Discrimination, you say?

The habit of waking up early in Japan is thankfully not lost even while I'm vacationing in my village...

My missus wakes up before six to catch the morning news in Japan...
I crawl up at about seven, just in time to watch the day gradually brighten up...
And oh my, the singing of the birds... trhe misty morning views... this is as heavenly as I could wish for...

Normally for breakfast, we would have some hot Japanese green tea (brought from Japan) and wheat bread purchased from the minimarket the previous day...
I bought honey, 'Madu Tualang dari Cameron Highlands' for the first time...
It has a faint sourish(?) flavor and I like it...

We'd sit at the table in the back of my brother's house, cherishing the early morning calm as we watch the village folks pass by on their motorbikes and motorcars...

You know, I was really thrilled to witness the invasion of cyber space into my ancestral village...
The initial prospects and anticipation of being able to link up through the net within the comforts of my village soon turn into bewilderment...

My niece had contracted Celcom Broadband and man, talking about being frustrated waiting for the 'broadband' to link up...

Of course, I'd be foolish just to sit there, waiting for Celcom to do its work... While trying to hook up, repeatedly, that is, I listen to the radio... I enjoy the views from a distance through my binoculars... and at times, I read the papers...

Once it took me almost two hours to give up trying...
Thing is, I would have enjoyed updating my blog more often if the connection had been better...
So much for 'broadband' in Malaysia...

Anyway, my missus and I were very honored to be invited by an old classmate to his house to celebrate Christmas...
We haven't seen each other for 35 years and just some days earlier, We accidentally bumped into each other at a tosai shop...
So, there we were with his family and their friends, listening to Christmas songs and chatting about work... about family life and how one of his daughters love sushi...

Soon, another old classmate came along and it was fun to catch up...
This guy grows orchids as a hobby and has two young lovely daughters...
The conversation was pleasant and cordial...
Till that episode that almost made me, cringed...

My friend had sent his daughter to a Chinese school...
And in his daughter's own words, she 'geram' when her (Chinese) friends bullied her in school...
Apparently, her dad then transfered her to a national school when she was in Standard Four...

So, there you are... the discrimination in Chinese schools...
I don't know why, but I felt somewhat bad for the girl that such a thing happened...
But I suppose that discrimination occurs everywhere... even in schools in Japan...
Still, somehow at the back of my mind, I thought to myself...
Now, if the Chinese Malaysians are so inclined to voice out how bad racial discrimination in Malaysia is, they should first watch their own backyard...

The mother of this bright little girl is Javanese...
Her dad is of the Punjabi lineage...
Just imagine... she speaks Punjabi and probably Javanese as well...
Her English is super fluent and I suppose her Bahasa is equally good...
Put in Mandarin, and can we envisage what kind of Malaysian we will have in her when she grows up?

I say, when she asked for a transfer, that Chinese school should have conducted an investigation and should have reprimanded the culprits (if found guilty)...
Now, we can only feel sorry for yet another case of lost opportunity in cultivating inter-community goodwill, among other positives, that is...