drinks and food on me

drinks and food on me
Originally uploaded by soonkv

Finally got photo blogging UP! Many thanks to Praveen, showed me I still got things to learn - next round, food and drinks on me!

Go ahead and play-lah!

A conversation....

"What do you play with you kids?"

"No time to play"

"Why?"

"My kid.... 3 - 0 = 0! How to play?"

At this point I am usually at a loss of words or I would have too many words. I have heard this once too many times. There are many reasons why a child (10 years or older) cannot figure out the answer to three minus zero. Could be he could not grasps the concepts, or that he might not understand what the parent wanted , or it could be some learning difficulties thats needs to be addressed. In any case, a different approach is needed (we shall dwell into that in another blog), not the rogue matter of learning - need to be creative. Perhaps, something fun approach.

If we just push the homework with not opportunity to play, it will not be good. Parents have forgotten to play. They have become so uptight that having some fun time with children have become a sin. It is just homework, work and exams. If both parents are working and remaining time in the evenings are spent in pressured situations to get you kids to finish their homework - life becomes meaningless.

Am I saying homework is not important? Yes! Especially when quality time is taken away from families. Precious hours robbed from children where children long for the hugs, kisses and smiles of the parents - to play with one another. Only to be replaced only with "have you finished your homework??".

What is worse will be:

"If you finish your homework, I will play with you" (read as "I will love you when you finish your homework")

"I will bring out the cane (usually in Asian families)"


So, are what are we to do as parents?

Hey, who said parenting is an easy thing anyway? It requires, time, energy, balance, commitment and above all - it requires that space be given to our children and NOT be forced into our (parents) own shortcomings or insecurities. Also, have you also thought that children might be reacting to seek for attention?

So lighten up-lah...... go play with your kids - build legos, make paper aeroplanes or vandalize some pictures or something...
















If you are still unsure, here are some useful reading, enjoy!

1. The Element of Play in Learning
2. Good Times as Play
3. Role of Play in Children's Learning
4. Play = Learning
5. The Importance of Play
and my other-(better) half says to lighten up.

Worried about homework, try these:
1. Stop Homework
2. More stop homework
3. Homework Doesn't Work
4. If you really need homework.... here do some homework!

Reflections on Qingming

view from the hill @ 7.00am


Just returned from Qingming prayers at my grandfather's grave today.
It have been over 2 years since I last visited the grave and this
year's visit was especially special. No, we did not burn any paper
mobile phones, computers or any of the luxury cars with the drivers.
We went as simple as we could. We, however, did burn several million
dollars :-(

The older folks may probably believe the money actually gets
"transfered" to the deceased, we all know that prayer and our pure
thoughts are more important.

To me, qingming is important for families and relatives to come
together and share past experiences otherwise have no reason to talk
about. Today, I learnt, among other things, that my dad had been to
India, something I never knew. A few days after his return, did his
father, my grandfather, passed away.

More importantly for me qingming is a bridge that between our pasts
and future. It,s not just a ceremony but an event that constantly
help us appreciate our present and future through the knowledge and
lessons of the past.

May all being, past, present and future be well and happy.

Mobile blogging

This is an interesting way to upload blogs.
Will be doing more of this.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Regards,

K V Soon

http://www.familyplace.com.my
http://here-n-there.blogspot.com

Breaking Race Barriers: Start with Schools & Children

Here is something for our leaders to think about. While we have been hearing about the success of the recent elections and the breaking of the race-based politics barrier, I think we have barely scratched the surface. In my previous blog, I have stated that having a common enemy does not mean we have transformed, it merely meant that we have started to address common issues without looking into race and religions. Don't just organize parades and say that all is fine. All is not fine.

More need to be done than just have parades (source: The Star)

If our leaders are serious about improving race-relations and start to break down the barrier of race, I think several things need to be done.

1. Start with our schools and begin with our children. Consciously and pro-actively promote inter-racial understanding and appreciation - not just one race or religion. Have notice boards, spaces to showcase the various cultures. Have activities that encourage multi-racial participation. Some countries have implemented "Harmony Day" to bring all the activities into a one big celebration of diversity. Do it. Children do not have the perception of race until we adults and politicians taught them.

