Have I truly become apathetic?

The peril of getting older and jaded? I found myself in the same situations I was several years ago, but in spite of getting angry and frustrated, I sighed a deep breath and closed the windows. I read about BERSIH rally with interest but I lacked the sort of ferocity I would have say, 5 years ago. A part of me was grateful that there were so many out there who were willing to sacrifice time and money, put their lives at risk for a better country but another part of me just didn’t really care. When I saw the scores of videos of people getting sprayed with chemical water, my heart ached and I felt sick in the guts. 10 minutes later, I continued on with work and secretly wished they wouldn’t pull something like that in the middle of my event or work meeting in the future.

Have I truly become apathetic?

A good friend of mine, who is Indian, asked me about my opinions on HINDRAF. I told her it’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard. It was over MSN and I couldn’t gauge very well but I think she was somewhat taken aback. Thank goodness for 6 years of friendship, she was willing to hear me out. I told her that going by HINDRAF’s logic, chinese would have to start digging their ancestors’ graves and reprimand them for boarding the junks across South East China Sea to Tanah Melayu. Of course knowing the chinese, they would probably keep the jewelleries adorning the corpses first.

I also told her that the HINDRAF movement reflects really badly on them. Whoever that was involved certainly was not fit to be called a Malaysian. The act of seeking monetary compensation from a foreign country for the unfortunate luck of being a Malaysian is not only appalling but also reeks of selfishness. What about us!? (Just kidding). Perhaps they felt that going through the proper channels in Malaysia would not bring on any improvement. Which is true, our government certainly do not have USD 4 trillion to go around. And even if they do, they have to start compensating 60% of the population with USD 24 trillion not including 7% interest rate. HOW?

I understand the essence of HINDRAF struggle is probably for fairness but damn those ka-chings have really made the movement seems a tad too dodgy for me to be serious about. And to be honest with you, what would fairness do to this country? Being the so-called “marginalised” race, I only feel like anything remotely fair in this country would mean that I have 80% of the Malaysia’s population to fight with.

And in all seriousness, I’m really actually pretty happy with the current situation now.

They scared wor.

++Update++

They’re using water cannon and tear gasses already!

Closing up the city so that they can batter people up with no one watching?

++/Update++

Was thinking of going to KL for some shopping but read this.

Motorists in the Klang Valley found themselves caught in traffic jams on Saturday because of roadblocks and traffic diversions.

Motorists going to work, running their usual weekend errands or returning home from the Deepavali holidays, found themselves crawling on highways and roads in Kuala Lumpur and surrounding areas like Petaling Jaya.

According to PLUS Highway, traffic from the north along the North-South Expressway has been diverted to the Kota Damansara and Damansara exits as the Sungai Buloh-Jalan Duta stretch has been closed. At press time, no reason was given for the closure.

Meanwhile, police confirm that roadblocks have been set up at various major roads leading to Kuala Lumpur for security checks.

Source: The Star

It’s a peaceful rally for goodness sake. They could have used the security measures for other things like stopping the menace of mat rempits and kids from getting raped .

More the reason to march on!

Shopping for a noble cause.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time. A couple of weeks ago I attended a charity bazaar and fashion show in support of breast cancer awareness. It was organised by Maxnetic and held at Marmalade.

Belinda Bateman.
Me and Belinda Bateman.

Belinda is a single mother diagnosed with fourth stage breast cancer in January while working in the Philippines. Already suffering from congenital multiple arthogryposis, which causes bone deformity, the diagnosis was akin to rubbing salt to an open wound. As if these were not horrible enough, Belinda is caught in a tight financial situation due to government bureaucracies.

Here’s the story. After her cancer diagnosis, her employer paid for her lumpectomy. Shortly after that, she was forced to resign as they were obviously unwilling to foot anymore forthcoming medical bills. As she had exhausted her funds while moving to Philippines, Belinda return to Malaysia to seek aid from the government, namely the Social Security Organisation (Socso), Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Welfare Department. Everytime she sought help from these government departments, she was turned away on the basis of “investigation”, which could range from 2 to 7 months.

Tell me, how ridiculous is that? You can read more about Belinda at The Star.

Among the merchants involved in the bazaar were Shoes Shoes Shoes, Tres Chic, Sew & Soul, MUSSE & popUP Retail. Lovely, lovely stuff. Got myself a pair of heels (which I will never wear again).

The fashion show was interesting because the models were made up of real women, non professional models. Many of them looked like they should have dabbled in professional modelling.

Fairy strutting her stuff.
Joyce strutting her stuff.

Models at Retail Therapy for a Cause.
Some of the models.

It was also Belinda’s birthday so Maria got her a pink birthday cupcake.

Birthday girl, Belinda.
Birthday girl.

Me and Maria.
Maria and I.

And finally met Joanna. She’s a riot!!! :)

Joanna!
Joanna.

Breast cancer awareness.
Breast Cancer Welfare Association Malaysia.

Lastly, a picture of Alex’s cuff, which I was rather fascinated with.

Battle of Waterloo.
The battle of Waterloo was won on the fields of Eton.

For more information about breast cancer and how to contribute please go to:

BREAST CANCER WELFARE ASSOCIATION