I met a girl, who is an active volunteer with the Malaysian AIDS Council, at MAC last year while I was doing my research there. [I still remember I had to breathe in the stench of cat poo in the small MAC library at that time].
Ahh but anyway, the girl I met had mentioned about Fallen Leaves when I told her I was attached to one of the NGOs in the research I was helping out with.
I had no clue about what the performance would be like / was, until I volunteered in one of the projects was I given the privilege to watch Fallen Leaves perform in Sekolah Tunas Bakti during World AIDS Day last year.
The video above depicts the beginning of a rather lengthy but meaningful play.
The opening was composed of a combination of, well, several "slogans" that we would normally hear as we visit Petaling street / Puduraya bus station / Chinatown.
...anyone who had been to Puduraya would recognise that the clip above shared similarities with how "runners" try to get bus passengers as they walk past the former. Whenever I walked past the counters to the Plaza Rakyat LRT station, I always had the dejavu of being back to the moment I saw the play.
The actors in this play are recovering drug users and also some living with HIV. The stories presented are real life stories, those of their personal experiences.
Perhaps because these were personal experiences, they had successfully touched the hearts of the participants in the Sekolah Tunas Bakti that we went to during the event.
Those were real stories - with a beginning filled with temptation coupled with an ending with a good and clear message about the consequences to the actions done previously.
I remember clearly there was one story about a young school boy and drug use, another about a curious man patronising a sex worker (without using a condom).
There were people trying to earn a little by "guarding" parking lots, one who was selling "viagra" pills and other traditional herbs to improve masculinity, even pimps that ask you in for a nice sex session!
Very much what I had seen as I walked through the back alleys that house the rather many "brothels" (or well, dens).
The most important message I thought the play had brought up was to strip themselves off the stigma and discrimination that others would toss on to them for their past and go on leading a life that is meaningful (all in their own contexts). With the advancement of better anti-retroviral drug regimens, now a person living with HIV, with good compliance and a healthy lifestyle could life up to 15 years.
Family. This is a video on family, directed by Yasmin Ahmad for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Singapore.
It speaks of family bonding, its importance and values.
Well, (as usual) it got tears gathering in my tear ducts. Family bonding. A special bond that I have shared with my family, one that (I suppose) I (had always thought, I) am lucky to be gifted with.
One that I, too, wished my life partner would appreciate as much as I do.
"In the end, it's these small things that you remember...little imperfections that make them perfect, for you. So to my children, I hope that you will find yourselves life partners, who are as beautifully imperfect, as your father was, to me."
There are also, conversely, materialistic girls / women who enjoy a relationship that would shower them with iPods, iPhones, Apple computers, Gucci bags, LV purse, expensive make-ups and so on.
I believe firmly that how a partner reacts when one faces difficulties or hardships, even mistakes, perhaps is a good determination to how good a partner he or she can be.
I check my email the first thing every morning :) This morning, as I opened the web browser, a piece of news on British's Got Talent caught my attention.
It was on Susan Boyle. Curious, I clicked on it. I saw the video of Susan singing Les Les Misérables "I dreamed a dream". Needless to say, it was beautifully sung!
I tudou'ed (www.tudou.com) Les Misérables and found the musical online. I played it while I was doing my work.
Les Misérables translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims (1862) is a novel by French author Victor Hugo. I have not read the novel myself, but the musical that I listened (and watched) online had painted the whole story beautifully.
Fantine, was one of the characters from this novel / musical, she had to offer sexual services to earn a living because she was fired from her job as a factory worker after people have found out that she has an illegitimate daughter.
I reckon Fantine is one of the sex workers portrayed in famous literatures. Prostitution has been thought to bring shame to a woman because she is "expected" to be faithful to one (the husband) whereas he is "expected" (or perhaps that is too strong a word, "allowed") to have more than one sexual partner - the more to show masculinity!
I hear stories of wives consenting to their husbands' hobbies to purchase sexual services while they are at work, abroad. How so? - These wives will place condoms in too, as they pack their husband's luggage.
Ahh well, there are many miserable things that happen in life, that we cannot prevent (I presume?)
One of songs sang "At the end of the day, you are another day older, and that is all the thing you can say about the life of a poor".
As I continued you-tubing, I found a few videos. I shall stick them here, as a reminder that stigma and discrimination existed since a long time before.
Societal values that form social norms today, unfortunately, have not significantly change for the better.
When the judges asked whether his friends had provided him (moral) support to be in Britain's Got Talent, Andrew reveals that he gets bullied in school (because of his weird singing).
Andrew's mom (video at 0:30 secs) said "He gives me strength, as much as I give him strength".
Madonna Docena performing I will always love you (for her children)
I you-tubed further and found Madonna Docena's performance. She is a Filipino earning a living in the Wales. Many women like Madonna leave their homeland in search of a better life, for their children back at home, ironically, abroad.
I have met so many single mothers here. So many who have ended up doing sex work in this country, to support their children and parents back at their home countries.
I think there are some who see them as "different". That is where stigma branches out.
Pol Pot
Finally, I had also came across this video of Pol Pot singing. I thought his voice is absolutely brilliant! Yet, he mentions that he finds it difficult to discover his own self esteem.
There are two extremes of finding self esteem. I have friends who belittle others in order to exert and confirm their existence and self esteem. The other extreme is believing that they do not have self esteem, as that is what the "majority" says.
The one thing that we can change (or do), is just learning to respect others the way we want others to respect us; despite the difference in values, religion nor ethnic groups.
The other thing that I always do, is trying to be content of life and be proud of myself, my family, friends and everyone around me. Life is beautiful.
If we look carefully, we look at life in different fish tanks (that forms our perception via cognition). There is no need to calibrate ourselves to what the "majority" believes is "normal" or "true", as long as we know what we do is right.
