Just to prove a point to myself, and since my last proper international conference presentation was like 5-6 years back, i went to the above conference last month and presented three empirical research papers. For two of them i collaborated with Puan Nurulhayati, my ex-TESL student academic-in-training.

Pada pendapat ikhlas saya, Universiti Teknologi Petronas perlu lebih banyak pendedahan dan perlu belajar lebih tentang cara-cara untuk mengendalikan sebuah persidangan, lebih-lebih lagi persidangan serantau seperti ini. Dari apa yang saya dengar dari beberapa orang pembentang lain, itulah kali pertama dan terakhir mereka akan datang ke negeri Perak yang pernah banyak timah ini.

Anywho, our small scale national conference is still on this July. And not forgetting, www.uforia.edu.my that will be up and running with our two international journals Episteme SEA and Logos SEA. Come on Desktop Systems, we are waiting! Our papers for RCH '09 are as follows, not that (1) it's that hard to present an academic paper, (2) conference papers carry much academic weight, (3) conferences mean anything really, save for us to get our certs and 'prove' that we've done something academic!

One (featured paper)

Regional collaboration and industrial linkage by academics in Malaysian institutions of higher learning: Myth or reality?
Airil Haimi Mohd Adnan and Nurulhayati Ilias

Two

Spoken language choice and use in the education industry in Malaysia: between English and the mother tongues.
Airil Haimi Mohd Adnan and Nurulhayati Ilias

Three

‘Reflections’: a behind-the-scene study on how a Malaysian television program popularizes contemporary Islam through program concept, content and medium.
Airil Haimi Mohd Adnan

Semasa bekerjasama dengan Kak Zieha dan kumpulan produksi e-media (televisyen) di JAKIM Putrajaya, kami berjaya menerbitkan 15 episod rancangan 'Reflections' yang sudah beberapa diulang-siar di RTM TV1. Antara fokus kami adalah usaha 'mengikat' kembali Islam dengan sains, teknologi dan nilai keilmuan.

Islam is a religion of learning and of knowledge - no matter what you hear in the news nowadays. Do not: (1) Equate Muslim extremism with Islam; (2) Separate between religion and knowledge, (3) Think that the cradle of knowledge is the Western world - learning and the search for knowledge has been the focus of Muslim scholars thousands of years ago.

This news article was originally on the Yahoo Malaysia site. After some editing, i present the article below. I really like the first line that says "internationally-recognised researchers should be promoted, including through the mass media". So what have i been doing all this while?

Granted, the point is good and clear. I suggest younger academics should learn a bit about the media and how to promote their work using media releases and the likes. Anywho, read the article below from our national news agency, with kudos to the people at UniMAP (which i happen to work with last year).

Sekali lagi 9 Februari datang dan telah pergi. I am now 33 and counting down. Setiap hari lahir pasti akan saya berfikir tentang segala usaha yang belum lagi sempat siap. As i grow older i find that i'd rather forget my own birthday.

But this year, nampaknya saya tak dibenarkan lupa. Terima kasih kepada semua mereka di bawah. I am so touched, sungguh terharu. Moga Allah SWT membalas kebaikan anda semua. Thank you for remembering small me and my insignificant birthday, and i really mean THANK YOU to:

