Surviving for the hint of good news

So many things I want to say, but they’re all fairly disjointed, which this entry shall be.

1. I just finished watching Brødre (Brothers), a Danish film, earlier – after repeatedly pausing and resuming the movie over a span of several days as I only watch it while I’m eating lunch or dinner, seriously got no time! – and it’s a fairly good, thought-provoking watch. I’m not going to censor any spoilers for the movie here since I doubt most of you will watch it, but it presents a situation that made me think, “What would I do if I were in his shoes?”

Basically the elder brother, who’s a major in the army, was sent to Afghanistan but he was captured by the Taliban. Where he was imprisoned in a dark, cold hut, he met with his fellow soldier (who was really a radar technician) who had gone missing, and the technician was a stuttering wreck. The major comforted him, saying that they’d survive the war, but long story short, later on the Taliban pulled the both of them out and pointed a gun towards the major, asking him to kill Mr. Radar Technician.

The major was clearly anguished, and refused at first, but after being pressured repeatedly with death threats and probably thoughts of not being able to see his wife and two young daughters, he took the metal rod that was handed to him and bashed his fellow soldier, who was cowering and crying in fear, to death.

The question here begs, what would you do if you were in his shoes? Will you kill another innocent man to survive?

I gave it some thought, and sadly, as selfish as this sounds, my answer is yes. It is survival that brings out the ugliness in humans.

2. My long-awaited good news arrived today in the form of a credit card statement. The stupid gem that my fellow Bangkok travelling partners and I bought has been reimbursed partially! For more background info, refer here, but the rough gist of it can be condensed as: we were scammed by a very well-known elaborate Bangkok gem scam by SNP Jewellery, whose ‘players’ comprise of tuk-tuk drivers, guards, and foreign tourists, in order to make the scam more believable.

Oddly enough – not that I’m complaining – on the receipt, it’s stated that we can actually claim a 70% refund wtf. So when Ting, and I shall not tire of saying this, whom I met in Laos while we were cycling around (and probably one of the best things that ever happen in my previous backpacking trip :D), were down at KL for a few nights in August, I took the chance to meet her and her friend! As she was heading to Bangkok as well, she was willing to help us out to get our refund.. and in short, the experience was awful for her methinks. =(

From what I can recall, long story short, when she was at the gem store to get a refund for us (posing as my girlfriend HAHHAHAHA), she was brought upstairs to a dark room and was surrounded by the Thai employees wtf. And because she was so scared, she started crying really severely and said between sobbing that I fell sick and need the money for my operation or something LOL. They were at first skeptical, and demanded proof that she was indeed my girlfriend WTF, and THANK GOD we actually took very silly pics together at Luna Bar (where we went to when she was in KL) making silly faces (the pics were all in Ting’s camera) that they finally believed that we were a couple. Oh and they also demanded to see the pics ‘cause she didn’t have a photostated copy of my passport and wanted proof. :/

Then she handed allll the documentations plus the accursed gem to them, and instead of giving her the refund in the form of cash, they said they’d reverse the credit card charges partially, and asked her to wait for 2 weeks.

The 2 weeks turned to a month, and still there were no such reversals. :( We thought we were duped again for the 2nd frigging time sigh, but JUST NOW my mum excitedly told me that she has received the latest credit card statement and the charges have indeed be reversed – by around RM1.4k! Which means the three of us merely lost about RM200 each rather than the initial RM700. -___- So at least the bloody scamming company has some heart.

O happy day! We’ve been waiting for this good news for way too long. And lesson was definitely learned – will now google for popular scams of whatever place I’m heading to from now on. :/

Thanks again Ting. =)))

3. My academic semester – in terms of studies – officially ended last week and I’m currently on my study break. Yes I’ve been procrastinating a lot and have barely studied sigh! Days seem to pass by so quickly, so many distractions especially after I’ve befriended bloody Mikel a few days ago and have been chatting with him a whole lot since. -___-

In order to curb my failed resistance towards using my laptop, I shall head over to my college library later and do some actual studies on a self-imposed exile wtf.

4. I don’t think I can handle disappointment and anger and resentment very well. While some can smile and laugh their way through a slew of negative emotions that may assault them, I really can’t, much as I try and make the effort not to display my utter dissatisfaction through my facial expressions or my body language. Is it even wrong to do that?

I’m only human, I’m not Mother Theresa or someone saintly who wouldn’t be the slightest bit angry even if the world is on the brink of collapse from humans’ own vices. Plus after sleeping and waking up the next day, my emotional slate would’ve been wiped anew.