Latest TODAY column: Normal people, it's time to remove those blinkers
Excerpt:
Speaking of local talent, I got to see my Orange Fish daughter take on a new role on Thursday. She was a green Power Puff Girl at her special school's Children's Day Celebrations.
Dressed in a green outfit lovingly handmade by her teachers (we got to keep it as a memento too), her identity as a mild-manner three-year-old was masked by silver paint drawn around her eyes. Many could not recognise her beneath that disguise (like Superman wears glasses, and suddenly he is Clark Kent).
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Full column:
Normal people, it's time to remove those blinkers
Ok, Singaporeans can breathe easy and stop rationing those eggs now that the import ban on Malaysian poultry and eggs is being partially lifted. Right now, chickens across the Causeway are renewing their passports as we speak, and packing for their trip down south.
With the ban partially lifted, the prata man will not laugh at you anymore when you ask for prata with egg. That omelette you get with your plate of nasi lemak will now be opaque instead of transparent. And your elephant-heart-stopping plate of oily Oh Luak (fried oyster omelette) will go back to having more eggs than oysters. But it was nice to actually see the oysters for once, during the egg shortage.
Welcome back, dear northern chickens and eggs. We missed you.
I am sure Singaporeans are all relieved to be no longer paying a silly $0.60 per egg, which you bought by getting all your children to line up at the supermarket checkout (since the ration was commonly two measly cartons per customer).
The egg savings will come in handy… for your electricity bill, which has risen yet again. Hey, you can’t have your egg and eat it too. There is equilibrium in Singapore life.
I remember buying those import-ban-era eggs not long ago, and telling my wife to be extra careful with the eggs when we loaded the car with our groceries. You’d think we were transporting very fragile abalone from the way we were protecting them. Eggs worth their weight in gold, not unlike inkjet cartridges (buy a printer for $199, and our refills for $50!).
It makes you realize how vulnerable a little country we are. Water, have to buy from other country (that, or we drink our own pee). Electricity, powered by gas from another country. Eggs, laid by chickens from another country. Not enough local chicken talent.
Speaking of local talent, I got to see my Orange Fish daughter take on a new role on Thursday. She was a green Power Puff Girl at her special school's Children's Day Celebrations.
Dressed in a green outfit lovingly handmade by her teachers (we got to keep it as a memento too), her identity as a mild-manner three-year-old was masked by silver paint drawn around her eyes. Many could not recognise her beneath that disguise (like Superman wears glasses, and suddenly he is Clark Kent).
A line of silver face paint around both her eyes and voila! Power Puff Girl!
Her secret identity was almost revealed when she rubbed her eyes in sleepiness, resulting in silver paint all over her hands and face. Good thing she did that after her performance.
Needless to say, I caught all of that on video and I will be making a DVD out of it, so that I can force guests to my home to watch it over and over again.
I also learned that it is hard to operate a video camera at the same time as a regular camera. The human body is not designed to operate two cameras at once. Either you end up recording moving images of your shoes while trying to snap a photo of your kid on stage, or you get your video aimed right but snap a shaky photo of your shoes.
I plan to explain my shaky shots as my attempt to capture that NYPD Blue TV series look.
It was great to attend my first Children’s Day concert. You have not lived till you’ve seen special needs children dance to Backstreet Boys music, or prance onto stage as Superman and Spiderman (complete with a can of “web” spray, which was sprayed onto the front row of guests a little too enthusiastically).
And I bet you haven’t seen teachers as enthusiastic as the ones I saw yesterday, dressed up as the Incredible Hulk and a Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle (or is that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? I always mix it up).
When you see the Three Little Pigs performed with such gusto, you almost forget that the stainless steel walking crutch is there.
When you see the joyful dancing, you almost forget that the dancer is on wheels.
When you see the Power Puff Girl point and respond to the music on stage, you almost forget that this is a little girl who has trouble maintaining eye contact.
These are kids, who like “regular” kids, just want to have fun, to laugh and to be loved. And also to learn, on their terms.
However, it is a little hard to learn when your education is viewed in a different light from “normal” children. While “normal” kids have compulsory education and all the infrastructure that goes with it, special needs children have to deal with a waiting list a mile long when it comes to getting into special schools.
Surely that is not “normal”, nor should it be so.
After all, if you can set aside money for school children to learn how to play golf, or gifted children to be more gifted (whatever that means), you can surely put some serious money and effort into helping special needs children learn how to deal with the basics of walking and talking.
The children I saw yesterday showed me that they are special indeed. Despite having their own physical, sensory, physiological and mental challenges, and no formal educational infrastructure to rely on, they showed me that they too, can laugh and play with joy. They too, can learn to dance with crutches and wheelchairs.
These are not other people’s children. These are Singapore’s children too, your friend’s kid, your neighbour’s kid, your relative’s kid. They should not be seen as economic burdens to society, but an integral part of it. They are our future Supermen, Spidermen and Power Puff Girls, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, able to run, able to fly.
But first the rest of us “normal” people need to remove our own blinkers, and crutches and excuses.
And maybe spend at least as much effort nurturing these special talents, as we do policing eggs and producing scholars.
mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He is a regular dude who is happy to be living in this pi-sai island.
