I just came back from Joburg, SA with nothing much to brag about. I stayed at Emperor Palace which is something like Mines Wonderland in KL. It has a casino, lots of restaurants and even an in-door roller-coaster which reminded me of one of the malls in Cheras called, Leisure Mall.
As this station is rated high on red on our list of city rating, which means, it is deadly dangerous to be out on your own. Contrastingly, I find that, I was perfectly alright with the company of my own.
During my stay there, I was confronted with news on the recent protest in KL. It was shown repeatedly on CNN and SkyNews, the only two news channels available although I am more accustomed to BBC World. Somehow, I felt like a foreigner watching a country going through the process of democracy. Something inevitable, I think.
I am also proud to finish Angelina’s Notes from My Travel. It was a great read by someone I admire so so much. You can tell from her writings that her travels were such an awakening to her. The travels had shaken her to the very core.
Reading each places that she had travelled to, Cambodia and Pakistan, made the most unforgettable impression on me. Her descriptions on each of the refugees and land mine victims are so real and so painful to read. They made me so ashamed of myself for the luxury that I am lucky enough to have.
I wonder, why am I so worried about how my kitchen cabinet will turn out in my condo when others are actually having their lives, the safety of their family members, their bodies, whether it will be violated again, to worry about every single second? They have so many worries that we have forgotten because we are having it so good now and we can simply take things for granted already. I could not comprehend or emphatise no matter how hard I tried and I think Angie is right when she said, you need to see it yourself.
I am truly embarrassed and I think I don’t deserve this luck when half the population goes to bed hungry. Yet, we still complain about our food, too much, too bland, too spicy. And how can we face ourselves when we didn’t even realise that when we have our hot showers, when we let the water runs over our tired bodies, there are so many people that are deprived of basic water supply, not even enough to nourish their bodies under the heat of the desert?
I felt extremely guilty for just finishing my hot shower which I think, took too long and too wasteful of precious water. I hate the fact that, I felt so entitled to so many things just because, I felt I have given so much of myself, but in fact, I didn’t give anything at all that would make anyone better.
How these aid workers, humanitarians, nuns, doctors, nurses actually do it? As an undeniable fact, they are the people who choose to be in this struggle, to help, no matter how difficult it is. They give their best by simply helping and here I am, just nothing, doing nothing but simply hoping for the world to get better…
