Daily Lessons from Life 23 June 2009

"23 June 2009 AsiaOne STOMP

A man tells a girl off for eating on the MRT but was challenged to a fight by the girl's boyfriend. The man's wife then presses the train's emergency button when the quarrel got ugly.

STOMPer violettulip witnessed this ugly scene on the train, and says it got so serious that the man's wife pushed the emergency button. She elaborates:"I was on the train to work today (Jun 20) around 11.45am."Minutes after I boarded the train, I noticed this group of teenagers near the door as they were sitting down on the floor."The only girl in the group was munching her sandwich and the guy in white was sitting next to her.

"Suddenly, this man in black confronted the girl, who was not supposed to eat on the train."He pointed at the 'no eating' sign while telling them that they should not consume food in the train, they should be aware of the rules.

"This guy in white was provoked and stood up to argue with the man, he was obviously unhappy that the man told them off, and even adopted a 'fighting pose' to challenge the man to fight with him.

"His friend came forward to stop him, but the guy was still arrogantly challenging the man and came out with vulgarities."The man's wife did not want the situation to get out of hand, therefore she pressed the emergency button."

Another usual occurrence on MRT trains in Singapore. Some young folks do not respect the rules on public transport. Some public transport companies' staffs do not enforced their rules on 'no food and drink on board'. Some good Samaritans could not stand the blatant irresponsible acts by some young people. Some young people with blood in the heads could not handled being told they have done something irresponsible or criminal or against the rules!

Lessons for me are:

1. if the rules are for the good of the public - the majority - it should be enforced with vigor and diligently. Otherwise, ill discipline set in and people become irresponsible and disrespectful. When there is no consequence for doing the wrong thing, bad habit will develop;

2. when we want to act as the good Samaritans to 'tell' somebody off about how they are breaking the rules, maybe we can adopt a gentle approach without confronting and provoking. At the same time, if the people who were being told COULD NOT handle even the gentlest of reminder, we MUST stand up to BULLY!! He or she should be charged for a different charge besides the one that said: no drinking or eating on board!;

3. the MRT staffs MUST enforce these rules when such incidents were reported. Perhaps the good old shaming tactic used by the government can be implemented by showing the culprits' photos on all entrance and exit points of MRT stations! Also, the good Samaritans MUST be protected against these BULLIES. Otherwise, the naturally tendency of: What should I be the busy-body when no one comes to my help when I was being bullied!'

May the young man realized his folly and repent and turn over a new leaf. Otherwise, one day someone who is a bigger bully than him will let him taste his own medicine. How sad that will be!