Workshop on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Teaching Aids and Module

Malaysia International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008 officially closed

Hi, we meet again. Just arrived  from Malaysia Tourism Centre (MTC) [formerly known as MATIC], at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. I went there to attend the closing ceremony of Malaysia International Year of Coral Reef (IYOR) 2008 by the Deputy Minister, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, YB Senator Dato' Maznah Binti Mazlan. This Malaysia IYOR 2008 closing event was organized by Coral Malaysia, Department of Marine Park Malaysia and Malaysia Tourism Centre. YB Dato' Maznah also launched the upcoming campaign for 2009, with the theme is 'Say No to Plastics', in order to save the sea turtles from chocking with plastic bags.

After the closing ceremony, all the guests, together with YB Dato' Maznah than being brought to the 1st floor of MTC building to see the underwater photographs took during the CoRal Malaysia’s underwater photography competition, Terengganu Go Green – Seashutterbug 2008. 

After that, there was a media/press conference and tea break. Then came the important agenda, a dialogue session between the guests and YB Dato' Maznah regarding the issues related to environment especially the coral reefs. Among the guests were the representative from MNS, Perbadanan Taman Negara Johor, WWF Malaysia, Virtual Malaysia, Zoo Negara, MIMA, Dorken Reef Resources and a well-known Malaysia artist, the rock group of WINGS. During the dialogue, I took the chance to highlight about the training programme, especially for the MNS state education coordinators ( as I am) whom have responsibility to educate young generations at school level through School Nature Clubs regarding the marine park/coral reef information. As I am also an officer at Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia, I took the opportunity to inform the dialogue members that the environment issues is one of the important topics that CDD, MOE takes into consideration to be put in the curriculum.

Thanks to En. Nizam of Department of Marine Park Malaysia for inviting me to join this valuable event. To all my new friends from various agencies that attend the closing ceremony, nice to meet you all and please keep in touch.

To all readers, please remember this slogan: OUR Reef, OUR Heritage, OUR Responsibility 

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Notes:

Malaysia International Year of the Reef (IYOR) 2008 was organized in concurrent with IYOR 2008, a worldwide campaign by the  International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). The ICRI International Year of the Reef 2008 is a campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them.

Officially launched by Ministry Natural Resources and Environment Secretary General, Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin on 23 February 2008, the IYOR 2008 Malaysia Chapter’s aims include strengthening awareness about the ecological, economic, social and cultural value of coral reef and its associated ecosystem. It also hopes to improve understanding of the critical threats faced by reefs and generating solutions to reduce them.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT DIVISION TEAM BUILDING - GOOOOOOOOOOO CATCHY!

Team building is a process that develops cooperation and teamwork within a work unit. To constitute an effective team, its members must share a common goal, have respect for each other, and be motivated to use the strengths of each member to achieve their objectives. Nowadays,  any agency (either government or corporate)  philosophy stresses that each member of a team plays an integral part in the success of the agency. Realising the important of team building and good relationship among the officers, a team building session has been organized by the Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education to its professional officers held at Selesa Beach Resort, Port Dickson for 3 days two night, starting on 1 December to 3 December 2008. This event had been conducted by a team from Intelligence Synergy Sdn Bhd, based at Putrajaya.

The officers being divided to 18 small groups and for myself, I was selected to be with group 14 and the name for this group was CATCHY, acronym for Cemerlang, Agresif, Tegap, Cekal, Hebat, Yakin in Malay. Thanks for all my team members for giving me the opportunity to be as CATCHY group leader and I really appreciated your supports  and commitments  to make our group managed to do all the tasks given. Gooooooooooooooooooooo CATCHY.  Remember  CATCHY, Remember Sea Turtles, ok. I'll remember your support during the 'Penyu Menangis' performance. Thanks .......to all CATCHY members, En. Abd Rasid, En. Zamzatul Akmal Hisham, En. Kunaseelan, Pn. Amal Farid, Pn. Hanafiah, Cik Sandra, and Pn. Rohani, for your warm cooperation and relationship.

Perkhemahan Kelab Pencinta Alam Sekolah Rendah Peringkat Kebangsaan 2008

               An annual camp specially scheduled for the primary school Nature Clubs members from all over Malaysia had been conducted at Kem Rehlah, Pantai Bisikan Bayu, Semerak, Pasir Puteh, Kelantan by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS).

               Sponsored by CommunityLink, CIMB Group, this programme started on 31 October and ended on 2 November 2008. My wife joined the programme as Nature Club teacher advisor of the SBT Tuition Centre located at Paka, Dungun.   During this programme, I gave a talk on 'Marine Ecosystem'. Beside that, I also acted as one of the facilitator. My x-students from Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Jengal, with guidance from En. Mohd Nor Azizi Kamaruddin, made a presentation on 'Sea turtles'. This was the first experience for them to present in front of other people outside their school. Thanks to Education Department, Malaysian Nature Society for giving them the opportunities to do so.

                Among the activities conducted during the programme were ice breaking,  jungle trekking on Bukit Peraksi (a place where the 'new moon' is observed in order to know the starting date of fasting month and Aid Fitr), mangrove exploring, nature games, nature craft, beach clean-up, astronomy and a visit to fish cracker factory. 

Kem Kesedaran Alam Sekitar (KeKAS) Terengganu 2008

                   This 3 days 2 nights nature camp had been organized by the Department of Environment Terengganu and the Terengganu Centre of Science and Creativity with the support of Terengganu State Government. I had been asked to run the programme and to do so, I received a full commitment from my colleague, En. Ahmad Salihin Bin Mat Saat and En. Muhammad Bin Ibrahim of the Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia. My wife, Pn. Suzani Binti Hj. Husin also gave her hands to make the programme success. I also like to thanks Dr. Mohd Zaki Bin Mohd Said of the Terengganu Centre of Science and Creativity, together with his  four officers, lead by En. Raduan Bin Sulong for their full support. Last but not least, thanks to the officers from Department of Environment Terengganu for the funding and certificates. 

