2 Things That Saddened Me

Thing Number One

I read an article in the June 5th 2006 issue of TIME (Asia) magazine. In the article titled : " THE DEADLIEST WAR IN THE WORLD ", I was saddened as I read about what is happening at the heart of Africa. The place that was once known as Zaire is now revolutionized into the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). My heart broke when he saw these words " ... The baby lies whimpering in a clinic run by the aid organization Doctors Without Borders. His belly is distented by malnutrition, and although he appears to be in pain, he has no energy to cry. "

A baby in pain but has no energy to cry? That is seriously screwed up man, what the hell is happening to this world?

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Thing Number Two

This happened at the uncontrolled junction between Lucky Plaza Shopping Centre and Paragon Shopping Centre at Orchard Rd Singapore. I was walking to his bus stop after gymming, along the way I spotted a trio in trouble. A well dressed lady, an aged lady on a wheel chair and their domestic help. The wheelchair that the aged lady was sitting on had got stuck at the beginning of the concrete pavement and the well dressed lady and her domestic help was struggling to forcefully push the lady in the wheelchair to the concrete pavement. They did not have the strength to do so and because of this, there was a hold up in traffic.

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What bothered me was this: I saw many able bodied men near them at that time but not a single one lifted a finger to help; they were more concerned with their phone conversation on their mobile or just walking by without having any thought to alleviate their predicament. I had to make a mad dash to the spot and yank the wheelchair from it's wedged position. What really angered me was this: while I was helping the trio out; the lead car in the hold up honked at me to get a move on. What the F#%K right? I had to exercise tremendous restraint to keep my 2 middle fingers from erecting.

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The result of decades worth of Courtesy Campaign? Well I say it is one of the PAP's worse investment to date. And now they launched the " FOUR MILLION SMILES " campaign? For what? Just to impress the foreign delegates at the 2006 IMF Convention? I say, forget it lah*, the courtesy campaign failed already, you want us to be a pretentious society as well?

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I've got a better suggestion. Start a new campaign: " OH BEHAVE SINGAPORE " campaign. Austin Powers can chair the committee. The government likes to be first in this and this and that, just add it to the list and let Singapore hold the first campaign of its kind in Southeast Asia lor**.

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Or perhaps the PAP ain't so dumb after all, maybe they inadvertently came up with the BEST solution already, welcome more FOREIGN EXPATS, welcome more NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS, so that they can rub off some courtesy on us. After all we did rank 30 out of 35 countries polled by Reader's Digest issue July 2006, for lack of courtesy.

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I know I'm being harsh, but you know what, this saddens me more than it angers me, as this nation propels itself into the next decade, will the economic growth be directly proportional to the erosion occuring in the social fabric of this society?

*Lah: The ubiquitous Singlish tag. Used like a fullstop in a sentence.

**Lor: Yet another Singlish tag, similar in usage to "Lah", but which adds a slightly cynical or resigned tone to the sentence.