Friday, February 15, 2008

Who do you call?

The other day my wife called telling me that a bamboo pole with bedsheet had been blown off the holder and fallen down. However, it did not drop all the way to ground level, but hanging at 8th level by the bedsheet in an unsafe manner. Accordingly, it is not quite possible to be retrieved by the neighbor at the 8th level. Since she has a 2 month old baby to care for, it wasn't convenience for her to go to the neighbor, who is stranger to us.

Thus, we decided to call for help. I called the neighborhood police post. After briefly describing to the policeman who answered my call, he tried to explain to me that they do not typically help residents to pick up their fallen off items. WHAT!!! I almost shouted at him ... What did I shout?, "I AM NOT INTERESTED IN GETTING BACK MY BEDSHEET NOR THE BAMBOO POLE!" I explained, "I'm not calling to seek your help to retrieve my stuffs. I called because I want to alert you of a potentially dangerous situation that need to be attended to." However, I didn't feel that he agreed. He briefly asked for some details like my name and address, but happy with just my last name and didn't mention to me his name nor any reference number if I would like to follow-up.

May be I should have called the Civil Defence. If so, he could have suggested that to me. Nevertheless, to suggest that it isn't their job to retrieve items for residents indicates:
1) He is not sensitive to dangerous situation;
2) He seems to be interested in reasons of why they need not act;
3) His listening skills need training as his first concern is from his point of view, rather than that of the other party.

Eventually, I don't know what actually happened. According to my wife, it is still hanging there after an hour, and later both items were not being seen. I presume nobody is hurt by the accident.

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