Monthly Archives: July 2010

Nonsense Friday: Teachers as Politicians?

I’ve been reading the papers, browsing through columns, opinions, news and articles. And for the past 2 days, the hit-topic has been on Teachers as Politicians. I don’t know how you’d be feeling if you had a teacher who was a Politician, of if you child is placed under a teacher whom is a Politician. I personally think is such a bad move to allow teachers to actively be involved in politics; just as if the politics here in our country is not bad enough. A teacher’s duty is to educate, teach and to serve the students and to bring up kids/students in the right way and right path. So, now. How can the government organisations complain that teacher has heavy workload while they are trying to add another heavier burden on them. Put yourselves in the shoe of the politicians, do you ever once think it is easy? It is so ironic how one can complain on the workload and yet agree to this foolish decision. Enlighten me if you think that being a politician will give the teachers lesser workloads. Furthermore, teachers should always be respected by students. And being respected does have an impact in influencing the thoughts of the students. So, how can we teach students to be democratic and to have freedom of speech if, for example the teacher is from the government or even the opposition. How do you justify that? For example, a student choose to speak against an issue that is against the government, where the teacher (politician) is supporting. Hence, how would that class be like? A parliamentary debate? It does not also take a genius to know that our education system is getting from bad to worst, what more when/if the teachers are involved in politics? Teachers will probably spend much time politicking in class than any other things and will not bother about their professional duties. In addition, what happens when general election comes? WIll all classes be cancelled? Or be replaced? Where will these politician teachers be? Giving speeches, promising manifestoes? Won’t that neglect school duties? Yes, in previous years in history, teachers are often politicians but in this generation, this no longer works. If a teacher can complain the heavy burden in school, why even add additional burdens? School those days ain’t like school these days. Politics those days ain’t too like politics these days. It can’t be compared. Is not justifiable to say that voice of teachers on issues would be heard more at the political level and that they should be given the opportunity to play a constructive role in politics. There are many ways to do that, but not using our kids and students as the medium. Do we have to go to this extend? Tell me your views! :)

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Amazing Race (Part 2)

Okay, I am a little lazy to go on typing today, but these are some other stations. And just some clarifications, those who looked highly on me and thought I joined the race, I was one of the Person In Charge for the event. So i DID NOT RUN! I wished I could say that I did it but nah. Here’s another station at Maluri area and they were required to do some actions.DSC00165 DSC00168 DSC00177 DSC00180  DSC00183 And at this place, they arrived at the station in Petaling Jaya Museum to do tasks in there:DSC07025 DSC07026 DSC07039 DSC07040 DSC07042 DSC07045 A finale to the event, not all survived, But this was just a part of those who actually arrived back at church as the final stop. They were one energetic bunch!DSC_2321DSC_2328  Here you go, the winners:DSC_2323 DSC_2324 DSC_2325 More final shots before we head off!DSC_2326 DSC_2327 IMG_0206 And there the winners walked away with the cash with the bright smiles on their faces! Whoever said that I am long winded with my posts, please tell me lah! Haha

Amazing Race Part 1

It was in the month of March that my church youths, organised an Amazing Race around Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya. It was so amazing we actually had like 30 teams of 3 per team – which had around 90 participants and around slightly less than 30 volunteers. Was kinda fun meeting up with many of the participants from different places and different schools. They were all so cool people that some of them dressed up as a team!DSC_2240 DSC_2242 DSC_2247 Youths came so early, chilling up, discussing their terrible strategies to outbeat each other to win RM 1200 cash prize!DSC_2248 More chilling out, hanging out and waiting before it officially starts!DSC_2251 Task 1: To finish off a Sudoku as well as to drink the BIttergourd juice before leaving the Church to head out to all around KL/PJ!DSC_2259 DSC_2260 Now, all rushing off by running down the flight of stairs instead of using the lifts. It was a race against time definitely!DSC_2264 While some people still suffers over the juice…DSC_2270 Look at their faces and see these expressions on their faces!DSC_2271 DSC_2272 Task 2 at Station 2: Shooting the cans with papers and rubber bands.DSCN0551 DSCN0542 Tasl 3 at Station 2: Counting the number of green and red beans. Got their eyes crazy.DSCN0544 Taking numbers for their turn as many reached at the same time!DSCN0547 Task 4 at Station 3: Counting the number of footsteps in the park. Was crazy as different people had different foot size. But nevertheless, was fun!DSC_2282 Task 5 at Station 4: Jumping Rocks to Collect Apples. Was crazy to see how these crazy people can jump like that without falling. Or maybe I’m just bad at it.DSC_2290 DSC_2292 DSC_2296 Task 6 at Station 4: Still at Taman Permaisuri. Carrying heavy water to walk across eggs and the massage walk. Funny to see their expressions; was priceless.DSC_2297 DSC_2308 DSC_2311Task 7 at Station 4: Climbing up the steps. Was such a torture for their leg muscles and all.DSC_2317 To be continued…

