Friday, July 27, 2012

人文修養

有一种学科叫人文

讀了這篇文章后,我有感:


我是人在理科,其實心系人文科。我沒有後悔過我當初的選擇,現在我是兩邊通吃的人。我承認當初我也存有人文科無法為我未來工作‘升值’ ,‘沒錢途’的利益考量,而最後沒有選修中文系或政治/社會學。


儘管如此,在我選擇了理科后往這條路走的時候,我並沒有放棄自修人文科,鍛煉自己的批判和分析思維,增廣自己的視野。

今天我在理科界,不代表不久以後的我就不會再換軌道,我還是我,我清楚知道自己最初最終的熱忱是什麽。畢竟經歷了這麼多年來的歷練,我比當初作決定往理科走的我成熟多了。

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

雙飛翼

那天,你我在晴空萬里的北海自由翱翔比翼齊飛 ^^



Sunday, July 22, 2012

a truly inspiring TED talk on School Education nowadays

Truly inspiring and witty TED talk by this speaker below about school education nowadays that is killing creativity and richness of kids potential to be something great. This talk was 6 years ago, but all talk points still stand today.



推薦三文章

1) 這篇梁友瑄撰寫的《獨立新聞在線》文章,也是本周我要推薦的。

理性不足,感性变异的国度

她很感慨一個由短暫感性主導的社會正義課題,大部份民眾可以輕易地隨著時間的流逝而‘健忘’。這樣會促使當權者習慣性地使用拖字訣來處理此類課題,因為他們深諳民眾都是健忘的,他們就不會因此付出代價。

我們真的可以縱容不正義的事持續地在大馬發生嗎?(想像一下趙明福事件)要學習?看看台灣人處理白色恐怖事件吧!




2)一篇楊善勇關於教育的好文章,大力推薦!一马教育,几时芬兰?

我從一開始就不相信國族統一語言教育(無論是用英語或馬來語),芬蘭和瑞士的教育模型是我的最好抗辯!我要捍衛多元主義,拒絕單元化。


3)楊善勇寫的文章一般上行文極盡挖苦諷刺和幽默。但是每當他一寫起趙明福,他的文章其實很感傷,很悲:他的爸爸永远是个缺席者

他選用的詩和歌詞的片段來作的表達都拳拳痛入我心扉,最恰當不過了。

原來羅大佑/林志炫的《你的樣子》是可以描繪這樣的意境。

梳邦烏達瑪國中華文學會-- 十年飛逝

看了梳邦烏達瑪國中華文學會的最新執委名單,有點感慨時光的飛逝,長江後浪推前浪,轉眼間我已離開那學會有十年了。所有名字我都不認識,除了現在的口才組(辯論組)組長-- 是我以前戰友李馨怡的妹妹咧!

我只想順道提一提我的想法...不知道學會的會歌還是那首《路》嗎?(你們可以考我,我還記得歌詞,還會唱)
如果是,我想建議他們如果有能力,應該再創作一首來代替。
我個人真的認為那首歌實在太悲壯了,曲調似乎比較適合控訴我們華教的坎坷命運的悲情或者紀念中國六四事件。 

換政府


513之后和308之前,只有吉兰丹州,登嘉楼州和沙巴州的人民有过换政府的‘经验’。自马来亚独立以来,联邦政府一直都在联盟/国阵的掌控之下,不曾被替换过。换言之,国阵就是建国以来的自然执政党。

今年,国阵政府在国庆日和大马日来临前夕主打‘一诺千金’的口号。其用意是要提醒人民要感恩这个国家自从独立以来至今的和平稳定,各族和谐,繁华进步,经济高度发展等等的成就。国阵政府自认讲到做到了这些承诺,要国人认真地考虑,不要轻易地受在野党联盟的煽动鼓吹而转向支持他们,要不然以上所提的成就可能毁于一旦。国阵政府的潜意识就是告诉人民,不要贸贸然地换政府典当国本,因为未来的未知数是很可怕的。

