absolute-ly missy

last week, i caught a long-anticipated show – sicko.

judging the movie by its title initially, i had imagined that this will be a movie akin to those like scary movie 1, 2 or 3 which were lame and featured slapstick, copy-cat humourless jokes. however, upon reading the film’s description from the net, i realised that this was more of a reality-type of movie.

although it will be too much of a stretch to call sickoa documentary, this film paints the hard reality of how the health-care system operates in the united states. using an often sarcastic but humorous way, michael moore explored and portrayed how the less-than-privileged (i.e. those with no health insurance) were suffering in the states.

you might ask “why didn’t these people get health insurance then? wouldn’t it make things easier for everyone?”

yeah, like they didn’t think of that huh. things ain’t so simple. to buy a health insurance, you’ll need to go through approval processes which are determined by the health insurance companies themselves.

as for those who are privileged enough to have health insurance, there are still barriers such as the scope of their insurance, under what circumstances did you fall sick etc etc. fail any one item – your insurance is rendered invalid – and that means no compensation.

the most horrifying thing is that these health insurance companies actually hire people to employ scare tactics to “persuade” the patients not to claim their insurance (from what i interpreted from the movie). doesn’t this sound like mob-like?

the movie also revealed the following scenes:

• some major health insurance companies have their fingers and toes dipped in politics to lobby for health bills to be passed so that they could make more money off their drugs or treatments.

• patients and people in dire need of medical treatment being brutally thrown out of hospitals because they’ve no money for medical bills. one of the scenes included an old lady patient being discarded from a hospital onto a cab and later, onto a public road from the cab some distance away. disorientated and lost, the old lady just wandered around along the busy road until a volunteer from a shelter found her.

moore also compared the health-care systems in the states against those of canada and other europe countries where they practised universal health-care (i.e. free health-care for everyone – paid with the people’s taxes).

apparently, in the past, there were some voices in the states which advocated the implementation of universal health-care. these voices were, however, quickly silenced by the all-powerful health insurance companies who claimed that it was a socialist movement which is inefficient and ineffective while we all know that it’s just because this system will be detrimental to their bottomlines and profits.

in an attempt to validate this claim, moore also interviewed health-care stakeholders in these countries. through analysing his findings, the universal health-care system does seem to be more satisfactory compared to a free-market system.

oh no, i’ve given away too much on the movie.

anyway, i must admit that i don’t know how much of these information from the movie is true and realistic. however, even if only 25% was true, the thought is pretty chilling…

…even much more so when i could, in my head, imagine singapore going the same way in future.

sometimes, in our haste to progress into a first-world country like the states, we sometimes forget that not everyone is able to keep up and accelerate at a comparable speed. in this case, we risk leaving them behind which will result in a heavily segmented society. is this what we really want?

moreover, it’s a generally-known fact that a large portion of our younger generation looks towards the west (especially the states) as the ideal state/environment/society. wouldn’t such attitudes propel us toward that direction even faster?

looking at our present health-care system, i’m worried – very very worried.

does it not resemble the situation that is being portrayed in the movie?

i don’t want to become old…and have to worry about whether i’ll have enough money for my medical bills when i fall sick or whether i’ll be kicked out of the hospital anytime.

that’s just too sad. what quality of life are we looking at?

i’ll strongly recommend this movie to everyone…. maybe it’ll help us gain some perspective. personally, i really feel that this movie is like us looking into a crystal ball – like a preview of how our future system will be like.

i ish saded.

movie rating: 4.5/5 – a must-watch!

an-nyo’ng-ha-se-ya?

this means “hello. how are you?” in korean.

i can literally see the text bubble on top of your heads: has missy got infected with the current korean or k-drama craze?

oh no. don’t worry.

this is about a super belated entry describing a nice evening whereby three friends went out in search of good food and entertainment.

