Are Singaporeans gracious? How gracious are we when compared to other countries?

In Singapore, there are quite a number of both gracious and ungracious people. Being gracious meaning courteous, polite and kind towards other people. On the other hand, being ungracious means being unpolite and uncouth or acting like a hooligan. Some people say that Singaporeans are ungracious. I, however, think that it is unfair to say that in general. There are indeed a number of singaporeans who are gracious towards other people and it is very unfair for them to be classified under the category of “ungracious”.

I have personally witnessed some gracious acts demonstrated by some singaporeans. For example, once I got onto a bus together with another old lady who was carrying a small trolley filled with groceries. Some people was totally ignoring the old lady and I, some were busy ‘sleeping’ and some were engrossed in reading. Nobody bothered about the old lady. At that time, the bus travelled quite fast and was shaky. The old lady almost lost her balance. Immediately, a young man immediately stood up and gave up his seat to the old lady.

There are also some ungracious acts demonstrated by singaporeans. One example that I saw was two young students, both female. When they boarded the bus, they sat on the seats which were reserved for needy people like old people or pregnant women. They totally ignored the sign above the seats and chatted loudly. That is definitely an ungracious act. Another example, on the bus, some people choose to seat on the outer seat and place their belongings like bags etc on the inner seat, thinking that they can occupy both seats at once, which was why there were insufficent seats for all commuters.

The government has also encouraged people to be gracious singaporeans so that they would not leave a bad impression on the tourists coming to visit singapore. They do not want singapore’s reputation to go bad because of these acts. To encourage people to be more gracious, the government has filmed and broadcasted a video showing some gracious acts. The short video can now be watched on youtube and it shows phua chu kang telling people to be gracious on public transport such as buses or MRTs. To some people, they may feel shameful because this means singaporeans can only be gracious when the government asks them to.

Hygiene is also another problem in Singapore. People just litter and spit anywhere they like it. Liter can be found in most of the places despite the fact that dustbins can be found almost everywhere. There have been reports that after huge performances like National Day, there are huge amounts of litter found left behind. How are we going to uphold our reputation as the “Clean and Green Singapore”?

5. After you, my dear Alphonse: Would you have treated Boyd or someone who is not of the same race or nationality as you differently? Why or why not?

I think I would not treat someone of a different race differently. However, I feel that under some circumstances, it would be quite difficult. For example, if most of my classmates starts treating the indians in class differently, sooner or later other classmares, even I, would submit to peer pressure and start treating the indians differently. Another situation would be when that person of a different race does something which everyone dislikes and thus resulting in the people around him picking on him like criticising on his skin colour etc.

Racism or racial discrimination is when a person treats another person of a different race differently and negatively. For example, a person criticises an indian as a "blackie" due to his skin colour. In"After you, my dear Alphonse", the mother was not treating Boyd negatively and differently directly, but she had a mindset that black people are poor, would eat anything and would not hold high positions in companies. She is looking down on the blacks, which is also a form of racism.

Currently, racism is quite common in today's society. When I am talking to a friend who is of a different race such as a Malay or an Indian, I would try to avoid saying things that would offend them like mentioning their skin colour. I would also try not to gossip behind their backs and say anything racist about them, like " look, that 'blackie' is here again". I have experienced times when one of my friends said something racist and hurtful straight in the face of an indian friend of ours. In the end, my friend was sent to see our form teacher. I think that one way to reduce racism is that people of different races should maybe be separated for some time. This way, they would not see each other and would not think of those hurtful racism remarks. Another way is that they learn the importance of a multi-racial society and work together.