Heir Conditoning-Different Challenges

The Author

M Sanmughalingam's Heir Conditioning must be looked in the proper perspective so that we know there is just no comparison between the two generations. There should never be, not even with poetic licence.

Written more as a prose in a poem format, this piece has a child questioning the grandparents about how they could possibly survived without modern comforts and conveniences.

As each era has its new knowledge database, innovations, inventions and discoveries, there is advancement. From the wheel to the motor-car engine and the airplane, there have been tremendous progress for mankind.

For the current era, the telephone, the fax machine and now the wundebar internet has open new vistas into the new uncharted world for man to reach out further and find insights he never knew existed on this earth, not to speak of remote interplanetary travel or the fictitious time machine.

The poet's' limited reference' to age-old inventions,  innovation devices such as the fan, the telephone  and the ubiquitous air-condition is considered dull on all counts by the Generation Y people with their ipod, i-pads and the much sought after tablets. Can they relate with such products or issues?

The questions asked by the child are most mundane. Hardly inspiring. Out of time.

The second stanza where the grandparents tried to explain away to the child about the lack of science and technology during their earlier life-time can also be viewed as possibly begrudging the modern generation.

To accept a  mundane life devoid  of technology comfort is understandable. To blame the younger generation for the ills of modernization is most unfair especially when capitalism and greedy governments rob the land blind for their own aggrandizement and glory. That is sadly replaced.

Anyway for a scholarly work, it has passed muster.

Thefts and Threats-Living in a New Housing Estate

Easy Targets for Asset Rip-offs

The NKRP on Crime Reduction is most rosy on all counts. Yest, everyone knows crime has not abated. In fact, on the contrary. it is on the rise in Malaysia.

Lately, muggings of lady shoppers  in shopping complex car parks has become more rampant. From The Curve to Mid-valley, the dark elements are on a constant move. Almost like living in Gotham City without Batman. There was an abduction at the Curve, a beating up at Mid-Valley  as well as a kidnap at an international school.

A Hollow in the Window

As, usual lies and false statistics are trumpeted out by the authorities. We know better.

One interesting phenomenon is the petty thefts and asset destruction in new housing estates.

Between the time when you officially take the keys to your unit until the time a resident association is formed to look seriously into security, it is anybody's game - a demilitarised Pakmunjong!

I remembered a friend who used to stay in Sri Petaling when it was just built many eons ago. There were not many houses which were occupied then and lalangs grew majestically in that small plot of garden land in each unoccupied house. During one of the evenings after he had  just moved in, a motorcyclist and pillion rider stopped in front of his house and demanded RM50 from him as monthly protection money. Failing which, they showed him a brick which they will throw into his front door glass panel. He paid up pronto, as he did not want no trouble, my friend.

Easy Dough but Dog Days for the Owners

Then we have the petty thieve in connivance with the current foreign guards who will crowbar your casement windows to get in to steal away lightnings, piping fixtures and fans. They are most specific-some will just take away piping; others washing basins and even shower roses.

So, if you intend to buy a house in a new place, do put in your grills and firmly rivet these as well for they can also be fenced off profitably by these petty thieves to greedy middlemen who oftentimes are small-time contractors. Forget about aesthetics in Malaysia, grill every possible entry point.

When things get better, you can remove some of the grills to restore the beauty of the house's design and architecture.

It is also the signs of the times as the economy slows down such crimes moves up. 2H is definitely bad from all the returns of the PLCs on Bursa KL. I think unlisted SME's are faring much worse if they piggy back for business on these listed SMEs.

Do you see Greece, Cyprus and possibly Spain at your door-steps?

Wide-eyed Wondering- Jeannie Kirby

I Wonder, You Wonder, No Wonder!

'I Wonder' by Jeannie Kirby


This is a classic poem almost fit to be a nursery rhyme.


Except for the sixth couplet which hardly rhymes, all the earlier five did.


So, what is this poem all about? What is that sublimal message that Jeannie wanted to convey?


Was it justified ignorance or plain innocence that is central to Jeannie's thoughts when she wrote this poem? 


The poem touches on the elements of nature. The grass, the wind, trees, the moon,the stars, lightning, the rainbow and clouds. Even the birds and their nests were not spared.


The little boy or little girl is the persona.


In first person, that child asked these valid questions that even adults may be stumped for an answer.


How does one explain to the child about colours and the science of it being so be it in magenta to violet?


Again, we feel the wind but why does it sometimes blow to stir the air around us so violently until gale-force in some instances?

Who taught the birds to built a nest?

The question about the birds building nests without being taught is a very deep question for a child. How does one convincingly explain that it is just as  instinctive just like birds flying to warm southern skies to escape the bitter winters in the cold north? Or just as bears catch  catch salmon trouts that are programmed genetically to swimm  upstream to spawn eggs? No clear answer except to accept as fiat or faith.


Do trees really take a rest? Possibly because the imaginative child could envision that trees could move and just like humans need to take a rest now and then. Perhaps they do walk once in a long-long while like Treebeard in the 'Lord of the Rings' when calamity come their way. If JRR Tolkien can imagine that, why can't we believe this questioning child? 


The shape of the moon being round and not so round at times can be explained these days by planetary science. Not so, in earlier days without Google. That is why we have tales about dogs and hounds eating the moon and the sun and those Chinese people banging on their metal pails and cymbals to frighten away those dastardly canines to get back their adoring and romantic moon.


