just minishorts.

This numbs me.

I'm not being political.

It's not easy.

But she has to continue.

Attention-seeking? Maybe, but not entirely true.

She doesn't go around surfing blogs anymore, she doesn't go around dropping messages offhand.

Why not livejournal? Diary-x? Somewhere more private.

Because you don't know, there's many more, much much more behind this.

But she doesn't owe it to anyone, to explicate why she's like this, why she's doing this.

No one at all.

So WE WILL TALK ABOUT OTHER THINGS.

The reality is: governments will always be governments. Heck, these are the people who come up with rules; they come up with statistics and say that these proves that life is better with the rules they've made. And you know what they say about rules: they're made to be broken. The other saying about statistics: there are lies, damned lies and statistics! So, you think there's actually a Utopia on earth, an ideal government? Naa-aaaahhhh…

The reality is: there will always be politics at work. As long as there are hierachies, as long as other people earn more than you do, as long as people who do not belong up there belong up there, as long as people behave like human beings and have feelings… politics is inevitable.

The reality is: being physically attractive will always be an advantage. Human beings are amazingly shallow, however much they deny it. Being smart alone isn't nearly enough… if you have the looks to go with your brains, you've hit the nail. If you're not so good looking, well, life gets a bit tougher, baby. Unfortunate, but true.

The reality is: there won't ever be enough. We have a huge, huge capacity for acceptance… of both things that are good, and things that are bad. So it goes both ways, there will always more bad luck than this once, and there will always more good luck than this once. Anyone who admits to being perfectly satisfied with everything in life has got to be alien to Earth.

The reality is: it's a harsh, harsh world. You've got the weather… urgh that's bad… sometimes it's nice and warm, other times its cold and freezing… you've got the disasters, both God-sent and man-made. You've got the hurdles, challenging yes, but 'challenging' is but another word to attempt positivism. 'Challenging' means difficult, and difficult is not really fun… And it's like this, there more you want something, the more it goes out of your way.

The reality is: hopes often let you down. You can say that faith is always a good thing, but it usually lets you down! And then after you've been let down, you recollect the pebbles that fall on the path, and try to combine a tiny picture of serenity?then you label that strength. But really, wishful thinking is wishful thinking. Faith? Faith is good, but reality is hard.

The reality is: I don't even know what I'm doing on Earth. Actually, do you? All right, if the purpose we're sent to Earth is to help us experience life, and learn things for the better… then why the heck do people have to die? What happens after death? If you're Christian, you go to Heaven, if you're Buddhist/Hindu you'll probably live many lives on the path to achieve Nirvana… but here's a question, when you do reach Heaven/Nirvana, and there's really no inkling of happiness/sadness. Apparently you just reach enlightenment, or become a supreme being, but since you're dead and gone anyway, what the heck are you supposed to do with that sort of knowledge? What's the point? What's the point?

*sigh*

Many meetings and phonecalls later, and the scurrying of frantic feet trying to photocopy as many copies of The Star papers as possible. Suddenly, we're thrown into the limelight!

A few months ago when the UPSR case struck the papers, we were thinking, free publicity for Pearson, it's going to do them good.

Then suddenly we've been elevated to that level. Ah well… in Malaysia, anything can happen. You have longest roti canais, a medical doctor as a prominent ex-prime minister, you have students getting ridiculously good results (I still think 16 As is absurd). NOW YOU HAVE SMART GENIUSES in the ministry panels, who create fantastic, 'world-class' exam papers…

Gaaahhh…

Nothing surprises me anymore. This world is screwed up anyway. There'll be screwed up people, and screwed up people.

Oh… can you make any sense of this?

'When the tender years go away….we can't be jumping on our toes then! That's why we must start now. The tender is like jam… but we still have to take care of our bread and butter. And on timeliness… we cannot come up with breakfast and try to get people to buy it when they want to eat lunch!!'

The people I work for love their food very much, obviously.

Did you read the papers?

Wooosh.

Already bad enough that we're under so much pressure and that this kind of things pop up.

You see ah…. our Government people arrr…. likes to pass the buck you see… even on work, they like to pass the buck. Now it's worse… Lembaga people don't even want to use their energy to explore their creativity.

From what I know… these people gather up in some cool highland resort during almost every school holiday, have several breaks in a day, sit together for hours, and have refresher times… so that they can 'motivate creativity' to come up with good questions for our kids to be tested upon.

Bad enough that our test papers leave much to be desired.

Now they go around copying wholesale from published books. Modifying one or two MCQ questions is still copying.

And these people who create the papers are so-called academicians!!!

So you're wondering why plagiarism is so rampant in this country?

Wonder no more. Somebody up there, or in between the places up there obviously advocates it.