Every child, woman and man has an innate musical ability. This latent potential can be developed and nurtured for healthier and more enriching lifestyles. Research shows that a good music education stimulates creativity, builds confidence and enhances a child’s all-round development. As adults they enjoy enhanced social recognition because of
Iban children are taught not to tell lies. Parents would start telling them since childhood that lying is a sin. “Do not tell lies; it is bad for you and your development,” dad used to tell me during meals – dinner was always the best time for longhouse Iban parents
Naming a child at birth is a big responsibility for parents. Modern parents, irrespective of race and creed, may even turn to books to find what they consider would be the most suitable for their newly born. Iban parents usually name their infants after their forebears – though some may
Let me start by telling a crush that I had on someone when I was in Primary Five – she was studying Primary Six in a town school about three hours away by longboat from my humble “ulu” school. During that Christmas of 1966 I was on cloud nine but
All went well with new students coming and going on the first school day for this year with the exception of a pre-school kid in Serian whose thumb was stuck in a plastic stool hole. Two firemen took 10 minutes to free his right thumb. However, on the third school
“Buah rian” or durians, the king of fruits, are still a big draw in Kuching city. This time around, the vendors have introduced durian buffet whereby a customer needs to come up with RM18 for an unlimited consumption of the fruits on the spot. One such avenue is the carpark next
There is nothing greater and more influential than the longhouse that can bind the Iban folk together. To this very day, longhouses remain the greatest uniting factor for Iban community. Politics, religions and other factors that at one time or another, especially in the mid 80’s, had disturbed and broken
Many people are skeptical about the effectiveness of traditional Iban faith healers, shamans or medicine men locally known as ‘manang’. Perceptively this is due to the changing longhouse environment whereby most youths and their parents have embraced Christianity, making this traditional healing method in glaring conflict with their belief as
A couple who previously lived next door to us in Desa Ilmu, their two-year-old toddler and their maid were kindly told to leave their rented house after being three months behind in the rental. Despite earning a very decent income – both are educationists with teaching degrees – they once
Most of our human desires and wants, upon reaching a certain level, become addictive. Many if not all of these ‘addicts’ are unaware of it and keep on doing things to satisfy their wants. Libido is a term used in psychoanalytic theory to describe the energy created by the survival