Between Medicines and Supplements

This is a case about a client who delayed treatment, her sickness is getting worse and now waiting at the dying bed. Many people who believes in the Direct Sales business sometime stand a risk of the similar event. This girl was an active 'A'Direct sales dealer. When initially she felt a lump in her breast, she already suspected cancer. But she had no fear because she strongly believed that the 'A' product got all kinds of supplements which is better than western medicine because western medicine got lots of side effects.So what she did was to prescribe her own medicine, mixing all kind of vitamin pills and etc taking everyday instead of seeing a doctor. 'Don't Listen To Doctors 'the tittle of the book is some sort like that I came across in the 'A' business campaign which she proudly showed to me when she is still well. Here I don't mean to condamn about the Direct Sales business but the belief system of the people who does the direct sales business.
Firstly, these DS business employed professional motivators who can talk so well that the members would believe in the myth of the products. Most DS who has food supplement claim that their product could 'prevent' or even 'cure' the deadly disease CANCER.The story line is almost similar: Somebody already verdicts NO CURE by the doctor, after taking the products, got cured. So many ignorant people who believe in the story and join membership and pass on the myth to other people. Sometime the unlucky one who strikes in the business may strikes the deadly disease such as CANCER. This would challenge their belief system and is a time to PROVE what they believe is true. The faith in the products might go stronger because their up line friends would come to encourage them to believe in the products. So the treatment would be delayed.
Many people still cannot differentiate between Medicine and supplement. What doctors usually do during seeing a patient is giving treatment, and one of the treatment is giving medicine. Medicine is a kind of drug which contain active ingredients which can kill certain germs, bacteria or virus.Some medicine treat the symptoms such as pain killer etc. Doctors did more than giving medicine as in some cases need to do operations, transplant, chemotherapy etc. In the process of treatment doctors need to undergo investigations and observations in order to be sure of the right treatment for the disease. Though doctors also give vitamins and other supplements in between the treatments but that is only to support the treatments, and doctors know the amount to give when to give, the body mass against the dosage. Doctors had been through in the university for 5 years at least, how can he know less than an aunty who not even pass form 5, in the cases of treatment for diseases? Should you believe in the DS propaganda who is not responsible if anything goes wrong with you for taking their products?
The supplements are vital vitamins, minerals or protein which can also be found in the food we take everyday, Too much of it is a waste because the body only keep what is needed . Over dosages in the case of vitamin A can be toxic.DS company are very fond of making foul claims . They may rely on one or two cases that not really true. As in the case of my friend who suffered gout for a long time. He had been taking the medicine from the hospital routinely until he met this DS personal who claimed his product can cure his sickness. True enough after he took the product, the pain subsided. I told him the DS product might contain hidden active ingredients such steroids which also can relieve any kind of pain but overdose could be harmful. True enough after sometimes, the report about the steroid contain reveal in the newspaper. The product was forbidden.
Medicine shouldn't be taken without doctors prescription! Cause one man medicine could be another man's poison. Most products that can relief pain immediately are sure enough to contain steroid. Steroid are cheap thing but can do wonders. Not all DS company are genuine. They may not claim what is the active ingredient in the product. What they are interested in is to draw your money out from your pocket. The price you pay for the DS product is not cheap, usually is triple the price we pay outside. For example vitamin C, I paid about RM 20.00 for 100 tablets from the pharmacist whereas the DS sold me RM 75.00 for the same amount. They claim their is better. Well Vitamin C is vitamin C , how can one could be better than the other? So don't get cheated by DS company. if you are sick, see doctor immediately. Back to my client,if she get the treatment earlier, she might be able to live longer.

Instrumen Kompetensi Pemimpin Sekolah (KOMPAS©)

Instrumen Kompetensi Pemimpin Sekolah (KOMPAS©)

To Become A Counselor

Many people wish to be someone else apart from their own self. I met a group of people who undergo some courses in counseling, they wanted to practise counseling. I had a couple of friends who also claim themselves counselors after undergo some counseling sessions by a professional counselor. The process had make them think that they had qualified to become a counselor. Meeting a counselor is just like meeting a doctor, after some treatments you'll might feel better but this doesn't mean you are good enough to become a doctor yourself.
To become a counselor you need to have a basic degree in counseling. Four years in the university has a lot to learn.The syllabus covers Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology, Counseling theories, Motivation theories, Cross culture counseling, Counseling skills, 6 months Practical Exams, 1500 cases to deal, Examinations and assignments, then only if you get all through; you will obtain a DEGREE. A degree isn't good enough, you have to apply for license, undergo some interviews then only you are qualify to become a registered counselor.
As a counselor you are bounded by Code of Attics . Could courses of few days cover all that I had mentioned? I don't think so.
Many people thought that counseling is giving advices. This is wrong. WE ARE NOT GIVING ADVICES. Counseling is a process whereby the relationship between the counselor and the client work together to reach a state of self improvement. At the end of the process the client able to gather the strength to help himself to solve his own problems. We may not be able to change the situation , we also couldn't change other people but we can change our concepts. All counseling process are based on certain theories. Its not the coffee shop kind like talking. There are objectives to reach in our meetings. Many people like to help other people, but if you're not a professional counselor, than refer the case to the professional. Otherwise ,you will make the situation worse!

