Some of you guys know I love reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Pratchett is a unique fantasy writer, because his main characters have no testosterone at all. For example, they hate war. Whereas Tolkien's orcs die in millions, Pratchett aims for a counter-intuitive, but more realistic perspective where trolls and humans alike are individually averse to conflict, but as social groups become raving warmongering bastards.
Pratchett's witches and wizards avoid using magic whenever they can. In one of the storylines, a rightful heir to the throne refuses to inherit, and in the end becomes a policeman. In his book "Jingo", two armies about to slay each other were threatened to disband, or else get arrested for loitering with ill intent.
[ Not to say that Discworld is more sensible than Lord of the Rings, obviously. They are just different, in that while Tolkien (forgive my rude generalisation) externalises the metaphor of good and evil, dividing the world between dim Mordor and hospitable elven forests, orcs and Liv Tyler, Pratchett internalises it such that everyone faces the moral choice, just like you and me. ]
To explain why I love Pratchett, I have to explain his book "Feet of Clay". Basically, in "Feet of Clay", this baddie intended to poison the ruler of the city by lacing the ruler's candlewicks with small doses of arsenic.
However, his victims ended up being the palacemaid's relatives. This is because the maid regularly took leftover candle stubs home to use, in order for her impoverished household to save money on light. Initially, only her frail younger brother fell sick from the candlelight poisoning. Then her, to care for the child, her grandmother sat by the candlelight to tend to him, night after night. Naturally, they both died.
Near the end of the novel, when the detective-protagonist finally arrested the baddie, the baddie, unaware of these repurcussions, shouted out, "What are you gonna arrest me for, murder? The ruler's still alive!"
And the protagonist told him, "you killed an old lady and a young child."
The baddie hesitates.
Then,
"Were they important?"
---
And that was it. The emotional climax of the novel. A novel which has a murderous golem running amok, a scheming vampire, mysterious deaths, etc, but reaches its apex from a simple, three-worded question.
---
I wrote all that because, on my way home two days ago, this very small and very old lady boarded the bus with this HUGE plastic bag full of crushed cans and empty plastic bottles. After she had seated, her shaking hand took out a flattened loaf of gardenia bread from her handbag.
She took out a slice of plain bread and started chewing hungrily.
That was 8.30p.m. So that's her dinner. And that's when I felt so ashamed at my own hunger then. Ashamed at feeling tired from my air-con office job.
And in moments like this my whole life feels like a phoney. I'm a phoney because I feel sucky whenever office work gets really tedious.
But an hour's pay from "tedious office work" can more than compensate the old lady should I walk over and kick that bag of cans and bottles away. Discarded cans and abandoned bottles which a shaky hands reaches for, so its owner can buy more plain flattened bread.
How I wished that I really could kick over that bag of cans and bottles and put money in the old woman's hand. But that's not how things work.
Because, even if she doesn't return me my money, she would pick those cans and bottles up again and put them in the insufferably mundane ntuc bag.
---
And that's partly why I'm an atheist. Because if I'm God I'd do better than entrust the allocation of economic resources to demand and supply. Because it's effective demand and supply. A lot of people don't have effective demand. But they're still people. Even when they are statistics, they still retain their names, and their shaky hands. They still feel, even if they might wish otherwise.
---
And when the intensity dies down as it always does, I tell myself that although I don't know what the hell I should do about all this, at least I know the least I can do. And that is to not forget.
---
---
Durai is a FUCKER. And for those who missed the news, I'm going to list down WHY. Even though I'm missing my favourite Prison Break for this. They're just a bunch of actors anyway. BUT DURAI IS A BETTER ONE.
1. Durai ordered NKF staff to ghost-write letters of support for him, which were presented to the patients and their families to sign, then submitted to the forums. These letters have deliberate grammatical mistakes for maximal effect.
2. Over $1m in hotel expenses have been charged to Durai's corporate card in less than 8 years. Total amount charged overall to the NKF American Express corporate card- $2.3 million. Some locations of where he went - Los Angeles, Bombay, Shanghai, Rome, Venice.
3. While NKF funds have risen over the years, actual amounts spent on dialysis and transplantation fell from $12.1 million to $7.2 million.
4. NKF meeting minutes show that priorities are placed on fund-raising than on patient care.
5. There are more staff on NKF for fund raising activities than nursing staff.
It's fucked up. It's so fucked up. When you think about families scraping by day to day to afford dialysis fees, to help a family member stay alive, when really they were sacrificing so fucking Durai could stay fucking fucked up.
And the news is out today that Durai is surrendering the court case. I wish he isn't. So more details can be leaked out, and the subsequent mounting public pressure might translate to the judge awarding heavier penalties.
