoon about to send you crashing straight into a tree. People who remain strong and calm manage to make those oh-so-subtle adjustments to bring themselves back to balance, and all becomes well again. But those, oh those who overcompensate, or those who fail to make any adjustments at all, they slip and fall from the tightrope, and are sent crashing. And while most people tend to slowly, if not surely, regain enough courage to walk down the tightrope again, some fallen ones call it quits, and never give life a second chance.

Are you in balance, or are you not? Have you found your balance point?

Babypower

2008-04-05T12:42:00.003+11:00

It's amazing what babies can do.

Well, at least what they can do to me.

Recently I have been feeling frustrated at myself for not living up to my own high standards in all areas of my life. It would have been easier for me to blame others for who I am and where I am now, but clearly there is nowhere I can point my finger towards and say 'It's all your fault!'. And trust me when even you are frustrated at yourself, there is not a lot that can cheer you up.

Then comes a spur of the moment decision to surf youtube for baby videos.

There are so many awesome baby videos out there!!! =) While most funny adult videos actually require the adults to be doing something funny to make me laugh, the babies in the video didn't even have to do a thing. Within 2 minutes I was full of joy, just seeing their cute little faces!

Made me wonder why I got frustrated with myself in the first place. As long as I think like a baby, I can be just who I am, and will still be loved!

GoGo Babypower!

Passion

2008-04-02T18:06:00.003+11:00

Are you passionate enough?

We often indulge in hobbies because we enjoy the sense of achievement and satisfaction these hobbies bring us. We play computer games, we go clubbing, we play sports, we go shopping, etc etc, and we proudly tell others: "Oh I spend a lot fo time on my hobbies because i'm passionate about my hobbies".

But when asked why don't they make their hobby into their career, most people will shrug and say: "You don't need to earn money doing the things you love, because you love it so much you won't mind doing it for free..."

I say:

If we're not serious enough about the things we love to make a living out of them, then we're probably not passionate enough about them.

Think about it. Tiger Woods. One mention of that name, and you will know he is passionate about golf. Muhammad Ali. Boxing. Bill Gates. Computers. Donald Trump. Real estate. Warren Buffet. Shares.

Only amateurs indulge in hobbies. They only play for fun. And quite obviously, they are NOT passionate enough about it. Professionals play for keeps, and I dare anyone to question professional's passion towards the things they do for a living. Professionals would also do the things they love for free, but then if they had to spend lots of time doing things they weren't passionate about just to make money to survive, how much time would they actually have to indulge in the things they love doing?

I've already decided that I will be taking the things I'm passionate about and make them into my sources of income. At the moment, they are: Kids, Music, Sport, Art. And I have every intention of building businesses related to these passions of mine.

Already I can read a lot of your thoughts. While you may think i'm too naive and have not gone through the hard knocks of life to know how hard it is to acheive the things I want to achieve, I believe that when someone is passionate enough, it doesn't matter how many hard knocks it takes, one will succeed eventually.

Are you passionate enough?

Regrets

2008-03-26T03:15:00.004+11:00

I have been reading Richard Branson's autobiography named 'Losing my Virginity'. For those who don't know who Richard Branson is, he's the founder of the Virgin brand. I'm only 1/10 into the book, but already i'm hooked. His life story is so interesting! Always full of adventure, full of challenges, and he is constantly living life to the fullest, and never allows fear to cripple him! Amazing!

I think I am inspired. My life thus far has hardly lived up to its expectations. I used to think that I have lived life to the fullest, striving to be the best I can be in all areas of my life, be it studies, relationship, health, work, social, sports, music, art etc etc....but it seems I haven't been trying hard enough.

That's it, my life resolution is to always push my limits and confront my fears.

New motto for DrJazzi: NO REGRETS!

Being one and only

2008-03-23T20:49:00.002+11:00

Sometimes it's hard being unique. The society just doesn't allow breathing space for such people. It cries out of 'conform, or risk being snuffed out'.

I hate being suffocated.

Guess I'll just have to learn to breathe without air.

Bring it on.

Meaningless conversations

2008-03-22T08:57:00.002+11:00

Have you ever felt that you were engaged in a meaningless conversation?

I have been feeling a lot of that recently. Perhaps it is because I have changed. And sometimes I wonder whether I have changed for the better or worse.

Nowadays I find a lot of conversations meaningless because they tend to focus too much on too little a detail. I find it particularly frustrating especially when people in the conversations are so focused on proving their point that they don't even bother to really sit back and take a little time to digest what the other party is trying to say before conjuring up a response. I mean, what are conversations really all about? Shouldn't it be about meaningful interaction between people? If we are so focused on making our voice heard, is that really meaningful interaction?

I wonder.

Give it a try. During a conversation, before your tongue starts going on like a runaway train, pause, take a deep breath, and ask yourself what you are really trying to achieve by saying the things you are about to say. Also ask yourself whether you have really understood what the other party was trying to convey to you.

It works wonders when you give it a try. Brings out a whole new meaning to conversations.

First Do No Harm

2008-03-20T22:53:00.003+11:00

Medicine is getting more and more out of touch with the real society. In my night shifts in Boxhill Hospital, I have witnessed many decisions being made without first considering the most basic rule of medicine: FIRST DO NO HARM.

Old patients are the ones who suffer the most, they are often very misunderstood, and treated all alike: If a patient looks confused, sounds a bit confused, then just give him/her some anti-psychotic medication, or a anti-anxiety medication. If that doesn't work and patient becomes aggressive, just restrain him/her to bed.

I find this practise very disturbing. There are always good justifications for their actions. "The patient refuses to cooperate", "The patient is disturbing all the other patients", "The patient is at risk of absconding", "I have too many patients to look after, I can't be spending 30-60 minutes just trying to calm him down". The list goes on.

I absolutely refuse to conform to these practices unless it is the last resort. Many a times I have managed to calm these patients down just by listening to them, acknowledging their pain and suffering and loneliness, and then negotiating a win-win deal with them.

Maybe it's my turn to start a trend. A retro trend in fact, one that reminds every health worker to FIRST DO NO HARM.

Wish me luck.

Macro vs Micro

2008-03-17T17:37:00.003+11:00

A friend named Yi Qiu sent me a long message on Facebook, she painstakingly explained the whole process of macrocosmic vs microcosmic attitudes to life. Summarising these 2 concepts would be an analogy like this:

Are you the ant, or King Kong? Are you one that works better with the little details, or one that sees the big picture?

I believe macro vs microcosmic attitudes are two extremes of a continuum, most of us are a complex mixture of both attitudes. Some just have a tendency to sway heavily in favour of either side.

I believe I certainly am more of a macrocosmic person. Often I find myself taking a step back from everything, and think about the bigger picture. Oddly, seeing the macrocosmic picture helps me align the microcosmic part of things. For example, by pausing and thinking what I want to achieve in my future (the bigger picture), I am able to work out the things I need to do on a daily/weekly basis in order to help me get to where I want to be.

Having said that, I truly respect the people who are microcosmically oriented. These are like the lubricant that keeps engines going. In *my work setting, nurses are great microcosmic people. They are able to pay attention to all the details, and iron out all the mistakes I make unintentionally. Not to mention the TLC (tender loving care) they are able to provide patients. I've made an effort to learn from them, like giving that much needed smile and love to patients who have been suffering in hospital, offering a reassuring squeeze to the palms of these patients.

That I believe keeps me in balance, so I do not forget to keep in touch with the little things that matter.

So have you worked out whether you are more macrocosmic or microcosmically oriented yet?

Leadership

2008-03-14T18:55:00.002+11:00

Some people are born leaders; others are made.

I've never thought of myself as anything less than a leader. In everything I did, I would always strive for the best, because only the best deserves to be the leader. After all, that's why they LEAD in the things they do right?

I could not be so wrong.

Leadership has taken on a new meaning to me. Sometimes leadership is not about the 'no-one-can-do-it-better-than-me' attitude, it's not about having to show everyone the best way to do things.

Leadership is about bringing out the best in people, bringing out the leader from within them. It's about being able to know who's the best person suited for the task, and letting him run the show. It's about standing behind the scenes, allowing those you lead to shine in your place.

Most importantly, leadership is about following. Following what your heart tells you is best for the people you lead.

