Time Management

For over a week now the net has been bombarded with daily updates on the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 tragedy. Now before you get the wrong idea, let me hasten to say that I’m not an aviation expert, and I shall not pretend to be one. Unlike so many people out there who’re convinced that they know exactly what happened to Flight QZ8501, and how it happened simply based on bits and pieces of information they got from the net, I’m gonna just wait till the investigations are concluded by experts who’re actually conducting the investigation and relying on facts! 

Reading the comments in online articles and facebook postings, I’ve noticed that there are many, many supporters of AirAsia and its CEO, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, but there are also haters out there who’re fast to take the opportunity to raise their complaints against the airline. I suppose it’s impossible to please everybody—no matter how hard the airline tries, somehow there will always be some people who’d be complaining about something. 

One particular complaint caught my attention. A commenter said that AirAsia has been mean to its passengers by being overly strict on their departure times. She shared her experience; she arrived at the departure gate after it was closed only half a minute earlier. Yet she was denied to pass through. She said when she looked outside, she could still see the last few passengers climbing the stairs into the plane. As the result of missing that flight, she had to buy a new ticket for the next flight! 

Some people are born with weaknesses in time management. I should know, because I’m married to one of those creatures. I guess nobody’s perfect, and I can therefore accept that some people are just not meant to be good in time management, as long as their tardiness does not affect me. However, it drives me up the wall when I become a victim of such weakness. I’ve been on flights which were delayed because some idiots just couldn't understand that the departure time had been fixed, and they simply had to be late, thus resulting in holding up the whole plane. Because of one or two idiots, 200 others had to become the victims. 

On the other hand, I myself for numerous reasons in the past have been late too, which resulted in missing my flights. But I accepted full responsibility for my tardiness; I shall not dream of commenting negatively against an airline which is doing whatever it can to stick to the schedule. People are depending on that schedule! There are so many other factors that are beyond the control of the airline that can cause delays. We really don’t need to add to that! 

A lot of things in life have fixed times to happen; and many of them involve many people. Please, for heaven’s sake, don’t be the idiot that makes everybody else waste their time; not 10 minutes, not five minutes, and not even half a minute. Be on time or take the next flight; or even the flight after that. Don’t blame others for your own weakness. Get over it!