A Tempest in A Teapot

Quoting Dr. S, “I feel calm when I sacrifice”.

If there is one thing that I could conclude during these few days, it’s that some people, despite their pleasant exterior, are capable of being anything but. One Malay proverb of never to assume that still water has no crocodiles lurking within describes this nicely.

May I say that I have anticipated as much? Or is it just my tendency to presume the worst in anything I figured could go wrong? It’s like the calm before the storm – while everything appears to be tip-top superficially, unknown to some people – those who remain ignorant or willingly assume such position – there is a great battle raging on beneath it all.

I really don’t want to say it’s a racial thing, because the last thing I want is to be accused of racism – something that is a huge no-no in this country, where sensitive issues are abundant and peace is hanging by a worn-out thread, more or less like an egg on the tip of a horn.

(Except that in this country, I think there is more than one horn that is waiting to pierce through the already delicate eggshell, breaking it into pieces, and making a huge mess out of everything...)

Besides, I’d rather stay in this confounded university and study instead of being detained in the ISA, thankyouverymuch…

Back to the present issue. I may exaggerate, but this raging storm surrounding us may very well affect the future of several parties – our own, the department, our juniors, and the clinic. We medical students leave an impact wherever we go, and not necessarily in a good way *snicker*. I guess our position as being in the eye of the storm, where the calm may be ending anytime soon, is in fact seen (erroneously?) as the integral part of the problem. Being accused of staying in the room instead of helping out the nurses seem unfair, especially since we are obviously seen as going around and meddling asking the nurses and other medical assistants in the clinic several favours just to get patients to clerk and performing things required in the logbook.

Why must things go this way?

I don’t know. My groupmates don’t know. Only God Knows.

Are we seriously a bunch of troublemakers that cannot resist stirring up controversies wherever we go? Are we that inane that our mere presence reeks of unbearable foulness?

Prejudice can be hard to get rid of. I can’t cry foul over unjust generalized sentiments towards us, but honestly, while I do understand that their work is complicated enough that entertaining us medical students can be an unnecessary burden to them, allow me to say that the last thing I want is to hamper their work, because patients always come first.

So do we resort to what Dr. S had said – we sacrifice? That’s what life is about anyhow…sacrificing for the greater good.

Personally I see myself as a pacifist, but at times, I don’t want to go down without a fight, especially when I see injustice at work.

Do we take a stand, or run away from the source of the problem? What are the criteria to decide whether to fight or to take flight? If neither of the two is fulfilled, what else is our option?

…What am I saying? The only thing that could come before patients – that is, something other than divine intervention – is politics…and I mean that in every sense of the word.

Current Music: Storm – Gackt Camui

P/s: The title merely refers to great anger or excitement over a trivial matter. Although Dr. S would be using the glass versus the lake analogy…