FinallyAdded a Links site to the 'Essentials' menu, and redid the 'Woman in the Mirror' segment. Have a peep if you've got a few spare secs.
Signing out for today.
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/5/2003 08:03:12 PM// Your Say. . .
Officially...Officially, I've moved into yet another new template. I've used BlueRobot's Flanking Menus as the basis, and as time goes by I'll be changing the colour scheme a bit [unless I come to a point when I think the current scheme is just nice]. If you noticed, I've also not put in the links up yet. This should go in as a separate page soon; and you should be able to find it at the Essentials section of the menus.
Other than that, Alhamdullillah.. 4 hours well wasted!
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/5/2003 07:15:08 PM// Your Say. . .
Latest updateManaged to sort it. Had something to do with the background colour. Well sorted now. Yeay!!!
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/5/2003 06:54:31 PM// Your Say. . .
More updatesPrevious problem solved.
New problem crops up: My pictures don't appear in the content box if they are aligned "left" or "right".
Any ideas, anyone?
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/5/2003 06:40:17 PM// Your Say. . .
UpdatesI've just managed to redesign the website somewhat. Still can't get out of a minor fix - which is if I am to list multiple posts here i.e. more than 1 days worth, the CSS embeds the content within the main box, causing it to make the page crash in a way.
So if any techies can help me out with this, YM me [prof_sadin] and help a poor lost soul today..
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/5/2003 06:34:15 PM// Your Say. . .
MantraFriday, April 4Time: 1457 hours, Saturday 5th April 2003
Note to self:
I will not gloat
I will not gloat
I will not gloat
I will not gloat
I will not gloat
I will not gloat
....
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/5/2003 03:05:04 PM// Your Say. . .
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." - Aldous HuxleyWednesday, April 2One of the many campaigns that have either taken off or relaunched actively post-war is the Boycott campaigns. Of interest are two - Boycott Corporate America campaign and Boycott Apartheid Israel campaign. I am not going to list all the products one should boycott or why you should boycott them - you can find those lists and further information on the links I've provided above. But there are two issues I would like to discuss - the effectiveness of such boycotts, and what we should strive to do beyond these boycotts.
Skeptics among you may think, what difference does it make if I don't buy a McD burger or a can of Coke or Pepsi? How much of a dent will my £1.99 or 65p hit these corporations' sales figures and earnings? Well, admittedly, boycotting is a collective thing - it's something that is better done in groups rather than all alone for maximum effectivnes. But don't think that the boycotts people have done today haven't made a difference. Check out this news piece about Pepsi's earnings. If we can do this to Pepsi, then we can do this to many, many more corporations too.
The other reason why people are generally reluctant to boycott is that they are afraid there is no alternative product that would provide them the same consumer satisfaction to which they have thus become accustomed. This is somewhat true - bar a few, almost every item that we consumers consume today are related to America or Israel in one way or another. And in the short term, there seems to be no way for us to tackle this issue.
In the long term, though, there is a potential solution. That is, if people are willing to commit to the cause. I'll take Malaysia as an example. There seems to be an extra... excessive even, emphasis on the sciences and the technological fields, both at high school and even more so at university. In the end, it is hoped that we will be able to create something that is good enough for the world market. Fair play. But except for the professional social sciences such as law and accounting, there seems to be a dearth of emphasis on the other aspects of the 'softer' sciences.
Take business studies. You don't see many universities regard marketing, human resource studies and advertising as 'critical research areas'; in most places of study, these disciplines are considered second rate - courses for students who fail to make the grade to study accounting or finance. But look at the success of Coca Cola, Kodak and Disney. What is the core of their continued existence? The brand. And it isn't the engineers or computer scientists who made these brands what they are today - they are a product of marketing and advertising. So even if we have managed to design a technological product that is world class - do we have the expertise to market it and pitch the sale? Have we invested as much in creating this great marketer as we have in creating this great product?
Let's take the arts as another example. No one will ever deny the power that is the written word. Books and good literature make their way into homes of millions; and they are a powerful way to tell a story and to push your point of view. Movies are another example - look at the movies Hollywood churn out every year, and how they make a difference in our lives and influence our views on the world, whether we realise it or not.
We think we are not able to compete with the West and its strangle hold on the mass media - I think we have not tried. And why not? Because we don't have the expertise. Why don't we have the expertise? Because it isn't a 'critical' area for the development of a nation, and so it is not endorsed. Is it not important? I beg to differ.
Realistically speaking, if we want to be the best, we must first learn from the best, take what they know and improve it. The average Malaysian today, though, cannot afford to study abroad without some form of financial assistance, and because advances in the arts is not part of the 8th Malaysian Plan, well, there isn't a 'budget' to fund such studies.
