Let's Communicate

I'd like to share a tiny experience which is quite an eye-opener to me. 

It was during MH17 tragedy. As gesture of respect, the government announced all national flags to fly at half mast. 

My friend and I was driving around Ampang and we saw one flag was not at half mast. It was kinda hard not to notice, because it was one of the tallest flag in my area (belongs to a private company btw).

We thought it was very rude of them. My friend whip out his camera and said he's gonna share it on Facebook - which is a natural thing to do nowadays - name and shame them on social media for being so disrespectful. 

Just before he hit the share button, we took a step back and wondered if it was the right thing to do. Social media critics will certainly get their attention. But, is it worth spreading negativity in time of crisis? 

We didn't think so. 

We googled their contact number and called the company. The person who answered my call sounded like a foreigner (Pakistani). I explained to him and suggested for them to bring down the flag to half mast. 

He apologised and said they will get it done immediately. Within 15 minutes, the flag went down. 

I am not 100% sure, but I assume workers at the company are mostly foreign. They obviously work long hours, 7 days a week and have no clue of what's happening around them.

They simply don't know what they were suppose to do. And of course, they will never know if nobody bothers to communicate with them. 

Come to think about it, issues can be solved quite easily if we choose to confront and communicate. Yelling on social media fuels the fire, but does not solve it. 

From now on, I am going to make it habit to reach out to people before taking it to Facebook. 

So, let's communicate. 

~ Cheers!