Okay, get ready to wave your hands to say Bye Bye to Hong Kong. Yes, this is the final post – with loads of videos in it. I was so reluctant to post so many, but I did anyways. Note I deleted like so many of those videos. Here are some best recorded video from that trip and if you don’t have time, watch any of the Fireworks video. Sure worth your time. The beauty of those fireworks (sorry, pollution also lah) amazes me. Video 1: As I was mentioning, we were saying no laughing in the Roller Coaster yesterday right? These 2 pretty girls laughed their way through and hence, the punishment was to dance in public and yeah, they did! They kinda embarrassed themselves when the crowd was just looking at the 2 weird people laughing while dancing.

While waiting for the Fireworks, we were so tired and yet we still did a recording of our lame selves. It doesn’t at all look good with our gila gila looks and crap. You just need to see the crap we said there.

Video 2: And this was the pre-Fireworks where the dancers and all came out.

Here comes all the amazing fireworks that really brighten up my world and my new year. It was such a great start to view this magnificent fireworks. I saw it 2 years back, and I somehow think it got even prettier as the 2 years passed.

Hence, with this. Bid farewell to Hong Kong. I hope to be there again. No doubt about that. Anyone up for that? 😛

Disneyland (2)

Okay, here am I continuing my blog post on Disneyland in Hong Kong. I know it’s supposed to be Nonsense Friday but hey, I don’t want to go around crying foul over the Petrol Hike since it’s the most trendy topic. So, I decided to get on with Disneyland. But before that, i left out this video that I did on introing Kowloon, Hong Kong. Mind my sleep face! 😛

At Disneyland, we also popped by one of it’s activities called “Festival of the Lion King”. Please excuse the bad quality of pictures because we were too busy having fun and not taking pictures! Forgive me lah, ok?hk pics 679 hk pics 680 In the Festival of the Lion King, was dark and nice! And if you were wondering why I’m only with this gang, cause we separated into a few teams and I so happened to be with this.hk pics 683 We were racing against time and so, pictures had to be taken on the move. Thats how rush we were. Thank goodness I been in there once, I do know some whereabouts in Disneyland!hk pics 694 We felt this was a good place to take pictures and hence, we rushed in and just snapped a few pictures!hk pics 700 We sat Space Mountain for oh gosh, 3 times. And knowing I had loads of fears with such adventures, I chose to go in because of the dearest youths. And I finally conquered my fears after the first round and somehow, got even more hyped up!hk pics 714 Honestly, we were running low on cash and we didn’t want to change extra money there so, we just snapped a few piccas there from the screen! Don’t call me chapskate lar!hk pics 718 While waiting for some other rides, we took some pictures. And yes, that was the only time for some nice smiles to be on it!hk pics 720 hk pics 722 Waiting to enter the 4D movie. It was so nice to be watching it and the feeling was just indescribable!hk pics 746hk pics 760And here is something that costs me a bomb. I think I spent like RM 25-30 just for that bowl of noodles. And it was such small portion and I’d say, not worth eating. But what choice did we have?hk pics 766 hk pics 767 Another round of our craziness, it’s not a constipated face okay? We were playing some games in the ride. The deal was not to laugh in the ride and we were constantly tickling and disturbing each other and gosh, I got it from those around me too! And we did say we wanted to do silly faces when the camera flashes! 😛hk pics 779 My constipated facehk pics 780Some other rides and their pictures. Nice background and architecture, isnt it? 😛P1070529 P1070534 P1070535 P1070538 P1070540 P1070545 P1070550 How can Disneyland be without ToyStory right?P1070594 Some cool stuffs they were selling at the stores. Don’t ask me how much, I did not get any of those!P1070600 P1070603  We also played this Spinning Cup thingy where we screamed and shouted like mad and I almost almost puked!

