Are we so cynical?

I am one of the faulty humans. So, far from me the idea of being self-righteous about what others do wrong. Yet an incident that occurred two days ago provoked some thinking about our society.

An old man needed help crossing the streets in Port-Louis. He was trembling and was obviously scared about crossing with the cars honking even at the pedestrian path. He asked a young guy who must have been about 20. The guy did not react for the first 2 times and finally could not ignore him any longer. So he held the man’s arm one third along the way, then left him there and went on walking. The old man was terrified. He held out his hand silently asking for someone to help him. I was there so I did.

But the question was: why did that guy just leave the man? He must have thought, “Oh, he’ll be ok for now”. Maybe he was embarrassed. I feel that a large part of the answer was that he was embarrassed but I may be wrong. There were construction workers lined up for their lunch break just opposite of us, watching. Did the guy think he was doing something uncool? Did he think that his image was worth more than helping that old man? Or did he not realise that even in today’s sleek world, helping out was better than not? What could have prompted him to think that something else could be more important than holding that man’s hand?

The answers to those questions could be good clues to what “un mal de société” means. And we Mauritians living here cannot hide from the fact that our society is not well.