On A School Day Outside SJK (C) Kok Min

This is the scene that unfolds outside my childhood house every school day... Cars on their way to pick their precious cargoes. And the line of cars... big and small, old and new, imported and local... they take up all the space outside the house, making it impossible for occupants of the houses to go in or out. Appeals and complaints have fallen on deaf ears. The school authorities say they can't do anything... two lines of cars heading the same direction, on a two way street.

I was rather irate when I came back and had to wait in line to get into my parents' house. I mean, I can well understand half of the road being occupied but cars occupying both sides of a two way street? And to make matters worse, some cars were already lined up on the road at 11.30 a.m. when school was supposed to end at 1 something. I do not know whether it is kiasu or kiasi at work here? Lots of fuel gets burned daily here, with engines idling. However, what struck me was their attitude towards the environment and the health of the people who live nearby.. and to themselves ultimately.. as they sat in their air conditioned cars while their cars spewed out noxious fumes.

The school says they can't do anything. I talked to the guard and he said, the Headmaster tried to talk to the parents and got scolded. They sound so helpless... and they are the institution churning out the next generation. I wonder whether I am in a factory...

The school has been around ever since we moved here. There used to be another gate which led out at the other side of the school. They have sealed that entrance. I don't know whether it is because there is Chinese cemetery facing that now closed exit. All of us know the Chinese and their fengshui. Sure bad luck to go out facing cemetery.. Or they could always utilise part of the school field to allow those early kiasu/kiasi parents to park their cars. Maybe then they will shut their engine off since they are in the close proximity of their precious cargoes.... out of concern that they might be introducing carcinogenic substances that will affect their zuriat. And the Headmaster says they are helpless against the parents who can be verbally abusive.... (is it any wonder why Malaysians are getting more violent/abusive these days?)

Or perhaps maybe the only solution is when an emergency happens and someone dies because the ambulance cannot get in because it has to wait in line... or even worse still for somebody to run amok on a bad hair day?

Congestion can be tolerated if both parties give and take.... but when cars park outside your house for an hour with engine running... and both sides of the road filled up, it feels like only one side is tolerating all the time.

One thing I always find funny is how Chinese school kids are taught to kowtow to teachers as a mark of respect when they bump into them at school. My mind always wanders back to the stories of subjects who prostrated themselves coming and going out of the emperor's court. Somehow, that very act of kowtow-ing always conjures up an atmosphere of fear... Yet when these kids grow up into adults, they seem to have forgotten how to respect other people's rights too.... so much for school as a place where we instil good community spirit.

My mom told me that some of the (grand)parents have taken to helping themselves to the fruits on her limau purut tree too. She called out to a man plucking the fruits recently, telling him that all he needed to do was just ask. He walked away nonchalantly, a uniformed kid in tow... Such is the attitude of the old now... jia-lat.