Saturday, October 11, 2008

Memoirs of A Pending Factory Intern

I actually consider this to be the time actually bloomed in terms of my professional skills. Not only in making dinky little artwork for thegentrified classes but also in terms of office politics and the general nature of humanity itself. School isn't as same as work, where you pretty had a safety net to muck around with. I know a few of my classmates Lim Kok Wingthat actually knew the brutality of the corporate world. I had actually went there with expectations that I might understand the mind of the Corprate Man. Instead all whatever biases is confirmed. The fact that an alarming majority arevain-glorious imbeciles with zero empathy to masses. Funny... I figured theycorporate elements with the rakyat. For they are the people that just might be
the ones needed to do the job swiftly.

But this is not the case. I've personally seen for myself the bad apples of corporate sector act out their insecurities by overworking the staff with indecisive demands only to personally insult them for 'shoddy workman ship' while it was their retarded indecisiveness in the mental faculty which brought upon delays and made a wonderful rushed job of it.

I did actually made sketches after sketches for approval, only to have changes after changes right to the 11th hour. I remembered being extremely worried to the point I no appetite for breakfast. We did finish it in time. But the charming person in charge of this project had the audacity to bleat out his dissatisfaction. He asked which of us designed this. My colleague shifted the 'blame' to one of my Bangladeshi co-workers. He proceeded to make the most snarkiest of coming regarding shoddy workman ship, not realising the whole lot of us, including the Bangladeshi, put our all in this.

My Bangladeshi co-worker just smiled broadly and nodded. If he actually knew what that twat said he would have decked him on the spot. I know... for I was really change in the actual construction.

I still feel bad that the blame was shifted to the Bangladeshi. My colleague was doing this to protect a newbie like me. Still I really felt the sting of the insult. More appropriately the workshop staff has the right to take absolute offense. Almost all of my mates there took the time to help me out. To them, it was just a plain gesture of helping out a friend. I was simply an over-educated middle class goof that was still learning the ropes. But still, those guys simply saw me as a friend in need.

I still think of think those blokes who are still there; working their asses all for respectable salary of only RM 500 a month. I certainly did have to worry because I was very much well off in my middle class cloud nine. But to them it is just a matter a challenge bringing home the bread to the table; which would also mean taking an extra jobs.

Even more ironic was the fact that my employers were all getting plum contract from the pillars of Kuching society. By right they should be getting a handsome sum out of this. But still this case of obvious exploitation. There was even a time that they even worked overtime to install a rather austentatious looking piece of garbage which turned to be a gift to Old White Beard himself. Imagine how much work they had to do, sandblasting a piece of imported crystal, instaling pieces were made of expensive metals. By right every one of them should get a commission out of this. So far, I've heard nothing of this sort.

But whatever the case, still there was a nagging insecurity in my employer's heads that they do not have enough money; the abject poverty mentality that mirrors the dementia a chronic anorexic that still thinks she's overweight. Thus giving a sorry justification to be tightfisted with the money. Perhaps this is the symptom of the typical Asian capitalist.

In the midst of this we all had good times. We'd have tea breaks at around 3pm.;Feasting on the food and drinks brought by a kindly old man. I was actually told he used to have a van but somehow was screwed over to sell it off. He was also a proud member of Amway, perhaps hoping one day he'd just might earn enough from them to get a new working van. For the time being he was using a bicycle which was stacked to overkill with all his good. There were times I'd see him
at the traffic ridden roads of Pending just braving the sun and rain.

A my colleague actually asked his friend from Amway why his company is not helping members like him. I guess he could not get a satisfactory answer from him. I would naively assume that that in the mad rush to get rich, fellow members like the old man are left in the dark, for he does not fit the successful image the to be profiled in their monthly digests. It is funny that society in general talks about the winners as if they are a breed of perfect supermen, while all the while treating the weak and short-changed as 'social problems' and 'degenerate boogey-men' not worthy of charity and love. We seem to forget even God makes the most out of the losers and drop-outs. Tis a nature of man of self-rightiousness: We seen always content to look down on the weak and the fallen while knowing damned well we too are capable of doing the same. Perhaps in their eyes we see ouselves in the midst.

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