Wednesday, August 30, 2006

freedom interpreted..(as eating and not colonized by Salmonella sp.)

What can I say, with this twisted mind like mine I can never make a promise to anyone on anything especially when it comes to my writings. I am all still very excited about the reunion with the girls but I just can't begin to write anything on that. Maybe you can browse through the girls' page at the right corner of this very dusty weblog to get to know the whole story of it.

Owh guess I'm at the perfect time to wish all Malaysians a very Happy 49th Independence Day. Back in school we would've spent the Merdeka night doing countdown on our very own Dataran Puteri while watching the lights and firecrackers from the festival at the twin tower from far. And that's after a good round of lectures from the seniors, which need not to be on the spirit of nationalism or dying for your country but merely on releasing what grudge they've been holding on you. Heck, school days~

Nonetheless, Malaysians, let's not take this freedom we have for granted and always reach out for the needy ones. Having the chances to go abroad and travelled to remote places like Acheh and Cambodia, I've seen poverty to its max. U can't imagine people living their lives in lackness and restrictions that we, Malaysians, would have readied in front of us in an instance. Come morning we open our eyes and enter our ensuite bathroom for a hot bath and later have a good cup of hot coffee, while people in Cambodia struggles to collect clean water from the river or well which seasonally ruined by the great floods they have each year. I still remember trying to avoid drinking iced drinks at the stalls when we were in Cambodia to avoid getting diarrhoea, but later succumbed to the scorching sun and ignored the gore stories of the uncleaned water and drank eventually. Guess what we've succumbed ourselves into next? The old friend diarrhoea! Hail to the toilets that saved our days..

My point is, these people have been living in conditions where lackness has became predominant that they've somehow developed immunity to it made evidence by their very strong stomachs whilst we, Malaysians, had one sip of their considered-as-luxurious drinking water and suffered loose stools for days and days. Believe me some of my fellow relief mates are still having their remnants of diarrhoea. Let's just hope that these salmonella sp. didn't find sanctuary in our guts and settle down instead.

I may end this with a picture I took in Cambodia. Believe me I was stunned by the view I saw of this kid making his way in a small basin he made as his boat. He's basically what Indonesians would call "anak-anak picisan", the ones that beg for money on the streets for their living. But instead, some kids of Cambodia chooses water as another means of begging. U can imagine this small fella would just tumble his basin and fell into the huge lake without anyone's noticed. Well if u do noticed would u risk your life saving him in that middle of huge lake?



I hate to compare the luxuries that my little nephews and niece are having at their very young age as to what these kids have, but I am living in a very real world that needs real intrepretations on the value of life, though it may hurt to evaluate, guess that's the price I have to pay to let the truth be spoken..