What is the message being sent by the PSV drivers?
On the surface we have a bunch of men asking, not that questionable laws be changed (they seem to have no problem with the law per se) but rather that the penalties for breaking these laws be made less onerous as they want to break the laws several times a day and the stiff penalties act as a (ahem) deterrent... in theory.
It seems a pretty psychotic request when you think about it; even more so when you consider the omissions.
Would that it was, these men were only stopping illegally and failing to use their seatbelts. Anyone who has used our roads more than five times knows that that is simply not the case. No mention, whatsoever was made of the other sins they commit regularly such as speeding, or reckless frigging overtaking, or working off route, or overloading, or deliberately blocking the road when picking up or dropping off passengers so other vehicles (particularly other PSVs) can’t pass, or driving so obscenely slowly that their passengers run the very real risk of dying of old age long before they reach their (forgive me) RAS-HOLE destination.
And you know of course that PSV drivers will site “working off route” and claim that they only do this in an effort to provide a better service to their customers. However, if, like me, you’ve ever been told about your dear old mother’s parts for asking a conductor to turn down the blaring music or been brusquely reminded that “You could get to fuck out whenever you ready you know dads I ent studying you, I studying money!” when you asked that they not drive so unbelievably slowly (or quickly), you may suspect that that justification is mongooseshit.
So what message is it that they’re really sending us?
If you look at it they’re really being quite disingenuous and the sense of entitlement and disregard for the convenience and safety of others borders on sociopathic. Which should be a weird thing to say about a group of people that you’re trying to apologise to, but it’s not!
Although this is a sincere apology, it can’t be an apology for characterising their behaviour as nonsensical because it is, even a three month old poodle can see that! But far from condemning them we should be asking what could be going on in our society that would make a group of grown men feel comfortable in publicly making such an infantile declaration?
Could they have been lulled into a sense of correctness by the recent actions of the PSC (police Service Commission)? The PSC (which in essence is supposed to oversee the smooth running of our primary law enforcement agency… LAW enforcement) concerning a matter before the courts involving the promotion/non-promotion of fourteen officers, declared that, regardless of any decision made by the court, they were going to proceed as initially planned. Then, in a strong argument for social anarchy, did just that while court proceedings were… proceeding. No ridicule was heaped on them: the PSV drivers were asking for an (albeit ridiculous) ease, the PSC was, in essence, (in my opinion) saying “Fuck you!”
Or maybe their nerves were steeled by their observation of two administrations that, one after the other ignored the courts decree that they as government were to pay some dude for work done and rent owed on his buildings; A man who had to come, like the steel donkey, rattling his chains, in the dead of night (in the morning actually), to re-open “negotiations”. I know there are probably details that we are not privy to (duckspeak) but isn’t that true of everything?
Perhaps they were inspired by the faceless but known vote buyers who attempted to procure votes for a few hundred dollars (or more) here and there or bottles of rum or (rumour has it) weed. People who managed to remain so un-investigated that up to now no one has even said to the public “our investigations show that this NEVER happened” (because surely if it had someone would have been prosecuted).
Or mayhap it was the often overlooked vote sellers who happily took the “lil hundred” or the “big mout' drink” (whether they voted or not) and then felt entitled enough to gripe about incompetency and a lack of integrity in politics as if they were not an inherent part of the problem.
It is conceivable that the PSV drivers merely felt that the lack of accountability that exists in the upper echelons of our society should filter down to them. The lack of accountability that allows people to have questionable relationships with construction companies and never have to truly explain it, that allows diplomatic bags with questionable contents to remain unexplained, that allows people to commit fraud to the tune of four million plus dollars and get a slap on the wrist (I know that I DON’T understand the intricacies of the laws… but I am speaking to perception).
I don’t know they could have been motivated by the droves of people in the work for who feel that they are entitled to a paycheque but not obligated to a job. There are so many examples as to where the motivation for their unfortunate stance came. What is clear is that self-interest and avoidance of consequences and responsibility have become the norm.
And that, I think is the message.
I think that the minibus men are (deliberately or otherwise) asking us to take a long hard look at ourselves.
I want to apologise to the minibus men for missing that. I also want to apologise because we won’t, we won’t take that our look at ourselves.
If I cared I would be disappointed by that, but I don’t, so I’m not. I’ve lived here long enough to know that caring is a waste of time. We will continue to mock the minibus men until, as with everything else nothing what so ever comes of this and it fades from memory… into oblivion!
