Flag day - if I am going to be very honest here - is an event which shatters a lot of candy-coated illusions I have about Singaporeans.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. I just think that Singaporeans don't know how to properly reject others. Perhaps it's the embarrassment of having to say 'no' to you. They don't look you in the eye, some mumble incoherently, yadayada. But the worst would have to be those who walk past you without even so much as acknowledging your presence, and this is in the context of me having walked up to them and asking them very audibly if they would like to donate.

No issues if you don't want to donate. It's your money, you decide what you want to do with it. I respect that. But at least treat people like people! Don't just walk ahead, without even the slightest hint of eye contact.

Is this what our society is coming to? People fixated with their own interests, walking briskly along, not caring what the heck is going on around them. Can't even muster the energy to reject properly/courteously. Some did it with kids in tow. So this is what they teach their children nowadays. No wonder a large majority of people who actually brushed past me without so much as blinking an eye were students. This is the generation I'm growing up with. Socially adept, only when it's necessary to fulfill self centred motivations.

I'm appalled.

But for every rude person, there was a kind one. Some said "God Bless", some asked me not to stand in the sun, some smiled. It gives me at least, some visage of there being an optimistic future yet for this generation. We'll see.