Thinklog Wargafikir

Imagine a climate controlled room for growing plants. You set a certain temperature, a certain humidity and lighting conditions, you will find that some species might bloom and grow beautifully, while some species die a natural death. Sayur kangkung will flourish in a greenhouse where coral lettuce will die because of the heat. The situation in Malaysian universities is not far from this. The standard ‘climate’ controlling of academia currently prefers certain type of knowledge, certain type of scholars and certain type of output that results in uneven development of disciplines. Some disciplines will be highlighted as heroes and saviors of the university ranking game, while some will be hard pressed to justify their existence in a university.  With overpowering control of academic climate, a significant portion of the academia, especially from the arts and humanities feel demoralized and worthless. They are measured based on scientific thinking and scientific publi...

Some memorable quotes from the film: Maybe god made me a painter for people who are not born yet. Life is for sowing, the harvest is not here. I paint with my qualities and faults. I find joy in sorrow. And sorrow is greater than laughter. An angel is not far from those who are sad. An illness can sometime heals us =======//====== VG: I'll show what i see, to my human brothers, who don't see it.  It's a privilege. I can give them hope and consolation. Doctor: but you are confusing people with your paintings. VG: I am my paintings. Doctor: What do you mean hope and consolation? You might be asking too much of people. VG: I like to share my vision with people who can't  see what I see the way I see it. Doctor: yes but why? VG : because my vision is closer to the reality of the world.

There is an exciting debate spurred by the appointment of Nadiem, the Go-Jek founder to the post of a Minister in Indonesia. In one speech by a Malaysian leader, his success was attributed to him being IR4.0 ready. And the ripple effect created within Malaysian academia is that this shows the importance of universities to produce IR4.0 ready graduates.I disagree.  Nadiem is a product of Harvard MBA program. Maybe the key is to look at what Harvard nurtured him to be. Harvard is not known for ICT or IR4.0 stuff. But it prepared Nadiem for something bigger. Nadiem did not invent any of the IR4.0 stuff, he just used it to create Go-Jek. We never hear Harvard or any US universities shouting about IR4.0. It is a mere buzzword so often talked about in Malaysia.  With Nadiem Harvard education,  if we were to surmise its philosophy, it was not about industry skills, it was about creativity and strategic thinking skills. Harvard produce creative and bold innovators. This is why I ...

Sharing an article. the original site can be found here https://stanfordreview.org/reductionism-and-the-future-of-the-humanities/?fbclid=IwAR31GNkFdKZ8_ZVf7I8YQ8KOSAZvAmXkSdiPYoc2SvLu0Oe4an_QI-McYOc by Christoper Fish The humanities may have been in decline for several decades now, but recent events are signaling that a critical period lies ahead for these disciplines.  The recent [cancellation of programs in literature and foreign languages at the University of Albany](http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/04/albany) was only the most recent example of colleges aggressively cutting their humanities departments to skeletal staff, often transferring the funds to more “practical” majors like business or IT administration. Many answers have been trotted out to evaluate and presumably solve the problem.  Stanley Fish, a prominent English professor at Florida International University, has argued that  the humanities are essentially useless , but  in a respon...

Recently, a director of Bank Negara Malaysia announced that the house prices in Malaysia is very unaffordable. [i] This is not news. The issue of high price of houses has been plaguing the nation since the 2000s. Simple economic theory dictates that if supply overweight demand, price will fall. Somehow this principle does not work here. Overhanging properties (those already in the market but remain unsold) are being flaunted to foreign buyers which seem to have very deep pockets, thus negate the supply demand curve price fixing mechanism. In a way it is a manipulation of the curve that push developers to wait for price increase. So, the people, whom the right for housing should be accorded to, will still be left in socioeconomic wasteland. How else do we push the price of houses down? given that the need for housing is ever increasing? One possible way is to push the rental sector to provide for houses. This would compete with the demand for properties for sale. Sound neat h...

Photo Source:  http://infocarnivore.com Watched an interesting talk entitled The Surprising Habits of the Originals   by Adam grant about the originals. Originals are people who change the world through bizarre and fresh ideas and innovations. There is this interesting study by  Cornerstone’s researchers    that reveals those employees who use chrome and firefox web browsers significantly outperform  internet explorer and safari users. They even stay  in their job 15% longer.  The reason, according to Adam: IE and safari come preinstalled default. So these users are people who just accept the default, without thirst or hunger to search for better option. People who use chrome have doubts on the the pre-installed internet explorer and wonder whether there are better ways of browsing.  To be clear, it is not about the browser, it is the type of people who don't merely accept what is given as the best. they inherently have the thirst ...