Laziness is the deadly disease of the youngsters

Lately I had been invited to give talks to many secondary schools. That also include some of the primary schools , especially the Chinese schools.I used to be careful in arranging my materials about how our Chinese students doing in secondary schools, in order not to be too offensive, I'll hid some of the truth and just speak what favourable to hear to our Chinese community . Is it wrong to speak the truth? I always asked myself, and this time I decide to speak the truth. The result is I didn't feel good about it after seeing how people react cause the truth is too painful to bear, especially by the race who always think superior about themselves.
There are two categories in secondary school about our Chinese students. Either they are the top cream of 10% or the worst lots of 30% and the middle are mostly the Malays. Today I am not going to talk about the good one. They are always well taken cared of. God bless them. But the worst lot really worry us, they are our future generations who suppose to lead and take our place after we left.
Laziness is the deadly disease that wide spread among the youngsters nowadays. Why? Everybody want to know WHY, the parents too, could not understand their young. In class, they'll be sleeping most of the time when the teachers start teaching. Or other wise they would sneak out and rather roaming around the school than sitting in the class listening to the 'boring' lessons(as they term it). I wish I could be convinced that the teachers were really boring, but to my disappointment, they dislike almost all the teachers and all the subjects,that include Chinese Language.They are also the law breakers. Keeping long and shabby hair style, with shirt loose unbutton, all year long no badges or name tags ,talking louder than other people, cracking dirty jokes and expert in 3 little bad words. The Malay teachers had been tolerated them, just not to scold or better use the word cursed them in front of us (the Chinese teachers) in order not to insult us.The common excuse they gave was that 'THEY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE TEACHERS ARE TEACHING,' or otherwise they said ' THE MALAY TEACHERS ARE UNFAIR TOWARDS THEM' ... but both excuses had strongly convinced their parents that the school is at fault for their children laziness! And we usually get the feedback from their parents that they supported their children to stop school even at the age of 15(Form 2). 'BETTER GO TO WORK'. This is their final destination. They wanted to work badly to earn money to support their handsets, that's the hidden reason every teachers know! I used to trace back my students who left school for this similar matter to find out if whether they are doing well, but to my surprise most of them regretted and wish to come back to school. Why? Its because working life is not really fun either for THE LAZY people.

The Dumb one will do better in life?

I read an article in nangyang siang pao (18th Sept 2008) making a sweeping statement that those students who are lazy in school, naughty, or branded by teachers 'stupid' always do better in life compare to those hardworking, studious and excel in school. Later, the writer said these are the people(good one) who are going to be jobless. Why they do not like schooling? The syllabus are boring and not conducive, too many restrictions, thus they wouldn't like to go to school, said the writer. I totally disagree with the writer and I believe the writer never been to school for a long time and not knowing what is really happening in school. No doubt, some had came out in life but how many, whats the percentage? Earning lots of money doesn't mean they are successful in life. Look at those who become 'A Long' or do 'side door business', they also earn tons of money, can you say they are successful in life or better off compare to those educated one who earn an honest living?
Nowadays schools are equipped with lots of teaching media such as computers, CD, LCD etc. The classroom are comfortable, some classes with air-cons. There are computer lab, library, Science's lab, KH lab, ERT room etc and all these facilities contribute better education for the students. Compare to those days we had nothing except science lab and the teachers were chalk and talk specialist but still many of us came out successful in life and we always feel grateful to our teachers and school.
Those students who are lazy, naughty and trouble maker in school are problematic students. They have ATTITUDE problems, could also be mental or emotional problems due to their family back ground. These lots of attitude problems students usually give a lots of excuses for their laziness. They love to play, waste time, disturbing other students or challenge school regulations. They find interest in nothing at all, not even in co- curriculum such as sports and games. Even if you organise a trip these people wouldn't participate. What they are interested in is to play with their friends, talking in the class while the teacher is teaching or sleeping the whole day . You must know that they have activities at night such as computer games, chit chat 'yam char' . The simple reason they are like that is because their parents could not control them. Most parents are too busy to seriously care about their teens behaviour outside school. Some parents even sided their children for all the wrong things they did. The worst of all is the parent who discourage them to school because they are big enough to work at least can help the parent to lessen the burden on car or house installments.
Many of them stop schooling half way as the writer said' not interested' anymore in school life. They are lazy because they like to enjoy. They take life easy, schooling is suffering because need hard work. So, these lots of 'LAZY BUMS' when they go out to work won't last them too long in each job. After sometimes you may find them stop working, doing nothing! I have few students like that. These people are tendency to meet those bad guys who might later drag them into 'black society' who do underground business.
Those who are not educated but still can come out in life are not many . They can, provided they have no attitude problems. Education carters not only job opportunity but also wisdom. Only through education could create professionals. A wiser person make better decision than a dumb one. Those students who excel in their study have positive attitudes, they are resilience, hardworking, determine, discipline and confidence. When talking about 'SUCCESS' it mean more than 'MONEY'. Education can make them a better man. Success is subjective, but to me, its the value of your life; how much you can contribute to the well being of mankind.

