Is It A Singaporean Problem Whereby They Do Not Help People In Distress?

On a bright Sunday morning, Orchard Road shoppers were given a rude awakening that interrupted their normal enjoyable shopping routine. They witness a horrendous traffic accident whereby a SBS Bus knocked down an old lady. The old lady was pinned under the bus bleeding profusely. Onlookers flock to the scene of the accident like bees but nobody did anything to help the poor old lady pinned under the bus. As the day went by, the police and civil defence force came and rescued the old lady. As of the faith of the old lady, I do not know.

As I read the about the accident in the newspaper, I asked myself why the onlookers did not help the old lady. Were they afraid? Or is it about the complexities about how humans interact with each other in a cosmopolitan society like Singapore?

I think most of you must have read how other people, besides Singaporeans, have helped people on the streets. Singaporeans have been accused of not being helpful, however, after reflecting on the accident, I have come to realise that there is a much more deeper cause to why some people would help and others would not. It does quite not matter how one is brought up even though it still has a part to play. There are four factors that explain whether one would help someone who is in distress. They are strangeness, space, fear & objectification. It is not confined to Singaporeans only, other people of various races, religion, citizenship and culture can be affected.

Strangeness

It is natural to help someone that we know. When we do not know someone, we have a tendency to be more cautious about interacting with that person. A conflict resides in us about how he/ she or society would view us when we interact with the person. Therefore, we rationalise the consequences of interacting with that person. We rationalise whether it would be beneficial or detrimental to interact with the person. We also tend to see how other people interact with the person and we will try to discern the right and proper way to interact with the person.

The old lady was a stranger to the onlookers. They had their reservation in helping her. They could have rationalised the pros and cons of helping the old lady. As nobody helped her, other onlookers could have discerned that it is a common norm not to help when such an incident happens thus preventing them from helping the old lady. However, if others were to help the old lady, the other onlookers would follow suit.

Fear

Fear prevents someone from doing certain things that he or she wants to do. People sometimes fear how others would think of them if they did something. They also fear of getting to involve in a certain situation. They fear they may cause more harm than good to the person in distress. When people face situations that are strange to them, they are faced with the unknown. Fear grips them because all of a sudden they are not in their comfort zone. I will elaborate more about it in spaces.

Therefore, the onlookers may not have helped the old lady due to the fear of how others would look upon them. They fear that their actions may go against the norm of that particular society if they help the old lady. Adding to the strangeness factor, they also fear that if they go against society, they may not be accepted into it (please note that I am stating this as a hypo - technical situation). Just imagine, if there is a campaign to persuade people to help others in distress in public, there might be a possible situation where more and more people would start to help people who are distress in public.

They also fear that they would have to get more involved in the accident. For example, in being an eye-witness.
They may not feel that they have the necessarily skills in helping the old lady. They are afraid that their help would result in more harm than good.

Space

Humans have their own comfort and private spaces. Once these spaces are invaded or changed, they would become disoriented or frightened. If you are a stranger in a city, you most likely would want to go somewhere that is familiar to you or find some situation that would make you feel comfortable. For example, eating at Burger King, meeting people you know or people whom you know that will help you assimilate you into the city.

Therefore for the regular Orchard Road shoppers their normal comfort space of shopping was interrupted with the onset of the incident. Suddenly, they were faced with a situation they may not have experienced before. Fear as I mentioned before grips them. Therefore, they will find in a situation which will keep them safe and that is just doing nothing and look. They will find this activity safe because that would be the activity that other onlookers would be doing. Therefore, it becomes a norm. As they say, monkey see monkey do.

They also fear of implicating themselves in the accident because it impeaches on their personal space, especially if they are not able to identify themselves as being eye-witnesses.

Objectification

Objectification is something we cannot run away from. We always set objectives in our lives. It gives us a sense of direction in how to lead our lives. We weigh the pro and cons of our objectives to see whether it is beneficial or non-beneficial to carry out the objective.

Therefore, applying the situation to the accident, people may rationalise whether it is worth helping the old lady. They may rationalise whether their help would benefit the old lady. They may rationalise that it would better that the “experts” rescue the old lady (which may be too late at times). Therefore, you may see that some would help while others just watch and stare.

I deliberately left out how the onlookers’ upbringing and values will affect them in their decision in helping the old lady. This was done because I want to show that it is not only a Singaporean problem but it can also affect others around the world. Therefore, whether you are an American, African or English, everyone also may have the tendency of not helping the old lady. This tendency of not helping others in distress is due to the factors of strangeness, fear, space and objectification. With the inculcation of good values, may be the effect of the four factors would be diminish but not entirely extinguished.

Monday

Monday is here
Monday will become Tuesday at 12.00am
Monday is a bright and shiny day
Monday is where we face the blues
On the contrary, facing the blues overcomes our misery
Like the women who sing the blues in the fields that they plough

As Monday goes by, we plough or devour of life at work
Beneficiary to some, unbeneficial to others
Yet, we still continue working in this mindless and cruel world
Which has no sympathy on our souls
Money is the only thing we work for but what is the use if it
only brings us misery and ends our lives in turmoil

Is Monday all that bad
No it would not be because we still have our love ones
Monday is a day which we should all pledge to the ones we love “ I love you”
For only they can give us a sense of living and give us a meaning to life

Do not hate Mondays
It can be a good day
Your faith has already been written, whether good or bad
It is already pre-destined

Monday, Monday
As long as I wish you would go away as fast as possible
I do not want you to because despite all the misery I face, Monday is the only day
Where I know there is a beginning to life