“Prevention
is better than cure”; a greatly used phrase which aims to increase our awareness
on particular topics. During the last prevention project, however, one of the
speakers actually set a limit onto this meaningful saying. How so? By sharing
information regarding the various types of crime in national language despite
the fact that there were international participants who clearly did not
understand a single word spoken, the speaker ignored student helper who
notified her on the foreigners’ presence and carried on with the slideshows in
mother tongue. “It’s okay,” was the reply. How depressing. The purpose of the
whole event was only partially achieved at the very end of the day. Sometimes
wonder, are we not required to share the knowledge on how to prevent self from
being the victims of the crimes, simply because some of them are not the
official residents despite the fact that they are living within the same boundaries
as we do? Does the cultural difference still apply when it comes to human lives?
Is there any law or statement which states that only the people of our own
should be warned on the possible life-threatening incidents? Then again, are we
not all from the same species after all? It is such an irony that the speaker
actually failed to carry out the duty assigned, in terms of both crime
prevention and the speaker’s job itself. Perhaps this simply reflects how
people tend to be biased across many situations, though many may have claimed
to be the opposite. It may be due to the speaker’s inability to speak fluent
international language, or maybe not. All and all, it is never possible to fair
to everyone around us, ever, because the degree to it does vary. At the end of
the day, some might not even have the chance to be briefed on all these
life-risking possibilities, where the “prevention is better than cure” fails,
due to the limitations set onto it by us the biased creatures.