2. Use positive terms. One important terms we must do away with "tolerance" ("bertolak ansur"). It has to be replaced with "appreciation" which representatives an acceptance. Is there something that bad that we have to tolerate all the time? Come on, time to change.

3. Language usage. Especially the in greetings. Encourage its usage, not limit it. We do not really know how to greet people sometimes but this can rectified very easily, it is usually one or two words like "vanakam", "ni-hao", "namaste" or even "salam". It really bring out the spirit of appreciation if we can at least speak the most important phrase of a culture. Headmasters, can use it in the mornings when they address the school assembly.

4. Make use of Food. We may feel that that we know a lot when we walk into an Indian restaurant when we order the usual "roti" (canai, telur, tisu or bom). How many people know "tosai rawa" or even "massala tosai". Have regular food fairs in schools, this will promote understanding and appreciation of each other- there are enough food that we can all share.

5. Lastly, remove leaders who do not appreciate racial and cultural diversity. We not not need a keris-waving racist education minister to lead this very important ministry. We need someone with vision, insight and most important of all appreciative of the value of diversity of our cultures.

This have not touched about the problems in our schools, that I will leave it for another day. There are issue of quality, discipline and overcrowding of schools, etc. Forums like Education Malaysia dwell in quite a fair bit.

With this in mind, we wait to see Monday's announcement who will be our next education minister.

Pray and hope.

Otherwise, we can start planning 4 - 5 years down the road for the next elections.

It's time we stop playing the race-game

Political leaders, if you are worthy to be called leaders - should consciously and actively break down the race barriers. Everyone demands something:

PM Abdullah warned not to stoke racial tensions: “Do not marginalise the Malays. I want to ask Lim Guan Eng what his plans are for the Malays in Penang What are his plans for the Indians in Penang? What are his plans for other minority groups in Penang?”

While the Malays in Penang demand that: Kami ORANG MELAYU PULALU PINANG adalah orang yang paling malang di TANAH MELAYU, Malaysia. And Khir Toyo on new Selangor Exco: “There are only a few Malay exco members (being mentioned). We don’t want to see the new opposition-led state government to practice discrimination and hope that they heed the racial sensitivity of the Selangor people.”

The MCA chief Datuk Ong Ka Chuan on appointment of PAS Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as MB of Perak: He said Mohammad's appointment went against the wishes of voters, especially non-Muslims. “Having a mentri besar from PAS creates fear among non-Muslims. This also creates political instability.” Hi brother, the MCA President Ong Ka Ting assured party members and supporters that the party would continue to fight to protect and uphold the rights of the Chinese community.

Even the Independent candidate for Bukit Selambau state seat in Perlis, V.Arumugam said he would join PKR if the newly formed Kedah state government agrees to appoint him a state executive councillor. "I will do that in the interest of the Indian community and the people who voted for me," he said.

[Credits to David Tan for summary of the above and more, well done]

We need to tell these people"NO MORE! Start rallying the people together and Rakyat Malaysia - we will go through difficult and good time, we must do it together".

Every politician have that opportunity to stand-up to be a true statesman, any among us today?

Even a dog can win an election......

This was the comment one of my friends said I was have a discussion on (what else?) the elections. To see fairly strong incumbents lose to in-experienced, young (no focused) candidates I am concerned. While I am happy that we can safely see real change starting to take place where politicians will begin to take notice of people - yes, we are still here. I think many voted out of frustration, perhaps anger even. For too may years, people in power have too much of it and the built total ignorance of the people's feelings. The arrogance have finally driven them to the destruction. Or at least the beginnings of their destructions unless they are start to change. Judging from the newspaper reports I have been reading (yes the main stream media's news) it seems that it has not gotten into their heads (or not want to admit it). The blame continues. I hope deep inside these leaders, they see and admit in their hearts.

The collective anger and frustration that drove the results of this election give many of us a common enemy as it were. This went beyond race, religion and whatever differences we have. But is that enough to hold us together? Are we truly united and have we really gone beyond the race-based culture we have been so used?

Yes, many of us (me included) felt for the once we were Malaysian and felt empowered in this election. This election we "ganged-up" and went after corruption, crony ism that had reached the a stage where many felt has started to fail this country. We have to do something and we did!

