Gauging The Enemy in the Blanket Through the Paradigm of Malayness

Anthony Burgess (1917 - 1993) has written a trilogy of novels on the Malay World, namely The Malayan Trilogy (1964). It has been suggested that the trilogy, which consists of the novels Time for a Tiger (1956), The Enemy in the Blanket (1958) and Beds in the East (1959), depicts the Islamic practices through its Muslim Malay characters, displaying their hypocrisy and their wayward Islamic practices as stated by Zawiyah Yahya (2003). In contrast, the trilogy has rarely been studied based on elements of the paradigm of Malayness in literature, consisting of six elements, namely the Malay language, Islam, the Malay rulers, adat/culture, ethnicity, and identity. Therefore, we aim to analyse one of the novels in the trilogy, The Enemy in the Blanket, in light of Islam as one of the elements under the paradigm of Malayness in literature as stated by Ida as our primary conceptual framework in this study. To achieve these objectives, we employ a close textual reading on the novel by analysing the Muslim Malay characters in The Enemy in the Blanket. The findings show that the Muslim Malay characters in The Enemy in the Blanket could be considered as wayward Muslims in their practices and beliefs. Therefore, we would like to reconfirm that the paradigm of Malayness in in fact, an everyday- defined social reality, as experienced by the people in the course of their everyday life as opposed to it as an authority-defined social reality, as defined by people of the dominant power structure. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the on-going discourse on Islam as the paradigm of Malayness as well as English literature on the Malay World

An invention of baton dance? exercise regime on obesity diagnosis among sedentary adults

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the effect of a 12-weeks of Baton Dance™ exercise, an invention in the treatment of obesity diagnosis among overweight sedentary adults in higher learning organizations. Baton Dance™ exercise program is a combination of aerobic dance activity, circuit training, and interval training which improvise own body weight during the exercise program. It combines physical training that includes alternating of low and medium intensity which involves a physical conditioning training with medium volume and low resistant with a short rest time. Forty subjects between the ages of 25 to 55 years, have had a diagnosis as sedentary, were overweight and have a fitness score below the mean. Subjects were randomly assigned to a 12-week of either Baton Dance™ as a treatment group or an aerobics dance exercise as the control group. A pre-test-post-test control research design was utilized. Both groups met for 50 minutes, three times a week for a total of 36 sessions. Statistical analysis includes (group x time) paired t-test and independent sample t-test were used to determine between and within group mean differences. Results suggested that subjects in the Baton Dance™ exercise regime intervention experienced positive improvement in obesity diagnosis after 12 weeks of treatment within the group effect p < .05. Results for obesity diagnosis were, BMI (mean pre: 30.57, mean post: 29.24), PBF from (mean pre: 43.52, mean post: 43.00), WHR (mean pre: .928, mean post: .924), SMM (mean pre: 23.23, mean post: 23.32). Therefore, it was concluded that the intervention of Baton Dance™ exercise program had improved obesity diagnosis, and contributed to a positive findings among overweight sedentary adults in higher education organization

College students perception on physical education classes during their high school days

This purpose of this study is to identify and investigate whether there are similarities or differences between genders regarding the perceptions on physical activities of college university students in one of the largest University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The focus was on three main categories, namely general knowledge, physical education and scientific basis of physical activities. Each category contained questions which serve to evaluate their perceptions about physical activities. The questionnaire was adapted from a journal article on a study done by Mowatt, DePauw and Hulac (1988). This study investigates the perceptions of 113 students (55 males; 65 females) aged between 19 and 25 about physical activities, using the above-mentioned categories. Results of the t-test showed significant differences for general knowledge, t(23) = 3.9, p0.05 no significant differences in means were found between the male and female students

Effects of low intensity aerobic dance exercise on physiological and psychological well-being among working women

