Be Grateful Always

Human Traffic Light System

Looking at these old photos makes me think how difficult life must have been during those days for people to travel from one place to another. Not many people could afford their own cars back. They relied heavily on public transport or simply walk to wherever they wished to go. I’m sure a walk to the local town centre was a pleasant and adventurous trip for many back then. It could be a weekend retreat for them to get out of the house and go somewhere in their town.

For those of us who were born in the 70s, there used to be two people working in a bus – one is the driver while the other person was responsible for selling tickets to passenger. I used to take one of these buses from my house to Komtar, the city centre of Penang Island, Malaysia. There was no touch and go payment system back then, we would hopped onto the bus, took our seat, then a man would approach us asking us where we wanted to go. He would then punched the ticket with the value of our trip. After he had finished selling all the tickets to all those who had just boarded the bus, he would knock the ceiling grab rail with his metal hole puncher and shouted: “Jalan!” (let’s go in Malay) signalling the bus driver in front to move on. There was no air-conditioned in the bus but the ride wasn’t uncomfortable. The side windows were wide opened to allow ventilation into the bus and the weather then wasn’t that hot compared to today. I’ve always enjoyed those trips on the bus. You see life back then was much simpler.

Things have changed tremendously in the 21^st century. Today, there is only one person working on every bus – the bus driver. His only job is mainly to drive the vehicle as the ticketing system is now automated with the touch ‘n’ go payment machines located at both entrance doors of the bus. Buses are now fully air-conditioned and very comfortable to ride on.

It always amazes me to see how much progress we have made in mere half a lifetime. Our society has evolved to be more sophisticated with all the latest technological gadgets. Theoretically, this should make our lives more comfortable and we all should be happier. But are we?

There are more and more negative news and information on the internet and mainstream media. It appears that we are now living a much more difficult lives than before. People complains about almost anything, from politics to even the food they eat in the restaurants. These thoughts don’t seem like coming from happy people.

Perhaps the next time we catch ourselves having these negative thoughts, pause that thought and reflect back of those good old days when we were happier even without all the conveniences that are available today. Latest smart phone and all the other modern conveniences won’t make us happy. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness. The easiest way to start this happiness journey is stop complaining, and be grateful of what we have right now.

看了这些旧照片后，我在想以前的人要从一个地方去到另一个地方是多么的辛苦啊！那个年代没有多少人可以买得起一辆车。他们依赖公共交通工具，或者步行到他们想去的地方。

对于我们这些70后的人来说，还记得在公交车上共有两个服务员 - 一位是司机，而另一位人负责向乘客出售车票。那时没有自动付款系统，上巴士坐下来后，服务员将会走来问我们要去哪里。然后他会根据我们要去的地点打票。当他完成了向所有刚登上巴士的人出售票后，他将用他的打孔器敲打天花板扶手，然后大喊：“ Jalan！” （马来语前进的意思）向坐在前面的司机发出信号可以安全开车了。那时的巴士没有冷气，但在乘客并不感到不舒服。窗口会开着，以便通风。那时的天气不比现在那么热。我每次都很享受乘巴士的旅途。当时的生活真的要简单得多。

如今，每辆巴士上只有一个人工作 — 那就是司机本身。他的唯一工作就是驾驶巴士，售票已经自动化。巴士上还装有空调，乘坐起来非常舒适。

我们的社会已经发展到科技发达和更加复杂。理论上来说，我们的生活现在因该更加舒适，我们所有人都应该更加快乐。但事实是如此吗？

互联网和主流媒体天天都有许多负面的新闻和信息。看来我们现在的生活好像比以前困难得多。人们几乎每样事情都抱怨，大家都好像很不愉快。

下一次我们发现自己陷入这些消极想法时，停下来思考一下，回想过去我们快乐的美好时光，那时我们并没有现在的所有便利。最新的智能手机和所有其他现代便利设施不会让我们快乐。唯一的方法是停止抱怨，并感恩我们所拥有的一切。

Malaysia Lockdown Again

 

Most parts of Malaysia officially enter into Movement Control Order (MCO) 2.0 today. There are people who are celebrating either because they get an excuse not to work or study. While those group of people who are engaging in online businesses are particularly happy about this since they expect more people to surf the internet while staying at home, consequently becoming their potential customers. At the same time, there are people who feel that the government’s decision is long overdue considering the second wave of Covid-19 outbreak is already more than 3 months old since the Sabah state election at the end of September 2020. They are worry that if no action is taken anytime soon, the current situation may get out of control. Most people are fearful for their lives.

It is particularly worrying when people can see that most of the country’s leaders have no sense of urgency or priority when it comes to tackling this pandemic. They are still politicking for power even up until now. Every politicians tried to beat each other by speaking their minds either on main stream or social media. There is no clear sign of unity. In fact, it looks like we are not in this together. It is as if Malaysia is now one country two worlds. In one world People are fighting for their lives while there is another parallel world where another group of people are plotting and manipulating the system to either stay in power or form a new government.

The situation looks even more worrying when being looked at in the context of the world outside Malaysia. Just heard the news today where World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that herd immunity won’t be achieved in 2021 despite numerous vaccines being rolled out this year. This is because it takes time to administer the vaccines out onto the masses, and we are talking about billions of doses across the globe. Herd immunity is not achievable because not every countries will be able to achieve mass vaccination at the same pace.

So what does this mean for the world? It means we will not see international travel in 2021. The world will be divided, countries will be isolated, people will be separated. There won’t be a global village, instead there will be isolated villages dotting all over the world. 2020 was not the worst, it was just an initial shock to the system. The real test is in the year 2021 and beyond. It is the ultimate test to see how we can persevere in this prolong social separation physically and mentally.

And what does this means for Malaysia? With the ignorance and selfish behaviour shown by most politicians, sadly a lot of lives will be sacrificed. Livelihood will be destroyed as tourists and foreign investments are not forthcoming. The country’s economy will be brought to its knees. What is more worrying is that nobody can confidently say that this will be the worst case scenario. We have never experience this before, no one knows how this is going to end. The endgame can’t be easily predicted.

So whether you welcome or criticize MCO 2.0, let us each do our part to weather this storm and pray that we still can see our loved ones in the end. See you on the other side!

马来西亚大部分地区今天正式进入了行动管制令 MCO 2.0。有些人可能会很开心因为他们不想工作或上课。那些从事网络业务的人对此更加兴奋，因为他们期待更多人待在家里上网，从而最后可能成为他们的客户。同时，有些人认为政府早就该做出这个决定了，因为自从2020年9月底的沙巴州大选以来，第二波Covid-19疫情已经爆发了长达三个多月。他们担心如果再不尽快采取任何行动的话，恐怕当前的情况会失控。到时肯定很多人会不幸的白白丢掉了性命。

到目前为止大多数政治人物还是对着疫情毫不注重，这令人民十分担忧。直到现在，他们仍然忙于在争取权力。每个政客都试图通过主流媒体或社交媒体上发表自私的言论。整个政局有如一盘散沙。

同时，国外的情况似乎更加令人担心。刚刚听到今天的新闻报导，世界卫生组织（WHO）警告说，尽管今年已经推出了许多疫苗，但2021年估计仍无法实现群体免疫的效果。这是因为将疫苗推向大众化还需要花费很多时间。由于每个国家都不能同时间大规模的将疫苗接种， 群体免疫是无法实现的。

这意味着什么？2021年还是不会有国际航线开始启动。这世界将会进一步的被分裂，国家将被孤立，人将面临孤单。2020年并不是最糟糕的一年，它只是一个很重大的警告。真正的考验会在2021年及以后。我们将会面临肢体与精神上的盛大考验。

那这对马来西亚又有什么特别的关系和影响呢？政客们的自私行为将带来许多人民的牺牲。由于失去国外游客和外国投资，马来西亚的经济将受到重大的冲击与考验。

因此，不管您是欢迎还是批评MCO 2.0，让我们每个人都尽自己的一份力量来度过这场风暴，并祈祷我们最终仍能看到我们的亲人。