Enjoy

This one is brilliant in its original form. So I am going to copy and paste it and just let it be, so you can read it and enjoy it as much as I did.

From the Star: Funny words

LONDON LOG
By CHOI TUCK WO

Graffiti is providing a dose of humour amidst the current economic gloom.

Amid the gloom and doom of the global financial crisis, all it took was a mere piece of graffiti to lift the spirits. That’s not to say there’s nothing to cheer about these days; reports of petrol price dipping below £1 (RM6.50) per litre and food bills tumbling have brought relief all round.

But with the flurry of depressing news hogging the media spotlight, it has to be a graffiti wall sprayed with graffiti - yes of all things! - that provided a little respite.

From Charles Dickens to Les Dawson, the British are said to be never funnier than when they are miserable. And from that philosophy of finding hilarity in hardship has come some of the best humour in local history.

When news broke out about a £3,000 (RM19,500) graffiti wall being put up in a Cornish town for youths to express themselves through graffiti, many were bemused with what was happening. Others felt it was a blatant waste of public funds, especially during times of economic hardship.

The general perception is the money could have been better spent on more worthy projects. Upgrading the local library, sports field or even the community hall were among those suggested.

And when someone jumped the gun and sprayed a protest message - “I paid my tax and all I got was this lousy wall” - ahead of the wall’s opening end of this month, Pandora’s box was opened.

Obviously, the police in Wadebridge, a bustling market town north of Cornwall, were not amused with the prankster “scooping” them with his mark on the wall.

The writing’s on the wall, wrote the local Cornish Guardian, as it reported being deluged with calls from local residents about the uninvited message.

Well, the wall’s not even opened yet, the police argued. And they now have to “crime it, investigate it and paint over it,” incurring yet more taxpayer’s money.

Then again, what probably irked the authorities was not so much that they were beaten to it but by what was written on the wall.

After all, the wall was built specifically for graffiti in the first place. It was to have been intended for youths to put their marks on other than on other people’s property.

With all the fuss over the graffiti, the prankster is probably laughing at the attention his message has generated. And that’s exactly what he wanted - he has had the local media falling for it, as attention switched from catching the culprit to spending money on worthy projects.

The bigger issue, however, is why people have resorted to communicating through graffiti in the first place?

Some regard it as a way of putting across social and political messages. Others view it as an artform.

Whatever their intention, defacing property with graffiti without the owner’s consent is simply vandalism; there are no two ways about it.

Perhaps, those concerned should consider channelling their energy on their back garden walls or those of their parent’s. That way, they only have themselves to blame for any repercussions.