We have entered Rajab 1445, reminding myself closer to the grave (time is running out). I would be 63 soon according to the Hijri calendar. The crisis in Middle East is still raging on after 100 days and still counting (dependent on how one counts). Earlier, I have told my own family to be aware of all major events happening in the world and not to be gullible with soothsayers, end-days-warmongers but yet be mindful, expecting to be surprised at any time. I still share posts about the crisis on social media particularly on humanitarian issues, feeling that is the least I could do.
I still have mixed feelings about social media. Many times I tried to stay away from it but deep down, I thought that I may miss out something. Just yesterday, I saw this paper on Isaac Newton and learned that Newton had an opinion of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is a prophet of God (see end of pg. 388), in a correspondence to Roger Cotes. Does it add anything to my faith? No, but I understand better who Newton is.
When people post some opinion pieces on social media, sometimes I have the urge to post my take on it and many times I successfully resisted it (I really hated be in debate where disagreeing followers who are ready to pounce on us. There are times where I failed, of course. I see social media as a double-edged sword; while everyone can express their opinions (almost), due to selective algorithms, users tend to be in their own bubbles where stereotypes get more ingrained, especially those referring to Malaysia. As I have said many times, a major part of my life has been fighting stereotypes and hence the earlier mentioned urge - mainly to balance out the views.
As a person with some experience (not much of course) in management and administrative matters, issues that have often been raised are discussed in meetings (sometimes fiercely). So, the picture of decision-makers are like zombies, following multiple bosses, are misleading; opinions are raised within closed circles, competing against a variety of (opposite) views. In the end, there will be only one decision and if one is lucky, it will side with the one that one favours. Otherwise consider oneself unlucky. I remembered an incident that I have to message a top management member to be fair in taking (balanced) views. For this, I was then invited to attend the senate meetings thereafter and note that the senate members are full professors of which I am not.
So in one post in social media, I decided to give my opinion on the issue just to say that the issue raised is not particularly unique to Malaysian academia but exists elsewhere as well. I do however express there are particular more basic issues that may have been unique to Malaysia given its historical development but also stated that I tend to be more forgiving these days. It was later that night (after commenting) that I had a nightmare, the type that I always had when I was in management - being ridiculed or sidelined or ignored. That comment I've made, triggered something in my subconscious. I fully understand that I felt I was not doing enough during my management days and perhaps underwent some form of imposter syndrome then. Thereafter, I posted something on the rarity of imposter syndrome in faith-based matters (unlike in science) and I don't just mean religion but even in our social outlook where faith or values play a role in the way we reason. The post is also meant that the degree of intellectual humility that we often impose in science becomes less when it comes to faith-based matters. In any case, back to my management days; I had one colleague down south making the remark that my circle or network of friends are not far enough or influential. This is indeed true since I am more of an introvert; I don't mingle too much after meetings to create a better circle of influence - it is just not me. So when I was interviewed for the XMUM (part-time) job, they asked me whether I want to do management and my reply was that I prefer to focus on science (where things are little clearer).
As far as my current job, it should end by January 31. I have no idea whether I will continue teaching in XMUM. Last week, I had one final exam done for one subject (Math Methods in Physics 1) and have just submitted the marks this morning.
Next week, I will have another one final exam on Electrodynamics 1 (which will be held in a bigger hall and I need to go very early for this). Here are the pics after my final lecture on Electrodynamics.
I hope all of my students will do well in their exams.
No comments:
Post a Comment