A sense of spacial awareness wouldn’t go amiss

The last few weeks have been a bit busy, hence my lack of blog activity. We’ve been away for a long weekend to Phuket and I have been swamped with work. I feel like I’m getting pulled into the black hole of Singapore’s work ethic which is work, work, work until it’s done, even if you realise there’s still tomorrow to get it done. It’s also not helped by the cross-over of timezones with the US.  I find myself on calls at 9, 10 and 11 at night. That’s not right in anyone’s book. In the word’s of one of my former mentoring partners at an accounting firm, “that’s just not sustainable”.

What I have gained from the last month is a growing understanding of how commuting works and how people interact with each other at street-level. You’d expect there to be some sense of order about how things work here, after all there are arrows on the subways to tell you which sides to walk on, signs on the escalators to tell you where to stand, even painted footprints on the steps to show you where to put your feet. However, an email I received from a professional colleague sums up the duality of life in Singapore pretty well:
“It is wise to check although if truth be known, not all practices are regulated and sometimes it is just hit and miss. The practitioners will tell you to proceed as if it is not required and if X or Y decides otherwise, you can always arrange for an audit. There is unfortunately no definitive answer and this flies somewhat in the face of the impression that Singapore is totally regulated.”

That's an interesting statement. 

When I compare that to my dealings with people on the street, on the buses, on the MRT, there generally seems to be a cloud of ignorance, a shroud of unawareness about the general public at large. Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t every person on the island, it’s not even specific groups of the population, it’s the overriding sense that I get as I go about my daily business.

It’s as if there’s a bubble around people that stops them seeing others or judging their movements.  It’s a dim understanding of where they are in relation to objects (moving and stationary) and thinking about how their actions may impact people on the street. If you’re coming from London or New York or Beijing where the bodies per square meter ratio is significantly higher, you would expect a commute in Singapore to be a walk in the park in comparison. A few examples for you which confront me on a daily basis;


1) There is no concept of queuing or any sense of priority when boarding or alighting from public transport (I admit that the British invented queuing and I should have no expectation that other nations would do the same. The British also invented fish and chips and that hasn’t caught on too much either.)


2) People will adamantly stand on the designated walking side of the escalators or stopping at the top of the escalators instead of walking off them. It slows down an already slow process and actually creates a hazard at the top of the escalator. If I trip over another old person and get cursed by the person behind me one more time, seriously....there will be face-losing words.


3) Shoppers will stop abruptly while walking in the middle of the street or mall, will walk phenomenally slowly or meander while texting. Taking a leaf from the “don’t drive and text” message that Oprah’s pushing for the USA, maybe “don’t walk and text” would be more appropriate. There’s been a saying for a while that certain people can’t walk and chew gum, let me tell you, it’s funny because it’s true.


4) A growing number of people will not hold doors open for others, be they Ladies or Gentlemen. Again, the British have pioneered chivalry for many centuries and to some extent it’s in a British Gentleman’s DNA, so I should have no expectation of it from Singapore which is more akin to the wild-west where it’s every man for themselves.


5) Commuters will rigidly stand directly in the doorway of the MRT instead of moving down inside the train. I’m not one for overt physical contact at 8am but there’s got to be some sense about you that if people want to get into the train and there’s space available, that they’re going to have to enter through the door, which means they have to enter through YOU, Buddy, so move down inside the car! They moan about the people per square meter during rush hour, but believe me, it’s positively pleasant and roomy.


I don’t think I’m expecting too much, to have a sense of common decency, courtesy and respect for a fellow citizen. It seems that the many dollars spent by the Govt. to spell out the “be courteous” message has to some extent been wasted on a nation of people who’d rather join the front carriage of a train because it physically arrives at the station first, sneak through a closing door because it means that the person behind them has to open it themselves, overtake you in traffic because then they’re one car ahead of you. The list could go on. Competition is fine, as long as it’s not at the expense of the common society. Once it is defined in terms of Me V Neighbour, the whole community loses.

Shovel