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Highlights | Exclusive Interview |The Observer | Motivation Articles |Aspiration | QuickiesPublished by the Counseling and Development Unit, SSSD Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

Eighth Edition | September 2010

TheInspirer___________________________________________________________________________SURVIVING THE FUTURE: JACKOF ALL TRADES, MASTEROF ONE

THE X FACTOR: HAVE YOU GOTIT?

A CULTURAL PHENOMENON_____________________________

_____________________________

AWARENESSAWARENESS

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TheInspirer

ADVISORHaji Abdul Jalil Abdullah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMohd. Ashraf bin Nor Azrol

SECTION EDITORS`Arif Amin bin Ahmad Puzi

Nor Nadia bt. Jamal Abd Nasir

Lim Camille

Muhammad bin Hasan Azhari

PROMOTION EDITORDevashne Selvanathan

GRAPHIC DESIGNERWong Aun Chyi

Nur Izyan Izzati Abd Halim

Ahmad Fikry Mohd Anwar

Editors NoteIn Pakistan, over 200, 000 people died in one of the

most catastrophic flood in history and half a million

people in Haiti are homeless after a mighty earthquake

hit their capital. Should we be concerned about them?

No, because none of those two incidences are directly

affecting our lives. However, we should rethink our

ignorance and look into what we have become. One

day when disaster hits us, will there be anyone to help

us?

Individualism has been ripe in this university,

building upon academic performance and social activi-

ties. Yet in terms of humanity and consciousness, we

are like rats trapped in the cheese jar. Nothing else

matters because we already have everything, so why

bother about the problems of others? Although there

are events and programmes that have tried to raise

such awareness, the response in them can hardly fill in

a lecture room of 30. The reception among students is

low and demoralizing. Despite the fact that we are go-

ing to live in the outside world once we graduate,

many of us do not see their role in the society.

In this edition, we explore the idea of students

role in the society and the future that they are going to

live in outside of this campus. Under the theme

Awareness, we bring to you insights and the impor-

tance of inculcating awareness among students in this

university. We should change this I-dont-care attitude

to I-do-care if we are to become well-rounded stu-

dents. After all, we only spend at most five years in this

university, but there are many more years to come in

this real and unforgiving world.

AshrafWassalam

Mohd. Ashraf b. Nor Azrol

1

Highlights | 2Exclusive Interview: Dr. Azrai | 3

The Observer: Awareness | 5Motivation Article: The X Factor | 7Aspiration: A Cultural Phenomenon | 9

Quickies | 11

C o n t e n t _________________________________

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2ighlightsAwareness. Awareness? Awareness! What

about it? Well people, some parts of your somewhat

hectic varsity life, filled with pretty much chaos and

excitement, how often have you stop to ponder,

about environmental issues, HIV/AIDS, green house

effect, sickening actions of teenagers, or maybe poli-

tics and world economy? These are the problems

repeatedly being debated across the nation and as

university students, you and I should probably de-

velop our conscience, and be more sensitive towards

our surroundings. We are not little children anymore,

we are future leaders. If we take it for granted, I do

not even dare to imagine what will happen to our

world by the time we were to lead its development.

Scary huh? But nevertheless, lets just forget about

that for a while, because Im not going to write any-

thing about the rising world temperature, or AIDS, or

cleanliness. But rather oddly, Im going to writeabout family this time around as awareness can only

begin there.

Lift your right hand and put it on your heart,here meaning the left of your chest, because you

cant literally touch your heart. Put it there and ask

yourself, how long has it been since you called

home? How long has it been since you last heard

from your parents? Dont say it out loud, just keep

your little secret between you and your whispering

heart. Yes I know, youre busy, Im busy too, and in

fact who isnt. But do you think the word busy

should really be the reason for being distant with

your beloved family back in your hometown?

For now, reminisce while youre reading this.

Do you still remember the times when you were

three? The times when your mom used to hold you

everywhere she went in her arms, talking to the

neighbors, making you your milk, buying vegetables,

sometimes even to occasions like wedding dinners in

her beautiful dress, only to have you puke on it, but

still, she patiently cleaned you up before herself al-

though you made her ugly and stinky? Do you still

remember on your birthday when your mom and

dad blew out the candles with you and you smiled

goofily with your coconut hairstyle? Can you still feelthe warmth of their voices, telling you to change

after school and go have your lunch? Can you still

feel the touch of the rough palm that used to hold

yours snug and tight, leading you across the road,

and almost everywhere you went?

But slowly, we were not that little child in

moms and dads arms anymore. We all grew up, we

went to school, we met friends of our own, and soon

became best friends with them and told them all our

secrets, just like the way we used to with our parents.

Eventually, we all had our dreams and goals, we

moved on. We left for college, we worked extra hard

to achieve our targets, and we eventually got busier

and busier. We have a life of our own now. But what

about mom and dad? Yes, we are considered an

adult now, but in our parents eyes, we are always

their little princes and princesses. Parents, they have

never let go of us, their love have never gotten any

lesser from the day we were born. Trust me, just a

five minutes call is more than enough to make theirday, and an I love you will totally melt their heart,

like an ice cream melting down the cone on a hot

sunny day.

If parents can love us

unconditionally, regardless

of how naughty we used to be,

despite how rebellious we were to them, why cant

we do the same? They were the one who raised us

up, taught us how to read and write, fed us, dressed

us, and showered us with all the love they had. And if

there are any persons on earth that deserves our love

the most, they are our parents. They had sacrificed a

lot for us, and without them, we wouldnt be here,

and you wouldnt probably be sitting down in your

chair right now, reading this article without needingto worry about food or shelter, like the unfortunate

do. Well people, lets make the smile in the family

portrait a reality, rather than just a commanded ac-

tion to make the picture looks better. Cherish your

old folks with love and respect; make their lives per-

fect by having you as their greatest success.

By: Lim Camille

TI

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1. Why should students not be reduced to

bookworms?

Students nowadays are not what they used tobe like back in the old days. They are active in manyother things and for me that is what makes a persons

character. Years ago, we did not have the internet butnow we do, so the bookworm habit should alsoinclude those who sit in front of their computers.This should not happen. You and your computer donot make the society. Communication needs to bethere to gain the trust from the society. Students needto start networking, in reality rather than online, andhope to have many friends even from different coun-

tries. I myself am still in contact with my American

dorm mate even though we have not seen each otherfor more than 20 years.

Previously, networking was a business thingbut today, it has gone to a more personal level. Most

importantly, this creates an avenue for us to handle

Exclusive InterviewSurviving The Future:

A Jack of All Trades, Master of One

By : Mohd Ashraf bin Nor Azrol

directly or indirectly any of our future dealings like abusiness or job. Sometimes, the indirect way or friend-of

-a-friend relationship helps to move things along faster.Thus, I feel that being a bookworm has not workedbefore in the past, thus it will not work in the future too.

2. What other skills besides technical knowledge

are important?

Technical knowledge alone will not be enough.There must be other complements to accompany theknowledge such as attitude and manner. Be humble andthere is nothing to lose. In the past we did not have toteach things like this but today we have to embed them

into the curriculum. Actually, it depends on the individ-ual. We might teach, lets say leadership skills, but stu-dents may not become good leaders. Students should beable to adapt their behaviours and manners with anysituation. For me, that is what I did. I will be differentwhen I am teaching in my class compared to when I am

having high level meetings.

lose-mindedness in the university have been worrying educators for years. The vision of having a well-rounded student is unachievable as long as open mindedness is not inculcated. The Inspirer seeks to find out

the truth about this matter and we interviewed one of the most open-minded individuals in UTP, Dr Azrai b. Hj.Abdullah, Head of Management and Humanities Department of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. When he was ateenager, he ventured into selling imported calculator from Singapore to changing academic streams for his under-graduate, post-graduate and doctorate studies. He is indeed the one person you want to talk to about being open toall possibilities and muster the courage to realise your dreams. The Inspirer was glad to be able to meet him in per-son. Lets check out the interview.

C

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4TheInspirer|September2010

The Y generation mostly like to bulldoze theirway sometimes impolite and rude in terms of their

behaviour towards others. Certain things that are rude tous might be considered normal to them. That is notgood especially when it is the first meeting, as a goodfirst impression is always vital because it will determinewhether the relationship or rapport will last or not.

