8/10/2019 The Bangsar Boy - Getting the message across, the rude way

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By NIKI CHEONG

A FEW days ago, I went to watcha musical in one of the theatreauditoriums in KL. What show

watched is immaterial; what sur-rised me was the introductory mes-age that came over the publicnnouncement system.

Usually, before the show starts, theroducers will play a recording wel-oming the audience to the show andhanking sponsors, and including a gen-le reminder to switch off “all mobilehones, pagers and other beeping

devices”. This time, it was done live, andmost interestingly.

After welcoming the audience, thennouncer reminded us to switch off he phones – except that it was not the

gentle reminder I was used to.“All phones must be switched off,”

he announced. “D.E.A.D. Putting yourhone on silent is NOT acceptable.”

Now, I thought speaking in that tonewas pretty rude (her tone softened onlywhen it came to promoting her ownlay after that announcement). Buthen again, I wondered if we deservedt.

Every so often, we hear our friendsomplaining about the lack of civic-onsciousness. My performer friendsometimes moan about people cough-ng loudly (“Why can’t they carry mints

with them?”) during live shows, mymovie-buff friends tell of peoplepeaking on the phone or munching

really loudly in the cinema (“Don’tunderstand the Nokia ad saying switchoff your phone, is it?”) and my shopa-holic buddies, of getting run over by lit-tle kids in shopping complexes (“Neverheard of a harness ah?”).

What is it that makes us such, well,

difficult people? The thing is, it is onething to do all these, and it is anothernot to acknowledge that one is at fault.

I myself have had such encounters.Once, I was at the theatre when the per-son two seats away started coughing. Itdidn’t help that she started digging into

her handbag in search of mints – shewas making so much noise becausethings were falling out of the bag, plas-tic bags were being rustled and she wascursing under her breath about notbeing able to find her mints. Okay, soshe could not find her mints. The leastshe could have done during intermis-sion was to get some – but no, shereturned, cough and all.

There was also the time I was in acinema when an argument broke out inthe middle of the movie. I was a fewrows away but from what I heard, itwent something like this. The seatbeside a lady was unoccupied, so theguy behind that seat decided to put hisfeet up on the empty seat, right next tothe lady’s face. While she kept telling(read: shouting) him that it was a rudething to do, he kept going, “You didn’tpay for the seat also; no one sittingthere, what.”

Then, there was this other incidentthat happened to a good friend of mine.While shopping at Mid ValleyMegamall, he noticed a few kids skatingaround in “skate-shoes”. The kids -who, my friend said, were about six orseven years old, had already causedsome people to stop in their tracks lestthey knocked into them. Then it hap-

pened – my friend was swept off hisfeet by a seven-year-old.

Instead of apologising, the kid'sfather (who, smartly enough, beganmoaning because he had fallen down,too) started berating my friend, sayingthat as an adult he should have knownbetter than to walk into a kid like that,and that young people these days wereabsorbed in their own world. Still hurt-ing from the fall, my friend was tooflabbergasted to respond, and addinginsult to injury, the man was heardtelling the boy that the “uncle” who hadtripped him was rude not to apologise.

The thing is, how do we make thesepeople realise that what they are doingis “not acceptable”? For years, we havelived with signs and announcementstelling us what to do or not to do – nosmoking, keep left on elevator, pleaseswitch off all mobile phones, signalbefore turning, no flash photography –but every day we still meet people whodo not seem to care.

What I noticed, though, during themusical was that no mobile phones,pagers or beepers went off. I cannothelp but wonder if it was merely a coin-cidence, or if the “rude” message waswhat it took to jolt the “rude” peopleout of their selfish attitude.

Saturday 12 August 2006

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Getting the messageacross, the rude way