Category: Sosial

Mohd Khair: Cabaran-Cabaran Yang Dihadapi Masyarakat Melayu

Cabaran-cabaran yang dihadapi masyarakat kita sekarang ini dan akan datang bukannya sedikit, berlambak-lambak…(senarai di bawah ini tidak menurut mana-mana keutamaan)

1. Masalah anak-anak yang tidak mendapat pendidikan agama (jumlah peratusan yang tinggi)

2. Generasi muda yang tiada atau longgar pegangan agama

3. Generasi tua yang tidak kesah tentang agama

4. Keluarga-keluarga yang tiada nilai atau kekontangan nilai

5. Anak2 muda yang berzina secara selamba macam anjing kat stesen bas

6. Anak-anak yang dilahirkan luar nikah

7. Ketidak cukupan keluarga Muslim untuk mengambil anak-anak angkat Muslim (adoption)

8. Ketidak cukupan keluarga Muslim untuk mengambil anak-anak Muslim sebagai anak titipan (fostering)

9. Anak-anak yang tidak atau kurang mendapat bimbingan dari ibubapa dan kemudian melakukan pelbagai kesalahan

10. Institusi keluarga dan struktur rumahtangga yang rapuh mudah roboh

11. Isu perceraian yang orang kita sudah jadi champion semenjak berdekad lamanya

12. Isu perceraian di kalangan para datuk dan nenek (ini maslaah baru dalam masyarakat)

13. Suami atau isteri atau kedua-duanya selingkuh dan berzina sehingga ada isteri yang hamil anak orang lain

14. Masalah penagihan dan pengedaran dadah yang masih lagi belum selesai

15. Cabaran pendidikan untuk lebih ramai lagi anak-anak kita yang berjaya

16. Cabaran untuk mencelikkan sebahagian para ibubapa yang masih lagi rabun akan masadepan anak-anak mereka

17. Cabaran dayakerja (employability) para pekerja kita dalam zaman globalisasi yang begitu cepat berkembang dan berubah

18. Cabaran terhadap persaingan dalam peluang-peluang pekerjaan dalam konteks pembanjiran para pekerja asing

19. Cabaran risiko pembuangan kerja para pencari nafkah kita

20. Cabaran bagi yang telah hilang pekerjaan

21. Cabaran akan hilangnya istilah persaraan di masa depan apabila setiap warga perlu kerja sehingga ke liang lahat

22. Masalah hutang & tailong di kalangan individu dan keluarga

23. Masalah kesihatan dan pakej penyakit 3-in-1 atau 4-in-1

24. Cabaran persaraan warga senja

25. Cabaran muslimin dan muslimat yang masih membujang dan belum mendapat jodoh, terutama di peringkat usia melebihi 35 tahun

26. Cabaran kos kehidupan yang semakin meningkat

27. Cabaran membantu keluarga-keluarga dan individu-individu yang kurang upaya atau kehilangan upaya untuk berdikari

28. Cabaran membantu muslimin dan muslimat yang kebingungan akan identiti jantina mereka (isu LGBT)

29. Isu tudung (belum selesai lagi semenjak awal tahun 70an lagi)

30. Isu Autisma dan lain-lain keperluan khas yang semakin meningkat di kalangan anak-anak dari keluarga Muslim .

…dan banyak lagi cabaran dan masalah tidak tersenarai di sini

Dan kita sering dipesongkan dan disibukkan dengan isu-isu yang langsung tidak akan membantu kita menyelesaikan cabaran-cabaran dan masalah-masalah yang tersenarai di sini (dan yang lain-lain lagi setentunya).

Tidak ada orang lain melainkan kita yang boleh selesaikan masalah dan cabaran ini semua.

Kalau kita hilang fokus, maka hilanglah kita.

الله المستعان

Source: Mohd Khair

September 23, 2016
Kajian: Bayi Dengan Saiz Kepala Lebih Besar Mungkin Lebih Berjaya Di Masa Akan Datang

Bayi yang dilahirkan dengan saiz kepala yang besar berkemungkinan lebih bijak dan akan mempunyai masa depan yang berjaya.

Demikian menurut satu kajian yang dijalankan oleh Biobank Britain, yang menyatakan ada kaitan kukuh antara tahap kebijaksanaan yang tinggi dengan ukuran keliling kepala dan saiz otak yang besar, lapor laman Daily Mail.

Sekitar sejuta rakyat Britain dipantau oleh badan tersebut bagi mencari kaitan antara gen, kesihatan fizikal dan mental dengan laluan kehidupan mereka.

Bukti terbaru ini merupakan dapatan pertama hasil daripada kajian yang bertujuan untuk memahami hubungan antara fungsi otak dengan DNA, menurut Daily Mail.

