By Fr Anthony Le Duc SVD

I live and work in the megacity of Bangkok, which one can arguably say has some of the worst traffic in the world. In certain areas and at particular hours of the day, it can take up to an hour just to go a couple of kilometres. The many different modes of vehicles on the road—cars, buses, motorbikes, tuktuks, minibuses, and so on—make the road even more chaotic. This is not to mention that a lot of time, one has to share the road with food peddlers and pedestrians on the side of the road. In the smaller streets and alleys, it takes a bit of maneuvering just to get from one place to another, which in some ways is as much an art as it is skills. A newcomer to Bangkok may find in it a form of entertainment just to sit in a side alley coffee shop sipping on coffee and watching how the world moves in this city.

As crazy as the traffic is and as often as people break basic traffic rules, there is an amazingly small number of incidents where people get into arguments or fist fights because someone has just gotten cut off, or that someone runs a red light, or that a taxi is turning the car in the middle of the street causing traffic to stop on both sides. Most of the time, people take all these inconveniences in strides with grace and patience, which is the main reason why Bangkok city streets don’t break out into a warzone.

Give and take is a big virtue often practiced in this city where drivers often stop for a pedestrian to cross in the middle of the road where there is no crosswalk, or for another vehicle to turn left or right into an alley. Usually, the pedestrian or the driver on the receiving end of the favor acknowledges the kind act with a gracious quick bow. The one who performs the act of kindness feels pleased that his/her action has been appreciated and is encouraged to continue acting graciously in the future.

Outsiders perhaps may say: It’s fine that people are considerate to one another on the road; but in instances where patience is displayed towards people who are crossing the road where they’re not supposed to, or when they’re stopping where they shouldn’t be, wouldn’t it encourage and perpetuate lawlessness on the road? This is a legitimate concern. However, the answer is not so simple. It involves among other things, educating the people in proper traffic etiquette, improving the infrastructure, and enforcing existing rules and regulations. All of this is not easy to do in a developing country.

So the need and the struggle for political, social and economic reforms continue in this country as in many places in the world. These things don’t happen overnight. Until then, we still can resort to human kindness, patience, and gentleness in how we treat each other. And this is not just on the road, but also in the community, in the workplace and in our family.

We don’t have to go to Bangkok to find chaos. Oftentimes we can find it right here in our very own lives, in our relationship with our family, church, and community. Indeed, every instance of chaos is evidence that reform is needed and improvements must be made. Just like the streets of Bangkok, better roads are needed and repairs must be made. However, as slow as everything seems, in the end, everyone makes it where they need to go with a bit of patience and kindness. Imagine how far we can go in our relationships if we exercised this same attitude and philosophy in how we dealt with the people around us.

PHOTO: Bangkok Traffic by Gemma Longman (Bangkok traffic) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons