Compelling journey of discovery

 

INTERPRETIVE TRAIL: The trial covers the stories and secrets of the 150,000 people buried at West Terrace Cemetery

The cycle of the Mayan Long Count Calendar ended on Dec 21 but the world did not.

That means we all have to roll up our sleeves and face the challenges of the coming year.

In Malaysia, we have this little business of choosing our next government to take care of sooner rather later – most say it will be in March next year.

By all accounts, the next general election – the 13th since the birth of our nation -- promises to be the mother of all elections.

Both sides of the political divide are on overdrive -- in fact, for some time now.

For the man in the street, it means more struggles – the inevitable inflation, making ends meet and a host of other problems to overcome.

But there is also the sunny side of the street for us to walk on – friends, families, successes to savour and the very joy of living.

Personally, my view of facing the future has been influenced by a compelling journey of discovery and encountering remarkable human stories of courage, heartbreak, struggle and success as I wove through a foreign land.

I was in Adelaide over the past 10 days and had the privilege to walk the same roads and paths that 19th century South Australians did.

I immersed myself in the captivating and long-forgotten stories of the South Australia’s early pioneers, notable figures and controversial characters.

In the self-guided interpretive walking trail of the award-winning West Terrace Cemetery,  I “met” Sir John Langdon Bonython (1848-1939), a media magnate, politician and philanthropist; international composer Percy Grainger; Chinese community leader Yett Soo War Way Lee (1852-1909); war hero Arthur Seaforth Blackburn and ballerina Madeleine Parker.

Standing tall is Overland Telegraph Monument connecting Australia with the world. And uniquely designed is Caroline Emily Clark Memorial Garden where those buried in unmarked graves are remembered.

It was a discovery of South Australia’s rich history made in a journey of courage, heartbreak, struggle and success as I walked through the cemetery listed as state heritage.

The South Australian government has also honoured the war-fallen with a narrow slither of land marked by a partially-curved pedestrian pathway as well as war memorial plaques and stones.

It was a pedestrian route that evolved in the 1920’s and formalised in the 1980’s to honour the fallen soldiers.

Among the 33 memorial plaques, I found one that read: Dedicated to the memory of the members of the 8th battalian the Royal Australian Regiment who died while serving Malaysia 1967/69.

Strolling in the historic town of Hahndorf in Adelaide Hills, I was drawn to the history how 187 German Lutheran immigrants from 38 families (later another 14 families joined) arrived and settled down here with a negotiated contract of 100 acres of rent-free land for the first year.

The families worked and built German-Style farm houses and established businesses. Many of these 19th century buildings are still as they are with over 100-year-old elm and plane trees lining the main street and the original buildings beautifully maintained or restored to original condition.

The town has become a place to visit on the tourist map, and today, it is one of South Australia’s popular tourist destinations.

Like Hahndorf, the town Lobethal was where the German settlers set up distinctly German villages. It means valley of praise.

The annual Christmas lights festival -- The Lights of Lobethal -- which began about 55 years ago, saw more than 90 per cent of all homes and businesses lighting up for the Yuletide Season with displays drawing thousands of visitors.

I was excited about going on a fishing trip to Port Hughes. It was there that I had the opportunity to walk through the Moonta Mines heritage site.

But nothing like the excitement in 1859 when two shepherds stumbled upon green rocks and heralded a great mining dynasty on Yorke Peninsula, particularly in the mining town of Moonta, 125km from Adelaide.

A visit to Moonta Mines Museum yielded so much information that visitors came away with an overload of the richness of the town’s history.

The museum formerly housed Moonta Mines School built in 1878 to educate the children of the Cornish miners.

The mines closed in 1923, and in 1968, the children were sent to Moonta School, and the museum was subsequentlyset up in 1969.

I stepped back in time as I entered the classroom of yesteryear – two-seater desks, maps on the walls and a blackboard. A scenario well before the advent of computers and modern teaching aids.

There were nine rules for teachers which included: Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls or gets shaved in  a barber shop will have good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

A pay rise was only given when the teacher performed his work faithfully without a fault for five years.

Male teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings if they went to church regularly.

There was no mention of female teachers -- probably because male teachers were not wooing female teachers! I wonder whether any teacher could survive working under such draconian rules.

Quite clearly, the discipline, courage and pioneering spirit of the early settlers had laid the foundation of present-day Australia.

Inspired by these Australian pioneers, I’m all ready for whatever 2013 has in store. These early trail-blazers had shown that with strong will and spirit, there is no mountain too high to climb.

So here’s to putting my best foot forward.