This business of ‘publish or perish’ has been a catastrophe. People write things which should never have been written and which should never be printed. Nobody’s interested. But for them to keep their jobs and get the proper promotion, they’ve got to do it. It demeans the whole of intellectual life. — Hannah Arendt This is the opning remark in article by samantha Rose Hill. the full article is here.   https://medium.com/quote-of-the-week/crises-in-academia-today-74fcbe1a80f4

Intrigued by this magazine, said to be the seed of innovative culture in Silicon Valley. An excerpt from Wikipedia: "The title  Whole Earth Catalog  came from a previous project by  Stewart Brand . In 1966, he initiated a public campaign to have  NASA  release the then-rumored satellite photo of the sphere of  Earth  as seen from space, the first image of the "Whole Earth." He thought the image might be a powerful symbol, evoking a sense of shared destiny and adaptive strategies from people. The  Stanford -educated Brand, a biologist with strong artistic and social interests, believed that there was a groundswell of commitment to thoroughly renovating American industrial society along ecologically and socially just lines, whatever they might prove to be."

(This is a continuation of my discourse on acade mia. You might want to read   part 1 and part 2 ) There is a general despair in academia.  Examining news headlines, popular blogs, viral Facebook postings, excluding those coming from academia glorifying itself, of late we get a generally bleak perceptions of Malaysian Academia. While local universities are wax lyrical about their amazing jumps in global ranking game, we keep hearing public complaints. Among the complaints we keep hearing are, universities are out of touch with industry and society [i] , low job competency of graduates [ii] , low employment rate of graduates [iii], slow conversion of innovations into commercialisation [iv] , stressful working environment for academic staff [v] , low impact of knowledge outside academia, etc. I recalled recently the top management of a public university was summoned by a minister to explain a damaging online article that alleged the university is no longer relevan...

In my previous article , I talked of the absence of an overall, cohesive philosophy for Malaysian academia. This time the focus will be on a particular philosophy permeating academic realm,  pushing out alternative paradigms aggressively. Instead of bringing about cohesion, it divides academia and degrades it into fragmented chaos. Philosophy is not a subject favoured by contemporary scholars. Any discussion bearing any abstract concept  would quickly be labelled "rhetoric" and not worth serious attention. What matters are real 'empirical' hard data. Swift judgement based on scientific data would be the hallmark of modern and sharp intellectualism. For academia, this is unfortunate. It creates the current crisis or paralysis currently infecting it. Ironically, for all the low admiration of philosophy currently in academia, it embrace one particular philosophy religiously. Admit it or not, this particular attitude highlighted above originates from A particula...

We often refer to the progress of western civilisations in terms of their contributions in science and technology. We believe if we can have access, or even replicate their technological advancement as well as achieve the same level of prosperity, we will reach the same status they enjoyed as developed nations. With relative prosperity that enabled us to acquire the best technology out there, the best infra and with democratisation of information, by right, we should be behaving and thinking like one. But yet, something is amiss. Our mentality, our culture, our politics, don’t seem to reflect one. Why can’t we do this? Do we lack the psycho-sociological make up to stand like one? (cite K Mahbubani, “can Asian think?”). Why don’t we feel like living in a developed society? We don’t behave like one, even worse, our collective way of thinking as a nation doesn’t seem to be beyond those of ancient civilisations, stuck in bygone era. If we look at our public dialogues more often th...

Berikut adalah posting dari seorang peladang sawit di sebuah laman fb bertarikh 19 j7n 2019: "Harga sawit semasa RM290 1tan Tolak upah potong RM60 1tan Tolak lori RM30 1tan tolak baja RM86.60 sebulan *1ekar/60pokok *Membaja 3kg sepokok setiap 3 bulan *Baja NPK RM65 1bag 50kg *Pengiraan ini tidak termasuk kos meracun dan proning pelepah sawit Alhamdulilah dalam keadaan semasa skrg pekebun sawit dapat bersih RM 113.40 untuk 1tan...." Begitulah posting beliau. Tapi ayuh kita lihat angka2 yang diberi. Kalau membaja dan memotong buah sendiri buat, dapatlah rm1300/bulan...dari...10 Ekar!! Bila dah tua sure nak upah orang. Kalau upah membaja dan memotong dspatlah utg bersih rm0 sebulan. Maksudnya kalau pakcik yg dah 70 tahun usahakan k sawit, dia hanya mengkayakan pengeksport minyak sawit tanpa sesen pun dia dapat. Maknanya 10 ekar tanah diberi percuma kepada kapitalis2 kaya. Persoalannya, adakah wajar negara masih cuba menyelamatkan industri sawit atau patut bertukar ...

