Categories
Sports

[94] Of Iowa is the real champion

The Wolverines lost to the Buckeyes 14 – 9 yesterday. Michigan was leading for 3 quarters but failed to defend their lead in the last part of the game. How unfortunate. I guess it’s Tampa again for us. Sigh…

I didn’t watch the game but whatever happened, I refuse to accept the fact that Ohio State is going to represent the Big Ten Conference to the National Championship; and no, I am not a sore loser. I am saying this because instead of OSU, Iowa is the most suitable team to represent our conference to the Fiesta Bowl.

It is true that No. 2 Ohio State is a tough team to fight against each year. They are one of the names in the Big Ten that every team hates to meet. They proved to us with an undefeated run this season. Nevertheless, they failed to prove that they deserve to be in the National Championship by not meeting the better Iowan. Again, I am stressing that I am not jealous of the Buckeyes success. Instead, I am just echoing the backseat low protest.

No. 4 Iowa is boasted with the best offense team nationwide. The only problem is that they lost one game, just one non-Conference game to their intrastate rival, Iowa State. However, compare to Iowa, Buckeyes’ wins are inconvincible. They needed an overtime to defeat the pathetic Fightin Illini, they struggled against Purdue, they won by a small margin against pretender Wisconsin and finally, they got lucky to survive (No. 9) Michigan’s fury in the second quarter. Shifting our eyes to Iowa’s result, one could only wonder why Ohio, not Iowa is at the second rung behind the seemingly invincible No. 1 Miami. Puzzled?

The answer to this is obvious. The current ranking system is at fault. Period.

Whatever. The important thing is that Ajax is again clutching their mightily grip on the Dutch Eresdivisie and they will be up against Valencia this week. A tough match no doubt but then again, it is the UEFA Champions’ League, not MLS.

Don’t take my Ajax away!

Categories
Politics & government

[93] Of criticizing the government of Malaysia

Out of rare events, this entry will criticize the Government of Malaysia.

I am one of the persons who believe that the current Government of Malaysia is doing the right thing for the country. Barisan Nasional or the National Front if you may has been in power since Malaysia achieved its independence back in 1957. In fact, it has monopolized the country’s politics even during the pre-independence period.

After all those years, they have brought a lot of improvement the country. They drove the country from a backwater third world nation to a technological savvy one. No doubt, the local populace needs to be thankful.

However, currently the top leaders in Malaysia are engaging immature political maneuvers. I could not believe what kind of craps they are doing at the moment (but this of course, minus Dr. Mahathir himself. I still fail to see why people hate him so much after all he had done for us).

My first complaint is concerning the national service issue. I would say that enlisting in the army is one of the best ways to enforce nationalism. However, forcing the civilian to join the reserve corps is certainly not the best way to inspire the spirit of nationalism. If the youth are going to suffer from this suggestion, Malaysia could say goodbye to the word patriotism.

Patriotism is not something that could easily be planted into one’s soul. If one tries to force a CD into a floppy drive, one will never be able to read the content of the CD. Worse, if applied sufficient force, one could break the CD into two. The same goes with loyalty.

“All along when S’pore was doing this, M’sia have insisted that they will not do N/Services. Why now? Are they losing ground on the political grassroots? Why the N/service when the school should do this. You guys were from there and don’t tell me you’re not loyal to your country!”

The above are Mr. Veera’s words and they echo my own view.

Secondly, I just read the headline “Two Barisan reps face action over PORR motion” in The Star. All I could say after reading the content of the article was “WTF?” These representatives, who are the members of the ruling party is going to be punished just because they did not support the party proposal. What is this? Where is the freedom of expression? Where is the freedom to decide, the freedom to choose?

These reps did what they did because the people in their respective constituent are against the motion. They need not to agree with the motion just because the party says they must.

Of course, unity in the party is important but when it comes to the good of the society, the need of the people comes first rather than the party. They need to decide what is best for the people, not for the party in this particular case.

If the two reps are going to be punished for what they did, then freedom is seriously threatened. If this is going to happen, I suggest we change the name Malaysia to Oceania.

Finally, the dreaded water supply issue with Singapore. The leaders in Malaysia have acted very immaturely in handling it. All I heard for the leaders and the papers were accusations rather than constructive ideas. The same goes to the island across the narrow straits (Come on man, you want to declare a war against Malaysia? Yeah, you could do a surprise attack but the shock won’t last as long as you want. Instead, the outcome of the war may result in Malaysia gaining extra land!)

Nevertheless, whatever the accussations and the counteraccusations are, Singapore has agreed, more or less to meet Malaysia’s earlier demand. Why must we need to drag the issue further? I say we accept the offer and keep quiet. There is no need to be a kiasu.

After all this, quoting Mr. Veera again,

“This is politically motivated and a waste of tax payers money.”

EOM.

p/s – you guys do know what EOM means right? Do you guys ever heard the word brb? I mean COME ON!!!

Categories
Personal

[92] Of an angel

I was on my way to the Engineering Campus late in the evening. All I could think of was how relieve am I to be done with almost everything for the week save the upcoming test tomorrow. How fortunate was I to complete a discrete math assignment in just within seven short hours. The assignment was due at Wednesday’s midnight and I had more than an hour to spare. Delighted to know time, for this one time had decided to be my friend, I took the leisure to walk to the Natural Science Museum. I need to take a bus ride there but I simply didn’t care whether the bus would leave me or not. I was trying to savor the hour without letting even a single second slipped from my senses. I let the cold air into my lung and felt so thankful to God to let me breathe the sweet air. I just walked slowly and tried to appreciate the sweetness of the clean air.

