Nuclear Energy

In response to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) announcing plans to build a nuclear power plant in Malaysia, I wrote a very high level article about nuclear power, it’s advantages, disadvantages and its adoption across different countries in Techpiece. Here is a paragaph from that article:

In order to determine the feasibility of nuclear power plans in Malaysia, we need to understand the local scenario. First of all, why didn’t we have nuclear plants in the past? A few analyses in the 70s and 80s were carried out, but the Malaysian Board of Energy, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) decided to build more gas plants following the rapid expansion of the oil and gas field. Now that gas prices are soaring, nuclear seems like a pretty good alternative. Another reason for sceptics to discount this source of energy at that point in time was due to two major nuclear power incidents in Three Mile and Chernobyl. The protocols for operating a nuclear power plant are usually very strict and rigid. The common cause of these two incidents is human error. Hence, stringent guidelines and multiple layered of checks and audits should be in place to avoid similar occurrences.

Book Review; Fast Food Nation

I was taken aback by the findings of the author in this book. First released in 2001, Fast Food Nation has brought up the dark side of large corporation in the fast food business and how it affects almost everyone in the society. The book goes on to explain the effect of advertising on adults and children, the conditions of the workplace, the creation of a large network of fast food restaurants, the conditions of the slaughterhouses and issues surrounding this, which in fact affects most countries in the world. Everyone knows McDonalds. The fact is, they are  the biggest culprit in the fast food industry. In this piece, I would like to divide and analyse the effects on different groups of people:

1. Consumers (adults and kids) are influenced by the advertisement to buy and consume cheap, but tasty food! Large portion of fries, burgers and toys induce most people to consider fast food as part of their diet, increasingly frequent these days. The effects are increasing obesity rates and growing trends of people infected by E.Coli and the mad cow disease. Consumers are also deceived as Mc Donalds use beef oil to fry their fries (which outraged the Hindu community).

2. Workers in fast food restaurants and slaughterhouses are paid minimum wages, not given proper health care, forces to work long hours(in terrible conditions in the slaughterhouse) and not allowed to join unions. Many are desperate for jobs. Teenagers are targeted to work at the fast food chains whereas immigrants and people who are illiterate are induced to work in slaughterhouses, with terrible working conditions.

3. Manager and higher ranking people in the coorporation are all driven by increasing profits by cutting the costs. This drives an unethical business where people strive to do whatever they can t keep the costs down.

4. US Government usually get a lot of taxes form these corporations. On top of that, they are lobbied by them(sponsor their campaign for election) and in return have to pass a bill that does not favour consumers. Some regi0ns allowed that companies disallow workers to join unions. The US government is also not very strict when it comes to food quality and safety compared to European countries.

5. Schools receive extra funding for books and equipment when they allow advertising for fast food to their students. This encourageds children to develop the liking towards fast food at a young age (a habit developed when young is difficult to stop).

Capitalism in the US has driven large corporations to act in a way that compromises their ethics and the well-being of their consumers and employees. Specialisation is helpful to reduce the cost, but over doing it comes as at a cost, which is only seen in the long run.

I highly recommend this book as it is a good read and reveals a lot of things that can be happening around us – makes us think about what goes on behind the scene and question ourselves : what are we feeding our bodies?

Maths and Science: To be taught in English or Malay?

After the occupation of the British in Malaya, later became Malaysia as we know it today, we have inherited English as a medium of teaching up until 1970. This was the turning point in history where all subjects were then taught in the national language, Malay. What happened as a consequence of this? Well, this change from English to Malay medium happened after the May 13^th riots in 1969. With the New Economic Policy, Malay language was used to promote unity amongst the different races in Malaysia. In this article, I would like to draw points together to show the pros and cons of using either language as a medium of communication and teaching tool.

One would argue that the language that you learn as a kid will remain as your main language in which you think, construct sentences, count and ultimately express yourself. The last element is very important in order to create an effective communicator as well as being able to understand the meaning behind sentences/articles/texts that are presented. Having said this, it is thus vital that children are exposed to both English and Malay at a young age. On top of that, many Malaysian minorities also have their mother tongue i.e. other Asian languages. The problem that many people are foreseeing with the current system is that English is not emphasised and this makes it difficult for students pursuing higher education, where the medium and materials are mostly in English. The main reason is because English standards are low, given that only one subject is taught in English as opposed to all other subjects being taught in Malay. Past experiences have shown that some students do struggle to relearn every scientific and mathematical jargon in English for their tertiary education. Is this enough to justify the switch of teaching medium?

In all fairness, many students actually do struggle in English due to the lack of emphasis. However, many methods can be used to overcome this barrier such as encouraging students to speak in English on specific days of the week. This should be done early on in their education time, before the ‘shy-ness’ element kicks in once students realise that their command for the language is not good compared to their peers. The problem is ‘Is switching the medium of teaching justified and does it ultimately help the students?’ Well, studies and projections can be made but at the end of the day what matters is the willingness of the students to learn and the quality of education provided by schools these days. Below are a few advantages and disadvantages of having the medium changed to English:

Advantages	Disadvantages
Better preparation for higher education Less translation of books needed from English to Malay It is assumed that students will have better command of English The scientific aspect of the national language will deteriorate, without any improvements to the jargon and efforts to enrich the vocabulary in this area will not be worth it	Teachers are not trained properly and this does not provide quality education to the students Expensive to change the teaching force, revamping the syllabus and to translate texts from English to Malay Scientific and mathematical English usage does not help improve English as much Creates a nation that is fluent in the National language in all subjects

I still remember that I had to learn everything in Malay and I really enjoyed it. It was a challenge to learn all the jargon in English when I started my A levels. However, at the age of 17, you are expected to still be sharp and able to adapt to changes. The national language does actually bring everyone together and it would be a shame if Malaysians in the future can’t speak or worse still can’t understand Malay. As it is, many of the Chinese and Indian community do not have a good grasp of their mother tongue. Without getting a grip on the national language, are we all heading towards just being monolingual? How competitive can we be especially in today’s era where language skill is growing in importance?

Tribute to MJ

He will be missed for a long time. As a tribute to the Kingof Pop, here’s a song with meaningful lyrics: Man in the mirror: