Regarding the event that took place at the supermarket, my
brother, age 11, happened to be present as he and his classmates
were chased away by the hypermart's executive.
I find the incident truly appalling, that my brother, along with
the rest of the special kids, are being robbed of the opportunity
to learn life skills- skills that the rest of us took for granted,
whereas special kids can only learn through a step-by-step
approach. With the kids delighted to learn a new life skill during
their fieldtrip, and I know that for a fact because by brother
would hold on to the product that he purchased for hours every time
he returned home form his guided shopping trip, only to be to be
considered a nuisance to other shoppers and chased out of the
hypermart that claims to be FAIR,.
Is there something truly wrong with our social fabrication??? I
read a front-page article on TODAY paper not long ago about
Singaporeans apathetic social tolerance towards foreigners and
expatriates. What I find an even larger social problem is that we
cannot even tolerate, or a more subtle word, accommodate special
groups of people within our own society because it is simply more
convenient to detach them from the society at large.
My brother and his friends shunned away from what could be an
educative and eventful experience just so that a hypermart which
claims to be FAIR can uphold its pristine image to its customers
when there were hardly any in the middle of the afternoon. And in
return, a mere apology that truly counts for nothing constructive.
And we expect to become a more accommodating society with apologies
after apologies, it seems like we have a really long way to
go.