You borrow, you pay; that much goes without saying.
In the newspapers today PTPTN is taking action on its loan defaulters by [1] submitting their names to two credit rating agencies – CTOS and BRIS – and [2] hauling them to court. They should have done this sooner.
The National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) was established in 1997 to provide financial aid to Malaysians pursuing tertiary education. Ten years on, the agency is facing serious difficulties recovering its education loans. So we have thousands of graduates – products of our universities who now most likely have become professionals – defaulting on their loans; it’s a national disgrace. It raises questions on the values that we hold as a society.
In many ways the government really should have seen it coming, given the many accounts of government scholars ‘disappearing’ after finishing their studies overseas instead of returning home to serve the country. No action were taken against them – not much action can be taken against people who ‘cannot be traced’ – so perhaps PTPTN borrowers also chance that no real action will be taken against them. After all, we commonly see no action taken against polluters, illegal factories, loggers and traders etc. in the country. We are so lucky to have such very ‘accommodating’ and ‘considerate’ government. :P
Talking with students, most feel that they should all be given scholarships; that tertiary education should be provided to them for free. Years of generous government assistance in all aspects of life has created a society expecting, demanding, and ultimately dependent on, government subsidies. So when the government does not give them scholarships, they take the loans and convert them to scholarships on their own account. Malaysia Boleh!
In the United States recently, colleagues were fascinated by self check-out counters at supermarkets. It must be easy for one to just put stuff in a bag and not pay for them, but people scan each item in their shopping basket and pay. Self check-out counters are a convenience. People recognize the added value provided by the counters to not let any short-term gains they may get, by stealing, jeopardize a potential life-time of convenience.
Reneging on a promise is also a characteristic of a Munafiq.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Cold Fusion
Does catching a cold qualify as being sick? I wouldn’t say so; a little down, kurang sihat, but not sick, as I explained to a colleague. Sick is when you need to seek medical help. You don’t need to see a doctor just for a common cold. But still, it’s a bitch to catch a cold.
Bitch point numero uno: the usual telltale was there since the beginning of the week but I ignored it. STUPID. I felt that all too familiar chill inside, which for me always means that there is a fever or a cold coming; my body was under attack. Knowing it, I should have popped a couple of Panadol® and bury myself under a blanket to sweat it out. Nine times out of ten, it will all be over the next morning. But I didn’t do any of that; stupidly sleeping late instead three nights in a row.
Bitch point number two, and this is the big one, is the cough that follows. Perhaps the cough is really part of the whole common cold package, but even if we can never find a cure for the common cold, I’d say that getting rid of the coughing part is one huge accomplishment. The blocked, and later running, nose and sore and scratchy throat is nothing compared to coughing like your lungs are coming out.
Enough of this; there are many more people in this world with real diseases.
The rain today had the small river behind the house overflowing for the first time in years. It was quite a sight, and my mother certainly was not amused when I joked that we should move out.
__________
PS: Cool coughing blood illustration credit: +Cough+ by horrormove on deviantART.
Bitch point numero uno: the usual telltale was there since the beginning of the week but I ignored it. STUPID. I felt that all too familiar chill inside, which for me always means that there is a fever or a cold coming; my body was under attack. Knowing it, I should have popped a couple of Panadol® and bury myself under a blanket to sweat it out. Nine times out of ten, it will all be over the next morning. But I didn’t do any of that; stupidly sleeping late instead three nights in a row.
Bitch point number two, and this is the big one, is the cough that follows. Perhaps the cough is really part of the whole common cold package, but even if we can never find a cure for the common cold, I’d say that getting rid of the coughing part is one huge accomplishment. The blocked, and later running, nose and sore and scratchy throat is nothing compared to coughing like your lungs are coming out.Enough of this; there are many more people in this world with real diseases.
The rain today had the small river behind the house overflowing for the first time in years. It was quite a sight, and my mother certainly was not amused when I joked that we should move out.
