SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 2007
of taxis and trains
i first ask nicholas for forgiveness, i write this post in the month of august, in english, despite his rally to blogger friends imploring a month of blogging in BM. sesungguhnya, sudah kian lama saudara ini tidak menulis dalam BM. sebarang usaha untuk mengemukakan pandangan-pandangan saya yang kacau-bilau ini akan terbelenggu oleh kekurangan upaya saya dalam hal-hal tatabahasa BM apatah lagi penggunaan istilah-istilah BM yang memberangsangkan.
Oleh hal yang demikian, izinkanlah saya meneruskan karangan saya ini dalam bahasa pertama saya.
i've been living in kuala lumpur for just over a month now. lots of things have been pouring into my head. i've had a great wealth of experiences and ive met such a diverse array of people. i just felt a great need to get it all down in writing so that sometime, somewhere, someone, somehow, my thoughts would be put to good use.
i came back to msia for my summer holidays for several reasons, but among other reasons, one would be my desire to remember what my native country feels like.
one true way to truly get to know and feel a country, or a city like kl, is to live the live of the public transport commuter. i have to admit, i havent taken a bus yet. so pardon my ignorance on that matter.
taxis. some are nice, some are bitter, some are honest, some are cheats. but all of them have a story behind them. ill share a few memorable taxi rides. one was with a 40 sth chinese fellow, i wanted to update my passport in kl. he asked me what my plans were with an updated passport. i told him i was going to study overseas. gee, he said (all in mandarin anyway), you should seriously think about marrying a mat salleh and never coming back. i chuckled in my head. or was it a sigh.
another was with another young malay taxi driver from central kl. he was very interested in talking politics. for some reason, he confided to me that as a taxi driver, you develop an ear for the idle chit-chat of passengers in the back. and so, one conspiracy theory after another, he told me his two cents of how that big murder trial TIME is calling south east asia's murder trial of the century, is in fact a government conspiracy. chuckled again.
and then there's the lrt. truly, nth could be sadder. it's the epitome of mediocrity and de facto symobol of the middle class. without a driver and a bmw745i, many working class malaysians endure ktm,putra,and star train rides every single working day of the week.
first thing... i know everyone's talking about it, but why is it still the way it is? indeed, im talking about the whole "we're going to bash our way into the train we dont care if someone's trying to get out". ahh, i dont know what else i can say.
a few other random observations on the train... its' just that being on a train gives u so much time to observe ppl. observe life. observe rakyat malaysia.
one.. it was evening rush hour. i was stuck between two groups of school kids just off from secondary school. chinese kids from chinese school speaking chinese to each other. malay boy and malay girl speaking malay to each other. i know my sentence structure may truly fail to do my opinion justice... but seriously, i thought to myself, this country is digging its own grave. deeper and deeper each day.
i was observing another secondary school girl on the train today. she was holding about two pages of a4 stapled together. a few highlighted words here and there. lo and behold, she was reading 'nilai nilai moral', perhaps in preparation for the upcoming spm exam. again, i sighed to myself. u go and memorize those nilais girl. and you do good. and you do your life's efforts justice.
i believe it was winston churchill who said democracy is the worse form of government, except every other form that has been tried. it makes loads of sense. democratic process makes sense, if only the bloody voters gave a damn. there's that one idea that politics is dirty, so i dont follow politics coz i dont wanna be dirty. but shit cmon, economics, social structure, life.. everythingg..... is linked to the central authority that governs us. yes, politics is dirty. but is that reason enough to put off registering to vote??? it's our social responsibility as citizens of a democracy to give a damn about politics. absolutely.
oh what the hell i only blog once every 2 months, so i might as well say something abt scholarships again. ive had loads of conversations with my better spoken, more learned friends about this subject. but ive been meeting a lot more scholars lately. and yea, i really dont understand the system. again, so is it to alleviate poverty, or to reward merit? there's of course general consensus that it shouldnt be racially motivated, but the deb/nep is another matter. i'm talking about.... why? why is it that rich rich kids from the city get 5 scholarship offers, only to break the bond later. while a poor kid from a small town (dont even get me started on east msia) doesnt even get an interview for the scholarship, yknw results, english proficiency, and blah blah ceteris paribus.
i know, im young and foolish. hell, ill even admit im crap at articulating my thought processes in a blog. i guess if i put a bit more effort into organizing my ideas and arguments, i could make up a better post, and one day write as well as hizami el presidente
but for now, i need to work.