3. Relating to the courses that your department

offers how is inculcating awareness among students

on subjects beyond their field of study essential?

In reality, you will work within your core; letssay engineering, for mostly about 5 years. After that,people will move to management. That is why we have

electives in management here offered by my departmentso that when our students move to the managementlevel, there would be less problems for them. Even be-fore you move to management, what happens if letssay your boss asks you to do the budget for your team project. How you go about doing it is one thing butcommunicating it to others is another. That soft skill is

what our department offers to students.

In the end, everyone has a degree but whatmakes you better is when you have these skills such ascommunication skills and critical thinking. So far UTPstudents are well accepted by the industry because they

recognize our students to have better skills. More than85% of them were employed within 6 months while theremaining few are not jobless but they either work inde- pendently or chose to pursue higher degrees. Why docompanies prefer our graduate? That will be partly the job of my department to think about. Previously thethinking was a Jack of all trades, a master of none. Weneed to be specialized experts in some field of study

and be very good at it.

However, nowadays we need to be able to multi-task. A company would not want to spend on more em-ployees if one employee is able to do many tasks. Thus,

the current thinking is a Jack of all trades, a master ofONE which means we must have one core specialty beit engineering, technology or finance but we must begreat in other things as well. This is what makes peopleexcel in their career.

4. How exactly is working life like? What factors

contribute to a happy and productive working life?

The question is what makes people satisfied? Isit money, environment or passion? Different peoplehave different requirements as to what they term as ahappy working life. For me, it is when you work in

something you are passionate in. Money will never beenough. If you earn a high salary, but the work is so

stressful, it may not bring happiness. The indication issimple. If you wake up every morning and start towhine when you think of work, then you are not happy.

We must consider two scenarios: Whether theworking environment fits us or we fit into our workingenvironment. It has to work either way. If not, consider

choosing another career because the most importantthing is that you are happy in what you do. This is a

borderless world and you can go almost anywhere tofind the most suitable job.

5. What should university students do to become

more competitive in the job market?

The problem is some do not mix with others.They must mix because only then will they become con-scious and alert about the surrounding. They will beable to know the facts of whatever that is happeningaround them. Not too long ago Malaysia signed an inter-national agreement called the Washington Accord. This

allows our engineers to work in member signatory na-tions without repeating the process of gaining new li-

cence as qualified engineers required under the law of

those states. The question is when the avenue is there,what is stopping students now? Some are branching outfrom their own field of studies after a few years because

they are venturing into things that they want to do. Adegree is just grounding so that if you fail in something

you want to do, you can always fall back to your core.TI

DR. AZRAI B. HJ. ABDULLAH

Management & Humanities

Department

Specialization:

Economics Finance

Qualification:

Doctor of Philosophy in South East Asian Studies,University of Hull, UK

Masters of Science in Corporate Finance, The Uni-versity of Salford

Bachelor of Science, University of Southern NewHampshire, USA

Research:

From Natural Economy to Capitalism: The State

and Economic Transformation in Perak, Malaysiac.1800-2000.

A Behavioral Study on PETRONAS Carigali Baro-nia Offshore Platform Personnel at SKO, Sarawak.

Assessment of Pre-Selection Program (PSP) forPETRONAS Dagangan Berhad.

Organizational Communication Climate and Com-munication Conflict: Their Impact on Organiza-tional Commitment.

Development of a Prototype for a 3D Virtual Reality

in Teaching Technical Communication. Entrepreneurial Development and Small Business

Management of TEKUN Micro Borrowers.

PETRONAS Dagangan Berhad - Selection Processfor Potential Dealers.

A degree is just grounding so that ifyou fail in something you want to do,you can always fall back to your core

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5

Awareness.

We hear it all the time; awareness on health, protection of environment, global

warming, social issues and many more. But the question is how aware are we

living in this massive society?

According to Sheikh Abdullah Adhami,

The 'best awareness [ma'rifa] is for a man to

have self-awareness. And the best knowledge

['ilm] is for a man to stop at the limit of his

knowledge.' . Thus, is awareness a common

practice in todays world? This is something

for us to take into consideration seriously

about things happening around us.

