ABC of Friendship

I attached a nice write-up about friendship. Click on the picture to blow it up.

Have fun reflecting upon it.

China is Looking Up

The Singapore Business Times reported today (10 July) that the State Information Centre (SIC), a leading Chinese think-tank has projected that China will expand about 8 per cent this year. This is the latest in a series of broadly bullish reports reflecting the growing momentum of the world’s third-largest economy.

According to them, the Chinese economy has successfully touched bottom and has started to rebound, though a recovery trend is not assured. However, it pointed out that further stimulus on top of the government’s 4 trillion yuan (RM2 trillion) spending plan will not be required to help lower borrowing costs. There is also no likelihood that there will be further interest cuts in 2009.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday became the latest organisation to take a rosier view of China’s prospects, raising its forecasts for GDP growth this year and next by one percentage point to 7.5 per cent and 8.5 per cent, respectively.

The World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and a clutch of banks have recently upgraded their forecasts as evidence mounts that massive fiscal and monetary stimulus is likely to lead to full-year growth close to the government’s 8 per cent target.

Indeed, the official Xinhua news agency cited unidentified statistics officials as saying gross domestic product (GDP) growth was already “close to 8 per cent” in the second quarter. Xinhua said the data would clearly show that the economy was no longer declining but was now moving up.

While debate swirls in the United States about the merits of a second round of fiscal pump-priming, market talk in China has abruptly switched to whether the central bank will soon need to abandon the easy monetary stance it adopted late last year.

Banks extended 1.53 trillion yuan in new loans in June, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Wednesday, taking new credit for the first half of the year to 7.37 trillion yuan, or almost 25 per cent of last year’s GDP.

To nudge up money market rates last week, and on Wednesday PBOC said it would resume sales of 12-month bills, suspended since mid-November, to drain cash from the banking system.

If China can stemmed property speculation, we can expect the more orderly and managed state economy to move upwards.

Hopefully, China’s strong growth will provide the impetus to pull out the world from deep recessionary pressures for a quicker V-shaped recovery.

The End of the English Tongue?

Love him or hate him, Tun Mahathir is a man worthy of hearing out. This is one time he is not politising nor personalizing the issue. Compared to the controversy of the Crooked Bridge, scrapping the use of English in Science and Mathematics is the unkindest cut of all and a stinging slap on his face.

As a sign of respect for this 84 year old man with an extremely sharp and focused mind, I would like to highlight the points he raised in his blog (13 March 2009) on why English should continue to be the medium of instruction in the teaching of Science and Mathematics.

I would paraphrased the points he raised.

He does not agree that teaching the two subjects in English has in any way reduced the status and growth of Bahasa as the national language.

He says learning is not about the development of a language but more toward the efficient acquisition of knowledge.

To him, in order to improve language, the language subject must itself be improved to a higher level to incorporate the arts. As such, teaching of science and mathematics in English cannot really help in the development of a language such as Bahasa. He says science and mathematics is not from Bahasa. Most of the words are originally derived from Latin which was later anglicised.

He agrees that translation can help in a small way but that you cannot translate all these scientific words. Moreover, there is no exact literal translation because words in different languages have different shades of meanings.

He gave an example.For example: Just the word oxygen can have derivatives ranging from oxidation, oxygenation, oxidants to peroxide. Just imagine there are about 120 elements in science alone. As such, you cannot absorb and translate all of these. Doing so,will turn Bahasa into English instead.

Science and Mathematics is dynamic. This body of language is growing everyday. Each day, there are new findings, discoveries and inventions. Every day, new research papers are written. Almost all are written in English. If all these are required to be translated in timely fashion, a bilingual specialist expert in the subject will be required. There are hardly many of these experts in the country currently. Moreover, experts such as these may not want to be full-time translators. Once you teach Science and Maths in Bahasa, such bilingual experts will slowly disappear. If that happens,how then can the country have such experts to continue to closely follow the latest development of science globally and be able at the same time,to translate adequately on a continuous basis, he asked. Moot point.

