Sorry for having neglected this blog for more than two weeks now. I've been up my nose with stuff ever since house singing ended and have been lacking motivation and inspiration to put together some stuff for this post. Anyhow...
Mooncake Festival on the September 22 (last Saturday) was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Though it has always been a norm to celebrate back home with a cup of tea, mooncake and kuaci with my family and friends, in a boarding school some of the students don't even know what Mooncake Festival was. Since the event was organised by the Buddhist Society, we decided to just have a simple parade around the school with traditional paper lanterns and then leave the students to their own devices for the rest of the night. The tuck shop auntie have also been very gracious by selling some traditional nyonya kuih, chilled mooncake and home-made barley water just for this special occasion. All thanks to her and Gerard. I must say the parade that night was truly a sight to behold with more than 400 students and staff, each with their own lanterns strolling around the general school compound. I think that actually embodied what most Chinese celebrations mean, that is to do things in a big group together, like a family. However needless to say there were pranksters in the group who just couldn't resist burning up the paper lanterns and chucking them all over the road. Inconsiderate people, but then you get them everywhere. 
Debbie and Me Leading The Mooncake Festival Parade.
Me, Debbie, Amira, Farah and Wei Rhong at the front of the parade!
After the parade...
Also held last week was the English Book Week Debate Competition. It was a full parliamentary, British style debate which was held over 3 rounds with 5 teams. Naturally I took part with Andrew (subbed by Isaac in the quarter-finals because he was ill. Thanks Isaac!) and Kevin. We ended up as the only Upper Six team in the competition... The topic for the quarter and semi finals was 'Attendance at Secondary School Should Be Voluntary'. We sailed through the quarter-finals with relative ease but the semi-finals was a real test when we came up against Shan, Nesha and Cher Waye. With some luck and resilience we pulled through but it was seriously all touch-and-go. At best it was a scrappy performance which served as a wake up call for all of us. In the finals the team got our act together for our best performance in the competition but was unable to stop the government team of Jason, Yip and Zhi Wei with the motion 'This House Would Ban All Experimentation On Animals'. Nevertheless it was a heated debate which really could have gone either way. However I can't help feeling that I have not reached my full potential in the final and if I did, the victory could have belonged to us. Still it was a creditable performance and full credit to Zhi Wei and gang for their win. It was an exciting feeling to be debating competitively again against top-notch debaters like Zhi Wei and Cher Waye but stuff happened in the debate which made winning feel hollow and losing a much more bitter pill to swallow. At the end, this competition left a bitter taste in my mouth and in more ways than one, reminded me of things which have come to past in the last two years part of which I have no intention of revisiting... And yet, life goes on...
I went off to Seremban yesterday for a charity event with Buddhist Society. All the proceedings from the Mooncake Festival went to buying school uniforms, white socks and shoes for 9 less fortunate children from our school workers and Mantin. We also bought them McDonalds for dinner as well after doing the shopping. The whole society went but it was EXTREMELY tiring having to baby-sit the 9 kids and almost 10 other youngsters. However the cute little angelic smiles on their faces made it all worth it and I really had a deep sense of satisfaction after coming back. It goes without saying that we all had great fun in Seremban Parade and it brought the members closer to each other despite the HUGE gap in age. Now if only we could persuade Ms. Ng for another trip out for the 5L leavers Xin Le and Mei Hui haha.
Right now I'm sitting here typing this with a flu and feeling totally exhausted. I guess the trip yesterday and some emotional problems must have worn me out completely and I look as dead as a zombie. There's I.U. Night in about an hour's time which I guess I will be attending. Completely burnt out this week and looking forward to having some rest this weekend. AS Exams are coming of course but so are holidays. Keep your fingers crossed that I juggle my time properly during the two week's break. Oh and did I mention Cambridge interview in 1 month?~Zhongy~
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Wednesday 12 September 2007
I'm sorry.......
There's so much that I didn't say.......
I hope you enjoyed the moments when we've been together......
I should have made more of the time spent with you......
How much I would have given for one more day.......
Just to tell you how much I love you......
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Monday 10 September 2007
How else coould you describe it? Nadzimuddin House came second in the House-Singing Competition! And I must say I cannot be more proud than now to be part of this house. We are practically close to talent-less when it comes to music but at the end, sheer enthusiasm and ingenuity pulled through. Congratulations to all my house mates who worked hard to perfect the song. You all deserved the win! Special thanks goes especially to Jun with his elite Marine Corps and the ever-reliable Ash with his crew of delightful background singers. I feel that this performance really embodied the Nadzimuddin spirit -- one heck of a great show! It was a fantastic effort from everybody in the house and they deserve all the praise they get.
The night itself was fabulous, with many former students and parents making the trip specially to see KTJ students in action. I believe none left disappointed. All the houses worked hard to please the judges and the crowd, and it was a night of top-notch performances. I thought even Naquiah, the junior house did well with their rendition of 'Lolipop' by Mika. Irinah were the undisputed winners with their showcase of an amazing ammount of musical talents in their house. Between them, they played five different musical instruments to belt out 'Spiderman' and 'Shout'. It was truly amazing stuff from their singers, solos and performers who came out in full force to win. The other houses did well too and Jawahir House came third with snippets from various songs -- 'Favourite Things', 'Close To You', 'Uptown Girl' and 'I Feel Pretty'.