隆雪华堂民权委员会主席廖国华先生早前针对民众害怕街头示威的现象就做了很巧妙的比喻:人民就像没见过鬼而因此对鬼感到莫名的恐惧。借用他的比喻,人民现在害怕换联邦政府也是同样的道理。可是在很多真正民主的国家,换政府其实是很正常的民主程序,不是什么大件事,也没什么好大惊小怪的。在英国,自从男女都可以投票的1918年普选以来,已经历了13次的政党轮替。而在美国,自从二战以来,总统府也在共和党与民主党之间徘徊替换了8次。西方民主国家的政党轮替现象说明了没有哪个政党是不能被取代的,也没有哪个执政党输了以后就永久不能翻身。

针对这些西方国家的例子,国阵政府或许会不认同,可能说西方的民主价值观和国情都与大马很不同,这样作比较是不公平的。笔者记得前首相敦马哈迪曾叫人民向东学习,那就看看亚洲有什么值得学习的例子。在日本,自民党从1955年创党以来差不多连续执政了54年,直到2009年终于首次被民主党打破了一党独大的僵局。在台湾,自从1996年首次举办的总统民主选举,16年以内政党也轮替了两次。而南韩,自从1987年的第六共和国成立首次开放举办总统民主选举之后,一直都是多党制的民主国家。这些东亚国家如今不是也好端端的没动荡不安,国家依然欣欣向荣稳健发展吗

或许东亚国家的地理位置远了一点,与我国多元种族的国家国情应该又不符合。那么,且看看邻国吧!撇开绝对君主制小国汶莱和至今仍一党独大同样也有民主缺陷的新加坡不谈,(苏哈多独裁政权垮台后的)印尼,泰国和菲律宾都已目睹了大马人民还未见过的‘鬼’。

虽然换了政府未必就能解决所有的问题,但那是完全出自于人民自主意愿手上一票的决定,这就是民主的意义。政府应该要明白,人民才是真正的老板,拥有‘聘请’和更换国家‘经理’的最大实权。所以政府尤其更应该感恩回报选民50多年长期以来的信任和委托,而不是反倒叫老板要感恩或威胁恐吓老板强迫继续聘请。真正健全的民主选举就是让各个政党都要有接受败选的心理准备,因为随时会被民意请下台交出政权倘若真的是一个公平自由民主的选举制度,又怎么可能让一个执政党永久在位呢?如果制度没偏袒,败选的政党即使心里滋味不好受,但理应秉持着‘留得青山在不愁没柴烧’的精神,只要下届再努力拟定更好的竞选策略来赢取民心,哪怕来日不能重新执政呢?

一些国阵领袖常标签那些与在野党站在一起的人民为反政府份子,更激进的甚至会把这些选民描绘成是国家的叛徒。其实他们错了,不少人民真正要的不是反政府,只是想要换政府罢了。


Sunday, July 15, 2012

給你黃金(草)地


窮人只好這麼說咯,用大自然來詩情畫意一番 :P

我沒有錢沒有辦法給你黃金,但是我可以給你一整大片的黃金(草)地。^^

3年的等待 -- 趙明福命案沉冤待雪



2009年7月15日,是我心中永远的痛。

3年了,都没有真相和答案。

我就只想要知道事情的究竟和来龙去脉,要有人还我们公道和正义,要有人认错、负责,公开地向赵家和全国人民道歉忏悔。我相信赵家应该与我一样,并没有真正想要看到有人会因此被宣判谋杀死罪。那些反贪委员会的调查官也只是奉行上层命令的棋子而已。虽然他们必须承担责任,更重要我们要追究责任的是那些策划阴招推翻雪州政府的国阵领袖!我们要知道他们是谁和到底做了什么!!!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

