It’s so much simpler if it starts with you. And it’s got to start somewhere.

Being one of those people who enjoy discourse, I’ve come to realize that either fellow peers or interested peers sometimes do get carried away with the talking. This is a video, which I think is brilliant in terms of counter cynicism, perspective shift, personal reflection, self-belief, approach to change and taking action.

Video from Earthian – Sustainability Program for Schools and Colleges. Click here for their Facebook page.

In December 2010, I was in Tareem, a village in the state (and valley) of Hadhramout, located in the south of Yemen. Most of the migrant Arabs in Southeast Asia dating back centuries ago, tend to come from Hadhramout, as did my family. The place, structural development wise, is backward by many decades if not more. But in other areas, they a fascinatingly ahead in ways I suspect citizens of first world cities would envy.

Anyway, I recently met a permaculture expert who is giving a two week course in Malaysia and he told me of this project happening in Tareem, that is hosted by the religious school Darul Mustafa, that I also paid a visit when I was there. The link (click here to know more about the project) doesn’t quite explain what is permaculture, assuming you’re not familiar with the concept. I suggest you explore the site and the web overall to have an idea of this amazing concept.

If you’re interested in permaculture, do contact me on Facebook and I’ll connect you with some people who could help.

Grow Your Mind  is a film discussion series and workshops to create awareness and initiate action at a community level on issues of environment and sustainable lifestyle. We are glad to invite you to join us for the 1^st series this Saturday 14^th January 2012 from 9am to 1pm at Urban Village, Bangsar for a morning of reflection and enabling positive action for ourselves and our planet!

Entrance is FREE but we love you more if you pitch in some green notes.

Grow Your Mind is another initiative of CRESCENT COLLECTIVE with MURUJAN PERMACULTURE DESIGN and supported by URBAN VILLAGE, COUNTERPOINT and ECO CENTRIC TRANSITIONS.

Film: “HOME” by Yann Arthus Bertrand

Workshop: “Amoeba Theory” by Steve McCoy from Counterpoint

The world we live in today is changing faster than we think – and more often than not, the effects of change can be catastrophic to those who are unprepared. By expanding our awareness and appreciation of the earth and our relation to it, we may begin to take steps to ensure a more ethical and sustainable future for all it’s inhabitants, including ourselves.

Crescent Collective and Murujan Permaculture Design are happy invite you to a special screening of the critically acclaimed documentary “HOME” followed by discussions and a workshop on the “Theory of Change” by Steve McCoy from Counterpoint Consulting.

HOME is is a documentary by French photographer, Yann Arthus Bertrand. The film is almost entirely composed of aerial shots of various places on Earth. It shows the diversity of life on Earth and how humanity is threatening the ecological balance of the planet.

Check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=u_9U4gqwHW8

Steve McCoy is Founder and Principal of Counterpoint, a consultancy firm providing support services on sustainability for the Corporate, Government and Non-profit sectors. Counterpoint’s work rests on the simple understanding that the challenges that confront the world today offer a broad canvas of opportunity to secure a better tomorrow, and the conviction that maintaining the status quo is no longer a viable option.

Check out Steve McCoy’s presentation at TEDxKL here: http://www.tedxkl.com/steve-mccoy/

Crescent Collective is a group of individuals with the common interest of spreading good vibes, positivity and funky time through creative and artistic means.

Check them out at: http://crescentcollective.org/

Murujan Permaculture Design envisions to become a collective of skilled Permaculture designers who cooperate and strive to improve our environment, lifestyles and communities through teaching, ethical business ventures and consulting, aid work, open source research, development and more.

Check them out here: http://murujan.com/

Urban Village is a creative hub that provides facilities for creative entrepreneurs and professional freelancers to operate their business by providing basic business necessities such as work space, event space, retail space, entrepreneurship consultation and exposure.

