Privacy, Barrio Culture and an Automatic Teller Machine

Early morning (in my opinion).

I went to the ATM to withdraw some cash. (Ka-ching!) But before you chant the proverbial "Libre! Libre! Libre!", I just want all of you to know that those weren't technically my dough. It was for my writers. Yeah, I'm a good leader so I am a good servant as well. But that's beside the point.

Anyways, I noticed an old guy and old woman very near the ATM but they seem to be waiting for someone so I went ahead and inserted my card, did all the usual stuff and got hold of the money (It took me less than 30 seconds. Some people in Miagao, where the University I attended was situated, would take around 10 minutes to withdraw a thousand bucks). I was about to go when the old woman said, out of the blue mind you, "We are waiting for the guard to help us withdraw our money." If someone would've asked me to translate that in straight-forward English, then it would've meant "Can you help us?" Given it was early in the morning, I was not in Good Samaritan-mode, so I just smiled and told them (politely) that they should wait for the guard. I felt kind of guilty but convinced myself that I was not in the position to help them. Hello? PIN number? What if those people end up killed and their ATM cards were stolen, won't I be the prime suspect?

But then, I realized another thing - the city life is totally different compared with the rural life. If I was still in Miagao, I would've jumped and helped them since people there are more trusting and, in a good way, there's no sense of rigid privacy in them - they allow strangers to go into their houses during Fiestas which in turn earns them friends and connections; Tricycle drivers will converse with you while travelling at night even if you are just alone together; and people will ask you to withdraw money for them, using their ATM card pins and they won't feel anything and people around won't look at you and think of something sinister.

What really is privacy? Is it just a defense mechanism? Something that protects us from possibile harm? Is it evolutionary or adaptive? To protect us from strangers? Or is it something that shuts out other people outside our social circles or significant others so as to protect our brood's cohesiveness or our resources, even?

I dunno about it. I'm just guilty that I didn't help the old lady.

ALTASHHETH