September is the month of the Yellow Ribbons, and over the weekend, the Yellow Ribbon Project set up shop at the main junction of Marina Square- an exhibition entitled "Crossroads".
The Yellow Ribbon Project is an initiative that seeks to facilitate an ex-offender’s reintergration into mainstream society. Named after Irwin Levine’s song, it aspires to encourage citizens to adopt a positive attitude towards ex-inmates with the hope that a well adjusted person will not reoffend.
The exhibition allowed viewers to literally walk in three ex-offenders’ footsteps, with a headset plugged in, through mock up sets representing various stages of their lives. The ex-offender, Ravi, Jeanie or Izwan, speaks to you throughout the process.
As you view the exhibits, the ex-offender explains how he or she ended up behind bars. It might be a crisis in life, a broken family, bad company. Though the voice may be a voice actor’s, there is an authenticity in the stories.
I walk in Jeanie’s footsteps. She’s a working mom with a husband who loves her and two young children- a boy and a girl. She’s the average Singaporean.
Things fall apart when her husband is afflicted with desease and they have no money. "The only way," as Jeanie tells me, is to embezzle money from her company. Needless to say, she is apprehended and sent to jail.
I step into Jeanie’s jail cell and have the chance to actually feel a prison mat where prisoners like her sleep. I read her diary where she expresses her fears that her husband will reject her, her loving letters to her son telling her to take care of his younger sister.
And it’s not only the local accent that makes the experience just slightly short of a tear-jerker. The multi-sensory exhibition is clearly designed to milk your emotions. And for the most part, it works.
The exhibition is more suited in a museum where it’s quieter and has a more reflective atmosphere, though. And the somewhat draggy audio clips that’s supposed to evoke poignancy totally loses its effect in a cacophanous shopping centre.
But it was a meaningful walk nonetheless, and I’m proud to be part of a forgiving society that embraces people who’ve made mistakes and genuinely want to move on.
Though it’s too late to catch the exhibition, their interactive site is still very much alive here. Don’t miss it!
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