Wednesday, October 18, 2006
a simple life
Something odd happened the other day.
I drove back to Hicksville after being away for more than a week. As I was driving into the town and nearing my house, I suddenly felt that I actually missed this place. I missed all the greenery. I missed the sun rising over the ocean just opposite my house every morning. I missed the sound of the crickets at night. And it wasn't just nature that I missed.
It is the whole value package dumped into the equation that makes Hicksville - the potholes and the frustrating single laned roads, the kampung folk burning their rubbish in front of their houses, the stupid kids running around in the middle of the streets, and let's not forget the cows and goats.
I pulled up into my house and my neighbour who had just come home from work greeted me with a warm, 'Wah lama tak jumpa, welcome back!' This opposed to my fatty neighbour back in PJ whom I played together as a kid. I see him and wave, and he nods his head in such a way that his neck suddenly dissapears. Anyways, the neighbour (the stown, not the fatty) was telling me of another break-in in the neighbourhood that happened in the week that I was away.
Apparently there had been 6 break-ins and 5 motorbikes stolen in the neighbourhood in the last 6 months. What surprised me was their reaction to it. Instead of bitching about how the police aren't doing their jobs (like how the city folk seem to enjoy doing), these folks formed a Rukun Tetangga thingy and will start the programme after Hari Raya. And to throw in added measure, every house in the area (me included) forked out 10 bucks so that they could go hire a few private patrolmen to look after the area during the Raya holidays.
I find it...inspiring...that the kampung folk who more often than not are neglected by the government never seem to nitpick at issues like that. They recognise the problem but they don't blame anybody - they just do what needs to be done to fix it. City folks could do a lot to learn from these simple folk. You can get everything you need in the city - all the necessary ammeneties, all the luxuries of life, and yet city folks are an unpleasant, easily irritable lot who moan and groan when their daily coke isn't delivered on time.
The solution is simple. Everybody should rear two chickens in their backyard. Throw in a goat and a cow for good measure, too.
Well, the place I stay, the community's trying to form a guard thing, but the tossers don't want to pay up, but want to freeload. That's quite a problem.
it may be too late to change the minds of people of our generation (unless they get posted to hicktowns) but i believe it's up to us to make sure our kids don't grow up with the same attitude.
But ppl in townsville...terbalik. Own backside dirty, must wait for the nanny to clean it for them first. Sendiri takde initiative. And then when the nanny does a bad job, they condemn the nanny like mad. Hello, your backside, you know best...do it yourself lah dei.
It is the harsh realities of life that the rich get taken care off more than the poor. Police are all in the big cities like KL. And inspite of that, town folk still find it necessary to complain.
