4 posts tagged “rant”
(Hey, the title rhymes! Well, almost..)You know, sometimes I think it's refreshing to visit those Malaysian portals created years and years ago when blogging was not yet a trend on the worldwide web. So I went to Cari.com.my (www.cari.com.my) to look around and see what changes it had gone through for the past few years that I haven't paid attention to it at all. The general outlook is still pretty much the same as before, but I was shocked when I reached the 'Classifieds' page, especially the job section.
It's truly disappointing for job seekers who actually turn to the page to see some online ads for job vacancies. If they post the ads under 'The Web' and "Internet Marketing' sections, I would have understood the purpose. But why post such ads under the 'JOBS' listing? Worst still, the same ads with the same title posted by the same people seem to be repeated over and over every few lines. God, this people must be really desperate for exposure!
I think Cari! management team should moderate and filter the classifieds page before it gets worse (can it get any worse than this? I wonder...) It makes me wonder if the team is doing their work at all. If they are, how come they allow the exact same ads to be listed on the same page for multiple times? They've already done a great job banning people from advertising SwissCash on the site, but really, the harmony doesn't seem to last for long especially with many sections such as the JOBS section becoming a place where people do a lot of 'shameless plug' instead of advertising properly. I'll seriously call the place 'Junk Ads Dump' from now on, until I see some efforts to breathe new life into the site.
These people really should learn how to promote whatever it is they're doing in a better way. Seriously, don't they know what SEO is? .... Well, I guess not.
Students are very much like pressure cookers - they open the lid and let people put stuff into them. And then, they apply pressure (or rather, 'they' are pressured) in order to cook the stuff in a relatively short timeframe. On the other hand, there are students who are similar to slow cookers; they take longer time to cook, but the end result is worth the wait. The effort. The energy and time taken. It makes patience a beautiful thing.
The above paragraph is an abstract from my private journal entry dated June 25, 2007.
I was feeling low and decided to browse through my handwritten journal entries. I almost forgot writing about it. Now that I recall, I was in the middle of a lecture when the idea came to mind. There are many types of learners in this world; they adopt styles that fit them best. Unfortunately, society where I love in does not think this way. Their view of a good, A-class student is a person who is hardworking, consistent, bookworm-ish, and polite and who rigidly plays by the rules: the no-nonsense kind of person.
There was a student who was thought as the type who poked fun at everything and was not serious in his studies. In the teachers' opinion, he played and joked around all the time. They thought he never revised his lessons as he seemed to appear distracted most of the time in the classroom. Yes, he appeared disinterested but he never disturbed other students during lessons. When he aced in exam, they accused him of cheating.
Now, isn't that scenario a bit too revolting? Whatever happened to individuality? Whatever happened to the famous statement 'different person, different styles'? Having a flair for 'having fun' does not mean a student is not serious with his or her studies. Teachers (and other students) should not jump straight to conclusions. They should have at least talked to the aforementioned carefree student for information regarding his studies. Sometimes, one learns best on one's own. In the case of the boy mentioned in above paragraph, he was actually the type of person who study diligently at home from 8pm until 1am every single day. It is only unfortunate that when his effort paid off, no one believed him, not even his teachers who were supposed to be his pillars of support.
In my opinion, a 'good' student does not refer to a student who follows everything his teacher said, nor does it refer to a student who follows the rule like a machine and sits somewhere in the corner immersed in a book or other reading materials (if not practice exam questions). A good student is a student who knows his goals -the term refers to a student who knows why he needs education, why he goes to school everyday and how he wants to lead his life in the future. A good student acknowledges what his teachers had done for him when he succeeds. Nowadays, there are many cases where when students ace in exam, they boast about their learning styles and the support they get from their parents. Teachers almost never came first on the list. However when students fail, they immediately put the blame on their subject teachers, accusing the poor teachers of not knowing how to teach properly, etc, etc.
Sad, isn't it?
A man driving through a sprint expressway encountered a car in which he dubbed as 'slow' and 'driven with lack of maneuvering skills'. The first thought that sprung to his mind was, "Must be a woman."
'The weaker sex' - that is how women are perceived by the society we live in. Even with the constant advancement of technology and modernisation, traditional mindsets pertaining to women remain unchanged within our so-called modern society. Women organisations and movements (e.g: AWAM) and campaigns (e.g: The White Ribbon Campaign) continue to pop up sporadically around the globe, yet we still hear about violence against women and exploitation of women in local media and international ones alike every single day. Are women really, as they say, 'the weaker sex'?
Although gender stereotyping is nothing new to us, the intensity should have decreased from its original value after the many changes undergone by our country over the past few years. Even with the increase in number of women climbing the tower of success in various fields (e.g: politics, entrepreneurship, etc), women are still condemned as 'second-rate' citizen compared to man. Their occasional 'mood swings' are said to be the main reason leading to the widespread belief of women as vulnerable and too delicate to lead.
It is not so cruel to say that the stereotyping is made stronger by women themselves. When it comes to the term 'heartbreak', people usually relate it to women and their emotional turmoil. This is not to say that men are not affected by heartbreaks, but women are usually the ones who suffer the impact the most. They tend to let themselves sink into depression rather than trying to take positive measures to overcome the problems at hand. Some women even cry too much, sinking further and further into depression, wallowing in self-pity. Even though I am still young, I am also a woman. I have also been through many hardships of life - physically, mentally, emotionally.
Women movements and campaigns can only do so far, they help women deal with public rights and such. Women may also seek help from the many women organisations for services such as counseling but I seriously think that the only way to stop being labeled 'the weaker sex' is by standing up to ourselves. We will hardly achieve anything by showing our misery for the world see, hoping for sympathy. We are the ones who can stop our own tears, build a strong pillar of determination to shield ourselves from being exploited by others. Believe it or not, we can be strong without relying on someone else's shoulder.
Keep in mind that although women may be delicate, but they are not weak. 'Weak' may translate to 'delicate' but 'delicate' does not necessarily mean 'weak'.
Human beings are born with different traits and capabilities. One may be good at certain things but weak in another; it is simply the rule of life. It is the same when it comes to the subject of 'Art and Literature' and 'Science'. It is complete unfair and utterly foolish to state that those who master Science are considered better than those who master Art and Literature.
I feel compelled to write this out after listening to my mother's rather narrow view on the term 'genius', and the public term of 'critical subject'.
Science and Mathematics are considered two most critical subjects in Malaysia, especially since the revised system demands a good command of English for students to master both subjects. Students studying those critical subjects are said to gain more privilege. Society also regards them highly, thus in term of privilege, they are hailed by many. Students of Arts and Literature, on the other hand, are considered weaker than Science students in Malaysian society. It is funny how human minds work. Some fail to understand that in the study of the human brain, there are two parts of the brain that work in learning processes - the left brain and the right brain. On some rare cases, individuals are able to fully use both brains but normally, one part of the brain is more dominant than the other.
It is ridiculous to compare medical students who dissect body parts with language student who 'dissect' the language. Ask Science students you know or yourself if you are one; do you think you can master Linguistics, which falls into the category of Art and Literature, if you were to take it? Will you be able to master all those hundreds of phonetics that come with it? And then ask Art and Literature students you know or yourself if you are one; do you think you can master Advanced Chemistry, with all the compositions and equations, if you were to take the subject?
I disagree with those saying that the study of language is less important. After all, what is society without language? Have you ever thought of the real geniuses who invented all those different languages to allow people to communicate with ease? Science is made better with Art, and vice versa. One subject cannot exist without another. Both subjects should therefore be given similar emphasis.
Nothing is easy in this world.
