Singapore - A Gracious Society?
I grew up with the Courtesy Campaign. I knew the Courtesy Lion, I used to sing the jingle with the lion when he came on TV. The then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew launched this campaign in 1979 and said 'We want to be courteous because life will be better for all. Courtesy is part of all cultivated societies. Our better material life challenges us to a better quality of human relationships'.
We had to have this campaign run for over twenty odd years and for the very simple reason that Singaporeans were just not getting it. It was embarassing that we needed to be taught to be courteous. And after twenty odd years, we STILL need to be reminded to be courteous. At least for one month a year during the campaign, Singaporeans had to be courteous. Never mind the rest of the year. And it's still around now but it's called the Kindness Movement Campaign. Sounds alot nicer but it serves the same purpose - getting Singaporeans to start thinking about others rather than just themselves.
Went to the movies today. Had a young couple who sat next to me. As the movie was about to start, a guy stood along the aisle looking for his seat. He looked down my row and mumbled to himself that his seat was taken. The couple next to me gave the guy a cursory glance and continued to watch the advertisements on the big screen.
So this guy, went to the row behind me and took a seat that was empty. Ten minutes into the movie, a lady came along and told the guy that he was at her seat. And the guy pointed to the couple infront and said that they took his seat. And the couple, turned around and looked at the guy and 5 seconds later, they moved to their own seats. They had taken his seat, saw him looking for his seat and had done nothing then. They actually thought it was perfectly okay to take another person's seat and leave him stranded without a seat.
And the worse part is that I have witnessed similar incidents like this happening on three other occasions in the cinema. And on one occasion, two young boys couldn't find their seats because two adults took their seats and when the boys came to look for their seats, the adults simply feigned ignorance. Poor boys did not know what to do (probably too scared to approach the two men) and the show had already started and people were telling them to sit down. I felt so bad for the boys and had to go up to them, asked where their seats were and went to the two adults to tell them to go to their own seats. And the adults actually gave me a rude look for telling them to move. Like hello? What's happening here?
I just cannot understand how people can just feign ignorance like that. There is a reason why we buy tickets with seats allocated to us. Too bad if you have bad seats. Just have to come earlier to book tickets then the next time. Adults are doing this and kids follow after adults. Many adults don't realise how kids tend to model after them and by behaving inconsiderately, young kids are learning that it's okay to do so.
How many of us have had instances where people cut queue infront of us for cabs or put their shopping bags on seats at a crowded food court instead of giving it up for others to use? These are just a few of the horrid things that we see happening all the time.
It is so true that life WOULD be better for us if we all learnt to spare a thought for others. We are so focussed on our pursuit for materials things that sometimes we forget what it means to be human, to help out another human being. I know there are many people out there who are kind and courteous. But there are even more people out there who are not.
Are we ready to be a gracious society? I think not. I think we have a long way to go still. Till then, I can only pray that our young will somehow learn that being good, kind and considerate to others is something really important and the reward for being good and kind is knowing that some one else has benefitted from our act of kindness.
posted by Me, Myself n I at 12:58 pm
I grew up with the Courtesy Campaign. I knew the Courtesy Lion, I used to sing the jingle with the lion when he came on TV. The then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew launched this campaign in 1979 and said 'We want to be courteous because life will be better for all. Courtesy is part of all cultivated societies. Our better material life challenges us to a better quality of human relationships'.
We had to have this campaign run for over twenty odd years and for the very simple reason that Singaporeans were just not getting it. It was embarassing that we needed to be taught to be courteous. And after twenty odd years, we STILL need to be reminded to be courteous. At least for one month a year during the campaign, Singaporeans had to be courteous. Never mind the rest of the year. And it's still around now but it's called the Kindness Movement Campaign. Sounds alot nicer but it serves the same purpose - getting Singaporeans to start thinking about others rather than just themselves.
Went to the movies today. Had a young couple who sat next to me. As the movie was about to start, a guy stood along the aisle looking for his seat. He looked down my row and mumbled to himself that his seat was taken. The couple next to me gave the guy a cursory glance and continued to watch the advertisements on the big screen.
So this guy, went to the row behind me and took a seat that was empty. Ten minutes into the movie, a lady came along and told the guy that he was at her seat. And the guy pointed to the couple infront and said that they took his seat. And the couple, turned around and looked at the guy and 5 seconds later, they moved to their own seats. They had taken his seat, saw him looking for his seat and had done nothing then. They actually thought it was perfectly okay to take another person's seat and leave him stranded without a seat.
