To say sorry means you are responsible

After work when I came down to retrieve my car, I noticed a dent on my rear door. No damages on my rear lights or bumper revealed that the dent was caused not by a car but a vehicle like a lorry or a four-wheel drive. With limited space between my car and the vehicle behind him, the driver must have forcefully squeezed his from the parking lot. I asked the guards stationed at the guardhouse. They did not notice any vehicle parked behind mine that day although my car was visible from the guardhouse.

I got hold of the building manager and met him at my car. I have observed several times cars without stickers were allowed to park behind mine. Didn’t the management exercise strict control over these illegal entries? According to him, it was not the management fault. Tenants parked at their own risk.

He said the dent might be caused by a motorist who rammed into me from behind while I was driving or it might be caused while I parked it at the roadsides. The dent looked a week old.

I retorted, I would be stupid not to feel or hear a bump. My car is used to travel to and from work and at night it stays inside my compound. If the accident was a week’s old the paint coating which has peeled off would form rust on the crack surface.

I added that the guards were not patrolling the building often enough but were too busy dozing off, SMSing or chatting on their cell phones. Replace them since they were hopeless in their jobs. Sarcastically he defended, it was difficult to find good and hardworking staff. If I knew anyone, my recommendation would be welcomed. I replied, it was not my job to recruit his staff. It was his responsibility to scrutinize those who came for interview. The management should compensate me.

On and on we fired verbal shots at each other. At last he said, “Miss, I cannot say I am wrong. If I do I will have to pay for your damages.”

Reflection of my life

I approach life with an open heart but I am easily triggered by events around me. I dream of peace and tranquility but sometimes somehow reality surpasses my dreams and I woke up to a fiercely bitter and oppressing tattered world.

This blog records a series of events in my life, past and present. I do not look at it as a personal journal but more of an entry of happenings and people that have influenced my emotion and my eventual reaction to them.

The bad things I write them down and set them free. The good things I keep them in my heart, allow them to accompany me through my days, sharing with whoever cares to hear me relate them.

In time to come entries accumulated here will probably line my forehead with frowns and place a smile on my lips as I browse through them when I am old.

If I am seen smiling alone, I am not mentally depleted but just reflecting what a life I have gone through.

A goodwill gesture

Wan Azizah decided to give up her parliamentary seat for her husband, the infamous Anwar Ibrahim who is at the moment involved in a sodomy case. They had to hold a by-election to determine the winner for the Permatang Pauh candidacy.

Barisan National selected a chubby, friendly man, Ariff Shah Omar Shah who speaks fluent Mandarin and Hokkien, as their candidate. He sure could win the hearts of the Chinese voters.

Again the exodus of people ‘balik kampong’ to vote. For those who want to vote but did not have the financial capacity to go home to do the rightful thing as a voter, Ariff Shah had allegedly eased their burden by subsidizing a little monetary offering of between RM50.00 to RM500.00 for each voter. This goodwill gesture should be recognized as traveling expenses and not as an obligation to gain a vote for him.

With 47,410 voters, the major roads leading to the Permatang Pauh district without doubt experienced heavy traffic flow. Thanks to the presence of the traffic police, voters had a smooth and stressless journey home. Road blockades monitoring the motorists’ movement helped to ease unnecessarily traffic chokes. No hogging on the fast lanes or speeding on the emergency lanes for those hurrying home to cross their voting sheets.

As for us in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, we enjoyed a carefree journey to work.

Dust Mites

It hopped like a grasshopper. If you search patiently you will find it lying motionless on top of the bedsheets, shelves, books and on any surface that’s coated with a film of powdery dust. Before your middle finger pressed over it, it has vanished. Seen through the magnifying glass, it’s pretty scary. Its similarity to a creature from outer space, equipped with a pair of splinters that give you a good needle jab that lets you itch for hours.

Dust mites initiate the fear factor in me. Every night when I drop into bed I am afraid to disturb my blanket. It will disrupt the dust clinging to it, dislodging them from the cotton fabric and releasing them into the air. The dust particles float and float towards my nostril then I inhale them then I sneeze… Ah choo ah choo for umpteen times until mucous began to stream down my nose. I have to flush them all out, cleaning my nose with water. What a relief after that. To say I am not allergic to dust, then it is not true but my case is not as serious as those who have asthmatic and sinus problems.

To rid of the dust I will take a wet cloth, wipe my bedsheet every now and then. I do not have the patience to look among the folds of the bedsheet and pillow cases for the dust mites. The curtains are also one of the places where dust mites love to hide, not overlooking the window sills and panes, walls and carpets.

