Archive for the ‘Indian’ category

Tamil Youth Bell Club raises Indian issues

May 26th, 2009
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The issues are:

–  no announcement in Tamil at international airports around the country.

– television news readers had failed to promote Indian culture through their dressing

– deejays on radio channels, especially Thr. Raaga, were not fluent in Tamil

In response, Dr S Subra said at the Tamil Bell function:

… agreed to bring the matter up to the Government, said television and radio channels should use proper Tamil in their programmes.

He said the influence of Western media and culture among the community’s youths had resulted in the lack of support for the community’s own religious and cultural programmes, adding that Indian organisations should act to preserve the Tamil language.

Subramaniam, who is also MIC secretary-general, said the party had urged the Government to include religious studies as a subject in Tamil schools as a way of inculcating moral values in Indian schoolchildren.

Yawn.

mother in laws main cause of divorce

May 26th, 2009
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Mother-in-laws are the main reason why Indian couples divorces – so says a study by National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN).  One can be quick to blame the suffocating mega-serials as part of the reason for this. Or the age gap  which leaves the mother-in-law stuck in the past while the daughter has move with the times.  Or even education level of women nowadays who don’t tolerate unwarranted attention and know their rights.

Next is infidelity at 25%. Blame it on ……work stress? alcohol? liberal thinking? loss of moral compass? lack of attention?

By the way, abuse is 5% of the reasons for divorce among the Indians.

Age plays are role too – it seems divorce is more apparent when on is age either below 25 or above 40. Meaning either lack of maturity, became brave, or becoming independent (financially) from the other spouse.

Parents-in-law or, more specifically, mother-in-law horror stories are widespread and with good reason as a study by the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) shows.

Meddlesome in-laws are the main reason Indian couples divorce but it figures as one of the top reasons for divorce among Chinese and Malay couples, too.

The Malaysia Community and Family Study 2004 showed that the two other factors are incompatibility at 42.3% and infidelity at 12%.

“Interference of in-laws is the main reason why Indians divorce. It is the top ranked reason at 30%,” said LPPKN Director General Datuk Aminah Abdul Rahman when presenting a paper on Malaysia’s family profile and its effects Monday at Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia.

Infidelity is a deal breaker Malay and Indian marriages but it appears to be tolerated among the Chinese.

“Among Malays, the second most common reason for a divorce is infidelity and a refusal to put up with polygamy (enggan dimadukan),” she said.

“In the Indian community, infidelity is the second highest ranked reason for divorce at 25%,” she said.

However, the Chinese considered infidelity as the least crucial reason to demand a divorce. Cheating nestled at the bottom along with health and gambling addiction reasons at 4.2%.

Surprisingly, abuse is not a reason for divorce among the Malays and Chinese, but is a known reason among Indians at 5%.

“Another overall reason that ranked high among the three races at 11.5% is ‘not being responsible’,” she said.

She explained that though the family institution was perceived as quite fragile and divorces rampant, the data showed otherwise.

“According to a population survey in 2000, only a portion of the population at 0.7% is divorced,” she said.

The data showed that divorce is more likely to happen to those in the age group under 25 and above 40.

redevelopment programme for tamil schools?

May 26th, 2009
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I never heard of any Government “redevelopment progamme”, let alone the second phase of it. As far as I know, there’s two stimulus packages in the last 7 months. Is that the same thing? Total allocation for “rebuilding” and “repairing” Tamil schools is RM130 million (30+50+80). The 60 (or 62  as mentioned below) schools are under the RM80 million package.

Redevelopment = rebuilding and/or repairing?

I’m totally lost here, so hopefully some of the MIC fellas will clear the air over Samy’s statements:

Sixty Tamil schools will be rebuilt, many with new buildings, under the second phase of the Government’s redevelopment programme, MIC president Datuk Seri S. samy Vellu said.

The schools would be redeveloped under the RM100mil fund allocated by the Government, he said after visiting the partially-burnt Selangor River Tamil school here with Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk S.K. Devamany, on Monday.

Samy Vellu said 72 Tamil schools have already been redeveloped under the first phase.

There are about 525 Tamil schools in the country, with more than 300 schools falling under the partially-aided government schools category.

Samy Vellu said the Public Works Department had recently tendered out the projects for the 62 schools, with work on the schools to commence soon.

On the Selangor River Tamil school, he said RM650,000 has been set aside by the Government to build a new building that would cater for six to seven classrooms.

MIC website being updated…

May 24th, 2009
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After the launch of MIC’s new portal nearly two weeks ago, I dropped the site today. To be slight surprise, it was updated!!!

mic-website-updated
I have to admit, that I was taken aback a bit. Didn’t really expect any changes since the launching day. Means there’s some full time staff taking care of the site, and there’s coordination between the PR people and website team to ensure materials from events are promptly updated on site.

Well done. Let’s hope its not a hangat-hangat tahi ayam thing. I’ll be watching….

Survey in schools to identify kids without birth cert

May 22nd, 2009
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A survey is planned by  Public Complaints Bureau to determine the number of pupils without birth certificates in primary schools, says Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk T. Murugiah.

He said he had received many complaints from parents and Parent-Teacher Associations that their children could not pursue secondary education as they did not have birth certificates.

Murugiah cited SJK (Tamil) Puchong where 16 pupils did not have birth certificates.

“This problem is rampant in many primary schools. I have instructed the bureau to send special forms to all schools so that they can tell us how many students don’t have birth certificates,” he said, adding the schools have one month to fill the forms and send them back to the bureau.

Its a good move. We hope to see the results of the survey and the follow-up actions, even if Murugiah may not around to see it in a month.

I remember last year, special task force were set up at NRD to facilitate identity document problems. Not sure what is the status of those task force now.

Even political party like MIC handles such cases, so one  can wonder if  the schools did not approach th party officials, since Tamil schools and MIC are very much intertwined.

Next question would be – is it the official responsibility of the school/HM/teacher to highlight such cases or can they just close two eyes?  It should be a moral responsibility of course, but then, not many teachers/officials would have the time or know-how to handle such cases. And some may think that even the kids’ parents are not bothered or unable to do anything, so why should the teacher get involved.