BR1M-ming With Pride

Star Q

i.  Jamuan Akhir Tahun

ii.  Speaking Activities

iii.  Pineapple Fried Rice

Image sourced from Google

I suppose many will not agree with me about what I have written regarding the giving of BR1M, especially those who are eligible for it and those who feel that the RM500 one-off hand-out is supposed to sustain their expenses for the whole year, if not more; which in actual fact is only to help them get started financially at the beginning of the year.

If they disagree, it's just too bad.  Sometimes I think the government has made a wrong decision in trying to win the citizens heart by giving them money, because money as we all know, is never enough; no matter how much you give.  The thing is people always want more of it.

Gone are the days when citizens did not look to the government for any kind of aid, especially financially.  People just seemed to work harder to put food on the table just because it is their responsibility to do so for their own families.  People seemed to do more to make ends meet and to minimise their monthly expenditure.

I remember my mom doing her best to make ends meet and to help my dad  put food on the table to make up for what little salary my father brought home every month.  Being a house wife to a corporal at that time (around 1967) and a mother of four children, I remember my mother doing everything she could to help with the family expenditure.  I remember her planting rows and rows of vegetables; I remember her rearing chickens and ducks; I remember her waking up early every morning to prepare our lunch boxes to take to school so that we wouldn't have to spend out twenty-cents pocket money; I also remember her creating recipes that were able to sustain her family and keeping her children happy.  She did all this, so that she did not need to ask for help from others and justly so, because it is her responsibility.

People reading about what my late mother did then to help ease her family's expenses may scowl disapprovingly saying that that was then and this is now.  They would argue that nowadays, most BR1M receivers do not have even the smallest plot of land to plant vegetables or to rear chickens and ducks.  They would argue that the comparison is nonsensical!  

I agree that time has changed.  However, don't just read the lines about planting vegetables and rearing chickens and ducks; don't compare the situation of today with what my mother and I went through almost fifty years ago.  Instead, learn from her persistence to help her family and how she carried her responsibilities on her shoulders without asking for anyone's help; learn from her resourcefulness to make up for what she did not have and to utilise fully what she did. 

I  am not shy in saying that I am proud of my mother and all the mothers of her era who did all that they could for their families without asking others for help.  And to be fair, I also applaud the mothers of today who work and strive just as hard for their families, whether they are entitled for the BR1M or not because quite frankly, with or without it, they have their own responsibilities to fulfil and that life still needs to go on.