On the topic of carpets, RW recently has his room’s carpet re-laid. He has been sneezing endless due to exposure to dust. The last time he changed his carpeting was the same time we had our whole office renovated in 2000. Our cleaning lady mopped our carpets every Friday to curb dust particles from rising up and polluting the quality of air in the office. Sandra, from our Penang office experiences the same sinus problem. Pity for her, she has the same carpet since the early 90’s.

A beautiful day turned ulgy

The sky was just breaking when I fought my way through the Federal Highway on my way to work. Right ahead of me, I could see the sun peeping through the clouds. It promised me a very nice day but not so nice for the environment. The chimney at Guinness Stout was discharging thick white smoke. This smoke spread itself out over the surrounding area casting a foggy veil reducing the atmosphere to an unpleasant sight.

What I hoped for was the sun sending streaks of sunrays through the opening of the clouds, turning the skyline into myriads of rainbow colors as dawn slowly sank away and our sky getting brighter and brighter each second. But today, the sun’s ray was weak and looked so exhausted. Fighting to see and to breathe was also exhausting.

Further down the road at Soon Seng, someone has unselfishly set the overgrown bushes on fire. Here instead of white we have dark smoke. It helped to contribute to an unhealthy and unfriendly environment. This was not the first time this kind of open air burning occurred along this stretch of the Federal Highway. No one from the relevant authorities had checked on the conduct of the culprits who had unthinkably caused such hazardous act contaminating the air.

This is the way of life in a big city. No one cares. But sometimes we care. We care to fight for power. We care to fight for status. We care to fight for ourselves. And I care to fight for my right to survive in a polluted city.

No more bargaining power after 55

I was alone in the office today. Florence is outstation. Outside, it is peacefully quiet. Everybody is at their computers including Yazid who is surfing his iMesh. From time to time I could hear the sound of coughing and sneezing from next door. It was RW at Yan Lee’s desk checking her mails. As for Yan Lee, she is on two weeks retirement leave.

She has touched fifty-five. When she comes back to work she will be on a new contract with yearly renewal. Her terms of employment will be different from the one she previously enjoyed.

Though she will retain her last drawn pay, she will not be entitled for the 13th month salary. Contributions to her employee provident fund will be scrapped. Before she has enjoyed 21 days leave and to reduce it to 14 days per annum needs getting accustom to since she uses her leave to bake pineapple tarts for sales to friends during Christmas and the Chinese New Year festive seasons. If a public holiday falls on a Saturday, no replacement leave will be given. Only medical and hospital benefits remain unchanged.

By the time you reach your retirement age, you have no bargaining power. No matter how indispensable, devoted and loyal you are to the company, you can’t argue or reason with the management about the new terms of employment. Either you select to stay or you decide to leave.

Chinese, the immigrants of Malaysia

After helping built this country, born in this country, lived in this country for 51 years, some Malays still consider the Chinese as “pendatang” (immigrants). We thanked the Bukit Bendera Umno division chief Ahmad Ismail for letting us know their true feelings about our presence in Malaysia. We will always remember his outburst “as the Chinese were only immigrants it was impossible to achieve equal rights amongst races” made during his speech at the Permatang Puah parliamentary by-election campaign on August 25.

After sensing our anger and hurt, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (who was with him at the time) was quick to clarify that Ahmad Ismail’s statement was wholly his alone and not that of Umno or the Government. He further came up with an apology which he hoped will cement the rift already caused by a racist like Ahmad Ismail.

“We hope that the non-Malays will not be too disturbed with the statement and we apologize if it has incurred the sensitivities or unhappiness over the statement.

We apologize, Umno apologizes although it is not our statement but it is a statement made by one of our division leaders. It is totally unwarranted and does not reflect the position and the attitude of Umno or the leadership of Umno. We regret it very much.

The statement is his personal statement and is not the stand of Umno and the Government. We do not regard Malaysian citizens of Chinese, Indian or other descent as “passengers”.

They are Malaysian citizens who have full rights and we will definitely safeguard their interests and their dignity and I describe the statement as something the Umno and the Government very much regret.”

As for Ahmad Ismail, an ungrateful coward who blurted out senselessly but afraid of the consequences, is no where to be found. He has withdrawn his head and is obviously hiding inside his tortoise shell.

We have a Chinese proverb. If you are a man and capable enough, stay inside your tortoise shell and never come out again.

Note: Najib’s statement is sourced from The Star.

The Missing Malaysian Flags

Last year we celebrated our 50th Merdeka Anniversary with full grandeur. Sadly this year our Independence Day went by with no funfare at all accept for the celebration at the Dataran Merdeka. The flags clinging to the electric poles along the Federal Highway were dirty and lifeless. You could see private cars, cabs and buildings adorned with flags last year but this year the presence of our national flags was absent.

