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Premier League defends workplace after Scudamore emails Posted: 18 May 2014 08:25 AM PDT May 18, 2014 The Premier League defended its working environment today, saying it remained committed to treating all staff fairly following the scandal over sexist emails sent by chief executive Richard Scudamore. Football Association board member Heather Rabbatts, who will chair an FA inclusion advisory board (IAB) meeting on Tuesday to examine the case, accused the Premier League of having a "closed culture of sexism" after it was revealed Scudamore sent sexist emails to friends. But the Premier League said in a statement: "We do not recognise this characterisation of the working environment at the Premier League, nor do we believe that it can be supported by the facts." An audit and remuneration committee, led by Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, will meet tomorrow to discuss the case. "The Premier League continues to be fully committed to treating all staff fairly and on merit, regardless of gender," the statement said. "The chief executive has already apologised for any offence caused and a proper review of all the evidence is now under way within the Premier League's established and rigorous procedures." The 54-year-old Scudamore, who according to media reports earns some 1.2 million pounds a year, took over as chief executive in 1999. He has helped make the Premier League the most lucrative in the world with global TV rights worth more than five billion pounds over three years. – Reuters, May 18, 2014

Malaysia trounce India in Group C first round of Thomas Cup Posted: 18 May 2014 08:00 AM PDT May 18, 2014 Malaysia trounced India 4-1 in Group C first round match of the Li-Ning BWF Thomas Cup at the Siri Fort Stadium New Delhi today. Malaysia's first match point was delivered by world number one men's single Datuk Lee Chong Wei, who easily tamed K.Srikanth 21-19, 21-12. "I have to try to play better," said Chong Wei, who took 35 mins to beat his opponent today. Asked on the court condition, he said there were issues with the wind (air-conditioner) but one just needed to get use to different types of court. "I have played here before. So, I am used to it." Similar momentum was displayed by Malaysia first double duo, Tan Boon Heong/Hoon Thien How and second men's single Chong Wei Feng. Tan/Hoon beat B.Sumeeth Reddy/Manu Attri 21-14,21-11, while Chong, who is playing for Thomas Cup for the first time brushed Kashyap Parupalli aside 21-13, 21-6. "I was surprised myself as all the previous meet with Kashyap, I won in double set. This is the first time I beat him in straight set," said Chong as he edged his head on head record with Kashyap to 4:0. Pairing for the first time, Malaysia's second men's double, Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong won against Akshay Dewalkar/Pranav Jerry Chopra 21-17, 14-21, 21-14. However, third single, Daren Liew lost to Gurusaidutt R. M. V. 21-18, 13-21, 19-21. Overall the team's performance was good except for the third single, Malaysia's Thomas Cup project leader, Rashid Sidek said. The team has to continuously be focused and be in high spirit to meet their opponent tomorrow, he said. On his expectation for the tournament, Chong Wei said Malaysia was better prepared this time for the Thomas Cup. Hence, he hoped that the team would perform well. Malaysia is one of the three teams who have laid its hand on the coveted Thomas Cup trophy. The country has won the crown five times, including a hat-trick of titles from 1949-1955. The team also boosts of eight runners-up finishes. However, Malaysians have not won the title since 1992, when Malaysia hosted the tournament, and have not been to the finals over a decade now. Tomorrow, Malaysia's men team will play against Germany while the women team, who are in Group Z will meet Denmark. – Bernama, May 18, 2014

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Hunger Games goes on without actor Seymour Hoffman, director says Posted: 18 May 2014 04:14 AM PDT May 18, 2014 (From left to right) Cast members Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence, Sam Claflin, Josh Hutcherson and Julianne Moore pose during a photocall for the film The Hunger Games : Mockingjay - Part 1 at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes yesterday. – Reuters pic, May 18, 2014The death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman by an accidental drug overdose in February has not sidelined production of the latest instalment of "Hunger Games," its director said. Director Francis Lawrence and the stars of the blockbuster franchise, including Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence (no relation), spoke to Reuters at the Cannes Film Festival. Seymour Hoffman's sudden death in New York occurred while the latest instalment in the blockbuster series, "Mockingjay Part 1" was still being shot. He played a central role in the film as Plutarch Heavensbee, the Head Gamemaker controlling the annual televised