Nine in 10 jaywalk
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07/26/2002
Various sectors of society have been clamouring to meet international standards. It is good for a developing country such as China to implement guidelines after gaining access to the WTO. But good intentions, if not buttressed with substantial actions, are nothing but wishful thinking.Take the much talked-about topic of traffic. The other day I personally conducted a survey at a crossroads where no policemen were in sight to find out how many pedestrians and vehicles actually follow traffic rules. To my dismay, nine out of 10 pedestrians who crossed the street were jaywakers. An old couple standing on the curb while waiting for the green light couldn't resist the temptation to follow the surge of lawbreakers. As for cyclists and moped riders, who regularly take to pavements as though they were a stage for them to show off their riding stunts, completely ignored the traffic lights. I admit that I became so hard-hearted at that moment that I almost wished a car would come along and knock them over. I hear, however, that pedestrians in some countries abide traffic regulations of their own free will, even if it is late at night and there is little traffic. Next, with the temperatures escalating from day to day, topless pedestrians, including cyclists, are a sight for sore eyes. I remember an expat being shocked by the numbers of Shanghainese who saunter about in pajamas and flip-flops. I wonder if she would faint on catching sight of those half-naked male cyclists. Finally, we must face the problems of public hygiene. It has been two years since the Shanghai Municipal Government issued orders forbidding feeding pigs leftovers collected from restaurants, schools and canteens city-wide. Since there is no unit to oversee the enforcement of the injunction, pigs raised in the suburbs have been enjoying large amounts of leftovers-turned-swill. The underlying danger is that the leftovers, consisting mainly of meat and chicken, will quickly go bad, even in a few hours with the high temperatures, making it possible for pigs that eat them to become the recipients of certain types of bacteria, definitely detrimental to human health. So if the country wants to catch up with the standards of Western countries, we must do a lot of time-consuming work. In my opinion, the first and most important thing is to establish a monitoring system or an enforcement team to make sure that relative laws and decrees are carried out.
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