life is tough. then you die.

I spent most of last night reading my forgotten book, Price of Honor, written by Jan Goodwin in which she documents her travels and interviews around the Middle East and hearing Muslim women recount how they have been undermined by their own faith as the religious men in their country adhere to the heteronomous and possibly warped interpretation of the Koran and yield absolute control over the females in their land.

My mum thought my boyfriend has finally been killed off in Hawaii 5-0 when I screamed, and came barreling to bask in his supposed death (because she hates the new Steve McGarrett), only to find me lying on my bed and clutching my book with an expression of fury vengeance mingled with abject sadness and horror plastered on my face.

I told her that the author had interviewed a police official who recounted how a group of 20 men had raped a teenage girl to exact revenge upon her father and forgetting her newfound faith in Christianity, that's its because of episodes like this that show how religion has so many interpretations, and its because of warped religious beliefs about women that undermine my belief and acceptance in religion. 

My mum then just shrugged and said: "Life is tough. Then you die." and left possibly because she had the same ideology as I did before she became a Christian. Before she believed that God can heal my brother of autism. Before she fell prey to the honeyed words of her pastor, so conveniently named Joseph Prince, whom she calls Prince Joseph. 

If God is merciful and loves everyone equally like his children, how does sexual exploitation of females, and forced marriages of young virgin children - a form of abuse in itself - represent an act of love from God?

If this is God's way of loving me, I'd rather burn in Hell.

Say what you want. Believe what you want. Continue to even justify it even further if you want. But I will never, and can never accept such reasoning.

Why isn't there more awareness about this in Singapore?! I tried Googling for organizations aiming to raise awareness about the plight of sexual and physical exploitation of Muslim women and children in the Middle East but apparently none exists. All we care about is the breakdown of trains and complaining about the foreigners stealing our jobs left and right.

How can we all be so centered on such trivial issues when there are more terrible things happening around the world? Not just the subjugation of women in the Middle East, but issues such as the restructuring of the Iraqi economy by the Americans that's leaving almost all the Iraqi disgruntled because in no way do the they want live in a democratic society where they're told what to do by the Americans. Or how about even the issue of health insurance? Even here in Singapore for example, if you have health insurance, then good for you.

But do you realize that once you fall prey to health conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, and other serious medical problems that are covered by your lovely insurance, you're no longer entitled to be insured against these health problems in the future, and that if you ever have a relapse, you'll have to cover expenses from your own pocket, bearing in mind that hospital bills here run in the thousands? Obviously this puts those who've had heart attacks and strokes at a huge disadvantage, bearing in mind that relapses are more likely than other medical problems. When relapse patients cannot fork the money out, the only option here is to lower the cost of healthcare. And how do we lower the cost of healthcare? The government pays for it. And how does the government cover the defrayed costs? From local taxes. That's right. To help the medical minority, the government taxes you even more. And why? Its because insurance companies are profit-driven. You get a heart attack? Fine, I'll pay for you. But you want to me to insure someone who is likely prone to get a relapse in the future and make me pay again and again? No thanks.

Hello capitalism. Karl Marx lives on.

Not to mention, how millions of Americans remain uninsured, because health insurance is too expensive, because health insurance is a privilege and not a basic right. How impoverished African Americans are more likely to be unable to seek healthcare than impoverished Caucasians, solely because of their race. Compared to health care in Britain, where every citizen is guaranteed insurance and that the government pays a large portion of your medical expenses for you.

Life is tough. Then you die.


I don't understand any of this.