The Cost of Stupidity

I spend a lot of time in Fo Tan’s industrial area.

I spend so much time there that you could almost say I live there.

But it’s illegal to live in an industrial building, so don’t say that.

It’s an interesting place, because it’s a place that people work but don’t live.

Really, I mean it.

In simple terms, it means that, for instance, around 9:00 a few thousand people show up there. There is traffic all the work day long on the roads, which are small.

Sometimes the roads are so narrow that traffic comes to a stop because someone needs to park a truck in the middle of the road to deliver something. They need to do this because someone else is parked in the loading zone, legally or otherwise.

People’s responses to this are pretty standard. They blow their horn.

But they do it a really loooooooooong time.

The record so far (I’ve counted) is 42 seconds. Which doesn’t sound like a long time. But try it.

It’s not just annoying. It’s stupid. It’s not going to make anyone move faster.

It’s just going to make pedestrians passing by give you the finger.

6’4″ gweilo pedestrians.

But the traffic is only temporary; around 6 PM everyone leaves, and while there is a lot of pedestrian and vehicle traffic at that hour, by 7 or so it’s all finished and Fo  Tan gets really quiet.

How quiet? The local Circle K closes at 10 and doesn’t even open on Sundays.

7-11 FTW.

Fo Tan is actually a very convenient place to get to or to go from. There are a lot of mini buses as well as full size buses. There’s a bus station close by (with a dai pai dong next to it!) from which you can go to a lot of places.

Assuming, of course, that the buses can get through.

See, sometimes people who drive cars (apparently) think “Oh, I just need to run to KFC, I’ll park on the street.”

It’s illegal, and there’s a reason for that.

It’s also inherently selfish, but not inforgivably so.

Most of the time.

If all you’re doing is dipping into 7-11 to grab a drink, I can live with that. It’s still wrong, but at least it’s quick.

Sounds like my relationships.

But some people are just a little more selfish. They think its okay to park illegally and eat in a restaurant.

One Sunday this summer, the owner of this car parked on the street in front of the little mall in Fo Tan.

And went to have dim sum.

As you can see, he single-handedly tied up traffic on the main road.

Because he was too MFing cheap to pay for parking. There’s a parking garage in that mall.

That doesn’t block the road.

And mess up the PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

You cheap f@#$.

I was waving to him when I took this photo, saying “Smile, dick.”

That bus sat for at least 15 minutes before the owner of the car could be found. And he didn’t seem remorseful in any way about having f@#$ed up everyone else’s day.

I’m not being comic or hyperbolic when I ask myself (and you) what the f@#$ is wrong with people?

If you own a BMW, you can afford parking.

But having money doesn’t entitle you to being a f@#$ing douchebag.

Or being stupid.

Or cheap.

Christ, I hate people.