Mabuhay Manila!

The choir which sang folk songs from Asian countries

From left: Eugen (Germany), Baibonn (Philippines), me (Malaysia), Chan (Vietnam) and Harry (Australia)

I just got home from a symposium in Manila.Second visit to this land of beautiful and hospitable people (although a friend told me they were also constantly at each other's throat over petty things).I met up with some wonderful people I met 5 years ago.Krip, Jimmy, Danton and George (G and his tunang came to my hotel) And oh! Chan was there too and we met Eugen at Starbucks, Megamall.Finally! Pics as above.

I got lucky with Dr Mariam's choice (Baibonn took me around.What a nice, crazy woman she is! We shed tears together at Hossein's as we ate our lamb bryani.She told me about her mother, butchered mercilessly in the 1970s and how she escaped marriage at 9 or 10) She showed me how Manila had progressed.I love their malls which are shopper-friendly (Trinoma has beautiful, spacious gardens.Baibonn says there are more but we don't have time to visit them all.Prices are cheaper in Manila than in KL, folks).

The symposium itself was nicely organised.I also found out who my real friends were and what made genuine scholars genuine. If they are reading this, wave!

BERSIH vs REMPIT

Banyak yang berlaku selepas Deepavali (open house Datuk FOMCA kat Maharaj Restaurant bagusssssssss...I know nama kuih2 Deepavali which I ate when young during Deepavalis: kalu rendek, niyi rendek and paito rendek.Syok sangat makan sampai tak sempat ambik gambar from Penthouse Restaurant tu). Sebelum tu hadir GHEF 2007 at Nikko.I malas balik, I took a room (Man bagi discount).Best juga bertekak pasal Higher Education worldwide.Sekarang semua negara maju nak mai Asia sebab kita pasaran besar untuk education industry ni (untungnya billions beb!) Europe nak buat block dia gayanya...Amerika dah mula kontrol Gulf countries (kata Aslam, sapa2 nak buat MoU dgn unis mereka kena ada accreditation dari this American body.Binggung betul! Lebih percaya org asing dari sedara seIslam)

Yang I benggang semua nak berlagak mcm good samaritans bila bercakap pasal giving access and equity tapi masih selective (mesti beri pada yang berduit, ber-internet, ber-electricity) Someone asked hok kat war zones tu sapa bagi access to higher education? Palestine? Iraq? Afghanistan (kebetulan I spoke at AIKOL to an NGO from Kabul yang kata 70% of their population tak pergi sekolah sebab sekolah takda). I rasa tak salah kalau kata terang2 we are in this biz cos' it's the best money making industry.Tak payah la nak bermuka2 kata we are helping the marginalised by having Open Unis or e-universiti (kalau baik sangat bagi la free education!). People of the old school would be concerned with quality and academic excellence.Yang hamprak sibuk dgn market forces. I came out from the session on Access and Equity truly disillusioned. Nasib one VC from South Africa (dia orang Muslim tapi hebat!) bentang paper which gave me hope.

Yang nyata orang2 negara maju sukakan competition.Orang Asia disuruh go for collaboration oleh VC USM (who spoke very well tapi ada juga suggestion dia yang merbahaya like open the door to all..no minimum requirement.Wei...kalau areas yang menyabitkan nyawa, how? Like Medicine or Engineering? La ni byk komplen engineering students tak leh baca manual books in English..bila buat jambatan, jambatan runtuh, etc.Apatah lagi those yang buat Medic).

News hebat is the successful gathering by BERSIH on Saturday.I was at Nik's friend's Open House (so sure gathering tu tak jadi cos' the rakyat were intimidated by Msian fear culture).I sat next to this guy yang dapat reports/pics of the gathering (so I helped text the world about dev in the city.Dah lama nak jadi pemberita!). I could not believe they got the Agong.Pandai elak polis! But how do you control a population whose IQs are higher than their leaders'?

As long as they are peaceful marches, why fear? Buat tak tau je.Besoknya semua balik makan nasi 4 pinggan balik.

Mat rempit pi mana on Saturday? Depa pun pakai baju kuning kot? :))

Gambar-gambar di sini: http://www.harakahdaily.net/bm/index.php/utama/koleksi-gambar-perhimpunan-rakyat-save-malaysia-restore-our-rights.html