Monday, September 08, 2003
I'm so glad this blog got so many good, and some even marvellous feedbacks. It's been ages since I peeked here, so I'm obliged to make a decent post-up myself, it seems to be.
Dudes, great comments on what unfateful mess that occurs back in Bumi Kuala, although I only have the chance to get on the details not eight days or so ago. As usual, I've been extremely busy and shutted out from the world (in a way, it's just what it looks like to me). All in all, I was utterly stunned by the news. It never really crossed my cursed, evil mind to say such immoral and horrible things to your teachers, let alone until some even cries!!!!! If there's one thing I learned from the Japanese about their culture, it'd be the RESPECT for your superiors. Even in my days as a so-called cheerleader, never did I outspeak Mr. Fairuz a.k.a. Pailang, although at times I did felt like cutting him into pieces when his decision weren't favouring our side. Hey, even the great (read: enormous) Butcher wouldn't. So little bros, it's time to deliberate.
To wrap things up, I give three-point-seven out of five stars for Byn's perspective on Zion and the green system. To other avid fans of Matrixes (like myself) who needs some extra reading, crash over the matrixEssays. It'll be worth the while, I assure you.
posted by Anonymous 6:12 PM
Sunday, September 07, 2003
A friend asked me why Matrix 2 is also called Reloaded. The simplest explanation I can give is because in the movie, they revealed the true purpose of The One in both the Matrix and Zion, as was explained by ‘the architect’, which is to reload the mainframe with his life experience to enable the machines to create a better version of the matrix after Zion is destroyed. The current matrix is the 6th version of it, since its first existence when it was a perfect world, based on pure mathematical calculations and logics. But the architect found out human perfection was only leading them to doom, thus resulting in him to create another version of matrix, by adding up a bit of spice, something that the machines can never understand nor experience: human feelings which influence their volition.
So, where does The One comes in? He serves two purposes; to maintain the existence of the human race and the existence of the matrix. The machines need the information he gathered through his life experiences to rebuild the matrix, to ensure that it is better than the current one. That’s why at the end of the prophecy, The One is meant to meet the architect and choose between the two doors. One of the doors will lead him to the main frame, which will extract information from him and them let him choose the 23 human being (16 females, 7 males) to build another Zion, while the other will lead him to Trinity. The previous The One’s chose the first door, as it will ensure the survival of human race, both in Zion and those who are still in the matrix. Neo however, chose the latter, risking the complete extinction of everyone in Zion and a system crash in the matrix which will kill everyone who are still connected to it. Even though the machine realised the unexpected outcome when human are given option, they still predicted all The One’s will choose the first door, a big mistake that they overlook as Neo went through the other, carrying with him the hope to save Trinity and to free the human race from the machines forever.
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In the UK, the British acknowledge elitism in their education system. However, it is best if we get to know their system first. State schools (i.e. schools funded by the government) provide free education for all British kids. Elitism however is not popular within these schools. They are only known in public schools, which in the UK mean private schools, famous private schools that is. These elite schools are not only well known for the excellent academic performance, but also for producing students who are well-mannered, socially adept and psychologically competent. In fact, even if you visit these two different types of schools, state and public schools that is, you can see a very distinct environment between both scenes. The former school is something similar to what we have back in our country while when you are at the latter, you will be welcomed and treated as if you are someone important, not just by the staffs, but the students as well, including those who are as young as 8. Elitism standard is not mainly judged on how well the students are expected to become, though it has a lot to do with it: elite school have better teachers as they are paid higher salary than their counterparts in other schools. Their salary depends on how well their students turn out to be, both academically and morally.
One of these famous schools, as most of us are aware of is Eton. As was mentioned by Blck in his recent blog, Eton is not as famous as it used to be anymore. However, this has nothing to do with elitism, as British do not have any bad impression in the issue, but entirely due to the fact that Eton only accepts students who come from aristocratic background. Besides that, some of the products are also said to be a bit stucked-up, if that is the kindest way of describing snobbish people. The British do not fancy the idea of a bloke coming up to them bragging that he studied in Eton before, bla bla bla… Something to ponder, I believe this is the reason why koleq was once known as ‘Eton of the East’: not because of its academic achievement, though I’m not denying that koleq did produce quite a number of scholars and important figures for the country, but because the school use to only accept students who came from the upper-class and royal family only. Other than that, there is no reason at all for elitism to be criticised in this country.
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Many Malaysians, especially the Malays (no offence guys), are known to be sceptical of changes and different ways of viewing things. Many of us are tend to be conservative, looking into things from only one perspective. That is why it is hard for the government to introduce new policies which are considered as major changes to the current ruling system (recent examples are when Dr M tried to implement the teaching of Science and Maths subjects in English and the introduction of meritocracy) . This whole idea of elitism to me is a good motivation for students to set a goal at the end of their primary years to get into certain schools which are classified as elites. Even though not everyone will have the opportunity to study at one because of space limitation, but it will give the students a boost to work hard and get good results. The education standard will gradually rise and eventually, our education system might beat those in many developed countries. Children and parents in the UK put a lot of effort, but not stress, from the nursery (we call it kindergarten in our country) so that their children can get a place in elite schools starting primary. In Malaysia on the other hand, studies only becomes a big deal when public exams is around the corner, and once failed, many will become astray as they are not given a second chance to get a better deal for themselves. Besides producing good students, we are also inspiring good teachers. Teachers should also be assessed and paid depending on their students’ performance in both academic and moral. Each school should be allowed to manage separate accounts and elite schools should receive higher finances to motivate teachers to bring out the best in them in order to get higher salary.
I believe it would serve everybody good if we can imply this system in Malaysia. Start to look into things from more than one perspective. We should not live by the books all the time, following all the rules set by our predecessors, on the contrary, we should assimilate it into the current fashion. We should take risks, bet for changes to make things better. Neo took the chance to save Trinity, why can’t we? It’s not about the path we take, it’s how we go about it.
posted by bYn 12:12 PM