The Iconic Photo of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Power vacuum fuels vicious drug war

By Karl Penhaul
CNN

Editor's note: This article contains profanity that some may find offensive. This is part one of a three part series showing different aspects of life inside Colombia's drug gangs.


A gang member sniffs in a cloud of cocaine dust as he cuts the drug with other substances.

MEDELLIN, Colombia (CNN) -- A young man with tattoos covering one arm rolls hundreds of marijuana joints in the half-light of a shack, perched on a hillside in a Medellin slum.... click to read more...

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

A recap

My one month trip back to Msia turned out to be one full of surprises. My internship didn't start untill the end of my 2nd week home and it only lasted for 2 days. A visit to a doctor turned out to be a surgery and a 7-day hospital stay. In between that, I hosted 3 couchsurfers and one girl we met in Zouk. Ryan's from Hong Kong, Colin's from Sarawak, Jeff is from Kelantan and Felicia is from KL. They reached Ipoh at about 3 am [Sunday], then we went to get supper at a mamak, chilled for a while, drank some Southern Comfort, and then Ryan wanted to catch the sunrise. So we drove up to Gopeng, had breakfast and went white water rafting. It was all totally unexpected! We had lunch then came back to Ipoh. Rested till about 6 p.m., went to have dinner/Guinness Draught at MP. We got our supply of booze and headed back to Gopeng for a full night of drinking and smoking some legal herb... good times.

The next day, we spent some time dry abseilling, singing along to songs like "Belaian Jiwa", "I'm yours" and "Hotel California" while the staffs at the resort strummed the guitar... before leaving, we took some great shots at the waterfall. We had an amazing and cheap dinner [our first meal of the day] at Lawan Kuda. We've been drinking beer since we woke up, and had more beer during dinner. Jeff and Felicia took the bus back to KL while Ryan and Colin headed up to Thailand and got there at 11:30 p.m., and spent the night on the beach in Songkla. Tomorrow's a big day - the surgery.

My hospital visit was a pleasant one. The surgery went well, the food was great, the nurses were kind, I had my own TV with StarMovies on 24/7 and my MacBook[I was on FaceBook almost every minute of the day... for 7 days!! lol] and my mum brought me a huge stack of movies.

After getting discharged from the hospital, I decided to just take it easy and rest at home for the day. The next day however, for the entire week I spent every night drinking at bars like Krave, Barbeza and Barroom. Yeah, every evening/night. It was rather exhausting I gotta admit. But it felt good spending time with some of my friends... reminds me of my worry-free days. It reminded me again why I left my life in the U.S. and spent 30 hours traveling halfway across the world, twice!! You guys know who you are and you know I'd always have you guys in my heart no matter where I am and what I do or how long it will be until we get to hang out and be crazy again.

During my last week in Malaysia, I spent that Monday in Penang with Sneha, Matt, and the rest of the group.... 10 of us.. on an impromptu trip... we took the boat out to an island.. fooled around... had fresh coconut and mangosteen!!! yumm..!!! I don't think we get mangosteens here in the U.S. I guess we all didn't feel like leaving but we had to. Mat had a 10 p.m. bus to Singapore. Sneha sped 140km/hr all the way back and we were 5 minutes late. I think his mum was pretty pissed, so was everyone else in the bus... oh well!

The next day, Sneha and I went to Pangkor for a 2-day reunion trip. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. There were 9 of us, from the same highschool. I knew some of them since I was 13, some even before that. I haven't seen most of them since we graduated high school. It's been 4 years and to add to that, we're extremely different from each other, from our personalities, background, college experiences... I'm glad to say it turned out quite well. It was good to see them again, regardless of our differences back in high school. We made a pact to have a reunion again, 4 years from now, in Europe!!

We came back on Wednesday night and I met up with Sze-Ryn, one of my best friends and I haven't seen her in about 2 years!! I had so much to talk to her about... I wanted to know all about her life in Dublin and I wanted her to know all about my life in the U.S. But things got a lil awkward, not that I mind the presence of her friend, but it did change the way things turned out. Anyways, we went out for drinks... and more drinks... and let's just say it was an interesting night.

Thursday was really just more drinking and packing!! Oh, and I met up with some of the girls from my Ballet class.. and I haven't seen them in more than a decade!!! isn't that crazy? They're all over the world now.. one is married in the U.S., one is in London, one is in Scotland, one is at a university in KL... crazy how time flew...

My parents and I left for KL on Friday. My mum and I went shopping at The Garden and someone unexpected met up with us. I was so sure Kee Loon would have so much fun shopping with us! lol..

Later that night, I met up with a couple of my closest friends and some of their friends as well at Republic. We had beer, shots, cocktails, and it went on... and on and on... untill about 3 am, we went to Ben's house to hang out.

