Savages~

                   A young man walked stealthily behind an oblivious lady at the city centre. She was too absorbed with the shops and the merchandise at the market, apparently unaware that a man had been tailing her for the past fifteen minutes. She stopped to ask for the price of a fake sunglasses and the man slipped his hands carefully under her handbag, lifting it away with an utmost skill and precision-she never knew what happened. He was relieved, but as he walked away, his heart was thundering and rampaging inside him , his conscious went against his desires , but it was too late. He had taken the handbag with him.

           The very moment he turned away with a swift pace, a war scream  broke and the market turned into chaos. Somebody spotted him! He broke into a sprint amidst the crowd, yet hundreds of men were galloping behind, and people were blocking his way. No, this is not the way it should be. The plan was perfect, nobody even saw the handbag which he hid in a plastic bag. He took the prize at the most deserted  part of the market, where customers avoid the sunglasses seller who cheats on all occasion. Now he's running for his dear life, all the people around him trying to be heroes themselves, to catch this villain and be  the warrior of the day.

                He kept running and running, as fast as he can, avoiding the tackles and the blocks with certainty. After all he was a district champion in cross country a few years ago, when he was  a teenager with big dreams. He kept running and he saw P Ramlee in the final scenes of Seniman Bujang Lapok which he watched the night before ,with his beloved wife. Sarip Dol had burnt down the house which the three friends resided , together with their fellow neighbours. P Ramlee had overpowered Sarip Dol and had him tied properly. The angry villagers came knocking at the door , all brandishing cangkuls and parangs and ropes, prepared to kill. But then, P Ramlee ordered them to calm down, and gave them the villain with a condition," That this man should not be harmed physically, and that the people take him to the police station".

                 Well, maybe, just maybe , if he's caught, them people will have clemency and just hand him over to the cops. Perhaps. But that was most unlikely, and so he kept running, his lungs bursting for air, his legs strained under him. He cannot give up, he cannot fail.  He had had enough with his wife complaining that their children had been drinking artificial syrup instead of milk for the past two months. Charming woman. He himself was bored of cucumbers and anchovies for dinner every freaking day. What can he do? It wasn't his fault that the factory he worked at went bankrupt all of a sudden. He had been looking for job ever since, without success. And so he kept running.

                One guy who was just behind the thief in the chase was imagining a press conference to laud his heroic actions on this glorious day, he will be crowned a hero who stopped a crime. Imagine his face in the national television, and his proud mom who would be telling this story for years. The one  behind him was figuring out how to word out this historic chase in his Facebook status; how his keen sight had made him able to spot the theft. The other guy beside him apparently had no idea what was going on; he ran because everybody did so.

              The thief tripped upon a magically appearing croc shoes and tumbled over on the pavement. Before he could get up , dozens  of men were towering against his miniscule figure, the handbag was nowhere to be seen. One man took his right arm and pinned him down, and another took his left. A punch landed on his face before he could even struggle. The people are mad, they are angry. Give this thief to the cops and the most he would get is five years behind bars. Freaking courts and judges. The memory of  all the women who died in snatch theft weeks ago are still fresh in their minds; adding much to their overwhelming dissatisfaction with the piecemeal punishment which certainly does not fit the crime.

                He tried to escape, with all the strength left in him but to no avail. Only that moment did he begun to feel ashamed of his acts that day; what would his wife say to him? How disappointed would his mother feel? He thought that the best escape is to just die , but then the end is much more daunting and terrible to behold. What would God say to him then, to this petty criminal, who would like to bring his family to a dignified dinner for just one night? Will he be sent to hell?

              Nay , this is the last time he would steal anything, and he  swore in his heart that he will never do such things ever again, as a falcon punch landed upon his weakening chest, and a kick went up his groin. The heroes of the day pummeled his face with terrible anger and satisfaction, this little piece of crap should had never lived upon this planet. Others were cursing and  yelling swear words at him, that bad villain who deserved all sorts of punishments. Enough, he said in his mind. I would never steal again, he said with his bloody mouth. Return the bag to that poor lady and I promise you I would never steal again. Please..

                 The men did not stop assaulting the thief, not until he had went unconscious for more than ten minutes. They were still kicking his back, until  a pair of cops and an ambulance arrived at the scene. There were no reporters there, much to the disappointment of the heroes.  They rushed the young man to the hospital and provided him aid, although with disgust and unwillingness. The doctors had sworn of the Hippocratic oath  , and they tried their best to revive the crooked shaped of a damaged man. They poked his chest and wiped his blood, supplied him with respiratory aid and put some painkillers in him. He was bleeding from his ears and his mouth, while his ribs were shattered to pieces. The doctors could only watch while he succumbed from internal bleeding, his heart pounding their last few so feebly, and he died there on the hospital bad, all his virtues of a man lost and destroyed, and he was no more..

