So, Im still trying to settle down in this new environment and Im more or less accustomed to it already. Lets talk about a book that is so interesting that after I picked it up, I couldnt stop until I finished it in approximately 4 hours and 23mins. The name of the book is called, The Alchemist. I bet many of you have already read it and if you don't, its quite sad and if you choose not to, then I have nothing to say.
Skipped dinner~ I didn't have time to eat… I was busy buying some stuff. Well, at least I drank a bit of milo though it wasn't of any much help at all. Things never stop. They just keep coming and if you can’t finish it in time, it will just start piling on you until you can't breathe at all. I will be combating these problems with the new rule of 44334. I bet some of you know that number pretty well and I won’t bother to explain myself here. Boarding life is good. Just that it makes you sleepy cause of the 44334 in action. Well, my life is certainly following the equation now and I’m expecting to get a 4 today.
Sometimes, I want to give up but I realized I can’t after going so far so I have to push on. Life is like this.
A post I found from my friend’s blog which I uploaded to my QQ space. I shall translate this into English here. *DISCLAIMER* I’m not a good translator and reading the Chinese text is much more meaningful and emotional as compared to my English version.
一名收破烂的老人不小心划破了一年轻女子的牛仔裤，因拿不出对方要求的50元赔偿，老人下跪十次。
An old man (junk collector (duno a better way to put it)) accidentally made a small tear on a young lady’s jeans and that lady’s mother requested a compensation of 50 RMB.
老人手裏只有8元零4毛.
这是那对母女的照片，一个模子刻出来的嘴脸 (photo of the stupid daughter and mother)：
(removed due to copyright issues and it lagging my blog)
When the reporter arrived at the scene, she realized that the woman is pushing the poor man and screaming
裏喊著：“赶紧赔钱！”周围上百名路人围观。
at him to pay the compensation. Many people gathered to see the commotion.
旁边站著一名20岁左右的女子，蓝色牛仔裤腿处被划开了一条两三厘米长的口子。被推搡的
The young lady, presumably 20 years old, has her blue jeans torn by 2 to 3 cm. The
老人噙著泪水不停地恳求著，手裏捏著一叠毛票，总共8元零4分。
old man holds all his money in his hands and cried for forgiveness. All he has was 8 dollars and 40 cents.
“不就破一个小口子吗，至於这样为难人家嘛。”看著下跪的老人，旁观路人纷纷劝说“得饶
“Isn’t that just a small tear? There is no need to do all this.” The passer-bys commented as the old man kneeled down to beg. “Let bygones be bygones.” The
人处且饶人”。面对路人的指责，中年妇女毫不在意，坚决要让老人赔钱。
passer-bys chided but the lady doesn't seem to care and still insist to do it her way.
According to witness, when the mother and daughter was walking out of some road, the old man’s tricycle turned at the same spot and the metal wiring on the tricycle made a cut on the young girl’s jeans.
子剐了一个小口。女子的母亲要求老人赔她50元。
The mother wants a compensation of 50RMB.
无奈之下，老人“扑通”一声跪下，不想对方丝毫没有反应，老人连续下跪十次。
Under intense pressure, the old man kneeled down and the opposition made no comments and actions and still insist the old man to pay the money. The old man kneeled down in total 10 times.
这一下把围观的群众惹怒了，在附近大厦当保安的武先生愤怒地说：“对待这样一个年迈
This angered the crowd and the security nearby commented angrily, “ To treat a old man in such a way
的老人，她们真是欺人太甚。”说完，他将口袋裏的23元钱塞在老人手裏。
this is pure bullying and immoral.” Then, he took out 23 dollars and gave it to the old man.
记者试图采访这对母女时，该中年女子说：“甭理她。”
When the reporters tired to interview the mother, the daughter told her not to care about them.
路人为老人凑钱赔偿．
In the end, the passer-bys decided to pay for the money.
