While it’s true that scammers are rampant nowadays, it seems unfair to generalize and label nearly everybody as one. Take the 72-year-old man from Singapore, for example.
Identified as Liu Zhen Xian, the blind elderly could not find a decent job to earn a living aside from selling tissue paper at a crowded place where plenty of people pass by every day. There is a sign on a cart next to the old man that encourages people to buy the tissue paper he is selling and explains that he is blind and unable to support himself by other means.
“I am blind and unable to work. I can only sell tissue paper. Please help me. Thank you for your support,” it reads.
While many people were more than willing to help the blind man at first, purchasing his products and helping him through other ways, things began to change for him when he was called a scammer by netizens after he was spotted reading a newspaper while tending to his tiny store.
This made countless of netizens furious, asking how on earth could a blind man read. Liu Zhen Xian was then called names, one of which is being a scammer, who deceives people for their money.
As it turned out, all their assumptions were wrong! True enough, the old man has been practically blind since he was in his 20s due to an accident with a marble. In fact, he has proof that can support his claim that he is indeed legally blind – being a member of the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicap. Fortunately, his left eye can sometimes work under sufficient light although it can’t in dim environments.
With still one eye barely working, he tried to live a normal life as much as possible and developed the habit of reading newspapers daily in order to update himself of the current events. However, at his old age, it’s becoming more and more difficult for Liu Zhen Xian to use his left eye.
It’s truly heartbreaking for the old man to learn that he is being called a scammer all over the internet despite his genuine condition. May it be a reminder to all of us to know more about all sides of the story first before jumping into one-sided conclusions.