race on the highway
stopped by the highway r & r to get some mineral water a while back, just before the sungai besi toll coming into the city. there were four stall selling exactly the same things, (in line with the country's typical non-competitive nature of doing business. one stall was run by a chinese chap. his stall had at least four customers while the others were empty. wondered if it was because the customers were also chinese and they preferred to buy from their own race. sad, after fifty years of independence. i was glad that i was not race-biased. i'm gonna buy from the person whom i know will serve me fastest and in the most efficient manner. i got behind the line at the chinese guy's stall.
someone told me once that every malaysian is racist, because we cannot help it. come to think of it, we cannot run away from race references. just the other day, i was filling up a form for some refunds, and had to input my life story into the form, including my race. i asked why it was necessary, esp since the company already had al my details in its database. apparently it was an old form, and they need to use the 300 million they had already printed.
but things are looking better, i think. i actually saw a billboard on a school programme, which only showed five malay kids. that was cool, no need to show two malays, one chinese, one indian and one kadazan. in fact, a local daily took it one step further by showing a merdeka story which showed a picture of five malaysian, of which only one was malay. been about a week since the picture appeared, and no one from the paper was sacked, so i guess we are learning to take chances. or god forbid, our local papers are being run by immigrants.
its even funny that im writing all this. we have come so far and yet are so behind in the basic fundamentals of life. i guess this will never change as long as our focus remains on re-conquering already conquered space, buying (on loan) monuments that have nothing to do with our beliefs or culture. we continue to shout meaningless slogans. and claim to be developed.
but just last night, over a forty-five minutes dinner at jalan alor with some friends, three parties approached our table asking for donations. the first was a monk, kind of a shady character. the second was a child, barely ten, while the third was a pleasant lady asking for funds for a charity home. how can we consider ourselves as developed if the welfare of our citizens are not cared for?
how can we consider ourselves as developed if we do not have our basic needs taken care of, ie clean water, garbage collection, roads without potholes, floods in the city ...
and things are getting worse as the years go by. we are paying now for ridiculous decisions made in the last two decades. we will continue to suffer for action not taken in the past to plan ahead. we will pay for the short term measures taken to appease greed.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
dylan (1963)
someone told me once that every malaysian is racist, because we cannot help it. come to think of it, we cannot run away from race references. just the other day, i was filling up a form for some refunds, and had to input my life story into the form, including my race. i asked why it was necessary, esp since the company already had al my details in its database. apparently it was an old form, and they need to use the 300 million they had already printed.
but things are looking better, i think. i actually saw a billboard on a school programme, which only showed five malay kids. that was cool, no need to show two malays, one chinese, one indian and one kadazan. in fact, a local daily took it one step further by showing a merdeka story which showed a picture of five malaysian, of which only one was malay. been about a week since the picture appeared, and no one from the paper was sacked, so i guess we are learning to take chances. or god forbid, our local papers are being run by immigrants.
its even funny that im writing all this. we have come so far and yet are so behind in the basic fundamentals of life. i guess this will never change as long as our focus remains on re-conquering already conquered space, buying (on loan) monuments that have nothing to do with our beliefs or culture. we continue to shout meaningless slogans. and claim to be developed.
but just last night, over a forty-five minutes dinner at jalan alor with some friends, three parties approached our table asking for donations. the first was a monk, kind of a shady character. the second was a child, barely ten, while the third was a pleasant lady asking for funds for a charity home. how can we consider ourselves as developed if the welfare of our citizens are not cared for?
how can we consider ourselves as developed if we do not have our basic needs taken care of, ie clean water, garbage collection, roads without potholes, floods in the city ...
and things are getting worse as the years go by. we are paying now for ridiculous decisions made in the last two decades. we will continue to suffer for action not taken in the past to plan ahead. we will pay for the short term measures taken to appease greed.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
dylan (1963)
posted by nyx-thoughts at 12:03 PM
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