The Yin and Yang
A new unfolding. A new outlook. A new pair of eyes to see the world.
2005, ushered so sombrely. So quietly. Lucky ones spend time with family and friends in churches, mosques, temples, and private gatherings, making sure prayers replaced fireworks.
Facial expressions lost, words cut up.
This is a new year, what shall the world see?
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It's hard to take in what has been happening in South Asia. We're still experiencing aftershocks and still finding bodies under piles of cement and rubble. I feel almost guilty being in my position. We are beyond lucky, we should be beyond grateful to be safe.
Mien called me up yesterday while I was in Ipoh with relatives. She was looking for anyone who has little or any medical training to be part of a team bound towards Aceh to help in relief efforts, leaving this Monday. Well, I couldn't get anyone for her, but I wanted to go too, to help in any way. I thought it was a good way of relieving my feeling of guilt. It seemed almost wrong that I'm sitting here so comfortable, warm, dry, a full stomach, and accompanied by family members, watching TV. Sure, donation and all that has been done, but a gift of your time would be far greater than anything else. Anyway, as I had expected, my Mom wouldn't let me go. I thought that was selfish, but what can I say.
Anyways, there have been many rumours, what-ifs, and did-you-knows circulating around the public spheres of late. Some of them are pretty interesting! *DISCLAIMER: The following statements does not reflect the thoughts of the author (Umm.. me) in any way.
Rumour Mill
Humour at the expense of the uneducated
I don't know if you've noticed it, but I keep reading the word 'two thousand four' in Cantonese and its literal translation of "Death coming in many zeroes", or "Death in numbers" is disturbing.
2005, ushered so sombrely. So quietly. Lucky ones spend time with family and friends in churches, mosques, temples, and private gatherings, making sure prayers replaced fireworks.
Facial expressions lost, words cut up.
This is a new year, what shall the world see?
--------------
It's hard to take in what has been happening in South Asia. We're still experiencing aftershocks and still finding bodies under piles of cement and rubble. I feel almost guilty being in my position. We are beyond lucky, we should be beyond grateful to be safe.
Mien called me up yesterday while I was in Ipoh with relatives. She was looking for anyone who has little or any medical training to be part of a team bound towards Aceh to help in relief efforts, leaving this Monday. Well, I couldn't get anyone for her, but I wanted to go too, to help in any way. I thought it was a good way of relieving my feeling of guilt. It seemed almost wrong that I'm sitting here so comfortable, warm, dry, a full stomach, and accompanied by family members, watching TV. Sure, donation and all that has been done, but a gift of your time would be far greater than anything else. Anyway, as I had expected, my Mom wouldn't let me go. I thought that was selfish, but what can I say.
Anyways, there have been many rumours, what-ifs, and did-you-knows circulating around the public spheres of late. Some of them are pretty interesting! *DISCLAIMER: The following statements does not reflect the thoughts of the author (Umm.. me) in any way.
Rumour Mill
- Malaysian government's media cover-up on the stats on Langkawi to save tourism. Geographically near to Phuket, Thailand, Langkawi SHOULD be almost as bad as Phuket, and the stat of only ONE person dead (and a heart-attack victim at that) does not make sense. Rumor continues that Ex-PM Tun Dr. Mahathir had a hand in this.
- The earthquake actually took us off of the earth's axis for a few seconds and we had a shorter day the day before yesterday [Some truth to it in Wikipedia in the second paragraph under title "Power of The Earthquake"].
- Dolphins swam up river to save themselves before the tsunami came in.
- This is the beginning of the end of the world.
- What if it wasn't an earthquake that triggered this after all? What if it was an illegal testing of nuclear bombs under the sea that hit the fault lines that run next to Thailand and the other islands? This might not be a natural disaster as we think.
- Heard of the Malaysian miracle baby that survived the water by floating on a mattress? (Story here)
- Crocodiles in Sri Lanka tried to eat/attack struggling tsunami victims (Story here)
Humour at the expense of the uneducated
- "So who's this Tsunami...?" - Old Chinese man in speaking in Canto
- "... is he Japanese?" - Same Chinese man
- "Sunat [circumsize] me?!" - Malay joke on the word 'tsunami'
- "Muthusami lah" - The tsunami has been given an Indian name...
- That it cleansed poverty off the map (ie. India)
- That it cleansed the "unclean" (ie. Phuket)
- That it cleaned off wars/ unrest (ie. Tamil Tigers; Aceh)
- Nature reclaiming itself
- Example in Maldives here
I don't know if you've noticed it, but I keep reading the word 'two thousand four' in Cantonese and its literal translation of "Death coming in many zeroes", or "Death in numbers" is disturbing.
Chewed out by Mystery Wolf at 8:50 PM
:
i believe that the judgement of such a massive crisis and loss towards humanity is its unprcedented effect in uniting the world in a single cause of aiding those in need, the shape of brighter things to come in contrast with the current apocalyptic view of the world perhaps?
A.
I don't know how or what people think... People unite but they also forget. Sure it's a great thing now that nations come together to help those in need, but how long will that sentiment last? Most of us have forgotten about hunger in Africa, poverty, and so on, even though a select few are still trying to fix those problems.
Probably at this moment it's hard to look positively and look forward to better things in the future. Maybe it's too soon to move on. I'm guessing that it's not unusual to be speculating about the end of the world, because ever since Y2K began that topic has been on people's minds. I've been hearing of prophecies and bibical quotations on this since the new millenium started.
Currently I can't really see great things coming. The poor countries have now been made poorer. Nature's way of genocide has worked. Whole generations of families are wiped out, and if that's not the case, the younger generations are gone, leaving only the elders which are maybe too old to reproduce.
So if the hypothetical question to all of this is if the tsunami brought more good than bad, I think the question shouldn't be asked at all. It's impossible to imagine in any way.
MARK A TERRITORY
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