cutting in line/ queue jumping in Singapore

[sundaymorningstaple]

Always remember one thing. If you see somebody doing something rude, inconsiderate, or boorish and you say nothing to that person, you are telling that person, by your lack of disapproval, that it's okay to behave like that. I would NEVER just walk away and go somewhere else without letting the inconsiderate person exactly what I think. Until Singaporeans start adopting the same response, it will NEVER change here. That's why 31 years of courtesy campaigns hasn't shown any demonstrable effect.

[ev-disinfection]

I would look at the other guy and the stall guy, shake my head and then buy from the other stall. Both of them will get the message, the stall guy for losing a customer and the guy who cut through.... hopefully some shame for losing the stall a customer...
If they confront me, then i will tell them off.
I am not afraid of telling these people off, just that i do it differently...

effective??? might be...

[JR8]

A public lose-face exercise is brushed off and forgotten less easily.

[sundaymorningstaple]

effective??? might be...

After 31 years of courtesy campaigns you think it's effective? Not in your lifetime it won't be. Walking away does absolutely nothing. Doesn't even cause the slightest loss of face because most will not even notice it. You have to make examples of them. Just like the gahmen do with NS deserters. Make examples of them. Just like the ruling family does. Sue them into oblivion. Make examples of them and they are less likely to forget it.

[JR8]

#1 tool.
Public humiliation.



p.s. Isn't it weird, kiasuness relies upon people saying nothing. But when people do say something it brings great shame. Bonkers?

[Strong Eagle]

So we went over all sorts of queue jumping and "I-don't-care-if-you're-pregnant-to-your-teeth-it's-my-seat" scenarios.

But one thing that drives me nuts in Singapore, is the total absence of road courtesy. Talk about jumping queues..

I ride a motorbike, so there is not ONE day where I don't experience first hand how Singaporeans can be rude on the road. And mind you, I'm not talking about the taxi drivers here - they can have their excuses (after all, they are taxi drivers..).

The local speciality is cutting lanes and squeezing in front of you "anyhow". I've been driving on messy roads in messy countries before so this is not about being messy. This is pure rudeness: I'm more in a hurry than you, I want to put my car exactly here, I want to get there faster, I can do whatever I want.

Of course, signaling is absolutely out of the question. As a matter of fact, I find myself almost melting inside with gratitude when someone squeezes shamelessly in front of me if they signaled first. I almost think to myself "hey, he signaled!" , even if they ALWAYS signal half a second before the whole damn car is already in your lane.

And I'm not even going to talk about singaporean drivers and expressways: overtaking from the right, playing Michael Shumacher at 100km/h (seriously? you guys need to drive on some real highways, see how you'll feel playing smartass on the road at 160km/h+), or overtaking you right before they exit.

Oh, the expressway exits.. That's another perfect spot right there to witness singaporean rudeness. So you mean to tell me that you're a 60 years old singaporean driving a lexus, born and raised in Singapore, lived here your entire life and you didn't know your expressway exit was here? Of course you did. But it's so much more like you to cut in front of me, brake at the last second, and force your way into the left lanes to get to the exit. Who cares if by doing that you almost kill me, or create a massive jam behind because all the lorries and other vehicles had to jam brake to let you get to your exit. Exit you could have PLANNED to take , like 2km ago.

I think people should say something when these queue jumpers or smart ass rude people just ignore basic courtesy. I for one don't hesitate to point them out, that loosing face thing is a gift from heaven in these situations.. works like a charm.

You need a really loud automobile horn (two of them) on your bike, and a willingness to keep blowing it until the clowns move back into their lane. Works well.

[ev-disinfection]

Ok SMS, i will sue the stall guy for not serving me first and the guy who had cut into the queue and take it to the high court... lol

[sundaymorningstaple]

Parallels are lost on Singaporeans.

[x9200]

After 31 years of courtesy campaigns you think it's effective? Not in your lifetime it won't be. Walking away does absolutely nothing. Doesn't even cause the slightest loss of face because most will not even notice it. You have to make examples of them. Just like the gahmen do with NS deserters. Make examples of them. Just like the ruling family does. Sue them into oblivion. Make examples of them and they are less likely to forget it.

And if you are a Caucasian they will just think "yet another crazy, aggressive angmoh", have some stories for some long tropical evenings with their families and avoid jumping the queue if some angmohs are nearby

[sundaymorningstaple]

After 31 years of courtesy campaigns you think it's effective? Not in your lifetime it won't be. Walking away does absolutely nothing. Doesn't even cause the slightest loss of face because most will not even notice it. You have to make examples of them. Just like the gahmen do with NS deserters. Make examples of them. Just like the ruling family does. Sue them into oblivion. Make examples of them and they are less likely to forget it.

And if you are a Caucasian they will just think "yet another crazy, aggressive angmoh", have some stories for some long tropical evenings with their families and avoid jumping the queue if some angmohs are nearby

If that is what happens, it's okay by me. They are not jumping the queue, and that's what matters.

[JR8]

Parallels are lost on Singaporeans.

As is nuance.

[JR8]

After 31 years of courtesy campaigns you think it's effective? Not in your lifetime it won't be. Walking away does absolutely nothing. Doesn't even cause the slightest loss of face because most will not even notice it. You have to make examples of them. Just like the gahmen do with NS deserters. Make examples of them. Just like the ruling family does. Sue them into oblivion. Make examples of them and they are less likely to forget it.

And if you are a Caucasian they will just think "yet another crazy, aggressive angmoh", have some stories for some long tropical evenings with their families and avoid jumping the queue if some angmohs are nearby

Someone has to teach the damn coolies manners, damn the government have been paying millions to campaign for it to happen for long enough.

Hey maybe FT should get paid extra $ for kicking the local riff-raff into line manners-wise? You know like an official return of cultural colonialisation.

[sundaymorningstaple]

[x9200]

The point is we may not be that effective as the "educators". On the other hand a local person will much more likely be ignored or verbally attacked by such queue jumper so our "reputation" works here either way.
Just a digression, I agree that public humiliation is the best way.

[poodlek]

A public lose-face exercise is brushed off and forgotten less easily.

My husband experienced the explosive (albeit highly effective) results of this last week when he inadvertently made his boss lose face in front of a few dozen other employees. Interestingly enough, she was probably the only one in the room who saw it as "losing face" but for the first time in months she ended up on the same page as everyone else. She started to cry, but she finally understood...

As for the queue jumpers and other social misfits, so what if they think we're crazy ang mohs. The problem here was something I took in stride (especially on the MRT) as just an Asian mentality that I couldn't fight until I went to China and witnessed how comparatively polite and gracious they are there on the public transit (in both Shanghai and Beijing). But maybe that's just cuz they're afraid of the ang mohs there too...?