What Idols? Read and be saved!

The young (and may be also the old) yearning for a figure to adore and love, will lean on singers and pimps as their idols. We got American Idols, Malaysian Idols, Akademi Fantasia, Obama, Anwar, Nik Aziz, Mahathir and so on. We love fantasy, we love stories and we love to exaggerate.

(An idol for someone out there but not me. He bangs!)

This was not a recent phenomena, but something that has happened many many times since the creation of Adam. Was it just human nature to be ignorant?  No I don't think so!

Recently I’ve read an autobiography of Che Guevara by Daniel James that was written back in 1970 (exactly 40 years ago!). It was not a planned reading at first as I was reading a motivational book about charisma and the author talked about how charismatic was this guy name Che Guevara. I ended up devouring the whole autobiography for a week or so and I found some interesting facts about Che:

1. His real name is Ernesto Guevara, he is an Argentinian, a doctor by practiced and was asthmatic since he was a child.

2. He fought several guerrilla-style wars in Cuba, Congo and Bolivia and also worked under Fidel Castro.

3. He was an ardent communist-marxist-maoist 

4. He wrote religiously as he wrote a daily journal every day (that results in his detailed autobiography)

5. He died in the jungles of Bolivia after being hunted down by the Bolovian army for several months.

Che Guevara is known all over the world because of his posters especially the one shown below. His face adorned caps, shirts, buildings and anything printable in the West.

However, he was not known for the real Che Guevara: 

1. He stood for Communism of which we knew is a failed system. Today, only Cuba and China are going Communist, even China is not that Communist anymore.

2. He was also against the "Yankee-imperialist"- a view still held by many current batch of world leaders especially Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad etc- a world-view compelled by domestic politics not by virtue. 

3. He was also not known for his disastrous economic planning in Cuba when he was the Economic Minister as well as his failed attempt to induce Communist "revolutions" in Africa and South America.

4. He was abandoned by Soviet Union, Communist China as well as his friends in Cuba especially Fidel Castro at the end of his life.

Yet, people adore Che so much that people wear his caricatures, wrote songs for him like Hasta Siempre (love...this song), ran riots for him and so on.

So the question is, should one idolized someone or somebody or something?
It's your choice. Read more is what I could offer as an answer.

The more one read, the more we know about someone. The more we know,  the wiser we could answer the question facing us. I was at first "idolized" Che Guevara because he was said to be charismatic but after reading his autobiography and getting the "real" story, my view changed dramatically. That's how powerful reading is. 

Everyone is a leader in themselves and leaders read and they read a lot. 

Reading defeats ignorance. Always. 

How to use the word "Kot" in Bahasa Malaysia rightfully

Agreeably our spoken language is being molded everyday. We add, subtract, divide and reduce certain Bahasa Malaysia words in our pursue to be "new" or "fashionable" or for no obvious reason at all. My concern is the word "Kot".

ORIGIN OF "KOT"

It was used primarily by Malaysians Malay living in large cities in West Malaysia states like Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Selangor, Johor, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan. When Malaysians of non-Malay origin used "kot" in their daily conversations, they could be considered as a fluent Bahasa Malaysia speaker because "kot" is purely a slang in Bahasa Malaysia. While the use of "kot" in Sabah or Sarawak is an indicator that that speaker is from West Malaysia for sure!

HOW TO USE "KOT"

The word "kot" is used in many settings but its main usage is to indicate uncertainty of a Bahasa Malaysia speaker in a particular subject in a conversation. This is the real meaning of "kot".

Examples should make it easier for us to understand the illusive "kot" word (Bahasa Malaysia- English)

Example 1: Use once at the end of a sentence

"Awak dah bayar bila air?"- Have you paid the water bills?

"Ye kot?"- Yes, probably???

Example 2: Used twice at the front

"Awak rasa siapa yang tumbuk anak saya?"- Who do you think punched my son?

"Kot kot anak Haji Kassim tak...?"- Probably it was Haji Kassim's son..?

HOW TO USE IT WRONGLY

More recently there has been a flagrant misused of the word itself. Why I said it was a misuse is because the "kot" has loss its original meaning to indicate uncertainty. It has been relegated to the point of meaningless. No more question mark, no more uncertainty, thus it became redundant.

Several examples might be sufficed to explain this:

1. "Panas kot!"- It's hot!

The word "kot" has no meaning here. It's just not logical to be uncertain about temperature as in "It's hot, really??". It supposed to be "Panasnye" or "Panas!!!"

2. "Dua ratus kot!!!"-It's two hundred!!!

