Monday, October 03, 2005

Brutalities of Nature and Human

Humans are cruel in nature.. Nature is cruel in general..

I've witnessed two incidents of brutality in the past 24 hours and it's scaring the hell out of me.. maybe I'm overreacting.. but I'm still gettin the jitters..

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First was last nite, after Jason's family dinner over at Tanjong Katong Shopping Centre (Sorry to say this, I didn't have a good time, nothing to do with anyone but myself. I don't like family gatherings in general.. regardless of whose family gathering. Shall talk about that in a later post) and was going to grab a cab back home.

Me and Ah Dear walked to the roadside to try to hail a cab but there was none in sight, so we decided to walk towards Paya Lebar Mrt station where there was a taxi stand. Whilst we were walking towards the train station, we saw this group of men standing around.. They looked like Thai nationals to me, their skin color and the way they dressed.. but they could be Malays as well.. Skin colour is close, but I still think they look more like Thais. Not being racist here, just stating facts, there's no way they're Indians (too fair) or Chinese (too dark) or Caucasians (way off).. Maybe Mynammar or Burmese.. hmm.. nah, my instincts still say it's Thai.

Anyway this group of men were in between us and the train station so we had to walk towards them. Whilst doing so, they suddenly ran into a particular direction, congregating.. I thought they were having a fight, those gang fights that are relatively common in that area.. We stopped in our tracks, undecided to walk on or stay and wait out the fight.

Then some of the men started running into our direction *horrors* lucky the walkway was pretty big, so they did not come close.. *phwee* *wipes sweat* *heart pounding*

We thought it was finally safe to continue our journey back.. With quick steps, we walked by the crime scene and we saw this Bangala running out of Seven Eleven with the staff, crying and shouting that the group of men had robbed him?!

My gosh, robbery in the open, and it's one big group of men against a man.. That's when I really panicked.. I've never ever seen a robbery before. A fight is bad enough but a robbery, in a relatively crowded area.

The worst thing, before some of the men ran away, they stopped, looked and laughed at the victim!!

We practically ran to the train station and luckily managed to grab a cab.. I've never felt so much in danger in my life ever, not even whilst I was in a foreign country. This was the very first time I've witnessed a crime happening right in front of me. Ok, I was being paranoid, I was hardly in danger, but witnessing the crime scared me a lot.. Crimes used to be something we see on the news, we watch in dramas, I was idealistic to think that such things would not happen in Singapore, or at least to me.. witnessing it suddenly made me realise just how venerable I am. Just how venerable we all are.

And it was sad but there was no way to stop that group of men. There was around 8~10 of them, there was no way anyone who wanted to help could stop them.. We are that hapless.

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Nature is cruel in nature.. Survival of the fittest..

Every morning I would pass by Marina Square on my way to my office. This morning while I was on my usual route.. I saw this brown little thing flying towards me then skidding to a halt on the floor. It was a little bird, not a sparrow, but those birds that people release for good karma.

It seems hurt and can't fly properly. I wanted to stop and pick it up when I saw this myna flying towards us. *eeks* I don't like mynas, in fact I'm scared of them.. Had a bad episode with a myna when I was young and I'm still scared of them, especially in a confined area.

I could see the malicious intent in the myna's eyes.. Breakfast was on the floor in the form of the tiny little brown bird.

I'm ashamed.. instead of protecting the small little bird, I walked away. The look in the myna's eyes reminded me of The March of the Emperor, where the seagull pecked the little penguin till it died..

I was scared the same thing might happen, I was scared of the myna, I turned my head and walked away..

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Humans are cruel, Nature is cruel, Life is cruel.. How do we survive this cruel world?


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