fight to the death between boys and girls in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem. Rather than recasting the role, director Francis Lawrence chose to work on script rewrites to get around the loss of his character. Seymour Hoffman – who won a Best Actor Oscar in 2005 for his role as Truman Capote in "Capote" – had shot the bulk of his part before his death, Lawrence said. "He was scheduled for 50 days or so and he had shot about 42 or 43 of those days," Lawrence said. "He had about 8 days left but the meat of his performance was already finished." "There were a couple of scenes that were pretty substantial which we ended up giving to other actors to take over and obviously although no-one is a replacement for Phil, the story still works." Big-budget movies that are not competing in the prestigious film festival, such as "Hunger Games", often come to Cannes with their stars to drum up publicity. The previous two "Hunger Games" films grossed more than US$400 million in worldwide box office receipts on their theatrical releases. The books by Suzanne Collins on which the films are based have sold more than 65 million copies in the United States alone. – Reuters, May 18, 2014

Virus-hit McCartney cancels two Japan concerts Posted: 18 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT May 18, 2014 Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney (pic) cancelled a scheduled concert in Tokyo for the second night in row today after contracting a virus, saying he was "sorry" for letting fans down. The 71-year-old English pop veteran had already cancelled a planned performance at the National Stadium yesterday, the day after coming down with an unspecified virus. He had planned to play a concert at the same stadium today and another tomorrow to make up for the cancelled Saturday show. "Unfortunately my condition has not improved overnight. I was really hoping that I'd be feeling better today," McCartney said in a message posted on the official Facebook site of his Japan tour, "Out There Japan Tour 2014." "I'm so disappointed and sorry to be letting my fans down." Both today and tomorrow's concerts were called off, but McCartney is expected to go ahead with the tour's two remaining concerts at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan hall on Wednesday and at the Nagai stadium in Osaka on Saturday, organisers said. "Doctors have ordered Paul complete rest and he has been doing all he can to get better," a spokesperson for the former Beatle said. "Paul has only ever had to reschedule a handful of shows in his entire career and is so upset about this situation, he hates to let people down." McCartney flew into Tokyo after a short rest at home in London following a strenuous South American tour. In an earlier tour of Japan in November last year, he was seen singing 39 songs non-stop without retreating backstage. – AFP, May 18, 2014

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Foreign doctors, nurses in Saudi Arabia could take MERS global Posted: 18 May 2014 06:43 AM PDT May 18, 2014 Particles of the MERS coronavirus that emerged in 2012 are seen in an undated colorized transmission electron micrograph from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). – Reuters pic, May 18, 2014The biggest risk that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) will become a global epidemic, ironically, may lie with globe-trotting healthcare workers. From Houston to Manila, doctors and nurses are recruited for lucrative postings in Saudi Arabia, where MERS was first identified in 2012. Because the kingdom has stepped up hiring of foreign healthcare professionals in the last few years, disease experts said, there is a good chance the MERS virus will hitch a ride on workers as they return home. "This is how MERS might spread around the world," said infectious disease expert Dr Amesh Adalja of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. It can take five to 14 days for someone infected with MERS to show symptoms, more than enough time for a contagious person to fly to the other side of the world without being detectable. Healthcare workers "are at extremely high risk of contracting MERS compared to the general public," Adalja said. The threat has attracted new attention with the confirmation of the first two MERS cases in the United States. Both are healthcare workers who fell ill shortly after leaving their work in Saudi hospitals and boarding planes bound west. About one-third of the MERS cases treated in hospitals in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah were healthcare workers, according to the World Health Organization. Despite the risk, few of the healthcare workers now in, or planning to go to, Saudi Arabia are having second thoughts about working there, according to nurses, doctors and recruiters interviewed by Reuters. Michelle Tatro, 28, leaves next week for the kingdom, where she will work as an open-heart-surgery nurse. Tatro, who typically does 13-week stints at hospitals around the United States, said her