I've always wondered why is it so hard to find good help these days. I've been interviewing many freshies from our local universities for the past few months but none of them could ever manage to keep me interested in the prospect of hiring them for more than 5 mins. Well ok...maybe I exaggerate. 10 mins tops (5 mins for me to pose my question + 5 mins for them to think of an answer).

 When they start to speak, I'd know immediately. Their biggest problem is language. They can't speak English! Be it Malaysian English or the Queen's English. I don't think I can work with someone that replies in Bahasa Malaysia whenever I start the sentence off in English. Don't get me wrong. This has nothing to do with me thinking English is a better language compared to Bahasa Malaysia or that I do not understand BM or any of that sort.

The reason is simple. In the IT industry, most of the cutting edge or latest technologies are documented and discussed in technical forums in English. If you don't have at least a decent command of the English language, how the hell would you be able to read/learn/implement ANY of the latest IT shits thats being used by our IT bethren around the world? 

Ok fine, if my company is satisfied with creating web sites using nothing but first generation HTML (which im sure is being taught in our local unis) then they can stay. But hey, this is such a fast moving industry, theres no time for spoon feeding!

Anyway I think I've digressed a little too much. The reason I wanted to write this post was because I've received an interesting e-mail again. Yes, yes another fwded one. This time as I was going through the mail, it suddenly dawned upon me why for all these months I couldn't find good help. I thought maybe it is because instead of actually trying to equip their (our) students with concrete and useful knowledge, our universities are indoctrinating into our younger generation racially weighted philosophies (usually 1 sided) that borders what I think is another form of Fascism.

Here is the contents of the email.

"This is a letter from University Malaya's head of Graduates to all the students.

Here it is below! For those not bothered in stressing your brains too much in understanding the written malay, I'll do the translation:

Therefore, I as the Head of Graduates of University of Malaya would like to advice all our fellow graduates of University of Malayato combine forces and prepare ourselves together with all the necessary knowledge and preparation before we continue our fight in the actual battle field. This advice implies mainly to our Malay Graduates. We must treasure the sacrifices made by our ancestors which tried so hard to ensure that Tanah Melayu (Malay Land) is free from the intrusion of alien races. We must not fall into the category of those who forgets their roots until they will be taken over by other races. Graduates must prove themselves that we are capable and the best choice to take over the throne of governing the country in the future. This implies with the theme of MPMUM Progressive, Dynamic, Professional. There is nothing more important that can compared to our always-sensitive and improving Graduates. I also would like to advice all Malay Graduates to prepare ourselves in facing all sorts of unpredicted challenges that may occur in near future, relating to the rise of our fellow citizens, in particular to the non-Malay races. Don't let ourselves slack and allow our 'enemies under the blankets to attack us' (direct translation from the Malay idiom). Don't allow our Malaysia to fall into the hands of those who are irrelevant. "

 Well as you can see, the President of University Malaya's Student Representative Council felt that it was his God-given duty to warn his fellow Malay students of the on-going "alien" (read non-Malay) onslaught. Ok maybe he's just a young, hot blooded individual that is full of patriotic passion that he feels that it is imperative for him to wake his fellow Malay students up. But reading through his statement, I don't see a single helpful tip or suggestion coming from him on how this battle could be waged.

If he were to say, "learn more english" or "stop expecting to be spoon fed" or something like that, his letter wouldn't be AS bad (being a racist is bad enough). He just kept on ranting about claiming what is 'rightfully' theirs etc etc. The best part is, apparently he is an Indonesian emigrant! Can you believe it? Of all people, he is calling non-Malays aliens.

To be fair to him, he has already denied writing the letter in the first place and has since sworn an oath on that (read more). Some Assoc Prof Azarae Idris has said that since Afandy has sworn an oath they consider the case closed. Well well, my dearest professor, if only it were that simple. Then I guess people like Raja Petra could have just sworn an oath saying that his writings are not seditious or that he didn't write those articles, he would have been spared those few days in jail.

 So you must be thinking, what has this got to do with finding good help? Well simple, if we stopped dividing our country along racial lines and stop all this special privileges nonsense and start basing all forms of accreditation on merit, only then can we start focusing on improving ourselves and start working hard for once. And then our universities would be churning out young talented minds and I guess only then I'd be able to find decent help from our local grads.

The news about the uncontactable tribe in Peru made headlines in CNN.com today.

Somehow it made me happy that there are still some mystery left in this world! Just when we thought that every inch of this planet is almost explored and that we had some kind of knowledge about everything that we have access to, we are spun into a web of surprise with this new sighting.

These pictures were taken from a small airplane. It shows tribesmen outside thatched communal huts, looking upwards, pointing bows toward the air as if wanting to take down the 'flying machine'. How would that have made you feel if you have never seen an airplane before!? Threatened obviously!

 Material and tailoring equipment scarce, I guess they make fashion statements by painting their bodies. You can never go wrong with black.

Look at that red dude. Wow! You definitely don't wanna be left out there. These pics are evidence that such tribes do exist in the rich Amazonian jungle and there should be efforts made to make sure that they are left alone!

 Oh! Speaking of bowsmen and hunters, I will tell you more in my next entry on what I'm into lately...

At the recent Discovery Tour, we were given a free 'plant-a-tree' kit; a green effort that coincided with the Discovery Carnival organized by Sime Darby for Denai Alam. Just in case you don't know where Denai Alam is (or what it is), it's a new township next to Bukit Jelutong along the Guthrie Corridor. If you want to know more about this spacious township and its houses, click here.

I'm not a property reseller or salesperson, but I want to share with you how intrigued and curious I am about this kit. It comes with soil and seeds of a tree. All you need to do is to add water and do so every 2 to 3 days until the seed sprouts into a plant. Once it is too huge for the container, you are encouraged to replant the plant at a suitable and spacious location for it to grow healthily into the amazing rain tree (Samanea Saman).

A mature rain tree can reach up to a height of 25m AND a width of 40m. It is famous for it's canopy effect since the width span can shade 100s of tan-fearing people. Most importantly, it would be able to absorb alot more carbon dioxide (I forgot how much) and produce XXXX amount of oxygen per tree. Multiply that with a dozen more trees and you can call yourself a lifesaver! (That is if the tree doesn't get struck by lightning and falls onto the 100s of tan-fearing people).

So try to imagine that I have now in my hands a container of seeds that could potentially grow into a majestic giant! Wonderful isn't it? And if you are one of those lazy buggas that always TALK about giving back to mother nature, you could start off with this li'l green project on your own.

Remember this: Even the slightest and the smallest gestures can make a huge difference and a great impact.