Battle weary

Sorry for the long absence. I've been down with a fever the last week. Thankfully, it's not the H1N1 bug that seems adamant on infecting people these days. But, today's post has everything to do with H1N1 and ignorance and our collective spirit of Malaysia Boleh !

As we all know, the Influenza AH1N1 pandemic is becoming a rising concern here in Malaysia, or at least I prefer to think so. Unfortunately, I don't think Malaysians are really bothered that it's been robbing so many lives here in our nation.

Take for example the shopping malls. How many people actually bother to wear a face mask when they go out? Whilst I was sick the past week I made sure I wore a mask when I went near people simply because the idea of being a mass murderer wasn't appealing at all. But then I step into the LRT and I see people coughing their lungs out and not having the conscience to even cover their mouths !! It is stuff like these that irks the hell outta me. The fact that we Malaysians love to pride ourselves on being an educated lot, yet we overlook all these things so easily astounds me. Why aren't we taking a more proactive stand in battling this pandemic? Why are we so content with standing on the sidelines and wait and watch as the death toll rises everyday? How can we report that 7 million Malaysians are going to be affected by this virus, quote that number around and cough right into someone else's face whilst doing that? Such dexterity is worthy of a hearty round of applause.

Humans tend to be a selfish bunch at times. Money and the economy are more important than someone else's father or mother, son or daughter. Who cares as long as my own family stays safe right? I can't reschedule meetings, there's money involved there! Who cares if my boss gets a flu? Even better ! We can't take a week off school, how else are we going to make up for lost time? Students are healthy they'll get well within a few days! No biggie. I don't have to wear a mask even if I'm sick as a dog, I should really infect someone so at least I don't need to make the lonely journey of meeting the Creator alone right?! I don't need to care about someone else because my own kids,my own parents will never get it, it's always someone else who gets it, never me and mine.

How can it be that other countries are able to keep their casualty rates at such a low level and WORRY but yet we watch people dying and NOT WORRY because the 'percentages' are within 'safe' limits. Who cares about percentages??!!!! A 0.0001% already involves lives. Lives are not things we 'adjust within safe limits'. Lives are not statistics for us to show to people 'how effectively we're controlling the situation'. The greatest sin a human being can do is to dehumanize another human being. And that's exactly what we do best.

Oh yes, and I hear really stupid things like how face masks are really expensive to wear and people can't afford it. So yea, a RM1 mask is way too much of an investment to preserve a life. Another aspect to applaud is the shrewd business minded ability to have the non-conscience of using the market and demand for masks to generate a profit. What else can I say ? We should really give ourselves a pat on the back for Malaysia truly absolutely Boleh !