__________
PS: Cool coughing blood illustration credit: +Cough+ by horrormove on deviantART.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Hardcover
My days, and pretty much my life in general, have grown into a set of routines. YAWN. Monday to Friday is almost all work – mostly preparing and holding classes with meeting with students and colleagues in between. I’m taking on an additional responsibility beginning January as student advisor, which gets me a few extra knocks on the door every week. It’s a university-appointed job so I’ll get paid – some amount I don’t care to remember – extra for it. They think that since I am a former student I’d do a better job at it than somebody else who isn’t. But experience as a former student tells me that practically nobody goes to see a student advisor for advice. They’ll only come looking for me if they need my signature for something – usually to drop a course.
Students are also coming to see me about the practical training program. Practical training is optional for the Economics program, though there is noise that the government is making it compulsory in the near future. The interesting observation is that all thirteen applications we've received so far are from female students. A few have already secured placements. Only one guy came to see me about it last week.
So I haven't been able to sit down and read so far in this new year. There are two books still in shrink-wrap on the bedside, waiting to be read. Both are SF – Learning the World by Ken MacLeod and The Android's Dream by John Scalzi. Two is just the right number of books to have waiting to be read. I get anxious when there is none. Anyway, I've also asked my bookstore guy to find me a hardcover copy of Scalzi's Old Man's War. Having read it in paperback, now I want to have a hardcover copy to keep. That's another thing about me with books: I like to have the books I like in hardcover. Hardcover's aren't cheap. Sure, books are books, and I have more than enough economics to know about publishers selling expensive hardcovers just to squeeze every penny out of me, but I don't care. I love my hardcovers.
Thank God I earn enough to pay for them.
Talking about pay, I still owe Chee Yoong RM100 for Android. I suppose I have Kue Peng to thank about that too, for setting up the whole thing. My mother has been bugging me about my salary, as I'm having my annual increment in January. She keeps telling me to give her RM1ooo every month to save, and asking me where I spend all my money at. Well, I'd like to know the answer to that too. Books, I guess?
Students are also coming to see me about the practical training program. Practical training is optional for the Economics program, though there is noise that the government is making it compulsory in the near future. The interesting observation is that all thirteen applications we've received so far are from female students. A few have already secured placements. Only one guy came to see me about it last week.
So I haven't been able to sit down and read so far in this new year. There are two books still in shrink-wrap on the bedside, waiting to be read. Both are SF – Learning the World by Ken MacLeod and The Android's Dream by John Scalzi. Two is just the right number of books to have waiting to be read. I get anxious when there is none. Anyway, I've also asked my bookstore guy to find me a hardcover copy of Scalzi's Old Man's War. Having read it in paperback, now I want to have a hardcover copy to keep. That's another thing about me with books: I like to have the books I like in hardcover. Hardcover's aren't cheap. Sure, books are books, and I have more than enough economics to know about publishers selling expensive hardcovers just to squeeze every penny out of me, but I don't care. I love my hardcovers.Thank God I earn enough to pay for them.
Talking about pay, I still owe Chee Yoong RM100 for Android. I suppose I have Kue Peng to thank about that too, for setting up the whole thing. My mother has been bugging me about my salary, as I'm having my annual increment in January. She keeps telling me to give her RM1ooo every month to save, and asking me where I spend all my money at. Well, I'd like to know the answer to that too. Books, I guess?
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Weekend Whine Write-up
ONE: I hate marking assignments. I wish that I have somebody else mark all the assignments for me, so I wouldn't have to see all the terrible handwritings and terrible language. Some of them can't even follow simple instructions. COBAAN...
TWO: Is there a National Slow-Driving Month campaign I'm missing? Maybe their trying not to scare away all the tourists on Visit Malaysia Year 2007. People are driving awfully slow lately it's driving me nuts. Maybe it's even the new year and everybody's feeling miserable that they're still stuck in their miserable lives and jobs (like Suapi, LOL). Whatever. The rightmost, inside, lane is the FAST lane, people! Check your rear-view mirror. If there are cars lining up behind you, and the next car in front of you is a mile away, then you're too SLOW. Move to the left. Don't hog the fast lane. The road is not a place to think big.
TWO: Is there a National Slow-Driving Month campaign I'm missing? Maybe their trying not to scare away all the tourists on Visit Malaysia Year 2007. People are driving awfully slow lately it's driving me nuts. Maybe it's even the new year and everybody's feeling miserable that they're still stuck in their miserable lives and jobs (like Suapi, LOL). Whatever. The rightmost, inside, lane is the FAST lane, people! Check your rear-view mirror. If there are cars lining up behind you, and the next car in front of you is a mile away, then you're too SLOW. Move to the left. Don't hog the fast lane. The road is not a place to think big.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Lingua Franca
I went to the Selayang Hospital on Wednesday to pick up my father's prescription.
