NS Issues ALL Ironed Out?

Can we really expect all the problems of the NS go go away just like that? Can one press statement dispel the doubts and concerns of parents? I have said it earlier here, here, here and here - the National Service needs to be more transparent. What is so difficult to update the website in details, tell the public the activities they have carried out, issues they have address - a report to us parents and citizens.

YBhg Tan Sri, do not treat us like kids - be open and tell us, work with us. Otherwise, just suspend it or quit! We do not want to see any more crocodile tears and finger point after the next incident.

Convince us all!

‘NS issues all ironed out’ (Sunday STAR, Dec 30, 2007)

By STEVEN DANIEL

MALACCA: The national service (NS), now into its fifth year, has ironed out most of its previous problems, said NS Council chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

“We have a team to monitor the effectiveness of co-curricular activities as well as the infrastructure and management at all camps.

“Another measure soon to be set up is the flying squad that would resolve problems related to welfare, cleanliness and conflicts immediately,” he said.

Goodbye: NS trainee Nor Baizura Samsudin,17, waving to friends and relatives after boarding the bus to the Tasik Chini camp in Pahang at Stadium Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. — Bernama

Lee urged parents not to worry as steps had been taken to ensure the trainees were well taken care of at the 83 camps nationwide.

He said parents should not think of the NS as a nuisance or waste of time but be supportive as it helped build character and instil good values.

“Trainees and their parents can also provide their feedback to further improve the programme,” he said after seeing off 639 trainees in Ayer Keroh to camps within the state, Negri Sembilan and Johor.

He said the trainees would be allowed to return from Feb 5 to Feb 10 for the Chinese New Year holidays. Those celebrating Thaipusam could also go home from Jan 22 to Jan 24.

Malacca mayor Datuk Zaini Md Nor said his second son Mohd Fahmi Zaini, 18, was excited to join the NS.

“It will be a good learning experience for him and he can make a lot of new friends,” he said.

All set: An NS trainee being sent off by his family at Stadium Perpaduan in Kuching.— Bernama

A total of 37,000 trainees will undergo the programme from Dec 29 to March 11.

They are part of a total of 110,000 youths from across the country to join the NS training programme for 2008.

Last year, 100,000 youths were trained under the programme.

Deputy Defence Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin said 800 buses were used to transport the first batch of trainees to their respective training camps in the peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak.

He also said 41 aircraft were used to fly the youths from the peninsula to Sabah and Sarawak, and vice versa.

BUCKLE-UP!!!!!

A New Year Resolution - get those kids buckled-up!

Driving to Ipoh a couple of weeks back, I encountered (as usual) the many impatient tailgaters who came within inches of my car and the occasional zig-zaggers who could not wait for me to move to a slower lane. This people gets me really angry at times. But really makes me mad are the driver who are ferrying their families! I have observed that many of these impatient drivers were carrying their families - with children in the car! Yes, children in the car! The children were not restrained and not buckled-up.

Even some of my friends do not buckle up their children (although I am not sure if they are one of those reckless tailgaters) and their excuse was, "Our children do not want it, they make a lot of noise!".

When are they going to realize that as parents we have the choice to to insist that "resistance is futile" and they need to buckle up.

When are they going to realize that not buckling up results in many deaths on the road? According to RSD director-general Datuk Suret Singh says such an enforcement could prevent 350 deaths per year, which is the police statistic number for the number of unbelted backseat passenger accident deaths. (Source: Paultan.org).

When will we realize that many countries have made the usage of sea rear seat belt mandatory and that we cannot wait for our Government. The police are too busy giving excuses after each Ops SIKAP while out politicians seems to have more important things to do. It is obviously more important to important to amended the Federal Constitution to allow for the extension of the election commission director than to pass a Bill enforcing mandatory seat belts for all passangers in a vehicle.

When do we realize that we will need to it ourselves. This is one resolution we can make this new year. BUCKLE-UP!

Happy New Year 2008

Life without Astro and Streamyx

I recently decided not to renew my ASTRO account and left it suspended for a while. We have gotten by with ASTRO for almost 2 months now. 2 months earlier I got my Streamyx terminated - not on purpose. One fine day Streamyx decided to go down - I call the usual 1-800--xxxx number and got the usual report number. After one week, no progress. Called again - they never heard of my report number or my complain - never mind, got another report number. After 2 weeks no progress. I was promised a technical would show-up, but he never did. Called again - no such report again, went through the process..... etc. To cut the long story short - I received a payment reminder and my line would be terminated if I did not pay. Pay for what?? Anyway, no difference - no Streamyx non of my fault! Anyway, that's besides the point.

The interesting thing is that - we got by! No major problems (so far), some grumbling from the kids though. For internet access - we shuttled to the nearest Starbucks or the nearby Petronas station what offered free wi-fi.

