Stifled...

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

'Kiasu' VS 'Kiasee'...

We Singaporeans, apart from being shameless on public transport and rude to waiters, are best known for being kiasu (afraid to lose) and kiasee (afraid to die). For decades, these 2 terms have been tagged to everyone on the island, young and old. However, has anyone thought about which of these mentalities are we more inclined to?

Something happened a few days ago that shed some light to that question. I was at a 24-hours fastfood restaurant near my house, having supper with Erick as we were going to discuss business matters after the meal. It was past midnight but the place was still quite crowded.

Erick and I were eating when the fire alarm went off. What should be the reaction when a fire alarm go off? We should evacuate the building, shouldn't we? But what happened? Everyone just sat there, looked around, and upon seeing nobody running, just continued eating. No one wants to run because it would make them look stupid to be the only one running. They'll lose face if they ran.

Fortunately, the fire alarm died after about 2 minutes. Erick was lamenting that Singaporeans have no sense of urgency. If that alarm was caused by some terrorist attack, everyone would just die there and then. Well, he's right, but who are we to say these things when we are also sitting there, eating away?

From the above incident, I think I can conclude that Singaporeans are more kiasu than kiasee. We (including me) would rather not run and risk dying than run and look like a fool if it's a false alarm. Either that, or we just don't give a fuck. No wonder the comic character Mr Kiasu was so much more popular than his cousin Kiasee in the 90s.

End...

Hanged @ 3:30 PM