About Media in Malaysia

Hi everyone once again, previous week Dr Sharon has discussed in the class about Media in Malaysia and it strikes me back to the past where all the chaotic and imbalance politics happened in Malaysia and I’ve learned that politics in Malaysia are mostly ruled over by the government and their increasingly concentrated ruling party, Barisan National. And of course, it is one-sided kind of thing.

Malaysia's press system until today is an inheritance of the British colonial era. It became an influential medium for the populace to voice their opinions of the colonial government in pre-independant Malaya. 

Today, most of the media is owned by the country's ruling party, Barisan National. As you can see, the picture below is an interesting table of Media Ownership.

Basically what the picture is trying to say that each media group owns certain type of media in the country. 

Barisan National owns Media Prima and indirectly, news portals and broadcasters will take advantage to censor what is bad and spread propaganda about their good to the citizens whereas the opposition are low on advantages because of the majority ownership by the government. 

Further on, there are some censorship which is main controlled by the government to prevent people outside of the country from knowing the truth. For example, Bersih. Bersih in another word is called  Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections is a protest event where people come together to seek clean election due to the 'dirty tricks' used by the government to win the election. Hence, rakyat (citizen) are not happy with the result of what they get and wants to demand what is right, such as preventing corruption, dirty politics, cleaner election and so forth. 

There are more information about the reformation in this source from the net : 

http://www.bersih.org/?page_id=352

As you can see the censorship in Malaysia is quiet strong and here is a video showing two different news being broadcast in BBC, UK and ASTRO, Malaysia 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTGogMq9NZ0

This is just one of the example where the government censored some of the scenes to prevent its citizens from the real truth. They may claim that it is to prevent feud but it is however a subjective matter. 

ReFresh

Back then, I started to hate blogging and one step at a time, I wonder does blogging even mean something? Can I start to go any where with blogging? In terms of earning money and what not. What I personally thought that blogging is for those who does not have time and wants to earn side income but to come and think of it again, IT IS NOT TRUE.

In fact, blogging helps to reduce stress, more like expressing your inner-self where you actually "communicate" with this post and express your feelings. Somehow people does not realise that this facts are true.

Blogging is fun! Fun in terms of expressing yourself and meeting other bloggers who are way more successful and they're sort of like on top of the world right now. Glad to know that bloggers can be successful at some point of time but how long will they last? Will blogging help them to achieve something successful? Yes, but does it last? No. Definitely not but well everyone needs to achieve something in their lives, right?

Everyone do, but I often feel I achieve nothing big in my life, probably soon? but I am proud to have friends, loved ones surrounding me and giving me protection and the man Himself, above the skies and air, Jesus. He gave His life and die for us on the cross. Let's look back and continue to thank God for his unending gracious blessing upon us. Happy Easter everyone :)

A-Muse

Music has always been part of my life. Even in the darkest day or whichever day that comes, I've always listen to songs and yeap..

But I used to ask myself why do I listen to music? Does it really help build your confident? or does it weaken you or is it just another 3-5 minutes waste of time listening to it? I strongly stand firm that music changes me for who I am because it speaks words of wisdom (sometimes), creates an understanding of what life is actually is and so on. This is actually subjective to everyone because not everyone likes/love music. They might think that music is a pain in the arse for them. Hence, I leave this to you to argue.

But overall, music have made an impact in my life in terms of being creative, opening the minds of the society and such, could change the whole world and unite them into one with just a simple song *maybe*.

Would I still be myself if I didn't have the talent to play guitar? or even listening to songs, tune or melody? Maybe yes but I figure out that there are tons of factors that could contribute into the process of transformation in your life. It could be friends, family, peer pressure, partners and society.

Waste of money? or makeover?

Recently I have watched a taiwanese television series about make up and woman.

Why do woman always or often wear make up to cover their face? Their faces are okay looking but not ugly because I would not categorise woman or "half" woman ugly but because of their additional "stuff" applied on their face makes them ugly. I've walked in shopping malls and night market and everywhere else seeing woman going into beauty shop to buy make ups, facial products and what not.

Obviously these things are used to fulfill your wants and needs so that people in the society could accept you into their group or norms. If your looks is ugly, technically speaking society would not accept you and vice versa. This is total crap because God created people, human in His image. I'm sorry to be harsh or rude/mean but this is my intention to tell people that God actually created us in a unique way. Unique way as in each person has its own talent or skills. I mean seriously? Woman do not need to wear make up to look good because each of them are unique in their own ways.

God bless

A sign of weakness or strength?

