Silly Little Country

Culture Clash - Don't Jaywalk in Atlanta

Again via my mother, I have learned about this controversy. The jaywalking principal in this story gave a very interesting talk at the University of Western Ontario last year, that was broadcast as part of the excellent 'Big Ideas' series on TVO here.
The comments are the most interesting part to read. I, as a frequent driver, do NOT consider jaywalking a casual offence. The only clear truth in this story is that the good professor was, perhaps unwittingly, crossing without the right. What is interesting is how hard it is to get any certain truth about the rest of it all.
I do admire Fernandez-Armesto's balance overall as he studies his sufferings but his notion that jaywalking is minor where he comes from hardly acquits him. After al, a Saudi can beat his wife up with somewhat more impunity than one can here in the right circumstances.
Anyway, I don't think I need ever spend time again in Atlanta so I shall sleep calmly tonight.

AFTERWORD re jaywalking. The definition is very local. I was a student for years in Berkeley in Northern California, and always found it interesting to watch other students who had come from Los Angeles utterly unwilling to walk across major streets with all the locals who were convinced they had the right of way. It did not work that way in L.A.

I always study the behaviour of locals in a new place and act far more conservatively!

posted by Alan Adamson @ 6:24 PM