Hey Frogga,

I think everyone's in basic agreement with you.

Any action that negatively affects disabled people is reprehensible and should be curbed, from falsely claiming disability allowances (makes it harder for the genuinely disabled to claim basic life maintenance) to nicking parking spaces (makes it harder for the genuinely disabled to operate in life) .

Firstly, let me say that I view grocery shopping as a heavy-duty occupation, disabled or not. I hate it and the fact that dragging those heavy bags is bad for my arms, neck and back. Hate having heavy stuff hanging off my arms, hate carrying heavy things. But if you live on your own you gotta do it. I don't drive in HK, though, take the buses instead. Even worse, but it does limit the amount I can transport!

Frogga, I'm a Brit, as you know, and although I haven't lived there for a couple of decades I remember it was almost a national sport in the UK. You'd see these people hauling great trolley-loads of goods out of the store to their disabled parking spot then hefting 14 heavy bags worth out of the trolley and into the car, not a light-weight task, even in peak condition. Disabled? My eye!

I don't know if Britain is worse than other countries, I think it's natural to try to cheat the system somewhat...I imagine if you accosted the culprits they'd say "Oh! Sorry! No one was using the parking space, so....??"

Of course, this was in ye olden days, it was kind of in the national psyche to try to get away with cheating the traffic cops and meter maids...but we were all very uninformed about disability then - you only ever took it seriously if you were disabled yourself or ancient.

But undoubtedly people see it as "cheating the system" rather than "cheating the disabled" - which is really what it is.

I think people are still very much *not* attuned to disability in any form. I'll never forget the first time I had a bad injury, I was about 21 in the UK, burnt my left arm by dropping a stew (= pot roast) directly from the oven onto my arm, very bad burn. Walking around the streets later, arm in bandages and sling, arm ultrasensitive and horribly painful, I was horrified at just how little other people respect signs of infirmity. They bang into you, let doors slam in your face, barge you through doors, you name it. When I broke my arm recently in HK, same thing. No one in the street can walk in a straight line, it's almost like "oh a sling, let's head for that..."

And in both cases I wore a sling, a wopping great signpost saying "injured!!".

You can bet your bottom dollar that if any of these cheaters had to cope with life with a disability, visible or otherwise, they would be the first to line offenders up against the wall. But, as with everything, until it directly affects YOU, you don't understand. Sadly, that's just how human beings are.

Just my $0.2 worth! all the best!