Evil that men do 2!

I just attended a charity gala dinner organised by a college in town. It was held to honour orphaned children from three orphanages. Sounds like a noble cause — the well-endowed, high-heeled attendees giving back to society, entertaining socially deprived children, and raising funds for their daily needs!

Yeah right! The nihilistic part prefers to see it from another angle...

The Evil That Men Do (1984)

The college run by corpulent capitalistic businessmen who, realising the growing concern over the decline and apprehension of the standard of public education in Malaysia, established colleges to offer quality education with affiliations to well-renowned overseas universities to attract the perpetually dissatisfied paranoid Malaysians (who never trust the official version of Malaysian statistics) to send their spoiled children to study there at exorbitant fees.

Feeling guilt and mounting criticism from the lower classes of society, similar to the heat felt from the Wall Street protesters, these business conglomerates try to cleanse their 'sins' of charging exorbitant fees by engaging in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects. The event I attended was one such example. The college offered scholarships to students with exceptional academic and extracurricular achievements, with the understanding that these top-tier students would complete their studies with a project like this—intended to evoke tears from the dinner attendees and foster 'empathy' as perceived by the wealthy college. Everyone is content: the attendees, having contributed to a noble, tax-deductible cause; the students, gaining insight into how the underprivileged live, despite most being born into privilege; the organisers, for gaining recognition that might lead to prestigious awards from monarchs—further enhancing their status in Tatler and lifestyle magazines; not to mention the caterers, hall owners, and events managers who profited handsomely from the occasion.

The teenagers, with their wealth of imagination and exposure, did a splendid job of setting the mood with the ambience (featuring multiple hues of light, as though we were caged in a submarine) and backdrop. The bourgeois and refined upbringing of the students was evident from the ushering of the guests, the multi-talented music extravaganza, and the smooth, seamless handling of the show by the designated masters of ceremonies. Even the glitch of the non-functioning microphones was wittily replaced with sign language, and the disturbance of the media player was cleverly managed — kudos!

It's sad to think that these young talents may one day leave our shores for greener pastures, leaving us with graduates who are unfit for employment, unable to converse in English, and in need of prodding for everything — like a snail, with the danger of withdrawing into their shell if the prodding is too intrusive!

The hosts managed to persuade (I often wonder if 'con'ning is part of 'convince'ing?) the numerous sponsors to part with their money, which was used to pay for the orphans' dinner tickets. The remaining amount of the total collection (RM35,000) was presented as a mock cheque to be shared among the three organisations, much to the delight of photographers who were capturing shots that would be used as CVs and KPIs for college directors and students alike. The students will add this experience of working with underprivileged children to their extensive list of certificates, helping them stand out in future scholarship interviews, entry to Ivy League or Oxbridge, or later employment in a multinational company.

Coming to the real guests of honour for the evening, they performed to the best of their abilities to entertain their hosts. Unlike their host and the rest of the paying guests, who were dressed to kill in their branded cocktail, figure-hugging dresses and stilettos, the children were content with their regular, down-to-earth street clothes (probably donations from kind souls), performing wholeheartedly to please their hosts and well-wishers, making the time and money spent worthwhile.

 

Call me weird, but in their shoes, I would feel humiliated performing like a dance monkey, performing to please my masters with their cheesy speeches and material splashing just to inflate their egos.

Evil that men do! Due to some (wo)men who treat intimate moments as recreation rather than procreation, society's disapproval and denial of promiscuity as a real problem, and the ostracisation of the offspring resulting from such acts, children are left without a social safety net. Abandoned by parent(s) who prioritise their own worldly satisfaction over their children's welfare, orphans are the unfortunate outcome.