The Ironies of Life & Living - J

J   was in a mixed marriage, being a Chinese Malaysian married to an Indian Malaysian. She and her husband brought up three offspring and were employed by the government. When they retired from their government jobs, they decided to travel around the world in the safety of guided tour groups which had a tour leader. Once when a tour group had to make up the numbers and an Indian lady had no partner, J called up her Indian sister-in-law to enquire if she was interested in being the Indian lady’s room-mate. She concurred that since both were Indians they would get along splendidly. How could she assume that when she herself was in a mixed marriage!

Crime & Us

Crime is becoming so rampant these days. It used to be that we used to get to know about criminal activities only in the media. Today, we hear of the nearby convenience store being robbed, someone in our field of work being shot in the street, a friend having her bag snatched and a neighbour’s house being broken into. 

It used to be that we only heard about these criminal activities once in a blue moon. Today, we can hear at least two different situations of criminal activities happening on the same day. What is happening to the situation in Malaysia?

What do we do in this kind of situation? Just wait for something to happen to us? Isn’t there something concrete that the common layman can do to fight crime?

Some Nights in Malaysia

There is a stillness in the night,

a welcoming calm towards the wee hours of the morning light.

The deafening silence prevails as the world rests in slumber…..

Until is heard the murmuring, the buzzing.

The droning builds into a crescendo…..

Then is heard sputtering, revving, rumbling,

Engines battling one against the other.

Circling around the neighbourhood

Speeding up and down the main roads and by-roads.

Babies asleep awaken. 

Adults resting arise.

Some elderly quiver thinking the end is near

The deafening silence turns to thunderous chaos.

A cacophony of sounds from the different machines!

Why are these Mat Rempit given the freedom to destroy the peacefulness of the night in Malaysia? 

An insult to English language teachers!

         The Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia recently announced that Malaysia needs five years and 60,000 teachers to be trained before English can be made a subject for a compulsory pass at SPM level. What an insult to the present batch of English language teachers in both primary and secondary schools! Have they not been putting their shoulder to the grind in their efforts to get their students to have good language communication skills? Isn’t the government confident enough in their skills even though it has spent thousands of ringgit to get them all to become degree holders? It looks like the government has no confidence in the qualifications that these teachers have obtained from the local universities to make the college-trained teachers graduates. The Deputy Education Minister says that 5000 teachers have already been trained and another 9000 are being trained. Is the Ministry trying to say that all this while they had not equipped the schools under their care with the right personnel for teaching English? Did the teachers now teaching History have to undergo the same rigourous training since History is now a compulsory subject at SPM level?

The Ironies of Life and Living - I

I thought to himself, ‘It is not a privilege to be born into a rich family after all. Granted, the rich do not need to worry about where their next meal was coming from. But, at the same time, because they had never experienced hard times, they normally did not appreciate what they had … until it was gone.’ This was true with I, who having had the privilege of living in comfortable surroundings all his life, driving expensive cars and even going on luxurious holidays, now found himself in a situation where he did not know where his next meal was coming from. His friends had deserted him. He only had the clothes on his back and a bed to lie on. He was in hospital for medical treatment and did not even know who was going to pay his medical bills. He felt like ending it all!

The Ironies of Life and Living - G & H

G was always surrounded by friends and family. He entertained them with his easy-going ways. There was always laughter and enough food for anyone around. One could say that he led a luxurious life with wine, women and song. However, he never forgot his parents and his immediate family members. H, on the other hand, was frugal. He had a low-paying job but he managed to give a proper education to his five children who eventually obtained decent jobs. Years passed. G had become friendless because his resources had run out. He was now alone in a nursing home dependent on the generosity of welfare organizations for his dialysis treatment. H’s daughter had to undergo chemotherapy in her fight against leukemia. She, however, had the financial resources because earlier on she had invested in the property market.

The Ironies of Life and Living - F

F decided to get a small little tattoo on her hand while on holiday in India years ago. It was barely an inch long and it was done at the base of her thumb. When she returned to her homeland, she was shocked that her relatives, especially her aunt, were up in arms about the little tattoo. She felt that it would not have seemed so bad even if she had committed a murder. She was told by her aunt that she had violated God’s gift and that getting a tattoo was the devil’s work. She glanced at her tattoo. It was a small little cross, a reminder that Christ had died for us. Was this the devil’s work? Today, she happened to come across her aunt’s son’s profile on Facebook and asked to be added to his list of friends. He had opened a tattoo shop. His own body, arms and legs had tattoos of different designs on them. This goes to show that ‘what goes around, comes around’.