I looked at the clock, "oh shit" it's 5.15 a.m. I'm supposed to be getting ready to leave to the airport. My dad's calling. I had to leave. It was surprisingly hard this time. Since I left for the U.S. 3 years ago, I've only been back once a year, 2 weeks at the shortest and 2 months at the longest. Goodbyes for me are not supposed to be hard anymore. And yet this time, it was emotional, even from the least expected person. I'll miss them, for sure, even more than before, perhaps because my life is even more uncertain now than ever before, now that I'm graduating, or maybe we realize we're all growing up, we're not who we were 4 years ago.

On the way to the airport, I got a phone call. One of my best friends got into some serious trouble. And I was helpless...

The 30-hour journey was rather uneventful. The food was great, so was the service. I slept a whole lot and watched tons of movies... again! =)

I reached at midnight, and went straight to my old house for the 4th of July party!! It was great to see Jenna again and to meet the new housemates. It's good to be back...

now back to reality...

graduating soon - check
homeless - check
unemployed - check
car is officially a junk - check
officially broke - check

Life is good! =)

Here is my article from my 2-day internship stint in Malaysia

Merona is nursing college’s Best Outgoing Student

In a Suburban Gangland, Young Lives Cut Short

Kudos to those who had the guts to tell their story and the reporter, Sarah Garland for taking the risk to document that and letting the world know.

THE phone rang at 4 p.m., just as Francisco Dueñas was leaving his house here on a tidy Long Island block with trimmed hedges. He had no time to talk. He was serving at a wedding reception that started in half an hour, and was already dressed in his tuxedo with the sleeves pulled down over his tattooed arms.

Francisco answered anyway. He recognized the number as belonging to El Niño, a 15-year-old nicknamed for his baby face whom Francisco had taken under his wing the year before, tutoring him in the rules of his gang, Salvadorans With Pride.

“They just stabbed Mikey on the handball court,” the boy said. He sounded panicked.

“Who did?” Francisco asked.

El Niño answered with a curse in Spanish: the slang they used to refer to their rival gang, Mara Salvatrucha.

Mikey — Michael Alguera — was also 15, the younger brother of a friend Francisco had known since middle school. Francisco, now 20, had played hundreds of handball games on the court between Hempstead High School and the Garden City golf course. He usually lost when he was matched up against Mikey, a handball whiz.

Drug test result "mix up" in Malaysia

posted in - General, - Palmdoc |

Recently a patient of mine was held in a police lock-up for alleged ingestion of illicit drugs. He happened to be at a pub at the wrong time when he as “picked up” and his urine test for opiates and THC (cannabis/marijuana) was allegedly positive. Well he happened to be taking DF118 at that time (a codeine analgesic) so we could write a medical report stating that the DF118 was responsible for the false positive opiate drug test. We could not explain the THC positive result and the police sergeant kept pressing the patient and the family on this issue. A bit of Googling (as an aside, I Googled using the mobile version, direct from my Treo 680, as I happened to be having lunch in a coffee shop when the call for help came in) showed up this page:
Medications & Substances Causing False Positives
Apparently even NSAIDs like ibuprofen (which can be bought over the counter) can cause a THC false positive test so I advised the family to double check carefully what other medicines he has been recently taking. The story had a happy ending though as the police cocked up and there was a “mix-up” in the urine sample. The unfortunate young man spent two days in a police lock-up although he was completely innocent!
I don’t know how much our police farce force are aware of the wide scope of false positive results in urine drug testing. I doubt they will even be convinced that there are legitimate medical uses of marijuana!

Drinking and driving in Malaysia

The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) is measured by the content of alcohol in a person’s system. In Malaysia, the legal limit is 0.08 per cent which means 80mg per 100ml of blood.

Risks and real dangers that comes with the job...

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan -- David Rohde, a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped seven months ago by the Taliban, escaped from a compound in Pakistan by jumping over a wall, the newspaper's website reported Saturday.

Rohde, 41, recounted to his wife shortly after gaining his freedom Friday night that he and interpreter Tahir Ludin escaped their captors in the North Waziristan region but that their driver, Asadullah Mangal, opted to remain behind.

Real-Life: Homeless to Harvard

"I have felt the anger at having to catch up in school . . . being bullied because they knew I was poor, different, and read too much," she wrote in her college essays. "I knew that if I wanted to become a smart, successful scholar, I should talk to other smart people."

Reporting from Iran

Interesting reads on Malaysia

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/106327

Time running out for newspapers

"Given the lameness of the broadband here, it's hard to predict when, but eventually the Internet will become the default source of news for Malaysians..."

My answers

Jit Murad, Playwright and Actor

What things about us seem unfair to you?

