Corruption Awareness

Being naive when in my school days, I believed so much that I lived in a splendid country. It's clean and green and there's peace amongst racial harmony. Citizens wouldn't storm up the streets an exercise a riot, low crime rate and almost zero natural calamities. It's safe and everyone lives happily in this country. I wish I were still as naive, just not to realize my grave mistake.

There's actually litter everywhere, on the streets, in the parks, in the public toilets, on the road,. I mean everywhere, except people don't litter in their own homes. Racial harmony is what we were educated, to pull up a front for, to cover the fact of racism. Personally, I can't help but to feel utterly unfavorable towards certain races. Citizens actually live under fear of the dominant hand, while the feeble minded gets pacified by materialistic gains. Felonious or immoral acts are low, similarly due to the fear. No doubt its a good thing, but still causes people to become smarter to find loopholes and violate the regulations seamlessly. Finally, you might be thinking, what has my pessimistic mind has to debate over the fact the there is virtually zero natural disasters. As like our land has no natural resources, the only resource we have is human resource. Humans, or resource, when the wayward minds stray deviant, become the calamity far more destructive than any natural catastrophe.

CORRUPTION

To my astonishment, Ming Yi Fa Shi was actually charged by corruption and embezzlement of the charity funds. Ming Yi Fa Shi, in case you didn't know, is I think is somewhat a shareholder of the well known charitable organization cum hospital Ren Ci Hospital. Not entirely sure, but from the reports on the news, I conceive that he's someone high in position, CEO or something of the hospital. Thanks to my poor mandarin, I couldn't be sure. Although I never really admired him for his fanciful but brave acts he performed to raise funds, neither did I hate him or anything. I was totally neutral. But the news report, the ongoing narration, the cameras relentlessly capturing his images, makes me remember his face real hard this time.

Nevertheless, it was pure shock to know he committed such wrongful acts. First it was Durai from NKF, who dealt a strong blow to our charitable hearts of our citizens with his acts of greed, doctoring the accounts and uses the funds for his own personal luxury. That left us already half skeptical whether charity organizations really uses 100% of the funds to support the needy. Now here comes the well loved Ming Yi Fa Shi to commit something he shouldn't have. I believed many people trusted him, put their faith into him, almost as he's a living buddha. Whether or not he was going to pocket the money for himself or he's doing it to accumulate more funds for the hospital, my mandarin isn't that bad to identify the main words that explains he's been taken to court for his wrong doing. Not forgetting the possibility being convicted.

There also been sayings that Ming Yi Fa Shi merely wanted to raise more funds for the hopsital to help the needy and not absolutely for himself. But I'm skeptical, really skeptical. I mean, what's the creditability of that statement? Could it be a cover up since the cat got out of the bag? Like the cat ran out, but I can still cripple it when I catch it. Know what I mean? If no further evidence is produced, this will greatly lighten the sentence if he really gets convicted. Its common for people who misconducted to have fear and conjure up stories to hide half their sin. Or their lawyers are trying to help them cover up.Its as simple as when we were kids, we broke something, and we might have learnt how to lie to make it seem as though its not our fault. Having served the military before, sometimes when things go wrong, things are covered up along the way when reports are delivered up the hierarchy.

I don't know about you folks, but ever since the case about Durai, I immediately regretted the $60+ I once "donated" by making calls watching those charity shows. Every man has greed, especially wealthier people and bigger organizations will definitely not be directed by elderly paupers living in slums. Its a natural phenomenon when the rich wants to use their assets to invest, making them come back in folds. The question however, is it through the legitimate methods or immoral means. If their crime is well kept under the cloth, and they emerge scot-free, resulting in "The Rich getting richer and the Poor getting poorer". This term has been speculated by many people in our country and it really does seem that we are following the foot steps of the other countries.

Let's turn the tracks slightly for now. I was told that there are students from wealthy families who drives luxury sports cars to school. Example like Lamborghini's or Ferrari's; cars with insanely low bodykits to attain the lower weight placement for greater balance. They face their greatest enemies in a traffic-strict country like ours; Humps. Overcoming one of these in such a vehicle can be tougher than trying to drive through a minefield. The humps will literally tear the under belly of a Lamborghini or Ferrari apart. However, there had been news that such student drivers demanded the removal of the humps as not to damage their bombshell on wheels. The management then says they'll do it as long as the party pays for it. Interestingly, if you were driving a very old & worn out car, you'll probably be ignored or told that you can't expect such drastic changes to be made just because of your personal problem. Not even a horde of people who drive lousy cars who complain will make a difference. Chances are that they will not willing to spend money on such a useless request.

Any of you folks know how much it costs to hire men to flatten out a hump? Well, neither do I, but for sure, its not an amount we can casually strike out a credit card to solve. If such imbeciles are willing pay such an amount for their personal preference, I really can understand how they can easily squander away a million dollars in a blink of an eye. They can drive their super sports cars in other places other then school, can't they? Or is it because they cant convince the LTA to remove the humps on the main roads? Does it make any logic to drive such vehicles to school? Being a show off eh? I'll buy you a T-Shirt with the word "humility" on it. Can't they just drive a more normal car? You need not drive a sloppy car to defame yourself, you can at least use your brains to drive a BMW Z4 Roadster cabriolet or a Mercedes SL Class with carbon fibre body. Driving the most expensive car doesn't make you handsome, just a sucker. You ain't sexy if you ain't got no brains. The woman whom you marry now may be the woman who will poison you dead in other to inherit your fortune or retire on the insurance payouts.

