boulevard-ijab (IJA & ME) - one half completing the other half....

To rude or not to rude?

First of all, pardon me for the horrendous drawing above. I'm trying to be 'not rude' here. Though, I can't really stop you from feeling somewhat outraged by the real-life photos shown.

Not too long ago, many Malaysian papers (if not all) put up on their front page, news about KL city folks being ranked by the Reader’s Digest magazine, as the third (after Bombay and Bucharest) most rude people. The were mixed feelings over the news. Some accepted the news with open minds while others were quick to react and object.

In my opinion, we should not quickly jump and shout when our a*s is bitten. Instead, we should swallow the criticms first, then ponder the accuracy or inaccuracy of the 'facts'.

I remember back in the school days, an article/thesis written by a British chap caused a furore among Malaysians (especially the ministers). Basically he wrote that young Malaysians were not given enough opportunities to excel and always considered inexperienced by those who were older. Only those who have reached the 'Belia' category (around 40 years of age and above) could be trusted to hold some important positions in organisations/companies.

Don't ask me why that guy wrote that... I can't remember. But when I heard the news at that young age, I somehow agreed with his statements. Even till today, for someone who is 30 and below (especially), SOME ELDERLIES are quick to label us 'budak hingusan' (a kid with running nose). Expressions like "we have eaten more salt than you have" or "don't interfere, this is old folks' matters only" are often heard. However, I can't deny that the society has slowly started to accept that young minds/opinions/talents nowadays are vital and crucial in shaping our nation.

Now, back to rudeness. We see/hear rude Malaysians everyday. In the streets, in buildings/malls, over the phone conversations and even in places of worships (sometimes). Some examples are:

1. Beating the red light. Sometimes drivers are more rude if the junction is controlled by traffic policemen: we have heard it before where the men in uniform or other road users being hit by drivers who refuse to stop even when the signal is raised.

2. Pedestrians come last to most motorists. Sometimes, they won't even budge to stop at pedestrian crossings with 'pedestrian' traffic lights, endangering the lives of those who have the right to cross. Bear in mind my dear inconsiderate motorists. You too are pedestrians, whether you like it or not. For examples, when you walk to your car or from your car to a grocery store across the road. Or how about when you walk along the street to a stall for lunch. Respect pedestrians the way you want to be respected. Don't consider them unimportant or look down on them just because they don't have a ride (your subconscious mind might think this way without you realising it).

3. As for those pedestrians, they are those motorists who are considerate enough to risk themselves being hit by unsuspecting vehicles coming from behind, to stop and give chance for you to cross safely. As a matter of courtesy, please do raise your hand (if you can) or smile or nod as a thank you. And please DO try to cross as quickly as possible. Don't take your own sweet time to walk very slowly as though you haven't eaten for a year.

4. Other road manners to follow, that don't really consume much of your own and your vehicle's energy:

(a) please keep your distance (a gap of at least half a car) from the vehicle in front of you, whether traffic is smooth flowing or jammed. And please don't take over in a rather impatient manner should you notice the driver in front of you follows this rule.

(b) a motorcyclist is 17 times more at risk to be involved in an accident than other motorists. So, bear this in mind the next time you intend to pull some stunts while riding the machine, and especially if a loved one(s) is riding with you.

(c) you may know telepathy or you are a natural telepathist, but other road users are not! The signals are there for you to use. People don't know whether you want to turn right or left just because your mind is telling you where to go. And should you park your vehicle where you shouldn't be (like in emergency lanes), use your emergency lights!!

(d) other than making way for pedestrians to cross, make way also for your fellow motorists (provided it is safe to do so). A little help goes a long way and you shall be 'rewarded' when you least suspect it.

(e) there's no need to honk! It won't make any difference if the jam is packed. Also, have a little patience should the traffic is not moving immediately after the light turns green. Most of the time, the vehicle at the most front is letting all the motorcyles to leave first, you know, for safety sake.

(f) say, while trying to change your lane, you accidentally knock a car in front. When you notice you've only caused minor scratches to the car, you immediately ignore what happen and speed off? A similar incident happened to me and wife while I was behind the wheel a couple of weeks ago. Without knowing the extent of the damage to the car, I actually gave chase only to find out that the driver was an elderly person. Initially, he completely denied he knocked us before, but after I kept on shouting from inside our car (it was not safe to step out due to busy traffic), he changed it to "there are no damages to your car." As though hadn't shown enough rudeness, he even closed his car window even before we finished talking. Would you agree that we might have cooled down a little bit, if only that old b**tard said one simple word - SORRY. Quite a good example he was showing to his generation, huh? Another lesson that we learned was, be careful of who you give chase to - they might turn out to be road bullies!