Once I reached the bus stop, I saw the bus was about to leave. Nevertheless, I did not mind and simply walked toward the bus without much haste. Fortunately for me, the bus driver was kind enough to wait for me. I got onto the bus and to my delight, I saw Vinay in the bus. I had a little chat with him until I need to get off the bus.

Afterward, I submitted the dreaded assignment and walked back to the edge of the Media Union for the bus again. I stood there and surveyed my surrounding. I saw how beautiful the North Campus is at night. It reminds of the Perdana Lake Garden back in Kuala Lumpur. My eyes still enjoying the scenery until my eyes noticed an angel. I observed her for a fraction of a second until I broke the contact.

The bus came. I went into the bus. So did her.

I sat somewhere in the middle of the bus and she was standing near the driver. I wonder why she didn’t take a sit while the bus was simply empty. Perhaps she was going to get off the bus somewhere nearby. That was what I said to myself. And it proved to be true later.

While on the bus, I could not stop looking at her.

She had a fair skin.

A pleasantly bluish colored snowcap covered her blonde hair with a comforting dark brown scarf dangled around her neck. She wore a jean with a blue overcoat. She would be all in blue except for her cotton hand glove, which was purple in color.

Her face looked sad, or maybe even angry. Yes, she more or less looked angry. Nevertheless, even with a raging hatred, she was stunningly beautiful beyond words.

She rang the bell and the bus stopped to allow her to get off. My eyes followed her outside. Later, she was gone, for good. I on the other hand, was still in the bus, moved by her beauty.

Categories
Personal

[91] Of life goes on

I think I will take a break from writing about the future for this entry. The Future series demands me to spend more time than I had planned to invest earlier.

After all my life, I have finally realized that the thing that had kept me going on was the phrase “life goes on”.

Whenever something bad happens, I will regret it but at the same time, I will tell myself to go on and forget about unfortunate event that had befallen me. My inner voice will always say too bad Hafiz. It is your fault but there is no point of blaming, is there? Learn from it and live on. Hope for the better for life goes on.

That was the only thing that had given me hope to live on. Hope for the best. Yet, it seems that hope is something forsaken. On everything that went against my favor, I went through it and hope for a brighter future – nevertheless, when I went through it, immediately after that, the situation took another turn, for the worse. How could it be? How could it be when you said life goes on, life seems to take a worse twist?

Yes, life goes on but must it always be for the worse? Aye, perhaps always is too tough a word but from my perspective, the word always appears to be an underestimation.
A person somewhere in war torn part of Africa, where famine is everlasting, is it possible to hope, to see into the future and say tomorrow is going to be better? How is that possible when now, right at the very moment, that person is dying from hunger, lying on his back while his face faces the scorching UV? Is it possible to say life goes on when at the very moment, when it seems that life is non-existence in the very next minute?

Just a few days ago, I found a better phrase to hang on to. Concentrate on the moment. Yes, hope for the best but hope is nothing when you just hope and dream. What makes hope possible is the moment that you are facing now, at the present, at the very second of your existence; not the past neither the things that will be. When a person is dying from hunger, he (I refuse to use “she”, I am a chauvinist and yes, chauvinism still exist well into the 21st century. At least I am not an extremist. I think that feminism movement should be banned but let us not steer into that water just yet. And oh, I am a little bit racist but let put that aside) needs to concentrate on the moment, find the precious water to live on, not yelling silently to himself I am going to die nor I am going to live through this. If he says he is going to die, then he will not try to search for water. If he believes that he is going to survive, he will depend too much on blind hope.

All he needs to do is concentrate on the moment. He may die but at least he concentrated on the moment and did his best to survive.

Aye, life goes on but like what Yoda said, concentrates on the moment.

I am having a terrible headache now and I have an exam on Thursday. I am worry about the exam but I need to concentrate on the moment. I need to sleep to let the headache pass through me. I need to concentrate on the pain rather than the exam first.

Good night, and pray for my future.

Categories
Future Sci-fi

[90] Of I dream of an utopia IV

Space Lanes and Spaceports

Once the Solar System or at least the inner region of the system is populated, there will be space lanes, much as the present shipping lanes transporting goods and people across vast distance. Although it will take sometimes before lots of lanes to be defined and accepted among the public, the only lanes that will be accepted will be the safest or the fastest route. Once the space lanes are defined, space buses will be the main vehicle transporting Human back and forth from Earth to other colonies. The existence of the lanes is vital to Human expansion in space. It will enable ship pilots to save time instead of trying to figure the best way to navigate their ships.

These lanes or sort of course will not be built with similar fashion as the tube. It would be ridiculously stupid to buill a tube from one place in space to another. By the way, the hazard of meteor shower or the same sort prevents such idea to be implemented.

Instead, a buoy will be placed after every certain among of distance along the lanes. The buoys will transmit some kind of signal to traveling ship. The signal gives out useful information regarding navigation.

One would argue that these buoys be effectively be replaced by a space station placed in a quadrant or so. However, communication between a ship and the station will take time. The buoys effectively tell ship pilots.

Buoys nevertheless do not dismiss the importance of a space station. It must be stressed that these buoys will be under the jurisdiction of the station.

There will at least space station in every planet’s orbit, controlling the space traffic of a particular planet. These space stations will usually act as spaceports, a commercial center of a planet. This will allow space traders to sell their goods at the spaceport instead of descending to the planet and waste precious energy.

There will also be stations built in the middle of space, especially in the middle of a long space lane. The station will act as a pit stop and an entreport station.

Back to the orbit, the spaceport will possibly have an extra feature, or at least a spaceport with a solid planet rather than the gaseous Jupiter or Saturn. The feature will accelerate the economic growth of a planet rather dramatic and check the demand for fuel effectively. Spaceports in Earth’s and Mars orbit will be the upper part of a space elevator. For more information on space elevator, read a past posting in The __earth Inc. here.

To be continued…