What's wrong with our radar?

I think the problem is not with the radar per se. The problem is with our attitude and perhaps exacerbated by the fact many of our people are not up there by merit, but simply put there due to strings and other affirmative actions.

Take the radar blip for example. Our airforce did nothing, simply because it was supposedly non-hostile. This is assuming that that perception is correct at that point in time and not excuses put forward by our powers-that-be simple to silent the issue.

How about this response by the Indian Airforce?

In the 80s, MAS used to fly the DC-10 for the KL-London route. The flight plan would be submitted and ATC in the FIR along the route would be notified of all flights coming their way. One day the London-KUL leg was delayed due to one reason or another, and after a couple of hours, normal service would resume both in the deck and cockpit. Upon reaching the Indian airspace, the indication on the radar should be the Malaysian airline flight code (say MH XXX), and it showed just that.

However, the Indian authorities were expecting MH XXX aircraft many hours earlier, and hence this civilian aircraft could not be the Malaysian airlines. No sooner one can begin to identify oneself, the Indian Air Force jetfighters were scrambled and this civilian-and-certainly-non-hostile aircraft was soon escorted by the IAF jetfighters.

Indian airspace has always been very tight, and they are very protective of it, understandably so and personally I thought the response from the Indian Air Force was very appropriate. Fortunately they were not the Soviets and all lived to tell the tale, unlike those on KAL 007 which strayed into Soviet airspace.

MH370 - Our prayers are with you

I can't claim to be able to imagine what is going through the minds of the parents and relatives of both crew and passengers.

When he wanted to take up flying, after completing his SPM, I was neutral. Sort of. I wasn't pestering him to do it, but neither was I trying to stop him. I was leaving it entirely up to him. After all, it is his career and it has to last a lifetime, so he better choose it himself.

The risk of flying did not enter into my mind at all.

I know of someone who had hid the application form to a flying school from his son; his son had wanted to take up flying then. She was worried about the risk obviously and would prefer not to go through the agony some parents and family members are now experiencing with the loss of MH370 this morning. I can't blame her for doing that, to be honest, though I did not even come close to doing that.

In the early days, I used to wake up with him and prepare his coffee in the wee hours of the morning. In the early days, I used to monitor his flight progress on Flight Radar24.

And I used to spend hours at times at the mosque while he was flying as a trainee pilot. I would also monitor the schedules when he would land and take off as that would be the time I would intensify my prayers.

Nowadays, he leaves home by 4.30 am for his flight, while his parents are in deep slumber. On different occasions, he would only return home after midnight, after everybody has gone to sleep. I did not bother asking him of his flight schedules anymore.

While I would still pray for his safety five times a day without fail, I am resigned to the fact that his job involves certain risks. Pasrah and Redho would be the better terms to describe it. Easier said than done, I have to admit, but I am left with little choice.

He knew our doas and prayers would follow him wherever he goes. It is all in God's hand. I can't go all day, and all week worrying, I guess. It does not make sense.

I have told him, if fate have it that he would be involved in incident of this nature - God forbids, I would want him to leave as a hero and for me to be proud of him.

In the meantime, our prayers for the crew and passengers of MH370.

(However, I have to record it here that I found that rescue mission is too slow and not forthcoming. The plane was declared missing only at 0743, five hours after contact was lost. Too much time was lost by then. Where are our armies and fighter planes? Where are our SMART team? Our plane gone missing at 0240 in the morning and the first press conference at 11 am? The minister started barking at 3 pm? How pathetic our government can be? At this time and age, we must not only be doing something, but must be seen doing something, Speculation is rife due to lack of information.)

Di Pintu Syurga (Dayang Nurfaizah) - PIano Solo & Guitar

A new instrumental from the family pianist Akmal Hariri.

Straight A's and Ivy League Universities

I was amused when FB was inundated with self congratulatory message from proud parents on their children's achievements in the recently announced PMR results.

Yes, may be I am a jealous guy since my two kids did not get straight A's in their respective PMR, and neither did I when I sat for the now defunct but equivalent SRP. I missed on a straight A's as I got a C3 for my Bahasa.

Now you know why I would never write my blog in Bahasa.

There are over 30,000 students with straight A's in PMR. To be honest, I have no clue whether this is a lot or not, or what percentage this is compared to those sitting for the exam. May be it is normal distribution; may be it is done to the whim and fancy of the examiners' board.

I am not in the academic, so I don't have privilege information.

I was told many years ago by a lecturer friend (she has a PhD in mathematics) that the dumbing of ou students started with the current PM when he was the Education Minister God-knows-when. Hey, I am not against him per se; yes, I think he is going against his Election promise, but this is not the topic of this entry.

I would like to invite parents to think about their children's achievement in education. Let's get rid of the straight A's mentality and let our child's ren learn and at their own pace.

