Ziel Praha (a).

In the name of God, most merciful most compassionate.

The main reason why I traveled to Prague is to visit Akmal’s brother who’s studying in Olomouc. At least, it could serve as an excuse to travel and to kill some time before the new semester begins.

I might have underestimated the long and tiring travel from Deggendorf to Prague but knowing that you’re not the only one to have fooled yourself is good enough to neuter the disappointment.

The station at Germany-Czech border is the famous Bayerische Eisenstein. Although it should be famous historically, visitors do not look that enthusiastic. There, were only the three of us plus one visitor in the history gallery. There were no ATM machine although there’s always a need for one. If one wants to use a WC then he or she would have to cross the red line separating Germany and Czech Republic, but it’s not as far as it sounds. Here in this secluded area, their get-together occasion is at best; a flea market. Truly, the ambience is not welcoming.

The only logical explanation why they don’t have an ATM machine there is they’d want to make extra profit from the dishonorable practice of currency trade. They would gladly take your one Euro for the value of 20 Kroners when the market value is about 25 Kroners.

So we proceeded. There’s nothing wrong with the Czech train that we took from there except that it is relatively slow (compared to the DB) and that the toilets in that train ‘opens’ directly to the railway instead of septic tanks. I for one would not walk that trail.

After a long while in the train, from one station to another, we arrived at Prague or what the locals would call; Praha. This place is full of beautiful buildings, tourists, ‘restauraces’ and rubbish. I personally think that Czech people love to put unnecessary decorations on their buildings. I learnt that ancient Egyptians had lots of columns to support their structures because they couldn’t quite make up the use of arches. I learnt that they had Pylons to make sunrise and sunset clearly visible. But why on earth would someone attach a gigantic door knob on his or her wall? Why would statues of fathers and sons (bulky) be erected on the corners of a fine building. Verily, they are trying hard to look good.

From Praha, we took another train to Olomouc. Before that, we took a short walk in the city. Not far from the train station is the building of Malaysian Diplomatic Mission to the Czech Republic. I thought I could use this facility to perform my Prayer as it was already getting late, but to my disappointment, this one is just as dysfunctional as many others. I later performed my prayer in the train.

We were so hungry that we decided to eat at one of the many ‘restauraces’ by the pavement. We sat down and waited and thought about what we would like to eat and waited some more. No one attended us! The waitress and waiters saw us raising our hands, but they were too busy standing and looking around. A ’white’ couple took of after a while, not able to withstand the unfriendliness anymore. Then a waiter came, slow and sluggish as he approached us, unfit for the world as he seemed, but nonetheless; friendly. The special deal for the day was mushroom soup poured into a container bread. Looks nice and delicious and it’s only for 199 Kroners. Why not.

Me and Akmal ordered two of those. If I were to be the waiter, I would immediately know the type of customer I serve from the way he or she orders his or her foods, as to say; I could definitely tell a Veggie from a non-Veggie.

They prepared the soups amazingly fast. When it was already ready for serving, we learnt that the soup, what the Menu describes to contain only mushrooms (no trace of the word pig or ham or the like in the English description) has ham slices. The waiter tried to talk some sense to us and tried to convince us to see that somehow that was our mistake. He said that Czech people would always include pig flesh in their cooking as to not have it ‘bland’. For Pete’s sake. We were then, too careful with our choice of food, which is really a good thing.

I ate only the Omelet, but I also have to pay for the soup. So I ‘mutilated’ the soup without eating it as to deter the waiter from hogging it later on or to prevent the owner from re-selling it. Akmal did the same thing.

Before long, we were already on our way to Olomouc.

We arrived at Olomouc hl. n. at about 22:54. The train station looks rather ugly although it is adequately facilitated. Akmal’s brother was already on a bench, waiting. It’s the trains fault we’re not punctual.

We took a tramp to the university campus, the ‘DPMO’. It was a joyride, but they should have regular ticket checks…to be continued

Learning is more effective when students are ready to learn.

In the Name of Allah, most merciful and most compassionate.

“Readiness, exercise and effect”

-Edward Thorndike-

What does it take for a student to ‘be ready’? We have to examine this issue from physical, mental and emotional pivots. Let us begin with the most important: mental and emotional readiness.

“When someone is ready to perform some act, to do so is satisfying, not to do so is annoying. When someone is not ready to perform some act and is forced to do so, it is annoying”

-Edward Thorndike-

Let us imagine a classroom situation consisting of a model teacher who provides mental, physical

and motivational challenge, who creates interests, who overwhelms her or his classroom with

primacy, recency and intensity of subject matters, undyingly, and a ‘black-box’ student. How the

student should think and feel is of great importance.

