LANGKAWI, SELANGOR AND MELBOURNE ALL IN APRIL 2013

April 2013 was such a busy month for me. Busy is an understatement.....really. I knew what I was getting into, I was prepared mentally but I was not physically fit for those outstations and overseas activities. I am already 54 years old and I have a list of ailments that people do not need to know. But I believe life has to go on regardless of our problems. I told myself if I do not try I would not know what I am capable of.

So early April saw me flying to Langkawi, a historical island off the coast of Kedah. I attended a conference where my three post-grad students presented their papers and I was also an ajE-Bs/jABs Editorial Board Member of the International Scientific Committee. I spent two nights there. 

 The ACEBs Langkawi 2013 Conference was organized by CEBS/UiTM headed by Prof. Yusof Abbas who sat in the middle flanked by the four keynote speakers. 

The event was held at the Holiday Villa Beach & Spa, Langkawi, Malaysia 6-7 April 2013. The whole programme was packed and I did not even had the energy to walk to the beach which is said to be beautiful. 

The three papers presented by my students were:

1. Convenience and Safety of Walking Experience in Putrajaya Neighbourhood Area

Hafazah Abdul Karim, Diyanah Inani Azmi

Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Malaysia

drhafazah@gmail.com, diyanah_inani@yahoo.com

2. 

Place Identity of Urban Public Park: Influences image on nighttime leisure activities Mohd Riduan Ngesana, Hafazah Abdul Karimb, Syed Sobri Syed Zubirc aCentre for Environment-Behaviour Studies bCentre for Town and Regional Planning Studies cCentre for Architecture Studies Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Malaysia nightcityconcept@gmail.com

3. An Assessment on Variable Reliability in Investigating Students’ Living Satisfaction in Private Housing Environment

Muhammad Hilmy Muslim, Hafazah Abdul Karim, Ishak Che Abdullah

Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40000, Malaysia  

hilmymuslim89@gmail.com

After coming back for one day of work, I had to go outstation again for seven days. This time I had to drive my car for almost 1250 km around the state of Selangor followed with a busload of 33 students for a site visit. The studio project is the review of the State Structure Plan of Selangor 2013-2035.

Due to to long journey and sometimes driving in isolated rural areas I asked my old school friend Sophiaty to accompany me since she is quite free. So we started driving from UiTM to the districts of Kuala Selangor, Sabak Bernam, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor, Gombak, Hulu Langat, Sepang, Kuala Langat, Klang and then back to Shah Alam. All in all we slept in 5 different hotels. 

                                                       

It was interesting for the students who came from different states, some from East Malaysia to see the different sites of the rural Selangor, agricultural area, plantations, fishing villages, paddy fields, highlands, urban areas, rives, waterfalls, wetlands, historical towns and places etc etc........

                        

                                                   
Every night I will visit the students' accommodation and hear their reports and their programmes for the next day's activities. Then I will give some briefings and have a Q&A session with them.


                                                      

The Selangor site visit was from the 9th to the 15th April. After we came back I was dead tired physically and mentally. But work has to go on. 

Then on the 21st April I flew to Melbourne accompanied by my husband (whom I especially requested his presence because I know I am not well and probably might be getting sicker) with a another group of students about hmmmm 30? I forgot exactly, for a study tour which is requirement of their Comparative Planning subject. This was an official academic visit. The students were helped by David Klingberg, a consultant in Melbourne. His help had tremendously benefitted the students in getting important briefings from local authorioties, universities and agenices. 

This is on the second day after I had rested. so we were off to The Melbourne City Council. I was feeling much better in the morning. The students learned a lot from Rob Moore who explained the unique sustainable design of the council building. Later we went to Docklands and it was quite a long walk which made me quite dizzy and sadly I had to skip the afternoon study tour. 

 David Klingberg is standing in the middle. He practically arranged the study visits for the students. 

When we took off from LCCT KL, I had a blocked nose, sinusitis problem and that caused severe pain in both my ears. And the fact that the plane had to land back in LCCT KL because of navigational system problems, causing the plane to fly around the airspace for 3 hours to finish off their fuel worsen the pain. When we land in Melbourne both my ears had the same severe pain. And that gave me headaches and dizziness for the whole 3 days we were there. Thank God my husband was with me. there were times the dizziness were so bad I cannot accompany the students but David Klingberg was so good to be around with them. If ever David were to read this I wish to say thank you very much for you are such a good and kind person. May God bless you. 

If I have more time I will upload more photos from the Selangor Study trip and the Melbourne Study tour. There are so many interesting sites and information to share. Till later.

IS DOING RESEARCH EASY?

Do not do something for the sake of just doing. Do it because we want to. Do it because we want to do a good job. Do it with passion. Of course sometimes we make mistakes. We are only human. But when we want to do something that is done right then we will try our best to do our best. 