As a student, the most essential aware-

ness that I think we

should have is self-

awareness. What is this

all about? Self aware-

ness is attained by re-

flecting on our inten-

tions and our actions. It is being aware of our

own emotions and channelling them in order

to achieve what we want from life. I am sure

that many of us overreact towards our lives.Some people feel that when they are very

busy with loads of works; they cannot enjoy

their lives. Some even feel that they have no

life when they had to stumble upon too much of

problems in life. Hence, self-awareness comes

into the picture. It enables us to be proactive and

more in control of our life. Self-awareness com-

mences from reflection, on trying to understand

what we do and how we might do it differently to

accomplish greater success.

Besides that, self-awareness involves self

knowledge. MahatmaGandhi, an Indian philoso-

pher once said that A

man is but the product of

his thoughts; what he

thinks, he becomes. As

we identify ourselves, we

learn to believe in our-

selves and rely on our own judgment rather than

the judgment of others. To develop self-

awareness, we need to take the time to think

things through. In todays world, the key di-lemma is that we get so caught up in the every-

day happenings of our lives that we just do not

take the time to reflect. Nevertheless, it is im-

perative for us to take a break at times to reflect,

The Observer

Self-awareness..Trying to un-derstand what we do and howwe might do it differently to ac-complish greater success

By: Devashne Salvanathan

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to look back over the happenings of our lives

in an attempt to discover how we have be-

come the person we are. Based on the re-

search done by Carl Rogers who had devel-

oped person-centred counselling, in order to

develop a persons full potential, everyone

needs to develop a positive self concept. Posi-tive concept assembles once we replicate our-

selves. The positivity and negativity in us will

be reflected and then self knowledge will help

us to work around our weakness and build up

our positivity.

There are several techniques of creating

self-awareness. George Sheehan, an American

physician stressed that the minds first step to

self-awareness must go through the body. So,

over our thinking process and tries to correctone perfect way would be by doing yoga or

meditation. It is a spiritual way of self-

awareness which revolves the mind and soul.

Christians, Muslims and many other religions

recognize the advantages of meditation. Medi-

tation leads to greater self knowledge, control

our thoughts. Besides that, we can also redis-

cover ourselves. How? This is through our

own self observation. Take a piece of paper,

and write down all your thoughts, chart your progress and decide what you see as impor-

tant. When you make your mind up about

what is important in your life then you have an

initiative of what you value. Knowing what

you value in life is a vital tool in self aware-

ness and success.

When we know what our values are,

then it is much easier to visual a path in life.

In doing so, you clearly see what is important

in life. I

Write, chart your progress, decide what is important

The world is not a problem; the problem is your unawareness.Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (11 December 1931 19 January 1990 )

Every human has 4 endowmentsself awareness, conscience, inde-

pendent will and creative imagination. These give us ultimate human

freedom The power to choose, to respond, to change.Stephen R. Covey (October 24, 1932 , age 78)

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Man who is created alone should be aware that he will also die

alone. Yet during his life, he lives almost addicted to possessions...

The only assets one can take with him when one dies is one's belief

or disbelief Harun Yahya (2 February 1956, age 54)

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There are a few old-fashioned expressions to soothefear. We usually hear of:

There is nothing to be afraid of It is only your imagination

Do not worry

These expressions may relieve you for only a shortperiod of time but the fact is these medicines donot really cure fear. It is because these phrases areactually telling you that fear does not exist. Thereality is, fear does exist and it must be conquered.

Fear has its enemy: confidence. You build yourconfidence when you conquer your fear.

How can we actually conquer fear?

HAVE YOU

GOT IT?1. SELF-TALK

What we say repeatedly gets etched into our sub-

conscious mind. That is why we have heard thatyou become what you think. So, it is a good ideato do positive self-talk. From now on, in anythingyou do, try a few affirmative phrases such as:

I can do this.

I will beat those defenders.

I am confident.

As Henry Ford saidIf you think you can do a thingor think you can't do a thing, you're right. Toshape your thinking, say it out. Check out the com-

mercial video Nike-make a difference-The Pledge.

