ding-dong

the electronic school bell rings. Its 7.20am. time for assembly. But no sounds of children making lots of noise in the carpark today. Its a public holiday. Long weekend.

Went for a jog this morning. Feel much better. Made it to the Red Swastika. But the jogging was staggered though. But feel great.

Chanced upon this Buddha Tooth Relic Temple at the open field in Chinatown yesterday. Went in to examine the statues. Fascinating mix of fat, thin Buddhas and various types of Gods with Chinese and Indian themes all mixed in. People busy bathing lots of colourful Buddha statues. Monks and devouts chanting in the center and you can hear them through the tentage thanks to the speakers. SEA: 211 comes alive. Well, not really, but just a little bit of it.

Came across this article on STI. Why don't you guys read it? :

Jan 21, 2005
No help from public, cops after drunks struck

AT ABOUT 1.30am on New Year's Day, my partner, a friend and I were waiting outside the Central Fire Station opposite Funan The IT Mall for a cab we had booked earlier.

Three young men, who were obviously drunk, bumped into me on purpose, moved away and smiled. Seeing this, my partner merely told him, 'Hey, brother, relax'.

This somehow made the three men angry and they came forward as if to start a fight with my two male companions. We realised they were getting aggravated for no apparent reason, so we told them calmly, several times, 'Sorry, it's our fault, please go'.

Even before we could move away from the scene, one of them threw a punch at my friend's nose.

He began bleeding profusely, but two of the men continued to punch him. My partner tried to stop them but they wouldn't back down.

Faced with this sudden commotion, I began to panic and cry.

I called the police, stammered, and tried to give as much information as I could amid my fear and tears.

Soon, my two male companions managed to flee across the road.

Realising that the drunkards were heading towards me, I too ran across the four-lane road despite oncoming traffic.

The police arrived on the scene after 20 minutes, but they didn't get out of their patrol car. They pulled over on the opposite side of the road and just called me on my cellphone to check if my friend was all right.

Couldn't they see we were just opposite the road?

Couldn't they see blood all over the place where their car had pulled up?

I was still shaking as I told them my cousin was coming to take my friend to a hospital.

And why didn't they ask me for details of the attack? Even if it was impossible to look for the drunk men, wasn't it important to at least get a statement from us? Did they think it was just another holiday brawl?

There were many members of the public standing around, but not one came to help us.

The women obviously didn't want to get involved, but at least they could have called the police.

I was shocked to see many run across the road to get as far away as possible from the scene.

There were a good number of men around but none came to our aid. Everyone moved away.

I didn't know Singaporeans are heartless in such situations.

Even when my friend passed out, after crossing the road, not one soul came to help us in any way.

They just walked past as if they couldn't hear my cries or see my friend lying there bleeding.

Singaporean efforts to help in the tsunami disaster touched me and many others.

But I was assailed by doubt and disappointment after this incident.

When disasters strike overseas, we rush to help. But when 'disaster' strikes our fellow Singaporeans, we flee.

I am not proud to be a Singaporean now.

Teeba Supramania (Ms)
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Picture the scene. Some drunk people. Punching some non-drunk people until they started bleeding. Would you help? Well, at least if someone else stepped forward you'd join him to help right? But nobody took the first step. I remember there was some psychological explanation for such behavior, as in not wanting to take the first step. Running away is an instinctive thing to do and I wouldn't blame them. But surely there were enough sober people in the area to restrain the drunk.

What say you?

"Serves you right for going to such places?"
"Who asked you to confront the drunks?"

Or did it have anything to do with them being of Indian descent?

But if the account that the police did not even get out of the car upon arrival at the scene is true, it really is very appalling. If I were the lady and experienced all these multiple whams, I'd be very disappointed too.