But I feel we have not yet really crossed the race barrier - but it is a start, a small start. A start toward some level of political and social maturity. We have yet to touch issue like religion, health, education in significant depth. We have also not touched deep enough on issues pertaining to the economy and how we can all solve them together - we were concerned, and driven to the point by the oppositions politicians by reminding that things are getting more expensive, our pockets are hurting - they did not dwell in depth on the economy as a whole and its long term prospects. Suffice to know that BN stands for "Barang Naik" and that want matters. I think it is not enough, we need more engagement into depth and strategies. Unfortunately, it is us, the voters, that cannot comprehend this and cannot engage deeply with our politicians to make them think and respond in a more strategic manner. Politicians need to think beyond and outside the box - the people need to lead.

To really cross the race barrier, we all need to be able to look at deeper issues from economic, education to foreign policies to as one race, "Bangsa Malaysia". We have nonetheless, started out infant step towards real change. I pray, hope the next 5 years we move the next steps into making our country, our home a much better place to be in.

Every dog may have its day but I hope and pray the candidates we have voted in will adhere to their promise, make Malaysia great again.

Feeling ripples before the tsunami

I immediately felt the ground shake and when the votes were being counted. I was assigned to a rural polling station where the majority of the voters were Malays. This was a place where DAP had hardly any chance of scoring any significant number of votes based on past election records. It was difficult to describe my surprise and shock of my BN counterpart when the ballot papers showed again and again crosses next to the picture of the rocket. My PKR's counterpart was equally surprised.

I just felt like getting on the phone to call the next room, call the other polling stations and ask, "Is this happening elsewhere??!!?". I had to keep my eyes and fixated to the votes being counted - to make sure it was real. All the while, I was asking myself, "If this is the response from a rural area, with possibly limited internet access, what's happening in the larger cities?"

When I walked out of the room upon confirming the results, we quickly tabulated the counted and were were shocked with the results with rest of the rooms. We quickly relayed the resulted to the HQ and drove back to our rendezvous point about 10 minutes away. When set and had our drinks (Chinese tea), the phone calls started to pour in. One by one, the (unofficial) results was, "We won here and there and everywhere!" There was jubilation in the air. There was sense of satisfaction.

There were about 10 of us crowded in this small coffee-shop shack in the middle of rubber and palm estates, trying to get the latest results. Drinking hot tea, we were full of excitement and and anticipation waiting for the next phone call to come in. After several minutes, the lines were jammed - calling in and out was getting increasingly difficult. But hey, I have a 3G phone and I quickly powered the browser up and immediately looked for results. The site that offered (almost) minute by minute updates was malaysiakini.com. It reported wins after wins for the DAP-PKR-PAS parties. In no time, the Chinese tea was "upgraded" to tiger beer! Food was brought in, it was party time! The ripple effect at the voting station during count was turning out to be a tidal wave! Indeed, The Star called it "Political Tsunami" the next morning.

I called home to relay the updates. My wife and my parents, glued to the TV did not get any news on any of the local stations, except for the occasional wins by BN. I told them to go burn the TV and get on the internet - check out Malaysiakini! The local television covering the elections did not report any opposition wins and held back till the very last minute when the barriers finally broke. Yet, they did not give a true sense of what happened on the ground.

Back to this little place, we did not realize the impact until the next news flash came: "Penang Falls". The it really took us by surprise - we wanted to win, to give a opposing voice, to provide check and balance - now it's the other way. While I was thinking deeply about this matter (will share my thoughts on a separate entry), the little dinner celebration continued. Shortly after, I parted my new found friends.

We reminded each other to go home, relax and go sleep. We hoped that energies will be channeled in Parliament to make changes - not onto the streets.

It had been a long day day for me. Sleep was what I really needed. I got out of the house before 7, voted in one place, polling agent in another and counting in one more and got back by midnight. It was extremely interesting and rewarding to have participated in the democratic process.

It was extra rewarding to be part of a process of a historical event unseen for the past 50 years!

MARCH 8, 2008: Let's make a difference!

My friends,

It is time to make a choice! Let's all go to the polls tomorrow and VOTE!

