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Call it what you will but I am completely undeterred by the fact that there were discrepancies between the account Ah Um told the guy and her reality. I don't really have the energy to explain why, but I remember when I was younger, around 13.. 1/
... my late grandmother decided to cook some simple dishes to sell for extra money. It was me and my grandaunt's task to sell it. We would just stand under the block with the food and ask passersby if they would like to buy a pack ($2 fried macaroni, fried noodles..) 2/
My grandaunt has been through a lot in her life (sexual and domestic abuse, divorce, poverty). One day while we were selling these packs of food, there was a lady who stopped to talk to her. And they talked for hours (and I had to continue selling alone lol) 3/
My grandaunt was pouring her heart out to a stranger because this person was listening. Edouard Louis said that the poor are invisible. It's true, we really were invisible to this society that does not give a fuck about you. Her account was so dramatic, some parts even untrue. 4/
I am not exaggerating when I say there are people in this country who have not had someone outside their family (or even within their family) listen to them their whole lives. And not exaggerating when I say sometimes they don't even know how to behave when that happens. 5/
I have observed so many behaviours in the lonely, the dispossessed, the ones damned by the society that may seem absurd to others, but is completely understandable to me. People have strong attachments to their life story and how it would sound to a stranger 6/
A stranger who listens in a society that so violently refuses to listen to you is an Event. Your self-consciousness, your sense of dignity, pride, shame, all of these things can suddenly twist together and make you do strange things when your story is so precious to you. 7/
Anyway, this is no longer about Ah Um. But the way things are playing out, MSF's response, the fixation on the "truth" of the account for me are all just a massive Missing The Point and just a confirmation of how out of touch the elites are. No point to this thread either.
Also, shout out to the passersby who bought the fried macaroni and noodles. It's been so many years but I could tell from their body language that they were buying it more for us than for themselves. They knew why we were just standing at the void deck peddling food.
