Teachers or educators ?

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) could not help posting this inspirational piece which was forwarded to me by a friend. Read on ..............

*According to a news report, a certain private school in Sydney 's **
> Eastern Suburbs was recently faced with an unusual problem.. A number of
> the girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the
> bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would
> press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints .
>
> Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the
> girls would put them back. Finally the Headmistress decided that
> something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and
> met them there with the maintenance man .. She explained that all these
> lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to
> clean the mirrors every night (you can just imagine the yawns from the
> little princesses) .
>
> To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked
> the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He
> took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet bowl, and
> cleaned the mirror with it. The silence was broken by a large number of
> gasps, a few girls vomited and apparently someone fainted. Since then
> there have been no lip prints on the mirror.
>
> There are teachers . . . and then there are educators

How true !

.... of Ho Chi Minh City and South Vietnam (Part : 1)

Yours Sincerely ( Y s ) is back on holidays again after spending 6 days working in South Vietnam - waking up in the wee hours of the morning, having people to make your bed for you, zipping and unzipping luggage, checking in and out of hotels, feasting on hotel buffet breakfast, dinning at choicest restaurants on exotic food, going up and down the tour bus, visiting sites and places, snapping photographs ........ and that is what Y S calls WORK.










As Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) entered Ho Chih Ming City from the airport, Y S was head ached by the buzzing over loaded ( Y S saw one with 6 riders, practically the whole family. If there were some more space, grandpa and grandma could also travel along. ) "Kap Chais" ( In Cantonese, they are small C.C. motorcycles) which buzzed in and out of traffic with their incessant " pip.... pip......pip .......pip" announcing their presence on the road. The "pip...pip..pip...." and even seeped through the crevices of the windows of Y S's budget hotel, smacked right in the city centre, like hordes of mosquitoes. Crossing the thoroughfares of city is a chilling experience, not for the faint hearted, of course. The "Kap Chais" are kings of the road.

Anyway, in a city with practically no public transportation: city buses, LRTs, MRTs whatever how do you expect people to go about ? However, Y S was enthralled by the abundance of glistering, poshy , bourgeoisie MPV taxi plying the roads in the city. So much for communism, eh ?

Y S' visit coincided with the Vietnamese' New Year of the Cat. So, there was a double celebration of the Cat and the Rabbit. Both seem to get along well in Vietnam.

The double event also coincided with a floral and book exhibition. So, the streets of Ho Chi Minh City was overflowed with locals and tourists.


This is the Chinese made tank that crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace and reunited north and south Vietnam. A brave reminder of what people's power could do !

Eating on low stools and tables on the five foot ways or on the beach seems to be the national pastime. A family is having a meal together at Vung Tau.

In Vietnam, do as the Viets do. Y S was having some bean curd on a low stool. Btw, it was hard to get up after the meal, not because of the meal but the lowness of the stool.

When you travel, make friends and share experiences. Strangers are friends we have not met and spoken to.


This is the statue of "Christ The Redeemer" at Vung Tau. To reach the statue are many flights of steps, about 500 hundred, I panted and lost count. Then you have to go up some more steps to the top of the statue. The view of the city and coastline of Vung Tau from the shoulders of Christ is rewarding, well worth the effort of climbing up.

This is among the weirdest fish Y S consumed. It has been very deeply fried until the scales stood out and curled up. The waitress will then peel it up for you. The flesh is then enveloped in a piece of thin rice paper with some vegetables. It is dipped in chilly sauce before being consumed.

This is the happiest Buddha statue Y S has ever seen in all his travels.
When you travel, loosen up and merge with the locals. What a treat Y S had with four pretty Vietnamese damsels singing their folk songs. Of course this photo costs money : D 100,000.00, Don't worry that is about RM8.00. ( About 2 USD) In Vietnam, you spend like a millionaire.

This is the Notre Dame Cathedral of Ho Chi Minh City. Imposing architecture, resembling its namesake in Paris but it has no compound, saved for a patch of green at its facade and this is also taken up by hawkers as their trading space. Two busy roads traverse on its left and right.


Y S took a sampan ride on a tributary of the Mekong River. This activity is specially created for the locals' livelihood. Well, it is one of its kind, somewhat like those gondolas on the canals at Venice.

.... Y S is working

This blog takes a break because Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) is working in Vietnam. Will be back home on holidays soon with stories and photos. Adious !

Rabbit Lunar Year

Wishing you

a fulfilling,

joyful,

healthy and contented

New Lunar Year of the Rabbit.

Thank you for crossing paths with me in the cyber world. I cannot think of anything else but carrots, carrots and carrots for the Rabbit Lunar Year.

~ doubtom ~

.... are we lonely ?

We are all, each and everyone of us, completely and irrevocably alone!
No matters how many friends a person may have ( could also be siblings, relatives or even spouses) , nor how close those friends may be, it does not change then fact that we are each an entity in ourselves. You would have experienced the dismay feeling of being more alone in a crowded room than you were actually physically alone.

A thousand and one persons would have greeted you last year with the question, "How are you? " Have you ever answered that question literally ? Really told those people how you really were ? Told them your personal aches and pains, about your troubles etc etc etc. If you have, you would have noticed a subtle glazing of your acquaintance's eyes after a few moments. Then they get fidgety, and probably leave you talking to yourself !

Your troubles and problems are yours, and nobody really cares. The reason being that others have problems and troubles of their own, and perhaps more important or bigger ones.

So, we are really alone. But, there is a way to relieve that loneliness .......

