The Story of Three Boys

I went fishing last Sunday with a friend. As usual we headed straight to our favorite spot, somewhere in Kg Silam, Lahad Datu. When we arrived there, we saw a few youths swimming and picnicking on the beach. The place was not a sandy beach but still a beautiful gulf-like seaside.

It's not about the fishing I want to share, instead it's about three boys who came to us while we're fishing. We've met these boys a few times before and they were always eager to help us find live baits. Sometimes when our lures got stucked to the rocks or seaweed, they'll offer themselves to dive and rescue our lures. However, we never knew their names and never intended to know.

This time the boys were quite irritating. We were fishing and they were splashing around in the water right where we were. Later on we moved to another spot and still they followed us and continue their splashing. Sensing that we will never caught a fish that day, we stopped fishing and started to pack our things. One of the boys, who look brighter than the other boys, asked me if I could give them a ride with my car to their house. I agreed.

During the ride, we took the opportunity to asked a few question to the boys. We now know that they were brothers, the eldest is 13 years old, the smarter one is 11 and the youngest is about 8. Most of our questions were answered by the smarter boy as if he's the spokeperson for the group. Later on, we found out why.

When we asked them about school, they were quite hesitant to answer. Seconds passed before the smarter boy told us that his eldest brother is not schooling at the moment. If he's attending school, he would be a Form One student of a secondary school. The reason his brother not attending school, according to the "spokeperson", is because the parents were late in registering him for secondary school. Appeal to the school has been made but was rejected. What a pity! A boy has to waste a year of his life to someone else's fault/bureaucracy!

The smarter boy also told us that his younger brother never went to scool. What? But why? When we heard the reason, we were flabbergasted. His younger brother never went to school because he has no birth certificate! Therefore, technically he's not a citizen of this country. Without his birth certificate, he can't apply for MyKad, thus, what future does he have? Can you imagine what will happen to the boy 10, 15 years from now?

Of course, we asked them why the youngest one has no birth cert, so the spokeperson replied that their parents had no money to register his brother's birth. No more question was asked after that.

Just before we dropped the boys, I asked the smarter boy if he's in school. Much to our delight, he answered yes. No wonder he looks smarter than his brothers, and more talkative.

So, I wonder why the parents never registered the birth of their son? It was impossible to think that they continously have no money to register the birth, and as far as i know, registering a birth at National Registry Dept.(NRD) is free of charge. The nearest NRD branch is in Lahad Datu which is about 25 minutes drive from their home. Surely transportation is not a problem. Don't they think of their child future? Are they so poor that they had to fail their responsibility to their child?

One more question, how could the parents be late in registering their eldest son for school?

The more we asked, the more confused we became.

Hmm..Pity the boys...Lesson to all of us, be grateful for what we have..

Worst 11

Throughout his tenure as Man United's manager, Alex Ferguson has signed many players some of whom never made it into the first team. These youngsters can't be classified as failure as they were bought for the future. As a Man United fan, I think any player who was signed to be part of the first team yet couldn't make his mark after given chances, and player who couldn't contribute at the same level as his teammates must be considered failure. I don't really consider the price tag because some players were signed on a free transfer. And I make my list based on players signed after the introduction of English Premier League. Remember, my list is solely based on the players' performance at United only. Here is my Worst XI Players Bought By Fergie team (playing 3-5-2)...

Goalkeeper: Massimo Taibi

Defender: Laurent Blanc, David May, Gabriel Heinze

Midfielder: Karel Poborsky, Eric Djemba Djemba, Liam Miller, Juan Veron, Kleberson,

Forward : David Bellion, Diego Forlan.

(Reserves : Bosnich, Berg, Cruyff, Fortune, Blomqvist)

Some may argue Heinze performed admirably for United, but unfortunately his action at the end of his United career betrayed loyalty. Heard that Old Trafford faithful have already planned an unforgettable welcome back should Real Madrid play United in the Champions League...