Check out their website here: http://www.urbanvillage.my

Programme Schedule:

• 9:00am: Registration and Eco-corners – Mini booths by environmentally responsible denizens of KL
• 10:00am: Screening of “HOME”
• 11:30am: Discussion on “HOME” with Steve McCoy from Counterpoint, Nisha and Ly Mun from Eco Centric Transitions and Giovanni Galluzzo from Murujan Permaculture Design
• 12:00pm: “Amoeba Theory” Workshop with Steve McCoy
• 1:00pm: Wrap

Learning To Live Well With The Earth : Andrew Faust : Permaculture Design from TerraVisus on Vimeo.

Good stuff. Great learning. Relates to my thinking about the correlation of law and social sciences, and also professionalism and personal characteristics. Thanks Ashaari for sharing.

Andrew Faust is a Permaculture Designer and Teacher who teaches a Permaculture Certification Courses in NYC and in Ellenville NY at his Center for Bioregional Living. He is also a Permaculture Designer and offers regenerative design services applying permaculture and ecological principles.

Article for my column in The Star published today. Was requested to write a retrospective piece on 2011. Well done again to UndiMsia (not just for making the pic article) and Teach For Malaysia. I love you two, for the very ground up development that you’ve had to work through and for.

I think this piece could have been better written. So to emphasize my point/theme here, look at the bigger picture. Some people can see that better if they’re educated with the knowledge, and perspective (though I’m not sure how to begin with the latter, but I assume engagement and discussion is a good start).

*Credit to The Star and Star R.age team. Happy new year to you, and special thanks to my editors and such: Ivy Soon, Niki Cheong and Melody Goh.

A Year in Learning

THE common thread running through 2011 for me was education. That’s my takeout when I look through the various chapters of 2011. I took part in initiatives such as the campaign to encourage people to vote UndiMsia, discussions on the teaching of Maths and Science in English (PPSMI), and the Bersih 2.0 rally for clean and fair elections. I was also involved in projects like Teach For Malaysia and permaculture.

UndiMsia (www.undimsia.com) is a voter education campaign started by a random group of Malaysians, and their numbers have grown by tenfold, at least. They’re active and have an open concept for others who are interested to participate by joining their meetings every Saturday at 11am in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

UndiMsia is a non-partisan youth citizen movement. 

Besides educating people to vote for the right reasons – meaning to vote issues and not politicking – it called for a more participatory democracy by the rakyat, beyond voting. Generally, UndiMsia focuses on three issues: Food and housing, freedom of expression and the education segment of the national Budget.

As I became more active in society, I was more aware of things that are part and parcel of my private and public life. Politics – partisan or not, institutional or not – was something inevitable that I had to take an interest in. So, when the Bersih 2.0 chapter took off, I got involved.

It was enlightening for me to discuss why clean and fair elections were necessary and how it benefited Malaysians beyond politics and government.

I was also active in public discussions on the Government’s decision not to teach Maths and Science in English. I might not be a teacher but I did home tutoring for SPM candidates in Maths, for six years.

Initially, I was supporting the call for Maths and Science to be taught in English, but I have since changed my stand. It’s because I believe teaching these subjects in English would widen the polarity in Malaysia. Everyone deserves equal access to education, and teaching Maths and Science in English could render these subjects inaccessible to some students.

In 2011, two of my friends – Keeran Sivarajan and Dzameer Dzulkifli – started Teach For Malaysia (TFM), an initiative to improve the quality of teaching in schools. They are recruiting university graduates to work for two years as teachers before going on to whatever career path they choose.

It’s an amazing platform for Malaysians to build themselves but more importantly to focus on helping poor performing schools. Their mission for education equity for all is truly inspiring.

To close the 2011 book, I explored permaculture, which the all-knowing Wikipedia defines as “an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modelled on the relationships found in nature.”

I started having plants at home in the middle this year to test if I had a greenthumb or not. I’m not sure if I do but I am recognising the impact of living around elements of nature. I’ve been looking to adapt my home to not just include planting my own greens, but also to be environmentally conscious beyond using recyclable bags and reducing water wastage.