He added, just on the translation angle alone, Malaysians will suffer as they can no longer keep in step with the world development of science and mathematics.

There is enough proof out there that not many of our tertiary students have done their PhD dissertations in Bahasa without the benefit of English to research needed resources. All have used English resources.

Scientists and medical experts have to attend international fora and conferences to upgrade themselves on the latest going-ons globally. These are held in English. Lack of English skills will certainly incapacitate them from active discussion, to the loss of the nation.

He also disagreed that rural students cannot acquire English effectively. The very fact that many of these students are today holding high positions in both the public and private sectors including the foreign office, is sufficient testimony that they have succeeded in this.

In analogy, he said foreigners at one time studied Arabic because before the 15th Century, Islamic civilization was involved in active pursuit of science and knowledge development. Today, sadly the Islamic countries have forsaken science and the pursuit of knowledge. As such, the Western nations have taken over the science world and English is now crucial to pursue such knowledge. Paradoxically,today Arab countries have to study English to be able to access vital scientific knowledge.

He pleaded that as Malaysians, we must not be supra nationalistic about our national language as to blindly forfeit the future of our incoming generations. The love of one’s country must supersede the love of one’s language. One must strive for a developed nation,knowledgeable and respected by the world. Just being mere great speakers of Bahasa will unlikely bring about respect from the world.

Such cogent thoughts and yet it fell on deaf ears. One up for politics;another generation of Malaysians to the 'global slaughterhouse'.

Old Turkey Buzzard and MacKenna's Gold

Yes, another stroll down memory lane to watch this huge block buster of a movie. MacKenna's Gold was the last of the great westerns.

A film that is plot-driven, it continues to provide the thrills as the disparate band of men search for Old Adams or MacKenna's Gold in the Canyon Del Oro.


The movie uses a lot of camera tricks for the background as well as modeling to create the sensation of the earthquake as the whole canyon caved in in the final minutes of the movie.

A feel-good movie, it shows that good triumphed over evil and greed.



While nobody else got any gold, MacKenna got two bagfuls of the nuggets as he and the girl rode into the sunset.


Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Camilla Sparv and Julie Newmar stars.

Credit Card Menace

Another rom-com to grace the silver screen. Written by Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic is a soft romance background on the world of magazines.

A compulsive shopaholic that buys anything that is branded fell into debt and is at the mercy of debt collectors. When the company which hired her folded, she had little choice but to find a job to pay off her debts.


So, as in most comedy of errors, her letters to two companies got mixed up and the fun began. Her love of fashion and the credit card made her a writer that became famous with the finance news magazine; which gave her a special column to write on.She took on the moniker, "The Girl with the Green Scarf", to provide advice to readers.

Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy stars in this movie. Quite funny in parts but mostly mushy.

The saving grace of the movie is the quirky romance between the main leads.


I guess the movie is all about the coming of age of Isla Fisher in Hollywood. Like Amy Adams, she will definitely go places.

Jim Warren's Painted World

Jim Warren is a man gifted with both imagination and creativity. Through the art brush, he has painted his imagination on canvass for all of us to see. Juxtaposed against the human form and other animals, Jim fused nature wholesomely into wonderful amazing art pieces.


To appreciate, here are a few choice pieces of the painted world of Jim Warren. Enjoy!

I took a stroll down Memory Lane by watching the movie, Prisoner of Zenda.

It was a lovely book. I read it when I was in primary level. Fascinating plot.

The love story between Rudolph Rassendyll and Princess Flavia was "very real" to an impressionable lad and I always love the emotive words they say to each other. As the Englishman was just an imposter to the throne,he really have to play it real in order,including romancing the princess, to convince the public and the plotters that he really is King.

In the story, the King was the Prisoner of Zenda and has to be rescued so that he can be put back onto the throne. The sword-play was so-so only but it must have been great in those days in 1952.

Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr were in their elements but James Mason stole the show as the reckless and conniving Rupert of Henzau.

Quite a nice show.

