Woman burnt alive after petrol kiosk staff refuse to help
Sunday, June 6, 2010

I was reading the newspapers last night as I gobbled down dinner at 9:30, having arrived home from a later than usual NDP rehearsal. An article caught my eye, and there's an online version of it here, which I felt was very interesting.

Assuming you've read it, you might like to know that a Facebook page has been set up to boycott BHPetrol. Facebook user Kelvin Loh said, "we can't sue them... but we can boycott them. Sooner or later, they will feel the pain. I believe they will shut down very soon."

I'm not sure about you, but I find that quite possibly naive of him. Not just in his belief that the company will go downhill from here on, but also because he assumes that he wouldn't have done the same if he were put in the shoes of the petrol kiosk attendants. I'm by no means saying I would, but one should look at the situation objectively.

It was 3:30am, in the dead of the early morning, and everyone knows that petrol kiosks have been hit often as ideal robbery locations among others, hence many displaying a sign such as "Only 100 dollars in cash register after 1am." This isn't Singapore, and a man comes up frantically telling you about an accident that has happened sufficiently far away that you can't see it; to open your doors to help him might not be the wisest situation. After all, forced entry is another charge on the table for him, should things turn out the way they imagined. This here is an assumption, but I'd hazard that the staff were even trained in such situations by seniors to do as instructed. (Hence the "go call the fire department" reply from the staff)

Ultimately, a grave error has been committed, but this error is not one that was done with malice, but thoughts of self-preservation that cannot be entirely faulted. I hence feel that those who support and initiated the boycott are narrow-minded, but I know that this opinion may not be shared with all, so if you have any arguments to my point of view, I'd gladly want to hear it.

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posted by joseph at 6:54 AM

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