Skip to main content

April 2014



For every college student like me, April is like the final few laps of a long distance marathon. Everybody picking up their pace, trying to make that final dash to the finish line in the best possible fashion. Tons of works, assignments are waiting to be finished. A lot of people just like me, scrambling to last minute works and submit our work minutes before it is due. The arrival of April also means that winter is really over. (There’s always a possibility of snowing in May here!) The brutal winter of infinity low temperatures we suffered is no more in sight. It’s always the time to sit on the lawns under the hot sun pondering, wondering what will happen next.

Lots of things have happened over the past few weeks. The mystery of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is nonetheless the most publicized news over news agencies around the world. I hope April will be the time where more answers will be given the questions asked. Until the plane is found, any possibilities on what happened to the plane are always a possibility. But as a Malaysian, I have to agree with most people in the world that our government is incompetent in dealing with this incident. (FYI, majority of Malaysians didn’t vote for them during the last general election) We lacked the quick response to a situation as we don’t deal with security treats or natural disasters frequently. Conflicting information, false leads lead to frustration and anger in the eyes of the family and those following the news closely. Everybody wants to know what really happens. Personally, I don’t expect a conclusion being concluded anytime soon. It could take months, possibly years. But let us hope April will be good head start for the investigation team in investigating this mystery.

This incident also reminds me on the way our government deal with the last major incident that happened to our country - 2004’s Indian Ocean’s Tsunami. Although we were not hit as badly like our neighboring countries, but still we were slow in react to the disaster. We didn’t have any tsunami warning detectors when it happened and it even took us some hours to realize how devastating the effect of tsunami is. Only after the incident, tsunami warning and alert systems are being set up to deal with any future tsunami. I guess it’s in the human blood that we need a bad experience to happen only then we will think of a way to rectify the problem.

College students like me are not the only ones heading for the finishing line. European football (soccer for my dear Americans) is heading the closing stages, NBA teams fighting for playoffs spots. Teams across European top leagues are battling out not just domestically, but continentally in Champion’s League football. Personally, it’s an open secret how my favorite team has being doing this season. I can’t remember when was the last time I had such a miserable time watching my team playing. Until then, see you next time!


By,
Zhe Xu
April 2nd 2014

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My 2014 World Cup Team of the Tournament

It's the end of the World Cup season, the time to look back at this year’s tournament. So, here is my 2014 World Cup Team of the Tournament. I elect to go for a 3-5-2 formation, which is formation that got the results for teams like Netherlands, Mexico, and Costa Rica who did well at this year’s tournament. GK: Manuel Neuer (Germany) He’s definitely one of the best goalkeepers right now. A well-deserved Golden Glove award to add to his resume. Neuer has the skills and intelligence that most goalkeepers in the world doesn’t possesed. The awareness to know when to come out from his line to make those saves. The sharpness to make incredible saves and the good ball distribution technique that help facilitate the German team. CB: Mats Hummels (Germany) He’s definitely one of the world’s best defenders right now and the performance he put on in this World Cup certainly justified that. He is a guy that is able to able to contribute defensively and offensively for the team, scori...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's More Than Just A Debate

The first of the three debates between Obama and Romney was held at Denver on 3 October 2012. I watched the first full debate between two US Presidential candidates for the upcoming US Presidential Election yesterday via youtube. A debate about policies, leadership and new, collective ideas between the current President, The Democratic Party representative-Barack Obama and former Massachusetts governor, The Republican Party candidate-Mitt Romney. They will be debating again on October 16 at New York and October 22 at Florida.  There’s another debate between their running mates which is the vice-presidency debate on October 11, between Joe Biden (Current Vice President, Democratic candidate) and Paul Ryan (Congressman, Republican candidate). First and foremost, I would like to say as a non-US citizens, I have no right to comment on who’s policies or ideas is better or who is the better person to lead US for the next 4 years. But, to be honest, I thought Romney was the one...
Post a Comment
Read more

Federer's Quest for Another Major

Roger Federer, arguably one of the best that has ever played the sport. But on Friday, Federer was shockingly knocked out by Andreas Seppi of Italy in the third round of the Australian Open. An opponent whom Federer has never lost in the previous 10 meetings. A player who has only manage to win only one single set out of the 10 matches they played together made this defeat even more miserable for Federer. Perhaps this defeat was even shocking the fact that he started off the year brightly by beating Milos Raonic, a top 10 ranked player in the world to win the Brisbane title. Despite not winning any majors in 2013, he ended the year with a great note by winning the Davis Cup, ATP titles wins in Basel and Shanghai and reaching the finals of the ATP Tour Finals. Everything seems to look great for Federer leading up to the Australian Open until the lost. The four majors are always the platform where top players bring their A game to the courts. But believe or not, losing in the...
Post a Comment
Read more