                 The programme took place at Kem Seri Bari, near Penarek, Setiu, Terengganu from 25 to 27 October 2008. The participants were from Setiu, Kuala Terengganu and one from Kuantan, making them 40 pax altogether. Almost 98% of them are 12 years old as this programme was conducted as a pasca UPSR examination programme.

                 The theme for this programme was related to marine environment, concurrent with the 2008  Year of Coral Reef and the Environment  Week. Therefore, most of the topic discussed in this programme were about coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass bed and beach ecosystem. In addition to these topics, painted terrapin, river terrapin and sea turtles conservation, and the tropical rainforest ecosystem also being discussed.

                 The participants had been brought to visit mangrove forests at Kampung Mangkok, Gong Batu and Kampung Fikri. A mangrove seeds planting session also being done at Kampung Fikri mangrove area. Several other activities conducted during the programme were nature craft, nature hunt, physical exercises, presentations by the participants and BBQ. Another activity conducted during this programme was a presentation by a lecturer from University Darul Iman Malaysia on astronomy. However, due to bad weather, star observation activity  by using a telescope had been cancelled  and replaced by observing a fan!

                The programme was officially closed by the officer from the Department of Environment Terengganu.

Langkawi geopark education trip

Curriculum Development Division of Ministry of Education Malaysia through its Department of Science and Mathematics organised a field trip to Langkawi Geopark on 20 October till 24 October 2008. The main objective of this trip is to gather  the information on Langkawi Geopark as part of the curriculum development work especially for science and mathematics subjects.

Ragam manusia di jalan raya

Musim perayaan kembali lagi....kali ini Sambutan Hari Raya Aidil Fitri 1429H....walaupun telah memasuki hari ke-6 bulan Syawal, suasananya masih lagi terasa. Coretan ini walaubagaimanapun tidak akan membincangkan bagaimana perayaan ini disambut, tetapi tabiat, ragam dan tingkahlaku sebahagian warga Malaysia yang ditunjukkan di atas jalan raya semasa musim perayaan ini, berdasarkan apa yang dilihat semasa saya memandu untuk pulang ke kampung.

Raya tahun ini saya pulang ke kampung isteri di Felda Bukit Bading, Terengganu dan juga ke kampung saya di Teluk Kumbar, Pulau Pinang. Nampaknya kempen yang dijalankan oleh kerajaan berkaitan keselamatan di jalan raya tidak diambil peduli oleh sebahagian dari warga Malaysia. Masih terdapat pemandu-pemandu yang memotong barisan dan memotong kenderaan dari sebelah kiri (memasuki bahu jalan) semasa kesesakan jalan raya (10 km perjalanan, masa diambil hampir 1 jam setengah) di kawasan Tanah Merah, Kelantan hari raya ke-2; menunggang motosikal dengan tidak memakai topi keledar (perkara biasa di banyak tempat); memandu perlahan di lorong memotong (lorong paling kanan) di lebuh raya PLUS; membuang sampah dari kereta di atas jalan (nasib baik kulit buah-buahan, tapi ini bukanlah tabiat yang patut dicontohi); buang botol kaca minuman pemberi tenaga di atas lebuh raya PLUS (atas laluan paling kanan) di sekitar Bukit Berapit; membuat pusingan U (bukan di tempatnya) semasa kereta dari arah bertentangan (kereta sayalah tu) tidak jauh dari kenderaan tersebut (lepas buat pusingan U, pandu perlahan pulak, lepas tu belok kanan balik dengan jarak dari tempat buat pusingan U tersebut tak sampai pun 50 meter; nasib baik sempat brek, tension betullah, kes ini di Baling) dan pelbagai kesalahan lagi. 

Beberapa kemalangan jalan raya juga dapat disaksikan di sepanjang perjalanan, antaranya kereta MPV import terbabas dan melanggar paip air di Sg Tong, Terengganu dan terus tersadai di tepi parit; beberapa kes kemalangan motosikal (mangsa masih di tepi jalan; nasib baik ada yang prihatin membantu, di jalan Baling-Kulim) .

Sebenarnya tabiat-tabiat ini boleh dihentikan sekiranya semua daripada kita mempunyai kesedaran, baik kesedaran tentang pentingnya menjaga keselamatan di jalan raya (untuk diri sendiri ataupun orang lain) mahupun tentang peri pentingnya menjaga alam sekitar. Sesungguhnya ianya bermula dari kesediaan untuk berubah, kerana ANDA MAMPU MENGUBAHNYA!!! 

Honey Bee......Mini Asean..........MNS AGM Meeting

Last weekend (24 August 2008) , I brought my family to 'visit' Malacca, not for a holiday but for a meeting at  Seri Malaysia Hotel, Ayer Keroh. I had to attend the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Annual General Meeting that I was one of the candidate for the MNS Council Member for 2008/2010. However, after the ballot process, I was not the selected one as there are only 6 seats and the candidates were 12. I took this opportunity to thanks to Prof. Madya Dr. Sulong of University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) for proposed me as candidate, and for those who had voted me for that post, thanks a lot. I'll proceed with my volunteering work as MNS Education  Coordinator as usual. 

For my family members, thanks for your supports and patience while you were at the hotel. Hope our 'visit' to Malacca that day is not the first and last for you. I promise to bring you all again to visit the historical city of Malacca next time, yes, in a real visit.