Shed a little light

 

RUDIMENTARY: Basic needs for a rural boarding school such as decent bunks in an airy dorm. (photo Chang Yi)

 

BORNEO POST readers were outraged by its front page picture on Dec 4, showing more than 20 boys and girls of

a primary boarding school in Belaga, sleeping all crammed up in a stuffy room.

The girls’ dormitory of the school -- SK Punan Ba -- collapsed on Jan 31 this year, and after the initial knee-jerk

pledge to build a new one as a replacement, nothing has been done so far and the pupils have been sleeping ‘like packed sardines’ in one of the school offices.

A concerned parent sent a handphone snapshot to highlight the plight of the pupils in the hope that the authorities could be stirred into action.

The next day, Assistant Minister of Culture and Heritage Liwan Lagang sent out another shockwave when he said SK Punan Ba was not the only school to be neglected in the district.

According to Liwan, the Belaga assemblyman, many other schools also faced similar harsh conditions and needed urgent repairs, including the dormitory at Long Busang, another settlement in the area, which was gutted recently.

Although it is an open secret that many of our rural schools are old or poorly maintained, the furious reader reactions

to the pathetic condition of SK Punan Ba show they feel strongly against the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities in addressing this shameful situation.

The angry feelings of the readers remind me of James Taylor’s song: There is a feeling like the clenching of a

fist, there is a hunger in the centre of the chest, there is a passage through the darkness and the mist … someone shed a little light to the gloomy day.

Happily, it is not all gloom for rural schools as an email

I received from Chang Yi, a former educationist, now leading a very enriching retirement life travelling, writing and doing researches on Chinese tradition and food,

would attest to.

“Not all rural schools are in such poor shape,” she said.

Chang Yi had just visited Sekolah Kebangsaan Bario, the second school adopted by the Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWS) under the Smart Partnership Programme.

“Management is good as every arm of the machinery is functioning at its best -- right down to the gardener and cook in this school,” she noted.

She shared with me pictures of the school and the students’ activities, singling out, in particular, a snapshot of the dormitory with this observation: “The double-decker beds of SK Bario are very well-maintained. Dora Tigan is a good headmistress. She is a computer science teacher and had attended some courses in the Maktab Perguruan in

Miri when I was a lecturer.

“Schools in the rural are badly managed because although very often headmasters or headmistresses are willing to work hard, there is no response from the real bosses

in Kuala Lumpur. The communication is bad.”

SK Bario, located in the Kelabit Highlands in Baram,

has 162 pre-school and primary one pupils, and 12 teachers. The vast majority of the pupils are Kelabits while the rest comprise Penan, Malay, Lun Bawang, Chinese, Indian and Kadazan.

From the perspective of SK Bario, I see the picture of able leadership in the headmistress, backed by her team of dedicated teachers and staff, and most importantly, supported by a pro-active community.

From my childhood experience of going to a small rural school, I know the bonds run deep in small rural communities.

We might not have the best facilities but the community ensured the most basic needs of a school such as a conducive learning environment and an adequate and

safe building -- were provided for the children.

Back in the good old days, there was no unnecessary bureaucracy -- all we had was a community thriving with strong ties of love and hope and a burning desire to see their children grow and bond in a decent place of learning.

However, the role of the community in maintaining a school has shifted more to the government. The attitude now is that it is the government’s duty to provide financial support to schools although it must be emphasised that

the community’s continued support for education,

especially in the rural areas, remains indisputably vital.

The close link between a school and the community can enhance our children’s sense of purpose in complementing efforts to prepare them to become useful citizens and productive workers in the future.

Sharing the same line of thought is this reader’s email to the Borneo Post: “Let us move forward with positive action and do something about this. Will Borneo Post shoulder this move as a civic duty towards humanity?”

It is heartening to note from a recent interview that Welfare, Women and Community Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah is now promoting the value of volunteerism through her ministry’s We care and we share programme.

She said: “We want to promote the value of love, kindness, generosity and compassion. We want to instill and nurture the culture of social responsibility through community involvement, and encourage people to care and share with one another.

“We must not let modernity take away the kindness of human nature as the country continues to progress and move forward. In fact, the government has declared 2013 as year of volunteerism.”

As Jack Shekton, founder of small schools cooperative, aptly put it in an interview on a life connected to

community: In schools not connected to place, kids don’t have a role and they’re anonymous; the teachers are anonymous; the places are anonymous. I don’t believe morality is a function of anonymity.

Now that we have marked Sk Punan Ba on the map, it’s no longer anonymous. So what’s the task standing before us now?

Killing me softly with his song

FROM THE HEART: A silent prayer for charity in the face of adversity.