See how those players do self-talk.

iving in a contemporary society, we cannot run away from watching and measuring people. Some peoplethrive in anything they do while some stumbles or just playing it safe. Are you aware of the difference

between successful people and average people? What is behind the victory of an individual? What is the factor

that makes him/her to succeed? In my observation, the factor is No Fear attitude or having sky-high confi-dence easily said. No Fear is the X factor that separates excellent achievers from the mediocre ones.

Fear can be an encourager, and can also be a hold-backer. Fear may or may not work for ones advantage. It

either helps someone exert greater effort or prevent him/her seizing an opportunity. Therefore, it is very impor-tant to manage our fear accordingly.

The X Factor:

Motivation ArticlesL

By: Muhammad b. Hasan Azhari

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2. PLAY MENTAL MOVIES

Imagination is better than knowledge. Knowledge islimited. Imagination encircles the world.(Albert Einstein)

One of the best capabilities of human being is to imagine.To see what the eyes cant see, to feel what is not there atthe present time. So, let us use this gift. Picture ourselvesin our mind as what we want to be. Say, you want to be agreat striker, imagine yourself playing like David Villa. Ifyou wish to be a great orator, picture yourself givingspeeches like Soekarno.

Play this mental picture as often as you can. The besttime is before you sleep.

3. TAKE ACTION, NOW

Procrastination and indecision fertilize fear. The moreyou delay, the stronger the fear inside you grows. Thebest way is to take action when the opportunity comes.When you face a problem or a choice, make the best

decision and take action immediately. After a while,youll gain more confidence and lose your fear. Lookat Nikes motto, simply: JUST DO IT.

These tips may look simple but believe me, these isenough to transform you into fearless and confident person. Anyone can have the X factor. GIVE IT ATRY, NOW.TI

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9A CULTURAL

PHENOMENON

background, you will know the reasons why they aredoing a certain act and of course when you understandhow somebody can do something wrong, in time you

will learn to forgive them and you will try to seek moreunderstanding from those people. I think right now, this

is widely done in UTP. From the actions of the StudentRepresentative Council (MPP) and the InternationalStudent Council (ISC) especially, you can see that everypart of UTP is cooperating in trying to make this culture

a norm. So the culture norm for me in UTP firstly has tobe about understanding.

3. In your opinion, does a significant difference

exist between our cultures that hinders understand-

ing and communicating between people of different

nationalities?

As I told you in the beginning, culture is about beauty.When you look at one picture, a person may say that thepicture is beautiful while at the same time another per-son deems it weird. It is the same thing that happenswith culture. Here in UTP, you may face a culture thatyou have never seen or experienced before so once you

face it you say, This is wrong. This is weird. because

you do not have a good understanding or you do notunderstand the background. You are not able to see thehidden beauty inside that culture. But once you see it ofcourse you would understand.

eing students, engineering and technology

students at that, it would be a rare find to lo-

cate someone qualified enough to address the more

common awareness issues of health awareness and

environmental awareness. With that in mind, The

Inspirer selected the topic Cultural Awareness/

Awareness on Culture Norms as this is an experi-

ence that every individual goes through. Sharing

his opinions relating to this topic is none other thanthe President of the International Student Council,

Mr. Sermphon Klaiseengern.

1. How do you define culture and how signifi-

cant is it in a graduates life?

I define culture as the beauty and the diversity whicheach peoples have cultivated from their background, thelong history of their own country and from the society

that the people have grown up in. A norm refers to thenormal practice which is done by the people in a com-

munity. So the cultural norm here in UTP, which I amgoing to refer to as the UTP culture, should be widelyadopted by all UTP students regardless of their back-ground. They are here, they are UTP students, they arein a multicultural community and they have to believethat we can stay together as one. Everybody should

accept this culture norm of UTP. It is a must that every-body abides by and accepts this culture norm so that we

can stay together in harmony and in peace. Of course,no matter what the society, as long as it is in peace andharmony, the development can obviously be seen.

2. You mentioned the UTP culture but what

does that imply?