李宗偉的金塊誘惑


那天在大學醫院的食堂,我與台灣室友吃飯聊天,例常向對方談起各自國內的新聞。恰好那天的新聞頭條之一是李宗偉拿著‘黑心金條’愉快的模樣。我就對他說有跡象顯示Dato李是國陣的支持者,而那金條產自黃懨懨選區內的黑心礦場。他說,有什麽好奇怪的,Dato李是國陣的人是自然不過的事;理智地想,到底是誰一直給他機會、贊助他、對他好呢?經他一這麼說,確實我覺得有道理。英文俗語說:Never bite the hands that feed you, 這也許就是Dato李的寫照。

無論如何,即將在3周后前往倫敦觀賞奧林匹克羽球決賽的我,還是會希望在決賽看到他。我也會放下政治歧見支持Dato李拿金牌為國爭光。我其實同時也希望他能憑良心認清那金塊的來由,然後拒絕那黑心的賜賞,這樣才能夠獲得全國人的尊敬 -- 即使不直接說明是爲了勞勿bukit koman居民的健康,也可以顯示他體育家精神,不為錢財而戰!

How to change Malaysia from Overseas

1) Read news from independent online news portals regularly, such as Malaysiakini, Merdekareview (Chinese & BM), MalaysianInsider (free). Don't just read news and absorb what is on the surface. Do read also opinion, column or news analysis articles to deepen your understanding about certain issues and learning more of the background. The depth of your understanding and knowledge would be very useful to form your own critical opinions later. (one shall also read broadly on world's issues, so that one can take good examples from other nations to improve our own)

2) Share the news article you read (which is very worth recommending) and share your ideas on Facebook , Twitter or Blog. This will encourage constructive discussion and interaction with some other fellow Malaysians. You will later found that you are NOT alone in this path to a better Malaysia, together we could make it. It is always nice to find like-minded Malaysian 'comrades' living abroad in this way.



Join also Facebook  Pages such as:
1) 1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower (http://www.facebook.com/NoMegaTower)
2) Curi curi Wang Malaysia (http://www.facebook.com/CuriCuriWangMalaysia)
3) MediaRakyat (http://www.facebook.com/mediarakyatnet) - for those who wants to get more political video updates.

3) Do involve yourself activities organised in your area. If you could, organise one yourself also, be it formal or informal one. Set up a group or an organisation, would be easier to keep everyone together and serves to attract interested members in future. Sometimes activity as simple as Forum or Talk doesn't seem very impressive, but very useful to upgrade your mind. Various groups at Overseas should share the same common vision and limited resources. Collaboration and interaction with each other should be greatly encouraged. Then, this could push further the momentum of change.

4) Go back home to Malaysia once in awhile, and take the initiative to talk to your family your friends (in your kampung) about your opinions, spread the words and explain to keep them informed, if they don't know or don't understand something. This is for the benefits of them also.

If all of us are doing these 4 points, this will generate ripple effect. Well done, I can see the change is coming soon =) Knowledge and information, plus Actions, will make ordinary powerless citizens becoming very Powerful! Those are the best thing to equip ourselves against a corrupted autocratic regime (generated from a fraud and biased Election mechanism) . No, we are not ANTI-government, we just wanna CHANGE government. We believe in genuine Democracy, and we will push for it for the better future of our motherland =)

Saturday, July 07, 2012

当全职妈妈是一个真正的选择...


上个周二在本报的言论版,我阅读了我朋友庄白琦撰写的不要当Supermum!》文章。我认为那是好文,再加上我支持白琦的决定和认同她的想法,所以就通过面子书作了分享。接着我女友就很认真地要与我谈这个职场妈妈与全职妈妈的课题。她以为我在暗示她关于未来的决定。我说,没有,我会尊重和支持她在那情况下作的任何决定。我还说我会致力给她有个真实的选择。为何我会如此说呢?

在马来西亚,尤其是在巴生河流域和全国各大城市,近十年来物价一直高涨不下,薪水增幅并没有跟上脚步。入不敷出是不少城市家庭的写照。如今,对于那些大学毕业不久踏入社会职场又刚建立家庭的年轻人,单凭一份薪水(特别是刚起步的工作)大概只够勉强养活夫妻两口罢了,何况是有了孩子后的家庭开销(别忘记现时的大学毕业生很多都是欠了一大笔贷款债务的)?夫妻档一起打拼,双份薪水是不少家庭经济的基础。若刚好这时出现了年轻妈妈,现实情况还是要逼她在坐了月子后重投职场挣钱养家。如果你问这些年轻妈妈,她们要不要当全职妈妈?这对她们来说或许是个奢想。这不是意愿的问题,而是现实能力的问题。所以说,不是每个家庭都允许女性有真正的选择可以做全职妈妈。

我女友说,她的母亲是上班妈妈,她的姐姐也是。她以本身经历来论证职场妈妈在教养孩子方面不一定会比全职妈妈逊色(这个论点当然我不好推翻啦)。虽然职场妈妈会比较辛苦,但她们会觉得辛苦也值得。孩子们照样可以得到关爱健康成长,以后更能谅解父母出外工作和兼顾家庭的用心。可能在她的眼里,现代的女人也应该与男人一样,可以同时拥有事业和家庭。但又为何只有男人干一番大事业看来好像是天经地义的事,女人又何尝不可有自己的事业、志向与抱负呢?难道一定要为了家庭这个大前提而牺牲吗?很多时候事业对于个人,或许不真的纯粹是为了薪酬而已,应该也为了一种人生成就感吧!


‘男主外女主内’的观念在东方社会至今还很盛行。照顾孩子和管家似乎是女性天生无法推卸的责任,即使是职场妈妈也没例外。但是在一个真正男女两性平权的社会里,男人亦可做全职爸爸。 我女友在瑞典求学时就见识到不少推婴孩车买菜的全职爸爸 (延伸阅读:Sweden: Land of the Stay-At-Home Dad
。这些景象是东方人难以想象的。这印证了妈妈管家是非必然的。女性应该也有事业和家庭责任的自主权,不应该被传统社会文化束缚着。职场妈妈要做的是为家庭与事业找一个平衡点

Manpower Research and Statistics Department &  Singapore Department of Statistics, Oct 2011


我女友是新加坡人。从该国社会的现象来观察,不难理解她的想法。根据2010年的官方数据统计,有90.3%介于25岁与29岁之间拥有高等学历的新加坡女性投入职场,而30-34岁之间的亦保有88.9%这显示正值成家年龄和结婚有小孩后的人生转换阶段,离开职场当全职妈妈的女性或许只有极少数。反观,马来西亚只有58.1%结婚后仍上班的职场女性,而投入劳动市场的全国女性也只有区区的45.5%。即使与其他区域性的邻国比较(比如说泰国和汶莱),大马女性投入职场的比率还是偏低的,尽管受高等教育的女性日益增多。

2007年政府举办的大马女性高峰会议就出现了职场改革提案,要求上班妈妈有伸缩性的工作时间和工作安排。另外,缺乏育儿场所安排也被鉴定成为一个主要因素阻扰产后女性重投职场。虽然雇用外国籍的‘家庭帮手’成为了大马近十多年来的趋势,但这不仅不是一个解决方案,反而造成了更多的社会问题。

对于未来的选择,我就对我女友说,我的立场一直是将职场妈妈与全职妈妈的选择权和自主权回归到她的意愿家庭和事业毕竟并不是鱼与熊掌的选择,家庭责任也是共同承担的责任。


本文原刊登在《聯合日報》自由言論版     


延伸阅读材料:
1)Are Malaysian Women Interested in Flexible Working Arrangements at Workplace?


Wednesday, July 04, 2012

A dichotomy between Private and Public (in Facebook)

Weekends ago, I spoke to a friend whom I did not have direct communication for quite sometime, at another friend's wedding ceremony.

I remember one very interesting part of our conversation (besides that insight he provided me about football betting industry) was about the usage of Facebook.

