Common Courtesy

I am fuming mad! Just a couple of hours ago I was in SM North EDSA. I was at the snack department/area of the store and grabbed 3 pouches of fish crackers. I immediately went to the nearest cashier to pay for my loot, in front of me was a woman of chinese descent in her mid or late 50's . The cashier clerk was already scanning the merchandise she was buying. After all the chips, chocolates, and other junk foods were scanned she asked the clerk to wait for some other item. Then came a teenage girl with a bottle of mineral water who appears to be the woman's daughter. I thought that it was the end of it....Apparently not.... the old lady asked the clerk to wait some more for some other items to be included. I think we waited for almost 5 minutes until some other teenage girls came with some junk foods to be included. They bought a total of almost 500 pesos worth of junk food. By this time I was already mad as hell. I was probably staring at the lady like I would like to kill her or something because her son a young man who appears to be fresh out of college stared back at me with "what's your problem?" written all over his face. I really would like to confront them and give the old lady a lecture that it is not proper to keep people waiting. I let it slide.... and just end up hoping that they would all choke to death with all the junk food they bought.

It is extremely frustrating that most people in this archipelago are clueless when it comes to common courtesy. I actually tend to overlook things when the culprits are the poor and the uneducated... I usually tell myself that these people do not know any better and usually place the blame on the institutions of this country. But when the misbehavior is committed by the rich and educated lot, I am extremely disgusted. These rich and highly educated people have no reason to throw their weight around anybody.

My Electrical Engineer cousin worked in Japan under a joint project with Meralco for six months a couple of years ago. When he went back home here in the Philippines he cannot help but talk and marvel about the demeanor of the Japanese. According to my cousin the Japanese are very courteous and gentle people. They go about their business around the office very quietly and according to him even inside the train the Japanese hardly talk to one another. They are very mindful that they are sharing the train with other people hence very respectful not to bother the other passengers. We then concluded that the good manners can be attributed with the high education level of the Japanese. However, here in the Philippines apparently no amount of money or education can make a difference.