samedi, octobre 15, 2005 We went out to Jalan Kayu last night - Stan, WL, Jared, FT, Jeff and FT's friend Wei Cheng. While waiting for a parking spot at the newly constructed URA carpark, I was observing a fat old Indian man, who seemed to be loitering mysteriously around the carpark area for some reason. I soon found out why.The person who arrived before me soon got a space, and proceeded to park his car. Like a fly zooming in on rancid carrion, this man started towards the car, and started staring intently at the driver. I don't mean just staring from the side of the road, I mean he actually went beside the car, stood next to the side mirrors, bent down and stared into the driver's face as he parked the car. After the family exited the car, he simply held out his hand, and waited for some spare change. (The driver gave it to him.) I watched this happen to another car motorist, and a female bike-rider too - I thought that he'd give the bikers a break, but the hand was outstretched all the same. Who is this man? Why is he out there? Where does he sleep? Does he have family to take care of him? Or is he part of the Jalan Kayu establishment? Extra revenue for that row of shophouses? This old guy has a beer belly the size of Sentosa, and was walking around the carpark at 10pm at night barefoot. If the carpark were less well-lit, and if there weren't so many other people around, I think I'd be really freaked out and would possibly call the cops on him. But as it is, he's in a rather miserable position. It got me thinking about the marginalised in society, and how they've become rather invisible to me, as I climb the ivory tower's steps. It's always hard to see the marginalised in society when you live in an urban society - apartments are built to do just that - keep everyone apart from each other. You don't see anyone, and you barely interact. The press usually doesn't cover anything important, preferring instead to cover political-economic issues. Hurricane Katrina revealed America's poverty to the rest of the world - America, the world superpower. America, that country that keeps telling others what to do. America, the globe's agenda-setter. What more Singapore?  This frightens me. A rather fundamental assumption which I hold to has been shown to be a fallacy. What more other, more important assumptions? What makes this Sesame Street Assumption more deadly is that it was made in innocence - I did not make the assumption to further my own social status; it does not help me argue for any particular cause of oppressing the marginalised - and yet, this assumption automatically oppresses the marginalised because it does not even acknowledge their presence. Without acknowledgement, dialogue cannot take place. Without dialogue, change cannot occur. If I cannot see the marginalised, I will not be able to enact change. And that's why that scares me. [Sesame Street assumptions] |
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