United Nation(s)

Hi All,

God made us equal. He made different tribes and nations, each with distinctive elements. He made us all different from one another.

Most countries nowadays consist of multiple nations or has a multi-cultural society such as Malaysia, Singapore, U.S, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Thailand and China. Malaysia has Malays, Chinese and Indians being the major races and our aboriginies (Orang Asli) in parts of Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak. In Sabah and Sarawak, there are more than 10 ethnic groups ranging from Kadazan, Bajau to Murut. There are ex-patriates in our country too.

Chinese are also very adaptable people. I can see Chinese in all the countries that I've visited so far namely Australia, Thailand and Indonesia and others such as UK, US and European countries. The presence of the Chinese community is all there. They are not only in China but all over the world.

Unity and harmony are perhaps the terms that we heard often in multi-cultural societies. All people from all walks of life live in unity among each other. An example is Australia whereby there is little discrimination to those from other races. I have an Australian friend, Michael who likes Chinese food. International students at Australian universities mixed well with Australians and other countries. There are Asian colleagues who are performing well together with their Australian colleagues. Everyone is living peacefully and harmoniously with one another. We are comfortable with one another.

In a multi-cultural society, we can experience different cultures and lifestyle. We will develop tolerance, respect and unity towards each other. We should not look down on others or show discrimination towards others. We contributed to the country with one another. When we live in a multi-cultural society, we should not be bias toward one another and yet in some countries, there are still people who do not get it. It may not be the case of being bias but the circumstances that we are in and the experiences that we have gained made us to feel that way. It happens commonly among a race. Of course, not everyone are like that but some are.

We love to savour the wonderful variety of food around us. We actually embrace some of these foods. We like Tony Roma's, McDonalds, KFC, Nando's to name a few. We have Japanese, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Taiwanese, Swedish and German food in shopping centres. People from other countries like to eat roti canai, nasi lemak, various kinds of laksa, rojak, dim sum, curry mee, mangosteen, and others. Some of them can take durians too. There are Malaysian restaurants in Australia and UK.

However, godly people should not hold judgement against others. We should be neutral to them. We are called to love one another just as God loved us.

  ³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another (John 13:34 NIV)

Please respect and tolerate each other's culture and religion. Please do not discriminate against each other. Please be fair to one another. Please be neutral with one another. Please do not be bias toward one another. Let us display that God's love is unconditional. Let us live with one another peacefully and harmoniously.

Make that CHANGE!
 
I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have
Been any clearer


Man in the Mirror lyrics by Loglar.com

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Say No to Corruption!

Hi Everyone,

What do Somalia, Haiti, Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia share in common? Corruption cases.


Government leaders and politicians are meant to serve the people and the country. Instead, we heard of cases whereby these people misused their power and involved in corruption, graft and bribery.


Millions of money were lost when it could be used for better purposes such as education, transporation, economy and others. There were corruption cases in Malaysia and it costs us a lot of money. Costs of the Port Klang Free Trade Zone (PKFZ) escalated more than 50%. Our government bought a pc and a printer for more than RM10,000. Help could not reach certain countries during disasters such as Myanmar because the leaders chose to take the opportunity to take the supplies for themselves instead of distributing it to the people in need.

Here are several things that could be done with the money wasted:

• Eradication of poverty
• Education
• Infrastructure especially for rural areas (electricity, clean water supply, internet, agriculture)
• Transportation
• Environment
• Judiciary 

Reasons for corruption......


Greed is one of the main reasons for this. Politicians want to gain power and some at the expense of the people. They need to realise that what they are doing is wrong. They are selected to serve the people and yet they are involved in all these activities. They do not keep promises made during election. They do things for all the wrong reasons. 

 

There are some who just wanted to lead the government so that they can gain control and power. Some of them can oppress people and make the people suffer. Some of them can claim that there will be change, but we can be shortchanged.

Qualities of goverment leaders

A political leader must have integrity, looks to the interest of the community and the heart to serve the community. They should think in the best interest of the people. He or she should always look to the future and think of implementing policies that benefits the community and the people. This can be in terms of economy, education, transporation, green lungs, tourism, sports, techonology, infrastructure and anything else. Our leaders should encourage unity among all people regardless of social status. 

He or she also needs to ensure fairness and partiality in judiaciary processes, election processes and other processes to people from all walks of life. Everything that displays transparency must be practiced. All forms of morally wrong acts must be condemned in any way. 

He or she should know what the community needs. He or she should aim for harmonious and peaceful neighbourhoods. The needs of the poor should be looked upon as well with high importance. When all these are done, the government leader will gain respect from the people. Satisfaction on the government among everyone will be higher. 


We can learn from countries such as New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Sweden,  Singapore, Norway, Netherlands and  Australia. These countries are placed in the top 8 of the Corruption Perception Index 2011 by Transparency International. These 8 countries are the cleanest countries in the world. These countries have least amount of corruptions in the world. How do they do it? How can they achieve these rankings?

