sad

it's been a week... and still, i am seeing lots of people blasting away at aware (association for women's action and research)... and i see it online in many forums (such as those in reach singapore) as well as in the newspapers. and i feel very very sad. the following was what i noted:

• the conservatives - in the forums, i noted that those who kept on and on were the same few individuals. and they kept going on and on about how they, the `majority', felt about the `issue'. i wonder if these some very vocal few (whole called themselves very concerned parents) can really represent the majority as they had claimed. and they kept on and on about how the old guard was not rite and how they have sinister agenda... and how righteous and courageous josie lau had been to champion their cause, how josie lau had raised the awareness of aware's programmes to the public la la la.... and i wonder - since the egm was open to all women in singapore and they are so vocal, why did they not make their voice heard by attending the egm and voting for josie lau? did this not make them sore losers?

• "the issue" - i placed this in inverted comma above because when i read the forums and the papers, it seemed like most of the people posting their views are not even sure of the issue itself. this was made worse by their lack of knowledge about what they were discussing. the issues discussed focused a lot on how aware had tried to promote homosexuality; but the facts got twisted along the way and build upon itself until the whole issue became something that is totally untrue. there were even people (again, the concerned parents) who wondered if there was a conspiracy between the ministry of education and aware to try to covertly convert their sons and daughters to homosexuals... it seemed that they failed to recognise that they play the most important part in their child's sexuality education. and their postings reflected their ignorance more than anything else. if this was true and that people can be converted, singapore would have been a gay country long long time ago lo... another interesting post went on about how singapore's birthrate had dropped and how this was because people are all becoming gays and lesbians. such ignorance. i laughed a sad laugh.

• the character - and what saddened me even more was the fact that there were many name-callings in the forums. between those (who come across as conservatives and often christians) against those who felt the issues was blown out of proportion, between those (again, those conservatives) against aware old guard, between those (yes, again, those conservatives) and singaporeans at large who did not subscribe to their believes. i was particularly shocked when i read a post that called the old guard "dogs". did this not say a lot about the maturity of these self-claimed "righteous and high moral-value concerned parents"? such irony.

after reading these postings, i question the morals of these people, i question what their religious organisations had taught them about respect and love for their fellow human-beings, i question their self-proclaimed righteousness.

i pity their ignorance. i pity their children. above all, i pity them.