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30 March 2009: Giving up seats on trains and buses.

I was listening to 987 when I was on the bus on the way home, and Ros was talking about how everyone have equal rights to sit on the trains and buses, and that people shouldn't snap photos of others and give them a 'death sentence' just because they didn't give up their seats to the elderly or pregnant or people with special needs.

I totally agree with her on that point. The person sitting down could be suffering from cramps, or feeling giddy, or the classic menstrual cramps. By snapping a picture of the person without his/her permission, and posting it on stomp, without giving the person a chance to explain is so unfair for him/her. The picture cannot capture how painful is his/her cramps or how the person is trying to stabilize himself/herself to stop the giddiness. The person would be labeled as immoral even though he/she had their reasons for not giving up the seat.

Imagine a young female suffering from menstrual cramps, and has to travel from one end of the line to the other. She would be losing a lot of blood, which might make her feel giddy too. Does she have to give up her seat for a pregnant woman who may be feeling perfectly well? Besides, if the pregnant woman needs a seat badly, and feels that it's dangerous to stand, she should take a cab instead. And perhaps the person sitting down may not explicitly show her pain. It wouldn't occur to anyone that she's actually in a greater need of the seat as compared to the pregnant woman right?

I personally feel that instead of snapping pictures of the person who doesn't give up his/her seat and degrading his/her personality without giving them a chance to explain, why don't these 'righteous' people just kindly inform the person that there is an elderly/pregnant woman who needs a seat? If the person was feeling unwell, he/she would at least have the chance to explain. And if he/she was feeling perfectly well, he/she would feel obliged to give up his/her seat to avoid being scorned at.

The snappers' justifications for shaming these people was to make Singapore a better place, filled with kind and moral people. Doesn't it seem ironic how they are degrading others without giving them a chance to explain when they themselves do not take the initiative to get someone to stand up for the people in need of a seat?

Anyway I'm typing all these because I'm feeling so unjust for the victims of these snappers, not because I have been shamed on Stomp or what. But maybe one day I will be, when it's one of those days of bad menstrual cramps. So perhaps then I have this blog entry to back my stand. But I don't think that's possible because I usually avoid going out when I'm suffering from menstrual cramps.