The Magic and the Fantastic

The morning began with a quick cold bath followed by the usual prayers. Pablo prayed for a natural disaster to hit his school - as he does every morning - despite knowing that this prayer of his will never be answered. He then grabbed his dirty old school bag and proceeded to the garden for a quick breakfast with the sun, the cloud and the breeze.

"Good morning Pablo," greeted the sun and the cloud. The breeze blew a cool refreshing breeze across the garden.

"What's so good about the morning?" Asked Pablo. His mornings will never be good unless school's been cancelled due to heavy snow or massive landslide or violent typhoon or something to that effect. Problem is, such natural disasters had and will never happen in the country he's currently in.

"Havent you heard the wonderful news?" Asked the sun, surprised."Prince Charming had finally found the one whose feet fits the glass slipper and they lived happily ever after. Isnt that good news?"

"Really? Wow. Great. That's simply wonderful news. What a great morning! Thanks alot for making my day!"

Pablo then took a quick final sip of bitter black coffee, grabbed his dirty old school bag and walked briskly towards the school bus that reached seconds ago. It was then when Pablo saw a girl running towards the bus from a couple of houses away. He'd seen her around once but couldnt put a place to the face.

And as soon as Little Red Riding Hood boarded, the bus began to inch forward and Pablo prayed for the bus to take them to prison instead - even though he knew that such silly prayers will forever remain unanswered.

The Malay Education

It was mentioned during the Symposium that mental work will be more valuable than hard labour in time to come. This was also mentioned by the PM during the National Day Rally when he said that Seagate will stop manufacturing the physical hard disk drives and will instead focus on research and development of the material used in the hard disk.

Hence, it is safe to say that one has got to study harder now, more than ever. In a meritocratic society, those who do not perform well will most probably lose out. And being a minority in a meritocratic society simply means that we've gotta work even harder.

I stumbled upon a 27-page document entitled "Progress of the Malay Community in Singapore since 1980" (2005) - a report presenting educational, economic, social, and quality of life indicators which together give a comprehensive picture of the community. I'll be focusing only on the educational aspect of the report.

The proportion of students among Malays in the group 7-16 years is now the same as the national average. However, we have the lowest percentage of GCE 'O' Level Students with at least Five 'O' Level Passes as well as GCE 'A' Level Students with at least 2 'A' and 2 'AO' Level passes including General Paper. We also have the lowest percentage of Primary One cohort admitted to Post-Secondary Institutions (ITE, Polytechnics, Junior Colleges/Centralised Institutes) as well as those admitted to Tertiary Institutions (Polytechnics or Universities).

The only area where we had the highest percentage in was in the number of primary school dropouts as well as secondary school dropouts. And our "ranking" has been consistent since 1980.

During the symposium, someone mentioned how fathers tend to neglect their child's education. And I personally think that in a Malay family, fathers play the role of a breadwinner and disciplinarian while mothers deal with everything else. Something's just not right here.... But this is just one of possibly many other things.

................ (to be continued)

Food for thoughts:

1. How much time, effort and money is the typical Malay family willing to spend on their child's education?
   
2. There is a need for a role model within the family to act as a mentor for the child. But what if there isnt?
3. Can we ever break away from this vicious cycle that we are in?

Perhaps thinking about the community as a whole is a waste of time given the fact that I do not have 25 hours a day. Perhaps not. Perhaps this is one aspect where i can try put my thinking and dreaming skills to some good use? Insyaallah.

Pages of thoughts

I attended MENDAKI Club's Inaugural Collegiate Symposium 2009 - and i was impressed how they managed to bring tertiary students together in the spirit of learning from the sharing of experiences and perspectives by professionals in various fields.

Interesting questions, thoughts and views were scribbled by the pages in my little red book. Some of which, if not all, will be posted up as entries in time to come. I guess having heard the word "prioritize" one too many times, I shall put on hold penning pages of thoughts down for now...

....Of school, success, Malay, mentality, community, dreams, opportunities, motivation and other stories - including my inability to strike a conversation with the opposite gender.

The Cloud and the Sand Dune

Even clouds fall in love.

A young cloud found a gentle breeze that allowed him to hover over the golden sands. After much toing and froing, he noticed one of the dunes smiling at him.

He saw that the dune was also young, newly formed by the wind that had just passed over. He fell in love with her golden hair right there and then. "Good morning," he said. "What's life like down there?"

"I have the company of the other dunes, of the sun and the wind, and of the caravans that occasionally pass through here. Sometimes it's really hot, but it's still bearable. What's life like up there?"

"We have the sun and wind too, but the good thing is that I can travel across the sky and see more things."

"For me," said the dune, "life is short. When the wind returns from the forests, I will disappear."

"And does that make you sad?"

"It makes me feel that I have no purpose in life."

"I feel the same. As soon as another wind comes along, I'll go south and be transformed into rain; but that is my destiny."

The dune hesitated for a moment, then said: "Did you know that here in the desert, we call the rain paradise?"

"I had no idea I could ever be that important," said the cloud proudly.

"I've heard other older dunes tell stories about the rain. They say that, after the rain, we are all covered with grass and flowers. But I'll never experience that, because in the desert it rains so rarely."

It was the cloud's turn to hesitate now. Then he smiled broadly and said: "If you like, I could rain on you now. I know I've only just got here, but I love you, and I'd like to stay here for ever."

"When I first saw you up in the sky, I fell in love with you too," said the dune. "But if you transform your lovely white hair into rain, you will die."

"Love never dies," said the cloud. "It is transformed, and besides, I want to show you what paradise is like."

And he began to caress the dune with little drops of rain, so that they could stay together for longer, until a rainbow appeared.

The following day, the little dune was covered in flowers. Other clouds that passed over, heading for Africa, thought that it must be part of the forest they were looking for and scattered more rain. Twenty years later, the dune had been transformed into an oasis that refreshed travellers with the shade of its trees.

And all because, one day, a cloud fell in love, and was not afraid to give his life for that love.

... By Paulo Coelho

I wanna be as brave as a cloud. But could someone, or some cloud, really fall in love at a mere first sight? Or is Coelho simply being idealistic and romantic like me?

This will be my final entry that will be accompanied by excerpts from Coelho's book Like the Flowing River. Expect a little bit of Magical Realism inspired by Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Of Love and Other Demons, William Shakespeare's The Tempest and Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate in entries to come.

My first attempt at the first 3 pages of The Tempest was a challenging and tiring one. I pity the ones who had to read and mark Shakespeare's essays when he was still in school.