While I know that sooner or later some of us will turn 60 or senior some time in our lives, I cannot stand the fact that there are senior citizens that are abusive of their being "senior citizen" status.
On my flight back from Milan, my stop over was at DOHA, Qatar. The DOHA airport transports passengers from the airport to the plane by bus (or a BMW if you're flying on first class). When we were boarding for Manila, I had about 8 senior citizens on the business class flight with me. While we boarded the bus to the plane, there was a lady (about 60 or so) with me with her more senior husband who boarded with hoards of goods they bought from the Duty Free at DOHA. I could not help but overhear (alright, so I was eavesdropping) when Granny began befriending a Filipino who sat beside her on the bus. She made small talk and then as we approached the bus, told the guy that they were carrying heavy stuff and that she was too weak to carry all that they bought. She began ranting about how heavy the bottles were and then asked if he would be kind enough to help her carry it on the plane because we had to climb the stairs.
When the guy said, "of course", she thanked him and said that it was the Filipino spirit of helping others that was appreciated. (In the back of my mind, I told myself, it was also the Filipino spirit of being abusive that made my skin creep with disgust at the outcome of the conversation. For God's sake, they shouldn't have bought so much liquor and then have to put some pathetic fool into carrying the load for them. Anyway...)
When the bus came to a halt at our plane, the driver announced that we had to wait for another 15 minutes inside the bus because the plane wasn't done being prepared for the flight yet. Sorry for the inconvenience. Another elderly couple approached the first two elderly couple and lo and behold they knew each other. In the middle of the conversation, the first elderly couple put the OFW Pinoy on the sideline and the elderly men started talking about their love for tennis and their back hand and how frequently they played tennis!!!! Shit! These elderly were in better shape than the poor OFW Pinoy who seemed to be grinning ear to ear listening to them rant about the Zobels and the Jalandonis and whoever they decided to name-drop. (Alright, so I was eavesdropping big time - sue me! It just confirmed my thoughts on the abusive elderly!)
To cut the long story short, the pathetic Pinoy OFW was kind enough to carry the duty free shopping the first elderly woman had deviously asked him to bring for her.
The whole flight was smooth (although some of the electrical devices on the Qatar Airlines flight were not working well...so much for being Skytrax Airline of the Year).
When we landed at NAIA, the second elderly couple had a wheelchair waiting for them when the gate of the plane opened!!! Sanamagan!!! The elderly woman (about 65 or so) was perkier than I was and was carrying her own bag and had climbed the stairs to the plane at DOHA and was up and about in the plane during the whole flight. What happened during the flight?!?!?! Susmaryosep! Was the flight on a flat-bed business class terrible?
Guess what?
At NAIA, there's a lane that's for the disabled and those on wheel-chair. When you use this priority lane, there is NO QUEUE and they assist you by holding your belongings and carry your bags for you. Golly gee wow!! No wonder these elderlies use all the devious ways to get ahead.
I blog about this because being an elderly has some privileges attached to it. Let me correct that. There are some things that are provided for, in order to make life more comfortable for the senior citizen. But there is a thin line delineating its being abused.
Being afforded privileges is somehow prone to abuse. But when it is the elderly that abuse this, that's a different story altogether.
If you're a senior citizen reading my blog - read well. Your existence in this world for over 60 years does not give you the right to abuse the privilege that is afforded you. People get what they deserve and being treated appropriately is done because of respect and not because you've reached a certain age and find a way to get away with being abusive of certain privileges. It is after all a privilege and not a RIGHT!
Sometimes, one can't help but recall the saying...Masamang damo, matagal mamatay!
No comments:
Post a Comment