Parents always want to give the best to their children because children are God given asset and are usually few in number at this time compared to big families our parents used to have before. During my time, children of 6 was considered as few and most have 10 or a dozen especially in the village. Nowadays children are brought up in such a way that they are materialistically rich, pampered and living in great comfort zone. They are so used to spending money and also enjoying a lavish life style that does not seem to match with their potential future earning, I would say, at least the first few years when they graduate, come out to work and face the real world. This parental pampering act will not benefit them at all, but also to spoil them and reduce their competitivenss in the society. Young people nowadays yet to experience what real life is all about, already developed the bad habit to buy high end products and don on branded costumes and apparels, be selective on food and want to dine on reputable and high class restaurants. They do not realize how difficult it is to earn money in the real working world! Subsquently when they are so used to what they already have presently, they simply could not take a step backward to lead a more inferior and simple life. If there is any happening that turns against them in the future such as an economic recession, thus forcing them into a more humble and modest life style, they will suffer and will feel extremely miserable. Under such circumstances, they might attempt all kinds of method, both legal or illegal, just to satisfy their insatiable appetite on materialistic things that they are already so used to. How dangerous this could be, they could end up doing all kind of things in their pursuit of monetary gain or even go to jail!
When we were young, because of our parents had more children and therefore resources were thin, and every sibling was having only the bare minimum in order to make our ends meet. We started to grow and taste what poverty was all about, we appreciate life more as we work hard to achieve what we are today, earn and spend only what we can afford to spend. For that, we learned to be thrifty and respect our parents because they toiled for us so that we could have enough food and education. Just imagine how tough life was for our not so highly-educated parents in the setting of a village background to earn and support 6 children. Young people of this time tends to take thing for granted and they would not be able to appreciate how much their parents had done and sacrified for them.
The bible had taught us to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you". We, as parents have not heeded this and done our part enough and set the right examples for them. We work hard for material gain so that our children can enjoy lot of things but do not emphasize enough to them on this spiritual aspect of biblical teaching. We are at fault and this is really our big mistake!
I pray that God to help us all to become better parents and give us the wisdom to teach our children to be better persons in the future. We want our children to have discipline and work hard to gain what is proper and not to take any short cut and easy way out for their life in the future to come. Life is not meaned to be easy, and God uses the process of going through life to train us to be tough and be dependent on Him instead of blindly seeking material gain. May God bless us all!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Old age predicament
I met a new friend and he is 62, he is a friendly and also a very well educated person as he was once an English language teacher and also an editor in a famous newspaper. He is well exposed and had raised good children who got scholarships to study in UK. He loves his family and he taught them well when the children were young and they exceled in their studies with strings of distinctions in public examination results. It is a pity that with his son as medical doctor, and daughter as some high flying investment company senior officer, he is left alone to stay in Malaysia for the past 8 years. The wife left him to UK to take care of the sick mother-in-law of his daughter. Money is never a problem for him as he owns properties all over.
He told me that it was a mistake for him to teach his children too well, otherwise they would have remained in Malaysia. One could imagine his frustration when he uttered such words! He wanted his doctor son to marry a local but the son married a British girl instead. And he wanted him to become a specialist doctor in Kuantan hospital, even to the extent of buying a house nearby the hospital just for him, but the son opted to be a British and resides in UK and never wanted to come back. It seems all odds are against him!
Maybe his wife was right, son and daughter should have their own lives, and it is their lives! And they have choosen their destiny the way they wanted it, and parents should not interfere at all. Whatever the wish of parents to remain as wish only. Now he is a frustrated old man living in solitude. Thinking that all his good friends and buddies are in Kuantan and he shifted from Kemaman to live there. Unfortunately at the later part, most of his friends moved to Kuala Lumpur, probably just to follow their sons and daughters now working and staying in the capital city. This old man simply just has no one in Kuala Lumpur to go to. Should there be any one of his family members staying there, he might have followed suit and shifted there as well to be with his buddies.
It is definitely not the wish of parents having their children far away from home when they grow up. It is hard for a man after living many years in Malaysia and then is forced by circumstances to uproot himself and settle in another country or place. They might feel proud to have children capable of residing in advanced countries like US and UK, but this proudness is short-lived, and the yearning to see their children by their side becomes a more dominating factor as they grow older each day. It is not a question of selfishness that parents want to keep their children around, it is the kind of "lost and emptiness" feeling that cripple them after they had strived for the most part of their life to raise children, and eventually they are too remote to be seen. It is a sadness but sometime it is a fact of life that we all probably have to accept it one day.
