The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews
The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews |
| Posted: [unable to retrieve full-text content] |
| You are subscribed to email updates from To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
| At least one Mursi supporter killed in Cairo protest march Posted: CAIRO (Reuters) - At least one supporter of Egypt's deposed President Mohamed Mursi was killed on Wednesday in Cairo during a protest march, a security source and the Muslim Brotherhood said. The Muslim Brotherhood said on its website that police in civilian clothes had opened fire using live ammunition early on Wednesday on marching Mursi supporters, killing two and injuring others. A security source confirmed one Mursi supporter was killed. The Muslim Brotherhood has accused the Ministry of Interior of using thugs in plain clothes to attack protesters, but security officials have denied this accusation. In a separate incident, a bomb exploded at a police station in a province north of Cairo early on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding 17 others, Health Ministry and security sources told Reuters. Unknown assailants threw the bomb from a passing car in Mansoura, the capital of Dakhalia province, two security sources said. Nine people were killed in Cairo on Tuesday in clashes between opponents and Islamist supporters of Mursi who was toppled by the army earlier this month. (Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Philip Barbara) |
| China's disgraced Bo Xilai to face trial soon - paper Posted: HONG KONG (Reuters) - Disgraced former senior Chinese leader Bo Xilai will soon face public trial on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Wednesday. Bo's wife Gu Kailai and his former police chief, Wang Lijun, have both been jailed over China's biggest political scandal in decades, which stems from the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in November 2011. The government in September last year accused Bo of corruption and of bending the law to hush up that murder. China's prosecutors and courts come under party control and are most unlikely to challenge the party's accusations, though formal charges have yet to be publicly announced. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, citing unnamed sources, said details of the charges against Bo had been read out at meetings of government officials in his former power base of Chongqing and other cities. No timetable for the trial was given, but it would happen soon in the eastern city of Jinan, the daily said. Bo was ousted from his post as Communist Party chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing last year after Heywood's murder. Before that, Bo had been widely tipped to be promoted to the party's elite inner core. His downfall came after his estranged police chief Wang fled briefly to a U.S. consulate in the neighbouring city of Chengdu last February and accused Bo's wife of poisoning Heywood. Bo, a former commerce minister, used his post as Communist Party chief of Chongqing from 2007 to 2012 to cast the sprawling, haze-covered municipality into a showcase for his mix of populist policies and bold spending plans that won support from leftists yearning for a charismatic leader. Rumours have swirled in China about Bo's fate, but the government has given no definitive word on progress into the investigation against him since late last year. Another Hong Kong newspaper, the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao, reported in January that Bo was about to be tried in the southern city of Guiyang, which sent dozens of reporters flocking to the courthouse. The report turned out to be untrue. (Reporting By Grace Li; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Mark Bendeich) |
| Clashes on Syria, spying mark debate on U.S. defense funding bill Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers clashed over Syria, Afghanistan and government spying on Tuesday as the House of Representatives began debating a $598 billion (389 billion pounds) defense spending bill for 2014, including a Pentagon base budget of $512 billion and $86 billion for the Afghan war. The confrontations began even before the measure made it to the floor of the House after Republican leaders moved to restrict the number of permitted amendments to 100, with no more than 20 minutes of debate on divisive issues like Syria policy and spying by the National Security Agency. A final vote on the bill, which includes about $3 billion more than requested by President Barack Obama, is not expected until Wednesday at the earliest. Debate on the thorniest amendments, including on Syria, funding for Egypt and NSA spying, was not likely to begin until Wednesday. The White House has threatened a presidential veto of the overall bill unless it is part of a broader budget that supports U.S. economic recovery efforts, saying current House proposals cut too much from education, infrastructure and innovation. The White House joined senior House Republicans in urging lawmakers to oppose an amendment by Michigan Republican Justin Amash, a favourite of the conservative Tea Party movement, that would bar the NSA from collecting telephone call records and other data from people in the United States not specifically under investigation. The proposed amendment comes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of an agency surveillance program that collects and stores vast amounts of electronic communications like phone call records and emails. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama welcomed a debate on safeguarding privacy, but opposed Amash's amendment, saying it would "hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools." Senior House Republicans, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, circulated a letter to colleagues urging them to oppose the amendment. "While many members have legitimate questions about the NSA metadata program, including whether there are sufficient protections for Americans' civil liberties, eliminating this program altogether without careful deliberation would not reflect our duty ... to provide for the common defense," they said. SYRIA SPLIT As debate got under way, lawmakers expressed concern over the constraints placed on their ability to discuss contentious issues. Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, accused Republican leaders of ignoring the "real split" in Congress over the Syrian civil war and denying "any real substantive debate" over whether the United States should intervene in a conflict that has already killed 100,000. U.S. involvement in Syria so far has been limited to providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition. But Obama is moving ahead with lethal aid after determining the government of President Bashar al-Assad has sometimes used chemical weapons. "The Republican leadership ducked a real important debate when it comes to Syria," McGovern said. "I hope that ... a few years down the road we don't look back ... and express regret that somehow we got sucked into this war without a real debate." Lawmakers also strongly condemned the Afghan government for trying to charge the U.S. military customs duties to remove American equipment from the country. They debated a series of amendments aimed at stripping funding from military programs for the Afghans. The bill sets Afghan war funding at $86 billion. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from World To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: [unable to retrieve full-text content]A post-apocalyptic tale that tends to get lost in the narrator's reverie, and then jolts itself – and the reader – to attention with bursts of activity. |
| Posted: ANY number of superlatives could be used to describe Instructions For A Heatwave, though none would adequately define this book. Buy it, read it, cherish it, share it with your friends, share it with your book-loving colleagues, share it with random strangers passing on the street, because this will be one of the best books you will read this year. In times to come you might spy this title on someone else's bookshelf and, through the shared emotional experience of having lived through this book, you will immediately feel a bond with the fellow reader, because reading Instructions For A Heatwave is a viscerally resonant experience that transcends the simple act of reading; the characters and storyline insinuate themselves into the reader's mind and become part of the collective memory in the way of all great works of art. There are books, that when you finish reading, you hold a little longer in your hands, unwilling to let go. You read the cover synopsis and the reviews, biography and acknowledgments just for the chance to prolong the pleasure, and when finally you put it down it is a heart-wrenching experience, something akin to saying goodbye to a dear old friend. Maggie O'Farrell was born in Ireland but left for Britain at the age of two and knows the limbo of second generation immigrants (an oxymoron if ever there was one, but language is imprecise), having feet in two cultures but not truly belonging to either. Instructions For A Heatwave is the story of a family that in way reflects her own experiences – the parents in the book, like her own parents were Irish and half-Irish, the children, like her own children are two girls and a boy. At times I was reminded of Marina Lewycka's A Short History Of Tractors In Ukranian or Zadie Smith'sWhite Teeth – both also based in London, both also dealing with the theme of children whose parents call another country home. While I loved those books, I must confess that I enjoyed Instructions For A Heatwave even more. The mother, Gretta Riordan is a wonderfully neurotic and eccentric character who carries on a permanent monologue with anyone and anything (including her shoes) and is very much the dominant force in this somewhat dysfunctional family. Just how much of her erratic behaviour is influenced by the fistfuls of pills she regularly swallows is never really clear. Gretta's three children are caught in the dilemma of being too Irish and not Irish enough, pulled by the twin forces of their mother's attempts to force Irishness upon them while at the same time living at a chaotic time in Anglo-Irish relations when merely having an Irish accent in Britain could