Well, indeed today we are going to count down 2008, the very last day of the year.

Not sure who started the idea about counting down. Frankly I don’t really like it because those malls which organise this activity actually reserved many of their car parking lots.

I just came back from Vivo City.  When I entered the parking entrance, I saw B2 still had 30 empty lots (B2 as in basement level 2). So, thinking that we shouldn’t have a problem to look for a parking lot, I drove in only to find out that there were many cars going around to look for a lot. Many cars parked along sideways which they were not supposed to be there. Why? Because there was this “Reserved” tapes going around blocks of parking lots.

I believe it was for the countdown party organiser and VIPS, I supposed. But I was quite annoyed that as I entered the parking lot, the electronic system already start the time charge on my IVU and admitted my car, yet we were struggling to find a space.

Guess what happened next? Someone was bold enough, probably being frustrated, tore the ‘Reserved’ boundary tape by backing their cars. Suddenly, all cars around that area started to park in their cars with the ‘Reserved’ tape under their wheels.

It was supposed to be a wonderful time. But I think the mall management didn’t consider the human factors, many were quite upset that being admitted into the parking without a lot but seeing all being ‘reserved’ really made their eyes red. I was one of them too.

So when someone finally broke the tape, many like us joined in to park in the empty spaces. I felt disappointed, in the sense that it brought up our own ugly side of it. I couldn’t feel the justification to do it that way but on the other hand, being admitted into the parking without a lot really made me upset too.

Sighed.

Many said Christmas had become too commercialised. The secularists said Christmas was not a religious day but for everyone. And these days, you would find that phrases referring to God, Jesus are diminishing from many Christmas greetings and greetings cards.

I am not hear to defend anything but a concern in changing the nature of a day with meaning into another. Take the tradition of Chinese who celebrate Chinese lunar new year. The night before the new year is a night we called “tuan yuan fan　团圆饭“. It is a night where grown up children would go home to their parents, if they still alive to join for a feast. It is suppose to be meant for a time to gather as a family, not to forget each other, the relationships; a time to catch up, a time to express our thanks to our parents.

Over the years, this night has gradually become very commercialise. No longer, daughters inherit their mothers’ special dishes, a time where the in-laws were busy in the kitchen preparing food from everyone while chatting in the kitchen. The meaning of ‘tuan yuan fan’ means a perfect gathering (completeness) not missing anyone, also has the meaning of gather in harmony. But with commercialisation, the restaurants take the limelight over the dishes of the mothers.

Yes, it is very tiring to prepare a feast for a family, especially a big one. As parents grow older, children out of good intentions ask the parents not to cook but to go out, especially in good times when everyone’s earning has gone up.

Parents of course would say, yes it was quite tiring to prepare food at older age. They nagged, complained a little but it could be just for attentions, just want to hear us again to say “mum, your cooking is still the best!” Instead, with everything available as instant convenience like the 3-in-1 coffee, instant noodles, with money to afford, why not go to the restaurants instead?

It then changes the whole scene from a perfect gathering becoming a chance to show-off who would spend more to hold at a famous restaurant, arguments arise for who should pay more, which restaurants to go and so on and so forth.

The restaurants are here to make money, they won’t give you the luxury to relax and chat. A typical 10 course Chinese dinner won’t last more than 2 hours. And then what? Everyone say goodbye and go home. Communication is a luxury. Catching up seem to be really in need to catch up with time. More of hi and bye most of the time.

Christmas is the same. Too tired to prepare a feast for kins. Go to restaurants. Now even the supermarket would prepare the cooked for you, just order it. Buying a gift is so convenient now that you just pick and let the part time student working at the gift wrap counter to do the wrapping for you.

Called me an old fashion. I like to wrap gifts myself. It is a way to say “I love you”, “I care about you”. If they are so important to you, there is always time to do something for them. I love to cook food for our kins, my wife too. Actually to confess, we did wonder if we should go to the supermarket to order the cooked food. The problem we found out was that, it was only available after 12 noon and we planned to gather for lunch. So we had no choice but to prepare ourselves, of course not the ham but the beef, the salmon, salads and so on.. And the verdict? Almost all the food was consumed. Everyone happy and satisfied. We also managed to spend a couple of hours around the dinning table to chat, talk and catch up.

