April 30th, 2008 — Education
Recently my cousin came from UK with his wife and two happy kids. We had a discussion about the primary education system there. I was very much surprised to know that our systems of education differed a lot, even though we were under their rule for quite some time.
Our primary education is very much flawed. and when thinking about my own primary education I can see how much of a bad influence it still has on me. The mistake we do is classify students at an early age. We test them, and give them ranks.
We categorise them as good and bad. We punish them infront of their own peers. We insult them and send them out of the class. We write total nonsene “Your kid is not studying properly” and ask them to get it signed by their parents.
We train them like we train elephants, we stand on their right and their left and try to break their will. We take away all their breathing space and leave them with some silly text books.
In UK everything the kid does is appreciated. Whatever crap he writes, what ever rubbish he draws gets stamped “Excellent”. Every evening the kid comes home with a bunch of “Excellent” stamps. Think about the confidence he gains by such simple appreciation.
I still remember how I learned multiplication table. I have trouble memorizing things, and it was such a horrilble experience that hated going to the school. The teacher would make everyone stand and recite it as if it were some poem. What a stupid way to teach maths. Whats the point is memorizing it all when we have calculaters and computers.
We force all sorts of crap onto these kids, stupid poems, hard to learn mathematics, nonsense science even before most of them are ready. All these coupled with a bunch of unfriendly and inhumane teachers can ruin a childs entire future.
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April 28th, 2008 — Experiences
The Vanitha article about “Mobile phones and Blue Truth”, that contains so called real stories, provoked me to write my previous post
http://www.kenneyjacob.com/2008/04/25/vanitha-internet-and-the-mobile-phone/
Thanks to the readers for pointing out some examples of stinking journalism that the Malayala Manorama group does.
The first one, their sting operation in which they send some girls to provoke men and collect evidence that all men are molesting women in buses and and at night. The girls had some bad experience from a bus depot at night, and they generalised that we are all sex predators.
The same Malayala Manorama group publishes a magazine “The Man”, which deals with topics like Threesome, Erotic Love, India’s hottest bikini girls and lots and lots of pictures of semi nude girls. They publish “The Man” at one hand and on the other they write about women being used as a commodity.
There was a news report in their channel and it said “Bluetooth, the poison tooth”. They were describing bluetooth as technology to transfer blue films. There are millions of people who trust these publications and its really sad to see them giving such idiotic reports.
The same group once described all private buses that run to Bangalore as a place enjoy with your girl friend, where you have one nights total freedom, without having to worry about anyone.
They are successful in their mission. A friend of mine from cochin told me that her mom took away her mobile after reading the Vanitha article. Mom also commented - “Will give you your mobile when you get married”.
Every technology that can be used, can be misused. Not just the internet and the mobile phone, the print media also. And the best example of paper being misused is Vanitha and the Malayala Manorama.
After having said all this, Id like to congratulate every parent who still trusts their children with internet and mobile phones. Your kids will defenitly value your trust and it will give the confidence they need to live in this world.
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April 27th, 2008 — Software, Web Design
The Master Coder Sajith MR is back with a cool Wordpress Plugin now. The plugin will show your page rank on every post. You can see the plugin working here in this post itself.
Many of the bloggers have higher page ranks for their internal pages or posts than the home page. Most of the times we dont recognise this. With this plugin installed, not only you, but the whole world can see the power of your pages.
Download the Wordpress plugin to show page rank on every page .
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April 25th, 2008 — Experiences, Mobile
I recently read a long feature about the harm caused by mobile phones in “Vanitha“, a local womens magazine which is very popular. The main argument was that students are using mobile phone to view and share porn. The article is written in such a manner that no parent will dare to buy a mobile phone for his son or daughter.
This is not the first time that Vanitha is writing against mobile phones. A few years back, it was the cable TV and then the internet and now mobile phones. I know many families who decided no to buy a computer or take an internet connection just because of some stupid article in Vanitha or the newspapers.
All the features that came in Vanitha about the internet or the mobile phone had many touching stories in them, supposed to be true, where some boys are using mobile phones to share porn, or some kid who lost interest in studies because of the internet.
Some schools and colleges have banned mobile phones. I still dont A college student is expected to be the responsible head of a family after a few years. If we cant trust him/her with a mobile phone, how are we going to trust him/her with a family.
We all make mistakes. Its very true that the internet and mobile phones can be misused. We can misuse cable TV, anyone watched MTV grind or the FTV ? Why are we not banning cable TV ? Id say its double standards cos we all want to watch the silly serials where every husband has a secret affair and all the young girls are roaming around with other boys.
Vanitha dont have the moral right to speak about the harm caused by phones or the internet, cos they are the part of a Malayala Manorama group, which owns another “M” publication which publishes all sorts of tingling stories. Just take a look at the drawings in those magazines and you will understand what I am saying.
Why dont they review the effects of such stories and drawings on the youth in Kerala, rather than fighting a war against the technologies that are feeding millions and have changed the world so much.
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April 23rd, 2008 — Experiences
I am free market advocate. Only free markets have survived the test of time. We have seen many models, and in this flat world every single closed market have crashed. Others have opened up to survive and then to flourish. Some others still say, they are a closed and controlled markets, but they are free markets in their behaviour.
I believe in competition. Competition forces us to deliver our full potential. In a free market the the most competitive, always wins. Its like evolution. If you are unfit, you get eliminated. It may sound cruel, but it is the way it should be. Now you must be wondering, why am I talking about free markets.
The reason is that, in sports also the same principle needs to be applied. If cricket is gaining popularity, whats wrong with it ? If hockey is not popular and the game dies out, why do we care ? Cricket by its inherent nature is suited for advertisements and will get popular. It is not a crime, its just the “survival of the fittest”.
Hockey, football etc are not suited for advertisements. Thus they are likely to be ignored by sponsors. Evolve, change the rules, make some changes to the game. After all its just a game. Changing the rules wont kill anyone.
Nobody is responsible for other games who are not getting enough followers or enough attention. Its their nature that makes them hard to accept. Look at cricket, which is evolving at a fast pace to keep itself interesting. Test cricket, then one day cricket and now twenty twenty.
Its a free market for sports also. Evolve or you will perish. Cling to your sacred rules and you will die. Look at what market needs and give it. If cricket can evolve, so can you.
Disclaimer:- I am not a cricket fan and this is not written with an intention to promote cricket.
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