It is only when our sons and daughters, they themselves become parents at later part, reaching a stage some day when their own children grow up and they would be able to feel and taste the same bitter medicine. Probably then they will realize how bitter life could be at that age.
Come to think of it, could I come to the same predicament like this friend of mine when I reach that stage? Well, I do not think of such problem when I was just a few years younger, is this really a sign of getting old now?
He told me that it was a mistake for him to teach his children too well, otherwise they would have remained in Malaysia. One could imagine his frustration when he uttered such words! He wanted his doctor son to marry a local but the son married a British girl instead. And he wanted him to become a specialist doctor in Kuantan hospital, even to the extent of buying a house nearby the hospital just for him, but the son opted to be a British and resides in UK and never wanted to come back. It seems all odds are against him!
Maybe his wife was right, son and daughter should have their own lives, and it is their lives! And they have choosen their destiny the way they wanted it, and parents should not interfere at all. Whatever the wish of parents to remain as wish only. Now he is a frustrated old man living in solitude. Thinking that all his good friends and buddies are in Kuantan and he shifted from Kemaman to live there. Unfortunately at the later part, most of his friends moved to Kuala Lumpur, probably just to follow their sons and daughters now working and staying in the capital city. This old man simply just has no one in Kuala Lumpur to go to. Should there be any one of his family members staying there, he might have followed suit and shifted there as well to be with his buddies.
It is definitely not the wish of parents having their children far away from home when they grow up. It is hard for a man after living many years in Malaysia and then is forced by circumstances to uproot himself and settle in another country or place. They might feel proud to have children capable of residing in advanced countries like US and UK, but this proudness is short-lived, and the yearning to see their children by their side becomes a more dominating factor as they grow older each day. It is not a question of selfishness that parents want to keep their children around, it is the kind of "lost and emptiness" feeling that cripple them after they had strived for the most part of their life to raise children, and eventually they are too remote to be seen. It is a sadness but sometime it is a fact of life that we all probably have to accept it one day.
It is only when our sons and daughters, they themselves become parents at later part, reaching a stage some day when their own children grow up and they would be able to feel and taste the same bitter medicine. Probably then they will realize how bitter life could be at that age.
Come to think of it, could I come to the same predicament like this friend of mine when I reach that stage? Well, I do not think of such problem when I was just a few years younger, is this really a sign of getting old now?
Sunday, November 15, 2009
New hobbies - Bicycle and DSLR
One has to continue to explore new interests especially when you are getting old and living alone. You really have to do something you find it interesting and also enjoy doing it. The good thing about engineer is that he or she could easily understand all the technical stuff that is written in books or from the internet. It is really wonderful at this modern age of IT that one could easily google a lot of articles regarding a certain topic with just one click of your mouse.
I recently read about bicycles and came to understand how different high quality and reputable components of bicycle could cost a lot more than one could ever imagine. It surprises many people how a good bicycle could cost somewhere in the region of RM3-4K as against the China made unknown brands at just RM100-200. The use of Shimano gears and other pricy components could cost one a fortune! I finally decided to buy a used Scott bike at RM1K, hardly used by previous owner and the original price was RM2700.
Recently I also read more about DSLR. This comes to my mind after the trip to Jiuzhaigou because most of my friends are carrying along DSLR as they could shoot better pictures compared to my point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix camera. It is hard to discern the quality of pictures taken by using a normal camera and DSLR at the first glance, but the experts would be able to tell. There are a lot more one could do and play with a DSLR compared to the normal digital camera.
I read through the top brands such as Nikon and Canon, their market share and also the availability of their lenses, support etc. Also learn about ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 etc which are to be used in low light condition without using a flash. And how the various sizes of CMOS or CCD sensors affect the quality of photos at high ISO. Understood the term "noise" is used to describe the grainy effect of those photos taken at high ISO numbers. There are other factors such as image stabilization built-in in the camera or lens so that one will not get blurr image without a tripod. Plus the so called Four-third size form factor which reduces weight and size of lenses used so that the camera could be easily carried to anywhere without feeling its bulkiness and weight.
