Today, I encountered something that infuriated me and disturbed my soul.
I was at a certain library at my personal time, hence nobody there knew that I am staff. It was raining very heavily. The roof leaked and water was pouring off the ceiling onto the carpeted floor. Immediately, I notified the shelf readers nearby who calmly told me that they have already notified the relevant department. I asked if they could get pails to catch the water first before the relevant department come to repair the ceiling, and they said yes they are coming.
Meanwhile, I noticed that water was pouring onto the couch and sofa nearby. I rushed to move these two items away from the pouring water. There were at least 5 other readers calmly reading books nearby. One man saw me huffing and puffing away as I struggled to lift the sofa on my own, so he was kind enough to help me move it out of the way of the water. Meantime, I was muttering aloud, "This is silly! The carpet's already getting wet, why didn't somebody move the sofa and couch away..."
As I left the library, I reminded the staff at the counter about the serious water leakage. The staff again gave me the same answer - yup, relevant department notified, they're on their way.
Maybe it's because I treat libraries as my second home, hence my strong sense of ownership. But I believe I would have done the same thing even if it did not happen in the library. I am baffled, how can the shelf readers nearby, the staff at the counter who must have seen the severity of the water leakage, and also 5 other readers sitting nearby, not bother to move the couch and sofa away from the literal waterfall? Yes, I am infuriated with the 5 readers also. How can people stay indifferent in such a situation, when they could do the right thing? If water is leaking in your own house, wouldn't you move your belongings out of the way of the water? Just because this is not your house, so you don't think you should do what common sense requires? I just don't get it.
Our society will be a much better place to live in if people can develop a sense of personal ownership to public space. Do the right thing when it is time to do so, speak up when it is needed. I don't get it that people can get offended and make complaints so readily, but when they can do the right thing such as this situation, they would rather watch public properties being destroyed when they can easily prevent it from happening.
I hate this. These are times that make me have big second thoughts about having children, because they just prove to me again that this world, this society isn't a great place to be in afterall.
Monday, September 29, 2008
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4 comments:
Oh my gosh, finally someone who shares my view about libraries! :D
I see so many people disrespect library property on a regular basis - patrons AND employees - and I get frustrated when they don't take care of the library as they would their own home/books/DVDs/etc.
You hit the nail on the head with this post, that's for sure. :)
That was a terrible response by the library staff! OK, I'd like to give the benefit of doubt to that staff. Maybe he or she assumed the "leakage" was the same situation as when he/ she first checked. Whereas your observation was that the leakage was serious. So could be a error of assumptions?
But for the readers who didn't help you, I say shame on them!
Er have you considered that those readers were foreign talent in Spore perhaps Malaysians, China Chinese etc? After all there are one million foreigners in Spore.
I am sure I did not mention in my posting whether the readers were Singaporeans or foreigners, and I don't think that is the point in this particular posting. Be it Singaporeans or foreigners, I would have liked to see the readers around me at that time took the initiative to help move the sofa away from the leaking roof.
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