Yes, it is the problem with time isn’t it? Everything we want to do we ask “do we have enough time to do so?”. If not, we look for services to do it on our behalf. Many of us ended up in rushing to “been there, see that, done that” kind of going through the motion.

The commercialisation has in some way, I feel, eroded the meaning and values to become something very superficial. In the end, it becomes an obligation. Just like the Chinese ‘tuan yuan fan’ dinner, if both parents passed away, siblings couldn’t be bothered to come together, the connection is lost.

This Christmas, we were tired. But we were glad to have everyone together.

Call me a paraniod but when I saw the debate about euthanasia, seeing comments from people who pro this idea “we should have the right”, “we have the right to die with dignity”; I was really worried.

As the 21st century unfold itself, I sense we are marching towards a world whereby people want to redefine a lot of things, their bondaries and rights about many facets of life. Human right, I feel is a phrase many a times misuse to the extense that some laws are passed just to please these people hiding behind a mask, for other motives.

Euthanasia could be a topic originally on people who couldn’t suffer their pain and wouldn’t want to be a burden to others and choose to end their lives in a so-called “dignify” way, or actually, suicide. When this disucssion started in Singapore, yes, it is about dealing with patients suffering from terminal illness who couldn’t bear the pain. To be honest, I really empathise those in suffering and in pains.

However, my concern is, with this floodgate open, it would lead to something very scary, something people that had probably forgotten even history of just 50 years ago!

Euthanasia may start with people who are in the suffering asking to legalist to allow them to have that choice to end their lives. Yes, the key word here is “choice”. The very person in pain and suffering choose to end his/her life. The justifications of it, arise from debate are about: burden to the family, society, limited resources, costly to maintain blah blah blah.

I smell something that makes me uncomfortable that the value of human is measured most importantly is monetary. Everything seems to boil down to cost, $. We overlook the fact that to each his/her own that a life exist on this earth is purposeful and with respect to each of us, most of us, if not all, contribute to the country, society, the earth etc… big and small way.

It is such an irony that when asking for donation, we show our gratitude that big and small, we welcome your donations. But when come to a terminally ill patient, on the other side of the balance, is about the asscoiated medical cost/resources blah blah blah..

Yes, I empathise those in sufferings and in pains but when the argument to have the right to die with dignity is on monetary reason, that the whole situation will evolve and no one can stop that, lawmakers could pass law to ’solve’ an aging generation associated with problems on budget/resource constraints very conveniently. Hospitals, doctors would just default to the ‘convenience’ to recommend euthanasia for every single person who has diagnosed with terminal diesease. There is no cure, no purpose to treat them, they are burden to the society, resources should be put on to something worthy (and who is going to decide what is worthy?).

So, does that mean that it is therefore also eventually becomes meaningless to invest, to train, to educate and to innovate new treatment or to find cures for terminal dieseases?

21st century is also a century that science has broken many secrets about life i.e. genes. While there are scientists to work to understand how gene works and how a disease could be triggered due to a genetic weakness; others are started to look into playing God’s role in the direction of predicting how long a person would live, what would be the health problem that terminate a person’s life.

This, without regulation under the respect of human life, would one day giving the lawmakers the power for example: to decide who should be born and who shouldn’t be, envisaging that this person due to his/her inherited genes defect, would probably die after 10 years of living.

What about insurance company refusing your future insurance forseeing at 50, you would get heart disease? What about government employers turn you down on your job application because you are going to have cancer at age of 45?

The exertion of right for the present temporal convenience would only lead to opening the floodgate for mad people like H* during world war 2, experimenting the fastest and the cheapest way to wipe out an ethnic group of people. The justification? Oh sure he had. But who gave him the right to look at life in that manner? Was it just because of assuming political power that gave him the power (not really the right) to justify his right? It is no wonder that there are many groups out there trying to get their rights through political movements and influence and it can only be proven futile to the future generation/s, because of fighting the so-called right, defined by a particular group.