Z was late for the afternoon lecture. On our way home after the lecture, he explained why he was late: He was helping to send an old man to the A&E.
Story: He was at a shopping mall with another friend, and the both of them saw an old man laid sprawled, facedown, across the floor in a shopping mall with a pair of clutches laid just by his side. Z saw shoppers walking by as though it was nothing more than a piece of broken old rag laid spread beside the escalators.
Z was very troubled, to put it mildly. "Singaporeans!!" He cried sighed. "I didn't think-- didn't--"
Yeah, I didn't, and couldn't, think, too. An old man facedown on the floor and nobody gives a damn. It couldn't be more obvious-- nobody sleeps facedown. Somemore in the middle of the shopping mall by the escalators with clutches in a heap by the side!
"Maybe it's just because the old man had the misfortune of not lying in front of the escalators and blocking the flow of traffic." Z said. "Maybe if he did, things would have been different."
I thought Singaporeans are blur blur de, and always ready to help anyone who just looks like he needs help. But oh, no. It's still quite a cold society. =((
My only hope is that maybe, maybe Z and his friend found the old man just minutes after he fainted, that's why nobody went to help yet.
But I wouldn't ever be able to explain to myself why some shoppers simply walked past the sprawled old man, though.