If we can afford to send people abroad to learn how to make world class cars, then we also have to train people with the expertise to sell the cars onto the world market. If we want the world to stop and listen to our views, then we have to learn to use the right medium which they have been using for years - television, movies, books and other tools used to distribute popular culture. How can we change the way people view Islam and contradict the misleading ways it is being portrayed by Western cinema if we don't try to beat them at their own game? Do you really think movies like 'Lagi Lagi Senario' can cause a ripple effect about the way people think about Islam?
There has to be investment today to make a difference tommorow. Overemphasis on selected areas such as engineering, information technology and accounting will only lead to three things - too many engineers without a job, too many IT experts without a job and too many accountants without a job. And if you ask some of these jobless graduates if they would have done another course had there been a scholarship and a clearer career path - most would probably answer in the affirmative.
A civilisation isn't just about the bricks and the mortar. It's about the arts too. Unless, of course, we are not interested in creating a civilisation, but merely an existence that makes no mark. If we want to be able to be self-sustaining without relying on other people's products, then we have to have a balanced development of all aspects of life - because of two reasons. One, because all these elements are interrelated. And secondly, America is nothing more that a marketing plan gone right. They can be beaten, if we want to beat them.
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/4/2003 11:25:16 AM// Your Say. . .
"A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely." -Pam BrownTuesday, April 1
I made a long-distance phone call to Malaysia today, to a very close friend whom I haven't been in touch with for a while. She suffered a personal loss not-so-recently; and if this was a time where I was near, physically, I knew I would have been there on the scene to comfort her. But with me being here, and her having not-quite-the-right-email address; the email which she wrote to me telling me of the pain and the anguish got lost in the black hole that is cyberspace. She has since recovered; but the sense of guilt that I am feeling lingers. Not a new sentiment, for those who know me well, but still... I feel her pain because we've been through quite a bit together. InsyaAllah, kalau ada rezeki tu, ada lah rezekinya...
Student Evaluations
We got our student evaluations back yesterday - for the ACF100 tutorials. Overall I think I did quite okay. There were 16 questions, ranging from the level and quality of the tutorial questions to the tutor's presentation, to the overall quality of the tutorial itself. The top score was 5, lowest score being 1. My best mark 4.27 / 5.0, which was for the question "The tutor was willing to answer questions". Thank goodness the question did not say "The tutor answered all the questions right". And my lowest mark was 3.50 / 5.0, for the question "The tutorial questions were of an appropriate level of difficulty". Which really doesn't say much to me, because I don't choose the tutorial questions.
Of course, student evaluations have to be taken with a pinch of salt. It isn't hard to be overly popular with students if you give them exactly what they want - a copy of the final exam questions, for instance. And it isn't hard to be unpopular if you stick to your professional guns and do what is ethically right; reprimanding them for instance, for coming to tutorials unprepared, establishes your authority but could easily get you the unsavoury monikers of 'bitch' or 'cow'.
I recall a conversation with a Masters student in my flat, who expressed her dislike for a certain lecturer for whom I have the most respect for - because his exam questions are on the wrong end of the easy-hard spectrum, and that his marking is allegedly strict. Another lecturer, for whom personality is not a fetching feature, is rated highly because he gives easier exam questions.
Students, when given a choice, would always go for the paper where 'it is easier to score'; and hence, get good grades and get top honours. You'd ideally want to be in the learning game for the sake of learning; and that they would go for the tougher courses because it is worth its weight in the knowledge it gives - but perhaps that's a bit too idealistic, even for a postgraduate student like me.
I remember a friend fretting because she missed graduating with 1st Class Honours by a few marks - mainly attributable to relatively low marks in her law paper. In retrospect, she said, she should have taken a mathematical based paper like Forecasting, because that would have given her better marks since maths is a definite science - and fellow graduates who opted for that paper instead of a philosophically laden paper like law managed to get 1st Class Honours. I said to her, well, think of the knowledge she gained and how useful it would be in her life as a professional later on, as opposed to taking a maths-based paper when she was not planning to be a financial modelling analyst. To which she replied, At the end of the day, people will look at my cert and see 2nd Class Upper and they certs and see 1st Class - employers won't ask about the relevance of a forecasting or law paper; at least not in Malaysia.
I duly shut up.
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/2/2003 11:14:59 AM// Your Say. . .
"We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists ... in the loved one, perfection." -Sidney PoitierMonday, March 31Officially, it's summer. Okay, so the clocks went forward on Sunday, but I always think of summer arriving when April does. Which was quite ironic, in a sense, because today 'summer' was greeted by torrential rain, gusts of wind, dark, menacing clouds and a barrage of hailstones some time this afternoon. Aahhh.. the triviality that is British weather.
Now that the clocks have gone forward, it seems there are more hours for me to spend at the office before it gets dark. Maghrib is at 7.30-ish and Isya' at 9-ish. The office seems to be my favourite haunt nowadays - even managed to surprise Ramzi by telling him that I spend between 8-10 hours here everyday. He seemed to recover when I said that not all hours are spent on fruitful pursuits. Some hours are spent on other matters of less PhD-like significance. Such as updating this blog.
