Tag: rants

Presumed innocent

Our legal system is built on the presumption of innocence. Things would be pretty messy if we changed things around – we’d have to lock up everybody facing criminal charges – and then who would handle our baggage at the airport or stimulate the economy by buying motorbikes and parts… It’s a central principle of life in a liberal democracy. And yet it is thrown completely out the window in one social occasion – the transaction that takes place when a man buys flowers from any retailer. There’s the same awkward banter between said male and the (generally) female store clerk… Every time. Or at least every time I buy flowers. Maybe I just look guilty. It’s always a variation of this theme:

Salesperson: “So, what have you done wrong?”

As though I would only be buying flowers to atone for wrongdoings. As though a $14 bunch of colourful flora is an appropriate act to win my redemption. It’s presumed guilt. Perhaps I just want points in the bank in case I do something wrong in the future, or maybe my motives are completely altruistic. This response is prejudice at its most banal – and up with this I shall not put. Not any more.

April 9, 2009

Pre-emptive strike

Sometimes when I’m driving home I feel like one of the vehicles involved unwittingly in a game of Frogger. I wonder if the cars in the classic arcade game were theoretically able to see the pedestrian frog?

There is one particular stretch of road just outside my office – at the bottom of Flinders Street – that is particularly bad. Flinders Street is dotted with gazetted pedestrian crossings – and yet they are widely ignored. Pedestrians cross without paying any heed to oncoming traffic.

What really gets me isn’t the jaywalking. It’s the pre-emptive pedestrians – the ones who start stepping onto the road as you approach in your car.

Defensive driving means assuming that every other road user is an idiot. I operate under that principle. Whenever I see a pedestrian start their perambulations I hesitate – like a rabbit in the headlights – only I’m driving. I’m the one posing the threat.

The thought of pedestrians blindly wandering in front of my pristine purple excel fills me with dread. A pedestrian would no doubt do more damage to my car than a kangaroo…

So, next time you start crossing the road as a car approaches – even if you are completely aware the car is approaching – stop, and think of the children.

March 30, 2009

When will she go away?

“Former US Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is still mad at media coverage of her candidacy, particularly “anonymous, pathetic bloggers” who she says spread falsehoods about her.”

Guilty as charged. Although I’m not anonymous. And I don’t think anything I said was false. From the SMH.

“”If I were giving advice to myself back on the day my candidacy was announced, I’d say, ‘Tell the campaign that you’ll be callin’ some of the shots. Don’t just assume that they know you well enough to make all your decisions for ya,” Palin said.”

That would have been a real difference maker. She can’t open her mouth without sounding like an illiterate yokel.

“When I was in high school, my desire was to be a sportscaster,” she said. “Until I learned that you’d have to move to Bristol, Connecticut. It was far away. So instead, I had a daughter and named her Bristol.””

February 6, 2009