Friday, December 16, 2005

Class Photo


Our class has ended. Some people will continue to the next level. Some people will stay in the same level. I will see some of them the next semester, but not all of them. It is sad, we just starting to know each other better, but it is time to say goodbye already.

Oligami Day in the class!





Our professor decided to ask the Japanese students in the class to teach us how to make oligami. We have a lot of fun.

Picnic in the "parc de la Gaudinière"

Group picture.

They sang a song for us.

The food we had for the picnic.


This is the castle located inside the garden.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Affirmative Action is needed in France

I know I know, they have been provided with many helps, but yet they are not satisfied.

The fact is, human in weak position not always know how to climb up the social ladder, they need others to help them.

I feel that the French authority should start having some affirmative action to these poor neighborehood. They should create small business association which provide capital and skill to the residents. In that case, the residents here will have their own business, which they can then hire the locals (since other business don't want to hire them). If these businesses can lead to success, they can provide a huge inspiration and motivation to the entire poor neighborehood. Also, the local business owners will not tolerate voilence which will destroy their hard work.

When more poors become successful, they can venture into other part of the country. Once they have their strength in the businessworld, others can't ignore them. The French have to then accept them and do business with them.

The same is happening in Malaysia. The minority consists of 6/10 richest people in Malaysia. They have their business strength. If is the majority that feel threathen. They majority even feel being discriminated in finding a job bcos they don't speak the languages speak by the minority so they couldn't work in businesses that deal with the minority.

Therefore, for minority to gain status in a country, they have to first gain economy status. Only then people will respect you.

Come on, we are in a world that respect money more than anything.

France: The dream country of the poor

If you are poor in France, the government give you free housing. If you are unemployed, they give you allowance. If you are handicaped, you got more helped. If you have kids, you are entitiled to monthly payment from the government. When you are students, you get all kind of discount, from housing allowance to transportation.

This looks like too good to be true to a minority Malaysian like me.

And yet, those who are having all these helps are not happy. They want more. They want the government to give them jobs. They claimed that the society is discriminated against them.

If I were them, I will try my best to go to university, as it is almost free and every French is entitle to enter. If with some reason I can't, and only have high school diploma, I will try my best to find a job and climb up from there. If the local don't want to hire me, I will start with very very low job, like cleaning job, supermarket job, constraction job. I will work very hard so people can trust me, when they trust me they will accept me. Once they accept me, whenever there is better opportunity, they will try to give me the chance. Maybe this is a dream in France? These youth who claimed that they are being discriminated had tried all these but yet they couldn't find a job?

For the society to accept you, you have to first let them trust you. If you keep having trouble, you can't blame other to look at you differently.

What is perceived as failed in France is demanded in Malaysia

In French there is no affirmative action to the minority group. The country claims that all French are French and they don't need to be separated by race or religion. It has been said that the recent riot marked that this concept is failed. The minority actually need acknowledgement.

In contrast, the Malaysian minority are asking the government to treat all Malaysian equally. They want the government to work towards policy that give the same rights to all Malaysia. They do not want the affirmative action, which is given to the majority, to continue as it is.

In Malaysia, the majority (bumiputra) have been given many priviledges. They have their own pre-universities and some universities that just opened to them. The minority have to fight their way to the university through different examination (STPM, similar to A level). It has been claimed that the exam for the majority is earlier than the STPM. So the students are competing with different system. This is just one example, they are many many policies that give advantages to the majority.

The Malaysian minority have been pleading the government to stop giving clutches to the majority to prepare the whole Malaysian for global competition

Youth riot in Paris and other cities


Suburbs Paris have been on fires for almost two weeks and many properties have been destroyed.

This is not an terrorist attack. But it seems like one.

It started after two kids got electrocuted in an electric station while trying to flee from police.

Angry teenagers started the riot and have been enjoying being the headline in the media and happy to see that the authority couldn't do anything to stop it.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Beautiful garden





Nantes sure has lots of beautiful garden. This is just one of them.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Canteen Food




In my university there are several students' restaurants. We pay 2.7 euro a meal, super cheap!!!
It comes with an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. It is a lot cheaper and healthier then the university I studied in San Marcos, Texas, USA.
































Saturday, October 22, 2005

Organizing a picnic with the classmate

Tomorrow we are going to have a picnic with our classmates. It is amazing, when I invite some of the students, some will sign up and they said they are not sure if they are coming. I felt that the world has evolve in the way that people do not respect what they said anymore. In the pass when you say something, usually you will do it. But now, people tell you something and at the last minute they give you a call and everything changed.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Freebox = High Speed Internet + Telephone + Digital TV

We received our internet connection today.
With 30 euro a month, we got high speed internet, free digital TV with lots of channel including the chinese phoenix channel and CCTV, and if we want, we could have another phone connection.

This is impressive!
I got to watch some chinese shows in France!
There is not much chinese population in France compared to US, so it is less accessable to chinese world.
Luckily the internet evolves and give me this benefit.

A Weekend Visit

My bf's parents come for visit this weekend.
His father was installing the cabinet he gave us, and building a nice spot in the kitchen for dish preparation.
I felt this guy is a genius.
He is an engineer, but he involved in building his own house, he built cabinet and some furnitures, he grows vegetables and fruits in his garden.
Conclusion, his wife is living in heaven. :-)

They arrived in the Friday evening. I prepared the red-cooked pork using slow cooker I brought from Malaysia. They got to see how useful a slow cooker and a rice cooker are. We ate the dinner with champagne.

After the dinner, we went to downtown for a walk. His father took lots of nice pictures.

On Saturday morning, before I waked up, his father already started installing the cabinet.
I prepared roti canai for them. I bought the frozen roti from the nearby Asian shop, and cooked the kua according to my mother's recipe. They liked it.

My boyfriend and his father went out to buy some equipment to build a space in the kitchen to prepare dish. I showed his mother my friend's wedding through a CD. She was asking lots of questions. She was amazed that Malaysian do not have the registration on the same day of wedding.

We went for a day tour to Nantes. We visited my university, then walked along the garden nearby. It was a nice walk.

I cooked fried rice for them for dinner. This time we matched the rice with some French wine and salad. They ate some cheese with the bagette.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Stealing an Internet connection

I'm standing outside of my apartment bcos I haven't have my connection set up.
Well, the first day I was in here, my computer picks up the wireless connection, and since then I can't control myself.
Do you think this is an illegal action?
I don't know how my action can't harm the owner of this line, but I would really like to thank the owner, as I couldn't live without internet nowadays! :-)