This year has only been a piece of the puzzle. Likewise, don’t look at these issues and initiatives in isolation. Let’s look at how they are part of a bigger picture, so we can piece together our next move in 2012.

Zain HD writes occasionally at ZainHD.com and tweets excessively at twitter.com/ZainHD.

On Saturday, I’ll be speaking at TEDxMMU (click here) where the theme is Nurturing University’s Creative Minds. I recently came across the work of a fellow speaker, Muid Latif, which I admire.

The images here are from his work, which was displayed in the KTM Komuter trains for Merdeka. As a matter of taste, I like the design, but more importantly how he came to sharing with me this project was my belief that art should be lived.

In some sense saying that life that is around us is the canvas for art and creativity. It is neither exclusive to a physical canvas, on a wall at your home or a gallery. Nor is it conclusive to a painting, or a photograph.

This point of view relates to the very first blog post I wrote in 2007, Holier Than Thou Art. To view more of the work by Muid, click here. From my experience, presence of art is quite significant in train stations in Italy, and some countries in South America. I heard France too.

It doesn’t take a lot to get proper publicity, and push for tourism. Actually I’m wrong, it does take a lot. A lot of brains, not cost.

The Christ the Redeemer statue, top right, is lit in red light to commemorate World AIDS Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Dec. 1, 2011. Rio de Janeiro’s city government illuminated several urban monuments in red as part of its actions to commemorate World AIDS Day, from MSNBC photoblog.

Almost all great, big, developed cities, well-known cities, unfortunately need an iconic structure to solidify that status. To some extent it’s understandable and makes sense.

This thinking, was partly what drove the idea to build KLCC, which has to an extent delivered that part of its objective as an icon to KL/Malaysia and prop those two on the global platform, an indicator of progress and development. In terms of economy, this has quite a significant multiplier effect.

The second purpose, I assume, would be the tourism element which also relates to the purpose above.

Since it’s an icon, people take pictures of it, that later gets viewed by many others. But what I want to bring forth is that, such icons need not be as massive as the Kuala Lumpur’s KLCC or Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue.

Windy city Chicago did something much simpler. They gave the world the Cloud Gate, or what most people just call the Bean. Read up on articles of how much ‘returns’ did Chicago get from the Bean. While what Rio did recently was clever, Chicago takes the cake.

- http://zainhd.com/2011/12/rios-christ-turns-red-for-aids/

First it was Karmin. Now it’s Mac Lethal, and this is mental. Exciting to see creativity explored, and actioned, in this manner. By regular people, moving something from idea in mind, to something tangible. It sounds simple, but many don’t actually ‘make things happen.’

- Watch the video  http://zainhd.com/2011/12/video-nerdy-white-kid-kills-look-at-me-now/

Some weeks ago I was actively arguing why I was/am against teaching maths and science in English in Malaysian schools.

Below is the article published in my column in The Star on the matter. A similar (unedited) one in BM published in Sinar Harian today, a personal milestone for me as this is my first time my writing got published in a Bahasa Malaysia publication.

Also here are two pieces from friends of mine who wrote on the same matter. One by Shahril Hamdan, and the other by Najmie Noordin. I highly recommend you to read both as they touched on angles I did not include in my piece.http://zainhd.cm/2011/11/ppsmi-maths-science-in-english/

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The Star:

Many people find it surprising that I am against the education policy of teaching maths and science in English (PPSMI). This is considering that I am far more fluent in English than I am in Bahasa Malaysia, and went to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) where everything was taught in English to students who were largely not proficient in the language.

Throughout law school, I was a maths and advance maths private home tutor to students who were sitting for their SPM and PMR exams. Sometimes, I would teach in two different languages as not all the students could understand English well.

I was once a supporter of PPSMI, but have changed my stand since. I’ve come to learn that there’s a huge difference between making a decision and making an informed decision. I changed my mind about PPSMI when I understood the bigger picture.

