I was with my daughter as she went for her hair trial for her wedding and met this kind woman with nimble fingers who did the ringlets for her.  It took over an hour and we chatted away with whatever came in our minds.  We started off with her cats, cats being our favourite.  There was a kind of bonding as we shared one another’s stories.  She happened to be in one of the forums in which my daughter was a member.

She shared regarding her sister’s stay in Hong Kong as a teacher as she could not cope with the swearing and rudeness of school children in Victoria.  She obviously sounded as though she missed her sister and yet she had to live overseas as students were better behaved than in Melbourne.  Her sister is a classroom teacher.  All I could do was draw a deep breath and reminisce about the dramatic ending of my teaching career.  She then mentioned how difficult it was getting just moving around and visiting others for business purposes in Melbourne as one did not know what to expect and it could turn out to be dangerous as well.  She mentioned an incident where she visited the bride on her wedding day and did her hair and did not get paid as a burly Lebanese man said he would not pay her and asked her to leave.  Was it racial or was it male chauvinistic behaviour a la Lebanon style or was it total dishonesty?  ( no insults intended to the Lebanese community or ANY community for that matter)

It is hard to survive and yet it leaves one with a bad taste in the mouth so to speak.  Yet there is a class of people coming together in the society who have strong beliefs in integrity and a sense of fellow feeling and decency – one can continue to live in hope for this new social group holding on with resilience in a society that is getting chaotic each day.

We ended the conversation assuring her that though we belong to a minority ethnic group she could expect to be treated with decency and care.  Incidentally her sister has left Melbourne to teach in Hong Kong permanently and she loves it there.