Look beyond the frivolity and smoke, Mr Abraham

THE EDITOR: “The product that we sell, fireworks, forces you to look up. Through our business, we see it as a vehicle to get people to look up, to be positive and optimistic. It’s not just a physical product that we sell, it’s about an intangible, an emotion, it’s about bringing communities together.”

So says Andre Abraham, managing director of FireOne, in the Guardian of December 28. These words reek of commercial verbiage and certainly do not reflect positivity and “looking up.”

As for building communities, is Abraham aware of the numerous letters and pleas that have been and are still being circulated by citizens against the use of fireworks?

Far from building communities, these dreaded fireworks are contributing to divisiveness, frustration and feelings of futility in appealing to the good sense of others and the enactment of the law.

I appeal to Abraham to do as he professes what the sale of fireworks does: Look up himself but way beyond the level of frivolity and smoke. Seek inspiration from above on how to genuinely build communities.

If he listens with a discerning spirit, he should discover that building community is not about self-seeking momentary pleasure. It’s about demonstrating how we care for one another through sacrifice; being aware of the needs and feelings of others; being civic-minded so that our contributions build and not break down.

To use Mr Abraham’s words again, “to demonstrate respect, love and courtesy for each other.”

LEY-ANN SUI

Lange Park