Here is Hong Kong Disneyland!hk pics 792 Okay, one last post on Disneyland and it’s just videos I think and I am gonna sign off from Hong Kong! Isn’t it just awesome?

Disneyland (1)

I know I am still in Hong Kong, but hey, this is the 2nd last post and next post on Disneyland is gonna be pretty short. So, if you just don’t know where to go in Hong Kong, I am sure Disneyland is one major attraction. When you arrive at the airport, you’d see the heavy promotions all over. It’s terrific. We took a train to Disneyland together.hk pics 599 hk pics 600 hk pics 613 hk pics 614 hk pics 615  hk pics 622  A gift from the Amazing Conference that we just attended, rings necklace as memories:hk pics 628 hk pics 637 When vanity strikes, girls can do anything and everything, even in the toilet: hk pics 638 Being in the holiday season and New Year 2010, the crowd in Disneyland was massive. Undeniable that it has became one of the major attractions in the world. The parade began shortly after our entrance and we were just amazed and amused with the huge well designed animated characters into a gigantic presentation for the parade. hk pics 640 hk pics 642 hk pics 650 hk pics 651 hk pics 657 hk pics 658 hk pics 660 hk pics 661 Basically, the parade took the first part of Disneyland. I am saying bye bye to Disneyland, Hong Kong and all in 2 days time.

Hong Kong (Part 6)

I am actually summarising my posts for Hong Kong already. At the Conference, each country were supposed to present an item (I’ve said it before). And Malaysia’s performance was just almost the last night. Here, we were behind the stage practicing hard for our performance to do our best to represent Malaysia in the international (Asian) arena. We were nervous yet hilarious.hk pics 534There we go, we’re on. Singing “Standing in the Eyes of the World”P1060820 P1060851 Done with the Conferences’ post in Hong Kong. Now, we were about to celebrate New Year 2010 at Hong Kong. We were hosted by a church in Hong Kong – accommodation and all. They brought us out for dinner and on the way, they were so amazed with the POLICE Uniform! 😛hk pics 533 Here, at the Countdown, I was put up to doing the Solo because the Original Ashley was away somewhere somehow. So yeah, I had to do it.hk pics 535 hk pics 538 We did this in the Conference, but not many pictures. We did the same at the Countdown. We were introducing the Malaysia’s stuffs to the world. KL Tower, Twin Tower, Louie Vuitton, Nike and so on. It was funny! :)P1090145 P1090146 P1090147 P1090148 Penang Bridge:P1090149 So called, the “Eye of Malaysia”:P1090150 P1090151 P1090155 And here was the video of our performance. The recording was not an absolute good recorder. And I had ulsers (thanks to eating so much HongKong fried food) that time. So, bare with my unbearable voice! 😛 It’s not normally bearable anyways! 😛

Disneyland posts are coming up, and say Goodbye to Hong Kong okay? 😛

Discrimination or Not?

If you have been following the media closely, I think you’d have read or came across the news on the “Disabled would could Not get Her Date”. If you’ve not, here was the article that this person wrote in to the Editor:

I WISH to highlight an incident where a disabled person was discriminated against. I participated in the "Win A Date with a Bachelor" contest hosted by CLEO magazine in April. A month later, a sales coordinator from CLEO called me to inform that I was one of the winners.
In my entry, I had stated that the preferred location for the "date" was Starbucks, but the coordinator suggested True Fitness instead. I told her that I was disabled and that the location was not convenient. She said she would consult with her manager and contact me again. As she failed to call me, I contacted her on May 13. She told me that my award had been given to another person since I was disabled. This is discrimination against the disabled and abuse of their rights. I am making this complaint on behalf of the disabled community as a whole. Read more: Magazine took away my date http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/21disabled/Article/#ixzz0t6X4zhAO