The stars that comes out only at night and disappears when day dawns. Did someone light them like century old street gaslights and snuff out the flame as morning comes. Another valid question that beggars an answer.


Lightning flashes? Did they come from Mount Olympus and from Zeus's thunderbolt? Can you explain the science of positive charges and negative charges to an inquisitive growing up kid? Is the child ready to understand scientific principles?


Looking for a pot of gold? Then look no further; seek your rainbow after the rain has gone. Tell the child about the wonders of science of light and water. Will she understand this too?


Cottony clouds hanging up high in the sky. So, did someone hang them there or do we need to tells the child about water vapours and condensation?


Then, the last couplet is the coup de grace. Touche!


Did my father have all these answers and yet did not tell me? Why, oh why?


Disquieting for any adult, I am sure.


So, Jeannie pray tell. Are you mocking the adult or throwing thoughts through the perception of an innocent child? Is the child a prodigy?


Where is that middle ground that we must seek for to provide an explanation that soothes both adult and child?


I remembered clearly a scene from the movie, "A Passage to India". 


The Professor met the protagonist in a lake-house in Kashmir. He had a a letter with him to give to that person  coming to meet him. Visibly angry when he found out that the letter was kept by the Professor for such a long time, he demanded an answer. "


And the answer..................." You were not ready for it then, you are ready to receive it now".


In that same vein, the child will get her answers by and by and only when she is ready to digest and learn the facts of nature. 


Otherwise, it will remain a mystery and a marvel until she grows up. 


Remember William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence' and 'Songs of Experience'? 


Joyful innocence and sombre experience. Bitter sweet refrain.

Second Bite of the Cherry

Seeking A Signature that is Cashable

I do not believe in things other than what my five senses tell me.

However, on one fateful day last year, when I took the Commissioner of  Oath examinations at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya, I felt a 'dark' force at work in that old oil palm plantation that was formerly called Perang Besar or Big War.

After scribbling down my answers on the question sheet, I had to transfer the answers to my answer sheet. You need to give plenty of space on the pages between each question so that you can add  points if you should have any later on.

After jotting drafts points, I started writing  but somehow, my world came to a standstill while the clock ticked on. In fact, strangely, I missed 2 pages of answers and ended up checking on what I did, thinking that there was only 20 questions with many parts to answer for each of them.

It was only after the exam when I talked with other candidates, that I knew there were actually 40 questions.

I had messed up big time!

As there was this big bad spirit that brought failure for me, another good spirit came by and just in the nick of time, I phoned the office of the Registrar of Courts and they told me I had two weeks to appeal and I would just make the time if I did it pronto.

To my relief, yesterday I received a letter requesting me to take the exam for a second time.

This time, I pray that Almighty God will protect me and let me claim my victory.

A second bite of the cherry. I bet it will be sweeter. Amen.

Job Done But Overdue By One Month

New Expertise to be Honed

Perhaps that's the way God planned it for me.


The job came out of the blue. Alex phoned and put me  to the contact.  I caught the opportunity;thought it was a good start as any to migrate away from teaching English which was getting more annoying as I began to lose home tuition students. For one reason or another, they had valid excuses to stop classes. I did not begrudge them.


Once I agreed that I could handle the translation job within 10 clear days without any problem, the problems sprouted legs and put me into a spin.


After finding that I had problems with nomenclature, there was no choice but to start liaising with the principals and no longer only through my contact who was awarded the job.


Translation can be one illusive job. I took an additional week to finish the work. The work started on 22rd May and should complete by midnight,1st June. It was not to be. I took another 7 days, slogging through drooping eyelids with my brain utterly dead to translation.  Staring at a sentence and not even making sense tells me that it's time to hit the pillow.


Then,what do you know? Murphy, in a jester suit,  came by to say,"Hello!".


So, my lady contact told me; we had a new version to be translated. The old one that I translated was an interim unauthorized copy.What a waste of effort!


So, it was back to the chopping board with my days and nights on the chopping board. 


Today, 30th June and 29 days late, the project finally ended.


What a relief but it is a feather to my cap as I am about to create a new portfolio of experience and track record in copy-writing and translation.


So, God willing, this year will be set apart for a new course-anew literary adventure of sorts! Amen.

You may be Right but They are so Expensive!

Playing It Safe ONLY for the Moment

For the moment, UBS has this to comment on the state of Bursa KL. In their words, it is "defying gravity".


Characteristics?


An All-time high with KLCI at 1,607 on April 3rd, despite weak external economic climate. That the election may be postponed yet again keeps the market going with stimuli galore. 


Also foreign players seeking safe haven from the financial storm in Europe are getting onto defensive stocks.


So, for the moment, UBS suggest the following stocks for consideration as defensive play only. These include: Berjaya Sports Toto,Genting Malaysia, Sime Darby, Hong Leong Bank, Public Bank, IGB and Axiata.


Except for IGB, Genting Malaysia and BJ Sports Toto which are buyable by the retail layman; Axiata has gone mid-range beyond RM5.00.   As for Sime Darby, it is on the cusp on touching RM10.00. Hong Leong Bank is beyond RM12.50 and Public Bank is in the high eavens almost touching RM14.00.


I am sure there are other stocks worth looking at from BJ Foods, Mesiniaga, YTL Corp to  Tasco.


What say you?