Personally, I would have a little assessment of my life at this moment, to think about what I have done this year, and things I miss as well. Also, a general review about the happenings this year, and how they affect my life, and my future. It's not a 10,000-word-report type of assessment ^^; just a quick thought. My experience is that if you spend too much time thinking about the past, you'll regret many of them, which will then make your future seems extremely depressing.
Occasionally, I kind of have this "End of the Year Dilemma" - a feeling that many bad things always come up at the end of the year. The feeling became apparent these few years, when there were so many sad events hitting the world around me in one way or the other. The feeling worsened when I could acknowledge the damage but have very little power to do anything at all. At the edge of understanding the responsibilities of an adult, the feeling of being 'powerless' and even 'useless' when such problems happen is totally frustrating for me.
30th December 2003 is a sad date for fans of Chinese pop music. It was the day when Anita Mui (梅艳芳) pass away because of cervical cancer. I'm not a big fan of Anita Mui, as I'm a little too young to fully appreciate her work, but I always enjoy her songs and movies. Her ever changing image was always ahead of her time. A few days before her death, I paid close attention to all news about her after she formally announced her illness to the world, and I hoped that some sort of miracle would happen and she would ultimately survive. I still remember early morning of 30th December 2003, when I heard from the radio that Anita Mui lost the war against cancer and died. The dead silence in the room, and later the realization that I'll never get the chance to watch or hear from her again (before that I was planning to save money to go to her concert in Hong Kong) is almost unbearable.
Love her, hate her, there's no denying that the Chinese entertainment industry is never the same anymore after Anita Mui's decease.
One of her movies, The Heroic Trio which also featured super-stars Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung is one of the movies I watched when I was still in primary school, and enjoy very much even till today.
December 2005 is another tragic year-end for many people. The news about the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami which killed over 200 thousand lives is still fresh in the memory of many. I was in Kuala Lumpur when the tragedy struck my neighboring country of Indonesia, and sitting in a comfortable hotel room watching the news on TV was a very sad experience for me. I was blessed, extremely blessed to be safe from such horrible natural disaster, but I kept thinking about the people who might be hanging on a tree starving while waiting for help, and the many parents and children at the salvation camp waiting for their family members who will never return again.
Sad.
;_;
The tragedy to mark the end of 2007 is the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan. I was still a kid who knows nothing about the world when she became the Prime Minister of her country. When I began to learn more about the world, I could see how hard her life must have been in leading a troubling country filled with violence, even harder when she was leading a South Asian country where power was held by men traditionally. Besides stress from political rivals and her opponents in her government, there were constant attempts on her life, even when she was not in power anymore. Alas, she couldn't survive the latest assassination attempt, and the world lost another great woman.
Image from BBC News.
Benazir Bhutto's endurance and courage are great inspiration for all of us. I think when there are problems in our life, we should not falter, but instead, we should soldier on until the problems are solved. Life is hard, but at least we are not threatened by unknown death. Those with great ambition are not being given the chance to show their potentials and abilities, and we who are still breathing should appreciate life and live it to the fullest.
Tragedies here and there, but a new year is coming anyway. Honestly, I don't know how to make this world a better place, but I do know how to make a better me.
Happy 2008 everyone!
