No worries on the streets

Every morning on my way to work, we will pass by people on their way to catch the train or teenagers walking to the nearby elementary school or towards the bus stop. It’s nothing out of ordinary actually.

However, what hit me as out of the ordinary (at least to me) is that even school children at the age of 6 or 7 and even those just visiting kindergartens also walk to school, without the company of a parent or an adult. Although the school and kindergarten are located quite strategically, those children will still have to cross a couple of streets which often are relatively heavy in traffic in the morning rush hours.

Seeing these for the first time immediately induced an outrage in me, thinking ‘Where the f*** are their parents?‘ Don’t you think it’s sort of dangerous to let these young children to walk alone to school and cross the streets themselves? Perhaps there might be a child molester or a kidnapper lurking around somewhere, preying on those innocent children?

There’s no way people in my home country will let their children as young as 6 or 7 to walk to school alone and unguarded. It’s simply too dangerous. After voicing my concerns to my boyfriend, he told me he used to cycled to his kindergarten, alone, too. He had to cross some streets with his bike, too.

Seeing my dumbfounded expression, he pointed out to me that he has not heard of school children here who are walking on their way to school, being hit by a car or being involved in any accidents. It’s kinda true because I haven’t heard of it too since being here for some years.

Whereas he even pointed out to me that every girlfriend of mine that he’s met in Malaysia, has been involved in some sort of small car accidents in their childhood. It’s true too , even I was hit by a motorcycle while trying to cross the street when I was 9.

He rationalized that the way people here drive and their mentality are simply different from those, where I come from. He has a point.