be an invitation for trouble. The heatwave in question is the long hot summer of 1976 when water rationing was introduced in Britain under the Drought Act. I'm a little sceptical of the author's assertion in interviews that she remembers how the strange weather affected people and brought out subsequent strange behaviour – she was only four years old at the time. I was twice her age and yet my own memories of that summer and the summer precedent are vague and distant – distorted by the heat haze of childhood shimmering over the melted sticky tar of sun-baked roads. Be that as it may, this little quibble has no impact on the book. The story takes place primarily in London, with brief episodes in New York and the west of Ireland, but the setting is secondary to the dynamics of the family and the different ties each member has with one another. The dialogue, both internal and external, is fantastically vibrant and realistic. The highly engaging characters are like real-life, three-dimensional people that evoke empathy in the reader. The subplots that reveal their inner worlds are mini stories in themselves, exploring themes like dyslexia and illiterateness, photography and further education and the nature of fidelity and family. The narrative slips effortlessly from present to past and back again, sometimes within the space of the same paragraph, and when the past becomes present and old secrets are revealed, the characters must learn to accept and adapt to new realities. It is a highly engaging book that keeps the reader turning the pages and is almost impossible to put down. If you only read one book this year, then you won't go too far wrong by choosing Instructions For A Heatwave. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Books To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: Nation
The Star Online: Nation |
| Kuala Besut by-election: PKR man lodges report over 'pil kuda' remark Posted: BESUT: A Terengganu PKR leader has lodged a police report against PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang over his pil kuda (methamphetamine) remark made two weeks before the general election. Dungun PKR Youth chief Mohd Shamsul Mat Amin lodged the report at the Kuala Terengganu police station yesterday, urging police to investigate Hadi's accusation that a PKR candidate for the general election was a drug peddler. The 28-year-old housing developer, who was PKR's candidate in the Bukit Besi state seat, claimed that two other former PKR candidates in the general election, including its Seberang Takir candidate Ahmad Nazri Mohd Yusof, would lodge similar reports in the near future. PKR fielded candidates in six areas in Terengganu in the general election, of which three – Bukit Besi, Seberang Takir and Bukit Putra – were seats also contested by PAS. However, the party withdrew from contesting against PAS days before nomination following Hadi's statement, which he allegedly made at a ceramah in Marang. In explaining why the party had to field candidates against PKR in the three constituencies, Hadi apparently said: "There was information, I cannot say from where, of one of them being a methamphetamine dealer. PAS cannot work with a candidate like this. Even PKR's people cannot accept this." Mohd Shamsul said he would also file a defamation suit against Hadi because he was one of the PKR candidates fielded in the three seats also contested by PAS. "Because I am the youngest PKR candidate, many people, including people in my village, assumed that Hadi was referring to me. "Even some of my family members believed Hadi was telling the truth as he is a religious leader. Due to that, I was shunned in my village and my business suffered as people no longer trust me," he told a press conference here yesterday.  Mohd Shamsul showing a copy of his police report during a press conference at Kuala Besut. Mohd Shamsul was accompanied at the press conference by Terengganu PKR election director Yahaya Zakaria and his adoptive father Ismail Abas. When asked why he is only lodging a report now, Mohd Shamsul, who claimed he was not being influenced by others in doing so, said he just recently recovered from a bout of depression because of Hadi's accusation. "Hadi made the statement before the general election. So I am taking this opportunity before the (Kuala Besut) by-election to make this statement. Furthermore, this is the best time as many journalists are here," he said. Related stories:Dont harass voters warns EC Dont believe advice over ink voters urged BN and PAS candidates equally confident of victory |
| The Star artist dies after heart attack Posted: [unable to retrieve full-text content]PETALING JAYA: Mohd Salleh Sapawi (pic), an editorial artist with The Star, died yesterday at the age of 53. |
| Scratch-and-win syndicate targets Malacca Posted: [unable to retrieve full-text content]MALACCA: More than a dozen housewives and retirees in the state have fallen victim to a scratch-and-win scam operated by a syndicate from Singapore and Johor. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online : Nation Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion |
| Posted: Shakespeare's 'Othello' made a triumphant return to Venice last week. St Mark's Square in Venice last week was the spectacular backdrop to a tragic opera in the first open-air performance in 43 years by the famous La Fenice theatre – a new must on the global culture calendar. La Fenice staged Italian maestro Giuseppe Verdi's interpretation of Shakespeare's Othello, The Moor Of Venice – with South Korea's Myung-Whun Chung conducting La Fenice's orchestra and choir.The performance, which coincided with the 200th anniversary of Verdi's birth, was the first since 1970 and was held in the courtyard of the richly decorated Doge's Palace that took up one side of the square. Othello was a popular opera in Venice in the 1960s. US tenor Gregory Kunde played Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and Italian soprano Carmela Remigio played his spouse Desdemona.Othello is one of Verdi's last works and premiered to a rapturous welcome at La Scala in Milan in 1887. Verdi at the time had not composed an opera since Aida in 1871 and there were doubts about his career. Othello is set in a town in Cyprus in the 15th century when the glory of Venice was at its peak and is filled with references to the great trading empire. In a Venetian production "the spirit of the place of course plays a role", producer Francesco Micheli told Italian daily La Stampa. "All this is taking place in a city suspended on the water, always on the point of falling down, but always miraculously surviving," he said. Othello is "a man of the sea who won against his enemies and a storm, but also shows his personal frailty -- a Messiah who walks on water but then drowns in a glass of water," he said. Othello is the highlight of a music festival in Venice running until Aug 24. - AFP Relaxnews |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Arts To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: Metro: Central
The Star Online: Metro: Central |
| Drop in number of dengue cases Posted: THE number of new dengue infections may have fallen for the fourth week in a row, but Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu has warned against complacency. Fu, who is also Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, and Foreign Affairs, said that with the number of cases still ranging beyond 500 just two weeks ago, the battle is far from over. "It is not time to declare victory. There is still a lot of work to be done. "There are still clusters that are growing, so we still have to watch against the spreading of the disease in other parts where immunity has not been built up yet," she said. There were 306 dengue cases reported last week ending Friday, down from 542 in the period of July 7 to 13. But some 88 dengue clusters remain active, the biggest of which is in Tampines with 227 infections. Asked about efforts to control the Tampines clusters, Fu said the various parties were working very hard to keep their environment free of Aedes mosquitoes. "Everyone is focused, everyone is concerned. It is really to get all stakeholders, not just the residents... but also the schools, town councils, public areas, the parks, industrial buildings... to keep their own areas clean so we can once and for all stop the spread of dengue there," she said. Fu was speaking on the sidelines of a community engagement programme to increase awareness on environmental sustainability held in Jurong East. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network |
| Fewer maids running away after changes in salary rules Posted: [unable to retrieve full-text content]INDONESIAN Embassy counsellor Sukmo Yuwono cannot help but grin when he sees the rows of empty beds in the embassy's shelter for runaway maids. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Regional Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health |
| Posted: [unable to retrieve full-text content] |
| You are subscribed to email updates from To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: Metro: South & East
The Star Online: Metro: South & East |
| Drop in number of dengue cases Posted: THE number of new dengue infections may have fallen for the fourth week in a row, but Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu has warned against complacency. Fu, who is also Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, and Foreign Affairs, said that with the number of cases still ranging beyond 500 just two weeks ago, the battle is far from over. "It is not time to declare victory. There is still a lot of work to be done. "There are still clusters that are growing, so we still have to watch against the spreading of the disease in other parts where immunity has not been built up yet," she said. There were 306 dengue cases reported last week ending Friday, down from 542 in the period of July 7 to 13. But some 88 dengue clusters remain active, the biggest of which is in Tampines with 227 infections. Asked about efforts to control the Tampines clusters, Fu said the various parties were working very hard to keep their environment free of Aedes mosquitoes. "Everyone is focused, everyone is concerned. It is really to get all stakeholders, not just the residents... but also the schools, town councils, public areas, the parks, industrial buildings... to keep their own areas clean so we can once and for all stop the spread of dengue there," she said. Fu was speaking on the sidelines of a community engagement programme to increase awareness on environmental sustainability held in Jurong East. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network |
