Can you show a little respect, PLEASE !!!
by P.K.Odendaal - 8 October 2011
Respect, consideration and patience are vital virtues for the survival of mankind and form part of the fabric which is known as civilisation - a fabric much more frail than we think.
Can you show a little respect, please ? I would be the first to say : Guilty as charged, because I cannot suffer fools gladly and I get really rude fast when someone does not respect my privacy.
I detest people who do not respect my privacy and I treat them like fools - so I become like them.
A case in point. There is nothing that I detest more than a car watch. In South Africa we have these people known as car watches, but from my experience they are little more than arrogant beggars in sheep's clothes. There is no way they will watch your car, and if there is a car theft going on in the parking area, you will not even see one of them. At that stage they have all gone somewhere else for other pressing business.
What I especially do not like, is that they yell at me. When I get out of my car one or more of them start yelling at me from afar off, with words like 'hi sir', 'hello boss', 'hi' or some other barely recognisable threat. They want to get my attention because they want to milk me - so I pretend not to hear them and then they get into high gear with more violent threats.
The other thing is that they try to show you where to park. Nobody shows me where to park, because I park where I wish to, even if I have to circumvent the globe three times. If you fall for their recommendation on where to park, you will find yourself parking at the furthest end of the parking area, whilst there are many parking spaces closer to your intended rendezvous, but this empty block is the block they have been allocated and that they are milking and they want you to park there so they can milk you.
When you have finished shopping, the ordeal is to dodge them as they converge on you from all sides to get that tip for something they did not do, so they take up their position right at the back of your car, to make believe that they are making sure that you leave your space safely, but they are really there to prevent you from leaving your space before you have paid them.
They also have the audacity to stop you from driving unhindered around the parking area while you look for a parking space, just to let their client, who paid them lucratively for nothing, can get out of his space. Of course I have right of way, but they have the cheek to impede my progress contrary to the traffic laws.
I also wish to speak on their behalf as well.
If someone (the person who got authority to patrol the parking area) appointed me and did not pay me a wage, but instead, I had to pay him a wage, then I also would be very aggressive.
Secondly, I have seen some of them who are serious and look after you interests quite well, and I pay them lucratively.
And whilst I am at it, let me name a few other inconsiderate candidates. This is what they do :
· They will stop you on the street to give you a present of some useless baking ware or insurance you do not need, and after fifteen minutes you find out they want to sell it to you at twice the price the shop asks.
· When you stop at a robot, they will converge all over your car with useless merchandise and wave an fret and shout and make signs so that you will notice them while you pretend to look the other way.
· They buy very expensive public address systems, install it in their cars, and irritate you from robot to robot with open windows blaring the chants of the devil.
· They phone you from direct marketing centres on blocked telephone numbers to talk you into buying some useless holiday or item, but you do not get to know this until you have spent twenty minutes listening to them while they spin you a story of some inevitable end to the world which may happen this afternoon.
· They use public address systems to call their ten proselytes, who know when prayer time is, and in the process irritate two thousand other people who detest their mode of waging active and passive war all over the world in the name of religion.
· They sit in restaurants with their caps on, turned the wrong way round, so you mistake their back for their front - not that you would notice the difference.
· They stand behind shop counters to serve you, whilst they do not have a clue what they sell and where it is showcased.
· When you call in to large institutions or big corporations, they put you through to people at their organisation who they are sure know much less than they do of the case or of the organisation - which is frighteningly little.
· They look at you with glass or bewildered eyes when you ask them a question about something they should know, and just recover their posture with blurts such as 'eish'.
· They keep dogs in their backyard to disturb your sleep with all night long barking due to their fear, whilst their owners get a good night's sleep and does not even notice the barking of their own dogs.
· They wait in ambush in deserted streets and buildings and on highways and byways, and even in your house while you are sleeping, to kill you just to take possesion of your car or cell phone.
· They buy and sell people for financial gain in what is called bribery and corruption.
Naturally this irritates me a lot, and there is no antidote to this. Many times I wish to just get away from them, which reminds me of the guy from the navy who was so fed up with the navy, that he took two oars on his car's roof rack, promising to settle wherever they first asked him what those objects were.
I was brought up to respect all people regardless of class, gender or skin colour, but these irritants have taken that all from me.
And ... by the way ... do you know where I can get a really loud and cheap PA system for my roof rack ?
