the 1st 3 hours as an adult

i saw her waving at me from a distance, a bright smile plaster on her face, her right arm wrapped around a clipboard.

"the 2 most hated people in the world are telemarketers and evangelists," someone once told me.

they forgot to add, surveyors to the list.

i decided to stop and give her the time of day, learning from my life-changing encounter with a HSBC salesman on 120810 before my korean class.

surveyors are human too.

fatimah was a "professional" from one of the charities and she bubbly and enthusiastically took 5 minutes to share with me the whole background of the charity she represented and it's various activities using pamphlets on her clipboard.

she was so cheery and bouncy, i felt tired for her. esp considering how many rejections she had to face daily. and how many times she had to smile to said rejectors who did not wish to waste their precious time listening to her "sell" whatever she was selling.

she turned to the last page of her pamphlet, and hard sold a donation plan to me which had potentially "bonded" me for 3 years at a rate of ~$1 daily.

i hesitated. and told her i wanted to go back to think about it. and i seriously did, i was not just saying it to get rid of her.

"oh, but why i want to encourage you to consider signing up now is because you'll be saving one person TODAY if you do." The Morality Argument.

"right. i still want to go back and think about it. if i wanted to, i could log on to the website of the charity right?"

perhaps she thought i was cold hearted, coz she immediately changed-up her argument.

"oh yes. but you see, we want to save you time. So if you just sign my form now, it's so much easier. there's this reference code, that you can trace back to me. and i will issue you a receipt as well." The Cost-Efficiency Argument (the very subject-matter of my LAST legal exam)

"right. i still want to go back and think about it." was this woman earning commission on getting me to sign the form or what?

and den she upped the argument again. "oh you're starting work soon right? then i've got good news for you. your donations are tax-deductible and it'll really benefit you." Adam Smith lives on.

and den i thought to myself, while once again turning her down, how terrible Singaporeans were to need self-interested motivations to instill charitableness in their actions. and also, how ingenuous charities were getting in the way they trained their staff to persuade once they've captured the passer-by's attention.

our society is perplexing wonderful yet disappointing.