Oleh hal yang demikian, izinkanlah saya meneruskan karangan saya ini dalam bahasa pertama saya.
i've been living in kuala lumpur for just over a month now. lots of things have been pouring into my head. i've had a great wealth of experiences and ive met such a diverse array of people. i just felt a great need to get it all down in writing so that sometime, somewhere, someone, somehow, my thoughts would be put to good use.
i came back to msia for my summer holidays for several reasons, but among other reasons, one would be my desire to remember what my native country feels like.
one true way to truly get to know and feel a country, or a city like kl, is to live the live of the public transport commuter. i have to admit, i havent taken a bus yet. so pardon my ignorance on that matter.
taxis. some are nice, some are bitter, some are honest, some are cheats. but all of them have a story behind them. ill share a few memorable taxi rides. one was with a 40 sth chinese fellow, i wanted to update my passport in kl. he asked me what my plans were with an updated passport. i told him i was going to study overseas. gee, he said (all in mandarin anyway), you should seriously think about marrying a mat salleh and never coming back. i chuckled in my head. or was it a sigh.
another was with another young malay taxi driver from central kl. he was very interested in talking politics. for some reason, he confided to me that as a taxi driver, you develop an ear for the idle chit-chat of passengers in the back. and so, one conspiracy theory after another, he told me his two cents of how that big murder trial TIME is calling south east asia's murder trial of the century, is in fact a government conspiracy. chuckled again.
and then there's the lrt. truly, nth could be sadder. it's the epitome of mediocrity and de facto symobol of the middle class. without a driver and a bmw745i, many working class malaysians endure ktm,putra,and star train rides every single working day of the week.
first thing... i know everyone's talking about it, but why is it still the way it is? indeed, im talking about the whole "we're going to bash our way into the train we dont care if someone's trying to get out". ahh, i dont know what else i can say.
a few other random observations on the train... its' just that being on a train gives u so much time to observe ppl. observe life. observe rakyat malaysia.
one.. it was evening rush hour. i was stuck between two groups of school kids just off from secondary school. chinese kids from chinese school speaking chinese to each other. malay boy and malay girl speaking malay to each other. i know my sentence structure may truly fail to do my opinion justice... but seriously, i thought to myself, this country is digging its own grave. deeper and deeper each day.
i was observing another secondary school girl on the train today. she was holding about two pages of a4 stapled together. a few highlighted words here and there. lo and behold, she was reading 'nilai nilai moral', perhaps in preparation for the upcoming spm exam. again, i sighed to myself. u go and memorize those nilais girl. and you do good. and you do your life's efforts justice.
i believe it was winston churchill who said democracy is the worse form of government, except every other form that has been tried. it makes loads of sense. democratic process makes sense, if only the bloody voters gave a damn. there's that one idea that politics is dirty, so i dont follow politics coz i dont wanna be dirty. but shit cmon, economics, social structure, life.. everythingg..... is linked to the central authority that governs us. yes, politics is dirty. but is that reason enough to put off registering to vote??? it's our social responsibility as citizens of a democracy to give a damn about politics. absolutely.
oh what the hell i only blog once every 2 months, so i might as well say something abt scholarships again. ive had loads of conversations with my better spoken, more learned friends about this subject. but ive been meeting a lot more scholars lately. and yea, i really dont understand the system. again, so is it to alleviate poverty, or to reward merit? there's of course general consensus that it shouldnt be racially motivated, but the deb/nep is another matter. i'm talking about.... why? why is it that rich rich kids from the city get 5 scholarship offers, only to break the bond later. while a poor kid from a small town (dont even get me started on east msia) doesnt even get an interview for the scholarship, yknw results, english proficiency, and blah blah ceteris paribus.
i know, im young and foolish. hell, ill even admit im crap at articulating my thought processes in a blog. i guess if i put a bit more effort into organizing my ideas and arguments, i could make up a better post, and one day write as well as hizami el presidente
but for now, i need to work.
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