I stayed one night in a hospital before, at Sungai Buloh, under observation for suspected dengue. It was a terrible experience. The hospital was full so they put me in the third-class ward. A crazy inmate from the Sungai Buloh prison was at the far end guarded by two correctional officers. During the night he climbed off his bed to sleep under it, on the bare cement floor, claiming that it was hot. The officers yelled at him at first for acting up, but left him alone when they decided that he was not going to harm anybody. The inmate had one hand cuffed to the bedpost. My bed was right under a fan, which always spun at maximum speed. It warded off the mosquitoes, but left me shivering all night under the hopelessly thin hospital blanket. The food was terrible too. I swore never to sleep in a hospital again.
Anyway, I went to the counter when my number was called up. “Sir…” The pharmacist spoke to me in English! Why did the pharmacist speak to me in English? I knew that she served everybody else before me in Malay – I sat close enough to the counter to hear it. When I thought more about later, I noticed that I’ve been served in English at restaurants, shops, etc not in downtown KL or PJ but in Sungai Buloh!
Now that’s new.
Previously every once in a while a salesperson would come to me and speak Chinese. “@!#$ @#$& )(&#$@# @!#$Y” They’d get the message when I just stared at them with a puzzled look. My father had a better response: “Saya Melayulah!” I don’t think we look Chinese, much. Even my less-fair brother sometimes got spoken Chinese to. And now I get English. Perhaps nowadays English is a safer bet than Chinese, but why not Malay? Isn’t Malay supposed to be the national language; in a government hospital? Don't I look Malay enough?
There was a note stapled on the notice board outside my office today. Copies of the same note were posted outside the offices of the other lecturers as well. It was from a students’ society.
The heading says “Notice of Announcement”. I suppose that it was an advance notice for another, forthcoming announcement; I surely hope the announcement will come pretty soon. They are having a photo shoot tomorrow for a “memorial”. I didn’t know if anybody died, or if there was any big event, recently. They are “anticipating” our attendance, though, which I’m not sure what to make of. I’m wondering too whether this notice is an invitation, or simply a notice to tell us that they’re having that photo shoot for whatever.
I stayed one night in a hospital before, at Sungai Buloh, under observation for suspected dengue. It was a terrible experience. The hospital was full so they put me in the third-class ward. A crazy inmate from the Sungai Buloh prison was at the far end guarded by two correctional officers. During the night he climbed off his bed to sleep under it, on the bare cement floor, claiming that it was hot. The officers yelled at him at first for acting up, but left him alone when they decided that he was not going to harm anybody. The inmate had one hand cuffed to the bedpost. My bed was right under a fan, which always spun at maximum speed. It warded off the mosquitoes, but left me shivering all night under the hopelessly thin hospital blanket. The food was terrible too. I swore never to sleep in a hospital again.
Anyway, I went to the counter when my number was called up. “Sir…” The pharmacist spoke to me in English! Why did the pharmacist speak to me in English? I knew that she served everybody else before me in Malay – I sat close enough to the counter to hear it. When I thought more about later, I noticed that I’ve been served in English at restaurants, shops, etc not in downtown KL or PJ but in Sungai Buloh!
Now that’s new.
Previously every once in a while a salesperson would come to me and speak Chinese. “@!#$ @#$& )(&#$@# @!#$Y” They’d get the message when I just stared at them with a puzzled look. My father had a better response: “Saya Melayulah!” I don’t think we look Chinese, much. Even my less-fair brother sometimes got spoken Chinese to. And now I get English. Perhaps nowadays English is a safer bet than Chinese, but why not Malay? Isn’t Malay supposed to be the national language; in a government hospital? Don't I look Malay enough?
There was a note stapled on the notice board outside my office today. Copies of the same note were posted outside the offices of the other lecturers as well. It was from a students’ society.
