Pedestrians are Peons

I've been to countries where traffic would literally stop to allow a jay-walker to safely cross the street. Where pedestrians rule the road; at all times in all places. Where cars would ignore the sacred green light, just to allow a pedestrian to waltz across to safety.

Malaysia does not fall under one of these countries.
We don't give way to pedestrians. That would be so against our nature, our culture even. Our road-culture, that is.

If we see these 'pejalan kaki', we would usually ignore them. And honk at them if they even dare to set foot on our roads.

Because in this country, pedestrians are devoid of any right to the road. In this country, it is the taxis, and the rempits and the lorries and the Ferrari-wannabe-Kancils who are the Kings of the Road.

The pedestrians are peons. They have no wheels. For this reason, they should be punished.

They shouldn't be on the streets. How DARE they assume that they can share the road with the rest of us? They have no wheels! They're walking, for crying out loud! Kurang hajar jer nak kongsi jalan dengan kami yang berkereta nih! Korang tak bayar cukai jalan la weihh!

I've seen many instances where pedestrians are left standing in the rain while cars whizz by; none prepared to give up a mere 5 seconds to allow them to cross the road to shelter. Some even make it a point to aim at the puddles, just to get these lowly peons wet.

Yes, it's no surprise to me to see people refusing to give way to pedestrians.
But today, I witnessed something worse.
Not only do they refuse to give way to pedestrians, they refuse to allow OTHERS to give way to pedestrians.

We were driving home from lunch and the weather today was unbearably hot. As we approached the junction, we saw three middle-aged ladies waiting to cross the road. Even being in the car with the air-conditioning turned on full blast, we were still suffering from the heat and humidity. So we felt sorry for these ladies, with the sun beating directly on their tudung-clad heads.

My husband, who was driving, slowed to a stop and made hand gestures, allowing the ladies to cross the road. They hesitated for a bit, which I feel is a natural reaction of pedestrians in this country ("Yer ker dia ni nak kasi kita lalu ni...") But then they gratefully scurried across the road. God forbid they inconvenience us cars any longer than necessary, you know.

Before the last lady reached to safety, we were startled by a loud HONK from the car behind us.
What. The. Fish.

How precious is that 5 little seconds to you, you jack-ass?
Are you suffering from sembelit, or something?
Your wife waiting at home to slap you silly for being 5 seconds late?
You have an urgent need to fart but your boss is in the car?
What? What? WHAT?

It says a lot about Malaysians that we can no longer be 'good samaritans' without being condemned for it.

If we were driving an army tank, I think my dear husband would've calmly reversed and squashed that idiot. I'm sure we'd have at least three tudung-clad cheerleaders egging us on (((evil grin)))

The Domestic Goddess: A New Breed of Snobs

At this day and age, we find a glamour name for every job.

The ol’lorry driver is now a ‘freight logistics facilitator’ and the toilet cleaner is a ’sanitation consultant’ (I don’t usually require much consultation while in there but… nice to know a professional is available for when I do).

Then, there’s the housewife. Oops. Home-maker. What’s that?
Oh, sorry, I mean, 'Domestic Administrator'…

I am not trying to generalize here, or stereotype them even. My beloved mother is a Domestic Administrator and she’s a wonderful woman.

But some women make me wish to bring out my inner-biatch and call a spade, a spade. Their contempt for women with careers are made clear to all who bother to listen. They accuse such women of shirking their “Godly Duty” to take care of the husbands and children.

They tell such women that a career is not something a woman should strive for. They indulge in stereotyping career women as distracted wives who never cook and absent mothers who hire others to do the mothering.

Then they go on to gloat about how noble they are in “shouldering the biggest job on earth”.

Lady, you are a house wife. A wife who stays in the house.

You spend your days being farmers in Farmville and surfing gourmet recipes for you to whip-up in the kitchen. You kick a hissy-fit when your Astro service is disrupted because you’ll miss the next episode of American Idol. You devour celebrity gossip with glee and derive great pleasure from other people’s pain.

How’s that for stereotyping?

Maybe it stems from their own insecurities, I don’t know. But they brag about their homemade organic gourmet meals and their spotless Dettol-scrubbed house and how they treat their husbands like Kings.

Don't get me wrong, I respect all that; admire it even.

But when you gloat and then proceed to compare it with working-women's alleged fast-food eating, sloppy-housekeeping lifestyle; I take offense. Yes, you should be applauded for creating a good home for your family but you certainly don’t deserve a pedestal to perch upon and look down on the worker-bees.

You can call yourself a housewife, a homemaker or a Domestic Goddess. Whatever your heart desires.

I don’t comment about how you spend your time; tinkering about all day, counting the seconds till your Master comes home. I don’t judge you when you huff and puff because you ‘lost presents’ in Farmville (I don’t even know what that means). I honestly don’t care what you do.

But please, do working women a favor and refrain from commenting about how they’re self-centered and selfish for deciding to have a career.

They may not be at home 24-7 but that certainly doesn’t make them lesser wives or lesser mothers.