It started when I saw a draft copy of a World Bank report that looked into the education sector in Malaysia, which is currently being vetted by the Ministry of Education.

In the country’s GDP, we spend 60% more than comparable countries and twice the Asean average for the expenditure of basic education. This is a pattern that covers at least 30 years. Using international comparison, the report finds little or no evidence of a relationship between spending and learning outcomes.

My take from this information and the report as a whole is best illustrated like this: Our education system is like a factory that is heavily invested, well funded, overstaffed and sufficiently supported by stakeholders from the people to their leaders.

Yet its products, the Malaysian students, are not noteworthy.

There is a fundamental problem here. The core objective of this system, which is to educate Malaysians, is not doing what it is meant to do. To implement PPSMI, assuming you think the policy is a good idea, will not be wise. Why ask for a lightweight tyre, when the core structure of your bicycle is falling apart?

If we are going to work on fixing these problems, then we have to be focused.?Implementing something like PPSMI would mean a dillution of energy, time and money towards making the overall system work.

PPSMI has yet to be proven to have significant correlation towards comprehension or results for tertiary science subjects. According to the World Education Ranking conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that measures competency in “Reading, Maths and Science”, the top scorers are Shanghai (China), Korea, Finland and Hong Kong (China). United States ranked 17th, behind Poland and Switzerland.

Here’s another interesting point, assuming that the idea is to make the transition into English tertiary science-based education easier for Malaysian students: Of the approximate 400,000 students who enter Year 1, only 100,000 of them go on to complete their university education. Of that, number, how many of them are actually in the scientific field of study?

Now imagine having PPSMI across Malaysia of which has relevance to a small segment of students.

Imagine the disparity we’re harvesting between the educated, and the non-educated, the employability between the science students and the non-science students. Considering the disparity, caused by the benefit enjoyed by a “selective” segment of our students, can this be good for Malaysia?

If having better standards of English is good for those studying in university and also the country, then improve English as a whole. Japan is ranked 8th in the OECD study and yet, I’m confident that by percentage our population is more exposed to English and understand the language better than the Japanese. Meanwhile, people in Netherlands, ranked 10th, are fluent in Dutch, English and French, too.

Both countries have their education system in their local language.

Education is a national issue that all Malaysians have equity in it. A small school in a rural area where kids live as far as a three-day walk, will not have enough students to make a separate class specially for PPSMI, assuming they even have a teacher who can manage it (well).

Therefore, even if it’s an option, that option is an illusion. They now don’t have access to a portion of our education system, simply because of where they are born. Is that fair?

We have to understand things by tracing back the philosophy of a national education system. Is it meant to give selective special education where the smart will become smarter, and then figure out what to do with those who lack the exposure and opportunities? Is it meant to enable all Malaysians as much as possible to this basic human right? Or, is it purely to produce a workforce or to build a nation of people who are smart and able to articulate?

There’s been a good amount of intelligent people in this world throughout history, who don’t even know English and yet have their knowledge and work transcend beyond their own borders. Let’s work towards a solution for Malaysia. A smart one.

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Sinar Harian:

Sudah lepas masa yang cukup, saya rasa, setelah Timbalan Perdana Menteri serangkap Menteri Pendidikan membuat keputusan tentang Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris (PPSMI) yang membolehkan kita membincang akan isu ini dengan lebih asas dan objektif.

Ramai yang terkejut apabila mendengar yang saya merupakan antara mereka yang menentang dasar PPSMI. Lebih – lebih lagi saya lebih fasih berbahasa Inggeris berbanding Bahasa Melayu, dan menerima pendidikan lanjut di UiTM di mana semua pelajaran diajarkan dalam Bahasa Inggeris kepada pelajar – pelajar yang majoritinya malah tidak fasih dalam bahasa tersebut.

Sepanjang pengajian saya di Fakulti Undang-Undang UiTM, saya menjadi tutor Matematik dan Matematik Tambahan bagi pelajar – pelajar yang mengambil peperiksaan SPM dan PMR. Acapkali saya terpaksa mengajar dalam dua bahasa kerana tidak semua boleh memahami apa yang diajarkan dalam bahasa Inggeris.

Sebelum ini saya merupakan penyokong PPSMI, tetapi saya telah mengubah pendirian saya. Saya sedar bahawa terdapat jurang yang besar dalam mengambil satu keputusan dan mengambil satu keputusan termaklum. Saya telah mengubah pendirian tentang PPSMI setelah memahami situasi ini dengan lebih jelas.

Ia bermula apabila saya terbaca satu salinan draf penyata yang dikeluarkan World Bank berhubung sektor pendidikan di Malaysia, yang pada masa ini sedang diteliti Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia.

Berdasarkan data Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar (KDNK) Malaysia, kita membelanjakan lebih 60% berbanding negara-negara yang sebanding dengan kita dan dua kali ganda lebih banyak daripada purata negara – negara Asean dalam peruntukan pendidikan. Ini telah berjalan sekurang-kurangnya selama 30 tahun. Dibandingkan dengan negara – negara lain, penyata tersebut gagal merincikan sebarang pertalian antara perbelanjaan  dan natijah pendidkan.

Apa yang saya perhatikan daripada penyata ini dapat disimpulkan seperti berikut: “sistem pendidikan kita bagaikan sebuah kilang yang telah menerima banyak pelaburan, mempunyai dana yang mencukupi, tenga kerja yang ramai, dan disokong sepenuhnya oleh pihak – pihak berkepentingan baik dari masyarakat awam ke para pemimpin. “

Namun demikian, hasilnya, iaitu pelajar – pelajar kita, tidak berdaya saing.

Di sini kelihatan wujudnya satu masalah yang mendasar. Objektif utama sistem ini, iaitu mendidik rakyat Malaysia, tidak tercapai. Untuk melaksanakan PPSMI, andaikata dasar ini merupakan satu idea yang baik, adalah tidak bijak sama sekali. Berdasarkan analogi sebuah basikal, kenapa kita ingin menukar tayar sedangkan rangka basikal itu sendiri tidak kukuh?

Jika kita ingin memperbaiki sistem ini, kita mesti memfokuskan usaha kita. Pelaksanaan PPSMI akan mencairkan usaha, dana dan masa hanya untuk memastikan seluruh sistem ini dapat berjalan.

PPSMI sendiri masih belum berjaya dibuktikan mempunyai pertalian yang signifikan terhadap pemahaman mahupun keputusan subjek – subjek sains di peringkat tertiari. Menurut World Education Ranking yang dikeluarkan oleh Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) yang mengukur kemampuan dalam “Pembacaan, Sains dan Matematik,” yang mencatat markah tertinggi adalah Shanghai – China, Korea, Finland dan Hong Kong – China. Amerika Syarikat berada di tempat ke-17, di belakang Poland dan Switzerland.

Satu lagi fakta menarik, andaikata idea kita adalah untuk memudahkan peralihan kepada Bahasa Inggeris sebagai medium pengajaran sains di peringkat tertiari bagi pelajar-pelajar Malaysia: Daripada kira-kira 400,000 yang memulakan pengajian di Tahun 1, hanya kira-kira 100,000 yang berjaya menyelesaikan pengajian mereka. Daripada jumlah itu, berapa ramai yang merupakan graduan daripada bidang sains?

Dan sekarang bayangkan pelaksanaan PPSMI yang hanya memberikan manfaat buat segelintir pelajar di seluruh Malaysia.

Bayangkan jurang yang kita wujudkan di antara mereka yang berpendidikan dan mereka yang tidak, kebolehpasaran (employability) antara pelajar aliran sains dan bukan sains. Apabila kita renungkan jurang ini, yang disebabkan oleh manfaat yang hanya boleh dirasai oleh segelintir masyarakat, adakah ini sesuatu yang baik buat Malaysia?

