The Scariest People
I went up to the doctors' rooms, and proceeded to wait for one and a half hours. I waited until I was the only patient left on the level, and the doctor came out of her room and went single-mindedly for the exit.
I went down and complained and waited for someone to talk to me. I stood there in cold anger for over 15 minutes until I decided to go off. It doesn't take much to own up to a mistake, say sorry and attempt to de-escalate the situation.
This is what I've put together: over the course of the 1.5 hours, a nurse came round to check the patients' numbers, including mine, a few times. But she most likely forgot to convey my number to the doctor. The doctor, assuming all the numbers have been called, rushed out of her room without checking if any patients were left, and sped off to eat lunch.
Which left one very angry patient. Me.
I recognise it was no one's intention to not attend to me. But because nobody cared enough, I was left holding the bag.
People who don't care create really interesting and unexpected outcomes. You know who don't care much? Kids. Most kids in Singapore from the age of 1 to whatever who hasn't really emerged from the arresting grasp of childhood while playing/typing LOL on their phone, don't really care. I have a few examples:
A young colleague, probably an intern, goes into the office. Doesn't care about the bigger picture. Mind is not switched on. Hilarity ensues.
When I was in Brunei, I had workers who didn't care. This led to deaths of livestock, damage to our boats and equipment, and losses. I'll write about this another day.
Politicians are known for pushing back difficult decisions, especially those regarding the environment, for the future generation deal with. A business contact called it kicking the can down the road. It's a grey area, but we should be better at holding people to account for their actions.
The law has a phrase for people who don't care: "a negligent act". A woman was charged recently for causing the death of a pedestrian in a negligent act. She rode a bicycle despite knowing it had faulty brakes, and collided into another woman.
This is a tough one. But every action of yours has a consequence. We are rolling the dice every day. Luck is a factor here, but we can greatly improve our chances of producing positive or non-disastrous consequences by thinking and caring more. We're adults and we've acquired a certain sense of how the world (and near future) work.
The scariest people are not the malevolent, malicious and comically evil ones.
Those are not too difficult to deal with, and they do trip themselves up more often than not.
The scariest people are the ones who don't care. People who don't care create the worst problems.
Do you care?