Robert S. Kaplan: Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies
Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns: (International export edition)
Michael H. Morgan: Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists
William A. Cohen: A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher
Let me quote what Professor Muhammad Z Uthman of CASIS has to say about reading:
"Reading is the soul's movement from one meaning to another and from there to yet another. That is also thinking, hence reading is thinking and the soul is ever present and actively involved in it."
From my personal experience,I do more thinking when I am reading and very much less thinking when I am talking.My lesson for today:Talk less and read more.
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Professor Baguette:
I just read an interesting article about French bread in the May,2013 RD.The French are very passionate about their bread.When the bread price soared in 1789,the rioters stormed The Bastille and sparked a revolution.To my suprise,the expert of French bread is a Prof Steven Kaplan from USA.I just wonder what is Malaysian equivalent to French bread?Nasi lemak or roti canai?
One lesson from the bread story is that the most important ingredient is the flour.The best French bakeries will go all the way looking for the best wheat.No matter how good the bakers may be,the quality of flour makes all the difference.
I will leave to your imagination and wisdom to interpret its meanings ...
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Sesungguhnya orang-orang yang bertaqwa adalah ditempatkan di dalam beberapa taman Syurga, dengan matair-matair terpancar padanya.
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:15) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
(Keadaan mereka di sana) sentiasa menerima nikmat dan rahmat yang diberikan kepadanya oleh Tuhan mereka. Sesungguhnya mereka di dunia dahulu adalah orang-orang yang berbuat kebaikan.
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:16) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Mereka sentiasa mengambil sedikit sahaja: masa dari waktu malam, untuk mereka tidur.
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:17) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Dan pada waktu akhir malam (sebelum fajar) pula, mereka selalu beristighfar kepada Allah (memohon ampun).
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:18) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Dan pada harta-harta mereka, (ada pula bahagian yang mereka tentukan menjadi) hak untuk orang miskin yang meminta dan orang miskin yang menahan diri (daripada meminta).
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:19) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Dan pada bumi ada tanda-tanda (yang membuktikan keesaan dan kekuasaan Allah) bagi orang-orang (yang mahu mencapai pengetahuan) yang yakin,
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:20) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Dan juga pada diri kamu sendiri. Maka mengapa kamu tidak mahu melihat serta memikirkan (dalil-dalil dan bukti itu)?
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:21) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Dan di langit pula terdapat (sebab-sebab) rezeki kamu, dan juga terdapat apa yang telah (ditakdirkan dan) dijanjikan kepada kamu.
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:22) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Maka demi Tuhan langit dan bumi, sesungguhnya (apa yang tersebut) itu tetap benar, (tidak patut diragu-ragukan) sebagaimana (tidak sepatutnya diragukan) benarnya kamu dapat berkata-kata.
(Adz-Dzaariyaat 51:23) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
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As I climbed the hill,I saw the trees,the rocks and we have to cross a few small streams.When I was at the top and I looked down,I only saw the forest-all the trees and what were underneath were hidden from me.What we see depends where and when we are!
A few decades ago when I was a young engineer,I went up a 24-storey building for site inspection.When I looked down,the car looked like a match box!On the ground,the car is a few times bigger and heavier than me.This proved a point that what we see and experience depends on our location-be it physical ,intellectual and spiritual.
When I got stuck in the traffic jam,my problem is associated with my car,the traffic and the roads.To the city planner,it is more than that.His problem is the city transport system.Vandalism is a crime to the police but it means much more to the national education policy makers.
Now,where am I?
As I grow older and hopefully wiser,I learnt along the journey of my life that I must see things,people or events from various perspectives and never make a fast judgement.
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Way back in the late 90's I began to write a weekly note under the title Cerita Kedaikopi.I did that on geocities.com and there were no blogging sofwares available at that time.However,it served my purposes-to pass the message via Internet connections to my friends and had some interesting conversations in cyberspace.On a few occasions we have teh tarik sessions at local mamak shops.
Nowadays,the means to communicate is a plenty-especially via our smart phones.I had used my blog for some years but facebook has taken over.I read that more than 10millions Malaysians are using Facebook.Lately I am doing facetime with my grandson who is 11 months old!
Putrajaya Cafe is not located at Umai Cafe or The Souq at Putrajaya.It is NOT physical but virtual-some where in cycberspace but not a cycbercafe.As the founder and moderator,I will start the conversation or the story and all members are invited to engage in conversation with proper adab and respect to all members.No bad manners and fouls language will be tolerated.Your comments can be written in Malay or English.
I know the hottest topic this week is still the result of GE#13.Let the dusts settle first and we can talk about it later.For this week's conversation at our Putrajaya Cafe is akhlaq.The late Prof Syed Hussin al-Attas said that we are having a moral decadence.What is your view on this matter and what we should do to make it better.
