The Amazing Bouncing Apple iPod.

This evening, I saw an Apple iPod, bouncing along the ground. It was being dragged by a young Indian man to whom it was attached. The Apple iPod bounced its way in front of a crowd at a bus-stop near a shopping mall - and an entire row of heads duly turned and tracked the bouncing Apple iPod as it passed them. Tellingly, not a one made a single move to tell the Indian owner of the Apple iPod about his strange tail.

The Apple iPod owner was on the phone, completely oblivious to the rattle of his electronic equipment, as it skipped across the surface of the pavement.

Seeing that none of the perhaps fifty witnesses was going to act, I decided to give chase to the man and tell him of his Apple iPod's imminent destruction.

"Excuse me!", I called, from several metres behind him.

He didn't hear me, but yabbered on in some uninterpretable language on the phone.

"Excuse me!", I called again, to his oblivousness.

He didn't notice.

"EXCUSE ME!", I said, rather more loudly, on the verge of a shout, from about two metres behind him.

He didn't hear a word.

This went on for three more cries.

Finally he turned, rather oddly, to the right and all the way around. This was odd because I was standing to his left - and surely he must have heard that. It was clear that he could only coordinate his body in one direction.

"Yes?", he asked, while pressing his phone still firmly to his ear.

"Do you really want to drag your Apple iPod like that?", I asked, pointing to his electronic tail some metre and a half behind him.

"Oh!", he looked quite startled and then, unexpectedly, in this country of no appreciation for kindnesses done, he said, with some enthusiasm: "Thank you! Thank you!"

He picked up his Apple iPod and walked off ahead of me.

A minute or so later, he turned around again and stared up at me.

"Thank you, sir, thank you!"

Apparently, his thanks was of the lasting kind and he felt the need to repeat himself, the first thanks not being enough.

I found the whole incident rather instructive. You see, this young man with the Apple iPod, managed to drag it past an entire crowded bus-stop full of people...and all they did was stare to their own amusement. Not a one did anything to inform the man of his misfortune. The question that bothers me is: why? Why did no-one - out of perhaps fifty people - actually just tell him what was happening? It would have cost them nothing to do so - but would spare him the cost of a smashed Apple iPod.

I feel that Singapore is one of those countries in which people have not yet learnt to care for one another. If everyone looked out for everyone else and if everyone reached out to help when they had the power to do so, Singapore would be so much a better place than it is. Everyone would be happier and everyone would feel more attached to this nation - it is even likely that EMIGRATION would decline. Yet, it is not so. Singapore is a country in which everyone just sits back and watches another's misfortune without anyone even thinking of intervening to help. It is, therefore, a nation in which entirely preventable unhappiness is allowed to unfold without intervention.

I witnessed this particular incident with the Apple iPod, however, I only read of another incident that it reminds me of. There was a report in the newspapers recently of a young girl who was molested in public. She cried out for help...but despite there being many, many people nearby (as there always is, in ever so crowded Singapore) not a single person stepped forward to help: they all just watched, instead. To my mind this means that those who watched and did nothing, were as much molesters as the person who molested her. You see, in not intervening, they were, to my thinking, complicit in the act: they ALLOWED it to happen. They all, individually, had the power to prevent and bring to an end the molestation - or, at the very least, catch her attacker. All they had to do was step forward and act...but none chose to do so.

Now, I find this collective cowardice and indifference very strange. You see, in Singapore, there is no threat of the molester being armed, as there is in some other countries. In Singapore, there really are no weapons around. The attacker, therefore, is almost certain not to have a weapon of any kind - so what, therefore, is the personal risk to those who intervene? There is none. Yet, despite the fact that there is no risk to the onlookers, they chose just to carry on looking, instead of helping the girl.

Perhaps, matters would improve if the law permitted ALL the onlookers to be charged with complicity in the molestation, for not doing anything about it. Perhaps, then, people would act to help others, when someone was under attack or in distress. Given the way Singaporeans are (ie. indifferent to the fate, lives and safety of all others but themselves) this is the only way to ensure that Singaporeans would ever help each other. It should become a crime not to help another if you have the power to help them. That would solve the problem overnight - it would also provoke a sharp decline in the crime that remains in Singapore (for though crime is low, it is present).

I find it odd that Singaporeans don't understand this simple idea: that we are all in this life, together. We all live and die, together. Therefore, we should all look after each other and make this life as good as can be. We should not live our lives as if no-one else matters and ignore the plight of all around. If we ignore others, they will ignore us - and that is bad for everyone. Today, I did something simple to help another. It cost me nothing but two minutes of my time, which I would have spent anyway, since he and I were walking in the same direction. In other words, it cost me no additional time...all that it cost me was the effort of speaking. Yet, it saved him from a broken Apple iPod, for if he had dragged that around much longer assuredly it would have come to harm.

Yet, it should not have been me, who stepped forward to help him. For many, many people must have seen him dragging his Apple iPod behind him, before I did. He walked past a bus-stop, in front of me, as I got off a bus...so I was among the LAST to see him, at that time. Yet, I was the only one to act.

If Singapore were as I hope it will one day be, there would be many voices telling such a man of his predicament; there would be many people giving chase to the molester - and some giving aid to the girl. Presently, though, Singapore is a country in which it is almost certain that no-one will come forward to help anyone else, under any circumstances. As one poster once observed to me, on this blog: "They will only help someone if there is money in it for them." In other words, this is presently a nation in which you would have to PAY a bystander to help you.

I hope to see an improvement in this kind of behaviour. People must realize that if they give to another, of their time, their support or their kindness, they are also giving an example to many witnesses of a better way to be. The next time, those witnesses may, in turn, give to others...and so a virtuous circle begins and soon the behaviour of helping others is commonplace.

Try it, the next time you see that someone needs help. Reach out and help them. Usually, it will cost you nothing, but it will mean everything to them.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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