Vice @ MindSay

A poem that gives both my pencil and pen voice. I was also hoping that people who use different tools for example, camera, paint brush, carving knife, keyboard etc. would enjoy this as if it were the voice of their tools too.

The key

I unfurl souls so dark they enlighten the world
And souls so bright they give and take the gift of sight
If you can not see with me the truth of my brilliance has blinded you
If you can not feel with me the mystique of my darkness has confounded you
With me you’ll be touched as though my every word has subdued and bound you
As though my very art has fell from the blue and surrounded you
It is true that there is no escape from all I create
I am the key to the soul
With my power a universe is given shape
But it is you who holds all control

By M.D. Watson

 Police-Writers.com is a website that lists state and local police officers who have written books. The website added three police officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department: Kim Thomas, Gordon Yach and Harry Fagel.

 

Kim Thomas is a detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, currently assigned to the forgery detail. His other investigative assignments included a joint operation with the FBI targeting an organized crime group of Eastern Europeans who defrauded $34 million from stolen credit cards.  Kim Thomas, a former U.S. Air Force enlistee has also been a construction worker, limosine driver and worked in executive protection. In 1992, at the age of 36, Kim Thomas entered the police academy.  A sixth-degree black belt in Katai-te Ryu karate, Kim Thomas scored 100 percent on the Metro physical test even though he was one of the older members of his police academy class.

 

Kim Thomas is the author of the novel Vegas: One Cop’s Journey.  According to the book description, “Cam Madden had a good job and a carefree bachelor lifestyle when he impulsively tried out for the police academy of the Las Vegas PD. Now that he's mastered the theories of law enforcement his education in its realities begins with field training and an ugly suicide call.  Learning the lessons of the street leaves scars on Cam's ego, but it's even rougher on his off-duty relationships with women. It doesn't matter until he falls for Karrie Mae, a paramedic, whereupon making it work becomes all important. Their romance grows in a world of burglars, bums, purse snatchers, drug dealers, and homicidal idiots, no two of them alike but each to be dealt with according to endless regulations, some of which cannot work without being severely bent.”

 

Gordon Yach is a 27 year veteran of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Clark County Sheriff’s Office. During his career, he worked patrol, detectives, vice, narcotics and intelligence.  He rose through the ranks and eventually retired as the Director of the Detention Services Division.  He is the author of Las Vegas... a Cops View Of... the Glamour, Glitz, Graft, Good & Evil of Sin City.

 

Harry Fagel has lived in Las Vegas for 30 years. He is a Police Officer with Las Vegas Metropolitan police Department. According to Harry, he has also been a “bartender, a black jack dealer, a college student, and a madman.”   Harry Fagel is the author of Street Talk.  According to the book description, “Take a ride with Officer Harry Fagel through the streets of Las Vegas as he weaves his black and white from glass - littered alleys to high end mega-resorts pausing along the way to show you a world from the emotionally charged, highly visual perception of a street cop gone poet or maybe poet gone street cop.”

 

Police-Writers.com now hosts 640 police officers (representing 281 police departments) and their 1367 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.

I went to a few different places after work. I needed to find some programs for my computer. Well, some other things caught my eyes, which are some DVDs. I wanted to see Slither and Miami Vice, so I got in in one of those 9 movies on one DVD. Usually, I haven't bought much movies lately. First, I wanted to see these, and since it only cost 5 yuan, then I wasn't going to back down. So, I got those, and finally headed over to the another department store for the programs, because I was guaranteed the English version. I got the English versions and my wife can use the Microsoft word on my computer again. Also, I don't have to guess my way through the Chinese words to get my work done. I will go now, and see everyone later

"My documents are ready for collection?

 Yes, Sir. Please give me a moment

 ...

 Here it is, Sir. Please check if all your required documents are in the file.

 Alright, they're all here. Thank you very much ~ WARM SMILE ~

 And, Sir, this one stamp is $40, and the other one costs $20.

 Oh... okayyy... How should I make the payment, please?"

Having been a scholar for 5 years, I might've taken all the full coverage for granted. Yes, I did occasionally have to come down to government ministries myself for certification / extension / renewal of my documents [ In S'pore, you don't wish to be an illegal person any single day. Of this I am pretty sure ]. But never had I needed to pay for any government service that met my full needs. Well, the MOE and the MOM charged nothing for their letters.

 

Until the ICA staff smilingly stated the processing fee of some whopping $60, I had thought S'pore offered the most desirable government service; hussle-free (mostly), efficient, and cheap (or free).

 

Don't take me wrong there! I'm not saying the ICA shouldn't have charged nothing. I guess I'm educated and thoughtful enough to understand that the folks who responded to my inquiries, who issued me the SVP application form and the Q ticket, who took my application and asked me to come collect my stuff at an alloted time, and whoever worked backdoor processing my few pieces of paper could have many much better things to do with their time on me. They deserve the fees. I am glad I contributed to the economy of S'pore, even when I'm no longer on its scholarship (soon will be again I hope).