I always have a budget in my mind as I could not afford the luxury that I had before when I worked overseas. I also anticipate the possibility of a new hobby could die of natural death or fade over time after investing a lot of money on the gears. For those reasons, choosing the entry level models and to read about all the reviews seem to be the right move. Currently for these entry level DSLR, Sony Alpha A230, Olympus E-450 or even a Pentax Kx are the choices in my mind. Sony is not so established in the DSLR business compared to Nikon and Canon, but they have Minolta/Konica as their backing and it is also easy for me to review photos taken in the Sony 40" Bravia LCD TV at my Kuala Lumpur home. As for Olympus, the lightest camera available in the market, its weight factor is something that intrigued me, nobody other than the professionals would like to carry a heavy camera with its protruding lens hanging on the neck for sightseeing and touring. Pentax is also very well known brand but Pentax Kx model is using AA batteries, heard that battery draining out problem is a big issue though AA batteries are supposed to be for convenience and they readily available everywhere.
Sometimes I just immerse myself in the quest of such new hobbies without actually making a decision to own them or going into it. Perhaps the fun of it is to go through the process of finding out. A typical example would be buying and reading the Motor Trader magazines, looking at some of the favorite Volvo and Mercedes cars which I intended to buy, but eventually ended up buying a Proton Exora.
I recently read about bicycles and came to understand how different high quality and reputable components of bicycle could cost a lot more than one could ever imagine. It surprises many people how a good bicycle could cost somewhere in the region of RM3-4K as against the China made unknown brands at just RM100-200. The use of Shimano gears and other pricy components could cost one a fortune! I finally decided to buy a used Scott bike at RM1K, hardly used by previous owner and the original price was RM2700.
Recently I also read more about DSLR. This comes to my mind after the trip to Jiuzhaigou because most of my friends are carrying along DSLR as they could shoot better pictures compared to my point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix camera. It is hard to discern the quality of pictures taken by using a normal camera and DSLR at the first glance, but the experts would be able to tell. There are a lot more one could do and play with a DSLR compared to the normal digital camera.
I read through the top brands such as Nikon and Canon, their market share and also the availability of their lenses, support etc. Also learn about ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 etc which are to be used in low light condition without using a flash. And how the various sizes of CMOS or CCD sensors affect the quality of photos at high ISO. Understood the term "noise" is used to describe the grainy effect of those photos taken at high ISO numbers. There are other factors such as image stabilization built-in in the camera or lens so that one will not get blurr image without a tripod. Plus the so called Four-third size form factor which reduces weight and size of lenses used so that the camera could be easily carried to anywhere without feeling its bulkiness and weight.
I always have a budget in my mind as I could not afford the luxury that I had before when I worked overseas. I also anticipate the possibility of a new hobby could die of natural death or fade over time after investing a lot of money on the gears. For those reasons, choosing the entry level models and to read about all the reviews seem to be the right move. Currently for these entry level DSLR, Sony Alpha A230, Olympus E-450 or even a Pentax Kx are the choices in my mind. Sony is not so established in the DSLR business compared to Nikon and Canon, but they have Minolta/Konica as their backing and it is also easy for me to review photos taken in the Sony 40" Bravia LCD TV at my Kuala Lumpur home. As for Olympus, the lightest camera available in the market, its weight factor is something that intrigued me, nobody other than the professionals would like to carry a heavy camera with its protruding lens hanging on the neck for sightseeing and touring. Pentax is also very well known brand but Pentax Kx model is using AA batteries, heard that battery draining out problem is a big issue though AA batteries are supposed to be for convenience and they readily available everywhere.
Sometimes I just immerse myself in the quest of such new hobbies without actually making a decision to own them or going into it. Perhaps the fun of it is to go through the process of finding out. A typical example would be buying and reading the Motor Trader magazines, looking at some of the favorite Volvo and Mercedes cars which I intended to buy, but eventually ended up buying a Proton Exora.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Jiuzhaigou - Paradise on earth, a place not to be missed
Recently a group of my classmates and schoolmates organized a trekking trip all the way to the snow mountains of the Sichuan province in China this late autumn season. They had planned the trip about 3 months ahead. They bought all the gears and the necessary apparels and did some tall building climbing training before they embarked on the challenge. While I was taking on a new assignment here in Kemaman, I hesitated quite a while on whether to join them because it is a new job for me here and also the days to be away was about 15 days, a bit too long. It was really a "not to be missed" opportunity that after so many years we left school and we were able to gather so many of them and to do sight-seeing in a foreign land and have fun together.
Coincidently Air Asia airline announced the inaugural flight on 20th October 2009 to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. And the online booking of Air Asia was easy and quick, and most of all, to and fro air ticket was only Rm559. That was really a good deal and I finally made a compromise and firmed up my mind to join them only for the last 3 days of their trekking journey at the renowned resort of Jiuzhaigou.
