Rich Man

Until recently, I have never encountered anyone who is really rich. My relatives are usually middle-class people living in HDB flats. The majority of my friends are HDB dwellers as well, with only a few staying in private housing. I have never known how the affluent lived, until I visited the houses of my sister's boyfriend's family. One of the houses I visited really left me in awe at the end of the visit. It belonged to my sister's boyfriend's uncle. It is situated just beside the Italian embassy. It would have been impossible to reach there by public transport since no buses serve that area. The house was very impressive, with automatic gates, a carpark big enough for 6 cars, a koi pond that extends all around the house, a swimming pool good enough for a condominium, a man-made waterfall, jacuzzis, pool tables, jamming rooms and a whole lot of other amenities. The landscaping of the trees alone costs over thirteen thousand dollars, the utilities bill amount to over a thousand dollars and the place requires two maids to take care of. Just walking around the house, looking through the rooms, took about an hour. We were all amazed by the place, a little like schoolchildren being brought to the zoo for the first time. Maybe I am thinking too much, but maybe they were amused by us being so fascinated over the place. They are all very nice people, friendly and amiable but I still had an inferiority complex as I walked through the place. Comparing my house to theirs, my sofa to their sofa, my bathroom to their jacuzzi, my living room to theirs and so on, I just feel so small. I fantasized about what I will do if I am the richest person in the world when I got home.

1. I will buy over Manchester United and make them the greatest club in the world.

2. I will buy an island and build houses there for my family and friends. There will be no COE, ERP, ARF or whatever taxes that the PAP government has now.

3. I will buy an Airbus 380 and travel wherever I want, whenever I want.

4. I will build a theme park and invite under-privileged children to visit. But I am no Michael Jackson.

5. I will buy over the Amazon and the African safari and preserve the wildlife there.

But then I woke up back into reality and I consoled myself:

1. I will be much hated by the rest of the football fans if I buy over Man Utd. My every move will be scrutinised and my privacy will be lost.

2. Having an island is not safe at all. Who knows when a tsunami will hit and drown all of us?

3. Flying by aircraft is not safe. Besides, there's always the matter of jet lag and deep vein thrombosis.

4. I will be accused of being a Michael Jackson.

5. There is only so much a man can do. Ultimately, it's going to take everybody's efforts to conserve wildlife.

So, being rich is not that great after all. I better stick to travelling by public transport, eating hawker food, playing soccer and doing all the simple mundane things in life. I can be rich in intangible things like happiness and friendship. At least that's a good way to make myself feel better.

A sad day

21 Sept 2007

Cheated......again...and again...and again

This is a sad post. It's about how, throughout my life, I've been cheated so many times that I've lost count already. Just a few examples:

I bought a Pita from some Turkish stall in the Arts bazaar. The person asked me whether I wanted cheese. I thought she was being nice and I said yes. I ended up paying fifty cents extra.

I went to Popeye's Chicken at the airport to order a 3-piece chicken meal. I changed the wing to a breast meat. I thought the change will be free just like KFC. In the end, I also paid fifty cents extra.

I went for Dinner and Dance and I heard that there was a 5 dollars rebate for Space members. Turns out that it is only applicable to Space Comm members. I got cheated by Alvin again.

I bought a second hand statistics text book from Lewis' friend. It looks really good on the outside, with plastic wrapping. When I got home and opened it for the first time, two portions of the text book fell off. Now, my text book is divided into four parts. The feeling is all too familiar.

There are many more incidents but I can't recall all of them. I am sure there will be plenty more incidents waiting for me. I got too used to the feeling to be bothered much by it. My friends say I am too gullible. I have to agree that I trust people too much for my own good. I think it's very tiring to keep on having to judge whether someone is telling the truth. So far, I am still surviving well, except for the fact that my notes keep disappearing.

God Almighty

I watched Evan Almighty in Johor Baru today. It wasn't a good show in my opinion. There is, however, a part I found interesting. Evan's wife was talking to God after she left home because she felt her husband was going cranky. God then said the following:

" When you pray for patience, does God give you patience or does He give you an opportunity to be patient? "

" When you pray for courage, does God give you courage or does He give you an opportunity to be courageous? "

" When you pray for your family to be together, does God let your family be together or does He give you an opportunity to get closer to each other? "

God is really one eloquent and charismatic guy.

Just sharing

As seen in my politics lecture,

The seven wonders of the world are:

1. To see
2. To hear
3. To smell
4. To touch
5. To smile
6. To feel
7. To love

Evolution

This is just a random post. I have always been interested in the evolution of living things. Why is the world the way it is now, with the animals and plants being the way they are today? Why do we look and behave the way we do now? I am not a believer in God so I do not think that all the wonderful things in life are designedby Him, although some things are so fascinating and unique I would think they were made by an artist. I am a firm believer in Science and I believe in Darwin and his theories of evolution. The survival of the fittest. I read a book by Kurt Vonnegut called Galapagos. It is a typical Vonnegut novel, a satire about present humans. In his book, the earth was hit by a disaster and only a few humans survived on an island in the Galapagos. As time goes by, due to selection pressure, people that can catch fish better survive and live on to pass their genes. In the end, after a million years, humans ended up looking like sealions. Of course, it's an exaggeration on the writer's part. However, I think he raised a few interesting points. In his book, he wrote that our brains are too big for our own good. We have disproportionately large brains compared to other animals. By right, our brains should make us a better species. However, our enormous brainpower led us to invent weapons of mass destruction that can annihilate the very planet our existence depends on. It has also led us to exploit our environment, despite knowing that we are going to suffer as a result. And what goes on in the brains of suicidal people, that leads them to self-destruct? And why do we humans like to lie so much? Kurt Vonnegut thinks we should do away with our brains for our own good. I disagree with his book on the direction of human evolution. I think that as time goes by, humans are only going to get smarter and our brains are going to get larger. We are already more intelligent than our parents' generation and with the emphasis on knowledge right now and in the future, the ones that can exploit this knowledge are going to survive better. It is a survival of the smartest. If I'm going to write a book about evolution, the people in my book will end up looking like Doraemons a million years later, with disproportionately huge heads.