Demolition gone wrong!

Jaya Supermarket in Petaling Jaya has been around since the 70s. When I was a kid, I started going to the original one(I could not find any photos of the original building). Then in the late 1980s, adjusting to urbanization/ modernization, the supermarket went through a drastic face lift.

The skeleton of the old building remained but was cosmetically remodelled in blue. You could see it from miles away. The building was also extended out front replacing the open-air car park. The new car park was to be underground and also multi-storied on it's side. The supermarket has been closed almost 2 years ago.

3 weeks ago when I started training, I was chatting with the IT administrator of the training centre. He said that the building is to be demolished to make way for a new building. He said they will demolish the historical building but did not say when.

It was last Thursday that I left the training centre and went to fill up petrol at Jalan 222 and then to the HSBC bank and Maybank in PJ New Town. I casually went there and did my banking without feeling anything amidst.

After that, I headed back to my house. I used the Asia Jaya road which would lead to the Jaya Supermarket. I noticed that an unussual jam had built-up and the area looked chaotic with cars. Suddenly I felt something was not right but was not sure what it was.

So I reached the front of Jaya Supermarket and was about to turn into one of the lanes when a Rela Member stopped me and diverted me to go straight rather than turn in. I had noticed dump trucks linning the streets. I had thought they were re-surfacing the road and was thinking how good of the state government to improve public services. Then as I passed the supermarket there was the police, fire-brigade, ambulance and emergency assistance teams. I figured it could have been a riot or something, you know lah being in the big city, such thing can possibly happen.

I was curious. Can say Kay Po lah! Haha! So I parked the car down the road and walked up to the busy area where I saw a crowd. I actually wanted to go the Digital Mall nearby to get a new handphone casing. However, this gathering looked unussual so I went to the crowd first.

I asked a pak cik on his motorcycle what happened. He told me that the rear end of the building collapsed during demolition and that 20 people were buried alive. I was shocked and went closer to the scene.

Now how can a demolition go wrong? What were the construction workers doing in the building during demolition? How bad the communication of the demolition was between the workers and the team in-charge of the demolition? All these questions ran through my mind.

I feel that the team in-charge of the demolition to be responsible for this dissaster. They did not take the necessary precautions. The residents in front of the demolition site were still inhabiting the row of houses. Only today Sunday that the residents have been relocated to a nearby hotel until the demolition is over or when the local city council deems the area safe again.

It is very disappointing that in this current times, such things still can happen because of poor planning and miscalculation. The people in-charge did not consider the safety of the nearby residents as the supermarket is surrounded by houses and apartments. Only after this accident that the residents are being prioritized and placed in safe areas. Sadly they did not think of this earlier.

How on earth could they put so many cranes on the roof of the supermarket without considering the accumulated weight in tonnes put on the building which was the reason for it to collapse? I find this stupid planning and there was no application of common sense.

I think base on the newspapers, 7 workers actually perished. I think only 1 survived. 2 of them could not be identified because of how badly disfigured their faces were.

I do feel sorry for them as they are foreign workers and come from far to earn money to send back home. Just think of their families and how they will react to this news.

I have seen how organized demolition is done in the USA and Europe. The building collapses so gracefully and how detailed the planning was to ensure the safety of everyone from the workers to the residence nearby.

The rules and regulations of demolition should be tightened. The local city council should also conduct inspections to ensure that the rules are complied by the demolition team/ developer. It would be much pro-active compared to chilling at the local 'mamak' stalls in droves. The safety and welfare of the public should be their number one concern and I am sure it is stated somewhere in the constituition of the council. This could be a sign why the opposition may take over the country for better change that the public wants.

It is embaracing for us to brag about the tallest building or the longest roti to the world when the simple things are neglected.

Free Aung San Suu Kyi!

Aung San Suu Kyi is the face of democracy, fighting hard for the people of Myanmar. She is now 61 years old but her determination and drive is still the same as the early 1990s. She is greatly influenced by the late Mahatma Gandhi for his philosophy for non-violence and from Buddhist teachings.

Somehow, I really admire people like this who sacrifice their freedom, time, health and effort (in short their LIVES) for the greater goal of others.

The people of Myanmar were enlighted by democracy assuming from seeing how it's neighbouring countries were progressing well under this system. It was her drive to form the National League Democratic Union in 1988 and she felt that she could make a difference for Myanmar and it's people with democratization. To be honest with you, Myanmar is still way behind compared to other countries in Asia and can do with a person like Suu Ki to propel it to greater heights.

In 1990, she and her party won the national elections. Unfortunately, the party's victory was not recognized by the Myanmar Military @ Military Junta. The funny part is that the Junta were the ones who organized the elections. Such dumb assess!

