Tag Archives: Children

Missing: William Yau Zhen Zhong

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william

All we need to do now is to keep our eyes open and pray for the safe return of little William to his parents (finger pointing and certainly charging the parents with sheer recklessness can come later once he is safe and returned without any harm).

Missing Kid: T. Sathiskumar

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He is still missing since last August 2012…

T. Sathiskumar went missing after following his grandfather E.P. Veloomurugan, 46, to a food court in Jalan Permatang Pauh here. He was travelling with his father, T. Tamil Vanan, 30, in his lorry until they stopped at the food court at 12.30pm. Tamil Vanan, from Ampang Jajar, Butterworth, was heading towards Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah, on his delivery rounds. At the food court, Sathiskumar disappeared in the crowd and could not be found.

State Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Mazlan Kesah said the boy weighed 15kg and was 70cm tall. He was last seen in a pair of green shorts and a T-shirt with a yellow Spiderman hat. Those with information on Sathiskumar’s whereabouts can call Inspector Mohamed Ehsan Abu Bakar at 012-2494002, or the nearest police station

Please keep an eye for him and parents, please keep close eyes on your kids too and don’t let them be another number in the missing children statistics.

Snippets – 07 June 2012

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(The Telegraph reports this as one of the rarest astronomical events occurs on Tuesday and Wednesday when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, a transit that won’t occur again until 2117. But in Malaysia, we seems to have other things to be interested with. Image source: http://haryanaabtak.com)

Million Youths Drag Race Accident

You probably have heard about this incident that happen last month during Najib’s Million Youths Gathering. 17 people were seriously injured and accusations have been flying around on who suppose to take the blame for the incident. But if you have read in between the lines, there seems to be a larger “accident” at work:-

He said he would suggest to the cabinet that a proper drag racing track as long as 800m, complete with spectator seats, be built. “I will speak to the cabinet as soon as possible. The suggestion had been brought up previously, but it was not approved. “I feel that it is timely for us to build a track with proper facilities and safety features so that fans of motorsports can enjoy the race and also to avoid such accidents in the future,” he said.

(Source)

And it was rightfully pointed out by a reader over at Funtasicko Design:-

Ini lah Malaysia. Setakat nak buat track untuk perlumbaan drag pun nak kena kelulusan kabinet. Dulu elok-elok dah ada trek Batu Tiga, sapa suruh robohkan? Sepatutunya, setakat bendalah ‘simple’ macam trek perlumbaan hanya perlu kerjasama kerajaan tempatan (dalam hal tanah dan alam sekitar) dan ‘sanction’ dari AAM untuk memastikan trek memenuhi piawai antarabangsa. Kenapa perlu sampai ke kabinet? Apa yang jemaah menteri tahu pasal sukan permotoran? Tukar tayar kereta pun tak reti agaknya,sibuk nak cakap pasal motorsport.

(Loosely translated) This is Malaysia. They need Cabinet approval for even trivial things like doing up a track for drag racing. We used to have the excellent Batu Tiga racing track – who asked it to be demolished? Actually simple things like this can be resolved with the help of local authorities (on issues of land and environment) and AAM’s sanction to ensure that the track meets international standards. Why you need to bring it all the way to Cabinet? What do the ministers know about motor racing? It is doubtful that they even know how to change tires on their car and here we have the same people taking about motorsport.

What is more distressing – a car flying off from a rudimentary unsanctioned track and seriously injuring 17 people or a Federal level minister who do not seems to know what he is talking about? Do we really have the right people with the right knowledge and skills for the job – more so at critical decision making level?

And we are seeing it again in action with the freeze of education loan for the Unisel students.

Reporters grilled Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, on the matter only to have the minister say ad nauseum that the freeze is a test for PKR to prove it can implement its free education proposal. Backing Muhyiddin was Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister and Selangor Umno deputy chief Noh Omar, who at the same event said students will not suffer as a result of the move as PTPTN will resume giving out loans once PKR admits it was wrong.

(Source)

I do not want to indulge much on the politicians’  level of intelligence but on the other hand, to have the Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Education Minister to say that the freeze is due to PKR’s stand is simply dumb. Just because they want to make a point, they gamble with students’ future – what’s next? Setting aside all those who had voted the Opposition from all benefits until these people vote for BN again (it is not like that they have not done this on smaller scale)?

