Don't tell a blind man to walk straight

Spent quite a nice afternoon playing badminton leisurely at fren's place. He stays in a condo and there is a badminton court on the 5th storey (top of the multi-storey carpark).

Met V for dinner at TP and had a little bit of sundry shopping done in Tp central.

While waiting for the bus with V, we saw a middle aged man with a white cane asking for help. He was then about 15m away from us. He passed one of the queues and was asking help from anyone who was within earshot range. So some guys waiting for the bus asked him waht he wanted. So he replied he wanted to take bus 231. While he was asking for help, you can see some of these people (I don't want to describe them for fear of stereotyping) staring at the blind man as if by giving him the stare, they could either transfer some of their eye power to him or could make him disappear from their everyday life (no, there are no needy people in Singapore). Ok, I'm just being critical. But they looked like they were ready to help only if they were trapped on a deserted island and the blind man, with superior hearing ability can listen out for engine sounds from aeroplanes or ships. Ok, I'm mean.

Now I like this man. Because unlike me, he was upfront about the fact that he needed help. He was asking "Can you help me?" to anyone who would listen, and act. I like his t-shirt too. It says "WALK UNAFRAID".

So after the guys realised that he was gonna take bus 231, guess what they did, or rather, did not do? They simply said, "Zhai qian mian, zhou zhi zhi." (in hokkien it's "di tao zeng, ghiah teet teet", in English "it's infront, just walk straight") Like what the fuck man. How can you give such silly instructions to the visually impaired? And if he had walked straight, he would have missed the queue completely. Basically I think the guys just wanted to clear their conscience and push the responsibility to those nearer the 231 queue.

And the 231 bus he wanted to take just left.

Anyway, seeing that, I went straight up to him and asked if he needed help. I had to leave V behind because he was still about 10m away. Heh heh, luckily, I read in a blog somewhere about how to approach the visually impaired. It can be found here anyway. I told him he had just missed the bus but I will guide him to the queue.

I think we can at least try our best at being good. And sometimes common sense evades you. Because after guiding him to the queue, I was eager to go back to V whom I discarded (haha) behind without warning her my intent first. Left the poor man there at the head of the queue trying to thank me. He then asked other people in the adjacent queue about the bus again. He was the only person waiting for the service until this girl joined behind. By then our bus arrived so V and I went up the bus, leaving the blind man waiting for his bus, tacitly hoping that the girl behind him will help.

Narbeh, you can be blinded to the fact that he is abled, but it is a fact that he is blind and may not be able to "walk straight" you ninnypoops.