MORAL? I Know That But I Locked It Away

1. Colourful Stickers

“Please put on a sticker if you are dining in.” Says the worker at the checking counter, next to the food court entrance.

I took one sticker and put it on my sleeve, to let others know that I have completed the temperature scan before entering this dining area.

This was the requirement during COVID-19 pandemic hits Singapore. To monitor and ensure safety of the public, government has come out with such strategy – who ever enter a public area, be it a supermarket, wet market or restaurant, each visitor or customer has to scan the QR code and put on the sticker. Stickers keep changing colour each day to avoid anyone abusing its purposes the next day. How thoughtful this is.

So, each day, dozens of stickers were distributed to visitors or diners. A board was placed at the exit walkway for them to remove the sticker from their clothes and to stick it on the board (as disposal).

Humans are creative. That’s all I could say. Despite the board is placed for them to dispose off the stickers, still people would stick it anywhere they march. They simply stick it anywhere they recall that they need to remove the sticker from their clothes.

2. Why Did You Do That?

But why did they do that?

Here are some ‘reasons’ why they did that and the possible characteristic that this group of people might have, irrespective of gender, age, race, or education level. To simplify the example, we use ‘he’ in all scenarios.

A, he removes the sticker and sticks it on anything or anywhere that he is at, the moment he recalls about that sticker on his clothes.

A: “I just don’t want it on my clothes anymore. So, I remove it and stick it to whatever object that is close to me or wherever convenient for me to stick it on.”

(A typical self-centred person. One that doesn’t care about others but only to himself. As long as the sticker is not ‘on’ them, that’s fine.)

B, he removes the sticker and sticks it on some special spot that seems funny to him. He sticks it on the eyes of the person in the poster near the escalator. This might look funny as now the man in the poster has his eyes with colourful stickers.

B: “I would stick it on some funny place. I want to have fun! Aren’t I creative?”

(One with creative ideas. But if he could use his creativities on proper way, that would be value-added to the community. Don’t you think so? With that poster with that funny act he put on, what would others think? Especially, visitors or foreigners that visit to their neighbourhood? Not everyone will find it creative and funny. It brings down the image of the people in this neighbourhood. How uncivilized act such as this.

C, he removes the sticker and sticks it on places where similar stickers are found. Some people sticked it on the handle of the lift, the wall of the escalator; he then follows. He puts his sticker on the same spot as others did.

C: “I would put it here. Other people also did that. I also follow. Authority will fine me? So many people done the same things, authority should fine them first.”

(A typical ‘follower’ who wants to be naughty and does wrong act but prefers to hide behind others’ back. “The offender is those who did it first, not me.” Kind of mindset.)

D, he removes the stickers and puts it on any object after a distance from the venue. He puts it on roadside rail hander, on the public chair, bus stop seat, lamp pose; whatever comes his way.

D: “I am so far away from the food court already, no one will see me sticking it anywhere. I do it secretly. No one can ‘catch’ my doing.”

(A typical group of people with “never mind”, “should be fine” kind of mindset. They carry out the wrong act at the hidden spot, or secretly, beyond the CCTV screening zone. His irresponsible act has the same impact as B who doesn’t bother about the image of the country when they did that.)

E, he removes the stickers and STICKS it on the dustbin or the wall near the dustbin.

E: “I throw it to the dustbin. I did. I am a good citizen.”

(This group of people ignores the fact that they are actually sticking the sticker on the wall and on the dustbin instead of folding the sticker and throw it into the dustbin. You are making the dustbin and the dustbin area become colourful (full of stickers). How about throwing it into the dustbin? Is it so difficult to do so?)

F, he removes the stickers, fold the sticky parts together and then throws it into the nearest dustbin.

F: “That’s the basic moral that everyone should know, isn’t it? Throw it into the dustbin. There’s dustbin everywhere for public to use.”

(This group of people, including children, are the ones that keep the moral thought and mindful act in their actions. A simple act as simple as drinking water, automatically become a positive habit in their daily life. How many realizes that government has to spend money to task the cleaner workers to remove all those ‘creative way’ of disposed-stickers from the buildings, walls, public facilities?

Humans know and aware what moral is; but many of them chose to lock it far away behind their mind.

Why can’t one just throw it into the dustbin or stick it on the board prepared for disposal purposes?

There are more creative ways of disposing the stickers that I saw but when I think of wanting to take photos of them, the government has already tasked the workers to remove them. So, only left the following unpleasant ‘sights’.