Who am I

2008-03-08T01:20:00.002+11:00

Dear Dr. Jason Goh of the future,

Have you manged to figure out who you truly are yet? Because at the moment I am really struggling to find peace with who I truly am. It seems I am divided into pieces; not really able to figure out who I am and what I really stand for. I vaguely know what I want in life, that is to live a life pleasing to God, and to benefit as many people as possible in the process, and I have already made up my mind to create the Maternal and Child Health Service in Malaysia, but...is that it? Is that all there is within me? Am I limited to just helping the kids of Malaysia? What about the people who are waiting for me to inspire them to go on and do greater things? The people who are asking for a leader to show them how it's done? Have you, dear future me, figured out the way to do it yet? How many people have you inspired so far? How many lives have you touched?

Please reply me ASAP, I look forward to your reply.

Cheers,

Dr. Jason Goh of the present.

Self-reflection

2007-09-05T02:20:00.000+10:00

A lot has happened to me over the last 4 months. It's been quite a journey really.

Probably a bit of time for self-reflection.

Am I stronger?
YES

Am I more confident?
YES

Am I more generous?
YES

Am I a better leader?
YES

Am I better at time management?
YES

Am I more humble?
NO.

Damn. I wish I had a constant reminder in my head that gives me a big knock on my head whenever my head starts blowing up like a balloon. God I pray please give me humility, so that I can acknowledge that whatever I have, whatever success I achieve is because of your generosity.

Thank you God.

The Journey

2007-08-19T13:35:00.000+10:00

We always tell ourselves to strive towards being successful, and say 'one day I will be successful'. But how many of us actually know what SUCCESS means?

To me, SUCCESS is not so much an end destination. We do not arrive at a place called SUCCESS.

It is a JOURNEY. We decide if we are successful or not, we decide whether we're on a success journey, or a journey of failure.

So the next time we think of our current life journey, think of the journey as being a successful one, and we will see the massive change in our outlook of life! =).

The Price to Pay

2007-08-13T14:04:00.000+10:00

In life, there is always a price to pay.

The price may be BIG.
The price may be small.

The price may be looooooooooong.
The price may be short.

The price may be forever.
The price may be temporary.

The price may be money.
The price may be time.
The price may be freedom.
The price may be love.
The price may be family.
The price may be friends.

The price may be LIFE.

What is the price you are paying?

Gratitude

2007-08-05T12:50:00.000+10:00

How often do we get so caught up by life that we forget to stop and thank God for the things that we have, and the things we have accomplished?

I have just started a gratitude journal, where I write down a whole page of things I'm grateful to God for, and, believe it or not, it works wonders! It completely transforms my frame of mind, and I no longer dwell on unfortunate events of happenings, and instead I focus on all the good things that have happened in my life...In fact, the gratitude journal writing activity works best when I've had a crap day, I can feel the change in my mood even as I write those grateful sentences down! =)

Have you started writing your gratitude journal yet? =)

Cheers.

When everything doesn't go your way...

2007-07-18T23:21:00.000+10:00

What should we do when everything doesn't go our way...?

Perhaps we should build a coccoon around ourselves and remind ourselves that these adverse circumstances will one day turn us into butterflies with wings that make us fly so high....with wings so beautiful that they make people sigh....with colours so bright that it's shine one can't deny.

Nat is free =)

2007-07-18T01:24:00.000+10:00

Thank goodness, Nat is finally set free....

Stay strong bro, Malaysia needs more strong young men.

FREE NAT NOW!!!

2007-07-14T19:22:00.001+10:00

I realize I do not have a strong reader base, prolly due to the fact that I do not blog often enough, nor do i blog about interesting stuff.

But, for the sake of our country Malaysia, please join me in spreading this news.

My cyber friend, Nathaniel Tan, who blogs at jelas.info, is a 26 yr old Harvard Graduate who is a strong advocate for a better change in Malaysia. He was detained by Malaysian police without reason. It's quite scary knowing that someone I actually exchanged emails and messages with is being used as a pawn in the government's mission to instill fear into all malaysians. The fear of wanting a better change.

So please, pass the message around to as many of your friends as you can, and let our current government (including our stupid police) know that they cannot stop our growing dissent towards them.

For more information, please read some of these links:

Lim Kit Siang's blog on Nat

Jeff Ooi's blog on Nat

Malaysiakini's report on Nat's arrest. Sorry don't have the link here.

Bad news travels faster than good news

2007-07-14T18:25:00.000+10:00

It's amazing how bad news always seems to spread like cancer, while good news tends to remain unnoticed. So, in order for a good news to spread, it must first become bad news, and then it travels.

Which explains why news that we commonly hear is often distorted.

Do you understand?

Are you discerning enough to know the good from the bad?

(sigh I am referring to friends who always assume what they hear to be true, especially bad news)

2007-07-10T03:41:00.000+10:00

To be a great leader, one must first learn to be a great follower.

I am learning, I am learning.

Listen first, then talk

2007-06-22T03:26:00.000+10:00

How many of us actually realize the importance of listening?

How many ears do we have?

How many mouths do we have?

I believe that God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...we should really listen more than we talk. And when we talk, it should be a result of our listening, cos only that way can we sincerely help others.

Are you listening? =)

Busy-ness = business?

2007-06-07T14:57:00.000+10:00

Minding my own busy-ness....

Minding my own business....

Hm...hang on that didn't feel right.

Is that how the word 'business' came about? Does one always have to be busy when one is doing business?

Interesting random thought...

Anyway I've been busy lately...with all sorts of stuff...hence my lack of posts...but i think i'll be more free by mid -July ...

Don't miss me too much! =P

Have we forgotten about the trivial things of life?

2007-05-29T23:05:00.000+10:00

Thanks Kevin for recommending and lending me this fantabulous book to read. Eternally grateful!

Have you read the book called ' The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery? If you haven't, I say, you definitely MUST read it.

Too many of us have forgotten how to stop and enjoy the little things of life. Perhaps reading this book will help you remember! =)

For now let me enjoy my little cup of tea....

When is parenting good parenting?

2007-05-28T20:09:00.000+10:00

Here's a question:

If you are a parent, and your son/daughter comes up to you and tells you that he/she REALLY REALLY wants to run a business, and asks you to loan him/her a few thousand dollars as start up capital, would you give it to him?

What if you felt that the business was doomed to fail, because you felt you knew better?

---------------------------

Tell me what you think.

---------------------------

I personally feel that i would definitely support my son/daughter, despite how badly i felt he/she would fail. Especially if he/she wanted it very very much. What better opportunity to let our son/daughter learn about life than when he/she wants to take on life him/herself!

Now if i were the son/daughter, and my parents said NO to me, I'd start wondering if they really had me as a son because they wanted to impose their will, their regrets in life on me rather than let me live my own life....

---------------------------

Rejection is not for the weak

2007-05-20T00:13:00.000+10:00

First of all, sorry about the last post. I actually wrote stuff in that post, but somehow it didn't get published along with the title. The title actually means what it says, i was out in the 'bush', or in other words, in rural Victoria...u know, places where u actually smell pig shit aroma as you walk out of your room...gotta love the bush.

Anyway, lately i've been facing a lot of rejection. It's really building up my character. But slowly and surely, I'm beginning to accept the fact that rejection is part and parcel of growing up and becoming mature. In fact the most successful people are moulded out by adverse circumstances and situations where they constantly face rejection.

Even the president of united states gets rejected by 49% of americans...but ultimately it's the 51% that counts right? :D

Rejection is not for the weak, and DrJazzi is certainly NOT going to be weak.

DrJazzi in the Bush

2007-05-15T08:43:00.000+10:00

Dare to dream

2007-05-10T02:24:00.000+10:00

Do you dare to dream?

I am so amazed how many of us were brought up thinking of how we can only walk one path.

So much so that when the other path appears right before your eyes, you dismiss it, and think of it as an illusion, or a trap, or a gateway to doom.

Do dreams come true? Maybe, maybe not.

But the question is:

Do you dare to dream?

Personal Growth

2007-05-08T01:05:00.000+10:00

In 2 nights, I have already achieved personal growth at a level that I could only dream of in the past.

Perhaps it's about knowing the right people. I'd like to think it this way, successful people are the 3% minority, and have a small voice, but once you tap into their voice, the opportunities for personal growth are endless.

Hope tomorrow will be another good day! =).

Thanks SangYee for somehow persuading me to attend the talk on Sunday.

Irony

2007-05-07T10:47:00.000+10:00

How ironic is it, that many of us malaysians (I won't bother saying the race, because I believe there should be only one term that emcompasses all races in Malaysia: Malaysian) are given the leftovers of the NEP (please do take time to read) food on the Malaysian dining table, and rejected as unwanted guests to the dining table, but when these malaysians survive through the odds to become famous and well known, the masters of the dining table come back to them with heaps of love and adulation, and claim them as their own.