Arsenal 2 Man United 2

What a thrilling finale! What a disappointment...

It depends actually. I felt disappointed as we were so close to beating The Gunners, so close..On the other hand, it was a victory for United because we were playing at The Emirates and got a point. It's made much better that the Arsenal players were celebrating after the match like they have won a cup final. It meant so much to their players getting a point from Man Utd. I meant what would have happened had they beaten United? Champagne?

The truth is the game was quite boring in the first half. Anderson and Hargreaves with one mission, to stop Fabregas and Rosicky from getting the space. Therefore not many goalscoring chances created by both team. Only when Arsenal managed to equalised early in the second half through Fabregas the game did swing from one end to the other.

My man of the match? It's difficult to name one from that game. For Arsenal, I'll say Gallas for his heroic. For United, I would have chosen Anderson but I don't like his action flashing an imaginary card at the referee and his roll...Therefore my choice is Evra.

So, the teams can't be separated at the moment although Arsenal with a game in hand can pull three points clear.

I wait with anticipation for the second round clash at OT...

Arsenal vs Manchester United 03 November 2007

VS

The match of the season so far. Wenger vs Ferguson, Hargreaves vs Fabregas..Adebayor against Rio, Rooney against Toure..

Well, I'm not an expert in tactics whatsoever..I'm a Red Devil fan and I might be biased in my view. Currently both teams are at the top of their games and no one can argue that these two teams play the most attractive football in EPL. Free flowing game, good counter attacks, flawless refereeing, goals galore (hopefully the Devils score more) are what we hope for. I'm sure this game will be a cracker...(salivating at the thought).

Last season, Arsenal beat Man Utd home and away. Now, Arsenal don't have Henry, and Eduardo isn't the replacement for him. However, youngsters such as Fabregas and Walcott seem to have matured in their game. They are expected to pull the string for Arsenal this Saturday.

Man Utd are on a free scoring run having scored 4 goals in each of their last four games. Worryingly though, the defence has started to leak goals and the hole in the partnership of Vidic and Rio was exposed by Alliadiere last week. Having said that, Man Utd have the experience and I don't think that will be a problem.

The battle will ultimately be decided in midfield. If Hargreaves and Anderson (maybe Scholes..missed the fact he's out for three months, sorry) can dictate the play, and the team as a whole can keep possession of the ball, I don't think Arsenal have the midfield firepower to beat Man Utd. I'm being biased, wasn't I?

My prediction for this match? Arsenal 2 Man United 4...hehehe...

First Blog

Hello world! Lots of things to share but as this is my first time blogging let me share my interests with you.



Well, I'm into football and I'm truly a Manchester United supporter. Call me what you want, gloryhunter, or whatever, the truth is I've been a Red Devil's follower since 1985. At that times, we rarely got to watch live football matches as there were no cables or satelite channels. Once in a while RTM (Radio Televisyen Malaysia) would carry out live coverage of big footie matches, for example FA Cup Final, European Cup Final. So our regular feed of English football came from weekly highlights program The Big League Soccer. I still remember after watching that show (Big League Soccer normally shown in the afternoon), I would grab my football and played with my best buddy at that time, Irwan (where have you been, man?). We'd be Armstrong, Robson or anyone we just watched. We were so excited.



Big League Soccer didn't kickstart my affection for Man Utd though. Guinnes Book of Records did. I was reading the Book Of Records in my school library when I came across "The fastest goal scored in the World Cup". Of course it was scored by Bryan Robson in the 1982 World Cup. I found out that he played for a Man Utd and he's also the skipper for both club and country. A few weeks after that the FA Cup Final between Man Utd and Everton was shown live on Malaysian tv and really from then on there has been only one club for me to support.



Sorry ABU(anything but united) fans who have tried to change my allegiance, who clapped in my face whenever Man Utd conceded goal, no way I'll support another team.



So, in my future posts, I will write more on Man Utd especially my thoughts on their matches.



So until the next time,,,,