visually challenged

erm... who's visually challenged, here?

Been going through the blogs highlighted in tomorrow.sg and came upon many infuriated bloggers posting about their brush with pretty rude, if not inconsiderate people.

Rude Singaporeans
Grr..
Just a Nudge

Pretty appaling, I must say and you begin to wonder just what happened to the courtesy campaign? Has it been a failure? Maybe we should consider an ad similar to the one done by the Malaysian govt. with regards to courtesy on their LRTs? Where they have this ill-mannered man in the LRT who pretend to sleep and do other what-nots just so he dun have to give up his seat for THOSE WHO NEED IT. It's very much in-your-face kind of ad.

And yet, some people actually overlook the actual purpose of that ad and what it's meant to campaign. They chose instead, to question, "Why a man of a 'certain race' was potrayed as being ill-mannered?" Read this: The Television Ad Dispute.

***********************************************************************************
I recall one incident I encountered while in the bus on the way to work one morning.

FYI, public buses in Singapore have allocated some seats to be meant for the needy: pregnant ladies, the elderly, children or those carrying kids. They've even gone a step further by having these seats in a different colour (usually green) from the other seats on the bus. And put a sign to specifically say: "Please give up this seat to...." (you get the drift). And the reason why these seats are located where they are is because they are near to the doors, hence making it easily accessible for them to alight. It was made convenient for THEM beacause they have more difficulty moving and it's for YOUR own good too cos' they won't slow everyone down by taking a longer time to alight. Gettit?

Okay.... Anyway there was this one YOUNG (and possibly healthy) lady seated at one of those green seats right beside the exit door. I was standing diagonally from where she's seated and she definitely wasn't asleep. At the next stop, a visually impaired teenage girl board the bus. How I know she's visually-impaired? Simple. She was holding using a WHITE WALKING STICK. Very obvious, rite?

And she stopped right in front of that YOUNG lady seated beside the door and said, "Hello? Hello? Excuse me." That lady just looked up at this girl, wide-eyed as if surprised that anyone would have the cheek to ask her to get up from her seat. By now everyone was looking at them. The girl repeated, "Hello, hello..?" Isn't it obvious that she's asking whoever seated there to give up the seat for her cos' she DEFINITELY NEEDS IT?

And then there was this loud knock on the window panel beside the seated girl. A middle-aged man was knocking on the window, signalling to the seated lady to let the girl sit. He was mouthing, "Get up!" Thay guy's definitely her the father, who had been watching from outside and must have been pissed to see that his daughter was being denied the seat that she NEEDS (note: I said need, not want).

It took a while for it to register in the young lady's head that the teenage girl standing in front of her, holding the white walking stick must be visually-challenged and needed that seat just so she can alight easily. I'm sure by then, she would have noticed the stares she received from the other passengers. She hurriedly moved to the back. Bless the bus driver captain for not driving off until that girl was finally seated. Right then, I'll be most glad should a very kaypoh auntie come over to that young lady and reprimand her for making that girl wait so long for the very seat she deserved.

Seriously.