22nd January 2010
My friends,
Never too late to say a Happy New Year to everybody! Hopefully 2010 will be a “roaring” year for all of us.
It is not surprising that when we finished our last Course for year 2009 on 24th December, which was the Petronas Scholars 9/2009, most Instructors including me were down with a flu bug or something. So we had to take our break whether we like it or not…..after handling over 300 kids for the CAC & YAC in November and December, what do you expect? BUT the reward of seeing those kids’ faces (including their parents and guardians) at the end of the courses was enough to “heal” our tired mind and body!
The first course for 2010 started on 9th January with 79 participants from Petronas Scholars 1/2010 on their 7-day Whaler & Kayak programme.
We also had the Alumni 1/2010 activity on 18th January and at their request, a very tough Whaler programme where they went to Pantai Shawal & later to Pulau Rumbia (almost 20km in a straight line!) & back…all within three days! The team was led by Mohandas Mohan (our Malaysian Mr. Everest), his able assistant Kaynis and all together fifteen Ex-Bounders (including five females). As I said in my earlier write-up, Ex-Bounders are crazy (but nice) people!
On a more serious note, namely after the Gopeng-Kampar Bridge and Dragon Boat tragedy recently, we cannot but stress that SAFETY is of top priority when doing ALL of our activities. That is why sometimes our participants complained of too much emphasis by us on supervision, preparatory briefing & exercises plus countless reminders of safety procedures and drills whenever we do wall-climbing, belaying, repelling, abseiling, trekking, camping, kayak (capsized drill & escort of Safety & Speed boat), and whaler activities (a ratio of two Whalers to be escorted by one Safety boat), and even during the morning exercises. Of course there is already an inherent risk whenever we do any outdoor activity but due care & diligence must be exercised at all times. We have Risk Analysis assessment on EVERY activity and it has to be evaluated & approved by management before we can do that activity.
For your information, Outward Bound Malaysia (in fact all Outward Bound Schools) are audited biannually by a team of experts from Outward Bound International on our adherence to the Safety Management System and may have our license revoked if there are serious breach to recognized International Safety Standards. At the same time, we are in close contact with the relevant authorities and abide to their directions and advice.
Always remember that Nature is the perfect “classroom” & the best “teacher” is Mother Nature, as long as you follow its rule, and if you break it, it will be very unforgiving!
Whatever it is, just go out and do it “A ship in harbor is safe – but that is not what ships are built for.”
Dear Sir,
I have received the certificate of Roll of Honor, it is very kind of OBS sending out this certificate, I really appreciate it and have it framed and displayed in my office.
Thank you and please keep me posted of any upcoming events.
Warmest Regards,
Dr. Philip Loh
Dr Philip Loh, the pleasure is ours since you are proud enough to display the Roll of Honour to the public. Just keep on checking our Websites for any update.
By the way,wish you a prosperous & healthy Tiger Year!