Kindness Doesn't Pay

The squadron decided to screen the 2000 movie "Pay It Forward" as part of our Christmas celebrations.

The movie is about how this 7th grade student, Trevor, came up with an idea of "paying it forward", as a response to his Social Studies assignment. The idea is that he will, within his capability, help three people around him, and these three people must help another three people in their lives. Those who are helped must then helped another three people on thier own so as to spread the kindness around.

It started off as a overly-utopian vision to change the world, to make the world a better place. No one thought that the concept would succeed. Not even Trevor. But it did. It started off in Las Vegas, then the movement spread to Los Angeles, then to Phoenix, and across America.

But in the end, the founder of this "Pay It Forward" movement was murdered, ironically, when he was trying to rescue his friend from the school bullies. He was stabbed in his abdomen.

It certainly didn't pay off for him.

I was watching "The Little Nyonya" the night before.



Yuzhu (Joanne Peh) tried to free Yueniang (Jeanette Aw) so that she can elope with Chen Xi (Qi Yu Wu), the man whom she truly loves and not be forced to marry Liu Yidao, a crazy fellow whom Yueniang doesn't fancy and yet insists that Yueniang to follow his mother's wishes of marrying him.

Coincidentally, villian Robert Zhang was attracted by the beauty of Yueniang when he saw her locked in her own room (to prevent her from escaping), so he tried to get fresh with her, but instead Yuzhu laid on Yueniang's bed as she thought that one of her evil family members was trying to check on Yueniang. Never did she expect herself to fall pray to Robert Zhang.

Worse still, Robert Zhang's outrage of Yuzhu's modesty was witnessed by her own sister, Zhenzhu, who chose to ignore the incident as she wanted to marry Chen Xi, who was initially forced to marry Yuzhu.

It's hard for me not to draw the connection, after watching "Pay It Forward" and "The Little Nyonya", that being kind doesn't pay. Trevor dided while trying to save his friend from bullying; Yuzhu got raped while helping Yueniang to escape from a forced marriage.

It's disheartening. I don't know whether or not to lose faith in humanity. Nice people may win reality TV shows, but that's about it. In real life, being nice doesn't bring you far, neither does being nice reward you.

I know the act of helping shouldn't be tagged with a reward. But neither do I want myself to suffer from miseries and misfortunes despite continuous efforts in helping others. It is just unfair.

Look, even an extremely stingy person who refuse to even treat his friends can win big money during several mahjong games, how fair is that? Till now, he has never ever bought something for any of us in the platoon. Not a can of drink. Not even a piece of candy.

Yet his luck in mahjong is unfairly superb.

Apparently being nice, helpful and benevolent doesn't pay. Unless you stop being nice, shit will just keep coming at you. Even my mother agrees after watching that episode of "The Little Nyonya". 好心没好报, she sighed.

What happened to karma?

We shouldn't be expecting any forms of reward when we decide to help others. Altruism should come from the bottom of your heart. The only source of motivation should be your desire, your want to help others. External factors, like the availability of tangible rewards, should never play a part in your decision to help. That wouldn't be "true helping" anymore.

However, what we expect would be fairness from God, from the One, from O Heavens. Be fair. Treat us like how we truly deserve. The characters in the movie and the drama serials may be fictional, but they certainly are reflections of the lives of many individuals on this planet -- kind souls who are unfairly treated.

What goes around comes around? But does that apply to kindness? Will the kindess that we spread eventually come back to us? From the looks of it, the answer is probably no.

It's just disappointing.