Get in line

Whoopee, the first actually vaguely busy week of the year is winding down. Of course, it couldn't end without one last bit of work left. So the way forward is clear. I shall happily let it lie where it is, in the land of the incomplete, while I tap away at my keyboard, blogging about something pointless and irrelevant, trying to escape the mundanity and desperation of my life.

Ok, so this is going to be about something that's bothered me for a while, and it's going to be spectacularly politically incorrect. So if that bothers you, go away now. I'll wait for a moment.

Ho.

Hum.

La.

Dee.

Da.

We're good? Good. Now, let me tell you how this particular train of thought started, maybe three or four months ago. Somewhere around the beginning of summer, I was slumped in my couch at home, watching television in the middle of the afternoon. By the way, that remains my single favourite activity at home of all time. If I had a choice, I would spend the entirety of all my summers indulging myself in this particular mode of stoning.

Wait, let me go on a digression, as my math instructor used to say. Stoning seems to be a colloqualism that, in the circles of Singapore youth at least, originated fairly exclusively from the elitist ranks of Raffles Institution. Don't argue the point. It's just something I've noticed. I don't care if I'm wrong. If I am, then you're wrong, and I'm right. So there. Anyway, the most obvious interpretation of this term would be that which is derived from 'stoned', a term that is used to signify the state of mind that is induced by ingestion of vast quantities of alcohol or other substances that numb the senses and reduce clarity of mind. It could also have some reference to stones in the mineral sense, the idea being that stones have little in the way of discernible or measurable mental or physical activity. So to 'stone' or to indulge in 'stoning' would be to reduce one's physical and mental exertions to the barest minimum. Inactivity is the entire point of 'stoning'. While this may sound boring, the truth is that there is no better remedy for the exhaustion of real life than to simply refuse to acknowledge it for a while. Letting oneself go slack-jawed in front of a television screen, electricity turned on or not, may not sound very appealing to modern sensibilities of the intellectual person. Yet the most pretentious of souls must at some moment weary of the demands of continual thought. In the corridors of RI, where the most eager and indoctrinated minds in the land are cultivated, this term, 'stoning', was well employed. Even the young and enthusiastic find themselves in need of such a state, and this state is achieved so often and so commonly that a term must be invented for it. What better indictment of the assumption that Man is bound, at every moment of life, to endeavour, to strive to better himself, to reach beyond what is within his grasp?

Alright, enough of that nonsense. So I was slumped in my extremely comfortable sofa, watching a rerun of some inane local Chinese language drama serial. In this particular TV show, one of the characters is wheelchair-bound. So this fellow has to go, and proceeds to the washroom. As he waits outside the cubicle designated for the use of the disabled, the impatience on his face becomes visible. Eventually, a man walks out of the cubicle. As is to be expected, this man looks rather smug and arrogant. So our disabled friend starts lecturing this man on how the abled should never EVER touch a disabled cubicle. The man looks somewhat bemused and walks away. You would think this was the end of it, but no, our wheelchair-bound buddy tries to physically accost the evil man and make him repent for his heinous sins of inconveniencing the crippled. Naturally, this winds up with our protagonist off the chair and on the floor, while his girlfriend, a physically quite delectable specimen, though with some questionable sartorial choices, rushes to his rescue. In a male toilet? Disregarding that, our hero and heroine glare at the villian of the piece as he saunters off.

Here's the thing that is likely to get me a earful from many people. I actually think the crippled chap had no business bothering that man. Now, I do not approve of violence being done to the disabled, but no more than to any other law-abiding member of the community whom I do not intensely dislike. Which is the point. The disabled do not deserve any special advantages. Concessions perhaps, but advantages are going a bit far. Taking the case of disabled cubicles in washrooms. It hardly seems fair that the instant a wheelchair is sighted in the toilet, all able-bodied personnel should flee the scene. Now, I do think that the disabled should get to use the particularly equipped cubicles, but seriously, GET IN LINE.

Think about it this way. Imagine there's an intermission in a sports event or something. We have thousands of people rushing to the very limited number of toilets. The queues snake around the stadium. Then one fellow in a wheelchair makes his way into the washroom, bypasses the throngs of people crossing their legs and hopping a little to conceal the urgency on their minds, or on other parts of their anatomy, and enters the disabled cubicle to relieve himself.

I don't know about you, but this seems pretty unfair to me. Just because you can't walk, you get to cut the queue? If you absolutely need to use the disabled cubicle, join the line for that cubicle. Now, I do think that people who aren't cripples should not hog disabled facilities, but they have the same right to pee as the next guy in a wheelchair. So queues in this case should be evenly distributed, with guys who are disabled joining the line for the appropriate cubicle. So each cubicle gets the same number of people waiting for it, subject to the condition that all the disabled people are in the line for the disabled cubicle.

Logical, no?

Do note that I used this particular example to illustrate a larger point. I hope it's clear enough what that point is, because anybody who knows me is aware I don't like to be too long-winded and draggy about explaining things.

On an unrelated note, I think I should stop expecting credit where it's due, and accepting it where it's given. Life would be a lot more jovial.

Alright, back to pretending to be serious about studying and stuff.