It's How You Look At It

Being a mummy can be really tedious, frustrating, repetitive, boring, tiring, and frankly, it can feel like you are losing your mind. I find I lose perspective about what is really important. I mean, I want my kids to be socially adaptable, responsible, savvy and kind. But they are kids and they are clumsy, inept, oafish, unkind and rude sometimes. They are also kind, generous, fun, clever, charming and very perceptive.

However, it can be like living in a goldfish bowl and sometimes I find myself insisting on things that are seemingly super-important, only to think later that they don't matter at all. I feel like I am losing my grip on reality sometimes.

But every once in a while I take a gander outside my little world and I realise, it's not me that's lost my mind, but my country!

Here we are, trying so desperately to catch up with the rest of the world, and not seeing that the rest of the world is dealing with regrettable mistakes and actually aren't that much better off. Instead of feeding off the debris they have left behind, we should be learning from their mistakes and taking a lateral step thinking-wise.

So, we have a budget which includes two building mega-projects that to me are a slap in the face to the people of our country.

What about forgoing that extra 100 floors of commercial floor space (of which we apparently have a glut in the Klang Valley) and using those billions to, oh I dunno, feed every orphan in the nation for the next hundred years? I'm sure that money would not only pay for the food supplies, but the machinery and personnel required to transport and prepare it too.

Or maybe, to rehabilitate all the damaged ecosystems left behind from other commercial enterprises.

Or, maybe to clean up the clogged river and drainage systems from all the bad planning and maintenance in our city.

Or maybe, to pay for all those highways we are forced to pay toll on so that they are actually paid for with tax payers' money after they have paid their tax, rather than before they give it to the government.

Or maybe, to provide regular assistance subsidies to small subsistence industries.

Or proper maintenance of roads.

Or subsidising fuel and making millions so happy they'll forgive you for taking their money.

Or paying Sabahans and Sarawakians the real worth of all the resources you have stripped from them in building your Malaysian dream.

Or building more hospitals, or free H1N1 vaccinations for everyone.

COME ON GUYS! Surely there are hundreds of ideas better than a hundred storey building?!?!

But then, maybe it's just that I am looking at it the wrong way. Maybe I should put aside my silly notions of healthcare for all, clean and safe streets, personal and collective rights, freedom of speech and freedom to choose and practise my religion, accountability of those put in power by their rakyat, and quality education for children in which they are taught, nay, expected to question the status quo.

There are many out there who would say, yes, you are looking at it the wrong way - if you don't like it, you can leave.

I say, I only dislike what is unjust, foolish and plain criminal. What would those people say to that?

C