Painting on a Canvas of Life

Discovering the Musée du Louvre is like a historical walk through the eyes of the artist. The museum which houses one of the most stunning collections of artworks in the world is also where the Mona Lisa is displayed. This portrait created in the sixteenth century by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci is painted on poplar wood canvas. I am not an art critic but the artistic craftsmanship has given it world-wide recognition. The least I could do as a tourist is to be photographed next to it and agree that it is a magnificent piece of art.

To me, a person’s impression of a country and its people is like painting on a canvas. The artist places his canvas on the easel. With expert flicks of his brush, he mixes the paints on his palette and creates something beautiful to be admired but not necessarily understood by others. I have met two Irish who gave me conflicting images of my home country. The first a fowl manager whom I met at a fair. He had proudly displayed his collection of fowl: geese, ducks, chickens and guinea fowl.

A smallish bird in a coop that caught my attention was the Serama, a bantam breed of chicken. Immediately I felt great kinship with the chicken and told him that we both came from the same country. Surprised, he told me that he had visited Kuala Lumpur three times and went on to describe his trip. All good memories. The second Irish had visited a few cities and islands in Malaysia. Recounting her journeys to me, what took me by surprise was a number of inaccuracies that she made about Malaysians in general. I believe this was partly due to the fact that she saw Malaysia through the eyes of the host that she stayed with. Obviously the host did not give her a balanced perspective of the nation and its people. The teacher in me immediately tried to put the facts right. After trying to explain at length, I found myself stopping in my tracks because she was not listening at all. She still insisted that she was absolutely right and nothing that I said would change her perspective at all. How sad.

Painting on the canvas of life, takes a similar process. The different dabs of colour are the result of our experiences and our interaction with others. Bright colours for good times, pastels for pleasant times, grays and blacks for sorrow. The different hues when well blended result in the masterpiece of character. We make judgements all the time. Over time these judgements may be proven correct or erroneous. We have trusted friends who betrayed us later and we have been weary of strangers who later became our best friends. We have been influenced by the prejudice of another and we have been seduced by external appearances. Art critics claim that Mona Lisa may not even have been considered to be finished by Leonardo himself. It is rumoured that after lingering over the painting for four years, Leonardo left it unfinished. However, it is well-known that the painting took several years to complete probably between 4 and 7 years, intermittently. Just as it takes years to paint a masterpiece knowing a country and its people takes more than a few days in a hotel by the beach. We also hear of paintings that have hidden paintings beneath. Artworks across Europe have been plastered or painted over due to historic regime changes. It is often by chance that these fascinating paintings that have been hidden for centuries are uncovered. Artisans would painstakingly edge away the surface paint to reveal the hidden wonder. This takes time and expertise. This brings me to the question: What layers of thought in our perception of others do we have to painstakingly edge away for us to enjoy the hidden wonder?

Source: Painting on a canvas of life - Columnist - New Straits Timeshttp://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/painting-on-a-canvas-of-life-1.76386#ixzz1sivrqQXE

IT'S ALL A MATTER OF CHOICE REALLY

I was visiting Amsterdam for the second time and I was still amazed by the presence of polders which are low-lying tracts of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes. It is therefore no surprise when people say: God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland.

As the Dutch have a long history of reclamation of land, about half of all polder surface within northwest Europe is within the Netherlands and the first polders went as far back as the 11th century. To me this is a fine example of human resilience and tenacity. Where there is no land, reclaim. Where there are floods, build dikes.

It is amazing how we respond differently to problems: personal or global.
Psychologists say we are loss-averse as human creatures.
Losing holds a stigma, be it losing face or actual loss. Studies have indicated that we attach greater value to losses than we do to successes of equal measure. Apparently the pain we suffer in losing one thousand ringgit is greater than the joy we get in receiving one thousand ringgit. We can go on lamenting for days when we lose something but the joy of finding something is short-lived in comparison.
Repeated failures may result in prevailing pessimism.
We all have known people who are always grumbling or lamenting about their ill-fortune even though they are much better off when compared to others. These are the ones that we find it a pain to talk to because they are always talking about their troubles. These are the ones who attribute mistakes to conditions that they cannot change. Each mistake is interpreted as a testimony to inadequacy. The result is the tendency to rely on self-defeating coping behaviors such as making excuses, quitting, avoiding challenges, denying, or blaming others.
Instead of punishing ourselves with ‘I must have done something wrong to deserve this’, viewing loss as a random occurrence provides a beneficial lesson that will help us succeed in the future. Some say that it is but a ‘teaser’ from life when we are on the brink of succeeding.
Let’s take the school scene for instance.

It has always been said that Asians do well in math but not so with the Irish. More than 4,000 students failed math in the Leaving Cert last year, with close to 10 per cent of students failing the ordinary level math paper. At present only 16% of students take Higher Level math, and curriculum planners have a target of 30%. All seven universities in Ireland now give bonus points for higher level maths in the Leaving Cert. Apparently, the large number of math teachers taking Leaving Cert classes are not fully qualified.
In Malaysia, if you throw a stone, you are likely to hit a tuition centre. Such is not the norm here. Malaysian parents are also seen scuttling from one tuition centre to another looking for the best teachers, best teaching strategies or best tutorial notes.
Another difference is the book store. In Malaysia they are well-stocked with materials for examination classes: reference books, guide books, model answers, how to score distinctions and the like. Over here the scenario is very different. The next best thing besides the textbooks in a book shop are past year papers only.
So it is not uncommon that most students just give up in the math classroom.
On a more global scale, in the face of disaster lies opportunities for renewal or ultimate defeat.
When Japan was hit with an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in 2011, there were no signs of looting although millions of people did not have water or power and security forces had their hands full with rescue operations. A reporter on CNN said it was because of the Japanese culture.
With the recession hitting Europe, Canada is an attractive destination for Irish job seekers. According to Canada’s immigration department, numbers of temporary Irish immigrants have shot up over the past decade, from 1,118 in 2000 to 2,959 in 2009. The numbers of registered permanent immigrants went from 180 to 503 over the same period.
Having said that, it takes great resolve for one is to rise from the ashes. Yet, like the mythical phoenix, to do so is to emerge confident and strong.

Source: www.nst.com.my/opinion/.../it-s-all-a-matter-of-choice-really-1.7402