I was just thinking about the serious lack of personal space available in Singapore. It’s become even more apparent now that I’m outside the country, in the Philippines.
The Philippines can be very crowded in places but I noticed something on the third day of being here: no one had bumped into me, pushed me out of the way, tried to shove past me, or tried to walk straight at me, expecting me to move for them.
I used to think that Singaporeans walk like bumper cars because it’s just so crowded there, but I realized that the reason must be something else entirely. Is it a lack of situational awareness? Are people so pacified there that they don’t pay attention to where they’re going? Are they selfish to the point that they think everyone else will always make way for them?
A few weeks ago I was in Takashimaya and a woman walked out of a side passage, staring at something in the distance in the opposite direction from where I was approaching. She just kept walking, straight across the walkway, without a care in the world, until the side of her face was twisted around by my shoulder slamming into it. I kept going, without bothering to offer any sort of condolences for what would surely be sore chin, because it’s not my fault that she was too stupid to look where she was going.
On the other hand, here in the Philippines, people seem to naturally swerve and veer around each other without much of any problem. There are exceptions, but it really is the exception, where in Singapore it seems to be the rule.
On top of that, people in Singapore tend to want to jostle past you in stores, or step in front of you when you’re looking at something on the shelf or rack, or they try to ram you out of the way instead of letting you get off the train before they attempt to board. It’s not everyone of course. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions, rather than the rule.
So, Singapore, I implore you to sort your problem out. Pay attention to where you’re walking at least, because not everyone is going to jump out of your way and not everything will repel you gently when you walk into it because you can’t be bothered to pay attention to where you’re walking.
Bradley Farless 
This is one of the things I hate most about this town. The locals are so f..g slow and ignorant. They are simply too dumb to avoid bumping into other pedestrians.
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I guess you can force accelerated economic growth, but not social growth.
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you can take the Singaporean out of the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto out of the Singaporean :)No matter how much money they have, they still pick their nose in public, chew with mouths open, etc..
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I do miss the wide open spaces between people and places in the US sometimes. That's for sure.
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So true! I concluded long ago that it was selfishness. A lot of typically Singaporean antisocial behavior can be attributed to a lack of consideration for others. Taken as a whole, it's enough to make embittered Singaporeans like me leave; it gets really tiresome having to ‘fight off’ people every time one is in a public place. I'm currently living in the US and really enjoy the fact that people (generally) make way for each other to board a bus, for instance!
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People with money, especially those with new money, are often more rude than those without. That's what I've found to be true anyways.
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That's pretty bad. I haven't had that happen to me yet. It really shocks me at how entitled some people feel they are.
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I tend to agree on this part. The worst that happened to me was that a lady just cut in front of me when I was queuing and I am the next one to the cashiers. And I thought she was a friend of the lady in front, so I didnt bothered. But it turned out that she was just jumping queue. That really got me pissed off and I commented loudly about her.She didn't even care!
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