Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Anti-Anergy
I got hit by a sudden wave of blogging inspiration these past few days so here I am, blogging from the MSL while waiting for PBL to start later. Quite interesting. I had a similar wave of corny production yesterday, so much so that I found it impossible to sleep, with all the corny jokes coming out of my head. Apologies to everyone who had to put up with my terrible jokes today.
Something really funny happened on Monday, so much so that I still cannot help laughing at the thought of it, and scare others on the MRT.
Why is this guy smiling like that? So psychotic. Anyway, I was sitting around watching television when the phone rang. I picked it up, and the following events happened:
Phone: (silence)
Me: Hello? Hello?
Phone (with voice of woman): Harlow? Harlow?
Me: Hello, yes?
Phone: Ahh, qing3 wen4 yi1 xia4, zhe4 li3 shi4 she3 me4 di4 fang1 ah? (Excuse me, but what place is this?)
Me: (quite stumped to answer, and concluding that people who ask that question probably know that they have the wrong number) Err, zhe4 li3 shi4 ren2 zhu4 de4 di4 fang1. (This is a place where people stay)
Phone: Oh, ok, ok. (hangs up)
I put down the phone and promptly started laughing my head off. I think what I said was an unconscious direct translation from what I intended to tell the woman, i.e. this is a residential area. It was terribly funny on hindsight, especially when I wonder what the woman must be thinking. I mean, what could be the possible alternative to my answer? Zhe4 li3 shi4 gui3 zhu4 de4 di4 fang1?
The woman called again, and this time my mother picked up the phone, answering (quite sensibly, but then adults are definitely more sensible) that this was Bedok Reservoir Road. The woman promptly hung up again. Wonder who she was looking for. Maybe she really was looking for a gui3 di4 fang1. Heh.
-----------------------
I read the following passage on EMJEM the other day:
"On a purely hypothetical note, if a paraplegic guy runs over your foot with his motorized wheelchair, is it politically correct to swear at him? I'm not entirely convinced that the disabled should be allowed to get away with stuff that the rest of us can't just because of their handicap."
And by some bizarre stroke of bad luck, like is typical of my kind of bad luck, I had the most unfortunate chance of finding myself in a similar situation, where I was obviously not the handicapped person, but the perfectly healthy person being unintentionally whacked by some handicapped guy. I was quite irritated, but maybe it was because I had the above passage in my mind then.
I mean, I was happily walking home from tuition (yes I was quite happy it ended) and there was this guy heading towards me. The kind of guy you tend to see quite often along the roads, who have gait problems e.g. Trendelenburg gait, foot drop gait etc. And he was swinging his arms in wide arcs around him. Seeing him walk (I would say stagger, but that's a horrid thing to say) towards me, I decided to move out of his way onto the grass patch beside the pavement. The stupid guy actually swerved in my direction and hit me squarely on my thigh with his swinging arm. I was quite irritated (some might rightly call the feeling pissed) by the hit, not because it seemed intentional but because he didn't even apologise for it. I harrumphed at him as he walked by and turned around to glare at this idiot, and he glared back as if it were my fault and I should learn to respect my elders. Excuse me!
All very good for respecting the rights of handicapped people, but should they be able to get away with things that normal people would not get away with just because they are handicapped? I resent that. I mean if a perfectly normal human being swerves into me when I have already moved out of my way to give way to him, I would think very lowly of this specimen of the human species, and maybe even harrumph at his if he does not look dangerous.
Which brings up another very pertinent point. Did I harrumph at that guy because he seemed less threatening as a result of his handicap? I honestly do not think so, but the point still holds that if he looked more aggressive I might have backed away. I think I showed my irritation not because he was handicapped, but because he was wrong, with very little shadow of doubt.
I am not a tolerant person, no matter how much the government would like us to accept people of other races, religions, social backgrounds, and abilities. I am not going around hugging everyone saying "I love you even though you're making me irritated, because you are dark-skinned and the government tells us to be more tolerant." That's Barney bullshit. I make no apologies for being irritated at the world, and I will not begrudge the world for being irritated at me, because I think it's just right that people are not ideal, that we're not clones of Care Bears.
If I ever go around saying, "Oh this fellow stepped on my shoe yesterday on the MRT and I apologised to him because he looked angry that my foot was in his way." When that happens you will know some evil clone has taken my place. But it won't really be an evil clone, considering it will be nicer than I am. But I mean, you get my point, that such behaviour is friggin unnatural.
------------------------
Anyway, to end this on a happier note: What would the Patho Department's favourite play be?
The Teh Ming of the Shrew. (I can imagine his face on seeing this, which makes it all the more fun =P)
Since we're on the topic, I think the Anat department's favourite will be King Lear. That is, King Ves T. Bull O'Cock Lear. Whose predecessor was Queen Faye Cial and King Abdul Cens and whose son is named Prince Gloss O. Farin Geal.
Avaris / 9/22/2004 01:23:00 PM
0 consumed