Their trekking trip included camping in snowing mountains and also the need to go very natural as there are no amenities, toilets and hotels whatsoever along the most part of the track. They had to climb hills and wade through snow covered track, scaled up and down above 4000 m of high altitude snow mountains, experienced mountain sickness etc. The only consolation they had, should there be any emergency, was the presence of a medical specialist doctor as one of the team members. They probably entered the Jiuzhaigou resort through trekking in from the back entrance while I flew in and went in from the main entrance by taxi. One of our classmates opted to give up the trip and went home alone as the journey was proven to be just too much for him to endure. Surprisingly there were 3 Singaporean women and 1 Malaysian lady participated in the adventure. They managed to persevere through the entire gruesome journey, though the team had actually decided to deviate and cut short the last trekking portion and went straight in to the resort one day earlier than scheduled. I arrived at the right timing to catch up with them otherwise I would have to wait one whole day alone in the hotel for their arrival if they sticked on to the original schedule. This made the trip more interesting and we had more time to tour Jiuzhaigou more thoroughly.
Jiuzhaigou is almost a paradise on earth and is beyond words to describe its beauty. Photographs taken are so beautiful that one could think that they are just paintings, a place too good to be true. I had posed in some of the photos just to convince myself and others to look at those shots taken are real, and not some manipulation of the digital images.
This was really a wonderful trip and I enjoyed it very much!
Pictures paint a thousand words, these are the web albums for your viewing:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinleefh/mltvTE02#
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinleefh/mltvTE#
Coincidently Air Asia airline announced the inaugural flight on 20th October 2009 to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. And the online booking of Air Asia was easy and quick, and most of all, to and fro air ticket was only Rm559. That was really a good deal and I finally made a compromise and firmed up my mind to join them only for the last 3 days of their trekking journey at the renowned resort of Jiuzhaigou.
Their trekking trip included camping in snowing mountains and also the need to go very natural as there are no amenities, toilets and hotels whatsoever along the most part of the track. They had to climb hills and wade through snow covered track, scaled up and down above 4000 m of high altitude snow mountains, experienced mountain sickness etc. The only consolation they had, should there be any emergency, was the presence of a medical specialist doctor as one of the team members. They probably entered the Jiuzhaigou resort through trekking in from the back entrance while I flew in and went in from the main entrance by taxi. One of our classmates opted to give up the trip and went home alone as the journey was proven to be just too much for him to endure. Surprisingly there were 3 Singaporean women and 1 Malaysian lady participated in the adventure. They managed to persevere through the entire gruesome journey, though the team had actually decided to deviate and cut short the last trekking portion and went straight in to the resort one day earlier than scheduled. I arrived at the right timing to catch up with them otherwise I would have to wait one whole day alone in the hotel for their arrival if they sticked on to the original schedule. This made the trip more interesting and we had more time to tour Jiuzhaigou more thoroughly.
Jiuzhaigou is almost a paradise on earth and is beyond words to describe its beauty. Photographs taken are so beautiful that one could think that they are just paintings, a place too good to be true. I had posed in some of the photos just to convince myself and others to look at those shots taken are real, and not some manipulation of the digital images.
This was really a wonderful trip and I enjoyed it very much!
Pictures paint a thousand words, these are the web albums for your viewing:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinleefh/mltvTE02#
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinleefh/mltvTE#
Monday, November 2, 2009
Dangerous places and fire in the village
While I was staying in the village as small kid, there were some dangerous zones that our parents would never allow us to venture any nearer to those places. Kampar and Mambang Diawan, being in the Kinta valley where we were having one of the richest tin ore resources in the world, were filled with used tin mines, once discarded and started to form natural ponds of various sizes and depths. Those ponds were usually deep and blue in color, therefore they were enticing to the kids as most of us were attracted to the water, either to cool ourselves by taking a dip or try to catch some fishes. There was one place near to the northern entrance of the village, a place by the name of "Lingutik" and it means "the tip of the breast" because of its dome shape that became a favorite spot for children taking a jump from that high tip portion and splash into the crystal clear deep part of the pond. There was another pond near to the Indian settlement on the eastern side of the village, we called that the "shorty pond" because of its smaller in size, shallower water and also a big tree truck near to the middle of it that swimmers could swim all the way and then cling on to it to take a break or a rest and chat with the other swimmers. A few of us always told our tuition teacher that we went to see the Chinese opera but actually sneaked out for a dip and headed to the shorty pond! Thinking of it, if any one of us get drown, I wonder how the tuition teacher could ever answer to the parents. How dangerous it could be when children are not properly supervised!
