Twentytwo13

Why so angry? We are no angels ourselves

Someone made me angry a few days ago. In fact, she made many people angry.

I was upset that this person had been so irresponsible.

This 16-year-old girl caused many people to worry for her safety as she could not be contacted after she left home for a jog near TTDI Jaya in Selangor on Tuesday.

The parents resorted to social media, asking for information about her whereabouts.

But it all turned out to be a false alarm a few hours later as the girl’s phone battery had died and she decided to hang out with her friends instead of going home or contacting her family.

I was disappointed about this and felt I needed to voice my displeasure.

So, I whipped out my phone and was about to tell the rest of the Facebook world how enraged I was with the girl’s behaviour and also the naivety of her parents who didn’t have contact numbers of their daughter’s friends.

Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks. I saw my daughter seated in the hall. It struck me then that I would have done the same for her. It doesn’t matter if there’s a backlash later because I panicked “unnecessarily”. All that matters is my daughter’s safety.

And moreover, that girl who didn’t bother to contact her parents is only 16. She made a mistake. She’ll probably get punished by being grounded or a telling off from her family members.

I didn’t need to add to that. She would learn her lesson.

I told myself: “Come on, Alam. You were no angel in your teens. You screwed up worse than her and on more than one occasion. You’re lucky there was no social media then.”

I think I turned out fine although I am still no angel. Even as adults, we screw up.

It is natural for us to react in anger when such things happen. But next time, I will be more thoughtful and seriously consider if I am doing more harm than good by taking to social media and voicing out my disappointment over such matters.

Just days earlier, many were disgusted with two deputy ministers for pouring scorn on another teenage girl who made headlines after climbing a tree to get better Internet access and sit for her exam. The deputy ministers had suggested that the girl was lying.

Malaysians from all walks stood up for Veveonah Mosibin, 18, of Kampung Sapatalang in Pitas, Sabah.

Some expressed concern that Veveonah would be traumatised by the deputy ministers’ accusations and it might affect her mentally too. Such was the outpouring of support that the deputy ministers had to back down and apologise for their debacle.

Even the Prime Minister met up with the student to give her some words of comfort. Some may argue that it was an election stunt but to me, it doesn’t matter. It did a world of good for the girl judging by her joyous reaction on social media.

We wanted the best for the girl and to protect her from further humiliation, thus we spoke up. She’s after all, just a teenager.

It’s the same in the case of the “missing” girl. I realised there was no necessity to cause her more trauma than what she and her parents were already going through. They’ll sort it out and I wish them all the best.

‘HANDCUFFED’ FOR LIFE

  • A handcuffed 23-year-old woman escaped from police custody by hopping onto a motorcycle ridden by her boyfriend in Raub, Pahang.

She had just been charged with drug possession and escaped while being led to a police truck outside the court complex on Monday.

My thoughts: Such drama! I only got handcuffed after getting married. She threw the keys away. Okay, just kidding. She’s very nice actually and there’s no such thing.

KEEP VENUS SAFE

  • It has been reported that there is an extraordinary possibility there’s life on Venus, the nearest planet to Earth. It is very probable there are microbes on that planet. On Earth, these microbes are common in the guts of animals like penguins, or in oxygen-poor environments such as swamps, the BBC reported.

My thoughts: I was initially excited with the headline “Is there life floating in the clouds of Venus?” I thought some undesirable politicians had finally found their place away from the rest of us.

I was probably hallucinating. No such thing. So we have to continue to put up with them.

Moreover, we shouldn’t push our problems to others, even if they are just microbes in the clouds over Venus. It would be a most unkind act.