Are backpacks that innocent?

Are backpacks that innocent?

Madonna Wulur's letter (Dec. 15, 1999) subscribing to the
contents of Bruce Emond's (Dec.10, 1999) has set me thinking
about the incident in a shop at Plaza Senayan (Dec.8, 1999).

Given the rigid and unsympathetic stance most security guards
like to take -- apparently out of a mistaken perception of their
duty -- people often wrongly see them as villains. I think myself
that they often overact in simple matters. In banks they like to
jump on customers who jump the queue. Have they nothing better to
do?

But I can well imagine the strain of security guards in
shopping malls where they have to supervise wily shoplifters and
throngs of idle sight-seeing schoolchildren. May be the
"innocent" 10-year-old boy involved in the "accidental" knocking
of a figurine was one of those schoolchildren.

If you sometimes sit in a city bus you may have experienced
that schoolchildren with backpacks often let their bag swing onto
your face. They seem to be oblivious that their bag enters
somebody else's private space. No apology is uttered in most
accidents.

There is another side to the "public humiliation". The shop
assistant in charge of a department within the shop is
responsible for any loss or damage of any article in his
department. The Rp 200,000 would have been charged to him. If he
does not pay up, the management will deduct it from his salary.
Even if it is done in four installments, what will remain of his
meager salary?

S. HARMONO

Jakarta