The UTP culture is the culture of respect and under-standing. In UTP right now, we have students frommore than 33 countries all around the world which

come to study in this university and in the future I couldsee the number of these countries will expand alongside

the quality and reputation of the university which isspread by our current and graduating students all aroundthe world. The key point is that in this multiculturalsociety we need to stay together with respect and under-standing; No matter where you are from, we are now inUTP; we are UTP-ians. Of course, misunderstandings

have happened in the past. I will not give an example asI feel it is not important to mention one but the most

important thing that I would like to emphasize here ison the understanding itself. If you understand peoples

By: `ARIF AMIN BIN AHMAD PUZI

Aspiration

B

No matter where you are

from, we are now in UTP;

we are UTP-ians

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4. Is there anything the students, local or interna-

tional, should do to further understand different cul-

tures and how does ISC help in bridging this gap?

Of course we try to bridge this gap. In this year alone,

we collaborated with the MPP to organize the Interna-tional Culture Night and we do try to organize a lot of

events supporting this cause. For your information, eventhough the ISC is the main body for international stu-dents, our objective is not to only focus on internationalstudents. We do believe that the international students

here have the potential to contribute back to the univer-sity and to play an important role in promoting the repu-

tation of this university. In terms of culture, what we dois we organize International Culture Night which all o fUTP students can come and experience. In only onenight, you can see the cultures from all around the world.So we do hope that the students can receive the hiddenmessage that we try to pass to them. Even if the perform-

ances, the performers, the colours and the outfits are

different, if you appreciate it you would see its beauty.You must not only be there but you must try to under-stand it. If you are not there, you will not see. Comparingto everyday situation, if you see a situation happen andyou feel that it is wrong but you do not try to experience

or talk and approach the peo- ple involved, how are yougoing to know him? In theend, you misinterpret peopleand that is why misunder-standings happen.

5. Would you say that

the lack of awareness ofcultures and cultural differences creates a problem

for locals and internationals to gel together in classes,

sports and such?

I think the people in UTP already have the awareness but

of course when we stay in a multicultural society, con-flicts can easily happen. I would not blame the aware-ness of the people towards culture. To me, the reason behind that is more to misunderstanding. The conflictswhich happen for instance in the football games orsomething like that can happen everywhere even be-

tween the people from the same nation. So with that, I

will not blame anything on cultural awareness. I feel thatthis community, this family already has it; we just needto enhance it.

6. Can you comment on the Malaysian culture?

Anything that is to your liking or not so much your

cup of tea and how maybe the locals can help the in-

ternationals in adapting to the Malaysian society?

Sure. I will give an easy example that some of the inter-national students, including myself, felt weird and rude

seeing for the first time: The way some people call eachother by clicking their mouths. Please do not take this

example seriously but it is an easy example to give thatcan enable everybody to see the difference of culture.That is small thing actually but if you look into certaincountries, making those sounds is the way to call a dogor a cat. Some international students do not understand

it. They think Why do you call me like that? butonce they accept it as a difference in cultures, thingssmoothen out. For international students, it takes time

to learn and in the meantime we may do somethingwrong because we do not know. It is then that weneed the local students to explain. Forgiveness mustalso be present.

Fortunately, I am from Thailand and there is not that

much difference between Thailand and Malaysiaespecially the hospitality of the people. I did not havethat many problems in adapting to the society butstudents from the other regions may have some diffi-culties. Since I have a similar background to the Ma-laysian culture its easier for me to adapt. But what Iwant to request to the UTP community is to realizethat certain students are from far away and the cul-

ture there is totally different. Hence, it takes longertime for them to learn and understand the Malaysianculture but of course, once they do, they will feel

very appreciative towards it.

7. How did UTP do in the recently held Inter-

national Students Sports Carnival?

In the beginning, ISC did notexpect that this plan wouldcome to fruition. Last year,we went to the Ministry of

Higher Education to presentit and the ministry offered usthe chance to be the organ-izer of this event. With the

full cooperation from theRector and the management, the plan became a real-ity. This event truly exhibited the unity and the po-tential of UTP students. Why I say unity? For your

information, in this competition, the athletes in eachteam consisted of international students from variouscountries as well as the local students. There wereseven sports played with 11 gold medals up forgrabs. The eleven sports are: volleyball, futsal, net-ball, tug-of-war, basketball, sepak raga, and campus

relay. From the eleven gold medals, UTP managed towin 5 gold medals and 3 silver medals. UTP alsobecame the overall champion of the sports carnival.