Scrapping English-What Alternative Method?

In an apparent response to ex-premier Mahathir's disappointment with the scrapping of English as the medium of instruction in teaching Mathematics and Science beginning 2012, PM Najib defended the decision by saying that the spirit remains.

He countered that the decision to teach mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia and mother tongue languages will not detract the government from its efforts to make Malaysians more proficient in English.

Najib said it was still the Government’s aim to see Malaysians proficient in the language and even master it so that it could compete in the ever challenging times and globalised era.

“The aim remains the same; there is no change. Only the method in reaching the objective is now different."

“The government is aware how important it is for Malaysians to be proficient in English for their own advantage and for the future of the country."

“In fact, increasing the time allocated to teaching English, introducing English literature and language laboratories, among others will be a better method in boosting proficiency than teaching mathematics and science in the language,” he said when commenting on the matter.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday had announced that mathematics and science would be taught in Bahasa Malaysia from 2012 and English would be given prominence with the teaching of the language beefed up from next year.

The decision also saw the two subjects being taught solely in Chinese national-type primary schools and no longer bilingually as was practiced since 2003 while Tamil schools would revert to the mother tongue as the medium of instruction instead of English.

In reversing ETeMS policy or better known by its Malay acronym PPSMI, the government had also announced the hiring of an additional 13,966 English teachers, increasing up to 100% the time allocated to teaching English in schools and introducing new elements for teaching of English such as grammar, contemporary literature, information technology and language laboratory.

The PPSMI policy was implemented in phases, beginning with Year One, Form One and Lower Six students in 2003, under former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Najib said teaching mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia again would not pose a problem as it had been proven that “we can produce doctors and professionals by teaching the subjects in Bahasa Malaysia.”

“Many doctors went through the education system in Bahasa Malaysia, right through university. For example, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia has produced a number of good doctors."

“There is no question about quality being compromised or affected,” he said, adding the cost of reverting the decision had yet to be determined but present hardware and software used for the earlier purpose could still be used.

To a question, the Prime Minister said it would be up to the Education Ministry to consider giving certain schools the option to continue with the PPSMI policy.

“Currently, we only see 8% of teachers really confident in teaching PPSMI. In reality, it is not really happening the way we had envisaged,” he said.

On the question of critical allowance given to teachers involved in teaching mathematics and science in English, he said it would be another issue that the government had to handle, adding some were more concerned about their allowance than the overall objective of reversing the policy.

At another press conference later, the Prime Minister, who was asked to comment on a survey held in Dr Mahathir’s blog on the issue said there was no unanimous views when it came to the issue of education but the government had to make a decision best for the future of students.

“We see our decision as an opportunity to encourage the proficiency of English and at the same time, will not prevent the development of Bahasa Malaysia as the national language as well as the language of knowledge,” he said.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has set up a blog poll to prove that the government’s decision to stop teaching Mathematics and Science in English (PPSMI) was a mistake.

Dr Mahathir, who mooted the PPSMI policy, said he was not surprised over the disappointment and anger towards the Government’s decision on the teaching of Maths and Science.

“Seems to me like the Government is not listening to the voice of the people."

“Perhaps a blog poll might enlighten the Government as to the opinions of the people,” he said in his blog www.chedet.co.cc.

The blog’s one-question poll, asks readers to click ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as to whether they supported the government’s decision to teach Maths and Science in Bahasa Malaysia.

As of 7pm Thursday, 74% or 5,463 respondents responded ‘No’. Readers were only allowed to vote once.

Dr Mahathir said he would try to inform the government of the public’s opinion.

“The question to be answered is whether visitors to my blog support or oppose the decision to teach Maths and Science in Bahasa Malaysia,” he added.

However, another former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi agreed with the Government’s move to revert to Bahasa Malaysia in teaching Maths and Science.

He said that there had already been strong pressures to reverse the policy during his tenure.

After discussion with the education minister, he said a decision was made to go on with the policy for another 6 years for a better analysis.