Manners in the modern world

I saw something very interesting this morning that got me thinking. On the door of a local taxi - "DO NoT SLAM MY DOOR" sic.

This opens up a whole interesting debate of manners, not the least of which would be road manners. Mini bus taxis in this country are notorius for their lack of road manners, their blatant disregard for the law, and their almost purposeful display of law-breaking in any and all situations. For example, you will be waiting in a queue at a robot (for those who are not familiar with this local term, it is a traffic light) waiting to turn right across the oncoming traffic. There is oncoming traffic, so we are all waiting until such time as there is a gap when the traffic light is green and there are no cars. The taxis will actually drive 200 meters down the wrong side of hte road, literally pushing other cars out of hte way to make the right hand turn. But worst of all, the traffic cops standing on the corner just stand there and DO NOTHING.

Never mind manners, what about the rule of law. When do manners and law cross over? I think that South Africa has a serious problem in this regard, and I find that taxi drivers who actually expect manners to be applied to them are seriously out of touch with reality, or phychotic, or both.

There is a third option, perhaps this driver was the statistical anomoly - that one in ten trillion gazillion that actually obeys the traffic laws, has a road-worthy taxi and does have manners. But i doubt it.

I want to carry a bazooka and blow the bastards away when they push in front of me - relying on the fact that I don't want to scratch my car and will stop on a dime etc etc.

I want the judges to come back - the ones from Judge Dread. I am waiting.

but I am not holding my breath.