The Lecture Boys

ohai. i'm back.

it has been 2 weeks since i came back from papua new guinea. i am loving civilization. keep meaning to start writing but how do you condense 5 weeks of kampungness into 200 words. i have a 1.5k word report to hand in by the end of march. i guess blogspot is as good a place as any to begin.

so on the 5th of jan i fly off at around 11.55 pm for my adventure to the country that is papua and new guinea. flying to brisbane takes like 1093810923 hours and i stop over for a while then fly to port moresby which is around 3 hours then an hour to alotau. if i didn't hate flying before, i hate it now. maybe being in perth is a blessing in disguise after all - i.e. my flight home is half of what carrie has to go through. less chance of being blown up, crashed, drowned, eaten by sharks, kangaroos, cannibals.

so i thought it'd be more fun to go there knowing nothing about papua new guinea. other than stories about people who eat other people and get kuru i knew nothing. only reason i even had anti-malarial prophylaxis was because i thought i wanted to experience the fun of taking mefloquine. it does nothing other than burn your stomach for about half an hour. no vivid technicolor psychedelics happened, no sir. the stories people recount about how dangerous port moresby is are all true. the walk from international to domestic was scary as hell. the outside of the airport is packed with people, all of whom are obviously not flying anywhere and just eyeing you like you're a piece of meat. there are armed guards who check your tickets/passports before they let you into the terminals and there is even a counter for you to check in your firearms.

anyway i was headed to alotau (the safe part of PNG) so they say. it is an hour's flight out to milne bay (pronounced "milen"). i met a couple of expats who've been there for a while and they say that yes, it's dangerous but you could be robbed in australia as well. fuck off. that's like saying yes, you can get hit by a car running across a busy freeway blindfolded with your pants pulled down to your ankles but you could also get hit by a car in your garage so no, it's not AS SAFE AS ANYWHERE ELSE. there is some sort of perverse pride that the PNG-ers take in knowing their city was voted the worst city in the world and one of the top places to go if you want to get raped or killed. had i done any sort of research and known about all this, i'd rather have gone to afghanistan. reading the papers there is always fun - murder, rape, corruption, and sports.

ok nevermind about crime. i learnt the meaning of endemic after going to PNG. if they say malaria is endemic to PNG it doesn't mean yes, every other year you see a few cases of malaria. no. EVERY FUCKING PERSON HAS FUCKING MALARIA. yup. if you call in sick in PNG you don't say you have the flu. you have malaria. so only serious cases are ever hospitalised. serious being cerebral malaria. other than that, there's TB coming out of their ears, and a growing HIV/AIDS problem.

i'm bored. more to come when i feel like it. sick as a dog yesterday. might have malaria. if i do, just shoot me.

Here's a man reasoning that the bumiputra population deserve their special rights because they have oh-so-generously bestowed upon the non-malays the WONDERFUL GIFT OF CITIZENSHIP.

I hope he is not representing the general view of the malay population because it would be a slap to the face knowing that for all these years the only reason why there exists biased socio-economical policies that favour the malays are simply due to the fact that they "were there first".

I am surprised this clip has not caused public outrage.


--start analogy

Can you imagine: I rent a house that has 3 rooms. I sub-rent it out to 2 people who I do not know. They cause no problems, they pay their rent on time and after 5 months of living with them they have brought positive changes to the house. They took effort to re-paint the living room, to vacuum the carpets, to throw out the garbage, to clean the oven. They even re-furnished the house on their spare time so it becomes a beautiful place to live in.

I however implemented the rule that: 1) if they are sitting on the sofa at a particular spot, I get to ask them to move 2) if they are eating a deliciously cooked piece of steak, I get to stop them halfway and demand that I have it 3) if we all share to buy a new TV, I am allowed to demand that it be placed in my room 4) if they are in the middle of the toilet and I want to brush my teeth, I have every right to ask them to leave the toilet now.

And how dare they complain that these rules are unfair? I am the bumiputra of the house and I have given you citizenship so I deserve special rights. SERIOUSLY, how can you argue with my wonderful justification for imposing such amazingly and humanly inequal laws?


--end analogy

Why is this man the leader of a university's student body? People like them are the future leaders of the nation and what would it mean for everyone else if one day he has a role in the legislation of our country's laws?

"We granted them citizenship so we are allowed special rights" - is the dumbest thing I have heard in my life.

Racism is part of human life. No where in this world is racism not evident in homes, communities, and societies. It is the very core of human instinct to be wary of a foreign looking entity. My view is, we are biologically engineered to be racist. But a millenia and more of cultural awakening has taught us that we can be better than animals because we are capable of idea and emotion. And unless we favour the lives of cavemen, then we must keep racism regressed.

