Toa Payoh Vets Clinical
Research Making veterinary surgery alive
to a veterinary student studying in Australia
using real case studies and pictures
A New Year's Phenomenon
Dr Sing Kong Yuen,
BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
First written:
January 3, 2010
I was invited to the 2009 New
Year's Eve celebration by a Myanmar artist. I did not want to go as
I would prefer to spend time with my family. Besides, there was also a
language barrier as I anticipated that most guests would speak their
own language and I would not enjoy myself. I dislike attending
parties but some of the most fascinating people I write about
in my web site are those outside my veterinary profession and I met
them at parties.
When the artist's daughter text-messaged me to invite me, I did not
reply. That's the beauty of text-messaging. Impersonal. No loss of
face for either party should the outcome turns out unfavourable.
However, on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, the lady phoned me personally:
"My
father invites you to celebrate the end of 2009. He invites a small group of close friends.
Please come."
When the artist made a personal call, I
obliged as I had met her father who is as old as I am. The father is
a good artist, but we cannot make long conversations as his command
of English is limited and I cannot speak one word of the Myanmar language.
When an interpreter like my friend, Khin Khin was present, the
father and I could carry on a longer conversation about the business
of art. Though Khin Khin was invited, she did not go as she had
another New Year's Party to attend.
I had to make an extra effort to engage in
conversation with a culture so much different from mine. A Singapore artist
sat next to me as I sipped my small glass of Irish liqueur with
cream. I had brought along a Jack Daniel bottle and my host opened
it to share this sweet potent coffee liqueur with everybody.
I tried to make small talk with this Singapore artist on a common
topic. With artists, I would talk about his art and the business of
art. He was not
in the mood for an engaging conversation unfortunately for me and
left for another table.
Then 3 Myanmar men in their 30s arrived and sat on my deserted
table. Were they artists? They did not look like one although how do
male artists look? Is there a stereotype. Maybe, a man with
pony-tailed long hair. One who wears a flowery shirt and flashy ear
stud on the left ear?
The 3 men were wearing T-shirts and in their 30s. Their leader was
Charlie, a tall slim man of fair complexion. He elaborated on his
job and said, "I drive Prime Movers." I did not know exactly what a
Prime Mover was. I figured it was a gigantic vehicle that has a long
back to hold containers. It would haul a container and truck it
within a port terminal. Containers are big metallic boxes than store
a lot of goods for transport from one country to another. That much
I knew.
Another man was thin and looked sun-burnt. He was called Moe. The
third man was slightly plumpish. All worked as prime mover drivers
in the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and could
converse in English. This was a rare opportunity for me to meet the
foot soldiers of the MPA as I have had never met this profession in
my 60 years of living.
Now, how to engage them in conversation till the clock struck 12
midnight? How much there is to talk about the job of being a Prime
Mover Driver? These men could talk on various topics.
Moe smoked furiously. Charlie said, "Moe loves cooking. He is
an
excellent cooker." I did not correct his use of the word "cooker" as
that would spoil the mood of the meeting and would be impolite.
After all, I am not the spokesman and enforcer of the "Speak Good
English" Movement of Singapore.
Charlie meant "cook." He continued, "Moe
cooks well. He sold Thai curry to the workers in the block of flats
we live but he was ordered to stop doing it."
"Why?" I asked, thinking that Moe was entrepreneurial. He would just sell a few packets
at $1.00 each to make some money. After all, the employer had not
increased his salary over the last few years especially in 2009
which is a year of severe recession.
"Moe sold over 100 packets and the canteen operator complained to his
employers," Charlie laughed at Moe's expense. "He is not supposed to make money in his
employment contract."
"The canteen operator had to stifle competition as he had to pay
rent while Moe has had under-priced him," I said. "Why don't you sell the Thai Curry to the betel nut
operator in Peninsula Plaza when you are not working?" I asked
Moe. "You work 3 days for
12 hours per day and then you have the next 2 days off work."
"He may get complaints and lose his job," Charlie said.
"How about selling betel leaves to Peninsula Plaza?" I asked.
"It
seems to me that the operator was doing a good business during weekends
when Myanmar workers come to buy the betel leaves smeared with a
white cream and then wrapped around some nuts."
"There are many betel-leaf plants in Singapore," Charlie
said. "Moe told me that there is one in Holland Road area." I asked, "Can
he pluck the leaves and sell them to the operator at Peninsula
Plaza?"
The hobbyist cook shook his head. "The Singapore policeman will
catch me plucking. I will be jailed and lose my job."
In Singapore, the increasing costs of living and the reduction in
working hours during this period of recession affected people like
Charlie and Moe most. Charlie switched to another topic which I
believe is a common problem in employment agencies.
Charlie asked me,
"Is there a way to help Myanmar workers who pay a fee $3,000 to
employment agents to get back their money when they lose their job soon after employment?
