no taming of the shrew

the sad fact of life is that one must be fierce, brusque even to guarantee results in this cold, heartless world. it's a dog-eat-dog climate out there where one sign of weakness means you are at the losing end. when i was little, i thought that phrase was just for the movies, for fables and story tales. now i find myself adopting the same defensive stance where it makes a difference.

you walk into the room, you hold your head high, a little nose in the air even. you act like you matter, like you are someone important, and everybody else will think you are. i'm not preaching that you should be rude, never rude at any cost. all the requisite please and thank you's but with the air of someone who doesn't take nonsense and the answer 'no'. for that is what most people will tell you, NO. it's their very basic instinct, goes deep down in some unknown rookie training we have never heard of. NO. that's the one thing they teach you to say when faced with any question. sorry, we don't have it. sorry, we can't do it. sorry, it's not possible. give them a little of that 'i'm very busy, i can't wait, i won't take no for an answer' and wa lah! what do you know, yes, we have it, yes we can do it, yes it's possible, difficult but still possible.

why does our sick world work in this way? i have no idea. in my ideal world, you can be as nice to anybody as you please, you can smile, you can let your guard down, you can do nice things for strangers and not get hacked to pieces. however, there is no country out there that such a dream society can exist, not even in deserted islands. smile at the locals and you may just be staring down the eyes of a drooling man-eating cannibal. so, if you want results, if you want to be heard, act like you are the next primadonna in town and chances are, they will believe you are and fall over themselves serving you.

mum bought herself a gold loop earring whilst window-shopping one day. she called me the next day to moan that the earring broke when she attempted to open them. not perform wild acrobatic acts with them, mind you, just open them. sigh. i knew what will ensue but still there is no way out. i can almost see the scene that will unfold next. i was already worn out before it began.

we went back to the jewellers and complain about their poor quality product. i reasoned with him. i showed him how we opened the earring, which broke again in my hand as we spoke. he kept shaking his head. sorry, we can buy them back from you but you will have to lose some money, they said. lose some money?! it's less than 24 hours that we brought the item back and haven't even had the chance to use it and we have to lose money? they come up with lame defective stuffs and expect us to lose money over it? a classic case of big corporations against small individuals. i had no choice but to unleash the little shrew that i brought along with me in my little pocket. i went ballistic. . he kept shaking his head. sorry, he said, that's the rule. what rule? i don't see any rule displayed out loud and clear. i asked for his supervisor. i asked for his manager. i would have asked for his mother but obviously she has nothing to do with the matter. sorry for that man but i minored in law. i brought in what little knowledge i had about merchantable qualities and reporting him to the consumer association. i threatened him a little about the company's reputation, which i believe he doesn't really give a heck about. i brought out all the bullets i had and a little bit more. after i was done talking, he finally agreed to change it at the same price. i didn't feel one bit of satisfaction. why do things have to be so hard? why can't people do the morally correct thing? i felt totally drained and exhausted, despite winning the fight. life shouldn't be like that.