Malaysia is the only country that officiates racism and puts it in the framework of her policies. It is in our homes, our schools, our tertiary centres, our economical avenues - and they mask it all behind "developing our impoverished rural population".

I remember the history of Malaysia when it was taught in school: once there was a point in time that the Chinese and Indian immigrants were negotiating a deal with the Malay people to live in the country and the consensus was citizenship but they get special rights. As a child I remember thinking, wow what a good deal because trust me, history lessons were sugared so that they made the Malay leaders of old such generous and kind people to look out for the poor Chinese and Indian immigrants that REALLY WANTED to live in Malaysia SO BADLY.

(Maybe the problem was an acute large bulk of immigrants. If our ancestors entered the country slowly, then the bumiputras would not have panicked so. hah.)

TO be fair, everybody wants to look out for themselves. But it has been 4-5 generations since and these were generations that witnessed people like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, events like the abolishment of apartheid, the segregration of black v white in America and so on. If anything, we should have learned from the world's mistakes and build upon them to be better people.

But the government wants to remain backward - for selfish purposes that need not be explained by me to you. And for that we will destroy ourselves one day unless we make a few changes around here.

The first one should be to do something about that man in the video.

Raymond and Alex, you guys are on your way to world domination!

Happy new year, everyone. May this year be the best year so far!

That was uncalled for.. sniff sniff

PVC --> VT --> Flutter --> Fibrillation --> Defibrillation ROFLMAO!!

Due to the recent inactivities of this blog, we have invited a new member of the lecture-loving community to join us and hopefully inject some spice into this otherwise bland tasting place.

People know him as a playa, that's not entirely true however because a playa plays everywhere. Our friend here has a selective demographic to dabble in: Chinese girls aged 19-25.

Some men are cheap but this one here takes the cake for his toilet bowl water drinking habits which is now eternally an IMU urban legend. Perhaps the story is best told from his perspective.

Introducing. Spicysam.

We grow old, we bald, we get boring, we lose our libido(weijin), we develop arthritis in our knees, we get fat, we get wrinkly, we become shadows of our former youth.

Why do we grow old?

for me to clear my "documents" folder of all the nonsense screenshots and pictures i have accumulated for the past few months. most of them i find really funny at that time and tell myself that i want to remember the humour. others are just plain wrong and i keep them, wondering if i should publisize them cause i might get someone/something/lots of people in trouble.

anyway.

enjoy.

i think suann needs professional help. or a friend.

what's freaky is that this isn't the first time this has happened. there was a yellow beach towel once...

in relation to the above,

i know there's a way to highlight the text just like certain students and their lecturenotes (which, in a short segway, i always wonder what the point is of highlighting literally the entire text - might as well dip the thing in ink. honestly. does having your whole book neon green make it easier to read? does it shock your brain into remembering facts or something? what? what? i don't get it. besides, the resale value of a book diminishes if it's been written on...) but i don't know it. the fact is, half of my msn contacts were refering to the big day in may. not my graduation, the even bigger day - man utd and champions league glory!

tsk tsk sarah. who woulda thunk it?

and we welcome the latest to the ever-growing, ever-burgeoning list of m103 grads.


hello Dr Yeo.

Look out world.


grats on being LB #1 to become Dr LB Yeo. A re-shuffling of LB order is in order.
I suppose I could say please wake up on time for rounds, please don't have to pangsai before operating, please don't skive, please don't be late, please stop procrastinating, please don't dota till 5am anymore but I won't. Cause I'm trying to be nice and everyone deserves the benefit of doubt when starting a new phase in life. Plus I sound like an uncle when I say those things.

Which I am, of course. Biologically. But the point remains.

Go forth, and medicate!

water.

When it stays stagnant, it begins to STINK.

we also genuinely support the growing international awareness of global warming, eradication of poverty, and racial harmony.

here's a cute little MtV made by a group of Malaysian artistes, singing for the presence of unity in our beloved country.

i just realised that there hasn't been a post congratulating dr wong wei jin finishing his studies ahead of every other lecture boy. so props to wong wei jin, md.

so just as a tribute to our dear dr wong, i've compiled a montage of screenies. well not a montage, more like 2 screenshots. enjoy.



sorry carrie.




sorry to all the women out there.

i've forgotten how to put borders around the pics so bear with me.

Somebody please call me Mr. Second Officer Tan!

Which means...I AM FINALLY AN OFFICIAL CO-PILOT FOR MAS BOEING 737-400!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"timo: the thing with cm indiscriminately posting this everywhere is that the only photo of him in the same garb is held by lena."