red tape...
okie this flick is quite old... old like it's in the 7 day catergory of video e-z... it's the movie swat... special weapons and tactics... in it i learnt that doing the right thing is not necessarily right... especially when the thing that has to be done is tied with like miles of red tape... lets take my life for example... more specifically my army days... as a medic... i don't need to tell you all this but the medical profession is tied up with not just red tape but proberbly all other colours of tapes imaginable... we have a job to do and it's never easy to do the proper thing... usually it's just because your leaders expect you to complete the task given to you while expecting the task to be done in a manner that requires one to disregard the proper authorities... hence most of the time we try to work around the system... during audits, everthing that has to be done are completed... but on usual working days, much can be said about working attitudes... like i've always stated... army teaches us 2 things: how to be creative and how to think out of the box to solve ones' problems... talk about doing the wrong things right... if you asked if any of us would have done it the right way... everyone would proberly tell you their right way...
recently i had a de ja vu... apparently army does have some connections to real life... now that i've ended army i've joined back into the uniformed organization that i've left when i entered army... in the space of 3 odd years, i've returned to a place that i am a total stranger to... the people are different, the place is different, the system is different, the flavour is gone... i've always wondered why the people of my batch left... first they went to another company then they left altogether... i always thought it was a rash decision on their part, considering their reason for leaving was that they didn't feel that they have defined roles and were not utilised to their full potential... i told them the right thing to do was to take the matter into their own hands to forge a new future... maybe that's why they kept insisting on going to another company... now that i've been back for about 3 weeks i kind of understand why... there is red tape everywhere... i was told that now we couldn't do many "things"... many of these "things" we did, we did it openly and regularly... that was long ago... but the policemen at that time had already began wearing long pants... furthermore apparently these "things" were deamed not constructive... therefore it was taken away... i wouldn't really say that such "things" we did had held any purpose or were constructive in any manner... but honestly these "things" we did did mould us into physically and mentally stronger people...
in my time in the army, i've always felt that the new recurits had better and better lives... simply because the army too believes that some of the activites they conducted no longer held any importance and therefore had to be retired... i felt that the army was churning out a less prepared solider and was doing it for the sake of doing it... churning out soliders...
now it has come to pass that we have a annual leadership camp to hold... when i went for it, it was the one thing that everybody dreaded... if you've survived it, you'd have the honour of wearing the badge with pride... unfortunally now it's been claimed to be boring and as one of the older boys put it... it had no direction... apparently now it's just another camp in just another year... yet part of the fun of the camp was to tell of the horrors that you survived through...
everything that is done has to be done for a reason... and it better be a good reason... as the higher up put it... if it can be done in another way why then must we put them through the old way where they have to suffer to learn something? but then again if you don't suffer, the lesson usually don't stick very long... does it? suffering doesn't really make a good reason, it definately doesn't make a right reason... but if the right thing to do is to reason that the right is now considered wrong, why do we still condone the wrong things when they are being dished out?
i've just watched coach carter... if you want something you must go get it... and even if you feel that you deserve to get something... that doesn't mean that it'll be given to you... the gym lockout was the right thing but the parents sure didn't feel that way... they forced the school board to reopen the gym (reasoning the right thing's wrong...) because they felt that basketball is more important than studying... and the kids needed basketball to get into college even though no college would except them... and the board excepts this because they don't want trouble from the parents(condoning the wrong thing)...
is this how life has changed while i was protected in the army? honestly i always thought army was too soft... is it because of what i've alredy been through or is it because they need to accomodate the softer people in times to come? a right decision here would be to follow the direction that the school has set... in part for the children's safety... but really are we becoming so pampered that the wrong decision here would seem so cruel? but maybe the right thing is to follow the direction given... even if it seems wrong to us...
recently i had a de ja vu... apparently army does have some connections to real life... now that i've ended army i've joined back into the uniformed organization that i've left when i entered army... in the space of 3 odd years, i've returned to a place that i am a total stranger to... the people are different, the place is different, the system is different, the flavour is gone... i've always wondered why the people of my batch left... first they went to another company then they left altogether... i always thought it was a rash decision on their part, considering their reason for leaving was that they didn't feel that they have defined roles and were not utilised to their full potential... i told them the right thing to do was to take the matter into their own hands to forge a new future... maybe that's why they kept insisting on going to another company... now that i've been back for about 3 weeks i kind of understand why... there is red tape everywhere... i was told that now we couldn't do many "things"... many of these "things" we did, we did it openly and regularly... that was long ago... but the policemen at that time had already began wearing long pants... furthermore apparently these "things" were deamed not constructive... therefore it was taken away... i wouldn't really say that such "things" we did had held any purpose or were constructive in any manner... but honestly these "things" we did did mould us into physically and mentally stronger people...
in my time in the army, i've always felt that the new recurits had better and better lives... simply because the army too believes that some of the activites they conducted no longer held any importance and therefore had to be retired... i felt that the army was churning out a less prepared solider and was doing it for the sake of doing it... churning out soliders...
now it has come to pass that we have a annual leadership camp to hold... when i went for it, it was the one thing that everybody dreaded... if you've survived it, you'd have the honour of wearing the badge with pride... unfortunally now it's been claimed to be boring and as one of the older boys put it... it had no direction... apparently now it's just another camp in just another year... yet part of the fun of the camp was to tell of the horrors that you survived through...
everything that is done has to be done for a reason... and it better be a good reason... as the higher up put it... if it can be done in another way why then must we put them through the old way where they have to suffer to learn something? but then again if you don't suffer, the lesson usually don't stick very long... does it? suffering doesn't really make a good reason, it definately doesn't make a right reason... but if the right thing to do is to reason that the right is now considered wrong, why do we still condone the wrong things when they are being dished out?
i've just watched coach carter... if you want something you must go get it... and even if you feel that you deserve to get something... that doesn't mean that it'll be given to you... the gym lockout was the right thing but the parents sure didn't feel that way... they forced the school board to reopen the gym (reasoning the right thing's wrong...) because they felt that basketball is more important than studying... and the kids needed basketball to get into college even though no college would except them... and the board excepts this because they don't want trouble from the parents(condoning the wrong thing)...
is this how life has changed while i was protected in the army? honestly i always thought army was too soft... is it because of what i've alredy been through or is it because they need to accomodate the softer people in times to come? a right decision here would be to follow the direction that the school has set... in part for the children's safety... but really are we becoming so pampered that the wrong decision here would seem so cruel? but maybe the right thing is to follow the direction given... even if it seems wrong to us...
posted by alvin_c at 10:00 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home