The Star Online: Citizen's Blog (1st Batch)

These are the posts I submitted to The Star Online's Citizen's Blog. Some were published in the hardcopy paper. Take time to look through, have a nice day!

Title: State of commercials: More monotony than creativity (Published)
Content:
Switch on the television and it's hard to miss the constant disruptions to your favourite scheduled programme. As usual this signals a bathroom break, time to snag a snack from the kitchen or back to gossiping about the latest happenings in the neighbourhood. That pretty much sums up the fate of TV commercials in Malaysia. Which raises a question, where is the creativity that's clearly lacking in our TV ads?
Supposedly large portions of companies' budgets are dedicated to marketing, millions upon millions, but all that's left to show are segments that belittle the intelligence of us viewers. Makes us wonder too if advertising companies have been sleeping on the job.
We must not lose sight that TV ads are no mere marketing vehicles, as they can in actuality be an art-form. If done right, commercials can captivate viewers much better than movies will, such as Yasmin Ahmad's Petronas ads, not to mention more efficiently too.
The void of creativity extends beyond the frames of TV media, so don't get me started on the, now totally overused, "daily conversation"-style radio ads. So much has been left to be desired.


Title: Student Council or 'White Elephant' Council: You decide.
Content:
Being in a college that is truly multi-national with students spanning from all over the world, be it local Malaysians, Indonesians, Mainland Chinese, Thai, Namibians, etc. It is truly a place where different cultures mix and students get a taste of the international scene, thus it is only fitting that the Student Council help support the well-being of us students.
However, this is where it all breaks down. What saddens us, and all students of my college would agree, is that the Council is a mere 'white elephant'. Since the day I stepped into college, all the Student Council had done did nothing to help the student community, let alone did anything at all.
Being supposedly a student body that represents all students of the college, the Council has no official code of student rights! Their attitude of late has become more and more laissez-faire. The only activities organized thus far has been to benefit the Council's committee. These added up together makes us wonder why the Student Council was formed in the first place when the general student populous are not top on their agenda.
This is not a bashing but a voicing out of concern as the deterioration of ethics in the Student Council is reaching an alarming level. Is this the kind of view of Malaysia we would want international students to bring back home?


Title: Encourage Innovation for the next Generation (Published)
Content:
Idol this, Akademi that... everyone wants to be a singing 'sensation'. Oh how clichéd has that concept become. Though viewed as prime-time entertainment, they are only mildly entertaining and not very educational. We should encourage and support programmes that challenge the intellect of the viewer, which thus educates the TV-watching masses.
Since the current trend is to create a local version of international TV programmes, why not have a local version of "The New Inventors"? It is an Australian programme (currently running on Astro's TVIQ channel) that features inventions, home-made or otherwise, that tackle a variety of problems faced in daily life.
One simply cannot fathom the ingenious contraptions that are really well thought of, and sometimes think: "I really need one of those", "Why didn't I think of that?" or "Hey, that's really cool, I would certainly buy it".
So instead of tickling our voiceboxes, we could very well be making inventions that could help the nearby 'pisang goreng' stall automate their business, ease the job of the rubbish collector or even deal with every pet owner's bane, pet excrement. Hey, maybe your friends or even you can even come up with a substitute for petroleum!
The possibilities are endless if only given the best opportunity there is.


Title: Teacher shortages: Rubbing salt into the wound (Published)
Content:
First it was the issue of packed schedules, then came packed schoolbags, and now it comes as no surprise that another woe has befell the students who attend Chinese primary school.
This latest calamity is that Chinese primary school classes are being forced to merge in order to cope with the shortage of teachers. Why subject the students to more suffering and now even the teachers are feeling the heat in having to now handle more students than the room can fit!
Even with the overwhelming popularity of recent years to send kids to Chinese school, there is an undersupply of Chinese language teachers whilest other subjects there is an overabundance. Now this problem is not restricted to only one area, it is fast becoming a national crisis if nothing is done. In view of this, a much needed push should be given to put more focus on training Chinese language teachers, not to mention English language teachers too.
Had there been a more stream-lined and organized view of handling these kinds of problems, maybe there wouldn't have been that many overworked teachers in the first place. One can only ponder.
All in all, pro-active action should be taken immediately to rectify the shortage of Chinese language teachers in the local education system now.


Title: Think of the community of pedestrians!
Content:
We've heard this mentioned over and over, the petrol price hike. So I'm sure more people have taken up walking, even more so than before. While there are various modes of transportation, pedestrians have their fair share of the traffic demographic.
Thus it is such a shame that proper walkways are not available. Proper five-foot ways are a rarity here and nary do we find one not strewned with obstacles such as man-holes with covers, rubbish, water vending machines, etc.
The building of good walkways would first and foremost help individuals with disabilities, senior citizens as well as children. Next, it would smoothen our journey towards our destinations, be it running errands, heading to the local mamak restaurant for lunch or even heading to the nearby convenience store to buy the daily Star.
Pedestrians right now have to resort to walking along the road shoulder, either of dirt or patchy grass, or when one isn't present, right next to the speeding traffic! This daily routine of dodging death by avoiding getting hit by passing vehicles is common, but it doesn't mean that something can't be done to overcome this problem.
Hence, think how much trouble it would save the masses of pedestrians by just constructing and maintaining pedestrian walkways. Towards development with community needs in mind, it would be very welcome.


Title: You'll be very surprised by the results (Published)
Content:
The next time you're having a conversation with any number of your friends, give this a try. Ask them this question: What is the capital of Africa?. But before attempting it on anyone else, give that question a thought or two...
Ready for the answer? It is a trick question, Africa is a continent!
For those who caught it, good on you. For the rest, you are not alone as there are many who didn't know how to respond to this trivial test.
This started as a fun test by my group of college buddies and myself. Afterwards we posed this question as a litmus test to other collegemates, What is the capital of Africa?, and soon we found out something quite shocking indeed. Only about 2 out of 10 got it right! (With answers ranging from "I don't know", "Capetown" to "South Africa")
The statistics simply flabbergasted us about the lack of exposure of the general Malaysian populace! Although some might say that geography hadn't been taught since completing the subject, Kajian Tempatan, way back in primary Standard 6, but that shouldn't be an excuse for not knowing general knowledge.
With the amount of education being learned and taught, what with extra classes, after-school tuition, seminars and so on, it is rather dismaying to find out that ignorance is at such a high level regarding what is on the world stage.
The year is already 2006, heading well into the home stretch of trying to achieve Malaysia's Vision 2020, being a fully developed nation. Thus we must rid this lack of exposure and awareness before it is too late, or Vision 2020 becomes Vision 2030, 2040, 20-who-knows-when.
In order to chart Malaysia in the eyes of the world, let us all know the rest of the world first. With understanding, comes appreciation. So give this simple litmus test to your friends a try and see for yourself, you'll be very surprised by the results.


Obi-Kwan Kenobi, 2006