Learn from Korean girls

The day we lost the Thomas Cup Group tie to Japan, I know that there is no way we can win the Thomas Cup even though we may get into the semi-final. Our weakness was clearly exposed; we were over-depending on Lee Chong Wei and the first double pair of Koo and Tan. We then needed to steal a point from the second and third single or the second double, which in my opinion, was an uphill task. That was the plan, one and only plan, no other options, that’s best we have.

But when we defeated Denmark in the quarter final, everybody got excited again. Our faithful badminton fans thought that our players can create another miracle by defeating China in the semi final and go all the way to lift the Thomas Cup just like we did it 18 years ago. Sometimes, too much of optimism doesn’t seem to be good as higher expectation may lead to greater disappointment. Lee Chong Wei went into the first match against his nemesis Lin Dan of China thinking that he must win or else there is no way we can win. Just like when he was fighting against Lin Dan in the Olympic, the pressure was too great for him to win our first ever gold medal, he failed miserably. There rest was history.

Watching Korean girls fighting the Chinese in the Uber Cup final this afternoon was very enjoyable, nail-biting and emotional arousing. I was supporting the Koreans, hoping them to stop the domination of the Chinese. I supposed many local fans in the Bukit Jalil Stadium were also cheering for the Korean girls, as most of the fans could be fed up with the domination of Chinese players in the sports.

One thing that we can learn from the Korean is their fighting spirit, the never say die attitude. If we go and fight the top rank player with shaky legs and upside down stomach, surely we are going to fail miserably, just like how our players went down to the Chinese players in the semi final. We lost 3-0, all straight sets, apart from Wong Chong Han fought a good battle in the first game against Chen Jin, Lee Chong Wei and Koo/Tan never looked like they were fighting, they were merely returning the shuttles and made countless unforced errors, there were no fighting, I didn’t enjoy the game at all, I shouted out loud, hey come on, fight-lah, lose also never-mind. The Korean girls fought like lioness, they were in the right frame of mind to crack the great wall and to terminate the Chinese 12-year domination in the Uber Cup and they did it in style, they make history. I hope our players can learn something from the Korean girls.

Tomorrow I will be cheering for the Indonesian in the Thomas Cup final.

Why taking risk?

One of my lady colleague was killed in a car accident while she was carrying out her job visiting an oil palm estate just about a week ago. It was a freak accident as the 4-WD that she was sitting in, which was driven by another colleague over-turned on descending from a slope. Both of them were initially alright despite the car turned turtle but when she tried to climb out from the vehicle, the car over-turned one more time and this time around she was not so lucky and sustained serious head injury. It was a tragedy, a young mother left behind a 3-year daughter and a grieving husband.

During an official function carried out yesterday, this unfortunate incident was highlighted by our MD himself. The MD appeared to be both sad and disappointed as a lot of efforts and money have been put in to ensure the occupational risk is reduced to the minimum but yet such fatal accident is still unavoidable. But that’s what is it, for the rest of the employees, except for someone who really closed to her, it is business as usual and some especially those involved in occupational safety seemed to be worrying more on their KPIs rating rather than anything else.

As I always tell my colleagues, safety issues should not be taken lightly as it could be a matter of life and death. I remember many years ago when I was visiting an oil palm estate in Serian, Sarawak, we came to a huge pothole on a narrow estate road. I told the assistant who drove me around for field visit to made a turn and used other alternative road, seeing that our 4WD might get stuck, my companion refused to and said that with his 20 over years of driving experience, such bad road condition was peanut, so he confidently drove as hard as he could to get over the pothole and we got stuck. I stepped down from his 4-WD, he tried all his tricks and skills to come out form the mud but the car went deeper and deeper. I told him to call and get some helps, for heaven sake. My friend told me it was out of phone coverage. I looked at him and he looked at me somewhat regrettably.

As we were waiting for people passing by to help us getting out of trouble, we got hungrier, this friend of mine kept on puffing, eventually finishing a package of cigarettes. I supposed he got his stomach filled with all this nicotine and thus reducing his hunger. I’m not smoking, I got hungry, what a pity. By the time one estate tractor passed by and helped us to pull our vehicle, it was long passed the lunch hour. By the time we get out from the estate and reached the small town Serian, it was almost evening.

