Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Now you may have noticed, if you've been paying attention, that I, Crippled Monkey, am a bit of a hard-nosed cynic. Part of my cynicism is that I don't like all this endless hugging business that people get up to these days - hugging the postman for delivering a parcel, hugging the cab driver for dropping you off at the right address, hugging that person opposite you in the office when they pop out to get you a coffee. It's just too much. Me? I prefer a nice, firm, manly shake of the hand.

So you can imagine my reaction to the report of . The featured four-minute video - accompanied by quite the most sickeningly sentimental song I have ever heard - shows disabled people in wheelchairs sitting in the middle of a bustling Seoul shopping mall, holding signs above their heads appealing for random hugs from passers-by. These hugger muggers (did you see what I did there?), according to the caption at the start of the video, "want to know if a disabled person like me can get others to hug them". And they've decided to do that by, frankly, looking pitiful and smiling watery smiles, whilst waving placards above them.

Now, of course I'm not saying that we, as disabled people, shouldn't get our fair share of hugs and gropes (well, actually, let's leave gropes out of this for the moment), if you like that sort of thing. But doesn't this stunt just display a dreadful lack of self-respect, make us look sad and needy and desperate, and isn't it just trying to pluck at the heartstrings in a way that even the most tragic scenes of a Lassie movie can't manage? Or is that just me?

According to the report, "People who watched the video have posted such comments as 'It left a deep impression on me' or 'Tears fell from my eyes'." Well, it's left a deep impression on me too, and tears were falling from my eyes - though possibly not the kind of tears they were aiming for. I'm now feeling quite nauseous.