The heading says “Notice of Announcement”. I suppose that it was an advance notice for another, forthcoming announcement; I surely hope the announcement will come pretty soon. They are having a photo shoot tomorrow for a “memorial”. I didn’t know if anybody died, or if there was any big event, recently. They are “anticipating” our attendance, though, which I’m not sure what to make of. I’m wondering too whether this notice is an invitation, or simply a notice to tell us that they’re having that photo shoot for whatever.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Farewell, Baby
In September 2006, the US Navy officially retired the iconic F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft after more than thirty years of service.
The F-14 was conceived during the peak of the Cold War primarily as an interceptor to protect the fleet against Soviet bombers carrying huge, long-range antiship missiles. Flying at speeds more than twice the speed of sound, Tomcats were to shoot down enemy bombers as far away as possible, before they could launch their antiship missiles, using the long-range Phoenix air-to-air missile. Lessons from the Vietnam War also required the F-14 to be able to engage enemy fighters in short-range dogfights, so the designers gave the aircraft computer-controlled variable-geometry (or swing) wings that reconfigure in flight. The wings would sweep forward for maximum lift and low-speed agility, and sweep back for reduced drag at high speed.
An F-14D making a near-supersonic fly-by above USS Theodore Roosevelt on July 28, 2006
(U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Nathan Laird)
The 1986 movie Top Gun turned the Tomcat into a movie star, making it one of the most recognizable military aircraft of the twentieth century. My favorite movie featuring the Tomcat, though, was the 1980 The Final Countdown, when two very modern (at the time) Tomcats shot down two (very ancient) Japanese Zero fighters. The F-14 was also the inspiration for the VF-1 Valkyrie variable (or Veritech) fighter in the anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross (Robotech).
The US Navy upgraded and modified the F-14 after the end of the Cold War to carry smart laser- and satellite-guided bombs to attack ground targets, transforming the Tomcat into a true multirole strike fighter. In its ultimate guise, the F-14D featured a new glass cockpit, new engines, a new radar and many other improvements that put it head to head with contemporary fighters.
Even with the upgrades the Tomcat was becoming more and more expensive to operate and maintain, so the US Navy decided to retire the fighter. The F-14 Tomcat was officially retired on September 22, 2006 in a ceremony at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. It is replaced in US Navy service by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
__________
QUICKIE: The only other operator of the F-14 is Iran. The Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) took delivery of 79 Tomcats before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) continues to operate the Tomcat till today – a testimony of Iranian resourcefulness and ingenuity.
The F-14 was conceived during the peak of the Cold War primarily as an interceptor to protect the fleet against Soviet bombers carrying huge, long-range antiship missiles. Flying at speeds more than twice the speed of sound, Tomcats were to shoot down enemy bombers as far away as possible, before they could launch their antiship missiles, using the long-range Phoenix air-to-air missile. Lessons from the Vietnam War also required the F-14 to be able to engage enemy fighters in short-range dogfights, so the designers gave the aircraft computer-controlled variable-geometry (or swing) wings that reconfigure in flight. The wings would sweep forward for maximum lift and low-speed agility, and sweep back for reduced drag at high speed.
An F-14D making a near-supersonic fly-by above USS Theodore Roosevelt on July 28, 2006
(U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Nathan Laird)
The 1986 movie Top Gun turned the Tomcat into a movie star, making it one of the most recognizable military aircraft of the twentieth century. My favorite movie featuring the Tomcat, though, was the 1980 The Final Countdown, when two very modern (at the time) Tomcats shot down two (very ancient) Japanese Zero fighters. The F-14 was also the inspiration for the VF-1 Valkyrie variable (or Veritech) fighter in the anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross (Robotech).
The US Navy upgraded and modified the F-14 after the end of the Cold War to carry smart laser- and satellite-guided bombs to attack ground targets, transforming the Tomcat into a true multirole strike fighter. In its ultimate guise, the F-14D featured a new glass cockpit, new engines, a new radar and many other improvements that put it head to head with contemporary fighters.
Even with the upgrades the Tomcat was becoming more and more expensive to operate and maintain, so the US Navy decided to retire the fighter. The F-14 Tomcat was officially retired on September 22, 2006 in a ceremony at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. It is replaced in US Navy service by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
__________
QUICKIE: The only other operator of the F-14 is Iran. The Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) took delivery of 79 Tomcats before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) continues to operate the Tomcat till today – a testimony of Iranian resourcefulness and ingenuity.
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