在老人恳求和解未果的情况下，中年妇女最终拨通110报警。5点50分左右，德外派出
Finally, the woman called 110 to get the police. The police arrived at the scene at around 5.50.
所的民警赶到现场进行调解，但该中年妇女认为赔偿的钱不够，拒绝和解。这时，围观群众
The woman said that because the old man didn't pay the correct sum, she is not going to let the matter rest. So in that case, the crowd took out their own money to help the old man.
自发掏出钱来，一元、两元、十元……最后凑够了50元。
one dollar, two dollars, ten dollars… finally 50 dollars all done.
老人再次向围观群众下跪，并不断地说：“谢谢，谢谢。”中年女子拿到钱后，拉著女儿
The old man once again kneeled down to the crowd saying, “Thankyou, thankyou.”
声不吭离开了。
The mother however, took the money and left with her daughter without saying anything.
当时围观的群众纷纷表示赔偿50元的结果对老人不公平。民警也表
The crowd argued that paying that 50dollars isn’t fair for the old man and even the police think so too. However, the police said they cannot step into this matter as they
纠纷，他们只能充当调解人的角色。
Can only act as peace makers.
Firstly, to visitor alpha (I may have an idea who you are anyway). Well, in response to your first comment on your idea of my point that “changes are constant, people don’t evolve that quickly, they aren’t Pokémon” is not what I meant. What I was trying to bring across with the Pokémon example is that the people’s mindset changes quickly, not we are not like Pokémon.
Next, moral guidelines are set by humans. As you mentioned, morale guidelines guide the way we do things. Everyone has their own set of moral guidelines and we do according to what we believe. For example, one may argue that giving up sits to an elderly in the train is a moral act to do, however, another person might disagree with you stating that his moral guidelines is by the first come first serve basis and the early bird gets the kill. Hobbes suggested in his state of nature that all man is selfish and brutal and in Locke’s idea of “no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions; and that transgressions of this may be punished” we can see that unless man tries to follow something which they uniformly agrees on, man can just be as salvage as beasts. So, we cannot conclude that there is a right or wrong in society as all men are selfish and they will only do what they want unless they decide to follow a certain guideline.
Also, I would like to clarify if what do you refer to by the history of science. Do you refer to the time before the renaissance and the enlightenment? Okay, maybe not so much of the renaissance since the renaissance is more focused towards the part on literature and humanism advancement.
I didn’t quite get your meaning in the part about my contradiction in myself. Basically, one idea is that when you have done wrong means you have done wrong. When you steal a car, you steal. When you steal an apple, you still steal. It is not possible to look at that guy who just murdered someone by stabbing him 12 times in the heart and say, “That guy is so inhumane! I only stab my guy 11 times and he stabbed his 12!” It is logically flawed to say that someone who has done wrong look at another person and sigh, saying he did worse.
Lastly, that part on “there is nothing you can do about it” means we can’t do anything to our moving and advancing society. Using the stick analogy- one stick is weak but many sticks are strong. Same here, one person’s change is weak but the society’s change is powerful. If there is only one black sheep among all of us that goes woo ahh haa during assembly then it’s possible we would just ignore him, listing him as a deviant. However, many people do that kind of thing and it becomes a custom whereby when teachers enter the hall, the students would cheer for them. That is perfectly normal and has no harm to it. This is a change in the society of students where 5 years back the students kept quiet when teachers’ walk in. These changes cannot turn back as it is deeply programmed into our mind that it is the “right” thing to do. One or two person might change but they will not make much of a difference in the end towards everything. So, society’s moving on, what can you do to change it back?
Done. Now moving on. Life recently is so busy. All the work is like piling up nonstop… The four days “holiday” felt like 4 hours of intense mugging. But at least my grades are rather stable apart from chemistry and maths. Screwed my previous maths quiz damn badly…
Midyear exams are coming and I believe it is about time to start studying for it… The studying for bio starts tonight. Or maybe later tonight… After all, curiosity killed the cat and procrastination killed me.
DANG~~! xD I want Dango!