The word "kot" again doesn't indicate the speaker being uncertain but used for nothing!!! It supposed to be "Dua ratus tu!!!!"

My take

Firstly speakers of this "misused kot" are using it unconsciously because their friends are using it. 

Secondly it is suggestive of their non-determined, non-conforming, nothing-to-stand on, no-self-believe without realizing it! 

Thirdly, some caught it and some not. It is entirely interesting to know how they caught it in the first place and why they used it unconsciously. It is also interesting to see how long this misused and viral slang could be retained in our Bahasa Malaysia vocabulary pool.

Akhir kata, we should be more aware of what words we are using as it might show our inner self to others without we knowing it and being misconstrued of having no self believe!!! How wrong was that!

P.S: This note was written after observing some of my Malay friends talking as well as observations from my beloved sister on her friends conversations. We found that the misused of the word was mainly by young Malays in universities and urban areas in the Klang valley. FORGIVE ME FOR THE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE, I CAN'T HELP IT :)

Hail Obama!-Malaysia's New Foreign Policy

Recently, Malaysia has turn from a openly neutral country in its foreign policy to an openly Pro-Washington. What Bush has failed to do was achieved brilliantly by Obama's "Soft-Diplomacy".

The one-year old administration of Najib has laid out strong foundation in its domestic policy such as forming labs through the Government Transformation Programme to solve the never ending problems of goverment delivery system as well as wooing the disillusioned voters through the "1Malaysia" concept. It has stop short in introducing Goods and Services Tax (GST)this year lest Barisan Nasional would like to lose the next general election.

Based on the "People first, Performance Now" dogma, a recent poll by the Merdeka Foundation has shown that the ra'yat were responding favourably towards Najib and based on this "good-factor", the next GE will probably going to be held ASAP, i.e. 2011. And based on his performance on the domestic front, I am openly supporting Barisan Nasional in the next GE. The mood is there and BN will win big (I mean better than 2008).

However, an issue that might changed my mind whether to vote Barisan or Pakatan would be about his foreign policy. Malaysia's "default" foreign policy since Mahathir is for Malaysia to be neutral at all cost. In other words, Malaysia should never ever openly pro-US.

But the recent news report of Petronas cutting gas supplies to Iran has suggest otherwise. Najib has confirmed this and coupled with his recent meeting with Obama in Washington on Iran nuclear issue etc, has made Najib's credibility to champion the rights of Islamic countries being QUESTIONABLE.

Najib must clarify and discuss this issue openly (if possible go live on TV) because Malaysians are personally proud to be neutral on our foreign policy and our neutrality has made Malaysia a respectable country. And currently, his ministers have kept mummed on this issue altogether.

At the time of the writing, Najib had responded "glibly" on Malaysia's sudden foreign policy u-turn on Iran as reported in the Staronline, April 18 2010:

"The Prime Minister said Petronas was involved in a spot sale to Iran in mid-March through a third-party deal but there had been no requests since.

The transaction, he added, was a commercial deal and it was up to the parties involved to decide on the supply if there were further requests for spot sales."

If Malaysia has turned its back on Iran, it would be his worst political error. I predict the Malay voters will be the most agitated and banking on his "1Malaysia", GTP or whatever of his domestic policies would not be of any help.

Never in my life history has foreign policy was made such an issue during the GE, and it would be played to the greatest extent by Anwar and his colleagues in the running towards the next GE in 2011 (?).

"Hail Obama!" and "Salam Satu Malaysia!!!"

Why we are "poor" and How you can make a change

The world has changed rapidly after the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Since then, people are no more working for themselves but for others. Instead of working day and night toiling the land or some other works, the economics of the industrial revolution dictated that people should work on things that they are best at, for others and get a paycheck at the end of the month. The money then should be used to buy food, clothing and some form of entertainment or if there's some more left, it's in the bank (if they got a bank).

SOME HISTORY
This happened about 100 years ago in Europe. While our forefathers (the Asians) were still in the field, kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang. The Europeans came to South East Asia, bringing along their "laissez-faire" economics and Walah! They changed the region, especially Malaya (modern day West Malaysia).

The British reorganised the Malayan economy to serve the economic needs of the British Empire. First they placed British-style administration in Malay states and the Malays were the first choice to fill the bureaucracy. Secondly, they opened up new tin mines, and allowed Chinese from China to migrate to Malaya to work for these tin mines. Thirdly, they opened up new roads and railways to connect these tin mines with the seaports, whereby the Brits culled some South Indians to built them.

