“Pushing anyone using one’s shoulders knowingly or unknowingly is punishable by two years in jail without the possibility of parole and a hundred grand in penalties.” If such a rule was in any book I can tell you it would have been the real cash cow!
Talking loudly on one’s cell phone in mini buses should be prohibited. Yes being someone using minibuses I can tell you that nothing gets on your nerves than people talking at the top of their voices in that enclosed and suffocating space. It’s not that they aren’t aware of where they are. They are; but that’s the name of their game, trying to show in places where there’re more than a few people.
They do it deliberately; How did I know they’re showing off! Well, just try to eavesdrop on what they are saying. They talk of things to put them on higher pedestal than the rest of the passengers. They are trying to tell you they were among ‘the cream of society!’ Most of the theme it’s about big business or money. Well if you can’t turn heads talking about business which bags a couple of million a month, then you either have a lot of homework to do or you sound so amateurish no one is acknowledging your presence! If you can’t catch the attention of the rest of the passengers maybe no one told you vocabulary matters in such things or all the other passengers are better versed in the hows and whys.
“How much did they say?…eight million for a second hand car!…… I could add another three million and have the best car in town…. Tell them I’ll take it for seven.” That, dear readers, is what I heard word for word months back in a hopelessly crammed minibus. The aid has allowed four passengers more than allowed and you can just imagine in what hell we were. It is in such a repelling atmosphere the guy was talking about eight million birr cars. A complete fraud of a human being!
Of course you don’t judge a book by its cover and people by what they’re wearing. We… ll; I chose to differ on that. The way one presents oneself matters. (Let me tell you a story I probably must have told you. One day I was wearing some suit and making my way to somewhere. A fellow I know was passing by me and thinking he hadn’t seen me I call him. He turns back and first says something like, “Oh it’s you!” and then he dropped the bombshell. “You’re known for that old leather jacket!” If you think that was his way of a complement you should have heard the sarcasm in his voice! So to be outdone I still wear my old leather jacket.)
Yes what you wear creates impressions. I mean the guy who was talking of the eight million birr car and bragging about his ability to get a better one for a few million more was dressed in attire which looks as if he has slept on for many nights and more. The last time his shoes were shined the shoeshine boys did a superb job for a mere fifty cents! Ha!
“Talking too loud in minibus taxis and putting pressure on the eardrums of the other passengers is punishable by confiscation of the phone and prohibiting the person not to talk more than seven sentences a day or nine months.” I would have popped the champagne cork for such ‘a ruling!’ yes sounds weird of me. But what can I do it’s hard to always stay on the sidelines in a world where the weird has become ‘the normal.’
By the way I was surfing the net when I came across this documentary of short people going the lengths to make themselves taller. According to the documentary there is these medical procedure they call knee surgery. They put additional something and (bingo!) the short guy is taller. Maybe he doesn’t need a name to be described; “The tall guy who used to be short;” would do. So the 1.45 mts. fellow becomes a 1.90 LeBron James sort of guy in a few days. Imagine a friend of yours who is shorter than you (anyone shorter that you must be an accident of nature!) having ‘the surgery’ and looking down at you next time you meet. By the way, according to the documentary the reason people want to be taller is because things aren’t going well for them in life because they’re short! Ha! So here’s something to you guys who tell us “By now you should have owned a G+4 house and a V8!”
So, we might need ways to deal with our of bound behavior which cause more discomforts than the discomfort a rumbling belly while you’re on a long-anticipated! Your date isn’t going to be happy about that!
The Ethiopian Herald February 12/2013