There are many people in the world with aspirations to do something really fantastic. Something great or outstanding. Some really go all out to reach that goal. Some have the good fortune to be given the opportunity. Others less fortunate may have to beg for something like that. What am I really rambling about? I really feel exasperated by the lack of passion or commitment or perseverence of some people who are lucky enough to get the opportunity to pursue their post-graduate studies. Look! Not everyone in this world are lucky enough to be able to attend school. Not in some parts of Africa, or Afghanistan or other remote areas of some isolated regions. Even if they do manage to go to school, not many have the chance to continue their education in colleges or universities. 

Malaysia is one country that has given its citizens free primary education. There should not be any excuse for any children not to go to school in Malaysia. No excuse. Everyone should be able to read and write. That is the most basic skill that everyone in Malaysia can have. After that it is the social and physical environment of the child that will either encourage or discourage the value of education. At this point the lucky ones will proceed to the higher levels of education.

For the Malays and other Bumiputeras, the government has given numerous encouragements especially those in rural areas to access educational programmes and one of them is UiTM (University Teknologi MARA). In UiTM students (urban and rural) are given the same opportunity to advance themselves until they reach the post-graduate programmes. These post-grads may come from UiTM or also from other universities. There are the masters programmes (mix modes or by research) and also the Phd research programmes. 

Now, irrespective of being Malay or Bumiputera in UiTM or whatever race you are in other universities the nature of doing a research remains the same. A masters degree research must be at a higher level than a bachelor's degree dissertation. And a Phd research must be more in-depth than a masters degree research. 

A master's research could not be similar to a degree dissertation which at the same time must be higher than just a diploma's project based study. The significance of each level can tell the difference. But most of the time this important element; the significance of the study is so poorly understood. 

Many students do not have  proper brainstorming sessions before embarking on the topic. Bainstorming is very important in the process of getting the right title, the purpose or aim and the significance of the research. I have seen so many students acting like unprepared soldiers rushing into battle without proper gears and artilleries. It is also like going hiking without a compass, or climbing without ropes. And sometimes its like going camping and bringing everything including the kitchen sink. 

Some proposals are just so cramped with so many research questions and wordy and winding problem statements. It became so unfocussed and so confusing. And the readers are like searching for some meaning in the universe. And the literature review looks like a cut and paste job from so many articles. 

It all boils down to "what do you want to do?". Why do you want to do this? What is so special about this? Why do you think this is so important? Is this important to you or to the public? Or mankind? Why is it important that people need to know this? You mean to say this has never been done before? Or it has been done but this is to improve the knowledge? Again, why do you think this improvement is so important?

So you think some of the questions are stupid? Well, without the stupid how do we know we are clever? Without the stones how do we differentiate the gems? 

And the aim of the research is not to study what you want to study. What are you aiming for? The aim is not the process. This has happened many times. But I do not blame the students because they are still learning. They have to be taught. I may have done the same mistake earlier in my education. But I am willing to learn and improve. 

The lierature review is of course to read and learn what has been said about what you want to do. Reading,  understanding and writing it down. At the post-grad level, its not merely reading and understanding. Its relating one idea to another. Relating, connecting, merging, contradicting etc etc. Do not just accept what you read as final, or true because others may argue and debate. Do not just list the ideas such as the techniques or approaches, but analyse their strengths and their advantages to what you are doing or not doing. 

You are saying now that it is so hard to do this? You are telling that you have tried but you just find it very difficult to do your lietrature review? How can you say this to me? 

I was given the opportunity to do my Phd research at the age of 41+. That is late. Its like......old. But I welcome the opportunity and I was willing to go all out. Just after I started my first year I was surprised that my daughter was 'asked' for and I decided that she is of age and got her bethrothed. And within months, in the midst of literature review I was planning for her marriage. In between the literature review I went for hajj. After she got married, she and her husband stayed with me and my husband, together with my son who was in college, in a small house. At first we had to get a maid but we found that maids are more troublesome than helpful so we try to manage without the help. So there I was struggling with the family's routines and also the research and then I got sick and needed to go for a major operation. I had the operation after the wedding and was recuperating for a few months. After I got better my daughter surprised me with the `good news' that she got pregnant. I was like on the `pause' button for a few seconds but then I thanked Allah for the `gift' in our family. Yes, all this while I became a juggler; a wife, a mum, a mother in-law, the on and off cook, the house administrator, and the soon to become grandmum. When the baby came I took care of the baby and the post natal care of my daughter. With all these commitments I could not finish my research within the 3 1/2 years study leave. SO I went back to work and did my research part-time. Looking back I remembered asking for a small off-load of 1 hour from my department but I was not given that luxury. So I continued my struggle to work full-time, a juggler part-time and also doing my research at night and during my off-days. 

I even told my husband that if I have to die in the course of finishing my Phd research I am willing to do so. I will finish what I started. I will do my very best. I will prevail. I will persevere. I will not back down. I shall not fail. I will overcome all challenges that are thrown at me because I will get my Phd.

And I did.

SO DO NOT TELL ME THAT YOU FEEL IT IS HARD DOING YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW EVER TO MY FACE AGAIN. UNDERSTAND!