Para pengkaji menyatakan menerusi jurnal Molecular Psychiatry: “Kaitan penting dilihat antara markah ujian sampel kognitif di Biobank Britain dengan banyak markah profil poligenik, termasuk saiz tempurung otak, ukuran keliling kepala bayi dan keupayaan kognitif semasa kanak-kanak.”

Profesor Ian Deary dari University Edinburg, yang memimpin kajian tersebut berkata kelainan gen juga mempunyai kaitan kuat dengan kebijaksanaan, menurut laman The Times seperti yang ditukil Daily Mail.

Bukti terbaru ini begitu tepat sehingga pakar-pakar mendakwa ia boleh meramalkan kemungkinan bayi menyambung pelajaran di universiti di masa akan datang berdasarkan DNA.

Source: Berita MediaCorp

September 23, 2016
Satisfaction Level Up For MRT Service: Survey

Despite reports of MRT service disruptions from time to time, consumers have grown more satisfied with the MRT as well as the overall land transport sector in the past year.

The MRT had a customer satisfaction score of 66.4 in the latest Customer Satisfaction Index from April to July. This was up from its score of 62 for the same period last year.

In April, commuters taking the North-South Line suffered at least three service delays in the space of a week, including an April 25 disruption that affected services along three MRT lines and an LRT line.

“From the data, train reliability and helpfulness of staff were key drivers of quality,” said Mr Chen Yongchang of the Institute of Service Excellence at Singapore Management University (ISES), which publishes the index, at a press conference yesterday.

“And for the operators, we do see them working in the right direction by trying to fix these issues through initiatives like adding more trains, (and) replacing the signals and sleepers,” he said, adding that they had also stationed customer service officers at train stations during peak hours.

A total of 13,355 respondents were polled for the survey.

Overall, consumers were more satisfied with the land transport sector, which had a score of 66.8 out of 100, up from 63.3 last year.

Taxi services, for instance, scored 70, up from 65.9 last year.

For the first time this year, participants were asked to rate their satisfaction levels with land transport booking apps. Uber ranked first with a score of 69.7, followed by Grab and ComfortDelGro.

“Given the recent increase in the availability and adoption of mobile apps within the land transport space, we found it timely to introduce, for the first time, a new sub-sector that tracks customer satisfaction in this area,” said Ms Neeta Lachmandas, executive director of ISES.

She added that security and factors associated with ease of use of the apps were key factors in the perceived quality of the apps.

The study also found that customers have grown more satisfied with the air transport and public education sectors over the past year.

Changi Airport scored 81.4 points, up from 75.1 last year.

Customer satisfaction with budget airlines increased from a score of 68.3 last year to 69.5 this year, with tourists being more satisfied than local passengers.

Tourists cited factors they liked, such as cleanliness of the cabin, and food and beverage options, while local passengers were more concerned with the ability of the budget airline to accommodate their needs.

Also seeing an improvement was the public education sector, which improved from a score of 74.1 last year to 75.7 this year.

Meanwhile, postal services, represented by SingPost, saw a decline in customer satisfaction, from 71.5 last year to 67.9 this year. Mr Chen said this was due to its lack of ability to meet customer expectations and a decline in quality.

Source: The Straits Times

September 23, 2016
Singapore’s Paralympians To Get Celebratory Parade On Saturday

Team Singapore’s Paralympic athletes will be given the rock star treatment on Saturday (Sept 24), when they embark on a celebratory parade around town in a fleet of supercars.

Led by double Paralympic champion Yip Pin Xiu, the athletes earned the honour after the Republic’s best Paralympic Games showing, with a haul of two golds and a bronze from Rio de Janeiro.

The parade will begin at 9am from the Sengkang Sports Centre, and end at about 2.30pm at the VivoCity mall. The convoy of exotic sports cars — each carrying a Team Singapore para-athlete — will make a pit stop at the National Library at Victoria Street.

Two weeks ago, after Yip clinched her first gold medal, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu had promised: “When our Paralympians return after the Games, we will have a public celebration to honour their extraordinary achievements.”

This year, Singapore was represented by a record contingent of 13 athletes in six sports at the Paralympic Games.

Swimmer Yip made history in Rio by becoming the only Singaporean to win multiple golds at a Games. The 24-year-old clinched gold in the 50m and 100m backstroke S2 events.

Team-mate Theresa Goh won the bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke SB4, her first medal in her fourth outing at the Paralympic Games.

Team Singapore’s Paralympians are due to touch down at Changi Airport on Wednesday morning at 5.35am aboard Flight SQ67. They will emerge at Belt 42, where family members, friends and fans will be welcoming them home.

