Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Please give up your Seats

A curious trend on the MRT is on the rise recently, ever since SMRT decided to make the "Please give up this seat" sign at the corner seats more conspicuous.

Now, we see people choosing not to sit at the corner seats if they can find seats elsewhere, presumably because the seats are for the elderly and disabled (and not because they are lazy to give up their seats later). However, this does not exactly translate into more seats for the elderly and disabled. In fact, it seems to have the opposite effect.

Because the conscientious people refuse to take the seats, the seats are, almost inevitably, taken up by people who don't give a damn about others. And when the elderly or the disabled enter the carriage, these people who don't give a damn about others would just continue to not give a damn to the elderly etc.

And because the signs are so conspicuous about which seats are for the elderly, the other people on the other seats, including those who so "conscientiously" refused to sit at the corner seats, deem it not their duty to give up their seats instead. In the end, no one gave up their seats.

So in the end, the elderly and disabled and the pregnant have to stand.

But on the other hand, if Singapore is so full of such bastards, doesn't it stand to reason that the elderly and the pregnant were once bastards themselves too?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Haha or maybe the more conscientious people don't take public transport? Also that doesn't seem to the case since the roads are full of rude drivers too =P

Anonymous said...

Oops I meant "although" instead of "also"

Anonymous said...

I think whether people take public transport depends on whether they have their own transport. haha. At least, I'm conscientious, but I have to take public. =p