Monday, February 8, 2010

No One is Licensed to Annoy

Today I would like to offer a guest post from a friend in my small group: Waki is a Kenyan lady who works as a lawyer for a bank in Nairobi. She often writes articles to share with her friends and colleagues. Perhaps posting this will encourage her to start her own blog.
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I am sometimes perplexed at the little annoying things that people will do. These things may not be done to me particularly, but I may see them happen and wonder.

I am convinced that a very heavy fine should be placed on anyone who throws litter outside a car or a bus window. I once drove behind a vehicle and I am persuaded that the family in the vehicle must have had to leave the house in a hurry and thus were not able to eat their breakfast in the house. By the time I got to town, I was aware of their breakfast menu! Out flew the yogurt carton, and then the edge of what looked like an egg sandwich and finally the yellow banana peel. Three questions I have to ask driver ‘x’. Firstly, were you aware of the missiles flying out of the back seat of your car window? Secondly, and of course if the answer to the first is in the affirmative, were you aware of the hazard these missiles posed to the drivers behind you? And thirdly, who may you have had in mind to pick up the litter after you?

I am now particularly excited that as buildings become high tech and modern, we are now able to press our floor numbers before we get onto the elevator. When I have to press the lift number on the wall inside the elevator, I have often felt quite uncomfortable. It isn’t strange to witness a scene whereby a slightly shorter person like myself – (actually I have been that person) is standing right at the numbers and rather than those around politely asking this person to press out their floor numbers they would rather lean forward over them and do it for themselves. So for the first few moments of the elevator’s assent, this unfortunate person next to the elevator numbers has a mass of bodies pushed against him/her and armpits literally hurled into their nose. Needless to say, I no longer stand next to the elevator numbers while in the elevator.

I think it would be safe to say that very few people are gleeful about standing in the supermarket check-out lines. But courtesy demands that you wait your turn. I have observed an annoying habit. This is when a shopper will be holding one or two items and realizes that the five people ahead have perhaps a trolley full of shopping and proceeds to overtake them without asking. I am sure that human beings are not all cruel and so I wish that this person would just politely ask the people in front of them to allow them to check out their items first. I would not say no. I just wish the person would have the decency to ask.

Parking spaces have become a challenge in most shopping malls and sometimes one will drive around severally before securing a parking. I wonder if you have ever witnessed someone patiently waiting for a parking spot and even with their indicator on. As soon as the spot becomes free, a car comes literally flying from another direction and zooms directly into the parking spot in total disregard of the waiting driver!!!! This driver then proceeds to come quickly out of their car and march off without even a glance at the driver who was waiting patiently for the parking spot! Sometimes, such drivers even have a smug look on their faces as though congratulating themselves for their speed! I believe that there should be a law against such horrendous acts!

I could go on and on and on about the annoying things that sometimes happen around us. Perhaps we are guilty of some of these things. May this be a wake up call to us that when ever we do some of these things, that we would ask ourselves ‘who gave us the licence to annoy??????’ I believe that we live in a free Country but rule of thumb perhaps would be that my freedom ends where it infringes on another persons freedom.

Courtesy and politeness pays.

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