                The cops retrieved the handbag and took the lady to the station to take her statement. They opened the handbag , surprised and perplexed with their finding. In the bag, there were two tampons , a pack of tissues and hair bands. And nothing else.

What a terrible way to die.

What heroic acts had our society shown that day. Freaking savages.

Peace.

                 

Farewell, defender of cats~

                   My father's friend passed away last week. He was my friend too, although I never seemed to realize it. Nobody in this world noticed his presence upon this planet, until the very moment he died. When the news spread  everybody was overwhelmingly sad, because he was indeed a very kind man, whose contributions never seemed to matter before.

                He was a very quiet man, with a humble character, and that should explain his previous state  of being unacknowledged. Nobody cares about him before. 

                 He worked as a contractor, tending to the wood works of houses , the bricks and the foundations.  Among the last works in the last days before his death was two mosques in my place, which he and his men built with eagerness and full spirits. He made a lot of money, but his clothes were never new, and his house was always the small old  house his parents left him. He used his money to support his brothers and their families , while he himself never got married. A very generous man, the highlight of his generosity was when he loaned his money to so many people, all of whom have a tendency of not paying back.

                

  Why am I telling you this?

             Seeing him with torn shoes and a very worn shirt was a very common view, it became his trademark. But then, nobody cares about him. He was a maverick, yet he was never lonely. He did not have any children, yet he had the biggest family-although not of humans. This guy had almost 40 cats at his house,-or so my uncle told me- he took care of them and fed them every day. No, seriously, he had almost 40 cats. Forty . Those cat lovers out there can officially give this man a  posthumous cat award. Don't misunderstood me my friend, he was not a creepy loner with an obsession with cats-which is so normal with you people. His place was more  like an animal shelter. He would take stray cats home  and feed them, those poor kittens without moms. This is a guy who loves cats, in a society which regards cutting off cats' legs as a fair punishment ,should they steal a fish.

              I don't know if you still take him as a regular non-existent man, because he really was.  Once , his nephew tried to kidnap those beloved kittens and throw them somewhere else. I don't really know why; perhaps the cats took his  motorcycle seat as a scratching mat. This is a common practice in my town, where we 'share' unwanted kittens with neighbouring villages , or just dump them at fish markets. I did this once , when the number of cats exceeded my house's limit of ten, and I am very ashamed with myself-but I can assure you that I placed them in a place where them people adore cats. When his nephew dumped his cats, he was outraged and shocked, and he went to look for the cats , only to be dismayed by the fact that some of them kittens were already dead. God, this is heartbreaking.

               My uncle told me that this man frequented a warong for his lunches, and he would take some fried fish and put them in his shirt's front pocket. He brought those fried fish home and fed his cats.  It was weird enough for hard labourers who strived under the heat of the day, doing the harshest  of works, to have an affection with cats, and to put fried fish in your pockets for them is like super odd.

         His friends took to a liking to tease him about his simplicity-an extreme simplicity. He rode an old bike, wore old shirts , while he was never too old himself.  This is an age where the government gives rebates for smartphones, but he never felt a necessity to own even a simple brick phone, until my uncle bought him one, for ease and communication's sake. I mean, what do you do if you have a  lot of money? The law of marginal utility stated that we would spend and consume ,pilfer and drink, until we reach the point of the least satisfaction-which seems non-existent. Yet the wonders of this world never seemed to fascinate him, and he remained simple with his family of cats.

                We have a congregation in my place, where men and women gather for religious activities, charity and gotong-royongs   . Them people are very active and passionate with their works at the local mosque, and they are the strongmen who worked for PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) without any pay, all sincere and true to their hearts. This resulted in a victory in the recent election, after all the hard work, night and day. We never noticed that this man was always there; at every gathering and venues, to offer a helping hand and to volunteer, as he was always quiet ,and he kept to himself. We never noticed this , until the moment we saw his face at the graveyard.

                He died last Saturday, after experiencing chest pains at work. He was sent to the hospital, and passed away a few hours later. He left without burdening  anyone to take care of him in his sick bed-alone as always.  He even rejected offers to send him to the hospital by his colleagues, in fear of being a nuisance. His death was so quick and easy, unlike the chinese guy who had his stomach burst open on the road this morning. That left me wondering ; why did good men die so early?

               This man left almost forty orphaned cats and an old house. Farewell, good sir,defender of cats and children alike; May Allah bless you and      your soul, and may He grant you the blessings of Jannah.

