When should you offer your seat on the MRT or bus?

This Stomp article led me to ponder about this issue: When should we stand up and offer our seat on public transports? Public transports includes the MRT and the bus, but I think it is more applicable to the MRT since there is a greater chance that there is no space for sitting on the MRT.

The article is simple. This lady and her mum went into the MRT. Her mum is carrying the baby (her grandchild). This lady saw a selfish woman who signalled to her husband to tell him not to give up his seat. The lady felt that the woman and husband are both selfish and the worst thing is that they only sat for one more stop before alighting.

It sparked an interesting debate in Stomp that made me wonder, who is right and who is wrong? I guess it is pretty clear cut that the woman who was sitting down is wrong. She is entitled to decide not to give up her seat, yet her gesture to her husband is totally uncalled for. If her husband so decides that the baby carrying grandmum needs a seat, then he should give up his seat.

Yet, on the other hand I wonder, if the lady feels so indignant for her mum who was carrying her child, shouldn’t the lady carry her OWN child instead? Instead of making her mum suffer (if her mum wasn’t suffering then there is no need for a seat isn’t it), she should just carry her own baby instead. Maybe this way her mum would not need a seat.

But the central issue is, who should get a seat? It makes me angry when some people think that they should be given a seat. Once it happened to me. This Caucasian woman woke me up from my day dream and pointed to the sign above me that says “Give your seat to people who need it more”. I assumed that she needs it more, so I nodded and stood up. She sat down and her husband, who is in crutches, is leaning on the glass beside her seat. So who’s the needy one? The husband or her?

There are some times when I feel that the recipent is not too old. Probably in their fifties. Do I need to stand up and give up my seat? I think not. They should still be fit to stand isn’t it? I do not support the notion that younger people have to give up their seat to older ones. I feel that we should give up our seat to needy people, not old people. I feel that old people who are frail (I guess you can see how old they are?) should be given seats.

Pregnant woman should be given seats too.

However another issue is this: Is it nice of one to submit a photo of a selfish person to Stomp? This is an interesting issue because the selfishness is subjective to the photographer. That person may not be selfish, for example, when you take photos of some people sleeping on trains and claim that they are pretending,when they could be genuinely sleeping.

I do not support such photos and I never will. Give me a reason why such photos, which flames others, should be allowed.