Keep Death Off The Roads . . . Drive On The Pavements . . .
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Commentary
As I sit here chatting irregularly in Linux rather than XP (because Microsoft and Internet security simply don't mix), I am recalling my little adventures today, as I went out for an unaccustomed foray in search of any place that would sell me a comfy chair, as this is one item my humble abode has lacked for the last two years. Especially now that I spend untold hours seated in front of a PC, typing away, something a bit more comfy is sorely needed, in more ways than one.
One thing I have noticed about shopping in East Asia generally is the shops usually have everything you could possibly want, except what you really do want. Right now, as well as something more comfy to park my rear end on, I could also use a flat-bed scanner. But I go around the shops and they all have those combination scanner/printer things, and guess what? I already have a perfectly good printer, thank you very much. So as one discovers so frequently, you have to search far and wide for something which, back at home, would be not only obvious but also very easy to find, as well as ridiculously cheap. :irked:
But to my theme of this evening . . . another malodourous practice of the average East Asian driver is what I like to call "driving the way they think", which is to say that if there is a gap to dive through or a corner which can be cut, they all try to do it, all at once, and Heaven help any foreigner who was trying to cross the road at the same time. One place which looked quite promising turned out to be impossible to get to because there was too much traffic, and crossing the road is always dangerous. :yikes:
Only a few weeks ago, one of my youngest (and physically smallest) girls here was knocked down by a car as she was crossing the road just outside the building where our hagwon is situated. This is by no means an uncommon happening here in Korea, where people seem to care little about the feelings or well-being of others in their selfish little capitalist-Post-Confucian bubble; the driver was probably more worried about dents in his car. :rolleyes:
Similarly, when I was living in Da-An in Taipei, Taiwan, I was bumbling home one night and emerged from behind a wall to find a woman on a step-through motoring directly at me! Well, I won't regale your little shell-likes with what I said, but she sped off into the darkness (and still on the pavement, by the way) shouting: "Sorreeeeeeee!!!!!!!!" behind her . . . oh yeah. Keep Death off the roads . . . drive on the pavement. :devil:
Foreigners need to be aware that the potential for being killed is always in the offing in East Asia, not actually because they are deliberately out to kill you but because they are generally careless, in the most negative sense of the word. When I was younger I used to ride a motorbike, and one thing they teach you is always to look over your shoulder because the information you get from wing mirrors is never enough. So I go around looking over my shoulder all the time, especially when crossing the roads, which the locals must find rather strange. But life teaches you lessons which are sometimes harsh, and you eventually learn, as a Cambridge friend once put it, that "Discretion is the better part of valour." :knight:
As it happened, I mentioned this to acquaintances at the pub in town that Friday night (the two Joshes: one New Zealander and one American) and the NZ-er of the two said that they had been talking about this same thing just the other night; they saw a little girl run down in the street "and the driver never even stopped to apologise." In the three countries where we all came from, such an act is a major crime. But Korea? It all depends upon who you know.
NZ Josh was, I think, especially embittered at having seen this happen because his stern Christian sense of justice and fair play was offended. Korean males are still prejudiced against their own females, especially if they are not from their own social "in-group". :down:
But the real point of tonight's diatribe is that in general terms, across East Asia, there is really not a culture of "safety first" as there is now in many parts of the world; if something bad happens and someone is injured or killed, it's tough – unless it happens to yourself, of course, in which case you never hear the end of it. Safety consciousness has not dawned here yet and it is amazing that more accidents do not happen, as there is always ample scope for them, everywhere. :bomb:
So foreigner, beware: no-one in East Asia will actually go out of their way to put a knife in your back. But watch out when there are cars about! 😮