The opposition have been calling for free education and the abolishment of PTPTN for some time now – one may need to study further on the merits of abolishment. It may be a good thing (young graduate with low starting pay not burdened with high repayment of education loan) or a bad one (poor students not having enough money to study) but even if they come in power and decides to abolish, it is evident that these cannot be done overnight. They can say a lot of thing now but if they become the Government, there is plenty of things to do before they can even talk about implementing it – alternative funding must be ready and other infrastructure is in place before this is done and BN knows this too.

You can have your own little dirty politics within and outside your political party especially with the elections around the corner but it should not affect your duties and responsibilities especially when it comes to education and students. The timing is not right and it does not achieve anything positive and puts unnecessary distress and pressure on the students. You have to be fair – you want to freeze, you freeze all or you counter the Opposition with the hard cold facts.

Anyway they have now decided to reversed this decision after the Selangor State Government had decided to liquidate assets to assist students who are unable to access the study loans – however the reason for the reversal seemed to be dumber than the earlier reason to freeze

(Still remember Nurin or Sharline? They were not the only children who went missing in this country. Who is to be blamed? Image source: http://linkenlim.blogspot.com)

Ah, Some Parents!

When will they ever learn? It is apparent that there are still some parents out there who take things for granted when it comes to children safety. Come on, just imagine – if adults are being abducted in day broad-light, what more of young defenceless children?

A housewife nearly lost a child in a carjacking incident in Bandar Baru Kangkar Pulai here on Monday.

Recounting the 11.30am incident, Khazlim Saat, 35, said she had left her three children, Nor Sabrina Damiah Mohd Hisham, six, Nor Sofea Hadirah, four, and Mohd Ryan Hazim, still a toddler, in her Perodua Myvi car with the engine still running in front of a grocery shop as she intended to spend just a few minutes to buy some household goods.

“As I was going into the shop, Damiah came to me and even before she could open her mouth I heard Hadirah screaming. “I rushed out of the shop and saw Hadirah was outside the car and a man getting into it and driving away with a door still ajar,” she said, adding that panicked, she asked passers-by to call the police.

(Source)

Leaving kids in the car whilst running off on a quick errand is nothing new for most parents. It is the same case for us and our son but until he had learned to lock and unlock the car from the inside, we never leave him alone in the car with the engine still running. And even now after he had mastered the locking & unlocking of the car door, we still do not leave him alone in the car (my wife will always sits with him – we do not want him to unlock the door to some strangers) except on a rare occasions – when we really have no other choice, we simply brings him along on the errand. On other occasions, we simply leave him at home (again, not alone) or at our neighbor’s house – it is thousand times safer than having him alone in the car.

The same goes when he wants to go to the playground – even he is playing with his group of friends and do not want us to be standing nearby, we always ensure that we are within a safe distance from him. And even so, we would give him a list of strict instructions and repeat them a couple of times before we even consider leaving him alone at the playground.

So imagine my horrors when some parents had left not one or two kids in the car with engine still running but three including a toddler. No doubt there will be times when some of us may not have a choice but to leave the kids in the car with engine still running but do we think twice of the risks before we do that? And this not necessarily is limited to kids and car – it can also mean sending kids alone sundry shop or letting kids playing by the roadside unattended. Where do we place our priority – our children’s safety or a mere inconvenience of doing things the harder way?

Khazlim Saat should have counted her lucky stars that the car-jacker did not drive off with her 3 kids and they did not end up couple of days stuffed in a gym bag.

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Getting Down on Games

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(The latest craze – the famed Angry Birds, now even comes in form of cakes. My son even got himself a stuff toy version of the Angry Birds last week. Image source: http://walyou.com)

Almost on daily basis, my wife had to charge her mobile phone battery despite hers is not a modern smart phone which uses a lot of battery power or she is not a heavy mobile phone user – she only uses to for calls and occasional SMSes.

The culprit of course, is none other than our son who often get too bored with his usual toys and had to content between him monopolizing the TV for his kiddies shows and we providing something new for his gaming needs. Before I got my Nokia N8, the most “sophisticated” phone other than the CSL’s Blueberry was my wife’s 2730 Nokia which can take in some good Java games. I managed to stuff as many new games it was possible without overwhelming the storage and “released” on the right moments when my son have already got bored with the older games and he had already reached the highest level there is.

