Queueing and Civilization

In a very competitive environment like Singapore, queueing is a custom, rather than a guarantee. As a part of the society, I also have to bear with this custom. Queueing for trains, tickets, dining, groceries, taxis and even for newspapers.

Sometimes, the time spent for queueing is even longer than the time for acquiring the actual goods and services.

A correspondent sent a letter to TODAY newspaper sharing her experience of queueing for the newspaper at Toa Payoh MRT station. She observed that the people behaved so ungraciously and inconsiderate to others when they queued up.

I was also once queueing for newspaper in the station. I came early in the morning around 7.a.m. before the TODAY's newspaper distributor came. The queue was already long when I arrived. Luckily, I still got the paper for that day. The distribution of the papers lasted less than 15 minutes and so did the queue.


Instead of coming to the station early in the morning without a guarantee to get a newspaper, now I go to the TODAY's website and read the paper online. The paper is already published online at 6.a.m. There is no need for me to rush and waste my time in queue without any guarantee to get the paper. By reading the paper online, I can also know the news, special offers and events earlier than the people who queue.

I wonder if those people queueing at the stations know about the possibilities of reading Today online. It would have saved them a lot of time and energy.

In the Singapore information society, the telecommunication infrastructure is good. The cost of having an Internet connection is quite low. However, the gap of Internet literacy is still wide. In addition, the custom of reading is also difficult to be changed. Reading a newspaper on "paper" is still preferable than reading the electronic version.

People in Singapore still prefer to queue for newspaper rather than accessing it from the Internet. After all, queueing is a part of Singapore civilization. Yet, I am still waiting for the time when TODAY is available on my mobile phone.