In addition to not victoriously leading the new-Myanmar, she was placed under house arrest for the past 19 years since then. The only way for her to be released would be if she leaves her homeland, Myanmar.

During this time, she has painfully gone through the death of her husband in 1999. Throughout this time, they have only met 5 times since she was detained under house arrest. She has 2 kids whom are in their 30s and residing in the UK.

The Junta are probably having a smashing good time with wealth, booze and women, that they felt inferior for someone like Suu Ki, would be a party pooper by putting an end to their endless celebrations.

She has been recognized globally for her good intentions and efforts in bringing peace to Myanmar. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Also, she won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought . In 1992 she was awarded the Jawarhalal Nehru peace prize by the Indian government.

Like many other famous but humble people who strive to make a difference, she too has her own quotes. One famous quote from Suu Ki :

"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it".

Now I am sure you can just go to Google and search her. However, I wanted to provide a summary of her goals, achievements, her pain and her sacrifice for the good of the people of Myanmar from my perspective. The news about her from CNN caught my attention and made me draw interest to learn more about her quest for Myanmar's democracy.

The international leaders are clearly aware of this situation and have made many appeals to the Junta but to no positive effect. Perhaps now is a good time to jump in guys to take advantage of this delicate situation.

The situation is now at it's climax! She was promised to be released end of May 2009 by the Junta. Unfortunately, an American "clown" is in the picture. Nothing better to do one fine night, he claims he swam accross the river, where her house overlooks and got tired. So he seeked shelter and food from her house. Of all the houses and places to do a pit-stop, it has to be her house.

He is now being investigated for trespassing and interfering with Suu Ki's house arrest. Suu Ki is also now being trialed by the Junta for her offence in violating the house arrest by accepting and being in contact with the American. The American is nothing but bad news for her! If Suu Ki is found to be guilty, she will be jailed from 3 to 5 years(like has if the 19 years was nothing!).

I suspect, the Junta is using this as a reason to extend her arrest and put her out of politics for longer period. However, this would exceed the maximum punishment for person being placed under house arrest. Otherwise, she will be placed in prison just like the other pro-democracy activist who dreamt of building a new- Myanmar.

Please, let us join forces as global citizens and to rally for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi!

Teacher's Day!

Love them or hate them, they played a significant role in our accademic years from kindergarten to university.

I was very impressed with some of the teachers I came accross. They were so devoted in their subjects and never showed any sign of boredom to what they taught. They deffinitely had interest and looked like hardcore geeks of their subject. They put in so much effort towards teaching and learning new things to be shared with their students. For example, a history teacher will be so into history including emphasizing on how important it is to document history and the whole process of documenting it. Sounds very deep and BORING but they felt it was an important component of the subject.

Puan Siva was my standard 1 teacher whom I dreaded. She was so strict and she used to punish me. Why? I never did my homework and found that education was not important! Never felt that READING was so important but felt the television was a better road to happiness! Yes, I was a very slow learner and took a long time before I could read. I was so scared of her and psychologically I was so worried of going to school.

Then, I changed. I did all my homework and learnt how to read. My parents made time to teach me at home and bring me up to pace. I appreciated their effort and doing homework actually gave me satisfaction in the end. It was that satisfaction of knowing how I can equip myself with knowledge and using it wisely and making full use of my intellectual ability. School became better for me. Thankfully I did very well in school and quite satisfactory in university! Haha!

I still remember the time when I got Pelajar Cemerlang in standard 6 back in primary school. Pn Siva was still teaching there at that time. She came up to me to confirm if the news was true that I got the award and I confirmed it. I noticed she was feeling proud that I got the prize and all her efforts and scolding had paid-off. I could only smile. I look back now and I should have said, "Thank you".

There were some who were just too smart in their field but could not teach. They failed to communicate well with their students and were unsuccesful in relaying their lectures accross to them. Student-teacher engagement is just as important as salesman- customer engagement. If you don't connect, no deal!

There were teachers who used physical punishment on students; slapping, canning, pulling the student's ear. Such punishment does not really educate and inform the student of the error made effectively. It just a form of cosequence to the mistake done by the student. A better solution would be to have a 1 on 1 with that student and talk about it. Understand why did it happen, the source of the problem and how to tackle the students problem in more pro-active way.

Some teachers in secondary schools are idiots! They fail to realize that their student are in a phase of maturing and are experiencing hormonal imabalances that is not the fault of the student but part of the human biological cycle. These are honestly stupid teachers and reflects their level of accademic achievement(not only certification related but level of understanding as a human).