Everyone cries for a reason, whether someone has passed away or probably a failure in your life. But well, does crying even means a sign of weakness or strength?

No, well for me it means crying is a sign of strength. It should not be categorized as a sign of weakness because crying makes us release our inner emotions that we have kept for a very long time. Mostly girls cry because they use it as a "weapon" to persuade something or win over something they want/need.

Whereas there is a group of people who thinks that crying is also a sign of weakness, why? Because you have been strong for a period of time and when you released it then people would think that you have kept it for a long time. So, it's okay to cry at some point even though things may get bad and things might not seem to go its way.

Sometimes I cry because things does not get along together, things such as conflict of thoughts between myself and my partner. Even the smallest things could make me cry. This would conclude that I am a crying baby even though I always think that crying is for the weak and small and those who are not capable of going through stress.

Doing, Being & Having

There are so many things in life not regret doing, being and having it. For some people it might be their self-esteem, belongingness or even their goals in life. And well, to start of by the things I regret not doing is cooking. I have always wanted to learn cooking ever since I was young but because of my grandmother, she refuses me to cook because of certain reason. It could be wasting time for me, does not benefit me, does not want me to cook because I am one of the worst chef on earth and etc. I mean why can't parents just let a guy cook in the kitchen? It does not represent any stereotype or law that some guys should not cook in the kitchen. Well, some guys are better chef than women. I always envy some other guys like my guy friends who are capable of cooking and preparing ingredients and as for me, I have zero knowledge of kitchen things. Even though I have some cooking experience during my camping days but it is still not sufficient enough for me.

Being creative was also one of the things I regretted not having. I used to have skills in drawing and arts and basically to sum it up, I have visual eyes when I was young but due to my laziness, I have lost it all when I grew up. My grandmother used to reminisce me about what I have drew and visualise during my younger days and now I wish I have it. Why can't people just born with creativity and with visual skills? Why can't everyone just be the same with what they have? Well, I do believe that the reason everyone has different talents and skills is because they are made differently to shine for others.

Not having a dad in life is miserable. Regretted that I am born without a father and when special occasions like Father's Day arrive, I can see that there are families having dinner with their dad and simply smiling and being happy. Isn't having someone special in your life add in more colours into your happiness or life? Yes, it does but I am somehow happy now without a dad because of some super long story to explain but nevertheless, yes I do regret not having a father but I thank God for such awesome friends and families around me.

Time or Money?

Which one would you choose? Time or money?

Most time we would question ourselves whether the time we spend are worth the money or would the money we spend worth the time. And honestly speaking, in reality, we would choose to have both. The reason why we have both elements is that when we have the time, we could do whatever we want and spend it all on You-only-live-once(YOLO) concept whereas when we have the money we could buy anything that we want to and choose to be happy with it.

But to come and think of it, when we have the money, we could be very depress because we do not share the wealth and happiness with other people but in other case we could also be very happy also because when we have the money, we get to help those people in need and be well known to the whole world. All in all, happiness is a choice.

And yet another side would be time, some people would choose time over money because of some particular reasons like not having enough time to finish up assignments, mother who has kids and work to balance with and the list goes on.

And obviously there are some people like the prime minister has the money and time to do what he wants and spends on every luxury items.

Coming to a conclusion, since there are so many people who fights for both but I will still choose money over time because with money, we could spend so much on things and also give back to society where we, ourselves also will be happy eventually.

Of WWWs, HTMLs and what not..

Recently I watched a video called "The World Without Smartphones", truly enough that most of what we do today solely depend on smartphones and other smart devices such as Smart TV, Smart Tab and the list goes on. This is just a fact and the main point that I want to stress out is that what if the knowledge that we earn now is not from Google? or Yahoo, or even "the Internet"? This is the weird thing, even in school or university level now, everyone needs the Internet to surf and collect answers for their problems whereas compared to the early 90s where people have to work their way up to collect detailed information from the library or any other sources.

These smartphones has made people from lazy to even lazier when they have voice to record down their notes or homework. Question is will people continue to depend on the Internet? What happens if the Internet, the people who is handling the Internet suddenly just vanish off? or the company, Google itself just go bankrupt one day? That one day would be crazy where everyone will go round and triangle to call and sue the company for their bankruptcy.

No doubt that all these might happen one day but all of us will come to realisation that we used too much of the Internet to communicate, find info and collect data from other country. In contrast, we should take in account that by communicating we can still use our phone and while doing homework, research we can go to the library to find books. If we depend too much on the source from Internet, will not the sales of the books drop? If factory stop producing books, what happens to the bookstores in the world? Where do researchers want to do their thesis?

