Oxymoron In The Tropics

Frightening to be a teacher?  Sounds laughable, right?  But I do feel fear when I am in school as a teacher or an administrator.  Some people would call me paranoid but I think it is better to be paranoid than to be in a dock in some courtroom or at a hospital bedside some place. Let me twist a Robbie Burns poem How do I fear thee (O' burden of a teacher)? Let me count the ways... 1. In Loco Parentis In English, that means 'in the place of a parent'.  In legal terms, that means a teacher is expected to be as responsible as a parent for the safety of his or her students while they are within the school grounds or under his or her care.  And they may be liable in the same way a parent would be, where the law is concerned. I attended a course by an IAB lecturer way back in 2000 and listened in horror as she detailed the many different ways I could've been in trouble with regard to the way I dealt with students.  If a rock falls on a student within ...

As a teacher, I have had many memorable experiences but one of the most fascinating has got to be observing my colleagues from other states as they deal with their first days in Sabah. Born and bred in Sabah, I never really had much reason or opportunity to question what sort of image Sabah presented to the outside world (which includes other states in Malaysia) until I went to university in Kuala Lumpur.  And, of course, when I began working as a teacher. My first inkling of how 'scary' Sabah can be to outsiders came during my third year in university.  I had coursemates who quickly got married ... it was the first time I had ever heard of 'nikah gantung'.  Apparently, they could get married but it was a sort of 'marriage on hold' (if such a thing exists..).  What mattered was that they could get a marriage certificate that would help 'save' them from the jungles of Sabah and Sarawak.  Then, during the briefing I attended to receive my first posti...

I have friends who have been with me from schooldays or campus days.... we've been through happy times, stressful moments... even anger and long silences. But when I think of them, I feel a warmth deep inside my heart for they have lasted the mile.  After all these years, they still want to be my friends :)  I told a friend once that when you put your trust in a friend, you are giving that person a knife, which he can choose to put away and never use.  Or stab you in the back.  But I didn't tell that friend that it is possible to survive stabs in the back and still remain friends with the other.  It takes time for the wound to stop bleeding and the heart to forgive, but it is possible. --------------------- There's X, who shared many adventures with me, even though there were points of friction between the two of us.  But I would like to think that deep inside, both of us see beyond those points of conflict.  I appreciate her for being willing to share many enterprises ...

Income tax returns and I haven't been on good terms for the past ten years. It all began in 2000 with a letter from the LHDN office in Kuala Lumpur demanding money.  From statements, the letters steadily degenerated into reminders and then thinly-veiled threats.  So, like any dutiful citizen, I trotted off to the LHDN office in Bandaran Berjaya (the old office) and tried to pay.  Lo and behold, the counter staff refused to accept my money.  They kept insisting that I didn't owe them any money.  I told them that the income tax payments were for my account when I was unmarried.  However they'd deleted that account.  And under my new account, I had no debts.  So I went into a small room where an officer looked at my file and then told me to go home.  Six months later, I got another letter from Kuala Lumpur, telling me that I still hadn't paid (no kidding???) and that I was in danger of losing my limbs.  Hmm, I'm kidding about the latter...