what would you do?

When witnessing oppression, discrimination, matters that question morality... what action would you take?

I watched a wonderful episode on Oprah tonight. It's about human behaviour and actions when faced with an actual situation as mentioned above. Sure... we all know what we *should* do, but in reality, what would we really do? This was an examination through hidden camera, where there were hired actors pretending to behave in an unacceptable manner in public, with the aim to capture how we behave in such situations.

They had several *tests*... one was a situation where a group of mean girls were verbally bullying another girl, the next was discrimination by a shopkeeper against muslims, followed by an abusive boyfriend who was verbally and physically abusing his girlfriend in a park where lots of people jog, a scene where the actors pretended to be drunk and about to get into a car... and a few more.

I'm not going to elaborate on each specific case... but the main findings were:
- Women are more willing to provide assistance to a stranger, stand up to the offending person, and take action. There was this example where over 50 ppl had passed by doing nothing but just look and calling the cops... but it took a woman, after the actors have been acting for over 5 hours, who went over to tell a guy to stop abusing a lady. So brave! Guys who passed by just tengok je...

- When in public, many would just mind their own business and let things be, instead of supporting or providing aid to a person who is being discriminated. In the example of the muslim person, she minta another person to belikan the apple strudel she wanted pun orang tu tak nak tolong.

- Race, colour, religous background, how one dresses... all have bearing on whether or not you're likely to receive aid/assistance.

Why are we like this?

We know that those actions are wrong... but why so few step forward to address the situation? Why do people just look and do nothing?

Oprah quoted something good which goes something like this... It is not ignorance that hurts society, it's indifference.

That got me really thinking... Sadly, those things were also true here in Malaysia. It's worse I think.

I've heard of so many stories how people just buat dek je when ada orang jadi mangsa snatch thief, we actually look down on the Indons and Banglas who are seeking an honest living in a land far away from home... bila ada accident, we cause traffic jams not because there are so many people wanting to extend assistance, but rather sebab nak tengok what had happened.

It's so sad that our society has disintegrated into such situation.

Where is the human spirit? We teach the young about morality but do we actually practice it?

In a world where money and status is deemed as the pinnacle of success, we've lost our soul along the way.

How many of us would actually look up to a petani when presented next to a CEO?
How many of us think highly of the effort of a person who sweats in the hot sun to bina bangunan as compared to a professional toiling over how best to goreng a proposal in a cool air-conditioned office?
How many of us would be willing to sit next to an underprivileged person to have a proper conversation as compared to a well to do person?

Admit it... we're all prejudice, one way or another. Some may be less than others. I'm guilty of that too. I don't like it... I'm ashamed of it...

But the bigger question is... knowing that all these behaviours are bad and wrong, why aren't we doing something about it?

The study also showed that many of us react to such situations through our body language etc. It's not that we condone it (although there were some bigots who applauded when the muslim lady was refused service on the notion that they're anti terrorists). We distance ourselves from the offenders, we look disapprovingly... but that's it. We just look. We don't *do* anything about it.
Another interesting finding from the study... it only takes one person to step forward in order to *give courage* to the rest to do the same. And when we work together, amazing things can be achieved.

Let's throw away all prejudice. Let's believe again in the human spirit. Let's live on the notion that there are more good people than bad people out there. Let's treat everyone as equals. Let's not be selfish and think that we're better than others.

Let's make a change!!

http://www.motivationinaminute.com/lpage/richestman.php?SRC=080715