卸任家教主席蔡德圣感言

卸任家教主席蔡德圣感言

我非常感恩有机会在家教协会服事。一转眼间已十一年。我更加感激大家的支持让我有幸担任家教主席三年。让我能和大家一起在吉华国中这个大家庭里，为我们的下一代做出一些小小的贡献。

我心里有什么话想跟大家说呢？我心里有几个希望，我希望家教不仅对学校的硬体设施有所贡献，家教也能为我们学校的文化带来了一些改进。因为我相信一间学校的气质与文化比学校的硬体设备更重要。

我希望大家能记得我在几次的致词时所谈到的几个课题。希望我们能继续努力，把吉华的学术气质和文化，带上更高的一层楼。

这些我们应当注意的课题包括

1）目前的学生有很严重的恶补的现象。这情况已大大的削弱学生的创作力和自己解决问题的能力。我们需要有创意的来克服这问题。希望校方与家教继续努力。

2）太容易考到A（尤其是数理与英文）会使到学生对自己的能力有了错误的评估。我们做老师与家长的，有需要让学生们知道，他们必须根据在学校的成绩和客观的评估来明白自己真正的能力。

3）我们做父母与老师的要根据儿女/学生的兴趣和能力， 去帮助他们发掘和发挥它的恩赐与潜能。我们在2008年3月6日主办了一个《如何发掘及发挥孩子的潜能》的研讨会，并录下DVD。那些有兴趣的家长可向家教要求，是免费的。

4）吉华国中虽然是名校，但也有问题学生，我们做家长的必需要与校方一起努力，以爱心和耐心去辅导和帮助这些学生使他们迷途知返 。

5）虽然我们有一些学生在课外活动方面是非常卓越的但整体来说，学生参加课外活动人数不理想。这将造成很多“书呆子”的出现。书呆子的certificate虽然很“亮丽”，但因为缺乏“人际关系”的能力，将来的成就，也许不过尔尔而已。希望我们在这方面能够有所改善，希望更多的吉华生会为了培养“人际关系”的能力，沟通、组织及领导能力而多多参与课外活动，即使你不见得能代表学校或州或国，课外活动对你还是有益处的。

6）我提到吉华精神应该包括以下的内涵就是4B’s

a）Being the Best-Spirit of Excellence-优越的气质

b）Brotherhood-Spirit of Cooperation-弟兄姐妹的情操

c）Beacon in the Darkness-Spirit of Righteousness-礼义廉耻的美德

d）Beyond yourself-Knowing your Destiny-知道你的命定。有价值的生命会超越自己。Life is only significant when it goes beyond yourself.

7）我也希望与大家分享成功的定义

a）成功并非要有高深的学历，但成功的人却有一生在学习的精神。

b）成功并非是要赚大钱，大富大贵，但一个成功的人是赚足够的钱自己用，也愿意把自己有的金钱捐出来助人。

c）成功并非要有很大的名气和地位，但一个成功的人是一个能发挥很大的影响力的领袖。-Leadership is all about influence

d）成功之路并非一帆风顺。我们要抱着坚忍不拔的心态去克服困难与障碍，以达到最后的成功。我们要懂得珍惜成功的母亲，珍惜从失败中能得到的教训与经验。

写到这里忽然想到中国的国父孙中山先生说的一句话“革命尚未成功，同志仍须努力。”愿从孙总统在他遗嘱里的这句金玉良言与大家共勉。

我祝福也祈祷，吉华国中的大家庭的每一个成员都会有一个成功的人生。

*以上我所谈的课题的演讲稿，我会post在我的blog。有兴趣可游览我的blog at moseschua.blogspot.com 我会从现在开始不时update我的blog.

The recent flood problem in Alor Setar and Jitra

In my parting message as PTA Chairman in Keat Hwa magazine I was telling my friends (i.e. teachers, students and fellow Board/PTA Members) that from now on, I will regularly update my blog. But somehow to overcome the inertia to write is tremendous. Engineers somehow are people who act more than write. Nonetheless I will write now and I will begin on the current issue of flood problem in North Kedah. This flood that we experienced is worse than 2005 one; much larger areas were flooded and to a deeper depth. Some areas in Jitra were flooded to the roof (single storey) while the deeper area in Alor Setar were about 1.2 m. Is it really an event that comes once in 100 years as some authority people have said in the newspaper? Not likely, as we have experienced this order of magnitude of flood 2 times in the past 10 years.

Looking through the rainfall records from MADA’s website on rainfall and water level, there is no doubt that the flood in Jitra and Alor Setar is due to extremely heavy rainfall on the 1^st and 2^nd of November. The Sungai Bata catchment has experienced generally 200 to 300 mm of rainfall for those 2 days and the rainfall in Sungai Padang Terap is similar.

However besides the heavy rainfall, there are a few other reasons for the occurrence of this extreme flood event, such as:

1) The lack of control on the felling of trees in the upper catchment of Sungai Bata, leading to low moisture retention by the catchment and excessive soil erosion resulting in the reduction of river channel section.

2) The practice of direct seeding paddy planting culture has resulted in large amount of soil/silt, flowing into the river where farmers have to ‘dewater’ the paddy field for sowing. This practice has been on going for more than 20 years and the silt that has gone into the river is tremendous.

3) There is no serious de-silting work carried out for the two rivers i.e. Sungai Bata and Sungai Padang Terap/Sungai Anak Bukit for many years (>20 years). By right to maintain the flow capacity and detention volume of the river, the rivers should be de-silted regularly, maybe once in 5 years.

4) The construction of North-South Highway and upgrading of Alor Setar/Kepala Batas/Jitra Highway without adequate drainage culvert crossing the highway had impeded the flow of water towards the sea through the paddy field by plot to plot mechanism.

I believe the government needs to take serious action on the above to reduce the impact of the flood.While a comprehensive flood mitigation plan will take time, some immediate action to build low level bund(~2 m) along some stretches of the river and installation of non return flap gate on some drainage outlets to the river should take place immediately. The judicious operation of the existing pumping station like Sungai Raja could also protect city centre from the unnecessary flood.