family had sent her articles about MERS, but she wasn't worried. "I was so glad to get this job," she told Reuters. "Travel is my number one passion." So far, international health authorities have not publicly expressed concern about the flow of expatriate medical workers to and from Saudi Arabia. "There is not much public health authorities or border agents can do," said infectious disease expert Dr Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota. "Sure, they can ask people, 'did you work in a healthcare facility in Saudi Arabia,' but if the answer is yes, then what?" Healthcare workers are best placed to understand the MERS risk, Osterholm said, and "there should be a heightened awareness among them of possible MERS symptoms." Neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to questions about whether they were considering monitoring healthcare workers returning to the US. Soaring demand In the last few years, the number of expatriates working in Saudi Arabia has soared, said Suleiman Arabie, managing director of Houston, Texas-based recruiting firm SA International, with thousands now working in the kingdom. About 15% of physicians working in the kingdom are American or European, and some 40 % of nurses are Filipino or Malaysian, according to estimates by recruiters and people who have worked in hospitals there. The majority of US-trained medical staff are on one- or two-year contracts, which results in significant churn as workers rotate in and out of Saudi medical facilities. The Saudi government is building hundreds of hospitals and offering private companies interest-free loans to help build new facilities. Its healthcare spending jumped to US$27 billion last year from US$8 billion in 2008. Building the hospitals is one challenge, staffing them with qualified personnel is another. Arabie's firm is trying to fill positions at two dozen medical facilities in Saudi Arabia for pulmonologists, a director of nursing, a chief of physiotherapy and scores more. Doctors in lucrative, in-demand specialties such as cardiology and oncology can make US$1 million for a two-year contract, recruiters said. Nurses' pay depends on their home country, with those from the US and Canada earning around US$60,000 a year while those from the Philippines get about US$12,000, recruiters said. That typically comes with free transportation home, housing, and 10 weeks of paid vacation each year. For Americans, any income under about US$100,000 earned abroad is tax-free, adding to the appeal of a Saudi posting. One Filipina nurse, who spoke anonymously so as not to hurt her job prospects, told Reuters that she was "willing to go to Saudi Arabia because I don't get enough pay here." In a private hospital in Manila, she made 800 pesos (about US$18) a day. "I know the risks abroad but I'd rather take it than stay here," she said. "I am not worried about MERS virus. I know how to take care of myself and I have the proper training." None of Arabie's potential candidates "have expressed any concern" about MERS. Only one of the hundreds of professionals placed by Toronto-based medical staffing firm Helen Ziegler & Associates Inc. decided to return to the United States because of MERS, it said, and one decided not to accept a job in Jeddah she had been hired for. Recruitment agencies in Manila have also continued to send nurses to the kingdom since the MERS outbreak, said Hans Leo Cacdac, the head of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. The government advises that returning workers be screened for MERS, Labour and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said this week. Expat healthcare workers now working in Saudi Arabia feel confident local authorities are taking the necessary steps to combat the spread of MERS in hospitals. "Just today they came and put up giant posters in our hospital on MERS," said Dr Taher Kagalwala, a pediatrician originally from Mumbai who works at Al Moweh General Hospital in a town about 120 miles from Tai'f city in western Saudi Arabia "I have not heard of or seen any healthcare workers looking to leave their jobs or return to their countries because of the MERS panic. If it was happening, there would have been gossip very soon." – Reuters, May 18, 2014

AstraZeneca arrays academic assets in Pfizer defence Posted: 18 May 2014 04:45 AM PDT May 18, 2014 Astrazeneca is currently the takeover target of American drugmaker Pfizer. – Reuters pic, May 18, 2014Rising up from the fields around the university city of Cambridge, the steel towers of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, are scientific pillars in the defence that drugs group AstraZeneca is mounting against a takeover approach by its American rival Pfizer. The lab's four towers – clearly visible from arriving trains – help keep vibrations and noise away from highly sensitive equipment. Scientists who work there have said it is "simply too dangerous" to let AstraZeneca be bought by the American group. AstraZeneca plans to move its own research and corporate headquarters to