Shining sun on an otherwise gloomy day
"Goodbye My Lover
Did I disappoint you or let you down?
Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown?
'Cause I saw the end before we'd begun,
Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won.
So I took what's mine by eternal right.
Took your soul out into the night.
It may be over but it won't stop there,
I am here for you if you'd only care.
You touched my heart you touched my soul.
You changed my life and all my goals.
And love is blind and that I knew when,
My heart was blinded by you.
I've kissed your lips and held your hand.
Shared your dreams and shared your bed.
I know you well, I know your smell.
I've been addicted to you.
[x2]
Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.
I am a dreamer and when i wake,
You can't break my spirit - it's my dreams you take.
And as you move on, remember me,
Remember us and all we used to be
I've seen you cry, I've seen you smile.
I've watched you sleeping for a while.
I'd be the father of your child.
I'd spend a lifetime with you.
I know your fears and you know mine.
We've had our doubts but now we're fine,
And I love you, I swear that's true.
I cannot live without you.
[x2]
Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.
And I still hold your hand in mine.
In mine when I'm asleep.
And I will bare my soul in time,
When I'm kneeling at your feet.
Goodbye my lover.
Goodbye my friend.
You have been the one.
You have been the one for me.
I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.
I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hollow.
I'm so hollow, baby, I'm so hollow.
I'm so, I'm so, I'm so hollow."
-James Blunt
Obi-Kwan Kenobi, 2006
13 comments:
Our Malaysia country is facing brain drain issues and we are not trying our very best to tackle this issue. So many smart talents have emigrated because of the non-appreciation by certain quarters. Not to mention anybody but you can see it yourself. It is a real shame to you, Malaysia!
Other first class mentality governments (i.e. US, UK, Singapore, and other EU countries) are extremely busy with their brain gain programme by encouraging highly-skilled workers to migrate to their countries and these people are given the permanent resident status.
I always question myself this statement "I love you (Malaysia), but do you (Malaysia) love me"! In future, we won't be talking about underdeveloped-developing-developed country but smart-smarter-smartest country.
If you are sticking to current bias and non-appreciation policy then you will always breed third class mentality even though you have first class infrastructure. I hope the current government can think well and act accordingly to correct the current situations. I can only wish!
It is quite sad to see so many good lecturers leaving UM. Not only non-malays, even good malay lecturers are leaving. Many good lecturers in their retiring age want to continue their contract. However there seems to be few factions in the university that wants to get rid of them and place their won people inside.
What is worse is that this bunch of people, i.e. lecturers included those in administrative department, i.e. bursary department etc, think that UM good reputation was their effort and would not shamelessly think that they are above everything else and treat students badly.
UM is an extension of Umno. Its role is to project malay dominance. We can say whatever we want here but I can assure you UM will never change for the better. To do so would mean undermining malay superiority and upgrading non-malay role.
Overall, UM reputation is receding, good private universities such as MMU, Monash University and Utar are emerging as the premier universities in Malaysia, but then again, it would be very difficult for the staff in these universities to obtain grants for their research, because of their non-malay or foreigner status.
Such is the reality of our Malaysia system. To satisfy the NEP at all costs, even to the extent of ruining the future of our next generation.
The malay agenda says "Good riddance" and welcome Muslims from Cambodia, Arab, and all over the world. Goodbye and don't come back.
If you are rich, you have many choices but if you have better choice than what you have in Malaysia - you believe you can have in Singapore, you will go and get it.
Those parents who send their kids across the causeway have been rational as they are preparing their kids for the competitions, and they hope by Singapore education system, their kids will learn better skills than staying to learn the Malaysia education.
Government is happy, racists are happy and pretend to promote freedom of education, and the Singapore government is happier, they need not feed those kids, they can harvest them as they matured.
I think the Singapore education system is very good but at the same time stressful. It is also too exam orientated and breed muggers.
I believe this trend is further pacing towards mediocrity. This particular problem should be tackled immediately and teachers pay scale should be revised and only the best taken.
