Are we civilised?

Well certainly we can say so, and rightfully be so.

It seems that when I take a walk down Orchard Road, Junction 8 or other pupular places, I see many people. It is a fact that there are at least 4 000 000 people living in a land area lesser than 50km by 30km. In fact, most of us living here have to be living in a cubical about 10 sq metre, side by side and stacked one in chunks one on top of another. Hence the analogy of a pigeon hole.
If the exchange rate to the US Dollar is S$1.5 to US$1, then those who own and live in condominiums are trully millionares by world standard; for on the average, a price of a decent condominium nowadays cost at least 1.5million dollars! Perhaps Singapore is one of the - if not the only, countries that stack one millionare on top of another. Any piece of rock thrown would hit any one of the millionares.

Yet the spenders in these malls are the youngsters. Pop culture here is targeted at young audiences in the teens to early 20s. For they may be the silver lightning in the retail sector slump.

There are many shops, stores, carts and stands selling stuff suitable for this age group. And the recent walk down the pupluar malls amongst this group shows these businesses closing like snow falling. The tenants blame landlord for the exorbidant rent, the landlords place a stifling contract, there are too many of such type of businesses and the prices are not really falling in tendem with the stock market. But that is another story.

I have no quarms about getting together and socialising. I consider being a socialable person is a good thing. So sometimes, I would sit down at a coffee table, with a cup of latte, observing how people come together and talk. No, I'm not interested in how or what they say. I am interested in where and the way they gather.

If these people gather in Starbucks, then the business model is good. If these people populate certain restaurants, then something must be attracting these people. Just take it as a form of market servey.

One day, as I was having my latte, an incident etched deep. It made me ponder about the state of civility in our little state. With years of campaigning, I do wonder if the message of courtesy or kindness really sink into our future leaders. For that very day, I saw a group of youngsters, about 16 to 18 years old I presume, with two still in their school's sport attire. The group of 6 was a mixture of boys and girls. They were chatting happliy.

Nothing wrong about that.

Well, they were standing at the centre of a "T" junction where one path leads to the sliding door of the mall, the other path leads into the shops while the other leads to toilet and lifts. The paths are no wider than 4 people standing side by side. So what I saw was a blocked passage, unless one would be obliged to slide against the wall to pass them.

One middle aged man came through the sliding doors, walked towards the group, raised his hand to shoulder level and began to push a couple of them aside and the proceeded to walk towards the toliet, not once glancing back.

The odd thing was, that man did not speak to the group nor excused himself. Perhaps I assume he is dumb.(For young people reading this piece of work, the word 'dumb' does not mean stupid. It means being a mute.) Or he was just plain rude to these people.

So one of the group member shouted, "Can't you say, 'Excuse me'? We're all civilised people."
That trigered an alarm bell.

Perhaps that man was dumb. For instead of moving to one side, they were blocking the passageway. They were chatting for quite a while and oblivious to the megre few who slid passed them before this man. Perhaps he is just fustrated with this group blocking the passage and tried to clear the passage for the common good?

While clearly it is a case for settlement for the civil court, how would a group of civilised people chat? By the side of the common walkway or right in the middle of the common passageway? Any well brought up 6 years old would say 'not block people walking'.

The fact that this youngerster declaring themselves civilised felt like a sore thumb.

Is 'We are civilised people' defined as 'take me as a model of civility for I AM THE definition of civility' or it should really mean 'I model civility and that I ENDRVOUR TO BE'. Clearly the latter they are not.

Well, perhaps the word 'civility' has 3 times the letter 'i' in 'city', and within the 'i' own 'LV'(Louis Vetton). How self centered can that be?