China Day 2: Of Traffic Offenses and Social Obligations...

~27th January 2016~

While having breakfast, Mother got a call from her ex-colleague. She has forgotten to attend an event in school. Mother quickly left us at the restaurant but she said she would be back soon. The school was just opposite the restaurant, next to home actually. She came back again with 500 yuan in cash. That's the reward for being an ex-outstanding teacher. We were thinking of how to spend the 500 yuan when Father received a message.

Father was slapped with a 500 yuan traffic offence. The total points for each driver is 12 and every offense you make on the road and caught by the camera or traffic police, you will receive a text message on your phone letting you know either you received the maximum penalty of 500 yuan or you get 200 yuan with 3 marks deducted. Once you have used up all your 12 points, you have to go through examinations again, start all over again. Therefore, a 500 yuan fine is most welcome and the fine has to be paid within two weeks or was it a month? I could not remember but we went to pay anyway.

There was no counter taking cash but you have to feed the machines. There were so many machines inside and outside with so many people in line. There's this one particular uncle who was so slow, the screen kept going back to the home page. I wanted to help him because he was holding the queue and he himself was getting frustrated and venting his anger on the machine. I could not help him because much to my horror, there was no language setting to choose on the screen. Everything was in Chinese and I could not even differentiate the word between 'back' to 'next'. In the end, a young guy came to his rescue only to realize that the machine has to be re-booted. One of the officers came over to shut down the machine and turned it back on. I think the uncle would have reboot the machine with either his fist or his leg. We would all cheer for him if he chose to give the machine a good kick. It was a brand new machine.

The four of us were hogging three lines actually to see which queue was faster. In the end we went to the first lane. Mother was really tech-savvy and in no time at all, money has been deducted from the savings account linked to WeChat. Every monetary transaction is done through WeChat. Shouldn't Malaysia learn from China? It's so easy to slap someone with a traffic offense but it take years for people to pay up because they are just not afraid of our traffic law. 

The Chinese New Year decoration on the road...

After lunch, Father went to another government office to get his thumb print taken so that he could get his monthly pocket money of 6000 yuan (RM3724.20) from the government for being 60 years of age, As long as you have your thumb print taken, then you will have your money deposited into your bank account every month without fail. Because Father was late in doing this, he would get a lump sum back dated to when he just turned 60 years old. And our gahmen only gave RM950 in three payments for one year. Then why so many poor old people in China? Many of them were so poor and illiterate that they never have the need to set up a bank account. They do not have a smartphone and they definitely do not have WeChat apps. Then how? Then they continue to become poor and poorer. And the poor will always be there... 

The first world country is always under construction... 

I learn something new about China every time I go... Different country, different style... Malaysians get the best medical help from gahmen...