1. Barging en masse into the elevator before the passengers have completely exited. How are passengers going to get out if you’re standing in the way? You are just making the entire process of getting to where you are going less expeditious, not more.
2. Department of Public Works start digging holes on busy streets in June. June signals the start of the season when it rains constantly and when there is generally heavier traffic with school in session. How come no one has the common sense to start digging during dry season when there are no floods and also take advantage of the few months where traffic is lighter because kids are on vacation?
3. I have written about this one in a letter to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The dumbfounded look on a cashier’s face when you hand them a relatively small denomination like a P500 bill. The look – priceless!
4. People’s cell phones ringing off the hook, full volume during a performance at the CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines). And some really ill-mannered viewers actually taking the phone call and having a conversation within earshot of the audience.
5. The CCP allowing viewers to walk in up until 45 minutes after a musical concert has started. If you’re late for the show, you should only be able to come in during intermission or in between numbers. The audience whom you are disrupting also paid for their tickets and they made it a point to get there on time. I had a dozen people walk through my row in those 45 minutes after the show began.
6. The garbage from the neighboring building landing on the open area behind my apartment unit. Did these tenants next door ever hear of a garbage chute or a trash can? If you can live in a building like BSA, I would like to assume you have had some education. It would be nice if this person didn’t use my building as their dumpster.
7. Blocking the diamond lane in the intersection. Basically, if I can’t get through, no one else will. Guess what, no one does. We’re all stuck there twiddling our thumbs.
8. The driver on the extreme right lane of a four-lane Osmena highway careening horizontally towards the left side so the car can turn left. Who cares if this driver swipes the three other cars in their lanes, who by the way, are all in the right of way?
9. I park in an open air paid vertical parking in my building. Drivers blocking my car with their horizontally parked cars without leaving the keys with the guards. There was one occasion when it took a good thirty minutes to find the driver in the building.
10. Jeepneys, buses and pedicabs. Say no more!
I have to tell you, Filipinos are an accepting, forgiving and too “pasa-todo” bunch. An attitude like “okay lang iyan” begets a society that never changes. Yet, these same people who have that attitude also complain.
Sometimes, I just wonder why Filipinos are so bizarrely lacking in common sense when we are a very smart race, after all.
Four years later, I am still going “HUH?”
Tina Vitas
Makati City
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4 comments:
#5 on your list is Filipino Time at its worst ... which I was never a fan of. Traffic is never a good excuse, everyone else has to endure it.
It's just a chicken and egg sort of situation ... people *know* everyone else is going to be late, so they decide to be late themselves.
Soooo true! Really frustrating! How about those parents who make their kids ride on a motorcycle with no helmets but they are wearing theirs--Arrgh!
Yes when you look at it, it's really common sense. You don't have to be a genius.
Wysgal, traffic is the most convenient excuse to be late. But there's always traffic in this city, even during non-rush hour. My problem with lateness is that translated very crudely, it's utter disrespect for other people's time and their schedules. Filipinos just don't see it that way. (They're thinking - Why, where else do you have to be that's so important that you couldn't wait half an hour for me?) I vowed when I moved back here that I would keep American time. For the most part, I am either ahead of time, on time or on the rare occasions, 10 minutes late with advance notice (NERD). I hate making people wait. PINAYSIDEUP
Windowshopper, being laid back can turn into negligence. That motorcycle hits a pothole traveling at a certain speed and it's goodbye baby. How do you expect a child without a helmet to survive that kind of mishap in a vehicle as unprotected as a motorcycle? To a certain extent, I think it can be rooted in misguided faith (like having 12 children because children are a blessing from above and not having the means to feed any of them). Yes, if you're a person of faith, then your Heavenly Father will take care of you and your needs. BUT in order for that to happen, He also expects you not to be ridiculous and reckless in your behavior. OR very simply, people are just not thinking with their heads, period. It's our job to inform and educate them. PINAYSIDEUP
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