Ethics

I asked the vegetable seller at the dry market how much the bunch of vegetables cost. She was talking to a woman and then went on to serve an older woman in her 50s. Asked again how much that bunch of vegetables cost and she went on to serve that woman she was talking to. THAT WOMAN HAD AN ENTIRE BASKETFUL OF VEGETABLES. I, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAD ONLY ONE BUNCH OF VEGETABLES. This sounds ridiculous and I cannot imagine myself talking about such senseless things. Anyway, that woman was nice and told the vegetable seller to serve me first as I only had ONE BUNCH OF VEGETABLES (vs ONE BASKETFUL OF VEGETABLES). I made up my mind to not buy vegetables from that vegetable seller again. The wet market has plenty of vegetable stalls and if I'm not happy with the attitude/service of one, I can always patronise another vegetable stall. Ah, the wonders of elastic demand and monopolistic competition.

The vegetable seller is unethical. What is this? Just because I'm not as old as those old folksies doesn't warrant me being served last though I came first. Talk about first come first served. If I were more mature, I'd have told myself that I can't really fault uneducated people for being uncouth, uncivilised, ungentlemanly, unethical etc, let the matter rest and 不跟这些闲杂人等一般见识.

When I parted with Ms Ng some time back, she was flagging a cab and someone else cut the queue (there were others waiting for cabs apart from Ms Ng) and took Ms Ng's cab. How unethical, was Ms Ng's expression of disgust. Another cab came and Ms Ng stood back to let the people some distance in front of her who'd been waiting for a cab before her to take that cab.

Ster said she was impressed with a particular club's bouncer when he refused entry to a Caucasian lady who was making a scene when she was denied access to the club because the club'd reached its maximum capacity. Ster was impressed because the bouncer did not look at the Caucasian lady as being superior to him, gave her preferential treatment and allowed her access to the club. Ster was impressed that the bouncer did not compromise on his and the club's ethics.

Ethics, yes. Even in everyday life, simple acts go a long way to showing how ethical/unethical a person one is. I cannot help but say that I am disgusted with unethical people who scheme and lie, stoop to underhand means to get what they want or are just plain ungentlemanly or ungracious. Where have all the ethics/morals/values of the past disappeared to? I lament that in today's cutthroat world of business politics and politicking, 为了明哲保身,有些人会毫不犹豫地把自己的幸福建立在别人的痛苦上. I understand that the line between and white and black is sometimes blurred but still, I lament this lamentable fate of the world-the result of the evolvement of the world.

I'm admittedly not the best person to propound ethics, morals and values for I too, am flawed in my own way like anyone else and probably more so than some. However, I am resolutely grounded in my principles and beliefs.