30 December 2012:
About humanity.
I suppose many know of this by now. A woman was raped in New Delhi about a week ago, and got sent to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital a few days back. She passed away on 29 December at 0445, according to news reports.While I was browsing through Facebook, I saw at least two different posts regarding her. They carried her name and a photo of her in the hospital. One of them was The Real Singapore, which according to them is 'Singapore's largest news aggregating platform'. They offered the woman's name as 'Nirbhaya'.
From what I read on various news sources (Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, The Hindu, etc.), the victim's name is deliberately not named to respect her family's wishes. Why, then, do I see her name on various posts? Also, I have never seen a consistent name of the victim; every post has a different name but all claim to be the victim's name. (So far there's only an unlikely possibility that all names mentioned all over Facebook are part of her full name.)
These posts typically ask people to like it. '1 like = 1 respect, ignore if you have no heart' I truly roll my eyes at such a post. Do these people really think that such a thing works? 1 like = 1 respect.
While it is true that many may respect / empathise her, what for all the likes? Furthermore, what's with 'ignore if you have no heart'. Is that really so? I never liked any of the posts, but I do feel for her and strongly hope too that India does something about it. Yet who knows, amongst the 100+K people who like it, how many actually care? Many are non-Asians, do they even really know what's going on?
To put it bluntly, these people are doing it for the likes and the 'fame'. I previously never thought of it this way, but after watching a Youtube video I have since stuck with this mentality. There seems to be no other reason to explain it. Why else would you assign an activity to every action? 1 like would mean 1 respect, 1 share means 1 prayer, 1 comment means 1 who-knows what ...
Does it really work this way? I think not. You may not believe me and call me cynical, but gaining likes and shares seems to be the only plausible explanation. And as I mentioned earlier, what's with 'ignore if you have no heart'.
Previously there was a similar fever of posts regarding sick or ill children. There was one that seriously made me laugh: '1 like = 1 recover'. Oh really? So how many units of 'recover' does this child need? He / she may really be pitiful but I don't see how your units of 'recover' can help her in any way at all.
The same goes with the 'respect' that people are giving. How many units of 'respect' should there be? Once again, this is all a ploy, don't fall for it. (Although there's strictly no negative side of liking, commenting or sharing, besides the fact that I would see it on my News Feed.)
~
Yesterday I posted a simple thank-you message on my Facebook.
Upon finishing my dinner, I discovered that my phone had ran out of battery. I decided to try my luck and approach people in stores to borrow a phone charger. I first went to Popular, but was refused coldly by a part-timer. Then, I went to the store next to it. The woman I approached gladly agreed to search for a charger for me, and offered to charge my phone for me in the premises. So I stayed in the store while waiting. Five minutes later a man came and asked if I needed any help. I awkwardly explained my situation, and he laughed it off: 'Oh, charging your phone, no problem!' After 15 minutes the woman that helped me previously was busy with a customer, so I approached another staff to help me check if my phone was alright. She was nice enough to ask if I had enough to last (the amount charged) and check how long I need to use it for.
From the bottom of my heart, I would sincerely like to thank the staff at Kai Joo Optics in Sing Post. It was a small gesture of kindness, 15 minutes of helping me charge my phone battery. Yet the small gesture goes a long way, and I truly appreciate the helpfulness and understanding that the three of them have offered me. I believe that for their kind heart, they would surely be repaid in one way or another, as how karma works.
As of post time (of this entry), that post of mine received 20 likes. This is nothing when compared to the 100+K likes that people give to photos of sick children, but what can be seen from here is that it's basic human instinct that we applaud those who have done good.
(By the way, I'm really not vying for likes, so I really don't care if any more people like it or not.)
As I mentioned in the Facebook post, I really would like to thank those people. The comments I received for the post told me about how good their service is, so I may really head over there to make spectacles from them. And yes, I suppose this would be repaying them in one way or another. But whatever it is, I truly believe they would have good karma upon them.
TTFN. R.I.P. to the Indian woman.