As I went astray…

A friend and I fell into an immense dark space. It was real dark. We had nothing but a candle each. So, we lit the candles and tried to make our ways out of this darkness. As we wandered around, the intermittent gust of wind almost blew out our candles…

And so, we explored cautiously, with just a candle each! Well, my friend was contended for having just a candle which is sufficient to brighten his surrounding so as not to trip over. But I was like, ‘Hey, I should set up a campfire to (en)lighten this whole area so that I don’t have to walk around holding a candle, worrying that it might be blown out by those winds’

So, I started setting up the camp fire. I got more and more carried away in the process, but soon I found myself wondering as to why I had to strike up such a huge fire in the first place, deplete so many charcoal sticks, and scald my skin accidentally along the way, when all I needed was a simple light to lead my way. Maybe like my friend, I shouldn’t have wandered away from my initial intention. I should have just continued looking for the way out of the darkness rather than trying to (en) lighten the entire darkness

Face the cow(s) & play the zither

Lately, had a funny yet frustrating encounter with some ‘conversant smart ass’, who were willful and non-receptive to others critics and persistently defensive of their stand. And this Chinese proverb depicts the whole situation perfectly

Face the cow(s) and play the zither

Update 18/3: Strum… strum…. strum… (beautiful flowing Zither music), Munch… munch… munch… (cow(s) continue eating grass without budging)

Update 19/3: The longer the zither is played, the more discordant and dissonant the music sounds (might need some tuning:P). So, the music is stopped (in fact should have stopped earlier) and the cow(s) are left chomping happily…

Don’t count the chicken before they hatch

In the build up of the election, when the former Penang Chief Minister announced his decision to stand in as candidate for Parliamentary constituency, speculation has heightened as to who will succeed him as the next Penang CM. It has become such a heated issue that even the Chinese community started lobbying for the respective candidate to become the next CM. There was even pressure from the party members and community for the former CM to name the next CM before election. Suggestions also come from former party leader that the potential candidates who win by the biggest majority in the election will be the next CM. Well, all the talks continued…

But sadly, on the day when the people of Penang cast their vote, none of the potential CM candidates won their respective state seats. Even if they won their seats, they would not have sufficient majority to form the state government, let alone be the next CM. Even the former CM himself failed in his attempt to step into the parliament. Worst still, every single candidates from the party loss all of its parliamentary and state seats in Penang.

Lesson to learn: Don’t count the chicken before they hatch!

‘Tsunami’ swept across Malaysia

The water at Port Phillip Bay was relatively calm when fellow Malaysian friends and I left the jetty at Mornington Peninsular for our fishing trip. The weather forecast was also good with the expected mild refreshing sea breeze, but there’s no sign of any strong wind or wave.

And some 6000km away from our peaceful fishing trip, strong ‘Tsunami’ swept across our beloved Malaysia. Well, obviously it’s beyond the role of the bureau of meteorology to predict this sort of ‘Tsunami’ Anyway, people of Malaysia did anticipate a strong squall, but most would not have expected a ‘Tsunami’ of such magnitude. And those who were completely ignorant or trivialize the foreseeable storm were left drowning.

Though more states were involved this time, again, it is the island state which was most severely hit. Compared to the previous (real ) Tsunami which claimed around 70 life in 2004, this is not a calamitous ‘Tsunami’, but one which seems to bring hopes and better future (hopefully)…

Owl’s fishing trip…

On the day when fellow Malaysians were heading to their respective pooling centres to cast their vote, a group of close friends and I went for our fishing trip. Not that we are expert in fishing, neither is fishing our hobby. But it’s merely for the experience of fishing out in the sea and at the mean time spend quality time with good friends.

Well, try not to make it a too-wordy post. 13 of us headed south to Mornington Peninsular for our first group outing of the year. It’s also the first fishing experience out in the sea for many of us. After the 4 hour spent in the sea, only Boon Phiaw managed to catch a relatively ‘larger’ fish, not to mention the many other small fish caught which had to be released into the sea (sadly, I didn’t manage to catch any fish, not even a tiny one). Anyway, apart from the motion-sickness and vomiting half way through journey, it had been great new experience for me.

Owl’s different experiences with plaster cast

Never am I a fan of orthopedic (i.e. of bones, joints, ligaments or muscles) during the different medical rotations I have been through, but I have had different experiences with plaster cast, which in general is used to mould around fractured bones and immobilize it while awaiting healing.

Owl with a ‘plastered’ arm during one of the practical sessions in AMSA convention 2007 in Adelaide

(Right handed) Owl with (REAL) plastered right arm as a result of hairline fractures across radial and ulnar styloid from falling off the bike

Of Malaysia NEP

And so, what do we know about Malaysia New Economy Policy (NEP)/ Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB)? From my personal knowledge, it’s a policy made in the early days of independence to reduce the enormous socioeconomic gap between the different races, which can be a potential threat to our country’s political stability. However, I have no idea what so ever about the exact content of the policy. Also, my understanding is that it’s well-known to be a controversial and contentious policy drawing different views from different races (anyway, my view about the equality and fairness of the policy is not of the public interest i reckon:D)

Recently in the build up of the coming general election, the issue about NEP is also of concern among the rakyat. In response to questions by Malaysiakini regarding the idea of abolishing NEP, a Chinese candidate for parliamentary constituency seat said that:

‘I thought the NEP has already ended….’

Initially I thought that how ignorant of this 2 term MP to give such a remark. However, in fact it’s true that NEP has ended. Way back in 1990! NEP has been replaced by National Development Policy (Dasar Pembangunan Nasional) since then. However, by altering the name of the policy does not mean that the controversial content of the previous policy has been disregarded. NDP still pursued most if not all of the content of NEP and still remain a polemical policy.