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) finds that answer lies in overcoming the overpowering dictates of the great "PRIVATE I ." Most of us are imprisoned in that seemingly escape-proof cell of ego, that dark, despairing dungeon of self, and to believe that the entire world revolves around " me ."

Force yourself to be interested in others. Try to think of others as another "I" instead of "he" or "she" or "they."

Instead of thinking of what to say next when someone talks to you, listen to him. If you cannot help, then feign that attention for a start and soon it will be cultivated. Y S always feels a personal loss if he does not listen and learn from others. Y S has a friend who can rattle on and on from topic to topic, issue to issue, theme to theme etc etc etc all the way from Alor Setar to Penang, and ......... back. In his presence, Y S never feels lonely.

If you have trouble listening to people then you cannot be interested in them. You cannot relieve that relentless loneliness until you can be interested in others.

Having retired from 35 years teaching service where Y S used to talk and talk down to docile students, cultivating interest in others and listening to them is a pleasurable change.

What do you think?

... of criticism from the pulpit

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) wonders whether priests or pastors have the God given legitimate right or licence to criticise blankly from the pulpit. There have been instances in my church when the parish priest ruthlessly, point-blankly, and strongly lashed out at certain individual, individuals, groups and teams in the church. To Y S, lashing out from the pulpit is like hitting below the belt because you cannot expect the congregation to answer back or at the very least clarify the issue.

There is this " throwing out of hat" criticism whereby you wear it if it fits you. Then, there are times when the hat thrown out is so tailored that it is " FS " or Free Size and seems to fit everyone, or it is tailored XXL, so large that it fits almost everybody's head, and you keep wondering whether the criticism is directed at you.

Of course, there are culprits for whom the hat is meant for, but they are not seated at the pews in church to receive the hat. So, the poor faithfuls who have been attending church regularly get the hats thrown right into their faces Sunday after Sunday ! It is like preaching and preaching to the converted !!!

There is also this "to whom it may concern" criticism, so loudly proclaimed that it injures your ear drum even though you know fully well that you have nothing to do with it. Again, the receivers are not in church to be corrected.

An injurious occasion Y S could remember was when the church choir was mercilessly criticized from the pulpit. Following that you could hear the choir members sang with lumps in their throats, and the choir master who had tried his butts to form the choir was red in his face. He resigned after that. Being criticised from the pulpit can be pungent and hurting. The choir master had even stopped coming to church. He attends another church a distance away. Perhaps he could not take the shaming. Well, Y S does not blame him. It is hard to take criticism which border shaming in public, especially in a Christian public in church !!! This was done a lot in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Y S himself was once publicly criticised in a priestly meeting. An ecclesiastical meeting which Y S thought would have been motivational, upbuilding, merciful, gentle, kind and all the positive heavenly adjectives you can think of. There was this robed person with many years of priestly vocation and who was not attentive to Y S' presentation as he was playing "Soduku" , opened his caustic mouth, introduced his opening paragraph with, " I HAVE TO EDUCATE YOU that ....... " right to Y S' face. Y S has forgiven him but somehow the words still ring in my subconscious. Y S does not have Alzheimer so it is hard to forget such critically cutting criticising remarks.

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots. Mahatma Ghandi once said that " Throughout my life I have gained more from my critic friends than from my admirers, especially when the criticism was made in courteous and friendly language. " They say that a trained diplomat can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.

While criticism has its good point, it should be handled out and received with loving kindness and care and above all the dignity of the individual involved should not be sacrificed on the altar of the pleasure of blasting out the criticism. It may give you the feeling of being John the baptist for a short while but then it has no changing effect but breeds ill will and division.

If the criticism involves a individual, do it gently in private. If it involves a couple, invite the two persons and do it in private. If it involves a group, summon the whole group and do it in private. If it involves the whole congregation, then by all means, do it diplomatically with Christian love and charity from the pulpit.

What say you?

... of anger

Do we realize that "anger" is only one letter short of "danger."

This is one element Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) has been trying to tame three quarters of his life. It can surge out like the ferocious hot magma of a volcano and burn kiths and kins, all alike , if not properly contained.

And if you speak at such juncture, you will make the best speech you will ever live to ever regret for anger opens the mouth and shuts the mind. As it is rightly pointed out, an angry person is like a match stick which has a head but it has no brains.

Better Half once told Y S of an ugly scene in our church compound where the self provoked angry parish priest unnecessarily lost his cool over a very petty matter. One of the parishioners over-parked his car. The front wheels slightly rested on the floor of the church foyer. It was a minute matter since the floor is built of stone but the priest, unknowingly, was provoked by his apple polishers. He indulged himself in rudeness, yelling, anger ( These are a weak man's imitation of strength) and finally " ordered the poor parishioners out of the church" !!! The person involved who is a good friend of Y S is still nursing his wounds. So much for "love" and " forgiveness in the church, eh ! An angry person is seldom reasonable and a reasonable person is seldom angry. King Solomon in the Book of Proverbs, says that "a quick tempered man does foolish things." If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size ??? ( Good thinking )

Another pointer from King Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes, " Do not quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools." If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow, says a Chinese proverb. Anger can be like a stone thrown into a hornets' nest ! It is one letter short of D A N G E R.

But then, it is also said that holding on to your anger only gives you tense muscles. Blowing up gives relief. There were instances in Y S ' life when he should have lashed out at certain unreasonable and rude people but then he chose to hold his cool rather regretfully and let the culprits get away Scot free, and thinking that they are perfectly correct .

What do you think ?