Today was worse. Had kids who said 'thank you' and were scolded by their parents for that. The adults admonished, "Say 'thank you' for wat??? No need lah. Just take!"
People grumbled aloud when we said we didn't have food vouchers to give away. People sneer at me for putting on an accent when I spoke in English, and get this, even Mandarin. I mean, I already twisted my tongue to Singlish! Hallo, I also went to school in Singapore like you did lor. How much of an accent can I have??? People tug at my sleeves insistently for their giveaways. Even when I was talking to people, I had some hands shoved to my cheeks to get my attention. They might as well have slapped me.
I'm rather bewildered by the vagrants I came across these two days. Perhaps 'vagrant' is not quite the right word to describe them. Maybe 'drifter' would be more appropriate to describe majority of them. Many shared the same ripe smell of infrequent bathing. They had dirt caked to their skin. They looked similar - they shuffled around with plastic bags wanting only freebies and were not shy to ask you for it, again and again.
I counted 30 different drifters who came round to the booths day after day, hour after hour to get the free brochures, pens, coasters, shopping bags, etc. Especially the plastic pens. They didn't care that we recognized them. They didn't care that they were depriving other people a right to these giveaways. They didn't care that they were interupting our conversation with people genuinely interested in the information we offered. They didn't care what we thought of them.
Rudeness prevailed.
Apparently no Singaporean lives below the poverty line today. But the behavior and speech I witnessed these two days were what I experienced in countries where half the population live below poverty lines. For the drifters and those I assume to be in the lower-income groups, I cannot even begin to imagine how the final 7% GST would affect their lives.
While Singapore's infrastructure is seamless and its economy stable, I'm not so certain that its social fabric is quite as comfortable. In fact, the obvious dichotomy of visitors to the booths was a complete irony in light of the exhibition's theme. I'm not sure if the powers-that-be noticed that. With so many people feeling like their basic needs are not even met, I'm not sure that they believed in Building Our Singapore. Today, I was made to feel damn ashamed to be Singaporean.
People grumbled aloud when we said we didn't have food vouchers to give away. People sneer at me for putting on an accent when I spoke in English, and get this, even Mandarin. I mean, I already twisted my tongue to Singlish! Hallo, I also went to school in Singapore like you did lor. How much of an accent can I have??? People tug at my sleeves insistently for their giveaways. Even when I was talking to people, I had some hands shoved to my cheeks to get my attention. They might as well have slapped me.
I'm rather bewildered by the vagrants I came across these two days. Perhaps 'vagrant' is not quite the right word to describe them. Maybe 'drifter' would be more appropriate to describe majority of them. Many shared the same ripe smell of infrequent bathing. They had dirt caked to their skin. They looked similar - they shuffled around with plastic bags wanting only freebies and were not shy to ask you for it, again and again.
I counted 30 different drifters who came round to the booths day after day, hour after hour to get the free brochures, pens, coasters, shopping bags, etc. Especially the plastic pens. They didn't care that we recognized them. They didn't care that they were depriving other people a right to these giveaways. They didn't care that they were interupting our conversation with people genuinely interested in the information we offered. They didn't care what we thought of them.
Rudeness prevailed.
Apparently no Singaporean lives below the poverty line today. But the behavior and speech I witnessed these two days were what I experienced in countries where half the population live below poverty lines. For the drifters and those I assume to be in the lower-income groups, I cannot even begin to imagine how the final 7% GST would affect their lives.
While Singapore's infrastructure is seamless and its economy stable, I'm not so certain that its social fabric is quite as comfortable. In fact, the obvious dichotomy of visitors to the booths was a complete irony in light of the exhibition's theme. I'm not sure if the powers-that-be noticed that. With so many people feeling like their basic needs are not even met, I'm not sure that they believed in Building Our Singapore. Today, I was made to feel damn ashamed to be Singaporean.
17 comments:
Its never easy working in the frontline. I'm glad I'm always facing the computer. :D
once in a while, when u actually climb out of ur ivory tower to take a look, this is the singapore. the real world where most pple live.
sad but true.
Though I hate manning all these goody giveaways - a nightmare every. single. time.
Kudos to you.. you survived! Heehee.
Wahahaha...I don't think these pple are poor. More likely just being al cheapos. They can't eat the giveaways nor sell it.
I always wonder where they come up with that statistic that no one lives under the poverty line. I guess it's how you define poverty line.
oh imp, there is a reason why i'm such a snob and closeted in my lifestyle. i refuse to see another side of life in sgp.
dawn: here's a link to how sgp defined poverty lines. But it could be outdated. this was in 1999.
http://www.unescap.org/Stat/meet/povstat/pov7_sig.pdf
they might be close to poverty line. or it could be just a mentality.
but i don't understand the bit about not showering. is water very expensive in sgp?
I can fully understand what you have went through for the past two days as I was in the frontline for a few years previously. Though working on a part-time basis, I still get to experience such situations and some were even worse. I am glad that I decided to exit from there. But I myself love freebies too but not too the extent which you have described in your post.
No Singaporean lives below the poverty line because there's a thriving underground market in pens, keychains, mousepads ... ...
Let's be honest - it's a Chinese thing. I see the same greed and rudeness in Hong Kong and China too ...
seriously. this is typical singaporean. and i think Little Cart Noodles is right. typically Chinese.
in China, it's free-for-all. queueing still hasn't really caught on very much in some areas.
dk: it's kind of a reality check for me.
jun: survived unscathed. with lots of food for thought.
sesame: some are genuinely poor. the rest are just hungry vultures.
dawn: it seems it's a rather arbitrary definition. nothing stated in the recent years.
jazzgal: we can be a snob sometimes in our choices and places we go.
seth: i don't know man.
lcn: honestly, yes. It's a Chinese thing.
meteor: and for those countries i've been, i never minded for there's a genuine need perhaps. i can't fault starving and ill pple. but here in sgp, they're just greedy.
Hey welcome to reality. As an event organiser/entertainer handling road shows and shopping mall promotions, I have quite gotten used to it.
This is the first time I heard of this happening. What kind of pens were you distributing that caused such an upheaval?
it's quite another world out there. and looking at your post, it goes beyond basic greed. it's not quite congruent with some policies and facts meted out.
also depend on where your booth is located.
hmmm...the kiasuism instinct kicks in. the ugly side...tsktsk.
I don't quite like manning giveaway booths.
Or donation booths.
i'm not sure if that's singaporean behaviour or just plain Asian (chinese) culture? in shanghai, the people were worse! and i doubt that they can become totally "graceful" even after another 10 years of development. for eg, i was told it was not in their culture to queue up that's why they don't and when they have to, they often forgot to do it.
dee
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