That's the whole point. Why not people just live happily with what they have and not settle down too much on smart gadgets but instead do it in an old fashion way.

How does it feel to lose someone..

There’s always someone we lose in our life, whether it is family members, best friend, partners and so the list goes on. I reflect back on to what happened to my past, where I actually lost someone so important in my life, a loving and outgoing mother. She is actually my friend’s mother but you can feel the way when people treat you, you feel very, comfortable. That’s one thing but another is the way when people treat you so comfortable, you can feel you’re loved by that specific person.

She passed away when 3 robbers enter her house and knocked her down. Immediately she fainted and passed away just like that. Knowing the fact that she is a strong woman, it is very depressing to know someone you care so much just passed away like that. But there’s nothing much I can do or anyone can do to bring that person back to life again. Hence, I always ask God “Why did You bring so much misery into someone’s life by taking their love one away?”

Questions has been still wondering in my head and I wonder why humans cannot live until they’re satisfied or I don’t know? Maybe 130-150 years old? Why can’t they just live happily and die happily too? The problem is, humans are able to live until 100+ years, it’s just the matter of time. Time, is one of the most important element in our life like what the quote says “Time is gold”. I believe if God wants to take someone away, He will do it for a better reason.

Even though it is one tough crap problem to overcome but humans can do it. Things like flying to the moon, burn your whole body, crash into accidents and survive. There is reasons why humans are capable to survive in those cases. It is because God gave us the courage, strength and mircales to overcome all these problems and circumstances in our life.  

Anyhow back to the title again, what if, you lose someone. Yes, you will feel horrible but what if let’s say if you lose someone in life but actually it is a good thing? I’m not saying that I am cursing or talking crap but somehow deep down, losing someone in our life makes us grow stronger. Makes us rethink again that we should remain silence and think back our past that losing someone in our life is not that bad at all.

One of the reason why I said this is because I grew up without a father and it is one hell of a journey to go through in my life without a dad. I can’t represent anyone in my house to be my mentor or “superhero” except my grandfather and uncles and when Father’s Day is around, I can see that the whole family is happy eating and watching movie together and what not. Struggling all these few years has been very hard for me but I tend to look at the brighter side, where I tend to spend most of my time with my mother and grandparents.

Indeed these past 20 years, I realized that losing someone in our life is a good thing. I learn a lot, struggle a lot of hardship and learn to grow wiser and even more mature.

From friend-zoned to a true relationship

I do not know what to do with my life, maybe cause I have not been in love for a very long period of time. This is the time where I stop and stare at walls to figure out whether am I in love or not? Then I realised that I am truly in love with her because of her "awesome" personalities, tender loving, kind and natural person and yeap, indeed I am in love with her even more day by day.

It all started when we were involved in the university orientation programme and we got close during the game sessions and on the third day itself, I actually fetched her back home and we had talks and during the talk I actually got click to her and realised that I actually liked her. I was not sure at first and it felt like I needed more time to know her more.

Well, I actually did planned to go out with her and had lunch and dinner. Not long after that, it felt so much comfortable when we started hanging out together and found each other compatible but at the same time also we have problems with our current studies, life and friends. One thing is, she is originally from Teluk Intan, Perak and she finds herself having problems staying in PJ, Selangor. She got fed up because of the areas in PJ, which is much more complicated compared to her hometown but as for me, I find this place interesting because PJ has a lot of good food and good places to explore and one thing is that I love to travel and I am obviously a food junkie.

On the day where The Mines Shopping Mall had Big Bad wolf, I have actually confessed to her that I like her but she needs time where until the very end of the day, she said yes to me! I got so excited in "me" but I just could not reveal the happiness in me but instead I jumped for joy the moment when she said yes. But at the same time also, I have had prepared if she said NO to me and things would turned out so differently today.

Then, we started to click with each other and so, the journey begins until today where we are still talking to each other and hang out.

Funny thing is, she actually told the truth that she friend-zoned me during the orientation programme but after the orientation programme, she realised there's a little "spark" between us and there it started. Anyhow, I felt glad that I kept the faith and did not question much about why all these things happened and glad that she is still holding on the path she is taking. Thank God.

Driving at ease

Driving was one of my passion and dream when I was small. I have always wanted to drive when I reach at the very beginning of 17 years old because that's the only time where the government "allows" youngsters to start driving at that age. Knowing the fact that only at the age of 17 that I can drive, I have waited patiently until Sijil Peperiksaan Malaysia(SPM) ended and quickly I went and took the test and PASSED! 

Yeap, happily I was, I drove around my area first before I actually go out to the "real world" of driving, which was the highway and main roads. It was a pleasure that actually I can drive all around my place and took my friends to go around places, shopping malls and etc. 

But one thing that came across my mind was, do I really like driving? The answer is, no. To be honest, who likes driving at all time? Exception to Formula 1 drivers when they actually need to practice their skills and perform well on the day of the competitions and so on. Hence, they are kind of like "forced" to drive and perform better than the rest. This is because they are paid quite high to enter competition and win millions.

So, I have also been asking myself whether should I pursue my dream into driving and participating in Formula 1 and winning prizes/cash/be a millionaire through all these driving competition. Obviously not because I believe one day I may get sick of driving and chasing after one another in one track. Plus, it does not really benefit me much because in Malaysia, we cannot really earn so much because not many of us Malaysian got involve in this racing field. Hence, the quality of Malaysian's racing is poor.

So, I gave up on driving formula 1 cars and started to focus on my studies where eventually I managed to get myself into university and pursuing Media Creative, which was the "real thing" that I needed. 

To conclude, I felt glad and at the same time I was happy because of these motivation through my dreams, I managed to find my way out and knowing what to do in life and what to study. I thank God for all the opportunities that I have in pursuing this degree and for my past inspiration that have strengthen me and lead me to who I am today. 

Daily Basis of Life

Eating is one of the most basic thing we do everyday. Most of our energy are wasted everyday hence, we must eat consistently and for some, they eat a lot.

Well, as for me, I recently visited this restaurant called myBurgerLab. Why myBurgerlab? One thing I love visiting this place is because of their services especially the front crew. They are very cheerful whenever customers tend to visit the shop and this was one of the reason why I looked up to them and actually went for their job interview.

Even though I successfully went through all the interview and probation but sadly, I couldn’t cope with my studies and family and hence, I gave up immediately after the all the probation. Though with such short probation, I got to know new people and I never forget the experience of learning how to cook and serve people with smiles. It was full of joy working with this kind of people and I am thankful that I am able to be part of the team.

What is so amazing about this restaurant is that it serves good, I mean real good food and juicy and not much add-on unnecessary ingredients. Their food is fresh and clean and it is rated as one of the best burgers in town. There are visitors from other countries and the reason they came all the way from their place is that they have heard of this “havoc” black bun burgers. And their comments are like “Awesome, Well-prepared, Well-done” and etc.

With their joy and fun in doing this work in the kitchen and on-floor, I can see that they are enjoying their work as well as serving other people with the joy on their face. And one thing about us, people, is that we have to be cheerful at all time and not to be depressed about the things we should not. I personally feel that everyone should be happy about the things we do especially when we go out to work next time. Students especially, have to be outgoing because when you go out to the working world, you have to be fun and you have to love doing what you do. I have seen people who are forced to work and earn money and support their family and then end up being depressed about their work and their surroundings.

So, work aside, what I personally feel about food is that we should love them equally as we love ourselves. There are certain cases where people tend to diet and not eating properly because they want to look pretty or good-looking. Well, I think that if we love ourselves, we have to eat good food and live a happy life. At some point we have to pamper ourselves with good food and nice clothes and get wasted. That is what I am still standing, believing that good food satisfy my life.

The season of the Chinese people

There comes again the year of horse and I can see that most Chinese people are not in town during Chinese New Year. What I can see during this festive season is those smiling faces when they receive red packets where they called it ang pao.

I find it boring especially during this festive season because every year Chinese people celebrate the same thing all over again where they need waste money to buy fireworks, joysticks to pray and give away ang paos. Moreover, there is nothing much I can do during this time because I do not want to feel like wasting money on petrol and money to visit my friend’s place and relative’s house even though it’s a tradition thing that you have to do every year but who says you cannot visit them during other free days like Sunday?

This is the thing about Chinese people every year where you know they have to follow the rules of visiting other people’s house to collect ang paos and send regards to know what or how they are doing in life. Personally, I feel this is not necessary.

It’s fun to get to visit our friend’s place and hang around to play cards and bet our money on it but really? But the truth is everyone does play one or two round of poker and won some cash but come to think of it, we do lose a lot of money if you are too greedy. Another thing is, this habits could pass on to generation and generations and this could lead to a worst outcome, which is borrowing money from loan sharks.

In contrast, there’s always a greener side where we enjoy sitting down together as a family and having dinner, the bondage between family members and friends are important as they are the one we treasure most. Well, I thank God that I am born in Malaysia with so many festive seasons in a year. I could just use this time to get even more rest and not doing any work for a period of time.