Let's not be afraid to vote and make the change. A change towards a betterment of our quality of life, greater civil liberties and freedom. We need to think the beyond race and embrace each other as valuable human beings and live together in that right. Hence, I will be going to the polls tomorrow as a Malaysian - not Chinese, but a Rakyat Malaysia.

We must think beyond the local issues of the "longkangs", the roads and whatever local problems we may have - these are not the problems - these are merely symptoms of a much bigger problems that needs to be resolved at the higher level - at the level of our Parliament. It is there where laws and policies that needs to be formulated to address problems at the root.

For too long, we have had people in the Parliament that allowed power to go their heads and arrogance without bounds. If we viewed the laws and amendments to the Constitution that has been done over the past 50 years - few of them have the interest of the people at heart. We are all familiar with the issues and I need not elaborate here.

The message is clear: Change is NECESSARY. It is necessary, and timely for a change in government. If we cannot achieve that, we should at least vote in a strong opposition to enable effective check and balance. We have the power and should exercise that power to make the change.

Let's do it! Let's do it without fear, anger or malice.

Let's do it for the love of our country, our home!










K V Soon

DON'T VOTE FOR ME

For you are voting in Seremban's LOBAK state seat (N.11), please don't vote for "me". If you do........
I promise to be your voice in Parliament.
I promise to drive improvement and quality of life.
Bring development and improvement to education... and all the other promises in the beautifully written and printed Manifesto 2008 of the Barisan Nasional.

Caveat: Of course, the above will be subjected to the approval by my bosses and have to be align with the whole BN (aka UMNO) message. I will have no brains to think for myself and for you. I will be shot if I vote against the BN (aka UMNO), even if it screws the rakyat, the voters. I don't care. You must understand I only care about myself. Once I am elected, I will have access to contracts and business opportunities (hopefully get a project like PKFZ), make some money and send my children overseas. Of course, I will follow suit and good riddance get out of this god-forsaken country.

So, as my bosses say - there is only ONE choice. Please vote wisely.


Koi Voon

I am for Barisan Rakyat

Should we continue to vote in the ruling parties, who have publicly announced that they cannot (or will not) speak up for our rights because their "hands are tied"? I think not!

Should we vote in the opposition and let them rule the country? YES and NO

Yes, to deny BN the 2/3 majority and enable check and balance.
No, let's see how they fare as our voices in Parliament

We should check ALL their report cards in 4-5 years time. Ruling or Opposition parties, they need to be on their toes to serve the people and the country.

More on Barisan Rakyat here.

Go out and VOTE, and VOTE WISELY!

Are we Better than Myanmar?

Following 2008 elections, it is depressing to note that a parliamentary candidate and (caretaker) deputy minister "happily compared Malaysia’s fifty years of achievement with the sadder state of affairs in Myanmar" (source:Malaysiavotes.com)

Yes, it was Datuk Donald Lim who made this statement. I wished I could ask (and he able to answer me): WHY? HOW?

Are we better off than Myanmar because our Police break up demonstration by spraying chemical-laced water at the protesters, while the Myanmar army or police shoot "live" bullets? Is it because we need to be thankful that in dissidents in Myanmar are shot (including monks) and their bodies thrown in swaps while we in Malaysian (not even dissidents) are more compassionate and are allowed to live - under ISA?

how lah Datuk? Myanmar children cannot scuba dive, what?

Why-lah Datuk, you must compare with Myanmar? Why not Singapore or Indonesia or Thailand or even Taiwan and benchmark against ourselves and see our country move forward. What are you afraid of? Working hard? Do we need to we compare ourselves with a country whose GDP is below Malaysia's.

It's time you wake up and respect the people who voted you. If you are out of ideas, step down, let someone else who is courageous enough to benchmark ourselves higher and move to that direction. I cannot imagine you speaking for us in Parliament. I imagine we bring you an issue, you tell us its not a problem - Myanmar worse. The boos and the jeers were appropriate, I hope it was loud enough.

When you retire (I hope it will be very soon), I would like to suggest a great place - Timbuktu, its better than Mogadishu (my apologies to my African friends).

Read more at: Malaysiavotes.com or dap-election.com