SHE moved from table to table in a busy coffeeshop with a basket of vegetables and some foochow dumplings.

Stopping by my table where I was having breakfast with my young children, she said in Foochow: “Auntie, please help. My daughter-in-law met with a road accident -- the children need money to buy textbooks and milk powder.”

My young children, clearly shocked that their mum was showing no sympathy, pleaded: “Mummy, please buy her vegetables.”

I did not. She moved on to the next table. Not quite recovered from what they saw, one of my children asked: “Mummy, is it because she looks older and she called you auntie and you were not happy, so you didn’t help her?”

It was a then unpleasant experience, especially when I was taken in earlier by her sorrowful tales of mishaps and her fake goodness of offering more than she was actually making from selling her ware.

My suspicion of her contrived state of poverty was confirmed when I found out that her son actually has a high-paying job at a reputable company, her daughter-in-law did not meet with any accident and the veges and siew mai she sold were overnight stuff.

More than a decade has elapsed and my children have grown up. But the woman still tells the same old story to make an easy buck -- like the interminable accidents her daughter-in-law seems to meet day after day and her grandchildren perpetually remaining infants in need of milk powder – apparently forever.

Moving on -- last month, we were dining at a western food restaurant. Three persons stood in front of us -- one of them strumming a guitar – and sang us a song. After that, they placed a card on the table and asked for a donation supposedly for a foreign charitable organisation.

Come to think of it, we are actually a land of charitable people – very often, we stand ready to oblige some outwardly well-meaning musicians “strumming our pain with their fingers, killing us softly with their songs.” Even with some doubts in our minds, we still open our wallets and contribute freely!

Then there was this 74-year-old businessman who donated a piece of land to two associations in the hope that a building could be erected for the benefit of the members and to earn some income from renting out the space.

One year had passed and there was no news of these two associations embarking on the project. Another year gone with no good news either -- and a third year slipped by in dead silence.

The old man gave the associations an ultimatum through the media to produce a concrete plan within a month or he would reclaim the land for other philanthropic purposes.

There are some who ask whether the elderly Good Samaritan is promoting himself by reminding the public – through the ultimatum -- that he has donated land to the associations?

But the spetuagenarian told the media that he was not promoting himself, saying he was old and just hoped to see his wish fulfilled. He reminded the media not to play up his ultimatum.

Can the kind old timer’s wish be realised? Can he reclaim his land and give it to more deserving quarters? This will be his “charity pains” in the days to come.

Lately, it seems more and more people are claiming to represent certain benevolent bodies and asking for public donations. I find it easier and less guilty (why should my conscience be pricking?) to turn down these people politely by telling them I have my own donation plans.

I have come up with a “how to donate” list to avoid the pain of knowing my better nature has been taken advantage of. The tagline is be the hunter, not the hunted – do not respond to solicitations for money. Instead, decide what causes you genuinely want to support.

Rule No. 1:  Give to someone I know. They can be my friends, my friends’ friends or family members or a project raised by my friends. There must have a personal connection.

Rule No. 2: Give to those in immediate need, like during an emergency or disaster. But then, we still need to be careful about which organisations we are channelling our donations through. Go for well-known charitable bodies or own church. Take one more step to check how efficient these bodies are.

Rule No. 3: Give to those whom you can visibly see are in need -- like a physically challenged person.

Rule No. 4:  Look for organisations with good stewardship -- that is how they manage their funds and transparency. I have seen organisations raising a million ringgit while spending RM500,000 on a charitable dinner to immortalise their charitable acts. Whether what they have lavished on the dinner are from the donations received or funded by the organisation concerned, the money could well have gone into the charity fund.

That leads to Rule No. 5: Evaluate how the charitable organisations portray themselves in the media.

There is an increasing trend amongst society in general to give to charity or raise awareness about a charity with the agenda of looking good in the process.

Some people use their donations or charity works to lift their own profile and expect to be acknowledged for it rather than going about it without any fanfare purely to help others.

Charity is supposed to be a noble, selfless act that should be kept from the public eye, especially the media.

“Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” is a hard act to follow. Most donors are not only adverse to keeping their acts of generosity secret, they also make sure reporters and photographers are on hand to record their humanitarianism  for posterity.

There is a clear line between giving to charity and promoting oneself in the name of doing charity to gain attention and publicity.

But, let’s not shy away from “charity” just because it hurts sometimes. Our greatest good for humanity is in helping others help themselves through love that is not influenced by selfish motives -- certainly not like the vege and dumpling seller who attempted to project her depravation in public -- but then, not everyone is fooled by her disguised trickery.

