Two things that happened over the last weekend are kinda weighing on my mind.
First. I was at 7-11 buying some sweets for the movie when I saw this teenager taking two boxes of sweets and putting it in his pocket. Basically, he was shoplifting. Of course, it was disturbing to see this teen behaving like that. But what got me more disturbed was.... I didn't do anything about it. Yep. I just stood there, saw him put the sweets into the pocket and did absolutely nothing except walk out. The point is, I dunno why I didn't do anything. As a former teacher, I talk about doing the right thing always. The right thing would of course be to either stop the teen or immediately inform the store staff about it. But I just did nothing. N.O.T.H.I.N.G. Ok, at the end when I was paying for my stuff, I did tell the cashier that some teens had shoplifted some sweets. But that's kinda too little too late rite. So i've been kinda stewing on why I didn't do anything when I saw the fella taking the sweets. Was I apathetic? Was I scared? It's really weird. Talk about moral reasoning and moral action. ie. Knowing what's right and doing what's right.
And in some way, this is kinda connected to the next thing on my mind.
As some of you might already know my now, Mr Otto Fong, my former colleague, apparently posted a letter on a blog telling everyone that he is gay. Wow. I've known him in my 5.5 years in RI and he's a real nice guy. But I admit that I've never thought he was gay. In fact, I'd thought he was married. lolz. I think it's incredibly brave for him to come out of the closet and tell everyone that he is gay, especially in Singapore and in RI. For that, I salute him. I know he is in for a really rough ride coz he now has to face both MOE and RI, not easy at all. For me, the question is... why did he do it? Why now? It's interesting to read all the comments in Tomorrow.sg and The Online Citizen. My response comes in two parts. First, from Otto's point of view, I can see how he might want to do what he did. But of course, I'm sure he's thought through it thoroughly and knew he could be martyred for this. For whatever reasons he might have I'm not here to judge him. But I must say he is incredibly brave to do it.
My second part has to do with what the school/MOE is gonna do to him. I am of the stand that a teacher's sexual orientation has nothing to do with his suitability to teach. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with moral values. It's ridiculous to equate gay with immorality. So, do we take a lousy teacher who is immoral or do we take a good teacher who is gay but moral? hmm. It's interesting to read about moe's stand that it “does not condone any open espousal of homosexual values by teachers in any form, in or out of the classroom”. As mentioned by many netizens, what exactly are 'homosexual values'? Is there even such a thing? Otto is an excellent teacher in my opinion and has mentored many students well. If he gets fired just for saying he is gay, then it goes to show the school/MOE's priorities.
It's been an interesting weekend.
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