Bunda Altaira, Yulinda my wife / Adik Ebijerl, Altaira Yusra / Along, OM part 6 / Mr Ijat, OM part 4 / Intan Intoing, ex OM now a professional / Farid Bung, ex OM professional with Penang Bridge Authority / Eisha Zulkifli, ex Warwick coursemate and close friend / My parents Hjh Rashinah Ahmad and Hj Adnan Puteh AND for the birthday cake / Esfahan, ex OM now a professional / Raja Faraa-D, my dearest friend at XFresh FM / Shaiful, ex OM now working for Oxygen magazine / Tam Suhaimi, my dear actor friend and true 'anak seni' / Billie, ex OM and now also a professional / Amy, OM part 5 / Angah, OM part 6 / Nadzirah, OM part 6 industrial attachment at UiTM Shah Alam / Intan Azreena, ex course mate and house mate and dear friend / Furzanne, OM part 6 / Famy, ex OM now doing degree in Admin Science / Kadzliana, ex OM also doing her degree in Admin Science / My brother Adril Ellmi, Fieza my sis-in-law and their newborn my tembam nephew Afham / Our neighbour Kak Zah, Amir and their whole family for making me pulut kuning and rendang ayam / Kak Yatie, our neighbour too / Online wishes from Suzihani and Nurul Farhan through Facebook / Sister Anje who is now a nurse after stopping from UiTM / Aus, OM part 4 / Paan, OM part 6.

Beberapa hari yang lalu, Prof Radz dengan ikhlas telah menyatakan ketidakpuasan hatinya dengan 'pemenang' Anugerah Cemerlang tahun ini yang kata beliau perlu diberikan kepada pensyarah Akademi yang bukan hanya cekap menjadi kerani - tetapi yang dicari adalah ahli akademik dalam erti kata sebenar, someone with true 'academicability'. 

As expected, he was attacked by the lady co-ordinator and even his close friend for his views until he was really upset. I received his sms-es regarding this and i too was sad. Not because he was verbally abused, but because do we need people's permission to have an opinion?

The fact that Prof Radz mentioned my name, made me doubly sad. Anugerah dan penganugerahan adalah seronok untuk diterima, tapi kalau tidak diberikan adakah bererti kita perlu berhenti berusaha? We work not because we want people to recognise us, we read we write - we do everything, because we hope to contribute something good to the world around us before it is time for us to die.

I thank you Prof Radz for proposing my name. But you and i both know that our campus, our country is ruled by 'them', mereka dengan pandangan dunia kedaerahan yang cepat puas hati memuja memuji jagoan kampung di kalangan sendiri.

My friend, let us stand down and live on to fight the good fight. And my friend, for your support - i thank you. How small i feel, with you as my friend.

Do you ever wonder about the future? Like what will happen tomorrow, next month or year? How about 10 or 50 years from now? What about 100 years from now? The obvious answer is, "WHO CARES?" Perhaps it is that kind of answer that turns us into 'unthinkers' and not 'thinkers'.

And it so happens that we always think about things once it already happens or is about to happen. This kind of thinking is also not too clever because chances are, events will already unfold and it is too late for us to act and to react. Think about the global fuel crisis a few months back, and all of a sudden we were talking about other sources of energy in Malaysia - when other countries have moved far ahead yearsss ago!!!

It's really funny because someone must have thought about this 10, 50 or 100 years back! But it's also sad because i know for a fact that people with vision, who can think about the future and actually do something about it - are too few to actually do something about anything.

It's up to us really, to join them and to think far ahead and act not just for today but for years to come. No one can predict the future, but we sure can do so many things before the future happens. This is called futurist thinking, and i invite you to become a true futurist!

Last week has been quite hectic, even though it was a holiday period. Editing a doctoral proposal is not easy what more with July coming... soon. I was fully awake most nights, writing and updating all my blogs, The New Teech Times in particular. Slept at around 5 am or 6 am, on one day i was up till about 9.30 am - reminds me of the 'good old days' at university with my assignments and all.

For my English for Academic Purposes group, I set a few fairly easy tasks that forced them to go online, to focus on grammar and to closely follow conventions for academic writing. Suffice to say, nearly all of them failed in one area or more. Some did not even finish the set work!

Are we lazy because more than 400 years ago, that was the opinion of the Europeans? In 2009, my students might prove the bloody Europeans right. Are we really lazy? Don't we care about our own work? Don't we take pride in our own initiatives? Don't we know that our work is really a reflection of ourselves, really?

As a teacher, after all's said and done... i pray my students will not prove the Europeans right. Amen.