Have you googled yourself lately?

Yes, I googled once this week and was thrilled with the result that popped up!

You can say I am vain but probably it is more a digital age’s pleasure.

You can also say it is a paranoid thing to do (googling yourself) but after the court asked Google and Yahoo to compensate a Melbourne man A$425,000 in two separate lawsuits recently for linking him to one of the Australia’s most notorious underworld figures, it is perhaps justifiable to find out who you are in the Google search engine.

Melbourne resident Milorad Trkulja was in a restaurant with his mother in 2004 when he got shot in the back by an unidentified hitman. He survived the attack but the crime was never solved although he reportedly knew who shot him.

The shooting was reported in Melbourne Sun Herald and the article posted on various websites devoted to crime in Melbourne.

Trkulja, a former music promoter and prominent member of Melbourne’s Yugoslav community, claimed a Google search of his name linked him to the same league as Tony Mokbel, an alleged murderer and a drug trafficker, and Dennis Tanner, an alleged murderer.

The search engine implied he was a figure so prominent in the underworld that his rivals hired a gunman to kill him.

According to Trkuja, this led people to conclude that he was also a criminal when he was actually a victim to an unsolved crime. He claimed it did so much damage to his reputation that one couple refused to sit next to him at a wedding.

He contacted the Internet giants and requested them to take action which was not entertained.

He sued Google and Yahoo for defamation. Subsequently, the court asked Google and Yahoo to pay him A$200,000 and A$225,000 respectively in two separate for defamation suits.

Google argued it was not its fault, claiming it merely picked up stuff other people had produced which, it pointed out, was a reflection of the content and information available on the Internet.

However, Justice Barry Beach rejected Google’s argument and put the search engine in the same category as a newsagent that distributed papers and magazines, saying the man was “entitled to an award of damages that vindicates him.”

This is not an isolated case. Google is not only facing this lawsuit.

The former First Lady of Germany Bettina Wulff has also filed a lawsuit against Google for ‘autocompleting’ the search when her name was enter-ed into the search engine with “prostitute” and “escort.”

If you google regularly, you would have noticed how Google “autocompletes” your search by giving you many suggestions.

Google said the suggested “autocomplete” emanated from the searchers’ curiosity and not Google’s assessment.

Have you found a reason to ego-surf and see how the Internet “brand” you online? I did so once, just once!

And Yes, I was thrilled to find another “me” through the magical Google search engine. And that “me” is all over cyberspace.

The animated Me dot com homepage invited me to enter to discover a brilliant young magician.

Australian author Geoffrey McSkimming has written a book titled Phyllis Wong and the forgotten secrets of Mr Okyto.

The book was introduced this way: “When a series of seemingly incomprehensible robberies takes place in the city, Phyllis realises there is much more to the crimes than meets the eye. It may be baffling her friend chief inspector Barry Inglis but Phyllis is determined to find out more.”

Geoffrey had been appearing in bookshops and schools in Australia in August and September 2012 to read to the public in conjunction with the publication of his first Phyllis Wong story.

I dropped an email to him, and he promptly replied:

Thanks for your email and I’m glad you are excited to find another Phyllis! My Phyllis Wong is a young magician who thinks in a brilliant fashion, and uses her detection skills to try to solve mysteries that are happening all around the city where she lives.

The first story, Phyllis Wong and the Forgotten Secrets of Mr Okyto, has recently been published and already gone into second printing, and I’m here in Paris at the moment working on the second Phyllis Wong story which will be published next year.

You’re not the first Phyllis Wong to find me. Another Phyllis Wong – a photographer from Sydney – has made contact through Facebook and she likes the story. She also found out about this by Googling her name.

I used the name because it sounds lovely. I find the hardest thing for me as a writer is to come up with the best names for my characters (I’ve written over 21 books) and Phyllis Wong is just right for the young girl magician-detective. It sounds perfect.

I’m glad you don’t mind that she is your name-sake. I think you will be proud of her. Her great grandfather was one of the world’s most famous and successful magicians before his mysterious disappearance on stage way back in 1936, and Phyllis has inherited his love of conjuring from him.

There is surely no cause for me to take up a case against Google. But one could expect with the precedence of Trkulja Vs Google & Yahoo, the courts worldwide will be busy with such lawsuits if the Internet law remains as it is or the search engines do not modify their search results.

Until then, try googling yourself!

As for me, I will continue to enter the magical world of Phyllis Wong and who knows, I might find a clue from the other “me” to the missing pieces our cops are still searching for in attempting to solve the recent open shooting cases in the major cities of the state!