The End Game of the Kali Yuga -The age of Decadence.

 There are days like this my mother use to tell me, when there is nothing left to contemplate and nothing worth trying to justify about. Sometimes ageing sucks and one just have to live with it. The road has been one long roller coaster of ups and down and those that you once knew up close and personal are mostly gone leaving you behind guessing what lay on the other side or will you ever meet them again. No sense in looking back and looking back is all that you have to keep your mind occupied as looking forward is all a guessing  trip, being in the here and now is the only state of being that is left worth cultivating to the fullest for being in the moment is eternity.

Took a stroll towards the sunrise during a low tide at the Malay Fisherman's Jetty off the Lim Chong Eu highway in Jelutong. This has been one of my retreat for many years and i have made many friends here having witnessed a few death among them. The Jetty will soon be a part of the Penang coastal history as soon as the developers reach this site. They call it development and argues that it creates jobs, so what can you say except they develop to create non affordable condos for the foreigners who could afford it while hiring cheap foreign workers to get the job done. At the end of the day a way of life, a culture is lost forever and the landscape will forever become a replica of some foreign crowded cities like Hong Kong or Singapore. 

 

One of the very few who still stayed strong at carrying out the fishing industry here and who is also the owner of the restaurant at the entrance to the jetty. Cutting up a 3.3 kilo Siakap or Sea Bass freshly caught the night before. In the basket are also a few Pari or Ray in English and some Sembilang or Whhitelipped Eel Catfish. These days an average young Malaysian would not be able to name three different species of fish he finds in the local market, not in Bahasa Malaysia, {Malay} nor in English.

The tide is out and it makes for good photo shots of shadows and shadows is all that is left when it all comes to an end and we call it a shadow of the past as the tide has ran out for good for these fishermen whose livelihood has been wrenched from under them. 

The shredded and weather beaten Malaysian Jalur Gemilang flags still flies reminding me the impermanence of life not even the sense of pride remains. The Malay politicians has sold their souls to the devil as they had ripped off their fellow Malays making promises that they they into the polluted sea after they had got what they wanted for themselves. Now that they are gone most of them the Malays left behind on the Island are pretty much living at the mercy of the Chinese and Indians economically as they have no back up to look to for help. They end up living in the cheap low coast housing here and there if they can afford it.

I have been taking pictures of these huts for quite sometime now recording their slow demise as they crumble into the mud. It is like watching the fall of a way of life for those who once had hopes of making it out of the way of the main crowd on the mainland. They took the chance of building these shanties on the water so they can carry out their fishing activities but time and what is called progress has not spared them.

I have been coming to this spot for over twelve years now and every time i come i find a sense of reality that reminds me of myself as i grow old and face the final countdown of decay and death. However despite it all i also find the peace and tranquility that only the sea and the open skies can give a sense that says to enjoy life while you still can as nothing in this realm last forever.