Chicken in the slaughter house verses Frogs in the pond

I would like to narrate this story to the children. Two stories are not related but both need a little thinking power.


Once upon a time, there lived a farmer. He had a farm. He reared lots of chicken in his farm. He also had other animals too but the story today is about the chicken. The chicken were well taken care and everyday he gave surplus of food. The chicken were so happy living in his farm. The farmer couldn't be border what chicken were doing in the farm as long as they laid some eggs for him everyday. For a long time it had been going on this way and the farmer had less worry about the chicken because they were the least problematic animal compared to the other animals in the farm. At one time disaster came, the chicken started to fight among themselves over some small matters. Since then the chicken didn't bother to do their duty anymore and this of course annoyed the farmer. After seriously thought about this matter, he decided to slaughter some of the chicken. So he sent the chicken to the slaughter house. But the chicken couldn't predict their future in the slaughter house, they went on fighting. The farmer couldn't tolerate anymore to this nonsense thus he decided to slaughter all the chicken.
Near by the farm there was a pond. In the pond there lived some frogs. These frogs had different colours cause they were of different species. The green frogs were the earliest species who lived there ,then later came the red frogs, the blue frogs and the purple frogs. They had been living there for so many generations and all the frogs had loyalty to the place they lived. They were living in peace and harmony and each of them work hard to keep the pond beautiful. But good time never last long. The green frogs held a meeting among themselves to talk about their rights as the earliest species who lived there. They wanted to set rules that made the other frogs inferior. This discrimination had disturbed the frogs' life. Some of them thought about migrating to a better place, some just stay on but lost their loyalty, some just waited to over throne the green frogs and the fact was,the pond was no longer beautiful and good place to live.

The Super Malays of Malaysia

I met a lawyer at the airport while waiting to board our plane. We were sort of coincidentally sitting at the same table when we started to talk to each other. Lawyer Halim had 3 children and all of them were sent to oversea to pursue their higher education. I was told that all of them scored excellent results in SPM (8A's) but none were enrolled into the local IPTA, though they were being offered by the government. I was very much surprise because usually the Malays would not given up the scholarship specially located for them and also much preferred the local University than paying money from their own pockets to go overseas. "I don't want my children to be bonded by the government." explained Halim. His children are doing medic. "I want them to pursue their specialist degree in US. The doctors in Malaysia are working worst than a slave. I want my children to work elsewhere in this world where doctor are treated as professional and have work schedule like human." For a while, I have to agree to Halim because my sons are doctors too in the government hospital, working from 6.00am to 8.00pm, on call every alternate day( 24hrs), have not enough sleep most of the time and no more life for him..... Yet our Health Minister think our doctors were not doing good enough and have to increase their working hours. And Halim is willing to pay to get his sons out from this fate. I really salute him.

This remind me of the 'Mara Protest' lately for not to give way to other races to enter Mara. The rational behind is not really clear but two things we can guess, one is they afraid to compete with other races may be they presume they are less better(in real fact they are equally good). Secondly may be they being racist( still tight down by the historical factor). They forget that other races are paying taxes too. This racist kind of policies have to be outdated because we all had been here for more than a decade, and please recognise us as Malaysian who are also loyal to this country. The racist kind of mentality is a low kind of mentality, back to the time in America where the Black were not treated equal as the White. Halim is a super Malay who is not only dare to compete with the other races in Malaysia in fact dare to compete with the world. I have a great respect for him for this and hope that one day more Malays would come to join Halim, to have self confidence and to be competence with everyone else in this world. This is what our XPM meant by not using 'tongkat'. That time Malaysia would be prosperous, clear of corruptions, lawful(no bias,bias) and respected by the world.