A little progress for Malaysia

As a developing country, a lot of things are still need to be done to progress. Our main priority is to revamp our education system, to eradicate poverty and to improve our infrastructures such as transportation, environment, roads, electricity, water and broadband connectivity (in rural areas) among others.

The transportation system here needs to be improved as well. Some of us such as myself can only go to a lrt station about 10 minutes away. We still need to drive to take public transport. Now, the government through Prasarana, the public transportation arm is improving the system by builidng the MRT and extending Sri Petaling and Kelana Jaya lines.

We have raised the importance of knowing English as well through initiatives to teach Science and Maths in English and increased learning hours for English. There is progress in Malaysia but there are still plenty to improve. We can also encourage reading English books.

Things have been done and changed for the better. Our judiciary processes have improved last year. Please read these articles in Malaysian Today and The Sun. We have successfully reduced the backlog of cases in the judiciary system. Processes have been improved. We have improved the waiting time and the efficiency of the immigration system as well when applying for passports. Processes have been improved too.

Is It Enough?

These are still not enough. We still have a long way to go. We still have leaders who do not have these qualities. We still have quite a number of corruption cases. There is still division among them. Some of them are still not up to par. Some of them do not think of the future and they think for the short term. Certain things are still not there yet at the moment.

Conclusion

SAY NO TO CORRUPTION! SAY NO TO GREED!  

Please think of the community and the people. Please think of the future. Please change for the better.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

English Is Vital

Hi Everyone,

We have come to the point of time where English is a global language used in most countries in the world today. All walks of life are embracing English as the medium of communication and some have already done it way back. It is the global language used for job interviews as well. Most of the jobs require us to have a good command of English.

The debate of teaching Maths and Science in English got heated up in Malaysia. Some of us may not realise the importance of it until our child(ren) go(es) to college and university. The medium of instruction for these subjects are taught in English especially true for most private colleges such as Taylor's College, Sunway College and Inti College.

Pre-university courses such as South Australian Matriculation (SAM), Australian Matriculation (AUSMAT), A-Levels, American Degree Program (ADP), Canadian Pre-U (CPU), use syllabuses from Australia, UK and the US respectively. Therefore, all the scientific and mathematical terms are in English instead of Malay. There are no issues  for us who has a good command of English. However, it may be tougher for those who have a weaker command of English.

These are some differences in the terms:

Displacement (sesaran)

Mass (jisim)

Weight (berat)

Force (daya)

Fraction (pecahan)

Differentiation (pembezaaan)

Function (literally translated to Fungsi)

Progression (janjang)

Sistem Percernaan (Digestion system)

Squared (kuasa dua)

To the power of (kuasa)

Binary (asas dua)

Hexadecimal (asas enam belas)

The terms may have been originated from other languages and yet most are already translated to English.

I am in the IT industry and I have also studied Bachelor of Computing. All the materials that I used during my studies are in English. Resources of books are simply better with this language. Here are some differences in terms:

Software (perisian)

Mouse (tetikus)

Keyboard (tetikus)

The net (jaringan)

Hacking (penghadaman)

Virus (virus)

Click (klik)

Password (kata laluan)

Information Technology (teknologi maklumat)

Hard disk (pemacu keras)

Compact disc CD: cakera padat

Download (muat turun)

Reformat (memformat)

IT resources such as programming (coding) examples, web design and others are widely available in our second language (English as Second Language). Wikipedia does have it in Bahasa Malaysia and other languages but it started off with English.

Banking and accounting industries also uses English most of the time. Resources are all in English. Meetings are conducted using it too. We can understand better if we have a good command in it.

Knowing English does not mean we are less Malaysians. In fact, Chinese in China including senior citizens took the opportunity to learn English when they hosted the Beijing Olympics 4 years ago. It means that we are adaptable and able to converse well in the language. It would be easier for us to communicate with tourists. It is used commercially, bricks and mortar world (physical shops) and online. Having a good command of English lets us communicate with people locally and globally. It is an advantage to us to know multiple languages. We are able to communicate with people anywhere and anytime. It does not make us less Malaysians. A lot of us can communicate with each other using Malay, English, Chinese dialects and Tamil. People from all walks of life are learning different languages now. More and more people are taking up Mandarin including people from US and UK. China is booming now.

Therefore, it is good to know English and other languages as well. It does not make us anything less. There should be no debate at all regarding this. We need to do something to improve our command of English, especially for those who do not have a strong background in the language.

Teaching in Science and Maths is one of the ways. It would be easier to transition to college and university in the future. More English lessons (grammar and others) are another way too. Reading English newspapers such as The Star, New Straits Times and The Sun and books is good as well.

In a nutshell, having a good command of English doesn't make us less of anything. It is essential for us to have a good command of English because it is one of the most widely used language in the world. It is also good for us to know more than 1 language as well. We may need to use it to communicate with other people while travelling or work if given the opportunities.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo