The Right Mistakes - My Life As a Singapore Gangster(Book review)

I bought this book several months ago, I think it was in the beginning of the year, but I never had a chance to read them till late, The reason? I bought this book for someone I know who had been convicted for drug charges, I didn't know if this book was going to be good for him, I just trusted my instincts, So far, this book that I bought had been read by two inmates before I got a chance to read it.

This book is a story about a young man, his life, the transition between his childhood years to young adulthood. Foo Yin Tung's story pretty much touched me pretty deep.

The reason why I got engrossed with this book, was how open-minded and local it is, Yin Tung wrote about the events that happened around his life as a gangster and how it started, it is not just in english, but in chinese, as well as Hokkien and some Cantonese(in pin-yin), the amount of vulgarities inside is pretty real, neither under or over exaggerated.


Yin Tung's book emphasizes a lot on "Who am I?", it struck him during on of his last fights when he was verbally and physically scolded by a victim's father who came chasing him down. That "Who am I?", had been sticking around my head as well.

Yin Tung's story reminds me of more "stories" I heard about my primary and secondary school friends getting imprisoned, but I never really know what made them "turned that way", perhaps it was peer pressure? To be cool?(I fucking disagree with this) to feel accepted?(I actually prefer this answer).

A few quotes from his book.(No copyrights intended hor)
".....不是怕跌倒，是怕没有机会啊。"(Don't be afraid of falling, be afraid if there are no more opportunities.)
"What have you done with your life?"

Well, read the book and let it be as an inspiration to you as it is to me now. It might not be the greatest book in the world, but Yin Tung's life story really hit me hard.



On the other hand, it's amazing how much a wake-up call for me it served for me, I had been going into the so-called "growing up" phase in life, I had been having difficulties sleeping sometimes and even concentrating, all because I had something going on in my mind, "What the fuck are you going to be when you grow up?", I had been asking myself for like the 4th month now.

I am now 19, I will be 20 pretty soon, few more months before I start serving the nation through National Service, I had been feeling down and lousy simply because I have not found my life's purpose yet. Lately, I also realised that I can't fucking associate with everyone, I can't fucking work with everyone, because not everyone of us think alike.

I can be seen as offensive to some, I am sorry, but if you don't tell me my mistakes, I will never know. After all, I would prefer to stay real, I can't be who you want me to be, if you accept me for who I fucking am, thank you, for being real as well, friend.

Perhaps soon, I will find "myself", without fucking up, how can I know right from wrong?

I don't know how Yin Tung is doing, but hey, Yin Tung, if you're reading this, I just wanna *fist-fist bump* greet you, your story has reached me.