Wanna blame, then blame correctly
This is another "I can't believe I'm defending" entry. Why people who don't know me well would probably thought I'm some Big Brother lapdop!
Just yesterday evening, some inconsiderate guy decided to terminate his miserable life, and chose to do so in the most vengeful manner ever; by incapacitating some 13,000 other Singaporeans by leaping onto the MRT track at Queenstown. To think I almost got "roped" into this inconvenience as I nearly took the MRT home at that time!
When Temasek Review posted a short snippet of it onto their Facebook page, there was a guy who commented that it was most irresponsible of SMRT not to erect safety barriers, and insisted that it was their fault.
This is so ludicrous on all counts. Firstly, the barriers are meant to prevent ACCIDENTS. A suicide is NOT an accident. How on earth could that person come by this chain of conclusion is beyond me. You mean to tell me if the safety barrier is up, the person would miraculously be "saved" or have a change of mind? Preventing accidents from happening is part of SMRT's responsibility yes I'll go with that. But preventing suicide attempts is NOT within their job scope!
While making it "difficult" for people to jump over easily might indeed deter some "not so serious" suicidal people from jumping down onto the tracks, if a person truly wish to end his life, he will do it regardless if there's a barrier or not. It's so silly to try to blame the suicide of every inconsiderate nutcases who decided to play kiss the train on SMRT simply because they did not erect a "safety" barrier.
Again I reiterate, a suicide is NOT an accident, and a "safety" barrier is meant to prevent accidents and not suicides. If "safety" barriers are such a wonderful impediment to suicides, then SMRT can double up as a SOS helpline!
I know we are all fans of Temasek Review because we are extremely highly dissatisfied with Big Brother, but again like my previous post, we must not let our dislike for the entity cloud our judgment and start blaming everything on them.
External factors might play a huge part in pushing a man towards the edge of a cliff, but ultimately it's the man's personal choice to jump off. Everything is about choice. There is no such thing as "no choice". Even by not deciding on anything IS a choice! Life IS and has always been about choices!