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| Newsflash | ||
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| Public Shaming: Are we unconsciously killing off entrepreneurial values? |
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| Written by Ridzuan Ashim | |
| Monday, 19 March 2007 | |
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More than once have I visited sites like rudesingaporeans.blogspot.com and parkingidiots.blogspot.com . Truth be told, I have derived a certain sense of pleasure from the fact that those inconsiderate people have been shamed. It’s like a silent, “Haha! Look at what you get for being and asswipe you MRT poll-hugging auntie!” Yesterday, however, I started looking at how in some of the scenarios, I too could be “caught for being inconsiderate”. This sparked the question, would I then deserve to be shamed? The photo that sparked this thought is here . As a student, I too have had my share fun. Almost all the time, this innocent fun is in no way done with the intent to harm or inconvenience anyone. In fact, if anyone came up to us and just said, “Excuse me...but we need to pass,” we’d gladly make way and even help you carry stuff if you seem to need help. This seems to cast some light on another problematic mindset that I think we have here in Singapore. It’s this passive mindset that’s perhaps rooted in our culture of respecting others. Using the same picture above as an example, imagine these scenarios: Scenario 1 A group of students want to just sit around and “talk cock”. There really isn’t any place to sit around nearby so we figure we’ll just sit at the base of the overhead bridge since there’s no one around. Besides, if we don’t notice someone, they’ll definitely tell us to move, and that really wouldn’t be a problem for us because we’ll just move la. Scenario 2 Same group of students except this time they’re “considerate and mindful” They think, “Hmmm…I don’t think we should sit here because it might block people” (although there’s no one around). Maybe we should ask for permission first. Maybe we should sit at the void deck…but what if we make noise and disturb people. Maybe this. Maybe that. In the end, they just split up and go home and be the good kids that we expect everyone to be. Mindful and Obedient. In the end, they miss out on a chance to bond with each other. The latter, I think, exemplifies the societal values that we have. When translated to bigger things, it means that we’re asking for a society that will take the chance to grab an opportunity until receiving proper clearance as opposed to grabbing the opportunity first until told that it’s not right. This is often the case when I talk to my peers about new crazy ideas – “No one’s done it before…But I don’t think can lei. You sure it can be done?” Bringing it back to the pictures…even pictures of the people who sleep across 2 or 3 MRT seats. Should we label them as inconsiderate or should we instead label ourselves as passive? Perhaps they might have boarded an empty train and figured, “What’s the harm in lying across a couple of seats if there’s no one?” And what do we do when we come across this ‘dead’ man? We could have woken him up and asked him to move. At worst, he gets embarrassed and drops at the next stop. But we’d get a seat, and he would have enjoyed his trip to that point. Win-win. But what do we do? We just snap his photo and upload it for all to shame. No. 1 : Well, the descriptions did say they "can't be bothered to give others space to walk." Not sure how true is that.   Submitted by DK • 2007-03-19 12:23:19 No. 2 : Hmm. Thought provoking. Must admit, all we do is complain about something, when we could have done something more constructive. Alot of us just keep quiet, and complain in a way that doesn't really help improve the situation. Submitted by zy • 2007-03-19 12:45:27 No. 3 : If want to sit at least should sit where there leaves a space to let others walk. We should not wait for others to walk towards us then we excuse ourselves? Should also have been considerate in the first place. Submitted by Manny • 2007-03-19 12:46:57 |
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