They borrow money to come to Singapore to find work and when they
are sacked soon after employment, they lose a lot of money."
"I don't think that the Singapore Government would be able to help,"
I said. This is a free market and the government is not involved in
a private employment agency business. If the
employment agent and the employer collude to make money out of the
prospective worker by employing and then sacking the worker, it is
hard to prove and it is very costly." There is no organised
voluntary organisation to help such Myanmar workers from predatory
employment agencies.
"It may be best for your friends to go to a big and reputable
employment agency in Yangon," I mentioned the name of a famous
agency in Yangon. "How did you get your job?" I asked. Charlie
said, " I was recruited on a
G to G (Government to Government). I paid 4 months my salary as
agent's commission". Charlie earned around $550 per month.
Predatory businessmen are common in this world. The bigger the
corporation, the more ferocious their appetite in pressing down service providers' fees.
The Main Contractor would get the job. He would delay payment for
several months to subcontractors. If they complain, they don't get
any more jobs. I know of one main contractor who under-priced his
garbage collection tender to get the contract. An art gallery owner
with money would buy good artwork at distress sale prices knowing
that the unknown artist needs money to survive as passion without
sales cannot feed the family and the artist.
In this New Year party, I had a glimpse into the world of the port
workers who seem to have no future unless they get a driving licence
for Category 4. Charlie said, "I failed the driving test 3
times. The tester was not kind to me. In my first test, I did not
look at the mirror before driving off. In another test, I sped up
when the traffic light was still green but stopped immediately when
the light was red. The tester failed me. Every test cost me more than
$300." His English was good and if he had a Myanmar degree, he would
be earning twice as much.
In any case, if he passes the Class 4 Driving Test, he could drive
another type of prime mover and earn more with less fatigue. "The
Class 4 Prime Mover has a simple job. From Point A to
Point B to unload containers," he said to me banging his two fists
against the sides of his head. "The job pays twice as much without
the headache." I presume his present job was very tiring and cause
physical exertion.
I had never entered the PSA but I could not imagine the
hard labour and physical exertion involved.
Soon, it was time for the
artist's daughter to open the bottle of champagne to wish everybody
a "Happy New Year". We were dining on the roof top terrace.
Charlie pointed
to the full moon in the sky. "There is a rainbow to the left of the
moon," he told us. The moon was very bright in this black sky with
few stars, as if a big torch had been shone onto it. Yes, there was
a ring bow to the left. There were two rainbows. Was there any
significance in astronomy? I don't know and did not think much about
it. Science would explain the formation of rainbows after a shower.
But rainbows on a moon-light night? I am sure there will be
scientific explanations unlike the encounter my friend, Khin Khin
told me about in her New Year party.
Khin Khin affirmed, "As the hostess cut the cake to end the year
of 2009, blood droplets appeared from her forehead and on top of
both her
hands. She continued cutting the cake and gave a piece to all
present."
"You really witness this?" I asked her again when I met
her at Ridgewood Condo on January 3, 2010. Khin Khin managed this
condo rental and sometimes I accompanied her to this place and
sometimes I do meet some of her interesting tenants. These tenants
live in a world so much different from my little veterinary world of
dogs and cats.
"Yes," Khin Khin was positive. "I saw the blood
streaking down from the hostess' forehead and appearing like the dot
you see on the forehead of Indians."
"Like a big red dot of paint in the middle of the forehead?" I don't
remember what name it is but the Indian culture does have ladies
practising this method.
"Where did the blood come from?" I asked another person who had
attended this party. "Was it from the large cake? Was it real
blood?" The other person confirmed the phenomenon and did not
know what to make of it. What was the significance of this
phenomenon.
"The blood comes from the thin air," I speculated.
"No," Khin Khin said. "My husband said it comes from the vein."
Khin Khin's husband is a Myanmar veterinarian and his version had a
scientific backing unlike my statement. Blood oozes out from
the capillaries via the veins and appear on the forehead and hands.
Yes, this is scientific. How could blood appear from thin air?
This was Khin Khin's incredible but true story. It sounded like an
episode in a science fantasy like the Avatar movie. A person can be
in two places at the same time. An avatar. A fantasy rather than a
phenomenon.
Double rainbows to the left of a brightly lit moon. Blood appearing
on a person. That sounds like a cock and bull story. However, I do not dispute the credibility of Khin Khin's story as she is a no-nonsense plain-speaking lady
and her husband and two other guests had witnessed the event.
Will there be more phenomena to surprise Khin Khin and I in
the brand new year? I don't know.
P.S Phenomenon: An appearance: anything visible; whatever, in
spirit or matter, is apparent to, or is apprehended by,
observation; as, the phenomena of heat, light or electricity;
phenomena of imagination or memory. That which strikes one as
strange, unusual or unaccountable. An extraordinary or very
remarkable person, thing or occurrence.
TOA
PAYOH VETS