Monday, November 2, 2009

Ungracious Singaporeans again

Over the weekend, I have again encountered instances of ungracious Singaporeans, 2 of which involves the elderly. I have nothing against the elderly but I sometimes do wish they think about those people who are behind them and that sometimes its not just all about them.

First scenario
Queue of people waiting to board the bus. 2 aunties boarded first. After tapping their ezlink card, they had a 5 to 10 seconds discussion on where to sit right in front of the bus, blocking people from moving pass them and preventing people from getting up the bus.

Second scenario
I was standing in front of the MRT door (centre) so that I could go out once the train doors open (a bit of a rush) when an auntie conveniently put her foot right in front of me to "block" me from getting out first. This is despite the fact that I went to the train door almost half a minute before the train reaches the station. Needless to say she was easily overtaken when the train doors opened because she is quite slow.

Third scenario
Classic case where I'm sure everyone encounters. Everyone is standing on the left-hand side of the escalator and there will always be a few people who think that they are the odd ones out and stand on the right-hand side, blocking people who wants to walk up the escalator.


What does all these 3 scenarios have in common? Selfishness, laziness and thinking of only yourself.

Especially for the third scenario, I do not buy the reason that people stand on the right-hand side because they are right-handed. Don't tell me no one use their left hand to hold on to things? In fact based on my own observation, I believe that all Singaporeans should take the basic theory test, otherwise known as the highway code. Why? Because people who studies it knows that they should always keep left and most people whom I know that have taken the test always keep left.

Fundamentally in whatever we do, we should always consider one important factor. Will you like it if someone does exactly the same thing as you did?

Something to think about:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

13 comments:

Pauze said...

So it makes you feel high and mighty to know little ethics and blog about it without any action taken, feels good doesn't it? I believe that you were ungracious yourself for not educating them on the spot. If you would have kindly gave a few seconds to preach about your so called "graceful singaporean" methods then, perhaps they would have learned something. You are no better, you are just frustrated, upset and have accomplishing nothing.

Pauze said...

*accomplished

chantc said...

Just some things I like to clarify.

1 - This post does not qualify as a rant. I've a rant tag specially for it. If you notice, I did provide a solution for one of the scenarios towards the end of the post.

2 - Many people use blogs for different purposes. Mine is purely to share what I know and to encourage comments so that everyone can learn from it. I have many constructive comments given by many like-minded individuals that resulted in me learning something new. I always welcome alternative comments.

3 - To resolve a problem, you have to first acknowledge that there is a problem. Therefore I disagree that it's totally useless to blog about this without any solutions at the moment. I do have a partial solution for the third scenario and I always welcome more constructive feedback on how to resolve the other first 2 scenarios.

And I do not recall seeing anything in my post that indicates that I'm high and mighty. If I did, please point out which paragraph says that and I will review the way I write.

I just believe all these points are just common courtesy that anyone should have. There's nothing high and mighty about these points.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, that was extremely valuable and interesting...I will be back again to read more on this topic.

Anonymous said...

I am doing research for my college thesis, thanks for your brilliant points, now I am acting on a sudden impulse.

- Laura

Anonymous said...

excellent points and the details are more specific than elsewhere, thanks.

- Joe

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I have a inquiry for the webmaster/admin here at chantc.blogspot.com.

May I use part of the information from this blog post above if I give a link back to this site?

Thanks,
Daniel

chantc said...

Hi Daniel,

That is not a problem. As long as your link is related, you're also welcome to post it to that particular post.

Just no spam.


Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Howdy! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having trouble finding one? Thanks a lot!

chantc said...

Login to blogger and look at Settings > Comments > Show word verification for comments

Anonymous said...

how many time i do not do what i want to do but do what i dont want to do

Anonymous said...

Superb posting! I am now starting out in social media marketing and now we are attempting to catch on to how to fully capitalize on social media marketing for our local business.

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Nice work, Thanks

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