Texting while driving or driving while texting, whichever you call it, is something which I absolutely hate to see people doing. As if calling without a hands-free while driving is not bad enough, some people just have to take it to the next level by texting while driving. I recently took a photo of a guy making a call, without a hands-free and driving at the same time. I was questioning myself, “Should I submit the shot to the relevant authority to take action against the guy?” In the end I decided not to.

And hey, if you were guessing if I was on the wheel while taking the photo, sorry to disappoint you, my brother was the one on the wheel. At the point when I took the photo, I was piping hot with fury and I told myself, “You are busted, for making call without a hands-free while driving!” I simply cannot tolerate such act of selfishness and irresponsibility. However, I decided not to report him to the authority as everyone deserves a second chance. I naively want to believe that it was his first time doing that. And I believe he saw me taking the photo; we were moving side by side. Let this be a gentle reminder for this round. I certainly hope that I would not live to regret that decision to let him off.

To the video above, I applauded Utah’s decision to get tough with texting drivers as drivers can get up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine when they kill someone. There should be continuous effort by all parties involved, the relevant authorities, the drivers, driving schools etc, to make the road a safer place for all users. And most importantly for drivers, including myself, we should take the safety of ourselves and other road users seriously. I couldn’t have stressed it more that we must practice responsible driving at all time.

Just a moment of selfish thought plus irresponsibility, and we could live a life in deep regret. This is probably so for Reggie Shaw. He caused an accident in September 2006 which killed two men, both scientists and fathers. He was driving — texting while driving.

As I put forth this message of responsible driving to you, I am also holding myself accountable for the words. Let us all be responsible drivers and if you are not one yet or not planning to be one, you can still act as a role to gently remind. Together we can make our road a safer place for everyone.

Quoting from National Safety Council: Driver inattention is a leading cause of traffic crashes, responsible for about 80 percent of all collisions, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Cell phones are the #1 driver distraction, contributing to hundreds of thousands of crashes and thousands of deaths each year. This affects real people, real lives. Watch and hear the stories of the families featured

I was just slightly disturbed over an incidence that happened before the movie start; I saw a guy resting his legs over the top of the seat in the row in front of him. Looking on the bright side, at least he bothered to take off his shoes before doing that inconsiderate act.

He put down his legs only when the seats in front of him were taken up. How would you feel, if you were the one taking those seats? I just hope that the guy takes good care of his legs’ hygiene.

Do Singaporeans really have no sense of self-respect as was criticised by Jackie Chan, in a recent speech he made during the Boao Forum for Asia?

At first I was furious when I learned that he made such a senseless remark. There is a saying by Abraham Lincoln that goes something like this, “I am not bothered by what others said about me as long as I know they were not speaking the truth of me.” So I shouldn’t be bothered right? Not exactly, because I know that there are some truths to what he said.

Look at the example of the guy I saw in the cinema over the weekend. Not to mention, the amount of litters you can see around the mail box when there is a trash can just besides it. And then there is the usual rushing into the subway’s cabins whenever the subway reaches the station and the cabin’s doors open. Couldn’t they (the people rushing in) allow the people inside the cabin to come out first?

Back to the mail box area, was it really easier to throw the junk mails on the floor than to throw it into the trashcan, which is just about a metre away? Or is it as what Jackie Chan said, that Singaporeans really have no sense of self-respect?

Instead of saying that Singaporeans have no sense of self-respect, would it be more appropriate if I should say that Singaporeans have no sense of civic-consciousness? Now the next questions are, “Is it true only in the case of Singaporean or do you see such lack of civic-consciousness in your country too?

I believe that civic-consciousness voices down to the individual and it is not an unique characteristic of a particular nation. Education, cultures and upbringing play a part in forming the civic-consciousness of the individual. Laws and regulations are sometimes made to force through the civic-consciousness.

In the example of Singapore, anyone caught littering can be made to do Corrective Work Order (CWO); the litterbugs are basically made to clean up parks, beaches and house estates. Many never made the same mistakes again.

Jackie Chan may ridicule the laws in Singapore but some times these laws are there to protect the majority from the minority. And most time, whether certain laws are there or not, they never bother the majority at all because I believe that most people are civic-conscious.