If only to bask in the glory achieved by these malaysians.

And how ironic is it, that after many of us malaysians have been eating scraps of leftovers for our whole lives, finally find a better dinner host that offers us better food and shelter, should we malaysians still pledge allegience to our former, cruel, fascist hosts.

And allow them to rob even part of the glory we achieve for ourselves despite the adversity.

I couldn't help but think of these ironies when I read an article on TheStar which portrays a malaysian female, who studied is National University of Singapore and then Columbia University (note: NOT a malaysian university, for obvious reasons known to malaysians), who ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize (click to find out what the famous Pulitzer prize is about)

Read all about Fong Foong Mei and her achievement here.

Balance

2007-05-06T05:58:00.000+10:00

I think a lot of life is about balance.

Right now there are thoughts on balance overcrowding my little brain.

HOW. DO. I. BALANCE.

between:

1. Wanting to be rich, and being generous

2. Helping others, and helping myself

3. Work, and play

4. Enjoying life, and discipline

5. Being kind, and not being trampled over

6. Being assertive, and not scaring people away,

I think my scales are a bit screwed up at the moment. Time to find the right weights to keep myself.

In.

Balance.

Going to a place of death

2007-05-03T15:37:00.000+10:00

I have been going to a placed called Caritas Christi Hospice Centre this past week, a place of palliative care where people who are diagnosed as 'dying' are transferred to, so that their dying needs are met, and that they die in comfort and dignity.

Sometimes it is quite a sad sight. I see patients in the beds, most of which are either very frail, or comatose. I see the look of death on their faces, the pale face, soulless stare, drowsy eyes (a lot of which is probably due to the amount of Morphine given to reduce their pain/suffering) etc.

Sometimes it is quite a heart-warming sight. There is a creative arts room in this hospice, where patients and their family members can express themselves. Patients that are well enough are regularly encouraged to draw their own 'circle-of-life'. I saw 1 of these pictures when we were given a tutorial on pastoral care. This picture was drawn by a guy who spent 25 out of his 42 years in jail. His circle of life had 4 quadrants. The top left quadrant had butterflies, probably signifying his readiness to transition from life here to the next (caterpillar morphs into a butterfly, butterflies have always been symbols of death n afterlife); the top right quadrant had his trademark bird, which was interpreted as his want of freedom; the bottom left quadrant had his handprint, which was interpreted as 'talk-to-the-hand', perhaps he wanted to convey how he was always misunderstood for his actions, and felt that people did not understand him; and the bottom right quadrant was a dolphin, wasn't very sure what it signified, but perhaps it also meant freedom, or maybe it meant that like dolphins he could communicate telepathically?

There were also other heart-warming activities. Patients and their families could purchase little plates, and make their fingreprint-butterflies, which meant using fingerprints to form the shape of butterflies. In fact, there was even a fingerprint butterfly wall in this hospice.

Memorials are held at every one year anniversary, where families and friends of deceased people at Caritas Christi Hospice Centre are invited to attend memorial services, in honour of their loved ones. The lady from pastoral care explained that it was sort of a closure for many staff members of CC as well, because most of the time by the time a patient died here, staff members would have formed a close bond with their patient.

For some people, Caritas Christi is a place where everybody drives past praying/wishing they NEVER have to end up there. For others, admission into CC spells doomsday. Yet I believe, and judging from most of the response of the in-patients and family members and friends of the dying, one could not die a more dignified death. A painless, calm death, where the dying have had a chance to express their dying selves to the full, where family members and friends have ample opportunity to be given counselling and support throughout the dying process and even after the death of their loved one.

Rest in peace, dear dying ones.

Pill-popping old people

2007-05-01T19:58:00.000+10:00

Did you know, that the average number of pills taken by Australian elderly people (elderly being above 80) is 10 pills?!

TEN bloody pills!

Imagine being old, and forgetting half the things you do that day, and having to sort out which pill to take when, and what these pills are for....

Part of the problem is, us damn doctors are too lazy to try to figure out which pills they don't really need, especially the ones they have been taking since they were 30.

You could almost hear doctors say: "Ah what harm can it do if they continue to take it, they have been on it for Nx1000 years what, what for I take them off now. Besides, I earn more if they take more pills..."

Man, if I had my way, I would force all doctors to take all 10 of those pills for 2 years, and see how they feel about it. Not just the having-to-remember-what-pill-to-take-and-when part, but also the omg-these-pills-are-making-me-nuts part.

Or maybe I should get all doctors to take salt+pepper+vinegar+ginger+garlic+onion+bitterguord+oystersauce+chilli+tomato+roticanaikuah+tomyum+egg+yongtaufoo. Maybe top it off with some rojak. That's probably how old people feel when they take all those pills. making-me-nuts.

Anyway, on a seperate note, please do take care of your health. You may be invincible now, but next thing you know, you may be asking me the same question:

"Doc, I can't remember whether it was the blue pill i was supposed to take, or the pink one?"

The Art of Shoe Shining

2007-04-30T17:48:00.000+10:00

I am in the process of writing sponsorship offer letters to financial companies on behalf of the Austin Health 2007 Graduation Dinner Commitee, in the hope that these financial companies will sponsor us good money so that we can afford a luxurious yet subsidized graduation dinner for our bunch of graduating medical students at the end of this year.

And I am struggling.

I have never been a shoe polisher!!

Man, I feel like I want to puke having to do this. Lavishing praise and adornment to companies which I have absolutely no clue about. Words like 'well-established', 'leading company in Australia' etc etc... Feels like I am outright lying....even though these companies may very well be well established and leading companies in Australia....

Then again....hm....what harm can it be if I make others feel good about themselves and yet get the money off them. Not like they're losing out on anything right? They'll still get good exposure amongst us medical graduates...

BUt....sigh... I am fearing for the worst. Is this only a preview of what's yet to come? The endless shoe-polishing in order to get specific gains?

Thieves on the prowl

2007-04-28T16:42:00.000+10:00

My friend Siew Suan had her bag stolen yesterday. =(

It all happened when I was walking out of the uni library, about to rush off to teach tuition to a family friend. I saw Siew Suan sitting near the entrance of the library on my way out, and so I hurriedly said a 'Hi' and 'Bye'. But just as I was about to turn my head and walk away, I noticed the sad look on her face. Her eyes were somewhat teary.

My instinct was to mind my own business, and rush off in case I was stuck in peak-hour traffic and was late for tuition.

I stopped and asked if she was ok instead.

BOY was I glad I followed my conscience. She replied with a vigorous shake of her head. And so I asked her story.

"I just came back from my rural clinical placement, and decided that I didn't want to stay home alone on a friday night, so came over to the library to study for a bit. I was barely here for 5 minutes, I put my bag down on the floor in between my legs, and a few minutes later when I reached down to grab my PDA it was missing!!"

"And then I told security, and asked if they could ring my mobile phone so I could locate it, and they didn't seem to care! It was only when I broke down and cried did they start getting off their a**ses....and meanwhile I am sitting here looking at all these people leaving the library with my bag and all my stuff! And I just bought a RM3000 PDA too!! And my house keys, my wallet, credit card, bank card etc etc.... *sobS*..."

I had no idea how to respond. Instinctively I wanted to reassure her and say she's not alone, that many of us have gone through similar bad experiences, that I myself have been robbed at knifepoint, that.....

Stuff instinct. Silence was golden. Wanted to give her a hug, but felt I wasn't a close enough friend of hers for it to be appropriate....

So I decided to cancel my tuition and help her til she was calm.

I found out that she was definitely not the only victim. Hers was the 6th case, there was a 7th 5 minutes after her, and an 8th 10 minutes after the 7th.

Zzzzzz at the security in the library.

I also found out that there were only 2 security guards, and they explained they were working their heads off, and the chief guard even had the guts to put the blame on the victims.

"Next time just keep your belongings close to you. We're not responsible for your losses, you are, and you need to keep them close."

I tried to argue my point.

"With all due respect, how was my friend supposed to keep her bag any closer when it was stolen in between her legs? "

"Keep it on your body"...

WTF man. Talk about avoiding responsiblity. He DID have a point though. But I just hated the way he seemed to be reluctant to address the glaring in adequacies of their security system. 8 cases in a day!?!?