Nala (The $2 Philosopher)
On the surface we have a bunch of men asking, not that questionable laws be changed (they seem to have no problem with the law per se) but rather that the penalties for breaking these laws be made less onerous as they want to break the laws several times a day and the stiff penalties act as a (ahem) deterrent... in theory.
It seems a pretty psychotic request when you think about it; even more so when you consider the omissions.
Would that it was, these men were only stopping illegally and failing to use their seatbelts. Anyone who has used our roads more than five times knows that that is simply not the case. No mention, whatsoever was made of the other sins they commit regularly such as speeding, or reckless frigging overtaking, or working off route, or overloading, or deliberately blocking the road when picking up or dropping off passengers so other vehicles (particularly other PSVs) can’t pass, or driving so obscenely slowly that their passengers run the very real risk of dying of old age long before they reach their (forgive me) RAS-HOLE destination.
And you know of course that PSV drivers will site “working off route” and claim that they only do this in an effort to provide a better service to their customers. However, if, like me, you’ve ever been told about your dear old mother’s parts for asking a conductor to turn down the blaring music or been brusquely reminded that “You could get to fuck out whenever you ready you know dads I ent studying you, I studying money!” when you asked that they not drive so unbelievably slowly (or quickly), you may suspect that that justification is mongooseshit.
So what message is it that they’re really sending us?
If you look at it they’re really being quite disingenuous and the sense of entitlement and disregard for the convenience and safety of others borders on sociopathic. Which should be a weird thing to say about a group of people that you’re trying to apologise to, but it’s not!
Although this is a sincere apology, it can’t be an apology for characterising their behaviour as nonsensical because it is, even a three month old poodle can see that! But far from condemning them we should be asking what could be going on in our society that would make a group of grown men feel comfortable in publicly making such an infantile declaration?
Could they have been lulled into a sense of correctness by the recent actions of the PSC (police Service Commission)? The PSC (which in essence is supposed to oversee the smooth running of our primary law enforcement agency… LAW enforcement) concerning a matter before the courts involving the promotion/non-promotion of fourteen officers, declared that, regardless of any decision made by the court, they were going to proceed as initially planned. Then, in a strong argument for social anarchy, did just that while court proceedings were… proceeding. No ridicule was heaped on them: the PSV drivers were asking for an (albeit ridiculous) ease, the PSC was, in essence, (in my opinion) saying “Fuck you!”
Or maybe their nerves were steeled by their observation of two administrations that, one after the other ignored the courts decree that they as government were to pay some dude for work done and rent owed on his buildings; A man who had to come, like the steel donkey, rattling his chains, in the dead of night (in the morning actually), to re-open “negotiations”. I know there are probably details that we are not privy to (duckspeak) but isn’t that true of everything?
Perhaps they were inspired by the faceless but known vote buyers who attempted to procure votes for a few hundred dollars (or more) here and there or bottles of rum or (rumour has it) weed. People who managed to remain so un-investigated that up to now no one has even said to the public “our investigations show that this NEVER happened” (because surely if it had someone would have been prosecuted).
Or mayhap it was the often overlooked vote sellers who happily took the “lil hundred” or the “big mout' drink” (whether they voted or not) and then felt entitled enough to gripe about incompetency and a lack of integrity in politics as if they were not an inherent part of the problem.
It is conceivable that the PSV drivers merely felt that the lack of accountability that exists in the upper echelons of our society should filter down to them. The lack of accountability that allows people to have questionable relationships with construction companies and never have to truly explain it, that allows diplomatic bags with questionable contents to remain unexplained, that allows people to commit fraud to the tune of four million plus dollars and get a slap on the wrist (I know that I DON’T understand the intricacies of the laws… but I am speaking to perception).
I don’t know they could have been motivated by the droves of people in the work for who feel that they are entitled to a paycheque but not obligated to a job. There are so many examples as to where the motivation for their unfortunate stance came. What is clear is that self-interest and avoidance of consequences and responsibility have become the norm.
And that, I think is the message.
I think that the minibus men are (deliberately or otherwise) asking us to take a long hard look at ourselves.
I want to apologise to the minibus men for missing that. I also want to apologise because we won’t, we won’t take that our look at ourselves.
If I cared I would be disappointed by that, but I don’t, so I’m not. I’ve lived here long enough to know that caring is a waste of time. We will continue to mock the minibus men until, as with everything else nothing what so ever comes of this and it fades from memory… into oblivion!
Nala (The $2 Philosopher)
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