the plot next door to the lab, which has earned 10 Nobel prizes. The company is emphasising a strategic research alliance it has agreed with the laboratory's owner, the publicly funded Medical Research Council (MRC). AstraZeneca says it wants the relationship to be symbiotic. The group – subject of a US$100 billion-plus bid approach from Pfizer – hopes the collaboration can help accelerate the development of new, ground-breaking drugs and revitalise its business, placing it at the core of a growing cluster of expertise around Cambridge. The site is due to be completed in 2016. Other large drugmakers have built research outposts in Cambridge and US life science centres like Boston and San Francisco, but none have undertaken such a wholesale move of operations. While Pfizer says it will complete the planned research centre if it buys AstraZeneca, it has not said how many staff it will have in Cambridge or elsewhere. AstraZeneca's Cambridge ambitions go further than simply relocating its scientists and top management in a leading university town. Under the deal with the MRC, the drugmaker will give academics access to more than two million molecules in AstraZeneca's compound library, which they can develop as they will, giving AstraZeneca first refusal on any potential drugs. "This is what I've always asked for," said Hugh Pelham, director of the biology lab, which is known as MRC LMB. The arrangement will appeal to scientists' professional ambitions, by encouraging research for publication in scientific journals, "crossing the road between academia and industry" and even stimulating some to start their own companies, he told visiting journalists last week. Cycling to work When it comes to sparking great scientific ideas, much depends on human connections which have been years in the making, Pelham said. AstraZeneca's small existing biotech operation in Cambridge, known as MedImmune, has roots going back 25 years to the time when a scientist-led company, Cambridge Antibody Technology, was spun out from the big MRC biology lab. "There are people there that we know. People are married to people there," Pelham said. Being near to each other – cycling to work together – is a "very significant cultural feature of Cambridge". More than 1,600 firms have been created as a result of collaborations between academia and the private sector in Cambridge, and the university's 4.9 billion pounds (US$8.25 billion) collective endowment is Europe's largest. AstraZeneca's collaboration with MRC LMB will help Cambridge compete for pharmaceutical innovation, said Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca's Executive Vice President, Innovative Medicines & Early Development. The company's new headquarters, designed to have multiple entrances, will be "very porous and very permeable to the academic community" and look in onto a courtyard like one of the city's historic colleges, he added. Academic and corporate scientists will work side by side, with perhaps only the logos on their lab coats to distinguish them. Pangalos, who previously worked at Pfizer, avoided comparing the two companies' approach. But he said AstraZeneca was centred now on science-driven innovation, and a collaborative approach. "This takes years of relationship building and it's also quite fragile," Pangalos added. "If you destabilise that - turn it on its head – I think that will have a huge detrimental effect on the UK." – Reuters, May 18, 2014

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Sultan Mizan titah Terengganu sedia perancangan strategik daulatkan syariah Posted: 18 May 2014 03:13 AM PDT May 18, 2014 Sultan Terengganu, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin (gambar) menyarankan kerajaan negeri menyediakan satu perancangan strategik dan secara holistik dalam usaha mendaulatkan syariah dari semasa ke semasa.  "Beta menyeru semua umat Islam di negeri ini bersatu padu kerana hanya dengan perpaduan sahaja akan mampu mengekalkan kekuasaan Islam di Terengganu," titah baginda ketika merasmikan sambutan tiga abad pentadbiran Islam di Kuala Terengganu, hari ini. Baginda bertitah, institusi pentadbiran hal ehwal Islam sedang melalui proses penyusunan semula ke arah memperkasa pelaksanaan ajaran Islam dan maslahat ummah di negeri Terengganu. Keberangkatan tiba Sultan Mizan bersama Sultanah Terengganu, Sultanah Nur Zahirah disambut Menteri Besar, Datuk Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman dan isteri, Toh Puan Halina Zakaria; Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri, Datuk Mazlan Ngah; dan Pesuruhjaya Hal Ehwal Agama Terengganu, Datuk Mohd Rozali Saleh. Program selama lima hari itu adalah inisiatif Majlis Agama Islam dan Adat Melayu Terengganu (Maidam) dalam menyambut ulang tahun ke-300 pentadbiran Islam dengan kewujudan institusi kesultanan Terengganu yang bermula pada tahun 1708. "Beta berharap sambutan ini dapat memaparkan sejarah perkembangan syiar Islam di Terengganu kepada seluruh rakyat jelata dan orang luar Terengganu," titah baginda. – Bernama, 18 Mei, 2014.