Anyway, I offered to drive Siew Suan home. But as we were walking past the science library where the 8th victim had her stuff, she suddenly decided to check out the bins near the library. And surely enough, her bag was in the bin!! (OMG at women's intuition). In the end she recovered most of her stuff, only lost money and her PDA. The thieves were even nice enough to leave her house keys, credit card etc intact. (Wonder if there is such a thing as thieving etiquette?? "I only steal, i don't commit fraud"??!?)

I suppose it was a bit of a consolation for SS to have recovered her bag+items. She told her bike recently got stolen too while she was away for her rural placements.

Later I offered to shout her dinner as she didn't have cash on her. We called one of her best friends, SeeSiong, and met up with him over dinner. Its amazing what a good meal does to one's mood! She was much more calm and stable after dinner, so i left her with SeeSiong, and went home...

Eventful day...

Please be careful of thieves/snatch thieves ok everyone.

Ignorance is bliss?

2007-04-25T17:49:00.000+10:00

Is ignorance really bliss?

Sometimes I am so ambivalent as to whether I am proud to be Malaysian or not. But one thing for sure, we as Malaysians are surely an ignorant bunch of people.

I have been reading on the latest events at the by-election in Ijok, and have yet again stumbled on some injustice done by the government party, people we have supposedly voted into power...

Check out these links to read about them:

Jeff Ooi's blogs on Phantom Voters, Umno Youth Gangsters, and unfair treatment by Police on election talk gatherings

Elizabeth Wong on corrupted Election Commitee, over-the-table vote-buying (whopping RM36 Million!) and more

Lim Kit Siang on BN kiasu-ness and Bribery National

I don't know whether to feel sad because such low practices are actually being conducted, or to feel sad because us ignorant Malaysians are not aware or do not want to be aware of such practices....

High School Friends - Part 2

2007-04-22T19:22:00.000+10:00

More high school friends.... =) For part 1 click HERE.

4. Ong Guang Hong

There is only one word to describe this dude: NARCISSISTIC. What he lacks in height, he makes up for with his high self esteem. What's that I just heard you say? "But he's such a shortie!". No fear girls. He takes it all in his stride. Typical responses are as below:

I am the most good-looking doc on earth, so outta my way buddy!

Wo3 shi4 Zhong1 Guo2 Ren2! (I am CHINESE)

But I am a handsome chinese!

Previous pictures too nerdy for you? No sweat, I can be cool too! Imma PUNK!

Want a metrosexual instead? Lookit me now! Don't worry, I'm hot on the outside, but soft on the inside...

Damn it's a tough life being so good looking....

(Don't worry GuangHong, I know you're really a nice guy inside...Just have a good laugh!) =).

5. Chang Chin Sin

This girl is da bomb. When she transferred from KuanCheng Girls School to our class in Form4, she had em boys eyes in the class turning.. Even with the mandatory necklength hairstyle for girls imposed on her by our strict school! But don't be decieved...she is anything but a brainless beauty, she's as smart as a nerd too! (Hang on..or is she a nerd herself?:P)

Why are all those guys staring at me? Eek some of them even have scary smiles on their faces!

Maybe I'll smile back too...

I'm a Japanese wannabe! I heard Andy Lau likes hot Jap chiqs...

Muahahah.....he fell for it! He's mine..ALL MINE...

Whaddaya mean I'm a nerd Jazzi -.- Just cos I dress cute and study hard....Watchout the gangsta in me is gonna whoop yer a**!

6. Lee Hong Wee

He loves girls. He really does!! Sometimes he goes on a bit of a rage though...I wonder why... pent up frustration? =P.

Watchout mi ladies! Hongster is here!

Where are the ladies?!? Imma getting constipated... T_T

(puts wigs on himself and speaks in a girls voice): "Don't worry Hongster, I'm here for you..." Come here mushy mushy, give mama a kiss.."

Oddly enough, that feels SOOOO GOOD!!!

Fine then! If ya'll girls don't appreciate me, I'll use my big long pole for better purposes!

Muahaha...told you I'd do good with mi pole! Got myself a degree with it!

Chancellor: *wink-wink* ya sure did! You free tonight again?

More to come.....

Pee in You Pants

2007-04-19T21:24:00.000+10:00

Ok.

Let's face it. We've all pee-ed in our pants. And chances are, when we grow old, we may do it again.

I learnt about incontinence (AGAIN, touched on it while doing my womens health rotation) today. If you're curious, there are 2 main types of incontinence:

1. Stress incontinence

You feel your throat tickling. "Damn, something irritating my throat", you say. You cough.

Uh-oh. Your underwear feels a bit moist.

THAT, it stress incontinence

2. Urge incontinence

You are sitting in a bus. The next stop is 2 hours journey away. You take a sip of Apple Juice, making sure you don't drink too much.

But then it comes. That sensation.

"I GOTTA GO DAMNIT!", you try crossing your legs, you meditate, trying to distract your mind.

Uh-Oh. Your underwear feels moist.

THAT, is urge incontinence.

Of course, one may have BOTH stress and urge incontinence. If you happen to be one of them...my condolences....

But!

Don't worry, there are always good old continence pads available...like this one...

Or, if you fancy a sexier style...

(Disclaimer: Incontinence can often be treated by lifestyle modification, pelvic floor exercises, pharmacological agents, and even surgical intervention. Pads are only used when lifestyle modification and pelvic floor exercises fail to improve continence, and if surgery is deemed unwarranted)

(Discalimer: If you or your relative/friend are suffering from incontinence, do visit your local GP. He will be able to help you.)

(Disclaimer: No incontinence is NOT a joke. The above post was to help increase awareness regarding incontinence, and let the public know that it should not be a shameful problem hidden from everyone.)

Of Botaks and Games

2007-04-17T07:01:00.000+10:00

OF BOTAKS....

I am officially a Botak (Baldie) now. Don't ask me why, I just did it.

The hairdressor (pretty one too) commented saying "Its amazing how different one looks after a shave isn't it?" after about 2/3 of my head was shaved. Not sure if she meant that as a compliment or whether she was saying that it was a pity for me to shave. Who cares. You know what's amazing? The amazing part is how when my mind was made up to shave, there was no turning back. All hesitation was just shrugged away.

If only I had such resolve in my studies....I'd be a friggin Dean's list medical student by now...

Me 2 seconds before I walked into the hairdressers...

Me at home after the shave. Notice how the length of my hair is inversely proportional to the width of my smile?

Cheers!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

OF GAMES.....

My older brother, Nigel (ZhongXi) Goh, or Gel as he is more commonly known in the computer gaming world, has yet again made it to the news! This time, he was on the frontpage of The Star's Rage section. Do click on the link to read all about it. His clan, WINDS, also made it to the papers!

He's been a huge influence to me and my younger brother in terms of gaming. When he was still studying in Australia with me, he convinced me to join FiFa Soccer competitions in Australia, including the Australian Cybergames Competition. I've won a few prizes myself, including a PS2 and some cash. (Oops, didn't mean to brag). And so has Francis, my younger brother, he got 3rd in the Malaysian Cybergames 1-2 years ago, and has also been winning substantial amounts of cash and prizes.

WINDS webpage (No.1 Fifa Clan in Malaysia) gets published on The Star

=) Did I make anyone interested in turning competitive gaming into their career? =)

Much Ado Over Blogging

2007-04-15T17:31:00.000+10:00

Just came back from Inter-Clinical School Medical Students Sports day. Glad to declare that my clinical school, Austin Clinical School, were overall winners, and winners of basketball and soccer (not sure what happened to netball..wasn't there)

Am totally exhausted from all the sports though. Played from 11am-4pm non stop, alternating between basketball and soccer.

On a seperate note, an interesting article was recommended by Jeff Ooi, which will be relevant to all Malaysian bloggers. Read it here : Much Ado Over Blogging.

High school friends

2007-04-13T08:52:00.000+10:00

Friendster is awesum =). In one morning, I have managed to view profiles of 20+ of my high school friends, and added them to my friends list. All this, by viewing the friends lists of the existing friends on my list.

For some reason, I seem to have been left out of the high school friendship loops.... am I not good enough for them?! -.-

Anyway, this post is going to be about some of my more interesting high school friends, not just for your viewing, but also for my nostalgia. =) (Disclaimer: All pictures of my friends were extracted from Friendster, captions are my own)

1. Tan Yeou Jian, and Yap Hui Yee.

2 of my closest friends during high school days, YeouJian is the guy with long hair, HuiYee is the baldie. Used to play heaps of volleyball and basketball together. =). Oh. HuiYee is also known as Bedi Yap to us. No prizes for guessing what his trademark picture is (below)! (do leave your comments and let me know what your guesses are)

Oh we're so COOL!