5. Please don't block other people's way especially if the path is so small. I mean seriously, can't these people think? There was a day when I needed to pick up my favourite Oreos at a supermarket. The small entrance to the path was blocked by a lady on the phone, apparently waiting for the person on the other line to pick up. I actually had to squeeze myself (now larger than before) between her and the racks. What irritated me the most was her 'poker' and dont-care look, seeing me 'struggling' to pass through. Talk about overcoming obstacles to reach your goal ha! Sigh...

6. Handphones - you can't live without them but at times, you HAVE TO live without them! In the cinemas, sometimes we hear ringtones/music that are not part of the movie's sound effects, disturbing our concentration. Believe it or not, there are those who pick up the phones only to say out loud, "I'M AT THE CINEMA, I WILL CALL YOU BACK..." So, what are you? An arrogant, immature prick? Then there's the constant need to check or send SMS'es while the movie is running. The illuminated screen is really an eye sore, mind you! Not enough with that, as though they are enjoying irritating others, they also giggle and comment with their mates about the contents of the SMS'es. If the movie doesn't strike you to be interesting at all, by all means, please DO LEAVE.

7. At cinemas is one thing, in places of worships is another. When one is praying to God with khusyu' and tawadu', one does not need to hear your J-Lo's latest hit song or Doraemon's official tune when someone tries to call or sends you an SMS. Whenever you can remember to do so, please swich off your ringtones or better still, switch off your phone completely. Don't be ignorant or arrogant before The Almighty. And please, don't pick up your phones and talk about your last night's date that didn't go well, or chit chat with an old friend you accidentally stumble into, while there are people who are still praying.

8. The same phone rules apply when you are attending a seminar/course/talks. Please respect the speakers in front and other guests around you. Please also refrain yourself from talking with other guests unless required to do so.

9. Please practise your tounge to say the word 'thank you' or its equivalent (if in other languages). Once, I held a door at a shopping mall for a couple to pass through, only to hear giggles from them, and the girl actually commented "Jaga pintu ke? Kih Kih Kih...." i.e. "Are you a door guard?"

10. Be professional if you are answering calls at your workplace. Should you need to transfer the call, let the caller know. Don't let him/her wonder how come the line goes quiet or what is happening when all of a sudden, a music is playing on the other line.

That is how I view rudeness is, though of course there are many other examples. However, the Reader’s Digest (RD) magazine has totally different standards to define what it considers rude and what is not. RD sent reporters into the principal city of 35 countries to conduct a survey of local politeness. Three tests were employed: dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help; checking how often shop assistants said “thank you”; and counting how often someone held a door open. They consider the city folks are somewhat rude if door-holding, paper-picking and thanking the retail customer are not part of the culture.

Hmmm... what? Who set those standards anyway? World's Rudeness Organisation? First of all, the RD team should know that a majority of houses (close to 100%) in Malaysia (around city centres or villages) don't come with hydraulic doors (is that what they call them?) where the doors close themselves after being pushed when someone enters or exits. Therefore, most Malaysians are not used to this hold-the-door-for-you culture because such doors are only fixed in office buildings.

Furthermore, it's true that we DO say THANK YOU, but we are not accustomed to say so to customers, especially at retail shops [try to go to our villages - the kampung folks are all friendly lot like they all belong in the same family. But when it comes to buying stuffs at grocery stores, they (customers and shop owners/shop assistants) can talk about everything under the sun other than saying THANK YOU when a purchase is made]. In fact, we don't even have the expression HAVE A NICE DAY in Malay language!

Though these habits (door-holding, paper-picking and thanking the retail customer) can be learned and practised, I don't think they are important enough to help strengthen our nation!

What one considers rude, may not be for other people. Try New Delhi for example. The traffic over there is so crowded and the drivers so ruthless, but then things are still somewhat in order in the midst of chaos and all the honks! You may cringe or even scream when the taxi driver makes an emergency turn to the right, ignoring the incoming traffic or trying to squeeze between two fast moving vehicles. And yet, when meet with a polite driver you hear the taxi driver snickers "this must be a new driver, slowing me down", implying that it is the polite driver who is 'rude'.

Also, try to compete with the politeness of us Malaysians based on OUR STANDARDS! We Malays bow our body a bit when walking in front of elderly person(s) and kiss their hands when we shake hands. This is one of the manners that we have been taught with, for many generations. I can't imagine any Westerners doing that! Let alone trying to be as polite as the Japanese. This is not something to wonder about. Most of their kids don't even know who their fathers/parents are anyway. They may be advanced in certain aspects, but their society is actually crumbling with each passing day.

