The Lack Of The Courtesy

I went to government hospital last Sunday.

I arrived there quite early, coz u have to wait at least few hours to meet the doctor in a government hospital unless u have some kind of connection or link with Sultan or any Datuks.

After did my X-RAY scan, I went to the counter again waiting for my number being call. This time they asked me to wait at the small waiting room section. So I went to this room.

While I’m reading my newspaper and waiting for my number being called, I kind of noticed something wrong with my surrounding. I noticed something called the lack of courtesy.

Seating right in front of me was a teenager, who should have been in school at that moment - maybe he was sick I guessed. But he didn’t seem so coz he was so occupied with headphones plugged firmly into his ears. I can even hear his song selection at that time, Dear God by Avenged Sevenfold. The sound from his MP3 was loud enough to fill up an entire waiting room.

Then, I saw a flock of young guys age around 30-years old draped in their formal shirts and leather shoes. Hands firmly gripped on the briefcases.

They also waiting to meet the doctor I guess, and while waiting, their eyes never once left the screens of their handhelds. Some punched away email and short messages into their Blackberry; some were scrolling their expensive iPhone screens back and forth, back and forth. None appeared to give a damn about anything around them.

Then there were a boy sat between the MP3 teenager with his mother, with the latest version of Sony Play Station Portable clutched in his fingers. He was oblivious to his surroundings. Watching him, I was like, wow, this five years old kid already have the latest PSP! Well at least he didn’t make a lot of noise after all!

An exception, perhaps, came in a form of an old pensioner in ‘kepiah’ and walking stick. He sat quietly at the corner reading a copy of the Harakah. From this situation I can conclude that reading is decidedly a dying culture in Malaysia.

Then I kept glancing around, and saw a pregnant lady badly needed a seat. The bulging varicose veins threatened to pop out of her feet anytime now. And also there was an old makcik needed a seat, too, coz she looked tired. So I decide to surrender my seat to that old makcik.

Then I think how about the pregnant lady? She also need to seat.

Lo and behold, humanity was apparently a foreign concept in this waiting room. So I guess I must do something. Perhaps disturb the MP3 kid, shall we?

“Excuse me adik, could u please give ur seat for the pregnant lady?” All the eyes in the waiting room were all on me.

The teenager looked up to my direction. He sniggered. Then he rolled his eyes while saying: “Mind ur own business BRO.”

His headphone never left his ears. I wonder whether he could hear me talking or not at the first place. But with his answer just now, sure he heard me clearly. Fair enough. I should really mind my own business. Who was I to tell him to give up his seat?

The massive bloom of technology dissipates good old-fashioned inter-personal communication. Gone were the days where strangers could carry-on animated conversations anywhere.

Courtesy is very important in today's society because it is a way of showing respect for others. If there was no respect for others, the world would be a very unpleasant place to live!

Courtesy and respect for the elderly, or the helpless, diminishes bit by bit as the younger generation hold on to their handhelds and computer games. Reading, while passing time, can only be seen in pensioners and very few among youngest.

Often, for the sake of staying connected to the World Wide Web, we forget the simple pleasures of saying ‘hi’ or giving ‘salam’ to the person next to us. While we scour for information splashed on online news-portals, or keeping up virtually with friends on Facebook, we forget to take a break to smile at the person beside us.

Have we become a nation so infatuated with technology that we have chosen to forsake common courtesy and chivalry?

Remember, everybody can’t be the smartest person in town, but all of us can be courteous and considerate of the other person.