The Budget and thy money, monsieurs~

           There's nothing to be regarded as chronic materialistic disorder when the society talks about the budget. The budget is about money, and money is used to live, to sustain ourselves and buy things we like, nothing like having fun for every second of your life. Economists tend to be offended if you accuse them of being materialistic and profit-motivated, because even mosques, schools and homes are made with money.  If you can find a way in which you can fight wars and bomb imperialists with  free dirt and free home-made cabbages, then go on and be a skeptic all over again.

               

                         There are a lot of incentives given by the government in the budget. A lot. I have to borrow one academician's phrase; there's the good , the bad and the ugly. The introduction of insurance schemes and protection plans for small traders and uniformed officers is indeed a genius, as these people are those exposed to various risks and danger of losing their income. It provides support should these group of people fall sick and unable to run their daily errands. However, I found it rather disappointing that the budget does not include initiatives or protection for workers in the private sector who lose their jobs in event of recession and whatsoever. The private sector comprises of a bigger group of income, at 3.2 million strongmen,  compared to small traders, fishermen and the armed forces, at 600000, 129622, and 124000 respectively.

               

                We need to agree that the budget is rather fair to the people, what with the various schemes for training and skills, support for SMEs and innovation, and the decrease of taxation in various industries that will allow them to grow stronger with a lower cost of production. The expansion of such industries will open up more jobs for graduates, primarily in the gargantuan oil and gas firms . People need to know that economic advisors and accountants formed  the basis of the budget, not the screwed up politicians and Najib himself. He ain't know nothing about economics, seriously. This is the good part of the budget, although we need to consider the fact that there are too many discrepancies and distortions when it comes to the distribution of the said budget-corruption at its finest.

         Some say that the budget is indeed an election-oriented budget. There is no point denying, is there? The fact that the election is looming close, and the people hate Najib to his guts reiterates the idea that the budget is nothing more than an indirect mass bribe. All the one-off payment are short-termed and short-lived life support-wait, it isn't supportive at all. I have the urge to vomit every time BR1M ads appear on tv - it is as if the 500 ringgit revolutionize lifestyle, cures cancer and give apartments to the homeless. So freaking pathetic. I agree that giving one-off payments to the citizens gives a  stronger domestic demand, like the ones the Taiwanese government did during the previous recession, but  we need a higher fixed income, not just sweets that last less than a day. The income of the middle income group had been stagnant for the past two decades, while the price of goods increased significantly.

            Then there's the smart phone rebate. What the fish is that for? The targeted group of 21 to 30 year olds are obviously voters- the bigger portion of them- , comprising of numerous  young men and women who aren't inclined to any political ideology-or don't even care  about the maelstrom of political stormshit that is happening. This is the legalized form of election bribery. The profit goes straight to smart phone vendors, and network providers ,or should we name here-cronies?  They can give rebates for smart phones, but not for education, seriously?

               

                 These one-off payments, including those given to early army retirees aren't gonna benefit the people in the long run. It benefits the government in the short run-the election.

         The budget also reintroduces various subsidies, one of them for the paddy and rice industry. Them  farmers are never getting higher income from the subsidies, as BERNAS ,who acts as a monopolist gets the biggest portion of it. The problem with the budget is that it is superficially good, but in reality the wealth goes to a designated group of elites. Reduction of subsidies for sugar is not going to reduce consumption. Ever. They are like cigarettes, non-elastic  demand from us Malaysians. So why reduce it?  

            We were also expecting the long-anticipated cut in the outrageous tax for imported cars, but nay, never . Less can be said about PTPTN, which the government only proposed incentives for the repayment of loans, nothing about cheaper education or tuition fees. They proposed a travesty of themselves-20 percent discount for one-off repayment of loans. Now, who the hell pays student loans once and for all? Seriously?

               Some people said that we are getting more and more materialistic , by the way the budget offers such small trinkets, and also the PR budget, which is much of the same thing, but I don't agree. Is it materialistic that the people demands for higher disposable income, to provide for their families? I don't think so. Is it materialistic that people support subsidies to gas and cheaper food prices, so they can spend more upon education and family entertainment?

           The reason of the return of Europeans to religious concerns after the industrial revolution is that they don't have to worry about their income anymore. This concerns the pre economic breakdown period, obviously. We can't expect to reduce crime rates , if the people doesn't have enough money to eat. We cannot expect people to start coming to mosques and enlighten themselves when they have to work from dawn to dusk to sustain their families. There is a period of religious revival in the welfare states of Europe, because they seriously do not have to worry about various debts , student loans and lousy leaders. They can concentrate more upon how they pray ,and how to be good people, perhaps?

                   I have to stress out that the budget is somewhat fair , if we exclude those ridiculously obvious bribes. The problem is the execution part of the plan. The original blueprint is outstanding, really, but the way the wealth goes to cronies, family members of the cow groups, monopolists and  fellow politicians , explain the reality that the budget is nothing more than empty words.

                     Peace.