I actually came across this column or write up while I was eating my breakfast. And I seriously was pondering on the issue – Should a Disabled be Denied their Date; just because they are disabled? Please don’t shoot me, but a part of me did try to put myself into CLEO’s shoes. But the other half of me says that CLEO should not have done that. But my conscience told me, CLEO should not have reacted this way. I came into such conclusions without knowing or digging into details. Should a company like CLEO really deny the rights of the handicapped and disabled? Personally, I don’t think so. I’ve always been a person who believes that handicapped people should be given the same opportunity as a normal person. Or perhaps, they should probably be given more opportunities in today’s world. In a developing country like Malaysia, I often feel the lack of care towards the disabled. However, I must commend the effort by various parties who have been trying very hard to improve on this. Previously, there were not many malls with special car parks or even lifts. But recently, I’ve been observing that most malls in our country already have these special car parks and lifts for disabled. One thing that I see is coming up is also the special lifts for handicap to get to the hotel by just driving in their wheelchair (if they are not capable of walking). My guess on why such a scene is occurring in Malaysia is because of the lack of this issue in our education system. Just take a look around you, disabled kids or children are rarely allowed into normal schools. This is because they are deemed to be a burden to the teachers or their classmates. Hence, normal students never get a chance to mingle with them. When I was in St John’s, there was a special class called “Resos Centre” just for the disabled (whether be it blind, deaf, dumb etc.) However, we really get a chance to mix or mingle or even spend time with these students because they are often in one side. They are also in a special class where they were given special teachers as well as special attention. I see so much love, care, effort and commitment in these teachers. But we really never got a chance to work with them or speak to them. I am not sure if it was because of the barrier in communication or the culture just made us that way. Nevertheless, I had to say that St John’s “Resos Center” has made the school proud numerous times with their results and their sporting activites. This really proves that one that is disabled may not be useless or may not be as good as a normal person. I believe that God made each of us equal and we have our own gifts, talents and capabilities. Why must people be discriminated just that they are not as fortunate as we are? They did not choose to be this way; and we can’t choose what we like or what we want in life either – and this is what makes our life fair. Coming back to the CLEO issue, CLEO should not have done such an act (if that was the truth). Their Public Relations had soon release a reply regarding the statement above:

Sirs – We note the letter “Magazine took away my date" from Ms Pua Ghin Chu of Petaling Jaya, Selangor, posted on nst.com.my on July 6 and published on July 7, 2010. To clarify some of the points raised by Ms Pua:
1) We did not deny Ms Pua a date because of her condition.
2) A CLEO representative telephoned Ms Pua to let her know she had been selected following an in-magazine contest as the winner of the CLEO Most Eligible Bachelors’ Gym Date. She told our representative that she is wheelchair-bound and would prefer the café date.
3) Unfortunately the café date she requested had already been awarded to another contestant. This fact was not yet known by the CLEO representative she was talking to. As such we could not offer the cafe date to her.
4) CLEO did not follow up with Ms Pua as we assumed she was not interested in the Gym Date.
CLEO contests and promotions generate many entries. This contest was particularly popular and we had many entries for only a limited number of set dates, which filled up quickly. These dates are sponsored by third parties. As such CLEO is unable to award more than the occasions pre-arranged with these sponsors.
We were informed of Ms Pua’s unhappiness over the incident on June 24. We telephoned her on June 24 to discuss the matter and, as a result, another date was arranged for her with a CLEO Bachelor. We understand Ms Pua has already been on this date and to our knowledge she is satisfied with this outcome. In fact, we believe Ms Pua has also written to your department on July 7 informing as such. A copy of her letter is attached below.
Nevertheless, we regret that the communications’ process caused Ms Pua some distress and we have undertaken an internal review of these procedures to ensure they are more effective.
CLEO prints in excess of 70,000 copies every month with the aim of entertaining and informing our readership. We value every one of our readers highly and greatly appreciate the trust and affection they place with us. We know this is not to be taken lightly, and regret having caused any unhappiness with our actions. Certainly they were unintentional and we sought to rectify the situation as soon as we were made aware of it.
We trust this clarifies the matter.
Sincerely,
Charlotte Goh
Marketing Communications Director
ACP Magazines Pte Ltd

I don’t know how true this is, but I think I should be fair in writing showing the whole issue – and for you to make your own judgement. Yes, I am studying Public Relations and I have been convinced that many PR Executives should be using ways to overcome Crisis – Crisis Management, they call it. But, I am giving it a benefit of the doubt? Here’s Ms Pua’s response thereafter,

