Parting Shot – Bring back Danny Cat to teach about red and green men

One of the strangest phenomenons we have in the modern world is a lack of communication. People seem to live in a bubble and do not care to comprehend the world around them.

It is so evident on the dreaded Social Media chats where a simple exercise of selling meat pies can spin out of control. A person selling said pies will advertise they have chicken pies and mutton curry pies for sale at R60 a dozen – please call them between 5pm and 7pm on this number… Then come all the questions: “What pies do you have?”, “Can I have an apple pie?”, “How much are the pies?”, “How can I order some?”…

By simply reading the message all these questions would have been superfluous. Eventually, the seller deletes his post out of frustration and gives up pie making. It is just too much trouble teaching quantum physics to toddlers, as Die Woestrynrot says.
It is all about comprehension. Understanding, like fast food, has become quick and usually nasty. A lack of reading old fashioned books is probably to blame. Good on the librarians from Glencoe who encouraged children to read out loud by visiting the rural Boschkloof School last week.

Taking time to read real words on real pages increases understanding.
You see so many school kids walking to and from school with earpieces glued to their heads. Locked in their own world of music (one can only guess what they are listening to), they have no care for their surroundings.
Which is not a bad idea if you are attempting to dodge the platoon of car guards currently patrolling Beaconsfield Street. But not such a good idea if you are one of those pupils who tend to wander in front of moving cars on McKenzie Street, oblivious to the hooting and shouting because of your restricted hearing.

Being in one’s own world is fine as long as that choice does not impact on other people’s worlds. Sadly, in most cases it does. The choice to walk across a busy road, ignoring the red flashing man, impacts heavily on a motorist.
Being in one’s own world in the park, playing loud music and littering, impacts on residents. The old saying of one man’s freedom starts when another man’s freedom ends certainly rings true here.

Sadly, pedestrians in Dundee seem to believe they hold sway when it comes to the rules of the road. Generally, one gives pedestrians the right of way at traffic lights (when you are turning and it is green for those on foot) but many here simply take it too far.

There appears to be a school of thought that says ‘green man means wait and red man means go’. This rule is applied daily at the FNB traffic lights with herds of pedestrians crossing en masse while cars are trying to move forward. It is enough to give Danny Cat – the costumed guy who used to teach road safety to school kids – nightmares. I wonder whatever happened to Danny Cat? He is probably in retirement or listening to his headphones somewhere.