Need a hand Bedi?

2. Tan Geak Poh

More known as Gepoh (meaning 38 in canto, or busy-body, or nosey), he's also got the nickname of Da-Tou-Wa-Wa (big-head doll). It's true! His head IS BIG! =). That probably explains why he's so smart....He can be quite spontaneous too, doing the randomest stuff...He's got the most bizarre love for studying, he actually finds study interesting, and if not for this contagious attitude of his rubbing off to me when I saw next to him in pre-U, I probably wouldn't have made it to medical school...

Yes I'm the big-headed guy in the left of the picture

Ain't I so cool?

Wow this gadget is great, functions as a 2-in-1 urinal-cum-basin! Ooops did I remember to zip my pants up?

I like it horizontal ladies.. =P I'm sure i zipped my pants up this time, or did I? Oh sh*t! #$^&*@

3. Khoo Ching Soong

Our class monitor in Form 5, this guy is a definite leader. He is a gentleman to the ladies, but to the guys, he's the horniest bastard. =). But he definitely has my respect, he knows when to be serious, and when to play hard.

Ok let's stop with the serious stuff and lemme go backpack to find the ladies already!

Where are the ladies?!?!

Ahhh, finally I find one! Woohoo my lucky day! Lay-off her you two, she's mine!

4. Hiew Litt Pang

Warning! Don't puhway puhway with this fellar. He is a mathematical genius, if ever you speak to him about maths/physics, be prepared to be pwned reAL HARD. Actually, be prepared to be pwned real hard whenever you speak to him. He will probably relate it back to mathematical calculations....

I AM A GENIUS

I challenge you: spot the difference between this picture and the next one

Yep, that's right, it's the hair. See that tuft of hair standing up in the 2nd pic? This is caused by draft coming from the wind. I PREDICTED THAT, the moment I switched the air-conditioner on. Now according to Boyle's law, the displacement of my hair can be calculated by x = 53920+43x^3 /263.2523......also considering the friction of air due to my thick and jagged hair, one must add the friction coefficient into the equation...etc...etc....zzzzz (go figure)

Am falling asleep listening to Litt Pang.... will write more about my high school friends in the future when more inspiration comes.....

(Another disclaimer: If you happened to be featured here or know the people featured here and are insulted by this post, please learn to take life easy and enjoy a good laugh. I'm sure if it were back in high school days you guys would laugh about it with me. I certainly will have no issues with anyone deciding to feature me as a joke. Remember: Laughter is the best medicine)

Cheap tactics?

2007-04-12T18:41:00.000+10:00

Oh My Gosh.

I cannot claim to be fully in the know about the Machap by-election, but from
what I've read online so far, I am certainly not impressed.

I usually like starting my media exposure with the mainstream media, and I start by reading thestar.com.my. And, as usual, BN gets all the publicity, while opposition parties get none. Big shots are called in. Our Deputy Prime Minister calls for voters to think about their future and not use emotions to vote, and at the same time, offers 50 chinese families land titles in a Felda land. Our MCA president goes to Machap to listen to the people's woes (wonder why they don't publicize this sort of news when no election is near), whereas our deputy MCA president claims that "the most important thing that Barisan had brought to the people was the fact that they could live peacefully without fear and helped solve any problem they had".

Sounds impressive? Obviously.

But wait.

I noticed that when TheStar reported on Najib giving the 50 chinese families Felda land, it said that these families, together with the Malay settlers there, would form the BARISAN NATIONAL KAMPUNG. Didn't sound right to me, phishy stuff.

At the same time, I saw pictures of the BN election candidate, together with UMNO Youth Chief and Deputy Chief (remember the keris wielding guy and PLah's son-in-law?), and MCA Youth Chief handing over free food to Machap residents. More phishy stuff!! In that link, I also found out that it was illegal under the Election Offenses Act 1954 "food, drink, refreshment or provision, or any money or ticket or other means or device for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to give or refrain from giving his vote ".

Shortly after, BERSIH, a coalition set up to campaign for clean and fair elections in Malaysia (as opposed to the Election Committee which is viewed by many to have failed to be impartial) lodged a police report against those BN leaders claiming foul play and corrupt practices in the Machap election campaign. In this linked article, it was written that our deputy Prime Minister Najib had told the crowd “Ada ubi ada batas, ada budi boleh balas. Kalau nak
balas, balas pada April 12 dan undilah Barisan Nasional (One should repay or return favours when the time is right and the favour should be repaid by voting BN on April 12).” after announcing the allocation of the Felda land to the 50 chinese families.

Cheap tactis man!

BN, surely you don't need to hit under the belt to secure your votes?

Sigh.

Respect

2007-04-12T12:12:00.000+10:00

23 years for this:

Split second for this:

Yesterday I learnt a new lesson:

It takes a lifetime to build up respect, but only one instant to lose it all.

=*(

Lasting love

2007-04-11T07:51:00.000+10:00

Went to Boxhill Central with my mom yesterday, to get food at the local market. My mom had just come over from Malaysia to 'check on' my younger brother, to make sure he was doing ok in his first year studying overseas. I had never been to BoxHill Central's market before, but I was fascinated.

I saw so many old couples doing their grocery shopping there! Sure, lots of them had their weapons (walking sticks/frames) with them, but I was amazed at how some of them still held hands while trying to walk steadily...

Too bad I didn't take a camera with me, otherwise I'd have taken a few shots. They're a lovely sight! I did manage to find some pictures of old couples online though:

Feel that twinkle in your heart? I get that too.

Maybe it's because deep down everyone of us wants that sort of love. Love that lasts beyond the wrinkles on our skin. Love that lasts beyond our dentures. Love that lasts longer than the time it takes for us to walk to the loo -- when we're 100 years old, that is.

=).

Fact: Women outlive men.

So if you're a lady reader, and you want to be like them lucky ladies in those pictures, you better start looking for younger bois, so your partner won't die before you do....

Haha. My girlfriend is smart. I'm 8 months younger than she is. Guess I stand a chance of living long enough to take her to a romantic restaurant for our 80th anniversary (when we're 100+ years old) and give her a new 'canggih' (awesome) set of dentures as an anniversary gift!

Aw-sum!

Anwar Ibrahim and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)

2007-04-09T10:05:00.000+10:00

Stumbled upon a recent speech Anwar Ibrahim gave at Keadilan Night, actually listened to the whole 40 minutes of it. He's a very persuasive speaker!!

Once again was feeling very "politically-minded" (wonder what's wrong with me recently), so did some interest reading in Wikipedia on the topics below:

Anwar Ibrahim. I used to only know him as 'an ex-deputy prime minister of Malaysia who got jailed for corruption and sodomy(!!!), who is now a sour plum trying to regain what he lost in Malaysian politics. Reading about his political history really changed my perception about him.

Party Keadilan Rakyat. Didn't really know how this party came about. Didn't even know that it was a merger between 2 parties!

Elections in Malaysia. If you click on some links you can actually see the results of past general elections. OMG had no idea the Barisan Alternatif had such high percentage of votes in 1999! Didn't translate into number of winning seats though. Makes you wonder whether the government did some gerrymandering or malaportionment to kill off the opposition. In fact, Party Keadilan Rakyat actually released internatinoally a 'Sham Democracy' Report last year condeming the practices in Malaysia when it comes to the general elections. Hm..interesting.

Parliament of Malaysia. Felt quite embarassed that I did not know how Parliament worked in Malaysia, including the roles of Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara. Must've fallen asleep numerous times during Sejarah periods in high school....owel, it's never too late! A must read too! You have no idea how unfair the voting process in there is... =(

About time you too brushed up on general knowledge! =).

Yes, I mean YOU.

The RukuNegara

2007-04-09T09:22:00.000+10:00

Every Malaysian reading this would know what I am referring to when i use the word RUKUNEGARA.

Brings back some good ol'memories doesn't it? =).

Sorry that was my attempt at being mildly sarcastic.

Most of us would remember being examined on it in primary school, and being forced to recite it over and over again, week after week, during the dreaded weekly assemblies.

Most of us would also remember the familiar phrases written at the back of our exercise books, like the one in the picture above. Ahhh, even the dog-eared pages of the book too!

Yet...

How many of us actually understand what they mean? How many of us
understand why we are forced to recite the rukunegara week in, week out?

Worse still, how many of us practice the 5 principles of rukunegara?