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of a 12-week low intensity aerobics dance exercise intervention in the treatment of physiological and psychological well-being among sedentary overweight employed women. Forty subjects were recruited from both the government and private sectors of Putrajaya, Bangi, Serdang and the surrounding community. Subjects were between the ages of 40 and 55 years, had a diagnosis of total stress score above the mean, were not enrolled in any exercise program over the period of one year (sedentary), overweight (Body Mass Index 25 and above) and had a cardiovascular endurance score below the mean. Subjects were randomly either assigned to a 12-week low intensity aerobics dance exercise intervention (“SenamSeri”) or a conventional aerobics dance exercise as the control group. A pretest-post test control research design was utilized. Both groups met for 50 minutes, three times a week (36 sessions). The Transactional Approach Multidimensional (Derogatis Stress Profile) examined Total Stress Score while Rosenberg’s Scale measured self-esteem; both were to assess changes in the psychological well-being. Additionally, physical fitness for health related components (ACSM) which included body composition, flexibility, muscle strength & endurance, cardiovascular endurance and the selected health parameters namely body mass index, resting heart rate and blood pressure were used to assess changes in the physiological well-being, respectively, as a result of the intervention at one, eight and 12-weeks. Statistical analysis included (group x time) repeated measures ANOVA and MANOVA to determine between and within group mean differences. The hypotheses of the thesis received significant support. When the results for physiological well-being variables were considered separately, the only difference to reach statistical significance, using a Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.01, was body composition, F (1, 38) = 6.65, p < .01, eta square = .149, and Flexibility F (1, 38) =13.72, p < .01, eta square = .265. An inspection of the mean scores indicated that the treatment group reported an improvement for body composition (M =27.85, SD = 1.15) and for flexibility (M = 49.85, SD = 1.63) compared to the control group which reported body composition of (M = 27.85, SD = 1.14) and flexibility of (M = 49.85, SD = 1.63). Interestingly, the most obvious finding to emerge from this thesis was that the intervention group benefited significantly in terms of psychologically well-being, total stress score, F (1, 38) = 4.69, p < .05,quare = .11, and self-esteem F (1, 38) = 4.27, p < .05, eta square = .10. An inspection of the mean scores indicated that the treatment group “SenamSeri”reported lower levels of stress after 12 weeks (M = 39.00, SD = 2.36) and improvement in self-esteem (M = 34.45, SD = 1.18) than the control group which underwent the conventional aerobics dance exercise and charted a higher total stress level (M = 40.75, SD = 1.94) and lower self-esteem (M = 30.50, SD = 2.36). It is concluded that low intensity aerobics dance exercise intervention of “SenamSeri” had contributed greatly to the positive findings concerning the physiological and psychological well-being among sedentary overweight employed women

EFFECT OF LOW-IMPACT AEROBIC DANCE EXERCISE ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH (STRESS) AMONG SEDENTARY WOMEN IN MALAYSIA

The present study investigated the effect of twelve weeks of low-impact aerobic dance exercise intervention (“aero-mass” dance exercise) on psychological health (stress) among sedentary working women, specifically in Malaysia. Sedentary participants (age range = 40 – 55 years; N = 40: BMI > 25) were randomly assigned to two groups: an intervention treatment of “aero mass aerobic dancing” and conventional low-impact aerobic dancing. Classes were held for 50 minutes, 3 days per week, for 12 weeks. Repeated measures were examined at week 1, week 8 and week 12. Mixed repeated ANOVA revealed statistically significant time effects for Total Stress Scores (p < 0.01) with eta square =0.59 (large effect) at week 8 and week 12. Furthermore, the time by group interaction was also statistically significant for total stress score (p < 0.05) with eta square = 0.18 (large effect). In addition, the result for between-subject effects indicates significant F (1, 38)=7.74, p < 0.05, eta = 0.17, and therefore there was a significant difference in the stress level scores in the intervention group compared to the control group. Subjects of the intervention group, “aero mass aerobics dancing”, experienced the most benefits