Monday, April 23, 2007

One night in Mongkok

An interesting Hong Kong movie i wanted to watch ages ago- picked up the DVD today down by brick lane for 2 quid- plus a bushel of apples, avocados, an andy lau movie, bread, bagels and peacock feathers.

Yeah, so much for Spanish movie festival. I was intimidated by the uber-cool hanging out by the beer garden. Was hoping i could get me some Sangria or some decent beer (the alhambra one is good-very light and summery) but no, the masses of stylish people i had to get through to get to the drinks kinda put me off. And i looked pretty conspicuous with my long and flowie peacock feathers in my hand.

So i decided to wander instead. Im glad i finally bumped into the pakcik who sells peacock feathers. I've seen him a few times outside the station, but my wallet's always been empty. This time i had money. Apparently he's selling feathers from the collection in his home-poor pakcik- he looks old he has to go out and sell stuff from his home...He tried speaking Bengali to me...( i'm assuming he didnt speak much english, not that i look Bengali or anything). It breaks my heart to see old people having to struggle and work. Office work is OK, just not the kind of manual work. I think old people deserve to enjoy life. They shouldnt have to work for money. They should be enjoying their retirement, a rest after spending most of their lives working. It sad that some old people have to work to survive. They shouldnt have to pay ridiculous taxes or foot mounting health bills.

It's failure of the system i think, than anything else. Governments are a bit ageist nowadays- there's so much investment in the young but so little attention paid to the old. Especially the poor and old. People who dont have pensions and saving plans. People couldnt save when they were younger. I would make basic financial management compulsary in all schools. It makes me so angry when people get fooled by banks and lose their homes because of ridiculous morgages where the interest is almost as much as the initial loan. The UK is a welfare state, and they have a pension problem. It makes me wonder what happens to the old people in Malaysia who dont have any savings or pension plans. Those who dont have children or family to look after them, those the welfare homes miss.

Im becoming very-very sad.

The movie didnt help. Its tragic. Definately one of those movies that show you the raw deal life hands out. Not the most action-packed or suspenseful- but entertaining still. The story could almost be a typical gang-war movie except they brought in a country bumpkin as an assasin who bumps into a call-girl who helps him out (they're from neighbouring villages). Almost typical, cos the ending is just plain tragic. It was one of those almost happy endings, but karma comes catching up and it all becomes sad from there.

And i still am not done with the essay. I have to hand it in latest tuesday morning i gotta type it out tonight. And i've just realized my approach to the question was wrong. Why am i still blogging? Cos i'm in denial. I wanna block it out. I dont want to write the essay. I KNOW its gonna be BAD. Cos i hate essays and i cant write and this is all last minute and my life is going down the hill, im sad and lame and wont achieve anything substantial in life.

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