in defense of the selfish singaporean

Last week-ish, there was a letter in the ST forum. The writer's grandmother kanna attacked by their schizophrenic neighbour at a very public bus stop and noone helped at all. There were so many sensible things the writer could have lamented about. Probably her grandmother did or had something that triggered off something in their neighbour so she could have talked about the greater need for sensitivity towards mentally sick people. Maybe said neighbour didn't take his medication before leaving home; she could have talked about the challenges of caring for the mentally inept and caregiver's burdens. Or perhaps the neighbour's relapse was caused by the hot weather; she could highlight the challenges faced in combating global warming. Yet, the writer choose to accuse all the people at the bus stop, and by association, all Singaporeans, as apathetic.

In today's ST forum, a Adam Chen Zijian writes:

"I REFER to the letter, 'No one helped when old woman was attacked' (ST, Nov 5) by Ms June Koh Poh Kwan.
It is indeed sad and unfortunate to hear that not a single person bothered to help Mdm Tan when her attacker, a young man suffering from schizophrenia, verbally and physically attacked her.

It is common knowledge that the majority of Singaporeans would just stare and keep a distance whenever such situations arise.

Like all Singaporeans, we do not want trouble and, thus, our selfish nature.

This bad habit of ours is definitely one of the traits that make up the 'Ugly Singaporean'.

True, Singapore always gets praised in the international media for being clean and green, for being a safe country, for having the best airport but, when it comes to basic moral values and ethics, Singaporeans really fare badly.

We really should learn from the rest of the world, such as our American and Australian counterparts because chances are if the same scenario happened in either America or Australia, members of the public would get involved and promptly seize the attacker, before handing him over to the police.

Compare that to what happened to Mdm Tan, and you will know that Singaporeans are lagging very far behind and have a lot of catching up to do.

So, being clean and green, having the best airport, honestly, they all count for nothing if we continue to be so selfish and self-centred.

It is only when we learn to be more selfless and self-sacrificing that we can truly consider ourselves to be gracious citizens."

Generally, the stupidity in the ST forum is quite high, but Adam Chen Zijian brings it to PAP politician levels. Personally I like people who are called Adam, and this one shares my surname as well as having a nice Chinese name. Apparently such triply ideal naming goodness can only result in stupidity.

In his letter, Adam's only claim that Singaporeans are selfish is backed only by the previous letter and the 'common knowledge that the majority of Singaporeans would just stare..'. Where is the freakin falsifiability?

-

In America, the country which Adam lauds for her unselfish people, a Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death infront of 30 over people over a half hour period, where the attacker left and came back to continue stabbing her. No one lifted a finger. In another case, a woman was unaware she had been stabbed in the back and continued doing her normal marketing. She only realized she had been stabbed after she got home and her daughter pointed out there was a knife protruding from behind her.

As has been researched to death (Berkowitz, Latane & Darley, Bryan & Walbek, Bryan & Test, Grusec, Bastardi & Shafir etc), having other people around makes people alot less likely to help. People generally don't help around strangers cuz they don't wanna pai-seh.They don't generally help aroound strangers cuz they are afraid that the event might not be an emergency, and since noone else is helping, then it probably isn't an emergency. In other words, as clear as being stabbed to the victim might seem, the event is not so clear-cut to us by-standers.

When I was in HK, we came across a crowd.

Odie wastes no time in mingling within the crowd, and chatting up the early birds to find out what is going on. She tells me that this behaviour is not an Odie-thing, and based on observation with this crowd, I concur with her. It seems in HK, it is the culture for by-standers in a crowd to actually communicate with each which generally eliminates the ambiguity of the situation, or eliminates the possibility one will look like a fool for helping because everyone else is also doing so.

-

I think the most famous account of America's lack of unselfishness is how Americans, common and professionals alike, risk their lives during the September 11 attacks. I also think that there is nothing ambiguous about buildings collapsing and in flames, or planes being hijacked for suicide runs.

So it's really abit too far, and most unscientific and therefore really stupid, to call Singaporeans selfish and apathetic. Singaporeans are not selfish or apathetic. I think they just have a very generous leeway for what constitutes an emergency, a leeway which is not helped by the general tendency of Singaporeans to keep to themselves I suppose.

A man and woman fighting, never mind how much blood is flowing, is construed as a domestic struggle and therefore private business, albeit in a very public place.

A kid writhing about on the ground, and foaming at the mouth, is simply the playfulness of youth.

An adult savagely abusing a child is nothing more than discipline. Afterall, growing up, who hasn't been caned?

A knife sticking out of someone's back. A bad radio commercial?

As silly as it sounds, but the research shows it. If you want help, just ask for it. CLEARLY. In 4 different languages and 2 different dialects to be sure.