When I Grow Up...
Good Day.
I was driving down the Kesas like i would normally do since Kota Kemuning is smacked right next to it yesterday for band practice and somethin caught my attention as i slowed to take the slip road onto the Jln Kewajipan.
No it wasn't a nice car, a stack of cash on the road but rather a lone indian man who sat on the curb. I know its somethin you'll see everyday and not something for you to actually be bothered with but here was a man dressed in orange overalls (indicating he a maintenance guy for the highway company) tightening the strings around his broom.
What i find really moving is that this is probably the most overlooked job anyone of us has ever known. But to see someone tightening up his broom just to ensure his job is done right says something. You might argue he was probably up to no good... but from my point of view, what he was (or..what i thought he was doing) is commendable in the sense that he's actually doing the best to his capabilities but does anybody actually share a thought for this people?
I realised that instead of saying what great assets these people are, our culture has instead thought us to shun these people. I remember once when i was at an open house and one of the host's neighbours casually indicated tht he's never since a particular indian man around the house to the son of the host. The son answered rather candidly, "He's the gardener. Why? Do you feel like having a conversation with him?". The neighbour shuddered a no and laughed it off.
That caught my attention. Since when is it a peculiar/weird/unheard of/uncommon/ unbelievable/ (whatever words you may like to add) thing to talk to someone who is a road sweeper, a gardener, or anyone you'd categorize in the like as a friend?
I blame this on our upbringing. Our culture.
No seriously, think about it. When we were young we were always asked in school by our teachers. "What do you wanna be when you grow up?" Many of us without a flicker of thought would scream, Doctor, Lawyer, Architects or to a certain extent Policeman, Fireman, and...er Pro Wrestler? Usually after the usual suspects of being a professionals are unearthed, the teacher would subsequently ask, "and why do you wanna be a (insert ambition here)?" The reply would always be the same, i wanna help save lives! protect the innocent! or kill the bad guys... right(in a sense, it is still a good thing...i think?).
Lets think about this for a momment. Do these road sweepers, rubbish collectors, and the like contribute less or help society less then the aforementioned professionals? Without them, we'd be living in a dump. How many of us would want to stoop to cleaning our neighbours mess if these people weren't existent? The fact is, a very small minority. Maybe thats the point, we are all too filled with pride to acknowledge the importance or even show gratitude for the work this people are doing.
But that isn't the point. Didn't i mention its in our culture?
I remember whenever i did badly in a test in my younger days my mom would say, "See! Didn't study... so how now? if you can't study you'll end up being a road sweeper or a garbage collector." Please tell me i'm not the only one? But i'm not! teachers in school used to throw out this exact same phrase although in BM ("Nah, tu dia takde belajar betul betul... lain kali buat ape? Pengutip Sampah? Pencuci Longkang?") . Do you see my point? We've been led to believe that there's nothing worst then being a garbage collector, a road sweeper, or a drain cleaner and that if we didn't performed up to mark, or rather societies idea of what is successfull we'd end up as one of them.
Maybe, its basic instincts settling in. If it hurts, stay away from it. Maybe thats why we disregard this group, maybe thats why we fail to credit this group enough.
The fact is, this group deserve the very same footing as everyone of us. They are like us, humans like us. They too, despite societies image of them work hard to keep themself alive and keeping society chugging along in the background doing the best they can.
However, if you looked really hard nowadays, most of these workers are increasingly made up of foreign workers. It means the number of locals taking such jobs are in decline. Interestingly, the number of VCD/DVD sellers are on the rise and these are primarily made up of locals. I guess its the best alternative. A job above the unthinkable job as we've been thought maybe?
I guess, a loophole has been found!
Have a Nice Day.
P.S. I'm probably no better then anyone of you at acknowledging this ppl. Heck, i even litter (Shu-Wen testifies to this) but theres always a start=)
I was driving down the Kesas like i would normally do since Kota Kemuning is smacked right next to it yesterday for band practice and somethin caught my attention as i slowed to take the slip road onto the Jln Kewajipan.
No it wasn't a nice car, a stack of cash on the road but rather a lone indian man who sat on the curb. I know its somethin you'll see everyday and not something for you to actually be bothered with but here was a man dressed in orange overalls (indicating he a maintenance guy for the highway company) tightening the strings around his broom.
What i find really moving is that this is probably the most overlooked job anyone of us has ever known. But to see someone tightening up his broom just to ensure his job is done right says something. You might argue he was probably up to no good... but from my point of view, what he was (or..what i thought he was doing) is commendable in the sense that he's actually doing the best to his capabilities but does anybody actually share a thought for this people?
I realised that instead of saying what great assets these people are, our culture has instead thought us to shun these people. I remember once when i was at an open house and one of the host's neighbours casually indicated tht he's never since a particular indian man around the house to the son of the host. The son answered rather candidly, "He's the gardener. Why? Do you feel like having a conversation with him?". The neighbour shuddered a no and laughed it off.
That caught my attention. Since when is it a peculiar/weird/unheard of/uncommon/ unbelievable/ (whatever words you may like to add) thing to talk to someone who is a road sweeper, a gardener, or anyone you'd categorize in the like as a friend?
I blame this on our upbringing. Our culture.
No seriously, think about it. When we were young we were always asked in school by our teachers. "What do you wanna be when you grow up?" Many of us without a flicker of thought would scream, Doctor, Lawyer, Architects or to a certain extent Policeman, Fireman, and...er Pro Wrestler? Usually after the usual suspects of being a professionals are unearthed, the teacher would subsequently ask, "and why do you wanna be a (insert ambition here)?" The reply would always be the same, i wanna help save lives! protect the innocent! or kill the bad guys... right(in a sense, it is still a good thing...i think?).
Lets think about this for a momment. Do these road sweepers, rubbish collectors, and the like contribute less or help society less then the aforementioned professionals? Without them, we'd be living in a dump. How many of us would want to stoop to cleaning our neighbours mess if these people weren't existent? The fact is, a very small minority. Maybe thats the point, we are all too filled with pride to acknowledge the importance or even show gratitude for the work this people are doing.
But that isn't the point. Didn't i mention its in our culture?
I remember whenever i did badly in a test in my younger days my mom would say, "See! Didn't study... so how now? if you can't study you'll end up being a road sweeper or a garbage collector." Please tell me i'm not the only one? But i'm not! teachers in school used to throw out this exact same phrase although in BM ("Nah, tu dia takde belajar betul betul... lain kali buat ape? Pengutip Sampah? Pencuci Longkang?") . Do you see my point? We've been led to believe that there's nothing worst then being a garbage collector, a road sweeper, or a drain cleaner and that if we didn't performed up to mark, or rather societies idea of what is successfull we'd end up as one of them.
Maybe, its basic instincts settling in. If it hurts, stay away from it. Maybe thats why we disregard this group, maybe thats why we fail to credit this group enough.
The fact is, this group deserve the very same footing as everyone of us. They are like us, humans like us. They too, despite societies image of them work hard to keep themself alive and keeping society chugging along in the background doing the best they can.
However, if you looked really hard nowadays, most of these workers are increasingly made up of foreign workers. It means the number of locals taking such jobs are in decline. Interestingly, the number of VCD/DVD sellers are on the rise and these are primarily made up of locals. I guess its the best alternative. A job above the unthinkable job as we've been thought maybe?
I guess, a loophole has been found!
Have a Nice Day.
P.S. I'm probably no better then anyone of you at acknowledging this ppl. Heck, i even litter (Shu-Wen testifies to this) but theres always a start=)
posted by Joe at 4/21/2006 12:01:00 PM
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