*Motivation is not about knowing the value of learning anymore. It is too loose a concept. It is not about promises of wealth and assurance like what motivators sell. It is in fact about the strong purpose and the clear objective which blooms from a definite self-reason of learning a specific subject matter.

*In order to ensure an active and perpetual process of self-reasoning, a student would have to

develop the logic on her or his own. If students would have to learn mathematics, let them know,

initially from the teacher, the extent to which knowing mathematics could take them. Let them

know that with mathematics they could understand real-life events by breaking them down to

smaller, analyzable components. Later, the students would have to get creative with reasoning in

favor of mathematics, themselves. Upon understanding the richness of that subject, students would be ready to seek extraneous applied knowledge of that subject matter on their own. This is where Lateral Thinking comes into play. This is when a healthy and ethical Self-realization is much needed. And in favor of nurture against nature, I would like to stress out that preschool education is to answer for this.

Henceforth, we shall treat the student as a unit capable of experimenting with thinking and

reasoning and the teacher as capable of guiding.

*The principal of effect dictates that learning is strengthened when accompanied by a pleasant or

satisfying feeling. The emotions associated with a teacher or a subject is to a student, selective.

Therefore, the first impression a teacher or a subject matter creates would later translate into

prolonged dispositions and elaborated associative mood and temperament. The teacher should, for instance, be careful with using punishment, reinforce positively and recognize and commend

improvement.

*The basic needs of a student plus one are of no lesser significance. If education could secure these needs, then it is an over due security. These basic needs should be immediately available so that the students could be immediately ready. The ERG Theory (Clayton Alderfer) explains this in-depth. The needs of existence demands a student to be carefree of problems relating to physiology and safety. A student should have enough to eat, enough to drink, enough sleep, reasonable clothing and reasonable shelter.

*The needs of relatedness demands a student to have good social and external esteem. Healthy

connections must be established between the student and her or his family, friends, teachers and

environment. Moreover, these connections should be education-friendly in a sense that it promotes further learning. Let there be supportive teachers, friends and most importantly; parents of the student. Let there be minimal exposure of the student to negative influences generated by mass media, the society and the environment. This ideal is difficult for it is collective. Media should sanitize entertainment to avoid promoting hedonistic culture. Parents should continuously provide moral supports by example, through actions and verbatim. Teachers should be like model friends and model parents. Friends should then be the reflection.

*The needs of growth, that promotes internal esteem and self-actualization desires to be creative, productive and to complete meaningful tasks. The timid child of authoritarian parents is just like the timid student of an authoritarian school regime and the timid assembler of an authoritarian factory; looking forward to ‘weekends‘.

These fundamental needs and the preconditions it set are very delicate. A student who is exhausted or in ill-health obviously cannot learn much. If outside excessive responsibilities, interests, or worries weigh to heavily on her or his mind, if her or his schedule is overcrowded, or if problems seem insoluble, the student may have little to no interest in learning.

So far, it is clear that none of the factors that influence the way a student think or feel could be

completely separated from external factors be it at school, at home or in the streets, at least initially. Until we are ready to admit our wrongs, ready to change our behavior and to improvise the system, until the parents, the media and the society could agree on cooperation and understanding, there is no end to this problem.

*What the school as a single unit could do to compensate for the lack of cooperation on behalf of

parents and society is most importantly, suppress all forms of internal problems and petty politics. Assign a task only to those capable of handling it. Say no to favoritism. Tolerate not lack of competitiveness. Do not hesitate to discharge irresponsible teachers. Irresponsible he or she is when he or she could not deliver the aspiration of the education system, incapable of attending the students from angles other than formal education.

“Know thyself, nothing in excess, make a pledge and mischief is nigh”

-Temple of Apollo at Delphi-

*What is physical readiness? Contextually, several points related to this such good health and

fulfilled needs have already been uncovered. What is still unclear in the light of a discussion of how a student should be, is indefinitely how a teacher should be.

To facilitate students’ physical readiness, teachers would have to make amend. They have to be

ready to work extra hours. They have to consider the problems of their students as their own. They have to see the students as their own children. They could not afford to be lazy or opt for too much maternity leaves if it obstructs the education process. But none of these efforts should impede the active learning process as suggested by Thorndike. This is important to support self-efficacy of lifelong learning.

*I shall sum the arguments related to a coordinated school health into the several following:

physical activities, healthy school environment, nutrition, mental health (counseling), health

services and student, family and community partners.

*I shall sum the newly envisioned interaction between teachers and students into the following:

Focusing on responsibility, Providing company, skills and knowledge and creating critical thinkers.

*Actions should be put forth to counteract negative subcultures within school that are not education friendly. This is no rudimentary aspect of the enterprise. The school would have to identify them through often negative relations to work and study, to their negative relation to class, through their association with territory, physical or imaginative, through their stylistic ties to excess and exaggeration and most importantly through their refusal of conformation to the ordinary and should-be life of a teacher or a student (Ken Gelder, 2007). Take reading as an example. Negative subcultures could view readers as not appealing to their so-called modern, anti-establishment and

rebellious way of life.