 

Maybe I was simply taken aback because my friend told me it cost her $40 bucks. I thought that was intimidating enough for a 10 x 15 cm green card. And she thought it was because she'd lost her student pass. Well, now I realize it might be that as she's a Malaysian, she doesn't need a Visa to further stay in S'pore like me, a loyal Vietnamese.

 

Well, I think I'm heartbroken because I'm simply broke. The next two months would be of hell, no movies (except for the Cathay complementary passes), no Cafe Cartel, no ChinaBlack (I haven't checked it out ever)... the next two months will be fully for work, and sleep, and interviews [ I am growing sicker of interviews though I know without them I would be damn sad hahaha ].

 

Alright, that's about it for my today, a day aplenty of unnecessary travelling due to miscalculations (which was the shortest route?) and absent-mindedness (took 2 instead of 12) and unforeseen circumstances (cancellation of date)... and a day of cooling rains that made my fragile buff-turned-flabby body feel sick...

 

While dozing off over the Chinese drama show on Channel 8, my eyes wandered upon yesterday's Straits Times... I have lost touch with one of my coolest lovers... I'm sick of it, because I had to browse its Classified for 3 entire days without landing myself any proper job...

 

You know, the thing about being in a foreign country is that when your home country is featured on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, posters, reports and etc., you would somehow feel proud, especially when you're a fine young man whose heart embraces the novel tale of your home and its future like me, and especially when your country is a galloping horse out of the backward quarry of the jungle into man's civilisation, like mine, Vietnam, because it's not likely to be mentioned (there's nothing to) or not even known to men (like Burkina Faso)...

 

But hey, don't worry if you're not at all interested in how your country is performing... or you come from the like of Switzerland or Japan... I still believe somewhere deep in your occupied heart, there lies some tinge of sentiment towards your home...  ... it might be hatred as well...

 

anyway, let's snap back... I'm talking about the Straits Times... well, though S'pore is one of the top three foreign investors in Vietnam, I don't see much of the latter in local newspapers... and when there happens to be some news significant enough to take up the precious little ST space, I could bet all of them are bad and turn out an overall winner.

 

Guess what? I won (as expected). The Minister for Transport is dismissed on charges of shameful corruption. Though the Politburo has yet to give their final verdict, I believe these scum of Vietnam should be eliminated, in the most ruthless ways possible. Hanging wouldn't be bad.

 

Don't even talk to me about leniency and morals. These criminal-mistaken-officials siphoned foreign donations / investments off to the EPL matches. Alas I couldn't get any worse alternative. These guys wanna compete with the US$ 1.8 million-a-match man (I wish his money comes clean), solely on state's money? Futile attempt... They have no guts to bet big (I would be surprised if theirs are big enough to cleanse their bodies of filth).

 

Well, I read of this on VietNamNet and DanTri.com. I didn't understand what hullabaloo it was all about actually. I just knew it was some serious matter when the Minister (should I stil capitalize the word?) had to sit in a press conference to answer to all the accumulated questions / critiques / insults / doubts. I'm not too familiar with the government culture in Vietnam. But I still bet that besides the questions, you're not getting anything useful there, unless you work for some tabloids that feed on lies.

 

Okay. It's about some PMU 18. I'm surprised this is actually an English abbreviation. It's used in the Vietnam's online news portals I spoke of above too. I mean, how do they actually expect the Viet folks to get what this PMU group is all about and its responsibilities? No offence, but I don't think many Viets are that versed in English, at all. [ hey, I'm simply being truthful here ]. By the way, I don't quite remember what PMU stands for actually... Project Management Unit?

 

Well, same old story retold yet again in a brand new fashion. I thought after years of trivial corruption, the pilice force has done the right thing by significantly fueling its pay budget, and that should be the way for other government bodies as well. Hell no, for every single policeman that turns clean (like my uncles and my mother's colleagues) [ my mother is not included as she's not exactly a policewoman ], there should be two guys having some good fun with the people's money. What am I based on?

 

I don't know. It's just a feeling, a silent, yet venomous one, that has grown from the years of desperate hope for a country of which corruption index could only beat the all-champion Indonesians to be clean, like S'pore...

 

I was home last year. And one night I was having this unexpected phone call (that lasted all the way till 3am, and we started off at like, 11pm?) from a close friend. We were hullabaloo-ing about boys and girls, when she suddenly asked about my English... and eventually it led to where I wanna work... I proudly said I wanna work in Vietnam, as an investor or a politician, in some 15 years' time. The other line felt ... silent... and then came a sigh of disapproval... "Well, you should know it ain't easy getting your ideals realized here. I'll be glad that you're kidding, for one."

 

Not exactly an encouraging sign for me to have more faith, is it?

 

Well, I told the STB scholarship interview guy that I would prefer the private sector in Vietnam, whereas in S'pore, there's no personal preference over the public or the private sector. All I care about is meritocracy and efficiency.

 

Please prove me wrong! You don't have to now. But in ten years' time. Please!