Here is a short note on this subject and the links to what I wrote some time ago.Kindly give your comments at the Putrajaya Cafe fan page.Thank you.
The Meaning and Origin of Akhlaq:
The word akhlaq is the plural for the word khulq which means disposition. "Disposition" is that faculty (malakah) of the soul which is the source of all those activities that man performs spontaneously without thinking about them. Malakah is a property of the soul which comes into existence through exercise and repetitive practice and is not easily destroyed.
You can read about it here and here.
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First,let me thank Allah for a good weather and we have a fun and safe photowalk yesterday at Taman Botani, Putrajaya. Second,let me thank all my friends who came for the walk.Third,my thanks to DKN for the fried beehun.
Most people said it is the man behind the camera that mattters but yesterday I also learnt that the camera is also a great factor to capture great shot.The photo on the right was shot using a macro lens lent by Capt.Adzmi for me to use with my Canon 400D.He also gave tips on how to shoot macro and I learnt a new phrase -plane of focus and the importance of background.Another lesson,which applies to most amateur photographers like me is our little knowledge on making the best use of our camera-its strengths and limitations and exploit them fullest.Thank you Capt. Mohd Adzmi Ariffin.
As the organiser,I am very happy to see my friends having fun with their camera,enjoying the beautiful landscaped garden and a good walkabout-good for the legs and the hearts as well.
Below is my shot of the day:-
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This is the 4th Photowalk I planned for my friends.Today,we are going to roam Taman Botani,Putrajaya,insyaAllah.May I wish all readers of my blog-Happy Sunday.
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I love flowers and whenever I have a camera with me I will stop and snap-even smell.It began when my wife and me went to visit Kuekenhof in Amsterdam on our 10th wedding anniversary way back in 1987.My jaws dropped a few moments when I saw the beautiful flowers there.As the say,the rest is history.My latest visit was in April,2012 with my late friend Guus from Holland.Two more places that I love to visit for flowers are Lake Windermere and Cameron Highlands.
The photo on the right was taken by Guus at Kuenkenhog .I used a compact LUMIX LX5 for taking photos during my travels.
On the left is the photo of my wife who stopped to look at the flowers during our morning walk at Taman Saujana Hijau,Presint 11,Putrajaya.
Tomorrow(12/5/2013),I am organising a photowalk to Taman Botani so that my friends can enjoy walking in a well landscaped garden of more than 300 acres.At the same time ,they can snap a few photos and get closer to nature and appreciate the beauty of Allah's creations..
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Everyone of us wants satisfaction in all aspects of our life.The question is what is satisfaction to the body,the mind and the soul? Satisfaction is the state of meeting one's expectations ,needs and desires according to the Oxford dictionary.If asked,I don't think anyone would say they are satisfied with their lives.IMHO,the levels of being satisfied vary from person to person and also varies when one life station moves to the next.
via adib.typepad.com
In the last 30 days,three persons that I knew them personally passed away-two of them were my wife's cousin and uncle.Last week,it was my neighbour who lived 50 metres from my house.He was 63 years old and I am 60 years old.These deaths reminded me of my own mortality.
Let me share this tazkirah I wrote about 8 years ago to remind us of our goals in life.Our hearts have a lot of desires but let us re-align them back to the right direction and never let them go astray.
To my peers(who are 60+),let us set our priorities right.
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Explore. See What The World Is Making.
New worlds are opening up in Paper. Dive deep into your ideas with zoom. We made a zoom that works the way you do. Pinch to magnify; focus where it matters, without losing sight of the big picture. One of the most highly requested features is now part of Paper. We can’t wait to see what you’ll do with it. We’re also introducing the Made With Paper stream. Find inspiration from creators around the world, right within Paper.
Dear fellow users of Paper 53,here is something interesting.Kindly update your Paper 53 to see what others are doing and to use zoom.Enjoy..
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The photo shown is my sketch of a bunch of flowers in one-third of the space horizontally and almost half vertically.I estimated that my sketch took about 20% and the rest was coloured dark blue with no lines.
When I first learn how to sketch,I tried to fill all the space with something and it got messed up because I am not a good sketcher or artist.Then I observed how other people did their sketches...
Over the last six months,I learnt that a space left blank is also part of the sketch.It fills the void and it connects my lines and colours that I paste.Spaces of nothing at times creates its own images in the eyes of the beholders.Another lesson I learnt about space of nothing is that it points all its fingers,so to speak,to the object you have drawn and nothing else.
In visual art, nothing turns me away or directs me to something.However,in philosophy and cosmology,it is another subject beyond my understanding.By the way,I am just a mureed(student) all along..
Ya Allah,the Owner of All knowledge. Please give me some of your knowledge so that I can know more and understand better and get closer to You.InsyaAllah.
