"Ex-leprosy patients? Not in my eatery"
ST Saturday November 27, 2004
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have some singaporeans lost all compassion.... have their hearts withered in the face of profiteering.... let me give you the gist of the article... volunteers wanting to bring a group of abt 40 former leprosy patients out for a dinner treat was turned away by more than a dozen restaurants before one restaurant agreed to take them without knowing that they were former leprosy patients....

personally... i'm shocked.... no doubt leprosy has a reputation to be a highly infectious disease... but these people have suffered and are now totally non-infectious.... some of them are in wheelchairs and all bear the tell-tale marks of the disease... lost limbs, missing fingers etc.... but the fact of the matter is, that "once treated, the disease is not infectious"....

the residents of the Singapore Leprosy Relief Association home go out abt three to four times A YEAR but very rarely for a dinner treat like this.... have they not suffered enough with the disease... must they be still cast aside.. out of sight, out of mind?

excuses, excuses, excuses..... one restaurant said that they would not accept the elderly residents because the sight of them will unnerve the other guests.... well... but is that really a good excuse... with a guaranteed group of forty guest, most restaurants shd be able to make up any "losses" due to "unnerved" patrons.....

another bastard said:"'We are running a decent business, not a charity organisation,' he said. 'Let's say it's just too inconvenient. I wouldn't allow them even if you pay me.'"... what a bloody asshole... okie fine... you are not a charity organisation.. you are a businessman... fair enough.... but would you take in a party of forty normal people?? of course wad... so what's the difference... they are paying customers...

haiz... don't think that Singapore has progessed that far as a society... sure money is in a way impt for survival in a city island state like Singapore... you can't ask someone to live off the land in urbanised Singapore... its not like in some parts of the States or something where you can hunt for food.... as such without a doubt, money is necessary in our country... but people have allowed the pursuit of money to become their main goal in life... its not always abt the money ppl.... life is abt a lot of things.... be thankful that you wake up everyday and for most of us, be thankful that you can live out a normal active life.... its time that we did something for those who can't....

dun treat CIP as a mandatory sentence that you have to serve out as a student in Singapore.... look at it in a different light... spending time with some ah pek or ah mah in a nursing home doesn't have to be torture... listening to their life stories can be incredibly interesting.... working with kids with disabilities like the children at MINDS can be fantastically fulfilling... they have soooooo much love to give but some don't have anyone to give it to... you can be that person....

spread the love.... if you are to do something nice for just three people and they each do something nice for another three people, etc, etc, etc, the world will become a much better place for everyone to live in....