Of thieves and spoiled teenagers.

Music: M83 - Teen Angst

First and foremost, apologies for the long absence. Things have been picking up in my undercover work for the Royal Marine Force and I haven't been able to get a secure internet connection in the Bahamas.

Ok, so I was kidding about the national service and being overseas part.

But what delayed my blogging frequency was that I had a question that's been lingering in my mind for the past few nights. A fortnight ago, my younger brother got himself mugged by a couple of native Malay bastards in a nearby shopping mall. He managed to go through the whole ordeal unscathed. What's bothering me is that snatch-theft and mugging incidents are slowly becoming a norm in major cities across Malaysia. Flip through the national dailies every few days and you would stumble across incidences that a kid or a middle-aged female getting mugged out of nowhere. Are we moving towards a society of socially ill teens and twenty-somethings?

Vision 2020? Hell yeah with the quality youths we've been producing.
Visit Malaysia 2007? Heh. Bring it on, brother.

And then came the aftermath. Someone had to take up the responsibility of getting my brother a new phone. What my family didn't take into context was that my brother's one spoiled brat and he needs to be pampered without limitations. But what I would love for him to understand is that a purchase of a cell phone for a 14-year-old boy must be calculated on the grounds that he is underaged and that he only needs to dial, and not to surf or show off to his hip-hop tribe of friends. I've already lost a substantial amount of money the last time around and he certainly doesn't try to compromise on what the family budget is. The argument on my parent's side is that when I was a little kid, "...you've always had everything that you wanted".

I snapped back, naturally. "Hey, it's not like I chose what I wanted when I was little. You bought a computer when I was young for the purpose of learning at home, I never complained about its hardware specs. You gave me a Honda motorcycle retards use instead of a Kawasaki one in high school; I didn't complain that it wasn't 'hip' enough. A bike is a bike is a bike. If you guys felt that buying a computer then was considered a luxury, so be it...neglect your duties as parents and let me rot just like any Malaysian pond scum."

"But you've been monitoring and limiting the usage of the PC at home..." my mum uttered back.

"And you can thank Heaven's for that! Who's been flooding the computer every now and then with spy ware and viruses?! Who's been fixing the PC every time it goes 'kaput' on us and Dad needs to use it urgently for his business matters? If I don't at least monitor the usage, who should?"

I am not restricting my younger brother for having the basic necessities he should have. So having experienced this (my brother's pampered soul and tantrum throwing), I've come to an understanding that this rampant among teens nowadays. Yes, both thievery and OVERindulgence. This can only be caused by inexperienced parents who have tremendously low self-esteem, those with hefty amounts of cash to splash and then there are some who have rich housing developer uncles who get paid unscrupulous of money just to build some piece of commercial building that stores coffee houses and drinking holes that further ills our society as a whole. My brother should learn that he does not belong in the latter two categories and should stay away from the 'norm', if I may call it that.

How is our government going to manhandle the situation of youths getting themselves involved in hideous crimes like petty robbery and mugging fellow helpless youths in groups? What proactive measures have the police task force taken up to ensure that the safety of our children is well protected in public places such as malls. Trust me - the answer is not in CCTV alone.

As of Day 9 after the day my brother got robbed, the issue of buying him a new cell phone remains unresolved. I'm still pondering on the justification that he needs to get his long awaited Nokia N series. Or whatever he's already got his eyes set for.