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| View from behind. The line goes as far as I can see. |
1. Malawians, for how kindly they are, are completely unable or unwilling or do not grasp the concept or justification for a line. Since I arrived this morning, people have cut in line, added a second and now a third line. Folks are attempting to cut in and skip the wait. I cannot express the injustices I have felt in this country as people refuse to acknowledge the fairness of a queue. Thank god for Britain. I need go there just to line up.
2. Apparently you can make friends with or pay off the gas station owners in order to skip the line and simply park your car inside the gas station. I asked the driver behind me and he said "they must know the owners." Jeebus.
In the United States the difference between the rich and poor is not thrust in your face... the rich hide behind gated communities. Zing! Here, they skip to the front of the gas line.
When I was in Nigeria, Jon and I would regularly announce in abject frustration, "the queue civilizes a nation!". Forget living conditions, clean water, food surpluses, and indoor plumbing; it is the ability to line up in an orderly fashion that separates man and beast. Black Friday and the high school lunch line further proves the point. Oh, and four hour gas lines.
ReplyDeleteAnnaleah, I absolutely see a t-shirt coming on. Earthen brown color with yellow print across the chest: "The Queue Civilizes a Nation!"
DeleteYour point of Black Friday and the lunch line are excellent as they are some of the very times I am most embarrassed by my country... and going to war in Iraq. Ouch.
Next stop, train stations in China! Unbelievable--and there (China), you have hundreds of millions of people who could potentially travel. You'd think the queue would be a natural part of human evolution as crowd sizes increase. What I want to know: Do people start to honk in frustration like they do here? If so, I think I'd go crazy.
ReplyDeleteActually, I have yet to get excited about traveling in China and India, largely because there are so many people squeezing into such small spaces.
DeleteI will say, Mr. Axelrod, folks in the line who were getting cut were surprisingly restrained in all manners, including horn honking. In this country mob justice is alive and well and I couldn't believe people were not doing something. In fact, most folks I saw simply shrugged their shoulders. This lack of outrage outraged me further!