7/06/2009

A tragic hole

I still remember this little hole in the 60s, the hole that I crawled out before being buried in it. The parents were all illiterate coolies cramming into little cubicles with 10 or more in a family. Life was simple and without any aspiration. It was just living, working and sleeping. Many dropped out of schools in their pre teens and ended as kopi kias or kopitiam helpers. That was their fate if they failed in school. Never mind, just get a job and get on with life. The next phase of life for these ignorant and illiterate boys and girls was to get married and have children. They got married before they were 20, some at 18. It was time for big celebration. The following year would be parenthood time. At those juvenile age, it did not need much imagination as to what they knew was installed for them. The parents were around to help in the mothering of the new borns. And there went another chapter of their lives, cut out to replay the tragedy of their parents once again. Don't expect their children to be much better than these boy/girl father and mother. Fortunately with education and higher literacy, these things of the past are getting lesser today. These people are not helping themselves. But were they happy? I think they didn't know. It was just living, working and making babies and that was it. Surprisingly not all failed. A few ended up as contractors and became successful! I see it as a big gamble with many losers and few isolated winners.
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7 comments:

  1. Wally BuffetJuly 06, 2009 12:26 pm

    "A few ended up as contractors and became successful!"

    And in the end where did these "successful" contractors ended up?
    Into the black hole of foreign talents. Stupidity is a great economic leveler.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 06, 2009 2:53 pm

    For all you know, some of these contractors may have ended up bankrupt by design, after making hefty personal gains and stashing it somewhere beyond the reach of the law.

    These is also no law against paying obscene salaries or immoral bonuses.

    There are bankrupts here who have made good in Hongkong, Australia and China.

    Lost Citizen

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chua Chin Leng蔡镇龍 aka redbeanJuly 06, 2009 3:16 pm

    at all levels and across all communities there are bound to be exceptions to the rule. but if these people are not going to think for/help themselves and let their lives drift along, there is nothing that the govt can do to help them.

    only through education and a little thinking can they have any hope of crawling out of the black hole. and it is not simply throwing money at them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. IMAGODJuly 06, 2009 8:15 pm

    Here we go again moaning and groaning instead of encouraging people to have a good attitude and take on life.

    There is no shame in any work — even menial work or 'dirty' work.

    redbean, don't be so elitist and snobbish lah. Have a fucking heart, for IMAGOD's sake!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chua Chin Leng蔡镇龍 aka redbeanJuly 07, 2009 8:39 am

    matilah, or IMAGOD,

    my advice to you is to stop drinking and smoking. they are killing your brain cells. now you are getting so stupid that you are unable to understand the moral of my post. tsk, tsk.

    now stop drinking and smoking for a month, let the cells recharged, then read my post slowly and carefully. : )

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJuly 07, 2009 3:26 pm

    Here we go again.

    Lost Citizen

    ReplyDelete
  7. IMAGODJuly 07, 2009 3:44 pm

    Yo redbean,

    Who in his right fucking mind will read your poorly constructed post again? Not me.

    In my mind, I have addressed your question at the end of your post (the one that requires more than one reading — in your inflated opinion)

    You raise the points:

    > But were they happy? I think they didn't know. [...]
    I see it as a big gamble with many losers and few isolated winners. <

    You are moaning and groaning about whether people are "happy" (whatever the fuck that is) as if you can read into their minds and beings directly.

    What are you? Some kind of super natural being with magical powers?

    "Winners" and "losers" — what the fuck is that? As if people's lives are classified in your high-and-mighty hierarchy of who is a "success" and who isn't.

    I think you're having delusions of grandeur passing such celestial judgements on lesser mortals.

    I'd better get back to the drugs and alcohol before you pass judgment on me and punish me by striking me dead with one of your magical lightning bolts!

    Oh have mercy! (I'll sacrifice a virgin to you, ok?)

    ReplyDelete