After a few years, the Malayan socio-economic were dogmatised, the Malays "must" work in the kampongs or work as "British government servants"; the Chinese "must" work in tin mines or live in the city to sell things or whatever; while the Indians "must" stay and work in the estates, in case the His-Highness Government needs some roads to somewhere in the jungle.

THE AFTER EFFECTS
Somehow, when the British left Malaya in 1957 and East Malaysia in 1963, the economic thoughts that they brought along did not. This peculiar economic thought is that we must work for someone such as a government, a company or someone. One not supposed to be a "Boss" or a "Taukeh" or whatever. This create "dependency" of government/company aids and at the same time created a comfort zone for the group of people which subscribed to this economic thought.
What happened when one stay too long in a comfort zone? They become zombies.

These zombies are relatively poor due their low paychecks. Most of them have high hopes at earlier stage of their "career" and hoping that they will drive nice cars and live in huge houses if they work hard. They believed totally that a university education can save them from the clutches of poverty. Oh boy, they are just damned wrong. Totally wrong.

After 40 years of working, punch-in & punch out as they say, they still living in a meager state and on later years they depended solely on the EPF and some savings that they have made. This group of people paid the most in taxes and still they live just above the poverty line. And who are these zombies anyway? It's you my friend.

My answer: Our education today is not tailored to the new world but instead based on the 19th century model. This must change and don't wait for the government to change it for you. Change now.Take care of your financial education and it will set you free.

A Nice Song to Listen To - Jalan Lurus by Gita Gutawa

I found this song "Jalan Lurus" sang by Gita Gutawa, an Indonesian artist. It's a song about love primarily but love according to the way of Islam. And the song partially sums up what is Islam is all about.

Nice tune.

Burn Out

Enrolling in a postgraduate programme is putting a toll on me. The obvious thing is that I am tired and need some refreshment.

So as a non-car-owner like any other naive undergraduate in UM, I took a taxi yesterday and went to the most exciting, gargantuan and hippy shopping complex in the whole Lembah Klang, that is the MidValley.

I've been there countless of times and that's the nearest thing you could get for a good shopping mall. But the sad thing is, it was jam-packed with humans (as well as human-animals by the way that they dressed!). You have to go through these sea of human beings and you'll never see the same face ever again (except that if you came to the shopping mall for cuci mata, you will see the same person again and again, it's called The Law of Attractions...)

So what I did was, I met a friend or two of mine at the Coffeebean (Mak if you are reading this, I've tried frugality but rarely being successful!) and we chit-chatted until 8pm. It's like a gossiping table with some picture taking and then we're off.

The point I'm trying to is that, if you guys want to further your studies you really need to consider one thing: BURN-OUT.

Thank God I went to the MidValley yesterday. :)

Dua Ribu Sepuluh (2010)

Again it's another new year in the Julian calendar. We are entering another time "frame" called 2010 after going through 365 days of our life revolving around the sun in 2009. For a perspective, it has been like this for two thousand and nine times since the creation of the calendar.

Somehow the "newness" of a new year reminds us of how far we have been in our short life. How life has changed or not changed.

For my self, the year 2009 is a year both of joy and sorrow. On this year I changed course of life my continuing my Master's Degree in Virology. On this year I knew that parents are really never to be taken for granted. On this year I learn more about family love than ever before. On this year, I learn how time is really gold. On this year too, I learn that human will get old and eventually die.

My grandfather died last November 2009 after a long illness. He valued education very much and respected people with one. He left us happily as he already tasted and got what all he wants: family, money, prestige et cetera. I observed that he did not "die" literally. He is still in us, through his genes, his words, his works, his wisdom. That's why Muhammad is still here. And all great people still here not because he is rich or powerful but because these great people are being humble and they help others without expecting anything in return.

And that made them almost being eternal.

And that made me thinking of how could I become them for this year of 2010...

I think got Dengue fever (And I've recovered!)

Alhamdullilah. That’s the only phrase that I can say to describe my feelings after the grueling five tiring days of fever.

Last Saturday I fell terribly sick. My joints ached all-over and I suspected it might have been the overdose of Nescafe (Green packet) and Coffee that I took two glasses a day for every single day for two weeks. So I stopped drinking Nescafe again.

Then the headache came. It’s similar to headache that I got when the last time I stopped drinking Nescafe two years ago. It just doesn’t stop until yesterday. I guess it might have been the high temperature anyway, not because of the Nescafe. But I read somewhere that too much coffee is not good (Reminds me of Maya Karin Nescafe Commercial)

The worst thing is that I went through intermittent fever, i.e. sick in the morning, well at noon, then sick again in the evening. It was like this for five days.

