Search

Author: Datuk Mohammad Medan Abdullah

Hardwork and discipline – lessons from a movie

“They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline.” Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) in The Last Samurai I think I have watched this movie, ‘The Last Samurai’ so many times, as I

When prevention is better than cure

WE are all familiar with the conventional saying that “prevention is better than cure”. In these times of uncertainty driven by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and now the Russia- Ukraine conflict which threatens the world with a wider conflagration and has the potential to drag the whole world

The drums of war are beating

It was close to midnight on March 5, 2022, at Tanjung Batu in Bintulu, Sarawak when I finished composing a poem. One through which I tried to evoke the emotions that were gripping me at that late hour. I like the quiet hours in the mornings and those towards midnight

Paru Paru Kota: Creating Green Lungs

PRESIDENT Roosevelt of the US once called the forests “the lungs of the Earth”, whilst renowned poet Robert Frost got inspiration from trees as in his poems ‘The Road Not Taken’, ‘The Oak Tree’ and ‘Stopping By The Woods On a Snowy Evening’.  Yes, there must be millions of artists

Make hope possible by investing in our youth

I was an eight-year-old Primary Two pupil in a village school in Bario, Sarawak when Lyndon B Johnson became the first US President to visit Malaysia in 1966. Not that I knew about it back then, but it was something I learnt about many years later. There is a relational

Power and beauty in words of recitals, songs and poetry

IN November last year at Batu Patong Eco Village near Bario, an auntie, Sinah Eli, volunteered to sing for us a Kelabit traditional lakuh song at a gathering of the villagers to which we were invited. I have had not heard such a recitation in a long while so the

Merdeka Award Roundtable: The genesis and vision for engagement

WHEN it was first initiated some ten years ago, the Merdeka Award Roundtable was intended to be a high quality and riveting talk show, showcasing intelligent debates and conversations on topics that were not only current but of significant importance to nation building and Malaysians in general. Made for TV,

Sape resurgence: A musical upbeat of tradition and arts

If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken and so die. That strain again, it had a dying fall. —  Shakespeare, Twelfth Night ‘If music be the food of love, play on’ are the words of Duke Orsino