A little whisper in the dark

Face?

Despite hating the fact that I have TV (which I hardly watch nowadays) being thrust in my face when I am travelling on the bus, I do spare it some attention sometime only to be rewarded with TV trailers like this:

Doctor: I'm sorry, but we'll have to remove your womb.......

Patient: But you don't understand, if you remove my womb, I can't have babies!

It struck me as more than just a little oversight that the patient is telling the doctor what was already painfully obvious; true that this is a TV drama, but let's be a little bit more logical and anchored into reality here......

This week Singapore had another go at separating conjoined twins. The previous try ended in tears, and I had a bit of a random thought that some Iranian militants might be so pissed off with the Raffles Hospital staff they might've contemplated bombing the place or something drastic. Anyway, I couldn't help but feel that it was to a certain extent a face saving gesture that motivated the Raffles Hospital staff to make another attempt. To redress the balance. To put wrong things right. To end the balance sheet in the black than in the red.

Its literally a cold, calculating, and clinical job, isn't it?

But in the end its about reputation, or in Asian society, better known as face. And its about face that neither Singapore nor Malaysia are willing to back down from a water supply dispute that's flared up again after the SARS scare is over. Sticking to your guns long enough would be called determination, but sticking to it for way too long would be foolish stubborness.

posted by Chung Leong @ 3:44 AM