I never went to the clinic and just took a Panadol Actifast once. Just to make sure that my body killed the pathogens itself. I think it was dengue fever that I caught when I went out for a jog around UM last Friday. How it happened? Might have been coming from a bite of a mosquito.

Since I moved to UM five months ago, I fell sick more than three times. That’s far more when stayed in Sabah for the last four years. KL is totally infested with viruses and pathogenic bacteria most probably brought by foreigners coming to here to study and work. This will always a ripe moment and time for all microbiologists to work on…

Do your work rightly and rightfully (Buatlah kerja dengan tepat dan betul)

Yesterday I was being hounded by a simple fact that an unfinished work will always haunt you and everybody else.

While analyzing the 2008 data as requested by my supervisor, I found that the age range for almost all of the samples are of adults. While the samples are purportedly coming from a pediatric institute a.k.a children's hospital, how could all the age range for all of these samples are of adults?

I was in doubt. I went straight to the cold room and took a box of samples out. I started to checked the samples one by one of its Date of Birth. To my astonishment, the guy who jot down the sample data put the "mother's IC" instead of the "child's Date of Birth"!

May God save the guy (he already left our lab to India for good!) and may God save my research! Anyway, more work to do for me!

Conclusion: Buat lah kerja dengan betul.

Why play Facebook?

As I could remember, Friendster was the top social website and Malaysians were recorded as the largest group of people using it (kira syok2 sendiri la ni).

And now that has changed. In Malaysia these days, another social website named Facebook rules the internet. Almost everybody especially the youngsters, would have a Facebook account and they will "poke" each other, post on the "walls", chit chatting using a built-in messenger, "tagging" pictures, playing "Mafia Wars" and "Farmville" and obviously taking endless numbers of quizzes (and posting quiz results on the "wall", so that "other" people can see).

All of these extra feature made Facebook indispensable (you can't throw it away) to its users and also made its competitors popularity going way-way down.

But there's one feature that made me think. That feature is the NOTIFICATION thingy, for the benefit of non-Facebook users, it's a red-colored bubble at the bottom right of the window with the number of notifications in the middle of it.

The first thing a Facebook user would do as he/she opens the website is to click on this red bubble before anything else. And why is that?

To some effect, users will keep on thinking about this red bubbles even after they have closed the Facebook website. They will think about "who will be commenting on my post" or "Am I going to be tagged today?" and so on and so forth.

I think it shows that:
i. we are still humans, as human must have some sense of curiosity. That's why we click the red bubble before anything else.
ii. we are in need of feedbacks to survive mentally (that's why criminals are being sent to the prison, so that they can be "tortured mentally")

And I'm sure that there's a bit feeling of "keghairahan" as we click on the red bubble. And why is that? Which part of the brain cause us to feel that? Is that part of the brain made us curious for other things, such as the question on religion, history, biology, chemistry, physics, cookings, writings, football etc?

What a difference has a small, red, simply-made bubble made on our minds by playing on us psychologically by which the fact remains: Facebook is one of the most visited website in the world. The red bubble did it's job very very well.

Explaining Molecular Virology

It has been almost a month I'm in Universiti Malaya, pursuing my Master's Degree in Molecular Virology. I have seen gapping jaws by the very mentioned of this field of study and I beg to my dear readers not to do so because the term is not that very difficult to comprehend once I explained it to you.

Molecular virology is well, made out of two words namely "molecular" and "virology". The former relates with the term molecular biology, a study of biological entities at the level of a molecule (remember H2O?). These are very minute objects (you and I can't see it with the naked eyes) but they exist. This is different from other biological studies such as botany, entomology and so on that studied on larger than molecule entities (think of lions, bunga raya etc).

While virology is a study on virus, part of a larger study of minute organisms called Microbiology. Virus can be found in every corner of the world and some caused diseases such as flu (Influenza A H1N1?), diarrhea, etc. Again, viruses are very minute entities and nobody have seen viruses with un-aided eyes. One must use the electron microscopes to look at the physical nature of these viruses and to date scientists have seen thousands of them. But this method needs high-skilled personnel to operate it and expensive as well.

But there have been other methods to detect these viruses without even looking at it as in the case of electron microscopy. These methods born from molecular biology, again a biological study at the molecular level (can you see the connection now?).

Methods are various with the like of PCR, agarose electrophoresis and EIA to name a few. They are relatively cheaper and almost anybody abled-body can perform it, though quality of results can be improved through training.

To sum up, molecular virology is the study of virus using molecular biological methods. As simple as that and gapping jaws shall now be closed. :)