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.
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?
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 13th 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?
It’s summer and the longest day has gone by – 21st of June. Summer in London can be good but yesterday we had an unexpectedly heavy showers, with HAIL. Yes – in the middle of summer, this can happen in London. Well, we were under a tree in regent’s park having our picnic with the Serbians and this rain just started pouring. The funny thing was that it was totally dry when we got out of the tube station at E&C!
So, I finally finished my transfer exam! Phew – passing this should be a relieve. Unfortunately, I am feeling more stressed and excited at the amount of work ahead. Preparing for the presentation was easy, but cutting it down to 30 minutes was difficult. Having practiced it so that it lasts 30-40 minutes, I was shocked that I finished in less than 25 minutes. But, I was glad that they was a good turnout to the presentation and interesting questions that were raised. The best part was that the examiners seem pretty nice – has a chat and constructive feedback about the work going forward.
Presentations are not too bad afterall, is it? Especially being a GTA that teaches UGs how to give a good presentation…
We went kayaking down Jurassic Coast, Weymouth on Saturday. Thankfully the weather was good, clear skies(with white clouds, not grey), sunny and breezy day – perfect for kayaking. Well, the 3-hour drive was a bit long but the scenery was worth it. So, kayak we did – accompanied by an instructor (quite the ‘comel’). 2.5-3 hours of kayaking is no easy business – easpecially because we can’t stop. Anytime we stop, we will be pushed back by the waves which is in the opposite direction on the way out. Jurassic Coast is known for many fossil discoveries as well as the rock formation along the coast. Unfortunately, coordinating the kayak with your partner and navigating at the same time is a bit of a multitask that we did not particularly have a good look at the rock formation.
Halfway through, we stopped behind some rocks to get away from the waves and were given some chocs and water to endure the next part of the journey – the hard bit. There’s a door like structure that we were meant to kayak through. Unfortunately, the wind was too strong causing our kayak to capsize! So Fei and me we trown off our boat – interesting experience that I’m glad it happened! A bit refreshing to continue our journey. The instructore, Tony was awesome in that he managed to get us both on board again. The journey back to the shore was very rough with high waves – but we managed to get back without capsizing again!
We hiked up the hill and manage to get a good view of the water form the top – really like Mild Seven advertisement that I used to see when I was young!
The 48-hours tube strike can be said as a blessing in disguise, at least for my two friends and me – as we got free tickets to watch Sister Act at the London Palladium. The seats were not great – but can’t complain for the free tickets! It is a newly opened musical in London, based on the popular movie released in 1992. I remember that I used to watch that movie over and over again as the music was good. Albeit difference songs, the adaption was well played by all the characters. Delores was really superb – matching the act of Whoopi Goldberg herself. Funny, witty and entertaining are words to describe this musical – a must watch for all the muscial fans out there!
I was just watching Seinfeld the other day when they mentioned that someone had bought a paid of glasses from Malaysia. It was a pleasant surprise to have people mention your country – especially in the 90s when Malaysia was not really on the map. This was in Seinfeld Season 6, Episode 13(The Scofflaw).
Then I remembered Zoolander, with Ben Stiller acting as a male model wanting to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia. A few times Malaysia was mentioned, but the name twisted to be Micronasia and something else. That I felt, was quite offensive to be honest! I guess the scriptwriters might have thought that ofending 26 million people is ok. Out of there, how many will actually watch the movie? To be fair, Malaysians are huge fans of American movie. However, from the 26m, only half might even think of watching (the rest either being too young or too old). Of that half, half might actually watch it. Of that, half or more would be watching a pirated version – how to complain. Technically only about 3.25 million would actually bother to watch it in the cinema/but the dvd, giving them the right to be outraged by it.
It is good that Malaysia is being mentioned in these shows. However, it is also important that we put ourselves on the map and for that we need an image. A holiday destination is a good start. For instance, Malaysia is often mentioned in Bollywood and tamil movies as somewhere modern yet exotic. And this definitely helps with the tourism industry. The world needs to know what we are good for something – and these positive attributes in movies will help, especially since the twin towers that put us on the map will fade off when Burj Dubai(highest tower in the world) becomes fully operational and draws all the attention.