The danger with the Singapore education system is that it is an extremely good system only if you are good and would like to study even in most of your free time.
I would not hesitate to send my future kids to Singapore for his educations, considering the career paths, scholarship, and other opportunities that would be available to him in the future, and him being nurtured in a true globalised society albeit with able mentality.
From primary school to secondary school in Singapore, if the children do well in their exams, they can apply for scholarships and bursaries for junior colleges and universities.
And most of the good students will probably be offered good paying jobs in Singapore. Well, some on them even became members of parliaments and ministers in Singapore.
Even if they don't get into Singapore universities, their education there will stand them in better stead to get into universities in the Australia, UK and US.
Take a survey around Ipoh, KL, Penang………. in these major cities/towns, the number of tuition centres will frighten you!
In fact the students claimed they learn more in the tuition centres than in schools! The tuition class can have 50 students to a class and they still learn better than in the schools!
Felt sad for those parents who have to send their precious kids to Singapore, and then we cannot make them feel safe to let us educate them!
Even education is not spared from politics of race and religion.
Schools are places where innocent children build friendship and trust with children from all races and religions in a healthy environment and protected them from the damaging political environment of race and religion. But this is not the case……….principals and teachers are too engrossed in politics.
Every aspect of Malaysia life is too political and most damaging in building a strong and united country.
No wonder the country is sick!
Those famous, high and rich government ranking officials, they do not have confidence or rather they have better choices than to send their own kids to national schools, they do believe the international/private schools provide better education environments, better education policy and they are more confident, they will be more successful when they graduate……….
If we can get hold of the name lists of these students in international/private schools, we will be shocked! This has been going on for many years!
Really sad about the investment to produce 'half past six teachers' nowadays to impart knowledge to our kids, and surely if any chance arises, we are ready to send them abroad, and feel safe to leave the kids into hands of those foreigners, and feel safer to let them educate our precious kids, what an irony!
It is very sad but very true. Most Malaysians just do the things in life without a thought. How bad is our education system? Very! I am also very sad that the people in charge of the education ministry promoting local universities are send their children to foreign universities.
It is a sad day for this country and its people. Say what you like goons will be goons. The whole world is laughing. On the other hand something good may yet come out of this screw up.
We are going to see a real difference come the next general elections. As the old saying goes 'you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. The man on the street is a lot wiser today than he was yesterday. I am speaking for the man in the mirror.
The Chinese in Malaysia, are caught between a rock and a hard place. Vote for Barisan Nasional and put up with racism, inefficiency and corruption. You will see your rights as a citizen being slowly whittled away.
Vote for the opposition and no development or maintenance funds for your area. Anyway, with all the gerrymandering, the Chinese votes can't make a significant dent on Umno stranglehold on power.
So the Chinese bury their heads in the sand. They get busy earning money through legal as well as illegal means. Malaysian Chinese bookies and fake credit card syndicates are world-renowned.
Some of our most capable brains end up in Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries. The more resourceful ones find Umno partners and go into big business. The rest of us mere mortals work our butts off to save money.
While it is debatable whether the Chinese are still in control of the economy or not, there is no doubt that a small number of well-connected Chinese businessmen are among the wealthiest people in Malaysia.
However, the vast majority of the Chinese in Malaysia are in the lower middle class, the middle class and upper middle class. They are bank-tellers, doctors, engineers, farmers, hawkers, peddlers, small traders, technicians, teachers, etc. There are about seven million Chinese in Malaysia. Common sense will tell you that not all of them are wealthy.
The Chinese are fed up with the government but they really feel helpless because they have been cowed into submission.
Fortunately, our traditional work ethics come to our rescue. We work hard to save money and send our children overseas and hope that they will have a better life there and be treated as first-class citizens.
It is a pity that after half a century of independence, we still frame our socio-economic and political questions and judgments in ethnic terms. There seems to be a competition to determine which is the most underprivileged ethnic group in order to justify government assistance.
Logically, the highly protected community will lose its competitive edge. It is surprising that our leaders do not seem to understand this and continue with their policies that keep adding new fields to extend the protection for the malays.