Can teachers be regarded as only human and their acts should be accepted generally? NO. When one stands in front of the class, the focus of authority and attention is on that one person. That would be an ideal scenario where students look up to the teacher as a mentor, an educator or a provider of supreme knowledge. However, the treatment from the teacher is bias and unfair. They judge a certain group of students and pick the best and discard the rest. All students should be treated equally and respectfully in the classroom environment. In Malaysia or from my experience, that drive and determination from a teacher to a weak student has not been reflected unlike those happy ending stories in the movies where the teacher goes all out to see the weak student succeed.

The nature of accademic success should never be judged by the intelligence of the student but by how much effort the student had put in. The reason being psychologically if a student fails, the student sees him or herself as being intelectually inferior. If students make mistakes, educate them wisely and identify what was the root cause and how to circumvent it. Always remember to be positive to students as ones mental and psychological belief plays an important role in seeing how knowledge is absorbed and put to good use. It is always harder to work with negative people rather than positive people because negative people create a barrier on how far they want to go.

Then there were those and this population is growing rapidly of teachers who are just stupid. They do not know head or tail of their fields. There is no drive and determination within them. This is evident among the new graduates from the Maktab Perguruans. Many of them graduate but are of no substance or display any dynamism. They are just out there for the sake of getting a job, the assumption it is an easy job and they are lazy to do anything else. The government is pumping in money to them and introducing so many perks but they do not do their part in developing their teaching career. The term no pain, no gain is beyond their comprehension or to some unheard of.

Where are those teachers who had that love and devotion for classical literature from the early Western era as early as the Greeks? There are a few or none of these new teachers from the Maktab Perguruan who have that appreciation not only towards literature from the Western world but also from our very own local Malaysian literature. The awesome teachers of the 20th century who had such appreciation and interest in their respective fields are dwindling. Perhaps, if robots become educators someday, they could be programmed to express deep liking and understanding for literature or for whatever field.

Labour Day... a labour of love?

The word labour sounds so negative. What comes to my mind with that word is labourer; someone who is involved in cleaning the sewers and involved in heavy lifting of rocks and sweeping a highly vegetated garden. Labour also reminds me of the difficult task a mother has to undertake to give birth to a child. Just the sound of those examples above makes you tired and uninterested.

Let us be honest with each other and ask ourselves what on earth are we working for? It is not a difficult question and without any hesitance I am sure your answer will be MONEY. Let's face it, what can we get for free these days. Irrespective of physical belongings that we fall for, services also today is a money making industry. That is the reason why there are so many businesses that provide maintainence services and consulting services. Even offering your ideas is a service that is billed to a customer.

Some of us are fortunate enough to get our hands on our dream jobs. With this passion for the job, it drives us towards introducing new standards in the respective industry and achieving personal job satisfaction. Confusious did say, "If you choose the right path in your life, you never have to work a single day". This is something I believe in but if it is truely some thing that I have put into action or personally experienced is a question I ask myself often.

Some of us work for the sake of money and to survive in this highly inflated world. The job we have helps us to pay bills and keeps us contented with possessing the stuff we had always dreamed of having. We may really hate our jobs but we acknowledge the fact and realize that no work means no money.

As for me, I couldn't say my job is the greatest job or is the most fun job. But, I try my best to make it fun! Just having that enthusiasm and interest in something although boring really can make a difference. Being in the IT line, what is interesting is to see how the features of a software can be best developed to better serve the needs of the customer. Yes, to any lay person it sounds so geeky! Haha! It is all about providing additional features and services for the customer that creates the edge amongst our competitors in highly growing industry. There is so many things to read about and to learn on how we can turn those brilliant ideas into a reality and to break the barrier of the unimaginable. So, I have now learnt to love my job to a certain degree.

My objective here is to motivate those of you who feel your job really sux. Firstly, in this current economic turmoil, do realize and be happy that you actually have a job. Trust me there are many without a job and the boredom of sitting at home is killing them to the bone! Secondly, realize that the ultimate goal in life is happiness @ fun who won't deny that. So if you think work or life for that matter is boring, introduce a little fun to it! A change of attitude can really make a difference not only to yourself on the job but your whole working environment. A successful company is not one that has achieved outstanding results but has employees that are happy and has that eagerness to come to work each day to be a contributor towards the growth of the company and meeting the company's mission!

I just love thinking of those ideas as it really motivates me. You don't have to ask the boss to paint the whole office striking colours to add the fun but it could be the simple fun of learning something new and sharing it with your co-workers. It kind of gives you that satistfaction of sharing and feeling like a key contributor towards the growth of your team. Try to have that thought that you are an important figure no matter whatever position you hold and that your company just can't live without you! Haha!

Happy Labour Day everyone! :D