Just watched a video on the transformation of Shenzen from an agricutural district to new technology centre, touted as China's Silicon Valley. It looks impressive. The video is  here However, I would like to raise a cautionary proposition though. China is an infant capitalist society, unbriddled one at that. It has just awoken from its socialist slumber. It is easy to paint rosy pictures when you have enough money. Elsewhere, the environmental, economic and social wreck caused by offshore Chinese money need to be understood before we rush into their 'friendly' embrace. Some people suggest China is the balancing power against US domination of world economy. Wrong, In fact the two can be allies against the world. For all the trade war and ict war we see between them, they both represent capitalism at their best and worst. Egalitarian society would have a hard time under either or both. The last 10 minutes of the documentary is interesting, particularly on the dark side...

There was an article i read recently, complaining about the sorry state of UK universities where staff are depressed and thinking of leaving. (Click https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/21/cut-throat-half-academics-stressed-thinking-leaving) So id like to propose the dismantling of the current academic authoritarian culture hankering after artificial ranking. Then I imagine the backlash from hardcore executives " so what would you suggest? Let it be free and easy? Well go back to incompetent modes low grade univ we were before?" or to quote one actual response "All hell break lose". To answer this I would like to refer the ending scene of "The Demolition Man". The film Demolition Man is about a state where crime was successfully curbed through technology that virtually it become a Utopian state, ideal, crime free, clean and seemingly happy citizen. But these come at a cost where dissenting voices and culture are curbed. Too much contr...

An interesting article here today. Among other, it says, "QS, a global education consultancy, commented last year that Malaysian universities continue to produce unproductive research with little industrial or real life use even if their ranks improved." Commentary: Reacting to the article above, we discussed ways and means for a  researcher to be better informed of the needs of industry and doing impactful research for society. My suggestions to fellow academicians. Open up. We tend to lock ourselves in our rooms, tweaking òur research for the next quality paper.  Instead, we need to put our fingers on the society's pulse. Browse social media, keep up with news and trend. Dont dismiss these as time wasting. Dont exclude entertainments and creative works, watch movies, read fictions, because these often reflect the psyche of the society. Dont rely on academic journals for the latest buzz in the industry. Attend seemingly irrelevant meetings with outsiders, for you n...

Generic KPI oriented performance is ruining Malaysian Higher Education (Original piece Written March 15, 2018). A thought on how academicians being reduced to paper churning authors and grants hoarders due to narrow Key Performance Indices (KPI): There was a man, who had three sons. He hoped all his sons grow up to be useful people. Once they reach adulthood, he said to them "Go out on a journey for a year and be a useful person". The first son immediately went off to the world and tried to be useful. The second son, hesitated and asked the father, "what do you mean to be useful? Can you be more specific?". The father said " Go and find 10,000 poor people". So he went off to find poor people who are in need. The Third son was still thinking, and said," I need to be more specific. How do you help poor people?". The father said, "If you have wealth, you can help poor people". "Ill do my best to find wealth" So off ...

Recently we read a posting of how people with talents are hindered from achieving their true potential in academia. ( https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2019/05/05/returning-home-to-work-ex-nasa-scientist-claims-sidelined-by-patronage-syst/1749791) We, educational entities should adopt a different management philosophy to that of security and  defence entities. While they insist on what cannot be done, our philosophy should focus more on what can possibly done. Our industry is dealing with liberating human mind. We educate people to invite possibilities, explore opportunities. Instead of busy putting up fences, we should at every opportunity creates opening. Also we should be less busy creating goal posts and shifting them. Today I read an fb posting by VC UMK (fb Noor Azizi ISmail) The para that attracts my attention is .. "  Being a leader we must be able to spot the right talents. They are different and unique but if given the right opportunity and support t...