Although not all, the "older generation" would judge us just by the way we look, act and talk. If we don't fit the stereotype of your typical "good kid," we're usually not taken seriously or looked down upon.

Ivy Josiah, Executive Director, Women’s Aid Organisation

How can we educate men to stop committing violence against women?

Instill the values in both men and women while they are still young that violence is NEVER the answer. Teach them to value every single human being, no matter their gender, race, religion, nationality, background, etc.

Zainal Abidin, Singer

What is the definition of an artiste?

An artist must be able to strike a chord in the eyes of his or her audience through their work. It has to shock, move, disgust, calm or anger, show a different perspective, changing the way they think and leaving a stamp in their minds forever.

Shebby Singh, Football commentator/pundit

There are many things that can motivate us, but that is different from what our own motivation is. What is your motivation, and why?

My motivation? Be the change I want to see in this country.

Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, Writer/activist

What do you really think of your parents (and no need to be politically correct and only say nice things!)?

My parents have raised me the best way they could possibly have. They offered me support when I needed it, they let me fall when I needed to learn and would always be there to offer a shoulder to cry on. However, my radical thinking and decision-making scares them sometimes, and they would discourage whatever "crazy" ideas I have just so I fit the norm; out of fear, or perhaps that was how they were taught to live, I don't know.

Anas Zubedy, Managing Director Zubedy (M) Sdn Bhd

What do you think about yourself?

Far from perfect or where I want to be in life. I will get there some day though, in the meantime, I'm taking one step at a time, learning about life, discovering new things about myself every single day.

CW Kee, Cartoonist - Kee’s World

What drives you crazy?

Stubborn and narrow-minded people.

Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, CEO Air Asia

What will it take for you as the youth to think ‘Malaysian’ first and Chinese/Malay/Indian next?

The question is what will it take for YOU, the older generation, the leaders of this country, the people who drive the economy in this country to think of us as MALAYSIAN, and forget the second part of the question. Go ahead ask the rest of the Malaysian youth, they would give you the same answer, we're all Malaysians.

Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, Transport Minister and MCA President

What do you understand by “youth empowerment”?

Stop being indifferent to the world, to our country. Use our voices to make a difference, make a change for the better.

Lee Khai Loon, Secretariat Member of Youth for Change (Y4C)

What will make politics more interesting to you?

When politicians and leaders of the country start to respect one another and start tackling real issues we've been facing as a country, ask us again.

Datuk Misbun Sidek, National badminton coach

What does it take to become a champion?

To understand that being a champion is not about getting the trophy or the recognition. It is measured by how well you played the game and if you've played it to the best of your ability.

Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood, MERCY Malaysia President

How important is it to you to put aside time for voluntary work in the community, whether locally or globally?

VERY important. That should be on everyone's top priority list. I think one of the biggest challenge is the funding and the mentality among some Malaysians that if you're not working for financial benefits, then, you're wasting your time.

Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Women, Family and Community Development Minister

Are you ready for gender equality?

Heck yeah! About time!

Lim Guan Eng, Penang Chief Minister

If you were the Penang Chief Minister, what is the one policy action you would take to the people?

I wouldn't just decide on one policy action. I would hold a series of forums/Town Hall sessions/etc. and listen to what the people have to say.
J. Anu, Artist

What are you reading?

Tom Brokaw's "Boom."

Datuk Yasmin Yusuff, Artiste

Do you believe only the young can speak to the young?

Michael Wong (Guang Liang), Singer-songwriter

How will your lives be different if music ceased to exist?

I would rather not live.

Francesca Peters, Singer

Is there more to you than money, money, money, the rat race, finding a rich partner and “scoring”?

Yes, living life, believe it or not, our generation, while we know the importance of being "successful," we know it's just as important to just stop, watch the sunrise, breath in fresh air, listen to good music, drink good wine, have good conversations, travel the world and value everything we've experienced and given in the good life that we've lived.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, Former De Facto Law Minister

Do you care who your leaders are?

Do you care who your youths are? Like really know who they are, what they're like, what moves them, what angers them, what matters to them?

Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Immediate past president of the Malaysian Bar

Do you feel disconnected from the politics of Malaysia and in this regard how much do you value your right to vote?

I don't feel disconnected from the Malaysian politics at all. Even from the United States, halfway across the world, I still hold political conversations with my friends and family members and receive news updates. I think my right to vote is extremely valuable and one vote DOES make a difference.

Khalid Samad, Shah Alam MP

What are the characteristics of good governance and what is your role in ensuring that these characteristics are truly embodied by the government of the day?

Leaders who make decisions for the good of their people, and not politically-motivated or to benefit their "own people," whatever that means. As a youth, we can be the watchdog of the government. Voice our concerns through the right medium. If that doesn't work, take it to the streets.

