Re: AIT employee refuses to yield seats to elderly
by Mucha Man » 11 Jun 2013, 12:19
I would like AIT to come out with a statement such as "We would be happy to investigate the matter but knowing as we do that the Taiwan media does not take time to verifyy stories, in fact at times makes them up out of whole cloth (TVBS is not just a title but a way of reporting) we will not be treating this as a real event. If this disappoints the people of Taiwan we would remind you that we have a responsibility to our employees, and that responsibility includes not damaging their careers on the basis of Facebook reports that clearly look fabricated."
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater
On June 5th, 2013, my mother was on the Danshui (formerly Danshui) line heading north around 1:00 PM (1300). Every seat on her train was taken when she saw an elderly couple around 70- or 80-years old [part of the text was obscured by the TV company's logo] at Zhongshan station.
My mother, 60-years old herself, promptly stood up and offered her seat to the woman older and frailer than herself. She noticed that the woman in the picture below had her belongings sprawled out on the seat next to her so she asked on behalf of the older gentleman, "can you move your stuff please?" Any respectful individual would promptly move their things to allow an elderly man a seat, I'm sure you would agree.
Now my mother's English is a bit broken so she had some trouble catching exactly what the woman was speaking due to the fast speed, but what happened is still clear as day. The woman angrily started shouting back at my mother, refusing to move and then insisting that my mother [obscured by logo] say "please". My mother said that she did but followed up with "okay, please move your stuff?"
The woman still adamantly refused, saying things like how she's an American and boasting her AIT badge, implying that she shouldn't have to move because of her nationality. My mother immediately replied, "I am also an American. I don't care who you are, please move your stuff. Don't you see old people in front of you?" (Note: my mother and I are both US citizens. We reside in Sugar Land, Texas, and my mother is only in Taiwan for an extended family visit.) The woman continued to talk back to my mother in a very threatening tone, still denying the older man a seat.