This suits the political leaders who think of only the next general election. The division of the electoral constituencies with the type of politics and parties in the fray suggest that they are a smart lot! It is just an art of clinging to power and enjoying all the perks that come along.
That the majority becomes weak and feels that they can't compete on equal terms, despite having the best educational institutions and opportunities for themselves, is just a natural result of our flawed policies.
To make it worse, we have a special meaning for 'meritocracy' in education which leads many to really believe that it is indeed through real meritocracy, that they are where they are.
The system that produced them has lowered the bar so much in order to make up the numbers that they cannot be compared to the quality of graduates of the past or to graduates from other countries today. No wonder they cannot get jobs.
They should not have been in universities and colleges in the first place. They would have been better off under vocational or apprenticeship programmes. The malay leadership of this country has failed them.
Yes, there are underprivileged groups but they span across all ethnic and religious lines. We can identify these groups by income and asset testing and they exist in every ethnic group - Malay, Indian, Chinese, etc.
The enemy is not the 'other' ethnic group. It is the glass ceiling that prevents the best and brightest in our communities from contributing to Malaysia in their chosen area of expertise. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it is not malays competing with Indians or Chinese. It is Malaysia competing against the best and brightest from China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, and the tigers of Europe.
Ultimately, what matters is that there are no glass ceilings for any individual who has the talent and ability to excel in the area of his or her choosing.
We need to frame our policies based on merit and need, and not ethnic lines. However, this will never happen until we move our political system away from parties drawn along the old ethnic and religious lines.
Creating national unity is one thing and creating a national identity (the next step) is yet another. However, they both require a unifying element - a sense of equality (of belonging, of having an equal stake, shared values, etc) among the parties involved.
If you cannot have racial equality, an ethnic group's allegiance is almost always to its family, its tribe/group, against a common threat and lastly to country - in that order.
The solution to integration is to create the basis for national unity - conferring with all ethnic groups, ensuring equality in all aspects, respecting each group's position that true nationality confers and then proceed to the subsequent steps in addressing the economic imbalances that some one talks about.
In Malaysia, BN politicians are notorious for never acknowledging the racial issue since this will require a compromise on their position.
Hence, rather than face the problem head on, they look to symbolisms as an indication of solidarity - speaking the same language, sign-posts in Bahasa, military conscription, flag flying, buying Protons etc, in the hopeless expectation that somehow, national solidarity will emerge.
Vast sums of public funds are being wasted on these futile endeavours when it is already a foregone conclusion that failure (national solidarity) is guaranteed at the outset.
This is akin to building a house on a swamp without first draining it, a guaranteed failure. So they plod on year after year, one failed enterprise after another looking for the alchemist's dream.
Hey, wait a minute. Each of these failed enterprises is an opportunity to make money - national service requires uniform supplies, gasoline supplies, food tenders, cooking supplies, cafeteria tenders etc, so it is actually profitable to engage in this 'integrasi nasional' business!
The great irony is that way back during my school days, we never felt our racial differences to the extent that I see it now. We played, laughed and intermingled with visits to each other's homes as a matter of course. All this when Bahasa Melayu was not even a factor.
No, I am not mocking you, only the BN system.
In fact, if you look at all the topics in this forum, every topic, every scandal, every issue, every educational ills, can be traced to the break down of the key values. The whole of opposition's work in parliament revolve around these 4 key values.
I don't blame Pak Lah for the break down of these values. I blame Mahathir for the systematic destruction of those values in his 22 years reign.
What are these values that I am talking about?
M eritocracy
A ccountability
T ransparency
I ntegrity
During TAR, Abdul Razak and Hussein Onn days, these values were still very much alive. But now they are all dead. If these values are not revived soon enough, it will be the death of Malaysia.
I hope I will not have to see this obituary - the death of Malaysia was due to the death of MATI.
In fact, if you look at all the topics in this forum, every topic, every scandal, every issue, every educational ills, can be traced to the break down of the key values. The whole of opposition's work in parliament revolve around these 4 key values.
I don't blame Pak Lah for the break down of these values. I blame Mahathir for the systematic destruction of those values in his 22 years reign.
What are these values that I am talking about?
M eritocracy
A ccountability
T ransparency
I ntegrity
During TAR, Abdul Razak and Hussein Onn days, these values were still very much alive. But now they are all dead. If these values are not revived soon enough, it will be the death of Malaysia.
I hope I will not have to see this obituary - the death of Malaysia was due to the death of MATI.
As a brain drainer whom has fled to Australia, here are my reasons for leaving.
(1) Better government. Australia government is way less wasteful than Malaysia government. I am rather tired of seeing my tax money going into white elephants and useless projects while our Malaysia schools are getting neglected. Oh, and my tax returns are guaranteed to be paid back in 10 days. Usually I will get my tax return in 4 to 5 working days.
(2) Better lifestyle. I cannot own a car and still be able to get around Australia. I am looking forward to do my masters degree in a proper university environment and being supported by the government through PELS scheme and tax deductions.
(3) Better traffic. Besides Sydney, traveling around cities in Australia is quite a relaxing task. You don't have to deal with some corrupt policemen or crazy drivers.
(4) Things are actually affordable here. You might have to pay 10 bucks for a plate of 'char koay teow', but the size of the plate you can share is with 3 people back in Malaysia. Oh, and you get the big prawns too.
Like someone said, I go back to Malaysia for the 3Fs - family, friends and food. If I do stay in Malaysia, I do not see a future for myself or my family. My children will be discriminated at school. Education will be extremely expensive. And I will die earlier due to all the pollution in the air.
As many doctors leave Malaysia every year, there are more illegal Indonesian workers coming in and became citizens so easily. The country does not only flush away good brains but also refill with……….(sigh) - this is an insane country.
No no, this is not insane. We did great things to the world you know, like providing brains to others, and accept rubbish from others. That is a Malaysia Boleh!
Malays are lazy, narrow-minded, racist, in the real world. But they blame Chinese, Indians, white man, for many things. No wonder many person label malays as disgrace animals.
It is good for malays to go back to jungle or Africa, in order to avoid so many problems. Enough said.
Like what one said, your Umno racists label is to just rob the benefits and rights of the poor and unassuming malays who think that you are fighting for their cause. Whom are you trying to bluff?
There is nothing to be proud of melayu racist. If at all, it is only the personification of the ills facing the malays in general today.
Minus the nation building and economics, you malays are left with only politics - right before and after independence. Creeps like you should find out and address this - talked and discussed problem which does not seem to go away.
If even after almost 50 years, and after all the generous handouts, you are still a bitter man, lamenting at our Chinese and Indians successes, then go back and do a bit of homework to find out why you need to talk less and work more.
Everyone knows that they worked and struggled to build a nation, I mean sweated it out. Lest you forget history, the Chinese and Indians came here to build a country which was largely neglected. Ask yourself why?
Their sweat and pains may have been forgotten by selfish creatures cloaking in disguise in the likes of you, but this Malaysia nation shares a rich history of the "other races" contributing to the nation building, which you cannot be proud of.
Well, there are always guys like me who have tried and have been continuously denied the opportunity to "serve" this country, basically with the race card thrown at me.
Look around yourself and tell me as honestly as you can be whether, under such circumstances, I would have reasons to love this country? Unless you have a different definition for that word "love"!
To further prolong the grips of the Umno racists over the greed others, especially the Chinese, is been made the scapegoat for all things.
A fear that had has no concrete socio-economical standings. It is more psychological. For that all the Malaysians are been pull and push into the self-dug hole of only melayu racist matters most. All things are secondary.
He forgets that what he has been written is just like the saying: spitting skywards and get own face smeared.
Such a mind is wasted by simple forms rather than the deep down substances, show this guy's mind is as empty and twisted. The saddest part is that racist can write better, indicating a higher level of 'education' but more tunnel understanding of historical facts. His education is wasted, and another basket case of form over substance.