Where have all the flags gone? A listener from Red FM gave a very good reason about the mysterious missing of our flags. All our flags were imported from China. Unfortunately for us, our Chinese suppliers were so immersed in producing flags for their Beijing Olympics thus unable to fulfill our orders.

The Chinese were so proud with their turn to hold the Olympics they had no time and mood to care about us. From here we knew, we have depended on the Chinese so much it inadvertently affect us indirectly. Anyway, where can we purchase cheaper flags other than from China?

Just call me Chong Wei, says Olympic hero

Lee Chong Wei was made a Datuk by the Penang Government on Thursday, but the Beijing Olympics silver medallist still preferred to be called by his name instead of his title, China Press reported.

“I am not used to people calling me Datuk, so you should just call me Chong Wei. I hope people will continue to call me that,” he said.

Lee thanked the state government for awarding the DSPN to him, saying that he would take it as an inspiration.

“I hope I can play better than my performance in the Olympics in the future,” he said, adding that he has continued with his training for the Japan Open next month.

Source: The Star
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2008

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/30/nation/22204222&sec=nation

Who's to buy the garbage bin

Whenever I received a call from my tenant’s wife, a shiver crept up my spine. She heralded bad news. The town municipal (Dewan Bandaraya KL) had served me a summon for not depositing garbage in a disposal bin. The gravity of this offence carried a fine of RM30.00.

In every house plan a garbage compartment is a mandatory requirement. House occupants are expected to deposit their rubbish in the garbage compartment.

In my case, some neighbors have utilized the garbage compartment to store their garden tools, old newspapers and other personal items. They have opted instead to place plastics bags of domestic waste on the 3 ft pavement directly outside the garbage compartment. Dogs and cats foraging for food, helped to strew garbage on the floor making it frustrating for the garbage collectors to pick the garbage. I think this might have been one of the reasons that the new ruling requires house owners to buy a disposal bin, deposit their domestic waste into it and place the bin in the garbage compartment.

I refused to supply her a garbage bin. I am not the occupant of the house. Can she buy and send me the bill? No, definitely not. What will happen to the garbage bin when she terminates her tenancy with me? I do not want her used garbage bin, my new tenant will not want a used one.

After my assurance that she can take it along when she leaves, then only she agreed to buy the garbage bin. As for me, I swallowed the fine and decided to ignore her complaints about the leaking toilet bowl.

What will happen as we grow old

It lifted my spirit to see Lily shopping for her groceries at Giant. I was glad she was full of energy. Her voice was strong and her strength was rejuvenated by what she was sharing with mom & me. The subject in our conversation was her mother.

At 81, age has rendered her mom physically frail. She is frightfully weak in her capacity to remember.

Because of family and work, everyone lives separately from her parents. Lily and her brothers decided to rely on domestic help. To start with, her mom was a bit picky with the maids. She was suspicious of them, finding faults, eventually accusing them of hugging and sleeping with her 90 year old husband. When questioned about his improper behavior, her father replied he knew nothing about it. Lily shivered in apprehension each time the maids lodged their complaints and threatened to resign. None of them stayed for long.

While waiting for the next maid to report for duty, Lily registered her parents in the old folk’s home in Taiping. Male and female residents have separate sections but during the nights, with the magical spell of love sparkling brightly, uncle would crept into the women’s dormitory to cuddle in auntie’s warm single bed. Security must be slightly lax here to permit him to do so.

Whenever she visited Lily, she caused havoc by storing the groceries in the kitchen drawers. A potato tucked between the forks and spoons, onions in the cooking pots and even mixing her stewed pork with her watercress soup.

For her convenience at night, Lily placed a potty chair beside her bed. She would mess up by peeing on the lid. She hid her jewelries and later her muddled brain could not recall where she had hid them. On her knees she would plead, promising to reward Lily half of the find.

Age is a problem all of us will face in later years to come. When young we could not understand why our grandparents were grumpy, forgetful and behaved strangely. We were impatient, irritated and at times indifferent to them. We often brush it aside by concluding ‘old already like that one’. By listening to people discussing about their aged parents, I realized this is more than ‘old’ . It is a serious problem we have to accept in a more tolerable manner and hope we will not end up like Lily’s mother. It made my tears flow recalling my mom’s words that as she progresses towards her twilight age, she hopes she will not burden or embarrass us in any way.

If we read in the papers that elderly persons were found wandering the streets alone, not knowing where their homes are, or we heard them accusing their children for forsaking them, packing them off to retirement homes, we should not jump into conclusion that their children have abandoned them but to understand that their children’s actions are beyond their control and they have tried hard to tackle their dilemma as best they can.

I do not know what kind of person I will evolve into. Hope that life is sweet as I slowly wither away.