MAS ‘abai’ keluarga anak kapal MH370 yang minta bantuan guaman Posted: 18 May 2014 03:02 AM PDT OLEH MUZLIZA MUSTAFA May 18, 2014 Latest Update: May 18, 2014 07:04 pm Jacquitta Gonzales, isteri kepada seorang anak kapal MH370 bercakap kepada media pada sidang akhbar di Subang Jaya, hari ini. – Gambar The Malaysian Insider oleh Shafiq Safiee, 18 Mei, 2014.Keluarga anak kapal pesawat MH370 yang hilang sejak 8 Mac lalu berkata Malaysia Airlines (MAS) "mengabaikan" mereka kerana mereka bertemu dengan firma guaman asing untuk mendapatkan bantuan guaman. Keluarga tujuh daripada 12 anak kapal terbabit berkata, syarikat penerbangan negara itu menghantar emel dua hari lalu meminta mereka mengarahkan peguam untuk berurusan dengan pasukan undang-undang syarikat untuk semua permintaan berkaitan dengan pesawat yang masih belum ditemui itu. Jacquita Gonzales, isteri kepada penyelia pesawat Patrick Francis Gomes, berkata emel terbaru dihantar lebih daripada seminggu selepas penjaga mereka diarahkan untuk berhenti menghubungi mereka. "Kami tidak tahu apa yang berlaku. Tetapi apabila saya tidak mendengar apa-apa daripada penjaga yang saya anggap sebagai kawan rapat selama dua hari, saya menghubunginya. "Pada masa itu beliau beritahu saya mereka diarahkan berhenti menghubungi keluarga anak kapal," kata Gonzales pada sidang media di Subang Jaya, Selangor, hari ini. Pesawat Boeing 777-200ER milik MAS yang membawa 227 penumpang dan 12 anak kapal itu dalam perjalanan ke Beijing ketika ia hilang daripada radar awam ketika melintasi Laut China Selatan. Radar tentera Malaysia mengesan pesawat itu berpatah balik kea rah barat hingga ia hilang daripada kawasan liputan di Laut Andaman. Hadir pada sidang media itu ialah keluarga anak kapal MH370, Tan Size Yang, Andrew Nari, Foong Wei Yueng, Tan Ser Kuin dan Patrick Francis Gomez. Wakil keluarga daripada dua lagi anak kapal tidak dapat hadir kerana bekerja. Gonzales berkata, penjaga berkenaan adalah seperti tali perhubungan keluarga dengan syarikat penerbangan itu. "Peranan mereka amat penting. Mereka memberi kami maklumat terkini mengenai misi mencari dan menyelamat pesawat itu. Mereka juga adalah sistem sokongan kami, tempat kami mengadu. Mereka yang kami cari untuk minta bantuan ketika susah dan senang. "Kini mereka diambil daripada kami. Ia rasa seperti satu bentuk hukuman," katanya. Katanya, perkara itu berlaku selepas syarikat penerbangan itu mendapat tahu keluarga tujuh anak kapal mendapatkan perkhidmatan penasihat guaman. "Kami tidak tahu bagaimana mereka tahu dan memperolehi dokumen berkenaan tetapi kami hanya mahu mendapatkan nasihat mengenai perkara yang kami tidak faham. "Saya orang biasa. Saya tidak faham bahasa undang-undang. Saya ada anak yang perlu dijaga. Jadi, orang yang terbaik untuk dijadikan rujukan adalah peguam. "Tetapi ini tidak bermakna mereka boleh ambil penjaga kami. Saya pasti penjaga tahu apa yang boleh diberitahu dan apa yang tidak. Kita tidak perlu cakap mengenai pampasan. Tetapi, belas kasihan dan sokongan emosi diambil ketika kami masih memerlukannya," kata Gonzales. Katanya, ahli keluarga tidak menerima maklumat selepas 8 Mei daripada penjaga. "Saya tidak pernah ada masalah dengan MAS sebelum ini. Selama ini mereka ada bersama kami. Kami tidak pernah cakap buruk mengenai MAS kerana kebajikan kami dijaga. Tetapi kini, rasanya mereka mengabaikan kami," katanya. Lee Khim Fatt, suami kepada pramugari Foong Wai Yueng, berkata MAS memungkiri janji. "Mereka kata kami keluarga. Tetapi lihat apa yang mereka lakukan. Mereka ambil pembantu dan sokongan daripada kami. Mereka menyukarkan keadaan," katanya. Lee berkata, ahli keluarga rasa MAS cuba untuk menyukarkan keadaan dengan mengarahkan semua permintaan dibuat menerusi peguam. "Sekarang perkara kecil seperti meminta tiket penerbangan pun perlu dibuat menerusi peguam dan ini termasuk butiran dan berita terkini usaha mencari dan menyelamat MH370," katanya. Mereka bagaimanapun lega apabila pemangku Menteri Pengangkutan, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein dalam satu temubual yang disiarkan media hari ini mengingatkan MAS tanggungjawab terhadap keluarga anak kapal. "Beliau menyampaikan beberapa kebimbangan kami. Sekurang-kurangnya ada seorang yang tidak melupakan kami. Kami ucap terima kasih," kata Lee. Kelvin Shim, suami pramugari