Khairy Jamaluddin, Umno Youth Chief

When you look into the mirror, do you see a member of an ethnic group (Malay, Chinese, Indian etc) or do you see a Malaysian?

I see a Malaysian, no question about it.

Camelia, Singer

What do you think is a good age for a young person to leave home?

You'll never really leave home till the day you die. Physically, leave home when you're ready, whenever that is.

Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, President Limkowing University of Creative Technology

Do you feel that creativity (or freedom to express oneself creatively) is sufficiently encouraged in this country?

NO.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Deputy Prime Minister

How would you like to see Malaysia in the future?

To be a developed country, to have a democratic government, to see that freedom of press is practiced, to be one of the country with the lowest crime rate, to see people in authority be corruption-free and lastly for the citizens to be seen as MALAYSIANS, no matter our race, religion, color, background, accent, etc.

Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria, Principal Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

If, as a young person, you are able to lead this nation, how will you seek to build a Malaysia where there is greater consciousness of being Malaysians first?

Talk to the youth and let the nation know how they feel. I truly believe we may be the only ones in the nation to think that.

Patrick Teoh, Actor

Why are so many young Malaysians apparently so apolitical?

Look at our leaders.

Winnie Loo, Hairstylist

You all are so blessed with everything lay on your table whether is technology, transportation and even communications, but what do you see yourself 10 years from now? Can the world be a better place with your new generation knowledge?

Our new generation knowledge would be nothing compared to what we'll have 10 years from now. The technology will accelerate probably 10 times more and it is hard to imagine how life would be then.

Yasmin Ahmad, Film director

What is the best thing about being in a multi-racial country?

We're multi-lingual and we learn from young that "we," meaning people with the same color, background, religious beliefs and culture are not the only people on this earth. We learn that at a really young age and learned to live with acceptance and tolerance.

Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Kim, Historian

Do you think lecturers in a university should learn to be more effective teachers?

Lecturers or educators from any level should always strive to be more effective.

Jeff Ooi, Jelutong MP

How would you like to see Malaysia become in 10 years time?

To be a developed country, to have a democratic government, to see that freedom of press is practiced, to be one of the country with the lowest crime rate, to see people in authority be corruption-free and lastly for the citizens to be seen as MALAYSIANS, no matter our race, religion, color, background, accent, etc.

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, Transparency International Malaysia president, Centre of Public Policy Studies chairman

Do you feel that you have got a good deal as a Malaysian citizen?

Depends on what a "good deal" encompasses.

Aznil Hj. Nawawi, TV personality

How can we become a developed nation without sacrificing our local and traditional values?

Yes we can.

Azean Irdawaty, Actress

What does being grateful to your country mean to you?

Travel the world and learn as much as we can from other parts of the globe and come back to our own country and use all the knowledge and experience to contribute to the country.

Eddin Khoo, Writer and traditional arts activist

What do you think you are all about, really?

Want to know? Ask us, and more importantly, listen.

300 dogs dumped on Malaysia island eat each other

By SEAN YOONG – 11 hours ago

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian villagers caught more than 300 stray dogs and dumped them on a mangrove island, driving the canines to cannibalism after weeks of starvation, animal welfare activists said Thursday.

The plight of the dogs cast away on a small, uninhabited island off Malaysia's western Selangor state ignited outrage after activists this week released photographs showing dogs eating the carcasses of ones that had died...

Updates on Malaysia

Political Struggle in Malaysia Heats Up

Malaysian activist arrested

Malaysia arrests opposition politician, activists

UPDATE 2-Malaysia arrests 19 in crackdown on opposition

Q+A-What does the Malaysian standoff in Perak mean?

Malaysians seek justice from the British Government

The UK government is to review evidence about a massacre of unarmed Malaysian villagers by British troops in 1948.

Full Coverage on UT students protest layoffs on Wednesday

A meeting between Vice President of Student Affairs Kaye Patten Wallace and staffs from the Division of Student Affairs was interrupted as more than 100 students piled into the Student Union Building room 2592 yesterday at about 9 a.m.

Heads turned as students wearing their organizations’ T-shirts, holding up signs such as “Retain this,” “I would have transferred,” “Have you ever been to our meetings? Lori has,” and “Would you help us plan Songfest?” walked silently into the room, filling up every corner...

2nd Plugged In Assignment

Fossil fuels are known hazards to our environment and they are not sustainable. One possible front-runner for the car of the future is the Hydrogen Fuel Cell car. How is hydrogen used as a fuel? How do we make and find hydrogen? How can drivers fuel up with the H-fuel cell? Melissa Chi looks under the hood.

Honduras story on R.AGE

Here's a version of my Honduras Spring Break Stint published by The Star, a Malaysian daily news publication.