Rachael Stephan wrote a letter to lament on the lack of graces in our country and as a Singaporean, I can't help but agree with her, though with a sense of shame imbued within me as well. She narrated an occasion when she was left behind in the "stampede" for lift space in a mall. The offenders were not remorseful at all when admonished by her unjust self.
I am reminded of some extremely rude behaviour I encountered at J8 the other day. A female student was so enticed by her male friend that she just rushed past me while shouting his name in my ear(!) I was extremely annoyed by that self-centred and fanatical behaviour. She failed to realise that she had injured someone's ears in the process of her 'chase'. I made a comment to my friend, saying that if my hearing ability is ever compromised, it was definitely because of such callous and uncouth behaviour.
As the title of this entry goes, I don't know when Singapore will reach the standard of such basic courtesy. Our countless courtesy campaigns have obviously not worked with such people around. Perhaps more creativity can be shown towards educating our students in this area.
This cynicism I have does affect my attitude towards train commuters too. Due to my arthritis, it would be more ideal for me to sit down but as I told my friend while in the train, I really don't want to rush for seats with able-bodied commuters, since they will probably think I am pretending due to my young age. I did express my cynicism out loud after thanking this gracious mother for letting me have the seat instead.
I know I'm not making a big fuss out of the selfishness of Singaporeans. Look at the commuters who do not give up seats to those who really need to sit down, who flout the rules by eating on the train, who turn up the volume of their music players without using earphones, and who flaunt their flamboyant affection for their partners in public.
Another incident really repulses me. An ambulance driver was unfairly assaulted by two drivers for making them wait to move out of their parking spaces. He had parked his vehicle in such a way that it did not completely block their cars. If they are really good drivers, they would have seen that. He had a task to escort his patient to kidney dialysis at the nearby centre, and the ambulance had to be parked in front of the centre for the patient's inconvenience. Even if they were in a hurry, they could have politely asked the staff to get the ambulance moved away, instead of shouting at them and going a step further to hit them. Such uncouth people!
The ambulance driver was gracious and remarkable in not retaliating. He has a great sense of self-control. I agree with some things he said. The level of impatience shown indicates their "disability" in handling traffic situations. Also, such local drivers are very selfish. I hope the drivers get a harsh punishment for what they did.