*Religious value should also be actively instilled within the students. This would later spearhead

the correcting of moral values and the forming of good self-esteem and self-realization. To some

extent, it could also result good discipline among the students. But the school should be careful in

categorizing the students; those fit for religious programs and those who are not, because it could

lead to the birth of other subcultures.

“Tell me and I‘ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I‘ll understand”

-Chinese Proverb-

*Active involvement from students, teachers, parents and society is what we need to help the

students to be ready. We need less politics and no favoritism in organizations, top-down. We need no one who points finger and everyone who walk the talks. A stolen idea at the mouth of a brown-nose talker is as good as nothing.

With that, I end my session.

Thank you.

Hafsah Bte. Dahlan.

So you wonder why they stare at you.

Tonight it's 8 rakaat Tarawih and 1 rakaat Witir like yesterday. At least that's usual. This is not a usual post. Something just crossed my mind and I would be God-damned if I don't voice it.

To those of you who found peace here in Germany, primarily, or any where else in the world, sufficient enough to make you prefer a foreign land to your own country, let me remind you that it's plastic. Why am I bringing this up. Well, first of all, I know quite a number of Malaysians who whole-heartedly embrace the above idea, whether by way of being blind to reality or by way of denying it. Secondly, I ran pass some self-righteous Germans on the way back, complaining aloud about how I use the wrong side of the road (upstream). I don't blame them. Maybe they've just experienced something bad, maybe they were shocked. In fact, I apologized. Thirdly, when I got into my room, I saw the Malaysian flag on my table, what I usually, idly see, but this time with some sense to it. So I thought: This is the flag that would shelter you when you need shelter the most, when others of different origin deny you from any form of allegiances. This is the flag that represents constitutions that protect you unconditionally, constitutions uphold by those who affiliate to you. The flag that you could count on, even if it couldn't count on a majority of its own people. I am of course seeing it in a collective manner.

So why are we whining all the time? Why do we point fingers? Is it not due to our own incompetency that we have to look to other nations out there to point us to the right direction? Is it not our own tendency to hate our own kind or take advantage of them that lead us to associating ourselves with our enemies or blatantly speaking; the invading forces of the whites? So I am being racist. But you know what? I couldn't help it after going through several bitterly experiences of racism here. So those racists bastards think that somehow we are of something lesser. How can that be when we know more than them!? How can that be when we earn more than them!?

Sadly, collectively, that's just a dream now. Malaysians who never thought of this or like this think they don't have to answer to future generations. At least when they decide to be idle. That's why their lives are too damn simple.

I am not like them, and I would be God-damned if one day I become one of them. I need to know more and earn more than those self-righteous white supremacist bastards. God send them all to hell. Amen.

PPSMI, from the oven.

The abrupt decision.

Even if they did validate the conclusion they came up with, that throughout their unethical experiment on Malaysian students, the mastery of English language as well as science and mathematics did not improve, there are still 'voids to be filled'.

It is almost like an underestimation of the importance and significance of the educational system, how they suddenly decided to revert back to Bahasa, for Science and Mathematics. Before we get to the comparison between English and Bahasa as languages, let us first look at the nature of this decision.

'Pedagogy is central in any debate about posing threats to educational freedom', (Michael Berube, 2006).

The first thing I thought of after reading that excerpt is that the need to revert to using Bahasa for Science and Mathematics is an immediate product of the incompetence of government study groups that came up with the 'English for Science and Mathematics' plan, a priori, if not a mere political stunt or an act of appealing to the anti-PPSMI folks. In any of the three cases, they would base their conclusion on reasons with regard to the competitiveness of Bahasa while failing to address the negative effects of this abrupt decision on educational freedom, generally, and how through this, the key components of the educational system (the teachers and the students) would be seriously affected.

More on the nature of the decision: strategy and tactics.

Most of the problems faced by huge organizations, governments included, are not caused by insufficiency of good ideas or ill-nature of plans. It is in fact because they have different individuals doing different things at a time, and unfortunately in this case, humans really love to have their own thoughts be heard and implemented.

So we have the plan-makers, the minorities in this chain. PPSMI is a brainchild of this group and yes, like many other strategies of theirs, there's nothing impossible about this one. The problem starts when they pass the baton to the next group, the majorities, those in charge of implementing it through tactics. And like a contagious disease, it spreads like crazy down the line.

It is natural to be repellent to new ideas especially if it requires extra efforts. But to proceed, we need to force our way through and that's just how the world works.