When my N8 arrived, it was just too tempting for my son to explore all the gaming options there is and soon, he have gotten to be more expert than me. And for a young boy who often gets bored fast, one game seems to be holding back his interest for sometime now – Angry Birds and for Nokia platform, there have several releases todate – the basic Free version, Lite version, the Season version and the Rio version. He has “done” it all – most several times over as he wanted to win in best time and the most “stars”. And once he gets hold of my phone, he gets lost in a world of his own – he no longer need his TV for his entertainment shots but at the same, he does not able to hear us calling out his name. One needs to physically hold the mobile phone to grab his attention.

Of course, we are very particular as to when he can play games on our mobile phones. His homework must be done first and done properly and without mistakes. And there are times when he needs to do revisions and at that times, TV, games and other “non-education” related items are strictly forbidden. Only when he is free and we want him to sit at one place, in front of us and our mobile phone batteries fully charged, we will pass over phones (although getting them back from him can prove to be a challenge).

Frankly speaking, Angry Birds (and before that several other mobile games) is very, very addictive. It is very simple to play and you score more points if you read the structure dynamics well – you hit it at the right angle and you may get a domino effect. Whoever did this is simply brilliant. You can lose several hours, just tucking yourself away in a corner and not knowing what is happening on the outside. It is also useful when one have nothing to do whilst waiting for others to come in before a meeting can be started. Just click the sound off, put the mobile phone below the conference table and you will no longer be feeling bored. Something to kill time before the actual meeting starts.

Of course, mobile games can’t come close to computer games or video game consoles which run on more powerful processors and with better hardware specs and memory power. One of my favorites, Company of Heroes (the first one is still the best – the subsequent ones simply sucked) is still one of the games that blew me away with its fine storytelling, graphics and a chance to be Germans, winning World War 2 battles.

Until we get a more fun, attention grabbing mobile game, Angry Birds is here to stay, causing more strain on our batteries as we try to get better points from the last time.

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Snippets – 12 April 2011

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2 stories on young kids caught my attention early in the morning

Missing Out Schools


(Another case of Malaysian being left out from what the country can provide for the betterment of life in future due to a mess-up in the paperworks – full story here. Image source: TheStar)

2011 – some 44 years after gaining independence and we still have children without the proper identification papers.

The orphan and seven other pupils face a bleak future as they have been abruptly stopped from attending classes since Feb 24 for not having birth certificates. This despite the fact that their parents are all citizens

“I am only an average pupil and I need to attend school to be able to do well in the UPSR. I cannot afford tuition,” she said in between sobs outside the school.

Approached by The Star, headmistress A. Gracy said the action was due to a directive from the state Education Department that school heads who allowed such pupils in their schools would be fined RM1,000 for each pupil, which must be paid out of their own pockets.

(Source)

Who is to be blamed?

The parents who overlooked the registration of their kids? Or the Government agencies who did not take the trouble to ensure prompt registration of the children? Or simply a sad situation where lack of education and poverty had created a sense of ignorance and recklessness?

8 Malaysians who been denied access to education because they do not have proof of citizenship. We have heard of this before but the more important thing is what we going to do next. In this manner, the school should take charge with the registration of the students and get them back on the education path otherwise the vicious cycle will happen again with even more dire outcome. And whilst the issue of registration is being resolved, the school with help of volunteers should arrange for special classes to ensure that these students keep up with the rest of the classmates.

No Malaysians should be left out from the mainstream education just because there has been some problem with the paperwork – an issue that can be easily resolved with just little effort from all parties concerned.

Rape in Kindergarten

(Still remember this story – where an unidentified man armed with a hammer barged into a kindergarten here and bludgeoned three six-year-olds? What is more troubling is the threat within the kindergarten. Image source: TheStar)

Now this is very troubling, very very troubling:-

The grandparents of a four-year-old rape victim and a women’s group are furious that no action has been taken against the kindergarten in which the rape occurred.

They claimed that the man convicted of the crime still had access to children at the centre as he was the co-owner and out on bail pending an appeal to the High Court.

“There seems to be no procedure in which action can be initiated in cases like this. Nothing was done to the kindergarten and no investigations were made by the state Welfare Department,” said Women’s Centre for Change executive director Loh Cheng Kooi, adding that the man’s presence posed a danger to the safety of children.

(Source)

A convicted rapist, a fact made worse by the revelation that his victim is four years old child still have access to the kindergarten and the children under the care should have raised the alarm to the relevant authorities.

Failing that, it is going to be left with the affected parties to raise the alarm and hope for the best – the parents of the children still going to the kindergarten keep a closer watch and if necessary, keep their children far away from the said kindergarten