Although, of all days since the beginning of the Easter break, I must say today has been one of the more productive days. I managed to polish off a bit of Econometrics, a chapter of the Mulford and Comiskey book on creative accounting, and tonight, before I leave for the day, I will read and analyse April Klein's paper on Earnings Management and Boards of Directors.
More on the War
All is not well for the coalition forces. On 29 March yet another British soldier was lost to 'friendly fire' when a US A-10 Thunderbolt anti-tank aircraft fired at a British light tank on a recon mission. Yesterday, the survivors of the attack spoke out of the recklessness and gung-ho attitude of the American pilot who shot them down. After the first time the tank was shot, one soldier came out and tried to signal to the aircraft, which circled and went on to attack the tank for the second time.
The survivor described the pilot of the aircraft as a 'cowboy' who had 'gone out on a jolly'. He criticised the American for having no respect for human life - because the attack was made very close to civilians. To add insult to injury, not only were the British vehicles supposed to have been spotted using a thermal device, there was a Union Jack flag flying to identify them. But then, given that some Americans think Britain is in Africa, the red, white and blue of the Union Jack may well have been mistaked for the red, white and black of the Iraqi flaq.
Which is really nothing new. Only this morning, American troops killed 7 women and children after their vehicle allegedly failed to stop at a checkpoint near Najaf, in Iraq. Over the weekend the continous bombings of market places caused even more civilian deaths - the US tried to blame it on Iraq again, but remnants of the missile indicated that it was more likely to be of American origin. Unless, of course, the Iraqis bombed their own people using missiles supplied by the US?
I try hard not to hate Americans, because the average American has done me no harm. I don't know what the term is, really.. perhaps.. a distaste for the attitude of right-wing Americans is a more appropriate description. But I keep finding that there are many reasons why I can't embrace this group of people with open arms. Is it mere coincidence that the state that have been most vocal about being pro-war is Texas - home of George Dubya, and the state that executes the most of its death row prisoners? Texans = cowboys and rednecks; hmm.. reminds me of Georgey. The most recent entry of Pronounce's weblog talks about why Americans just aren't his / her favourite people.
Mostly, thought, I feel sorry for the Americans. Because they have allegedly the most sophisticated weapons, and yet no intelligence to make us of any of them. In the words of Lance Corporal Steven Gerrard [no, not the Liverpool midfielder], "We can identify a friendly vehicle from 1,500 metres [4,921 ft]. You've got an A-10 with advanced technology and he can't use a thermal sight to identify whether a tank is a friend or foe. It's ridiculous"
They have one of the most well-trained soldiers, or so they would like to think. And yet there is a severe lacking of common sense among these troops. Shooting randomly at innocent civilians - women and children, to boot - in self defence? I'm not quite sure I can buy that, regardless of the nationality of the soldier, even Malaysian.
America is a country that is all for free speech. That is, if all is said in its favour, it seems. Pullitzer Prize winning journalist Peter Arnett was sacked because he gave an opinion on Iraqi tv that the initial US plan, in his eyes, had failed. I can see this sacking happening in many countries around the world, but in the land of the free? It doesn't seem just quite right.
I also feel sorry for the Americans because they live in perpetual fear - again as a result of their own government's policies. A senior Intel engineer has been held without charges for making a donation to the Global Relief Fund that distributes zakat to health facilities in the occupied West-Bank territories and mosques and Muslim schools in the US. Apparently the fund has al-Qaeda links - probably in the same way that Iraq, too, are supposed to have these links.
It seems that the Americans leaders justify any miscarriage of justice or liberty by saying al-Qaeda. It isn't hard for the American public to take this all in - it seems that their media is more controlled than ever. Apparently, according to a former British Commander who served in Bosnia, Bob Stewart, his friends in the US know not of the friendly fire incidents. British lives are also just as valueless as Iraqi lives, it seems.
Do your bit
Have some spare cash lying in the bank? Do your bit by donating to Islamic Relief's Iraq, Palestine, Checnya and Afghanistan funds. You can do that online.
posted by Prof_Sadin 4/1/2003 08:04:52 PM// Your Say. . .
Nowhere near a manic MondayA slow Monday today. Not much going on. Spent most of today catalouging and filing my journal papers. Managed to nick a few boxes off of Abang Syed; so can now put the papers into at least two categories: read and unread. I suppose tomorrow I'm going to have to categorise them into the subject areas soon as well.
Also need to get a move on with the website design project. The basic website is complete; just needs some tweaking before it can go 'on air', so to speak. Hard to get anything done since I don't have FP2000 at the office; and need some verifications before I can make some modifications. Not much else to say, really. Too 'out of it' to make any proper contributions. Tomorrow morning, perhaps.
posted by Prof_Sadin 3/31/2003 08:48:50 PM// Your Say. . .