Jika mempunyai standard Bahasa Inggeris yang lebih baik itu menguntungkan pelajar-pelajar kita di universiti dan juga negara, maka apa yang perlu kita lakukan adalah meningkatkan kualiti pengajaran Bahasa Inggeris itu sendiri! Jepun berada di tangga ke-8 dalam laporan OECD yang sama, tetapi saya yakin yang secara keseluruhan, populasi Malaysia jauh lebih terdedah kepada Bahasa Inggeris daripada Jepun. Manakala masyarakat Belanda, di tempat ke-10, fasih berbahasa Belanda dan Inggeris.

Kedua-dua negara ini mengggunakan bahsa ibunda masing-masing sebagai bahasa pengantar pendidikan mereka.

Pendidikan merupakan satu isu nasional di mana setiap rakyat Malaysia mempunyai ekuiti di dalamnya. Sekolah-sekolah kecil di kawasan luar bandar,  tidak akan mempunyai pelajar yang cukup untuk melaksanakan kelas PPSMI secara berasingan, itu pun dengan andaian yang mereka mempunyai guru yang terlatih.

Oleh itu, biarpun PPSMI merupakan satu pilihan, ia lebih merupakan satu ilusi. Pilihan ini akan menyebabkan anak-anak di luar bandar ini akan terpinggir daripada pendidikan kita hanya kerana mereka lahir di luar bandar. Adakah ini akan membawa keadilan sosial?

Untuk itu, dalam usaha kita memahami situasi ini, kita perlu menelusuri kembali falsafah pendidikan negara kita. Adakah ia digubal untuk menyediakan satu siri pendidikan khas supaya mereka yang cerdik akan bertambah cerdik dan kemudiannya cuba memberikan penyelesaian kepada mereka yang kurang bernasib baik? Adakah ia digubal untuk menjamin hak setiap rakyat Malaysia untuk diberi peluang menerima pendidikan yang bermutu? Adakah  ia digubal hanya untuk menghasilkan tenaga kerja? Atau adakah ia digubal untuk melahirkan generasi pembina negara dan masyarakat yang berwawasan?

Melihat kembali sejarah manusia,  telah lahir banyak cendikiawan di dunia ini yang tidak mahir berbahasa Inggeris tetapi berilmu tinggi dan menghasilkan pelbagai karya yang merentasi batas-batas sosiobudaya. Untuk itu, marilah kita berusaha bersama-sama dalam mencari penyelesaian (yang bijaksana) buat Malaysia.

Since I moved out of my parents place late 2009, I’ve made it a point to avoid (almost completely), to call in extra help to clean y own place. It is imperative, I believe, that for as much as a person can be and remain independent and/or self-sufficient, he should.

Yes, there is the consideration of practicality and productivity, such as our expensive skilled time better invested elsewhere for better impact, if looked at in isolation. But that should not be veiled against formed complacency and harvested incompetency.

*Disclaimer: I too, struggle to schedule even random cleaning operations at home.

A reason why I take issue on this is two clear examples that are evident to me, the idea that:

1. a middle class home today cannot function without a domestic worker doing the house certain, most or all chores,
2. a child is expected to be primarily educated (in an encompassing context), by school teachers, and not the able adults in his reach.

Those two are only an example of what it brings us to. What is between the lines in essence, that makes it damaging, is the distorted outlook and paradigm that we have upon everything beyond ourselves, and worst still, upon ourselves, without actually realizing it. And then, the self-believe that it could be otherwise.

The video is an area of my recent interest. But that aside, at two parts it relates to my point above. What she calls inner-dependancy, and following that the consumerist mindset (for me, that which affects our lives overall, and not just materially).

*Thanks Yasmin for sharing this video with me. A pot of earl gray with some darjeeling, is owed.

- click to watch video http://zainhd.com/2011/11/ted-why-zain-doesnt-call-in-domestic-help