This success serves to prove that if we are together asone here in UTP, no matter what challenges comeour way, we can achieve our goals. And it is further

proof of the tagline of both organizations which havebeen created to symbolize UTP students: United con-tributions generate excellence (tagline for ISC) andpursuing togetherness (tagline for MPP).

8. Finally, what are your hopes for the future

of UTPs multicultural society?

For the future, I just hope that we stay together asone. I want to see the UTP students where ever they

come from be it Thailand, Malaysia, or anywhereelse come together here as a family; to consider eachand every one of us as brothers and sisters. To staytogether as one by understanding and respecting eachothers culture. If that happens UTP is going to beone of the greatest places to live in.TI

I want to see the UTP

students where ever they

come from come together

here as a family

TheInspirer|September2010

8/8/2019 TheInpirer july10

12/12

11 QuickiesCow Sense

Eh Po Nim spends her tertiary years in Melbourne.One day she was at the cafeteria with her boyfriend,

Ah Loong and her boyfriends cousin.

Ah Loong : This is Ah Teck, my auntys son. EhPo Nim, my girlfriend.Ah Teck : Call me David.Ah Loong : Wah, youve got a Christian name

now? I thought people from cowboytown dont have Christian names. (Hejabbed Ah Teck in the ribs)

Ah Teck : Raub is not asmall town okay?

Just then, Eh Po Nims housemate an Australian girl

named Gail walked into the cafeteria. Eh Po Nimwaved her over.

Eh Po Nim : Hello Gail, come join us.

She pulled up a chair and Eh Po Nim introduced her

to the boys. After the introduction was over, Davidnodded towards Eh Po Nim and commented.

David : Ah Loong you sure know howto tackle a pretty girl.

Gail : What sports did you play with Ah

Loong, Eh Po Nim?Eh Po Nim : None. Tackle is not a move you make

in sports, Gail. Its a Manglish wordfor courting. To woo. Manglish is Ma-

laysian English.David : Excuse me, I have to do my business.(David got up from his seat and looked around for thetoilet)

Ah Loong : The loo is over there!(Ah long pointedto a door on his left)

Gail : What business is he in? I thought hesa student like us?

Eh Po Nim : Hes gone to ease himself.

Shortly after David returned to the table, they finishedtheir drinks and left the cafeteria together. They took aleisurely stroll back to their lodgings.

David : This is a nice weather for walking.Back in Malaysia, wed be sweating

like a pig already.

David steps down from the pavement and prances onthe road.

Ah Loong : Careful, David. This is notyourgrandfathers road-ah!

Eh Po Nim noticed a quizzical look on Gails face

Eh Po Nim : He doesnt mean it literally. Davidsbehaving as if he owns the road, but ofcourse he doesnt.

David skipped to the pavement

David : It is safer up here. If someone with

a kopi-o-license comes along, Im adead duck.

Eh Po Nim : A driver with such a license doesntknow how to drive properly becausehe obtained his license through bribery.

Gail : But, this is Australia. There arentdrivers with kopi-o-license around, EhPo Nim, you must teach me moreManglish words. Manglish is fascinat-ing. Whats the meaning of kopi-O?

Eh Po Nim : Its black coffee literally but kopi-o-

money means bribery.David : I can teach you Manglish! Its very

easy. Only people with no cowsense cant understand it. Thatmeans stupid like a cow. Sorry, I dontmean you-ah.

David gave Gail an apologetic salute.

Taken from Do You Wear Suspenders?-The Wordy Tales of Eh Po

Nimby Lydia Teh.

A cigarette shortens your

life by 2 min

A beer shortens your life

by 4 min

A working day shortens yourlife by 8 hours

Quick Thoughts

TheInspirer|S

eptember2010

Articles chosen by: Nor Nadia bt. Jamal Abd Nasir