Most adults in Singapore are armed with degrees and step into the working world with them. However, their behaviour and treatment of those in the lower sectors of society are unbecoming!
I had helped a friend to distribute leaflets at City Hall MRT Station. The normal perception of people with such jobs is that they are desperate enough to do that. The working adults we encountered were atrocious! They either treated us as invisible or were rude towards us. What's wrong with saying,"No, thank you." with a smile? I felt so ostracized.
I saw another incident like this at a hawker centre. There were a few cripples selling tissue paper to the customers. A working lady who was well-dressed snubbed one of the cripples. She could have been polite in her rejection. She blinked at him in an irritated and condescending manner, which was totally uncalled for. I was so disgusted with her.
Having access to education and a stable income don't entitle one to such arrogance. Yes, some people are less fortunate but that doesn't mean they deserve such reactions! They didn't ask to be in such circumstances. If people could just put themselves in others' shoes, the world would be a much better place than it is now!
As Joan Teng mentioned in her letter to Today, "some people lack respect for those we think are inferior or less educated than us....some Singaporeans have preconceptions of those who work in the service or food industry - that they are not on par socially with those who require the service."
It's just mere subjectivity really. We can be so adamant in our viewpoints that we fail to be open to the truth. We don't want to admit we're wrong out of pride and prejudice (sounds familiar?).
Who is the inferior or less educated person here? Those who look down on others in blue-collar jobs are really the ones. Having a higher wage doesn't make one king over all. They are narrow-minded and confine their perspectives to their own self-made truths. That's really choosing to be less educated.
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