Here's a NEW standard to determine the rudeness behaviour of some people in some countries. Sometimes, ONE RUDE PERSON is all it takes for the whole country to be despised and labelled the same.

1. Say you are F. You like the house belongs to your neighbour P. One day, you decide to attack P, kill some of his family members and banish the rest, forcing them to become refugees. Then, you claim that house P now belongs to you and from time to time, you are becoming the impending threat to your other neighbours and beyond.

The photos above show how your kids signing their names down on rockets, the same rockets that are used to bomb a helpless country, causing deaths to mainly women and children. Didn't your prophets ever taught you, that women and chidren should be spared when fighting in a war? If your girls can act so 'inhumane', imagine how your adult men would behave when they have weapons at their expense? One need not wonder, as the AL QUR'AN CLEARLY STATES THAT YOUR PEOPLE ARE CONDEMNED BY ALLAH (GOD), DUE TO YOUR INTRUSIVE BEHAVIOUR/NATURE.

2. You believe you are a super power, the world's police (huh?). You claim you fight for human rights and democracy and yet you use your veto so discriminately. You treat your citizens of different races or religions (almost) equally, though most probably, you just need their taxes. At the same time, you behave totally to the contrary when it comes to your foreign policies, despite knowing that they greatly affect the birth countries of your ethnic people. YOU ARE THE BIGGEST HYPOCRITE AND THE BIGGEST DEVILS IN DISGUISE.

3. You are sucking up to the world's police. You have no stand on certain issues other than to please the devils. Your intelligence is deteriorating when it comes to forming your own opinions or coming out with solutions on world's crucial matters. YOU PRACTICALLY HAVE NO FACE AND HAVE PUT YOUR PEOPLE IN UNNECESSARY DANGER!

4. You are the most inconsiderate cartoonist the world has ever seen. Your drawings on a certain prophet, aiming to attack a certain religion are a disgrace. You have hurt the feelings of many people and the republishing of your strips in certain other countries have caused the hurt to manifest itself in the form of violence. Lives lost, buildings burned, world turns to chaos when we have enough trouble as it is. But then, I guess that's your nature right? THIS IS WHAT YOU HOPE WOULD HAPPEN ANYWAY - MORE INSTABILITIES AROUND THE WORLD.

5. When certain people change religions, the matters should be dealth with in the most professional and religous way. Leave the matters to those who are more knowledgeable and they should just stay in your religous body's records only. There is no need to make a mountain out of a molehill to the extent of challenging the constitution, questioning the status of your beloved (really?) country, ignoring your 5 RUKUN NEGARA, spreading lies to foreign media (commenting on something that you don't fully understand is the same as lying) and jeopardising the country's stability and peacefulness. You have left scars deep in many people's hearts. A point to ponder - please respect other religions and at the same time, RESPECT YOUR OWN RELIGIONS TOO. Should you wish to learn or find out more or even question or argue about certain things, please do consult your religious leaders/gurus. We have plenty of qualified gurus out there (with years of experiences in learning and teaching) and from both genders (if for some reason, you are worried that a particular guru is gender biased). Don’t go complaining or ridicule your own religion in your websites or blogs, in newspaper columns and worse, talk to foreign journalists of different religions or to your ex-university’s (national based or not) websites/alumni. YOU HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO PROTECT YOUR OWN DIGNITY, YOUR OWN RELIGION, YOUR OWN FAMILIES AND FRIENDS, YOUR OWN FELLOW CITIZENS AND YOUR OWN COUNTRY.…

So, having listed the above, can you guess the TOP FIVE MOST RUDE COUNTRIES? And sadly, I have to include country no. 5, though that may be taken out once things are sorted out peacefully.

Coming Soon:
1. Keluhan hati seorang lelaki Melayu - a letter to the PM himself and the Agong. I, as a concerned citizen have stepped up to bring up some suggestions to these respected figures over how to tackle/handle some of our local issues.

2. New French Kiss - so there's a new definition of French kiss... you just hit your (probably hard-headed) head towards your lover's/opponent's chest. Read all about it and the verdict that follows...

3. The 'CHARM'ing idiot box - The hit TV series has wrapped up its magic after 8 years. Read on as I take you through its magical years.

4. Fantasy adventure or fantasy love? - Forget about Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter for a while. Here comes Capt. Jack Sparrow in his 'pirated' fantasy adventure, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Also, meet up with Kate Forster and Alex Wyler as they both fall in love in front of a magical mail box that separates them two years apart in The Lake House.

Labels: Life, Road Safety

posted by The Pisces Man @ 6:57 am