Reading the article in Wikipedia on Rukunegara and some of the links on that page allowed me to learn more about the history (eg May13 incident, read this, quite interesting) behind the Rukunegara. However I didn't manage to find out how on earth we as products of public schools in Malaysia ended up being victims forced to memorize and recite it like robots...

And after all that, I have only one thing to say to whoever started the
norm:

IF YOU THINK DOING THAT WILL SOMEHOW MAKE MALAYSIANS AUTOMATICALLY ADHERE TO THE 5 PRINCIPLES OF RUKUNEGARA, YOU MUST BE A BLOODY IDIOT.

Hasn't anyone told them that leadership by example is waaaaayyy better than leadership by enforcement?

Body Part of the Day

2007-04-08T18:48:00.000+10:00

You'd think a future doc like me would constantly be dedicating the Body Part of the Day award to his brain (as a Physician), or his hands (as a Surgeon), but NOoooooOOoo, today's Body Part of the Day award goes to......

(drumroll please.......)

(Ka-ChinG!)

My beautiful (I meant smelly) FEET! =)

Yep, now you've seen it all, those ARE my feet. =)

Amazingly, they helped me score a double brace (4 goals!!) in my soccer friendly session today!! Can't claim they were superb goals though. All of them were simple placed shots or tap-ins, my teammates did most of the work, dribbling and drawing out defenders etc, I just always happened to be at the right place at the right time...

Just got home from the game actually, gonna give my feet some proper massage now, they deserve it....

=P.

OH, and in case you're curious. I support ARSENAL.

Contribute your opinions to Jun-E please?

2007-04-07T23:01:00.000+10:00

Better to light the candle than to curse the darkness

My high school friend, Jun-E Tan (Also known as June x2 in the blogosphere), has written recommendations for the newly formed National Alliance of Bloggers(NAB), based on the results of her masters thesis survey on the issue: "Is Blogging An Effective Tool for Democratizing Malaysia?". Please click HERE to read and contribute your opinions to her recommendations, so that we can help direct the NAB towards the right direction, to preserve our right to freedom of speech online. =) Your view counts!

Thanks!

Wikipedia

2007-04-07T08:55:00.000+10:00

Wikipedia is amazing. Really.

It all started when I was curious about Article 153 of the Constitution of Malaysia. you know, the one that is the reason for most of (note to SangYee: See I don't use TOTALISTIC words such as ALL anymore =P) the cursing and swearing of non-malays towards malays in Malaysia.

I ended up spending the whole night reading random information in Wikipedia, from the Sedition Act, to the Internal Security Act (ISA), to the Malayan Emergency, to the Malaysian Malaysia, to the People's Action Party (did u know that the DAP was actually the Malaysia branch of the PAP of Singapore?), to the Malay Dilemma, to our First Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, to Ultras, to the Presidential Council for Minority Rights in Singapore. And possibly more that I can't remember.

Makes me feel so much more empowered when I start forming opinions towards the current situation of Malaysian politics. Some long-standing questions in my head that were answered tonight:

How on earth did the Sedition Act and the Internal Security Act manage to get itself into the Malaysian Constitution?

What was the force behind the Malayan Communists that led to an Emergency State being called? (Stupid history books always portray them as bad guys, but I wasn't convinced then)
Why did Singapore REALLY leave Malaysia? And how have they progressed so much while Malaysia pludges along behind slowly?

What was Tunku Abdul Rahman like when he led Malaysia to merdeka? (Found out about some ugly past about Tun Mahathir and Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi in the process with regards to their status on bumiputera rights)

How are Malays in Singapore surviving WITHOUT THE PRIVILLEGES offered to them in Singapore?

Interestingly, the Presidential Council for Minority Rights body stood out to me. Probably highlights the fundamental difference between Malaysia and Singapore too.

Article 153 in Constitution of Malaysia: Protects rights of BUMIPUTERA

Presidential Council for Minority Rights: Protects rights of every singaporean race, religion or community.

Shucks. I could go on and on now. Suddenly feel 500% more intelligent.

But I shall go to bed instead and leave it to you to check out those sites at Wikipedia.

Go on, you know you want to!

Racist Malaysians

2007-04-07T05:40:00.000+10:00

Whenever we point a finger at someone, we end up pointing 3 fingers back at ourselves don't we?

I think that's very much the case of us Malaysians when it comes to racism. We accuse others of being racists, but the bigger culprits are ourselves. Reading my high school friend Jun-E's blog about this issue made me take a good look at myself.

Here's the insight I developed:

Whenever I refer to someone as an Australian, I usually mean 'that white skinned dude/dudette of the caucasian race that was born and bred in Australia'. Same goes to whenever someone tells me about an Australian. Never does the picture of an Australian born 'yellow-skinned dude/dudette of the asian race' enter my mind.

But what amazes me is how often non-white-skinned people who grew up in Sustralia refer to themselves as Australian.

No, not ABC (Australian-Born/Bred-Chinese), ABH (Australian-Born/Bred-Hongkie), ABK (Australian-Born/Bred-Korean) etc.

Just plain AUSTRALIAN.

They see themselves and every characteristic in themselves as Australian, nothing more, nothing less. They are proud to be Australian, and some even resent being given the labels of ABC, ABH, ABK etc. "But I'm Australian!" would be their outcry.

On the flip side of that, is how often we Malaysians like to put race over country. When people in Australia ask me and some of my other chinese friends: "Are you Malay?", we would almost instinctively respond with: "NONONONONONOO, definitely NOt malays. Malays are the darker skinned race in Malaysia. I am a Malaysian CHINESE.". (some may even have an overflow of thoughts as to how 'lazy' or 'pampered' Malays are etc).

The curious ones would then go on asking about what the difference between malays and malaysian chinese is besides their skin colour. Which brings us into a whole new level of discussion, involving the social contract and it's implications such as quotas for malays in every sector in Malaysia etc. Often we need to exert a great deal of self control to stop ourselves giving a 150 hour lecture on this issue and what we think about it.

And we end with "That's why we're Malaysian Chinese, and not Malay".

That's total B***sh**.

One finger pointed at the government, 3 fingers back at us.

Sure we don't agree to the quota system and its associated discrimination practiced in Malaysia, but aren't we practicing the same thing, discrimination, yet in a totally different form? By labelling ourselves as Malaysian chinese, do we not subtly imply that we should not be mixed up with the other races? Are we implying that we are better? hm...

No more racism from me. I'll practice EQUALITY. I am NOT a Malaysian Chinese from now on. I was born in Malaysia, therefore,

I AM MALAYSIAN.

National Alliance of Bloggers

2007-04-06T05:51:00.000+10:00

I am so very excited!!

Lawsuits against Jeff Ooi and Ahirudin Attan have finally provided the fuel needed for Malaysian bloggers to set up a National Alliance of Bloggers.

In case you haven't been up to date, Channel News Asia reported about this issue, and it's even been put up on YouTube. Yay for worldwide publicity!

I don't know if you can feel it, but I sense a somewhat brighter future ahead for Malaysia. Yay for freedom of speech in Malaysia! Of course, this doesn't mean we can start spreading lies and slander against the government etc la.

On a side note, here's another example of a 'very educated and well informed Malaysian minister' showing the public just how knowledgable he is: Deputy energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor wants bloggers using locally hosted websites to register with the authorities. Try all you can buddy, I don't think our generation of Malaysian bloggers will allow you put muzzles on us anymore. We'll bite! I think you're one of the reasons why some foreigners still think Malaysians live up in trees, considering the amount of free publicity you got on this issue....on Radio Australia and International Herald Tribune , just to name a few.

Hopefully the National Alliance of Bloggers thinks big. Goodness knows this may be the start of a revolution of government transparency! Quoting what Jeff Ooi wrote:

First they ignore you,

then they laugh at you,

then they fight you,

then you win.

Mahatma Gandhi

I'm all in for this one!

Below:
Picture 1: Present day =(
Picture 2: Future? =)

Dealing with Death

2007-04-03T21:53:00.000+10:00

Today, our group had a professional development tutorial, and discussed about DEATH, and how we as doctors, should conduct ourselves when we confirm death, and inform relatives about death of a loved one.

It struck me, how ignorant most of us are about death. We tend to pretend the word doesn't exist, especially when we're still fit and healthy, or even when we're not so healthy.

Yet in hospital, medical staff have to deal with death at such a regular basis.

I don't think anyone ever gets used to seeing death. Much less doctors, who have the unfortunate task of being the one certifying someone's death and having to carry the burden of informing relatives about the death of their loved one.

