Idleness is evil

In TMI's Urban poverty, socio-economic disparity breeding intolerance in Taman Medan, say experts we are told by those experts that poverty and socio-economic divide have been the culprits contributing to the recent racial tension in Taman Medan.

Mateys, I came from a very poor family in a village where many of its sectors were suffering from the so-called poverty and economic divide. We (my family and neighbours) were so poor that I and other kids in my kampung used to wear hand down clothes, and sometimes ate only nasi kosong with a tablespoon of haram lard and tau-eu (soya sauce) - we considered ourselves the luckier ones.

But I don't recall we (the people in my village from those poor families) went about blaming the "others" or demand, as an example, churches dismantled their crosses.

The poorer members of my village worked hard being hawkers, pasar malam vendors, free lance labourers, unlicensed tradesmen (wakakaka, kaytee at a bloody young age used to make bricks under the tutelage of an expert brick-maker, deliver newspapers, jaga kereta wakakaka, and sell my mum's herbs such as daun kadok, pandan, limau perut, serai, ete at the Sunday market).

Look, when villagers were working their backs off to earn a living, they won't have the f* time to go around protesting or bullying other races.

I see the Taman Medan fracas as purely politico-religious driven and made worse in an already tinder-dry socio-politico-religious environment. Blaming Chinese traders for unfairly raising prices and such like racist bullshit sure as hell didn't help.