I used to love the Courtesy Campaign with Singa the Lion back when I was in Primary School.

If you guys have no idea what I’m talking about, youth is probably on your side.

I appreciate what the campaign stood for and how being polite begets good karma, almost like paying it forward and it will come back to you someday.

In recent times, I’ve been feeling like we are sorely in need of reviving this campaign.

Rudeness is almost always in our humid air and phrases like “Please” and “Sorry” are no longer in vogue. Pigs may fly if you actually receive a smile from a passer-by and if you’re lucky, you may actually get a “Thank You” from a service staff.

Unfortunately, I’ve been on the receiving end of this lack of manners far too often these days, which is elevating my blood pressure as I type, I’m almost on a first name basis with hypertension.

Service staff jabbing the change into my palm, excited Christmas shopper stepping on my feet en route to grab something off the shelf with nary an apology, sales assistant rolling her eyes when asked to get a pair of shoes in a different size.

The one that really takes the cake was when an ex co-worker stamped her feet, rolled her eyes and sighed really loudly, stopping short of a full blown tantrum when she was tasked to do something that was very much within her jobscope.

It was not professional, absolutely rude and bordering on insubordination. It didn’t help that it was her first job and had zero to no knowledge of how the working world works.

Sometimes I even wonder if these people know how their actions affect the people around them.

It seems almost silly to be griping about something so trivial, but somehow this brutish, behaviour just rubs me the wrong way and makes me wanna scream “expelliramus” at them and get them out of my sight, Harry Potter-style.

Is it just me or do you guys feel the same way? Is our society slowly taking a step backwards and regressing with times? And should we give the Courtesy Campaign another shot?

Whatever it is, even though I know I’m going to give myself more grief, I’m still going to go the extra mile, hold the lift door for strangers, smile at service staff I meet and offer my help whenever I can. That’s the only way we can pay it forward.