| Fewer maids running away after changes in salary rules Posted: INDONESIAN Embassy counsellor Sukmo Yuwono cannot help but grin when he sees the rows of empty beds in the embassy's shelter for runaway maids. For the first time in years, the shelter, which has space for about 150 women, is not full. The reason, said Sukmo, is pay. In the past, maids got as little S$10 (RM) a month during the first year of work – their salaries cut to repay employers who had to shell out over S$3,000 (RM7,500) to cover fees that the maids owed agents in Indonesian and Singapore. The Indonesian Government made changes to this practice last year, and maids now get at least S$170 (RM425) a month while paying off their loans. They take bank loans instead of getting employers to make an upfront payment, and can clear their debt within eight months. The new rules also ensure that maids from the country are paid at least S$450 (RM1,125) a month. Agents' fees have also been cut to about S$2,200 (RM5,500), after reducing commissions charged by recruiters. However, there have been hiccups. The Straits Times reported last year that some Indonesian middlemen ask for "under the table" money. This cost is passed on to maids, leading to higher debt. The changes have also seen higher agency fees for employers, who are now paying about S$1,600 (RM4,000), up from about S$600 (RM1,500) before. Sukmo said Jakarta will blacklist Singapore and Indonesian maid agencies which flout the rules. But he believes that the maids are happier because of the changes. He said: "I think more maids are now motivated to work out their problems with their employers instead of running away." As recently as last year, most of the maids in the shelter claimed they ran away because they could not get along with the employer. But when probed by Sukmo, the women revealed that they had felt unmotivated, because they had to wait for over a year before saving enough money to send home to their family. Today, most of the maids in the shelter are there not so much by choice but because they are owed salaries by their employers, or are involved in police cases involving matters such as abuse. Since January this year, the embassy, which runs the biggest shelter for Indonesian maids here, has sheltered an average of 100 to 120 maids each month. The number has dropped to around 50 this month, partly because of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Agents and Indonesian maids agree that the policy changes have gone a long way in increasing motivation. Fatmahiroh, 25, who came to Singapore in May to work as a maid said: "I am happy I will be able to save about S$1,000 (RM2,500) after working for about six months, and I can send the money home." — The Straits Times / Asia News Network |
| Man jailed for trying to take upskirt photo Posted: A TECHNICIAN, who held a cellphone under a woman's skirt, was jailed for one week for attempting to insult the modesty of the woman. Gwee Kim Tee, 59, admitted to the offence at the void deck of Block 953 Jurong West Street 91 at about 11pm on April 12 last year. A magistrate's court heard that the 49-year-old woman was using a public phone at the void deck when she felt something touching her leg. She turned around and saw Gwee standing behind her and holding onto his mobile phone. She also noticed a flash of light under her skirt. Gwee ran away after the woman shouted for help. She went after him but lost sight of him on the fourth floor of Block 950. She called the police who then made house-to-house checks on the fourth floor. They interviewed Gwee who admitted to the act. He could have been jailed for up to six months and/or fined. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Regional Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Parenting
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Parenting |
| Posted: When you enrol your child in a kindergarten, you hope she learns some fundamental things that prepare her for primary school. In addition, it is also hoped that she will make new friends and enjoy her journey into the world of learning. There is some level of trust placed in the school and its staff. You assume your child will not be put at risk and will be safe from harm. However, this is not always the case …. Anonymous: "I was a kindergarten teacher in charge of the three-year-olds. My eldest child was also attending the kindergarten and I had a newborn baby. There was a good teacher who was asthmatic. We became good friends and when I needed to travel, she would stay at my house to take care of my kids. After some time, she started to fall ill often. I and many other teachers suspected she had TB. She had all the symptoms and she had been travelling a lot to her hometown prior to that and her hometown had a high incidence of TB. She told me that she was going to see the doctor for a full medical checkup. She was