The good thing was that - we had more family time. Our kids are reading more. Even our youngest one is pestering us with "reading time" almost evening.

This got me thinking, I am not sure if I want to get that subscription up again. Life seems pretty good without these electronic feed. If I need connectivity really urgent, I have my 3G phone.

Heard recent Buddhist talk in KL recently. A member of the audience asked how to manage his children... family problems, etc... The monk replied, "kill the TV". I guess there is some wisdom in that thought and this killing I suppose if not "panatipata"....

If you the kids are restless not enough family time..... trying turning off the TV - really turning it off.

Good luck!

When we cane, we have FAILED (2)

This is comment on my blog published on FamilyPlace though it would be good to share  this

- Comments : First of all, these people seriously believe they are sincere in addressing the indiscipline in school. What a frightful thought, because they of course think they are clever people. And clever people do not like to reason much because well, they are already very much clever. These 700 (most probably handpicked as those 'most likely to say aye') would recommend just about anything that DEFLECTS from the FACT that it is them, parents and teachers as a collective whole, who have been unthinking in supporting a system and way of life which created an entire generation of dysfunctional youth. It is these same people who have chosen, unthinkingly or knowingly, to place their priorities in life in such a way that has caused the erosion of all values worth living for in a civilised society. They would recommend any measure which will not make them stick their noses into the plain truth; that they were the ones responsible for bearing these children / choosing this prof

Anyway, if you think about it, the more blunders he collective society and the government makes when it comes to the development and learning of our youth, the better it is for fence-sitters and pro-learning people; it will force people to make a choice how much is enough. Nothing short of a critical mass of people who have awakened to the failings of this post-dated form of 'learning'will create real change.

As for my personal experience with caning, 2 years ago my daugher was caned until her little Std.1 palm swelled up so much she couldn't hold her spoon properly. She forgot one page of writing. I wasn't aghast so much at the physical action of the caning, but her meek acceptance that someone could use authority to inflict a form of violence on her. Being a single mom raising a daughter, the last thing I want her to accept is that a person who has supposed authority over you can hit you. She's going to get married some day and I don't want her to be with anyone which will hit her!

Of course some people will say, 'Gosh you're so extreme. You think too far.' But I guess it's the 'not thinking far' kind of mentality which has given us a regressive progress in the past few decades. And then there are those who will say, 'Ahh! It's just a little caning....' but that sounds exactly like an abuser saying, 'Ah, it's just a few bruises and cuts' and a rapist justifying, 'Ah, it's just some skanky w****' and SHE DESERVES IT.' How many teachers will actually say, 'The kid didn't deserve it?' The fact that you use force as a means cannot justify the 'He/She deserves this....' mentality.

Seriously, the reprobation of caning isn't about forsaking discipline. It's about waking up to think about what values you're going to own as a society. Be aware that violence isn't a sudden overturn of emotions gone wild. Violence is conditioning over time, a numbness to compassion, a justification of terror.

It's understandable that some well-meaning parents and teachers are ignorant of the repercussions of violence in teaching a child. The previous generation used to argue that they were caned and they turned out alright. I say to them, back then, education was so valuable that seldom a child wanted to get caned for the novelty of it. Furthermore, children learned in an environment which made them feel the learning is so precious,teachers were generally more knowledgeable and well-trained than the students and their parents and knowledge was not just something they could pick up outside. Back then, they wouldn't risk expulsion because learning was an asset to some degree. If times have changed and the objectives and environment for learning has changed, do we expect to apply the same methods to instil discipline? The causes for indiscipline today is far from identical to the causes of rare cases of indiscipline 'back then when you were young.'

Schools shouldn't be burdened with disciplining students - they should focus on the core of imparting knowledge and nurturing learning. There wasn't even proof to begin with that the Dark Ages practise of punitive measures to subdue learners was effective in creating learning. Schools were never centres for discipline. Learning happened under trees during Socrates time. Neither Alexander the Great nor Buddha would've achieved what they had if schooling for them was all about punishment.

Punitive measures in schools were a thoughtless and careless extension from the Dark Ages when priests caned boys in the believe that it would 'beat the devil out of them'. When schooling became 'large-scale', they borrowed these practices as a quick fix. Punitive measurement has never been proven to be either effective nor constructive. So much research has been made on the effects of physical punishment but we choose to forsake ALL THAT WISDOM in favour of a practise from the Dark Ages that had neither value nor reason except in gratifying egomaniacal priests.

Perhaps the next time they pick '700 people', they should pick those who are doing a good job as teachers and parents and instead ask these people how they've managed to instil learning and discipline WITHOUT the cane. I would've thought that would be an obvious fact.

- Submitted By  : Sloane
- Submitted On  : 06:05,  11/30/2007