i write sins not tragedies

my mum got dengue fever and was admitted to hospital in kl. well that makes 3 of us, having previously me and my dad got the virus too. that was almost 10 years ago though, but still at the same place. now we are like, the dengue family. i expect the hospital could justify giving free treatments to my mum, because you know, after previous 2 admittances from our family, they could probably allow the third one for free.

you'd think after all these years, and so many ppl infected by the virus, they would do something to the environment there, but i guess we would sooner have our body system evolves naturally to produce antibody against the virus before seeing any improvement. so in the meantime, i'm gonna have to settle to the fact that it becomes a matter of life and death everytime i visit my parents.

which risk i have to take as early as tonight. i'm going back to kl after work today because my parents planned this special gathering on saturday night. my dad even enganged some catering company to take care of the food. i heard a lot of relatives will come too, so the least i can do is to show my face there.

i just hope that i still have the chance to catch the currently on-going doha asian games when i am there. not that i'm at all pessimistic. my family might not do sports as much as they should, but they do watch a lot of them on tv. much better than my colleagues here that don't know anything happening outside the office compound, their houses, and the routes in between.

malaysia is still stucked with only 2 gold medals as of this moment. both from bowling. malaysians are just good at this sport. it's in our blood. i mean, let's not look far, i have here on my office desk 2 bowling trophies which none of my nearby singaporean, or chinese cubicle-mates have. not that i'm boasting or anything.

i might be living and working in singapore now, and i might have spent half of my teenage life in japan, but i'm still routing for malaysia in games like this. or even in any other aspects. i'm still proud everytime they achieve something no matter how much i despise malaysia's current governments and local systems. i guess, deep in my heart i still look at this country as a place where i came from, and there's this invisible connection that binds us together no matter where i go.

that's why i found it ridiculous why singapore government decided to seggregate benefits and costs of living between local citizens and permanent residents like me. do they think this move will prompt foreigners to abandon their original citizenship and embrace singapore's instead? let's face it, even if the foreigners do agree to change the passport they are holding for a better life here, will they stand for singapore or even support if there occurs (however unlikely) war or confrontation with their original country?

anyway, not that we have a say in this matter. we are just a powerless bunch of citizen that accepts everything the government does. no matter how disagree we are with the recent decision to increase GST from 5% to 7%. 5% to 7%! that's 40% increase in everything we purchase. god knows how long our salary will see a 40% hike like that.

that's possibly why when starbuck offered free beverages yesterday as their annual christmas celebration, i saw many ppl queing for a free drink in the vivo city branch, and i expect the same from every other branches on the island. i guess everybody can make use of a small stunt like this to have something without making a hole in their pocket, however small it may be. we develop an extra heavy likings for free things because everything else is becoming more and more expensive nowadays.

plus, it's fun too joining the crowd towards a common goal, which in this case, getting a free coffee. together we sticked the small starbuck sticker which we got after donating to swiss army charity lady (who made us feel we were obliged to contribute in order to get the free drink) to our shirts.

what's not so fun? joining others to get dengue.

just ask my mum...


...ed