And the worse part is that I have witnessed similar incidents like this happening on three other occasions in the cinema. And on one occasion, two young boys couldn't find their seats because two adults took their seats and when the boys came to look for their seats, the adults simply feigned ignorance. Poor boys did not know what to do (probably too scared to approach the two men) and the show had already started and people were telling them to sit down. I felt so bad for the boys and had to go up to them, asked where their seats were and went to the two adults to tell them to go to their own seats. And the adults actually gave me a rude look for telling them to move. Like hello? What's happening here?
I just cannot understand how people can just feign ignorance like that. There is a reason why we buy tickets with seats allocated to us. Too bad if you have bad seats. Just have to come earlier to book tickets then the next time. Adults are doing this and kids follow after adults. Many adults don't realise how kids tend to model after them and by behaving inconsiderately, young kids are learning that it's okay to do so.
How many of us have had instances where people cut queue infront of us for cabs or put their shopping bags on seats at a crowded food court instead of giving it up for others to use? These are just a few of the horrid things that we see happening all the time.
It is so true that life WOULD be better for us if we all learnt to spare a thought for others. We are so focussed on our pursuit for materials things that sometimes we forget what it means to be human, to help out another human being. I know there are many people out there who are kind and courteous. But there are even more people out there who are not.
Are we ready to be a gracious society? I think not. I think we have a long way to go still. Till then, I can only pray that our young will somehow learn that being good, kind and considerate to others is something really important and the reward for being good and kind is knowing that some one else has benefitted from our act of kindness.
We had to have this campaign run for over twenty odd years and for the very simple reason that Singaporeans were just not getting it. It was embarassing that we needed to be taught to be courteous. And after twenty odd years, we STILL need to be reminded to be courteous. At least for one month a year during the campaign, Singaporeans had to be courteous. Never mind the rest of the year. And it's still around now but it's called the Kindness Movement Campaign. Sounds alot nicer but it serves the same purpose - getting Singaporeans to start thinking about others rather than just themselves.
Went to the movies today. Had a young couple who sat next to me. As the movie was about to start, a guy stood along the aisle looking for his seat. He looked down my row and mumbled to himself that his seat was taken. The couple next to me gave the guy a cursory glance and continued to watch the advertisements on the big screen.
So this guy, went to the row behind me and took a seat that was empty. Ten minutes into the movie, a lady came along and told the guy that he was at her seat. And the guy pointed to the couple infront and said that they took his seat. And the couple, turned around and looked at the guy and 5 seconds later, they moved to their own seats. They had taken his seat, saw him looking for his seat and had done nothing then. They actually thought it was perfectly okay to take another person's seat and leave him stranded without a seat.
And the worse part is that I have witnessed similar incidents like this happening on three other occasions in the cinema. And on one occasion, two young boys couldn't find their seats because two adults took their seats and when the boys came to look for their seats, the adults simply feigned ignorance. Poor boys did not know what to do (probably too scared to approach the two men) and the show had already started and people were telling them to sit down. I felt so bad for the boys and had to go up to them, asked where their seats were and went to the two adults to tell them to go to their own seats. And the adults actually gave me a rude look for telling them to move. Like hello? What's happening here?
I just cannot understand how people can just feign ignorance like that. There is a reason why we buy tickets with seats allocated to us. Too bad if you have bad seats. Just have to come earlier to book tickets then the next time. Adults are doing this and kids follow after adults. Many adults don't realise how kids tend to model after them and by behaving inconsiderately, young kids are learning that it's okay to do so.
How many of us have had instances where people cut queue infront of us for cabs or put their shopping bags on seats at a crowded food court instead of giving it up for others to use? These are just a few of the horrid things that we see happening all the time.
It is so true that life WOULD be better for us if we all learnt to spare a thought for others. We are so focussed on our pursuit for materials things that sometimes we forget what it means to be human, to help out another human being. I know there are many people out there who are kind and courteous. But there are even more people out there who are not.
Are we ready to be a gracious society? I think not. I think we have a long way to go still. Till then, I can only pray that our young will somehow learn that being good, kind and considerate to others is something really important and the reward for being good and kind is knowing that some one else has benefitted from our act of kindness.
posted by Me, Myself n I at 12:58 pm
2 Comments:
No - we're definitely not ready. Which is why I'll take the time to help if someon appears lost, but will just as readily tell someone *else* off.
I'm quite short tempered on the street :)
Have a feeling some day (which could be really really soon), me gonna just explode and tell these fools off. Must be either cuz I'm getting older and less tolerant or just too long in the same job - occupational hazard *grins*
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