The amount of money spent by these rich good-for-nothing's needs a army of artistes to sing, dance, make a fool of themselves, or endanger their own lives performing stunts over 2 hours in a charity show to accumulate. All these money can be use for good to genuinely donate to the needy, so those artistes can save a lot of time you know? These people whoever, spend the precious treasury on the dumbest things ever. These people may not commit corrupted acts, but it seems their minds are corrupted, in the variation of its definition.

When you have money, everyone smiles at you. When you have money, everyone tries to make friends with you. When you have money, girls will even go for plastic surgery and spread their legs for you. When you have money, everything is no problem. When you have money, the world revolves around you, & not the other way.

Although I don't want to risk myself getting into possible lawsuits, but I feel the need to say it out loud to people. Corruption is everywhere. Ming Yi Fa Shi did something disappointing. I genuinely believed he was a good man who would not sin. But seems monetary values got the better of him. People who squander money over non-constructively matters. Does it mean society bows down to the rich & influential? Many thought in my mind now. If there's a day I'll be sued, I think I'll be fine. Unless If I were those filthy rich people, I'll worry a lot, because I'll wonder about my money and influential status. But personally, if I'll be sued by these rich but evil people till I go bankrupt, or even to jail, it seems fine. Because I have nothing much to lose. Least my life. If I die, I can be a ghost with a vengeance. They can then spend the most money to hire the best taoist to exorcise my spirit. Or even invite Jennifer Love Hewitt (Ghost Whisperer) to talk me into crossing the world. If I die, at least I die with proper justification, rights & integrity. I don't need to live as wealthy douchebag. Nothing can stop me from saying the right things in the righteous direction. Conscience is what keeps me better then the sins of greed.

Crazi Taxi. (I hope they suspend his license)

June & I went out shopping typically. She bought a pair of shoes and so coincidentally the sales person gave her a wrong size; One bigger then the other. We didn't realize until we got home which was hours later. We weren't issued a receipt for the shoes so we had to turn back straightaway to get them replaced. Being tiring from the whole day at shopping & the scorching sun, we decided to take a cab to & fro.

When we were in the cab, the driver didn't seem to be exactly polite, but still forgivable. Now to the main issue; I did forehand requested the cabbie to drive us to the destination, wait for a very quick moment while we get the stuff exchanged and then send us back home where we got on initially. Upon reaching the destination, I requested him to turn into the carpark to wait for us as its illegal to park outside. The carpark has a 10 minutes grace period by the way, and I was fully aware as well as I pay for the parking rightfully if the 10 minutes has past. Once stopped, I handed a sum of fare that was more than enough to cover the entire distance, even back home. However, the cabbie rounded up the current amount to the nearest dollar as clocked on the meter and returned me the balance. He then told me to be back in 5 minutes if not he'll leave. June & I then got off & literally raced off to the store to perform the exchange.

The sales person there said they didn't have any more stock of the exact item. Sensing that it may take a while, I immediately headed back to the cab within 2 minutes since it elapsed. To my surprise, the cabbie has already scooted off! Shaking my head, I headed my way back to the store to tell my June about the bad news. She had already left the store at the point of time. She was refused a refund even though its the sales person's fault. She then offered other colors but they all seem to suck. June then hastily selected another item she didn't really wanted just as return to the cab within the promised 5 minutes. To her horror, it was the cabbie who broke his promise.

The only honest mistake is, I failed to remember the license plate number of the cab as I trusted the cabbie initially. I know what you gonna say. Its like ... What The Fuck???

You would be able to put yourself into my shoes and see things from my point of view. We understand fully that shoes is not the cabbies or company's fault, we accepted that paying additionally for a cab fare on top of the prices imposed on us for the shoes is solely our damned luck. But if the whole mess were to be topped up with a irresponsible cabbie who didn't keep his promise, its like adding oil to fire, do you not agree? To make matters worse, June paid for a merchandise she didn't want at all to fulfill a promise. She could have comfortably haggled with the sales person if not for the 5 minutes curfew imposed by the cabbie. If you had a string of events like this, would you still have a good day? The cabbie's irresponsible actions lead to considerably unpleasant consequences.

If the cabbie didn't want to wait at all, he could have let us know. Remember that he rounded up the fare to the nearest dollar? Although he returned the balance amount, but If I had to be really nasty, he still overcharged me that few cents. We took a cab to end our day in comfort, not to tolerate this kind of behaviour, not to be condoned by anymore. Also a type of service or attitude that doesn't reflect well on the company.

Well, what a day. I sent a complaint to Trans Cab though. Initially, we were like hoping we could be compensated with something, perhaps... taxi vouchers? Haha... But if we were to ask for any form of compensation, it would sound like I'm trying to take advantage of the situation. Just our luck anyway. Haiz.