Tan Ser Kui, berkata mereka belum mendengar maklumat berhubung pampasan selepas MAS mengumumkan mengenai pampasan duluan akan dibayar kepada waris pesawat MH370. "Keluarga tujuh anak kapal tidak tahu mengenai perkara itu. Kami diberitahu keluarga yang tidak melantik peguam menerima panggilan untuk menghadiri mesyuarat bagi berbincang mengenai pampasan. "Mesyuarat itu bagaimanapun kemudiannya dibatalkan tetapi kami tidak pernah menerima panggilan mengenai perkara itu," kata Shim dan menambah tujuh keluarga anak kapal itu mendapatkan nasihat guaman daripada firma Ribbeck Law Chartered yang berpangkalan di Chicago, Amerika Syarikat. Hishammuddin dalam temubual dengan media tempatan hari ini berkata, MAS perlu diingatkan yang mereka mesti memastikan bayaran pampasan dilakukan secepat mungkin dan usaha membantu ahli keluarga anak kapal patut diteruskan. "Saya percaya kita mesti memberi keyakinan dan sokongan kepada semua kakitangan MAS bukan sahaja kerana mereka adalah rakyat Malaysia, tetapi kerana mereka tidak bersalah. Ramai kakitangan MAS yang saya jumpa sejak beberapa minggu lalu berterima kasih kepada saya dan pasukan kerana bersama mereka," kata Hishammuddin. Selain itu, Hishammuddin pada Khamis berkata, pencarian udara dan permukaan laut dihentikan dan fokus kini ialah kepada operasi bawah laut selepas misi terdahulu gagal mengesan pesawat yang masih hilang itu. Katanya, pencarian kini meletakkan keutamaan kepada tiga perkara iaitu menganalisis semula semua data; pemetaan lanjutan dan analisis dasar laut dan penghantaran aset. – 18 Mei, 2014.

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Unplugging Education from the system Posted: 17 May 2014 04:27 PM PDT May 18, 2014 Alwyn teaches at a local university-college and blogs at wyngman.blogspot.com. For comments and questions, email alwynlau@gmail.com. Preparing the younger generation so they can contribute meaningfully to the country is one thing. Turning our universities into factories to feed the gods of Profit is another. You know how the Spartans taught their children that getting their heads chopped off "in service to Sparta" was the highest glory? We're worse. We teach our children that, even should the seas go dry and the mountains blow in the wind like leaves, we must keep aiming for that Warren Buffet-sized bank account. The social illusion encourages students to exalt the entrepreneur (no matter how much harm he's done) and to sideline the social worker (no matter how much good she does). If education sucks up to industry, then our children will never learn the art of bracketing. Bracketing? That's right. Putting two quote marks around our most revered words, e.g. "career", "work", "progress" and so on. We need to teach our children how to interrogate the story they're a part of. Jonathan Crary notes that because free-market capitalism cannot limit itself, the notion of preservation or conservation is a systemic impossibility. Isn't the very drive for higher GDP the No. 1 reason the planet is dying of cancer? The obvious answer towards environmental degradation is the ONE solution our high priests of businesses will not accept (and the same thing that got Jerry Maguire fired), that is, less output, less money. Industry is not going to take its foot off the gas pedal, thus the 21st century is the worst time for education to kow-tow to it. Universities must stop sacrificing their critical-creative faculties to the Righteous Ringgit. Recently, one of our local MacArthur Genius Award winners declared that Christians in Malaysia could outnumber Muslims by 2100. I'll try to out-claim him here: by 2100, if education doesn't stand its ground against the profit motive, Malaysia would have lost all its poets, historians and philosophers and the only artists we'll produce are Reshmonu wannabes. But what if the education system said "Enough is enough" and stopped being a slave to the financial system? What if parents stopped viewing "ability to earn" as the top factor in their kids' schooling? What if lessons, assessments, classroom activities and so on were motivated by the sheer love of learning instead of some projected future ability to boost one's bank account? A few consequences may follow: 1) Students would begin to decide for themselves what they really wish to be. They would