Proletariat musings

May 20th, 2010

Tragic Incident at Brickfields Require Mental Health Reform in the Country

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PRESS STATEMENT.

Tragic Incident at Brickfields Require Mental Health Reform in the Country

Early this morning, a pair of husband and wife jumped from their 29th floor condominium at Jalan Tun Sambathan, Brickfields after poisoning their own son. I believe the incident triggered many questions and responses from the public as well as the authorities on what were the underlying reasons for the couple to chose such devastating way in taking their child and their own lives.

I am of the view that such tragic incident requires the authorities to conduct full investigations not only on from the criminalogical aspect but also from socio-economic and physcho-social perspective. I emphatized with the fact that the current harsh living condition of urban poor due to commercially driven development and economic disparities would most of the time be too unbearable for the families or individuals affected that it could cause them to suffer from anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies.

As a consequence, in addition to in-depth investigation, I also call for a proper diagnose of the incident with the view of coming up with proper plan of action to address mental health issues on the ground. I hope that the government will observe similar incidents in order to ensure that any future development programme will not only be commercially driven and profit-oriented but people-centred as well.

–
Nurul Izzah Anwar

Dear All,
· For the past 10 months, this writer has been conditioning himself for the advent of the change that is slowly but undoubtedly unfolding itself in all major currencies and economies worldwide,Malaysia not withstanding.
· Like it or not, dear readers, the Old System or Way of Life is unraveling and we are front seat witnesses to the Changes taking place.
· In some First World countries like the US, Germany, Britain, Sweden, and in others like Argentina, Singapore, Japan & Korea we are seeing with increasing alarm the declines in the net worth of the average family man and their losses sustained by bad financial acuity.

· Take for example this simple analogy: If down the road in the next 10 to 12 months, a small time SME owner or worker in Malaysia lost his life’s savings in the stock market/ investment markets, and due to existing structural format ,he is not favored in his own country-(NEP); he cannot find work, loans taken overburden him, and his wife eventually divorces him, THEN, it will be all his fault because he has failed to receive the requisite training to conform to the “new market conditions” as tabled in the new stimulus plan by the Govt. Right?

HuMBuG!

· Too often, people permit their lives to be conditioned and ruled, and sometimes ruined by man-made systems that the entitlement-minded financial and political elites have forged to retain their privileged status.
· This individual would have been conditioned to equate man-made systems with natural disasters like earthquakes or floods. Part of this thinking is a testament to the resounding success of a ubiquitous “birth-to-death” urbanization campaigns that have convinced people to accept money and capitalism as a “natural system” -a premise that both Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus shared.
· Once people accept that premise, and they aspire to upward mobility possible only within the system, they never ever consider working class consciousness or any other “agricultural alternatives” for to do so is to demean their own self-image.

· The current credit economy / system make possible a lack of ambition for individuals to term themselves as successes.

How many ads are there online, in newspapers, etc., about “assistant manager” in everything from office clerical positions to fast food jobs, when in reality those are low-paying jobs veiled by a “status title” people appreciate more than income? · After all, the “real worth” of the individual was “creditworthiness” bundled as part of net worth, thereby giving the illusion to a large percentage of people that they were part of capitalism’s success.

· Class-consciousness is the enemy of the financial and political elites that constantly inculcate the idea that “all of us must work together and sacrifice” for the greater good, when in fact the “greater good” is largely the domain of the elites. · As the proletarization of the middle class become more apparent in the coming months, the current global crisis will evolve into a middle class crisis of alienation, stratification, and erratic class/status identity.

· Additionally, there will be the increasingly prohibitive costs of medicine, housing & higher education, especially good graduate school and not the crap currently out there, that will be out of reach for a larger percentage of people in the next decade and possibly the next half century. Good Lord, did any one take a look at what the second stimulus plan encapsulates? There’s one stimulus plan that says “Graduate Re- Training”!! · I do not want to go into a tirade over that, but suffice to say, please look into a dictionary the meaning of the word ‘Graduate’ and then tell me what a oxymoron retraining them is!

· At the same time, there will be fewer positions available for the college and SPM educated population that they will have to be highly mobile not only within their own country but also regionally & internationally and must accept jobs unrelated to their college degree–a phenomenon that has been growing in the past decade.

· Through this all, society and families will become increasingly polarized and likely to remain so in the years ahead because of a lack of capital accumulation in a credit-tight, creative unfriendly environment.

· Only those in political position and financial acumen will continue to co-opt (infuse) and grow whereas the majority middle class and working class and their children can only aspire and dream to upward mobility and lifestyle, which should be a birth right in this God given earth!
· That is what Karl Marx wrote more than 100 years ago and he termed it the proletariasation of Society for the privileged few. · The above tirade is not meant to radicalize or color your views of life but is unfortunately the Facts of life as I see it.

Input is appreciated if you see a different structural/sociological point from the one enumerated above evolving.

Until Then,

Regards