very secretive after that, refusing to reveal her illness. A few days later, my principal informed me that this teacher was going to be on three months' sick leave. I questioned if it was TB. All my principal said was that it was private and confidential. Every day at work, I kept pressing for the truth but the principal kept insisting it was private and confidential. When I told her about the children who were exposed, all she said was they had no symptoms. She even bragged that one of the parents, who was a doctor, said that it was not serious and that we shouldn't cause a panic. This was not the only 'cover up'. Three of my students were down with hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), but the cases were also not reported. I found out about the HFMD cases when the parents of one of the children asked me what type of school this was and why no proper precautions were taken to clean the school and inform the other parents. I eventually resigned because I was not happy with the situation and neither did I feel safe, putting my children at risk. On my last day of work, I went to the government clinic as my baby was ill. Imagine my surprise when the doctor looked at me and chastised me for not coming in sooner for a medical checkup! She told me that a teacher at the kindergarten had had TB and as such everyone there had been exposed to it. She also informed me that the kindergarten had an obligation to inform all parents and staff. The doctor then said she would inform the authorities about this. Both my children had to go for X-rays and the Mantoux test, where a tiny amount of the TB virus is injected under the skin. I had to go for an X-ray. My elder daughter and I tested negative but my baby was positive. The next few months were bad. She had more blood tests and she suffered so much. Her case was then transferred to the General Hospital and the Paediatric Specialist for Infectious Diseases ordered another blood test. This meant more tests and more needles being stuck into her. She seems to be in the clear now, but the hospital keeps calling us back for checkups as part of the procedure for TB-exposed patients. I think it is the responsibility of the kindergarten to inform the parents if there is any TB, HFMD or infectious disease within the school community. Parents would actually be happy if they were informed. Keeping a secret like this is just not fair to the students and parents. Kids below two and babies can actually die from TB because there's no right way of knowing fast enough if they have it." Adele Kueh, homemaker and babysitter: "My daughter Charlotte was attending this kindergarten for three months. She was two years old then and still couldn't speak, except for a bit of baby language. I'm a single mum and she is my only child. I decided to send her to the kindergarten hoping she would learn to speak and pick up some English words and make new friends. The problems began in the second month. My daughter did not follow the instructions given so the main teacher decided to punish her by asking her to stand outside the classroom. What can we expect from a two-year-old child? The other children were not allowed to talk to her. I found out about this when the principal sent Charlotte home.  Charlotte was punished at age two-plus for not following instructions. I asked the principal if the teacher made any attempt to explain to Charlotte why she was punished and give her a hug after that. The principal said no. I called the teacher and asked her not to do it again and she did not appreciate this. I did not want Charlotte to have low self-esteem and feel bad without understanding why. I had another issue with this teacher when she ridiculed me in front of another teacher. When I called the principal to ask for an apology, she said it was a joke and that she wouldn't ask the teacher to apologise. I got no refund when I took my child out of the school. My daughter is now studying in a new school which she loves." Yvonne Wong, finance process consultant: "My daughter Nathalie started school in August 2012. She was 1 1/2 years old then. It was actually a daycare cum kindergarten. Her class consisted of children between the ages of one and three. She was bitten on the cheek on the first day of school. She was extremely traumatised. The principal kept apologising after the first time she was bitten and we accepted it as we thought it was quite normal for a child to be excited and not know how to express her love, except by biting. The principal attempted to resolve the issue by talking to the other girl's parents. The principal also promised that the teachers and staff would keep an eye on that child. We suggested that the girl be quarantined as she had exhibited violent behaviour and could hurt the other kids as well. Nathalie was bitten again on another day. She became reluctant to go to school. The moment she saw the school uniform she would cry non-stop and hold my hubby tightly refusing to go to school. The third time she was bitten, the principal promised to dismiss the child from the school but the parents would need to be given a month's notice so they could look for another daycare centre. We totally