One thing I have noticed in our time here is that the
overwhelming majority of people do not return their carts (shopping or
other) to the proper place. It is common to walk up to
checkout at a grocery store and have several shopping carts blocking your path. I have been in line and had the person in
front of me leave their cart blocking the register. I have become the crazy lady who returns 5
carts while waiting for the cashier to ring up my groceries. This phenomenon does not only occur at the
grocery store. The other day we were in
line to board a plane to Beijing. The
woman in front of us had taken a cart to push her purse. She and her husband got in line in front of
us; she removed her purse and left the cart blocking our way. Most people will just walk around the carts
and wait for someone else to take care of them.
If you come to visit us you will notice there is always trash on the sidewalks. When my
father was here last November he asked if that was from the “spoiled expat
kids”. No, it’s not. It’s actually the locals. There are trashcans about every 500 yards on
our loop, but all of the local workers leave their trash on the sidewalk. Lunch trash, cigarette packs, water bottles, etc. Everyday there is an elderly woman whose job
it is to sweep the sidewalks and she takes care of all of the trash along with any tree limbs or other "natural" debris.
The “someone else will take care of it” attitude is one that
makes me crazy. There is plenty of this
in the U.S., it just seems to be a little more “in my face” here. To use the words of fallen Marine Travis
Manion, “If not me, then who?” I find
these words appropriate to so many facets of life. And please don't say, "The elderly woman who comes by everyday.":-)
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