Gossip Man

Move aside Gossip Girl.

At the risk of sounding like a  feminist bigot, I want to nitpick on a certain species today which goes by the name of man(kind). In particular, about men and the gossip syndrome. The husband once told me, men don’t gossip. I beg to differ as I observe otherwise.

In the mornings, I like to take a walk around the neighborhood shops. There are several coffeeshops and mamak joints. The whole scene is just there for the perfect Gossip Man setting. Just walking through and passing by and then walk alongside the tables. There are usually tables of men. Most of them with ciggies enough to make them look like chimneys, teh/kopi tarik, roticanai/nasi lemak.OR, do likewise in the late afternoons. Other than the morphing of roti canai/nasi lemak into karipap/goreng pisang, the setting AND the activities are pretty much the same.And listen to them do that very thing they darn the women best for –gossiping. Yes, they gossip!

Oh but of course, they will never ever admit to gossiping ( in female term, it’s bitching), but listen to them go on and on about this politician and that politician! Listen to them go on a detailed analysis of the latest political saga. They are more detailed, I think than the average psychologist from FBI. Listen to them and their ‘intellectual’ gestures when they opiniate, analyse, argue, name drop, boomed and exaggerate. A phenomena, no?

A girlfriend defined this observation for me today. That this IS a form of male gossip, ( which in most instances the world over, they swear upon their mother’s grave they don’t do ). Another girlfriend calls it the NATO syndrome, the No Action Talk Only–which is the basis of this post, on these men, who talk and talk and talk till the cows not only fly but they have started to form a colony in space– are all just that, political talk but no action.

In reality, most of these coffee shop political “champions” do very little or nothing at all, to get down to the ground level of improving the social situation with their ‘holier-than-those-crappy-politician-souls-whom-they-loudly-judge-and-criticize-about’ selves. Man, get off from those mamaks and look around. So many things to be done, which you have loudly chided the politicians for not doing. Like first of all, go and pick up after your own litters! And then go and learn driving properly instead of always trying to murder a pedestrian or another motorist. And then spend time with your kids by teaching them not to emulate the politicians you vehemently judge and show them by example. Or, help the mat rempit kids back to education…and..  oh the list goes on and on. And sitting around in mamak joints wasting time in political gossips won’t save our future, dudes!

And it is not only here mind you. Male friends back home, don’t snigger. This is for you too. Fancy all of you obsessing and gossiping about Malaysian politics and then whine about the lack of it in SG. There are things to do there too, which you yourselves know better since children are getting battered and killed by stressed parents, maids abused, teenage pregnancies rising…

Mahatma Gandhi puts it nicely when he said ” Be the change you want to see”

Unfortunately, our men instead of leading us towards that change, choose to gossip instead.