National Day

Remember I mentioned regarding the cardiologist who wrote article in the Sunday Newspaper? Since today is National Day of Malaysia, I shall share one of his thoughts here. Before that, Happy Merdeka Day!

This cardiologist is quite a patriotic person. Why do I said so? He started his article off by mentioning the people around him were in the process of migrating to other countries. It is worth to know that these people who are migrating are consisted of people with talents and did very well in their own field. So, they were asking the cardiologist whether he would like to migrate as well. “Afraid of changes” was his response. I agree to this statement because migrating would mean that you have to totally abandoned the country that you have stay for such a long time to another brand new country. It’s like removing the root of a big tree which had long cast on the earth strongly to another new place. When we are migrating, we are actually removing our own roots in this country and try to adopt a totally different culture of other country. Will we ever be used to the new environment without any regrets when we grow old?

This cardiologist expressed his love for the country by mentioning how he miss the country when he was doing his postgraduate studies in oversea. To be honest, even though I am quite dissatisfied with the condition in our country, I will miss my own country when I’m out of it. It’s because we are human being with emotion. Some people might not even look back on their roots when they migrate. However, this is not to be considered as a fault. There must be a reason behind the “coolness”. Despite his love for the country, he did mention how our country loses the talented young people to other country. This reminded me of one statement- It’s not that we want to abandon our country, the truth is the country abandon us! I had to agree with this.

I really love this country. There are times where I still in doubt whether to take up the external exam which will enable me to practise medicine in overseas. This moment I can understand why the cardiologist use a lyric to end his article. It’s a chinese song lyric- I don’t want to leave, I want to stay back!

Happy Merdeka! Hopefully there will be improvement in our country that won’t disappoint us!

Sunday Time

The part I love about Sunday is I’m able to go for a breakfast with my mum. We are always like a pair of good friends. No matter what topic ranging from gossip (of course girls talk about this) to political issue, we can talk non stop. Apart from the nice breakfast, I love to read Guang Ming Daily (this is not a commercial 🙂 ). One of the special post in the health section, there will be a simple article from a doctor. He wrote about his life as doctor. I really admire the simplicity of his writing style. Even without those bombastic words, he managed to convey his message clearly and in a beautiful way of course. This doctor is a cardiologist in Penang. I know about this because apparently my mum was his patient once. From the way he handle his patient, his sincerity, his attentiveness, I can felt his passion for his work. Probably I’m being biased that based on this reasons, I found his article is very interesting.

Everybody in the medical school can be a good student that pass their exam with flying colours. They can be cream of the cream, score very well and be the top medical student. I have no doubts on this. But to be a good medical student and a good medical practitioner is a different thing. It takes a great deal of passion, what I meant here is your nature of care to become a good medical practitioner. Talking about nature of care, so far I can hardly felt this among the medical students. I always heard them saying how to score well in the exam, study very hard, memorizing every medical facts in the reference books and notes.

Sometime I tend to lost myself in the process of obtaining medical knowledge. I become exam-orientated once. This is a very bad sign as you will never treat your patient well with just a result slip which full of As. I have to question myself whether I will be a good medical practitioner in future? Does I have what it takes to become a good medical practitioner? You can fake every sincerity. However you can’t fake nature of care to patients.

You have to be a good observant to look through your patients. Nowadays, I will start to polish up my skills in observing people around me. I really want to be a good doctor because this is what I really want. In order to help the people around, I must have the qualities. There are 2 people whom I always take it as role model, the doctor who wrote that article and my brother (I hope he don’t know about this). From the way they handle the patient, you can really felt the patient. I saw how my brother shed his tears when he mentioned how the medical students mistreated the patients for the sake of getting a “pass” in their posting. He rather failed then to treat the patient in a rush. To be honest, I doubt whether I will be such a sentimental person that take people feelings into consideration to such extent.

I’m making a decision to take up an external exam. Many people claim this exam to be quite tough. I think I should not worry that much after all worry is a waste of energy. No matter how long the journey it is in future, I will make sure I make it through. God Bless Me!

Inconsolable

It’s almost one week that I never cast my hands on any newspaper until today and I was shocked by the news.

23/8 crisis I believed everyone had heard about it as it is very shocking to the world. It shattered the heart of many especially to the Honkees. If only you are not Homo sapiens, you will have your heart-broken by the time you read about it.

Everything happens for a reason. There is one chinese proverb,” waves will not beat unless with the presence of wind”. After reading the 23/8 crisis-Manila hostage crisis news on the newspaper, I went on to search for the details. The hostage taker was a former high-ranking commissioned police officer who had a glorious history in his field of work. With his courage and hardship, he managed to earn himself the title of  Outstanding Policeman. However, due to a case of suspected extortion, he was dismissed from his position and all the benefits were voided. With some misjudgments and misunderstanding in the trial, he was not recovered from his position towards the end.

A formally high-ranking commissioned police officer with such glorious history in the midst of suspected extortion and without any clearance towards the end had led to the tragedy on 23rd August. Some people might disagree to this, but I personally felt that had the trial of this former high-ranking commissioned police officer been brought into a proper closure and judgement, 23/8 crisis would not have occurred.

Having read on the whole process of hijacking, negotiation, firing, the part where hostages scream along with the sporadically shots from the gun, it is very traumatizing. Life is so unpredictable.

Had the trial been brought to justice, 23/8 won’t occurred.
Had the Honkees never join the tours to Philippine, they won’t face such tragedy.
Had the police and authorities plan their saving strategy well, those hostages will not lost their precious lives.
Had the wish of the hostage taker been taken care of by the authorities, he won’t lost his mind and emotion.

There are so many possibilities and thousand of IFs that I wanted to express. Having listened to and watched the latest news where there are few pictures showing police forces taking pictures with the filled-with-gun-hole-bus behind as background, does this make sense? Having read on how the police forces taking credits on shooting the hostage taker while they didn’t realise the fact that there are hostages in the bus as well, does this make sense but at all?

A moment of silence to the victims and family of the hostages. May you rest in peace.

Prayers

It all started when we heard one shocking news from our beloved ex-headmaster of Sacred Heart High School few weeks back. The shocking news stated that you were so sick and in battle with terminal stage cancer. Ages without news from You and it shattered our heart that when we came to know about this news. Thanks to the local newspaper who manage to publish the news and drew attentions from all of the schoolmates.

Headmaster Lee, a person with dignity, great courage that changes the discipline of our school. You are one of the only one who earn our full respects and salutations.

Looking out for every students
Every single day
Every minute that You have in school

Helping and guiding students to the correct path
Easily give up was never appear in Your life’s dictionary
Roaring out Your way to those who disobey the rules despite challanges from every aspect
Never ever that we come to see any Headmaster who is as bold as You.

With all the sudden news that came yesterday, saying that Headmaster had passed away.

I sincerely felt sorry as I never had the chance to pay a visit to the Headmaster despite the fact that I know the severity of the condition. Because of my personal schedule on having final exams, I am not able to join along for the visits. Now that the Headmaster had passed away, it reminded me of my selfishness. Apart from giving sympathy, empathy, those suggestion which come with no actions, I felt ashame for myself.

Now that I am left with the last action of writting and dedicating an eulogy to the Headmaster:

” We were sorry about the lost of a respectful person. To quote from a poem:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Of all the changes that you implemented in the school, Of all the efforts that you make to the school, We sincerely thank to you and we really appreciate each and every of it. I came acroess one sentence, It does not matter how a person died but it matter on how he live. It’s because the efforts and dignity that you showered on the school that leave a footprint in each of everyones heart. You will always be remembered.
Now that you have landed on a peaceful place where there will be no sickness and sorrows. May God bless you and your family always and always. “

No other things can weigh upon your contributions to the school. Thank You a million time Headmaster Lee!

Our prayers to you that May You Rest In Peace!

 

Observation

We have one Chinese proverb that sounds like this “路遥知马力，日久见人心”. It means, it takes time for you to observe and realise a person’s personality/character. I had to admit that, this proverb definitely has it point and which is true.

Human beings are quite complex in their nature as time goes by. We were born with a mind which is as white as a piece of paper. However, through the course of growing up, it changes to a multicoloured paper. A person who present himself/herself in a well-mannered way in front of people may turns out to be a devil deep inside. In fact, I felt that nobody in this world could claim that they know a person very well except that particular person himself/herself.

Nowadays, I love to observe people (well, I may sound a little bit creepy but it’s not that I am a stalker 😛 ). I look into the details which some people might felt it’s not essential to evaluate a person. I used to be a person who neglect the small details but after some incidents and lessons, I realised that it is these small details that constitute who you are.

To quote one example from my observation: Once when I was standing outside a cafe waiting for my mum. I started to observe people around me like how I always did. I saw this teenager who walked across the street. He was quite well-dressed with neat clothes, certainly look clean and good-looking. When he was walking towards the cafe, one coin falling off from his pocket when he was trying to reach for the mobile phone. It’s a 10-cent-coin. To my surprise, he never pick it up. It was even surprising because when he looked up and realised I was looking at him, he continued his walk despite knowing the fact that he dropped a coin. Well, some people might not think this is significant yet I felt that it was 😀 No doubt it’s just a 10-cent-coin, but it is still a coin which belong to him. The fact that he didn’t pick it up could implies that in some other way, this person might neglect some small details in his life simply because he felt small things are not significant. 

This reminded me of the same story happened on the setting of a director from a big company who is having recruitment. 3 possible candidate with the same academic background. He was under dilemma as to who he is supposed to select to fill the vacancy. Hence, when he told this to his wife, the wife suggested him on doing this: Place a crumpled paper on the floor of lobby and observe the response from 3 of the candidates. So, the director came early the next day to the office building and carried out the idea as suggested by his wife. He observed from a hideout. There came the first candidate (3 candidate have their appointments on different time) . The first candidate saw the paper on the floor and walk pass it. The second candidate even used his foot to move the paper aside. Here came the 3rd candidate. When he saw the paper, be bent down, picked it up and throw into the dustbin. In the end, the 3rd candidate was being selected 😀 The reason is very obvious.

Observing people could be a good way to discover their true nature. No matter how good you are in faking sincerity, sometime a small action will show your true nature.

Well, I am on my way to observing people, in fact I just realised a true nature of a person yesterday. I am glad that I am firm on my stand regarding this person from the beginning 😛