understood and were happy with this resolution. She also promised to quarantine the girl in the principal's personal rest area. The next day, Nathalie was bitten again. It was the fourth time and on the same night she had a high fever. We were so worried that the bite from the child had caused her to have a fever. However, the doctor later identified a lung infection as the cause. Nathalie had been bitten four times in the two months she was there. We decided to withdraw her from the school. Nathalie now has a new kindergarten and she is happy to put on her school uniform and go to school every day." SL: "My daughter's school has a lot of holidays – the Malaysian public holidays as well as the international school holidays, and days between holidays, which they term 'bridge holidays'. This all turns out to be very inconvenient for working parents like us. When we question it, they say that it is determined by the international school, which seems to be a way of passing the buck. Furthermore, when there are any issues, such as HFMD in the area or the haze, the kindergarten will close for extended periods of time, for example, up to 10 days or two weeks. Again, this is very inconvenient for working parents like us. It is possible that they are more liberal with taking holidays being under the impression that many mothers in this international school are not working, being wives of expats. I believe this is a convenient assumption to make that inconveniences working parents. As it is, we pay an exorbitant sum for fees – about RM17,000 per year, and much of the year is taken up by holidays. Summer holidays themselves are 1.5 months in duration. In addition, given the exorbitant fees, which cover only the hours between 8am and 1pm, I am not happy when I am demanded to pay for one-off activities that I didn't request for. A case in point was when the kindergarten got a clown to come in and entertain the kids. I hadn't requested or agreed to the clown, and yet I was demanded to pay the amount. And when I queried this payment, they asked me not to bring my child in that day! Hopefully, the staff in this international school may one day realise that even though they have been employed by the government of their country, it is we parents who pay the fees." What parents can do Jayawathi Perera, chairman of the Malaysian Association of Kindergartens advises parents to carefully choose a kindergarten for their child. "Parents should take their child to the school and see if this is a school the child is happy to go to, rather than shopping from one school to the next," she says. The Malaysian Association of Kindergartens is an NGO and its main aim since it was founded in the 1970s is to train preschool teachers. Perera advises parents: - Be careful when choosing a kindergarten. Look for a school that your child is comfortable and happy in. - Look for the licence given by the state education department (it is normally framed up and hanging in the principal's room). - Read the fine print when registering to check if you will be able to get any refund if you withdraw your child. - Parents should try resolving any issues with the school. - If that doesn't work, and it's very serious, and the parents want to lodge a complaint, it should be filed with the state education department. All private kindergartens have to register with the state education office, which hands out the kindergartens' licence to operate. This licence needs to be renewed annually. Regardless of whether it is a government or private kindergarten, parents can lodge a complaint against the school with the state education department. - Before filing a complaint, parents should preferably have all the facts and evidence, otherwise it will just be a case of your word against the school's word. Conclusion Perera says kindergartens should send their teachers for the training organised by the association. Besides skills training, it also covers health education, which would help teachers identify if a child has any illnesses or disease, and what to do about it. This would help them identify children who have HFMD and action can be taken quickly to inform all parents and the health authorities. This way, the children and school staff will not be at risk of contracting the disease. At the end of the day, Perera believes that both parties should be able to resolve any issue.  Jayawathi Perera: 'Why can't they talk it out?' "I don't see why the problem can't be resolved by the school and the parents. Why can't they talk it out? "I think when you go to the education office, it must be so bad that you can't settle it with the school. For example, if parents have a problem with the teacher, they should talk to the principal. But some parents are very aggressive and because they are paying customers, they think they need a certain amount of service. The principal has to practise good PR, too. But I think a lot of things can be resolved by the school," she sums up. Do you have a kindergarten horror story to share? Send it to parenthots@thestar.com.my. We want to hear from you. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Family To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved
