Home Is Home, Be It Ever So Humble

"Home is Home, be it ever so humble" ~ Proverb

At one open house, I overheard one well-endowed lady (physically and financially) telling her ‘audience’ how lonely her life has been that she hopes she could find one man to share her life with, soon. Unfortunately, she is not alone. Some financially handsome people suffer from anguish and boredom.

So, I wonder – is happiness too costly even these people could not attain it? Then, how about those people who haven’t got enough even to feed himself tomorrow or who would lose a home tomorrow?

“A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams”

Life, with love and dreams, makes hunger bearable, turns a simple house into a comforting nest, gives meaning to every single act, speaks volume to silence between two souls, lets hopes soar and makes happiness so contagious.

Today, Uncle Zorro shares a story about Raja and his family here. I cannot understand how one could inflict so much suffering to helpless people like Raja – all in the name of development.

“He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Tomorrow, some of the houses in that area would be torn down. Raja and his young family would be displaced to a remote area in Puchong, where I bet there won’t be any public transport access, no field for the kids to roam around, no school and clinic within its vicinity on top of poor public service.

This kind of place would only make poor people poorer for they have to fork out more money for transportation. They would become more worried for the uncertainties surrounding their lives – Who would employ Raja? How far would be his new workplace? Would he have enough to feed his growing family? Would he be able to bring some happiness to his family? Would his son walk safely to school? Would his wife be able to buy the necessities within the area without having to travel far and exposing herself, unnecessarily, being a target to snatch thieves?

So, do you think Raja and his family a new home would find peace in their new flat?

I personally opine we have too many useless developments. We continue to build things everywhere without knowing why we built them in the first place. We could have the best properties but we do not support them with well-integrated facilities and services. As usual, we fall into the lingering “First Class Infrastructure, Third Class Mentality’.

Too many a time, I cannot understand why they need to hurry the resettlement of these people. Too many a time, it boils down to how fast some people could make fast money. Yes, all their joyfulness in blood, sweats and tears of people like Raja. How cruel can we get? By then, we have ruined too many lives, flora and fauna and it’s too late to do anything.

For once, let us be a little bit more human to another humans.

For a moment, let us show our camaraderie with our forgotten brothers and sisters like Raja, just like Elie Wiesel says, “This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century - solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others”.

This is not pity. This is humanity.