after a long tiring search with growling stomachs covering half of the entire chinatown, we finally settled at this little korean restaurant tucked away in a quiet little corner – relatively ulu-ated part of chinatown. despite the less-than-ideal location, it was bustling and packed with customers who were slurping away at their dishes. in addition, you can hear the servers yelling orders/instructions/(or whatever they were saying) in korean throughout the restaurant.

after some observation, this joint appears to be operated by a native korean family which means that it’ll serve authentic korean fare! yay-ness!

after we’ve managed to grab a table, we eagerly flipped open the menus, only to find that it was all in korean. the only saving grace was that there were translations of the names of the dishes in simple (and i mean, really simple) english.

after trying to converse with our server with much difficulty (they don’t seemed to speak much english there), we’ve finally placed our orders.

and started waiting…..for the food to be served.

just like how the traditional korean family does it (i think), appetizers were first served to whet our appetite – not that we needed it, of course..

look, don’t they all look sooo enticing, especially the spicy cucumbers and kimchi?!

after appetizers, they proceeded to serve our main dishes. although there were only the three of us, we decided to order whatever that caught our fancy in the menu and ended up with the typical korean stone bowl rice and a modified steam-boat-y type of dish with a kimchi soup base.

the stone bowl rice might not look like it’s anything special, but we should never, ever judge a dish by its appearance.

and next up, we have…

this was sooooooooooooooooooooooo good. it was filled to the brim with various seafood, vegetables and even noodles – all soaked in good, old kimchi soup.

heavenly, i would say. i loved it.

after our orgasmic dinner, we decided to head towards vivocity – starbucks to catch up on what’s happening in our and our common friends’ lives. this was especially useful for me since i’ve missed the last major gathering…

but since we were all trigger-happy people, we naturally did not forget to indulge in a little cam-whoring.

first up, we have the…

and also featuring…

p/s: see, i’m not in black. i’ve changed. heh.

looking at all these pictures is making me want to go back to that restaurant again.

to the mates who’re seen here: can we go back again soon?

i felt like writing today… but when i finally reached home at a god-awful time for a monday night, that desire has more than waned. nonetheless, i still wanted to do something to my blog. anything.

so i did the next best thing.

i changed the layout. again.

will be back very soon… once i get the ‘feel’. heh.

last saturday, i caught one of the movies on my must-watch list – hairspray.

retro and musicals – two of my loves together

i stepped into the cinema without knowing what to expect since it was a relatively new film and i haven’t read or seen the movie trailer yet.

i didn’t even know that it’ll be a musical-movie but the retro theme, by itself, was already more than sufficient to capture my attention.

*disclaimer: contains spoilers ahead. read at your own risk.

***

the storyline was simple, cliche and light-hearted (for most parts). yet, the deceptively simple plot highlighted many issues that we’re still facing today.

acceptance of differences, racial segmentation and segregation, courage, love. these elements formed the core of the story.

the music, the songs and dances inside were full of hope, optimistism – so cheery that it will even lighten up your mood. compare this to our modern pop – full of angst, sadness and broken hearts. where did it go wrong?

somehow, musicals move me in a way that i can never quite understand. it just stirs something within me – a strong, mysterious and alluring force that makes me want to lose myself in it.

and now, this reminds me of yet another musical….

this was a question posed to me by the rational neurotic.

there was no hesitation, no delays - i knew the answer to that question immediately.

i’ve expressed that particular desire occassionally, only to be met with responses like….

“no lah, you’re not cut out for it…just wait for other people to do it for you.”

“really, oh no! we’re all in trouble!”

“aiya, you say only. i’ll wait for that day…”

such encouraging friends i have huh.

still have no clue as to what is it?

i’ve always wanted to learn driving since i was 14 but have never, ever taken driving lessons before. in the past, the cost of driving lessons deterred me. now, the lack of time is deterring me.

maybe i don’t want it badly enough yet.

some of my friends are really quite against the idea due to my bad sense of direction…they think that the time i’ll spend getting lost will be far more compared to the time that i would have saved by driving instead of taking public transport.

maybe they’re right.

but that won’t stop me!

one day…i’ll get my driving license. one day.