Yip and Goh will then attend a media conference at 3.30pm at the Singapore Sports Institute’s seminar room.

The celebrations have already started even before the Paralympians are home.

National carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) threw a party for the Paralympians before their flight home and awarded Yip one million KrisFlyer miles for her double gold-medal-winning feat.

In a Facebook post by the Singapore Disability Sports Council on Tuesday, the 24-year-old was photographed being presented with the reward by an SIA representative, as well as a cake, champagne and flowers.

With one million Krisflyer points, Yip can, on average, make 16 economy-class return trips or five first-class return trips to London.

Bronze medallist Goh was also presented with a first-class ticket.

SIA is the official airline for Team Singapore. An SIA spokesperson said that the national carrier is “incredibly proud” of Yip’s achievements.

“We wish her the very best as she continues to fly the Singapore flag high in her swimming career,” said the spokesperson.

Last month, swimmer Joseph Schooling, who became the first Singaporean to win an Olympic gold medal in Rio, also received a million KrisFlyer miles from SIA.

The 21-year-old came home to a rapturous welcome and was honoured in Parliament after winning the men’s 100m butterfly with an Olympic record time of 50.39sec.

He was also taken on an open-top bus victory parade around the island.

Source: TODAY Online

September 22, 2016
NorthLight’s Approach Holds Value For Singapore’s Education System: PM

When he dropped out of school at the age of 10 to care for his mother who was suffering from depression after his father died of cancer, Muhammad Asyraf Chumino thought that he would never be able to complete his studies.

Three years later, with his mother’s encouragement and support from self-help group Mendaki, Asyraf enrolled in NorthLight School, which typically takes in students who have failed their Primary School Leaving Examination.

Today, the 22-year-old Asyraf, who is studying hotel and leisure facilities management at Singapore Polytechnic, can stand tall as one of the school’s success stories. He was one of the many NorthLight School students and alumni cited by several speakers, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, at the launch of its new campus at Towner Road yesterday.

But the road to the polytechnic was not a smooth one for Asyraf.

When he joined NorthLight, Asyraf said he had problems adjusting to his new environment after being away from school for three years.

His “turning point” came when he realised how much one of his teachers, Ms Angeline Lim, cared about him.

In his second year at the school, Asyraf recalled how he was still “more interested in playing soccer” just minutes before he was to be interviewed for a promotion to Year Three.

But Ms Lim, who was his maths teacher and had nominated him for the interview, ran to the school field and stopped the match.

“She then dragged me up to the interview. I was unkempt, perspiring in a formal shirt, and Ms Lim still had to put in a good word for me to the interviewer … I was shocked that she truly cared about me,” said Asyraf.

In his speech to mark the campus’ launch as well as NorthLight School’s 10th anniversary, Mr Lee lauded the school’s “honest, pragmatic and successful approach” as one that has value for Singapore’s education system.

“It starts off with all of us sharing a fundamental conviction, that there is something special in every child. We recognise that students all have different interests and aptitudes, (and) are determined to do the best for every child,” he said.

To date, about 1,400 students have graduated from NorthLight, of which about a third have successfully progressed to various Institute of Technical Education colleges. Fourteen have gone on to polytechnics.

Mr Paul Tan, a student in the pioneer batch which enrolled in 2007, is one of three NorthLight alumni who have graduated with polytechnic diplomas so far.

The 27-year-old, who is an associate in facilities management at Changi Airport Group, said the school helped him to overcome low self-esteem by giving him opportunities to lead and participate in community service projects.

Founding principal Chua Yen Ching said teachers in the school adopt a unique pedagogy which helps students “redefine success”.

“Success is not always academic excellence. That is just one of many definitions of success,” said Mrs Chua, who is now deputy director-general of Education at the Ministry of Education.

She recalled how a teacher, whom Mr Lee also cited in his speech, had tirelessly visited a student at his home when he was skipping school.

“Each time, she would buy him the best meal from McDonald’s and hang it on his door, hoping to see him,” Mrs Chua said.

After the 14th visit, the student was finally won over and returned to school, and graduated with a perfect grade point average.

Mrs Chua recalled with a laugh: “He told me he gave up, he didn’t understand why this teacher would care so much about him … He said it was too tiring to continue hiding.”

She noted that NorthLight teachers spend the first half an hour each day on character education to “start the day right”. “We want them to know that education is not about how much money you earn or what results you get,” Mrs Chua said.

The new campus, which started operations in January last year, is equipped with more facilities for vocational education, such as a larger pastry kitchen, new training kitchens, and more extensive retail stores.

It is also plastered with motivational posters at every corner, including one that reads: “This CCTV camera records honesty/compassion 24 hours of each day.”

Source: TODAY Online

September 22, 2016