Think of how many of these 30K students who would get straight A's in SPM and how many of them would get into Ivy League Universities, and for that matter, how many more of them would graduate with First Class Honours.

From any faculty for any university actually.

I am not asking them to go and do theoretical  physics and pure mathematics or rocket science at the University of Chicago or MIT. How many would graduate with first class honours say from UiTM, our mass production university, for that matter?

And later on in their lives, how many of them would get to own a patent, or invent something worthy of being straight A's students in their earlier lives?

Don't get me wrong; I am not one eventhough at one time, I was nearly a best student in SRP, and I got into mid-level university. Monash is well known enough in Australia and a Top 8 university there, but it is not an ivy league university, mind you.

I graduated with a third class honours in engineering; even then I thought I was lucky to have passed (with failing). Barely I must add. Since then, I have had a mediocre career, although enough to cater for my family and have a good life. I did practically nothing worthy of mention here, but not contribute to the expansion of knowledge.

Definitely my name will not be remembered in the annals of chemical engineering; definitely I will not have my own Equation of States.

The Hariri EOS - I wish.

Let's think beyond PMR and SPM. Let's get our children to understand the fundamental of science and engineering, and not become memorizer of things so that they can get straight A's in school examination. Get them to love science. Let's get to understand how things work and be able to make deduction why many times they did not. Let's them create things, or be creative. Let's get him to be hands-on; let's get their hands dirtied.

Let's get them into arts - languages beyond their mother's tongue. It can be Arabic, which would be close to our heart since it is the language of Islam. Let them learn music and be creative. Let them learn about painting, and craft. Let them learn about life and what is needed to survive in this world.

Of course, let them learn about physics and how it affects our life, especially in this modern world. Do not let them just be users of technology. They will know all the different models of smart phones, right down to the latest models and features, but know nothing about how they work.

Get them to love physics and science, for the sake of learning rather than getting straight A's in any school examinations. Get them to do more experiments than  memorizing books.

I think a combination of these along with traditional subjects may be good for our children. 

Life is beyond getting straight A's. Get rid of that mentality.

But learning is a must and must be encouraged to our children.

Going back, I know soon our FB will be inundated with a flurry of posting when the SPM results are out. Think again before you start posting. What I love to see posted on FB is posting about our children's achievement at the universities. Yes, getting them graduating for now is an achievement I would not mind chipping in my congratulatory message, especially from a good university.

Then the next task would be to encourage them to excel and not become someone who would go with the flow and become anonymous.

Old Paintings by Othmansor

These paintings were left to the elements behind the bedroom door at our Taiping home, and has been with the family since 1970. According to MCKam, the artist painted them in 1968, when he was a bachelor and a teacher. Almarhum Othman Mansor was one talented artist who in 1980 was even sent to the States to study art.

These painting were given to bapak, during one of our visit to his studio home in Assam Kumbang, immediately after he married her in 1970. Almarhum offered one of the paintings for bapak to choose, but bapak could not choose one over the other; so instead Almarhum generously gave both of them away to him.

That's how we came into possession of these two priceless paintings. I should know and I knew it to the fine details as I was there when it happened. I may be young then, as a seven year old, but that conversation remains etched in my memory.

 

One of his painting now resides in Balai Seni Lukis Negara. He won second place in a national competition sponsored by RRI, circa 73/74 when he was a student at USM. It was not a competition for the amateur actually, as the winner was one Latiff Mohidin, Malaysia's most celebrated artist and poet.

That shows how talented he was then. He passed away at a very young age of 37 in 1982. Talented (and nice) people normally die young. He left a very young family obviously - his widow (my auntie) at 27 and his three children, the youngest at two.

This was painted in 1968 and I hope his son and my cousin will be able to restore them.

Now Balai Seni Lukis Negara has two paintings, one done by him and another one by his son, as they had recently purchased a painting by his equally talented son Arif Fauzan Othman. Kemana jatuhnya kuah kalau tidak ke nasi.

His painting (murals if you must) also used to adorn the main entrance of Taiping zoo in the 70s and 80s.

Alfatihah to my uncle Othman Mansor (Othmansor). Moga Allah mencucuri rahmat ke atas ruhnya, dan dimasukkan dalam golongan orang2 yg beriman.

Never go to Makkah immediately after visiting Bangkok

Now that we are nearing to the biggest day in a Muslim's life, I would like to remind my fellow muslims - make it Malaysians, it is more appropriate to address ourselves than anyone else - that they should refrain from visiting Thailand prior to heading to Makkah - either for Umrah, Haj or for any reason irrespective.

I made the mistake early this year when I went for my umrah with my family. Just a week before, I had visited Bangkok for a couple of days for business reasons.

