Friday, April 3, 2015

Careless Malaysians ?

4.4.2015.

I put a question mark because I'm not sure I can make it vividly clear while quoting the recent tragic news about the loss of a very young life because of the escalator accident, and not be callously disrespectful to his family. I feel the pain because I have a family of my own, and I don't want any harm to come to them, just as the boy's family surely didn't want him to be hurt.

This isn't the first accident on an escalator in this country. I rack my brains to figure out how anyone could fall off an escalator. The warning signs, the basic safety features, the slow speed of the moving steps - all appear to make the contraption safe, short of stopping it entirely. It takes some effort to slide out of the protective handrails and fall.

Malaysian cleaners on  buildings, too, take extra effort to court danger. They climb on high ledges, stand tip toes on window sills, wear no safety wires and hook no nettings. 

When we park our cars the only consideration is to put them  as close as possible to the shops we intend to go to without actually driving our cars inside the the shops. Other considerations like not blocking the road, and inconveniencing other motorists, are  never considered. 

Road workers, even on the PLUS highway, nonchalantly do whatever they're supposed to do, without warning cones and safety reflective  jackets, and blissfully ignore the 120 k.p.h. vehicles that can crush them to a bloody mess in an instant hurtle inches from them.

Of course all of us chat, whatsapp and everything else that we all do on our moblie devices (they're no longer called 'phones, you know that! ) while driving, and that includes on motorcycles. 

Not long ago, some of the Club's workers were cutting down a large tree just after the 18th. hole. (Why the Club wanted to cut it escapes me. It seems the Club is in the business of slowly removing all the trees they never even planted, and end up as a treeless golf club. That'll be an achievement for a golf club anywhere in the world.) Another staff, one of  the tractor drivers, came by on his bike, to go for a break. Seeing his friends just about to bring the tree down, he took the chainsaw from Man's hands and proceeded to finish the final cut on the tree trunk. He didn't take note of the branches, although he must have made his plans to jump away from the falling trunk. Tragically one of the branches whipped his neck as the tree came down, and took his life right then and  there.

I can go on and on and make my case. It's happening all the time. Life and limb are surely as valuable here as in other countries. Why are  Malaysians more careless ?


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