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One of its kind..first time I saw it today since I started visiting Taman Botani,Putrajaya four years ago..well hidden.
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Parlimen
PRU12 BN 140, PR 82
PRU13 BN 133 (-7), PR 89 (+7)
Total 222 kerusi
DUN
PRU12: BN 344, PR 161
PRU13: BN 275 (-71), PR 230 (+71)
Total 505 kerusi
UNDI Keseluruhan Parlimen (Popular votes)
PRU12: BN 4.0 Juta, PR 3.7 Juta
PRU13. BN 5.3 Juta, PR 5.6 Juta
Peratus keluar mengundi
PRU12: 8.0 Juta (76%)
PRU13: 10.4 Juta (80%)
The rakyat has spoken!The voters were split almost into two-halves.By popular votes Pakatan Rakyat(PR) hasgained 51% of the sum of individulas votes but by parliamentary seats,Barisan Nasional(BN) garnered almost 60%.Today,Dato Seri Najib has been given the instrument of office as Prime Minister bty The Agong.In the election,PR has gained 7 additional parliamentary seats and 71 additional DUN(state seats).However,BN has regained Kedah.
Quo vadis PR and BN?Since my blog is apolitical,my discourse is at my Facebook.
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I love to sketch the beauty of natural and built environment.Putrajaya has plenty to keep busy for the next few years.Yesterday,I decided to have a separate blog for it.The link is here.Todate,I have made more than 300 sketches from all over Malaysia,but I have uploaded about 30 sketches of Putrajaya in this blog.May be one fine day,I will have the gut to publish them.
InsyaAllah,I will keep uploading every week..Enjoy the fun.Below is one of them:
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Katakanlah (wahai Muhammad): "Wahai Tuhan yang mempunyai kuasa pemerintahan! Engkaulah yang memberi kuasa pemerintahan kepada sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki, dan Engkaulah yang mencabut kuasa pemerintahan dari sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki. Engkaulah juga yang memuliakan sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki, dan Engkaulah yang menghina sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki. Dalam kekuasaan Engkaulah sahaja adanya segala kebaikan. Sesungguhnya Engkau Maha Kuasa atas tiap-tiap sesuatu.
(A-li'Imraan 3:26) | <Embed> | English Translation | Tambah Nota | Bookmark
Say: "O Allah. Lord of Power (And Rule), Thou givest power to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off power from whom Thou pleasest: Thou enduest with honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest: In Thy hand is all good. Verily, over all things Thou hast power.
In two days time Malaysians are going to vote in the 13th General Election i.e on 5/5/2013.Barisan Nasional is fighting hard to retain its power for the last 55 years,and Pakatan Rakyat is equally putting up a good fight.Both are confident of winning but there is one winner.May Allah guide all of us,muslims and non-muslims to choose the right leaders and parties to form the new government of Malaysia.
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This photo was taken in Holland by my friend Guus.Do we have these containers for sale in Malaysia?I think this type of gardening is very suitable for those who love to have garden in their offices and and thier apartment with very little space taken away.Any comments?Thank you.
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I bought my first folding bike on 4th March 2011.It was a Dahon Eco 07.Later,I learnt the meaning of personal mobility using green technology.A few months later~ 29/9/2011,I bought another folding bike from London with the help of my friend KA.Nowadays,cycling is not only a weekend sports for me.I used my Dahon to do simple errands around my neighbourhood and to go to masjid for my solat.From my observations at Masjid Al-Hasanah,Bangi,not more than 10 persons used bicycles to go to our masjid.At least we have 20 persons going by motor-cycles and the rest,more than hundred are using their cars.Old habits die hard!
How do we get more people cycling to office/shops/masjid etc from a neighbourhood like BB Bangi?Similar question is also for Putrajaya.How about nearby university campuses like UKM,UPM,UNITEN?Recently,I saw one initiative being carried out at UPM using folding bicycle in a program called Recycle 2 Cycle.To get students and lecturers to leave their cars and campus buses and ride bikes is a big CHANGE MANAGEMENT challenge in the university campus.
Efforts were made to get local residents like Putrajaya to ride bicycles on weekends. However,this is for sport activities and not for going to work or normal commuting.People still prefer to drive their own cars even 200 metres away.Cycling is slowly being embraced as a sporting activity but not a way to commute like those people in Holland.London as a city is catching up and adopting 'Dutch Style' and her mayor has promised to spend a billion pounds to upgrade the cycling infrastructures and facilities in the next few years.Putrajaya is a good candidate to get their residents on two wheels and should embark on this soon before it becomes like KL.
Dahon and Brompton business philosophies are great..Their products are promoting personal mobility-independence and freedom to move about using green technology.Folding bikes are good for commuting short distance in campus-like environment.UPM has already embarked on this but more efforts are needed to get the campus community to ride.It may take a few years before it can be a campus culture like Oxford and Cambridge.