In Madinah, an uncle of mine decided to purchase perfume for himself. There are probably more perfume shops in Madinah and Makkah than any other cities in the world, which to my mind is a paradox, to say the least.

Ironic in the sense that while we are doing the umrah or Haj (i.e. religious pilgrimage duties), one is not supposed to use or be in touch with any form of perfume. The umrah will be considered null and void if you use perfume of any kind - accidentally or intentionally. So we tend to stay away from such fluid like a plague.

Anyway, going back to my uncle Pak Su wanting to buy perfume. He can be considered a world traveller, being a former Malaysian Airline captain and now captain for Korean Airlines for the past 10 years. So I know I can trust his judgment when it comes to shopping.

He wanted something soft and easy on the nose; so soon he had zoomed in on the Majestic. It was then bargaining time - the price quoted is SR600; he was asking for SR500. But the seller would not budge. Not even for a single riyal, I would say.

I was watching the proceeding intently. I had never bought myself this kind of perfume before, so this was new to me. But I was left wondering in my mind. Here we have a Boeing 777 captain earning in US$ and wanted to bargain on a SR600 item.

I thought it was unnecessary and I would not (bargain). SR600 is too cheap for this wonderful perfume. There was no need to bargain. In fact, I chipped in and told the seller that I would take two bottles for myself and Arif.

"You would not mind having a bottle, would you Arif? " I asked Arif. I thought he can make do with a bottle himself. After all he is an airline pilot and being in the airline industry, he meets a lot with people and it would be appropriate to have a good perfume.

The most wonderful perfume that cost me a bomb. But the scent would linger on for the whole day

So I paid for two bottles of Majestic perfume for SR1200.00 using credit card. I was satisfied - I thought it was of the best smelling perfume I had ever come across, and I got myself a bargain.

Bargain of the trip!

Coming out from the shop, then something struck to my mind. What was I thinking? Pak Su was not being cheap when he was bargaining for his bottle of perfume. The bargaining was perfectly appropriate. I was totally wrong with my math. The conversion for SR from Ringgit is approximately 1:1, so each bottle had cost me nearly RM600 (actually it is RM500.00), and I had just paid nearly RM1200 for my two bottles of perfume.

"La, Pak Su, silap kira la," I lamented to my uncle, "I thought the price is RM60.00 per bottle."

At RM60, there was no reason to bargain. But at RM600a bottle, and for two bottles?

It struck me then that I had confused myself with the Thai Baht. The Thai Baht conversion to RM is approximately at 10:1. So B600 would be about RM60.00, and the week before departure I was in Bangkok for a couple of days for business reasons, and everything in the city has to be divided by 10 for me to know the value in Ringgit.

Well what can I say? I thought I was smart and I thought I knew my math. After all I had taken advanced engineering mathematics at university level, and international finance at MBA level and breezed through them. I had just paid for two bottle of perfumes for RM1200, and I thought I was paying RM120.00 instead, and I guess I should probably be drinking perfume for the next 6 months to pay for that two bottles I actually cannot afford.

Aah, well. Luckily I have two sons and between the three of us, I am sure we can use and finish off the two bottles of the most expensive perfume I had ever bought! Why oh why do we have to have different currencies and not a single one to contend with?

Or for that matter, why can't we do currency conversion using Laplace Transform? It would be easier for us engineers!

Morale of the story - Never go to Bangkok before heading to Makkah or Madinah. It is totally inappropriate, I can tell you that.

Hahaha.

Gotcha!

PS I wonder what were you thinking when you read the title of this piece. ;)

Enka - the beautiful Japanese folk/traditional music

Enka music/songs can be emotional - they are raw, they are honest and they are full of sorrow (at times much like our Asli). You would feel them even if you do not understand a single word. One need not to, to be drowned in typically melancholic songs. Having spent months on end in remote parts of Japan in the late 80s/early 90s, listening to these traditional Japanese folk-influenced songs on the telly on cold wintry night (with nothing else to do, to be honest), one could not help but feel the pain of these songs.

And one can easily be captivated by them.

I remember a couple of such songs that I was taken by by then that I had to hum them to the instructors so as to identify them and, with their help, brought back a couple of cassettes for me to enjoy back in KL.

Beyond the Amagi Gap (Amagi-Goe) is one such powerful song. Aah, and now it is fully translated into English, never mind that the translation leaves much to be desired.

Love Sayuri Ishikawa's engaging performance and the setting is so beautiful.

But the lyrics?

"Stains from mating?", "I would rather kill you than see you love somebody else?" Hahaha, fortunately our writers are not that adventurous!  ;)

Aah, just read the lyric while listening to the wonderful voice of Sayuri Ishikawa and of course her engaging performance.

For the translated version, please go here. They would not allow me to embed it here. I love it when she sings "Darling, over your shoulder, the mountain is burning" while the background is a simulated mountain burning.

Magnificent!