To him, Facebook should be seen as a private sphere, one shall not invade people's (wall) space too much with pushing/hard selling some business or political ideas. He wants to put Facebook for lighter use (such as entertaining news and jokes) and for updating with other people's life. He would not have a second thought to put a strict restriction to those users who 'violate' his privacy space.

To me, I see Facebook as a virtual public space. Spams and forceful direct-selling , of course I don't welcome too. However, my intention is always to make my Facebook wall and its news feed open to serve as an informative and learning centre, a public place where opinions and thoughts exchanged are greatly encouraged. I enjoy the freedom of speech or expression there, not only to spread my ideas, thoughts or opinions, but also be able to exchange with others and join others' discussion. For sure, in order to achieve that, I must have that set of friends who are more often than the rest to make a positive contribution and to share their original thoughts that spark the discussion or debate. There are some 'friends' in my list, are public figures or bordering to public figures. Some might not really know me in real person before FB, but FB just manage to expand my social network , to bridge me with other like-minded personals. Through that process, FB benefits me a lot, widen my knowledge and perspectives.

Despite I am enjoying also light moments on FB wall , and delighted to learn about others' life, I am rather conservative in sharing my private life. I guess, I quite rarely use FB to tell people about my whereabouts, about what I did at that time point, to rant or grumble about certain things or person (within my real life circle). I only spread my words about the current status, if there is any big event happening or had happened, at which my friends are supposed to know or get updated about. I do not intend to spam people's wall with daily itinerary, just because I don't think that would benefit much to those who read it. I do think that, the real life interpersonal relationship should retain its role, should not be distorted by the virtual social networking. If you care about someone, you would take the initiative to ask his or her well-being, and probably invite him or her out to get together and update with each other. For friendship, direct face to face meeting is still always the best and the most sincere way of  communication. It is also the best sign and gesture of appreciating someone. =)

Sometimes, some personal feelings or thoughts, I would rather to share them only on my blog, because the blog is certainly a private space of mine. There is still a huge difference between FB and Blog. Most of the people would just let the news feed passively flowing onto FB wall, and they read it not because they initially want to nor that they genuinely care to know about it. For personal blog, it is different. If someone really cares about me, he or she would perhaps bookmark my blog, and go take his/her initiative to check me out just because they care to know about me. In blog, they could seldom miss my post ('coz I am not a heavy blogger), but on FB news feed or FB wall, very soon the post will be fading into backlog and you probably don't notice it anything you have just missed. Blog is my space, I have the total freedom to do what I like , without causing some sensitive people discomfort or irking some others just because they think I took away some precious seconds of their attention and have spammed their wall (should they not enjoy my post). However, I would feel shameless and guiltless to post or to share something on FB, if i deem it to be informative, inspiring or could benefit someone (if not all friends). Sometimes I could also well tune and target my audience differently by using specific language I know, due to a diverse background of friends I know from all over the globe.

科学系统式训练 Result of scientific habit

我发现,即使我写专栏文章,总难免不先习惯性地寻找一些数据与资料来佐证支持我的论点和看法。

我觉得这都是科学系统式训练来的结果 ;-P

I realise that, even though I am writing articles for my chinese bi-weekly column, I found myself difficult to withdraw from the habit of first seeking for supporting figures and facts to support my point of views and my argument.

I believe that , this is a result from the scientific training.

Sunday, July 01, 2012

《第一次》

近期很值得推薦的一部中文電影《第一次》-- 採用法式浪漫主義的小品電影拍攝手法(cinematography) (如Amelie般唯美非現實,色彩豐富),劇情非直線敘述并有出乎預料的曲折,對白和場景設計很特別,再加上非常動聽的電影原聲帶(如果你也喜歡一些搖滾音樂會更讚賞)。

在觀賞這部電影前,沒有抱有太高期望的我,最後竟有如此的驚喜,意外收穫,開心 =)


電影預告


插曲《哭得像小孩》



《都要微笑好嗎》(周傑倫曲,方文山詞)


我最愛的一幕--如果我做到如此的道歉方式,就天下無敵了,哈哈哈