From what Umno racist has been written, it can be seen that these malays are still at the balls despite of the facts that the globalization will eventually making their factitious claim obsolete.
Many would like to dispute and point to whatever reports that claimed glories for all the developments stated for Malaysia now. There is only one word for this spurious cry - form over substance. Please think deeper to reflect this.
Just think about how Philippine goes down the drain under Marcos government. Sadder still, we are not catching up with the top. Instead we keep comparing ourselves with the bottom and sliding down the rank as we "proudly" proclaimed these achievements. How pathetic can one be!
Always operate in "black box" - even worst than an enterprise company - we also want to know who is the crony contractor? GLC? Or Umno link company?
Another sad day for all Malaysians, sorry for the taxpayers from other states because your tax money also being used for the project - which you maybe never ever has the chance to use it!
In Malaysia, anything above the million rinngit mark no need tender. Reminds me of crooked people build crooked bridge.
Problem with the ministers in this country - they are politicians first and ministers last. They need to spend more of their time politicking to stay in power and hence have less time for their jobs, which are the benefits accrued from their political standings.
So it matters not if their job efficiency sucks. As long as you have a strong political position, you have a good ministerial position. This is especially true for the non-Umno ministers.
These ministers also know that the real power in their ministry rest with their top civil servants who are invariably of a different race. So there is really little they can do to exercise their true authority. Ultimately smart thing to do is to "see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil".
Testimony to this state of affairs is the similarly dismal performance of the other ministries that have non-Umno ministers.
The prime minister without realising it, actually acknowledged this state of affairs when he warned the "Little Napoleons" civil servants but not the ministers, who should have been the first to be held responsible for any shortcomings.
Ripping off the people is a way of life the government in our country. It is also accepted as an unofficial government policy. In every project there is rip off. If we make further investigations we will find Umno hands all over the place, in every project.
The government is a cow to be milked by every Umno clown from the prime minister down to a branch leader. This is the unwritten policy of the NEP which will go on to 2020 and then to eternity. Keep on ripping off till there is nothing left in the kitty.
Malaysia and its ordinary people will suffer with this nonsense!
The Malaysia country can only attract its young and bright minds home if our national leaders seriously believe it is building an enabling social, political and economic environment for these young and bright minds to achieve their individual personal growth.
As it stands, the current environment in the country only attracts mediocre. Even the local universities, the subtle manipulation of university exams and the education system encourage mediocrity to succeed over the talented and the gifted.
Sadly, Umno ministers and politicians will never get it and they prefer not to, anyway.
Down south, our neighbour Singapore is doing its best to attract foreign talents. It is simple mathematics: Stay in Malaysia, work and slave, see other less qualified people rise above me. Go to Singapore/Australia/America, work and slave, earn promotion (if one is deserving).
Malaysia is a wonderful country. Unfortunately, corrupt, hypocrisy, racism (government sanctioned racism), and above all, a total blindness to our faults as a nation and as a people, means that only those who don't have a choice will return there.
If the government really wants to stop brain drain, be fair. Just be fair to everyone. Simple as that.
You worked overseas until you made your pile, didn't you?
In fact, that is what our Dr Mahathir advised us students to do when he gave a lecture in UK. As I remembered it, made your pile and come home. I supposed there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem is if all these people actually come back to Malaysia and refuse to leave, Malaysia will be changed forever!
Just ask professor Gomez and professor Jomo why they left?
Things work in an extremely strange fashion back in Malaysia. Good people have to resign and good companies are not given contracts.
There is a very big push factor as in Malaysia actually pushes the best people out. Not only in government but also in business as well. The whole country works in a strange fashion, the mediocre become mighty while the good gets beaten to pulp. Even good malays get sidelined. It happens everywhere, even in your favourite Chinese primary schools.
Check out the expert return scheme and you can find out how petty the government is and how "serious" they are about attracting people back.
Maybe when the oil runs dry, things will change a little bit?
Very pretty design! Keep up the good work. Thanks.
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I'm impressed with your site, very nice graphics!
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