Miss Pua’s letter as attached in the original response:
Date: Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 7:49 PM
Dear NST editor:
In regards to the previous post titled ‘Magazine took away my date’ dated on 6 July 2010, i wish to express my gratitude to the consumer tribunal of Malaysia for his precious help in sorting out this matter for me.
CLEO Magazine had took immediate action and currently they are in the process of compensating what they had promised the readers in the contest form to my friend and I. Last Saturday, they had arranged my date with Dr Nanda (one of the CLEO Bachelor) and also they are in the process of arranging the prizes for me and my friend now. Finally, I will get what I deserve as promised in the contest form!
Once again, thanks for your concern.
Best regards,
Pua Ghin Chu
*****
Miss Pua’s next letter to NST to clarify some things:
Thursday, 8 July 2010 11:11 AM
Dear NST editor:
In regards to my previous email yesterday, I am so sorry to make such a big mistake which is I thank to wrong national body.
I would like to clarify again here.
In regards to the previous post titled ‘Magazine took away my date’ dated on 6 July 2010, i wish to express my gratitude to the National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC) for his precious help in sorting out this matter for me.
Once again, thank you!
Regards,
Pua Ghin Chu

Whether it is true or not that CLEO had done that because of the act of discrimination, I can’t be sure. But let’s all Malaysians – not discriminate the disabled, the poor, the needy or even the weak. Let’s make Malaysia a better place.

Hong Kong (Part 5)

Bear with me, I am finishing the Hong Kong posts already. Are you guys bored of it already? Here, we went to the town for some shopping and some walk around. It’s just nice to walk in a chilly cooling weather. I don’t mind walking on the busy street.hk pics 510 Somehow, their toilet caught our attentions with their unique decorationshk pics 513 hk pics 514Endless eating, endless laughters – it’s so delicious, most of their delicacies there! hk pics 523 I’ve to mention about this shop; it has really delicious hot sandwiches! 😛hk pics 524 Yes, my sleepy face eating Curry Fishballs 😛hk pics 525 hk pics 527 hk pics 528 hk pics 531 And at the conference, we had another session of workshops on HIV and AIDS. It was a fun and interactive workshop with loads of self learning and exploring. The facilitator (picture below) was some DIrector of that or something!P1060640 We were asked to act as different roles, and be spontaneous in what we should do when temptation comes. Prevention or Cure?P1060654  P1060666 P1060682 P1060697 P1060698 We had this for dinner; all I heard was this thing below costs HKD800 and we could not even finished it. And I didn’t exactly like it like really really much. It’s called Phoon Choy! It somehow does look cool doesnt it? 😛P1060709 P1060712 I’ll try to squeeze and finish off my Hong Kong post the next round.

Hong Kong (Part 4)

My sincere apologies, according to a few people including smashpOp, my last last post on Hong Kong showed my true sleepy face. Yes, I admit. But that trip wasn’t boring! 😛 I was just so tired the night before, and was forced to wake up early. And today, our first stop was Kowloon City for a walk. Spot the aunty below in this picture! 😛 I am sure this picture brings a great start to this post!P1060509 For those who was envious of me having great egg tarts. Here is another brilliant picture on eggtarts. Don’t you just love it? Look at the crispy sides, and the softness of the tarts! It’s so delicious I can smell it as I am typing. Who wanna go Hong Kong again with me now? 😛 I wanna go during winter by the way!P1060524Here, at our conference hall. A picture of the Malaysian delegates. We represented Malaysia in this conference. We were just the few eenie-minnie in the whole conference, but we made Malaysia proud. 2 of our leaders were the Emcee for the event; while the other Malaysians goes up every morning to do ice breakers before the sessions! We were loud, tough and sporting! P1060581 P1060582 Yes, a little sleepy face again. It was taken in the bus with the Indonesian group.P1060591 P1060599 Another morning at the Conference.P1060632 As promised, here was what I was saying. In 2006, the conference was held in Port Dickson, Malaysia. We handled the conference with over 700 participants; and turned away a few hundreds because of the good response. We handled everything including games. Because of our professionalism in handling those, we were requested to handle the games in Hong Kong. I planned most of it, with another youth of mine and we did the similar games in Malaysia. Sadly, a few games got rejected by the Hongkies, but it was nonetheless, fun. We actually got the Asians to do Caterpillar Race in the compound. Refer pictures below! 😛P1080715 P1080720 P1080721 P1080722 P1080723 P1080724 P1080725 P1080728 Somehow, I couldn’t find the pictures on the other station games such as dressing up as a mammie, throwing the ball from the higher floor down, oil and marble game, and some other tough, crazy and hard games! These were just some of the games (or team building activites, they call it, in Hong Kong) that we played in the Conference in Hong Kong. Sorry, I didnt mean to offend you Asians with our trademark games! 😛