Scratch that Itch!

[archisext]

Singapore.
Home of the key wielding coward.
Seriously just a show of hands, how many people here are afraid to confront their neighbours when you feel your unhappy about their perceived actions?
Would you rather take matters into your own hands and take it out on the neighbour's material possessions? Like their CAR????

What kind of idiot, does crap like that?
If you see the colour green, go out and do better for yourself, if you are unhappy, bring the damn thing that is bothering you to someone's attention.
Sheeeesh. I've lived away from Singapore so long now that i don't think i understand the people here anymore.
It's just irritating when matters can be solved by just talking but people want to escalate it by being an ass.
It only takes a minute to talk/listen, most people are reasonable, I would like to believe.

No offense to Singaporeans, i am one myself. Just felt like i had to rant and rave.

 

[Dream Merchant]

Definitely do NOT agree with the scratch car or damage material possessions on the sly part, but many potentially charged situations are avoided by means of 3rd party intervention, especially in HDB situations.

Thereagain, many charged situations are further aggreived by not addressing the situation directly, especially when one party was looking for 'face'.

Direct discussions would only work when you're dealing with two reasonable parties who are able to take the broader view. How many of those do you know of, especially when one party feels/perceives that something has been done against them, or when the 'complainee' feels passionately that there was no wrong-doing in the first place, and that the 'complainer' was making a mountain out of a mole-hill? More often than not, since the parties involved are often clouded by emotion, perceptions and pre-conceived notions etc, talk may not necessarily work.

On the whole, apathy and just being/remaining strangers (in a HDB setting) seems to work very well for a lot of Singaporeans.

 

[jmmtn4aj]

I do confrontations all the time. Mostly they come in the form of Molotov cocktails thrown through the living room window at 3 in the morning.. Face-to-face? Nah.. too high risk.

 

[asterixsg]

archisext,
i fully empathize with you.
this kind of behaviour is not limited to people living in HDBs. My friend parked his car in his condo without realizing that the slot was meant to be used only for washing cars. He returned downstairs within 30 minutes and found one of his side mirrors broken !!! I mean, the guy who wanted to wash his car, could've contacted security and they would've traced the owner and got it removed. Or, the guy could've gone to another place to wash his car. There are 4-5 such wash areas in the condo. No, instead he decided to damage the car to teach the owner a lesson. Its absolutely crazy.

This is a frustrated and cooked up society. People don't have an outlet, so they take it out this way. The perception has been built up that you've got to be better than the guy next door. You have to have a bigger car, a bigger LCD TV and God knows what else. And if you don't have it, you are inferior. And when you consider yourself inferior, you can't lift your head and have a conversation with the neighbour and voice out your grievances. "What if the neighbour does or say something that I lose face ?" This is what drives such people to scratch cars and do wierd things.

Singapore is quite fortunate that even though we are a small nation, there are no natural calamities whatsoever. Had there been floods, hurricanes, earthquakes causing large scale destruction year after year, people would've come together to live harmoniously and help each other out. Only in the worst times, do people realize the importance of outsider's help. Then scratching cars, putting sh*t in other people's mailboxes etc. would be unheard of.