learn to be suspicious each time a dude in a suit used the word "success" in proud serious tones. Again, this is only possible if Education tells Industry to back off a little, if the guardians of Education make a conscious decision that profit, stock value and financial security need to shut up (if only for a while). Instead of merely aspiring to become the "next" Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, our computing students would also be cognisant of how Microsoft and Apple have created misery for thousands of people (and if this sounds surprising, it only makes my case). Today, our kids know the price of a Nike cap but don't know the value of the dreams lost (in many Asian-Pacific sweatshops) to produce it. Our young adults believe it's "cool" to sit in Starbucks and pretend they're living in a GQ or Cosmo mag, but they have no idea of the arbitrariness and shallowness of cool-hunting itself. We are pleasurably disgusted at Miley Cyrus rubbing her pelvis against a giant penis, but are glib about how the 24/7 lure of the Web produces docile subjects who can't resist the abduction of their soul by social media. 2) Instead of "studying" to escape the hell of an inferiority complex occasioned by scoring fewer than the socially approved number of As, students would experience learning as indistinct from seizing life itself. Instead of seeing their Geography books like cursed manuals, they could plunge into it the way they dive into Harry Potter. Students may quit comparing the number of top marks obtained and begin appreciating quality in individual areas. Ali the tap dancer would be as highly valued as Arul the Maths wizard, Ah Kow the poet needn't malu because he didn't score high in Chemistry. It's an open secret that our country's (and if Ken Robinson is to be trusted, also the world's) exams largely test students on their ability to play the academic game, that is to become pseudo professors. Training whole generations of youth to regurgitate and memorise their way to a PhD? That's like populating a food court with nothing but sub-par chicken rice. Through an education weaned from the lure of business, students can smile at condescending remarks by people who believe that reading Jean-Paul Sartre or Jane Austen is pointless. They can explain to their critics that it is precisely such "point-lessness" that makes it fun, like driving a thousand kilometres to find the perfect laksa. Our young people may even come to suspect that what society calls "pointless" are just those activities that spit in the face of wealth-generation, and that to do only "purposeful" things in life is to become a human iPad. 3) Subjects like Philosophy, Anthropology, Art, Sociology and so on would be treated less like ancient diseases or white elephants. Again, Malaysian education is presently in trouble, not only because our system is too rigid and fails to excel, it's our definition of excellence itself. It's not merely our low-quality methods in clearing the path, it's our choice of path. This as evidenced in how and why we prioritise the subjects we want our kids to learn. English, Maths and Science? Important. Art, Morals and Physical Ed? Only for those who can't study.  And don't even start about Philosophy classes. Isn't that for boring old men who wear white robes and waste time shouting at each other or the sky? I recall our beloved UM originally had a Philosophy Department but that got cancelled out and shipped away to Singapore. So now Lion-land is a world-class place for studying ideas on Being, logic and time, but Boleh-land sponsors seminars on Hatred 102. But if the Alsatian of Education wags its tail of Enterprise (instead of the other way round), things could look different. English can be recognised as important less because it's the world's commercial language (so folk keen on getting rich, duh) but because it brings about a richer learning experience and, in inter-disciplinary pedagogical partnership with Bahasa, may even nurture stronger personalities, more confident mind-sets. Given the daily outcry over our leaders screwing up of the country, our injustices and the general impression that Malaysian lawmakers often can't tell right from wrong, it's strange that Moral Education subject is seen as, at best, a timetable stop gap. We also need our students to learn about Political Theory from more than just Barisan and Pakatan – that's like learning about food nutrition exclusively from McDonald's and KFC. Maybe the most radical thing we can do for Malaysian education is to quit worrying about "marketability". The second most radical thing to do is require all dissenters to meditate on Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony or join Greenpeace or, if all else fails, be handcuffed to Ridhuan Tee for a week. – May 18, 2014. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

