Seats For Kartini

The difference between riding a public transportation in Jakarta and in Singapore, aside from the pickpockets and constant smell of Eau de Armpits, is that in Jakarta you can hardly see women stands on the bus or train.
There are some, of course, but it’s because the men on the bus cannot give their seats to the women because:
The men sit too far away from the standing women
The men do not see the women because they are too busy pretending to sleep

But here in Singapore, you can see many women stand on buses and trains, carrying a heavy load of either working papers or shopping bags or fat babies.

I had this conversation with some of my friends a few days ago. Some of them told me that it’s because women here were more independent and there was no need for men to give their seats. Others told me it’s because the men here just did not care. And I told myself, heck I needed to go to the toilet, because I did not care about that.

What happened to me was that during my first month here, I still tried to give up my seat every time I saw a woman, young or old, standing on a bus. But what usually happened next was the woman looked at me with the expression like I was about to show her my underwear, and then refused to sit.
So I just stood there, felt rejected and did not know what to do. Should I sit back? But I already stood up and was too far from the seat. Should I just pretended I was about to alight on the next stop and took the next train? Should I just stood there and act nonchalant? I didn’t know what to do after a rejection like that.
Having the bus hit a wall and me thrown outside the bus would be a great solution. But I was usually not that lucky to have such a break. So I usually just stood up and leave the seat empty, which was taken by a man who then pretended to fall asleep.

So now after having a series of that embarrassing situation, I only give up my seat to pregnant ladies, old women and men, ladies with babies, or combination of those.
So women, the next time a gentleman offer you his seat on a bus or train, just accept it nicely, otherwise the next time you hit the train, you’d see rows and rows of men fall asleep.