Tolerant to a fault

A couple of weeks ago, on Pasig Day, I decided that I would go and watch Transformers 2 in IMAX. Off I trotted to Mall of Asia that morning. I arrived at 10:10 am for the 10:30 am screening, and to my delight, there were only about 5 persons in front of me at the ticket line.

The next person to approach the ticket counter, handed his cell phone to the lady selling tickets, and there ensued a conversation which started with the counter lady explaining which seats were still available, and where they were in relation to the screen. You can imagine this was not easy to do on the phone. The conversation drifted to other screening times. In the meantime, the line built up to about 30 persons.

I was fuming, but did my best not to lose my cool. As a foreigner, I thought I best keep my mouth shut. This went on for about 15 minutes, and it was 10:25 am. The screening time was 10:30 am! Finally one lady from the line spoke up. But the fellow at the ticket counter was unfazed, and the ticket sales lady carried on speaking on the phone. The lady from the line then asked for the guard to look for the manager.

Whilst this absurd situation was being played out, only one person from the line of about 30 people spoke out. None of the others said a thing. This is one of those things that I find really wrong in the Philippines. People are tolerant to a fault, and accept service that makes mediocrity sound like the holy grail.

I do urge and encourage everyone to stop accepting all the crap that is going on. It does not have to be like this. My earlier story on Clark airport is a case in point.