Why Malaysia Can Never Be A Truly Developed Nation

I have never believed that Malaysia will never be a truly developed nation. It is only recently that I've actually managed to find out why this is as such. First of all, what do you define a developed nation in the first place? The normal definition for developed nation is when the economy becomes a high-income encomony. Hence, I have searched for the definition of a high income economy here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_income_economy

"A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with
a Gross National Income per capita of $12,196 or more in 2009"

Yes, we might just be able to achieve this criteria considering the fact that the USD is collapsing and the fact that life in Malaysia is getting better. However, let me just take a different approach in defining developed country

A developed country is a country where the society is developed and refined. What does developed and refined means? A developed society is a society that occupies the moral high ground. Qualities such as courteous, selflessness and patriotism should be emphasized in the society. Why do I consider these qualities paramount to a developed nation? Just imagine a nation with income per capita of higher than USD20,000 but the residents of the country are habitual queue-cutters and demonic drivers, like in Malaysia. If this is the case, what really makes us human as compared to other so-called 'lowly' animals? What is the point of earning more than others when we're morally unsound?

For those of you who do not know, I often take public transport to work during my internship period. Taking public transport really gives you a whole new perspective to the Malaysian attitude and culture. There are times when you feel like Malaysia as a whole has matured as a society with courtesy as one of its core values. However, there are some things that saddens me more than anything else.

The public transport in Malaysia, as you and I know, isn't the most efficient public transport system in the world. During peak hours the public transportations will always be full. However, it only takes a little bit of effort just to go into the bus/train (not hovering near the entrance) so that everyone else behind you can enter the bus. This simple gesture of being considerate goes a long way to letting other people enter the bus/train. If you don't believe what I have just said, take the bus during peak hours and you will notice that you can actually stand very comfortably in the innermost part of the bus when your fellow passangers near the door is struggling to find a place to stand.

The following are the few qualities that I think a high-income/developed societies should have:
1. Courteous
2. Selfless (has big-picture view)
3. Responsible
4. Efficient (maximise use of time)
5. Considerate

With that, I'm signing off for the day

Earthquakes: What are they?

I just came back from Trinity Home a while ago and sat down with my sister watching the news on CNN. Turns out that there was a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan again, off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The tsunami that struck Japan on 11th of March hit the town of Sendai which is the capital of Miyagi prefecture. The latest earthquake that has just occurred is an aftershock of the initial 9.0 magnitude earthquake that happened on 11th of March

Miyagi prefecture (Source: wikipedia.org)

Just some background on aftershocks for you:

An aftershock is an earthquake that occurs after a previous earthquake, the mainshock. An aftershock is in the same region of the main shock but always of a smaller magnitude. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock. Aftershocks are formed as the crust around the displaced fault plane adjusts to the effects of the main shock

(Source: www.en.wikipedia.org/earthquake#aftershocks)

Please support Japan in going through all the difficulty that they are currently going through. Lets gather our strength to pray for the people who had passed on and for those who remain in this world to clean up the mess that was caused by all the challenges that the Japanese are facing. In the mean time, let us also learn our lessons from the difficulties that the Japanese are facing in this troubled times

Tired and Undecided

Somehow, I just feel so tired and bored. I've been working for almost 1 year now. 10 months to be exact. 5 months in Monash University, another 5 months in Ernst & Young. I have to admit that it's been a very long 1 year for me and many things has changed

Monash University wasn't that tiring a job because I only had to do my work from 8am to 6pm or so. It wasn't that knowledge-intensive either. Counseling became a routine once you have done enough of it. Parents will always ask the same few questions whenever you meet them, students will always keep quiet most of the time in the presence of their parents. Most of the stuff are only administrative work

I have to admit that it was quite tough at first to move from an Accounting background student into what I'm currently doing which is more related to IT than accounting/auditing. Having learned so many new things in the past 5 months of working in EY really gave me the feeling of gratification. Perhaps I'm just consoling myself for not having gone through the traditional path of an accounting student. Or perhaps I'm just fulfilling my self-created prophecies

After these 5 months of work, I'm asking myself whether I should really stay on to do what I'm currently doing. Part of me just feels so tired of all the work and rush which is not worth it considering the lowly pay despite being a knowledge-based work. Another part of me feels like staying because of the enjoyable work that I can bear with to do even though it's not really the most fun kind of work to do. Relocating to Singapore might be a point of consideration if they have job opportunities there.

As it is, I'm just physically tired and mentally sluggish because of the work and sleeping late. I should've been sleeping by now but I'm still typing away this blog and checking for status updates in Facebook. But before I go, let me sign off with this quote that I've read today:

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas A. Edison

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_a_edison_2.html#ixzz1I6IBUZ70

Good night

Why Malaysian Death Toll From Traffic Accidents Is So High

Today, I have found an answer for why the Malaysian death toll from traffic accidents is so high. And you would probably think that it's because of drunk driving or reckless driving by Malaysians. True, in a way. But one of the many factor is:

RETARDED AMBULANCE DRIVERS

Let me just tell you what happened just now that made me so pissed off. I was driving home from Cyberjaya after sending my friend back to Cyberia. Then, as I was driving, I saw a Kembara completely upside-down and another Kancil stranded in the middle of the road.

So naturally, I went to help and found out that one of the passangers from the Kembara hurt (isn't it obvious if the Kembara is upside-down?). I called the police to make a report and asked to speak to hospital's operator.

As I was talking to the operator, I saw an ambulance passing by (without siren) on the opposite direction of where the Kembara and the Kancil is. So, I thought the ambulance was here to help and told the operator that the ambulance arrived.

After I hung up from the phone, the stupid ambulance driver drove away. If you see a Kembara upside-down and a Kancil stranded in the middle of the road, obviously is someone is hurt! But the stupid ambulance driver decided to drive away!!

And by the time I left the scene, the ambulance just arrived with the siren and all. By then, I think the victim would've already received all the first aid treatment that she would need. Really cannot tahan the ambulance. Luckily the girl who was hurt only had minor injuries. If it was a major accident, I think she could've died on the spot.

MORAL OF THE STORY: If you have a car and someone is hurt during an accident, better send the victims to the hospital yourself. The ambulance will take too long to arrive to the scene. And the victim's life might be put in danger if you wait for the ambulance to arrive

Reason To Do Something

Ever wondered why you did something you had done?

Often times, I find myself doing things that are purely emotional. There's just no basis at all to do something but I ended up finding myself doing something, without any reason to do something. Often times, I also find myself regretting or somehow regretting what I had done.

One Example

Have you ever wondered why we drink alcoholic beverages?

Probably we are social drinkers, so we just drink when there is a social activity. On a not-so-nice basis, you can just say that social drinking is another kind of 'peer pressure'. The only difference is that your 'peers' are not so much like your peers after all.

[Image adopted from: blog.aarp.org/shaarpsession/aging/]

If you don't live in the equator, you don't really have a reason to drink. In cold places, people drink alcoholic beverages to keep their body warm. If you live in the equator, there is even less reason to keep yourself warm (it's super hot in the equator, if you know what I mean).

On a rational basis, we are putting a lot of strain on our livers (even if the beverages are for free). Alcoholic beverages can put a lot of strain on the liver and it's generally bad for health. The liver is damaged slowly when the liver cells detoxifies the alcohol that we consume. This can lead to liver failure later in life if alcoholic beverages are consumed in large amounts over a long period of time.

[Image adopted from: www.watchmojo.com/blog/lifestyle/tag/Beers/]

This is aside from the high price that you have to pay for these beverages (in Malaysia). I don't know about other countries but in Malaysia, a can of beer that can be sold at RM1.50 is sold at RM5.00. That's a mark-up of more than 200%. Doesn't make any sense to me to pay so much for something that can be available at RM2.00 locally (minus tax but includes the seller's profits)

Decision?

This phenomena has been happening a little too often for me of late. I make a decision to do something that is purely made on emotions and ended up regretting what I had done. Now, I'm pretty certain of my stand on all these things and I'm determined to put a stop to all these stupid decisions!

Good Leader, Great Leader

"A great leader may not be a good leader but a good leader is a great leader"

Quoted from: Hari Ramulu

This quote really got me thinking harder. One of the classic examples cited by my Professional Ethics lecturer is Adolf Hitler. Well, coming to think about it, I started thinking of the other side of the coin instead of the side of the coin that he was referring to.

Let's take Adolf Hitler for example. Adolf Hitler as we know him is painted as a very cruel German leader who wanted to conquer the entire world. As someone who has killed so many people throughout the entire duration of World War II (WWII), this guy will most definitely be the bad guy.

But then, think again! Despite his notorious reputation, Hitler is a highly reveled figure in the Nazi Germany back in the 1930s. His leadership has brought Nazi Germany to become a very developed nation after all the destruction that Germany suffered after its loss in World War I (WWI). Germany even organized an Olympic Games in the 1930s and won many medals during the Games. In the eyes of his supporters, he is a great and good leader.

Let's take an example that is simpler, Dol Said of Naning who fought the British during the imperialist period. Our history books have told us that Dol Said is one of the first few freedom fighters and risked their lives to obtain freedom for not only themselves but also for the country. Hence, he is portrayed as a good leader in our history books (written by the Malaysian government). However, just look deeper and you will find that in the eyes of the British, Dol Said is just another terrorist, a ancient-day Osama bin Laden to the United States.

There are other examples where there are two sides of the coin in what constitutes the term that we usually use, GOOD. An analogy can be used by looking at cylinder from the top and from the front. From the front, the cylinder is a rectangular while from the top, the cylinder is a circle. We only need to change our perspective and many things will change dramatically.

Moral of the story: try to have a 3-dimensional (3D) perspective to life :D

*This blog posting is not to show my support for figures like Adolf Hitler. It is only intended to show the different kinds of stories that you will hear when two opposing sides tell their stories*

Philosophy of Life and 3Cs of Happiness

Due to the circumstances that currently cricles this blog, I've decided that this blog will be my public blog, which means for everyone to read. The reason for this move will not be disclosed here. For those of you who are interested to know more, you can pm me at my MSN.

Now that this is gonna be my so-called public blog, what would I post in it? The materials here will be mainly and strictly about philosophy (not that previous posts didn't contain any elements of philosophy). I know this subject is kind of boring to many people, but I just find joy in learning more about philosophy


3Cs of Happiness

The first C: Counting Your Blessings. This C is possibly the most important element of being happy in our lives. To be more precise, this C signifies contentment. Happiness is not gauged by having what you want, but wanting what you have. It sounds paradoxical but when you think deeper into this, you'll find that there's a lot of truth to it. By wanting to have what you want, a person then becomes like the greedy dog that already has a bone but wants to have the bone of its own reflections. To say or even blog about this is easy to do, but to practise this is far harder than many think.

The second C: Character. The end result of education is character. We may see many people who are highly educated but morally poor. Don't believe me? Read about the current financial crisis and you will understand what I mean. I would rather people uphold the highest degree of integrity despite not being highly educated. Without a strong character, happiness is difficult to be achieved because of the more temporary nature of the happiness obtained. That is why character is one of the Cs of happiness

The third C: Comparison With Thyself. Comparison happens everyday. We always want to compare ourselves with the people who are best at something. The truth is: there is no point comparing ourselves with other people. The reason: we are all unique and different people have different capabilities. There is no point for us to try to live someone else's life. We'll ultimately end up wasting our time. Why compare ourselves with our own then? Comparing ourselves with our own helps us to continuously improve ourselves and be contented with what we have. Why cause heartache to yourself by comparing with others? We'll feel happier if we just compare ourselves with our own. After all, the ultimate goal is to be a better person than we were yesterday

As for me, I'm still trying hard to practice the 3Cs of Happiness. Wish you all good luck!

P/S: I have to give credit for the 3Cs of Happiness to an elderly friend of mine, Sita Ram

Folly of Gambling

I just came back from Genting Highlands a few hours ago after a 2-day-1-night trip with my coursemates after our exams ended on Monday. I really had a great time, the weather and the excitement of the outdoor theme park was just amazing. I'll update this trip next time.

Well, the main point here now is any adult who goes to Genting Highlands will definitely go into the casino. I was no different and was in the casino, not gambling but watching (no money to even spend for myself, how to gamble money away?).

Now, most of the people who gamble at the casino are looking for entertainment or winning money (winning money isn't impossible but you need a lot of good luck and self-control to do it). Other than that, I just can't think of any other reasons why someone would gamble

So, if you're looking for entertainment, would it be all right if you gamble? The answer is of course a YES, but then again how would losing money affect you? The whole objective of entertainment is to de-stress. But if you lose money and you feel even more stressed out, wouldn't it be counter-productive to gamble? You'll feel more stressed out after the so-called 'entertainment' than before the entertainment. Unless you won't lose any sleep from the losses at the casino, why gamble in the first place?

I believe most of us have learnt probabilities in high school (unless you're a high-school dropout or you don't study Mathematics at all *only limited to Malaysians*). If you analyse all the payouts and the probabilities of winning at every casino, the expected returns for the long run is less than your original capital. This means that if you play 1000 games of roulette and all the results turn out according to its expected probabilities, then you'll certainly lose money (how else could Genting have grown into such a big conglomerate if it wasn't because of this?). So, if your objective of gambling is to win money, then why gamble when you're more likely to lose your capital than winning money?

Such is the folly of humans that act according to their emotions that bends logic. Many times (not all times), the emotional thought will do us more bad than good (there are times that being emotional does more good than being rational). As for me, I'd be much happier being rational than emotional =D

An Iranian International Student

Today, I would really like to share my experience of meeting an Iranian lady who is also an International Student in my University, MMU. She is a very nice young lady with a very open mind. I really enjoyed talking to her on various matters because of her open views

First of all, I'd like to stress the fact that she's an Iranian. Iran is a Muslim country. Therefore, she MUST be a Muslim. Her country does not allow renunciation of the religion and this is a matter of the nation's choice. I do not have any problems with that. However, what fascinates me the most is the fact that she's really open to other religion. Despite being a Muslim, I really enjoyed her company because she is very receptive of other people from another religion. This really awes me since usually circumstances change when people mention about religion

Secondly, what amazes me is of course the fact that she really reads a lot about other matters. She claims that she reads about Christianity (which I'm not in a position to judge her knowledge) but she really knows a little bit about Buddhism. All this is despite the fact that she's only been exposed to Buddhism for a very short period of time. She even knows about metaphysics which truly fascinates me because I didn't think that many people would know about this matter which is very heavily related to scientific knowledge

Having said that, it really puts the average Malaysian to shame. In terms of Constitution, I strongly believe that the Malaysian Constitution is more liberal compared to that of the Iranian Constitution. However, to see such lowly mentality from Malaysians (especially in the recent cow-head protest in Shah Alam) really brought down the reputation of Malaysia. For Malaysia to boast so much about racial and religious tolerance but not implement it is only mere lip service to the rakyats. It has been 52 years after Malaysia has attained Independence. It saddens me to see that 52 years of physical development was only followed through with 25 years of mental development.

Come to think of it, I wonder how long will it take for Malaysians to be such a racially and religiously tolerant nation? Realistically at the present rate that Malaysia is progressing, I guess I'll be lucky to be able to see a racially and religiously tolerant Malaysia before I die. Hope I won't die prematurely of course =P

Why Rich People Are Rich?

As I sit in my hostel room writing this blog post, I've just only finished doing my laundry for the week. As usual, I'll always think of something else when I'm doing my laundry. So, this time around, it was about this million-dollar question: "Why rich people are rich and why poor people are poor?". So I came up with a hypothesis about this question

Rich people are rich because of their thoughts

Well, as stated earlier, this is only a hypothesis. In my honest opinion, I think that the reason rich people are rich is because of how they think. So what do they think about anyway? Once again, hypothesis: "How to make more money?". Such a thought helps rich people to create wealth, not only preserve wealth. Maybe some of you will get rich by just thinking of this particular question. The reason I'm saying this is because of the fact that it's the thoughts that make us do what we do. Thoughts put into actions will reap results. So, if you always think about how to make more money, chances are some of the thoughts will be put into actions and results will follow.

What makes a person poor?