Hanya binatang yang patut terancam dengan hak asasi manusia Posted: 17 May 2014 04:17 PM PDT May 18, 2014 Amin Iskandar adalah penerima anugerah zamalah Asian Public Intellectuals (API) bagi sesi 2009-2010. Kini merupakan Pengarang Berita bagi The Malaysian Insider. Beliau "berkicau" di www.twitter.com/aminiskandar. Apabila mendengar seseorang manusia mengatakan beliau membenci hak asasi manusia atau menganggapnya sebagai ancaman, saya seringkali tertanya, apakah mereka ini binatang? Kalau binatang membenci atau berasa terancam dengan hak asasi manusia, saya boleh faham kerana apa yang kita anggap hak kepada manusia mungkin boleh jadi sesuatu ancaman kepada warga binatang. Contohnya seperti hak kepada makanan yang menghalalkan manusia memakan daging, ini dengan jelas menyebabkan hak binatang terancam. Lebih parah lagi kalau agama digunakan untuk menentang hak asasi manusia kerana orang beragamalah yang seharusnya faham akan fitrah manusia. Untuk saya, hak asasi manusia itu seharusnya dihormati selagi ia tidak menganggu gugat kehidupan orang lain. Salah satu yang dipertahankan oleh hak asasi manusia adalah hak untuk beragama – menyebabkan umat Islam begitu selesa hidup dalam negara-negara yang menjunjung hak asasi manusia seperti United Kingdom (UK). Umat Islam di UK tidak kira mazhab dapat beragama tanpa diganggu gugat. Ada Sunni, Syiah, Wahabi dan Sufi. Masjid di mana-mana. Begitu juga surau, termasuk di kawasan yang terpencil. Mengapa ini berlaku walaupun UK itu majoriti rakyatnya "kafir"? Kerana penghormatan terhadap hak asasi manusia. Jika umat Islam dilayan begitu baik di negara-negara kafir seperti UK, mengapa di negara yang mempunyai majoriti Islam seperti Malaysia, layanan sama tidak diberikan kepada masyarakat bukan Islam? Apakah kita hanya mahu hak kita dihormati dan tidak mahu menghormati hak orang lain? Selasa lalu, Bernama melaporkan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak sebagai berkata Islam kini diancam oleh "humanrightism, liberalisme, sekularisme dan humanism". Kenyataan ini diungkapkan perdana menteri, tidak lama selepas lawatan Presiden Amerika Syarikat (AS) Barack Obama baru-baru ini yang menggelarnya sebagai seorang "reformis." Najib berkata demikian pada pembukaan Majlis Tilawah al-Quran peringkat kebangsaan di Kuantan di mana beliau juga mencipta frasa "humanrightism". Beliau berkata kefahaman hak asasi manusia melampau boleh disederhanakan melalui undang-undang, Perlembagaan Persekutuan dan nilai-nilai budaya Malaysia. Sehari selepas dikritik kerana mengatakan "humanrightism " merupakan ancaman kepada Islam di Malaysia, tiba-tiba Najib mengatakan Putrajaya komited kepada prinsip dan nilai-nilai hak asasi manusia. Dalam satu kenyataan melalui e-mel kepada Persatuan Penggalakan Hak Asasi Manusia Hak (Proham), Najib berkata "sebagai rakyat Malaysia, kami percaya kepada hak asasi manusia, dan menyokong falsafah, konsep dan norma-norma dalam Deklarasi Hak Asasi Manusia Sejagat". Apakah Najib terlalu letih untuk berfikir dan hanya membaca sahaja ucapan disediakan penulis ucapannya semasa merasmikan Majlis Tilawah Al-Quran? Dan apabila kurang letih dan boleh berfikir seperti biasa baru beliau sedar kenyataannya itu mengarut dan boleh menyebabkan bencana kepadanya maka beliau mengubah nada? Menghormati hak asasi manusia itu sepatutnya menjadi budaya Malaysia. Apatah lagi negara kita ini mempunyai pelbagai kaum, suku dan agama. Jika kita tidak mampu menghormati hak sesama manusia, bagaimana kita mahu menjaga alam yang mempunyai makhluk dan hidupan lain? Bukankah kita saling memerlukan? – 18 Mei, 2014. * Ini adalah pendapat peribadi penulis dan tidak semestinya mewakili pandangan The Malaysian Insider.

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