So it's the tactics we should blame, not the strategies. Don't cancel the plan by reverting to Bahasa. Improve the tactics and implementations, because PPSMI is an enterprise. And like many other enterprises, there's a sense of good liberalism and pluralism here and that is what we, Malaysians, need in order to secure freedom of education for generations to come. And I don't need to explain about the importance of freedom of education here, as we all could see the degree of acceptance and resistance Malaysians showed in the past several days after Dato' Seri Muhyiddin's announcement.

Why the argument of the Opposition is invalid.

We don't instill sense about the importance of Bahasa into younger generations by having them learn Science and Mathematics primarily in Bahasa only to put them in a difficult position of having to coup up with Science and Mathematics in English at higher level, later on.

If I were to say that the true appreciation of Bahasa as a National Language lies in the correct usage of it at times when we need to use it and the denunciation of pidgin languages as a preferable medium to unite Malaysians or even having thought of that idea, people would call me a language purist as if the title 'language purist' is a slur itself.

Making the students learn science and mathematics in English is not a weapon to fight this multiple fronts battle of glorifying Bahasa, how A. Samad Said potentially thought of it when he decided to join the picket in Kuala Lumpur, when the students can experience for themselves how ridiculously numerous, the changes Dewan Bahasa make to Tatabahasa from time to time, how the leaders proudly practice 'Bahasa Rojak' (sometimes, due to weak mastery of Bahasa or even English), how they proudly respond with English when asked in Bahasa during press conferences, when the youngsters can experience Chinese, Indians or Malays preferring to use English or their native languages over Bahasa.

Let us unite in assuming these obligations as responsible adults and not burden our children.

Politicizing education and the good old bandwagon.

In some articles explaining Malaysians' social behaviors which I wrote in my blog, I always included the term 'bandwagon mentality'. It's a necessary variation of 'bandwagon fallacy' or 'argumentum ad populum', that explains why people are inclined towards sharing the idea of the majority. Unlike 'bandwagon fallacy' which is relatively easy to detect, 'bandwagon mentality' is a silent but effective killer of a sound society.

The increased severity of this symptom is prevalent in Malaysian culture because most of our politicians tend to politicize social issues for their own gain or popularity. A good example is the pressure exerted by Opposition leaders onto the government in regard to PPSMI.

Some other examples are government policies that tend to narrow the choices available to the people, nearly causing descent into acceptance, although recent progress shows an astounding improvement.

Weird US military emblems / insignias.

Why Malaysians should not complain.

The culture of 'us' and 'them' with regard to the government and the people has become increasingly popular in Malaysia, up to a point that it is being adopted by the younger generation as a trend. If examined, one could not possibly find a clear distinction between rioters hoping for a better Malaysia and rioters who just couldn't resist watching a riot without participating.

So here are the possible cases:

(1) Because the people (majority) are incapable of consuming the notions related to greater goods, or at least let it flourish without perverting it, due to the insufficiency of education, a path they took, a reputation they assume (assuming education of good quality was initially open to all). This can be seen by the regards they have for smaller but collectively considerable issues.

Examples:
1)Public sanitation.
If Malaysians in general still couldn't comprehend the simplest thought of putting garbage in its designated can or not throw garbage while on the highway;

2)Priority.
If Malaysians still choose to prioritize picketing political issues over issues concerning humanity like poverty widespread and the growing concern of deteriorating education quality in the suburbans (these later issues are merely political tools attended to, only during campaigns);

3) Behavior.
If Malaysians still condone violence and intolerance be it on the road, among households, or to foreigners; workers or tourists;

etc., or in general, insist to continue having and practicing (>3) world mentality, how could the government expect them to make sound decisions, without any influence by the 'preying hands' that feed them with lies.

Due to the attributes of the people and the hardship government put up to contain the consequences over the years, the government has become autocratic or semi-autocratic, in which case, its the people's fault.

The second case is the simplest: After years of being in power, the government eventually became corrupted from the inside, and by natural restoration, they will be replaced.

This fairytale case doesn't require further elaborations. It is a dream come true for both conspirators and fanatics (with mala fide intentions or just plain irrationality). Although it is obviously of much lesser credential, there's a chance that it might be true.

But people tend to go for the 'shortcuts'.

This is an example of the famous causality dilemma of 'chicken or the egg'. We, Malaysians, are infatuated by the drawing of 'Tacuina Sanitatis'. We shall take the 'contents' for granted until we come to realize that this dilemma is altogether, futile!

Drop the ball, start to work our visions.

The sweat from substantial works and progress towards development is the true bread for future generation.

ES IST 1 TAG, TEUER!

Let's see how long THIS would last
HOLIDAY HALL OF SUCCESS (2)

Hell's Kitchen.

Let's see how long it would last :)
HOLIDAY HALL OF SUCCESS (1)