In Brazil, Car is King

A bit of satirical reading for you:

The foreign visitor to Brazil (or Argentina or Paraguay or Peru) needs this minimal bit of advice:  Car is king.  

Whenever you cross the street, you take your life into your hands.  

What that means is that the pedestrian does not have the right of way.  Say, for example, you are waiting for the green light so you can cross the street.  You have to remember that car is king, even if you're planning to use the crosswalk.  This means that the car making a turn on your green has the right of way.  

Are you stepping off the curb to jaywalk?  Good luck with that!  Remember to look both ways and make the sign of the cross (Signum Crucis) for insurance sake.  

In the USA, you only have to stick your foot in the direction of the street to cause cars to come to a stop.  It's courteous.  It's civilized.  

But I think that people have forgotten that physics is still in play.  A car weighs what?  2 tons?  That's two tons of metal, plastic, rubber and glass traveling at speed and having to stop at your convenience.  The other factor not to be ignored is the driver.  Who knows who's behind the wheel?  Somebody who is late for work?  Some guy who just had a fight with his wife and is upset with the world?  Some woman with a blood alcohol level of .11?   Is blind in one eye?  Is distracted by the seven kids she's ferrying to soccer practice?  Is searching for Cat Power on his iPod?  

This message is for you folks who cross the street with no sense of time or space.  For those who saunter leisurely across the street.  For those in your fashionable lycra running suits who cross against the light without really understanding that the 18-wheeler's back tires are smoking because the driver is trying to keep from grinding you into meat paste.  

Yeah, you! The guy with the iPhone, texting your girlfriend as you cross the street.  You, the person who is so concentrated on plinking on his/her keypad, and doesn't realize that people are waiting for you to cross so they can complete a turn.  

You, the one holding the hand of your baby who is just learning to walk.  Guess what?  The crosswalk is not a guaranteed safety zone to teach toddling and shouldn't be the stage for the world to see that your offspring can walk 100 feet an hour.  

You kids, talking, laughing and paying no attention - who start crossing as the light turns yellow and don't speed up one bit to clear the intersection.  Well, I know you don't care.

I want to invite you all to Brazil.  I dare you to do that stuff down there.  

* * * * *

Past Post:  No glamor, just grace.