You and me may not be students at campus anymore but we can still use bicycles for our short daily commutes within our neighbourhood.Cycling is good for our bodies and environment and cheaper too.
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I love simplicity as a way of life-and also I love creativity in all aspect of personal and business life.To be creative,we don't need to complicate things.The iPhone success is mainly due to its ease of usage by us normal folks and not designed for techies.Just compare the music machine of Walkman to iPod!
Last night,I was trying to sketch a complicated bridge structure that I adore as a structural engineer.As I am not an artist but an old engineer,I will mess up the sketch and decided to make a simple sketch of what I called The Forbidden Bridge.This bridge is not for public use.It is for maintenance works located above a series of laybrinth weirs.So what is there for me in sketching this bridge?It taught me creavity through simplicity for my personal and business life,insyaAllah.
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Delivering trust is A BIG TASK! It is more than just talking about whether I trust you or you trust me. It is more than that. This excerpt below I took fromFriday Nasiha is a good point to begin to ponder of our roles in delivering the trusts put on our shoulders.The roles and resposibilties are well articulated in the book entitled The Ideal Muslim or The Ideal Muslimah( please refer to my earlier blog):-
Al-Nisa (Women)
Chapter 4: Verse 58
Delivering Trust
"Allah commands you to deliver whatever you have been entrusted with to their rightful owners."
The basic and most important trust is that which God has implanted in human nature. This is the one which the heavens, the earth and the mountains refused to accept, but which man undertook. It is that of willingly and deliberately recognising Divine guidance and believing in God. Giving testimony in favour of Islam is an important way of delivering this trust.
* This takes the form firstly of striving hard within oneself so that one's life, feelings, actions and behaviour become a practical translation of faith.
* Another way of giving testimony in favour of Islam is to call on people to believe in Islam, explaining its values and principles.
* Testimony is further given by taking steps to help implement Islam as a code of living for the Muslim community, and in human life in general.
Another trust which is implied in the above is that of dealing with people and delivering to them whatever they have entrusted to us. That includes honesty in daily transactions, giving honest counsel to rulers and ruled, taking good care of young children, protecting the interests of the community and defending it against hostile forces and observing all duties and obligations outlined by the Divine code.
The verse can also be translated as "Allah commands you to deliver trusts to those worthy of them." This forewarns Muslims against the evils which had afflicted the Israelites. One of the fundamental mistakes committed by the Israelites was that in the time of their degeneration they had handed over positions of trust (i.e. religious and political leadership) to incompetent, mean, immoral, dishonest and corrupt people. The result was that corruption spread throughout the nation. The Muslims are directed to take heed of this, and to entrust positions of responsibility only to those who are capable of shouldering the burdens of such positions.
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Wakaf Cantik
Located at Taman Saujana Hijau-good for taking photo,walking,cycling and family picnic.
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My favourite drink is Nescafe for breakfast, but I am making changes...trying Ahmad Tea for breakfast..
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To-date,I have upload 292 sketches using Paper 53 to this website.It is free weblog and easy to use-just like blogger.com.Why I use Tumblr?It is connected via a sharing button at my iPad and there is a community there who share the same interest.So far,I am enjoying my sketching activities-it is good for my shaking hands and for my mind.
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This morning I saw a posting done by others at my blog.I did not click it but just deleted it.My blog security is no more secured Immediately I changed the password.If anyone has read or seen anything not appropriate,kindly let me know.
When it comes to online security ,nothing is sacred and safe.What normal folks like me think as security is indeed a different level of insecurity.Period.
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If you are not in a hurry to reach your destination,why not take a short detour to take the road less travelled.You don't know what lovely suprises you shall discover.Sadly,most of us get bored with life because we have been following the same routine-years in and years out.Most of us prefer to stick to our comfort zone/familiar routes.
Yesterday I wanted to be a little adventurous by taking a different route on my walk at Taman Botani.To my lovely suprises,I discovered a 'cave' and a rock garden-located 50 metres away from my usual trail that I have been walking for the last four years!
The same principle should be applied to our personal and business lives.Do not be afraid to try something new and enjoy your suprises..
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Whenever I go for a walk,I always carry my bag.It contains a cap,moleskine notebook, Samsung phone, Lamy Pen and Lumix camera.When I see something interesting,I love to snap a photo of it and make notes of it in my notebook.This habit began in 2006 when I started using moleskine notebook and I got a new DSLR camera.Since three years ago,I changed big camera to something lighter-Lumix Panasonic.Every weekend I walk with my wife.
When I go to KL,I prefer to walk from building to building.Along the way,I could see and experience the ambience of the locations-the sight,the sound and the smell.I feel more alive than driving my car.
Let us walk more whenever we can..
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