Oxymoron In The Tropics

FFacebook poses a special problem for teachers... from my point of view.  The advantages are many and multifarious but so are the diadvantages. As usual, the most nagging headache would be TMI or in full, Too Much Information.  Especially information about personal things.  Information is always good unless interpreted in a way not expected or not wanted.  As a teacher, I most especially do NOT want this, when it comes to students. Allow me to illustrate.  And I shall use the example best known to myself : Me. By default, I tend to be relaxed, sometimes flippant, almost jolly most times :).  But I knew I couldn't be 'relaxed, flippant, jolly' at work.  It was practically an imperative at my first posting : SM La Salle.  The boys in La Salle were a motley bunch; mostly rambunctious, mostly interested in earning some certification but mostly in need of rigid supervision and monitoring.  You can't monitor boys very effectively with only sm...

Last year, I heard about the case of a lady who was stopped at KLIA and not allowed to board a plane for Europe.  Despite having a valid passport and visas galore, she was not allowed to leave Malaysia because she was on the Immigration blacklist for not paying a student loan! I'd never heard of such a case before.  Well, maybe people don't talk about it... not exactly something you'd want others to know, right?  I thought Immigration blacklists were only for terrorists and bombmakers.  Obviously I don't travel much out of Malaysia.. heh heh. I wondered if I were on this black list... coming from Sabah with rampant identity theft, it's a legitimate concern!  So I went to the Immigration Dept (Counter 16) to ask.  Lucky for me, I am 'safe'! But just to make sure, I checked online as well at http://sspi2.imi.gov.my/.  Yep, I'm still 'safe'.  I also checked at the PTPTN website http://eform.ptptn.gov.my:8080/blacklist/login.cfm.  Yep, nobo...

After saving money in Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional (SSPN) accounts for a few years, I can say that it was a good decision to begin. First of all, the RM3000 income tax relief has been very useful.  And on top of that, I got dividends too! Here's a table I got from another blog . They don't look like much but if you add that on to the income tax relief, the numbers look pretty good. Second, the tax incentive has helped me to keep saving the money in SSPN and the account terms has discouraged any withdrawals.  Well, since withdrawals can only be done one year after the account is opened and only ONE withdrawal (maximum 10% of total amount), any thoughts of withdrawing will be effectively squelched. Third, I am able to use this opportunity to teach my nephews about savings and university.  Plus, the possible uses of PTPTN loan.  Of course I also stressed the fact that a PTPTN loan is still a LOAN.  The way some students talk about PTPTN loans... it's ...