That implies that I wish I can control the system for my own whim. Which was what Durai did. But I'm right and he's an asshole, that's what.
---
Pratchett's witches and wizards avoid using magic whenever they can. In one of the storylines, a rightful heir to the throne refuses to inherit, and in the end becomes a policeman. In his book "Jingo", two armies about to slay each other were threatened to disband, or else get arrested for loitering with ill intent.
[ Not to say that Discworld is more sensible than Lord of the Rings, obviously. They are just different, in that while Tolkien (forgive my rude generalisation) externalises the metaphor of good and evil, dividing the world between dim Mordor and hospitable elven forests, orcs and Liv Tyler, Pratchett internalises it such that everyone faces the moral choice, just like you and me. ]
To explain why I love Pratchett, I have to explain his book "Feet of Clay". Basically, in "Feet of Clay", this baddie intended to poison the ruler of the city by lacing the ruler's candlewicks with small doses of arsenic.
However, his victims ended up being the palacemaid's relatives. This is because the maid regularly took leftover candle stubs home to use, in order for her impoverished household to save money on light. Initially, only her frail younger brother fell sick from the candlelight poisoning. Then her, to care for the child, her grandmother sat by the candlelight to tend to him, night after night. Naturally, they both died.
Near the end of the novel, when the detective-protagonist finally arrested the baddie, the baddie, unaware of these repurcussions, shouted out, "What are you gonna arrest me for, murder? The ruler's still alive!"
And the protagonist told him, "you killed an old lady and a young child."
The baddie hesitates.
Then,
"Were they important?"
---
And that was it. The emotional climax of the novel. A novel which has a murderous golem running amok, a scheming vampire, mysterious deaths, etc, but reaches its apex from a simple, three-worded question.
---
I wrote all that because, on my way home two days ago, this very small and very old lady boarded the bus with this HUGE plastic bag full of crushed cans and empty plastic bottles. After she had seated, her shaking hand took out a flattened loaf of gardenia bread from her handbag.
She took out a slice of plain bread and started chewing hungrily.
That was 8.30p.m. So that's her dinner. And that's when I felt so ashamed at my own hunger then. Ashamed at feeling tired from my air-con office job.
And in moments like this my whole life feels like a phoney. I'm a phoney because I feel sucky whenever office work gets really tedious.
But an hour's pay from "tedious office work" can more than compensate the old lady should I walk over and kick that bag of cans and bottles away. Discarded cans and abandoned bottles which a shaky hands reaches for, so its owner can buy more plain flattened bread.
How I wished that I really could kick over that bag of cans and bottles and put money in the old woman's hand. But that's not how things work.
Because, even if she doesn't return me my money, she would pick those cans and bottles up again and put them in the insufferably mundane ntuc bag.
---
And that's partly why I'm an atheist. Because if I'm God I'd do better than entrust the allocation of economic resources to demand and supply. Because it's effective demand and supply. A lot of people don't have effective demand. But they're still people. Even when they are statistics, they still retain their names, and their shaky hands. They still feel, even if they might wish otherwise.
---
And when the intensity dies down as it always does, I tell myself that although I don't know what the hell I should do about all this, at least I know the least I can do. And that is to not forget.
---
---
Durai is a FUCKER. And for those who missed the news, I'm going to list down WHY. Even though I'm missing my favourite Prison Break for this. They're just a bunch of actors anyway. BUT DURAI IS A BETTER ONE.
1. Durai ordered NKF staff to ghost-write letters of support for him, which were presented to the patients and their families to sign, then submitted to the forums. These letters have deliberate grammatical mistakes for maximal effect.
2. Over $1m in hotel expenses have been charged to Durai's corporate card in less than 8 years. Total amount charged overall to the NKF American Express corporate card- $2.3 million. Some locations of where he went - Los Angeles, Bombay, Shanghai, Rome, Venice.
3. While NKF funds have risen over the years, actual amounts spent on dialysis and transplantation fell from $12.1 million to $7.2 million.
4. NKF meeting minutes show that priorities are placed on fund-raising than on patient care.
5. There are more staff on NKF for fund raising activities than nursing staff.
It's fucked up. It's so fucked up. When you think about families scraping by day to day to afford dialysis fees, to help a family member stay alive, when really they were sacrificing so fucking Durai could stay fucking fucked up.
And the news is out today that Durai is surrendering the court case. I wish he isn't. So more details can be leaked out, and the subsequent mounting public pressure might translate to the judge awarding heavier penalties.
That implies that I wish I can control the system for my own whim. Which was what Durai did. But I'm right and he's an asshole, that's what.
---
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