Malaysia does not have any kind of mines buried in war zone ground in countries such as Cambodia or the former Yugoslavakia states etc., but the used mining ponds are equally dangerous that stole the lives of many young children.
There were many incidents that young children were drown that caused so much sorrow to the village folks and parents would not hesitate to mete our severe caning if children were found to swim in any of the ponds or rivers. Children being children, always like to sneak out of the house and take a dip in those rivers or ponds. One of the tricks was to quickly clean our bodies in the running tap water so as to clear any muddy mark on the skin in order to avoid detection. In those days, tap water was not tapped directly into the house but rather at public places where young and old were to carry pails of water back home for consumption or even taking their bath. Those public taps became convenient places for us to erase those traces of mud.
Waterfalls and those natural ponds right after the falling water were another dangerous places. Even many adults were drown by the under current of these pools. There was one famous Chinese opera singer that came to perform in the area and was drown in the Bidor waterfall while he visited the place when taking a break during his performance. Expert swimmers were sometimes stucked in the roots or rocks that they were strangled and could not surface and therefore drowned. A few times in the Kampar waterfall, the heavy rain at the upper stream of the waterfall, somewhere deep inside the tropical jungle near the source or from the remote area of Kampar hill had caused the sudden accumulation of strong current that swept away picnickers and swimmers down stream. All Utar students not familiar with the background and the danger of waterfalls should be fore-warned of such danger. The slippery rock is another dangerous part, I got my forehead stitches in the Kampar hospital done because of my hand slipped while swiming from one end of the pool to the other when trying to cling and pull myself up onto a rock.
One fire that I observed that destroyed a house and killed a baby, that was the greatest tragedy that I knew of while I was still a young kid. That happened to the house next to my grandpa's cousin brother's home some 20 minutes walking distance away. The mother of that killed baby was one of the friends of my mum, I remember visited her together with my mum and saw the big egg of a long stick insect, which was kept as a pet in a glass tank, supposed to be German breed. I still remember this very vividly as I was really fascinated by the insect. It was a tragic ending for this woman, after losing her baby and after some time the husband took a second wife and she left the village and since then I have never seen her anymore.
Malaysia does not have any kind of mines buried in war zone ground in countries such as Cambodia or the former Yugoslavakia states etc., but the used mining ponds are equally dangerous that stole the lives of many young children.
There were many incidents that young children were drown that caused so much sorrow to the village folks and parents would not hesitate to mete our severe caning if children were found to swim in any of the ponds or rivers. Children being children, always like to sneak out of the house and take a dip in those rivers or ponds. One of the tricks was to quickly clean our bodies in the running tap water so as to clear any muddy mark on the skin in order to avoid detection. In those days, tap water was not tapped directly into the house but rather at public places where young and old were to carry pails of water back home for consumption or even taking their bath. Those public taps became convenient places for us to erase those traces of mud.
Waterfalls and those natural ponds right after the falling water were another dangerous places. Even many adults were drown by the under current of these pools. There was one famous Chinese opera singer that came to perform in the area and was drown in the Bidor waterfall while he visited the place when taking a break during his performance. Expert swimmers were sometimes stucked in the roots or rocks that they were strangled and could not surface and therefore drowned. A few times in the Kampar waterfall, the heavy rain at the upper stream of the waterfall, somewhere deep inside the tropical jungle near the source or from the remote area of Kampar hill had caused the sudden accumulation of strong current that swept away picnickers and swimmers down stream. All Utar students not familiar with the background and the danger of waterfalls should be fore-warned of such danger. The slippery rock is another dangerous part, I got my forehead stitches in the Kampar hospital done because of my hand slipped while swiming from one end of the pool to the other when trying to cling and pull myself up onto a rock.
One fire that I observed that destroyed a house and killed a baby, that was the greatest tragedy that I knew of while I was still a young kid. That happened to the house next to my grandpa's cousin brother's home some 20 minutes walking distance away. The mother of that killed baby was one of the friends of my mum, I remember visited her together with my mum and saw the big egg of a long stick insect, which was kept as a pet in a glass tank, supposed to be German breed. I still remember this very vividly as I was really fascinated by the insect. It was a tragic ending for this woman, after losing her baby and after some time the husband took a second wife and she left the village and since then I have never seen her anymore.
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