Since then, wherever I visit the estates during raining season I will tell this funny incident to the person who drives me, 20 years of experience doesn’t mean you would get stuck, why take the risk, no that there is no other alternative road.

I pray that my unfortunate colleague who succumbed to death so unexpectedly will rest in peace.

What has gone wrong, BAM?

What a great disappointment and what a shame. Malaysian men squad went down tamely to Japan in the Thomas Cup Group B tie last night. After Lee Chong Wei and first double Koo and Tan gave us a comfortable 2-0 lead, I thought we could have wrapped up the game easily but it was a great shame that we went down on all the remaining matches. Wong defeated, not surprising as he already past his prime but the second double and Hafiz were simply too lame, too weak and simply not up to the standards.

It was amusing or rather, a great shame, seeing how nervous our minister of sports was when he was drawing ballots in fixing the opponents for the quarter final, so worried of us facing China. And probably the minister has got some lucks, we avoided China in the quarterfinal but will probably meet up with the hot favorite if we can first get past Denmark. Can we defeat Denmark if we can’t even get past Japan?

Apart from Lee Chong Wei that we can really proud about, I don’t see anyone else has the same caliber to fight against the best of the world. Chong Han is long past his prime and Hafiz is simply so erratic and for all the money the government pumped in, putting up world class training facilities and line of foreign coaches, we seem not capable of producing a bunch of good badminton players that could perform well at top levels. What has gone wrong?

We need a miracle to lift the Thomas Cup again this year. The head coach Rashid has urged his players to emulate the success of the 92-Men squad which went down 2-3 to Korean in the group stage but fought like injured tiger to win the trophy. I guess Rashid is in the right position to say that because he was one of the players lifted the Thomas Cup in 1992, but he is over optimistic, I suppose .

But for most of badminton fans who watched the Group B match between Malaysia-Japan, we know that it would be extremely difficult for us even to get past the Danes, as our apparent weakness in the second and third singles and second double were made known to the rest of the world during the match with Japan last night.

Mother's day

My mom passed away 16 years ago. Sadly I never have a chance to celebrate mother’s day with her. When she passed away, I was just about to graduate, just about to start my working life, just about to earn my own living and be independent. So unfortunately that my mom never had a chance to enjoy mother’s day just like any other ordinary mothers do but that’s how life is, fair or not, that’s life. I wish that she could be around especially when there are too many obstacles in life that it would be good to talk it out to someone you love the most.

But this world that we are living in has evolved to such a dismal state that we often see some parents abusing their own children, some even killing their own child. Some teens are so disrespectful to their own mothers, some beating their own mothers, some even murdering their mothers for petty things. Unless a person is already out of his mind, or otherwise, how could he hit his own mother, a person who carries him as a fetus for a good 10 months, a person who has to endure the great pain of labor.

It is a good experience for some 1500 primary school students at a school in Gombak that these young pupils were asked by their school to hang an egg on their necks for a day "imitating" their pregnant mothers, so that these young pupils can appreciate the hardship of their mother in carrying them for a good 10 months. Of course, these cheeky kids will never understand the real challenges of being a mother, neither do I, but at least the idea is good, reminding the young pupils on how difficult or “inconvenience” to be their mothers.

Be transparent to the public

The turn of events is sometimes so unpredictable that we get confused on what is right or wrong. At first IGP stood firm behind his men responsible for shooting dead a 15-year old boy Aminulrasyid. He threatened to call his crew off the street as he felt that the public was unfair towards the police force on that incident.

I guess due to increasing public uproars, the government set up a special panel to monitor the investigation of the incident. The panel had then urged the police to resolve some inconsistencies, among others, was the boy reversed his car in the way trying to knock down the police, and was there really a machete inside the car as allegedly told by the police?

And today, there is a new twist to the event, the policeman responsible for the shooting was charged at the Shah Alam Sessions Court under Section 304 of the Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The policeman faces a maximum jail term of 30 years if found guilty.

Why was the policeman charged if he was only carrying out his duty as told by the police big boss? Or at all, the whole episode involved some cover-up right from the beginning? I guess just like Athantuya case, somebody got prosecuted and that’s it, case closed, nobody know what actually happened.