I personally have tagged along with a doctor to certify the death of a patient. It was 2 years ago when it happened, but I still remember it like it happened yesterday. I'll try to give a first hand and honest account of what happened:

--------------------

"The intern (first year medical graduate) and I walked into the room. The patient was lying peacefully on his bed. The wife and son (in his mid 30s) sat by his side. The wife was holding his hand, learning her chin onto his chest, eyes staring at his peaceful face. There were 3 nurses in the room, but they were unusually quiet. Pin-drop silence.

We walked to the bedside, and I stood silently too, while the intern politely asked the wife for permission to examine the patient. She nodded, and reluctantly moved away for the intern to examine him, yet her hand was still holding on tight to him. The intern examined his heart, and eyes. She stepped back, and took a deep breath.

Silence.

The intern opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Silence.

Finally, the intern spoke.

"I'm sorry Mrs _____, we have tried our best. There is nothing else we can do."

Silence again.

Then it all happened at once. The wife weeped. And weeped.

"Don't leave me, you promised that you will never leave me!! I love you so much! We still have so many things to do together!!" ....*cries*....."(speaks Italian)..."....*cries*...."I LOVE YOU!!! I LOVE YOU!!! DON'T LEAVE ME!!!"

The son weeps.

2 nurses weep too. The eldest nurse tried to hold on, but eventually turned her back and sobbed in silence, her face hidden from sight.

I looked at the intern. She was strong. She had an empathic look on her face, but no tears. I said to myself, Jazzi, you must be strong too. You will be a doctor, and you will need to be a pillar of support for the relatives of the deceased, as well as the medical staff here.

The intern asked the wife and son if they needed time alone with the patient. They said yes, and we left the room, promising to be there whenever they needed us.

I went to the restroom. And tears couldn't be held back anymore. They overflowed."

(I later found out that the intern weeped at home that night. It was her 2nd certification of death that week)

--------------------

I dread the day when I'll be the one certifying my patient's death. But I must be strong, I must be strong.

--------------------

I think a picture paints a thousand words. Here are some pictures, just to give us all a perspective on death of a loved one.

Here are some more light hearted cartoons just so we don't leave this blog ending on a sad note....

Female Chauvinist Pigs

2007-04-02T17:18:00.000+10:00

We talk of MALE chauvinist pigs, and everyone knows how to despise them. What about FEMALE chauvinist pigs? What do we think about them?

I had no idea what to think of the female types, until today.

A female consultant doctor working in the traumatic brain injury rehabilitation centre gave us a lecture today on what was meant to be the topic 'TBI', which was short for Traumatic Brain Injury. Or so that was what we thought it was.

I think I must've misinterpreted the acronym TBI. It felt more like I was being given a lecture on 'TBI - Traumatize poor Boys and treat them like Idiots'. Throughout the lecture, she went from:

how most of her TBI patients were young males (hence the B for Boys), to ...

how 'statistically speaking' (without proof) the ratio of men to women born were 2:1, which didn't matter because it was evolution's plan that the ratio eventually evened itself out to 1:1 due to male deaths, to ....

how 'statistically speaking' (see the trend? what a farce!) women were more likely to die from a motor vehicle accident as a passenger of a male driver than driving the car themselves with blood alcohol levels of 0.24 (accepted limit is <0.05), to ...
how 'statistically speaking' (ok this one is true for once) women who are married to men are more likely to be depressed than single/divorced/widowed women, to ...

how men who end up in the TBI rehab wards are not a pretty sight, not very manly, and embarassing, to ...

to ....(adding some opinions of her own on what she thought of men)

to ....(expressing sympathy for the students in the classroom who had the bad luck of being testosterone filled)

Ok thank goodness for WEN, a guy in our group of students, who spoke out and said 'I think we get the picture' so that she could shut up.

@#*!#@$^@)!#(!!!

Ok let me clarify and say that I try to be nice and always give people the benefit of doubt, before labeling someone based on their actions/words/thoughts. She may or may not be one of those FEMALE chauvinist pig s, but she does definitely have potential if she keeps this up.

TO BELITTLE MEN IN A PUBLIC TEACHING SESSION?!?!?! That's just as bad as our Malaysian Minister of Tourism and his swipe at female bloggers! Hang on, it could be worse! The way she does it....so subtle, yet so direct; so 'scientific', yet so much b***sh*t!!

I was SOOO disgusted during that lecture, and started contemplating all sorts of comebacks for the sake of all malehood. At one stage I was almost about to pack my bag and walk out of the tutorial room (I was sitting right beside her too), and at another stage when she asked if we had questions, I was so tempted to raise my hand and ask 'Tell me, what is it like behaving like a female chauvinist pig?'

Damn. I was too polite, and let her get away with it. It was only because she WAS much more senior than me, and I didn't want to risk sabotaging my career supposing i bumped into her again when i start work as an intern.

But it seems everyone in the room (not just the guys, mind you) felt that she went overboard... so heh, it wasn't just testosterone clouding my mental capacity! =) Hm...perhaps next time I won't be so polite...

So watch out you Female Chauvinist Pigs out there! If the male types are forced to shut it, so should you!

Being the middle child

2007-04-01T19:13:00.000+10:00

I am the middle child.

I have an older brother, Nigel, and a younger brother, Francis.

And I love them both.

Growing up with them wasn't easy, being the middle child. I was very much a middle child with the middle child syndrome (click HERE if you don't know what this is, or HERE for a simpler version). Which middle child wouldn't? Whenever a fight between I and Nigel broke out, my parents would say 'listen to your older brother, he's the oldest, he knows better'. And whenever i had a fight with Francis, my parent would say 'give your younger brother a chance, he's the youngest and is ignorant'. I would regularly feel isolated and unloved, because of the disparity i felt between the treatment i got compared to my brothers.

Now it is quite different. I actually feel quite privilledged to have grown up as a middle child.

I am both a younger brother, and an older brother.

I used to think Nigel never understood my feelings as a younger brother whenever he tried to teach me things. I often felt that he was trying to control my life. And now when I try to teach Francis some wisdoms of life, I often get hit with the realization of how much Nigel actually loved and cared for me then, to be wanting the best for me, sharing his gems of experience etc. And I grow more thankful everyday.

Similarly, knowing how I felt as a younger brother has allowed me to be able to tap into Francis current feelings as a younger brother, and I would constantly reflect back on how I would've felt if I as an older brother did certain things, like scolding him or ordering him about just because I am older. And whenever I tell Francis 'I know how you feel, i've been in your shoes', he can actually believe me, because i really have.

Guess life is how you want it to be huh? If you choose to see the bad side of things ( i.e. the middle child syndrome), life can be miserable; if you choose to see the good, life can be quite enriching and rewarding!

=)

Corruption of Malaysian History Books

2007-03-31T06:15:00.000+10:00

Found a few blogs and discussions quite fascinating. Gives new insight to what the history of Malaysia really was. Very much in conflict with the history we learnt in textbooks during our primary and high school days.

Please do link these pages to your blog, the least we can do is help the word be spread around so that us Malaysians won't be so ignorant of our past.

The blogs are below:

Lim Kit Siang's 'CORRUPTION OF OUR HISTORY BOOKS'

M. Bakri Musa's 'WARRIOR FROM SILICON VALLEY' (discussions section)

Drunkard

2007-03-31T03:23:00.000+10:00

Ever wonder why drunk people never admit they're drunk? =)

(P.S I'm NOT DRUNK, really, i'm NOT DRUNK!!)

(p.s. haha, it was just an expression i put on for the sake of it. Bad imitation though. Sad)

Politics - not so easy

2007-03-30T17:54:00.000+10:00

Sometimes we forget how easy it is to criticize politicians without giving them the benefit of doubt.

No I am not saying all politicians are benevolent and honest, i just think that some of them maybe be wrongfully criticized.

And I'm sure this occurs at all levels, not just at the government level.

Last year I was vice-president of the Austin Medical Students Society. Our society catered for 150-250 students across 3 year levels, and was represented by a commitee of 11 members. Committee members were usually self-nominated, and if there were contestants than places, the student members would vote as to who got the committee places.

The committee I was in, was a sad scene. Turned out that at least 1/3-2/3 of the committee members were not committed to their responsibilities as student representatives. To me, they were in the committee just so they could add titles and positions to their CV. Sure, they talked a lot and gave a lot of opinions during committee meetings, but when it came to putting words into actions, most of them went missing. Some had to be constantly chased up by myself and the president as to the progress of their tasks, and a few even had the cheek to say they were too busy (studying? bloody typical medical student) to be able to handle the tasks given. Fact is, the only reason tasks are given to them, is because they were the ones that voiced out suggestions about those tasks.

