masterwordsmith-unplugged

Earlier this evening, I posted What Ails Us? HERE. Overhelmed by UP41's kind response and Walla's beautifully written discourse on Penang,  I am resposting those comments here for they merit airing. Thanks, UP41 and Walla!!!


1. UP41 At one time I liked to take photo of those parents who refused to queue like everyone and jump queue and cut into the lane when sending their children to school. Here are some example

https://picasaweb.google.com/108636943256567498061/BadDriver

So don't let them get into you & spoil yr day

2. walla I'm now horribly terrified and will have to sleep shrouded under the blanket from now on.

You see i was actually trying to youtube Deep Blue Sea starring Rachel Weisz but ended up watching snippets of the same title starring some super-smart sharks in a movie by the same director of Die Hard 2. Surfing is all so dangerous these days.

3. walla The one thing i used to remember about THE island were those little colorful wall tiles that front those quaint link shop-lots. That they were of thai origin must probably explain why you used to see them in old places like Siam Road.

Nowadays i can only remember the stall in Jelutong market where the lady sells fried fish with some spicy curry paste...or is it the other one at Pulau Tikus market where you can acar ...oh dear, could it even be yet another one at Chowrasta market where there's this pulut-ikan dish? Yummy tummy for dummy like me, eh?

4. walla Ah i got it. It's the otak-otak at Supertanker.

Foreign philistines may be forgiven for thinking THE island has a super-sized oil tanker marooned ON it in which brains are sold. For their information, and in the national interest of our tourism industry, otak-otak, as i vaguely recall now, is a scrumptious, spicy and peppery dish made of fish, eggs and herbs.

Foodies will say it goes down nicely with the heavenly cendol at Penang Road (the road stall on the right and in front of the assam laksa stall in the corner cafe).

Thinking of the mee rebus at the corner shop off the Pulau Tikus main road, i shall suspend violent disagreement but only momentarily.

The only thing to think about these days, i reckon, is how does one get around to be at those places if the roads are constantly snarled?

Read on.

5. walla I guess there's a price to everything. In the case of Penang, development means congestion and denudation. What she's facing is what Singapore must have initially faced, later to give way to improvements made when enough funds had been accumulated. Perhaps that's the state government's game-plan. To be to Malaysia what Singapore is to itself.

People have never asked what is needed to develop a state. Some will say development should be more balanced. But where to be the location of the balancing point?

As things stand, the island has been neglected for far too long. If she is to catch up in order to present visionary possibilities for new generations yet to come, then there must be funds available in her coffers that can be used to kick-start infrastructural and services improvement. But you can hardly expect such funds to come from the federal government which appears to be constricting capitation grants to opposition states to try and decapitate those states.

Of course there is a flip side to development. Prices go up and there will be income gaps between those who have assets and those who only earn wages. But the situation is dynamic. Like what had happened across the causeway, wage earners should get more opportunities to diversify their income streams if the state economy gets to grow faster. Of course, initially it'll be just trading and simple services. However if they can see the crap that is dished out by the federal education system, they should lose no time to pick up on their own such skills and knowledge as would enable them to tap new opportunities as may arise. Or create them if they are energetic and enterprising enough.

After all, Penang and its mainland are part of the Northern Growth Triangle that can include Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia's Sumatra. In fact, from north of Myanmar you can get into south of China and swing up to hit the famous Silk Road, heading westwards to resource-rich Central Europe.

If someone can figure out how to get fresh fish to those land-locked places in exchange for their heavenly tasty exotic fruits or super-efficient military-grade water-filters, as examples, then business can be done. And new industries created.

We must individually try to get out of mind-traps.

6. walla One of which is to ride on changes because intrinsic in the molecule of life is the atom of change which of course by now everyone knows contains the Higg's boson, better known as the God particle.

With each year added to our resume of existence, we must pay more and more attention to the Higg's boson. Because that's where our mass comes from. No, i don't mean the church mass.

You see, those four uncouth tum-tum-chiun women in that car have lost their Higg's bosons. They were directionless in their behaviour. Just like those others who make use of people as bridges to overcome their own lack of preparedness for tasks which they probably had thought overwhelming because prior to the tsunami of 2008 they never thought that subsequent to it the whole jingbang menu of administrative, communication and planning requirements would be cascading on them day after day. Even if what they were doing was to try and rustle up political interest in faceless people living arid lives.

So we try to forget the inadequacies of others as much as we can allow ourselves to do so without losing our inner concern even if the process of relaxing a bit will lose us the inner fire which we believe had made our being more poignant.

7. walla Everyday we are individually challenged by new equations of the calculus of discovery, adjustment, accomodation, and change spun by a world engorged with 'simplexities'.

This year is particularly bad because of the Mayan prophecy of planetary realignments. Which must also explain why there's so much road rage in recent weeks - here. I don't know about the island though.

Best we can do is to remember good things and small blessings that have come our way and be grateful for them even as our senses, cognitive powers and years may wane, hold ourselves to some code or badge of honour in a world of lemmings eager to cut corners, and be true to our innermost compulsion to help others make their journeys with less pain.

What else can be asked of us?

Gute Nacht, schlaf gut und träum süß!