I would like to share an experience I had a few months
back. I was seated in this almost empty train when a pregnant
woman and her friend boarded at Queenstown Station. The
friend asked her to take a seat but she said, its only 2/3 stops
and she is tired of standing. At Tiong Bahru the seats were
almost all taken up but she still didn't want to seat. At Outram
the last seat was taken by a guy in army uniform. He looked
at this pregnant woman and she told him to go ahead and take a
seat. Now at City Hall, there are no more empty seats and the
train is crowded. This bleedy woman turns to her friend and
says she is tired but there is no available seat. Immediately
this middle-aged woman started scolding everyone for not being
gracious enough to offer a seat to this woman. She glared at
the poor army guy and told him he is a disgrace to the
uniform. The bleedy pregnant woman and her equally bleedy
friend didn't say that they didn't want to sit in the first
place. Instead the pregnant one thanked the middle-aged woman
and said she is tired from standing all the way from
Queenstown!!!
Why is the focus only on MRT trains? I have seen SBS bus
drivers - PRC drivers - being asked questions in English.
They either turn their face away and pretend not to hear or keep
asking "what?" in Mandarin. Until the passengers gets tired
and stop asking questions.
This morning I took Bus 95. The driver almost made the wrong
turning. He refused to stop at a few stops even though
communters were pressing the bell like crazy. My friend and
some other passengers were trying to tell him the route in Mandarin
but they said his accent was too thick for them to
understand. He also could not understand them.
Graciousness needed all around. Not just for commuters to
be gracious as the campaign seem to imply!
Sometimes cannot blame people lar.
Mood swings are pretty common amongst preganant woman...and it's
not like she used a metal bar to whack your head.
Tolerance is the key. Exactly what the Stomper wants me to do
after reading this remains a mystery to me. Seems to be implying
that I should be more "shrewd" in "choosing" who I should
help?
