Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Life Down South...

It's a 30-minute drive down south to Sungai Batu, Teluk Kumbar from Georgetown. Most people think that Teluk Kumbar is over at the mainland but it's not. It's just 10 minutes away from the airport. I've been driving down there to work during the weekends. The roads are narrow there's only one lane for each flow of traffic. When it starts piling, you can take a nap in the car. To start with, Sungai Batu used to be a small fishing village by the sea. They live a simple life. No rush, no stress albeit there must be some financial constraints. Some of them are just odd job workers, mostly factory operators and mainly fishermen. They own no big boats but very simple sampan with their fishing nets to get the catch of the day. Then some 20 years back, the developer cleared some part of the village land to make way for the building of low-cost flats. Even though they have hard time making ends meet every month, they still need cars to drive around to work. Therefore, the problems of having not enough parking lots. You'll just have to leave the cars and make sure the handbrakes are down so those who want to drive out from the lots can just push your car away. After so many years there, I still can't bear the stench from the rubbish dump. The drains are clogged and choked up with plastic bags. I do not know why are the people so unhygienic. Little children throw rubbish from the fourth floor all the way down and it will be smacked in front of my house as mine is a ground floor unit. Then, in the evening, the children will be running about, screaming from the top of their lungs, then some neighbours even listen to heavy metal music with the volume turned up to the max... that's life. Love thy neighbours as yourself. In low-cost flats when it's about meal time, almost every house will start cooking and I get to smell all types of smells and then everyone will start to guess who's cooking what. I feel like bringing empty plates and ask for food because there's nothing to eat in my house :D Ahh... mosque. Muslims pray 5 times a day. I have nothing against them praying with their loud speakers blaring into the atmosphere. I live where it's near the mosque. Without the morning first session prayer around 5:30 a.m. during my schooling years, our entire household will not wake up. There were once we overslept. We were waiting for the morning prayer to wake us up but there's none. We woke up at 8:30 a.m. on a schooling day and I think the sound system at the mosque broke down on that day. We're so used to it that we make it our alarm clock. No, I'm not being disrespectful but that's how life is. On the left of this photo is a project by Sunway Aspera. Please be honest, developers. You can't expect everyone to have sea view from their balconies. I've heard how your salesperson promote this project. I'm aghast by everything they said. They're totally untruthful and they don't even know the exact location of this place. They didn't even describe the lifestyle of the people here. They live a totally different lifestyle and please learn to respect that. In every place, there's a different culture. Here are a few photos of the view in Sungai Batu, when the weather is great... usually it's not good... and the sea water will be brown in colour with angry waves pounding along. You don't know what is an angry wave until you've seen one with your own eyes and hear the roaring waves with your own ears... and yes, they roar louder than the Siberian tigers...
It looks clean in all these photos. On other days, they're not. Overall the place is dirty, not much progress yet. There are other housing projects costing roughly from half a million to nearly a million Ringgit, selling sea view.

This is now solely my opinion. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinion. First of all, the developers DO NOT own the sea view, neither do they own the sea. Secondly, that view cannot be invented but it has been created by God, the maker of this Earth. Thirdly, God NEVER charge us a single cent to have such beautiful view. Thus, why are developers cashing in on the sea view of this entire island from the north to the south? Isn't it unfair to side-line those who are poor? You bought their land at dirt cheap price then when you start to build all those luxurious houses, has it ever occur to you that only the rich can afford those lovely houses that are built on the poor's land? Then, sometimes to compensate the villagers, they only get to stay in ugly flats without any sea view. They'll be looking at other people's toilet from the back. Of course simple-minded villagers will not make a big fuss as long as they have a roof over their heads.

Anyway, life has never been fair... the rich will be richer, the poor will be poorer... and nobody tends to do anything to make a difference for once...

No comments: