This is why we can't have good things

I realized that recently I have been recently blogging a lot on current affairs in Singapore such that I have not blogged about personal issues in a while. To be honest, it is a lot easier to blog on current affairs rather than personal issues, as personal issues involves having to share some parts of my private life, which I am more often than not uncomfortable to do so.

However, recently some events have been very unsettling to me, and I feel that there is a need to address it on this platform.

As some would know, I am the person in charge of Finance for my unit at my NS work. Recently, as part of a welfare initiative I decided to arrange (using unit funds) for food and drink items to stock up our pantries. After the order arrived, I also took it upon myself to personally split up the items to stock in each pantry, carrying heavy boxes across the unit. It was hard work, but to boost the unit's morale, it was the least I could do.

However, that was just the start of my worries. From the start, I sent a message to the entire unit to mention that the pantries have been restocked, and it is free for them to take whatever they need, but to please consume them sparingly and to consider that others will consume too.

On the first day, I saw one of my colleagues immediately taking 2 packets of cup noodles from the pantry. While this does seem excessive, he personally informed me that he took the cup noodles because he has not had them in a while, I accepted his explanation, since after all I bought quite a lot of cup noodles, and that he normally is very busy and does not have time to eat.

However, later that day, another colleague came to me and told me that he and another colleague have finished one entire bag of Kit Kats. To make matters worse, despite knowing that I have told everyone to go easy on the food, he told me this fact with a (frankly, very annoying) smirk on his face and laughed at me loudly. To make matters worse, when I was about to tell him off, the other colleague (who finished the bag) told me that they didn't care about finishing the bag, after all if there is insufficient food people will blame the person who purchased the food in the first place. 

At this point, I was extremely furious at those two, but I did not want to lower myself to their level, hence I just did not respond to their nonsense.

The next day, with the events of the previous day still fresh in my mind, I witnessed a colleague wholesale taking a half-dozen of packet drinks out from the pantry. Bearing in mind that he is a Muslim and hence fasting, I questioned him on his intentions. He then confessed he wanted to bring the drinks home, and it wasn't the first time he took things from the pantry in bulk. When I tried to reason with him on what he was doing was wrong, further exacerbated that in his holy fasting month he shouldn't be stealing, he tried to act smart and tried talking back. I was having none of his nonsense, and verbally berated him in front of the office.

Another day, a colleague informed me that he had noticed that one of the branches in my unit (which is all regulars, in other words mature adults) had taken a few bags of Kit Kats and stored them in their office. At that point, however, I gave up on my unit and didn't pursue the case anymore.

Looking back of past experiences, this was definitely not the only time I have experienced this.

Back in NUS High School, I stayed in the Boarding School for the last 2 years of my student life. In Year 5, my cluster was primarily full of locals, while in Year 6, there were more foreigners. However, in both years, there have been many cases of people stealing each other's food left in the pantry fridge, despite the food being labelled by name. In fact, I have also seen my close friends do such acts, just that I save them their dignity by not calling them out. We, as a cluster, also get monthly pantry supplies, which are similarly taken in bulk by certain individuals (or pairs), and hence run out very quickly.

While this issue of people taking in bulk pantry items is very commonplace in the workplace or any communal areas, I honestly find the action very deplorable. When something is bought for a group of people to share, it is meant to be shared. To hoard food for oneself just presents him/herself as selfish and that they do not care for others, just wanting all the good things to themselves. This causes great disharmony and unhappiness between those involved and those who did not get to enjoy the 'free food', and hence a well-meaning initiative such as restocking the pantry ends up being an unfortunate display of self-before-others. The person who purchased the food may decide that since his act of kindness brings more evil than good, that he will not undertake such actions again. This is why we cannot have good things.

It is even more concerning that mature adults given the highest honour of serving and defending the country engage themselves in such acts. If they only think about themselves and not others, are they really fit to bear arms and fight for our country in times of crisis?

I actually cannot comprehend why people are so selfish and behave in such ways. If one is hungry and wants to eat more pantry supplies, that is all right. But there is a fine difference between consuming a bit more supplies due to hunger and just being selfish and taking items by bulk. Why can't we just be good people?

I look forward to my viewers sharing their past experiences, and perhaps also to suggest how can we prevent people from acting in such selfish ways.