The finals are drawing ever closer now. I'm already starting to feel that ever choking pressure that comes with the end of the semester. I know it's a little too late for me to have nightmares of ending my semester rather badly considering my first paper is in 4 days. Then again it's not like I haven't been studying all this time.

It's just that I hate exams.

Don't get me wrong. I like a schooling life…more so since I got here. I just don't like the fact that in most cases, at the end of it all…how good you are is solely based on how much you can stuff into your head and spewed out at the right moment.

I'm not blaming the system. I mean…I have been in that system for way to long even though I'm not exactly the top end of the chain when it comes to memorising the scores of information that are printed on the many books and notes that is thick enough to give any man penis envy. It's just it comes to the sudden realisation that aside for science related fields, a lot of jobs don't exactly need you to spew out facts at the same rate you do in exams.

In fact…aside for pharmacists and doctors.

Nope…I can't think of anything else that requires much trackback of memory.

Now, I'm not exactly the foremost expert on Malaysian education system, but personally having been through it, there is a serious flaw in the education system. I'm sure a lot of you have known for years…but to me at least…that one fundemental flaw does affect the entire future of everyone in Malaysia.

Our education system is designed to produce drones.

Yup…all those years of stuffing all those equations, facts and formulas which you may or may not need later on in life is all to prepare you to be an expendable worker who sits in a tiny cubicle for 30 odd years before he or she can retire with a measly pension.

Think about it, all the rules and structure they impose on you in school under the promote good qualities. The only thing its designed to do is train each and everyone of us to live under nothing an organized structure where we need to be told what and how to do things. Yes, I understand school is to instruct us on needful things…

But what's so needful about a closed box?

Hasn't anyone heard of creativity?

It's not just for art you know.

Call it moral or call it for the benefit of us all, but telling how and what we should learn isn't going to teach us anything that's out there…not without a price everyone pays. If a power of the nation is built upon the knowledge that it controls, then by all means come on…you can't built a secure power base when 3/4 of the nation need to be told to learn new things by a higher authority. To make things even worse…we learn only things "approved" by those higher authorities.

To anyone who has EVER appreciated the value of information in their life, we are sure of one thing.

Knowledge is fluidic.

Knowledge is everything.

What is there to be proud about a nation that is built upon hand-me-down technology and a large mass of people with no self vision but that of a message bordering on propaganda? Even if you forget the socio-politics of the situation for one bit.

What is your life worth when you're never free to be all that you can be?

To me, all this business about Malaysians not coming back to work in their own country because of racism and poor working benefits is just the result of a much deeper problem.

For me at least, I would choose to work here instead of back home not because I can earn $22k a month (academicians aren't exactly the best paid people in the world). No…I choose to work here because despite the capitalistic, commecialised bureaucracy, I can at least have the freedom to pursue my dreams and ideas without being hindered much by a system. As long as it gets the job done.

Anything goes.

But like I said in the beginning, I'm not an expert on these things. I just lived in the system long enough to know that there is something wrong with it. Long enough to pay the prices and see the prices being paid. If I had the power to do something about it, I would…but I don't. So…bully for me.

Teach a child to chase your dreams and that's all they will ever see.

Teach a child to chase their own dreams.

And watch them touch the stars with their own hands.