Then, what are the thoughts that actually make poor people poor? The reason for such an occurrence is poor people always think about "How do I spend money?". There's a friend of mine who is always thinking about where she should go on holiday next time around (whether it's in the country or overseas is not important). I believe that such a thought will only drain wealth out of poor people. People as such are too busy thinking of how to spend the money that they have currently or in the future (use of credit lines) to satisfy their wants. Such a behavior will not create a rich person because any accumulated wealth will be drained by expenses

Other kind of thoughts?

There's also another kind of thought that creates your next-door millionaire (millionaires that we're usually not aware of). Next-door millionaires are people who spend like an average Joe in spite of the amount of wealth that they have accumulated. They live in average houses, spend not too lavishly and do normal stuff like what normal people usually do. These people usually think about "How can I save more?". By thinking so, they preserve the wealth that they currently have. Even though they're not creating enormous wealth by doing so, they are preserving their accumulated wealth at the very least

The conclusion? None XD Since it's a hypothesis, so I can't really claim that what I'm saying is true. So it's entirely up to you to believe what I'm saying. Please let me know how you feel about this matter

Kids Getting Richer Or Just More Willing To Spend?

As a youth, I just can't help but notice the fact that other youths actually spend more nowadays. There are just unlimited examples of youths (some barely 18) spending on designer products and wine-dine. These activities can easily cost more than RM50 and it's not cheap. Even if I'm working, I would never spend that much money on such activities unless it's a special occasion (call me cheap but I just won't buy designer products or wine-dine)

Just a Klang Valley thing?

Just to put it into perspective, I've seen a group of secondary school kids dining at Sushi King in Mid Valley. First of all, the food at Sushi King isn't particularly cheap. A meal for 1 person can cost at least RM20-RM30 per pax. I'm not sure whether they dine in Sushi King on a weekly basis or only once in a while. For secondary school kids to dine at Sushi King often is rather unacceptable in my opinion. However, I would still accept it if it's once in a while for special occasions.

Even kids in my hometown Teluk Intan practice it too!

Sometimes, my father likes to have supper in the new Old Town White Coffee outlet in Teluk Intan. As I was dining at Old Town, I would always notice that there are youths younger than I am dining at Old Town too! A cup of Old Town White Coffee (one of Old Town's signature beverages) cost more than RM2.50. A cup of coffee at the kopitiam in town costs at most RM1.20 (most kopitiam in my hometown doesn't serve white coffee)

What do I think?

I think it's totally absurd to spend so much on premium products (despite the higher quality). To pay a higher price for a product which function could be satisfied by another cheaper product just doesn't make any sense to me. Using the Old Town White Coffee as an example, I could get 2 cups of coffee from the normal kopitiam to satisfy my craving for caffeine compared to the 1 cup of Old Town White Coffee. I used to think that a Nike shoe is so much more comfortable than a 'chapalang' brand from the 'pasar malam' (which explains why I wear a pair of Nike sneakers and a pair of Adidas running shoes). After ripping some of the branded shoes in world-record times, I decided that it'll be more worth it to buy 10 pairs of 'chapalang' brand shoes from 'pasar malam' worth RM200 than to buy a pair of Nike/Adidas worth RM200

Conclusion? It's still up to you whether you want to keep buying high-end products. As for me, I'll just stick with all my cheap products :P

Dying In Your Own Home Isn't Cool!!

The photo above is the bench that my father had bought for the house very long ago. I can't remember when he bought it but it was so long ago that my memory. I started using this thing only not too long ago since I started lifting some weights at the gym

My home's bench

MMU had its mid-term break about 2 weeks ago and I was, as usual, happily having fun at home away from my university. Well, as usual, since I can't have access to any gyms in my hometown, I think it'd be fine for me to use this bench to workout a little bit. I'd typically stay up late until 1am in the morning to workout because that's the time that I feel I can concentrate. The bench is at the back of my home, easily 10 meters away from my family member's rooms (hope it didn't wake them up).

As I was bench pressing (for illustration, refer below) that night, I felt a fatigue that was very intense that I could no longer lift the weights up anymore. The weights almost came crashing down on my chest and almost killed me T.T All my family members were asleep since it's 1am and I had nobody to help me. Fortunately for me, I was able to twist and put the weight on the floor first to stop the weights from falling on my chest. If I had died that night, it'll be totally uncool to not only die in your own home but also die doing bench presses =.='''

Bench press

So, the lesson for the day? DON'T BITE OFF MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN CHEW!! It's not particularly cool to die that way. Appreciate what you have in your life

Cheating Won't Do

I've just returned from the gym at college and I've realized that cheating will not bring us anywhere. The reason? It will only be a matter of time that someone will find out or you will realize that you don't benefit at all from cheating.

I've been trying very hard in the past to chisel my abs into a 6-pack. I've done so many crunches (for those who don't know what the crunch exercise is, refer illustration below) that I can't even remember the kind of training regimes that I've been through. At some point in the past few years, I've consistently done 50 crunches at one go almost every single day. The result: only a 4-pack instead of my desired 6-pack. It was really disappointing that I couldn't acquire the 6-pack that I want (I didn't say that a 4-pack isn't good, it just isn't good enough). Then, only today did I seriously attempt to do crunches from the flat-on-the-floor posture to the elbow-touching-knee posture (hope you can imagine what I'm trying to say). The result? I only managed to complete 25 crunches continuously and I had to take intermittent rest in between to complete the 50 crunches I set out to do. My abs really hurt so bad that it almost cramped. We'll have to see what happens to my abs after a few weeks of doing this exercise :P


As I was thinking it through, I felt that there's really no reason to cheat anymore (be it exams or in other aspects of life). Just use the example of cheating in exam. Even if you get better grades in your exam by cheating, there's really nothing that you've gained. You don't learn anything by cheating in this instance. There's so much to lose i.e. getting caught cheating and so little to gain i.e. you get better grades but learn nothing but to improve your cheating technique. Therefore, in the spirit of prudent risk management XD, it'll be better to not cheat

As for bluffs, I think most people do tell lies. It's either the urge to be more dramatic or to save yourself. In courtship, guys typically tell girls stories with the element of hyperbole to make stories sound cheesy and entertaining (while claiming the story may be true - sometimes done consciously or unconsciously). Girls may also lie to guys during courtship (I'm not sure how it's done, should get girls' perspective for this). From my personal experience, honesty is not the secret to success, bluffing is. The catch is: DON'T EVER GET CAUGHT LYING.

As for me, I'll still try to stay honest in every single element of my life :D

Miracle of Education

What makes education so important to us? That's one of the main questions that we should be asking ourselves on a daily basis. Without education, what will we be? What is the meaning behind all the education?

To answer those questions,

1. What makes education so important to us?
It helps increase our knowledge and assist us in living our lives and help us become better people
2. Without education, what will we be?
We will be like barbarians in the olden times, ever so ignorant of our surroundings

Now that you already know the importance of education to us, we have to relate the education that we have all been subjected to all our lives, whether it's formal or informal, whether it was taught by our parents, teachers or friends, whether it was received in the form of visual media or audio media.

When we relate all the education all these years, I realized that in the earlier stage in our lives, the education that we receive is primarily informal education in the form 'learning by doing' taught by our parents. This form of education plays a very important role in the earlier portion of our lives.

However, as we grow older and enter our school life, I find that the higher we study, the less meaningful the education is. From the differentiation and integration of Additional Mathematics, to the various chemicals in Chemistry, to the various calculations in Physics. As a student majoring in Accounting, I find that all those education is not necessary since they are no longer used in my daily life. With a sense of regret for all the education in the past, I discovered that I have wasted a lot of time in the past.

Until recently, I have read a very important book that called "Rich Dad Poor Dad" that almost changed my life completely. The book is written by Robert Kiyosaki who has written a few other books. The content of the book stresses that we have a very important financial choice to make in our lives, which is to join the 'Rat Race' or to be on the 'Fast Track'. If you read this book, you will find that it will almost change your life completely as long as you're willing to change for the better.

After reading the book, I have decided that it is of utmost importance for me to invest not only my money but also my time on my education. Therefore, after some reading on the Internet, I have found a book that I'm quite keen on reading which is entitled "Security Analysis" written by Graham and Dodd. After some search, I discovered that the book is worth RM300 on the MPH online bookstore @.@

Anyway, I'm still determined enough to invest on that book. Hope that I can learn a lot by reading the book ^.^

Humility

According to http://dictionary.reference.com, the definition of humility is as follows:

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.

Manager of the England football team, Fabio Capello talked about the football team having a form of humility before achieving success. Malaysian badminton doubles' coach, Rexy Mainaky talked about national doubles player, Koo Kien Keat as being too arrogant and wanting to develop him into a player with humility and good attitude in The Star.

Next, we'll talk about someone who is humble, Datuk Nicol David. I'll just let the article speak for itself.

Now, the reason I wrote this blog posting was because I have some problems with this matter. I have been under-performing in various matters in the past few months that I think that I need a wake-up call in the form of humility. In life, we need to be humble because humility will teach us to respect others, opponents and whatever we're doing. This removal of ego will help us to do our very best to achieve success, no matter how many times we've done it.

As for my case, I find that my problem is because I take things too lightly especially when it comes to my academic matters. I have yet again failed in my mid-term examination for Public Sector Accounting. Something that I regard as a failure even though many people failed in the mid-term examination. The reason for this was because I took the examination too lightly and as a result, I failed in it.

Apart from this, I have also done lousy presentations in the past few months. Starting with my Public Sector Accounting presentation to my Cyberpreneurship presentation, I have not really prepared well for both the presentations. I felt bad because I didn't know the subject of my presentation well enough and I was talking cock during the presentation. For the record, I actually had time to prepare for the presentation better but I decided to do something else the night before the presentation.

Now that I've highlighted the importance of humility to you, I hope that I can improve myself by having a form of humility

Priorities

When I saw a few of my friends with different goals in life, the one thing that popped up into my mind was "So close but yet so far". Two people may be very close to each other but in the end, they might have different views on the way to lead their lives. The same goes to the priorities of different people.

Based on my own personal observation, some people will have a higher willingness to splurge money on certain things. The most common spending ground for Malaysians is the textile industry. This industry is usually leveraged by the insatiable hunger to groom oneself to be physically attractive. The reason for such a behavior is also leveraged by the television through commercial advertisements, films and movies. This is an ongoing trend especially among the younger generation where money seems to be abundant. Such behavioral patterns have bred a new generation that has never been through tough times. Due to the lack of experience, there is a mindset that says "Money is abundant, so there's no need to worry about it". As a direct result, many youths these days either have no savings at all or has accumulated large credits with their credit card providers. It was only last Sunday that I witnessed a shopping spree by a fellow lady-shopper who splurged almost RM300 at a G2000 shop, purchasing only clothes. This is truly an eye-opener as to how terrible this syndrome of not saving and accumulating debts.

Now that I've talked about the spending priorities of different people, let's talk about the priorities of different students. As a university student, I have seen many different people from different walks of life coming together at one place. I have seen many students who basically took an elective paper just for the sake of increasing their CGPA. At the end of the day, there's completely no learning curve at all in that sense (at least that's what I think about). A student's only motivation when taking the subject will only be increasing their CGPA and nothing else. On a personal note, I have tried to take elective papers that are expected to be more educational, irregardless of whether it's easy or difficult. As students, we are also bound by the assignments given by the lecturers. The problem that I see is most prevalent is the fact that people put different things ahead in their daily lives. Some put their family ahead of everything else whereas some put their friends ahead of even their families.

Goals

Whenever I see someone who doesn't know what he wants to do, I feel awfully sad especially when that person is 21 years old. Then, the next question pops out of my head, what does he want to do with his life? "No idea" or "I don't know" seems to be the most common answer. I truly don't know why this is happening to so many people especially among my group of friends. They just appear to be satisfied and complacent about their answer of "I don't know".

What is wrong PEOPLE?? I have to admit that it's very difficult to find goals for ourselves. There are just too many things that we can or want to achieve. However, the biggest problem will of course be which direction do you want to head to? This comes the harder part. Even if someone has the goal of being rich in their life, the goal that they have set does not have specific details as to the measurement of the goal as well as the time-frame for the goal to be achieved. Therefore, in this case, having a goal is equal to not having a goal at all, or probably even worse. Having a vague goal is bad for you because it will stop you from going into a journey of self-discovery. You just are complacent with your goal in life and focus too hard to achieve it but end up not evaluating your effort of achieving your goal. A vague goal is also equal to not having a goal at all because at the end of the day, a proper evaluation of the efforts put in to achieve the goal cannot be conducted. Therefore, there's not really a yardstick even though there's obviously a direction

Having a clear goal is one of the most important element in every success. These goals are usually specific, attainable, measurable and have time-frames. All these elements will contribute to the direction and the amount of effort put in to achieve the goal. This direction will ultimately lead you to where you want to be over the time-frame set in the goal itself. Additional effort can also be put into achieving the goal when the goal-setter feels that the progress of achieving the goal is slightly behind time. This motivates the goal-setter to put in more effort. One easy example of a clear goal is "To be worth RM 10million in 10 years". From here, it can be clearly seen that the goal is measurable in monetary terms, RM 10million and the time-frame of the achievement of the goal is 10 years. In the mean time, the goal-setter must also come up with a plan on how to achieve the target within the set period of time. This will identify the steps that needed to be taken to achieve the goals set before this.

Finally, the most important aspect of goal-setting is to implement the plans of achieving the goals that has been set prior to the implementation of the plans. At the end of the day, a goal-setter can also have big plans for himself but end up without anything because of poor execution of the plans that has been outlined prior to the implementation.

With goals, then only can one be truly motivated by his will to not only perform better but also serve better.

Mobiles?

Now, the first question I want to ask you is, Do you have a mobile phone? The answer is obviously a big YES!! If you answered no, someone might ask you "Where do you live? In a cave??"

With the latest technologies dominating the world today, the list of models of mobile phones has increased so rapidly that every few weeks, there will be a few new models introduced to the market, ranging from conventional phones to flip and even slide phones. Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, you name it, they've got it.

Now, the question comes, Do we really need them? The answer to this is obviously YES. Everyone argues that we need mobile phones to stay connected. Since we started having mobile phones, our social network has changed drastically since we can now be reached from almost anywhere. It used to be that we can't be reached when there's no telephone around us but now, we can bring our mobile phones anywhere we like and still be able to be reached (that's unless you go somewhere without network roaming). This significant change has changed the lives of many. With the incorporation of camera, radio and even WiFi facilities into a mobile phone, a mobile phone is bound to be an indispensable must-have in everyone's life.

How dependent do we have to be on our mobile phones? I have seen people who are so dependent on their mobile phones that they can't even live a few hours without their mobile phones with them. From my personal experience, I have even seen people who exercise with their mobile phones close to them. Some even TALK on the phone when they're exercising!! How ironic can it possibly be?? I strongly believe that we can actually afford to let go of our mobile phones once in a while. I myself do not bring my mobile phones out whenever I go to play sports unless I find it necessary. Why can't we let it go for a few hours? What is so important that you can't even leave your mobile phone alone for a few hours? This questions are for those who bring along their mobile phones when they go exercising.

With such a high level of dependency on mobile phones, I cannot help myself but think of all the hazards that the radiation from a mobile phone cause us. Let us depend less on our mobile phones (this doesn't mean that you should ditch your mobile phone for good)

It Could Be Worse

The following video is a video about a high school wrestler who has inspired me so much that I couldn't hold back my emotions

In life, there are so many things that will upset us. The first time I watched this video, I was almost overwhelmed with emotions. Just imagine this high-school kid who lost all four of his limbs and still manage to be a wrestler. That speaks a lot about guts and determination from a high school kid. I doubt that I myself can do it.

Having said that, I believe that we can achieve what he can achieve. If he could achieve that much with so little, I think we can do much more with what we are today. All we have to do is to have the DETERMINATION, BELIEVE and finally PUT IN EFFORT into the thing that we want to achieve. From there, we will be able to improve ourselves continuously until we achieve our goals. In life, there are so many things that we can achieve just by saying "I CAN"

That's all for today. I hope that this video has inspired all of you to continue to be the est that you can be