Patriotism

Happy Thursday, everyone.

I went to abang's awards day at KYUEM last Saturday. This day marks his last day there as a student so now we can only sit and wait for the result. Guest of honour on that day was Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar, Chairman of Securities Commission, who gave a very enlightening speech about self development, independence and success. She was saying how refreshing it is not to have to talk about regulation, capital markets in Malaysia etc. and talked about her experience in school instead. She told us how her teacher had encouraged her students to be independant, like when the school didn't have enough funds to build a hall, they did a number of fund-raising events to achieve their target. Later, they wanted to have their own school band so they needed fund for their uniforms and equipments. Again, instead of asking for money from whoever and waiting, they actually took matter in their own hands and work for it, which I find very inspiring. They even won the state level that year. I have heard some ppl TRYING to go into business and blaming relatives for not providing them funds "like the chinese". WTF? I'm sure although some Chinese are lucky enough to get funding from their parents to start off their own business, most of them actually work for it themselves. So STOP BLAMING and START WORKING.

She later went on to touch on the working environment, where she said although there is no doubt your qualification is important to get you in, it is how you perform at work later that would actually get you to the next level. This is exactly the issue I have been facing lately. I know my result got me somewhere but it is a constant struggle to keep on improving at work, where all that KPIs matter. I need to go keep on moving. I can't stay constant or I will be left behind. Howww do I do that???

After the event in the hall is over, we went to the dining hall for lunch where I get to sit and talk with one of my own teachers. He was commenting about interviews and find it bullshit when people say "I want to serve the country" during interviews. What the hell is wrong with that? Honestly, as cheesy as it may sound, I DO feel that way. I DO feel like I owe it to my country to work and contribute back to the society given the amount of money they spent on me for my education. I DO feel like I owe it to myself to make use of some knowledge/skills/experience I acquired for the amount of time I put in during my studies. I'm sure it is not much as compared to other ppl I know... but there was still some effort on my side to at least pass my papers. And although the contribution of ONE small person like me may not actually affect the nation's economy as a whole, combine the small small me and you will get like what, more than half of the nation's total working force? (The rest being the high achievers that DO contribute a whole lot to the country's economy and development.) Anyway, as small as the contribution of one person may be, it is still important to the economy, especially when we later aggregate it to make up for the country's total production, ie GDP. Imagine ONE cleaner refuses to work and his decision affected his colleagues and they also decided not to work, can you imagine the effect it will have on our GDP. Not only will the state be left dirty, there will be less velocity in the market as less people have money to spend, thus other people will get less income from say groceries sales, petrol, bus fare, food stalls etc. So in short, don't underestimate one person's contribution. Also don't look down on one person's motivation to contribute to his/her country. It is NOT bullshit.

In case any of my friends working overseas reading this, you guys still contribute to the country in a number of ways. 1) money sent home 2) Malaysia's reputation to the rest of the world. You guys are the country's small ambassadors. hehe. Proud of you guys, being over there, competing with other world class people. =)

Okay, I'm patriotic. Just shut up now. =p