Toward The Alienation World

A risible thing encountered on the way to the communication revolution, without we realize we stopped talking to one another. I hang out with my friend recently, and his mobile phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were, chatting and talking in a typical ‘mamak’ restaurant environment and suddenly! – I became invisible, absent from the conversation. The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Recently, I was in a car with my siblings. My sisters shushed the rest of us because she could not hear the person on the other end of her mobile phone. There we were, three siblings zooming down the road, unable to talk one another because of a gadget designed to make communication easier.

Why is it that the more connected we get the more disconnect I feel? What I can say every new invention and advance in communication technology is a setback to the intimacy of human interaction. With e-mail and instant messaging over Internet, the forum and social networking website mushrooming years by years, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. Sadly sometimes, we prefer to use SMS to communicate with person that just 50 meters away from us. Evidently, the unbound electronic voice is preferable to human contact.

As almost every conceivable contact between human being gets automated, the alienation index goes up. For instance, pumping petrol at the station? Why interact with the attendant when you can swipe your credit card at the pump and save yourself the bother of human contact. Making deposit at bank? Why talk to the teller who might live in the neighbourhood when you can just deposit your money at the bank’s deposit machine. Paying toll at the highway? Why bother to queue up at the cash lane and say thanks you to the toll gate girl :) when you already have the Touch n Go card or Smart Tag and etc.

Pretty soon, we won’t have the burden of making eye contact at every daily activity we have to encounter. At grocery shop for example, some supermarket chains are using a self-scanner so you can check yourself out, avoiding those checkout people who look at you and ask how you are doing. All these gee-whiz technology will make us to avoid human contact whether we realize it or not.

I’m not conservative. I own a mobile phone, ATM cards, email accounts and Touch n Go card. Giving them up isn’t an option, they’re great for what they’re intended to do. It is their unintended consequences that make me cringe.

The communication industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier or at least facilitating my antisocial instincts. So I’ve put myself on technology restriction: no SMS with people who live near me, no talking on mobile phone too long in the presence of friends and more importantly pay toll by cash in the presence of a beautiful toll gate girls muahahaha (devil laugh)..

Does Performance Matter?

I can see my blog is full of spider web here and there.I'm seriously miss photography but I'm still don't get time to fix may camera yet. For the meantime I'm just updating my blog with some thought and point of view that can be shared here.For this entry i would like to discuss about Malaysia's education system based on my experience while in the school. For those who has leaved school for such a long time, do you still keep memories of your school. The story about you friends, your teachers, the day when the Negaraku song were sang by not using a loud speaker minus one and the pitching and synchronization voice of student was like my teacher used to say like a buffalo in past motion action, disorderliness is everywhere..hahaha :) This kind of memories will make me smile whenever I'm remembering it and everything about school make me keep smile and smile always especially when I'm thinking about my primary school, a time when all friends were so naive and the sincerity was shinning vibrantly from their face.Like what i mention before, here are some of my point of view about Malaysia education system.

Arguably, Malaysia has a very systematic educational system. I thought otherwise but I may be wrong, let’s examine the fact. In my opinion the Malaysia’s educational system is more emphasize on exams oriented and solely for academic evaluation approach is not really applicable nowadays. This approach is contradicting with the educational philosophies that should also focus on the development of human capital and recognizing non-academic talent as well. The focus should be started from the grassroots. School should be a place to develop a variety of talents, identify the numerous of potential and to inculcate the various interests among students.

The educators should smartly to understand the broader and more holistic educational philosophies rather than heavily base on academic performance only. They should realize that every student has capability, creativity and ability that need to be recognized and discovered. Every one of them has a role to play in a society and country in the future. The truth is, every year not all students will grow to be undergraduates and in reality more students will be unsuccessful to enter a university. It is very important to consider this group of students by identifying their interest and encourage them to fully expressing their talents. Every student deserves to get attention, love by teachers and parents, and appreciated by society and country. It should be noted that encouragement is the most effective teaching tool than criticizing. It is so sad when some of educators still keep an ancient mentality that measure students base on the grade and performance. They will full of enthusiastic and give their full commitment when teaching at higher grade classes compare to lower grade classes. For me, as a educators they should get rid from this kind of behavior and mentality,please do treat all the students same for whoever they are.

The perspectives of Malaysia’s educational system should be revised. The good example is by observing what has been done in the developed country. Most developed countries are more flexible in their educational system. They are able to recognize the reality of the diverse and different potentials of their people from an early age. They not just producing an academic intellectual but also in the same time encourage people to prosper in another field such as sports, arts, literature and many more. An educational infrastructure that required for maximize the development of the diverse and different potentials of their citizens is fully provided in the developed country. Malaysia as a developing country should capitalize on the example shown by the developed countries. However, the copycat of the developed countries’ educational system would not be the definite answer; an adjustment should be made to suit with Malaysia education phenomena that encompasses a wide range of people from different background.