Betelgeuse

Musing

I was waiting a long time for the bus almost 20 minutes, boarded it. On the bus this happened..

1-stop before the incident
Bus driver grumbles to himself about how LTA manages to put 2 bus stops in close proximity to each other near the MRT. The commuters however don't seem to notice and always seem to press the 'bus stopping' button at the wrong stop. this trip was no different, thereby irking the driver so.

Incident
The next few proceedings happened in a matter of seconds. Lady who in one hand was holding her laptop and in the other a book, which she happened to be engrossed in. Enters the bus without tapping her card, the bus driver hollers 'OI' or 'A' or something to that effect, above his normal voice. The lady proceeds to leave her items on the chair and scans her card. This was after all the other passengers had boarded. In the process retorting to the bus driver: "don't be so impatient, can't you be a little more gracious" or something to that effect.

Evaluation
The question here is who is at fault?

1) While most people would say the lady has been aggrieved. I think culturally we tend to side with the damsel in distress. More often than not you do not use 'OI' on someone you don't really know.

2) Some would say due to the nature of the argument both were at fault. This I believe is the nice man attitude, we don't know what exactly happened and thus decide to split the bill/blame. An even portion here and there makes US look not so judgmental.

3) Some would even go as far as to blame the environment. Blame the LTA who put 2 bus stops almost side by side, blame the people who didn't intervene, blame etc.. etc.. This I believe is same as (2).

4) In my opinion, I feel that the lady was at fault. Being gracious means being able to think beyond yourself. To that I believe taking out your card prior to boarding means the others after you can board smoothly as well. Knowing that you have much to carry you should also not try to hinder the way of others after you. The driver although rough in his mannerism was executing his rights to check on the ticket. And while there were better ways to do so his 'OI' was given so the commuter could spare the trouble of coming back all the way to the front just to tap his/her card.

I'm not the kind that likes to scrutinize human behavior, come to think of it I would be guilty of choosing (1) in most cases. However the more I think about it the more I've come to realize that we use more senses than logic when it comes to deducing right and wrong.

Coming to the point I think neither the lady nor the bus driver would be able to deduce all this simply because of a lack of ability to think beyond themselves. This is something we should all endeavor to do to become a true gracious society.

posted by Sidestepper: Daniel @ 3:58 PM