By itself, house singing was a good bonding experience for all the houses and I guess the seniors got closer to the juniors and vice versa. There's always house rivalry and the 'housism' symptom when events like this come around but I thought that it was handled well this time and generally there were no terrible repurcussions. Kudos to those who have made house singing a rousing success and I must say, I enjoyed it immensely! Great success!~Zhongy~
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Sunday 2 September 2007
Merdeka!
What is in a word, a combination of seven letters, a symbol, a motto, a dream? After 50 years, after five decades, after half a century, how far have Malaysia really come? Yes, we have the Twin Towers, the Proton Saga, MEASAT, the New Economic Policy (NEP), the Iskandar Development Region and astronauts going to space, but what do this really all mean to us Malaysians? Are these the signs which show that we have really prospered, under the social contract of all races, sealed within our Constitution, the highest authority of our country? Look around you, is this what you have come to expect after 50 years of independence, after 50 years of integration, after 50 years of progress? Or are we all still living under the illusion that we have moved forward, that we have matured, as a country and as a community?
We live in a country where there are rules for everything, where everything is censored and controlled, where every word you speak, every move you make can be used against you in court. Our mainstream media is but a propaganda tool used to deceive the general public, to muddle the facts, to make the government look good. Our censorship board determines what we can watch in the cinemas, on the television, what we can read in books, newspapers, magazines and what we can write on our blogs and in our diaries. Tell me, where is the freedom of expression? Where is the truth that we were promised, that we seek, that were concealed to maintain our so called 'unity' and 'harmony'. And yet, are we willing to sacrifice the truth for this manner of 'peace', where we live among lies so that 'social stability' is maintained?
After 50 years, is it still not apparent to Malaysians that our government is corrupt, from the lowest ranking officer to the members of the cabinet? Cronyism, nepotism and money politics are still very much practised in truth not only in our bureaucracy, but in all three branches of the Malaysian Administration. Everywhere in Malaysia, police and JPJ officers accept bribes from people to escape bribes or to pass a driving test. On a bigger scale, massive government projects are awarded to companies which are linked to the government, which can somehow operate at a loss for our country's sake. Our auctions are merely a formality, a joke for bureaucrats who control the Finance Ministry, who receive huge bribes while the people suffer when the projects are substandard and fall apart. It seems even our own Putrajaya has failed to escape this 'phenomenon'.
After five decades of independence, it seems that the Malaysian Education System has failed to train any competent Malaysians who have enough foresight and leadership qualities to assume the posts of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Internal Affairs. If you guys are wondering, our beloved Prime Minister currently holds these portfolios. Talk about centralisation of power, or is it dictatorship? Besides that, it seems our Economic Planning Unit (EPU), for all its worth, can't count properly either. I'm thinking any Form 3 kid and above can easily tell them that you don't take the par value when evaluating equity on the stock market, you take the the market value. But no, they have the cheek to insist that they are correct and contradict ASLI who has obviously got it right. Then of course, there are state governments who spend millions on an artificial waterfall and an all too huge bowling alley 20 minutes outside of town, thinking that it would attract foreign tourists. Oh and did I mention a revolving tower splat in the middle of the city which bears no significance whatsoever but cost another 2 million out of our coffers? And you wonder why the ringgit is now 2.30 compared to the sing.
Bureaucrats complain that graduates are leaving Malaysia when they can't provide the infrastructure to fully utilise their talents. Scholars who return after obtaining degrees are given a desk job in some obscure department which probably has no bearing whatsoever to their major. Universities employ fresh graduates as lecturers, shun meritocracy when they offer places to students and appoint politicians instead of educationists to run their administration. Yet they are thinking of making Malaysia an education hub. In this country I can be sued under accusations of libel and slander for writing this, brought into custody under the Official Secrets Act, and be labeled a traitor and stripped of my citizenship. Scary, ain't it? A parliament representative suggests that bloggers should register like we register pre-paid phone numbers, and another wants PG ratings posted on sites. What's worse, the Prime Minister and his deputy cannot agree on whether Malaysia is an Islamic State, while a mufti thinks that it's a woman's fault for wearing revealing clothes when they are spied upon by micro-cameras.
In the run-up to our country's 50th Birthday, local dailies (The Star at least) ran a series of articles on our Bapa Kemerdekaan, Tunku Abdul Rahman. While I truly am grateful to Tunku for what he has done, I wonder what he would think of the present state our country is in now. And what happened to our other 3 former PMs? They seemed to have been completely erased from the minds of our editors, though they too have contributed a lot to our nation building efforts. Of course, the only current news on Tun Mahathir, the only surviving Former PM is him needing to go for by-pass surgery, not how far Malaysia has come under Pak Lah since he resigned or anything the country has achieved under his regime. Oh well, that's Malaysian propaganda for you!~Zhongy~
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