Kempen Mari Merotan

The Education Ministry is mulling over introducing canning for female students.

Finally.

On the subject of capital punishment (canning in this case), I strongly support it. I believe students these days are starting to get ideas that they are immune from punishment, since every other teacher who did their job were sued/reported. Of course, some deserved to be sued/reported. Some exercised excessive punishment. IMHO as long as it doesn't draw blood, not breaking any bones, not amounting to any serious physical injury, then I think it's fine. My parents are both teachers, and I know their frustrations dealing with their students. My dad deals with secondary schoolboys, caning is an everyday occurence. My mom deals with primary schoolkids, lesser forms of punishment were dealt out accordingly (most of the time, just a hairdryer treament a la Sir Alex is suffice for she got a fearsome temper).

I cringe everytime I read news reports that parents complained that their kids got caned or were made to stand for some time for not doing their homework. What I think? If they have been doing the parenting at home, and made sure the kids did their work, then there wouldn't have been any punishment at all. If work or other engagements are more pressing than your children, then you should have a clear conscience when some stranger caned your child. Why should you care now, when you did not in the first place?

The ministry should fight more for the teachers, for they are doing it not for fun, and surely not for their own good. Don't let them lose heart and lose authority. Look at what is happening when naive kids and more naive parents think they have the authority.

Then on the subject of girls to be caned, I strongly agree. Of course, with the proper guidelines and control measures in place. Again, I believe unruliness comes when they know they are immune. Caning a girl won't make her pregnant, or barren, or suffer from cervical cancer, or menopause earlier. Refer to me mentioning about proper guidelines and control measures if you start thinking that girls are weaker and shouldn't be caned like boys. Of course not, they can't take the same punishment. Having a brain would help in determining such.

I' ve had more than my fair share of caning throughout my schoolyears, by my parents when I was younger and by wardens and headmaster in secondary school. Are you surprised that I'm not crippled today? By the way, the worst caning I ever got was from Ustaz Wan. Don't worry ustaz, I ain't gonna sue you!

Of Kekabu Trees & The Likes

I was doing my work when suddenly I remembered a certain Kak Ramlah. No idea who she is/was? She's a notorious banshee back in schooldays. The stories are aplenty and varies greatly (as is the norm when tales are passed through words of mouth), but it struck fear into our 13 year old hearts like no other hantu can. So scared were we, we dared not even speak out her name, we referred to her as KR only. To tell the truth, I only dared to say out the name only a few years back. Such was the effect it had.

Oh, in case you're anticipating Kak Ramlah's story, I'm sorry. We repressed it so much I think most of us can't even remember what was it about. Anyone?

But on a related case, I remembered talking with my auntie right after watching Jangan Pandang Belakang a while back. I was telling her about the movie, when she recollected a story from her childhood. This was in the 70s, and Kg Galang was much more of a kampung than it is today. If you check out my Flickr, there's a pic of the main road leading to the kampung. In the 80s & 90s it was quite busy because it was the main road connecting Kota Bharu and KL. Since then a bypass road has taken all the traffic away and today the road would look a lot like then.

The story goes that there was this very old midwife who lived not too far away from our old family home (my grandparents and kids moved to a bigger house just before I was born). She's a very good midwife, and as is the practice (or belief) in those days, she bela something. Later when I asked my mom about it (she lived there for a while too), she remembered that lady and told similar stories to me. The stories goes that her lawn were never overgrown with weeds as every morning it will be neatly cut and her kitchen was never piled up with dirty plates as every morning it will be spick and span again. She has been seen at two places at once, doing two different things, etc but I guess no one dared to ask her the obvious.

After a while she got ill with age. She was bedridden, but ate like a famished lion. The children tried to get her to hospital but she refused. As the children lived away, there were times when she would be left alone for periods of time. Yet her house remained clean and well swept, as though she got up in the wee hours to do her household chores before resuming to be ill. She became ate and ate and ate yet got thinner and thinner by the day. The climax came right before her death when she was seen climbing the walls of her house (in your face Peter Parker!), definitely unlike a frail and sick old lady.

There was (I think there still is) a kekabu tree in front of her house, purpotedly where her 'servant' lived. Don't knwo what happened after that, though I recalled when I was very young hearing the adults talking about some disturbances originating from the tree. When I asked about it, I was told that I don't need to know.

So kids, as an ending to today's story I'll leave you with a Javanese verse:
Lingsir wengi sliramu tumeking sirno
Ojo tangi nggonmu guling
Awas jo ngetoro
Aku lagi bang wingo wingo
Jin setan kang tak utusi
Dadyo sebarang
Wojo lelayu sebet

This verse is called Gending Kuntilanak. It's sung to call one forth, good luck trying ;)

Good Show, Bad Ending

Last Wednesday after work I went to pick my brother up from Uniten. We went to Sg Chua to have dinner first before heading back to KL. At the Sg Ramal toll plaza, we witnessed a major disappointment. There's a Wira and a V6 trying to do a drag race right from the toll plaza, and as they round a soft bend about 300m later the V6 skidded, swung around a coupla times and hit the wall by the side of the road. We passed by the car as we were taking the exit near where he skidded and crashed and that's where we got disappointed. The bastard was still alive.

The car's front end was smashed, the front bumper and the radiator was on the ground even. The engine was smoking, but the asshole was still in his seat looking dejected (could be shock, but I don't think he'll die from shock, bummer). So we did the next best thing that we could do, rub salt in the injury. We drove by slowly (it's a Malaysian pastime to look at accidents, but we weren't the trendsetter that time) and when we got near we both rolled down our windows and gave him the applause he desperately needed (and I think my brother gave him a thumbs up as well for the show). Bravo young man, you're alive to try and kill yourself another time.

Why I'm so pissed off? It's because he's endangering other people. I don't bloody care about him, but what if when the car wiped out there was another car taking the exit, or there was a motorcycle there? All these talk about Mat Rempits, maybe we should do something about these jellybrains as well. I propose Putera UMNO do a similar program with them like what they did with the 'reformed' Mat Rempits, just minus the parachutes. That would be fun innit?

And yeah, I'm including every effing one of you out there, friends and family included. Go kill yourself where you won't take someone else with you. Morons.

Mi Casa!

As of yesterday, I am the proud owner of my own house!



I went to inspect the house yesterday with Arin (he was a property valuer before taking up postgrad studies, he knows this stuff), and subsequently collect the keys and the CF. After inspection, the main defects we found were the faulty front door lockset and the sliding door not installed correctly. The rest are mostly uneven paintjob. So I've filled up the defect list and submitted it to the developer. It will get done in 2-3 weeks' time. After that I'll start sourcing for cash to pay for grille, lighting and air conditioning installation, phew.



Anyway, I love the house! The size is just nice for me, not too big that I can feel the emptiness (I'll be staying on my own, no I won't rent the rooms out to anyone) nor too small that I feel cramped. The location of my unit faces Pandan Indah/MRR2, and none of the windows (including the kitchen/yard) faces other unit directly - privacy is assured for me.

After finishing the inspection, we went down to the 3rd floor where the amenities are (G, 1st & 2nd are parking bays). The pool seems sizeable enough, the gym is a bit small but well equipped, the multi-purpose hall is big enough to hold a function for say 150 people and there's units of shops and a cafe too.

Suffice to say, I am satisfied so far with what I'm getting for my money. It's a good location, rental rates are higher than monthly loan repayment, the unit has got a very good airflow, the security is good (hopefully they can maintain it) and best of all, I am a homeowner before I turn 25!