Saturday, February 27, 2010

Thank you for sharing your story, Weed. (Refer to her comment in my post below)
I hope you'd tell about the 'kek kemek' pulak nanti. :)

Now, let me tell you my story which you remind me of.

I was in a bus, somewhere not in Malaysia, where the bus stopped for a very long time. I was getting annoyed and began to look out of the windows to see what was delaying our journey. Was it the traffic congestion? It seemed odd because we were on a big road, which traffic rarely occurred at that time of the day. Other vehicles stopped too, from both ways!

An old, frail lady was crossing the road.

She was holding a walking stick, walking slowly, with the help of a younger lady, who left her BMW door wide open with the engine on (and of course, nobody would want to take opportunity on her).

Another young man, came out from a different car, was stopping the traffic from the other side to let the ladies cross the road.

So, lets imagine if the situation happened in Malaysia. Of course we would have the conscious not to hold up the traffic and just continue our journey because, well, this all happened at the other side of the road which wouldn't affect us, because we were the people who were going the other way.

But noooo....The citizens in this particular country, decided to stop. All of them. Whether they were going North, East, South or West. And nobody honked anybody.

And mind you, we were in a city, the capital of the country, not in some outskirt countryside where people are generally nicer.

And all of us waited. Until the nenek tua crossed the divider and another jalan besar.
To get into the bus I was on.

Even the bus driver had a big heart!

Kalau dekat sini, of course the bus driver would have left us. Tak kuasa nak tunggu 10 minit. Lu lambat, lu kena tinggal, lu tahan bas pun, wa jalan buat tak tahu, lagi wa langgar adalah!

Ataupun, kita mempunya pemikiran macam ni, "Dah tua-tua macam ni pun nak naik bus ke? Baik duduk rumah je lah. Nak keluar jalan-jalan tapi menyusahkan orang."

Well, giving my benefit of doubt, the people in that country memang generally very, very, very nice pun. In fact, personally, I think they are the nicest people in the world. Sangat, sangat baik, friendly and fair. They treat all people equally, tak kira lah bangsa apa, tua atau muda, cacat ke tak, miskin ke kaya, they accomodate for everybody...That's why when I was there, I didn't feel poor even though money was limited. We all used coupons and they didn't give that look when we asked for discounts. Tak ada rasa malu pun nak guna public transport because even the millionaires naik basikal pergi kerja.

I'm glad the values I learned there, I still hold onto tight until now.






My boyfriend and I have our daily sessions of telephone calls.
"Tadi petang," my boyfriend told me last night, "Mak budak accident tu telefon."

"Kenapa dia call?" I asked.

"Dia cakap, 'Terima kasihlah bawa anak makcik pergi hospital. Makcik tak tahu nak buat apa. Dia tu anak yatim, bapa dia dah meninggal. Makcik orang tak sekolah. Makcik tak tahu nak buat apa.'"

I'm sure it's nothing. He'll probably just need a operation (or probably dah buat operation dah pun). Tinggal money issue je.

Sekolah ke tak sekolah, ikut cakap doktor is best. Jangan ikut cakap bomoh. Haha.

Doctor will probably say that the patient needs a lot of rest, but must also help himself by not just lying down. Kena beli crutches to help him ambulate. Kena makan ubat. Tapi jangan biasakan diri makan painkillers. Kena pergi regular follow-ups.

Tapi kalau bab saman saman, nak minta gantirugi (since it wasn't the boy's fault), insurans ke apa, itu kami tak tahu. Kena report polis lah kot.

Kalau that stupid lady refuses to help, harap dia mati masuk neraka.






My life doesn't have an insurance. My life has no value, say the insurance agents, if I don't get an insurance policy.
The insurance agents also say it's very, very important to have an insurance.

They still fail to convince me that I need an insurance.

I'm not arrogant saying I will never die abruptly or fall sick. I know I will, one day, I just refuse to think about it, or rather, I refuse to relate them with money.

If I die, my children don't need to inherit my properties in order to survive and be happy. I will teach them that they have to find their own funding.

If I fall sick, I don't mind going to a government hospital. I don't need a private room bathroom ensuite in a posh hospital to ease my pain. I need to see other people who are more unfortunate than I am to leave the world in peace and rasa syukur.
If I was left alone in the room, I would think I'm the most malang person in the world oh why is God doing this to me! Setan banyak kalau kita tinggal seorang, haven't you heard of that?
Contohnya, kalau patient sebelah kita sakit stroke pun tapi masih nak sembahyang, wouldn't you feel embarassed if you excuse yourself from praying just because you ada asthma?
And that's why I like to be in a crowd. Would a private hospital provide me such humbling moments while I'm dying? Unlikely.

I don't mind the insurance agents, I just don't like the ideas that they put into my head. Sometimes, I hate them so much (no offense, sorry!!! I couldn't help myself), the only thing that can prevent me for hating them as much is by thinking: Diorang pun cari makan juga. This is what they do to support their family. Ini rezeki diorang.

So, when they preach to me, I senyap je, angguk-angguk, pretend to be interested and then say "No, thank you."

Tapi nanti diorang akan cakap, "Betul ke tanak? Tak kisah ke kalau duduk dalam wad kerajaan, bila hospital dah penuh, diorang takkan terima you, kena tunggu lama-lama?"

I repeat, "No, thank you."

"Tapi sebelum tu, boleh you bagi nombor telephone kawan-kawan you?"

WHAT THE HELL! Can I just create the numbers and lie to you?






I also don't have a credit card.
I used to have one, then I terminate it. I think it's very useful especially when it comes to dealing online.

I used to ask my boyfriend, "Kenapa you tak ada credit card? Semua orang kerja ada credit cards!"

Shallow.

My boyfriend said:

- I takut overspend.
- I tak suka berhutang.
- You ingat, orang kaya tu orang yang banyak kad? Orang kayalah sepatutnya tak guna credit card, they should pay everything in cash.

Okay.

Then, a death came. I was sitting down with my friend, asking her, "What now?"

She said, "I'm gonna make sure Mom is alright, then I'm gonna settle all his credit cards, phone bills etc."

Credit cards. Hutang. What if nobody knows how many credit cards I'm using! I tanak mati berhutang!

Tapi beli kereta, beli rumah pun berhutang juga.

Okay, from now onwards, I'm going to tell my boyfriend about every hutang that I owe.

And no credit card for me.
Or maybe just one.
Just to book flight tickets? Hehe.

2 comments:

the artist and i said...

very nice story.

:)


agree tentang orang kaya lah yang perlu bayar cash.

semalam tonton Micheal Moore - Capitalism - A Love Story.

Agak scary memikirkan nasib-nasib orang di sana.

Majikan tak sabar nak tunggu pekerja mati, supaya duit insuran boleh dapat ke company untuk berjuta-juta ringgit.

Mungkin jual nasi lemak tidak akan depressi macam itu.

(I gonna write about kek kemek in my blog)

Moose said...

ectopy, i also dont own any credit card. i prefer to buy things only if i have the money. as simple as that.

p/s: you can still buy plane ticket online using bank transfer. i did that, more convienient. and they dont charge 5% service charge unlike when using cc.