THE COLOUR, BLACK

Colour plays a very important role in our lives.  It has great influence and plays with our moods and feelings.  It has tremendous power over our perception of things and how we view the world.  Even our language has used colour to drive home a point or use colour to give a graphic description or emphasis.  Colour affects emotions and plays a big part how people behave and perceive the world.  Generally, colour and its effects cuts across race and culture.

The colour, black, invoke in many of us, especially those who are a generation older than us, a sense of uneasiness and a feeling of foreboding.  We wear black when someone dies.  Black projects and portrays ominous and portentous situations.  When we see black clouds we know a storm is approaching.  It has grim and sinister connotations and this is reflected in how we use the word “black” in idioms to express the negatives in our relationship with the world.  When a black cat crosses our paths we feel a sense of dread.

Milton Friedman, the renowned economist who won the Nobel Prize for Economics postulates that the black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling (empowering) people.

My neighbour has three children.  All, except youngest one, are professionals of high standing in society.  The black sheep of the family values life as a vagabond without the restrictions of being part of the system society imposes.

William Tan, a close friend of mine, took a flight to London with the intention to seek employment without a work visa.  Upon arrival, he was stopped and denied entry at the immigration control counter.  He was kept in a holding area for deportation.  He has been put on a black list and his passport was stamped “BLI” or “Black Listed Immigrant”.

Terence Ng is the Marketing Director for a multi-national company the past ten years.  He worked hard to reach his position.  However, he has a dark secret.  For the past five years he has been receiving kickbacks for some large contracts.  Unfortunately, a colleague has discovered his little secret and has started to blackmail him for a cut of the ill-gotten gain.

Cinderella ran from the house as the wicked and black-hearted witch started to invoke her spells.  In her haste, she lost a shoe without realising it.

Kim is a political satirist and has a knack for seeing through the wiles of dishonest and self-interest politicians.  She used her god given talent to inject some black humour in her caricatures of these high profile politicians.

Tim and his good friend, David loves the outdoors during summer.  Both, at twelve are precocious youngsters who like the rough and tumble games of football and rugby.  After a game, they would come home laughing though suffering black and blue over most of their bodies.

There was an explosion at the power plant supplying electricity to Ipoh City.  As a result, the city experienced a total black-out since two days ago.  The engineers are still trying to fix the problem.