So what happened then?

The president and I recieved a lot of stick from the students we represented, because they felt that we weren't doing enough for them. What they failed to realize, was that it was not within our capacity to man-handle committee members that did not perform their designated tasks. We weren't paying them, we weren't their seniors, we had no authority to do so. We could only plead them to do the tasks, and if they still refused or conveniently forgot about their designated tasks, we would end up having to do it for them. And there was only SO MUCH 2 pairs of hands can accomplish.

We still managed to get quite a few things done, including furnishing our common room, providing social events, organizing sports events, musical events etc. But these were mostly done by the president and I. We were thankful when our student members gave good feedback, and quite disheartened when we got critical ones, because we felt that we were wrongly judged. WE WERE THE 2 THAT ORGANIZED MOST EVENTS, WITHOUT MUCH HELP FROM OUR OTHER COMMITTEE MEMBERS! We felt that if anything, the other bloody lazy committee members should've been criticized instead of us!

I suppose, with position comes responsibility, and part of our responsibility was to organize our committee well to perform well as a unit. We failed miserably, but not without trying our best. If we had any authority to chuck out the inept committee members, we would've done so immediately and replaced them with more willing and capable ones.

--------------

Relating it to our Malaysian government, I feel sometimes it may not be those at the top that are to be blamed. They may be trying their best within their capacity, and it may be their subordinates that are obstacles for progress. And many times these leaders may be unaware of who those inept subordinates are. So to blame the top leaders for every single problem happening in Malaysia is perhaps unfair to them. What we as Malaysians COULD do though, is to strive to reveal the inept ministers/officials to our top leaders, through exposes like what Jeff Ooi from screenshots is doing (eg the Wisma Putra blues) is doing, so that one by one the weeds can be pulled out.

Stay positive! The internet realm will change the face of Malaysia for the better =).

Empowering ourselves as Voters

2007-03-29T18:36:00.000+10:00

Today I browsed through the main website of Barisan National (BN) and Democratic Actions Party (DAP). I did it because I felt that if I were to ever vote for one of them in Malaysia, I would at least have to know of the visions of the parties that I am voting for.

I must say, both parties' visions were quite equally persuasive. One would find it quite hard to choose between them based on just their visions alone.

In BN's website, there was a election results page that showed the number of seats taken by each party. Seemed that BN's support is getting stronger and stronger.

How scary. Imagine a total Malaysian monopoly by BN. Can't help but feel that even if it did start off good, it would turn sour, because of the lack of competition.

But, I see a brighter side to things. In BN's website I noticed that they boast of having increased the percentage of Malaysians who have studied up til Form5 from 65% in 1980 to 80% in the late 90s or 2000s.

That means, more educated Malaysians. And hopefully, with the ever advancing techonology, the majority of us better educated Malaysians can make use of alternative media (eg INTERNET) to access better information about the current state of Malaysia, the current performance of government ministers, the background of political candidates, etc etc before making conscious AND informed decisions as to whom we are voting for.

I read somewhere that at least 25 million Malaysian non-bumis have immigrated to better pastures becaues of inequality of treatment in Malaysia. Best wishes to them. However, to those who choose to remain in Malaysia, our home country, I urge you to start empowering yourselves with knowledge about our country's situation from a variety of sources. NOW. Especially if you think our country can be improved. Your vote counts.

(haha of course, let me remind all of you who are eligible to vote to register to vote ASAP).

DAP a rocket for Malaysians? Or only Malaysian Chinese?

2007-03-28T12:38:00.000+10:00

Couldn't sleep last night, ended up reading a whole bunch of random blogs. Came across Lim Kit Siang's blog.

For those that don't know of this person, he is the party leader of DAP (Democratic Action Party, having a rocket as their logo), one of the main opposition parties in Malaysia. He is also a key opposition speaker in parliament. (Click on the link Lim Kit Siang on the right to view his blog).

I'm actually glad that he's writing a blog. Means I get first hand information on what sort of stuff goes on in parliament meetings, instead of the filtered versions given by newspapers.

I am not against the BN (Barisan National, the governing party in Malaysia), but I would love for an opposition party to win the general elections in Malaysia one day. Competition can only do Malaysia good.

BUT.

No opposition party seems to have enough ammo to make it big time.

Taking DAP as an example. DAP claims to represent all Malaysians, yet one can't help but wonder what Malays think of DAP. DAP posts are held mainly by Malaysian Chinese, and their stronghold areas are mainly highly chinese populated areas. And word has it that the Malays think of DAP the way Malaysian Chinese think of PAS.

I asked Farizah, a fellow coursemate of mine who is Malay, of what she felt of DAP. She says she herself doesn't think much against DAP, however she does not know of any Malay that is pro-DAP. While she does not represent all Malays, especially because she claims she 'was not brought up in a typical Malay fashion', she does agree that generally Malays DO get the feeling that DAP is all about the Malaysian Chinese.

One does wonder what can be done to improve that skewed image of DAP. Just like how PAS can improve their image amongst the Malaysian chinese, the image of a party that wants to bring Malaysia into an extremist Islamic era.

Do they have the political might and financial backing to change that image? Hmm...

Caring for the elderly

2007-03-27T17:40:00.000+10:00

I was brought up with the traditional Malaysian attitude on caring for the elderly. The rule was simple:

Look after your parents when they get old, let them live at home with you if they're too old to look after themselves. Send them to a nursing home, and you're a bastard.

Life is quite simple when you follow ready and set rules and norms like the above. But then you grow up, and you start thinking about the 'rules' or 'norms' and start analyzing them.

I have just started learning about the aged care services offered to Victorians here in Australia, and I am impressed. Their services range from providing transport, personal, social, medical support to the home of the elderly, to offering respite for carers of the elderly, to case managers to tend to the elderly's every need, to low and high care residential homes.

Frankly speaking, they seem to offer it all, a wide range to suit the different needs of every elderly individual.

That made me think: Is caring for our parents and letting them live with us when they can no longer care for themselves really the best option for everyone?

I know a lot of homes where grandparents are the main carers for grandchildren at home, while both parents go off to work. In most cases, that's just swell, because the two generations of people enjoy eacho ther's company. But what happens when grandparents become old, frail, and delicate? Is it wise to risk leaving them at home unattended or with little children, to risk them having a fall and breaking their hip, to risk them having a stroke? What happens when they suffer from a degenerative brain disease, like alzheimer's, where they need constant supervision for all their personal and social activities of daily living, where they might experience personality and behavioural change, and may even experience paranoid delusions about otheir own family?

And what happens when grandparents get left at home all alone when all they want to do is to socialize?

This is where i feel the different services offered in Victoria work so well. They have services tailored to addressing each and every problem an elderly person may experience, and help the elderly in achieving their goals and needs, be it in the form of providing service to the elderly's home, or in the form of residential houses/retirement villages that supervise and care for the elderly.

In fact, some of these places offer better care than even the most filial of children!

I think i'm ready to go against the rule or norm. I don't think i'll ever offer to get my parents into a residential home, but I definitely think I will allow them the freedom of choosing what they feel is best for them. If they enjoy living at home with me, that's great; but if they need or want more care/support, I will not insist that they stay with me just so i can fulfil my filial obligations. They deserve better.

The only problem: When is the taboo of anything other than letting parents live at home ever going to be lifted in Malaysia to allow the development of a proper aged care system like that of Victoria?

Only time will tell.

Arguments

2007-03-26T06:47:00.000+10:00

I hate arguments.

Sometimes I feel that the number of wrinkles on my forehead are directly proportional to the number of arguments i have on that day.

I remember that I used to be a stubborn person, always insisting that my views were the ONLY correct views, and I would go that extra mile to prove myself correct, even if it meant starting an argument with others.

Now, I try to avoid arguments whenever I can. I learn to run, to hide, to dodge.

But then sometimes you cannot run, hide or dodge when someone comes smack bang in your face with the word 'lets fight' written all over his/her face.

And so you confront them, with a fire extinguisher with one hand, and a welding face mask on the other, covering your face. And the ultimate secret weapon, the word SORRY.

It doesn't really matter whether I feel that I'm right or wrong. 'SORRY' always does the trick, like magic.

SORRY. Now get your (big fat) face full of anger away from my sight.

Blogging nomad

2007-03-26T01:05:00.000+10:00

I'm officially a nomad.

I have moved from http://jazzi.multiply.com, my previous blogging site.